Ruins of Alph

A few days ago:

Pallet Town:

Professor Oak was reminiscing about the past and telling Aoki about Red and Blue since he was curious about them.

From his private drawer, Oak took out two orbs - one blue and one pink - and placed them in front of Aoki.

"A month before they disappeared, both of them visited the ruins of Alph and encountered a Mew and a Celebi along with these two stones.

But one day, both of them disappeared, leaving only these stones in their room.

I had spent several months in the ruins of Alph trying to find out if these stones meant anything, but I couldn't find anything.

Since you are going there, I request you to see if you can find anything," Oak said to Aoki.

*****************

Cynthia was very embarrassed to meet Aoki again and wanted to run away.

After the Youth Cup, she worked very hard and won the Pokémon League but lost against the Elite Four, while Aoki went ahead and became the champion of the Kanto region.

She had seen the gap between them in the Youth Cup, but it had increased even more.

Since she had explored almost the entirety of Sinnoh in the last few years of her travels, she came to Johto to study.

Cynthia's side job as an archaeologist attracted her to Violet City to explore the Ruins of Alph, and there she coincidentally met Sabrina.

During the Youth Cup, both of them had become close since they were around Aoki, so Sabrina was able to make Cynthia open up.

Moreover, Cynthia and Sabrina had a rematch where Cynthia took the loss this time.

Sabrina had become too strong.

Cynthia had managed to elevate all her Pokémon to the Elite rank, with her Garchomp being at the champion rank.

She achieved this without any external help like aura or psychic powers, so her training was exceptional.

"You don't need to be embarrassed, Cynthia. I don't think any less of you," Aoki said.

"That's right, Cynthia. We are friends, right? We can help you become stronger," Misty said.

It took a few hours of talking for Cynthia to return to her usual confident attitude.

*********

After hanging out for the rest of the day and getting permission to explore the ruins, the team set out on their journey.

Cynthia was shocked to see Volcanion since she had never seen a Pokémon with both water and fire nature, and it was also a Mythical Pokémon.

Cynthia had never been to the Kalos region, but news of Mythical Pokémon occasionally reached her ears.

When she heard how Aoki obtained the Pokémon, it became clear that she hadn't heard that story before.

Only people as daring as Aoki would send their Pokémon to the bottom of a volcano.

After reaching the destination, Aoki called back Volcanion and entered the ruins.

At first glance, it appeared to be a small ancient civilization made of stones.

There were tall monoliths made of stones with ancient writing, which had not been completely translated yet.

From what had been translated, the words praised Arceus, Dialga, and Palkia as the true rulers.

There were a total of three temples, each belonging to Arceus, Dialga, and Palkia, with their stone statues in front of them.

As soon as Aoki made eye contact with the statue of Arceus, his ears buzzed.

"H… help."

These words reached his ears as if coming from the temple of Arceus.

"Did you hear that, Darkrai?"

"I didn't hear anything," Darkrai replied.

"Let's explore all the temples in teams...

Misty takes the temple of Dialga.

Sabrina takes the temple of Palkia," Aoki suggested as multiple shadows left Aoki's side and started following Misty and Sabrina.

Although Aoki wanted Cynthia to go with either of them, Cynthia felt something interesting might come out if she went with Aoki.

With Cynthia on his side, Aoki entered the temple of Arceus as the voice in his head started getting louder.

The temple was like a large maze with different floors that required a map so as not to get lost, but Aoki just followed the voice instead.

Cynthia made note of every new piece of architecture or wall writing and took many photos to later decode them.

Since Aoki didn't know about the ancient language, Darkrai was translating them directly into his mind.

Most of them described how Arceus created the world and dimensions using Unknowns.

This was new information to both Darkrai and Aoki.

"The way Arceus and I, Giratina, create dimensions is different...

Arceus uses the energy of origin, while Giratina and we use the energy of chaos.

So Unowns must be related to the energy of Origin," Darkrai said to Aoki.

Cynthia was amazed by the wall writings too and couldn't help but read them out loud.

That's when the writings on the wall started to glow and come to life in the form of letters, revolving around Aoki and Cynthia.

"Unknowns..." Cynthia muttered with her eyes sparkling.

Her fingers moved unconsciously as she touched one of them, making all of them burst into fragments of light, blinding Cynthia momentarily.

As the light faded, she felt a burning pain in her hand as black tattoos started forming on the back of Aoki's and Cynthia's hands.

Aoki felt a foreign power invade his body but resonating with his dark aura, creating a familiar power: psychic powers.

Instantly, Aoki could hear Cynthia's thoughts, just like Sabrina.

"Are you okay, Cynthia? Do you feel anything different?" Aoki asked.

There was a strange glow in Cynthia's eyes, but she didn't seem to be aware of it.

"Just a slight pain in my hand...

I knew I shouldn't have touched those, but curiosity got the best of me—" Cynthia said but choked before she could finish her sentence as she looked at Aoki's shadow.

She fell on her back and immediately sent out Garchomp, commanding it to attack Aoki's shadow.

Black tendrils appeared out of thin air and wrapped around Garchomp, stopping it in its tracks as Darkrai materialized beside Aoki.

"Calm down, Cynthia...

Darkrai is my companion," Aoki said, crouching down in front of Cynthia and placing his hand on her shoulder.

He sent a dark aura into her body, calming her down.

Cynthia strangely became sensitive to energies and could feel Aoki doing something to calm her down.

The same kind of energy was all around Darkrai too.

"Pokémon of nightmares... Darkrai... how do you have that Pokémon?"

"I don't have much time to explain since someone needs my help. Just follow me; I will tell you on the way," Aoki replied, helping her stand up.

"Release him."

Darkrai removed his tendrils from Garchomp as Cynthia called him back into his Pokéball.

Aoki went deeper into the maze and told Cynthia a shorter version of the story of how he met Darkrai and the powers of Dark aura.

Since Aoki could use telepathy due to the powers of Unknown, he could read pieces that didn't make sense to Cynthia before and started connecting.

She had a lot of questions but seemed like Aoki was not going to answer them, so she decided to ask them later.

All of a sudden, her interest in Aoki increased exponentially.

The Unknowns seemed to have caused a change in Cynthia too, although it didn't give her any psychic powers.

She became very sensitive to energy and was able to see the dark aura and Darkrai in Aoki's shadow, which was impossible for Psychics.

Aoki finally reached a long hallway from where he was hearing the sound of help coming from.

There was a tall figure of light at the end of the hallway, which was slowly fading away and crying for help.

This time Cynthia heard it too and understood how Aoki was navigating the maze.

Aoki approached the figure and noticed that it resembled a tall, slender, humanoid figure with a glowing electrical body and numerous thin, branching appendages resembling electrical wires.

It appeared as if the Pokémon found hope after seeing Aoki.

"What even is this?" Cynthia muttered.

"It does not belong to our reality... the energy is completely different," Darkrai said.

"An Ultra Beast," Aoki said.

"Ultra Beast?"

"Pokémon not from our world," Aoki replied, touching the Pokémon and transferring dark energy into its body.

The energy level of the Pokémon was junior rank and getting lower each second.

This made its fading light return back to its body and reconstruct its body.

That is when something strange happened, as Darkrai felt his Pokémon completely disappear for a second, and a portal opened below them, dragging all of them into it.

The only thing left behind was their bag.

***************

Misty and Sabrina stood at the center of the temple.

"They are getting late," Misty said to Sabrina.

It was already evening, so Aoki should be back by now. It didn't make sense for him to lose direction with Darkrai with him.

Aoki would have informed them about being late if it was intentional, but something seemed to have gone wrong.

Sabrina felt something and touched Misty as both of their bodies turned invisible.

An airship floated above the ruins, and people in white uniforms jumped out of it, riding on Dragonites.

All of them had weird machines on their bodies, which were constantly emitting multiple colored lights.

Finally, a woman riding a Kommo-o landed, who seemed to be their boss.

The pseudo-legendary Pokémon from Alola surpassed the champion rank.

The woman had long blonde hair and a pretty figure.

She was Lusamine, the leader of the Aether Foundation.

"Search the surroundings; the wormhole should be nearby.

Eliminate any witnesses if you find anyone!!!"

"Yes, ma'am!" her men dispersed all around, leaving her alone in the central area.

"I know you two are there; come out," Lusamine said loudly, pressing a button as Sabrina lost control of her psychic energy, revealing both of them.

"Sabrina and Misty... people related to Professor Gunhildr.

What a surprise ~

Let's have a pleasant chat."