After finishing his meal, Lucas watched the people and Pokémon playing in the courtyard, then walked over to Lugia and sat down on the grass.
Lugia opened its eyes and looked at him, waiting for him to speak.
"What happened back then?"
Lucas spoke slowly under its gaze.
At that time, in his anger, he had torn the pendant from his neck and held it in his hand. After shouting "Aeroblast," he saw with his own eyes three incredibly domineering figures of the divine bird in the sky, slamming hard into the Duo Gods of Time and Space, Palkia and Dialga, until they were knocked down and pinned in a massive crater.
After seeing the three divine birds in the sky, he felt his physical strength draining rapidly, a sensation as if his very brain marrow was being sucked dry.
"Don't tell me you were using Double Team."
Lugia closed its eyes.
"I'm not sure either."
Lucas narrowed his eyes, staring at Lugia, who was pretending to sleep.
"I remember after the big battle ended, you told Cynthia that you were leaving first and that I should go find you by the seaside after returning to the Breeding House?"
Lucas recalled what Cynthia had told him while they were eating earlier.
"Let me guess, you left, then came back, and said something about hiding for a while."
Lucas saw Lugia's body twitch involuntarily.
"Could it be that Palkia and Dialga are waiting outside, planning to give you a beating for revenge?"
Lugia gave no response.
"Are the Legendary Birds of the Sinnoh region causing trouble again?"
Hearing the Legendary Birds, Lugia turned its head unnaturally.
The Legendary Birds...
The Legendary Birds of the Sinnoh region had an agreement with it, so it couldn't be them.
But besides the Legendary Birds of Sinnoh, it hadn't heard Lugia mention the Legendary Birds of other regions. Could they be under the command of another Lugia?
Lucas remembered that in the Whirl Islands of Johto, Ash and his friends had saved a young Lugia. However, it seemed that the larger Lugia there wasn't the one in front of him; otherwise, it wouldn't have failed to greet Ash when they met.
So the question was, did this Lugia know that Lugia? Among the three figures he saw, could one of them have been that one? Or perhaps it was that pair of parent and child Lugia?
Lucas shook his head, pulling his thoughts back. Looking at the Lugia still playing dead, if it wasn't the Legendary Birds of Sinnoh, then there was only one place left.
"It couldn't be the Legendary Birds of the Galar region, could it?"
Lugia's body stiffened.
Lucas took in all of Lugia's movements, his voice sounding like a nightmare in Lugia's ear.
"It couldn't be that those three caused some trouble in the Galar region again, and you have to go deal with it?"
"And after dealing with the Legendary Birds of Sinnoh, you don't want to handle the problems of those three anymore?"
"So you simply ran back here, out of sight, out of mind?"
"Shut up!"
Lugia's voice echoed in Lucas's mind, interrupting him.
"Just tell me whether you'll help me or not."
Lucas curled his lip.
"Is this how you ask for a favor?"
Lugia: ————
I'll endure.
"What do you want to know? Ask."
Lugia gave up struggling.
Mainly, since Lucas handled the Legendary Birds of the Sinnoh region, it no longer had to worry about them. This kind of life was truly comfortable. If the three fellows in Galar could be like the ones in Sinnoh, it could wander around freely instead of running back and forth between Galar and Sinnoh every time.
"Those three figures were all Lugia, right? Where did the other two come from? The two from the Whirl Islands in Johto?"
Lucas inquired.
Lugia paused for a moment. "Whirl Islands? You mean the Johto Region?"
Lucas nodded.
"That Lugia with the little one?"
Lucas nodded again.
"It wasn't that one. Its strength is considered very weak within our clan. It has always stayed in the Whirl Islands raising the little one."
"Then that was—"
"They were all me."
Lucas: ?!
"You really know Substitute?!"
Lucas was greatly shocked.
"What Substitute? Double Team? No."
Lugia's voice rang out, "They were all myself."
?!
Seeing Lucas's furrowed brow, Lugia's voice continued.
"Celebi sent versions of me from different times here. It happened just in time to catch them off guard."
After listening to Lugia's explanation, Lucas thought for a moment and then asked, "But that doesn't fit the laws of time at all, does it?"
Lugia's massive eyes stared at Lucas, its expression seemingly saying: If you're asking me, who am I supposed to ask?
"Who knows what happened? Didn't you hear even Dialga express shock?"
Listening to Lugia's words, Lucas suddenly remembered. At that time, when his physical strength had almost vanished in an instant and he was struggling not to collapse, he seemed to have heard Palkia question Dialga, "Aren't you the God of Time?"
The language was quite foul.
"Never mind Dialga, even I felt awkward to death after seeing 'me'."
Seeing versions of itself from other times appear before it had made Lugia feel incredibly awkward.
After saying this, Lugia turned to look at Lucas, filled with doubt.
How did this guy feel more and more bizarre?
Logically speaking, this world does not allow creatures from different timelines to appear before themselves in another timeline. This violates the rules of the Duo Gods of Time and Space, Palkia and Dialga, and the laws of this world.
But such an incredible thing had happened to it. Looking at the self from the future, Lugia felt like it had seen a ghost at the time.
And there was more than one.
"Time is a long river that constantly flows forward."
Lugia looked at the pensive Lucas and said, "All things that have happened are unchangeable. If someone accidentally returns to the past or goes to the future and changes certain things, it won't lead to the collapse of the timeline. It will simply branch out into a small timeline from the original one. These small timelines branched from the original can also be called Parallel Dimensions."
"But what shocked both Palkia and Dialga this time was that when versions of me from different timelines came here, they didn't feel any change in the timeline. In other words, this incident didn't cause anything else to happen; no Parallel Dimensions were created. Everything is developing normally."
"For the Power of Time and Space they wield, this is a paradox."
"After all, coming here from different timelines means there should be at least one other scenario where the versions of me from other times didn't come, leading to various outcomes."
Lugia stared at Lucas. "When I left Poplar Town, Palkia and Dialga found me."
"Lucas, they said that regarding the situation in Poplar Town, in the time where you exist, there is only this one possibility."
"And that is, three of me beating the crap out of the Duo Gods of Time and Space."
Lugia added the last sentence itself.
It felt wonderful.
Lugia's sense of achievement was overflowing.
Lucas gripped the small wooden plaque on his chest.
Two ethereal cries seemed to reach his ears again.
"Sha~"
Lucas looked at the two lines of text that had frozen in time before he fainted.
[Celebi's Blessing: Lucas, we are with you no matter the time or place—]
"Celebi, was it you—no, was it all of you?"
Lucas muttered to himself.