The Fight for the Throne (part 4: END)

Finished with their businesses, Azelf and Arceus returns to the mansion's realm.

"I think we should return soon," Azelf said. "I don't know why or how, but... I feel like... something bad's happening."

Arceus blinked. "Well... I wouldn't be surprised if chaos is happening right now," she said. "But I'm sure everything's fine. They're mature now... they should be. We've all been living for hundreds of years."

"...yeah, how does age even work for us?" Azelf asked. "Humans aging, I understand. All these common Pokémon, they also age normally... in their own standards and ways, I suppose. How come us powerful ones live forever?" she asked.

"You don't live forever," Arceus said. "I do."

"...we don't?"

The Alpha Pokémon smiled as she ultimately decided to open a portal back to their mansion anyways. "You see, Azelf, it's true that you all have lived for hundreds of years. Or thousands. I don't remember. But, it's impossible to live forever... unless it's me."

Azelf tilted her head. "Uh... sure."

"Of course, the world doesn't really get affected when even you powerful ones die of old age though. At least, not if I take care of it quickly."

"What about, say, Dialga or Palkia?" Azelf asked. "They control time and space. Without them, wouldn't the world distort or... uh... time mess up?"

"Not necessarily, but the control over time and space weakens, I suppose." Arceus rubbed her chin. "Let's say... uh... it's more like they also keep random time distortions and spatial distortions from happening. When Dialga and Palkia are gone, those random distortions have higher chance of happening anywhere- it's an energy thing. But it's not like the end of the world is happening for sure, they're random."

"I don't think that sounds pleasant either ways."

Her creator chuckled. "It isn't. But it's easy for me to simply create a new Dialga or Palkia within few minutes."

"Oh... right..." Azelf went quiet for a while as the two flew through the purple void surrounding them. "...wait, so basically if we all died, you'd just create new us and be over with it?"

"You make it sound like I don't really care about you all..." Arceus commented. "I mean, it is that simple to create you all again, but even then... everyone is precious to me, you know?" she said.

"We... are?" Azelf asked.

Arceus nodded. "Even if I've experienced hundreds of Dialga or Palkia, or millions of you or Mesprit or Uxie, or whatever, I still enjoy my time with all of you, I suppose."

"You suppose? Pft." Azelf chuckled and stared ahead. Then she recalled some of her fellow legendaries. "What about Mewtwo and Magearna?"

"Oh yeah, them. Humans tried to make a better Mew- that's where Mewtwo's from. She's more recent. As for Magearna... they made something called a Soul-Heart and created her around five hundred years ago. It's a bit troubling because the Soul-Heart apparently feeds on life energy..."

Azelf blinked. Yikes. "Hmm... oh, what about Deoxys?"

"Mutated virus. In the terms of the humans on your planet, she's an 'alien', apparently." Arceus scratched her head. "Where her virus comes from though, there's plenty of her kind... of course, I only gave ours a human form, but..."

There's many more!? Azelf gulped. One day she should visit Deoxys' planet... assuming it was safe. Whatever.

"And, uh, right. Raikou, Suicune and Entei were all modifications on normal Pokémon given by Ho-oh herself. They're not that old yet, and I don't know much anymore since it's technically her responsibility now. Who else, hmm..."

"Genesect?" Azelf asked.

"Normal extinct species, somehow revived with human technology and turned into a robot by some researchers from an organization known as... uh... Team Plasma, if I recalled correctly." Arceus sighed. "It's somewhat saddening that they did all that modifications to Genesect... poor thing, she was brought back in a time where she's the only one left in her species, and changed so much, too."

"Oh... ow." Azelf slightly pitied the Paleozoic Pokémon. "Sounds like you have it rough, Arceus."

"Yeah, I do..." The Alpha Pokémon then looked straight ahead. "Well, that asides, even if many Pokémon from the past are already extinct and gone forever, the past is the past. What I have to do is move on and keep creating new species to last in the future, I suppose."

"Oooh, new species." Azelf smiled. "Say, what do you think about creating a fourth lake guardian?"

Arceus blinked. "I was thinking more along the lines of creating new common species."

"Oh." The bluenette frowned. So much for that. She was definitely curious on how a fourth lake guardian would look like though. Her creator does, after all, have some weird tastes when it came to designs. "Well, okay then."

"Oh, look, we're almost there." Arceus petted the girl briefly and the two prepared to exit the portal.

What awaited them was the sight of their 'beloved' mansion, intact, safe and sound. Nobody seemed to be playing outside, so they assumed everyone was relaxing inside the mansion. However, something seemed off...

Azelf blinked. "...was the mansion always this... sloppily done?" she whispered.

"I... I don't think I did that bad of a job," Arceus replied, equally speechless.

What the two saw was indeed their mansion, but it looked plenty crooked and dirty. There were huge amounts of cracks along its surface, and some areas that seemed to be held together with... hardened mud... and ice?

"...do I even want to know what happened?" Azelf said.

"It... it can't be that bad," Arceus said. The two floated towards the windows to their dining room and were then surprised that all the windows were now made of ice. Strong, solid ice. They shrugged and phased through to the dining room and saw all the legendaries arguing... a normal sight.

They all froze when they saw Arceus and Uxie, however.

"...so," Azelf began. "What, uh, happened while we were away?"

They stared. Then they all pointed to Thundurus. "She's in charge of us, she holds all responsibility!" Darkrai exclaimed.

"Oh, now you take me as your scapegoat leader!" the humanized Forces of Nature member exclaimed.

"Why's the mansion so... tattered?" Arceus asked.

Then everyone pointed to Uxie.

"S-she might have went crazy a bit!" Darkrai exclaimed again.

Uxie? Crazy? Azelf mentally laughed. No way. "Well, at least it's not like you girls destroyed the mansion completely."

Cue nervous exchange of glances and fake laughter.

"...uh... I really hope you children didn't destroy the mansion," Arceus said.

Darkrai then started pointing wildly. "It did get destroyed but these idiots managed to rebuild almost everything!"

"Idiots!?" Mewtwo roared. "You didn't even help!"

"I provided motivation and reason!"

"You threatened to reveal embarrassing dreams we've had!"

"That's motivation! And reason!"

Arceus facepalmed. "Next time I'm just going to stay here. Simple as that." She looked around and spotted a cowering Diancie. "Diancie, maybe you can explain to me," she said. "You're one of the most normal Pokémon here after all."

"O-oh, um... let's see..." The Jewel Pokémon began counting on her human fingers. "D-Dialga, Palkia and Giratina fought... Tornadus defeated Uxie... R-Reshiram and Zekrom fought... and almost kissed..."

"W-wait-" Reshiram and Zekrom both yelled at the same time, face flushed red. The misunderstanding was somehow remembered, to their dismay.

Arceus and Azelf smirked. "Huh."

Then Diancie continued. "Celebi ran away... Uxie lost control... the mansion was destroyed... Dialga, Palkia and Giratina fought again... then everyone competed to finish rebuilding mansion... whoever did the best job would be in charge... a-and that's it," she finished.

Everyone was amazed that she even remembered all the events in order, but then they shuddered as they wondered what Arceus would do.

The Alpha Pokémon stared, long and hard, at everyone in the room. Then she sighed. "Oh, whatever. I'll restore it back to normal myself."

Her hands glowing, she released some sort of power that caused the mansion to glow bright and revert to its clean, proper nature before her creations' shenanigans had begun. It took so little time that they were sure it didn't even take half a minute. When all was done, they cheered and clapped for their creator, in hopes of having her forget they ever caused trouble.

Arceus snickered. "Well, at least that just means you all are like children. Good thing you all tried."

"...wait, so where's Celebi?" Azelf asked.

"L-like I said... um, she ran away..."

"...where?"

As if on cue, another portal opened and Celebi flew back to them, in her real form, sighing and having calmed down. "(T-that was terrible... Stupid Mew!)"

"M-me!?" Mew exclaimed. Celebi glared at her, then slightly turned red before looking away. "Huh? What? Huh!?"

The Time Travel Pokémon sighed and turned to the returnees. "Um, welcome back, Arceus... Azelf..."

"Welcome back too, Celebi." Arceus petted the Psychic/Grass-type, who quickly reverted to her given human form. "I hope you had fun."

"Um... I, uh, guess I did?" the humanized Johto legendary said, unsure if it could even be called fun.

Azelf then smiled. "Oh well. I guess in the end, everything's all fine."

Arceus raised an eyebrow, before chuckling. "Sure, whatever you say."

Happy to be back again, Azelf ran over to her friends and hugged them. "Friendship hug!" she exclaimed. "...or whatever humans call them."

"W-welcome back, Azelf," Diancie said.

"We've been waiting," Uxie said.

"...hello again..." Magearna said.

Azelf grinned. She'd note to take care of her scrunchy properly so as to not leave her friends again.

Everything then slowly returned to peace.

Then Darkrai scratched her head. "So... can I tell everyone about their dreams?"

A berry was then thrown at her face.

"Ow..."

Notes:

|| Yeah, I didn't plan this arc out properly, but I enjoyed writing it nevertheless. Maybe could've been titled differently, I suppose.