"To the skies, the young man shouted his dismay. "In having found the sword, I have lost so much. Gorged with power, I grew blind to Pokémon being alive. I will never fall savage again. This sword I denounce and forsake. I plead for forgiveness, for I was but a fool." So saying, the young man hurled the sword to the ground, snapping it. Seeing this, the Pokémon disappeared to a place beyond seeing..."
He'd known of storms before; storms which lashed at his body with wind and rain whilst lighting flashed overhead, giving him hardly any warning of the terrible cracks of thunder which sounded like the very air was splitting above him. He'd known of rain so intense he had been unable to see the path before his feet as he battled on. How the wind had howled, grabbing at his thick raincoat and whipping his hair around as if determined to steal the scraggly little bundle of blankets wrapped tightly to his bare chest, as if it knew how much he treasured the screaming baby boy inside them.
But now, things had changed. He might have known of storms before, but had never been at one with them, never had felt the wind start to howl and decided to howl back at it. Had never known the joys of bringing down a bolt of lightning with one sweep of his arm, nor relished the smell of ozone quite so much. The closest he had come to anything like this was locked in memories of before his hair had yellowed and clumped into spikes, before talking to his Manectric had required verbal speech. Now, Strike was in him, and he was in Strike. No, he was Strike - and Strike was him... and the only thing he knew of was the storm.
He stood, straightening from his foetal position on the sand, and bared his fangs in direct competition to anyone who might dare to think otherwise. Should he meet them, they would die.
He took a step, and caught a scent. Burning. Meat. Hunger. He spotted the roasted Leverbit and picked it up curiously from the sand. His nose flared; one part of him dying to dig in, the other fussier part eying off the sand, till hunger won over. The storm would have to wait till his stomach was sated. Until then, the food was good, and hot, and both parts appreciated it immensely. It did not matter where it had come from, detail was irrelevant.
~~~
<What is your name, human?> asked the Pokémon. "So I may introduce you to my human brothers and sisters."
"Kris." the young boy said weakly. "And this is Blink."
The Pokémon seemed to smile, then the water around Kris' feet began to glow. <My name is Mewtwo.> it said. <Do not be afraid.>
"I'm not afraid," said Kris. "I-I'm-"
Unlike Mew's teleportation, this one seemed to wrench his heart out of his body. Eyes shut and body shaking with cold and shock, Kris slowly collapsed onto the hard floor and curled up into a ball, Blink standing next to him with a concerned whine coming from his throat.
"Brother Mewtwo." came a surprised male voice. Kris heard it from far away, as if his ears were blocked.
<Kris, I apologise...> Mewtwo said. <I am extremely out of practice teleporting other living things. Brother Akiva, I need your help.>
"Kris, is it?" the voice came again. Gentle hands touching his back and soggy pants seemed to bring him back into the room, he blinked, and whispered, "Dad?"
Strong hands enfolded him, lifted him from the floor and pressed him to someone's chest. "Brother, please tell me everything."
Kris felt as the person holding him began to walk; the relaxed motion gently lulling him into a state of near unconsciousness. Hence, the words he heard next from Mewtwo and Brother Akiva meant nothing to him.
<I was called by Mew.> Mewtwo said.
Akiva laughed. "Which one?"
Mewtwo paused. <Does it matter? In any case, it was the one from the lake - the one which I once crossed paths with many, many years ago. And the lake is where I was called to. Mew asked, well... actually expected, me to take the human she had with her and bring him to the Agrarian Seers. As I have done.>
"I see." said Akiva. "Well, whether Alpha or Beta, Mew's motivations are mysterious. You have no idea where the boy came from previously?"
<No, but I have suspicions he has just been orphaned...> Mewtwo said, grimacing. <He looks well fed and cared for, but Mew did not teleport any other humans with him.>
When Akiva spoke next, he sounded a little taken aback. "Mew wanted us to take him in? Adopt him? Or simply just protect him until we find his next of kin? By Taj, we are not exactly the best people to ask about the latter - we're miles from any town, yet this child could be from any region. Although, with this tan I'd have to say he's possibly from Hoenn."
<Mew mentioned our sisters, and said they would know what to do.> Mewtwo said. <I have no doubt they would care for him like their own children, but what confuses me more is why Mew would care about this boy enough to teleport him out of whatever danger he was in.>
"Perhaps the child is special in some way," Akiva said, smiling at the soft snore coming from Kris. "For the moment, though, we must deal with our major priorities. One, his joggers are soaking. Two, we've also got his Pokémon to think about."
<What can I do?> asked Mewtwo. <Do you wish me to... uh, bath him?>
The reluctance in his voice at the idea made Akiva's smile widen. "Relax, Mewtwo, I would not ask that of you - I know your own personal cleaning duties require nothing more than saliva, a tongue and alarming flexibility."
<I may subscribe to many human behaviours, but immersing myself in water to get clean is not one of them,> Mewtwo said, his pride slightly wounded.
"What of that time at Mount Quena?" the human teased.
<I was dying.> said Mewtwo shortly, and the finality in his tone was enough to render silence until the pair had reached their rooms.
~~~
Time... and the unexplainable, inexplicable passing of it. Most didn't realise just how dangerous time really was. Some did not believe it even existed; that the concept was just a name for merely an illusion.
But then again, 'some' weren't Celebi, and they couldn't time-travel, let alone understand what her power really entailed. The little Pokémon was luckier than others, and knew it. She had many defence mechanisms, which worked even unconsciously when in dire trouble. The being had been wrong about her cry for help not being noticed. She had heard it in another time.
She had been close to death many times. Minutes, hours, years away, she had felt herself slowly dying after the mental ravages of the Dark Ball and the masked human with a nature just as dark. She had jumped through time, looked at a hundred incarnations of herself from different times, and had healed herself. And then years later she had jumped again to that same spot, and again. In the past she'd done so dozens of times. Paradoxically, she remembered the moment far before ever experiencing it; for she had experienced it in another duplicate's body.
And then departed for her own time again - for it was an unspoken rule that there should not be too many permanent duplicates; they created numerous paradoxes which were only balanced with the help of her similarly legendary friends. The Time Lord. Sometimes even the Space Lord. She was part of the balance, too, as were the rest of the Council... that did not necessarily mean there was not disruptions here and there. Those kinds of unavoidable disruptions was the reason the Council had been formed in the first place.
She remembered another time, in not only another time, but another space, thanks to the Space Lord's powers. She had created a permanent duplicate to live in that strange space where Pokémon knew of humans but strangely enough no humans lived there. A place in which Pokémon fought on their own, used money, betrayed and fought and talked just like humans as if to make up for the world's deficit.
And then, in a million different times in a million different places, she remembered going to Minami. Remembered the being, the fear, the eventual trouble. But not enough trouble to warrant a large scale rescue. What had happened? Her memories just stopped, then seemed to restart completely the next second at a location far away from the place.
Where had she disappeared to in that second? The thought worried her. She stopped aimlessly buzzing low round the trees of the shaded Ilex Forest - spreading flowers behind her in her wake - and landed. This was a situation never before encountered. For that split second, she had not existed in the fabric of time.
But she definitely had not died. She still existed here, in a million billion other times far after that one time. She had simply faded... and yet, for some reason it felt as if she still existed over there on Minami.
LITTLE ONE!
The immense psychic speech radiated through her mind. She winced at its oppressive nature. Yes, Time Lord, I am here.
There is an error in the Time Continuum, the Time Lord said, toning down the loudness of its voice.
I know, Celebi said. I was attacked in the not now. She beckoned to the small bud of blue in front of her and concentrated, waving her long arms. Before her the bud grew, swelled, and before long had gained a glassy sheen. Finished, Celebi touched a finger to a petal and watched as it blossomed, sending a visual memory into the air.
Yes, she had changed, as soon as reaching the empty grove. Why? What significance did it hold - oh, she'd known in the not now, but in the now that particular detail was lost. All she remembered was the sight of the being, emphasised by the visual of the past, then the odd feeling as her body warped.
When the Time Lord spoke next, it sounded proud. You are very clever, little one, it said. You fooled the living error.
Celebi smiled faintly. It felt good to take the credit from what was merely instinct. On her part or the thing she had become she did not know, nor did it matter. For a while, she had been it, and it her. Now? Who knew.
The being was fooled by the seed. It does not understand life, thus it cannot truly end it. Nor can it use the life of a seed for its own betterment.
Celebi nodded. But what will happen to the seed?
In her mind, she felt the Time Lord smile. You are to plant it once more.
~~~
Warily, the small Pokémon stepped around the earthy grove's borders, unwilling to go to the seed until she was fully prepared. The Time Lord had warned her that the being was probably still waiting for her. Should she step to the centre, she could be attacked again. The thought terrified her.
She saw the seed lying on the ground. It would probably not sprout like that, or if it did, it would not live very long so high above the lower earth's nutrients. She would have to collect it, and plant it with loving care in a safe place.
Determination led her first steps towards it. As she neared it, and was just about to bend to pick it up, a flickering blue shape dashed from the trees and leaped for her, its movements through space jerky and spasmodic.
Then, things happened simultaneously. Time slowed. In her mind, she thought madly, is this merely adrenaline speeding up my own self or is time really...? She screamed. Time slowed further. The being opened its mouth and bared its impressive set of white fangs, ready to snap her up. She grabbed the seed and leaped backwards into the air, fighting the gluey way her legs and wings moved. Then, the Time Lord appeared in a flash behind her, its own mouth open in a soundless roar.
The roar of Time - projecting not sound but time waves. Warping, shaping this little bubble of Minami and everything in it into near immobility. It continued roaring, and then a second desperate roar - this one mental - met Celebi's mind.
GO! QUICKLY!
Celebi felt a shove towards the direction of time she should flee. She jumped backwards, both in time and in space. With the help of the Time Lord, travelling was different. She could actually watch as things reversed, first slowly then speeding up. In her fear, she intensified the trip's speed further, flying backwards through the aeons as she saw flickering images of Pokémon here and there, their own existences, then gone in a millisecond.
She flew and flew, until the blinding flashes of sunsets reversed began to hurt her eyes. She slowed her passage through time and then stopped it entirely in wonder at the strange lie of the land. Somehow she'd reached a time where she had not even existed. She had no memories of this. The thought was scary, but at the same time fascinating to her. Would she be creating many difficult paradoxes simply by being here?
She looked around in scrutiny, still hugging the seed to her stomach. The land stood quiet, still, a few trees dotting its otherwise bare surface. Would the seed survive here? The thought worried her. She bobbed towards the earth, then noticed the trail of lush grass and wild flowers marking her trail through the air.
I shouldn't have worried, she laughed to herself. The earth was ripe for planting. Something occurred to her, some odd instinct, and she flew in a circle, creating a ring of green amidst so much brown.
She flew into the middle of the circle and used her hands to scoop out fistfuls of earth for a deep planting. Once done, she laid the seed in and filled the hole, patting down firmly, letting a good measure of her powers into the seed. I wish I could request a purification of the area from Fleetlake, she thought. However, I do not think she exists yet either.
Celebi stood and rose into the air to take one more look at what was Minami aeons in the past. As she did so, she noticed in the far distance a volcano spewing lava. She shivered. A blessing it was so far away; practically a whole other continent's worth of land away.
It occurred to her then that Minami was connected to the other continents, as they were to themselves. So far away from her own time. Shivering once more, she gathered her power and flew back to her own time, unknowing that a mighty being in another realm had been watching this whole time in fascination.
~~~
She appeared before the Time Lord's enormous head, in the air, her wings flailing against the roar of Time. You have completed your task? it asked her, still keeping the being in check, suspended in the air, frozen in time.
Celebi nodded. It is safe.
SPACE LORD! WE HAVE NEED OF YOU!
She and the Time Lord were gripped and thrust through a sudden opening in space. The Space Lord did not appear, but as Celebi readjusted herself to her new surroundings - it looked like Sinnoh to her - she was besieged with another immense voice.
ALL IS WELL?
YES, the Time Lord said back. THE TIME BUBBLE WILL SOON ADJUST AND MAKE UP FOR ITS LACK. It swung its great head and neck down to Celebi. I DID NOT WISH THE LITTLE ONE TO ALSO SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES OF ACCELERATION.
AND WHAT ARE THOSE CONSEQUENCES? There was a certain underlying humour in the Space Lord's question, as if it was fighting to keep the chuckle out of its voice. WHAT WILL THE ACCELERATION DO TO THE LORD OF ZERO SPACE?
The Time Lord did not reply for a moment as its great head swung towards the direction of Minami. Then, I DO NOT KNOW... it said, a hint of worry under its otherwise toneless voice. IT IS POWERFUL INDEED. HAD I NOT SURPRISED IT, IT MAY HAVE BEEN ABLE TO FORCE THROUGH THE ROAR OF TIME.
Celebi jerked in surprise, yelping. You didn't tell me that! She glared at it, the thought of the Time Lord's attack failing to halt the being's attack and the mental image of the horrible consequences clear in her mind. Last time I ever trust you.
