Tethers break and bonds form.

Ash's eyes snapped open. The crimson dawn light was just peeking over the horizon. Usually the first one up by a fair margin, Giratina was still sleeping peacefully. Smiling slightly, Ash stood and went to check on her. She was fine, and there was no leakage through the bandage from what he could tell. That was good.

Sitting back down in his usual spot, Ash gently stroked Pikachu's head absentmindedly. The pokemon was still asleep, but pressed against his trainer nonetheless. He waited until the sun had made its way completely over the horizon, and then looked to Giratina. This was usually the time that she'd wake them up… but she was still fast asleep. Now he had two choices: wake her up and incur her wrath, or not to wake her, and incur her wrath anyway. Faced with such a choice, he decided to get it over with and went to shake her awake.

Stopping to stare at her for a moment, he smiled slightly. She looked relaxed in her sleep, not like her usual countenance of anger and bitterness. Sighing, he knelt next to the renegade and gave her a shake. Immediately, his arm was locked in a vice-like grip. Straining to hold in a strangled cry, he felt Giratina's hand tighten around his arm. Hoping fervently that she didn't break his arm, Ash waited on her letting go.

Thankfully, she did after just a moment, when her brain registered who was shaking her. While her pride wouldn't let her apologise, she did have the ability to look at least slightly concerned. Noting the small change on her features, Ash nodded.

"I'm okay… you just scared me a bit there."

Giratina nodded slightly, before pushing herself to her feet. Her body protested, but, as usual, she ignored it and continued on. It was something she prided herself in being able to do, rather than just sit uselessly and wait for the pain to go away. Once on her feet, the renegade gave a small smirk.

"You aren't usually up before me," she said, looking at Ash with an amused twinkle somewhere in the cavernous depths of her eyes.

Ash gave a nervous chuckle and put a hand behind his head. "Yeah, I'm a bit surprised about that myself."

Rolling her eyes, the renegade jabbed a thumb at where she suspected Red and Blue had fallen asleep for the night.

"You want the honours?" she asked.

"Sure. Lemme just wake up Pikachu first," Ash replied as he walked over to wake the yellow mouse pokemon. When that was done, he walked over to Red and Blue. He wasn't quite sure how he was going to wake them up. A simple shake seemed like a good idea. It'd be a welcome surprise compared to what Giratina would have in store for them.

Putting his hands on Red's shoulders, he gave the boy a shake. Blearily, the champion of Kanto opened his eyes, expecting to see Giratina glaring at him. When he saw Ash instead, he grinned and sat up.

"She too lazy to wake me up herself? Or is she scared she'll get zapped again?"

"Neither," Giratina said as she walked by him. Picking a berry from a tree, she handed it to Pikachu, who was sitting on her shoulder. Ash blinked at this, but didn't comment. He wasn't as jealous as he usually was when Pikachu decided to show affection to his friends- or sided with them like he had with Misty in that gym battle all those years ago. Instead of dwelling on the past, he walked over to Blue and shook him awake. The teen awoke quickly and was already on his feet before Ash could turn back to retrieve his bag.

"So… I guess we find Green and Yellow today?" Red asked Blue when he'd finished rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"I assume so. Last I heard, they were traveling together. Don't know why."

"Ah, who cares about the why? It'll save some time, at least." Red grinned and stood up with Pika behind him. "Breakfast first, though," the trainer added.

"Five minutes," Giratina growled.

Blue folded his arms. "And just who put you in charge?"

"Me," Giratina stated simply. "And if you have any objections, I'll happily squash them, along with you."

"That'd be more impressive if Red hadn't already defeated you." Blue shrugged boredly, not even deigning to look at the legendary.

Unperturbed, Giratina allowed a smirk to play on her features, the closest she ever got to an actual smile. "Actually, it was his pokemon that defeated me, as it always is with trainers. So, unless his pokemon have any objections, you have five minutes."

She said it sweetly enough, but each word dripped with malice, and her eyes had the look of someone who was at the end of their tether. Red backed up slightly and raised his hands in a placating gesture. He saw the twisted look in her eye, and decided now would not be a good time to test how far she'd actually go. Maybe later he'd put her to the test.

Pika rolled his eyes and looked up at his master. He was being too cautious. The pokemon's cheeks sparked as he prepared to give Giratina a zap as punishment for threatening his trainer. Before he could unleash it however, Pikachu shouted down at him from the ghost dragon's shoulder.

"Don't! You really don't wanna make her mad."

"You're too wimpish… you'll just inflate her ego. We've beat her before, so she's wounded… why are you so worried?"

Pikachu shook his head and said in a level tone.

"You should know how strong she is… it's Giratina we're talking about, second only to Arceus. One victory doesn't put you or your trainer above her, and if you don't back down, she'll make that abundantly clear to you both. I take it you haven't heard the phrase 'The wounded houndoom bites the hardest,' either?"

"I have, but it has little relevance here… Fine. I get your point, but get her to stop threatening Red."

Having heard all of this obviously, Giratina gave a roll of her eyes then reached up to remove her bandages. Confused, Ash asked. "Did I mess up on them again?"

Giratina looked to him, then gave a little shake of her head, which hurt, so she quickly stopped.

"Not in particular. I just need to remove them to change form. Though, it's generally not a good idea to put a bandage over a piece of jewellery."

"Noted, though you didn't notice either." Ash nodded, then smiled at Pikachu. "Wanna go get breakfast, buddy?"

"Yep." Pikachu nodded.

His trainer chuckled. "I'll assume that's a yes. Let's go," he said and held out his arm. Pikachu climbed up it to his original position on Ash's shoulder and nuzzled his trainer affectionately.

Giratina nodded slightly and then muttered, so only they could hear, "Try and be as quick as possible. I'll deal with Red and Blue when my head isn't splitting."

"Are you okay?" Ash asked, his brown eyes trembling with concern. Beside him, Pikachu asked the exact same question with a similar expression.

Feeling her lips twitch at the reflection of the bond between human and pokemon, Giratina nodded and said dismissively, "I've had much worse."

This was partially true, because while she'd been worse in the physical sense, she had never experienced the sort of emotional ravaging that was going on inside her right then. Looking after the deceased, as well as maintaining the balance between her world and the "real world" as people called it, was difficult to say the least. Since it left little time for emotion, it helped maintain the cold, bitter mask she often put up when dealing with her fellow legendary pokemon. Though, as with most rules, there was one exception.

Giratina gave a huff, discarded the bloodied strip of fabric, and bathed her body in the usual violet light that showed she was changing form. Why she chose violet she had no idea, it just seemed ghostly. When she'd regained her original size and shape, she flapped her black wings and launched herself into the sky. Ash threw his arms up over his face and let out a cry of surprise as he was buffeted by a large cloud of dust and other small particles.

Coughing to try and clear his mouth of any debris, the trainer looked up at the renegade pokemon with something akin to annoyance on his features. Giratina merely rolled her eyes; he really didn't pull it off well. Seeing that he wasn't being taken seriously, Ash folded his arms and stormed off to have breakfast while Pikachu chortled merrily to himself at the little incident. He still had his reservations, but maybe this alliance would actually help both of them, provided they stayed in a relatively good mood.

The electric pokemon and his trainer made their way back to Red and Blue at a brisk pace. The other boys might not have taken Giratina's time limit seriously, but Ash intended to. Quickly taking a handful of berries, he thrust them into his mouth, letting his team out so they could do the same. Instantly, this made Blue look up, his face hard and his eyes narrowed.

"Is there a reason most of your team isn't even past their first stage of evolution?" he asked curtly, folding his arms.

Ash bit back a snappy retort. He didn't want to go through this again. Red had been nice enough about it… but Blue looked ready to give him a verbal thrashing. Deciding to do something he'd never actually tried before, the trainer feigned deafness and busied himself in dishing out breakfast to his grateful pokemon.

Not liking the fact that he was being ignored, Blue repeated his question. When this, too, was completely blanked, he stalked over to Ash and gave his shoulder a heavy tap. Without turning, the raven-haired boy flatly asked, "Yes?"

"I asked you twice already. I won't repeat a third time," Blue said irritably.

"Then it can't be important," Ash said calmly. He knew he was being rude, but he wasn't in the mood to answer something he'd been asked constantly. Before, he'd gotten angry, but lately he'd been able to ignore it. He could owe that to the lack of motivation that had plagued him recently. While it was odd to find a good thing out of such an affliction… maybe that was just life. Not everything had to be wholly negative or wholly positive and, indeed, many things in this world… or any world, for that matter, were a mix of both.

Blue gave a snort but decided it wasn't worth it and went to eat breakfast. He'd eat quickly, simply because he wanted to get this over with. Helping a legendary like Giratina would be… interesting, and maybe even helpful in his goal to becoming the greatest pokemon trainer that ever lived. The one standing in his way to that dream was Red, his rival…and friend. Walking over to said trainer, he said boredly, "Someone's touchy about his pokemon's state of evolution."

Red gave a shrug and grinned slightly. "Not everyone can be great at bringing out their pokemon's full potential… and others prefer to work at their own pace. Pokemon can choose whether or not they want to evolve… and I guess as trainers, we have to respect their decision. Look at Pika, he hasn't evolved, and he's as strong as most pokemon I've seen. Ash told me earlier that he allows his pokemon to choose their path… an admirable quality. Though I guess it does clash with your ideals a bit."

Blue blinked. "When did you get so… serious and deep?"

"According to your grandfather, I got it from you…"

"Ah… Yes… that. One thing I don't agree with him on… especially the whole fact that I was actually able to get anything from you."

"Oh… so that's why I beat you? Because you refused to learn from the superior trainer?" Red asked teasingly, earning him a glare from Blue. Shaking his head, the champion waved his rival off.

"Just get breakfast. We'll help these two, and then get back to our own journeys. I'm actually kind of excited about this. I haven't had a challenge in a while…"

"You and me both… but unlike you, I rarely get excited."

"Yeah, that's why you're a total bore!" Red laughed. He quickly stopped laughing in order to duck away from a swipe aimed at him, courtesy of Blue.

Before Red could retaliate, a fiery orange aura sphere appeared out of nowhere and slammed into a tree. The entire natural structure exploded, with the fragments that remained crumpling to the ground when the wave of energy dissipated.

"Guess that's our warning again." Red shrugged, popped another berry into his mouth, and stood up. "Does she have to be such a bore? She's almost as bad as you. As much as she wants to rush things, two minutes won't do much."

"Won't it?" Giratina asked as she landed down next to the three, all six of her feet stomping to the ground and causing it to shudder.

"You do realise that two minutes to us could easily be two years to Giovanni?" she growled. "Or it could be as long as he wants, now that he controls time and space."

"That just proves my point…" Red said calmly, staring up into the dark red glare. "If he can bend time to his will, then no matter how long we stay here, he's going to have all the time in the world. We'd be as well taking as much time as we can."

Giratina stomped her left front foot and audibly snapped her jaws together. Taking a deep breath to restrain herself from sending him to wherever humans went when they died, the renegade stretched a shadow black wing and used her blood red claws to make a gesture to the crisp blue morning sky.

"Yes, whatever, you can say that until you're blue in the face. But if you're not going to take this seriously, then I will find a way to do this myself or die trying."

She said it with such bitter conviction, that by the end of her short sentence, her striped chest was heaving, and her eyes were squished shut. No matter what, she would not let her emotions get the better of her. She would not cry, or rage, or sag. She'd spent too long building up walls around her emotions… why were they all suddenly smashing to pieces? Why now, of all times, when she needed them the most?

Feeling a hand on her leg, she looked down to see Ash resting his palm on one of the golden armour pieces around her knee. The boy's face was completely obscured by his cap due to the fact he was looking down at the grass. Ash felt a knot in his throat tighten, but he was able to speak through it, though Giratina had to strain to hear him.

"You'd… never be fighting alone… it is my world, too… and we need to save it together… But… at the same time… we could use the help... And there's still the fact that we aren't strong enough to do anything at the minute… And you still need time to recover, yourself…"

Letting out a soft sigh, Giratina had to admit… they were nowhere near ready to take on Giovanni and his enthralled army… an enthralled army of her fellow legendary pokemon to boot.

"What do you suggest, then?" she asked, folding her wings across her chest and giving him her signature glare.

"Training of course… we can start once we find Green and Yellow." Ash replied, a small smile touching his face. The thought of training was actually rekindling a small part of his youth within him.

"Very well…" Giratina nodded, "I… guess that would be a good idea… Now if you'll excuse me."

Without giving any more warning than that the ghost pokemon whirled around and sent a sphere of eerie blue flames at the two native trainers. Both had to dive to the side to avoid the relatively weak blast: in comparison with its usual intensity that is.

"What was that for?!" Red yelped, jumping up to face her.

Smirking coldly, the renegade replied simply. "I don't take things lying down, something you'll learn quickly, though it should have been quicker… And I will not stand to be belittled just because you won a single battle. You still don't have as much experience of anything in your whole body as I do in one scale. Something you'd both do very well to remember. Unless you want the next attack to be stronger."

Blue gripped a pokeball tightly, intending to let his charizard have at the legendary, but Red held his arm.

"I… don't think picking a fight is a good idea. I mean, it's entirely possible you'd win… but you wouldn't gain anything fighting a wounded opponent… and it doesn't look like it's our pokemon she's after…"

"…Guess not." Blue shrugged. He knew full well that Red had been trying to play to his need for a fair fight. This was clearly a difference that would have to be settled at a later date… probably when the whole… stopping Team Rocket yet again thing was over. He was still trying to formulate a plan to beat an army of legendary pokemon… They would have to train… that much was obvious, but every pokemon had a limit.

Giratina turned away from the humans, taking off once more to enter her own world. Ash, on the other hand, turned to Red and Blue, muttering, "Thanks… for not fighting I mean. She's…"

"Trying to hide how worried she is?" Red finished. "Obvious if you know what to look for… I… guess I got a little over my head, there… taking a victory too seriously."

"So you'll apologise about that, but you won't let me live down the fact that you beat me in the Indigo league all those years ago?" Blue asked, folding his arms.

"Yeah, well, teasing you is fun. And… uh… you can't exactly squash me like a tomato if I get you mad enough."

"We'll see about that…" was the stoic reply.

"Let's just find Green and Yellow… then work out what we're going to do next."

Red nodded and called out Aero, while Blue summoned Charizard to his side. Both boys leapt up onto their respective flying types, with Ash once again hitching a ride on Aero. The raven haired trainer hoped fervently that after this little… incident… they'd be able to move on a lot quicker and work more efficiently as a unit. Giratina seemed to be warming up to him, but was in no way warming up to humanity in general, it seemed. Saving someone generally put you in a slightly brighter light to them than the rest of the world. Sighing heavily, Ash turned to Pikachu, and, together, they continued trying to overcome their language barrier, at least on Ash's side of the spectrum.

Hi guys. Apologies for this one taking so long, but I had some problems writing it, and then I got it checked by a friend, so it should hopefully be much better than previous chapters. Hope you like.