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Aug 7, 2022

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Lost Tracks of Time, Chapter 27

Summary: Giratina promises a way to send Ingo and Emmet home.

Author's Note:

Despite everything that has happened in this story, I want to give Ingo and Emmet a happy ending. I want them to be happy, even if they’re not quite the same as how they started. They just had to earn it. And they did.

Also! There’s a second Author’s Note at the end of the chapter that explains some things that a certain someone refused to elaborate on :)

Thank you @furiouskettle for designing the blorbos as Sneasels and generally providing the inspiration for this AU!

(Shippers DNI)

“This feels like a bad idea,” Sneasler said. She carried the twins in her basket as the team ventured north past Mt. Coronet. Chandelure’s fires melted the topmost snow layers and turned falling snowflakes into rain but failed to penetrate the permafrost.

“Could have said your doubts a while ago…” Eelektross said as he followed Sneasler and Chandelure.

“We are approaching Icebound Falls. There are no transfer lines or junctions to change our route,” Emmet said.

“I just don’t get how the Icebound Falls was the nearest place Giratina could meet us! I mean, they were in your water jar!” Sneasler said.

“I wonder that myself, but it would be better to ask Giratina ourselves instead of speculating without direction,” Ingo said.

Icebound Falls was a mystery dungeon marked by frozen waterfalls. An entire mountainside had numerous waterfalls stacked on top of each other, but the once-flowing water turned to solid ice long ago. It resulted in towers of ice only interrupted by an entrance into the mystery dungeon. The ice glittered in the morning sun.

“We’re here,” Sneasler said as she flipped the basket over her head, dumping out Ingo and Emmet. Since it had been a while since Sneasler last did that, the twins were not prepared and thus tumbled out like pieces of dizzy crumbled paper.

“So… where’s Giratina?” Eelektross asked.

“Right here.” Giratina in their origin forme approached from the depths of the ice. The Almighty pokemon swam around like how Eelektross once swam through the depths of Electrolyte Lake.

“Good day, Giratina!” Ingo said with a tip of his cap. “If I may ask, for what reason did we need to journey to this stop to discuss your plans?”

“Because that pot was small, and this was the largest window I could find that matched your time period.” Giratina swam forward and dove out the wall, the ice surface rippling in their wake. The eerie presence enhanced the cold weather as they towered over the team. Though they were in their origin forme in the ice, Giratina materialized in their forme with the quadrupedal anatomy. “And I wanted to see you again face-to-face.”

“You wanted to ”match our time period”?” Emmet asked.

“Right. Your realm exists in Time, but mine does not. I can see into your world through reflections, but the reflections I see are not all from this current time,” Giratina said. “For example, I saw a reflection that led to… the Hisui region, around 2 weeks after Ingo’s disappearance. And I saw another from Unova, around 1 month after Emmet’s disappearance. I personally can’t enter through the reflections into time periods that aren’t of the time Dialga calls “current”, but I can make it so you can. How does that sound to you?”

“That’s astounding!” Ingo said. “Is that how you will deliver Emmet and I to those time periods? And the Distortion World will act as a central station for us to transfer lines?”

“You got it,” Giratina said.

“Did it have to be one month after Emmet went away…?” Eelektross asked. He recalled the house that was once his home centuries ago. The solemn air was bad enough after Arceus took Ingo, but when Emmet disappeared, it was just their pokemon left. Eelektross and Chandelure may have been the oldest members of the twins’ parties, but they were in no condition to lead the other pokemon or provide comfort. It was too quiet. It was too loud. It was too empty. It was too crowded for any of them.

“It was the closest time I could find. You should be thankful I found a portal anywhere close!” Giratina said.

“So… time travel with extra steps?” Sneasler said. “Well, if that works for you two…”

A roar bellowed from the sky. The clouds stopped moving. The wind disappeared in an instant, stilling the cold. The evergreen trees stopped shaking. Snowflakes hung in the air, and when Emmet slapped a few to see what would happen, the snow collected on his hand. The other snowflakes were completely undisturbed.

“Verrrry strange,” Emmet said.

“What… happened?” Sneasler said.

“I think… time has stopped,” Ingo said.

Giratina made a low chuckle that turned into a howling laugh. “OH, NOW THEY SHOW UP?!”

Space warped above the team and across from Giratina. Two dragon pokemon, much larger than even Eelektross, appeared from the twisted space. One was metallic, and the other resembled the figure that decorated the entrance of the Pearl Guild’s main building.

“Oh boy,” Sneasler said. She knew Dialga and Palkia when she saw them.

“This is interesting,” Emmet said, clearly about to pay special attention for the inevitable drama.

“THERE YOU ARE!” Giratina screamed. “WHERE IN BOTH WORLDS HAVE YOU TWO BEEN?!”

“Cleaning up your mess!” Palkia said.

“It takes 3 months to clean up ‘my mess’?!” Giratina said.

“Giratina, your attacks in the timestream caused TWO time loops,” Dialga said. “I had to stabilize the time loops or else the timeline falls apart!”

“And I had to make sure your distortions stayed contained in mystery dungeons! To say nothing of the rips in the fabric of space I had to repair!” Palkia said.

Giratina paused. “…Alright, that’s somewhat important. But did that really take 3 MONTHS?! Especially for you, O Master of Time!”

Dialga turned their gaze away from Giratina. “We… heard that Arceus sent heroes to help you. We were not needed to help you.”

“And we were afraid of getting Red Chained again,” Palkia said. Dialga glared at their counterpart

“…Are you serious?” Giratina’s voice echoed less, taking on a tone that chilled the area. “I SAVED YOU BOTH FROM CYRUS AND HIS RED CHAINS! AND YOU SHITS DON’T RETURN THE FAVOR?!”

And thus began the shouting match of the Creation Trio. Time was already frozen, but the snow fell again only to get stopped as soon as it restarted. Or the wind would kick up and stop repeatedly. The landscape would shift when Palkia took over the conversation. The snow ebbed and waved like an ocean. When Giratina wrestled power from them, all the reflections around the pokemon – in the frozen waterfalls, in icicles hanging off trees, and even the lens of Eelektross’ insomniscope – turned Distortion World blue and violet.

“The legendaries are rather screwed up, huh…?” Eelektross said.

“Somehow, I’m not surprised,” Sneasler said. Her claim was dismissive, but as she watched Giratina verbally tear into their siblings, Sneasler found hot anger climbing her up as well. Giratina was in grave danger, but no one with great power helped them. Arceus decided to send Ingo and Emmet to their time instead of dealing with it themself, and that was enough for Dialga and Palkia to ignore the problem with their sibling? The Lake Trio had an excuse, but Sneasler started to think it flimsy. How many pokemon could have stopped Team Wish? Why did it have to be her and the twins?

Why did it have to be them? Sure, she encouraged Ingo and Emmet to take on Volo when they thought it was their duty, but it was moreso about getting the twins out of their depressive funk than it was encouraging them to embrace their destiny or some crap. They took on the challenge and won, but it sucked that they had to bear the fate of a legendary pokemon on their shoulders. Why did Arceus have to steal one of the twins away for Hisui instead of both? Why did they have to remember their trauma from time travel and their horrific transformations? Why did these Almighty pokemon not give a damn about other pokemon and only pretended to be compassionate? Why did Sneasler have to be the one connected to these bastards by her divine heritage?

Sneasler took a couple steps forward toward the Almighty pokemon. “HEY!”

Dialga and Palkia turned to stare at Sneasler.

“Sneasler? What is your plan?” Ingo asked.

“I want to see where this route goes,” Emmet said.

“For being such mighty pokemon, you are giant cowards!” Sneasler felt a chill down her spine as the two pokemon stared into her soul, but she kept going. “What, you were scared of getting Chained? Yeah, so was I! And did that stop me or these guys from doing the stuff we needed to do? HELL NO! And guess who’s the ones that saved your sibling and the world?” Sneasler grabbed Ingo and Emmet by the scruff of their necks and held them up to the two Almighty pokemon. “THESE GUYS! These weird little Sneasels did it!”

“I am Emmet.” Emmet waved at the two legendary pokemon.

“G-Good day, Dialga and Palkia…” Ingo said as he tipped his cap. “My name is Ingo.”

“Greetings.” Palkia gave them a single wave. “As we said, Lady Sneasler, those two were sent by Arceus to handle the threat. What is the issue?”

“That even if it was their job to do the saving, you still coulda helped and made the job easier. If it wasn’t for the guildmasters and Team Galaxy showing up at the last second, WE WOULD HAVE LOST! Giratina would have died from absorbing all 18 Plates!” Sneasler said.

“…Alright then, Noble of the Cliffs. What do you want us to do?” Dialga asked with a sharpness in their voice.

“I don’t know! …Apologize! Say sorry to these guys and to Giratina!” Sneasler said. She gently lowered Ingo and Emmet back to the ground.

“…Sorry,” Palkia said.

“Palkia!” Dialga shouted at their counterpart.

“What?! Lady Sneasler is right!” Palkia glared at Dialga. “Or do you want to pretend that these pokemon are better than you?”

“…Fine. I am sorry as well,” Dialga said.

Giratina rolled their eyes. “Oh, sure. That was very convincing. Prove it. Help me help these two, because THEY’RE the ones that actually saved my life!” Giratina formed two sets of shadow hands to point at Ingo and Emmet.

“Ah, right. Your “plan” to circumvent my domain by using yours… it has flaws,” Dialga said. “Palkia and I can fix them.”

“Before we do that, I need to ask something: what did you do to those two?” Palkia pointed to both Ingo and Emmet. “Because two rifts formed in the space-time fabric seven days ago, and we traced back the cause to those two manifesting.”

“What.” Sneasler, who just spent a minute defending the Almighty pokemon, glared at Giratina. Chandelure joined her in glaring but coupled it with burning their flames brighter. Eelektross was too concerned about Emmet to be angry. Ingo’s heartbeat faster as he recalled Giratina needing to “reconstruct” him and Emmet. Emmet was consumed by morbid curiosity.

Giratina felt the Pressure surrounding them. “…I suppose I’ll discuss this now… Ingo and Emmet destroyed their original bodies to save me, so I tried my hand at remaking them. But I am not of the same realm as the rest of you. My abilities are not connected to your world. I remember back when I first came to this world after my banishment, a space-time rift formed from my presence. The same thing probably happened with them.” Giratina looked at Ingo and Emmet. “Sorry. I did the best I could, but you’re not humans or Sneasels anymore.”

“…May we ask you clear the station for a moment of privacy?” Ingo asked. His voice had little inflection, like he was manually controlling his tone.

“Sure,” Giratina said. In a silent agreement, Palkia slashed at the air. A Spacial Rend formed, teleporting the Creation Trio to some unknown location.

“…I did think it was strange that Emmet and Ingo were unharmed after they freed Giratina…” Eelektross said.

“Same, but… what the hell?” Sneasler asked. “Did you two know about this?”

“We… did not know that we weren’t Sneasels anymore,” Ingo said. “I feel no difference between this body and my normal Sneasel self.”

Sneasler noticed Ingo’s pause to figure out phrasing. “…Did you know that you two basically died?”

“…Yes,” Ingo said. He saw Emmet give him a surprised and almost scared look. “While I try to keep my conduct up to reassure passengers, I do not think it will be good to continue hiding it from our friends.”

Sneasler clasped her hands together and held them in front of her mouth. “You two are going to steer me into an early grave. You literally…!” She stammered as she tried to figure out what to say, but she gave up and groaned into her hands.

Seeking some sort of comfort, Chandelure floated to Ingo and pleaded at him.

Ingo began petting Chandelure. “Please do not worry, my Chandelure. It’s just like when you met us again after we turned into Sneasels. Our engines are the same, even if the rest of the locomotive isn’t.”

“…If we are not human or Sneasels, what are we?” Emmet asked. Perhaps it was his imagination, but Emmet felt the crack remnants in the gem on his chest. He just got past the disgusting feeling of his body not being his, but now the uncertain feeling was replaced by fact.

Ingo hummed. “Let me ask you this: who are you?”

Emmet gave Ingo a perplexed expression. “I am Emmet.”

“Precisely! And I am Ingo. We are Subway Masters. We are Pokemon Rescuers. I am a Warden. You are a Pokemon Trainer. Does that make sense?”

Emmet hummed as he thought over Ingo’s words. “It makes sense.”

“You don’t sound confident…” Eelektross said.

“I just need time to think,” Emmet said. “This is… a lot.”

“I agree. But for now, do those words suffice?” Ingo asked.

“…For now, yes.” Emmet nodded and smiled. Despite the uncertainty of his words, his smile was genuine.

“We’re back,” Giratina said as they, Dialga, and Palkia reappeared from a Spacial Rend.

“As I suspected, Giratina’s method was flawed,” Dialga said. “It failed to account for how time passes in the reflections, making the seamless time travel you desire impossible.”

“And you would need to use the same reflection to arrive at the same entry point. If the source of the entry reflection is destroyed, you would be trapped in that time,” Palkia said.

“So, their idea can’t happen…?” Eelektross asked.

“Nope. These two will help me smooth out the issues,” Giratina said.

“The three of us can put part of our power into a key,” Dialga said. “It will allow you to use any reflective surface as a portal and ensure that your exit and reappearance have less than 0.01 seconds difference between each other. For the sake of timeline and spacial stability, we will split the key into two pieces, one for each of you to hold.”

Sneasler raised an eyebrow. “You’re… really going all out for these guys, huh?”

“They owed me big time,” Giratina said.

“You can decide the exact shape of your key,” Palkia said. “I recommend something portable.”

“Hm… Two keys…” Ingo hummed and grabbed the rim of his hat as he began brainstorming.

“Something portable,” Emmet said as he began pacing back and forth in a circle, his arms and legs swinging straight about. “And we hold one piece each.”

“The key acts as a link between time periods, where the Distortion World is acting as the central station,” Ingo said.

“You could probably do something like some gems or, y’know, a literal key!” Sneasler said.

“No.” Emmet stopped his pacing to point at Sneasler and the ground. “This is our choice. It can be better than simple keys.” He resumed his pacing.

“Considering the purpose is to connect time and space into a single, smooth track, what if… What if our keys took the form of something symbolic for connecting rail tracks?” Ingo asked.

“Like rail fastening?” Emmet asked.

“Yes, like rail fastening systems!”

“Like the Last Spike!”

Ingo’s eyes brightened. “Like the Last Spike! What a fantastic idea, Emmet!”

“I like that idea, too!” Emmet briefly flapped his sleeves around and turned to Dialga and Palkia. “I want my key piece to be a rail spike!”

“And I would like mine to take the form of a spike maul!” Ingo said.

“Of course… Of course that’s what you chose,” Sneasler said to herself.

“Why are you surprised? What else did you expect…?” Eelektross asked.

Dialga and Palkia shared a glance. Resigned to the fate they chose for themselves by not assisting Giratina earlier, they shrugged and poured their energy into balls of chromium blue and pearlescent pink. Giratina joined in with their own manifestation of power, formed in a ball of dulled gold energy. The orbs combined and shined white that bounced off the frozen landscape’s snow, hurting the eyes of the non-Almighty pokemon.

When the light subsided, the orb split, and the halves approached the twins. Ingo and Emmet held their light in their hand. Emmet’s light solidified into a silver-white rail spike, while Ingo’s light solidified into a spike hammer with a black handle. Blue, pink, and yellow gems decorate the hammer head and the side of the spike.

“Bravo!” Ingo said.

“Would these weaken the spike’s strength?” Emmet asked, pointing at the gems on his spike.

“Emmet, please do not be rude, and I doubt it matters,” Ingo said.

“Here is how they work: when you enter through a distorted reflection into a time period, use the keys on the reflection you came from. The keys store information about the location and time of the portal. When you’re ready to leave, use it on another reflective surface, and that reflection turns into a portal that connects to where you entered the time from. Got it?” Palkia asked.

“That makes enough sense,” Ingo said. “But are there limitations and safety rules we need to know of?”

“Absolutely, but the rules focus on time travelling specifically. The most important rule is that you do not try to change the main timeline, especially about events and facts you already know. For example, you know that trains were not prominent in Hisui or Sinnoh, so do not try to add a train system to those regions in the past,” Dialga said.

Emmet raised his hand. “Can we build a train system here?” He pointed to the ground, referring to their current time period.

“…Sure, if you would like to?” Dialga shrugged. “Well, in addition, all other persons you meet must stay in their place in time. Therefore, the Noble of the Cliffs, Chandelure, and Eelektross cannot follow you into other time periods. It is risky enough I am making an exception for you two.”

“Fiiiiine…” Sneasler said. Not that she had the desire to time travel with the twins, but she at least wanted to go with them briefly to make sure they arrived at their stops safely.

“And lastly, you must keep this power and the purpose of the spike and hammer a secret. You cannot even tell your pokemon. I do not need to explain why,” Dialga said.

“Very well. Emmet and I will be able to follow those rules with rigor,” Ingo said.

“We can follow the rules and be safe,” Emmet said. Behind him, Eelektross covered Sneasler’s mouth before she could start listing every rule they broke during their adventuring.

“And if you ever break those rules, we will know,” Dialga said.

“Have fun with your journey, Ingo and Emmet. Don’t do anything that we need to fix,” Palkia said.

Dialga and Palkia disappeared to return to their domains. The wind blew and the snow fluttered, letting Team Conductors and Giratina know that time resumed in the Icebound Falls.

“Alright. Cool. Congrats on getting stuff with the powers of the Creation Trio, guys,” Sneasler said.

Ingo inspected the spike hammer by turning it around in his hands. “For something carrying so much power, it feels light. How astounding, to be both lightweight and strong!”

Emmet also inspected his spike, noting that the blue gems outnumbered the pink and yellow ones. “I will call this the Rail Spike of Time.” He finished inspecting his spike and placed it within his coat.

“Then my tool shall be called the Spike Maul of Space!” he said as he placed the spike hammer in his coat.

“Wouldn’t they both be “of Time” and “of Space”?” Sneasler asked. Chandelure held out a flame in front of Sneasler’s face, mimicking Eelektross covering her mouth. Sneasler glared at the ghost pokemon.

“Perhaps we should give our tools a safety check before embarking on our journey?” Ingo asked Emmet.

“Oh, we’re not done here,” Giratina said. “Let’s go to the Distortion World. It will be better to explain your new bodies and their capabilities there.”

“”Their capabilities”?” Emmet asked.

“Yep. Sorry for making you into Not Pokemon anymore, but I think there will be some upsides.” Giratina flew back into the reflection of the ice, leaving ripples behind while they disappeared into the realm. “Follow me.”

Ingo approached the ice and held his hand out to touch it. He still felt the solid cold ice, but the surface rippled like liquid water. Ingo took Emmet’s hand.

“All aboard!” Ingo and Emmet jumped into the reflection portal.

“HEY!” Sneasler ran and jumped in after the twins. Eelektross and Chandelure followed suit.

***

Team Conductors found themselves jumping out of the waterfall yet landing on solid ground. The island supported more than enough landscape to have the six pokemon stand together. Even Eelektross and Giratina floated above rocks instead of having even part of their bodies hanging off into the Distortion World’s void.

“I was hoping to reveal the biology stuff in here, but Dialga and Palkia ruined that plan…” Giratina said. “I know that getting your bodies rebuilt by me isn’t fantastic, but there is one major benefit. All of you, close your eyes.”

“Uh, okaaay…” Sneasler glared at Giratina one more time before she covered her eyes with her hands.

Chandelure simply closed their eyes, which looked like the yellow spotlights turned off. After a moment of hesitation, Eelektross closed his eyes as well.

Ingo and Emmet were the last ones to follow Giratina’s direction, holding their hands over their eyes.

“One,” Giratina said.

Ingo’s body weakened. He stumbled forward and caught himself before falling. Emmet was overcome with wavy unsteadiness, much like standing up in a train pulling into a station.

“Two.”

Ingo’s nausea worsened, spreading from beyond his head and invading his body. He wanted to trust Giratina, but the image of the Deep Shadow attacking him twice made it difficult for his heart. Likewise, Emmet felt something bubble inside him as dizziness came over him in waves. He recalled Chained Giratina stretching out his body as a form of torture, though whatever they were currently doing was painless.

“Three!”

The dizziness vanished from the twins at once, leaving their bodies like a spirit that once possessed them. The relief was immediate.

“Open your eyes!” Giratina flourished their wings for showmanship.

“HOLY SHIT!” Sneasler said.

The first thing Ingo noticed when he opened his eyes was that he was taller, though Giratina still towered over him. The second thing he noticed was his hands. Instead of two large, curved claws, he had five fingers per hand. He noticed that more fabric covered his body; he still wore his frayed coat, but the rest of his Subway Master uniform was there as well.

“Wow,” Emmet said, prompting Ingo to look at him.

A gasp escaped from Ingo. Emmet was not a Sneasel. Emmet looked human. When Ingo realized he stood at eye level with Emmet, he felt his own face to confirm his suspicions. Ingo found no fur nor gem embedded in his head. His cap no longer bent his ear.

“We’re human again? Outstanding!” Ingo said. “Or, would it be more precise to say ‘we look human again’?”

“Yep. Since you’re part of my domain now, I can distort your appearances into human-shape and back into Sneasel-shape. But you should be able to do it by yourself eventually. Just don’t let anyone else see the transformation. It’s not pleasant to witness,” Giratina said.

“That is interesting…” Emmet said. Barely a week ago, he was so consumed by dissociation of his body and mind that he could not use attacks for a time. But now it was like he was back in his old body.

“Incredible…”Eelektross gasped. He floated around and circled Emmet. Eelektross held open his hand, and Emmet gladly placed his hand in his partner's claws. Though Eelektross got larger since he last saw Emmet as a human, his trainer's thin hand felt the same.

Chandelure made no noise, and their flames stilled as they stared at Ingo. It was surreal to see Ingo as a human, especially as his younger self. This version of Ingo still held a tiredness in his eyes, but he truly looked young again. Chandelure felt something well in the corner of their eyes.

“But there’s one other thing… THINK FAST!” Giratina formed two Aura Spheres in front of their mouth and shot them at Ingo and Emmet. Eelektross prepared to use Discharge and Chandelure prepared a Shadow Ball, but Sneasler barked at them to wait.

The twins charged into action without thinking. Poison covered Ingo’s hand as he Jabbed the sphere. Emmet, meanwhile, formed an Ice Beam in his hands and shot it at the sphere headed to him. Both spheres were destroyed, their energy grazing past Ingo’s and Emmet’s skins.

“Did… Did you just use Poison Jab and Ice Beam??” Sneasler asked.

Ingo looked at his hand as the poison slid off his fingers. “It appears so…”

“Like I said, I distorted your appearances, but you’re still Sneasel-shaped on the inside. Obviously, there’s some more rules, not just the ones from Dialga and Palkia. Don’t visit doctors, they’ll notice something weird. You probably won’t need them anyway.”

“…Did Nurse Gaeric ever say anything about my body while I was resting?” Ingo asked his team.

“He did say “we are some weird Sneasels” at one point,” Emmet said. “But that was it.”

“To continue, don’t let anyone throw a pokeball at you. You will go inside if it hits. Obviously, only use moves when human shaped if absolutely needed. And if you somehow get injured, don’t let anyone see you bleed. Your blood isn’t red,” Giratina said. “Just use common sense to hide the weirdness. Got it?”

“So, to confirm, we can transform between “human shape” and “Sneasel shape”?” Ingo asked.

“Yep. It’ll make time travelling between three times a lot easier to hide, right?” Giratina said.

“Hey, uh, aren’t you two worried about burning out?” Sneasler asked. “Because it sounds like you’ll be going back and forth a lot. I get you have duties to do, Ingo, but you’re gonna wear out your wheels at some point!”

“Nope. Their bodies have much more stamina now. In fact, they don’t age anymore. You two are technically immortal unless killed… or unless I revoke it,” Giratina said.

“This is convenient,” Emmet said.

“You sound confident… How’d you learn to do all this…?” Eelektross asked to Giratina.

Giratina snickered. “This isn’t the first time I made someone immortal. The first time was Volo.”

“Wait wait wait, what?!” Sneasler pointed at Giratina and the ground. “YOU were the one who made Volo immortal?! It wasn’t Arceus?”

Giratina laughed. “You thought ARCEUS made Volo immortal?!” They laughed again. After regaining their breath, they said, “Why do you think they sent two humans to deal with him? Arceus didn’t want to touch that human with a lightyear-long pole! Yeah, I made Volo immortal and banished him to walk the earth. He was still human, unlike you two, but he didn’t die until a bunch of legendaries got sick of humanity’s wars and got rid of them all!”

Sneasler found herself feeling like a fool for believing the other Nobles’ assumption about Volo’s immortality. She recalled her ancestors seeing Volo in passing well beyond Hisuian times, but they had little to work off for how he stayed alive. Arceus was responsible for their condition as Nobles, so it only made sense. Sneasler still felt like an idiot, though.

“Okay, I think I covered everything, and I’m tired of my own voice. Where are we going first?” Giratina asked.

“Well, you want to see Elesa soon, correct?” Ingo asked Emmet.

“…Let us set Hisui as our destination,” Emmet said.

“Is something wrong?” Ingo asked.

“…I am not prepared to face her,” Emmet said. His smile dropped for a moment as he looked at Ingo. He needed his brother to know that he was serious.

Ingo nodded. “Very well. May we take the Hisui line then, Giratina?”

“Gladly.” Giratina flew down and set their body on the island.

Ingo and Emmet both tried to climb up Giratina but found themselves unable to grip the pokemon’s body. They both forgot that their claws were gone.

“Pffffft! Wow, do I need to teach you guys to climb all over again?” Sneasler approached the twins. Before she could grab and lift Ingo, a purple-blue aura surrounded him and lifted him onto Giratina’s back. The same aura surrounded Emmet but only managed to take off his coat and cap.

“Oh, he’s still dark-type…” Eelektross said to Chandelure, whose body glowed purple-blue. “Please put his coat back on…”

Chandelure nodded and used Psychic to put Emmet’s coat and hat back on.

“Alright, let me help you out, weirdo,” Sneasler said. She ducked and grabbed Emmet’s legs, making him yelp. “Just keep standing, I’ll give you a boost.” By using some more strength than she was used to for carrying the twins, Sneasler lifted Emmet onto her shoulders.

“Thanks,” Emmet said. Sneasler was only slightly taller than their human forms, but she provided enough height to grab onto Giratina without sliding off.

“I apologize that you cannot be passengers with us…” Ingo said.

“Just get back safely, please…” Eelektross said.

“I’ll take good care of them. I promise,” Giratina said.

“Yeahhh, can you please be less creepy when you say that?” Sneasler asked.

“No,” Giratina said.

Sneasler opened her mouth to respond, but upon finding she had no rebuttal for the Almighty pokemon, she just closed it again and facepalmed.

“Well, if Dialga and Palkia are correct, we should return with no delay or schedule change,” Ingo said. “This is not a goodbye. We will return to this station soon.” He tipped his hat to his sister and friends.

“We will be back. Later,” Emmet said.

“We’ll be waiting for you…” Eelektross said.

Giratina flapped their wings and began their take off. Eelektross had to nudge Chandelure through the ice’s reflection and out of the Distortion World. Eelektross followed after Chandelure, and it took him a few seconds to fully fly through the portal.

“Giratina, if anything happens to those two, I will find a way to kill you,” Sneasler said while pointing at the Almighty pokemon.

“I do not doubt it.” Giratina turned their head and said in a lower voice, “I envy you two.”

"Final call, I guess. Time to clear the station." Sneasler gave the twins a salute, which they returned in unison. With one last nod of confidence, she followed Chandelure and Eelektross out of the Distortion World.

“Follow the rules and drive safely! We are aiming for victory!” Emmet said.

“ALL ABAORD!” Ingo and Emmet said together as Giratina finally took off.

***

Giratina flew through the Distortion World. At first, the twins thought they had to hold onto Giratina’s golden armor to stay on their train as they soared past numerous floating islands. But they soon realized that Giratina had their own gravity that prevented Ingo and Emmet from falling. Even when some of the larger islands tried to pull Ingo and Emmet into their own gravity, Giratina’s power overcame theirs. Even waterfalls that Giratina flew near warped around them.

Ingo stroked his chin while thinking over what he needed to do first at Hisui. “…Oh! Emmet, does my appearance resemble yours?”

“Yes?” Emmet said. He gave Ingo a confused look. “How come?”

“If you recall, when we crossed paths in the timestream, I looked a couple years older than you due to my time in Hisui. But if I look like how I did before my departure from Unova, the others might find my altered appearance suspicious.”

“Oh, I get it.” It was painful for Emmet to remember the events of the timestream, but he was able to recall how old Ingo looked. “That would be strange.”

“You could probably brush it off as some space-time distortion nonsense, but alright. Close your eyes,” Giratina said.

Ingo and Emmet were both consumed in the nausea-inducing simultaneous transformation. Emmet noted that the wavering focused in his face. But as soon as the feeling arrived, it passed through them just as fast.

“You can open them now,” Giratina said. “You’re lucky I remembered how you looked like back then, Ingo.”

Ingo and Emmet opened their eyes. Ingo noticed that Emmet’s face had put on a few years. He even had a goatee matching his own.

“Impressive.” Emmet instantly recognized Ingo’s new appearance as how he saw him in the timestream – older face, strange pink tunic, and a notably stronger but tired posture. “Can we transform into other shapes besides human and Sneasel?”

“Do you want to?” Giratina asked.

“No, I am just curious,” Emmet said. It was bad enough when he was a Sneasel, so he did not have to deal with turning into more pokemon. It amused him, though, that the “Sneasel-shape” was his real form and that his “human-shape” was the illusion. At least his body still felt real. It certainly did to Eelektross.

“So this means that we can alter our appearance to match with our age…” Ingo hummed. “Even if our bodies will now allow us to tire from age, how long can we continue on this journey? Eelektross mentioned that they remembered our funeral.”

“Wait, really? Well, that sucks… Since your old pokemon remembered that, that means you’ll have to fake your deaths eventually,” Giratina said. “I guess this is why Dialga usually induces memory-hiding stuff in people affected by time travel. I recommend going back to the future time and live out the rest of your days as Sneasels.”

“…Hm. I’m not sure how I feel about it yet, but hopefully that destination is far, far in the horizon,” Ingo said.

“Yeah, we can deal with it later. Let’s enjoy the now,” Giratina said.

After a few more minutes, Giratina arrived at an island with a waterfall wider than those Ingo and Emmet had seen within the Distortion Realm.

Giratina floated to land onto the island. “Here’s the window into Hisui.”

In the water was an image. It depicted a snow-covered field with ice spires poking out and rising from the white. Bergmites, rocky Avaluggs, and Mamoswine were among the pokemon depicted.

“Do you recognize this stop?” Emmet asked Ingo.

“Yes. It’s the Alabaster Icelands – Avalugg’s Legacy to be specific,” Ingo said.

“Then our approaching stop is Avalugg’s Legacy,” Emmet said. “Are you ready to depart?”

Ingo stared at the image. He could see, far in the background, the tents of the Pearl Clan Settlement.

“Ingo, are you ready for departure?” Emmet asked.

“Y-Yes! I am ready.” Ingo inspected his coat and straightened his cap. He pointed forward and at the ground. “All aboard!”

With their respective tools in hand, Ingo and Emmet walked into the water.

***

Author’s Second Note:

Q: What are the two time loops that Dialga had to stabilize?

Time Loop #1 was caused by the first chronological attack Chained!Giratina did, which was to Emmet and the second time to Ingo. When the attack happened, Arceus changed the twins’ course from ‘going home’ to ‘rescue the Deep Shadow’, transformed them into Sneasels, and sent them forward in time to a short while before Giratina gets Chained.

But, as Team Wish mentioned, they moved on from Operation Memento (forced reincarnation to draw Volo out) to Operation Retaliate (collect the Plates to usurp Arceus) because they thought Ingo reincarnated as a Sneasel. This assumption caused Giratina to get Chained and ordered to attack all time travellers… and ensures that Ingo and Emmet are sent into the future to cause the Almighty pokemon to get Chained.

Time Loop #2 was caused by Giratina’s second attack, aka the time Ingo was nearly killed from protecting Akari. As Arceus mentioned, this attack caused Ingo to get sent further back in time, leading him to become the new Warden for Lady Sneasler and making a smoother path for Akari to Seek Out All Pokemon and defeat Volo.

AND because Volo is defeated in this timeline (and gains immortality for a couple centuries), this ensures that Team Wish is created in the far-flung future, which then ensures that Giratina becomes Chained and attacks Ingo in the timestream. This also means that Time Loop #1 is inside Time Loop #2!

This does mean that Team Wish accidentally ensured not only their defeat but also Volo’s defeat. Oops.

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