Author's Notes:
Hey everyone,

Today I bring you chapter 91, which brings an end to this arc. I want to apologize for the inconsistent update schedule. The summer is the busiest time for me at work, and when I get time at home I tend to fall asleep within minutes of starting to write. So as you can imagine, it's hard for me to find time to write like I normally would. I just want to reassure you all that I am still working on this book, and will see it through to the end.

Speaking of the end, I'm sure some of you noticed that this book has been listed as completed. I did that as a safeguard because I heard rumors that Wattpad was deleting stories that haven't been updated in a while that weren't completed. I was probably being paranoid, but after all this work I wasn't about to take any chances. In closing, this book is not complete but I am still working towards an ending we can all be happy with.

If you like my work, please vote, feel free to comment, and please share it with a friend. I now present to you all chapter 91, enjoy.

Ash quickly took the offensive, swinging his fists while also using his aura to read Giovanni's moves. Being fused with Giratina's body narrowed the gap that there was between him and Giovanni during their last fight, but it was also probably partly because it seemed Giovanni still hadn't fully gained control over Arceus' power.

Contrary to how Ash normally read a person's aura, when he looked at Giovanni he could see two separate Auras in his body. Obviously the other one was Arceus, but what he noticed was that there was a shining light seeming to be connecting the two. Ash suspected that if he could break that connection then he could separate them.

Giovanni blocked Ash's punch and tried to run a claw across his face. Ash dropped his legs out from beneath him then kicked them out to dropkick Giovanni in the stomach. Giovanni saw this and stepped to dodge, then stomped down on Ash's stomach and forced him to the ground. He raised his foot to stomp on him again but Ash rolled out of the way.

Ash quickly rolled back up to his feet but Giovanni was already racing towards him. He started delivering a series of punches which Ash blocked, then kicked him in the side of the knee. Ash dropped down to one knee as well as from his arms down to keep from falling over. Giovanni then grabbed him by the head and pulled it forward to meet his knee. He was about to pull Ash in for another knee to the face, but this time Ash grabbed his knee with his left hand then delivered two aura infused punches to his inner thigh before Giovanni shoved him back as he backed away as well.

Ash got back up to his feet breathing heavily. He did call this round two, but he wasn't doing much better than the last time they fought. He was confident that he found Giovanni's weak point, but he couldn't figure out how to exploit it. He assumed he needed to use his aura, but the question was how? To figure that out he needed to somehow incapacitate him, and to do that he needed to win this fight.

"Ash are you all right?" Serena asked in his head.

"For now. I think I see how to separate Giovanni from Arceus, but I'm not sure how to pull it off," he replied.

"I'm sorry, but William say he has no idea how either. He said he didn't even think it was possible to merge with pokemon like you both did."

"Ash," Delia called out, using Serena's psychic connection to guide her aura. "Giovanni is too skilled in hand to hand combat. You need to get out of there."

"No. He hasn't fully gained control of Arceus' power yet. If we leave then he'll have more time to learn. We need to stop him here and now."

"Ash, he's trained in combat longer than you've been alive. This isn't a gap that you can just overcome like this."

"Wait, trained?"

"Yes, he trained to get this strong. If I trained you properly from the beginning you might have been able to hold your own, but I didn't. That's my fault but..."

"No, maybe you did train me."

"What?"

"You gave me books, chances to learn about pokemon, took me to watch battles. You might have not taught me how to fight, but you gave me the building blocks to becoming a pokemon trainer."

"Ash this isn't a pokemon battle."

"Isn't it? Both he and I merged with a legendary pokemon. We both have that extra power inside us, but if I can do it first..."

"A human can't beat a pokemon in a hand to hand fight. But can you do it first?"

"Unlike him, my life has revolved around Pokémon. He may be a strong trainer, but I'm willing to bet he never had a bond with his pokemon like I do. I can do it."

Ash refocused on his battle with Giovanni with a new strategy, he relied on his instincts and charged forward.

"Dragon claw," he thought to himself, but the dragon energy didn't form.

Instead he slashed down with his clawed hand. Giovanni dodged and punched Ash in the ribs.
Ash regained his footing and turned back to face him as he held his side.

"Ok, new plan," he thought and used his aura to "poke" Giratina's unconscious mind. Nothing happened.

Giovanni came back at him again and Ash defended as he tried to gain some distance. He slipped under Giovanni's punch and slashed his claws along his ribs before grabbing the wheel on his back and throwing him. Giovanni flew a good way before crashing into the ground. Of course as soon as Ash released him he was already trying a different approach to gain access to all of Giratina's power. This time he treated it like how he helped his pokemon mega evolve with his aura, and tried linking his aura with him. Ash hoped it worked and found they were now connected.

Unfortunately he was so engrossed in that, that he didn't realize Giovanni was practically on top of him swinging he fist at his head. With barely a thought a green barrier formed between Ash and Giovanni, taking the hit instead of him.

"Protect," he thought to himself.

A smile formed on his face as he realized what he did, and Giovanni backed away.

"Now the real battle begins," Ash said as he activated shadow sneak.

Ash disappeared into his shadow, only to reappear underneath Giovanni and slashed upward with an aura infused dragon claws. Giovanni roared in pain, but Ash wasn't done, he wasn't going to give him time to breath. He stomped down and the earth below Giovanni exploded as he used earth power. Using his wings Ash took to the air. He wasn't sure if Giratina could learn seismic toss, but he knew how his Charizard did it. He grabbed Giovanni in an aura infused bear hug mid air then flew straight up.

"Everyone, set up an aura barrier, this is going to be big," he told his friends and family down below.

He did three loops in the air, then rocketed back down. Giovanni struggled as much as he could, but Ash had his hands locked together, he wasn't going anywhere. Right before he was about to hit the ground, Ash released Giovanni, who crashed violently into the rocky ground. Ash flew up above him, he wasn't done yet. His tail became engulfed in green dragon energy as he charged at him in a nose dive, doing a flip mid air right before he hit the ground and instead slammed his tail right into Giovanni's face, deepening the crater.

With a flap of his wings he blew the dust cloud away, and saw his opponent laying there dazed. This was it, the opportunity he needed. Infusing his right hand in aura he thrust it right into his chest and pushed his aura forward into his body. With his eyes glowing blue he could see the three aura's, Giovanni's, Arceus', and his. He also saw the glowing point where their two aura's met, and tried to separate them. As if Giovanni could feel what Ash was doing he quickly tried to attack Ash. In response Ash moved and pushed his knee on his chest and slammed his right hand into his face.

Trying to pull the auras apart wasn't working, so instead he used his aura to encompass the point and pulled on it. Giovanni became even more violent, delivering multiple painful blows to Ash, but he endured, he knew he was making progress now. Soon he could see their aura that connected to the point breaking off. He could also now tell what the point was, the plate Giovanni got his hands on.

Giovanni grabbed Ash's forearm and dug his claws in in an effort to make Ash release him. Ash gnashed his teeth as blood poured from his arm, but he refused to let go. He finally had the upper hand on Giovanni, but if he lost it now he wasn't sure if he could get it back. Not only was he racing a clock till he gained control of more of Arceus' power, but he would now be more guarded to avoid giving Ash a chance to get close to him like this again.

The strands of aura that not only once held the plate but also bound Arceus and Giovanni together were now breaking one by one as Ash kept pulling on the plate. Then as Ash wasn't sure how much more of Giovanni's attacks he could endure, the last strand broke. The entire area was engulfed in a blinding white light hiding everything from view.

——————————————————————-

Serena and the others were walking through the dust cloud created by the battle between Ash and Giovanni. They had been hiding behind an aura barrier, though there was no doubt it wouldn't have been enough even if an attack even grazed it. The aura users in the group were completely spent. Limaro was the only one with any aura left, but even he didn't have much, just enough to sense his surroundings and point them in the direction of four auras.

"Are you sure we're heading the right way?" Kris asked.

Limaro's eyes glowed blue. "There are four auras straight ahead. All I can tell is that two are Pokémon and two are human, and neither one is very strong."

"Wait, what's that supposed to mean? Is Ash ok?" Serena asked urgently.

Limaro mentally kicked himself for saying that last part, as William looked back at him with a look questioning why he said that.

"It could mean a lot of different things," Delia said with motherly reassurance. "But most likely it means Ash is probably completely worn out. It was a very intense battle after all."

Serna nodded in acceptance of the answer, but was still very nervous. When Serena looked away Delia let the worry show on her face again. A weak aura could also mean Ash was dying.

As they moved closer they eventually came across Giratina, his body moving steadily as he breathed. Brendan and Paul instinctively reached for their pokeballs, but stopped as they both knew there was no way Giratina would ever allow either of them to be its trainer.

"Since Giratina's here Ash has got to be around her somewhere. Let's look around," William said.

They all spread out around Giratina and started looking. They didn't have a large area to search, but the dust cloud did limit their visibility. They split up and walked around Giratina until Ash was found by its head.

"WE FOUND HIM!" Isla yelled.

While everyone else ran Serena used her psychic powers to float up and over Giratina with Pikachu in her arms.

"Ash!" Serna cried as she landed beside him.

Isla and the others gave her room and Pikachu jumped from her arms. Ash was on his side, Acreus' plate clenched tight in his arms. The plate wasn't glowing, it only looked like a stone slab at this point. Carefully Alain and Silver rolled him over, but everyone was nervous to even touch the plate.

"Is he ok?" Delia asked urgently as she and Red arrived.

"He's breathing, so he's probably just exhausted," William replied.

Delia gave a sigh of relief as she leaned into Red. Pikachu however wasn't going to let Ash just sleep. They had been through so much together over the years, but this was the first time he felt left out. His cheeks sparked with electricity as a warning to the others, resulting in them backing up. Almost half the people knew what was about to happen, those who didn't trust the others backed away for a reason.

"Piiikaaaa-CHUUUUU!"

A powerful bolt of electricity shot out of Pikachu, and right into Ash. His eyes shot open, and he sat upright as if spring loaded as the plate was thrown down across his legs.

"Pika!" Pikachu said glaring at him with tears welled up in his eyes.

"Sorry buddy. That was something I had to do alone," he replied as he scratched his best friend's head.

Pikachu immediately calmed down and accepted the apology, then backed off. As soon as he was clear both Serena and Delia lunged at Ash from both sides and held him tightly. They were holding him so tightly they were pretty much supporting him, so he moved his arms around his mother and girlfriend to return the hugs.

"I'm sorry I worried you two."

"Please tell me all your travels aren't like this," Delia stated.

"Nope. This is the first time I've done this with aura," Ash replied cheekily.

Delia sighed and squeezed him one more time before releasing him. "Serena, you are certainly going to have your hands full with him."

Now with Delia off of him, Ash's full attention was on Serena, whose face was still buried in his shoulder.

"Serena..."

"Just a second. I'm releasing all my stress and worry you've made me feel from you leaving. How could you have been so confident your plan would work?"

"The prophecy William told me said I was going to Hell. Well, never once has one of these prophecies been about me failing, and the distortion world would probably seem like hell to someone."

Serena lifted her head. "I really hope anymore prophecies are more straightforward and a lot safer."

"Same here, but I doubt it."

Red extended both of his hands down to them. They both grabbed them and he pulled them up.

"So Ash," Red said awkwardly. He was always a man of few words, and only his closest friends could really ever get a conversation out of him. But now he had a son, and he knew next to nothing about him and had almost no idea how to talk to him. "I...I just wanted to say, I'm happy you're ok, and I'm proud of you. You clearly turned out to be a fine young man even without me there."

Ash took his father in a hug. "Well mom worked really hard on me, and I had a lot of help growing up along the way."

Red returned the hug. "I hope there's still room for me, to at least try and be there for you. If you'll let me."

"There's always room for you in my life. I can't even be mad at you since now I understand what happened."

As this father son moment unfolded Isla's attention span reached its limit and her eyes began to wonder. Her aura had recovered a little bit, so even though she couldn't actually see them, she could see Arceus and Giovanni's auras hidden within the dust cloud. In the distance she could also see some of the legendary pokemon were still alive, but not all. She started to look around, only to still see nothing but the settling dust cloud. Isla turned around and froze, her eyes widened to their maximum. She was staring right into the eyes of Giratina.

"AHHHH!" Isla screamed.

Everyone looked to her, then followed her eyes to the legendary pokemon that just regained consciousness. Slowly Giratina lifted itself back up and to its feet. A wind emanating from it came up and cleared the dust cloud away, allowing everyone to see Arceus was getting up as well.

"Are you back to yourself?" Giratina asked.

Arceus nodded. "I am. Thank you for coming."

"Thank Ash," Giratina replied as he gestured down to him. "He was crazy enough to come to me and convinced me to help."

Arceus bowed his head to Ash. "Thank you, Chosen One."

"Umm, you're welcome?" With the dust cloud gone Ash could now see the bodies of the defeated legendary pokemon. "What happens now? So many of them are dead, isn't there something you can do?"

"If I had my final plate it would have been easy to resurrect them all. Alas, when you removed it from within my merged body, you also released its power into the world. It is nothing more than stone now."

"So they really are dead for good then," Ash replied with guilt. He remembered all the times he came back from the dead, and now blamed himself for essentially destroying the only way to bring them all back.

"Not necessarily. Even though I do not have the power to bring everyone back, I can bring back one."

Arceus' body glowed golden as he floated over to Dialga, and touched his lifeless body with his hoof. Dialga radiated with a golden glow as his visible wounds healed and after a few more seconds his eyes opened. He only laid there for a fraction of a second before his mind processed he was on the ground and quickly floated back up into the air. His eyes locked on Arceus and prepared to continue the battle, but saw Giratina standing behind him, then noticed Arceus wasn't preparing to attack either.

"Are you yourself?"

"I am," Arceus replied with a saddened tone for what he had done.

"And why didn't you come sooner?" Dialga asked, glaring at Giratina.

"Why didn't you ask for my help? If you can't be bothered to ask then I can't be bothered to offer," Giratina replied dismissively.

"Dialga, I lack the strength necessary to undo the harm I caused under Team Rocket's control. If you could..."

"Very well."

With that Dialga gave off a blue glow. At first nothing could be seen happening, but soon dust rose then fell again, and the fallen pokemon began to rise again with life one by one.

"What's going on?" Serena asked as she held Ash's arm.

"Dialga. Since Arceus doesn't have the strength to bring everyone back he's turning back time in this localized area," Red replied.

"But then what about the Team Rocket members we fought?" Alain asked.

"Only those who were not created by my plate will be brought back as time goes back," Arceus replied.

One by one the pokemon were resurrected, but they continued to move in reverse as if battling against an invisible enemy. Attacks appeared out of thin air and reversed back to the pokemon that originally used them, craters filled back as blasts of various energies left. Soon even the buildings of the city began to rebuild themselves. Once the point before the battle between the legendary Pokémon and Arceus came, the Pokémon were freed from the reversal of time, and Giratina explained everything to them. Time continued back, the destroyed fighter jets reassembled mid air and flew in reverse, and those who lost their lives rose up from the ground and began running in reverse. Once the point of Giovanni's message to the world came, time resumed as normal.

"Unbelievable," Brendan breathed out.

"Ugh."

The others looked and saw Giovanni as he began to regain consciousness and try to push himself up. Seeing him the others quickly moved towards him, he was not going to get the chance to escape. As Giovanni pushed himself up from the ground his legs buckled and he fell to a sitting position. From there his head moved as he looked around and took in his surroundings. Despite his incredible combat skills, his true strength was his ability to quickly size up a situation and find the best outcome. That being said, even he saw his situation was grim.

"Hello Giovanni," Delia said coldly as she looked down on her kneeling brother.

"Well, it seems I drastically miscalculated," he replied with a smile and amused tone.

"Is this funny for you?" William asked. "You're going to jail for the rest of your life."

"Ah yes prison," he commented smugly. "I could use a vacation."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Red asked darkly as he held back from beating him to death.

"Well I suppose you wouldn't know, but Team Rocket has become rather powerful and influential since your day," He replied. "Even if I'm put into a maximum security prison, I'll have nearly all of the luxuries of home."

"William?" Red asked, seeking an answer as he was losing the battle to keep his rage in check.

"Team Rocket is an international criminal organization. He may have been captured in Torrent, but the rest of the world will be demanding to put him on trial too. Eventually one of the regions will get him, and if it's one where he has politicians in his pocket..."

"He'll be living the good life before he eventually gets out," Red concluded and began moving towards Giovanni.

Ash looked between everyone talking, including Giovanni as he took in what was happening. Something didn't feel right, but the others didn't seem to notice. However Ash did, Giovanni was smiling the whole time.

"Wait dad don't do this, somethings not right here," Ash said.

"Of course something isn't right, your father has become too much of a coward to do anything," Giovanni taunted.

"Ash just stay back, I'll handle this," Red replied as he gently pushed Ash aside as he stepped around him.

Ash looked back at Giovanni, he was nervous, but he also seemed too happy for someone about to die.

"NO!" Ash shouted, and pushed Red aside as he moved forward and kicked Giovanni straight in the face with his right foot.

"Ash?!" Delia called out as she rushed forward between him and Red. "What are you doing?"

"I might not know Giovanni as well as the rest of you," his eyes shifted to Red as he looked at his son with a mixture of emotions. "But maybe that's a good thing. He hasn't hurt me like the rest of you."

"What are you getting at?" Red asked as he stared at Ash intensely.

Ash could see Red was angry, but he was confident it wasn't because of him. He understood his father wanted revenge, and he just got in the middle of it.

"The three of you have been hurt by him, to the point that even if you all don't want to admit it, you want him dead. Because of that you can't see this clearly."

Red's expression softened as he looked more curiously. Ash made a point, now he wanted to see where he took it.

"Ok, then what do you think?" Delia asked.

"After everything he's done, to essentially taunt us into killing him? It doesn't make sense to me. If he really has all that power then he just needs to keep his mouth shut and let it all happen. Instead he's telling the people who have every reason to just kill him that he's going to be getting to live comfortably even in prison." Ash took a deep breath then exhaled. "I don't have all the pieces here, but it's clear to me he's up to something."

There was a moment of silence before Delia first spoke.

"Ash is right. He's always planning and thinking ahead. He knows what he's doing and what will happen."

"Then why?" Red asked.

"Death must be a better option," William concluded.

"Better option than what?" Red asked.

"Arceus," Silver chimed in. He then looked up as the other followed his gaze to see Arceus and the other legendary pokemon floating above watching them. "He took control of Arceus, and if he wanted to punish him himself, no region in the world would stand against him, especially after what just happened."

"So he's afraid of Acreus' wrath," Riley concluded as everyone started to look back down at Giovanni.

The team rocket boss was then covered in a red glow and lifted off the ground as six pokeballs were removed from his belt and floated over to silver.

"Being his son, I leave his pokemon to you," Arceus stated.

He then focused back on Giovanni and brought him in front to face him. "Now, what shall I do about you."

"Give him to me," Giratina said casually. The others all looked at him as he moved forward. "The human wandering my realm bores me, I could use someone to keep me entertained."

There was nothing but silence as they awaited Arceus' answer, not even the wind dared to make a noise

"Very well Giratina, Giovanni shall be kept under your watch." Arceus said as he moved him closer to Giratina.

The glow around Giovanni disappeared as he began to plummet to the surface, only to stop as Giratina used psychic on him to catch and lift him back up. As Giovanni was lifted away he saw Red with an arm around Delia as the two waved goodbye with smiles on their faces. A portal to the distortion world opened in the air above them, and Giratina took to the air with Giovanni.

"Giratina," Arceus called out, causing him to look back. "You don't need to always stay in your realm, you are always welcome to return to the Hall of Origin."

"And you are welcome to call me whenever you have a situation you can't handle." He then looked down to Ash. "We make a good team. If you ever need me don't hesitate to call, I wouldn't mind teaming up again." He then entered the portal with Giovanni in tow, before the portal closed behind them.

Arceus' attention then shifted back to the group, and four small spheres of light formed in front of him.

"You three who could have ran, stayed and fought. Not for a sense of duty or honor, but for the trust and respect you hold for the chosen one." The four spheres flew down, and stopped in front of Paul, Brendan, and Alain, with two stopping in front of Alain. "A small reward for your courage. Torterraite, Gardevoirite, and Metagrossite."

"Wait? You're giving me a key stone as well?" Alain questioned.

"Yes. You were under the delusion that you did not deserve the original that you had. You were fooled and used by a human, but when their true nature was revealed you fought beside the chosen one. You were always worthy of the key stone, you just didn't see it yourself."

Alain and the others took their stones and bowed their heads in thanks.