I'm really sorry for the long wait. This chapter just gave me a lot of problems, and life also bit me on the butt a few times. The next chapter will not take nearly as long I promise you. Anyway, enjoy.

After a long yet relaxing flight on the legendary bird of fire, Ash finally heard Blue call them to touch down. The boy had found a landing spot, and his charizard was already beginning the process of touching the ground. With a jolt that almost threw Ash off, Moltres descended into the earth. Just able to right himself before he hit the ground in a most undignified way, the raven-haired trainer adjusted his cap and hopped off of his transport.

"Thanks, Moltres!" He grinned, but his gratitude was met with a haughty toss of the head.

Dismayed, Ash turned to Green, who was in the process of returning the fire bird. "He's like that. Don't mind him much," the brown haired trainer stated with a dismissive shrug.

"Okay." Ash replied as the legendary that had brought him to his dimension thumped down to the earth. The subsequent shake of the earth caused Blue's charizard to glare at her, but even the hot headed fire pokémon wouldn't dare speak up against her.

Giving out a snort, the renegade turned to the humans. "I take it this is where you plan to train? I'll try not to wreck it."

Red decided it would be best not to comment. "Now… I think we need to teach Giratina some new moves. Will-o-wisp isn't the best move to have."

"Even though any member of your team I nailed with it was out like a light." Giratina snorted indignantly.

"Yes… well… we aren't fighting ordinary pokémon, are we?" the champion shot back.

Not willing to let him win so easily, Giratina formed a ball of mystical blue flames between the spikes of her mask. Throwing her head forward, she sent the deadly sphere speeding at a small cluster of weathered grey boulders. A large eruption of blue fire obscured the rocks for a moment. As the cloud of smoke dispersed into the winds, the cluster of boulders was revealed. What had once been a tall, proud formation of sturdy rock was now a shattered pile of rubble.

"I'm… almost impressed." Blue shrugged. "But rocks don't fight back."

"Whatever," Giratina snarled. "Why don't you just leave my choice of attacks alone and work out what you're going to do about bridging the gap between your teams and close to fifty legendary pokémon?"

"We'll work something out," Red said with a grin.

"Misguided confidence will get us nowhere," Giratina reprimanded bitterly.

"I always find that having confidence is a good thing. It helps me stay positive," Ash put in.

"Yeah," Giratina replied dully. "I'm not going to be positive any time soon, so let's just get started."

"All right!" Ash cheered, his fist thumping the air. "It's time for some special training!"

Pikachu almost fell off his trainer's shoulder. Even in the most dire circumstances, his trainer always acted like an excited little kid when "special training" was involved.

Yellow was looking at the strange boy with a mix of wonder and confusion. She thought he was so like Red in some ways—give or take several levels of experience and maturity. Green rolled her eyes and tossed her hair haughtily at the boy's antics. He was like a beginner trainer getting excited over his first battle. Between Giratina's unwavering tension and Ash's childish enthusiasm, Green wasn't even sure if this was serious or not. It sounded serious when the facts were laid out, so she decided to go with that for now.

"Let's just get started before we lose the whole day," Blue said sharply. The spiky-haired redhead then folded his arms, giving everyone a taste of his trademark glower.

Red gave a nod and threw his five pokeballs up in the air. Green, Yellow and Blue followed suit. Giratina narrowed her wine-red eyes at the harsh white light that signaled the pokémons' entry into the world. The cluster of pokémon all cried out their greetings in various voices.

"Okay, guys," Red said. "It's training time. We need to get strong enough to hold our own against legendary pokémon. It's a tall order, but you guys can do it."

Blue rolled his eyes. "Do you really give your pokémon pep talks like that?"

"Of course." Red nodded sincerely. "Nothing like a good pep talk to get the blood going."

"Yes, well, anyway. Green. I think you should train with Giratina. Without constantly using toxic, I think Moltres, Zapdos and Articuno are the only ones who'll give her a challenge."

"Got it," Green replied, giving Blue a nod. Giratina didn't respond; the logic made sense, and out of four trainers named after colours, she had little preference who she had to train with. Yellow would probably jump with every twitch she made, Green was obnoxious and loud, Blue was like herself which would cause an obvious clash, while Red had that stinging defeat over her.

Green took the three birds over to Giratina while Ash moved away from the legendary. It took a couple of heartbeats for Giratina to shove her disappointment into the unyielding iron safe that served as her hiding place from the world. Rearing up to her full height, Giratina folded her ghostly wings across her chest.

"I'll admit that I have no experience in training myself in a group, so I'll have to ask. What are we going to do?"

"Well... You need to work on your stamina. From what I've heard you stood up to Red even with toxic getting stronger and stronger."

The praise almost threw Giratina. "Yeah, well… any ideas for that?" she asked dryly.

"Hmm… yes." Green replied, her brown hair bouncing in the wind as her head bobbed up and down.

"All we need to do is try and time how long you can battle against my team. Then take a breather and try to beat your time. As you get better, the breathers can shorten."

"Hmmph, I suppose that'll do, since I really have nothing better at the moment. Will I be facing them one at a time, or all at once?"

"Well, I was going to do one at a time."

Giratina shook her head despairingly. "I suggest you send them all in at once. For several reasons. First, it helps your pokémon's endurance, as well. Second, if I can just constantly decimate half your team in a single blow like I did to your friend, then it comes down to three versus one instead of six, and your other three pokémon get absolutely no benefit whatsoever."

Green blinked, totally lost for words. The analysis of the plan and the rebuttals were totally unexpected. Trainers weren't usually told what to do by the pokémon they were supposed to be training. It was strange, but as what Giratina said made sense, Green went along with it and ordered all her pokémon to battle readiness.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the plateau, Ash was squaring off against Yellow. The younger girl would hopefully be able to match him without it being a complete rolling on either side. Some said that defeat gave more lessons than victory, but just like some victories, some defeats helped no-one.

"Ratty, go!" Yellow yelled, and the raticate stepped forward, baring its fangs.

"A raticate... okay, then. Gible, I choose you!" Ash called, and threw the pokeball. The dragon type appeared opposite the brown rat pokémon and initiated an intense staring match that was returned with vigor.

"I'll let you have the first move." Ash smiled.

"Okay... thanks. Ratty, start this off with a bite attack."

"Raticate!" The pokémon lunged forwards, deadly fangs aiming for the blue and red dragon type.

"Dodge and then counter with your own bite."

Gible's short leg muscles tightened and then stretched, launching him into the sky away from the raticate. The retaliation was swift and vicious, a bite with wicked fangs clamping down on the raticate's tail.

"Yeah, good job Gible!" Ash called, praising his pokémon as his opponent tried to encourage her own.

"C'mon, Ratty, throw Gible off, you can do it.

Ratty growled, violently shaking his long, whip-like tail in a desperate attempt to remove the little dragon type.

"Gible, quick, drop off and then use Draco meteor."

Gible quickly obeyed his trainer. The little dragon-type timed his drop at the precise moment that the raticate changed the direction of its thrashing. Once on the ground, a ball of fiery orange energy formed in the abdomen of the land shark pokémon. A few moments later and the ball was launched from Gible's open maw and into the clear blue sky.

"Ratty! Dodge it!" Yellow yelped frantically, as the rain of energy meteors cascaded down on her pokémon. No matter how much ducking and diving the raticate was able to do, he was eventually overwhelmed by the multitude of missiles, and one struck its mark. Out of the resulting smoke cloud came the furry brown form of the raticate. Ratty landed with a loud thump, his eyes shut tight and his form unmoving. The rat had been knocked out.

Yellow ran towards her pokémon, concern stretched all over her face. Gathering up the raticate in her arms, she murmured soothingly to him as he was engulfed in the red light that would return him to the pokéball. In the lull that followed as Yellow chose her second pokémon, Ash stole a glance at Giratina's situation.

The large dragon was surrounded by the three legendary birds, a blastoise, a jigglypuff and a clefairy. Each of them were launching their attacks at her. For now, she allowed them to hit, standing still amidst the hail of attacks. Not for the first time in her almost immeasurable life span, she was glad that her altered form was so resilient. When her whole body was aflame with pain, and her knees started to buckle as more and more powerful attacks slammed into her, Giratina retaliated. Spreading her massive, ghostly wings wide, Giratina launched herself into the sky. The three smaller pokémon at her feet had to brace themselves against the buffeting winds. When her rushing ascent had brought her to the same height as the bird trio, she spread her wings wider still. As they spread, they formed into claws and began to glow. Articuno and Zapdos were forced to twist away from them, but the pokémon on the ground were not so lucky.

Parting her jaws, Giratina let loose a large ball of orange energy down towards the trio of ordinary pokémon. The aura sphere exploded violently in their midst, sending the trio flying through the air. Giratina smirked; there was no way they were getting back up. That would need to be fixed. However, before all of that, she had her own problems.

"Attack Giratina all at once! Zapdos, use thunderbolt, Articuno, ice beam, and Moltres, use flamethrower."

The triple attack from the legendary avians came in hard and fast. Giratina was barely able to move her gargantuan bulk out of the way as the three elemental blasts collided just below her six feet. A large explosion of colliding energies caused the soles of those feet to burn. Very glad that she'd been able to avoid such a devastating cocktail, the renegade focused the only one she had a type advantage on, and had one on her, the ice bird Articuno.

Rearing back her head, the huge ghost dragon unleashed a searing will-o-wisp at the bird. The collision sent Articuno spiraling down towards the ground. Thinking she'd taken him down, Giratina focused her attention on the other two. However, a powerful ice beam smashed into her back, freezing the space between her wing joints in a thick layer of ice. Her back burned, but that was the least of her worries. The hunk of frozen water restricted the movement of her wings. Flying would be difficult from now on in. Unable to resist an eye roll, Giratina muttered bitterly to herself; several profanities unfit for young ears passed the legendary's lips.

Giving herself a shake, Giratina planted her feet firmly on the ground. Her golden claws dug into the soft earth, and her wings changed to claws. She'd been effectively grounded, so she may as well make the most of it.

Green finished up returning her fainted pokémon and chuckled. "Someone bit off more than they could chew."

"I wonder who that is," Giratina said dryly, waving one of her "wings" in small circles to show her disinterest in the jibe.

Green rolled her eyes. "We'll see."

With a small smile, she ordered another triple attack. Though this time, Giratina was stuck on the ground.

She had noticed this, too. As the trio of attacks surged through the air towards her, she wondered how she would get out of this without her wings. Interested to see just how Giratina would deal with the situation, Green observed the huge pokémon closely. What surprised her was that Giratina didn't even seem to move. A split second later, the three elemental blasts collided with each other, and, seemingly, Giratina. The cloud of dust cleared, and the four stared, waiting on results of the assault.

Suddenly, all three birds were sent spinning as something big and heavy crashed into them.

"What's going on?" Green demanded, as her team struggled to pull out of their spins. Giratina was in their midst and she used her mighty dragon claw attack to slam Articuno into the dirt. The ice bird's brethren avenged him quickly, and Giratina was scorched and zapped. The huge dragon cursed vibrantly under her breath, the repeated punishment beginning to take a huge toll on her body. Panting heavily, Giratina pushed herself back off the ground. She swayed worryingly as she reached her full height once again.

"Maybe we should stop," Green suggested. "You don't look so good."

"I'm fine..." Giratina said stubbornly. "I've taken worse."

"Pride before the fall," Green smiled sweetly, a smile that Giratina was determined to wipe away.

"You're the one who is so confident that you'd win," she retorted, flaring her now-freed wings. Getting scorched did have a silver lining in this case.

"Let's finish this, then." Green nodded, furrowing her brow in concentration.

Blue and Red were watching with mild interest. Ash was sweeping Yellow with merely his Gible, though the little pokémon was getting tired. Yellow wasn't much of a battler, but her other abilities would be invaluable.

"Awesome, Gible. You think you can keep it up?" Ash asked. Gible whirled around with an excited little jump and thrust his stubby little arms in the air. As he did so, a harsh bluish white glow surrounded his body. Under this glowing veil, Gible began to change. His form became bigger and more sleek, with a well defined head and powerful limbs. The previous blue colour on his back darkened into an indigo hue. Ash watched on in astonishment as his little Gible became Gabite. Launching himself at his pokémon, he hugged the Gabite tightly.

Blue rolled his eyes and shrugged. "So... The little dragon evolved. Now all he has to do is get it to evolve again."

Red chuckled and shook his head at his friend."I told you that everyone has their own way of doing things. Evolution isn't everything. Look at Pika."

Blue snorted and shook his head. "I'll give you that," he said with a begrudging sigh.

"Thought you would," Red chortled.

The day wore on, and after several bouts, Giratina and Ash ended their training. Red was still failing to convince the female dragon that she needed new moves in her arsenal. Giratina continued to dismiss the idea with contempt. She'd been perfecting her techniques for millennial. She was not about to change just because some human thought it was a good idea. There were only two opinions that mattered to her. One was her own, and the other was that of another legendary.

Weary and beaten, Giratina changed her form and sank down to her knees. The renegade ached everywhere and she was certain that she'd collected several new scars during her training battles with Green. Removing her golden diadem, she placed it down on the ground, the ruby glinting in the dying light. Flopping down onto her back, she exhaled heavily, before putting a hand on her brow and shoving dirty blonde hair away from her crimson eyes.

Green blinked and sat down next to her. Giratina raised a thin eyebrow, prompting Green to speak now that she had her attention.

"I'll admit, we didn't beat you down as easily as I thought we would. Until the end, when you were pretty done in."

"I'll take that as a compliment, but it still isn't good enough. I'll be up against pokémon just as powerful as me, and in greater numbers than six."

"A sour one, ain't you?" The trainer grinned, then added, "You and Blue would get along."

"Don't you humans have the opinion that opposites attract?'

"So, you have a thing for Ash then?" Green goaded. "That why you're here with him?"

Usually Giratina would have had a retort to snap back, but instead she just winced visibly. She didn't know why, but the question had made her heart twist. Not about Ash—no, that would be ridiculous. Another, certain, bubbly legendary was on her mind. Suddenly feeling compressed, she leaped to her feet. Grabbing her headdress, Giratina moved away from the main group, ignored Blue scoffing at Ash's culinary inadequacy. Any other time, she'd have been inclined to say something to the uppity redhead, but she felt ill, and didn't presently trust herself to speak. Slumping down against a tree, she put her head in her hands and shut out the world.

To her surprise, it was Yellow that came over to her. The little girl who she'd guessed would wet herself. Instead, she was calm as she sat next to the shaken legendary.

"Green can be a bit... brash, can't she?"

Giratina gave a sharp, bird-like nod in agreement.

Yellow continued, treading more carefully with this question. It was most definitely prying, but she had to know if she was going to solve this issue before there was a major blowout. Looking on, Pikachu sighed. He didn't know what to think of this development.

Yellow steeled her nerves and asked, barely able to hear herself over her thudding heart. Giratina was not one to cross.

"So... uh... What upset you about that question? It's not as if it has any chance of being true... does it?"

"No... But it made me think of someone..." she muttered, shaking her head. "Someone who has certain qualities in common with Ash."

"But none with Blue," Yellow surmised. The development that a legendary like Giratina, or any legendary for that matter, would have someone special to them was almost alien to her.

Giratina just gave a nod to show Yellow that she was right.

"I'm being silly anyway," she muttered, shaking her head and starting to stand up. She was quickly shoved back down by Yellow. Immediately, Giratina tensed, clenching her fist.

"Relax before you do yourself an injury," Yellow commanded, then began to heal Giratina, despite protest. When the dragon had relaxed a little, Yellow put in a response to Giratina's earlier statement.

"You're being silly now by calling emotion silly." She shook her head while saying this.

Giratina just sighed. "When you're in a world all of your own, you acquire some strange beliefs."

Yellow finished healing a drill peck wound on Giratina's stomach. She wasn't sure if it would be easier if the huge legendary was in her proper form or not. She was more used to pokémon, but Giratina was so massive that healing her could take her through the whole night. So, maybe human form was easier.

"Any room over here?" Ash asked, plopping down next to the pair anyway.

"No point in saying no now, is there?" Giratina shrugged.

"Well, they won't let me near the cooking, so I don't have anywhere else to go."

"Yeah, I heard that you can't. Why in the reverse world can you not cook? You've been on a journey for over five years."

Ash chuckled sheepishly, deciding to just stay silent on the matter. He didn't have an excuse really. Giratina slapped her hand to her face and sighed heavily.

"I'll teach you tomorrow... Right now I feel like I haven't slept in six weeks."

"I know the feeling," Ash grinned, flopping down onto the grass and spreading his arms. Giratina's eyes narrowed menacingly when his hand smacked her thigh, but she decided not to say anything.

"He wouldn't get the problem with it anyway," Pikachu chuckled.

Giratina nodded. "That's why I decided not to say anything."

"I think they're conspiring against us." Yellow chuckled as Pikachu hopped up onto Giratina's shoulder.

"Nah, Pikachu wouldn't conspire against me, would you?" Ash asked.

Pikachu just looked to Giratina, then back at Ash. Giving a cheeky grin, Pikachu nodded.

While Ash was looking mock affronted, Giratina sighed, almost falling asleep then and there. A quick nudge from Ash brought her to. Shaking her head to try and clear her head, Giratina started to stand before she fell asleep at the wrong time. Once again she was pushed down but this time it was by Ash. He gave her a soft smile and said.

"Maybe you should take a nap before dinner. You look like you need it."

"Didn't I tell you not to get used to naps while you were with me?" Giratina asked defiantly, despite the fact that a nap was sounding very attractive right now.

"Yeah, but I'm telling you to take a nap, not taking one myself." Ash shrugged. "That means your point is moot."

"That sounds like something I would say," Giratina muttered, shaking her head with a light chuckle. Yellow had finished up her healing, and now that she no longer hurt all over, Giratina came perilously close to dosing off. Her long eyelashes fluttered lightly as her eyes began to sink shut. She was about to stop herself, but a gentle hand on her shoulder kept her from jerking awake, and after a moment, everything went dark.

Taking his hand off of her shoulder, Ash gave a small nod to Yellow, then moved away from the napping legendary. Yellow moved away as well, and Ash asked her.

"So, you can heal pokémon?" Ash asked. "That must be helpful."

"It is," Yellow agreed, "especially with all the battles that go on."

"You don't like battles much, do you?" Ash observed, noting the drop in her tone when she mentioned battling.

Yellow nodded. "Battling hurts pokémon... So that can't be a good thing. I know sometimes it's necessary, but... it just... To make it a sport... I'm torn. I know that there are people like you and Red, who love pokémon and still battle with them. But then there are the others. The ones who use pokémon battling for evil... Which got you and Giratina into the mess you are now in."

"Yeah... I get you..." Ash nodded. "I view battling as a way for both pokémon and trainer to form stronger bonds and improve themselves. The bad people who use pokémon as tools are wrong, and I hope one day they'll come to see that."

"We can only hope,"

Nodding once again, Ash sat down next to Green and Red. Blue was cooking, because everyone decided that he was the best at it. Ash was skeptical about whether or not Blue could match the culinary expertise of Brock or Cilan, but decided to keep his mouth shut. He'd already got several verbal lashings from Blue today, just as often about other aspects of his character as they would be about his battling style.

"Where's tall, dark and grumpy?" Red chuckled, obviously referring to Giratina.

"Taking a nap." Ash shrugged.

"Lucky for some," Green teased lightly.

"When's food going to be ready?" Ash asked. Red was about to reply, when Blue cut him off.

"When it's ready!" he called out icily, his tone making Yellow sigh. Why couldn't Blue just lighten up his attitude, even a little? It got embarrassing at times.

Green just rolled her eyes and answered Ash. "It'll probably be just under an hour."

"Alright, time for some more training." He grinned, causing the other four to blink.

"We just finished training," Green said, not sure what to make of this.

"Your pokémon need a break," Yellow added, aghast. Was Ash really going to put his exhausted team through more?

Ash grinned lightly and dropped to the floor, immediately beginning to use push-ups. Green blinked at him, unsure of what to make of it.

"I know my pokémon need a break. That's why I need to train myself."

"Um... Okay..." The brunette blinked.

Ash nodded and continued his exercises. Pikachu just watched with mild interest, twitching his large ears absentmindedly. His trainer was passionate no one could deny that, though he put his energy into the strangest of things. He couldn't understand why humans trained themselves. They didn't battle each other, so what was the need to get stronger. The big man, Bruno, had been able to run rings around a massive onix. Impressive, but there wasn't a lot of need for it—he had pokémon.

It was another hour before dinner was ready. Giratina had awoken ten minutes earlier in none too good a mood. She was bitter about being left to doze off. Ash had hidden behind Pikachu, who had managed to cool her off. If only by promising that she could thump the young teen, within reason, after the mess with Giovanni was over.

Dinner was a slow affair, with more discussing than actual eating.

"So... Tomorrow I think we need to put a bit more focus on your training, Ash. Now that Gible has evolved into Gabite, we can see how it has improved his fighting against a more..." He chose his next word carefully "...experienced opponent."

"Okay." Ash nodded. "Who will I be battling against, then?"

"I'll decide that tomorrow. Either me or Blue, while Green can continue working with Giratina."

Ash nodded again, excited to be maybe getting to battle with a trainer who had defeated even Giratina with relative ease. Said legendary wasn't really looking forward to getting beaten to a pulp numerous times. Yellow healed Green's pokémon in between battles, but Giratina had elected to battle without the aid. Ruined the point of the exercise in her mind. Plus, she despised how weak it would make her look having to be healed for every little thing.

Ash used the lull in conversation to start wolfing down as much food as possible. Giratina turned away from him in disdain. Did he really have to make a grumpig of himself? The others didn't seem to care. Trying to ignore the uncouth eating, Giratina picked at her own meal.

It seemed like an age before the food was finally cleaned off, most of the damage being done by Ash. Afterward, Red called them to get some sleep. Giratina snarled inwardly at being sent to bed like a child. She wasn't tired thanks to her unintentional nap earlier. Instead of sleeping, the ghost dragon decided to take a walk and clear her head.

Giratina wandered for hours, purposefully getting herself lost. Being lost had a certain way of focusing one's mind, as long as a level head was kept throughout the ordeal. The renegade legendary slowly sank against a particularly gnarly tomato tree. It was old, too old to bear fruit anymore, and several bug pokémon called it home. Suppressing an urge to burn them out of it, she slumped down against the trunk until her rump hit cold and thankfully dry ground. Now that she was good and lost, she had time to think, time away from humans.

She had mixed feelings still, but found herself with a knot in her stomach if she thought of them as just tools to defeat Giovanni. Thinking of them as such felt so... wrong that she ended up settling on associates. Even that felt empty, but for now it would have to do. There were much more pressing matters at hand. She still had her fellow legendary pokémon to somehow defeat, while being outnumbered four to thirty, if the three birds of this world could be take into consideration.

Giratina almost smacked herself for being so stupid. How had she not thought of this before? It should have been so obvious, so simple. With something between a smirk and a smile on her lips, she morphed back into her true self and spread her wings into the cool night air. Now she had a hope of a hope, and wasn't going to waste another minute. The humans would have had enough rest by now. If they hadn't, she may just be elated enough to carry them. Doubtful, but... maybe.