Bamboo and Cherry Trees

The battlefield was quiet, stagnant air tinged with scorched earth and flesh. Which side had won? It didn't matter at this point. The surviving warriors retreated to their camps, leaving behind the dead. Yet, there was a man still on the field. A spearhead pierced his right knee, while a bleeding wound stretched across his left side. Assuming he was dead, his peers left him where he had fallen against a young cherry tree.

"Why must fate be cruel to me?" he mumbled, uncertain of if he would live another day. "I was loyal and fought bravely; I have done nothing to deserve this."

"Death does not take into account the souls of men and Pokemon," someone said to him. "It comes in its own time."

The wounded warrior then spotted a Pokemon sitting in the tree. She was a fairy about the size of a toddler, with green skin and dainty oval wings. Through the still green leaves, she looked down at him sadly. Her thin antennae had a soft glow to them, like the shine of a spring leaf.

He was puzzled. No Pokemon around here looked like her, or spoke like her. In fact, he could only think of a child's tale that mentioned her. "You're... you're Celebi, right? The god... goddess of time."

"Not exactly," she said. "But the stories humans tell say that about me."

"The stories I've heard had you as male."

She swung her legs out. "That depends."

"Are you here to save me? I still have many things to do in life, people I need to return to."

Celebi stopped swinging her legs and was silent.

"Don't tell me it's my fate to die here," the warrior said, pounding the ground with his fist. "I'll do anything if I can live past this day. I'll fight for my life. Even against one like you, if I must."

"I came to this time to check on this tree," she admitted, slumping down with shame.

To control time like she did, she had to be powerful. Then why would she do nothing while he was suffering? "You should be able to do something. I heard that you came from a bright and shining future."

"Right." Her voice sounded dejected, not what he'd expected. She looked up into the branches of the tree, thinking. "Let me tell you a story. I believe there will be no harm in doing so.

"Once upon a time that no longer is, the world was on the brink of death. The lands were all desert and Pokemon, even the sturdiest, were dwindling to a few dozen. Of the humans, only three survived: a pair of scientists and their child. The scientists worked desperately on a project that was supposed to save the world. They looked for ways to turn the empty deserts into forests and jungles. Although they spent many hours on their project, they kept their child close and were as happy as they could be in that desolate time."

"What kind of child did they have?" the warrior interrupted. "A son or a daughter?"

"It really doesn't matter," was the strange answer.

"Could it have been a son? Every family needs a strong son."

"It's just this time," Celebi said softly. Then she nodded. "Okay, it was a son. He learned many things from his parents, eventually helping them with their project. They used a powerful supercomputer to manipulate the fabric of space and time."

"A what?"

She thought for a second. "I mean, a powerful oracle capable of looking into the past and learning secrets that had died long ago. The oracle was called Fiji."

"That's an amazing power." It was a strange story. But it gave him something other than his loss to think about.

"Yes. And they would need it, as a terrible thing happened. The woman was working with fossils, ancient remains of creatures who died, when she accidentally revived a terrible bac... illness. She grew ill and slowly wasted away. The father and... his son used their oracle to find out if anything could cure it. And there was a cure, a medicine made from Blue Heart Bamboo. Then there was another problem: Blue Heart Bamboo had died out centuries ago.

"The father's idea was to make the bamboo grow with their forest research. But it went poorly, as it is difficult to grow a forest for a specific plant. The son's idea was to use the oracle's power to send someone back into time when the Blue Heart grew, get it, then bring it back. His father didn't agree. After a long argument, the father warned his son, 'If you try to become a master of fate, you will end up becoming a servant instead.'

"But the son would not listen. He wanted to save his mother. One night, when the desert was dark, he talked Fiji into sending him into the past. It wasn't easy to find the bamboo, because a tribal war was taking place in the same forest. But his real troubles would not begin until he came back to his own time."

-+-

A burst of light appeared, putting an old familiar greenness on the tired earth. A fairy-like Pokemon hovered there, mostly yellow with streaks of green along its head. It held onto a tan bamboo shoot almost as big as its chest. A long cut was along its arm, fresh but no longer bleeding. "Phew. I'll have to make a note never to travel into a battle again. Huh?"

Clasping the bamboo tightly, it looked around the ghost city of Goldenrod. The Radio Tower resembled a fallen pile of sticks. The Department Store had a standing doorway with a few walls around it, but the rest had collapsed backwards long ago. From the diminished state of the rubble, the damage had happened in years past.

There was also the issue of how it was flying with the piece of bamboo. "What the... Fiji, what happened to me? I'm not home."

"I brought you back to the location of the time-space lab." A humming came from the Pokemon's antennae. "You appear to have caused a great shift in history in your errand to retrieve the bamboo. The Ilex Time-Space lab is no longer in existence." The computer paused. "Chronological error... I am functional, yet I no longer exist."

"But how did that turn me into a Pokemon?"

"I cannot answer that question with the available resources."

The Pokemon hugged the bamboo shoot tighter. There was nothing green anywhere in sight. No life seemed to exist. While his family didn't have much, it was more than this. "My mind seems fuzzy. I... my name started with a C. Or there was something about C that was important."

"The name Celebi appears in my database," Fiji responded. After a second, it added, "I do not have much information linked to this name."

"That doesn't matter! It doesn't matter that I got this... mother's gone." It flew off to the nearest shaded shelter and wept.

-+-

A trembling voice broke the dead silence. "Fiji? You still there?"

"I am here," the computer replied. "I cannot ascertain how, but I am here."

"That's good. I'm sorry."

"There is no reason to apologize to me."

"You're the only one with me. I'll go with Celebi as my name for now." Celebi still had the bamboo. The presence of the plant was a comfort in this dead landscape. But separated from its home space and time, the shoot wouldn't last much longer. After biting off a piece to eat, it asked, "Is there any sign of life?"

"Scanning; please wait a minute."

The lost Pokemon looked around what used to be the Department Store. Most of this building was collapsed, but part of the lobby remained sheltered from the elements. On the right side of the doorway hung a picture. It showed four men in the midst of a fierce Pokemon battle: Magneton, Ampharos, Ariados, and Weezing against Gengar, Misdreavus, Kingdra, and Dragonite.

"You are the only life on the planet now."

"That's horrible." Before it could slip back into tears, it flew over to the picture. "What's this about?"

"That is a battle from the fourth regional war between Johto and Kanto, in particular a famous battle between Surge and Koga against Morty and Lance. There were no clear winners of this war. However, it ignited the fifth regional war twenty years later, which ruined both regions and caused them to turn into desert."

"Oh, one of those wars."

There was a hum from the computer. "There is a series of chronological errors. I have Lance listed as a Champion of Johto and Kanto, as well as an Elite Four member of both. The regional Leagues are listed as separate and conjoined. I also have listings that Lance was a leader of the air battalions of Johto and a quote from him wishing the total destruction of Kanto. The histories of other men in this picture have similar errors."

Celebi felt its blood turn cold. "But I only got a bamboo piece. I didn't cause a war... did I?"

"It seems that your time jump opened up a variety of alternate dimensions. My sensors show that the present time is highly unstable. History cannot decide which version of itself is true. This is why a great deal of the information I know is contradictory, such as details on Lance and the regional wars."

"What would happen if I made sure a peaceful version happened? Would that fix things in this time and make my family reappear?"

Fiji considered this for some time. "I do not advise doing so. My database is insufficient to determine the full consequences of manipulating the past."

Celebi frowned. "But what else can we do? If space-time is unstable here, we have no idea what might happen to us. And... I'm the only one alive. I'm not about to become a servant of fate, no matter what father said."

"I am simply a computer; I do not make decisions such as this. Do what you see fit. I will provide what information and resources I have."

It was a glimmer of hope that formed Celebi's resolve. "Okay, then help me figure out how to fix this time."

-+-

A green flash of light appeared over a sparkling pond. Surrounding the small body of water was a thick emerald cloak of trees. The ground was covered in lush grass, which hid Pokemon comfortably. Celebi gaped for a moment. "Wow... the other forest was nothing compared to this one. It's so beautiful."

"This is Ilex Forest," Fiji informed him. Oddly enough, the normal feminine voice had been replaced with a male baritone. "My database shows that you helped make it strong and healthy."

"I did? Or maybe it's I will."

"The correct assessment seems to be that you will."

He flew around slowly for a while, admiring the peace and beauty. In the last forest, he had been in too much of a hurry to really look. "But it becomes a desert by my time. I'll have to find some way to make it survive. Would the Blue Heart Bamboo grow here?"

"It was identified as a possible location for that grass."

"So this is how I'll make sure it reaches my time." He put his hand against the tree and noticed something. "Wait... I'm green now." Flying back to the pond, he got a better look. Instead of yellow with green stripes, he was green with yellow stripes.

"The instability of our time leads to an instability in your appearance. I believe it is the same way with my system specifications, at least the cosmetic ones."

"I see. So where will we find Lance?"

"There is another pond northeast of here. I placed you here to avoid the problem we had with the last jump, when you got injured by coming into a time of conflict."

"All right. Thanks." He flew to the northeast.

At the other pond, he found two human boys talking. One was Lance at six years old, without the blue cape of the Dragon Clan. The other was older, somewhere in his late teens. "Are there going to be Dratini in this pond, Eusine?" Lance whined. "We've been out here forever; I want to go home."

"Toughen up," Eusine replied, annoyed that he had to bring the younger boy along. "If you want to be a great Trainer, you can't be lazy."

"How's some Pokemon worth all this time searching?" he grumbled back, sitting on the shore of the pond.

"It takes time and effort to get rare Pokemon. They don't just show up for no reason." He stepped out to a rock and looked into the pool. It was dark, disguising its depth. "Takes even longer if it's rare and powerful."

The boy flicked a pebble into the water. "What the point in gathering your team of rare Pokemon? You've spent years on them and still haven't beat a single Gym."

"But when I do act, I'll," Eusine stepped to another rock, but it was slicker than it looked. He fell into the water.

"Eusine!" Lance jumped forward, but stopped short of the pond.

Celebi darted out from hiding, but Eusine managed to get himself to the surface. His skin had gone from medium tan to light pink. Screaming, he clenched his eyes shut tight.

Was he blinded? "Come this way, quick," Celebi called, flying over to them.

He swam over, pulling himself out of the pond as soon as he found the shore. "Ugh, my eyes..."

"I detect a high degree of an acidic substance in that pond," Fiji reported. "It is unusual. If he washes it off with clean water soon, especially his eyes, he should recover just fine."

Celebi turned to the younger boy. "Come on, Lance, let's bring him to a cleaner pond."

The boy looked puzzled, but concerned for his older friend. "Ah, all right." He took hold of Eusine's sleeve and tugged gently.

"Who is that?" Eusine asked as they started along. "I can't see a dang thing."

"Um, it's a Pokemon," Lance answered uncertainly.

"A what? It spoke; it can't be a Pokemon."

"I am one," he said. "I'm Celebi."

Eusine went quiet. "The Guardian of this forest?"

"What was wrong with that pond?" Lance asked.

Celebi was puzzled, but then Fiji stated, "They cannot hear me. I was programmed to avoid suspicion from natives of the past while communicating with a time traveler."

"It was highly acidic water for some reason," he explained to the boys. "Maybe some foreign Poison Pokemon got in there. But clean him up in a regular pond and he'll be fine. A good one is just ahead." He hurried along, getting them to hasten their steps.

At the other pond, Eusine knelt down and tapped the surface of the water gingerly. "This one's okay?"

"It's clean, and much shallower." Once the boy began washing his eyes, Celebi drifted off.

As he hoped for, Lance followed him. "You're really Celebi?"

He nodded. "That's right."

He smiled, his eyes sparkling in wonder. "Wow... the adults said that you only exist in fairy tales. Are you really from the future?"

"Many long years in the future, far further than you will be able to see." Putting his hand to his cheek, he considered his greater dilemma. Maybe it would help to make some of those fairy tales real. "What kind of stories did you hear about me? I don't know the past as well as you do."

The boy laughed, then replied, "I always liked the one about when Ho-oh challenged the sun, with you and Lugia."

"I don't know that story."

"Do you know any stories about me?"

Celebi could think of plenty. But Fiji's voice cut him short. "You should not tell anything specific. It would cause trouble if history shifts and what you said does not come true."

"If you want to find a Dratini," he said instead, "you should go to Kanto."

Lance looked startled. "Kanto? But aren't they just a bunch of worthless jerks over there?"

"You ever been there?"

The child blushed a little. "No."

"Then don't judge any place or person before you meet them."

-+-

Back in her time, Celebi looked around anxiously. The ruined city was still all around her. But instead of erosion, there were signs of a recent destruction. The metal ruins were twisted and the ground was sticky with mud. Overhead, the sky was filled with dark clouds.

"How are things, Fiji?"

It replied in a feminine voice again. "The fourth regional war did not occur. But Lance is possibly a Psychic type Trainer instead of Dragon."

"That's odd." She looked at her arms and noticed she'd changed colors again. "Shoot, now I'm pink."

"Eusine seems to be obsessed with catching the rarest of Pokemon, such as you. In histories when he was not blinded by that pond, he has a high chance of being successful."

"That's not good. I'll have to be careful if I see him again."

"I sense another life form nearby."

"Good." Following the computer's directions, she went west.

It began to rain. The wind came in uneven bursts, giving her tough turbulence to get through. Before long, large drops splattered all around her. She considered heading out of the storm until it was safer for her to fly. But then overhead, she heard the flapping of large wings.

"That is Lugia," Fiji told her. "Take care in approaching him; he flies better than you with a greater effect on the air."

"Sure thing, thanks." Celebi pushed herself into climbing up to Lugia.

The larger Pokemon was roaming around lazily. Not a bit of effort went into the beating of his snow white wings. On the other hand, it took as much strength as she could muster with her thin wings to catch up. He didn't acknowledge her presence until she came up alongside his head. "Celebi."

She smiled. "Hello Lugia! It's good to meet you. This is a lonely time, isn't it?"

"Doesn't matter to me," the great bird replied. "I finally proved that I am the strongest of all." Then his violet eyes narrowed. "But you are still around."

"This is my time, my present."

"Hmm." He swept his wings up vertically to hover. She darted ahead for a space before coming back to hover by him. "So if I defeat you now, you will not be returning to bother me."

"What?" She shook her head. "No, I'm not looking for a fight. I wanted to ask you about the past, so that I know what to do."

"Why don't you want to battle? That is what this world has been about from the very beginning: conflict and triumph, battle and failure. But once this final battle is done, there will be no more conflict. Peace will reign evermore."

She threw her arms down. "That's ridiculous! What use is peace if there is no one around to share it with?"

Lugia snorted. "There is no one I want to share peace with. They were all selfish, self-centered, self-righteous beings, myself and yourself included. There will only be peace when there is no one left to battle."

Recalling her missing family, she couldn't believe what he was saying. It was kind of sickening, but she tried not to get angry. "Isn't there anyone you cared about? Anyone you would wish to have peace and happiness? Like, um," she thought through the legends she knew. "Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres?"

"Who? I know none by those names."

"He is an alternate version of Lugia," Fiji pointed out, unheard by the hostile bird. "They did not exist in his history."

That would be harder. "Um, what about Ho-oh?"

"What?!" He beat his wings furiously, causing her to squeal and rush out of the way of the moving air. "That fool? She challenged the sun and died thousands of years ago. Why would I care about her?"

"But she did exist," Celebi said to herself.

"Now is not the time for nonsense. Now I will defeat you and prove myself as the ultimate Pokemon. Then there will be no conflict, for there will be no one left to fight with." He took a deep breath, readying an attack.

She panicked. She had no idea how to battle. With her heart racing, she cried out, "Fiji, get me to when Ho-oh challenged the sun!"

"Searching... time located."

Celebi vanished as a wall of air raced towards her.

-+-

Celebi appeared by a restless sea. Lugia floated on the water's surface, sheltered by some wave-breaking rocks. With his head tucked against his left wing, he seemed far from the war-loving Pokemon she had encountered moments before. "Fiji," she asked quietly, "where are we?"

"Among the Whirl Islands, in the earliest time of humans. This is when the Earth was young, the time of the most fantastic myths."

"Fantastic myths? That doesn't sound like you."

"That statement is what is recorded in my database. I merely report the data."

It lightened some of her stress, making her smile. "Fine." She flew up to the white bird, hoping he wouldn't be as confrontational. "Lugia!"

Startled, he swam away while bringing his head up. Then he saw who was speaking to him. He came back over with a curious but pleased look in his eyes. "Oh, you're an uncommon one. Who are you?"

"I'm Celebi, a time traveler. I'm from the distant future."

He tilted his head. "The distant future?"

"Yeah. Listen, where's Ho-oh? I need to speak with her." Maybe if she didn't die during this time, Lugia wouldn't be as terrible in the future. They were connected a lot in myth and legend.

"She's gone," he replied, sounding a little hurt. "A Sneasel told her that the only thing brighter and more beautiful than her was the sun." He shook his head and spoke harshly. "She should have known better! The creatures of darkness don't like the sun. But no, she had to let her vanity get the better of her. She flew off to challenge the sun and take its place."

She hadn't come in time? "What?! But she can't do that! The sun is an enormous ball of incandescent gases that burn more powerfully than any fire on Earth. She'll get killed."

After looking bewildered for most of that statement, Lugia tensed. "Killed? I just thought that I would miss her, if she had to fly across the sky all day like the sun does. But it has fire powerful enough to harm her?"

"She will get killed. Come on, we need to go after her."

"Right. But your wings are so small... hold onto the back of my neck, Celebi. I'll be able to fly much faster than you."

"Good, thank you." She grabbed some of his feathers as he beat his wings to enter the sky. Flying that quickly, watching the ground drop beneath her... it was a thrill. Celebi smiled for a moment. But as the air got colder and thinner, she realized something. "Isn't space a vacuum?"

"Is it what?" Lugia asked.

"It's very cold and... there's nothing in it." She wasn't sure how to relate the danger to someone this far back in time.

He was determined, though. "If she made it, we'll make it. I'll fly my hardest."

After another minute of climbing, an odd shield appeared around Lugia. Some power wanted to keep them alive. Celebi's body began warming back up as they entered outer space.

Lugia headed directly for the sun. Celebi wondered if he was flying faster than he could in the sky, because their home star was growing at a massive rate. Before she knew it, the power of gravity and solar radiation became oppressive. There was a distant horizon of blinding yellow meeting empty black. Below them, the sun's surface boiled and rolled, occasionally reaching out into the blackness with liquid fire.

Ho-oh hovered a couple of miles over its surface. With the sunlight overpowering her rainbow plumage, she appeared to be a washed out red with black edges. She turned to them as Lugia halted his flight. "It's bigger than I thought it would be," she said, skittish.

"It's more powerful than you thought it would be too," Celebi called out, flying up to Lugia's head. "It's a fire beyond fire."

"A fire beyond fire." She looked at her quizzically. "Who are you?"

"This is Celebi, from the distant future," Lugia introduced. "She came to speak to you."

"You can't do this," she went on. "You have to come back to Earth."

"I thought about that," Ho-oh said, looking back down at the natural nuclear powerhouse. "My attacks didn't do a thing to the sun. But I said I would take its place in the sky."

"Forget about your pride and come back home," Lugia insisted. "You're beautiful and loved as you are. You don't need to prove your worth by doing something stupid."

"You think so?"

Celebi sensed a change in the fires below. "Ho-oh, look out!"

Before she could move, a solar flare erupted to surround her. Screaming, she flew away covered in glowing plasma. Lugia sent a blast of wind her way, clearing the plasma and her feathers away. He rushed to grab hold of her, fly away from the flare, and escape the sun.

Celebi's heart raced as they rushed back home. Would Ho-oh survive this time? Or would this incident cause Lugia to distrust her? Celebi prayed silently the whole way. Only as they approached the ground did she think that she was a Pokemon that the old religions prayed to.

Lugia headed to an open field on the Johto continent. He placed Ho-oh gently on the ground before landing himself. When Celebi flew down for a better look, the prospect wasn't good. The fire bird's flesh was burned black, without a single feather remaining. She lay awkwardly on the ground, pain radiating from her body. But if she felt pain, she was alive. Celebi dropped down and landed by Ho-oh's head. Her black eyes opened partly. She seemed miserably humbled.

"This is terrible," Lugia said with a heavy heart. "That sun is evil."

"It can't be evil," Celebi pointed out. "It simply exists, like this planet, and the moon. It is a force of nature."

"Don't be mad at the sun," Ho-oh said hoarsely. "Be mad at me, but not the sun."

"Be careful. I wish I could help you more." He closed his eyes, but soon looked to Celebi. "Can you heal her?"

"I don't know," she replied honestly.

Ho-oh rested her head on the ground. "You were right. I was reckless to think that I could defeat the sun. I will be punished with death in this horrid form."

"No! Ho-oh, there must be something!" Lugia sounded frantic.

Celebi thought, but Fiji's voice piped up in her mind first. "The database states that Ho-oh's punishment was to be burned once a century by her own fires, then to spend forty days in the cold and dark underworld. That will recover her from this state."

She reported this to the other two. "I'm sorry I had to be the one to tell you this," she finished with. "But you will be restored to your former glory after forty days."

"I hope I won't be the same foolish Pokemon," Ho-oh said. Red flames emerged from her back. Within minutes, a strong fire devoured her body.

Hanging his head, Lugia was silent for a minute. Then he said, "I will guard this fire until she comes back. But Celebi, would you mind staying, at least for a little while?"

"I'll stay, Lugia." She hesitated. "I, um, I really don't know much. I haven't been... I haven't lived long, to tell the truth."

"I understand. I can teach you."

-+-

When Celebi returned to her home time, she felt a lot better. Lugia had taught her much, probably more than he realized. Everything from flying tips to battle strategies. It was many little things, but in this situation, every little thing helped.

Goldenrod City had changed again. It was in better shape: more buildings were intact and the Radio Tower's lights were blinking. But there was a smoldering pile of rubble on the block to the south.

"I am detecting more life forms," Fiji reported. "Humans are back. Lugia and Ho-oh appear to be overhead."

"Are they?" She looked up.

Ho-oh hovered under a dark cloud, watching something on her altitude. She looked violet and navy green for some reason. In a dark blue blur, Lugia rushed at her, screaming. He attacked with a wave of dark energy that raced out ahead as he made a sharp turn. It struck Ho-oh with full force. With a furious cry, she enveloped her whole body in red-violet flames. These weren't her rejuvenating flames. She used them to tackle Lugia powerfully, making him fall for several feet before catching the wind under his violet wings again.

Stranger than seeing them battle was seeing what could barely be seen. There was an unhealthy black glow surrounding their bodies. "Fiji, what's wrong with them?"

Her antennae hummed as the computer searched out the answer. "It seems that they are corrupted. My database does not have enough information on this, but the chronological signs indicate that they belong to an alternate timeline that is gaining strength."

"We'll have to find out more about that," she said as she watched Lugia and Ho-oh continue their savage aerial battle. Why had this new problem cropped up to replace the other? Sure, things had improved, but a new solution wasn't as clear this time. It muddled her mind. Before she could figure anything out, she had to dart out of the way as a fireball came crashing down beside her. "Can I get back to Ilex? I need a quiet place to think."

"That is easy enough." The computer sent her back in time to the forest.

-+-

Instead feeling relief at coming into a healthy Ilex, Celebi felt death all around him. Grasses were reduced to the toughest specimens. Trees were sickly, twisted by a rough life. An amber pond in sight was far deadlier than the acidic one he had encountered last time. "What happened to this place?"

"It is another alternate universe trying to become the main," Fiji said. "Here, you have neglected this place."

"But I want to it be healthy." He sighed. "Then again, I haven't done much to it yet."

"If you return, I can begin calculations on how to restore this forest to our time. With luck, we can avoid the battle between Ho-oh and Lugia."

"You've been against this so far," Celebi said, surprised.

"At this point, it may be best to continue. Would you like to return?"

"Yes please."

-+-

Celebi reappeared in a bustling Goldenrod City. Dirty looking clouds hung in the sky, while bright garish lights filled the streets. Flying vehicles flew overhead, while a few poor humans hurried along the grimy streets. "My time hasn't changed this much," he said, flying along in a sickened wonder. "And I didn't do much during the last jump."

"I will scan the instability and the appearing alternate dimensions, then attempt to find a formula to explain the cause and effect cycle. It may provide an answer to this."

"Very well. Execute the program."

He wandered around for the next hour. Most people didn't pay him any heed, concerned with surviving their own lives. He recalled his parents and how they would never go outside because the environment was too toxic. While this environment certainly was toxic, these people endured.

His old life… No matter how hard he scanned his memory, only images came back to him. No strong memories, only impressions. He had been shut in a mostly underground bunker all his life. But his parents loved him, doting on him as the only child in the whole wide world. His education was in the sciences; he had assisted his parents in their quest to create forests from practically nothing.

That was probably his strongest image. It had been time compression, hadn't it? Fiji was a space-time analytical computer that could manipulate an enclosed space to pass decades, even centuries, in mere minutes. The time travel had been more of a sideline research that none of them had intended to put to use. According to theory, they could use this time compression to restart whole ecosystems.

Theory never meant reality, though. Celebi remembered passing through thick steel doors into a dead forest. While the soil had been black and rich, soft and promising in his hands, the forest had been equally black and poor. What had killed that time compression experiment? He couldn't remember. But it had been a crushing blow. That experiment was meant to grow the Blue Heart Bamboo which would have saved his mother.

His mother, dying of some fossilized bacteria. He couldn't forget that. Celebi knew he wouldn't. Nor his father, no matter how distant his memories as a human became. But when would he be with them again?

Curious, he located a telephone booth and dialed an operator. "Hello, may I have the number for the Ilex Time-Space Lab?"

A computerized voice much like his companion answered, "The requested organization does not exist."

"What about the family?"

"Who specifically are you searching for?"

Celebi thought carefully before names jumped out at him. "Um, Doctor Andrew Ilex, or his wife Doctor Jane Ilex. And their child... um... Levi or Celine?" Levi or Celine? Why had he picked a boy's and a girl's name as possibly being his?

"There are no matches to any of those names."

"Oh... sorry for taking up your time." He hung up. What would it take to bring his family back?

There was a huge crash as a flying vehicle slammed into the side of a nearby building.

Startled, Celebi came out of the booth to check things out. The building suffered only cosmetic damage; it was built to last. But the car was totaled, a crushed hunk of plastic. There was no smoke, no sign of fire. Although Celebi sensed some kind of life form inside, she couldn't see the victim.

A pink blur appeared, and Mew was hovering by the wrecked car. Her deep blue eyes flickered with anger and her long tail swished in concern. It was like a storm cloud should be brewing around her. "Mewtwo, I told you not to drive fast! Get out of there."

The car roof exploded, blasting plastic shrapnel everywhere. A lavender colored twin of Mew emerged from the wreck. "But that was freaking awesome! Did you see how I missed all the other fliers?"

"And then you crashed into this building! I swear, one of these days, you're going to give me a heart attack."

Ashamed, he pulled his tail in front of his chest. "I'm sorry, Mew. I was just having fun."

"Your idea of fun is much too dangerous."

From what Celebi could recall, Mewtwo wasn't an exact clone of Mew. Not even this slightly different copy. They must have been from an alternate history, like this soaring metal city. But no matter what history they were from, they were supposed to be highly intelligent. He flew up to them. "Um, excuse me."

"Hi Celebi," Mew said kindly.

"Hey, future boy," Mewtwo added.

Celebi shook his head. "This is my time."

The lavender one widened his eyes. "It is? This is the end of all time?"

"Hopefully not," the pink one said. "Something's troubling you. What is it? You've helped me out plenty of times."

"I have? Well, I will if I know when I'm supposed to be."

Mewtwo laughed, getting a reproving look from Mew. "It must be confusing for you at times," she said.

"All of it's confusing now," Celebi admitted. "I had a family here; I was human. But when I first went back into time and became what I am now, they vanished. I've been trying to fix the problem: I talked Lance into going to Kanto, I helped out Lugia and Ho-oh. But all sorts of things have been going wrong. This time-space area is highly unstable."

"How so?" Mewtwo interrupted.

He pointed to him. "Well you for one... you don't look like that in most versions of history."

He twitched his tail back, puzzled. "I don't?"

"No. You're much bigger and more violent."

"More violent?" Mew asked skeptically, glancing at the wrecked car.

"Right. No matter what I try, things get more complicated."

Mewtwo leaned in closer to him. "Huh, sounds like you've made a real snarl of time. The more you fight it, the tighter it will choke you."

Celebi's heart thumped. "Choke me?"

"Don't make him panic," Mew chided, telekinetically shoving her cloned son. "But he is right. If you've got alternate time streams all knotted up, the bigger changes you make, the tighter the knot will be."

"Like in all the sci-fi novels," Mewtwo chimed in.

"But history is a strong force." She shrugged. "According to the theories that I read, at least. If you don't force major changes for a while, the strongest version will throw off any alternates destabilizing it. Then again, you may always have to deal with instability since you're a time traveler."

"So I should concentrate on small things for a while?"

"Probably. But even those will set off a new set of alternates. You're best off sticking to this time and not going back."

He threw his arms down. "But I can't do that! You said I helped you before, but this is the first time I remember talking to either of you. And my parents have vanished. Without them, it feels like I've lost everything. I can't even tell who exactly I was before I stepped backwards in time."

"That's tricky," Mewtwo said. "You need to go back in time to fix things, but if you do, you risk screwing stuff up further."

"Exactly."

Mew drifted a short ways, thinking. Then she came back. "Unless you can find a way to map what changes what, your home will always be unstable. This even extends to who you were before time travel, as who made the fateful decision is in question. Of course, there are better Pokemon to talk to about this. Whether you can contact them or not is debatable. I don't recall them being accessible for several centuries now."

"I see. I'm working on finding a calculation on the results of time manipulation."

The computer piped in. "Celebi, I have the results of my initial scan."

Mewtwo looked startled. "Did something not speak? Because it seemed like something might have spoken, but it didn't."

"You're hearing his psychic intuition," Mew told her son. "We'll leave you to that. I have to talk some sense into him about not speeding."

"But mother!" Mewtwo whined.

"Don't 'but mother' me. Come on." She grabbed his ear and teleported off with him.

Celebi frowned. "Did she call you my psychic intuition?"

"That is likely how they understand me," Fiji replied. "For all I can tell, I might only exist in your head."

"I see; I hope that doesn't make me crazy. How did your search go?"

"From what I overheard, they would agree with me. I can only predict the general chronological direction of minor changes. I do not have sufficient data to pick out major points in time to perform major tasks, like bringing a healthy Ilex Forest into this time in a single step."

"Oh." His heart sank. "This is going to take a long time from our perspective, won't it?"

"That is correct. I have some points picked out to start with. Are you ready to begin?"

He closed his eyes. It was discouraging, but he wanted his family back. "Yes, I'm ready."

-+-

Under the shade of the cherry tree, the warrior was barely hanging onto life. It had been a long time since the battle had ended, with his only company being a strange Pokemon. But another person had just arrived. The woman hugged him, her tears on his face. "This isn't fair. How could you die so soon?"

His life was fading away. But with his beloved by his side, he accepted his approaching death. "I love you... this tree will prove it."

She sobbed.

He clasped her elbow. "I saw Celebi. Everything will be fine." After closing his eyes, he was gone.

In a neighboring cherry tree, the time traveling Pokemon watched unnoticed. "It makes me feel helpless."

In a voice only she heard, the laboratory computer reported its observations. "There are five cherry trees here that are infected with a deadly mold. Your presence has strengthened them enough to fight the infection. They will survive into the spring. However, the new antibody will cause a change: their flowers will blossom with blood red tips."

Celebi looked down, swinging her feet. "That young woman will return in the spring and believe the blood tipped flowers are a sign from her lover. Instead of becoming a forgotten warrior, he will pass into the legend of these cherry trees. People will honor them and build a town here. It will be called Cherrygrove City, where the cherry trees will be well cared for."

"And the Cherrygrove cherry trees should be present in your time. It is another step towards bringing Ilex Forest to that point, with your family."

"Another tiny step." She had brought hope of a better future to a dying man and his lover.

But only because it was his fate to die and she was a servant of fate. Celebi cried for them.

((END Part 1 of 2))

Note: This was originally entered into a fan contest on another website. It got second place for this part. The second part was added later.