Chapter 4

Hello, me again! This time, I'm not lying when I say the Spectrobes will come in next chapter. And when they do, I can finally start to set up the meat of the fic. In the meanwhile though, say your goodbyes to Mt. Coronet and the entire Pokemon space-time-continuum, because the plot will finally pick up the pace a little bit. I don't want to detain you any longer with my stupid author notes though, so here's the chapter! Iku ze!

The swirling maelstrom of white-hot force blew as with a mind of it's own, gusting and soaring in deadly arcs. I rapidly ducked to avoid a bit detached from the rest, but in spite of my best efforts, I felt a large chunk of my hair and some of my bandanna dematerialize into thin air. The fact had barely registered with me, when Triki dropped the plate he was holding and quickly pushed me out of the way of another, faster bolt and dropped onto the floor beside me. My jawbone hit the floor first and I heard something crunch loudly, the result being a lot of pain and some blood on the now-pitted stone. Arduously, I raised my head in time to see Cyrus, with a triumphant expression on his face, impaled with a bolt of divine thunder as he evaporated into thin air.

I quickly dropped my head, wishing I hadn't seen it happen.

"So he's dead." I murmured so softly it almost could've been a thought. (And so I shall soon follow.)

With that thought, the radiant light of my hope died into ashes. I closed my eyes tightly as I lay there with Triki, hoping to die there on the pitted stones with divine lightning striking all around us. Despite my efforts, through the slit of my eye, a single, glittering tear escaped and landed an a surface that was clear and white and shining.

My eyes flew open in shock to perceive a completely changed landscape. A intricate dome of energy, encompassing the entire Spear Pillar and patterned after Arceus's wheel had gracefully risen into the air. The floor was glassed over as with marble and the ethereal light had returned. I unsteadily got up and noticed my jaw was no longer broken. (Did I die? Is this heaven? Or am I just going crazy?)

As I looked across the pinnacle I found my answers, for Arceus still stood in the center of the dead and lifeless pentacle. Every muscle in it's body stood out in high relief as the center of the dome began to resemble a bundt pan with the center focused on Arceus. The energy floated down in a ray to be slowly, but steadily absorbed by the wheel and the plates. As the luminescent glow left the pillars and floor, the stone seemed healed and whole. Dialga and Palkia, somehow unaffected by the lethal rays stood watch over the process at the edge of the dome, looking uncannily nervous as they did so, like rabbits under the gaze of a falcon.

I didn't notice that though. The miraculous truth had hit me: The world wasn't going to perish, I wasn't going to die and everything could return to normal again. "I hope so anyways," I said to Triki in a fake offhand voice to disguise the sudden happiness and warmth in my tone as I watched the energy disappear into the Plates. He wasn't fooled a bit.

It wasn't anything in my physical senses that warned me at first. The aura of the place had previously been warm and homelike, but dropped rapidly into a black darkness behind me. Then I saw out of the corner of my eye Dialga stiffen as if to fight and Palkia blanch white, it's pink scales looking like someone had run them through a washer. Arceus, it's eyes fixed on a position behind me strained to absorb the rest of the energy. Triki too, noticed it a split second before me, turning warlike and drawing his katana before spinning around to face something behind me, the glowing Plate lying forgotten at his feet.

I paused before I turned around to look. I mean, I thought I knew who it was, but I remembered justified anger, not this mindless malevolence. Of course, there was enough evidence in the way Dialga and Palkia were acting. Only one thing would scare them like that.

Delicately swiveling on the balls of my feet, I found exactly what I thought I would find: A very pissed-off Origin Form Giratina, not two feet away from my face. It's tiny eyes were narrowed in enmity (What had I done?) and a gigantic Dark Pulse was rapidly charging inside it's absurdly small mouth. I had just enough time to think, (Oh shit.) and take a step back before the attack exploded with the force of a large bomb.

This was far worse then the Honchcrow's Ominous Wind. The waves of aura ripped through the age-old pillars and the floor was fractured with the force. The black energy swirled around me so I could only see the largest details of the scene. Only one thing interested me anyways.

"TRIKI!"

As the energy faded I saw him standing defiantly before Giratina, blood flowing freely from a wound on his chest, before he slowly dropped to the ground, dead. He had shielded me from a mortal blow with his life and body alike.

The world spun around me at a dizzying speed, partly due to the shock of losing my lifelong partner but mostly because of the head trauma from the attack. Giratina raised a tentacle to deliver a fatal blow, one that I would be unable to avoid. My entire life flashed before my eyes, as if it was desperate to pack in as much as possible before the end. But before the attack could fall, a agonized scream filled the area.

In the state of shock I had been in, I had neglected to realize that the Dark Pulse had affected more than Triki and I. Turning aroud, I saw that when hit with the powerful attack, Arceus had lost control of the energy and was now in a state of feverish panic, it's fur flashing different colors in response to the plates. Dialga and Palkia, with their leader temporarily incapacitated, took matters into their own hands, Dialga, straining with the crest on it's back glowing and Palkia, making purposeful movements with it's dagger-sharp claws. Some of the white energy responded, gathering in a small pool in the center of the pillar and gradually turning darker, an inky black with streaks of midnight purple shot through the center. The rest began to disappear into what I realized to be a dimensional hole.

At this new development, Arceus seemed to regain some self-control, it's fur slowly beginning to return to it's usual pure white color. It looked at me deeply and I understood that I was to bring the Plate Triki had dropped over to it. I knelt down and picked up the Plate, avoiding contact with the body of my friend. "Goodbye," I whispered, sorrow deep within my voice, before I slowly straightened up and started to walk to where Arceus stood. I heard a rumbling growl behind me, Giratina reminding me that it was still there, but still I walked onward, confident that I was doing the right thing.

A harsh look from Arceus silenced the snarling and I walked on in peace, before setting the Plate down in it's original position. At another meaningful look, I stepped the only other open space of the star, where Cyrus had so recently stood. Arceus again summoned up it's unimaginable power and two things happened. One, all Seventeen Plated vanished and I felt a heavy thud in my bag as they reappeared inside it. I thought to myself (Crap! I hope they didn't crush anything important, they're heavy!) The second thing that happened was brief, but stronger. For half a moment, I could see everything, feel everything, from the impending presences of the legends and fading light of my friend, to the microorganisms in the air and stone and the wind of this world itself I could for a moment feel as clearly as if they were within me. As quickly as the feeling had come, it faded almost completely, taking with it the sensation of euphoric peace that I had held for just a moment.

"What was that?" I muttered mostly to myself. Before I could wonder anymore my instincts screamed at me to be alert. Suspecting treachery, I looked around just in time to see a devastating blow by Giratina's tail knock me off balance and into the swirling dimensional hole.

Ahh, I love cliffhangers and now I have two to work on. Poor Triki, I didn't want to kill him off but it was necessary to do so. Concerning reviews, thank you to everyone who has but I do have one request. I like praise and complements as much as anyone, but can you please be a little more critical? Pointing out grammatical errors and flaws in the plot really helps a lot so can you please help with that? Thanks. Katie out!