"Before there was memory… there was intent."
---
The sky above Sinnoh trembled.
Where once Dialga had ruled time and Palkia had governed space, a rip now divided the heavens—jagged, unnatural, and pulsing like an infected wound.
Ash stood in the middle of the battlefield, surrounded by craters and fragments of a world trying to remember itself. The godspawn descending from the rift was unlike anything he'd seen.
Even Eternatus had form.
Even the Ultra Beasts had laws.
But this?
This creature glitched between shapes, sometimes humanoid, sometimes vaguely resembling fused Pokémon—an Arceus head with a Kyurem core and Mewtwo's outline, wrapped in floating pixels and static-laced cries. Its scream wasn't a roar.
It was a patch note.
A line of code, screamed aloud:
> "ENTITY NOT FOUND. WORLD OVERRIDE DENIED."
---
Behind Ash, Serena gritted her teeth. "What the hell is that thing?"
Red didn't blink. "It's the past the world rejected."
And beside him, N murmured, "A creature built from deleted concepts. A being that shouldn't be—and yet is."
Ash turned to the others. His hand trembled, not from fear… but from memory.
> "It's not trying to hurt us."
> "It's trying to erase us."
---
In the digital vault below Mt. Silver, Archivus sat, his cloak made of Pokedex pages that never made it into print.
He rose from his throne.
All thirteen of his Chosen Forgotten knelt as one, each surrounded by a different glow—ghostly silver, primal red, ancient jade.
One by one, their names were spoken into the void.
> "Kael of the Cancelled Saga."
"Mira of the Lost Beta."
"Juno, from Pokémon Obsidian."
"Wren, from the timeline that ended before it began."
"Zekel, the original rival."
"Noah, the child of glitch."
"Sai, bonded with Type Null before it was canon."
"And the rest… nameless, but not powerless."
Archivus turned toward the surface, where Ash stood with the divine pen.
> "You, Ketchum, are an infection of light. A story written too long. You are the one the world refused to let go. And now… I will finish what the Editor could not."
He lifted a black cube—humming, throbbing.
The Casket of Fragments.
It held within it every erased outcome, every decision that the canon had once rejected.
And it was open.
---
Back in the battle, Pikachu was the first to move.
A bolt of lightning surged upward—not a Thunderbolt, but something purer. Instinct given form.
It struck the godspawn in the chest, where it burst into a million code-fragments, only to reform seconds later—stronger.
Ash clenched his fist.
"Lucario! Greninja! Infernape! GO!"
They moved in synch, even though years had passed since some of them had fought by his side. Lucario's Mega Aura split the sky in two. Greninja shadow-dashed, fusing with the battlefield's water vapor. Infernape howled flame as it launched itself like a meteor.
The attacks struck true.
But the creature only glitched harder—its scream now split into three languages, each one echoing a different game's original format.
And then—
It fired back.
---
Reality cracked.
Not with a move. Not a Hyper Beam or Psychic.
But with a command.
> "ERASE: ASH_KETCHUM.LINEAGE.ROOT.001"
A blast of pure negation erupted from the godspawn's mouth, heading straight for Ash.
Time froze.
Charizard landed, wings shielding Ash as the blast hit.
There was silence.
And then the world rewrote itself around them.
Ash blinked—and suddenly he was twelve again. Standing in front of Professor Oak. No Pikachu. No badges. No memories.
> "What… what is this?!"
"An overwrite field," N said, stepping through the false world. "It's trying to revert you. Break you down to the beginning."
Ash looked down at his hands. Younger. Weaker.
But his heart still held the flame.
"I'm not going back," he growled.
---
He lifted the pen.
And stabbed it into the false memory.
The world cracked again—and Ash broke through the loop, dragging his real self back into the battlefield.
He gasped. Older again. Whole again.
"Nice try."
---
From the sky above, the Thirteen descended.
Each one a god of forgotten design.
Kael wielded three Pokémon never seen before—Voxivern, a Sound/Dragon hybrid with wings made of echoes; Cryfernal, an Ice/Ghost hound with eyes like hollow stars; and Galladiance, a Fairy/Steel evolution of Gallade that shimmered like a blade of hope shattered by grief.
They weren't right. Their data didn't match this reality. Their mere presence twisted gravity.
> "You stole our futures, Ash Ketchum," Kael said, floating above him like a judge.
> "You never chose us," Mira added, tears streaming from eyes that glowed with ultraviolet fire. "We were worth writing."
Ash looked at them all—not with fear.
But with guilt.
"You're right," he said quietly. "You were all part of something that mattered. You just… never got your chance."
He lowered the pen.
And bowed his head.
"But maybe now… you do."
He stabbed the pen into the earth once more—and whispered.
> "I choose you."
The ground erupted.
Not with fire, water, or lightning.
But with light.
A hundred Poké Balls opened in the air.
From them emerged every partner Ash had ever trained.
Butterfree.
Kingler.
Gible.
Rowlet.
Talonflame.
Goodra.
Naganadel.
Bayleef.
Sceptile.
Hawlucha.
Corphish.
And at the front—his Primeape, returned from its years of unseen training.
> "You remember us," Primeape said, stepping forward.
> "Always," Ash said.
The two sides stared at one another—Ash's army of memory, and Archivus's army of rejection.
Then—
They charged.
---
The battlefield became chaos.
Kael's Voxivern unleashed Oblivion Echo, a sound-based attack that shattered entire swaths of terrain.
Torterra shielded half the team with Earth Wall, while Hawlucha dove from above, slicing through corrupted data with Sky Seal Strike.
Cryfernal howled—and the battlefield froze.
But Infernape answered with a roar so hot it burned time itself, breaking the freeze field.
Ash ran into the center, pen glowing.
The godspawn began to reform again—and this time it spoke.
Not words.
But a single question.
> "WHO ARE YOU?"
Ash stopped. Looked up.
And smiled.
"I'm the one you forgot. The one who wouldn't stay deleted. The one who loves this world more than any god."
He raised his hand.
And from behind him, Pikachu leapt—
Cloaked in every bolt of every Thunder ever unleashed in every region.
A move formed not of electricity, but of memory.
The ultimate Thunderbolt.
It struck the godspawn's core.
And the creature screamed in agony—not pain.
But remembrance.
It remembered being created.
Being cut.
Being abandoned.
And then—
It thanked him.
> "Thank you… for seeing me."
And it vanished.
---
Ash dropped to his knees.
Exhausted.
But still standing.
The Thirteen stood still.
Kael lowered his weapons.
> "You didn't erase us," he said. "You honored us."
Ash looked up, bloody but smiling. "No one deserves to be forgotten. Not even… the things that scare us."
Archivus watched from his realm—and frowned.
> "The boy believes in memory. But memory is not truth. Memory lies. And I… am truth."
He closed the Casket of Fragments.
> "Next time, Ketchum… I won't send ghosts."
---