"A Magmortar?!" Sammy cried out, eyes bugging out at the sight of Infernus' molten form. "Wow, that's incredible. Where on earth did you find one? I only know of nineteen trainers—twenty now, I suppose—that can claim to have caught one!"

Infernus preened a little at the praise, then seemed to properly take in this strange shadow of Gary Oak with too-kind eyes and too much enthusiasm.

The blazing warrior stared dumbly.

Ash leaned forward to whisper into his friend's ear, cognizant of Sammy's rambling in the background and Agatha (he couldn't possibly think of her as 'Aggie') watching him raptly with those mismatched eyes.

"I think something really, really stupid happened. Or we're dreaming. One of the two."

Part of Ash wanted to dismiss this as anything but time travel of all things, but the tiny versions of Professor Oak and Agatha (and just thinking of her ripped his heart out anew), the antiquated Pokéballs on their belts, the adamant rivers still burning behind his eyes, and all the other small little considerations slowly turned him towards accepting the simple truth staring him in the face.

Even if it was utterly ridiculous. But Professor Oak and Alakazam had been weird, strangely giddy, and Ash suspected he now knew why.

Oh, he was going to let them have it when they got back.

If they got back.

Ash didn't dare entertain that thought for long. For as unhappy as he was with Professor Oak's strange idea of a vacation—even stranger than old Agatha's, and she'd retired to Orre to fight in a revolution as a retirement plan—Ash trusted the old man.

Professor Oak wouldn't steer him wrong.

Infernus snorted and quickly decided that temporal insanity or not, there was a fight to be had.

Charmeleon's eyes glimmered with a feral energy as the red reptile squared up for combat, digging his lower claws into the dirt of Ilex Forest as his tail swished furiously behind him, cascading sparks down onto the damp collection of moss and leaves beneath. Smoke and sparks spilled frantically from the Charmeleon's throat as excitement overtook him, battle-lust radiating out from him like heat from a flame.

Infernus' lips curled up into an eager sneer. This wasn't quite how they'd intended to challenge Professor Oak's legendary Charizard, but Ash would take it.

"—did you venture into the heart of a volcano?" Sammy wondered, then shook his head. "You're too young to have trained a Magmar up to this level through the conventional route, and it lacks the tell-tale signs of an elderly specimen. Magmortar rarely venture out of their territory, although I suppose you might have caught this one after it was forced out by a stronger challenger—"

That did it. Infernus snarled, furious at that unintended slight, and his eyes flashed blue.

Flame exploded violently from his cannon, swirling and coalescing and recirculating through psychic manipulation until it was a white-hot blade of humming plasma.

Agatha perked up. Her shadow grew eyes as a toxic miasma took shape around the girl's form.

Sammy gaped.

"We can talk later," Ash said easily, meaning that in more ways than one, and pointed at Charmeleon. "But I think it's time to get started."

Sammy lit up. "Absolutely! Charmeleon—"

A glance told Ash that Charmeleon was far from weak. He was experienced, lightly battle-scarred, and powerfully muscled. The potency of his flame was high—the moment battle was joined he raised his crimson head and spat a plume of blue flame even as he readied himself to charge and take on Infernus physically, recognizing that claw and fang would serve him better than fire.

Charmeleon and his eager young trainer had been at it for around as long as Ash had, though they'd obviously put off evolution for a time. He was dangerous, no doubt Gym Leader-level at a minimum, and the drums of battle beat fervently in his mind. Based on old stories mentioned by Professor Oak, they'd made it to the Top 32 of the Indigo Conference their first year.

Ash could feel the joy in Charmeleon's heart as his eyes set against Infernus' blazing Plasma Blade.

But alas for Sammy and Charmeleon, Infernus was a Master. The gulf between them was far larger than that between Charmeleon and a newborn Charmander.

And Infernus had little patience, eager to crush the challenger whose future self he had looked up to for over a year. Infernus leapt at Charmeleon, met the slashing fangs with a mighty kick, and sent the lesser fire-type sprawling on the forest floor.

Sammy shouted. "Charmeleon—"

Charmeleon's tail whipped back and would have burned most, but it might well have actually cooled Infernus' molten flesh off. He landed heavily upon the forest floor, setting small flames all about him, and twisted to snap at Infernus.

The reptile's jaw snapped shut as the ferocious hum of Plasma Blade set to his red neck.

"Our point," Ash said, still kicking himself a little for his mistake releasing Infernus. Things were happening too fast, and the stupid idea that he'd traveled back in time (probably forty years or so given Sammy's age) was still throwing him for a loop.

But Infernus would be a giant red flag to anyone who met him. They'd have to be careful about who met the Magmortar. As Sammy said, the Magmarizer that allowed most trained Magmar to evolve hadn't even been invented yet. Magmortar were infamous for their rarity in these times.

And their temperament, of course.

They didn't want to draw too much attention to themselves. An unknown trainer of Ash's strength would draw too many eyes. He only had to remember the reactions of Wallace and the Ever Grande League when Zinnia had made her appearance…although to be fair, Ash had no intentions of assassinating any League officials. Let alone kids.

At least Oz would be more permissible. While Electirizer hadn't been invented as an evolutionary catalyst either at this point—and Ash desperately needed to figure out what year it was in the most unobtrusive way possible—the conditions and resources necessary for a Magmar to evolve in the depths of a volcanic chamber were far rarer than what an Electabuzz needed to undertake their metamorphosis.

So unfortunately Infernus would have to be used sparingly. Ash would have to find a way to keep Sammy's mouth shut about his friend as well, although right now too many half-formulated plans were spinning around in a mess of confusion for him to figure out where to start.

"Incredible," Sammy murmured as Charmeleon trudged back to his trainer's side, fierce eyes locked upon Infernus, who smirked back and waved the Plasma Blade tauntingly. "What is that technique? I've never seen anything like it! It's psychic-based, clearly. Compression and acceleration of your Magmortar's flame…"

"I'll tell you about it later," Ash said. That seemed to be a running theme today. But he had to admit there was something satisfying about the sheer awe in Sammy and Charmeleon's eyes. Normally Ash was a little uncomfortable with his fame, but this was something else entirely! "Did you want to keep this going?"

Sammy shook his head fervently, though Charmeleon looked rearing to jump back into it. "I'm afraid that I don't think we'll pose you a challenge, Ash. We'll take a rain check. We can only grow one day at a time, after all!"

Ash's smile faded a hint.

"Perhaps Aggie would be up for a scrap," Sammy suggested once he picked up on Ash's disappointment. "She's always hankering for a fight. You know, just last month we faced Leader Pryce in Mahogany and she—"

"Shut up, Sammy. That was a fluke and you know it. I should have won!" Agatha groused as she stalked forward and jabbed her walking stick into Ash's chest. It wasn't a cane, but Infernus' Plasma Blade blazed brighter as a warning. Ash just stared at her, amazed by this strange young version of Agatha with an unlined face, soft golden curls, and a softness to her that had been scraped away over the years. It was weird. "What're you looking at?" She flipped her hair dramatically with her free hand. "See something you like?"

"Uh, no," Ash coughed as Infernus snorted. Agatha poked at him again only for Ash to catch the walking stick in his grip and shake his head. "Stop."

"You're weird," Agatha decided, peering at Ash like most would a bomb. "Sammy, go take a walk. I need to have a chat with this weirdo."

Sammy frowned, scratching at the back of his head. "But—"

"I saw some weird species of flower about a hundred feet that way," Agatha cut him off, pointing west with her walking stick. "Three red petals. I haven't seen it in your sketchbook yet, so go check it out and catalogue it or whatever it is you do."

The prospect of some new species seemed to enthrall Sammy, but he still hesitated, glancing worriedly between Ash and Agatha.

Agatha sighed. "If you give us five minutes I'll let you take a sample of my blood to look at under your microscope again."

Ash's eyebrows rose. Sammy kept a microscope on him? Trainers carried all sorts of weird things with storage compartment technology, but that was the first he'd ever heard of that.

That seemed enough to seal the deal. Sammy perked up immediately (while Charmeleon groaned, recognizing that the battle was truly lost) and nodded eagerly. "Okay! Just five minutes, though. And I get to take the sample! You're not short changing me this time, got it?"

"Got it."

Sammy fled at that, tugging Charmeleon's clawed hand as he raced off in the direction Agatha sent him. Her shadow darkened with the two gone. But before Agatha could whirl around at Ash and ask whatever questions she had, Ash spoke up.

"He has a microscope?"

"I wish it was just a microscope," Agatha said, scowling, but didn't elaborate. Her heterochromatic eyes flashed. "What are you?"

"Ash."

"That's not helping!" Agatha hissed, ignoring Infernus' glare as she took a step closer to Ash. He felt the Distortion which permeated her every tissue boil with her discomfort, stirring into a haze of not-light which spilled from her skin. "When I look at you…"

"What do you see?" Ash asked, genuinely curious. He knew Agatha could see more than most by dint of her unique nature, but she'd been less than forthcoming with details. That might as well have described her whole personality, honestly. Unless those details involved verbally tearing someone a new orifice.

Her shadow shuddered. Ash wondered if this was the same future Gengar who would so delicately assist its trainer when she was old and withering away.

That thought left his stomach in a knot, digging the hole inside a little deeper.

"It doesn't matter," Agatha said quietly. Ash bit back a sigh. "All I know is that you're not human. Not like us. You're a monster."

Ash nearly laughed at that. "Says the—" he snapped his mouth shut, realizing that this young mirror of Agatha might not appreciate the grim humor, then shook his head. "I'm not a monster. I'm as human as you are"

"Don't pretend to be human," Agatha said. Her eyes flashed red. "You can't hide from me."

"I don't need to hide from you," Ash said honestly, nodding towards Infernus. The heat pouring from his friend redoubled as his skin burned white. "But let's say I am a monster. What are you going to do about it?"

One of Agatha's hands went to the row of Pokéballs on her belt but she thought better of it.

"I'm no danger to either of you," Ash said. Infernus snorted, which earned him a frown from Ash. "And neither are any of my friends. I promise you that. But maybe I can help you out. I'd rather not travel alone."

"You want to travel with us? Why?" Agatha's eyebrows rose as she scoffed and glanced at Infernus and the blazing heat pouring off of him. "It's not like you need the protection."

"It gets lonely out there on the road," Ash lied through his teeth. "Besides, I'm not too familiar with the area."

"No wonder you ended up passed out on an old shrine," Agatha replied, rolling her eyes. "But all offense intended—"

Ash didn't even bother asking if she meant 'no offense'.

"—you're some weirdo who feels like the end of the world. And that weirdo's walking around with a freakishly strong Magmortar of all things that looks like it wants to burn the forest down," Agatha continued. Infernus nodded sagely and spat a little plume of hot fire to agree with her point. "I guess the better question is why would we want to travel with you?"

"...I guess you have a point," Ash said slowly. "Well, your friend probably wants to study Infernus."

Infernus mimed retching.

"Not good enough. Sammy would study a rampaging Hydreigon if he could. Or stick his hand into a fire just to see how it felt. That doesn't make it a good idea."

"I could help you train," Ash pointed out. "You two are good, no doubt. Conference-level, right? But that means you're slowing down. I could offer some help, see if we can't push you through any plateaus."

Her shadow's eyes locked onto Ash. Agatha hummed. "Better."

Inspiration struck as those mismatched eyes bored a hole into him.

"You're a ghost specialist, right?"

"Duh."

"What if I show you a ghost you've never seen before?" Ash offered. "Something you'll probably never see again. Not for a long, long time."

"I'm a Hashimoto," Agatha drawled. "My clan has poured through crypts the world over looking for new ghosts. Our ancestors have plumbed the depths of Coronet and risen to the top of Mt. Pyre. Do you really think you have something new?"

Ash smiled and tapped Lotus' Ultra Ball.

"Only one way to find out."

That sealed it.

XX

"Oh! That doesn't ordinarily happen. Curious!" Sammy sounded all too intrigued as Abra was released from her Pokéball, seized, and fell back with a shuddering wheeze. Ash looked away and pretended like he had absolutely nothing to do with it. "She must be feeling under the weather. Or perhaps she detected the lingering aftershocks of your Weavile's attacks."

"Yeah," Ash said unconvincingly. "That must be it."

Agatha's nose wrinkled as she stared suspiciously at him.

But at least this most recent battle earned Ash a bit of reprieve, he thought as he peered around at the hard-packed battleground which had been rent asunder by Sammy and Agatha's teams as they hurled themselves at Dazed and Weavile, who tore them to shreds despite taking several blows in the process.

He would be the first to admit that their teamwork was commendable. While Agatha's flickering ghosts poked and prodded, cursing and bleeding living shadow into the world to contest Weavile's own mastery, Sammy's team worked like a well-oiled machine.

Ivysaur, a fresh-faced young soul with kind eyes and a magnificent flower upon his back, layered debilitating technique after debilitating technique upon Ash's teammates to slow and force them back, opening the duo up to attack by Agatha's specters or Growlithe and Tauros' unbridled aggression. Blastoise constantly pressured Dazed's shields with high-pressure jets of water which were specially crafted to pierce psychic defenses.

None of their burgeoning efforts stopped Ash's team from their own rampage, but it was commendable nonetheless. Ash saw the seeds of greatness within them.

While Agatha still regarded Ash with a (healthy) dose of suspicion, she at least respected his strength enough to give him a little more leniency. There was a glimmer in her mismatched eyes, a familiar hunger for power—freedom—that Ash knew all too well.

She wished to break her own chains.

She wished to be her own master.

She wished to command her own destiny.

Ash glanced away from her with a grimace.

He knew how this story ended.

"Your teams are strong," Ash offered as Weavile came loping up to Ash to leap upon his shoulders, a fair bit heavier than he was as a light little Sneasel. He grinned at his friend and scratched behind his ears as they both surveyed the broken teams of their new travel partners. "You must've made waves in the Conference."

Ash wasn't one to flatter. Sammy and Agatha were brilliant trainers, creative and possessing the right mix of aggression and caution (although Agatha certainly favored the former) to achieve the heights that Ash knew awaited them.

Could he change their fates? Ash couldn't help but wonder that, yet caution bound him in chains.

What would happen if he drew upon Fire to sear the corruption from Agatha's tissues? Ash doubted he could actually pull it off given how enmeshed Agatha was with Distortion—entwined with the foul energy since the day of her birth—but it left his imagination spinning.

And what of Sammy? Could Ash warn him of Giovanni, of the doom that awaited his family? Or would Ash wink out of existence the moment he tried?

He thought through it a little longer but couldn't reach any firm conclusions without tying his brain into knots. Too many unknowns, too much uncertainty. Visions of the adamant stream left his eyes aching and his neurons straining but even that didn't offer much insight into the mess he'd stumbled into.

Ash swore he heard the forest rustle as if laughing at him.

"We did our part," Agatha said, bringing him back to their conversation. She scowled at Sammy and jabbed her walking stick at him. "Someone got lucky and made it to the Top 32. That someone didn't have to face the dark specialist who won the whole thing in the Top 64."

"Funny how that happens," Ash said mildly, recalling Lance's own misfortune with a counter specialist in his first Indigo Conference. Still, it was strange to realize just how much further Lance had made it than Oak, who was widely regarded as one of Indigo's greatest potential Champions amongst those in the know…if he'd bothered to take the seat, anyways.

"I told her that it was something of an anomaly, not some great conspiracy, but I don't think she believes me," Sammy stage whispered into Ash's ear. Blastoise (who'd just barely remained conscious) stuck his tongue out at Agatha. The blonde girl petulantly returned the gesture. "She's a little paranoid, I'm afraid."

"Am not!" Agatha cried. A spark of grey lightning leapt off her finger at Sammy, who yelped as he hit the deck. "It's not paranoia when my grandpa's always trying to force me back home. I bet he set that dark specialist into the Conference on purpose!"

"See what I mean?" Sammy said. Ash could only snort as Weavile rolled his eyes, deftly Dispelling another spark as it came too close. That earned a wide-eyed stare from Agatha, though she'd seen a few hints towards the technique during their fight. But Weavile was so fast that she'd probably suspected her eyes were playing tricks on her.

Sammy and Agatha bickered just as fiercely as Amelia and Jonathan as they plodded out of Ilex Forest, though Sammy was far too clever and seemed to enjoy looping Agatha into losing arguments. He wasn't the malicious sort, possessing an earnest kindness that told Ash that he'd lived a blessedly sheltered life, but he did enjoy games of wit and weaving verbal labyrinths.

Camp was simple enough to set up given their teams, although Sammy ended up even more curious about the strange devices that Ash hadn't been able to hide than his mighty team.

"They're gifts from a friend," Ash said regarding the PokéNav and Pokédex, noting that he'd need to hide them upon entering civilization. It was a bit late to keep them from Sammy. The boy was keenly observant, immediately zeroing in on the advanced technology, and his incessant questions sent a chill racing down Ash's spine as he worried about the possibilities of winking out of existence. "Confidential, sorry. I don't want to break my NDA."

"Aww," Sammy sighed, but seemed to understand. He raised a finger. "It's important to honor our agreements, of course! How would society work if all parties involved didn't hold to their social contracts? Simple madness!"

"Right," Ash said. "Social contracts. Got to follow them."

Sammy nodded sagely even as Agatha's ghosts erected their tents. Storage compartments seemed to be much more expensive in this time given the recency of the technology, so Sammy and Agatha were forced to split one. As he watched them eagerly materialize a dozen different objects in the blink of an eye (including a microscope which Sammy cheered upon seeing) Ash was forced to consider once again the possibility that this bizarre experience was actually real.

A part of him wanted to reject it, but the simple fact of the matter was that Ash had experienced some truly strange things. He'd grown attuned to the presence of the natural world. And something about this felt…different.

Perhaps it was the blessed absence of the ever present cold azure flame in the back of his head.

What bothered Ash most was how empty he felt without that accursed presence riding his coattails. How lonely. The Concepts stayed within him, threaded through his very being, and even the flame retained some spark…but the source had not yet been born.

Ash felt the sickly feeling that Mewtwo would seek him out through time in an instant if the opportunity arose. If he drew upon that azure might for even a moment and fostered that spark into something greater…

Such a disaster would never have the opportunity to strike. Ash would never sacrifice a rare opportunity for peace. For freedom from the invisible guillotine hanging over his head, waiting idly for the merest hint of insubordination or unflattering thoughts to drop and stop his heart, or shred his mind, or unmake his very body.

Mewtwo hadn't seemed especially eager to make threats recently—had even been helpful in regards to Silver, though every fiber of Ash's being spat at the thought—but Ash would never forget.

Mewtwo had taken root in his very soul.

Who wouldn't celebrate that corruption vanishing at its very source?

Even with that in mind, however, Ash's thoughts kept circling back to a single central point: what the hell had Professor Oak sent him into? The old man had been too uncharacteristically giddy for this bizarre adventure to be anything but intentional.

That was all that kept Ash from screaming into the sky like a madman. Professor Oak wouldn't send him into harm, Ash knew, and he repeated that again and again in his twisted mind like a mantra.

"I would never ask you to violate your NDA, but could you give me just a small, tiny, miniscule hint as to who designed that fascinating device?" Sammy leaned close to Ash with giant eyes. The effect was a little ruined by the fact that those big, shining eyes were locked fervently upon the Pokédex. "Its aesthetics are rather pleasing! I would adore the chance to contact its creator."

"It would probably be a rather educational experience for the both of you," Ash said drily as he imagined dragging this young Oak to meet his future self. No doubt their conversations would fly far above Ash's head, even if Professor Oak had learned just how limited most people were relative to himself over the past few decades.

Not everyone could be a genius, after all. That would defeat the point.

"But no," Ash continued for his own sanity. "Afraid not."

Sammy wilted.

"Good," Agatha said tersely as she helped one of her ghosts hammer a peg into the hard earth. Her golden curls bounced furiously with every motion. "You need to focus more on training, Sammy. What's all that tinkering going to do for you? Focus on real power."

That tinkering would accomplish quite a bit for Samuel Oak, Ash thought, but he wouldn't be the one to say it.

"What kind of projects are you playing with?" Ash asked instead, eager to direct Sammy's racing mind in a new direction.

"Oh!" Sammy's eyes lit up at the prospect of someone actually interested in his research. For all Ash had done it to deflect suspicion, he couldn't help but smile at the sheer enthusiasm radiating off his new friend. Old friend? Ash hated time travel. "You'd really like to know?"

"Of course."

"Well, I finished a few recent projects regarding efficiency difficulties in storage compartment technology—I experimented on our own, which was a very expensive delight!—but recently I've been toying with replicating Pokéball using apricorns. It's an established technology, but it's been quite interesting attempting to reverse engineer the devices from scratch! Rather educational, certainly. I'm hoping to discuss the craft with the artisans still practicing in Azalea. Parts are difficult to acquire, naturally, but Agatha has proven quite resourceful in finding what I need—"

"I steal them," Agatha said flatly. "Rather, Haunter steals them."

"You do not!" Sammy cried. "Stop trying to sound all dark and mysterious in front of Ash. I saw you haggling with a vendor in the last city we visited—"

Agatha stomped the earth, turning away from her tent. "I did not! That was just a distraction," she blustered. "Tell them, Haunter!"

Purple fog rose up from Agatha's shadow to solidify into a large Haunter. Its hands splayed up in something like a surrender before it fluted back into the darkness around Agatha. It was careful to do so out of her view.

"See?" Agatha placed her hands on her hips. "It's not my fault you can't tell when I'm running a ploy."

"You've been complaining about how much money you've been burning on my 'stupid projects' for weeks," Sammy pointed out genially. Ash swore he saw the faintest hints of a Gary-like smirk playing on the boy's lips. Every now and then a little sign like that would pop up to convince Ash that the two were related, a brief flicker of impatience with the slowness and stupidity of others and a railing against those who lacked curiosity. "Are you—"

"Shut up!" Agatha colored. "Stupid Sammy."

"I'm objectively not!" Sammy said cheerfully. "That's rather dull for you. Would you like to try again? I love to hear what you come up with."

"Dweeb," Agatha murmured. "Dolt. Di—"

Ash coughed.

"What?" Agatha groused. "Want me to call you names too?"

"I wouldn't recommend it," Sammy warned. "Not unless you have thick skin. She has a talent for it! I think her Haunter helps."

"I've picked up on that," Ash said, just a little bemused. "Is this what you two do every night?"

Agatha shrugged. "Mostly. Except for when the genius here is nose deep in all of his textbooks. Do you even know how much of our storage space those take up?"

The technology really was in its infancy if that was still problematic, Ash noted. Matter-energy conversion had been vastly improved and made more energy efficient over the decades, partially thanks to the contributions of one Samuel Oak.

"Education is important," Sammy defended as a few of the aforementioned textbooks materialized in a rather intimidating stack right next to him. Ash counted titles ranging from astronomy to engineering to advanced physics to biochemistry—if it peered into some deeper aspect of the world it seemed like fair game for Sammy. Quite a few scientific journals with articles more complex than Ash could pick out numbered amongst them as well.

"It's the foundation of our society, and one of my favorite parts of our journey has been having so much free time for reading!" Sammy continued brightly, already leafing fondly through a page of math with more letters than numbers. "It's so nice not having to hold myself back anymore."

Most trainers continued their education on the road—many trainers knew that they'd eventually leave the journey behind to work with their teammates on other career paths, while most of the good trainers had a passion for learning and bettering themselves regardless—but it seemed like Sammy took it to an entirely new level.

No surprise there.

Ash released his own team as the camp solidified and (with Dazed's help) subtly caught them up on the situation. Nidoking clung close to him given the bizarre situation they'd found themselves in and stared intently at Sammy as the smiling boy dissected a Pokéball, took various notes in a messy scrawl, and reassembled the device again and again.

Sammy seemed intent upon understanding how even the most minute aspects of the Pokéball worked and didn't appear as if he'd stop anytime soon, but even he felt the wide-eyed stares of Ash's team upon him.

Bruiser and Seeker were quick to introduce themselves to Sammy and some of Agatha's teammates, the musclebound Machamp and chattering Golbat soon making themselves at home in the camp alongside a gurgling Tangrowth and smiling Oz, and it wasn't long before the teams began mingling. Seeker in particular seemed to enjoy herself as she chittered animatedly with Agatha's own Crobat.

Even Dazed left Ash's side to attend to Abra, helping to acclimate the young psychic to Ash's presence.

Plume stayed just long enough to garner a sufficient stock of admiration from Sammy's teammates before taking off in a rush of wind, eager to explore the lands she knew so well from the future…and to scout out the nearby areas for Ash.

He felt safe with Sammy and Agatha, but that didn't stop him from retaining a bit of paranoia as he acclimated to a time in which they did not belong. Any sight of League agents and they would need to flee—Ash wouldn't put it past the League psychics to have detected some sort of flux in the area, although he doubted they'd have the expertise at this point to know exactly what occurred.

Better safe than sorry.

Ash was confident in his team's ability to defend themselves, but he didn't want to fight the League in any capacity, especially not when they'd need all their strength in a decade's time.

He expected they could tangle well enough with most Elite Four of this time, though not all—enough technology such as primitive TMs had emerged to reach similar heights to modern (well, future) training, but continuous innovations in medicine and other fields let the trainers of Ash's day push themselves harder.

But Ash had been called a Master and his teammates were deserving of the title. They were a force to be reckoned with. The Drake of this time would still chew Ash up and spit him out. Champion Uther would as well, although the Normal Master was a far cry from Lance even at his peak. He might even run into old Bisento Wataru. Lance had told Ash that she'd taken to traveling Indigo after being dethroned by Uther.

No, Ash would be watchful. And if need be he would fly away on Plume's back to somewhere the League couldn't follow—the Southern Continent, most likely, perhaps Alola's sandy beaches or the windswept dunes of Orre.

His skin tingled at the thought of going even further, of pushing into the depths of the continent and exploring places only barely charted by daring explorers and the occasional satellite images that managed to be gleaned before some wild pokémon decided to destroy them.

Something told him that the shrine would be what took him back to his own time, but Ash wanted to explore a bit first. Professor Oak clearly thought he would be here for a while. If need be, Ash supposed he could always try to find a way to break the seal he'd placed upon the Unown locket…

Nidoking remained glued to Ash's side as those thoughts passed through his trainer's head. His black eyes flitted constantly between Sammy, paranoid Agatha (who glared right back), and their teammates.

"Salutations!" Sammy approached slowly, raising his hands to Nidoking to show that he wasn't a threat. Agatha watched intently from a few dozen yards away as she began working with her ghosts—they hovered around her like a dark cloud, young and weak compared to what they would become, yet dangerous nonetheless. "It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Sammy Oak!"

Nidoking just stared unblinkingly at him.

Sammy took a subtle step back as Ivysaur plodded over, both a little nervous at the sheer intensity burning in Nidoking's black eyes.

This was the man—boy—who would one day bring Ash and Nidoking together, after all. And now he was just as young as they were. A little acorn, Ash thought with a smile.

"I'm sorry if we've offended you somehow!" Sammy rested a hand on Ivysaur's head, voice hesitant.

Ash shook his head alongside Nidoking, their motions utterly in sync. "It's nothing bad," Ash explained. "Like I said, you remind us of someone. It's just a little weird, that's all."

"I see!" Sammy brightened, accepting the words without an ounce of hesitation. Ash had the strange feeling that Agatha spent half her time keeping people from taking advantage of Sammy's kind heart. He might be brilliant, but he was too open. Too trusting.

Ash hated that Sammy would have to temper that with worldly experience one day. But he'd do his part to preserve that innocence for even one day longer.

"Don't let us distract you from your project," Ash said, nodding towards the half-finished Pokéball that Sammy had left on a small foldable desk. "We're fine on our own for a bit if you're busy."

"Oh no! That would make me a terrible host," Sammy replied with a gasp. "I just needed to check a few things. It's rather impressive that you were allowed to exceed the six pokémon limit, you know! How did you get approval? Agatha's been complaining about it for ages."

"It's a stupid rule!" Agatha cried from a distance, somehow overhearing their conversation. Ash suspected that one of her ghosts was listening in for her. "They're holding me back!"

"Most trainers have to feed their teams," Sammy pointed out. "It's a reasonable limit."

Agatha shook her fist at him, sniffed petulantly, and went back to training. Weavile watched her with slit eyes, clearly fascinated as she began to run drills. She might end up with a surprise participant if Weavile wasn't able to find something else to amuse himself.

Sammy's eyes flitted down to Ash's PokéNav and Pokédex again, still fascinated by the devices, and Ash cursed himself for not hiding them the second he realized the absurd situation that Professor Oak had sent him into.

"I got my first extension when I hatched Weavile," Ash said in an attempt to distract Sammy from the futuristic tech. He doubted it would work but it was worth a try. "Afterwards I did some jobs for the League and earned a full limit release."

"Really?" Sammy's brown eyebrows rose up sharply and Ash had the sickening feeling he'd just made quite the mistake. "I realize you're strong but that's most impressive! They don't usually offer jobs to unaffiliated trainers."

"Right place in the right time, I guess," Ash said hastily. "Or the opposite way around, depending on your perspective."

Sammy chuckled while Agatha's mismatched stare might as well have been a laser beam. Ash would just have to assume that she'd turn his every word over a dozen times looking for holes. He'd bought a bit of allowance with the promise to show her Lotus but that would only go so far.

Ash knew that he wasn't a good enough liar to hide from her cunning mind. Agatha might still be a soft child compared to the Revenant Crone who had seen her life cut decades short but any ghost specialist was going to be sharper than most. Every inconsistency was another red flag to her.

Agatha might not be the genius of the pair but she was still far smarter than most. Smart enough to keep up with Sammy, and while Ash only knew the barest hints of her past, he knew enough from their time in Lavender Town that Agatha never had the chance to learn real trust. Not until she bonded to her partners. Not until she met Sammy.

But as she and a few of her specters glared at him from afar, Ash realized that she was protective of Sammy. It was surreal to imagine given their vitriolic relationship during Ash's time and it made him want to throw his head back and laugh, laugh, laugh.

Then he remembered how it all ended and that wild urge died a quick and painful death.

"It's impressive nonetheless!" Sammy added with his usual cheer as he smiled at Ash. Ivysaur rumbled as well, playfully poking at Tangrowth's vines with a few of his own as Tangrowth waddled over. It wasn't long before they clumsily chased each other around the campsite, laughing and rumbling and trying to rope all they could into their game of tag. "I'm positively shocked that I haven't heard of you before! It's plain as day that you're a powerful trainer, Ash. Have you ever competed in a Conference?"

Ash winced. That was the sort of blunt question he couldn't dance around.

"Once," Ash said, hesitating. "I got a little busy after that."

Sammy nodded along as he idly played with the device in his hand but blessedly didn't inquire further. Perhaps he sensed Ash's reticence—he'd have to spend some time tonight concocting a cover story, Ash decided.

An adventure into Coronet, maybe? Strange things happened there, as everyone well knew. That might offer Agatha and Sammy a glimpse into the truth without having to dive into a complete web of deception.

But the more lies he told the more he'd have to hide. Ash already knew there were some that he simply couldn't meet. Blaine, for one. Sammy was naive enough to be misdirected and gentle enough not to push but Ash knew Blaine well.

A vague hazy mess of answers would just inspire the rude Fire Master to push further. Ash wasn't actually sure if Blaine was in the Elite Four yet but he was surely already a rising star in the Indigo League.

There was no way a man with Blaine's ruthless intelligence, influence, and intimate familiarity with technological advances wouldn't pick up on Ash's alienness in an instant.

Could he defeat this younger Blaine? Ash suspected he could, but that was no reason for recklessness. Infernus alone would nullify many of a Fire Master's advantages, and Ash had several techniques and friends that Blaine couldn't possibly plan for.

…Ash had to admit this was a dangerous chain of thoughts. What if he did throw caution to the wind? He could track down people he knew, legendary trainers who had faded away by Ash's time, and challenge them. He could test their strength for himself!

But such would attract the attention of the League. As much of a comfort as the Family was in his own time, they were his biggest threat now. Who knew what would happen if they realized they had a strange trainer whose teammates could challenge Masters without any documentation or previous record.

What would happen if he was captured and interrogated? Psychics couldn't touch him but that might be a negative here.

Ash would rather not think of it. But that was easier said than done as a little paranoia infested his mind and spun scenario after scenario in which he would have to tear his way through a cadre of League forces, contesting against those same renowned trainers he'd only seen in recordings—

Crap, now he was actually looking forward to it!

Damn it.

Needless to say, Ash had to proceed with a delicate touch. He trusted Professor Oak not to send him into danger, but it was better safe than sorry. Presumably Ash could find a way back through the shrine. The possibility of being trapped here gnawed at him, but Ash forced himself to breathe.

And once more the most damning of all was the silence in his mind.

It was his own once again. The icy fire of Mewtwo's influence was nowhere to be seen, severed by time. And yet…

Ash frowned as he felt an infinitesimal strand of awareness tied to him, a connection that transcended space and time alike. It was dull, lifeless, a mere representation of the connection they held, but perhaps if all else failed that might be his way home.

He'd search to the ends of the earth before begging Mewtwo for a ride home, though.

No, Ash would relax. He would breathe. He would embrace the peace that Professor Oak had offered him.

As bizarre as this situation was, Ash had to admit it was an effective one.

There was no earthly distance that Ash could have put between himself and the Concepts shuddering to life from their long, aching slumber. Time, on the other hand…

Something about the sheer absurdity of this entire bizarre adventure brought a smile to Ash's lips. The campfire stirred with the brief surge of joy, the flames licking higher and higher, and Ash pretended not to notice the Haunter that Agatha had put up to spy on him recoiling.

It reminded Ash that not all would be blind to his arrival.

Discrete as his intentions might be, it was almost certain that those sensitive to the underpinnings of reality would detect the new presence in their midst. Just look at poor Abra—she was strong enough, but the weight of his being was just too much for the unprepared.

Ash wouldn't be surprised if he began to see smatterings of news reports going off about a surge of psychics foaming at the mouth over the next few days. At least Absol weren't native to Indigo. No doubt Sammy and Agatha would pick up on it swiftly.

Part of Ash wondered if he should just get on Plume's back and embrace their unity as a prelude to singing their presence across the entire world. If they covered enough ground and all of Indigo felt his effects then it would be that much harder to track them down and narrow it down to a single pocket.

He'd feel a little guilty about all of the migraines he'd leave in his wake, but that was a sacrifice that Ash would be willing to make if it muddied the waters enough to avoid a League task force coming after him.

…Ash tried his best to ignore the quickening of his heart. Facing down a determined cadre of the League's best just sounded like so much fun!

Who would they send, Ash wondered? He couldn't recall all of the Elite Four members of this era besides Blaine, but he knew that they had been a long-serving bunch of experienced Masters.

Oh, to test his mettle against theirs…

Ultimately decides to rest and put the rest of his planning off until tomorrow.

Ash couldn't escape the weight of the memories gnawing at his mind, but there was a lightness to him as he engaged Sammy in easy conversation while their teams mingled. A chance to focus entirely on processing rather than being buried under the continual weight of what was to come.

Professor Oak set him free.

They were going to make the absolute most of it.

XX

Ash soon found that he adored traveling with Sammy and Agatha. Things took an interesting turn when they exited Ilex Forest's outskirts and began to run into a more frequent supply of trainers.

He was content to let Sammy and Agatha crush the majority of the trainers. Neither were even close to Master yet, although Ash hoped his lessons and the training he offered would help them break the plateau experienced by trainers of their caliber. They far exceeded almost every single challenger they encountered.

Quite a few actually recognized Sammy and Agatha, both of whom had made quite the name for themselves in their prior Conference. Ash was just a random unknown in comparison which was a very appreciated change of pace.

While he was happy to spar with his new friends (although Agatha would shout him down if he described her as such) Ash wasn't willing to accept challenges from random trainers very often. Not unless they seemed like a really good fight.

Even the Pokéballs on his belt were enough to attract curious eyes. He'd started keeping a cover over them just to prevent any more attention from being garnered than absolutely necessary. Discretion was his greatest asset in this time.

"You did well!" Sammy said, eagerly shaking a rookie boy's hand and accepting his winnings even as Charmeleon danced above the unconscious body of his defeated foe. The reptile's burning tail sent cinders crackling all over the place as he blasted a great plume of flame into the air in victory. "Keep at it, won't you? I was very impressed with your Rapidash. The incorporation of psychic techniques like Agility and Hypnosis into your battle style is skillful. I hope to face you again!"

"You too!" The shaken boy perked up at the praise, though he still seemed astounded at just how handily Charmeleon had thrashed him. Whatever hints of annoyance presented themselves at the unsolicited advice soon faded. "I can't believe you beat me so easily, though."

Ash stepped forward. "Us," he corrected the boy, who frowned at him. "You and Rapidash are a team. Keep seeing yourself as the center of the battle and you're never going to improve."

The boy gaped.

Haunter flitted out from Agatha's shadow as she smiled beatifically at the poor rookie. "Try changing that attitude. If you're the only one that matters on the battlefield then maybe Haunter could take a crack at you. We've been wanting to test out a few new techniques on a target that won't be too hard to hit."

"I'm good!" The boy squeaked before running off.

Sammy frowned. "I don't think he meant it that way," he said to Ash and Agatha, shaking his head as the beaten rookie recalled his unconscious Rapidash and scurried down the beaten path towards Azalea. "He has potential."

"And maybe now he'll meet it," Agatha sniffed. "You're too soft, Sammy. Always inflating their egos like an overblown balloon."

"Only because I know you're there to pop them if they get too big!" Sammy laughed. "Love doesn't always have to be tough, Aggie."

She went silent at that.

Watching him, Ash understood why Agatha held such respect for the young man even in her dusken days. Sammy was like the sun—a bit of a cheery dork, but powerful and always learning and shining brilliantly with his optimism.

Was this what Gary might have become if things had been different?

A terrifying thought, Friend-Trainer.

Ash snorted as Dazed's thoughts entangled within his own but couldn't push the thought from his mind. He was tormented by the incessant whisper asking him if things could be different.

What if all it took was a few words to warn Sammy of what was to come? If Sammy believed Ash at all, that was.

It gnawed at Ash.

Do not grasp at dreams, Friend-Trainer. You shared your perception of the Adamant with me. Does it bend?

"No," Ash whispered below his breath as Sammy warmly congratulated Charmeleon and they continued down the path. Agatha's heterochromatic eyes flicked toward him for just an instant, staring at him as if he were a particularly perplexing problem to be solved. "Never."

What is was. What was is. Perhaps it is more malleable than we think. But will you chance that?

Never. Not if it put all he knew at risk. Perhaps it was selfish of Ash.

I would say cautious.

Agatha watched Ash and Dazed for their entire discussion, no doubt wishing she could eavesdrop on mental conversations as well as she could verbal. She didn't trust him as far as she could throw him…and given her noodly arms, that wasn't far at all.

She rarely spared words for Ash, more than content to trade blows with Sammy or whisper strange words to her shadow instead.

But Agatha wasn't the only one who stared at Ash. He was well-aware of Charmeleon's fervent gaze upon him…or, rather, the covered Pokéball which held Infernus. Charmeleon was obsessed with Infernus, nearly as much as Infernus was with challenging the future Charizard.

For his part, Infernus was only too happy to beat the fire-type senseless, begrudgingly respecting Charmeleon for his guts and willingness to challenge a vastly superior foe again and again, learning all he could from the beatings.

After a while Ash released Nidoking, who ended up attracting quite a few challengers thanks to the sheer magnificence of his presence. While Ash turned down most, every now and then Nidoking would nod and they'd step off the road for a spar.

They didn't dare draw upon the Moon Stone for random battles, though they still studied its mysteries together each night, but the sheer skill and deadly power of Nidoking's techniques and powerful body was more than sufficient.

He'd come a long way in blending his skills together—the earth was Nidoking's to command, twisting and collapsing beneath his foes, and his psychic abilities allowed him to nudge the battle in his favor and guide his Sludge Bombs with unerring accuracy.

Nidoking's Distortion sense was strong enough to allow him to touch on a weak version of Weavile's Dispel (although Agatha picked up on the skill and would have her Haunter spike its powers just to distract him) and he learned to use his burgeoning psychic abilities to enhance his elemental techniques, though true Elemental Synthesis was a long way away.

Enormous strength flowed through him at critical moments thanks to Superpower. Dragons' natural resistances broke beneath his raw might and the Dragon Pulse he had honed in the shadow of the Sky Pillar.

He was a true monster, rarely suffering even scratches, and unfortunately Agatha proved quite suspicious.

No surprise there.

"It's amazing how we've never heard of a trainer like you," Agatha prodded at their campsite after Nidoking Dispelled a blast from a Mismagius and rent the poor ghost apart with Shadow Claw, burning its remnants with Flamethrower for good measure. "Miraculous, even. You'd think the newspapers wouldn't be able to shut up about the newest prodigy. They certainly haven't about us."

Ash stayed silent..

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were a Master."

Ash shrugged. "I keep a low profile."

That was as blatant of a lie as he'd ever told. Acting as an Elite Four trainee was not keeping a low profile by any definition, let alone everything he'd gotten up to in Hoenn. But technically he'd accomplished little to nothing in this time.

Agatha openly scoffed, peering over at Infernus who has practically created a new lava field and Plume who blasted Hyper Beams through the sky.

"You're so full of crap. Let me know when you're willing to tell the truth, why don't you?"

XX

Several days passed in that same fashion: travel towards Azalea, battle trainers, and absolutely brutalize Sammy and Agatha's teams during their camping time. Growth was quick, thankfully, although they were never quite able to adapt to the sheer overwhelming presence of Ash's team.

But amidst all that they found themselves getting up to dumb fun. Agatha was cynical even this young but she was still a child, and Sammy was all too eager to play and train and explore.

He was also just as competitive as his future grandson. That was how Ash and Sammy ended up in a vicious competition of who could climb an old sycamore the fastest—Ash had the lead, what with being in better shape, but Sammy's frustratingly brilliant mind charted out the fastest course possible a bit quicker than Ash.

Ash was no slouch but Sammy was just impossible. But brilliance only took one so far. Determination, ability, and ruthless willingness to achieve victory did the rest…and while Ash was also no slouch in that department, Agatha decided to cheat and stepped from the base of the old sycamore to the very top branch in a rush of shadow.

The smug smirk on her face earned a scowl from Sammy and Ash alike.

"You cheated!" Sammy cried, slipping from the branches to land in a dirty heap at the bottom.

"I won," Agatha corrected, sitting primly amongst the sycamore's canopy, raking a hand through her golden curls. "Learn the difference."

"You—!"

Ash just chuckled as he climbed up to the top regardless, Nidoking and Tangrowth cheering him on below while Weavile clambered up beside him. He heard the distant roll of thunder as Oz trained Sammy's team alongside Torrent and Plume.

Agatha shifted away as he settled into the boughs and waved down at Sammy.

"Come on down!" Sammy still sounded disgruntled. "Azalea's just a day away. We need to hurry! I hear there's a glut of challengers showing up for Leader Hibiki thanks to the bug catching contest. I don't want to get caught in the rush!"

"Fine," Agatha sighed, twisting into not-shadow as she flitted down to the base next to Sammy, looking pleased at his wide eyes. "Ah, you should see the look on your face!"

"You need to stop that," Sammy lectured as the shadows crawled away from Agatha. "You know that's bad for you! I'll be the first to admit that there's an unfortunate dearth of material related to Distortion-induced degeneration, but you've mentioned your clan—"

Agatha poked at Sammy with her walking stick. "I'll be fine," she dismissed his worries with hardly a care even as Ash's stomach sank. "None of that stuff's supposed to happen until you're old. That's like, forever away."

Sammy bit his lip even as Ash clambered back down.

"You should be careful," Ash pressed, remembering just how awfully frail Agatha had been when he last met her in Lavender Town. Paper thin and so wispy that a light breeze might have carried her away… "It'll catch up with you sooner than you expect."

"And what do you know?" Agatha snapped, leaning away from Ash. Weavile hissed at her. "I'm the expert here. Your team might be freaks of nature, but I know ghosts like no one else."

Ash made to argue further—anything to make her realize that her life was so agonizingly short and that she was only shaving off more of it—but Sammy interrupted. He never liked it when Ash and Agatha argued.

He really was a gentle soul.

"We should discuss our strategies for Leader Hibiki!" Sammy said, seemingly proud of himself for finding a good tangent to drag Ash and Agatha into. "Ash, I doubt you'll have many issues, but do you have any thoughts?"

All Ash knew about Hibiki was his name and that he'd preceded Bugsy as Azalea's Gym Leader. More importantly, Ash knew that he wasn't going anywhere near an Indigo Gym Leader.

"About that…" Ash trailed off. "I'm not going into Azalea with you."

"You're not?" Sammy cried. "Don't you want to earn the badge as well? I'd love to see you in the Silver Conference this year!"

"I do plan to attend the Silver Conference," Ash said cautiously, though he made no mention of which Silver Conference. "I've loved traveling with you and I'd love to meet up afterwards but there are a few things I've been putting off. How long will you be in Azalea? I can track you down as soon as I've wrapped things up."

Agatha seemed less than pleased with Ash's ability to find them but Sammy's eyes lit up. Abra blinked into existence at his feet, shuddering as Ash set his eyes upon her. She'd grown accustomed to him somewhat but not nearly enough for her liking.

Thankfully Dazed convinced Abra not to mention what had her so unsettled.

"What do you think, Abra?" Sammy wondered, though he still seemed rather put out that Ash would be leaving soon. As much as Ash had enjoyed their time training together, it was the simple brightness radiating off Sammy that he'd miss the most. They got along well. "I doubt we'll be there more than two or three days. Afterwards we'll be heading on towards Violet City!"

"I'll find you," Ash promised. "It shouldn't take long to finish up my business."

In reality he'd just be burning time until they were done. There were a few spots that Ash was eager to check out away from his new traveling companions, sure, but he was unwilling to stray far. Paranoia still gnawed at his every other thought.

"What's this mysterious 'business' you need to attend to?" Agatha leaned in curiously, eyes open and kind in a way that made Ash distrust her immediately. She batted her eyelashes at him and Ash fought down the reflex to gag…although that would probably just make her even angrier. "If you're going to abandon your new friends then you should at least be open with us."

"Aggie!" Sammy frowned. "Stop trying to use your feminine wiles. He looks a little sick."

Agatha scowled and waved her walking stick at them, shadow bleeding off the tip. "Hey! What's your problem, huh? He should count himself lucky—"

"I'm going to the Lake of Rage," Ash answered, still mentally retching at the thought of Agatha of all people acting like that towards him even as a ploy. Nidoking and Dazed barely hid their sniggers. "We have a few techniques we need to work on that don't play nicely with others."

"How mysterious!" Agatha said mockingly, though her heterochromatic eyes glinted with interest. "Take as much time as you need, stranger. We'll make do without you."

Sammy frowned at Agatha's rudeness, although Ash found her blatant distrust more refreshing than anything else. Ash smiled pleasantly back at her and enjoyed practically hearing her teeth grinding.

Agatha didn't hate him—not when he'd shown Lotus to her (after getting the Spiritomb's permission) and all the help he'd offered—but he knew she couldn't trust the powerful stranger who'd inserted himself into their lives.

She was worried. Worried for her team, herself, and Sammy.

Ash couldn't blame her.

"I hope you're able to work things out!" Sammy said, smiling. "I've wanted to visit the Lake of Rage for ages now. Its properties as a great lake are fascinating. It holds one of the largest freshwater populations of Gyarados in the world!"

"So I've heard," Ash said, recalling his battle against the small horde of Gyarados that had lashed out against the Pallet trainers when they trained on the Lake of Rage's shores. "I'll play it safe."

Sammy beamed.

"I don't have to leave yet," Ash decided. "What do you say to one last bit of training before I go? You can run your strategies by me."

Charmeleon came charging out of the suddenly ablaze brush nearby at that point, eyes glimmering and tail thrashing, and Ash laughed as he obliged the fire-type's unspoken request.

Infernus met him with a roar.

XX

Plume dropped Ash off in a small valley cradled by great forests colored viridescent by the steady onslaught of summer.

Ash had left his own time in mid-March, deep in the bloom of spring, but the shrine had whisked him into an entirely different season. The heat was harsher than the last time Ash had visited this place but still negligible compared to Hoenn's tropical climate.

He breathed deeply of the mountain air, relishing the wild freshness. Fluffy white clouds crawled lazily above, escaping the brush of the sloping peaks of the numerous mountains which loomed above the peaceful little valley, and the clouds shone reflected in the glassy lake which rested in this place's heart.

"Just as I remembered," Ash murmured, embracing the peace of this place, and soon found himself reclining against a vast maple tree looming up on the small lake's shores. His team soon ventured out to explore the forests and rocky beaches of the valley, only Tangrowth and Nidoking remaining at his side, though he knew the rest would appear in an instant if he needed their aid. "Remember the last time we were here?"

Tangrowth gurgled cheerfully as he splashed at Nidoking, who snorted and blocked the water with a shimmering psychic shield before it could get him wet.

Ash stared out amidst the lake and the small islands which dotted it, smiling fondly as he recalled commanding the North Wind itself against Gary, Amelia, and Jonathan here. He would never forget the silly looks on their faces as they realized just what Ash had beckoned to his side.

All his warnings of the dangers of the Legends could only go so far. What better way to ensure they understood than for them to face one with their full power?

Yet Ash sombered at the simple realization that the events playing out so clearly in his memory wouldn't occur for another forty one years. Just another reminder that he was a fish out of temporal water.

But despite it all, Ash felt the echoes of the battle: the cries of the North Wind, the flashes of a Concept weaving across space-time and stretching in every direction. It was so close he could almost taste it.

The last few days had seen Ash and Plume flying all over Indigo in an effort to let their presence mask the Concepts woven into Ash. No League forces had tracked them down yet, thankfully, but Ash was always ready for a fight just in case.

It was addicting to chart the subtle changes between his own time and this strange spot they'd found themselves in. Plume had taken to it with a particular passion, eagerly charting every space she could to see the shifts in populations and the crawl of humanity from its cities.

She'd gone down to Hoenn a few times, Ash knew, though he'd warned her to be careful while she was so far away. Their usual support system just wasn't present. In the worst case it might even be turned against them.

Ash, Nidoking, and Tangrowth rested for a long time until he felt a rush of wind pass over them. Twilight had come and gone, leaving only the barest sliver of sunlight left to bathe the mountains of Mahogany.

The silver moon peeked out from behind the clouds.

"This is as good a spot as any, don't you think?" Ash shouted up at Plume, who shrieked her challenge to the world as she flitted just above the lake before leaping into the clouds with a mighty beat of her wings.

A pair of grand Pidgeot tore up from the thick mass of verdant forest below her, screeching their own cries to ward off the invader of their territory…and promptly fled when they caught sight of Plume's glory.

As they should!

They sat there together for a long while. His teammates came and went, frequently stopping by to brush against Ash or rest in companionable silence before rushing off to play and explore together once more, and Ash relished the simple peace of existing so far from his troubles.

Groudon and Kyogre were properly asleep, their worldly presences resting without interruption, and the paranoia blooming in the back of his mind was finally quiet. Ash hadn't even realized just how tightly that noose had wound, the constant fear of this time growing beyond petty earthquakes and rising tides to a proper awakening strangling him incessantly.

That little thread of Mewtwo's influence would never quite leave him, but for now it was silent. Resting blue coals that hadn't ignited into a blaze. And wouldn't if Ash had anything to say about it.

Blessed silence.

No mocking baritone threaded through his nerves. No fist ready to pummel him down. No eyes watching behind his own, robbing him of any scrap of privacy.

Ash felt light, felt like himself.

He almost even felt human.

Almost.

Tangrowth shivered in the chill of the mountain lake, edging a little closer to the fire that Nidoking lit and wrapping himself thoroughly around Ash, who chuckled as he was ensconced in a big green hug and allowed the Feather in his chest to flood with Fire, warming his friend to a more comfortable level.

But as they rested together and enjoyed the simple pleasure of each other's company, Ash felt the crisp caress of the North Wind against his skin and spirit, inquisitive at the befuddling familiarity, and smiled fondly as memories of the last time (future time) he'd visited this little lake trickled through his mind like the burbling of a small stream.

He reached into his pack almost unconsciously and felt his fingers close around the silver length of the flute, the Song woven into its existence resonating in his ears with the sound of the sea.

Ash raised it to his lips and played once again as he cuddled with Tangrowth. Nidoking's breaths eased with the peace of the melody, the rest of his team turned to listen with fond expressions, and Ash felt the Song fill him up like the steady rise of the tide.

Amidst all the worries of Groudon and Kyogre's rise, the flute remained a comfort. With his new awareness, Ash felt the true nature of the pearly instrument: a piece of Lugia in full, a lone moonlit feather the Guardian of the Sea lovingly molded into the shape its progenitor desired.

A gift, a comforting whisper, a balm upon Ash's once-tattered soul.

The flute and the oceanic Song within had been his rock again and again this past year—and how incredible it was to think that it had been nearly a year since Shamouti!—and Ash sought to honor the one who had given it to him as Ash played his notes clear and high, guided by the nature of the flute.

It wasn't the only song he could play anymore but it would always be his favorite.

Wind quickened. Clouds parted so that the moon's reflected light might bathe the valley, gleaming beautifully upon the mirror-like surface of the placid lake. The whole valley shone silver, every last stone and tree and root trimmed by the moon's lustrous glow.

Ash cast his nature far and wide, pouring himself into the world, and his lips curled into a small smile around the flute as rain trickled down from the heavens. Faint at first, then a peaceful pitter-patter, and then a proper shower—never quite harsh enough to be called a deluge, but heavy enough that Tangrowth wriggled happily as he covered Ash with his vines.

Nidoking looked a little annoyed at first as his little nest of dirt and twigs grew muddy but that sentiment was soon forgotten as the great howl of wind echoed in the distance, rushing across the lake and over and through Ash.

The rain came down harder, sweeping aside every impurity and easing the burdens which had mounted for months now, carrying stress and worries and fear away like mud swept away by a river.

Ash breathed as a new lightness filled him.

Lotus hollowed one out, draining away their hopes and fears and hates and loves and passions and pleasures.

Suicune's serenity ran deeper, easing rather than scooping away. Reminding one that ills were impermanent and that even the worst of earthly woes would pass.

And when Ash blinked next, a great Beast stood before him. Deceptively enormous despite the inhuman grace of its slender form—easily seven feet tall at the shoulder and over twice that in length—it dwarfed even Nidoking, though it moved with the ease of a creature far smaller. It was built the lightest of its siblings, lean and elegant, but power radiated from every sculpted muscle.

Suicune's great crystalline crest, shaped from endlessly flowing water composed into something near-solid, shone with a pale blue light. Pure dew dripped from its soft blue fur, refreshingly cold without the bitter edge of frost, and great rain clouds burst from the Beast's back.

Eyes like miniature suns met Ash's and for a moment he felt himself spinning away into fractals fractals fractals but breathed deep, anchoring himself to his own nature with Earth-granted fortitude, resisting the overwhelming nature of the North Wind like a tree remaining rooted stubbornly to the soil.

Yet Ash shivered as the weight of Suicune's existence passed over him with the rain, present in every gust of wind and permeating every drop of water.

Flames devouring the tower's inhabitants, extinguished.

Mortality doused, carried away by a flood of divinity.

The befouled, purified.

"We've met." Ash met the burning suns of Suicune's gaze with a soft expression. "Can't you tell?"

Suicune nodded slowly, the rain clouds billowing from its back surging with curiosity, and the cleansing downpour came down a little heavier, though it could never be described as anything but gentle.

Tangrowth gurgled, happy to see what he considered to be an old friend, and Suicune blinked bemusedly as a few seeking vines came up to pat the Beast of the North Wind's great crest—Tangrowth burbled confusedly when his vines poked right through the flowing water.

He made up for it by scratching the pointed ears hidden behind Suicune's rain cloud and booped the Beast's nose with another vine.

Nidoking groaned and psychically yanked the vines away.

Tangrowth whined, though thankfully Suicune didn't seem like the smiting type. Not in this case, anyways, although Ash supposed Suicune could have just manipulated the water in the vines to pull them away like Wallace's Milotic had if the Legend truly minded…

But those thoughts all went to the wayside as Suicune took a single step forward, carrying with it the scent of morning dew and a rush of chill wind. Ash shivered, though temperature had ceased to be an issue for him long ago.

The rain against his skin grew refreshingly cold, layering him like a living membrane, and Ash felt the Beast peer into his very nature, peeling back flesh and bone and physicality to see what lay beneath it all.

Grief. A grave wound hardly even scabbed over, marked by fire and forest green eyes.

"Wear it well. Be better than me."

"You'll protect them, won't you? Her?"

Then Suicune howled. Gusts stirred throughout the land. Clouds darkened further.

In the world, in the breeze, in the rain, Ash felt a sliver of Suicune's own muted sorrow: cherished memories of mortal days and their fiery end, the bitter blessing of becoming more, and the droplet of its old life subsumed in the sunlit tide of apotheosis.

Bitter nostalgia twisted in Ash's chest. A lost life, lost joy, lost siblings…a burnt mortal husk replaced by the North Wind and the rains which purified the tower's flames. Serenity, yes, and a subtle glee in the freedom it now embodied, but never quite forgetting the corporeal seed from which it had sprouted.

Ash and Nidoking gasped as the feelings—the vulnerability of a Legend—washed over them with the rain. Tangrowth wept and a dozen vines reached out to pet Suicune again.

Nidoking didn't stop them this time.

Neither did Suicune.

And as Suicune's own griefs brushed their skin, Ash's own were reflected in the mirror of Suicune's existence as if he were peering into the glassy lake nearby.

He saw smoke, burnt blonde hair, a ruined body. Someone who might have been a brilliant star in another life—a potential friend—left a charred husk.

He saw a kind smile and cracked spectacles. Someone who was a brilliant star, who had served the world rather than himself, cut down with a legion of old friends and a beloved granddaughter left behind.

He saw a boy with black hair and shining eyes taking one step after another down a strange road, twisted and contorted into something new as he grew greater.

So Suicune howled, Ash wept into the purifying waters touching his skin, and joined the North Wind's cries with grief wrought notes—not the Song, though its melody peeked through on occasion, but something new.

Nidoking's claws laid against Ash's skin.

Tangrowth squeezed them all tightly (even Suicune).

A little tendril of lavender fog brushed Ash's hand.

His team found him, returning from their explorations around the lake with the appearance of Suicune, and huddled close.

And as Ash's new song and Suicune's howls intermixed, entangled, melded, Ash found himself sharing the deepest recesses of himself with the North Wind, peering into Suicune's nature in turn.

This time he did not falter.

Perhaps it was a sign of the mundane mortality that he has shed like outgrown skin.

Perhaps it was a sign that has become less and more than he ever was before.

Yet Ash felt more human than he ever had in that moment.

And when their songs ended Ash peered evenly into Suicune's sun-filled eyes. They burned so brilliantly against the wind and rain of its flesh, set like burning coals amidst the rain clouds and dew, and Ash wondered whether they could see to this place in forty years when they would battle together as one.

"We will meet again."

Something like fondness flickered in Suicune's gaze. When Ash next blinked, the beast was gone, only a refreshing breeze and a light shower to remember it by.

Ash smiled, reclined into Tangrowth, and relished the embrace of his team as they rushed to embrace him as one.

XX

"...took down his Scizor with ease!" Sammy held up Charmeleon proudly, his hands hooked underneath the red reptile's armpits. The fire-type spat a little puff of flame that earned a dirty look from the Nurse Joy manning the little town's Pokémon Center. "Isn't he wonderful? That trick Infernus showed us to enhance flame intensity worked most effectively."

"Good," Ash said with a smile. Charmeleon's burning tail swished, although he kept it far from his trainer's delicate human skin, and the feisty warrior preened at Ash's acknowledgement. "You've both been working hard. I'm glad you're seeing it pay off."

Agatha's Ekans wound itself around her torso, cuddling up to the girl for warmth. Her shadow squirmed jealously as she cocked her head at Ash and Sammy both, scoffing. "We would've won without your help."

"Of course," Ash said easily, well-used to Agatha's pride by now. But she was positively soft spoken compared to the barbed tongue she'd wield in her old age. All of her needling and verbal swats just made him smile fondly. "You're both strong enough to handle yourselves. But I'm glad that I could contribute in my own way."

"Well, I, for one, appreciate your assistance!" Sammy cheered as he plopped Charmeleon down onto the white tiles of the floor so that the boy could tinker with yet another attempt at his own Apricorn ball. "Azalea might not be regarded as the most difficult of Gyms—Leader Yari of Blackthorn claims that honor, as I'm sure you know well!—but it turns out that the Leaders don't care to hold back too much when they recognize you."

Wasn't that the truth! Gym Leaders were intended to teach, inspire, and challenge trainers, not just stomp them into the ground. They often fought with one figurative hand tied behind their back. Ash knew all too well just how eager they could get when a trainer came along whom they could let loose again.
And then there was Clair, who just stomped them into the ground anyways.

Sammy and Agatha had more than earned themselves a fitting reputation in their first Conference. A dozen other trainers littered the small lounge in the Pokémon Center with all manner of pokémon resting around them. Ash had caught nearly all of them stealing the occasional look over at his two friends at some point, though none had mustered the guts to challenge the two prodigies just yet.

None spared Ash a second glance. Not when Sammy Oak and Agatha Hashimoto were right there.

The anonymity was like a pleasant glass of refreshing water after wandering through a desert full of eyes staring at him…okay, maybe that simile broke down a little, but Ash chalked that up to the sheer pleasure of just being a normal trainer again.

Nidoking seemed to enjoy the peace and quiet as well; after over a year of fame and prying eyes trying to etch Ash into memory, this was basically a spa visit for the poison-type.

Ash smiled down at Nidoking and offered him a piece of his gravy-drenched biscuit.

It was gone in a flash. Ash's skin tingled slightly where the toxin-infused (Toxinfuse sounded like a decent name for a future technique, Ash thought) saliva brushed him, though it soon faded.

"Scizor wasn't even the biggest problem," Agatha groused, reaching up to stroke the sensitive scales above her snoozing Ekans' snout, earning a happy flick of its tongue for her efforts. A quick smile flitted across her face before she remembered that she was supposed to be annoyed. "Hibiki's been traveling, apparently, and whipped out this giant electric-type arachnid thing. I had no idea how to fight it at first! Stupid brute took down Golbat and Haunter in the blink of an eye until I figured out its tricks."

Ash's eyes lit up. "Galvantula! They're interesting fighters, very tactical. Electroweb is such a fun technique to work around."

"Annoying is what it was," Agatha said, though even she seemed begrudgingly impressed by Ash's knowledge. Almost as impressed as Sammy. "It's hard enough keeping track of the ins and outs of native pokémon without throwing foreigners into the mix as well. My brain's going to burst from all this studying!"

Sammy brightened at the prospect of studying. "You know you're welcome to borrow any of my textbooks whenever you like, Aggie! Just use an actual bookmark, please. It's so annoying when you just fold the corners. Oh, and don't leave those weird smudges-"

"I do no such thing!" Agatha cried. Her shadow shrank as she looked down to scowl at it. "That's Haunter's fault, not mine. Actually, it's your fault since you're the one so determined to teach Haunter to read."

"Haunter is a curious soul," Sammy said. "Who am I to deny anyone with a love of learning the most important tool in its pursuit?" He shook his head. "But you aren't wrong, Aggie! Awareness of the wider globe has made it uniquely difficult—but rewarding!—to be a trainer in this day and age. New species are being discovered left and right! It's so inconvenient to rely on textbooks and registries given how quickly they become outdated, and it's a chore to lug so much information around."

Sammy hummed, watching Charmeleon tease Nidoking by flicking sparks at the lazing behemoth from his tail, then toyed with a few wires poking out of the device he'd chosen to work on in lieu of his lunch.

"There must be a better way," Sammy murmured to himself. "Physical media can be so inconvenient, not to mention the logistical difficulties of digging around in a book every time I need to look up a pokémon. Centralization could be a solution, perhaps, but how to best accomplish it? Digitization might be optimal, though a vast undertaking. Perhaps after a few years of advancements…"

His friend rambled to himself a little longer and Ash made a mental note to keep Sammy far, far away from his Pokédex. It had been a bit of a painful adjustment to not go through his nightly ritual of scouring the Pokédex archives for new species information, technique development, and other additions to the vast stores of data already carved into his brain, but Ash was too wary of creating any weird paradoxes.

Things were already weird enough, thank you very much!

That wasn't to say Ash wasn't storing away every scrap of information he could, however. Cynthia's habit of obsessively taking notes had made its way into Ash ever since he'd stepped over forty years backwards in time, and he'd spent hours upon hours watching anchors discuss current events, taking newspaper clippings with Dazed, and filing away every interesting scrap he could.
Sammy had been very excited to see someone else who practiced the same idea, eager to show a few pages of his own notebooks for his opinion. The diagrams and drawn illustrations were detailed and meticulous, though most of the technical jargon escaped him. He even kept one for Agatha, though she vehemently denied that she needed any such thing.
The weird smudge marks he did see on those pages said plenty.

Peacetime was all Ash had ever known. The Last War had sated the bloodlust of every major nation for decades when the ashes settled and the corpses rotted away.

This…this was a different time. The world had grown smaller with the advancement of technology and vastly increased access to training, yet the great nations were still disparate and in fierce competition.

The National League was unborn, its component states still eying one another more as rivals than allies.

Ever Grande was nonexistent—Hoenn was still a mess of old feuds, bloody wars between the great city-states, and cutthroat competition that could only be stomped into the dirt by a man who didn't give a shit about any of it. But at the moment petty conflicts raged. Sootopolis and Lilycove had even engaged in a minor conflict just a year or two ago that had left hundreds dead.

It was horrifying and fascinating in equal measure to witness reports of the People's Union of Unova—often referred to by analysts as 'the Hydreigon'—militarizing and planting the seeds of the aggressive actions they would one day take in the Eastern Continent.

The last few months had seen the occupation of the Decolore Islands, an archipelago situated roughly halfway between the Eastern and Western Continents which had historically acted as the lynchpin of maritime commerce between the two developed continents, which Ash knew would one day be used as a staging ground and logistic center for the Unovan fleets as they made their way towards Indigo and Ever Grande.

Some young undersecretary in the diplomatic corps (Harmonia, he vaguely recalled) had met with Indigo diplomats (headed by a young Charles Goodshow) to try and smooth it over.

Kalos' stringent regulations and limitations upon the underclasses were the subject of hot debate in Indigo, with frequent discussions based on the Indigo League's recent trade embargoes of Lumiose—every time Ash heard a word of Kalos it left his heart panging as he recalled his conversation with Durand atop the Sky Pillar.

The world was tipping towards war, and every single time he read a newspaper he was reminded of just how foreign of a society he'd landed in. Figures he'd only heard of in textbooks were prominent political forces, with Sinnoh's Champion Irene being noted for returning from the vast Coronet Underground with several historical artifacts.

Ash wondered if she'd ever encountered a Spiritomb in those depths…

But what nearly tore his heart out was the droning voice of an anchor reading off a brief summary of the unfortunate happenings in Hoenn as Lilycove and Fortree feuded. Mauville had been brought in to aid Lilycove in pressuring Fortree's borders, escalating the conflict to a point that other city-states threatened to become involved, and Lavaridge's esteemed Master Fino Moore had been instrumental in bringing representatives to the table for peace talks.

Ash froze.

It didn't go unnoticed by Sammy.

"What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost!" Sammy chuckled, elbowing Agatha who rolled her eyes and flung her half-eaten apple at him. "Eww! Gross."

Agatha cackled, waved her hand, and a set of claws reached out of her shadow to grasp the apple core and hurl it back at Sammy when he frantically swept it onto the floor.

Ash ignored them both as they engaged in a full-blown food fight (which Weavile and Tangrowth eagerly joined in while Lairon gobbled up everything that touched the floor) and stared blankly ahead as the Nurse Joy rushed over to holler at his friends.

Fino Moore was alive.

He'd known this logically.

But seeing clips of a young, vibrant, smiling Fino bowing to delegates and shaking hands with Plinia—crunch—at his side left Ash's blood cold as ice.

The world was dark, its sounds muted.

Nurse Joy's vehement reprimands left Sammy, Agatha, Tangrowth, Weavile, and Tangrowth wilting, but Ash couldn't make out a single word of it.

His food tasted like ash in his mouth.

While Sammy's face was red and his eyes turned straight down to the floor thanks to Nurse Joy's shouting—Sammy had the air of someone who'd never been in trouble a day in his life—Agatha's pupils dilated and she shuddered as the storm of emotion tore through Ash.

Nurse Joy eventually moved on and left Sammy properly cowed, though Tangrowth looked eager to keep the food fight going, and they left to get some training in before dark.

Sammy departed just as dusk fell, which was something Ash had grown used to over their time traveling together. The boy never stayed up past 8:30, though he was often up before the sun rose to study before setting out for the day, but Agatha was very much a nocturnal creature.

So as Ash and Agatha finished up their training for the day, Ash felt Agatha's mismatched eyes upon him.

"You stink of sadness."

The words lacked Agatha's usual bite. Not quite friendly, true, but certainly not mocking either. Inquisitive.

"I…" Ash took a deep breath. "I lost someone recently. Two people, actually, although I still can't figure out how I feel about one of them."

"I'm sorry," Agatha said simply, though her lips twisted into something understanding at that last bit. "I've never lost anyone I cared about, but I do know how it feels, believe it or not."

Ash nodded, thinking of Agatha's childhood in the shadow of Lavender. "I know you do."

Her expression darkened. "You know a lot of things."

Ash nodded as they meandered down the trail, both slowing their pace as a tension built. "I do."

Agatha peered at him for a second (and so did her shadow) before sighing, no doubt realizing that she wouldn't get any answers from him.

"Tell me about them."

He blinked. "Really?"

"Yes, idiot! What I felt from you…" Agatha trailed off. "You're frustrating and weird and annoyingly mysterious and probably some monster wearing a skin suit, but that was human. You're hurting. Get it out of your head and put it out into the world. Don't wrestle with it on your own."

Ash gaped at Agatha for a moment. So did Nidoking, though Agatha paid neither of them much attention.

Then he smiled.

"Why do you look so surprised?" Agatha snapped. "I can be nice!"

"You can be," Ash agreed, thinking of the bitter old crone that Ash knew and loved—tough, sure, both stubborn and sarcastic in equal measure, but she had never been heartless. This younger Agatha had a softness to her that would be eroded away by the sands of time.

How much of the Revenant Crone persona was born of the suffering she endured as the Distortion woven into her tissues eroded everything she was?

How much had bloomed from the bitter seed of her half-life?

"People give ghosts a bad rap," Ash said softly, brushing his hand over Lotus' Ultra Ball. It quivered at his touch. "They call them predators, parasites, heartless…but when you think about it, who could be more empathetic than a ghost? Their lives depend on it, after all."

Agatha's golden curls bounced as she snapped to stare at Ash with wide eyes, gobsmacked.

"Where do I start?" Ash mused, sharing a glance with Nidoking. His friend's eyes flashed blue as images of a smiling Fino Moore appeared in Ash's head. "The first was my mentor, a Master."

Agatha sucked in a breath. No doubt some pieces of the theories spinning around in her thoughts had just clicked together. Ash wasn't about to correct her on any misunderstandings, though.

Better she come up with her own hypothesis than discover the truth.

"He was a good man. A builder. A peacemaker. Someone who gave himself tirelessly to the world. Picture the best grandfather in the world—"

Agatha sneered, and for good reason.

"—and multiply him by ten and you'd get my mentor," Ash said, careful to avoid dropping any names. "One of my best friends is his granddaughter. You'd think he was the sun with how she looked at him, like he was the best thing to ever pop into existence. And maybe he was."

"No one's perfect," Agatha said warningly. "Don't hold anyone up on a pedestal. They'll just disappoint you later."

Well, that was a wonderfully cynical train of thought. Prophetic with how her opinion of Sammy soured in later years.

"He wasn't perfect," Ash said. "But there are good people in the world, you know. And he was one of the best. He stepped into a broken world and left it a better place. He saw all the cracks forming and did everything he could to heal them."

"And then he left you. Just like everyone else."

"He didn't leave. He was taken from us."

Agatha winced.

"The other…" Ash barely hid a grimace. "She had the seed of something good inside of her. She had a noble soul, but it was tarnished by a system that failed her and her own mistakes. In another life, she might have been just as noble as my mentor. She became who she was because she saw the wrongs around her and wanted to right them. But all that was left by the end was a twisted reflection."

Ash shook his head.

"I hate her for what she did," Ash snarled, remembering the tiny box left buried in the Stone's Colony, the Shiftry's Bullet Seed tearing through Fino's frail chest, and the viciousness of her rampaging Slaking as it crushed Plinia's head to a pulp. "She let herself become a monster. But things could have been different, and she wasted that! She was dealt a bad hand, sure, but part of her relished in it. And now she's dead too."

Agatha was silent for a moment.

"Thank you for listening. I…I needed that."

The girl rather looked as if she'd bitten off more than she could chew, but Ash was just glad to have someone to vent to, even if he'd have preferred it to be his Agatha rather than this young copy.

"You're not afraid, are you?" Agatha said suddenly. "Of death, I mean. You're angry. Sad. But not afraid."

"No."

"You're scary," Agatha said to Ash (of all people). Her mismatched eyes were those of a girl, not an embittered woman with her life stolen from her. "You're not that bad. I'll admit that. But you're…wrong. I feel like I'm going to be sick whenever I look at you. And that ghost of yours—"

"You should have met Lotus a few months ago," Ash said, grinning as he patted Lotus' Ultra Ball. Or in a few decades… "Lotus has softened up a ton."

His heart ached for the Lotus hidden away in Regirock's tomb. Ash had questioned Lotus as to whether or not he should go and batter down Regirock's defenses and damn the consequences—if he could—but after a long period of silence Lotus had declined the offer.

It was content, though it killed Ash inside to imagine his friend in such pain.

"It's quiet," Agatha said slowly, her shadow lengthening and twisting around her ankles. "But I can feel its pain. There's so much! To a ghost it's like a poisoned feast."

"Lotus has been through more than you can imagine," Ash said quietly, then looked pointedly at Agatha. "It can't help what it is. It can't help what's been done to it. Humans can be worse than any ghost."

Agatha reeled back as if he'd just slapped her, though she recovered admirably. Then she looked at Ash as if he were a new person entirely.

"You're a strange one, Ash."

Ash grinned. "Tell me about it."

But even as they spoke his thoughts spun in a different direction: Lavender Town.

Durand and Fino's memories tugged at him, demanding to be honored in their own way in this distant time, and a great part of him wished to simply retreat from the world for a time. Not for too long, naturally, as every moment stolen with Sammy and Agatha was a treasure in itself, but there was a strange peace to the dark town.

Weavile could use a Distortion-rich environment to practice Dispel and his growing Distortion manipulation as well. Where better than in the sprawling body of the Ghost of Lavender?

Part of Ash suspected that his presence would cause troubles for Sammy and Agatha sooner rather than later. He was easily detected, after all, and was a little amazed no one from the League had tracked him down just yet.

Staying in one place for too long wouldn't be wise.

Besides, Ash remembered the unpleasant specter of Agatha's grandfather bound in Lavender Tower.

Perhaps he should pay the wretched old man a visit while he was still amongst the living.

XX

"You have this!" Sammy cheered, throwing his hands up in the air as Ivysaur grumbled out his own support. "Take them down, Ash!"

Ash grinned alongside Oz as she danced past a Machamp, dodged its blindingly fast flurry of punches with unerring speed and grace unbefitting an Electivire of her size and strength, and slammed a fist into the grey-skinned brute's spine.

Lightning flashed and the scent of ozone filled the air as the Machamp locked up as vast amounts of electricity permeated its nervous system. Oz's wire tails flicked to pierce the skin of Machamp's throat and finished it off with yet another surge of electricity.

The Machamp's trainer just gaped at Ash as he recalled the mighty warrior, though Ash would have loved to test Bruiser's strength against another of his species.

He suspected it would have been no contest at all.

"That makes seven!" Agatha gloated as she strolled amongst the crowd with a huge basket which was already overflowing with money from all the trainers who congregated in this makeshift arena just a few minutes outside Violet City proper. "Pay up or my Haunter's going to do unspeakable things to you."

Haunter wriggled its fingers at a few pale-faced rookies for dramatic effect. They quickly made good on their bets—Agatha wasn't the most intimidating with her small stature and shining gold curls, but she knew just how to leverage her gifts.

Ash cackled as more determined trainers stepped to the forefront, eager to meet the arrogant nobody who had just blitzed through so many challengers with ease. Most were simple, easily taken care of by Seeker who was eager to test her newfound size and strength against ordinary foes as a menace of flashing fangs, while Lairon was reserved for more advanced fighters.

Oz took on entire teams with relative ease, only tested by a young trainer with seven badges who had all six of her ground-types gang up on her with impressive teamwork, but even then she overcame the elemental disadvantage with liberal use of brute force, cunning Double Teams and Reflects, and a few combat tricks she'd picked up from Bruiser.

Electivire weren't quite as strong as Machamp, but they were about as close as most fighters would ever get. Oz never used Storm Surge in these practice battles, true, yet she'd learned to leverage her enormous strength well.

Dazed had just as much fun, however. How could she not when she finally had the chance to slip moments of temporal manipulation into her battles, although she could still only just barely freeze or accelerate frames of reference at this point.

Ash would be lying if he said they hadn't prioritized temporal manipulation quite a bit in the two weeks since they'd been flung back into the past. It left his mind and body aching to recall the quicksilver streams descending from the Orb at their center, splitting into infinityinfinityinfinity—

Okay, so he couldn't think of it for long. But at least he was able to share filtered impressions with Dazed!

Using temporal manipulation on this particular occasion was rather fitting, Ash thought, although it was even more draining than Elemental Synthesis or Remote Teleportation. Time was adamant, Ash knew now, and flowed ever onward.

It did not bend…not easily, at any rate.

But it could be convinced to linger a little longer than it might, or to snap forward more swiftly than time might ordinarily chug along. It was all relative so long as it progressed, after all, and that was the lens through which Ash and Dazed operated.

Dazed's other Master-level techniques had been mastered to an adequate degree, however, so Ash and Dazed were both eager to explore new frontiers. The thought of fully integrating temporal manipulation into Dazed's battle style left Ash practically salivating.

Dazed would have joined him if she only had a mouth.

It was a missed opportunity, he supposed.

The battles continued in a blur.

A Scyther flickered forward in a burst of blinding speed only to slow moments before its deadly blade would have carved into Dazed's flesh. It was reduced to a crawl, moving for a full second as if drowned in molasses, and Dazed's eyes flashed once again to teleport the Scyther thirty feet in the air as her pendulum flapped in a nonexistent wind.

Its wings flared out as it suddenly dropped, hurled away from its target by Remote Teleportation, and buzzed down to strike at Dazed again, yet was engulfed in a sea of roaring flame that even Infernus would have been begrudgingly impressed by.

The Scyther's trainer cried, only to be replaced by a blonde woman who regarded Ash with stunned blue eyes as Nidoking tore her team apart, though he was impressed that she'd managed to bring Dazed down after four of her own fighters fell.

She was perhaps twenty, and Ash was glad to acknowledge her with a bright smile as Agatha swaggered over to collect Ash's winnings (for a small cut, of course).

Ash would be the first to admit that the blonde woman was strong! Her Rhydon had already begun to explore rock manipulation at a fairly young age. The rest of her rock-types were potent as well, though they hadn't been much more than a stumbling block for Dazed and Nidoking.

"I finished in the Top 8 of last year's Silver Conference," his beaten opponent whispered as she tossed her whole wallet into Agatha's basket with argument. "Who are you?"

Ash just shrugged at her, smiling, and turned away as Sammy played referee and began to set up the next match, although few challengers remained interested after the absolute clobbering the best of them had just received.

But a chill raced down his spine as he caught sight of a gaping man in a Violet City Gym uniform waiting nearby.

…Ash knew he shouldn't have let Sammy talk him into this!

Even if he couldn't deny that it had been so, so satisfying to cut loose for a bit. Sammy and Agatha were wonderful, but they just couldn't challenge his team the way they needed. This almost felt like a light version of the Fortree Challenge, which Ash would always remember as one of the best days of his life.

"Marvelous!" The Gym Trainer cried out as he came jogging up, looking at Ash as if he'd grown a second head. A happy Quagsire waddled at his side, though it seemed more interested in staring off at the clouds than with assisting its trainer.

Nidoking was beaten and bruised after breaking down the team of formidable rock-types, but he still grew taut as a wire as the Gym Trainer approached. Ash mirrored his friend, discomfort coiling tight in his gut.

Dazed was exhausted from her own battles, littered with minor wounds and sapped dry of strength after so many clashes, yet she remained at Ash's side and touched his mind with a comforting caress as her pendulum twitched in her grip.

We are with you.

He prayed with every fiber of his being that this wouldn't go poorly. So far the closest he'd encountered to a League official was a cheerful Ranger who'd waved to them once on the path out of Ilex.

The League had always been a source of comfort to Ash. It bothered him to think of them as a threat, but Ash couldn't take any chances.

"I'd heard of a few strong trainers popping into the area, you know. I never thought I'd find anything like this!" The Gym Trainer had a kindly face. Ash desperately wanted to trust the man, but he remained guarded. "You're something else, aren't you? Consider me impressed! Gym Trainer Alex at your service."

"Thanks," Ash said quietly, hoping that the man would offer his congratulations and turn away to go do his actual job. "Nice to meet you, Alex."

But alas, his luck was nowhere in sight today.

"I've heard of those two," Alex said, nodding towards Agatha as she harassed their audience for their well-earned cash, and Sammy, who had gone off to chatter with the blonde woman he'd just beaten, before turning his full attention back to Ash and the imposing Nidoking at his side. "They're a couple of little celebrities, you know, and I'm expecting they'll do great things one day. But you…how have I never heard of you?"

"I'm shy," Ash muttered, channeling those feelings of reticence and anxiety that had clung to him in his first battles beneath the cheering crowds in Indigo Stadium. Dazed nodded sagely at his side. "I like to keep a low profile."

"No wonder!" Alex beamed. "You'd be drowning in fans otherwise. Look at all those trainers! They're looking at you like you just descended from the heavens."

Ash's jaw twitched.

Infernus was off dueling with Charmeleon in the distance judging by the great belching smoke rising up above the far off trees—they'd finally moved beyond training Charmeleon's intensity and begun to focus on priming Charmeleon's body for Flare Blitz—and Ash suddenly wished his friend was with him now.

Dazed's eyes flashed and the distant rumble of combat stilled.

"What's your Trainer ID?" Alex inquired, reaching down to pat Quagsire's slimy skin lovingly. The dopy creature was all too happy to lean into the touch. "You've done a good job of keeping a low profile, but I just know my Leader would love to chat with you. He's been looking for a new apprentice, and I think the Indigo League would be able to provide the training and resources to elevate you…"

The man's jaw hung slack for a moment. To be honest, he looked rather similar to his Quagsire as the dull water-type rubbed its broad face into Alex's hand as if nothing were wrong.

Nidoking stepped forward to block the view of the onlooking trainers—who were suddenly rather distracted be a thunderous boom from Infernus' direction as the Magmortar triggered an enormous tephra explosion as bait—while Dazed's pendulum swayed entrancingly before the Gym Trainer's eyes.

Her svelte voice cut a crisp line into their thoughts.

We are not suitable for recruitment, I fear. We have other commitments. You had best look elsewhere.

"Maybe I should," Alex whispered. His eyes glazed over along with Quagsire's as Dazed wove her commands through their thoughts. "Not that special…"

Indeed. A small spark of talent, perhaps, but none of us are exceptional. We've simply peaked early.

It was all part of Dazed's subtle manipulations of the man's mind, sure, but Ash still balked at the idea that they had peaked. Nidoking sent him a firm look before Ash could even think to protest.

…Ash was still going to have to train extra hard tonight just to put that thought out of his head. They needed to be stronger. The strongest, in fact.

Glacia had been right back in Lavaridge, he thought. Perfection was impossible. But that didn't mean he couldn't strive to be the closest thing to that untouchable ideal as was possible for him.

Dazed extended a mental tendril to brush his thoughts even as she entranced the League official. Alex was trapped in a stupor, still aware but muted as Dazed wove her web of deception within him.

Rather, she provided the nudge and allowed Alex's own mind to construct the rest. It was easier that way. Elegant. Less chances of Alex or another psychic picking up on anything odd and delving deeper into it.

Disappointing, is it not? You heard mentions of a prodigal trainer. It is a shame to learn that we did not meet your standards. And such a shame that you will not remember this conversation.

"Such a shame," Alex droned. A bit of drool dripped from his mouth. Quagsire's broad mouth curved up into a simple smile as it followed the pendulum. "Such a shame…"

Go attend to your other duties. Perhaps you'll find more promise there.

"Yeah. Disappointed. Time to go, Big Blue," Alex said with glassy eyes as he slapped Quagsire's back, although Ash could already see a difference in his bearing—he stood taller, more attentive, and would soon regain his full faculties. "Nice to meet you all, but I'm afraid that a Gym Trainer's job is never done! Enjoy yourselves."

"Nice to meet you as well," Ash mumbled, still playing up the shy angle, and watched Alex leave with sharp eyes. Something twisted inside him at the prospect of playing with another's mind just as the Unown had twisted his mother's. Guilt flared. "He'll be fine, right? No long-term issues?"

He is already fine. Minus the tangle in his memory. But we will be gone soon and there will be no stimulus to bring his experiences to the surface.

"We'd better be," Ash mumbled. While his time in the past had been incredibly relaxing so far and Ash relished the time to desperately lick his wounds without thinking of the clock ticking ever closer to disaster, he would be lying if he'd said the thought of returning home hadn't gnawed at him.

Professor Oak wouldn't have sent him to a doomed existence. That much Ash was certain of. When Ash was ready to leave, then he would return to that lonely shrine in Ilex Forest and look into the adamant streams once again.

And if that didn't work…well, perhaps those azure coals resting in his mind might need to be stoked after all, though Ash couldn't say the thought of inviting Mewtwo back into his soul particularly appealed to him.

But there were certain duties that must be seen to. Service that Ash could not provide while separated by forty long years. He shuddered at the thought of lingering here and emerging in the future an old man—just as old as Professor Oak, even!—though another voice whispered just what things he might accomplish during that time, what people he might meet…

Impossible, Ash knew.

He had a world to return to.

He would never risk its integrity.

"Did anyone see us?" Ash refocused on the issue at hand. Guilt still played within him at the thought of what he'd just done to a loyal agent of the League, although he was comforted by the fact that Alex wouldn't see any lingering issues. All they'd done was snip a thread before it could grow into something dangerous.

Nidoking shook his head, still looking warily after Alex and Quagsire as their strides grew more confident from their early stumbles, while Dazed remained silent.

Sammy was off trying to challenge an exhausted Weavile in the distance, but two heterochromatic eyes watched Ash with newfound respect.

And more satisfaction than Ash would have liked.

Agatha's walking stick clicked ever closer as she ran off the remaining challengers, warning them that they'd have to go through her before challenging Ash, and smirked up at Ash. No doubt she loved having a little leverage over the strange Master who'd appeared from nowhere.

Despite Agatha's suspicions, Ash didn't think she would rat him out.

She might end up working for the League in less than a decade, but Ash was fairly confident in saying Agatha was no snitch. Not unless he really pissed her off.

"Playing with fire, huh?"

"I like to keep a low profile."

"Oh, I'm not judging. It looked like a job well done!" Agatha sounded too cheerful for Ash's liking. She shook the big wicker basket (adorned with several cartoon Gastly stickers) which was absolutely full of cash. "Who hasn't had to twist a few thoughts to get their way? My lips are sealed…"

Ash's eyes flickered down to the basket and the thousands of poké within. They'd done rather well for themselves—Sammy would be ecstatic about his share (although he hadn't asked for anything) and would probably cry tears of joy at the funding for his research.

He had less of an idea what Agatha would do with hers, but Drake had taught him well in the future.

"I can tell," Ash replied, then reached out to grab a few high-value notes from the basket. Agatha and her Haunter watched him raptly. "That's all I'll need, I think. Why don't you split the rest with Sammy? It's the least I can do after crashing into your lives."

"I'm glad we understand each other!" Agatha cackled, her lips curling up into an evil grin. "I'd have stopped complaining about you ages ago if I knew how profitable you'd be! Actually, I think this might be the beginning of a beautiful relationship."

Ash snorted alongside Nidoking.

Agatha grew a little more serious after a moment.

"It might be a good time to take another trip," Agatha warned, fingers curling tightly around the polished material of her walking stick. Ash hid a wince. Hadn't they moved past this? He thought she'd warmed up to him at least a little by now. "Tongues were wagging in the crowd. Give it a few days and trainers the region over are going to be looking for the freak trainer heading to Violet. And some of the psychics…"

Ash did wince this time. "Enough said."

"I'm surprised no one's come for you yet," Agatha said with a shake of her head. "Sammy's blind to it, rigid tech-obsessed idiot that he is, but anyone with real eyes senses the storm in you. Too much crammed into too little…"

"So I've heard," Ash said, recalling Cynthia's similar description. Agatha didn't have the same keen perception as the future Champion, but she felt enough. "There's a few things that still need doing. I hope Sammy won't mind."

"Won't mind? He'll be heartbroken. But who cares? He'll whine even more if Champion Uther and the Elite Four swing by to lock you up."

Part of Ash recoiled at that. And yet…

Agatha scoffed at the slow smile taking over Ash's face. "Seriously? That's supposed to be a threat, you dummy. Don't get excited!"

"Can't help it." Ash laughed before sobering. "You're right, though. I'll say my goodbyes and then I'll be off. We've attracted too much attention here."

While Agatha was someone with the potential to be a threat—she knew just enough to cause problems if she ever decided that Ash was a threat to her and Sammy—and had spent too many nights glaring at Ash over the flickering campfire for his liking, Ash was at least content that she'd come to trust him a little.

Enough to keep him away from the League's seeking eyes, at any rate.

That would be the real limit to how long he could stay in this time, Ash thought. Dazed telepathically sent a wave of agreement. No matter how subtle he wished to be, the simple fact was that he didn't fit here.

The Concepts beneath his skin surged too violently, flared too brightly, for this time.

The strength of Ash's team was too much for what they were—they'd broken every limit possible in his own time, and a young team of their skill and power were always going to attract too much attention.

Even holding back they were too strong.

"Lavender's lovely this time of year," Agatha said idly as she began to count her hard-earned winnings with a little help from Haunter's claws. "Have you ever been?"

"Once."

Agatha's golden eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

"I met a mutual friend of ours," Ash said idly, delighting in Agatha's new scowl. Nidoking rolled his eyes. "It was…enlightening."

That was one word for it. Haunting as that meeting had been, the Ghost of Lavender still fascinated Ash, unlike anything else he'd ever encountered. Not quite a Legend, yet greater than most anything else.

Its cousin Pyre had devoted itself to waging war in defense of Hoenn against the Red and Blue Orbs threatening to reignite the consciousness of their masters.

Lavender? Lavender was content to exist as a monument to all those who it had assimilated. Chieko, Lady Lavender, and Akemi were only three of its countless faces, and Ash wondered who had more visages: the Ghost of Lavender or rainbow-winged Ho-Oh?

"What?" Agatha muttered. "Why wouldn't Akemi—oh, nevermind! You're just trying to be frustrating again."

Ash grinned.

"Now's your chance to say goodbye," Agatha said, inclining her head towards Sammy as the young Oak delighted in testing Growlithe, Ivysaur, and Blastoise's skills against the black blur that was Weavile. "Don't be a stranger."

"Never."

Lavender would provide a safe refuge for a day or two, Ash thought, though eventually their presence would cause waves there as well. Perhaps only the Dark World would obscure them from the League's network in full.

Ash was just glad that Sabrina hadn't been born yet. She would have hunted him down within hours of his arrival to this time, though somehow Ash suspected she would have taken the news of his time travel rather well.

It probably wasn't even in the top ten of strangest things she'd encountered. Sabrina was the League's premier agent for dealing with the bizarre for good reason, and had borne even more of that burden since Agatha's—

He didn't want to think about that right now, though thoughts of Lavender always invited morbid threads with them. It was woven into the nature of that grim place.

Agatha hesitated as Ash, Nidoking, and Dazed strolled on over to Sammy, who punched the air excitedly when Weavile just barely managed to dodge a flurry of cracking vines.

"Our mutual friend is one thing," Agatha said with a note of warning. "But there are worse things in Lavender. Keep an eye out for them."

Ash remembered a slavering madman stooped with age and barely fought back a snarl. "Oh, I will. I'll be keeping an eye out for one in particular, actually."

The girl froze again, swaying on her feet as Ash stalked away, but said nothing more.

Lavender awaited him.

XX

Leaping across Indigo proved the perfect chance for Plume and Ash to muddy their scent even further—while they steered clear of Indigo Plateau, opting instead to travel south over the barren hills which would one day become his home, they crisscrossed Kanto at incredible speed to cast their influence further.

Ash did not restrain himself, feeling the Concepts flowing through him freely, and embraced the conduits of something greater.

The North Wind urged them faster, a howl ringing in Ash's ears.

Lightning flashed in his vision as they raced ahead of a storm front.

In the stubborn resolution of an old Nidoking fending off a younger challenger Ash saw the bitter nature of Ice, and in the furious passion of the usurper he witnessed Fire.

He painted Kanto in his nature, hoping that it would leave the League scrambling and seeking out shadows, but it wasn't long before Plume carried Ash into the shadow of the Lavender Valley with a great cry.

Ash wasn't the boy who would arrive at Lavender as a half-broken mess in forty years. No, he was more comfortable in his skin and nature now. The fractured wounds which had riddled his psyche were scabbed over, more healed than not, yet the grief which he carried with him from that awful day on Lavaridge pulsed within like rotten pus.

The Lavender Tower called for him, beckoning, whispering his name as the shadows fell upon Ash when Plume dropped him off in the center of Lavender's old town. She took off with a cry, unhappy to land in such a dark place, but something about the buzz of alien power all around was comforting to Ash.

He peered around at the black buildings of Lavender's old town, forever cast in shadow, and saw the ghosts hiding within every brick and crack and alley. All watched him, no doubt sensing the weariness lurking beneath Ash's skin, but did not dare approach.

They knew what else hid beneath his flesh.

Lavender Tower was formidable as ever: a great heap of blackness dotted with flat glass, coming to a point at its tip where the unbeating heart of Lavender waited, bound in ash and bone and memory.

Come to me, Lavender whispered from every stone, from the air itself. Come to me, Ash Ketchum. It has been too long.

Ash's blood ran cold in the old town plaza…and then he threw his head back and laughed madly. Grim mourners looked at him with shock and irritation in equal measure and a few people even yelled at him to shut up.

He obliged them, sure, but couldn't stop the stupid smile from slipping onto his face.

"Of course you would know me," Ash whispered, and felt Lavender embrace him. The Concepts muted as the great ghost's full awareness fell upon him, shrouding him from reality, and something like an army's laughter rang in his ears. "I'll see you soon, Lavender."

A mother garbed in all black quickly tugged her curious toddler away when she heard Ash muttering to himself.

He couldn't blame her.

Lavender Town was just as he remembered, at least: old at its heart, sprawling like a disorganized labyrinth into the more orderly modern sections erected after its original incarnation had been burned to the ground.

But not all had burned. Not all could.

Melancholy was woven into the town's very fabric, brushing every soul and tainting every thought. The little mountain town felt disconnected from the rest of the world, an island suspended in its own bubble, but Ash found that terribly comforting all of a sudden.

This distant year spent every moment throwing reminders into Ash's face that he was simply a visitor, a tourist, an alien. The world had changed immensely in the decades.

Lavender?

Lavender was unchanging.

The same mourners. The same grief. The same memories.

Death was the same throughout the ages, after all, and so was everything walking in its shadow.

Ghosts still lurked in every corner, seeking living prey as they stalked through the streets for the offerings of fruit and bread left out by the locals. They watched him, skulking wherever his gaze couldn't strike directly, and a dark amusement filled him at the thought of the Harbinger's dreadful glee should it ever stumble into this haunted place.

So many to cull and reap…though perhaps the Harbinger might find its match in the form of Lavender itself. Who could say?

A prickling on his neck warned him of another presence watching and waiting, a pale Ninetales, haggard and silver, lurking beneath the entryway to an old temple, which seemed to find Ash all too familiar.

Those scruffy bone-white tails were left dragging through the dirt as it crept after him, though the grime never quite managed to stick, and it seemed to walk unseen by the humans and pokémon drifting grief stricken through the old town plaza.

He met its lidded milky eyes evenly, felt the depths of its age-honed perception sweep through his spirit, and the Pale Ninetales shuddered. Its withered frame strained with the effort, atrophied by the years and more, but for a moment Ash saw the gloom of Lavender banished as sparks flared in its coat of bone-hued fur.

The Pale Ninetales seemed to forget some of its memories then, standing taller and firmer, and its milky eyes fluttered open as they saw once more.

"Follow along if you like," Ash invited the Pale Ninetales forward as he stepped towards the Lavender Tower. More onlookers looked at him like he was mad, their own sorrow temporarily overridden by confusion at the strange boy in this even stranger place. "I don't bite."

A weeping Mankey was carried away from Ash as its hard-faced trainer finally couldn't stand his presence and odd mutterings any longer.

The Pale Ninetales didn't follow, but the strange creature offered him a brief nod as Ash stepped into Lavender Tower.

It felt like a blessing.

Mystics guided mourners to and fro on the first level, moving with quiet grace as they attended their duties, but Ash didn't need their assistance. They avoided him.

Ash hesitated before stepping into the full labyrinth of graves.

Lotus appeared on his hip a few seconds later, sucking the life from the room, but shadows could only be made so much darker. Wreathed in Lavender's blanket already, few reacted. The Spiritomb flickered purple and green, shy in the face of a greater power, but confident with Ash's whispers of support.

"Will you walk with me?"

Green cinders seemed to nod within the purple haze of Lotus' gaseous form.

"Thank you," Ash murmured, and stepped forward, whispering all he knew of the dead and their memories to a patient Lotus. The Spiritomb was quiet, naturally, rigid, but a dozen burning eyes swiveled to and fro to take in all that Lavender possessed, carving every memorial to mind.

Stone graves filled each level of the tower, each etched with memories and offerings. Ash stopped by many to offer his respects, leaving behind little beads and knick knacks for each subsumed soul, and steadily ascended to the top amidst the strangling mist of incense and rising tinge of ash.

Lotus' smoky form coiled around Ash like a second skin, one hundred and eight fiery viridescent eyes all staring in every direction, and Ash never stopped speaking to his friend.

His first visit had tested him, fought him with every step as he rose past every level amidst the timeless memorials, burning candles, and carved ornaments left for each.

It had nearly left him undone then, utterly drained, but no longer.

Ash had more to give now.

And the Lavender Tower was all too happy to take, sipping on every thought and silent prayer and whisper that he offered to its dead denizens.

Every now and then Lotus' eyes fixated upon a certain memorial—Lotus never bade Ash stop, but Ash did whenever Lotus wanted to make its own silent offerings to the departed.

The floors remained the same, each devoted to a different sort of death.

First, the newly dead, those whose spirits still rested in their corporeal form and whose memories lived on in those who survived them.

Second, those who had died of old age, comfortably and satisfied with a long life after seeing all they had been born to pass them by.

Third, the unfortunate whose lives had been cut short. Left dissatisfied, yearning, envious of what they had lost to war, famine, pestilence, and circumstance. Hungry.

Ash spent a long time amongst those graves, playing the Song for them and offering what comfort he could. When he left their emptiness—a void of a different sort than what Lotus carved out—seemed a little more sated.

The swirling mists did not follow him so hungrily as they once did.

Fourth, a lifeless hall, empty and absent of mist and incense, largely abandoned by the living.

Fifth, the native sons and daughters of Lavender itself, those who had been born and raised in its shadow. The Hashimoto, the scions of the Lavender Lords, and all those who brought their light to this dark town to fuel its true master. Lords and peasants alike laid equal in death, wordly glory forgotten, all made part of the Ghost.

Chieko's grave was here, the girl slain in the Secession as the League scoured rebellious Lavender clean.

Ash's fingers traced her memorial, his eyes committing her epitaph to memory anew.

Last flower of the Shion and beloved of all Lavender. Kind to those beneath her, stalwart to those greater. Taken away before her time by a cruel hand. Her family ended, her people scattered, her home burnt, but we remember. Rest long and well, little lady.

Ash swallowed the lump in his throat as he remembered her smiling face, her teasing, the bright cheer unextinguished by death.

They might have been friends.

The lone candle before her grave was dead and lifeless just as it was in Ash's time.

Ash had resorted to matches the last time he was in Lavender Tower, his spirit smothered by the weight of the darkness here, but this time he set his eyes on the wick, felt Fire surge in his veins to burn past the gloom and grief, and watched the candle erupt in merry flame.

He smiled.

"To you, Chieko. I'll see you soon."

He heard her giggle.

Ai Akemi—the graceful sister of the First with her kind face and motherly demeanor—was next, and Ash assured her grave that he had seen to the unfinished business she once tasked him with.

The First's partners had been given his last words, Akemi's last wishes, and Ash thought it had brought them some peace, even if they were still drowning in grief in this time

An unseen hand clasped his own. A phantasmal whisper uttered appreciation.

Lotus watched and listened raptly, brought to life in a way that Ash had rarely seen as they ventured further amongst the graves. It still coiled around Ash like armor.

Sixth, smokey and tension-wrought, stagnant and lifeless with the weight of centuries, attended to by a spectral audience, strangled by suffering. These were those who had suffered in Lavender's name, put to the torch or blade, pleading for mercy, shrieks of battle and blood and clashing steel.

Lotus' normally rigid form flowed freely then, furious, and for a moment was heavier than the unsettled specters which made their homes here.

"Easy," Ash whispered, brushing his fingers through the thick fog which made up Lotus, and brought a brief rush of levity to this lifeless place with another word, exhaling the North Wind to ease the bitterness and suffering memories.

Just as the gentle rains once extinguished the blaze which consumed the Brass Tower, so now did Suicune's power soften the cries woven into the nature of Lavender Tower's sixth floor.

Lotus eased, softening, and they ascended to the final reaches of Lavender Tower.

Seventh, ash-blanketed, memory-laden, air thick with the weight of the Ghost.

Ash stepped into the Ghost's haunt, crunching bone and pale ash beneath his feet. It bothered him still, leaving a twitch in his gut that refused to leave, but did not seem so terrible after the mummified horrors he'd witnessed—crawled through—in Jirachi's tomb beneath Forina.

But the Ghost did not manifest.

Not yet.

Ash stared out into the grave-slots all around, closing his eyes, and finally allowed him to embrace the grief which had summoned him here, the memories which refused to pass by without being acknowledged and brought into the world, the regrets which settled upon him like a leaden mantle.

And so at the peak of Lavender Tower he remembered.

Agatha's papery skin drawn tight against her bones, her sunken face and eyes blazing, the strength in every word, the childish fear in her last question before they never saw each other again.

Perhaps a question for an old friend rather than a boy she'd barely known, her one acknowledgement of what came before.

Tears stung at his eyes. Lotus brushed them away, drying them with a touch of harmless green cinders that could not shrive clean the emotion flooding Ash.

Durand made into a monster with a noble heart, twisted into something terrible by the strength of her ideals. Ash remembered the gap-toothed girl on the first day of her journey, full of optimism and radiance, and felt sick at the thought of what she had become.

She could have been more.

But such wasn't the path she took. Too full of righteous fury, too dedicated to see her dreams through, too willing to justify the means. So certain that she had the right answers and no one else.

One of Lotus' eyes focused upon Ash as if to say 'I wonder who that reminds me of?'

Ash chuckled.

And last, Ash remembered Fino. Not in the death throes of his last moments in which the only peace he found was that which Lotus offered—Ash squeezed the keystone gratefully for that moment of compassion—but as the bridge between worlds.

A guiding hand on his shoulder and a comforting voice in his ears.

A kindly grandfather to all who knew him, happy to share his own wisdom while always listening to more in turn.

A dreamer.

A good man.

Ash and Lotus rested for a long while, lost in memory. He gave freely to Lotus, sharing his fears, the things he missed about Agatha and Fino and even Durand, his regrets, the things Ash wished had gone differently…

All were expressed into the world, offered, shared, and the world listened.

The ash stirred, growing thick enough that it seemed to flow into Ash's lungs with all the viscosity of thick syrup. A vast perception had listened all the while, but it was only now that it manifested.

"It's been a while," Ash called out into the kiln, sensing the animate power woven within the ash and air and stone. It was all the Ghost of Lavender's body. He rested a hand comfortingly on Lotus as the Spiritomb quailed. "I ought to thank you. You gave me courage."

Old stone ruins collapsed into a rolling sea of sandy dunes.

Such was one of the visions that Lavender saw fit to share with Ash in his future visit. Lavender bade him meet his challenge, not flee from it, and for that Ash would always owe the great Ghost of Lavender more than it could imagine.

The nightmarish amalgamation of countless souls did not reveal its true face as it did in their previous meeting.

Instead it offered familiarity.

"We meet again!" Chieko cried, spinning into existence from the bone-flecked ash upon the kiln's floor. "You made it!"

"I said I would." Ash smiled at Chieko, the unease he'd felt in the future upon their first meeting absent. He'd seen so much worse than old Lavender since then. "It's good to see you again…before?"

Chieko appeared positively tiny in her voluminous purple robes, the mark of her status as a Shion, and for a moment Ash saw her.

Gruesome wounds, blood spurting from her neck and chest, a weeping roar of her ghostly companion as it fought furiously at her side—

"Not funny," Ash groused.

Chieko giggled and waggled her fingers at him. "It's not my fault your eyes are all big and open now. Oh, this is fun!" The girl clapped. "Last time you were leaking everywhere."

"Last time, next time, all the same. I hate time travel," Ash muttered, trying not to visualize Chieko—the Ghost's—last words. "And what do you mean leaking? That's…graphic."

Lady Akemi, regal in her resplendent indigo kimono with kindness in her sapphire eyes, flickered into existence. Yet another of Lavender's countless faces, though one it seemed to favor Ash.

"Don't think about it too much, dear," Akemi chuckled. For a moment Ash thought that she'd get along famously with Glacia, though convincing Glacia to come to Lavender Tower would be quite the feat. "Time is unyielding, yes, but we spirits have a way of softening it. Sustaining ourselves in the material demands adopting some customs. That doesn't mean we adopt all of them. It truly is a delight to meet someone unchained from the normal way of things!"

Not just every ghost could have such a unique relationship with time, naturally. Pyre, perhaps. Maybe the First Reaper bound in the Harbinger's flesh, though there Ash certainly thought there was a disconnect between that mighty specter and something like the half-Legends Lavender and Pyre.

Ash peered into noble Akemi's face, realizing once more that this face of Lavender's had practically been Agatha's mother.

"I took your flowers to Mamoru and Chinatsu," Ash said, a lump in his throat as he remembered standing before the First's memorial in Mamoru's mountain. He'd mentioned it to Akemi's grave, but something demanded he say it to her face as well. "It helped, I think. Mamoru went to Indigo Plateau to see Chinatsu, and I think the message eased her mind as well."

Akemi clapped delightedly. "What a lovely boy you are, Ash! You cannot know the depths of my gratitude for setting my beloved brother's partners free. They always shared his stubbornness…I fear their devotion has been a double-edged sword."

The Indigo Lady bowed deeply to them.

He colored. Lotus' purple haze wove around his skin, soothing him by shaving away Ash's embarrassment.

"Don't bow. You've already given me the greatest gift imaginable," Ash said, brushing his fingers through the near-solid fog of Lotus. The Spiritomb's many eyes widened and it sucked back into its keystone, earning a smile from Ash. "Don't be shy, Lotus."

A tiny bit of lavender fog peeked out.

Akemi flickered into Chieko.

"What a cutie! I miss my old Gastly," Chieko sighed, her usual animation replaced with a forlorn glumness. "Poor Kumo…"

No doubt the Ghost couldn't preserve other spirits, lacking the same Aura as most other living things did. It could only devour them. Compassion surged in his chest, though there was little to say to the remains of a girl taken before her time.

Ash's thoughts were still with Akemi.

"We're not that far from Mamoru's home," Ash said, biting his lip as he fell deep into thought. "I could go now and set them free."

Chieko giggles faded into a scowl as she was replaced by the last Lady Lavender, the one who led the Secession of 827. At least the Ghost seemed happy to stick with familiar faces, though every second left Ash tracking the impression of another overlaid, every minute expression and emotion conjuring a fitting visage.

"Why bother?" Lady Lavender sneered, her haughty expression just as unpleasant as the first time they'd met. "What's forty more years?"

His brow furrowed at that, turning over his thoughts, and then was faced with a tall mystic in soft lavender robes.

"You were cast back by the Guardian of Time," the mystic said, peering closely at Ash. The wizened man smiled, kneeling so that he was on level with Ash. "There are stories of the capricious Celebi, though even I thought them faded legends. Your nature here is different from mine, anchored in the natural laws that my own nature bends."

Chieko blew a raspberry at him. "So did you bring them their pretty flowers?"

Ash looked away. "No."

"So there's your answer!" Chieko raised a finger in triumph. "Duh."

He hesitated.

"If all else fails," Ash asked doubtfully, "could you send me home?"

The Ghost chuckled. For a moment Ash witnessed its true self: the towering amalgamation of bone dust and ash, millions of doomed souls sewn together to anchor Lavender's darkness into something beautiful and horrifying and alien in equal measure.

"I am great, Ash Ketchum, but not that great. But should you lose hope, do not hesitate to rest your weary head here. What an experiment it might be to have your terrible soul at my core!"

"I'll pass," Ash said drily. "Thanks, though."

Chieko winked at him. "It was worth a shot!"

The Ghost of Lavender was a legion of consumed spirits forced into one great mass. It was the shadow of the valley, a creature horrifying and mesmerizing all in one.

But Ash had met the First Reaper. Though undoubtedly lesser than its cousins Lavender and Pyre, the Reaper chained to the Harbinger's flesh had taught Ash one vital lesson: he could give more than the Ghost of Lavender could ever take.

"Agatha…she's at peace now."

"I thought as much," Akemi said sadly, twining a finger through her black hair. Her eyes shut. "I remember your last words. Part of me wishes she had come to rest with her family, but little Agatha is of a mind with my dear Taimu. Joy escapes me to know of her passing, but it brings me contentment to know she chose her final days."

Ash hesitated for a moment, then pressed ahead. "She doesn't have a grave," he said quietly. "But I've been told there's a memorial to her near Indigo Plateau. Would…would you like me to bring her flowers from you? I still haven't had the chance to say goodbye."

Akemi's gaze softened. Her eyes shone wetly.

"This is why you're my favorite, dear boy," she said, kneeling, and whispered her request into his ear. When he nodded she rose. "This is our farewell, then, though I look forward to seeing you once again. Preferably in your own time."

"I hope so," Ash whispered, more anxious than he had been in a while about the prospect of never returning. But Oak wouldn't send him into a trap. Before he stepped out of the Kiln, however, he stiffened, recalling the various hints Agatha had mentioned of her grandfather trying to 'reclaim' her. "I don't suppose you could point me in the direction of Agatha's family?"

Chieko rubbed her hands together maliciously beneath her massive sleeves and cackled.

XX

The Hashimoto manor was just as grim as Ash remembered it, just as decrepit and heartless. He could feel the suffering that had taken place here.

It was too bad that he had to save it for Agatha to burn. But peering into the stone courtyard just reminded him that this place was where he'd said goodbye to his Agatha. This was where Ash Ketchum and the Revenant Crone would part ways for the last time.

"Begone!"

The clacking of a cane on wood interrupted his mourning. Ash's lips peeled back in a snarl as a shriveled old man came tearing out of the manor. He was a familiar sight, one of the Ghost's future visages, and Ash wasn't surprised to see the madness filling those dark bloodshot eyes.

Liver spots covered his skin. His bones jutted out from beneath his skin, though not so grotesquely as his granddaughter's would one day, and his teeth were half-rotten.

Ash was reminded of a shadow of poor Tobias, though this man had chosen his path again and again.

Worse, he had inflicted it upon an innocent child.

"Rotten little children! I've had enough of you gawking at my home!" Agatha's grandfather raved, clacking towards Ash furiously, though even the mad old man had enough sense to stop when Weavile mimed slitting his throat with a white claw from his throne atop Ash's shoulders. "The audacity! What a disrespectful brat you are. Your mother—"

"Don't," Ash said calmly. Weavile's eyes were like razors. "Shut up. Listen."

Infernus materialized behind Ash, his molten feet unable to sear clean the stone. He snarled, his body heating up to terrible levels, and the old man began to sweat and quiver at the sight of the mighty Magmortar.

Oh, how Ash longed to tell Infernus to burn Agatha's grandfather and the Hashimoto's manor down! Scourging their memory from the world would be a kindness, yes, but that pleasure belonged to old Agatha.

"Show me who you are," Ash commanded, peering into the old man's bloodshot eyes, and offered a scrap of himself in turn. The old man collapsed to one knee, frothing at the mouth, trembling, and Ash took his share, delving deep within the man's twisted psyche to ensure he knew the truth.

Raised in a tattered remnant of glory, eyes turned to the accomplishments of his forefathers.

Realization! Lavender was a shadow of its former glory, and the Hashimoto brought even lower.

Obsession. Determination. Decades spent analyzing the sealed scrolls with his son and deciphering their veiled meanings to piece together a scrap of the Hashimoto's former brilliance.

Four of his grandchildren died as they wove Distortion into their tissues. They were weak and could not take to the ghost. Failures not worth thinking about.

Success!

His granddaughter was born to greatness, would claw the Hashimoto back to their peak and introduce a new age to Lavender.

If only he could reclaim her.

Hunters went and were soundly beaten—several returned with horrible burns, complaining of a furious boy and his Charmeleon fighting in Agatha's defense.

Ghosts were captured or destroyed.

And now this little—

"I've seen enough," Ash said, withdrawing from the wretched man's spirit. He sneered at old Takashi, wishing he could wash the foul taste of the man's nature away. Could even the North Wind scour the corruption endemic to this monster? Perhaps he should try.

Shadows rushed towards them.

A Gengar appeared in a stinking miasma and a chanting Mismagius manifested from the shadows.

Weavile flickered forward before they could strike—his claws flashed and Gengar was torn to shreds, the remains blasted apart with a Dispel. The ghost's essence wasn't destroyed, but scraps of toxic gas fled to reconstitute themselves in safety.

The Mismagius's chanting sped up frantically, but Weavile undid the spirit's spell with a wave of his claw and rush of Distortion.

Mismagius made to flee, but met with Weavile's claws to its tattered robe-like body instead.

Wielding his Distortional manipulation like a fine blade, Weavile hooked his claws into Mismagius' back and tore deep into the spectre's incorporeal flesh.

Darkness flooded his claws, weaving deep within Mismagius, and Weavile unveiled the next evolution of Dispel, the next stop on a long path: the Distortion embedded in his weapons sprayed deep and entangled the ghost's own essence…and then tore it apart as Weavile ripped his claws out.

Rend.

The pulse of Distortion resonated with Mismagius. Ash had only a second to see its eyes widen before it burst apart into a dozen little wisps.

Each fled, fearful of true destruction if Weavile faced them again, and followed Gengar to lick their wounds and reform over the next few hours. Weavile leapt back onto Ash's shoulders and smirked back at Infernus, who offered the dark-type a begrudging nod of respect.

"Thank you, Weavile."

Weavile saluted.

"Agatha goes free," Ash said simply, crouching so that old Takashi had to meet his eyes. Weavile made a rude gesture at the evil old man and cackled. "I'll know if you bother her again."

"Who—thought it was a Charmeleon," Takashi Hashimoto gasped, clutching his bony chest. "A Charmeleon!"

Ash smiled humorlessly.

"I wonder how hot you'd have to burn before there was nothing left for the Ghost to claim?"

Infernus' lips twisted into an ugly smile, eyes gleeful at that, and spat a thin stream of flame onto the old man's cane. Weavile and Infernus both laughed as Takashi collapsed, gasping, spasming on the ground.

If it were literally anyone else, Ash would've apologized in a heartbeat and helped them to their feet.

But he'd tasted Takashi's putrid nature.

Anything redeemable had been excised of Takashi's own volition long ago, cast aside as useless hindrances in his mad quest to bring the Hashimoto to their former glory.

"Even think of Agatha again and we'll burn more than your cane," Ash said pleasantly, rising to his feet even as Weavile stuck his pink tongue out at the prone, hateful man. "Have a good day, Takashi."

And with that, they left the Hashimoto manor and its cruel old master behind.

They had some training to do.

XX

"Your grandfather is absolutely awful," Ash told Agatha in between commands called out absentmindedly for Infernus, who menaced Sammy's scrappy Charmeleon with roaring gouts of flame and brutal blows that sent the Charmeleon sprawling, though the fire-type grew stronger and faster by the day.

Agatha laughed bitterly. "You don't know the half of it."

He smirked.

The battle intensified for a moment and a fraction of Ash's attention was demanded.

"Charmeleon, Toshi's Theorem, followed by—" Sammy hollered out his own orders at lightning speed, throwing his and Charmeleon's utmost into challenging Infernus. Charmeleon was quick to respond, fighting furiously with great clouds of smoke to cloud his attacks, and Infernus leapt back as Charmeleon flung three silvery orbs into the ground, animating it with his will as the Ancient Power flung the earth at Infernus.

Charmeleon had mostly mastered the technique by the time Ash had met him, but Tangrowth's constant games had gone a long way in taking the ability to the next level. Charmeleon acted swiftly now, manipulating stone and earth to trip up Infernus and unsettle his footing, though Infernus was used to such tactics and easily rolled with the punches.

Infernus mostly just had fun with the battle, viciously punishing every single mistake Charmeleon made while exulting in his own strength, allowing even the hottest of Charmeleon's flames to wash off his molten skin harmlessly. Heat wavered around him, twisting the air and igniting the grass and foliage all around, but Charmeleon strode fearlessly through as it lashed out, relying primarily on draconic techniques to strike against Infernus.

Though Charmeleon was a far cry from the engine of destruction it would become in the future, Ash was impressed nonetheless by his resilience and attunement to battle. He had excellent instincts, a quick mind deserving of a brilliant trainer like Sammy, and the flexibility to adapt to whatever techniques Infernus decided to use to toy with the reptile.

"You…you actually met him?" Agatha's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "How did you even know what to look for?"

"An evil old man wasting perfectly good oxygen? He stood out. Weavile had fun playing with his ghosts, though."

Agatha scowled, more at how Weavile and Nidoking danced around her ghosts off to the side, easily sensing their Distortional presence in order to react with unnatural swiftness, and peered at Ash again. "Had fun? They're Conference-level."

Ash smiled.

Infernus lazily kicked Charmeleon back, sending him flying, and Charmeleon scrambled with his claws to catch himself, roaring his challenge as he readied to throw himself back into battle.

What a shame, Spirit-Ablaze. You have a long way to go.

Abra's eyes flashed behind Sammy as she yawned. It was odd seeing the dignified Alakazam that Ash knew in such a nascent form, but Ash honestly found it quite charming to communicate with her. It had taken a good week for her to look at Ash without fainting—and the excuses to a puzzled Sammy grew lamer and lamer while Agatha giggled evilly—but she'd grown quite excited to follow Dazed around like an eager young Growlithe.

The rest of Oak's team cheered Charmeleon on as he fought harder and harder, though Infernus proved an insurmountable volcano more than capable of weathering Charmeleon's every attack. Draconic flame bathed Infernus, biting at him, but Infernus was used to far harsher battles and weathered it with ease.

"Charmeleon's too aggressive," Agatha muttered. "He never knows when to quit."

"That can be an asset," Ash said, staring at Infernus as a wave of psychic force blasted out from him to part Charmeleon's Smokescreen and reveal his foe. "Quitting is for suckers."

"And people with an ounce of intelligence," Agatha retorted. "Not every fight can be won—I don't care how stubborn you are, some things just aren't possible."

"Maybe not, but who cares about winning? You can still learn from them. You can still grow."

Agatha was quiet.

Infernus grinned as Charmeleon's fires burned at new heights of temperature, shading turquoise as the lesser fire-type infused draconic might into every blast to bite at Infernus' skin, and cackled, turning his back on Charmeleon as if to say he was truly no threat to Infernus.

"Charmeleon!" Sammy cried as his face burned red with anger for his friend. "It's time."

Charmeleon bellowed. The rest of the forest grew silent beneath the guttural cry even as Charmeleon's red flesh pulsed white.

That's more like it. Show him what's what, brother.

The brilliant glow burned like a second sun.

Ash fell silent, nodding in respect to Sammy as Charmeleon evolved.

Bone and muscle contorted. Great wings burst from Charmeleon's back like hooks, soon filling in with dark membranes. His tail grew longer and thicker, swishing with renewed flame, and Charmeleon's neck stretched long as heaps upon heaps of tissue was built in a matter of seconds.

And when it was done and Charizard stood before them, Ash cheered just as loudly as an ecstatic Sammy and his team did.

"How are you going to reach us now?" Sammy cried, clapping madly for the newborn Charizard as he took to the skies on clumsy wings. The bright-eyed boy danced alongside his team for the new evolution. "I think this is—"

That's when they decided to show Sammy and Charizard that Infernus could teleport.

"Not fair!"

XX

"Ash, may I ask you something?"

He stilled for a moment as he groomed Tangrowth, carefully picking out bits of wood from his vines and pruning damaged appendages with a pair of secateurs. His friend snoozed happily by the campfire, his vines wrapped gently around Ash and the rest of the team (plus a handful of Agatha and Sammy's friendly teammates).

"Anytime." Ash smiled at Sammy. Most of their time was spent rambling on about their various passions—Sammy his technology and machines while Ash was all too eager to discuss all the history he knew prior to this day, not to mention collecting whatever scraps Sammy had heard to add to his notes—but Ash was always eager when their discussions went deeper.

It was a little less stressful as well. Ash worried every day that he'd provide Sammy with that one extra scrap of knowledge that would undo his own future—to be honest, Ash should just venture off into the wilderness in order to avoid any unpleasant accidents, but he couldn't bring himself to pull away from Sammy.

Sammy's kindness was like a light. He couldn't understand what Ash had been through (and Ash wasn't about to put that on him) but his cheerful naivety was terribly refreshing.

Hoenn had offered so much to Ash and his friends, but it had also scarred him terribly.

To see someone so happy and full of earnest cheer…well, could Ash be blamed for wanting to bask in Sammy's presence?

"What drives you?" Sammy asked, leaning back against Blastoise's tough belly. The great turtle snored behind him, unconsciously leaning forward to wrap around his trainer while Sammy poked away at the fire with a skewer. "You're like no one else I've ever met, you know! I…I didn't know it was possible to be so strong so young."

This was a world that had never known the meteoric rises of Champion Lance Wataru, Steven Stone, and Cynthia Carolina.

This was a world that had never seen Samuel Oak shatter record after record.

Ash watched Sammy with sharp eyes, scratching at his chin just as Steven might, as he took off a particularly burned vine from Tangrowth. The appendage tied around his forearm squeezed thankfully as Tangrowth snored.

"Well…" Ash trailed off, glad that Agatha was curled up in her sleeping bag not too far away. He always had to hold his tongue a little more warily when she was listening. "Lots of things drive me. I have to be strong enough to protect my team. There are dangerous things out there, Sammy."

Sammy's nose wrinkled. "Like poachers?"

"Something like that," Ash agreed, remembering the black uniforms of Team Rocket and hiding a scowl. Then he thought of Mewtwo's burning blue eyes, the din of the Birds' clash, the creeping crystal of the Unown. "But there are bigger things as well. And ultimately it's your job to make sure you can protect what you love. No one else will do it for you."

A job that Ash was failing miserably, he thought with a touch of bitterness. They might have left Team Rocket in the dust, but they were to face far greater threats than poachers or the cruel regime which ruled Unova with an iron fist.

What were mortals to the eternal war between Land and Sea?

"You always look a little sad," Sammy spoke up hesitantly. "Are you…did you lose someone?"

"Yeah," Ash rasped. "I did. But it's a long way out now."

And it was, Ash realized. Ignoring the fact that Durand wasn't even born yet and wouldn't die for another forty years, it had been nearly a month (in his experience, at least) since that terrible day. Time didn't care for woes nor joy. It moved steadfastly onward.

His eyes squeezed shut as he envisioned Durand burnt and twisted, bright eyes slowly dimming as she called him by a title he didn't truly deserve.

"We lost a few people," Ash said quietly, "but it will never happen again. We won't allow it. We'll train every waking hour if we have to, but it's because we've lost them that makes us willing to keep pushing harder."

Sammy watched him curiously. "I never want to lose anything," Sammy said, and Ash had to look away. "We want to be strong too."

"You are strong," Ash said. "And you could be so much stronger. Your potential is infinite, Sammy. You're as strong as you believe you can be—and as strong as you work to be. Set your sights high and you'll never be disappointed. Content yourself with what's easy and you'll forever wonder what you might have been."

"Set my sights high," Sammy murmured, peering intently at Ash. "I can do that!"

Ash's lips curved upwards. He pruned off another gnarled vine. "I know you can."

"You're a strange guy, Ash!" Sammy chirped, grinning. "But I'm glad we stumbled across you in Ilex Forest!"

"Me too," Ash said quietly. "Me too. I think it was just what I needed."

"Happy to be of service!" Sammy cheered.

Ash grinned back. "And you know what?" He said, thinking to himself. "I'm not just about protecting the people I care about. You know the best part about battling?"

"What is it?" Sammy's eyes shone.

"It's fun."

Sammy laughed at that, nodding in agreement, and Ash smiled. Sammy took so much joy in the simple pleasures of life—grooming his team, meeting and teaching other trainers, examining Agatha's mutated red blood cells under the microscope—and Ash wasn't about to steal that away.

Besides, battling was fun. The thrill of competition, the testing of his team's limits, the exultation in their power…what could be better?

But even so—

Ash froze.

He sat up ramrod straight.

Infernus stirred from his lava bath a few hundred feet away, the cherry-red glow brightening as its master perked up.

They felt the Fire in their blood sing.

Something was coming.

Ash felt several Legends stir, a distant tug on his awareness as they lazily investigated the new intruder upon their domain, but none had ever seemed more than somewhat interested. While he knew their relationship to time was…flexible, as had been proven with Suicune, they also seemed relatively inured to his sudden appearance, although Ash also didn't want to claim he knew the thoughts of any Legend.

But their champions, on the other hand…

An ancient mind, noble and unbent by a millennium of life, pursued him, drawing nearer with every passing breath. It rose from its grotto in Indigo Plateau as a flurry of living flame that Ash could feel and darted west across the hinterlands like one of Lucille's fiery arrows, though Ash had no idea what might have stirred Chinatsu after he'd been in the past for over three weeks.

He didn't need any idea.

All Ash knew was that Chinatsu was dangerous, too powerful by far, and quite possibly ruthless enough to extinguish his spark. Lance had whispered stories to Ash of the last few times Chinatsu had emerged from her grotto in defense of Indigo.

None of them had been pretty.

Armies had been slaughtered, beset by ghosts spawned and commanded by the First's partner, and greedy Champions driven by greed to twist the foundations of the Indigo League had been snuffed out like a burning candle.

"Nope," Ash blurted out of the blue, drawing an odd look from Sammy. Did he think Chinatsu would hurt him without cause? Likely not. It was possible she'd only just finally grown curious enough about the new bearer of another Golden Feather to come investigate. But the ancient Ninetales had never offered any hints that she'd met him before… "Smell ya later, Sammy. Where can I meet you next?"

"Um, Ash? It's almost midnight."

"Yep."

Sammy blinked, utterly perplexed as Ash calmly recalled most of his team and saddled up Plume, who was rather put out at the sudden interruption to her nap in the old boughs of a nearby Oak tree before Ash whispered the details of their new situation into her ear.

That perked her up.

While Ash ignored Sammy's questions, confident that Chinatsu wouldn't pursue once he left this place, he was grateful to the young Oak for scribbling down a brief itinerary of their future plans and pressing it into Ash's hand as he sensed Chinatsu blazing across Johto at incredible speed, seemingly making the most of being roused from her long vigil.

"Thanks," Ash said. He offered Sammy a lazy salute as he hopped up on Plume. "I'll catch you soon, okay?"

"You're so weird!" Sammy laughed, although it didn't sound at all like he thought it was a bad thing. "But okay. See you soon! What should I tell Aggie?"

"Something ominous," Ash decided after a moment's thought. "Something that'll make her mad."

"I don't know…" Sammy bit his lip. "Wouldn't that be mean?"

"She'll love it," Ash assured him, patting Plume on her glossy neck. "Or just tell her I'm off to grab some groceries."

"She's going to kill you. Or at least emotionally scar you!"

Ash laughed at that, then Plume whisked them off into the air in a rush of wind. The last thing they heard was Agatha's startled yelp as her sleeping bag was buffeted by the sudden gust.

That was future Ash's problem, he thought.

For now…Hoenn awaited them.

XX

To be honest, Ash had no idea where they were really headed. All he knew was that he wanted away from Chinatsu and the territory she defended—if nothing else, he wasn't anxious to be interrogated by an ancient figure who left him only a little less wary than Haukea.

But despite all that happened there, Ash desperately missed Hoenn. Its lush tropical forests, rich and vibrant communities of wild pokémon, and kind people had more than grown on him, though that awful sweaty humidity certainly hadn't!

It was a second home by now, though Ash felt terribly lonely as he realized those he loved weren't there to welcome him back. Hoenn's gorgeous landscapes might be waiting for him, but not the family and friends that actually made it a home.

Steven and Flannery were decades away, as was Phoebe. Neither was Sidney, although Ash doubted he'd even want to see Sidney if he was. Although that did beg the question of whether a child Sidney was as punchable as the adult version…

Glacia never mentioned her age to Ash, but he had access to most League files. Ash knew that she wasn't even a trainer yet, likely not even in school yet.

And Fino…he was alive. Alive and well, negotiating and shaking hands and urging enemies to become friends, and yet he was farthest away of all. A stranger. That left Ash's heart sinking in a particularly miserable sort of way.

Craving connection, Ash was all too happy to embrace unity with Plume, exhaling in relief as they became one in familiar black skies. Their avian half's sight was dull in the dark, but what did that matter when they saw the truth of the world?

Unsure of what to do, they defaulted to instinct and did a lazy circle of Hoenn. Such a mundane task was done more to burn time than anything, to be honest, though it relaxed them all the same. Memories of previous flights in distant years flickered through their mind, each inviting a comparison of subtly different landmarks and the different stars offered up by a new season.

While Hoenn was dear to their hearts, it didn't strike quite so close as flying over Indigo did. It wasn't so insistent upon jabbing them with reminder after reminder that this was an alien time which they could never belong to, and as such left them free to exult in the freedom they embraced.

Vast stretches of sea and green-bathed tracts of lands passed beneath them in a blur, island chains crossed in the blink of an eye, and they laughed delightedly as they were reminded Hoenn wasn't so friendly as it was in their time: protectors rose on the backs of Tropius and Swellow and Flygon as they swept across various territories, spitting on the tense borders of the city-states which would dissolve to nothing in just over a decade.

They evaded their various bands of pursuers with ease, taunting them with emboldened song and laughter as they left the sound barrier far behind them—they rubbed their superiority into the defenders' face, pushing their limits to the utmost as they embraced the wind and Sky in its rawest form.

And Hoenn was so different. Peaceful. Still.

Ignoring the frantic pursuit of the city-states' aerial forces, at any rate.

Earth didn't shudder.

The Sea's Roar was soft, nearly absent, still bound firmly by Lugia's seals.

They laughed and laughed and laughed.

"Sleep away, god-things!" They thundered from the heavens as they darted towards the firmament-scraping Sky Pillar, flitting away from a lone Pidgeot in Sootopolis' service that couldn't hope to keep up. They teased it for a time, allowing it to keep them just barely in sight, "Enjoy your slumber. We will be waiting when you rise. We will greet you with talons and fury!"

Their route around Hoenn revealed that cities such as Lilycove and Sootopolis were greater than in Ash's day, larger and more developed yet less technologically advanced. Mauville was just the faintest shadow of what it would grow into beneath Wattson's guiding hand, though they caught sight of the foundations of the future New Mauville.

Hoenn felt like their playground, boundless and laid bare to their eyes and song, and they exulted in skimming the waves at breakneck speed, feeling the comforting brush of wind against their faces as they immersed themselves in the deepest natures of the sea and sky.

Not the base earth, however. Why would they ever wish to lower themselves by brushing mundane dirt and soil?

Yet joy exploded in their hearts as they saw the Sky Pillar bathed in the light of dawn, indomitable and identical as it was in their own day, an anchor on which time's crawl had no effect, jut higher. More importantly, it was there that they found the answering roars of those who could match them.

Dream of matching them, more like.

They felt the draconic fury of the Sky quiver in the presence of Drake the Dragon Master, dark-eyed and possessing the same bushy mustache, as he stood tall at the base of the Sky Pillar with his young students.

Their eyes pierced space and air easily, picking out every detail of Drake in both the physical world and below. He was still old—perhaps around Lance and Steven's age in Ash's time, maybe a little younger—but undeniably Drake, impressive mustache and grumpy expression and all.

…Drake had on the same exact outfit as well, consisting of well-worn boots, a long coat open at the chest which was in far better shape than in their proper time, and a bottle of clear liquor in his hand which he passed without a thought to a young girl with dark skin and black hair who stood at his side.

But beneath Drake's physical form lay a dragon's spirit—

Snorting, grumbling, eager to spread his wings and fly. Greedy for one thing: freedom, filled with lust to feel the air beneath his wings and go wherever he would. Hunger! Hunger to claim, to dominate, to take whatever his whims demanded…yet filled with even greater hunger to rule himself most of all, to be the master of the chains he chose.

They grinned, not daring to land amidst Drake and the six students he led in drills while nursing the bottle (at least once a bright-eyed Morma who was around their human half's age passed the liquor back to her master) but eager to test themselves.

Dragons saw the intruders in their most sacred place and roared. Snarls greeted them as plumes of dragonfire erupted into the sky, blazing turquoise as it fed upon the Sky's fury, and they laughed and laughed as they effortlessly darted around it, the unyielding grip of the atmosphere around Sky Pillar traversed with a little more ease than the last time they'd visited.

Their unity freed them! Where their avian half alone struggled, fighting constantly with the Sky Pillar's nature to soar, together they carved their way through the heavens.

Drake looked up at them with barely a care, seemingly unbothered by their presence, but the eager cries of his students took the challenge for what it was. The six dragon specialists—and future Masters—varied in age, with the youngest being Morma and another boy while the oldest was perhaps twenty.

They watched Drake's students hungrily, committing details to memory to write down in their notebooks later. Most of Drake's students had met with poor fates during and after the war, with only Morma remaining an active (or living) presence.

The Dragon Master waved them off, though Victor leapt into the sky alongside Drake's students and their Salamence, Flygon, and even a lone Dragonite which tore off after the challengers, though their movements through the air were inexperienced and clumsy, struggling to even lift off.

"So slow!" They cried, shooting off into the horizon in a blur of speed, laughing again as the chains of the greedy Sky Pillar faded, forcing back the Earth and Sea alike with its might.

Morma didn't ride atop her loyal Flygon, Dewdrop—they remembered her saying the friendly dragon was thirty-seven years old back at the Stone gala—but instead chased after them on a young Salamence. She pushed into the lead, though the only reason Drake's students (who Victor, Drake's Salamence, trailed after lazily) could even see them was because of the game.

Sea and archipelago passed beneath them. Lesser pokémon and trainers hid in the canopy as they shot by, trailed by the eager dragons unwilling to lose this race, and they never offered their pursuers an attack.

Victor would be fine, they were certain, mighty beyond belief even at this young age, but they didn't want to harm Drake's students—ignoring the simple ethical problems, they had no desire to attract too much attention in Hoenn, which they hoped to be a refuge from Chinatsu when necessary.

Oh, but to test their might against Drake unbridled…

Temptation stirred.

They did not attack, but laughed madly as they burst forward quickly enough to leave Victor and the students' sight, shot up, up, up through the clouds…and then dove with a crack of thunder to come tearing down into the midst of the students' and their partners, scattering the specialists before. All Drake's students saw was a rush of color before they were back in their place ahead.

"Keep up, Odonike!" They teased, the wind carrying their words farther than it should as the students shouted and roared with their dragons. "Make your master proud, little Drakeling!"

Morma growled and flipped them off. So did her Salamence…or at least the great dragon did its best to raise a single claw as it spread its scarlet wings wide and tore off after them, breaking free from the pack.

The game continued as they led Victor and his students on a merry chase across the mainland, miles blinking by. Salamence were fast, though more adapted for aerial maneuvering and hunting than the absurd speed of Dragonite, but even with various speed enhancements they couldn't keep up with the brilliant Mega Pidgeot and her glorious rider.

They wondered if Victor and the students even knew what they faced! Mega Evolution was virtually unknown in Hoenn now, largely thought native to Kalos and a few other scattered locations across the world alongside their fairies, although they knew the secret wasn't entirely hidden.

As fine of fliers as Victor and his students were, they were no Lance. That was the standard they were held to. Drake's team made good use of their aerial mobility and speed, but they had watched dozens of the Dragon Master's battles.

Raw, unbridled power was his domain.

Victor might have just barely been able to keep Plume alone in his sights if he pushed himself to his limits, but against them? Ha!

Plains and tropical forest bled into rocky slopes and the craggy mountains with a monster laying beneath them. It wasn't long before they laughed, an idea coming to mind, and led the dragons on a merry chase over the Meteor Village where the Draconids dwelled.

Lesser dragons rose up to meet them…and then balked at the magnificent Pidgeot and the panting pursuers chasing after her.

They cackled, sped off towards Lavaridge, and sighed in both disappointment and glee as the dragons slowly fell behind, unwilling to cross more borders than they already had. Several waves of air patrols from various forts and towns had attempted to intercept them during their game, though they had balked at the prospect of challenging the mighty dragons.

"We win!" They sang, ensuring the wind carried it to Morma's ears, and they laughed again as the girl shook her fist furiously at them. Good! Let her use it as fuel.

But their hearts sombered as they darted around Mt. Chimney—and how strange it was to see the volcano peaceful and content, still unawakened—and everything in their spirit twisted when they caught sight of that awful place where they would one day confront Durand with Fino…

They landed, sorrow weighing them down, and found the spot, almost identical to where Durand would be struck down and Fino slain by Shiftry's Bullet Seed.

They were silent for a long time.

A greedy, desperate part of them longed to dip over to Lavaridge proper and find Fino proper, to introduce themselves to a young stranger, shake his hand, and thank him for everything he would one day do…

Oh, to see Fino's blissfully alive face unlined with the weight of years. To meet a man whose wisdom was largely unearned still, replaced by hope unfettered by experience.

But they stopped themselves as the cries of Lavaridge's own air defense patrols came piercing through the canopy. Their human half desperately clutched at a small handful of the soil which would one day mark Fino's resting place, sighed, and they soon took off to evade their pursuers.

They might have turned it into a game as they had with Victor and Drake's students…but they didn't much feel like playing any longer.

Rather than sunny Lavaridge, they found a lonely island to train upon instead.

It fit their new mood far better.

XX

Based on Sammy's itinerary, Ash would need to wait around six days before meeting up with his friends once more. While he would've loved to see them sooner, Ash was wary of returning to Johto too soon.

It didn't help that Sammy and Agatha planned to travel to Goldenrod next—they'd visited not too long ago, but apparently there was some tournament that both were eager to compete in. They'd already made an arrangement to split whatever cash prizes they'd won, certain that it would be enough to carry them forward on their journeys for another few months.

Ash would love to assist them in their preparations, but there was no way he was stepping foot into Goldenrod. Part of him wished nothing more than to swing by and check out the Hale Mansion, mixed as his memories might be of the majestic manor, and perhaps see his Uncle Spencer as a boy, yet Ash feared the League now more than ever.

Chinatsu had stirred. It wouldn't keep Ash entirely from Indigo, but he would always be wary of the golden Ninetales. She wouldn't kill him for the sake of it, Ash was certain, but he had no wish to truly fight her.

Though Infernus might…

Ash put those thoughts out of his mind. He'd flown around a few times on Plume's back in the past day, but they did have to keep their movements a little more subdued than the delightfully reckless way they'd torn through borders and air patrols yesterday.

To be honest, Ash didn't particularly fear much of Hoenn at this point in time. Not like he did Indigo.

Drake had developed a reputation for terrifying strength back in his twenties, though his path to the Ever Grande Champion's mantle would seal his place as the mightiest in the world in a decade, and Ash expected his oldest student could brush Master-level at this point as well.

But it was also Drake. The Dragon-Made-Man cared little for political concerns or the squabbles of humanity (which made his future path all the more ironic). He'd barely even paid attention when a Mega Pidgeot and her rider came and challenged his students at the Sky Pillar itself.

So no, Ash wasn't particularly worried about Drake.

It was rare for the city-states to even possess a single Master, buried by competition and fear of their rivals. Fino Moore was one of the very few Masters who actively served a government in Hoenn, though he largely used the weight of his skills to foster new connections and nip conflict in the bud.

Most other Masters were Nomads, gathered only to the future Ever Grande League because Drake was the Nomad, and acted as pieces who the city-states operated around. Without the unity and organization of the League, Hoenn was divided and weak, left vulnerable to those mighty individuals capable of tearing through legions of lesser trainers.

Ash was one of many powerful trainers resident to Hoenn in his own time. Lone Masters could be buried in the forces of the League or (out)matched by the Elite Four and Champion. The concerted resources and might of a region could be brought down upon a rogue like Durand, though that didn't stop Master-level trainers with a bone to pick from being an immense problem.

But in these fractured little ponds, Ash and his team were amongst the mightiest. They could very well shift the balance of power if they decided to play politics…not that they ever would.

Something strange must have crossed Ash's face. Nidoking chuffed and tapped his shoulder with a dull claw, earning a smile from Ash as he jerked himself back to reality.

"Sorry, buddy. Just thinking," Ash said. He turned his eyes to the Moon Stone sliver clutched in Nidoking's grip. "Any luck?"

Nidoking shook his head despondently, though the Moon Stone's presence was a balm upon his disappointment. With Nidoking proving more adept at wielding the Moon Stone's strength, they'd begun to make efforts to manifest that power without being so reliant on the Moon Stone.

It was possible! Ash was certain of that. There was power buried within the Moon Stone, true, but that rigid order must be possible to wield otherwise. It was…familiar, reminiscent of the Concepts in so many ways, and itched at Ash, like a half-memory that was so terribly close to being recalled entirely.

Nothing like it could truly be found in the world, such perfect order dispersed by time and entropy and the ticking clock of the universe, yet in the Moon Stone there was a reminiscence of what came before. A little drop of the beginning.

And if Ash could help Nidoking find a way to remember that sensation, to feel it flood throughout his spirit in the same way that Ash could, then the world would be Nidoking's to conquer.

Ash shuddered at the thought and turned to Nidoking, who frowned down at the Moon Stone in his grip and offered it to Ash. He took it for a moment, stared into those inky depths, and then handed it back to his friend.

"We won't be able to take it everywhere with us," Ash murmured, pressing the Moon Stone sliver gently into Nidoking's claws, which closed reverently around the void-like shard. He embraced the power within, feeling the Concept buried inside the Moon Stone rise up in his own mind as a bastion of perfect order, and smiled up at Nidoking. "But if we do this right, I don't think we'll need to."

Nidoking chuffed back, butting his cheek against Ash's, and they both grinned.

"You have a lot on your plate…" Ash trailed off. "Perfecting your earth manipulation, picking up Weavile's new tricks, amplifying Superpower with Bruiser, training for Remote Teleportation alongside Dazed. And now this. I worry about you, you know?

His friend looked fondly at Ash for a moment, dark eyes warming, and flicked him in the forehead with a big claw.

"Hey!"

Nidoking grunted out a bout of laughter as he plodded off, his tail dragging behind to swish around the sand, and Lairon warbled cheerfully as he skated after his teacher. They'd been working together frequently, especially with Lairon mastering his magnetic and metallic abilities to a sufficient level to begin branching out into new disciplines.

Metal Burst was a fine addition to Lairon's arsenal that had come to fruition after the last few weeks in the past, adding yet another defensive option that wouldn't test Lairon's iron hide. Dragon Rush was mostly complete now, and after Lairon perfected it in full they had plans to explore elemental possibilities.

Before they left, Nidoking's eyes flashed blue and Ash felt a dizzying rush of information trickle into his mind. It was hard to piece the flood of images and impressions and feelings together—Sammy smiling at Ash and Nidoking from across the campfire, long talks into the night with a thawing Agatha, wandering without the shadow hanging over them, their brothers and sisters attacking their training with renewed vigor—but the pieces slowly settled into something whole.

"You're right," Ash exhaled. "We have a lot on our plate…but at least we have all the time in the world."

Nidoking grunted out another laugh before taking Lairon off into the distant dunes to train, the sand rippling around him with every footstep thanks to his honed earth manipulation. Ash watched them go for a moment, but it wasn't long before he attended to the rest of the team as they trained.

Plume had whisked them far, far into the archipelago, almost at the very edge of what could be considered Hoenn, and Ash had no fear of city-state forces coming across them. Mossdeep was more concerned with Sootopolis and Lilycove pressing its borders to the west then it was to the barren island chains to the east that led to sunken Onulo.

Ash absentmindedly strolled over towards Torrent, who was occupied wresting control over the draconic power in the atmosphere to fuel a wavering Draco Meteor, though he couldn't quite generate it purely through the latent energies. He still had to provide the initial spark through his own strength, but Ash was optimistic of what was to come.

Even this stepping stone allowed Torrent a method to conserve stamina, allowing him to squeeze every drop of potential from his plated body. When one broke into the hallowed territory of Master-level every single improvement mattered.

A minute improvement paid massive dividends and might make the difference against another Master-level foe.

Ash was optimistic that this might be far more than a 'minute' gain.

Still, Ash couldn't help but turn his thoughts to Nidoking as he heard his friend and Lairon clash amidst the sunny dunes—Nidoking was burdened with so many projects, but Nidoking never stopped pushing and driving himself forward, shouldering every new challenge with eager determination.

Progress might have been slow, but the more Nidoking learned and explored different facets of disparate abilities, the more connections he grew and the greater his synthesis of so many parts became.

Nidoking was formidable beyond belief now. But when he united these various disciplines into one…then he would be a true monster.

Still, Ash worried about Nidoking's obsessive dive into the Moon Stone. While Ash had shown Nidoking as much as he could, brushing their souls together to give Nidoking his own insights into the orderly nature of the sliver, Nidoking just wasn't as spiritually attuned as Ash himself.

Nidoking had devoted his life to Ash, to the team, and struggled to abandon his attachment for even an instant. And how could one peer into the depths of the universe if they couldn't look past their earthly tethers?

His friend's connections were his greatest strength, but Nidoking's ironclad devotion ensured his mind remained rooted and steadfast.

Ash dreamed of sharing the same unity with Nidoking as he did with Plume, of mixing their souls until there was no beginning and no end, only one. The things they could do together…the things they could accomplish!

Perhaps that was the only way they could grow any more entwined than they already were.

They might not have a Mega Stone to empower them, Ash thought, but there was no reason they could not be one!

One day…

"Good work!" Ash cheered on Torrent as his friend fired the partly-fueled Draco Meteor into the lapping waves. It was unstable enough that it partially detonated, the rest dissipated in a rush of light and heat, but it was progress nonetheless! Water burst upward in a great geyser beneath the failed technique. "You've come a long way, Torrent."

The great Kingdra's scarlet eyes glimmered as he rose tall and proud, his levitation unwavering. Water twisted and danced with his pleasure, leaping from the sea in great sprays of foam. Both Ash and Torrent embraced the easy notes of the Song rising from the vast green ocean, calling to them with familiarity that extended beyond the adamant rivers of time.

"Show me what you can do with pure draconic manipulation," Ash said. Torrent nodded, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment as he wrenched a few turquoise sparks into existence, stealing them from their master.

Sparks fanned, growing brighter and fiercer, the primal Fires of Creation commanded by Torrent's blazing presence.

At last, a Dragonbreath exploded from Torrent's snout, fueled by nothing more than the endless strength of the Apterous Serpent. It was not Torrent's strongest, true, but Ash supposed the attack wasn't really Torrent's at all…

It rushed over the waves with its blue-green light, casting the emerald waters in a brighter hue, and the seaborne winds surged over their little island, wailing as if the Sky itself recognized their power.

"Yes!" Ash cried, dancing up and down in the sand. Torrent sagged, a little weary from his efforts—though he didn't expend his true strength, it was exhausting to wrestle with the atmosphere for dominion over the flecks of power which permeated it. Only the mightiest wills could hope to steal the primal fire.

That was the biggest issue with the technique. It took both incredible circumstances to even detect the draconic power, but actually commanding it…well, it didn't take easily to a new master. Monstrous skill to feel out and make contact with the power must be balanced with the mental fortitude to stare into the Sky's eyes and declare, 'I am your master now."

But the biggest hurdle was getting started and tackling the sky-high learning curve. Now that Torrent had mastered the initial steps and could consistently manifest the draconic sparks, Ash expected progress would come a little more rapidly.

And through this, Ash saw Torrent's next evolution: access to nigh-infinite stamina, the ability to spit in the face of the rules until they shattered like glass, and the utility to make something like Obliterator (gorgeous weapon of war that it was) the least of its impacts.

Lance had learned to ignite the atmospheric tinder.

Torrent would learn to rule it like the monarch he was.

Through this, Torrent would be able to command his full might no matter how far he was from the sea.

"Yes, yes!" Ash hissed as Torrent spewed another brilliant gout of turquoise flame which twisted the sand into glass and sent water spiraling into the air as hot steam. "We're almost there, Torrent. Remember that plan we talked about a few days ago?"

Torrent's red eyes flashed with the same excitement as the little Horsea he'd once been. His mighty form practically quivered, sending the water all around them squirming in turn.

No doubt Plume was going to have the same reaction if they actually pulled it off…

"We can do it," Ash said, staring intently at Torrent. "We can do it."

A deep, happy rumble was his only response before Torrent returned to his training with renewed ferocity, intent upon breaking through this ceiling which would lead to the greatest heights of all.

The rest of the team kept busy as well, of course. Stepping backwards in time seemed to have loosened the noose around their necks—while they allowed more time for play now that the world's end wasn't mere months away, the peace of mind made their training all the more efficient.

It was one thing to grind relentlessly, Ash and the team alike pushing their bodies and minds to their fullest capacity, but it was quite another to be able to breathe. With the pressure eased they could pursue more possibilities and dive deeper than ever before without worrying about wasted seconds.

They could explore.

Bruiser and Tangrowth trained together towards the island's center, the grass-type opting to help Bruiser learn Rock Tomb (sometimes with Lairon chipping in). Much of their training these past months had gone towards assisting Bruiser as he fought with his monstrously powerful body to regain sufficient control that he wouldn't crumple stone like cardboard.

But with mastery over his own body assured, Ash and Bruiser felt ready to move in different directions—while they had plans for Bruiser to lean a little more into ranged options to compensate for his reliance on close quarters combat, right now the biggest problem Bruiser faced was keeping his foes near him.

It wasn't just that every rational creature under the sun wanted to be as far away from Bruiser as physically possible in a fight. No, another issue altogether was that Bruiser was just too strong—a single one of his blows could hurl foes across the arena, forcing him to waste energy chasing them all around.

Bruiser had no need for greater strength at this moment. What they needed to do was squeeze every drop of efficiency possible from him. With Rock Tomb there to trap and slow opponents, Bruiser would be able to land blow after blow without fear of sending them away.

There was the very real likelihood that Bruiser's punches would send them right through the rock, but at least it would keep them a little closer.

"Good!" Ash called out as Bruiser practiced with Tangrowth, then smiled as Seeker fluttered down from a nearby tree and nearly tackled him, latching onto his back with a happy chattering. Three of his arms continued raining down telegraphed blow after telegraphed blow upon a bulky Hariyama made of stone and earth courtesy of Tangrowth—none of his blows actually connected, though even the shockwave from each strike left cracks in the figure.

The last of Bruiser's arms tossed a purple sphere of light into the earth behind Hariyama, wrenching up a great wall of stone about six feet high. And with that done, Bruiser allowed a single one of his blows to brush the false Hariyama.

It flew back with a crack, slamming into the wall and half-crumbling into dust before Bruiser leapt at it and drove another fist into its gut, leaving it nothing but scattered clumps of dirt.

"Perfect!" Ash praised, clapping even as Tangrowth did a happy dance and flailed his vines all around. Several squeezed around Bruiser to give him a big hug…Ash had the strangest feeling that this happened every time Bruiser managed to pull up even a pebble. "That looks like it'll serve you well."

Seeker clung closer to Ash's back (heavy enough to make him sag now that she was a Golbat) as Bruiser nodded in agreement, his grey skin bulging with the musculature beneath as he rose to his full height.

"I figure you can trap them with a Protect if you really need to. It's sturdy enough to take a few of your hits, or at the least the backlash. But that's more taxing. Plus the rock will hurt more."

Between bouts of Rock Tomb training, Bruiser had also begun to practice with Double Team and Substitute, which Ash had checked out from Ever Grande's TM library a while back. It didn't fit his preferred style—Bruiser certainly wouldn't be able to use either in full-blown Rampage, but since his new body allowed him to fight in base form more often, this would be a great way to amplify his effectiveness and confuse his already terrified opponents.

Substitute would likely appear only rarely, but Ash saw potential in it. A Protect was more dynamic and useful in most cases, yet the misdirection offered by Substitute held value all of its own. A single moment of opportunity was all Bruiser needed to uppercut a foe into the stratosphere.

Ash left with a wave, offering Bruiser one of his special protein bars before he departed to check on Oz—the bar was as long as Ash's forearm, needed both hands to carry comfortably thanks to its size, and contained over six thousand calories. More of a protein log than a protein bar, to be honest.

It was a light snack for a Machamp like Bruiser. His daily caloric needs ranged between forty thousand to sixty thousand calories per day depending on his activity levels. Machamp were exceptionally rare in the wild for good reason—that sort of dense musculature demanded truly insane resources to maintain.

But he put those thoughts from his mind as thunder rumbled and the clouds flashed golden with lightning as it came arcing down to Oz in the distance, illuminating her in a brilliant surge of blinding light. Electricity crackled with her every movement, the equivalent of full-powered Thunderbolts for most electric-types scattering off her fur and tails, but frustration was evident in her bearing as she thrust a fist into the air and fired off a proper Lightning Bolt that left Ash's hair standing on end.

Seeker clung tightly to Ash as she watched the radiance with wide eyes, still amazed by the new world that had been unlocked for her with her evolution. Ash couldn't even imagine how overwhelming sight must be after living through sound and smell for so long.

"Easy," Ash whispered comfortingly as he approached Oz, who looked ready to kill Infernus as he laughed at her from his lava bath over on the corner of the island. Bruiser had scored a solid punch earlier in the day and nearly broken the Magmortar's arm.

They had to take it easy with actual combat training since they lacked access to high-tier medicine outside of the small hospital's worth that Ash was paranoid to keep with him in a storage compartment, but Infernus was happy to abuse his natural healing.

While they were limited in that sense, Ash and his team still clung to the gleeful amusement at the inexplicable rise in strength they'd return to their time with. Oh, he couldn't wait to see the look on Lance's face!

…Ash found it bizarre that he'd technically be a few months older by the time he returned. They were one month in already, and to be honest Ash was still so weary and worn that he wouldn't mind spending another few weeks or so back in the past with Sammy and Agatha.

The Golbat poked her head over Ash's shoulder and squeaked (an odd sound coming from such a large flier) over at Oz, who breathed deeply to ease her frustrations.

"Still no luck?" Ash asked sympathetically. Oz had spent a good amount of time helping Lairon with his magnetism training—and had worked with Lairon to pick up a few things to repel and disrupt both other electric-types and steel-types in the process—but turned again and again to Storm Surge.

Oz had grown in a hundred ways since they'd come to Hoenn, honing her psychic and combat abilities, but Storm Surge remained the key to the kingdom. The ultimate project. Through it, Oz would become the storm itself.

"You have a functional version," Ash assured Oz, standing close despite the crackling electricity. Some of it leapt to his chest—enough to knock an ordinary human out, or even kill them—but it only energized Ash. His words came faster. "You've done the hard work. It's already a Master-level technique, Oz."

Oz stared pointedly at Ash, gesturing to Torrent who was off spitting atmosphere-fueled Dragonbreaths and Nidoking who sought the power of the Moon Stone. Dazed who slowed time's passing to a crawl to trap a drifting leaf in flight (though it soon escaped her control) and Weavile who trained to master the chaotic energies of Distortion.

Mastery isn't enough, Oz seemed to say, and Ash's eyes squeezed shut at the pain in her eyes.

For as mighty as Storm Surge was, it was missing critical components. It was incredibly powerful, capable of amplifying Oz's abilities to their peak and enhancing every aspect of her combat, but at the moment she could still only direct the full lightning bolts into herself to redirect their power.

So far Oz was still limited to being a conduit, not the queen.

Ash and Oz's dreams contained an Oz who was the storm made flesh, who commanded its wrath as easily as breathing. Who could strike down a rain of lightning with pinpoint precision with as much ease as blinking.

Oz roared, raising her fist, and the charge in the air redoubled. She stared at a distant rock, snarling, and brought her hand crashing down with a whirr. Every scrap of her effort surged through Ash's mind, the will and determination (desperation), and the great big wall stopping her.

Not even Ash's shared insights into Lightning had helped her, though they'd eased the journey as she came to understand the nature of her power further.

A bolt of lightning came crashing down, but missed by nearly a dozen feet, overcoming Oz's control to go where it would. The next struck Oz herself, nearly throwing Ash (and Seeker with him) off his feet thanks to the shockwave, and she was like a golden goddess in that moment, filled with power.

But as much as Oz had actually grown in the past few months, perfecting her lessons in the last month or so they'd been in the past, the storm was still greater. The brewing power remained beyond her command and Oz wilted, no longer even snarling as her failure settled upon her.

"Give us a moment, please," Ash murmured to Seeker, who nodded and flitted away in a rush of wind to go check on Plume, who was scarfing down a meal after another failed attempt at Aeroblast. "Thanks, Seeker."

Ash stepped closer to Oz as she clenched her fists.

"You're frustrated." Ash crouched before Oz, taking her crackling hand in his own. She snorted—and he couldn't really blame her since he was stating the obvious—but didn't pull away. He felt the current flow from her into his flesh. "But we knew this would be a long road when we embarked upon it. Same as Plume."

Infernus waved his Plasma Blade from his pool of lava tauntingly at Oz from a distance, mocking her own failure—

Dazed saw it and Remote Teleported a few gallons of seawater into his lava bath, shaking the island as it erupted into a vast explosion of steam that sent Infernus flying out onto the beach, roaring.

At least that earned a happier whir from Oz's broad chest.

"We're with you all the way," Ash promised. "You've taken on one of the greatest challenges and have seen more success than anyone could imagine. You will win, Oz, even if we have to claw it from the heavens. I promise you that."

Oz patted Ash's cheek affectionately with that, electricity surging. One of her massive mitts was larger than his entire head. Her other powerful arm came to pull Ash into a quick hug before letting him go.

"One more step up the mountain, eh? The peak's almost in sight."

She rose, tails whipping, and tried again.

Ash smiled.

XX

Sammy bit his lip in deep concentration as he tinkered with his newest project—Ash just hoped he wouldn't shock himself so many times this time—but still spared Ash a glance as Ivysaur happily handed him a few tools.

They were heading north from Goldenrod to Ecruteak, though Ash wasn't certain as to whether or not he should enter the ancient city. Ecruteak's rich history and vibrant culture had claimed a special place in his heart. He longed to return.

But Ash had no desire to see the Crystal Bell ring and raise the League's anxiety to a new level. Trainers already reported that there was a certain energy to patrols now, concerns building over the strange behavior of various pokémon these past few weeks.

There had been a rash of unexplained evolutions on several occasions, apparently. Not to mention a mass migration of Absol to Indigo, each finding ways to cross the tropical seas.

Oops.

"You know," Sammy said as he toyed with a few wires, "I feel like I know you so well by now, Ash, but I don't know anything about you!"

"I'm not that interesting," Ash replied, hoping the subtle desperation in his words wasn't too obvious. Agatha and her Ekans both stuck their tongues out at him and scoffed, though, so he wasn't sure how convincing he was. Sammy listened intently. "Just a trainer."

"More like the trainer!" Sammy chuckled, tossing his eyes over to the distant forests where Ash's team worked closely . "I have to admit, it's quite amazing that you've flown under the radar for so long! You should be famous, you know."

Ash grimaced. Lairon perked up at the idea, though, no doubt imagining what the quality of steel ingots back in this time period was like. Fame earned treats, after all.

"Doesn't your family miss you?" Sammy continued on innocently. "I've never seen you write to them."

That hit Ash in the gut. His fingers curled as an aching longing filled him. His mother, Lance and Steven, Flannery, Karen and Will, Jon and Amelia, and all the others he held close to his heart flickered through his mind.

Ash desperately missed them. As much as he'd enjoyed his (mostly) stress-free jaunt to the past, the ache of loneliness had begun to gnaw at him. He dreamed of warm hugs from his mother and her comforting words. He craved Lance's booming laughter and awful taste in movies, Steven's well-meaning awkwardness and Claydol's rampant chaos.

He even missed Gary. That was how Ash knew he must be going a little insane back here.

If his team hadn't been flung back in time with Ash then he'd have gone mad. At the very least he would have devoted every waking moment to returning as soon as possible.

"I, uh…" Ash trailed off. "They live a long way away."

"Convenient," Agatha's Gastly (a younger 'sibling' to Haunter) hissed into his ear with her voice. Weavile lazily brandished a Shadow Claw and the ghost fled.

"Oh, that's too bad," Sammy said with obvious disappointment. "Family's so important, don't you think?"

"So important," Agatha scoffed. "How could we ever live without them?"

Sammy flinched at that, well-aware of Agatha's own troubles, and awkwardly stammered something out before Ash cut in.

"They are," Ash said quietly, allowing Lairon to rest his great iron head in Ash's lap and taking a wire brush to the spaces between his overlapping plates of armor. The steel-type grumbled happily at the touch. "Especially if they're the family you've chosen."

Agatha had nothing to say to that.

"What a lovely thought!" Sammy added cheerfully. "I quite like that, Ash."

"What about you?" Ash pressed, eager to get the focus off of himself. "Where are you from, Sammy?"

"I grew up near Celadon!" Sammy said while Ash reclined against a large tree stump that had likely been severed clean of its trunk by some wild pokémon duel. Ash felt at home here in the woods, comfortable beyond belief in the nature which was even more untamed forty years ago. "It's lovely there—the grass grows tall, the air is sweet, and there are so many fascinating facilities in the universities, although I haven't been particularly impressed with the research coming out of Celadon recently."

Ash laughed. "Of course you haven't."

"I love it, though," Sammy continued, accepting a tiny wrench and a few other tools from Ivysaur, who took to his job as assistant all too well. "But I must say that it's too flat! Too terrestrial! I've always loved the thought of living by the seaside. There's something enrapturing about the lapping of waves on the shore, isn't there? Something idyllic. I find the sounds almost hypnotic!"

"That's just Dazed messing with you." Ash's words hid his own longing for Pallet Town, realizing that one day Sammy would make his dreams a reality.

Sammy chuckled.

"It's funny you mention that," Ash continued, still brushing out a bit of dirt stuck in Lairon's armor. He might have to get Torrent to hose Lairon down later (and really scrub him with water manipulation) just to make sure all the debris was properly cleaned out, although Lairon wouldn't be a fan of the cold water. Maybe Infernus could be bribed into heating it up first. "I grew up on the shore down in the Viridian territory. It's a nice place, but really small. I doubt you'd have ever heard of it."

It was plain as day to see Sammy and Agatha committing the information to memory, no doubt eager to peel back even a single layer of the mystery that Ash presented them.

"But you somehow ended up in Coronet," Agatha called out from where she groomed her own Ekans, scraping off old scales and scrubbing the lazing serpent with a sponge. He'd referenced the lonely mountain a few times during their time together, still hoping that would help lead their suspicions in other directions.

Coronet was weird enough to buy all sorts of plausible deniability.

Ash shrugged.

Sammy's eyes brightened as he made to ask another of the incessant questions that Ash enjoyed so much. The raw curiosity bleeding from the boy always charmed him, especially knowing what he did.

"No one's asking where I'm from," Agatha grouses. She lovingly toyed with her walking stick as if she were about to hit someone for the insult.

Sammy laughed. "That's because nobody has to ask. You're like the paragon of the Lavender Town stereotype. Nobody as scary as you could come from anywhere else."

Agatha looked oddly pleased with that.

A loud crash and the snapping of saplings tore their attention over to the training grounds, but they all relaxed when they realized it was just Tangrowth having a blast playing with Oak's team while Infernus taught Charizard a few tips, though by now Charizard's mobility had advanced to the point that their battles took place over miles.

But Agatha (as always) was fixated upon Lotus, whose keystone sat still on another trunk near the training. Ash was always eager to give Lotus exposure to others, and it seemed content enough to wallow around Sammy and Agatha's teams so long as Ash or anyone of their family were nearby as well.

Agatha's own team all skulked around Lotus, hiding in the shadows to avoid the wisps of lavender fog and a lone burning green eye which scanned the forest. They were fascinated.

"Did you find that thing—Lotus," Agatha hastily corrected when Ash and Lairon both growled at her. "Relax! Seriously. I didn't mean anything by it."

Ash waved her on.

"Did you find Lotus in Coronet as well?" Agatha pressed. He'd been tight-lipped about the Spiritomb in their earlier experiences, though he'd begun to grow more comfortable now. "I can't believe it…but you were right. And I hope you know how annoying that is! Perhaps the Hashimoto archives…"

"Maybe," Ash said at that last point. "Lotus is from Sinnoh."

"Marvelous!" Sammy cried. "And you mentioned that Lotus' species is called a 'Spiritomb', correct?"

"That's right."

"How stupendous it is to encounter a member of a new species! New ghost phenotypes are so rare. Most just aren't viable, poor things," Sammy said, shaking his head mournfully. "Oh! Do you mind if I continue to take notes on Lotus' behaviors? I would love to publish them one day. With your permission, of course!"

Ash grinned. "Go ahead, Sammy. Just make it good."

"Only the highest quality for one of my dear friends!"

He colored at that, though couldn't hide his pleased expression.

Agatha finished Ekans' grooming and strode over to Ash and Sammy with ease—she was a small girl, but she was already nearly at her full height. It hurt Ash's heart to see her steady, graceful moments after their last meeting in Lavender Town in his own time.

"How did you survive Lotus?" Agatha's mismatched eyes burrowed into Ash's. "I wanted to lay down and drift away forever when it met me. It was like something tore my heart out and I couldn't even care."

"It was a demanding experience," Sammy agreed, waving his wrench in the air for Ivysaur to snatch away. "But quite educational! That was the worst I've felt in my life."

Ash smiled wanly. "You get used to it. Lotus is a real softy now compared to when we first met, believe it or not."

Agatha blinked.

"I'm not sure if I was really ready for a ghost at the time either," Ash admitted. "So that wasn't helping things. I was a wreck, you know. Afraid of everything—loss, failure. Even myself. But…Lotus has been good for me. For us. We've grown together. It's never too late."

Silence hung over them for a moment, broken only by Sammy's cheerful hums. Nothing ever really brought the bright boy down. Companionable silence was something Ash appreciated. It wasn't long before he hummed the Song as well, soothing them all even further.

Ash watched Sammy's bright eyes and nimble hands. He watched the alien peace in Agatha as the golden-haired girl relaxed in the company of friends.

Unburdened by their future schism.

Untainted by the cruelty of the world…mostly.

They were so young.

"So what are your goals?" Ash asked, curious to see how they'd stack up against the towering figures that Oak and Agatha ascended into. "What do you want to become?"

"Oh, that's easy!" Sammy cut in with his usual wide-eyed confidence. He raised one finger after another as he rambled off his ambitions. "I'm going to change the world with the power of technology! There are so many things that can be done better. I don't know how no one's figured it out yet."

Agatha's shadow rolled its red eyes. "Probably because not everyone's a super genius with a 500 IQ."

"Oh, that's just silly. You know those tests break down long before you could conceivably reach—"

"That sounds like something a super genius would say," Ash laughed.

Sammy pouted as he tinkered with some odd little piece of machinery that Ash couldn't identify. "No one ever appreciates statistics. Anyways! I've decided that I'll become Champion as well. That way I can help more people."

Ash's smile faded.

Agatha nodded approvingly, rapping her walking stick idly against the path. "It's a nice dream. It's just too bad you'll have to make it past me first."

"But I beat you—"

"It's too bad you'll have to make it past me first," Agatha repeated through gritted teeth. She took the loss in their last spar no better than she would in the future. "Right, Sammy?"

Sammy smiled brightly at Agatha and lightly shoved her. The blonde girl yelped as she stumbled away, catching herself just barely with her walking stick. "You'll make a nice third member of my Elite Four. You won't let anyone make it to me, right? I don't want anyone interrupting my research!"

Agatha's blue eye twitched. She swiped her walking stick out and tripped Sammy—Abra was too busy working with Dazed in the distance to help him, although Growlithe let out a mournful howl as he came tripping up in a burst of speed just to see his master fall flat on his face. "Yeah right!"

"I don't know what the two of you are talking about," Ash said, inspecting his fingernails lazily. "You'll both be respected members of my Elite Four. Now we just have to find some other unlucky person to be at the bottom."

The two gaped at him for a moment…and then the bickering came.

Ash welcomed it.

XX

"What's she so upset about?"

"There's a technique we've been working on for almost a year," Ash said. "It's big. We just haven't quite nailed it yet."

"Master-level?" Oak's eyes widened as Plume unleashed her pseudo-Aeroblast and flattened a section of the forest, tearing the lesser saplings up by their roots and carving a vast furrow into the earth. Her eyes betrayed nothing but disgust at yet another failure. "Oh my!"

"Something like that," Ash said. "But we've hit a wall. It's going to be so much more."

"Not bad," Agatha said, looking similarly awed. "I bet not even Champion Uther's Snorlax would want to get hit by that! And you say it's incomplete?"

Ash shook his head as Plume tore off into the skies, her furious shriek enough to send lesser flocks of flying-types scattering to escape her domain.

"It's a shadow of what we've been dreaming of," Ash said, remembering the funneled hurricane that had swept the Birds' terrible cloaks of blizzard and storm and flame into nothingness back at Shamouti. "We have this working version, but we need more."

"Sheesh!" Sammy cried as Plume tore down from the heavens to unleash yet another pseudo-Aeroblast upon the flattened forest, kicking up vast sprays of dirt and stone and wood that fragmented beneath the power of her attack. "I can't believe you're saying THAT'S incomplete."

The corners of Ash's lips curled upwards into a slight smile. "We set high standards for ourselves. You should too. Aim low and that's all you'll ever reach."

Agatha's mismatched eyes gleamed at the challenge.

Fire stirred in Ash's heart, branching out from the Feather, though Ash didn't quite fear Chinatsu's interruptions anymore. She'd attempted to hunt Ash down several times in the last week since he'd returned from his sojourn to Hoenn, so at one point he eased on the ironclad control he possessed over the forces he'd mastered.

He'd done so far from Sammy and Agatha, unwilling to mark them with a Brand as he channeled as much power as he could—Ash had felt himself slip in that moment, consumed with Fire in his blood and thoughts of Ice and awareness of Lightning, growing past his mortal skin for an instant, and Chinatsu hadn't bothered him after that.

Every now and then her awareness still swept over him, urging a connection through the Feather, even if Ash had no intentions of making contact in this time.

The miles between Ash and Agatha hadn't meant much, unfortunately. Poor Agatha was hyperventilating when he returned and hadn't believed Ash's blatant denials of what he'd done for an instant. Abra's near catatonic state didn't help, either.

…With that said, Ash still felt a little bad that he'd forced evolution in Abra, though the Kadabra was ecstatic with her new form and abilities, eager to learn ever more.

Ash had to cook for three nights after that.

"Perhaps you should seek out inspiration!" Sammy said eagerly, returning Ash to earth. "I love to sketch, but sometimes when I run into a bit of artistic bottleneck I find that it helps to find a particularly enthralling catalyst to break through the dam."

"Maybe you're right," Ash said, thinking. "Maybe we need to revisit what started this all in the first place."

Neither Agatha nor Sammy looked particularly comfortable with the hungry look that filled Ash's eyes.

XX

Plume and Ash spent the day as one. They flew upon her enhanced wings, their senses and spirit mingling until they were indistinguishable, and the strength of their glorious bond was brighter than the sun, more vibrant than the greatest rainbow.

It was no wonder Wallace had been inspired to compose his poem! The words and rhythm were even of acceptable quality as well. They read it together every night at their avian half's request, naturally.

Perhaps they should commission the Champion for a hymn next!

They circled Hoenn with ease, treating laps of it as they would a stroll around Pallet, and embraced the wing beneath their shining wings. It was a gorgeous day, bright and blue, and they surveyed their domain with fierce eyes.

Lotus hung upon their belt. It had taken some cajoling to convince the specter to fly with them again, but they did not fear the Harbinger.

Was it even in Hoenn at this time? It was impossible to say.

But let it come! They would scour the dread creature's corruption in a moment if need be. Besides, had the Harbinger encountered them in the past then it would never have ambushed them in the future. That was clearly its first time encountering them.

Time travel could be so stupid sometimes.

So no, they didn't fear another attack from the Harbinger.

…Unfortunately. Their pride rankled at the thought of an earthbound—or so it should have been!—creature such as that black shadow invading their heavenly kingdom. Disgusting! How dare it blight their skies?

The audacity of it all!

But it had seen reason, and so would they. They couldn't deny that it would be terribly satisfying to find their new mentor and test its accursed power against their fullest!

At least the Harbinger's intrusion gave hope for Feather-Blessed-Weavile. He had wasted his potential and spat upon their lessons for too long now!

Such thoughts filled their mind as they went upon a sacred pilgrimage.

They drank deeply of the Sky Pillar, flew above Mt. Pyre to witness the Sky's fist come crashing down upon the Red and Blue Orbs, though they were careful to avoid the timeless mists which crawled upon the Distorted mountain.

They rose high into the atmosphere until the world's curve was evident and the air thinned to the point that their human lungs couldn't take it.

Night fell. The moon shone.

They flew to Shamouti. It was only a short trip, just a few hundred miles away, which took them between Hoenn and Indigo. Their avian half had sought it out many times of her own volition in their proper time, viewing the scene of an almost-apocalypse with fury and dread alike.

There they were! Below them lay the scattered islands of the Concepts which their human half had wrested dominion of. They remembered the burn of Fire in their soul, the great white wings of Ice, and the roar of Thunder carving the skies apart.

Power sang to them, beckoning them forth.

The Spheres of Fire, Ice, and Lightning recognized the one who had drank deeply of them, resonating with what they had taken so long ago…or so far in the future, they supposed.

One to roam, one to roost, and one to bind.

That was what Lugia had told them when they secured the Birds once more. The fragments of Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres lay resting, jealously guarding the Spheres which had been plucked from their hearts, but they felt the weight of the Birds' slumbering consciousnesses turn upon them, dreaming of their days of unbridled freedom.

Though the Birds did not wake—could not, not until the might of Mewtwo's existence broke their long rest—the dream of a Legend was reality. Even the least of their unconscious thoughts was tangible, weighty beyond mortal imaginings, made manifest by the nature of their existence.

They circled thousands of feet above Shamouti, waiting impatiently for the sleeping Birds' dreams to be made reality.

How slow the great Birds were! Perhaps they needed replacing.

Frost and ice crawled out from Articuno's roost. A blizzard bloomed. Cold masses of air came swirling down.

Flame and smoke billowed upwards from Moltres' island. Its obsidian stone glowed cherry-red as the volcano came to life. Warm air rose high and fast, animated fiercely as the volcano belched its contents upwards.

And where the rising and falling air clashed rose the storms of Zapdos. Storm clouds brewed. Lightning flashed.

An ocean storm was born.

They searched its essence with their eyes that saw deeper than the material, seeking the flow and currents of its making, and watched it grow great and strong. When it waxed to its utmost an hour later, furious and roiling and pelting Shamouti with endless torrents of rain and wind, they barreled through it to claim dominion over the storm itself!

Black clouds parted in their wake, bolts of lightning were cast aside as they met their master and better, and in the howling storm's din they listened and learned.

With razor eyes and an open soul they tore into the heart of the storm, its fury nothing in comparison to the beauty of their unity.

"We are here!" They sang above the storm's roar, voice and song carving farther than it should. They laughed as lightning cracked and thunder roared and rain came pelting down to wet their skin and feathers. "Know your masters!"

The storm surged at their challenge, beating harder and howling as if to cast them away, but the raging winds broke upon them.

A flash! A bolt crackled, sundering the air, and thunder rolled through their bones.

Their human hand rose and the lightning amplified, blasting apart the churning sea beneath. They felt their nerves come alive, the sensation of their bond all the stronger, as Lightning surged from their human half's heart and danced forth from their avian half's glorious wings in great arcs which would make Oz proud.

And with their souls conjoined and melded, their talents amplified with new depth, they bade the storm grow wild and terrible. Black clouds grew darker and heavier. Bolts of lightning rained down from the heavens with new ferocity. Rain spilled forth in an unending sheet.

The sleeping god-things trapped on the isles below stirred, but it was not their time to wake.

As they expressed themselves to the world and gave of themselves to it, so too did they stare into the storm's reflection. They opened themselves to its deepest nature, of which the physical manifestation was only a pale shadow, and saw the threads of moonlight woven into the clouds and winds, and took what little they needed.

They sang their victory to the heavens they'd mastered as many, many pieces stitched together, several separate truths arrayed into a mosaic which blinded them with its beauty.

The churning Sky pushing back the oceans and earth from where its spear thrust through the waters and crust alike.

The Sky's fist coming down like a hammer upon Mt. Pyre's peak and its lesser siblings' hearts.

Lugia, Moonlit-Storm, expressing its fury in the form of a thin orange beam which carried with it the force of a hurricane untethered…a memory they had called upon a thousand times for inspiration and guidance, remembering it as they played and sang the Guardian's Song.

Nearly a year's worth of training and meditation and desperate prototype after desperate prototype. From ugly beginnings to the patchwork blasts that had brought Dream-Sculptor-Fino down and scattered Hunter-Durand's formidable team.

Their hearts sang as their wings carried them above the storm. It roiled beneath, black clouds vast and furious as the Harbinger's own dread power, and its shadow flashed bright with intermittent bursts of lightning.

They watched for a moment as they burst upwards and felt the moon's comforting light upon their backs as they stared down upon the storm they'd stirred to new heights.

But balance must be maintained, and it was that thought that carried them forward to correct the imbalance they had created.

As one, they focused upon the Sky beneath their wings, the moon upon their backs, and the storm within themselves.

They remembered countless hours of theorizing and training and broken hopes.

They remembered Lugia coming to save them from Zapdos' fury.

They felt the helplessness of the battle against Hunter-Durand, the broken bodies, the agony of loss, and expressed it to the world.

And so the storm within became the storm without.

A thin beam, wavering and frail but miraculously stable, exploded forth from their avian half's gullet, focused and amplified and contained by their human half's magnitude and will, and the world rattled as the brilliant orange beam pierced the black sheet of clouds.

Behind that burning lance came the fury of a greater tempest, and the faint echo of a hurricane came tearing through the oceanic storm's heart. Black clouds burst out, the veil sundered by their mighty attack, and the Song echoed in their ears.

For one single moment, they felt the world shift and their existence grew weightier than ever before as vast awarenesses turned upon them.

Eyes of flame, frost, and lightning fluttered as the storm of their competing might dispersed.

Something vast and alien and playful, familiar, lovingly tapped them. They gasped as an old pain in their chest twinged, recognizing the Guardian of Life who had placed it there.

The frozen blue coals in their mind shivered.

Other things, strange and distant, regarded them for a mere moment. Their attention came from around the planet and even beyond.

Beasts howled, their Rainbow-garbed master's trilling melody a complement to the one which emerged next. They could almost hear the dry, raspy chuckle of Wes atop Tin Tower, echoing back in time.

An infinite void, strangely familiar, passed over them like the new moon and muted it all for an instant before slipping away.

The Song within the waves reached a new crescendo, the tropical waters taking on a silver sheen to their eyes-beyond-eyes. Something luminous and brilliant as the moon swam beneath, an argent streak rising from the abyss to pay testament to their mastery.

They had dipped their torch into the divine and learned to make the fire of the gods.

And the gods rose to stand witness.

Their glorious work had come to an end!

Or so their hearts cried out. Their rational selves knew it was only the next step in their journey, but this victory was so, so sweet.

Aeroblast, once a half-broken lunatic's ambition, was a reality.

They would never be the same.

XX

Blistering gales chapped their lips.

Cold seeped into their bones.

The stamp of Ice rose from the jagged peak like wisps of frosty air, echoing through time, and it put Ash in a foul mood as he stood atop the crown of the Ore Mountains.

Mt. Silver was an inhospitable place. Truly mighty wild pokémon made their homes here, forged to the height of strength due to the sheer level of the competition, and it was a premier spot for wild pokémon who sought to reach their fullest potential.

Aside from serving as the craggy roof of Ash's beloved Indigo Plateau, Mt. Silver's great stack of peaks were fantastic training grounds. Wild pokémon were eager to test any trainers that appeared, the environment was vicious enough to feel as if old Mt. Silver was actively trying to reject anyone foolish enough to brave its slopes.

It was a favorite of Bruno and Koga in Ash's day, though Karen enjoyed humbling its residents from time to time. Will had rather the opposite problem—it wasn't uncommon for wild pokémon to venture down from the peaks to come and say hello to their dear friend Will and his amiable team.

As for why Ash and his companions had ventured here?

Spite, mostly.

Bitter Articuno had taken roost atop Mt. Silver for around a year now, choosing to slumber atop its peak. It carried the cruelest winds and darkest nights with it. Between it, the weather fluctuations from Zapdos' storm while it roosted in the power plant, Mewtwo's hurricanes, and the Shamouti Incident, Indigo's weather was absolutely screwed.

The League was working overtime to try to stabilize it and hard largely…but that was a problem in forty years, Ash supposed. He wasn't going to bother with it now.

But he'd never had the opportunity to step foot atop the highest peak of Mt. Silver. Not when Lord Winter laid its greedy claim to it. Even the strongest of the wild pokémon were forced down to the lower mounts while an incessant blazed raged atop the highest reaches.

Now?

Now there was no competition save the League itself.

Chinatsu flared below, a gout of golden flame in Ash's mind, but she remained below in her grotto. Her attempts to seek Ash out had ended after the completion of Aeroblast and the night he unveiled himself. The League did not approach either. Perhaps it was risky to brave Mt. Silver when Champion Uther rested just a few thousand feet below, but even the Elite Four did not take Mt. Silver lightly.

They would have a warning if the League acted thanks to bribing a few wild Zubat and Fearow who made their homes in the lower cliffs, not to mention a lonely Alakazam sage who had taken up residence as master of a lesser peak.

She and Dazed had enjoyed some lovely conversations over the past twelve hours or so.

Ash had taken care to fly with Plume as well, singing their Concepts into the world all around Indigo in order to mask their presence. Hopefully they hadn't caused too many problems, but he did need the League's eyes to be elsewhere.

Spite wasn't their only motivator, though Ash couldn't deny the satisfaction he, Nidoking, and Infernus felt as they trod upon the wind blasted peak.

No, they had also needed a spot to test their most devastating techniques. There wouldn't be any eyes upon Mt. Silver proper. Sammy and Agatha had stopped in a town for a few days and Ash wanted somewhere that he wouldn't be disturbed.

Oz and Torrent were off brewing up storms down below while Tangrowth eagerly dueled Bruiser and Seeker, hurling dozens of boulders torn from rocky spires, and Weavile leapt up rock after rock after he'd gone and bullied the nearby Sneasel packs to ensure that Ash and the team would have peace.

Ash wandered the slopes for the next few hours as he drifted off in thought. Tangrowth often assisted him in traversing the unforgiving terrain, though Torrent and Dazed were happy to levitate him as well. He enjoyed getting rides from Bruiser the most, however, nestled atop the mighty Machamp's shoulders while Bruiser effortlessly leapt up the mountain.

Plume soared above, matching her song with that of the Ice curling up from the rocks, and stood ready to whisk them all away in an instant should any true threats appear.

Eventually their wanderings led them to a great plateau scraped clean of debris, marked only by the occasional scorch mark. It was a familiar sight, no doubt carved out by wild pokémon as a proving ground, and Ash couldn't help but grin as he imagined the sorts of battles that took place here.

"Not a bad spot, eh, Weavile?" Ash lightly poked at his friend, who hissed back an affirmative as his nose wrinkled. A fierce wind swept over the plateau and tore at their skin, though Ash found it about as uncomfortable as a nice summer breeze.

There was something of Ice in that harsh gale, though. An aspect of Lord Winter in the vicious bite which sought to scrape everything mortal from Mt. Silver.

The scar upon Ash's cheek itched.

"Maybe we can get a few duels out of the way while we're up here," Ash remarked, peering off to the medley of lesser peaks jutting out from the Ore Mountains like great fists. Forests blanketed their lower slopes, though their highest points were bare of life. Bare of everything but stone and snow. "The view's nice enough, at least. We'll just have to clean up when we're done."

Bruiser nodded sagely, smiling down at Ash as his lower two arms dexterously—for a Machamp, anyways—knitted a nice white hat. Seeker's old hat was much too small for her nowadays, sadly, so Bruiser took it upon himself to make the new Golbat a replacement.

"She'll love it," Ash said, peering down at the in-progress garment. It was quite a bit nicer than Bruiser's first experiments, knit with more skill and confidence than those early fumblings.

His friend grinned at that even as Weavile sniffed again, his ears laying flat against his head—

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Ash's heart skipped a beat for a moment as Plume cried out a warning, fearing that the League had discovered their presence and made the first move, but then a monstrous roar shook the entire plateau.

Frigid sands—more like frozen little pebbles, really—swept across with fury to match Mt. Silver's natural bitterness. Bruiser stepped in front of Ash and Weavile to weather the sudden storm of debris, barely noticing as it struck his leathery grey skin.

His muscles bulged as he readied for battle.

Another roar sounded, carrying above the clatter of debris and the screaming winds, and Ash felt more than heard the heavy footsteps settling upon the shorn plateau.

Ash poked his head around Bruiser…and grinned like a madman.

"Guess we found a worthy challenger after all!"

Weavile's eyes were slits as he hissed out a snarl at the enormous Tyranitar which had hunted down the erstwhile wanderers encroaching upon its domain. It was a hulking brute, towering over even Bruiser at nine feet tall, and was immensely broad, built almost as sturdily as an Aggron but with the capacity for more explosive movement.

Smooth green plates of armor layered heavily over the mountain of muscle, thick and sturdy enough that it was almost immune to attack. A grey diamond-shaped patch of scales covered its thick core and its enormous tail swished, its spikes effortlessly tearing through the cold stone beneath it.

Vents upon its legs and chest billowed out enormous quantities of chewed up stone, ground into fine sand and pebbles within the Tyranitar's body, and the force behind the Sand Stream only grew greater as it howled its challenge.

Ash waved cheerfully at the biological engine of destruction.

"Hey there! Up for a battle?"

The Tyranitar stamped one foot and sent the arena quaking, roaring out another challenge that left all of Mt. Silver silent.

They knew their master.

But alas, Ash wasn't one to bend the knee. Not without it being earned.

"Don't be like that," Ash teased, spreading his arms wide as the Tyranitar looked ready to slap him off the mountain. He nodded to both Bruiser and Weavile. Each looked ready to burst into action at a second's notice. "Who do you want to fight? We'll let you pick."

Weavile whined at that, disappointed, then yowled out indignantly when Tyranitar pointed a great claw at Bruiser without a moment's hesitation.

"Maybe you'll get to go next time," Ash said, kneeling down to comfort Weavile as the little dark-type whined and buried his fluffy head in Ash's chest. "There there. Bruiser, you're up."

Bruiser nodded, curious at this new challenge—oh, Infernus was going to be pissed when he found out he missed this—and stepped forward.

Tyranitar charged forth. The rock quaked with every step, coming alive and breaking off in jagged chips that swarmed Bruiser, cutting at his grey skin with little effect, and Ash cried out in delight at the sight of the rock manipulation.

It was nothing like Mamoru's, the work of a journeyman rather than a master, but it was still quite the skilled display!

Ash left this one to Bruiser, stepping back behind a wall of rock that Bruiser flung out with Rock Tomb for Ash to hide behind to avoid Tyranitar's whipping Sand Stream, and watched with pride as Bruiser leapt through attack after attack. He dodged a Hyper Beam, leapt above a rippling Earthquake that left the plateau with great fissures winding throughout it, and slammed his fist into Tyranitar's chest.

Tyranitar merely staggered back a few feet.

Ash, Weavile, and Bruiser all gaped dumbly.

They were gobsmacked.

Its thick armor was unbroken, tough beyond belief, though it was enhanced by the Iron Defense which left Tyranitar gleaming with a silver sheen, and it was strong enough to anchor itself with layers of rock which folded around its legs.

It spat another Hyper Beam at Bruiser, which flew past him right at the rock Ash was hiding behind, but Weavile leapt up with a yowl and erected a shimmering Protect that shielded them from the blast, though it still quaked the earth.

Bruiser's jaw set at the dangerous strike. For a single instant his veins pulsed red as blood pounded with renewed ferocity. His stance grew aggressive, certain, and he coiled like a striking Arbok before landing another blow right in the same spot with blinding speed.

It was Tyranitar's turn to gape as its armored chest cracked. The armor wasn't shattered and that alone was testament to Tyranitar's strength, but even the slight damage of the crack winding up to its vent took some of the fight out of it.

That was all Bruiser needed.

With Ash in potential danger, a nigh impenetrable defense to deal with, and the prospect of a delayed dinner if this kept up for long…

Well, Bruiser got creative.

Ash laughed madly as Bruiser uppercut Tyranitar once with a single fist, sending its head snapping upwards, before grappling the furious beast—Tyranitar's legs kicked madly as it was suddenly unrooted from the rock it drew strength from, frantic as it was suddenly lifted entirely off the ground by Bruiser's impossible strength, and then it cried out in very un-Tyranitarlike fashion as Bruiser hurled the five thousand pound beast off the plateau with the same ease that Ash would throw a small rock.

Tyranitar went flying, skidding once off the rock that desperately formed a wall to try to catch it, but Bruiser flung a Rock Tomb into the wall to break it down and allow Tyranitar to roar in pure rage as the great beast went hurtling off the steep walls of the plateau.

They heard the rock-type thunk against various boulders, tear through trees, and shatter everything in its path as it went rolling down the mountain. The sound grew a little dimmer with every passing second, though all three of them could feel the unyielding fury at the ignoble defeat.

Finally the sound was gone, the Tyranitar likely having rolled all the way to the base of the mountain, and Ash snorted. While Tyranitar was probably bruised, nauseous, and bleeding in its tantrum, it would take a lot more than a mere six thousand foot fall to hurt a Tyranitar that powerful.

Ash chuckled at the distant cloud of writhing sands visible even from this distance.

"So…dinner?"

Bruiser nodded happily in turn, wiping a bit of dust off his arms, and was quick to join Ash and Weavile so they could make their way back to the team. It was getting late, after all, and it seemed like their entertainment for the evening hadn't lasted quite as long as they'd hoped.

"Too bad," Ash sighed as he looked over the plateau and charted the path of destruction from the rolling Tyranitar. Trees were snapped, earth was gouged, and boulders were broken. "That's going to be a long climb up."

Weavile made a rude gesture down after the Tyranitar, hissed, and that was that.

XX

…As it turned out, that wasn't that!

"No, no," Ash said, shaking his head as Oz roared with frustration as a lightning bolt refused to strike its target from the cliff that they'd found themselves upon. Black clouds rose all around, roiling with fury, and the storm's wrath pressed down upon them with shifting pressures courtesy of Torrent. "Don't force it. Lightning is aloof, distant, above the world. Anger won't move it."

They'd been on Mt. Silver for two days now, training eagerly amidst the harsh environment while waiting for Agatha and Sammy to finish up, and Oz had only grown more furious at her failures—while she was happy for Plume's breakthrough, though Plume could still only properly use Aeroblast when she and Ash were one, Ash could feel the tempest boiling beneath her fur.

Oz roared like a roll of thunder, slamming her fist into the rock face of the mount behind them, and stomped off. She wasn't upset at Ash himself, he knew, but her patience was reaching its end.

Ash sighed, ready to go after her, but in a surprising moment of sympathy Weavile raised his claw and shook his head.

"I'm worried about her," Ash murmured. "She isn't taking this well."

Weavile watched her go with more than a little concern in his eyes. He cocked his head after Oz, hissed something at her, and she stiffened.

After a moment she moved with a little less force, a little less fury, though she was still in a bad mood. Ash would give her solitude for a time, but he refused to leave her to stew in her frustrations for long.

Still, he couldn't stop a small smile from crawling across his face as he watched Weavile dart over to Oz, butt his feathered crown against her trunklike leg (and poofed up thanks to the static electricity), before swatting at her with a velvet paw for some reason that Ash couldn't comprehend and rushing back to Ash's side.

"I'm proud of you, you know that?"

Weavile blinked up at Ash.

"I know I've said this before, but you've grown so much this past year. And not just in strength," Ash said hastily as Weavile preened. "But that too. No, it's how much you've matured that amazes me. You've gone from an absolute menace—"

His fluffy friend couldn't seem to decide whether he was delighted or annoyed by that descriptor.

"—to a dauntless leader of the pack."

Weavile definitely appreciated that one given the way his lean chest puffed up. A purr rumbled from deep within his throat.

"I'm proud to have you at my side. We all are," Ash said earnestly, kneeling in front of Weavile to meet his eyes and clasp one of his clawed paws between his hands. "Never forget that, okay?"

The dark-type met Ash's eyes, taken aback by the sheer warmth he saw there, and a slow smile curved across his furry face. After a moment Weavile nodded slowly, then shut his eyes.

Weavile pointed at Ash, mimed speaking, then pointed at himself.

Giddy delight shot through Ash's chest like one of Oz's lightning bolts.

"You're ready?"

Weavile nodded firmly, spreading his arms wide as if waiting for Ash to anoint him with a proper title.

"Ready to receive your nickname at long last, huh?" Ash hummed to himself. "Let's see…Reaver is out. A lot of the old names I had for you are out, actually. You really have changed so much!"

They sat on the cliffside for a while exchanging names—Shadow felt too plain, Umbra sounded nice but would probably just confuse any Umbreon they ever encountered (although Weavile would get a kick out of that), and many of their other ideas just didn't quite scratch the right itch.

That didn't mean they stopped, though, and Ash quite enjoyed tossing ideas at Weavile. Over time, he began to gain a greater comprehension of Weavile's preferences—he really seemed to lean towards traditional pokémon names which embodied the idea of an individual—and began to incorporate more and more of that style into his suggestions.

"Gloam-of-Greatest-Pack?" Ash asked after a great many iterations of the name were tossed around. Weavile nodded slowly, though seemed hesitant as if it were missing something…and then pointed at Ash. "Me?"

Weavile nodded, drawing a rough sketch of an egg with cracks in it into the hard-packed snow, and pointed one claw at Ash and the other at himself.

Ash laughed softly, brushing the pad of his thumb down Weavile's forehead. "We've had a good run, haven't we?"

His friend nodded, tapped his claw against Ash's chest, and pointed emphatically again at Ash. Slow realization struck him.

"You want to have me in your name?" Ash murmured, flattered. "Are you sure?"

Weavile's head bobbed up and down insistently.

"I…" Ash swallowed the sudden lump in his throat, beaming at Weavile. His chapped lips stretched further than they should have. "Yeah. Yeah, I can do that."

They spoke for a time, discarding name after name that failed to strike Weavile just so, but they grew closer with every failure.

Or, as Sammy would say, failure was just another teacher. The best of all, honestly. Ash could attest to that.

"Ashen-Gloam-of-Greatest-Pack?" Ash said, though personally he thought it to be a bit of a mouthful. But Weavile's eyes lit up, the little dark-type nodded fervently and leapt to his feet with a yowl. "Uh…mind if I shorten that a bit for day-to-day use?"

Weavile—well, Ashen-Gloam-of-Greatest-Pack now—shrugged, too busy screeching his victory to all of Mt. Silver to pay much heed.

"Ashen-Gloam," Ash muttered to himself. "Probably just gonna be Gloam, to be honest."

Particularly in battle. Although the sheer confusion of any of his opponent's when they heard Weavile's full name would probably give a bit of a strategic edge…

But as Gloam shrieked his joy to the great valleys and chasms before them, spitting Ice Beams and hurling blasts of Distortion recklessly into the mountains below, Ash felt a now-familiar rumbling in the stone.

"Gloam?"

Gloam shot up with a hiss as he heard the gritty rush of frigid pebbles come crashing along the cliffside, heralding the furious stomps of a very large, very pissed off Tyranitar charging from around the bend. The cliffside was wide, perhaps fifteen feet long, just spacious enough for a battle.

The Silver Lady—or so Dazed's Alakazam friend named the mighty Tyranitar who had claimed Mt. Silver for herself, mothering many broods of Larvitar across the decades—howled with the great gales of sand and grit as she challenged them once again.

Gloam was upon her in an instant in a storm of flashing claws and breaths of ice, though his physical blows glanced off her diamond-hard armor and the Silver Lady was inured to the effects of frost after a lifetime upon Mt. Silver's unforgiving slopes.

She lashed out with flecks of stone which peppered the arena, earning a roar from Oz as she charged forth to assist Gloam, but the Weavile stayed her with a fierce look, determined to best this beast himself. Oz rushed to Ash's side instead, her earlier bad mood forgotten as she clutched Ash to her crackling chest and readied defenses.

They began a vicious duel of shredding stone, great Hyper Beams, and blows which cracked the mountainside. Gloam dodged every hammerblow with unerring grace, dancing around the strikes which would have broken every bone in his body with a glint of determination filling his eyes.

Frost filled the Silver Lady's vents, clogging them and icing over her stores of grit to block off Sand Stream, and Gloam attacked with renewed ferocity—his blows continued to glance off, infuriating the Silver Lady as she struck again and again with incredible speed for a Tyranitar of her impressive size, and he pinpointed every potential vulnerability and found them unyielding.

The battle took its toll on her, its frantic pace demanding vast amounts of stamina for the Silver Lady to keep up with Gloam's fantastic speed and deadly fluidity, but the Silver Lady was a veritable rock slide that came crashing down on Gloam…sometimes literally.

But Gloam's greatest weapons weren't the white razors upon his black paws.

Gloam hissed, struck the Silver Lady with shadow-wreathed claws, and she screamed as he struck into her vents with the razors, pulsating Distortion through her and surging that which flowed through the Silver Lady's own cragged hide, damaging her internal tissues and fracturing her control.

A Tyranitar's conventional defenses were nigh impenetrable, hardened against physical strikes and elemental blasts of all sorts, but even the sturdiest fighter had their weak points.

Rampant abuse of Confuse Ray and other nasty techniques against Ash's team had taught him that.

The Silver Lady screamed, writhing and unleashing a blinding Hyper Beam which detonated a mountaintop nearby, and lunged for Gloam as he scampered over to the edge…and then roared even louder when she realized her mistake.

Gloam had a shit-eating grin on his fuzzy face as he blurred over to Ash and Oz's side, waving cheerfully to the Silver Lady as she stumbled to the edge, tried in vain to catch herself with a thin outcropping of rock, and turned shrieking to face them before she toppled off the edge and went tumbling down the mountain.

Again.

"I'll be back one day!" Ash hollered down the cliffside after the screaming Tyranitar, jabbing a finger down at her. "You'd better be stronger by then!"

All he got from the tumbling Tyranitar was a long, frustrated howl…and then a dull crash as she thudded down to the bottom.

Hopefully that particular challenge would bear fruit in about forty years.

XX

Seeker cuddled firmly into Ash's chest, though her new weight meant that he found it a little hard to breathe. She was a good hundred pounds of muscle and sinew now, after all. And love, of course!

He could never forget the love.

Ashen-Gloam lounged on Ash's lap, partially buried by Seeker's bulk, although now that she was much larger and warmer he didn't seem to mind the competition as much as he once did. Ash was just content to recline and enjoy the company of his team as they and his friends' own teams huddled around several campfires.

Battles had been won (mostly by Ash) and lost (mostly by Charizard), laughs had been had, and memories had been made.

Sammy and Agatha were both exhausted, though Agatha was still intent on brushing her Crobat. The enormous creature had played frequently with Seeker these past few months and helped her acclimate to her new form, though they'd also had a fantastic time training together as well.

Most of Agatha's team was a little prickly, though warm once you got to know them, but Crobat had been a social Butterfree from the start. It had gone a long way in ingratiating Ash and his team into Agatha's own network.

…Ash would deny to his last breath that it had anything to do with the copious amounts of chocolates, cinnamon rolls, and fruit that he bribed Crobat with when no one else was around. That would be absurd.

As for Sammy, he was as focused as ever as he sketched something in one of his hundred different notebooks. Based on the not-so-secret glances constantly sent Ash's way, he suspected Sammy had decided to try his hand at capturing Ash and his team's likeness as they hung around the campfire together.

Heavy footsteps stole his attention. Ash looked up tiredly to see Bruiser smiling proudly down at Seeker, offering her his newest creation: a fine white hat, perfectly shaped with ear holes and all, alongside a pair of tiny fluffy socks for her feet.

Seeker's eyes took the gifts in raptly, her large mouth dropping open in awe as she admired the presents. Ash felt her grow warm, felt the deep love for her best friend Bruiser, for Ash, for all the team who lay so close to her heart—

And then his own heart quickened as she shone a brilliant white.

"Wah!" Sammy shot to his feet, though he still frantically sketched whatever he could capture. "What a stupendous opportunity! Kadabra, are you watching? Ivysaur, get my evolution notebook!"

Agatha and her Crobat went still alongside her entire team. They all locked eyes upon Ash and Seeker even as Ash's own companions huddled around, drawing as close as they could without overly crowding the evolving Golbat.

It was over almost as quickly as it began.

Whereas Nidoking's final evolution had been a brutal affair of lengthening tissue and wrenching bones into new positions, Seeker's last jump to her ultimate state was gentle, seamless. Easy.

Her body compacted into an aerodynamic sphere. Wings split into two and flowed into their new shapes in a single motion, thickening and spreading wide as they wrapped around Ash. She was hot, burning with power, and Gloam purred loudly in Ash's lap as he was enveloped in toasty heat.

And then the light faded and Seeker the Crobat was left behind.

"Delightful! That makes two Crobat evolutions for me to compare," Sammy chirped, scribbling away in the notebook that Ivysaur happily handed over. "Seeker, would you be a dear and allow Kadabra to investigate your memories? You could be an essential contributor to the paper I've been working on! I'll credit you and everything."

Agatha shot to her feet. Her own Crobat clung to her like a mantle as she rushed over. "Not the time, Sammy!"

"Aww…"

"How are you?" Ash whispered to Seeker, hugging the Crobat tight as she squeezed him with her wings. She was heavier now, dense with thick muscle meant for breakneck turns and incredible agility, but all he could think to do was embrace his old friend as she sought his warmth.

Seeker's lower wings twitched experimentally, testing their control, and curled around Ashen-Gloam happily. She nuzzled at Ash, chattering something. The sound was deeper now, a little more powerful, but Ash felt the same warmth behind her spirit.

Ash would have to inspect her later to ensure there was no danger from such rapid evolution. Golbat tended to remain in their form for at least a year before triggering evolution, though there were exceptions.

But he couldn't truly feel comfortable until a proper medical professional examined her. Something that was going to be painfully difficult to access in the past as an unregistered trainer—Ash was just glad that nothing was digitized yet. In his time you had to sync Trainer ID's to set up a bet. Here it was all done in good faith.

Yet another grain of sand added to the steadily growing pile in the back of his mind.

It was time to go back soon.

"She's beautiful," Agatha whispered, eyes locked upon Seeker. Her own Crobat chittered in agreement, so similar yet so different to Seeker's own vocalizations. Bruiser beamed down at Seeker, tears dripping from his eyes, and the rest of the team rushed in to greet her. "Congratulations, Seeker."

"Thanks, Agatha," Ash said, offering Seeker up to Bruiser who took her into his lower hands with the utmost delicacy, though Seeker was finally sturdy enough not to break so easily. His great shoulders heaved as he wept. Seeker lunged into him, wrapping all four of her wings around his four arms, glad that they finally matched again.

Agatha hesitated for a moment, her shadow's red eyes opening wide.

"Call me Aggie."

Did he have to? That was just wrong on so many levels! If Ash ever dared to call his Agatha that she would have beaten him senseless with her gnarled old cane.

But Agatha's heterochromatic eyes were earnest, vulnerable, and Ash nodded as Seeker was fully engulfed by the team: Lairon warbled below even as Tangrowth ensnared her and Bruiser in vines, Oz whirred frantically as she created thunderclaps with her palms, Nidoking and Torrent offered nods of congratulations, Dazed's eyes flashed blue as she spoke her own words of affirmation, and even Infernus raised a cannon in salute and blasted a great gout of red flame into the sky.

Plume shrieked from above, excitedly beckoning Seeker to join her in the heavens, and Ash beamed.

"You've got it, Aggie."

Agatha nodded primly. Her brief instant of vulnerability disappeared, though she still regarded Ash thoughtfully as Sammy finished scribbling down his notes.

"I've known people who would never earn the loyalty of a Crobat," Agatha said quietly, tugging at her golden curls as her eyes squeezed shut. Her own Crobat lovingly enveloped the waif of a girl in his great wings, wrapping tightly around her. "People who would never deserve such affection. Not everyone is good."

Ash listened intently, digesting that information, thinking back to that night he'd shared words with Arnold on the dark beaches of Sudmauna. Leilani, his Crobat, had adored him.
Seeker shot into the sky from Bruiser's hold, bursting forth with truly superb speed to catch up to Plume and play properly for once. Her raw velocity couldn't match that of a Pidgeot (let alone Plume) but they soon darted below the clouds putting Seeker's superior maneuverability to the test.

His team cheered her on for a time before settling back in to test, though there was a frantic energy to them all just waiting to be unleashed later.

Sammy bit his lip, eyes cast upwards at Seeker. "Don't you think everyone has a seed of goodness inside? Even if it's buried deep down…"

"No," Agatha said simply, and that was that. Silence reigned for a time as the excitement of Seeker's evolution faded away, though Ash still wanted to go dance under the moon like an absolute idiot the second Seeker returned.

Perhaps you will have to make good on that promise, Friend-Trainer.

Ash snorted.

"Your hypothesis troubles me," Sammy sighed after a time, leaning forward to be closer to the fire. He warmed his hands near its crackling heat. "The world is such a good place! So bright, so full of wonder. There are discoveries to be found in every corner and friends to be made! How can anyone not want to make it even brighter?"

Agatha turned away.

Ash saw his friend teetering, questioning, doubting, and tapped Sammy's shoulder. He wouldn't leave Sammy to wrestle with the burgeoning darkness he saw in the world. Not when Ash had fought those monsters for the past two months he'd spent here in the wake of disaster.

He momentarily pushed the joy of embracing Seeker's final evolution aside to steady his friend's course.

"Yes?"

"You know, Sammy, a great man once told me that it's easy to look out into the world and see nothing but darkness," Ash recited the Professor's own parting words back to Sammy as Dazed reignited the memory, meeting the boy's eyes firmly. In those words, Ash felt Fino speak through him, even Durand in some ways. They might be gone, but Ash carried their memory. "Cruelty, greed, and hatred are loud. Look for the quiet things: the helpers, the generous, the kind, and you will always find them."

Sammy inhaled sharply.

Agatha—Aggie, the girl rather than the Revenant Crone she would become—half-turned to face Ash, paying apt attention..

Perhaps the lonely girl needed this even more than Sammy did.

"There are so many in the world who are selfish and would tear the whole world down for a scrap of power or wealth," Ash whispered, recalling the Slates and Rockets and Magma. Tabitha. But then he remembered Fino, Lance, Steven, Goodshow… "But there are builders. Look for them, and the light will always grow brighter."

Sammy and Agatha were silent for a time, digesting, but Ivysaur politely clapped with his vines, joined by Haunter and Agatha's flickering shadow. Ash flushed, imagining what it must have sounded like to his friends, but didn't back down.

He meant what he said.

"...Not everyone is like you, Ash," Agatha muttered. "Or like Sammy."

"No," Ash agreed. "But they're out there. You just have to find them. Or become them. Carry the torch yourself."

Agatha bit her lip.

Sammy reached out and grabbed Agatha's tiny hands, looking at her with the same pure earnestness that Ash had come to appreciate so much these past two months. For all Sammy's brilliance and talent, that was what stood out the most.

"You're not your family, Aggie," Sammy whispered. "You're not that smelly old man!"
Growlithe nodded fervently at his side, leaping up to lick Agatha's cheek with his hot tongue.

"Hey!" Agatha scowled at Growlithe, though she couldn't keep the facade up for long. She loved that little dog. "Get off me, you mutt."

Growlithe's tail wagged even faster.

"No, I'm not giving you a treat. We were having a serious conversation!"

Growlithe whined.

Agatha huffed. "Fine! If it'll buy me a moment of peace, then here!"

Growlithe ran away with his prize, a muffin that Agatha carried in one of her dress pockets…probably for this exact situation, actually. She really was kind, Ash thought.

"See?" Ash teased. "What Hashimoto would do that?"

Agatha's lips twitched into a smile despite everything. Crobat licked her hair as well, mussing up the golden curls, and she didn't even pretend to get mad this time as her shadow became tangible and reached up to scratch beneath the bat's chin.

"You're both idiots," Agatha sniffed, leaning back onto her old seat to watch the dancing flames. Her team practically swarmed her with affection. "But I could do worse for company, I suppose."

"That might be the nicest thing you've ever said to me!" Sammy cheered, high-fiving Blastoise. "Ivysaur, write that down! Write that down!"

"I'll burn your notebooks!" Agatha threatened. Haunter brandished a Will-O-Wisp for emphasis, though not a single soul in this clearing believed for a second that Agatha would go through with it. Certainly not Agatha herself. "I will!"

Ash snorted.

"That's more like it!" Sammy chirped, pointing his pencil at Agatha. "Keep it up! Kadabra and I hypothesize that for every nice action you take, there will be ten mean actions in order to return the world to its natural state."

"I hypothesize that I'm going to shove this walking stick up your—"

"What good data!" Sammy clapped his hands together. "Ivysaur, are you getting this?"

Ivysaur nodded steadfastly, clumsily writing down his own notes in a very large notebook reserved for his use, and Ash just grinned as the bickering continued, no doubt egged on by Sammy to lighten Agatha's own mood.

Dazed's eyes flashed.

Perhaps you are beginning to understand humans after all, Friend-Trainer.

"A few, Dazed. Just a few. Mostly the weird ones."

XX

It was with a heavy heart that Ash led Sammy to the lonely shrine in Ilex Forest the morning after Seeker's evolution.

A longing for simple times and peace had kept Ash rooted in the past for over two months now, healing the gaping hole in his chest one day at a time and filling it in with all that Blaine recommended back during the Indigo Conference.

Oak was right, Ash thought. Time was just what he needed…even if Ash hadn't quite expected it to come like this. But he had time to breathe, time to relax, time to laugh. He owed the old man a thank you for that.

Ash and his team flourished in their time here, growing beyond what Ash could have hoped without the proverbial axe raised over their heads, and part of Ash longed to remain here for days, weeks, months. How strong could they grow, Ash wondered.

But it wasn't to be.

The League was growing antsier and antsier, already a little on edge thanks to the burgeoning tensions with Unova, and Ash doubted it would be too long before the rumors grew beyond his ability to evade. Ash was strong and mobile, yes, but he couldn't run from the world.

Ash suspected he'd already somewhat overstayed his welcome. Plume reported Rangers stationed all around Azalea and they'd encountered several aerial squadrons making regular patrols. Their antics in Hoenn must have been connected by now.

By now the risk was outweighing the reward. And with the need to get Seeker checked up by a trusted doctor…well, it was time. There was no reality in which Ash Ketchum risked one of his friends.

Besides, every day spent back here was another chance for Ash to send something spiraling out of control.

So now Ash and Sammy wandered amidst the song-filled Ilex Forest, stepping beneath the lush canopy which drooped with the weight and overgrowth of many years. The songs of Pidgey, Spearow, Hoothoot, and many other denizens of the forest filled their ears, though a respectful silence festered in the boughs as they made their way to the sacred shrine.

Not from Sammy, though. The boy blathered on cheerfully as ever as they wandered.

"...Rin's Postulate holds that psychic potential directly correlates with brain volume, though that's nonsense, of course! Otherwise Onix and Wailord would be the strongest psychics around. It's an outdated idea at best, outright detrimental at worst."

Sammy had been ranting on the subject for the last fifteen minutes. Ash just smiled and followed along, popping in with a question or comment to urge the boy on when needed.

"Size isn't everything. You'd figure the same principle as what goes on with intelligence would apply: bigger can be better, sure, but the quality of the connections and optimization of different brains for different skills is going to play a part too."

His friend brightened. "You were actually listening!"

"Of course." It didn't hurt that Sammy so fiercely resembled Steven whenever his beloved mentor ranted about Metagross' infinite virtues.

"Sometimes I think Aggie just lets it go in one ear and out the other," Sammy confessed. He didn't seem particularly bothered by the idea.

"She listens more than you'd think."

"Maybe," Sammy hedged, then went silent for a moment. "I'm sorry she wouldn't come to say goodbye, though I have no idea why you want to go back to that silly old shrine of all places! I don't know what's gotten into her."

Ash hid a grin—Sammy would understand soon enough, he thought. This was Ash's own way of getting payback on the old man for throwing him into this without a word of warning. One of them, anyways.

"It's fine," Ash dismissed Sammy's frustration. "We're friends, after all. I don't need fancy words."

"They can be so nice, though!" Sammy protested. "At the very least, she should've come out of her tent to wave or something."

Ash would've appreciated the chance to say goodbye to this young, bright-eyed Agatha, but he understood her perhaps better than she understood herself. Little Aggie couldn't bear to say goodbye, couldn't bear to lose, couldn't bear to step away from those rare people who earned her affection.

Agatha could play at the hard-faced rock of a girl without an ounce of compassion in her heart. Ash knew the truth. She may be pragmatic, but she was terrible with loss.

It left Ash horribly hollow to realize just what her schism with Oak—with Sammy—must have done to her in the days before the Last War. Part of him wished to warn Sammy, offer a way to avoid the pain of the future…but what then?

No, as much as Ash regretted losing this chance to say his farewells in person, he understood Agatha's reticence.

Nothing ever truly left in Lavender. It was all assimilated by the Ghost, preserved evermore.

Besides, Ash knew this was coming. He'd slipped a letter into her tent at the break of dawn just in case.

"You'll tell her I said goodbye, won't you?" Ash smiled at Sammy, who beamed back. "And that I'm certain we'll meet again."

"I will," Sammy said with an emphatic nod as he tapped two of the old Pokéballs on his belt. Charizard and Kadabra flanked him, watching Ash with starstruck eyes. Now that was weird. At least Kadabra had toughened up enough to remain conscious around him, even if she spent most of her time chasing after Dazed. "Are you sure you have to leave?"

Ash smiled sadly over at the boy—and that's really what Sammy was, Ash thought. A child untouched by any of the world's darker aspects.

If only he could remain that way.

"It's time," Ash said simply. He supposed that was an apt choice of words. "I'm so glad to have met you, Sammy, and Aggie too. But there's so much to be done where I'm from. I needed this more than you could imagine, but I think I'm ready."

"I'm glad we met you too, Ash!" Sammy said, though he furrowed his brow as he tried to pick apart Ash's words. "Even if you're the most frustratingly mysterious person I've ever met."

Ash snorted. "And I know how you feel about mysteries."

"They're meant to be solved!" Sammy hesitated, then worked up the courage to ask the question that Ash knew was coming. "You promise that we'll see each other again? I feel like I've known you for ages. I'll miss you, Ash."

"I'll miss you too," Ash said to Sammy, glancing at Charizard and Kadabra too,biting back the regret. There was so much more that could be done in these peaceful old days… "But we'll meet again. I promise you that. I can't say when or where, but you'll know we'll see each other in the future."

Sammy wiped his eyes and sniffled.

"You're as strong as you allow yourself to be," Ash said. "The only limits on you are the ones you impose on yourself."

Ash thought of what lay ahead of Sammy: a world darkened by war, a beautiful life sundered by cruelty and petty malice, and with each breathtaking view from the peak came an all-consuming pit that threatened to swallow him whole.

Those Oaks didn't do anything by half-measures.

He couldn't reveal what was ahead. He couldn't change Professor Oak's fate.

But perhaps he could offer him hope.

"Look for the helpers," Ash reminded Sammy, slapping him lightly on the shoulder, then turned to the shrine. "They'll be there, reaching out to you even on your darkest day."

With that, Ash bade Sammy and his partners farewell, whispered a prayer for poor Agatha and the curse within her, and knelt before the shrine.

Ash was hesitant as he placed his hand against the shrine, wary of delving too deep after the cracks it had threaded through his mind, but embraced the adamant rivers all the same.

But this time he did not fight the crawling flow.

He embraced it.

Ash gasped as the vines and moss beneath his palm sprouted, growing a month's worth in an instant, and felt the world tremble as a great presence manifested itself, crawling forth from the cracked bark of an old willow as if the tree were an egg.

Or perhaps it had been present the entire time. Who could say?

Verdant leaves turned red and gold and brown, fell from the trees that rose taller and higher than ever before, then crumbled to dust as they touched the earth…and then the soil reconstituted itself into the delicate veined membrane of the leaf, rose through the air, and returned to its source.

Stone groaned and cracked, weathered away by unseen winds and waters, and vanished. Then it was magma which hardened into the original boulder, which was carved by human hands, which was weathered away by unseen winds—

"Oh my!" Sammy cried. "I've never seen a pokémon like that before. I wonder what lineage it belongs to? Charizard, grab my purple notebook from my pack, please!"

Ash didn't answer Sammy's question, too occupied with the little creature which sleepily crawled out of the willow, though there was a certain majesty and dignity to the little pixie which made him suspect any exhaustion was feigned.

His eyes told him that this was a frail creature, small and green with a waifish body composed of delicate plant matter. But those bright blue eyes rippled like lake water, like the adamant rivers, and left Ash almost disconnected entirely, witnessing the world changing and reverting and changing and reverting—

Kadabra forcefully activated her Pokéball and was sucked away. Wise, Ash thought. Wiser than him.

Ash stared deeply into the strange creature's crystalline eyes, looking past the physical manifestation to the Truth beneath, delving deep into the playful smile which belied an ageless wisdom, and saw with his soul.

A free thread untethered from the tapestry.

A ship which could sail any river.

An eye which could regard the adamant sea from any angle.

The nudging will of something that much—

Not yet, silly.

Ash freed himself with a gasp, though he devoured the Truth of Celebi, the Guardian of Time, as greedily as he could. His mind spun as he found himself puking on the soil. He couldn't even be mad about it, greedy and delighted with the truth as he was, and the adamant rivers ran through his mind's eye….

"No. No! No! No!" Sammy cried, stamping his foot even as he flung a towel at Ash from his pack. The boy glared at Celebi even as he sketched the Guardian of Time. Celebi winked at him, striking a quick pose. "Aggie can't be right! Time travel is stupid, dang it. I discounted that possibility months ago. Or at the very least I thought you'd just taken a wrong turn in Coronet…"

"Sorry, Sammy. I guess you owe Aggie an apology—"

For a moment, Ash felt the world shift as the thread of his existence was tugged by an invisible needle guided by Celebi's hand, plucked from this tapestry and guided further upstream. The last thing he saw was Sammy crying out for him (and still sketching), Charizard roaring, and Celebi giggling as it waved Sammy goodbye.

The adamant river stirred, crawling forth like a sluggish tide of molten steel. It touched his awareness, blinding him, and the beginning of a panic attack rose up in his chest as the world simply snapped into place.

Much like when Ash connected with the blood-burning immensity of Groudon, this was something he'd been aware of his entire life. But now he knew it. Felt it. Opened his eyes to a new spectrum of reality.

Was forced to acknowledge the molasses crawl of time upon his being.

It gnawed at him, crawled through the space between his cells, settled in his bones—

Ash took a deep breath, but even that came back to time in the end.

Always forward, never backward.

Unless fate willed it so, apparently.

A terrible mind brushed his own with a childish giggle, poking at the cold flame that stirred into a frenzy as Ash settled back into this time. Mewtwo reeled away, stunned as the Guardian of Time's own thoughts blossomed within, unfolding into an infinite array of infinitely layered feelings upon infinity—

Ash scrambled for Earth, grasping the loamy forest soil beneath his palms and embracing the most feared of his Concepts for the stability he craved. It helped a little, rooting him in this time even as Celebi's mind scattered across an endless array of points, endless and active and one outside will directing countless drones in the name of—

He learned the infinity in the smallest perceivable instant was just as vast to his painfully limited mortal brain as infinity of one aeon to the next, and Ash craved to grow beyond those limitations, to swell and deepen and weave the secrets of Time's Guardian within his own soul.

Gravity tugging on time, bending it, the interweave of Time with Space, lustrous and smooth and universal, complementary in much the same way as Lugia and Ho-Oh's song. Entwined within one another like the double helix of a DNA molecule.

He learned that time was a circle. What had happened would happen, but that meant he could have changed everything but he hadn't because he hadn't because he couldn't—

Ash's brain screamed, though Earth kept him grounded.

Silly Ash. There is no fate. Only me.

That vast faceted mind touched his, sounding almost fond, though how such an alien existence could perceive something as fleeting and ephemeral as a human with any acknowledgement or empathy baffled Ash.

It giggled into his mind, stretching his awareness forward and backward and lateral, setting him adrift.

Ash wheezed, clinging to the soil for all he was worth, and felt completely spent.

"Why'd you take me back there?" Ash murmured as the pixie occupied itself with growing a blade of grass to death, respawning it, and watching it pass again. "Not that I'm ungrateful, but I can't see what's in it for you. You didn't even speak to me until the last five minutes, although I guess that doesn't mean much for you."

It was clear as day that Oak had puzzled together enough to figure out what he needed to set in motion, but it was becoming just as clear that the good Professor had no freaking clue what he was doing.

Celebi smiled at him. For a moment Ash felt it ripple throughout the adamant rivers, felt the same physical shell piloted across an infinite number of points smile alongside the one before him (although they were all the same, he supposed, just present at different points), and his headache worsened.

Then the smile widened, the headache faded, and a single facet of Celebi's existence brushed his own.

Because it happened.

And then it was gone, leaving Ash's brain half-melting from his ears. All he could feel was the trickle of molten steel carrying him forward forward forward—

He barely had a moment to reel at the revelations the mere touch of the Guardian of Time had poured into his mind. Worst of all, Ash felt the tantalizing thread leading him deeper to a dead end, to fields so vast that he lacked the perspective to properly comprehend them.

And on that path lay madness.

Seconds later the cold flame rushed through his mind and flesh, scouring him for information, flipping frantically through his memories and thoughts as if they were a book. It was worried. Frantic. Afraid.

"Celebi tossed me back forty years for fun, apparently," Ash groused. "It's not that complicated."

Mewtwo's presence flickered with blatant annoyance, but at least he didn't stop Ash's heart this time.

Small mercies.

"If you're done, I have a Professor to talk to," Ash said as the cold flame faded, no doubt so that Mewtwo could dive deeper and deeper into the new data he had absorbed. He was too exhausted from his experience to play any more games.

But not too exhausted to begin plotting out ways to incorporate this into Dazed's training. And perhaps Gloam's as well…

Yet the return to his own time left him missing Sammy all the more. The past had been so peaceful, so easy.

Professor Oak had chosen well.

He reached for Plume's Pokéball with a lunatic's smile plastered across his face.

Forty years for Sammy and five minutes for Ash.

Sammy better have made damn good use of those decades.

…Assuming that Celebi had even thrown Ash into the right time, of course. Ash got a distinctly Mew-like impression from the Guardian of Time. That little attendant orbiting something far greater like a mote of dust around a blindingly bright star, and wouldn't put it past it to have just dropped him at a random point.

But at least Mewtwo's presence suggested that he was back where he belonged.

"Only one way to find out," Ash murmured to Plume, who shrieked her agreement despite having no idea what the hell he was talking about. That was fine, though. They'd be one soon enough. "Are you ready?"

Her next shriek rattled the heavens.

XX

Ash rocketed towards Pallet Town on Plume's back. They were one, unified with reckless abandon and a demand for all the speed. Burning anticipation filled their minds as they rode their domain and watched the landscape pass beneath their glory in a green blur.

Johto was left far behind.

The Ore Mountains were mere hills to their eyes. They sneered as they drifted low, low, painfully low and scraped the mountaintops with their talons, raking the cold surface to leave a gouge. Their mark.

Their memory.

Mt. Silver towered in the far distance as an indomitable throne, the blizzard-sealed seat of slumbering Ice, and their pride rankled to see their past sanctuary defiled by Winter's wings. They longed to shriek their challenge to Articuno, to force the arrogant god-creature to witness their glory, but they had more important challenges ahead of them.

Glee and irritation and hope crawled beneath their skin and feathers like live wires, and they shrieked their challenge to the world—to a friend they had known longer than they could have ever imagined—as Pallet Town appeared before them at blistering speed.

They shed their unity as they approached, bleeding away into two disparate beings, but Ash murmured loving words to Plume as they diverged. He embraced the bond between them, fostering it into a bonfire, and felt the affection radiating from both sides.

For a moment Ash saw through her eyes just as she peered through his feeble human ones.

Ash and Plume did not need a Mega Stone to be one, and neither did the rest. But that potential would have to be shelved for later.

Plume dove at an angle that left even Ash reeling, shooting down to the rolling hills of the Corral at breakneck speed, and it was only her superb piloting which kept Ash's frail human body from breaking a bone (or ten) as she decelerated and caught them on a rise of cushioning wind.

He released his entire team without breaking stride, Gloam and Crobat perched proudly on his shoulders…with a little help from Dazed to keep their weight from being unbearable.

Professor Oak awaited them outside of his house. He smiled fondly at Ash, but there was something new behind his eyes. Something giddy and wild and young.

His lab coat was nowhere to be seen.

Not quite the One-Ringed Oak who had taken Indigo by storm over thirty years ago nor the Professor Oak who had lived up to his old promise to change the world for the better with technology.

And not quite Ash's old friend Sammy either.

Samuel Oak grinned.

"You're back sooner than expected. It's only been half an hour since you departed the Corral," Professor Oak said mildly, standing tall and proud, unbent by the years. For a moment Ash saw a cheerful, brilliant boy with a shock of brown hair and a truly dreadful outfit grinning at him, but he shook it off. "So the loop is closed then."

"You figured it out."

"You left me a long time to think about it. I never could leave a mystery well alone."

"They're meant to be solved."

"A long time to wait…and a long time to prepare, old friend." Professor Oak grinned, shedding the years like an Arbok's skin. The row of antiquated Pokéballs shone brilliantly, polished as they never had been before.

"Are you up for it, old man?"

"I don't feel old now, Ash. Not even close to it. I've waited over forty years for this. But yes! I hope you're ready—I, Champion Samuel Oak, challenge you."

Professor Oak would like to battle?

Ash grinned.

He never thought he would hear the words.

A/N: And so here we are! I do apologize for the wait on this one. I began traveling shortly after Chapter 78 was released and didn't get much writing done for a few weeks, plus I had another project to focus on as well.

Thank you so much to Jain and Raptor for all their help editing this chapter! They saved me so much time and allowed me to get this chapter out today.

This chapter is one I've been looking forward to for a long, long time and I wanted to do my utmost to do it justice. I hope I've accomplished this and given you a good experience for many years of foreshadowing. It's very special to me and I had an absolute blast writing it :)

I would LOVE to hear what you thought of the chapter! I plan to catch up on reviews and PMs for this chapter, although I haven't touched messages in a while so that I could focus on output.

As for the upcoming chapters…well, let's say that I've been quite looking forward to those as well.

See you next time.