Pokémon Pokemon: Legends Sinjoh

[Joshthewriter]

A/N: This is a story inspired by the central concept of Pokemon: Legends Arceus. No PLA characters will appear. This is instead, considered a Pokemon: Legends style trip through an ancient Johto. It is ostensibly set in the same world as my Journey-verse (my Kanto OC journeyfic), however no knowledge of that story is necessary. I would recommend reading Rykker’s (the OC) origin fic (The Champions). Slight spoilers for Journey, but nothing all that major other than two new E4 members. Join along for the ride!

Please be sure to let me know what you think in the comments! Thanks for reading everyone!

---

Ruins of Alph, South of Violet City, Johto

It was never simple, he lamented. Jason Rykker was a simple man, thrust into power by circumstance and bullshit. Ever since his flight from Unova, he'd been drowning in the duties that came with his new status as a member of Red's new Elite 4. It was a step down from his previous post as Unova Champion, but he much preferred the relative peace of Kan-Jo to Unova's consistently violent chaos.

He had expected pokemon poachers and remnants of Rocket as Indigo worked to clean up the mess the criminal syndicate had left behind after the Indigo Conference. The world gave him tomb robbers and mad scientists.

He leaned back on the tree, running his hands impatiently through his greying beard as Karen emerged from the research station outside the ruins. Her silvery blue hair was tied back, the long ponytail trailing down her back as sweat trailed down her face. She had a deep scowl on her face that told him all he had to know.

Rykker leaned against the tree, smiling at her in the warm afternoon sun. "I told you it didn't make any sense."

"They didn't even take anything useful. Just some old carvings of unknown. Hell, you could probably buy a full set for less trouble than to steal from the researchers here." She sighed heavily and leaned against the tree beside him.

He shrugged. "Any leads at all?"

She shook her head, pulling a small rolled cigarette out of her jacket and lighting it. "They've got nothing. They didn't even notice the theft until a tourist pointed out the broken display case." She took a long drag and looked over at Rykker. "Why did two Elites get called in on this?"

A deafening roar from the sky brought their answer. There was no mistaking a dragon.

There were two, one of them clearly Lance atop his dragonite. The other was foreign to Kan-Jo, but there wasn't a trainer in the world who wouldn't recognize the Grand Champion atop her fearsome garchomp.

The two dragons circled lower, landing in the clearing. The dragon master and Champion of the Sinnoh League dismounted, approaching the two waiting Elites.

"Lance," Rykker said in greeting, barely hidden disdain clear in his words. "Champion Shirona. To what do we owe the pleasure?"

The troubled scowl on Cynthia Shirona's face told him that it was no pleasure. "Grim tidings, I'm afraid." She turned towards the ruins. "Someone is stealing particular items that are required for a summoning ritual, one that bears terrifying similarities to the ritual used to summon and bind the creation trio by Team Galactic." She scowled. "I'll put it bluntly. We haven't seen anything quite this dangerous since the Galactic Crisis."

Rykker raised an eyebrow. It had been almost fifteen years since the Galactic Crisis had happened in Sinnoh. Far too much had happened in the intervening years for him to start studying foreign history. He had enough trouble keeping track of his new home's history for that. "The crazies that almost destroyed the world a few years back?" he asked. "I thought they all got sucked into some inter dimensional portal."

Cynthia turned her head quizzically. "Have you not been briefed?"

Rykker shook his head. "There wasn't time. We only got the deployment orders this morning. We weren't even aware there was a crisis. I'm sorry, I'm not overly familiar with Sinnohvan history."

She shrugged, frowning slightly. "A shame. It is a fascinating subject. But it is not the time." She turned back to the ruins. "Show me what they took."

---

Cynthia leaned over the smashed display case, a large photograph of the stolen contents held in her hands. "Our regions, our societies have been connected throughout history. There are similarities that cannot be ignored. Commonalities that are impossible… unless there is some common ancestry between Sinnoh and Johto."

Karen perked up at that. "There's a thousand theories on this, but not an ounce of truth. No evidence of Sinnohvan presence has ever been found in Johto."

Cynthia simply smiled. "I recently came into some possible proof." She pulled out a small booklet from the bag on her hip. She flipped it open, passing through dog eared pages that had long since been annotated to the point that they were no longer legible. "Researchers in Solaceon town found a tablet, one inscribed almost two-thousand years ago. It spoke of a Clan lost to history, one from when Sinnoh was still called Hisui."

"What does this have to do with anything?" Rykker asked. "With all due respect, if there is an emergency we need to move on it."

Cynthia continued her history lesson unperturbed "This previously unkown Clan left Hisui for a place that the inscription referred to as Sinjoh." She lifted an image of unknown inscriptions and held it up to the image of the stolen inscriptions. "And the inscription of Sinjoh matches exactly with the carvings of the characters that were stolen."

Silence fell as Karen and Rykker found their doubts dispelled. The two Elites shifted uncomfortably before Lance rolled his eyes and turned to Cynthia. "There are some old legends, passed down by the Wataru Clan. Sinjoh is the name of a place lost in the Great Storm. It was said to be a marvellous place, with temples and shrines to rival even that of Ecruteak."

Cynthia turned to him. "Where was this Sinjoh said to be?"

Lance frowned. "The wilds of northern Johto, perhaps the nothernmost tip of the Argent Mountain range. Very harsh terrain, practically untouched by humanity." He shrugged. "It is not an expedition I would dispatch lightly." He glanced between the gathered trainers. "I have two former Champions, an Elite and the current Grand Champion at my disposal. We will never have a better opportunity to make it there."

Karen nodded. "When do we leave?" she asked.

Cynthia tucked her book away and rolled the photograph back into a tube. "Now," she said. "Before this gets worse. Events are in motion that could unravel the fabric of our reality."

Rykker looked at her with a stunned, blank frown. "What do you mean?" he asked.

Cynthia flashed him a knowing grin. "You wouldn't believe me even if I tried." She shook her head. "The faster we get there, the better."

---

Sinjoh Ruins, Northern Argent Mountains, Johto

After a quick teleport to grab the waiting supplies at the Plateau, the party of four set out to the north. They'd found nearly no wild pokemon, just a few terrified rattata that scattered at the sight of the dragons. It was as though something had driven all the wild pokemon in the area away.

Rykker looked down in awe over the dragon's back as the group followed Lance down to a structure obscured by ages of plant growth. It was massive, wide and squat with a crumbling old tower that reached precariously up for the sky.

He slipped off her back onto a cobblestone road that was almost as wide, looking up at his mount in terror as the dragonite loomed back up to her full height. He'd never been a fan of flying and Lance's dragons had little patience for riders that were not the dragon master himself.

A beam of red light sucked the dragon back into her ball, Lance slotting it onto his belt and pulling his cape around his shoulders. He looked up at the ancient stone structure, not sparing a glance for the Unovan. "It is magnificent," he started. "far beyond what Blackthorn's Elders ever spoke of."

Cynthia looked up at the crumbling stone. "It's ancient, at least a thousand years old. If not more." She looked back down at Lance. "How has there been no studies on this place?"

Lance shrugged. "I am not an archaeologist," he replied. "And this place is so far away from civilization that I shudder to think of the cost of such an expedition." He turned to the main building. "It is up to us to discover the secrets of this-"

A thunderous rumble echoed through the valley, but there was not a single cloud in the sky.

Rykker looked fearfully at the Grand Champion. They all did. Three of the most powerful, dangerous trainers in all of Indigo and they all deferred to Cynthia Shirona's lead.

"Run!" she shouted. "Into the temple! It has begun!"

Rykker took off, not waiting for the others. He'd lived through enough to know that slow reactions got you killed. He made it through the doors of the temple, Cynthia at his heels.

A torrent of stone slammed down behind them, plunging the two into utter darkness. Rykker could hear shouting, but the thunder of falling stone drowned out the voices.

Rykker's hand dropped to his belt and he raised a ball. There was a flash of red light, then a pale, spectral glow that radiated from his chandelure. The light offered no warmth in the cold northern climate; ghost fire never did.

"The passage is blocked," Cynthia said. "We must move now, else this entire temple will collapse on our heads."

Rykker dusted off his travel jacket and looked over at his ghostly light fixture. "What was that?" he asked. "You seem to know too much here. Something is going on and you are going to-"

"Someone is attempting to go back in time," she said. "Trying to right a wrong made a thousand years in the past." She frowned. "If I'm right… It's… it's not… it'll destroy this world. Make it like it never even existed. Or break it into a thousand different worlds, all of them in open conflict with one another."

Her frown turned into a scowl. "It's difficult to understand this concept sometimes. But we have to stop this, Elite Rykker." She looked back at him. "Or else all of this… it's all over."

He nodded slowly, refusing to let the gravity of the situation take him. "Then let's move," he said. "I much prefer the world in one piece."

She met his eyes and Rykker saw the fear behind them. She'd seen something, she had to have. Fear like that had to be earned. "You have no idea," she said. Her voice was a terrified whisper, barely audible. "No idea at all."

---

The temple was simple. The passage descended into the earth in a never ending staircase. Rykker was certain that they would reach hell itself, with creepy old Giratina waiting for him at the bottom. Gods knew he'd deserve that for the things he'd done in Unova.

When Rykker had gone so far that he thought he might emerge on the other side of the planet, the staircase finally ended. The pair stepped out onto a small platform, darkness creeping in towards them. The faint sound of running water was clear, with the howl of blowing wind echoing in the distance.

"Soulfire, light it up."

Rykker's chandelure erupted with light, casting a ball of flame across the cavern. He saw statues that had stood in darkness for millennia, flowing water features not seen by human sight for entire eras of history.

"Champion Shirona…" Rykker started. "This place is…"

She pointed down across the vast chamber, at movement from a faint figure at the base of one of the statues. "There," she started. "There's our mark."

Rykker grimaced, preparing for a battle. "Anything I should know?" he asked.

The figure leapt lithely through the dim temple, defying human limitations with the speed and power behind every step. The figure stopped at the base of the largest statue, fiddling with something obscured by its body.

"We have to get down there," Cynthia said. "We have to stop he-"

Yellow-white light erupted from the base of the statue, blinding the pair with its sudden ferocity. Thunderous waves of power rolled over the chamber, shaking the ancient construction beyond the point of no return. Cracks of light rippled across the statue, shifting the as something massive struggled to free itself. Rykker didn't recognize the creature, but something that large and powerful had to be bad news.

A huge chunk of the ceiling dropped, exposing a chunk of the sky as it fell. Cynthia swore, her garchomp coalescing from a thin beam of red.

The dragon grabbed Rykker as Cynthia leapt atop it. They shot into the air as another chunk of the ceiling dropped directly towards them. The falling stone landed on the small platform a scant few moments later, wiping it away completely.

"Hold on!" Cynthia shouted, her words half lost in the cataclysmic noise as the temple began to collapse.

Rykker swore profusely, the stream of obscenities increasing in intensity with every near miss. Then a chunk of the ceiling hit the top of the glowing statue. The top of the creature's head split open and beams of yellow light shot off into the sky. The sky seemed to split, bands of light beginning to spread across the sky in an interconnected web.

"It's starting!" Cynthia shouted. She pointed up at the sky, at the network of cracks spreading across the sky. "Reality is fracturing! We have to-"

Her garchomp dropped, flipping end over end as a stone smote it from above. Rykker felt the dragon's claws release and felt himself sailing through the air.

His chandelure was there, catching him on cold, hard metal. Rykker felt the ghost drop him to the ground and forced himself up to his feet.

Cynthia was nowhere to be seen, the roaring of her garchomp lost in the storm of stone. Rykker turned towards the cracked statue, towards the burning light at the base.

It was an altar, carved from stone in an age long past. And it was burning with the same terrible light that the statue was.

Rykker stepped forward looking down at the lettering burning on the altar. He knew what the unknown spelled out, could feel it down to the deepest fibres of his soul. Though he'd never learned the dead language, he spoke the word all the same.

He looked up at the statue in awe. "Sinjoh," he said.

He blinked and the temple fell away beneath him. A lattice of glowing light spread across space, a kaleidoscope of cracked windows spreading away from him. He could see through the windows, the vistas of a thousand different landscapes spreading away from each other.

'Do not be afraid.'

An impossibly bright light pulsed slowly in the void, drawing his attention. It was vaguely quadrupedal shaped, but a helix of burning light coiled around its midsection. He could make out no clear shape, but he knew the presence all the same.

'You have called. For the sanctity of our world, I have answered. I brought you here when I was freed from the statue, to a place between worlds.'

Rykker turned, spinning on the spot as he looked for the source of the voice. The light remained transfixed in the same place. He opened his mouth to speak but found no words.

'Almighty Sinjoh has need of you. All of creation has need of you.'

A piercing crash erupted, light and energy exploding as one of the shifting windows collided with another. Both of the panes shattered into a thousand different pieces, shards of the broken windows spinning away and colliding with yet more of the shifting mirrors.

Rykker felt exasperation and sadness as the presence shifted its attention to the unfolding calamity. More of the mirror pieces broke apart, countless new worlds springing into existence with each passing moment.

'It is out of control now. A thousand different worlds where once only a scant few carefully curated worlds remained. It is a chaos that cannot be sustained.'

Rykker peered past the presence, watching as one of the broken shards seemed to grow in size. He watched a landscape spin into view, a bolt of pink light shooting into the sky. It curved back, slamming into the earth and tossing up a plume of vibrant pink smoke that tore across Kalos' landmass.

'A multiverse is taking shape once more. The cycle is inevitable. It is growing beyond my control. Soon, a thousand aspects of myself will become aware of what is happening and seek this place out. The collapse will begin and all must start anew.'

He felt the presence turn back to him, felt multitudes of eyes watching him. More windows into other worlds were forming behind the presence, a sleepy city in the early hours. The earth shook suddenly as flames shot from the roof of the building, the shockwave flattening the police force waiting among the stone-built industrial buildings.

'Unless we stop it together. Unless you act as my champion and right the wrong that has caused this.'

Rykker opened his mouth, breath filling his lungs as he began to speak. "What would you ask of me?"

The presence turned, extending a branch of burning light out to the mere human. It enveloped him and Rykker felt peace and warmth in his damaged soul.

'I cannot directly interfere in a universe, not while I must remain here to stop the collapse.'

A shard of the broken mirror drifted past them and movement caught his eye. Two figures were shrouded in darkness, living crystal jutting from the icy cold rock. The feline figure floated over to another crystal, shattering it with a touch as the window turned and they drifted from view.

'But I can allow you to act where I cannot. I empower you to be my Champion and save all of creation.'

Jason Rykker grimaced. He was a shell of what he had been. "People called me Champion once," he started. "It didn't end well."

'You are and always have been a true Champion. You chose to do what was right, even when it tore you apart to do so. I can think of no other to serve as my avatar.'

They turned towards a prism that offered a view into another world and hung in place for a brief second.

‘You must stop her. By force, if it is necessary.’

Then they surged forward, smashing through one of the shards. A spiderweb of cracks spread across the night's sky as the former Champion sped across the sky on a bolt of divine light.

Rotting, undead hands reached up to the light, entranced by its beauty. No living souls were left in the world to watch its passage, just the cold dead hands of a thousand undead pokemon.

Rykker hit the barrier again as the divine creature smashed into the veil between worlds. The sky fell to pieces and a shard of mirror cracked apart as reality twisted in pain. The portal broke and they spat back into the void as the Almighty carried him away.

He felt himself falling through space, spinning portals colliding around them as Almighty Sinjoh wove its way through the vortex of cosmic disaster. Epic battles and eldritch terrors loomed from the broken mirror, reaching out for the two of them.

An infernape sprinted past on a shard of mirror, his sawsbuck opponent meeting his thunder punch with emerald glowing horns. An explosion of twisting light tore across the shard and then it was gone

The mirror portal shattered as another collided with it, smashing both into uncountable pieces. Rykker fought back a scream of terror as Almighty Sinjoh fled, but failed as another shard of mirror broke at the touch.

They sailed over a gargantuan tree stretching high above the tropical island. Almighty Sinjoh slowed for a moment as a trio of trainers looked up at the newcomers from a branch of the tree, regarding the universe carefully.

A screaming, furious rend appeared in the sky, vomiting foreign atmosphere as exotic matter spewed across Alola's famed Battle Tree. A twenty foot block of stone and metal plummeted through the rift, landing heavily in front of the trainers assembled upon the tree. A strange dancing figure leapt from atop the living castle as it sprouted legs and lifted itself off the ground with a bellowing tone.

Almighty Sinjoh shrunk back, the shattered mirror that they'd arrived in appearing in the sky once more. They retreated back to the cold grasp of the void, leaving the trainers to their fate as they sent out their pokemon.

'It is unstoppable now. You must avert what has been changed. Else all will be lost.'

The attention turned towards the prism of portals and Rykker could feel the divine creature glancing through a thousand different universes. He saw them with the divine creature, worlds that he could scarcely have ever imagined. Beings that seemed impossible danced through a thousand shifting mirrors.

Then he saw it. One portal glanced off another, changing its trajectory ever so slightly. Changing it just enough to deflect it into yet another that shattered into a thousand shards.

He opened his mouth to shout a warning but the damage was done. Almighty Sinjoh's attention turned, only in time for the shattering portal to smite it and carry it far away from the void between worlds.

---

Unknown time, Unknown place

MIRROR-PORTAL appeared!

SINJOH fell through MIRROR-PORTAL!

RYKKER fell through MIRROR-PORTAL!

RYKKER screamed uncontrollably!

'This is a strange place. It feels… red. And yet my voice feels… blue.'

MIRROR DOOMPUFF appeared!

MIRROR DOOMPUFF flew up high!

RYKKER: What in Giratina's name is-

SINJOH opened MIRROR-PORTAL!

MIRROR-PORTAL spreads cracks across SKY!

SINJOH ran away!

RYKKER ran away!

MIRROR DOOMPUFF landed!

MIRROR DOOMPUFF looks curiously at MIRROR-SKY!

MIRROR-SKY disappeared!

MIRROR DOOMPUFF is angry!

MIRROR DOOMPUFF: … DOOOOOM!

---

He was spinning and falling and flying all at the same time. Cosmic energy swirled around them as they crashed through universe after universe. Rykker felt cold wind, and blowing snow buffeted the pair as they soared skyward.

The atmosphere seemed to shake with some great sound, a shockwave of noise hitting like a fist to the chest. Almighty Sinjoh thrummed with golden light, clearing the snowstorm with a flash of divine power.

It rose from the snow, towering over the newcomers. Alabaster white surfaces were marred by battle scars, yellow bands bearing signs of damage. The three pairs of humongous gems on the colossal Titan flared with light and the thunderous sound shook the very air around them once more. Regigigas was loose and Snowpoint lay in ruin.

Almighty Sinjoh enveloped them both in golden fire as the Titan raised a gigantic foot to crush them both. Sinjoh lifted off, tearing into the sky with Rykker in tow. The creature slammed its foot down, obliterating the remnants of Snowpoint City and leaving only a rumbling crater behind.

Sinjoh burned with golden light, projecting beams of its godly power at the raging Titan. They glanced off, burning deep furrows into the earth and igniting firestorms where they impacted.

Regigigas swung a fist as Almighty Sinjoh crafted a shell of protective light. The impact shook the earth, cracking the ice shelf that nestled into Sinnoh's northern shores and dropping it into the sea.

Rykker felt the world rushing past him, felt the sky screaming in protest. He saw the mountain and knew that there was no changing course.

Almighty Sinjoh plowed into the mountainside, tossing up an eruption of ice and stone. The golden shell carved a hollow path out the rear of Mount Coronet as the holy mountain's broken corpse collapsed in on itself.

The sky twisted and Almighty Sinjoh fled, leaving the world behind as it opened another portal. They slammed through the portal, shattering the sky to a thousand pieces as they ran.

The sky broke, vomiting the pair out along a skyward path. A blinding light erupted, a brief explosion of sacred fire swallowed by psychic light. A feline figure soared past, crackling with power as Johto's holy phoenix gave chase to Mewtwo. Gouts of fire and light ripped through a futuristic Ecruteak, more blasts of lightning and flame throwing up into the sky at the battling legends.

They kept going, ignoring the screams of pain and terror rising from the city. Rykker didn't know what was happening, but even he knew an apocalypse when he saw one. The duelling gods would wipe life from this earth like had almost happened a thousand times at home.

He didn't spare a second glance for the battle, save for a familiar figure atop the tower. He knew Ghetsis when he saw him and felt a pit of fear gnawing in his gut as his divine carrier crashed through another broken mirror.

Almighty Sinjoh emerged through the portal over a ruined landscape. Rykker looked down in horror at the ruins. He knew it looked familiar, yet he couldn't place his finger on it. Then it came to him as his eyes passed over the familiar rolling hills of the Floccesy Ranch and the low-slung skyline of Aspertia City. He searched for the familiar shape of his parents' apartment block and felt his heart drop when he found the hole in the skyline.

"I lived here. I lived in Aspertia," he said quietly. "What is this place?"

'These are where the path of desired strength leads. Worlds distorted and shattered by endless pursuit of powers man was not meant to know.'

Almighty Sinjoh looked at him and he felt pity from the divine beast. They carved through the air effortlessly, stopping over the burnt husk of a mansion the Rykker had been forced to abandon.

'This universe's Rykker survived calamity for a time, but only echoes now remain.'

Movement from the house drew his gaze. He thought for a brief moment that he could see

Static like an old television set began to pollute the sky over the ruined Unovan landscape. Seven red lines appeared from the static, golden wings flapping ethereally on the visual interference. It had no clear face, and yet Rykker could see the infinite darkness of space in its maw.

'This world was mended, but like all scars, the destruction remained evident. This world was razed by Legends and forced to become a battleground by Myths. Entire regions lay desolate…'

The presence turned to look at him and Rykker felt the full weight of a divine being focused solely on him as the new presence regarded them carefully.

'Is this the world you want for ours? This devastation comes for all if we fail.'

"Then why the hell is it taking so long?" he fired back, frustration growing. "I thought you were omniscient."

'I am, and I am not. I am one arm of thousands, and I cannot know everything outside the bounds of my domain. We are searching through worlds similar to your own, places where pokemon can be found.'

Another portal opened behind them and the two slipped through it, leaving the unearthly presence alone as the broken mirror faded from view.

They emerged far above a valley, columns of pokemon marching in formation as they emerged from the northern forests. A large nidoqueen marched at the head of the central column, a piercing blue gem hung from her neck. Two pairs of nido monarch pairs marched behind the leading queen and her mate, facing down the dragons circling the mountain to the south.

They sailed across the valley, Rykker looking down at scattered groups of trainers watching the columns progress. The mountain looked closer and the former Champion saw the pokemon seemingly digging themselves into defensive positions in the foothills below the mountain itself. A monstrous haxorus, more fearsome than any Rykker had ever seen looked curiously up at them, a few attendant dragons cautiously following his gaze.

'Searching through a thousand worlds that change by the second is a difficult task. We will find our destination, but you must be patient.'

Rykker grumbled under his breath as Almighty Sinjoh tore another portal in the sky. He braced himself for the chaos and watched the multiverse shatter to pieces as they tore through the broken mirror.

---

Post Town, Gamañel's Shop

Umbreon threw a few Cards around. "Something is wrong," she complained. "The Magnagates are acting strange, opening portals to places that shouldn't be possible."

"We ended up in some place with no Pokémon," continued Espeon. "There were humans with these strange devices that spat metal and flame. It's lucky that the gate didn't close and we could get back here!"

The shop owners around just nodded; Espeon and Umbreon's experiments were always weird but today they were extra weird.

Gamañel the Foongus turned, glancing up at the tapestries behind him. "Those silly little gates are an amateur's work" He proudly bumped one of his tapestries. "While you can go places, you need a professional way to navigate the multi…"

The largest tapestry was aflame, strange golden fire leaping from it to the other tapestries. A mysterious force ripped it to shreds, the smouldering remnants falling to the floor. Suddenly more tapestries unfurled atop each other and burst to flames anew; tapestries that, as Gamañel quickly noticed, had designs not of his own.

"...Dear customers, those are *not* my fault..."

Gamañel turned back to the crowd of pokemon gathering in front of his shop. Espeon and Umbreon were gazing up in terror at the tapestries as the largest one yet unfurled.

Gamañel observed for a moment and tried recollecting any similar events. "I've never seen anything like this," he muttered to himself. "Something terribly dangerous has happened... to the entire multiverse. Only one save slot might not be enough to deal with it..."

---

The sky bulged as Sinjoh forced the cracked mirror open. They burst through the portal, Almighty Sinjoh releasing its hold on him as they descended towards the stone courtyard. He touched solid ground for the first time in what could have been an eternity and steadied himself on one of the buildings.

Rykker looked up at Almighty Sinjoh, justified anger in his voice. "I am not doing that again."

'You will not have to. We have arrived.'

He looked around, suddenly very consciously aware of the crowd forming around them. He glanced up at Sinjoh, hand on one of the three pokeballs on his belt. "Who're these-"

The deity was gone, leaving him alone in the middle of the courtyard. The crowd crept closer, nervous murmuring spreading through them.

Rykker's eyes darted nervously around, leaping from person to person. He backed up, his back hitting the wall of the building as he looked around in terror. He glanced up, contemplating whether he could scramble up the wall and escape.

His jaw dropped. The temple was wide and squat, the regal tower stretching proudly up into the sky. The vegetation was gone, replaced by tapestries hung from the walls of the temple. Jason Rykker never saw the woman raising the club. He never even felt the blow.

---

Pokemon: Legends Sinjoh has begun! This is an ambitious story, to say the least. It's a collaboration between 8 different writers, almost 15 different fic universes and can be considered an indirect sequel to my other longfic, Journey.

If you would like your story to be featured as part of the multiverse I created here, please feel free to let me know! You'll have 2 more opportunities to do so! Otherwise, the contributors and how to find them are all listed below! Happy reading everyone!

VeniaSilente on AO3

/users/VeniaSilente/profile

The-Alchemist by mikaelbrigman

s/13986112/1/The-Alchemist

DarkWolf573 can be found with a quick search.

Bio from r/pokemonfanfiction's discord server with Pokebattles - Foxfire Edition

pokebattles-foxfire . neocities . org

Operation GEAR: The Angel of Reckoning by Illustrious Rocket from AO3

archiveofourown works/13322214/chapters/30491076

Reddit users u/Cupcake_Prime, u/Thai_Fighter16 and u/Kartoffelkamm

 

[Joshthewriter]

He woke slowly, his eyes blinking unevenly at the harsh light. He heard a woman's voice speaking an unfamiliar language and turned to face the sound. The chains around his wrists and ankles scraped heavily along the floor. The harsh sound of metal on stone was like a shot of adrenaline to the brain, forcing him awake in a split second.

Rykker scrambled up, the chains snapping taut and jerking him back to his knees. He was chained to the wall in some sort of cell. His ball belt was gone, along with the scant few supplies that had been in his pack.

"Where are my pokemon?" Rykker asked, turning his head to look at the pair of women in deep conversation.

The taller one turned her head and glanced at him, rolling her eyes slightly. She turned back to the conversation and continued in the strange tongue.

"Hello," he repeated, more forcefully this time. "I'm talking to you. Where the hell are my pokemon?"

She turned again, sending the other woman away with a wave of her hand. "How did you follow me?" She asked, in a clear but obviously accented voice. She spoke slowly, as if she was unfamiliar with the language. "It should not have been possible. Cynthia said tha-"

"Grand Champion Shirona? She was involved in this?" he interrupted. He shook his head in frustration. "I knew she knew something. Why did she want me to stop you?"

The woman scowled. "Because she did not care for my people as I do. She bid me to leave it, to remain in your time and live out my days in secrecy." She shook her head. "As if I would deign to leave my people to their ignoble fate. The universe will survive this change. It must."

He sat back, taking some stock of the situation for a moment. He wasn't entirely sure if he could believe anything he'd actually seen. It had looked real. It had felt real. He didn't believe in Sinjoh as an abstract deity, but who was he to argue with the proof he had been shown.

"It won't," Rykker replied, glancing back up at her. "Not from what I've seen. It's already begun. Your 'Sinjoh' wants me to stop you. It says that your existence here, in this time, is an impossibility." He met her eyes, attempting diplomacy and hoping that the woman was reasonable. "It wants me to kill you, and set the universe right. Call me crazy, but that seems like a pretty good idea right about now."

She screwed up her face in rage. "It lies," she hissed. "Honeyed words of a gilded tongue. Sinjoh is as duplicitous as it is powerful. It uses you even now, the same as your dear Grand Champion used you. What is begun cannot be undone."

"Listen," he said. Rykker met her pale blue eyes with his own dead greys. She had to see, she had to understand. "I literally watched a giant goddamn mirror that was supposedly our universe break apart and shape into a hundred new mirrors. I don't understand in the slightest why you can't be allowed to stay here, nor how to get back home." He pointed at her with both hands. "But, I do know that this is all your damn fault and neither of us are supposed to be here. We're out of time, a cosmic mistake in the grand scheme of reality."

She smirked. "I was born in this time. This is my home. It is no mistake that I have returned. This city… it is mine by birthright. I am not the one who is out of time."

Rykker stared up at her, sensing that the two were at an impasse. "Then what happens now?" he asked. "You leave me to rot in this cell while the world collapses around you?"

She said nothing at first, just watching him for a moment. When he said nothing, she pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "I don't know what I should do with you," she said. "My people wish you executed. They call you a trespasser." She scowled. "They are not wrong."

He was silent.

"I do not wish for death," she continued. "Not even for those who would attempt to stop me in their ignorance. Your only crime, as misguided as you are, was listening to a deity far beyond your understanding."

It was silent again. Rykker said nothing for a long minute and the woman studied him intently.

She wore simple leather armour like she had been raised in it. Her jet-black hair was cut short just above her shoulders. A regal cloak hung around her frame, gold trim outlining the pitch black fabric. An outfit likely denoting nobility of some kind.

"Then I'll ask again," he said, looking back up at her with a slightly reserved tone. "What do you plan on doing with me?"

The hard look of defiance on her face softened and Rykker saw fear and nerves behind her eyes. "I plan on convincing you." She smiled weakly. "I'm quite persuasive when I wish to be."

She lifted a ball belt from the pack slung over her shoulder, turning it so Jason could see it was his. "Peace and dialogue are often more effective than force," she said. "I choose peace. I know you, Jason Rykker. I know who you are, who you were. You will not choose war. You will do the right thing."

Unova in all of her bloody glory sat fresh in his mind. Ghetsis' cackling face was taunting him, Benga and his dragons leaving piles of bodies behind. Rykker exhaled and slowly centred his thoughts as his heart beat madly in his chest. She knew who he was, what he'd gone through in the bloody war against Ghetsis.

Rykker looked up at her, ghosts of the past etched clearly on his face. He was loath to trade lives, but it was something every Champion had to learn the hard way. "What would the right thing be?" he asked. "One life, or every life…"

"I'm asking you to think about it," she said. "Celebi change history all the time on whims of fancy. Why should my change be deemed an irreparable break? Why must my people be forgotten?" She shook her head. "Sinjoh is lying. Sinjoh is wrong. The change that I came back for… it's already happened if the mirror is broken." She shook her head again. "It is as I said. What is done cannot be undone. It cannot be put back as it was." She pointed accusingly at him. "This is about revenge. It wants me struck down for daring to question the grand design."

They were both silent again, Rykker contemplating the implications of her words. They made sense to him, more so than the ramblings of a creature that had torn him across time and space. If Sinjoh was truly lying then he would be leaving an entire culture to disappear on nothing more than a terrible hallucination. But if the deity spoke the truth, then the entire universe was at risk. He was at an impasse.

"I believe that you believe you are right and what I saw has already happened," he said slowly. "But I'm afraid of what that means if you are wrong and it can be stopped." He scowled. "It has to be stopped. There must be a way to set it back. For the sake of our world."

She nodded. "I understand." She raised his ball belt, lifting one of her eyebrows questioningly. "What will you do if I return these to you?"

Rykker thought for a moment. "I do not know," he replied. "I don't understand what has happened, other than it being disastrous. And despite Sinjoh's urgings, I have no wish to kill you."

She lowered the belt. "And how will you know what to do?" She asked.

"I guess I won't," he responded with a shrug. "Then I'll make it up as I go along," he replied. "I'm rather good at that."

She lowered the belt. "That is not reassuring," she said.

"Either were your assurances."

The woman smirked softly. "Perhaps we both require a leap of faith for the time being." She pulled a key from her pack and slotted it into the manacles around his wrists. She turned the key and dropped the chains to the ground. "Follow me," she ordered as she dropped his ball belt back into her pack. "I have something to show you."

---

They emerged from the stairwell onto a grand balcony, one that overlooked the great statues that Rykker had seen in the future. He gaped in awe, eyes tracing the intricate carvings' minute details.

The woman chuckled at him. "I would tell you to take a picture, but cameras have not yet been invented."

He refused to tear his eyes away from the grand statues. "They're stunning," he said. "I've never seen such magnificent stonework."

"And yet, you saw what will happen to them. They will be forgotten," she said. "Everything you see here will be as if it never existed." She looked down over the balcony, watching people scurry about the base of the statues. "I am not so naïve to believe that my people will never face extinction. I have seen far too many a calamity to doubt in that." She sighed heavily, her eyes lingering on the helix construct that wrapped around Almighty Sinjoh's statue. "But to see that everything we accomplished, every great feat in our history, every sacrifice, all of it will be lost…" she trailed off.

"You can't allow that," Rykker replied.

She shook her head. "No. I cannot. Not even if it brings ruin."

He looked back over at her. "Why did you bring me up here?" he asked. "To wax poetic about your people's history?"

She met his eyes. "No," she said solemnly. "To beg." The woman leaned over the side of the balcony. "My people have suffered great tragedy to get where we are. We were cast out from our homeland, banished to the sea at the point of a spear. Hisui was not kind to us, but our new home… our New Sinjoh… it was ours." She gestured out at the temple. "It has taken two generations to build this temple. Our stonecutters worked day and night for years, and yet it stands crumbling and lost in your time."

She turned to face him. "I have a plan," she said. Her hands went into her pack, pulling a dull, rusted red chain from the bag. "I can harness Sinjoh's power using this, like I did to return to my time. I can fix this, all of it. I just need to retrieve a set of glyphs, the ones that I used in your time."

Rykker raised an eyebrow. "The unknown carvings? I knew they were special."

She nodded. "They are sacred relics, imbued with power when Sinjoh created the world." She looked down at the floor. "I can use them to summon our great protecto-"

"No," he interjected. "I may not know much about myths, especially ones from other regions." Rykker turned away from the balcony, facing the woman. "But I know ghosts. I was a ghost specialist as Champion. I know that moniker... The great protector? You mean to summon Giratina."

She scowled. "And is that so wrong?" she asked. "The great dragon has protected my Clan since time immemorial. It is a protector."

"It's dangerous," he replied. Rykker's mind was back in Unova, the raw memories of Zekrom and Reshiram clashing with the Plasma-controlled Kyurem fresh as the day he'd lived them. "I've seen gods summoned to battle, I've seen the consequences of this path."

"This time is already on that path," she said coldly. "You know little of this time, of the tensions that threaten the peace I have worked for here. Do not presume to lecture me on the intricacies of workings that you couldn't possibly understand."

He stepped back, the responsibility the woman seemed to bear suddenly making sense. "Your people…" he trailed off. "They are your people aren't they. You're their leader, aren't you?"

She looked wistfully off the balcony. "I am." She turned back to him, black cloak flowing out behind her. Her voice wavered and Jason saw the ghosts in her eyes. "I am Grisaea, Chieftess of the Platinum Clan and Queen of New Sinjoh." She met his eyes and he saw again the pleading, begging stare. "I will do what is necessary to save my people."

Rykker nodded, understanding dawning on him. "I was Champion once. I know what it is to have an entire people looking up at you, waiting and asking for answers that you don't have." He shook his head. "I failed my Unova, I failed my people and let corruption fester under the surface because I didn't have the balls to stop it. My inaction led directly to tragedy, to the very worst of catastrophes."

"Then you know the guilt that hung over my head every moment I spent in your time. You know what I feel having abandoned my people to their deaths while I survived." Grisaea drew closer to Rykker, leaning in to meet his eyes. "You know that I must do everything I can. Sinjoh be damned, I must save my people."

He nodded. "I know that pain."

They both turned, facing out at the statues. "What will you do then?" She asked.

He paused, watching a pair of workers carrying a large crate on the floor below. "Gods have never been my thing," he said cautiously. "I've never liked the finality of their rules. I find that reality… it has wiggle room."

She frowned. "Wiggle room?" she asked. "What use would one have for a room to wiggle in?"

He smirked at the figure of speech that had been lost in translation. "What I mean is that I am with you. Maybe you can solve this catastrophe, maybe there is no fixing what's broken." He shrugged, his mind made up. "I failed once, and I will not let that happen again. Not when there is even the slightest chance that we can stop this. It's… it's worth a try at least."

Grisaea smiled and he saw her breathe a sigh of relief. "That boy Champion, Red… he has rubbed off on you."

Rykker smirked and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "I guess he has," he said. "He just showed me that you can make a difference. That anyone, no matter how small a part to play can change the course of history." The smirk returned. "I don't think he meant to this extent, but I was never much for baby steps."

She paused and her smile seemed genuine. "How very… Unovan of you. What is it that your people say? Go big or get out?"

Rykker suppressed a chuckle. "Go big or go home." He nodded. "I suppose that's true about us." He looked back out at the statues and for the first time since he had arrived at the Ruins of Alph with Karen, he felt as if he was in some small measure of control. "So," he started, looking back at her. "Where do we start?"

---

The city of New Sinjoh was absolutely monstrous compared to the ruins he had flown over in the future. It was vast and stunning, gardens and fountains dotting the ancient city in all her glory. Clay facades and stunning reliefs lined the streets and more craftsmen were hard at work everywhere Rykker looked.

Grisaea led Rykker away from the temple with a dozen retainers in tow. She ignored the hushed whispers and accusing glances from the people as they passed. They did not linger, but Rykker knew that he was not popular among these strange peoples.

Rykker kept close to her, listening carefully to the strange tongue spoken by the locals. He kept hearing words that sounded similar to some archaic hisuian terms, but he was no linguist and had nothing concrete enough to make sense of their meanings. He stayed silent and kept pace with the group, noting that they were steadily climbing uphill.

They stopped at the top of the hill, in front of a low-slung building with an open roof. A building that was clearly a soldier's barracks sat beside it. Grisaea waved in her entourage, issuing orders to her people, and offered a smile to Rykker as he followed her inside.

"This place," he started. "It's larger than I expected."

She nodded. "Our most recent census counted over a hundred thousand souls in the city itself. Maybe half that again live in the settlements along the river valley. We've recovered greatly from the scant few thousand that fled across the sea from Hisui." She shrugged. "Though, we are not half as large as either of the established johtan cities are. Still, I am proud of what my people have accomplished after such adversity."

Rykker looked at her as she swung open the doors. The question that had been on his lips died and he stared in awe at the rookery. They lined the walls of the building, steel feathers shining in the light of the oil lamps.

"Magnificent, aren't they?" Grisaea asked. "They were rulers of the river valley before we arrived here." She approached one of the pokemon, reaching up to pat one of the avians on a steel beak. "So many of my people would have balked at working so closely with pokemon back in Hisui. So many did not trust them or were afraid of their power." She looked up at the largest of the skarmory. "Our Noble Lady of the Valley took quite a liking to me as a child though. She saved my life a long time ago, and I returned the favour by providing her flock with a place to nest."

"I'm surprised they stay," Rykker said, beholding the stunningly large skarmory with the appropriate amount of awe. "They're supposedly difficult to train."

Grisaea nodded. "They are." She pulled open the massive skarmory's stall and ushered the metal raptor out. "Do you have a mount?" she asked as the skarmory lowered down to her level.

"Not any more," he said with a frown. "Not for a long while."

She frowned slightly, leaning in towards the skarmory's head. She whispered something and the metal avian answered with a shrill chirp.

"Our Lady Noble will allow you to ride her," she said. Grisaea shifted backwards on the pokemon, making space for Rykker. "She will carry us both."

Her attendants bustled around her, clearing away a large space in the open-topped room as Rykker stepped up to the side of her mount. "Where are we heading?" he asked.

She reached out, taking his hand and pulling him up as a leg swung over the skarmory's back. "Alph, when it was not a ruin." She frowned in frustration. "Where I was taken from my time and my people."

Rykker stiffened up. "Are you expecting to see another Celebi?"

She shrugged. "It is a possibility. One that I am more prepared for than I was."

"Is that because you have me?" he asked.

"Partly," Grisaea replied. She pulled back her cloak and I saw a trio of battered pokeballs sat there. "I also have my own pokemon now. Before… I was alone." She shook her head and looked to the sky. "I was weak, Jason Rykker. I am weak no longer."

The woman that had been speaking with Grisaea when he woke stepped up to the skarmory's side. Her voice was low and hushed, the tongue one that Rykker was ignorant of. But he caught the concern. He could hear the fear and terror clear in the woman's voice. She was scared.

Grisaea said something back, reassuring the woman with a gentle touch. She leaned in and her voice dropped to a whisper. A warm smile crossed the woman's face. She stepped back and bowed her head, the rest of Grisaea's entourage doing the same.

Rykker looked down at them, glancing back at the time traveller. "And they're fine with me going with you?"

"No," Grisaea said coldly. "They are not happy with my decision. So don't prove me wrong."

She dug her heels into the skarmory's sides. Rykker barely had time to draw a breath before they rocketed into the sky on wings of heaving steel.

---

The Argent River Valley had been a cold, desolate place in Rykker's time. It was populated solely by angry wild pokemon and left to the ravages of time and nature. The frigid, dead climate of the future clashed harshly with the bright and vibrant past. Rykker couldn't help but wonder at the transformation that two thousand years had made.

They set down at the edge of the forest in the foothills of the Argents and made camp. Grisaea did not return his pokemon to him and instead ordered him to build a small fire to cook dinner. She disappeared into the woods at the base of the hills, leaving the humongous skarmory with Rykker to keep watch.

He set to work, gathering some tinder from the tree line and carrying it over to the skarmory. He looked up at the bird. "I don't suppose you'd be able to dig me a fire pit?"

The skarmory blinked once and stared blankly at him.

Rykker sighed and shook his head. "Guess not."

He turned around, surveying the edge of the forest they'd landed at. The rocky hills beyond the forest's edge rose towards the imposing peaks in the distance. He could see small flickers of light on the mountains, leading towards the pass that Grisaea was heading for. No doubt, they were the lookouts she had spoken of.

Rykker retrieved a stone from the hill and stomped back down to the earthy soil at the forest's edge. He knelt, digging away until he had excavated a small pit. The fire was crackling by the time Grisaea had returned. Rykker was reclining on the hill, looking up at the stars.

"They're different," Grisaea said, dropping a pair of pidgey carcasses in front of him. She looked up at the sky. "There's more of them. And they shine brighter than they do in your time."

He grunted an unintelligible answer as she sat across the fire from him. Silence fell, and the only noise was the dim crackle of the fire. "Less light," he replied gruffly at long last, still staring up at the sky. "Everything's brighter in the future."

She smirked, looking up at me as she began to prepare our dinner. "Brighter," she started. "but cold and inhospitable. Your people struggle for base necessities, where mine are fat and happy in their simple lives." She scowled. "The future… 'tis a bleak place."

He glanced down from the night's sky, a knowing scowl on his face. "It may not be perfect, but is that all it is?" he asked. "There is good in the future under all the bad. Good people, doing good things."

"Like Red?" she asked suddenly. "I read about your boy Champion, about the bloody mess his predecessor left him. And he yet allows the man who was the mastermind behind the most violent coup attempt in Indigo's history to stay on as Elite."

"You don't understand the complexities," Rykker replied. "Red's trying to do what's right for Indigo, what's right for the whole world. Lance's removal would be… difficult, to say the least. Lance and Blackthorn provide a powerful voting bloc, one that Red can ill-afford to lose." He shook his head. "But you had not considered political needs, had you?"

Grisaea wrinkled her nose. "I despise politics," she said. "Past or future, it's all the same. People are weak, self-serving fools regardless of time."

He let a smile come to his face. She was like he had been when he had still believed in the power of the Champion; a naïve fool who wished to rule by decree. "You are a true monarch at heart," he said flatly. "Much like a Champion."

She paused for a moment. Her expression softened and she looked up at him. "Perhaps there is some truth in that," she said. "But the future remains a cold, unwelcoming place."

Rykker watched her for a moment as she went back to preparing the pidgey. He could see the pain that she spoke with. The future was not kind, not to people from a more forgiving time. "What was it like for you?" he asked. "Being dragged to a different time?"

She looked up at him, staring in silence over the crackling fire. She ignored the question, going back to the pidgey cuts.

"I do not mean to pry," he continued.

"Yet you do so regardless," she retorted. "What gives you the right to continue asking?"

He shrugged. "You seem to know everything you could possibly want to about me." He scowled, the aspect of being a champion that he had least enjoyed heavy in his mind. "Every moment of my life, the good, the bad… it's all online. Everybody knows everything about me." He looked back down at her, finally tearing himself away from the night's sky. "Maybe I don't have a right to know these things. Maybe I should just shut my mouth and listen to the badass Queen. But I like to push boundaries, and I don't like not knowing who I'm working with."

She stared back at him, her gaze cold and hard. Her expression softened slightly. "Perhaps I can share a few things," she said. "In the hope that it sparks some trust between us."

He nodded back. "I would appreciate that."

She sat back, the pidgey finally cooking over the fire. "Then I shall consider it," she replied. "But for now, I do not wish to speak any further."

Rykker sat back, regarding Grisaea with a sad grin. "I will hold you to it then," he said. "Perhaps another day?"

She nodded in silence. Rykker took the hint and turned his attention back to the sky. They didn't speak another word, not even when the pidgey were done and they ate their meagre meal.

---

Sinjoh Ruins, Northern Kan-Jo

The chamber was open to the sky, entire sections of the roof caved in. Three massive statues stretched towards the sun, likely the first time in history that they'd ever seen sunlight.

The dragon descended through the roof, banking around the statues with room to spare. An echoing roar greeted them from a dragon at the foot of a statue that had been reduced to rubble. Lance angled his mount downwards and guided the dragon in.

"Where's Elite Rykker?" Lance asked as he slipped from the back of his dragonite.

Champion Shirona shook her head solemnly, looking up at him from her seat on the floor. "Gone," she said. "It is done. The die has been cast. The mirror has been broken."

Lance frowned. "Do you always speak in riddle?"

She shrugged, slowly getting to her feet. "I suppose that it is time for some truth. Rykker is gone, along with our quarry. We can no longer act proactively. From this point onwards, we are on the defensive."

The dragon master scowled. "I was not aware that we were under attack."

Grand Champion Shirona looked back at him with a grim expression. "We aren't under attack yet," she said. "But make no mistake, we are at war."

Lance opened his mouth to speak, but the question died on his tongue. He folded his arms as Cynthia turned towards the statues. "I shall alert Red."

"We'll need more than just Indigo," she replied. "Summon the Grand Council."

Lance scoffed. "Hoenn is a broken ruin and Unova is led by a bloodthirsty madman. Half the damn world is engulfed by chaos. You'll never get them all to work together!" He shook his head, the memory of his attempt to wrangle cooperation between the disparate regions still fresh. "You said it yourself after the last meeting."

She turned back to him, her face seeming a little paler than normal. "Then let us pray that I was wrong," she replied. "Else we will stand alone against forces we can scarcely comprehend." She took one last glance up at the damaged statues of the creation trio. "Not even the gods will be able to save us then."

---

Timelines in danger! Defiance of the will of gods! How will humanity survive?

You'll just have to keep reading!