It was a sunny day in the wondrously bountiful region of Hoenn when a thirty-two year old man had his Shiny Breeding session interrupted by his whole world getting turned upside down.
His name was Kevin, and he was doing this for his daughter.
His sporty clothes and Mach Bike told the world he was a cyclist, yet his hard and tired eyes were a steely grey and ringed with dark circles. Pressed under a bright white cycling helmet with aerodynamic pores, his hair was a short and black crew-cut. A Poke Ball at his belt contained a Magmar and he'd loaded up his backpack with five Ralts eggs from the past few months, though two of them had already hatched today.
With two bored baby Pokemon and three unhatched eggs in his backpack, he was on his Mach Bike, riding up and down the road between Verdanturf and Mauville.
He was exhausted, and his legs felt like they were about to give out.
But he had to keep going, for his family's sake.
He wobbled on his bike, yet he kept going.
And then, the sound of a cracking eggshell caught his attention.
Slowing down safely before gently applying his bike's brakes, he opened his backpack to check the eggs.
Right at the top of the egg pile, the egg above all others and between two hatched Raltses was starting to hatch.
"Another Ralts," He smiled tiredly as he lifted the egg from his backpack and gently placed it on the ground beside him. "I hope you've got good stats, so I can make sure you'll go to a good home."
A shockwave shattered the eggshell into the faintest powder in an instant, and the small Pokemon before him looked familiar to his eyes until he noticed some oddities.
"A Pokemon Variation?" He asked himself. "It can't be... I left a Gallade and Garde
Curiously, he brought out his Pokedex to scan her and check something.
She was a Ralts, and he didn't need his Pokedex to tell him that.
According to his Pokedex, this Ralts was a girl.
But while his Pokedex's image of a Ralts was normal, this Pokemon... Wasn't.
Her cloth wasn't white, it was black. And her hair wasn't green, it was yellow. Finally, her red horn wasn't red, it was a bright gold.
She looked up at him in confusion, and as he reached down towards the little Pokemon, he tried to hide his feelings of confusion and think about happy thoughts.
He thought about his wife, so kind and beautiful. Sweeter than anything.
He thought about his eldest daughter, a studious little darling away at medical school. Some day, he knew, she would make a great nurse.
And he thought about his youngest daughter, that bold and brash idealistic dreamer who still lacked any human friends, and loved Pokemon more than anything else in the world. Her tenth birthday was tomorrow.
With his heart full of love and happy thoughts, the Ralts didn't protest, and instead seemed happily comforted as his calloused hands gently cradled and slowly lifted the little dear up.
With a smile, he used his right index finger to gently stroke the side of his Ralts' face. When he saw her smile grow, he gently and slowly brushed her fringe out of her eyes for a second, so he could take a good look at her eyes.
He nearly dropped her.
Where the red of her eyes should be, there was gold. And where the whites of her eyes should be, there was black.
Gently setting her down, he helped his other two perfectly-ordinary hatched Raltses get out of his backpack and greet their new sister.
The two spoke in their strange Pokemon language, and Kevin talked to himself. "I left your mother and father at the Daycare. Your mother was an ordinary Gardevoir, and a Sableye was your father, to pass down Grudge and Shadow Sneak. Why would you look different, if they look ordinary?"
He felt something call out to him within his mind and soul, and he passed out in an ungraceful heap.
When he awoke within his dreams, he found himself floating helplessly in an infinite blue sky. Above him, below him, the endless sky was all he could see, and when he looked to the horizon, there was nothing but more sky and the occasional fluffy white cloud.
He felt a colossal presence behind him, something older and grander than any oak tree.
"Oh dear," His voice was faint and high and downright terrified.
Waving his arms like he was trying to swim, he clumsily turned head over heels until he eventually turned completely, coming face to face with...
"A wild Shiny Rayquaza?" Kevin wondered as he gazed up at the gold-marked black scales of the shiny Rayquaza before him. "Have I passed out from overworking myself again?"
"I am no mere wild Rayquaza," The Dragon's voice boomed like a rumbling volcano, wisdom older than the earth clear in his every word.
"No..." Kevin whispered fearfully. He wanted to panic more, to inelegantly blubber and beg to not be eaten, but something wouldn't let him and that thought only terrified more.
"Haven't you ever wondered how Trainers can catch the Legendary Pokemon of Time, Space, Nightmares, Emotion, or the Weather without the world falling out of balance?" The Shiny Rayquaza asked.
"Once or twice, when I see some little kid on TV having a Pokemon League battle and ordering a Latias or Zapdos or Darkrai around." Kevin admitted.
"The Legendaries of your world are merely powerful beasts, emissaries who act on our behalf during times of crisis. Representations of the true Pokemon deities who worked together to create your world and everything within it."
"So when I see some little girl send out a Dialga, that's not the real Dialga, just a Pokemon who looks like him?" Kevin asked. "And that's why time keeps flowing even if he faints in battle?"
"Indeed. A true diety is something you can only summon under special circumstances, and even then, only a fraction of that true Legendary's strength can be brought to your reality. If even one of us true deities descended to your world in our true forms, our presence alone would tear your reality asunder. We are powerful, too powerful, and long-lived... But not all of us are immortal. Human... I have watched over your sky and the skies of all other worlds for longer than any of us can remember. And I have brought you here today for one reason... I am dying."
Tears welled in his eyes.
He was a grown man, and he'd never met this god before. He'd never been particularly religious, and he wasn't even that big of a fan of any Legendary Pokemon.
But the thought of something so old and powerful and good dying was just... Unspeakably, unfathomably sad. Death truly came for us all in its quest to render life meaningless.
"How long do you have left?" Kevin asked.
"Far longer than you, or any other human can comprehend." Rayquaza looked off into the distance behind Kevin, in this blue void of endless sky. "But my end is approaching. And if I do not have an heir to my throne, the sky will collapse in every reality."
"Who will be your heir?"
Rayquaza smiled at him. "You have already met my heir. She is my daughter, Sylphie."
Kevin gasped. "That Ralts egg I hatched... You were her father?!"
"Indeed. It is not often that one of us pulls that old trick, but I paid your Gardevoir a visit within her dreams the night before the day you took her and your lowly Sableye to the Day Care. And those dreams... Bore fruit."
"I thought there was an extra egg this month!" Kevin realised. "Normally she only hatches six eggs a month. I pick one day to hatch them all at once, and spend the rest of my time EV-Training them before I sell them. But this month, she only laid one egg!"
"Indeed. You will not sell my daughter, you will give her to one I have chosen for you. That chosen human will raise my Ralts into a mighty Gardevoir, taking her on a Pokemon journey around the world as she grows and masters her true power. Do not end your journey after one region's League, your daughter is to become a true Pokemon master, and raise my daughter to be the best that she can be. When the time comes for my scion to be uplifted from your mortal coil, I will teach her the ways of mastering and maintaining all skies. And on the day I die, she will replace me. I trust you have no objections to this?"
"Not at all!" Kevin lied, his dreams of just how rich he could be if he sold this legendary Ralts on the black market skewered in an instant. "Who have you selected?"
"I have chosen one with a pure heart."
"It can't be me! I'm just a Ralts breeder!" Kevin protested. "Every day, from nine to five, I'm cycling down the same old path for profit or EV training a Ralts! Rich trainers, and rich people with kids who want to be trainers, pay me the big bucks to hatch the highest-quality Ralts I can find! Sure, when I hatch a Ralts who doesn't have perfect IVs or a good nature, I'll sell it for less or give it away to a good home. But I'm not ready for the responsibility of-"
"It isn't you." Rayquaza spoke. "It is your youngest daughter... Skye."
"I'll tell her this, but I don't know if she'll say yes..." Kevin admitted, and awoke from this vision.
"YES!" His daughter screamed when he told her the news, running around his Ralts-filled house with glee, a joyful golden-haired Ralts resting in her arms. She made sure to dodge every Ralts on the floor and smile at every Ralts and Kirlia resting atop couches or bookshelves or household appliances.
She was nine years old and wore sporty white clothes on her short and thin body. Her long bangs and longer ponytail of sky-blue hair reminded him of a clear sky and her deep golden eyes reminded him of the sun. Her smile could light up the room and he feared that the cruel world would destroy her and gobble her up.
Kevin loved his daughter, and he hated the idea of seeing her go...
But if a diety wanted it to happen, then it had to happen or the world would end.
And at least with the daughter of a deity keeping her safe, he didn't have to worry about her safety.
He silently thanked his lucky stars – and Rayquaza and Arceus, now that he'd been made to believe in higher powers – that his daughter had been so into this idea.
"Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes! You tell that Rayquaza I'll go above and beyond and take his little angel across every region in the world if I have to!"
"Good, because that's what he said to do. But start close to home, okay?" Kevin asked. "Go for Wattson at Mauville first, then head for Fortree, and then go to Lilycove and call me when you get there. I wasn't going to say this in front of the Rayquaza god, but you've never had a single Pokemon battle before."
"So what?" Skye smiled. "I've studied super hard online and read tons of ebooks! I've seen more professional Pokemon battles than I've seen people!"
Kevin sighed. "I wish you made more friends."
"I'll make all the friends I want on my journey!" She insisted. "Pokemon make better friends than people, after all!"
"The hope of the universe, of all universes, rests in you, my daughter." Kevin said, and hugged his daughter tight. "I love you. Now go, and consider your Sylphie the Ralts an early birthday gift!"
She left his house, and with tears in her eyes, he followed her and watch her get on her Mach Bike, riding off to Mauville.
Only once she was gone, did he allow himself to break down, collapse, and start to cry.
Kirlias floated over to soothe Raltses upset by this open display of emotion, but that couldn't stop him.
He was probably never going to see his daughter again.