"Every wall was built by someone afraid of the fire beyond it."
---
THE GLITCH WORLD — CORE FIREWALL
Ares stood before the final barrier. Behind it, the true throne of the Glitch King pulsed like a corrupted heartbeat, tangled in code, lies, and memories stolen from across dimensions.
Six corrupted champions flanked the firewall, each one a legendary twisted into something… other.
Mewtwo.EXE, cloaked in fractal shadows.
Shadow Ho-Oh, its feathers like smoldering paper.
Omega Kyogre, no longer water—pure glitch.
Zygarde [CODE-100%], fused with malware serpents.
Rotom Overmind, controlling thousands of drones.
And the sixth…
Was human.
Wearing a League badge from another universe.
Eyes like glass. Smile like ruin.
Silver.
"Move," Ares growled.
Silver stepped forward. "The Firewall is here for a reason. Beyond this—there is no return."
"I never had one."
---
MEANWHILE — REALITY
Ash stood in the ruins of the Indigo Plateau, where Champions once rose and fell. Red beside him. Cynthia behind him. The air tasted like electricity, memory, and blood.
Oak's voice buzzed through a cracked commlink.
"We've cracked the entrance. The Network's physical gateway is at Mt. Pyre."
Ash's eyes narrowed. "So we go through the graveyard."
Red smirked. "Fitting."
Ash touched his chest, where a necklace now hung—Cynthia's wedding ring threaded through his own. Her memory. Her vow.
"Bring him back," she had said in the echo.
Not rescue.
Bring him back.
---
THE GLITCH WORLD — THE WAR BEGINS
Ares charged.
Silver met him.
Their fists collided—no Pokémon, no commands. Just fire against steel. Legacy against ambition.
And above them, the corrupted Legendaries awakened.
One by one, Ares summoned his team. They weren't whole. They were broken, like him. But they burned with loyalty forged in suffering.
Charizard dove at Omega Kyogre, his wings trailing glitchfire.
Gardevoir formed a shield against Mewtwo.EXE's mind-rip.
Pikachu—the last echo of Red—vaulted off Lucario's shoulder and slammed into Rotom Overmind with a volt of anti-glitch thunder.
They fought like rebels of a dead world.
And Ares?
He moved like he'd been born for this.
---
MEANWHILE — MT. PYRE
Ash stepped through the final veil. The physical gateway into the Glitch World opened like a yawning maw beneath the altar.
Red paused. "You're about to see your son."
Ash looked down into the void.
"I don't care what he's become. He's mine."
He jumped.
Reality cracked like glass as he passed through.
---
FINAL CONFRONTATION — INSIDE THE FIREWALL
Ares stood alone, bloodied, breathing hard.
Silver was unconscious at his feet.
The Legendaries—purged or driven off.
But the Firewall pulsed, still unbroken.
He stepped forward.
The voice came from everywhere.
"Are you ready, Flameborn? To see what was hidden from you? To see why you were born?"
Ares didn't answer.
He walked into the light.
---
MEANWHILE — ASH ARRIVES
He landed in a world of static skies and fractured landscapes. Pokémon data floated like ghosts. Time glitched backward and forward.
And then—
He saw him.
A boy with eyes like his. Like hers.
Standing before a throne of fire and code.
"Ares," Ash whispered.
The boy turned.
Their eyes met.
No words.
Just a silence so deep it crushed the world.
---
"The hardest part of being a father isn't protecting your child. It's accepting that they don't need your protection anymore."
---