This is the first of two chapters today.
"Well, here we are," Brock said, shading his eyes. "That's Michina Town, all right."
"It's pretty impressive, huh," Dawn agreed, looking at not just the town itself but the whole area – a clear blue river winding towards them across gently rolling fields, coming from a town clustered around the base of a precipitous mountain that reached into the clear blue sky.
"I have never been here, but I can see why it's considered so impressive," Lucario said, looking behind him at the much less fertile terrain they'd walked through to get here. "And it's been like that for thousands of years..."
"That's right," Brock agreed. "It's a pocket of amazing farmland in the middle of the mountains, thanks to the Jewel of Life."
He paused. "We think."
"Well, let's head on in," Lucario suggested, then glanced down at Absol. "That's safe, right?"
"It should be," Absol replied, frowning a little and tilting her head. "There's something going on, though – some kind of distortion."
"Space time distortions?" Ash suggested. "That's not good, those were happening last time… Dexter, can you get ready to bring everyone in? We don't want to end up with most of the team stuck outside like what happened in Alamos."
He checked that Kari was on hand, then clenched his fist. "So let's go and find out what's wrong here, and make sure it isn't!"
"Good mission statement," Pikachu said, as they set off.
Charizard is arriving, Dexter reported. So is Metagross.
"Wait, hold on," Ash said, stopping again. "How come they're arriving now?"
Charizard's Pokéball burst open. "Because last time we barely made it in!" Charizard replied. "And Metagross liked the idea of seeing what was going on, so they're on the way too."
"Okay, uh..." Ash frowned, thinking for a bit. "Last time Michina didn't get closed off in a space-time bubble, we had some warning before we went back in time. So we should have enough warning to bring you in."
"I'm staying, though," Charizard insisted. "I don't want to miss this."
"You didn't miss either of the previous ones," Pikachu pointed out.
"I'm making up for missing a lot of these things last time around," Charizard countered. "I'm keeping you safe, Ash."
"Kevin?" Sheena called, her phone to her ear. "I'm down at ground level now."
"I can see you, yeah," her friend Kevin replied, sounding a little distracted. "The Time-Space Axis is responding to something, and it's just like we thought – it's definitely nearby."
"How close?" Sheena asked. "Can you tell?"
"It's a little difficult, but I think so," Kevin answered. "Hmm… no, it's a strong signal, that's how we know it's close, but we don't know quite how close. It should be… in a line going southwest from the ruins."
Sheena glanced up at the ruins, high over Michina proper, then at the sun and her watch.
"All right, I'm southwest from you now, so I'll just walk in that direction," she decided. "Will that help?"
"I know you show up on the Axis when you invoke Dialga or Palkia, so that would be great," Kevin replied.
"All right," Sheena said with a nod.
She put her hands together. "Transcend the confines of time and space… Dialga, Palkia, I do not know what I may need, but I ask you understand when I do."
An indefinable pulse of energy rippled out from Sheena, the power of one of the Guardians of Michina reaching out past the world itself into others.
Once her invocation was complete, Sheena raised her phone to her ear again. "Kevin?"
"Did you do it yet?" Kevin asked.
"Yes," Sheena answered. "Just now..."
"Well, uh… that means you must be basically on top of the distortion," Kevin told her. "Because I didn't see you, so you must be inside the ripple I can see from the disturbance."
Sheena blinked, looking around suddenly to see if there was some kind of gigantic time-space rift she hadn't spotted yet.
"I can't see anything," she said. "I won't bother asking if you're sure, I know you are, but… that's worrying."
"Give me a minute," Kevin told her. "I'm heading over to the telescope – I'll see if I can see anything."
He paused, then continued. "This would be easier if we had Pokémon..."
Sheena chuckled at the mention of a long-standing discussion.
"Okay, I'm there," Kevin reported, a little later. "And… huh. That looks familiar."
"What does?" Sheena asked, glancing back up at the Michina Ruins on top of their mountain. "What can you see?"
"There's a group of trainers heading down the road with a Charizard, an Absol, a Lucario and… I think that's a Pikachu?"
"You're right, that is familiar," Sheena said. "How far are they?"
"Not far," Kevin told her. "About… okay, point for me? Bit to the right – yeah, that way, about a minute's walk."
"Excuse me?"
Everyone stopped, looking up at the woman just coming over the hill.
"Were you at Alamos Town?" the woman asked. "You're Ash Ketchum, right?"
"That's me," Ash confirmed. "Is something wrong?"
"Well… sort of," the woman replied, joining them. "My name is Sheena, and I'm one of the Guardians of Michina. My fellow Guardian Kevin and I would like to talk to you, because there are some problems with space-time and we want to work out what's going on."
"It'd be great to have a clue what's going on," Ash agreed. "Giratina knows something's going to happen, but why is really complicated."
Sheena blinked. "Wait. Giratina?"
"Yes?" Giratina asked, rising out of the ground.
The Guardian did a double-take, then took a deep breath and shook her head.
"You were right," Giratina added, looking over at Lucario. "That was amusing."
"I didn't realize Giratina was… well, here," Sheena admitted, as the Renegade Pokémon phased back into the ground. "But that will only make things easier. Since you were at Alamos Town, you know how much trouble space-time distortions can cause… and there are distortions forming around Michina, as well as some which seem to be following you."
Ash frowned. "Huh… that's not just Giratina's Reverse World portals, right?"
"I don't think so," Sheena replied. "If you will follow me, we can head up to the Michina Ruins and talk with Kevin – he can show you what I mean."
Ash nodded. "Okay, so… who do we have who can fly up there… Charizard, Flygon and Latios?"
"I would be willing to as well," Giratina informed them. "Either through this world or my own."
Kevin came out into the little courtyard in the mountain over Michina. He shaded his eyes, looking up, then waved an arm to signal to the Pokémon flying overhead.
"Down here!" he called, one hand to his mouth, and the Pokémon paused to circle before coming down to land.
The Charizard came first, big leathery wings cupping the air as he backwinged to arrest his momentum, and dust blew up around him as he came to a halt.
Sheena slid down off Charizard's back with an audible sigh of relief, and the Flygon followed a moment later – wings singing as he came down to land with a little more precision than Charizard had done.
As the two male trainers Kevin had seen from overhead got off their respective Pokémon, the Latios arrived last – simply stopping in mid-air, not even bothering to land as such.
"Thanks, Latios," the girl said with a smile.
"My pleasure!" the Psychic-type squeaked, an odd mental echo carrying his meaning at the same time.
"That was… something," Sheena said, glancing back at the Charizard who'd carried her up to the eyrie. "Okay, so, that's my childhood friend, Kevin. And these are Ash, Brock and Dawn."
There were two flashes as Ash sent out two of his Pokémon, an Absol and a Lucario, then a third as he returned Charizard.
"Wait, hold on," Dawn said. "You two grew up together, and you're called Kevin and Sheena?"
"Yeah," Sheena agreed. "Kevin changed the spelling of his name when he was in a rebellious phase."
"Sheena…" Kevin sighed.
"Anyway, so – I don't know how much you could see there, Kevin," Sheena went on, "but Ash has Giratina. As an actual caught Pokémon… so that might be what was causing the interference?"
"We should find out," Kevin agreed. "Come on, I'll show them the Time-Space Axis, and we can try and work out what to do."
"We kind of already know," Ash said, sounding a bit awkward. "It's hard to explain, but… we got involved in time travel."
"That's… worrying, actually," Sheena admitted, as they began walking into the ruins themselves. "So… what happened?"
"This is going to take a while to explain," Brock noted.
"Okay, so… this isn't the first time we came to Michina," Ash said, once they were in the room containing the Time-Space Axis. "Last time around, we got here and there were already space-time distortions showing up. Sheena helped out in saving Dawn's Piplup from one – she called on Dialga and Palkia a lot – and Giratina was here as well, though he was still kind of angry at Dialga and Palkia for messing with his world."
Giratina came out of his Pokéball. "I remember this," he stated. "I came back as well, it is… complicated."
He looked towards the window, tactfully not mentioning Kevin's surprise, then back to the group. "I had formed the mistaken impression that Dialga and Palkia, my partners in maintaining the Worlds, had struck at me for selfish reasons of their own. I now understand that the cause of all our annoyance was the disturbance caused by the imminent return of the Creator of All, Arceus."
The Ghost-type frowned. "Dexter, should you not be translating at some point?"
Subtitles, Dexter replied. Just don't try to argue which option is better.
"Return?" Sheena repeated. "Arceus is going to return? But… why?"
"That's… kind of the thing we're not sure about," Brock supplied. "Or one of the things. When we came to Michina, the first time around, the story was that Damos had betrayed Arceus-"
"What?" Kevin asked, startled. "But-"
He cut himself off, shaking his head. "No, I… sorry, this is clearly complicated. I'll let you talk."
"The legend was that Damos had betrayed Arceus rather than give up the Jewel of Life," Brock continued. "And wounded Arceus, before Arceus struck back in retaliation. Arceus swore to judge all of humanity based on Damos' actions after returning."
"So… Arceus was vulnerable, because He didn't have all of His Plates," Sheena said slowly, parsing out what that would mean. "But… why would Damos do that?"
"Damos was being controlled by a man called Marcus," Dawn explained. "When Arceus returned, Dialga sent us back in time to try and solve everything – and we found out that Marcus was the one orchestrating what happened, not Damos."
"While this was going on, myself and my fellows were battling Arceus," Giratina explained. "I would not lightly take up battle against the Creator, but Arceus was wrong – and sought to destroy Michina Town for the great betrayal, both past and present."
"Everything you say seems to raise more questions," Kevin admitted. "How did you fight Arceus? You're all Dragon-type, and he has the Pixie Plate."
"That didn't exist yet," Lucario told them.
"Indeed," Giratina confirmed. "And without the Dragon Plate either, bound up as it was in the unreturned Jewel of Life, Arceus could defeat all three of us – but it would take time, time enough for Dialga to send Ash, Dawn, Brock… and yourself, Sheena… back in time."
He flicked his tail to the side. "Fighting my Creator is not a memory I hold dear to me."
Sheena was already raising her hand. "But – if the Jewel of Life wasn't returned to Arceus in the past, why didn't we just return it now?"
"The one you had was a fake," Brock said. "I don't know where the real one was."
He paused. "So – to make sure this is absolutely clear, your version of the legend is that Damos gave the Jewel of Life back to Arceus?"
"That's right," Sheena confirmed. "The legends are quite disjointed, but your mention of having to fend off someone makes sense of what little we know."
"Is this the bit where you mention the Thunder Beast?" Lucario asked. "I like that bit."
"There is a Thunder Beast mentioned," Kevin agreed. "More than once. There's a theory that that refers to a Raikou, or perhaps a Zeraora."
"It… isn't either of them," Dawn said, a bit delicately. "The Thunder Beast is a Pikachu."
Kevin and Sheena looked at her, then each other, then both turned towards the Pikachu sitting on Ash's shoulder.
Pikachu gave a little wave. "Yeah, it's kind of a grandiose title, I know..."
When the explanations were finally over, Kevin shook his head.
"This is a lot to take in," he said, then frowned. "But… what it doesn't really answer is the question of what's going on now. If you're a time traveller then that might be what's causing the disruptions that showed up on the Time-Space Axis, but if that's the case then it should be showing up for all of you – and not just happening now, it should have been showing up for a long time."
He waved his hand towards the Axis. "Instead, the incident at Alamos showed up, and so did what happened at Gracidea."
"How did they show up, exactly?" Brock asked. "What appeared on the display?"
Sheena indicated the blue and pink orbs near the top of the Axis. "These are the domains of Dialga and Palkia, the dimensions of Time and Space."
"Worlds," Giratina corrected. "Or realms. The Temporal Realm and the Spatial Realm, for example. A dimension is a direction."
"You're right," Sheena nodded. "But most people don't understand that. All right, then, the realms of Time and Space. They approached close to one another – though we're not sure why – and interfered with one another, which seems to have angered both Pokémon."
"That's pretty close to what happened last time, except I think you said they collided," Brock informed her.
"We were hoping to plot the disturbances and see if we could predict whether something was coming," Kevin said. "But there doesn't seem to be a consistent pattern."
I may be able to help with that, Dexter stated. Where is your data record?
"Uh..." Kevin began, looking awkward.
"We… kind of just remember it?" Sheena said. "Then we go out to investigate?"
So you miss days or weeks of data at a time, Dexter groaned. No wonder you're having trouble.
"If we can't get anything useful from the Axis, that's just how it works out," Brock pointed out. "We're no worse off than if we hadn't tried…"
"But without that even the time travel doesn't give us any real clues," Kevin mused, sitting down. "Arceus has the Jewel of Life, this time – Sheena's ancestor Damos returned it to him thousands of years ago."
"Though that was because we helped out," Brock said. "And, uh… okay, there are things about time travel which still confuse me."
As they spoke, Giratina examined the Space-Time Axis. He produced a small Reverse World portal, noticing the effect it had on the Axis, then widened it a little.
"Excuse me," he asked, getting their attention. "If a direct Reverse World portal barely shows up on here, what are those ripples?"
Kevin glanced over, then jumped to his feet in surprise.
"When did they start?"
"Just a moment ago," Giratina told him. "A bit before I opened my test portal."
"Those are a lot like what we saw earlier, but much stronger," Kevin said. "They seem to be all around Michina, which… well, they're less strong than what happened to Alamos Town, but I'm not sure how much that helps."
Incoming, Dexter said calmly, then began transferring in Pokéballs.
Ash didn't really have any reason to argue with that.
"Okay, so… there are definitely disturbances happening all over Michina," Kevin said, some minutes later. "They're different close to the Axis than further out – are you seeing this?"
I am, Dexter answered, his projector flaring as he displayed a hologram. The ripples were growing in strength, but there was almost an 'eye' in the centre where they didn't show up at all.
"How do you tell the scale on this?" Brock asked.
"You sort of have to… get used to it?" Kevin replied. "It's not static, but it swoops in and out to show the most influential disturbances. At the moment it looks like it's covering an area a few miles on a side."
Sheena looked out over Michina, trying to see if there were any visible disturbances yet, then back at her friend.
"Should I try to summon Dialga or Palkia?" she asked. "To find out what's going on?"
"I'm… not sure," Kevin replied. "Would it make things worse? It caused Alamos to be drawn into a separate bubble of space-time..."
"That should not be normal," Giratina stated. "Dialga and Palkia can be in the same place at the same time without damaging the world."
"This is so odd," Sheena said suddenly. "We've spent years trying to find out about what my ancestor did, and then all of a sudden… all the answers just appear, pretty much at once. And they turn out to be almost entirely made up of new questions..."
"I know what you mean, we've experienced that a lot," Dawn said. "But… in this case, yeah, I think it should be okay. Dialga and Palkia helped us a lot last time, along with Giratina, and Dialga's actually the one who threw us into the past."
"All right," Sheena decided. "If we're going to do this, we'd better do it in the bowl."
With her hands clenched, Sheena reached out once more – touching the Temporal World and the Spatial World, and imploring their masters and sole inhabitants to come to her.
The ripple spread out, intangible and indefinable, and a moment later it was answered.
Dialga came first, appearing in a blue flash – going from absent to present in a single instant of time, and falling slowly to land on the side of the bowl.
"Speaker," the Temporal Pokémon stated, standing tall. "And Chosen One."
His gaze moved a little to the side. "Giratina. I am surprised to see you as well."
"Hello, Dialga," Giratina replied. "I have a trainer now."
Dialga frowned slightly, looking closer, and his gem pulsed though a rainbow of colours before returning to its normal state. "I see. He has been sent back in time, and you carry echoes of the process."
A lens-shaped warp formed, the area it enclosed distorting more and more until there was nothing but inky blackness, and Palkia emerged.
"Speaker," he said, echoing Dialga. "And..."
The Spatial Pokémon paused for a moment.
"Giratina," he began, carefully. "Do you still bear a grudge?"
"I do not," Giratina replied. "I understand the situation now, and you were justified. Besides, last time it was Dialga who did it."
"What did I do?" Dialga asked, sounding moderately interested.
"That isn't really important," Ash said. "What is important is – there's all kinds of time-space distortions going on around Michina. Can you guys help?"
"I sense no disturbances," Palkia said, looking around.
"You aren't looking far enough," Dialga told him. "I noticed earlier. They are no less than five light-microseconds from our position."
Palkia spread the area he was examining for anomalies, and blinked.
"Ah. Yes, that is a lot of anomalies."
"It is almost as though the Creator of All is coming," Dialga agreed.
"He… might be," Ash said. "That's what happened last time… we're trying to work out what could be happening this time, though."
Palkia spread his hand, and focused. "Dialga?"
Dialga's fins extended, and the two Pokémon exerted their powers together. The air felt heavy for a moment, and Giratina's golden armour flashed in response.
"We have stabilized the anomalies," Palkia reported. "They have not stopped, but they are weaker now. We will have time to find what is going on."
"This is most interesting," Dialga stated, his gem glowing as he examined Ash more closely. "How many times have you time travelled?"
"Uh..." Ash paused. "Do you mean me as in me-this-body, or me as in me-the-person? Because the answer's different."
"...both, then," Dialga decided. "If they differ so much."
"Okay, so..." Ash frowned. "The first time around, there was a thing with Celebi which might count? I can't remember if Celebi actually changed anything there, though...
He shook his head. "Apart from that, there was one where Brock, Dawn, Sheena and I all got thrown back in time by you to Michina in the past. I think there were at least three actual pushes though time, two of them back."
"Understood," Dialga replied. "And then?"
"Hold on," Palkia requested. "Is that a bag of folded space? Those are always nice to see."
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "It's Sir Aaron's, I've tried to work out how to make another one but it's really complicated."
"They are impressive and capable artefacts," Palkia declared. "There is no shame in not succeeding."
"If I can continue?" Dialga requested. "And then?"
"Well, then… uh, there was a thing where the world ended," Ash said, simplifying somewhat. "And Arceus told me to save the world, created another Dialga, and that Dialga sent me back in time – just my mind, though. Since then there was definitely a time travel thing with Celebi a couple of years ago when there was a time paradox serious enough to create the Fairy type, and I think one other jump by a Celebi who works with Wes from Orre while I was near?"
"That was because he saw his Ho-Oh already coming in to land," Brock supplied. "So that didn't change anything."
"That seems to make sense," Dialga stated. "Yes, I can see all the effects you mention… though they do not seem sufficient to explain the distortion we have seen, nor the lack of it around you right now. Whatever is causing this may be linked to you, but you are not the direct cause."
"That is good to know," Ash admitted. "I'd hate to accidentally break the world..."
"Again?" Pikachu suggested.
"I don't think Ash has broken something that big," Lucario countered. "Either accidentally or deliberately."
"I was there when time broke," Pikachu said. "I definitely remember something broke time then, and it was closely related to what Ash and Sammy were talking about."
"I can assure you-" Dialga began, then stopped and looked up.
Palkia did the same, and Giratina looked up a moment later.
Suicune frowned for a moment, then bowed – her brothers either side of her – and her father did the same.
A swirl of cloud rolled in, condensing out of the clear blue sky in moments until it became a localized overcast that obscured the sunlight, and a ripple ran through the area.
"Sheena?" Kevin asked, looking over at her. "Is this-"
"I think so," Sheena replied, one hand on her temple. "I can feel something – someone – approaching us..."
Golden light flared inside the clouds, faint at first but growing brighter as the clouds began to spread apart again. A half-dozen opalescent strands of rainbow light dropped through the cloud floor, weaving away from a common centre and casting a shifting pattern of light over the bowl.
Hundreds of Unown spilled through the cloud layer, chanting and humming, and their concerted voices formed a harmonious choir with dozens of distinct melodies weaving in and out of one another as the golden light grew to the point it was eye-watering.
Arceus descended out of the blazing golden light, His Plates orbiting him in a single near-continuous ring to complement His golden wheel, and landed in the middle of the bowl with a faint metallic ching of hooves on rock.
Head high, the Alpha Pokémon surveyed the humans and Pokémon in the Michina bowl. Then, as the Unown choir faded into stillness, He spoke.
"Yes?"
There was a long, singing pause.
"We… did not summon you," Palkia said, a bit hesitantly.
"You are already here," Arceus replied. "My Dragons of Creation assembled together around the site of a disturbance which troubles me greatly."
"That's because-" Ash began, and Arceus turned to look at him.
Ash fell silent as the Creator looked him up and down, then raised a hoof and brought it down with a tik.
The Unown hovering overhead dispersed, returning to their own plane of reality, and the sense of majestic power faded somewhat.
"Well?" Arceus asked. "You were saying?"
"Oh, uh..." Ash frowned, then nodded. "Yeah, so… in the first timeline you were trying to destroy Michina because they kept the Jewel of Life, then my friends and I went back in time and made sure you got the Jewel of Life back in the second timeline, then you sent me back in time to save the world a year or so later. I don't know what happened in Michina in the third timeline and the fourth timeline is where we are now."
Arceus considered that.
"You are telling the truth, or enough of it that I will accept what you say," he stated. "You have not gone back in time to ensure I obtain the Jewel of Life?"
"That's right," Brock said.
"Then that is the cause of the problem," Arceus decided. "I could feel my existence was under strain because of-"
The Alpha Pokémon suddenly turned his attention to the kneeling Legendaries. "Oh, get up," he declared. "Your piety does you credit, but I do not require obeisance."
"Thank you, Creator," Ho-Oh said, lifting his head once more. "I am honoured."
"Again, while I appreciate it, if everyone does it we will be here all day," Arceus elaborated. "Assume you have already done sufficient grovelling and we are onto polite conversation."
He turned his attention back to Ash, then looked up. "...you are new."
Everyone followed his gaze to the Psychic-type floating up at the rear of the formation.
"Me?" Mewtwo checked.
"Yes," Arceus confirmed. "I do not remember creating you, or your species."
"I am the creation of humans," Mewtwo answered. "A fusion of humanity and Mew."
"Ah," Arceus replied, his mental tone considering. "It seems humans have surprised me; I can see how it would be done, now I look upon you, but it seems they did an excellent job."
That done with, the Creator returned his focus to Ash for the second time. "The problem is this," he declared. "My own history before I regained my Jewel of Life is where I am the most vulnerable, and the alteration to the timeline since your journey to save me has left that history fragile. It seems you are now bound up with my past, and our meeting must be renewed; this I charge you with, my Chosen One, as soon as possible."
"This isn't your first time time-travelling," Dialga stated, focused mostly on Ash. "But from your descriptions I am not sure if you have had the orientation discussion."
"Not really, no," Ash admitted. "I couldn't really understand you before I had Aura training, and Celebi just said something about headaches."
"Celebi is correct in that time travel is extremely confusing," Dialga told him. "In particular, it is quite possible to alter the same events more than once until they are lined up well enough to fit; time is temporamental."
There was an expectant pause.
"Never mind," Dialga muttered. "Time is flexible, and in this case you are going back in time to a key point in history. You do not, however, need to get it exactly right – instead, you simply need to reaffirm the key points."
"I have a question?" Brock said. "So we went back in time to sort things out in Michina last time – so why don't they stay sorted out?"
"Because the you who did it is no longer available to go back," Dialga answered. "And because… you said something about a time paradox that created the Fairy Type?"
"I didn't do that one," Brock replied, frowning. "Ash did, though."
"Yeah, there was someone trying to use a Celebi to take over the world," Ash explained. "And there were all sorts of odd time things piling up at once, until a bubble of space kind of… detached? So we saw all kinds of scenes from the past and the future around us, most of them about the humans and Pokémon who were in the bubble but not all of them."
He touched Pikachu's tail absently for support, thinking about what had happened. "And… well, Molly's Eevee was with us, that's a Pokémon who she created through the Unown and who can turn into any Eeveelution she wants. But she could also turn into a Sylveon, which… I think Molly invented? And when we were in the bubble, we saw Arceus creating his Plates, and..."
"Yeah, there was a stream of pink light which came off Sylveon's fur," Pikachu agreed. "And when the time bubble collapsed, the Fairy type was now a thing."
"That… actually explains a lot," Palkia said. "When Arceus gathered together the powers of the world to form his Plates, I remember the Pixie Plate coming as a surprise."
"And there were no other changes that you were aware of?" Dialga asked.
"Just that Mega Evolutions seemed to become more common afterwards," Ash replied. "That's kind of hard to tell for sure, though..."
"That sounds like a good example of what I mean, then," Dialga decided. "There was a fundamental change, but the world adapted around it because nothing that changed broke anything."
"That sounds really kind of arbitrary," Dawn admitted. "I mean, it's helpful, but it also sounds kind of held together by guesswork?"
"There is a reason I have assistants," Dialga said.
"Oh, uh… I have some Pokémon who didn't exist in the past," Ash pointed out. "Dexter, at least – he's a Porygon evolution, and the Porygon line only started to exist recently – and Mewtwo is a new Pokémon as well. Is it going to be okay taking them back?"
Dialga gave the matter due consideration, then nodded. "Meh. Should be fine."
"Then… I guess we just need to go back and make sure we keep Marcus from completing his plan," Ash said.
"That is a fair statement," Dialga agreed. "Would everyone who is going to be travelling in time please gather in a well defined group?"
"I'm going to stay," Kevin said firmly. "I'll keep an eye on things here in Michina."
"But… wait, is he going to be okay?" Sheena asked. "We're about to… well, change history, or not change history? I don't know how that works."
"He should be safe," Palkia declared. "I will keep him – and the Axis – out of danger."
"Thank you," Sheena said, relieved. "And… thanks, Kevin."
As they took their places, Ash looked up at Arceus – standing a little off to the side – and thought for a moment, then spoke up.
"Arceus? When you – or, uh, the future version of you – sent me back in time, it was because of Team Galactic. But nobody seems able to remember who they are, now, except people who got their memories back, so… does that apply to you as well?"
Arceus was silent for a long moment.
"What was the question?"
"...never mind, then, I guess," Ash sighed. "It was worth a try."
"Indeed," Giratina agreed. "But it tells us something. The Creator is powerful, and it would take a powerful effect indeed to harm him – especially complete with all his Plates as he is."
The Dragon lashed his tail. "I would not care to venture that artifice of humans was unable to do it, as humanity is truly inventive. But it is worrisome."
"Transporting soon," Dialga said, his fins extending and a glow building around his gem – then around his whole form, as he charged up. "Five."
Not saying a word after that, Dialga inhaled – energy swirling around him – and used Roar of Time, hitting them all with a concentrated ball of temporal distortion which hurled them far into the past.
Everything around them was blurred and distorted, a kind of greyish haze shot through with pulses of Dialga's adamant power forcing them backwards in time. There was a faint flickering of light, but they were going back far too fast for anything less than a year long to even register as moving – greenery morphed as growth patterns changed, the slow erosion of the shrine reversed itself in moments, and the air felt oddly heavy and fluid.
"Is it always like this?" Sheena asked, her voice sounding faint in the heavy air.
"No," Ash replied. "It kind of seems to always be different – and I think Dialga was really rushed when we came to Michina before..."
The striated pulses of Dialga's Roar of Time became dimmer, duller, but more frequent – spreading out, until they formed a continuous pulsing wall of dim light, a bubble which hid everything from the humans and Pokémon inside.
Then it burst, all at once, and there was a brutal wrench which left them sprawling.
"That was less pleasant than I was expecting," Lucario said, shaking himself a little. "I-"
"Ow," Pikachu complained, voice muffled, and Lucario shifted enough to let the Electric-type out from underneath him. "Thank you..."
"Sorry," Lucario muttered.
As the others got back to their feet, Sheena reached out to touch the walls. "This is… amazing."
She looked up. "Sorry – I just never really thought I'd have a chance to look at what the ruins were like before they were ruins. Even when you said, I just… it didn't seem real until we actually arrived here."
"That's pretty understandable," Dawn replied, moving to a window and looking out over ancient Michina. "Huh, that looks… kind of different..."
The others came over to look as well.
"There's less technology stuff," Ash said. "The buildings look kind of different as well, and it looks like the forests and stuff are much closer… more people in the fields, too."
"Well, if this is before Pokémon joined in helping on the land, much, that would explain it," Brock mused. "Actually, this is a long way before Pokémon became Pokémon in the first place… it's before the invention of the Pokéball."
"Thousands of years," Sheena said softly. "And Damos is still alive..."
She frowned. "But – that's right, that's why we're here. We need to warn Damos!"
"And we need to make sure he's got the right Jewel of Life to give back," Ash added. "I remember in the first timeline, before we fixed stuff, Arceus crushed the fake Jewel of Life with his hoof – the real one's indestructible, so we can check that way."
The most important bit is to stop Marcus, however, Mewtwo noted. For that, that means we must find him.
"I'll help," Latias volunteered with a squeak. "My brother and I can go completely invisible, we can search easily!"
"Noctowl can use illusions, so he's a good choice too," Ash said. "If he wants to… and can't Crobat see in the dark?"
Brock sent out the Flying-type in question, who alighted on the ground in front of them. "That's right."
"Hey, what about me?" Zorua asked. "I can stealth as well. I'm an illusionist – and so is Stantler!"
"You're right," Brock said. "You, Stantler and Ninetales can all hide – but Stantler and Ninetales can't fly, and you need to know what to disguise as before you do it. You can't just go invisible."
Zorua pouted. "I guess..."
"So we're looking for this Damos chap, what what?" Noctowl asked. "And this other Marcus bounder too, I shouldn't wonder. Just one question…"
The owl fluffed his wings. "What the deuce do either of them look like?"
"That's, uh… a good question, actually," Ash admitted. "I know, and so do Brock and Dawn and several of our Pokémon, but how do we show you guys…"
"Wasn't Damos in prison by now?" Dawn asked. "Or… do we know what time we're at? He might not be yet."
"If we've arrived before Marcus took over, that would be great," Ash admitted. "But we can't really know that… so Damos looks pretty strong, and he has brown hair. Marcus is a bit taller, I think, and when we saw him he was wearing a red crown and toga, and… he didn't have any hair, I think."
"Also, he has a Heatran and a Bronzong," Pikachu volunteered. "That's probably the biggest clue, because every Pokémon is a walking Pokémon right now. Damos might have a lot of Pokémon with him, but I think they mostly got controlled by Marcus or something so that's harder to tell."
"It'd kind of help if Tracey was here," Ash said. "He's good at drawing… or do I mean it'd help if Tracey was now?"
"I don't think we can go and get him," Lucario replied. "Did anyone else do any art classes?"
"I do ikebana?" Primeape suggested.
"In what way does that help, exactly?" Ivysaur inquired.
"It's definitely art."
"I think I kind of have an idea," Brock suggested. "It won't help the Pokémon find Marcus or Damos, but it'll make it easier for us to tell if they've found the right person."
He pointed to Latias, then to Latios. "You two can just use sight sharing to show us, so that means we can easily confirm if the one who found someone they think is Marcus or Damos stays watching them and the other one comes back to show us. Noctowl can come back and show us an illusion, and Crobat can use sonar for Dexter to interpret."
"I haven't had much chance to try out producing sonar images for other people yet," Crobat admitted. "But I'll give it a go."
"So what do the rest of us do until then?" Dawn asked.
"I guess we just try not to draw too much attention," Brock replied. "Or we could go around looking as a group, the four of us with a couple of Pokémon won't look too threatening or surprising but we'll be able to get out of most trouble."
"Though then there's kind of a problem about how the search parties find us," Pikachu noted. "It's a pity mobile phones don't exist this far back in time, or we could coordinate that way."
"I… do have an idea about that," Dawn replied.
"Thanks for this," Dawn said. "Okay, let's see if this works… Dexter?"
Dexter said nothing, but her Pokétch emitted a blip! sound as it got a new message.
"This is a test," the Pokétch said. "I'm broadcasting this over radio so it should have enough range."
"Okay, looks like that works that way," Dawn smiled. "All right, Rotom, let's try the other way?"
Message received, Dexter reported.
"Thanks, Rotom," Dawn reiterated. "That's going to make this much easier. I know you're kind of shy, so I appreciate how difficult this is for you."
Rotom buzzed very faintly.
"I think that's us all set up," Ash decided. "So… Dawn, are you okay staying back here?"
"That looks like the best option for now, yeah," Dawn agreed. "Good luck, guys."
Remember, sis, don't go too fast, Latios warned, skimming invisibly through the halls of the great Michina temple complex. We're only invisible, we still displace the air around us.
I know, Latias replied. I do listen when you're talking about that kind of stuff, Latios!
You're right, I'm sorry, Latios admitted.
He passed over someone in the corridor, and examined them for a moment before concluding that they probably weren't either Damos or Marcus.
Latios was fairly sure both of those were male names, after all…
He reached a fork in the passage, considered for a moment, then went up the stairs. Halfway up he spotted a Starly coming the other way, and dropped low enough that the Flying-type wouldn't run into him before scooting past and continuing.
This place was much less complicated before, Latias hummed. Or, uh, in the future? Maybe that's because it's busy and stuff.
Probably, Latios replied. Oh, hey, I think I found something.
Which one? Latias asked, as Latios entered the room he'd seen.
Neither, Latios answered, sliding invisibly around the room in a half-cicle. It's the Space-Time Axis.
He floated a little closer, inspecting the five components resting in their places. I can't remember exactly what it looked like, but it seems different…
I got a better look, Latias said. Hold on a moment… okay, I'm somewhere I won't be found.
Taking the cue, Latios opened his mind to Sight-Share with his sister so she could see what he saw.
Huh, Latias noted. It looks like there's a ripple where Dialga's World is closest to the physical world. Maybe that's our time travel?
Maybe, Latios agreed. Doesn't really help us, though… look there, though, it looks like Arceus is on his way, or I think that's what that light might mean.
Probably – wait, I just overheard something, Latias said, ending their sight-sharing. Someone was talking about taking food to the prison.
Got it, Latios sent back. You follow them, I'll head back to the others.
The friends watched in silence through Latias' eyes, as one of the acolytes brought food up to a cell and passed it through to Damos.
"Thank you, Helena," the man said gravely. "Has Marcus allowed you to bring news as well as food?"
The acolyte stepped back a pace. "Lord Marcus has ordered us not to talk to you… he says you are a heretic and a traitor."
Damos shook his head. "I am no traitor, Helena. The time is coming due for the bargain with Arceus to be completed, Marcus knows this as much as I do."
"But Michina prospers because of the Jewel of Life," Helena replied firmly. "Lord Marcus simply wants the Jewel to stay here, where it can keep Michina safe!"
"We cannot renege-" Damos began, and Helene walked away before he finished.
The big man sighed.
"Well, that's him," Brock pointed out. "I guess now we can show what he looks like."
"How far away is Latias?" Ash asked. "We'd better get there so we can let Damos out and plan what else to do."
"She's… about five minutes walk away, I think?" Latios replied. "I'll lead you there."
"Are you thinking we just go straight there, Ash?" Brock checked. "That might mean we get found out."
"We're going to have to be found out anyway to stop Marcus," Ash replied. "I know what you mean, Brock, but this is the easiest way to help out."
"Hold on, please," Sheena asked. "I'd like to come with you so I can meet Damos… I know it's kind of strange, but I really do want to meet him."
"That's not strange at all," Brock assured her. "Dawn, are you coming as well?"
"Yeah, though it kind of means we didn't get much use out of the setup with Rotom," Dawn chuckled. "We did get this conversation though, so that's better than nothing."
AN:
All right, here's the first chapter of the Jewel of Life.
I'm afraid this is somewhat delayed over what would be ideal, as I've not had a very good October. It's been somewhat replete with problems, the star being a fall on my way home from work resulting in a rotator cuff injury that shut down my right arm for several days.
This had a bit of an impact on my writing speed, and broke what had been a very long streak of sustained writing. I can only offer apologies on behalf of both myself and whoever spilled shampoo in a tube station.
Anyway, the past. Where men were men and Pokémon were Maiju.
And yes, this is not an Arceus currently involved with running the God Squad's gaming session. That is deliberate.
