The moon watched over Earth, as did Arceus who sat with golden hooves folded beneath him in crater Tycho. Melting from the fabric of space-time, Giratina bowed her great golden head before Arceus in her serpentine Origin Forme. They spoke without words.
"Master, something has changed inside me. I feel the ability to create life!"
Arceus nodded his sleek white head, bidding her stand – or float, in this case.
"All who were incapable of reproduction are now capable. The eternal time loop that I instated has vanished, and along with it your immortality and infertility."
Giratina was shocked into silence as she absorbed this. "I can die? I can have children?"
"Yes, all who were immortal have at last joined the life and death spiral, like all true living things."
Giratina gave a thunderous joyful roar that no-one heard in the vacuum. She calmed down eventually, because she was an old soul, like Arceus. "What about you, my Creator? Will there be sons and daughters of God?"
Arceus lifted his majestic head. He seemed to be smiling, though his face was unreadable but for the blazing fires within his eyes. "I am not God. I have, however, finally grown out of my natal stage. For eons I looked inward, at myself and my creation. The moment Hannah, Cyrus and their friends freed me from self-pity, I began to look outward. In looking outward, I saw that there are universes beyond this one; entire realities that each has a being like me at their centre."
Giratina fluttered her dark wings. Arceus had always been bigger than her.
"I thought this Space, this Time and this Void are all that exist!"
"Consider the stars in space. Imagine that entire starscape inverted; white becomes black, black becomes white. Each universe is like a black marble woven into the white cloth of the Multiverse. Each is alive, filled with creatures too numerous and too wonderful to speak of!"
"There are creatures like me?"
Arceus laughed, causing the spheres to ring like silver bells. "Yes. After my endless life, I can finally feel them! Each universe has its own unique creation, for there are no two minds that think alike. How we mate is not of the flesh or the spirit. After we are born, we must then learn to look outward to realise that we have counterparts. When we achieve this stage of enlightenment, we draw closer together like marbles rolling into the centre of a cloth. That is how we mate; entire realities intersect, and form a new creation. Thus we achieve unification. Do you know what that means?"
Revelation spiraled in Giratina's heart. "Entropy will be reversed!"
Arceus stood, pawing at the lunar dust. "Death cannot win as long as we bond with others."
Giratina reeled. Arceus was so much bigger than she remembered. Eventually she found words. "How many universes - how many Creators - are looking outward? How many still look inward?"
Arceus shrugged. "How many sunbeams and shadows are there? The outward light and inward darkness of the multiverse are favouring the enlightened, for only the enlightened can reproduce and form a new creation that survives entropy itself."
Giratina shook her beautiful head. Had she tears, they would be shed. "Without entropy, when will everything end?"
Arceus cleared his throat and mimicked the voice of Optimus Prime. "The multiverse will exist until all are one."
"I didn't take you for a Transformers fan. And then?"
Arceus looked upward at the terrestrial ball called Earth. His eyes saw past the crude matter and into Eternity Future. He replied in his normal voice that touched every corner of their universe. "And then... when all creatures are one... when there are no more goodbyes... when there is no-one who feels alone... we will ascend. Perhaps we shall meet the being or beings that hatched me from my Cosmic Egg."
Giratina laughed, her red eyes flashing. "I look forward to meeting my grandparents. I hope they are sane."
"I believe they are; we are still alive. Now, Giratina, go forth and multiply. I expect grandchildren by next year."
She bristled at that, her wings curving like fangs. "Look, I don't care if you created me; you will not hold my eggs ransom!"
Arceus held her steady gaze. "Among you, Dialga, and Palkia, I'm going to be a very busy and doting grandfather."
Giratina blinked. "Huh, I never thought I'd be an aunt someday."
Arceus preened his golden cross-wheel and began to strut in circles around her. "I am going to spoil my grandchildren so rotten that they will want to live with me, not you."
Giratina offered a rude gesture to her Creator before leaving to enjoy her new life.
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Canalave City port was busy that morning. Mint let his tears fall like raindrops upon his scarf. "You won't stay?"
Hannah stood beside her luggage. "Nuh uh, I'm off to Johto to capture a Furret for snuggling. Jim-sensei and my parents can oversee Project Hearthome."
"At least you're honest," Manny said, joining the group hug they had going with her parents.
They had been awfully huggy the past few days, but now it was over. Hannah walked up the ramp to the ferry deck. She held out a fist and spoke like a prophet of doom. "I'll send a Furret to each of you, and you will never wish to be parted from it. Your days will be spent washing and brushing its gorgeous fur until it's softer than Altaria down. All thought of adventure and productivity will be buried in their warm, irresistible fur. It shall be my ultimate revenge on you for sending me on my insane Pokémon journey in the first place."
"Is she referring to Team Galactic?" Mint asked Manny.
"No, she was talking about you."
"Awww, she misses me already!" Mint blubbered.
Her father Trope waved. "Good luck with your dastardly plans!"
Her mother Dragoness waved. "Bring back souvenirs or we won't love you anymore!"
When the ferry disappeared over the horizon, Manny turned to Mint. "I'm not going anywhere. I'll oversee the theme parks's construction and opening."
"Manny, it's okay; you can go with your parents."
Manny turned red and windmilled his arms. "Hey, it's not my responsibility if they want to go on a Pokémon journey together! People that old should stay indoors and watch TV."
Mint facepalmed. "Manny, they're twenty-five years old."
"And we're ten! We have our whole lives ahead of us! I'm not making their mistakes!"
"I think you're still mad at your Dad for stealing your Mom from you."
Manny held up one hand. "Mint, stop talking. Say something stupid."
"I left Togekiss in charge of all the Pokémon who're helping build my theme parks!"
"You left your baby Pokémon in charge of OTHER Pokémon, some of them legendary? That's like asking a child to be responsible for adults! What were you thinking?!"
Mint summoned Floatzel in the water, then jumped onto his back. "I wasn't! I'm racing you to Full Moon Island. If you're late, Manny, I'll fine you one MILLION dollars!"
"I can afford that."
"Uh… then I'll fine you one BILLION dollars!"
Manny grinned, Pokéball in hand. "You're on!"
Manny leaped onto Vaporeon's back and they sped away, boys with their Pokémon, eager to build the future.
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END
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