This took much longer to finish than I thought. I hope I did the big final battle justice.

EDIT: Fixed Aegislash being taken out by a Fighting-type move. Family visits cut our research time, we honestly thought it was Dark-type.

Three days after the Darkest Day incident, Gloria was rudely awoken early in the morning by the sound of heavy pounding on the door. With all the focus she could muster at the moment (so not much) she could make out the excited voice of Hop and made a mental note to get him back for this later.

As she woke up a bit more, she could process the words he was saying. "Today's the day!" he shouted repeatedly and happily. "Get up, Gloria!"

"Hop," she groaned as she lazily fluffed her pillow. "I don't care what day it is. I just want to sleep." Hearing this, Hop stopped pounding, and he seemed to have moved on from her room entirely, allowing Gloria to go back to sleep. Then her eyes shot wide open upon realizing what the day in question was. Then she shot out of bed, to Ace's surprise, and practically jumped to the dresser. "Today's the day!" she shouted.

Once dressed, she shot out the door like a rocket and joined her friend in waking up Marnie in a similar manner. The door slowly opened, and only an eye was shown in the crack. "You foolish mortals have disturbed my slumber..." she said in quiet disdain. "Now you shall feel the wrath of-"

"Forget all that," Gloria said with a grin. "Today's the championship match."

Suddenly, Marnie's eye widened, and she quickly shut the door. When she opened the door again, her jacket was crooked, her choker was still in her hand, and she was hopping on one foot to get her boot on. She still smiled in excitement and anticipation as she did so.

The three then went to wake up the man of the hour, but the door was opened a split second before Hop could throw his whole body onto it, and he fell on his face to the carpeted floor. He looked up to see Victor fully dressed in his uniform and smiling. "I've been ready since 5 AM," he said before Dash released an energetic cry. "I just wanted to see this."

A few hours before the match, Leon was working himself up by bench pressing in his gym. Charizard was, in turn, bench pressing him. The rest of his current team was working out their own ways to prepare for the big match, and two familiar people were standing by his sides. Raihan, his longest rival, was standing on his right. Sonia, who came over to cheer him on, was on his left.

"Alright," Sonia started. "Who are you?"

"I'm the Champion," he said as he continued his exercise.

"And what do you do?" Raihan rhetorically asked in a slightly raised voice.

"Kick butt," Leon bluntly said as he kept his concentration.

"And when do you lose?!" Sonia asked as her voice was raised above Raihan's.

"Never!" he barked as he got into it.

"And why?!" Raihan practically shouted.

Charizard raised his trainer up as Leon sat up with the weights held above his head. "Because I'm invincible!" he shouted, causing Charizard to let out an excited burst of flame from his mouth.

As Leon calmed down with deep, heavy breaths, his friends looked up at him in awe and a slight bit of worry. "I never said that," Sonia called up to him.

Leon took a moment to lower the weights so he could breathe better. "Yeah, you're right," he admitted before heaving the barbell toward Charizard's tail, which instinctively coiled around it. Charizard dropped the weight and his trainer and went off to get water. Leon then took a long gulp of his sports drink as he toweled himself off slightly.

"So, what's your strategy?" Raihan asked, looking at his Pokémon.

Leon took the bottle out of his mouth and turned to his friend. "The same as always."

"But I still don't know what that is."

The Champion scoffed. "That's for me to know and Victor to try to beat."

Knowing he wouldn't get a satisfactory answer from him, Raihan left in silence. Then Sonia leaned in and whispered to him, "What is your strategy?"

Leon smirked. "I don't have one."

Sonia blinked once or twice in shock. "What?"

"I almost completed the Galarian Pokedex, trained them all to be Champion material, and draw their names out of a hat." He laughed as he realized how ridiculous this really was. "By all accounts, I should not have been undefeated for this long, but I kept doing it, and it kept working."

Sonia shook her head to rid her brain of this stupid explanation and reached into her bag. She pulled out a neon blue length of rope that, when stretched out, looked like a child's harness with a leash at the end. "Come on," she said as she held it out to him, expecting him to put it on.

Leon pouted at the sight of it. "Do I have to?" he whined.

Sonia gave a knowing glare. "You've been late to the past three championship matches over the years. Not this time." She then cracked a smile as she held the end of the leash. "You know you're lost without me."

Leon accepted his fate and smiled as well. "Yes, Sonia, I believe I am."

Victor was sitting in the locker room, biting into a soft pretzel he got at the concession stand as he impatiently waited for his opponent to arrive. The most important match of his life was scheduled to start in a few minutes, and the league staff confessed that Leon still had yet to arrive. Needless to say, Victor was getting antsy as well as bored. "Where is he?" he muttered to himself as he stared at the clock.

"Who knows," someone replied from behind him. "He might even be in space with our luck."

"Yeah, that somehow seems right," Victor agreed. He then turned his head in shock as he just realized that Hop was behind him. "What are you doing here?"

"Warning you. Lee's a tough opponent when he isn't trying."

"I figured that out."

Hop stared him dead in the face. "And today, he will be trying."

Victor gulped.

Hop shook his head and cracked a small smile. "You have confidence and determination, so you stand a chance." He then got much closer to Victor's face. "My dreams were dashed, but you had better make it worth it by taking his crown."

Victor nodded in understanding, and Hop went to leave so he could get to his seat in time for the match. Victor then released his full team, who all shared his look of determination. From his first partner to his newly evolved Haxorus. The door opened again, and a member of the league staff came in to let him know that the Champion was here and ready to battle.

Gloria was sitting in anticipation as the match was getting ready to start. Both she and Marnie were quick to welcome Hop back to his seat, but he wasn't the only one to sit by them.

"Bede?" Gloria asked in surprise as he took a seat next to her.

The boy smirked. "Surprised?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"I don't know why, but I chose to get tickets to this show over getting food."

"Really?" Marnie asked, not realizing that this was their friendship, or whatever it was.

"I had to sell my shoes to get the money," he said as he put his feet on the railing, displaying his shoes for the group to see.

Gloria smirked. "So you had shoes?"

They both chuckled at this before Leon walked onto the field, and the crowd went silent. As Victor walked to the center of the field himself, the people started to sing.

"Yeah, you could be the greatest. You can be the best.

You can be the King Kong banging on your chest.

You could beat the world. You could beat the war.

You could talk to God, go banging on his door.

You can throw your hands up. You can beat the clock.

You can move a mountain. You can break rocks.

You could be a master. Don't wait for luck.

Dedicate yourself, and you gon' find yourself..."

Victor got to the center, and the crowd stood up in unison as they continued.

"Standing in the hall of fame!

And the world's gonna know your name!

'Cause you burn with the brightest flame!

And the world's gonna know your name!

And you'll be on the walls of the hall of fame!"

They cheered as they finished leaving an impressed Victor and a baffled Leon. "This is the most musical Championship Cup ever," Leon said. "And Raihan and I led the crowd to sing 'The Greatest Show' last year."

Then a large shadow cast over the stadium as Eturnatus, or 'Taters,' prepared to watch the battle.

Leon laughed. "Everyone here knows you as a hero of Galar and the undefeated challenger. but you're about to lose your undefeated status." And with that, he threw off his trademarked cape.

"Don't get too full of yourself," Victor smirked. "I'm here for a reason."

The two then released their Pokémon. Victor sent out Haxoris, and Leon sent out his Aegislash. Victor was too quick to order a Crunch, which bounced off Aegislash since it used King's Shield before it hit. Haxorus felt weaker, and the Aegislash switched to attack formation to use Sacred Sword against her. Haxorus shook off the damage and attacked with another Crunch that caused the Aegislash to faint.

"You're a master of the super effective hit," Leon said.

"You still think you're teaching me? Hit me with everything, man!"

Leon chuckled. "You asked for it." And with that, he released his Dragapult. Deciding to give Haxorus a break, Victor switched to Grapploct.

The dragon opened with Thunderbolt, and Grapploct countered with Superpower, or at least tried to. Victor remembered too late that Dragapult was part-Ghost, and mentally kicked himself for it. Dragapult finished with Dragon Darts, and Grapploct fainted.

Haxorus was called back, and was able to use Outrage against her opponent. Dragapult flung its young again, but only one managed to hit her. A Dragon Pulse attack finished Dragapult off, but Leon then decided to fight fire with fire, and the Outrage from his Haxorus was enough to take Victor's out of the match. Not having another Pokémon to counter it through type, Victor released Excadrill to fight with brute strength. Fortunately, Haxorus dealt enough damage to finish off the opposing Haxorus with an Earthquake.

Leon's next Pokémon was Inteleon, which was literally able to wash out Excadrill with Snipe Shot. Corviknight was then released to use Brave Bird. Inteleon used Dark Pulse, but Corviknight was able to beat Inteleon with Drill Peck.

Mr. Rime was, without a doubt, sent out to delay the debut of Charizard for this battle, so Victor was able to attack first with Drill Peck. Mr. Rime retaliated with Thunderbolt, and the bird was down.

Drednaw was also sent out to attack with Headsmash, and Mr. Rime endured the super-effective move to use a Psychic attack on Dreadnaw before it fell to a Body Slam.

Leon took the moment to drink in the action as the crowd cheered both for and against him. "Are you all enjoying the show?" he shouted, causing the crowd to cheer. "Then enjoy the final round!" Charizard was then released in its Gigantamax form.

Victor, thinking he would look better if he took out Charizard without Dynamaxing, ordered a Liquidation attack. While it was effective, it wasn't nearly as effective as the Max Overgrowth it apparently knew.

With Drednaw down, Victor sent out his final Pokémon, the one that started it all, Dash, in his Dynamax form. Dash used Max Flare but wasn't very effective. Charizard used Max Rockfall, and Dash was hardly able to stand afterward. In this critical winner take all moment, Victor ordered a Max Knuckle, and the crowd went silent. Charizard smirked, Leon prepared to order another attack and...

The Fire-type was down. The crowd was taken aback. They had followed Victor throughout the gym challenge, but they never thought that they would see Charizard fall like this. Once the shock was gone, the whole stadium cheered in support and approval of their new Champion.

"So, Leon," Victor said as his beloved Cinderace shrunk back down. "Since victory really is as sweet as they say, what does defeat taste like?"

Leon hid his eyes behind his cap and smiled. Not his usual cocky smile or a sarcastic one, but a genuine one. "It feels pretty sweet, too," he answered. He then threw his cap in the air as if he was celebrating a triumph. It landed on the ground, and it seemed to silently signal the end of an era. "My time is over!"

The two met in the middle to shake hands in congratulations and thank each other for a battle that neither will forget soon. "So what are you going to do now?" Victor asked.

Leon turned his head to the crowd, setting his eyes on a familiar face. "I'm going to look to the future." He then walked over to let her know he was facing her, and to the shock of everyone, he dropped to one knee. "Sonia, will you marry me?"

The crowd awed and cheered before the woman in question wrecked the mood. "Are you mad? We're not even in a relationship right now!"

"Right," Leon said quietly as he got up, his face red from embarrassment.

But then the woman gave him a sly smile. "At least ask me out first."

Leon immediately got back down to one knee and tried his luck again. "Sonia, will you go out with me?"

She chuckled this time. "That I'll do."

The crowd cheered, especially Hop, but a league staff member told Leon that he still had one thing left to do. The champion then headed back to Victor and raised up his arm. "I've got my own life to attend to, so say hello to your new Champion, everyone!" The crowd cheered once more, and Victor was left speechless. This was the moment he was envisioning for ages, and it somehow exceeded expectations.

Victor: Dash (Cinderace) Corviknight, Drednaw, Excadrill, Haxorus, Grapploct

Gloria: Ace (Inteleon) Dishwasher (Obstagoon) Rogue (Thievul) Hattie (Hatterene) Harry (Grimmsnarl) Stabitha (Pawniard) Taters (Eternatus)