Distortion

by Skylight Sparkle

Legends whisper of a world that is a shadowed, distorted mirror of our own. Should harm come to this world, the consequences to our world would be dire. Time and space aren't the only things on a direct collision course, but how a small little pokemon fits into all of this is a mystery. A very annoying one, if you ask Ash Ketchum. Sequel to Between Time and Space.

7. Cracks and Falls

Distortion

Chapter Seven: Cracks and Falls

The pokemon glided around the outside of the car, poking and prodding at the windows to test them. They were in a passenger car on a train that was speeding to some unknown destination, and now they were surrounded by pokemon that didn't look friendly in the least.

"Go to the next car," Leaf whispered suddenly, never taking her eyes off of the pokemon as she walked to the door, slowly opening it. Ash was about to ask her what good that would do when she looked at the other people there. One Magnemite hit the window a little more harshly, cracking it. "Hurry."

"What do they want?" One of the children asked with fearful eyes.

"Shaymin, that's what you need to go, now," she stressed. Leaf was going to add more when a Magneton slammed through the window, sending shards of glass flying through the air. She hissed in pain as a thin cut appeared on her arm, but given that she had been blocking her eyes, it seemed like a good trade off. "Go!" She yelled at the other people, urging them through the door.

"We need to tell the conductor!" Brock yelled at Ash, but the younger boy wasn't paying attention to him. Instead, he leapt up, yanking the blanket that Misty had up over her head. He heard her protest, but didn't let her move as the windows above their heads exploded inwards.

"No change these things are getting me!" Shaymin yelled, flying around the Magnemite and Magneton in circles, causing them to slam into one another until she attacked them with a powerful green orb that completely threw them out of the train. "I'm awesome!"

"Go!" Dawn yelled at Brock. "Go warn him what's happening! We got this!"

Brock knew that she was right, but it was still hard for him to turn and run. Someone had to do it, and he was the only one that had a clear shot to escape the passenger car, so that was what he did. "I'll be back soon!"

Ash pushed himself up from where he had thrown himself over Misty, to block her from the shards of glass despite the fact that he had thrown the blanket over her. She pushed the fabric off her face when he moved, glaring at him fiercely. Catching sight of a Magnemite heading towards them though, she knew this wasn't the place to argue. "Look out!"

Ash didn't look around, instead silently trying to communicate with Pikachu what he wanted. It was times like this that Ash wished he could actually convey thoughts like a psychic, but Pikachu could usually interpret what he wanted faster than anyone else, barring Ria. Calm situations when they were training, or regular battles, were a completely different thing than being attacked while on the run.

Luckily, Pikachu understood, jumping into the air. His tail hardened, the fur shifting into a silver steel as he flipped over and slammed the pokemon back out the window. Pikachu landed neatly on the back of another chair, his expression daring any others to come closer to him.

"Wow, you're pretty strong," Shaymin commented, but Pikachu just glared at her before leaping up into the air, letting two of the Magnemite crash into one another.

Dawn ducked as one flew over her head, looking over at her starter pokemon as he jumped onto the ground beside her. Turning her attention to the Magnemite and Magneton over her, she knew that there electric-typing combined with their sheer number would beat Piplup almost instantaneously, but she was pretty sure that they were steel-types too and if she remembered right, it didn't fair that well against water. They weren't aiming to win a battle, they were just aiming to get them away.

"Use Bubblebeam!" She called out, pointing at the pokemon. Piplup jumped up onto the back of one of the benches and unleashed a powerful beam of bubbles, the sheer force throwing the Magenemite out the window.

Ria growled as some of them got too close. Pikachu shot by, electricity surrounding him as he used his Volt Tackle to get the pokemon away. A few remained, but that didn't deter the tiny pokemon. She focused her aura, and a glowing Aura Sphere appeared in her hands. She hauled her arm back and then threw it, the attack slamming into two of the Magnemite and instantly knocking them out.

Shaymin continues to attack as well to get them to go away, but one got her pinned to the ceiling. There was a flash of red light, and then a pale purple creature appeared.

"Espeon, use Psychic!" Leaf called out, startling everyone since no one noticed her come back, and her pokemon's eyes started to glow red. The Magnemite and Magneton all struggled a bit, but they started to glow the same red and were literally tossed out the window.

Pikachu jumped across the seats, electricity surrounding his body before streaking out the window in a powerful blast, forcing any of the other pokemon away.

Their pokemon cheered but the cheers were cut short as Magnezone slammed into one of the broken windows, trying to force its way into the train car.

Ash was going to yell for Pikachu to attack, but there was another flash and and suddenly the passenger car was several-annoyed-water-pokemon fuller. Azurill, Politoed, Corsola and Spheal were all glaring at the Magnemite and Magneton before attacking. The electric-types might have the advantage, but they were against four very annoyed pokemon. The only thing that would have made the whole situation more amusing would be if Misty unleashed her Gyarados.

The attacking pokemon were forced out of the train just as they entered a tunnel and the car plunged into darkness.

"Return." Misty slumped down a bit as her pokemon all went back into their pokeballs, sighing and wiping the sweat off her forehead. "See, I can take care of myself."

Ash snorted at her and shook his head with amusement as Pikachu jumped back on his shoulder. "No one said you couldn't. Doesn't mean we can't help though."

"Every last one of them!" Shaymin said confidently as she soared through the cabin. "It's thank Shaymin time."

"I will let Gyarados eat you," Misty grumbled, waving her hand in front of her face. "It's getting warm in here."

Brock, apparently just returning from the front of the train, frowned and leaned forward, pressing his hand to her forehead. "Your fever probably spiked a bit, we'll have to check that soon but I think we need to get off this train. Those pokemon know where we are."

"Well, we know how to get to the area the Flower Garden is said to be in," Dawn pointed out, shifting away from Shaymin a bit as the pokemon landed close to her. "We just need to get off at the next stop, which should only be in a few minutes, and then get on the ferry."

"But then we'll be on water," Leaf pointed out. "A reflective surface with absolutely no way to get away from it. Giratina could just yank the whole boat into the Reverse World."

"It'll take too long for us to walk there though." Brock's eyes flickered to Misty worriedly. "And we don't have pokemon large enough to fly there."

"Won't we just get attacked again on the ferry?" Misty asked, leaning her head back against the cool steel wall of the train. "Those Magnemite will probably just follow us again. What if someone gets hurt?" She didn't say it, but Ash could feel the waves of guilt rolling off of her. She thought that this whole thing was her fault.

"She's got a point," Leaf agreed, eyeing the redhead thoughtfully. "But what if we took Gyarados?"

"Gyarados?" they all repeated.

"Yeah. That way if we notice anything weird happening in the water we can pull over to shore right away, and no one else is around to get hurt. Gyarados are fast too. Probably even faster than a ferry would be."

"What do you think?" Ash asked Misty curiously, knowing that she was the only one that could possibly wrangle that Gyarados and it would probably just spit in their faces, or try to eat them.

Misty bit her lip in thought but then nodded her head. "Lets do it."

...

"Is this place a part of the sea?" Dawn asked Brock from atop Gyarados, shifting a bit as she looked at the water around them. Everything was just so big there that it was hard to imagine it being anything else.

"No," he chuckled at her. "This is isolated fresh water, it's just massive enough so it looks like a river, but it's actually once huge lake. Everything here was created by melting glaciers."

"Melting glaciers?" Ash repeated, tilting his head curiously. "I think there's something about that in one of my classes." He was also pretty sure that he was overdue on his test for that (he promised his mother he'd do one at least once a week, be it at a Pokemon Center or through his Pokedex), but there were more important things to worry about.

"There is," Leaf nodded her head. "Environmental Science chapter seven. I did that one a couple weeks ago."

Brock shook his head at the two of them and took out his guide book, leaning over the fin that he was resting on to show them a picture. "Like this. It's been wearing away at the mountain for tens of thousands of years."

"That looks cold," Dawn commented while rubbing her arms.

"It'd be awesome right about now," Misty said as she wiped off her head again, leaning back and dipping her cloth into the cool water. She was sitting lower on Gyarados' back so that someone else wouldn't need to run and get more water for her. She was stubborn like that.

"Yeah, I remember that. Those were all made when Kyurem got really cranky in Unova and pretty much the whole world got icy. I mean, it was starting to happen naturally, but he sped it along. What a thankless jerk." Shaymin lifted her head a bit from where she sat on the large crest on Gyarados' head.

"You can't possibly remember that," Brock deadpanned. "Like I said, it was tens of thousands of years ago."

Pikachu sighed loudly, getting everyone's attention. He shook his head and said, "Pikachu pi pika pika cha cu pi chu ka." He pointed at Shaymin. "Pika pika pikachu pi pikachu."

Everyone stared at him blankly while Ash just looked confused. "What's an Alpha Pokemon?"

"A what?"

"That's what he said. He said that Shaymin was alive back then because she's the Alpha Shaymin."

"I am the Alpha Shaymin," she preened. "It means I'm the boss."

Pikachu rolled his eyes and looked at Ria. "Pipi?"

Ria looked at Leaf and Dawn unsurely, and then back at Ash. He silently nodded his head, and Ria turned her attention back to Pikachu. "Yeah, I'll translate."

Though Ash told Dawn that Ria could communicate with him, she still jumped, and probably would have fallen off Gyarados if Brock wouldn't have grabbed her arm to steady her. Leaf's mouth fell open slightly as she looked at the pokemon before her eyes shot to Ash. He could practically see the questions dancing across them, and shrugged. He'd try to explain later.

"Pi pikachu pi pika..." Pikachu continued to ramble on and Ria translated for him.

"All groups of pokemon in the wild have a leader. The strongest in the group or something like that." From Pikachu's glare, it was obvious that Ria was just paraphrasing what he was saying, but she didn't care. This was new to her too. Pikachu continued speaking and she continued translating. "Those are often known as alphas of the group, but the stories say that with legendary pokemon, it means something different. The Alpha of a species of Legendary Pokemon is either the first one, or the strongest one that takes the place of the first one. Why would they—okay I'm translating! Umm...well I guess it's the one that can't be caught. Like there are some legendaries that only have one of them, like Giratina or Palkia or Dialga or Arceus but there are others with more than one, like Articuno or Manaphy or Shaymin. There's one special one that's stronger and has more powers. If the Alpha is caught thats when the world goes crazy."

Well, that explained why trying to capture the legendary birds at Shamouti Island messed up the whole world when Ash fought other trainers with an Articuno before. A part of him had always wondered about that. There was something about the explanation that didn't sit well with him though.

"Wait," his brow furrowed. "How can you be the Alpha Shaymin?" She was a little brat that acted worse than even he had when he was five, and he was pretty embarrassed of himself in most home videos.

She turned her nose up into the air. "That's why everyone should be grateful. I'm the original Shaymin. Papa-Arceus made me specially." She huffed a bit. "Pokemon changed a lot from way back then, none of them are even close to the same. There were weird types of pokemon that were both psychic and fighting types that eventually turned into you weird humans after a really, really, really long time, but I'm the same. I'll always be the same." She fixed them all with a stern expression. "I care about the other Shaymin and I lead them every year to a safe place where people can't try to hunt them or hurt them to get more gracedia flowers and roots, and don't say it won't happen it always does! So I have to get to them to protect them!"

She scowled at Ash and he was actually grateful that she didn't just blurt out that he had to help because he was the chosen one. No wonder she what he was. It was only in his imagination, but Ash could almost hear her saying 'Papa-Arceus told me that you would help because you have to it's what you're here for'. That thought made him a bit depressed.

Alpha Shaymin with a good reason for being persistent to get to the other Shaymin or not, Ash still wasn't happy with her. Explaining why it was so important to get there would have been one thing, he probably would have helped, but as he glanced down Gyarados' long body at Misty, all he could feel was anger.

The girl in question suddenly looked up, a smile appearing on her lips as she looked out over the water. "Spheal."

At first Ash thought that she was talking about her own pokemon, but then he followed her gaze and realized that there was a large group of Spheal, Sealeo, and Walrein. Of course she picked up on that. They would have to come back this way after she was feeling better, because Misty couldn't enjoy it right now and it seemed like the type of place she'd really love if she got the chance.

The pokemon swam along side them in the water, and Shaymin let out a laugh, going to fly around the pokemon. Piplup stared at the pokemon curiously before jumping off of Gyarados and swimming in the water happily.

While everyone was distracted watching the pokemon frolick and play, Leaf climbed down to where Ash was, nudging him to get his attention. She raised an eyebrow and asked, "Gonna tell me what's going on, Ashy-boy?"

"What do you wanna know, Tiny-Leaf?"

"You have a pokemon that can use telepathy and a legendary pokemon that calls you the Chosen One." He was really hoping she wouldn't bring that up, but at least she was talking quietly. "Care to explain?"

"Not really," he admitted. "Some things...it's just better for less people to know."

They went around the bend and Dawn's gasp caught their attention. Both looked up quickly to see if there was any danger but it was the opposite. Water poured from the tall mountains in clear waterfalls, rainbows arcing across the mist. Shaymin flew through the falls, soaring up into the sky where she flew with a flock of Altaria.

"It's so pretty," Misty said as she pushed herself up to see a bit better, but her happiness quickly vanished as her arm shook and she slipped back, unable to support herself.

"Misty!" Ash slid down the water-pokemon and grabbed her arm to keep her on. Gyarados stopped for a moment, looking back around at his trainer with obvious worry. It was only for a second, and then he was straightened up and swimming so fast that Dawn actually had to recall Piplup into his pokeball for a second to get him back, since he was unable to keep up. "What's wrong?"

"It started to shake and now it just..." She trailed off, cringing in pain as she leaned on him, knowing that if she tried to be stubborn, she'd probably just fall off her own pokemon.

Leaf appeared on Ash's other side, frowning as she stared at the redhead. "Muscle spasm. That's not good."

"Is it going to keep happening?" Misty asked her.

"Yes." She didn't even try to hide it this time and then looked back at Ash. "I didn't think this would start happening so soon."

"What does it mean?"

"It means this poison is even more unpredictable than we thought." Leaf put all thoughts of interrogating Ash out of her mind because this was more important. Some people called her distant, and maybe she was a little antisocial at times, but she wasn't one to turn away when someone was hurt.

"What's going on? Why are you guys swimming so fast?" Shaymin asked as she landed on Gyarados' head.

"You stay up there," Brock snapped. Just from the way he was twitching, it was obvious that he wanted to come down and help, but they were crowded enough as it was on the pokemon's back. Another person would just make it more likely that someone would fall off.

Shaymin looked down at them all, settling down and asking, "Why not put her to sleep? I could do it."

"No!" Everyone, even Dawn, yelled at the same time, with varying degrees of alarm and anger.

Leaf took a deep breath to calm herself as she turned to Misty, spreaking directly to her. "She's not wrong though. Putting you to sleep would be a good idea just for now."

"I can't fall asleep," Misty said miserably, her face red from fever and her entire body trembling slightly from pain. "And I'm not just going to be a useless lump getting dragged around."

"You're not a useless lump," Ash assured her. Normally he would have patted her shoulder jokingly, or something like that, but he didn't even want to touch her beyond keeping her from falling, too afraid that he's hurt her. There were muscles everywhere in the body, right? Touch the wrong thing and it could cause her agony, and that was the last thing he wanted.

"I was thinking more along the lines of using a pokemon," Leaf informed her, a seriousness creeping through her voice as her brow furrowed. "Nothing with spores, like bug-type attacks, just in case. Psychic ones should be fine but...Espeon doesn't know Hypnosis. I don't even think she can learn it." She looked at Ash. "You got any?"

"No." For the first time, Ash found himself really, really regretting the fact that he didn't keep more of his experienced pokemon with him. He really should start rotating everyone more often, then this might not be a problem. He didn't even own a psychic-type! What kind of trainer did that make him? He thought over everyone else's pokemon and realized that none of them had anything that would work. "None of us do. Unless...Mist, does Psyduck know Hypnosis?"

"Not that he can use regularly," she replied, closing her eyes.

Ash looked around, looking for anything that would give him an idea of what to do. The only thing he could think of was to get Gyarados to swim as fast as possible. He stared up at the sky, wishing for probably the hundredth time that he had Charizard with him. Seriously, Ash would just need to start keeping him around all the time too with how helpful he would be when legendary pokemon came around. He stared up at the Altaria still flying overhead, wishing that even the Jigglypuff that used to follow them around would pop up again.

Ash's shoulders tensed and he blurted out, "Jigglypuff!"

Everyone stared at him as if he was completely crazy. "I don't have my Wigglytuff on me, Ash," Leaf deadpanned.

"No I didn't mean—never mind. Which pokemon can learn Sing?" He prayed that he was right, that this was one of those rare times he really, truly remembered something accurately from the pokedex. Sure he could remember typing most of the time, but listing all the pokemon that could learn a move off the top of his head? Not likely.

"Um Clefairy, Jigglypuff, Chansey, Laparas, Skitty, Swab—." Leaf cut herself off, her head shooting up to look at the sky. "Swablu and Altaria!"

Without another word to her, Ash tossed a pokeball up, releasing Staravia. "Go up to the Altaria up there and ask if any of them know Sing. If they do, ask them to come down here!"

"Star!" The pokemon took off to the sky, flapping as quickly as he could. They all watched with bating breath as Staravia flew around the group of Altaria. A few minutes later, the flying-type came soaring back down towards them, a single Altaria following him.

The blue pokemon circled around them for a moment, tilting her head at Misty curiously and cooing sadly.

"Don't let me fall," Misty mumbled to Ash.

"A dip in the water might cool you off."

"I will end you when I'm better."

Ash chuckled and let her lean on him as he covered his ears. Shaymin soared up into the sky and Gyarados ducked his head under the water, Ria, Pikachu and Piplup covering their ears along with Brock, Dawn and Leaf.

Altaria started to use Sing, it was hard to block it out, but all of them were lucky enough to be able to keep themselves awake. Once the pokemon flew away, Ash uncovered his ears and shook his head to get rid of the drowsiness. He looked down at the slumbering girl and then up at Leaf. "She'll be okay now?"

"I'll be honest with you, she's still going to be in pain," Leaf admitted as Gyarados lifted his head from in the water, picking up speed again. "We'll notice it, but at least she'll be asleep through it. Sing will keep her asleep for a while." She stayed silent for a moment before sighing and getting up, climbing back up the ridge of Gyarados' back so she was up towards his head.

Ash wasn't alone for long. Dawn slid down, sitting beside him. She was silent for a moment before saying, "That was really smart. With thinking like that, and with all of us here to fill in the blanks for everything else, she'll be fine. You'll see!"

"No need to worry?" Ash asked her with a weak smile.

She tilted her head at him and bit her lip. Slowly, she shrugged. "Maybe worry a bit about right now, but in the long run, there's nothing to worry about!"

His weak smiled turned into a genuine one. It was hard to remember why he had been so annoyed at her lately. Maybe their training styles and personalities clashed in some aspects, but they were a lot alike, and normally it would have been him spouting out that type of limitless optimism. Honestly, even he missed that about himself. It was exhausting being so serious, sad and angry.

Ash looked up towards Brock, a bit surprised that he hadn't come down to check on them, but the young man was just smiling at him in approval. Of what, the raven-haired trainer had no idea, but it relieved him a bit to know he was doing something right for once.

...

They travelled in relative silence as the hours ticked by, the sun starting to set. It was rather beautiful, though it was hard for any of them to enjoy. It was obvious that Gyarados was tired, but the pokemon was both fiercely stubborn and protective over his trainer, and he wasn't about to stop.

Ash felt bad for feeling so restless. He wanted to be up and moving but Misty asked him not to let her fall, and it would feel wrong pawning that duty off to another person. This was the type of thing he was supposed to do, right? Help her when she was poisoned by a pokemon that had an ego bigger than Gary Oak's.

Since he wasn't moving anywhere, Ash tried to see if maybe, possibly, he could use his aura to help Misty in someway or another. He could heal cuts and physical wounds, but he never even thought about something inside the body. If he could even just sooth muscles, that would make things a whole lot easier. She was laying with her head on his lap, but her whole body was tense, twitching from time to time as she groaned in her sleep. No matter how much he tried, Ash couldn't get his aura to do what he wanted and was definitely disappointed. He was almost always able to do what he set his mind to, but of course in the moment he really needed something, it didn't work.

He distracted himself by analyzing what he could of his friends' faint auras. From what he could see, everyone has something, an individual colour to them, with varying amounts of brightness, though nowhere near his own. When he tried to see his own aura, it was actually alarming, like pale blue fire with flecks of dark blue surrounding him. Ria's was similar, though hers had more purple mixed in for some strange reason. Brock's was a warm, but very faint orange, while Dawn's was a pale pink that was slightly brighter and a little more erratic, pulsing a little more from time to time. Misty's was even worse right now, but Ash knew that the pale yellow aura surrounding her was normally fairly calm. He had all of them memorized. Leaf's was new though. Ash honestly might have laughed if her aura was green, but it was more along the lines of aqua, like her shirt, and it was slightly brighter than the others, but nowhere close to his. That might explain how intuitive she was though. She was so worried but oddly exhilarated at the same time.

Ash was confused until he remembered that not everyone went on these kind of adventures every few months. What really surprised him was when he turned his attention to Shaymin. If he was completely honest with himself, Ash was kind of wishing that he'd feel a negative, repulsive aura like the one that guy on the hover-segway had, but it wasn't at all. Maybe she was careless about people, but he could feel that Shaymin wasn't evil or inherently bad. He shifted a bit uncomfortably, because the thought that good pokemon or people could do such horrible things to others was very unsettling to him.

"Look at that!" Brock's voice broke through the quiet atmosphere so sharply that it actually made Ash jump a bit. He looked out at the water, his stomach plummeting when he saw a familiar, glowing portal appear in the water. So wrapped up in his thoughts, he hadn't even noticed Giratina coming. Then again, it was impossible for him to be aware of everything happening around him, especially when he just wasn't paying attention.

"Gyarados, can you go any faster?" Ash asked as he watched the portal grow. He tightened an arm around Misty, Dawn moving to her other side to keep her steady, holding Piplup close.

"I'm not afraid of it!" Shaymin yelled, but Leaf grabbed a hold of her so she wouldn't do something stupid like fly forward. It didn't matter though, because a whirlwind erupted from the portal, dragging all of them, including Gyarados, inside.

Ash shifting around, pulling Misty close to him and hoping that they landed in a spot that had low gravity again because it would make the impact so much easier on him. Either way, he wasn't going to let her slam into the ground.

Dawn moved suddenly, grabbing at the belt on Misty's waist and pulling the empty pokeball off of it. She twisted a bit and called out, "Gyarados, return!" It took Ash a minute to realize what she was doing and just how smart it was. At least Gyarados wouldn't crush them when they hit the ground.

The blinding light was coming back, and this time Ria let out a painful squeal and Ash could see her covering her eyes. He felt bad about not warning her but there was really no time. He slammed into the ground first, rolling down the red dirt of a steep hill but managing to keep a hold of Misty the entire time. They came to a stop just at the edge of a steep dropoff. He groaned and opened his eyes, actively fighting off the bright aura pulsing off of everything around him.

Misty shifted a bit, her eyes slowly blinking open. She looked at him with confusion, clearly disoriented, but as she looked behind them, Misty gasped, jumped up much faster than he expected, and shoved him out of the way. Dawn crashed into her a moment later, but she actually managed to keep the small girl from flying over the edge of the cliff. Ash did the same for Leaf a moment later, but let go of her quickly to stop Brock (who was holding Ria). Brock was heavier than any of the girls, and it took much more effort on Ash's part to stop him, almost going over the edge himself.

"Pikapi!" Pikachu jumped up, sniffing Ash to make sure he was alright.

"Where are we? What happened?" Misty asked before anyone could get too sidetracked. Her eyes were wide, looking around everywhere with pure confusion.

"This is the Distortion World," Leaf answered, taking a few steps forward and letting go of Shaymin, who flew around their heads. "Giratina must have dragged us back here."

"Then where is-?" Brock's question was cut off as the massive pokemon appeared from around the edge of the cliffs. He took a step back away from it. "It's huge!"

"It looks angry," Misty added.

None of them noticed that Shaymin had taken off into the air until her Energy Ball slammed into Giratina. The larger pokemon wheeled around, glaring at the smaller one as she flew up in front of him. "Giratina!" Shaymin yelled so that everyone could hear her. "I'm challenging you!"

"Wait!" Ash yelled, but his plea fell on deaf ears. Shaymin used Energy Ball again, and it would have slammed into Giratina, but it kept going until it slammed into another floating island as Giratina faded away.

"What just happened?" Leaf asked, her hand going over her mouth with surprise. No one got the chance to answer as Giratina appeared behind Shaymin, slamming into her and throwing her into the mountain.

"I don't know but we can't let Giratina take Shaymin," Ash said through gritted teeth because he would have liked nothing more than to let that happen. Misty shifting beside him reminded him why they needed Shaymin. He threw a pokeball into the air. "Staravia. I need you to just try to distract Giratina, okay?"

"Star!" The pokemon flew up into the air, zig-zagging in front of the legendary's face without any fear. Shaymin used the distraction to fly back up, launching another Energy Ball that barely grazed Giratina's tail.

Shaymin might have been strong, but compared to Giratina, it was nothing.

Dawn looked up as the once red, rippling sky above and below them started to change, being replaced with swirls of purple and navy. "What's going on?"

"I think the sun's setting," Brock answered, though he wasn't entirely sure because it didn't really look like there was a sun or really a sky for that matter anywhere around them.

Shaymin attacked again, but as the last rays of the distorted sunlight disappeared, her body was surrounded in a golden glow, shrinking her back into her smaller form. She yelled as she plummeted to the ground, all of her courage figuratively doing the same.

"Catch her!" Ash yelled at Staravia, because damnit, he was going to keep the pokemon alive even if it had a death wish, if only for Misty's sake. He could feel her shaking beside him, and a quick glance at her was enough to tell Ash that she was trying desperately to hide the fact that she was in pain. It was still showing through, but she didn't allow herself to fall over or cry out.

He didn't know whether to be frustrated with her or admire her strength. He chose to go with the first. "You're in pain."

"I'm fine."

"You're not. You can't just hide that."

Her sea-green eyes snapped towards him, narrowing slightly. "Hypocrite. You cry like a baby over a paper cut but you could break an arm and wouldn't tell us until we force you to." She would know that, because he had done that exact same thing before. That went on the list of things that he never told his mother and never would.

Ash knew she was right, but he didn't want to admit it. Failing to hide the pout on his face, he looked back towards the battle, still watching her from time to time out of the corner of his eye.

Staravia swung around and managed to grab Shaymin in his talons. He flew back towards his trainer quickly, dropping Shaymin to the ground in front of them.

"What just happened?" Leaf asked, eyeing the pokemon as if she was the strangest thing the girl had ever come across. Maybe she was.

"I don't know." Shaymin's voice sounded slightly more feminine again, and much more fearful. She crawled towards Dawn, who still scooped the pokemon up even if she had misgivings. Ash didn't need to have aura to know that it was just to keep Shaymin out of trouble so they could help Misty. Dawn was so much like himself that it was scary at times, and he knew that a small part of her still wanted to help the pokemon. Ash himself had no desire to help this Shaymin, but protecting the other Shaymin was important too, so he could focus on that along with helping Misty.

"He's coming back!"

Ash broke out of his thoughts as he looked around. Giratina's body blended in with the night sky of the distortion world, making him very hard to see, they could still see the outline of his massive form coming towards them.

"Brock, you need to carry her," Ash said quickly. He didn't have a plan in mind but they needed to go somewhere. He was pretty sure Giratina didn't mean any harm, though the pokemon was definitely much more frustrated than earlier. Still, they were on a very narrow ledge and one wrong move could have any of them spiraling off.

"I can walk just fine," Misty snapped at him.

"Would you just shut up and listen to me?" He snapped back, and instantly felt guilty when he saw how taken back she was. He probably shouldn't have worded it that way, but they had no time to make a plan and he was just making this up as he went. "Brock, can you carry Misty on your back?"

"Yeah." He took off his pack and squatted down, letting the reluctant redhead get on his back before he straightened up, hiking her up a bit more as he grabbed her legs to keep her steady. "Get my bag."

Ash picked it up, but instead of keeping it, handed it to Leaf. "Lead the way and keep running, no matter what you hear."

"And where are you going?" He should have guessed the Leaf would realize he was about to do something stupid.

"I'm going to try and distract the crazy, anger pokemon coming towards us. So go." Giratina swooped overhead, actually attacking this time. Blue fire slammed into the cliffs beside them, throwing rocks and dust everywhere. "GO!"

Maybe there was something in his voice, or maybe it was just because they were being attacked by an enraged legendary, but no one else protested. Leaf still fixed a glare on him as she started running, with Dawn (carrying Shaymin) and Brock (carrying Misty) behind him.

"Pika," Pikachu mumbled to Ash.

"What's the plan?" Ria asked him, tensing up as Giratina circled around again.

"Staravia," the flying-type said as he landed.

"What's the plan?" Ash asked as Giratina drew closer. He thought back to when Palkia and Dialga were fighting in Alamos Town. "Something stupid."

Without warning, he ran towards the edge of the cliff, and just as Giratina passed by, he jumped.

...

Note

I know it seems like I'm not leaving much room for it, but there is going to be more focus on the characters coming up. This chapter really focused more on the adventure. Though I haven't completely limited myself to Ash's point of view like the last stories (you'll notice it changes from Dawn to Brock to Leaf to Misty sometimes without warning), this chapter was largely his view on what was going on. In the next one, we're getting much more Misty and Leaf perspectives. Or maybe the next one. It's definitely coming though!

Now a couple things that might make you go 'what' in this chapter that I should clarify...

Alpha Pokemon

These are 'the' legendary pokemon. The alpha is like the leader of a specific type. As stated by Ria, who was translating for Pikachu, an alpha cannot be captured or that's when the world goes wacky. This is part of my explanation of how some people have captured legendaries while at other times it's implied that that's a huge no-no. Shaymin's special status as the Alpha Shaymin was hinted at with her slightly different flower colours. You also get to see a tiny snippet of WHY she was so desperate to get to the Flower Garden, though you don't really see why she thought she needed Ash's help. That comes later.

Arceus

Before ANYONE gets on my case about 'papa-arceus', that's just how Shaymin sees Arceus. It's going to be confusing as hell for me to write out, and I'll probably just end up using 'he' a lot instead of 'it' when I get around to writing the story involving him (like I am right now), but this Arceus has no gender, no biological sex. Arceus is made to be everything and nothing but at the same time, personal interpretation can influence what a person/pokemon hears.

Evolution (and not in the pokemon evolving sense)

Yes, evolution as WE know it exists in the pokemon world. This is actually something that some theorize was hinted in the games, specifically the Sinnoh Legends (if I remember right). Yes, here people had a common ancestor with the fighting & psychic pokemon that they have today. And on top of that, ALL pokemon can find a biological link to Mew. It's very confusing and I wasn't even going to mention it until the next potential fic if I get around to writing it, but yeah people wanted explanations and it somehow all ended up here.

I wasn't going to introduce ANY of these things in this fic at all actually. Shows how plans change.

Thank you to all my fabulous reviewers! I seriously appreciate each and every one of you like you wouldn't believe! That includes: amandaalb4, ultimateCCC, Pikacraft, awolflover2, RCPMione, JediMasterDraco, thor94, thedarkpokemaster, Kauris Azurai, PokeLover102 and Great.

Great – you were right, this Shaymin IS the original one!

And I'm a bit surprised I only got one comment on how I almost literally ended the last two chapters on the exact same cliff hanger!

I know this author's note is long, but I have one last little thing that's very, very...

IMPORTANT

SO if anyone's interested, I've been thinking about having a tiny little contest of sorts. What's that you ask? Well, I figure these stories need some kind of title to them. Like you have NoSignalBlueScreen's 'The Master Challenge' or I Am Lu's 'The Ash Connection'. These need some kind of overall title with them but I kinda hate all my ideas, so I'm putting it out to you guys. If you have any ideas, let me know. Either I'll end up picking one, or I'll put it up to a vote if I can't decide.

Whoever wins gets a peak at a future project that I'm working on congruently with this, and I don't just mean the Arceus story either! By sneak peak I mean the draft I have of the first chapter and some fanarty stuff I'm adding with it!

Let me know if you have any ideas! I'm also opened to any questions or comments or even if you just wanna chat, that's cool with me too!

Til next time,

Sky