The whole room is silent as the Dragon Emperor waits for his tea. The professors gossip among themselves, discussing the history that they have been told by the Dragon Emperor. Ash and Serena's friends merely look at Ash and Serena who seem to be deeply engrossed in thought.

"So, your order has been fighting a war for hundreds of thousands of years. That's quite a burden to bear but why then did Giovanni, who I assume is the leader of the League of Shadows, come out in the public?" Diantha asks causing the Dragon Emperor to raise an eyebrow at her question.

"I mean, you yourself said that they operate from the shadows. Why then would they come out now? The reason why I ask... is because over the past twelve months even though we have not been able to stop them, we have received intelligence from several of our deep-cover agents in the Pokemon underworld that Team Rocket has been increasingly active. In terms of moving money and Pokemon trafficking etc. Why now?" Diantha asks.

"Yes. You are right. They have been more active for the past two years. And the reason for that you will understand when you hear the next part of the story which I will tell you once I finish my tea," Dragon Emperor smiles as Diantha nods her head in understanding.

https://youtu.be/dDbZZoJHlm4

(Meanwhile in a hidden location in the Kanto Region)

"Is everything prepared for the ritual?" Giovanni questions to which Ariel answers with a thumbs up.

"Excellent. Then let us proceed," Giovanni says as he and Ariel walk into a dimly lit room.

"Father, the ritual room has been prepared in keeping with your instructions," Calem says the moment he sees his sister and father walk in.

Giovanni, however, doesn't answer and simply walks past much to Ariel's amusement and Calem's chagrin.

"Excellent. Let us proceed. Join me in the circle, my children," Giovanni commands.

Calem and Ariel nod before walking into the circle. There is a circle inscribed on the floor with incantation runes accompanying the structure. Inside the circle, there is a triangle inscribed within which there is another circle.

Giovanni, Ariel and Calem take positions where the triangle intersects with the outer circle. Three Pokemon, one Dark, one Ghost and one Poison-type, take positions where the triangle intersects the inner circle. Finally in the centre of the circle are five prisoners of the League of Shadows and three initiates of the League of Shadows.

"Please. Let us go," a prisoner begs only to scoffed at by Ariel.

"Please let my child go. You can do whatever you want with me but let my child go," another woman begs only to be whacked by one of the initiates.

"I can't. I need him," Giovanni coldly replies before turning to Ariel.

"If you would do the honours," Giovanni gestures only for Ariel to smirk in return. She tosses two scrolls, which she had been holding the whole time in her two hands, in the air.

Ariel's eyes shine purple as the scrolls gain a purple energy outline following which they start orbiting the ritual ceremony.

"Let us proceed," Giovanni closes his eyes as all the candles which were lighting the room get extinguished and the runes on the floor light up.

Giovanni, Calem and Ariel start chanting spells as their hands begin to sparkle in response to the spells being cast. The moment they finish chanting each of them raises one palm towards the other. Simultaneously they fire lighting at one another causing a chain of triangular nodes to be created connected by aura lightning.

"For the glory of Drakus," the initiates chants before they slit their own throats causing a swirly black cloud to appear right above the ceremony.

"Life of loyal servants willingly given," Ariel chants as the bodies of the servants disintegrate and the life force gets sucked into the cloud.

"Life of prisoners forcefully taken," Calem chants as the life force of the prisoners gets sucked out as well.

"Essence of the shadows, willingly delivered," Giovanni chants as the three Pokemon cry in anguish before being consumed as well.

Following the conclusion of the sacrifice, two bolts of black lightning emerge from the dark cloud, striking the two revolving scrolls.

"NOW!" Giovanni shouts as all three redirect their lightning towards the centre of the circle. 

The very next instant, the two scrolls having sucked up all the transference energy get pulled towards the centre of the circle as well.

"Hold on. Keep it steady," Giovanni shouts over the sizzling noise as the scrolls enter the orb of energy formed by the lightning from Giovanni and his children.

The orb glows blindingly white before sending out a wave of energy and dissipating. 

"Finally," Giovanni maliciously smiles as he sees the scroll floating in the centre of the room, the merge ritual being successfully completed.

(Back in KIP)

Ash and Serena are sitting silently and engrossed in thought when suddenly they stand up much to everyone's surprise almost as if they've sensed something. Dragon Emperor who's sipping his tea in silence also reacts as if he's just received a jolt. He immediately puts down his cup and stands up causing everyone else to look surprised.

"What happened? Ash? Serena?" Grace asks, only for Serena to not reply.

"Did you feel that?" Serena spins around to face the Dragon Emperor.

"Yes, I did. Blood sacrifice spell. A powerful one at that. Even at this time, our enemies move against us," Dragon Emperor answers with Ash and Serena looking at him.

"Blood sacrifice spell?" Lance asks, not believing what he's hearing.

"A spell or rather a ritual designed by the League of Shadows around four hundred thousand years back. It is designed to consume Pokemon and human life essence in order to bring about certain changes which are difficult to bring about through... conventional means. A rather crude but an effective method," Dragon Emperor answers.

"That's barbaric! Sacrificing humans and Pokemon as if they were some chemical agents to be used for a reaction," Oak cries out.

"I told you this before. You're hearing the tale of the Pokemon world. You're about to enter a world which is frightening and completely unknown. You're stepping into the shadows and the shadows can be a terrifying place. But enough of this. We can't waste any more precious time, we should continue with the story," Dragon Emperor puts the finished cup of tea down.

https://youtu.be/b4avjVItnpY

"Now continuing with the story. For twenty thousand years the League of Shadows vanished. We took advantage of their absence. We built up an army, unlike anything which had been raised before. We also took this opportunity to do something more for the common public," Dragon Emperor gestures to all the people present in the room.

"What did you do?" Palermo asks.

"I didn't do anything," Dragon Emperor answers.

"I mean what did your organization do?" Palermo rephrases her question for the Dragon Emperor to chuckle.

"We realized that without the League of Shadows being present we could focus more on the welfare of the Pokemon world, the world we were fighting to protect but never had the chance to nourish. And so we decided that we needed to do something more," Dragon Emperor continues.

"What did you do?" Diantha enquires.

"Pokemon battling has always been part of the culture of the Pokemon world since the time the Order has existed. Pokemon research and breeding and grooming have also sprung up as time has passed. But as decades of thousands of years passed, we realized that we needed to do more. Not everyone was meant for training or research or breeding for a matter of fact. So we laid down the foundation for two more professions which would be a blessing for the Pokemon world as time passed," Dragon Emperor tells.

"And what are those professions?" May enquires.

"Funny you should ask. The two professions in question were coordinating and performing," Dragon Emperor smiles as all the coordinators and performers' jaws drop.

"The order laid down the foundations for contests and performances!" Palermo asks, to doubly make sure she's hearing it right.

"That's correct, contests came first. Since they share the battling component with Pokemon training so it was easy to envision contests. Performances took a much longer time to envision because it was difficult to come up with a concept which didn't involve Pokemon battle at all. But as time passed and our vision evolved we chose people and sent them out to put the seeds of contests and performances into the mindsets of the kingdoms which existed at that time. As time passed these professions came into being and our experiments met with success," Dragon Emperor smiles.

"So everything we know, everything we do. It's your order's courtesy? From Pokemon contests to performances to battling to breeding. Everything which relates us to Pokemon is a gift of your order's grace?" Goodshow remarks.

"I don't want to brag or anything but yes. If your lives have meaning today. You owe it to the Order of the Pokemon masters," Dragon Emperor replies as everyone goes silent, contemplating the Dragon Emperor's words.

"But anyway, continuing with the story it was truly an age of prosperity and peace. For twenty thousand years there was peace and security everywhere. People were happy and nature was plentiful and prosperous. It almost in a way too good to be true. But it was not to last for word came to us one day that a member of the League of Shadows had been caught by some of our ranks. The order immediately dispatched some troops and brought the perpetrator in. We couldn't believe it. After twenty thousand years of searching... finally, someone had been caught," Dragon Emperor narrates as everyone listens.

https://youtu.be/pOycG3KlTK8

"What did you do?" Diantha enquires.

"What do you think we did. We obviously interrogated him. When that didn't work we tortured him for six months straight," Dragon Emperor says, shocking everyone.

"You tortured someone for six months?" Lance clarifies only for the emperor to nod in return.

"That's barbaric and it's wrong," Diantha remarks.

"Be grateful that we did. For after six months we finally managed to break him and what he told us, shocked us beyond belief," Dragon Emperor says.

"Hold on. Torturing someone is wrong regardless of what information you can get from the person being tortured," Diantha retorts.

"You're speaking of ethics. Ethics are only useful when people are alive to live by them in the first place. When you have an opponent whose sole vision is to burn the world down, you don't debate ethics for ethics are useless in combat. If you can't break ethics how then can you be expected to break bone?" Dragon Emperor asks back, stunning many people with his answer.

"But...," Diantha struggles to form an answer only for the Dragon Emperor to give her a looking telling her to keep quiet.

"As I was saying. The information the man gave up shocked us beyond belief. Before I tell you that, I hope everyone remembers Algrim's prophecy and the first original war?" Dragon questions only for him to get thumbs up from everyone.

"In the old war, Drakus and the other shadow Pokemon were banished to the Shadow dimension, an inescapable prison from which there was no escape. Moments before the barrier was closed, trapping the Shadow Pokemon in their prison a Drakus released a beam negative energy which emerged from the closing barrier and shot off into space. Under torture, the prisoner revealed that that beam of light was actually the Shadow Pokemon's insurance policy," Dragon Emperor says.

"Insurance policy?" Rowan asks, mirroring the confusion which is etched in the face of his colleagues.

"Yes, insurance policy. That beam of negative energy would set into motion a series of cosmic events which would cause another meteorite to come to the Pokemon world from the depths of space," Dragon Emperor says only to be interrupted by Oak.

"Another meteorite as in the meteorite which created the Pokemon in the first place?" Oak enquires to clarify.

"Yes. But unlike the original meteorite which consisted both of the positive and negative elements, this meteorite would only consist of the negative element. And when it will hit the surface of the Pokemon world it will send a ripple of energy throughout the Pokemon world which will shatter the barrier that imprisons the shadow Pokemon in the Shadow dimension allowing them to unleash themselves onto the Pokemon world just as they did before," Dragon Emperor says, causing the room to go silent as the grave.

"Bull shit," Diantha remarks causing Dragon Emperor to chuckle at the fact that earlier Diantha was criticizing him on the fact that no information can be that important that it warrants torture to obtain it.

"If you think that is surprising, then wait till you hear the next part of the information that the prisoner provided us," Dragon Emperor says.

"What did he tell Dragon Emperor?" Ash asks in a grave tone.

"The first piece of information was known to the League of Shadows since the first war. It is why they never stopped fighting and never disbanded because they knew that one day, Drakus and the others will return. What the League had been doing in the period of their absence was to construct a spell or more accurately a ritual which would allow them to artificially summon the meteorite, which would release the Shadow Pokemon from their prison, ahead of its time," Dragon Emperor says causing everyone to get shocked.

"No way!" Serena reacts, mirroring Pikachu and Sylveon's reaction.

"Pikaa?" Pikachu shouts, catching the Dragon Emperor's attention.

"Indeed Pikachu. I am not making this up," Dragon Emperor says causing all the Pokemon to look very grave.

"We were shocked beyond belief. No matter what happened, we couldn't allow this spell to be completed at any cost. We summoned our armies and immediately set off to war, for time was not on our side," Dragon Emperor continues.

"I see. What do you mean, time was not on our side?" Looker questions.

"Under torture, the prisoner revealed that just before he was apprehended, he had delivered the final raw materials needed to complete the spell. All that was left was fine-tuning and the final adjustments. By the estimate of the top researchers of the League of Shadows, the spell would be completed in one and a half years," Dragon Emperor replies.

"One and a half years?" Serena repeats.

"Yes," the Dragon Emperor answers.

"And you tortured the prisoner for six months?" Ash repeats.

"Yes," the Dragon Emperor answers.

"Fuck," Ash and Serena breathe when they realize that there was less than a year's time till the spell was completed.

"Indeed," Dragon Emperor seconds his apprentices' reaction before pouring himself a glass of water.

"Take a break of half an hour. We'll continue soon," Dragon Emperor says as slowly but steadily everyone filed out of the room.