September 9th, First Year
"Neptune, use Brine!" Akari watched with satisfaction as the water-type move connected, a blast of scalding hot water enveloping the opposing pokémon in a steady stream of boiling hot water. The Monfernape cringed back with a snarl, swiftly dodging out of the current, its body letting off steam as it retreated. Neptune, Akari's Piplup turned Prinplup, followed up without hesitation, hosing the fire-type down until all that remained were cinders in the dirt as the goliath fainted.
"Arrgh! How'd you get this good so fast?" Yuki scowled as he came to collect his partner, his eyes glinting with poorly hidden frustration. "Oh, I know! Warden Ingo taught you how to battle like that, didn't he?"
"Nope! That's mostly me!" Akari bent down to give her Prinplup a grateful rub on its head. "Good job, buddy," she whispered.
Akari had been relentlessly training ever since her battle with Rei almost a month ago. Nonstop battling from dawn to dusk; if she wanted to beat Arceus, she would have to be stronger than anybody else in Hisui. She battled anything she could find that was hostile and in Hisui, hostile pokémon just seeming to leap into her path as though intentionally baiting her. Warden Ingo had taught her the techniques necessary to survive and predict hostile attacks before they landed. Now, Akari was putting them into practice in her own unique ways.
She had since switched out her previous Beautifly, Venus, for two new additions to the team; an alpha Ralts that had been wandering around Gapejaw Bog and a large Rowlet that she had encountered in a space-time distortion close to the border of the Coronet Highlands. Professor Laventon had nearly spat out his tea when Akari had presented the strangely colored owlet to him; Rowlets were exceedingly rare back in Galar where the professor was from and so too were the odds of finding what the professor had dubbed as a 'shiny'. Nonetheless, Pluto the Ralts and Jupiter the Rowlet were now distinguished parts of her team.
"Guess I'll just have to copy your method and get stronger too," Yuki declared. He sauntered forward until he was almost nose-to-nose with her. "Don't you forget! I'm gonna be the next Commander of the Galaxy Team one day! I'll be the strongest pokémon wielder in the region! But before I can do that-" Yuki playfully jabbed Akari in the shoulder- "I gotta beat you first." After a moment, Yuki grinned mischievously. "What do you say to a bit of a… rivalry?"
"A rivalry?" Akari echoed. "Sounds kind of familiar." She then scoffed, crossing her arms and turning her nose up. "But then, I've already beaten you two-to-zero, Yuki. I can't have a weak rival. You have to up the ante here."
Yuki playfully gasped, recoiling. "What? Me? Weak? How dare you! I'll show you!" He purposely bumped into her as he passed her, sticking out his tongue before beginning to run back along the trail that led back to the Sludge Encampment. "I'm gonna fine you one billion poké if you don't beat me back to camp! Hurry it up, slowpoke!"
"Hah! Guess I'll be one billion poké richer!" With ease, Akari sprinted past him.
Ever since Lady Lilligant's frenzy had died down and the mirelands had become safer to live in, the Galaxy Team had insisted on constructing two new encampments. One near the Golden Lowlands to the northwest and another in the center of the Crimson Mirelands. The latter, the Sludge Encampment, was dangerously close to Ursa's Ring where Lord Ursaluna's arena was situated. Sighting the large bear was exceptionally rare, though.
To Akari's chagrin, her quick jog slowed when she spotted a large sunken print in the mud under a ring of ferns. She paused, one hand moving to her pokéball belt as she motioned Yuki to slow down.
"What's the matter, Kari?"
"Tracks. Over here."
The tracks were large and deep as if whatever had made them had been excessively heavy and slow. Akari swallowed. They looked almost exactly like they were made by a bear. Maybe they were made by an Ursaring, Akari reasoned. No. Ursarings are pretty fast, and they don't usually walk around on four legs. I could be wrong, though. "Should we follow these?" she wondered aloud.
"I don't think so. Our partners are tired, and we should probably notify the older scouts before we wander off and get lost. Last thing we need is to get hurt again."
Akari sighed in relief. "Yeah. I guess you're right."
"Of course, I am!" Yuki deftly snapped up his Staravia's pokéball, letting the small falcon perch on his arm. "Hey, birdie-birdie. Think you can keep an eye on the sky?" Yuki cooed. Staravia gave a curt nod and took off into the air, spinning tight circles above them. Yuki's Luxio was next. It emerged from its pokéball, rubbed up against Yuki's leg, and then took up position at the front of the party. "That way, nothing will sneak up on us."
"Hey. Don't leave me out of this. Can you keep up the pace, Jupiter?" Akari's Rowlet soared upward to join Yuki's Staravia and at Akari's command, Pluto the Ralts took a seat atop Yuki's Luxio. The two were as protected as could be.
The first thing Akari noticed upon returning to camp was how quiet things were. Yuki charged past her through the wooden spike gates, nearly crashing into the positioned gate guard as he hurried off, most likely back to his tent. Akari moved a bit slower, wanting to take care of an errand before she disappeared to her own cot.
The medical tent of the Sludge Encampment was barricaded on both sides by steep walls of hardened mud and dense brambles keeping any small pokémon from weaseling in and stealing any precious medicinal herbs. The scent of rain calmed her nerves as she turned in the direction of the tent door, bowing low as a medic emerged from the gloom.
"Hmm? Oh, what are you doing here? You don't look injured."
"I'm here to visit Rei," Akari spoke as meekly as she could.
The medic blinked. "Visiting again? That's good." In a quieter note as they moved away, the medic muttered, "It's the worst case of poisoning I've ever seen. Kids these days."
Akari ignored the secondary comment and with a deep breath, she moved inside the tent. She was careful to fix her expression to one reflecting sorrow and grief so as to not look out of place.
Apparently, Rei had been a lot more popular than Akari had initially guessed. After he had "fallen ill", many scouts had come to visit him and bring him flowers and herbs in the hopes that he would grow better. Even a few Diamond Clan rangers had stopped by to say hello and pay their respects, expecting that the boy would die any day now. She didn't blame them; Rei had been ill for almost an entire month. Nearly as long as I was paralyzed, Akari noted dully.
What bothered her most was the fact that Rei constantly had somebody watching over his bedside. The only person to visit her had been Professor Laventon and even then, it was because he had stopped in to check on Rei's work on his pokédex. Even now, as rain began to lash at the tarp ceiling, Akari quietly sidled up to the cot illuminated in lamp light, just barely catching Professor Laventon off guard.
The man was reading, a small pair of spindly glasses perched on his nose as he leaned back in a rickety chair. A small cotton blanket had been draped across his lap. One ink-stained hand held up the book he was reading; the other was leisurely draped through Rei's hair like a father would do to a dozing child. He was reading aloud a story, one Akari wasn't familiar with. Every so often, he would glance over toward the unconscious child, his frown tightening before looking away as if pained to see his assistant in his current state.
A twinge of jealousy and sad nostalgia burned at Akari's chest. The professor hadn't been that gentle with her when she was sick. Nobody had ever been that kind with her- not even Volo. Akari cleared her throat. "Professor?"
The man flinched and turned to regard her with curiosity. "…Akari? Ah, good to see you, my girl." He sat up straighter in his chair, removing his hand from Rei's head as he folded his reading glasses. "Are you here to visit Rei as well?"
Akari nodded, taking up a seat at the foot of the cot. She could feign sympathy well. Well enough that others didn't suspect what was really going on behind the scenes. "I try to make time to visit him. It's been almost a month now, professor," she murmured. "I wonder how long he's gonna last for."
"Don't think like that," Laventon chided her, his tone dour. "Rei is a tough boy. Resilient. Tenacious. He'll pull through. I know he will. We just have to keep waiting."
"Uh-huh," Akari agreed sarcastically. "Have the medics come up with any other kinds of cures?"
"Not that I'm aware of. If only I could contact my relatives in Galar. Getting medicinal herbs from there to here would take weeks if not months. Not entirely practical in my opinion."
"Okay." Akari got off her seat, carefully taking the empty waterskin of water from Rei's bedside. "I'll go get him some more clean water for him to drink. That'll keep me busy, I guess… It's one way I can help."
"Thank you, my girl," Laventon murmured. "Bless you."
Once Akari knew that she was out of sight, she headed for the clean water barrels under the watershed near the center of camp. Under the cover of the tarp and hidden well from any suspecting scout or ranger, Akari carefully unscrewed the metallic lid of the empty waterskin. She then reached into her tunic and pulled out a small leather pouch that, according to Volo, was filled with similar poisonous spores used to incapacitate Rei.
She carefully filled up Rei's waterskin and with a learned deftness, ran that water through the bag of spores so that the two mixed. After mixing it around for a few seconds, Akari retransferred the contaminated water back into Rei's waterskin, being careful not to get any spare droplets on her skin or clothes. She screwed the lid to both waterskins and then journeyed back to the medical tent; they'd be feeding Rei soon from what she knew.
September 10th, First Year
The sky was dark. The Murkrows were still surveying the marsh. Akari made a quick checklist of what needed to be done that day, making sure to grab the Earth Plate and the Mind Plate in quick succession before sneaking off into the night where the gate guards wouldn't see her leave. She had urgent business to attend to and nothing would slow her down, not even a little.
She had gone to sleep that night clutching the Mind Plate as she had made a habit to do, hoping for any kind of sign or symbol from Arceus. Any kind of sign that would either approve of her mission or… persuade her differently.
In the sheer darkness of the early morning, Akari took a break on a mossy boulder, calling out to Mars to keep her company and protect her back. She'd been thinking a lot recently. Battling Rei alongside Volo had been a thrill and not just any thrill. No, it had made something wake up within her. Something fierce and lively and familiar. The feeling of battling alongside someone powerful. The feeling of being spurred on by something outside of her control.
Akari had been thinking about the future. She had dwelled on it until Volo's plan had reemerged within her mind. The man wanted to recreate the world. To recreate one where there was neither violence nor crime. If she were thinking- really thinking- she would wonder why Volo of all people would wish to recreate the world. The man seemed to enjoy the sufferings of his job as a merchant. When not fooling around with Akari, the man seemed to sell quite a bit of his wares; so much so that the large pack on his back was often filled with empty space.
Then came the question of what Volo's past had been like. The man hadn't told Akari much other than the fact that he was descended from the Ancient Celesticans, the original settlers of Hisui. The very ruins that he was often deadset on exploring were where the remaining bones and flesh of his ancestors long since passed. Though the man was descended from the ancient civilization, even he had no clue of what had happened to those long-lost people. Akari couldn't help but wonder what Volo's drive was and why he was so desperate to meet Arceus and challenge them to remake the world.
And more importantly, if Arceus was to love all of its creations then why would it ignore Volo and her in turn? What was the point of gods if they had to rely on mortals to do their work for them? Akari had laid in the darkness for the entire night questioning whether the gods- if they even existed- were worthy of being worshiped in the first place and whether Volo would be right to subjugate them and make mortals more powerful than even the gods.
So now, she marched through the mirelands before the sun had even risen, keeping the Mind Plate tightly in her grasp as she headed toward Ursa's Ring, the arena of Lord Ursaluna. A vision or perhaps a dream during the night had lured her there with the promise of herself standing before an unknown figure discussing things that not even the Mind Plate could piece apart.
It did not take long to reach the abandoned arena. In truth, Ursa's Ring was a massive sinkhole. A wide gaping hole in the earth, so far that not even a Gyarados could lay across its width. Vines, tree roots, and tall grass draped across the entrance hole, dark in comparison to the bright lines of exposed rock layers. The dense fog that blanketed the marsh almost seemed to surge into the sinkhole like a waterfall would a river.
"Ok. The chances are low that Lord Ursaluna is actually here," Akari attempted to reassure herself, taking a step forward. She paused, a tingling sensation passing through her feet and calves. It wasn't painful but it was alarming. What was even more alarming was the sensation of something wobbling under her foot.
Akari was careful to keep an eye on the sinkhole's edge as she looked for a way to climb down, flinching back when the tingling sensation zapped her again. Something had caught onto her clothes, pale flickers of white and yellow dying out on her tunic. She glanced outward. There were lines of something wavering over the sinkhole. Almost like cobwebs, Akari remarked. Whatever the material was, every time she made contact with the stuff, it shocked her like excess static on her clothes.
Something clicked. The web wobbled. Water droplets hissed as they evaporated from the thin, charged web and the fog over the sinkhole cleared in an instant. Only then did Akari see what had made the web.
It was a large yellow, blue, and purple spider, big enough to nearly reach her knees with its abdomen. It clattered about in the center of the web, following the signals of the charged web as it weaved back-and-forth over the abyss. At Akari's misstep, the large spider halted and turned, fixing her with a plethora of beady blue eyes. It hissed, holding up its two mandibles and waving to-and-fro.
"Nope. Uh-uh. No way. Not getting involved in that." Akari immediately backed away from the abyss and tore off any and all leftover webs from her clothes. She may not have been afraid of spiders or bug-type pokémon, but she was in Hisui and spiders were known to slowly feast on their prey after capturing them in webs.
She wasn't given a chance. One moment, Akari was backing away from the sinkhole, the next, the large fuzzy spider had her pinned up against a tree, its mandibles clicking as it eyed her.
Akari screamed, losing her sharpened instincts in an instant as she pressed herself further against the tree in an attempt to get away. In response… the spider backed off. Akari blinked. The spider pokémon had backed up a few feet, swaying its body this way and that way as it studied her warily.
"You're… you're not going to eat me?"
The spider cocked its head and then decisively circled around her, seeming content with her confused behavior. It clicked its mandibles once more before tapping one leg against her satchel. It tapped again, this time, incessantly.
"Are you… hungry?" Akari reached into her satchel and pulled out a pecha berry. The spider happily reached up to grab it, doing a little dance of sorts as it settled down in front of her. "You're not so bad, are you? You are huge, though." Akari laughed. "Wanna come with me?"
The spider pokémon stared apprehensively at its large web before nodding, carefully following behind in Akari's footsteps as she made her way back to the sinkhole. A new friend then, Akari thought. A giant spider friend. As she approached the lip of the sinkhole again, the spider pokémon quickly grabbed Akari by her tunic and began wrapping her with a non-electrified thread. Before she could protest and scream for help, the spider detached her from the web and instead stuck her to the underside of its abdomen, descending from its top web inch by inch.
"Oh. You're helping me…? Thank you, spidey."
It had taken a few minutes to reach the bottom of the sinkhole. The moment she touched the ground, she released Mars into the clearing, the alpha Rapidash illuminating the entire clearing as Akari took a look around. There were a multitude of various pokémon tracks at the bottom of the cave. Some were small and far strung. Others were massive, much bigger than what should've been possible. The last trail she saw was a thin wavering line through the mud which led into a small hole in a cave.
A cold chill ran down her spine, intensified by the return of the dense fog as it pooled around her feet and obscured the tracks completely. Pale morning sunlight shone into the sinkhole, casting Akari's section in a deep blue shadow and within that darkness shone a pair of bright red eyes.
"WHAT A DANGEROUS PLACE FOR YOU TO BE, CHAMPION."
Akari swallowed. She couldn't run away. Not this time. She had to be brave if she was going to fight Arceus someday. She paused as the giant spider scuttled around to stand protectively in front of her, hastily crawling up her back. Akari turned back to the shadowy figure. "I… you… Who are you?"
The ground shook underfoot, an invisible force causing Akari to go stiff as a sharp pair of golden horns glinted in the sunlight. A massive pokémon, large enough to reach the lip of the sinkhole, stared impassively down at her, its ashen scales silver in the sunlight. Its massive body, draconic in vision and decorated in gold and platinum plating, loomed over her miniature frame. Its large black wings unfurled, grappling the walls of the rift as it lowered its head down to her height. "I AM GIRATINA," the creature announced, its deep voice shaking Akari's bones. "I AM THE GOD OF ANTIMATTER AND THE RULER OF THE DISTORTION REALM." It sank onto its clawed feet, clicking its beak as it stared passively at Akari. "TO YOU HUMANS, I WAS THE FIRST AFTER ARCEUS, THE CREATOR OF ALL."
"Giratina," Akari murmured. She recognized that name, but from where? She hadn't heard it from Volo. She hadn't heard it from either of the clans, nor from the Galaxy Team. She swallowed. Akari wasn't one to go off a gut feeling but it was nearly undeniable the grotesque, sticky feeling that had enveloped her the moment the legendary pokémon began to speak. "Giratina," she stuttered. "Lord Giratina. What are you-"
"DOING HERE?" it finished her sentence. Its thunderous voice drawled low like far away thunder, rattling around at the back of her head. "I AM HERE FOR YOU, MY CHAMPION," it rasped, its affectionate tone uncomfortably stirring something sinister at the back of her head. "HAVE YOU NOT CALLED UPON THE CREATOR'S GRACE? HAVE YOU NOT DESIRED FOR ANSWERS?"
"You… You're here to help me?" Akari asked, her voice tinged with disbelief.
"THAT I AM." With a terrifying speed, the great god had picked up Akari with a shadowy claw, holding her up directly in front of its massive face as though holding a dry leaf aloft. "I AM HERE TO ASSIST YOU," the god whispered. "HELP YOU WHEN ARCEUS CANNOT." It moved to place her further back in the shadows of the cave, somehow managing to twist its own serpentine body so that it was no longer exposed to sunlight. "AND YOU MAY REFER TO ME AS SIMPLY 'GIRATINA'. I HAVE NO NEED FOR HONORARY TITLES, DEAR CHAMPION. NOW," it murmured, the scales along its face rising. "TELL ME. WHAT DO YOU WISH TO KNOW?"
Akari squinted at the draconic god. At the immense amount of gold, platinum, and hematite scales dappled throughout its body. At the golden horns and tusks that jutted out from the god's face. At the blackened beak and beady red eyes that the god regaled her with. She was unsure as to whether to trust the great god. "Y-you aren't going to ask me for something in return, a-are you?" she asked timidly.
At that, the mighty dragon let out a dry, rasping laugh. "A SMART ONE," Giratina remarked. "NO. I DO NOT REQUIRE SUCH MEASLY THINGS FROM MORTALS. ESPECIALLY NOT ONE CHOSEN FROM MY CREATOR. I DESIRE FROM YOU ONLY THE CHANCE TO ASSIST YOU IN CALLING FORTH ARCEUS. TO ASSIST YOU IS TO PUT AN END TO THE CALAMITY THAT HISUI ENDURES."
"But you want to help me call down Arceus?" Akari took a pace back, readjusting the spider pokémon on her back as she stared at the massive creature. "You're a god. What do you want with Arceus? Why would that matter to you?" In a much quieter tone, bolstered by the lack thereof by everyone Akari had met in Hisui, she asked one tiny, pitiful question, her voice breaking and fading at the end. "Why would you want to help me?"
Giratina lowered its head, encircling her with its broad, pitch-black wings. "ARCEUS CREATED ME AND MY BRETHREN. I WAS THE FIRST," it drawled. "DIALGA AND PALKIA WERE CREATED SIMULTANEOUSLY. WE ARE AGENTS OF THE CREATORS; REGULATORS," it added carefully. "ARCEUS FAILS TO ANSWER ITS CHOSEN CHAMPION AND SO I HEED IN ITS ULTERIOR MOTIVES WHEN THEY CANNOT APPEAR BEFORE YOU."
"Arceus can't show themself so you're showing up in their place? Really? You mentioned their ulterior motive- what's that supposed to be?"
"SEALING THE RIFT AND ESCORTING YOU BACK TO YOUR PROPER TIME AND SPACE, OF COURSE." Giratina gently set her back down. "THE LATTER ARE NOT MY DOMAINS. I CAN ONLY PROMISE TO ASSIST YOU BY KEEPING AN EYE ON YOUR EXPLOITS AND ANSWERING YOUR QUESTIONS WHEN NECESSARY."
Akari pondered that answer for a minute. A god- a legendary pokémon- was here before her, vouching to act as her guide and help answer her deepest questions. A god just for her. One that would actually come when she called. "...Can I ask you something, Giratina?"
"YOU MAY."
"There's somebody else in Hisui that would also like to challenge Arceus for its… lack of action," Akari began carefully, trying her best not to name her merchant friend. "He- I was wondering- you offered answers and we mortals don't seem to have nearly enough of those. How much do you know about when the rift over Mount Coronet appeared?"
Giratina tapped thoughtfully at its chin with one long foreclaw. "HMM. I AM UNSURE AS TO HOW THE RIFT OVER MOUNT CORONET CAME TO BE. AS YOU MUST BE AWARE, BOTH TIME AND SPACE HAVE BEEN HEAVILY DAMAGED SINCE THE INCIDENT. I AM ONLY AWARE THAT IT WAS OPENED BY A ZEALOUS HUMAN AND A SINGULAR DEVOTED POKÉMON. THAT IS A QUESTION I STILL ATTEMPT TO FIND AN ANSWER TO. A DEFINITIVE TRUTH."
"If you don't know the answer… would Arceus?"
"IT IS UNLIKELY," Giratina growled in response. "THE GREAT CREATOR IS OMNIPRESENT THROUGHOUT THE MANY UNIVERSES IT HAS CREATED. IT IS NOT LIKELY TO FOCUS ON JUST ONE OF MANY. I WOULD SUGGEST ASKING DIALGA, THE GOD OF TIME. TO GO BACK TO THE VERY BEGINNING AND SURVEY WOULD ANSWER YOUR QUESTION JUST AS SOON AS IT WOULD RIP APART THE FABRIC OF TIME."
Akari hummed thoughtfully. "Okay. That I can understand. Can you answer something else for me then?" She blinked. "It's for a friend of mine that's been dying to know the answer." After a long pause, Akari continued. "What happened to the Celestican people? Why did they disappear so long ago? And what's the deal with the Unknown? Nobody really talks about either of those things and they're creepy."
"THAT IS ANOTHER QUESTION I DO NOT HAVE A DEFINITE ANSWER FOR." Giratina raised its head and stared balefully as the swathes of clouds over its head, its sharp mouth twisting with disgust. "THE CELESTICAN PEOPLE WORSHIPED ARCEUS. SACRIFICED FOR THEM. PRAYED FOR THEM… DIED FOR THEM. THE CELESTICANS WORSHIPED MYSELF AND MY BRETHREN AS LESSER DEITIES. I AM AWARE THAT ARCEUS WAS THE ROOT CAUSE OF THEIR DISAPPEARANCE. I ATTEMPTED TO LOOK INTO THE MATTER- TO FIGURE OUT THE CAUSE FOR MY PROGENITOR'S WRATH- BUT WAS I CAST OUT OF THE CREATOR'S FAVOR FOR QUESTIONING THEIR ACTIONS. I WOULD BELIEVE THAT THE WORSHIPPERS OF ARCEUS ANGERED THEM IN SUCH A WAY THAT THE CREATOR TORE THEM OUT OF BEING."
"Arceus can just do that?" Akari gawked. She shivered. That was the god that Volo was so enticed to summon; a god that- according to a legendary born from it- had wiped out an entire people over some trivial feud "Wait, you tried to stop them and figure out what Arceus did? And they banished you for it?"
"IT IS NOT SO SIMPLE, BUT I SUPPOSE YOU COULD BE CORRECT. AS FOR THE UNKNOWN, THEY ARE REMNANTS OF THE CREATOR'S POWER FROM WHAT I KNOW; THEY ARE CATALYSTS FOR THE RIGHT HANDS." Giratina then used its tail to sweep her up close to its beak. "USE THEM SPARINGLY."
"Why? I'm not doing anything bad with them" Akari argued. "I mean, I ended up turning one into food that one time, but I haven't tried again since. Okay, okay, wait. Does that mean I ate Arceus's power?"
"YOU USED ARCEUS'S POWER, CHAMPION. IT IS A GIFT TO YOU FROM THE CREATOR TO BETTER ASSIST WITH YOUR ENDEAVORS. CHERISH IT WHILE YOU CAN BUT USE IT SPARINGLY." Giratina tucked its wings behind its back, studying its claws as it spoke. "THE POWER OF A GOD- OF SOMETHING OUTSIDE OF YOUR UNDERSTAND- RARELY FAILS TO CORRUPT ITS HOST."
"Okay. Okay… Thank you Giratina. That's… that's all I wanted to ask you for now." Akari would not ask why the god would be remotely okay with the fact that she had once wished to oppose Arceus directly. Maybe it had some old grudges to settle?
"VERY WELL." Giratian glanced at the sky, watching as it turned from pale blue to a brilliant orange. "MY TIME IN THIS WORLD IS GROWING SHORTER AND SO I MUST TAKE MY LEAVE. I WILL BESTOW UPON YOU MY BOON, CHAMPION." Carefully, Giratina floated an orb-like item over to Akari and gently dropped it into her hands. It was a brindled black, brown, and golden item, the spiky surface slightly sticky to the touch. "THAT IS THE GRISEOUS ORB. SHOULD YOU HAVE QUESTIONS THAT CANNOT BE ANSWERED BY NORMAL MEANS, HOLD THE ORB AS YOU SLEEP AND I WILL VISIT YOU IN YOUR DREAMS."
"…You promise?"
Giratina chuckled low and loud and gravelly. "ONLY IF YOU CARRY THE ORB, CHAMPION. THERE IS ONLY SO MUCH THAT I CAN DO." It lowered its head once more, stopping only when the tip of its beak was inches away from her face. "BE WELL, CHAMPION. THE WORST IS YET TO COME. STRENGTHEN YOUR RESOLVE AND SPIRIT AND BE WARY OF THOSE WHO YOU CALL FRIENDS." It pointed one dark claw at the spider pokémon on Akari's back as if to emphasize its point. "BE WELL."