This is the fourth of four chapters today.


"Well… I assume that worked," Lucario said, stepping on the still-soft metal of the corridor with his feet cloaked in glowing blue light. "All the Magnemite have put their arms up?"

"They lack those, alas," Kari pointed out, sheathing herself with a klik. "But it would seem so."

A screen lit up on the wall, showing Dexter. Hi, everyone. This place is kind of odd to control… why are you all looking at me like that?

"You seem to have redesigned your avatar," Pikachu pointed out.

Dexter turned a camera to look at the screen, and the camera did a double-take.

Well, that answers what the missing Pokémon in the projected National Dex is, he said. Huh. What do we even call this one?

"You're a Porygon line Pokémon who evolved in the Reverse World," Pikachu said. "I suggest… nogyroP."

No, Dexter replied flatly. Maybe I'll ask the kids what they think.

"If you do that you'll probably end up called Shodan," Lucario suggested.


"How are you holding up, Latios!" Ash called.

All right, for now, Mega Latios sent back, as the latest Will-O-Wisp rolled off his shield in a flare of disruption. I'm sorry I'm not much good at actually hurting Zero's aircraft.

"You're doing great, don't worry," Ash assured him. "I guess I'd rather he was up there where Pidgeot could shoot at him to down here where none of us could, but it means we need to keep Crown City safe!"

As he mentioned Pidgeot, the Flying-type came blazing by to Ash's right. She flew low under a bridge, rolled, and pulled up so fast that Zero had no time to notice her before she was at her preferred attack angle.

An Aeroblast ripped out, slamming into the fighter's shields, and Ash held on tight to Giratina's back as the Ghost-type Legendary joined in. A Shadow Sneak flicked out, forcing Zero to roll to the side to get out of the effect of both attacks, and Mega Latios took the opportunity of the distraction to get a Dragon Pulse in.

Zero countered with a portal, oriented differently to normal – so it took in the Dragon Pulse instead of the hovering superfighter – and Mega Latios paled as he watched the attack hiss off into the Reverse World.

"That dirty..." Giratina muttered, stopping his attack. "That's going to be a real problem to deal with!"

"How often can he do that?" Ash asked.

"More often than I'd like," Giratina replied. "His recharge time on the portals looks pretty low. That's going to be a problem..."

"Did it hit anything?"

Giratina opened a little portal himself, just big enough for him look through, and examined it. "It… looks like it didn't," he replied. "But we can't always be that lucky."

He stomped on the ground with a sigh. "If only I could fly fast enough to catch up to it – there's no way to use that trick to make physical attacks risky, it's just annoying, and I think I've broken Palkia's lockdown now."

Mega Latios came flying over to them. "Ash! Good news – they stopped the Megarig, I think, and Latias is on the way!"

He slowed. "She… says she has something that'll help. But she's in the Reverse World right now, so don't close the portal."

Giratina nodded. "Got it."

Overhead, Zero's fighter began firing attacks at Pidgeot. She climbed into the air, rising high enough that his missed shots wouldn't hit the ground, then turned tightly and spun together a razor whirlwind.

Pushing energy into it, she flung it at the parasite fighter – which opened a portal, sucking it in, but the whirlwind promptly dissipated without Pidgeot sustaining it.

Banking around, Pidgeot began to spin another whirlwind, then Ash's attention was drawn away as Latias arrived – at speed.

"Hey, guys!" she announced. "Giratina, I brought your missing armour!"

Giratina blinked. "My what?"

"Your missing armour," she repeated. "It was what the scientist guy was analyzing at first, that's how he got started, then he found your portals and everything-"

"No, I mean I've never lost a piece of armour," Giratina replied. "Why?"

In reply, Latias revealed what she was carrying – a little diamond-like yellow crystal, with the triangle facets indented so it was as if only the edges had any solidity.

Giratina did a double-take. "He had the – but – that's my Griseous Orb!"

His tone became indignant. "I was wondering where I'd lost that!"

"That's the Griseous Orb?" Ash asked.

"Yes," Giratina replied, looking up from the crystal. "It's a separate part of me, and a focus of my power. I lost track of it years ago, so I suppose Newton must have-"

"No, I mean, it's not really an orb shape, is it?" Ash said. "I remember Dialga and Palkia's Space-Time Orbs being a lot more round."

"I… think griseous means sort of black and white," Latias volunteered. "All dappled together… you know, like your shield is, and like how Palkia's shield is Lustrous and Dialga's is Adamant."

"Oh, yeah, that," Giratina sighed. "It's actually kind of embarrassing… it got encased in dolerite once, and I liked how it looked so I didn't bother cleaning it off. It didn't stop it working or anything, so I figured why bother?"

As he spoke, Ash unlimbered his staff to Mega Evolve Latias, then took the Griseous Orb from her (despite it being neither griseous nor an orb) and passed it to Giratina.

The Dragon-type's form shifted under him, as he took on a shape much more suited to fast flight, and he coiled to launch himself into the air.

"Wait," Ash requested. "I… think I just got an idea. Can you make that portal bigger? And Latias, we're going to need you and your brother."

Mega Latios arrived next to them a moment later, as Giratina duly pushed the portal wider.

"Okay, good," Ash said. "Now, uh… right, we'll need Pidgeot as well… how long does a portal like this stay open?"

"I can keep it open for several minutes, though it's not something I normally do," Giratina replied. "It taxes my control to maintain more than one portal, and it's untidy as well."

"Right," Ash decided. "We need Latios somewhere he can look through the portal and see Zero's ship at the same time…"


"Well, Infi?" Zero asked, looking over the readouts. "How long until everything is fixed?"

"Estimate eight minutes," Infi told him. "Combat ability is currently improving. Dimensional jump drive is ready."

"Hold it for now," Zero decided. "They've gone, right?"

"Confirmed." Infi flashed up the views from all the cameras, which showed no sign of Giratina or any of Ash Ketchum's Pokémon. A newsfeed played in the corner, showing the property damage that had already taken place, and one of the cameras was fixed on the portal Giratina had opened earlier.

"Then they're probably waiting in there for us to jump," Zero decided. "I think we can wait until we're ready for a fight again… that or just do enough damage to the Reverse World they have to go and save the real world, and escape in the confusion. But either way, that's what we'll do."

Infi's digital form nodded. "Estimate seven minutes."

Her scanner focused suddenly on the area by the still-glowing portal. "Anomaly detected."

Zero leaned closer to the screen. "I don't see it."

Several waves of enhancement flashed over the screen in quick succession, showing a few blurred patches. A green outline extrapolated from there, showing the outline of the Mega-evolved Eon Pokémon who'd been harrassing them earlier.

"That's odd," Zero mused. "I wonder why it's still here… keeping an eye on us?"


"This feels very strange," Giratina said, concentrating on their surroundings.

Thanks to the special bond between the Eon Twins, they were seeing from a perspective quite different to the norm. Instead of their immediate surroundings, all five of them – Giratina, Pidgeot, Ash, Mega Latias and Shaymin – were seeing themselves from the point of view of Mega Latios, back over by the portal into Crown City below and behind them.

"Yes, this isn't easy at all," Pidgeot agreed. "I think the best thing to do is to concentrate on what you're feeling, and move slowly so you don't lose control or overshoot."

Her wings beat once, giant Wings of Air around them letting her glide on tiny currents, and she moved a little further from Mega Latios.

"That's getting closer," the Dragon-type said out loud. "Yeah, I think that's almost the right range, he's not moving much."

"Good," Giratina said, 'swimming' through the air. "With my Orb back, I think I can manage a second portal… ready?"

He checked their position again. The group of Pokémon hovering in mid-air in the Reverse World were – from Mega Latios' point of view – in just about exactly the same position as the hovering Mecha Giratina was in the real world.

"Ready," Pidgeot agreed.

"I'll count down," Ash suggested, as both Pokémon got ready. "Count of five?"

"Works for me," Giratina agreed, and Pidgeot nodded.

"Five."

Giratina's misnamed Griseous Orb lit up as he drew on his power, juggling keeping the existing portal with setting up a new one.

"...four..."

Pidgeot swooped around to position herself just right.

"...three..."

Giratina's whole body lit up, and he began to project the energy field – outlining the nascent portal in white light.

"...two..."

Pidgeot inhaled, a red glow forming in her beak as the Aeroblast powered up.

"...one… now!"

Giratina opened the portal, and Pidgeot fired into it a tiny fraction of a second later.


Zero was thrown out of his seat as the Mecha Giratina jerked wildly, almost all the alarms going off at once. The main lighting failed, and there was a heart-stopping weightless moment as the countergravity cut off as well – then one engine lit up, fitfully at best, and one of the viewscreens flickered back into life ringed by red emergency lighting.

"What happened, Infi?" he asked, pushing himself off the floor and back into his seat.

"Unknown," Infi replied, sounding distracted. "Main engine fault, shutdown imminent. All Giratina power modules offline."

She threw up an extrapolated image of the fighter on the main screen, and Zero stared.

One wing was just… gone, blown off completely, and the neck which connected his cockpit to the main body of the fighter was badly damaged and visibly warped by a combination of direct damage and an ongoing series of small explosions. Their flight path was becoming noticeably more erratic as the thrusters shut down, rendering Infi less and less able to compensate for the brutally unaerodynamic damaged shape, and now that he was paying attention he could feel the little jolts and trembles running through the fighter's body as one part after another was worried away by the airstream.

There was a lurch as the fighter wobbled, trying to spin, and Infi fought it back under control.

"Master," she told him. "You are in serious danger. Please evacuate."

"But can't-" Zero began, then stopped. "Surely-"

He couldn't come up with what to say. There had to be some way to recover the situation – he was meant to have Giratina's power, the Reverse World was meant to belong to someone who would know how to use it properly!

But at the same time, he couldn't deny the reality of the situation – the Mecha Giratina was losing altitude, dropping towards the river some miles downstream from Crown City itself. The wing that had been blown off might already have landed, and the rest of his elegant creation wasn't far from joining it.

He hesitated again, watching as Infi displayed an extrapolated projection of how they'd been shot down, and it was hard not to be impressed. They'd caught him out by firing from the Reverse World, though he wasn't sure how they'd been so accurate – it looked like the attack had actually appeared inside the Mecha Giratina.

"Master, please leave!" Infi begged.

The door to the cockpit access tunnel screeched open, and Zero turned to see a Pokémon – a Shaymin, he thought – pulling the door open with a huff of effort.

"Come on!" it said. "Both of you – computer person, you can leave, right?"

"Confirmed," Infi replied. "But as soon as I disconnect the Mecha Giratina will lose control."

"The Pokémon's right," Zero decided. "You don't deserve to go down here."

Infi paused, then nodded.

A light flashed on the console, and Zero ejected the memory drive next to it – transferring off this iteration of Infi.

As soon as he did, the Mecha Giratina lurched wildly and began to dive towards the ground. Shaymin lunged forwards, grabbing Zero's costume, then began to hurry back to the cockpit door.

"Are you dressed as Giratina?" she asked. "What the heck?"

Zero didn't respond, too busy holding on to Infi's data drive, and Shaymin managed to get the two of them back through the corkscrewing entry tunnel and out into clear air as the burning ruins of the Mecha Giratina dropped towards the river below.

"I didn't think this through," Shaymin added, wings working as hard as they could as she tried to keep Zero's weight in the air – or at least steer them in for a relatively soft landing. "This could be pretty rough!"

"Infi might be hurt by the water, make sure she doesn't-"

"We're out of options-"

They stopped.

Completely.

Ahead of them, so did the Mecha Giratina. It froze in place, all the individual bits of debris halting in exact relation to where they'd been at that moment, and the fires burned out in seconds.

Then the fighter fragmented apart, over the course of four or five seconds, into every single component part. Neither Zero nor Shaymin could see clearly enough, but it looked like even the individual screws were being separated out distinctly.

There we go, a mental voice stated. Always good to sort these things out before they actually hit the ground, good thing Mega Latios caught the wing.

Turning as best he could with his costume still held in Shaymin's paws, Zero saw Mewtwo hovering calmly in mid-air.

I'm taking you back to Gracidea, he added. I suspect that Zero is going to be extremely arrested.


"I… think it's over," Karen's Absol said, a bit hesitantly. "What do you think?"

Sidney's Absol blinked. "Sorry, I wasn't listening. What's that?"

"I asked if you thought the problems were over," Karen's Absol hinted.

"Oh, right," the male Dark-type replied. "Yeah, I… think so, sorry, I'm just dealing with this odd kind of minor personal disaster strobe going on… I keep deciding to do something, then deciding not to, and I can't tell which is the disaster."

Karen's Absol gave him a baffled look. "What?"

"Hold on, I'll collapse the function," Sidney's Absol suggested. "You doing anything tonight?"

He shrugged. "...aaand there we go, no need to bother telling me no. Sorry about that, wanted to clear that warning."

That earned him an odd look, then Karen's Absol shook her head. "Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and not unpack that one. But I haven't sensed anything big since we took over from Ash's Absol."

A group of people and Pokémon appeared with a flash, along with a cloud of debris floating overhead. Then one of the Pokémon and the debris vanished, and both Absol looked around at once.

"Oh, hey, there we go," the male said. "Guys? That man cosplaying as Giratina should probably be arrested."

"Got it," Roland replied to them, teleporting out, and then flickering in and out repeatedly as he dropped off Elite Four members from Honshu, Shikoku and Hokkaido. Once they were all in place, he brought over an Officer Jenny as well.

"That's him?" Jenny asked, checking with Cynthia.

"Yes, he's the one," Cynthia agreed. "His name's Zero."

A doorway opened nearby at ground level, and Giratina came through along with various members of Ash's team. Newton walked through as well, holding his Shieldon, and a Groudon brought up the rear with a very large bag.

It lowered it to the ground, revealing it to be full of dozens upon dozens of Magnemite and Magneton along with a few Magnezone, and transformed back into Zorua with a sigh of relief.

The sight caught the attention of those around for several seconds, until Cynthia cleared her throat to get Jenny's attention.

"All right," Jenny agreed. "Zero, you are under arrest. You should be advised that anything you say may be used against you in a court of law. You have-"

"Enough, I know," Zero dismissed. "Can't any of you see that I did this to benefit the world? Doesn't that count to get me leniency?"

Ash's jaw dropped, and he slid off Giratina's back – not noticing how Lance was noting something down in a little book. "You did what?"

"The Reverse World deserves to be owned and controlled by someone who appreciates its beauty!" Zero replied. "I am that person, and nothing I did had any other reason than the greater good of putting me in control of the Reverse World – just as I should be!"

Ash's fists clenched, and he tensed – looking about ready to punch Zero, before Lucario put a paw on his shoulder.

"Breathe deep," the Fighting-type advised him. "Seek peace."

"Is there any chance you can hand him over to me?" Giratina asked hopefully.

"Not really, he's committed some pretty serious crimes," Cynthia told him – deciding internally that this whole speaking-to-Legendaries thing was something she was going to have to get used to, it was becoming quite a habit.

"I know," Giratina replied. "Many of them against me. I was thinking of putting him in something ironic and-"

"No, we don't do it that way," Cynthia said. "He's probably going to get professional mental help."

"I prefer my way," Giratina grumbled.

As he turned away, Jenny cuffed Zero. "You're coming with me."

"What about Infi?" Newton asked. "I suspect she was somehow required to help, but she's probably an accomplice."

"Infi?" Sidney asked. "Who's an Infi when she's at home?"

"Infi is an artificial intelligence," Newton explained. "One of the first who isn't a Porygon. I did the original design work, but I believe Zero has enhanced her capabilities considerably."

"I can see this is all going to be a very odd court case," Cynthia groaned. "What's going to happen to the machines that stole Giratina's power?"

I can fill you in there, Mewtwo said. Ash's Porygon-line Pokémon, Dexter, has seized control of the damaged Megarig – that's Zero's flying fortress. It's intact enough to float, but I don't think it'll make the transition back to normal gravity safely – I'm going to see what I can do with a few hours of work to fix it. There's another version of Infi on board, along with Dexter himself.

"Is that what happened to Dexter?" Ash asked, turning his gaze away from Infi. "I wondered where he went..."

"It was pretty cool, actually," Lucario assured him. "Actually, we've got a lot to fill you in on."

"I'm afraid I have quite a boring question," Lucian said, raising his forearm to shoulder height in an elegant gesture. "Who is still needed, and can some of us head home? I was in the middle of lunch."

"I… think that's fine," Sidney's Absol reported. "So yeah, go ahead, anyone who wants can head home again."

"Do all these Magnemite, Magneton and Magnezone need to get arrested too?" Zorua asked. "And is Infi going to get arrested twice?"

"I… didn't actually know Zorua could talk," Flint admitted. "But they do disguise themselves as humans, so it does… anyway, um… I don't actually know. Does anyone?"

"The Magnemite-line Pokémon are going to get taken into custody, most likely," Jenny supplied. "We'll try and find them good homes. As for this computer intelligence, I actually don't know."

"Infi can merge herself back together," Zero said, looking up. "You don't need to worry about that, there will only be one of her."


"Where did you get that thing you said to Ash earlier?" Pikachu asked. "It sounded like a quote."

"Tyrantrum mentioned it once," Lucario replied. "Not sure where he got it from, though..."

They watched as Lance's dragonflight lifted off, carrying the entirety of his Elite Four south to Indigo Plateau, and Drake began preparing to do the same with the Hoenn Elite Four.

"This was pretty good to see, though," Lucario added. "We did all the difficult stuff, but everyone else turned up to help with the stuff you really need numbers to sort out. And Gracidea Valley looks..."

He paused.

"Okay, it looks awful, but the Pokémon are okay. I suppose it gives the local Diglett something to do, as well – fixing it, I mean."

Pikachu nodded.

"Wonder what's going to happen to the Megarig, once we've got Dexter off it," he mused.

"Mewtwo looked interested in taking it," Lucario replied. "I don't know what he'd do with it, though."

"Maybe he wants to install M-001 and M-002 on it and send them out to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and boldly go where no 'mon has gone before?"

Lucario thought about that for a long moment.

"Nope," he replied. "Deoxys have been out there before."

"You know what I meant."


"Wow, this place got beaten up," Ash said, reaching up and hauling himself into the Megarig. "Dexter, you here?"

I am here, Dexter confirmed. You should find my core connected to the main data bus – here.

A light strobed, and Ash picked up the indicated projector.

"Thanks," he said. "And thanks for helping with this, too, Giratina."

"This Pokémon of yours helped out in the neutralization of the machine which tried to kill me," Giratina said. "I am grateful to him, as well as to you."

His tail swished. "I do not remember him last time, though."

I was the Pokédex, Dexter supplied.

"Yeah, we're going to need to talk about the time travel thing more," Ash admitted. "But – the simple version is that Dexter became a Porygon a few years ago, then evolved in Kanto when we were dealing with a crazy professor guy. He's a Porygon-2 now."

That's Doctor, Dexter corrected. His name is Doctor Yung. And you're not quite correct on another point, Ash.

"Huh?" Ash asked.

In reply, Dexter manifested himself.

"...oh, okay," Ash blinked. "I didn't know that was possible."

Neither did I, Dexter replied. My first assumption is that either the complex cyberwarfare I engaged in with Infi is responsible, or the method I used by projecting myself through a fourth spatial dimension to win the aforementioned cyberwarfare.

"I guess either would make sense," Ash agreed. "What's the name for what you are now, then?"

Good question, I've been wondering about that… it's much harder to tell with Pokémon for whom human-type speech is instinctive and natural.

"Maybe Professor Akihabara will know," Ash suggested.

Another Doctor. Ash, not everyone who knows things is a Professor.

Giratina chuckled, a deep sound, then looked down. "What's going to happen to this?"

I'll probably dismantle it into kit form and repair it, Mewtwo replied. Absent the machine that can steal your powers, of course. But it might prove quite relaxing – I think it's worth a try, anyway.

"So long as it can't be used again the way it was today, that's fine I guess," Giratina said. "Hey, can I have the module that stole my strength?"

Mewtwo floated down to the appropriate part of the Megarig, and detached it with a swift swipe of his paw and a flickering beam of psychic energy.

Giratina nodded his thanks, then focused his energies on it for several long seconds. Ash leaned out of the nearest hole to watch, interested, and for a long moment nothing seemed to happen.

Then the module fell apart, split cleanly in half along the centreline.

Giratina pulsed two powerful Aura Spheres at the fragments, blowing them to bits, and sighed. "There."

"What did you just do?" Ash asked.

"Creating a dimensional portal in something solid is much harder, but not completely impossible," Giratina answered. "It's useless in battle, but for catharsis… it's not."

He swam a bit closer to Ash. "Now, we really need to talk about that stuff from earlier – the time travel stuff and so on."

I'd better join you for that, Mewtwo suggested. This thing will keep for a few hours, assuming Dexter set the remaining antigrav controls correctly.

Of course I set them correctly, Dexter answered.

Giratina raised himself up a little, so Ash could get on, then opened a portal back to Gracidea Vale and led Mewtwo through.


"Right, so… where to begin," Ash said, frowning. "Uh… right, so the first thing is to update you with how it's all worked so far."

Giratina nodded. "That sounds like a good start."

He looked down as Mawile passed him up some burgers, and gratefully took two. "Thank you, it's been a long day."

"Okay, guys, do mention if I miss something," Ash added. "So, firstly, about a year from when we met last time around, Cyrus ended the world."

"I know, I was there," Giratina supplied, swallowing the first of the burgers. "He came though a portal, ordered Dialga, Palkia and I to stabilize it, and we had to obey him. With none of us helping keep the world intact, all of our energies going to that… the world collapsed."

Giratina paused, looking at Ash's sandbagged expression, then around at the others.

"You didn't know this?"

"I… think we might need to hear more about this one," Dawn suggested.

No kidding. Gary and Zoey were present, but neither of them had that much information.

"Okay, they're right, we do need to talk about that, but Giratina needs to know the rest of the background too," Ash said. "As the world fell apart, Arceus pulled me into a side world or something, then he had Sir Aaron – an Aura adept – give me lessons on how to use my Aura, and after I was trained enough he had a new Dialga send me back in time. I've been able to use my Aura – with the help of the Lake Guardians – to remind anyone I knew well enough last time, human or Pokémon, of our time together and everything else from the old timeline. So everyone I could do that to started as good as they were at the end of the old timeline, and we've all been getting stronger."

After a pause to see if anyone had any comments, Ash continued. "Recently things have become harder to handle, though, because Team Galactic have this really odd effect going on where it's almost impossible to tell they're there. Only people who have been reminded of the old timeline can even see, hear, feel or remember them, and they've been using that in really sneaky ways. I don't get it, but… it's how they've managed to capture the Lake Trio, so I can't remind anyone any more. Or I thought I couldn't."

"I was going to ask about that," Latias admitted. "What happened?"

"I was healing Giratina after he nearly died," Ash explained, this time for the benefit of everyone and not just Giratina. "And I saw this odd vision thing Azelf left, saying he could help me with this or something. I think he set it up when he was just about to be captured, we touched just before then – and I think that's how come I could remind you, Giratina."

"That's a very strange story," Giratina said, contemplating it. "But I have more than enough evidence to believe it."

"So what can you tell us about how everything went wrong?" Brock asked. "We don't know much, Gary and Zoey are the only two who we've been able to ask and they didn't see very much."

"I'm not sure how much help I can be, really, on that front," Giratina answered, after some thought. "There were a lot of very powerful Pokémon – plentiful Dragons and Ice-types, along with some Ghosts, Dark-types, Psychic-types and Fire-types. I wonder if they were aiming to not only defeat Dragon-types but also any Pokémon that could handle what they might bring to defend the Dragon-types – like myself."

"That does make sense," Brock agreed. "Were those the only types?"

"All the Types were present," Giratina replied.

"What about who was there?" Ash asked. "The humans, I mean, because Galactic sort of broke up after Cyrus vanished into a portal at Spear Pillar last time."

"That's a little trickier, I'm afraid I didn't pay much attention," Giratina replied, frowning. "I did recognize Cyrus from what my fellow Creation Dragons mentioned, but aside from that..."

Dexter floated into the space in front of Giratina, and projected a series of holograms about himself – showing each of the members of the Galactic executive team, aside from Cyrus.

Giratina examined them, then shook his head. "Sorry, I'm not sure. They had an old man, it might be the same one."

"Charon, right?" Ash checked, getting a confirmatory beep from Dexter. "Okay, that might help… so what do we do about them?"

"If they try what they did last time, I can give aid," Giratina said firmly. "I can be ready to support the universe if my fellows are taken under control, I've had to help out with that a few times already."

"That's the last time around… and the times Dialga and Palkia had a fight, right?" Dawn asked. "What about the thing with Arceus?"

"I'm… I do remember that one, but I'm not even sure if it counts as having happened," Giratina admitted. "Dialga's the time expert, you'd have to ask him."

"Can't we tell because Dialga and Palkia still got into a fight?" Ash said.

Everyone looked at him, and he elaborated. "When we had to deal with that problem with Arceus, it turned out that his waking up was why there were disturbances in space-time, right?"

"Oh, I see," Pikachu agreed. "So they were having a fight because of disturbances in space-time, and that was because Arceus was waking up..."

"I… actually don't think that's right," Giratina admitted. "There's still space-time disturbances, but they're… different, is the best way to describe them. They do not feel like Arceus awakening, or not just like that."

"That's really worrying," Max admitted. "I've kind of gotten used to the idea we'd at least know roughly what's coming."

"I'll do my best to work it out," Giratina replied. "Maybe Dialga and Palkia can work something out."

I'll try to help as well, Dexter volunteered. I'm a lot better at multidimensional mathematics since that evolution.

"That's a good start," Max said with a nod. "And apart from that… we just stay alert?"

"That is not all we should do," Giratina decided. "Two things are clear to me – Cyrus must be stopped, and I cannot… do it..."

He stopped.

"Question. What Type is that Mawile? She is oddly disconcerting."

"Sorry!" Mawile said. "I'm a Steel and Fairy type. Don't worry, I'm not that scary really."

"Fairy type, right," Giratina repeated. "I hadn't realized that was a thing. That's a very strange thing to be changed by going back only a few years."

"That's because it was actually changed when a Sylveon was present when we went to the dawn of time inside a bubble of disrupted reality," Ash provided helpfully.

"I'm not even going to bother to ask, because it's getting late," Giratina rumbled. "It's very strange to have two sets of memories, one of them with an entire extra Type and another of them not."

"You try doing a school test a few hours after reality has been altered around you to make it a thing," Max advised. "It's very confusing."

"I can imagine..."

Giratina's voice trailed off, then he turned his attention to Ash. "It seems the best we can do to prepare for Galactic is simply to be ready for them," he said. "However, I personally would like additional preparation. This is not a decision I make lightly, but in light of the Creator's preference for you personally… I consider you to be the best person for the task. Would you be willing to train me?"

"How many does that make?" Lugia asked Latios.

"I think this is number ten," Latios replied. "Not counting the ones he's taught indirectly."

"I… sure," Ash agreed. "But – isn't that going to cause a problem with doing your duties?"

"The Reverse World is everywhere, I can handle it from anywhere," Giratina replied. "But one disadvantage of it is that there's nobody actually there for me to train against, and I fear I may have stagnated a little."

He fixed Ash with a look. "I request your best Pokéball."

There was a pause.

"...I… don't think we ever did go to the Pokemart, did we?" Dawn said. "I think you still owe Paul a Pokéball..."

"Ash, that's just..." May said, shaking her head, then rummaged around in her bag. "I've got a Great Ball, will that do?"

"If it is great, then it sounds sufficient," Giratina determined. "Very well, then. I consent."

Ash accepted the Great Ball from May, and held it out for Giratina – who examined it closely, then looked up.

"How do these work again? I haven't seen many used."

"When someone's capturing a Pokémon, they throw the ball so it hits the Pokémon," Brock replied. "Ideally button first, the impact can set them off but the button being pressed definitely does."

Thus informed, Giratina pressed his golden crest gently against the button, and vanished in a swirl of light.

After a few seconds, he came out again. "That was an interesting experience."

"You can go back in by yourself if you sort of will it the right way," Lucario advised.

Giratina vanished again in a flash of red light, then came out for the second time. "I see. Thank you for the advice."

"I bet if I told Barry about all this he'd explode," Dawn said. "...actually, I am going to tell Serena about at least some of this."

Pikachu started laughing.

"What's wrong?" Giratina asked. "Who is this Serena?"

"It's not about her," Pikachu replied. "I just realized – Ash, you're going to have to tell Iris about this!"

"She's… either going to be really mad," Ash realized. "Or she's going to ask for a ride..."


The sun slipped below the side of the western mountains, and Shaymin sighed as she reverted back to Land Forme.

"Ah, well," she said. "It was nice to really have a go at flying while it lasted."

The ground shook slightly, and she looked around – worried – before spotting a Tyrantrum walking carefully up towards her.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "You sounded sad."

"Not really sad, just… melancholy," Shaymin replied. "I've seen so much today, and helped out, and even – I think – befriended a Pokémon who I thought was going to eat me. I know I was kind of awful earlier today, and I like to think I've improved a lot… but now it's going to end, and I wish it didn't have to."

Tyrantrum nodded, and crouched down next to her.

"Why can't you go flying a lot?" he asked. "We're still trying to work it out for me, but I saw you flying around earlier."

"It's a Form change," Shaymin told him. "I need a Gracidea flower to do it, and if I flew too far I wouldn't be able to. That's actually how I was when you found me – I didn't have any Gracidea, so I couldn't change back."

"Hmmm..." Tyrantrum frowned. "And you change back at sunset?"

"Or if I get too cold," Shaymin told him, and Tyrantrum considered that.

"That's pretty amazing," he told her frankly. "And… hold on a moment."

Tyrantrum got up again, and walked off.

Shaymin watched him go, somewhat confused, then continued to watch as he came back with Mawile.

"I had an idea," Tyrantrum was explaining. "Do you think we could make some panniers for Shaymin, so she can carry flowers on her back?"

Shaymin perked up, the idea suddenly sounding very interesting to her as well.


Cyrus read over the report, highlighting that Ash Ketchum had been seen with Giratina, and frowned.

After a moment, the frown turned into a chuckle.

"Sir?" Charon asked.

"Oh, just wondering..." Cyrus replied. "If Ash Ketchum tried to warn Giratina about us. I imagine it would have been quite an interesting conversation… I wonder how long the Aura adept would have kept it up before giving up?"


AN:


And that was Giratina and the Sky Warrior.