Chapter 14: Time and Time Again
"Unnghh…" Kevin groaned. "Whoa… what happened?"
Kevin shook his head. It almost felt as if he had crashed into Raikou again, only head first. Looking up after recovering from the shaken state, he was not ready for what he saw. Colors of all types seemed to constantly flow in every direction around him. As for him, he seemed to stand on a platform created by psychic means.
An Ultra ball floated in the rippling colors, suspended away from Kevin's platform. Kevin began to reach out to it.
Do not touch, Kevin.
Kevin spun around and found the "legend" floating a ways off above the same platform he stood on. "What is this? Some sort of trick?" Kevin demanded.
We are now residing within the very flow of time, the "legend" explained. Forgive me if I was not as informative as you wished me to be, but this task must be done as quickly as possible. My name is Celebi.
"Celebi… great, does this mean that I am bound to keep this knowledge with me, as well?" Kevin said, shuddering.
What you say in the future will not affect others, Celebi stated. Many may not believe you. But the curse the Three have placed upon your mind are not in effect here, nor is Lugia's Curse.
"Really?" Kevin asked in wonder. He listened into his mind. For the first time since the incident with the Three, his mind was clear.
As we speak, we are now 14 years in the past, Celebi informed. Ash, the Chosen One, has not been born yet. Johto, the continent you wander now, still remains a mystery. Ultra balls and Great balls are still used in abundance. The Pokémasters' Squadron has not been formed. Mewtwo has yet to be created. Team Rocket has not been reformed after its miserable defeat against you. And you are still human.
"So why bring me here?" Kevin asked. "How does this involve me?"
Do you not recall your dream from years past? Celebi wondered. The dream where you had conversed with yourself?
"Hmmm… I think I recall it," Kevin said in thought. "I don't exactly recall what happened."
Be swift in doing so, Celebi said. You have not much time. Although the flow has frozen for you to accomplish this task, it must move on.
"Whoa, wait… Are you saying that time, as we know it, now rests on my shoulders?" Kevin said, backing up a step.
Be careful! Celebi warned. Do not step off the platform. The river Time moves along swiftly, and this platform is your boat that carries you safely. If you were to step off, you would be lost in time, unable to be recovered.
Kevin stepped forward and stood in the middle of the platform. "If you are warning me not to step off the platform, then why do you float idly in the air?" Kevin asked suspiciously.
I am one with time, Celebi said. I move through it with ease, much like a Magikarp is able to traverse heavy currents. Without my ability to aid you in this task, you would never be able to perform it.
"I see… So what is it exactly that I need to do?"
You must go and advise yourself, Celebi explained. Though you have just become the champion, you are inexperienced with running an entire continent. You must set in place your position, and with it recognition.
"Great. So what happens if I mess up?" Kevin wondered. "I mean, what if I say something wrong?"
Then you will enter a time loop, Celebi stated. The sequence must be done again. It must be done in the exact way that your future self has done to you at this time.
"So, let me get this straight… I need to converse with my past self to start in motion the Pokémasters' Squadron, Indigo Plateau, and all the ways that people now raise Pokémon?"
Yes, Celebi answered. But you do not have eternity to perform this task. Time urges us to move on, to continue with the flow of life. In situations such as this, many need to be done within an accumulated space of 24 hours.
"And what happens if I fail to do so?" Kevin asked.
You do not wish to know, Kevin, Celebi stated with a seriousness in its voice.
"I find that I can accomplish tasks when I know what will happen if I fail to do something."
Very well, stubborn one, Celebi remarked. If you fail to do this, past, present, and future will come together as one, and will be lost as a wanderer of time. You may traverse through time itself, but be unable to affect anything you see. Another, one possibly more worthy in the task, will take your position. Life for you would be as it had never started, and you will never rejoin any part of time again. It will be as if you never existed.
Kevin was silent for a moment. Pondering on his "dream," he suddenly had a clear recollection of it. "Ok, now that I know what must be done, I'm ready to go."
One moment, Celebi interrupted. You must hide your identity. Your past self cannot realize what he is to become.
Kevin activated his human disguise. "Ok, now I'm ready to go."
A portal appeared behind Celebi on the platform and Celebi moved out of the way of it. Then go, it stated. Do what must be done.
Walking toward the hole, which appeared to have no wall to stand against, he stepped through. However, he lost his footing on the way through, and crashed against a darkened wall.
"Ow!" Kevin muttered under his breath. "That could've been a little less painful…"
"Who's there?"
Kevin got up from the wall and turned around. He nearly gasped. Even though he had seen his old pictures thousands of times, he was not ready to see himself in the past.
"You!" The Kevin of Past said. "Who are you? What are you doing in my barracks??"
Duo-Cevan! Kevin said to his Scyther half. Tell me every phrase that my future self said to me in my "dream." I won't be able to concentrate on both that and this.
However, the silence was intended. The Kevin of Past growled. "You were after Cevan, weren't you? I can tell! Why else would you appear without anyone else noticing?"
"I am not after your Scyther," Kevin said, repeating what Duo-Cevan told him. "I am, after all, you."
"Huh?" the Kevin of Past wondered. "So now you're trying to be funny?"
"No, I'm not being funny at all," Kevin replied. "This is merely a dream. I am you."
"A dream? I don't see how this is a dream," the Kevin of Past growled.
"If this wasn't a dream, then how could you be speaking to yourself?"
"All right, wise guy," the Kevin of Past hissed with a fierce stare. "If you're me, then how many losses have I had?"
"As far as you're concerned, you've had none ever since you became 'serious' with training Pokémon," Kevin answered. "Nothing but wins ever counted for you."
"And what year did I catch my Scyther at the Safari Zone?" the Kevin of Past suddenly asked.
"If that's a trick question, you're not fooling anyone who is you," Kevin sighed. "You didn't catch him at the Safari Zone, you caught him in Viridian Forest."
The Kevin of Past stared at Kevin. "Whoa… You must be me. I never told anyone else that," he said, his eyes wide in surprise.
"Of course. This is a dream, after all."
"I guess…" the Kevin of Past said. He walked over and sat down on his bed.
Kevin took a quick glance around. It was just as he remembered it: The barracks, as they were called, were single-man rooms. They had one bed, one chest, one coat rack, and one window. The walls were always painted gray, for some reason, and the ground had no carpet, but pure stone.
He then looked back at Kevin of Past. "Something bothering you? You look troubled."
"You should be able to tell. You are me, after all," the Kevin of Past grumbled.
"Even champions should know when to express their troubles," Kevin stated.
"Since when did you know about being a champion??"
"Since this dream. You always dream about being the greatest champion, and here I am," Kevin answered calmly.
"Well, I don't think I'm exactly that great right now… I don't even know the first thing about running a continent!" the Kevin of Past said with a sigh. "All right… How do we do it without showing a sign of weakness?"
"Why not get an advisor to assist you?"
"What?!?" the Kevin of Past said with surprise.
"An advisor is a position not many get into," Kevin explained. "It requires knowledge, strength, and trust. Even the one before you had an advisor, and you had to get through him first before you could fight the champion, yet you defeated both of them with ease."
"I know, but they were friends," the Kevin of Past recalled. "I don't even have one. And ever since I got to be the champion—"
"The family seemed to disappear without a trace, I know," Kevin interrupted. "Therefore you are forced to run the country on your own."
"That's right." The Kevin of Past suddenly slammed his fist down into the bed. "Oh, Fire Blast it all!! I wish I never even got in this position! All I want now is someone to talk to who won't attempt to best me at everything!"
"I know how this is hard for you. But think of it, Kevin. How many know who you really are?"
"Well, someone needs at least 8 badges to get into this area," the Kevin of Past said, mostly to himself. "And even then, they only see me when they try to get my position… So not many do know me."
"So make yourself more known to the people," Kevin said. "Instead of having the officials do the work for you, give a speech to tell what should be done. Let them know what you've done. Nobody knows who even defeated Team Rocket yet!"
"That is an experience I'd rather not recall," the Kevin of Past sighed. "I came too close to causing Cevan to collapse from pain altogether. It was a fight that was nearly for a lost cause."
"But you did make it, and that matters the most," Kevin explained. "People like those who are dedicated to considering their Pokémon. Do whatever you can to find things that People like. And while you're at it, be a host for something."
"Such as?" the Kevin of Past wondered, looking up at Kevin.
"That will be your decision. It's one thing to be a champion, but it's another to be one for the wrong reason. Don't become that."
Kevin began to hear the familiar noises that he heard when he stood on the platform. "Well, it seems that this dream is coming to an end. I'm afraid that I cannot provide you with all the answers, but that would be a sign of weakness."
"Wait!" the Kevin of Past grabbed Kevin's arm. "Won't you come visit me again in my dreams?"
"I'm afraid not," Kevin said. "The rest is all up to you. If you need an advisor in the future, you must learn to trust others."
"And if I can't?" the Kevin of Past asked in earnest.
"Then another will take your place," Kevin said. He locked his eyes with the Kevin of Past through the mesh hiding his face and used hypnosis to put him to sleep. "That is the end of my advice. Sleep well, champion."
The Kevin of Past attempted to say more, but was fast asleep. Kevin picked his old self and left it on the bed, then turned and headed through the portal, leaving the past as he did so.
When the portal closed, Celebi floated behind Kevin and pushed him toward the center of the platform. The test is over, Kevin, it said. You are perhaps the first who has accomplished this who has not replaced or been replaced for another.
It was Kevin's turn to be troubled. "I… I don't understand, Celebi," Kevin stuttered. "I used to be so kind. Now I'm as cold as a frozen pillar of water. How did this happen?"
You became blinded, Celebi stated. You could not accept change. Many are not capable of such.
"Change? But I became somewhat colder while I was still a champion!"
Once you got the attention of people, you suddenly loathed it, Celebi informed him. You were not ready for the eyes of everyone to see you as a symbol of power.
"Basically, I went from nothing to something greater than I wanted to be."
Precisely. Celebi nodded its head. You wanted to be alone again. Soon after, you got your wish.
"Isn't there a way to correct this?" Kevin pleaded. "A way I can go back to my past and keep my position?"
No. You were already the champion of Kanto and set a way of life that everyone wanted to follow. While you still have several tasks to perform in the present time and the future, the time for you to be a champion is over.
"So what am I to do now?" Kevin wondered.
You must stop Team Rogue and visit Lugia. Be warned, however: several seconds after I place you back in your time, you will be agonized by Lugia's Curse. You can fight it, Kevin. Do not give in!
"Celebi, will I ever see you again?" Kevin asked.
Your task is done. It is likely that nothing in your future requires my presence again.
Kevin began feeling a force pulling him from the platform. This time he did not fight it, but instead let it carry him off the platform. The colors that flowed in no oriented direction now seemed to go in a single direction, moving faster and faster. Once in a while, Kevin thought he saw something pass by: The modification of his old Pokédex for voice control, a lab suddenly going up in a mushroom cloud. He passed another image, which looked like Mewtwo conversing with Giovanni. Suddenly, the sight was going by so fast he could not make out a single image, save for one: a forest glade, moving so fast at him that he would—
Kevin suddenly crashed head-first into a tree and fell to the ground. Kevin pushed himself up and shook his head. "Next time, Celebi, if we meet again, be careful where you throw me," Kevin growled.
Kevin! Duo-Cevan suddenly shouted. The melody!
Kevin had hardly any time to react when the melody suddenly grew in intensity by eight times. Kevin clutched his head with his hands, nearly giving himself new slash marks with his own bladed fingers. The music itself seemed to rip new holes through his head, attempting to make itself louder in his mind. The pain was far too much to keep to his own, and he emitted a loud scream of agony.
This pain… Kevin thought, writhing from it. It's… too powerful…
Kevin, through the torture in his mind, shook his head. No! I can fight it… Celebi said I could… Kevin attempted as much as possible to send his thoughts to Duo-Cevan. Duo-Cevan! We can fight this! We can fight it… together!
It felt like hours before Kevin could feel Duo-Cevan in him again and the melody brought down to a tolerable level. Were you fighting it? Duo-Cevan asked.
No… we are! Kevin declared. He knew Duo-Cevan was fighting it, as well. You didn't panic, though, did you?
No, considering Celebi warned us about it, Duo-Cevan said. I just hope that—
"What happened?" a familiar young voice said behind Kevin. "You sounded like you were in pain."
Kevin spun around and faced the boy he had seen earlier, who was approaching his position. Kevin nearly panicked himself. "Oh, uh…" he began, "I was being attacked… by a Psychic. I managed to fight him off, though."
"A Psychic was attacking you? What was it?" the boy asked.
"I… didn't see," Kevin lied. "But I don't think I wish to find out!" And with that, Kevin took off.
The boy and his Farfetch'd looked at each other. "That was certainly a strange man," the boy commented. "I almost feel sorry for him."
"Farfetch'd," the Farfetch'd sighed. With that, they looked at the shrine for a minute before continuing on.