"I don't know what you're expecting here, exactly, but I really do not know much about how to teach a Riolu," Samurott protested. "Or how to teach at all."

"Yeah, but you saw Volo's Lucario in battle, and that's still really cool," Riolu said. "It would be so great to get some pointers from you."

Samurott grumbled something.

"Don't worry about her," Sneasel recommended. "But maybe give her a bit of space."

"But-" Riolu protested, then visibly rethought.

"I guess maybe it would be a bad idea to irritate a Pokémon who could battle Volo's Lucario too much," he said, reluctantly. "But still, I know I've learned a lot but there's still a lot to learn."

"Well, what kind of things do you know?" Sneasel asked.

Turtwig came over to join them.

"And you might want to think about what you want to do with those moves," he added. "Fighting is one thing, but battles aren't the only thing Pokémon can do – and battling with the intent to win is different from battling with the intent to look cool."

"It is?" Riolu asked.

"Yeah!" Sneasel agreed. "So I work best with a teammate or opponent right now because Shadow Claw's a move that doesn't have a lot of visual impact, but it does have some."

"Oh, I know Shadow Claw," Riolu said, and formed a pair of smoky, shadowy claws from the nub on his left paw. "What's wrong with it?"

"We're talking about Contests," Turtwig explained.

He shook his twig, considering, then nodded to Sneasel. "Seed Bomb?"

"Sure," Sneasel agreed, and skipped back a bit.

Riolu watched, curious, as Sneasel jumped upwards and swiped at the air with her own Shadow Claw move. The purplish-smoky attack made the air hiss as it cut through, and he nodded. "Uh-huh… so why did you say-"

"Seed Bomb!" Turtwig interrupted, firing an attack, and Sneasel did the same jump-and-swipe. This time, though, it cut the Seed Bomb in half, and both halves detonated behind her in a shower of smoke and leaves.

"Whoa!" Riolu gasped.

He tilted his head, thinking. "So… if you have something to cut like that, you can make it look good. I get it! Does Samurott have tricks like that, too?"

"I can cut you off, how does that sound?" Samurott asked. "It's a pretty simple move though."

"Really?" Riolu said, looking down at himself. "What's that-"

"No," Samurott cut him off.

"And… a bit more heat, please, Chimchar," Dawn requested. "You're doing very well."

Chimchar increased the heat of the Ember he was using from his flaming tail.

"That should be good," Dawn decided. "They'll need another few minutes at least."

She patted the Fire-type on the head. "I know it's a lot to ask to use Ember for so long."

"I didn't even know you could make cookies over an open fire," Ash said. "I thought they needed an oven."

"An oven would be easier, probably, but it's too heavy to carry," Dawn explained. "But this can work. I looked up the recipe because I knew we would be coming this way, and as a bonus Lucario can give one a go too."

She pointed. "The idea is, the foil heats up, and it carries the heat around as well as keeping it in. So it's like an oven which heats up everything inside it, but you only need to heat it in one place."

"I think I get it," Latias decided. "So… a Psychic type could use a shield to do the same thing? To keep the heat in, I mean."

Ash wondered about that, then switched to his Psychic-type badge.

Then shook his head.

"Still no idea," he said. "I don't think these just answer questions for me."

"You probably could do with a move that protects you, Ash," Latias recommended. "I'd hate to see you get hurt or something, and – well, I use Safeguard a lot to stay safe. Since you're using your Psychic badge right now, maybe you should work on something like that?"

Ash frowned, trying to step back a bit and think of himself as a subject for training.

"Yeah, I think you're right," he agreed. "I probably should… should it be Safeguard? You can teach me that one, but it's Normal type…"

"Mew could help, you know," Pikachu said. "Or you could learn Safeguard while using your Normal type badge. I wouldn't recommend Bide, though, that's just being hit repeatedly until you then unleash your power."

He paused. "Actually, that might work out for you."

"Cookies should be done!" Dawn said, and Chimchar turned down his tail flame.

Latias used Confusion, floating the foil-wrapped package off the cooking plate, and put it on the waiting wire rack instead.

"What now?" she asked. "Do I unfold it?"

"Does she unfold it?" Ash passed on.

"Not for about… five minutes," Dawn replied. "Then I'll ask Chimchar to help me put it on a chopping board and cut it up into individual cookie pieces."

She paused. "Then give one to Lucario, to see what he thinks of peanut butter and chocolate cookies."

To the surprise of nobody, Aaron's Lucario thought very positively of peanut butter and chocolate cookies.

"Hmm," Dawn said, early the next morning. "You know, it's weird."

"What's weird?" Ash asked, as they walked down to the shore of Lake Valor. "Is something wrong?"

"Oh, just that I'm here again," Dawn said. "And I knew that Lake Valor had to have changed because that's where the Grand Festival is held, but – Lake Verity had hardly changed at all."

She frowned. "Or… actually, I saw Lake Verity now before the past, because it's so close to where I live. But Lake Valor, I saw it in the past first, but because Lake Verity was so familiar in Hisui I didn't really think it through."

That made Ash pause.

"Right," he said. "And… I guess that I'm going to have to get used to that. Or something like that."

"What do you mean?" Latias checked.

"Dad's older than time is," Ash replied. "So… there's going to be a lot of times when things have changed while I wasn't there. Eventually."

He shook his head. "But that's not a problem, or… I guess I'm not putting this right."

"Take all the time you want, Ash," Latias advised.

Ash nodded.

"I guess…" he began. "I guess the way I think of it is, all the bad things about living a long time, they're not bad because of something specific about living for a long time. It's just that there's more time for them to happen in. And in all that time there's more time for good things, too… training Pidgeotto into Pidgeot doesn't mean that training Starly into Staravia doesn't count any more."

"That's a very mature attitude," Cynthia told him. "Whether living for a very long time would be a good thing or a bad thing depends on who's thinking about it, usually."

"And I'm going to do my best to make sure it's a good thing," Ash said, firmly. "Because if it's not a choice, then I haven't made a mistake, and if it is a choice then I know which one is better."

"I like that," Latias decided.

There was a sort of splashing sound out in the lake, and everyone looked up to see an expanding circle of ripples.

Then, a few seconds later, Azelf came back out of the water in a shower of spray, and hovered right in front of them.

He pointed at Dawn.

"Hi!" he said. "It's good to see you're back again, it's been a while, is that the friend you said would be a massive surprise when I first saw him?"

"That's right," Dawn agreed. "Azelf, meet your brother Ash."

Ash waved. "Hi, Azelf."

Azelf put his hands to his cheeks. "So this is what a young version of our Father would look like? Wow – and all of you are determined, which is cool for me, but Ash is something else! I wonder if that's an Arceus thing though?"

"It probably isn't," Pikachu said. "Or, Ash was like that way before we found out who he really was."

Aaron's Lucario put his paws together to bow. "It is an honour, Spirit of Willpower."

"Oh, that kind of thing's not really all that important, is it?" Azelf asked. "Or, I know it's important to you, but honestly it's as much embarrassing to me as anything. It feels awkward."

"I know the feeling," Ash admitted.

"There you go!" Azelf brightened. "We're already finding common ground!"

"Thank you very much," Azelf said, indistinctly but also psychically, as he chewed on a peanut butter and chocolate cookie. "This is amazing."

"Thanks!" Dawn smiled. "It's easier doing it this way than with the balms."

"It was fun, though, right?" Azelf asked, then flicked his tails as he finished the cookie. "Mmm… lovely. I may learn to cook."

He tilted his head. "If I decide to learn to cook, I'm going to put a lot of effort into it… that's willpower, for you."

"I was actually interested in asking about that," Cynthia said, checking a notebook. "Mesprit said that her involvement in being the embodiment of emotion was more about being one than doing anything… is it the same for you?"

"Pretty much," Azelf confirmed, nodding. "But she's Mesprit, I'm Azelf. We have different approaches to things."

"This is so cool…" Riolu breathed.

"So, who else have I not been introduced to yet?" Azelf said, doing a loop.

Koraidon raised a paw. "I am Koraidon," she introduced herself. "I am a niece of yours."

She glanced at Ash. "Is that the right word? I think that Miraidon and Mew are niblings."

"Yeah, I think it's the right word," Ash agreed. "Because I created you, and Azelf is your uncle."

"Hi!" Azelf said, floating forwards to wave. "Is there anything you specialize in? I haven't met a fresh creation in a very long time so this is interesting."

"Isn't that more of an Uxie thing?" Dawn said.

"Hey, it's not like I can't feel happy just because Mesprit is the one associated with Emotion," Azelf giggled. "Oh, if you do head up to Lake Acuity I bet Uxie would love to meet you."

Koraidon had been thinking over the question, and she shook her head slightly.

"I don't think there's a thing that I specialize in doing or being," she said. "Not like Uncle Rayquaza or Aunt Palkia, not like that."

She looked at Ash. "Is there something, dad? I know you didn't mean there to be, but maybe there's something that sort of fits?"

"I don't know, Koraidon," Ash admitted. "Sorry… I'm really glad it worked out the way it did, but I wasn't thinking of…"

He paused.

"Dad?" Koraidon asked.

"I just thought," Ash explained. "Unown misunderstood what I was saying, but where it happened was a place that was to do with reviving fossils… and then when Miraidon was created, that was in a lab full of advanced technology. So maybe that's what you're about."

Koraidon considered that, then nodded.

"That would be neat," she said. "I would be about… the past, then, and Miraidon would be about the future?"

"I like it!" Azelf declared. "This is a great family moment."

"Isn't it a bit dull, living in a lake all the time?" Sceptile asked, curious.

"It might sound like it's a bit dull, but it's really not," Azelf said. "For three reasons."

He raised a tail. "Firstly, because I don't actually live in the lake, I live in a dimensionally transcendent space adjacent to the lake, which means that I have space to put things that don't tolerate water all that well."

His other tail went up. "Two! I can send out a projection of myself to visit other places, so I can actually see things happening far away without needing to go there myself – and, as a bonus, I'm not actually there, so I can see what it's like in dangerous situations."

Then Azelf touched both tails together, and lowered them again. "And, three, that building over there has been holding Contests the last few years."

"It has?" Dawn repeated, then looked. "Oh, that does look like a lovely Contest hall… wait, hang on. Has the Wallace Cup happened yet?"

She looked worried. "When they announced it was going to be in Sinnoh I thought it might be here, there was a lot of speculation about it, but I lost track of when that was after going to Hisui and I forgot to look it up."

"Fortunately, I planned for it," Cynthia said. "You're right, it is at the Lake Valor site. I was actually planning on surprising you with it later today, because registration is open, and I even got rooms sorted out in the Hotel Grand Lake."

"That's really helpful," Dawn smiled, relieved. "It was one of those things where I suddenly realized that I'd… kind of written it off as something I couldn't go to."

"I'll be sure to watch you specifically!" Azelf said. "Maybe I'll invite Mesprit over to watch too… I could invite Uxie but I'm not sure whether it'd be better for them to be surprised by seeing you, Ash. Hmm…"

"You could invite Uxie over?" Ash repeated. "And Mesprit? I thought you had to stay at your lakes – or do you mean just doing it through that projection thing you mentioned?"

"Oh, no, I mean them actually coming physically over to visit me," Azelf replied. "We can leave our lakes just fine, but I was talking about how living in a lake wasn't dull. And if I'd left the lake, I wouldn't be there!"

"Got me there," Ash admitted. "I'm glad you're not stuck, though… it's better if something is a choice. Like with Altomare, right?"

"Yeah," Latias agreed. "I haven't been back there in a while… I guess I probably should visit again, some time."

Ash tossed his head slightly. "If you want to go back there and visit by yourself, you can do that whenever you want."

"Thanks, Ash," Latias replied. "Honestly, though, for now I'd be okay waiting until you visited there again. But it's nice to have the option."

AN:

Azelf is determined! To make this relationship work, for example.