Pokextinction

by THE CREATOR and Hydra

The world is on the verge of collapse when a man who despises Pokemon with a burning passion and the ruthless rampaging Necrozma threaten world destruction. With tensions rising between every single Legendary Pokemon, even Arceus and Mew won't be able to stop the coming fire... And when all hope is lost, the world will turn to Ash.

63. Chapter 63: Thinning Line

Mr. Star sat down upon his office chair with a content sigh as he watched the launch of his satellite on the news. Leaning back and kicking up his legs lazily, the old man rested while his news crew carried off their equipment out of the room. "I would say that went swimmingly," He said to his secretary, Alice.

With a bright smile, Alice replied, "It has, sir. The celebration will be going well once everyone is admitted. Should we join them?"

"Nah," Mr. Star replied, grinning without a care. "The admissions will take a while to be completed. Until then, the amenities on the bottom floor should keep them occupied for a while." Snapping his fingers, he said, "Alice, would you gather the CEOs? Since they're all attending as it is, I would like to take the time to converse with them about the future of our business relations. I would love nothing more than to continue working with them towards the future, even if Team Rocket is now out of the picture."

His head suddenly perked up. "Oh!" He exclaimed. "And after you've gathered them, could you please take one of the brownie trays from the bottom floor and bring it to us?"

"Of course, sir," Alice chirped. She gave a slight bow of her head, gathered her clipboard, and made her way out of the room.

As Alice left Mr. Star alone, the old man carefully watched the wooden door close. When it finally shut tight, he removed his legs from his desk and sat up straight. Glancing down at his Secretary Bot, Mr. Star noticed the time it displayed and nodded to himself approvingly, then said, "Ash's flight would have taken off by now. That is good. Now, we can focus on the future of our world."

---

The Tree of Life was filled with excitement abound. Unaware and uncaring of the damaged world outside the tree's bark walls, its Pokemon frolicked without so much as a care in the world. Pokemon of all sorts played together joyfully.

The Water-Types splashed in their lakes and rivers. Some even flew down a waterfall, treating it as if it were a slide. Flocks of flying Pokemon observed the playing Pokémon below, either from the skies or from the trees. And the young land-dwelling Pokemon played together while their parents carefully watched from the side.

A Teddiursa, a Whismur, and a Petilil chased one another near one of the rivers. The Teddiursa tapped the Petilil on its head and then ran away. It laughed back at the Grass-Type after tagging it, but it wasn't looking where it was running. Its parent Ursaring suddenly lurched up and cried a warning at it, but when the Teddiursa looked at where it was running, it was too late.

Its ankle caught on a rock jutting out of the grass near the edge of a tall cliff. The young Teddiursa scarcely had a moment to register the colossal drop it was facing before it tumbled over the precipice. The parent Ursaring wailed with horror as it watched the young one fall, and this roar was what finally made the Teddiursa realize the extent of its situation.

It let out a cry of terror as it fell, something that was mirrored by its two friends as they helplessly watched it fall out of sight. The young Pokemon closed its eyes tightly as the jagged ground rushed up to meet it. And yet, no impact came. Slowly, it dared to open its eyes, finding that it had been enshrouded with a pink glow.

Against the cruel forces of gravity, this pink glow gently lifted the young Teddiursa back to the cliff's edge and set it upon the grass. Its parent sprinted over, snatching up the dumbfounded young Pokemon into its powerful arms and holding it tightly.

Above them, a high-pitched voice said, "You ought to be more careful, you know." Teddiursa, its friends, and the Ursaring glanced up at the sound of the voice, and when they saw who it belonged to, their eyes shot wide open.

Mew gently floated to the ground, smiling up at the Ursaring and its child. "I am glad I was able to make it in time," She said, wearing a kind smile upon her face. "Maybe you should play a bit further from the cliffs next time, hm?"

Ursaring were no stranger to untold violence even among Pokemon. From the moment they evolved from a Teddiursa, an Ursaring carried a savagery within its veins that was difficult to rival. This aggression extended toward anything that it did not trust, no matter what it was. Very few things in this world could make a proud Ursaring, especially a protective parent, reconsider fighting.

The mother of all Pokemon was one such thing that could.

Growing pale-faced, the Ursaring frantically nodded to Mew, holding the Teddiursa more tightly in its arms. Just as quickly as it did that, the Ursaring ran off out of sight, followed swiftly by the Petilil and Whismur. It was, admittedly, an understandable reaction.

Yet Mew's smile did not falter. It was not long ago that the Pokemon within the Tree of Beginning would have all shrieked in terror and fled at the sight of her. And while some of them now kept a wary eye on her, most of them were still playing, uncaring of her presence. Just getting a nod in response from the Ursaring was proof that progress was being made.

Her smile widened. She was happy. As Mew looked around at the expanse of the tree's inner valley, she saw nothing but the Pokemon that called the tree home enjoying themselves, playing with one another, and living their lives in harmony. It was something her old self would have refused to permit without her joining in. Now, merely watching this from the sidelines brought her unending joy.

Mew was happy.

"Mew!"

At the call of her name, Mew turned her head and, to her joy, was met with the sight of none other than Shaun bounding up to her. Ever since the day Mew stumbled upon those Time Flowers, she had been striving to make things right. For Shaun, and for all those who inhabited the tree. She had pinned them under her thumb and considered them not as living beings, but as her creations to be used at her leisure.

That torment lasted generations, instilling a terror onto the Pokemon that lived within the tree. No longer. Mew wished she could strangle her old self, and not a day went by where she did not thank her own creator for stepping in to correct her. And so, she had worked. She had worked hard to regain the trust of those within the tree. It would be a long, arduous journey to regain their trust completely, but she was thankful to be able to make progress at all.

The sight of Shaun, the young boy she had stolen, transformed and tormented, happily approaching her without fear was almost too much to bear. Shaun had been too good for someone like her. She did not deserve him. It was thanks to him that she could see that in the first place. Were it not for this young boy, she would still be blind.

"Shaun!" She exclaimed.

She held out her arms and welcomed Shaun as he leapt into them. The two laughed as Mew briefly spun him around. She spun him not as if she were performing a Rapid Spin attack like she would have done before, but as gently as a fragile young boy like him needed.

Still giggling, she set the boy-turned-Ralts back to the ground and asked, "So, what have you been getting yourself into? Have you been exploring the tree around here?"

Shaun nodded proudly. "Yeah!" He exclaimed, pumping his arms into the air. "I followed a bunch of Diglett through the tunnels around here, so I remembered them!"

"Oh, really?" She asked with interest, glancing up at the large valley's skyline between the branches overhead. "That's impressive. This place is pretty big. Are you sure you got everywhere?"

Enthusiastically, Shaun cried, "I did! I bet I know everywhere in the tree."

For his sake, Mew pretended to be impressed. "Everywhere, huh? That's amazing!" Crossing her arms with a hint of a smirk, she asked, "I bet that means you found the Fire-Type area beneath the tree, right?"

Shaun's smile faltered a bit. "Um…"

"And I bet you also found the frosty caves high up?"

Now, the young Ralts was beginning to doubt himself. "I uh…"

Mew giggled at him. "Don't worry about it, Shaun. Most Pokemon that live here go their entire lives without fully exploring it." She placed a hand on his head, lightly rubbing it. "But if you're going to be living here, you might as well know how to get around. Would you like to go sightseeing?"

Shaun thought about it for a moment, picturing the areas Mew described. For a moment, he glanced back at the group of Diglett and Dugtrio he had been following. "I'll see you guys later!" He shouted, waving at them. Then, he turned back to Mew and said, "Yeah, that sounds fun!"

The young boy's enthusiasm and innocence were unendingly endearing to Mew, who felt as if her heart might melt at any moment with each passing second she looked at him. It was a feeling that was alien to her before. And she wondered to herself. Was this what it was like to be a real mother?

Subconsciously, she knew she was no real mother to anyone. She had no right to call herself that with the way she had treated her children across the world for so long. Especially not to Shaun, whom she took from his family like the thief that she was. And yet Shaun, who hated every ounce of her being, was currently beaming up at her. Maybe he had gone through some kind of transformation like she did.

She smiled brightly at him, then chirped, "Alrighty, then! Let's make it easy on ourselves and start from the bottom, huh kiddo?"

Shaun looked at her oddly. "The bottom?"

Nodding, Mew floated back into the air and swerved around him. "The Tree of Beginning has a lot of places. I've been wanting to show them to you for a long time, but…" She glanced away, fighting fiercely to stop herself from cringing at the memories of her old behavior toward Shaun. "…Well, I wanted to let you decide if you wanted to see them. I didn't want to assume you just wanted to do what I wanted to do, you know?"

Child that he was, Shaun wasn't sure how to respond to that. Mew rubbed her head at the painful silence that ensued, then said, "Oh dear. I've made things awkward, haven't I?" She twirled her finger, summoning forth a pink bubble that grew from her finger to surround them.

Tilting her head, Mew attempted to hide her embarrassment with a smile. "How about we just get going then? It will take us some time to go all the way from the bottom to the top. Let's not waste any daylight, hmm?"

And with that, she and Shaun faded from the tree's inner valley with a small flash of light. The next thing Shaun knew, he was floating over flaming hot brimstone. His eyes shot wide and he shrieked with terror. Immediately, Mew leapt into action, floating beneath him and wrapping her arms around him.

Mew made quiet shushing noises at him. "Hey, hey, hey, hey," She cooed. "Don't worry. You're alright." Slowly, she separated herself from him, showing him that he wasn't falling into the burning black rock below. It was then that Shaun noticed the thin pink bubble that had surrounded him was still there. "See? You're okay. I wouldn't let you just fall into that stuff."

The young boy bowed his green head. Even though it was now clear to him that the bubble was preventing the surrounding heat from touching him, he felt hot around his face from embarrassment anyways.

"I'm sorry," He muttered.

His pouting voice was too much for Mew's heart to bear. "You don't have to be sorry!" She exclaimed, waving her hands in front of his face. "I should be the one sorry for not warning you. I swear, I'm always so…" She knocked herself on the head with her knuckle. "…Absentminded, you know?"

Like before, Shaun was unsure of how to respond to that. Mew sighed. Then, she suddenly took her finger and raised it by her side. "Alright, that does it. I don't want you to have to be scared anymore, so it's time we set things straight." Crossing that finger over her heart, she swore, "I will never let you come to harm again. Never."

Shaun nodded along. "Okay. I um…I understand."

It seemed to Mew like he had a hard time believing it. She huffed, frowning. "Well," She began, trying to ward off the awkwardness she had created, "I guess we ought to start the tour properly then."

Mew turned around, gently lifting Shaun's head up so he could see where they were. His little mouth widened into an 'o' when he saw it. It looked like they were in the caldera of a volcano. They hovered over rocky brimstone on the edge of a massive lake of lava. A giant hole above it sucked the stream of gases flowing up from the lake. And at the far edges of the cave, the brimstone faded into more solid red stone.

But what truly astounded Shaun were the Pokemon. Living beings somehow occupied this fiery, hellish cave. He couldn't resist crying out in surprise upon seeing a Magcargo emerging from the lava lake and crawling onto the brimstone. That shock went further when he witnessed a small Magby running toward the lake and throwing itself in headfirst.

Shaun nearly cried out until Mew held up a hand. "Don't worry," She assured him. "Look."

What followed went against everything the boy knew. From that lake of liquid magma, the small Magby resurfaced and began floating on its back. In spite of the offending heat that plagued this entire cave, the small Pokemon treated the magma as if it were nothing more than an ordinary pool.

"This," Said Mew, "Is where the Fire Types in the tree usually live." Turning toward him, she asked, "Did you know that the roots of a tree are even larger than what you see above ground?"

Shaun could only blink at that. His jaw was agape, still unable to get over the sight of Pokemon carelessly bathing in magma. He was hardly in the proper mindset to be able to even comprehend what Mew was telling him."

Chuckling, Mew said, "I guess this is too fast for you, huh?" She floated to him for a brief moment to close his jaw from his chin, which seemed to break him out of his trance. "Well, a tour is meant to be educational, I suppose, so stop me if you have a question."

With that, she turned back to face the caldera. Shaun made a noise when the bubble started moving, making them move about the large red cave. "Heat like this doesn't bother most Fire Type Pokemon. It's more comfortable down here for them than it is above."

A still-awed Shaun asked, "Where is this place?"

It was then that an idea struck Mew. Above her hand, an image appeared. Pink streaks of light moved like worms to create the image of the Tree of Life. With her other hand, Mew pointed underneath the image of the tree she created.

"We," She said, "Are here. Right now, we're actually below the tree. You remember what I said about the roots of a tree?"

Shaun gave a hesitant nod, the memory fuzzy in his mind since he had been occupied with something else.

Continuing, Mew said, "Well, that goes triple for this tree. Way more than that, actually." That image of the tree she created rose higher into the air. Shaun's eyes again went wide when Mew's pink lights began to draw the extent of the roots. Thousands of lines crept down from the tree's bottom in winding webs that Shaun couldn't even begin to keep up with. Eventually, those roots came in contact with Mew's hand again, and the Tree of Beginning suddenly seemed invisible by comparison to its roots.

All Shaun could utter in response to this was, "Wow…"

The image of the roots retracted and disappeared, allowing the normal tree to fall back into the palm of Mew's hand. "For simplicity's sake, we won't be paying attention to the roots during our tour. However, I will say that the roots are incredibly important. They stretch all over the world."

Another image was carved into the air above her other hand. This one was a mountain. "In fact," She said, "Mt. Coronet in Sinnoh is actually just a bunch of rocks growing over one of the roots that poked up out of the ground."

Allowing the two images to fade, Mew turned herself and Shaun to their left so they faced the lava lake. To Shaun, the entire cave all of a sudden seemed so much bigger than before. Mew said, "Since those roots stretch so far, they carve through the lava in the planet's layers. Some of that lava sprung up here beneath the tree, but I thought it would be a good spot for Fire Types to live more safely, so I left it alone."

Shaun asked, "Won't the lava burn the tree?"

Mew shook her head. "Of course not. The tree's bark is more sturdy than stone. It would take a lot to burn it. It would only be the grass and leaves on the inside we'd have to worry about, but the tree is pretty good about protecting itself." She glanced up and smiled, adding, "Water-Type Pokemon live all over the tree too. You could call them one of the tree's natural defenses."

The young Ralts then pointed at the stream of smoke and gas rising up from the lake into the grand tunnel above. "What about that?" He asked curiously. "Do the…" He paused for a moment to recall the names of the Pokemon on his mind. Upon remembering them, he continued, "The Flying-Type Pokemon blow all that away too?"

What a wondrous mind children had. Mew giggled, replying, "No, no, nothing like that. It would get pretty hard if they had to always blow that stuff away. You see…" She put her hand to her chin, wondering how best to describe how the tree handled the oppressive gases. "Actually, how about I show you?"

The bubble surrounding the two floated directly into the gas stream. Shaun flinched a bit, making Mew frown. It seemed like he still didn't trust her entirely. She could hardly blame him.

They soared up through the gas stream, everything outside of the bubble blackened by the smoke. As they ascended, Shaun couldn't see much of anything until the bubble floated up into another large chamber. The smoke seemed to filter out here enough for their surroundings to at least be slightly visible. Up here, it seemed more of a purplish grey color than the billowing black below.

Shaun shrieked and recoiled when a red-eyed face suddenly appeared from the smoke. A Gengar, having gotten its kicks out of scaring the young Ralts, rolled through the air weightlessly as it laughed. Its fun was cut short at the sound of someone clearing their throat, and when the Gengar opened its eyes again, it realized the extent of its mistake.

Leering down at him was the disapproving face of Mew. This look gave the Gengar a cold sensation all throughout its body that put even the chill of the grave to shame. It faded from view, blending into the purple bog. Mew continued to watch it even when Shaun no longer could, until it phased through the wall to escape her sight.

"Troublemaker," She chided. Turning her attention to Shaun, she said, "Don't worry about them. Ghost-Type Pokemon love this place since the gas makes it so dark. They blend right in, but they're usually harmless."

When Mew directed Shaun's attention to the walls of the chamber, Shaun noticed that the walls were filled with twisted holes. But what truly astounded him was that they slowly shrunk and grew repeatedly, making the walls look as if they were breathing.

Mew told him, "Most trees couldn't handle these types of gases, but this one's tough. It takes these gases and breaks it down into smaller parts it can use."

As the walls "inhaled" and one hole expanded, Mew quickly had the bubble slip right through it into one of the many rooms they led to. What Shaun saw on the other end made him especially thankful that he was within a protective bubble, else the stench on the other end would have surely spelled the end for him.

Along the floor and ceiling, the gases seemed to solidify into a steaming purple ooze. Several giant pools of this ooze collected along the floor as streams of it fell from the ceiling. But what truly astounded Shaun was that the reverse was happening to this ooze as well.

Where some of the sludge fell from the ceiling into pools, there were other pools in which it rose from the pools back to the ceiling at the same speed. This ooze created slow-moving rivers all along the ceiling that split off in all directions. Parts of it discharged sludge down into the pools, and other parts absorbed the sludge pools into itself to redistribute it.

Poison-Types such as Muk and Grimer crawled along the ground at a slow pace. Their gelatinous bodies seemed to slide across the ground like molasses, and the extent of their movements beyond this were only the occasional yawn. Although it disgusted the young Shaun, it admittedly did look cozy for a Poison-Type.

"These rooms are about the only safe place for most pure Poison-Type Pokemon in the tree," Explained Mew. "Some of them, like Oddish and its evolutions, actually prefer the more plant-filled areas of the tree because of their Grass typing, but Pokemon like Muk would probably end up contaminating those places if they lived anywhere but here."

Her eyes narrowed a bit at the Muk and Grimer. "But while it's safe, a place like this is almost too perfect for them. They have all the gas and sludge they could ask for, and because of that, they're too lazy to do much but sleep."

"Don't they need to eat?" Asked Shaun.

This question earned a nod of confirmation rom Mew. "Yep. They can eat foods considered normal for other Pokemon, but it's impossible to keep the plants that grow them alive down here. Naturally, at least." She gave a slight nod toward one of the rising sludge streams. "But the volcano provides gas that solidifies into this sludge, which they can subsist off of. A dark room full of everything they need leads to these guys becoming layabouts."

With his gaze, Shaun followed a thick-looking stream of the purple gas that was visible even amidst the rest of the gas. It led into a smaller hole in one of the walls that seemed to 'breathe' like the larger hole they came in through. He gasped when he saw purple bubbles forming from that thicker smog stream within the hole before being promptly sucked up beyond his sight.

It was then that he realized something. "Wait," He said, turning toward Mew with wide eyes, "Do those bubble things in the tunnels come from here?!"

Unable to resist giggling at his tone, Mew replied, "You're a smart kid. You're exactly right, but it's not like you think."

Their own bubble flew through the breathing wall, following after the smog-filled ones. From the inside of the rising tunnel, they watched as the purple bubbles soared higher after they were formed from the smoke streams.

"Those bubbles carry parts of the volcanic gasses all throughout the tree to be dissolved into energy for the tree," Explained Mew, "But the parts more dangerous to most Pokemon usually get used pretty early. By the time they get up to where you could usually take them for a ride to get higher in the tree, they're harmless."

Their bubble followed one of them parallel to its upward journey through the tree. As it moved, Shaun could see tiny purple specks falling from its sides and sticking to the walls. The bubbles above their own rained down these specks. The way they seemed to glow in response to the tree was almost magical, but Shaun couldn't help but recall what exactly those specks were made of.

As they flew, Shaun noticed the colors of the bubbles shifting from purple to blue as the toxins left them, then from blue to a turquoise green. Now he could see straight through them, and they appeared exactly as the bubbles he recognized within these tunnels he visited so often.

Noticing an exit, Mew had their bubble suddenly lurch to the right in order to escape the stream. They found themselves within the ordinary rusty reddish-brown tunnels most of the tree was composed of. Shaun recognized this tunnel. It was one of the ones he had followed a group of Diglett through earlier. He even recognized the tracks they left behind.

"OM. OM. OM."

Shaun was suddenly put on alert at the sound of that low, droning noise followed by beeping. It was a noise all too familiar to him. He felt his legs go numb when Reigrock turned the corner.

Even though Shaun had been living within the tree for quite some time, there were a few things that he could simply not get used to. The trio of golems that patrolled the tree were among that list. The memory of his first encounter with those three when he was still human was etched firmly in his mind. The soulless, faceless robot-like things that attacked him, his father, and their company still haunted his dreams occasionally.

He felt his blood run cold when Regirock stared directly at him with its computer light-like set of eyes. Mew was quick to try to soothe him by putting a hand on his shoulder and saying, "Don't worry about Regirock. It knows you're not a threat anymore. Besides, it's not here to attack anything."

Shaun had a hard time believing that. "I-it's not?"

Smiling, Mew shook her head and directed him to look back at Regirock. "Look," She told him, "It's not even focused on you anymore."

Indeed, to Shaun's shock, the rock golem was no longer even giving the boy the time of day. It instead looked down at the splintered ground left in the wake of the Diglett that passed through earlier. A methodical beeping came from the golem as it surveyed the damage before it knelt down.

Regirock's stone arms hovered over the ground. Between its two stubby hands, an orange light emerged and fell to the scar in the tunnel floor. The reaction was immediate upon contact. In response to the orange light, the scar immediately lit up as well and shot down through the tunnel as it followed the long mark. As it moved, it left a spotless floor in its wake, having sealed the scar shut seamlessly.

The young Ralts's jaw dropped upon witnessing this. In his mind, when he envisioned the trio of golems, all he saw were merciless, mindless killers that would hunt someone down to no end if they felt slighted. And yet now, right before his eyes, one displayed the ability to heal.

Satisfied with its work, Regirock stood up again and began walking. Slowly, it trudged through the tunnel until it was out of sight, but its heavy footsteps were still audible long after. After it had gone, Mew patted Shaun on the shoulder to regain his attention.

"You and the Regis…got off on the wrong foot," Spoke Mew, trying to find the best way to put it, "But they aren't bad. At the end of the day, they're just here to protect the tree and everything in it." A grin crept up her face as she added, "And that includes…" She lightly poked him on the nose. "…You now."

To show what she meant, Mew had their bubble begin to move again. They went the opposite way Regirock did, shooting through the winding tunnels until they eventually ended up within the watery, grass-covered valley area where they had begun their journey.

"…And all of this," She told him. "Our home."

A part of Shaun knew she had the right of it. Mostly, at least. After all, he had been part of a group specifically aiming to capture and sell Pokemon that lived within the tree. Now that he thought about it, were those golems merely defending their home? It was hard for him to put the idea of morals upon a faceless killer computer.

The boy turned his sights up from the floor to the valley ahead. His home. Their home. Even still, it felt so odd to him to say that. And yet he knew that he was accepting it little by little. The Pokemon were recently more friendly toward him, where before, his affiliation with Mew caused them nothing but terror.

It had become his home.

"Where is this part?" He asked, pointing out at the valley. "What part of the tree is this place?"

Over her fingers, Mew summoned the image of the tree she had conjured earlier and pointed out a v-shaped area just above the base of the tree. "Right here," She told him. "This valley is probably the biggest single 'room' in the tree. It's one of the only enclosed space in it where sunlight can get through, which is why most of the Pokemon choose this place to live."

Indeed, this grand valley that somehow fit snugly within the Tree of Beginning housed many Pokemon that the young Shaun could not even begin to number. In the time he had spent within the tree, he had seen many, met some, and befriended a handful of them. During the time he had spent with his father, he thought he had seen nearly every Pokemon there was. This place proved him wrong on a daily basis.

And still, there was so much more of what he had seen was only three areas out of whatever else could lie beneath this tree's bark. The idea was exhilarating. He soon found his trepidation over the Regis wearing off as a bubbly excitement took over. This tree was like its own world.

An utterly exhilarated Shaun suddenly looked up to her and shouted, "I want to see it all! The whole tree!"

Mew giggled at his enthusiasm. She felt an energized twinge in her fur as a bit of excitement welled up within her as well. She hadn't had anyone to show the full expanse of the tree to. "We'll see it," She assured him, "But today, I just want to show you the big stuff. There isn't enough time in a day to explore the whole tree. But we have plenty of days ahead of us, don't we?"

She looked up in thought as she imagined what place to show him next, then smiled upon getting an idea. "The valley may be the biggest room in the tree, but there are plenty of other rooms that are giant in their own right."

With the snap of her finger, their bubble vanished from the valley within the tree. When Shaun's vision returned to him, he gasped upon finding himself and Mew within the expanse of a dark jungle. Gargantuan, twisting vines rose up from the ground to the ceiling. Myriads of other plants that Shaun could not name decorated not only the ground, but the ceiling as well.

He squinted to see the room's far walls between the plants, but they were so dense that he couldn't see them. What he could see, and hear for that matter, was a roaring, rushing waterfall much further ahead. It poured in from the ceiling, likely from another separate chamber or tunnel, into a large lake toward the center of the jungle room. Part of that lake flowed toward yet another, smaller waterfall that led somewhere else.

Pokemon such as Aipom climbed from vine to vine to access the berries that dropped down from plants on the ceiling. Other Pokemon like Skorupi and Scyther crowded around the lake to drink, apparently uncaring of the other group of Bug Types. It was a sight to see indeed. Shaun had always been told that Scyther were territorial to no end and would attack any other Pokemon that came near.

No sunlight came into this dark, isolated jungle. Rather, the only lighting in the room stemmed from large blue crystals that were all too familiar to Shaun. Crystals such as these were typically the only lighting in the tree's tunnels, and though he often relied on them enough to at least grow somewhat comfortable around them, the memories he associated with what came out of those crystals when they sensed danger were unendingly bitter.

"Whenever I decided to journey outside of the tree, I usually tended to end up in jungles like this," Mew explained to Shaun thoughtfully. "I don't know why, honestly. Maybe they're just relaxing to me."

She eyed a group of sleeping Vileplume that had tucked themselves away around the base of one of the large vines. Similarly, a large Tangrowth rested motionlessly, using its vine-like appendages to stick into the ceiling to allow its large body to hang like a hammock. Several Flying and Bug-Type Pokemon slept upon the giant Tangrowth's loosened, relaxed vines as well.

"Apparently, I'm not the only one that thinks so."

The topic of Mew leaving the tree intrigued Shaun. It never occurred to him that she would ever leave it. Curiosity overtaking him, he asked, "When do you ever leave the tree?"

"When?" Repeated Mew thoughtfully. "I don't really have a schedule. I used to just go out whenever I was bored. Sometimes it would only take a week, sometimes I wouldn't go out for thousands of years."

Thousands. The fact that Mew was a bizarre and otherworldly existence had been plain for Shaun to see. There was hardly a day he spent in the tree without Mew demonstrating some power that he never witnessed another Pokemon performing. Given that, he got over most of Mew's quirks rather quickly after her sudden attitude change.

And yet, "thousands of years" was something that blew him away. Innocently, the awed young boy asked, "Mew, how old are you?"

Mew narrowly held back a loud laugh at that question. "Shaun!" She exclaimed, attempting to appear offended whilst being unable to wipe the smile from her face. "Don't you know that it's rude to ask that kind of question? Besides, that's a bit of a loaded question."

She glanced down at Shaun, awaiting a response. Yet the little Ralts appeared troubled when trying to form one, so she took the liberty of continuing. "Well," She started, "If you must know, then…"

It only then occurred to her just how weighty such a conversation would be. Inevitably, it would lead into a conversation about the world's origin since her age predated even that. She had bitter memories of how many of the Legends took that conversation when Arceus retold the tale. How would it impact a child?

Mew suddenly shook her head to dispel such thoughts from her mind. That mindset, of deciding for herself the needs and wants of others purely dependent on her own feelings, could not continue to exist. If Shaun wanted to know, then he had the right to. Just as Arceus believed their other children did.

"…It's a long story," She began, side-eyeing the boy, "So I'll make it quick and simple for now. After all, we still need to explore the rest of the tree."

With that, Mew took a moment to deliberate with herself about where to begin. Should she start with the origin of the world, or the true origin?

"Have you heard of a Pokemon called Arceus?" Mew asked Shaun.

The boy nodded, then replied, "Uh huh. I heard his voice when he talked to everyone."

That little detail had slipped Mew's mind amidst all the other things that had gone on since then. Perhaps the existence of her partner was common, everyday knowledge now. She wondered if the same could be said for her.

Cleaning that thought from her mind for the sake of continuing, Mew replied, "That's good. It'll save me the time of explaining who he is. You see, Arceus and I are alike. We came from…" Her mind wandered toward her primordial, otherworldly progenitor. "…The same place. And together, we traveled here to make this world."

Like the evolutionary line of Klink, gears turned within Shaun's head as his mind tried to make sense of her words. "Make…the world?" He looked up at her incredulously. His mind carried no doubt that Mew was something extraordinarily powerful, but creating the world?

After Arceus and Aura revealed themselves to the world to put an end to Necrozma, Shaun's father did not seem to put much stock in either of them. Shaun himself did not know what to make of the two creators, and now Mew claimed to be a third. All of this felt above him, and he didn't know what to believe.

"Hard to believe?" Mew asked, as if reading his thoughts. She never would, of course, nor did she need to right now. His doubt was written plainly on his face. Giggling, she said, "I know I don't look the type, but it's true. Arceus and I spent a lot of time getting this world to work. That's why this tree was even created."

Even though Shaun was unsure, he decided to humor her at least. "The tree?" He asked. "So it does something? What is it for?"

Snapping her fingers, Mew conjured the diagram of the Tree of Beginning with its roots. "As I said, the tree's roots are spread throughout the world deep underground. The tree generates Aura and supplies it to the world through those roots."

"Aura?" Questioned a confused Shaun. It was the name of that second creator that had ended up saving the world. That's how the rumor went anyway. But how could a creature 'course' through tree roots?

Mew chirped, "Yup! Aura is in all of us. Aura is…" She paused to figure out how best to describe it. "…Basically everything. It's most present in living things like us, but even nonliving things were made with Aura. It's like…"

A frustrated Mew became briefly silent again. She evidently wasn't the best at describing things. Then, yet another idea struck her. "Well," She said, "How about we continue with the tour and I can show you?"

Shaun's vision briefly flashed as they were teleported again. The roar of the waterfall was immediately replaced with another one. It boomed intensely like the sound of rushing wind. When the boy glanced over at its source, his jaw dropped.

Two sets of gigantic crystal growths sprouted from the floor and roof. But what truly astounded Shaun was what poured down between those growths. He and Mew were now in a room much smaller than any of the ones they visited before. Its walls were largely the same rusted red color most of the tunnels were, but what was between those two crystal growths was far more astounding than anything he had seen thus far.

From a hole in the spiral of jagged crystals jutting down from the ceiling, a swirl of blue light poured down into another hole in the crystals at the bottom. The stream was more intense than any waterfall, appearing more like a jet of blue flame than any water he had ever seen. And yet he could see straight through it.

"What…is that?" He gasped, his breath taken away at the sight.

Proudly, Mew replied, "This is the Aura Stream. It's where all Aura in the world is generated." The pink cat twirled around the blue stream, dancing through the air. "When I created the Tree of Beginning, I sped up its growth and power by binding its life to mine. So this room is basically my heart, and the stream, my heartbeat."

She floated back down to Shaun and reentered the bubble. "Here," She told him, gently taking hold of his hand, "I want you to feel my heartbeat."

Although her phrasing sounded odd to Shaun, he allowed Mew to guide his hand to her fur. When she placed his hand upon her heart, Shaun let out a gasp. A sensation alien to him coursed through his body. He could feel energy flow through his veins like blood, and somehow, knew it to be the same energy that flowed in between the crystals beside him.

When Mew's heart beated, he heard it from all around him. It echoed loudly throughout the room, traversing the tree's boundless walls and beyond. And yet the noise did not hurt. Rather, it was actually calming. That sensation imparted something upon Shaun. He knew that heartbeat to be the same as Mew's. It was the heartbeat of the world. Without the need for words, the Aura communicated that to him through Mew. It was a feeling that his body and mind accepted as truth.

Shaun looked at Mew with a newfound awe. In turn, she could not tear her eyes from him. Her doting nature and the connection she felt to Shaun through the Aura made her smile, but that expression alone could not begin to justify the extent of her feelings. Shaun felt this, and felt that this love extended to all of her creations.

Mew's creations. Suddenly, that idea no longer felt odd to Shaun at all. "You…really created us," He whispered breathlessly.

And Mew nodded. "I did. In a roundabout way, I suppose." She and Shaun looked up at the stream once more. "Arceus and I created this world together," Recollected Mew, "But because of that, our world is very different from others. Where other planets gradually grew life with specks of Aura left behind, ours grew rapidly because of this tree. That's why it has a second name: the Tree of Life."

Following her, Shaun added, "That's why so many things are protecting it."

"That's exactly right," Affirmed an approving Mew. "This tree is important, so it needs every possible defense to keep it safe. Without it, life would begin to fade from the world."

That explained why the three golems of ice, rock, and metal were so unendingly aggressive, and why those odd, terrifying cells that oozed from the crystals all throughout the tree's tunnels seemed to hunger endlessly in response to threats.

His head perked up when he remembered those cells. The sudden act caused him to also remove his hand from Mew's fur, making her frown. Shaun asked, "About those blob things, from the crystals?"

"What about them?"

Shaun lowered his head and winced. Memories of the screams of his father's men as those blobs consumed them still haunted his mind along with the rest of that day. "When they get someone," He began, "What happens to them? Are they…eaten? What even are they?"

And just when they were having a moment. Still, Shaun was owed the world and more for what she put him through. Answers to any of his questions were deserved.

"If this room is my heart, and Aura is my blood, then those would be like white blood cells." She peered down at him and asked, "I don't suppose you would know what those are yet?"

Shaun shook his head.

"Well," Continued Mew, "When people and Pokemon get diseases, white blood cells attack the diseases to keep you alive. When the tree comes under attack on the inside, those cells come out to attack in the same way."

But there was still one thing she hadn't answered. "And what happens to things they catch?"

Mew replied, "They don't die, if that makes you feel better. Their bodies are…" She brought up her hands and made a motion of something being crushed. "…Melted down and taken into the tree. Their Aura is used as fuel for the tree, and as such, fuel for the world. They could end up all the way down at the roots or…" Her furry fist tapped on one of the walls. "They could be within these very walls somewhere as the tree carries them."

With a long, deep breath, she admitted, "When I first created that defense long ago, I thought that if there was anyone evil enough to attack the tree that sustains all life, then their Aura would be better used to fuel the tree." Her eyes dropped wistfully. She peered through the walls at the countless weaving streams of life. "…But I'm not sure if that's right of me to decide anymore. Not everyone knows how important the tree is. I used to act horrible when the tree was threatened."

Mew was alerted by a sudden pang in the flow of Aura. However, such a thing was not unprecedented. In this room that overflowed with Aura, there was no end to its countless waves. Likely, the tree was responding to a wild Pokemon drawing near its outskirts, or a Steelix drilling through the ground near one of the roots. And so, she shrugged it off.

Shaun's thoughts immediately turned to what he witnessed through the conduit of a Time Flower; of the vision that detailed Mew ruthlessly annihilating an army poised to attack the tree, and sending the entire environment around it aflame.

The Mew that reduced that land to ashes and the Mew that stood before him now were like night and day. He could feel that much. He asked, "Are you going to let the people go?"

In response, Mew glanced away, wondering that much herself. "I don't know," She answered truthfully. "It's too late for the ones already taken. Their Aura is spread throughout the tree. It would be impossible to piece them back together without damaging the tree itself, but I admit, it doesn't feel right to keep them there."

Shaun lowered his gaze to the floor, then asked, "What about just making them not take anyone else?"

"That's probably the best I can do." Mew turned toward one of the smaller crystals adorning the walls wistfully. "Changes that big don't come overnight. It'll take me a while to go through the entire tree and prepare it for that change." Turning back to Shaun, she asked, "What makes you ask about it by the way?"

Immediately, regret flared up within her as she realized why he was asking. Obviously, it was because of the men he was with when she found him. Witnessing their fates firsthand is something no child should have to see. She felt stupid for asking, and silently cursed at herself for bringing it up.

"My dad," Began Shaun, confirming Mew's fears, "Wasn't…a good person. But he used to be. I don't know about those other people with him, but did they deserve…what happened to them?"

Mew didn't know where to begin with that. She briefly entertained the idea of telling him that his father did not meet the same fate as his peers. At the time, she did not care what happened to those people. But now, she was left with the weight of those actions and countless others weighing down on her.

Was it right of her to have punished them? All of the people she had slain or allowed the tree to consume? No Pokemon had suffered that fate. Only misguided humans who did not know the significance of their actions. Even they were her children. Did she have the right to snuff out their lives as punishment for a crime they did not know they were committing? If she had simply explained herself and what this tree was, would they have stood down? Would they have listened at all?

The goddess that ruled over all Pokemon could only reply to those questions that rang through her head, and the question Shaun had posed, with, "I don't know."

Shaun stood still and remained quiet as he struggled with that question for himself. His mind wandered toward what he saw in the room full of Time Flowers. Of the group of explorers who had angered Mew and resulted in the tree attacking them. Did they deserve it too?

As he thought of them, he recalled that the Time Flower did not record the entire event. It ended before Shaun could see what happened to that man. What was his name? It slipped his mind.

Still, he was now too curious to let it go, and he asked, "What happened to that group I saw in that flower room?"

"That group…" Mew scratched at her head as she tried to remember. So many groups had come and gone through the tree they were innumerable. Her eyes lit up upon remembering the room with Time Flowers where she found Shaun. "Oh, them. Didn't you, um, see for yourself what happened to them?"

An unsure Shaun answered, "I…" He cringed. "…Did. But I didn't see the whole thing. There was one guy left." Shaun looked up at her hopefully as he asked, "Did he…did he live?"

Mew paused, then replied, "I don't know. After that other human…" She shook her head, then corrected herself. "…Person brandished a knife, I let the tree handle things from there and…honestly, I didn't pay much attention to what happened after."

Her face wrinkled, cringing at herself for her actions, and how much she had to admit to Shaun. But she swore she wouldn't lie to him anymore. It wasn't up to her to decide what others should and should not know. Even for a child.

"Your father," She began, "Didn't meet that same fate."

Shaun perked up upon hearing that. However, the look on her face told him that the news wasn't anything good. Mew took in a sharp breath, steeling herself in preparation for what she was about to tell him.

And with a trembling breath, she told him, "I was much crueler than that. When I read the minds of the Pokemon he had stolen and felt the breadth of their pain, I wanted nothing more than to inflict that same pain upon him."

Staring into the eyes of the boy whose father she had murdered as she admitted that fact to him was too much for her to bear. Unable to stand it any longer, her eyes shut tight. "And so, I let those Pokemon decide his fate. They subjected him to what he subjected them to."

Shaun seemed to be stunned. His face was frozen in a neutral expression as he processed the information. This was something he expected to hear. Amidst the time he had spent in the tree, he figured that his father was dead. He had even accused Mew of killing him before.

But he hadn't known for sure until now. In wake of this, he felt a pain well up in his chest that tightened his throat. And beneath the green hood that made up the Ralts's hair, hiding the expression of the boy, Shaun's eyes watered. Not for the father that he had, but for the father he didn't.

His father, Tony, was a menace in his final months of life. Broken by the vegetative state the battle against Necrozma had left his wife and Shaun's mother, he cursed the world and set out with his closest friends to torment its inhabitants. In those months, Shaun felt a closer connection to the Pokemon he was ordered to help steal than Tony himself. Perhaps he had lost his father long before his actual death.

For Mew, this room was both a blessing and a curse. It had brought Shaun closer to her and helped them understand one another through the bonds of Aura, and yet the sheeting and their surplus of Aura led to her reception of Shaun's feelings of mourning.

All Mew could feel herself was regret. That, and spite for her old self. She silently cursed herself over and over. The tree's walls were surrounded—no—made up of the product of her endless sins. This tree was her own body. And yet just as it was a place of life, so too was it a mass grave for the unfortunate.

"I'm sorry-" Mew whimpered this pathetically shortly before being interrupted by Shaun's embrace. Her watery eyes went wide at this.

Shaun pressed his head into her fur. "I know. My dad…wasn't my dad anymore." As he pulled back his head, Shaun looked up at him and smiled. "It's the same with you. You aren't the same Mew that killed him anymore. I could feel that with the Aura."

To hear that from Shaun made Mew's eyes well up. She had murdered his family, stolen his humanity, transformed him into something he was not, and isolated him in a world completely alien to him. And yet, after all she had done to him, he believed that she had changed. She herself had been unsure of that.

Glistening tears fell from her eyes. A pink glow diverted them from falling upon Shaun, even when she returned the embrace. The two stood there in the shadow of the Aura Stream for a time neither of them knew. They didn't care.

It was only the inevitable yawn from Shaun that broke the two out of their silent trance, proof of time having caught up with them.

"Uh oh," Spoke a smiling Mew, "Looks like we got carried away before we could get very far in the tour."

Tired as he was, Shaun still appeared surprised at hearing that. "Really?" He asked. "We didn't get far?"

Mew chuckled. "Not even close. There's so many different environments the tree has, like a hollowed-out branch where Ice-Types live, or the bark chasms, or…" She cut herself off before she got carried away. "Well, I suppose you'll find those out when we continue. For now, I want to end the day with something special."

Shaun tilted his head up at her. "Something special?"

Pride practically painted on Mew's face, she placed her hands upon her hips and nodded. "Yep!" She chimed. "At the very top of the tree, there's a spot where the leaves form a part of a dome, but the top's empty, so we can see the sky perfectly. It's the best place in the world to see the stars."

This made Shaun's eyes glisten like the stars they were about to watch. He had never gotten the chance to stargaze, either being too young or being dragged around by his father during their schemes. To say he was excited was an understatement. But then, an idea struck him.

"Mew?" He began. "Would it be okay if we invited some of the other Pokemon?"

---

Even at the precipice of the Tree of Life, its top, where its branches met with the atmosphere, none of the gathered Pokemon felt anything amiss. The tree's Aura emitted a gentle warmth, like the caressing embrace of a mother, that staved off the chill of the open sky.

Upon the gargantuan leaves of the tree, thousands of Pokemon sat. Flying-Types roosted with their young, knowing these leaves were sturdy. Poison-Types sat content, the tree keeping their noxious output in check. Fire-Types were able to rest without setting the stone-hard tree aflame. And beside them, the Ice-Types were undisturbed by the heat let off by their Fire-Type brethren, for the presence of both groups allowed for temperate equilibrium.

All of the Pokemon that lived within the Tree of Life laid upon its leaves as equals. As brothers and sisters, uplifted by a single mother. And together, they silently stared up into the glistening, starry sky. Swarms of Volbeat and Illumise flew from leaf to leaf, lighting up the night with their glow like stars of their own.

Mew sat in the middle of them all beside Shaun. And she was happy. The weight of countless millennia, spent more alone than she ever realized at the time, suddenly felt like no weight at all. She was with her children, taking in the beauty of the world she created for them. This was where she had always belonged.

She lightly tapped Shaun's side to get his attention. When he turned to her, she placed a small pebble in his hand. Upon raising an eyebrow at her, she winked.

"Go ahead," She told him with a whisper, "You know, the thing?"

Shaun's mouth opened into an 'o' upon realizing what she meant. "Now?"

Mew nodded firmly. "You've got this."

Psychic powers were one aspect of being a Ralts that had excited Shaun. They were something he often spent practicing, yet found little luck. The most results he had was once making a pebble smaller than the one currently in his hand slide not even an inch.

Still, he obliged. Mew watched intently and with a great wide grin as Shaun set the pebble down. He held an arm toward it, intensifying his stare. For the briefest of moments, an emerald green glow surrounded the stone, and it lifted off of the leaf's surface.

Shaun gasped with shock and recoiled into Mew, causing the stone to drop. An excited Mew squealed with delight at his progress and wrapped her arms around him. She kept the noise to a minimum so as to not disturb the other Pokemon, but her utter jubilation was difficult to contain.

"You did it!" She whisper-yelled, rocking the child back and forth in her excitement. "I knew you could do it. I'm so proud of you."

The boy could only give a stifled chuckle. It was music to Mew's ears. This night under the stars and surrounded by her children…it was perhaps the grandest night she had ever lived in all of her years. No time in her life had she been more happy than she was now.

Mew was happy. Beyond happy.

There was a rustle amongst the leaves, followed by the uncertain whispers of the Pokemon atop them. Droopy eyes gradually opened, all turning toward one source. Mew stopped moving upon noticing this disturbance. Her eyes followed those of her children to a noise.

A Charizard's powerful wings beat through the air as it emerged from between the colossal leaves. This unknown Pokemon, alien to the tree, sent the other Pokemon into an uncertain series of murmurs. Still, they knew they had Mew at their backs, and so many of them chose to merely watch on rather than bothering to move from their comfortable spots.

This Charizard fluttered down, sending puffs of air outward with the beat from each flap of its wings until its heavy feet touched down. Someone jumped down from that Charizard's back and turned to face the mother of all Pokemon.

Shaun cowered behind Mew at the presence of this stranger. Yet Mew herself was surprised rather than wary. "You." She spoke this with a hint of curiosity, as if pointing them out rather than addressing them. "Why are you here?"

This person returned their Charizard, then approached her in spite of the growls of the surrounding Pokemon. Then, they called out to her.

"Hey, Mew! I've been trying to find you all day!"

---

Distortion World, One Hour After the Hall of Origins Meeting.

Without its master to rule over it, the Land of Reversal stayed silent. Its shattered, twisted landscapes dangled over an endless void. Endless islands, all suspended in animation. This world, the shadow cast by the original one, was barren of life.

This fact changed when a bright flash of violet light appeared over one of the islands. A thunderous sparking sound echoed out into the formerly silent Reverse World, and then, there was a crack in the air itself. That splintering in the air grew until it shattered altogether.

What was left in its wake was a grand, twisting mess of time and space. It stretched backward, like a hole into nothing. Pieces of the island were sucked into that hole, being torn off in chunks and shattering into less than dust upon contact. However, all movement from the island ceased when a foot stepped out of that portal.

With the presence of this individual, all became still once more. The roaring wind was hushed silent. This man wore a stainless, fancy suit and a white overcoat atop that. His hands were covered by two elastic gloves. And when The Man stepped onto the stone of the Reverse World, the silence was not broken. No movement he made created a single noise to pierce the silence surrounding him.

Before this man, another hole opened. Draped in shadow, a gargantuan, undulating form emerged from that rift. Its long body slithered out, bringing its six black tendrils with it. At their tips, a burning red spike threatened to cleave through space and time itself as they cut the air.

Two crimson orbs opened wide upon the face of the Lord of Shadow. A face that glowered down upon the one who intruded upon the realm the lord had made its own. And yet, that was not what angered Giratina the most. Nor was it even the Nova Branch insignia on The Man's coat.

Upon, or rather over, The Man's face was a shadow so dark and so deep that Giratina himself could not see past it. It was a jab at his pride. "Who are you?" He boomed, making the Reverse World tremble with his voice. "And how dare you appear before me wearing that mark? Have you any idea where you stand? I should cast you into the void."

His eyes glanced past the man, at the hole in space behind him, and added, "You only continue to live because I expect you have a reason for daring to enter this place. One does not simply enter the Reverse World without a story."

From the black emptiness where The Man's face should have been, a voice spoke back to Giratina. "I implore you to reconsider striking me down…" The Man held a gloved hand over the Nova Branch insignia, and when his hand glided over it, the insignia changed. "…Lord Giratina."

Giratina's burning heart skipped upon seeing the new insignia. It looked like a flat, featureless version of Giratina's own head with his mandibles. Around it were rings upon rings of triangles. This insignia was something he had not seen in eons. Only Ash had been shown it, so how did this man know of it?

"H-how?!" Stammered the raging renegade, unable to pry his eyes from the mark. "Where did you acquire this?"

His confusion only grew when The Man bowed his head forward and crossed his arm over his chest. "The mark of our pride," Began The Man in a chilling voice, "Was passed down from generation to generation over the course of countless years. It has existed before the false one cast you down, and it exists now."

Giratina's face wrinkled with scorn. "Do not mock me," He spat. "That mark was lost to time. Arceus made sure of that, and he was especially thorough. How do you expect me to believe that you hid that mark until now?"

"We did as you did..." The Man's gloved hand slowly reached out from his coat to point out the shadow cast upon his face. "…And bided our time in the shadows, Lord Giratina."

Sneering down at him, Giratina hissed, "We? You mean to tell me there's more of you?"

And to that, The Man once again ran his hand along the mark of Giratina upon his suit to return it to the insignia of the Nova Branch. "We. The ones you know as Team Rocket's Nova Branch." His hand fell back to his side. "This is, and has always been, a false name. A business name. We have always been the Giratina Faithful, and I stand before you now as our emissary."

Two of Giratina's claws tore down the far edges of the island The Man stood upon. Glaring into the invisible face of that man, Giratina hissed, "For someone who claims to be a member of my faithful, you insult my intelligence. Were you my faithful, you would have never attacked my brethren. You would never have reduced the world to its current state."

"Please have faith in us, oh Lord Giratina, as we have had faith in you for so long." The Man droned out these words without changing tone. That, coupled with the shadow rendering his face invisible, almost unnerved Giratina. "These actions were merely a small set in a long line of actions taken over the course of generations. Like dominos, every step had a grander purpose for a grander end."

It took much of Giratina's will in order to keep himself from rolling his eyes. "My patience for you grows thin. If you do not start making points, and good ones, you may look forward to an eternal fall through the Reverse World."

Again, The Man bowed his head. "My lord, I apologize for offending you. But there is something we have done for you that you do not realize."

Giratina raised a brow. "Oh? And what exactly is that?"

"While it is true that, under the guise of being a branch of Team Rocket, our forces attacked your kin, the Legends, what is also true is we did not kill any of them." The Man raised his hand from his coat pocket and extended it toward Giratina. "That was for you, oh lord. Never would we have struck down your brethren. What occurred on that island was for show. Nothing more."

Now Giratina was even more confused. "Do you expect me to believe our victory was because of your efforts? Are you insulting me?"

The Man shook his obscured head and replied, "No. never would we insult you so. But I assure you that our forces fought in a way that would not kill the Legends. We needed to fight. We needed to make it convincing to the Legends and to the world, else it would not have been convincing to the false one."

With a scoff, Giratina told him, "You may refer to Arceus by name."

Pausing, The Man looked to the ground for a moment, then back to Giratina. "The name offends the faithful, but your will rules all. In any case, we needed to make that battle convincing to…Arceus, in order to ensure he and the world considered the Nova Branch destroyed."

"For what end?"

The Man grinned, although that fact was obscured. Holding out his arms, he proudly answered, "To return to the shadows. Our gathered forces underneath Team Rocket could not be easily hidden, and so we orchestrated what appeared to be our own defeat." He tilted his head a bit. "The incident with New Goldenrod was to unite the world against Team Rocket. We had their assistance before, but they would have interfered with our true goal before long."

The way this man claimed to be a part of the long dead Giratina Faithful whilst spewing this nonsense disgusted Giratina himself. His faithful were not lurkers in the shadow, orchestrators of killings and suffering, nor wretched imitators of himself. They were founders and builders of cities. Men and women of character.

"Your true goal," Growled Giratina between his mandibles, "Is what exactly?"

And then, The Man replied with the only good thing Giratina had heard from him so far. "We wish for the fall of Arceus for how he had wronged you. Nothing more. With Team Rocket out of our way, we can now accomplish that."

He then added, "We have even ensured the safety of Palkia-"

Giratina's eyes shot wide. In an instant, his six tendrils pointed at The Man like daggers. "What have you done?!" He roared. "If you have harmed Palkia, I assure you that nothing in existence will save you from me!"

Unflinching, The Man held up one hand. "Milord," He began, "You misunderstand us. We would never harm a Legend as young and important to the balance of the world as Palkia. When we found him, we did not expect him to be so young. The extent of what we have done is see him off as he fled to other worlds so that he had the opportunity to grow without fear of Arceus."

That much made sense to Giratina, but he would be damned if he believed this man fully. "Let me see him," He ordered. "If you are truly my faithful, then you will obey me."

"But milord," The Man protested, "Your meeting with Palkia could attract the attention of Arceus. Not to mention that even we no longer know where he has fled to. With his powers, he could have gone to the edge of existence by now."

That too made sense to Giratina. Whether or not this man lied to him, Arceus or Mew finding Palkia was not a risk he was willing to take. No fate could possibly be worse for the young one than to fall into their hands, as evidenced by the previous Palkia.

"Fine," Rumbled the renegade begrudgingly.

The Man told him, "Do not fret, lord Giratina, for you will not have to wait for long."

Giratina raised an inquisitive brow. "Oh?"

Gesturing behind him to the hole in spacetime he had made, The Man spoke. His voice, as calm as stagnant air with no breeze to move it. "I assure you," He said, "That every action we took was for this day. The day that the faithful could enter the world of our lord and meet him face to face. Shadow to shadow."

In spite of that, Giratina could not help but to let his mind wander toward that man who confronted him in this realm. "Explain that blade wielder," He instructed. "Who was he, and why go to such lengths to combat me if you were my faithful?"

Without missing a beat, The Man replied, "As I said before, everything that occurred on that island was to convince Arceus that we fought our hardest and lost. That way, we could grow in the shadows and, when the time was right, use our power to meet with you." Glancing off to the side, he added, "As for that person, I believe he was merely…excited to meet you. Unfortunately, the circumstances had you meet in battle."

Giratina inquired further. "What makes this day the right time, and the time for what?"

"The time for Arceus's downfall."

The lord of shadow resisted the urge to laugh. Instead, he merely rolled his head in utter disbelief. "Though I despise him," Started the renegade, "I will not underestimate his strength. Felling Arceus is not so menial a task that it can simply be done in a single day. There was only one being to ever defeat him, and he is-"

"Necrozma."

The Man finished Giratina's sentence with that unholy name. From the pale white coat of The Man, he unveiled something that made the Lord of Shadow's skin crawl. A fragment of a crystal floated above his hand. Its appearance was all too familiar to Giratina. Now, as he stared into the endless abyss within that crystal, he knew what he had witnessed before on that island.

"This power," Spoke The Man, "Is yours, my lord. That is why I am here. That is why we have toiled in the dark for so long." His arm rose, extending up at Giratina to offer the dark crystal. "I have a plan. With you at our side, I know that we can strike Arceus down. Your era is just beginning."

Beneath The Man's shadow, there was a wry grin. "Will you accept this gift and retake your throne?"

---

Authors note

Pokextinction Fact of the Day: A rough timeline of Pokextinction's timeline would go something like this. In the beginning, there was only the infinite void of nothing. Through a means unknown to even Aura itself, Aura came into existence. It split itself into ten creatures that went on to create the universe, two of which were Arceus and Mew. Those two settled upon a place in the universe with which to create their ideal planet full of living beings like themselves. Arceus explains everything after that in Chapter 15 or 16. One of the other ten being made by Aura created Ultra Space and turned itself into two crystals to give eternal energy to its creations.

One Cosmog, unintentionally abandoned by two others that would become Solgaleo and Lunala, stole these two crystals and escaped through an Ultra Wormhole to the rest of the universe. It ended up inside of a star and died, but the star's reaction to the presence of the crystals created a supernova and a black hole. The Cosmog's memories were imprinted within the two crystals, and the black hole led to the infinite void outside of the universe. The presence of the energy of the two crystals mixed with that of the black hole gave rise to a new being: Necrozma. From there, Necrozma took vengeance upon Ultra Space and enslaved the Ultra Beasts, then went across the universe either conquering or destroying planets while steadily growing in power until he became untouchable. You all know what happened after that.

The Creator- I played through Pokemon Legends Arceus during the creation of this chapter and by God, it is the greatest trainer-based Pokemon game I have ever played. Explorers of Sky still beats it for me though. But man, all the lore in that game is utterly insane and I love it. Highly suggest playing it. Although I would love to implement ideas from that game to this story, our own Legends already have their characters set in stone. Please listen to that game's Lake Theme, The Heartwood, and Alabaster Icelands 2.

Hydra- It appears that Mew has finally changed completely. All traces of her old personality have been wiped clean and in its place is a caring mother that doesn't want to hurt a fly. Maybe that's for the best, a complacent Mew has to be much better than a reactive Mew… right?

G- Good chapter, so Ash had another reunion with the Legendary pokemon, to talks about the recents events that culminated with the apparent defeat of the Team Rocket and possibly with a fallout for Nova Branch, as they needs the Team Rocket for funds, apparently. Well, to considers how easy Nova Branch were prepared to betrays Team Rocket, despite to needs their money and resources, i thinks that maybe they secretly managed to accumulated notable resources and funds for their own organization, to the point of be capable from be independients from the support of Team Rocket, because even if they were too much arrogant to do some bold and rash action like betrayed their former allies, i doubt that Nova Branch be too negligents to do this without has someway to functions without Team Rocket, meaning that even if Giovanni and his organization end being disbanded completely in the future, Nova Branch could still be a notable threat, far more dangerous than the Team Rocket.

As other point, so Lugia showed a disturbing reaction for learned that Christopher Lee was still alive; he showed joy and relief for learned this, as if he was happy with the prospect from has a chance to kills Lee again, leaving clear how much consumed was his heart with the hatred and revenge. And even if he claims that the reason to that his anger don't disappeared after "killed" Lee in the island, his reaction in this reunion only proved that he sadly became the kind of person that i was talking about; a vengeful pokemon, that don't shows mercy toward his enemies, and one pokemon that allowed that the hatred consumed his heart, to the point that the revenge ended becoming his life, as i doubt that Lugia was still overwhelmed by this rage for apparently thinks that Lee was still alive deep down, after all Lugia don't even doubted in tried to kills Lee in cold blood, despite to be already trapped, cornered and defeated, yet the Sea guardian wasn't hesistant in killed him, leaving clear that Lugia surrendered himself to the darkness and the hatred, just like Anakin Skywalker when chosed killed the Count Dooku, marking one of the last nails in his coffin of his falling to dark side. Well, i hope that at least Ash and the other Legendary pokemon keep one eye in Lugia, to prevent that he can causes another mess like in the island, as to be a vengeful pokemon, only shows that Lugia isn't trustworthy anymore, to the point that for this reason Xerneas was reluctance to shares the information about that Lee was still alive, out of fear that Lugia could do something dangerous and stupid.

As other point, regarding to the satellites that Mr Star will deploys to the space for tracks the remaining members of Team Rocket and Nova Branch, i wonder if this satellites are only programmed for this purpose, or Mr Star has in mind another reason to deploys them, an ulterior reason and wicked plan, because i am really wondering the reason of the weird and strange reaction of Ash's aura when he was watching the speech of Mr Star, as if he was having a "disturbance in the force/aura", like if his aura was foreshadowing some possible consequence regarding the satellites, implying that maybe this machines have other objectives than only tracks Team Rocket and Nova Branch members, like maybe send a brainwashing signal to control every person and pokemon in the world, like a twisted way to brings unification in this world, to creates some kind of hive mind, as maybe Mr Star want more than simply eliminates this criminal organizations, because he could thinks that even if Team Rocket and Nova Branch are gone, the evil always produces new bad guys to fills the power vaccum, making that perhaps Mr Star plans some radical action to put an end to all the conflicts. Well, regardless if he has radical plans or not, the fact that the Ash's aura reacted for watched this, its like a bad omen for some future calamity, like the calm before the storm. I don't know, i have a bad feeling about this.

To finishes, i wonder if the heroes could considers go after Genesect in the future, because after the incident of Goldenrod city, they knows that this pokemon could be as a time bomb, as Genesect showed don't has qualms in endanger or even kills innocent bystanders in cold blood, making her a danger for everyone, bad guys and good guys alike. Especially to considers that if Genesect is so ruthless, could be matter of time to that she turn her attention in other people than only Team Rocket and Nova Branch, like the rest of mankind, as maybe Genesect could end becoming more radical in the future, and she end becoming like Ultron of Marvel; that to achieves the global peace, the mankind must be purged. Being honest, i thinks that Ash and his friends should considers do something about Genesect, otherwise, she could end becoming a Necrozma 2.0, in terms of ruthless personality, and in terms of become too powerful, to considers her capability to upgrades herself to a alarming rate, making good idea stop her, before be too late.

Keep the good job.

The Creator- I wonder if the heroes even have the time to think about Genesect. If Ash has the time to speak about it again, then perhaps it could be mentioned. As we saw in New Goldenrod, Genesect's hatred for the Nova Branch isn't good for anybody. At the very least, she seems indifferent to humans rather than hating them overall. But that is dangerous too. Everything to her is either a target or merely something in the way of a target, and she has no qualms about getting things out of her way. Now I wonder how an interaction between her and The Burned Man would go.

Hydra- Gosh you're completely right about Lugia, I think he has certainly lost himself to his hatred and it's sad to see. He was always one of my favorite legends just because of his design and personality. Seeing him slowly turn more and more brutal and in some ways animalistic like the other legendary birds is disheartening. At this point I'm not sure there's any way he could possibly crawl back to the light. I wonder, do you think that Lugia could eventually get so bad that he's straight up killing innocent people to try to satiate his rage or do you think he wouldn't go that far? And also now that you read this chapter what do you think about Mew and how she has developed and what do you think would happen next.

SilverWolf1130- Soooo now the Legendaries know Lee is back…

Regarding Lugia…. Doctor, I think we've lost him…

Don't hurt Latias please.

Mr. Star, the hell are you planning?

Not much else to say here.

The Creator- I can hear the heart monitor flatline in Lugia's brain the moment he heard about Lee's return. He's nothing like he once was. From a wise guardian of the seas to a feral hunter with an insatiable hunger for revenge.

Hydra- Oh god please don't let anything happen to Latias. She's been through so much that she deserves to finally have some peace. She lost her brother twice, the soul dew and her true love didn't share the same feelings she had for him. If there's anyone that is owed a little happiness it's her. May god have mercy on her stricken soul.

DarkPugLord23- Oh boy, my excitement sensors are tingling! I'm really excited for the Alola vacation, pretty much because I really hope that the ABSOLUTE UNIT that is Bewear makes an appearance, if only a quick cameo. That, and Meltan & Melmetal too. Ash's aura spiking up during Mr Star's speech has me a little suspicious; makes me think that Mr Star is hiding something, but what exactly it could be is anyone's guess, really. Also, Giratina being the dark, brooding and edgy rebel still gives me life, and I'm really hoping he's not going to turn out to be a bad guy. Loving the work so far, keep it up, guys!

The Creator- It seems like the Alola vacation has to take a raincheck unfortunately. At least until Ash figures out from Riley what went wrong with his Aura. You know, since almost all Pokemon went to fight against the forces of Necrozma, I bet a warrior like that Bewear from the Sun and Moon series was actually there. I doubt it died. It beat Ultra Beasts in the show like they were nothing.

Hydra- Giratina has always been one of my favorite characters in this story mainly due to all the reasons you listed, but also because of how big of a heart he secretly has for his brethren. He tries so hard to keep up his uncaring persona but sometimes it just bleeds through. What makes him and his viewpoints so intriguing is that he's not necessarily wrong for the way he thinks about Arceus and Mew. He's been a victim of their rash actions in the past so it's justifiable why he is the way he is.

Darth Patato- Im starting to not trust Mr. star because of these reason. plus im normally not trusting of anything

1. distortion world where ash and giritina talked the holobot was recording but it couldnt transmit even though it 'couldnt' transmit the data at that point in time doesnt mean that it wasnt recording.

2. posible insider for team Rocket/nova because he knows so much about the nova branch whereas no one else knows much.

arua is able to be tricked EX. when nova branch can hide itself

4. for me personally i dont like nice people easy to tell what their going to do

The Creator- There is a quote from Fallout that matches perfectly with your fourth point. "I don't trust a man that doesn't have something strange going on about him, 'cause it means he's hiding it from you. If a man's wearing his pants on his head or if he says his words backwards from time to time, you know it's all laid out there for you. But if he's friendly to strangers and keeps his home spick-and-span, more often than not he's done something even his own ma couldn't forgive."

Hydra- One of the explanations for the insider is those black suits who were pretending to be Mr Stars soldiers when they attacked Xerneas. That's one of the big problems Mr Star faces with such a big organization is that it's easier to infiltrate because there's so many different ways that a person could join and move up in the ranks. If there is one thing Mr Star needs to work on it's knowing who is actually working for him. Thanks for the review by the way I noticed this was your first time and just wanted to say how much we appreciate it!

The Creator- What will Giratina's response be? Who was it that Mew saw atop the tree? Find out next time.

Hydra- Well that's all for this one folks! Things are looking up from here! Mew has finally seemed to make peace with herself and Shaun and their relationship has never been stronger than now. It also appears that Shaun is finally learning how to control his powers to some degree which begs the question if he's gonna start embracing his Pokemon side more or stick to his humanity. Well folks I have hit a wall and must think of what's gonna happen next in the story since you all know we don't plan things in advance…absolutely… no… planning… Thanks for reading guys and we'll see you all in the next one!