Chapter 72 - In Distorted Realms
Team_Ion
Junior Trainer
- Pronouns
- He/Him
In the confines of the Wigglytuff Guild, Shadow Pokemon lurked.
Twila thrummed with anxious energy, her foot tapping quietly on the floor, staring out one of the windows into the sea. The blue from the sea reflected in her eyes, almost as if tempting her to leap out and escape this place of judgement and restrictions.
Luno, her brother, lay back to back with the third of Team Celestial, Sol the vigoroth who had not treated either of them differently no matter what he discovered. Twila was grateful beyond words for him, Sol was both of their rocks and his positive attitude was almost enough to convince her that hope still lay in the future.
Still, other thoughts swirled around her head since the Guildmaster's announcement. There had to be more to it, she was certain. Wigglytuff loved the Guild more than anything, to a pessimistic person they might say it was the only thing he had left. The idea that he'd step down to 'discover' himself again was… well, it wasn't unbelievable, but why now?
Now that things were tenser than they ever were.
She chewed her lip, sharp teeth leading to a sharp tang of blood in her mouth. Looking over Sol and Luno only worried her more. Sol was never particularly good at being still for very long unless he was asleep, and that was a battle in of itself. Yet, there he sat, feeling Luno's breath and sharing his own through the micromovements they made against each other. He had his eyes closed, Luno did not.
Her brother was not the type to close his eyes in thought, he was always sharp and watching for threats. The apprentices used to fight over who got them in the expeditions they went on, because Luno was so very good in a fight, no one got the jump on him and they came as a package deal.
It hurt her heart to think of the last expedition they had gone on, all the way out to the Frozen Woods, shortly before Bidoof had joined. They had gone with Loudred and Diglett after they claimed the siblings as part of their team. They had both been so excited and had performed wonderfully.
Now it was silent simmering anger from Loudred and Diglett just looked more lost every day.
They all felt lost these days, she felt. Maybe that was why Wigglytuff was stepping down, but she didn't believe it, why now? He was leaving with Team Ion as well. In a single day they were about to lose just about everyone in their corner who had real weight to their words.
Everyone respected Wigglytuff too much to go against his word and, yes, maybe a little bit of apprehension at what he'd do if someone really went against him. The only person capable of defusing him was gone now. Maybe that was why he was stepping away from leadership, concerned about his own volatility?
No matter what the reason was, it put Team Celestial in a troubling situation. She had the feeling that Scout especially of Team Ion was an idealist. He and Wigglytuff both. Neither of them really believed that the members of the Wigglytuff Guild may attempt to harm Luno in their absence.
Twila was not so naive.
They had both come from Fissure, how tough the real world could be was baked into their DNA, and Sol himself had been cruelly ejected from his original team. He put on a smile whenever he saw Team Razor Wind, talking to them like old friends, but Twila had known him long enough to figure out that Sol did in fact understand he'd been abandoned, he just preferred to think positively than hold onto grudges.
She was not the same as him.
They couldn't trust anyone in the guild, especially not Armaldo who had made it abundantly clear he thought they should kill Luno. Who was to say he wouldn't decide to do something without Wigglytuff around? Twila couldn't be sure that he wouldn't, she was aware of his past, while not a violent outlaw, he was still a mon willing to work outside the law.
Not that killing a Shadow Pokemon was even unlawful. Every moment thinking put more stress on Twila's shoulders, at any moment everything could go wrong, Loudred just had to yell loud enough and some townsfolk would hear and then Magnezone would and then the entire continent would know Luno was a Shadow Pokemon.
He was so distinctive they would have to run, probably to the Sand Continent, but how long could they stay ahead of the wanted posters?
They only thing that had held her from already cutting their losses here was Sol. She and Luno were used to a life on the fringes, as much as being part of the Wigglytuff Guild had shown both of them what it was like to live amongst other pokemon, work together, have friends, and so much more, it wasn't a right they got to have. It was a privilege, one they were running out of.
But Sol? She didn't want to put that on him. She knew, of course, that he would agree in a heartbeat, but he was such a social pokemon, surrendering him to a life of running and hiding wasn't a life for him at all.
And so, she held her tongue, but now, as she watched her brother and their best friend, she wondered what they would have to sacrifice next?
It was terrible, horrible, indeed, but she could not help but contemplate… they had left Sol before. He had waited for them, loyal and hopeful and trusting. He was excellent at reading people, Twila knew that from experience, but she was a better actor.
They could… leave. Tell him to do something, leave a message to wait, and just vanish. Sol was like Scout and Wigglytuff in a way, he was truly idealistic, always thought the best of people. He would wait….
Forever?
What cruelty was the lesser of the evils here?
At least if he remained in town he'd have the town and could still choose to have a future.
Yet, even as she felt this might be the best option, her heart ached. For Luno, so terrible much. The idea hurt her as well, she loved Sol almost as much as Luno did. He was what convinced them to stay in town, become part of the guild, learn what living was like instead of just surviving. She didn't want to ruin his life, but despite knowing it was kinder to leave him they still came back from the Sand Continent because they missed him. It was selfish, choosing to be selfish for once.
And Luno… what would he even do, having something beyond her to value only to have to relinquish it. She knew her brother so very well, but she'd never known him to care for anything besides her, and they'd always stick together. He would never have to contemplate what life would be like without her.
He had tolerated their long stint on the Sand Continent well enough, she knew. But there was something missing from both of them, and there was always the silent confidence that they'd return to Sol.
She didn't know what to do. These decisions fell to her and Twila found herself with no answers and no more time to make them.
There was a knock at the door, all three of them stiffened, even Luno hadn't heard whoever had approached the door.
Twila grasped the door handle and swung it out, the mons on the other side stepping back.
"You have gotten stealthier," Luno said flatly when the pokemon were revealed. It was Wigglytuff and Scout, how topical.
Scout waved with a paw, so close up Twila could make out the scars through his thin fur. The Guildmaster had one noticeable scar on his stomach as well, Sol was almost as scarred as Luno, perhaps more, under all that fur. Funny, she thought, how some of the most visibly scarred pokemon were the kindest.
And then there was herself and her brother.
"I've been practicing," Scout said.
"It is serving you well." Luno nodded.
"Hello, friends," Wigglytuff said with a bob in place. "May we come in?"
"Sure," Twila said, stepping back to let them enter. No one else would walk into a room with a Shadow Pokemon, but they did so without a mote of discomfort.
"Hey, guys," Sol said. "I can call you one of the guys now, right?" he asked Wigglytuff seriously.
Wigglytuff beamed. "Absolutely! Always could!"
Sol smiled.
"So, we wanted to come here to talk," Scout began, a flicker of that common Scout awkwardness seeping through. "I wanted to check how you three were, and R-sorry-Wigglytuff wanted to come as well." He glanced up at the former Guildmaster with those innocent eyes of his.
"It's a bit tense," Sol said without hesitation. He then glanced at Twila. "Oh, uh, should I have not said that?"
"No," she sighed, sitting down on a little stool by the table in their room. "It's fine, not like the room isn't swimming in tension right now."
Both of them had a flash of guilt over their expressions and Twila could not help but take some sort of satisfaction in that, even as feeling that only made her feel worse.
Wigglytuff put his paws together. "I wanted to assure you that I've spoken to Armaldo about everything and he's promised me nothing will change about the conditions we've set up," he said imploringly.
Twila forced a smile as stale as mouldy bread. "That is good to hear."
The expression did not fool even Scout, she had to put some more effort into it.
"So, the main reason I came to visit is, uh, we, Team Ion I mean, well I mean I guess Wigglytuff is part of it now. But the cat part of it." Scout's awkwardness was endearing enough that even Twila's frosty exterior melted slightly to a more genuine smile. "We uh, we wanted to offer you to stay in Sharpedo Bluff if you wanted."
Team Celestial blinked once.
Wigglytuff added to it, "If you agree, I'll change the terms with Armaldo right before I officially leave so you can stay there without trouble."
"Team Ion wants to offer us their home?" Twila asked. Scout nodded. "That includes Shinx and Litleo?"
"It was actually Rai's idea," Scout said.
Twila looked almost taken aback by that.
"Yeah, he said he remembers the three of you were really good at swimming and so that it might not actually feel like you're boxed in considering the windows in here aren't much good plus all the sharp rocks at the bottom, compared to Sharpedo Bluff just opening up into the ocean a lot less roughly."
Twila coughed a bit as Sol asked, "Little Shinx is giving us an escape route?" he asked amused.
Scout smiled innocently. "Who doesn't like a dip in a waterfall here and there? It's still technically part of the town."
"Shinx is offering us his home?" Twila repeated, probing for what really is going on there.
Scout just nodded again. "Seriously. He, well, he didn't want to come and offer it himself because… you know he's still rather uncomfortable. But he did say that he wants to offer it to you three, having to come back to the Guild every night where everyone is tense and unfriendly is just bound to make everyone miserable."
Ah, that's what it was, Rai was sparing the rest of the guild and maybe trying to reduce the risk of a evil shadow snapping.
Sol broke through Twila's dark thoughts with a beaming and genuine. "Thank you, Meowth, that's really kind of all three of you."
Twila glanced at him and saw that Sol was smiling right at her as well. Right, she breathed, not everything was a layered move that prioritised everyone else, it was possible Shinx was genuinely trying to help them. Considering that, yes, the sea was a bold but doable escape route couldn't have been missed by him and they were good swimmers.
She glanced at Wigglytuff. "And you'd make sure that Armaldo wouldn't try and use that against us?"
Anyone who had learned in the Wigglytuff Guild was aware of Wigglytuff's acumen, he was so much sharper than he came across, there was no way he wouldn't have thought of Team Celestial escaping via the sea… which made all the more sense, actually. He'd want them to have a route out that didn't involve being stuck in a Guild and having to either break through reinforced stone or fight through the others in the guild.
"Sure would!" Wigglytuff chirped. "I'd like to make sure you three are safe even if I'm not here."
"We'll… well, we'll talk about it? When are you leaving?"
"Tomorrow," Scout answered. "Just sorting out everything before we head off."
Twila nodded. "We'll have an answer by tonight."
Scout nodded back. "No problem." He looked up at Wigglytuff who smiled back.
"Can I have a moment?" he asked.
Scout gave one more nod. "I'll see you all later," he said, departing.
When the door closed, Wigglytuff looked over all three of them in a long lingering gaze.
"I understand if you hate me for this," he said, centering on Twila. "Either because it makes me seem so selfish to leave you in such a nebulous time or just because you think I'm too trusting of everyone."
"I don't think you are too trusting," Twila said with a sigh. "In fact I admire it, I wish I could be." She looked over to Luno, then Sol. "Like Sol is."
Rhythm followed her gaze, focusing on Luno first. "Do you think you'll be in more danger without me around?" he asked genuinely.
Luno answered swiftly. "Yes, your absence makes any place less safe."
Rhythm nodded, accepting the compliment for what it was. "Putting aside my personal strength?"
That took a little longer of thinking. "I believe I could take Armaldo in a battle. Certainly with Twila and Sol's assistance."
A smile twitched at Rhythm's mouth as Sol concurred. "We can take him for sure!"
"That's not the worry," Twila sighed, though it also was. It'd probably take all three of them, but she was reasonably confident they could take Armaldo if it came to it.
It was adding in the rest of the guild that was the problem.
"Fair enough, you should be confident in your skills. You are graduates after all!" Wigglytuff grinned proudly at them and then settled. "Would you believe me if I said that Armaldo doesn't hate you?" he asked softly.
Twila opened her mouth to lie as easily as she breathed, but it caught in her teeth at the look in Rhythm's eyes. Soft and accepting of anything she said, just the same when they first crawled up to the guild to ask for shelter. He had given them a home and asked just for them to do their best.
There were many reasons why they stayed in Treasure Town, why they came back, and most of all why they hadn't left yet. The fact that so many of those who she had cherished had grown awkward and distant hurt more than she was willing to admit to herself.
She couldn't help but return the suspicion. In every gentle word from Chimecho she wondered what was professional and what was trying to tease out information. When Bidoof still talked to them just the same as he always did, she wanted to believe in his good nature so much but years of having to protect herself and her brother guarded her like a nest of arbok.
All of that faltered at Rhythm. Scout was a stranger, odd and unconnected to old feelings, but Rhythm hadn't wavered in his defence, hadn't hesitated to stick up for them.
"Would you believe me if I said I'm sure that everyone will come around," Rhythm added. "And I know you must feel like it's all on you, but it isn't. I know you're thinking of leaving town, I'm sure you've been figuring it out since this all started."
Twila glanced away guiltily.
"And… when I'm not here, I certainly can't stop you if you decide you have to go. But… please, hold out a little longer. I believe in you, and everyone else here in the Wigglytuff Guild. It's still my guild, everyone learned from Chatot and I, they're still… them."
Still them.
The idea sent a pang of pain through Twila's heart.
They were still themselves too, did everyone not see that?
Tears filled her vision unbidden and she found herself hugging Rhythm before she even knew what was happening. Unsure if she had initiated it or him, but she didn't let go. "Okay," she said. "We'll do our best."
"Don't forget, smiles go for miles!" he said as they broke apart, smiling at her. She managed a weak, floppy, but real smile in return.
"Smiles go for miles," she echoed.
"Smiles go for miles," Luno said, surprising her.
Sol laughed and concurred. "Smiles go for MILES, YEAH!"
He spun around and gave Luno a hug from behind, grinning on his shoulder.
"Thanks, Guildmaster," Twila said.
Rhythm smiled at her. "I'm not your Guildmaster anymore."
"You'll always be our Guildmaster," she corrected, and there was nothing more that needed to be said.
As later that evening, Twila had one thing to say to Scout. "Give Rai and Mane our thanks, we'll use the bluff."
"Meh-heh-heh, as promised, here they are."
The day had arrived. Part dread, part anticipation, and all a bit sad, Team Ion and Team Sunrise were preparing to depart.
And Team Ion now counted Rhythm, the former Guildmaster, so there was a lot of pokémon gathered to see them off.
Guardian, proving the dad he truly was, had traded in all his treasure for Croagunk to arm Team Ion with some powerups to try and keep them safe.
Scout boasted a ruff around his neck in addition to his scarf, which was tied around his tail now. The Bling Ruff sparkled.
Rai had traded out his old scarf for the Energy Scarf, an electrically bright yellow. He already felt like he could run and fight for longer with it on.
And Mane had a collar underneath the Silver Bow. In the middle was a shard of a fire stone and he might have looked very dapper if it weren't covered by his bow.
Rhythm was busy hugging everyone goodbye. Everyone.
"Get off me," Armaldo grumbled. Rhythm clung harder until Armaldo gave him a hug back. He sighed. "Stay safe out there."
"I'll bring you back something cool," he promised. Armaldo grunted, and finally, he was let go as Rhythm moved onto the next victim. Kecleon Green.
"And do you have enough food?" Guardian asked worriedly. "The Guildmaster is known for his voracious appetite."
"Wigglytuff, dad," Scout corrected. "And yes, we've even got perfect apples."
"Enough?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure?"
"Do you want to count?"
"No, no, I trust you."
Rai, Mane, Striker, and Sean chatted as well, sharing exploration tips they all knew and wishing the best of times to come.
"You be careful, okay!" Sean said before giving them both a hug with one arm each around their necks. "Take care of Scout for us."
"Always do," Rai said.
"Yeah, you should have seen last ni-" Rai kicked Mane. "Fine."
He got an eye roll from those two as Saniya swooped in. "Presents!" She scattered orbs on them; Striker caught every single one and delicately set them down.
"Best to not let these explode," he chastised as she perched on his head.
"I knew you'd catch them," she said; Striker had already gathered them up. "There we go. Good little grovyle."
Rolling his eyes but not shaking her off, he handed the sack of orbs to Scout, bridging the two little groups. "Think you've got the basics of the slash down?"
"Yep. Thank you for showing me."
"No worries."
"So… is it time?" Guardian asked softly.
"I think so," Saniya sighed. She waved to Treasure Town. "Being honest, can't wait to be on the road. I'm sick of looking at you guys all the time. With your amazing deals and friendly baked goods." Her voice began to go higher. "And listening ears, and funny bone jokes, and funny ghost jokes, and I'm so happy." She was squeaking now. "I'm not crying; you're crying."
Marowak, who was walking towards town, heard her and said, "I'm not crying." She kicked him in the knee. Then he was crying.
"Yeah, I didn't skip leg day THIS time, buckarino!"
"I will remember this," Marowak swore, limping off in a hurry.
"Good." Saniya's eyes sparkled. "Because I don't want no one forgetting us! We'll be back. Don't die in the meantime, please."
"We'll do our best," Armaldo grumbled.
"I hate you, bug monster!"
"Back at you, onion."
It was the closest thing they'd get to speaking softly for a goodbye.
"I trust you'll look after my boy?" Guardian asked Rhythm.
He nodded firmly. "I will."
Guardian then looked to the three. "And I trust you'll look after him too?" he asked, just a tad wryly.
Scout grinned, and Rai and Mane chuckled as Rhythm pouted. "We'll be fine."
"I hope so," Sean said, coming forth for a hug. He pulled Scout into it and sighed. "You still need to eat more."
"It's my metabolism!"
Sean poked him in the ribs. "It's not healthy, is what it is. Be safe, don't do anything stupid."
"You mean anything I'd do?"
"No." Sean shook his head. "I mean, don't do anything stupid. You're not stupid."
Scout gave a rueful smile until a real one came out. "Well…." He decided not to make a joke. "Be safe yourself. Keep an eye out for anyone I mentioned, or just suspicious in general. Things shouldn't be happening yet, but we all know how well it goes when I think that."
Sean nodded firmly, pulling back to let Saniya latch on, then Guardian.
As Scout was released and the other two hugged as well, Striker cleared his throat and stepped forwards. "You'll be careful, right?" he asked awkwardly; people were watching after all.
Scout nodded. "Always." Striker snorted at him and he grinned. "Once we get back together I'll have a proper ranged Night Slash to show you!"
Striker nodded back. "I'll hold you to that."
Scout smiled. "See you, Striker."
"See you, Scout."
Finally, it was well past the time they had agreed to leave; the two teams separated. At this point, they were really just one team, one with two names.
Everyone gave one last set of goodbyes to everyone, including a shout to Treasure Town. And then?
Then the journey began once more.
"I love the way the Hidden Land smells," Saniya commented as they arrived.
"Why?" Lapras asked, puzzled.
"Smells fresh," Saniya said. "Like the promise of a better tomorrow. It's a scent of eagerness and anticipation, fitting for a place a second out of sync with the rest of the world."
"Is it a second forwards or a second backwards?" Sean asked curiously.
"Forwards," Striker answered as Saniya opened her mouth. "I asked Dialga about that when we were staying here."
"Striker," Saniya said calmly, floating over to him. On the outside, he seemed nonplussed; on the inside, he was afraid of how calm she had spoken. She then took his orbs from him. "I am the one to answer time-related questions!"
The bag was hers now. But Striker would have his revenge.
"Furthermore, Dialga got the idea from an ancient Celebi."
"Striker!" Saniya yelled, appalled at his brazen betrayal. "You have no idea the depths of my wrath!"
"Try it. You've taken my orbs; there's nothing more you can take."
"Oooh, I haven't taken ALL of them JUST YET!" Saniya snarled, a terrifying grin slowly stretching over her face.
"Before we dig in, shall we get moving?" Guardian asked, spinning Saniya around until her eyes zoned in on Temporal Tower.
"Yes," she said. "Grab onto my body!" Once everyone's hands were on, Saniya cheated, and speedrunners everywhere hate her.
Teleportation.
After depositing them at the Rainbow Stoneship, or, rather, rolling down the steps of the Rainbow Stoneship, Saniya huffed and puffed and yelled really loudly.
"DIALGA!"
Her voice echoed across the ancient ruins.
"Did we ever ask what this place was for?" Sean asked, taking a moment to look around. "I mean, an old temple, ancient sculptures, that row of murals. What was this place?"
"Much of the world has been reclaimed by nature," Dialga said, causing Sean to scream a little. No one else reacted, having noticed the giant dinosaur-looking dragon fly down, somehow, from the tower.
He trotted in the air as if that was actually propelling him, but they knew it to be time magic causing him to float.
"Where did you COME FROM?" Sean gasped, holding his chest.
"From Temporal Tower," Dialga answered flatly.
"You think you're slick."
"I think you are forgetting you are speaking to the Lord of Time. Watch yourself, furry."
Sean's expression slowly and purposely shifted to his own flattened expression of unamusement. "Who told him?"
Guardian glanced away.
Saniya looked up.
Striker coughed.
"I was betrayed by all three of you!?"
"Ahahah, aaanyway," Saniya said before waving excitedly. "Hi, Dialga! Ready to help us again!?"
Dialga stared. "I appreciate the fact that you've stopped even asking if I would help."
"Glad you're being reasonable."
"No, just resigned."
"Before you bother me with whatever it is this time," Dialga said, as Saniya went to continue. "I'm going to tell you why this place is a ruined temple."
"Was it humans?" Sean asked.
Dialga stared for a moment before taking a pained breath of air. "Why are you here?"
Sean, normally the one to speak for the team, crossed his arms and Saniya had been distracted with something shiny on the ground.
Thus, it was Guardian who spoke.
"Master Dialga," he began.
"Nope. Grovyle, you can be the one to tell me."
Guardian sunk into the ground in shame as Striker stepped forth to address Dialga, pulling out their Wonder Map.
"We'd like to access Giratina's realm, and the name and general location of the entrance is known to us, the World Abyss? But we're not entirely sure on the exact place."
"I see," Dialga said. "So, you are saying you already actually know where to go; you just don't want to do the leg work?"
"That is correct, Dialga." Striker nodded.
"Good thing I didn't take the last of his orbs," Saniya muttered, a little lightheaded from watching Striker stare Dialga down with absolutely no backing down.
If Dialga was impressed, the creature didn't show it. Rising up to its full height, which was still baby's toy dialga compared to how large the previous one was, Dialga boomed.
"Team Sunrise. I will grant you the boon of knowledge. With it, you may pierce the realities to enter the Reverse Distortion. Once you have entered, you are at Giratina's mercy. Do not pray to Arceus, for It will not help you there."
"Cool, thanks."
Dialga's eye twitched. "Just… here." It stomped, and a blue ring burned its way around a portion of the Wonder Map before fading into a black circle. "Now go away."
"Aww, but have some catching up to do!" Saniya cried, flying up to perch on Dialga's face. "Pweeease?"
Dialga shook its head and flung Saniya like a fly. "I do not have the time for this," Dialga said before closing his eyes in pain. "I meant patience; I said patience."
"Well, if you don't have the time," Saniya said, grinning like a sharpedo.
"We probably have taken up too much of your time," Sean agreed, a smiling pulling at his face even as he resisted.
"I guess it's time to go." Striker nodded, crossing his arms with a smirk.
"We'll see you next time," Guardian added.
Then all four of them snickered at each other.
"I…do not…deserve this," Dialga groaned, looking for all the world like he wanted to just lie down and roll off the Rainbow Stoneship's temple.
Shaking his head, he began to float again. "I hope Giratina eats you," he growled before tossing his head. "Like I'd ever get what I want." And then began to fly away.
"Bye Dialga!" Saniya waved. "We'll be back! In…TIME!"
"Alrighty then!" Saniya beamed. "Let's go. I feel like I want to rumble, so let's go the dungeon way back! WOO!"
She sped off like a bullet, and her friends quickly pursued.
The World Abyss.
It looked a lot like a cave.
"Is this it?" Saniya asked, popping her neck several times. She was being carried by Sean this time, having been blasted close together after the teleports.
It had taken most of two days to get here. Which, considering the distance they travelled, was outstanding time management.
Saniya couldn't teleport such distances over and over within a short period. Each stop, after they picked themselves up from eating dirt, was spent washing mouths out and making sure they weren't any dangers about until Saniya collected herself enough to teleport again.
Teleporting one person was difficult enough; four was a considerable strain on her. Yet, she wouldn't complain about it.
Saniya was a weird one. You would never hear a genuine complaint from her. No amount of pain or exhaustion would pull that out of her.
But minorly inconvenience her, or be Armaldo, and you'd have her cursing a PG-rated storm of gripes and grievances.
She could ramble on for hours about the various injustices she was subjected to in this world of light and life.
And so, she did so as they stared at the entrance to Giratina's realm.
"Look at that thing, that piddly little entryway. Does Giratina not have any artistic pride? Look at that crumbling bit of dirt! Oh my gosh, this is offensive. I will be speaking to Giratina about this. Maybe some skulls to raise the mood, place some random assortment of bloodstains to really maximise the spookiness."
"We can focus on informing Giratina of its terrible decoration skills later," Guardian advised, plucking Saniya from Sean's shoulders to point her towards the cave. "For now…."
"Now we enter!" Saniya said, pointing forth as she rose up dramatically.
It was unspoken but agreed that it was Saniya's mission to lead.
Giratina had guided them, the mission control for the Planetary Investigation Team and the mastermind behind the plan as a whole.
Locked within the Reverse Distortion, Giratina had still managed to raise Celebi, keep her wise to Dialga's tricks, and do its best from its mirrored world to keep the team on track.
Guardian betraying them had been a severe hit, but Giratina was prepared for betrayal.
It had never approved of Soothe after all.
Giratina was a member of the Planetary Investigation Team too. But they had never had the chance to see it in person, only through a dusty mirror. An eye of great magnitude, a voice akin to a natural disaster's paradoxical whisper, and a mind that had existed literally forever.
And Saniya's parent.
Who she had never even touched before.
She couldn't wait.
They entered the World Abyss, expecting a difficult dungeon. Perhaps like the Spacial Right or Hidden Land with its carnage and monsters.
They did not find that.
Giratina didn't copy.
The World Abyss wasn't a dungeon at all.
It was a collection of rooms, just like a dungeon. It had several immediate differences, however.
The place was dark. Very dark. No light lit the rooms and pathways; no cracks into a tormented sky spoke of hidden horrors behind the dungeons. It was just really dusty.
Saniya glowed with pink light so they wouldn't walk into the big pillar that was inside the second room.
The next most obvious difference was a lack of pokémon. Ferals or otherwise.
Only Circh had been like this, and this didn't have the same mournful emptiness that Circh did. The air was musty, dusty and made Sean sneeze like the dickens.
"This is weird," Saniya said, tone changing on every word from high to higher. "Let's…turn back for a bit." They had walked right and found the same general room every time, sometimes there was a pillar, but then they were just rocks.
They turned back and then shared looks of confusion.
This room was brighter. And it was brighter because there was an exit.
"Did we… get to the end of the dungeon?" Sean asked, puzzled. "And then just leave?"
"That can't be right."
"We did go right a lot," Saniya added wisely.
"Perhaps left then?" Striker suggested.
It was as good of a suggestion as any, and so they went left.
The same thing happened.
"Okay," Saniya said, they must have gone through thirty of those damn rooms, in one direction, and still wound up here. "What is this place?"
"I believe it may be a puzzle," Guardian said. "Perhaps instead of blindly charging ahead, we can check out these pillars?"
"Fiiine," Saniya sighed. "We'll do it the smart and sensible way, nerd."
"Thank you," Guardian said. He floated up to the large platform, wide at the base and flat on the top, and considered it for a moment.
"This is unown," he said, rubbing his chin area intrigued. "Give me a moment."
"...Past three pillars… to the sleeping… before 30 is surpassed," Striker said, reading it instantly.
Guardian dropped his arm and glowered at Striker. "Do you have no respect for the art of the reveal?" he asked.
"No," Striker said.
They elected to go forwards this time.
"So, three pillars?" Sean asked, pointing to the first one in the room they pointed.
"One, one," Guardian read, quickly, before shooting Striker a filthy look.
"Then, let's go back and go right!" Saniya said, cracking the code. They re-entered the first room and then headed right.
There was no pillar.
"I think we're being played for chumps," Saniya said, glaring at the lack of pillar.
The four of them groaned and headed left this time, taking a different turn rather than just going straight every time.
There was a pillar in this room.
"Yes, I'm a genius!" Saniya whooped.
"Uh, genius, this says one and two," Striker pointed out.
"…What does that mean?" Saniya demanded.
"I have no idea."
"I don't like this place."
They walked on, taking turns and chatting where they wanted to.
"I have a topic we should discuss in this dark, dank dive," Saniya said. "Sunrises. Aren't they the best?"
"They really are." Guardian nodded.
"I name things good," Sean said. "I know we all like sunrises."
"They keep me alive," Striker said approvingly.
"Me too! No more drinking Sun Stone Smoothies!" Saniya beamed. Her lustre faded slightly as they turned into another room with nothing. "Anyway, Sean, I have a grievance to share with you."
"Is it about me?" Sean asked.
"Quite," Saniya said primly. "See, you're my friendly friend pally-wally friend buddy chum-chum pal buddy chum pal buddy-buddy chum pal friendo amigo bestest little furry buddy chum pal buddy."
Sean looked ready to faint after such a barrage of friendliness.
Guardian had to support Striker as his orbs rolled away from the figurative stroke he had upon hearing that.
"So, knowing we are best buddies best friends forever my pal buddy chum friend pal. Why did you not let little old happy friendly cheerful happy positive sunny sunrise sunny side up pink shiny glowing knock-knocker extraordinaire know about the fact that you my buddy friend pal buddy furry happy chum pal friendly frienderizing friendo happy chum buddy pal partner happy furry chum pal buddy had a roommate?"
"…Wut?"
"Saniya lifted Sean up by the scruff of his thin snappable diddly-darn neck with her amazing powerful glorious intelligent mighty mind," Saniya chirped, doing as she said. "To ask him why he did not tell his happy cheerful buddy buddies friendly pal friendo's he saved the whole entire sunrisey bright living happy world with that he knew a certain krok. O. Rok?"
Sean was the deerling in the headlights. "I know nothing that you speak of."
"Your lips were as loose as his holes are that night you tasted the amber truth telling liquid known as alcohol."
"I know NOTHING!"
"Lies!" Saniya declared. "I will not hear this atrocious mouth flapping."
"I'm the one talking nonsense?"
"Yes, my friend pal friend friendly friendo that I tossed back in time to meet the person who made him a furry."
"Stop bringing that up!"
"Never!"
These japes and jokes continued as the four of them pushed their way through ceaseless rooms of nothing changing.
"I want to turn back in this cave," Saniya moaned as they entered the first room again. "All things are terrible."
"There must be a pattern," Guardian muttered. "There just has to be."
"Maybe we have to destroy the pillars?" Striker suggested, itching to break something for having to listen to Saniya speaking friendly talk for the past thirty minutes.
"Maybe you need to be silent and look pretty," Saniya replied. "Pretty handsome! HAH! Gottem!"
"She's in a real mood today," Sean whispered to Striker, who nodded. Saniya was now trying to pull the letters off the plaque and beat something with them.
"Sticks and stones may break some bones, but words will break your nose!" Saniya yelled, ripping an unown f off.
Then it came to life.
"Oh bother," she said as it squealed in something that must have been violently swearing and then the other unown began to wake up.
"Well, now we're about to feel the pain of language," Guardian said as even more unown began to peel off walls, covered in dust before. "Oh, there were probably clues under the dust."
"Good thinking, Guardian!" Saniya said brightly. "Why didn't you think it before!?"
They had to run as reality was quirking a little at the wrath of the unown.
An unown c, unown u, and unown t levitated an old rusty knife and began to chase them.
By the time they had ran through thirty rooms, the entire place had awoken, and letters were swarming their heads.
"Eek!" Saniya yelled. "They're getting in my hair!"
"I've got this!" Striker said and ran headfirst into a column that was raised. "Ow," he fell back, blinking in pain as he saw stars, and letters, and numbers too.
27.
"Hm?" he wondered before remembering the inscription at the start of this misadventure. "Oh! I think we found three!"
"Then let's gooo!"
Pikachu sneezed so hard he nearly headbutted Eevee and knocked each other out.
"I think this is it," Saniya said as they raced into the next, the final, room.
It was as dark as the rest. Dusty walls, stony ground, and very dark. Only Saniya's exuberant light allowed them to see anything.
There were no unown in the room and only the one entryway. The unown did not pursue them; it was silent once more.
As the last of the four entered the room, something shivered. The air felt charged like it could electrocute something at any time. The walls holding their breath, flakes of dust falling from the walls.
At the end of the dark room, something lit up.
They took a moment to sag, breathing in relief. Saniya, as expected, was the first to regain her energy.
"What is that?" Saniya asked, zooming forwards unfearingly. It moved like oil yet reflected like glass. A twisted, warped reflection.
"Saniya, be careful!" Guardian called, but she did not hesitate to touch the strange surface of the mirror. It was set into the farthest part of the wall yet was unblemished by even a speck of dust that covered everything else.
And, of course, it glowed, which was indicative of something. The mirror seemed to flow in place, up, down, in circles. It was hypnotic, really, to someone like Saniya, who liked staring into bright things like they could answer the questions of life.
"Saniya?" someone called, but they were so far away she couldn't hear them. Really, how long had she been flying?
"I'm so pretty," Saniya sighed, staring into the blur of pinks, yellows, greys, and purples. Green orbs appeared close by each other before deepening into a darker emerald. Lighter greens circled the darker ones as more colours flowed together.
Mostly pinks.
A haired top, twin antennae, a deeper pink formed a lower body.
Soon enough, Saniya was staring at herself. As mirrors tended to reflect, although this one had taken a little while to get there.
"Hi!" Saniya beamed.
"Hi." Saniya grinned back.
"Saniii…." Three more figures appeared in the mirror. Blurs at first, but they quickly took on the blues, greens, and greys of Sean, Striker, and Guardian. She was vaguely aware of them being near her, but they had frozen still, staring into the mirror.
"My friends are great, aren't they?" Saniya asked.
"Sure are!" Saniya agreed. "I didn't know they were as vain like me, though."
She giggled, covering her mouth as she glanced to where her friends reflected. They didn't talk, just stared.
"Why don't yours play with mine?" Saniya asked.
"Silly," Saniya replied. "They shouldn't play with themselves! That's something for lonely people. Or introverts. Although, saying that…."
"Mine aren't!" Saniya assured. "They'd love to get to know themselves! Like I know me."
"I do know me." Saniya nodded smartly. "Is that why we're talking, but they're just staring?"
"Who's to say they aren't talking to?" Saniya asked, cocking her head. "Eyes are the window to the soul; after all, maybe they're talking on a level we can't."
"What do you mean we can't?"
"Well, you don't really have a soul now, do you?"
Saniya pouted. "That's really mean to say! And it's a lie. You really think I don't know how it works? It might be a little different to them, but it still counts!"
"Does it, though? You'll live until you die and die forever and become a memory and nothing more. When they die, they might get a chance to come back. You'll be gone forever."
"You're not a nice reflection, are you?"
"I'm you. What does that say about you?"
Saniya shook her head. "No. I'm not this kind of person. I don't focus on the negatives. Why should I? They are there, and I know that, but I don't let it rule me. Is that what you're trying to do? Upset me with 'The Truth'?"
"All I'm here is to offer you a better way."
"Let me guess. Swap places? I live with my friends forever, only it's in a fake world? Pass."
"Heh." Saniya's reflection smiled at her. "I don't know why Giratina set up this weird defence to 'test' anyone who wants to enter. I think they're just a grumpy guss who pretends they don't want company."
"So, I pass?"
"As if there was any doubt. You know yourself too well, and I know there's not anything I can do to make you doubt. Give the big old dragon a hug for me, okay?"
"Okay. Do my friends get through as well?"
"Sure." Saniya's reflection waved her hands, and the others blinked, coming to their senses. "They weren't actually getting tested, just being shushed so they wouldn't offer you outside support. Really, I think Giratina just wants to 'prove' to something that it did right by you. They're not good as social stuff, don't give them too hard of a time, okay?"
"Saniya?" Sean asked calmly. "Why is your reflection talking?"
"Well, I started off being nice, then I got mean, then I'm nice again." Saniya shrugged, both of them. "I guess it's a pretty good copy of me, to be honest."
"Thanks!" Saniya's reflection giggled. "Okay, I'll get out of your way. This is the portal."
"Knew it."
The reflections faded back into a vortex of colour. Rather than calming down, it grew faster, churned more chaotically until the wind began to pick up.
"Is this normal?" Striker yelled, grabbing onto Guardian.
"Yes," Sean said, eyes narrowed as the storm began to really whip up. "I actually remember a LOT of wind going on when I got snatched."
"Oh goody, are we about to meet the tentacles?" Saniya asked.
"Please, no."
There were no tentacles, but the portal did open, dragging anything not part of the room into it. Rapidly, violently, and disorientating, they were pulled into the Reverse Distortion.
This particular group of pokémon had experienced dimensional and time-related travel before. Being thrown into Giratina's Realm may have knocked another group of pokémon out for at least a few minutes. For Team Sunrise, they just needed a few moments to catch their breath.
"Feel like home, Sean?" Saniya mumbled, pulling herself up first to look around.
"I don't know if I was ever actually in here," Sean groaned, pushing up on straining arms. He blinked, squinted, and rubbed his arms. "Okay."
There were floating islands. That was different.
"This does not look like what I could have imagined." Guardian was the next to recover, pulling Striker up with him. "It's… almost like the Dark Future in a sense."
With the randomly floating parts and overall silent emptiness.
A world filled with islands, buildings, and possible adventure. Yet only one lived within.
Yet it wasn't the empty silence of the Dark Future. Where the world had gasped its last breath, and only the silence of a disturbed grave was left. The silence here was not as oppressive, not as maddening.
Almost… peaceful.
Bubbles floated in the atmosphere of the Reverse Distortion. Within them, images of the world they had come from could be witnessed.
Sean almost went to touch one close by but caught himself. Scout had told them a little of what he knew about this place; destroying anything could damage their world.
And their world had been damaged enough.
Along with bubbles, there was dangerous, dark rippling clouds of smoke. They were few and far between but very noticeable blots of darkness.
"I guess we have to find Giratina," Sean said, glancing around before pointing to the closest island. It had part of a pokémon building jutting out of it. It wasn't destroyed, only incomplete.
Everything was, he realised, looking around again. The land was incomplete. The rules of gravity were incomplete. The buildings were half-built, half-destroyed, half something, never complete.
"Maybe I could yell really loudly?" Saniya suggested. "How big do you think this place is?"
"If it's an entirely parallel dimension," Striker pointed out, "I'd guess pretty big." He paused as a dark shadow overtook them.
There was no sun in this place, yet light shone anyway.
"Correct," the shadow said, nothing but a serpentine shape with red eyes. Slowly, the body filled in.
Remarkably, this hadn't caused panic in Team Sunrise. They had come a long way since jumping at every corner.
They all looked up as one, Guardian and Striker still holding each other, Sean half-stepped towards Saniya, who had frozen in the air to the point she fell from the air, leading to Sean catching her in his paws.
"Welcome," Giratina said conversationally. "Mind the clutter; it's been some time since anyone has entered my realm."
Slowly, Saniya pulled herself out of Sean's grip and floated up.
Giratina was gargantuan.
She floated up, a tiny speck of pink in a world of incomplete colours. She rose until she was level with Giratina and then paused; she was very high up now. It was just so large.
Then, she floated in.
Slowly, even hesitantly. Giratina watched her carefully, still in the air.
Its body was grand and serpentine, unaffected by the grip of gravity and in its original form. Golden spikes jutted from its body, in spikes, in claws, and in a shape like a crown around its head. Shadowy tendrils, six in total, loomed from behind its head, pointed in crimson claws and swaying like a shadow even as the rest of Giratina remained still.
As Saniya floated forwards, a few of its tendrils came forth. She did not slow even as one traced the claw down her face curiously, not touching her, not quite. Despite being so close, and she so small, Giratina was able to guide them without moving a hair on her head.
She was within breathing distance of Giratina now. Its dark red eye stared at her, naturally narrowed into a fierce look. She wasn't afraid, but she was terrified.
Giratina breathed. Saniya could feel that now that she was so close.
Its eye was half the size of her body; she could stand within the gap of its crown and just barely touch the top and bottom.
She met its eye, one she had seen countless times before. Only ever from the distance of a mirror, the distance of a whole reality away. She hadn't known Giratina breathed.
Things were going blurry. Not from the Pressure emanating from Giratina's ancient presence but from tears in her eyes.
"May I?" she whispered, holding out one hand while keeping the other across her chest.
Giratina nodded.
She drew in and laid her hand on Giratina's face.
The daughter touched her parent for the first time.
A soft sound broke out of Saniya's chest before she flew in, pressing her cheek against Giratina's face and weeping.
The wail cut through the silence of the Reverse Distortion. An echo-cry. Both happy and sad, Saniya wept against Giratina.
Slowly, even more carefully than she had drawn in close, Giratina brought one of its tendrils around, the smoky tendril still having a physical presence and gently touched it to Saniya's back, rubbing it down soothingly.
It had never done this before, to anyone or anything. But it had seen parents comfort their children like this before, so it tried.
Saniya only began to cry harder at the gentle touch.
Giratina's eyes flicked to the others she had brought in concern, but they were tearing up as well, and it did not know what to do.
People had cried before it before, weeping in terror at their end has come. But Saniya was only pressing closer, and they were not trying to pull her away.
"I don't understand," Giratina said. "Why do you cry?"
Saniya sobbed something indiscernible to mortal ears.
"…I see."
Giratina continued stroking her back until her sobs moved to whimpers, to shakes, and then calm.
Later, as Saniya regained the ability to speak, she rejoined Team Sunrise and receiving a group hug. "I don't know if I've ever cried that hard before," she said, hiccupping as she wiped her eyes.
"How did you know we were here?" Sean asked, looking up at Giratina curiously.
"I know who attempts to enter my world," Giratina answered. "And there aren't many ways to get in anymore."
"How big is this place?" Striker asked, also curious.
"The Reverse Distortion mirrors your own reality. It is larger than you could ever imagine, if still smaller than your own."
"I believe we should explain why we have come here," Guardian suggested. "I do hope you forgive the intrusion, Giratina."
Giratina blinked at him. "If I minded, I would have attacked rather than embraced Saniya."
"Aww, you big softie," Saniya said, a happy smile on her bright face. "Thank you."
Giratina nodded to her.
"We're here just because I wanted to see you," Saniya said, still the 'leader' of this expedition. "After being able to almost see you in The Dream, I knew… I knew I wanted to see you for real."
"Now that you are here," Giratina said, accepting that answer. "It would please me to fill in the gaps of what I have lost from the time change."
"How much do you remember?" Sean asked curiously.
There was something to be said about Team Sunrise being so comfortable with Giratina. However, all of them had interacted with it many times, if still through a mirror and with curt instructions rather than picnics around a campfire.
"I won't repeat what you already know," Giratina said, "about how I can understand. However, for myself in particular. I know more than most, less than Dialga, Cresselia, and Darkrai, and you four, of course. I exist as one of the contemporaries to time and space. However, I am not immune to them as they are not immune to myself or each other."
Giratina rolled its eyes. "The amount of times Dialga and Palkia have killed each other speaks loudly of how immune they are to each other."
As in, not in the least.
"I recall pieces of events," Giratina said, actually beginning to explain now. "I recall more emotion and thought rather than clear actions. However, I understand I was trapped within the Reverse Distortion, unable to act against Dialga's madness. Pieces of the plan I began and the knowledge I began the Planetary Investigation Team. Much of what I recall is of Saniya herself; more have come to me as I have deigned to sleep now that Darkrai has been stopped and my realm is not so taxed in dealing with his attack."
So, from there, they filled it in on much of the specifics. Who they were exactly, what the plan had exactly been, what it had done to help them, along with all it had done for Saniya.
Guardian remembered to mention it aiding Scout escape the Dark Future with Danny and gave his thanks for that.
"One thing I felt a bit bad about," Saniya said after everything important had been covered. "But is important to still bring up is Soothe."
"Ah," Giratina said, nodding. "Yes, I do have a memory of that. Exceptional fury at a brazen act against my advice."
"Oh. Okay, I was hoping to make it seem not so bad."
"Really?" Giratina asked dryly. "It put things at considerable risk, placing a link between timelines without any real preparation to discern the location of the Time Gears. Caution was thrown to the wind due to trusting your friend."
Giratina seemed deeply unimpressed at even the word friend.
"However, I do not know much of what else occurred. Your reasoning, for instance?"
"My reasoning?" Saniya asked, head shooting up. "Uh…."
"Do you not want to tell me, or do you not remember yourself?"
"A little of column a, a little of column b."
"I'm actually curious," Sean said, frowning. "I don't think we ever did ask about why."
"Oh, sure, gang up on the teary celebi. You're mean, Sean. So mean."
Sean crossed his arms.
"Ah… fine." Saniya pouted a little before her expression shifted into a genuine expression of guilt. "It's been so long that I genuinely… can't lie and say I don't remember." She sighed and leaned back. "I trusted her, okay? She was my first friend. We named each other. For the longest time, I'd been with just myself and my mirror. I was a little rebellious. Giratina never liked Soothe but would, or could, never tell me why. So, it was fun being a bit rebellious and picking someone he didn't like so much."
She smiled, an old memory bubbling up. "And Soothe was great. You've never heard a dark joke like you've heard one from Soothe," she giggled. "They were awful, the actual worst. But, dark jokes were about the only ones you'd find in the Dark Future." She winked and everyone, but Giratina groaned.
"I would not guess a bad sense of humour would be a reason for me to distrust," Giratina pointed out.
Saniya nodded. "I guess. Either way, I didn't know if I could time-travel, and I wanted to help her. However vaguely, I could at least remember parts of the old world, but she'd never seen it. We got to talking, I revealed what I could do."
"So, she asked you?" Sean put two and two together.
"She did, yeah." Saniya nodded. "I told her about the Time Gears, and she offered to go to the past and get them herself. I like to think she was serious about that, though," Saniya added. "I mean… Wigglytuff met her in Brine Cave, the place to summon Lapras. I didn't know about that place, so she must have been looking into it and found it herself. Point Saniya, she was trying to help! And, like, Chatot said they were only a team for a couple years, it took more than that for Sean and Striker to figure out the Time Gear spots and that was with the Dimensional Scream! I really do think she was trying to help, but she's been all alone since... she helped against Darkrai! And, well… I don't know truly if she was always a Shadow Pokémon or something happened at some point, but if she snapped upon seeing the Time Gear, then maybe there was something still there."
"Shadow Pokémon?" Giratina asked sharply.
Saniya closed her eyes, bracing. "Yeah."
Giratina held in silence; the Pressure increased before laxing again. Sean wound up on his back.
Saniya glanced up calmly at Giratina. "Something to say?"
Giratina gazed at her for a moment, but she didn't glance away. "…Perhaps that is why I did not like her," Giratina said. "If I witnessed the signs."
"What signs?" Saniya asked curiously.
"Manipulation, superficial charm, charisma that just suddenly seems to fit with everything you like. If this Soothe had simply melded into your life so perfectly, I can understand why I would be suspicious."
"Then why wouldn't you have told me that?" Saniya asked.
"I do not know," Giratina admitted. "Had I suspected… I would have told you, so perhaps it was something else. For you have a gift, see." Saniya blinked. "…Do you not see?"
"See what?"
"Celebi as a species are greatly remarkable. Gifted with the ability to travel through time, a guardian and rejuvenator of forests, and possess the power to disrupt The Shadow's taint, with assistance at least."
Saniya stood up sharply. "I can do WHAT?"
"Really, it's not fair that Dialga gets you, whereas my seconds all left me. At least I'm not stuck with Hoopa like Palkia is."
"Stop going forwards and go backwards," Saniya demanded. "About that little thing you just mentioned off-handed like it wasn't anything special. I can do what?"
Giratina was still grumbling about something. "Hoopa was created, as were the shaymin. Celebi were uplifted; is that why they have a large gamut of abilities?"
"Giratina!"
Team Sunrise had also stood up, and Giratina turned its attention back to them. "This wasn't anything that I could aid you with," it said. "Which is likely why I never told you, without a human the means was beyond your reach so perhaps I didn't want to tease you with abilities you could not access. You were too damaged from the stabilising of time your previous did, and with time at a stop here, no others could come to teach you. This is not a skill like any that simply come to you naturally; you need to be taught. And you can only be taught by another Celebi."
"I can purify Shadow Pokémon?" Saniya asked seriously.
"Not on your own," Giratina repeated. "And I do not mean without training. I mean, you can loosen the grasp with training, but you cannot dispel it. Only a human can."
And then it looked at Sean. "Hm. Interesting that you have a human."
"I could save Soothe?" Saniya asked softly.
"Could you?" Giratina asked. "Hm. Perhaps you could."
"I got to get into contact with Team Ion!" Saniya said sharply. "Contact Chimecho who can find them. If they can capture her rather than anything else, I can do it!"
"You'll need to learn first," Giratina said. "And… I do not wish to dishearten you, truthfully seeing such happiness from you fills me with an odd sense of buoyancy. But I must be blunt. Do you understand what may happen to Sean?"
Saniya paused. "…No?"
Giratina cocked its head. "Do you know what humanity did?"
"I… yeah?" She nodded. "Humanity was able to absorb The Shadow, across millions and millions of bodies, keeping it in check until Arceus could shut it out for good again or whatever the Big Cheese does."
Giratina's eye rolled again. "Arceus does many things," it allowed. "However, once The Shadow slipped its guard, there would be no getting rid of it. It was very fortunate humanity's tenacity found a way to counter it, combining that with their reckless lack of self-preservation to take the burden on themselves. It is admirable what your ancestors did." Giratina nodded to Sean.
"Yet that same recklessness led to the annihilation of humanity," Giratina growled, something entering the disaster that was the looming dread of its voice. So dark that the four of them braced for an attack that wouldn't come.
"I apologise," Giratina said. "The death of humanity was a tragedy even to my eternity. An action so foul it split the timeline. In one, a world where the genocidal weapon was stopped, and this one where it was not. Truthfully, for some time, I was furious with Arceus' decision to permit this world to remain, an affront to all reason I thought."
"Were you… there when it happened?" Sean asked softly. He shivered as the cry he had heard in the scream flashed through his head.
"No," Giratina answered. "But I witnessed it, nevertheless. The damage that strike did to reality was obscene; my own world nearly collapsed under the strain. Even so, the cataclysmic strike on the world birthed new horrors and opened the gates to places one should never go."
"…How did it happen?" Sean asked. "I'm from the world where it didn't, but it must have… it must have been impossibly close of a time for… this to happen in the first place, right?"
"There were warriors fighting," Giratina answered, eyes turned back to the past. "They called themselves the Royal Children; I know this because there were several of us, the 'Legendary Pokémon' fighting alongside them. Their names I do not know, besides two, for I was only a spectator."
Giratina closed its eyes for a moment, remembering deeper. "The final strike on the apocalypse weapon was chaotic. In all of eternity, there are few clashes I have witnessed that were more terrible than that, perhaps only because of what was on the line. I considered intervening, I decided against it. A mistake I carry. I was wrong to only watch."
Its eyes opened once more. "What went on within the weapon itself, I cannot say. All I know is that they failed to stop the firing, and humanity died."
Sean held that deep for a moment. "How did only humanity die?" he asked.
"It was not all at once," Giratina answered. "Only the majority. However, with your species devastated, your civilisations in ruins, and an… intense shift in the number of people restraining the Shadow, there was an eruption of Shadow Pokémon. Over the next thousand years or so, they finished the rest of humanity off, at cataclysmic losses themselves. The weapon was the trigger; time and shadow served as the end of humanity."
Giratina gazed down at Sean, truly sad. "With the weapon blowing a hole in humanity and the defences of the world crumbling as the Reverse Distortion could only barely keep it together in the first place, we came together to surrender an aspect of our true Power, to empower the world in mankind's absence and Arceus' curiosity. Ultimately, we held the monsters beyond back, it saved the pokémon, but humanity died as we were, and are, weakened. Even I, existing forever, possess but an echo of the power I once held."
Its eyes were sad. "We all lost something to protect. Beforehand, I was able to leave this realm to enter yours. I would never leave for long, as I protect this world as well as repair it. Now? Now I cannot risk leaving. The Reverse Distortion corrects damage to reality and serves as the anchor. It is fighting a losing battle; however, I am able to stalemate the breakdown by repairing and banishing the clouds of smoke you may see around."
"Is it dangerous for you to be talking to us then?" Guardian asked, alarmed.
Giratina considered him for a moment. "For much longer? Yes. It is fortunate that I do not have to be moving ceaselessly. Despite what I am, I am still subject to exhaustion, weakness, and even death. Although I have never been killed, Arceus has," Giratina added with a hint of smugness. "So, it's only common sense that I can die. I happen to just be smarter."
Smarter than Arceus. Only Giratina would claim that.
"And I can sleep, which I do when I have the chance to do so, to recuperate something."
"So, you could leave for a couple of hours?"
"Perhaps." Giratina nodded. "However, anything that may require me to leave is likely affecting my world, and in my absence, the breakdown would happen much faster. I am able to stabilise my world, which stabilises yours. Without me here, this entire cycle crashes to a stop. Furthermore, with my weakened state, opening portals is… not easy."
Giratina gazed out into the smoke fields; several had merged together. "Observe."
It rose up suddenly, sweeping Sean and Saniya off their feet before flying towards the smoke cloud. Giratina swam through the air with its serpentine body and circled the cloud, drawing it up like a tornado with its speed and pressure, compacting the cloud as a crystal grew from below.
It continued spinning around the smoke until the crystal had contained it. Then, Giratina roared and shattered the container into shards that melted into nothing.
Satisfied, it returned to them. "This is my world," it explained. "Anything within here is something I can erase by containing it within my world as such. The smoke is the offshoot of my world stabilising corruption, but that corruption has to go somewhere. Thus, it comes here. As more pressure is placed on the world, more smoke develops. The smoke is extremely toxic, even to me. Enough of it could very possibly end me, and thus the worlds would soon follow."
Giratina then took on an expression that was almost… annoyed. "Once I had aides to my cause. Dialga had Celebi to assist in ensuring time was flowing properly. Palkia created Hoopa merely because Dialga empowered the first Celebi to this stature of power. But before either, there were the shaymin."
"Shaymin?" Saniya gasped. "They are YOURS?"
Giratina nodded, amused by the shock in all four of them. "For similar reasons as Hoopa and yourself. Aid our dimensions. I am a cleaner and corrector of corruption; Shaymin was created to have the capacity to do what I couldn't and absorb the smoke into themselves and dispel it. From one, they split themselves into many to travel to multiple areas of the world to destroy the smoke. However, an unexpected circumstance happened."
"Shaymin's expulsion of the corruption was capable of shaking the thinner realms of my reality, and upon absorbing a great deal of it, one such shaymin ripped a hole open and fell into your realm. Others soon followed after I retrieved them, and they spoke of what they had seen. It wasn't long after they began to leave for longer periods of time until they eventually refused to come back. I cannot fault them for desiring a life outside of this, but even so, I am still furious they would abandon their duty and myself like that."
"I feel like I'm learning forbidden secrets," Guardian groaned, holding his head.
"I do not bring up the shaymin for no reason," Giratina added. "I may not be able to easily open holes anymore, but they could. And it would be nice to have some help again. Either way, I do not expect you to pursue this."
"Hang on," Sean said. "Are you suggesting you could take us anywhere we wanted?"
Giratina paused. It remembered being used as a telephone.
"Because we've got to go to the Water Continent," Sean added excitedly. "And travelling by Lapras would take weeks."
Which was still ridiculously fast for continental travel.
"…Why there?" Giratina asked.
"Oh, so there's this thing called Dark Matter and-"
"Oh," Giratina growled. "THAT."
"So, you know of it?"
Giratina growled again. "That accursed thing was the start. A coalescence of negative energy, able to form in such a manner due to the damage to reality the weapon's firing had caused. The misery and bitterness of humanity's dying breath and the passive disinterest of pokémon. That thing is an abomination. Worse yet, it is one born of this world rather than entities like The Shadow and the Bittercold. Dark Matter is loathsome. You speak of it in front of me?"
"It's reforming."
"Of course it is," Giratina scoffed. "Because something so twisted would never let itself simply die. Bah!"
"Did Giratina say Dark Matter wasn't The Shadow?" Guardian whispered to Striker, who nodded. "Oh."
"Tell me of your quest," Giratina demanded, and they ran through it carefully. It listened quietly, interjecting questions about Scout and his knowledge of what was to come before coming to a decision.
"There are matters, yet at hand, it seems," Giratina said. "I would bemoan the world being at risk so often, but I've heard from the Giratina of the other world, and it seems like there is a threat to the world every year, so I can hardly complain too much. Still, I would aid in your transportation, but, as I have said, the capacity to do so is limited. However, there are two things that can be done."
"We can get the shaymin!" Saniya said.
"That's one." Giratina nodded. "But there is another. With the pressure on space due to Darkrai's actions, my world has born the absolute brunt of the weight. This should have ceased once he was stopped and Palkia returned, yet Palkia has not. I request you enter the Spacial Rift and awaken Palkia, for Darkrai must have placed it in a truly deep sleep if his death has failed to rouse it."
"You want us to find Palkia?"
"Yes. For if Palkia returns, then they can retake their share of the burden. Without so much pressure on the Reverse Distortion, I may have an iota of freedom."
"Can you make a portal there?"
"No," Giratina said. "But I know who can." It was able to offer them a portal directly to Lapras at least.
Dialga had been very obliging.
"FINE! JUST GO!"
They left Dialga a gift of Royal Gummi's and pretended they didn't see Dialga smile.
The Spacial Rift hadn't been as unpleasant this time. Guardian didn't have to carry Striker and Sean as much; Saniya could help out as well!
They only almost fell into a wormhole three times.
Only once did they see into a mirror dimension that existed for half a second and wished they had not seen anything.
Otherwise, a more standard dungeon. Similar to the Hidden Land, when the dimension it was attached to wasn't being perverted, the place was actually rather nice and pretty. No leaking of dream realities built by misbegotten Shadow Pokémon summoning nightmarish shades.
Sean remembered the first time they went through here. Horrible monsters crawling through cracks in reality during the Temporal Crisis was nothing to seeing what he'd seen in the Spacial Rift.
He never even wanted to imagine that horror again.
The final area of the Spacial Rift, much less rigid and proper than Temporal Tower, was the vastness of space in the crystal bubble. There was no pillar bracing the physical heart of a false reality; the final room was very empty.
But below it was the infinite vastness of the spatial dimension. Below their feet, Palkia slumbered in a pleasant dream.
It was probably dreaming of defeating and embarrassing Dialga.
"Okay. How do we wake up Keira's bitch?" Saniya asked.
"Saniya!" Sean said. "That's way out of line."
"Oh. Sorry. Lucario's bitch. Was that better?"
Sean did not grace that with an answer.
"Maybe you should yell really loudly?" Striker suggested. "It's got to work eventually."
"Some time," Saniya said, nodding before giggling. "Ah… Dialga is going to stop pretending to hate us and actually hate us soon."
She glanced down. "Hmm." She took a breath, and everyone clasped their ears shut. "PALKIA?"
She took another. "PAAALLLKIIIAAA?"
And a third. "P̢À͘L̸̨̛K͘͏I͝͏̨A̸̛͝!"
The realm shook with her voice, tapping into some primal Power to do so.
Something shifted down below. Palkia rolled over and continued sleeping.
"Diddly darn, I'm out of ideas." Saniya shrugged.
"That wasn't even your idea!"
"Speaking really loudly is always my idea; you were just borrowing it."
"You cannot own an idea," Guardian said.
"I'm a deity; you cannot tell me that!"
"I will call you out on your biscuit-stealing, ideas-hogging, loudly-talking, behind if you do not listen!"
"I am older than you, Guardian!"
"I said nothing about age."
While they argued, Sean and Striker concocted a strategy with orbs.
"How many do I have to sacrifice?" Striker complained as Sean added more and more to the pile.
"Enough."
"How much is enough?"
"Enough." Sean finished setting up the pyramid of death. Three Luminous Orbs, two had been found in the dungeon most helpfully. Along with some Blowback, Cleanse, and Mug Orbs to finish it out.
A flashbang if there ever was one.
"Hey, Saniya?" Sean asked, looking up to find Saniya wrestling Guardian to the ground as he swore at her.
"Yeah?" she asked, looking up from smushing Guardian's face into the floor.
"Can you teleport this down to Palkia and, like, blow it up?"
"I can do that!" she said, dropping Guardian. "Oooh, Saniya, the mad bomber, I like it!"
"I can't watch," Striker said, turning away. Guardian pulled himself up and then Striker into a hug.
"You do not need to witness this."
Saniya dropped into the area below. She was definitely the only one who'd be able to survive down there very long. The glowing pink that was Saniya flew down fast, becoming not unlike one of the starry lights that could be seen.
Then she set off a supernova.
A reality-shaking roar shook the entire rift, and Saniya, very quickly, returned.
"Hoo!" she said, teleporting up. "I think I made it mad." She gasped for breath. "There is, like, NO air down there."
The roaring continued.
"Are… we going to have a fight?" Sean asked, alarmed as everything shook.
"Probably," Saniya shouted over the roaring. "It'll be fine. We took on Primal Dialga, and Dialga himself has said that in his fresh form, we'd probably win a fight. Palkia will be a piece of cake!"
The roaring reached an apex, and then space shattered.
Palkia loomed above them.
Tiny little baby Palkia, similar to how small Dialga was when it first returned. Dialga had only grown slightly, so their small sizes were similar.
Palkia's fury burned holes in the space around them as it glared at the interlopers who had encroached upon its realm.
Loud Celebi, clearly Dialga's minion, had decided that Palkia was weak and helpless after death and return and could curry favour with its master.
Dark Dusknoir, the agent of time. Dialga's fetid touch could be seen all over the dusknoir by Palkia; it knew Dialga's favour when it saw it.
Cool Grovyle. That one looked neat.
And Ri-
Palkia's eyes went wide, pupils went to pinpricks, and it dropped to the surface of the Spacial Rift as all the roaring and shaking stopped.
Palkia stared, frozen, at Sean.
And then… it screamed.
"AHHHHH! RIOLU!"
Dialga was minding its business, eating the gummi's slowly and happily, savouring the taste.
Team Sunrise probably wouldn't be long, they had left through a portal right at the ruins, and the dungeon should have calmed down.
He wondered if maybe he should have given them a warning that Palkia maybe a little cranky but shrugged that away. They were strong; they could handle whatever was thrown at-.
"Save me!"
Dialga jolted as something big and very sturdy slammed into him, tossing him on his side as pink and white overcame his vision.
Dialga responded as dialga, in general, do when a Palkia tackles them to the ground. Panic. Kicking, thrashing, and even biting as the two titans grappled on the ground.
Dialga wasn't sure, but it ended up with Palkia behind him, clutching onto his tail like a lifeline. "Get off me!" Dialga roared.
"No! You have to save me."
"From WHAT?"
Palkia pointed dramatically, and Dialga's eyes fell on Team Sunrise emerging from a portal. More specifically, Sean. "The riolu! Get it away from me!"
"... You're kidding."
"NO! Save me!"
"I do not care for this," Dialga growled before glaring at Team Sunrise, who looked almost sheepish. "What have you done?"
"I have no idea why Palkia reacted like this," Sean said.
"AH!" Palkia whimpered. As it was a gigantic monster, a whimper was quite loud and rumbly. "It'll kill me like the last one did! You have to banish it into the past, or the future, or anywhere that isn't here and now!" Palkia quietened, though and Dialga frowned as the arms around his tail shifted. "Your tail is nice."
Dialga stared before shaking his head. "No. Absolutely not. No. Get off me. Get off me. Get off me!"
"You have to shake me off," Palkia retorted, clutching tighter. "As if you could with this stumpy thing."
"Stumpy!?"
"And short. Your tail is small."
"Small!?"
Palkia's own tail twitched like it was waving at him mockingly.
"Can embodiments of time suffer aneurysms?" Saniya whisper-yelled.
Dialga's head shot back to glare at her. "It's getting close to finding out," he growled between clenched teeth. "Get. Palkia. Off. Me."
"What?" Palkia pleaded. "Noo! Your tail is nice, I swear!" he stroked Dialga's tail. "See, I like it. It's not small."
"GET OFF ME!" Dialga reared and flipped Palkia over his head, sending the lord of space tumbling to the ground in front of Team Sunrise.
"Uh…?" Sean said, as Palkia looked up in abject horror. "I'm not going to hurt you?"
Palkia flipped space and righted it, landing on Dialga's back again. "Save meeeeee!"
Dialga seethed. "
"LEAVE."
"Going!" Sean yelped, dashing off. "You'll take care of Palkia? Kthanksbye!" And Team Sunrise quickly followed.
Dialga watched them go with a glower until Palkia poked around again. "You're warm but not cuddly."
The eternal headache had returned.
They weren't getting away so easily.
Twila thrummed with anxious energy, her foot tapping quietly on the floor, staring out one of the windows into the sea. The blue from the sea reflected in her eyes, almost as if tempting her to leap out and escape this place of judgement and restrictions.
Luno, her brother, lay back to back with the third of Team Celestial, Sol the vigoroth who had not treated either of them differently no matter what he discovered. Twila was grateful beyond words for him, Sol was both of their rocks and his positive attitude was almost enough to convince her that hope still lay in the future.
Still, other thoughts swirled around her head since the Guildmaster's announcement. There had to be more to it, she was certain. Wigglytuff loved the Guild more than anything, to a pessimistic person they might say it was the only thing he had left. The idea that he'd step down to 'discover' himself again was… well, it wasn't unbelievable, but why now?
Now that things were tenser than they ever were.
She chewed her lip, sharp teeth leading to a sharp tang of blood in her mouth. Looking over Sol and Luno only worried her more. Sol was never particularly good at being still for very long unless he was asleep, and that was a battle in of itself. Yet, there he sat, feeling Luno's breath and sharing his own through the micromovements they made against each other. He had his eyes closed, Luno did not.
Her brother was not the type to close his eyes in thought, he was always sharp and watching for threats. The apprentices used to fight over who got them in the expeditions they went on, because Luno was so very good in a fight, no one got the jump on him and they came as a package deal.
It hurt her heart to think of the last expedition they had gone on, all the way out to the Frozen Woods, shortly before Bidoof had joined. They had gone with Loudred and Diglett after they claimed the siblings as part of their team. They had both been so excited and had performed wonderfully.
Now it was silent simmering anger from Loudred and Diglett just looked more lost every day.
They all felt lost these days, she felt. Maybe that was why Wigglytuff was stepping down, but she didn't believe it, why now? He was leaving with Team Ion as well. In a single day they were about to lose just about everyone in their corner who had real weight to their words.
Everyone respected Wigglytuff too much to go against his word and, yes, maybe a little bit of apprehension at what he'd do if someone really went against him. The only person capable of defusing him was gone now. Maybe that was why he was stepping away from leadership, concerned about his own volatility?
No matter what the reason was, it put Team Celestial in a troubling situation. She had the feeling that Scout especially of Team Ion was an idealist. He and Wigglytuff both. Neither of them really believed that the members of the Wigglytuff Guild may attempt to harm Luno in their absence.
Twila was not so naive.
They had both come from Fissure, how tough the real world could be was baked into their DNA, and Sol himself had been cruelly ejected from his original team. He put on a smile whenever he saw Team Razor Wind, talking to them like old friends, but Twila had known him long enough to figure out that Sol did in fact understand he'd been abandoned, he just preferred to think positively than hold onto grudges.
She was not the same as him.
They couldn't trust anyone in the guild, especially not Armaldo who had made it abundantly clear he thought they should kill Luno. Who was to say he wouldn't decide to do something without Wigglytuff around? Twila couldn't be sure that he wouldn't, she was aware of his past, while not a violent outlaw, he was still a mon willing to work outside the law.
Not that killing a Shadow Pokemon was even unlawful. Every moment thinking put more stress on Twila's shoulders, at any moment everything could go wrong, Loudred just had to yell loud enough and some townsfolk would hear and then Magnezone would and then the entire continent would know Luno was a Shadow Pokemon.
He was so distinctive they would have to run, probably to the Sand Continent, but how long could they stay ahead of the wanted posters?
They only thing that had held her from already cutting their losses here was Sol. She and Luno were used to a life on the fringes, as much as being part of the Wigglytuff Guild had shown both of them what it was like to live amongst other pokemon, work together, have friends, and so much more, it wasn't a right they got to have. It was a privilege, one they were running out of.
But Sol? She didn't want to put that on him. She knew, of course, that he would agree in a heartbeat, but he was such a social pokemon, surrendering him to a life of running and hiding wasn't a life for him at all.
And so, she held her tongue, but now, as she watched her brother and their best friend, she wondered what they would have to sacrifice next?
It was terrible, horrible, indeed, but she could not help but contemplate… they had left Sol before. He had waited for them, loyal and hopeful and trusting. He was excellent at reading people, Twila knew that from experience, but she was a better actor.
They could… leave. Tell him to do something, leave a message to wait, and just vanish. Sol was like Scout and Wigglytuff in a way, he was truly idealistic, always thought the best of people. He would wait….
Forever?
What cruelty was the lesser of the evils here?
At least if he remained in town he'd have the town and could still choose to have a future.
Yet, even as she felt this might be the best option, her heart ached. For Luno, so terrible much. The idea hurt her as well, she loved Sol almost as much as Luno did. He was what convinced them to stay in town, become part of the guild, learn what living was like instead of just surviving. She didn't want to ruin his life, but despite knowing it was kinder to leave him they still came back from the Sand Continent because they missed him. It was selfish, choosing to be selfish for once.
And Luno… what would he even do, having something beyond her to value only to have to relinquish it. She knew her brother so very well, but she'd never known him to care for anything besides her, and they'd always stick together. He would never have to contemplate what life would be like without her.
He had tolerated their long stint on the Sand Continent well enough, she knew. But there was something missing from both of them, and there was always the silent confidence that they'd return to Sol.
She didn't know what to do. These decisions fell to her and Twila found herself with no answers and no more time to make them.
There was a knock at the door, all three of them stiffened, even Luno hadn't heard whoever had approached the door.
Twila grasped the door handle and swung it out, the mons on the other side stepping back.
"You have gotten stealthier," Luno said flatly when the pokemon were revealed. It was Wigglytuff and Scout, how topical.
Scout waved with a paw, so close up Twila could make out the scars through his thin fur. The Guildmaster had one noticeable scar on his stomach as well, Sol was almost as scarred as Luno, perhaps more, under all that fur. Funny, she thought, how some of the most visibly scarred pokemon were the kindest.
And then there was herself and her brother.
"I've been practicing," Scout said.
"It is serving you well." Luno nodded.
"Hello, friends," Wigglytuff said with a bob in place. "May we come in?"
"Sure," Twila said, stepping back to let them enter. No one else would walk into a room with a Shadow Pokemon, but they did so without a mote of discomfort.
"Hey, guys," Sol said. "I can call you one of the guys now, right?" he asked Wigglytuff seriously.
Wigglytuff beamed. "Absolutely! Always could!"
Sol smiled.
"So, we wanted to come here to talk," Scout began, a flicker of that common Scout awkwardness seeping through. "I wanted to check how you three were, and R-sorry-Wigglytuff wanted to come as well." He glanced up at the former Guildmaster with those innocent eyes of his.
"It's a bit tense," Sol said without hesitation. He then glanced at Twila. "Oh, uh, should I have not said that?"
"No," she sighed, sitting down on a little stool by the table in their room. "It's fine, not like the room isn't swimming in tension right now."
Both of them had a flash of guilt over their expressions and Twila could not help but take some sort of satisfaction in that, even as feeling that only made her feel worse.
Wigglytuff put his paws together. "I wanted to assure you that I've spoken to Armaldo about everything and he's promised me nothing will change about the conditions we've set up," he said imploringly.
Twila forced a smile as stale as mouldy bread. "That is good to hear."
The expression did not fool even Scout, she had to put some more effort into it.
"So, the main reason I came to visit is, uh, we, Team Ion I mean, well I mean I guess Wigglytuff is part of it now. But the cat part of it." Scout's awkwardness was endearing enough that even Twila's frosty exterior melted slightly to a more genuine smile. "We uh, we wanted to offer you to stay in Sharpedo Bluff if you wanted."
Team Celestial blinked once.
Wigglytuff added to it, "If you agree, I'll change the terms with Armaldo right before I officially leave so you can stay there without trouble."
"Team Ion wants to offer us their home?" Twila asked. Scout nodded. "That includes Shinx and Litleo?"
"It was actually Rai's idea," Scout said.
Twila looked almost taken aback by that.
"Yeah, he said he remembers the three of you were really good at swimming and so that it might not actually feel like you're boxed in considering the windows in here aren't much good plus all the sharp rocks at the bottom, compared to Sharpedo Bluff just opening up into the ocean a lot less roughly."
Twila coughed a bit as Sol asked, "Little Shinx is giving us an escape route?" he asked amused.
Scout smiled innocently. "Who doesn't like a dip in a waterfall here and there? It's still technically part of the town."
"Shinx is offering us his home?" Twila repeated, probing for what really is going on there.
Scout just nodded again. "Seriously. He, well, he didn't want to come and offer it himself because… you know he's still rather uncomfortable. But he did say that he wants to offer it to you three, having to come back to the Guild every night where everyone is tense and unfriendly is just bound to make everyone miserable."
Ah, that's what it was, Rai was sparing the rest of the guild and maybe trying to reduce the risk of a evil shadow snapping.
Sol broke through Twila's dark thoughts with a beaming and genuine. "Thank you, Meowth, that's really kind of all three of you."
Twila glanced at him and saw that Sol was smiling right at her as well. Right, she breathed, not everything was a layered move that prioritised everyone else, it was possible Shinx was genuinely trying to help them. Considering that, yes, the sea was a bold but doable escape route couldn't have been missed by him and they were good swimmers.
She glanced at Wigglytuff. "And you'd make sure that Armaldo wouldn't try and use that against us?"
Anyone who had learned in the Wigglytuff Guild was aware of Wigglytuff's acumen, he was so much sharper than he came across, there was no way he wouldn't have thought of Team Celestial escaping via the sea… which made all the more sense, actually. He'd want them to have a route out that didn't involve being stuck in a Guild and having to either break through reinforced stone or fight through the others in the guild.
"Sure would!" Wigglytuff chirped. "I'd like to make sure you three are safe even if I'm not here."
"We'll… well, we'll talk about it? When are you leaving?"
"Tomorrow," Scout answered. "Just sorting out everything before we head off."
Twila nodded. "We'll have an answer by tonight."
Scout nodded back. "No problem." He looked up at Wigglytuff who smiled back.
"Can I have a moment?" he asked.
Scout gave one more nod. "I'll see you all later," he said, departing.
When the door closed, Wigglytuff looked over all three of them in a long lingering gaze.
"I understand if you hate me for this," he said, centering on Twila. "Either because it makes me seem so selfish to leave you in such a nebulous time or just because you think I'm too trusting of everyone."
"I don't think you are too trusting," Twila said with a sigh. "In fact I admire it, I wish I could be." She looked over to Luno, then Sol. "Like Sol is."
Rhythm followed her gaze, focusing on Luno first. "Do you think you'll be in more danger without me around?" he asked genuinely.
Luno answered swiftly. "Yes, your absence makes any place less safe."
Rhythm nodded, accepting the compliment for what it was. "Putting aside my personal strength?"
That took a little longer of thinking. "I believe I could take Armaldo in a battle. Certainly with Twila and Sol's assistance."
A smile twitched at Rhythm's mouth as Sol concurred. "We can take him for sure!"
"That's not the worry," Twila sighed, though it also was. It'd probably take all three of them, but she was reasonably confident they could take Armaldo if it came to it.
It was adding in the rest of the guild that was the problem.
"Fair enough, you should be confident in your skills. You are graduates after all!" Wigglytuff grinned proudly at them and then settled. "Would you believe me if I said that Armaldo doesn't hate you?" he asked softly.
Twila opened her mouth to lie as easily as she breathed, but it caught in her teeth at the look in Rhythm's eyes. Soft and accepting of anything she said, just the same when they first crawled up to the guild to ask for shelter. He had given them a home and asked just for them to do their best.
There were many reasons why they stayed in Treasure Town, why they came back, and most of all why they hadn't left yet. The fact that so many of those who she had cherished had grown awkward and distant hurt more than she was willing to admit to herself.
She couldn't help but return the suspicion. In every gentle word from Chimecho she wondered what was professional and what was trying to tease out information. When Bidoof still talked to them just the same as he always did, she wanted to believe in his good nature so much but years of having to protect herself and her brother guarded her like a nest of arbok.
All of that faltered at Rhythm. Scout was a stranger, odd and unconnected to old feelings, but Rhythm hadn't wavered in his defence, hadn't hesitated to stick up for them.
"Would you believe me if I said I'm sure that everyone will come around," Rhythm added. "And I know you must feel like it's all on you, but it isn't. I know you're thinking of leaving town, I'm sure you've been figuring it out since this all started."
Twila glanced away guiltily.
"And… when I'm not here, I certainly can't stop you if you decide you have to go. But… please, hold out a little longer. I believe in you, and everyone else here in the Wigglytuff Guild. It's still my guild, everyone learned from Chatot and I, they're still… them."
Still them.
The idea sent a pang of pain through Twila's heart.
They were still themselves too, did everyone not see that?
Tears filled her vision unbidden and she found herself hugging Rhythm before she even knew what was happening. Unsure if she had initiated it or him, but she didn't let go. "Okay," she said. "We'll do our best."
"Don't forget, smiles go for miles!" he said as they broke apart, smiling at her. She managed a weak, floppy, but real smile in return.
"Smiles go for miles," she echoed.
"Smiles go for miles," Luno said, surprising her.
Sol laughed and concurred. "Smiles go for MILES, YEAH!"
He spun around and gave Luno a hug from behind, grinning on his shoulder.
"Thanks, Guildmaster," Twila said.
Rhythm smiled at her. "I'm not your Guildmaster anymore."
"You'll always be our Guildmaster," she corrected, and there was nothing more that needed to be said.
As later that evening, Twila had one thing to say to Scout. "Give Rai and Mane our thanks, we'll use the bluff."
"Meh-heh-heh, as promised, here they are."
The day had arrived. Part dread, part anticipation, and all a bit sad, Team Ion and Team Sunrise were preparing to depart.
And Team Ion now counted Rhythm, the former Guildmaster, so there was a lot of pokémon gathered to see them off.
Guardian, proving the dad he truly was, had traded in all his treasure for Croagunk to arm Team Ion with some powerups to try and keep them safe.
Scout boasted a ruff around his neck in addition to his scarf, which was tied around his tail now. The Bling Ruff sparkled.
Rai had traded out his old scarf for the Energy Scarf, an electrically bright yellow. He already felt like he could run and fight for longer with it on.
And Mane had a collar underneath the Silver Bow. In the middle was a shard of a fire stone and he might have looked very dapper if it weren't covered by his bow.
Rhythm was busy hugging everyone goodbye. Everyone.
"Get off me," Armaldo grumbled. Rhythm clung harder until Armaldo gave him a hug back. He sighed. "Stay safe out there."
"I'll bring you back something cool," he promised. Armaldo grunted, and finally, he was let go as Rhythm moved onto the next victim. Kecleon Green.
"And do you have enough food?" Guardian asked worriedly. "The Guildmaster is known for his voracious appetite."
"Wigglytuff, dad," Scout corrected. "And yes, we've even got perfect apples."
"Enough?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure?"
"Do you want to count?"
"No, no, I trust you."
Rai, Mane, Striker, and Sean chatted as well, sharing exploration tips they all knew and wishing the best of times to come.
"You be careful, okay!" Sean said before giving them both a hug with one arm each around their necks. "Take care of Scout for us."
"Always do," Rai said.
"Yeah, you should have seen last ni-" Rai kicked Mane. "Fine."
He got an eye roll from those two as Saniya swooped in. "Presents!" She scattered orbs on them; Striker caught every single one and delicately set them down.
"Best to not let these explode," he chastised as she perched on his head.
"I knew you'd catch them," she said; Striker had already gathered them up. "There we go. Good little grovyle."
Rolling his eyes but not shaking her off, he handed the sack of orbs to Scout, bridging the two little groups. "Think you've got the basics of the slash down?"
"Yep. Thank you for showing me."
"No worries."
"So… is it time?" Guardian asked softly.
"I think so," Saniya sighed. She waved to Treasure Town. "Being honest, can't wait to be on the road. I'm sick of looking at you guys all the time. With your amazing deals and friendly baked goods." Her voice began to go higher. "And listening ears, and funny bone jokes, and funny ghost jokes, and I'm so happy." She was squeaking now. "I'm not crying; you're crying."
Marowak, who was walking towards town, heard her and said, "I'm not crying." She kicked him in the knee. Then he was crying.
"Yeah, I didn't skip leg day THIS time, buckarino!"
"I will remember this," Marowak swore, limping off in a hurry.
"Good." Saniya's eyes sparkled. "Because I don't want no one forgetting us! We'll be back. Don't die in the meantime, please."
"We'll do our best," Armaldo grumbled.
"I hate you, bug monster!"
"Back at you, onion."
It was the closest thing they'd get to speaking softly for a goodbye.
"I trust you'll look after my boy?" Guardian asked Rhythm.
He nodded firmly. "I will."
Guardian then looked to the three. "And I trust you'll look after him too?" he asked, just a tad wryly.
Scout grinned, and Rai and Mane chuckled as Rhythm pouted. "We'll be fine."
"I hope so," Sean said, coming forth for a hug. He pulled Scout into it and sighed. "You still need to eat more."
"It's my metabolism!"
Sean poked him in the ribs. "It's not healthy, is what it is. Be safe, don't do anything stupid."
"You mean anything I'd do?"
"No." Sean shook his head. "I mean, don't do anything stupid. You're not stupid."
Scout gave a rueful smile until a real one came out. "Well…." He decided not to make a joke. "Be safe yourself. Keep an eye out for anyone I mentioned, or just suspicious in general. Things shouldn't be happening yet, but we all know how well it goes when I think that."
Sean nodded firmly, pulling back to let Saniya latch on, then Guardian.
As Scout was released and the other two hugged as well, Striker cleared his throat and stepped forwards. "You'll be careful, right?" he asked awkwardly; people were watching after all.
Scout nodded. "Always." Striker snorted at him and he grinned. "Once we get back together I'll have a proper ranged Night Slash to show you!"
Striker nodded back. "I'll hold you to that."
Scout smiled. "See you, Striker."
"See you, Scout."
Finally, it was well past the time they had agreed to leave; the two teams separated. At this point, they were really just one team, one with two names.
Everyone gave one last set of goodbyes to everyone, including a shout to Treasure Town. And then?
Then the journey began once more.
"I love the way the Hidden Land smells," Saniya commented as they arrived.
"Why?" Lapras asked, puzzled.
"Smells fresh," Saniya said. "Like the promise of a better tomorrow. It's a scent of eagerness and anticipation, fitting for a place a second out of sync with the rest of the world."
"Is it a second forwards or a second backwards?" Sean asked curiously.
"Forwards," Striker answered as Saniya opened her mouth. "I asked Dialga about that when we were staying here."
"Striker," Saniya said calmly, floating over to him. On the outside, he seemed nonplussed; on the inside, he was afraid of how calm she had spoken. She then took his orbs from him. "I am the one to answer time-related questions!"
The bag was hers now. But Striker would have his revenge.
"Furthermore, Dialga got the idea from an ancient Celebi."
"Striker!" Saniya yelled, appalled at his brazen betrayal. "You have no idea the depths of my wrath!"
"Try it. You've taken my orbs; there's nothing more you can take."
"Oooh, I haven't taken ALL of them JUST YET!" Saniya snarled, a terrifying grin slowly stretching over her face.
"Before we dig in, shall we get moving?" Guardian asked, spinning Saniya around until her eyes zoned in on Temporal Tower.
"Yes," she said. "Grab onto my body!" Once everyone's hands were on, Saniya cheated, and speedrunners everywhere hate her.
Teleportation.
After depositing them at the Rainbow Stoneship, or, rather, rolling down the steps of the Rainbow Stoneship, Saniya huffed and puffed and yelled really loudly.
"DIALGA!"
Her voice echoed across the ancient ruins.
"Did we ever ask what this place was for?" Sean asked, taking a moment to look around. "I mean, an old temple, ancient sculptures, that row of murals. What was this place?"
"Much of the world has been reclaimed by nature," Dialga said, causing Sean to scream a little. No one else reacted, having noticed the giant dinosaur-looking dragon fly down, somehow, from the tower.
He trotted in the air as if that was actually propelling him, but they knew it to be time magic causing him to float.
"Where did you COME FROM?" Sean gasped, holding his chest.
"From Temporal Tower," Dialga answered flatly.
"You think you're slick."
"I think you are forgetting you are speaking to the Lord of Time. Watch yourself, furry."
Sean's expression slowly and purposely shifted to his own flattened expression of unamusement. "Who told him?"
Guardian glanced away.
Saniya looked up.
Striker coughed.
"I was betrayed by all three of you!?"
"Ahahah, aaanyway," Saniya said before waving excitedly. "Hi, Dialga! Ready to help us again!?"
Dialga stared. "I appreciate the fact that you've stopped even asking if I would help."
"Glad you're being reasonable."
"No, just resigned."
"Before you bother me with whatever it is this time," Dialga said, as Saniya went to continue. "I'm going to tell you why this place is a ruined temple."
"Was it humans?" Sean asked.
Dialga stared for a moment before taking a pained breath of air. "Why are you here?"
Sean, normally the one to speak for the team, crossed his arms and Saniya had been distracted with something shiny on the ground.
Thus, it was Guardian who spoke.
"Master Dialga," he began.
"Nope. Grovyle, you can be the one to tell me."
Guardian sunk into the ground in shame as Striker stepped forth to address Dialga, pulling out their Wonder Map.
"We'd like to access Giratina's realm, and the name and general location of the entrance is known to us, the World Abyss? But we're not entirely sure on the exact place."
"I see," Dialga said. "So, you are saying you already actually know where to go; you just don't want to do the leg work?"
"That is correct, Dialga." Striker nodded.
"Good thing I didn't take the last of his orbs," Saniya muttered, a little lightheaded from watching Striker stare Dialga down with absolutely no backing down.
If Dialga was impressed, the creature didn't show it. Rising up to its full height, which was still baby's toy dialga compared to how large the previous one was, Dialga boomed.
"Team Sunrise. I will grant you the boon of knowledge. With it, you may pierce the realities to enter the Reverse Distortion. Once you have entered, you are at Giratina's mercy. Do not pray to Arceus, for It will not help you there."
"Cool, thanks."
Dialga's eye twitched. "Just… here." It stomped, and a blue ring burned its way around a portion of the Wonder Map before fading into a black circle. "Now go away."
"Aww, but have some catching up to do!" Saniya cried, flying up to perch on Dialga's face. "Pweeease?"
Dialga shook its head and flung Saniya like a fly. "I do not have the time for this," Dialga said before closing his eyes in pain. "I meant patience; I said patience."
"Well, if you don't have the time," Saniya said, grinning like a sharpedo.
"We probably have taken up too much of your time," Sean agreed, a smiling pulling at his face even as he resisted.
"I guess it's time to go." Striker nodded, crossing his arms with a smirk.
"We'll see you next time," Guardian added.
Then all four of them snickered at each other.
"I…do not…deserve this," Dialga groaned, looking for all the world like he wanted to just lie down and roll off the Rainbow Stoneship's temple.
Shaking his head, he began to float again. "I hope Giratina eats you," he growled before tossing his head. "Like I'd ever get what I want." And then began to fly away.
"Bye Dialga!" Saniya waved. "We'll be back! In…TIME!"
"Alrighty then!" Saniya beamed. "Let's go. I feel like I want to rumble, so let's go the dungeon way back! WOO!"
She sped off like a bullet, and her friends quickly pursued.
The World Abyss.
It looked a lot like a cave.
"Is this it?" Saniya asked, popping her neck several times. She was being carried by Sean this time, having been blasted close together after the teleports.
It had taken most of two days to get here. Which, considering the distance they travelled, was outstanding time management.
Saniya couldn't teleport such distances over and over within a short period. Each stop, after they picked themselves up from eating dirt, was spent washing mouths out and making sure they weren't any dangers about until Saniya collected herself enough to teleport again.
Teleporting one person was difficult enough; four was a considerable strain on her. Yet, she wouldn't complain about it.
Saniya was a weird one. You would never hear a genuine complaint from her. No amount of pain or exhaustion would pull that out of her.
But minorly inconvenience her, or be Armaldo, and you'd have her cursing a PG-rated storm of gripes and grievances.
She could ramble on for hours about the various injustices she was subjected to in this world of light and life.
And so, she did so as they stared at the entrance to Giratina's realm.
"Look at that thing, that piddly little entryway. Does Giratina not have any artistic pride? Look at that crumbling bit of dirt! Oh my gosh, this is offensive. I will be speaking to Giratina about this. Maybe some skulls to raise the mood, place some random assortment of bloodstains to really maximise the spookiness."
"We can focus on informing Giratina of its terrible decoration skills later," Guardian advised, plucking Saniya from Sean's shoulders to point her towards the cave. "For now…."
"Now we enter!" Saniya said, pointing forth as she rose up dramatically.
It was unspoken but agreed that it was Saniya's mission to lead.
Giratina had guided them, the mission control for the Planetary Investigation Team and the mastermind behind the plan as a whole.
Locked within the Reverse Distortion, Giratina had still managed to raise Celebi, keep her wise to Dialga's tricks, and do its best from its mirrored world to keep the team on track.
Guardian betraying them had been a severe hit, but Giratina was prepared for betrayal.
It had never approved of Soothe after all.
Giratina was a member of the Planetary Investigation Team too. But they had never had the chance to see it in person, only through a dusty mirror. An eye of great magnitude, a voice akin to a natural disaster's paradoxical whisper, and a mind that had existed literally forever.
And Saniya's parent.
Who she had never even touched before.
She couldn't wait.
They entered the World Abyss, expecting a difficult dungeon. Perhaps like the Spacial Right or Hidden Land with its carnage and monsters.
They did not find that.
Giratina didn't copy.
The World Abyss wasn't a dungeon at all.
It was a collection of rooms, just like a dungeon. It had several immediate differences, however.
The place was dark. Very dark. No light lit the rooms and pathways; no cracks into a tormented sky spoke of hidden horrors behind the dungeons. It was just really dusty.
Saniya glowed with pink light so they wouldn't walk into the big pillar that was inside the second room.
The next most obvious difference was a lack of pokémon. Ferals or otherwise.
Only Circh had been like this, and this didn't have the same mournful emptiness that Circh did. The air was musty, dusty and made Sean sneeze like the dickens.
"This is weird," Saniya said, tone changing on every word from high to higher. "Let's…turn back for a bit." They had walked right and found the same general room every time, sometimes there was a pillar, but then they were just rocks.
They turned back and then shared looks of confusion.
This room was brighter. And it was brighter because there was an exit.
"Did we… get to the end of the dungeon?" Sean asked, puzzled. "And then just leave?"
"That can't be right."
"We did go right a lot," Saniya added wisely.
"Perhaps left then?" Striker suggested.
It was as good of a suggestion as any, and so they went left.
The same thing happened.
"Okay," Saniya said, they must have gone through thirty of those damn rooms, in one direction, and still wound up here. "What is this place?"
"I believe it may be a puzzle," Guardian said. "Perhaps instead of blindly charging ahead, we can check out these pillars?"
"Fiiine," Saniya sighed. "We'll do it the smart and sensible way, nerd."
"Thank you," Guardian said. He floated up to the large platform, wide at the base and flat on the top, and considered it for a moment.
"This is unown," he said, rubbing his chin area intrigued. "Give me a moment."
"...Past three pillars… to the sleeping… before 30 is surpassed," Striker said, reading it instantly.
Guardian dropped his arm and glowered at Striker. "Do you have no respect for the art of the reveal?" he asked.
"No," Striker said.
They elected to go forwards this time.
"So, three pillars?" Sean asked, pointing to the first one in the room they pointed.
"One, one," Guardian read, quickly, before shooting Striker a filthy look.
"Then, let's go back and go right!" Saniya said, cracking the code. They re-entered the first room and then headed right.
There was no pillar.
"I think we're being played for chumps," Saniya said, glaring at the lack of pillar.
The four of them groaned and headed left this time, taking a different turn rather than just going straight every time.
There was a pillar in this room.
"Yes, I'm a genius!" Saniya whooped.
"Uh, genius, this says one and two," Striker pointed out.
"…What does that mean?" Saniya demanded.
"I have no idea."
"I don't like this place."
They walked on, taking turns and chatting where they wanted to.
"I have a topic we should discuss in this dark, dank dive," Saniya said. "Sunrises. Aren't they the best?"
"They really are." Guardian nodded.
"I name things good," Sean said. "I know we all like sunrises."
"They keep me alive," Striker said approvingly.
"Me too! No more drinking Sun Stone Smoothies!" Saniya beamed. Her lustre faded slightly as they turned into another room with nothing. "Anyway, Sean, I have a grievance to share with you."
"Is it about me?" Sean asked.
"Quite," Saniya said primly. "See, you're my friendly friend pally-wally friend buddy chum-chum pal buddy chum pal buddy-buddy chum pal friendo amigo bestest little furry buddy chum pal buddy."
Sean looked ready to faint after such a barrage of friendliness.
Guardian had to support Striker as his orbs rolled away from the figurative stroke he had upon hearing that.
"So, knowing we are best buddies best friends forever my pal buddy chum friend pal. Why did you not let little old happy friendly cheerful happy positive sunny sunrise sunny side up pink shiny glowing knock-knocker extraordinaire know about the fact that you my buddy friend pal buddy furry happy chum pal friendly frienderizing friendo happy chum buddy pal partner happy furry chum pal buddy had a roommate?"
"…Wut?"
"Saniya lifted Sean up by the scruff of his thin snappable diddly-darn neck with her amazing powerful glorious intelligent mighty mind," Saniya chirped, doing as she said. "To ask him why he did not tell his happy cheerful buddy buddies friendly pal friendo's he saved the whole entire sunrisey bright living happy world with that he knew a certain krok. O. Rok?"
Sean was the deerling in the headlights. "I know nothing that you speak of."
"Your lips were as loose as his holes are that night you tasted the amber truth telling liquid known as alcohol."
"I know NOTHING!"
"Lies!" Saniya declared. "I will not hear this atrocious mouth flapping."
"I'm the one talking nonsense?"
"Yes, my friend pal friend friendly friendo that I tossed back in time to meet the person who made him a furry."
"Stop bringing that up!"
"Never!"
These japes and jokes continued as the four of them pushed their way through ceaseless rooms of nothing changing.
"I want to turn back in this cave," Saniya moaned as they entered the first room again. "All things are terrible."
"There must be a pattern," Guardian muttered. "There just has to be."
"Maybe we have to destroy the pillars?" Striker suggested, itching to break something for having to listen to Saniya speaking friendly talk for the past thirty minutes.
"Maybe you need to be silent and look pretty," Saniya replied. "Pretty handsome! HAH! Gottem!"
"She's in a real mood today," Sean whispered to Striker, who nodded. Saniya was now trying to pull the letters off the plaque and beat something with them.
"Sticks and stones may break some bones, but words will break your nose!" Saniya yelled, ripping an unown f off.
Then it came to life.
"Oh bother," she said as it squealed in something that must have been violently swearing and then the other unown began to wake up.
"Well, now we're about to feel the pain of language," Guardian said as even more unown began to peel off walls, covered in dust before. "Oh, there were probably clues under the dust."
"Good thinking, Guardian!" Saniya said brightly. "Why didn't you think it before!?"
They had to run as reality was quirking a little at the wrath of the unown.
An unown c, unown u, and unown t levitated an old rusty knife and began to chase them.
By the time they had ran through thirty rooms, the entire place had awoken, and letters were swarming their heads.
"Eek!" Saniya yelled. "They're getting in my hair!"
"I've got this!" Striker said and ran headfirst into a column that was raised. "Ow," he fell back, blinking in pain as he saw stars, and letters, and numbers too.
27.
"Hm?" he wondered before remembering the inscription at the start of this misadventure. "Oh! I think we found three!"
"Then let's gooo!"
Pikachu sneezed so hard he nearly headbutted Eevee and knocked each other out.
"I think this is it," Saniya said as they raced into the next, the final, room.
It was as dark as the rest. Dusty walls, stony ground, and very dark. Only Saniya's exuberant light allowed them to see anything.
There were no unown in the room and only the one entryway. The unown did not pursue them; it was silent once more.
As the last of the four entered the room, something shivered. The air felt charged like it could electrocute something at any time. The walls holding their breath, flakes of dust falling from the walls.
At the end of the dark room, something lit up.
They took a moment to sag, breathing in relief. Saniya, as expected, was the first to regain her energy.
"What is that?" Saniya asked, zooming forwards unfearingly. It moved like oil yet reflected like glass. A twisted, warped reflection.
"Saniya, be careful!" Guardian called, but she did not hesitate to touch the strange surface of the mirror. It was set into the farthest part of the wall yet was unblemished by even a speck of dust that covered everything else.
And, of course, it glowed, which was indicative of something. The mirror seemed to flow in place, up, down, in circles. It was hypnotic, really, to someone like Saniya, who liked staring into bright things like they could answer the questions of life.
"Saniya?" someone called, but they were so far away she couldn't hear them. Really, how long had she been flying?
"I'm so pretty," Saniya sighed, staring into the blur of pinks, yellows, greys, and purples. Green orbs appeared close by each other before deepening into a darker emerald. Lighter greens circled the darker ones as more colours flowed together.
Mostly pinks.
A haired top, twin antennae, a deeper pink formed a lower body.
Soon enough, Saniya was staring at herself. As mirrors tended to reflect, although this one had taken a little while to get there.
"Hi!" Saniya beamed.
"Hi." Saniya grinned back.
"Saniii…." Three more figures appeared in the mirror. Blurs at first, but they quickly took on the blues, greens, and greys of Sean, Striker, and Guardian. She was vaguely aware of them being near her, but they had frozen still, staring into the mirror.
"My friends are great, aren't they?" Saniya asked.
"Sure are!" Saniya agreed. "I didn't know they were as vain like me, though."
She giggled, covering her mouth as she glanced to where her friends reflected. They didn't talk, just stared.
"Why don't yours play with mine?" Saniya asked.
"Silly," Saniya replied. "They shouldn't play with themselves! That's something for lonely people. Or introverts. Although, saying that…."
"Mine aren't!" Saniya assured. "They'd love to get to know themselves! Like I know me."
"I do know me." Saniya nodded smartly. "Is that why we're talking, but they're just staring?"
"Who's to say they aren't talking to?" Saniya asked, cocking her head. "Eyes are the window to the soul; after all, maybe they're talking on a level we can't."
"What do you mean we can't?"
"Well, you don't really have a soul now, do you?"
Saniya pouted. "That's really mean to say! And it's a lie. You really think I don't know how it works? It might be a little different to them, but it still counts!"
"Does it, though? You'll live until you die and die forever and become a memory and nothing more. When they die, they might get a chance to come back. You'll be gone forever."
"You're not a nice reflection, are you?"
"I'm you. What does that say about you?"
Saniya shook her head. "No. I'm not this kind of person. I don't focus on the negatives. Why should I? They are there, and I know that, but I don't let it rule me. Is that what you're trying to do? Upset me with 'The Truth'?"
"All I'm here is to offer you a better way."
"Let me guess. Swap places? I live with my friends forever, only it's in a fake world? Pass."
"Heh." Saniya's reflection smiled at her. "I don't know why Giratina set up this weird defence to 'test' anyone who wants to enter. I think they're just a grumpy guss who pretends they don't want company."
"So, I pass?"
"As if there was any doubt. You know yourself too well, and I know there's not anything I can do to make you doubt. Give the big old dragon a hug for me, okay?"
"Okay. Do my friends get through as well?"
"Sure." Saniya's reflection waved her hands, and the others blinked, coming to their senses. "They weren't actually getting tested, just being shushed so they wouldn't offer you outside support. Really, I think Giratina just wants to 'prove' to something that it did right by you. They're not good as social stuff, don't give them too hard of a time, okay?"
"Saniya?" Sean asked calmly. "Why is your reflection talking?"
"Well, I started off being nice, then I got mean, then I'm nice again." Saniya shrugged, both of them. "I guess it's a pretty good copy of me, to be honest."
"Thanks!" Saniya's reflection giggled. "Okay, I'll get out of your way. This is the portal."
"Knew it."
The reflections faded back into a vortex of colour. Rather than calming down, it grew faster, churned more chaotically until the wind began to pick up.
"Is this normal?" Striker yelled, grabbing onto Guardian.
"Yes," Sean said, eyes narrowed as the storm began to really whip up. "I actually remember a LOT of wind going on when I got snatched."
"Oh goody, are we about to meet the tentacles?" Saniya asked.
"Please, no."
There were no tentacles, but the portal did open, dragging anything not part of the room into it. Rapidly, violently, and disorientating, they were pulled into the Reverse Distortion.
This particular group of pokémon had experienced dimensional and time-related travel before. Being thrown into Giratina's Realm may have knocked another group of pokémon out for at least a few minutes. For Team Sunrise, they just needed a few moments to catch their breath.
"Feel like home, Sean?" Saniya mumbled, pulling herself up first to look around.
"I don't know if I was ever actually in here," Sean groaned, pushing up on straining arms. He blinked, squinted, and rubbed his arms. "Okay."
There were floating islands. That was different.
"This does not look like what I could have imagined." Guardian was the next to recover, pulling Striker up with him. "It's… almost like the Dark Future in a sense."
With the randomly floating parts and overall silent emptiness.
A world filled with islands, buildings, and possible adventure. Yet only one lived within.
Yet it wasn't the empty silence of the Dark Future. Where the world had gasped its last breath, and only the silence of a disturbed grave was left. The silence here was not as oppressive, not as maddening.
Almost… peaceful.
Bubbles floated in the atmosphere of the Reverse Distortion. Within them, images of the world they had come from could be witnessed.
Sean almost went to touch one close by but caught himself. Scout had told them a little of what he knew about this place; destroying anything could damage their world.
And their world had been damaged enough.
Along with bubbles, there was dangerous, dark rippling clouds of smoke. They were few and far between but very noticeable blots of darkness.
"I guess we have to find Giratina," Sean said, glancing around before pointing to the closest island. It had part of a pokémon building jutting out of it. It wasn't destroyed, only incomplete.
Everything was, he realised, looking around again. The land was incomplete. The rules of gravity were incomplete. The buildings were half-built, half-destroyed, half something, never complete.
"Maybe I could yell really loudly?" Saniya suggested. "How big do you think this place is?"
"If it's an entirely parallel dimension," Striker pointed out, "I'd guess pretty big." He paused as a dark shadow overtook them.
There was no sun in this place, yet light shone anyway.
"Correct," the shadow said, nothing but a serpentine shape with red eyes. Slowly, the body filled in.
Remarkably, this hadn't caused panic in Team Sunrise. They had come a long way since jumping at every corner.
They all looked up as one, Guardian and Striker still holding each other, Sean half-stepped towards Saniya, who had frozen in the air to the point she fell from the air, leading to Sean catching her in his paws.
"Welcome," Giratina said conversationally. "Mind the clutter; it's been some time since anyone has entered my realm."
Slowly, Saniya pulled herself out of Sean's grip and floated up.
Giratina was gargantuan.
She floated up, a tiny speck of pink in a world of incomplete colours. She rose until she was level with Giratina and then paused; she was very high up now. It was just so large.
Then, she floated in.
Slowly, even hesitantly. Giratina watched her carefully, still in the air.
Its body was grand and serpentine, unaffected by the grip of gravity and in its original form. Golden spikes jutted from its body, in spikes, in claws, and in a shape like a crown around its head. Shadowy tendrils, six in total, loomed from behind its head, pointed in crimson claws and swaying like a shadow even as the rest of Giratina remained still.
As Saniya floated forwards, a few of its tendrils came forth. She did not slow even as one traced the claw down her face curiously, not touching her, not quite. Despite being so close, and she so small, Giratina was able to guide them without moving a hair on her head.
She was within breathing distance of Giratina now. Its dark red eye stared at her, naturally narrowed into a fierce look. She wasn't afraid, but she was terrified.
Giratina breathed. Saniya could feel that now that she was so close.
Its eye was half the size of her body; she could stand within the gap of its crown and just barely touch the top and bottom.
She met its eye, one she had seen countless times before. Only ever from the distance of a mirror, the distance of a whole reality away. She hadn't known Giratina breathed.
Things were going blurry. Not from the Pressure emanating from Giratina's ancient presence but from tears in her eyes.
"May I?" she whispered, holding out one hand while keeping the other across her chest.
Giratina nodded.
She drew in and laid her hand on Giratina's face.
The daughter touched her parent for the first time.
A soft sound broke out of Saniya's chest before she flew in, pressing her cheek against Giratina's face and weeping.
The wail cut through the silence of the Reverse Distortion. An echo-cry. Both happy and sad, Saniya wept against Giratina.
Slowly, even more carefully than she had drawn in close, Giratina brought one of its tendrils around, the smoky tendril still having a physical presence and gently touched it to Saniya's back, rubbing it down soothingly.
It had never done this before, to anyone or anything. But it had seen parents comfort their children like this before, so it tried.
Saniya only began to cry harder at the gentle touch.
Giratina's eyes flicked to the others she had brought in concern, but they were tearing up as well, and it did not know what to do.
People had cried before it before, weeping in terror at their end has come. But Saniya was only pressing closer, and they were not trying to pull her away.
"I don't understand," Giratina said. "Why do you cry?"
Saniya sobbed something indiscernible to mortal ears.
"…I see."
Giratina continued stroking her back until her sobs moved to whimpers, to shakes, and then calm.
Later, as Saniya regained the ability to speak, she rejoined Team Sunrise and receiving a group hug. "I don't know if I've ever cried that hard before," she said, hiccupping as she wiped her eyes.
"How did you know we were here?" Sean asked, looking up at Giratina curiously.
"I know who attempts to enter my world," Giratina answered. "And there aren't many ways to get in anymore."
"How big is this place?" Striker asked, also curious.
"The Reverse Distortion mirrors your own reality. It is larger than you could ever imagine, if still smaller than your own."
"I believe we should explain why we have come here," Guardian suggested. "I do hope you forgive the intrusion, Giratina."
Giratina blinked at him. "If I minded, I would have attacked rather than embraced Saniya."
"Aww, you big softie," Saniya said, a happy smile on her bright face. "Thank you."
Giratina nodded to her.
"We're here just because I wanted to see you," Saniya said, still the 'leader' of this expedition. "After being able to almost see you in The Dream, I knew… I knew I wanted to see you for real."
"Now that you are here," Giratina said, accepting that answer. "It would please me to fill in the gaps of what I have lost from the time change."
"How much do you remember?" Sean asked curiously.
There was something to be said about Team Sunrise being so comfortable with Giratina. However, all of them had interacted with it many times, if still through a mirror and with curt instructions rather than picnics around a campfire.
"I won't repeat what you already know," Giratina said, "about how I can understand. However, for myself in particular. I know more than most, less than Dialga, Cresselia, and Darkrai, and you four, of course. I exist as one of the contemporaries to time and space. However, I am not immune to them as they are not immune to myself or each other."
Giratina rolled its eyes. "The amount of times Dialga and Palkia have killed each other speaks loudly of how immune they are to each other."
As in, not in the least.
"I recall pieces of events," Giratina said, actually beginning to explain now. "I recall more emotion and thought rather than clear actions. However, I understand I was trapped within the Reverse Distortion, unable to act against Dialga's madness. Pieces of the plan I began and the knowledge I began the Planetary Investigation Team. Much of what I recall is of Saniya herself; more have come to me as I have deigned to sleep now that Darkrai has been stopped and my realm is not so taxed in dealing with his attack."
So, from there, they filled it in on much of the specifics. Who they were exactly, what the plan had exactly been, what it had done to help them, along with all it had done for Saniya.
Guardian remembered to mention it aiding Scout escape the Dark Future with Danny and gave his thanks for that.
"One thing I felt a bit bad about," Saniya said after everything important had been covered. "But is important to still bring up is Soothe."
"Ah," Giratina said, nodding. "Yes, I do have a memory of that. Exceptional fury at a brazen act against my advice."
"Oh. Okay, I was hoping to make it seem not so bad."
"Really?" Giratina asked dryly. "It put things at considerable risk, placing a link between timelines without any real preparation to discern the location of the Time Gears. Caution was thrown to the wind due to trusting your friend."
Giratina seemed deeply unimpressed at even the word friend.
"However, I do not know much of what else occurred. Your reasoning, for instance?"
"My reasoning?" Saniya asked, head shooting up. "Uh…."
"Do you not want to tell me, or do you not remember yourself?"
"A little of column a, a little of column b."
"I'm actually curious," Sean said, frowning. "I don't think we ever did ask about why."
"Oh, sure, gang up on the teary celebi. You're mean, Sean. So mean."
Sean crossed his arms.
"Ah… fine." Saniya pouted a little before her expression shifted into a genuine expression of guilt. "It's been so long that I genuinely… can't lie and say I don't remember." She sighed and leaned back. "I trusted her, okay? She was my first friend. We named each other. For the longest time, I'd been with just myself and my mirror. I was a little rebellious. Giratina never liked Soothe but would, or could, never tell me why. So, it was fun being a bit rebellious and picking someone he didn't like so much."
She smiled, an old memory bubbling up. "And Soothe was great. You've never heard a dark joke like you've heard one from Soothe," she giggled. "They were awful, the actual worst. But, dark jokes were about the only ones you'd find in the Dark Future." She winked and everyone, but Giratina groaned.
"I would not guess a bad sense of humour would be a reason for me to distrust," Giratina pointed out.
Saniya nodded. "I guess. Either way, I didn't know if I could time-travel, and I wanted to help her. However vaguely, I could at least remember parts of the old world, but she'd never seen it. We got to talking, I revealed what I could do."
"So, she asked you?" Sean put two and two together.
"She did, yeah." Saniya nodded. "I told her about the Time Gears, and she offered to go to the past and get them herself. I like to think she was serious about that, though," Saniya added. "I mean… Wigglytuff met her in Brine Cave, the place to summon Lapras. I didn't know about that place, so she must have been looking into it and found it herself. Point Saniya, she was trying to help! And, like, Chatot said they were only a team for a couple years, it took more than that for Sean and Striker to figure out the Time Gear spots and that was with the Dimensional Scream! I really do think she was trying to help, but she's been all alone since... she helped against Darkrai! And, well… I don't know truly if she was always a Shadow Pokémon or something happened at some point, but if she snapped upon seeing the Time Gear, then maybe there was something still there."
"Shadow Pokémon?" Giratina asked sharply.
Saniya closed her eyes, bracing. "Yeah."
Giratina held in silence; the Pressure increased before laxing again. Sean wound up on his back.
Saniya glanced up calmly at Giratina. "Something to say?"
Giratina gazed at her for a moment, but she didn't glance away. "…Perhaps that is why I did not like her," Giratina said. "If I witnessed the signs."
"What signs?" Saniya asked curiously.
"Manipulation, superficial charm, charisma that just suddenly seems to fit with everything you like. If this Soothe had simply melded into your life so perfectly, I can understand why I would be suspicious."
"Then why wouldn't you have told me that?" Saniya asked.
"I do not know," Giratina admitted. "Had I suspected… I would have told you, so perhaps it was something else. For you have a gift, see." Saniya blinked. "…Do you not see?"
"See what?"
"Celebi as a species are greatly remarkable. Gifted with the ability to travel through time, a guardian and rejuvenator of forests, and possess the power to disrupt The Shadow's taint, with assistance at least."
Saniya stood up sharply. "I can do WHAT?"
"Really, it's not fair that Dialga gets you, whereas my seconds all left me. At least I'm not stuck with Hoopa like Palkia is."
"Stop going forwards and go backwards," Saniya demanded. "About that little thing you just mentioned off-handed like it wasn't anything special. I can do what?"
Giratina was still grumbling about something. "Hoopa was created, as were the shaymin. Celebi were uplifted; is that why they have a large gamut of abilities?"
"Giratina!"
Team Sunrise had also stood up, and Giratina turned its attention back to them. "This wasn't anything that I could aid you with," it said. "Which is likely why I never told you, without a human the means was beyond your reach so perhaps I didn't want to tease you with abilities you could not access. You were too damaged from the stabilising of time your previous did, and with time at a stop here, no others could come to teach you. This is not a skill like any that simply come to you naturally; you need to be taught. And you can only be taught by another Celebi."
"I can purify Shadow Pokémon?" Saniya asked seriously.
"Not on your own," Giratina repeated. "And I do not mean without training. I mean, you can loosen the grasp with training, but you cannot dispel it. Only a human can."
And then it looked at Sean. "Hm. Interesting that you have a human."
"I could save Soothe?" Saniya asked softly.
"Could you?" Giratina asked. "Hm. Perhaps you could."
"I got to get into contact with Team Ion!" Saniya said sharply. "Contact Chimecho who can find them. If they can capture her rather than anything else, I can do it!"
"You'll need to learn first," Giratina said. "And… I do not wish to dishearten you, truthfully seeing such happiness from you fills me with an odd sense of buoyancy. But I must be blunt. Do you understand what may happen to Sean?"
Saniya paused. "…No?"
Giratina cocked its head. "Do you know what humanity did?"
"I… yeah?" She nodded. "Humanity was able to absorb The Shadow, across millions and millions of bodies, keeping it in check until Arceus could shut it out for good again or whatever the Big Cheese does."
Giratina's eye rolled again. "Arceus does many things," it allowed. "However, once The Shadow slipped its guard, there would be no getting rid of it. It was very fortunate humanity's tenacity found a way to counter it, combining that with their reckless lack of self-preservation to take the burden on themselves. It is admirable what your ancestors did." Giratina nodded to Sean.
"Yet that same recklessness led to the annihilation of humanity," Giratina growled, something entering the disaster that was the looming dread of its voice. So dark that the four of them braced for an attack that wouldn't come.
"I apologise," Giratina said. "The death of humanity was a tragedy even to my eternity. An action so foul it split the timeline. In one, a world where the genocidal weapon was stopped, and this one where it was not. Truthfully, for some time, I was furious with Arceus' decision to permit this world to remain, an affront to all reason I thought."
"Were you… there when it happened?" Sean asked softly. He shivered as the cry he had heard in the scream flashed through his head.
"No," Giratina answered. "But I witnessed it, nevertheless. The damage that strike did to reality was obscene; my own world nearly collapsed under the strain. Even so, the cataclysmic strike on the world birthed new horrors and opened the gates to places one should never go."
"…How did it happen?" Sean asked. "I'm from the world where it didn't, but it must have… it must have been impossibly close of a time for… this to happen in the first place, right?"
"There were warriors fighting," Giratina answered, eyes turned back to the past. "They called themselves the Royal Children; I know this because there were several of us, the 'Legendary Pokémon' fighting alongside them. Their names I do not know, besides two, for I was only a spectator."
Giratina closed its eyes for a moment, remembering deeper. "The final strike on the apocalypse weapon was chaotic. In all of eternity, there are few clashes I have witnessed that were more terrible than that, perhaps only because of what was on the line. I considered intervening, I decided against it. A mistake I carry. I was wrong to only watch."
Its eyes opened once more. "What went on within the weapon itself, I cannot say. All I know is that they failed to stop the firing, and humanity died."
Sean held that deep for a moment. "How did only humanity die?" he asked.
"It was not all at once," Giratina answered. "Only the majority. However, with your species devastated, your civilisations in ruins, and an… intense shift in the number of people restraining the Shadow, there was an eruption of Shadow Pokémon. Over the next thousand years or so, they finished the rest of humanity off, at cataclysmic losses themselves. The weapon was the trigger; time and shadow served as the end of humanity."
Giratina gazed down at Sean, truly sad. "With the weapon blowing a hole in humanity and the defences of the world crumbling as the Reverse Distortion could only barely keep it together in the first place, we came together to surrender an aspect of our true Power, to empower the world in mankind's absence and Arceus' curiosity. Ultimately, we held the monsters beyond back, it saved the pokémon, but humanity died as we were, and are, weakened. Even I, existing forever, possess but an echo of the power I once held."
Its eyes were sad. "We all lost something to protect. Beforehand, I was able to leave this realm to enter yours. I would never leave for long, as I protect this world as well as repair it. Now? Now I cannot risk leaving. The Reverse Distortion corrects damage to reality and serves as the anchor. It is fighting a losing battle; however, I am able to stalemate the breakdown by repairing and banishing the clouds of smoke you may see around."
"Is it dangerous for you to be talking to us then?" Guardian asked, alarmed.
Giratina considered him for a moment. "For much longer? Yes. It is fortunate that I do not have to be moving ceaselessly. Despite what I am, I am still subject to exhaustion, weakness, and even death. Although I have never been killed, Arceus has," Giratina added with a hint of smugness. "So, it's only common sense that I can die. I happen to just be smarter."
Smarter than Arceus. Only Giratina would claim that.
"And I can sleep, which I do when I have the chance to do so, to recuperate something."
"So, you could leave for a couple of hours?"
"Perhaps." Giratina nodded. "However, anything that may require me to leave is likely affecting my world, and in my absence, the breakdown would happen much faster. I am able to stabilise my world, which stabilises yours. Without me here, this entire cycle crashes to a stop. Furthermore, with my weakened state, opening portals is… not easy."
Giratina gazed out into the smoke fields; several had merged together. "Observe."
It rose up suddenly, sweeping Sean and Saniya off their feet before flying towards the smoke cloud. Giratina swam through the air with its serpentine body and circled the cloud, drawing it up like a tornado with its speed and pressure, compacting the cloud as a crystal grew from below.
It continued spinning around the smoke until the crystal had contained it. Then, Giratina roared and shattered the container into shards that melted into nothing.
Satisfied, it returned to them. "This is my world," it explained. "Anything within here is something I can erase by containing it within my world as such. The smoke is the offshoot of my world stabilising corruption, but that corruption has to go somewhere. Thus, it comes here. As more pressure is placed on the world, more smoke develops. The smoke is extremely toxic, even to me. Enough of it could very possibly end me, and thus the worlds would soon follow."
Giratina then took on an expression that was almost… annoyed. "Once I had aides to my cause. Dialga had Celebi to assist in ensuring time was flowing properly. Palkia created Hoopa merely because Dialga empowered the first Celebi to this stature of power. But before either, there were the shaymin."
"Shaymin?" Saniya gasped. "They are YOURS?"
Giratina nodded, amused by the shock in all four of them. "For similar reasons as Hoopa and yourself. Aid our dimensions. I am a cleaner and corrector of corruption; Shaymin was created to have the capacity to do what I couldn't and absorb the smoke into themselves and dispel it. From one, they split themselves into many to travel to multiple areas of the world to destroy the smoke. However, an unexpected circumstance happened."
"Shaymin's expulsion of the corruption was capable of shaking the thinner realms of my reality, and upon absorbing a great deal of it, one such shaymin ripped a hole open and fell into your realm. Others soon followed after I retrieved them, and they spoke of what they had seen. It wasn't long after they began to leave for longer periods of time until they eventually refused to come back. I cannot fault them for desiring a life outside of this, but even so, I am still furious they would abandon their duty and myself like that."
"I feel like I'm learning forbidden secrets," Guardian groaned, holding his head.
"I do not bring up the shaymin for no reason," Giratina added. "I may not be able to easily open holes anymore, but they could. And it would be nice to have some help again. Either way, I do not expect you to pursue this."
"Hang on," Sean said. "Are you suggesting you could take us anywhere we wanted?"
Giratina paused. It remembered being used as a telephone.
"Because we've got to go to the Water Continent," Sean added excitedly. "And travelling by Lapras would take weeks."
Which was still ridiculously fast for continental travel.
"…Why there?" Giratina asked.
"Oh, so there's this thing called Dark Matter and-"
"Oh," Giratina growled. "THAT."
"So, you know of it?"
Giratina growled again. "That accursed thing was the start. A coalescence of negative energy, able to form in such a manner due to the damage to reality the weapon's firing had caused. The misery and bitterness of humanity's dying breath and the passive disinterest of pokémon. That thing is an abomination. Worse yet, it is one born of this world rather than entities like The Shadow and the Bittercold. Dark Matter is loathsome. You speak of it in front of me?"
"It's reforming."
"Of course it is," Giratina scoffed. "Because something so twisted would never let itself simply die. Bah!"
"Did Giratina say Dark Matter wasn't The Shadow?" Guardian whispered to Striker, who nodded. "Oh."
"Tell me of your quest," Giratina demanded, and they ran through it carefully. It listened quietly, interjecting questions about Scout and his knowledge of what was to come before coming to a decision.
"There are matters, yet at hand, it seems," Giratina said. "I would bemoan the world being at risk so often, but I've heard from the Giratina of the other world, and it seems like there is a threat to the world every year, so I can hardly complain too much. Still, I would aid in your transportation, but, as I have said, the capacity to do so is limited. However, there are two things that can be done."
"We can get the shaymin!" Saniya said.
"That's one." Giratina nodded. "But there is another. With the pressure on space due to Darkrai's actions, my world has born the absolute brunt of the weight. This should have ceased once he was stopped and Palkia returned, yet Palkia has not. I request you enter the Spacial Rift and awaken Palkia, for Darkrai must have placed it in a truly deep sleep if his death has failed to rouse it."
"You want us to find Palkia?"
"Yes. For if Palkia returns, then they can retake their share of the burden. Without so much pressure on the Reverse Distortion, I may have an iota of freedom."
"Can you make a portal there?"
"No," Giratina said. "But I know who can." It was able to offer them a portal directly to Lapras at least.
Dialga had been very obliging.
"FINE! JUST GO!"
They left Dialga a gift of Royal Gummi's and pretended they didn't see Dialga smile.
The Spacial Rift hadn't been as unpleasant this time. Guardian didn't have to carry Striker and Sean as much; Saniya could help out as well!
They only almost fell into a wormhole three times.
Only once did they see into a mirror dimension that existed for half a second and wished they had not seen anything.
Otherwise, a more standard dungeon. Similar to the Hidden Land, when the dimension it was attached to wasn't being perverted, the place was actually rather nice and pretty. No leaking of dream realities built by misbegotten Shadow Pokémon summoning nightmarish shades.
Sean remembered the first time they went through here. Horrible monsters crawling through cracks in reality during the Temporal Crisis was nothing to seeing what he'd seen in the Spacial Rift.
He never even wanted to imagine that horror again.
The final area of the Spacial Rift, much less rigid and proper than Temporal Tower, was the vastness of space in the crystal bubble. There was no pillar bracing the physical heart of a false reality; the final room was very empty.
But below it was the infinite vastness of the spatial dimension. Below their feet, Palkia slumbered in a pleasant dream.
It was probably dreaming of defeating and embarrassing Dialga.
"Okay. How do we wake up Keira's bitch?" Saniya asked.
"Saniya!" Sean said. "That's way out of line."
"Oh. Sorry. Lucario's bitch. Was that better?"
Sean did not grace that with an answer.
"Maybe you should yell really loudly?" Striker suggested. "It's got to work eventually."
"Some time," Saniya said, nodding before giggling. "Ah… Dialga is going to stop pretending to hate us and actually hate us soon."
She glanced down. "Hmm." She took a breath, and everyone clasped their ears shut. "PALKIA?"
She took another. "PAAALLLKIIIAAA?"
And a third. "P̢À͘L̸̨̛K͘͏I͝͏̨A̸̛͝!"
The realm shook with her voice, tapping into some primal Power to do so.
Something shifted down below. Palkia rolled over and continued sleeping.
"Diddly darn, I'm out of ideas." Saniya shrugged.
"That wasn't even your idea!"
"Speaking really loudly is always my idea; you were just borrowing it."
"You cannot own an idea," Guardian said.
"I'm a deity; you cannot tell me that!"
"I will call you out on your biscuit-stealing, ideas-hogging, loudly-talking, behind if you do not listen!"
"I am older than you, Guardian!"
"I said nothing about age."
While they argued, Sean and Striker concocted a strategy with orbs.
"How many do I have to sacrifice?" Striker complained as Sean added more and more to the pile.
"Enough."
"How much is enough?"
"Enough." Sean finished setting up the pyramid of death. Three Luminous Orbs, two had been found in the dungeon most helpfully. Along with some Blowback, Cleanse, and Mug Orbs to finish it out.
A flashbang if there ever was one.
"Hey, Saniya?" Sean asked, looking up to find Saniya wrestling Guardian to the ground as he swore at her.
"Yeah?" she asked, looking up from smushing Guardian's face into the floor.
"Can you teleport this down to Palkia and, like, blow it up?"
"I can do that!" she said, dropping Guardian. "Oooh, Saniya, the mad bomber, I like it!"
"I can't watch," Striker said, turning away. Guardian pulled himself up and then Striker into a hug.
"You do not need to witness this."
Saniya dropped into the area below. She was definitely the only one who'd be able to survive down there very long. The glowing pink that was Saniya flew down fast, becoming not unlike one of the starry lights that could be seen.
Then she set off a supernova.
A reality-shaking roar shook the entire rift, and Saniya, very quickly, returned.
"Hoo!" she said, teleporting up. "I think I made it mad." She gasped for breath. "There is, like, NO air down there."
The roaring continued.
"Are… we going to have a fight?" Sean asked, alarmed as everything shook.
"Probably," Saniya shouted over the roaring. "It'll be fine. We took on Primal Dialga, and Dialga himself has said that in his fresh form, we'd probably win a fight. Palkia will be a piece of cake!"
The roaring reached an apex, and then space shattered.
Palkia loomed above them.
Tiny little baby Palkia, similar to how small Dialga was when it first returned. Dialga had only grown slightly, so their small sizes were similar.
Palkia's fury burned holes in the space around them as it glared at the interlopers who had encroached upon its realm.
Loud Celebi, clearly Dialga's minion, had decided that Palkia was weak and helpless after death and return and could curry favour with its master.
Dark Dusknoir, the agent of time. Dialga's fetid touch could be seen all over the dusknoir by Palkia; it knew Dialga's favour when it saw it.
Cool Grovyle. That one looked neat.
And Ri-
Palkia's eyes went wide, pupils went to pinpricks, and it dropped to the surface of the Spacial Rift as all the roaring and shaking stopped.
Palkia stared, frozen, at Sean.
And then… it screamed.
"AHHHHH! RIOLU!"
Dialga was minding its business, eating the gummi's slowly and happily, savouring the taste.
Team Sunrise probably wouldn't be long, they had left through a portal right at the ruins, and the dungeon should have calmed down.
He wondered if maybe he should have given them a warning that Palkia maybe a little cranky but shrugged that away. They were strong; they could handle whatever was thrown at-.
"Save me!"
Dialga jolted as something big and very sturdy slammed into him, tossing him on his side as pink and white overcame his vision.
Dialga responded as dialga, in general, do when a Palkia tackles them to the ground. Panic. Kicking, thrashing, and even biting as the two titans grappled on the ground.
Dialga wasn't sure, but it ended up with Palkia behind him, clutching onto his tail like a lifeline. "Get off me!" Dialga roared.
"No! You have to save me."
"From WHAT?"
Palkia pointed dramatically, and Dialga's eyes fell on Team Sunrise emerging from a portal. More specifically, Sean. "The riolu! Get it away from me!"
"... You're kidding."
"NO! Save me!"
"I do not care for this," Dialga growled before glaring at Team Sunrise, who looked almost sheepish. "What have you done?"
"I have no idea why Palkia reacted like this," Sean said.
"AH!" Palkia whimpered. As it was a gigantic monster, a whimper was quite loud and rumbly. "It'll kill me like the last one did! You have to banish it into the past, or the future, or anywhere that isn't here and now!" Palkia quietened, though and Dialga frowned as the arms around his tail shifted. "Your tail is nice."
Dialga stared before shaking his head. "No. Absolutely not. No. Get off me. Get off me. Get off me!"
"You have to shake me off," Palkia retorted, clutching tighter. "As if you could with this stumpy thing."
"Stumpy!?"
"And short. Your tail is small."
"Small!?"
Palkia's own tail twitched like it was waving at him mockingly.
"Can embodiments of time suffer aneurysms?" Saniya whisper-yelled.
Dialga's head shot back to glare at her. "It's getting close to finding out," he growled between clenched teeth. "Get. Palkia. Off. Me."
"What?" Palkia pleaded. "Noo! Your tail is nice, I swear!" he stroked Dialga's tail. "See, I like it. It's not small."
"GET OFF ME!" Dialga reared and flipped Palkia over his head, sending the lord of space tumbling to the ground in front of Team Sunrise.
"Uh…?" Sean said, as Palkia looked up in abject horror. "I'm not going to hurt you?"
Palkia flipped space and righted it, landing on Dialga's back again. "Save meeeeee!"
Dialga seethed. "
"LEAVE."
"Going!" Sean yelped, dashing off. "You'll take care of Palkia? Kthanksbye!" And Team Sunrise quickly followed.
Dialga watched them go with a glower until Palkia poked around again. "You're warm but not cuddly."
The eternal headache had returned.
They weren't getting away so easily.