Professor Juniper opened the door to her lab.
"What are you doing here again?" she asked.
"Well, we went to see your dad," Ash explained. "And we found out that the Golden Light Stone wasn't just like the Golden Dark Stone, but actually the same thing! He thinks that's because they were made back before the split between the two brothers, so either of them could call on Reshiram, Zekrom or Kyurem, and with both N and I next to one when N activated it during the Team Plasma attack then it kind of went berserk and-"
"That's not actually the answer to her question, Ash," Pikachu interrupted.
"Oh, right," Ash said. "Well, uh… in that case, we're done with the thing at the White Ruins, and I thought we should come back so you can hear about the results. Some of what happened seemed like it was scientifically interesting, like how Zygarde used Aura Break as a shield to avoid electromagnetic influence, and Iris wants to train with her new Pokémon which might be scientifically interesting as well."
Professor Juniper rubbed her temples.
"Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm going to try and work out where to send you," she said. "Somewhere you can go and travel that isn't in Unova, preferably."
"Oh, yeah, I was thinking of moving on from Unova at some point," Ash admitted. "But I guess I haven't decided where to go yet."
"I'll have a look," Professor Juniper decided. "But what's this about Iris having a new Pokémon? Is it that Keldeo that was following you around?"
"Actually, N's trying to work out what the un-arrested half of Team Plasma should do," Ash said. "I think he said he couldn't be King of Team Plasma because his Pokémon form was a Colt Pokémon, but he was okay with Prince?"
"And I don't think a new Pokémon is the right word, Professor," Iris added, taking the Premier Ball off her belt. "Come on out!"
A White Kyurem emerged.
Professor Juniper blinked as the Dragon-type landed with a faint hiss of steam.
"...what even is that Pokémon?" she asked. "It looks a bit like a Reshiram, but…"
"We are White Kyurem," White Kyurem clarified. "We are a combination of Kyurem and Reshiram. We are fairly sure that singular or plural pronouns would be appropriate."
"It's because the Original Dragon is Reshiram, Zekrom and Kyurem," Iris explained. "I don't know if they're all from the same original dragon, or even if it makes sense to say they're all from an original dragon in the first place, but apparently they can all join up… is it okay if I recall you?"
White Kyurem gave a claw-up, and Iris recalled them before immediately opening the Premier Ball again.
This time, Zekrom came out on his own.
"And then there's this," Iris explained. "It's kind of random so far."
"Which might not seem Ideal," Zekrom said. "But it is an equitable way of sharing our involvement, whether individually or in gestalt."
"Can I see that again?" Professor Juniper asked. "That's… difficult to believe."
Iris recalled Zekrom, then sent her new Pokémon out three more times. She got Reshiram on his own, Kyurem on his own, then Dracozolt.
"...that's a new one," she admitted.
"If that's the Original Dragon I think I'm going to start laughing and not stop," Pikachu said.
"We don't think so," Dracozolt said. "We do not remember being proportioned in quite this way."
"Anyway, do you have somewhere we can work on moves?" Iris checked. "I want to see if there's something similar about how all those signature moves work."
"There's a training field about half a mile south of here," Professor Juniper said. "Please make sure the landscape's the same shape when you leave."
"And that's the… fiftieth time, I think?" Iris asked. "Am I keeping track right?"
"I think so," Archeops replied. "I've been counting on my feathers."
Dragonite snorted, then carefully noted down a dot on the triangular chart they were using.
"Let's have a look," he said. "Okay, so, it looks like there's about an equal chance of getting each of them just by themselves. About one in seven."
"That's a weird number!" Axew contributed. "Isn't it?"
"It probably makes sense, somehow," Iris replied. "Just, not in a way that we can actually work out. And what about Black and White Kyurem?"
"About the same chance," Dragonite replied. "So that's five out of seven, total. And the other fourteen were…"
They looked at the list.
"Well, they're all Dragon type, there's that much to say about them," Excadrill observed, then snorted. "Not much else though."
"If we've got Zekrom, Reshiram, Kyurem, and Kyurem plus the other two, then that must mean the other ones were…" Iris thought it over, then nodded to herself in confirmation. "Reshiram and Zekrom, or all three."
She opened the Premier Ball again, and this time got Zekrom. "Can you guys actually tell which of you is out?"
"When I'm out with one or both of the others, it's an unusual experience," Zekrom told her. "We're in gestalt until returned, I think?"
He shrugged. "At that point I sort of just stop worrying and assume it works."
"Yeah, that's true," Iris admitted. "Still, we did get something useful out of this, which is that you're all going to be Dragon-type no matter what… and that we need a way to deal with the tyranny of Fairy-types."
"That would be ideal, yes," Zekrom agreed.
"Actually, I wanted to ask," Emolga said. "Don't you have problems sort of… coexisting? Because of the truth-and-ideals thing?"
"That would not be unexpected, but there is an interpretation which has been helpful to remember," Zekrom told them. "It is this: Truth and Ideals are both right."
"...oh, I see," Iris said. "You can say something's the right thing to do, and you can say it's right."
"And it is also a direction, isn't it?" Dragonite asked. "As in, Kyurem is what's left, so… being right is…"
He rubbed his head. "I think we've spent too long around Ash."
"You've spent the least time of any of us around Ash," Excadrill said. "Except for the Taos."
"Yes," Dragonite confirmed.
"...so Zekrom knows Fusion Bolt and Reshiram knows Fusion Flare, but if you combine those two then you get lightning plus fire and that's sort of plasma, right?" Ash asked. "Which is fusion. But at the same time you have Kyurem, and that means it's like cold fusion…"
"I'm not sure I follow?" Giratiny said. "Or, I get why that would let Reshiram, Zekrom and Kyurem do that, but I don't see the connection to what I can do."
"Sorry, I was thinking out loud," Ash replied. "But I did have an idea for you, as well… you've got your Griseous Orb, right?"
"Yep!" Giratiny agreed, holding it up. "It's supposed to get bigger as I do. Giratina said that his did the same thing."
Aten snorted. "Or you would be trying to carry a gilded rock weighing more than you, until you grew into it," he said.
"Yep," Giratiny agreed, nodding enthusiastically.
"So is it more like swimming or flying?" Ash asked.
"Hmm," the Ghost-type said, spinning around in mid-air as he thought. "Well, um… I don't know. What's flying like, and how is it different to swimming?"
Rayquaza raised an arm.
"In my experience, swimming is like flying, but you do it underwater," she said. "And you have to come up to breathe every so often."
"In my experience, flying is like swimming, but you fall down if you stop doing it," Latias told them.
"In my experience, swimming is something you do for only a few seconds until someone tells you to come back with a friend with Lightningrod and your own Ability suppressed with Gastro Acid," Zekrom declared.
"This was not a helpful discussion," Pikachu summarized.
"Well, I guess you can make waves of air as well as waves of water, right?" Ash said. "I thought we could start with Ominous Wind, and then work on surfing it to move faster!"
"Thanks for helping out," Cilan said. "Have I said that before? I feel like I've said it before, but it's worth saying again."
"You have, and it is," Cresselia replied, her voice tinted with psychic power so Cilan could follow what she was saying. "It's also interesting training for me."
"Fury Cutter," Cilan ordered, and Dwebble swiped again. His claw was glowing brilliantly, and he connected with a hit that sent Cresselia sliding backwards.
"Recover," she replied, glowing a soft white. "He's up to seven consecutive hits this time. I feel like a casino."
"I'm not sure that works," Cilan mused. "In a casino the house usually wins."
"Yes," Cresselia replied, spreading her hands, then went oof as Dwebble hit another time.
"Recover," she said, then got hit twice more in quick succession and ended up in a crater in the floor.
"I may need to learn Flash," she decided, indistinctly.
Dwebble evolved to Crustle with a flash.
"Great!" Cilan said. "Now it's time for a truly gourmet addition to your fighting style!"
Cresselia Recovered herself again, pried herself out of the ground, and shook her head for clarity. "What do you mean?"
"I got the idea from thinking about Ash's Turtwig," Cilan explained. "Then about Turtwig in general, which was easier. You see, if you have a look at Crustle you can see that he's got a miniature stack of sedimentary rock for a shell."
Cresselia nodded, to show she was following along.
"But that fact that they're miniature, and the way Burgh's Dwebble had a different sort of rock for his shell, is what got me thinking," Cilan continued. "You see, nothing actually says a Crustle has to have sedimentary rock for their crust section."
He finished getting out the tools he was after – two small lights, a g-clamp, a drill, and a little electric arc firelighter.
"Let me know if any of this hurts, Crustle," Cilan requested, setting up the lights, then put the clamp on front-to-back and drilled a little hole into one of the sections about halfway up Crustle's shell.
The Bug-type made a hand gesture. "It's a bit itchy, but nothing more than that."
"All good?" Cilan checked, then continued once he was sure. The firelighter went into the hole, and he held down the button.
"This seems a lot like something my trainer would do," Cresselia said. "What are you doing?"
She blinked as a tiny little rift opened on the front right corner of Crustle's land surface, sending out inch-high fire fountains which began to build up into a pile, then a classic conical volcano.
"And… that should do," Cilan decided, turning off the heater and putting some cement into the hole. "Now, just a turn or two on the clamp… oh, that's right, I forgot to explain."
He brushed his hands off with a flourish. "It's a bonsai tectonic plate boundary! Made as a layer-cake of sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rock, to expand Crustle's options in battle!"
"Definitely something my trainer would do," Cresselia decided.
AN:
This is basically a sprite not found error, I think.