Conquering the Dark

Author's Note: The Blaziken's name as mentioned in Breaking the Chains Chapter 19 was changed. Also, the character of Champion (Maylene's Machamp) was also cut as to avoid overcrowding with numerous characters.

Chapter 3: Day One

"I just hope this will work."

Dialga shifted and swerved through the cracks of time, navigating her way to find this 'benevolent Aaron' that N theorized about. Dialga had to admit that she was skeptical of finding a 'benevolent' version of the Commander at all, but if N was right, this benevolent version would be a significant boon to the Resistance. She ended up talking to herself for a while, since there's not much else to do whenever you're traveling through the cracks of time all by yourself.

"But… I mean… a good version of him? Really? What are the probabilities of a good version even existing? The chances are likely minimal, if the chances even existed in the first place… But… if N's right… this could be what we need to throw down Cyrus for good."

"Come on, Aaron! Stop being so cheap!"

"It's not cheap; it's strategic planning."

"I fail to see how spamming Aura Storm over and over again qualifies as 'strategic planning'."

Riley had just off from work, able to find a good, steady job at the Iron Island mines, mining for iron with Aaron's assistance. It wasn't his first option for a job, but it paid decently enough, and he really couldn't complain. Riley and his Lucario Aaron had decided to play a quick round of Brawl. The match was over quickly with 'Lucario' soundly defeating 'Marth'. Riley turned off the console, leaning back into the couch. He relaxed his muscles, having been worn out by the mining. Smiling, Aaron went behind the couch and started to massage Riley's shoulders.

"Oh! Oh… that feels good… Thanks, Aaron."

"Not an issue." he replied. "I'm always glad to help. Mining seems to be much more strenuous on humans than it is for Lucarios."

"Well, even learning advanced aura techniques can't help me there." Riley responded.

"Yeah… you know, this feels a little familiar." Aaron spoke.

"Really? How so?"

"Well, only in a minor way to be honest. But I'm reminded of you taking care of me. You've always taken care of me since day one. Remember that?"

Who could forget? 8 years had passed since 'Day One'. 'Day One' was a new chapter in Aaron's dark life. He had been kept captured by Team Galactic for the majority of his life, since he was a small Riolu. He managed to pull off a miracle of an escape when Team Galactic tried to use his strong aura to bring a being known as "Project Alpha" to life, headed by a "Doctor Anderson". Being held captive in what amounted to a prison for most of his life made Aaron a traumatized and apprehensive Lucario, vulnerable emotionally and scared to death of retaliation. But the day of his escape, and the day he met Riley, would be forever known as "Day One".

He learned that there were caring and kind human beings in the world.

He learned to become unafraid of an abusive retaliation.

And he learned to have a family again.

Once Team Galactic had been arrested for trying to bring Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina under their command, Cyrus had been dragged into the Distortion World, where Giratina made sure that he would not escape. Anderson had also died trying to get his "Project Alpha" back when he decided to disobey Anderson. Project Alpha had been brought to life by Aaron's death, using his aura, which is the life force of a Lucario. Alpha had sacrificed himself to kill Anderson and bring Aaron back from his death, and reunite him with Riley.

Things had settled down significantly since all of that drama. Riley also had one of Anderson's former Pokémon join him, as he had been brainwashed into serving Anderson. Getting a new Tyranitar, he gave him the name 'Nick', and he is now an important part of Riley's team. Riley himself would later grow to become a high-class trainer in the Sinnoh region, gaining some fame and some fangirls, including attention from Champion Cynthia.

Nick would also gain a friend, and in some ways, an opposite of him. On a trip to Sinnoh 7 years ago came Steven Stone, former Champion of the Hoenn region. He had come to Sinnoh to discuss recent fossil findings with Cynthia, current Champion of the Sinnoh region. Riley had close connections with Cynthia, and she invited him and his Pokémon to meet Steven Stone.

Flashback

"So… Cynthia?" Riley asked, sitting down at a nice table in Cynthia's villa and waiting for Steven to arrive. All of their Pokémon were currently recalled into their Pokéballs, out of standard manners. However right now, Riley was twirling around a fork on the table.

"Yes?"

"…What's Steven like? I mean, you were kind enough to bring me here to meet him."

"I brought you here because I think you two will get along great. You both have such fascination when it comes to minerals, especially the ones on Iron Island. I'm not too big into the whole 'rock' thing, though; I prefer studying the mythology and legends of Sinnoh."

Cynthia stopped speaking for a moment to hear a knock on the door. "Oh, that must be him!"

Sure enough, Steven Stone stepped inside as soon as Cynthia opened the door and welcomed him in.

"Pleasure to see you again, Cynthia." he greeted. "It's always a delight sharing my findings with you."

Cynthia giggled a bit. "Oh, stop it Steven. You're such a charmer."

The two came back to the dining room. Cynthia left for a moment and said that she would get the food, leaving Riley and Steven alone. In reality, she was spying on the two.

"So… you're Steven Stone, huh?" Riley said.

"I guess I am. Don't know of anybody else named that." he chuckled. "Cynthia's told me a bit about you. She really seems to have taken a liking to you as a trainer."

This had caught Riley's interest. "Oh, really? What did she say about me?"

"She told that, so far, you only have a Tyranitar and a Lucario on your team. Yet despite that, you've managed to catch her attention as someone with a lot of talent. I shudder to think what you could with a full team of six."

Riley blushed a bit. "Oh please, you're too kind. Do you flatter everybody?"

Steven only laughed at the response. "Anyway, I have an offer for you if you're interested in it."

"What kind of offer?"

"You only have two Pokémon in your main team right now, according to Cynthia. I'd like to see you take another member along, one I hope that will grow close to you."

Steven took out a spare Pokéball and showed it to Riley. "In here, I have a Beldum. They are a very rare species, and very hard to come by."

"I've heard about Beldum." Riley responded. "They eventually evolve into Metagross, who is an extremely powerful Steel and Psychic type."

Steven nodded. "Exactly. This is one of the offspring of my original Metagross, who has since retired from battling. I'd like for you to raise it as one of your own Pokémon." Steven slid the Pokéball across the short table to Riley, who then caught it.

"Me? R-Really?" Riley startled, a bit surprised by Steven's gift.

"Of course. Cynthia told me all about you, after all. I think you have some serious potential. And of course, he's your Pokémon now. How you raise him and how you teach him is all up to you."

"Wait… he? I thought that the Beldum line was genderless?" Riley mused.

"Technically, yes. The only way they can ever breed is with a Ditto. But even genderless Pokémon tend to lean one way or the other in terms of identifying themselves with a gender. This Beldum prefers to be known as a male, from what he's told me."

"Hmm. Interesting."

"So, are you going to nickname him? Again, it's your call."

"Yeah, I actually plan to. I enjoy nicknaming Pokémon. Kinda… gives them a bit of personality to differentiate themselves from all of the other Pokémon out there. Let's see…"

Riley tossed the Pokéball into the air, releasing the Beldum from it. It levitated in the air quietly, looking at Riley.

"Hmm… nickname…" Riley thought for a moment. After a minute or so, he snapped his fingers and came up with the name he wanted. He turned to the Beldum. "Magnus. How do you like that?"

The Beldum simply moved up and down in the air, as if to imitate a nod for 'yes'.

"I like it. Out of curiosity, what made you go with that name?" Steven inquired.

"Oh… it's just from a video game I played when I was younger. It was the name of a metal robot, so I thought it was suiting." Riley chuckled nervously.

Steven smiled. "Hey, I can't hold any objections. I hope you and Magnus have a great life together."

That Beldum eventually grew up a grouchy, yet still somewhat lovable Metagross. He stood as Nick's opposite in more ways than one. While Nick usually had a cheerful demeanor, Magnus was much less happy-go-lucky. Despite the pains that Nick had been though, he was fairly optimistic and believed that life is "always full of new chances". Magnus, however, tended to subscribe to the philosophy that, no matter what you believe in, life is "always going to rip you a new one". Nick also identified as religious, while Magnus never really cared about religion one way or the other. They even countered each other's types. As Nick was a Rock/Dark type and Magnus was a Steel/Psychic type, Steel countered Rock but Dark countered Psychic. Yet somehow, they still managed to be pretty good friends. They both even held similarities. Both of them always enjoyed a good laugh, both often had intelligent philosophical discussions, and both were great Pokémon to Riley.

"Yeah, I remember Day One very clearly." Riley answered Aaron's question. "But that's not a big deal now. Though, have you seen Nick or Magnus? I haven't seen them since I got home."

"They're in the backyard, training as usual. Maylene and Lucas came by while you were at work, and they're judging the match right now."

"I see. I should've figured as much." Riley chuckled.

Nick and Magnus stood at opposite ends of the backyard, ready to begin their tiebreaker. Lucas, a Lucario with a passion for battling, stood as referee. He recited the rules, just like an announcer. "Magnus has won the first round, while Nick has won the second. This match is the tiebreaker, and whoever wins the overall challenge! And gets a foot massage from Maylene!"

Maylene, who was relaxing in the corner, widened her eyes. "Hey! I never agreed to that!"

"Alright!" Nick smiled, enthusiastic as ever. "Let's do this!"

"Hmm. Eager like a child as always, aren't you Nick? That enthusiasm will prove to be your downfall." Magnus smirked.

Lucas began the countdown. "Three! Two! One! Go!"

Nick dashed up to the Metagross, leapt on top of him, and Crunched down hard onto him. Even though Magnus was made of metal, Nick's powerful teeth easily left a dent in Metagross.

Magnus quickly focused his mind, and relaxed his steel body. He levitated into the air with Magnet Rise, and moved over to Nick. He aimed one of his claws at Nick and pounded him with Meteor Mash. Nick reeled back from the hit, but remained standing. The two of them were also slow, yet heavy hitters, so they didn't have the speed to dodge quickly.

Magnus, however, increased his movement speed by using Agility, allowing him to move faster while he levitated. Nick attempted to use Stone Edge to knock Magnus off-balance, but the Metagross deftly dodged all of the oncoming stones. As he dodged, he levitated back to Nick and thrust a Hammer Arm into his chest. The move proved to be super effective, as Nick was knocked to the ground unable to counter. He tried to get up, but flopped back down to the ground in exhaustion.

"Nick is unable to resume battle! Magnus is the victor!" Lucas declared.

"Time for that massage!" Magnus smirked. "My legs are a bit sore after that match."

Maylene's jaw opened, not believing this. "You're joking! You… You have metal feet… claws… things! I'd break my hands!"

Magnus rolled his eyes. "Maylene, relax. I'm just joking with you."

"Yeah, I know." Maylene giggled.

"…Humans have odd senses of humor. But you aren't the worst thing in the world. Meh." Magnus muttered, levitating back to Nick.

"Good match." Nick congratulated Magnus.

"You, too." Magnus nodded. "That second round was a doozy; I hardly expected you to put me into a headlock."

"And your Meteor Mashes still hurt like crazy." Nick chuckled. Magnus helped lift Nick back up and onto his feet.

Lucas looked at the time on a clock inside the house. "12:05." he muttered. "Where's Bridgette? She should be here by now."

Maylene only chuckled. "Relax, Lucas. She's a capable Blaziken. She'll be here soon enough."

Bridgette was an interesting Blaziken to be sure, with an interesting story behind her as well. Maylene had received her as a Torchic with Speed Boost as a gift from her father on her birthday a few years back. It was an apology gift from her father for all of the trouble his gambling addiction had caused, which was now thankfully broken. She trained the Torchic herself, to raise her to be a contender for her gym team. Lucas had even helped, and that Torchic eventually evolved into a full Blaziken, who Lucas quickly developed a crush on. And after an awkward asking, Bridgette became Lucas's girlfriend, and Lucas had achieved his wish of having a girl to love.

Just then, the front door to Riley's house opened, revealing a beautiful and tall Blaziken holding a box of steaming hot pizza. Lucas rushed in immediately and gave her a welcoming hug.

Bridgette laughed. "Hey there, Lucas. Happy to see me, huh?"

"Of course I'm happy to see my girlfriend. For someone with Speed Boost, you'd think you'd be on time." he smiled, pecking her on the lips. "Now we can get started on lunch."

"I was only late by 5 minutes." Bridgette shrugged. "Would've been here on time, but I ran into a couple of thugs as I left the pizza place. Gave them a really good old fashioned butt-kicking."

Lucas smiled, taking the pizza from her and setting it on the table. "That's my girlfriend for you." he bragged a bit. "Now, why don't we all…"

*CRASH!*

Everyone in the entire house jumped in fright and then stood still. A giant, powerful crash had just happened in what now probably used to be a backyard.

"W-What was that?" Aaron asked first.

"I… think it came from the backyard." Bridgette said.

"Who wants to go check it out?" Maylene asked.

Riley thought for a moment. "Let's all go. But keep your guard up, you don't know what we might find."

The group had walked into the backyard, which was now a giant crater. Riley didn't really bother complaining about his ruined backyard, as he saw a large metallic blue dragon getting up from the crater. Riley recognized the creature immediately from the legends that Cynthia frequently shared with him.

"DIALGA?!"

To Riley's knowledge, Dialga's entire trio was now under the ownership of Dawn, who used them to stop Cyrus with his Red Chain plan. It had been all over the news when it happened, and Cyrus had been trapped in the Distortion World for good. But if Dialga was here, then this couldn't be Dawn's… could it?

"DIALGA!" Riley hollered into the pit again, catching the Legendary's attention.

Dialga got herself up and looked to the group outside the crater. The blue hat and clothing immediately caught Dialga's attention.

"This has to be alternate Riley!" she realized. The Riley from her universe had died long ago, during an attack from Cyrus' army. Her eyes then went to the Lucario next to Riley. It was Aaron. Dialga tried not to feel hatred towards this Aaron, but her hatred of the Aaron in her universe made that a hard accomplishment. Eventually, she levitated out of the crater to talk to them.

"Riley. And… Aaron." she said. "I am glad to have found you."

Nick scratched his head in confusion. "What's going on?"

"I am Dialga, but I come from an alternate universe, one where Cyrus has taken over almost the entire world."

Riley thought about this for a bit. Wasn't Cyrus trapped in the Distortion World, locked away by Giratina? "Alternate… universe?"

Dialga nodded. "Indeed. I have come here to ask you for your help in defeating Cyrus once and for all. He is a cruel dictator in my universe… along with my brother Palkia, I must sadly add."

"But… how did you even get here? If you're from a separate universe, then how could you cross universes?" Riley asked again, puzzled beyond belief.

"I am blessed with these powers, Riley. I can travel through time and cross dimensions, but this is my first time travelling to an alternate universe." Dialga said, speaking in a very down-to-earth and friendly manner. "I ask, no… I beg for your help. Without you, Cyrus will succeed in taking over my universe… and we'll all die."

Riley was taken aback. Here he was; an ordinary guy for the most part, and now he has the Legendary who controls TIME ITSELF begging for his help in restoring her own universe. He wasn't quite sure how to react.

Magnus couldn't help but have a little suspicion. "Why would you come specifically to us for help? It seems rather odd, considering that there are more powerful trainers than Riley. Like the Champions. Why not them?"

"Because… Aaron is the key to our victory."

Aaron quickly noticed that all eyes were on him, and he sweated a bit nervously. "M-Me?" he stuttered. "Why on earth would I be important to this?"

Dialga sighed, not wanting to have to explain, but it proved itself necessary. "Aaron. I know this is painful, but I need you to think back. Think back to when you were a slave under Team Galactic."

Aaron gasped for a moment. "How do you-"

"Aaron, I ask you to please concentrate."

He nodded, and started to recall the painful memories. Ever since that giant mess ended, he had pushed the events into the back of his mind. Sighing to himself, he brought them back forward in crystal clear detail.

"Y-Yes…" he muttered. "I remember. It… was a painful experience."

"I know it was." Dialga said. "But remember, did you ever give in to Team Galactic? Did you ever surrender and give them what they wanted willingly? Did you join their side?"

Aaron retaliated almost immediately. "No! Never! I'd never do something like that. I… I had faith to keep me strong. Without it… I don't know if I would even be here."

Dialga nodded once more. "In the universe where I reside from, it appears that you had little to no faith. You surrendered to Team Galactic very quickly, though I don't know how long exactly. And… you teamed up with Team Galactic. You joined them."

Aaron's jaw was already on the ground, but Dialga was nowhere near done with her explanation.

"It doesn't stop there. You were promoted to second-in-command, and you, Cyrus, and my brother Palkia all made the agreement to enslave my mother… Arceus."

"A-Arceus?!" Bridgette exclaimed in surprise. "How is… how is that even possible?!"

"They created the Red Chain, which tried to enslave me and Palkia the first time. That didn't work, obviously. After Cyrus had been cast into the Distortion World, Palkia had come to rescue him. They then recreated it a second time to enslave Arceus. And it worked this time. My mother has had to act against her will to give those three everything they desired. And now, my universe is ruled by this dictator. I formed a Resistance to try to stand up to Cyrus, but we've already lost thee members, two of which are now brainwashed into Cyrus' army… and that's why I'm here. To put a stop to this."

Aaron sat on the ground, trying to take this all in. "Whoa… I mean… me? Evil? A… a monster? I… I could never… ever do that… could I?"

"I understand that this must be hard to take in." Dialga said.

"No kidding." Magnus snarked.

Riley sat down next to Aaron, talking to him. "Aaron… whatever you want to do… it's your choice. Whether you want to help, or whether you don't, I'll support you."

Aaron spoke back. "Thank you, Riley. But I believe that I know what I need to do."

Aaron faced Dialga. "I'm going to help." he looked back toward the others. "We ALL are!"

"Of course we will!" Nick cheered.

"We'll do our best!" Bridgette added.

"Meh, at least we get to go on an adventure." Magnus shrugged.

"Thank you." said Dialga. "Thank you so much. But I must warn you; this isn't your typical adventure. It will be harsh. It will be cruel. It will be merciless. I can't guarantee that all of you will come back alive. Are you sure you wish to do this?"

Aaron looked around at his companions, all of which were smiling at him… even Magnus.

"Bring it on."

With those words, Dialga immediately teleported all of them away from this typical universe… and into a darker and crueler one.

Pokémon © Nintendo / Game Freak

Whoo! Yes! Third chapter up! Hope you guys are as excited as I am, and don't forget to read and review!