In hindsight, Siebold wasn't sure that this was a good idea after all. He was sure of his colleagues; he trusted them and even considered them friends. But was Ash ready? Was she okay with meeting others? He hadn't considered the fact that Ash may not be so okay having strangers crowd her.

But they were already heading to his home, and he wasn't sure what he should do then. He couldn't warn Ash yet, but he could at least prepare his fellow Elite. Stopping before his home, feeling rather ominous at his villa's entrance, he turned to his confused friends.

"The person I want you all to meet is...a young girl named Ash," he hesitantly told them.

"A young girl?" Malva raised her eyebrows, before she grew a teasing smirk on her face. "Oh, don't tell me Prim Siebold likes little girls~"

He tossed her an irritable glare, and felt even more uneasy about what she said, considering he couldn't help remembering that Ash was a victim of trafficking and what she'd gone through. No matter how pretty and sweet she was, and how something in him might like her even a little like that...His first priority was to protect her and make her feel safe and secure.

"I found her around a week ago," Siebold continued on, ignoring Malva, who started to pout a little at being dismissed. "She was injured and was being held in her Charizard's arms. He too was injured...severely. She had a Pikachu with them. The three of them had escaped from traffickers and I took them in and helped them recover."

Malva's smirk died down quickly, while Drasna gasped and looked horrified, her hands flying up to cover her mouth. Wikstrom flinched and looked at him with wide eyes, while Diantha's eyes clouded over in sadness and her face and body showed her tiredness.

"Please be cautious and mindful of your words and movements," Siebold quietly said. "She is not used to being around many people, or even others other than myself. I'm not sure this is such a good idea, but I hope to help her to interact with others again and maybe try to trust once more."

"Of course, Siebold," Drasna, always the sweetheart, stepped up to him and smiled gently. "You can count on us."

Still uncertain, Siebold stepped into his home and called out, his fellow elite trainers slowly coming in after him. He noted the smell of something good being cooked through his villa, and thought that Ash might've already started on dinner, if not already finished. He could hear the distant sounds of metal clanging, so she was at least finishing up cooking...

"Ash? I'm home! I've brought some friends I'd like you to meet, if you're okay with that," Siebold hesitantly added on.

The distant clanging stopped and all was silent, making Siebold regret this decision of his. Maybe she wasn't ready. Maybe he should have slowly introduced her to the idea, instead of springing this onto her.

"Ash? Ash, it's okay," he called out, starting to feel panic settle in as he hurried to the kitchen. His mind was so pestered with alarm, that he barely remembered the others and felt them follow him.

Siebold entered his kitchen, but found no sight of her. It made him tense up.

"Ash, remember I told you I was part of the Elite Four of the Kalos Region? The other three are here, as well as Diantha. Remember her? I've told you many things about her," Siebold began to even sound panicked. If she had ran away...

He heard the screech of a chair against the floor and his eyes were immediately drawn to his table, especially as he heard a whimper escape from the girl that was probably hiding underneath it. He took a step towards it, but stopped as he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked to see Diantha by his side and she smiled sadly. Despite not wanting to, he stayed where he was and let her walked to the table. She didn't go all the way to it, but stopped an arm's length away, to which she then shifted onto her knees and then laid flat on the floor. Diantha quickly saw the frightened girl and gave her a soft smile.

"Hello," she said gently. "Do you know who I am?"

"You're Diantha," Ash muttered. "...I like your movies."

Diantha's smile widened. "Do you? That makes me really happy. Thank you." The movie actress moved a little closer. "I know Siebold told me what your name is, but can you tell me it? I'd like to hear your name from you, sweetie."

Ash watched her warily. "...Ash. My name is Ash," she mumbled.

"Well, Ash, were you cooking? It smells really good in here," Diantha continued, and saw Ash's eyes worriedly dart to the direction of the stove. "It would be a shame if whatever it was burned or became ruined somehow."

"That wouldn't be good," Ash frowned.

"Do you want to come out and show me whatever it is you were cooking? You can even show me how to help you finish it," Diantha moved just a little bit closer, and then slowly moved to sit on her knees.

Ash hesitated, before she nodded. Diantha's face softened into an affectionate, sweet (if a tad sad) look, and the Kalos Champion leaned forward and held out her hand.

"Come here, sweetheart. You'll be okay, I promise. Don't be afraid."

Ash swallowed nervously, but crawled forward and uncertainly grasped onto the soft hand reaching out to her. She peered up at Diantha from under her eyelashes.

"You're really pretty," Ash whispered shyly.

Diantha just smiled widely again, and gently placed her arm around Ash, pulling her up so they could stand and face the others. Ash still looked frightened and uncertain, but when she glanced at Siebold, he gave her a reassuring smile.

"Ash, I'd like you to meet Drasna, Malva, and Wikstrom," the blond pointed to each of his friends respectively.

Ash glanced at them nervously, but gave a shaky smile.

Malva took a step forward, drawing attention to herself. Quiet and a bit stoic, thus making Ash even more nervous while Siebold was ready to interfere if he needed to, Malva then grinned and gave a v-sign.

"Hey, sweetheart! Show me that grub, eh? I'm starving!"

Somehow, Ash found herself giggling a little, before covering her mouth in embarrassment, and her face turning red. But Malva just lifted up her rose-colored sunglasses and gave a wink.

As he watched Ash begin to start chattering to Diantha while she finished up the food she had been cooking, Siebold decided that this hadn't been such a bad idea after all.

~*~*~

"Today, I will teach you how to cook a tarte flambée," Siebold told Ash, who was listening eagerly. "It is an Alsatian bacon and onion tart," he explained. "It was invented from outside the Regions, in the Alsace area of France."

"Have you been to there?" Ash asked curiously.

Siebold gave a small smile. "A few times. It's lovely."

They then gathered up the ingredients for the tart, though Siebold allowed Ash to throw a few pieces of bacon to her Charizard and Pikachu. Maximus and Pikachu were basking outside, in his courtyard, and soaking in the sun. He caught Ash worriedly eying Maximus' wings though.

They were still heavily damaged, but had healed up a bit. They had been cleaned and then bandaged up, and Maximus was ordered to not use them in any way, and to leave them alone as much as possible. According to Nurse Joy, they were extremely damaged by the people who had done that to him, but while it may take a very long recovery process, his wings weren't incapable of healing and regaining their full strength.

But the sight of them, especially uncovered, was still a stark, horrific reminder of what they'd been through, so neither of the three could stand to focus on Maximus' wings for long.

"Hey, lovelies! I can smell something cooking in here," Malva's voice was heard by the entrance.

He saw Ash's face brightened, and was further encouraged by her deposition and the hope she was recovering as well. It also made him glad that he had indeed had the others meet Ash, and was also encouraged by her happier behavior that he'd made the right choice in deciding to have her meet them.

"In here, Malva!" Ash called out, and the pink-haired woman strutted into the kitchen, with Diantha quietly following.

Along with Malva and Diantha's frequent visits, Drasna liked bringing Ash with her to shop around the market or to meet her two grandchildren, while Wikstrom had taken to teaching Ash horse-riding or go to plays. It made him relieved to see Ash slowly becoming comfortable around the others and willing to go back into the world.

"What are you two cooking?" Diantha asked, trying to peer around them.

"A tarte flambée," Ash said cheerily. "Siebold says it's a bacon and onion tart. We just started though, so you won't be able to have any yet."

"Well, we can be patient," Malva gave a wicked grin that Ash giggled at. "How's the Mega Evo training going, Siebold?"

Siebold glanced at her idly, while Ash looked at him, wanting to know how she was doing in the Mega Evolution training as well. She thought it was doing good, but she wasn't an expert or anything...

"She's amazingly already managed to Mega Evolve Maximus into his Y form. I had Sycamore send over a Mega bracelet and whatever Charizardites he had available two weeks ago, and he thankfully had one of each. They're going with Y now, but I advised Ash to keep the Charizardite X on hand, in case they wanted to switch out."

Malva whistled. "Already? Two weeks into the real Mega Evolution training, getting the bracelet and stone, and the two of them managed that already? Nice."

"We can't keep the form long or anything though," Ash said sheepishly.

Malva rolled her eyes, and ruffled the teen's hair. "Overachieving twerp. For the amount of time you two have just started on this type of hard training, it's amazing what you've managed to do so far. That must be some bond you and Maximus have."

It went without saying that what they had gone through together (for each other, at that) had a lot to do with their bond being so strong, aside from the fact their bond probably had already been amazingly close before that, what with the years Maximus spent as one of three of Ash's only real companions and Ash needing her Charizard's strength and loyal presence during that same time.

"You should perhaps have Ash help you out at your restaurant," Diantha suggested, watching Ash cook alongside Siebold efficiently. "She won't be stuck at your villa on the days you are off to work, and she could also continue to learn to cook from you."

Ash loved that idea, Siebold could tell. And to be honest, so did he.

The water trainer gave Ash a small smile. "That would be wonderful, if you'd like that."

Ash nodded enthusiastically. "Of course! I'd be really happy, Siebold! Can I really come?"

"Of course," he said back, and reached out to softly pat her head.

He would be most reluctant when time came for her to return to her home in Kanto.

~*~*~

"Shit's weird," a gruff and tough-looking man muttered to his rival boss. He scratched at his chin, his beard scratching at his fingers back. "What the hell are the Rockets doing?"

"Like I would know, Archie," the red-headed man sitting opposite him sneered. "It's not like the Rockets have ever been easy to figure out, despite their usual status as 'just thieves.' And we all know that's a load of bull -the Rockets always have more up their sleeves and a bigger agenda."

"Psh," Archie grumbled. "Don't be a prick, Maxie. What if they turn their sights on the rest of us? Hell, you hear what the hell the Rockets have been doing? Burning up bodies! Live bodies!"

Maxie grimaced, and unfortunately couldn't help drudging up an image with that short description.

"Don't remind me," he muttered. "But you forget, they're targeting -for some reason -those traffickers."

The two of them thought on that, and were both confused and uneasy at the recent actions of one of their rival Teams. It didn't make sense that Team Rocket was suddenly on a warpath against these human traffickers, when all of them had been content to ignore them and let them do their work, as long as they left the Teams to their own. Now, suddenly, Team Rocket was waging war and hunting down traffickers with a wrathful vengeance, and doing terrible things to them.

The Teams were capable of doing dark stuff, and killing hadn't been too harsh of an issue with any them, even if they preferred to keep away from that option...but Team Rocket was going overboard and practically going on a public murder spree. This was beyond what any of them usually did, and they didn't know what had set Team Rocket off, and if it would affect the other Teams as well.

If they had to go up against a murderous Team Rocket...

Team Rocket was dangerous on their own, even before all this. Now? They looked like they'd fucking lost their minds, and it was scaring and bothering the shit out of the rest of them.

"Maybe this got nothing to do with the rest of us," Archie grumbled. "Maybe...maybe it's just the traffickers. Maybe those dumbasses did something to piss off the Rockets, and that's why Team Rocket's gone after them."

"Well, it certainly is an extreme form of revenge," Maxie pursed his lips. "They must have truly done something exceptionally worthy of earning Team Rocket's ire to this extent."

"We'll just let it go, yeah?" Archie said, suddenly feeling nervous. "We'll keep out of it and let the Rockets after them asswipes. So long as they don't start targeting us, I guess I don't give a shit."

"So long as we're out of the firing range," Maxie agreed quietly, lifting up his glass of brandy.

Archie lifted up his bottle of beer, and the two of them exchanged wary looks.

They had a feeling that things were going to go horribly wrong, and Team Rocket would be spreading a campaign of blood until every single trafficker had been caught and killed.

That they might even get caught up in it, whether they wanted to or not.

~*~*~

Giovanni stared at the stuffed toy, remembering the day he'd given the Mew plush to the girl that was missing.

He thought that perhaps if he had never stopped checking in on her...maybe even personally approached her with communication...she wouldn't have run away and gotten mixed up in all this. If another voice had spoken up for her, to her...supported her dreams and allowed her to know that it would be okay to pursue her dreams, even if he had to fucking have every one of his agents trail after her and make sure she was safe on her journey...

But what ifs wouldn't help now. No, right now Giovanni had to continue on and find her. And if he couldn't find her...if he was too late...then he had to continue and find every one of those motherfuckers and burn their screaming, pathetic selves into burnt corpses.

"Sir?"

He looked up to see Archer worriedly watching him, though the blue-haired man had taken care to look as impassive as ever.

"What is it?' he scowled.

Archer straightened up. "I think you would be pleased to know that our agents in the Kalos Region has spotted the girl you've been looking forward. She's been seen in Lumoise City, particularly around Restaurant Le Yeah."

Giovanni stared at him, before standing up abruptly. He'd wanted to go straight to Kalos after he'd heard she was there, but his Executives had all convinced him to allow their Kalosian agents to look around first, so that their search wouldn't be impeded or found out by the traffickers in that area, and therefore end up moving her and once again losing knowledge of where Ash was.

But now he had concrete evidence she was alive and where she was.

"Settle my chopper," Giovanni ordered, grabbing his jacket. "I want to get there as soon as possible."

There was absolutely no way he was going to leave her behind and lose her again. He was going to go to her now, and find her.

And finally take Ash home.

~*~*~

When Malva had heard Siebold say he wanted them to meet someone, she'd been very curious. Siebold wasn't the type to be very social, even if he wasn't exactly a hermit. He was kind of one of those lone artists types, which was ironic as he likened his battling and cooking to art.

And when he mentioned it was a young girl, she'd gone for the kill and instantly began to tease him. She had been surprised by his tastes though, because she hadn't expected him to be seeking romance in someone so young (as it sounded like he'd implied), but it had been hard to tell what kind of romantic inclinations and preferences he'd had in the first place. Even after all these years working with him since the Kalos League started, and even becoming friends with him, Malva had never known or had seen Siebold to pursue any romantic interests.

But she'd quickly been shut down on all fronts as Siebold explained how he'd met the girl, and they all came to meet Ash Ketchum.

Malva had been uncomfortable once she'd learned that Ash had been a trafficking victim, and that she had unknowingly joked about her and the situation she was in, and accidentally mocking Siebold's heartfelt attempt to help the girl. She also, probably like the others, felt clumsy and unsure about the situation they were now stuck in, meeting Ash.

They, as with everyone else, had disregarded the trafficking threat and ignored it in favor of stopping the constant harassment from Team Flare, who was much more public with their actions than the traffickers. And she, in particular, was a Flare member who was set to do what she could to aid the Team and help reform this disgusting world into a beautiful paradise.

She was finding herself hypocritical in the face of a trafficking victim in her face.

Malva had instantly liked the girl and grown attached. But the more time and the more attached she got, the more the feelings she originally felt at meeting Ash began to bother her.

She was part of Team Flare to help destroy the ugliness of the world. Ash's predicament and the girl herself showed Malva and proved the world was an ugly place, but also showed how hypocritical she and the Team were. Because none of them, not even she and Team Flare, had done a thing to stop the traffickers, barely showing them any attention or doing a thing against them.

Team Flare declared that they would erase all the ugliness of the world, but disregarded the most ugliest, blackened spot in the world in the form of these traffickers.

And the more Malva got to know Ash and grew more fond of her, the more upset and disgusted she felt at herself and her Team for their inadequacy in removing such a blight in the world, when they had claimed that they would.

Paradise was probably just as ugly as the world they currently lived in.

"You look bothered," her boss commented, and she looked up from her notepad to see the smartly dressed Lysandre watching her closely.

"I am bothered," she scowled, feeling frustrated and angry.

She wanted to lash out, do something to blow off steam. Maybe she should demand a match with the Flare scientists, maul them all in a battle or something.

"About what, Malva? Something in the meeting bothered you? Or was Xerosic's presence just irritating you, like always?" Lysandre teased her.

She looked at him irritably. "Why don't we do anything about those traffickers?" she suddenly said in a fit of anger.

He looked at her in surprise, before schooling his face into his normal, charming look.

"Do something about them? They'll be taken cared of, along with the rest of the world. It'll be soon after all, when we will have the power to strike all the ugliness of the world in a blow," Lysandre smoothly said.

But Malva wasn't hearing it. Lysandre continued though, this time with a hesitant look on his face.

"Besides...the Rockets seem to be doing a...fine job targeting those cretins," Lysandre twitched slightly.

"Then maybe I should go off and join Team Rocket," Malva said bitterly, glaring down at the table top.

"Malva! What on earth is going on with you?" Lysandre asked, taken aback by her vicious attitude.

Malva threw her notepad down and resisted the urge to clamp her hands over her face.

"There's this girl..."

And Malva was explaining quietly to her boss about meeting Ash, who she was, and what had happened to her in her captivity, as Siebold had secretly told her and the other Elites one time when Ash had been sleeping.

Though he quickly pushed his face to normal, Malva had been even quicker to catch the horrified look before it disappeared and Lysandre looked seemingly unaffected.

"Tell me...is there any way for me to meet this girl?"

Malva hadn't exactly expected that response though.