Fanfic / Rainbow Rivalries

Dangerous things will happen without a leading man.

—Balthier

The first tale of the "Ouroboros Chronicles" trilogy, and the second tale of the "Millennium Comet" arc..

Unfazed by his defeat in Alola, Giovanni makes a second attempt at taking over all universes with Team Rainbow Rocket. Only this time, everyone knows of his intentions. Meanwhile, Maleficent has noticed that her reputation as a villain is declining because of several continuities where she's either an anti-hero or a cruel mother. She wants everyone to be reminded that she's still the Mistress of All Evil.

Thus, the two villain leaders cross paths with one another and note that they have something the other needs.

The story can be read here.

Tropes relating to Rainbow Rivalries

• All for Nothing: When Absol is framed for capturing the Bird trio, Ghetsis forces Peter Parker to go around the Whirl Island and bring back evidence of her innocence. Averted as he doesn't bring back the evidence, but records Ghetsis beating Absol to use as evidence against him.
• Angry Mob: Fang leads one against Giovanni in the prelude. Balthier and Sayaka lead another one against Lysandre in Act Three.
• Arch-Enemy: Lysandre considers himself this to Yuna when they confront each other in the Third Act. Yuna however, disagrees with this viewpoint.
• Ascended Extra: Some of the Final Fantasy characters appeared in previous tales with smaller roles. Particularly Fran, who only makes a silent cameo appearance in Stars Of Morning.
• Ascended Fridge Horror: The negative impacts of the various villain leaders succeeding in their goals was only glossed over in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. Here, they're brought into the spotlight, with Fang and Guzma calling Giovanni out on the fates of these worlds.
• Asshole Victim: Frustrated and enraged that he doesn't get to fight Aquaman, Black Manta attacks Hunter J for petrifying his target. Given how ruthless the Pokémon poacher was, confessing to capturing Winnie The Pooh and his friends in a ploy to lure Sora & Co. into a trap, there's no sympathy for the poacher.
• Badass in Distress: Several Gods are captured and turned into stone by Hunter J, among them are Fran, Jason Todd, HK-47, Kula, K', Buffy Summers, Mr. Zurkon, Winnie the Pooh, and Avatar Korra.
• The Bet: Ratchet's bet with Sora to see who can defeat Maleficent first is finally fulfilled here, but he can't remember the other person they did the bet with, making this a Pyrrhic Victory.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • When Yuna was cornered by Lysandre's Pokemon, Tidus, The Defiers of Fate, Balthier, Sayaka Miki, Cecil, Rosa, and Rydia intervene and save the High Summoner.
  • When Mewtwo, one of the strongest legendary Pokemon, had trouble fighting Giovanni even in Mega-evolution. Red's Pikachu comes in and ambush the Rocket leader with Thunderbolt, followed by a vicious beatdown from Charizard and Blastoise, giving the other Pokemon (and heroes) a fighting chance and defeat Giovanni.
  • Maleficent opens a wormhole to suck everyone in while she creates a portal to enter the Cragmite's world to bring Tachyon to the pantheon. The Evil Fairy was suddenly struck in the eye by Mjolnir thrown from Thor, knocking her into the wormhole.
• Bittersweet Ending: While Team Rainbow Rocket are stopped, with several of their members behind bars, not everything ends on a happy note. Shadow Lugia has not been purified and has departed to terrorize the other worlds, Maleficent turning her attention back to her previous objectives, Vanille is comatose from her ordeal as a Witch, the Toku Base remaining destroyed, and all the captured gods are not recovered, having been taken by Hunter J. This is the kind of climate that King Bradley’s High Command have been waiting for...Not to mention it enables Vandal Savage to put a new plan in motion.
• Body Horror: Ghetsis fuses the Legendary Birds using the DNA Splicers, resulting in Zapmolcuno’s creation. There is also Coconut fusing with the Wish!Rayquaza, creating Ragnaquaza.
  • The Medusoid Mycelium counts as well, since it grows inside the victims' throats.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Well that one's a given whenever I'm around to play.
• Call-Back:
  • Vanille brings up the events of both Dark Proxies and Mechanical Outbreak a few times. Lightning and Ratchet also speak of their part in Battle Royale: Round Two.
  • Ratchet has Gardevoir onhand. She rejoined him in Diamond Adventure when Sora had to leave the Pantheon.
  • The Yamato Perpetual Reactor is referenced in the narration as being just as powerful as the Ultimate Weapon, and that Flynn still continues to guard it to this day.
  • Acts Three and Five make it clear that Sayaka still blames herself for Sora leaving the pantheon in Diamond Adventure.
  • Act Five and the Epilogue has Thor and Sub-Zero speak about Raiden from an earlier story.
• The Cameo:
  • Several characters make appearances in when Balthier, Fran, Ratchet and Clank go to visit Cosmos's temple including She-Hulk and Rorschach.
  • When Ghetsis is defeated, Colress brings along the Queen of Hearts as a result of the Team Plasma mastermind's plagiarism of her trial against Alice and Sora. Naturally, she demands his head.
  • Mr. Zurkon makes a brief appearance during the third act. J petrifies him in seconds.
  • Lexa joins Reed Richards' rescue team to the Eligius IV, giving Raven quite the surprise.
• Carrying the Antidote: Balthier saves himself from the Medusiod Mycelium by using First Aid to conjure two horseradish apples; the one intended for Fran was given to Kyoko Sakura instead because J had already captured her.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Vandal Savage is mentioned as a potential candidate for Team Rainbow Rocket, but he doesn't appear until Act IV where he's revealed to be in cahoots with Bradley and Olaf in order to advance an additional scheme.
• Cooperation Gambit: King Bradley and the other Homunculi join forces with the heroes in order to stop Team Rainbow Rocket… though it's only for their own benefit.
• The Corruption: Maleficent uses her magic to channel the darkness within Dialga, Palkia and Lugia, transforming them into their Primal and Shadow forms respectively. She also applies it to Cyrus in order to capture said dragons.
• Crash-Into Hello: Platonic example. While escaping from the Zubat line and Bronzong, Ratchet accidently crashes into Fran, as neither were looking where they're going on account of the explosions at the summit.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Giratina ends up wiping the floor with Primal Dialga and Palkia, who not only destroyed most of the Pantheon but gave the survivors quite the difficult time in battle. The same applies to Rayquaza decimating Primal Groudon and Kyogre with a few well aimed attacks.
• Cutting the Knot: Instead of fighting Ghetsis' Pokemon and let the latter's troops join him, Sue creates a force-field around his head, suffocating him twice, the second time before the Plasma has any chance of sending his Pokemon.
• Deal with the Devil: Giovanni's deal with Maleficent is the basis of the tale. Along with the consequences.
  • Later on, Lin Beifong and Chun-Li make a deal with King Bradley to enlist the help of his High Command to stop the Rocket takeover.
• Deconstruction: The plot of the tale deconstructs the idea of villains who win, and goes into further detail on the needs of both heroes and villains that are often mentioned in Riku's "Villains Report".
  • In general, the tale is a deconstruction of villainous organizations.
• Demoted to Dragon: Giovanni still considers himself to be the leader of Team Rainbow Rocket, but it is very clear that Maleficent is just toying with him for her own agendas.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Two would-be victims of the Medusiod Mycelium happen to be Lightning Farron and Sayaka Miki, a Goddess and Puella Magi, respectively.
• Disney Death: When Ragnaquaza was defeated, Vanille died as a side-affect, but given this is the pantheon, her crystalized body was restored to life within 24 hours, but was left with a shattered heart, and can no longer wake up.
• Distress Call: Raven Reyes sends one out to the Pantheon, informing the surviving gods about Team Rainbow Rocket's plan to create Shadow Pokemon and hinting at a captured "dragon." said dragon is revealed to be Shadow Lugia.
  • Balthier sends one to the Magical Girls Sisterhood courtesy of Tron, and they send Sayaka Miki and her familiars to aid him.
• Dragged Off to Hell: Cyrus is brought down into the Distortion World by Giratina. Again.
• The Dreaded:
  • The reaction Giovanni has to seeing Red is a combination of shock and horror.
  • Played with in a meeting Team Rainbow Rocket has in Act II. Lysandre suggested Scar, whom Ghetsis has pointed out was defeated by a teenager (Sora) before it devolves into a petty argument. Giovanni, despite being baffled at Sora, contemplates that with the brunette keybearer out of the pantheon, Team Rainbow Rocket can proceed with the plans unhindered due to the latter's knack for ruining well-laid plans.
• Easter Special: The second half of the tale is set during the Easter weekend.
• Eldritch Abomination: Ragnaquaza, a merger of Vanille's Witch Coconut, and the fake Rayquaza created by Jirachi. The monster is colored similar to the Mismagius/Rayquaza merger from the anime, but has elements of Vanille's Eidolon Hecatoncheir on its features. It is a Dragon/Steel type, and knows Jirachi's signature move Doom Desire. It cannot Mega Evolve or use Z-moves, as it is not a true Pokémon.
• 11th-Hour Ranger: Silver, Thor, and Red don't make an appearance until very late into the story. The former joins Cynthia, Hareta and Cyrus in fighting Giovanni, The latter two join the group in Act Five.
  • Kyoko Sakura eventually becomes a Seventh Ranger, though she fights alongside Ratchet and Clank against Maleficent, and the FF cast hardly interact with her.
• Evil Genius: Count Olaf certainly becomes one both in and out of Team Rainbow Rocket. It also applies to Faba, who is brought to the Pantheon to work on the Ultra Wormholes and the Mecha!Mewtwo suit.
• Evil Is Petty:
  • Pete leaves behind Easter eggs with Heartless waiting inside for children to find, presumably because Maleficent hates kids in general. Ratchet and Clank, Stark, and the others in their group with the help of Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf, destroy the eggs before any children are attacked. Giovanni is rather put off by this act.
  • The entire reason Maleficent has joined Giovanni, controlled a few legendaries, and terrorized children with Heartless mentioned above? All because Riku considered her less of a threat to the pantheon than she used to be.
• Evil Versus Evil: Team Rainbow Rocket's conquest of the Pantheon eventually forces King Bradley's newly formed High Command to take action against them for being too destructive.
• Exit, Pursued by a Bear: The Team Plasma Grunts inside the Whirl Islands end up chased by the Card Soldiers after Ghetsis' defeat.
• Family-Unfriendly Violence:
  • One of the Rocket Grunts used a Philosopher's Stone to grow in size, only to be quickly killed by Tony, who fired lasers through both lungs.
  • The first time Thor throws Mjolnir at Maleficent, it is at the evil fairy's right eye. The second time, after Absol attacks the evil fairy with Foul Play and Psycho Cut, was aimed at her neck.
• Fluffy the Terrible: The actual name of Vanille's Witch, which in her world would be her incomplete Ragnarok form, is Coconut. She's renamed Ragnaquaza by Sayaka when the Ultimate Weapon fused Coconut with the fake Rayquaza.
• Fusion Dance: Maleficent attempts to fuse a Nihilego with Kyoko to have a Motherbeast at her command, but is foiled by Ratchet and Clank.
• The Ghost:
  • Sora makes no appearance, but he is mentioned a few times because like Red, he is a child hero who defeated villain leaders before, making him The Dreaded to Team Rainbow Rocket, though mainly due to Maleficent seeing him (and Riku) as a threat to her plans.
  • Madoka Kaname is mentioned a few times, but because of her status, all she could do is send Sayaka and Kyoko to assist the Final Fantasy characters.
  • Both Nausicaä and Stannis Baratheon are mentioned by the survivors, having closed off the portals to their temples during the Rainbow Rocket attacks.
  • The list of deities Giovanni considered to be members for Team Rainbow Rocket includes Sir Crocodile, Kuvira, Dr. Eggman, Sundowner, and James Moriarty.
  • Jak is this and a Posthumous Character, but his absence is felt across the pantheon, and reviving him is Daxter's main goal.
  • During their fight on the Eligius IV, Ghetsis has been told by Reed Richards he is lucky to face the Fantastic Four and the Power Rangers, rather than a ruthless associate of Reed's. The associate in question is Mayuri Kurosutchi. During the start of Act V, King Bradley mentions that Orihime Inoue has Sayaka and the Final Fantasy heroes all healed up.
• Goddamned Bats: In-universe example. The first scene with Ratchet and Clank involves them inside Mt. Coronet looking for Gold Bolts. A bad encounter with a Bronzong leads to Ratchet being flung into several roosting Golbat, angering them. One Golbat even knew Screech, leading to the duo having to deal with hundreds of the Zubat line.
• Godzilla Threshold: Mewtwo crosses this when it transforms into Mega Mewtwo X to take on the deceptively powerful Mecha!Giovanni.
• Goldfish Poop Gang: Pete and the Team Rocket trio (Jessie, James, and Meowth). They serve as a bumbling contrast to their more serious employers and are dismissed as jokes by most of the cast.
• Hannibal Lecture: Maleficent delivers one to Absol after the Disaster Pokemon Mega-Evolved.
  Maleficent: "“Little beast. Are you so eager to join your master- (Absol attacks her with Psycho Cut, weakening her) “Look at you. All alone. Your keybearer trainer has deserted you to deal with Xehanort, and the Lombax and his friends will suffer from the Medusoid Mycelium used by Count Olaf! With this, I shall be feared forever more!"
• Hospital Epilogue: Ratchet and Vanille both end up in the GUAG Medical Division in the end, the first because of injuries sustained from Maleficent tossing him into a wormhole, and the second because she's comatose.
• History Repeats: Ratchet's battle with Maleficent is a reversal of Sora's battle with Courtney Gears in Muse Hysteria, right down to both heroes passing out post-battle from illness and needing help from a vigilante female.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The fate that befalls Trakeena at the hands - or rather lance, if you will - of the Dragonzord Battle Mode.
• I Owe You My Life: Balthier saves Kyoko from the Medusiod Mycelium by handing her his last horseradish coated apple. She's actively looking for him in the end, wanting to thank him, and forgive him for bringing Sayaka into the conflict.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Ghetsis has the Team Plasma Grunts beat Absol up until she can barely stand, knowing that Riku would get angry at Peter for her injuries. It gets From Bad to Worse when Deadpool unintentionally inflicts her with the Stuffum Syndrome.
  • Maleficent tosses Ratchet and Clank into Lysandre's ruined temple to inflict them with the Medusiod Mycelium. While Clank is unharmed because the fungus doesn't work on robots, he's still Forced to Watch as Ratchet is inflicted and starts suffocating.
• Kill It with Fire: Envy is first exposed in the Pantheon after getting lit on fire by Ghetsis' Hydreigon.^note Prior to this, only the Homunculi, and briefly the deities of Republic City, knew he was even around, let alone ascended.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: A few Team Skull Grunts are amongst the Angry Mob at the beginning, showing that they're not a true villain team.
• Legion of Doom: The new Team Rainbow Rocket, obviously. King Bradley's High Command also qualifies as well.
• Make My Monster Grow: Said nearly word for word by Maleficent when she transforms Trakeena in her monster form.
• Must Make Amends: Though she can't remember the latter, Sayaka thinks Sora and Jak suffered from her anger towards Homura, and agrees to Tron's request to help the Final Fantasy cast stop Lysandre to redeem herself in their eyes.
• Mythology Gag: Oh boy! Where do we start?
  • Each of the teams owned by the Team leaders features Pokémon either owned by them or by their fellow associates (ie. Malva's Talonflame and Xerosic's Malamar on Lysandre's team, and Cyrus's Magnezone and Probopass originating from Pokemon Adventures.)
  • A Soldier Heartless drops an unusual gun (Jak's eco-gun) that Ratchet takes, with him and Clank intending to return it to its rightful owner. In the Kingdom Hearts games, certain Heartless or Nobodies will drop weapons that Donald and Goofy can use for themselves.
  • Ghetsis refers to the research files for Shadow Lugia as belonging to "Cipher", referencing the evil team from Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness who created Shadow Lugia in the first place.
  • Both Primal Dialga and Shadow Lugia make appearances in the story, along with Zapmolcuno from Pokémon Adventures.
  • N uses his Spring team from Pokémon Black 2 and White 2. The tale is set during Easter, in early Spring.
  • The confrontation with Cyrus is an extended version of the Pokémon Generations episode, “The New World”, complete with Giratina coming in to save the day.
  • Jirachi created a fake Groudon in Pokemon Jirachi Wish Maker, and a fake Kyogre in Pokémon Adventures. This time, he creates a fake Rayquaza.
  • The Dragonzord is piloted not by Tommy Oliver, but instead by black ranger Zack Taylor, who is donning the Dragon Shield just as he did in the Season One finale, "An Oyster Stew".
  • Towards the end of Final Fantasy XIII, Fang becomes an incomplete Ragnarok to fight Orphan. A similar concept happens against Lysandre, only this time, Vanille becomes Ragnarok. It doesn't end well for her when she and a fake Rayquaza merge and create Ragnaquaza.
  • This isn't the first time Trakeena has been transformed into a Megazord destroying monster.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The reason why all the Final Fantasy characters and Sayaka (and later Ratchet) are inflicted is because Snow Villers makes the mistake of trying to break Vanille out of the Ultimate Weapon without considering possible booby traps.
• Noodle Incident:
  • In Act I, Hareta notes that his friend Mowgli hasn't been seen since an incident involving the Indominus rex.
  • Tony mentions an incident regarding the Justice League.
  • Ratchet mentions that Ed has lead groups to a dead end in the catacombs three times in the past.
  • Peter mentions an incident about plague rats touching Absol by accident, having to wash and clean the Disaster Pokemon.
• No-Sell: The Medusiod Mycelium fails to inflict Kyoko Sakura because she just happened to have eaten a horseradish-apple hybrid beforehand. Clank, of course, also escapes the fungus because he's a robot.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • When Peter gives Tony a picture of the Ouroboros Tattoo, the Iron Man quickly realizes in horror that a Homunculus is among Team Plasma, telling Peter and Colress to bring more firepower than usual.
  • Things were going well in the circus as Korra defeats the (Anime) Team Rocket Trio. One moment later, she is turned into a golden trophy, causing everyone to escape quickly.
• Only in It for the Money: The only real motivation of Count Olaf, beyond his orders to further the plans of his colleagues that were given to the GUAE in Reformation of Law.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Absol refuses to Mega Evolve normally, but when Ratchet, Clank, and Kyoko are thrown out of the Ultra Deep Sea, she willingly allows Parker to Mega Evolve her, and the resulting Aura from it destroys many Heartless.
• Plagiarism in Fiction:
  • Ghetsis stole the idea of unfairly sending someone on an evidence hunt from the Queen of Hearts. Upon his defeat, she personally shows up with Colress and orders her cards to chop his head off.
  • Later on, just before sending everyone into Vanille's witch barrier, Maleficent plagiaries Dr. Nefarious' "and again. And again" quote from Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time. Lightning quickly lampshades this.
• The Plague: The Medusiod Mycelium, a fungus that kills its victims in one hour via growing in their throats until they choke to death, inflects several Final Fantasy characters and Sayaka Miki during the battle with Lysandre. Ratchet is also inflicted after his battle with Dragon Maleficent.
• Posthumous Character: Sora and Jak have both died, and their absence plays a major role in Ratchet's arc.
• Precision F-Strike: Dropped by Ghetsis as he's confronted by the newly-awakened Grounders.
  Ghetsis: *Sighs* Shit.
• Put on a Bus: Ratchet ends up incapacitated from being thrown out of a wormhole, while Clank is forced to leave the pantheon and return to Solana to film the next "Secret Agent Clank" season and movie. The next tale states Ratchet also returned to Solana after recovering, taking Gardevoir with him.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: As one might expect from Team Rocket. Most of the new additions to the team also sport these colours.
• Ret-Gone: This tale reveals that nobody outside his homeworld remembers Jak. The only reason why people become aware of his existence is because Uxie told them, and even then, the Knowledge Pokémon forgot about him.
• Revenge Before Reason: A Discussed Trope when Vandal Savage discusses who will lead the Disney Villains now that Maleficent has retreated. Azula is dismissive of them because their tendency to let revenge cloud their minds causes them to screw-up long-term plans. Vandal thus instructs Count Olaf to contact Dr. Facilier to in turn contact David Xanatos to take control of the group because Xanatos considers revenge a sucker's game.
• Sacrificial Lion: Fran ends up Taken for Granite in Act Three.
• Saying Too Much: Maleficent accidentally confirms the existence of her estranged daughter Mal. Twice. The reaction of the heroes is merely laughter.
• Shout-Out:
  • Maleficent casually mentions Madame Amberly's Academy of Evil when the heroes learn that Mal exists. Nina Cortex also gets a brief mention.
  • The Alternate Universe Azula mentions at dinner with Vandal Savage is actually the universe of Kyoshi Revolts, where she rules as Supreme Fire Lord following the deaths of Aang and his friends.
• Sinister Suffocation: Susan Storm suffocates Ghetsis with forcefield before he can send out any Pokemon, nearly killing him.
• Sixth Ranger: During the clash with Lysandre and the Ultimate Weapon, Sayaka Miki joins the Final Fantasy cast along with her own angry mob in Anthony Familiars. When Vanille's Witch Coconut becomes Ragnaquaza, she even summons Oktavia von Seckendorff to help with the battle.
  • Though technically not a sixth ranger, Joe Gibken comes in during the final act to aid the heroes and help complete the Dragonzord Battle Mode.
• So Proud of You: Fang admits at the end that she's proud of Ratchet for facing Maleficent head-on and nearly dying out of friendship towards Sora. Lightning also tells Ratchet that Sora would be proud too, if he was still in the pantheon.
• The Stinger:
  • Vanille meets Jak in the Sleeping Worlds, and reveals to him that it's Easter, revealing to him that he's been asleep for five months, and nobody except Daxter and Keira remembers him. Even Vanille forgot his existence, and is surprised that he's real.
  • Shortly after Vandal Savage warns Azula, Black Manta, Bradley, and Count Olaf about an additional threat over dinner, the scene cuts to Brainiac, who has managed to bug Vandal's temple, and notes that he may have to modify the GUAM's next scheme.
• Summon Magic: Unavoidable when several Final Fantasy characters are involved. There's Ifrit, Odin, Shiva, Bahamut, and Hecatoncheir. Outsider summons include Mr. Zurkon, Rayquaza, and Oktavia von Seckondorf.
• Taking Up the Mantle: As it turns out, Ratchet and Clank have been aiding Mickey, Donald, and Goofy with filling the absent Sora's duties in the pantheon, mainly to fulfil Sora's last request to avenge him and Jak for what happened in Diamond Adventure. Which becomes tragic, as Ratchet knows Sora might never come back.
• Time Skip: One of Cynthia's lines implies that ten years have passed since the events of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.
• Too Dumb to Live: After recovering from Thor's first strike via Mjolnir, Maleficent mocks Absol over losing Ratchet, Clank and Kyoko, never minding that the Disaster Pokemon was backed up by the Asgardian God of Thunder, who quickly recovered and threw Mjolnir a second time at her neck, knocking her into the wormhole for good with heavy damage.
• Tragic Keepsake: A Heartless on Mt. Coronet (apparently) stole a gun from one of Ratchet's friends, and he takes it for himself, but can't remember which friend it belonged to.
• Uncertain Doom: Maleficent winds up stranded in the same dimension as Tachyon, and what happened to her inside was not revealed, even after Pete pulls her out.
• Villain Team-Up: Giovanni recreates Team Rainbow Rocket with the help of various villains, Pokémon, Disney or otherwise.
• Villainous Breakdown: This happens several times throughout the course of the story, with the most notable examples going to Ghetsis and Lysandre.
• Weaksauce Weakness: The cure for the Medusoid Mycelium is horseradish. Just being exposed to it is enough to cause the fungus to wither and die.
• Wham Episode:
  • Ratchet can't remember the other person he and Clank did The Bet with. It's revealed that everyone in the Pantheon except Daxter, Keira, and Naminé have forgotten Jak ever existed.
  • A bit into Act Three, Fran becomes one of the petrified casualties of Team Rainbow Rocket, causing Balthier to enter a Heroic BSoD.
  • At the end of Act Three, Vanille becomes Coconut, and then merges with a fake Rayquaza to create Ragnaquaza. Meanwhile, the Medusiod Mycelium inflicts Sayaka Miki and several Final Fantasy characters and leaves them in the GUAG Medical Division.
  • The attack on the Pantheon by Team Rainbow Rocket, along with the destruction of the Toku Base.
  • While fighting Ragnaquaza, Hope finds a Grief Seed that belonged to Vanille, revealing that she contracted with Kyubey just before a corrupted Sora kidnapped her in The Friendship Asylum, and kept it from Fang and the others for almost a year.
• Who's Laughing Now?: Doubles as a Call-Back. As revealed towards the end, right before tossing Ratchet into Lysandre's ruined temple, Maleficent reveals the reason she joined Team Rainbow Rocket was to have the last laugh against her former protégé Riku, who called her "less of a threat" in Villains Report 19, seen in Diamond Adventure.
• Wrongfully Accused: Played with in regards to Maxie and Archie. During Act III, they're believed to have been conspiring with Giovanni in awakening Groudon and Kyogre to create more chaos. Subverted immediately after; turned out the pair had just moved into the Pantheon in secret, only for Faba to reveal their location to the two Legendaries.
• Xanatos Gambit: Count Olaf sets up a plan that will benefit him with either outcome: If Team Rainbow Rocket win, he'll get rich. If King Bradley and the Homunculi win, the remnants of Team Rainbow Rocket will be carried over to his High-Command in addition to having a few temples to burn.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Vandal Savage was planning on letting Azula into his schemes at a later date, but had to move up the timetable due to unforeseen factors. It pays off.
• Wistful Amnesia: The fact that Ratchet considers his promise to Sora to cover and vindicate him very important is because his heart knows of a second person connected to them both, whom neither can remember.

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