The Pantheon

Home, Sweet Home

Ashley had never been more grateful for exhaustion.

The days that followed the takedown of Team Magma and Team Aqua blurred together in a relentless cycle of responsibilities that left little room for her thoughts. Reports had to be written, testimonies recorded, and confiscated equipment catalogued while the authorities sorted through the remains of two organizations that had operated for years beneath the surface of Hoenn. Between the Rangers, the League, and the G-Men, the valley where the battle had taken place became less of a battlefield and more of a massive investigation site.

Ashley had been pulled into the middle of it all.

Her name appeared on far too many operational reports for anyone’s comfort, and the fact that she had played a central role in the takedown meant she was constantly moving from one obligation to the next. One morning might begin with an interview with investigators cataloguing the tactics used during the ambush, while the afternoon could be spent assisting Rangers as they identified Pokémon recovered from Magma and Aqua holding facilities.

The work never seemed to end.

Ashley found herself drafting battle analyses late into the night, carefully documenting the mechanics behind Elicius and Pandora because several League officials had insisted on the strategies being formally recorded. Those same officials also wanted detailed explanations of Mercury’s atmospheric manipulation, which meant she spent hours reconstructing storm patterns and electrical discharge paths from memory.

It was exhausting, but the exhaustion was welcome.

Keeping her mind occupied meant she did not have to linger on the knowledge that those strategies had not merely broken enemy formations.

They had killed.

Ashley had known the moment she gave the order that the battlefield would not remain bloodless. Even so, the realization that Mercury’s redirected lightning and Vulcan’s molten barrage had taken lives was not something she wanted to sit quietly and contemplate.

The same was true for Mars.

She had not seen the end of his battle with Courtney, but the aftermath had been impossible to ignore once the battlefield was secured. The cratered ground and shattered stone where the Draco Meteor had struck told their own story, and the reports confirmed what she had already suspected.

Courtney and her Ninetales had not survived.

Ashley had accepted the information with the calm composure expected from someone involved in a League-sanctioned operation. Later that night, however, she had buried herself in paperwork until well past midnight because thinking about it too long made her chest feel unbearably tight.

Fortunately, Hoenn refused to slow down long enough for her to dwell on it.

There were still Pokémon to relocate from confiscated Magma and Aqua facilities, and several of them required careful medical attention after months of captivity. Rangers constantly moved through Lilycove’s temporary shelters while League trainers assisted with rehabilitation efforts. Ashley spent more than one afternoon sitting quietly with frightened Pokémon while the specialists worked, helping them adjust to the sudden absence of their former handlers.

The human side of the aftermath was no simpler.

The surviving grunts and administrators were processed through a long chain of interrogations and legal proceedings while evidence teams dismantled the remnants of both organizations. Reporters attempted to gather information at every possible opportunity, which forced the League to maintain a constant presence around Lilycove and Lavaridge to keep the media from interfering with ongoing investigations.