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Chapter Text

In the depths of Area Zero, the battle to decide the past and future of Paldea raged on.

"Flutter Mane, Mystical Fire!"

"Tinka, Gigaton Hammer!"

Flutter Mane, a mysterious ancient Pokémon resembling Misdreavus but with a spikier bottom, spines growing from the top of its head, and longer feathery hair tendrils opened its mouth and exhaled a tremendous blast of red orange fire surrounded by flaming rings, streaking right towards Tinka the Tinkaton. Never one to let a little something like type disadvantage stop her, the long-haired pink fairy charged forwards, screaming at the top of her lungs as she wound back her hammer, a gigantic metal weapon much bigger than she was. She took the flames head-on and kept going, leaping out of the blaze and lifting her hammer over her head, the colossal weapon wreathed in flames and looking even more epic.

"Witness me!" The Tinkaton screamed, smashing the hammer into the face of the Paradox Pokémon, sending the Ghost/Fairy type flying across the room and slamming into one of the many pillars rising from the floor hard enough to crack it.

From atop the tallest pillar in the center of the room, Professor Sada – or rather, the robot built in her image – held out her Master Ball to recall the defeated Flutter Mane, a frustrated look on her mechanical face.

"Good job, Tinka! You were all 'whoosh!' And 'aargh!' And 'fear my hammer!' And you were on FIRE! Nyaaaah, so cool!" Gushed Julie, Tinka's trainer, as she clasped her paws to her cheeks, slitted eyes filled with stars.

It only took one look at Julie to immediately tell she was not entirely human… Or was a very dedicated cosplayer. She had tan skin and was short and wiry, with lean muscles and not an ounce of fat. Patches of reddish fur grew from her shoulders and knees, and it was unclear if the furry clawed gloves and boots she was wearing were clothes or part of her body. She wore a torn hide skirt dyed red with yellow stripes and a breast band of a similar color over her sizable bust with the badge for Naranja Academy pinned to it, the eight Paldean gym badges decorating her skirt interspersed between Pokéballs, a few pouches, and her Rotom phone.

A red feline tail extended from her rear, and she had a very thick, shaggy, fluffy mane of red and yellow-striped hair hanging to about her knees with a pair of cat ears sticking from the top, beads and feathers and other sparkly objects she'd found during her journey braided into her hair. Stripes were on her limbs, sides, and cheeks.

She certainly didn't seem like your average trainer or student, which was because she wasn't. She was a girl from millions of years in the past – or possibly an alternate timeline – rather suddenly and against her will transported to the present day.

She'd managed fairly well, all things considered.

Panting for breath and smoking, Tinka offered her trainer a thumbs up. "Just living up to your expectations, chief!"

"Way to go, little buddy! Only two more to go!" Julie's best friend and sandwich maker Arven congratulated her, flashing his own developing fangs in a grin.

"More are coming!" His partner Mabosstiff barked, the Dark-type dog growling as another wave of Scream Tails and Brute Bonnets stormed into the chamber.

Arven bit back a curse. "More?! It feels like we've beaten half of the Pokémon in Area Zero by now!"

"Which means we've got another half to go!" Julie's hot-blooded girlfriend Nemona said eagerly, pounding her fists together, the ground littered with the unconscious forms of all the Paradox Pokémon they'd defeated already. Although Julie was far too seasoned to let her girlfriend's beauty distract her, the way her face seemed to glow at the thrill of another battle, her growing muscles and sharpening teeth, increasingly wild and flowing hair, her faint stripes and the way her rear was shaking as if instinctively trying to wag a tail… Awoogah! Her body was taking to the changes from her Mate's Mark really well, and Julie couldn't wait to see what she looked like once she was done!

”Come on, Quaquaval, let’s keep our winning streak up!” Nemona raved, winding up her right arm while constantly hopping about to try and burn off her seemingly incessant levels of energy.

“As you wish, my lady,” the stylish peacock squawked, bowing to his mistress.

Julie grinned at her friends, flashing fangs. "Keep it up, Nene and Arar! Penpen, how's the typey-typey thing going?"

"Hacking," Julie's other girlfriend, the red and blue haired Penny, automatically corrected her, sweating as she rapidly typed away at her laptop, which was plugged into one of the pillars, her team of Eeveelutions standing guard around her, already looking worn out from all the Paradox Pokémon they'd defeated to keep their trainer safe. Her hair and teeth had gradually gotten longer as well after accepting a Mate's Mark, but rather than beginning to change into someone even the warrior caste back home would have found impressive like Nemona, she was just becoming even softer and cuddly and adorable.

And she seemed to have adapted to typing with her increasingly long nails very quickly.

"And not good! The system architecture is unlike anything I've ever seen before! The algorithm just keeps adapting to counter everything I'm throwing at it!" She exclaimed in frustration.

"Keep at it, Penpen! If anyone can save Arar's mommy, you can!" Julie encouraged, only barely understanding the things she just said.

"She's not my mother," Arven protested, flustered.

"Close enough! Tinka, can you keep going?" Julie asked the Fairy-type.

"Sure thing, chief!" Tinka assured her.

"Foolish children. You still think you can win? Let me show you your folly," The Sada AI sneered as she raised a hand, the Time Machine above her powering up, causing Julie to sneeze, thinking she'd smelled diamonds. The Tera crystals making up the walls, ceiling, and part of the floor started flashing, and the chamber abruptly shook as the crystals, for a split second, turned violet…

And a Master Ball dropped into the robotic Professor Turo's waiting hand from the swirling time portal above him. "Iron Thorns, initiate battle routine."

He threw out the Ball, summoning a Pokémon resembling a robotic Tyranitar to the field.

"Tinker. Return," ANNA commanded.

"Yes, Mistress." The Tinkaton, winded from the battle with the A. I.'s Iron Jugulis, immediately complied.

A compartment in ANNA'S right thigh popped open, a Pokéball ejecting from it as she dropped Tinker's inside. "Now. Go, Almighty."

The light blue Palafin appeared in a flash of light and promptly fell to the ground as it was a Marine Pokémon and therefore had no business being on land. "I am here!"

"You've miscalculated, ANNA. Palafin is a Marine Pokémon and therefore has no business being on land. How very unlike you," the mechanical professor taunted. "Iron Thorns, Thunder Punch!"

The biomechanical Tyranitar growled and drew back its arm, the glowing green substance visible through the transparent parts of its armor bubbling as electricity crackled around its right fist. It charged forwards, throwing a punch at the seemingly helpless Almighty.

"Almighty. Execute Plan F."

"Roger."

Almighty slapped his tail fin on the ground, throwing up a burst of water which splashed onto Iron Thorns, causing it to emit an electronic squeal of pain as the electricity crackling around its fist discharged to engulf its body, then immediately returned to his Pokéball. Aurum, ANNA'S Gholdengo, emerged in his stead, grunting as Iron Thorns' fist smashed into their chest, punching a hole right through it, which probably would have been fatal if they weren't a ghost as well as being made out of almost a thousand coins. The Coin Entity smirked at the irritated look on the Paradox Pokémon's face.

"Now, Midas Touch."

"Make it Rain!" The Golden ghost cried, raising their arms and launching them, along with most of their upper body, into the air, coming back down in a rain of very heavy, very hard gold coins which bombarded Iron Thorns, causing it to squawk as it stumbled back, dents forming in its metal hide, several of the transparent parts of its armor cracking and causing liquid to seep about.

"Iron Thorns, Earthquake!" Turo commanded.

Iron Thorns roared, the spikes on its back and liquid within its body glowing as energy charged in its tail. It lifted the appendage…

And froze, grinding sounds coming from the interior of the Paradox Pokémon as it froze in place. "What-"

ANNA allowed herself a thin smile. "You may be able to bring these Pokémon to this era and control them, Turo… But you forget, I hail from the same age as them, and know their workings in intimate details… For example, how gold dust clogs up the joints of Iron Thorns, a defect that, thankfully, my people do not have to fear."

That seemed like an odd thing for an ordinary girl to say, but that's because ANNA wasn't one. It was difficult to say if she was even human, or at least by current standards. She was, in fact, from thousands if not millions of years in the future – or an alternate timeline – in an age where flesh and blood had been deemed inefficient and replaced by something else entirely. She was neither cyborg nor gynoid, but the language of the present day lacked the complexity necessary to properly explain what she was.

She had a tall, feminine figure made of purple and silver metal – or something like it – covered in LED lights and soft, glowing lines tracing her curves. Her legs had large triangular fins gracefully curving back from her hips, large round joints ringed by light pulsing like a heartbeat. The limbs were made of multiple angular segments ending in points. Her stomach region and parts of her breasts – or the analog of them – were silver, with the Uva Academy badge on her chest.

Her shoulders had similar fins and joints to her hips, but her arms were more solid-looking than her legs, with delicate, multi-jointed manipulator fingers that a closer look would reveal weren't actually connected to each other. Her face was silver and quite lovely with violet LED eyes behind a transparent green visor projected by a pair of winged ear modules on either side of her head, and her hair was either a solid sheet of metal hanging to her waist or a mass of microfilament cables depending on her mood.

"Aurum, return. Almighty, One for All," she commanded, calling back the grinning Gholdengo and sending out her previous Pokémon.

"Castelia Smash!"

The Palafin, now in his Hero Form, rocketed forwards as the Iron Thorns struggled to recover and delivered a Jet Punch so strong it knocked the Paradox Pokémon off its feet and slammed into a pillar hard enough to destroy it. The biomechanical Tyranitar tried to screech, but its jaw and voicebox had been severely damaged by the strike, the LEDs in its eyes flickering on and off as it weakly flailed about.

ANNA allowed herself a thin smile as Almighty posed heroically. "I do not miscalculate, Turo. My processor is far too sophisticated for that. Far more so than yours."

Arven grinned and gave her a thumbs up. "Nice going, little buddy! Only one to go and… And maybe-"

There was a loud barking noise, and suddenly Arven found himself tackled aside by Mabosstiff just before he could get smacked by an Iron Hands, the loyal hound getting struck by the super effective Drain Punch and flung away. "NO!"

The mechanical Hariyama, targeting Arven, prepared to strike again…

"Nemona PUNCH!"

An unstoppable force smashed into the side of the Iron Hands' head, causing it to partially crumple as it was flung away, smashing into the distant wall. As Arven gawked, Nemona glared at him, her cybernetic right eye glowing angrily, her right arm, a sleek purple, silver, and black futuristic prosthetic built for her by her girlfriend, releasing steam from the rocket-powered punch she'd just thrown with it. "You stupid pendejo! What were you doing, taking your eyes off your opponent?! You could have been hurt, and worse, Mabosstiff was!"

"I… You're right, that was… Why did I…" Arven blinked, staring at the Iron Bundles and more Iron Hands coming at them, the (hopefully) unconscious husks of their predecessors littering the ground. "Weren't… Weren't we fighting Scream Tail and Brute Bonnets?"

Nemona gave him a confused look. "The Distortion World are those?"

"I…" Arven frowned, an uncertain expression crossing his face. "I'm not… Sure…"

Nemona rolled her eyes. "Whatever, loco. Just heal Mabosstiff so you can get back in the fight, unless you want Skeledirge and I to have all the fun?"

Arven snorted. "Please, we both know that's what you really want."

She laughed. "Guilty. Come on, Skeledirge! Let's keep it going!"

As her fiery crocodile growled in assent, Arven rushed over to Mabosstiff and quickly started applying medicine. "I'm sorry, Mabosstiff," he whispered, holding back tears. "It won't happen again."

The injured dog looked up at him with big, soulful eyes and licked him, letting him know all was forgiven.

Arven wasn't the only one off-kilter. Turo looked bewildered. "I… I don't understand. I have witnessed all your battles and strategies. I should be winning. Why…"

"You may have been studying me throughout my journey," ANNA said. "But that does not change the fact that you are fighting me using a team of Pokémon selected at random from the future, Pokémon I have far more experience with than you. Pokémon you have just caught, whom you have no bond with, whereas I have forged an unbreakable connection with my Pokémon over the course of my time in this era. My experience vastly outstrips your analysis."

"The fact that I'm actively hacking you probably doesn't help either," Penny said with a grin, glasses opaque as behind them her cybernetic eyes read millions of lines of code per second on her laptop, on the inside of her glasses, and on a half-dozen holographic screens floating around her, her augmented hands split into multiple digits allowing her to simultaneously enter commands on both her physical and holographic keyboards at the same time. Her laptop was practically a part of her now thanks to all of the upgrades ANNA had given the both of them… But even together, they still paled compared to the power of her own futuristic processor. "Gotta admit, this coding is giving me a lot more trouble than the League systems ever did… But not that much! I feel like I could hack the whole planet."

"Please don't, you're already in enough trouble with the authorities as is," Arven said wearily.

Penny frowned as several new windows open across her multiple screens. "Huh, this firewall looks a lot tougher. What's this about a 'Paradise Protection Protocol-'"

"Iron Thorns, return!"

As Turo recalled the Iron Thorns, the time machine powered up again, causing the room to shake. Minute cracks began forming in the walls, which flashed red as ANNA detected another tachyon surge. A Master Ball was deposited into Turo's hand, and he threw it out, releasing a Pokémon resembling a mechanical cross between Gardevoir and Gallade with glowing magenta energy blades on the arms.

"Everything is proceeding within my expectations. I'm afraid the possibility of you winning is zero. Iron Valiant, kill Penny!"

"WHAT?!" Everyone exclaimed in horror as the Paradox Pokémon detached the blades from its arms and combined them to form a double-edged weapon before dashing at the shocked Penny and her team.

Penny's team fired elemental blasts at Roaring Moon, but the prehistoric Salamence powered through the attacks, not even flinching as the super effective Moonblast struck it head on, raising a Dragon Claw as it prepared to eviscerate the terrified hacker.

"NYEKO PUNCH!"

Julie drove a fist into the dark dragon's cheek hard enough to snap its head to the side and cause it to crash into a nearby pillar. As it struggled to recover, she ferociously clawed and bit its face. "NYO! Your fight is with Julie! Members of pack are off limits!"

"How dare you?!" Arven demanded, outraged. "Clearly my mother did something wrong when she built you, because she would never have attacked a bystander in the middle of a Pokémon battle!"

Sada snorted. "You do not know your mother as well as you think you do, child." She hesitated, her eyes flickering. "But… Why did I attack that girl? I don't… Remember giving that command…"

"I don't care why you did it, you don't deserve to be a copy of the mom of a guy as cool as Arven, and I'm going to make sure you never do it again!" Nemona shouted furiously. "Take some of this, puta! Nemona Buster!"

She thrust her right hand forwards. Nothing happened.

She blinked and looked at her limb in confusion, noticing that she was wearing a red arm brace with clawed knuckles, stripes, and tribal markings on it. "What… Where'd my cool robot arm go?"

"What cool robot arm?" Arven asked, before doing a double take, seeing Mabosstiff using Fire Fang to take down a Brute Bonnet. "Mabosstiff, hang on! You haven't finished healing!"

"From what?" Nemona asked.

"From-" Arven paused, blinking. "I… Don't know."

Nemona scratched her head in confusion, then did a double take when she saw Quaquaval knocking out a Scream Tail with Aqua Step. "Hang on, how long have I had a Quaquaval?"

"… Always?" Arven asked, sounding uncertain himself.

The Roaring Moon furiously managed to throw Julie off, only to receive another sextuple blast from Penny's Eevelutions. Roaring, it prepared to tear them to pieces with its Dragon Claw.

"Burney, protect Penpen!"

Julie's Armarouge quickly slid into view, bracing his arms so his yellow armor took the brunt of the claw attack, grimacing as the sheer power of the Dragon Claw left deep grooves in his Pauldrons. "You shall not… Harm her!" He declared valiantly, powering up his signature Armor Cannon attack.

"Roaring Moon, Night Slash!"

The ancient Dragon lashed out with claws infused with the power of darkness at the same time as Burney fired a powerful flaming energy blast from his Pauldrons. The fireball struck Roaring Moon's chest and exploded, knocking it back, but not before the Night Slash struck, tearing through the Armarouge's armor like scissors through wet paper and slicing deep into his chest, the Fire Warrior crying out as blood spattered across the ground.

"BURNEY!" The horrified Julie cried as her loyal knight collapsed to his knees.

"My lady… Forgive me…"

Penny hyperventilated as her Pokémon nuzzled her, frightened at the realization of just how close she had been to death. Roaring Moon would've killed her if Julie had been a second slower, and she doubted ANNA would've been able to put her back together again-

Wait. ANNA? Who was that?

As her head swam, she stared at her computer, baffled. Had she just lost all her progress? Where was the mention of the Paradise Protection Protocol? And…

Why was her computer so much more primitive? Where were the extra screens? Where were…

She blinked, realizing her glasses were perfectly normal and her hands were flesh and bone. Her enhanced vision gone, her brain… So much stupider! Still a genius by baseline standards, but no longer capable of the intellectual feats which had seemed so simple a second ago! What had happened to her precious augmentations, the upgrades given to her so she could become more than human by…

By…

Julie? No, that wasn't right…

Her head swam in confusion. She clutched her cranium in pain as her concerned Pokémon circled her.

"Roaring Moon, finish it!"

"Return!" Julie said quickly, calling back her wounded Pokémon. "You're right, Arar's metal mommy, it is time to finish it! Carmen, let's go!"

Julie's starter Pokémon, a magnificent fiery Skeledirge, manifested, her little Firebird screeching and spreading its wings. "Hola, chica! Carmen is in the house!" She sang.

Quaquaval immediately snapped to attention and stared at her in adoration, and nearly got taken out by a Scream Tail’s Play Rough.

“Keep your head in the game, pajaro! You can ogle your dama later!” Nemona chided her partner.

"You're one to talk," Arven pointed out. She smacked him.

Julie rummaged in one of her pouches and pulled out a black orb resembling a Pokéball with a hexagonal button on front. "Nyow… Terastalize!" She shouted, pressing the button, causing the upper half of the ball to turn transparent and reveal a hexagonal crystal, which shone brilliantly as it drew in light particles from the surrounding area. She threw it at Carmen, causing a hexagonal symbol with points at each corner to flash over her head before hexagonal crystal pillars emerged from the ground around her, enveloping her completely. The crystals shattered, revealing her entire body was now sparkling like she was made of gemstone, a large red crystal crown resembling a flaming candelabra placed atop her head. The Skeledirge sang proudly as Tera energy flowed through her…

And Julie sneezed, suddenly smelling diamonds again.

The room trembled, the crystals on the wall flashing purple as the Time Machine began powering up again.

"Oh, and now you're bringing in a seventh Pokémon?! Even hardened criminals don't usually go that far!" An indignant Nemona shouted. "Who do you think you are, Ghetsis? Greevil?! Maldito Volo?!"

"I'm not doing that," Sada confessed, looking alarmed. "Another tachyon surge?"

She paused, then shot a look at Carmen, whose glow seemed to be pulsing in time with the emanations from the Time Machine. "Wait… Terastalization… Roaring Moon, quickly-"

ANNA and her Ceruledge, Joan, furiously dueled Iron Valiant, the Paradox Pokémon fending off both combatants' arm blades with its own double-edged weapon, sparks flying as the plasma and fire swords clashed repeatedly.

"Iron Valiant, Spirit Break!"

The Iron Valiant's eyes glowed, and it began twirling and spinning its weapon all around it, deflecting ANNA'S and Joan's attacks before abruptly thrusting forwards with an incredibly powerful blow, striking Joan right in the chest and forcing her back, crying out in pain, her armor cracked. ANNA'S eyes narrowed in concern. Fairy-type moves weren't especially effective against Ceruledge, so for her to have taken this much damage…

"Iron Valiant, Psycho Cut!"

The Paradox Pokémon's eyes glowed ominously and it got into a stance, twirling its bladed weapon over its head, gathering psychic power. "Joan, plan B."

"Yes, Mistress!" Joan replied, eyes glowing, her arm blades engulfed in purple fire. She dashed forwards at full speed, leaving a trail of purple flames behind her. The Iron Valiant launched itself forward at the same time, lashing out with its weapon at the same time as the Ceruledge used her Bitter Blade attack.

They struck, and slid forward a few feet further, back to each other.

Then Joan's blades shattered along with a lot of her armor, and she collapsed, crying out in pain. Turo grinned, and Iron Valiant seemed to look back at the Ceruledge arrogantly…

And suddenly started violently jerking, sparks flying all over its body. It cried out in agony, its plasma blades flashing out of existence, deep cuts forming in its body and part of one arm falling off.

"No!" Turo gasped in horror, realizing he might actually be about to lose.

Joan smiled. "It would seem my blade… Cut much deeper than yours."

"Return," ANNA said, quickly recalling her faithful knight. As her sixth Pokéball was discharged from her hip, she glanced over her shoulder at Penny. "Penny, are you unharmed-"

"What… What's going on?!" Penny shrieked, terrified, staring at her digits as they continued extending and splitting and getting entangled with each other. "My fingers are… My brain is racing… Who are you?! Where's Julie?!"

ANNA blinked. "Julie?"

Who was she talking about? And why did that name sound familiar?

"Holy shit, I have a cyborg arm! And a Skeledirge!" Nemona freaked out. "Why do I have a cyborg arm and a Skeledirge?! Why are we fighting robots?!"

"Mabosstiff! You're hurt! When did that happen?!" Arven exclaimed.

"What is happening? Is this your doing?" The confused and irate ANNA demanded of Turo, who seemed equally nonplussed.

"I… No, this isn't… Something's wrong with the Time Machine…" The android said, looking up at the machine hanging from the ceiling.

"Of course something is wrong with it! Aside from the fact that it dragged me and so many other Pokémon from my era to this time, it's been causing anomalies all over Paldea!" ANNA pointed out furiously.

"Yeah, it's turning the region into a buggy, glitch-riddled mess like a videogame that got released early before they bothered fixing the coding!" Penny revealed.

"I hate when they do that, so annoying," Nemona complained.

ANNA glanced at them sharply. "My loves? Do you remember who I am?"

"What? Of course I know who you are, Tesoro! You're my girlfriend!" Nemona snorted.

"… Curious. You did not recognize me a moment ago," ANNA murmured.

"I didn't?" Nemona frowned, perplexed. "Wait, that's right, I didn't… What's… Happening?"

"This is further proof that we need to shut down the machine! Please, you have to stop it!" Arven insisted.

"I will not," Turo insisted. "I will allow nothing to stand in the way of fulfilling my dream. This doesn't end until I'm defeated."

“Then allow me to expedite the process. Selena, let us end this,” ANNA said, tossing out her starter, Selena the Meowscarada, a gorgeous Shiny variant who sparkled as she emerged from her ball.

“Mi amor! Give it hell!” Skeledirge called.

“For you? How could I possibly do anything less?” The magical said in an incredibly smooth, sexy voice, winking at him and causing him to swoon. “Mistress, shall we make this flashy?”

“To make sure we end this decisively, no holding back,” ANNA agreed, producing her Tera Orb. “Terastalize!”

She tapped the button on the orb and threw it at Selena, causing a crown resembling a bouquet of flowers to form on her head as her body took on a sparkling blue crystal sheen.

Suddenly, the room started shaking, the walls flashing red, then purple, then red again. The Time Machine creaked and groaned as energy crackled around it. Penny gasped as all her screens suddenly became filled with increasingly angry -looking alarms and warnings. "Oh crap… ANNA, I'm detecting MASSIVE levels of tachyons! The machine's overloading!"

Nemona snorted angrily. "Oh, you realize you can't win, so you're going to blow us all up? Can you get any lower, you mal perdedor?"

"I'm not causing this," Turo insisted, looking just as confused and alarmed as everyone else. "Some foreign element seems to be influencing the Time Machine somehow… It almost feels… Cross-temporal? But how-"

ANNA'S sensors, far more advanced than Turo's, immediately noticed that Selena was glowing in tune with the Time Machine. "… Terastalization! The Time Machine is powered by Tera crystals, so activating my Tera Orb in the middle of a chamber full of them-"

"Is causing a catastrophic chain reaction," Turo finished, horrified. "It will trigger a resonance cascade!"

"Is that bad? It sounds bad," Arven said anxiously.

"Extremely," ANNA, Turo, and Penny all said.

"Selena, quickly-"

Unfortunately, before ANNA could return her partner or cancel the Terastalization, the Time Machine lit up like a nova, and the world ended.

Or least, that's what it felt like what was happening.

Massive cracks began forming in the walls as the crystals rapidly flashed between red and purple, fragmenting to reveal glimpses of a primordial jungle or a fleet of starships floating over an unfamiliar planet.

More and more Paradox Pokémon started appearing, not just in the chamber, or even in the crater outside, but all over Paldea, prehistoric beasts and mechanical monsters panicking or going haywire and attacking everything and everyone in sight.

Not that that was the only thing they had to worry about. Massive earthquakes shook the land, colossal fissures tearing the landscape apart as huge Tera crystals began erupting from the ground, ripping buildings apart and sending the people and Pokémon fleeing in terror, many of the latter Terastalizing. Buildings glitched wildly, turning into trees or hills or futuristic skyscrapers, before melding into some hideous amalgamation of the three, as if multiple structures were trying to coexist in the same place at once, which wasn't far from the truth.

Inanimate objects weren't the only things affected. People collapsed to the ground, screaming in agony as their bodies distorted, some of them changing gender, clothes, color, even species, or becoming grotesque fusions of multiple beings at once. Some Pokémon blipped out of existence, only to be replaced by other species never before seen in the region.

In Mesagoza, two identical academies started overlapping with each other, the structures ripping each other apart, students running in terror, when they weren't glitching out of existence or writhing in pain as their atoms were torn apart and radically rearranged.

But worst of all was in the Zero Lab, the heart of the storm, as tachyon surges continued washing over everyone there, each wave faster and worse than the last, bringing almost nonstop changes as they were constantly shifted between multiple quantum states.

Nemona and ANNA'S partner Pokémon rapidly transformed from Skeledirge to Meowscarada to Quaquaval, then to prehistoric versions of all three, then futuristic versions of all three, and then some distorted, screaming amalgamation of all of it.

Mabosstiff was in a constant state of being both healthy and injured, like a Schrödinger's Meowth, except observing him didn't cause him to settle into a single quantum wave state.

Nemona, Arven, and Penny's bodies were ravaged as their DNA was constantly rewritten from normal to being augmented by a benevolent prehistoric retrovirus to futuristic nanotechnology and back again, the incompatible systems almost literally tearing their bodies apart. Nemona's arm kept falling apart and transmuting from flesh to metal and back, Penny's eyes were literally burning in their sockets as her fingers kept on multiplying and elongating and breaking, and Arven was screaming and clutching his head as blood flowed from his ears, eyes, nose, and mouth as his brain literally melted from the strain of having so many memories from so many different timelines flooding his skull.

Turo screamed in binary, suddenly becoming Professor Sada, then organic Turo, then organic Sada, then glitched together into some nightmarish multi-headed multi-limbed techno organic atrocity.

ANNA clutched her head, trying not to scream as her processor started burning out. Her figure blurred, and suddenly she was Julie, then Juliana, then Florian, then Flory, then IAN, then both, then neither, then all, then none, and then-

All of a sudden, there were two people standing there.

Even as reality crumbled around them, Julie and ANNA found the sight of each other the most shocking thing of all. Yes, one was a wild, prehistoric cat girl, a missing link between human and Pokémon, the other a futuristic techno organic life form from an age where humanity had evolved into something else entirely…

But despite it all, their faces were exactly the same.

"Are…" Julie started.

"You…" ANNA continued.

"Me?" They said at the same time.

They reached out and touched each other.

And everything broke as every timeline suddenly collapsed into one, everything everywhere everywhen intersecting at once.

Deep beneath the lab, deeper than the deepest parts of Area Zero, something unknowable, something beyond time and space and human comprehension, woke up with a cry that sounded oddly like a turtle.

And then the world really did end.

Arceus stared at the multidimensional eyesore that had once been a planet. They tapped it a few times, and the situation did not resolve itself. "DIALGA!"

"I am working on it, Creator!" The Dragon of time shouted, currently hopelessly entangled in multiple time streams like so many television cables. "This would be so much easier if thou hadst created me with opposable digits, you know!"

"We hath had this conversation before, Dialga! I made you exactly the way you're supposed to be!" Arceus yelled in exasperation. "If I can do without opposable digits, so can you!"

"Creator, thou art omnipotent!" Dialga shouted in frustration.

"And thou dost possess nigh unlimited power yourself, that's hardly an excuse!" Arceus scoffed.

"Maker, since thou art omnipotent, couldst thou not simply resolve this thyself?" Giratina asked.

"Oh, of course I could," Arceus agreed readily enough. "But then what reason would there be for Dialga to exist?"

"A question I've asked myself many a time," Palkia said smugly, sidling close to Their maker. "Thou knowest, Progenitor when I err, the consequences are rarely this catastrophic-"

"Mystery Dungeons," Arceus said bluntly, causing the Dragon of space to flinch. Giratina snickered.

"All right, I doth believe I hath fixed it," Dialga declared, extricating Themselves from the mess. "Try turning it off and turning it back on again."

And with the slightest thought, Arceus extinguished the universe and everything in it.

They waited for Dialga to count to 10 seconds, since of course time did not pass unless They told it to, then instantly remade the universe and everything in it exactly as it had been…

More or less.

"Torch Song!"

“Flower Trick!”

Carmen sang beautifully into her Firebird, which had transformed into a microphone, causing it to transform into a Phoenix and fly straight at Roaring Moon at the same time as Selena conjured some spotlights over herself and her opponent and hurled a beautiful bouquet of flowers at Iron Valiant which exploded in a fantastic burst of magical fireworks, the force of both attacks sending both Paradox Pokémon flying back, crashing into each other and knocking them out.

"YES! You did it!" Arven cheered, the faint stripes on his cheeks and circuit patterns on his arms gleaming in the light from the surrounding crystals. "Way to go, little budd...ies?"

"Yeah, that's how you do it!" Nemona whooped, flashing lights pulsing from her right arm as it went into party mode, the various feathers, beads, and teeth shining, her fangs glistening. "That's my girl… Friends?"

“Truly I am the most fortunate pajaro in all the land to have such wonderful love...rs?” Quaquaval murmured, briefly confused.

Penny sighed in relief as she closed her laptop, her mechanical, clawed fingers going back to their normal size and length. "Well, kind of a shame I didn't get to be the big hero and save the day with my amazing hacker skills… Still, good job, you… Two?"

They weren't the only ones confused. Julie and ANNA were perhaps the most dumbfounded of all, staring at each other with fear, uncertainty, and confusion. Why… Why was there another person here, and why did they have the same face-

Julie sneezed and ANNA felt a slight headache, and suddenly their memories cleared.

Why, of course they shared the same face! They were sisters! Not in the conventional sense, perhaps, but sisters all the same, twins really, since they were essentially the same person born in different timelines, one a Hunter in a tribe in the distant past, the other a scientist assigned to a fleet exploring the galaxy.

Normally, the two of them would never have met at all, but a set of unlikely circumstances had changed all that when a malfunctioning Time Machine created by Professors Sada and Turo snatched each of them from their homes and dragged them to this age. The professors had been astonished and elated to meet actual people from the time periods they had been targeting instead of just Pokémon, as well as remorseful when they realized they'd taken these children from their homes and had no way of getting them back, since the Time Machine was only one way.

Fortunately, with ANNA'S vast scientific knowledge, they had been able to start modifying the Time Machine to send them home while Julie had eagerly explored Area Zero to befriend/beat up the local Pokémon, the time twins quickly growing to view each other as family…

Until disaster had struck, and the professors had been murdered by some of the very same Pokémon they'd transported through time in the sadly misguided belief that it would turn the present age into a paradise. The sisters had been forced to flee with help from two of the Paradox Pokémon they'd befriended, members of the same species as the killers, who were grievously wounded during the flight to freedom.

Outside Area Zero, in the strange and unfamiliar land of Paldea, they were taken in by Director Clavell, head of… Of…

Naranjuva Academy, where they had been enrolled and given a place to stay in the dorms while the Pokémon League attempted to break into Area Zero and seize control of the Time Machine, which was still automatically summoning more and more Paradox Pokémon, to shut it down before they could escape the crater and cause ecological devastation across the region. Julie and ANNA, worried that the Time Machine, and thus their only chance of getting home, could be destroyed in the resulting conflict, or worse, seized by a government who barely understood the dangers it posed, chose to take part in the Treasure Hunt independent study assignment to travel the region and become strong enough so they could make it back to Area Zero, avenge the professors, and claim the Time Machine themselves.

And so, they had set forth into the Paldea region, their only companions each other, their Pokémon, and their beloved Paradox partners, who were too timid and traumatized to battle but were still able to transport them across the land. They had conquered the League challenge and become Champion-ranked trainers, defeated the fearsome Titan Pokémon and obtained the rare Herba Mystica to revitalize their partners and unlock new abilities, and took down Team Star and forced the delinquents to go back to school.

Along the way, they had made lifelong friends in their rival, the battle-hungry Nemona, Arven, the estranged (practically abandoned) son of the professors, whom they had helped heal his beloved Mabosstiff, and Penny, the brilliant hacker and secret founder of Team Star, who needed their help bringing the group she had founded to an end. They had (with permission) augmented their friends to aid them in their journey as well as further their own goals, using ANNA'S nanotechnology and the retrovirus in Julie's saliva which could rewrite DNA to turn people into felinoid hybrids like herself and was not the same thing as turning into werecats, no matter how much Nemona insisted it was. Forming inseparable bonds, they had both wound up romancing Nemona and Penny, and promised to take all three of them to their own times once this was over and the Time Machine had been reworked to allow for more stable, two-way time travel, intending to share the past and the future with the people they had come to care about so much.

And now, after many battles, they were finally at the cusp of their goal. Soon, they could finally go home.

Carmen’s Firebird started chipping and squawking frantically, and the Skeledirge crossed her eyes trying to spot it on top of her snout. “Que? What’s that? Slow down, chiquito! What’s that you’re trying to say? That up until a few minutes ago, there were actually two timelines instead of one, but they merged together after both were destroyed and reset, and since Nemona can’t have two starters you somehow got shunted into my Firebird and are the only one who remembers everything?” She burst into laughter. “What an imagination you have!”

The bird facewinged.

ANNA, overhearing this, frowned. “Actually… Such a thing may not necessarily be outside the realm of possibility-“

There were grunts and electrical crackling, and everyone glanced up to see the professors – or rather, the AI doubles they had created as research assistants, which said quite a lot about their egos – were jerking and twitching before finally slumping, like puppets whose strings had been cut. As all the Tera crystals went dark and the pillars lowered back into the floor, their eyes flickered, and they stood up, the expressions on their faces turning much friendlier.

"Impossible…" Sada whispered, twitching.

"Th-thank you… For… Everything…" Turo stammered, still jerking a bit.

"The Time Machine… Has finally…" Sada murmured, looking up at the Time Machine, which had gone silent, its 'petals' folding up on itself.

"They have… Finally… Been stopped…" Turo said in relief, shoulders sagging.

"Then… It's over?" Penny asked hopefully.

Sada nodded. "It is."

"Tachyon levels are dropping significantly… Time Machine output is almost 0 percent… I believe he is correct," ANNA confirmed.

"Julie thought it was obvious," Julie pointed out. "Pillars down, giant flower closed, shiny crystals nyo longer shiny, professors nyo longer possessed by evil spirits…"

"We were… not p-possessed, our programming was… o-overwritten by code c-copied from… The m-memory engrams of our… c-creators forcing us to…a-act as they would in defense of the…T-Time Machine," Turo insisted.

Julie nodded. "Right, possession."

"… S-she is not entirely… w-wrong," Sada conceded.

"Aw man, I wanted to fight some more!" Nemona complained.

"I didn't," Arven mumbled.

"W-with our defeat… the last s-security lock the… p-professors put on the Time Machine… has been d-disabled," Turo assured them. "Which m-means that… you can finally f-finish… the modifications w-we started on… the T-Time Machine to allow… you a-and your sister to r-return home, ANNA."

"Yahoo! Julie finally gets to go home!" Julie cheered, dancing around before hugging her sister. "And see sister's home! Take all our friends! Introduce mates to Mama!"

"Awesome!" Nemona gushed as Penny cringed. "Yay…"

"Tribe will love you! Probably nyot eat you, especially nyot after they try Arar's sandwiches!" Julie promised, causing their friends to blanch.

"So, no pressure," Arven whimpered.

"And do not worry, I am certain my Mother Computer will approve of all of you, and not dissect you for being unclean primitive organic evolutionary dead ends," ANNA reassured her friends and lovers.

"… Wait, was that actually a possibility?" Arven asked in concern.

"So long as I get to see even a glimpse of that kind of future tech, I don't really care if I die," Penny admitted. "It'll be worth it."

"And if she tries to kill us, I'll smash her!" Nemona promised.

"Please do not smash my progenitor," ANNA pleaded.

"Yeah, you're only supposed to smash us! And Penpen!" Julie agreed.

Penny got increasingly flustered while Nemona, who of course had no shame, only grinned. Arven groaned. "Why do I feel like I'm the only adult in the room?" He muttered.

"You're like our age," Nemona pointed out.

"And I am actually much older than you," ANNA added.

"Doesn't feel that way."

"Arven."

Arven blinked and looked up at the robots, who were looking at him with fondness.

"Oh… Look how big you've grown…" Sada whispered, a fond smile on her face.

"So…p-proud of you… My…" Turo stammered.

Arven trembled, tearing up. "You're… You're not my parents… But…" He sniffled, wiping his face. "I've wanted to hear that… For so long."

The androids looked solemn and apologetic. "… Sorry… You were alone s-so… Long…Arven," Sada began.

"But…m-maybe we…c-can make up for it," Turo stuttered.

"Be there… Like they c-couldn't," Sada agreed.

"You… You mean it?" Arven whispered, hope beginning to form in his face.

Turo nodded. "W-we are… presently u-unable to… leave the lab…"

"But before the… A-accident, ANNA was working on… A w-way we could do so," Sada continued.

"We could…b-be together. J-just the… Three of us," Turo agreed. "A f-family, not like… Our c-creators were."

Arven whirled on ANNA. "ANNA could… Could you-"

"It was always my intention, Arven," ANNA promised. "Even before I met you. I knew they did not deserve to be trapped here forever… Nor do you, my best friend, deserve to be without a family."

Arven burst into tears. "I… I don't deserve a friend like you, little buddy!" He sobbed, clinging to her.

"I do not understand why you keep calling me that. I am taller than you. And older," ANNA complained.

"Let me have this," he hissed.

"HUG!" Julie shouted loudly, jumping onto them.

"I want some of that!" Nemona yelled, rushing over to hug them, and as an excuse to squeeze Julie and ANNA'S butts.

"… Ugh, fine," Penny grumbled, joining in with far more enthusiasm than she pretended… And squeeze her girlfriends' butts.

ANNA sighed.

The professors smiled and exchanged fond looks. Slowly, they reached their hands out to each other…

SECURITY SYSTEM FAILURE! SECURITY SYSTEM FAILURE!

"GYAH! Who say that?!" Julie shrieked, accidentally digging her claws into Arven's shoulder and causing him to howl in pain.

THREAT TO TIME MACHINE DETECTED! THREAT TO TIME MACHINE DETECTED!

"W-wh-whoa! What's going on now?" The startled Penny demanded.

"Is another army of Pokémon on its way here?!" Nemona asked eagerly, glancing around.

"It… Cannot be-!" The horrified Sada gasped, glancing up as the Time Machine trembled and unfolded its petals once again, a new time portal forming within its center as the Tera crystals began lighting up once more, turning red and purple.

AN OBSTACLE IS PREVENTING THE TIME MACHINE FROM PERFORMING AS INTENDED. ACTIVATING PARADISE PROTECTION PROTOCOL TO REMOVE THE OFFENDING OBSTACLE…

"What now? You said this was over!" An outraged Arven demanded.

"We have… No idea what's happening!" Turo insisted.

Penny gasped. "Wait… Paradise Protection Protocol… I saw something about that earlier, but before I could learn more somebody tried to kill me!"

The robot professors looked very chastened by this.

"Paradise Protection Protocol… Another layer of security? One they never told me or the AI about?" ANNA theorized.

"Wha-?! Was keeping the Time Machine running truly all the professors cared about?!" The distraught Sada realized.

Arven burst into bitter laughter, angry tears running down his cheeks. "Of course it is. Of COURSE it is! And why wouldn't it be? After all, the Time Machine is their favorite creation, the child they've always wanted! They loved it more than they ever loved me!"

"Arar…" Julie whispered.

"Damn them… They let me work on their precious machine, but never told me or bothered to change this, even when I warned them about the ecological consequences of introducing so many invasive species from other times to Paldea or the potential risks to the fabric of space and time from prolonged usage of the Time Machine with no cooldown! Were they ever planning on letting us use it to go back?!" An irate and betrayed ANNA wondered.

LOCKING ALL POKÉBALLS EXCEPT THOSE REGISTERED TO SADA'S AND TURO'S ID.

Their Pokéballs flashed, and suddenly all their Pokémon were forcibly returned to them.

"Hey, what gives?!" Nemona demanded.

"Carmen! Come back!" Julie cried, shaking her partner's ball and bashing it on the ground, to no effect. She tried gnawing on it, which did nothing other than make her look adorable.

"Unbelievable… I didn't think technology like this actually existed!" An astonished Penny exclaimed.

"… That's because it did not. Until I came here," ANNA realized, a guilty look on her face.

"What?!" Arven shouted.

"The Time Machine was not the only thing I helped them with! I had no idea they would use such technology for this purpose," ANNA confessed defensively. "I was led to believe it would be used to aid law enforcement in apprehending criminal trainers."

"Well, to be fair, we're all guilty of trespassing," Arven admitted. "And Penny is basically a criminal mastermind who started her own evil organization."

"Hey!" Penny protested. "We weren't evil!"

PROGRAM INITIALIZING… GATHERING TERASTAL ENERGY…

The professors looked down in dismay as Tera crystals began to form on their feet and grow on their clothes, which turned red and purple respectively.

"Que?! Since when can people Terastalize?!" Nemona cried. "Or at least robots. Which isn't to say robots aren't people! But seriously ANNA, why didn't you tell us you could do this?!"

"I am not a robot," ANNA reminded her. "And I did not know it was possible either."

"Terastalize!" Julie shouted before slamming her Tera Orb into her forehead. Nothing happened. "Eh, worth a shot."

"I'm sorry, children…" Turo said.

"This is too much for you…" Sada agreed as crystals began forming on her hands and cheeks.

"You must run!" Turo insisted, eyes flickering.

"No… We can't leave you!" Arven protested. "I can't… I can't lose you again!"

AI SADA AND TURO DISABLED. PARADISE PROTECTION PROTOCOL INITIALIZED.

Sinister grins formed on the robot's faces. "Too…"

"Late."

The room shook as the pillars rose up from the floor once more, carrying Sada and Turo back into the air again.

"Oh nyo, they're possessed again!" Julie cried.

"It's not possession," Penny insisted. "Just… Something an awful lot like possession."

"So, possession," Julie said.

"… Yeah, I guess."

"You are not getting in our way!" The professors both shouted, producing Master Balls and throwing them out, unleashing…

Everyone stiffened in horror. "No…" Julie whispered.

"Not… Them," ANNA snarled.

It was Koraidon and Miraidon. Not the lovable, affectionate, sandwich-craving motorcycle dragons who had ferried Julie and ANNA across the Paldea region, but more mature specimens, experienced, battle-tested…

And indiscriminate killers.

"Smelled kitten," the Koraidon, Alpha, growled, licking his lips eagerly as he gazed hungrily at the trembling Julie, flexing his claws, his feathers billowing around him. He stood on his hind legs, with far more plumes and battle scars than his weaker counterpart. "Only got taste last time. Not enough. So hungry. Kittens favorite thing for Alpha to eat! Kill you! Eat you and all your friends!"

"So we meet again," the Miraidon, Prime, sneered as he stared down his snout at the enraged ANNA, his metal coils twisting through the air behind him. His serpentine form was covered in glowing lights, jet engines in place of legs keeping him in the air, his antenna crackling horns of lightning. "You have escaped me three times now, inferior life form. This time, you shall meet your end, like so many of your kind before you."

Julie and ANNA knew these two villains quite well. Alpha led a pack of Koraidon who viciously slaughtered and ate all in their path and had attacked Julie's village many times. Prime led a swarm of Miraidon that destroyed entire planets and attacked ANNA'S fleet more than once. Both of their partners had been cast out by their respective leaders for being too weak and softhearted to meet their standards.

They had also murdered the true Sada and Turo right before their eyes, gravely wounded their companions, and nearly killed them in the escape from the crater.

"You… You're the ones who killed mom and dad…" Arven snarled, shaking with rage. He glanced furiously up at the robots, leering down at them from the top of the tallest pillar. "You… How could you possibly use them, after what they did to your creators?!"

"Oh, but son, what greater victory can there be than taming your own death?" Sada said smugly.

"You will fall here, within this garden paradise – and achieve nothing in the end," Turo said.

"Now go… Kill them all!" They both commanded.

"Mierda! They really are Ghetsis-tier! They've even got the horrible parent thing going for them!" Nemona exclaimed.

"No, that would require them to remember that I existed," Arven said gloomily.

"Go, Carmen!" Julie shouted, throwing her starter's Pokéball at Koraidon, who blinked, eyes briefly crossing in confusion as it bounced off of his snout.

"Julie, our Pokéballs have been sealed, why did you think that would do anything?" ANNA asked.

"Julie was expecting the power of our bond to allow her to break free and continue fighting as proof of the power of friendship," Julie admitted.

"You have been watching too much anime," ANNA stated.

"Of course Julie has! We don't have it back home!" Julie retorted, which ANNA had to admit was a fair point.

"Um, guys? What are we supposed to do since we can't use our Pokémon?" Penny asked anxiously as the cruel Paradox Pokémon approached.

"We'll just have to fight them ourselves!" Nemona said eagerly, her right arm transforming into a cannon.

"Nemona, you're the only one of us who insisted on getting combat augments – which, granted, I'm beginning to regret," the anxious Arven pointed out. "If the rest of us try to fight, we'll be killed!"

Nemona snorted. "Well yeah, with that kind of attitude!"

"Leave this to us," ANNA insisted, converting one arm into a plasma blade and the other into a cannon, her feet reconfiguring to form energy discs for wheels. "Julie and I have far more experience in battle then any of you."

"Plus, we have score to settle!" Julie hissed, pawing the ground, her hair standing up. "Had to run last time. Nyot this time! Nyever again!"

"Kitten wishes to fight? Good. Improves flavor! Hungry! Hungry! HUNGRY!" Alpha roared, charging forwards.

"I look forward to crushing this last feeble attempt at resistance," Prime sneered as he powered up, electricity dancing around his body.

Yowling at the top of her lungs, Julie produced a club looking like it had been made from part of the jawbone of a Tyrantrum, the biggest teeth still stuck in it, and swung it at the grinning Koraidon's head.

"Koraidon, Bulk Up!" Sada commanded.

Alpha caught the club in one claw and started crushing it, grinning as cracks began to form. "Kitten still weak. Pathetic. I devour!"

"No… Julie will devour!" The hybrid retorted, lunging forwards and driving a punch into the ancient dragon's gut before digging her teeth into his arm…

Only to yelp as they broke on his thick scales, made even stronger by Bulk Up.

"Pitiful. Stronger have bitten me! Left bigger mark than that!" Alpha bragged, before grabbing the prehistoric girl by the neck and slamming her to the ground hard enough to crack it. "Now… Your turn!"

"Nemona PUNCH!"

And suddenly, Nemona was there, throwing a rocket-powered punch right at Alpha's face…

And her fist cracked against his cheek. She paled as the Dragon gave her an unamused look. "Mierda."

"Use Flamethrower!" Sada ordered.

The ancient Dragon grinned as he opened his jaws, flames filling his mouth as he prepared to incinerate the terrified champion.

"Nyo! Nene!" Julie shouted, clawing and biting at the claw holding her down to no avail.

Spotting her discarded club lying nearby, she lashed out with her tail, wrapping around its handle, and pulled it towards her, snatching it with one hand and driving one of the fangs on it into Alpha's arm. The beast howled in pain, head jerking aside and exhaling a tremendous blast of flame that very nearly took Nemona's head off.

"Oh," Nemona said, eyes wide.

"Nene! RUN!" Julie shouted as she managed to wriggle out from Alpha's grasp, swinging her club at his head. Enraged that she actually managed to inflict some pain, the monster angrily swatted it away and tried crushing her beneath his fists, cracking the ground. Julie managed to hop out of the way just in time, but the Dragon bellowed, unleashing another blast of flames in her direction.

"Nemona BUSTER!"

Alpha cried out, more in surprise than in pain, as Nemona fired an energy blast from her right arm, hitting him in the eye. "What?!"

"Nene, Julie said to run!" Julie shouted, grabbing her club again, only to be swatted away by a swipe from the dragon's tail.

"Come on, Julie, you know me, when have I ever run from a fight?" Nemona replied, firing more blasts from her cannon. "And besides, I'd be a pretty poor excuse for a Student President if I let and underclassmen, especially mi corazon, get hurt-"

Getting fed up with her paltry attacks, Alpha lunged towards her, jaws wide open as he powered up another Flamethrower. She freaked out, but only for a second, and then started firing blasts right down his throat.

He didn't notice. After all, he breathed fire, what was eating a few plasma blasts?

He clamped his jaws over the barrel of her cannon and dug his teeth deep, glaring at Nemona with eyes full of loathing and hunger. Terrified, she charged up her Buster to full power, firing supercharged shots down his throat-

And Alpha bit and tore, ripping her prosthetic off at the elbow.

As Nemona fell back, shocked, the Dragon gnawed at the mechanical limb for a minute before throwing it away in dissatisfaction. "Tastes wrong. False. No flesh. No blood." He regarded Nemona hungrily. "What about rest of you?"

"NYEKO PUNCH!"

Julie punched Alpha in the cheek as hard as she could, this time managing to make the Dragon take a step back. She landed on all fours between him and Nemona, all her hair standing up, tail lashing behind her. "Your fight is with Julie! LEAVE MATE ALONE!"

Arven dragged the stunned Nemona away as Julie furiously resumed her battle with her nemesis. "What were you thinking?! You could have gotten yourself killed!"

"My arm…" Nemona whispered, staring blindly at the sparking stump where her prosthetic had been. "He… Tore off my arm… The arm ANNA gave me… The arm Julie decorated for me…"

"They'll get you a new arm," Arven promised just in time to see Alpha slash his claws across Julie's chest, drawing blood. "… Assuming we make it out of this."

"Miraidon, Power Gem!"

Prime roared as he undulated through the air after ANNA, firing laser beams from his eyes, the girl from the future dodging as she skated across the ground on her wheels, torso rotated 180° to face the Miraidon as she fired rapid-fire shots from her arms, both of which had been transformed into cannons. Prime didn't even bother trying to dodge the Buster shots as they harmlessly pestered his metallic hide, his powerful eyebeams sweeping across the ground and leaving molten metal in their wake.

"This is unlike you, Prime," ANNA remarked, combining both her arms into a single cannon and charging energy into it. "Since when do you take orders from another, especially from a more primitive mechanical life form?"

"You are correct. Servitude is beneath me," Prime agreed, snarling as he continued firing lasers at her. "Unfortunately, so long as I am trapped by that accursed orb, I have no choice but to obey that obsolete contraption." He smiled cruelly. "Still, it is but a momentary irritation. I have already begun to subvert the Master Ball's programming. After I've torn you to pieces and assimilated your code and best components, I should have everything I need to break free, destroy both of those mockeries of mechanical perfection, and use that Time Machine to summon my legions to sweep across this primitive world and spread out into an unprepared universe ripe for the conquest."

"Then I shall have to kill you before that can happen," ANNA resolved, firing a massive charged shot at the Miraidon.

"On 10,000 worlds, there was always a chosen one, a hero, a champion who said such things, who believed that they would be the ones to succeed in ending my life where so many have failed," Prime said casually, exploding the charged shot with another blast of his Power Gem. "And all of them… Were WRONG!"

He launched himself right through the conflagration, flames rippling off his form as he lunged at ANNA. ANNA switched one of her arms to blade form and dodged to the side at the last second, swinging the energy sword at the dragon's side as he shot past…

Only for her weapon to slide harmlessly off his hide.

The same, unfortunately, could not be said for her, as Prime's claws tore right through her side, and she cried out in agony as fluid splashed across the ground, electricity crackling from the great gouges he'd left in her. She nearly lost control of her wheels and fell, only to leverage herself back up at the last minute by driving her blade into the ground, using her free hand to grip her injured side as she willed her nanomachines to start mending her body.

"Trying to repair yourself? The virus in my claws will nullify your restoration systems," Prime said smugly. "I'm sure your own security programs will eventually manage to overcome it… But not before I've killed you."

"I am not dead yet," ANNA retorted, firing Buster shots at him again.

"Yes, you are. You just don't know it yet," Prime said in amusement as the shots did no damage to him.

"Miraidon, Charge!"

Prime snarled in frustration, but did as he was told, electricity crackling around his body.

"Charge? What will that accomplish? I know you do not possess any Electric-type attacks," the confused ANNA pointed out.

Prime chuckled. "Did you know that this floor is conductive?"

ANNA'S eyes widened in horror as Prime touched his tail to the ground, electricity surging into the floor and into her body. Normally the material she was made of would be resistant to high voltage, but thanks to the wound Prime's claws had made, her innards were exposed, and she howled in agony as the electricity coursed through her body. Sparks flew, her arms rapidly cycled through their multiple modes, and her visor flickering in and out of existence as her eyes glitched repeatedly.

"Too easy," Prime leered as he moved in for the kill.

"Hey! Danger noodle!"

A Pokéball flew through the air and bounced off the Miraidon's head. Prime gave an annoyed and unimpressed look at Penny. "Be patient. I will kill you in a moment."

"P-Penny…r-run," ANNA stammered.

"No! You saved me earlier, when my own Pokémon were helpless… Now it's my turn to return the favor!" Penny declared as her digits extended, both holding and using her laptop while also manipulating multiple holographic screens.

Prime snorted. "Are you attempting to hack me, child? My firewalls are far too powerful for a primitive such as yourself. And the Wi-Fi down here is the worst."

"Oh, I think you'll find my computer is more than up to the task, thanks to ANNA'S upgrades," Penny said with a smirk. "And who says I need a wireless connection?"

It was then Prime noticed a cable plugged into the side of his head, the other end running into Penny's laptop. "… That Pokéball. It was carrying a universal adapter?" He realized in astonishment.

"Another thing my amazing girlfriend gave me!" Penny bragged. "And now, I'm going to hit you with the most powerful virus I've ever written, one which I designed to bring Levincia to its knees!"

"Why would you want to bring Levincia to its knees?" ANNA asked incredulously.

"Because I really don't like Iono!" Penny yelled, pressing the Enter key.

Prime sneezed.

Penny blinked. "Um. I was expecting a little more than that."

Prime simply glared at her. "Little mammal, the thought that you could even inconvenience me is one of the most absurd and insulting things I've ever heard. That was your strongest virus? Let me show you what the least of my electronic warfare suite is capable of."

Penny's eyes widened in terror as Prime's began to glow…

And suddenly ANNA sped by, severing the cable with a slash from her blade. "Prime, your fight is with me!" She called, firing at him with her Buster.

"The fact that you care to protect this primitive makes me want to kill her even more," Prime said, charging up a Power Gem.

"Penny! Go!" ANNA ordered the terrified hacker. "This enemy is beyond you! He may even be beyond me."

"Oh, he is absolutely beyond you," Turo said smugly. "Let's finish this, Sada."

"With pleasure. Koraidon, Giga Impact!" Sada declared.

"Miraidon, Hyper Beam!" Turo ordered.

Alpha bellowed and charged towards Julie, body encased in a swirling energy shell. The cat girl, howling at the top of her lungs, swung her club at him with all her might…

And the bone shattered as Alpha slammed into her like a freight train, flinging her across the room. She cried out in pain as she rolled across the floor, limbs twisted at uncomfortable angles.

At the same time, Prime fired an incredibly powerful orange energy beam from his mouth at ANNA. The techno-organic girl projected an energy shield to defend herself…

Only for the barrier to break as well as the beam smashed into her, sending her flying, sparks flying from her body as she slammed into the far wall hard enough to crack her visor and break one of her arms.

"No!" Nemona cried in horror.

"Dammit… Is this really it? Is there nothing we can do?!" Penny yelled.

"Alpha… Too strong…" Julie grunted as she staggered her feet, clutching her ribs.

"If we could use our Pokémon… Perhaps…" ANNA gasped as she reset her arm.

"Except we can't because of that idiota cheating AI locking everyone's Pokéballs!" Nemona snarled.

"… No. Not all of them," Arven suddenly realized. "Julie! ANNA! We still have one chance! Remember your first Pokémon! Not your starters, the ones before that! The ones that were given to you! Who did they belong to first?"

The sisters' eyes widened, and they glanced at each other. "But… They've never fought before…" Julie said hesitantly. "And we're up against them…"

ANNA took out a Pokéball, which shook slightly, a faint growl coming from within. "… I believe it will be okay. I think they are ready," she said.

Julie grinned at this. "Okay then! Scar!"

"Viola!"

"WE CHOOSE YOU!"

They threw the Pokéballs.

Sada scoffed. "A useless endeavor-"

The balls burst open, unleashing a pair of Pokémon, one red and one purple, each resembling Alpha and Prime, but much weaker, more like some kind of variant of Cyclizar. "What?!"

"Of course…" Turo realized. "Our creators captured those Pokémon, so they are registered to our ID! The system allowed them to open!"

"Yeah! Take that, estupida and estupido!" Nemona whooped.

"No matter. A desperate last attempt at salvation," Sada said dismissively. "Those Pokémon can't even battle!"

"Especially not against our superior specimens," Turo agreed smugly.

Alpha laughed. "Runt is back for more? Stupid! Give you another scar!"

"Z-123. Are you truly trying to resist your creator? If so, then this will go even worse for you than the last time," Prime said coldly.

"Scar… Are you ready?" Julie asked her Koraidon.

"Viola. It is time," ANNA told her Miraidon.

The two dragons exchanged looks. They looked at their former leaders, then over their shoulders at their trainers and friends.

They smiled.

"Yes," they said. "We're ready."

Both of them were engulfed in brilliant light, startling the professors and their evil dragons.

"Whoa! Are they evolving?!" Nemona asked.

"No… They're unleashing their true power!" Arven exclaimed in excitement as the Pokémon lifted into the air, energy and light swirling around them, and then released a tremendous shockwave which shook the room, causing the crystals to flash and the possessed professors to flinch. "And they're doing it without one of my sandwiches! Wait, hang on, does that mean I'm no longer needed?"

Scar and Viola landed back on the ground, revealing that they had transformed into their Apex Build and Ultimate Modes, just like Alpha and Prime… Except something was different about these two. There was a shine in their eyes their older, more violent counterparts lacked, a serenity in their expressions, a confidence and sense of purpose that somehow made them seem bigger than they actually were.

"That's… Not possible," Sada gasped.

"This defies all our calculations!" Turo exclaimed.

"No… NO!" Alpha roared. "I am Alpha! Not you!"

"Impossible! I am the only one of our kind to achieve this state! That is why I am Prime!" Prime shouted in outrage.

"Not for much longer," Viola said smugly.

"Alpha… Your time is done!" Scar roared. "You not hurt anyone any longer!"

"I will make sure that your tyranny comes to an end, in this, and every other age!" Viola declared.

As Alpha trembled in fury, Prime simply glared at Viola. "Thousands of would-be heroes have said as much across the eons. And yet… For you, my progeny to do so as well… Fills me with a rage I thought myself beyond experiencing."

"You are no family of mine," Viola said coldly. "I have found my family here in this era… My sister, Scar. My mistress and her sister. My mistress's loves, and Arven, the maker of delicious food…"

"So good!" Scar agreed, drooling.

Viola nodded. "And all the kind, wonderful humans and Pokémon we have met along the way… Even the professors whom you killed, as flawed as they were… You, who would eradicate all that does not reflect your own ego…"

"And you, who kill, and hurt, without end!" Scar snarled.

"Today, you fall!" They both shouted.

"Despite everything, you still defy us?!" Sada yelled furiously. "You will not be allowed to destroy our paradise. Obstacles to our goals WILL be eliminated!"

"The data says we are the superiors. Fall, and become the foundation upon which our dreams may be built!" Turo growled.

"GET THEM!" The robot scientists shouted.

As Alpha and Prime roared, ready for battle, Scar and Viola glanced at their trainers. "Get on," Scar said, presenting her back.

"We have carried you every step of this journey so far. Grant us the privilege of bearing you in this, our final battle," Viola said.

Grinning, the sisters hopped on their dragon's backs, and the red and purple duo reared back and roared, causing the room to shake.

"So cool," Nemona gushed, eyes sparkling.

"Now I want a Dragon bike," Penny complained.

"You can catch a Cyclizar," Nemona pointed out.

"Please, would you settle for one after this?" Penny retorted.

"Absolutely not," Nemona admitted.

"Please don't, I can barely make enough food for everyone as is," Arven said wearily.

"Use Taunt!" Sada and Turo shouted.

Alpha and Scar began slugging it out, their claws leaving deep scratches in each other's hides. "Weak runt! Pitiful runt!" Alpha bellowed hatefully. "Kittens are food! Prey! And you let one ride you?! Coward! Traitor! Should have killed you like worthless mother!"

"It was YOU?!" Scar roared.

"Yes! And would do it again-" Alpha boasted, only to be cut off when the livid Scar headbutted him and shot forwards, grabbing his throat in her teeth and slamming him to the ground.

"You are one who is pathetic!" Scar snarled through the flesh in her mouth, biting harder, drawing blood, causing Alpha to cry out as she dug her claws into his body, ignoring the frenzied blows he landed on her. "All you know how to do is take! Nobody love you! Nobody care if you die! Nobody miss you! World will move on without you in it!"

"And village, people, finally be safe!" Julie added, slashing her claws across one of his eyes, gouging it out. "Well. From you, anyway. Lots of other dangers. Home is more exciting than here."

"This is pointless, a farce," Prime said mockingly, twisting through the air, feigning bites and claw swipes at Viola. "I created you. Everything that you are only exists because I allowed it. You cannot surpass me. You demean the both of us by letting this inferior life form ride you, by calling her mistress. I am the only-"

He was interrupted when Viola's thrusters ignited and she slammed into him, locking her arms around his body and biting into his neck as she slammed him into the wall and began dragging him along its length, sparks flying as the irradiated crystals started burning into his supposedly impenetrable body. "STOP! TALKING!"

"You… Wretched-" Prime gasped, only to freeze when he realized ANNA had a fully charged Buster pointed at his face.

"The only one inferior around here," she said coolly as she fired, blasting out one of his eyes. "Is you."

"Flamethrower!"

"Power Gem!"

Alpha exhaled a blast of flame into Scar's face, causing her to flinch and nearly burning Julie, allowing him to break free from her grip and knock her away, snarling furiously as blood dripped from his blinded eye. At the same time, Prime fired a laser beam from his remaining eye while sparks flew from the destroyed one, the beam blasting Viola off him and nearly causing ANNA to fall. Bellowing in mindless rage, the Kuraidon and Miraidon unleashed their attacks again, before their counterparts could recover.

"Flamethrower!"

"Power Gem!"

At their trainers' command, Scar and Viola unleashed their own fire breath and eye lasers, the attacks clashing with each other. Alpha and Prime smiled to themselves as they used their anger to fuel their attacks, confident that their age and experience were more than enough to overwhelm their lessers…

And then Scar took a deep breath, braced herself, and expelled an even bigger, brighter, hotter stream of flames, more powerful than a Fire Blast.

And then Viola focused, and her power output increased exponentially, the intensity and magnitude of her beams rising as they started pushing back against Prime's sole laser. "What?! That's not possible!" Prime protested. "Even with only one eye, I should still be able to more than overwhelm your two!"

"Even if I told you how, you wouldn't understand," Viola replied. "So I will leave you wondering, knowing that the thought of something you don't know will hurt almost as much as THIS!"

Her beams gained even more power as Scar unleashed an even bigger burst of flames, their attacks striking their former abusers at the same time, leaving Alpha howling in pain and disbelief as he was engulfed in flames, while Prime was sent flying back, screeching as he clutched his remaining eye, now severely damaged.

"Are they… Winning?" A disbelieving Sada murmured.

"No! We cannot allow this!" Turo growled.

Sada nodded. "Kuraidon! Miraidon! Hit them with everything you have! Giga Impact!"

"And Hyper Beam!"

Alpha laughed hysterically as purple energy with orange streaks swirled around his body. "Now, you die!" He shouted, charging Scar.

"Disappear!" Prime hissed, firing an incredibly powerful energy beam.

"Scar!"

"Viola!"

"ENDURE!" The twins shouted.

Scar reached out with both claws, catching Alpha just before he could slam into her. She gritted her teeth, claws scraping against the floor as she was pushed back. At the same time, Viola crossed her arms in front of her, forming an energy shield just before the beam could slam into her, gritting her teeth, cracks forming in the shield, as she was steadily pushed back by the force of the blast.

"FALL!" Alpha shouted as he pushed even harder, Scar nearly losing her footing and getting overwhelmed…

Only to brace herself with her tail and dig her talons into the ground as hard as she could, stopping her backwards motion. "No, you fall!" She shouted as her claws managed to break through the energy shell, gripping the astonished Alpha by his shoulders, and flinging him over her shoulders, sending him crashing into the far wall, the Kuraidon howling in agony as the energized crystals burned into his back.

"If anyone is going to disappear… It's you!" Viola declared as power surged through her, her barrier shattering… And the force of the beam being thrown right back into the incredulous Prime's face, sending him flying.

"Yeah! Way to go!" Nemona cheered.

"Show them who's boss!" Arven yelled.

"RIP OUT THEIR FUCKING SPINES!" Penny shouted. Everyone stared at her. "I almost died twice today, I think I'm entitled to some aggression!"

"No… No…!" Alpha gasped.

"This… Cannot be!" Prime cried in denial.

"This defies all our calculations!" An astonished Sada protested.

"Are we… Losing?" Turo wondered incredulously.

"We're just getting started!" Julie cheered. "Scar, Collision Course!"

"And Viola, Electro Drift!" ANNA commanded.

The two trainers hopped off their partners as they began charging up with energy. Scar spread wings from the sides of her head, leapt into the air, curled into a ball, and launched herself at Alpha like a flaming meteor, while Viola, who was already in the air, curled into a similar ball, one charged with electricity, as she shot towards Prime. Their more wicked counterparts, still reeling from having their attacks thrown back in their faces as well as still recharging from using such powerful moves, were helpless to defend themselves as the two sisters slammed into them with all their might, smashing them into the pillar supporting the professors, and breaking right through to the other side, smashing them into the far wall so hard it actually cracked some of the crystals.

"No… No! No! No! NO!" Alpha roared, impotently pounding the floor, barely capable of doing anything else.

"No… I am… The ultimate being… The perfect existence… This will not be… Where I fall…! I… Refuse to lose… To the likes of you!" Prime shrieked.

"It's funny that you think you have a say in the matter," Viola said as Julie and ANNA once again mounted her and her sister.

"Sister! They're on the ropes! One more push!" Julie said, producing her Tera Orb.

"Agreed. Let us end this decisively… And perhaps a hint of flair," ANNA concurred, taking out her own orb.

"TERASTALIZE!" They shouted as they held the spheres aloft, the orbs turning red and purple respectively.

The room trembled, the crystals flashing even brighter, as energy crackled around the Time Machine, which seemed to be revving up significantly. Startled, the professors looked up as the time vortex over their heads began swirling faster and faster, pulsing and switching between red and purple with each breath.

"What…"

"Is happening?"

Across the region, Tera crystals began shining, pillars of light rising into the air, more Tera Raid Dens appearing all over Paldea.

Tera Orbs everywhere started lighting up, causing Pokémon to spontaneously Terastalize, much to everyone's confusion, especially their own.

Every anomaly and glitch in reality was corrected.

In a distant region, a Crystal Pool started shining, and a set of masks began to glow. The wearer of one such mask had a sudden premonition that something incredible was going to happen soon, unaware that three corpses were stirring in their graves.

In an undersea facility off the coast of Unova, dozens of Pokémon spontaneously Terastalized as the artificial sun shining over their man-made biomes grew ever brighter, to the astonishment and fright of the students and staff…

Save for one woman, who got excited. "It's finally happening…"

Deep beneath the lab, deeper than the deepest parts of Area Zero, something unknowable, something beyond time and space and human comprehension, began to stir.

Scar and Viola roared to the heavens as the Terastalization process completed, leaving them dazzling brilliantly, Crystal crowns resembling dragons adorning their heads. Alpha and Prime stared up at them in disbelief, rage, and fear.

"Now… For sisters you've killed…" Julie started.

"And planets you have destroyed…" ANNA continued.

"For ourselves…" Scar added.

"And for the professors," Viola said firmly.

"This is the end!" They cried.

"Tera…"

"BLAST!"

The light shining from Scar and Viola turned blinding as they open their mouths and fired incredibly powerful blasts of dazzling, sparkling, shining Dragon fire which engulfed Alpha and Prime, the duo roaring in one last, pitiful attempt at resistance…

And were silenced forever as the flames dissipated, revealing they had been turned into statues made of Tera crystal, faces trapped in masks of anguish and rage.

Julie and ANNA leapt off their partners and shot towards the crystallized monsters, the prehistoric girl drawing back a fist as ANNA converted one of her hands into a massive, spiked metal fist crackling with electricity.

"Nyeko…"

"Photon…"

"PUNCH!"

They slammed their fists into statues, shattering them completely.

"YEAH! They did it!" Julie cheered. "Wait, they just killed somebody, should I really be okay with that?"

"They tried to kill us and have killed a lot of other people, I say good riddance," Penny sneered.

Arven nodded. "Mom, dad… You've been avenged."

"I thought you hated your parents," Penny pointed out.

"I did! I do! I have a lot of complicated feelings right now!" Arven snapped with more than a hint of hysteria. "It hasn't even been an hour since we found their remains! Do you know how many dead bodies people our age usually see? Less than that! I am trying very hard to keep my shit together right now!"

"Oh, like how I'm trying very hard not to think about how I got my arm bitten off or how Penny nearly died at least twice!" Nemona said cheerfully.

"Exactly!"

Penny laughed, sounding slightly unhinged. "Hahaha we're all so fucked up. We are going to need so much therapy after this."

They all laughed manically, as Julie, ANNA, Scar, and Viola exchanged concerned looks.

The robots cried out as the crystals on their bodies dissipated, their clothes returning to normal as above them, the Time Machine ground to a stop. "Professors! Are you all right?" ANNA called, noticing this.

"Are you still possessed?!" Julie asked in concern.

"We were never possessed…" Sada muttered, clutching her head.

"But no, we are no longer bound by the shackles of the Paradise Protection Protocol," Turo confirmed.

"Then you've been exorcised! Again!" Julie cried happily.

"That's… Yes, fine, we've been exorcised. Again," Turo grunted.

"It's not like she's entirely wrong," Sada admitted.

"Then is it actually for real over for real this time?" Penny asked. "Because I'm really getting tired of all this and just want to go home and crawl into bed."

"Can Julie join you?" Julie asked hopefully.

"It goes without saying that either you or your sister would be there," Penny confirmed, causing the prehistoric girl to purr in delight.

"I call dibs on ANNA!" Nemona insisted. "Also because I need her to give me a new arm."

"But of course," ANNA promised.

"And… I guess it's just me. Alone. As usual," Arven grumbled.

"Oh don't be dramatic, you have Mabosstiff," Penny said acerbically.

"You joke, but he's actually a very comfortable bedmate," Arven replied fondly.

The android smiled as they watched the children laugh, Scar and Viola curled protectively around them. "How astounding!" Sada exclaimed. "To think that you would manage to defy even the original professors' final protections!"

Turo nodded in agreement. "Yes… A completely unforeseen outcome, even for an AI possessing the most sophisticated technology ever conceived."

ANNA frowned.

"In this time."

ANNA was mollified.

"Even on the brink of despair, you children did not give in and instead proved your worthiness: showing the wisdom to think for yourselves, the courage to hold faith in your friends, and the fortitude to do what had to be done," Sada said proudly.

"No matter how difficult your past may have been, or how challenging your futures… We believe you will be capable of walking whatever path you choose for yourselves now. With pride," Turo declared.

"Nemona, with your limitless strength and unending zeal for battle…"

Nemona grinned, trying to punch a fist into a palm, only to remember she was currently down one arm.

"Penny, with your peerless intellect and skill…"

Penny lowered her glasses so they became shiny and opaque and did a noblewoman's laugh.

"Julie and ANNA, who brought all of you together and forged unbreakable bonds between you all, becoming possibly the strongest group of trainers this region has ever seen…"

The sisters smiled at each other and clasped their hands.

"And of course, our dear sweet Arven, the glue who held everything together…"

"Thank you. All of you."

Arven was trying very hard not to cry. He failed.

"You hear that, Arven? You're the glue," Penny teased.

"More like the bread, that holds all the ingredients that makes one of his amazing sandwiches together!" Nemona added.

"But which ingredients are we?" ANNA pondered.

"Julie hungry. Arven, make sandwiches!" Julie commanded.

Scar and Viola's stomachs growled.

"For them too!"

Arven uttered a long-suffering sigh as everyone laughed.

And then ANNA stiffened. "Tachyon levels are rising."

There was a metallic groan, and the Time Machine started powering up again.

"Oh, what now?!" Penny yelled. "How many more security levels are we going to have to go through?!"

"I… I don't understand, that should've done it! The machine should be shutting down!" Sada protested.

"What are we missing?!" Turo demanded.

"… It is you two."

Everyone looked at ANNA in surprise. "The Time Machine cannot be put to a complete stop so long as you are here. You are both part of the system that ensures the machine reboots when stopped."

Nemona's jaw dropped. "Then…"

"So long as they exist… This will never end," ANNA said softly.

There was a moment of silence as they all tried to process this.

"… No. No, no, that can't… That can't be it!" A horrified Arven protested. "After everything we've gone through, everything we've experienced… For us to be faced with such an impossible, clichéd choice like this… No! I refuse! I won't… I won't lose them again!"

"Yeah, I hate this cold equations trolley problem Taurosshit!" Penny agreed.

"It's the only way," Sada said grimly. "ANNA is right. I can feel it. To deactivate the machine, you must… Deactivate us."

"And… We cannot self-terminate," Turo said miserably. "I am… Sorry, children."

"No… No no no no…" Arven whimpered, pulling at his hair, on the brink of tears.

"No, there… There's got to be another way!" Nemona protested.

"Julie doesn't want to kill professors!" Julie agreed.

"ANNA, can't we… Hack this thing? You helped modify it, surely there is something-" Penny pleaded.

"The tachyon levels are rising too quickly. We do not have time," ANNA said, stricken. "If we cannot find a way to disable the machine now, it could trigger a resonance cascade."

"Is that bad? It sounds bad," Arven said anxiously.

"Extremely," ANNA, Turo, and Penny all said.

Everyone paused. "Did anyone else just get déjà vu?" Nemona wondered.

"No, but Julie does feel like we've had this conversation before," Julie said.

"That's exactly what… Oh, forget it."

"Okay, I know the answer is probably no, but… Why can't we just… Destroy the machine?" Arven offered hesitantly.

Julie gasped in horror. "It's only way home!"

"Also, the resulting explosion would kill us all," ANNA added.

"I figured it was something like that," Arven grumbled.

Once more, a time portal formed in the apparatus overhead…

And Julie and ANNA'S Tera Orbs began to glow red and purple, causing the portal to turn the same colors. "Huh? What's this?" Julie wondered.

"Our orbs are reacting to the Time Machine? No, it is… The other way around?" ANNA murmured.

The room shook, the crystals on the wall glowing brighter and brighter. The portal rippled, contorted, and suddenly split in two, one half red, the other half purple…

And with an earsplitting crack, the portals tore open, the red one revealing a lush prehistoric jungle teeming with life and Pokémon, the purple one displaying an incredibly advanced fleet of starships in orbit over a planet.

Julie gasped, eyes lighting up. "It's… Home?!"

"Home…" ANNA whispered.

"It's… Beautiful!" Nemona exclaimed, staring at the jungle.

"I want… I want a starship," Penny moaned, only having eyes for the fleet.

Arven looked back and forth between the two portals in amazement. "You two… You really are from very different worlds, aren't you?"

Suddenly, a tremendous roar emanated from the red portal, causing almost everyone to flinch, except an elated Julie. "That's Mama!" She exclaimed. "She say… Tribe is well! Sisters safe! Everyone okay!" She started tearing up. "Julie… Julie was so worried…!"

"I am also receiving a message via tight band transmission," an excited ANNA reported. "It is from Mother Computer. My family and the rest of the fleet are safe! The Miraidon raiders lost all cohesion after Prime got dragged back through time and were easily routed!"

"That's wonderful!" Alpha cheered.

"Without Prime… Perhaps the rest of my kind can now choose their own path as well," Viola suggested hopefully.

"This phenomenon… It's unprecedented!" A shocked Sada exclaimed. "Our creators never theorized this!"

"Incredible… The Tera energy… Those portals… They can allow bidirectional travel!" Turo exclaimed.

"Uh?" Arven uttered.

"He's saying the Time Machine can no longer bring things from there to here but send things from now to then!" Penny translated.

"Then… That means…!" Arven realized.

"We… We can go home!" Julie cried ecstatically.

"No. We can't."

Everyone gave ANNA incredulous looks. "What do you mean?" Arven protested. "You just said-"

"They allow for bidirectional travel, but it's not safe," ANNA emphasized. "The tachyon levels are too high. If we tried to pass through, we would be killed within seconds."

"But… But home is so close!" Julie protested.

"I know, sister. I know," ANNA emphasized, clenching her hands. "But there is nothing we can do. If we try to go now, we will never make the trip, and there is no time to finish modifying the machine so that any of us could survive the journey."

"You can't survive the journey. But we can," Sada said suddenly, causing everyone to look at her in surprise.

Turo nodded. "She's right. Since we're both fully mechanical beings, the tachyon radiation won't affect us. It should be safe for us to pass through."

Arven gasped. "What?"

"What? Why would you want to-" Nemona started.

"Oh! Of course!" Penny realized. "You said that the Time Machine will just keep rebooting no matter what we do so long as you two are intact, but… If you were no longer in this time…"

"Precisely," Sada confirmed. "Without us, the Time Machine will finally shut down."

"Our creators' mad ambitions will finally be laid to rest," Turo said confidently. "And you won't have to kill either of us to do it."

"But… Wait! If machine nyot work without you… If you go, then how… How we get home?!" Julie protested.

"I can do it," ANNA assured her sister.

"You can!?" Julie asked hopefully.

ANNA nodded. "Yes. It will be more difficult without either of the professors, but even with the limited resources of this time, I should be able to modify the Time Machine to open bidirectional portals that should allow for safe travel for anyone, human, machine, Pokémon, or biomechanical organisms without risking an ecological disaster or the destruction of all of space and time. It will just take a little longer, is all."

Sada nodded. "Yes, that was what we hoped you would say."

"If there's anyone we can count on to get the machine working the right way, it's you," Turo said with a fond smile.

"There is just one problem," ANNA said with a frown. "You said that this would allow us to stop the machine without either of you dying… But that's not entirely true, is it?"

"What… What do you mean?" Arven stammered.

"Wait… Didn't they say before that they couldn't leave the lab?" Nemona recalled. "Which is why we had to disable the security locks at all those other research stations?"

"That's right, they draw power from the Tera crystals here," Penny realized. "But… Once they pass through those portals…!"

"They'll… You'll… Die?!" Arven gasped.

The professors looked uncomfortable. "We will… Temporarily cease functioning," Sada said hesitantly.

"But with the highly advanced technology of ANNA'S time, I'm certain they will be able to get me back up and running very quickly," Turo tried to assure them.

"But what about Sada? Julie's people good at many things, but nyot know how to make metal mommy move again!" Julie protested.

"And that's assuming your people will even find her before something else does, something that thinks she'll look like a good snack," Penny said nervously.

"Well, hang on, remember, we're talking about a Time Machine here," Nemona pointed out. "Once ANNA gets it fixed, can't we just open a portal to immediately after Sada traveled back in time and pull her through?"

"In theory, yes," ANNA admitted. "However, I am uncertain I will be able to target such a precise moment in time with the tools currently available to me. It is just as likely that the portal will open to that exact second as it will open to however long it takes me to fix the machine in the other timeline."

Julie perked up. "Oh! Julie knows!"

She turned towards the red portal and roared at the top of her lungs, shaking the room.

"What was that for?" Penny shouted once her ears stopped ringing.

"Told Mama to find Professor right away and take her back to village until we can come get her!" Julie explained enthusiastically. "Julie also told Mama all about sister and friends and everything Julie's done in this strange land!"

"What, in just a few seconds?" An astonished Nemona asked.

"Julie's language is very complex!" Julie bragged.

"It is true, even my extensive language database sometimes has trouble," ANNA confirmed. She turned towards the purple portal, her ear modules buzzing and her eyes flashing. "I've also sent a transmission to Mother Computer documenting everything I've done since being abducted, along with all the data I've obtained from the professors' notes and research, as well as a request to immediately repair the professor once he arrives." Her modules buzzed again. "Message received and replied. Professor Turo, my people will be ready for you as soon as you pass through the portal. They will also see if they can't build a Time Machine of their own to come get us."

"Then I'll still get my own starship?!" Penny exclaimed.

"One way or another, you will get to see a starship, though I am uncertain if you will be allowed to actually keep it," ANNA admitted.

Penny grinned. "We'll see about that."

Another roar rang out from the red portal. "Okay! Tribe will be there to pick up Professor!" Julie reported. "Take her back to village and treat her like sacred idol!"

Sada suddenly looked uncertain. "An idol? Oh dear. Now I'm wondering what sort of anthropological repercussions this might have on prehistory…" She smiled. "Still, I wonder… Will I dream?"

"Also! Mama say she looks forward to eating you all!" Julie announced. When everyone gave her aggrieved looks, she quickly said, "Sorry, meant 'meet.' Meet you all. Though she may still eat you if she disapproves."

"My Mother Computer will do no such thing," ANNA assured them. "Though dissection may still be on the table if she considers you unworthy of me, but I'm sure that won't happen."

Their friends exchanged worried looks.

"Julie, ANNA, thank you, both of you," a grateful Turo said. "We knew it was right to believe in you. From the very start, you have always treated us as people, something our own creators often did not."

"You ARE people!" Julie insisted. "Even if made of metal!"

"You live. You think. You strive. In my time, that is more than enough to qualify for personhood," ANNA agreed.

"Thank you for saying that," Sada admitted. She exchanged a sad smile with Turo. "I guess… This will be the last time we see each other for a while, won't it?"

"Longer for me than you, I expect," Turo agreed. "But one way or another, we will see each other again." He glanced at the young trainers below. "And all of you as well."

"You know, when we were watching you on your adventures from down here, we felt a sense of… Jealousy. We envied you your freedom," Sada admitted.

Turo nodded. "The way that you came together, working in league with your fellows and caring for them…"

Penny smiled at this.

"The way that you sought strength and to better yourself, throwing all you are into your battles…"

Nemona grinned.

"The way that you would face down even the greatest enemies to save that which you loved…"

Arven just stared at the robot clones of his parents blankly, trembling.

"The way that you never ceased to seek – nor to fight for – a treasure all your own…"

Julian and ANNA smiled at each other.

"Ah, and the way that you soared free through the very skies on those wings of yours!"

Scar and Viola preened.

"We wish that we, too, might be as free as you all – free to seek out that which we might treasure above all else. Not… Bound," Sada said wistfully.

"And perhaps thanks to you, that will finally come to pass," Turo said warmly.

Sada chuckled. "And, to be perfectly honest, I cannot deny my desire to see that ancient world for myself."

"Or I, the future," Turo agreed. "Is this what it feels like to have your heart race with the thrill of adventure…?"

"So that's… That's it, then?"

Everyone glanced at Arven, who'd finally spoken, shaking, crying. "After all that, after giving me hope that I… That we could… Maybe be a family again… You're just going to leave… Like they did?!"

The professors hesitated. "Arven, we…"

"That's not-"

"I know," Arven interrupted, clenching his fists. "I know that you aren't… That you aren't really them. That clinging to you, treating you like their replacements is… Is probably really unhealthy, but… But in the short time we've known each other, you've acted more like parents to me than my real ones have in years, even if you did just spend the last several minutes trying to kill us. I don't… I don't want to lose you too."

The professors exchanged solemn looks. "Arven… I'm sorry, but… We have to do this," Sada said sadly.

"If we don't, the impending tachyon surge will kill everyone, including you," Turo added.

"We inherited all the thoughts and wishes of the professors, and so we understand better than any…"

"That your parents truly loved you."

He gave them a stricken look. "You… You can't… You can't just go and say a thing like that now!"

"No? I suppose you're right. I am sorry," Sada said.

"Arven. This is not the end," ANNA said, putting a hand on her best friend's shoulder. "I promised you, did I not? That we would show you our worlds, our homes, just as you have shown us yours."

"Yeah! This nyot goodbye, just see you later," Julie added. "Once sister fixes Time Machine, we get your parents! Introduce you to ours! Then we all be one big happy family!"

Arven sniffled, eyes watering with tears. "When you say that… I feel like we already are. Thank you… So much… Little buddies."

"I am still bigger than you," ANNA muttered as he hugged them.

The professor smiled, certain now that their creators' son – no, their son – would be in good hands.

"Arven. Scar and Viola. Julian ANNA. It's a little sad, but we're afraid this is goodbye," Turo said.

"Farewell, our free adventurers!" Sada cried.

"We bid you adieu!" Turo said, striking a salute.

The Time Machine rumbled, the portals fluctuating. The two androids began to rise in the air, though they managed to snatch the Scarlet and Violet Books from the central console as they went. The many rings of the Time Machine started rotating in opposite directions, faster and faster as the professors entered the light…

And then the many petals of the machine slammed shut.

The Tera crystals went dark.

All was silent.

It was finally over.

"How could they just… Go? Mom, dad…" Arven whispered.

"Arven, they had to. We were only moments away from reaching a critical threshold," ANNA told him.

"I know," Arven admitted. "And I also know… What they said at the end, about my parents… It was a lie. I noticed." He smiled brokenly through his tears. "But even so… I'm grateful for the lie."

"… I have conflicting feelings about the original professors as well," ANNA admitted. "They were reckless. Arrogant. Refused to consider they might be wrong. I did not always feel like they viewed us as people, and more like proof of concept for their ideals. And yet…"

"Still took care of us, even though didn't expect us," Julie agreed. "Nyot best caretakers, maybe, but… They tried."

"They did speak of you, on occasion," ANNA said softly. "They seemed to believe we would make good friends."

"Well, they were right about that. Doesn't make up for all but abandoning me in that lonely lighthouse for all those years, though," Arven said bitterly. "Still. I guess that makes us kind of like siblings, doesn't it?"

"We weren't already?" Julie asked in surprise, earning a few laughs.

"Viola. Scar. Don't worry, we'll see them again," ANNA assured Scar and Viola, who were staring wistfully at the deactivated Time Machine.

"Yeah… We know," Scar grunted.

"Thank you, Mistress," Viola said, bowing her head.

"Oh! That reminds me! Those battle forms! How cool are they?! They're so strong!" Nemona gushed.

"If they try to nudge at me for a belly rub while they're huge like this, I seriously think I'm gonna die," Penny deadpanned.

"Hey now, let's not skip over the big win here! Yeah, we lost the professors, and Arven's like a double orphan now, and the Time Machine's no longer functioning, and I lost an arm, and we are all horribly traumatized… But still, Julie, ANNA, Scar, and Viola just saved all of Paldea!" Nemona pointed out.

"Th-that's right! You all did amazing! Thank you both!" Penny said, blushing and bowing.

"Nyo problem!" Julie grinned with a wink and a thumbs up as Scar flexed behind her.

"It was our pleasure," ANNA agreed with a nod as Viola purred happily.

"Heh. Just what I'd expect from my buds…" Arven sniffed, wiping away his tears. "So… What now?"

Julie glanced at ANNA. "Sister?"

ANNA stared at the Time Machine, deep in thought. "Well, we should probably return to the Academy for some much-needed rest after everything that's just happened… And to schedule therapy for the three of you."

Nemona, Arven, and Penny all nodded enthusiastically.

"And then, we will return here," ANNA said with conviction. "And begin work on restoring the Time Machine. We have promises to keep, and-"

"WHAT is going on here?!"

Startled, they spun around to see a furious Champion Geeta storm into the room along with a shocked Rika, an awestruck Poppy, a disappointed Hassel, and Larry, who looked as if he were dead inside, but he usually did.

"What happened here?!" Geeta demanded. "What have you children done?! Do you know what's been going on across Paldea?! Why is Nemona missing an arm?! What are those Pokémon?! You had better explain yourselves this instant, because all you are in serious trouble!"

The group exchanged dismayed looks.

"Mierda."