"Alright, it's settled."
Yveltal landed. Reshiram landed behind it, looking at Yveltal's back with resentful eyes.
That damn black bird! I, Reshiram, should obviously be Damian's mount!
How hateful!
Damian naturally had no idea what Reshiram was thinking at that moment. He smiled and spoke to Balza and the others.
Caitlin had a faint smile on her face. Platinum's eyes were full of excitement and admiration. Serena was also very excited. Mr. Damian!!
"Hehe Balza, Mary, I'm back"
Hoopa Confined giggled and floated in front of the two of them. It grinned brightly.
"Welcome back. And congratulations on getting your power back, Hoopa."
Balza showed a sincere smile as he spoke to Hoopa Confined.
"Thank you, Damian. I caused you trouble."
Then Balza spoke to Damian with gratitude.
"Thank you so much, Damian."
Mary hugged Hoopa Confined tightly. She wiped her reddened eyes as she spoke to Damian.
During the battle, she had been so frightened by the dangerous situations that she had forgotten to breathe more than once.
"Don't mention it. We're all friends," Damian said with a light laugh. "And honestly, today was thanks to Hoopa too. Otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten to watch such a huge battle."
"However, one thing is very strange."
Damian turned to look at the battlefield from earlier, a puzzled look on his face.
"What is it, Damian?" Balza asked in confusion.
"In a battle with so many powerful Legendary Pokémon, space should normally collapse under the pressure. But now, there isn't even a sign of that happening."
Damian voiced his thoughts.
"Is it because Origin Forme Palkia was here?"
Even the smaller battles in the original movie caused space to collapse. This battle involved dozens of powerful Legendary Pokémon.
Logically, space should have started collapsing long ago.
Was it because space had become stronger and more stable after Palkia entered its Origin Forme?
But that did not seem right.
"How is that possible? This has nothing to do with Palkia," Hoopa Confined said, curling its lip.
"Oh?" Damian raised an eyebrow.
"It's true that the concept of space was born with Palkia. But after that, it only became responsible for the stability of the world's overall space. Whether this specific area could withstand the pressure of the battle without collapsing has absolutely nothing to do with Palkia."
Hoopa Confined spoke firmly and with complete confidence.
"And I'm not trying to bad-mouth Palkia. But if this space had really started collapsing, it probably wouldn't have been able to stop it."
"If you ask me, in some areas, its control over space isn't even as good as mine!"
Hoopa Confined clearly looked down on Palkia's spatial power.
After all, Palkia was the Pokémon that represented the concept of space, yet it still could not deal with Hoopa's spatial rings. You could not blame Hoopa for looking down on it.
"Then do you know why this space didn't collapse?" Damian asked Hoopa Confined.
Hoopa Confined answered naturally.
"Of course I don't know."
Hearing that, Damian rolled his eyes. Then he casually glanced at the sky.
Above the clouds in the distance, a flash of golden light appeared. A white figure disappeared behind the clouds.
If it was that Pokémon, then none of this was strange at all.
Damian clicked his tongue. He knew it. With such a huge commotion, there was no way Arceus would not come to watch.
"Alright, let's head back and drink some water first. This isn't a good place to chat."
...
The Valley of Genesis.
Damian and the others returned. Mary warmly brought out some fruit wine she had saved.
"Come and have some. My grandmother brewed this. It tastes great."
Mary poured a cup for everyone. She did not even leave out Hoopa Confined or Terapagos.
After all, everyone was in a good mood today.
"It's a little sweet... emmm... and a little tart. It's actually pretty good."
Platinum took a sip. She found it surprisingly tasty.
This was the first time she had ever drunk alcohol.
"Right? The alcohol content isn't high. One cup won't make even a beginner drunk," Mary said happily.
"It really is good. By the way, Balza, you should let Hoopa try breaking through the Binding more often."
Damian looked over and saw Hoopa Confined using its psychic power to control a big bowl while clinking drinks with Terapagos and Jirachi. He found it funny.
"Even though it got its power back, the effect of the Binding is still there. It still can't pass through its rings itself."
That was true. Although Hoopa could now transform into its Unbound form whenever it wanted, it was still bound. It had only regained its power. It had not broken the curse itself.
But that was only a matter of time. Since Hoopa Confined's heart was now in the right place, it would eventually break through the Binding if it kept trying.
Once Hoopa could pass through the rings itself, it would truly be free.
"Yes, we'll encourage it," Balza replied with a smile. He also sincerely hoped Hoopa could break the curse soon.
After all, that would finally fulfill their great-grandfather's wish.
They drank while chatting. Mary even went to stir-fry a few dishes.
It is worth mentioning...
"You little brats! I told you to drink a little, not finish the whole thing!!"
Mary's scream startled the slightly tipsy Platinum and Serena. When they turned to look...
They saw Mary pinching Hoopa Confined's ear. She looked like she was about to cry as she stared at the barrel, which had less than ten percent of the fruit wine left.
"Ow, ow, ow! Hic! Mary, don't be mad."
Hoopa Confined pouted. It let out a wine burp and gave a silly grin.
"I specifically left some for you."
"Should I thank you for that, Hoopa?!"
Mary gritted her teeth. She looked at Jirachi, Victini, and Mesprit, who were all lying on their stomachs, drunk. Off to the side, Terapagos had its head raised high and was stumbling around drunkenly, looking extremely excited.
Mary wanted to cry, but no tears came out.
These little drunks! This was the fruit wine her grandmother had left behind. It was the very last barrel.
Since everyone had drunk a little too much, Caitlin and the others went to sleep in the house Balza had prepared for Damian and the girls.
Damian himself carried the slightly tipsy Terapagos to a patch of grass and sat down.
"Little turtle, you were the one who used your ability to send me to the past today, right?"
Damian asked Terapagos.
"Did I? Oh, I think I did."
Terapagos's clear telepathic voice sounded a little confused. Then it became more certain.
"Then can you still use that ability now?"
"I think I can..."
"What do you mean, 'I think'?"
Damian froze.
Either it could or it couldn't. What did "I think" mean?
Was this little turtle drunk and confused?
"I'm not sure, Damian. My ability isn't something I can use whenever I want. Also, I can only send you to a past or future that is connected to you."
"What does that mean?" Damian thought about it for a moment, but he still did not fully understand.
"I can't send you to a specific timeline. I can only send you to a point in the past or future that you are destined to experience."
Terapagos tilted its little head. After thinking for a bit, it answered like that.
But how should one put it?
Those words sounded very confusing.
It seemed to realize that its explanation was unclear, so Terapagos spun around anxiously, thinking about how to explain it better.
"Oh, right! Damian, when I sent you to the past earlier, did you see someone you knew?"
Terapagos suddenly thought of something.
"..." Damian seemed to understand at once.
"Do you mean you can only send me to a timeline connected to someone I'm destined to meet?"
"That's right! And there must be karma between you! Because there is a cause in the past or future, there can be an effect in the present or future."
Terapagos's eyes lit up, and it nodded hard.
"If you put it that way, your time travel really does have a lot of limits."
Damian thought about it. Looking at it this way, Terapagos's time travel was more like a cycle of cause and effect.
However, thinking back to the plot of Scarlet and Violet, Terapagos's influence really was very important.
The Great Crater of Paldea had been mysterious since ancient times. Before modern times, only the Area Zero expedition reached the deepest part two hundred years ago.
The explorer Heath then wrote the Scarlet Book and the Violet Book. These books recorded the strange things the team had encountered, and they were passed down to later generations.
However, most people in modern times thought the contents were too strange, so no one believed them.
But Professor Sada and Professor Turo, who had read those books, believed them completely. Why?
Because they had truly experienced a mysterious encounter. They had seen the Pokémon written about in those books. Since they had read those books from a young age, their hearts had long been captured by those Pokémon.
To see those ancient and future Pokémon again, they did everything they could in Area Zero. In the end, they successfully built a time machine!
The time machine really could bring ancient and future Pokémon into the present. Those were the Paradox Pokémon!
The Professors really had succeeded.
But why had they been so sure the books were true?
It was because, in the future, the protagonist caught Terapagos. Terapagos used its time-travel power at the Crystal Pool and brought the Professors to the future before they had even built the time machine.
In that future, the Professors saw Koraidon or Miraidon. That made them even more certain that the books were real, so they went on to build the time machine.
In fact, the Heath expedition had seen all kinds of Paradox Pokémon in Area Zero two hundred years ago. So why did the Professors not see a single Paradox Pokémon when they first entered Area Zero?
It was very likely that the expedition team from two hundred years ago had been sent by Terapagos to the time two hundred years later, when the Professors had already built the time machine. That was why they saw the Paradox Pokémon and wrote the books.
Paradox. The paradox was not just that ancient and future forms appeared in the present. The whole Area Zero storyline in the games was also full of paradoxes.
In this story, who was the real cause? Who was the real effect?
The cause came before the effect, but the effect could also lead back to the cause.
Terapagos's ability was truly mysterious. But no matter what, Damian only wanted to know one thing: whether it could send him back to Hisui.
"Then can you send me back to Hisui again? It would be best if you could send Platinum and me together."
Damian clicked his tongue. This was the only thing he really cared about.
"What is Hisui?"
Terapagos looked extremely confused.
"?" Damian froze.
"Emmm... At that time, I actually wanted to send you back three thousand years. Because the thread of your past can be traced back that far at most."
"I thought sending you as far away as possible would make it easier to deal with Hoopa while you were gone."
Terapagos tilted its head as it spoke.
"But I didn't go back three thousand years."
Damian replied with a strange look. It was easy to understand what the little turtle meant.
Damian could roughly guess that the thread from three thousand years ago was definitely connected to AZ and Eternal Flower Floette. After all, AZ was a man from three thousand years ago.
"Yeah. My brain wasn't working right at the time. Thinking about it now, some other power must have interfered with my ability and sent you somewhere else. Even I don't know where I sent you."
Terapagos looked innocent.
"..."