Start of a Crisis.

Ash gave out a strangled cry as the wind was thrown from his body as his most trusted companion was slammed into his chest, sending the pair backwards several paces. The culprit was a smug looking persian, preening itself while its master watched with a twisted smirk on his face. Giovanni, the notorious leader of the infamous team rocket, looked down on the young trainer and said calmly

"Well, once again it seems that I am the victor. Only this time, there are no second chances… Allow me to show you what you have just failed to stop. Bring forth our latest acquisition!"

At the sound of the last sentence, several helicopters bearing the red R of team rocket dropped down from the sky. Chained between them was some sort of glowing cage, similar to the one that had been previously used to capture Meloetta. However this one was much larger and electrical discharges crackled through the translucent film. Inside was a figure that turned the trainer from Kanto's insides to jelly. Beaten and broken to the point where its head drooped to the floor of the cage… was the alpha pokemon, Arceus.

"Impressive… isn't it?" Giovanni asked "To be able to capture and bind the most powerful pokemon of all. Soon it will obey my every will, and then the entire world will be mine."

"You can't do that!" Ash protested, punctuated by Pikachu.

"Oh… and why can't I?" Giovanni asked calmly. It amused him greatly whenever people tried to tell him what he could and couldn't do.

"Because… pokemon aren't meant to be used that way. They aren't tools for evil people to abuse…"

"A child's answer… and here I thought you would have grown up a little since we last met five years ago. No matter. Now to end this… Dialga. Roar of time now!"

"Dialga?!" Ash cried, as the temporal pokemon descended upon the pair, the deadly attack forming within its jaws. In a futile effort to protect his trainer and friend, Pikachu launched a lightning bolt at Dialga. The electric attack met the strongest of all dragon type moves in mid-air; and was overpowered in an instant. Ash leaped in front of the electric mouse, prepared to take the full blow when a dark blue sphere of ghostly flames slammed the attack off course causing it to slam into the ground twenty feet to the left. The smoke cloud billowed over the scene for moment, but both Ash and Pikachu were unharmed.

"What?!" Giovanni started, the sudden intrusion plastering a look of confusion over his features.

Giratina narrowed its eyes before sending an aura sphere at Dialga. The temporal legend avoided it and the spikes on its back begun to grow as it prepared for another Roar of Time. Without waiting for permission or whatever it was that would be needed, Giratina scooped Ash and Pikachu up with its ghostly wing before placing them unceremoniously on its back. The pair tumbled down until they were able to gain a hold on the Renegade Pokemon's hide. Ash pulled himself into an upright position, gripping tightly to avoid being thrown off as Giratina rose into the air, distracting Dialga with another aura sphere before beating its wings and heading towards a large nearby lake.

Giovanni just watched them go. So…Giratina had shown itself in order to save the boy… No matter, once he had control of Arceus, Giratina could be swept aside at his leisure. Turning on heel, the Team Rocket boss walked slowly towards a waiting copter. Behind him, Giratina passed from the real world into the reverse world.

Ash looked down at the Pokemon that had just saved his life, now glowing a glittering violet as it changed from its Altered form into origin form. A few seconds later the glow faded, and the legend reverted to its usual colour scheme. Ash immediately jumped off when Giratina levitated itself over a platform and turned to look at the huge dragon pokemon.

"Thank you Giratina… You saved us…"

"Pika pika."

Giratina nodded, and then did something that previous encounters didn't prepare Ash for. It replied.

"Call it returning the favour if you will."

The voice was soft and husky as well as being unmistakably feminine. Ash's eyes couldn't get any wider, something which made the legendary snort irritably. Finally regaining his senses, the teen spoke up,

"I didn't know you could talk."

"I couldn't. But I taught myself out of boredom. That's not the problem. Humans have gotten greedy, and this time they're so close to succeeding it makes me burn."

"I'm sorry… I just… couldn't do anything."

"Starting a pity party won't help anyone. You, or rather we, need a plan. There's no other legendaries left."

"Giovanni got them all?!" Ash exclaimed "But… how?"

The renegade sighed "That's what I'd like to find out, but if he caught Arceus… He'll have me in a heartbeat."

"Then what can we do?" Ash asked "There has got to be something."

Giratina shook her head "I don't know… But there is somewhere we might find out."

"Where?" Ash demanded "We need to get there now!"

"One, taking you there would break every rule in the book, and two, I'm not even sure I can get in without Arceus. But, might as well try… Get back on."

The raven haired teen didn't need, jumping onto the huge legendaries back. Giratina took off, if it could be called that in this twisted world where she barely even touched the ground. The trio sped through the reverse world. Ash couldn't help but admire the scenery, even though the situation outside this realm was so dire.

"So… where are we going anyway?"

Giratina gave a sign then replied, "The record hall. Everything that's ever happened, Arceus has recorded and keeps there."

Ash blinked "Uh… why?"

"How should I know? He might not want to forget, or might just find it useful to be able to look back from time to time. Anyway, my throat's getting sore from all this prattling."

With that, the conversation dried up faster than sweat in a desert, and the renegade flew through her twisted dimension in silence.

Ash didn't really know when he fell asleep, but when he woke up, he was back in the real world, and a very irate looking Giratina was glaring down at him with her blood-red eyes. Leaping up from the stone floor he had been laid on, the pokemon trainer looked around

"Where are we?"

"Spear pillar," answered Giratina, "I trust you remember the place."

Ash gave another look around, then nodded "Yeah… This is where Cyrus tried to use Dialga and Palkia to create a new world."

"Essentially, but it's not here that we're interested in. I guessed that you would want to see this."

"See what?" Ash asked. Pikachu was back up on his shoulder and staring at Giratina just as quizzically as his trainer.

The legendary didn't answer- she was pretty good at that. Instead she turned her masked head skyward and loosed a roar from her maw. The shattered stone pillars shook, and then a large beam of brilliant white light shot up into the air, before fanning into a huge gateway twice the height of Giratina herself. The energy rippled before becoming as smooth as glass, and Ash had to blink to make sure he wasn't seeing things. Right there, in thin air, was a huge arched chamber. The walls gleamed with a golden sheen, and didn't have a single flaw marking their perfect surface.

Large footsteps brought the teen out of his daze as Giratina started to walk through the field and into the chamber. Snapping back to the world, Ash followed behind the legendary, struggling to keep up with his miniscule legs. Giratina almost felt like helping him, but if she got any softer she'd be as well giving up her day job and becoming a sponge. He'd need to toughen up if either of them were going to be able to stop this. Probably her… Sure he'd had his fair share of accomplishments in the past, but he hadn't done anything for five years that was worthy of note. Mew had said it was because all of his friends had left, Dialga had said there wasn't much to do. Giratina didn't care. Whether she liked it or not, he was the best hope right now. Or so she thought.

Stopping at the end of the chamber, she gave a glance around. Her destination was the huge door behind Arceus' pedestal. However, the only time she'd ever been in there was with Arceus' permission. Not that she'd wanted it. He'd locked her in with the threat that he wouldn't let her out until she'd rewritten any of the volumes that had faded with time. All because she'd gone ballistic at him for making one of those infernal bug types a legendary pokemon. That had been well about three hundred million years ago.

This however, was a different story. Arceus wasn't here, and actually needed her help. As much as she hated to admit it, even to herself, she respected the alpha pokemon… and didn't really want to see him used as a tool. She also didn't want to end a tool, so she was doing this for herself too. Steeling her resolve, the legendary walked past the pedestal, and extended a wing to the door. Pushing it open, she breathed a small sigh of relief as it swung open. That was the hard part done… she able to actually get in in. Now she just had to find something. Here, she found the term, a needle in a haystack, to be appropriate.

Giratina was about to walk into the room; before she had to draw back her foot in alarm. Ash had already dashed into the room.

"This place is… amazing! Is this everything that's ever happened?" he asked, looking up at his large companion, who shrugged

"I assume so… but next time don't run under me or I will squash you."

"Uh… yeah… sorry about that," Ash muttered. Pikachu made an apologetic noise on behalf of his trainer. Giratina waved them both off and sighed "Just… look for anything. Team rocket are documented in that section. I'll look over here for… anything."

Ash nodded "Okay. C'mon Pikachu. Let's get looking."

"Pika!"

Ash nodded then started to trawl through the books, finding it more difficult due to the fact that the books were four times the size of ordinary books. Never having been an avid reader, Ash could barely keep himself awake. However, the thought of the world being in such peril motivated him to carry on. After several hours, his eyes found something interesting. In an alternate dimension, a trainer called Red and his few friends had defeated Team Rocket all by themselves. After scanning through the pages, he called on Giratina. When the footsteps stopped he assumed that Giratina was looming over him and waiting on an explanation.

Ash stepped back a bit so she could see. The response was immediate.

"Ah... him…"

"You know him?" Ash queried

"Only by his reputation," Giratina shrugged her massive shoulders before continuing "He's about as famous in his world as you are in this one."

This made Ash's head spin. He was famous… but… that made no sense. Famous was someone like Lance or Cynthia. He was just Ash, unable to win a single major league, and getting gradually worse each year. He'd tried for the Sinnoh league last year and failed to get through the first round. Pushing the subject aside, Ash asked

"Is there any way he can help us?"

"Hmm… Well, I can get to that dimension fairly easily, and I think I'd be able to persuade him to help…"

Why is it always the humans who end up having to do these things? They're getting too powerful with their technology… If it keeps up, there won't be any need for legendaries and half of us will end up in a human's pokeball. Giratina shuddered at that thought. There was no way she could imagine herself willingly submitting to a human. However, recent events showed that some humans didn't really care if the pokemon wanted to or not. Dialga was being forced to act against his will, and Arceus was trapped and about to meet the same fate. Giratina gave a bitter stomp and closed her eyes. She was trying to contain her anger before she did something she would regret. This happened too many times for her liking.

A touch on her shoulder made her open her eyes and turn them to bring the yellow mouse perched upon one of the golden armour pieces curled around her upper body. In the tongue that was universal to all of Arceus' magical creations he asked,

"What's wrong? You don't seem on board with the idea of getting help from this Red guy."

Irritated that she'd laid herself out on a metaphorical table for Pikachu to read, Giratina composed herself before responding.

"I'm not. Humans are too powerful now. I don't want to see a world where humans are in control of everything. The world was never meant to get like this."

Pikachu nodded "I get it… But most humans aren't like Team Rocket, and it's always good to have any sort of help when you're on the wire… And you're about as on the wire as anyone's ever been. You can put the world back to the way it's designed when it's out of danger. One problem at a time."

Giratina snorted "How did a pokemon as mature as you end up with him?"

"Ever heard of opposites attract?" Pikachu asked, before regretting the phrase. It seemed to sting Giratina, causing her to visibly shudder. Sensing that prodding for answers would be useless, and even dangerous, the electric mouse hopped down back onto his trainer's shoulder.

Giving a sigh of defeat, Giratina switched to human speech and ordered.

"Okay Ash… Follow me. We're going to find Red. I don't have a better idea, and sitting around here reading is making my blood boil."

Ash nodded "Let's go. We'll get this done… We have to!"

Inside however, the previously confident trainer wasn't so sure.

This is a new idea I've been having. Inspiration for my old stories has dried up completely. I'm not hopeful anything will happen to them any time soon. As for this story, please drop a review if you like it, or if you see any problems I need to fix. Be as nitpicky as you want, every little helps.