This is the second of two chapters today.
Once the world was back to existing – albeit this time with the ground cracked and torn by some unknown catastrophe – there was a pensive silence inside Dialga's bubble of paused time.
"So… that last one, where there was nothing at all," Ash eventually began. "That was when the thing at Alamos Town went wrong, right?"
"Correct," Dialga said. "Either myself or Palkia did not survive, and so there was a total event collapse."
"Apart from the Reverse World, because I guess that's something different," Dawn added. "So… how come you and Palkia were both in here?"
Dialga bent down, looking her in the eye.
"I'm Dialga."
There was a moment's pause.
"That's all the answer I'm getting, isn't it?"
"Pretty much."
"So… we need to do things right in Michina, in the past," Sheena summarized. "But we don't know what we were doing wrong."
"I have a question," Mawile's Tyrantrum said, speaking up for the first time. "I know about the time travel, and I've talked with the others about it, but I still don't know a lot of things..."
He pointed. "But I know Lucario and Charizard and Keldeo weren't here last time, and nor were Suicune or… lots of the others. So how did you beat Heatran?"
"Well… we didn't beat him," Ash replied, thinking hard. "You're right. That must be it, we've been doing this wrong – we're fighting, winning by being stronger, but the first time we did this we had to win by being smarter."
"We can't do it the same way as we did the first time, though," Pikachu added. "That nearly killed Arceus."
"Yeah – but now we know the right kind of thing to do!" Ash said. "So we just need to go back and do it that way!"
"Ash, wait," Dawn told him. "Two things..."
She held up two fingers on one hand, then folded one of them down. "First, we still don't know what to do. We can think it though now, then Dialga can send us back to whenever we want – time's paused here, we have time to think about it."
Dawn lowered her other finger. "Second… we just spent about two hours in the past, three times. I'm not sure of that exact number, but it must be evening for us by now… I think we need something to eat and maybe a few hours' sleep."
"...yeah, good point," Ash admitted. "Thanks, Dawn..."
"Your cooking's always a treat, Brock," Dawn said, about half an hour later, as the friends started in on a risotto.
"This is just good, simple home cooking," Brock replied, sounding pleased anyway. "At least you guys don't make as much noise as my brothers and sisters did while I cook."
"Yeah, but you were cooking for dozens of Pokémon too, just now," Ash countered. "Seriously, Brock, this is great work – thanks."
Brock smiled. "Well, I'm glad you enjoy!"
There wasn't much discussion for the next few minutes, then Sheena spoke up.
"What are we going to do, when we go back in time again?" she asked. "I know we decided we needed to use a different attitude, but how do we do that? I don't think I have all the details about what happened last time."
"Last time it got… really kind of complicated," Ash said. "You ended up being misled by Marcus, because we only saw Damos trying to trick Arceus and not that it was Marcus making him do it. So you told him that Arceus could tell the difference between the real Jewel and the fake one… and he tried to trap Arceus underground and use something called the silver water to kill him."
Ash took another bite of the hot food, then swallowed. "We got the Jewel of Life back to Arceus, but it was kind of hard… it nearly got Arceus killed, and we don't want that to happen."
"And I don't think I could act that well anyway," Sheena supplied. "Well… what does that leave us, then?"
"We'll have to get the armour off as many Pokémon as possible," Brock said. "As quickly as possible. That's still some Pokémon battles, but it's not a single massive fight – so maybe that'll be better. And we need to aim to help Pokémon, not to just win by beating them up..."
"But if they gather together in a large group, a big fight's impossible to avoid," Dawn pointed out. "So – wait a moment. Crobat, Noctowl, Latias, Latios, you four did most of the scouting… did you remember where the Pokémon in Michina were?"
"Mostly spread out all over the place," Crobat answered. "Patrolling the halls, and stuff..."
"I remember the first time we came back they were mostly in prison with Damos," Ash supplied. "I think, anyway… then they got used in the ambush. Maybe we went back further that time?"
"It's possible… we really don't have enough information to be sure," Brock sighed. "We could get that information if we did it enough times, but I don't think I could face it."
"Me neither," Ash agreed. "So, uh… okay, I think I have an idea."
He put his now-empty plate down. "So we go back, and the first thing we do is we help get Damos out. But then we go and free all of the Michina Pokémon from their armour – I bet they're friends with Damos more than they're friends with Marcus, so they won't fight if we can get them free."
"I'm not sure about all of them," Dawn hedged. "But I think that'd work with most of them."
"Then we go and find Marcus," Ash went on. "But we try and persuade him he's wrong – without needing to threaten him, just try and talk to him and show he's wrong..."
"What about if he doesn't listen?" Lucario asked.
"Then I guess we don't really have a choice, we need to get the Jewel of Life back somehow," Ash said. "But… could we swap the Jewel of Life with the fake one?"
"I think that's too risky," Brock replied. "Luxray can see through illusions, so we'd have to get really lucky, and he probably keeps the jewel with him."
He shook his head. "Besides, what would happen if it worked? You'd need to put the real Jewel where the fake was, and that would solve the problem with Arceus but it wouldn't solve the problem with Marcus – he'd be really angry about being tricked, and to make it work we'd need to leave all the Pokémon under his control, especially Bronzong. So it wouldn't really be any better."
"You're right," Ash sighed, then shrugged. "I guess that means we need to try the other idea, then?"
"Well, we've got hours to think about it, to see if we can come up with a better idea," Sheena said. "But… I think that if I – if Damos and I can reach out to the Pokémon of Michina, if we can touch their hearts, that can only help."
"Yeah, that's a good point," Dawn nodded. "It'd help to show that Damos was the real deal, too."
She yawned. "Okay, uh… I guess we need to get some sleep..."
"Excuse me a moment," Dialga said, and the sky dimmed around them.
"What did you just do?" Eevee asked, shifting to Umbreon, and her green rings lit up. "Did you make it nighttime?"
"No, I added a distortion factor to the light coming into the bubble," Dialga replied. "The photons are spread over a hundred times as long, so they're much dimmer because there's fewer of them per second."
"...wait, that doesn't even begin to make sense," Brock protested. "Time's stopped for everywhere else. How are there even photons coming into the bubble at all, if time's stopped for them?"
He looked around. "And, now I think about it, how are you handling the air supply? The bubble's big, but..."
"I'd explain, but it'd basically boil down to 'I'm Dialga' again," Dialga informed him loftily. "Is there any of that risotto left over?"
As Brock began scraping some out of the huge pot he'd used, Ash rummaged around in his pouch.
"I think… yeah, there we go," he said, pulling out several sleeping bags. "Do we need the mattresses as well?"
"I don't think so," Pikachu answered. "The ground looks pretty level down in the bowl, it should do."
"I think you're right," Ash agreed. "Okay, so… tomorrow, back to the past!"
"All right, everyone, your flight to Michina's Past leaves in about three minutes. Please make sure all your baggage is stowed and that all Fairy types are in their Pokéballs."
"I kind of think time travel has lost its mythic resonance for us," Dawn said. "How do you know how those kinds of announcements go?"
"TV," Dialga replied.
"Is it actually a problem if a Fairy type is outside their Pokéball?" Pikachu said. "Would they get left behind, or what?"
"I've not actually tested it, to my knowledge," Dialga answered. "It just seems like now is a bad time to experiment."
After a final check, he extended his fins and roared – slamming the whole group into the past once more.
As the time bubble blazed, Mewtwo spread his paws. A faint glow built up around them, then when their journey to the past was ended he exerted a sudden pulse of force and caught them all at once.
"That was a much easier landing," Pikachu said. "Thanks."
"Hey, is it me or does the sky look different?" Sheena asked. "It looks a bit brighter than last time."
Ash held Dexter out the window, and the digital Pokémon produced an image of the sun.
You are correct, he declared. We have arrived at least an hour earlier than we did the last few times.
"That means that scouting we had the Pokémon do isn't valid," Brock realized. "The layout is the same, but everything else is going to be different. That's going to make things more complicated..."
"What we're trying to do is basically the same, though, right?" Ivysaur asked. "We're still going to be going through Michina looking out for armoured Pokémon and getting the armour off them, we'll just have to use our own judgement."
"That's right, I guess," Dawn agreed. "It'll just mean we have to have a heavy hitter with every group… but we've got a big chunk of Ash's team along, so that's not too much of a problem!"
"We should save Damos first," Sceptile advised. "He's the one who Pokémon here will actually recognize, and we need to make sure he's safe."
"That's right," Ash nodded. "Okay, so some group needs to head that way…"
"I'll do it," Sheena volunteered.
Ash checked through the collection of Pokéballs he had with him for a moment, and picked one out. "Keldeo, do you mind making sure Sheena's okay?"
The Fighting-type emerged in a flash, and stamped a hoof with a determined klak. "I'll do my best!"
"I'll come too," Mawile added. "It sounds like if there's going to be Sheena and Damos there, that'll mean less fighting and more talking, and I think Tyrantrum's going to be more confident with that."
"That sounds like a good plan," Brock said.
"What are we going to do if we run into Marcus and that Bronzong?" Dawn asked. "It's pretty powerful, and psychic..."
"I think we need to make sure we spread the Dark-types and the powerful Psychic-types out," Brock replied. "We've got Mewtwo, Latias, Latios, Houndoom, Tyranitar, Crawdaunt, Absol, Metagross and Zorua."
"From Absol to Zorua, solving all your problems with Psychic-types," Zorua declared. "That should be enough!"
"And I've got my hat, so there's that," Ash added. "But that can be knocked off, I guess..."
In a corridor some way up the side of Michina, a Manectric loped along.
The canine Electric-type sniffed from side to side as she moved, on the lookout for intruders like she'd been warned about.
It did smell like there was something odd, somewhere… she slowed, Charging up and getting ready for a fight.
Then there was a blast of water from around the corner, which made her jump in surprise – and just as she was ready to send an attack out, a Buizel came rocketing around the corner at about two feet above her head height.
Water flashed out from the speedy enemy Pokémon, slapping at Manectric's back, and she unleashed her charged up power into it – only to produce a brilliant shower of sparks and nothing else, as the Brine attack conducted her power back into herself.
That still left her charged up, and she boosted her own speed to spin around and go after the Buizel with a snarl.
Her sense of smell was dulled by the Brine, and she didn't either hear or see the second Pokémon until a heavy weight fell across her back.
"Hey!" she shouted, kicking out, and Discharged – to no effect. "Get off!"
"Get off?" the Pokémon repeated, revealing herself to be a Gliscor. "Gladly, just a moment!"
There was a crunch, and the weight fell off Manectric's back – along with her armour, the buckle crushed by Gliscor's delicately-aimed claw.
"We're not here to attack Michina," Gliscor explained, as Manectric wheeled around again with a look of outrage. "We're here to stop Marcus from screwing everything up by betraying Arceus."
"...betraying… Arceus?" Manectric repeated, stopping and blinking. "I… wait, I guess that – how come I didn't notice that before?"
Gliscor crushed the armour in her other claw. "I don't think I like this thing much."
"Hey, that took three hours to fit!"
Tyranitar emerged from his Pokéball with a flare of light, making Manectric double-take and whimper.
"I'm not going to fight you," Tyranitar reassured her. "Just checking how things are going."
"Pretty well!" Gliscor replied. "I'll let you know if we need you."
Tyranitar nodded, returning himself, and Gliscor picked up the Pokéball to carry in one claw on the next part of the patrol.
Buizel came jetting back, cut out his propulsion briefly, then did a somersault and twist to retro-rocket himself into a standing position next to Gliscor. "Next time, you do the decoy and I get the armour."
"Sounds like a plan to me!" Gliscor agreed. "All right, let's go!"
"...what should I do?" Manectric asked, a little baffled by the whole situation.
"Lunch?" Gliscor suggested. "I'm kind of confused on the time right now but I think it's lunch soon."
"Aren't you nocturnal?" Buizel asked.
"I stay up very late in the day."
"Get back here!" a Nidoqueen bellowed, thundering down a corridor deep in the heart of Michina.
Zorua stuck her tongue out, then shifted into a Liepard for longer legs and ran faster. Coming to a corner, she slid to a halt so she was facing down the next bit of corridor, turned to look back at the charging Poison-type, and raised her voice.
"Make me."
Then she darted down the turn, a few seconds ahead of Nidoqueen.
When the Ground-type came around the bend, she stopped – already slowed down by her own need to make the turn, and honestly baffled by the large, glowing tree in the corridor and the robed human inspecting it with a pair of secateurs ready.
"...huh?"
"This corridor's blocked, there's a tree being grown here," the human explained.
"Since when?" Nidoqueen asked. "I came down here half an hour ago?"
"It's a very quick growing tree," the human told her.
Nidoqueen had just enough time to process that the human had answered her question when something dropped from the roof and sliced the straps on her armour. It fell to the floor with a clatter, and she swiped her tail at the foe – to no avail as the Croagunk dodged nimbly.
"You know Marcus is trying to put Arceus in danger, right?" Brock asked, throwing back his hood. The tree shimmered, turning into a Sudowoodo, and Nidoqueen noticed a moment later that a whole other turn in the corridor had just appeared… complete with a Steelix in it.
She felt like kicking herself for not having spotted the missing corridor.
"So..." Geodude said, inspecting his nails. "Not an illusion type specialist, Brockster?"
"I'm not, but a lot of you are," Brock replied. "Okay, Nidoqueen's handled… should we set up another trap?"
"Trouble!" Rockruff barked, loping towards them. "Big trouble – ah!"
A pulse of psychic energy blasted towards her, and she dove into the flagstones to avoid being hit before surfacing again and returning herself.
Brock looked up, seeing the robed High Priest of Michina – Marcus – accompanied by his Bronzong.
"So," Marcus said, gesturing, and a psychic shield formed across the corridor between the two humans. "You're the intruder. You have quite the collection of Maiju with you."
He spread his hand. "I'd ask what you thought you could accomplish, but there's not much point. Heatran!"
Geodude clenched both fists and brought them up, and a dome of rock rose up all around himself, Brock and all Brock's team who were currently out of their Pokéballs. The blast of intense heat launched at them by the ambushing Heatran came from ahead and above, heating the outside of the rocky shield, but it didn't break through and Geodude made another gesture.
"Run!" he instructed, and Brock began to sprint for it – followed by another Flamethrower attack from Heatran, which got blocked by an insulating wall of sandstone.
"Follow them," Marcus ordered, and Heatran followed at an implacable walk along the wall – pushing torch holders out of the way.
"Crobat?" Brock called, looking up for his chiropteran Pokémon.
"Left, then right," Crobat replied from ahead and above, taking the turn before Brock reached it.
"Hey, B," Geodude said, then paused and slammed both walls behind them to block the corridor. There was a thump on the other side as the Fire-type attack he'd pre-empted hit the rock barrier, then a pause, and the trembling of a Magma Storm chewing into it at speed.
"We should probably move," Geodude added. "Anyway, uh, what I was going to say – what's the plan here, Brockster? Where are we going?"
"Outside," Brock replied. "To get some space."
"Oh, right," Geodude replied. "Sounds kinda iffy to me..."
They ran down the turn Crobat had indicated just as Heatran finally melted his way through the blockade, running through on the ceiling rather than the walls or floor so his chosen hole wouldn't be clogged by dripping melt.
"C-bat, which way's out?" Geodude asked. "Straight line."
"Left here – then straight ahead," Crobat replied.
"Right!" Geodude said, fingers lacing. He pushed both arms away from him, making a crack of rock like a gunshot, then almost as an afterthought threw up four more barriers of rock behind them as Heatran followed them around the turn.
Then Geodude crossed his arms at the elbows, opened his hands, and uncrossed them with a shout. The rock around them trembled, the flaming torches on the walls dancing wildly, then with a kerrunch a path about eight feet wide and six high opened all the way to the outside.
"Nice job!" Brock told Geodude, running for the opening, and reached for the Pokéballs on his belt. "Okay, we should have enough time to..."
Splayed feet moving at an even tread, Heatran emerged from the rock tunnel out into the daylight.
Almost the moment he did, the air filled with flying sand as some Maiju or other used Sandstorm – making it harder to see, but not bothering Heatran due to his Steel typing.
Frowning slightly, Heatran paused – rotating to the left and then the right, looking for the human and Maiju he'd been ordered to target.
Something massive and steely and covered in glowing crystals charged out of the obscuring sand, hammering into Heatran and knocking him to the side, but no attack came besides a Tackle and a raw shove. Heatran turned enough to fire a Flamethrower at the Steelix, then switched tactics and blasted out a wave of heat – turning the whole of the sand to droplets of flying glass, splattering the odd-looking Steelix in it and clearing the air.
A pulse of sound blasted out, carrying as much force as a Hyper Voice, and a Crobat went flying past – using blasts of powerful sound to mislead and confuse Heatran. He fought back, shooting out flame, even as splashes of water came at him as well from a Marshtomp, then lost patience and lit the whole area on fire with a Magma Storm.
The Steelix bellowed, holding his ground even though the pulse of intense heat hammered at him, and Heatran spotted the Crobat vanish in a flash of red light just before the flame reached him.
Then paws landed on the armour on his back, uncaring about the maelstrom of intense fire, and ripped away the straps holding it in place with a powerful bite and a yip of effort.
Suddenly Heatran paused, the flames dying down as he stopped focusing on the attack.
Why exactly had he been going after the Maiju and their human? Marcus had said so, but… why had he thought that was a good enough reason?
As the fire subsided, he saw the odd Steelix was glowing a dull red – but still standing – and was being approached by a Chansey, and a panting Ninetales was next to him spitting out fragments of burning armour strap.
"So," she said, after shaking her head a couple of times. "I hope you don't still want a fight."
Heatran considered, then shook his own head.
"You seem almost as familiar with the halls of Michina as I am," Damos said, as he followed Sheena and the Pokémon with her down a flight of stairs.
"Well, I've lived here – though it's mostly ruins in the future," Sheena clarified. "So I don't know what they look like now quite as well, but I have some idea of the layout… and we've been spending several hours walking around here because of the previous time travel tries I mentioned, so I'm getting used to it."
"Yeah, though if we're going the wrong way… point it out, please?" Keldeo added. "Latias, is there anything you've seen?"
"Nothing yet," Latias replied from overhead, combining psychic speech with Poké-speech. "There's a door out to the front ahead, though… I'll go check it out."
As she did, Damos shook his head. "The things you must know… I know I should not ask too many questions, and that I may not get answers to many of them, but I want to ask at least one. How did you meet your human companion?"
"Well, it's kind of complicated, because time travel was involved again," Keldeo answered. "But the simpler version is that I did something stupid, and Ash helped me out – he kept me safe, and helped me make up for my mistake. So when I met him again I decided I should go with him, to repay him and because he was helping people."
"That's a good reason," Damos said. "And what about you two?"
Mawile smiled. "I met Ash because I hatched from an egg he won! I think that makes me pretty lucky, because I've known him all my life. And what I think is really good is that he's never asked me to do anything I'm not comfortable with – so I do things because I want to do them, and I know I can change my mind."
Keldeo translated for Damos and Sheena, and Mawile continued. "And Tyrantrum… do you want to explain?"
Tyrantrum nodded. "I'm a fossil," he began. "That means that I'm… well, I'm probably still solid rock right now. And when I got revived, so did lots of other Fossil Pokémon. It was chaos, and I was scared, but Mawile found me and helped me calm down."
He gave her an affectionate look. "And she was just as good to me as her trainer was to her… we decided that I should be her Pokémon after a lot of thought, but it just… seems to make sense, really."
"I hadn't heard that yet," Sheena said. "That's a nice story, from both of you."
"Pokémon means Maiju in your way of speaking, correct?" Damos checked, and got a confirmatory nod from Keldeo.
Then Latias came zooming back to them, decloaking in a flash of blue.
"There's… quite a lot of Pokémon out there," she said. "All of them have that odd armour."
"That must be Marcus' doing," Damos decided.
He thought about that for a moment, then sighed.
"I suppose the only thing to do is to take another route."
"It… might be a bit late for that," Latias admitted. "They saw me."
"I'll be able to keep you safe," Keldeo declared, transitioning with a flash of orange into Resolute Form. "And I'm sure Latias thinks the same!"
"But, um… wait!" Mawile said. "This is the same kind of thing we were talking about, remember? We don't need to fight!"
"...there's a lot of Pokémon who've probably been ordered to stop us," Keldeo pointed out, a little puzzled. "I know what you mean, Mawile, but are you sure?"
"We shouldn't need to fight," Mawile said.
"I'm sorry, I'm only getting half of this conversation," Sheena said. "Would you mind giving me an update on the other half?"
Latias summarized everything, and Sheena frowned.
"I… wonder about that," she admitted. "You knew these Pokémon, right?"
Damos nodded. "I did, though I fear that Marcus has convinced them otherwise."
"But – it's the armour!" Sheena told him. "It wasn't that the Pokémon got convinced, it was that the armour made them turn against you – Marcus set it up that way."
"Then perhaps there is a chance," Damos said. "You have said you share my talent, to touch the minds of Pokémon – well, I would not try this myself, but with your aid I feel I can take the chance."
"The chance?" Sheena repeated, then thought that through. "You mean – trying to get to all of them?"
She swallowed. "Well… I guess we can try?"
"If you feel it may not work, then we should not," Damos said. "What is important here is conviction."
That gave Sheena pause for thought, and after a few seconds she nodded more firmly. "Then – yeah. Let's do this."
"I swear there's something in there," one of the Michinan guards said, frowning. "And Lord Marcus said we had to watch out for people trying to steal the Jewel of Life."
"But I was looking," the other guard replied. "I didn't see anything."
"Neither did I, but Luxray did," the first guard pointed out, indicating Luxray. "And you just know a thief is going to be sneaky..."
"Well, maybe," the second said, a little dubious. "You don't think that explosion was something to do with them?"
"I think that was something to try and distract us," the first replied, then looked up and did a double-take. "Wait – look!"
Damos walked out of the door, accompanied by a Pichu, a woman neither of them had seen before and an equine Maiju with a glowing horn.
It looked like there was a larger Maiju just around the edge of the door, as well, staying mostly out of sight.
"My friends!" Damos began. "Maiju of Michina… I am sorry. I know you all – and many of you came here because I asked you. But I trusted Marcus, and that was wrong."
The woman with him put her hands together, focusing, as Damos continued. "I do not mind if you do not want to turn against him. But I ask that you do not fight at all – that you allow me to return the Jewel of Life to Arceus, as I have planned and promised."
"That's what Lord Marcus meant!" the first guard realized. "Get them!"
None of the Maiju leapt to obey, most of them frowning and looking confused.
"The armour you wear has been confusing you, making it so Marcus can order you," Damos continued, clasping his hands in the same way as the woman. "Please, my friends. Fight it. Let the commands fall away as unimportant, unwanted… do not let Marcus start a war among us by betraying both Michina and Arceus!"
"What are you waiting for?" the guard demanded.
An Absol howled, tensed – then sliced off the armour of a Nidoking next to her. That Maiju turned in turn to use an attack to remove the Absol's armour, and a moment later the whole group of Maiju dissolved into chaos – tearing their armour off or helping others remove it, with only one Claydol sliding slowly forwards towards Damos and his companions.
A beam of golden light flashed out from the equine Maiju, and the Claydol's armour fell away as well.
"Well-" the guard began, then the ground shook suddenly.
He looked around, wondering what had happened, and there was another tremor – then part of the temple exploded outwards in a blast of sound and fury.
Some minutes earlier, a muted thump echoed down the halls of Michina.
"You heard that, right?" Ash asked.
"Yes," Lucario agreed. "I'm not sure where it came from, though."
"I am!" Houndoom announced. "This way!"
He broke into a loping run, and Ash and Lucario followed him at speed – turning hard right at a corner, then running down a curving flight of stairs.
"Almost there," Houndoom announced as they reached the bottom, slowing down again to halt just before the corridor opened out into a wider one, and the others followed suit. "I smell human, I think it's Marcus..."
"Right," Ash said, checking Kari was at his side. "That means he's going to have that Bronzong with him, right?"
Houndoom sniffed. "Yeah."
A blast of greenish light hit the wall they were hiding behind, chopping part of it away, and a Stealth Rock came flying around the corner. Houndoom leapt over it, leaving it for Lucario who destroyed it with a flashing blue palm-strike, and spawned a pair of Beat Up body-doubles which charged forwards ahead of him.
Bronzong barrelled down on them, using Heavy Slam, and Pikachu jumped off Ash's shoulder to contribute to the fight.
"I thought there might be more than one of you," Marcus said, watching the Pokémon battle going on as his armoured Bronzong fought off three Pokémon at once – on the defensive, but avoiding taking any serious hits and using the occasional blast of sound and force to hit back. "Get out of Michina now, and I might let you go."
"That's not happening," Ash replied. "Kari, ready?"
"Truly," Kari confirmed.
Ash took her hilt, moving her off his belt with a quick motion and an application of her phasing powers, then threw her backwards. "Lucario, catch!"
His Fighting-type caught her out of the air and drew her from her scabbard in a single motion, cutting at Bronzong's side to try and get at the armour – though Bronzong used Gyro Ball, whirling around fast to deflect the blow and knock Lucario aside with a resonant klang of steel-on-steel.
"We're here to stop you," Ash continued, as the fighting receded a little – the shouts and clashes and attacks going in all directions still audible, but far enough away they could talk.
"I thought as much," Marcus replied, his mouth twisting for a moment. "Others have always been jealous of Michina… wanted to take the Jewel for themselves, or see it without the Jewel even if they couldn't have it."
Ash was silent for a moment, then shook his head. "That's… really not what it is! The Jewel of Life is good for Michina, yes, but it's necessary for Arceus! It's part of him."
"He's done well enough without it for the last few years," Marcus replied with a shake of his head. "Try another lie, it might be more convincing."
"Why can't you see I'm telling the truth..." Ash groaned.
"There's every reason for you to lie," Marcus countered.
Ash ducked as the sound of the fighting got louder again, and Bronzong went flying past him down the wide corridor. It was chased first by Pikachu, cheeks flaring out with electrical energy as he blasted a continuous stream of electrical energy at the rippling shield Bronzong was keeping up, then by Lucario moving at a sprint with an Aura Sphere growing in his paws.
Houndoom brought up the rear, the fight having somehow resulted in his wielding Kari with his mouth, and dark red fire blazed along her length as Houndoom slashed a flame-blade attack into a gap his tail slashed in Bronzong's shield.
Ash winced, then returned to his theme. "Why do you think Damos is wrong?"
"Because it's obvious," Marcus replied, shaking his head slightly. "You are young, perhaps you did not see Michina before the Jewel came… it was a barren wasteland, but now it is verdant and full of life. The Jewel of Life made it so, and the Jewel of Life is all that keeps it so."
"That's not it at all, though," Ash replied. "It's something else – that's why you've got all your Pokémon wearing armour that stops them resisting you!"
"Pokémon?" Marcus repeated, frowning, then waved it off. "The armour is necessary. Otherwise the Maiju would make too much fuss about what needs to be done."
"But it doesn't need to be done!" Ash insisted. "Everything you've said is all wrong because you think nobody else can be trusted, even though you're the one who's lying and using trickery to get your way… and that you think nobody else will realize what you're doing!"
He waved his hand upwards. "If Arceus knew you were trying to trick him with a fake Jewel of Life, he would have a reason to destroy Michina – and he can tell the difference, because it's part of him!"
"You're very well informed," Marcus said, frowning. "But if that won't work, I'll just-"
"-kill Arceus?" Ash demanded. "Is that what you were going to say?"
Marcus put both hands on his staff, and said nothing.
"You're always going for the worst way out of a problem, instead of trusting anyone," Ash said. "Even when the reason your plan works is based on other people trusting you – and each other – so you know they're trustworthy!"
Ash's fists clenched, and he trembled slightly. "You're just… I can understand why you're doing this stuff, or why you started, but all the ways you're trying to do it-"
Bronzong crashed though the nearest wall, ringing loudly with the force of the impact, and Lucario leapt through after it. Pikachu followed, swinging his tail with Kari's tassel in it as he landed – swinging the Ghost-type at Bronzong with maximum force as she powered up a Night Slash.
Kari let go at just the right moment, spearing through the remains of Bronzong's shield, and glanced off his striker arm. Spinning through three-hundred-and-sixty degrees, she projected a Sacred Sword to extend the length of her blade – reaching just far enough to finally catch the Bronzong's armour.
"No!" Marcus shouted, as the slashed armour fell away. "What have you done?"
"Bronzong's free," Ash replied. "That's what..."
He slowed, looking around. The ringing sound Bronzong had made had died away, but the tremors accompanying the impact had not – in fact, they were getting stronger, and a few rocks fell from the ceiling followed by a splintering crash as a nearby corridor fell in on itself.
"I think the ceiling's about to-" Lucario began.
"Guys, get us a way out!" Ash called. "Houndoom, return!"
Kari flipped into the air, and Lucario caught her in one paw as Ash dove towards Marcus. The priest reacted with surprise, raising his hands to fend off Ash's attack, but Ash instead grabbed him around the waist.
Pikachu hadn't used much of his charge in the battle, and it took him only a moment to spin up to full power. It wasn't quite clear how many rings he used for his Volt Crash, but it looked like at least five – and once he had, he fired an enormous blast of electrical energy, less focused than his normal work, which smashed through three rows of empty rooms in a kind of inverted cone and left them seeing daylight out the other end.
Lucario grabbed Bronzong's clapper with his free paw, Houndoom vanished back into his Pokéball, and Ash scooped up Pikachu with one hand as he dragged Marcus with the other. Both Aura users broke into a sprint, running for the exit with their passengers as rocks fell around them, and burst out into the open air just before several tons of rocks fell behind them with an almighty kerrunch.
"Are you okay?" Lucario asked, once he'd rolled to a halt. "Ash? Pikachu?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Ash replied, shaking his head a little. "Uh… I think Pikachu's okay, too…"
"A bit of cheek-ache, otherwise fine," Pikachu supplied. "I hope nobody else was in there..."
"I didn't see anyone when I checked," Lucario told him.
"I…" one of the men nearby said, agape. "What just happened?"
"The roof was about to cave in, so Pikachu blasted us a way out," Ash answered.
The man looked at the enormous hole, then at the debris field, then stared at Pikachu.
"...wow."
"Yeah," someone else added. "I… didn't know that was possible for any Maiju, let alone a Pikachu…."
"Hey, are you okay?" Ash added, looking down at Marcus.
"I… think so," Marcus replied, wincing, then levered himself upright with the staff he'd managed to keep hold of during the dive.
Reaching for the top of his staff, he detached the Jewel of Life. "Damos!"
"Marcus?" Damos replied, coming around the side of the temple and getting a fuller view of the damage. Before he could say anything, however, Marcus threw the Jewel of Life directly at Damos.
The Michinan leader caught it automatically, then looked down at it. "Is this-"
"It's the real one," Marcus interrupted. "If this turns out to be a mistake, I will never forgive you."
That statement drove Damos to chuckle. "Marcus, if anyone should be talking about forgiveness, don't you think it should be you?"
He waved his hand. "But… this change of heart is welcome, and I thank you for it."
"It's not a change of heart," Marcus insisted.
Damos smiled slightly. "Of course not."
"I… kinda think that might change history a bit," Dawn said, looking at the hole in the side of Michina Temple. "I don't remember seeing that before."
"I don't think it's necessarily going to change it, much," Brock disagreed. "There's thousands of years for it to be repaired, and it'd all look as eroded as everything else."
"Still, it'd be pretty clear if you looked," Dawn shrugged. "There's all these cracks and stuff which weren't there before, because it was carved out of the rock – it's going to be different."
"I agree with that much," Brock said. "I just don't think anyone bothered to look before, so it won't change anything noticeable."
"...time travel continues to be weird, I see," Dawn chuckled.
She looked around. "Do you think we did enough this time?"
"Well, it felt more satisfying," Brock shrugged. "So… possibly? I don't really know for sure, though."
"Hey, Brockster," Geodude called. "You want that Rockruff and I get repairing this?"
"If you want to, sure," Brock called back. "Don't take too long, though, we want to be ready for our lift back."
He turned to Dawn, shrugging. "Or that could happen."
"Or that could happen, yeah," Dawn agreed.
For what was hopefully the final time, the eclipse-darkened sky over Michina was split by the radiant ring of golden light that heralded the appearance of the Creator.
Arceus, Dexter stated. The Alpha Pokémon. It is said to have hatched from an egg before the universe existed, then shaped everything that is with its 1,000 arms.
"Dexter!" Ash hissed.
I have not had a chance to do this one before. It was interesting.
Unheeding of the byplay, Arceus drifted slowly down to land with all four hooves at once and a pulse of golden light.
"Lord Arceus," Damos said, bowing deeply. "I have your Jewel of Life to return."
Arceus examined him, then turned His attention to Marcus – standing a little off to the side.
"Your faith is appreciated," He declared. "I see that My decision to grant Michina with prosperity was not in error."
After a long moment, He moved back to Damos – leaving Marcus a little unsteady on his feet as a result of the awesome force of Arceus' regard.
Taking the unspoken cue, Damos held out the Jewel of Life, and Arceus took it with a flash of golden light – the sparks of His plates rising out of where they had been bound, and taking up their places orbiting Him.
"Dialga," He declared, and Dialga appeared very suddenly.
Marcus jumped, as the giant Dragon of Time had appeared literally right next to him.
"When you are ready, send My faithful servants back to their appointed time," he instructed, then paused.
Stepping past Damos, He leaned down to examine Molly's Sylveon.
"You seem familiar," He declared.
A frown, and Arceus brought His Pixie plate down to hover next to Sylveon. His gaze went back and forth between the one and the other, then He nodded slightly as if in confirmation.
"I wondered," He confessed. "Very well. Dialga, you may begin."
Sylveon shifted to Flareon, knowing where this was going, and Dialga spent a moment powering up before Roaring with all his might.
The swirl of time unbent, twisting and depositing Charizard half a mile over an ash-blasted land heaped with cinders.
"Wha - wait, where did-" Charizard began, wings spreading automatically, and looked around for the others. "What now?"
"Nothing much!" a cheerful voice told him.
Celebi came zooming out from behind his back. "Sorry to borrow you, but I've had this really complex knot of history to sort out and you're normally too far in the future to solve it. But you're here now, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to simplify it."
Charizard began hovering, and gave her a look. "What?"
"Okay, so, long story short, I need your help as a move tutor, these Charizard aren't doing too hot inventing it for themselves..."
She did a flip. "Oh, and this is just the result of a common-or-garden volcanic eruption. You're still in the past."
"...you could have just asked first, you know..." Charizard grumbled.
Dialga's time bubble popped with a flash of bright blue light, and everyone looked around.
"Well, that's got to be a good sign," Brock said. "Look, the weather's right."
"No giant crater, either," Sheena added.
"And, of course, I am here," Arceus completed, making everyone jump. "It seems as though you have done your work well."
"It took a bit longer than we thought, but it was done and well done by the end," Dialga proclaimed.
"Yeah, Dialga was really helpful in making sure we had enough tries to get it all right," Ash agreed. "I – wait, Charizard?"
The Fire-type turned. "Yeah?"
"How come you're covered in streaks of ash?"
"It's a long story," Charizard replied. "Involving some very argumentative ancestors."
His claws flexed a bit as he spoke. "Very argumentative."
"I think we want more information," Lucario requested.
"Hey, Sheena!" Kevin called, reaching the top of the steps. "I saw a huge flash on the Time-Space Axis – that was you guys leaving, right?"
Sheena waved to him, then came over. Halfway she broke into a run, and embraced him.
"H-hey!" Kevin protested, though without much force. "You weren't gone for long, right?"
"More than a day," Sheena replied, still hugging him. "I'm going to tell you all about it, but… it was amazing and scary and humbling all at once. I spoke to Damos!"
She paused. "Actually, I kind of had the same conversation with him… four times? I think it was four times."
"I'm going to look forward to hearing about that," Kevin decided.
"Oh!" Sheena added. "I wanted to ask you, because you weren't in the time alteration stuff… is there still a legend about a Thunder Beast?"
"Still?" Kevin asked, confused. "You mean – oh! Of course, because you went back in time. Yes, there is a Thunder Beast legend, a Pokémon who could blow out the side of a mountain… but we never worked out what mountain."
"This one," Sheena told him. "I actually saw it happen. Brock just fixed it later."
She finally let go of Kevin, and reached into the pocket of her outfit. "Oh, and look what I got..."
Kevin did a double-take as she pulled out a shimmering green gemstone. "Is… is that the Jewel of Life?"
"No, it's just a very good fake," Sheena replied. "Made by Marcus to try and trick Damos and Arceus."
She pulled out two more. "And… this is the one we damaged to check it wasn't the real Jewel, because that was invulnerable."
"I'm surprised Pikachu's the only part of what happened that got remembered," Dawn said. "I'm not complaining, just… everyone noticed Pikachu, I get that, but there's no murals talking about Giratina visiting? Or Mewtwo?"
In the version which actually happened I didn't do much, Mewtwo supplied. I was hovering overhead ready to help, but it seems nobody saw it.
"What about one for Brock and his team?" Pachirisu asked. "They're the ones who beat Heatran, that was probably the strongest Pokémon Marcus had on hand."
"What would that look like, though?" Ash asked. "I mean, he did it mostly with sneaky illusion stuff… a blank wall?"
Brock groaned. "I walked into that one..."
"Don't walk into walls," Lucario advised. "It's unhealthy."
The ground trembled slightly.
"...okay, what now?" Ash asked.
With a rrrrumble, a small area of stone gave way – revealing a Heatran.
"That took longer than I expected," it declared.
"What did?" Dawn said. "Wait – how long were you there?"
"Not really sure," Heatran answered, turning towards Brock. "I spent a lot of it asleep. But I asked Damos, and he said you would be back some day."
Deciding He wasn't going to get an audience, Arceus quietly rose in glory into the heavens.
"Yeah, I'm not sure if we mentioned how far back in time we went," Ash admitted. "I'm not really sure of the number myself, actually..."
Some miles away, Gary Oak lay on the grassy side of a hill.
"Hmm..."
His Umbreon came loping up, sniffing occasionally, then turned to her trainer. "Do you have any idea where Molly's Eevee went?"
"Huh?" Gary asked, listening to his translation earbud, then shook his head. "No, I don't… why? Is something wrong?"
"I swear she was around a few minutes ago, but she vanished," Umbreon replied. "I tried finding her trail, but it just suddenly stops."
"That's kind of odd," Gary agreed. "Did she go Espeon and teleport?"
"I don't know if she's learned that," Umbreon admitted. "That could be it."
She turned her focus to her trainer. "So… what brings you out here?"
"I just felt a bit… melancholy," Gary explained, pointing up at the half-moon hanging low in the sky. "I was remembering how we could have ended up on there if things went just a little bit differently… I'm not sure what brought it on, though."
The Dark-type nodded, and sat herself down next to Gary's side – tail flicking back and forth a little.
"Much better this way," she decided. "And I don't know what your first go was like, but… I'm glad we can talk."
Gary nodded, scratching her under her chin. "Yeah..."
AN:
That's a much better ending with Gary than part two.
Hope you enjoyed Jewel of Life! It was a little bit experimental, pushing aside the "more fighting" approach of previous film retreads for a "puzzle" approach.
And putting the first half up on Halloween with a delay of a full day before the second half. That was kind of experimental too.
