Inky darkness surrounded me. Its tendrils enveloped me, wrapping themselves unashamedly about me, preventing even the barest hint of light from greeting me. I knew it would clear up eventually; there was no reason it shouldn't. I walked slowly onwards, the dark tugging gently on my skin, beckoning me back. I ignored it, of course- and why shouldn't I? It may have been all I knew, yet… there had to be more. I knew there had to be more.

It seemed to go on forever. Endlessly, I walked, unsure of where I was, or why I was here. I had even gotten to the point I had lost my sense of self, or at the least, forgotten enough to where I couldn't remember who I was. I knew that should have scared me to no end, terrified me beyond any reasonable doubts. Yet… I felt nothing. It was as if the lack of any surroundings had seeped into my own emotions, created a lack of any sort of feelings.

Minutes passed. Or hours. Or days. Or years. I couldn't truly tell, and I had no reason to care enough to try to. Regardless of which it was, eventually, something changed. Dark gave way to light, black gave way to blue. It was a welcome change, to be sure, and I was instantly drawn to it. I didn't know why, but I felt as if I had to go to it, to see why it was beckoning me towards it.

As I approached the light, I noticed it wasn't just a mass of color. It illuminated the area around me, revealing a paved, unbroken road, yet showing nothing else to me besides that. The blue light proved to me beyond a doubt that there really was nothing else in this place besides both it and me.

Directly underneath it now, I squinted up at it, straining to see more closely what it was. It was a sort of sphere of pale blue light, with a small pink mass within. It turned to meet my eyes, and, within the span of a blink, was hovering just in front of me, blocking my vision.

Startled, I quickly stepped backwards, hands raising to show their emptiness. I tried to speak, but found that for whatever reason, I couldn't. Instead, I heard the voice of the figure speak. "Hiyah! Welcome to the gateway!"

As if air had been breathed into my lungs, I found I could speak again. "The… gateway?" And my voice was gone again.

Nodding its head, it eagerly replied, "Yup! The gateway! Think of it as like the hub that eeeeveryone gets to pass through on their way to our world!"

Our world? I was… changing worlds? Did that mean like planets, or a more figurative sense? "I… I don't know what you mean…"

Giggling, the creature waved a paw at me. "Oh, don't worry about that for now. It'll make more sense when you get there. Although… well, I guess you won't really remember much, will you? Ah, pish-posh! You'll be fine! I'll just make sure you can know the basics of our conversation, the essentials really. Are you ready?"

My head still swirling from all the new information, I replied, "I, uh, I think so?"

Shaking its head vigorously in approval, the creature replied, "Great! Then let's get started." Suddenly, it smacked its head with a paw, and continued, "Oh, I almost forgot! I'm Mew, but you won't have to worry about remembering that for too long."

"Mew? Is that like… your name?"

Shrugging, they replied, "Oh, a lot of Pokémon don't think so, and they're mostly right. But I'm the one and only Mew left, so there's not really a point in going by another name."

Oh, that made… some sense. Still, some of what had been said was confusing… but, not giving me a chance to ask more questions, Mew immediately jumped into a barrage of questions. They were… extensive, to say the least. They covered a range of topics, some simple, some complex. The weird part was, the environment changed for some of the questions.

When I was asked the question, "What would you do if you found a closed bag in the middle of an empty street?", in front of me formed a paved, well-worn road. In the center, just a few paces from me, was a cloth bag, with brass clasps holding it tightly closed. My voice felt tight, so I knew I wasn't supposed to speak; I was expected to act.

Later, another question asked me what I would do if I had run into someone who knew me, but I didn't remember. Someone appeared in front of me then, someone who I could just almost place, but couldn't quite. They smiled widely at me, glittering eyes alight with happiness to see me. I couldn't say their clothes, it was too much of a blur, and any fine details I couldn't really make out: it was as if they were extremely generic, and could be just about anyone.

One question even asked me something as simple as left, or right. Two doors appeared in front of me, both closed. There weren't any walls on the sides of them, so I decided to try and walk around them to see the other side. Nothing was there, save for the backs of the doors, but when I walked past the doors, they immediately disappeared, and the next question was given.

I think the oddest part of the entire experience was the fact that the all-encompassing bright blue light from before was slowly diminishing over time, leaving balls of various shades of blue, ranging from a near white to a glossy black. Each time I answered a question, it got a little… spotted. Empty areas appeared, the smaller balls of light being left to drift about. They were intangible, and I couldn't really do anything with them, other than view them, so I mostly ignored them. Until finally… two were left. One, that was an almost silvery blue, and another, that was more of a cyan.

The two lights floated about, the silver one appearing to drift ever so slowly around me, almost as if it was orbiting me, while the cyan one looked as if it was circling that one.

"So, this is what you'll be," Mew spoke slowly, firmly. "A brilliant shade of silver, built to embody the moon's power. And for a partner, a cute cyan, to help complement anything that you might need help with! Now, we just need to pick a Pokémon for you…"

It seemed to think for a moment, before it was suddenly struck with an idea. "Aha! I've got just the Pokémon for you, and, you'll mesh perfectly with your partner to boot! Well, almost perfectly. Still, it's about as close as you can get!"

I spoke up then, unsure of what Mew was talking about. "What… what do you mean by pick a Pokémon for me?"

"Oh! I never told you, did I? In order to survive in our world, you have to become a Pokémon! There are some old laws and rules that prevent humans from coming, but a long time ago, some really smart Pokémon figured out that as long as the human becomes a Pokémon, then they're okay to pass through! The only thing is, you'll be restricted on how long you can be a Pokémon temporarily for. Most humans can only do it for a few days, sometimes even a few weeks at best, so really, it's just used by those who need to pass through. But, you're really, really strong, and have a great aura to boot, so I think you might be able to last an entire year, maybe even two!" Mew grinned happily at that, as if the entire thing was one huge joke.

My mind was swirling with more and more questions as Mew explained what would happen. What exactly was a Pokémon? What would happen after I hit the time limit of being a Pokémon? Were there other Pokémon there already that were humans? Why was I passing into their world in the first place? There were those, and so many more I wanted, needed, to ask, so settled on the one that seemed most important. "What exactly…. what's gonna happen if I stay as a Pokémon for too long?"

Casually waving a paw at me, Mew replied, "Oh, don't worry too much about that. When that time comes, I'll come back for you, and you'll have a choice: either stay in our world as a Pokémon, or, go back to your world. I can tell you what other humans do when they pass through, which is almost always to stay human. This is almost always really just used as a way for traveling easier to other worlds."

I took a moment to chew on those words, before responding, "But… why me? Why do I have to go?"

Giggling, Mew placed a paw on my shoulder, and looked deeply into my eyes. Instinctively, I knew this was going to be heavy. "Listen, Silvy- can I call you that? Look, there's a problem right now in our world. A huge, enormous, important problem. Most of the other legendaries either haven't noticed yet, or they don't see it as an issue. But the few of us that have seen it, and want to make a change, we knew we had to make a change. So we did! So, Silvy, Hoopa made a gateway to look, Celebi checked all through as much of your time as was available, and I roamed far and wide hoping to come across as pure of an aura as we could. But, well, we only had a year left, maybe a little more. So we chose the best we could find, which was yours! It's got a little bit of a tint to it, but it could be good enough!"

Once Mew finished, I struggled to come up with something to say after those odd words. "You… only have a year left? And what do you mean by tint?"

Mew shrugged. "Well… I can't really tell you why there's only a year. That's not my place to say. But for the tint, you're a little blue on the edges, if you catch my drift. Kinda muddled in the middle, but really, when compared to other humans we found, that aura was the closest to silver we'd ever seen!"

Each time Mew answered me, it just gave me more questions, questions I wanted answers to, yet only ended up giving me more questions in the end. Finally, I decided to bite my tongue, and mull over what I'd been told for a bit.

Grinning, Mew said, "You know, I can tell you've got more to ask, and that's okay! But, since you seem as if you're done for now, why don't we cut it short?" The world seemed to grow… darker. More muted. "An adventure awaits you, and an awesome one at that!" I glanced around us, and saw everything slowly starting to fade away, out of sight. The originally paved roadways becoming dull, less refined on the edges. "It'll be lots of fun, and when you're paired with your partner, nothing will be able to stop you." Everything that wasn't in our immediate vicinity was disappearing as well, leaving us surrounded with the original void I had first been in. Even the light that use to emanate from Mew was slowly drifting away, as if caught in a gentle breeze. "So long as you follow your heart, everything will work out in the end." And with that, blackness consumed us, and I felt my consciousness drift away.