Before Cadance could even ready a spell, a loud screech rang through the air. Turning to look, everyone saw that it had come from Yveltal, the Destruction Pokémon landing on one of the smashed buildings and bringing the ends of its wings in towards its chest. There was a light coming from the spot on its chest, streaks of light coming out and circling back into it as Yveltal groaned and winced. It began to get brighter, the edges of the light starting to turn orange as it became warmer.
After several long seconds, Yveltal held its wings out and raised its head skyward, letting out a loud screech as flames came out of its chest, steadily coming out yet doing no harm to the Destruction Pokémon. It didn’t take long for the flames to stop coming out, leaving Yveltal exhausted. They quickly gathered together and made a large ball of flames, confirming for everyone who had seen it before that it was Iblis. It simply hung in the air in the middle of the remains of the city. With everyone focused on it, nobody took notice of a fog of purple mist making its way through Station Square towards the dividing line.
Startled cries from the Weather Trio caught everyone’s attention, the group looking to see the mist coming over to their side of the line. ~What is that cloud?~ Entei asked.
~It doesn’t look like anything from the Voidlands… but it almost makes me think of that place,~ Raikou communicated.
~I remember seeing it after the barriers of time and space broke, coming out of the spot where the two cities collided,~ Suicune said.
Rainbow added, “It looks just like the stuff we kept seeing pretty much the entire time we were trying to figure out what was up with Rayquaza!”
Greninja glared, “Gre, Greninja.”
Riolu looked up at him, “‘Pure darkness’?” He glanced up at the sky and noticed the dark clouds that were beginning to blot out the sky and the effects of Rayquaza’s Delta Stream. “Whoa, this is reminding me big time of the paralyzed future world. I think you may be right.”
Lucario tried to block out what his younger self was saying, seeing as he could now remember saying it all before, and instead focused his Aura to get a better look at the fog. “It must’ve come from Chaos! Anything within that cloud is completely closed off to me like he was earlier,” he said after a few moments.
F-T Tails looked back at the spectacle occurring in front of them, the pieces falling into place as he thought of everything they’d seen so far. “Uh-oh…” he uttered with a nervous look. Beside him, F-T Sonic had an uneasy look on his face as he seemed to arrive at the same realization as his fox buddy.
While they had all been talking, the fog had reached the ball of flames and quickly surrounded it, the flames barely visible underneath the purple mist. At first it seemed like nothing was going to happen, but the mist and flames suddenly broke out of a ball, stretching up and down to create the general outline of some giant monster, but with no visible parts. Rocks then began to float out of the lava and rush towards it, attaching and giving it shape. As rocks continued to give it definition, purple and brown “skin” could be seen underneath the rocks like a skin over the creature’s skeleton. When the rocks stopped rising to attach to it, it looked like a massive purple and brown version of one of Iblis’ golems, but it was not done yet.
Seven purple tentacles that appeared to be on fire came out of its back, along with neon blue fins that ran from its lower back up to its head. Two new pairs of arms suddenly burst out of the sides of its body, pulling out and hanging down at its sides. These arms lacked the rocks that covered parts of its original arms but were just as slender and pointy all the way up to their fingertips. The creature’s broad chest began to shake before the rocks pulled away, revealing seven green eyes underneath that sat perfectly between the rocks as they pulled out. The center eye, which was larger than the other six eyes, had what appeared to be two long tongues hanging out on each side of it. A long brown tail burst out of the rocks on the apex of its rear that went down and then curled upwards, hanging over its head. As everyone stared aghast, the creature let out a loud screech and the clouds finished filling the sky, making both cities seem unnaturally dark.
~What is that MONSTROSITY?!~ Entei asked.
“That would be Dark Gaia… and that Iblis thing,” F-T Sonic answered.
Twilight looked at him and asked, “Dark Gaia? As in the Dark Gaia that you guys said sleeps in the center of your planet and awakens to destroy it however many million years or so?!”
He replied, “I don’t know anyone else with that many eyes in their head.”
F-T Tails groaned as he held a hand to his forehead, “It all makes sense now. Rayquaza’s behavior when we found her, the dark copies, that dark… Mewtwo… It was all Dark Gaia. It must’ve slipped through breaks in time and space from when Eggman unleashed it. The parts in the other worlds must’ve acted as extensions of it while it regained its strength here.”
Riolu piped up, “Well, we beat its extensions, and we beat it while it was in Chaos! Is it really that much stronger now?” As if it heard him, Dark Iblis let out a roar as each of its seven tentacles fired purple spheres at the largest targets in the area. Groudon and Kyogre quickly grabbed Rayquaza and pushed her away as four of the spheres shot towards the trio. The spheres weren’t huge, but they were powerful; Groudon went down face first in the lava while Kyogre went limp after he was hit, still feeling weakened and susceptible after having had Dark Gaia in him earlier. Yveltal took flight, but three of the spheres followed after it, two hitting it in the back and causing it to crash into the side of a building. The third missed and ended up crashing through Deoxys instead, taking off its entire right arm. The DNA Pokémon turned its head to look at where the arm had been for a moment before a light began to shine from the stump, the limb completely restored after several seconds. It held up the arm to examine it, pleased that it was back yet surprised that it took longer than usual for it to regrow a missing limb.
Deoxys’ concerns went unnoticed by the group as they were more focused on what Dark Iblis had just done. It had only used its tentacles to attack and already three of the larger Legendary Pokémon had been knocked down. F-T Tails glanced up at Sonic and started, “Sonic… You fought Dark Gaia alongside Chip, so you know how it looked and how powerful it was. Based on what we’re seeing, how powerful is it right now?”
The older blue hedgehog looked down at him and back at Dark Iblis, thinking for a moment before saying, “Uh… well, he’s missing some things that I’m guessing he should have even now, but I think he’s getting pretty close to perfect.”
O-T Tails looked worried at that, as did Spike and some of the ponies. “‘P-Perfect’? So… he’ll be unstoppable once he gets to that point?” the younger fox asked.
F-T Sonic replied, “No, but he will be at full power at that point, and definitely not easy to defeat.” He winced, “I’m pretty sure he’s the toughest thing I’ve ever fought…”
Suicune asked, ~So there is a way to fight him in his perfect form?~
Before F-T Sonic could answer, Shining said, “Look!” Looking back at Dark Iblis, everyone else saw that Zapdos, Moltres, and Articuno had formed up and were flying towards the monster with Lugia and Deoxys bringing up the rear.
Entei huffed, ~Well, if it can be fought by one so small, then they should have no trouble handling it.~ Neither F-T Sonic or Tails said anything, but they were both thinking the same thing: that anything fused with Dark Gaia wasn’t going to be easy to take down. Sonic crossed his arms while Tails looked on in worry; all anyone could hope now was that the Legendary Pokémon could handle it.
As the Pokémon flew closer, Dark Iblis held out its arms and summoned large rocks above its head. It swung its arms forward, sending the rocks flying forward. Zapdos, Articuno, and Moltres fired their Thunder, Ice Beam, and Flamethrower attacks respectively at the rocks to try to break them while Deoxys used Psycho Boost to shoot them. Both Articuno and Deoxys were able to interrupt the flight path of the rocks they hit, but Moltres and Zapdos were unable to do more than cause the rocks to crack a bit, forcing the birds to have to move around them while Lugia and Deoxys flew up into the sky. They were able to avoid being hit, but it did slow them down a little.
As they turned back to Dark Iblis, they saw that the beast was starting to walk towards them. Seeing no more attacks coming, the three Legendary Birds unleashed their earlier attacks at it, but aside from Zapdos’ Thunder traveling up its entire body, their attacks didn’t seem to do more than scratch it. It came to a stop after a moment and looked up at the three birds before it began to lash out with the tentacles on its back, each one shooting through the air at them. They began flying around trying to avoid them and get them to tangle each other up, but no matter how much they flew, the tentacles never became twisted. They kept coming, each bird getting hit by at least one as they became more aggressive.
Suddenly Lugia dropped down from out of the sky with Deoxys behind it, unleashing a Hydro Pump attack at Dark Iblis as it flew. The attack hit further up its body, hitting one of the openings in the rock. It wasn’t very effective, but it did cause the monster to stop attacking its fellow birds and look up at the white bird as it dove down, a near-invisible barrier forming around it as the fins on its back laid down flat. It collided into the monster headfirst, forcing it to take a couple of steps back. Lugia then spread its wings and flapped them to go back and then hover in the air as it swung its wings at Dark Iblis’ face, even balling the ends up into ‘fists’ a few times. The creature recoiled from the hits, but it was far from defeated.
Suddenly Dark Iblis reached out and grabbed Lugia, its lower arms seizing the bird's legs while the middle ones grabbed its wings and the top ones wrapped around its neck. The Diving Pokémon struggled to get free while the beast shook it and charged up a laser in its center eye. Deoxys flew up and began firing Psycho Boosts at the creature’s arms to try to get it to let go, but even the first one wasn’t powerful enough to do much to it. In a moment of annoyance, however, Dark Iblis let its middle left hand let go of Lugia to swat the DNA Pokémon away into a building. It gave the bird enough time to swing its wing around and punch the other arm. It managed to loosen the beast’s grip enough to get its other wing free and then it became difficult for Dark Iblis to keep it secured as it flapped its wings.
After several long moments of struggling, Lugia managed to break free and quickly turned and flew away to begin preparing a counterattack. Once it was far enough away, it looked back and saw that Dark Iblis was still charging its attack and began charging its own. When they were both ready, they each fired a beam, Dark Iblis firing a purple one while Lugia fired an orange one. The two attacks collided and, for several moments, held there. Then suddenly, with seemingly no effort on its part, Dark Iblis’ beam began to overpower Lugia’s Aeroblast, even as the white bird tried to put more power behind it. It changed nothing as the purple beam continued to steadily push the Aeroblast back. Lugia was forced to break off and try to get out of the way as the attack came closer, but was still scraped along its back as it flew to the side, the purple beam cutting through several standing buildings before it stopped.
Turning back to Dark Iblis, Lugia flew around a building before flying straight at it again. In response, the beast began to turn slowly before suddenly turning faster, its long tail extended as it did so. The side of the appendage struck the Diving Pokémon along the side of its body up to its face, sending it into the side of a building and causing said building to fall over. Dark Iblis looked over at where the bird had crashed for a moment before turning its attention to the other three birds as they let out angry cries. As they flew forward, Deoxys recovered from its crash and Zygarde dove into the lava, disappearing beneath the surface.
Articuno, Moltres, and Zapdos unleashed their strongest attacks as they got closer, but this time, instead of letting them hit, Dark Iblis held its hands up in the path of the attacks. The attacks hit and held against the palms before stopping as they were doing nothing to it. They were really close to it now and before they could try to retreat, it suddenly brought its arms forward and slashed at them all. The long cuts and pain caused them to stop and before they could recover, Dark Iblis swung its tail around again and sent them all flying, Articuno and Zapdos crashing on the Station Square side and Moltres landing in the lava past where the group was.
Suddenly Zygarde emerged from the lava not far from Dark Iblis and used Land’s Wrath, causing light green rays of light to emerge from the ground as it cracked and moved towards the monster. Unlike Groublis, however, the attack didn’t manage to shake Dark Iblis and several of its tentacles shot down towards the snake-like Pokémon, wrapping around it and lifting it up to eye level. Deoxys, despite still being stuck in its Normal Form, got out of the building and flew towards the two to try to help. One of Dark Iblis’ eyes caught sight of it, however, and it swung its tail around at the DNA Pokémon, forcing it to fly up and around to avoid it. It ended up right in front of the creature, just as it expected, and as it flew to try to help Zygarde, the six claws lashed out at it again. They cut right through the orange Pokémon, leaving sizable holes in its body that barely left it holding together. It also caused it to float up and, when it was just above its eyes, one of its tentacles shot forward, crashing into it and sending it backwards. It didn’t take long for Deoxys’ body to be broken apart completely, leaving only its purple core flying through the air while Dark Iblis finished absorbing a dangerous amount of Zygarde’s strength before its tentacles threw it towards the Station Square side.
Rainbow saw where Deoxys had been when it disappeared and spread her wings when she saw a glint from its core shine in the darkness. She saw it falling as she flew and dove down to catch it before it hit the lava. She managed to grab it between her hooves and pull up before either it or she touched the molten rock, but she didn’t get out of being burned completely. Deoxys’ core still had some of Dark Gaia’s energy surrounding it and it felt like it was cutting into her skin. She began tossing the core between her hooves like a hot potato, gasping as she flew back up to the others, eventually reaching them. She dropped the core on the roof and began trying to snuff out the burning in her hooves, stomping them against the concrete.
While she was doing this, Suicune, Entei, and Raikou all looked around, taking in just how bad the situation had become. Lugia, while no longer Dark Iblis’ target for the time being, was still out of commission as it continued to lay on the building, Deoxys was going to need just as much, if not more, time to recover as it was, Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno were nowhere to be seen, and Zygarde seemed to be down as well. Yveltal was trying to get back up, but after the earlier attack plus trying to make Iblis a part of itself, it was struggling to do anything beyond pull itself free from the building it had crashed into. Rayquaza, while still in her Mega form, had her arms wrapped around Groudon and Kyogre worriedly while she was roaring up at Xerneas to help them as it stood over Zygarde, the Life Pokémon seemingly at a loss as to who to help first.
While Xerneas bent down next to Zygarde, Entei growled, ~Is history repeating itself once more? Even with so many of us together, are we really not suited to combat a threat to our world once again?~
Suicune glanced at him, ~What is it about the Expedition Society that you feel the need to bring it up when you get angry at something, Entei? You don’t do that with any of the other teams or organizations we’re allied with.~
Raikou nodded, ~Seems hardly the time to bringing it up.~ He looked towards F-T Sonic and Tails, ~Especially when it seems like these two have fought and defeated this… entity before.~
Pinkie piped up, “Yeah!” She suddenly wrapped her forelegs around O-T Sonic and whispered loudly, “Hey, spoiler alert!” She then went in front of F-T Sonic and said, “You fought and beat that Dark Gaia beastie before! You can just do it again, right?”
The older blue hedgehog scratched his head as he replied, “Yeah… It doesn’t feel right doing it without Chip here, but I don’t think that can be helped.” He reached both hands back into his quills and brought them back out a moment later with the red and cyan Chaos Emeralds in his right hand and the white and blue Chaos Emeralds in his left hand. He looked at F-T Tails and the fox nodded, reaching back into his tails to retrieve the other emeralds.
Before his hand could reach into the fur, a loud call and a bright light caught everyone’s attention. Looking towards the Station Square, they all saw Xerneas, now standing tall next to Zygarde, which was raising itself up despite none of its injuries appearing to be healed, and was facing away from the group with its antlers glowing all the colors of the rainbow. “Wh-What is that Pokémon’s name again?” Fluttershy asked.
“Xerneas, the Life Pokémon. He must’ve sensed something,” Suicune answered.
“Why are his… antlers glowing?” O-T Tails asked.
Raikou communicated, ~They glow like that when Xerneas is sharing the gift of eternal life with another, but why now? And who is he sharing it with?~ They didn’t have to wait long to find out; the glow from Xerneas’ antlers diminished after about a minute and it continued to stand tall as it looked at the destroyed buildings. Not long after, a large, three-fingered hand that was made entirely of water rose up in the distance and rested on top of one of the buildings, followed moments later by a second that rested on a separate building. Even Dark Iblis turned to look as the owner of the hands raised itself up, standing above the destroyed city.
It was Chaos, but he was no longer Perfect Chaos. Now he was a large bipedal water creature with green eyes that had no irises or pupils; they were completely green. Spike and the Main Six remembered that this was how he looked when he had been called on during the changeling attack on Ponyville, his Zero form as Sonic and the others had told them, except for the obvious difference in height. ~Is that… Chaos?~ Suicune asked.
~That thing is still around?! Why would Xerneas share everlasting life with it?!~ Raikou exclaimed.
F-T Tails spoke up, “Calm down, Raikou. Chaos is already immortal; Xerneas must’ve helped him recover his strength. Plus he’s different now…” Chaos’ eyes scanned both cities until they came to rest on the two Sonics. At this, his fingers gripped the top of the buildings tightly as a rainbow light began to shine from within his watery chest, though the colors soon separated, forming seven auras that swirled around as they stayed there.
F-T Sonic blinked as he realized what the auras were: the same things that gave Chaos more power. He looked at O-T Sonic and he knew that he had made a similar connection as they looked at each other and nodded. F-T Sonic turned to Lucario and held out the Chaos Emeralds in his hands to the Aura Pokémon while saying, “Here, keep these safe!” While Lucario looked down at the gemstones, O-T Sonic snatched up Deoxys’ core, the essence of Dark Gaia having dissipated from it. The two Sonics looked at each other again before they suddenly ran towards the edge of the rooftop, leaping towards an opening in one of the damaged buildings.
“Wait, Sonic- Sonics!” Twilight and O-T Tails called before they jumped off the roof.
~What are you doing?! Get back here, you fools!~ Raikou yelled. Rainbow, who was near the edge of the roof, spread her wings to fly after them, but Greninja suddenly leapt in front of her and pushed her back towards the others moments before something crashed through the roof where she had been standing. It was like a projectile, but that was a hard label to stick to it. It was purple and surrounded by a similarly colored aura, and it had had a tail stretching out behind it that had been moving around. Whatever it was, it had been alive, and they knew where it had come from even before they looked in Dark Iblis’ direction. It was not the only that the beast had sent out, but they were all being aimed at the two Sonics.
Both Sonics looked up as the sound of breaking glass and shattering concrete filled the air above them, part of the floor above them breaking apart and raining down behind them. F-T Sonic remembered how Dark Gaia tried to stop him from helping Chip when it had the Gaia Colossus restrained and realized it was trying to do the same thing now. It was too far away to use its tentacles to block their path, but it could still attack them from a distance. As they headed for another opening and the hanging section of road beyond it, he looked over at O-T Sonic and nodded at him, the younger hedgehog looking back at him in confusion.
As they jumped out through the opening, F-T Sonic adjusted his direction slightly and shot off in a Boost for a nearby rooftop away from the road. O-T Sonic stared in amazement as he watched his future self shoot through the air and take off running upon landing, soon reaching the edge of the rooftop and go shooting off again as the younger hedgehog landed on the section of road. He stared for a moment longer before he took off running with his hands at his sides again, clutching Deoxys’ core tightly in his right hand. He realized that F-T Sonic was trying to draw Dark Iblis’ attention while, presumably, still heading for Chaos. Taking this into account, O-T Sonic kept going straight for the Station Square side while trying to stay out of sight. He did manage to catch a few of F-T Sonic’s Boosts and aerial acrobatics as he kept moving, adding the former to his list of things to learn when things settled down.
While Dark Iblis did still try to attack O-T Sonic, it did focus more on F-T Sonic, giving the former a chance to find a way to get through the destroyed city. They met up near the time-space split and made it over to the Station Square side. As F-T Sonic led his younger self through the flooded city, they both noticed numerous light green streaks of light go shooting through the sky overhead, all of them seemingly heading for the same spot, but they only glanced up at them briefly before turning their attention ahead once more. They had to get to Chaos.
Before long, they got on top of a rooftop that still had water standing on it, both shaking off the wet feeling as they looked to see how far they had left to cover. It seemed like they were still quite a ways from being able to touch Chaos, but they had to look up to see his head as he towered over them. He nodded after a moment; they were close enough. He pulled his head up and away, thrusting his chest forward as the seven auras within began to move. They soon separated from him and kept going forward while he shrunk back to normal size, disappearing from the two Sonics’ sight. They glanced at each other and nodded before they broke out into one last run.
They jumped onto and ran across several rooftops as the seven swirling auras dropped down, getting closer to them. As they reached the edge of the last rooftop, they made one last leap up at them and curled their bodies inward, a familiar rush of power filling them as gold/yellow fur began to replace their natural blue fur. They brought their arms and legs out after a second, both Sonics stopping and hanging in midair as they finished becoming Super Sonic. That wasn’t all, though; some of the Chaos energy, both free and from the two Sonics, had surrounded Deoxys’ core as well, causing it to lift up out of O-T Sonic’s hand as they hung in the air. It floated above them before stopping, an outline of Deoxys’ form appearing around it before it began to quickly solidify. In no time, Deoxys had reformed, though it now had a gold/yellow aura billowing around it. Its appearance began to change slightly as it changed to its Speed Form, finding its ability to shift forms no longer hindered.
As the three turned back to Dark Iblis, they saw Xerneas looking at Zygarde as it raised itself up, its form different now as well. Before it had looked like a giant snake; now it had two legs it stood up on and two arms, giving it a more humanoid appearance. Two wings extended from its shoulders, the right wing having a blue pattern on it while the left had a red pattern. It seemed to be a little shorter than it was before and it was clearly still carrying the damage that had been inflicted on it, but it stood up regardless, one of its hexagonal eyes looking at Deoxys and the two Sonics, letting them know it would have their back.
Xerneas turned away from the Order Pokémon and began communicating with Rayquaza. Their conversation didn’t last long and the Mega Evolved Legendary soon took her claws off of Kyogre and Groudon and rose up, ready to lend her strength to the fight as well while Xerneas took care of the other Legendaries. It began making its way to where Yveltal crashed while the two Sonics and Deoxys began making their way back towards the other city and Dark Iblis. Rayquaza and Zygarde rose up behind them and followed as they flew on ahead. Back on the rooftop, everyone in the group, especially those not accustomed to seeing the full power of the Chaos Emeralds, could only look on in shock and amazement.
Dark Iblis looked at the ones flying towards it for a moment before it held out its arms and let out a roar, boulders rising out of the lava in front of it along their flight path while it summoned more of its projectiles to launch at them. Both Super Sonics and Deoxys simply flew around the boulders and dodged the projectiles when they were unleashed, even threading the needle when a bunch of them tried to close in on them while Rayquaza flew high and Zygarde flew low to avoid the brunt of Dark Iblis’ anti-air defenses. Once they were past the boulders and the projectiles, they didn’t have much farther to go to reach the creature.
Before they could, Dark Iblis held up its arms and created a translucent pink dome that surrounded it on all sides, blocking them out. Both Sonics and Deoxys stopped before they could crash into it, Rayquaza and Zygarde coming to a stop as well as they looked up at it and F-T Sonic grunted, “Argh… I was hoping not being perfect meant it wouldn’t be able to do this.” Zygarde floated back slightly after a moment and its entire body began to glow light green, causing the others to turn around. Suddenly it shot forward, pushing up against them while using its arms to keep Rayquaza’s body compressed somewhat, all of them sinking into its glowing body slightly as it crashed into the shield. It stopped for a second before it began to slowly push its way through, its glowing body causing the others to go through with it. After a couple of seconds, Zygarde managed to get its entire body through the shield and released the others from its makeup of Cores and Cells, its glow fading as they went tumbling through the air for a moment before righting themselves. “Wow! What a rush!” F-T Sonic exclaimed holding his right hand on the side of his head, O-T Sonic looking similarly amazed while Deoxys and Rayquaza’s expressions were unreadable.
They all turned to Dark Iblis, the creature seeming momentarily stunned that they managed to get through its shield. It soon recovered, though, and raised its head as it let out a loud roar. Zygarde was the first to move forward, ducking underneath everyone and coming up in Dark Iblis’ face with an uppercut that connected underneath its center eye. The hit made it reel, but it soon recovered. Zygarde began throwing blows at its face, specifically aiming for its forehead, while moving out of the way of its claws, but the hits didn’t seem to be doing much to it. It didn’t take long for Dark Iblis to get annoyed, at which point it brought its tentacles forward and quickly wrapped them around Zygarde’s body, once again beginning to drain its energy.
While Rayquaza immediately flew up and around to its back to try to do something about the tentacles, which caused several of them to release Zygarde and go after her, Deoxys and both Sonics remained hovering where they were as they tried to figure out a way to damage the beast. They noticed that, while all of the eyes on both sides of it opened and closed like normal, the center eye had been closed since Zygarde landed its first punch. This caused F-T Sonic to think back to his and Chip’s fight against Perfect Dark Gaia. As he’d mentioned before, the beast that slept within the planet’s core for millennia had been his hardest challenge, being one of the few things that had been able to legitimately hurt him in his Super form. As a result, he found that some of the details of that fight were not as clear as they could be, but he did clearly remember two things: Dark Gaia did not like things hitting it in any of its eyes, and the hit to the center eye had been the finishing blow.
He turned to O-T Sonic and Deoxys and pointed at Dark Iblis while saying, “Those eyes are the weakest part of its Dark Gaia half! We need to take them out!” The two looked over at the eyes and noticed how exposed they were compared to any other part of its body. They nodded and they all got into position before shooting towards the beast, both Sonics each Boosting at an eye on its right side while Deoxys switched to its Attack Form and used ExtremeSpeed to rush at an eye on the left. They all bounced back after hitting their targets, but the hit eyes quickly squeezed shut and Dark Iblis let out a roar of pain in response.
It also caused three of the tentacles on its back to stop moving, two falling away from Zygarde while one following Rayquaza went limp. Seeing this, both Sonics and Deoxys moved to attack another eye even as Dark Iblis tried to swipe at them with its claws. After dodging the quick swipes from the large hands, Deoxys and F-T Sonic shot at the last two eyes on the left side while O-T Sonic took the last eye on the right side. Dark Iblis tried to stop them by summoning more floating boulders in their flight paths, but even Deoxys had little trouble dodging the rocks while shooting forward in ExtremeSpeed. With all but the center eye squeezed shut in pain, there was only one tentacle still active and it was wrapped around Zygarde, the Order Pokémon having little trouble getting free from it. Afterwards, Rayquaza came to a stop over Dark Iblis’ back and swept her Hyper Beam horizontally across its back, the orange beam managing to separate the seven tentacles from their origins.
Left with no other way to see, Dark Iblis opened its center eye and looked at Zygarde, the Order Pokémon still in front of it. Almost immediately, it reached out with all eight arms and seized it, energy beginning to gather in front of its eye as it readied a strong attack. Seeing Zygarde’s struggling, Deoxys, Rayquaza, and the two Sonics sprung into action. Rayquaza flew down at Dark Iblis’ original arms and used Dragon Tail on them, the attack cutting through the rock after a few strong swings and leaving both arms amputated. The Sonics and Deoxys, meanwhile, went after the six arms underneath, each hitting two arms with their charges and forcing it to let Zygarde go. It floated back as it was released and dropped down to get out of the way of the beam that Dark Iblis fired, but both Sonics’ eyes widened as they saw where it was going, Deoxys soon noticing as well.
Twilight and the others let out a gasp as they stared with wide eyes. With the size and trajectory of the beam, they were going to be caught on the side of it if not in the very center of it, and with as fast as it was moving, there was no time to get out of the way! Moments before it reached them, a bright flash appeared in front of the group and both Sonics and Deoxys appeared in front of them. Immediately, Deoxys shifted to its Defense Form and crossed its arms in front of itself, creating a force field/barrier that spread out in front of everyone while the Sonics held their hands up to it and braced themselves. The beam struck the field and the three began straining to hold it back while everyone else shielded their eyes from the light. Even with its Psychic powers strengthened by the power of the Chaos Emeralds, Deoxys had to really focus in order to maintain a field to protect not only itself, but everyone else as well. The Sonics could feel the beam’s push from behind the field, both trying to plant their feet as securely as they could in order to keep the beam at bay.
As they continued to hold it back, a ball of flames suddenly shot across the sky overhead, shining brighter than any regular flame as it spun around. It went over Dark Iblis’ beam and hit the creature’s center eye, right at the origin of the beam. The flames were imbued with the power of life, making the resulting explosion especially painful for the beast and causing it to rear back with a screech of pain, cutting off its beam in the process. The energy stopped coming after several moments and Deoxys dropped its protective field, the DNA Pokémon and both Sonics feeling drained after having to hold back the dark energy for so long. Everyone looked at them and became worried when they saw them all slumping forward slightly.
Suddenly, multiple multicolored waves that had a slight pinkish tint to them began to sweep through all of them. Much to the confusion of everyone save most of the Pokémon, the waves caused them all to relax and feel stronger, Deoxys and the Sonics standing up straight after a few moments. Suicune, Entei, Raikou, Lucario, and Pikachu looked up to their left and saw Xerneas standing on top of a nearby building, the waves coming off of its body. ~Heal Pulse,~ Suicune communicated to the others, causing everyone else to notice Xerneas too. The waves stopped a couple of seconds later and the Life Pokémon leapt from the building, making its way towards Kyogre and Groudon to help them as well.
Suddenly, a loud call was heard, Raikou, Suicune, and Entei standing at attention and turning to look up and back as did everyone else. As they watched, a large bird flew in and landed on one of the less damaged buildings, its talons gripping the edge of the roof as its red eyes looked straight at Dark Iblis. Its backside up to its head was red with a green striped around its neck, its feathers were red with green feathers at the tips of its wings, it had a white underside, a yellow crest of feathers atop its head and tail-feathers, and it had black rings around its eyes. It opened its yellow beak and spread its wings wide, its body seeming to glow gold as it let out another loud call, shafts of sunlight starting to break through the clouds overhead in response. ~Mother Ho-Oh…~ Suicune, Raikou, and Entei murmured.
Everyone looked back at Dark Iblis when it let out a roar and saw it receive a Dragon Claw from Rayquaza and a Dragon Pulse from Zygarde to the eye in response. The two Sonics looked at Deoxys and the three nodded at each other before they flew off to rejoin the battle, feeling much better after getting hit with Xerneas’ Heal Pulse. While they were flying, Xerneas was finishing using Heal Pulse on Groudon and Kyogre and Zapdos, Articuno, Moltres, and Yveltal were flying in Dark Iblis’ direction as well to back them up.
As they got closer, Zygarde’s body turned black and seemingly disappeared with a scattering of green hexagons which came together and moved towards Dark Iblis before they broke away and rushed over it like waves. Some of the hexagons surrounded and struck the beast’s body before they disappeared and Zygarde reappeared. Dark Iblis found itself unable to move much afterwards, leaving it open to attack. While Groudon began to move towards the fight, Kyogre leapt out of the water on the Station Square side and Articuno flew around a building to its left, both firing Ice Beam at the leg closest to them when they had a clear shot, covering both in a layer of ice. Once he was close enough, Groudon held his arms out and let out a roar as his body began to glow red. Precipice Blades shot out of the lava around Dark Iblis, their tips breaking through the ice covering both legs and further restraining it.
As they joined the gathering of Legendary Pokémon, both Sonics noticed Xerneas moving across the rooftops to where Lugia was, the Diving Pokémon the only one that hadn’t been attended to yet. Dark Iblis also noticed and, despite all the eyes that were watching it, turned its upper body and raised all of its arms up. As everyone watched, it began to create a large round rock that glowed with purple energy. The Pokémon around it began launching attacks at it to try to stop it, but none of them were aiming directly at its eye and with all the attacks being launched, the Sonics, Deoxys, Rayquaza, and Zygarde couldn’t get close or get through to the Legendaries. As a result, Dark Iblis was able to finish making the boulder despite the attempts to interrupt it.
Before it could throw it, F-T Sonic looked at O-T Sonic as he pointed over at the two Pokémon, his younger self nodding in understanding before they both shot through the air, managing to get in front of Lugia and Xerneas before Dark Iblis threw the boulder. They flew up and intercepted it mid-flight, both pushing up against it with their hands in an attempt to stop it before it reached the two Pokémon who had just noticed what was happening. They continued to push as hard as they could even as the energy inside the boulder leaked out onto them, slowly sapping away at their strength. They managed to stop it after a few moments and threw it straight up into the air. As it came back down, F-T Sonic and O-T Sonic brought a leg back as the former called, “Heads up!” Once it was back in front of them again, they both kicked it as hard as they could and sent it flying back at Dark Iblis. The Legendary Pokémon close to the beast quickly got as far away as they could at this, the boulder breaking apart when it hit Dark Iblis and causing it to screech in pain as it held its head.
Seeing an opportunity to finish this, Rayquaza extended her body to its full length and took off flying into the air, a green outline already starting to surround her. After taking a glance back to see Lugia giving Xerneas a lift, both Sonics flew back towards Dark Iblis, the Legendary Pokémon starting to attack the beast again as it tried to recover from the hit. Both Sonics got slightly above the top of Dark Iblis, hovering in the air not far from it. Moments later, a glint came from the sky above as Rayquaza came shooting back to finish her Dragon Ascent, the green aura surrounding her fully now. Both Sonics shot down at Dark Iblis as Rayquaza came down behind them, the creature making one last desperate attempt to stop the three as it saw them diving towards it.
Its six arms did nothing to stop them as they shot right into its center eye, all three emerging from the back of its head a moment later and flying up once they were out. Turning to look back down, they saw that Dark Iblis had gone completely still as it fell backwards, landing in and starting to sink into the lava. As it sank, the other Legendary Pokémon all unleashed one last round of attacks on it to make sure it wouldn’t get back up, ending with one last Origin Pulse from Kyogre that cooled the lava around where it had been into rock.
A long moment of tense calmness passed through entire area, both Sonics, the group, and all of the Legendary Pokémon looking at the hardened lava where Dark Iblis had been, everyone at this point expecting it to break it to pieces and come out, ready to fight again. They continued to look at it, watching for any sign of the slightest disturbance… But there was no movement, no sudden sound ringing out, no sense of wrongness that any of the Legendary Pokémon were able to feel. It was finally over.
The Legendary Pokémon gathered around the beast’s ‘grave’ each let out a triumphant shout as the realization settled in and the dark clouds overhead broke, revealing the sun to both cities. Afterwards, everyone in the air moved to land, Moltres and Yveltal landing on buildings in the destroyed city while Zapdos and Articuno landed on top of buildings on the Station Square side, Lugia flying over to the water-ravaged city as well and lowering itself into the water in an open space after letting Xerneas off. Zygarde, still in its Complete Form, stood in between the divide as Rayquaza flew over between Groudon and Kyogre, the two sharing a respectful gaze with each other. Their fight was done as well, their animosity and rivalry, at least for the time being, long forgotten.
Both Sonics quickly flew over to a nearby rooftop as Deoxys followed them, both managing to get above it before their Super forms faded and they both dropped down onto solid ground. They both turned to look up at Deoxys, the DNA Pokémon in its Normal Form and the aura that had been around it gone. It stared down at them for a moment before the tentacles coming from its right arm socket came together to form an arm and a hand that it extended towards them as it floated closer. Both blue hedgehogs realized what it was getting at and they each took the hand, shaking it.
They all turned when they heard a familiar voice calling “Hey!” and saw Rainbow Dash flying towards them, Suicune, Entei, and Raikou carrying the ones that couldn’t fly as the rest of the group came over. Rainbow landed in front of the two hedgehogs saying, “That was awesome! It was one thing to see Super Sonic in that memory or whatever it was, but seeing you in action, especially two of you, was way better!” After they all made it over to the rooftop and were off the Legendary Beasts, the others expressed their amazement as well, especially Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Shining, and Cadance since they hadn’t been present for the earlier glimpse at Super Sonic.
Raikou, Entei, and Suicune also seemed to be impressed by what they had seen, with Entei somewhat reluctantly admitting, ~I’m not entirely sure about everything we witnessed, but it would appear I was belittling you a bit much. I underestimated you.~
F-T Sonic shrugged, “Hey, no problem.” He looked over at O-T Sonic, “It’s nothing we’re not used to, right?” The younger blue hedgehog smiled as he nodded in reply and the two shared a fist bump.
Everyone looked over to the side when they saw a light green light shining and saw it was coming from Zygarde, light green streaks of light coming off of its body as the Cells and Cores it had called to it separated from its body, causing it to return to its original snake-like form. It held its head up as it wrapped part of its tail around the side of the building it was on in the destroyed city and the Cells and Cores spread out on the roofs of Station Square, three of the Cores joining with some of the Cells to form other Zygardes that stood on four legs and looked like dogs while two Cores seemingly disappeared. As they looked on, a bright glow came from Rayquaza as she changed back from her Mega Evolved form.
Suddenly, the green dragon turned away from Groudon and Kyogre and flew towards the group, her eyes specifically on both Sonics. As she got closer, she began moving her body left and right like she was a snake and flew around the two hedgehogs, wrapping around them and holding them up afterwards as she hovered in the air. F-T Sonic was closer to her head with O-T Sonic below him, both of them looking up at her face with alarmed expressions. From the side, Suicune noticed how she was holding and looking at them as well as the smile on her lips and glared, “Really? Now of all times, Rayquaza? And him? I will not let you do that.”
While nearly everyone else was trying to figure out what Rayquaza was doing, Suicune moved forward and leapt up near the green dragon, bringing her streamer-like tails up and slapping the ends against part of her body like a pair of whips. Rayquaza let out a grunt and loosened her grip, causing both Sonics to fall. Suicune dropped down and got underneath the two, catching them. She glanced back at them for a moment before glaring up at Rayquaza, ~Act your age, Rayquaza.~ The Sky High Pokémon responded with angry growls, almost barking at Suicune who simply replied, ~Don’t give me that! And you are most fortunate they cannot understand what you’re saying. You’re supposed to be above such things, yet you’re indulging in such childishness not only in front of mostly ground-dwellers, but also in the presence of your fellow Legendaries, including Dialga and Palkia.~
As she finished speaking, an odd vortex opened and a ball of bright appeared in the sky above the two cities, the latter catching everyone’s attention. A large Pokémon emerged from the vortex and landed in the lava below on all four legs while the ball of light receded to reveal an equally large Pokémon that flew over to the Station Square side before landing on two legs. The Pokémon standing in the lava was mostly dark blue with gray metallic portions and light blue stripes on various parts of its body. It had what looked like a fin that spread out like a fan on its back, a crest on its head with two horns around it, and a diamond in the center of its chest. The other Pokémon was light purple with stripes and markings that were a darker shade of purple and a gray waist and underarms. It had a pointed white crest on top of its head, round plates on its shoulders that had a pearl in their center, and formations like gauntlets on the sides of its arms. Both Pokémon had red eyes and black scleras.
Riolu pointed as he said, “That’s Dialga! But who’s the other one?”
Lucario glanced down at him with a slightly annoyed expression, “That’s Palkia, just like Suicune said.” Riolu looked at him blankly while Pikachu just shook his head.
They all looked back at Dialga and Palkia as they started roaring at each other, both staying where they were as they kept it up. It soon became clear to the group that they were communicating with each other. Twilight looked at Suicune and asked, “What are they saying?”
Suicune turned around, looking at the lavender unicorn and replying as both Sonics slid off of her back, ~They’re discussing what they’re going to do. Now that time and space are, for lack of a better word, stable again, they can start repairing the damage that has been done.~ She looked over at the two, silently listening for a moment. She then said, ~They’re saying that everyone here has to leave while they do their work. That includes us as well.~
Rarity groaned, “Yes, let’s please get out of here! I really need to fix my hair!”
Riolu spoke, “Aw, but we were just all starting to be buddies! Can’t we hang out together for a little longer?”
Suicune, Entei, and Raikou looked down at him for a moment before looking up at each other. After a few seconds, Suicune spoke, ~Well… perhaps for a bit longer, provided we go somewhere that was not caught up in all of this and is somewhat secluded.~
F-T Tails held a hand to his chin, thinking for a moment before saying, “I might know a place we could go that would fit those criteria.” He looked at Suicune and saw no indication that the Aurora Pokémon had been joking on her face.
The fox felt a tugging on his arm and looked down to see that it was O-T Tails. “Um, I left the Tornado parked on the side of that building. Can we go get it before we leave?” the younger fox asked.
Lucario shrugged, “I don’t see why not. We shouldn’t be leaving anything that belongs to us in the place where Dialga and Palkia will be working, or in the wrong world for that matter. Oh, right…” The Aura Pokémon reached his paws into the Treasure Bag and pulled out the four Chaos Emeralds F-T Sonic had given him, handing them back to the blue hedgehog. As everyone climbed onto the Legendary Beasts and they started moving to the building where the Tornado was, Rayquaza cast a long look at both Sonics before turning away, entering the vortex that Dialga and Palkia opened up next to her to return her home just like the other Legendary Pokémon.
Unbeknownst to the Sonics, the Tails, Link, Yoshi, the Equestrians, or any of the Pokémon involved, two figures had been watching nearly the entire roller coaster of a crisis, one clearly taller than the other. As they watched the situation beginning to calm down, the shorter figure, with its arms crossed, said in an irritated tone, “Never again.”
The taller figure whined, “Aw, come on! That was amazing to watch! And it wouldn’t take much to…”
He was cut off by the shorter figure, “No! That is the last time I leave you to your own shenanigans! You’ve managed to push my patience to the limit!”
The taller figure snorted, “Clearly the fun is not infinite with you. What are you so mad about anyway? I thought you didn’t want them to get here too quickly.”
The shorter figure pointed up at the taller figure, “I’ll tell you why I’m so angry! You little ‘test’ of the limits of the Time Eater’s powers came close to ruining EVERYTHING! All of the history we’re trying to change, every obstacle we’ve thrown in their path, everything they’ve gone through… that titanic clash very nearly swallowed it all up like a black hole! You’re very lucky that Sonic and his past self were able to put a stop to it because it would be all your fault if everything collapsed in on itself!”
The taller figure waved a lion paw, “Oh please, don’t be so dramatic.”
The shorter figure started ranting again, “Don’t you talk to me about being dramatic, you overgrown chimera! You’ve been pushing and prodding me all day, and now you’ve gone too far! I already told you that the hedgehog is mine and mine alone to defeat, and I am not going to have this genius plan of mine undermined by your incompetence!”
The taller figure leaned down and got in the shorter figure’s face. “Excuse me? Look who’s talking!” he said.
The shorter figure shot back, “Do I need to remind you that I don’t need your help to get you back to the way I found you?” The taller figure did not have a ready reply for that, so the shorter figure went on, “Didn’t think so! I’m well aware that you’ve been sneaking around when you think I haven’t been paying attention, and I’m not sure what happened to Sonic and those ponies before they ran into Eggman Nega, but I’m sure you do, so you’d better watch yourself!”
The taller figure stood up straight and glared down at the shorter figure, “So what do we…”
The shorter figure cut him off again, “We’re not going to do anything else until they get here! Whatever’s open on the route to Canterlot is it! They’re getting here before you screw this up any more!” He turned on his heel and started walking away angrily with his fists held out at his sides as he muttered, “With any luck, it’ll take them long enough for me to pay Bowser a visit and tell him what’s been going on. It’s probably going to take a while since he might just start having a tantrum over the fact that I’ve been working with someone else and I’ll have to convince him that we really are EBFFs…”
The taller figure crossed his arms and huffed as he watched the shorter figure walk away. “He sounds like he’s on the verge of throwing a tantrum himself,” he muttered.