"Ah, Ash Ketchum," said a woman in a cloak, looking up from her seat in front of the Anistar Gym. "I was expecting you."

"You were?" Ash asked. "Huh. Are you feeling all right?"

The woman blinked. "Pardon?"

"Well, you're the gym leader here, right?" Ash checked. "Olympia, that is, so you've got Psychic powers which is why you were expecting me, but normally when Absol is expecting me that's fine but when she actually sees me she ends up with a massive headache or possibly terrified and screams a bit until she's got it out of her system. So, are you feeling all right?"

Olympia chuckled, then shook her head. "Well, no, I haven't experienced anything like that. You're right that I have psychic powers, yes, and that that's why I was expecting to see you today – but unlike an Absol I don't specifically sense disaster and so I'm able to cope with what I experience from your presence. It's nice of you to be so considerate, though."

She looked Ash up and down. "Admittedly I can't tell everything about you with my visions, but I can tell enough. Shall we?"

"Sure!" Ash agreed. "I've already picked out my Pokémon for the gym battle! How many is it a side?"

"Three," Olympia told him. "And, to be honest, I know you've already picked them out… I don't know the exact course of the coming battle, though, so we do still need to do it."

"And I wouldn't like it if you tried working out if I'd win or not," Ash pointed out. "Because that would be really frustrating, it's like what happened with Skyla and Volkner at first…"

"And Clembot!" Bonnie said. "Remember? He dropped you out of the gym because he decided you must be lying about how many badges you had and so you didn't have any!"

"Bonnie, don't rub it in," Clemont groaned.

"How do you see the future, actually?" Serena asked. "Is it pure psychic powers, or are they focused in some way?"

"I tend not to rely on a focus," Olympia answered, then picked up a nearby mug of cocoa and took a sip.

"One benefit of prophetic powers is you never need to worry about your drinks getting too cold," she smiled. "Now, shall we?"

Inside the gym, Ash and Olympia both readied their Pokéballs, then Olympia's assistant Carrie slashed down her hand.

"Begin!" she said, and Olympia sent out a Metagross with a flash of white light.

"I'm afraid I was specially ready for…" she began, apologetically, then trailed off and stared at Ash's Gigalith. "Um. I did… not expect that."

"You didn't?" Carrie asked, swiping her hand up again to unbegin the fight. "Uh, battle off? And, what do you mean, you didn't expect it? What went wrong?"

"I foresaw the Pokémon Ash would use in this battle," Olympia explained. "However, what I foresaw was that he would send out his Zacian first. That was extremely clear, so it's the only one I actually put effort into specifically countering."

Is something wrong? Metagross inquired.

"I don't know!" Ash replied. "Hold on, I think maybe Zacian could help?"

Zacian listened, then patted a paw on the floor.

"Hmm," she said, her voice rumbling slightly. "I wonder. Do you see what other Pokémon Ash is using?"

"It's less clear, but yes," Olympia answered. "Three or four possibilities at least for each."

"Is one of them a Riolu or Lucario?" Zacian pressed, then nodded at Olympia's affirmative answer. "I thought so. You're definitely getting a clear picture… of an alternative timeline. I have faint memories from it because of my resilience to Roar of Time, it's complicated as so many things are."

"I should have known it wasn't going to be so easy," Olympia admitted. "Well, then, in that case – Ash, do you want the first match to go ahead as planned?"

"Sure!" Ash agreed. "Do you have a Metagrossite? I've got a Gigalithite, so we could open with a Mega battle!"

"I had forgotten you have one of those," Olympia said. "But I do have a Metagrossite, I borrowed it specially to battle Zacian… no offence, noble lady of Galar."

"I consider it quite an honour," Zacian allowed. "Spelled with a u, of course."

"In that case," Olympia said, waiting until Zacian and Lokoko had left the arena. "I think we can resume, Carrie."

"Begin for the second time!" Carrie said, with another hand-slash, and both Gigalith and Metagross Mega-Evolved in a simultaneous flare of golden light.

"Diamond Storm!" Ash said, and the glittering translucent-diamond Petalith raised one of her limbs before shooting out a bolt of lightning. It crashed against Mega Metagross's metallic hide, and Olympia raised a hand in objection before shaking her head and lowering it again.

"I should probably just accept that there's going to be a lot of that sort of thing," she decided. "Metagross, Meteor Mash!"

"Focus energy!" Ash retorted, and Petalith's foot hit Mega Metagross' with a wham that sent flickers of golden light flashing around inside her crystalline body. They then focused together at her forehead, and she hit Mega Metagross with a laser beam that smashed the Steel-type into the wall.

"That is not how move: Focus Energy works," Mega Metagross protested, summoning a swirl of psychic energy around itself.

"You would be surprised what can be described as focusing energy," Petalith responded. "Like this."

She fired another laser, this time down and at a slight angle, and a very small volcanic eruption blasted Mega Metagross into the air.

"Magma Storm!" the Rock-type explained. "It's adiabatically destructive!"

"Fortunately, I did forsee the need for more than one gym room when I designed the gym," Olympia said. "Confusion!"

"It would be redundant," Mega Metagross stated.

"But this won't be," Petalith countered, slamming a rocky foot down on the ground and prompting several stone dolmens to rise up from the arena floor around Mega Metagross. "Did you know that Stone Circles can predict the future?"

The future, in this case, turned out to be that Mega Metagross would be hit by a Soul Stealing Seven Star Strike once the stars were right and the heavens aligned properly with the stone circle.

It was a very short term prediction.

"Well, that was different to what I was expecting, but at the same time, more or less what I was expecting," Olympia said, as they moved over to the second gym room. "I think I'm starting to see the merit in the viewpoint of that Absol you mentioned… I assume you've chosen your Pokémon?"

"Yeah!" Ash agreed. "Both because I picked who I was going to use before I arrived, and because I've chosen who is next!"

"Well, I'm using Meowstic," Olympia replied. "And I'm interested to see how it goes… though I suspect Meowstic is mostly just wondering what on earth is going to happen now."

She took her place, then Carrie signalled, and Ash sent out Fletchinder just as Olympia's Meowstic came out of his Pokéball.

"Good day," Meowstic said. "Hmm."

He turned to Olympia. Not a double battle?

"I changed my mind about that, Meowstic," she said. "I didn't want to have to deal with too much nonsense in one go."

Acceptable, Meowstic replied.

"Ready, Fletchinder?" Ash called. "Tailwind!"

"Reflect!" Olympia replied.

Meowstic's eyes flashed just as Fletchinder vanished, and a shower of spectral glass shards came flying out from overhead after Fletchinder collided at full speed with a Reflect and went into a tumble.

"Good," Olympia said, as Fletchinder shook himself out of his tumble before vanishing again – only to smash into another Reflect as Meowstic dropped it right in his way. "Keep it up!"

"Fletchinder, slow down a bit, I need to think!" Ash called. "Stay fast, but don't Tailwind – in fact, Roost!"

"Psyshock," Olympia commanded.

Fletchinder landed on the ground, glowing with a yellow-golden radiance, then took off again after less than a second and the Psyshock hit the ground just behind him.

"That's it!" Ash realized. "That's what's going on, that Meowstic has Prankster! That's how he's so quick… so, use Gust!"

Fletchinder's wings blurred as he used Gust, and a gust of wind slapped into Meowstic. Then he started using Light Screens as well, dropping them around himself in defence as he kept trying to make Fletchinder run into a Reflect for offence.

"Curve the gusts!" Ash called. "Use them to blow yourself around, too!"

Now Meowstic was practically spinning on the spot, throwing out walls of light in all directions, and there was a periodic crash as his opponent rammed into them or a whoosh as a wind-gust hammered into Meowstic or a shimmering energy wall. There was no sign of where Ash's Pokémon actually was, though, just of where he'd been.

"And…" Ash began, letting the word trail off, then snapped his fingers. "Brave Bird!"

The uncertainty principle resolved itself as a wavefunction collapsed, and Talonflame turned out to be directly underneath Meowstic – resulting in an impact that knocked Meowstic through the roof and sent Talonflame spiralling out of control until Ash jumped up and caught him.

"Oof!" he said, staggering a bit on the landing. "Are you okay?"

"I would quite like to Roost for a while, thanks," Talonflame replied. "Ow."

Ponyta caught Meowstic when he came back down again, and Ash switched to his third and final Pokémon – Noibat – while Olympia sent out her own last Pokémon.

Another Meowstic.

"I think that's a new Pokémon, isn't it?" Olympia asked. "I don't think I've heard of them before, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything with you."

"Yeah, Noibat is new," Ash agreed. "Ready for this?"

"Yes!" Noibat agreed, hovering in the air. "Ahem…"

His ears hummed slightly, and a misty shape appeared around him.

"I don't think we've started yet," Ash said.

"Oh, sorry, silly me," Noibat winced, cancelling out his humming ears so the misty shape dissipated.

"Is everyone ready for me to actually start the battle properly this time?" Carrie asked. "In that case, begin!"

Noibat's ears buzzed into life again, and he flew straight upwards. Thunder echoed inside the arena room, and clouds formed out of thin air.

"Rain Dance," Olympia decided. "Use Thunder Wave!"

Meowstic did a twirl, pointing with a forepaw, and a jet of lightning flashed out at Noibat. It hit the compressed air around him and missed, passing right through where he appeared to be but apparently wasn't, and both she and her trainer frowned.

"What happened there?" Olympia asked. "I saw that was going to hit. Meowstic has Keen Eye!"

"I think it's called displacement," Noibat replied. "Anyway, hah!"

Thunderclaps rumbled in the air overhead, and a spike of flame jetted down at Meowstic.

"I'm not sure there's any Pokémon move that does that," Olympia said. "Unless you've been inventing new ones."

"Well, Rain Dance is a dance, sure, but singing and dancing are kind of similar," Ash replied. "And there's lots of similar versions of moves which are almost the same but not exactly identical… this one I think is using electric-type and fire-type rain dance at the same time. Noibat can make ice and fire work, and he can make storm and fire work, but other ones are still tricky."

"I should work on fire, ice and lightning some time, I've heard they have harmony," Noibat noted, then changed his tune a little.

"Dark Pulse," Olympia ordered. "Then use Charge Beam – don't try to be too accurate, just plaster the area and you might hit by accident!"

Meowstic did that, and Noibat dodged away from the first attack and continued dodging all the rest as well.

"I'm really good at two things!" he said. "Currently, anyway! I'm really good at making myself better at things, and I have also chosen to be really good at dodging!"

Overhead, the song of storm and fire was building up more and more energy, now no longer strictly under Noibat's control but fuelled by all the heat he'd given it previously.

"I think it's ready, Noibat!" Ash called.

"Right!" Noibat replied, and switched songs again.

He also promptly got hit by a Charge Beam because he wasn't making himself super-good at dodging any more, but Meowstic considered this at best a mixed blessing because of subsequent events.

"Reshaped weather ball!" the Dragon-type said, and the whole of his seething weather storm poured down directly on top of Meowstic with a sound like a roaring thunderstorm in the middle of a forest fire.

When the smoke cleared, Meowstic was distinctly soot-blackened.

"Ow?" she tried.

Then she used Charge Beam again, and Noibat countered by firing a Boomburst at her.

That made the floor give way.

"That was actually quite refreshing," Olympia complimented, handing Ash the somewhat uninterestingly named Psychic Badge. "To have a battle where I have no idea what's coming is a novel experience, and also, I hope I don't have to do it again for a long time."

The floor creaked as Arc reverted the damage, then went to work on the ceiling.

"So, where next?" Serena asked.

"I could try and tell you, but I'm not sure what would happen," Olympia said. "Ironic, really."

AN:

Noibat does his own background music.