Chapter 29

Revelation

After another hour walking in the forest, they came to an open plateau with large cliffs surrounding it. An arch of black stone was about 20 feet away.

"Is that it?" Alex asked.

"Yup, I'll activate it," Celebi said as she began to float forward only for a voice to stop her in place.

"That's quite far enough," a cold calculating voice said.

Blaze and Alex went wide-eyed, Nigel and Celebi simply scowled.

"No, it can't be…" Blaze said, desperately hoping he was wrong.

His fears were confirmed as Ivan materialized between them and the passage of time, deactivating his invisibility.

"Your scurrying carried you far, but that comes to an end now!" Ivan said as Beryl and her Sableye surrounded the group. Three Sableye on each side and Beryl behind them, they were completely boxed in.

"Crafty, you let us run wild so you could catch Celebi and us in one fell swoop" Nigel guessed.

"Perceptive as ever, surrender and your deaths will be quick and painless" Ivan offered.

"Yea, no, we'll shove you aside and dive into the passage of time, are you ready to fight!" Nigel said with a look to Alex and Blaze.

"You need to ask?" Alex responded confidently. Blaze was less certain but took a fighting stance nonetheless.

"Spare you effort, you have no chance of winning" Ivan scoffed.

"We won't know until we try!" Celebi argued, getting a nod from Nigel.

"Insolent fools, do you really think we would come alone?" Ivan said ominously

"What do you mean?" Nigel asked.

Ivan shook his head and answered, "you should feel honored that he will be the death of you, NOW MASTER DIALGA!"

Nigel and Celebi's eye's bulged at the same time as a giant pokemon appeared on the cliffs overlooking the area with a flash of red light. It was over 17 feet tall with legs as thick as tree trunks. It had bluish-black skin and some gray metallic portions, such as its chest plate, which has a blood-red diamond in the center. It had a fin-like structure on its back and a crest on its head, resembling a dinosaur. It also had two horns on top of its head, two fang-like horns around its mouth, and three spines on the back of its neck. It had three claws on each foot of the same metallic looks as its chest plate. The faint cracks that existed across its body were pulsing with orange energy.

"Nigel is that.." Alex was too scared to finish his question.

"That's...Primal Dialga" Nigel confirmed.

"So, where your bravado now Nigel?" Ivan taunted.

"I'm sorry you two, this is it…" Nigel conceded, earring a shocked look from both apprentices and Celebi

"Are you kidding me, your giving up? Blaze scolded him.

"Ivan and the Sableye are one thing, but Dialga is something else entirety, its pointless to resist" Nigel admitted as he stepped forward.

"I surrender Ivan, do with me as you will, but I still have hope!" Nigel stated firmly.

"What do you mean?" Alex asked.

"Celebi remembers as I do, I had a partner when I came back to the past, we got separated in the passage of time, but he should still be back in the past. Even if I am eliminated, he will see our mission through to the end" Nigel explained confidently.

Ivan began to chuckle, and then his laughter grew louder and louder until he was laughing psychotically at the top of his lungs. The four fugitives and even his own Sableye looked at him with a look of bewilderment. For such a cold and calm individual, this was very abnormal.

As Ivan finally stopped laughing, Nigel gave a look of confusion and asked "what's so funny?"

"Oh Nigel, you've failed in the most critical of moments. Incidentally, what is the name of your partner, go on, say it!" Ivan asked, sounding like a child waiting for a joke.

"Why ask, you know his name" Nigel replied, still confused at what Ivan was getting at.

Ivan's eye curled into a wild smirk as he said "can't tell me, forgotten it already"

"Of course not, Alex is my best friend, I would NEVER FORGET IS NAME!" Nigel yelled defiantly.

Alex's eyes bulged, but he quickly dismissed the possibility, surely there were other people named Alex. Blaze, however, seemed to make the connection.

'Nigel, did you say, Alex, this is Alex right here!" Blaze revealed. It made too much sense to the Monferno to ignore.

As Nigel turned to Alex he was unconvinced, there was one impossibility that he couldn't get past. "That's not possible, Alex isn't a pokemon, he's a human"

"Precisely! That is undoubtedly your partner, the pokemon you see was once human!" Ivan confirmed Alex and Blaze's jaws dropped at the same time, too stunned to say anything.

Nigel didn't want to believe it, but it added up. Why did Ivan drag those two here? Why did the Fraxure have such an indomitable will? How was he so steadfast in his beliefs at the stockade? Ivan's seemingly personal hatred of him at the pillars. Not to mention the odd look Celebi had given him when she first saw him. Nigel was mentally kicking himself for not figuring it out, all of the hints were there, he just hadn't put it together.

"I admit, that body had me fooled, but when I heard of a rescue team helping two children and asking for nothing in return, I was curious. If anything they would be useful to connect to the guild when searching for you. I saved their lives and they were putty in my hands. When he mentioned the dimensional scream, I was even more curious. It was so easy to lure them to the beach where he told me his entire story no questions asked. As he recounted his tale, an idea began to form in my mind. When he told me his name, everything fell into place. After that, it was a simple task to drag him into the future. His amnesia was a lucky stoke, he didn't recognize the pokemon who chased him for days on end. If Alex even had some of his memories he would never fall for such obvious manipulation. Thanks to his memory loss and his gullible, idiotic partner, I won with the most minimal of effort!' Ivan mocked with a look to Blaze as he finished his story.

Primal Dialga roared atop the cliff, clearly tired of waiting.

"Beryl, tear them limb from limb!" Ivan ordered, getting a wicked laugh from his subordinates.

As the Sableye began to approach with their razor-sharp claws, Blaze of all people had the resolve. "Don't give up, there's way out of this…" the Momferno said with as much vigor as he could muster.

"You say that now, but what can we do?" Nigel asked in a defeated voice. It was clear that he was truly giving up.

Dozens of ideas reached through Blaze's head until he finally produced one that may work.

Blaze nudged Celebi with his arm as the Sableye boxed them in and whispered "Celebi, can you time travel us forward just a few seconds to the passage of time?"

"I don't know if I can with Dialga here. Dialga is the temporal pokemon, HE IS time. Even if I can make us travel he'll have no problem exposing it!' Celebi confessed as quietly as she could.

"No time to think, DO IT" Blaze yelled as the Sableye went for their throats.

"Time to travel," Celebi said as they vanished in a flash of pink light. Leaving the Sableye and Ivan with a confused look on their face.

"They v-vanished" Ivan said, stunned by their quick escape. Primal Dialga's mere presence should've stopped such a feat, but Celebi had more power than he deemed possible.

Atop the cliff, Primal Dialga roared, his eyes glowed as orange energy radiated from the fins on his back. The gem on his chest lit up as he unleashed an orange shockwave with a feral roar. There was a shattering sound as Celebi, Nigel, and Team Outriders appeared a mere three feet from the passage fo time. Celebi's presence immediately activated the portal as a blue tunnel of light appeared in the arch.

'Our path has been shattered" Celebi said in shock., her eyes glowed blue for a moment as she set the portal to 1 week after Nigel had been sent back to the future. She had no time to be more precise.

"STOP THEM!" Ivan yelled as the Sableye ran after them, a far bigger threat reared its head as Dialga jumped down from the cliff, landing a few yards away as he stomped towards them with a murderous fury in his eyes.

"GO NOW!" Nigel yelled the three of them dove into the portal just as Dialga came upon them. Celebi stuck out her tongue before disappearing with a final taunting the smirk. As she vanished in an orb of pink light the passage deactivated with a few blue sparks.

Dialga could only roar in anger as the last feeble spark of energy dissipated beneath the arch. The biggest threat to his survival had just barely slipped through his claws...

Author's notes- I hope that I did this moment justice, leave a review :)