Ash finished up the surgery on Zinnia. He stopped the bleeding, and with Aura, he managed to stabilize her to a point where she wasn't in any more danger of dying.
Norman was behind him. Ash had already patched him up, but he would be down for a while. He did tank a [Draco Meteor] hit to the face. It's a good thing Norman himself is a monster physically, or he would have turned into paste.
Behind him, Pikachu, Vee, Latias, and Norman's Slaking were all waiting to see when Ash would be done, since they were all worried.
Ash admitted it wasn't his best work, but he didn't have the time to make it perfect. Even with his sped-up work, he still reconnected Zinnia's spine, so with some physical therapy, she could walk again one day.
And Norman? Yeah, he'll have a pretty nasty scar, but he'll live with no long-lasting problems. You should have seen his insides when Ash opened him up. Yeah, let's just say Ash had to use quite a bit of Aura to save him, but it's a good thing Ash has a lot.
But now it was time to get back to the fight.
As he wrapped Zinnia's waist one more time and gave her his jacket since hers kinda had a hole through it, he picked her up and looked over her belt. He pressed one of the Poké Balls, and out came her Salamence.
Ironically enough, it was the same Salamence Ash saw at the start of Hoenn. It was even still missing the same tooth.
Salamence flinched when it saw Ash, but he waved it off and gestured at Zinnia, picking her up carefully and taking her to it.
Salamence begrudgingly swallowed its fear and let Ash get closer so he could place Zinnia on its back.
Oh, and by the way, in case you wonder about Jaern's Salamence that came with him, yeah, no. As soon as Jaern died, it just left. It had no loyalty to that A-hole. It just listened because it had to.
Anyway, as Ash adjusted Zinnia carefully on Salamence's back and was about to pull away, her hand reached out and grabbed Ash's wrist.
"Wait…"
Ash looked down at her, and she continued.
"I'm sorry...for all the trouble I caused you...but...everything I did...I just wanted...to save everyone…" she said slowly with tears in her eyes, "I wanted to be...a hero…"
Then she looked up at him weakly, "Y-you didn't have to...I'm no good...I caused everyone so many problems...why?"
Ash sighed, "Because I can tell you're not a bad person. You just have a twisted view of the world."
As he said that, Pikachu and Vee jumped onto his shoulders and smiled at Zinnia too.
"And you're just in a lot of pain, but you're putting it on everyone else. I don't know what you did, but I do know you can still make a difference and make it right. Just as long as you make the effort to be better. As long as you do, there are people who are waiting for you on the other side."
Ash really wasn't saying all of this just to blow hot air. Again, what Zinnia did, she had good intentions, but it was just a horrible way to do it. She wanted to save everyone, and she was willing to sacrifice herself.
Yeah, so in case you don't know, in the events of the Delta Episode, Zinnia's plan was that once Rayquaza woke up, she would ride the big dragon into space and blow up the meteor.
And yes, before you say it, that would have 100% killed her. And she was willing to do it to save the planet.
That's why Ash knows she was never evil, just broken in her own way. And her own Draconid people were too busy grieving to understand that Zinnia was grieving too. Nobody missed Aster more than Zinnia.
Meanwhile, after hearing Ash's words, Zinnia couldn't help but let out more tears. Finally something, finally something new. For the first time since Aster died, someone was willing to listen to her and comfort her.
But she gulped back a sob; her chest hurt too much, "I can't fulfill the prophecy...anymore...so please...I beg you, can you save the planet...for me?"
Ash nodded slightly, then gave a grin, "Save the planet? What an easy request. I'll make sure to protect everyone's smile."
Zinnia gave a shaky smile, "Then you...need to get Rayquaza to help, and also...I bestow upon you—"
She was going to give Ash something, but when she felt her pockets, she didn't find what she had left there.
"I...I had it…" she muttered, "The scroll...where is it…?" Her breathing started to get uneven, "No...no, no, no, I had it with me, I know I did—"
Her voice cracked as panic began to rise in her chest.
Ash immediately placed a steady hand on hers, stopping her movements before she could spiral further.
"Hey," he said firmly, but not harshly, "It's fine."
Zinnia blinked at him, still breathing heavily, "B-but the prophecy…i-it—"
But Ash cut her off again, "It doesn't matter," Ash said calmly, "I'll find my own way to do it, trust me."
Zinnia stared at him, trembling slightly. She was still shaking with nerves, but she swallowed and nodded.
Ash nodded, then slapped Salamence on the back, making it fly into the air.
Then he turned over to Norman's body as his Slaking held him.
Ash nodded to it, "Keep him safe. I'll deal with the rest."
Slaking looked at him for a moment, then nodded and walked down the tower, leaving Ash there with his Pokémon and Latias.
Ash took a breath, it was time to end this, it should be around time. Ash pulled out a Poké Ball, time for one last teleport.
—
{Meanwhile}
At Mirage Island, May and Brendan were standing in front of Juan, Tate, and Liza, with Plusle and Minun on their shoulders, Plusle for Brendan and Minun for May.
It's been 3 weeks for them, and in those 3 weeks they did nothing but train: their bodies, their Pokémon, and their minds, so they would be ready for this.
Juan looked at the two and clapped, looking proud, "You have both grown much stronger. Now I know that you both are ready!"
"Yeah, I swear you might even be stronger than us," Liza sighed, shaking her head as she put her hands on her waist.
"Now hey, I wouldn't go that far," Tate said with a grin, "Maybe if we had another match we could—"
"Not the time, Tate," Liza crossed her arms, making Tate take a step back sheepishly.
Brendan looked at the back of his hand where the mark was, opening and closing his hand, "So, we should be able to just go there and take control of Groudon and Kyogre, right? Just end this now, right?"
"Well, not exactly," Juan tugged at his mustache, "If they were in the form we knew them as, yes, I believe you could end this now. But they are both in their Primal forms and much more powerful, so I believe they may still be able to resist."
May deflated, "Oh great, after all our training we might still lose…"
"Not exactly. I believe it's still connected to how healthy they are, so as long as we weaken them enough, it will be possible."
"Really? Seems too simple. You're saying that's like how we learn to catch Pokémon," Brendan said.
"Well, it's still fighting 2 legendaries," Liza giggled.
"But don't worry, we're going too," Tate puffed out his chest, "You think we'll let you both be the heroes of Hoenn without us? Fat chance."
"Indeed, we will provide support as well," Juan said with a smile, and then he pulled out 2 boxes and handed one to them, "And since this is such a special occasion, I believe a change in wardrobe is necessary."
May and Brendan barely had time to blink before Tate and Liza grinned, took them by the hand, and pulled them to a secluded spot on the island.
By the time they came back, they had changed into the outfits Juan made specifically for them. Brendan had a black suit, while only on his left side there were designs along the inside that resembled magma baked onto Groudon.
And May came out with a black and gold dress that was clearly based off Kyogre. Under the black design was an aqua blue skirt, she had white opera gloves, and on her collar was a purple gem, and to top it off she had a tiara hairpin holding her hair up.
Brendan adjusted his sleeveless gloves, "You know, I was never much for suits but this actually feels pretty nice."
May was much more excited as she spun quickly, "Speak for yourself, I love this dress! I didn't know you made clothes, Juan!"
Juan chuckled, "Well I did design all of Wallace's outfits myself, I know a thing or two."
May's eyes lit up, "Really? Oh, after all of this is over can you make me some more dresses? I'd love to wear one of these when I do my next contest!"
Juan smiled softly, "Why not, once this is all over I'll design all the dresses you want."
"Ok, even though you guys look great, we should really go," Liza cut in, since while time may move slower here, they don't know what it's like out there.
"Ah right...how do we get there?" May asked. I mean sure, they could fly...except for the fact that they don't know where they are.
"Don't worry, I've got it," Tate said confidently.
Liza continued, "When we get out of the island, me and Tate can just teleport us all back to Sootopolis City."
May and Brendan gulped, looked at each other, and nodded before looking back.
"Let's do this."
—
{Back at the battlefield}
In total, it's been 2 hours since Ash left, and in that time everyone has been giving it all they had. They have been pushing past their limits in every way, because in total since the beginning of Groudon and Kyogre's awakening, it's nearly been a full day. The sun was actually starting to rise.
Roxanne over on Groudon's side had already almost used up all of her Pokémon she had, leaving her with Roxanne, her Probopass, and that was mostly because she had to return it to its ball halfway through so it could rest for a while, and the only other one she had was also her new Runerigus.
Same thing with Brawly and his Hariyama. It got knocked out earlier, but it went into its ball to rest. Now it was the only one of Brawly's Pokémon that was still standing.
Meanwhile, Wattson's Mega Manectric and most of his other Pokémon got knocked out, and that left him with 2 more Pokémon, one of them being an Ampharos.
Flannery was not doing so hot, since you know she couldn't even use Fire moves. Not that she would anyway since both of these legendaries resisted them. Her best bet to be useful was to keep spamming out [Solar Beam] with all the Pokémon who had it.
And above them, Winona's Altaria, now heavily injured, was being rotated in and out of combat. Yeah, Winona pulled Altaria back to rest a while ago, since Altaria was her strongest Pokémon. Winona left Altaria to rest while she used her other Pokémon.
On another broken plateau, all seven Frontier Brains were scattered across the island they were standing on.
Anabel stood at the center of a psychic shield, Mega Alakazam trembling as it held back another barrage of [Origin Pulse].
Meanwhile Brandon was still taking the front lines since his Regies were the ones that were undoubtedly dealing the most damage. The rest of the Frontier Brains mainly just used their Pokémon to support and protect the trio, whether it was to block a hit or make their hits land, and Brock was over with them helping in the support.
Meanwhile Steven was still standing on top of his Mega Metagross as the battle was going on. He wasn't down there fighting since he needed to maintain concentration on the 3 giants that were maintaining the barrier, but for some reason every time they hit against it Steven would feel pain. Sometimes it was small, sometimes it hurt a lot, but he kept a stoic face.
Meanwhile Alain and his Mega Charizard would occasionally go in and out, getting shots at the 2 legendaries, but surprisingly it was not doing much damage, or at least not enough to validate how much effort they were putting into it.
As they flew back to avoid another hit, Alain clicked his tongue and looked over at Steven.
"What do we do? I don't know if we can win!"
But Steven didn't answer, because just then Kyogre and Groudon clashed again and the energy hit against the barrier, causing more pain in Steven. He nearly fell off but caught himself.
With a pained expression he pulled himself up and took a few deep breaths, "We...just need more time…" he muttered, but Alain didn't like the sound of that.
Then back down on the ground, over with the Admins, Maxie and Archie managed to pick themselves up and Shelly, Amber, and Blaise managed to go explain the situation with Wallace and the Elite 4.
And unsurprisingly they didn't like it either, but they really didn't have any choice to be picky right about now.
Meanwhile Tabitha was still trying to recover, but since he was controlled for less time he managed to get up not long after and join the fight again.
As for Maxie and Archie, even though they were weak, they had to give this everything they had, so they threw out their real aces, Camerupt and Sharpedo, and with the last of their strength Maxie pressed the Mega Stone on his glasses and Archie pressed the one on his anchor.
Both of the Pokémon managed to Mega Evolve before the duo collapsed on the ground from overexertion, but that didn't matter. All that did matter was that they could still give orders, and that's frankly all that mattered at the moment.
With them at least giving some support, everyone heard about some of the exploitable weaknesses that the legendaries had. Now if they could get to them, that was a different story.
Like one of the things Maxie said was that Kyogre's lower belly was completely vulnerable if they could get one hit in.
And Archie said that they need to aim between the cracks in Groudon's armor, but again considering the fact that they also couldn't use any Water-type moves, the usefulness of that one was debatable.
But there were some that were actually kinda useful, but that's not for now.
Oh and in case you're wondering why they haven't tried to call off the members of Team Aqua and Magma from their earlier command to destroy Hoenn, they did, it's just no one answered. Like there was no one left to answer. I wonder why it totally has nothing to do with Ash, you gotta believe me.
Over with the Elite 4, Sidney's Absol and Shiftry darted between explosions, hitting Groudon over and over, while Phoebe was using her Ghosts like her new Cofagrigus to redirect hits from hitting any of her friends.
Glacia's Walrein had frozen entire sections of ocean into unstable platforms, giving everyone temporary ground to stand on and still be able to hit the Legendaries, and Drake's Salamence was the one that was doing the most damage between the 4 of them.
But as they did, they began talking to each other.
"They've been fighting for such a long time, but they don't seem tired at all," Sidney muttered.
Drake nodded and rubbed his chin, "They're both true to their name of being the legendary Pokémon of Hoenn, Sidney...their bottomless energy."
Glacia continued, "It's starting to produce its own natural phenomenon."
Phoebe looked over and nodded, "Uh-huh! I noticed it too!"
Drake nodded, "The energy emanating from the clash is trapped since it's being contained from 3 sides and has been pushed back into the area."
"But the fight between Kyogre and Groudon is continuing and growing stronger by the minute," Glacia said.
"That means the energy inside is getting bigger, and if it can't dissipate that means there is only one place for that energy to go," Phoebe finished. After all she may be carefree but she isn't stupid, she's actually pretty smart if she tries.
"Up," Sidney said, looking up at the sky, and there because of all the energy having to get redirected to the sky, the sky was completely blocked by dark clouds.
Then over by Green and Gary, the 2 of them after making sure Courtney was somewhere safe went back to fighting, however because the time went on for so long they pulled Blastoise and Venusaur back into their balls to rest for a bit and began using their other Pokémon.
Not that it was creating that much of a difference. If Gary had to estimate, he thinks that over all of this they maybe did 25% of their health, and most of that was because they were fighting each other still.
Gary pulled out his phone and was about to text Ash again to demand where he was, but then speak of the devil, Ash teleported next to them with his Gardevoir.
Gary immediately spun around, "About time, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!"
Ash raised a finger to stop him, "You wanna yell at me or you wanna tell me how things have been here?"
"Honestly both, but whatever," Gary huffed, "Well you see that, we're fighting that, so just hit it really hard. That's our main plan right now."
"Bruh, I already knew that, tell me something I don't know," Ash said as he threw out 3 Poké Balls, releasing Sceptile, Blaziken, and finally Charizard.
"Ok, I really don't know, this is worse than when we fought you know who," Green sighed, "I really wish I still had Moltres helping…"
"I could really use Zapdos," Gary muttered.
"And both of you are relying too much on legendaries," Ash bonked them both on the head.
"Ow," Gary rubbed his head, "I know you aren't talking, don't you have like 3 legendaries on you?"
"Well one is a Mythical technically," Ash said.
"Not the point, why aren't you using that now? We could use it!"
"I will, just in a bit, I already called backup," Ash said with a smirk, but then he looked at Gary, "But I need to talk to you Gary, remember when you talked about that girl you ran into?"
"Eh? Yeah why?" Gary asked in surprise.
"I talked to her, not the time, but she said she lost something, did she drop anything when she ran?"
Gary tilted his head but pulled out the scroll, "Well, Umbreon managed to steal this from her when she ran out, but it's kinda like a Technical Machine, where it has one move in it."
Ash took it and looked it over and yep...he couldn't understand this wording, but if this is what she dropped and this is a Technical Machine, then Ash has a pretty good idea what this is.
"Oh by the way Ash," Green cut in, and before Ash could look over she immediately clasped the ring around Ash's wrist, "Here you go~"
Ash blinked and looked at the ring that he was wearing like a bracelet, "So do I even want to ask?"
"Power of Friendship BS," Gary said.
Ash nodded immediately, "Ok got it," then he held the scroll, "By the way I'm keeping this, I know how to use it."
"Fine by me, let's just get this over with, I need to try and call Daisy once this is all over," Gary huffed and pulled out Blastoise again, he's had enough time to rest.
"Hey do you still have that thingy," Green said pointing to her wrist. She knew full well it was called a Dynamax Band, she just didn't say it, while she threw out Venusaur again.
Ash pulled back his sleeve, "Yeah, but charging it is hard so I've got to only use it when it counts."
"Alright, let's just get this over with," Gary said holding up his wrist that had the bracelet on it.
"Just try to keep up Gar-bear," Green said as she raised hers too.
"The 3 of us together again, reminds me of when things weren't stupid," Ash raised his finally too, and as they did at the same time they all pressed their Keystones.
Blastoise and Venusaur immediately went back into Mega form, and with Ash pouring more Aura into his Keystone, Sceptile, Blaziken, and Charizard all Mega Evolved.
While Sceptile and Blaziken immediately jumped away to join in the fight, the 3 rings around each of the trio's wrists began glowing, then they snapped apart releasing a sparkling energy that went to their Pokémon, and now the real fight could start.
At that moment Kyogre and Groudon slammed into each other again and the shockwave blasted across the ocean, everyone dug in, Steven winced again up above, the barrier holding but groaning under the pressure.
Ash looked up, "…Yeah alright enough talking." His eyes lit up red, "Come on let's do this."
He began spreading his Aura out and started using his own Resonance, the one he can do. This stupid prophecy wants to put BS in his way, he'll return it with interest
For now he limited it to spreading with his Pokémon, along with Gary and Green's, still needed to conserve enough for after this was over, and he was not good enough with his curse stiff to use it confidently
Immediately Mega Sceptile appeared running along Kyogre's back and jumping up delivering [Leaf Blade] at the back of Kyogre's neck.
At the same time Mega Blaziken came in from below with [High Jump Kick], smashing Groudon in the jaw, making it have to close it, and then with a flicker Pikachu and Vee appeared moving with [Extreme Speed] and when they got on top of them Pikachu slammed down into Kyogre with a [Volt Tackle] while Vee hit Groudon with an [Iron Tail].
Both attacks slammed directly into the 2 legendaries' backs, and as soon as Pikachu and Vee hit them, their legendary resistance was broken, meaning now everyone had their chance.
Sceptile and Blaziken grabbed the 2 then flew back before the legendaries could hit them in revenge.
But just then vines burst from the ground and grabbed both of them, slamming both of them. It was [Frenzy Plant] and it came from Venusaur, it was the new move that Green just got from Ultima's ring.
And yes it was actually managing to restrain both of the legendaries, since each of the moves inside Ultima's rings are all Master rank.
Green got a smug look and looked over at the boys, "Oh I guess I'm the only one that can use my new secret technique, too bad for you boys~" she stuck her tongue out, "Guess only one of us gets to show off."
Gary ignored her and pointed forward, "[Flash Cannon!]"
Blastoise got down and fired his bright silver beam into Groudon as they were being held down, while Ash's Charizard flew in and delivered a [Thunder Punch] into Kyogre's head, both attacks causing the legendaries to stagger back actually feeling that one.
As soon as they did everyone saw their chance, and so everyone who still had a Pokémon that could attack began blasting both Groudon and Kyogre from every side with [Leaf Storm], [Flash Cannon], [Thunderbolt], [Dragon Pulse], [Rock Slide], [Meteor Mash], and a lot more from every trainer here.
Everyone just kept spamming it back to back, but then as the 2 legendaries realized, 'hey, these guys are kinda starting to hurt, let's take this seriously then fight after,' so they decided to start focusing on attacking them instead of each other, their fight would wait until after they were done.
While everyone was giving it their all, from behind where Green, Gary, and Ash were, 5 figures teleported in, May, Brendan, Juan, Tate, and Liza.
May adjusted her dress and looked around then saw the gang, "Wow."
Brendan also nodded rubbing his chin, "…This is way worse than I thought."
Tate raised his hand, "Sup."
Liza waved.
Juan smiled elegantly, "Apologies for the delay."
Ash, Green, and Gary blinked in unison, "…You guys got dressed up for the apocalypse?" Gary asked.
May looked offended, "YOU LEAVE THE DRESS OUT OF THIS."
"To be fair, we have no room to talk," Ash waved his hand at his neck, "Remember last year."
"Yeah, man," Green sighed then gave a thumbs up to May, "May, I love the dress, but now I wish I wore mine."
"Can we talk about that later," Gary cut in, "We still have to survive here."
"You are right, that is what we are here for," Juan said, as he released his Milotic.
Tate and Liza immediately released Solrock and Lunatone too.
Ash looked over at them and smiled, "So, did you guys learn it?"
"Ha you bet we did, we're way stronger than last time," Brendan said grabbing his own bicep.
"And after this is over we've still got to pay you back for leaving us there alone," May huffed with a smile.
"Hey, not my fault you guys are in the chosen one club," Ash stuck his tongue out, "But any time anywhere, bring it, just not right now."
"I'm not even gonna ask what he means by that," Gary muttered, "Let's just finish this now."
May and Brendan nodded, then they both took a deep breath as their Plusle and Minun hopped off and cheered for them.
Both of them reached out with their respective hands and started focusing, as they did the red and blue marks appeared on the back of their hands, and over with Groudon and Kyogre similar marks began appearing over their heads.
They both immediately started thrashing and roaring to try and break out, and while May and Brendan tried they eventually gasped for air and felt a cold sweat.
"They're still too strong," May said wiping the sweat off her head, but at least with this it confirmed that Groudon and Kyogre couldn't turn them into puppets.
"We need to weaken them just a little more!" Brendan said.
"Sounds easy to me," Ash punched his palm, "If it's giving a beatdown then that's what I do best."
"Other than the other things you so called, 'do best,'" Gary muttered, making Ash elbow him slightly.
"Ah, I missed this," Green said dreamily, "After this is over, I think we all deserve a nice big gift~" Green said looking over at Ash.
"Green, I'm still considering not getting you that gift after what you did," Ash said without even having to look at her.
Green gasped and put her hands together, "Come on Ash, we're saving Hoenn isn't that good enough?"
As that was going on, May and Brendan, as soon as they took a second to recover, quickly stood up and got ready.
"Alright let's do this!" May said pumping her fist.
They both released their Pokémon, Blaziken and Swampert, and then without even wasting another second they both raised up their Keystones and pressed them.
Blaziken and Swampert immediately burst into light and went into their Mega forms to join in the fight. This was it, the final push, they had to give it all they had.
All their Pokémon flew and ran in to join, just as Kyogre and Groudon were pushing back with another [Origin Pulse] and [Precipice Blades], and after everything Brawly, Wattson, Flannery, and Roxanne's Pokémon got knocked out and they were out of Pokémon.
Along with over by the Frontier Brains, other than Anabel, Brandon, and Spencer, the others lost most of their Pokémon and couldn't keep fighting, while the Regi trio were not doing too hot anymore.
And as for Alain, now that they had post-awakened May and Brendan, he was debatably the weakest one here now. The only reason he was still able to keep joining in the fight was because he had Steven as support.
As for Steven he was visibly starting to slow down too, and breathing hard. The first one to even notice it was Wallace but he was stuck on the ground and couldn't call out to him since they were literally fighting for their lives here.
But even though it seemed like they were at a net negative by losing most of the Gym Leaders and Frontier Brains, that wasn't a problem at all anymore because in the sky the clouds began to split. In the sky they were here finally.
Through the clouded sky Rayquaza finally arrived with Wally on his back, breaking through the energy cloud that Groudon and Kyogre made easily like it was made of paper.
And as it did, finally with Rayquaza's power, the weather, Primordial Sea and Desolate Land, was finally cut off, and everyone could see the sky again.
However that did not mean everyone now felt hope. I mean they did for about 2 seconds, but then they saw behind Rayquaza in the sky, they saw it. The Grand Meteor Delta, heading straight towards them, and since they could see it from space, that meant that it was big.
And collectively everyone who didn't already know about Grand Meteor Delta immediately screamed in their heads, 'MORE?!'
And collectively the Hoenn Gym Leaders thought maybe getting fired after this wouldn't be so bad, they might get to finally rest.
It was important to note none of them knew the President of the Pokémon Association was dead, so they still thought after all of this was over they would all get fired.
But one thing at a time, because even though this was the situation they were not going to let despair win. They would keep fighting. Even if they couldn't battle anymore because all their Pokémon were knocked out, they'd find another way to help.