As promised, one backstory on Paul and his girlfriend. Hope you enjoy, and remember flames will be responded to with Pikachu's thunderbolt. Also note: This takes place in year two of Ash and co's stay at the Archipelago.

Darkness and Light, Into the Chaos!

It started as any other day. It was about lunch time, so Clemont and Brock were cooking in one of the kitchens. Serena was practicing her showcase routines with Bonnie watching and a little farther off Ash and his Pokémon were training while the ravenette snuck a few peaks at the honey-blonde performer. Andre was doing who-knew-what, Max was helping Rebecca with whatever she was working on, and Paul was just napping against Torterra. Alain and Sawyer were back in Kalos for the time being, so no one in the courtyard could be sure what they were up to.

"Food's ready!" Max's voice cut through the courtyard as everyone wrapped up what they were doing, Paul being the only one not reacting as he was fast asleep. The following smells of food changed that fact fairly quickly as the purplette stretched and joined the rest at the table.

...

"You're sure?" Andre asked.

"Of course I'm sure. Puka and I barely got out of there before they spotted us." Sekui replied. "I'm staying at the nearby hotel, just call when you've got a taskforce put together. The way those Pokémon were being treated..."

"Humans are disgusting beings sometimes, we both know that." Andre sighed. "I'm on my way with back-up. Call you when we get close." he said mildly, cutting the call and making for where he knew Ash and the others to be. Coming to the courtyard and seeing them enjoying their lunch. "Sorry to interrupt but I need Ash and Paul's help."

"Why our help?" Ash asked through a mouthful of hamburger.

"Ash, food." Serena reminded with a playful eye roll. "But I am curious why you need those two myself."

"They're the two best battlers on this island besides me and I've got an underground Pokémon battle arena that people are betting their Pokémon on. And those Pokémon don't always make it out."

"That's horrible!" Clemont gasped.

"What kind of people would do that to a Pokémon?" Bonnie demanded.

"People who are even more messed up and cruel than I ever was." Paul answered, standing. "When do we leave?"

"Two hours." Andre replied, turning to the rest. "And we need as small a force as possible to maintain stealth so Ash, Paul, and I are the only ones going." he added, daring anyone to challenge him. Serena looked like she was about to before Ash put his hand on hers and she quieted.

...

The trio of trainers arrived on MelleMelle Island about an hour after they had left the Archipelago's borders, each with grim looks. Andre looked to Paul, riding Honchkrow, then Ash riding Charizard. "Alright, who do you two have with you?" he asked, sitting on Frozen's back while they landed.

"I brought Electivire, Honchkrow, Ninjask, Froslass, Aggron, and Ursaring in case things get really hairy in there." Paul replied.

"I've got Infernape, Bayleaf, Pikachu, Charizard, Bulbasaur, and Latias." Ash added.

"Brought two Pokémon with a crush on you, clever." Andre joked. "We all know who I've got, so let's find Sekui."

"Right." the trio of trainers walked toward the hotel.

Andre was the one to knock on the door, it opening to reveal his Alolan Defender in her usual Gothorita shirt and pink shorts. "Good, everyone's here." she said, her usually upbeat nature vanished. "That means the six of us can get started."

"Six?" Andre asked, walking into the room. He was instantly greeted with the faces of Gladion and, to his surprise, Guzma. "Okay him I get but what are you doing here." the black-clad boy asked the Team Skull leader.

"Team Skull may be crooks, but my boys aren't cold enough to pull somethin like this. I'm gonna do what I do best. Beat em down and beat em down till they just can't get up." the white-haired man replied, placing a hand on one of his pokeballs.

Andre shrugged. "Whatever." he said casually, walking over to where Sekui stood. "What are we looking at?"

...

"There's the ground floor." Ash stated, looking at the unassuming cottage-style house down the hill they stood on.

Paul nodded. "The stadium is the next floor down." he recalled. "And the Pokémon not in use by the place's owner is just below." the purplette looked to his companion. "You remember your role?" he asked.

Had this been any other situation, Ash would have snapped good-naturedly but now he just nodded. "How many Pokémon do you think are trapped in there?" he asked.

"A lot more than there will be when we're done." Paul replied with his signature smirk. A water gun shot into the sky. "There's the signal, let's go." both trainers moved.

...

The stadium in the first basement was in chaos. It wasn't every day a freaking kyurem smashed into your stadium and started wrecking the place after all. A few trainers tried to hit Frozen with their fire types, but each time they attacked Tails was there to absorb the flames. "Tails, Flamethrower. Frozen, Glaciate." Andre ordered in a tone as cold as the dragon he was standing atop.

"Face judgement, humans." Frozen spat, unleashing his signature move.

"Fire Dragon Roar!" Tails called, the flames spewing from her mouth.

"Golisopod, use First Impression then follow it up with your sick Waterfall!" Guzma ordered, his signature Pokémon following his command.

Most of the room's Pokémon went down, and many of the trainers who had gotten caught in the crossfire, but a few brave souls still remained. Brave or incredibly foolish. Andre thought with a smirk. He absently noticed that Paul and Ash had slipped into the door leading to the next floor, Sekui and Puka covering them with the latter's Sparkling Aria. Arceus speed you two. Andre thought, turning his attention back to the battle. "Alright Tails, Overheat! Shut them down!"

"Dragon Slayer Secret Art." Tails began, calling every flame she could. "Flame Lotus Exploding Flame Blade!"

Andre held out his hand, the familiar dark power rising as he spoke two simple words. "Dark Void."

...

Ash opened the first door only to find it empty sans a lucario that instantly came to them when promised a way out of this awful place. She(they had discovered that through a very unsavory observation toward her nether regions) followed close behind the two trainers and friendly Pikachu, rescuing other Pokémon they found before she had a feeling something was wrong. "They're coming! They're coming after us!" she cried in panic.

"Some of them must have slipped past Sekui." Paul muttered. "Guess we'll have to fight em."

"No, Pikachu and I can bottleneck them here. There's only one room left to check farther down the hall. Get any Pokémon out of there and join up with us as soon as you can." Ash replied. Paul started to protest, but a look from the ravenette sent Paul to the end of the hall. He had just reached the door when the sounds of fighting started.

Paul quickly opened the door and saw a Luxray standing over a Ralts, one paw on the tiny psychic-and-fairy type's stomach and pressing down while the other scraped against its skin. "Oh come on, where are those screams I love hearing so much? Do you want this to keep going?" it asked, grinning as its claw began traveling down the Pokémon's body.

Paul had seen enough. "Gastrodon Ice Beam!" he ordered, throwing a pokeball. The slug-like Pokémon attacked as soon as he had materialized, knocking the Luxray away. Paul was at the tiny Pokémon's side in an instant, checking for injuries like Brock had told him how to. As the Ralts started moving, Paul quickly spoke. "Stop. You're hurt but I can get you help."

"Wh-why? So you can use me?" the tiny (and Paul noticed feminine) voice weakly asked.

Paul smirked. "I'm not gonna lie. Once upon a time the answer would have been yes." he admitted, lifting the feeling Pokémon and looking to his own. "Gastrodon, Freeze that Luxray. Make sure it won't follow us." he ordered. Gastrodon nodded before going about his task. After only a few seconds, the luxray was frozen and Paul was walking out of the room with his Gastrodon behind him and the little Ralts in his arms. He found Ash with the other rescues, and Andre's portion of the invading trainers on the other side, clearly having caught the stragglers in a pincer strike.

…

Paul sat in the waiting room of the Pokémon center, waiting for any news on the rescues with the rest of the trainers who had helped with the rescue. A very tired Nurse Joy and Chancey appeared a little later, seeing the group and smiling as they approached. "The good news is that physically they'll all make a full recovery." she stated, causing everyone to let out a breath they didn't realize they had been holding. "The bad news is most of them are seriously afraid of any human contact. Not that I can blame them." she added quietly.

"Hey, the ralts remember?" Chancey chirped, tapping her partner's side.

"Oh right, the ralts you all brought in wants to see, in her words, 'that boy with the Gastrodon.' I imagine she means you?" Joy guessed, looking at Paul.

The purplette nodded and stood, letting Joy escort him to that ralts' room. Chancey opened a door and pointed inside. Paul nodded in thanks before entering, seeing the ralts sitting in a bed far too big for her. "Hey, they said you wanted to see me?" he greeted, seeing a seat next to the bed and sitting in it.

The ralts kept looking forward, nodding. "Why did you help me? Why not leave me to Luxray?" she asked.

Paul sighed. "Like I said, once upon a time I would have just done it because I wanted a Pokémon's power." he saw the Pokémon flinch and quickly continued, "But that's not the reason now. Now I just wanted to do some good, maybe to make up for what I did back then."

The ralts nodded, not feeling any deceit in the human's words. "What's going to happen to me now?" she didn't want to go back to that house. She didn't want to go back to being some horrible creature's plaything.

Paul leaned back, relaxing as this was the easy part. "Andre will insist he take all of you to Paradise Archipelago. His strict rules on capturing Pokémon make it to where you won't be caught by any trainers you yourself don't chose that path. He won't force you, its never been his style, but I doubt any of you will reject that offer." he glanced at the feeling Pokémon. "Do you have a name?" he asked.

"Can't you see what I am?" the ralts asked in annoyance.

Annoyance is better than that empty hopelessness I guess. Paul thought before responding. "That's not what I asked. I know Pokémon in the wild give their kids names so they can call them outside of another couple's kid. I mean if I called 'Hey Ralts' in a group of them, how would you know who I was calling for?"

The ralts giggled slightly. "Your funny." she commented before hanging her head. "I was born in that place, so I was only ever called Ralts. Do-does this mean I can chose my name?"

Paul shrugged. "It's up to you, really. Andre has a Stoutland who is just called Stoutland for a similar reason." he replied.

"Cera." the newly dubbed Cera almost whispered. "My name is Cera."

"Well Cera, I'm Paul."

And done. This story will be separated into five parts. They are:

1. The rescue

2. The capture

3. First evolution

4. Second Evolution

5. Confession

I'll be focusing on this as it's been bugging me for a while, but I will still be working on other stories along the way, so until next time!