Cynthia explained the same thing about gyms to Paul as she had to Maylene, since it seemed like they both hadn't really understood before, then the group set off south towards Lake Valor.

Then they turned around and came back to Veilstone, because Ash had remembered something, and after checking the map and making a call back to Pallet Town they set off south from Veilstone again.

With someone extra along.

"This is going to be a strange experience," Aaron's Lucario said, looking south from Veilstone Cape. "I've never been here before, and yet people have stories about me."

"Yeah, it's weird," Dawn agreed. "They've got stories about me, too, or that's what Maylene's Lucario said."

The ancient warrior Pokémon turned to Dawn, then chuckled.

"I suppose that is true," he said. "And it is a very strange thing, to suddenly have someone I can relate to about that."

"It's not exactly the same, but it's a lot closer than you'd normally expect," Dawn said.

She was silent for a long moment, then kept going.

"One of the big differences, I think, is that I was trying not to change things too much, in case I messed something up… but I didn't want to leave people or Pokémon to suffer just because it might change history. It was hard to do, but… I think it was okay."

"That's the best anyone can really do," Lucario mused. "And you didn't have to get used to electrical equipment."

"I did have to get used to not having electrical equipment, though," Dawn countered. "Except the phone I got, thanks to Walking Wake and Iron Leaves… I've sort of been assuming that Iron Leaves used her Electric Terrain to charge it up whenever it got low on battery, or did something weird to the battery where it never ran out of power, but that was about the only modern thing I had. Everything else was Hisuian."

"I wouldn't want to go back to a time without tomato ketchup, so I feel your pain," Pikachu said.

Lucario gave him an odd look. "Tomato ketchup?"

"It's like you and chocolate," Pikachu said, his cheeks going red.

Possibly.

It was hard to tell.

"Yeah, Pikachu likes tomato ketchup," Ash agreed. "Like Koraidon and Miraidon like sandwiches, and like Sceptile likes having a twig to chew on. It's just what he likes."

"I see," Lucario decided.

Then he looked south again. "I wonder what they will think of me."

"Champion Cynthia," one of the human assistants said, bowing. "This is a surprise."

The other one looked nervous. "Is something wrong?"

"I hope not," Cynthia replied. "We're here on a visit, that's all… how do you handle announcements here, again?"

"Announcements?" the first human said. "Normally we do the research ourselves, then do the announcements when an important guest like yourself comes into the Kingdom. Why?"

Cynthia handed him a sheet of paper with several lines of notes in careful handwriting. "I've done some research myself," she said. "I think the reaction of the King and Queen should be interesting."

The human assistant looked at the paper, and his counterpart leaned over his shoulder so she could get a look as well.

"...what?" she said. "Really?"

Cynthia nodded, and pointed to first herself, then Dawn, then Aaron's Lucario, then Ash, then Pikachu and Latias.

"I don't know what all of these mean, but I recognize that name," the first assistant said. "Are you sure these are all correct?"

"Yes," Cynthia confirmed. "I wouldn't want to be inaccurate."

Ash hadn't seen the list before they entered the hall, and he had to admit that Absol was probably going to be upset when he heard that there was heralding done while he wasn't around to do it.

Cynthia, however, seemed very pleased with herself, and all of her attention was on the two Lucario in the hall.

"Isn't that the Champion?" one of them asked – the King, Ash thought. "Is something wrong?"

"Your Majesties," the assistant began. "May I introduce – Cynthia Shirona of Celestic Town, Champion of Sinnoh and descendant of Volo; the Lady Akari, Saviour of Hisui; Lucario of Rota, boon companion of Sir Aaron of Cameran; Ash Ketchum, youngest brother of Giratina, and his companions the Noble Pokémon Lord Pikachu and Lady Latias."

There was a long, silent pause.

"You what?" asked the Queen. "I'm sorry, I think I missed about half of that because I was too surprised by the other half, and I may have partially hallucinated what I did hear."

"I'll start at the top," the assistant decided. "Cynthia Shirona of Celestic Town, Champion of Sinnoh and descendant of Volo."

"I finally made the last link in the genealogy last week," Cynthia explained, pleasantly. "The trick was that Volo's child took the surname of their other parent."

"The Lady Akari, Saviour of Hisui," the assistant went on.

"Time travel," Dawn explained. "I've only got Samurott with me of the team I used back then, the rest of them stayed back in Hisui… I'd be interested to hear how they did, if you have any records?"

"…Lucario of Rota, boon companion of Sir Aaron of Cameran…"

"I don't know if it counts as time travel or not, but I was locked in a staff for a thousand years before coming back out again," Lucario said. "I've been acclimatizing with Ash's mother for the last while. This is a beautiful world, though different to how I remember."

"...Ash Ketchum, youngest brother of Giratina…"

Ash waved a bit nervously. "Yeah, I hope you haven't forgotten her. It'd be nice to know that there was somewhere she got remembered first, and since Volo's Lucario helped found the kingdom…"

"...and his companions, Lord Pikachu and Lady Latias," the herald finished.

"Ash can make Noble Pokémon as well," Pikachu said. "Still mostly not deliberately, but there you go."

There was another long silence.

"Do you think we broke them?" Latias asked, quietly. "They're just sort of staring."

"I have an important recommendation," Aaron's Lucario said. "Do not use Aura Sight when looking towards Ash. It is painful."

"So you battled against Volo's Lucario?"

Samurott nodded. "Yes."

"And you beat him?"

"I did," Samurott agreed, looking nervous.

"That's so cool!" the Riolu enthused.

He bounced up and down on his paws. "He was really strong, right? He'd have to be, everyone talks about how amazing he was, and he founded the Lucario Kingdom, and you fought him and you beat him and that's before or after battling one of his teammates, right? Even if you battled him and it took you both out that's still cool because you have a type disadvantage, but I bet you were able to keep going after that!"

"I did win the battle, and keep going," Samurott said, and that was enough for the Riolu to launch back into an enthusiastic torrent of words.

"How did you do it? I mean, obviously you used attacks, and you probably specifically used Seamitars, but apart from that – what moves did he use on you, actually? Because I've got Aura Sphere and Shadow Claw and I've been working on Bullet Punch, and everyone says that's really impressive for a Riolu but I want to know what would count as being impressive for a Lucario so I've got somewhere to aim, and you really seem like the best opportunity I'm going to get to ask that because you're someone who actually spoke to him!"

"I – well – he used Close Combat on me," Samurott replied. "And I think there was Bulk Up-"

"That's clever, because it would mean that using Close Combat wouldn't make him as vulnerable to you beating him up," Riolu decided. "Did he use Aura Sphere? Or – actually, did you have Aura Sphere used on you? I'd like to get an idea of how I'm doing from someone who knows what it's like to be on the receiving end!"

Samurott tried to get Dawn's attention.

"Help," she requested.

"So, this is what the Hisuian variant of a Sneasel looks like," the King said. "Our old stories talk about them, but I've never seen one in person before."

"I hope I'm a good representative," Sneasel replied, scratching the back of her neck a bit awkwardly. "I'm okay at fighting, I think, but I'm way more interested in doing things that look cool rather than fighting."

"I don't think that's anything to be ashamed of," the King replied. "To fight to fix the world is admirable, but not everyone has to fight and not all things need a fight to fix them. It's a lesson that our founder and Volo learned from-"

He blinked. "From your trainer, actually. I'm… still getting used to that."

Then he looked up. "How did that happen, actually?"

"You mean the time travel?" Ash asked. "You could have meant several things, I want to check."

"The time travel, yes," the King confirmed. "The first king may have known things that he did not record, or he may not have done. But either way, it was a surprise to hear about it."

"So… I think I followed enough of what the experts were saying about it," Ash answered. "Dawn got sent back in time by the time chaos around how it was time for her to be sent back in time but she hadn't gone back in time yet, and then two Pokémon who I haven't created yet, Walking Wake and Iron Leaves, brought her forward in time so she arrived back about a minute after she left."

"Two Pokémon you have not created yet?" the King asked. "What do you mean?"

"So… some of this I don't know, myself," Ash said. "But I guess… while I'm the youngest child of Arceus that I know of, I'm the only one who's also an Arceus, and that means I can create Pokémon. And do… other things, too, we don't know exactly what. And I've been trying to be careful with that power."

"I know exactly what you mean by that," the King told him, sounding relieved. "Honoured guest of the Lucario Kingdom… would you like some advice on how to do that? I may be a mere King of a Kingdom, but-"

"Yeah!" Ash answered, before Lucario had finished. "Just… hearing some advice would be great."

"It's still strange," Aaron's Lucario admitted.

"I understand that you feel that way, and why," the Queen assured him. "And this is a strange meeting for us as well."

She considered.

"Is it the fact that we consider you to be an inspiration, or is it the length of time?"

Aaron's Lucario closed his eyes, thinking.

"A little of both, but I think the length of time is a bigger part of it," he said. "The idea of someone being inspired by what I had done is… uncomfortable, perhaps, but it is something that I could accept. In my heart."

Then he tapped his head. "And I understand that it has been so long that the things I did have had time to become stories and legends, in the same way as I was inspired by old stories myself. But that is a hard thing for my heart to accept."

"It's because of how our minds are wired," Cynthia said, getting the attention of both Lucario. "They're built to make decisions for how long we normally live, assuming we know a few hundred to a few thousand people, and sometimes that means it's hard to accept that hundreds of years have happened since something you experienced personally."

"That sounds like it would be the culprit, yes," Aaron's Lucario agreed.

The Queen nodded respectfully. "I've heard many tales of your skill, Champion," she said. "I didn't know you were wise."

Cynthia's Lucario came out of his Pokéball, adding to the general Lucarioverload in the room.

"You would not say that if you knew her better," he said.

"Watch it, you rascal," Cynthia said, waving her finger. "But it's more… as a historian, I spend a lot of time thinking about how people think. Trying to understand them. And that… helps, I think."

"It does," Dawn contributed, coming over with Samurott trailing behind her – still trying to fend off questions from Riolu. "If you want to understand someone, the best way is to get a sense of how they think… it's no good trying to fit them into a neat little box, because people are more complicated than that. But with Volo, and Giratina… everyone I met in Hisui, really… I wouldn't have got very far without understanding that."

"I think… there is every reason to be careful with the power and authority you have," the King said. "But there is something else that you need to watch out for, which is being too hesitant."

He smiled. "I know that sounds very simple. Don't be too much of something. I could have replaced that word with anything else."

"Don't be too on fire, Ash," Pikachu said. "No, seriously, I sometimes think I might need to remind you."

Ash laughed.

"I guess so," he said. "But… what does being too hesitant look like?"

The King considered.

"There is no simple rule for this," he informed Ash. "That's the sad truth. There is no simple rule about it because there's often not a simple rule – because people are more complicated than that. But if I was going to give a simple rule, it would be something like… once you have made a decision, changing your mind without important new information can be worse than not making a decision at all."

Ash nodded, absorbing that.

"Because… it confuses people, right?"

"That's one reason," the King agreed. "And one of those people it can confuse is you… and, of course, important new information can mean you should change your mind. But you will need to make your own decisions."

"Yeah, I know," Ash agreed. "It's never as simple as it sounds, I guess."

He exhaled. "But… all you've said… that helps. It helps a lot, so… thanks."

"It is my pleasure," the King told him with a chuckle.

AN:

Sometimes you just have an excellent opportunity to mess with someone.