There was one thing that could cut through the composure of almost any woman regardless of which side of the law she stood on, and that was having her age inflated by a teenager who should have known better.
Mars was one of Team Galactic's four commanders, not some middle-aged administrator. She was barely past twenty-five, roughly the same age as Lorelei. Being called old by a fifteen-year-old boy hit differently than any insult aimed at her rank or her ability, and her reaction had been completely genuine.
It had also been exactly what Ash was fishing for.
"One of Team Galactic's four commanders." Ash rolled his wrists and stretched his neck. The joints cracked in the quiet of the clearing. "I reeled in something significant tonight. If I can take you in, you can tell me where Cynthia is."
He didn't know the internal structure of Team Galactic in detail, but four commanders reporting directly to a leader mapped onto a structure he recognized. Unless the leader had personally come to the Orange Islands, Mars was running the local operation. Capturing her meant leverage, and leverage meant answers.
Mars studied him for a moment before speaking. "Releasing Shadow Lugia was deliberate. I had already worked that out. A boy your age might do it just to show off, but Lorelei wouldn't have allowed it if she didn't have a reason to go along with it. You had a purpose."
"And you came anyway," Ash said. "Even knowing it was a trap. Which tells me Lucia Jr. matters to you quite a bit."
"Matters is an understatement." Mars's voice shifted slightly.
"That Lugia is now carrying the power of two gods. Whatever we originally built her for, what she's become now is something far rarer.
The God of the Sea and the God of Death fused into a single Pokémon." She paused, then tilted her head with an expression that was almost conversational. "So. What would it take for you to return her to us? Team Galactic is prepared to be generous. Rare Pokémon, rare items, money. Name what you want."
She watched him as she said it, reading his reaction.
Mars had not switched to persuasion because she was soft. Anyone who looked at her and assumed otherwise would regret it. She had switched because the ambush had not gone the way ambushes were supposed to go.
Six Elite Four level Pokémon hitting simultaneously from multiple angles was the kind of opening move that ended fights before they started. Even the best Trainers in the world would have been scrambling to respond.
Ash had raised one arm and blocked all of it without moving his feet.
That was the part that didn't sit right with her. She knew he was a Psychic. She had accounted for that. But there was a ceiling on what human Psychic ability could accomplish, and the accepted reference point was Caitlin, widely considered the strongest human Psychic in the world.
Caitlin's ability put her on par with Elite Four level Pokémon. Facing a coordinated ambush from six of them would have pushed her to her absolute limit and likely left marks regardless.
Ash hadn't blinked.
Throwing more force at something like that without understanding what she was actually dealing with wasn't strategy.
So she was trying a different approach, because for Team Galactic, getting Shadow Lugia back was worth whatever it cost to make it happen.
When Lucia Jr. had first been exposed to Yveltal's power, the outcome had looked grim. Fusing the energy of one deity into another Pokémon, even the offspring of the God of the Sea, was not something that could be forced cleanly.
The two powers had immediately begun fighting each other inside Lucia Jr.'s body. Left alone, Yveltal's power would have consumed her original source energy entirely. She wouldn't have inherited anything. She would have simply died.
Team Galactic's original plan had accounted for that. A dying Lucia Jr. released into the open would draw out the God of the Sea. Lugia would come for her offspring, and Team Galactic would be waiting. It was a clean enough plan until Cynthia walked into the middle of it, dismantled one of their branches, and took Lucia Jr. with her.
The trap they set for Cynthia afterward had worked. She was contained. Her stamina and her Pokémon's stamina were finite, and time was on Team Galactic's side as long as they stayed hidden.
The League had been searching the Orange Islands and finding nothing, which was exactly how Team Galactic intended it to stay.
Then Ash and Lorelei had held their exhibition match, and Lucia Jr. had appeared on the field.
The Pokémon that should have burned herself out from the inside had not only survived but had made Yveltal's Power of Death her own.
She had become something that hadn't existed before: a Mythical Pokémon carrying the essence of two divine beings. The potential ceiling on that was beyond anything Team Galactic's leader had ever seriously considered possible. Reclaiming her immediately jumped to the top of the priority list.
The God of the Sea had always been the target because of the combat power and symbolic weight that came with the position.
But Lucia Jr. was a more attainable goal. She was young, still relatively weak, and currently in the hands of a boy who had beaten Lorelei in an exhibition match.
Team Galactic was confident Lorelei hadn't gone all out. Against a genuinely full-strength Elite Four, what Ash had shown wouldn't have been enough. He was talented, but he wasn't Cynthia.
Capturing Lucia Jr. while she was still at this stage, before she could grow into what she might become, was the smarter move by a considerable margin.
Mars had arrived on the island the same day, which was the one thing Ash and Lorelei hadn't anticipated. They had expected Team Galactic to need time to respond. Mars had banked on that assumption working in her favor, arriving before any real defensive preparation could be made, hitting Ash with a six-Pokémon ambush in the middle of the night while Lorelei was elsewhere.
The result had not gone as planned.
Ash's response to the ambush told her everything she needed to know about force being the wrong approach. So she had switched.
Ash's expression didn't shift when he heard the offer. "You think I'd hand over Lucia Jr. for any of that? Tell me where Cynthia is right now and I'll consider letting you walk away. Otherwise, once Lorelei gets involved in this conversation, I can't promise the tone stays this civil."
Mars absorbed that for a moment, then adjusted. "You're not interested in what I offered. Fine. New terms: we release Cynthia, you return Lugia. Simple exchange."
She watched his face as she said it. Cynthia was the one leverage point that actually mattered to the League. Holding a Champion was a bargaining chip that could be traded for almost anything. Releasing her was a significant concession, but if it meant getting Lucia Jr. back at this stage of her development, the trade made sense.
Once they had Lucia Jr. secured and had time to bring her fully under their control, they could operate from a position of strength no one would be able to answer.
Ash's expression went flat.
"You're not in a position to negotiate."
He was behind her before she finished processing the words.
The gap between them had been at least thirty meters. She had maintained it deliberately. She hadn't seen him move. One moment he was standing in front of her, and the next her arms were wrenched behind her back and she was on both knees with her wrists pinned, completely immobilized.
Her six Pokémon turned toward the sound and found their Trainer already captured. There was nothing they could do. Any move they made now would only put Mars at greater risk.
Ash had been right. He was the stronger one.
"Lugia and Cynthia are not bargaining chips," he said from behind her. His grip tightened slightly on her wrists as a reminder. "They're living beings. And Lucia Jr. was never yours to begin with. You took her. That doesn't make her your property to negotiate with." He let a short pause settle. "Now. Where is Cynthia?"
Mars felt the pressure on her arms and understood the situation clearly. The butcher held the knife. The only real question left was how much she wanted to test how far he was willing to go.