#evtuscraps

For those who may not remember, the general plot of this fic was revolving around the concept that Akari both was and was not Dawn (as she was created by Arceus in her likeness) in conjunction with playing around with the timeline as DPPt takes place many years before BW/BW2 does. As such, there was in-universe doubt about whether or not Ingo was the Ingo from that world or from a different one, leading him and Akari stuck without either of the two families they thought they were going to return to.

The last chapter ended with Akari sneaking out in the middle of the night to show off her new look (wanting to visually distance herself from Dawn) to her Typhlosion. She was quickly found by a wandering Professor Rowan.

That meeting would eventually lead to Akari working under Rowan despite much reservations (due to his ancestor, Kamado) to research the extinct evolutions from Hisui since she has her Lilligant and Typhlosion with her.

This would also lead her to interacting with Lucas more, who wants to desperately become friends with her and apologize for upsetting her by confusing her for Dawn. Akari was initially reluctant, but would come around eventually.

She would also get into Pokemon Contests, taking great joy in them by performing with her shiny Luxray. Unbeknownst to her, Johanna would have watched her progress from afar regretting her shocked reaction to Akari's appearance but not knowing how to approach the girl to reconcile.

A lot of it was going to be slice of life, moment to moment scenes between Ingo and Akari settling into Floaroma Town. Part of this was also Ingo using his status as a registered Veteran Trainer to conduct some battles with Gliscor. He would eventually gain a reputation for himself doing so.

Barry desperately wants to challenge him. Ingo was always conveniently not then when he tries to battle him at his usually haunts.

An event that perplexes Akari and one that she doesn't get an immediate answer to, was when an old man in Floaroma Town gifts her apropos of nothing a Jirachi.

She suspects that it is direct meddling from Arceus and thus boxes it.

Years would have passed and the time has come for a major blow: Johanna informs Dawn about Akari.

Dawn immediately seeks her out, feeling cheated out of a relationship with someone she considers as her "twin" (she is very accepting of Akari's existence.

Despite time passing, Akari still feels every inch of hurt that she did when she realized she's "just a copy" of Dawn and rejects her attempts at bonding.

They fight. And their teams are almost evenly matched.

But... Champion Dawn wins.

Akari does not take her loss gracefully.

Upon her return home, and noting her mood, Ingo brings up that he has received word from Interpol that it is finally time that their landlocked restrictions lifted and that they can leave Sinnoh if they want to. Akari agrees easily.

They spend quite some time in Paldea, using their cover stories as the perfect excuse to just get away from the region for a bit. During this time, they gather some Paldean Pokemon of their own, such as Dachsbun.

Their time in Paldea would eventually run its course but before they go to Sinnoh they make a quick stop... in Unova.

This would be the part of the story that focuses on Ingo's situation more, as up to this point a lot of the focus is on Akari's dilemma. Needless to say, Ingo does not end up handling the fact that he has spent so much time in Hisui and Sinnoh on top of the amnesia that absolutely nothing about Unova rings a bell to him.

They ride the subway on their way to the airport and run into... Ingo and Emmet who are the recently hired Battle Bosses of the soon-to-be Battle Subway.

Older Ingo avoids them, and Akari mentally projects her own feelings about Dawn onto Ingo in a sort of 'see how our duplicates took from us our loved ones? It's not fair,' mentality.

Younger Ingo and Emmet do notice the pair, but they (not so quietly due to Ingo) talk about how funny it is that they look similar. Although, "He looks like Dad's age. Long lost brother maybe?"

The age comment results in Akari actually think about the age difference between both Ingos, having this sort of quiet revelation that she never considered that their timelines might have never been lined up correctly instead of full on parallel universes.

They return to Sinnoh.

The next major story beat was Akari, instead of coming back from their break refreshed and better mentally, raging at the world for the unfairness of their situation. Which quickly leads to her raging specifically at Arceus demanding why it would be so cruel to her and Ingo both.

Arceus has no answer for Ingo's situation but does have one for Akari's bellowed, "Why would you make me her?!"

"Because thou asked."

Akari stumbles. She doesn't understand. Arceus asks her to remember their first meeting, asking Akari to recall one of the first things it asked her.

"What do you look like?"

It explains that it did not create her to be a duplicate Dawn, rather that in her most primordial form, which is something that it vaguely notes that comes from the same source as Jirachii (confirming that it took the form of the old man to gift Akari that Jirachi years in the past), Akari wished to resemble her.

And so she granted her own wish.

Akari wanted to be someone kind, brave, determined, and powerful. She just ended up choosing Dawn because that was her Ideal.

Arceus does apologize for not explaining to her sooner, or at the very least not explaining it to Johanna so that she would have the time to process what happened.

Akari reluctantly acknowledges the apology. She still has so many emotions to process on her own.

Penultimate story beat: Akari rechallenges Dawn at the Elite Four (having successfully gone through Victory Road) and wins. Instead of taking the Championship from her mirror, Akari feels empty and decides then and there that she wants a different prize.

"Can we talk instead? About... everything?"

Dawn readily agrees. Akari tells her that she makes no promises that she will ever reach the level of thinking of Dawn as her sister, but after hearing so much about the good that she has done over the years from Lucas she is willing to try.

That's more than enough for Dawn.

One last story beat to tie up: Ingo.

One day, years after Akari and Dawn are in the "besties who consider each other sisters" stage of their bond, Ingo and Akari receive frantic knocking at their door.

Confused, Ingo rises to answer.

And finds a bedraggled Emmet.

"You. I am Emmet and I remember you," Emmet practically forces himself inside of their home. Ingo does nothing to stop him because he is stunned at his sudden appearance. "You were in Gear Station. We saw you. Years ago. We... Ingo?"

It doesn't take long before they realize what has happened.

Younger Ingo has Fallen.

"You are Ingo. You-"

"No." Ingo grabs his shoulders and interrupts him. "Once I was Warden Ingo of the Pearl Clan, but my current name is Ignacio Ferro. I have never been Ingo Cardinal."

"But-"

He grips tighter. "If I am Subway Boss Ingo, then that means I am over twenty years older than my twin Subway Boss Emmet. That I have spent almost half my lifetime without my twin, out of sync from my twin, never able to get those years back ever. Do you understand? You, Emmet, do not want me to be Subway Boss Ingo."

Emmet is quiet.

"You will find Subway Boss Ingo. But I am not him."

To clarify, it was never going to be explicitly confirmed whether or not Ingo is from that world or not. Older Ingo, having gone through so much, weeps at the very idea that he actually was this realities Ingo. Because that mean he never had a chance. His Ideal is that his presence and connections with Interpol will find the "true" Ingo faster. For at least one version of him to have a happy ending.

Emmet's Truth is that the Ingo in front of him is and has always been his Ingo. But...

"You are right. My twin is missing. I am Emmet and I have to find him."

"Good."

"Still... may I visit? More?"

Despite playing along with Older Ingo's ideal, Emmet refuses to lose anymore time between them.

Ingo allows this.

It's a sort of bittersweet sort of ending because I am incredibly fond of those (even if I am not fond of this WIP anymore). I like it when things are uncertain and unclear and you never really get any answers because that so rarely happens in life. But despite this you can persevere. Like Ingo and Akari making a home for themselves in Floaroma Town. Like Akari realizing that she doesn't need to hold a grudge against Dawn and pit her own self-worth against her, not just because Dawn didn't do anything to deserve it, but because she can find her own happiness in her self instead. Because she had accomplished so much (like researching, contests, and everything she did in Hisui) in her life, and it was a good life.

Just... making the most out of what you have and the time you have. That sort of thing.

Honestly, I feel like there were more nuances that I had in mind for the plot that I have both forgotten and also mentally blocked out because again, I do not wish to write for this sort of topic going forward. At least not in this particular instance.

[Commentary: I experienced a lot of draft revisions for Cardinal Rose in part because I wanted the story to be exactly as I had been envisioning all those months ago and because Emery’s characterization started to grow rapidly whilst writing. He was definitely one of those characters who take control of the narrative (typical of him, but accurate) and I had to reign in a lot of these moments so that he wouldn’t be so despicable that it wouldn’t even be fun to read him. A lot of this would be familiar to you guys since most made it into the final version.]

/"And that's... that's the truth."

Ingo was sitting at a round table in a house he had never seen before in his life. There were people he has never seen before in the other seats, but his gaze was focused on his hands. They were small and plump like a child's were. Sometimes the other villagers would ask for him to watch their children for just a moment, knowing that the infants couldn't have been safer in any other hands than a warden.

He never had any inclination to have children of his own. But sometimes he would sit in his yurt and watch as the baby curled their incredibly small fingers around his larger much more callous ones in wonderment. Ingo himself couldn't remember ever being a child, his only memories were of his adult life, so children... he barely fathomed how something so tiny could grow up so big.

It wasn't often that in his dreams that he wound up as a child again.

"But-" a much more childish voice than the man who had been speaking when the dream turned lucid for Ingo. "But what happened next?"

A woman, "What do you mean, sweetie?"

"To his son! Did- did he ever find him?"

The question was never asked out of concern or worry. But dread.

To Ingo it seemed like the answer was obvious, wasn't it?

The man, with dulled brown hair and white streaks, turned toward the grey-haired woman beside him. The child to Ingo's right wore white.

Ingo had no context for what this conversation was about, but he stared adamantly as well, a pooling ill feeling curling his stomach.

It's not like he ever remembered the conversation in full anyway, because he always ended up waking up before anything else was said. And as he went about his duties the dream was a faded thought in his mind.

Maybe he should have tried harder to stay and listen./

[Commentary: When I first wrote this section, I wasn’t satisfied with it which set the tone for how I felt about the rest of this scrapped chapter. It felt too short, not detailed enough; like fluff. I wanted the dream to serve a purpose but what I had written served nothing as it was. But I continued on with the rest of the chapter thinking that I would get back to it later.]

-+-

Everyone in the room was tense, waiting for the prince to say something next.

"I'm sure you could have imagined my surprise seeing /you/ here," Emery said, knowing that he had a captive audience. "On those docks. I remember thinking, 'this shouldn't be possible. Him, here? In Hisui of all places?' but my child, you are a wonder for that alone."

It felt as though something was squirming around Ingo's chest to constrict against his heart. The more that the noble spoke, the more his blood ran cold. "I don't know who you think I am, but I do not know you."

Emery let out a low chuckle, "You do not need to pretend in front of these... these," he rotated his hand flippantly, glancing at the ceiling as he struggled to decide on the proper word. He decided on, "Lowlifes."

[Commentary: Yeah. This is the section that was just about the death knell for this version of the chapter. I knew that I wanted to have Emery be flippant when describing what he thinks the Pearl Clan did for Ingo but I was stumped for at least an hour on what word he could possibly use to describe them that wouldn’t give readers an improper impression of Emery.

To clarify here, when Emery says ‘lowlifes’ he is referring to the people of Jubilife because they wanted to live in peace without war. Considering that he is the start of two separate wars, Emery is inherently envious of these ‘false ideals’ of theirs. He also despises that they ‘ran away’ from their problems, because he has been forced to confront the consequences of his own actions again and again.]

Irida bristled beside him at the comment, teeth grit and ready to command the /foreign/ dignitaries respect on her lands. Adaman was equally as infuriated by the comment. Kamado was strangely silent.

But Ingo beat her to the punch, hoping to defuse the situation by dousing the match between wetted fingers as he declared, "There is no need to pretend, I do /not/ know you; you have mixed me up for someone else, Prince Emery."

"I can respect the commitment to the charade," it was as though the prince refused to accept the truth of Ingo's words. "But it's time for it to end."

From his peripheries Ingo saw someone shift, raising a familiar sacred flute. Lips pursed and lungs filling with air, Melli's fingers were posed above the Celestica Flute. He did not prematurely sound out a call for any one of the Blessed Pokémon, instead, he was prepared in advance.

Melli did not look toward Adaman for the command, nor Irida, but Ingo himself. They made eye contact, and with a simple gesture, Ingo understood what his fellow warden was attempting to convey.

He was willing to heed Ingo's call.

Slowly, the other wardens followed suit, bringing their flutes up to their mouths. Waiting.

As he was at the head of the table, Kamado had full sight of their actions. He could have stopped them if he wanted to. Instead, he also turned toward Ingo. Waiting for his judgment.

[Commentary: I almost instantly hated this section. I understood what I was attempting to illustrate, which was the idea that Ingo was in danger of becoming similar to Emery (in that he was the cause of war) but it put a bad taste in my mouth to have all of these people default to his leadership. I kept pushing forward but knew that I was going to return to this section and fix it.

The version that made it into the final chapter was infinitely better- it makes sense to keep the Melli aspect as Melli and Ingo are close. The other wardens were unnecessary.]

Simply put, they were waiting to see if Ingo would be the one to ignite a war. Sure, the official declaration would come from Irida and Adaman, who had worked hard to bring peace between the Pearl and Diamond Clans and thus would hope to avoid such an outcome, but that would hardly matter if the noble took offense /now/ and declared it /first/.

They were lucky that at the moment Emery only had eyes for Ingo and either did not notice the subtle threat or perhaps simply did not care.

He... he could not allow that to come to pass. War would not arrive on Hisui's doorsteps just because of this confusion spawned from his presence there. He would- he would be a hypocrite if-

So Ingo rose from his chair, pushing back so that the sound would dig into the floor and make a screeching sound. "I do believe that there are some misconceptions between you and me that are best resolved before any negotiations can occur between my leaders and yourself. Let us clear the air first away from my people." People who were /not/ lowlifes just because they didn't come from royalty.

[Commentary: This is Ingo’s interpretation of what Emery meant by that line. He’s incredibly wrong- Emery has no problems with non-aristocracy considering his great love for Anise. However, Ingo (just like the reader) does not know the inner workings of Emery’s mind at this point.]

"Ingo-" Irida reached out to grab his arm, to stop him from doing so, holding onto the torn fabric of his coat sleeves.

But the prince rose from his seat, excitement thrumming through his words as he said, "That's more than acceptable! We can speak aboard the ship. Olive and Verbena, come-"

[Commentary: I don’t think I was able to mention anywhere due to the formatting of this fic but Verbena and Olive are the ancestors of Anthea and Concordia, who were tasked with raising N by Ghetsis.]

"Alone." Ingo threw a wayward look toward the two attendants who had stepped out of the shadows. "I think this conversation is best had with complete privacy."

The comment was directed toward everyone else in the room. While Ingo had all of his partners with him should he need to battle, he held no weapons. Who knew what the attendants of nobility would wield should they feel that their lord's life was in peril? And if any of his well-meaning peers followed them then that could set the prince off just the same.

If it was just Ingo and him, he was certain that he could face whatever the noble threw at him. Surely.

"Hm," the prince thought about it, hand closest to his scabbard twitching its right pinky. "Very well." His attendants stepped back.

There were a couple of disagreements from his fellow wardens, but nobody stopped them from walking away from the assembly with Ingo leaving a sizeable space between the two.

As they walked up the stairs of Galaxy Hall to reach the ground floor, Ingo looked over his shoulder and saw that Irida had briefly followed after them, stopping at the entryway of Tao Hua's workshop. Melli was just a step behind her, having only slightly lowered his Celestica Flute.

Perhaps on another day, he would have been touched by their clear concern for his person, but the realization that he would have to be alone with the prince threatened to swallow him whole. His mind conjured the imagery so helpfully supplied by the threat the prince had made toward his own men earlier that day; swimming adrift in the ocean with a breaching Wailord ready to devour him.

Somehow that was preferable to the human walking in front of him.

At least one of them was happy, as the prince hummed a tune under his breath, a confounding pep to his step as they swept through the village, catching the looks from the night guards as they passed them and their lanterns. Very few of the villagers were out this night, but a couple of stray children watched with peering eyes as the prince made his way down Canala Avenue.

The grin on his face had not faltered once.

Ingo would have thought that the prince would have confronted him as soon as they were away from the village and heading toward Prelude Beach. Ingo didn't know who the man thought he was, but he was clearly delighted to have found him again. There was no anger or desire for revenge; in so far as he could tell at least, but considering that the prince had been so obvious with his ire and who he directed it toward, Ingo was sure that there was none held for him.

The ship seemed to have made some repairs from earlier that afternoon, and Ingo trusted that Emery wasn't planning on drowning the both of them by trapping him on a sinking ship.

The prince stepped aside and gestured for him to walk ahead first. Ingo was on edge by the gesture but walked up the gangway nonetheless, even taking a moment to look up and see that Emery's Braviary was perched in the Murkrow's nest. He looked down at the both of them but seemed disinterested in the stranger alone with his trainer as he continued his rest.

It was a sort of belated realization for Ingo to realize that he couldn't remember if he had ever been on a ship before in his life. Certainly, there had been no point when he was appointed a warden in the Highlands, but somehow he suspected that even in the missing cars of his memory that this had been a rare occasion too somewhere in his past. But the creaking planks had him on edge as his boots haunted above the deck, and when a second set pounded behind him he startled whirling around with his hand on Machamp's pokéball. 

"Don't be scared that I'll whisk you off back to Unova," the prince chuckled, holding up a weary hand in an attempt to soothe Ingo's raised hackles. "The ship cannot operate without the full crew."

With a shaky exhale Ingo turned away.

"Besides, I have full faith that you'll willingly return back with me by the end of this."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that."

For the first time since having successfully trapped Ingo with his words, Emery's smile faded. "Why do you act so harshly to me?"

[Commentary: Another line where as soon as I wrote it I shook my head with dissatisfaction. You’ll note that I kept it in after Emery hugs Ingo and Ingo rejects the action of affection in the published version of the chapter. That saved this line in particular but the following conversation in this draft just wasn’t where I wanted the story to go, as it felt like a disservice to what I wanted to achieve with Emery’s character.]

Because everything from his ruined mind screamed at him to get away. "I am simply attempting to remain cordial and respectful to you, Prince Emery."

The prince's face twitched. "Don't call me that."

"Then what shall I call you?" Did the man want Ingo to call him by his first name? Such a level of familiarity would have been absurd between the two, especially since Ingo had nothing to do with him. He simply wanted to clarify for the man that Ingo was from... not Unova and had been living peacefully in Hisui his whole life- that he could remember- so while he was sure it was disappointing, the prince should just forget about him and trade spices or cloth or what have him.

And preferably leave Hisui as soon as his ship was fully repaired.

Emery crossed his arms and tilted his head in consideration.

"When you say you don't know me," he started, avoiding answering Ingo. "Do you really mean that?"

"I am aware that you are the crowned prince of Unova-"

"For now."

"And that you are here in Hisui for repairs," Ingo concluded, ignoring the interruption.

Emery stared at him as if hoping he would add more. "That's it?"

"Yes." From what he could remember. "That's all."

The prince shook his head, "That can't be it; you're lying. Why?"

"It is the truth," Ingo insisted, watching carefully the body language of the other man. He was tapping his fingers across his biceps, avoiding the metal of his shoulder armor. Restless. "I swear to you on my oath as a warden."

"Emerson," the prince crossed his space so suddenly that Ingo barely had any time to react before he grasped his wrist. "You don't have to play pretend with me."

[Commentary: The reveal that Emery thinks that Ingo is his bastard son Emery was so essential to the very core of this fic that I needed it to be perfect. This was imperfect and flawed. Part of my character notes for Emery, and what a lot of readers picked up on in the final published version of him, is that what makes him so dangerous as an antagonist is that he is completely and utterly incapable of accepting the truth outside of his hand-crafted ideals. 

He genuinely cannot fathom that Ingo is not his son and that fuels his secondary more aggressive characteristics (see: the destruction of the mast scene). This writing of him here makes him seem more stable, which is not an adjective that I would use to describe Emery.]

Emer-who? Was that who the prince was confusing him for? All at once a sudden sense of relief filled his being... but it wasn't quite enough to dispel the uneasy feeling in his gut.

"It is as I said, there seems to be some sort of misconception you are under," Ingo pointed out slowly. "As I introduced myself to you, I am the warden Ingo. My name is not-" nor has ever been, "-Emerson."

Emery narrowed his eyes. And then softened them, "I was hoping that she was wrong."

"Excuse me?" Ingo attempted to tug his wrist away from the prince's grasp, but the older man did not relent. He was lucky it was Ingo that he was disrespecting in such a way and not anyone else in the Pearl Clan. While the touch and blatant crossing into his space made his skin crawl he could push it back under his old beliefs.

"Caterina warned me that when I found you, you would not recognize me," the prince scrunched his eyes close, as his jaw tightened. "That you had been inflicted with amnesia. I didn't believe her, but as with all her predictions she was once again correct."

[Commentary: I was originally going to have Caterina’s presence in the fic for this moment but after developing the other chapters it was clear that this was a cop-out. It also recontextualizes all their previous interactions in a way that wasn’t intended. So I quickly discarded it.]

Ingo paused. The prince knew he had amnesia?

But the prince had expressed his surprise to see /Ingo/ in Hisui, so then- TBC?

[Commentary: And here is where I officially gave up with this version of the chapter and scrapped it to start all over. There were far too many aspects of it that just didn’t fit, weren’t the proper characterizations, or just downright disrupted the story beats that I knew I wanted to achieve.

I think about everyone who reads these two chapters (the Beta Version and the Published Version) can agree that what I ended up with after restarting was so much better. I also think that everyone might agree that Beta Emery was the most rat bastard character ever; his more toned-down version in Cardinal Rose is far more accurate to my concept and rationale behind him.

[Commentary: If you've read Family Trees and Branches you can definitely see where I Frankenstein'ed aspects of this original draft into the final fic. These sections, however, carry a much more somber tone due to the fact that the fic was meant to start in a linear timeline rather than how Family Trees starts with humor before narratively backtracking.]

Emmet did not want to be in Sinnoh. He had nothing against the region, nope, but the last thing that he wanted to do was leave his subway all alone to attend a cross-regional league conference. He had been skipping them for the past six years but that had been a bust after he finally got a letter from the head of the league saying that if he did not attend this year they would have to reconsider his position as battle facility head.

And so, he had reluctantly boarded the plane from Unova all the way to Sinnoh, where the conference was being held this year. It rotated region by region. When it had last been Unova's turn, that was the first year that Ingo had been... had disappeared so it had been postponed. And nobody had pestered Emmet to attend when it was finally held.

He stared out at the sea of fellow battlers, whether they be gym leaders or part of their region's Elite Four, champions galore, trial captains and kahuna's, and of course, other facility heads.

An entire conference hall filled with some of the world's most formidable trainers... and he felt inadequate to sit among them.

Not because of his skill level, that wasn't it at all. Emmet was well aware that he and Ingo had nearly qualified for the position of champion had the rule not been that only one was allowed per region. That was why they had been personally recommended to run the Battle Subway, a position much more fitting for the twins.

No. He felt inadequate because he looked at all of his peers and saw how blatantly obvious it was that they loved battling and he... Emmet just couldn't muster the same enthusiasm that he used to have.

Battling wasn't fun anymore, he wasn't ashamed to admit it. Hadn't been ever since Ingo went missing.

Oh, Emmet tried. He really did. He knew verrry intimately that Ingo wouldn't have wanted him to wallow in his grief and not partake in what had been their lifeblood. But it just wasn't the same. Not without Ingo.

He was, in a way, relieved that their Pokémon felt the same as him too. Otherwise, he would have felt like a shoddy trainer, unable to give his partners the proper battles that they deserved.

Emmet was only here out of obligation. He still carried the hope that one day Ingo would return. He couldn't lose his trainer class and leave the subway without its boss. And when Ingo returned, he'd need Emmet there to hold down the fort until he got recertified. Yup, that was what kept him going.

[Commentary: This wasn't going to be an actual plot point in this draft but I thought I should explain what I mean here by recertified. I'm always trying to find ways to add subtle worldbuilding to the Pokemon world that relies entirely on explaining how the functions of the game could work. So Trainer Classes are actually positions you can apply for and get certified in, and the licenses for those get renewed every five years.

In the case of league officials like Emmet and Ingo, they have to take certification tests specifically for that role to prove that they still have the same battling prowess. This is how gyms can change so quickly between games like in Black and White versus Black and White 2. Losing certification isn't necessarily a bad thing, as gym leaders can also opt to just not renew if they desire to step down from being a gym leader.

Just some world-building notes! Thought that would be interesting to hear.]

Maybe then his love for battling would reignite.

He looked around again. Emmet might as well be somewhat sociable. He didn't know many currently in the room, only vaguely recognizing Palmer, Thorton, yadda yadda, not exactly people he was actively sociable with.

With a sigh, he knew it was a hopeless endeavor. At least he could sit and observe the conversation of others. He verrry much enjoyed gossip, especially when no one paid him any mind because he was just a nice, smiling fellow why would they need to worry about him listening in?

Emmet would just have to share whatever he gleaned with his Pokémon later back at the hotel.

But just when he leaned back and was ready to tune in he felt something that he thought he had imagined six- almost seven years ago.

The hair on the back of his neck rose, the air turned pungent with an unmistakable taint of ozone, and there was a crushing pressure at the temple of his head.

With frantic energy, he jolted out of his seat causing it to fall back completely. Practically all conversation in the hall fell to complete silence, as every trainer who was well-versed in quick reaction times the kind that was needed when they had to step in during region-wide catastrophes stared at him.

He looked around with sharp turns of his head, eyes scanning, looking for-!

There.

Around the edges of the conference hall, a crackling purple tinted the room.

Commentary: It was around this point of writing this draft that I started to feel as though something wasn't exactly clicking. I decided to keep going forward with the concept of the space-time distortion appearing to see if perhaps my feelings about it would change.

"Boss Emmet-" he whirled around at the person who spoke to him, the young Champion Dawn. Just behind her was the apprentice Frontier Brain Barry, who was following in the steps of his father. "Is something wrong?"

"Get out," he croaked, nerves fried and on edge, but voice abandoning him. It was happening again- why was it happening again? He had convinced himself that it was his imagination, that there were never any swirling vortexes that had consumed Ingo, but it was happening now all over again.

"What?" Barry asked, confused and furrowing his brows.

"We need to get out of here." His hands started to shake. With shaky breaths he fell back on his subway script, unable to think of the words to warn his fellow league officiates. "Quickly, yup, speed but not haste. Follow in an orderly fashion. We apologize for the inconvenience."

The two adults looked at each other before Barry nodded. Then he cupped his hands over his mouth and announced, "Alright you heard the man, everyone get out now. If you end up lagging I'll fine you a million!"

It was definitely a testament that those in the league inherently trusted the judgment of one another because it didn't take any convincing before everyone was getting out of their seats and moving their way out of the hall. They were professionals, and masters at keeping order so no one ran- that would have been verrry unsafe- but a couple did jolt when thunder roared inside the hall, and the chroma of the purple continued to get stronger and stronger.

Emmet flinched when he heard the thunder. It was a sound that had followed him into his worst nightmares.

Perhaps it was good that the conference hall the Interregional League of Battling had reserved was so large. It meant that as all the trainers exited into the hall, the range of the sphere of horrors- what Emmet had described it as to his therapist once- could not follow. He saw a couple of people cough and cover their noses, likely just realizing that the very scent of the air had been different inside when faced with clearer air.

Emmet was glad that he had remembered the signs. They had left early. It would take a few minutes before it fully formed.

Enough time for him to field questions, as Champion Dawn turned to him and asked, "Ok, what exactly was that?"

"Don't know." It seemed his words were returning to him. "But it's dangerous, yup. It wouldn't have been safe to stay inside there."

"Why?" the younger woman continued to ask. She may have only been a year or two younger than Emmet himself, but for some reason, her wide eyes made her seem much younger, "What about it was dangerous?"

A faint rumble started to shake the building. People threw looks towards the closed doors.

Emmet knew from experience that it would only get louder.

"Pokémon appear from nowhere," he explained. He could still remember the way that Garchomp had launched with its maw open wide at Ingo. "Items too." Ingo had tripped. He didn't get up in time. "They're more dangerous than the Pokémon you can find in the wild." Emmet had been preoccupied with a particularly violent Samurott. One that didn't look quite right. "Not safe."

"And you know this how?" Barry huffed, but Emmet could tell he was frazzled. He kept throwing looks at Champion Dawn.

[Commentary: Barry keeps looking at Dawn here because originally I was gonna have it be that Lucas was Rei instead of going with Dawn as Akari. So a subplot would have revolved around how Barry and Lucas never ended up telling Dawn about what happened to him in the past. Lucas here would have been the professor's assistant.]

He pressed his lips together. Emmet did not want to say.

He had held in the truth, or what he had convinced himself wasn't the truth for years. Surely they couldn't expect Emmet to just come out and say it on his own.

It was lucky, that retired league members were still allowed to participate in events like this one, as former Champion Cynthia stepped out, arms crossed, and a contemplative look on her face. "Boss Emmet, forgive my asking, but is what is forming inside of there the same thing that had taken Boss Ingo?"

[Commentary: Cynthia was also meant to play a larger role in this original draft. There was gonna be more mystery to the appearance of Yukari and how Ingo got sent to the past in the first place. Her knowledge of Sinnoh's history would have been indisputably useful to Emmet.]

Emmet sucked in air through his teeth, turning his head to the side. He gave her a sharp nod. "Yup. I am Emmet, and I never had any proof that what I saw... what we experienced had ever happened. That is why I did not put it in the official report."

"That's absurd!" Champion Dawn blurted out, looking toward her mentor. She turned back toward Emmet, "Why didn't you say anything sooner? Someone could have investigated it! Interpol has a whole division for things like that!"

"Gas leak."

"What?" she blinked.

"Ingo and I went down to investigate a gas leak." Emmet still could not meet her eyes. "At the time, all rational explanation led to poison-induced hallucinations."

She still didn't seem to find that as a good enough reason, as she continued, "But you would have needed to call in the rangers to deal with the Pokémon-"

"Disappeared by the end of it." Emmet cut her off. Just like Ingo. "No proof."

"But-" she sputtered.

"Dawn," Cynthia placed a gentle hand over her protégé's shoulder. "Boss Emmet acted as anyone else might've in his place. Don't blame him for that."

Champion Dawn flushed, and with a slightly mortified tone, she turned to Emmet and said, "I'm sorry, I'm not trying to blame you for what happened, I'm just-"

"I am Emmet and I get it." He shook his head. "This... thing did just interrupt your first league conference as Champion. Disruptions to the schedule are stressful."

He looked at the doors. The rumbling was at its loudest. Any second now...

The prickling sound of thunder and swirling energy cracked through the congregation, and Emmet held his breath. It wouldn't be for much longer, it would torment him for just a small duration before going away again.

Everyone was outside of the hall, they wouldn't lose-

A loud high-pitched scream broke through the silence, and before anyone else could react, Emmet's body turned and he threw open the doors revealing the purple wall that the sphere formed just out of reach.

[Commentary: In this original draft, Yukari was going to appear in the middle of the distortion as a sort of parallel to how Ingo got sent back in time. Her first meeting with Emmet would have been here, with him saving her. Of course, he would catch on pretty quickly that she kind of looks like Ingo with her features, and her calling him 'dad' would have sealed his theory.

It was also going to describe the ongoing's of a distortion through the POV of a character who has absolutely no context for why anything is happening. It would have been fun to do, had the rest of the fic panned out.]

He ran into it, ignoring the instinctual shiver as it felt like oil was cascading down his back.

TBC-?

[Commentary: I added the TBC as a placeholder for deliberation. Even after continuing the first time I still wasn't feeling this version of the idea. In the end, I realized that a more serious take on the idea wouldn't have fit with the more comedy-focused scenes that I wanted to include later on; the tone shift was too great. Not only that but juggling all of these characters on top of introducing an OC felt a little too ambitious. As great as the subplots would have been with Barry, Dawn, Lucas, and Cynthia, I don't think they would have benefitted the overall AU. 

[Commentary: Originally, the ghost!Irida fic was going to start with her perspective on what happened as the idea was meant to be that Irida just watches over the twins and only Emmet can see her. It was meant to be somewhat cute, especially since it would feature a lot of moments of the twins as twins.]

In a poetic turn of events, time ended up treating Irida of the Pearl Clan very well.

Irida who had been young and inexperienced during the Rift Calamity, who had years upon years to grow into her loose and oversized ceremonial garb, who lead her people until her people were no more, it was she who would live longer than all those she cherished around her.

Of course, at the moment, Irida did not think that time was kind to her; why was it that she bore witness to the passing of young Warden Lian who was no longer the young warden before her own? Why was it that Adaman, a man whose personality had eventually grown on her like a rash that wouldn't go away, slipped into the Dialga's stream before her. He was the one who revered time, not Irida.

And yet all the years her friends should have lived seemed to go to her instead.

Irida of the Pearl Clan would live to one hundred, and then she would live no more.

She did not die with regrets, because there were none to be had. Irida had done good.

But she did die with one lingering question on her mind, one that she had been sure would remain unanswered as she passed into Mighty Palkia's domain, a never-ending space where the rest of her people hopefully were waiting for her on the other side.

[Commentary: it was at this section where I started to get unsure if this was the narrative I was quite going for. The tone was sort of wishy-washy in not committing to whether it was meant to be somber or something else. I decided to keep going however, with a note that I may come back to redo this section.]

Irida had known the fate of all her wardens, the ones who had been known as the Last Ten. Knew who they had married, if they hadn't, their kids, their grandchildren, where they had gone, what region they resided in now.

All save one.

Irida never did find out what happened to Warden Ingo, the last Warden of Sneasler.

Even on her deathbed, she found that her thoughts drifted to him.

[Commentary: If you've read the original fic you likely recognize these last few paragraphs. It was even used as the WIP announcement for this fic. Even though the rest of this original draft wasn't quite to my liking I thought this section was great and decided to preserve it.]

Perhaps it was because she had witnessed Lian with his son, and his son's son- a small, gem of an infant who Irida had held only once- get on a boat to sail toward that region she had never heard before... Unova it was called.

Or perhaps because her dear friend Lina, whose beauty in her youth had often be comparable to that of a mother of pearl only for her to be a mother to no Pearls. Whose husband, Iscan of the Diamond Clan, had stayed with her even until death, with them having been found passed in a warm and loving embrace.

[Commentary: This description of Palina and Iscan's relationship was made as a way to talk about how it's not exactly clear who is their descendants if they have any. But that description of Palina's beauty being compared to mother of pearl was what eventually inspired The Quality of Nacre.]

Or even her dear mentor Gaeric, who she often saw as her own father, who had stayed by her side until the end. Even when his own family moved away- not to Unova like Lian, no, instead they moved to a region called Kalos- he stood firm like his ward had once. It had been sad when he passed in sickness, his health abandoning them, but he had told Irida firmly, in between the tears that cascaded down her cheeks, that it was better that way... because no parent should ever outlive their child. So if he were to die, he was glad that it was with the mercy of knowing that he had raised her strong, tough as a glacier, and with so many years ahead of her.

Calaba had passed not too long after the Rift had closed up. That was an old heart that had long been mended.

But Ingo... Irida would never find out what happened to Ingo.

Who he had been. Where he had gone. He had stayed with the Pearl Clan for many years until that day... the one that had haunted Irida and loomed over her even at her brightest of moments...

One day, Irida had been strolling with the old Warden, when her vision began to grow fuzzy. She had paused to put a hand to her head, trying to blink away the white spots that grew in her vision.

Ingo hadn't noticed at first, but he did stop to turn to her, concern flooding his voice as he went, "Irida, is everything al-"

He would never finish his sentence, and for all intents and purposes, those would be his final words.

Through cracking vision and intense dizziness Irida watched as Warden Ingo took one step toward her, and was gone the next. And as soon as he was gone, the growing pressure that had been pounding against her mind let up, and her vision snapped back into clarity that it gave Irida whiplash.

Oh, she had called for help. Had screamed so loud that Warden Melli ran to her aid, but there was nothing to be done.

TBC-?

[Commentary: I honestly don't think this original draft was bad per se but it definitely lacked conviction. Honestly, I believe what the problem here was, was that I was more excited about getting Irida to the position of ghost but couldn't get into the headspace that would make that flow best narratively. I believe I may revisit this idea one day, if I figure out how to get past the hurdle of the opening narration.