Ash closed his eyes as the light from Arceus' hyper beam overtook him, but after a few seconds he noticed something was off.

"Why am I still alive?" He asked himself

He opened one eye and saw he was in a shadow. He then opened both as he looked up, and they both went wide at the sight before him. Dialga and Palkia both stood between him and Arceus while using protect, but that wasn't all. Even with his field of vision limited he was able to see multiple Hoopa rings in the air forming portals, and one after another the legendary Pokémon were exiting.

Clip clop clop

Something was coming up from behind Ash, but he couldn't see it. He was then covered in a red energy as he was lifted up off the rebars, which surprisingly didn't hurt. What also surprised him was that once he was off his blood didn't begin pouring out. He reached down and not only felt his wounds had closed up, but realized breathing had become easier. He looked behind himself to see Xerneas with his antlers glowing.

"Thank you," Ash said, realizing he had healed him.

He was then set on the ground upright and was now able to fully take in the sight around him. Circling overhead were over a dozen legendary pokemon flying, as the others were emerging from other portals closer to the ground. The ground shook with a crash, causing Ash to look and see Regigigas land from one of the higher portals. Following it were Regirock, Registeel, Regice, and two other Regi-like Pokémon that Ash had never seen before. A loud deafening roar was heard from above, just before Rayquaza burst down through the clouds and joined the likes of Latias, Latios, the three legendary birds of Kanto, Yveltal, and many more.

"Ash!"

Ash turned around to see Hoopa smiling at him.

"Hoopa! You all had amazing timing," Ash praised.

"Thank you, but now it's time for you to get to your friends and get away from here."

With that Hoopa tossed a ring into the air which formed a portal within it. The ring fell on top of Ash and the portal sent him away.

——————————————————————-

"I can't believe what I'm seeing," Limaro commented in shock.

"I've seen so many legendary pokemon in my life, but never so many together," Delia thought out loud.

Everyone else was speechless as dozens of legendary pokemon were surrounding Arceus.

"Do you think Ash is ok?" Serena asked, being the first to show concern for him.

The others were shaken from their shocked state and began to worry. However, as if on cue several golden rings formed on the ground before rising up as Ash and his pokemon appeared.

"ASH!" Serena cried out as she ran to him, then stopped and gasped as she saw so much blood on his chest and leg.

"Don't worry, Xerneas patched me up," Ash said with a smile as he pulled up his shirt.

Filled with relief Serena finally hugged him tightly. "I was so worried about you."

Ash returned the hug. "I know, but I've cheated death so many times that I know I'll always walk away from stuff like that."

"Don't let that go to your head," Red said sternly. "You've been lucky so far. Never walk into a situation like that knowing you'll make it, walk in a little scared you won't."

The ground shook, bringing everyone's focus back to Arceus and the other legendary pokemon.

"Hey, can we finish this elsewhere? Like, somewhere away from the battling god?" Isla suggested, feeling very nervous at what she was seeing.

"Good point," William replied. "Let's put some more distance between us and them."

They started to move, but Delia quickly noticed Red was still standing there looking up. She followed his eyes to Giovanni's airship hovering above the city. It didn't take a lot of thought for her to know what was going through his head.

"Go," she said sympathetically.

Jared from his thoughts Red looked down at her surprised.

She took one of his hands in hers. "It's not hard to know what you're thinking."

"Are you sure? It's probably going to be dangerous."

"Has that ever stopped either of us before?" She stepped right up to him as she released his hand and looked up at him while placing her hands on his cheeks. "Just promise you'll come back sooner this time."

Red closed his eyes and gave a light chuckle. "I promise."

He then bent down and gently kissed her. Upon breaking the kiss he backed away slowly, her hands falling from his cheeks. He turned around and then climbed onto his Charizard's back, and then flew off after Giovanni.

——————————————————————-

Using psychic Shadow threw an abandoned car at Mewtwo while backing away, but Mewtwo knocked it away with brick break.

BOOM

Both Mewtwo and Shadow looked to the side to the cannon as it went up in a fiery explosion.

"NO!" Shadow roared as he shot in the direction of the cannon.

Mewtwo quickly shot after him. Shadow's loyalty to Giovanni was unwavering, his enemies were Shadow's, his blood was Shadow's. In his mind the destruction of the cannon was an action that needed to be punished.

Mewtwo raced as fast as he could, but he and Shadow were moving at the same speed, he couldn't catch him. It was clear to him that Shadow would reach the others if he didn't do something, so he prepared to use Aura sphere with the hopes that it would throw him off enough for him to catch up.

Then as Mewtwo was about to hurl his aura sphere, Shadow was sent crashing into the ground by a shadow ball from above. Shadow quickly got back to his feet as he searched angrily for his attacker. Mewtwo was slowly approaching, forcing him to focus on him, but his eyes continued to shift to look for the other.

"Please stop," a high pitched voice said from behind Shadow.

He spun around quickly to see Mew floating there looking at him with sorrow filled eyes.

"The progenitor," he said through clenched teeth.

"This doesn't need to continue. Giovanni has lied to you, you are nothing more than a tool in his eyes. But it's not too late. Turn against him and help us, we will all accept you with open arms," Mew pleaded.

Shadow's expression softened and a devilish smirk formed. "You accept me?" He then teleported right up to Mew and grabbed him by the throat. "Why would I care to be accepted by those weaker than me?"

He began to squeeze Mew's throat as he flailed in his hold. Out of nowhere Mewtwo appeared beside Shadow, crouched low with his right fist glowing green. He delivered a left jab to Shadow's ribs in the form of a drain punch, causing him to release Mew and he was sent flying into a lamp post, bending it in half in the process.

"It's no use. Giovanni's hold on him is too strong," Mewtwo told Mew. He then looked to Shadow. "Giovanni will be stopped soon enough, just surrender and avoid further pain."

"It is you who should surrender!" He roared as he rocketed towards them.

——————————————————————-

Charizard banked left, dove down, then used dragon claw to block a series of razor wind attacks. Charizard and Red were in the middle of an aerial battle against several Team Rocket flying types as they fought their way to Giovanni's airship. It might have been years since Charizard had been in an actual battle, but he had done it for so long that even now it was like second nature to him.

Red was becoming frustrated, it was obvious their goal here was just to stall him as Giovanni gained more altitude, and soon would be out of Charizard's reach.

"Let's deal with these guys quickly. Use dragon rush into the heart of their formation then we'll deal with the remaining in close range before they can react."

Blue dragon energy began covering Charizard's body and he shot forward into the heart of the group. He collided with a Corbat, sending it into a free fall while also knocking away a few others that were too close. The remaining pokemon were Ill prepared for Charizard, making them slow to react. He then proceeded to use either Slash, dragon tail, steel wing, or flamethrower to deal with the remaining pokemon.

Upon dealing with the airships flying type escort, both Charizard and Red eyes the airship maliciously. They were ready to finally go for the airship directly, but paused as they noticed a bright light from the corner of their eyes. They looked and their eyes widened in horror at the sight below. An orange sphere of energy exploded in the sky, and dozens of pink streaks heading back towards the surface.

——————————————————————-

Everyone was running as fast as they could, well as fast as the slowest person, no one was being left behind. Stray attacks from the massive battle behind them exploded all around. For nearly everyone their pokemon were exhausted and resting in their pokeballs, so jumping on the back of a few flying types wasn't an option. Ash's pokemon were healed, but there was no way they could carry everyone.

One would have thought that with all of the legendary pokemon attacking together that Arceus would be defeated in no time, but that was not the case. Not only was Arceus holding his own against the overwhelming numbers, he was even slowly knocking them out.

Zygarde in its one hundred percent form used land's wrath, causing the ground to shake and large hunks of rock to be ejected into the air. Thanks to having so many trained aura guardians they were able to predict the course of the incoming debris, and dodge it appropriately. Ash could do this too, but not as well as the more experienced guardians when it came to attacks that weren't solid. Flames, lightning, rocks, blasts of various energy, they dodged them all while continuing to put distance between them and the biblical battle unfolding behind them.

"LOOK OUT!" Limaro shouted as a portion of a hyper beam attack, split by a wolf like pokemon carrying a sword between its teeth, came racing towards them.

Everyone jumped to the side to avoid it. Ash grabbed Serena and created an aura barrier around them as a precaution. The white beam shot down along the direction they were running before eventually hitting the ground and exploded.

"What the hell!" Kris yelled as she pushed herself back to her feet. "I know they're in a big battle, but couldn't they have just teleported all of us further away?"

"Hoopa had multiple portals open at once. I imagine it takes a bit of focus to keep that many active while all the others were coming in," Ash stated as he did the same.

"Honestly we should be thankful it's as contained as it is. A battle of this proportions I imagine could destroy an entire region," William pointed out.

"Less whining, more running! Let's just focus on getting out of here!" Isla said and began running again.

However they didn't get far before they all froze while being overcome with a sense of foreboding. They all turned around to see Arceus using protect while the wheel on his body gave off a golden glow and an orange orb of energy grew on top of his forehead before firing up into the sky leaving a fiery streak.

The other pokemon quickly switched to defense and dozens of barriers began forming around them. Even if they didn't know the attack Arceus just used they would have done this. It was instinct, ingrained in the very core of all living beings in the pokemon world, they knew to fear this move.

"Fuck Oh no, please tell me that wasn't judgment!" Brendan asked as fear struck his heart.

"Ok I won't," William replied. "Aura barrier now! Bring out your Lucario's too!"

"Shouldn't we run instead?" Isla asked as she started to panic as the sphere exploded and dozens of smaller spheres began plummeting to the surface.

"We'll never escape the blast radius," Riley replied as he released his Lucario and they all began forming a circle around the non aura users.

"Everyone get as tight together as possible. Ash, Isla, just stay calm and allow your aura barriers to become one with ours. You'll feel an urge to fight against it but don't, it's just because it's not normal for you to combine your auras with others like this," William instructed.

Delia took her position beside Ash, as being family his urge to resist against her aura wouldn't be as strong, and his Lucario took position on the opposite side.

"What about dad?" Ash asked Delia.

Delia smiled a little, wishing Red could have heard that.

"I wish he was here so I could say he's safe, but it can't be helped now. He was flying in his Charizard so he should be able to avoid this. Even if he was low enough to be in danger he would fly up to try and escape," she replied, swallowing her fear for his safety.

The spheres began to crash into the ground or collide with the various barriers the legendary Pokémon put up. The six aura guardians and four Lucarios formed a tight circle around the others with their hands out in front of them and formed an aura barrier just in time as a sphere hit a hundred feet away. The ground shook violently with every impact, sending dust and debris into the air.

Though not a single sphere had yet to hit the aura barrier, the resulting shockwaves pummeled it and began to form cracks.

"Focus!" Limaro yelled. "We're not even through the worst of it yet, we can't let the barrier fall!"

"This is too much!" Isla cried, a little trickle of blood dripping from her nose.

"You can do it! We only need to hold out a few more seconds," William said encouragingly.

Delia's eyes shifted to Ash. He was struggling too, they all were, but not only were he and Isla not ready for something like this, they had already been worn down by the battles beforehand. They were used to small bursts, but not the constant strain, Delia wasn't sure if they could manage long enough. And if that happened, the barrier would collapse almost immediately.

"Psst," a voice said in Serena's head. "It doesn't look like you guys willwell last much longer."

"Azazel! Can you help us?"

"Sorry, but even I have limits. You guys are just too far away, and trying to teleport in during that attack... well I'd have better odds of survival playing roulette with a revolver pointed at my head."

"No," Serena replied as tears began to escape her eyes. She looked up at Ash, his teeth gnashed with blood trickling from his nose as he fought to hold on as the cracks continued to spread.

"I guess I shouldn't have said I can't help. I just can't help directly, but I can teach you something so you can help," Azazel commented.

"What? How?"

"Contrary to popular belief, aura and psychics are meant to work together. You can use your psychic powers to help close those cracks."

"Me?"

"Well I can't do it from here so you kind of have to. Just focus on the cracks, and imagine the barrier as cloth. Then imagine using youryou psychic energy to stitch the barrier back together."

"Stitching?"

"I imagine sealing it with putty, but since you sew I figured that would be easier for you."

Serena wasn't sure about this, but he had been right about her before so she believed he had to be right this time too. Focusing on the barrier Serena unleashed her psychic powers. At first the cracks spiderwebbed across the domed barrier rapidly, to the point that the others thought it was about to collapse. However quickly the cracks began to mend and seal themselves, and in only a few seconds the barrier was pristine and perfect again.

After a few more seconds the last sphere hit a few feet away, causing the sphere to crack again before repairing. Soon thethey dust began to settle and they could see the attack had completed, so the barrier came down. Immediately Isla and Ash's legs became wobbly and they began to collapse. Thankfully William caught his daughter in time, as Delia caught Ash. Serena also started to fall, but Alain and Brendan were able to catch her.

"Good work everyone," William praised as he slowly lowered Isla down. "Especially you Serena. I don't know where you got that idea, but thank you. I don't think we would have made it without you."

"Wait, Serena helped?" Ash asked as he steadied himself.

"She did," Delia said as she looked back at her with a proud smile. "I'm not surprised you didn't notice, the barrier was putting a serious strain on you."

"Serena, are you ok?" He asked as he turned to face her.

"Yeah, just really worn out." Serena replied.

Ash tried to take a step towards her, but again his legs nearly gave way.

"Take it easy Ash," Delia said as she caught him again. "The battle has gotten quiet so we may have a chance to rest."

"That's not necessarily a good thing, look around," Riley commented.

Everyone did and their eyes widened as they took in the sight, or lack thereof. Just a few minutes ago they were running down a street through a city. Yes there were damaged buildings, but for the most part they were still standing. Now however it was a far different sight. If not for the small patch of road beneath them it would have looked like there was never anything there. The buildings, streets, plants, everything was gone, leaving a barren wasteland as far as the eyes could see.

A gust of wind blew, removing the dust lingering in the air, and revealing everything once hidden.

"Oh no," Paul breathed out, his eyes wide with shock. The others took notice and followed his gaze as they gave similar reactions. There Arceus floated alone, over dozens of the legendary pokemon.