Ryan looked around himself. He was alone.
The world was black. There was no world.
Before him, lay a path of floating rocks, winding up the side of a thick, dense pillar of stone.
Ryan could only see the rocks ahead due to the flashing of bright white lightning that crackled all around. The lightning flashed from above, like normal, but also from his peripherals and from far below. This threw even more irregular shadows around the already dark expanse. Black clouds hung, woven in layers across his view, as far as Ryan could see.
He took all of this in when, suddenly out of nowhere, Treecko bumped into him, landing heavily on the rock beside him.
Treecko got up and brushed himself off, taking in the view like Ryan did.
"Where do you think we are?" Treecko asked.
"Not sure," Ryan said, "but I think we'll find out up there." He pointed up the path of floating rocks.
"What happens if we fall between jumps?" Treecko said, "It's a long way down."
"What happened last time you fell?" Ryan said, "I've got you. Always."
"I'm sorry for saying those things," Treecko said, holding his hand out. Ryan headbutted it affectionately.
"Water under a bridge," Ryan said, "let's go see why we're here."
Slowly and steadily, Ryan and Treecko jumped from one rock to the next. Treecko had strong legs, so he had none of the trouble he had been worried about and Ryan now knew that he could fly so he, too, had little issue.
The pillar of stone was brutally cracked and seemed to be barely holding itself together. Ryan and Treecko gradually made their way to the top to find nothing but a flat surface. By this time, the wind from the all-encompassing storm had set in, threatening to blow them off the platform completely.
As Ryan and Treecko stood, braced against the rough winds, a lightning bolt struck the platform in front of them. They both jumped back in fright and, as if the very air unfolded, a huge beast of a Pokémon stepped forward out of the shadows.
Grey, black and red skin, framed in gold. Six legs, each one dwarfing the size of Ryan and Treecko combined. A head that sat atop a neck that looked like a skyscraper. Two black wings that appeared to not only hold up the sky, but be the sky.
"Explain yourself," Giratina spoke, "this is your fault, is it not?"
"I do not know how," Ryan said, "I cannot remember past last week."
"Then allow me to jog your memory, invader."
Another flash of lightning and the pillar cracked open, a scene forming before them out of the cracked rubble and dust. A man that Ryan didn't recognize until he spoke was working away at some machinery. He looked scared. He kept looking back at something behind him.
Someone else appeared in the vision. Sam.
"I see you got in early to make sure it's all going to run smoothly?" Sam said to the man.
"Something like that," the man replied with Ryan's voice. He had never seen his own face in the visions, but it made sense now that this scared person would be him.
"What do you mean by that?" Sam barked and Ryan turned to face him.
"What we're doing. How can you be okay with it? With subjecting Pokémon to an existence like the boss is planning?"
"Are you saying you want out? After all this time helping perfect the device?"
"I'm asking if you want out. If you're genuinely okay with what they're planning to do, to turn a whole world into a machine for wealth at the expense of every life on it."
"Of course, I am." Sam pointed towards the platform. "I would be profiting too. As would you. You didn't even know the world existed before we found it. You don't know any of those Pokémon, why would you care?"
"Why should I care?" Ryan began to match Sam's level of anger. "Sam, those are innocent lives. Unmarred by our ways. They don't deserve any of this."
"Think of it! The possibilities. The power. It's right there, just waiting to be seized!" Sam was as close to screaming as he could be.
"I won't let you. I can't do it," Ryan said. Sam stepped menacingly towards him.
"You've forgotten your place… Wait. What are you-"
"Stopping you."
Ryan spun around and swung down with a spanner, his hopes to tamper with the machine without being caught were dashed, so now he simply hoped to break the entire thing, not caring about the consequences for himself.
The machine began to spark and shake. Sam grabbed hold of Ryan who pushed him back as another tear started to form, black clouds pouring out like the last time. The clouds, uncontrolled as the Land Shaymin was not in the room, swarmed around Sam. He choked on the smoke, falling to his knees.
Ryan then realized a way to make sure nobody would make it again from their world, as only he and Sam fully knew how. He picked up his choking partner, his old friend, and threw him through the rift.
"Indeedee!"
Ryan turned, seeing the Pokémon that had become his friend in suffering at the company he worked for. He tried to walk towards it, but a hand was still holding onto his lab coat. Sam was half through the portal, the smoke still pouring into his lungs.
"If I go, you go." And Sam pulled Ryan through with him, Ryan's outstretched hand barely missing Indeedee's as the Pokémon rushed over to help him. The two humans fell through the tear and vanished, along with the tear, leaving Indeedee on their own as the rocks fell back down.
"You brought this scourge to our worlds. This is your fault and only you can fix it," Giratina said.
"Ryan's a… human?" Treecko said slowly, shocked.
"I said I wasn't joking," Ryan replied quietly, expecting the hate to come flooding over, however Treecko simply hugged him.
"You didn't lie. I just didn't listen," Treecko said, before turning back to the huge Pokémon. "What do we need to do to fix what is happening?"
"This being has taken a terrible form. You took the form of a Shaymin to mirror your willingness to help those in need, a Sky Shaymin due to the gift your Indeedee ally left you."
"The flower…" Ryan muttered, remembering the dream.
"Yes, and you will need all the allies you can get to fix this, however, as the rift you created is forced my Distortion world and your Pokémon world to become one. We cannot allow this to happen as it will destroy both our worlds. Find Regigigas. Only by doing that will you have any hope in fixing what is to come. What has already begun."
"Find Regigigas?" Ryan said, "what's that?"
"Good luck, Ryan the human."
Giratina disappeared in a rogue windblown shadow, leaving a tear in his place. A way home.
"Are you ready?" Ryan asked Treecko, "do you trust me?"
"Always."