Chapter 9
Celebi's PoV

Groaning slightly, I flew over the forest, my legs hanging limply. I think that was the first time I'd been captured against my will, and escaping hadn't been easy. At least I'd bought Delta and Grovyle some time. Now I needed to find them and check on how they were doing.

Sighing slightly I whirred through the air. I closed my eyes and sent out a telepathic pulse no-one would be able to pick up, one similar to echo location. I received a bounce-back pulse from Grovyle and Delta's location and teleported into a sheltered area nearby just in case I was being deceived.

After so much teleporting the dizzying effect didn't bother me. I blinked twice on the other side, peering out of the trees. Delta and Grovyle were trekking ahead and hadn't noticed me yet. They seemed exhausted.

Typical, I mused, Grovyle too stubborn to rest and Delta always forgets to sleep. I should go remind them.

I trailed vaguely behind them for a while, waiting to see if they were alert enough to notice me. If they weren't I might have to lower my expectations and the percentage of likely success. Right now it was at 30%, the highest it had even been. Delta was clever, she had probably figured out by now that I knew too much for them to be the first I'd raised to help end the darkness. Grovyle was too naïve, he trusted me no matter what.

This end justified any means. Even that kind of loss.

Delta was like a gift, with her dimensional scream and just that she was human. She stood out, but if the Pokémon were just slightly less broken she could be a figurehead. This way she was just an obvious target. There were towns here, ones she could never enter. She could barely even interact normally with Pokémon; she practically lived in solitary confinement.

So I relied on her to latch onto Grovyle since he was practically her only interaction. I hoped she'd feel she owed me more, but in the end she was too intelligent. She saw my corruption and secrets, which at least Grovyle still ignored. She probably wouldn't tell Grovyle, and even if she did he probably wouldn't believe her. Probably.

"Celebi?" Grovyle asked, without turning around. I flinched and then smiled slightly, glad he could notice me.

"Hello, dear Grovyle," I chimed back. My voice was always falsely light and cheerful around these two, they needed the optimism and it was easy to fake.

"Hi." Delta replied coldly, glaring at me. She hated me. It reminded me of how, by the end, every other Pokémon I'd raised to help end the darkness hated me. Some had kept up the charade and kept fighting, but many more had dropped out and defected, joining Dialga just to spite me. That was why I couldn't have some kind of complex network of resistance contacts; too many would die when one defected.

Ws Grovyle the only thing stopping Delta from doing that? She didn't really seem to have a reason to want to end the darkness, other than her vendetta against Dusknoir.

"We need to know the location of the last time gear," Grovyle explained, "We haven't had a dimensional scream relating to its location. Do you have any ideas?"

"One?" I asked, blinking. Delta stared coldly at me, refusing to drop her gaze, "There're two left."

"What?" She asked, looking slightly surprised for once.

"Two time gears. One is in an underground lake; one is in some sort of cave I think, in this area."

"And you didn't mention this before because?" Grovyle seemed taken aback. Had I really forgotten one? Delta was looking at me, probably seeing this as another sign of my deteriorating mind.

"I… uh…" I struggled to come up with an explanation, "Never really counted the Treeshroud Forest one. It was so easily accessible; it wasn't even really a problem at all." Grovyle slumped, seeming to accept my explanation. Delta still looked wary. "The closest one should be in a cave somewhere around here, I'm not sure which." the only team which ever discovered it were the Houndoom and the Ampharos, and by then they had broken off contact with me; they didn't trust me.

"Huh," Delta grumbled, but seemed to be making some kind of effort to control her angry, if only for Grovyle, "So we just enter a few caves around here until we find the right one? What about Dusknoir?"

"I'll deal with him," I replied, not quite sure how to fulfil my promise. There was an awkward silence for a bit and Grovyle looked at me expectantly. Soon I realized I'd been neglecting him and looked at Delta pointedly. With a threatening glare aimed at me that Grovyle didn't even notice, she sighed and began walking away, calling after her,

"I'll catch up with you."

"How's it going?" I asked Grovyle with what I hoped was a comforting smile.

"Quite well, Delta's been great," he replied. He seemed really happy to be able to talk to me, "We've had a lot of pinches, even been captured by Dusknoir! But we got out."

"Sounds like you've been making great progress. Soon you'll all be done, and none of this will have happened," I was almost crying, but tried my best to hide it. Grovyle… Grovyle… "We'll all be free to live out lives in the light where we won't even know of this."

"Yes," he agreed with a tentative smile, "Yes we will."

Then without anything further said he raced after Delta, leaving me behind him and forgotten. It was then that I realized I was being replaced. All part of the process, I comforted myself, I wouldn't have known him for much longer anyway. At least I knew him while he was still innocent, still had faith in me.

Suddenly my attention was drawn to a nagging presence at the back of my head. I had been blocking it out, but I soon realized it was that Espeon.

Spy, I hissed mentally.

[Nice to see you again too.] Came the inevitable reply.

Don't you dare report their location. If you don't and they succeed you'll never have been captured, you'll be free.

[It's not just the matter of ending the darkness for me,] she sounded genuine. Not that my judgement was worth much, [it's what happens imbetween. I can't hide anything from them anyway.]

Withhold their locations; say I'm blocking their signal. Or give them a fake one and tell them I projected it or something. I'm sure you know what they'll believe.

[If I get something wrong it doesn't matter why or with whom the fault lies. The end is the same. I don't owe you anything anyway. I hate you, just like Delta and all of your previous helpers did.] She said the last part simply, with only an undertone of bitterness.

The plan was that you were our plant, you passed on information. And thus you are, I never betrayed you.

[No. The plan was that you would withdraw me if I asked, the plan was that I came to no physical harm. I never wanted this to happen, and when I openly told you I wanted to be withdrawn you were occupied. Even now you still won't help me get out.]

You'd just be hunted for the rest of your life anyway. The best thing I could do to you is to end the darkness so this will have never happened.

[NO!] she shouted mentally. She then calmed down, [you don't understand. You treat us, all of the Pokémon that endure this darkness, as if you can do whatever you want because there's a possibility it'll have never happened. That we're not really here, we're not important. It's making you lose what separates yourself from Dialga. But it's not like that. You have to remember that we're alive too, and that] I felt her sincerity bleeding into my mind, [ending the darkness will not redeem your crimes against us.]

You won't have existed, it is pointless wasting time and effort on helping you. I may end up ruthless like Dialga but, I paused, I am what is required to end this darkness. It is my sacrifice, my willingness to give anything up. And in the end it will be I who succeed, if the cost of that is being as bad as Dialga I am prepared for that. I cannot let their sacrifices be in vain. Please don't tell them Delta and Grovyle's location.

[I will neither fight against you or for you. I am not willing to do anything to win, unlike you. How long do I need to delay Delta and Grovyle's location for in order to give them a decent chance?]

About… four days should suffice. Longer, if at all possible.

[Hm. I can manage four, acting like I've lost their signature. After longer than that they'd just get Dialga to help them, anyway. But you owe me for this, Celebi, and I want your help. If you can't break me out at least try to consider the lives you ruin in your hopeless quest for light.]

I'll try, I lied. Her presence receded and I sighed in relief. After all that I had bought Delta and Grovyle time.

I wasn't sure what to do next. Despite being the co-ordinator of basically all resistance movements I spent the majority of my time hiding or tailing Grovyle and Delta. I supposed I should start looking around for a back-up, just in case Delta and Grovyle fail. What species this time? Grovyle and Delta did the best, before them it was probably the Houndoom and the Ampharos. I needed someone naïve, who would trust me like Grovyle had.

There were too many complications, I decided to worry about that later.

I could tail Grovyle and Delta, but I decided against that too. I might as well check on the handful of the few still-loyal Pokémon who hadn't defected or abandoned me. They weren't very useful and I had my suspicions about whether they were spies or not, but they were something. Sighing slightly, I teleported to a small forest grove.

Hesitantly, a few Sceptile and Grovyle stepped out or climbed down from the trees. This was one of the last communities of Pokémon that remained sentient, mostly because they had each other and were away from Dialga's influence. This forest was rumoured to house an insane legendary, so everyone kept away. This group were the only inhabitants who hadn't left so staying had served them well.

"Hello, Scep," I addressed their leader. When Pokémon lived in communities with their own kind they tended to have nicknames.

"Hello Celebi," he replied, squinting at me. He was slowly becoming blind, but his colony would care for him in his old age, "Where have you been lately? We enjoy having visitors."

"Ah, you know, travelling," I replied, as carelessly as I could, "I've got a team working on our… problem at the moment."

"And him?" a female Sceptile, Scep's mate, chimed in rapidly. It earned her a few glares.

"He's doing fine. He'll end up ending it all, you know. He'll be the saviour."

"I still can't see him, though?" she asked, her eyes pleading.

"No, he's busy." I replied abruptly. Then she looked so crestfallen that I offered her another piece of information she already knew, "When the darkness fades you will have never been apart."

"Yes," she replied, careful to hide how she really felt, "He's out there fighting it… one little pinprick of light… my son."