Ash exited the portal as it disappeared, and landed on a floating mass of land. Around him pillars and shards of crystals floated through the air. Other island like masses of land floated about, and on one he saw Cyrus walking aimlessly. As he took in his surroundings he felt a presence behind him, a powerful presence that was rare even among the legendary pokemon.

"Hello Giratina," Ash greeted as he turned around.

There before him he saw the massive form of the Renegade Pokémon Giratina floating beside the tiny floating island he was standing upon.

"Chosen one, Ash Ketchum. What brings you to my realm?" Giratina's voice boomed in Ash's head.

"I've come looking for your help. Team Rocket has taken control of Arceus, their leader Giovanni even merged bodies with him. With Arceus' power they are going to take over the world."

"Your world, not mine."

He then started to float away.

"They found the Arceus plate, and have already defeated most of the other legendary pokemon, it's only a matter of time before they come for you or you're forced to come to them."

"Why come here? This realm has no value to humans, and I would never go to them."

"Don't underestimate their greed. You're powerful enough to stand up against Dalgia and Palkia, they won't ignore you. Even if they don't know how to come to you, there are ways to make you come to them. If the balance between our world and yours is thrown off, aren't the effects shown here?"

Giratina stopped.

"Even if I did fight back now, I am no match for Arceus while he has all of his plates. I will be defeated like the others. Instead I could throw off the balance from my side to attack them from here."

"Can you even guarantee you'd even hit them and not innocent people?"

Giratina became silent and looked away from Ash.

"Instead why not battle with me. I've come to understand that I'm Arceus' weakness, and combined with your power we may be enough to stop him."

Giratina floated closer to Ash.

"You wish to make me one of your pokemon?" Giratina asked, a tinge of anger in his voice.

"No. Even though my Pokémon are my friends, I'm not stupid enough to try and capture you. Like many legendary pokemon you serve a greater purpose, and capturing you will no doubt have far reaching consequences. What I'm asking for is for the two of us to team up for now, not as pokemon and trainer, but as Giratina and Ash, as allies fighting for a common goal."

Because of his body structure it was impossible to read his expression, but Ash could read is aura, and was pretty confident that Giratina would probably be smiling right now.

"You truly are an unusual human, even when compared to other aura guardians. Perhaps this is what it means to be the chosen one."

"Does this mean you'll help?"

Giratina nodded his head and used psychic to lift Ash up and place him on the top golden half-ring on his neck where he was able to rest his arms on Giratina's crown. One of his black tendrils moved forward and swiped diagonally downward, creating a portal for them to leave the distortion world.

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A pokemon with a head appearing to be made of green and yellow flames with a shadow-like body crashed in the ground, adding to the collection of defeated legendary pokemon littering the ground. Less than a dozen pokemon remained battling Giovanni in his new Arceus form, while Ash's friends and family were trying to escape the area. Despite their faith that Ash had a plan, they needed to make sure they weren't anywhere close to the battle area, if nothing else but to ensure they didn't get injured in the battle, the area of which seemed to be remaining consistent despite the diminished number of opponents.

As they continued to walk through the wasteland Arceus had created, not only did they still have to occasionally dodge stray attacks, but some of them were left wondering about the others that were in the city. Brendan, Paul, and Alain specifically found themselves thinking about Calem, Miette, and Aria, and if they had managed to make it out of the city before it was wiped from existence.

"Dellliiiaaaa," Giovanni's voice called out, in a way that sent chills down everyone's spines.

They all turned back to see Palkia being held up by its throat, before being dropped down with the other defeated pokemon.

"You weren't thinking of leaving now were you?" He asked with a threatening tone and he slowly flew closer.

"Everyone run," Delia ordered them as she held in her fear. "He's after me, not you."

"Sorry, but I don't think he'll let us live either way," Brendan stated.

"He's right," Limaro agreed as he raised his sword. "The rest of us are nothing but fodder to him. We run, he'll just kill us with a ranged attack as soon as he has you secured. If we stay....we can at least try and attack when he tries to secure her."

"And what do you expect to achieve? All the legendary pokemon in the world didn't stand a chance against him," Paul retorted.

"I'd rather die fighting than die on my knees begging for mercy," Limaro replied.

"No one will be dying here," Delia told them. "I'll negotiate for your survival."

"Plan B, we scatter," Serena stated, catching everyone off guard and making them look at her. "Ash isn't back yet, he needs more time so we need to try and make it. We need to stall him."

"And scattering will work how? You realize he did all this right?" Isla replied as the fear started to overtake her.

William placed a calming hand on his daughter's shoulder. "Isla's right, but we can't do nothing either. Delia stall him the best you can, and if all else fails, Limaro, Riley, and myself will start attacking from different angles while the rest of you jump on a flying type and run. We'll do everything we can to keep him busy here with his focus on us."

"Planning are we?" Giovanni asked as he was nearly on top of them. "Well plan all you want, it will do you all no good. Arceus' power is greater than anything I ever imagined, and you are all nothing more than insects who can't even hope to be a threat to me."

"Gio," Delia started, hoping to trigger something within her brother that still wanted family. "Please, stop this. Don't hurt anyone else. I'll do whatever you want, just spare them."

"Hahahaha," Giovanni laughed. "You think I'm going to kill them? How amusing. But no, that would be a complete waste of a valuable resource, and life is a very valuable resource. Especially those with psychic and aura powers." He then looked at his hands. "Arceus held such incredible power, he could have ruled over us as a god, but instead he merely watched as we humans slaughtered one another. He could have created a utopia, but he watched us create a Hell."

"What do you mean?" Delia asked.

"Arceus granted us all free will, but that was a mistake. One that I will now correct."

All of the plates appeared behind Giovanni and his eyes glowed red as he held his left hand out. Everyone was forced to the ground with a glow of red psychic energy. The aura guardians tried to use their aura to resist, but it was no use.

"Now that I have all of the plates not even psychics or aura guardians can resist, as I strip you all of your free will and give you more obedient personalities."

"Ahhhh." They all cried out as Giovanni began his work. However his progress was stalled, from far away he was being blocked.

"Who dares to interfere!" Giovanni threatened.

"Come now, you didn't think the psychic council would just sit back and let you do as you wanted, did you?" Azazel taunted, while doing his best to hide the strain of going against Arceus' extreme power.

Even though Azazel knew he and the council were never mentioned in the proficiency, when Olympia shared her visions of the future with him if Ash lost, he didn't just continue on with blind faith in Ash. He gathered multiple powerful psychics to act as support in a worst case scenario. In this case, shielding the minds of those on the front lines from a mental attack.

"You fools think you can fight me!" Giovanni roared, sending a psychic shockwave back to them, knocking several dozen of the worlds most powerful psychics unconscious.

"Now then," Giovanni said as he deverated his attention back to the others before him. "Where..."

Yet again Giovanni was interrupted, but this time by a portal opening right in front of him, and Giratina was walking out with Ash riding on his neck.

"Ah, so that's where you ran off to. But do you honestly think he'll be of any help now after so many others have fallen?"

Ash's body glowed blue as he transferred aura into Giratina as his wings glowed magenta dragon energy with swirls of blue aura mixed in. Giratina lunged forward as he swung both wings down. Experiencing a power high from defeating so many pokemon Giovanni didn't bother trying to block or dodge and took the attack head on. He was unaware that Ash was Arceus's weakness, meaning he was now his weakness as well. The attack connected, sending Giovanni stumbling back as he howled in pain.

"Everyone get out of here!" Ash called out from Giratina, and they immediately got up and started running again.

"We need to keep Giovanni focused on us so the others can escape."

"I don't think that will be a problem," Giratina replied as Giovanni recovered and his eyes were narrowed on them.

"Hey, are you familiar with Z moves?"

"Yes, but the explosion will be pretty big, so let's let your family get further away first."

"Right, thanks, I'll keep my eyes open for an opening to use one."

Giovanni charged in with his fist pulled back and Giratina prepared to use dragon claw again. Giratina swung his wing to intercept, but Giovanni flew up and over and delivered a series of punches to his right.

"Ugh," Giratina grunted as he backed away. "What was that?"

"It looked like just a bunch of normal punches?"

"But he's still in a normal typing?"

"Humans fight with punches too. But why...maybe he's not used to Arceus' power yet, or hasn't figured out how to change his typing."

"If thats the case we won't need to worry about him using judgment. But that speed of his will be a problem."

"For now use will-o-wisp. It might start causing some damage at the right moment and create an opening for us to counter."

Giratina nodded in acknowledgment and opened his mouth to release a blue aura infused fireball that hit Giovanni and caused him to grunt in pain from the burn.

Giovanni charged forward again and slashed at Giratina with his bare claws. Giratina dodged with shadow sneak, then appeared above him and forced him to the ground with body slam. Then with him down he proceeded to deliver a series of dragon claws using his wings before jumping back off. Thanks to Ash infusing his attacks with his aura each strike was extremely effective, but as Giovanni got up an aura sphere formed in front of Giratina's mouth and struck Giovanni right as he turned to face them.

Giovanni roared from receiving more pain than he had experienced. Not only was he currently holding a normal typing that received a super effective fighting type attack, but Ash's aura mixed in multiplied the damage several times.

"Hmm, I see. Arceus' instincts have been screaming in my head for some time, I didn't understand why but now it makes sense. For some reason I'm weak against your aura. I was hoping to spare you and turn you into a loyal soldier, but it seems you are too dangerous to be left alive."

Ash didn't even acknowledge his comment, he was checking on his friends and family who were running away, and he felt that now they were far enough. Quickly he slapped his dragonium Z into his z ring and he and Giratina performed the synchronized moves. Giovanni of course knew what was coming, and charged in to intercept the attack as a sphere of dragon energy formed in front of Giratina's mouth. The movements were completed just as Giovanni reached them, causing the sphere to explode right in Giratina's face.

The resulting explosion threw them all in opposite directions. Giovanni crashed into the ground and rolled several times before stopping, and Giratina instead skidded across the ground before eventually stopping. Ash tried his best to hold on, but was instead thrown from Giratina and rolled to a stop several feet away.

Ash used his aura to protect himself, but he was still aching all over. Just the same he pushed himself to his feet. He couldn't see past Giratina due to his large size, but started limping towards him as fast as he could. He couldn't be certain of the state of Giovanni, but until he saw he had been separated from Arceus he knew he couldn't rest easy and assume the battle was over. Soon he had arrived at Giratina and connected his aura to him, but found even though he was conscious he was in a daze from the blast. He began climbing up onto Giratina, hoping to see the blast had somehow forced Giovanni to have been separated from Arceus, but that wasn't the case.

As he managed to get atop Giratina's side, though they weren't moving, he saw they were still one being. He sighed in frustration as he weighed his options. He considered grabbing an empty pokeball and capturing him, but wasn't sure if that would work while the two were merged as one. There was also the concern as to what he would do after the fact if he did capture him. Capturing didn't make a Pokémon obedient, and Giovanni's ego would never allow him to listen to anyone. But at the same time leaving him in a pokeball for the rest of his life wouldn't be fair to Arceus either.

As he pondered this question Giovanni started to move. First it was only him placing a hand on his head, but then sitting up and looking towards Ash and Giratina. This larger movement caught Ash's attention, and he knew the battle was about to begin again. He rushed back towards Giratina's head and linked his aura to him as he tried to wake him up, but no response. Giovanni's head cleared and floated back upright and started to move towards them. Ash flooded Giratina with his aura in an effort to wake him, but still nothing. He tried sending pulses through his body hoping to do something, and even though he didn't move Ash felt as though something happened. He began repeating the pulses, increasing their intensity. Soon he realized his pulses were nearly in sync with Giratina's heart beats. He wasn't sure why he did it, but he adjusted the pulses to match, and then something happened.

Both of their bodies glowed blue and a pulse shot out that pushed Giovanni back. The two began floating up into the air as they were completely engulfed in a blue light. Ash's vision went white, his other senses were still working and he could feel something weird happening that he couldn't describe. When his vision returned he was standing facing Giovanni, who was looking back at him with an unreadable expression.

Ash looked around, everything looked...smaller? He moved his right hand to scratch his head, but noticed his hand hit something. As he moved his other hand he saw his hand wasn't his hand, but at the same time was. He looked at both of his hands to see they were now gray with his fingers being gold and claw-like. He looked down at his feet to see it was as if he was wearing gold boots with a dark gray robe with red stripes around his waist. Using his aura he felt out his body, not only did he feel drastically more powerful he now had a spiked tail and wings. Spikes protruded from his shoulders and a crown was atop his head and covered all of his face but his eyes. Looking within himself he found something else, Giratina's consciousness. It was there within him, suppressed, sleeping as he regained his strength.

"I get it. Somehow my aura allowed me to merge bodies with Giratina like how Giovanni merged with Arceus," Ash realized.

As Ash was distracted by this transformation, Giovanni regained his composure and realized Ash had just become more of a threat, and quickly jumped to the offensive. He rocketed towards Ash with his claws pulled back ready to slash at Ash's throat. However thanks to his aura Ash was long past the point where sneak attacks like that would work on him. Quickly he changed his footing to brace himself, and moved his arms out to intercept the claws. Ash blocked the claws, and brought his head down to slam into Giovanni's. Quickly Giovanni backed away and took a fighting stance as he prepared to now take Ash more seriously than before.

Ash then mirrored his stance. "Time for round two."