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Chapter Text

'Dragon Claw! Send that trash back to its owner!'

Garchomp leapt forward and rammed its arms right into Samurott's middle. The water Pokemon cried out in pain and flew right onto its owner, Dawn. All air was knocked out of her and her back hit the cold tiles with a painfully loud noise.

The world was spinning. She felt dizzy and nauseous. Immense pain exploded from her back and legs. Through a hazy cloud she saw Volo stepping closer. The urge to vomit grew stronger.

„Out of courtesy I should ask you if you want to give me the plates', he said standing in front of her, his voice irritatingly cocky. 'Howver, given your current state I don't need to ask you, since your answer won't matter anyway. History will be rewritten. And don't worry, no one will learn of your embarassing failure.'

Her consciouness was fading in and out. She barely registered Volo kneeling in front of her, rummaging through her bag to get the plates. Dawn made a weak attempt of stopping him with her hand. Said hand was grabbed quickly by the wrist. 'Don't be a sore loser. Kamado would be ashamed.'

His arrogance enhanced her starting headache. This son of a...

The next thing she registered seeing was him standing next to Giratina, arms raised to the sky. Panic and desperation broke free in her. She had to do something or else this freak will remake the world! With shaky breaths, she tried to get up. Her shaky arms gave in and she emptied her stomach,

Dawn hit the tiles again. No... She saw Volo raise his arms towards the sky, speaking in a language she didn't recognize. Tears dwelled up in her eyes. Game Over was the last thing she thought before drifting off into blissful unconsciousness.

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Volo was estatic. Plates laid out in front of him, he rose his arms to the sky. 'Venerabilis Sinnoh!' he screamed, nerves buzzling with uncontainable excitement. 'O numen omne creatum! Audi verba mea! hic adsto humi tibi sacra roganti: duodeviginti tabulas agnosce meae virtutis ac roboris documenta, daque velim! OSTENDE TE!'

Nothing happened, but Volo could wait. Great things took time. Palkia hadn't just appeared, it had taken its time to show up through an impressive portal. His own plans had taken years. He could wait. He knew he had won.

Giratina next to him exhaled frustrated. Patience, my friend, Volo thought smugly to himself.

Immediatly, like an answer almost, the air started prickling with energy. Volo's breath hitched and his heart raced. Childlike excitment came over him. This was it. This was the moment all his efforts over the last years would finally be rewarded.

Another rift teared the sky opened and a beam of bright energy shot out of it, directly onto Volo.

Chapter Text

Bright. Way too bright.

Dawn groaned and held her head. The entire world was spinning and yet she could feel how it was pulled back into balance again. Eventually voices started reaching her ears.

"Dawn, dear, are you alright?"

From one second to another, the world switched from a blurry vision to a disturbingly clear vision of the interior of the Galaxy Hall. Professor Laventon was standing in front of her, looking at her concerned. She saw Rei standing to her right, giving her the most criminal side eye she had ever seen.

"What...", she mumbled, "are we doing here?"

"You're supposed to choose your Partner Pokemon for your mission but perhaps we should delay it? You seem rather exhausted, dear." Laventon still looked at her with sad puppy eyes. Dawn felt the need to laugh.

"Choosing a Partner Pokemon? But Oshawott already evolved."

The boy and the man exhanged a look and Dawn suddenly felt a gloomy foreboding feeling. The exact same kind she used to feel when Barry would complain about the amount of homework.

"What did you just say?" the professor asked, seemingly even more concerned.

"Nothing." she rushed to say. Maybe she shouldn't appear all too out of touch in the Galaxy Hall of all places. Fazed rumors were quicker to spread than- Volo!

With nothing more than a dark foreboding feeling in her stomach, she quickly chose Oshawott and rushed outside. Rei had already walked ahead.

Walking through the busiest street of Jubilife Village, she glanced around as unobtrusive as possible.

All of the shops were back to their old state. From when she hadn't helped them yet.

She passed the Ginko car with a bad taste in her mouth.

Let's face it, she thought to herself moody, the gods were incompetent again.

After seeing Jubilife's shops there was no denying the fact that she had been sent back in time. Again. Angrily she kicked a stone away from her and refrained herself from mumbling. This backstabbing village had eyes and ears everywhere. Oh great, she would have to earn all of their trust again, only for Kamado to show up and be a bitch. And then Volo would help her -

Dawn paused dead in her tracks. Wait.

Volo wouldn't help her again. She won't let him. Because unlike the last time, she knew now. She knew he was an insane maniac who's probably the ancestor of Cyrus rather than Cynthia. And even though every story with time travel tells you not to change the course of events, Dawn was apathetic about it. So what? She was already in another time period and will never see her family again, why should she care about a few disturbances in time itself? Especially when the gods themselves just didn't care about it. Sure, she wasn't a goddess but what was there left to lose?

Having gained a grim sense of determination, she stepped towards the gate.

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Volo shielded his eyes from the light. When he dared look again, his miene changed from estatic to unbelieving with the drop of a hat.

He stood under the majestic crown of a tree, somewhere on a cliff in the Obsidian Graslands. But this wasn't possible. A glance sideways confirmed that Giratina was missing too. He noticed the missing air on his arms and was disgusted finding himself back in the clothings of the Ginko Guild. Volo stared dead ahead, the beautiful view of the ocean and beach leaving him untouched.

What had happened?

He should be the new God by now, not stand in some random woods in the middle of nowhere in clothes that had held him back since the beginning.

Why was he even here? He didn't remember ever coming here.

Leaning against a tree, he spotted his backpack, offering the sleeping Togepi a soft pillow.

Togepi..?

His best friend was a Togekiss by now! What had happened?! A check confirmed that all his other Pokemon were missing too, alongside their Pokeballs.

Panic rose up in Volo. Where were they? Had they been stolen? No way in distortion, they were too powerful to let that happen. An image of his Garchomp striking down Dawn's Luxray came to his mind. Grim pride let him calm down. They were fine.

But still: What had happened to them? His gaze fell back on the little Togepi.

No...

It couldn't be.

But in that moment, his mind finally caught up and a memory resurfaced. He had been here and let Togepi take a nap after training her. Weeks ago. Way back, back when...

When Dawn had fallen from the rift.

An idea popped up in his mind. He laughed. No, that was absurd. Why should that happen?

Another idea popped up. Maybe it was all just a bad dream? He pinched himself, a little harder just in case, to be sure. Nope, wide awake.

Could this be a trial from Almighty Sinnoh? Yes, that had to be it. Surely, the deity just wanted to test him. After all, no one else had encountered Arceus before, no one could tell what would happen if one did. He looked back at the cliff and registered the view. A trial. Yes, that had to be it.

A person fell from the rift.

…

…

…

That was Ingo.

Yep, that was Ingo.

Volo stood there for a moment. He turned towards the backpack. Time to visit Jubilife.. sell some goods and hear the news about Ingo's ariival.

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Dawn's anger rose with every step she took closer to the tall figure standing at the gate. Just when she reached the gate, he turned to her.

And just by looking him in the eye, she knew he knew too. He seemed all too aware of the sharade around them too. A grimmly satisfied smile drew her lips into a curve. Your fault, buddy.

Yet he still insisted on reciting his text. " Oh, what a curious get up you have there! I can already tell you're - "

She drew her Pokeball and looked him straight in the visible eye. "You and me." she said gloomy. "Fight. Now."

And with that, she called out Oshawott.

Yes, she knew she shouldn't pick a fight with someone who's considered a honest working merchant  (she nearly scoffed), but had she listened to any more word in that snarky ass voice of his, she would have completely lost it.

The oh so completely innocent Togepi that definitely won't evolve into a monster that'll murder her most valuable Pokemon against a goddamn Garchomp fainted and Skuntankface called her back into the Pokeball.

"My, what a strong Pokemon you have there!" Volo praised all too warmly. "WIth him at your side you will win every battle that lies ahead of you, I am sure of it."

She clenched her hands into fists. "Thank you, oh so hard working merchant." she pressed through clenched teeth.

Volo nodded with false sincerity. "I'm sure you will ace that trial of yours! Good luck!" With that, he retreated.

You absolute disgusting piece of -

"What was that all about?" Dawn turned surprised to her left. She had actually forgotten that Rei was present too.

He frowned at her and Dawn's heart stopped. Shit. She really had been too obivous. If she continued acting like this towards Volo people would suspect her even faster and she'd be even faster in the wild. And Vesprit knew what would happen than.

"Sorry, haha", she smiled akwardly, "seems as though I'm more stressed than I thought. Haha."

"Hm." Gods, she had forgotten how distant and cold Rei had been in the beginning. "Follow me. It's this way to the Obsidian Graslands."

Dawn stiffled a sigh. This was gonna be a long day.