"The Echoes that Shouldn't Be"
(A correction to fate. A reconciliation with paradox.)
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The storm over Mt. Coronet was unnatural. A wound in the sky pulsed like a dying heart—unraveling timelines bled into one another, creating shadows of events that had never happened. Realities folded. Glitches crawled.
Ash stood at the summit, holding the pendant Cynthia once wore—a black shard of Giratina's scale, pulsing faintly. Ares stood beside him, fists clenched, torn between rage and despair.
A voice drifted from the wind.
A voice that wasn't supposed to exist.
> "Ash… can you still hear me?"
Ash's knees buckled. His eyes widened.
Cynthia.
But she was gone. Erased.
Unless…
Unless time had lied.
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Spear Pillar – Temporal Core
Arceus' fragmented consciousness emerged from the breach in the void.
Ash, Ares, and the remnants of the Guardians watched as a mirror of the past shimmered before them.
"Fate collapsed. Causality shattered. And in the gap between seconds... she remained," Arceus spoke. "She is not dead. She is out of sync."
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Flashback: Cynthia's Last Stand (Chrono Sync Ritual)
As the Glitch King tore apart the region, Cynthia stood before Dialga's shattered form. With Ash unconscious and Ares still a child, she invoked a forbidden union between Mega Evolution and Temporal Resonance.
> "I'll be your anchor. Seal the breach. No matter the cost."
She smiled through tears.
"Tell Ash… I don't regret a second."
As the ritual completed, time froze. Her body vanished, not destroyed—but locked between broken timelines.
And with her... Dialga.
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Back in the Present
Ash watches the scene unfold.
Ares' voice breaks.
"She's not dead. She's trapped."
And then, a second vision emerges—Auron, kneeling before the Glitch King, his body scarred, his eyes hollow.
> "You gave me power... but not peace."
Auron had rebelled—once. But when he learned Cynthia could still exist in fractured time, he believed only by rewriting everything could he create a world where he was the rightful son.
He merged with the Glitch Throne to destroy the multiverse and restart it—without Ash. Without Ares. Without Cynthia.
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Ash's Choice
Arceus gives Ash one option:
"To save her, you must collapse this timeline. Return to the moment of her Chrono Sync. Create a new convergence—one where Cynthia lives, but... someone else must take her place in the fracture."
Ash doesn't hesitate.
He turns to Ares.
"Protect her. If I don't return…"
Ares screams—"No!"
But it's too late. Ash leaps into the rupture.
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Time Fracture – Ash vs the Void
Ash relives every battle, every choice. From Pallet Town to the leagues to the wars to the tears in Ares' eyes. In the silence of eternity, he hears her voice again.
> "You always choose others, Ash. For once… choose yourself."
He doesn't.
He finds her.
And he pushes her out of the fracture, replacing her with himself.
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Final Scene – New Timeline
Cynthia awakens in her Sinnoh home—alive, confused, holding a pendant that doesn't belong to her.
Ares wakes up in the Hall of Origin.
Ash is gone.
But the sky… is calm.
No Glitch. No rupture.
Just silence.
And a whisper only Ares can hear:
> "Keep walking forward. You're my son. My last act."
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