"Wait," said Ash, "I know you."
Delia hadn't left him alone since he stepped foot on Hald Fest, it was nice because the time in her lab talking about her studies and degrees was the most mother-son time they'd spent ever since she called him back to Kanto.
"You went to medical school," he tried to digest the information, "and dropped out, and then tried to become a Geneticist and then a Physicist and then an Archaeologist? All this while you were still fifteen?"
Delia didn't mention the few degrees he'd skipped. "More or less," she was talking notes from the ancient manuscripts that Ailsa had procured for her.
It was then that he'd noticed another researcher in a white lab coat with frizzy blonde hair and dark blue eyes. She was entering the lab and then exiting again and again over the past hour. Ash couldn't help but notice the subtle side glances she was giving him while he was busy reading one of the texts on the unown.
Unown... his mind seemed to wander off, mom.
"Wait, I know you!"
The frizzy researcher stopped in her tracts. An apologetic smile spread on her face as she turned around to face him.
"Oh my God," Ash breathed dramatically, "Molly Hale?! What are you doing here?"
Molly shrugged, "You don't have to sound too surprised, I mean of course I followed in my father's footsteps and got a dual degree just like Auntie Delia."
Ash ransacked his brain as tried to remember the last time he'd seen her. She had been at least five years younger than him and was wreaking havoc on the greenfield with an Entei and had almost killed him.
Not to mention she had kidnapped his mom.
The news that she was working alongside his mother on a unown... it was bringing back memories and not all were good.
"You're working here?" He repeated, "with an unown?"
She nodded, "I'm the best—"
Delia coughed deliberately.
"After Auntie Delia, of course, I was the third but you failed to rescue my father."
Ash laughed nervously, he would never forgive Gary for kicking his legs. "But are you through?" He questioned whimsically, "I mean, are you the best person to be around... like another unown?"
Molly scoffed, "Why? Because the last time I was around one I kidnapped your mother, almost killed you with the help of an Entei, who was also my father and destroyed Greenfield?"
"Yes, every word of what you said."
"Grow up," she sighed, "I'll bring back the hourly updates."
Delia nodded at the blonde as she left the room in a hurry. Ash couldn't help but question her mental state because the situation this time around was a lot similar to the last time... missing father and a daughter with access to unowns.
"She'll be fine," said Delia as if she was able to read his thoughts, "she's grown up a lot."
Ash smiled, somehow his mother's stamp of approval made things better.
"What hourly updates?" He asked.
A sigh escaped Delia's lips as she closed the book, making a little dog ear around the top corner.
"Well, you know that things haven't been easy ever since we found out about the mutated Unown's?"
Ash tried to nod but he had since then acquired a girlfriend, things were pretty good for him.
"Of course," he lied.
"Well, we've discovered all these m-Unown's, but they're all in different states."
"Wait what?"
"I mean, one is hibernating, one is radiating energy like crazy and the other two are non-responsive, we were hoping for the last one to be... normal but it—"
"-was taken by the Apocalypse?"
Delia nodded, "I hope it's also hibernating because..." she went into complete silence.
Ash didn't like the silence, it was heavy and hiding something from him.
"Because?"
She hesitated to answer her son.
"Because?" He urged again.
"Well," another sigh escaped her lips, "I've read it in the books that these Unowns, well, nothing much is written about them but I found this text at the corner of a scroll... I had to decode it because it was written in Ancient Johto but..." she reached for her cellphone, "see this design?"
It was a square with at least five boxes, each box was filled with a different and unique alphabet. Beneath the box was a text written in a strange language Ash didn't understand.
"Alpha," read Ash, "Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omega? Are they..."
The brunette nodded, "The text says, 'God save us'."
"Why?"
She shook her head, "That's what I've been trying to figure out, at the start, Spencer and I thought that we'd discovered an m-unown which was somehow stuck in stelae but after seeing this text, it turns out that..."
"It's a key... it's not stuck, it's locked."
Delia looked at her son with awe, "Ye-Yeah, earlier people used 26 different unown to call the legendaries but now..."
"They just need this five,"
"Yes and now one of them is already in the hands of the Apocalypse, they all have different powers, and if the Alpha that Spencer had right now has more power..."
"They can control the stelae through just one?"
"Precisely," the brunette rubbed her forehead, "I just don't know what to do anymore."
Ash had more than enough encounters with the Legendaries to understand Delia's worries. They had a cruel sense of judgment and punishment, they were ancient and far more powerful than anyone and anything imaginable. To control them... it would be a terrible thing.
"Why... why don't you destroy it?"
"I've tried, baby," she rubbed her temple, "the giant stelae can sense hostility as if it has a mind of its own. I thought..." she sighed, "it was the families of Xovier who signed the treaty and destroyed this... this key... they took out each box and stored them in Orre where they hoped that the radiation would kill them. The last time we were called, the Apocalypse was after the separate 26 unowns but now they're after this, it's more powerful and dangerous."
"But... that day, when I told you of my... dream, you said you'd figured something, what was it?"
"It was stupid," she sighed, "I thought that the unown may... listen to members of the family and because I was married in and have no blood relation, it wasn't working on me. But then I tried using it on Grace and Charlus and Samuel, but... no use!" She threw her hands up in the air with exhaustion, "I don't know what to do anymore."
Ash wasn't as smart as his mother was, compared to her, he was in the lower levels, far behind his Pikachu. But if his mother couldn't have figured it out, maybe it meant that no one could, at least not in this lifetime.
But there was one thing which was troubling Ash, if the Unowns were, in fact, dormant, then why was he still seeing those dreams?
Unless...
"Mom," he said with glee, "they did... I mean did they all... I mean all the ancestors sign something, I think I remember—"
Delia nodded, "It is said that they did, some magical Treaty of Flying Moltres. But why?"
Ash's theory was getting somewhere, he was close.
"Didn't Professor Oak leave the Chamber? And didn't you say you all left at some point?"
The brunette's ears shot up in surprise. "Oh my God," she said, "of course," she stood up with a jerk, sending Ash dangling off the end of his stand, "of course!"
The shrillness in her voice was making Ash deaf, it was clear by the ringing he was experiencing.
Delia ran towards another adjacent table, it was drowned in papers and old books. Delia threw them away one by one, frantically searching for something.
"Ah-ha!" She walked towards Ash, frantically flipping through the pages, "here! It says that the family of Van Black didn't enter the Chamber until a few decades ago, Grace was the first one!"
"So...?"
"It means that the family of Van Black didn't sign the treaty!" She was jumping in excitement, "We all left the chamber but our job wasn't done because James died because of our mistake! James is dead!" She was laughing with mirth.
"Are you happy that he's dead?"
"What no!" She was trying to mask her excitement but it wasn't working, "after James, Charlus and Joanne were the only legal members but they left... they broke the treaty subconsciously!"
Delia was getting somewhere, it was clear from her excitement, but Ash had lost her after she happily yelled James is dead!
"And...?"
Delia sighed, "I was searching in the wrong place, Ash. Samuel broke the treaty by leaving and so did Charlus and Joanne and your dad, Grace was never a part of it but..." her eyes were gleaming with joy, "you, Gary and Dawn are... you're the keys to fix this."