Steven Interlude (Part 2) (Patreon)

Fog surrounded the town. Gray mists filled the streets. Crowds of humans and Pokémon moved in surprisingly orderly lines to the cover of the Space-Time Towers’ garden’s trees.

Nervous sniffles and cries rang out as the ominous environment shifted and flowed around the people present. A few brave souls had tried to leave the town earlier, only to find themselves heading back towards the city itself. Whatever spatial distortions had occurred had isolated the town from the outside world.

Steven couldn’t help but to regret his inaction during the night prior. He had no clue things would get so extreme.

“Hey! You! We need to take out that demon! What? Of course it’s responsible! Urgh! Why isn’t anyone listening to me!?”

Baron Alberto stomped angrily on the ground nearby as he shouted at the trainers helping with the evacuation. With command given to him by Cynthia, as well as his reputation as a Champion from another region, Steven had managed to recruit the vast majority of Pokémon trainers in this city before Baron Alberto could poison them against Darkrai.

As for the evacuation itself, there were a few holdouts of people wishing to stay in their houses (which was especially true for some older folk), but due to the emergency that Steven declared, all it took was a quick Hypnosis or Sleep Powder for them to be brought away.

He would undoubtedly face a large amount of scrutiny from that decision in the future. However, he knew that there was no other choice to keep everyone safe.

Tonio sat on the ground beside Steven, staring at his laptop as the evacuation continued. People were acting less afraid of Darkrai now that Steven had been standing next to it so long without any aggressive actions.

“The distortions are getting stronger,” Tonio muttered. He looked up towards the houses behind him. “Alice needs to get back soon.”

Steven just grimaced and continued to stare up at the clouded sky. Every so often, something would flicker up there, but he wasn’t sure if he was just imagining it. Darkrai seemed to be getting tenser by the moment.

Soon enough, the crowds of people faded away as the last of them were escorted into the gardens. The trainers would be posted around the edge of the area to defend the civilians as the town readied themselves for the worst.

The main plaza was left in silence. Steven felt his hand that had been hovering over his Pokéballs in preparation itch.

“Hey!” Ash suddenly yelled.

Darkrai visibly flinched, and Steven held back a wince from the sudden loud noise.

“It wasn’t there! The disc wasn’t there!” Ash continued to shout.

Ash, Dawn, and Alice made their way to Steven, Darkrai, and Tonio.

“Then ‘Oración’ must be in the towers. We need to get it,” Tonio said.

Ash nodded and started to lead Dawn and Alice to the towers to continue their search, but Alice stayed behind. She stood next to Steven and looked up at Darkrai, who was currently perched with its legs extended on top of a fountain.

It glanced down at her. Its eye widened imperceptibly as a result.

“Alisia,” it said.

Alice shook her head.

“No. Alisia was my grandmother. My name is Alice.”

Alice touched her chest and gave it a soft smile. Darkrai closed its eyes briefly before tilting its head to glance up at the sky. It was no longer staring at the same spot as before, choosing instead to simply let its head lean back in response.

“I want to thank you, you know.”

Darkrai’s single visible eye opened back up to return to staring at her.

“Tonio told me the story before I left for my house. When we were young, you saved me from the fall. I always thought Tonio did it, but it was actually you. Thank you, Darkrai. You saved my life.”

Darkrai stared at her for a long moment before it gave her a soft nod and returned to keeping watch at the gray skies above.

This time, when its deep voice echoed out, the words somehow came out a bit softer.

“The gardens are everyone’s,” it echoed.

Alice lingered for just a second longer before beginning to run off with Ash. However, at that moment, Tonio stood up in fear.

His laptop began to beep loudly. His head shot up to stare at the sky above.

“The waves... they’ve peaked. What’s— what’s going on?”

Everyone’s heads turned to stare at the sky as a singular wave pulsed out. It was unlike any of the others before, as rather than a subtle shift or a complete tinge of pink, this was a visible pulse that shifted space in a burst outwards from between the two towers.

Steven felt his body move around as it passed through him. It was as if his body bent unnaturally every which way without even shifting at all. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

Darkrai lifted up its extended legs to return to hovering in the air. The glow of its blue eye increased in intensity, and the mist rolling off of its body became thicker.

“Here,” its voice rang out.

Out of nowhere, it launched itself forward towards the singular point that the wave had emanated from. Steven shouted for it to stop, but it was already off.

It raced forward toward a space that was no longer empty; now, a large, glowing sphere was visible at Darkrai’s destination. In the center of that sphere was a faint pink glow, and from the way it was pulsating, it seemed that the strange sphere was readying itself to unleash another one of those more violent waves.

“If another one hits, I’m not sure we could last,” Tonio murmured worriedly, still staring at his computer.

Darkrai continued forth. It reached out clawed hands towards the sphere with obvious intention of rending it open, but the second it touched the sphere, Steven blinked, and Darkrai had already hit the ground from where it had been launched back. Ash and everyone else paused at the sudden sight while Steven was already in the process of releasing the strongest member of his team, Metagross, before anything could get worse.

“Go! Now!” Steven shouted.

Ash and the rest didn’t need more than that to move on. Tonio followed after them.

As the dust cloud cleared, a hole in the ground surrounded by rubble came into view. From above, the pink transparent sphere pulsed, briefly revealing the shape of what could only be the Legendary Palkia curled up within.

Darkrai leaped up and once more flew forward.

“Go! Away!” it screamed.

Within its clawed grasp, a massive Shadow Ball formed between its hands and was sent forward at the sphere. A red burst flashed from the point of impact, and a cry that shook space itself vibrated around the plaza.

Like a flood of water pushing back foam, the mist and fog disappeared around the town, revealing not the expected blue sky above, but an unnaturally black space with strange white fluctuations within it that hurt the mind to look at. Pure white lightning flashed in the sky, illuminating the forms of the pair of Legendary Pokémon above.

Palkia stood far taller than Darkrai, with its shining, pearl-white body towering over it. It had strange pink ridges across its entire form that caused light to bend as it traveled over them. Its long neck was perfectly still as its eyes lingered on Darkrai, causing Steven difficulty in telling if Palkia was just a motionless statue or the actual Pokémon itself.

The pearls on its shoulders pulsed, and the space around it warped. It spread apart its wings as the unnatural light-warping around its body spread out before fading back away, briefly obscuring it from view.

Both Darkrai and Palkia continued to float across from the other in the air. Palkia returned to its motionless, staring at Darkrai so intently as if it was trying to fully parse its reaction. Next to Steven, his partner, a silver Metagross, watched the standoff with a gleam in their eye as their body glowed under a faint blue light. While they hadn’t moved in just yet, they had already used Calm Mind several times to ready themselves for the battle.

“This isn’t something we can win,” Steven said. “We can merely delay for Ash and his friends to start ‘Oración.’ No matter what, we have to keep fighting, and if worse comes to worst, remember that you have always been my closest friend.”

A familiar, warm pressure hugged Steven’s mind as Metagross sent their steely affection his way. In response, Steven grabbed the small pin on his chest that contained a very specific rainbow stone. He pinched it between two fingers, stared at Palkia, and focused on a singular goal alongside Metagross.

An iridescent glow filled the plaza as Metagross’s form lost their defined features and shifted over themself, turning their body from a quadrupedal metal behemoth to a floating machine with four arms that ended in sharp, Tough Claws.

He and Mega Metagross had trained these past few months after he stepped down from being Hoenn’s Champion. While that title might not technically apply, he and his team had more than enough power to still live up to it.

It was time to put that power to use.

“Begin,” Steven said calmly.

Metagross shot off.

Darkrai was the first to resume the battle after the skies cleared out. It held out its arms as blue electricity was sent forward in a Shock Wave that zapped Palkia. In response, Palkia screeched, but in anger rather than pain. The Legendary Pokémon withstood the attack and landed on the ground at the base of the tower.

As it did so, it knocked over a pair of lamp posts that had been set in the ground. However, rather than hitting the ground, the pair of lights faded away into motes of nothingness as reality itself disintegrated around them.

Darkrai sent another one of its large Shadow Balls forward, but the attack failed to reach Palkia. No matter how fast it went, the pulsating shadow only ever seemed to be halfway to its target.

Palkia’s body gained an aura of pink. A similarly colored pearl embedded in its shoulder glowed with power, and with that, Steven couldn’t help but notice a large crack in it.

“It’s wounded,” he muttered. “Is it losing control of its power?”

Metagross had yet to fully commit themself to the battle just yet, choosing to float off to the side to observe. There was no doubt in Steven’s mind that Metagross was using their supercomputer-like brain to calculate its best avenue of approach. He didn’t blame them for being cautious in the face of such a powerful Legendary.

Palkia lifted itself off the ground, and Steven began to dash to the side. It would not benefit him nor anyone else to linger in the midst of such a dangerous battle, so he tried to reach the Space-Time Towers to properly enter cover.

At this point, Palkia’s pink glow reached its peak as it lifted itself off the ground. It opened its mouth as that same energy gathered up into a glowing, colored sphere that was sent Darkrai’s way. Darkrai held out its hands to prepare a move in response to stop the attack, but that was when Metagross moved in.

Metagross used Flash Cannon to send forward a bright beam of Steel Type energy. Palkia’s attack burst before it reached its target, Darkrai taking no damage whatsoever.

The pair of allies shared a glance before facing the floating Palkia. Palkia stopped its ranged attacks, rushing forward directly at them.

Steven turned away from the battle. He trusted his Pokémon, and he knew Darkrai would at least be able to escape if needed. He began to move to enter the building to assist Ash and the rest with their search, but he stopped when a new, unfamiliar cry rang out.

The sound happened all at once, yet somehow it also happened slowly over several minutes. It actually lasted a few seconds, however, as something completely unknown hit Palkia and sent it crashing into a section of nearby buildings.

Steven wasn’t sure how he had missed it before. As far as he could remember, it had been drifting over the city forever yet no one had ever pointed it out. The new Pokémon had certainly always been there, but he could have sworn it only just arrived.

As if he had never fully seen it before, Steven now properly took in the presence of Dialga.

It was a blue metal quadruped with sharp claws on each leg and a head that stretched out backwards into a flattened crest. Parts of its body were embedded with brilliant, shimmering diamonds flattened into lines, and it had a matte gray metal chestplate right below its neck.

Something twisted in the middle of that plate as Steven noticed a dark blue crystal within. Similar to Palkia, Dialga was motionless and used the pause that had come with its initial appearance to take in its foes.

Unlike Palkia, Dialga barely spared Darkrai half a glance, even brushing past Metagross to focus on its foe. Dialga stared off towards its pink rival who warped space to bring itself back to its feet.

Time invisibly coiled around the sky-bound battlefield as Dialga wielded its domain to face its rival.

The sense of bloodlust was palpable. Steven felt as though barely any air was reaching his lungs.

Palkia brought itself back up over the houses, and Steven had a sudden realization that it wasn’t actually floating. Rather, it was shifting space to have everything move around it as it stood still. The level of power those two were demonstrating was ridiculous, and he knew that even Mega Metagross and Darkrai combined would be unable to stop them.

They would only be able to limit the damage.

Dialga opened its mouth to send a radiant Hyper Beam. Palkia brought up a claw to tear space itself and form a pink glowing chasm that absorbed the attack. Rushing forward, Palkia moved to grab at Dialga, but somehow that never happened and Dialga had been behind Palkia the whole time.

Dialga opened its mouth once more, or perhaps it was doing so for the first time, and blue energy seared forward. In an attack that was far more destructive than a Hyper Beam, the energy moved forward and lingered in the air, forcing Palkia to shift space to face Dialga.

A new rend in space formed, defending Palkia once more. This time, however, the attack wasn’t completely absorbed, and waves of destructive energy were sent out in every direction around it.

Palkia and Dialga seemed to be unaffected, but both Metagross and Darkrai strained in the air, and the houses of the city the pair of Legendaries floated over were simultaneously disintegrated, remade, and rotted away.

It was difficult to track what exactly was going on as several layers of actions occurred at once. Whatever they were doing, Dialga and Palkia were causing reality to fall apart.

“Don’t let them clash!” Tonio suddenly shouted from behind Steven.

Appearing next to Steven, Tonio appeared from the Space-Time Towers with his laptop in hand. At his side was Alice, looking somehow worried and relieved at the same time.

“When their attacks hit, the fabric of reality begins to unravel. The waves they’re making are somehow resonating with the basic building blocks of existence. The city, and the dimension we’re residing in, may fall apart if they keep going.”

“The dimension we’re residing in? Does that have to do with the strange space going on outside of town?”

Tonio shook his head.

“It’s not that there’s space going wrong outside of town, it’s that the town is currently in a different dimension. Whatever Palkia’s done, it brought itself and everything here somewhere different.”

“And yet Dialga still found it when it was trying to heal,” Steven said.

“Heal?” asked Alice.

“Palkia is wounded. One of its pearls is cracked. I can only assume it sustained that injury during a fight with Dialga, and now, we’re caught up in its mess.”

Tonio frowned as he looked at his device. Dialga and Palkia were swirling around each other in the air without either of them landing a major hit, so nothing was causing as much damage as before.

That is, until they started charging up the same attacks that had caused the previous waves.

Steven moved quickly to give Metagross a heads up.

“Metagross! Stop them!” he yelled.

Metagross, in their Mega Form, rushed forward in the sky to move closer to Palkia. Taking the cue, Darkrai moved towards Dialga as well. As the Roar of Time and Spacial Rend were finally unleashed towards their foes, both Darkrai and Mega Metagross used Shadow Ball and Flash Cannon respectively to stop the attacks from landing. The far weaker moves weren’t enough to stop them, but they were enough to trigger their effects earlier as Space and Time shattered and broke apart without the attacks colliding.

Their efforts meant that the reality damaging waves did not get sent out once more. Unfortunately, they did draw the attention of the two Legendary Pokémon.

If Steven cursed regularly, he would have done so now.

Palkia shifted space to bring Metagross closer, and it slashed down with its hands to try to hit them. Metagross brought up their claws to deflect the blow, using Meteor Mash to infuse themself with Steel Type energy in an attempt to resist the damage.

The two Pokémon’s moves clanged off the other, causing Palkia to pause at the unexpected resistance. As it did so, Dialga and Darkrai spiraled around each other in the air, Darkrai unleashing several Shock Waves that were always a second too slow, and Dialga unleashing beams of energy from the diamond in its chest that Darkrai barely shifted out of the way of with its shadow control.

Both Darkrai and Metagross tried to attack with their ranged moves again, but even when the moves hit, the pair of Legendary Pokémon seemed wholly unaffected by the damage.

The quartet moved higher into the sky.

“Please tell me you found ‘Oración,’” Steven commented.

“We did. Ash is bringing it up the tower, and I was going to bring Tonio up in my balloon.”

Steven gave Alice a disbelieving look.

“You thought it would be safe to fly with a slow-moving vehicle during this kind of battle?”

Alice looked away. Tonio didn’t seem to understand.

Holding back a sigh, Steven sent out another one of his partners, Skarmory. Since his team had been on high alert, they had been paying attention to what had been going on outside their Pokéballs, so even now, Skarmory knew exactly what was going on.

Steven hopped onto her back, taking care to not slice himself on his friend’s metal feathers. It took years of practice to perfect this without a saddle, but now, it was almost second nature.

“I’m going up,” Steven said. “Is there a specific reason you two in particular need to be up there?”

Neither of them could provide one.

Steven nodded.

Taking off in the air, Skarmory brought Steven up high. The two towers extended far past them, with the Space tower on his left, and the Time tower on his right. Within the blue-accented Time tower, Steven could see Ash and Dawn hurriedly running up the long staircase. The fancy metal designs of the building itself meant they were clearly visible within the metal gaps that were a part of its decoration.

Then suddenly, Darkrai was next to Steven.

“Leave!”

Skarmory veered to the side as a flaming Draco Meteor hurtled towards Darkrai. The attack was relatively undirected, seemingly a miss that just happened to move directly towards the towers.

Darkrai took affront to its presence, and tried its best to stop the attack with a blast from a Shadow Ball. Unfortunately. Draco Meteor was an extremely powerful move, which meant Darkrai’s efforts didn’t even slow it down.

Darkrai had no choice but to take the attack head on, disappearing into a cloud of smoke from the impact.

“Darkrai! Are you okay?!” Steven yelled.

The smoke cloud cleared to reveal Darkrai panting heavily, its body now extremely injured. Steven still felt the familiar drain on his vitality that was a part of Metagross’s Mega Evolution, so he knew his partner was still fighting above. However, with Darkrai temporarily out of the picture, Metagross was expending more energy than before, and Steven was beginning to feel tired.

Time was running out.

“Take a breather! Metagross can delay for a short while! Just don’t let them clash again!”

Darkrai glanced Steven’s way and gave him the faintest of nods as Skarmory stopped circling and continued her flight towards the Time tower. Steven’s heart dropped at the sight in front of him. As it stood, the staircase was beginning to fade away into motes of light just like the rest of the town.

A scream rang out. It was Ash.

“Hang on!” Steven yelled.

Zooming forward, Steven saw the boy plummeting out of the tower from where the staircase had disappeared under Ash’s feet. Dawn was up higher, screaming at Ash’s current fall.

However, Skarmory was a Champion-level Pokémon for a reason. She dipped down to match Ash’s falling speed and managed to catch him right on its back. Steven grabbed Ash to stabilize him, and he placed the boy in the spot that would have the lowest chance of causing him to be sliced from Skarmory’s feathers.

The Steel Type bird flew them higher towards their destination.

“Need a lift?” Steven quipped.

Ash breathed out a sigh of relief, and so did Steven. In Ash’s hands was the one cylindrical music disc that they had tried so long to find.

Connecting the two towers was a small room suspended above the ground. It looked like a metal sphere with two walkways that came out from two towers, and it contained the control room for the music player within the tower itself.

Thankfully, there was a small balcony on one side that overlooked the town, so Steven was able to let Ash off there and move to enter the room with him. He was feeling a bit tired from the energy expended so far, but he at least thought he would have enough to get through the battle.

Of course, that was when the energy drain from Mega Evolution suddenly stopped.

Rather than following Ash in, Steven dashed back and clutched the railing of the balcony. Steam sizzled in the sky as Metagross’s shiny silver body fell towards the ground.

They had taken a Hyper Beam straight on. Despite the raw power Mega Evolution brought them, an attack from a Pokémon that could literally control reality was far too much for them to withstand.

“Skarmory! We’re going!” Steven yelled.

Skarmory circled around to build up speed as Steven ran and jumped off the platform. He landed on the metal bird’s back, Ash screaming out behind him.

“Steven! Be careful!”

“Just get that music playing! This needs to end!”

Skarmory flapped her wings to create a Tailwind that increased her speed even further, and Steven clutched his friend’s Pokéball in his hands. Metagross was falling right over a section of pink decaying buildings, potentially posing a great danger to Metagross’s continued existence.

Thankfully, Steven was able to return them to their Pokéball just in time before impact. Locked into an incredibly fast speed, Skarmory was forced to pull upwards to bring Steven back away from the ground.

Steven stared at the battle in the sky.

Darkrai was fighting alone.

As it stood, Steven was in the dark, almost literally with the current state of this dimension. He had no clue what was going on in the music room, Metagross was out of the fight, and he had no Pokémon able to get this high up other than Skarmory.

Claydol could float, but aerial combat wasn’t Claydol’s specialty.

However, Steven could still easily see Dialga and Palkia position themselves apart in the sky. Dialga began to charge up a Roar of Time, and Palkia prepared a Spacial Rend.

It would be catastrophic if those two attacks hit.

Steven would be too slow.

The attacks that tore through time and space sailed toward the other in the air. They moved too fast for Steven and Skarmory to do anything about it, and as it stood, even if Ash and Dawn got the music started, the attacks were already there.

Darkrai moved.

“Stop!”

A massive dark sphere pushed out from the Legendary Dark Type, encompassing both Dialga and Palkia alike. Their attacks slowed and froze in place from the sheer power of what Darkrai was creating. The Legendary Pokémon had unleashed their attacks over the backside of the tower, threatening the gardens and the entire town that had gathered there.

There was no one who was unable to see what was going on.

Dialga and Palkia paused.

Darkrai’s voice echoed throughout the entire disintegrating city.

“These! Gardens! Are! Everyone’s!”

Steven sucked in a breath. He felt Skarmory falter in its flight underneath him.

The dark sphere lingered  for a few moments more, and Steven watched as the rate everything was disintegrating into motes of pink almost seemed to stall. The edges of the city were curling up, and the bridge that led in and out was completely gone. The sphere of black hung over the gardens, with both Dialga and Palkia still inside it.

Steven pictured Ash and Dawn continuing their work in the central room.

Despite the sudden display of power, Steven knew that Darkrai was still injured. The Draco Meteor it took had taken most of its energy to withstand, so even though little time had passed, the darkness was already beginning to fade away.

Dialga was freed from its temporary prison first, and Palkia was freed soon after it as well. In total, the brief pause lasted only seconds.

As the last vestiges of whatever Darkrai had done ceased, the two attacks continued forward and hit Darkrai dead on. Reality shifted and broke, but the dimension did not collapse. Darkrai had managed to block the attacks, ensuring that everyone’s safety would continue on.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Darkrai.

As the smoke from the attacks faded away, Darkrai was revealed in the center. It was not in good shape. The lower half of its body was missing, and pink motes of light were flaking off of the rest of it.

The mist that emanated off its shoulders and head ceased. It was slowly disappearing.

There was nothing to be done. There was nothing Steven could say.

Darkrai’s eye was clenched in pain, and it slowly drifted upwards. As its body disintegrated over time, Steven saw it just barely open its eye. There was a moment the pair of them made eye contact, and, even though Darkrai’s mouth was not visible, Steven could have sworn it smiled.

And then Darkrai was gone.

It would have been nice to say there was a moment of silence, it would have been nice to say the two other Legendary Pokémon paused in the wake of Darkrai’s demise, but they were too lost to battle to be aware of their surroundings. Steven held back a sob as they charged up one last pair of attacks, then—

Music.

A melody played out.

The glowing blue and pink forming in Dialga’s and Palkia’s mouths respectively faded away as they closed their eyes in a relaxed focus. Skarmory’s own flight smoothed out into a lazy glide as the most beautiful sound Steven had ever heard echoed out around the town.

“Oración,” Steven whispered.

He, the Legendary Pokémon, and likely every other human and Pokémon in the area looked to the towers playing the key song. An unexpected sight began to appear.

The Space-Time Towers had always been a mechanical marvel, especially since they were part of the world’s largest instrument. However, pieces of the machine were extending outwards as parts that had been thought to be only decorative fell into place to make the entire building resemble a pair of wings. Space and Time moved in harmony as the tower’s shape emphasized the music, turning the building into one large emissary of peace.

Dialga and Palkia stared at the sight before them. Steven almost felt like he was unable to breathe, not from the pressure of the Legendary Pokémon, but from the sheer number of emotions he was experiencing in the moment.

Then, Dialga was gone. It had never been there, it wasn’t there currently, and likely, it never would be there again. Palkia shifted space to cause it to drift forward toward the central metal sphere responsible for the playing music

Steven couldn’t see much, but he could at least make out Dawn yelling at the Legendary from his spot in the sky a distance away. He couldn’t help but chuckle.

An instant later, everything was back to normal.

The houses were fixed, the sky was blue, and Palkia was gone. There was no evidence that the battle had even taken place, so much so that those initial two street lamps were fixed and undamaged from Palkia’s landing on the ground.

But Darkrai did not return.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

In the days that followed, Steven worked with the Pokémon League to fix the town.

Well, “fix the town” was the wrong phrase. It was more like he helped settle everyone after the chaos.

People had panicked in the face of such a major event, and, even more, there was little they could do to prove it actually happened. Technology had failed to work during the battle; only machines specifically made to withstand space-time disturbances like Tonio’s laptop, or machines that were purely mechanical in nature, like the Space-Time Towers, had continued to function. They had been extremely lucky that everyone’s Pokéballs never failed.

The only physical piece of evidence that remained to prove the event had occurred was a single polaroid photo one lucky photographer had taken. It clearly showed Dialga and Palkia facing off in front of the Space-Time Towers, and interestingly enough, Darkrai was positioned right between the pair.

It was of Darkrai’s final moments.

Two days later, Dawn competed in the local contest after a day’s delay, and she barely pulled off a victory against the few trainers that decided to compete. Many people chose to sit it out, which included the Ace Trainers that had volunteered to help Steven. They said they wanted to spend at least a week in rest after everything that happened.

Baron Alberto maintained his position as the leader of the town, since his role was both hereditary and mostly ornamental in nature. However, it was quickly becoming clear that his attempts to take out Darkrai, who had sacrificed itself for the town, had lost him the public’s approval. There was little chance people would ever listen to him again.

Tonio submitted most of his recordings of the event to the League to be used to help detect future spacial anomalies. As a thank you, he received quite a large grant to continue his research. Alice was distraught after losing Darkrai, a friend she had never even known she had, but she found comfort in the gardens behind the Space Time towers.

The town’s mood was somehow both crazed, yet subdued and melancholic. With the position of everyone in the Space-Time Towers’ gardens, practically everyone saw what had gone down. It was unlikely that this place would ever forget what had happened, and people were still in the process of calming down.

Steven, of course, would now have to deal with the rest of the aftermath.

(That mostly meant dealing with Cynthia.)

“I understand how harrowing it must have been, but surely you have at least some information about the Legendary Pokémon?” Cynthia asked.

Steven sighed. After all the paperwork, he just wanted to spend the day relaxing.

“What stood out to me about the Legendary Pokémon was their pressure,” Steven began to explain. “It was hard to notice in the moment, but simply being around them caused my heart to race and made it difficult to breathe. The pair of them could control space and time with such authority that the fight itself was near impossible to follow. Even now, there are points that I am unsure even happened thanks to Dialga’s command over time, and I’m unsure if any hits actually landed against Palkia due to its use of a paradox to defend itself.”

Cynthia animatedly scribbled everything he said into her notebook. She was so focused on Steven’s words that she was even ignoring the bowl of ice cream on the table in front of her. It was a strange sight to see for Steven, who was somewhat aware of her absolute love of the treat.

“And their size? Were they truly larger than a bathhouse?”

“I’m unsure how large a bathhouse is,” Steven said.

Cynthia tapped her pencil on her lips.

“Hmm. Well, I asked for a bathhouse since that’s how all the old texts refer to them, so maybe just give me the number of stories in height?”

Steven took a sip of his tea.

“Perhaps three stories tall?”

“Incredible,” she breathed.

She quickly wrote that down.

“And then their skin: they’re Dragon Types, so are they scaled, or do they have a smooth hide like other Pokémon? Or is it that they’re made out of pliable metal, or even just—”

“Cynthia.”

She stopped writing and at least had the self awareness to look a bit sheepish.

“Sorry,” she said. “It’s not often I can get a firsthand source about the legends of this region.”

Cynthia let out a dreamy sigh and finally returned to eating her ice cream. Steven stared out the window of the upstairs room in the Pokémon Center, giving him a good view of the training grounds before.

He hated to admit it, but Baron Alberto made a good decision with the development of these. While the money could have likely been put to better use elsewhere, for a series of public battlefields, they were extremely high quality and quite expansive.

Cynthia noticed his pensive mood.

“How are you feeling?”

Steven half-heartedly shrugged.

“Sad, I suppose. Guilty? Bittersweet? On one hand, quick action by the Ace Trainers in the town meant no one was injured, and Palkia’s restoration of disintegrated space meant there was no physical damage whatsoever.

“On the other hand, this was a traumatic event for everyone involved, and I personally saw Darkrai sacrifice itself for the people here. I still see its last moments in my dreams. It was in pain, but at the same time, it almost seemed to be happy.”

“It’s strange isn’t it?” Cynthia said. “That simple moments can lead to such a large sacrifice. Tonio included the history of this Darkrai when he submitted his research to the Pokémon League, and it described how it chose to stay here after the kindness of Alice’s grandmother. It was written in Godey’s journal; do you know what Alisia said to befriend Darkrai so deeply?”

“What did she say?” Steven asked.

“‘These gardens are everyone’s.’”

Steven set his cup down at that proclamation and closed his eyes. Cynthia continued to speak.

“Pokémon are a gift. They would do so much for us, and at the same time, we would do so much for them. Their sacrifices always seem like so much, but wouldn’t we do the same for them? The relationship between humans and Pokémon may be strange, but I doubt anyone can say that it doesn’t run as deep as it does.”

Steven simply nodded.

“Pokémon sure are wonderful, aren’t they?”

“That they are.”

The pair of Champions, both ex and current, drifted off into silence as they both enjoyed their treats. With everything he had been told, the fate of Alamos town was never truly in question for Steven, but he at least hoped he changed things for the better.

After everything he’d been through this past half year—fighting Legendary Pokémon, dealing with criminal organizations, and even battling a Pokémon hunter—Steven had wanted a break. However, as an ex-Champion, he had a role to play when it came to keeping people and Pokémon safe. His actions had directly made sure everyone was grouped and protected during the most dangerous parts of what had occurred, but he knew that even with that, his mind would always linger on the “what-if”’s.

Regardless, Steven was proud of the work done here, and he was happy with everyone’s contributions.

Mostly.

One thing was for sure, though; no one who had been there in Alamos would ever forget Darkrai’s sacrifice for its beloved people and gardens.

======================================================

Fun fact: While most movies have a dubious canon, The Rise of Darkrai is confirmed to have happened as Dawn brings out a lunar wing she bought in Alamos in the episode “Sleepless in Pre-Battle!”
(Quick edit: all early movies are canon. This is just a confirmed reference to it in a non-movie episode.)

I can’t really list all the changes that happened in this movie. Alex’s warnings to Steven changed too much, and the entire middle act was skipped over. Also, the final battle happened earlier and was far more compressed than before. Despite Darkrai’s apparent demise, I will also confirm here that Steven’s presence did help mitigate the damage to the people and the city during the events of the movie. Darkrai’s fate is the same as it would be if the movie happened without Steven’s presence. I consider the primary reason many darker details were brushed over to be that the writers couldn't justify anything else in a movie aimed at kids.

Pokémon mentioned this chapter (contains spoilers):
Darkrai / Movie Darkrai
Dialga / Palkia
Metagross / Steven’s Metagross
Skarmory

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