1. Ash's Story (Part 0: Prologue)

Chapter 1: A Name Born Twice

The chamber beneath Viridian City never needed daylight, because Giovanni preferred rooms that remembered secrecy better than comfort. A single lamp burned above his desk, leaving the corners in darkness, while Persian rested beside his chair with eyes too calm for any ordinary Pokémon. Before the desk, a raven-haired girl knelt with one knee against the cold floor and kept her head bowed until he allowed her to look up.

"Aurora," Giovanni said, and his voice carried the sharp patience of someone who expected obedience before understanding. "I have a mission for you."

Aurora Sachi lifted her eyes without changing expression. She was young, but Team Rocket had already made her older than her face suggested, carving silence into her posture and fear into the empty spaces behind her answers. She waited while the screen behind Giovanni flickered alive, revealing a man with jet-black hair, crimson clothing, and Z-shaped marks beneath his eyes.

"This is Adam Red Ketchum," Giovanni continued, touching a control on his desk. "He leads Team Alpha, a faction that keeps interfering with Team Rocket's expansion across Kanto and Johto. They possess abnormal abilities, dangerous loyalties, and connections to Legendary and Mythical Pokémon that should not belong to any private army."

Aurora studied Adam's image because studying targets was safer than studying Giovanni. "You want him dead."

"I want him understood first," Giovanni corrected, and Persian's tail brushed against the chair like a quiet warning. "Infiltrate Team Alpha. Learn how they call those Pokémon. Learn where they hide, who serves them, and what weakness Adam trusts enough to keep beside him."

Aurora's fingers curled against her knee, though her face stayed still. "And when I find the weakness?"

"Then you remove him," Giovanni said, as if he were discussing a locked door. "Your family line was useful before it was broken. You have been more useful since we remade you. Do not disappoint me by remembering mercy at the wrong time."

The old wound inside Aurora remained quiet, not because it had healed, but because Team Rocket had trained it to stop making noise. She bowed her head again, letting the name Sachi feel like a chain around her throat. "Yes, Boss."

Giovanni leaned back until the red R on his shirt caught the lamp. "Adam Ketchum rescues strays, protects the injured, and believes compassion makes him stronger. Make him prove it."

The road where Aurora collapsed was narrow enough for trees to swallow the moonlight. She chose a place between Viridian's outer paths and an old Team Alpha route, where rain had softened the dirt and made every staged stumble look real. Blood from a shallow cut darkened her sleeve, and bruising powder beneath her eyes turned her face into a convincing portrait of someone who had run until her body refused to continue.

She heard the first voices before she let herself fall completely still. Boots struck wet ground. Someone called for a doctor. Someone else warned that the girl might be bait. Aurora kept her breathing shallow, her hidden blade flat against the inside seam of her coat, and waited for Adam Ketchum's voice.

"Do not crowd her," Adam ordered, closer than she expected. "Johana, check the trees. Marcus, signal the others. If this is a trap, we protect her and prepare for it at the same time."

Aurora let her lashes tremble when fingers touched her wrist. Adam's hand was warm, steady, and careful enough that for one stupid heartbeat, she forgot hands could be gentle without being weak. She almost hated him for making the first part easy.

"She's alive," Adam said, his voice softening. "Bring her back to camp. Send for Dr. Jekyll immediately."

"Adam, we do not know who she is," a woman warned from nearby. Her tone was not cruel, only practical. "A wounded stranger on our road at midnight is exactly the kind of thing Team Rocket would arrange."