Arceus lay silent in the large crater, finally dormant after a grueling battle. No one spoke a word. I felt a little fatigued due to the destruction of the forest around me, but I had to shrug it off for now. I expected Arceus to simply get up and continue fighting, but he never did. I guess that meant we really had won. It was at this point that Jirachi finally broke the silence by asking, "So now that Arceus is out of the picture, what are we supposed to do with him?"

To that Necrozma replied, "Leave that to me." Suddenly the light extrusions from him flared red, and a strange shadowy darkness overcame everything. The dark effects then faded, and next to Arceus' body, dark blotches appeared in the ground. From them rose the enormous silhuette of the dragon I knew as Giratina. I couldn't see it through the shadow that enveloped his entire body, save his blood red eyes and spikes, but I assumed his wounds had healed by now, judging by his rather fluid movements. 

In the same raspy voice he always had, Giratina asked, "What do you need now, Necrozma? I would rather have much time to myself than engage in another battle so soon."

With confidence Necrozma said, "This is not about that, Giratina. You see, now that I've had my sanity restored, I made it a priority to overthrow the oppressive ruler that was Arceus and rule the legends as I had originally. Take Arceus into the Distortion World with you, and do not let him out. That should be much easier now that we've greatly weakened him. 

Staring down at Arceus, Giratina then said, "I have been waiting far too long for this. Thank you for letting me deliver justice to my tormentor. Know that this is not over, however. Farewell." Spreading his wings, Giratina completely covered Arceus with his own shadowy body, and they both disappeared into the earth.

It didn't take for me to stare at Necrozma given Giratina's last sentence, and I could tell everyone else was feeling similarly. Necrozma then gave in, saying, "I guess I never explained that, did I? Forgive me. Giratina was never Arceus' rival, he was mine. We battled for control of the world until I eventually won out. After Arceus drained my power, I assume that he had locked away Giratina in the Distortion World, which is likely why he resents him so much."

That explained a lot, if I was being honest. It explained why Giratina had fought Necrozma in the first place. Yet there was still more to find out. Necrozma continued, "Now that Arceus is gone, I am free to take the legendary throne and rule as I had originally. I will be going about this alone. That means that the rest of you are now dismissed, and are free to go on with your lives. I bid you all a huge thank you, and a good bye for now. " With a flap of his four wings, Necrozma soared higher into the air and farther away until he was seen no more.

At once everyone had left the scene, and although I had stayed here, I was filled with a happiness I hadn't experienced in a long time. After this long ordeal, I could finally return to my beloved forest. All my friends were waiting for me. My parents, too, they were probably worried sick. All this in mind, I had noticed that something felt... wrong. I couldn't tell what it was. The internal stability tied to Pinwheel Forest I had this time. It felt empty. No, that wasn't the right word. It was more... chilling. I couldn't explain it, and I really wanted to find out. Sensing the disturbance had come from the north, I assumed that was where my new home was in comparison to Alola, and as I prepared to take off, I froze upon hearing, "Hold on a second, Hano!"

I wasn't very surprised to see the voice belong to Marina. Smiling a little, I said, "I suppose you want to say goodbye, Marina?"

Sighing, she replied, "Okay, that's true, but I also have another favor to ask of you, please." 

Nodding to show I was continuing, she continued, "I've wanted to know what exactly caused me to be thrust into this world the moment I got my memories back. What had happened to Groudon? I really wanted to find out, but no one has specified what happened to him. Please, can you travel back to that moment and find out for me? You don't have to tell me now. I know you want to see your friends again. But please, can you do this last favor for me?"

I didn't think it could hurt to time travel again, but then my mind raced back to what Dialga had said earlier... "You should only time travel if it's absolutely necesary. Even then, be very careful. Playing with time is no laughing matter. Even a slight alteration can change the course of history as we know it." There was truth to Dialga's words. As much as I wanted to help Marina, was it really worth it to risk the timeline of the next three years' events in the process? It was a gripping decision, one that seemingly had no answer. But as much as I wanted to be caurious about this, Marina had saved my life. I had to pay her back somehow.

"You know what, I'll do it. You'd saved my life. This is the least I could do. I still have to get back to Unova, though, so I have to go for now. It's been a fun couple of days, hasn't it?" I shakily replied.

Bursting out in joy, Marina waved her flippers saying, "Thank you so much, this means so much to me! I myself have to get back to my house, though. Where do you live, actually? I never thought of that."

I simply replied, "Nacrene City, actually. Or at least, I used to live there. I just live in the forest now. It's where I'm supposed to be."

Grinning, she said, "Well, I hope things go well for you. I can't thank you enough for all you've done for me." 

Hovering a little closer to the ground, I said, "You've done a lot for me, too, and you've definitely the closest friend I've made in a long time. I should be thanking you, too. One final goodbye, then?"

With a smug look, Marina said, "I'll give you more than that, Hano," before tackling me in a giant hug causing me to fall to the forest floor. After I got over my initial shock, which admittedly lasted a few seconds, I silently returned the favor, before Marina thankfully got off me. Backing up with the same annoyingly smug grin, she said, "Is that good enough for you?"

Stammering for a moment, I finally managed to say, "You know what, yeah. Thank you. I appreciate it."

She almost looked like she was going to groan and said, "I expected more of a reaction to that, but I guess to have to go now." Pausing for a moment, Marina then shouted, "Thank you so much! I'll never forget you, Hano!"

Picking myself back up and waving, I told her, "Thank you! I could've never done all this without your help! Bye, Marina!" and then not looking back, I started flying north again, with intentions of returning to my home.

Soon, though, I thought of the promise I had made to Marina. I had every intention of fulfilling it; why not do it now and get it out of the way? The only problem was that I could travel through time, but not space. Could I make that distance all the way to Hoenn? There was nothing left to do but try. And besides, I myseld was always intrigued by the so-called Hoenn calamity myself. It would've been fascinating to find out how Groudon had 

As I zipped around through the many trees, I concentrated, my antennae picking themselves up into the air, I could've sworn I heard a familiar giggling as my vision started to blur as the same rainbow aura surrounded me once again, and finally telling myself to bring me back to the Hoenn of roughly three years ago, to the conflict that plunged Marina's life into this mess.

When the strange sensation all around me had ended, another one had hit me, like scorching heat. I opened my eyes to end up in the middle of the ocean, the sunrays shining down like a torch. In front of me, a fair distance away was Groudon. Across from him lay Kyogre. Both of them looked very, very angry. As I felt my leaflike skin begin to shrivel up a little, I realized that as much as I loved the sun now, this was way too much. Instinctively I flew closer to Kyogre until I was right in between the two's weather, but still wide out of the way of a fight. It wasn't satisfactoru, but this was the closest I'd get to good conditions.

Groudon spread his arms wide and bellowed, "Kyogre! You will meet defeat yet again today! I will not be losing this time!"

Kyogre scoffed and replied, "Bold words, Groudon. I've waited far too long for this moment to let you triumph again. Prepare for your untimely loss!"

Kyogre started to charge an attack, but was interrupted by Groudon's own laughter. As Groudon started to maliciously chuckle even more, Kyogre stared in concern before asking, "Why would you possibly laugh at a time like this, Groudon? Are you that desperate to lose?"

Finally, Groudon calmed himself, then replied, "No, Kyogre. It seems you do not realize how wrong you are. I will defeat you."

Suddenly, Groudon ceased all movement, before freezing in place, closing his eyes. From his enormous tail a red crystal sprouted out of nowhere, spreading across Groudon looking to completely encase him. I couldn't help but stare in amazement as this phenomenon, and Kyogre looked even more shocked than I was. Noticing that neither Groudon nor Kyogre had spotted me yet, I floated close enough to the ocean that I was inconspicuous, but not close enough that I would be knocked unconscious and drown. From here I continued to marvel at Groudon's transformation. 

By now the red crystal had completely covered Groudon, and for a moment time seemed to stand still. No one made a move. Soon, though, a strange, orange symbol I've never seen before looked to engrave itself into the cystalline statue's head. I looked on in nothing but sheer awe before the entire statue filled with brilliant light and blew apart.

Left there in the dust was a new Groudon. Magma flowed throughout the many cracks in his skin, which had turned a deep crimson. Various spikes across its body had become black, and the heat emitted from him was so intense I could feel it even at the large distance I was from him. With every passing second the sun seemed to get more scorchingly bright, and I noticed something surprisingly familiar about Groudon. His eyes and the magma briefly flashed orange from time to time and more noticeably, there was a shadowy aura surrounding him. I tried to rummage through my memory to find out what was so familiar about this, until it hit me. This was the way Uxie had described Dialga.

As Groudon laid his furious eyes on Kyogre, who only sunk back into the ocean with a nervous expression before shouting, "How is this possible?! How could you access your original form without the Red Orb?!"

Groudon did nothing, simply standing there. Then, he slowly opened his glowing mouth, revealing small, green particles entering. Soon they increased in number and a storm of the particles entered Groudon. As his entire body glowed green, Groudon shot out an immense Solar Beam at Kyogre, who was hit dead-on and was flung back into the ocean with a huge splash, while I stared in shock. Hundreds of questions were racing around through my head now, but at this point the rain was massively reduced and the clouds departed leaving my skin now cracking in the heat. I couldn't stand Groudon's presence anymore. 

Before I ended up suffering the same fate as the original Manaphy, I thought of my original timeline wanting to be brought back, and my internal system even in the great pressure luckily complied, surrounding me in a iridiscent aura, my antennae picking up into the air as usual. Through it, I could see Groudon finally noticing me, and in a panic I started flying away aimlessly as my vision wasn't exactly of much use. I could feel the heat of a burning Flamethrower approaching already, and in terror I sped up, not wanting to tempt fate. Thankfully my time-oriented organs worked their magic in time, and I had warped back into a less hot area, knowing that luckily Groudon's Flamethrower had fired into nothing but air.