"I think that Aerial Ace move that Winona was using is just the move to teach you," Ash told Latias. "And maybe Swellow as well, if he's interested… could be Noctowl too."

He looked off into the distance a bit. "Actually, it's occurred to me that I don't know how many Pokémon could learn Aerial Ace. It's a Flying move, but I remember it turning up somewhere else as well… you know, things on TV?"

"Not really, but I get the idea," Latias said.

"Ash, I know you're excited to talk about training, but I think you and Latias are taking up too much of the monorail car," Max hissed.

"Oh," Ash winced, then did his best to move into a corner so he wasn't blocking anyone else with his ring. "Maybe I should have flown alongside or something…"

"You can't fly without using your flying badge," Pikachu said, as Latias squeezed herself out of the way as well. "Maybe you should learn Fly and see if that helps?"

"That's a good point," Ash admitted.

He looked out the window. "Hey, I think that's the Battle Tower!"

"Of course it's the Battle Tower," one of the other trainers in the monorail said. "It's why we're coming to LaRousse City!"

"It's only indirectly why I'm coming to LaRousse City," May said. "I'm mostly along because Ash is interested, and it's on the way from Fortree to Lilycove."

"I'm mostly along because my sister is," Max provided.

"I'm on the lookout for girls!" Brock said, then Max trod on his foot. "Ow…"

"Huh, well, maybe we'll see one another in the Battle Tower," the other trainer said. "Brendan, by the way… and of course I recognize Ash Ketchum, it's hard not to!"

On arriving in the ultra-modern LaRousse City, they went through a check that assigned them all passports.

It was very impressive, because it was completely automatic – a robot hovered up, took their photographs, and printed out a passport for them a moment later which included their name and a code to use.

"Oh, right!" Brock said, checking a leaflet. "That's part of a system that means people can use the appliances around here. From transit systems to food dispensers, it's all automatic and passport controlled."

Latias looked at hers dubiously. "I'm just not sure how mine is going to work. I was invisible so it's just a picture of a cloud."

"What I want to know is why it only took a picture of some of the Pokémon," Pikachu said. "It didn't include Swablu, Torchic or me, but it did include Ash and Latias… wait, no, hold on, I think I get it."

"You do?" Ash asked.

"Yeah, I think it's just taking photos of anyone who isn't a known Pokémon," Pikachu explained. "You know, like Pikachu and Swablu and so on are Pokémon that you'd expect to turn up here, but you're unique as far as we know and Latias are really rare. I wouldn't be surprised if Koraidon got one, if you had her out."

"That does make sense," Ash had to admit. "Nicely worked out, Pikachu! Now, let's go to the Battle Tower!"

The Battle Tower at the core of the city had a whole series of automated elevators and transit tunnels, intended to let people get quickly to where they were meant to go.

Since Brock, Max and May were all going to be spectating, while only Ash was going to be competing, that meant that Ash's friends headed off to the spectators' gallery of the Battle Tower and Ash went to find the battle floor itself.

It wasn't long afterwards that the main problem with this approach asserted itself.

"I have no idea where we are," Ash admitted. "Uh…"

He looked off the balcony they were on. "Well, we're one floor above the ground, and I'm pretty sure May and the others went up. So we should probably take one going up?"

"We are going to get so lost," Pikachu groaned.

"Hey, if this doesn't work then I'll, I don't know, fly back down to the front entrance and go in again," Ash said. "But I want to give it a go!"

"Sure, whatever," Pikachu decided.

Ash looked for an elevator going up, picked one, and since it was otherwise empty the whole group – Ash, Pikachu and Latias – piled into it. The doors closed, it went up… some distance… and then the doors opened again to let them out.

As Ash found out when he left the elevator, it wasn't the main battle floor. Instead, it was another balcony, and there was a kid with pale blue hair looking out over the railing.

"Hi!" Ash said. "Do you know where-"

The boy's reaction wasn't what Ash was expecting. He looked around, did a double-take, and held up his hands as if to ward off danger. "D-don't get any closer!"

"Sure!" Ash agreed. "What's wrong?"

"I'm afraid of Pokémon!" the boy explained. "Don't come near me – wait, you can talk?"

"Yeah," Ash confirmed, with a nod. "My name's Ash Ketchum, I used to be human but I got turned into a Pokémon… look, if you're afraid of Pokémon, it's okay, I can get my friends? They're trainers, but you might be more comfortable with them. And I can stay away."

"Uh…" the boy began. "That would be, okay, I guess?"

"Latias, can you go and find them?" Ash asked. "You saw the lift they took, right?"

"I did, yeah!" Latias agreed. "I'll go and get them!"

The Dragon-type flew off, heading for the entrance to go and start over, and after a minute or so the boy introduced himself as Tory Lund.

"I live here," Tory explained. "Well, recently anyway. My dad's a researcher and he's been working here for the last couple of years studying some… thing, from the arctic. I don't really know the details…"

Ash nodded. "I don't actually know who my dad is, I'm interested in finding out, but nobody knows what Pokémon I am so…"

"You got turned into a Pokémon, right?" Tory asked, confused. "How would what Pokémon you were matter?"

"It's… weird?" Ash admitted. "I grew up human, but we think my dad was a Pokémon – my mom didn't know – and that's why I turned into this."

He shrugged. "But that doesn't stop me being a Pokémon trainer, still!"

"I didn't know Pokémon could be Pokémon trainers," Tory said. "But… well, I like the idea of Pokémon. Just not… Pokémon, because they scare me."

Ash understood.

Not completely, but he kind of… knew the shape of what Tory was talking about.

If you'd asked an eight year old Ash if he wanted to be a Pokémon with amazing powers, he'd… well, he wouldn't have said yes straight away, but it would definitely have been something he'd have thought about. And maybe said yes about.

And now? Actually living that?

Ash could understand why something was different experiencing it, to just thinking about it.

"What… what Pokémon do you have?" Tory asked, after a long moment. "Do you count as one of your own Pokémon?"

"Yeah, but I've got more than six because of that," Ash told him. "Or, partly because of that. With me, I've got Pikachu, who you can see, and then I've got Absol, Marshtomp, Grovyle, Koraidon and Unown, plus Latias who went to get my friends."

"I don't even know what some of those Pokémon are," Tory told Ash. "What's a… Koraidon? Or an Unown?"

"We can meet them later, if you want," Ash suggested. "But from a long way away, if that's okay."

"That's… probably better," Tory admitted.

Then one of the nearby lifts opened, and Brock, Max and May came out.

"Guys, can you return your Pokémon?" Ash asked. "Tory here is afraid of them."

"We were worried you were in danger!" Max said, but he took out his treasured first Pokéball and recalled Swablu anyway. "Latias couldn't explain what the problem was!"

"I'm not great at charades, and if I tried sight sharing with Latios I think all he'd do is just hold up a big sign or something," Latias explained. "Right now Bianca's painting the Secret Garden, though… Latios is watching, he says."

Ash didn't end up going to the Battle Tower that morning.

Instead, Tory – who was quite proud to show them around LaRousse, especially with Ash and Pikachu willing to stay well back – explained a bit about how to ask robots how to get to where you wanted to go, then took them away from the Battle Tower and out onto a wide expanse of green park land in the centre of the city.

"It's kept like this because of a LaRousse philosophy," he said. "It's, um… something about how a city you can walk around in, with parks, is a city where people can enjoy themselves instead of live? And that's the same reason why there's all the moving walkways instead of roads, so that people can move around on foot."

"It's really cool," Max nodded. "Normally I guess if you have to walk a long way it takes a while and you can end up tired, especially if you're doing it back and forth all the time, but with the moving walkways you go faster and it's less tiring…"

He frowned. "Actually, are there any downsides?"

"If there's a power cut, it's suddenly a lot harder to get around?" Tory tried. "And, I guess it's easy to get lost, because if you make a mistake you end up going a lot further than normal… but once you're used to it, it seems great to me."

"It's like everyone having the canals, in Altomare," Latias suggested.

"Yeah, that's a good point," Ash agreed. "Latias says it's like – well, her Pokémon species can swim underwater, so they can use canals to get around, but it's like everyone has those."

That made Tory giggle.

"Sorry, I just imagined eight hundred people all swimming to work," he told them, then reached the top of a hill. "And, just over there is a greenhouse, it's got exotic plants in it, and – uh, and it's got something else, but maybe I should show you guys after lunch."

"It is getting to that kind of time, I think," May judged. "Max, you've got the Pokégear…"

"It's almost noon," Max passed on.

"Then… oh, good, there's a food dispenser over here," Tory told them. "We can order lunch from here – that's okay, right?"

It was a beautiful day, so Ash sent out Koraidon, and he sent Unown out as well so that Tory could see them.

From a safe distance.

He took care to explain to both Pokémon, especially Koraidon, that Tory was afraid of Pokémon but that that didn't mean he didn't like Pokémon, just that he didn't like Pokémon too close to him, and Koraidon nodded seriously as Ash explained.

Then Latias decloaked, and Ash explained about each of the Pokémon one by one, in the order he'd met them. First Latias, and how she'd ended up travelling with Ash after someone tried to kidnap her, then Unown and how they could use a move that could be any type, and finally Koraidon and how they only sort of had an idea what Type or Types she was.

"And her favourite food is sandwiches," Ash added, at the end. "Right?"

"Yeah!" Koraidon agreed, nodding. "They're great!"

Tory giggled.

"Do hot dogs count?" he asked.

"What's a hot dog?" Koraidon asked. "Is it like a Growlithe?"

"It's actually what Tory got us out of the food machines," Ash told her. "It's a sausage in the middle, and a bun on the outside, and you can have sauces with it too."

Koraidon sniffed one, then had a nibble, then decided that they were either sandwiches or honorary sandwiches. And had two.

Lunch sort of turned into a picnic, and then into May having Beautifly demonstrating Silver Wind and Gust from a safe distance away from Tory, and even though he was some distance away Ash smiled as he watched Tory relax.

It was nice to be able to help someone out like that. Ash didn't really know how you helped someone out when they were suffering with that kind of problem, it simply wasn't something he'd had much experience with, but maybe being able to spend time near Pokémon without those Pokémon actually scaring him would help?

Ash thought it sounded like the kind of thing that should help.

"It's funny how things work out, isn't it?" Latias asked.

"Huh?" Ash replied, looking up.

"Just… if we'd taken a different elevator we'd have gone to the Battle Tower, and probably never met Tory," Latias explained. "Or, if I'd listened to Latios and not gone to the Tour de Altomare that year, I'd never have met you. It's so weird to think about that kind of thing."

"I guess," Ash agreed.

"Maybe I wouldn't be here at all," Koraidon said, frowning. "But that's a weird thing to think about, yeah."

She looked up. "Hey, what's that?"

Ash looked in the direction she was pointing, expecting to see a skyscraper or a wind turbine or maybe a Pokémon, but instead he saw a glowing coloured pattern in the sky over the middle of LaRousse City.

"Wow!" Brock gasped, looking in the same direction. "That looks like an aurora! Those are normally only found at the north and south poles… I wonder what one's doing here?"

"It means 'where are you?'," Ash translated, then blinked. "Uh. How do I know that?"

"It means something?" Brock said, surprised. "Ash, have you ever seen an aurora before?"

"No?" Ash replied. "Maybe once or twice on TV. But it's a question, like I said, it just seems obvious looking at it."

"That's really strange," Brock told Ash. "More than normal, I mean. I don't think anyone's ever had the slightest idea that auroras could be messages before."

"Maybe it's something to do with what I am!" Ash said, then spotted something else high overhead.

A green shape, descending through scattered clouds, almost but not quite directly towards them.

It was moving fast, and it seemed to be kind of like a longer and greener Dragonair from this distance. Ash could vaguely make out the head, which had an X-shaped pattern of fins on it, and as the Pokémon descended the head alternated between looking at the aurora and glancing around the rest of the area.

Then it looked in their direction.

By now the whole group was watching, and they saw as the green Pokémon's head stopped moving at all. It just stared in their direction, getting closer and closer – then, with a shocking abruptness, slammed into the ground about fifty metres from the greenhouse Tory had pointed out before.

It was kind of amazing to watch. There was a last-moment realization by the Pokémon that it had forgotten to stop, or turn, or something, then the head made contact, and the rest of the Pokémon had so much momentum that it ended up compressing into a spiral before partly unspringing and crashing to the ground – head-to-tail.

The impact shook the ground for a moment.

"We'd better check if they're okay!" Ash decided. "Come on, guys!"

He started galloping, making Pikachu yelp and grab onto his ring to try and stay on, while Latias went rocketing ahead and Koraidon abandoned her plate to catch up with Ash.

By the time Ash got there, the green Pokémon had extracted their head from a brand new dent in the ground, and was groaning a bit.

"Are you okay?" Ash asked, slowing to a halt in front of them. "Is something wrong?"

Latias got Ash's Pokédex out of his saddlebag, and it went beep while the Pokémon was still trying to decide what to say.

"Rayquaza, the Sky High Pokémon," the digital device told them. "It cannot be seen from ground level since it lives far up above the clouds in the ozone layer."

"Rayquaza, right," Ash said. "Thanks, Latias."

"What… is even," Rayquaza said, pushing himself, and lifted slightly into the air. "Lord of All, you seem… smaller than I remember. Is something wrong?"

"Lord of… wait!" Ash realized. "You recognized me, right? Or, you recognized what Pokémon I am?"

"Of course I do, Lord," Rayquaza said. "You created me, as you created this whole universe. I am, and remain, this world's primary line of defence."

He tilted his head slightly. "...I fear I must be missing something, however. Why exactly are you here?"

Ash didn't really process what Rayquaza said, at first.

It was too big. It was like when you were told that the world was a ginormous ball of rock… you could try and look at it as if it was a ball, but you couldn't see it. You couldn't get perspective, because it was too big for that.

"I was born a human," he said, instead, because it seemed important to explain that. "About twelve, thirteen years ago… I only found out I wasn't a normal human when I took a magic potion, and I turned out to have always been this way. But I've got a move I inherited from my dad… and I've never known who he was. What he was. But you know, right?"

A kind of desperate tone had started to creep into Ash's voice by the end, as part of him tried to interpret what Rayquaza had said and the rest tried to outrun it, and Rayquaza regarded him steadily.

Then, nodded.

"Until now, I have only ever heard or known of one member of your species," the Sky High Pokémon said. "That species is Arceus, and the one who is thus presumably your father is Arceus, Creator of the Universe."

Ash felt light headed.

"Ash, is everything okay?" Brock said, stumbling to a halt next to them. "Is this Pokémon hurt? I don't recognize it."

"No," Ash replied, not sure which question he meant. "I, uh – Rayquaza, are you hurt?"

"Mostly my pride, l- ...Ash," Rayquaza said. "I have hit things harder than that, although it has always been intentional. I… was extremely surprised."

"Brock, Rayquaza knows who my dad is," Ash explained, swallowing. "And, and he's called Arceus, and Rayquaza says he's the creator."

"It makes a kind of sense," Koraidon said, sitting on her haunches and scratching her chin with a paw. "You did create me."

"...I did," Ash realized. "Or, Unown and I did, I guess…"

"You are a new creation?" Rayquaza asked, examining Koraidon, then extended one of the arms attached to the side of his body. "Then it is nice to meet you. You seem to have better manners than my trio mates."

"Nice to meet you!" Koraidon replied, touching the hand with her paw. "What's grandad like?"

Ash sank backwards. "I… really don't know what to think," he said quietly, and Latias put her hand on his back as a kind of support.

"You'll be okay, Ash," Pikachu told him. "You're still the Ash I know, and always have been."

"Arceus is… the creator," Rayquaza said, answering Koraidon's question after a few seconds of thought. "I have not seen him in a long time, but I remember him being… powerful. Very powerful. And… gentle, and careful. And kind. He has access to every Type, so he could do anything, but – I think his creation is important to him. I see so much of the world from the sky, and there is so much beauty in it."

"Attention!" a voice called, from a nearby loudspeaker. "LaRousse City is being evacuated. Repeat, LaRousse City is being evacuated."

Tory gasped.

"If it's being evacuated, then – my friend!" he said. "They're near here, but, I don't know if they can evacuate, so I need to go and help them!"

"We need to go and help them," Ash said, feeling obscurely grateful to have something simple to do. "Who's your friend?"

"I don't know who or what they are, but they're nice!" Tory explained. "They live in the greenhouse!"

"We should speak later, Ash," Rayquaza said. "For now, I must defeat the intruder."

"Wait – what intruder?" Ash asked, confused. "You mean the one making the big symbol over the city? All that says is 'where are you'."

"Truly?" Rayquaza asked, surprised.

Ash nodded.

"Then… I will treat this as something else," Rayquaza decided. "I will defend myself, but only that, prince."

"I, uh – please don't call me that!" Ash said, absolutely not ready for how that title sounded, then turned and cantered after Tory as he led them to the greenhouse.

"He's down here," Tory explained, leading them along a path through the greenhouse – going left, right, left, along a route he'd clearly followed several times. "I met them years ago, they're… sort of made of light. I talk to them, and, they flash or glow, and I worked out what means yes and no and things like that!"

Turning the final corner, Tory held out his hands. "Hi – it's urgent, I know there's other people here but can we talk?"

A green, three-dimensional diamond shape formed out of translucent light.

"Hello, Tory," it said, shivering through patterns of light. "Is something wrong?"

"It's saying hello," Ash explained. "And, asking if something's wrong."

"You can understand him?" Tory said, amazed. "What can't you understand?"

"I understand a lot of things now," Ash told him.

A thought occurred to him, about why that could be, and he pushed it away with a barely-suppressed convulsive shake.

"Look, uh, the city's in trouble!" Tory explained. "I don't know if you can leave, but-"

"Who are you?" Ash interrupted. "Because, if you talk through light displays – there's something else in LaRousse which is talking in light displays as well, and it's looking for someone. It could be looking for you."

"I am a Deoxys," the green light said. "I came here with another Deoxys, but we were both injured. I was brought here, and my counterpart was left behind."

"Deoxys," Ash repeated. "Are you a Pokémon?"

"We are Pokémon," Deoxys told Ash.

Then the lights flickered, and went out.

"Power cut," Max realized. "We should get out of here – can Deoxys come?"

Ash did his best to relay the conversation back and forth in both directions, explaining that the green light was actually a Pokémon called Deoxys, and that they had a counterpart, and that the city was in trouble.

"This is not me," Deoxys explained. "I am in a building, and I am being studied."

"In a building," Ash repeated. "And being studied…"

"My dad!" Tory realized. "He brought something back from the North Pole – that must have been Deoxys, and if there were two of them – I think you're right, Ash, it is the other one who's looking for him. We should go and let him out so that they can reunite."

He looked sad for a moment. "My dad wouldn't have kept a Pokémon prisoner, but I guess he didn't know Deoxys was a Pokémon. We didn't know. But he'll understand."

"Then we should get to your father's laboratory," Brock decided. "I know he might do some damage, but this is an emergency – Steelix!"

He threw Steelix's Pokéball, and it just sort of bounced on the ground. No Pokémon came out, and the ball didn't bounce-back in the way Brock had thrown it to either.

"Something's wrong with the Pokéballs," Max said, wincing. "That means we've only got the Pokémon that are out of their Pokéballs… we really do need to hurry to the labs now."

It turned out there was an extra downside of living in LaRousse which Tory hadn't mentioned, which was that when there was a power cut almost nothing worked.

Even the door out of the greenhouse didn't work, and Ash was almost ready to crash through it before Pikachu shocked the door with a Thunderbolt and it hissed open.

"Right!" May realized. "There's a power cut, but Pikachu can still charge up the machines! Thanks!"

"No problem!" Pikachu replied. "Now, which way's the lab?"

"Which way's the lab?" Ash relayed, then there was a crash and a roar overhead.

The other Deoxys had multiplied itself, somehow, making copies, and Rayquaza was fighting the copies. He was doing just as he'd promised Ash, only defending himself against ones that had already attacked him, but there were a lot of them and at least some of them were focused on him.

"This way!" Tory called. "There's a tunnel, come on!"

Ash was the fastest running trainer in the group, and fortunately the emergency tunnel was big enough for him, but it wasn't really big enough for anyone to go beside him. So he went second, just behind Tory who was leading the way, then everyone else followed in a line with Latias and Koraidon bringing up the rear.

Unown had gone into one of Ash's saddlebags, in lieu of going back into their Pokéball, and Ash tried not to think too hard about what Rayquaza had said because if he started he'd never stop.

"I'm… really not used to going this far," Tory said, panting, as they reached one of the junctions. "Not running, anyway…"

"Then, stop for a minute?" Ash asked. "Guys, how are the rest of you holding up?"

"I'm a bit tired," Max said. "But I could keep going.

Ash closed his eyes for a moment.

"Tory, you don't have to," he began. "But I think it would help if you got a lift from Koraidon."

Tory's breath caught, then he swallowed.

"I… well…" he began, then took a deep breath and let it out. "I guess she's nice…"

Koraidon did her best to look nice.

"And my friend – Deoxys – I was okay with him when I didn't know," Tory went on. "I'm still okay with him. I'm not scared of Pokémon, I'm scared of threatening Pokémon, and Koraidon isn't threatening…"

It sounded like he wasn't sure who he was talking to, possibly himself, and everyone gave him time.

"Yeah," Tory said eventually. "Sure – that is, how do I do this?"

"We tested it out a couple of days ago, after she found out how to glide," Ash said. "And all her plumes are really tough, so you can just hold on to them."

"Right," Tory said, and Koraidon moved next to him so he could get on. Then she straightened up, carefully, and offered her plumes for him to hold on to.

Once Tory had a good grip, she looked at Ash. "Go?"

"Yeah, but not too fast," Ash said. "We still want the others to be able to keep up."

Koraidon nodded, seriously, and began loping down the next tunnel. Ash followed, and so did the others, and in moments they were on the move again.

"Dad's lab is – this way," Tory said, pointing them around a corner, and Koraidon's paws skidded slightly on the building's smooth floor.

They'd made it not just to the labs but to the right floor, but the sounds from outside were getting worrying.

"There!" Tory added, suddenly, prompting Koraidon to skid to a halt and crouch down for him to get off.

Max, May and Brock were gasping a bit from having to keep up, but they'd all kept up, and so had May's Beautifly.

"Pikachu, the doors," Ash prompted, and Pikachu hit the automatic doors with enough current to get them open. "There it is!"

"Deoxys," Tory said, gratefully. "We need to get you out of there!"

"I am mostly sleeping," Deoxys said, manifesting their green diamond. "Tired, and cannot reform."

Ash passed that on. "Then… how can we help you to reform?"

"Sometimes, I am given energy," Deoxys told them. "But not enough."

"Tory, what kind of research does your dad do?" Brock asked, once Ash had passed that on. "If Deoxys has been getting energy, but not enough, and only sometimes… it sounds like the only thing that's been happening to Deoxys is that your dad's been doing those experiments on it. Which sounds a lot like your dad's experiments have been charging Deoxys up."

"I guess, yeah," Tory agreed. "But I don't know because I'm not my dad!"

He waved his hand. "And we can't make the equipment work anyway, can we?"

"I disagree," Pikachu said, and began pumping energy into the lab equipment.

Brock hurried over to the nearest screen, and blinked. "Wow. I'm actually really impressed with this, it's just powered right up again. That's more impressive than the robots!"

"Focus!" Max said, leaning over his shoulder to have a look. "Previous operations…"

"The last dozen procedures are all the same," Brock said. "Just different durations."

"When did you last get energy given?" Ash asked.

"Not long ago. I spoke with Tory three times since then."

"Then that must mean it's the right way to give Deoxys energy," Ash said. "Great work, Pikachu, keep it up – Brock, can we do it?"

Brock tapped on the screen. "It's asking for someone to do something on station two?"

May was nearest to that one. "Uh… this is talking about power requirements… it doesn't have enough power?"

"Pikachu, can you do it any harder?" Ash asked.

"If I do that, I'll tire out way quicker," Pikachu replied. "If it only needs a bit more power, then I could do it."

"How much power does it need?" Ash said.

"About… three times as much," May told him, worried. "That sounds bad."

"Yeah," Ash agreed, swallowing. "Yeah, it is bad. Pikachu, just keep doing what you're doing – please."

He closed his eyes for a moment.

I'm not my dad.

Tory had said it, but Ash had definitely noticed.

But… this mattered.

He still wasn't sure what to think about – about any of this. But there was a problem that had to be solved.

And now he knew about – now he knew what he knew, there were some things that were making more sense.

"Unown," he said. "If I asked you to help, could we get this working again?"

"Most efficient means of problem solving is by means of creation," Unown answered.

"Then go to Alphabet Form," Ash said. "Please. And… I want us to create a new Pokémon who can give enough power to reawaken Deoxys."

"Evaluating," Unown said, changing form. "There is a lockout on this function. Please confirm command."

It was a last chance to back down.

But Ash Ketchum was not going to back down now.

"Create a new Pokémon who can give enough power," Ash said.

"Instructions receipted and confirmed," Unown said. "Evaluating candidates. Best candidate is modified Oricalchum Pulse. Executing command."

There was a very bright flash, and a violet-and-silver mechanical Pokémon materialized in front of Ash.

They looked a lot like Koraidon, but not exactly, and the moment they appeared a crackling burst of electricity filled the entire room. Pikachu's power output amplified noticeably from the sudden burst of energy, then so did the new Pokémon's, and May hit a key on the keyboard in front of her.

"We've got enough power!" she said.

"Activating!" Brock reported.

"What has happened?" the new Pokémon asked.

"I know you're confused!" Koraidon said urgently. "But just focus on giving that yellow Pokémon over there all the power you're feeling right now, okay? We'll explain as soon as we can!"

It took almost a minute running the machine at full power, as high as it could go, to fully restore Deoxys. The building shook once during the process, and Ash had no idea of what was going on outside but he hoped that the other Deoxys and Rayquaza weren't hurting one another.

He hoped that Pikachu, and the new Pokémon he'd just created, would be all right after this.

Then the green crystal transformed into a Pokémon made of red and blue strands with shocking suddenness.

"Go!" Tory said. "Let your friend know everything's all right, okay? I'd love to talk later – but that's not what matters now!"

"Thank you," Deoxys replied, then changed shape to something slender and streamlined and went rocketing out of the building – through the doors, turning a corner, then there was the sound of a window breaking.

The sounds of fighting from outside… stopped. Instantly. Like a switch had been flipped.

Tory and Max went running out to make sure, but with the immediate crisis over Ash headed straight to the brand new Pokémon he'd created.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "You can stop now."

"I do not understand," the Pokémon admitted. "Who am I? What am I?"

Koraidon touched them on the side.

"You've got a lot of questions, right?" she asked, gently. "That's okay. I remember being a lot like you. But… everything's going to be okay."

"I'm sorry about this," Ash told them. "But it was an emergency, and… I couldn't think of anything else to do."

"This is Ash," Koraidon explained, pointing. "He just created you, and he created me a few months ago. So I've got experience with this, and I can help. And – and so can he."

"Yeah," Ash agreed. "We can help."

He wasn't sure about a lot of things, right now. He knew the basics of what he was, but it felt like he didn't really know who he was any more.

But this new Pokémon… they were his responsibility, just like Koraidon was.

That bit was the easy bit to understand.

AN:

oops plot

Yep, Ash knows what he is now. It was here or not until M10, but here seemed to work better.

Since this chapter is long already, the post-movie events are going in the next one.