Concession up front: the last time I tried to keep up with the anime was like. A decade ago. I think I stopped around Chili's appearance in Rival Destinies. I did some cursory reading into the related Journeys episodes, but on the whole, we're not gonna worry too much.
While the setting is relevant, it's more a 'multiple realities exist' plot than reliant on the specifics.
We start up from a POV I never expected to tackle again: Ash's.
Not confident in putting an exact number, because "10 years old", but this is post-Journeys, long enough after the fact that he's about 15.
News had gotten around that Dawn was missing, so of course he made the effort to help find her. We're past the searching phase, and they've made contact in Hisui, where she was sent.
In this version of events, we'll say the reason she was brought back was to quell the Nobles, but that's unrelated to the rift, bc I don't want to get too close to The Arceus Chronicles.
They're actually gearing up to leave, which entails getting up to the summit of Mt. Coronet. Dawn's said most of her goodbyes, but saved a friend in the Highlands for last, since that's right on the way.
Since Dawn doesn't have her flute anymore, she uses a Pokemon to signal to the Warden that she wants to talk, and it takes a bit for them to meet.
He's preceded by a Hisuian Sneasel, which draws attention from this approaching person, until said person stoops down to scoop it up.
He greets Dawn and asks after her friend, and she goes to introduce Ash, who's a little taken off guard, but-- having met so many other strikingly similar ancestors-- reasonably passes it off.
That conviction is shaken when Ingo introduces himself and the Sneasel climbs to a shoulder, making it possible to get a decent look at what's clearly a modern (if ruined) coat.
So this is... a conundrum, and there are a lot of conflicting factors. One big one is the fact that Ingo didn't react/recognize Ash at all, which points against him being the person he knows.
This is seemingly counteracted by the revelation that he's been severely amnesiac the entire time he and Dawn have known each other.
It wouldn't be out of character to have a battle here, but I'm not going to go into that in depth. I just think it would be Pikachu (as the only on hand Pokemon that might ring a bell) who, unfortunately, would be pitted up against Gliscor.
I legit don't know how this would work out, because I know Ash finally won a championship, but for... specific reaons, that might not mean as much as it could against Ingo. (We'll get there.)
However it shakes out, a good portion of this was to see how he battled. A) this man is good at what he does, which is weird for Hisui and its relationship to Pokemon, B) he's definitely doing his old routine, and, if you know what to look for, it's clear that he's only half of it.
Ash asks how long he's been Warden, gets an answer (1-2 years, who knows) and promptly pulls Dawn away to talk.
So... that's definitely Subway Boss Ingo, but Ash has actually heard news of whatever the Subway Bosses are up to recently-- within the past 6 months-- and he doesn't know how that would work.
Dawn is surprised/excited that he has an answer to this, but doesn't have any answer in return. Relays that Ingo himself doesn't know how he got here, so maybe it's some weird time stuff where he hasn't technically disappeared yet?
Belatedly picks up on the details-- did he say 'bosses' plural?
Yeah, but hang on for a second.
Admittedly, it was really rude of him to turn away and have this conversation, but Ingo doesn't seem to care. He hasn't left, himself, but is giving them their space and interacting with Sneasler instead.
When the two of them come back, Sneasler casually leans over her Warden, resting her chin on his head. It's a little funny compared to the way Pokemon here tend to interact with humans.
I'm getting caught up in details again, so to try to get past this, the topic is brought up directly to Ingo: Ash thinks he knows him/who he is, and that he's from the same time period as them.
The catch is that he might not be from the same exact year. If he wants, they can try to help work this out, since they'll be dealing with Dialga soon, anyway.
Ultimately, this is an affirmative, but it'll take a bit to get things settled w/ the Pearl Clan, and I don't necessarily have anything in mind to fill that time, since they were on the way out.
Really, the biggest thing to take away here is that all three end up returning to the modern day.
First order of business is to get back to Twinleaf and reunite Dawn with her loved ones.
Second order of business, some time later, is to make a call abroad and ask Cilan what's up in the world of a metro connoisseur, to an incredibly jam-packed answer.
This seems to confirm that, yeah, whenever Ingo's from, it's not right now.
At this point in time, idk if Cilan's made aware of what's up. Like, this is kind of delicate, but also, Ash wasn't really a master of subtlety last I checked.
The thing is, while they're friends and were in similar circumstances, Dawn and Ingo aren't super close, and I don't think he would want to impose on her life, now that she's got it back.
This was not at all what I'd anticipated going into this, but now that I think about it, there's no reason for this weird, amnesiac temporal duplicate not to be Ash's next travel companion. What else does he have going on? Nothin.
(It may be hard to believe that wasn't my motivation given this setup, but I honestly expected Ash to stick around for the first act and that was about it. This is new ground.)
I could see them making a detour to talk to Cynthia, since The Arceus Chronicles happened and she wrote a book pertaining to Hisui, so she would naturally be interested in the situation.
Also, that Sneasel 100% came along with, so that's another point of interest.
So our goal is to put them in Unova, eventually, but I think both are savvy enough to know that wandering around there rn probably isn't the best idea.
While we are definitely not going full on Regional-arc, it wouldn't be so far-fetched to think Cynthia might nudge them toward Sada and her interest in extinct/ancient Pokemon.
That said, Sada? Not The Professor. She's still conducting research, just not in Area Zero.
Her former affiliation with Turo could be a lead toward understanding... whatever happened here, though, which makes talking with her a good start.
I think the way we can swing this is that, due to Ingo's situation (particularly re: documentation), air travel isn't an option, requiring multiple legs of this trip.
I suck at geography, never mind fictional geography, and have legitimately been wrestling with this for an hour at this point. Forget whether or not Sinnoh is connected to Johto, forget Kanto and Decolore. The only thing that matters at this point is that, to get to Paldea from here, it's going to be a boat ride to Castelia, and then from Castelia to Levincia, maybe.
That first part goes well enough,, though there's a wait between arrival and subsequent cast off from Castelia. Theoretically, Castelia shouldn't be a problem, but consider two factors:
Ingo is going to gravitate toward a train station, no matter what.
The pink and orange lines-- Super Doubles and Multis, respectively-- run through Castelia.
In their defense:
Ingo's uniform and hat have long since been swapped out, and he was wearing a face mask.
In the anime, Gear Station is the underground battle network and not the building in Nimbasa, so it's possible the schedule/chance of crossing paths wasn't clear.
And what, you think Ash is going to say 'no, we're not looking at this cool thing'? Given the chance it might help with the amnesia? He's completely onboard (no pun intended)
But yes, half of the fun here is having Emmet look over during a stop and go, 'he's definitely not supposed to be here right now' at a glance, then trying to figure out what's up.
Seeing pictures was one thing, but an in-person meeting is a lot more than that, and, in a moment of panic, Ingo darts off. Ash, somewhat unwisely, calls after him before giving chase.
Emmet, internally going 'wtf???', does the same.
Eventually both catch up-- though it takes substantially longer than anyone might have expected-- and getting a good look at him only raises more questions.
Emmet's first step to answering the above wtf is radioing Ingo-- out of habit-- and gets a tense reaction, but the latter doesn't flinch away.
(He's trying not to show it, as Emmet leads them away, but he's definitely crying while this happens. Doing a decent job of hiding it between the face mask and his hat, though.)
This could get confusing, but shouldn't last long; I'll try to specify w/ Boss or Warden for now.
Fortunately, the ship out of Castelia doesn't arrive/depart until the next day at the earliest, so it doesn't cause any problems when Emmet manages to drag the both of them to a back room to figure this out.
It's actually kind of a massive disruption to what the bosses are supposed to be doing-- Emmet had to leave the line he was manning to hunt down Ash and Warden Ingo-- and Boss Ingo was called away from work not long after.
Spoiler alert: they don't figure things out.
Minus the facial hair, he looks exactly the same as them, indicating that he's probably not any older than they are. Granted, it could be argued that he dissappears in the near future, but at the same time, he's spent however many years in Hisui.
If memory serves, Ash has a Riolu/Lucario in Journeys, right? We could probably try something aura related at this point, indicating that there is a fundamental difference.
I don't think Pokemon-style aura uses colors, but it is a pretty traditional thing, and would help hint at what's going on here-- so we'll say that, if the bosses have a middle-grey aura, Warden Ingo's is a light grey.
This isn't a bad thing, and doesn't reflect poorly on him. It just is.
They really have no way to understand what's going on here, so have to part without coming to any conclusions. The bosses are made aware that Ash and Warden Ingo are traveling to meet with Professor Sada, and won't be in Unova for long.
The bosses do seem disquieted by this interaction, and while I like to stick to a consistent POV, I wouldn't be opposed to taking a quick look at this from their side of things.
It's mostly the amnesia and sense of being lost. Neither had a reason to seriously contemplate being split up until this moment.
Anyway. There's no need to linger on this point for now; bottom line, Ash and Warden Ingo head out.
Elsewhere and when entirely, the corresponding Emmet has found answers and hates every one of them.
Warden Ingo is from the timeline of Pokemon White* specifically, in which the bosses are descended from the Hero of Truth. That much, they would have known before any of this shit happened.
(*Remember way up top, where I said idk if being a champion-level trainer would be that much of a benefit battling against Warden Ingo? This is why. The BW bosses are implied to be at the same level as a champion, and a lot of people like to say facility heads are actively stronger.)
What Emmet has discovered is that that's why this happened. They weren't supposed to have been twins, but a perfected Hero of Truth, and because that wasn't the outcome, all that shit with Team Plasma/N and Reshiram went down.
It's also why a number of near misses happened in the past: from childhood illness, to a close call when Litwick was very new to them, to work accidents, culminating in Reshiram (if not its body, having been sealed away in the Light Stone) deciding, fuck it, he's someone else's problem now.
Emmet, naturally, is furious. Also somewhat confused: Ingo is older than him-- if only just-- so wouldn't he be considered the extraneous body?
While idk if he'd get that answer here or in just a minute, it's because he's representative of truth, and Ingo is ideals. Reshiram has learned nothing from N's realization re: balance.
He ends up reaching out to the PC to consult with Zekrom (which, yes, does in fact mean that the younger brother is seeking out ideals, thank you for noticing) and, from there, is able to get a better idea of what specifically happened and what he can do to spite Reshiram.
Reshiram went out of its way to really enforce 'ideals DNI', since we've got a displacement through time, space, and dimensions.
I'm not going into details, because I honestly don't know enough about Hoopa Unbound to make any declarative statements, but I think it's going to be our key here.
(Also, I should have said up front, but this pre-Hoopa part actually happened 1-2 years ago; the same time frame that Warden Ingo has been missing.)
Long story short, Emmet makes it to anime-verse but this seems to be precisely 1/3 goals reached. He still needs to bridge the gap between whatever time span and whatever region.
Since this is anime Hisui, there wouldn't be any records to find in White-verse. The man's clueless.
Fortunately, he wound up in anime Unova, and is quickly noticed.
I like the reciprocity of it being Ingo who corrals him.
It makes sense anyway, because while he knows this isn't his brother, nobody else necessarily would, if he was the one who went to collect Game Emmet.
(Game Emmet, meanwhile, is torn. He knows this isn't his brother, but it's been so long, and seeing Ingo again is nice, even if this isn't the person he's looking for.)
The bosses aren't as surprised this time; their assumption is he's here looking for the other Ingo.
Game Emmet bristles at 'other', impying 'extra', but it's true in this universe; says yes.
Okay, well that's easy enough to settle. Last they'd heard, he was traveling with an acquaintance of theirs, headed for Paldea.
Anime Emmet busies himself making that call.
Ingo, meanwhile, has to clarify something with Game Emmet: Warden Ingo doesn't have any memory prior to being lost in Hisui. He doesn't want to discourage him, but that's important information to have going into this.
Game Emmet seethes for a moment-- because obviously this is Reshiram's doing, too, if his brother's truth has been stolen-- but it only convinces him that he's on the right track.
It's around that point that Ash picks up, sees what's going on, looks off screen.
"It's for you." [double checks, notices Boss Ingo has joined] "Or it is you. Or both."
A different offscreen voice gruffly asks what that's supposed to mean, is ignored.
Warden Ingo strides into view; asks what he can do to help them, today.
Idk if it matters which one of them gives the gist, bc their speaking patterns are basically the same in the anime. Either way, they say that a lead in his situation has turned up, and Boss Ingo exits the frame in order to push Game Emmet in.
"You're... my Emmet?" [nods; is having a difficult time wrestling w/ voice]
He doesn't understand.
Tbh, the bosses don't, either. They just went 'huh. Now that seems familiar' and intervened before things could get ugly.
Game Emmet knows what's up, though, and doesn't see any point in explaining until he reaches Warden Ingo. Where is he?
They're just outside Zapapico, helping the Professor's son with something.
(Does it make sense in game canon? Nope! But we're not in game canon, so I can do whatever I want, baBEY. I'M RUNNING EVERY RED LIGHT.)
I just think it would be an interesting dynamic, not that we're going to be seeing much of it.
Stay there, okay? He'll get there as soon as possible.
This probably wraps up on something like "I will be there as soon as possible. Stay safe." [beat] "I love you." [immediately leaves].
It's not because he's nervous or upset bc he won't hear it back, it's because he wanted to make sure Ingo knew and to stop wasting time.
I'm not 100% sure how to make it happen, but the last thing I wanted to do before we shoo Game Emmet off to Paldea is for him to overhear a conversation between the anime Bosses.
It basically boils down to 'I don't know what any of this means, but I'm glad they're going to find each other again'; anime Emmet in particular says he didn't like seeing Warden Ingo like that, back when they met. He hopes this helps.
We're not worrying about travel details, like before. Emmet also arrives in Lavincia and immediately heads toward Zapapico.
Fortunately, he doesn't have to wait until he gets all the way there. Midway through the mines, he gets distracted by a very large shape nearby and what appears to be a human on top of it.
He's confident enough in the situation that he breaks off in that direction, just in case someone needs help, and just before he exits the mouth of the cave headed into that dig site, realizes what's going on.
First off, he's looking at an absolutely massive Orthworm, which a teenager appears to be balancing atop like a mechanical Tauros. Said Orthworm is tolerating it very well, and he doesn't seem to be in any danger.
There's a second teenager in between himself and the Orthworm + rider, with a canine Pokemon laying down nearby as he works at a fold-out table.
Lastly-- and furthest away, which was why he didn't notice immediately-- is the lone adult, who Emmet's attention is directed to when the rider calls down, saying he likes trains, right? This is basically just a train you ride on top of, he should really give it a shot.
Which is quickly shot down, because it's a fantastic creature, but no. Full stop.
When Emmet emerges from the tunnel, Arven is the first to notice him. Does a double-take, then looks between him and the other side of this area, to where Ingo is still arguing w/ Ash as to whether or not riding the Titan Orthworm is a good idea.
"Oh." He says, "That's what you meant. What the heck?"
Thus, he points everyone's attention where it needs to be.
The other two promptly shut up. Without drawing too close to Orthworm, Ingo begins to circle around it, nearer to Emmet, whose restraint has just run out and runs full tilt, only stopping once contact has been made.
While it doesn't answer a number of questions, I kind of like the idea of splitting off into a second part and ending this on: "You're-- you're my Emmet."/"You're my Ingo."
This theoretical second part would cover
Explaining to Ingo what happened/where he's from (bit sanitized to be kind; gets the point across)
The reverse: telling Emmet where Ingo had been, how he got back to modern times.
Debating what to do now (whether to go home and deal w/ Reshiram's... issues, what the alternatives are; ultimately deciding that yeah, they're going back)
Potentially approaching anime Reshiram/Zekrom, but I would need to read up on how that went or just like. Watch one of the Victini movies.
Confronting Reshiram re: lost memories/truth upon getting home.
(Honestly, by this point, W2 has probably happened in the background of whatever Emmet's been doing, and it might have... I hesitate to say 'chilled out', but calmed down and warmed up damn it to the idea of maintaining balance.)