Pokémon: Raising Abandoned Pokémon into Legends

Hearing that Xerneas had also surrendered to him, Rio smiled.

"Alright, everyone—you can stop now."

Rio called out to Kyurem and the others. However, only the honest Charizard actually stopped. Kyurem, Dialga, and Old Ghost each landed one more hit before pausing.

"Surrendering—do you know what that means?" Rio approached Xerneas with Diancie.

Xerneas was covered in wounds. It had tried to heal itself several times, but each time it was beaten back down again, making the attackers even more eager.

"No." Xerneas shook its head in response to Rio’s question. All it knew was that this human could command Kyurem, Dialga, and the others—so surrendering to him was the right move.

"Surrendering to me means becoming my Pokémon." Rio smiled.

"Become your Pokémon?" Xerneas hesitated.

"Yes—but I won’t take you away or control you. You’ll remain free to go wherever you want." Rio said.

"Then why capture me at all?" Xerneas was confused.

"No reason—I just want to." Rio shrugged with a smile. "I just happen to have a habit of collecting legendary Pokémon."

Xerneas studied Rio, then glanced at the others nearby—who were clearly hoping it would refuse.

"Fine. I’ll become your Pokémon."

Xerneas felt deeply exasperated. It had suffered all that beating for nothing. If it had known this was the outcome, it would have surrendered immediately. Being captured without losing freedom was far better than being beaten. And it could clearly see Yveltal—that foolish bird was still getting pummeled and hadn’t surrendered yet. Foolish indeed.

Seeing Xerneas agree, Rio pulled out another Luxury Ball. He made a mental note to stock up on more empty ones. He only had four left now—the others were occupied by Dialga, Giratina, and the others. Though those legendaries were free, he kept their balls with him, each marked with a number to avoid confusion. Dialga was 13, Palkia 14, Giratina 15.

A flash of light—Xerneas was drawn in. After three shakes, the capture was successful. Its ball would be number 29; Diancie was 28, and the Unova Swordsmen were 27. Rio marked the ball, then released Xerneas and fed it an Energy Root.

"Xerneas, I need your help—use your Fairy Aura on Diancie. It needs your power."

Diancie hopped before Xerneas. "Xerneas, please grant me your power—I need your help!"

Xerneas looked at Diancie, then at Rio, and sighed inwardly. Could it refuse at this point? Rio then added: "Diancie, you don’t need to call it ’Lord.’ Xerneas is now my partner, like you—you’re equals."

Hearing that, Xerneas sighed again. "That’s right—we’re both his Pokémon now. Don’t call me ’Lord.’ I’ll give you what you need." Its voice echoed in everyone’s minds, showing Rio respect.

[Diancie’s friendship has increased]

[Friendship: 51 (0 → 51) ]

Diancie’s friendship rose by one point. Xerneas began to glow, releasing sparkling starlight. The light enveloped Diancie, forming a green aura that made her and the Carbink elders look blissful. The starlight continued for a full minute before Xerneas stopped.

"Thank you so much, Xerneas." Diancie said gratefully after receiving the Fairy Aura.

"Thank you—we felt it too." The other Carbink added.

"Don’t thank me—we’re both his Pokémon now. Thank him instead." Xerneas passed the gratitude along.

Diancie looked at Rio. He reached out and patted her head. "Diancie, can you feel whether you can create the Sacred Diamond now?"

"I’m still not sure..." Diancie admitted nervously.

"Believe in yourself, Diancie." Rio smiled.

"Princess, you can do it!" The Great Elder Dai encouraged.

The three guards also cheered her on. With their support, Diancie’s nervousness faded.

"I’ll try." She took a deep breath, pushing her hands forward. A light glowed from her crown—and she Mega Evolved on her own. Her form changed: the diamond on her head became a 2000-carat heart-shaped gem, with two white ribbons hanging from her crown. Three arc rings appeared at her neck, waist, and lower dress. Her lower body was replaced by a massive diamond, surrounded by long diamond rods tipped with tiny octahedral gems.

She had transformed from a noble lady into a true princess in a magnificent gown. Her level rose from 60 to 70.

"Dia~!" Diancie cried out as countless pink diamonds materialized before her, converging into a massive, solid pink diamond—identical to the one Rio had seen in the underground kingdom.

"Yes! That’s the Sacred Diamond!" The Great Elder Dai was ecstatic.

"You did it, Princess!" The three guards spun in joy.

"Congratulations, Diancie." Rio smiled sincerely.

"I did it. I really did it." Diancie stared at the massive diamond in awe, still hardly believing it.

"Yes, you did. If you’re unsure, I can have Charizard and Dialga test its strength. Want to try?" Rio offered.

"Yes—we must test it! If there’s any flaw, it could be disastrous for the kingdom. We need to be certain." Diancie nodded eagerly.

"Charizard, Sacred Fire." Rio commanded. In the original story, Diancie had used the Sacred Diamond to block Yveltal’s Oblivion Wing. Blocking a non-Mega Charizard’s Sacred Fire shouldn’t be a problem.

"Roooar~" Charizard spat a golden blaze at the diamond. The Sacred Diamond held strong to the very end, only dissolving into pink starlight after the flames died out.

"Congratulations, Diancie. You can put your worries to rest now." Rio smiled.

"I did it—I can bring light back to my kingdom!" Diancie bounced with joy.

"Our kingdom is saved! It’s truly saved!" The Great Elder Dai also leaped in delight. The Carbink circled Diancie in celebration.

Meanwhile, Old Ghost’s voice echoed in Rio’s mind: "Can I join Mewtwo and the others?" It wasn’t impressed by Diancie’s Mega Evolution—it was jealous that Mewtwo was still getting to beat up Yveltal. Yveltal still hadn’t surrendered—talk about stubborn.

"Forget about that for now. First, help me deal with the people who’ve been spying on us." Rio declined.

"Spying?" Old Ghost was confused.

"Yes—use your psychic sense to find them." Rio said. He knew the magician and the ninja were still tailing him, along with the father-daughter thieves in their cloaked ship, all after Diancie. Now that Diancie could Mega Evolve and create Sacred Diamonds, he didn’t want them following anymore.

Old Ghost quickly sensed them. With Psychic, it yanked the ninja and magician from their hiding spots a hundred meters away. They screamed, commanding their Pokémon to save them—only for their Delphox and Greninja to be one-shot by Old Ghost’s Psychic.

"What should we do with them?" Old Ghost asked. They were begging for mercy.

"Hypnotize them and dump them with the Team Flare group." Rio said. The Team Flare operatives who had been taunting him earlier were already hypnotized—Old Ghost had taken care of them while the others were beating up Xerneas.

Old Ghost’s eyes glowed silver, and the two thieves fell unconscious.

Above Orus Forest, aboard their cloaked ship, the father-daughter thieves watched nervously as the magician and ninja were taken out.

"Dad, you don’t think they’ve found us, do you?" Milis worried.

"Impossible—our ship is cloaked. They can’t detect us unless we reveal ourselves." Algates said confidently. But just as he finished, a Shadow Ball struck their ship, forcing it out of invisibility.

"How is this possible?!" Algates was stunned as the ship shook. Then a Charizard charged at them, claws blazing with Dragon Claw. One swipe, and their ship exploded.

The father and daughter each released a Doublade to escape—but Old Ghost’s Psychic caught them mid-flight. They too were hypnotized and dumped with the others.

"Can I join Mewtwo and the others now?" Old Ghost asked again.

"Hold on—let me see what’s happening." Rio rode Charizard up to check on Yveltal. He raised an eyebrow—Yveltal was still taking a beating, refusing to surrender.

"Charizard, take me over." Rio patted Charizard’s neck. Charizard flew to where Giratina, Mewtwo, and the others were pummeling Yveltal.

Yveltal was in terrible shape, desperately trying to escape but unable to break the encirclement.

"Yveltal, do you want to become my Pokémon? If you do, the beating stops." Rio called out.

"Yes! Yes! Please capture me! I beg you!" Yveltal’s voice responded almost instantly.

Rio’s mouth twitched at its eagerness. So Yveltal hadn’t been refusing to surrender—it simply hadn’t known that surrendering to him would stop the beating.

"Everyone, stop." Rio called out. Like the others, Giratina, Mewtwo, and the rest each landed one final hit before stopping.

Yveltal was furious: "Yveltal~!" — Stop! I already surrendered! I told him to capture me!

"Giratina~!" — Sorry, didn’t hear you. Palkia, did you?

Giratina grinned mischievously. "Palkia~!" — Nope. Mewtwo, Zekrom—did either of you hear?

Mewtwo and Zekrom played along. Yveltal could only glare at them, then pleaded telepathically to Rio: "Hurry—capture me!"

Seeing its desperation, Rio smiled and tossed a new Luxury Ball at Yveltal. It was drawn in, and Mewtwo caught the ball midair, handing it to Rio. After three shakes, the capture was successful—Yveltal became Rio’s 30th Luxury Ball.

After releasing Yveltal, Rio explained: "Yveltal, becoming my Pokémon won’t restrict your freedom. You can go wherever you want, just like before."

"Then why capture me at all?" Yveltal asked, just as confused as Xerneas had been.

Rio repeated what he’d told Xerneas. Yveltal stared at him strangely, then finally said: "Then I want to join a gang-beating too. You haven’t captured Zygarde yet—I want to beat up Zygarde."

At that, Z1 burst out of Rio’s bag.