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((NOTE: CHAPTER REVISED))
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A Pokémon that was said to be as elusive as Mew, a time traveling guardian who watched the Ilex Forest over the span of hundreds of generations, was believed by many to only be a child's fantastical bedtime story, a mere fairytale.
Whether or not that was the case, why was she currently hovering in front of a dumbstruck Silver, staring at him intently?
Celebi hummed. If Silver had been less stunned by the sudden appearance of an extremely rare, powerful Legendary Pokémon, he supposed he would have attempted to capture it. But as it was, he just sat there, incoherent stammering falling from his mouth.
Again she hummed, and it pierced Silver's daze enough to notice an urgent sound to it. Meganium got to his feet slowly, as did his trainer, and the sauropod took notice of the importance of the noise.
"What, is someone after you or something?" Silver asked in confusion, finally finding his tongue.
Celebi shook her head and darted forwards, grabbing Silver's sleeve in her own tiny grip. Silver followed the delicate pull, still utterly nonplussed. Meganium trailed cautiously.
Celebi could use her own powers to travel through time by herself. But for this, she needed the shrine to augment her powers. Despite being part-psychic, she sadly didn't possess great telepathic power. Someone else had to do the explaining for her.
Silver half-believed that this was some sort of dream. Out of curiosity over where this dream would lead, he decided to humor the pixie.
"Alright, there's the shrine. Uh, do you want me to make some sort of offering or something?"
Celebi didn't respond, but she closed her eyes slowly.
"What are- !" Silver interrupted his own question with a sound of exclamation. Celebi had begun to glow with a soft green light. To make things even more alarming, the shrine glowed brilliantly, as well as the trees. It gave the scene strange, surreal feel, which further made Silver doubt the reality of it. Yet… something inside him told him this was happening, here and now. Meganium balked, wide-eyed and confused. There was an arcane feel to it, the grass-type could feel it in his bones, and he wanted no part of the strange power.
Celebi's eyes opened, shining brilliantly blue. She placed one delicate, three-fingered hand on the illuminated shine, the other extended out towards Silver, who she stared at, waiting for his reaction.
He gazed at the tiny hand that was clearly summoning him. He glanced back at Meganium, for a moment, who was retreating, head low, away from the shrine. Before he could call out to his Pokémon, his hand had reached out to touch Celebi's, almost without his will.
It was as though a fierce gale had kicked up the moment he had connected with the small Legendary. The glowing intensified, all different colors, surrounding him and Celebi in a bubble of swirling hues. It was so bright that he swore loudly and threw his unoccupied arm over his eyes. He felt like he was being dragged upwards while being anchored to the ground, and there was a spinning sensation in the pit of his stomach.
Then it was gone as suddenly as it had come. He slowly became aware that he was still standing up, with his arm still over his face, his right hand still in the possession of the mythical Pokémon. The only thing that was different was that Silver was now entirely drenched in sweat, his heart hammering and his breath ragged. He felt vaguely sick, like he was getting over a bad case of vertigo.
"Wh-what… what the hell just happened?" he panted, dropping his arm to glare at Celebi. She merely released his sweaty hand, which he promptly dragged through his hair in exasperation. Glancing around, the forest looked as if it was back to normal. No blinding swirl of colors. No glowing. No Meganium.
Silver did a double-take, but Meganium was nowhere to be found. He spun back to face Celebi, about to angrily demand some sort of explanation, but she just continued to stare at him solemnly.
And the weight of what happened suddenly blindsided him.
He swore, kicking the ground and muttering under his breath as the Time Traveler Pokémon watched him digest the news shakily. Well, he was taking it better than expected.
Once Silver managed to be able to breathe evenly, he glowered at Celebi, "Okay… so… where- o-or when are we?"
Celebi didn't respond, instead starting to float away in the direction of Azalea. Grumbling, he stuffed his hands into his pockets and followed after.
Not too long afterwards, they were out of the Ilex Forest, and the familiarity of the small town calmed Silver slightly. After all, Azalea Town didn't look all too different from when he and Meganium had passed through. The Slowpoke still wandered the town aimlessly and languorously. All the buildings looked the same. But something different did catch his attention. The people were usually cheerful- sometimes annoyingly so- but any he glimpsed walking around looked rather grim.
Celebi led him behind a cluster of trees, making for a nearby chapel surrounded with flowers gently bobbing in a light breeze. Silver frowned at it. He vaguely recalled that Lyra usually tried to get here once a week. He'd rarely been anything one could call religious. He had distant memories of his mother trying to instill it in him when he was very young, before she died. But his father did his best to crush it out of him.
His attention was regained by Celebi, who pointed to something half-hidden behind the humble church. He shifted to the right, peering out from the trees, and glimpsed lines of marble tombstones. A cemetery? Why would Celebi wish to show him that? He glanced at the Pokémon, who nodded and continued to point.
x~x~x~xSwitch POVx~x~x~x
I sighed, feeling fragile. I felt empty and hollow, kneeling at the edge of the fresh grave, looking at the marble tombstone. I held a white hat in my hands, a box sitting in front of me. It wasn't overflowing with items. Just a few special things that had been entrusted to me. I felt like I didn't deserve them. But the others at the funeral had insisted I take them.
The funeral. Those two words were like an impenetrable wall of thorns. Some of the people said the ceremony had been beautiful. My breathing hitched slightly. Beautiful? How could something like that be beautiful? No matter how many flowers, or how elegant the eulogy, nothing could twist this truth to make it beautiful.
I started as a drop of water fell with a plop inside the box. Instinctively, I looked up. It was a clear, sunny day. Not a cloud in the sky. I frowned as another tear coursed down my cheek, followed by others. Couldn't it at least rain on a horrible day like this? I closed my eyes in an effort to stop crying, but a strangled sob escaped my throat, and the tears kept coming.
I felt something nudge my shoulder. Eyes snapping open, I looked to see a Feraligatr watching me, reflecting my pain and sorrow. He sat slumped on all fours, tail dragging and head drooped low. He must have let himself loose from his ball, somehow aware of where we were and how I was feeling.
Slowly, I rested my hand on his head.
"We'll pull through this Fang," I murmured, unable to believe my own words. "Somehow."
He groaned sadly. Fruitlessly attempting to distract myself as I had for the past week, I half-heartedly shifted the objects in the box. I blinked as my fingers brushed a book. I pulled it out, a blue, thin book stamped with the word "Journal" in the front.
Feeling numb, I opened it at random and started thumbing through the pages, glancing at the entries now and then. My eyes came to rest on one particular entry, one headed by a sketch. Bemused, I looked closer and read the words printed neatly beneath the drawing. I could hardly believe what I was reading as my eyes widened.
"This could change everything," I whispered, breaths coming faster as an idea formed. Fang looked at me in sad confusion as I stood up, unintentionally spilling the contents of the box and dropping the journal face-down next to hat on the churned earth.
"C'mon, Fang," I said urgently, summoning the enormous blue reptile to his feet.
There was something I needed to do in the Ilex Forest.
x~x~x~xSwitch Backx~x~x~x
Silver had been making his way around the cemetery that Celebi had pointed out, careful to keep to the trees. Once, when he had tried to step out of their cover, Celebi pulled him back with amazing strength for a Pokémon so small, making scolding noises. He figured Celebi wanted them to stay out of sight. Which upon reflection did make some sort of sense, time travel-wise.
Once he had skirted the perimeter of trees around the chapel, he had found himself on the edge of the quiet cemetery. He thought he had glimpsed someone leaving in a hurry, but whoever it was had turned the corner of the church, and he hadn't seen the person properly.
Now that Celebi was sure no one was around or heading in this direction, she gave Silver a gentle shove. He stumbled out in the open, shooting a quick glower back at the nymph-like creature. But his flare of anger was lost in and unnerved feeling of curiosity. Why had Celebi brought him here? He hated graveyards. They gave him the creeps. He had only ever been in one once before, for his mother's funeral when he was six. The bad memories and deep unease had caused him to avoid them for the following twelve years of his life.
Celebi was hovering over his left shoulder, guiding him to their destination with a gentle push. He felt discomfort heightening in him with every step. Then, he noticed a new grave in the distance. So new that the upturned dirt hadn't even dried out in the sunlight. There was a splash of white against the ground that also grabbed his attention.
He spared a questioning glance at Celebi, who nodded and pointed to the grave, urging him on.
He moved forward silently, feeling horribly as if he was in a grim parody of that old Christmas tale with the spirits. He was the Scrooge, reluctantly walking towards a grave that would confirm the growing fears within himself, urged on by a supernatural being who knew more than he did.
He felt a small shock course through him when he had gotten nearer. He recognized Lyra's hat lying abandoned on the ground. Had she just visited here? Was she the one he'd glimpsed leaving?
He saw, a short distance from the hat, a box of items and a journal, lying face-down in the dirt. His nerve was beginning to fail him. His heart pounded quickly in his chest. Celebi watched in sympathy as Silver managed to brace himself enough to look at the name on the tombstone.
She hummed in alarm when she saw his knees give out as he fell to the ground with a gasp.
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Cliff-hangers galore, but those of you rereading this story already know what's to come. Heh.
Also, changed it so that Meganium was left behind rather than returned to his pokeball. I thought it might make for a slightly more dramatic piece of the story.
The third chapter will be renovated soon, which is one that I've been meaning to patch up for quite some time. Thanks for reading!
~Meta-Akira
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