He wasn't much bigger than Rotom, but an aura of strength radiated from him and it was apparent to Darkrai that his stature belied incredible power—even he, Darkrai, knew who Celebi was. The Pokémon had large eyes inset with shimmering irises of deep blue which occupied most of his disproportionately large head. His upper body and short arms were all the palest of leaf colors and his lower half a darker green, but the spot where his head elongated and curved back was hued an almost turquoise shade. Two thin antennae sprouted from his forehead and sloped over his cranium, and two delicate wings adorned his back. On Celebi's face was what could only be described as a serious smile; his eyes showed depth and understanding and brevity at the same time.

"This is Celebi!" chirped Rotom happily. "He's a really really strong Legendary! He's even as strong as Mew and Jirachi are! They're called the Lieutenants of Arceus, 'cause they're really, really strong!"

Darkrai didn't pay much attention to this. Celebi turned to Rotom. He said, "Thank you, Rotom. You should go." His voice was at a comfortable medium pitch, strong but not without a touch of lightness. "Priority one for you is alerting Lord Deoxys to the situation so he can inform the other Legendaries."

Rotom didn't have a head to nod with, but he give the impression of nodding with a midair bob before vanishing in a cheery flash.

Celebi refocused his attention, along with his rather enormous eyes, on Darkrai. "Hello, Lord Darkrai."

Darkrai glanced side to side and once over his shoulder. "Who's Lord Darkrai? Do you mean me? My name is Darkrai. Just Darkrai."

"Right… How much concerning the moon are you aware of?"

"The moon? Big, white, out in space…"

"I'll take it nothing, then." Celebi smiled. "You're just as disagreeable as I remember."

"And you're just as small and green as I remember."

"What I have to tell you is more important than your sarcasm, though, so you'll have to cut it short."

"I'm not really interested," said Darkrai shortly. "The last time you—"

"Darkrai." Celebi's smile had vanished. "This is serious."

"How serious can it be when an annoying orange lightbulb is your messenger? No," Darkrai growled, "whatever it is. I have my own problems."

"And this is one of them." Celebi's tone was flat. "I'm not here to play games, Darkrai."

Darkrai folded his arms. "Fine. Tell me."

"Thank you." Celebi began. "A few days ago, the moon entered the new lunar phase. Shortly after we discovered—"

"Who's 'we?'" interrupted Darkrai.

"Myself and Lord Mew," Celebi replied, betraying no hint of annoyance. "We discovered something was wrong with its elemental energies. Some force has affected it, we're not sure what, and it's having odd effects. For one thing, the moon's orbit has changed so it's remaining in the new moon phase. I've been referring to it—"

"Oh, you've named it."

"—been referring to it as the 'Reverse Moon.' The problem is how this Reverse Moon is affecting the Earth: Legendaries are having trouble controlling their elements; natural disasters are worsening all over the world. I'm not certain, but all the odd energy seems to be increasing in strength with time."

Celebi paused, indicating Darkrai should comment. "No, I haven't noticed anything wrong with the moon; I haven't been paying attention to it. What am I, Cresselia?" He gestured in the vaguest of directions. "I haven't even been there in years."

Celebi frowned quizzically. "Been where?"

"New Moon Island."

"Actually, that brings me to the next issue…this other Darkrai."

Darkrai almost groaned aloud. "Let me guess, the moon's reverse energy beamed down and spawned a clone of me."

"As good an explanation as I could have given," said Celebi. "Did he come to the garden?"

"Yes."

"And you chased him?"

"That's right."

"He was first seen in Sinnoh," recounted Celebi, when Rotom encountered him in Eterna Forest, where—as you were told—he was absorbing souls. Obviously this is itself unusual; soul-sucking is not exactly a common ability, and not even one you possess. So, why this 'other you' is able to do that remains a mystery… A lesser one than his appearance in the first place, of course.

"At the moment, Lord Mew is investigating a peculiar energy Master Arceus detected in the west of Sinnoh, which could be the other Darkrai. Unfortunately, I met Rotom only after she departed, and she doesn't know about the existence of your doppelgänger. I'm going to Sinnoh now, to tell Mew everything I've learned. You may come if you want…and I'm pretty sure you do."

"Don't be so pretty sure," Darkrai said. "I didn't follow that clone because I wanted to find out about him; I followed him because I thought he—" The Pitch-black Pokémon abruptly cut himself off.

"Darkrai…" Celebi regarded him frankly. "I know you're still looking, but that doesn't mean you have to ignore everything else."

Darkrai stared right back. "Yes, it does."

"Do you have any leads? Places to search? Face facts, a darkened moon and a copy of yourself are the closest things you have to clues."

"You think this is related?"

"All I'm saying is it could be. At least you'll be doing something other than directionless wandering."

Darkrai was silent for a time. His search had indeed been fruitless, and—though he was loath to admit it—Celebi's mention of the overwhelming lack of leads reminded him of his own recent thoughts on the subject. This search had occupied him completely ever since the one he sought had disappeared, but maybe it was time to rest…rest, and wait until he had a direction to begin looking in again.

Needless to say, the decision to accept somebody's advice did not come easily from Darkrai.

"Yeah, fine," he growled.

Celebi nodded. "Once we've met with Mew, we'll go to the Hall of Origin to see Master Arceus and decide what to do next. You've never met him, have you?" Then, off Darkrai's indication of no: "Well, it's good that you're going to."

Darkrai posed what was for once a reasonable question. "And what if we run into my evil twin along the way?"

"A peaceful resolution isn't out of the question," responded Celebi. Darkrai gave him the flattest of states, and he said, "Okay, I'm not saying it's likely. But don't attack him before we try to negotiate. Got it?"

Under Celebi's stern frown, Darkrai knew better than to push his luck. He's met Celebi only once before, but from that one meeting he knew what could happen if one offended Celebi's sense of discipline. So he only nodded, and muttered quietly as Celebi turned away, "Maybe."

-m- -m- -m-

In Western Sinnoh, the night only grew blacker as Mew sped toward New Moon Island, the crags of which had just appeared in the distance, looking as if they had violently punched up from the sea floor and through the horizon line. Though the waves had been choppy while Mew was over the open ocean, around the island the sea was all but immobile, and even the air seemed still—still and thick, and close to Mew's body as she touched down atop the sheer cliffs that barricaded the isle's southern side like a great fortress wall. From there, though, she could see that the terrain sloped downward, the solid stone gradually yielding to rocky soil and, further towards the heart of the island, a small and claustrophobic woods. The outermost layer of trees were bare; beyond them were thicker trunks and hardier foliage, but somehow the forest retained its dead feel, appearing for all the world as many bony hands jutting from the dirt, fingers hooked and ready to ensnare an unaware traveler.

Mew was anything but unaware as she made her way through the odd forest—in places it seemed as though the trees grew from a rock base—to the center. As she delved further, drawn by instinct, the darkness grew unnaturally dense, as if the starlight could not penetrate it. At length, she reached a more-sizable gap in the tree trunks and entered the clearing beyond.

A shallow, rocky basin lay at the core of the island, left as light-starved as the rest of the woods by the branches that curved overhead. A thin but perfectly clear and reflective layer of water filled the basin, as still as glass. Reflected in it was a Pokémon of black coloration, with a row of bright red spikes topping his broad chest, three smoky trails softly rippling from his body, two inky and one pale gray. As Mew entered the clearing, one startlingly blue eye came into view, the other hidden by the solid-looking origin point of the gray smoke, which rested atop the Pokémon's head as if it were hair.

Mew stopped a distance away, and the dark mirror of Darkrai spread his arms wide. "Welcome to New Moon Island!"

A/N: A wild VILLAIN appeared!

Yeah, so, I'm unsure about this chapter. It's kind of talky and short-ish and meh. But what the heck, at least I've got us on our way and we're ready for the meat of the plot and so forth.

I hope it's a tasty kind of plot meat. Like plot steak.