Welcome to Gaia! ::

Aile sighed, recalling her two Pokémon, noting that Sarlaac didn’t really come out of that exchange all that great. What the hell was that all about? Dark was… something. That felt weirdly out of a cartoon, how he was able to survive all of that. Shaking her head, and hoping that this would be the last they saw of Dark, at least for the moment, she would continue on with the others, shoving her hands into her pockets.

When the group arrived at the inner chamber, Aile would look around, frowning. No Cyrus or Cruxias to be seen at the moment. They had to be hiding somewhere. Somehow… Closing her eyes, she would put more of her focus into the ground beneath them, trying to get a sense of if anyone was moving beyond their sight. At least if they were on the ground. If at all possible, she didn’t want to get caught off guard.


Crystal would look to Kairos and Apolla, the very odd bird looking rather pleased with himself. “Good job, you two. Thanks. You as well, Hepa.” The Helioptile popped her head out of the collar of her trainer’s shawl, looking quite happy at being told she did a good job as well. Patting the reptile’s head before returning both her and the Espeon, she’d turn to the Sigilyph, about to recall him as well before he turned to her.

-”Mistress? I would feel more comfortable by your side right now than in that orb. We both know that ruins aren’t the safest of places, considering how we met. Please,”- Kairos pleaded to her, tilting his eyestalk. With a sigh, Crystal nodded.

“Fine. But if I give the order, you’re returning to it. Understand?”

-”Completely. Shall we follow your friends, then?”-

The hybrid nodded again, falling silent as they followed with the others. As they walked, Crystal mulled over what Kairos had called the team. Her friends. A normal thought, but with her attitude towards everyone, she wasn’t sure how many of them would consider her that anymore. That, and she was keeping to herself more and more, too. Afraid of saying the wrong thing to piss someone off again, or doing the wrong thing and making problems worse. She wasn’t going to correct him, though. After all, she needed to keep her own worries to herself. Not let her own problems take away from the bigger crisis they all faced right now.

When Kairos and Crystal arrived in the room, the cat woman would pause as she took in the room. Large, spacious, and with a grandiose stone throne at the end of it. She frowned, looking the room over and trying to see if she recognized any part of it. She was skeptical, but it wasn’t completely out of the question. And also, they had gotten here fast. And too easy. She frowned, crossing her arms under her shawl. Cruxias was able to mask Dark back at the trial, in addition to causing the judge’s door to link to, maybe these ruins, maybe somewhere else, she wasn’t sure. She just saw Unown righting on the walls, which honesty did rule out a lot of places. But, that number was still a non-one. Either way, regardless of whether or not this seemed familiar, the hybrid would feel uneasy. This had to be a trap. They got here too easily for a fortress, with no other labyrinthian twists and turns. And she had a feeling that Cruxias’ capabilities shown at the trial were only the tip of the iceberg. Her attention would stay on the throne, expecting someone to reveal themselves there momentarily.

Reno was keeping pace alongside everyone else, still keeping his senses and his telepathy open in case Dark had decided to hide himself away invisibly to ambush them. That trick hadn't been given away yet, so he was going to use it for as long as he could before that mad hyena figured out he couldn't hide that easily anymore. Not that it seemed like he was actually lying in wait. Apparently his little outburst of being bored had been genuine? It wasn't stopping Reno from keeping at least a passive check going but after a few halls he toned down the checking every out of the way corner with his senses like he was on landmine check.

Aria wouldn't be quite as paranoid once Dark cleared out, having no idea about his little invisibility trick since she missed his first appearance at the trial. "So...do we wait for him to return singing a mambo? Is there like a.....plan...for dealing with a living cartoon? Do we paint a tunnel entrance and let him run into it?" Aria idly said as they began to progress along, having vaguely heard some of the comments from Sol and his cadre and trying to defuse the situation to some degree.

Either way, they would end up in the bizarre throne room and its complete dead end. Giving a small scoff as he stared at the throne, Reno would raise his prosthetic arm and let the red glow of the palm begin to light up. "You wanna do your dramatic reveal now that you're on the throne and this is some big mess or should it come after I burn a hole in whatever happens to be about midriff-level for your average sitting person?"

Ulla watched Cyrus walk on ahead after the failed attempt to deescalate the situation. She sighed as saw Cyrus wave her over as she picked up the pace to stand beside him. The Fairy Child listened to the man's answer to her question, a vague answer at best. But an answer none the less. Once they rejoined with the main group, she observed everyone's condition.

They made their way to the main chamber. Nothing but lit torches and a throne. "...He's here." She said before the 'he' even made himself known. Ulla stepped forward infront of our Cyrus as her body started to be outlined in sparkly pink aura. Before the blast of time energy could even touch them, Ulla raised a wave of soft Fairy Energy. Once it clashed, it broke as the time energy started bouncing around them. Rebounding from the walls, she watched the wave move carefully as she expanded her energy outward to cover all of Snagem in a dome. Muffling the noise of Dialga roar as well. With each impact, Ulla would adjust how much of her channeling to disperse. It was no easy feat to measure how much channeling she should do. But she was able to handle it. Soon enough, anyone could notice the blasts were now bouncing off of the dome. There were some cracks in the dome that would start to get bigger but would soon start to regenerate slowly. If anyone was going to act, it needed to be soon.

"If anyone has any bright ideas...do it now. I can't be doing this forever." She said as she took out a Pokeball and tossed it in the air as her Comfey cheered. "C-Comfey...help me." She said as the the flower Pokemon nodded as it rested a flower crown on her head helping heal the cracks in her bubble.

The rumbling of noise made every fur on Monique's body stand on end. The body knew. The body feared.

Roar of Time bellowed, and as Monique looked up to figure out the source of the sound, the room had completely changed. A simple, unadorned chamber, dominated by none other than Dialga, long-distance Cyrus lovingly standing at its feet and shouting in a show of emotion.

The roar was, in its own way, deafening and hurtful. It made Monique wince in her core for a moment—she could see Kommo-o in her peripheral vision shake, too—before she saw a large bubble start to emerge from Ulla and Cyrus.

Being here, in this setting, with this Pokémon made Monique almost feel the blade pressed up to her neck again, her life once hanging in the balance and maybe hanging there once more. It stiffened every muscle, made her hyper-aware and, at her core, hyper-scared. Clearly they wanted to erase her and the Snagems, for reasons that were still unclear. Not now. Her mind cried out for relief from the trauma pressed into her every groove at the trial, a deep breath an attempt to put a hurdle on her racing thoughts. Gotta protect my team.

She looked at the Scaly Pokémon, wondering for a split-second what it thought. This had to be the first time Kila had seen a Legendary Pokémon, maybe even any Pokémon of her own type. (Of course, she wouldn't have known its history prior to being a Shadow Pokémon.) And now here it was, in a scenario very different from any it might have faced stuck in a Poké Ball, marinating in its own corrupted chi. The bubble Ulla had formed to protect them from the constantly echoing Roar of Time was cracking. There wasn't much time to waste.

"Kila!" Close Combat! Knock that thing out!" she cried out, her hatred for long-distance Cyrus bubbling forth. "And knock him out with it!!" She pointed angrily at Dialga and Cyrus. "You attempted murderer!"

She thought of everything she'd worked for. Everything these people wanted to take away or alter. It was like a gale for the windworks, charging her up, her energy threatening to overflow in a surge of power. Mt. Kaʻanaʻana was screaming at the top of her lungs. Perhaps if she remembered in the moment that Fairy energy was on the battlefield, that might not have been the case...

The Galarian Weezing's arrival on the field was like a spark on a tinder box. Monique didn't need more Fairy energy in her life right in that moment. But now the room was filling with Misty Terrain, not to mention Neutralizing Gas. No way to start an illusion now if she wanted to.

The Roar of Time, which might have been heretofore blunted to Kommo-o by its Soundproof, suddenly reached it at full-strength, before it could even think of reaching Dialga. It was momentarily disoriented. Which might have been a good thing. Luckily, Kommo-o knew not one but two special moves.

"Alright! Clanging Scales! Go for himmmmm!" If anyone was listening, they might have noticed the most subtle change in the texture of the Zoroark hybrid's voice, rougher, more feral, more... bloodthirsty. She glared at them, instinct slowly rising to take over. Within a few minutes, it might be questionable how human the sheriff of New Po would be acting.

Tristen stared in confusion at Cyrus for a brief instant as he trailed behind the two. In this entire time that he’s gotten to first-hand know Cyrus, uncertainty was not exactly something he expected out of the likes of this stone-faced leader. There was a hint of resolution there, like he did have a task to play. That he would be able to deal with the other Cyrus. All well and good. But then, what was he to do anyways? For that matter, what was he doing here, now that Tristen thought about it. The team already had the indication that they needed to be here. Cyrus didn’t need to come along, not that he could figure anyways strictly speaking. Between the information Sub got from GRAY and from Cyrus back at the makeshift headquarters, there was really no reason to and there was certainly people that could have kept an eye on their Cyrus. It wasn’t like Cyrus would have sleep walked and dreamed all the way into these ruins to give anyone a heads up about much of anything. Was this Cyrus supposed to talk sense into the other one? The thought of that was laughable. Maybe that needed to be addressed later…if there was one for him.

He would follow Cyrus and Ulla into the main chamber, staring in confusion. The light from his mane lighting up the room. Sub and the others would have finally made it shortly thereafter, being vindicated of his confidence of his teammates to handle Dark. But as confusion loomed as to what this place was and the unease started to settle, Tristen went wide-eyed as the hum started to make its presence known followed by a destructive bellow that threaten to tear everything asunder. Ulla would put up a shield in the nick of time, but it was not something she was going to be able to maintain for any extensive length of time. They had to fight back.

“Fighting Dialga is going to be troublesome if the other Cyrus is constantly barking orders. Ulla, we might want to try to take the other Cyrus out while the rest of the bunch tries to distract Dialga. Unless you got any better ideas.” Tristen would then ask this world’s Cyrus.

As plans start trying to get formed, Freth would toss out a Pokeball herself, needing to start dealing damage in whatever way she could. This Dialga was most certainly reality shifted, and more than likely in a similar state to how Dull and Dark is, tougher than normal and probably crazed. Unfortunately, unlike with Dark and Dull, they’re not able to get close to them without any particular work arounds lest time itself decides to have its way with everyone. “Go! Braviary!” Freth shouted, tossing the Pokeball out. In a flash, the large bird with a crest that looked aflame with psychic power appeared, screeching its arrival. “Alright Braviary! Shadow Ball!” Freth shouted.

The bird screeched and formed a black mass before it, a powerful ball formed, larger than one would expect, so much so it effectively resonated. The Hisuan Braviary put Sheer Force behind its attack, just as it would to any opposition or prey. The ball would get launched fiercely towards the Dialga, trying to drill into its temporal, if albeit, armored hide.

And Sub would be right, as soon as either of them even began to near the area occupied by Dialga, their movements and their actions would slow to a crawl again just like last time. Luckily for Monique, her Pokemon would stop short, its movement only starting to slow to a crawl as it approached, but it was very clear the same thing as last time was true - Dialga's temporal field around it was protecting the Pokemon like a cocoon of miasma. The Pokemon's Pressure was suffocating even just being in the vague vicinity of it, until...




The Snagem Leader's neutralizing pair of gasses start to flow through the room. The Neutralizing Gas definitely didn't eliminate the pseudo-event horizon that was Dialga, but it seemed to smooth some of the edges off of the time anomaly, giving the Snagems a bit more room to work with. Monique's Kommo-o would immediately be freed from even the light slowdown it was under, returning full faculties to the Pokemon as the smog flows across towards the chronomantic legend towering over them.

The Misty Terrain flows the opposite way, surrounding the Snagems who were currently...



Ensconced in a bubble of protective Fairy energy, courtesy of Ulla. Having her head on a swivel, and also having been so in touch with Cyrus (Both of them, technically.) had allowed her to get out in front of what had been intended as a kill shot, a decapitation that was only prevented thanks to her quick actions.

The Roar of Time was far from harmless, smashing back and forth off the walls and into the barrier over and over again, seeking purchase even as the combination of Ulla's shield and Sub's terrain tried to soften its momentum.



With the Roar of Time starting to dissipate around them thanks to Ulla and Sub's early contributions, assisted with a little Flower Veil flourish from Wren's Florges, the Snagems begin to counterattack. They had precious seconds before the Legend would be able to unleash its signature move once again, glowing temporal energy licking its mouth, so they unleash a barrage of non-physical attacks, a wide battery of artillery of sorts.

Despite the Helping Hand, the situation is exactly the same as last time as the Blast Burn, despite its immense heat, never reaches the legend. As the fire neared its intended target it would warp oddly, circling back in around on itself before snuffing right out.

Moonblast, Clanging Scales (Dialga stepping easily in the way to body block for Cyrus), Vacuum Wave, and Shadow Ball all make it through the ravages of time and slam home, causing the Temporal Pokemon to voice its displeasure loudly, its cry echoing off the stone walls following its roar as it shouts at them peppering it. It was a Faller of sorts too, on top of being a Legend, so even as the attacks all slam home - Sheer Force or no - the moves ricochet off its chronokinetic skin, sending them off in all directions. Their assault wasn't doing nothing, it clearly bothered the Dialga as smoking craters appear on its armor, little pockets and divots starting to form on the Pokemon's epidermis. But, it's the Blood Moon of the cannon fire blasting its hull so to speak that elicits a very... strange response from the Legend. As the sanguine beam strikes home, it seems to be the first attack not to be shrugged off as Dialga's attention goes from the wide range of the team to laser-focused on the bear.

It begins walking forwards slowly, one of its quadruped legs raising and falling onto the stone floor in front of it as it approaches the Bloodmoon Ursaluna. It flat out ignored the rest of the team and the chaos around everyone, and as it got closer and closer the people nearest to the front would begin to feel the effects of the temporal field begin to slow their movements. Thanks to Sub's efforts they'd be able to react and move backwards... except for Ursaluna. If looks could kill, the look on Dialga's face was liable to send one into cardiac arrest as Scary Face focuses the attention of the legend into one spot, trying to lock down the Peat Pokemon's alternate form in place. It clearly had some kind of vendetta against this Pokemon in particular... maybe something to do with Ursaluna's twisted path to this reality insulted Dialga, ironic though that may be given the circumstances.

Cyrus hasn't yet noticed his monstrous companion's distraction, cackling loudly as the cacophony of the Roar of Time finally finishes. He's a little caught up in the moment still, seeming on the edge of mania as he extends a hand. "Now, Dialga - stomp these miserable criminals from existence! Pay them back a thousand-fold for what they did to us! Power Gem and bury them in rubble! D-Dialga?" His voice wavers as he suddenly realizes that the Pokemon he thought was on a leash is steadfastly ignoring him too, the call of the Bloodmoon inciting some kind of need for the Pokemon's destruction.



Darts and Ogerpon have been sheltering underneath the barrier with the rest of the team as Crystal's fears have been confirmed, trying to gauge the situation and determine what they should do now. Both of them were close-combat fighters and despite the Masked Pokemon's bravery it certainly wasn't stupid enough to run at this thing considering what happened last time. Looking down at his fancy new time piece, Darts felt very much in the same situation as Crystal as anything he attempted outside of their universe risked bringing the whole house of cards toppling down. For the moment both of them had to just bide their time and wait. The gambler doesn't bother deploying any of his Pokemon, seeing the rest of the team's even heavier hitters launch projectiles to noticeable but minimal effect.

As Dialga nears, intent on doing something untoward to the Ursaluna, for Ulla and Ulla alone there would be a brief moment of something like clarity. Potentially it was her proximity to the connection between the Cyruses or maybe it was her natural affinity as occupying a spot in the ecosystem a predator of Dragon-types, but whatever the case she would get a sudden leap of insight as she looked at the Legend up close, with the effects of Pressure lessened.

This Dialga was posturing very proudly, almost unnaturally so. And Cyrus, looking panicked behind it, was also giving away something very important. Both of them had come from the same universe, and as the Fairy Childe looked closely she would come to two key insights: Dialga was intensely, massively sick. Dying maybe even, and Cyrus was very well aware of that fact.

Secondly, there was a roiling, bubbling cist of a weakspot in its aura on its left hand side, located just behind the armored plating on its chest. A gross, weeping pustule in its aura that was invisible to everyone else, it was only Ulla's unique combination of typal affinity and connection to Cyrus that let her realize it was there at all.

Ulla struggled to keep her stance with each pounding of Roar of Time. Once it started to dissipate, she let the bubble down as she breathed out of relief. Comfey patted it's trainer's head as the child started to get back to her feet. As she did, something in her felt clear. She has never felt this sort of clarity before as she looked up and couldn't help but stare at Dialga. She didn't quite understand this feeling, but she knew. It was because of the two Cyrus. "Cyrus...Do you feel what I'm feeling?" She asked as she started to piece things together. "Dialga...it's dying." She said as she then starred at the other Cyrus. "And he knows Dialga is..." She said in fear as the thought crossed her mind.

What happens...when the Legendary Time Pokemon dies?


As the other Cyrus tried to command Dialga to attack, the legendary just ignored him. Which made her question what was really going on, and what Snagem should do now. That's when Ulla noticed something odd about Dialga. Something pulsing under it's chest armor. "What is that?" The little Fairy Child said as she looked around as nobody else was seeing what she was. That's when Ulla held her hand out as she focused her channeling to merely outline the disgusting anomly on Dialga's body. They wouldn't be able to exactly what it was, but to know that's what Ulla was seeing was hopefully enough. "I'm not sure what that is...but it's effecting Dialga. Watch over me." She said as she closed her eyes as she took a deep breath in and started to go into a meditative state of mind. Ulla started to focus on the cist to get some sort of answer from it. How, its effecting Dialga. And how she could possibly cure it from these anomoly. Is it safe to attack it? Would it effect other Pokemon if they touch it? There was so many questions running through her mind. That's when she had somewhat of an idea.

"Cyrus. This might hurt you but I'm going to try to dig into the other's memories to see what that thing is. Don't worry, I'll suppress the pain by taking it on for you as best as I can." With her connection being between them. Hopefully, she could dig something out of the other Cyrus emotiional memories to see what he knows. She knew how much he hated Sub, and much more because of her connection. Maybe she could see other things?