?sclaimer: I don't claim to own any characters in the story. The plot is mostly mine, with several events from Diamond and Pearl tying in, and any character you will never ever ever find in any Pokemon game in existence will probably be an original character. Depending on the character, I may claim to own him/her, but for people like Cynthia's parents, it's fine. No copyright violations intended. Specific other types of violations, maybe. *wink*

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"Hi, Cynthia!"
"Hi, Gardenia!"
The two eight-year-olds ran off to the playground together, where they hid in their "secret clubhouse". The clubhouse was located in the bushes behind the statue of Arceus in Eterna City, and had originally been found by Rose, Gardenia's Budew. Cynthia often came to Eterna with her mother, and she would run off and play with Gardenia while her mother shopped for food and other household stuff. Cynthia didn't know exactly what. Meanwhile, the girls sat in their clubhouse, laughing and joking around.
"Are you going to be a pokemon trainer?" Gardenia asked suddenly.
"Of course I am," Cynthia told the red-headed girl. "I'm going to go all around Sinnoh and catch some pokemon, then I'm going to beat the gym leaders and the Elite Four and become the Champion!"
"Yeah," Gardenia answered. "Have fun with that."
"No, really! I'm going to have Spirit and Luke, and I'm going to have a Garchomp and a Milotic and a Roserade and a Gastrodon!" Cynthia insisted.
"But I thought I was going to have a Roserade!" Gardenia whined.
"There's more than one Roserade in the world, you know."
"Oh, yeah!"
"How's Rose?" Cynthia asked.
"She's okay. She evolved, you know." Gardenia answered.
"Really?" Cynthia exclaimed, letting out the sort of squeak a little girl emits when very excited. "Can I see?"
"Sure." Gardenia tossed a poke ball on the ground, and a Roselia emerged.
"She's so pretty!" Cynthia said, staring at the little rose plant. "She didn't get much taller, though."
"Budew, Roselia, and Roserade are all that short," a blonde-haired boy said, crawling out of the bushes. The two girls and the pokemon turned to face him.
"Who are you?" Gardenia demanded.
"My name's Volkner," the boy introduced himself. "Who are you?"
"I'm Cynthia and this is Gardenia," Cynthia answered. "How come we've never seen you around here?"
"Oh, I'm just visiting," he answered. "I live in Sunyshore City."
"I'm visiting too!"
"Where do you live?"
"Celestic Town."
"Didn't you see the sign?" Gardenia interrupted them crossly. Volkner stared at her, looking puzzled.
"What sign?" Volkner asked.
"The one that says 'no boys allowed'," she replied.
"I didn't see any signs," the boy told her.
"Me, neither," Cynthia agreed.
"Oh, really?" Gardenia said. "It's right there." She pointed.
"Oh, you mean the branch," Volkner said.
Gardenia looked startled. "What? No, the sign!"
"There's no sign, Gardenia," Cynthia told her, peering into the bushes.
"But...oh, no!" Gardenia exclaimed.
"What?" Volkner and Cynthia asked in unison. Volkner looked at her.
"Jynx," Volkner said. Cynthia scowled.
"I forgot to put the sign up!"
"Oh," said Cynthia.
"You had me thinking there was a wild Weavile right behind us," Volkner told her.
"There is," Gardenia told him.
He spun around so quickly that he fell over, and the two girls started giggling, while Rose looked a bit concerned. Volkner got up and glared at them.
"That wasn't funny," he told them.
"Yes it was!" Gardenia laughed, falling onto her back. "It totally was!"
"It was pretty funny," Cynthia agreed.
Volkner sniffed. "Anyway, what kinds of pokemon do you have?"
Gardenia laughed. "Why do you care? They could beat yours any day!"
"Wanna bet?" he retorted.
"Yeah," she replied. "I do!"
"Uh, guys?" Cynthia tried to interrupt.
"Fine!" Volkner told Gardenia. "Let's at least get out of this bush so there's room for our pokemon."
"You're just scared that your pokemon would lose because my pokemon are grass type!"
"Am not!"
"Fine," Gardenia said airily. "Let's go." She walked out of the "clubhouse" with Rose, Volkner trailing just behind them. Cynthia sighed and brought up the rear, but her cloak got caught on a branch. By the time she'd gotten it unstuck, Gardenia and Volkner had both sent out their pokemon. Gardenia had Rose and Twiggy, her Turtwig, in front of her, while Volkner sported a Remoraid and a powerful-looking Luxio. Quietly, Cynthia released Luke and Spirit.
*What's with those two?* Spirit asked.
*Gardenia's being her usual, disagreeable self,* Cynthia replied.
*Who's the guy?* Luke inquired, sizing up Volkner's pokemon. Spirit had taught Luke how to talk with his mind, much as he had with Cynthia, although Luke seemed to adapt to it far more easily than she had. He'd also matured a lot in the several months since he hatched.
*His name's Volkner. He's from Sunyshore.*
*His pokemon look tougher than Gardenia's."
*Yeah,* Spirit agreed.
"Two on two?" Volkner called to Gardenia.
"You bet," she replied. "Your Remoraid is going down easy."
"That's what you think."
*We can't let them battle,* Cynthia told Spirit and Luke. *None of us are old enough. You have to be ten to become a trainer.*
*Well, what are we going to do about it?* Luke asked.
*I'll stop Volkner's pokemon,* Spirit said. *You stop Gardenia's.*
*No problem,* Luke replied.
Cynthia felt completely unnecessary.
"Alright," Gardenia shouted. "we'll start in three...two...one...Rose, Twiggy, use razor leaf!"
"Remy, use aurora beam! Lux, use Spark!" Volkner called.
Rose and Twiggy immediately began hurling leaves, while the Remoraid shot a rainbow-colored beam from his mouth and the Luxio charged, his fur crackling with electricity. Luke and Spirit took action immediately, jumping between the battling pokemon. Luke used quick attacks repeatedly to knock all the razor leaves off course and into the ground, while Spirit used ominous wind to knock Lux off his feet. Spirit quickly used spite on Remy, who looked baffled as the rainbow beam abruptly vanished and he was unable to fire off another.
"Stop it," Cynthia told Gardenia and Volkner. "You both know we're not supposed to battle. We're too young."
The two looked guiltily at her, then at each other.
"She's right," Volkner said.
"As usual," Gardenia muttered.
They and their pokemon joined Cynthia and they walked back to the clubhouse together. Volkner walked beside Cynthia.
"Where'd you get your pokemon?" he asked curiously. "Spiritomb and Riolu are both really rare."
"I get that a lot," she answered. "My parents gave me Spirit. I don't know why, but I think it has something to do with my favorite color."
"Your favorite color?"
"Black."
"Oh. What about your Riolu?"
"I hatched him from an egg I got last Arceus Night," Cynthia told him.
"Who gave you the egg?" Gardenia asked. Cynthia had never told her everything about how she'd gotten Luke.
"I don't know," Cynthia answered, frowning a little. "The tag just said 'to Cynthia'." She thought of something and looked at Spirit. "Don't you usually keep watch over the house at night?" She asked it.
*Yeah,* Spirit replied. *Every night since that Linoone broke in a few months ago.*
"Oh," she said. "So you didn't see who put the egg in front of my door?" She remembered how Spirit had known about the egg before she or her family had.
*Sort of. Basically, I "see" by detecting the life force of people or pokemon,* it explained. Apparently ghost pokemon aren't actual ghosts, since they have a life force, too. It's very faint, though. Anyway, whoever put Luke's egg by your door had a LOT of life force. He or she, I don't know which, just looked like a big, swirling cloud to me.*
"Sort of like you," Cynthia told it.
*I guess so.*
"What'd it say?" Volkner asked.
"Spirit says that he doesn't see like we do, instead he sees the 'life force' of people and pokemon," Cynthia replied. "Apparently whoever left the egg had so much life force that they just looked like a swirly cloud. By the way, ghost types aren't really ghosts, because they have a little bit of life force, too."
"Ooh," Gardenia said. "That's so cool! Wait, how does it see plants?"
*I don't,* Spirit told Cynthia, and she conveyed the message.
"So how can you see Rose and Twiggy?"
*Grass pokemon aren't really plants, the same way ghost pokemon aren't really ghosts. And since one of you is probably going to ask how I can see attacks to dodge them, physical attacks it's obvious. I can see the pokemon, so I can see it attacking. When a pokemon uses a special attack, though, they put a little bit of their life force into it, and that's how I see the attack. That's why a pokemon can only use an attack a certain number of times.*
Cynthia took a while to repeat all of that.
"Sweet," Volkner said.
"Yeah," agreed Gardenia.
Cynthia heard her mother calling for her.
"I've got to go," she told them. "See ya!"
She climbed out of the bushes and saw a tall man with spiky blonde hair talking with her mother.
"Oh, there you are," her mother exclaimed. "Cynthia, I'd like you to meet Ampner."
"Hi," Cynthia said to the man.
"It's nice to meet you," Ampner told her. "Your mother has been telling me all about you." He spotted her pokemon beside her. "These must be Spirit and Luke."
"Uh huh," Cynthia replied.
*I don't like this guy,* Luke told Cynthia silently, despite being able to speak human language.
*You don't like anyone you've just met.*
*He's right, though,* Spirit agreed. *Something doesn't feel right about him.*
Cynthia ignored them.
"You haven't seen my son, by any chance?" Ampner asked. "Looks like a smaller version of me, likes showing off his Luxio?"
"Volkner?" Cynthia asked.
"Yeah, that's him."
"Hang on." Cynthia ran back to the bushes, where Gardenia and Volkner were sitting and laughing about something.
"Knock, knock," Volkner said.
"Who's there?" Gardenia giggled.
"Ice cream."
"Ice cream who?"
"Ice cream so all of Sinnoh can hear me!"
Volkner and Gardenia started laughing all over again. Rose said something to Lux, and all four of the pokemon nodded.
*Rose says that she's pretty sure Gardenia's heard that one at least six times,* Spiritomb told Cynthia.
"Volkner," Cynthia called.
"Yeah?"
"Your dad wants you."
"Oh, great," Volkner muttered, getting a sour expression. He got up and climbed out of the bushes. Gardenia followed.
"I should be getting home soon, anyway," she explained.
"Okay, bye," Cynthia and Volkner called as she ran off, Rose and Twiggy trying their hardest to keep up.
"Jynx, by the way," Volkner told Cynthia, grinning and earning a glare from her. They walked back to their parents.
"Hey, there!" Ampner called to Volkner. "Guess what?"
"What?"
"We're going through Celestic Town on the way back, and Cindy here has offered to let us stay at their house for a couple of days," he answered. Cynthia and Volkner stared.
"Seriously?" They asked.
"Jynx again," Volkner muttered to her.
*Do you want me to punch him?* Luke asked her.
*No, thanks.* Cynthia replied.
*She's lying,* Spirit told Luke, who nodded in agreement. *She's totally lying.*
The four of them began their walk toward Celestic Town, with the four pokemon trailing behind.

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As they walked through Mount Coronet, Cynthia asked Volkner about something she'd noticed.
"Hey Volkner," she said to him. "You didn't look very happy when your dad called you. How come?"
Volkner looked at her. "He's always acting like the two of us get along fine, but he never spends any time with me. I haven't done anything with him in months."
"Well, what's he doing?" Cynthia asked.
"He's usually busy running the Gym back home."
"Your dad is the Sunyshore Gym Leader?"
"Yeah," Volkner muttered.
Cynthia started to respond, but suddenly she heard a very faint noise, as if a pokemon was trapped somewhere very far away and was crying for help. She stopped walking to listen, and Lux walked straight into her. The other three humans turned to look at her.
"What's wrong?" Cindy asked.
"Do you hear that?" Cynthia asked.
"Hear what?" Ampner asked her, tilting his head to listen.
"That noise," she replied, looking up at the roof of the tunnel. "I think it's coming from above us."
"I hear it, too," Volkner said, looking around. "It's like a huge pokemon is being held somewhere distant and wants to escape."
The pokemon all listened for a moment as the cries continued, then Lux said something and Remy nodded.
*We don't hear anything,* Spirit told Cynthia.
"You're just hearing things," Cindy told her daughter. She turned to Ampner. "She does this sometimes. I'm not sure why."
"Last time you said that," Cynthia pointed out. "Spirit was talking to me."
Her mother scowled. The noise faded away.
"It stopped," Cynthia and Volkner spoke at the same time for the fourth time that day.
"Jynx," Volkner said. "You just keep setting yourself up for those."
Cynthia scowled and punched him in the shoulder. The rest of the trip home was uneventful. As they entered Celestic, Volkner noticed the cave mouth in the middle of the town.
"What's in there?" he pointed.
"The ruins," Cynthia told him without looking, already knowing what he meant.
"Can I go inside?"
"Maybe tomorrow I'll take you," she told him rather smugly. "No one's allowed inside unless my grandma is with them. Not even my mommy."
"Oh," Volkner said, looking very disappointed.
They entered the house, and Cindy took care of their guests' shoes as Cynthia showed them to the guest room. They passed her father, George, in the hall.
"Who's this?" he asked her.
"Daddy, this is Ampner and Voltner," she introduced them. "Mommy invited them to stay with us a couple of days."
"Great to meet you," Ampner shook hands with George. "Cindy mentioned you a lot on the way here."
"Cynthia," George told her. "Why don't you and Volkner go play a game. I'll help Ampner get settled in."
"Okay," the kids said, hurrying down the hall to her room. When they got there, Volkner grinned at her.
"Jynx."

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The next day after breakfast, George showed Ampner around town while Cindy cleaned the dishes, leaving Cynthia and Volkner to explore. Cynthia took him to her grandma's house across town.
"Hi, grandma!" she said as they entered.
"Hello, darling," her grandmother greeted them, looking up from a book she was reading. "Who is this young man you've brought with you?"
"This is Volkner," Cynthia answered.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," her grandma told Volkner. "Please, just call me Granny."
"Nice to meet you, too," he replied.
"I assume you would like to go see the ruins?" she asked.
"Yes, please!" they said.
"Jynx," Cynthia and Volkner told each other at the same time.
"Jynx Jynx," Cynthia said before Volkner reacted. He scowled at her, and she made a face at him. Granny chuckled.
"Kids these days," she muttered to herself, sighing.
The three of them left the house and went to the ruins. A guard there saw Granny and let them through.
"Why is there a guard?" Volkner asked as they descended a huge set of stairs.
"A few years ago, some guy with a big yellow 'G' on his chest tried to steal some stuff from the Arceus and Darkrai shrines," Cynthia explained. "I forget what he wanted, but my grandmother caught him leaving and kicked his butt."
"He was trying to steal the Azure Flute from Arceus's shrine, and the Darkness Pipe from Darkrai's," Granny told them. "I won't tell you what they're for, but they're extremely important and mustn't be allowed to fall into the wrong hands."
"That's pretty cool, though," Volkner replied.
"No it isn't!" Cynthia protested. "If he had gotten away with those things...something bad would have happened, I think."
"No," Volkner replied. "I meant your grandma pummeling him into submission. That's awesome."
"Oh," Cynthia muttered.
"Thank you," her grandmother told Volkner. She turned to Cynthia. "What a fine gentleman he is," she whispered so Volkner couldn't hear. "I think he's a keeper." She winked mischieously.
As they continued down the stairs, Cynthia thought she heard the same cries she'd heard in Mount Coronet. She stopped, noticing Volkner had halted as well, seeming to hear the noise as well. Cynthia's grandmother took no notice and continued to descend the stairs. The two kids started moving again, still trying to locate the origin of the noise.
They reached the bottom of the staircase and entered a large cavern with several paintings on the walls. Granny took them over to the painting on the far left, which portrayed a white, horse-like creature floating in a void of swirling colors. Strange symbols were etched at the bottom.
"This is Arceus," Granny told them, pointing to the horse. Cynthia had heard of Arceus, but never knew what it actually looked like. "The runes translate approximately to 'In the beginning, there was One, and only One.' There's no way to translate them exactly, because the language is so old, but that's the general idea."
"Tell us the whole story," Cynthia told her grandmother.
"Oh, very well. I must warn you, though. It gets very repetitive." She walked slowly around the room, pausing at each mural to translate the inscription.

"'In the beginning, there was One, and only One. The One created two others, and these Two formed Time and Space.
"'From the One came a Giant, and the Giant, in turn, created Three beings, one of Ice, one of Stone, and one of Iron. From the bodies of the Three, pieces broke off and gathered once again. The Giant created the Shadow to maintain control over the Three, but the Shadow betrayed him, casting him into eternal slumber. The One, sensing betrayal from the Shadow, created three Spirits of the Moon to combat the Shadow.
"'The One created a being of Land, and this being formed the pieces of the Three into the planets, forming the Land. The One created a being of Water, and this being caused it to rain upon the planets, forming the Water. The One created a being of Air, and this being gathered the winds, forming the Air. The One created a being of the Forest, and this being traveled across the Land, forming the Forest.
"'The One created a being of the Mind, and this being created Pokemon. The One created a being of Wishes, and this being created Humans. The One created a being of Knowledge, a being of Emotion, and a being of Willpower, and these three gave Spirit to all the pokemon and humans.
"'The One created a being of Death to watch over and protect the Dead. The being of Death created a Spirit to bring the souls of the dead to the underworld.
"'Drained from its efforts, the One fell dormant, leaving Time and Space in control of all things.
"'The Two created three Guardians of Pokemon, one of Thunder, one of Water, and one of Flame, to watch over and protect the pokemon. The Two created three Guardians of Humans, one of Frost, one of Storms, and one of Heat, to watch over and protect the humans. The Two created a Guardian of the Sky to maintain control of the Guardians of Thunder, Water, and Flame, and a Guardian of the Ocean to maintain control of the Guardians of Frost, Storms, and Heat.
"'The Two created five beings of Void to maintain order on the other worlds.
"'The being of Water created two Spirits to help maintain the pokemon of the Water. The being of Land created a Spirit to help maintain the pokemon of the Land. The being of Air created two Spirits to help maintain the pokemon of the Air. The being of the Forest created a Spirit to help maintain the pokemon of the Forest.
"'The Two, exhausted by their work, joined the One in slumber.'"

"What," Volkner asked. "there's no more?"
"I think there used to be," Granny answered. She pointed to a pile of rubble nearby. "This is just the first twenty-five. I'm sure more was explained on that wall, but we'll never know."
"Isn't there anything else in here?" Cynthia asked.
"Of course there is!" her grandma answered. She led them to a wall, then tapped on one of the bricks. "I figured this out myself." Somehow, the bricks slid aside and a door opened, revealing a long hallway. The three of them stepped through the door and saw that the hallway was lined with pedestals, each of which held an ancient artifact. Each artifact had a picture of one of the pokemon in the murals above it. The Dialga picture hung above a strange ball that sparkled and reflected the light like a diamond. Palkia's picture hung above another orb of the same size, but this one was smooth and shone like a pearl. A third orb sat below a picture of Giratina, but unlike the others, it didn't shine or sparkle. Instead, it seemed to absorb the light, and the center of the orb was pitch black. A strange, crescent shaped object sat on Cresselia's pedestal, and Ho-oh's and Lugia's pedestals each held a feather, but while Ho-oh's feather sparkled in all the colors of the rainbow, Lugia's shone a metallic silver. Regice's pedestal held an oddly straight-edged chunk of ice that didn't melt, Regirock's held a large orange stone that apparently never chipped or eroded, and Registeel's held a seven-inch thick piece of metal that Cynthia could bend with her bare hands. At the end of the hall stood Arceus's and Darkrai's pedestals. Arceus's used to hold the Azure Flute, but when the thief had tried to make off with it, they'd switched the artifact to a collection of sixteen mysterious plates of various colors. Darkrai's stand now held a jagged red bead from the collar Darkrai had around its neck. A huge mural depicting Arceus and Darkrai locked in battle covered the back wall.
"You youngsters should be getting home soon," Granny told Cynthia and Volkner after they spent a while looking around. Cynthia had been examining a lightning-charged fang from Raikou, but she ran over to her grandmother, who was staring at the mural.
"You're coming with us, right?" Cynthia asked.
"Yes, yes," she replied. "You little people should go on ahead. I'll catch up soon enough."
"Okay," Volkner agreed, and he and Cynthia scampered back into the main room.

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Cynthia's grandmother stood still for a while, looking at the painting, then spoke to seemingly nobody.
"Why did you do it, Darkrai?" she asked.
A shadow detached itself from the shadow of Darkrai's pedestal, drifting across the floor, and black pokemon rose from it.
"I did it because Arceus is weak," Darkrai answered her. "The fool spent all his energy creating other beings to do the work, when he could have saved half his energy by doing it all himself."
"If he hadn't, you wouldn't exist," the old woman told it calmly.
"But he did," Darkrai retorted. "and I'm going to take over now. The others are all still asleep, so don't bother trying to stop me."
With that, it shimmered and was gone.Chapter End Notes:You might have noticed that this chapter is abnormally long. The original was going to be about five pages long, so I had to cut some details out. The reason it took so long is because I had to make up a legend with all the natural legendaries (not Mewtwo) that was consistent with what I know about the Pokemon world, than make up a mural to go with each, most of which I ended up removing. I would have used the official history, but it's very inconsistent. Apparently Dialga and Palkia created the world, but seven years ago, that was Groudon's, Kyogre's, and Rayquaza's job.

I posted the entire history, too