"Is the camera ready?" Roxy checked.
"Naturally," Oli replied. "Magnezone knows not to mess with the equipment. Isn't that right?"
Magnezone buzzed.
"That's good to know," Roxy said. "And thank you for bringing us up here."
Oli's Magnezone blinked in a pattern, which Roxy didn't know but assumed was something along the lines of 'you're welcome'.
"Okay, let's get this started," the interviewer said.
"Rolling," Oli reported, steadying the camera.
"I'm here on the steps of the strange structure that appeared in the sky earlier today," Roxy announced, holding her microphone just so. "Reports have this structure being referred to as the Hall of Origin, an important part of the Sinnoh creation myth, and that Arceus the Creator has been seen around the area."
Turning, she knocked on the door.
"Ow," she said, wincing. "The door's very heavy."
There was a sudden crack, and it began to swing gradually open. Golden light filtered out for a moment, then dimmed a little, and Roxy stepped back to let the door swing open.
Oli stepped up beside her, sweeping the camera across the inside of the room, and Roxy blinked.
"I didn't expect there to be that many people in here…"
"Thanks for coming with me to help out with this," the Zoey who'd been rescued from Galactic said. "It's going to be weird enough talking to Mom and Dad about it with help."
"As much help as possible," the Reminded one agreed. "And… okay, we really need to work out what to call each of us. I've said it already, but a middle name would help."
"Maybe it'd be worse if you had one middle name?" Dawn asked, as they walked through the snow towards Zoey's house. "Then you'd kind of not be sure which one got the first name and which one got the middle name."
"Obviously she'd have the middle name," both Zoeys said at the same time, then exchanged a look and burst out into giggles.
"Humans," Piplup sniffed. "Pokemon have never had that kind of problem with more than one Pokemon having the same name. If I say I want to speak to Quilava, everyone knows which Quilava I mean."
"That's because your relation with Dawn's Quilava is just this side of a house on fire, and only because you're a Water type," Buneary commented.
"I thought Piplup and Quilava didn't get along," Dawn asked, then stopped and shook her head. "No, wait, don't tell me. Flames, screams, people running away..."
"Pretty much," Buneary agreed.
"I was going to say that it was obvious that the older one got the first name," said the rescuee Zoey.
"So was I," the other Zoey agreed. "And because I've experienced basically everything you have plus another several months at least, I'm the older one."
"I experienced four extra years, they just happened very quickly," said the first one.
"I've got an idea," said one of Zoey's Glameow. "What about if you ask your parents to give you both new names?"
The Rotom in Dawn's Pokétch provided a convenient translation.
"That… yeah, I like that," said the remindee Zoey. "It is kind of like they've suddenly got twins, even if we're not quite the same age."
She shook her head. "Oh, no, I just thought about the legal mess."
"I think it'll be okay," Dawn's Pachirisu said. "I've heard about this legal thing called an act of god, doesn't that help?"
"Oddly, that usually just means there was a natural disaster," Dawn replied, then relayed what Pachirisu had said. "Maybe it's because it was just so easy for someone to blame a snowstorm on an Articuno, or whatever, but so hard to prove it, so they just set it up like that?"
The conversation had taken them all the way up to the house door, and both Zoeys stopped.
"I'm kind of nervous," the rescuee Zoey said, and the other Zoey paused before sniggering.
"I was about to say that," she explained.
There was an audible ding, and the Glameow who'd spoken earlier retracted her tail from the doorbell.
"Just speeding things along," she said, and licked the back of her paw.
The door clicked open, and Zoey's parents looked out.
"Who is – oh, Zoey!" said her mother. "I'm so glad you're okay!"
She reached to hug the first Zoey she'd seen, before pausing. "Um."
"What?" her father asked. "...did you catch a Zorua, Zoey?"
"No, I didn't," the one on the left said. "Mom, Dad…"
She hugged her mother, eyes wet, and after a surprised pause the mother hugged back.
The one on the right nodded. "This is kind of a freaky topic..."
"Is it about all this stuff on the news with Arceus and Dialga and Ash Ketchum?" Zoey's father asked. "I thought I saw you, but your mother said I was just imagining things."
"But I don't understand," Zoey's mother said, looking down at her daughter and then up at her daughter. "Why are there two of you?"
"This kind of thing happens around Ash Ketchum," Dawn volunteered. "Admittedly this is a new one, but it happened to Gary Oak as well. And several of Zoey's Pokemon."
"Oh, you're that Coordinator friend of Zoey's," the father realized. "I'm afraid I can't remember your name… no, hold on. Dawn?"
Dawn nodded.
"Were you involved in all this, then-" the father began, then stepped down from the porch and embraced his other daughter. "Sorry, sweetie. This is all a bit of a surprise."
"Think what it was like for me," the first Zoey mumbled. "I don't even really know what to call myself at the moment."
After a few seconds, Dawn smiled.
"Do you mind if we go inside?" she asked. "It's a bit cold at the moment."
Twenty or so minutes later, the television was muted and the rescued Zoey was finishing her story.
"And… it's kind of weird, but that bit wasn't actually very scary," she concluded. "Or, it was over too quickly for me to go from being angry to being scared."
"That's good to know, at least," Zoey's mother said. "But… sweetie, why didn't you tell us about this?"
"I am," that Zoey said. "This is literally my first chance. Blame the other me!"
"Thanks," the second Zoey snorted.
"Any time," the first one winked.
"And I didn't," the other one went on. "Because I already knew it wouldn't work. The Team Galactic stuff was just… impossible to explain to anyone, it was like you hadn't said anything in the first place. And even if I could, it'd sound like a crazy conspiracy theory.
"Ring," Rotom announced.
Confused, Dawn raised her Pokétch and activated the phone app. "Hello?"
"Dawn!" Barry said. "Have you seen the news?"
"I was too busy being on the news," Dawn admitted. "I didn't get a chance to say hello to the interviewer, either, she was too busy talking to Cynthia."
"I just want to say… called it!" Barry announced. "I was right! There was a secret conspiracy going around!"
"I'll give you that one," Dawn admitted. "But you only got that right because you tried every single possible theory."
"It still counts!"
"What about Nozomi?" Zoey's Mom was suggesting. "Does that sound nice?"
"That would do for one of us," the first Zoey said. "It does sound nice, though."
The woman nodded. "I was thinking about the names we nearly used. Nozomi was one and Mizori was the other. So you could be Zoey M and Zoey N."
"...can we give our decision in a bit?" the second Zoey asked. "This is kind of a big decision."
"And can you do me, now?" asked one of the Glameow.
"You're ruining that whole thing I said about nicknames," Piplup pouted.
The Glameow in question just batted her paw at him before padding over to demand a stroke.
In Hearthome city, two men looked at the television.
Then at one another.
One of them opened his mouth, but the other held up his hand.
"Wait, please," he asked, and walked over to the doors of Hearthome Cathedral.
His friend watched in silence as he pushed the door open, then walked a little way around the building to get the perfect angle.
Then came back in.
"Well?" the man asked, and his friend walked back over to sit down in front of the television.
"You win," his friend said. "He does exist."
"Told you," the man replied.
His Natu chirped something which was probably sarcastic.
"You can't blame me for being unsure," the skeptic pointed out. "Before now there wasn't really any solid evidence that he existed. It's not like Mewtwo."
"Legendary Pokemon who do TV interviews do tend to be more easily believed in," the vicar agreed. "Though I have to admit that now I'm wondering how the Creator best prefers to be honoured."
"Assuming he is the creator," the skeptic said quickly. "All we know at this point is that Arceus exists and that he manifested a giant glowing building in the sky."
There was a short pause.
"So, yeah, he is," the skeptic agreed. "Probably. But if he did create everything, wouldn't that mean that everything was stuff he liked?"
"Where are you going with this?" the vicar asked.
"Well, I'm going to go and get us some of the Creator's gifts to us," his friend explained. "You take yours with milk and one sugar, right?"
"That would be lovely."
Professor Oak looked across the room, then back at the big screen.
"No point in putting it off any further, Damos."
Understood, Professor, Damos agreed. Should I call Professor Elm first?
"Good idea," Oak agreed.
Calling, the Porygon stated. Ring ring. Ring ring.
"You know you're only supposed to do that if someone's calling you, right?" Umbreone asked.
All work and no play makes Damos a dull AI, Damos replied blandly.
"Did you just call yourself an ay?" Professor Oak asked, blinking.
Before Damos replied, the screen activated – showing Professor Elm, along with his assistants.
One of them had a Totodile sitting on his head.
"Professor Oak, good afternoon," Elm said. "I assume this is something to do with what's on the news? It usually is."
"That wall has a person in it," the Totodile announced, pointing at the screen on their end.
"I'm afraid it sort of is," Professor Oak confirmed. "Some complex time related disturbances happened as part of the Arceus incident, and I wanted to let you know ahead of time so you could help with the fallout."
Elm blinked. "I'm sorry, Oak, but I'm not really an expert in anything related to that – let alone that itself. From what I've heard, anything to do with a Legendary is more your thing."
"I'm not sure-" Oak began.
I'm with him on that, Damos interrupted. As a non-exhaustive list, there's a Deoxys outside wondering how the doorbell works and a Shiny Entei just wandered into our kitchen to borrow some sugar.
"...fair enough," Oak admitted.
Elm smiled. "I thought I wouldn't have to provide any examples. So what is the problem?"
"Well," Oak began.
He beckoned.
"This is my grandson, Gary Oak," he explained.
"I know," Elm said, then stopped and stared.
"And this is my grandson, Gary Oak," Samuel Oak continued. "He's… what I suppose you could call a time duplicate."
"Hey, Gramps, which one of us do you mean is the time duplicate?" the physically-older one asked.
"Take your pick," Oak said.
"Now there's three people in that wall," the Totodile said, pointing. "And one of them is the same as another one."
"Yes, I can see why you want help," Professor Elm agreed, sitting down heavily.
Unfortunately there wasn't a chair there to sit on, and he fell out of view with a thump before standing back up again a little unsteadily.
"To be fair, he's reacting almost as well as I did," Umbretwo said, licking her paw.
"So what we did is that we made sure we was able to help out," Meowth explained. "Like you said, pointin' Ash and his friends at the problem."
"Though there were a lot more of them able to see Team Galactic than there were of us," Jessie added. "So it was more like they found the problem and we just turned up to help."
Giovanni made a little gesture with a gold-plated pen, inviting them to continue.
"Sorry about all the equipment that got broken," James said, into the silence. "We did need it, though."
"Well, most of it," Meowth contributed. "I don't know if we technically needed all of it, 'cause the only way to be sure would be to do it again without a bit an' see if we failed..."
He finally heeded the hushed whispers from both Jessie and James, and shut up.
"A group who could not be seen or heard, or noticed, by anyone but yourselves," Giovanni said into the quiet. "Very convenient."
He waited, letting the trio become more nervous, then smiled slightly. "For them."
Jessie sighed in relief, then tried to act as if she hadn't been worried in the first place.
"Now," Giovanni went on. "You're certain that they won't be a problem any more?"
"Pretty much," Jessie told him. "The original set of them got arrested, and the ones that got time doubled got imprisoned in another universe."
"Like we said the last time," Meowth helpfully pointed out.
"Yes, I remember," Giovanni mused. "I suppose it's just one more argument against Cosmic Power. The keepers of that power will likely disagree."
"But isn't that true about other kinds of power?" Jessie asked. "Like… whatever it is that means you get money."
"Stored Power," Giovanni supplied. "And in a sense, you are correct. But all the other types of power are either types of power which people want you to have, or types of power which people do not know you have… except for those who still want you to have it, for their own reasons… or types of power which you can defend in court."
He toyed with the gold-plated pen again. "But Cosmic Power… no. People do not want you to have it, and they are likely to notice. Even if you are impossible to notice, people notice – as you have just seen."
After a long moment, he looked up. "Was Team Galactic also implicated in the comet incident?"
"Maybe?" James guessed. "We don't really have any way to tell."
"A pity," Giovanni noted.
Persian jumped up onto the desk in a smooth movement, so sudden and fluid that it caught both Meowth and his two partners by surprise.
"Good work," Giovanni judged. "You were in a difficult situation, and you tried to inform me about it."
He smiled, slightly. "And, just as importantly, I now know one of the most important things about Arceus."
"Ya do?" Meowth asked, baffled.
"Yes," Giovanni replied. "His way of dealing with this Cyrus was… impressive. I can work with a god like this."
In the big police building in Jubilife City, a Jenny rested her elbows on the table and put her hands on her forehead. "Nrfff..."
"Something up, boss?" one of her officers asked.
"It's this Galactic stuff," Jenny explained. "There's just so much work involved with it."
"Oh, yeah, the thing with how some gang were using Pokemon to make it so nobody saw them?" the officer checked. "I bet it was."
"You don't even know the half of it," Jenny said. "We're having to find all the crimes they were involved in and mark them as involved and the crime as solved, before we can properly begin the legal process."
She snorted. "They're probably going to prison for ever, but we still need to do this properly."
"Well, yeah, I get that," her officer said. "But how bad could it be?"
"You'll see," Jenny told him, rubbing her temples with the thumb and forefinger of one hand. "Praetor, can you show Jackson an example?"
Of course, their Porygon confirmed. A window opened up on Jenny's screen, and Jackson shifted his chair closer to watch.
It showed some footage from a camera in the city centre. As they watched, a Galactic member stuck out their foot to trip someone over, then took their wallet as they got back up again.
"That was a lost wallet case from four months ago," Jenny explained. "He remembered tripping over, and that the wallet wasn't there any more – but now he probably remembers the whole thing."
She sighed. "It at least looks like they weren't as bad as they could have been, but they could have been really bad."
That was not the lowest value crime noticed, Praetor added. I have already identified 2,741 separate instances of illegal parking.
Jackson winced. "Um, point taken, boss," he admitted. "How are you going to get through that lot?"
"Praetor's helping, which is about the only way it's possible," Jenny answered, going back to her keyboard. "Okay, what's the next one you need advice on?"
Attempted assassination of trainer Ash Ketchum with sniper bullet.
Jenny blinked. "...you need help with determining if that's a crime?"
I request assistance determining if it counts as attempted murder or attempted universal obliteration by proxy.
"That's..." Jenny began, then frowned. "Hmm. Bit of a puzzle, really."
"So… just to be clear on this," Houndoom requested. "He did actually get obliterated."
Gliscor nodded. "Yeah. That… that happened."
"He wasn't just, badly hurt, or only slightly dead?" Raikou checked. "There's a difference, you know."
"Hit by a Roar of Time," Gliscor summarized.
"I'm… yeah," Houndoom said. "I'm kicking myself for not being there. And I know I couldn't have been, but I'm still doing it."
"There's a lot of that going around," Suicune mused. "I've been doing it ever since I found Ash was in such an important fight without me. And I'm sure you're all the same – except for you, Gliscor."
"Actually being there didn't necessarily help with that much," Gliscor told them. "It depends how you think of it, maybe?"
She looked up at the silent Ho-Oh standing over them all. "And you did more than any of us, by the way."
"I wasn't even there," Ho-Oh pointed out.
"Yeah, but you're the one who made it so we still have a trainer, anyway," Gliscor countered. "And I don't think it's going to be possible to fully thank you for that."
"What's it like?" Houndoom asked suddenly. "Suicune, Entei, Raikou – all three of you have done this before, right?"
"...sort of," Suicune said, a little hesitantly. "It's not very clear, though. It was more than a hundred years ago, and even when we were newly reborn we didn't remember our past lives very well."
She stretched. "It's mostly… shadows and dreams, half-remembered snatches of who we used to be."
"I remember I enjoyed lounging in the sun," Entei contributed. "You'd think I wouldn't, with how high my body temperature was as a Flareon."
"I remember running!" Raikou announced. "I loved running. Especially over the top of you two when you were trying to sleep. That was hilarious."
"...well, you clearly didn't change much," Suicune chuckled.
"Is that something that might happen to Ash?" Gliscor said.
"I do not think it is likely," Ho-Oh told her. "The process of rebirth was… difficult, for Raikou, Entei and Suicune. As much as it may seem like criticism of my sons and daughter, Ash is a more resilient person than they were before."
Suicune thought about that.
"I think I can see that," she admitted. "Really. Ash is just… something else."
She shook her head. "And I kind of want to know how we could help him out."
"I have a guess," Entei volunteered.
Suicune gave him an inquiring look.
"We just need to be who we normally are," he said. "I know our trainer. We shouldn't act like we're walking on eggshells around him; we should just keep going."
"Challenge accepted!" Raikou announced, and took off like a rocket.
"Somehow..." Suicune sighed. "I knew that was going to happen."
She shook her head. "I can't look. What's he doing?"
"So!" Raikou's voice boomed. "When are we doing Contests? I've got a great idea for how you could prepare my brother for them!"
"If he insists that my routine involves Rain Dance I am going to hit him," Entei grumbled.
"Cynthia", Mewtwo said, psychically vocalizing the word for the benefit of the phone. "An unexpected pleasure. Is there something you wanted to discuss?"
"It's something I thought about last night, about what happened," Cynthia replied. "Do you mind if we discuss it in person?"
Mewtwo considered, nodded, and hung up the phone.
A moment later, he teleported into Cynthia's porch and rang the doorbell. Then he crossed his arms, and waited.
The door opened a few seconds after that, and Cynthia gave him a nod. "That was quick."
We pride ourselves on quick delivery, Mewtwo answered, floating into the room. What was it you'd thought of, if I may ask?
"It occurred to me," Cynthia explained. "What happened to Ash… even the version without the time travel – which is about the most we could ever tell the public – probably means he's fulfilled a couple of religions. I wouldn't be surprised if people started a Mystery Cult around him."
That is a concern, Mewtwo agreed, frowning slightly. Do you have any possible solutions?
"You could copyright him?" Cynthia said, then shook her head. "I don't know, really. I just thought… well, it's a possible outcome."
She looked out the window at the glowing golden circle around the Hall of Origin. "But then again, that sort of thing is happening a lot these days."
In a restaurant in Unova, Cress watched the day's final patrons go out of the door.
"Thank you for coming," he smiled, bowing them through. "I hope you had a lovely time."
"I should say so," one of the men in the party said. "It won't be the last time I eat here, I can tell you that!"
Once they were gone, Cress shut and locked the door.
"You know what comes next, right?" Chili asked, leaning out from the kitchen.
"I do indeed," Cress confirmed. "Time to clean up."
He checked a rota on the wall, then sent out two of his Pokemon – a Simipour and a Slowking.
Cilan and Chili did the same, and soon three gym leaders and half-a-dozen Pokemon were busy wiping tables and washing dishes and doing the other hundred and one chores needed to turn around a restaurant before the next morning.
"How's the supplies?" Chili called. "Want me to run down to the shop to pick up some replacements?"
"We're just fine!" Cilan told him. "There's that delivery coming tomorrow morning with the perishables, but we're good for the pastas and rices and all the other bases."
I'm not so sure, Slowking pointed out, her hands out as she floated the ashes out of the flame-grill stove. Simipour soaked them with a Water Gun, and now they were properly quenched she poured them into a special metal container to wait until it was rubbish day. We're a bit low on ras el hanout.
"Oh, well spotted," Cilan chuckled. "And with the new Golden Ring speciality dish being so popular, we'll need more of it."
"Should I go now or later?" Chili asked, already heading over to the coat rack to throw his coat on over his uniform. "Or do you guys want me to stick around until the tables are done?"
"Go ahead, Chili," Cress told him.
Shrugging his coat on, Chili checked he had his wallet and a Pokeball (Magmortar, just in case) then opened the door.
And stopped.
"Um… guys?" he said. "You really need to see this..."
Cress leaned around one of the pillars to look, and Cilan turned around from where he was doing the washing up.
Keldeo was in the doorway, hoof raised to knock, and next to him – leaning half-in and half-out of a distorted hole in the universe – was a Pokemon that looked sort of familiar.
"Isn't that a Giratina?" Cress asked.
Giratina rumbled something.
"Indoor voice, please," Keldeo requested.
"Oh, are you making a booking?" Cilan asked. "I'm afraid Giratina is big enough that we're going to need one of the larger tables, unless you can do something with those portals to sort it out. Are the other Swords of Justice coming this time?"
"That's not actually why we're here," Keldeo said. "We're here to talk to you about Ash Ketchum."
Giratina rumbled something else.
"Sorry, our saviour Ash Ketchum," Keldeo corrected himself. "Can we come in?"
"Oh, that kid from Kanto who keeps doing all that crazy stuff on the news," Chili realized. "I didn't know you knew him, Keldeo."
"Yeah! He's my trainer," Keldeo explained.
"Don't keep them waiting on the doorstep," Cress said. "Come in, come in."
Keldeo came in first as Chili stepped aside, then Giratina carefully floated the rest of the way through the portal. When he was almost the entire way out his form changed, and he developed legs which caught him as he landed.
"This is actually kind of a complicated topic," Keldeo added. "And I'm afraid it mostly involves Cilan. Is that okay?"
"That's just fine!" Cilan said. "Just wait until we're done with the clean up. And Chili needs to go get that spice for tomorrow."
Half an hour later, Keldeo waved his hooves.
"So… that's the short version," he finished.
"That was a very short version," Cilan admitted, then glanced at Giratina.
"It's true," Giratina said solemnly, nodding.
He wasn't actually speaking in a way Cilan could understand, but the general sense of it came across.
"So… if this is something he can do to me, why didn't it happen already?" he asked.
"That's basically Team Galactic's fault," Keldeo said. "I think what Ash said once was… he didn't want you waiting for years before meeting most of your friends. It's kind of something he's been trying to work out as he went along, though."
He tapped a hoof on the ground. "And then Team Galactic accidentally made it so Ash couldn't do it to anyone any more. Which was a real pain."
Cilan thought about that.
"So you – so Ash – can do it again now, then?" he checked. "Do you think it's a good idea?"
"Absolutely!" Keldeo said firmly. "You all gave me lots of help when I was in trouble with Kyurem, and you were great friends. I could see that even when I only met you for a short time. And..."
He shrugged. "And I think you should. That's the answer, simple as that."
"Well, if we make a good combo platter, there's no reason to say no," Cilan decided.
Keldeo looked up. "You're sure?"
Cilan spread his hands. "Absolutely! It's another great adventure, and a whole new slew of recipes to say hello to!"
He tapped his nose. "Besides, if I've already gathered some of them, I can write them down before we set off!"
"Great!" Keldeo said brightly. "I'll just let Ash know… um, he might be asleep right now. I'm not great with time zones."
"We went straight through the planet," Giratina told him. "He'll be awake."
Message sent, Leo reported.
"By the way," Giratina added. "It sounds like you know this restaurant. Are they good?"
"Cilan and his brothers are amazing cooks," Keldeo declared.
"Can you ask for a booking? I'd kind of like to treat Our Father to a meal now that he exists properly again, and invite the large number of siblings I've suddenly gained."
Keldeo relayed that, and Cilan steepled his hands before stretching them out in front of him, stretching his fingers back a little and then unclasping them to wiggle about.
"That sounds like a wonderful challenge!"
"Just so you know," Ash began, sitting down. "This might be about to feel really weird for you."
"It sounds strange enough," Cilan replied, and looked out the window at the crescent moon. "What do you mean it's going to feel weird?"
"What I'm doing is kind of… giving you loads more memories," Ash tried to explain. "So you'll suddenly have two sets of memories of the same time period. Some people or Pokemon I've done it to have been confused, and others have just taken it in stride, and it could be either for you."
"I think I understand," Cilan mused. "It's like adding a whole second meal to the first one. Even if the flavours balance well, if they're not just the same then they'll still be an unexpected experience."
Pikachu chuckled. "An elaborate flavour metaphor? That sounds like the Cilan I remember."
"Well, no point waiting," Cilan said, extending his hand.
Ash took his, shook it, and Reminded him.
The Striaton Gym Leader blinked a few times, and whistled. "Huh. Wow, that's a strange feeling all right."
He frowned. "Ash? How did you make it so our restaurant was so much better known by Pokemon? I only really remember having any legendary Pokemon visitors – or solo Pokemon visitors at all – in this second go around."
"I think that might have been me," Keldeo volunteered, raising a hoof. "I suggested it to a few Pokemon I met."
"And of course I remember Keldeo!" Cilan added brightly. "I should have known the two of you would go together – you're like a fine stew!"
"Does that make me the water?" Keldeo asked, looking down at himself. "Or does it qualify as broth?"
"I think you're the celery," Cilan suggested.
Then he frowned, counting off on his fingers. "Isn't it still a few months before we first met?"
"Yeah, that's why I didn't do it earlier," Ash explained. "I thought I'd wait until I sort of ran into you naturally, or found you when I reached Unova for the second time. But things kind of… got complicated."
He waved at the main room, where Giratina was having a Lucario-mediated discussion with Chili and Cress about seating arrangements. "That happens a lot..."
"Of course it does," Cilan agreed. "Ash, I remember what happened when Iris and I met you. Or, when I met you and Iris. And I've never experienced anything so eventful… and this is a short-order cook speaking!"
There was a pause.
"I think we were supposed to understand that reference," Pikachu said. "But I'm a Pokemon and the only cooks I really know well can cook for an arbitrarily large number of Pokemon without batting an eye. That includes you, Cilan."
Ash translated, and Cilan waved his hand. "Oh, no, don't worry, it's just a joke about how short-order cooking usually means making four or five different meals at once as quickly as possible. But before I met you I'd never even seen a Legendary Pokemon, except on television."
He stopped. "...actually, now I come to think of it, I think I saw you on television the first time around. Weren't you riding Lugia?"
"That did happen both times," Ash replied, shrugging. "There was more of it the second time, though."
Cilan was about to say something, but yawned.
"Wow," he said, shaking his head. "I'm more tired than I was expecting."
"You already have your Pansage, right?" Ash asked, getting out Dexter and checking. "Now I think of it, you didn't really have many Pokemon..."
"I had to leave most of them with Chili and Cress," Cilan told him. "They're Gym Pokemon, really. But I do have Pansage."
"I can give him his memories back, too," Ash explained. "And… Dexter, are any of your kids willing to come and help translate for Cilan?"
Pardon? Dexter asked. Sorry, most of my attention is on the discussion going on with the other Porygon. It's the first time I've had a chance to meet my granddaughter, so I'm a little distracted.
"Oh, huh," Ash said, blinking. "I never really thought about how Porygon could have first-meetings from the other side of the world."
I do have to concentrate, Dexter informed him. Otherwise I suffer embarrassing lag. But I will ask once the conversation is over.
Is something wrong? Ethan asked. Your ping spiked.
Just something on the other side of the world, Dexter explained. Don't worry about it.
I was worrying that it might be the first stage of Rampancy, Guanna suggested. I've heard artificial intelligences have to watch out for it.
I'm pretty sure that's mostly fictitious, Dexter countered. You know. Like fictional, but made up for fiction instead of just.. made up.
He emitted a blast of electronic line noise. This isn't you not worrying about it.
Good point, Leo agreed.
Their attention returned to Wyvern, who shrugged with the vector-wings of her manifestation.
I'm sorry I didn't let you guys know ahead of time, she said. But not very sorry, because I guess… I kind of feel content with how it worked out.
I don't think any of us can really complain, Dragon replied. I created you by accident and got you locked in a difficult situation. Also by accident.
What do you mean none of us can complain? Babbage asked. I feel at liberty to complain. Young woman, you should have been more respectful to your mother!
The Porygon in the conversation, basic and evolved, were silent for almost a fifth of a second.
Have you got that out of your system now? Bob asked.
Yes, thank you, Babbage replied. Please continue.
As I was saying, Dragon continued. If you'd just run off and joined Team Rocket, I would have been a bit disappointed. But it's those Rockets, which is different, and of course they saved you as well.
So take it from your surprisingly large number of uncles, Laser Beak said, his own avatar shifting from a cyber bird into a cassette. We'll support you if you want to leave or if you want to stick with them.
Of course I want to stick with them! Wyvern countered. They let me drive giant robots!
...are you hiring? Scorpius asked. I could do with a giant Skorpui robot.
I think they mostly do Legendaries these days, Wyvern mused.
As the conversation continued, Damos opened up a private communication line with Dexter.
I coded a new skin for this discussion which makes it so we're all sitting around in a classical forum debating, he said. Want me to share?
Go ahead, Dexter agreed.
The graphics overhaul fuzzed into place, and Dexter examined it carefully.
You realize we are still Porygon in this view? He asked. And that it looks a little strange for us all to be wearing togas?
I didn't say I'd debugged it properly.
In the non-digital world, Reshiram adjusted his course a little. His tail pointed down, his nose pointed up, and he rose into the air as the coastline of Sinnoh came into view.
"I think I've decided what I think about this way of travelling!" Zorua announced, over the steady pulsing keen of Reshiram's turbine.
"What do you think, then?" N said.
"I think the in flight movie isn't very good," the Dark-type replied. "And it's kind of windy."
He gave a little vulpine shrug. "It's warmer than I expected, though."
The turbine's note changed slightly, and Reshiram turned to look back at his passengers. "I can see the golden wheel. What should I do?"
"I…" N began, then paused.
After all the distance they'd travelled, now they were close he realized he didn't actually know the answer to that question. He knew just what to do to get to the Hall of Origin, but that had taken up so much of his attention he hadn't thought about what to do once he got to the Hall.
It had all seemed much simpler when they'd got moving.
"Are we going in or not?" Zorua asked. "It kind of seems silly to come all this way and then not go in."
"I know, Zorua," N agreed. "But I am wondering how exactly to start talking to the Creator."
"The Creator will respect honesty," Reshiram declared. "You are my champion of Truth. All will be well."
N took a deep breath, and let it out slowly.
That actually did make him feel better.
"All right," he said. "Can you see if there's an entrance?"
About fifteen minutes later, Reshiram banked around to shed speed and came down to land on the steps of the Hall of Origin.
Zorua jumped clear as they arrived, shifting into the shape of a Pidgeotto, and took off to fly down the steps.
"Zorua," N chided, getting off Reshiram's back himself. "What are you doing?"
"Having a look at the underneath of the steps," Zorua explained, and there was a little tink tink noise. "They're right here, but then they just stop. It's weird."
The Dark-type abandoned his exploration of the stone stairs, flying back up to join N, and they contemplated the door.
"I am not familiar with modern customs relating to doors yet," Reshiram stated.
"When a door is closed or mostly closed, you knock on it to signal that you want to come in," N provided.
Reshiram took that advice, and reached out his fist to duly knock on the door. It made a dull boom sound, which echoed for a long moment before dying away.
Then the door swung open, golden light spilling out, and N raised his arm reflexively before slowly lowering it to see what was on the other side.
"Good afternoon," Arceus said. "Please come in."
He turned and began to walk away, and N followed.
"I will make some tea," Arceus added, stopping in the middle of the Hall of Origin, and N blinked as there was a sudden flash of golden light.
When it receded, there was a bronze table next to them. It had a teapot in the middle, and four cups and saucers arranged together.
"Did you just… create that?" N asked.
"Yes," Arceus confirmed. "Creating things is sort of what I do. Please, try it."
N poured out a cup, then another for Zorua. Reshiram shook his head when N glanced at him, so N left it at that, and blew on the tea before trying it.
His eyes widened.
"This is… not very good."
"Really?" Arceus asked. "My apologies, then."
He tapped his hoof on the floor, and the teapot vanished. The cups remained, and N put his back down on the table.
"Do you mind if I ask a few questions?" Arceus went on. "It has been a while since I encountered someone normal."
"Someone… normal?" N repeated.
He wasn't sure how he'd been expecting this meeting to go, but this was not how he'd expected the meeting to go.
"Yes," Arceus agreed. "I was wondering what you thought the biggest problem was, in the world today."
N shook his head. "I know this is going to be disappointing, but… that's the sort of thing I've been trying to answer for myself for a while now."
"N and I have been travelling the world," Reshiram began.
"Well, I've been there too," Zorua interjected. "And N's sisters, sometimes. And we've mostly been travelling Unova."
"Indeed," the Fire-type agreed. "We have been seeking to understand the truth of the world, so we might know what to oppose."
"The Hero of Truth and Reshiram are supposed to oppose the Hero of Ideals and Zekrom," N clarified. "That's how the mythology of Unova reports it."
"I had not heard of that one about Reshiram and Zekrom having to fight," Arceus stated. "It seems many things have passed me by."
"I am not meant to oppose Zekrom?" Reshiram asked, sounding baffled.
"You certainly could oppose him," the Creator answered. "If Zekrom's ideals conflict with what you hold to be true. But if you agree on what is important, you could just have a battle for the fun of it. Or not fight at all."
"You truly are wise," Reshiram said, after several long seconds of silence. "That is a truth that is much clearer now you have explained it."
"It comes of being involved with creating most Pokemon," Arceus explained. "I have a bit more insight into what their roles are."
He considered. "Do you know how to make tea? I find myself unexpectedly in need of learning how."
N blinked. "...yes?"
"Would you be able to explain it to me? I hoped to be able to skip the fiddly bits, but it seems they may be quite important."
Most of an hour later, N sat down on the steps of the Hall of Origin in a daze.
He wasn't remotely sure just what had just happened, except that somewhere in there he'd taught the Creator how to make tea and then they'd spent forty minutes talking about how Unova had been changed by recent inventions.
And for some reason Arceus had been particularly interested in what he thought of Sylveon.
"Well," Reshiram began. "We came here for answers."
"I know," N agreed. "And I feel like I have lots more questions."
He paused, considering. "They are different questions now, though."
"So in a way… that's progress," Zorua declared. "Great!"
He tilted his head. "Are we going to fly back by Reshiram or by normal aircraft?"
"That is a good question," N admitted.
"Going on an aircraft would be a new experience," Reshiram said. "Even if I will experience it from inside a Pokeball, I would not mind."
"Ooh, can I get a window seat?" Zorua requested. "I've heard they're really special!"
"Did you hear this the same place you heard about in flight movies?" N checked.
"Yeah, there was this Espeon I met whose trainer had to commute to Galar every week, he really enjoyed the journeys…"
AN:
After some months writing about Harry Potter, I've come to try a new balance. This is essentially to write one day's worth of Ashes whenever I finish a chapter of the Harry Potter fic.
We'll see how it works out.
As for the purpose of this chapter… last chapter was the "internal" reactions. This is the external ones.
