Author's Note: I am incredibly sorry for the delayed update, I moved into college recently so things have been crazy, it drains the will to write for me. Now with college there comes that age old issue, because it seems like so many writers are at that age, I don't know how often I will be updating any of my stories. My schedule isn't really hectic but studying is something to think about.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

Chapter 7: Sparring with Mortals

"So for our first lesson in class we will be going over the nature of why the four kingdoms went into the Great War," were the first words spoken by the eccentric Doctor Oobleck barely even noticing his student's perplexed looks at the man. He looked like a drug addict who turned into an adult…and then got a degree. Frazzled green hair, a necktie not even fully tightened around his neck, a shirt with half of it tucked in, and spectacles that would fall off slightly due to his erratic movements. This man spoke about five hundreds words a minute and moved just as fast. Quickly, barely moving his body, he rushed over to chalkboard and started scribbling. "Can anyone tell me what caused The Great War?"

The class fell into a small silence, mainly out of nervousness. Not for a lack of knowledge, but because they would be speaking aloud in a class where they knew nobody. Luckily the immortals in the room have no such fear. A solitary hand raised in the air.

"Yes!" He shouted, most would be put off by the yelling but it appeared to be a constant thing with this man so they were slowly getting used to it, "Mr. Primus!" All eyes turned to the three brother deities, the middle child putting his hand down.

"The Great War was caused by a multitude of factors. The first being rising tensions that existed for years before it started." Leave it to the god of time to be a history buff, "Second the kingdoms of Mistral and Mantle agreed to an alliance, exchanging goods. Then thirdly, came when Mantle decided to ban all sorts of self expression and keeping their emotions after a grimm attack that left many people dead." Oobleck was nodding along with everything Dialga was spouting while most of the mortals looked to Dialga who sat in the right hand side of class.

"Excellent Mr. Primus, but I noticed that you forgot to mention the battle between Mistral and Vale over the settlement in the westernmost end of the continent," Oobleck pointed out before taking a sip of whatever coffee infused drink he had in his yellow mug.

"The battle is not what caused The Great War," a new voice entered the conversation. Oobleck's eyes turned to one…

"Mister Mir, I would prefer if you raised your hand next time you wish to engage in a discussion," Oobleck told the ice deity as the class looked to him. Kyurem rolled his eyes mentally before raising his only arm in the sky. "Thank you," the arm fell, "now please go on with your point."

"A war is not started by a simple skirmish," a few students snickered at his comment as if he were stupid. The one armed man ignored this, it happened all the time, "The skirmish was inevitable. If it wasn't in Vale, then the tundra of Mantle, the swamps of Mistral, or even the sands of Vacuo could have had the first battle in their borders. A fight is a subjective matter that can take place anywhere and the results will matter little. In the end, death is always the winner." Kyurem's final point made the class look away from him. The cold tone, the lack of empathy, the dead look in his eyes showed he had no remorse.

"An interesting point you make there," Oobleck showed no signs of distress, "although I would like to counter that with since we don't know who actually shot first in The Great War, the placement of the fight does matter in this case."

"Well it's obvious Mistral shot first," Dialga shot himself back into the conversation with no doubt in his words. A few students were starting to murmur among themselves.

"That would make logical sense," Kyurem agreed and looked across the table, far away from the time keeper. "Mistral, while no slouch in military might, didn't have the best foothold in their colony. Not to mention they were known to use bows and arrows in a time of muskets and Dust-lock pistols. The people of Vale also knew the land better and could easily use it to their advantage. Mistral had no real chance winning that battle."

"So why does that mean that Mistral struck first?" Oobleck question, his tone suggested he had an idea but wanted to see what his students could come up with. A new hand arose, next to Dialga, "Yes Mr. Primus?"

"Because they had Mantle on their side no matter what," Palkia told the class, his body leaned back in his chair and arms crossed looking way more relaxed than Kyurem or his younger time travelling brother, "if the world's most technologically advanced and most powerful force had your back you'd pick fights all the time even if you had no chance. There obviously was high tensions and the villagers knew that Mantle could strike back on their behalf. To them it was a no-lose scenario. Y'know, besides the fact they started a whole war." The bell rang just as Palkia finished his statement.

"You are to read pages two hundred and twenty five to two hundred and forty seven!' Oobleck shouted to the class, "I expect a paragraph on what you thought caused The Great War on my desk first thing in the morning." That didn't sound too bad, "A paragraph is described as more than ten sentences containing more than two hundred words!"...Spoke too soon.

-X-

"Well that was a thing," Yang said to her two teammates, Nora was just happily skipping along the halls while Dialga thumbed through his compendium and Palkia kept a gaze forward.

"By what do you mean Yang?" Dialga said as he turned a page in the Compendium revealing how the natives of Remnant discovered how to harvest Fire Dust crystals for the first time. That poor Richard fellow didn't have many limbs left did he?

"You do realize that you had a full on discussion with one of the teachers here at Beacon, and argued with him," Yang pointed out.

"I thought that's what we were supposed to do," Dialga closed his book with one hand making a satisfying *slam*. His stance shrugged slightly as he looked to his partner. "We aren't to be treated like children and simply take in what he spews. A discussion does great wonders for both parties involved"

"But how did you guys come up with that so quickly?"

"Because Yang," Nora went in and hugged Palkia tightly and even lifted him up, "we have the smartest partners on our team… We have 'smartners'!"

"Oh Arceus my liver," Palkia wheezed out, he clasped his fingers on Nora's gloved hands and tried to pry them off. "Nora, could you please release me?"

"Of course smartner pink buddy!" Palkia had no clue which was worse. The 'smartner' name or the everlasting torture that was being called 'pink buddy' by Nora. He was Palkia, oldest son of Arceus, creator of stars and galaxies alike, and the god of space. And he was being reduced to such a childish nickname like 'pink buddy'. Did this mortal girl have a death wish? Perhaps she had crippling case of depression behind her mask of boundless energy. Whatever was causing it, Palkia wanted it gone. It would be so easy to remove her from existence, her head was within his grasp. Of course that meant Nora could grab Palkia and hang off his arms like a certain mammal who she tended to mimic the cries. It's how they met after all.

"Gods above!" Palkia exclaimed as Nora grappled onto his arm, he faltered but didn't fall over. His immense strength as a god showing itself, luckily Yang and Nora just thought he was strong.

"Strong, smart, and loves pink!" Nora shouted while hanging her entire body off his one arm. "I couldn't have asked for a better partner!"

"Glad you did Nora," a new voice entered the conversation. Nora looked over to see Ren with his team right next to hers.

"Oh Renny!" She quickly released from Palkia's appendage, but she might have dislocated it in the process if Palkia falling over and his grumbling were anything to go by. "Omigosh I didn't mean say that. We've just been together for sooo long, well not together-together but you get my point?" The words came out in a jumbled and rushed mess that even the gods had a hard time following. Dialga thought about stopping time to collect his thoughts.

The god of time leaned over into his blonde partner's ear, "What is with them?" He whispered.

"I don't know," Yang honestly had trouble understanding it as Nora tried to apologize for something Ren wasn't offended by. He was glad Nora was making many friends outside of himself. It was sort of cute from Yang's perspective watching Nora fluster herself, her rosy cheeks turning an even brighter shade of pink.

"These mortals certainly are entertaining," Dialga thought to his brother.

"What else are they good for?" Palkia thought while nursing his arm.

"Well besides war, strife, lying to each other, stealing, murdering, I guess entertainment can go up there as well," suddenly the mental voice of Kyurem told them reminding the two brothers of his presence. The two rolled their eyes at his comment with disgust.

"And I'm sure Lord Arceus created mortals just for that," the other god of Team KHBL, Ho-oh, told the three but more or less to Kyurem, "keep your dark thoughts to yourself. You're the God of Peace for Arceus' sake, show it like you mean it Kyurem."

"After what I've seen, you would see peace as an impossible object for mortals to achieve, only a naive fool could think to attain it."

"Well it is the naive fool who has hope, the strongest of weapons."

"Only an optimist would think in such a way."

"Well it happens that I am one, Kyurem, maybe a little brightside would help with your overall demeanor."

"Let's just get to Goodwitch's class," the ice wielding god grumbled, "hurting something sounds good right about now."

"God of Peace," Palkia snorted when Kyurem moved on ahead leading his team into the sparring hall, "it shows."

"Give him some time," Dialga noted, "give him some time."

"What was that?" Yang spooked the two, they had completely forgotten about their blonde teammate and had ignored most of Nora's rambling, "you two just started staring at each other like you were a bitter old married couple."

"You have sister correct?" Palkia asked to which she nodded, "Ruby right?" He got another nod, "There are certain things you know about your sibling and can communicate seemingly through no speaking means."

"Oh yeah I know what you're talking about. I could practically read Ruby's mind every time she looked at a different weapon or modifying hers."

"I DO NOT HAVE A WEAPON FETISH!" They heard Ruby yell from somewhere, it seemed like she had supersonic hearing every time Yang mentioned her strange tastes.

"Do she even know what that means?" Dialga asked.

"Nope," Yang put emphasis on the 'p' sound, she then grabbed Dialga by the collar of his uniform, "and she won't be finding out what that means until she's old enough."

"And hold old is that?" Her partner asked.

"Fifty...nine," she told him.

"You can't protect her forever," Palkia said pushing the two apart slightly, "some day she'll have to grow up and learn all of this stuff."

"Like I said, when she's fifty nine."

"Yang," Dialga stopped her, "if you're going to tease Ruby she better know why you're doing it. Probably now rather than later so it doesn't affect her later on in life." "Because I know what's going to happen if you don't."

"Okay fine I'll tell her someday sooner, maybe when she's forty," Yang's defiance in this subject was unwavering.

"Better," Dialga gave in, sometimes mortals were the worst, "just don't blame me when Ruby starts looking to other people for answering the questions you aren't."

"Oh yeah," she waved him off before they started walking to the training room, "and who's she's going to do that with?"

-X-

"Giratina, just what is a fetish?"

It was a simple set of words right up until the end. Weiss spit out her drink, Regigigas fell out of the bleacher in the sparring room, and Giratina began rethinking this whole 'redemption' plan.

"Ruby…" he started but failed to compose any actual response, "why?"

"Why what?" Her innocent voice made this all but easy for the damned deity.

"Why do you want to know what a fetish is?" He assumed she knew what a fetish was since the little red haired girl kept denying she had one.

"Well Yang keeps saying I have one and keeps teasing me about it so it can't be anything good."

"Why don't you ask someone like Yang, what about your parents?"

"Yang won't tell me till I'm fifty she says, my Uncle Qrow said sixty five, and my dad said never…"

"Geez and I thought our families had issues," Giratina said pointing his thumb back to Regigigas, who glared into the back of Giratina's head. "Listen Ruby, you shouldn't be concerned what someone says about your interests. A fetish isn't a bad thing."

"Really?"

"Of course! A fetish is like…loving candy. Just a little too much and you always find new ways to love them."

"So why would Yang tease me about it?"

Giratina leaned in and whispered, "Because she's jealous." He looked from side to side making sure no one, especially Yang, was around, "they're jealous because they can't have that same kind of love for their own weapons." Was he technically wrong?" No, but he wasn't right either. The sick part was he knew that factoid too.

"So…"

"So go tell everyone that you like having a weapon fetish, praise it to the high heaven and tell people that your weapon can provide you more comfort than any man, woman, and child," Giratina brought his bravado in full force for his speech.

"Okay!" Ruby cheered from the apparent pep talk from her partner and ran off to get her weapon.

Giratina turned around to face his two teammates, using his powers of reality his shifted the dyes in his bandanna covering his mouth to form a smile out of the gold mandibles. Weiss had no words, but her mouth kept moving trying to come up with a reprimand or to tell him off in some capacity. Regigigas just narrowed his eyes at him.

"Must you be so cruel?" He asked Giratina silently.

"I'm a god who is often seen as the embodiment of chaos and despair. Being evil is in my wheelhouse if anything," the deity replied sitting down letting the potential chaos ensue.

"Good morning class," Glynda said through the speaker system, "I hope you're ready today, unlike yesterday we will focus on doubles. Do I have any volunteers?" Nope, none, just like last time not a single mortal or immortal raised their hands. The gods wanted to keep out of the spotlight, the less known about them as possible was all good to the eight of them.

"Would Jaune Arc and Deoxys Ribo come down," or Glynda could force on the gods to come down to show off, "and their opponents will be Yang Xiao Long and Nora Valkyrie."

While Jaune was absolutely terrified and feared for his life, Yang and Nora were overly excited about it. No mortal should be that excited for a fight, especially a sanctioned one. Now Deoxys, who is a immortal gathering of space dust and bacteria, just about jumped into the arena from the stands. That was until he felt a hand tug on his restricted arms.

"Take it easy on them, I don't want to explain how you killed two students in your first sparring match," Rayquaza informed him telepathically.

"Don't worry I wasn't going to kill them."

"Leaving them in the hospital with multiple injuries including broken bones will not work either."

… "Can I break at least one bone-"

"No! Now get down there and assist Jaune, something tells me he'll need it."

"Hmph, stupid overgrown lizard."

Not even a second before Deoxys got on the sparring room floor Glynda raised the almighty question. "Can we take Deoxys out of the straight jacket-"

"NO!"

The whole room turned to Rayquaza who's voice boomed almost unnaturally so, he was standing straight up, his fists clenched making his knuckles white, if you saw him from Deoxys' angle you could see his eyes starting to glow, his breathing sounded ferocious and looked like he would strangle someone.

"Oh don't worry about him he's just 'overprotective' of me, he deeply cares for my personal safety," Deoxys chuckled to a nervous Pyrrha and Jaune who were transfixed by the sudden outburst. Rayquaza was by no means the calmest of people but he didn't seem like one to outburst. Rayquaza sat down switching his gaze between Deoxys, and Glynda. The horned faunus disguised as a god made a mental note not to trust the combat instructor.

"Oh man I'm nervous," Jaune placed a hand to quell the butterflies in his stomach.

"Seriously, what does Pyrrha see in you?" Deoxys asked himself frowning at his blonde teammate's sad look of worrying. He then spoke to Jaune telepathically, "Don't worry Jaune, if anything happens I'll make sure to use you as a human shield." The cheerful tone in his 'voice' was unsettling to the blonde teen who just gulped. Jaune still had a hard time dealing with the telepathy, it was weird hearing a voice only a few other people knew. It felt like someone was swimming in his head constantly. He was sure one day he would get used to it.

-X-

"Begin!" Glynda shouted.

Jaune charged the two girls of Team PYND with his sword raised high in the sky he-

"Oh Arceus' Gifts that looked painful- Is that really the correct way to bend an elbow- Should someone's face even look like that- Is that even legal? Can you shove a fist that far?" Deoxys rambled seeing Jaune get massacred by the two girls. It was clear his strengths did not lie in combat, Deoxys questioned if he had any strengths to speak of. When Jaune got flung into a wall by Nora's hammer, the blonde didn't get back up leaving the alien destroyer by his lonesome.

In the stands Pyrrha's hand was covering her mouth and she winced at each blow received, Rayquaza had his head in his hands unable to watch anymore.

"Well Arceus, Rayquaza you clearly have some of the best mortals on your team," Giratina chuckled in a cackling manner.

"As much as I prefer to disagree with my brother on this, that was painful to watch," Palkia added in the conversation.

"He is a dreamer, it's a good thing someone showed him the real world," all the gods rolled their eyes at Kyurem's comment.

Ruby turned to Jaune's partner and Rayquaza's teammate, "Do you think Deoxys can win?"

"I umm.." Pyrrha honestly had no answer.

"Deoxys can take 'em," Rayquaza answered for her. The lack of doubt silenced any questioning from Ruby.

"But he has a straight jacket on," Weiss pointed out.

"Actually I'm curious on what limitations Deoxys has," Dialga said to the group, an opinion many of them shared. Deoxys was often kept secret from the other gods outside of his name and what he and Rayquaza did long ago.

"Deoxys has nearly all of his psychokinetic powers neutralized outside of mild telepathy and weak use of his telekinesis. He can't lift anything more than ten pounds I reckon," Rayquaza explained as he watched Yang and Nora get a surround. Deoxys sat on the ground while the two paced around him like starving wolves finding a rabbit in the midst of the winter frost.

"What about physical limitations?" Ho-oh asked.

"None." The guardian of the skies swore he saw concern in Ho-oh's eyes

Yang launched herself using the blowback from Ember Celica to catapult herself through the air. Nora ran in with her warhammer from the backside of Deoxys who kept on sitting there on the ground.

The moment Yang got within striking distance he opened his eyes, a crazed smile forming over his lips. A simple move of his neck avoided the yellow covered gauntlet, the shot just barely missing his scarred face and scarlet colored hair. He ducked under another fist and lurched forward into a roll as Nora swung in a wide horizontal arc. The sole male on the sparring floor stood up from the roll right as Yang's fist was coming towards him. That same demon conjuring smile spread to his eye's as they went full on crazy. His left foot swung wildly colliding with Yang's corresponding gauntlet at the wrist sending the shot wide completely avoiding him. He ducked beneath another shot and jumped behind Yang quickly. The blonde couldn't turn around fast enough as Deoxys sent a kick to the middle of her spine sending her to the wall. She would've collided with the wall if she hadn't gotten back up and slowed herself down.

Nora came in with a swing that spun her body around for another try, but both swings missed the deity who ducked under one and then matrixed the other. The straight jacket wearing teen took advantage of the long recovery Nora would have to make by placing one foot under her chin before launching the other one heading for the same place. He flipped in the air from the kick while Nora got a kick to the chin knocking her back. The sound of gunfire caught Deoxys' ear and by sidestepping he let Yang slam her fist to the floor cracking it into pieces. Nora then came in from the other side and tried to smack the much smaller combatant. The hammer missed by a large margin and smashed into the ground on the other side of Deoxys. The god was now surrounded by two smashed craters and two hunters in training on either side of him. He leapt into action by wrapping his legs around the head of Nora's hammer and wrestled it away from her by flipping his body weight away from her while his legs wrapped themselves around the round cylinder of the hammer.

"Get off," Nora gritted her teeth while she tried to shake him off, Deoxys looked more like a rodeo rider being bucked off by a very angry bull.

"But I'm having so much fun!" Deoxys cheered to himself, no one else on the battlefield could hear him so he would scream and shout as much as he could.

"Nora hold still," Yang told her teammate and readied a shot for Ember Celica.

The fiery discharge whizzed past Deoxys' locks of scarlet hair as he spun around the hammer head like a lopsided wheel. The spin Deoxys made pulled the warhammer in an awkward motion for Nora who had to step forward unwarily. From there Deoxys leaped off the hammer head pushing it down into the ground and aimed his foot for an axe kicked atop Yang's golden blonde hair covered head. The blonde grabbed his foot before it reached her and promptly tried to punch him in the gut. The god would have none of it as he kicked the other hand away and spun in Yang's slightly wavering grip. The restrained deity's smile went mad again as he slammed his other foot down onto Yang's elbow releasing him from her grasp. When he landed he immediately jumped back in the air slamming his knee into her head pushing her to the ground in the process. Using her face as a stepstool he hopped off of Yang's body. A pleased smile formed over his face when he heard the multiple shots of Nora's grenade launcher function. He dodged one, ducked under another, and stood still as the third one came towards him. He cracked his neck and readied his foot. Deoxys stepped to the side and raised his left leg to the ceiling just as the can was parallel to him. The foot hit the cylindrical face of the grenade transferring the momentum and force upwards to the sky. With the a running start Deoxys ran past the grenade and jumped in the air. The parasite swung his body around and slammed his heel into the grenade sending it back directly to Nora who had no time to get out of the way. A small pink explosion erupted from where Nora was standing.

In a rare moment a second explosion caught Deoxys off guard as Yang was back to a standing position, but something seemed different about her. Her eyes were red like Pyrrha's hair, and speaking of hair it was burning gold now, he saw smoke rise from her locks. A punch decked Deoxys in the face making him pause, the fist stayed there lodged in his cheek. It was probably the first time any mortal had hit Deoxys since Rayquaza stopped him, the feeling of pain in his cheek almost felt foreign to him. But he remembered the pain, and he liked it. His smile went crazed as his eyes now appeared uneven as he swung his right foot into Yang's side removing the gauntlet from his cheek and forcing her back. The alien then sprinted around Yang with unprecedented speed getting the jump on her. Deoxys rocketed his knee into Yang's backside and then slammed his forehead just below her neck. The parasite then swept her legs and sent a brutal kick to her backside sending her to the wall. Before Yang could reach the wall Deoxys used his speed to get in front of Yang and essentially 'sparta' kicked her in the stomach. He took one step towards the defeated blonde and almost thought about smashing her face in, but remembered Rayquaza's melodramatic and annoying words.

"But if I see one misstep, one thing out of line that proves deadly in the end, I will not hesitate to end your pitiful existence."

He rolled his eyes and then sat on the ground cross legged as he had won the match convincingly, he took exactly one hit that entire match and didn't really even hurt him.

"And that's the match," Glynda announced somewhat surprised that Deoxys had come out victorious, "excellent display Mr. Ribo a few words of wisdom…" Glynda trailed off when she saw Deoxys just walked away and went to get Jaune.

"I don't need some mortal telling me how to improve my fighting, I've been to hundreds of worlds each with their own fighting styles and powers that could blow your tiny mortal brain female," Deoxys would have spat the words out if he could talk. He walked over to the defeated form of Jaune and softened his tone while nudging his shoulder, "Get up Jaune Weiss is watching you."

Whatever dazed state Jaune was in completely vanished as he stood up with speed that surprised Deoxys, "Really?!" His head swiveled to the stands looking for his… snow angel.

"No," Deoxys said plainly, "but it got you up."

"Did we win?"

"Yes we did Jaune, don't rush in next time, you were completely predictable."

Meanwhile in the stands all of the mortals were blown away, including Pyrrha who was arguably the best fighter there in most of the student's opinion. Deoxys, a kid about as tall as Ruby in a straght jacket just took out Nora and Yang some of the best close range fighters in the first year class, and they also packed a warhammer. That usually trumps all, having a warhammer and what not.

"That was so cool!" Ruby cheered falling back in her seat.

"You do realize he beat up your sister," Weiss noted with a harsh tone, "but I guess he did surprise us."

"If he can do that in jacket imagine what he can od out of it," Ren told them all, only to hear someone's fist slam nearby. It was Rayquaza's.

"If Deoxys finds a way out, no one will be safe," the dragon looked to all who were there, "so if anyone of you try to help him or assist him in any way possible in removing his restraints I will not hesitate to use whatever force necessary to stop you." Rayquaza really wanted to say 'kill' instead of 'stop', but that would only cause more questions. And he hated questions.

"Rayquaza calm down no one's thinking about releasing Deoxys' bindings," Ho-oh told the sky dragon with a soothing and calming voice.

"Just giving the mortals a warning," he mentally growled, "I already know you won't, but these mortals seem to do the exact opposite when you tell them not to do something. It's rather annoying."

"Perhaps Lord Arceus made a slight mistake when creating these creatures, I can already tell you he made several before," everyone groaned at Kyurem's words.

"Well Ray, how was that?" Were what snapped Rayquaza from his mental conversation, the other gods continued to bicker amongst themselves. He looked up to see a very battered Jaune Arc and Deoxys who sat down and slouched over in his seat. His fun was over now and he would have to deal with his stupid warden for the rest of the day.

"Jaune you- um well how do I put this? Ask Pyrrha, she's your partner," Rayquaza dumped his leader responsibility onto Jaune's partner with no shame at all. The blonde looked to the red haired maiden who was caught off guard.

"Jaune you did...fine," even she had to admit that Jaune's fighting style left a little to be desired, "but I think there is definitely room for improvement."

It was hard to judge Jaune's mood after that comment, you could see a tinge of disappointment along with a bit of pride. As if he proved someone wrong and was smug about it. "Thanks Pyr."

"Does he always have a nickname for everyone consisting of three letters?" Deoxys asked Rayquaza who shrugged in response, a rare sign of not showing hostility towards the parasite.

"Well I gotta hand it to you Vomit Boy," they all saw Yang and Nora walk back up the steps, the blonde was nursing the back of her head, "your teammate can really pack a punch."

"Kick actually, a punch could fracture this planet," Deoxys said, though only Rayquaza heard it, the calmness in the tone would have been unnerving had Rayquaza never seen it happen.

"For my next two can I have both the Primus brothers of Team PYND come down for the next match. Their opponents will be Lie Ren and Blake Belladonna," the words from Goodwitch caused most of the gods to wince in pain already. Palkia nearly bursted into laughter. Technically he did but only Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina heard it since Dialga had to freeze time so Palkia could roll on the floor to laugh.

"Is it wise to have two gods face off against mortals who have no idea what they're facing up against?" Regigigas asked as he saw both duos walk down the steps.

"Dialga and Palkia know how to restrain themselves," Ho-oh said.

"That's the issue now isn't it," Giratina gave a soft and sinister chuckle, "they know how but do they want to?"

"They aren't power driven maniacs like you damned deity," Kyurem was quick to scold Giratina who frowned.

"Says the infamous traitor."

"If you knew the story then you wouldn't be so judgmental now would you Giratina?"

"I could say the same for you Kyurem." The ice wielding deity stopped communicating after that. Giratina took it as a victory.

-X-

"No hard feelings," Palkia said as he put on his silver helmet.

"I do feel bad about this," Dialga added on looking at the two mortals who were going to get absolutely destroyed. He leaned over to his brother, "Can we go easy on them?"

Palkia shook his head and sighed. Why must his brother always do this? "No we cannot brother, why let their guard down when there may be a time where we need to call upon our full power?" Palkia pulled his sword from the ground from where he stabbed it. "They require leadership, and we must be strong."

"But-"

"But nothing, I need you with me on this."

The keeper of time sighed, there was no getting through to Palkia. "Sometimes I wonder what you're really fighting for…"

"Begin!"

The two ninja students sped off from the get go and to any normal person this would have been an issue. However Dialga tapped his watch under his sleeve and the world slowly started to desaturate in color. He didn't fully stop time, he only slowed it down, and that did affect his brother. It was one of those weird quirks that even he didn't understand. When he fully stopped time his two brothers were immune to its effect, but when he slowed it down they were subjected to it like everyone else.

"Sometimes I just don't know," Dialga sighed to himself. He picked up his cane and flipped it around brandishing the mace. The god of time walked over calmly and slowly hoisting the mace over his shoulder. He stopped beside Blake who was moving ever so incrementally in the air. He gave another sigh, "Your secret will come out Ms. Belladonna. So you better do it in the right circumstances, I can't guarantee you it will come out as the compendium says because of our interference. He looked at his watch again and tapped it and readied his mace gripping it tightly. The world around him slowly returned to the bright and vivid place it was as Dialga slammed his mace into Blake's backside sending her straight to the ground. The black haired girl was completely clueless as to what just happened as did everyone else outside of the looked up to meet the god's gaze but it quickly went away as she felt a foot slam into her stomach.

"Time is a cruel fact of mortal life," Dialga told himself, he considered this to be his philosophy. The god flipped his mace around and nailed the underside of Blake's chin with the cane handle, "it does not care for your reasons, your petty excuses, or your past decisions. It only cares about the here and now, for it knows the future and knows every outcome including the ones you do not choose, therefore it shows no emotion. It will not listen to your pleas." Dialga quickly jabbed his elbow into Blake's creating a clone from her semblance. The deity sighed and slowed time to a virtual standstill where he smashed his knee into the retreating real Blake. As time sped back up Blake was forced back down to the ground she met his gaze with astonishment. "So I am sorry Miss Belladonna if I appear emotionless and cold, but centuries of lording over time have forced me to put my emotions aside on the battlefield, even if it is a spar. I can see your past and I know your future. I know you have many mistakes, and there are more to come, but do not let my victory discourage you from taking on your greater purpose." He finished his statement with an upward swing sending her to the floor after flying a few feet. "I'm sorry," he said before placing his cane on the ground and watched the rest of the match.

A parry blocked the two blades of Storm Lotus creating small sparks as they collided with Palkia's sword, The Carver of Constellations. His weapon was forged eons ago in the fires of a star made by warriors from one of the many realms he had visited. How ironic that he destroyed that world with the sword they gave him as a gift. The ninja was bounced back when Palkia applied a massive amount of pressure on him. It looked like a complete mismatch. A ninja versus an armored powerhouse.

"Well Mister Lie Ren what can you do against someone like me?" He asked, surprisingly without arrogance, it seemed more observant than anything. "Something about you troubles you, could it be your past? You're lucky I don't have my brother's powers or I would know what weighs on your shoulders. Perhaps it isn't the past but rather the future? I've seen how close you are to my partner, at least she makes it out that you are close." As Ren leaped in the air Palkia slashed upwards stopping all momentum. "As someone here to judge you I must say you are one of the brighter examples to speak of. You're calm, slow to anger, you have the trust of others. Why I do believe we can use you in the trial when the day comes." Palkia gripped the handle of his sword, "But that will be for a later date, as of right now I must defeat you."

Palkia slammed the broadside of his blade into Ren's face sending him sprawling. Then raising one of his hands he activated his gravity powers and lifted him from the air sending him to the walls. Ren's aura was taking a full assault from all sides as Palkia threw him from wall to wall until it felt like his whole body was bruised, it was nearing the limit. When he looked up he was the round shoulder armor of Palkia sending him back to the ground. He coughed a bit and looked up to see Palkia standing atop him and pointing the tip of his blade at his neck.

"Concede Ren," Palkia ordered the mortal. He, knew he was beat so he dropped his weapons and held up his hands. The god removed the blade and extended a hand to help him up. After that Goodwitch came to give the two duos tips, unlike Deoxys the deities stayed. It humored Palkia that a mere mortal thought she could inform a god how to better themselves.

-Later after Combat class-

"Well that was thing," Yang said massaging the back of her neck while her team were on their way back to the room.

"You did well, you were able to defeat Jane at least," Palkia told his teammates.

"Jaune," Yang corrected, "and practically he let us beat him up. He ran right in there into the two of us."

"Well okay, but you were able to land a hit on Deoxys," he so desperately tried to find a brightside.

"Yea and then he ran us into the ground."

"Deoxys is probably one of the best fighters where we come from, do not discourage yourselves by your defeat," Dialga said closing his book, his brother noticed he looked disheartened. "I must excuse myself I have a few things to think on." The hard click-clack of his cane echoed throughout the floor.

"What's with him?" Nora asked happily completely unaffected by her loss. Palkia's eyes narrowed at his shrinking brother.

-X-

"Odd place for a walk isn't it brother?" Dialga heard Giratina behind him as he walked onto the secluded balcony.

"What can I say? I am an odd one. What do you want Giratina?" The timekeeper said.

"Couldn't help but notice you looked a little down there 'brother'," the damned deity leaned up against a railing, "so as a member of our little dysfunctional family it is part of my duty to help anything that troubles you. What's bothering you?"

Dialga didn't immediately respond, and when he did it wasn't with words, but he grabbed the compendium out and showed Giratina, "This Giratina, this is what's bothering me."

"Your compendium?"

"Not the compendium itself but what lies within it. Do you have any idea the burden that has been placed on my shoulders? To know every facet of past, present, and future? To know that everything will eventually-"

"Stop," Giratina simply said.

"Stop? Stop what?"

"Stop being a melodramatic, we already have Rayquaza and Kyurem for that. Don't turn into one too," Giratina got off the rail to look Dialga straight on. "It is no secret that many of the other gods envy your powers, that was a fact even before my banishment. But I don't envy your power Dialga for two reasons. One: I have my own powers to control that rival yours. Two:... I don't think I could handle the stress."

"What do you mean by that?"

"For Arceus' sake Dialga, look at what you just said. I'm an angry god who knows how to destroy millions by using a piece of wood, giving me power over time itself is probably the worst decision in all of the universe including what led to my exile. This is going to be weird for me to say it, but that's what I admire about you… that tasted really awful can I take it back." Giratina coughed a few times. "But back onto your little pity party there is a reason why we have the gifts we do."

"We are parts of our father's mind," Dialga finished for Giratina, "Palkia's the brash, more upfront and seeks to solve a problem head on. You were always the trickster, the deceptive and would use anyone for your own gain."

"And you, dear brother, were the calm one, you were always one to analyze a situation and never acted out of turn. You quite literally take your time."

"What's the point you're getting at here Giratina?"

"My point is that despite what we were when Arceus made us, we have all changed," Giratina's armed swirled with a dark energy, "for better or for worse. I remember before my banishment that you wouldn't even touch a weapon. You were nearly a copy of Kyurem before his accident."

"Hmm," he gave a grunt, "but I guess we all change."

"Exactly, look at us now. I'm a prisoner of my own self ambition, you're not the pacifistic timekeeper you were, and Palkia doesn't charge in nearly as much." Dialga chuckled at his comment, "Why did you come Dialga?"

The question threw the god of time off, it was rare that someone would question his plans. "Why did I come?"

"Yes, exactly. It feels like a good chunk of us have some kind of ulterior motive for coming here. I'm looking for redemption, Regigigas is doing this for his children, I imagine Deoxys is looking to get out of his imprisonment, and Rayquaza wants the same thing. So why did you come here? Or more importantly what changed you? If I were to remember you hated being away from the Time Stream. You always looked over it."

Dialga turned to the school to view a massive courtyard. "I don't know, maybe I have an ulterior motive." He smiled before leaving.

"Arceus damn you and your ambiguity," Giratina thought to himself as his brother made his way back to his team's room.

As he walked through the halls he reopened his compendium to cover page. The book which was always pristine seemed to have a blemish. It looked as if someone took a blade and scratched in a word. A single word, a word that haunted Dialga for centuries, a word that for a time made him regret his existence.

"Celebi"

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

So intrigue...I guess that's a thing. So technically I did say this chapter would have Rayquaza and Deoxys, but I didn't lie I did have them in there. I want to save Rayquaza for a bigger, more impactful fight later on. You may've noticed that the gods can easily take out the humans with relative ease. That is by design and makes sense narratively, gods should be able to mortals easily. Anyways, see ya later suckers!