A beam of light bent space as it traveled across the vast emptiness, leaving a green trail behind it.
Though it looked like light, it moved nowhere near light speed.
In fact, it was much, much slower.
Even then, through some baffling, incomprehensible means, it folded from one point in the darkness to another, crossing distances vast enough to render an ordinary man a simpleton just by contemplating them.
Suddenly, in the light's path, a multicolored speck appeared.
The light jumped.
The next time the light appeared, the multicolored dot it had spotted in the distance had grown so massive that its edges were lost to infinity.
Not only its boundaries, but the darkness of the void itself had been replaced by a multicolored wall.
The iridescent barrier was so vast that, paradoxically, it manifested behind the green light as well, as if encircling it from every dimension.
The light didn't pause to decipher the absurdity.
It jumped again.
The next time it appeared, it slammed directly into the multicolored wall and… vanished entirely.
…
A greenish comet shot past planets, hurtling toward the Sun.
Neptune…
Uranus…
Saturn…
Jupiter…
It hurtled past Mars, tracing a curved arc toward the star.
Midway, however, its trajectory shifted with deliberate intent.
It was no longer descending into the Sun, but heading straight for the distant orb that hung seemingly motionless like a pale blue dot on a vast, black canvas.
The comet tore through Earth's atmosphere.
Before it could even reach the stratosphere, it burned up and ceased to exist.
Or…
That was how it appeared to the beings, mundane and extraordinary alike, who had been observing the skies.
What those watchers could not perceive was the entity hiding within the comet's blazing wake, cloaked by Mystery vastly superior to their own.
A serpentine, draconic silhouette with razor-sharp claws, it was as black as the void itself… mostly.
It was Black Rayquaza!
And the planet it had reached was one of the seven Pillar Timelines of the… Harry Potter Bubble!
…
Black Rayquaza drifted across the world like the shadow of an omen.
The planet still housed billions of souls, but most of the Characters who should have walked its soil were gone, as if an abyss had swallowed them whole, leaving no trace of their prior existence.
Ministries stood abandoned.
Schools and Academies of Magic sat hollow and empty.
Wizarding towns, markets, alleys, and prisons were dark and freezing cold.
[Have you seen enough, boy?]
The voice of an old man, sounding uncannily similar to an aged Dumbledore, echoed in Black Rayquaza's mind.
The Pokémon unleashed a low cry, shimmering pitch-black.
A featureless face materialized in the sky directly above it, its gaze pinning the creature down.
[So much… fear…] the Pillar Timeline's voice cracked. [To terrify one of us to this degree… What are you fleeing from?]
This time, when Black Rayquaza roared, the cry carried not only anxiety, but… fury.
[If you knew what you were truly up against—] the voice of a young boy echoed from Rayquaza's maw, [—you wouldn't be acting so nonchalant, either.]
[… What I am up against…] the Pillar Timeline mused. [Are you speaking of my war upon that demented Mirror? How do you even know of that? It has nothing to do with the Bubble you hail from.]
Black Rayquaza let out a raspy, booming laugh. [Nothing related to the Pokémon Bubble, except for one thing…]
[What?] the Pillar Timeline demanded.
[An Outer One.]
Silence descended.
The face in the sky trembled.
The faint contours of its featureless face darkened.
[… The Yellow Warlock?] the Pillar Timeline guessed.
[More like… Nyarlathotep.]
With that, the face in the heavens shattered into fragments.
Mysteries converged before Black Rayquaza, coalescing into the form of a white-cloaked Dumbledore, his eyes blazing like pure, radiant stars.
[How… do you know that?] the Pillar Timeline asked, barely concealing the hesitation bleeding through its ancient voice.
Without personally clashing with an Outer One's Mysteries, it was nigh impossible for a Timeline to determine what nature those Mysteries had assumed for that specific entity.
Furthermore, as long as a Contestant did not unleash those Mysteries openly, a Timeline could never ascertain whether it was interacting with a true Outer One at all.
The Pillar Timeline had launched a total invasion into the Mirror, but… it had not personally crossed paths with every single Contestant walking that world.
[I know because…] the Key from the Pokémon Bubble answered, [… Red ascended to an Outer One right under my nose!]
[…] The avatar of Pillar Timeline in Dumbledore's form drew a sharp, rattling breath. [Backlash… How insane have you become to court trouble with Nyarlathotep, of all Outer Ones, across the entire Multiverse?]
[Haha…] Rayquaza rumbled with a savage chuff. [And how insane are you to plot the outright murder of that bastard, then?!]
The two cosmic entities stared at each other, finding themselves trapped in the same predicament.
[What do you want?] The Pillar demanded. [As per the Great Old Contract, we cannot divulge information regarding an Outer One's identity without ceasing to exist. Unless… you are willing to—]
[Do I look like an idiot to you?!] the Key hissed. [If it weren't for this unfinished Backlash hindering me from becoming a Mirror, why would I go out of my way to seek trouble with an Outer One?! That bastard… I want him dead!]
Dumbledore regarded Rayquaza with star-filled eyes. [What do you propose, then?]
[We cannot disclose an Outer One's identity outright, but…] the dragon narrowed its gleaming reptilian eyes, [… we can force it out of him.]
[How?]
[I sensed the conceptual laws of Warhammer 40k anchored here…] the Key noted.
[That is because I share Karma with one of its Timelines,] Dumbledore replied. [You hold no Karma with the Harry Potter Bubble…]
[Oh, but I do…]
Slowly, Rayquaza unhinged its fanged maw wider and wider, until…
Instead of a cataclysmic dragon roar, a gentle, high-pitched chirp resonated from its throat.
A moment later, a tiny bird darted outward, the radiance of Dumbledore's starry eyes flaring wide in absolute shock.
The bird was so swift and minute that it resembled a thread of gold looping through the air, weaving tight rings around both Dumbledore and Rayquaza.
[… A Golden Snidget…] the Pillar Timeline whispered, feeling the unmistakable conceptual resonance lock into place. [… But… it is…]
[Indeed.] Rayquaza gave a low, rumbling sneer. [… Behold — the Golden Snidget: Pokémon!]