"Aero..."
"Yeah. They are gone. It's a trap." The Orayen Prince nodded to the words of his Pokémon and then sent a signal to Sabrina, Riley, Phoebe, and Krane, who were flying in the distance, scouting the area. "Abort."
Aizen gave a single command before he asked his Aerodactyl to fly higher up into the sky, and soon his team joined him.
They did not head back to Edison's Laboratory.
It had been vacated by them seven weeks ago, when Aizen returned from his Phenac City mission.
Instead, the team rushed towards the island where Metagross had teleported the Orayen Prince after the encounter with Shadow Lugia.
There, they had made a temporary base inside a cave, and a couple of hours later, when they reached the island, Aizen stopped his team from descending.
He narrowed his eyes when he found some hidden signatures with his Aura Sight.
Riley too was trying to see what he was seeing, but they were so high up in the sky that the ground was out of his range.
Aizen signalled them to keep quiet and not use their watches, and then asked them to follow him as he led them further into the sea, towards the southeast, where Ransei was located.
"They traced us?" Riley asked, and the Prince solemnly nodded his head.
For the last two weeks, Team Doom and Cipher seemed to have suddenly disappeared from Orre, and when they took out the key lair of Cipher at the foot of Mt. Battle, they did not gather anything valuable, even after reading the minds of the engineers and scientists present there.
The other criminal organisations had also picked up on the absence of Cipher, but they kept a low profile as they did not want to attract the attention of Aizen and his team. No one wanted to mess with them after they eliminated several hideouts and annihilated Team Snagem, who were working for Cipher.
Out of caution, they also attacked several pirate vessels and took away all the Pokémon who were going to get smuggled into the region, which even scared Oasis.
"How many were there?" Phoebe asked when they landed in Ransei.
"About 30 people, and they were being led by two Psychics and a rogue Aura user. His Aura was dark," Aizen informed them, and then sat down against the tree with Krane, who took out his laptop and quickly hacked into the Cipher satellites.
Things were calm, as they had been in the past few days, and there was no activity in the region whatsoever.
"They have realised that we hacked into their satellites." Riley had a very strong hunch about it.
"Yes, but these are the satellites of Cipher. Team Doom might have access to other satellites..." Phoebe frowned.
"I have a guess where all of them have retired to. It's their headquarters. I saw it in Ein's mind. It's called the Citadark Isle. A completely fortified volcanic island, surrounded by artificially created currents and a storm. The place cannot be found using satellites. Even Ein did not know its exact location, but it is somewhere towards the southwest of Dark Port."
"He did not know the exact location?" The Ghost Master furrowed her brows.
"Every time he was taken there, his face was covered with a black hood, and he was kept locked inside his room on the ship."
"Oh..."
"Should we start the search for it?" Krane asked, but Aizen shook his head and sighed.
"The five of us are not enough. We need to contact the Order and inform them about Citadark Isle. We need reinforcements."
"Cynthia must be busy with the upcoming Lily of the Valley Conference. Someone has also challenged her for the Champion's spot. Lance and Ethan are busy with filtering their councils and clearing their regions of all criminal organisations." Riley frowned.
He was not too keen about trusting his life with people he did not know anything about.
"Let's hope for the best." Aizen smiled and opened his watch, making an encrypted call to Joseph Stone.
The group briefed the Old Stone about everything they had achieved so far in the region, and then Aizen informed him about the Citadark Isle.
"Don't go back to Orre. The reinforcements will meet you in Ransei, so stay there."
"Yes."
After the call ended, Aizen stood up and started walking towards the Tree of Beginning, and the rest of them followed him to it.
At dawn, after they made their camp inside the Tree, Riley and Phoebe flew to the nearby nation of Dragnor to buy some food and other necessities.
Sabrina too decided to go out, and when she told Aizen that she was going to search for some dragons in the famous ravine of the Dragnor Kingdom, he decided to tag along.
It was the perfect time, since many Pokémon would be visiting it to drink water in the morning.
There were two dragon lines found in large numbers in Ransei, and they were the Hydreigon and Haxorus. Garchomp and Goodra lines were rare but always present, and only a few Dragonite lived in this region.
Since she already had a Hydreigon, Aizen guessed that she was going for a Haxorus.
He too wanted an Axew for his Unova team now that he planned on journeying through it next year.
The two did not call out their Aerodactyl, since the two Pokémon were tired after flying all night.
Aizen decided to call out his Braviary, and his Moon called out her Mega Charizard Y, who was quite a beautiful Pokémon.
Chief was quite excited when he saw the Mega Pokémon, and the Orayen Prince sighed when it expressed its desire to fight Charizard Y.
"Sure, but not right now," he said as he climbed over its back and asked it to follow Sabrina.
When Chief tried to race with it, Charizard did not appreciate it, and suddenly geared up, leaving the bird far behind.
The eagle Pokémon wanted to use Aerial Ace to keep up with Charizard Y, but Aizen warned it, and sensing his coldness, Braviary behaved itself and honestly took them to the ravine.
Its eyes gleamed as soon as it saw dozens of different Pokémon, and when it dropped Aizen next to Sabrina, it decided to fly away but froze and trembled when it heard its master's cold words.
"Don't you dare pick any fights without my permission. You won't like your punishment."
Braviary protested a little but obediently nodded its head before flying away to check out the place.
Aizen smiled as he watched his Braviary leave, and then glanced in the direction his Moon was staring.
There was a beautiful girl, brown-skinned, around thirteen or fourteen years old, wearing a cream-coloured top with pink collars and cuffs, a pink skirt with a large ribbon on the side, white leggings that were coloured yellow at the end, and pink and white shoes. She had long purple hair, which was bound in two side pigtails, and the hair in the middle, flowing down her back, reached the back of her knees and was bound in a small ponytail at the bottom.
The Orayen Prince's eyes widened in surprise when he sensed the massive amount of Aura inside the girl, which was partially sealed. It was way more than what Rui possessed, even slightly more than Ash, whose Aura was completely sealed.
And his mind ran wild as he tried to figure out her identity.
His eyes also landed on the cute little Axew by her side, a Sliggoo, a large Druddigon, and an Excadrill.
The Pokémon were helping her wash the fruits and berries they had collected in a wooden basket, and she was happily chatting with them, clearly able to understand and talk to them.
"She's an Auror."
"Yes," Aizen nodded to his Moon's words, and then looked around the place, soon spotting a group of Axew and its line, who were coming over from the forest to drink water.
There were so many different Pokémon gathering at the place now that he could not help himself as he started recording everything on his watch and also took out his notebook to take notes.
Sabrina glanced at him, and seeing him get busy, she teleported right by the side of a group of Axew and Fraxure and started using her telepathy to talk to them.
Seeing a couple of Haxorus angrily coming towards her, trying to intimidate her, her Charizard Y landed right by her side, and she also called out her Dragonite, Mega Charizard X, Mega Gardevoir, and her Diancie.
The atmosphere instantly turned very grim, and the proud Haxorus wisely stopped and started minding their own business.
Aizen laughed when he watched Sabrina tell all the Fraxure and Axew to gather around her, which they did.
She took quite some time making her pick, and eventually, she chose an Axew, who was quite the stubborn fellow and even dared to challenge her Dragonite.
Sabrina entertained its ideas, and her Dragonite played along with it until the little Pokémon fell back, completely exhausted.
"You are good." She praised him and then sent her Pokéball to catch the little fellow.
Aizen sensed a little Axew get sad when her friend got captured, and he teleported to her side and picked her up in his arms.
"Do you want to come with us as well?" he gently asked her, and the little Axew was surprised at his question but then excitedly agreed.
Aizen captured her, and then let her out of the Pokéball to be with Sabrina's Axew, and they watched as the pair rushed over to a Haxorus who was sitting far down the stream.
She was their mother, and she did not show any emotions when her children told her that they were going away with their trainers.
Adult dragons seldom showed their emotions to the young ones, but Aizen could sense that the Haxorus was a little worried for them, so he revealed his Aura and promised her that they would take good care of her children.
Aizen soon returned next to the boulder where he had placed his notebook, and continued taking notes about all the Pokémon in the surroundings.
He became too lost in his study to glance in Sabrina's way when she teleported away, and an hour later, when she returned by his side, she had a Goomy with her.
"Where did you find it?" He looked at her in surprise, and she told him that it was present at the waterfall a little away from the ravine.
"There was only one," she said, and he sighed but nodded his head.
"That's fine."
Aizen then curiously looked at the girl who was running their way, carrying her Axew in her arms.
"Hey!" she called out to them, and he smiled at her.