Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.

Word Count: 2,236

Sorry if it gets a little confusing. Time travel fics are always hard to work with.

Just a Pass of the Baton

You think I'm just a ditzy little girl dressed up in grown man's clothing - fine.

You think that I'm too weak, too sensitive... Too kind to my pokemon. Fine!

But I saw you. I saw you argue with him, with your father. I saw every bit of it, and I heard things I'd never known about you before, up until Celebi dragged me somewhere else.

And then I met... her. Crystal, better known as "Kris."

And now, suddenly everything makes sense. Your attitude towards me, everybody's apparent distrust of the legitimacy of my skills - it all makes sense now.

Celebi pulled me into a completely different timeline. And I could only watch as everything I knew fell apart.

You can say all these horrible things about me, I don't care... But don't expect me to lie down and take it when you say you know me. You don't.

You know Kris. Not me. Never me.

So let me tell you. Let me tell you what happened in that other universe, where I never truly existed, but Kris did.

In that other universe, Silver, you were happy.

So let me tell my story.

I'm standing in a room that reminds me of my own bedroom, except everything is surrounded by a weird static, like a camera with bad quality. Frantic, I look around for Ethan, but he's nowhere to be found. Maybe Celebi dropped him off elsewhere...?

I'm jerked out of my thoughts when I see a girl about my age jolt awake on her bed, like she's emerging from some strange dream. I tilt my head as she looks around frantically in the near-darkness. She hops off her bed and sprints for something – the light switch. I jump out of her way, but I realize, after she turns on the light, that she can't see me anyway. I'm invisible.

It turns out she's looking for the clock. Sighing, like she's relieved, she jumps back into her bed and falls unconscious immediately, the light still switched on. What a strange, impulsive girl.

From what I could tell, something about this girl reminded me of… me. She has pigtails – crooked, blue pigtails – but pigtails all the same. She also sleeps with her hat on... Which, in retrospect, is extremely peculiar. But I guess I can't say anything, because I do it too.

Wondering what in the world Celebi wanted me to do in this strange universe, I sigh and gaze out her window. The first rays of sunlight can be seen just over the horizon. Looking back at the blue-haired girl, I wait patiently for her to wake up.

When the strange girl wakes up, she runs across her room and plays Super Mario Bros (ironically, the exact game from which I derive the inspiration for my current outfit) before rushing downstairs. So not only do we look alike, but we also share the same idiosyncrasies. Interesting.

I follow her down the stairs (and although I stomp down the stairs like a Rhyhorn, the bluenette apparently can't hear me any better than she can see me).

A woman, who I assume is her mother, greets her when she reaches the bottom step. Kris, she calls her.

As she converses her mom, I see that, more or less, she was given the same talk I was given when embarking on my first Pokemon adventure.

I begin to get suspicious and just a little creeped out when she goes on an identical errand that I was given back in my timeline.

I keep watching... And watching... And watching. Things become more and more apparent, but it's not until after Kris' fateful encounter with you do I realize – I've been replaced. No – that's not it – I've been the one doing the replacing.

Honestly, I don't know how I know that last bit for sure. But I just do.

Sometimes I just know certain things. And while I may be horrible at most things, one thing I can trust for sure is my gut.

And suddenly - I get the urge to give this girl's life back. To return what I had taken. I stole this fate, her timeline, away from her.

And all this time, I had been dancing about in my own happy-go-lucky Present without a care in the world.

I start to admire this Kris. As she goes on with her adventure, I can see the major differences between us. She's so much more than I'll ever be, what with her athletic and adventurous - but still mature - nature. She even kicks her pokeballs to release them, and she catches any and all pokemon with ease - usually managing to capture them on her first try. She says she's trying to complete the Pokedex.

Me, well…

Compared to her, I dress myself up as a character on the aforementioned Wii game in order to feel better about myself, in order to be someone that I'm not. I haven even thought about completing the Pokedex since the Professor had given it to me - which I know is incredibly selfish, but I do it anyway (in my half-hearted defense, i takes me five tries before I can catch even one pokemon) - and I have a naïve, immature personality to boot! I've tried to strengthen my willpower and my overemotional heart under Silver's taunting insults, but I have yet to accomplish even that.

But even so...

Even I can tell that Kris is lost and confused. She's still an eleven-year-old, after all. Since I've aged quite a few years since I'd last been through what she is now experiencing... I decide to guide her through her journey.

But when I see you treat her warmly – more warmly then you'll ever treat me – I try my hardest not to become envious. Despite my title as Champion in my own timeline, I don't think I'll ever be accepted or as loved as Kris... Because I'm the replacement; the poorly crafted substitute that nobody wants. Even you can attest to that, Silver.

Still, I help her anyway, because I owe that much to her - after all, I'm going to take her lifetime away sooner or later.

And then...

And then she becomes Champion. I'm damn proud of her. (And I try to tell myself to not be selfish; to not try to claim the glory for myself and say, she's only here because of me.)

(But the dark thoughts just keep on coming. They plague me even now, do you know that?)

I see her celebrate with her mother, with the League, with the Gym Leaders, with... you. I try even harder not to get jealous. But I still fume whenever you look at each other... Shouldn't I have the same chances she has? After all, aren't she and I the same?

No. I know, in my heart, we aren't.

I wrenched her timeline away from her, so it's never "she'll never be me." It is, has been, and always will be: I'll never be Kris.

I start to think she notices my presence. At least, she starts smiling in my general direction and saying,

"Thank you."

So from then on, we start to correspond. I find a way to send her telepathic messages, and she replies by writing her answer down on her notepad.

We begin to bond like sisters, and now I don't really have to guide her anymore.

I'm kind of... useless now, aren't I? (I don't tell her I'll replace her in a few years, though.)

She defeats the eight gym leaders of Kanto and Red. (Without my help, of course. Because even I haven't defeated any one them yet) Of course, I'm still proud of her, and we rejoice together.

And then she asks you out on a date. And you actually… smile. And I've never come close to cracking that cold exterior of yours. Never.

But I want you to know - I'm... happy for the two of you. (But there's these guilty thoughts, too - I can't help thinking that maybe I have a chance, because I'll be taking her place soon enough.)

She knows I'm from the future, but I haven't had the heart to tell her I'm her future replacement.

But knowing her cunning, I bet she's figured it out by now.

And when she finally asks me about it, I don't deny it.

Being Kris, she doesn't hold it against me. It does make things a little awkward between us, though.

Nine years have passed since the beginning of her adventure, and five years since she beat Red.

We're still talking, but not as much anymore. Years of awkwardly skirting around the elephant in the room does that.

But we both know her time is coming. Our time is coming.

By now she's already told her mother, her friends… Well, everybody but you.

I've promised her I'd be there when she tells you... Heaven knows how you'll react, right?

She's twenty now, and you're twenty-one. Even I can tell by the way you act around her, that you want to propose soon. (I'm so sorry, Silver.)

And that breaks my heart... In more ways than one.

She tells you, and you look so - shattered. I could never make you love me - or even like me - enough for you to be sad like that… Only goes to show that Kris deserves so much more than this.

(I wish I could change this. But I can't.)

(What was the point of this, Celebi? Why can't you just let them be happy, together? I don't care what happens to me. Not anymore. Just... Please.)

For once, I don't envy her.

I can feel both of our souls slipping away as Kris and Silver embrace one last time.

"I'll never forget you, Kris."

Those are the last words I hear Silver utter before being sent away by the pull of time itself.

In the realm between our timelines, Celebi appears out of nowhere, and expectantly looks at Kris and me.

As the seconds tick by, I feel my timeline getting closer and closer.

Kris, ever the pioneer, finally breaks the silence. "This is my first time seeing what you look like, and I have to say - you're a lot more adorable than I had initially imagined you to be. I love your outfit."

See, this. This is why she deserves life more than I do. How can she be so... kind, in the face of everything else?

"Kris... I'm really sorry about... all of this." I almost choke out the words.

Her expression softens. "It isn't your fault. This wasn't your choice..." She looks down at her hands. "I have a feeling that Celebi will send me to the time just before you started your adventure, just like you were sent to the beginning of mine." She smiles. "It's time for me to return the favor... And guide your past self."

I take a moment to process that information. "But... You don't have to help me. I may not have taken your life away, specifically, but it was taken away because of me."

She looks back up and shakes her head. "I don't care about that. You had no obligation to help me - a complete stranger bearing the stolen fingerprint of your life on it - with my adventure. But you did."

I try to make a response, but it quickly urns into a gasp as Kris's figure starts to disappear. "K-Kris!"

As she disintegrates, she gives me one last smile - it's a weak smile, that of woman's when her heart breaks and her entire life is torn to shreds - but a smile nonetheless. "Thank you..."

Those are the last words I hear her say. In the moments before Celebi drops me off in my present time - in the moments I see right past my own hands to see the swirling vortex of memories behind it - I realize that Kris was there the entire time I was on my adventure, in my own timeline.

"No," I say to the empty space she'd occupied just a few moments ago. "Thank you."

So... that's it. That's all I have left to say.

Silver, I don't expect you to forgive me. I don't expect you to even like me.

I understand if you hate me. I'd hate me too. In fact, I sort of already do...

But we can't keep holding onto the remnants of the past. It hurts, but we must move on, and keep moving forward.

We can't latch on to what had been, or what could have been. Because that timeline doesn't exist anymore.

I've started to make my peace with it. Even if the original me; even if Kris is better than me in every conceivable way...

That time is gone. The sun has set. But soon enough will be the dawn of a new day, and time has gone forward.

No day is like the one before. The sun rises, and then it falls, in a never-ending cycle of the warmth and of the chill.

The heat warms our hearts of gold, but the cold chills our souls of silver.

We must move on.

Oh... I think I hear her voice. Kris' voice. I think she's saying -

"I'm so proud of you both."

No, the entirety of this fic is totally not a satire against those who still complain about Lyra replacing Kris in the Gen IV Johto games. Nope. (I love them both to death though and if you disagree I will fight you) Kidding! You're obviously entitled to your own opinion and I respect that :)

I decided against continuing this, as it was written years ago and I've sorta.. lost my inspiration to write more. But if yall want to see more I might be convinced XD

Reviews are welcome! Thank you for taking the time to read this! Have a lovely day!