"So… what now?" Max asked. "Ash, you've done the Battle Frontier, and May's finished with her Grand Festival challenge – and she's won it, too! - so where do we go now?"

He scratched his head. "Do we even keep going in the same direction?"

"That's something I've been thinking about," Brock admitted. "We're not far from Pewter anyway, and it's made me think… I've really enjoyed my time travelling, but I'm missing my family."

He sighed. "Ash knows more about this, but… my dad had only just come back when I went off on my journey. It'd be good to properly spend time with my whole family, back together again."

"That's a nice idea," May smiled. "And… well."

She shrugged. "I think, for me, it depends what catches my attention next? I could go and do a Contest circuit again, it's been fun, but I don't want to rush straight into doing the next one."

"It sounds like we'll be saying goodbye?" Miraidon asked. "That would be sad, but not in a bad way."

Ash passed that on, and Brock considered it before slowly nodding.

"Sad, but not in a bad way," he repeated. "That sounds about right, Miraidon."

Miraidon's eyes showed happy closed-eyes pictures, then they turned to Ash. "What about you, dad?"

"I don't really know yet either," Ash admitted. "I'd like to be doing something, probably going somewhere to challenge some Gyms, but I've not really picked where yet. I do want to find out what happens when I get a full set of Type badges… well, not really badges. What was that works they kept using?"

Pikachu got out Ash's Pokédex, then flicked through to the notes section.

"Plates, I think?" he said. "The Fire, Rock and Water ones all said the word plate."

"Yeah, those," Ash agreed. "When I got all the Frontier Symbols it made the amulet, so I don't know what all the, uh, plates will do. But it'd be nice to know."

He frowned. "Maybe Professor Oak will have an idea?"

"He is a clever person, so hopefully!" Latias said, then paused and floated a bit higher. "Oh, that looks interesting!"

"What does?" Max asked.

"What?" May said. "Max, if you're going to say something like that, at least remember to give us context!"

"I sort of guessed it'd be obvious that Latias was trying to get a good view of something," Max defended himself.

"...oh, right," May realized. "Okay, so what is it, then?"

"I don't know, but it's colourful!" Latias replied.

As it turned out, it was a set of performers – practicing in a field, to make sure their routines were just right – and they had a style which mostly involved water, with their Pokémon both swimming in it and moving it around.

"That's impressive," May said, then sent out Octillery. "What do you think?"

"Yeah, this is giving me ideas," Octillery agreed. "I should really refine Psybeam a bit so I can move things around with it like Ash does with Confusion. Does Psybeam work that way? Because if it doesn't then it really should."

"This reminds me a bit of that thing that Misty's sisters got her to do," Ash said. "Remember that, Brock?"

"Of course I do!" Brock agreed. "It was a delight to watch!"

"He had to make it weird," Pikachu muttered, shaking his head.

"Impressed?" one of the performers asked. "We're – wait, I know you!"

She pointed at May. "Didn't you win the Kanto Grand Festival?"

"Yeah…" May said, a bit embarrassed. "But this is really impressive too!"

"Mom, what is it?" a girl asked, then gasped. "That's May, right? And – of course she is, that's Ash – this is great!"

The girl ran up to May. "I was really amazed by your Grand Festival performances!"

May looked even more embarrassed now, though fortunately she was rescued a bit when one of the other members of the troupe – wearing a clown costume – took the head of his costume off.

"There's no mistaking you," he said, nodding to Ash. "Ranger HQ has given us all kinds of advice for what to do when you're around, and number one is to ask for help."

"Help?" Ash repeated. "With what – you're a Pokémon Ranger?"

"Jack Walker, at your service," the Ranger replied, showing his Capture Styler. "Come on, I'll show you what's going on, but we can't show it around too much…"

In the trailer parked nearby, Jack showed them an egg case.

"This is what my mission is about," he said. "It's the egg of Manaphy, a Pokémon known as the Prince of the Sea."

"Huh," Ash frowned, looking closely. "That egg seems weird."

"It does?" Jack asked. "How do you mean?"

"I don't really know…" Ash admitted. "But sometimes I sense things and I don't know what it means."

"I can feel something about it too," Latias said. "It's a bit like the Pokémon inside is already psychic?"

Ash passed that on, and Jack frowned.

"Huh," he said, checking something on his Styler. "I'm… pretty sure that Manaphy is supposed to be a pure Water type… maybe something else is going on."

He shook his head. "Anyway. The important thing is to make sure that Manaphy hatches safely, and inherits his position as the Prince of the Sea."

Something about that made Ash a bit uncomfortable, but he couldn't put a hoof on it just yet.

"Is there any reason Manaphy's in danger?" Miraidon asked.

"Miraidon's got a good point," Ash said. "Is Manaphy actually in danger from anything?"

"Well, there's Captain Phantom," Jack replied. "I rescued Manaphy's egg from his pirate crew, and now I'm in hiding here… my latest report from Ranger HQ indicated that Captain Phantom is still at large."

Max frowned. "So… I guess the important thing is going to be keeping Manaphy safe until they can defend themselves, or at least make the decision and make it stick? If Manaphy wanted to help Captain Phantom that would be okay, so long as it wasn't, you know, the obviously wrong thing to do, but it's making sure that it's Manaphy's choice, right?"

"I hope Manaphy doesn't turn out to want to help pirates," Jack muttered. "But, yes, that's about the size of it."

"Is it really a good idea to keep Manaphy's egg like that?" May asked. "Pokémon eggs can notice things before they hatch… it feels like it would just mean that Manaphy doesn't get a chance to learn things before they hatch."

She frowned. "And if the Phantom's pirates were doing something different, they might even end up being sympathetic to him."

Jack looked torn. "That… is a good point," he admitted. "But what should I do?"

"What about letting Manaphy see the practice?" May suggested. "Or even just be around while it's happening… rather than having them inside all the time with nobody else there…"

It was too soon to tell if that was helping or not, but it did make them feel better.

Ash had Marshtomp out, joining in the water displays as the performers practiced – including Jack, who was now also calling himself Jackie sometimes as a nickname – and even took part himself, switching to Water type to stand on even quite small blobs of water as the Water-types floated them around.

He wasn't sure if he was going to actually get involved in one of their displays himself, but it was fun, and Miraidon had a go as well by switching to their water-mode. Which mostly meant that there had to be much bigger water blobs to hold them, and Zorua contributed by swimming around in the smaller water globules before jumping out and phasing through the water that would otherwise have made his fur damp.

"That's pretty cool!" said Lizabeth, the youngest member of the family troupe – the other performers being her parents and a grandparent. "How did that Zorua just do that?"

"He's a Ghost type," Max explained. "And they can pass through solid objects, so I guess he's worked out how to just let the water splash off him."

Zorua looked very pleased with himself.

A little way to the side, Octillery waved her tentacles as she tried to work out how to use Psybeam to hold something partway along the beam.

It hit her in the face.

"You probably want to push and pull at the same time," Brock suggested.

"I'll try that, then," Octillery decided. "It just feels like I'm trying to do too many things at once."

"Hmm," Brock's Torkoal mused. "Many arms allow for many tasks."

"Oh, yeah, good point," Octillery said. "I'll do that then."

"What do you think my version of Collision Course would be like?" Miraidon asked, once they'd been towelled off. "I'm a lot like my sister in several ways, but not quite the same."

"Yeah, I've been wondering about that," Ash admitted. "You tend to work with ranged attacks, but at the same time… yeah, I don't know. Maybe I'd need to switch to Electric type to have a good idea…"

"I'll see what I can think of?" Pikachu offered.

"That would be helpful," Ash agreed. "...oh, or maybe it'll be easier to tell once you work out your version of her bipedal form, Miraidon?"

"That is a good point," Miraidon said, sitting down and thinking with a tilt of their head.

Zorua tilted his head as well, the other way, which meant in combination that Zorua's head was actually level. "Hmm," he said.

Then Absol loped over.

"So, uh, trouble," he said.

"Trouble?" Ash repeated. "What kind of trouble?"

"I don't know, as soon as I told you it went away," Absol replied. "I'm not sure what you could only fix once you knew, mind you."

Ash looked around, and so did Pikachu – then Pikachu's cheeks sparked, and he fired out a Thunderbolt.

It hit a Noctowl swooping down towards May, blasting it out of the air, and Absol exhaled.

"Phew," he said.

"Okay, I'll give you that one," Pikachu admitted.

Then five helicopters arrived.

"Hand over the egg!" a voice announced from a loudspeaker, as someone in one of the helicopters recalled the Noctowl. "If you give up the egg, we can all walk away from this happy!"

"No chance!" Jack replied, throwing off his whole clown disguise in a single impressive sweep, and snapped out his Styler.

Ash sent out Sceptile, then paused.

"Do you think it's more help if I Mega Evolve someone or don't?" he asked.

"I'd say don't, not yet," Pikachu advised. "You don't want to tire yourself out too soon."

"Well, I warned you!" the loudspeaker said.

Then there was a crash off in the trees, and a giant Absol came smashing through them.

Ash glanced down for a moment, to make sure he hadn't Dynamaxed Absol without noticing, then saw that the giant Absol had glowing red lights for eyes.

"Prepare for trouble!" Jessie announced, pointing with the forelimb of the Mechabsol. "We knew it was coming!"

"And make it double!" James agreed. "That's a second coming!"

"...what?" the loudspeaker asked, with a much less threatening tone.

"To detect a source of approaching trouble!" Jessie said, doing something that made lights in the Mechabsol's horn light up in sequence.

"And approach a pirate to burst his bubble!" James agreed, making the point wave in the vague direction of the pirate.

The blade-tail swished. "To create some chaos and pick a fight!"

Then the Mechabsol crouched. "To demonstrate the folly of travelling light!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"You might think your work's divine," Jessie said.

"But with us around, you'd best decline!" James finished.

"Meowth makes three!" Meowth added. "Hey, how come we didn't go with usin' Manaphy as the final sentence?"

"...what?" Jack asked.

"They turn up a lot," May replied.

"Oh, a new congregant!" Jessie said. "Well, the collection plate will have to wait until the end!"

The Mechabsol fired out a Razor Wind, and the helicopters retaliated with grappling hooks.

Ash and the others quietly hurried over to the troupe's motorhome and trailer during the chaos.

The actual mechanics of making the get away were a bit difficult, because Ash's ring was a bit clumsy and because of the number of Pokémon they had, and after some whispered discussions Ash returned all the Pokémon he had out except for Pikachu and Latias.

Just about everyone else pulled back all the Pokémon they had, as well, and Ash fitted into the trailer first before everyone else crowded in either in front of him or into the motorhome.

Once they'd got that sorted out, though, the troupe (and accompanying Ranger, Pokémon trainers and assorted others) got moving, and May sighed in relief once they were out of sight of the battle.

"This is not the kind of relaxing wind down that would have been nice after the Grand Festival," she said, shaking her head. "Why does that pirate even want Manaphy?"

"There's several reasons he could want Manaphy," Jack replied, hanging off one side of the motorhome to get a good view behind them. "Really the main ones are that he could want to exploit Manaphy's position as the Prince of the Sea… or he could want to steal something, and having Manaphy is essential to getting it."

"So-" May began, then glanced at Ash for a moment. "So… really he just wants Manaphy for what Manaphy is, not who he's going to be."

Jack nodded. "That's about the size of it," he said.

May frowned, but before she could say anything more there was a sort of weird flicker of pink light from the egg canister.

It hit her, and Pikachu, and their eyes lit up blue. Then May groaned.

"Oh, what now?" she said, in Pikachu's voice.

"What just happened?" Pikachu asked, in May's voice.

"That's weird," Max said. "Did they just swap bodies?"

"I… think that's something Manaphy is supposed to be able to do," Jake frowned. "I might need to check with Ranger HQ, though."

"What do we do now?" asked May-in-Pikachu's-body.

Ash frowned. "Uh – maybe you two should get into the trailer, and I'll switch to Dark type? That way it can't affect me, and…"

Another pink flicker came a moment later, going through May, Pikachu and Ash this time, then Pikachu's body flicked his tail.

"Phew, I'm back to normal," he said. "Ash? Did you end up in May this time?"

"No, actually," Ash replied. "May?"

"Back to normal," May agreed.

Ash only thought for a moment, then got Sidney's trophy out and switched to Dark type.

"Pikachu, you should go into the front," he said. "Out of range of Manaphy's power to do whatever that was. So should everyone else except one person, to try and explain to Manaphy why it's best not to do that… if Manaphy can do this while he's still in the egg, it's really important to make sure they know when to not use it."

May held up her hand.

"I'll do it," she volunteered. "I'm here anyway… is it going to be safe to have other Dark-types too? How many do we have?"

"I think it's just Absol," Max said.

Then Unown came out of their Pokéball.

"Has there been an attempt to replace your spirit with that of another?" they asked. "I received an alert that the barrier I put in place had been activated."

"A barrier?" Ash asked. "Uh… you mean after the thing with the King of Pokélantis?"

"Correct," Unown stated, floating higher. "In order to prevent unauthorized access, additional account checks were instituted."

"Well, I guess that helped out!" Ash said. "Thanks!"

Jack raised his hand. "Um. What's the thing with the King of Pokélantis?"

"I got possessed once," Ash shrugged. "It didn't last long, it's fine. Zorua helped."

Shep, the grandpa of the group, seemed to know exactly where they should be going, and they were on the move right through the evening and into the night.

Ash worried that maybe it would be obvious where they were, if the Phantom Pirates showed up with their helicopters again, but it didn't seem to be a problem – and, besides, before long they had something else to think about, because Manaphy's egg hatched out and revealed the baby Pokémon.

As the only one in the trailer, May took the lead in saying hello to Manaphy, and he immediately took a shine to her. He did seem to have got the idea about not doing the swap-people-around thing, at least, and after that was confirmed Brock squeezed past Ash to help as well.

"I just checked with Ranger HQ," Jack said, getting Ash's attention. "They confirmed it, that move is Heart Swap and it's one of Manaphy's specialities. It could have caused a lot more confusion than it did."

"No kidding," Ash agreed, thinking with a wince about what might have happened if May had been swapped into Latias's body instead. She'd been flying overhead all evening, keeping an eye out for if the Phantom Pirates were catching up to them, and Ash was fairly sure May didn't know how to use Levitate to fly like that.

It wouldn't have been a good time to learn, anyway.

He yawned. "Uh… do you know how much further it is?"

"I'll check with Shep," Jack replied. "You're right, it's been a long day."

Ash nodded, then looked over to the side of the road.

He saw something weird, did a double-take, then shook his head as the sight vanished behind him.

"Something up?" Pikachu asked.

"I'm pretty sure I saw Suicune," Ash explained. "By the side of the road, but just for a moment."

Max sniggered. "It wouldn't surprise me at this point."

It was past midnight when Shep stopped the motorhome, and May yawned as she got out of the trailer after Ash.

"I had a weird dream…" she said.

"You managed to get to sleep?" Brock asked. "I'm impressed."

Manaphy yawned as well, stretching, and May patted him on the head.

"Did you get a nice rest?" she asked.

"Sleepy," Manaphy complained.

"Now he's reminding me of Zorua," Latias said, smiling.

Ash chuckled.

"So, uh… where are we?" he asked, switching out of Dark-type and back to Normal. "I can use Flash if people are having trouble seeing?"

"Probably best to wait until we're inside," said Kyle, Lizabeth's mother. "This is an ancient site of the People of the Water."

"Really?" Brock asked, surprised. "I'd only ever heard of them before… mostly as a myth, actually."

"Oh, we're very much a real thing," Meredith told him. "Scattered, now, but still around… at least, I hope we're scattered. Otherwise we might be all that's left."

"But there used to be a whole civilization," Shep took up the tale. "With fantastic technology… and no, not like Pokélantis. It was all used for good ends, and to do amazing and beautiful things."

"That's pretty cool," Max said, yawning, as they started walking to the entrance. "So… uh, an ancient site… you mean ruins, right? If nobody's there any more."

"We're here, and that's what matters," Kyle said firmly.

"The People of the Water connect land and sea," Lizabeth said, in a sing-song way. "From now to forever, that's how it shall be. The Prince is the sign, see him in your dreams. When the moonlight turns red, all will be how it seems."

"The Prince is Manaphy, right?" May asked, as they entered the building and Ash lit his ring up with Flash. "That's a funny coincidence. I dreamed about him earlier."

Lizabeth looked like she was about to ask a question, but her mother held up a hand.

"May, what did you dream about?" she asked. "This is important."

May frowned. "Oh, uh… I was underwater, and Manaphy swam up to me, and then I saw something up ahead… it was a bit like a building, maybe even a palace, but underwater and covered by a bubble. Then Manaphy began swimming towards it, and… I woke up."

There was a moment of silence, broken first by Shep.

"Who would have thought it?" he asked. "My word."

"What is it?" May said, worried now. "Is something wrong?"

"Not at all," Kyle replied, but then his daughter began talking over him.

"I had the same dream!" she said. "Years ago! It's the exact dream the poem was about – it's how you can tell someone's part of the People of the Water – that must mean you and Max are descended from the People of the Water, too!"

"Whoa," Max said. "I wonder whose side that's on…"

They came to a blank wall, and Shep held up a bracelet on his wrist. The wall lit up and opened, smoothly sliding aside, and Brock whistled.

"That's activated by the crystal, right?" he asked. "I'm amazed at how well that works after so long."

"The People of the Water built well," Shep said. "Now, come on… I've been down here before, but I need to refresh my memory. There's a canal here so we'll need our Water types to travel down it."

Of course, they didn't require Water types to travel down the canal. Latias was there, and so was Miraidon, and on top of that Ash switched to Water type and walked down the canal.

"This is fun!" Manaphy cheered, as they travelled, and May smiled.

"It sounds like he's enjoying himself," she said. "I guess he is a Water type… he is a Water type, right? I've sort of been assuming."

"That's what my files say," Jack replied. "And no, he's not Psychic type as well… at least, that's what my files say, but that kind of thing is hard to work out."

Ash snorted. "Yeah, tell me about it…"

"He is," Pikachu pointed out, then yawned.

Brock frowned. "Is there somewhere we can get rest that Captain Phantom won't follow us?"

"Not sure," Shep admitted, up ahead. "We're probably good until morning, but once the sun rises he could find the trailer… I've been planning to take to sea. My ship's not far from here, it's perfect for the job."

"...or," Max began. "We could rely on beating the Phantom and his goons and calling the police. So long as someone's here to wake us up… and Absol can do that, right?"

Pikachu looked torn.

"...yeah, probably," he decided. "At least, as long as him warning us would actually matter."

"Here we are," Shep said. "Lad, come a bit closer with that glowing blue ring of yours… there we go."

He took a step back. "There used to be a temple of the sea, where the People of the Water lived, called Samiya. But it was threatened by evil spirits, and the ruler took it below the ocean to protect it. It cannot be seen by the naked eye, unless it's during a lunar eclipse, but the Prince of the Sea can always tell where it is."

"Maybe that's why the Phantom wants Manaphy, then," Max suggested. "If he wants some of the technology hidden in, uh, Samiya, then that could be why he'd want Manaphy."

Shep looked grim. "Then we should get Manaphy there ourselves. He'll be safe there."

"Yeah, we'll keep him safe!" Ash agreed.

Jack frowned. "It doesn't feel right for a Ranger to accept so much help from Pokémon trainers, but… it's a good point."

"And we'll tell the police," Max added. "Or be ready to call them, anyway… I need to call Mom and Dad and let them know about the whole People of the Water thing, too."

He yawned.

"...after some sleep," he amended.

Amazingly enough, they didn't have trouble with the Phantom that night.

They didn't have trouble the next day, either, getting to Shep's ship the Blue Lagoon and going on board, or when the ship sailed out of port into the sea.

"Maybe the Phantom's just… given up?" Ash suggested, as Max's Altaria drifted past enjoying the sea breeze. "Or maybe Team Rocket stopped him for good."

"Could be," Pikachu agreed.

"So… how is Manaphy going to lead us to Samiya?" May asked, after a long moment.

"He needs to be in the water to tell," Shep said. "Or, that's what I think, anyway."

"Couldn't we do something with geometry?" Max suggested. "To triangulate the position, I mean. Then Ash could Dynamax Latias, and she could fly us there as quickly as possible!"

"Well, there's a few problems with that suggestion," Shep said, not unkindly. "It's a fine suggestion, lad, you've got good instincts. But the first is, we don't know if Manaphy can give us a direction or just a vague idea. And the second is, we need to be at Samiya at the time of the eclipse. And that's in a few days."

"Oh, right," Max realized. "Yeah, we couldn't just… hang around overhead for several days on Latias."

"Like he says, though, it's a good idea," Latias consoled Max, and he nodded.

"Thanks," he replied. "And thanks for translating, Ralts."

"As for how… come this way," Shep suggested, leading them down into the boat.

In the bows, there was an underwater observation area, a transparent outer hull through which they could see the amazing marine life, while in the stern there was a well deck and a submarine bay.

"Just a moment," Shep requested, sealing the door behind them. "Now then… we can open the doors to let Manaphy into the water, and we can see if he can find anything. All right?"

"That makes sense, I guess," May said. "But… won't the ship flood if you open a door to the sea?"

"It shouldn't, but that's why I sealed the door," Shep replied. "Worst case, we close the sea doors again."

"Do you understand what we're going to do, Manaphy?" May asked, then. "You'll be going swimming for a bit."

"Swimming!" Manaphy cheered.

Everyone blinked.

"...well, that makes a lot more sense out of the stories of the King of the Sea telling the People of the Water to evacuate," Kyle admitted. "Never really thought about that before."

The well deck worked out, and so did the observation hull, and after a bit of back-and-forth and some reassurance from May that she was right there Manaphy began leading them out to sea and into the currents.

He came back on board at night, and spent plenty of time with May specifically as well as her Pokémon, and even though he was just a few days old he was already learning Water Pulse with the help of Octillery and Swift from Eevee – along with getting better and better at talking in a way that humans could understand, with May's patient help.

Life on board settled into a routine, in fact, and the weather was fine, and it began to feel more like a lovely holiday at sea than anything… at least, until Ash was approached by Jack one afternoon.

"You're May's friend, right?" he asked. "I'm pretty sure but I want to confirm it."

"Yeah, why?" Ash asked. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm a bit worried about how close she is to Manaphy," the Pokémon Ranger said. "Manaphy's the Prince of the Sea, and how's that going to look?"

He shook his head. "Look, I'm not sure if I'm saying this right, but-"

"It's perfectly fine," Ash said, a bit hotly, then exhaled. "Look, I know he's a Pokémon, and some Pokémon grow up a lot quicker. But Manaphy's only days old! And I know he has an important job to do, but you're – you're assuming that because he's like that now, as a baby, that's going to affect how he is for the rest of his life. Like he needs to be an adult immediately, instead of giving him time to be a child."

Jack frowned. "But Manaphy does have an important job, and he's going to be separated from May in just a few days."

"Maybe he is," May said, surprising them both. "Maybe I will need to leave Manaphy behind in a few days. But you don't know that, not yet."

Jack looked puzzled. "But – Manaphy is the Prince of the Sea, Samiya is where he's supposed to be."

"Yes?" May replied. "So what? What matters here is what's best for Manaphy, he's the child here."

She sighed. "If you're right, and leaving him behind is better for him, then I'd do that! Of course! But if what's best for him is to stay with me, or for me to stay with him, then I'm going to do that as well. At least for a while."

"You don't have to make decisions about how things are going to be forever when you're less than a week old," Ash said. "Or you shouldn't. It's okay to make one choice and then change your mind later, right?"

Jack looked mulish, then sighed. "You're right," he admitted. "I guess it might be Pokémon Ranger training, we're so used to the idea that there are Pokémon who are better off in the wild that when there's a Pokémon like this – I know where Manaphy is supposed to be, and it's easy to forget that he's still so young."

A beautiful full moon was just rising, and the Blue Lagoon slowing down for the night, when Manaphy splashed up to the surface.

"Nearly there!" he said.

"Nearly there, he says," Ash passed on, as Manaphy turned to where Octillery was surfacing next to him.

"Ride!" Manaphy asked, and Octillery nodded before submerging. Then she used Psybeam, sending a blast of water and Manaphy into the air, and May held out her arms to catch him.

Octillery re-surfaced and began suckering her way up the side of the Blue Lagoon, and Shep glanced up at the moon.

"It's good we're nearly there," he said. "The eclipse is meant to be tonight."

"When, tonight?" Lizabeth asked.

"...just tonight, really," Shep answered. "They can last up to four hours."

"Wow," Lizabeth whistled. "That's a long eclipse."

"You've got that right," Shep agreed. "So, like I say, tonight."

"So… what's the plan?" May asked, cuddling Manaphy.

Jack jumped down from one of the mast supports.

"You've got that submarine, right?" he asked. "I'd say, use it to follow Manaphy as soon as the eclipse begins… Max and Ralts mean he can translate, even if Ash doesn't fit. I'll stay up here either way to keep an eye on the ship, and look out for the Phantom."

He shrugged. "Then, surface Samiya, come back here to bring the ship in… I think that makes sense. Then we can decide what to do, because there's not much point making big plans if we can't even get into Samiya."

"I guess that makes sense," Brock agreed. "How big is the submarine?"

It wasn't big enough to fit Ash, which was a bit of a shame. In fact, only about half the people who'd come along would fit, which would leave Ash, Kyle, Meredith and Jack staying on the Blue Lagoon and Lizabeth, Shep, Brock, Max and May going by submarine.

Kyle and Meredith knew how to operate the ship, at least well enough to not do something horribly wrong, but that meant that Ash and Jack had a different task.

"Now, this is the sonar screen," Shep showed them. "You can use it to keep track of where we are… I don't know if Samiya would show up on it, but if it doesn't then you can track where you lose contact with the sub and that will give you a rough idea where to look."

Ash looked a bit lost. "Uh… okay?"

"My Styler's got a picture function," Jack said. "And I'm pretty sure I can decipher this… let's see."

He pointed to the display. "So, this is showing contact strength and x-y coordinates, and… doing this means it shows depth, right?"

"Exactly right," Shep agreed. "You catch on fast."

"So, let's see," Jack said, tuning it. "Right now, the biggest contact is… huh, that's not far from here, right?"

"No, it's not," Shep agreed, worried. "We should go to the viewing gallery and have a look."

That wasn't far, because the Blue Lagoon wasn't a very big ship, and they got there in less than a minute.

"...wow," Jack said, staring. "I never thought I'd see a Pokémon like that."

Ash came through the door next… took one look, then turned around with a clatter of hooves and hurried to the stairs.

"Ash?" Jack called. "Is something wrong?"

Ash jumped onto the water, with a splash that radiated out from his impact point but didn't actually get him very wet. Instead, for him, it was as if the sea had briefly become bouncy, and he went down before rising back up as the water rebounded from the impact.

"HEY!" he called. "Can we talk?"

There was a long pause, then Kyogre surfaced in a rush of water.

The Sea Basin Pokémon stared at him for a long time.

"...in hindsight, you don't actually look quite like Father," she said. "It was you who I saw in Hoenn, right?"

"Yeah," Ash agreed. "That's – that's right, yeah. I was…"

He sighed. "I'd only found out I was Arceus's son a short time ago, then, and I was just so mad that you two were… but, yeah."

"Dad?" Miraidon asked, leaning over the side of the Blue Lagoon, then jumped into the water with a splash.

They came swimming over, accompanied by Pikachu and with Latias following them a little way behind, and halted before waving at Kyogre.

"Hello, Aunt Kyogre," they said. "My name's Miraidon. It's nice to meet you."

Then they turned their head a little. "Was that right? I did not have a chance to practice, but it seemed polite."

"I think it was great, Miraidon," Ash told them, then returned his attention to Kyogre. "Look… this is really awkward, but… the only sibling I've had a chance to speak to so far is Rayquaza. Do you think we could just… talk for a bit?"

Kyogre considered that.

"I think it's mostly going to be me asking questions," she said. "For example. How. And also. What."

She nodded to indicate Miraidon. "Who?"

"It's a long story, but I'll do my best!" Ash replied. "Though, first, I guess the sea is kind of your thing so I should ask now I've got the chance, some of my friends are going to be following Manaphy in a little submarine to visit Samiya, is that okay?"

"I do not see why it would not be," Kyogre replied.

Ash ended up talking for about half an hour, about how he'd grown up human and only then discovered that he was actually a Pokémon, and how it had taken a while after that for him to discover which Pokémon and the implications of that.

Kyogre listened in what was either polite silence or mild shock, occasionally asking questions which didn't clear up which of those two options it was, then eventually Ash was just about finished with the important bits.

"And… I guess I don't really have much else to say," he admitted. "At least, not about me."

"I am having trouble thinking of what to say," Kyogre admitted. "You are many, many times younger than any of my other siblings, but you seem to have done a lot with that time."

"Dad does a lot," Miraidon said, loyally. "And he helps people out so much!"

"I'm just doing what I think is right, I guess," Ash replied. "And… and learning how not to do things wrong, too. With what I can do, it's… important to get it right. For me and for everyone else."

Kyogre looked embarrassed.

"I know that wasn't aimed at me, but… I'll try to do better," she said. "As long as Groudon does too."

"I'll ask him if I see him," Ash said.

Then he looked up at the sky, and saw that the moon had turned red.

"...oh, the eclipse is going on," he realized. "That must mean that Samiya's visible now."

"You mentioned that," Kyogre said. "I should have a look."

She submerged, and Ash glanced at Latias.

"Do you think that was okay?" he checked.

"I think it was fine," Latias reassured him. "She seemed to be okay with what you were saying, anyway, and that's a good sign."

"It'd be nice to be able to meet all my siblings," Ash admitted. "And Dad, too… it's funny, really, because I was never all that bothered before. And I guess… it's just wanting to meet them. But I'm not in a rush, either."

"I get what you mean," Pikachu decided. "You want it to happen, but you're okay to let it happen when it's a good time."

"Yeah," Ash agreed. "Yeah, that's it exactly."

Something happened a little way away, making a circle of waves bubble outwards, then again.

"What the-?" Ash asked. "What's going on?"

Latias dipped underwater, then came back up. "Kyogre's doing something," she said, pointing, then turned to point in the other direction. "But Samiya's that way, I can see it now, so… I don't know what she's doing."

Then Kyogre surfaced again, some distance away, and came swimming over with something in her mouth and dragging in the water next to her.

"I know you asked for permission for your friends," she mumbled. "But I didn't see a Manaphy. Is this yours?"

She lifted it up a little, fins beating the water, and Ash got a closer look.

It was a submarine, all right, but a different submarine. Not Shep's one at all.

"That's Phantom's sub!" Jack called from the Blue Lagoon's deck.

"They're the ones who were after Manaphy," Ash explained. "So, uh… can you make sure they don't get out, or something?"

"I can indeed… little brother," Kyogre agreed, then turned the submarine slowly upside down.

Ash wasn't quite sure if he could hear muffled cursing from inside, but if he could then it was probably very loud.

Then the water some distance away began to bubble, and Samiya rose in glory into the dim red moonlight. Ash turned to watch, and it lit up with beautiful silver light, and streams of water waved in the air overhead.

"Wow," he said. "That's amazing!"

"No kidding," Pikachu agreed.

"We'll be fine," May said, on the afternoon of the next day. "We can head back to shore with Shep if we need to, or Altaria if we need to hurry – she's strong enough to take us both."

She smiled. "Besides… right now, I think it's best for Manaphy if I'm around. And I'm okay staying for a while… at least, until he decides otherwise, or it's been long enough for us to think about it again."

Jack nodded, checking his Styler.

"Let's see…" he said. "Captain Phantom… him and his crew will be transported to the nearest city for the police to deal with him. Through the help of… okay, good, I don't have to use my Styler to capture the Pokémon who help out, so I can just include Ash and Kyogre… and, finally, status of mission subject."

He smiled. "Manaphy is… with his family. I think that's everything."

"Good luck, Ash!" Max waved. "Brock, make sure you keep your Corphish with you!"

"Why Corphish?" Brock asked.

"I told him to hit you if you started creeping on girls!" Max called back.

Brock winced in anticipation of future pain.

"Miraidon, are you okay giving someone a lift back to shore?" Ash checked. "If you are, then you and Latias can take Brock and Jack and I'll fly myself, and we won't need to do any Dynamaxing."

"That's fine, Dad," Miraidon agreed. "Does that mean a tow?"

"We do still need to keep up with Kyogre," Ash said. "So it depends how fast she's going to be taking the submarine."

He balanced on three hooves, waving to Max, May, and Lizabeth's family.

Something about it all felt right. The Prince of the Sea was home, with his family – and now the People of the Water had come home, too.

He'd miss Max and May. But it felt like leaving them like this was a happy moment, too, because they were happy.

AN:

Sure, Together We'll Make A Promise is very heartwarming, but if you actually don't have anything urgent… why not just stay?

Also, this movie event turned out to be quite strongly about family, which is convenient.