"Hmm…" Cilan said, considering the map. "I think we go this way, here. That's the road to Eindoak Town!"

"What's Eindoak Town like?" Ash asked. "Is it on the way to Nimbasa?"

"It's a bit off the direct route," Cilan told him. "And I've never been. But there's a Harvest Festival battle tournament, and that sounded like a perfect way to get some good ingredients and let us all get in some practice with our new Pokémon – like your Roggenrola, Ash."

He shrugged. "Plus, since it's not an official site like a Battle Club or a Gym, it lets Keldeo get in some experience as well against people who aren't part of our little group."

"That is a good point," Ash agreed. "Though I guess that bit depends on if Keldeo is interested?"

"It might be a good idea," Keldeo frowned. "I don't want to violate the rules about it, but it'd also be good if I knew I could defend myself… if someone violates Conservation Rule 211 around me then I don't want to get caught."

"Conservation Rule 211," Arc said. "The use of a Trubbish or Garbador to consume litter is approved. I do not see how it's possible to violate that one."

"I mean the one about Legendary Pokémon!" Keldeo retorted.

"There are sixteen of them," Arc countered. "Extrapolating, I believe you meant the one that a Legendary Pokémon who clearly states they do not want to be caught should not be caught."

"Exactly," Keldeo confirmed. "Glad we sorted that out."

"I could have a go too!" piped up one of the Pidove on Keldeo's mane.

"If you're sure," Keldeo said. "I don't want to force you."

"Great!" Ash smiled. "Then let's get going!"

Somehow, fifteen minutes later, they were in a maze of twisty underground caverns.

"How did you even do this, Ash?" Iris asked. "We were even following the map!"

"Hmm…" Cilan frowned, inspecting the map and then looking back the way they'd come. "Now that I look at it, I don't think that turn we took was actually the one marked on the map… it just happens to go in the same direction."

"I'm still blaming Ash for this," Iris decided. "I'm not sure why, I just have this feeling that he was responsible… okay, what do we do? Retrace our steps?"

"I don't think we have to," Keldeo replied.

He looked around. "I have the feeling that we're going the right way."

"Is that one of those Legendary Pokémon special senses?" Pansage checked. "I've heard of how Legendary Pokémon sometimes seem to have a supernatural ability to tell exactly where they should be, which is why they turn up in the right place all the time."

Everyone looked at Ash.

"What?" he asked. "The closest thing I have is being an Absol sometimes."

"That is not why we are looking at you," Zygarde replied.

"If Keldeo do have an ability like that, I was never taught it," Keldeo said. "But it could be a thing any of the Swords of Justice can learn, so they turn up in the right place to bring justice. Otherwise they'd just be sort of wandering around and dispensing justice when they happen to collide with a problem."

"Or when Hoopa drops them on a problem," Ash pointed out.

"True," Keldeo admitted. "But I really do have a feeling that this way is the right way to go… maybe it is that kind of thing Pansage mentioned."

Roggenrola came out of her Pokéball.

"This cave is not a natural formation," she said. "Interesting."

"It isn't?" Ash asked. "How do you know?"

"Well, this kind of cave structure looks a lot like the sort you get in limestone, but this rock isn't limestone," Roggenrola said. "And that means someone built it."

"So it must lead somewhere," Keldeo agreed. "I knew there was something going on here!"

They trekked through the cave for several minutes, Keldeo trotting ahead of the rest, and with most of the light provided by Lokoko's splayed-out tails.

"I'm trying not to think about whether you can see by the light of an illusion," Iris muttered, then squinted. "Wait, hold on… Lokoko, can you turn those off, please?"

She did so, and the cavern got dimmer but didn't entirely go dark.

"There's a light up ahead," she summarized. "But it doesn't look like sunlight…"

Keldeo was the first to round the corner, and gasped.

Everyone else followed, and they saw a cavern full of a mesh of interlocking crystal pathways, many of which led down to a glowing white stone.

"That looks really cool," Ash said. "What does it mean, Roggenrola?"

"Hmm," the Rock-type said, as Ash carried her closer to the stone. "Well… honestly, it's not natural. That's about all I can tell you."

"This stone looks familiar," Keldeo muttered, mostly to himself. "Like I've seen it before, in a dream or something."

He tapped it with a hoof, and without any fuss a Reshiram came out.

The Vast White Pokémon hovered in mid-air, then leaned down and gave Keldeo a stern glare.

"Ahem," he said. "Tell the Truth."

Keldeo blinked, then took a step back.

"I-" he began, then reconsidered, and sighed.

"I do know what you mean," he said. "I've been nervous about this… but I think these people are my friends."

Trotting in a half-circle, Keldeo backed up so he was facing all three humans and all the Pokémon they had out.

"I wasn't originally a Keldeo," he said. "Or a Pokémon at all. My name is Natural Harmonia Gropius, or N… I'm in hiding away from my father, who wants me to be the Hero of Truth and stop Pokémon from being enslaved by humans."

"But they're not," Cilan protested.

"I know that," N agreed. "Now. But… my father tried to control what I saw, I realize that now. And Mew offered to show me what the world was truly like."

He swallowed. "I know it's not really what the Hero of Truth should do, but – I took a potion, and turned into a shiny Keldeo, and my friend Zorua stayed behind to pretend to be me."

"Oh, I get it!" Ash realized. "Because you're around as a Keldeo, and not as your human self, then your dad would have no reason to suspect that the you who he thought was you was really a Zorua and that the you who he thought was the you who was a Zorua was really a Keldeo out in the world learning the things he didn't want you to learn!"

"...now I'm confused and it's my own life story," N said.

"But the important thing is, you're still the Keldeo we knew, right?" Iris asked.

"Well, I… did try reading everything I could about the human world's rules just before joining Ash," N said. "I wanted to be sure that I'd be ready to be a proper Hero of Truth, but I… think I overdid it."

"Then you're still our friend," Iris said. "That's what matters."

Ash's Zekrom came out of his Pokéball.

"I love it!" he declared. "The Hero of Truth, going undercover to break the plans of a mastermind!"

"Truth and honesty should be what prevails," Reshiram replied, severely. "You need to do things by the book."

"You're just upset because I get results!" Zekrom replied.

"Don't make me take away your badge," Reshiram warned.

"Oh, the Basic Badge?" Ash asked. "That's the one Zekrom helped me win!"

A bit more than ten minutes later, they'd all decided that it was safest for N to keep referring to him as Keldeo – since that way his awful-sounding dad couldn't track him down or even guess he was missing – and though that got a few grumbles from Reshiram about how it wasn't Truthful Iris eventually said that what was also True was that N going by his real name and form would put both himself and Zorua in danger.

Then they put the white stone in Ash's backpack, and headed up to the surface – where it turned out that they were actually inside Eindoak Town already, specifically they were coming up from underneath a large sword-shaped castle thing called the Sword of the Vale.

"Well, it's a bit late, but we're here!" Cilan said. "Let's see if the tournament has started yet!"

"I want to take part!" one of N's Pidove said. "Keldeo may not be a trainer, but I want to be able to support him anyway!"

N looked back, touched. "You're the one who's been with me since I met Ash, right?" he checked.

"Yep!" she agreed, nodding. "Oh, that reminds me, can I get an Everstone pendant? I don't want to end up evolving so I don't fit in your mane any more!"

Getting an Everstone pendant took a few minutes – Ash decided that it was easier and cheaper to just get Phanpy on his team for long enough to find one in the grass, rather than find a shop that sold them – and then they all signed up for the tournament.

Ash's Tepig went first, battling a Dewott by drawing a sword (in the literal sense) and fencing with him for a minute before instead fencing him in a different way that involved twenty-four small posts, and after that was over N's Pidove took to the arena.

She promptly kicked a Sawk through a wall.

"Okay, I didn't expect that…" she admitted. "I wasn't even trying to attack!"

"That was very impressive," N told her. "Slightly baffling, but impressive… does anyone know what happened there?"

"I think I do," Lokoko said, tilting her head, then reached out with her tails and snagged something invisible. "Don't worry, you're not being cursed, but can we have a word?"

The snagged invisible thing, as it transpired, was a Victini – and one who was most certainly not Tobias' Victini.

"I only wanted to help," he said, a bit nervously, and touched his fingers together. "Was it not right to make Pidove more powerful?"

"It means the battle's a bit unfair," Cilan told him. "Because it's like Sawk was battling both Pidove and you, you see? So it's like an unbalanced restaurant bill! Nobody's going to like the argument over who should pay more."

"I understood until the bit about the bill," Victini replied.

"That's Victini, isn't it?" a woman asked. "This is wonderful!"

Iris shrugged. "Not even the only Legendary Pokémon I've met for the first time today, and the other one was Dragon type."

The woman looked confused, then shook her head. "It's – well, my son Damon was looking for a Victini, he wants to bring back the prosperity of the People of the Vale, to let us live once more in the Kingdom of the Vale."

She smiled. "My name's Juanita. Why don't you come and meet my son?"

Damon, when they met him, was a young man with what looked a lot like a traditional haircut and outfit.

"I want to return the People of the Vale to how we were supposed to live," he explained. "Before the two sons of the King fought – back when we were one Kingdom. That's what I've been working towards my whole life, and now it's possible."

He nodded towards the Psychic-type. "With Victini's help, I can fly the Sword of the Vale back to the Kingdom of the Vale and reunite the People of the Vale."

"Question," Ibid said.

Damon blinked. "Who said that?"

Ash held up his Pokédex.

"I was wondering about whether the language originally used by the People of the Vale contains a single word or suffix meaning 'of the vale'," Ibid explained. "This is because everything seems to be of the Vale."

"Well… I am not actually sure," Damon admitted. "I suspect it must be true. But… surely you can see how this plan is good and right?"

"I have a potential concern," Zygarde said, from where they were sitting on Ash's lap.

"Who said that?" Damon asked. "That was a different voice, wasn't it?"

"I said that," Zygarde told him, raising their green paw. "Am I correct in my understanding that the Sword of the Vale is the large flight-capable castle in the middle of Eindoak Town? And that flying it back to the Kingdom of the Vale would mean moving it from this location?"

"Yes," Damon answered. "Of course. That's… sort of the point."

"Objection raised," Zygarde said. "There is a large fount of energy underneath the current location of the Sword of the Vale that is improperly capped except by the Sword of the Vale. If the Sword of the Vale were to be moved from its current location, the energy beneath would surge out and cause serious damage."

"Oh, is that what caused those crystal veins we saw underground?" Ash asked. "Like with the Tree of Beginning back in Kanto?"

"A similar situation involving ley lines is involved, according to my current assessment," Zygarde confirmed.

"Then… well, we don't really need Victini for the first bit, do we?" Ash suggested. "I mean, if it is safe to move the Sword of the Vale, then I don't really see a reason not to do it, but if Zygarde is right then it'd be dangerous no matter how it was done."

"Why wouldn't we need Victini?" Damon said, now thoroughly confused.

"We've got Reshiram and Zekrom, just among the Pokémon we have with us, and I can get hold of Latias and Latios too and several others," Ash said, doing his best to explain. "And I can get Clefairy, which is the important bit, because Clefairy can just alter gravity so that the Sword of the Vale doesn't really weigh anything, and that way we just need Pokémon who can pull it free a bit and see what happens. If it's all fine then we can go ahead and move it however we like, but if it'd cause problems we should find out first, right?"

"How do you know about Zekrom?" Damon asked. "...Latias and Latios? Reshiram? Do you have a Reshiram?"

"He's in my backpack, but he's not my Pokémon," Ash answered. "And I know about Zekrom because he's my Pokémon!"

"I am not!" a Zekrom replied, emerging from a Pokéball in Damon's pocket, then blinked. "Okay, I can see why you'd have one though."

"And I am!" Ash's Zekrom said, also coming out of a Pokéball, this time on Ash's belt. "Oof, ow."

"Nobody else come out of your Pokéballs!" Iris said quickly. "There's Zekrom filling most of the space in this room that should be taken up by air."

"Somehow this isn't how I imagined it," Damon grumbled.

"It's a lot safer, though!" Ash replied. "Okay, Clefairy, use Gravity!"

Clefairy flicked her fingers, and the trees on the Sword of the Vale started looking a bit weird as they suddenly no longer had to support their own weight.

"Now, ready and… use Sky Drop!" Ash went on. "Just the first part!"

Zekrom, Reshiram, Zekrom, Cresselia, Latias, Latios, Articuno and Zapdos all began pulling on heavy metal cables, taking up the slack, then began lifting the Sword of the Vale.

A seething roar of energy began flooding out of the gap, blasting trees off the side of the pile, and Damon gasped.

Ash reacted straight away. "And drop! Clefairy, one quarter gravity!"

The slam of the Sword of the Vale returning to where it had been resting for centuries made the ground shake slightly and cut off the surge of energy again.

"Told you," Zygarde pointed out.

"The Dragon Force is corrupted," Damon said, a few minutes later. "I… all my life, I'd wanted to restore the People of the Vale, to restore the Kingdom, but…"

He sighed. "How can we do anything with it now? How can we rebuild the Vale now?"

"I advise not giving up," Zekrom announced. "Just on general principle, you realize."

"Hmm…" Ash frowned. "Uh… Zygarde, do you have any idea why the Dragon Force is corrupted now? It used to be nice, I guess, but now it isn't any more."

"Your supposition is correct," Zygarde stated. "Simplistic, to be fair, but that is a limitation of language. The ley lines contributing to the Dragon Force appear to have been damaged by a major battle between powerful Pokémon, and consequently the energy release is not correctly directed."

"But is the energy unlimited, or is it a thing where there's only so much down there?" Ash asked. "Would it help if we got Xerneas involved? Or Yveltal?"

"...oddly enough, I had actually forgotten you had immediate access to both," Zygarde confessed. "I will attempt to determine a viable plan based on available resources."

"You can get Xerneas and Yveltal involved?" Juanita said, sounding utterly floored. "The Legendary representatives of Life and Death?"

"Specifically the Legendaries in question are the understudies, distinct Shiny versions currently both at Ash's home town," Zygarde said. "But we can get the originals as well, since they are after all my fellow members of the Aura Trio."

"Is that the right name?" Iris said. "Aura Trio? Why's that?"

She shrugged. "I'm not complaining, I just wonder why you're not the XYZ Trio."

"Not actually something I decided upon," Zygarde replied.

"All right, here we go!" Ashbsol said. "Let's try this plan first, and if it's not going to work we'll try another one instead."

"Even the fact that you said that is really weird to me," Damon admitted. "And that's before getting into the big list of plans."

He looked it over again, shaking his head. "Flood the cavern and have Suicune turn the Dragon Force into springwater. Have Zacian stand in it and absorb all the energy because it's Dragon type. Entei says, um, the opposite of woof. Marshadow steals it… I don't even understand what half of these Pokémon are… or what kind of help a Croagunk could provide."

He turned the page. "Why is one of them talking about your phone?"

"Arc is an Arceus," Ashbsol replied. "And we found a really nice pretty plate with flowers and sparkly dust on it in a souvenir shop, so I'm pretty sure they can convert their Judgement to Fairy type, but like I say, plan A! Okay, everyone, Clefairy's cancelled out the gravity, so lift!"

The Dragon-types and Flying-types pulled once more, and the Sword of the Vale shifted slightly. With a faint tremble, the corrupted Dragon Force began to surge out, and Swellow dove into the plume.

With a colossal sparkling bang, she Electrified the entire energy stream and absorbed it into her feathers on the way through.

Ash waited for several seconds once Swellow was out the far side, then raised a paw and gave a thumbs-up. "Great work, Swellow! Now all we need to do is to turn off that barrier thing so Victini can leave, and Xerneas can reboot the ley lines!"

Sandile put down a big sack with the words Dragon Force written on it. "I guess we don't need this after all, then."

"Would that one have worked?" Axew asked.

"It's a sack with the name of the thing on it," Sandile replied. "I don't see how that could possibly mean it couldn't contain the thing."

"You want to come with me?" N asked. "Even after… well."

"Even after, yes," Reshiram agreed. "Natural, you are not a perfect Hero of Truth… but that's the way the real world is. You've gone to so much effort to learn to be a better Hero of Truth, and I see that continuing… so yes, I want to come with you."

N swallowed, touched. "I… thank you."

"Plus, you put in the effort to learn Keldeo," Reshiram pointed out. "That means that that's not just a disguise, but a True reflection of who you are."

"Truth and Ideals are a lot more malleable as concepts than they sound, aren't they?" Iris said, thinking. "I wonder if that's part of the lesson here."

"Sounds like an Ideal thing to learn!" Zekrom said. "I know you don't like my methods, Reshiram, but they get results and that's what the Chief wants to see!"

"Damn it, Zekrom!" Reshiram replied. "You're on thin ice as it is! And that's something you have more trouble with than me!"

"They can't have possibly met one another in more than a thousand years, and yet they're like this," Pikachu sighed. "I suddenly feel sympathetic to Kyurem. All Kyurem, however many there are."

N chuckled, then raised a hoof. "I do have one question, though. I don't actually believe in Pokéballs, not really, so is there another option?"

Reshiram considered that.

"...how much stuff can fit in your mane?" he asked. "My Dragon Stone isn't all that big."

AN:

Yep, that's who it is, though he has a bit of Hitch Trailblazer in there too.