Chapter Text
Satoshi ‘Ash’ Ketchem was fourteen when he faced Arceus; shunted into the past and forced to contend with a madman seeking to defy a god. The God, no less.
It was too late. Marcus’s mercury was filling the room, and Ash and the others were already fading from existence. Without Arceus, there would be no future, there would be nothing.
Pikachu was already gone, and Ash was sure to follow. What did it say about him that he felt no fear? Ash didn’t know if that made him brave or just foolish. Didn’t matter now, he supposed. Ash closed his eyes, accepting his end, when…
“ARCEUS!”
He was still fading, but the Jewel of Life started glowing in his hand, flying out and breaking apart into five large plates that began slowly sinking into the mercery.
“At least,” Ash thought, maybe half of his head left to go before he was fully gone. “At least Arceus has a chance…”
But it wouldn't be so; this was not Ash’s end yet. A golden light began shining through the mercery, the sound of a harp being strummed filling Ash’s ears.
Ears! He had ears again! In fact, his entire body was being restored from the top down! Pikachu as well, returning from nothingness as if he’d never left.
“Pikachu!” Ash pulled his started into his arms, hugging him with all his might before returning his partner to his shoulder. Where he belonged.
The golden light intensified, burning a hole in the quickly solidifying mercury. And out from that hole rose Arceus, finally whole again as their plates were returned at last.
“Who… are you?” Arceus studied Ash, as if they saw something in him that he didn’t.
“O-Oh, I’m Ash! And this is my partner Pikachu!” It seemed Arceus was going to say something again, but in an instant, the chutes began pouring out mercury again, enough that it began breaking down the walls of the cavern itself. Ash raised a hand desperately as a wave of the stuff fell over him. But before even a drop fell on either of them, a shimmering purple bubble formed, shielding them from the flood and carrying them up into the air, next to where Arceus floated, encased in a similar bubble.
“Ash… and Pikachu… Interesting… Are you the ones to save my life?”
“It wasn’t just us.” Ash smiled as he was safely deposited next to Damos and Sheena, turning as Brock and Dawn ran up to him in relief. “Everyone here did it!”
Arceus looked across the gathering, their eyes stopping on Damos, causing him to step up.
“Arceus, please, forgive me. I-”
“I already saw it in your heart. I should be the one begging forgiveness, my old friend, for doubting you.”
The touching moment between man and god was interrupted when the ground burst, breaking the platform everyone was standing on and sending them tumbling down to the pool of mercury. Suddenly, they stopped, everything stopped, not just the ones falling, but the destruction itself was halted in time.
And in the middle of it all, shining golden light, was Arceus, all 18 plates circling their body as they told the world to stop, and the world obeyed. The light around them turned blue, then green, as the destruction was reversed and they were set back down on stable land, Marcus’s devices being destroyed, freeing all the Pokémon he had enslaved.
When they had made it out of the cavern and back into the sunlight, a smaller Arceus joined them, the glow subsiding as they joined them on the temple’s bricks.
“I have just used up most of my powers, and soon I must rest. But first…” Arceus cantered up to Ash, looking the boy in the eyes. “Tell me, young Ash. Do you know… what you are?”
“What? You mean like… how I’m chosen?” Ash scratched his head. That was the only thing they could think of when it came to what Arceus was talking about, but something told him it wasn’t the answer the god was looking for.
“...I see .” Arceus closed their eyes before nodding to themself. “I am afraid that, when I return you to your own time, there will be some amount of pain. But I trust that you are strong enough to come through it.” Arceus surprised everyone by pressing their forehead against Ash’s, only stepping back as a blue crystalline bubble formed around those from the future. “Stay strong, My Child. I will check in on you soon.”
_ _ _
Ash Ketcheum’s head was splitting apart. Two lives battling within his memories, echoes upon echoes of who, what, he was.
He can vaguely tell he’d fallen to his knees at some point, and he could almost hear people yelling his name, but it was all like there was a mile of ocean between him and what was happening around him. And in the center of that ocean, caught between two riptides, was Ash.
Ash was used to pain by now. Pikachu’s shocks and Charizard’s fire were a familiar feeling, but even besides that he’s experienced his fair share: Being crushed by that chandelier, drowning (twice), that man-eating blob, not to mention that one thing he only remembered in his dreams.
This was the worst of all those times. So, SO much worse.
He knelt there, for a few seconds or for hours, time had nothing on this pain. But then something cut through it, a feeling, a… hoof, on his head.
“Breath, My Child. You are stronger than this, I know you are.” The familiar voice was louder than the memories, and he found he could breathe if he focused.
After another timeless eternity, Ash opened his eyes. Before him, in their smaller forms, was not just Arceus but Palkia, Dialga, and Giratina. All looking down at him with concern.
“G-Gram… Gah!” Gram… what? What was he about to call Arceus? Gram…pa? Why would he call Arceus Grandpa? Why wouldn’t he?
“Calm yourself, Ash. Don’t talk, just breathe.” They turned to speak to Uncle Dialga, though whatever they said wasn’t being translated for the humans. Whatever it was, Dialga turned and vanished into a blue portal, reappearing the literal same second, this time with tag-alongs. Ash was too out of it to even start to think of where he recognized them from, but he knew their names by heart: Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf.
Uxie flew down, their twin tails resting on either side of Ash’s head. In an instant, the memories stopped. It left large gaps in Ash’s memories, but right now, that was much more bearable than the pain.
“A problem, yes.” Ash felt something shift in his brain, a trickle of memory. “Most optimal course of action: A reliving of twisted memory to relieve pressure, yes. Creator directive?”
“If it will help Ash, then do it. So long as it isn’t harmful.”
“Not harmful, no. Simple dream-state, yes. If worries, a Cresselia could be of use to ensure dream stability, yes.”
“Then do it, and I will contact one if needed.” Arceus finally turned to address Ash again, kneeling down to look him in the eye. “Sleep now, My Child. Understanding will come when you awaken.”
That was the last thing Ash heard as his mind slipped backwards into itself, his eyes fluttering closed. Right as he faded, he felt a pair of metallic hooves supporting his body.