Ash initially thought that there was some sort of solar eclipse. He had to blink a few times to make sure that he wasn't imagining things- no, the sky really had been stripped away like an orange peel leaving nothing but blackness in its wake.
And then there was the impact.
What he thought was a comet struck the earth while leaving a large pink trail in the sky in its wake. The earth shook but the Elite Four HQ, despite how old it was didn't sustain any damage even though the walls shook for a few minutes. Ash could however, hear the screams of several wild Pokemon residing within as they felt the shock.
For another few seconds, nothing happened.
And then Ash felt it.
He felt his Badges vibrate.
And he could see Him.
He could see Arceus- or at least its shell beneath the earth.
A torrent of emotions washed over him- he saw a scene so vividly it was like it had happened to him and had only happened yesterday.
He felt those iron chains wrap around him again- but they weren't his arms. He had far too many for them to be human arms.
And he saw the rage and hatred in the hundreds of human faces glaring at him as they cut off eight of them.
He screamed. He cried. Everything that Arceus had felt- he felt it in that moment. And when the sadness was gone what filled it was an endless rage, a kind that normal human beings were incapable of understanding.
For an instant, he wanted nothing more than for Arceus to lay waste to this entire land, and to end the lives of every single person on it as righteous vengeance.
For a moment, he was actually okay with it. He was okay with what the Elite Four were doing- it even felt wholly justified.
And then his other thoughts snapped him back to reality.
"So now do you understand?" a voice said as someone put a hand on his shoulder. Ash whirled around to see it was the dark haired man, who, he was assuming by now was Gregor. "Of course you do- you have the Badges. You are one with Him as we were and continue to be. Do not take it personally the fact that I wanted to kill you- it is just that in the grand scheme of things I doubted it would matter. Every single day since I became one of the Elite Four I would meditate and connect and feel what you are feeling now. We all did- save for Selena and Phineas. They did not listen to Him for as long as we did- or Sir Fredrick did for that matter. We began to understand that we did not deserve the long lives we had- we did not deserve this land. And once we understood the crimes of our ancestors, we could do naught but feel guilt. Until we realized that there was a way to bring him to life." He smiled. "The others fought it of course- a natural reaction for living beings to delay their own destruction. But it seems that in the end, I won. And yes, by the way, my Gengar here says that you are quite the fighter. It seems to have been very fond of you until you attacked it."
"Uh, thanks," Ash said, not knowing what else to say at the moment. "Look, I sort of understand, but think of all the people you're killing!"
"People who are fruits of the sins of our ancestors," Gregor said. "It is sad, but is it any less than what happened to Him?"
The other Elite Four members were just standing around now. It seems that they had done what they needed to do and had accepted their fate.
Ash leapt out the window and his Charizard followed, catching him once he had fallen a few feet. His Pikachu landed on his shoulder. He thought he saw Hoopa go somewhere out of the corner of his eye away from where he was going- maybe it had thought that it was time to bail. He couldn't exactly blame it.
"Your efforts are futile," Arthur shouted out after Ash. "It has been done and cannot be undone now. Nothing can stand up to Arceus now- save for Arceus himself."
Ash wasn't sure what he was going to do, but he could still feel Arceus. And now its shell was moving below the earth.
Ash just flew around in circles around the hills while minutes turned into hours, trying to calm down and think of a way out of the situation. But he had no idea how to calm down a legendary- and the Badges represented only a fraction of what Arceus could do. Once again, he felt completely and utterly helpless.
With horror, he saw as the earth crack open like it was an egg about to hatch near the place where he had been imprisoned by Phineas. Wild Pokemon fled in all directions from the crater so formed, from which emerged Arceus.
Or at least, it sort of looked like Arceus, but was entirely red in color. And Ash felt it again- the surge of unimaginable anger that overtook him and made him want to raze down the entire world. Only the head had come out up till now, but he was sure the rest of the body would follow.
He was then distracted by a speck on the horizon- a black Charizard upon which there was a rider. Ash knew who it was, and given that he had no better plan and it seemed like the world was going to end, he flew towards it.
"Pika pi?" Pikachu asked.
"I don't know," Ash said. "But I hope we can work something out."
As Ash drew closer, he saw that Phineas' hair was ruffled as well as his suit. He looked quite unlike his usual calm self.
"Did you just get out of bed?" Ash blurted out.
"Oh yes, sorry for not setting my alarm!" Phineas said hysterically. "What have you done? You've doomed us all!"
"We have to do something," Ash said.
"Do something? Do something?" Phineas cried. "We can't do anything! We're all going to die!"
"Yeah, this was clearly a mistake coming to you for he-" Ash began to say but then he was distracted as something came out from the sky. At first, it looked like a star had suddenly formed in the black void left when the Barrier had been stripped away, but it grew bigger until it was the size of the moon, and then the size of the sun, and it was moving towards them.
"I don't believe it," Phineas said.
Ash knew what it was. Arceus!
Or at least, he guessed, the real Arceus, and not the 'shell' that was coming out of the ground right now.
Arceus, however, looked different from how Ash had last seen him. He was at last three times as big and glowing brightly- with what he guessed were a thousand arms emerging from his torso. And within him, it seemed, Ash seemed to be able to see vestiges of Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina. Had the four of them fused or something? Out of the corner of his eye, Ash thought he saw Hoopa for a second near Arceus waving at him- but then he blinked and Hoopa was gone. Had Hoopa somehow summoned Arceus here?
Arceus descended, and its shell rose up and they met in the middle. Ash and Phineas continued to move around in circles around the two of them and watched as the red shell was taken into the golden Arceus.
Ash felt them fuse and now he could now hear thoughts from both of them as they now became one.
After the fusion, the immense rage Arceus had was diluted. Partially at least, but it was still there nonetheless.
Arceus now turned to the two of them and before Ash knew it he was frozen in place. His Charizard was not moving anymore but he wasn't falling towards the ground either. Phineas, likewise, seemed to be stuck as well, as if someone had pressed the pause button on a video.
Ash felt Arceus pass its judgment.
It no longer felt like destroying everything around it and recognized the cruelty of doing so- but at the same time it could not simply forgive what had happened.
So Arceus wanted to kill one- to kill one person it felt was the most responsible for this. And since everyone who had done it initially was dead, he was going to target those who had benefitted from its power the most.
And right next to him were Ash- who had used the Badges over and over and was a living symbol of the wrongs that had occurred to Arceus, and Phineas, the Elite Four Champion.
Ash realized what had to be done.
'Take me,' Ash thought to Arceus, hoping that this connection they felt was two-way and it could hear him.
Arceus heard the same thing from Phineas.
Both of them had just offered themselves to be taken in lieu of everyone else in Galea.
Arceus roared. And then Ash heard Arceus' 'voice'- no sound came and yet a voice dripping with authority and power echoed in Ash's head.
BETWEEN THE TWO OF YOU- I WILL TAKE ONE OF YOUR LIVES. I MUST JUDGE THE TWO OF YOU FIRST.
It started with him.
Much like Arthur had done, Arceus went through Ash's memories, but unlike Arthur who had simply been sifting through for information, Arceus seemed to want to understand why Ash had done all that he had done. He wanted to feel every emotion along Ash's immense journey with his Pikachu, his friends, and all of his other Pokemon.
He felt how Ash had felt like when leaving Pallet Town. He experienced the sorrow Ash felt on losing his first Pokemon League, and the way he had felt desolate when he had lost yet again in Kalos. The way he had had doubt on what he was doing- the way he felt guilt for Hawthorne City and the girl who had tried to avenge her family.
Arceus felt all of that. Arceus wanted to know not just what Ash had done- but to know who Ash was as an individual.
Once Arceus was finished, he turned to Phineas, and through Arceus Ash saw snippets of Phineas' life.
He saw how Phineas had grown up on a farm- how Selena rejected him as a student and how he had run away, came back, and everything that followed. It amazed him how far and wide the man had travelled, and through it all, he got a sense of what it was like to be Phineas. And he was moved by how genuine and true Phineas was at heart. It made Ash wonder what Phineas thought of him.
Arceus seemed to be done now.
I AM AT A LOSS. BOTH OF YOU HAVE HEARTS AS PURE AS HUMANS CAN HAVE. YOUR LIVES AND DEEDS SEEM EQUAL IN MY EYES.
'Then take me,' Ash felt Phineas think. 'After all, it is a law of nature that the younger should survive the elder- and how could you punish a child as young as that. Take me, O Arceus, and have mercy upon the others of this land.'
"Wait just a minute!" Ash heard a voice say. He was unable to turn his head, but he felt Arceus change his attention to this new arrival and he was shocked.
It was Selena. She had broken free of whatever spell Gengar had cast on her when Arceus had awoke, and she had flown straight her on her Skarmory and was communicating with Arceus like they had.
'Take me,' Selena thought. 'I am responsible for all of this- and I have misused your gifts time and time over and over again. As it stands there is little I have to live for now. Take me instead. Perhaps I can hope to atone for some wrongs I have done in this manner.'
And now, Ash saw Selena's very long life laid out before him as Arceus judged Selena as he had judged both Ash and Phineas. He saw how Selena had grown up on a farm with a younger brother. He saw her younger brother die in a battle between two Gym Leaders, and how Selena had vowed to bring peace to the land. And she did. She united all of Galea- but the hole in her heart had never healed.
And she heard while meditating with Arceus' shell left in the ground that there was a way to bring her brother back. It was there in Kalos. And so she had attacked the region, Ash realized, to bring her brother back. She failed twice though, and it had really all been a ploy by Arceus' shell to try and resurrect itself. She had then abdicated and left the land to wander around it for a long time when she began to grow homesick and returned, disguising herself as just a Gym Leader. And then she realized what a mess she had caused.
Really though, Ash realized, Selena had been a pawn this whole time, first of Arceus, and later of Gregor when she brought Ash to Galea. And Ash felt Selena's great sorrow- and through it all, a longing just to have her brother back, or to be at the very least reunited with him. She was tired after all these millennia, and just wanted to rest.
Selena's life was very long as so Arceus spent a large amount of time on it, far longer than he had with Ash and Phineas.
At long last Arceus finished and he was satisfied. Selena was the main heir of Arceus' power as she contained the most amount of it, and her heart was tainted with darkness.
Arceus rose and took Selena with her, who dissolved in a flash of light along with her Pokemon. Ash however, would never forget her face before she dissolved. For the first time that Ash had ever seen, she seemed content.
As if she was finally at peace with the world, all of her anger and sorrow forgotten.
And just like that, Phineas and Ash were free to move again and both Arceus and Selena were gone.
"Is… is that it?" Ash asked.
"I guess so," Phineas said. He sighed and ran his fingers through his hiar. "I guess that is it."
The sky was turning blue again- they were probably going to join the rest of the world now, Ash realized.
And at long last, his struggle was over.
The End
A/N: Thank you so much for reading! There will be an epilogue explaining where things eventually fall later on, but yes, this is the end.
I just want to say how big a pleasure it has been writing for all of you. I never thought that I might actually write something this long- even though it did take well over two years for me to finish- I don't regret it at all. I know, there have been lots of plot holes and inconsistencies despite my best efforts, but I do hope if you read up till this point you enjoyed this.
Now, to address some important people:
Julie Togepi, you've been there reviewing every chapter for almost forever- and I cannot thank you enough. Your reviews always made my day and helped me push forward.
Hall gowrt, again, thanks for sticking with me for so long and being patient while I made tons of mistakes.
crazysnivykid, haven't heard from you in a while, but I hope you liked all of this.
I don't know any more about who 'Guest' or if they're all the same person, but yes, you've made some great points. I do think the army bit was a bit overdone and just seemed to drag on the story a bit, so maybe I could've done that a bit differently.
Poke123, thanks for pointing out the Gengar/Haunter bit, it's a bit embarrassing when I have trouble keeping track of Ash's Pokemon.
TeamPiperM, well, yes, the Rockets came together, and they will have a few lines in the epilogue.
Crestilia, Ash didn't have his whole ideal team like maybe you were hoping, but he did have some great Pokemon.
Draph91, yup, and now that's it is over I think I deviated quite a lot from the original Keys to the Kingdom, which I'm glad of that this story isn't a simple rehash.
Something dictionary related, the 9 chapters per Gym Leader thing came up mainly by accident but it was broken by Selena.
CowTits the Udderly Glorious, I fixed that copy and paste error.
Klutzybear, haven't heard from you in a while either, I hope I didn't disappoint.
aleking74, I'm glad to know you enjoyed that Dark Souls reference.
Johnny Spectre, well, there wasn't much Pokeshipping in the end after all. There wasn't any romance for that matter of fact anyway.
DaniJIE, thanks for your input on Contests and all your other reviews, and sorry again I don't much Spanish.
Skitty4, sorry if there wasn't enough of the 'old cast' but that was pretty much how this was supposed to be written.
Ralmon, I'm guessing you stopped reading a long time ago- and you had some valid points. Just thought I'd let you know if you were still reading.
Mew29240, I didn't watch the anime past Diamond & Pearl, and that led to a lot of confusion.
JayFan67, the Fairy thing kind of still bugs me. They weren't there as a type when I first conceived of this story, and so that was a big wrench into my plot when I realized that opened a big hole for Freyja's strategy. Hope you understood.
Fenrir's Phantom, you were one of my first reviewers, I don't know if you stuck around for very long, but thanks for what you did.
aldybaron, yes, but the Trustee/Gym Leader analogy breaks down a few chapters in I think.
chaosspeer, one of my first reviewers, I don't know if you stuck around for long, but thanks.
And last but not least, thanks to all the readers even if you never reviewed (I know the views my story gets per chapter, so I know there are a lot of you out there).
