Chapter One. False Moon.

The Eighth Moon of the planet Vandor…

"Look harder!"

All around him, the sound of digging rang out, tools raking against hard rock, shattering it and repeating the process. And as that went on, the Syodian warlord Nixysis watched with barely concealed pleasure at what was taking place in front of him. He was close. So close now, if the source was right. And he had no reason to doubt them. Down the line so far, they'd played it straight with him and well, why would they stop now. By the sound of it, they had as much motive to find this thing as he did.

Finding the location hadn't been hard. He'd been told to set his men looking for an anomaly in the galaxy, something that just didn't add up no matter how hard you looked at it. And they'd come here to Vandor. Only seven registered moons orbited the planet, only seven moons were supposed to exist. And yet, here he was in his battle armour on the surface of moon number eight. No matter where he had inquired, nobody had known anything about this place. Had it not been for his source constantly reminding him of its presence, he might well have forgotten about it himself.

He could remember the amount of times he'd gone to sleep and awoken the next morning having forgotten about the eighth moon. It was like some sort of mind control barrier existed around it, preventing anyone from remembering its existence after they slept.

Idly, he'd wondered about his source. Did this mean they didn't sleep? Or that they were not of this universe, something more than the galactic population.

Around him, his Blastbots continued to dig. They were Electivire robots with one arm being that of a Magmortar and Magnezone heads. With their free, non-cannon arms, they bashed at the rock. Wherever this planet had come from, nobody had ever had the chance to mine it. So now, Nixysis and his Blastbots had to do most of the work themselves. And it was slowly grinding away at his patience.

From behind some rocks, an exhausted Clarence watched the whole thing take place. Even for a being as powerful as himself, getting here hadn't been easy. Leaving the confines of the Earth really wasn't easy. Out of all his people, he was the only one who could directly teleport off planet, a privilege extended to his position as Dialga's conduit to reality. But no matter how powerful he may be, he was still an old man, not to get any younger. For a long time now, he had done this job and slowly, he was starting to feel the effects of what it was doing to him.

The Syodian hadn't surrounded himself with his own kind, instead choosing soulless mechanical killing machines to help him find that which must not be found. Years ago, he had helped this moon to be formed and the protection taken to ensure that what was hidden here was kept safe.

After an event in the early part of the twenty first century, he hadn't wanted to risk re-hiding it on Earth again. Too many people already knew of its existence, surely better to cast it off into the galaxy. But even then, the chance couldn't be taken that it wouldn't crash into another planet and someone would find it once more. Because of its very nature, it couldn't be destroyed. So, he had used the power in it to fashion the eighth moon of the planet called Vandor and form the barrier which removed its existence from the mind of those who knew of its existence after so long and hidden it there in hope that it would never again be found. In that process, quite a bit of the power that had been stored within had been drained, leaving it nowhere near as powerful as it had once been.

He would dearly like to know who had tipped Nixysis off, and how he had kept it fresh in his mind when he should have long ago forgotten it. The nature of the barrier around the moon even prevented the information from being copied down; how he'd gotten around it was a complete mystery to the conduit. And normally, he liked mysteries. Many a dark night he had spent alone with a book, trying to fix his head around a murder. But this one had beaten him.

And as such, he couldn't deal with Nixysis without knowing what power lay behind him. The gently gently approach had worked for him so well in the past; he didn't want to go to all-out war with the warlord unless he had to. Obliteration wasn't his style.

He'd long since considered the best option was to remove Nixysis' influence from him and take it from there. Whatever kept dragging him back on course here had to be dealt with and then the effects of the Vandor Moon would work for themselves.

One of the Blastbots let out a mechanical roar, each of its identical companions already looking over towards it. And Clarence's heart fell as he saw the familiar treasure chest start to be pulled out from whence he had buried it.

How the hell had they found it so soon? It was like they knew where to look. I used every bit of cunning I had, not only as the conduit but as a Lord of Time to hide that thing. Nobody else should have been able to touch it.

Already, Nixysis was walking over, ready to prise it open with an omni-wrench, a multi-purpose tool first designed in the thirtieth century. Clarence had one somewhere back in his Time Hole, the place where he stayed when not on conduit business.

It was either act now, or everything would be lost. Clarence didn't have a choice. He couldn't let Nixysis get his hands on what was inside that chest. Rising to his feet, he started to step out from around the rocks, ready to do what must be done.

The Syodian had just declared war. And, as draconic energy began to crackle at his fingers, Clarence Ben Al-Zan was ready to launch his counter strike. Raising his hands, he fired the energy towards the two closest Blastbots, disintegrating them instantly. Three more went down before the attention of the rest of them turned to him, already opening fire with their Magmortar arms. None of their shots hit him, energy striking against the invisible barrier that protected him from harm. One of the perks of being what he was.

More went down, his attacks far more effective than the sheer brute force of the Blastbots. Numerical advantage meant nothing to him; they were just a number to be deducted from a sum.

And then he felt a pain in his gut, a howl of agony slipping from his mouth as he looked down to see the knife sticking from his stomach. Turning, he saw Nixysis stood behind him, the treasure chest in one hand.

How…? How had he done that… Was impossible, but…

With a final scream, he vanished, leaving the eighth moon of Vandor far behind him...

He staggered into empty space and collapsed, blood gushing through his suit. Looking down, he could see the scarlet liquid pouring out of him and falling through the air down to who knew where.

Above him, he could sense them. Dialga and Palkia watching him with interest, waiting to see what would happen.

He knew they were there. And he knew that they wouldn't heal him, his wounds were mortal.

Everything has its time to die. Nothing last forever except earth and sky.

Finally looking up, he saw the two giant legendary Pokémon looking down at him, a strange sadness etched upon their features.

"You have failed," Palkia said. To anyone else, it might have sounded like a roar, but he understood perfectly. "Nixysis has within his hands that which he sought. And as soon as he works out how to use it, the destruction of the universe will be on your shoulders."
"I am to die soon," Clarence replied, slowly getting up to his feet to try and regain his dignity. "Let it rest on my headstone if it must. Prolong my life and I'll try to stop him once more."

"That is not something we can do," said Dialga. "To interfere with your time of dying would be to forfeit ourselves at the same time. Nothing escapes that, I believe your daughter once found that out for herself."

"But it can't be allowed to happen!" the conduit yelled, before descending into a fit of coughing. Blood stained his palms. "Something needs to be done!"
"We already tried and we failed," Palkia said serenely. "If you failed, then who could succeed?"

Who indeed?

The idea suddenly flashed into Clarence's head, such a simple solution but one that could be worked if he got their backing.

"I have a plan," he admitted. "One that might just work. But, I need your help to make it happen. I'm dying I know that. But I want the last thing that I do to be to amend my mistakes."

"What do you have in mind?" Dialga asked. "Pray tell."

"Let those who defended it before defend it again," Clarence said. "They succeeded then, I have no doubt that success could be repeated. I'll go back and get them; you take them to the time and the place."
Both Dialga and Palkia looked at him, then at each other.

"Your plan does not lack credibility," Palkia said. "However, I believe the odds are more now than they were then. There is also the matter of Nixysis' plan."

A few days previously, Clarence had managed to sneak into the labs on the seventh moon of Vandor and take a look at what Nixysis had gathered. He hadn't found anything too extreme, certainly nothing that warranted taking action there and then, but there had been several references to something known as 'Project LZ'. Judging by what he had seen by looking around the labs, it had looked like Nixysis' scientists were planning on harnessing a new type of energy source.

Now, it all suddenly came together in his head. What lay inside the treasure chest, the Genesis Book had lost its power. And in order to use it, Nixysis needed to find a new power source. Project LZ…

The Lost Zone.

Could it really be that he'd worked out how to fashion the two elements together.

"I believe I know what plan that would be," Clarence said.

Both of them listened as he related the tale to them, their faces growing grave with anger.

"Then perhaps seven is not enough," Dialga said. "Even if the seven who protected the Genesis Book before came again, their experiences with the power of the Lost Zone is minimal. It extends to one encounter for two of their number."

"Then perhaps more effort should be taken to bring them all together then," Palkia remarked. "Fourteen are better than seven, are they not? And that would be a fearsome number to take on the might of Nixysis. Fourteen battle hardened Poké Rangers."
"Might I remind you that that time period already has a group of rangers?" Clarence piped up. "The Rangers of Cosmo Force. They're tough, they're well trained, but this isn't their fight."

"I'm sure they would feel differently if they were encountered," Dialga said. "But you are right. They don't have to become involved in this if it can be helped. Now, there is one last matter before you go about your final act."

He'd been dreading this part.

"Your replacement," said Palkia. "Anyone in mind? You cannot carry on and someone needs to do it."

For the first time in the last few days, a smile split open Clarence's face.

"You know," he said. "I think I might just know someone who would welcome the job."

Dusting himself off, he made the blood stains vanish from his suit where he had been stabbed, before telling them who he had in mind.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have to do this," he said. "I'll let you make the arrangements for my replacement; I'll put everything in motion."

With that, he vanished away leaving Dialga and Palkia alone.

Author's Notes.

Yeah. Clarence is dying and it looks like two groups of rangers are going to get a visit next chapter.

Thanks for the reviews. All appreciated.

Will Cosmo Force get involved? I think it's pretty damn likely when you consider the credits and the title.

Thanks for reading.

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