"Please help me! Dialga!!"
Faint ripples of light flare over Sheena's body as mysterious energy begins to flow.
She's reaching out and calling to Dialga.
Dialga?
Cynthia and Caitlin both freeze for a second.
What's that supposed to mean?
Sheena has a connection to the legendary Dialga?
"The power of Overcoming is a pretty crazy kind of spiritual power. It lets humans and Pokémon link their hearts…"
Damian speaks softly to the two women.
"…even if they're in different times and spaces."
Hearing that, both Caitlin and Cynthia are stunned.
This world really is way too wild.
They've never heard of this power of Overcoming before.
As more and more of that power spills out from Sheena, visible ripples of time begin to shimmer in the sky above Michina's great mountain.
A deep dragon bellow echoes across the air as a Pokémon gleaming with diamond‑bright blue light slowly flies out of the temporal vortex.
"It appeared!"
Cynthia's eyes harden.
They actually summoned it?!
The dragon bellow rings in their ears.
The massive blue Pokémon floats in midair, imperious dragon eyes looking down on Sheena and the others.
This is Dialga—the Pokémon of myth that represents time.
It's huge, its overall silhouette like a deep‑blue sauropod dinosaur.
Metallic segments stud its body, pale blue stripes run along its frame, and faint blue divine radiance gives it an indescribably sacred feel.
Its oppressive aura is vast but held in check; there's still a weight to it.
It's obvious Dialga is reining its pressure in.
Otherwise normal humans wouldn't even be able to breathe.
"Dialga, please help me."
Sheena doesn't act like Dialga's a stranger at all.
She bites her lower lip and speaks up to Dialga.
Dialga's cool dragon eyes rest on Sheena.
Then, as if noticing something, its gaze sharpens and flicks over to Damian.
This human…
"The Jewel of Life—Arceus's Jewel of Life is missing. Could you help me find it?"
Sheena looks up at Dialga with hope.
She really has no leads at all.
She has no idea when exactly the Jewel of Life was swapped out.
Not even which generation it happened in.
All she can do is ask Dialga and Palkia for help and hope these mythical Pokémon have a way.
Dialga tilts its head slightly at her words.
Mysterious light flickers faintly in its eyes, then fades.
It's clearly said something to Sheena over their mental link; Sheena's face lights up.
"How is it?"
Damian lifts a brow.
"Dialga says it can still sense the Jewel of Life. It's still inside the temple!"
Sheena can't hide her joy.
That's great. Seriously, that's so great!
The moment she'd learned the Jewel of Life she'd guarded was a fake, it felt like the whole sky had collapsed on her.
"That's good. From here on out, just focus on searching for it properly."
Damian smiles.
"Mm. Thank you, Dialga."
Sheena finally lets out a long breath of relief.
Up in the air, seeing that Sheena has no more questions for it, Dialga turns, ready to return to its own time‑space.
"Please wait, Dialga."
Dialga looks back toward the human boy who spoke up.
There's a glint of interest in its eyes.
Honestly, out of all the humans present, this boy is the one it finds most intriguing.
The only reason it bothers indulging Sheena at all is because her ancestors had contact with its father Arceus—and because they've been guarding Arceus's Plates.
If it were just the power of Overcoming alone, Dialga might not have given Sheena the time of day.
But this human boy is different.
He's carrying the weight of many Legendary Pokémon on him.
Even Kyogre and Rayquaza.
Dialga itself finds that a little unbelievable.
Seeing Damian stop Dialga, Cynthia and the other two all look at him in confusion.
"Can I ask you a question?"
Damian looks up and asks.
Dialga doesn't answer out loud.
It just keeps its gaze on Damian.
But the fact it doesn't leave is answer enough.
If it weren't interested, Dialga would've already turned its back and returned to its own time‑space.
"Has anyone ever traveled through time to the past before?"
Damian hesitates briefly, then asks.
Time travel?
Is that even possible?
Cynthia's eyes go a little blank.
Then she glances at the time god from myth, Dialga, and feels like—maybe it's not that strange.
Dialga fixes a deep stare on Damian.
"Time is the heaviest of all things. No one is allowed to touch it."
A low, even Telepathy washes through Damian and the others' minds.
Without question, this is Dialga's voice.
It's both an explanation and a warning.
As the Pokémon representing time, no lifeform understands the "weight" of time better than Dialga.
From the moment it came into being, it has watched over the river of time.
It has watched this world's history from beginning to end.
It understands better than anyone how heavy—and how fragile—"time" really is.
Time travel sounds mystical and cool, but in truth, it isn't actually impossible.
Dialga simply will not permit anyone to travel through time.
Because if someone did manage to go back, and changed "just a little thing" in the past or the future…
History and the future could both shift violently.
"Not even the future?"
Damian's expression grows more thoughtful.
Dialga's drawing a really hard line here, like this is a bottom line it absolutely won't budge on.
But Damian knows for a fact that this particular Dialga is, in a sense, a total "double‑standard mutt."
When it couldn't do anything about a berserk Arceus, it picked some random passerby—Ash—and sent him a thousand years into the past to change history and influence the present.
Sure, that was a last‑ditch move with no other options left.
And in Journeys, the parallel‑world Team Rocket used the Red Chain to trap Dialga and Palkia.
Instead of using their power to break out of the Red Chain, those two just started beating on each other inside it.
The time‑space distortions spilled over the entire world.
Humans and Pokémon got slammed by temporal backlash; Pokémon regressed into eggs, while people reverted into their childhood forms.
That's a very special case, yeah.
Since Dialga and Palkia were locked up.
But them slugging it out inside the Red Chain really was enough to make anyone lose it.
They never stopped to consider what that kind of power would do to the world.
Then there's another question.
What if it's Arceus itself sending someone back?
Damian's pretty sure Dialga wouldn't dare touch anyone Arceus personally picked.
Dialga's dragon eyes shine with that mysterious light again.
Invisible waves of temporal power ripple out.
Then whatever it "sees" makes Dialga go quiet.
"Dialga?"
"The future… is a different matter."
After a while, Dialga finally answers.
It seems to fall deep into thought, and its gaze on Damian just grows stranger.
Even as the Pokémon representing "time," Dialga can't see every possible future clearly.
But it can see a little.
Especially now, when it's lost its Origin Orb—it really only gets a few scraps.
But what it just glimpsed almost makes Dialga suspect its own abilities.
Maybe it hasn't used its temporal power in too long.
It must be seeing things.
"???"
Damian looks back at Dialga, baffled.
He really feels like the way Dialga's looking at him is not respectful at all.
"Human, don't meddle with 'time.' The world needs the correct history, the proper progression, the proper order."
Dialga's cool, even Telepathy leaves those words and doesn't give Damian a chance to respond.
It turns away and plunges back into the vortex.
The temporal vortex churns for a while, then slowly fades out of sight.
Dialga's parting words, though, leave Damian seriously irritated.
"What's that supposed to mean? It thinks I'm gonna mess with time or something? That thing looking down on me a bit too hard—I'm a respectable person, okay?"
Damian decides this Dialga is really out of pocket.
Who doesn't know he's a guy who loves and respects history?
And it's not like he doesn't get how important "time" is.
Why would he random‑queue time travel and screw around?
What if he caused some butterfly effect and erased himself?
Even if he did time‑travel, at most he'd just catch a few Pokémon that don't exist in the present—then…
Ahem.
At most he'd just drool a little over Cogita's body, that's all.
"…"
Cynthia has nothing to say to that.
Caitlin just wears a faint, refined little smile and keeps quiet.
"Mr. Damian, I feel like Dialga's attitude toward you was… special."
Sheena looks at Damian curiously.
She really did sense something off.
Sure, she can reach Dialga and even ask for its help.
But Sheena's very clear that whether Dialga answers her or not is entirely up to Dialga's own will.
With most people, it wouldn't even bother.
With Damian, though, Dialga didn't just answer his questions.
Its attitude toward him was very… subtle.
"Who knows. Either way, that Dialga's pretty rude."
Damian shrugs.
He's already made up his mind.
Next chance he gets to cut a deal with Palkia, he's handing over the Lustrous Globe.
Let Palkia go Origin Forme and beat the crap out of Dialga for him.
That'll fix this Dialga right up.
"But at least we got good news. From here on out, Miss Sheena, just focus on tracking down the Jewel of Life."
Damian smiles at Sheena.
"Yes, this really is the best outcome. But…"
Sheena turns around and looks at the ancient temple behind her, and her face falls again.
Michina's ruins aren't especially big.
But they're not that small either.
Trying to find the Jewel of Life inside this ruin—especially after it's been missing for so long—won't be easy at all.
"It's not that hard, actually. As long as we know the Jewel of Life's somewhere in this area, we're fine."
Damian pulls out Shadow Mewtwo's Ultra Ball.
The ball pops open and Shadow Mewtwo appears.
"Mewtwo, do me a favor and scan this whole area. Find any treasure where the energy's way denser than usual."
Damian gives Shadow Mewtwo the order.
Shadow Mewtwo nods.
Deep purple psychic energy floods from its body, and in an instant, its invisible power blankets the entire Michina mountain.
And then—
"Yay—! This is amazing! Really amazing, thank you so much, Mr. Damian, thank you, Mewtwo!"
Sheena clutches the Jewel of Life, which is glowing with a soft green light, her body trembling with excitement.
Under Shadow Mewtwo's insane psychic sweep, they find the Jewel of Life in no time.
It'd sunk to the bottom of the small lake behind the temple.
For Sheena, this "lost and found" Jewel of Life might as well have been a miracle.
Without this…
If Damian didn't already seem to have a girlfriend—and if she weren't so modest—Sheena would honestly want to throw her arms around him in a huge hug.
"You're welcome, Miss Sheena. Could you let me have a good look at the Jewel of Life?"
"Of course!"
This time Sheena doesn't hesitate at all.
She hands the Jewel of Life straight to Damian.
Damian takes it and studies the divine relic closely.
So this is the treasure formed by fusing five Plates.
He can't help but be impressed.
"Kyogre, get out here and take a look at the Plate."
"Not looking. Not using it either."
"You can even use this Plate?"
"Of course I can. If I could use this Splash Plate, I'd dare fight that Shiny Rayquaza head‑on."
Kyogre's voice sounds ridiculously bold.
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