A little later, on their journey towards Solaceon, the little travelling group was camped in a clearing.

Ash was also working on something.

"Just so we're clear, this isn't meant to knock me out, right?" Marshtomp checked. "I know what Pikachu's capable of."

"I have not yet to my knowledge electrocuted any Ground types," Miraidon replied. "I am grateful for your help."

"Yeah, we've been working on what Miraidon's version of Collision Course should be," Ash said. "It's an Electric attack, like how Koraidon's attack is Fighting type, and I'm guessing that working with their speed is important too… how about you explain it yourself, Miraidon?"

"Got it, Dad," Miraidon confirmed, floating there in Ultimate Mode. "So Koraidon's attack is going really fast towards her opponent and then hitting them, but I focus more on distant attacks than close ones. So for me it's going to be going really fast towards my opponent and then not hitting, but letting the electricity hit instead while I go past."

"That's right," Ash agreed. "And that means it's a bit awkward to tell when they've got it just right, so that's where you come in."

He waved. "Your job is to dodge to one side or another when Miraidon comes in, and for it to work out Miraidon's electricity has to hit you but Miraidon has to not hit you. That means they have to swerve out of the way at the last moment – too soon and you'll have time to dodge, too late and, well, Miraidon's hit you."

He nodded. "Miraidon, for now we'll count going just overhead as a hit because we don't want you to fire the attack too late. Okay?"

"I understand," Miraidon confirmed.

"Okay, should work out," Marshtomp agreed. "Let's do this, then."

Miraidon floated back, jets and electrostatics working together, then switched their jets to point skywards and used their repulsion field to work against the jets. Electricity crackled and fizzed over their form, then they switched both drive systems to directly forwards and charged straight at Marshtomp.

The Ground-type dodged to the side, and Miraidon missed. In fact, they swerved wildly after firing out a bolt of electricity which didn't go anywhere in particular, and went crash into the trees nearby.

"...huh!" Ash said. "I just had a thought, Miraidon, if your attack does hit then you could electro-repulse off the Pokémon you just hit and make sure you bounce off instead of crashing… are you okay?"

"I am fine," Miraidon replied, their head coming back out of the brush. "But I have hit something and now it is making ominous noises."

"It is?" Ash asked, cantering forwards. "Uh oh… this could be bad!"

Seething dark smoke and purple mist combined as they poured out of the ruins of a tower, forming a galaxy of darkness with nothing to light it but a pair of glowing jade eyes and a jagged emerald split.

"Freedom!" the agglomerated dark spirit howled.

"...oh, phew!" Ash realized. "It's a Spiritomb! I was worried that it might be one of those ancient kingly ghosts or a Pokémonopolis creation or something."

The Spiritomb's aplomb was distinctly punctured.

"You seem… unafraid," the Forbidden Pokémon said.

"Why would I be afraid?" Ash replied. "I guess you could be a nasty Pokémon, but if I thought that about every Pokémon I met I'd usually be wrong, and I've met a Spiritomb before. My friend Cynthia has one, they help with the cooking sometimes."

"I wish to see this," Spiritomb requested.

"So you just use Will-o-Wisp," Cynthia's Spiritomb explained. "It works all right for frying but for baking you need to make sure there is an even heat."

As the other Spiritomb looked contemplative, Cynthia signalled for Ash's attention.

"Do you think you can ask how long that Spiritomb has been sealed in the tower?" she asked. "Please make it clear that I'm interested for academic reasons only-"

"Hang on," Dawn said, not deliberately cutting Cynthia off but Cynthia stopped anyway. "Can you turn this way a bit? I'd like to have a look at…"

She flicked through her Hisuian Pokédex, then nodded.

"I was right!" she said. "You're Vessa, aren't you? And the other hundred and seven wisps. It's been a while!"

The newcomer Spiritomb's motes of light swirled into a question mark.

"Yeah, that feeling goes away eventually," Marshtomp advised.

"So how did you end up stuck in that tower?" Ash asked, curious. "If you knew Dawn, I mean."

"Well, there was this travelling Aura Guardian," the Dark-type began.

"Oh dear," Cynthia's Lucario winced. "Yes, I can see how that would cause problems."

"What would?" Dawn asked.

"It's one of those strange edge cases with Aura," Lucario said. "You see, an Aura Guardian can sense wrongdoing and spite and all that sort of thing, and that lets them find those Pokémon who are so touched with malice and rage that the best thing to do with them is to keep them locked away for the good of themselves and others, at least unless you can cure them – and not even many Aura Guardians can."

Cynthia frowned, then raised her hand.

"I think I can see where this is going," she said. "A Spiritomb is made of a hundred and eight wisps, so…"

"Exactly," Lucario confirmed. "Over a hundred wisps can between them bear enough malice that any other Pokémon would justly be considered under serious threat of such a problem… but for a Spiritomb that level just means they get mildly irritated."

"This explains those odd looks back when you joined the team," Cynthia's Spiritomb said, placidly.

"Yes, bit of a potential misunderstanding there," Lucario admitted readily.

"So… what do you want to do now?" Ash asked. "I guess you've been in there for a while, so the world could have changed a lot since you last saw it… actually, there's a Lucario I know who lives with my mom, and he's from even further back. So he could help you get used to it, if you want."

"I hope he won't try to seal me," the Vessa Spiritomb said. "But that could work nicely."

"That's a good idea," Cynthia nodded, considering. "Though, at this point I'm wondering if we're going to meet a Garchomp or Togekiss. A lot of the Pokémon on my team have been represented by Pokémon we've met so far… and I'm not counting the ones Dawn met in the past, of course."

"Actually, about that," the Vessa Spiritomb began. "How exactly are you here? It felt like a long time."

"Dawn got sent back in time by a time paradox, then came forwards again once the time paradox was solved with the help of two kids of mine I haven't created yet," Ash explained.

The newcomer Spiritomb turned to Marshtomp.

"I do not believe you," they said.

Ash's mom was glad to have Vessa-and-the-others in the house, and Mimey added that he'd be sure to teach Spiritomb cooking if they showed any interest.

Aaron's old friend Lucario also assured them that he did know how to actually tell if a Spiritomb was corrupted, which was nice, and that got that nicely worked out.

Then they continued along the road towards Solaceon, though when the friends were nearly there Cynthia led them off on a side path.

"Here we go," she said, as they stepped out of the trees. "The Solaceon Ruins."

"Whoa," Ash said, looking up. "This… looks really big."

He shook his head. "I know that sounds like a simple thing to say, but… it is really big."

Latias flew up, then came back down again.

"It is big," she said. "It's a giant square shaped mass, the whole thing goes up as high as you can see here, and then there's a building on top."

Ash looked back and forth along the massive wall in front of them.

"Wow," he said. "This must have taken ages to build."

"I don't think I ever came here," Dawn provided. "Not in Hisui, anyway."

"The Solaceon Ruins are said to be associated with Unown," Cynthia told them. "And there's giant statues of Dialga and Palkia on one side of the building, up on top of the main mass of the Ruins. I think it's a place that might be connected to Arceus, though it would be great to get first-hand confirmation of that."

"Dialga and Palkia, but not Giratina," Ash frowned. "Again… I feel bad for her."

He glanced at Dawn. "Right? Even if she's okay with it, or resigned to it, it just means she keeps getting forgotten."

"I don't disagree," Dawn said, nodding. "Hopefully he'll be glad to meet you, though… and to see me again. I can only hope."

When Ash entered the Solcaeon Ruins, there was a sort of tremor through the air.

"I wonder what that was," Pikachu said.

Then Unown began to appear out of the air in front of them.

"Oh, this happens sometimes," Cynthia observed. "Though I don't think it's ever been quite this… extreme? And certainly not on first entering."

"That might be to do with me, I guess," Ash said. "Hey, uh, Unown?"

The Unown stopped, and a questionmark one floated forwards before fading back again.

"I just want to check first," he said. "You know that I'm not my dad, right? I'm not the original Arceus?"

This time, an exclamation mark floated forwards, followed by a swirl of letters. They exchanged glances, with some letters moving one way and some another, then the ones that remained out front condensed into the message CLARIFY?

Ash's Unown came out of his saddlebags. "If you give me a moment, I will compile available information to resolve any questions you may have."

Then they paused. "This appears to have confused them further. I apologize."

"What did?" Ash asked, then realized. "Oh, right, because you used I?"

"Correct," Unown stated, then transitioned into Alphabet Form.

While that was going on, Ash stepped back a bit.

He'd almost forgotten, because his Unown was the only Unown he actually interacted with almost all of the time, but his Unown looked a bit different to most of them. There was a faint golden sheen around his Unown, which almost looked like part of the general psychic energy around the Symbol Pokémon, but comparing them side by side showed off that the glow was unique to his Unown.

"Hmm," Cynthia said. "If you had to tell them that, I suppose that means that Unown don't all know the same thing. I wonder how that works… are they in a perpetual gestalt?"

"What's a gestalt?" Dawn asked. "I don't think I've heard that word before."

"It refers to what happens when you have more than one mind involved, but they're thinking as if they were one mind," Cynthia explained. "Or, in general, when there's a combination that's more than the bits that go into it, but in this context it refers to a mental connection."

"Hmm," Latias frowned, thinking about that. "I don't think I have one of those with Latios… we can share our sight and do things like that, but we can't do that."

"Hey, Unown?" Ash asked, since it looked like his Unown was done explaining. "Can you ask what the Solaceon Ruins were for? When they weren't ruins, I mean."

"That information is available," Unown stated. "The Solaceon Complex holds the Spear Key in dormant form."

"The Spear Key," Ash repeated. "I don't actually know what that is."

"I do," Dawn said. "Spear Pillar is an important place in Sinnoh, and the Spear Key is one of the ways to get there. It's not the only way but it is a way… right now Spear Pillar is ruins, though, so it's harder to tell where Spear Pillar actually is if you didn't visit it before it was destroyed. Like I did."

She noticed Cynthia's expression. "I guess we didn't get around to that bit yet?"

"You know where the Spear Pillar is?" Cynthia asked. "Can we go straight there?"

"Why?" Dawn asked. "It's not going anywhere."

Cynthia looked conflicted, then conceded with a sigh.

"You have a point," she admitted. "But won't we need the Spear Key?"

Dawn brought out her phone with a flourish.

"Not with this," she replied. "We'll be fine."

They did get to have a look at the Spear Key, after the Unown showed them to it, but it wasn't actually very impressive. It was just a golden box, with simple square and diamond markings, and Cynthia muttered to herself about the possible symbolism for several minutes before writing down all the inscriptions on the walls and puzzling over if there was a hidden meaning.

It didn't seem like it, but it was worth checking.

Then Ash's Unown said goodbye to the other Unown, and they left to head to Solaceon Town itself.

As they walked along the road, Ash turned his head.

"Do you ever miss it?" he asked. "Being linked to the other Unown like that, I mean."

"I think that is a hard question to answer," Unown replied. "Because in some senses the I that you are asking was not a thing until after we met."

They turned over in the air.

"Do you ever miss being a child?"

"...I guess I get your point," Ash agreed.

AN:

Working directly for Ash is a bit different to being the more general Language of Creation.