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A few days earlier…
On the far side of Basin Canyon, three Pokémon waited at the cliff's edge, watching as the noonday sun vanquished the darkest dawn.
One, a Xatu wearing a long, red, enchanted scarf whipped upward by the wind-bursts from the canyon;
One, a Dusknoir clutching a most precious possession – a purple-and-white Pokéball bearing the Unown letter "M" on its front;
And one, a Nidoking in old, tattered robes.
Together, they watched as the forces led by Cepheus retreated and marched away into the distance. They watched as the banished Sandslash tribe returned to their home.
At last, when it seemed there was a moment of peace, the Nidoking spoke:
"I simply cannot believe what I've just beheld."
After a long, contemplative hum, the Xatu replied, "It seems that something had gone wrong, and the plan was not meant to succeed from this point; yet somehow, here we stand, with Cepheus repelled and the feral-shards about to return to circulation. It seems that fate has, once again, surprised us."
"Oh, you have no idea," replied the Nidoking. "You, and I for that matter, cannot begin to comprehend the extent to which this turn of events has been… most surprising."
"You speak as though things haven't gone according to plan at all," replied the Dusknoir. "Now that it's over, now are you allowed to stop being so vague tell us how things should have happened?"
"How things should or shouldn't have happened… it's a very subjective and relative matter," said the Nidoking. "But I can say something for certain: this timeline has provided results that not only have I never before seen, but events I'd have never thought possible. This timeline is a veritable anomaly, and were it to be discontinued, I fear I could never possibly recreate it."
Xatu turned her unblinking gaze at the dawning sunlight. "If you would like to explain what you mean, we are listening," she said.
The Nidoking thought for a moment. He reverently touched his time gear to ensure himself it was still warm, and clutched it tightly in his claw as he decided what to say.
"Let me see if I can give you the slightest idea of what we're watching unfold before our eyes," the Nidoking began. "To begin with… I have general knowledge of all the points where the Call occurs. And this… never happened. The Call should not have occurred here. Judging from what I know about the way the Call works… there is only one possible explanation as to how the Call has gone off-schedule… Char himself must have summoned it purposely. Therefore… he must have wished for some sort of control over Temporal Tower. Therefore… he must have found the Spacial Rift portal of Basin Canyon, which I've always assumed was inaccessible, as I've never found it myself."
"There's a Spacial Rift portal in Basin Canyon?" Dusknoir asked. "How are you so sure, if you've never seen it before?"
"Because that's where the feral-shards come from," Xatu hummed. "Wherever there is a feral-shard mine, there is a Spacial Rift portal somewhere nearby, left exposed by Palkia, which allows them to leak into our reality."
"Precisely," said the Nidoking. "Char is meant to visit the Spacial Rift, where he meets Jirachi, and is granted two wishes. He has never accessed the Spacial Rift so soon. He has never wished for control over the Call. And he has certainly never been the reason for winning the battle of Basin Canyon."
"Oh? So what usually happens?" asked the Dusknoir. "Adarc beats Cepheus and he wins the battle instead?"
"Incredible… every word you've spoken is exactly incorrect," snorted the Nidoking. "Basin Canyon generally falls. The Resistance generally doesn't win. The odds of victory are about five percent. And when the resistance does win, it's because of Scythe's involvement, not Adarc's. Furthermore, I've never seen my father assigned to Basin Canyon before. It has always been Adiel. Apparently, my father's involvement has allowed Adiel to sneak off somewhere."
"So you don't know where he's gone?" grunted the Dusknoir. "I was getting worried I'd never see good ol' Boss again."
"Good. You should be worried. I don't know where he's gone either," said the Nidoking. "Generally at this point, I start my search for Adrel. But now I'm not so certain about the best course of action. Perhaps fate is asking me to search for Adiel instead. Or perhaps something else entirely."
"Alright, so Char just won a battle he wasn't meant to win," Dusknoir grunted. "Anything else?"
"Anything else? Oh, I've barely even started," coldly chuckled the Nidoking. "Next, perhaps I should mention that I've never seen Char evolve so soon. Even when he acquires the means to evolve, he decides to remain a Charmander. I believe he does so for the sake of remaining on an equal level with Saura; and often has a difficult time convincing Saura to evolve with him. Regardless, they would have later evolved purely out of necessity. Sometimes Char and Saura both come here to Basin Canyon. Sometimes neither come."
"I came here today with a heart resigned to watching the canyon fall," said the Xatu. "Were the canyon to fall, would I have given up hope entirely, or kept helping Char in a vain hope to find another way?"
"Oh, you would never have given up hope," said the Nidoking. "You, Xatu, are as stalwart and stubborn as a Steelix. On several occasions, you would have even joined Team Ember to help guide and protect Char more directly."
Hearing this, Xatu smiled with her eyes; it was heartwarming to know that she was stronger than she thought. "Are you implying, were the canyon to fall a second time, as you claim is the most likely of the outcomes… there might still have been ways to proceed?"
"Were the Canyon to fall a second time, the shortage of feral-shards would have worsened, and eventually would have led to you assigning Char's team a mission of finding a new source of them," the Nidoking explained. "They would have gone on several merry little adventures until finding another Spacial Rift portal somewhere nearby, and thus another source of feral-shards, and thus another opportunity for Char to visit Jirachi and obtain his wishes. I would tell you where these locations are, but my time gear will likely not allow me to share such information."
"If not the Call, then what could have Char wished for?" Xatu wondered.
The Nidoking shrugged. "Sometimes he wished for a protection band that rendered him invincible to water-type attacks. Sometimes he wished for the power to speak telepathically with his team, no matter the distance. Sometimes he wished for the power to read anyone's thoughts, which made him a spectacular leader. Sometimes he wished for the power to control nearby Watchers and convince them to fight for him. Sometimes he wished for the power to open Master Balls without knowing their encryption codes. Sometimes he wished for the power to temporarily summon a Dialga illusion, which oftentimes proved useful in surviving Basin Canyon, but was never the cause of victory. And there are many more that I am forgetting, which I'm certain Charon could have listed for you if he were here. Whatever the case… the powers he chose from his wishing would have given him the means to progress to the next phase of his plan. But never have I seen him acquire this much power. In some tiny corner of the mind… I must wonder if this was the plan all along. I wonder if this is the series of events I was always awaiting.
"In fact… I now feel compelled to do something incredibly stupid, and will likely be the cause of so much regret and inconvenience later… but if ever I so direly needed to remind myself of the golden opportunity which could slip through my claws, and not to be so careless with my actions… I must leave myself with no other options. My friends, we must now assume we occupy the golden timeline. We have no excuse to waste this chance. May the might of Centauri be with me, and this shall be the end!"
The Redeemer yanked hard on the time gear, snapping the chain which held it on his person. He tossed it over the cliff's edge, where it fell so far, there wasn't even a tiniest clang to reach his massive ears when it struck the bottom.
And there they all stood for a moment in silent reverence, letting the moment sink in.
"So… I think this is the part where I ask… what now?" said Dusknoir.
"This is our final meeting," said Coronus. "At least, the final meeting I am to share with the two of you. Now, let nothing distract us from the tasks at hand. I must leave to pave the way for Char's progress in certain ways, but they are no trouble, as I've done them a hundred times before. Miss Overseer, you must continue to protect Char to the best of your powers. How are your relations with Alakazam?"
Xatu sighed and hung her head. "Strenuous, and likely to break soon," she admitted. "I fear he will soon realize that I have been reprogramming Metagross for my own interests. He will not forgive me. Worse… Lately his behavior has oddly changed, and I fear he is not to be trusted."
"…Not to be trusted?" Dusknoir echoed. "HOW? If ANYONE in the Gold Division is trustworthy, it should be HIM! …And I suppose Char. And me. But you understand what I'm saying. What's wrong with him?"
"I hesitate to say that he might be working for Enigma, which is I'm certain isn't the case… but I have reasons to believe that he has secretly been involved in discussions with her," Xatu explained direly. "I am confident that Alakazam is powerful enough to resist Enigma's influences. But if I am wrong, Alakazam might already be compromised. And it does not help matters that he is keeping this a secret from me. I do not understand why he would otherwise have a reason to keep secrets from me."
"Hmm. You might consider that option of joining Char's team to keep an eye on him," Dusknoir suggested. "Good idea, really."
"Yes, I might, if the situation grows dire," Xatu replied with a little nod. "But ultimately, it doesn't matter what becomes of me in the end, as long as I assist Char in meeting Giratina."
Dusknoir twitched for a moment.
"Giratina…?" he muttered. "You need Char to meet with Giratina? The Ghost Dragon God? THAT Giratina?"
"…Yes? What about it?" said Xatu.
"Why didn't you TELL ME you were looking for Giratina?" growled Dusknoir suddenly, brandishing the Pokeball.
Xatu shrugged. "Seeing that this is only our second meeting, and because it does not concern your role as Executioner, and because at the time of our first meeting I was not entirely sure that Char was the reincarnation of our human friend… I never considered it something appropriate to mention," she said blankly. "Do you know something about Giratina?"
"YES? YES! I DO!" Dusknoir roared, waving his hands and holding up the Master Ball. "See THIS? Do you know what Adiel wanted me to DO with it? CAPTURE GIRATINA! That's WHY he thought I was on his SIDE!"
"WAIT just a minute," Coronus said, stamping his foot down and stepping between the bird and the ghost. "Dusknoir… that doesn't sound right. It sounds backwards, even. Where exactly did you get that Master Ball? Please tell me that Adiel gave it to you."
"Uh… no, actually, sir Redeemer, he didn't give it to me," the Executioner said stubbornly. "Seviper found it in the Solemn Fortress and stole it. And since my orders were to find a Master Ball and use it to capture Enigma, I kept it for myself. Then later, I used it to convince Adiel to trust me. What, did I screw something up? Is that what you're saying now?"
The Nidoking looked stunned for a moment. His eyes glazed over as his mind tied itself in knots of causality, as it was all to used to doing. "Oh… that's bad. That's… actually rather bad. Great Groudon. This is the timeline that just keeps giving"
He started absently counting on his claws. "There are four Master Balls on Ambera," he recounted. "Two are reserved for Dialga and Palkia, who may or may not be already captured at this point – to which I know the answer, but I'm not allowed to say. The third was carried by Adiel and reserved for Giratina. The fourth… is that one right there. The one you found in the Solemn Fortress."
"Yeah… and what's the big problem?!" Dusknoir said defensively.
"The way things generally happen," Coronus explained, "you earn Adiel's trust, he gives you the Master Ball. You escape and leave him without one, and therefore without a means to accomplish Enigma's goal of capturing Giratina. Later, Enigma finds the missing fouth ball in the fortress, captures Giratina with it, and uses the dragon gods to summon the Astral Throne, which is where I need to deliver Char and Saura. But stealing Adiel's Master Ball buys us more than enough time for Char to meet Giratina. But if what you're telling me is that you already found the missing fourth ball…"
"Then we haven't bought the time we need," Xatu realized. "Adiel still has one. If he is hunting for Giratina, he might be capturing her right now as we speak, and we would never know."
The guardians exchanged another glance as the possibility sunk in.
"Well," grunted Dusknoir, putting the Master Ball back into his body, "I'll ask again because apparently nobody heard me the first time: what now?"
Coronus peered over the cliff's edge. "First off, I'm going to get the time gear back. Apparently I may still need it after all."
Xatu teleported next to Coronus and touched him with a wing. "Wait," she urged. "Remember the reason you discarded the gear in the first place."
"Right… right," Coronus sighed, putting his head in his hands. "Golden timeline. Can't give this one up. This is never happening again. We've got to make it work. Alright… alright."
He stood up tall and took one last glance at Basin Canyon, as though to say farewell to the time gear.
"Xatu… keep Char safe until he is able to leave to find Giratina. Whether you inform him of the matters we've discussed is up to your discretion. Help him not to ruin everything with his new power. Then focus on keeping the Gold Division safe from whatever Alakazam might be doing. Dusknoir… go with her. Do whatever necessary to prepare, then begin the hunt for Adiel and take his Pokéball. And I… I suppose I have an immortal Scyther to find. I would try garnering some clues from Adarc, but he seems to have completely vanished on me as well. Seems I'm on my own."
He clutched his claw tightly, trying to feel the comforting rivets of the time gear that was no longer there, the time gear that always told him everything was alright, all mistakes were reversable, and he could always just try everything over again.
No more.
"We stand in uncharted territory now," he said. "There is very little I can do anymore based on foresight. The events happening now are completely different than anything I've known. The time has come for me, and for us all, to stop fretting over what might have happened, what was meant to happen, what should have happened. The fate we now forge is new. So don't make the mistake of thinking you're still following a meticulously-crafted plan. As of now, there is no more plan. There is no more human friend. There is only Char, and whatever he chooses to do with the opportunity he's been given."
Coronus glanced once more at the other guardians and gave his own little bow.
"We will not be seeing one another again," he said, "Until, perhaps, we meet at the base of the Astral Throne. But until then… farewell."
Soon thereafter, the Xatu and the Dusknoir vanished into thin air, and the Nidoking wandered away as the sun still rose behind him.
End of Season VI