"Well, here we are."

Isa, Kaden, Sandslash, and Houndoom all stood in awe, facing Lumina's Battle Academy.

"I know I went to Luminia a lot, but I never really payed any attention to this. Now that we're here..." Kaden smiled a bit. "The only thing I've seen more majestic than this is the Central Tower. The interior there was absolutely breathtaking."

"Then that tower must be the best looking thing in all of Axiom. What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Isa ran ahead, not making a single pause for the others to catch up.

The first thing Isa noticed was the roof, made entirely of glass as to let only natural light in. The main room was circular and pure white with traces of gold on the edges of the floor and wall to match the armor of the Patrons. A few halls branched out from the room, all leading to different areas of the academy. "Whoa..."

"Pretty great, right?" A woman's voice echoed out, coming from one of the halls. Kaden immediately starting searching for the voice, letting out a small groan when Aurora, dressed in her armor, came from the direction of the voice.

"It's absolutely amazing! How did they even build this?" Isa's face lit up as he continued to look around.

"I don't know. It's been around since before I even became a Patron, and probably since before Valencia even began her leadership." Aurora walked next to Isa, Lucario following close behind.

"We didn't come here just to admire the scenery, we came here to apply for the academy. Would you happen to know where we could apply?" Kaden interrupted the two, watching over them with a bit of a glare.

"Applications are made at the Central Tower, as there is more proper space for a training test. If you'd like, I can lead you there." Aurora offered.

"You'd be okay with it?"

"Of course. We could always use more people ready to defend our region."

"Alright then, lead the way!" Isa and Aurora turned to leave, Kaden quickly following along.

The Central Tower was only a short walk away from the academy, but the crowds made the trip a bit longer. Finally inside, Isa immediately noticed that Kaden had been right about the tower's appearance being even better than that of the academy's. Like the academy, it had white and golden circular walls, with torches instead of a skylight. There were a few plants in front of columns in the tower, but for the most part the room was entirely empty except for the large staircase at the back of the room.

Both stared for a moment again, taking in the emptiness. "So, where do we sign up?" Kaden broke the silence as they continued to look around.

"I can start you both off right here, but first you'll need to hand over your swords and the Pokemon will have to be nullified." Aurora gestured to the sword hanging from Kaden's side. "Out of caution for Valencia's safety, of course. Once we've arrived at the testing room, I will give you your swords back and lift the nullification on your Pokemon so you can take the test."

"Understandable." Isa reached to his side to hand Aurora his sword, motioning to Sandslash to step up to her. Kaden shook his head, instead drawing the sword and pointing it at Aurora.

"I'm not giving you my sword. I've been to Luminia before, and they've never had academy members come here to register. You're onto something, and we deserve to know what it is." Kaden glanced over to see Isa stare at him, confused.

"Nothing's going on, they just have to keep their precautions up due to the invasions." Isa spoke slowly, looking back to Aurora. "Isn't that right?" She didn't respond. "Aurora?"

Aurora let out a sigh, grabbing Isa's sword and throwing it behind her. Her head turned to the ground, with eyes refusing to meet Isa's. "You seemed nice, Isa. You truly did. It's a shame that you had to come here carrying the Aura of Xerneas and accompanied by one of Yveltal. Lucario, you know what to do."

Lucario let out a loud cry, darting up to Kaden and knocking the sword out of his hand. "Isa, RUN!" Kaden had just enough time to yell to Isa before he was knocked knocked over by Lucario. He reached a hand up to Isa desperately before hitting the ground and letting out a sharp scream as he made impact.

"Kaden!" Isa darted to approach him but was quickly cut off by Aurora. She grabbed Isa by the back of his shirt and pulled him away, holding him firmly in place.

"The two of you think that you can just walk into Luminia with the Aura that you have? Especially you, Admiral. Thanks to your foolishness, Valencia now knows that the job she started never finished." Aurora pointed to Kaden, causing him to go pale.

"How did you know?" He spoke quietly, giving a glare back to Aurora.

"Admiral? Kaden, what's going on?" Isa's eyes shifted between Kaden and Aurora.

"Did he not tell you yet? You know, I thought people who are friends are supposed to let each other know these things. I suppose I'd better tell you." Aurora continued to hold onto Isa, approaching Kaden with a mad sort of grin on her face. "This here is the Admiral to the Mercenaries of Yveltal, and Yveltal's vessel. He can use Yveltal's energy to drain the life of those around him and use it as his own to fight." She let a hand off of Isa, grabbing her dagger while wrapping her other arm to hold Isa back. "A few months ago, he led an attack on Valencia in a vain attempt to kill her." The dagger came into Isa's line of sight, causing him to go completely stiff. "And guess what happened?"

"Stop it, stop it!" Kaden's voice was filled with cracks and stutters, something Isa had never heard before. "Leave him alone!"

"He failed." Aurora stared Kaden right in the eyes as she placed the smooth side of the dagger against Isa's face. Both went stone cold. "He lost in battle to Valencia, lost all of his power from Yveltal, and was supposed to die. Turns out, Xerneas saved him and sent him to a boy who was supposed to die eight years ago."

"Stop it, please!" Kaden looked up desperately to Aurora with fear in his eyes, struggling to stand as Lucario knocked him down once again.

"K-Kaden?"

"I don't care what you do to me, you can kill me even, but he has nothing to do with this, leave him alone!" Kaden screamed, the whole room falling silent. Slowly, Aurora pulled her dagger off of Isa, letting go of him.

"Wise choice. Lucario, Psychic." The Pokemon rose its hands in the air, a pink and blue light flowing from them. They soon surrounded Kaden, who looked around panicked before letting out another scream. He fell silent shortly after.

"What did you do to him?" Isa yelled, dropping to the ground near where Kaden was. His eyes were closed and his breathing made up of mostly short, panicked breaths.

"He's not going to die. At least, not yet." Aurora responded with a calm tone in her voice. "This Kaden you speak of is a criminal who attempted an assassination on the leader of Axiom, and as such he will be punished for it, likely ending with the same fate he intended to bring upon Valencia. As for your fate, Valencia will be looking forward to speaking with you."

Before Isa could respond, he found himself looking into Lucario's eyes. He didn't even have time to think before everything went dark.

---

The first thing Isa heard when he opened his eyes again was loud, stressed crying. He looked around quickly, slowing down when his head started to rush. After a moment he began to glance around again, much slower. "Hello?" His voice came out as a weak cough, causing for him to speak again with a bit more worry to his voice.

Another gave a somewhat weak response. "Isa? Is that you?"

"Kaden?" Isa turned his head, looking for the sound of the voice. "What's going on? Where are we?"

"I don't know." There was a panic to Kaden's voice, similar to the one he had earlier.

Isa finally caught sight of Kaden, a smile growing on his face. It was quickly cut off when Isa got a more clear look, noticing a large and dark bruise across the right side of his head with a few deep red scrapes. "What happened?"

"I was trying to get out of here." Kaden took a deep breath, letting it go and cutting himself off. "I'm so sorry. I should have told you I knew everything from the start so you'd know what you were getting into. Aurora was right, I was their Admiral. I don't know the specifics, but Yveltal saw something in me so it forced me to take on some of its power when I was like, four or something. It trained me until I was ready to go fight her and I lost. Right now, I don't even care about that anymore. I just want to get us out of here. I hate Valencia and I hate the Patrons and the Mercenaries, and just..." He let out a scream that dissolved into crying, slamming a hand against the wall.

"Air hug?" Isa offered, leaning his back against the door to the cell. Kaden nodded, doing the same thing. "So what do we do now?" After a moment of silence Kaden spoke up again.

"I just need to get out of here more than anything at the moment. I hate being underground. The entire base for the Mercenaries was underground, and I was never allowed to leave. I never really got to admire the world until I found you." Kaden had a few stutters in his voice, but it was getting slightly better.

"Why didn't you tell me? I could have tried to help."

"I don't know, I was afraid? It's not like you would have believed me. Who are you going to believe, the crazy person you just met or the Empress who's been ruling for longer than you can remember? I just hate my old life, and meeting you was a chance to start over, even if I was lying about it. I had no intentions of ever returning to who I was, but look where we are now, huh? It was better to try and forget." Kaden laughed a bit to lighten the mood, his attempt mostly unsuccessful. "I'd understand if you finally hate me now, if you want to just get yourself out of here and leave me behind. All I'll do is cause trouble for you now that Valencia knows I'm alive and I was travelling with you. She'll use you to try and get under my skin. Not to mention Aurora and how she knows about your Aura." 

Isa took a breath in. "I'm not mad, and I'm not gonna leave you behind. We're friends, and you're my best one at that, and friends don't leave each other behind. So what if the past was bad? We're not in the past anymore."

"You always know what to say for these kinds of things. Can you promise me something?"

"What?"

"There's a good chance that we're not gonna leave this tower at all. There's no way we're leaving until either both of us are dead, or Valencia is, that's just how it is. You have to listen to me without question, even if I'm telling you to run. I don't want you to lose your life fighting for a cause that's not your own."

Isa thought for a bit before responding. "I never told you everything Xerneas told me, right? I know that Valencia's corrupt and I know everything she's done. I just want some answers from her, and I know that there's probably going to be death involved, as much as I hate it. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm gonna stick with you no matter what, even if you tell me to leave. Your fight is my fight now. You don't have to go it alone."

"...That's what I was hoping you'd say." Kaden finally looked back up at Isa, rubbing his eyes and giving him a soft smile. "Now, let's get out of here." Kaden stood up, examining the cell he was in. Isa did the same, both working in silence until they heard a sharp barking noise.

"Did you hear that?"

"Is that-?"

A stream of flames blew past the two cells, a Houndoom leaping behind the source of the flames. "Houndoom! Oh, come here girl!"

Houndoom let out another bark, lighting up its tail and slicing through the door to the cell. Kaden knelt to the ground, hugging the Pokemon for a brief moment. "I missed you!" He gave the Pokemon a pet behind the ears, to which it barked some more.

Isa watched with a small smile, his head turning when he heard another noise. Sandslash came running through a door down the corridor. "Hey, Sandslash! Over here!" Isa called out with a wave. The Pokemon's head perked up, letting out a joyful cry when it saw its trainer again. It quickly cut down the door to Isa's cell, prompting for Isa to hug the Pokemon. "I'm so glad you're okay."

They both embraced their hugs for a moment before letting go. Isa approached Kaden, putting a hand on his face and closing his eyes. Kaden watched as Isa's hand lit up, the green soon fading and leaving a sense of relief on him. When Isa lifted his hand up, the bruises and scrapes underneath were gone, replaced with a very vague tint of blue. "Ready to go?" Kaden asked. Isa returned a nod. "Great, but first, let me show you something."

Kaden held his arms up, the outside of them facing to Isa. "Hold your arms up like this." Isa copied the move, and Kaden gave each arm a little bump with his respective forearm. "I used to do that for the Mercenaries before they would go off on missions as a way to wish them good luck. Maybe I did hate them, but the meaning is still the same."

"Then, good luck to you too?" Isa awkwardly returned the move.

"Yeah, let's do this."