Shortly after the semi-finals had ended, Vaporeon, Zeraora and Raboot all headed to the hospital to check up on their friends. Hitmonchan had returned to her hotel room not too long ago as she knew Gallade would not wish for her to spend the whole time worrying about him, but Blaziken refused to leave Machoke and Gardevoir's side for the time being.

Of course, while the trio followed a nurse down the hallway, they looked at the rooms where their other friends were resting. At the very least, the blue fox would definitely check up on Morgrem and Rolycoly before she left. After all, they were awake, so it would be wrong not to visit them.

Once they reached Scorbunny's room, Raboot immediately raced over to her side and asked, "So, how is she, nurse? She'll be okay, right? I mean, she's a member of my family. Of course she'll be okay," before clearing his throat, holding his hands against his hips and stating, "She's tough, like me."

The nurse bowed her head and said, "Don't worry, she'll be alright. In fact, the doctors say she'll wake up before the day ends. But that electric shock was actually worse than it looked. As such, she won't be able to move her legs for at least a week. We'll give her a wheelchair so she can still hang out with you, but as for the finals..."

"It's fine," Vaporeon replied with a monotone voice, "She's done all she can. I'll be fine." The nurse bowed again and exited the room before Zeraora rested a hand on Vaporeon's shoulder with a look of concern.

The blue fox managed to form a real smile this time before she leaned toward Scorbunny and kissed her forehead, whispering, "Get well soon," before Raboot said, "You two can go check up on the others if you'd like. I'd like to spend more time with my distant cousin, if you don't mind."

Vaporeon nodded and turned around only for the male rabbit to add, "Wait, Vaporeon, before you go, I have a couple of things I'd like to say."

The blue fox turned and blinked before he bowed and said, "First off, thank you for giving my cousin the happiness she deserves. I'm a little shocked by what side she plays for, but I'm glad she has someone like you to spend her life with."

Vaporeon smiled sweetly and replied, "Well, I'm glad you approve. It was very nice meeting you, too," Raboot then adding, "Oh yeah, there was something else I wanted to say."

He then rested his hands on Vaporeon's shoulders, looked deep into her eyes and sighed, "I know what's going through your head right now. As hard as it may be to believe, I've had moments like this. I've seen my friends fall to opponents so tough, I didn't think I could possibly beat them. But I persevered and most of all, I managed to defeat them. I imagine you've probably never faced anyone as powerful as those two. I certainly haven't, but I know you and Zeraora can win."

Vaporeon was a tad shocked. She had not expected someone this full of himself to give her such sound advice. But ultimately, it seemed to work when a smile formed on her face and she nodded her head. She then gave him a hug and sniffed, "Thank you, Great G-" only to stop herself and utter, "Raboot, yeah. Thank you, Raboot."

She then released him, smiled sweetly at Scorbunny and exited the room along with Zeraora as Raboot stood there with a blank look on his face. He then blinked his eyes tightly and uttered, "Was she about to call me 'Great Grandpa'?" holding his right ear in front of his face and noticing how grey his fur was.

Vaporeon and Zeraora made a quick visit to Morgrem and Rolycoly's room. Luckily for them, both were able to get up just in time for them to enter, the goblin grinning and squealing, "Hey, guys!" She then ran over to Vaporeon, gave her a big hug and added, "You and Scorbunny were amazing!"

Rolycoly nodded and replied, "Yeah, you really let Toxtricity and Sutorinda have it," before sighing, "Still, it really sucks that Machoke and Gardevoir lost. You can beat those two dragons, right?"

Vaporeon nodded and replied, "Yeah, I'm sure I can," before sighing, "By the way, you know Scorbunny won't be able to fight alongside me again, right?"

Morgrem blinked and replied, "Actually, no. We saw footage showing her pass out, but we didn't think it was that bad," Rolycoly shrugging and saying, "At least you still got Zeraora, right?"

The cat smiled while Vaporeon nodded and squealed, "Yep! As long as I got him by my side, there's no way I can lose!" wrapping her arm around his neck and giving him a noogie. His eyes widened before he chuckled, "Hey, come on, stop!"

The blue fox then sighed, "I just hope the others will be awake by then. I'm surprised Shaymin and Melmetal are still unconscious. It's been more than a week now."

"Well, I imagine they would probably regain consciousness before your match," Rolycoly replied, "And I bet the others will, too. After all, you got a whole week before your match begins, right? They have to wake up by then."

Vaporeon nodded and said, "I guess you're right. Not even Dialga and Palkia can keep them out for that long, and besides, Drizzile lost to Toxtricity and Sutorinda. They're nowhere near as powerful."

She then tapped her chin and uttered, "You know, they might actually be awake by now. They've been out for about the same amount of time you guys were," thus all four headed out of the room to check up on them.

When they entered, they were surprised to see Drizzile and Gallade still asleep. Blaziken, who was by their side, noticed them and sighed, "Yeah, sorry. They're still out like a light."

But as if by some miracle, Drizzile managed to open his eyes before he yawned and sat upright, smacking his lips. He then turned to see Vaporeon and the others there, his eyes wide open as he gasped, "Oh my god! Where are we!?"

He then looked around and sighed, "Dammit, so we really did lose," Morgrem nodding and replying, "Yeah, but on the bright side, Vaporeon won her match," Blaziken replying, "That's right. She and Scorbunny gave them a run for their money."

Vaporeon nodded before the chameleon smiled and said, "Well, that's good to know," Blaziken turning to face Gallade and groaning, "Still, I get the funny feeling he probably won't live this down. Unless it's against a friend, he doesn't take losses well."

Drizzile chuckled, "You know, that actually doesn't surprise me, though I certainly don't blame him. If my track record was like his, I'd probably be more upset about our loss."

He then slid out from under the covers and stood perfectly against the floor. At that moment, a nurse entered and gasped when she saw this. Thus she raced over and examined Drizzile closely to make sure he really was okay to move, and after a few seconds, she smiled and said, "Good. You've made a full recovery."

Just before the nurse could take her leave, though, Gallade bolted upright and snapped, "Ah-hah! You thought you had us beat, but-" looking around at his surroundings and groaning, "Of course I'd wind up here of all places."

He then noticed the others standing there, Drizzile and Blaziken smiling before the green man asked, "What day is it?" Vaporeon took out her phone and showed him the date before he groaned, "Oh, come on! So we really did lose!?"

Just as Drizzile was about to try and calm him down, he sighed, "Oh well. At least I actually made it to the quarter-finals," the chameleon along with Blaziken breathing a sigh of relief before Gallade turned to him and added, "And it's all thanks to you. Seriously, I've never done this well in any competition."

Vaporeon and the others smiled sweetly before he blinked and said, "Considering the date and time, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say the semis are over, right? So, who are the finalists?" Vaporeon grinning and squealing, "Well, the first team fighting will be me and my awesome partner here," resting a hand on Zeraora's shoulder.

The cat blushed lightly and nodded before Gallade said, "So that means you must have beaten Toxtricity and Sutorinda. That makes me glad," Drizzile nodding and enquiring, "Speaking of which, did Rillaboom and Aipom win their match?"

The area went silent as the fox and cat bit their lower lips and Blaziken rubbed her arm nervously. After all, only the chicken, Morgrem and Rolycoly knew how things had gone. As such, they explained everything while Drizzile stared wide-eyed and shook his head. When Gallade heard that even Machoke and Gardevoir had lost to Dialga and Palkia, he simply could not believe it. At the very least, the reptilian had a knack for defeating even the most major of threats.

Even so, the green man took a deep breath and said, "Well, I guess it could have been worse. He could have lost to a couple of villains. I may not want to see Dialga and Palkia win the tournament, but I'd at least accept it," Blaziken's beak wide open while Zeraora pursed his lips. All the while, the heroes from Edmonton could not help but wonder why those two reacted like that. Had they figured out the dragons' secret?

Gallade did not seem to notice this, thus he chuckled, "Anyway, Drizzile, seriously, thank you so much for being my partner. It was great working alongside you," holding out his hand. The chameleon beamed bright and shook it before the green man added, "I bet you probably want to spend time with your friends, don't you? I'd join you, but I think I owe Hitmonchan a date after being out for this long."

Blaziken chuckled before Drizzile replied, "It's been an honour fighting with you," before he and the others exited the room, Gallade sighing, "What a great guy."

He then found a nearby phone and used it to call up Hitmonchan to tell her that he was awake. Needless to say, she was beyond thrilled to hear that and agreed to go on a date with him right away. After all, she really had no plans for the rest of the day.

Later that evening, Vaporeon was about to head with Zeraora to his house before the cat enquired, "Would you guys like to stay over as well? I mean, my place is pretty small, but I wouldn't mind a little extra company."

"No thanks," Morgrem replied with a grin, "It's a nice offer and all, but we already have our own hotel room booked and we'd hate to waste it."

Rolycoly nodded and added, "Besides, you and Vaporeon will need to work hard to prepare yourselves. Just from that one match we saw, we can tell Dialga and Palkia will be a major challenge."

Vaporeon nodded and replied, "Well, as long as you're certain," Drizzile saying, "Well, I got nowhere to go. I'd rather let Gallade spend time with Hitmonchan. Besides, I'm more than happy to help you train."

Zeraora smiled and unlocked the door before he said, "Well, you're more than welcome," letting the chameleon into his house. Vaporeon was especially happy to be back. Sure, it had only been three days, but she had gotten used to staying here since she arrived in this time.

And so, the fox immediately got to work on dinner as Drizzile and Zeraora chatted at the table. The chameleon wanted to enquire about why Vaporeon's partner in the semi-finals was Scorbunny, but he figured it might be better not to look too deep into it. As such, the two focused more on different sorts of topics, Zeraora fascinated to hear that the chameleon had a fiance back home.

"While Gallade was a huge inspiration for me, I never would have beaten Runerigus had she not been there to cheer me on," Drizzile explained before Zeraora uttered, "Wow, that's so sweet. It makes me want to get a girlfriend."

"Well, I'm sure it'll happen someday," Drizzile replied before Vaporeon brought in three plates of curry and rice and set it down. The chameleon picked up a spoonful and popped it into his mouth before a big smile formed on his face.

"I've missed your cooking," he sighed, "It feels like it's been forever," Vaporeon chuckled, "Well, you should have dropped by much sooner," Zeraora loving the taste as well. He never would have imagined having food this good in his house before.

Once dinner was over, the trio got ready for bed, Drizzile claiming the couch. But just as Vaporeon was ready to crawl under the covers of Zeraora's futon, the cat said, "Hey, um, Vaporeon, before we go to sleep, there's something I'd like to talk to you about."

The fox nodded and asked, "What is it?" Zeraora taking a deep breath and enquiring, "Well, remember when you told me why you took me as your teammate and I left the area?"

"Yeah?" Vaporeon uttered before the cat explained, "Well, I overheard you and Scorbunny talking and, well, both of you mentioned something about Dialga and Palkia being evil. Is that true?"

The fox stared in stunned silence. She could not believe he had actually been nearby when Scorbunny said that. This was exactly the conversation she and the others had tried to avoid. Sure, it would have been great to expose the dragons for the villains they were, but they could not do this without revealing where, or rather when they came from.

With that in mind, Vaporeon took a deep breath and said, "Okay, you might wanna get comfortable, because there's a lot you need to know."

Zeraora took a seat before she replied, "You heard that right. Dialga and Palkia are villains. Granted, most of this is stuff Shaymin told us, but basically, she fought them on Hero Planet and lost to them."

"Wait, she fought them on Hero Planet?" Zeraora uttered, "But then how did none of the staff members see that?" Vaporeon chuckling, "This is where things get complicated."

The fox proceeded to explain how the sources of the dragons' power had apparently been taken from them prior to Shaymin's encounter with them, specifically Palkia's wings and Dialga's voice. She mentioned how both had gone to Hero Planet to retrieve them so that Dialga could use his voice to create a rift in the space time continuum. Zeraora stared in shock when Vaporeon went on to explain how this allowed them to go back in time to this era, and of course, she had to reveal that she and her friends had followed them in a flying time machine.

"Wait, back up!" Zeraora retorted with a dumbstruck look in his eyes, "If all of you had to go back in time to stop these two, that means that you and your friends are from the future. Are you really from the future!?"

Vaporeon took a deep breath and replied, "Yeah. In fact, Leafeon is actually my great grandma," the cat truly stunned by all of this. While this was hard to believe, in a way, it all made sense. The more he thought about it, the more he realized it did seem a tad contrived that both Scorbunny and Vaporeon just happened to have distant cousins staying in Tokyo and that only they had known about them.

"The only problem is that, well, we can't really expose Dialga and Palkia as villains," Vaporeon sighed, "In order to prove it, we'd have to reveal that we're from the future. We'd have to let the entire world know, and, well, if they knew that we'll one day be born later, it could mess with our time. Hell, we might even cease to exist."

Zeraora nodded and replied, "Yeah, that makes sense," before he nodded, grinned and replied, "As long as we defeat those two, it won't even matter, right? We'll save the world and keep your secret safe."

The fox's eyes sparkled before she gave the cat a hug, saying, "You really are the best partner I could have asked for," Zeraora patting her on the back and replying, "It's a shame you'll have to leave when this is all over, but I'm glad I met you."

Vaporeon nodded and said, "Same here," before crawling under the futon cover, "Dialga and Palkia set up this tournament so they could defeat the world's best heroes live. I don't entirely know what they intend to do after that, but whatever it is, they must be stopped."

Zeraora grinned and stated, "Yep, and we'll stop them together," before he chuckled, "Imagine me defeating my first villain. As if winning three official matches wasn't amazing enough. I still can't believe I have this chance."

Suddenly, his cell phone started to ring, thus he looked at the caller ID, blinked and said, "Feel free to go to sleep any time. I need to take this," exiting the room before Vaporeon shrugged and slowly closed her eyes with a yawn.

When Zeraora answered, he smiled and said, "Hey, Mom. You don't usually call. What's up?" a female voice replying, "I just wanted to call you to tell you how proud I am of you. I wish you'd called and told me about this."

The cat blinked and enquired, "Wait, before you go further, is this about what I think it is?" before his mother squealed, "If you were thinking it's about what you've been up to for the last week and a half, then yeah! One of my coworkers told me about it and showed me a bit of footage! I was wondering when you'd discover you could create electricity!"

Zeraora's eyes widened as he uttered, "Oh my god, you're right. I really should have called you about that," before he asked, "Wait, you're okay with this?"

"Well, not at first," the female replied, "In fact, there was always a part of me that felt glad you never thought to become a hero. But, well, after what I saw from your fight with that bird and rabbit, I can see this is something you're good at. I don't think I've seen you so happy since you were nine."

Zeraora blinked and looked back to how he felt after the match ended. While Vaporeon had been guilty about the lengths she went to, he was thrilled to have won the match. And as his mother carried on to praise his skills, he had the biggest smile on his face, wondering how she would react when she heard that he helped defeat two dangerous villains in the finals.

And so, the following day, Vaporeon and Zeraora trained extra hard for their match. While the fox had suggested that they take some downtime every now and then, this time, the cat was adamant about their training. After all, this was not just another match. They absolutely had to win this one at all cost.

However, after they had witnessed the Muscle Coffin's defeat, they also realized they could not rely primarily on their new team move. For all they knew, Dialga and Palkia might have found a way around it. Thus they put a lot of emphasis on many of their other moves. After all, they knew the dragons would not fall for the same tactic Rillaboom and Aipom had used and that they did not have a special power that increased their physical strength exponentially. At the very least, they figured they might stand a much bigger chance if they could make their best moves more effective.

All the while, Dialga and Palkia still continued to train, only they did not put as much effort into it as they normally would. Somewhere in the middle of it all, the purple dragon sighed, "You know, Dialga, I don't really see the point in training right now."

"Indeed," Dialga replied with a smirk, "This almost seems unfair. I'll admit, that Vaporeon has proven herself a good fighter, but we just recently defeated the world champion. I almost feel like not training just to give them a fighting chance."

But before he could say more, Palkia seemed to read his mind when she added, "But if we did that, we'd be taking too much of a risk, right?" Dialga nodding and saying, "You know, Palkia, you seem to have gotten a lot smarter as of late. Not only did you come up with that brilliant electric cage idea, but you've been seeing eye to eye with me an awful lot."

"Yeah, well, you've been a good influence, I guess," Palkia replied with a light smile, "But I seriously can't believe it. We are so close to success. After this match, the whole world will fear us. God, I just wish we could have the final match tomorrow instead of next week."

Dialga nodded and replied, "Still, we have to follow some traditions. It's always been like that. The final match is the most important one, so fighters are given a week to prepare."

A fiendish grin then formed on his face before he added, "Although I actually kinda hope Shaymin will be able to attend the match. I want to see the look on her face when she sees us come out on top. If we couldn't kill her without being disqualified, the least we can do is have her grovel at our feet."

Palkia tapped her chin and enquired, "Hey, you know, I was thinking, in order to really make a statement, should we go all-out and kill Vaporeon? I feel like at least one murder would show the world just how serious we are about this," Dialga nodding and saying, "Once again, we're on the same page. After all, we've already advanced to the finals. We don't need to adhere to the rules anymore."

The following day, Melmetal finally awoke. He sat up in his bed and took a deep breath, thinking, 'My god, that wasn't a dream. We really did lose,' before noticing Shaymin on the bed next to him. He looked with concern until he noticed a smile form on her face before she chuckled, "Oh no, I couldn't possibly accept anymore. That chicken was filling enough."

The cyborg shifted is eye around to imply rolling a pupil before he stretched his arm toward her and gave her shoulder a light nudge. When this failed to get a reaction, he took a deep breath and pushed her harder. Eventually, he pushed so hard that it caused her to roll off her bed, thus he clasped his hand over the bottom of his head.

"Hey, what the hell was that for!?" Shaymin snapped before she sprang to her feet, Melmetal gasping, "Oh my god! I'm so sorry!"

The hedgehog took a deep breath and remarked, "No, no, it's fine. I'm just really pissed off right now," the cyborg uttering, "I said I was sorry," only for Shaymin to sigh, "I don't mean that. I'm just pissed because we were supposed to stop Dialga and Palkia and we failed miserably! Now all I can do is hope to God that Rillaboom and Aipom actually beat them!"

At that moment, a nurse walked by and uttered, "Um, excuse me, but could I ask you to-" her eyes wide open as she gasped, "Oh my! You're up!" She then approached them and examined them closely before she smiled and said, "Well, look at that. You're both in perfect condition."

Shaymin nodded and replied, "Naturally," before she asked, "Say, could you tell us what day it is?" the nurse stating, "Oh, it's August eleventh."

Melmetal and Shaymin stared in stunned silence before the hedgehog cried, "Dammit! I've been unconscious for a week!?" before sighing, "At least tell me Dialga and Palkia were defeated."

"Oh no," the nurse replied, "In fact, they're going up against Vaporeon and Zeraora in the finals." Melmetal and Shaymin both stared in horror. And when the nurse mentioned that Machoke and Gardevoir had lost to them, their fear only heightened.

"How many days are left until the finals, anyway?" Melmetal enquired before the nurse said, "It's six days from now, so you have plenty of time to enjoy your stay in Tokyo until then."

Shaymin frowned and turned to Melmetal, grunting, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" The cyborg stared down at her with a serious look and replied, "Hell yeah I am."

And so, the duo followed the nurse out of the room to the exit. There was no way they would sit back and do nothing. They could not risk fighting Dialga and Palkia, of course. Even if they won, it could be seen as an unprovoked attack, thus they could easily be branded as criminals. There was another way they could help, and this was soon made clear when Shaymin arrived at Zeraora's house with a sheet of paper in front of her face.

"Yep, this is where those nice high school kids told us to go," the hedgehog said with a smile, "With our help, they'll be unstoppable."