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Feedback: Always appreciated

AN: A key detail revealed in this chapter was inspired by 'Pokemon Reset Bloodlines', and is used with the permission of the author; you'll probably know it when you see it

Temporal War

As Charizard and Greninja leapt into action, Ash was proud to see that each one had chosen the best target. Real or essentially illusionary, Charizard would have had significant trouble going up against Palkia, but he might just have a chance against a part-Steel type even if it was a Legendary Dragon, and Greninja could at least keep Palkia at bay even if it didn't have a clear type advantage. He thought about ordering Pikachu to join Greninja, but when Cyrus thrust a hand out towards him and nearly sent Ash crashing into a nearby tree before Ash dived to the side, Ash decided that he was grateful the electric mouse was staying close to him.

"You were foolish to come here, Ash Ketchum," Cyrus said, staring coolly at Ash as the displaced trainer got back to his feet to glare at the Team Galactic leader. "Do you imagine these illusions are all I learned how to do while outside reality?"

"The thought came to mind," Ash responded, wincing at the strange twist in his guts as a Flamethrower from Charizard sent the fake Dialga flying close by them. Cyrus tried to use the opportunity to attack Ash himself, but Ash recalled a move he'd seen a Fighting-type pull off and grabbed Cyrus's wrist as the man tried to punch him, spinning around to throw the Team Galactic leader off to one side before he turned his attention back to the battles around them.

As he watched, Dialga fired something at Charizard that put Ash in mind of Dragonbreath, but the orange dragon-like Pokemon was able to counter the attack with his own Dragonbreath. The initial attack just sent Dialga back a couple of steps, but Charizard continued by lashing out with a Steel Wing that Cyrus's illusion only just managed to counter with a Metal Claw.

As the two dragons lashed out at each other with further Steel-based attacks, Ash risked a glance over at Palkia, and was pleased to see that Pikachu was doing its best to help Greninja. He still needed a degree of focus to maintain the frog-like Pokemon's transformed state, but so far he felt comfortable keeping that up without needing to totally focus on what Greninja was doing; maybe it was something to do with him needing to keep his focus everywhere else-

Ash suddenly found himself sent flying when something struck him in the back of the head, hurling him into the nearest tree. As he scrambled back to his feet, Ash cursed himself for getting distracted; he had enough to deal with in this mess without getting lost in his own thoughts. Turning his attention back to the fight, Ash smiled in relief as he saw Charizard and Greninja continuing to hold their own. The illusionary Legendaries were able to take a fair amount of punishment, but Greninja in particular was good at evading attacks, and Pikachu was darting in to divert a few of Dialgia's attacks with his Thunderbolts to limit how much damage Charizard had to take.

The forest around them was going to take a hit before this fight was over, and it was easy to see that Cyrus's creations were working to avoid doing any damage to the shrine, but Pikachu, Charizard and Greninja might still have a chance…

"Your Pokemon are strong, but do you truly think they can defeat two Legendaries?" Cyrus glared at Ash. "You are arrogant, but even you aren't that arrogant…"

"Charizard took on a real Articuno and fought a fake Entei, and Greninja can hold its own against a Mega Sceptile; I think they can do a bit of damage here," Ash retorted, shooting a cold glare at Cyrus even as he decided not to respond to the accusation of arrogance. He knew that he could get cocky at times, but this man wasn't in a position to call anyone else 'arrogant' given the scale of his own plans.

"What are you even trying to do here, Cyrus?" he said, fingers crossed that the man would decide to talk now that it was just the two of them as the five Pokemon battled in the clearing around them. "Summon Celebi to try and use it to do that whole 'destroy the universe' bit all over again? You already failed to pull that off once-"

"I would explain my objective, but frankly you would never understand the scope of Celebi's true potential," Cyrus stated, glaring coldly back at his enemy. "I have seen the true scope of reality, and I will have order, Ash Ketchum-"

"And what gives you the right to decide something like that?" Ash retorted, privately wishing he'd actually tried to learn how to fight by himself at some point. He had picked up a few things from watching Fighting Pokemon in particular, but he knew that there was a big difference between watching others fight and putting any of those moves into practice. "You're just some nut who had a bad life-"

"I have seen more of life and the world than you can ever conceive, both before and after I was displaced from existence, and can confirm all that I have told you," Cyrus countered, arms folded as though Ash wasn't worth fighting directly as the five Pokemon seemed to dance around them, each move seemingly choreographed to never strike near the two humans regardless of how intense Charizard's flames were or how the powerful the faux-Legendaries' attacks were. "All over this world, people struggle and fail to achieve their dreams every day, with those who are successful holding their position at the top of the pile and so many lesser striving for goals they shall never achieve. All life is little more than meaningless specks in a vast void that will never be known or understood; is it not humane to free them all from such pathetic despair?"

"Life isn't like that."

"It is exactly like that-"

"Only if you decide it is!"

"You honestly believe that?" Cyrus observed with a tone that Ash would expect to hear from someone criticising a child who'd made a stupid mistake in their homework. "When you have spent years seeking to gain a title that you must have recognised you can never achieve-"

"I only fail if I give up, and I'll never give up!" Ash protested indignantly. "Maybe I don't win the Leagues completely, but I've always done better than anyone expected me to when I entered them as a relative rookie; there's nothing wrong with making the top sixteen the first time you compete professionally!"

"And your personal life?" Cyrus said, almost smirking as he spoke, his low voice somehow constantly audible even as the dragons battled Ash's three partners. "When you lose contact with 'friends' and are perpetually tormented by those who would cause you harm for fundamentally petty motivations? When you continually form new 'friendships' seeking some 'perfect' team that you cannot even acknowledge you will never find? When you consistently come so far in official contests only to fall short of your impossible goal? Your longest standing relationship has been with your enemies and you have repeatedly failed to cross the final hurdles facing you; what makes you feel this life is worth protecting?"

"You're seriously…?" Ash began, before he shook his head and glared at Cyrus in exasperation. "Look, I don't know what happened to make you like this, and I'm sorry if you feel like you had a crap life, but that doesn't give you the right to decide that everyone else has to die because you think the world never gives people what they want! Just because I don't talk to people every day doesn't mean that they stop being important to me, and if you can't understand that you clearly never had a true friend yourself! I never thought I'd say this to anyone, but why don't you just do everyone a favour and kill yourself if you're so miserable and leave the rest of us alone!"

Under normal circumstances, Ash would have hated how bitter and angry he sounded in that moment, but after seeing so much of the world that Cyrus wanted to destroy, he just couldn't bring himself to care. If Cyrus thought that he honestly had the right to destroy everything even after spending however long he'd been outside of the universe trapped and alone, Ash wasn't sure anything he could say would make the man realise how screwed up and twisted he really was-

As though in response to Ash's yells, two Dragonbreath attacks struck the area near him, only just missing their target when Pikachu launched simultaneous Thunderbolts that knocked the dragons' jaws slightly off-target. Cyrus just stood by nonchalantly as Greninja launched a Water Pulse at Palkia, even as the following Thunder attack from Pikachu sent the dragon to the ground. Glancing over at Cyrus, Ash allowed himself a slight grin to see the surprise on the face of the Team Galactic leader, before he turned his focus back to his Pokemon.

"OK; Pikachu, shoot a Thunderbolt at Palkia, while Charizard and Greninja use Flamethrower and Water Shuriken on Dialga at once!" he yelled, punching the air in victory as the attacks struck the semi-transparent Legendary Dragons. Even the original Dialga would have been affected by that attack, and this illusionary one would have had no real chance to cope with the assault, while Pikachu's own Thunderbolt was the most devastating burst of energy he'd ever seen his friend produce. As Ash watched, Dialga and Palkia staggered for a moment before they fell to the ground, their already-transparent forms vanishing as Ash's three Pokemon gathered around him. Pikachu perched on Ash's shoulder as Greninja stood alongside Ash, the two adopting a similar combat stance, while Charizard posed behind Ash with its wings spread as it glared angrily at Cyrus.

"I must confess, you surprise me, Ketchum," Cyrus observed, looking at Ash with the closest thing to a smirk Ash had seen Cyrus display since he learned the man's true agenda. "I anticipated your stubborn defiance if we met again, but I didn't think you'd throw off my influence this quickly."

"Your influence?" Ash repeated, trying not to think about the sudden gnawing sense of apprehension in his stomach.

"Did you honestly never wonder why your performance in battle so consistently suffered after our confrontation in Mount Coronet?"

"Huh?" Ash looked at Cyrus in confusion, briefly noting similar inquiring sounds from his three Pokemon, even as his mind found itself recalling every battle he'd been in after his last meeting with Cyrus for some sign of what his enemy might be talking about. "What the Hell are you-?"

"The poor performance of your Toretta even when fighting from a position of strength, your dismal choice of Pokemon for the confrontation with a man whom you knew possessed at least one Legendary on his team, relying on a single Pokemon for your fifth Gym battle in Unova, your poor showing against a Bug-type gym when you had a clear type advantage, attempting a completely new battle strategy against a powerful opponent just because you felt like it even when it swiftly proved foolish… Is any of this ringing a bell?"

"Oh Arceus…" Ash said, eyes widening in horror as he processed Cyrus's words.

He'd like to believe that the Team Galactic leader was lying, but there was no way Cyrus could have just learned all of that information since he returned to reality when most of it happened in the future, and it wasn't like Cyrus hadn't already demonstrated some unusual powers…

"I could have done the same to your associates, of course, but I never had a good head for Contests, manipulating Cynthia's abilities would have made it too obvious that something was happening, those Team Rocket idiots made enough mistakes on their own, and the doctor and the secret agent don't often engage in battles even now; you were the best candidate to help me test myself."

"Test yourself?" Ash repeated, feeling emotionally numb at these new revelations.

Those last few years… every time I did something really stupid…

He liked to think that he always took responsibility for his own mistakes even if he appreciated that he didn't always respond very well to being confronted with the fact that he'd screwed up, but Cyrus's words were starting to make a twisted kind of sense…

"My ability to manipulate reality, of course," Cyrus said, utterly nonchalant about his latest revelation as though he was just discussing an interesting specimen he'd found somewhere. "Once I understood how I could reach out and influence the world behind me, it was almost childishly simple to exert my influence on your mental state. Shifting your competency levels as you travelled was minor compared to my former goals, but it was a good way to test myself until I could better understand my limits."

"Test yourself," Ash repeated, staring bitterly at Cyrus.

"I was even experimenting with retarding your emotional development, but to be frank you were doing that yourself for the most part," Cyrus shrugged dismissively. "It's almost a pity that your little run-in with Celebi dragged me back here before I could take it further; I was contemplating seeing if I could exert enough influence so that you would choose to go back to school as though you had to start all over from scratch…"

"So you're telling me," Ash growled, rage boiling inside him in a manner he couldn't recall ever feeling before, "that you've spent the last few years… while you were trapped outside existence… just… playing with my mind… to test yourself?"

"Everyone needs a hobby," Cyrus affirmed. "You deserved some punishment for thwarting my attempt to remake this world-"

Ash only realised he was roaring in rage as he charged at the older man, and only halted his enraged yell when he was abruptly thrown back to the ground, an outstretched hand the only clear indication that Cyrus had done anything to him. He glanced anxiously around himself, but his Pokemon were all in the same state, with Greninja reverted to its natural state and Pikachu trapped against Charizard's chest on the wall behind them.

"But," Cyrus continued, glaring coldly at Ash even as his hands held the Pokemon down, "your continued inability to admit failure means that I will now take personal satisfaction in ensuring your brutal, final demise before I complete my current efforts."

"I'm the one who can't admit failure?" Ash protested, privately grateful that he could at least lift his head to glare at Cyrus. "I just refused to give up; everyone does it, except for you!"

"I gave up?" Cyrus's glare shifted to a smirk. "When I have completed this plan even after your interference-"

"When you decided to just stick with that sick plan even after seeing everything else!" Ash retaliated, Pikachu, Charizard and Greninja letting out indignant noises of agreement with their trainer's protests. "I keep travelling to see more of the world, and all you did was get stuck outside reality and refuse to give up trying to unmake existence; I think we both know who failed the last time we were in the same place!"

"Extraneous circumstances-"

"We weren't exactly in a normal situation, Cyrus; you can't just act like me winning was a fluke!" Ash yelled back, trying to get back to his feet only to be forced back down once again, along with a roar of protest from Charizard. "This isn't-!"

"Shut up!" Cyrus yelled, slamming Ash firmly into the ground with a cold glare at the trainer, as the illusionary Dialga and Palkia reappeared behind Cyrus. "You have been a persistent thorn in my plans since the moment you became aware of Team Galactic's operations, far beyond what any conventional trainer of your meagre abilities should have been capable of. I pride myself on taking rational action that will ensure the creation of a purer world to the exclusion of personal desires, but be assured that I will take considerable pleasure in witnessing your demise before I complete-"

"You son of a bitch!" Ash yelled-

-A blue-and-black face with big ears and a long snout, staring at him with solemn red eyes-

'The aura is with you, Ash Ketchem…'-

The vision had only just faded when Ash realised that his arms were suddenly free again, as though Cyrus had just lost the power that he was using to hold Ash down. Without even thinking about it, Ash thrust both arms towards Cyrus and saw a burst of blue energy emerge from his hands to strike the Team Galactic leader, sending the older man flying backwards and causing Dialga and Palkia to do something that Ash could only think of as 'glitch'.

The strange event passed as soon as it had happened, but that pause was enough of an opportunity for Charizard and Pikachu to leap into action, striking the relevant opponents with a Flamethrower and a Thunderbolt respectively. Those attacks were followed by two large simultaneous Water Shurikens from Greninja that knocked both of the faux-Legendaries off their feet even as the frog-ninja leapt back to stand protectively in front of Ash. As the two dragons flew backwards, Cyrus raised his hand as though about to move them back into position, only for Ash to raise his own hand and release a strange blue wave of light before he had even consciously realised that he was doing it. Even as Ash watched, the strange blue energy struck Dialga and Palkia and the two illusions collapsed back in on themselves, the same energy wave sending Cyrus staggering back as it passed over him.

"What-?" Cyrus yelled, glaring indignantly at Ash as he regained his balance.

"Aura…" Ash whispered as he stared at his hand.