Okay, so I'm going to put this here in case this chapter takes me a while to write. I currently have no idea how I'm going to describe the Distortion World in writing. If this doesn't come up much longer after the previous chapter, you can ignore this note. If this is more than two weeks after the previous chapter, I apologize profusely.
Dimension of Madness
It would have been easy to expect a rough landing given how they had dived in, but Chris and Cynthia come out the other side unscathed. One look around his surrounding was enough to know that he was not in a location that he can make a comparison to. Odd rock formations, even odder trees, and somehow the floating slabs of land he could spot around him were stranger still. "This place..." Cynthia says to break the silence. She looks at Chris before continuing. "Can you feel it? There are no Pokémon here at all. Time isn't flowing, and space isn't stable. A world where rules are broken. A space one might call the Distortion World." Cynthia gazes into the vast, strange landscape ahead, before she concludes, "Let's find Giratina. We need it to stop the spreading distortion at the Spear Pillar."
Chris nods. "Should we split u-" He goes silent as the familiar roar of Giratina cries out, and the massive legendary Pokémon flies overhead. Interstingly enough, it seemed to be a different shape than what he saw at Spear Pillar. One thing Chris knew for sure was it was certainly not the green dragon he saw in the north pole. If anything, this one was bigger.
"That was... Giratina!" Cynthia exclaims. She looks back at Chris. "We have to hurry! If something's not done, the distortion will swallow not only our world, it will overwhelm the Distortion World." She pauses for a moment, looking past the odd rock formations surrounding them before spotting something. "Up ahead! Follow me." She says, as she starts to walk down a somewhat narrow trail between the rocks. Chris nods after taking a brief moment to take in the surrounding himself, and then runs after Cynthia.
Finding her standing on a large floating platform ahead, Chris takes a small hop to land on it beside her. "This rock slab," She starts. "It appears to move if you step on a certain spot."
Chris takes a look towards the center of the floor, spotting an indent right in the middle. "That seems like the obvious answer," He says as he looks at Cynthia. "But the obvious answer is sometimes the right one." Chris walks forward, and places his feet perfectly into the indent. The platform trembles, but stays completely stable as it lowers the two down quite a ways. Its movements are far too loud for any words to be heard by either, so both Chris and Cynthia stay silent as it moves.
Once it comes to a halt, Cynthia breathes in and out to relax. "Rather abrupt, isn't it?"
"That's for sure." Chris responds.
"I hope we're going in the right direction. If the platforms keep going down, will we find Giratina?"
"It might depend on if the lake guardians have any influence over this place."
Cynthia nods, realizing that Chris may be on to something. "That may be true. And maybe for the sake of us not getting lost in here forever, we should hope that it is. Then again..." Cynthia turns away from Chris knowing that his focus is unwavered from Cyrus at the moment. "in the Distortion World, are we really traveling downward?" She then looks over to smaller floating ledges, and begins to move through them. Chris gives her time, and then quickly free runs his way over the ledges. It seemed like he wasn't quick enough however, as when he landed on the new platform the ledges ended at, Cynthia was nowhere to be found.
Despite this, there only seemed to be one path forward. And yet it concerned Chris that this singular path led to another platform... which was horizontal rather than vertical. As he moved closer to investigate, he heard the cry of Mespirit. Mespirit suddenly appeared between Chris and the horizontal platform, and its movements made it seem like it was telling Chris that he could still walk on this platform. Chris slowly approached the platform, his head feeling like it wasn't centered as he got close to it. He saw another indent on the end of the platform, and deided to jump towards it. As he was in the air, his body suddenly changed its own alignment, and suddenly the platform he had just leapt from was now the one that seemed to be horizontal. "What the fuck?" Chris couldn't help but ask himself. Refocusing, he saw yet another indent past some tree-like objects. He approached it, and discovered an additional indent on the platform that was next to his head. Keeping his eyes on the new indent, Chris jumped again, and his body's alignment changed yet again as he landed on the new indent. "This is the craziest shit I've ever experienced." He said to himself before continuing on to look for Cynthia.
Continuing down the path, Chris couldn't help but remember how he was about to suggest splitting up to Cynthia. But then his focus returned to the burning question at the forefront of his mind, "Where is Cyrus?" He leapt over more small floating platforms onto another rock slab, and walked to the very center like he had on the other one. Further down into the abyss he went, but it was a much shorter trip than the prior one. The next slap he leapt onto was different, with four indents marked on each of the edges. Putting two and two together as he saw more platforms both ahead, and above him, Chris stepped onto the indents. The one to his left took him up top, but the new platform took him absolutely nowhere. So he went back down, and went to the indent leading to the horizontal platform in the distance.
Once he was there, Cynthia was calling out to him from above. Although he could feel momentarily like his brain was bending, Chris walked up to the very indent that made him feel that way, and then leapt from it. Now on a different alignment, Chris walked up to Cynthia to speak with her. "Have you had any luck?" He asks her.
"I haven't. I'm guessing you haven't either." Chris shakes his head in response. Cynthia gazes out into the shadowy realm in wonder. "The legend of Giratina has been all but forgotten but to a few. The legend told of a world on the other side of ours, it has to be this world. Why does this world exist? Why is Giratina here all alone? There's so much that can't be explained, but we have things to do." She pauses, and looks back at Chris. "If I'm not mistaken, you were going to suggest splitting up earlier?"
"I was." Chris responds.
"I think that might be best. So many paths... we have to find the right way. I'll head back the way we came and see if there's another path. You go on ahead this way." She then steps aside, and allow Chris to move past her as he nods at her. His head feels like its bending again as he approaches an indent, but then as he body realigns to the new platform he feels normal again. All the indents save for the one on the opposite side of where he set his feet down did nothing, and that one took him straight ahead to another new platform. And then it was the same story for the platform he ended up on next. The third platform on the other hand activated once he went to the indent on his right.
This new platform took him to another straight ahead that he could simply hop onto, and yet a gut feeling told Chris that this wasn't the right way. So he went left instead. Going left took him two more platforms, the second of which went down once again. As he landed down, he could hear Cyrus's voice nearby. Still not having enough clarity to understand how everything worked, all Chris could do was listen to the heartless bastard speak while he looked for him. "The shadowy Pokémon isn't here. It abandoned me here, then disappeared somewhere further down.
This might possibly be the only time Cyrus would ever help Chris. The man was carried away by Giratina at Spear Pillar, so him saying that the massive Pokémon was going further down was all the confirmation he needed. It's a shame that his phone was almost certainly useless in the Distortion World. "Was it content merely to interfere with my plan?" Cyrus continued pondering to himself. And then, it seemed as though Cyrus had somehow spotted Chris. "Incidentally Chris," Cyrus calls out. Chris stops dead in his tracks, all the color almost fading out of his face. "do you understand the concept of genes?"
He continues to search around for the madman, but Chris had no luck pinpointing his location. "I can't say that I do." He finally deigns to answer the odd question.
"No," Cyrus starts coldly. "of course you wouldn't. I had been told that you had more or less dropped out of high school. You see, genes can be considered the blueprints of all life-forms. That includes humans and Pokémon alike. Genes are contained in a DNA strand. A DNA strand consists of two chains of opposing characteristics in a spiral. If one of the chains were to be broken, the other could replicate it. One or the other cannot exist without its opposite. Do you understand where I am going with this?"
"The Distortion World, and our world. You think that they're similar to the concept of genes."
"You may not have graduated from high school, but you are an intelligent one Chris. This is a bizarre world. Time doesn't flow, and space isn't stable. Only that shadowy Pokémon lives here. This world is the polar opposite of our world... which I wish to change. It is like the two chains composing a strand of DNA. The two worlds must be balancing each other to remain in existence. Without one, the other cannot exist. The shadowy Pokémon must play a role in keeping the worlds in balance. That is why it must have interfered and brought me here. The shadowy Pokémon must have made this bizarre world. That's why trying to change our world disturbed it, and made it reveal itself."
Something about all of this was starting to become familiar to Chris. "Or it was banished here." He whispered to himself, as memories of his parents teaching him of ancient history started to dance through his mind.
"But all of that is irrelevant." Cyrus continues on, either not hearing or not caring what Chris had said. "What matters is defeating that Pokémon, and making this world disappear. I won't allow it to interfere with me again. With it gone, neither world will be able to revert to its original state." Still having never spotted him, Chris has no idea that he has walked away until minutes later. And that time wasted searching for him after he was gone was time that Cyrus had gained on Chris in the hunt for Giratina.
Dashing down a narrow passageway, Chris made several wrong turns along the way. Each time a platform seemed to lead to where he would need to go, Chris grew a bit more frustrated, but perseverance prevailed as he found another large platform. The indent on this one was between five rocks this time, but it worked all the same as the others. Yet again, Chris was going down. Oddly enough, he spotted what looked like a pool in the ground on the way. There were more smaller floating platforms waiting for him as he descended, and Chris was happy to discover that these ones wouldn't be disappearing. They led him to more of those tree-like objects, and Chris could see a pit in the middle of the floor further down.
As he approached, Uxie floated up from the pit, and then floated over a boulder before descending back down into the pit. As strong as Chris was, he knew he wasn't strong enough to push that boulder in himself. But Sandra was. Hoping that this realm would prevent the use of Poké Balls, Chris reached down for Sandra's ball. It worked as perfectly as it would anywhere else, and so Chris brought out his Hippowdon. "Sandra, push that boulder into the pit." Chris commands his Hippowdon after she has a chance to stretch her legs. Looking to the left and right afterwards, Chris spots Azelf and Mespirit floating over two other boulders. Chris gets the message immediately, spending the next few minutes along with Sandra navigating around the surreal landscape. Along the way, Giratina's shadowy figure flies overhead again, letting out its fierce cry as if to try to scare Chris off. It doesn't work. He also just barely misses his chance to ambush Cyrus.
Things also get really weird as he spots the boulder Azelf was floating above "overhead," followed by a water fall that seems to be running in reverse. But Hawke is able to get Chris through said waterfall safely all the same. Chris brings Sandra back out, and she pushes the boulder into the pit Azelf descends down into. Before, he using a certain large platform to get across the landscape. Now he was using it to descend down once again. On this trip down, Chris could see the three lake guardians floating by particular pits that were more narrow than the ones that were up above. Then once he was level with the ground below, Chris saw those same boulders that Sandra had pushed down before. It seemed her work wasn't done yet.
Getting the hint from the lake guardians wasn't difficult at all, so much so that Sandra didn't really need any directions from Chris. Once she was out, Sandra got to work pushing the boulders into the chasms the guardians floated over. Then she did something unexpected, as she seemed to recognize the sense of urgency her trainer felt, so she crouched down to allow Chris to climb onto her back. "Thank you, Sandra." Chris says, as his Hippowdon gladly allows him to ride her back.
As they move around the corner, they find Cynthia awaiting over an edge. "Has Giratina flown over your head as well, Chris?" She asks.
"Yes. I almost had Cyrus a time or two as well, but he keeps giving me the slip."
"That makes one of us in that department then. I haven't seen him since Spear Pillar." There she goes again, taking a gaze around the Distortion World. "This place... it seems to be one giant puzzle. Maybe Giratina wants to test those that visit here? It appears as if we can't go on unless we solve the puzzle. Some boulders fell down from above earlier, and I assume that was your doing."
"Sandra's actually. But at my command, yes. The lake guardians seem to be indicating that the boulders going in those pits will allow us to advance." He looks away from Cynthia to look back at Uxie and Azelf in the distance. "Either they have some kind of power over this place, or they just know it like the back of their... hands."
"There's only one way to find out. I'll keep looking for Giratina and Cyrus, you get those boulders into their pits."
"Got it. Sandra, let's go."
"Powdon!" Sandra exclaims, as she hurries towards Azelf's location. Azelf lets out a cry of its own, and then swiftly flew up towards the heavens. Uxie wasn't much further away, but the boulder was a little ways past it. Sandra had it inside the pit in no time however, and with a cry of its own, Uxie was high in the sky along with Azelf and Mespirit. Nothing had really changed from where Chris could see at that moment in time, so he directed Sandra back over to where Cynthia was. He looked back up into the sky as Sandra stopped in front of Cynthia, and realized he could no longer see the faintest trail of any of the lake guardians.
"I guess the Pokémon of the lakes have all gone home." Cynthia says.
"Yeah. Maybe they need to do something at their homes to stabilize things." Chris responds.
"I understand they can keep balance against either Palkia or Dialga. Does it mean they can't do that with Giratina?"
"Maybe. I might know a little bit more, but now isn't the time for that." Chris says, as his thoughts return to Cyrus.
"You're right. This is no time for idle chitchat." A new large stone slab appears behind Cynthia after their brief conversation, and she turns around to hop onto it. Chris steps off Sandra, electing to recall her for the time being, and then he joins Cynthia on the slab. Like most of the others, this one had an indent in the center, and when Chris stepped into said indent the slab began to descend. Once it stops, they both look up ahead to spot the shadowy form of Giratina. "This is it. Giratina is up ahead."
"Lets not waste any more time then, whatever it is we need to do here." Chris says, as he takes point. They both hop off the slab, and Chris spots Cyrus up ahead. This platform was the largest that they had been on since they had arrived in this dimension, perfect for what seemed like an inevitable Pokémon battle. The sight of someone so arrogant as to want to play at being a deity was enough to make Chris unconsciously reach for a Poké Ball.
Cynthia seemed to notice, as she stuck her arm in front of Chris to attempt to tame his rage. She also spoke to Cyrus first to deescalate that rage a little more. "So, you were already here." Cyrus turns around, stepping onto the same platform as Chris and Cynthia. "Why do you seek to change the world? If you hate our world, you should just go off somewhere alone. Find somewhere where you can live without seeing others.
"And why should I run and hide from the world, and have to wait quietly?" Cyrus starts. "My aim is to rid our world of the vague and incomplete thing we call spirit. By freeing ourselves of that, our world can be made complete. That is my justice!" That passion that Chris still finds all too unsettling was back, and was now tinged with fury, in Cyrus's voice as he continued. "No one can interfere!"
Suddenly, Chris's rage was drowning out that unsettling feeling, and he placed his still inactive Poké Ball back on his belt. "What the hell gives you the right to play god, motherfucker? As far as I'm concerned, someone needs to teach you that you aren't better than anyone else." Chris then steps up to Cyrus, and judo flips him to the ground. Cyrus gets back up quickly, and moves back away from Chris. "And you aren't gonna learn that lesson by losing a Pokémon battle. I'm gonna kick your ass, Cyrus."
"I won't lose!" Now Cyrus's tone was of pure anger. So much for his emotionless mindset. "Not to that Shadowy Pokémon! Not in any worthless world! And not to the likes of you, Chris!" Now Cyrus steps into a fighting stance of his own. While it would have been easy for Chris to believe that Cyrus was no physical threat, he had enough experience during school to know not to take anyone lightly. The fight was on.
Cyrus may not have been expecting Chris to throw him to the ground, but he was ready for a fight now. He had slipped away from two jabs thrown by Chris, and had now blocked a kick to his midsection. The block creates an opening, and Cyrus proceeds to break Chris's nose with a single punch. On the defensive for the first time in a long time, Chris struggles to avoid taking the shots Cyrus throws his way now that he can only breathe through his mouth. Chris goes for Cyrus's groin in desperation, but the Galactic boss sidesteps his kick with ease. "How feeble." He says in arrogance.
His next move is a complete mistake however, as he goes to try to shove Chris to the ground. His mistake is in giving Chris his arms. Chris grabs a hold of his arms, and then pulls Cyrus into his own grasp for a belly-to-belly suplex. Now pinning Cyrus to the ground with his very body weight, Chris put fists into the ribs of the man he has grown to despise. Then those same fists go for Cyrus's face before he gets away and up to his feet. Chris's nose may be bloody, but his response was to make Cyrus's face swollen.
And the next exchange would start to take teeth. The two men started to trade blows and blocks as they remained untouched for a short moment. But then Chris slipped in something heavy when he sneaks his foot behind Cyrus's lead ankle, and pulls on it with said foot. Forcing him off balance, Chris lands a heavy blow right on Cyrus's mouth, and finds a bit of enjoyment in seeing a tooth fly out of Cyrus's mouth. But he wasn't done yet.
As Cyrus stumbled backwards, Chris moved in slowly and patiently to deliver more heavy punches. Cyrus was doing as much as he could to avoid or block, but the previous punch was clearly still heavily affecting him. And Chris had become relentless at this point. Since Cyrus was still managing to protect his head, Chris threw a straight kick to his body instead. Cyrus landed right on his ass, but got back up. And when he got some distance from Chris, the orphan decided to go for a technique he had only ever seen done first. The Crane Kick. Chris leapt off the ground with his lead leg, and then brought his back leg up to Cyrus's chin as he closed the distance with one swift, and brutal motion. Cyrus's legs gave out from underneath him, as he fell on his back to the ground.
Somehow Chris did not break Cyrus's jaw, but Chris would be wishing he did once Cyrus slowly got back up to his feet. The pain was obviously affecting his body, but it was a damn shame that it wasn't doing the same to his voice. "This... this cannot be! It isn't possible that I lose!"
Chris growls, as he wipes the blood from his nose. "You never shut up, do you?"
"What of my new world?! What of my new galaxy?!"
"You don't get them!" Chris snaps, letting his passions speak for him. "I did not want you to get them, and my will is stronger than yours, Cyrus. Accept that, and just maybe you'll finally find some semblance of peace for yourself."
Cyrus looks past Chris, to the shadowy form of Giratina that had observed their entire fight. "Don't think that you can defeat or capture that Pokémon. This bizarre world is none other than that Pokémon itself! Capturing it or defeating it will make this world disappear!"
"Cyrus. I don't believe you." Chris says, choosing to believe the ancient Sinnoh legends that his mother would tell him stories of.
"Very well! Do what you will! Rather than repairing the world, you're going to destroy it for me!" Suddenly, Cyrus goes calm once again. "Do it. Inherit my legacy.
"Chris." Cynthia suddenly says, as Chris turns back around to see her approaching him with a handkerchief in hand. "You are right not to believe him." She watches him hold the handkerchief up to his bloody nose, grunting in reaction to the pain. "You've had to learn a lot in the life you've lived, haven't you?"
"Yeah." Chris says through his grunts. He moves the handkerchief away from his nose for a moment, to exhale. "I have."
"It isn't possible for a Pokémon to make the world disappear, Chris. The world awaited your birth. Not only yours, either. The Pokémon with you. The people from your past, and that are close with you now. All the Pokémon and people were born because they have a part in the world. I'm convinced of that. Giratina won't go out of existence. This Distortion World won't disappear. Our world won't disappear, either." As Cynthia pauses, both she and Chris gaze back at the massive shadowy figure, whose red eyes still stare back at them. "Let's go meet Giratina." She says. Chris nods to her, and they both approach a final platform, which in turn causes more of the floating ledges to appear.
As they approach the ledges, Giratina seems to vanish itself, only for its roar to echo through seemingly the entire dimension. "It's enraged." Cynthia says. She puts her hand on Chris's shoulder, him being a rare instance of her being eye level with someone as they match heights. "Defeating it will be all it needs to calm down, and realize that the crisis has ended with Cyrus's defeat."
"Or I could capture it." Chris thinks to himself, as he remembers the Master Ball Cyrus had left for him. He doesn't repeat that thought out loud, as he isn't even sure if he could make Giratina weak enough to be captured. But he left the possibility open. Cynthia hangs back, as Chris begins to free run across the ledges. Giratina's shadowy figure flies upwards as Chris gets closer, nearly causing him to lose his balance. But he doesn't let that deter him. Now jumping on to a much larger platform than the one the he fought Cyrus on, Giratina descends from the skies to finally pull back its shadowy cloak, revealing the gold, red, black and grey form it had hidden. It was certainly a different look than what he saw in his own world, and Chris had to say that this was the more terrifying look. As much as the rage was emanating from its body, Giratina was quietly eyeing Chris.
Shaking off the nerves, Chris activated a Poké Ball as his thoughts were more than a little nervous at the moment. But his words did a tremendous job of masking the nerves. "Let's dance." He said to Giratina. Giratina let out another dimension shaking roar, as Chris sent out his Hippowdon. Now in battle mode, Sandra stirs up a sandstorm from the holes on her back, and it surrounds what has now become a battlefield. "Sandra, Earthquake!" Knowing that he's testing the durability of this floating slab of land, Chris throws caution to the wind. Sandra raises her massive hooves up into the air, and brings them down hard on the ground. A controlled tremor rolls towards Giratina, but the legendary Pokémon suddenly vanishes.
Both Chris and Sandra search the area in bewilderment, trying to find some trace of Giratina. Then Giratina reveals itself behind Sandra, striking her for a brutal critical-hit. But Giratina was in range now, and Chris knew Sandra could get it. "Sandra, Crunch!" With its tail right there, Sandra takes a hard crunch at Giratina's thick tail. The scream Giratina lets out makes Chris realize that its susceptible to dark-type moves, and he begins to ponder if there's also a weakness to ghost-typing as well.
His train of thought dies after that however, as the tendrils emerging from Giratina's side glow brightly. It brings those tendrils roaring down onto Sandra with what was the equivalent of Dragon Claw, as the female Hippowdon is starting to writhe from the immense damage. Chris recognizes that his exit from the Distortion World may not be a straightforward thing, so he makes an effort to keep as many of his Pokémon conscious as possible. He recalls his highly damaged Hippowdon, and then decides to test a theory on Giratina, and the other two behemoths that appeared at Spear Pillar by sending his Weavile into battle.
"Frostclaw, Ice Punch!" Almost as soon as he emerged, Chris's Weavile curls up his claws, as an icy energy drips from them. Chris recognizes Giratina's attempt to counter Frostclaw as Ancient Power, as it summons rocks to hurl at Frostclaw. But Frostclaw gives an excellent showcase of his nimbleness as he leaps from rock to rock to reach Giratina faster. He lands the punch with precision, dealing super effective damage. Chris was right, Giratina was in fact a Dragon/Ghost-type.
But it was a tough one at that. It sent Frostclaw flying back with an Ominous Wind attack, and then followed it up with another Ancient Power. As hard as Frostclaw could hit, Chris found out at that moment that he wasn't the best at taking hits. Sandra had stayed conscious through her damage, but Frostclaw wasn't so lucky. And yet, Chris could feel a plan come together as he witnessed all four of Giratina's moves.
He recalled his fallen Weavile, and kept his focus right on the battle as he reached for his Infernape's Poké Ball. Another change, likely not the final one, had been made to this Pokémon's moveset. "Caesar, you're up!" Chris's Infernape takes to the battlefield, and doesn't back down at all as Giratina roars at him. "Caesar, Flame Wheel!" The flame on Caesar's head engulfed his entire body, as he rolled forth towards Giratina. Giratina once again vanished in an instant, causing Caesar to miss. Caesar began to look around for a trace of the legendary Pokémon, but Chris centered himself as he listened to his surroundings. The first time Giratina had used this move, he felt the air shift as it had reappeared to strike Sandra. That was what he was waiting for this time. And this time, it was what he felt. He opened his eyes to see things changing behind Caesar. "Caesar, Protect!" Caesar turns around, and surrounds itself with a forcefield that completely blocks Giratina's ferocious attack. Chris then cracked a smile, as now Infernape was in perfect range. "Now, Shadow Claw!" A ghostly energy engulfs Caesar's claws, as he drops his forcefield and slashes at Giratina. Chris watches the behemoth's eyes go wide from immense pain, and suddenly Giratina has gone prone.
Now was the best chance he'd ever get. Chris swiftly pulled the Master Ball from his bag, and activates it. With a perfectly placed throw, the ball hits Giratina on its golden face covering, opening up to absorb it within. The ball could've turned a hundred times rather than the three times it did, and Giratina still would've been captured. It was not the same Pokémon Chris had encountered in the North Pole, but Chris had still pulled off something that very few trainers in the world could ever dream of doing. A legendary Pokémon was now his to train. And that solidified fact finally let him breathe again.
Chris already knew it, but Cyrus was wrong. Capturing Giratina did nothing to this world. Chris's mother had writings from a study done over 150 years ago that indicated this world existed before Giratina inhabited it. And he had kept his memories of time spent with his parents secure in his mind over the last twelve years.
As the sandstorm Sandra had summoned during the battle subsided, Cynthia joined Chris on the platform. "Giratina seems to have understood you, Chris!"
Then Cyrus's voice could be heard behind the both of them. "That Pokémon!" He says. Somehow despite the beating Chris had given him, he was easily able to jump across the small ledges leading to this rock slab. "That shadowy Pokémon was captured?!" He pauses to stare down Chris, with true anger painting his bruised face. "Your doing so means this irrational world will remain in existence! Does that make it impossible for me to create a new world?! Even if I made new Red Chains, the new world can't be made! Why?! What compels you to protect the two worlds? Is spirit, a vague and incomplete thing, so important to you?!"
Chris walks up, and gets right in Cyrus's face. "A green dragon with massive destructive power. An old friend that I have been wanting to reunite with for over a decade. I want to track both of these down. I can't do that if you take the world away from me. And like I told you after I beat your ass, my will is stronger than yours."
With the two bitter enemies having said their piece, Cynthia now takes her turn to speak. "The places we are born. The time we spend living. The languages we speak. We are all different. But the presence of Pokémon unites us. We share our lives with our Pokémon, and our happiness grows as we all become greater than we were alone. That is why we can battle and trade with anyone we choose."
"SILENCE!" Cyrus screams out in rage. "Enough of your blathering! Both of you! That's how you justify spirit as something worthwhile?! That is merely humans hoping, deluding themselves that they are happy and safe! The emotions roiling inside me... rage, hatred, frustration... these ugly emotions arise because of my own incomplete spirit! Enough. We will never see eye to eye. This, I promise you. I will break the secrets of the world. With that knowledge, I will create my complete and perfect world. One day, you will awaken to a world of my creation. A world without spirit." Without another word, Cyrus turns around, and returns to exploring the depths of the Distortion World.
Cynthia puts her hand on Chris's shoulder after Cyrus leaves, and offers him another handkerchief for his bloody nose. As Chris nods his head at her in thanks before moving it up to cover his nose, Cynthia speaks. "Since there is sadness, we can feel joy. When there is anger, compassion is born." A portal then appears behind them, and peering through the other side shows that it leads back to their world. "Let's go back home." Chris nods at her, and the two walk through the portal together.
Emerging through the other side, Chris and Cynthia discover a brightly shining sun over a small pond. The surrounding scenery is absolutely beautiful, with the flowers in full bloom. "Well, I'll be." Cynthia says with a hint of surprise in her tone. She looks at Chris. "This is the Sendoff Spring. It's said to somehow lead to the great beyond... and Giratina was said to live in a world on the opposite side of ours. Who would've thought it would've been the Distortion World this whole time." She pauses, then looks to Chris. "I have my own property over at the Hotel Grand Lake. Let's head over there so we can have a doctor look at your nose."
Chris pulls the handkerchief away from his nose to look at it all soaked in his blood, and then nods before putting it back over his nose. "Lead the way." He tells Cynthia.
Welp, here's hoping that's the last we see of that guy.