Chapter 16:

As the trembling of the ground finally stopped ash, Serena and, everyone else opened their eyes to see a strange spring; this spring was bubbling inside a stone ring that was flanked by two stone columns with gold statues on top. The sight of the spring truly was a sight to see especially with the heavenly glow radiating from it. Lillie was particularly awestruck as she remembered reading about a place that fit their current location to a tee as she finally mutters out; "the spring of rebirth!?" Gladion hearing what his sister had just said turns to Lillie and tells her not to be ridiculous because the spring of rebirth was just a legend!" however both Arceus and Contemillia come to Lillie's defense by assuring them all that Lillie was right and this was indeed the "spring of rebirth" the revelation from the Pokemon god and divine guardian of time was simply incredible as it left everyone speechless.

The minutes past by until ash and Serena finally broke the silence and asked Arceus and Contemillia; why they had brought them here!? a question quickly answered by Arceus who informed ash and Serena that they were going to use the spring of rebirth to revive the dimensional dragons. A statement which amazed, shocked maybe even horrified everyone as they tried to argue with Arceus as if he had gone senile telling Arceus that was impossible. Silence quickly fell over the mysterious location until Contemillia finally spoke up again; " impossible!? nonsense nothing is "impossible" impossibility is just a limit we place on ourselves.." before Arceus and Contemillia asserted that in order to protect the order sometimes you must do what you must as they stared down Zygarde as he stood behind his trainer Bonnie. again silence fell over the area until it was broken by Lillie and Gladion who once again told Arceus and Contemillia that; "you can't bring the dead back to life... that action is forbidden." a response Arceus couldn't help but laugh at as he assured everyone that it may be impossible for humans." while ash and Serena's attention turned to Contemillia and told the time guardian that they still didn't understand but before Contemillia could respond to ash and Serena Arceus did on his behalf; "i see you all still don't understand, very well then allow me to tell you the story of how this sacred spring came into being."

Flashback begins (told from Arceus' point of view)

"you all know the creation story; how i hatched from my egg and went on to create the multiverse, but what most don't know is there is one thing i unknowingly created as well; "the spring of rebirth." creating the multiverse was truly exhausting, in fact afterwards my life force was nearly depleted but after its creation i began to explore. During which time i eventually came across this place; it was truly amazing so beautiful that i couldn't believe i wasn't aware i created it but when i saw that spring in this place i felt drawn to it and, while i could never be certain what my reason was whether it was confusion exhaustion fate or just instinct i got into the "magical water" of that spring and something incredible happened! I could feel the water restoring my strength and my life force and i soon understood this spring this valley could restore the health and life force to any vessel that was in its vicinity but, i also soon realized the peaceful nature of this place would end when a certain something happened.

Flashback ends:

as our heroes continued to stand in front of Arceus they were all still in a state of stunned silence still in disbelief that the legend of the spring of rebirth were actually true but, after minutes of dead silence Serena's curiosity finally forced the honey blonde performer to finally break the silence and ask Arceus; "what happened" to which the Pokemon god responded with three simple words; "humans... humans, happened!" before Arceus turned his head to gaze upon the spring of rebirth as Serena responded with a whisper "humans happened?! As her grasp on Kate's shoulders tightened before Arceus continued his story once again.

Flashback begins (told from Arceus' point of view)

"Correct you see one of the most common desires for humans is eternal life and, well this is the only place in the multiverse where that desire can become a reality! As a result; humans committed untold amounts of suffering death, war and, torture all justified by finding this place. Whether humans called it the fountain of youth the tree of knowledge, the cauldron of plenty names are irrelevant. It didn't change the fact that countless lives were lost over this place! So one day me and my different dimensional counterpart Dragonus ruler of the divine guardian dragons decided to work together to end that!"as Arceus continued to speak he found himself interrupted by ash and Serena who at this point were left with only one phrase to say; "end it!?" to which Arceus responded with one word; "correct!" before continuing his story once again; "correct me and Dragonus used our powers to seal this place away; while Contemillia over there at Dragonus' request placed the spring of rebirth out of sync with time itself! Making this place inaccessible and impossible to find thus transforming it into a legendary location!"

Flashback ends:

As Arceus finished his story he found himself staring our heroes down whom all were wearing looks of disbelief as they digested what they had just heard. our heroes stunned silence was only disrupted when Contemillia spoke up to reveal one more secret about the spring of rebirth; "it's true Dragonus helped Arceus hide this place but, it was you and you alone that created a key to break that seal just in case the springs services where needed again Arceus!" the revelation from the time guardian that the spring of rebirth had a key particularly peaked the interest of ash and Serena who at this point just wanted to know what this all had to do with them! So with that they turned their attention back to Arceus in hopes he would answer their remaining questions as they asked him about the "key!"

A request Arceus complied with as the Pokemon god finally revealed what this mysterious key actually is; "yes a key to unseal this place does exist, to open the seal at least one human and one Pokemon from each dimension must be physically present at the dimensional ruins." it was with that everyone was finally able to put two and two together with Arceus, Contemillia, Dagon, Gorath, Katie and, ash and Serena all in one place all the conditions were met to allow Arceus to break the seal and reveal this sacred place to our heroes but, right now everyone realized there was a bigger situation at hand. As Arceus finally made the suggestion that they now allow the spring of rebirth to restore the divine dragons. The ground around the spring began to violently shake once again as the fountain began to glow with a bright ghostly white light. A sight that caused Contemillia to conclude that the process appears to have already begun. As soon as the glowing steam from the fountain touched the fossilized remains of the divine dragons they began to glow with the same mysterious aura as different colored towers of light shot skywards.

Those beams of light were indeed the miracle ash and Serena had waited for; for far too long as everyone stood in awe at the sight of the fossilized shells of the divine dragons rose up from the ground with in those beams of light and one by one as the lights faded revealed the divine dragons had indeed revived! First was Primus followed by, Osiris, Olympus, Phoenix Dragon, Mirror Wall Dragon and lastly, Solarois. everyone trembled at the sight of their restoration this was truly the definition of a miracle everything they had worked so hard and sacrificed for had finally paid off and with nine out of ten of the dragons restored everyone turned their attention to the last pillar of light which glowed a bright bright yellow as Dragonus revived after what seemed like minutes but in reality was only seconds a pair of red almost demonic eyes opened within the pillar of light before it faded away revealing the ruler of the divine guardian Dragonus had revived for their floated Dragonus. Silence fell across the area as Ash Serena and everyone else stood there in awe. Several minutes passed until that silence was broken by Katie who excitedly called out to Dragonus!

"You're alive!" it was at that moment Dragonus spoke his first words since being resurrected; "yes it's true i no we live again" before turning his attention back to ash, Serena and, everyone else as they gathered around before delivering his next message to our heroes; "ash, Serena everyone; thanks to you all we've been saved from oblivion and, for that we are forever in all of your debt!" before delivering one final message to Katie the "lone survivor" of the dimensional plain "princess Katie" hearing her name Katie lifts her head to face the ruler of the mystical dragons as he delivered what may possibly be the most serious thing he's said in nearly a thousand years; "rest assured you have our deepest condolences as you've paid the highest price of us all in order to save us!" Katie didn't know what to say to Dragonus at that point the princess soon found herself consumed by her emotions so Katie slowly lowers her head down and hid her face with her hat so no one would see her crying but try as she might to hide it her response did not go unnoticed by ash and Serena as they proceed to check on their daughters different dimensional counterpart to make sure she was alright. While Bonnie Lillie and Gladion's attention turned to the grandmaster who was still lying unconscious on the ground realizing that the grandmaster was the only thing left to take care of.

After assurances from Katie that she was okay ash and Serena's attention soon turned to the grandmaster as well and agreed with Bonnie, Lillie and, Gladion's assessment that the only thing left to do was to deal with the grandmaster. soon enough even Dragonus shifted his focus to the grandmaster as well before speaking once again; "i see our captor is still amoungst us!" ash and Serena then look to Dragonus and tell him that all they needed to do was take care of him!" the word him caused Dragonus to raise an eyebrow... well it would've if he had one before dropping the biggest bombshell so far in the mystery that has drug ash and Serena through both dimensions of the multiverse and gave them their greatest challenge ever. that bombshell came from Dragonus as the breeze kicked up again blowing the Grandmasters hood off as Dragonus announced" the grandmaster isn't a man!" with the Grandmasters hood blown off our heroes caught a glimpse of a woman that greatly resembled Lillie and Gladion's mother the president of the Aether foundation Lusamine. much to everyone shock and disbelief as ash and Serena turned to the Aether siblings and stated what at the time seemed obvious; "your mother is the grandmaster!?" and while Lillie didn't even distinguish that with a remark the young couple could hear Gladion mumble under his breath; "actually why doesn't that surprise me!" As he thought back to all the things his mother had done throughout the year but eventually Dragonus spoke up again to defend the Aether siblings mother; "not quite that's not who you humans call Lusamine; it's Sara a former loyal disciple to the divine dragons on the dimensional plain!" suddenly things made more sense to ash and Serena as they began to realize that this Sara was most likely Lusamine different dimensional counterpart as they watched their daughter Kate standing next to Katie but there was one question remaining for the young couple as they turn to Dragonus and that is; "what will he do to her!?" and after asking that question to the ruler of the divine dragons Dragonus finally responded; "make her repent for her treason & betrayal; of course but, first i shall strip our powers from her!" after finishing his decree Dragonus uses his power to take away the powers Sara had absorbed." after retrieving this power Dragonus began to wonder to himself what he would do with this residual power a thought ash picked up on thanks to his and Serena's telepathic connection to the divine dragons.

Using that connection ash began talking with Dragonus asking Dragonus if he'd do something for him! Little did anyone know ash was thinking back to earlier and how Gladion came to his, Serena, Lillie and Bonnies rescue saving them all from almost certain death but most importantly to ash Gladion saved Serena's life. Saving his wife's life was an action ash felt needed to be repaid and he soon came up with a way to thank Gladion. Sensing what ash was feeling Dragonus complied with Ash's wish and as everyone looked on Dragonus began using the power he absorbed to craft a new round object closely resembling a "memory" for gladion's ace silvuddy. Several moments passed before the materization of this new memory was completed. Once this new memory was completed it began to radiate between the colors blue to red to yellow back and forth as Dragonus passed it on to ash while everyone else watched this sight in silence.

With this new memory in hand ash thanked Dragonus before turning to Gladion and placed this new memory in his hand insisting that he take it as Dragonus informs everyone that he calls this new object "the divine memory". This confused Gladion as he expressed to ash that he didn't understand. all ash could do was smile as he told Gladion why he's giving this brand new memory and quite possibly the most powerful memory in Gladion and silvuddy arsenal and it was then ash finally explained to Gladion what he was thinking; "Gladion if you hadn't arrived when you did me, Serena, Lillie, and, bonnie would've been dead!" it was at that moment Gladion began to understand what was running through ash's mind although Gladion still felt ash didn't need to do this because, Gladion felt he was just doing what anyone else would do. but ash wasn't done he had one other thing to confess to Gladion the true reason ash felt compelled to do this; "i know Gladion but you saved Serena's life and, that ash was forever thankful for that but the last words ash said spoke volumes to everyone but no one more that Serena as she heard ash's words leave his mouth; "after all i couldn't live without her! "So please take the divine memory as a thank you from me Gladion!" tears could be seen rolling down Serena's face as she whispered out to ash.

It wasn't until ash finished Gladion finally understood ash's feelings and at this point Gladion felt he just couldn't say no as he cautiously accepts the newly crafted "divine memory" from ash but little did Gladion know ash did have a "catch" planned as ash made Gladion promise him that as soon as Gladion and Silvuddy mastered using the divine memory Gladion is to come to domino and show him and Serena.
these were conditions Gladion was more than happy to agree to as they two young men shared one more handshake as Lillie Bonnie and everyone else came up to Gladion to thank him themselves. While Arceus and Dragonus attention turned back to Sara who was still lying on the ground unconscious. their struggle had come down to this and Arceus and Dragonus were more than ready to make Sara repent for her actions as Dragonus and Arceus took to the air once more and once Dragonus reached a suitable altitude begun to conjure up the attack that had made his brothers suffer "imperial dragons wrath" as he told the unconscious grandmaster; "alright Sara prepare to repent!" as Arceus chimed in by telling Sara; "now you shall be banished to another alternate plain!" before both Arceus and Dragonus finished their statement in unison; "from which there is no escape!" As Dragonus and Arceus attack the unconscious grandmaster with Dragonus using "imperial dragons wrath!" while Arceus attacked with his judgment and once the anger of the gods attacks hit Sara she disappeared!" as Dragonus and Arceus assured everyone that their long battle was finally over and Sara had now been exiled to a place where she could never return from." much to everyone's relief.

Several minutes passed as our heroes reflected on the conclusion of their long hard struggle. Content with this sight Arceus felt that now was the time for him Giratinia, Palkia and Dialga to return to their own worlds and with that decided the four divine Pokemon open rifts to their own worlds leaving our heroes alone once again. shortly afterwards Dragonus and the divine guardian dragons felt that it was now time for them to return home but not before once again thanking ash Serena and everyone for saving them and thanks to all of them their dimensions were now safe and that they are now able to maintain the dimensional order; and with that he and his brothers would now return to the dimensional plain..." as his brothers remind ash, Serena and, Katie that if they ever need their services they will always be at your call and that they sincerely felt that they'd meet again and battle alongside once another soon." before the divine guardians began to fade out into oblivion.

Leaving no one but our human heroes left at the dimensional ruins but soon enough Lillie and Bonnie took their leave as well after all with both of them being the champions of their respective regions had extremely busy schedules back home especially now that they had dropped everything to save not just ash and Serena but the world and although Lillie and Bonnie had busy schedules to return to they were quick to make sure that they didn't leave before making sure everything was okay for ash and Serena. and once the young trainer performer couple assured them everything was fine the Alola and Kalos champions departed after which Gladion decided it was time for him to go too but not before assuring ash that it wouldn't take long for him and Silvuddy to master the divine memory so they'd see them soon enough!"

A promise ash was determined to hold Gladion to as he gave him his trademark fist pump as the older Aether sibling disappeared from view leaving the Ketchum family alone for the first time in months. Now like most parents do the first thing ash and Serena did was hug Kate and Kenny assuring them that they were so happy to see them and that they were okay and safe. before Serena like atypical mother changed the topic back to how Kenny and Kate looked; they looked absolutely fifthly and it was then ash made the suggestion that they returned home an idea that brought a smile to Serena Kenny and Kate's faces as they began to walk away leaving Katie standing at the dimensional ruins alone the quietness in the air finally allowed Katie to contemplate what to do next as she reminded herself that she now had no home no family and that she was all alone that is at least until she heard Serena call out to her in a sincere concerned tone of voice; "Katie aren't you coming!?"
Serena's words confused the princess as she asked the honey blonde performer; "you mean i can come with you!?" hesitation evident in her voice as Katie truly didn't want to intrude and burden on ash and Serena after all they were finally back home with their friends and family but the princess couldn't have imagined the response she'd get back as it wasn't just from Serena it wasn't just from ash it was from ash, Serena, Kate and, Kenny who called out to her; "of course Katie; not only did we promise your parents we would look after you, after everything that we've been through Katie you're a part of our family now!" Katie didn't say a word but she could feel a tear running down her face that tear of course was not from sadness it was a tear of joy as Katie felt joyful that she finally had a place to belong she finally had a family again and so without delay after hearing ash, Serena, Kate and, Kenny's response Katie who is overcome with happiness that she's no longer alone excitedly runs over to join her "new family."