Chapter Text
Giratina was not accustomed to having guests in their realm. For all that they had raged and fumed over their banishment, for all that the isolation of the Distortion World had been choking, there was nonetheless a certain comfort to it. The silence was predictable. It was manageable. And above all else, it was a reminder that they alone were lord of their domain. They had complete and utter control over all within their realm.
Or at least, they used to.
Giratina very pointedly tried to ignore the six restless souls pulling at their attention, all prowling across different corners of their realm, and instead stubbornly focused on the viewing portal ahead of them. The image was less clear than they would have liked, but it was good enough. There was only so much they could do when peering out into a moment across both space and time. Especially when their powers were already frayed by how exhausting the past few days had been.
At the very least, they could still clearly make out Akari. She stood in a clearing in the Fieldlands, speaking with the Diamond Clan leader and one of the wardens. Standing before them was a familiar gray and white pokémon with geometric golden horns. Wyrdeer looked upon Akari with detached approval as she lifted a gleaming flute to her lips. A series of high, clear tones echoed out across the Fieldlands – and in response, Wyrdeer tossed his head, and a familiar pink-red plate fell into Akari’s hand.
Giratina breathed a quiet sigh of relief. “SO SHE GOT THE FIRST ONE,” they said. “GOOD.”
“The first one of what?”
Giratina pulled their gaze away from the portal to level a baleful glare beneath them. Akari’s Lucario stood beside them on the red rock platform, completely unfazed as he blinked back up at Giratina. “I THOUGHT YOU HAD GONE TO TEND TO ABOMASNOW,” Giratina said.
“I did,” Lucario said. “We got him settled now. He’s hanging out with Floatzel by one of the waterfalls. He’s still a bit anxious though, so I promised I’d run ahead and ask you how Da– Akari is doing. How’s she doing? She handling things okay?”
Giratina sighed again. When they had sent Akari back to Hisui, they had assumed her team would be capable of handling themselves. So Giratina had given them a brief explanation of where their trainer had gone, then retreated back to the Distortion World to keep an eye on Akari’s progress, leaving them to their own devices outside the Sendoff Spring. They trusted that they would have no need to check on them for some time at least.
It had not taken long to realize how badly they had misjudged things.
Akari’s pokémon had immediately barged into Turnback Cave and raised such an infernal racket that Giratina was forced to emerge before them again. Barely had they risen from the shadows before they were met with a flood of furious demands. Akari’s entire team had insisted Giratina either send them back to Hisui to join with their trainer, or barring that, at least provide them with a means of keeping up to date on her exploits. And they made it clear that they were not afraid to meet Giratina in battle if it meant getting what they wanted.
So Giratina had, very reluctantly, granted them access to the Distortion World so they could join in observing Akari’s activities. It had taken a bit to get them caught up on things, and they were all more than a little bewildered to learn that she was going by a different name now, but they adapted easily enough. And for the most part, they were content to sit and simply peer into the viewing portal to keep an eye on Akari.
For the most part.
Even with the warped time in the Distortion World helping to expedite the viewing process – Akari’s pokémon had only been in their domain for a mere couple days, whereas Akari had already spent almost a full week in Hisui – it did not take long for her pokémon to grow restless. Infernape was the first who had gone out roaming, jumping up onto a higher series of platforms and promptly disappearing from sight. Luxray had followed soon after. Staraptor had sighed, flicked her wings, and immediately gone to keep an eye on both of them, muttering something about making sure that they didn’t get themselves in trouble.
Giratina had not paid much mind to it, until their absence had stretched on for several hours and Abomasnow had worked himself up into a bout of anxiety over it, to the point that he managed to make hail manifest in the Distortion World through the sheer power of his worry. Lucario and Floatzel had taken one look at Giratina’s simmering displeasure and volunteered to take Abomasnow elsewhere to get him settled. Giratina had tersely directed them to a distant platform and sent them on their way. And with that, they had finally been granted a moment of reprieve.
Lucario tapped insistently on Giratina’s side, reminding them that their reprieve was now regrettably over. “What’s Akari doing?” He repeated. “Can I see?”
Giratina glared down at him once again. Lucario barely seemed to take notice, instead standing up on the very tips of his back paws and craning his head to look at the viewing portal. “You’ve got it too high up,” he said. “And too small. I can’t see anything.”
“THIS IS THE LARGEST I CAN MAKE IT.”
“Why?” Lucario cocked his head to the side. “Is there a reason you can’t make it bigger? Is it because she’s in the past? Actually, how can you open viewing portals to the past to begin with? Can you open to them to anywhere in the past, or just–”
“JUST WHERE AKARI IS,” Giratina said wearily, before Lucario’s barrage of questions had a chance to truly pick up steam. “IT’S ONLY BECAUSE OF THE RELIC SHE HOLDS THAT I AM ALLOWED TO KEEP AN EYE ON HER. WHICH YOU ARE CURRENTLY DISTRACTING ME FROM.”
“Then just move the viewing portal down so I can see,” Lucario said helpfully. “I want to watch Akari too. What’s she doing?”
“SHE IS–”
They felt another presence suddenly leap onto their back, and then hands clambered up the ridges along their neck, until they had scampered up to rest between their horns. “Looks like she’s chatting with that Diamond guy!” Infernape said, leaning down between Giratina’s horns to study the viewing portal. “The blue-haired one. Ada-something.”
“Adaman,” Lucario supplied. “Leader of the Diamond Clan, which is one of the two clans of Hisui and the one that Akari joined after Volo dropped her off there–”
“Yeah, that one.” Infernape settled down cross-legged, studying the viewing portal. “They’re standing in a clearing somewhere, chatting with some woman and a weird pokémon. Never seen one like it before.”
Giratina attempted to glare up at Infernape. “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING UP THERE?”
“Watching,” Infernape said. “Duh.”
“I DO NOT RECALL GIVING YOU PERMISSION TO CLIMB ME. GET DOWN.”
“Good luck with that.” Akari’s Staraptor fluttered down to land on the platform beside Lucario, flicking out her wings. She cast a deeply unimpressed look at Infernape as he perched between Giratina’s horns. “Not even Akari can stop him from climbing things he isn’t supposed to. You should have seen the trouble he got us into in Kalos.”
“Climbed halfway up Prism Tower in Lumiose,” Lucario said, nodding sagely. “Akari got in so much trouble for that.”
Infernape cackled, unrepentant. “Worth it. You should have seen the view!”
“There was a viewing platform on the top floor,” Staraptor said flatly.
“And where’s the fun in that?”
Giratina growled in frustration, tendrils snaking up to grab at Infernape. Infernape just cackled again and dove out of the way, nimbly dancing out of reach from each claw that tried to grab for him. “STOP THAT. GET DOWN.”
“You really think you can make me?”
“IN CASE YOU’VE FORGOTTEN, I AM A GOD.”
“And I’ve beaten you.” Infernape hooked his feet in the ridge of Giratina’s horns, flipping himself to hang upside down in front of their red eyes. He grinned wide and toothy at the glare he received. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten our fight. It was my Flare Blitz that forced you to surrender.”
Giratina growled again, tendrils lashing out to grip Infernape around the arm. “YOU WERE MERELY THE LAST IN A FULL ROSTER OF SIX. YOUR COMPANIONS HAD ALREADY WEAKENED MY DEFENSES BY THE TIME YOU LANDED THE FINAL BLOW.”
Infernape paid no heed to the tendrils gripping tight around his arm, his grin merely widening. “And we were only level sixty back then,” he said. “But now we’re all maxed out. Level one hundred, EV trained, and hyper trained. I bet any one of us could solo you.”
Giratina snarled, ripping Infernape off their horns and dropping him down to the ground. Infernape tucked into a perfect roll as he landed, hopped up on his feet, and brushed himself off without a care in the world. Staraptor let out a sigh. “You’re too brash for your own good.”
“Impish nature, baby. Doesn’t change the fact that I’m right.”
“He is!” called a voice, and Giratina looked over to see Akari’s Luxray trotting over from the far end of the platform. She bared her teeth in a feral grin as she stopped in front of Giratina, raising herself up to her full height. “He’s totally right, we’re so much stronger now. In fact, I want a rematch!”
Giratina stared down at her, tendrils flicking. “WHAT.”
“I want a rematch!” Luxray puffed her chest out. “Just you and me! I bet you I could solo you in just a few moves!”
“I AM THE GOD OF DISTORTION,” Giratina said flatly. “AND YOU ARE CURRENTLY WITHIN MY REALM. WHERE I AM STRONGEST.”
“Perfect!” Luxray’s eyes gleamed. “I want a good fight!”
“...YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS.”
Staraptor sighed and shook her head. “She is.”
“IS SHE ALWAYS LIKE THIS?”
“Has been since she was a Shinx,” Staraptor said. “She nearly got herself killed running after an Onix in Oreburgh Mine. She’s lucky Infernape had already evolved into Monferno back then.”
“Saved her hide with a single Mach Punch,” Infernape said. “You’re welcome, by the way.”
Luxray paid no heed to their conversation, still staring up at Giratina with eager determination in her eyes. “C’mon!” She said, bouncing back and forth like a kitten eager to play. “Battle me! I got Crunch and Play Rough and I’m not afraid to use ‘em!”
“I HAVE EARTH POWER. I WILL DESTROY YOU.”
“Lucario will avenge me,” Luxray said, glancing over at him. “Right?”
“HE IS EQUALLY WEAK TO EARTH POWER.”
“Maybe so,” Lucario said, grinning as he lifted one paw to reveal the red and yellow ribbon tied around it. “But I also have a Focus Sash. And I got a Metal Sound and Dragon Pulse combo that’s one-shotted Cynthia’s Garchomp more times than I can count. Akari knew what she was doing when she leaned into my modest nature and maxed out my special attack EVs.”
Giratina sighed heavily, doing everything in their power to avoid sinking down to the platform in exhaustion. “I AM NOT BATTLING YOU,” they said. “IF YOU CONTINUE TO INSIST ON IT, THEN WE CAN SEE ABOUT A POSSIBLE REMATCH LATER. RIGHT NOW I AM A BIT PREOCCUPIED TRYING TO KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR TRAINER.”
“Oh, right.” Luxray perked up, trying to look into the viewing portal above their head. “How’s she doing?”
“I could climb up to check again.”
“YOU WILL NOT.”
“Then move the damn viewing portal already,” Staraptor said. “Save us all a lot of trouble.”
Although they grumbled about it, Giratina lowered themself and the viewing portal in turn, letting it rest a mere couple of feet above the platform. Akari’s pokémon promptly crowded around to peer in. “Whoa,” Luxray said, standing up straighter to get a better look. “Who’s that pokémon she’s with?”
Giratina glanced down into the portal, finally catching up on what Akari was up to. She was no longer in the clearing with the two Diamond Clan humans, instead sitting astride Wyrdeer’s back and riding him across the Fieldlands. “THAT WOULD BE WYRDEER,” Giratina said. “ONE OF THE STEEDS.”
“Oh right, that Arezu woman was telling Akari about them.” Lucario nodded. “Wyrdeer is one of the Diamond Clan Steeds, right? Alongside Braviary and Basculegion. The Pearl Clan has Sneasler and Ursaluna.”
Giratina shot him a look. “...I AM AMAZED THAT YOU RECALL ALL THAT.”
“He’s got an encyclopedic memory,” Luxray said, puffing up proudly and nuzzling against him. “You tell him something once, and it’s in that sharp mind of his for good! Like a steel trap, I tell you!”
Lucario laughed, the feelers on either side of his head twitching in embarrassment. “I dunno about that. I’m just good at paying attention, I guess. And I like learning about stuff.”
“YES, I GATHERED AS MUCH FROM YOUR ENDLESS BARRAGE OF QUESTIONS EARLIER.” Giratina sighed and flicked their tendrils out. “I SWEAR, YOU ASK ALMOST AS MANY AS VOLO DID.”
“Really? What kinds of questions did he ask? Actually, how was he able to ask those questions in the first place? I know he summoned you and all, but how did he–”
Giratina shot Lucario a glare, hissing a warning under their breath. Lucario’s mouth opened like he was about to continue anyways, but Staraptor quickly smacked his shoulder with a wing, shaking her head. “Time and place, Lucario.”
Lucario pouted. “Okay, okay,” he mumbled. “Later, then.”
“Hey, I can help beat some answers out of them if nothing else! They owe me a rematch!”
“Yeah, and I’ll help. I gotta prove I still got my god-punching cred.”
Giratina very pointedly ignored all of them, turning to look back into the viewing portal. Akari was still bounding across the Fieldlands on Wyrdeer’s back, her face lit up in a delirious grin. They felt some of their tension bleed away as they watched her. It was difficult to stay upset in the face of Akari’s sheer and unbridled delight. It always had been.
Akari’s pokémon seemed to share in the sentiment, their conversation quieting so they could settle back and peer into the portal alongside Giratina. The moment was quiet, peaceful. Giratina was briefly reminded of another, similar moment, many years ago – a still moment in Turnback Cave, just after the fall of dusk. Volo sat with his back against their side, his voice low and echoing off the cold stone walls, his questions kept at barely above a whisper so as not to wake the Togekiss asleep on his lap. The rest of his pokémon lay dozing in various configurations around them. Even in the overwhelming presence of the Lord of Distortion, none of them had shown so much as an ounce of fear. They trusted Volo’s influence to guard them.
It had. Giratina could not have harmed Volo’s pokémon any more than they could the man himself.
Giratina’s tendrils sagged, their heart aching with longing. What an insufferable man he had been, even more insufferable than the four pokémon currently seated around them. Even bolder than Luxray, even snarkier than Staraptor, even more impetuous than Infernape. Not even Lucario’s curiosity could compare to his. Volo had always asked far more questions. Back then, it had driven them mad.
Giratina would give anything for him to ask them again.
A flash of blue and yellow in the viewing portal caught their eye. Akari’s voice echoed out in sudden joy. “Volo!”
Oh no.
Giratina immediately rose to attention as Akari rode Wydeer up to Volo’s side, jumping off to look up at him with a beaming smile. Volo smiled and laughed and greeted her with playful teases that had her blushing. It still perplexed them, how differently she acted around Volo compared to how she acted around everyone else. She had been listening when Giratina warned her that the man was dangerous, right? Why, then, did she continue to stare at him with such unabashed wonder and adoration?
They did not understand it. Perhaps they never would. It was vexing, the way she gazed after him, but so long as she knew to keep her mouth shut–
“To tell the truth, I’m almost out of them already. I used most of the pokéballs trying to catch an Ursaring the other day. Arceus, he gave me a lot of trouble…”
Oh no.
Volo’s hands were grabbing her shoulders, eyes wide as he stared at her, demanding to know where she’d heard that name. Akari stared back at him in surprise and bewilderment. Giratina prayed to all the powers of their realm that she would just keep her mouth shut, and not tell him anything more–
But of course it couldn’t be that easy. Instead that infuriating woman cleared her throat and proceeded to explain herself. Giratina stared in utter disbelief as the two proceeded to talk. About Arceus. Openly.
“...I’M GOING TO MURDER HER,” Giratina seethed. “I’M GOING TO DRAG HER TO THE VERY DEPTHS OF THIS REALM AND LEAVE HER THERE.”
Staraptor sent them a sidelong look. “I take it she wasn’t supposed to do that.”
“SHE MOST EMPHATICALLY WAS NOT.”
“Eh, what’s the big deal?” Infernape shrugged. “Not like she has much to tell him about the big A.”
“YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND, HE–”
The sound of Volo’s laughter cut through their words, sudden and bursting and joyous. Giratina’s gaze snapped back to the viewing portal in confusion. Volo was bent over with his hands on his knees as he wheezed from laughter. The smile on his face was the brightest Giratina had ever seen it. He was laughing so hard there were tears in his eyes.
Giratina stared, unsure what to make of what they were seeing. It was not the first time they had seen Volo show such unabashed joy, but those times it had happened had been few and far between, and not until they were well-entrenched in their partnership. Not even the shared emotions of a soul bond could dissuade him from maintaining his mask. It had taken over a year before Giratina heard him laugh with genuine delight.
But there he was, letting his mask fall and his laughter ring out in front of Akari, of all people. A woman he had known for less than a week.
Slowly, cautiously, they allowed hope to settle behind their chest. IT’S WORKING, they thought, leaning closer to the viewing portal with their tendrils swaying back in relief. OH, SWEET AKARI, LITTLE CHAMPION. I KNEW I WAS RIGHT TO TRUST YOU.
They drank in the sight as Volo’s laughter finally subsided, and he straightened to wipe a tear from his eye. He smiled down at Akari with an eager light in his eyes that Giratina had not seen in so long. And Akari, caught under the enthusiasm of his gaze, smiled right back.
But then, Volo coughed and cleared his throat. His smile settled back into something much more practiced and performed. And with only a few short words, he effortlessly switched tracks, and proceeded to ask Akari about the legendary plates.
And she– oh gods, she was answering.
She was telling him about the plates.
She was pulling the Mind Plate out of her damned satchel to show him.
Giratina’s screech of frustration echoed throughout the entirety of the Distortion World, ringing out so loudly that all of Akari’s pokémon jumped back in alarm. “YOU FOOL. YOU MORON . YOU ABSOLUTE, UNMATCHED, INCOMPARABLE IMBECILE–”
“Wow,” Luxray said. “You’re mad.”
“I AM FURIOUS.”
“Um,” Lucario said, awkwardly patting them on the side. “It’s gonna be okay? To be honest I’m not sure why you’re upset over this plate thing, but it’ll be fine. She’s only got the one plate, so–”
“Don’t look now,” Staraptor said, still watching the viewing portal, “but I’m pretty sure she just got Volo to pull out a map so she could tell him where to find the rest.”
Giratina’s screech turned into a roar, and they slammed their tail against the platform until it split apart beneath them. “STOP THAT!” They roared at the viewing portal, paying no heed to Akari’s pokémon still staring at them with wide eyes. “STOP! THAT! FOR DISTORTION’S SAKE, YOU TRUSTING FOOL, WHY CAN YOU NOT SHUT YOUR MOUTH FOR FIVE MINUTES–”
“Are you okay?” Lucario asked.
“DOES IT LOOK LIKE I AM?!”
“Let’s give ‘em a minute.” Infernape grabbed both Lucario and Luxray by the scruff of their necks and hauled them up, nodding for Staraptor to follow. “We can check on how Floatzel and Abomasnow are doing while the big bad god of distortion has their tantrum.”
“I AM NOT HAVING A TANTRUM, I AM UNDERSTANDABLY INCENSED–”
“Yeah, whatever,” Infernape said, dragging Luxray and Lucario off as Staraptor followed along behind them.
They found Floatzel and Abomasnow by one of the inverted waterfalls nearby. Floatzel was lying halfway out of the water with her tail swishing ripples in it, and Abomasnow was leaning nervously over the edge of the platform as they watched Giratina thrashing in the distance. Both of them glanced up quickly as Infernape and the rest hopped onto the platform. “Oh, there you are,” Abomasnow said, quickly shuffling over as ice crystals trailed behind him. “What happened? We heard a roar, and then–”
“Then Giratina started pitching a fit,” Floatzel said, still eyeing the furious god of distortion. “Nearly startled me out of the waterfall and into the void below. What’d you do to piss ‘em off, Infernape?”
Infernape shrugged. “Not my fault this time.”
“Alright, what’d Luxray do?”
“Wasn’t my fault either!” Luxray insisted. “Akari did something on the other side of the viewing portal. Something something legendary plates?”
“She told Volo how to go about finding them.” Lucario eyed the thrashing Giratina as well. They appeared to be bashing their head against one of the floating platforms in sheer frustration. “And based on how Giratina is reacting, that was the exact opposite of what she was supposed to do.”
Floatzel sniffed, flipping around to float leisurely on her back around the base of the waterfall. “Their fault for not explaining things to her properly.”
Abomasnow made a distressed noise. “Is she going to be okay?” He asked. More ice crystals were forming around him, the tell-tale sign of an anxiety-induced hailstorm on the way. “They’ve never been this mad at her. Not even when she told Volo that she was from the future. She… must have really messed up this time.”
He exchanged nervous looks with Luxray and Staraptor, before all of them turned to Lucario for reassurance. Lucario winced. “I’m not sure,” he said. “I don’t understand what the situation with the plates is. Nor do I know why it’s such a bad idea for her to tell Volo how to get them.”
“We should be there with her.” Luxray bristled, shifting restlessly back and forth on her front paws. “I don’t get why Giratina keeps refusing to send us back to join her. We’re her team, dammit! We should be helping her out!”
“For once, you and I agree on something,” Staraptor said, flicking her wings in agitation. “I would feel so much better if we were with her–”
“Relax,” Infernape said. “She’ll be fine.”
All eyes turned to him. He shrugged, flopping down on the ground and kicking back without a care in the world. “Everything’s gonna work out,” he said, propping his head up in one hand as he watched Giratina continue to writhe. “Doesn’t matter what Giratina thinks. I know she’s got this in the bag.”
“What makes you so sure of that?”
Infernape smiled. “Because it’s Akari,” he said. “Our Akari. And there’s no one stronger than our Akari.”
The rest of the team had no answer to that, simply watching Infernape as his words sank in. Infernape just yawned and settled back further, already nodding off into a content nap. “Have a little faith, guys,” he hummed. “She’ll take care of everything and be back here with us before you know it. She’s our trainer, after all.”