Author's Note: I swear to God that this is the final edit I am going to give this story, because I am going to finish this if it kills me. In fact, it's going to be done by the end of the 2010-2011 school year. That's my new goal. It. Is. Going. To. Get. Freaking. Finished. If. It. Kills. Me.

Pokemon? Oh, no, I don't own it. Even if I had ever owned it, I would have sold it for millions so I wouldn't have to worry about college within the next three years. I own the plot and basis of this fic and any characters that you do not recognize, mostly the trainers. I also own the personalities I gave the Legendaries.

Chapter Summary: A mysterious task set forth by Arceus herself will send Rayquaza on the toughest journey of his life... not that he knows it just yet.

Chapter 1

Of Protection and Legendaries

Eterna Forest

This could only happen to me.

Rayquaza watched the girl, sleeping against the cave wall, silently and peacefully. Her dark hair, slightly short and curly, covered her face, and her arm was in a makeshift sling made from cloth. Her clothes were dirty and had several rips in them. Six Pokeballs were on the ground near her, and five of the six Pokemon - a Sceptile, Milotic, Rapidash, Ampharos, and Butterfree - were all sleeping. All of the Pokemon looked reasonably well-cared for. And all were completely peaceful, and leaving Rayquaza alone.

Except for the Espeon.

Except for the blasted Espeon.

The Espeon stared at the Legendary Pokemon (currently in his rarely-used human form) with narrowed, pupil-less eyes. Her two-ended tail flicked back and forward, and Rayquaza found himself reminded of a Luxray and an unfortunate Bidoof. The tail also reminded him of a very happy Poochyena, but she was clearly quite the opposite. Rayquaza was starting to hate the one-sided staring contest the psychic-type was taking part in.

"What?" he demanded at last, glaring at the Espeon from the other side of the cave. This had been going on for nearly an hour, and it had to stop. Exasperation formed a shroud in his reddish-yellow eyes.

The Espeon hissed. [Well, sorry, but I'm not willing to trust you just yet, Rayquaza! You might be a Legendary, but she's my human!] she scoffed. Arceus, this was an Espeon with an attitude…

Rayquaza raised an eyebrow. "Your human?" he repeated.

[Yes! And a Magikarp will defeat Arceus before I let anything happen to her!] The lavender colored Eeveeloution cuddled up protectively towards 'her' injured human. Still deep in sleep, the trainer whimpered. The Espeon glanced at her in worry. Her tail stopped flicking, and wrapped itself around the trainer's uninjured arm.

Rayquaza just stared at her as he thought of the comparison she had just drew. The image of the Alpha Pokemon (and, as much as Rayquaza hated to admit it, his boss) battling a small, orange fish was ridiculous, even to his own mind. "You are definitely not a normal Espeon… and I've met some pretty crazy Espeons in my time…"

[You're definitely not a normal Legendary Pokemon - I've never seen one with green hair, even in human form…] Her face took on a musing type of look, like she was thinking hard about something. [But then again, what Legendary Pokemon is normal?]

Rayquaza bit back a retort as he considered his human form. True, it was a bit odd around humans. His body was tall and gangly, and his hair was green. Bright green. His eyes were a combination of red and yellow, and he was dressed in dirty blue jeans, and an emerald green shirt, long-sleeved. Black trim was all over the shirt, and even on part of the pants. Unconsciously, he fingered the emerald medallion that hung around his neck.

"Yeah, you can shut up now…" He scowled. "Trust me, I didn't want to be here, anyway. Arceus made me."

[Why?]

Leaning against the cave wall as he stood up, he sighed. "For some reason, some other Legendaries take 'likings' to humans. They end up blessing them a bit, and helping them out when they need it. They kind of turn into guardians for them..."

[So what, they watch out for them?] The Espeon stared at him, a bored look on her face. She glanced up in worry at her human, and Rayquaza found himself watching the Espeon for a moment. She seemed honestly concerned with this girl's welfare.

She's a trainer, Rayquaza. Most of them are all the same. And Espeons get attached to trainers that treat their Pokemon with compassion. That's how Espeons are evolved in the first place, remember?

"Basically. Sadly for me, Arceus took a liking to her. So did Latias. They double-teamed me." He scowled. "Plus, she's a Hoenn girl. Kyogre and Groudon can agree on one thing - never leave a Hoenn trainer alone when they're in need." His scowl grew deeper. "Trust me. They never agree on anything. It's literally impossible for both of them."

The Espeon glanced at her trainer, and then sighed. [I just can't believe those Fearow. Why'd they attack her like that?]

"Beats me." He was lying. She knew it. And he knew it, from the suspicous glare that was being shot at him. But he didn't know how he could tell that Espeonthat her trainer was wanted dead by a ruthless Pokemon Hunter that the Legendaries knew nothing about.

Rayquaza closed his eyes as he thought of a few hours ago…

Hall of Origin - Six Hours Ago

Rayquaza wasn't exactly sure why Arceus had told him to come into the Hall of Origin… especially in his gangly, uncomfortable, green-haired human form. He hated his human form. He preferred being in his true form, his dragon form, the Guardian of the Skies. Flying around the Ozone Layer, unstoppable, free to be with himself and his thoughts as he flew around like crazy, never stopping for even the slightest pause...

Except for when he had to tear Kyogre and Groudon from each other's throats, but that was another story.

He sighed, and then stopped a few yards away from the entrance of the hall. A girl, looking to be around fifteen, was standing there, leaning against the wall. Her amber-yellow eyes stared down at the floor, and her bright red hair was in oddly-shaped pig-tails on either side of her head. He knew her immediately. He had known her for thousands of years, he would have been able to pick her out of a crowd of a thousand girls who looked just like her.

"Latias, what are you doing here?" he asked, crossing his arms across his chest. When Latias was around, every Legendary Pokemon knew that chaos was sure to follow eventually. After thousands of years, every Legendary had learned that lesson.

She looked up sharply, hope forming in her pretty amber-yellow eyes. A grin crossed her child-like face, and she practically skipped towards him, grabbing Rayquaza's arm and pulling him forward. Taken by surprise at the enthusiasm of the younger Eon Twin, Rayquaza blinked, allowing himself to be pulled forward by the smaller dragon.

"C'mon, Ray!" she exclaimed, calling her by his pet name. "Arca's waiting for us!"

Rayquaza glared slightly at the young Legendary in mock anger. Latias had the tendency to give nicknames to the other Legendaries, especially the ones she was close to. Lott for her big brother, Latios, Arca for Arceus herself, Donny for Groudon, and Ky for Kyogre. And then, of course, Ray for Rayquaza. She liked creating nicknames for everyone, and the Legendaries were too used to it to get annoyed by it.

"Us?" Rayquaza repeated, staring down at her. "What do you mean, 'us'?" Great. It looked like the meeting Rayquaza was about to enter was going to become much more complicated than he had originally thought. "What the heck is going on, Latias?"

"You'll see."

Latias entered the Hall of Origin, pulling Rayquaza with her. He was surprised to see that Arceus was in her human form as well. Her human form was actually considered gorgeous among the humans, and Rayquaza knew that she did it on purpose. Arceus could be surprisingly vain about her looks, especially in her human form. Long, honey-blond hair hung down her back, and her outfit consisted of a navy blue dress and a white cape. Piercing emerald green eyes glanced over, and Rayquaza saw relief enter them.

Rayquaza could tell by the relief itself in those emerald orbs that this was much more serious than he originally thought.

"Rayquaza. Latias. I was hoping that you would arrive soon." She turned after she finished her greeting, facing them. "I'll get to the point. Rayquaza, I need you to protect someone."

"Protect someone?" It took a few moments for Arceus's words to sink in. "Protect someone? Who? Human or Pokemon? And why!" The anger in his voice was evident. He didn't like protecting people, for many dark and old reasons. "I thought we learned not to do that the last time around!"

Latias released her arm, and then inched away slowly, eyeing the Legendary apprehensively. She knew that Rayquaza would never hurt her (not only would Arceus destroy him - literally - but Latios would have his head, along with Suicune and about half of the other Legendaries. They were pretty protective), but she knew that he was close to losing his temper. It wasn't good when Legendary Pokemon lost their temper. When they were in their human forms when they lost their tempers, they were usually forced to revert back to their Legendary form. That wasn't a good thing when they were among humans.

"A human trainer. She's being targeted for a number of reasons by a Hunter. The Hunter wants her dead. And because I said so."

Rayquaza raised a green eyebrow. Latias giggled. She never could get over how funny he could be in his human form. She smirked as he shot her a glare, and then he turned his glare back to Arceus. Latias knew that she should try to be more serious, but she knew that if they were completely serious about this, it would kill them. Laughter wasn't the answer to everything, but it could help.

"You're kidding. There's got to be another reason." Rayquaza put his hands in his jean pockets. His eyes narrowed coldly at the Legendary Pokemon in front of him. "You always have a reason. You usually have several reasons. And you wouldn't send me to do this if you didn't have some ulterior motive..."

"Oh, I have one, don't worry about that. And there are several reasons, like you said. I'm just not going to tell you yet."

Latias giggled again, and Rayquaza glared at her for a moment. Latias clearly knew something more than Rayquaza did. "Latias knows, doesn't she?"

"Yep."

"And you're still not going to tell me, are you?"

"Nope."

"Well, that's just great." Rayquaza's voice was pure sarcasm. "What if I said no?" he asked, a burst of rebellion going through his body.

Arceus raised an eyebrow, and a glimmer appeared in her emerald eyes. Rayquaza found himself being reminded that Arceus could be just as intimidating in her blond-haired, gorgeous young woman form as her giant, Alpha Pokemon form. Latias giggled again. She couldn't help it. She loved battle of the wills contests between these two! They were more entertaining than the most competitive contest.

"Do you really want to find out?" Arceus asked. She had a sly smile on her face now. "I have ways, Rayquaza… as you fully well know."

Rayquaza groaned. "I really don't like that sound of that…"

"You wouldn't!" Latias interrupted cheerfully. "Now, get off your scaly green butt and help that girl out! She's a Hoenn girl, too! And you know we never leave a Hoenn trainer out in the cold!"

Rayquaza twitched and glanced at Latias, and then Arceus. "Oh. Now I get it. You both like this trainer! Oh, for the love of… you know what happens when we get attached to humans!" A memory, hot and painful, thousands of years old, flashed through his head, but Rayquaza forced it away.

"Nothing bad happens!" Latias exclaimed hotly. Her voice was more defensive than Rayquaza had heard in years. "Sure, Heatran might've scared that one girl a few months ago when he said hi, but it wasn't that bad?"

"Not bad?" Rayquaza echoed. "The girl fell off a bridge and nearly drowned, and Heatran was too terrified of the water to go and rescue her! Lugia barely arrived in time!"

"For your information, she laughed afterwards!" Latias retorted. "And it didn't end so bad! She didn't die!"

"Oh, for the love of…" Rayquaza put a hand in front of his eyes, rubbing his temples. A headache was quickly forming because of the bickering. "I'm gonna get a headache because of you, Latias…"

"Alright, that's enough, you two…" Arceus broke in, stepping forward. She glanced sharply at Rayquaza. "Rayquaza, that's an order. She might die if someone doesn't help her. There's a reason that she needs to stay alive, a reason I promise you will learn soon. But for now, you have to help her."

Rayquaza growled. That last thing he really wanted to do was do this for her. But he had no choice. Arceus wouldn't try and kill him. Oh, no. She had blackmail. The time they had all gone to Goldenrod for Christmas (that had been fun). The time where he had kissed that one dragon-tamer when the Legendaries had been on a little 'field trip'. (What was her name? Clara? Clair?) But either way, Arceus had cruel blackmail to use against him whenever she needed to.

Oh, she had even worse than that. And she wasn't afraid to use it.

...and she was the Alpha Pokemon and could probably annihilate him on a whim. But the worst she had ever done was banish Giratina to the Distortion World for a century after he had destroyed part of the Spear Pillar, a few centuries ago. He had figured out how to get out within twenty years and had claimed said reality as his 'personal playground that Dialga and Palkia aren't allowed anywhere near'.

Rayquaza growled, and then stomped out, heading towards the exit. "You both suck," he called back at them, not even bothering to turn around and face them.

"We know. But we really don't care," Latias replied immediately. "Just go. She's in some serious trouble." A triumphant smirk had appeared on her childish face.

"Yeah, yeah…" Rayquaza walked out of the hallway, muttering something about 'impossible female Legendaries' and 'why do I put up with this crap'.

Unseen by Rayquaza, Arceus and Latias exchanged a glance. Another piece of the puzzle had fallen into place. Now, it was up to Rayquaza.

Eterna Forest - Three Hours Ago

Rayquaza raced through the trees, an anger in his eyes. He had been tracking down the trainer for nearly three hours, and had finally found word of her. Too late, it seemed - the Hunter had gone after her, with Fearow, and she was in serious trouble. Arceus was right - that Hunter wanted her dead. No matter what personal cost it was to him. But why did he want her dead as badly as he did? To Rayquaza, it didn't make sense.

...wait a minute. Who even said that this hunter was a male? Had Arceus even referred to the Hunter using a specific gender?

Rayquaza pushed that thought from his mind. He could think about that later on.

Finally, the Legendary, still in his human guise, stumbled into a clearing, and froze.

The trainer - a brunette young girl around sixteen years old - was on the ground, her clothes torn and her face strangely peaceful. She was unconscious, and about five Fearow were trying to get at her. And the only things standing in their way?

Six Pokemon, defending their trainer.

An Espeon and a Butterfree were double-teaming one with a combination of swift and silver wind, and it was succeeding in throwing one back. A Milotic was taking on two of them at once, a very angry look on her gorgeous face. A Sceptile and a Rapidash were fighting the fourth one, and an Ampharos were easily taking care of the last one. Clearly, these were strong and well trained Pokemon.

Rayquaza snarled when he realized that the Hunter wasn't there. The bastard just sent the Fearow to kill her, make his hands clean of her murder. She's not dying. Arceus would murder me. I've only been on the job for three hours, she's not dying yet!

Just to keep his sanity in tact, Rayquaza had decided to refer to the hunter as 'male' until he knew better.

He held out his hand, and a green glow came on, shining the light around the clearing, attracting the attention of the eleven Pokemon. The Espeon snarled, and then jumped lightly over towards the trainer, standing protectively over her. The Milotic and the Sceptile reached her side as well, and the others all stared at Rayquaza. Rayquaza sensed that he had charged up enough power, and then felt a jolt run through his body as he released the deepest part of his power as a Legendary.

A blast of emerald light, brighter than the morning sun and more powerful than any attack from a normal Pokemon, came from his hand, and the Fearow all cried out in shock and fear. This attack wasn't meant to hurt them, and it hadn't. They flew away as fast as their wings could carry them, and Rayquaza let his hand down, panting slightly. He had just used a lot of power to scare those Fearow away, and he had no idea how much he needed. Legendary Pokemon could use some of their powers in their human forms, but not a lot. It drained them rather quickly.

The Espeon snarled, and the jewel on her forehead glowed blue. Rayquaza almost groaned out loud. Great… an Espeon who knew how to use Zen Headbutt. How many Espeons actually knew how to do that, anyway? It also seemed to Rayquaza that she was extremely protective, too. But most Pokemon were of their trainers.

The Milotic glared down at the Espeon. [Don't do it. You can't see who he is, can you?]

[A weirdo human who just shot green stuff?]

"A weirdo Legendary Pokemon who can understand everything you're saying!" Rayquaza shot back, rolling his eyes as he took a few steps forward. Being a Pokemon himself, he was able to understand Pokemon language. Rayquaza frowned as he realized what he had just said. "...just ignore what I just said."

The Espeon narrowed her pupil-less eyes. [Sure he can… oh, crap. He can understand us!]

[No duh!] the Butterfree exclaimed. She flapped down to her trainer, and then landed lightly on the ground next to her. She sighed in worry. [She's hurt. Badly. She needs help.]

Rayquaza nodded, and then strode forward quickly, grateful for his human form's long legs… for once. He still hated his human form. He managed to reach her side after a moment, and then stared up at the Sceptile for a moment. The Sceptile was known as the Guardian of the Forest, but Rayquaza knew that Sceptiles could get pretty protective of the ones they cared about… and if she was a Hoenn girl, there was a good chance that she had stared with a Treecko.

The Sceptile stared at him for a moment. [I'll trust you, Rayquaza. But I can't help but wonder why you're here…]

"Arceus sent me," Rayquaza explained quickly, picking up the girl in his arms. He didn't even wonder how the Sceptile knew who he was. He just wanted to take care of his newly found, injured charge. She was extremely light, surprisingly, and Rayquaza was easily able to hold her up in his arms. "Her and Latias. They were worried about her…"

[Wait, why?] the Rapidash asked. She gestured towards her back. [Put her on my back. I can carry her and you to safety somewhere… if there is anywhere.]

The Ampharos pulled his tail around, and rubbed the jewel on his tail. [The Pokemon Center is too far away to go to. And night is about to fall. It's too dangerous to travel around here at night.]

The Milotic nodded. [I heard from a Gyarados that there were Tyranitars in this forest!]

Rayquaza wasn't even going to comment on that one.

The Espeon hesitated. [I saw a cave on our way here. It's not far. Chama, it should only take a few minutes for you to reach there, carrying the two of them. We won't be far behind.]

Rayquaza and the Rapidash both nodded, and Rayquaza sat down on the fiery horse, holding the young girl up as well. The Espeon hesitated a moment, and then jumped up as well. The Rapidash groaned, and then turned her head go glare at the Espeon.

[I don't know if I can carry all three of you. You're not exactly the lightest Espeon…]

[Deal with it, Chama!] the Espeon snapped, finding a way that she could stay on as Rapidash would run. [I am not leaving her here alone with some Legendary!]

Rayquaza glared at her. The Sceptile growled angrily. [Just go!] exclaimed the grass-type. [She's in some serious trouble right now, and we don't know if she has time or not! We'll meet you at the cave.] He glanced at Rayquaza. [Her life may very well reside in your hands…]

Rayquaza nodded once, grimly, before the Rapidash raced through the forest with the Legendary, the Espeon, and the injured trainer on her back. Their destination - the cave nearby, the cave where they could hopefully recover, and where they could decide what they were going to do next.

Eterna Forest

Now that Rayquaza thought about it, there were some things he didn't understand. Like why she had been targeted. He knew he was going to find out. Sooner or later. After all, Arceus had told him that he would, and Arceus rarely broke the promises that she made to others. But for now, he had to find out if these Pokemon had nicknames or not. Might as well ask…

"What's your names?"

The Espeon glanced up, staring at him, unblinking. [What?] she asked in confusion, blinking once. The question had clearly taken her aback. She hadn't been expecting it. [What are you talking about?]

"Do all of you have nicknames or something? And what's her name?"

The Espeon sighed. [Her name is Autumn. She's from Slateport City, Hoenn. And yes, we all have nicknames. The Sceptile's name is Rayar. Alanca is the Milotic over there. More gorgeous than most, but snores like… well, a Snorlax. Chama is the Rapidash over there. You heard me say her name earlier. Travon's the Ampharos, and Meda is the Butterfree.] She stopped.

Rayquaza watched her for a minute. "Do you have a nickname? Or is it just Espeon?"

[Sayla. That's my name.] Sayla sighed. [Look, I'm tired. I'm going to bed. Good night.]

"Good night."

A few minutes later, Sayla was asleep, leaving Rayquaza to his thoughts. Honestly, he was confused now, and worried. Something was wrong. There was a reason that the Hunter wanted this girl dead. And honestly, he didn't know how he could protect her. He didn't know why he had been chosen for this job, but he knew that there was a reason. Arceus always had her reasons. Often, she had more than one reason for the things that she did.

He closed his eyes. Yep. Arceus and Latias owed him for this. They owed him a lot.

"Oh, how the mighty do fall," he mused softly. "I've gone from Legendary Pokemon, guarding Hoenn from two squabbling idiots, to babysitter watching a trainer. Thanks, Arceus. Thanks, Latias. Thanks a lot."