Shiloh watched the tearful reunion, without getting anywhere near either of them. Her old human memories insisted that she shouldn't care what she was seeing here. It was right to be bitter towards Lane after what she'd done to her. The mew deserved to feel a little of the pain that she inflicted on others.
But how could she stay resentful, knowing the ones Lane lost. It wasn't just the mother who suffered—Aspen lost her sisters. Shiloh herself had lost Briar, along with all the other Pokémon in her team.
What was she going to do, yell at the mew, insist that she should've let the two of them get captured and hauled off by Team Plasma? What would they do to me? She remembered that flight, her ears were good enough to know who they were really chasing. It wasn't one more shaymin that the former activist organization cared about capturing.
Shiloh emerged from the little crack in the rock she'd been hiding in, crawling through the dirt. She could probably fly there if she focused on it, but she was too emotional to try just now. At the rate things were going, she might need that energy soon. She just kept her distance from the mew and helpless shaymin, giving them their space. There would be time later to remind Lane of all her evils.
The whirring of little plastic rotors alerted Shiloh to the return of her rotom. But if she hadn't noticed its quiet approach, she could never miss its electronic voice, speaking so loudly that even the Pokémon would overhear.
"It appears the legendary Pokémon has been greatly weakened. Would you like to begin your battle now, master? I am ready to film your encounter."
Lane looked up, released the little shaymin in her forelegs, watching. The ghost-type was right about one thing, this Pokémon did look much weaker than she had ever seen her. If only Shiloh didn't depend on this exact Pokémon for her survival right now, maybe she could find a way to take advantage of this opportunity.
"Not today, Rotom," she said, defeated. "Not today."
Lane waited another few seconds, as though expecting Shiloh to change her mind. Was that some secret meant to trick her? No. She didn't have a team, besides. Even weakened, she would be utterly doomed if she tried to win a fight against this particular Pokémon. She had only today figured out how to fly.
"We have to get them back," Lane said. "Goh, Miya. Everyone else." As though Shiloh didn't already know that. What other goals could they possibly have, if not reuniting with their team? "But I'm not strong enough to fight again right now. We have to rest somewhere safe."
She gestured with both paws, and the air around them ripped. Shiloh's stomach turned over in her chest as the teleport took her. She was traveling again, but not nearly as far as last time. She dropped onto soft carpet a second later.
Shiloh opened her eyes, looking around at her new surroundings. The living room in a modest city apartment from the look of it, typically furnished for someone without many pokédollars to spend. Old furniture, slightly peeling wallpaper, and closed, dusty shutters. A set of stairs leading up were tucked against the wall.
Most exciting was the sound coming through those windows. Shiloh heard actual foot-traffic, the gentle hum of car engines, and voices speaking to each other. Not a big city—but still civilization. Her banishment had finally ended.
Someone big stepped over her, dragging their way towards the couch. It was a girl with long pink hair trailing down her back, and an even longer tail. She reached the couch, took the blanket off the back, and curled up there.
"S-stay here," Lane said. "Galea knows me, but they don't... Plasma might have someone here. Keep head down." She collapsed a few seconds later, eyes closed and one bare arm hanging off the couch, snoring quietly.
"What about now?" asked Rotom. The drone had landed on the old wood floor, and remained perched there, propellers still. "The mew is sleeping. This should increase your catch rate."
Shiloh rolled her eyes. "Rotom, please. I can't try to catch... It won't do me any good to catch mew without Briar here to help with production. I won't even try until I get him back."
Which would mean the kittens were safe then too. Aspen made her way over, nudging Shiloh's shoulder. She was still the little flightless hedgehog, not the cute, confident fox. "There's a garden in back if you want to go outside. If we keep low no one will see us."
Was that what Lane meant about keeping our heads down? Shiloh followed anyway, through the dark house. There was a Pokémon door at exactly the right height, with a tiny latch they could push out of the way to climb outside.
She followed Aspen out into a tiny backyard, surrounded on all sides with high wooden fences. There were two large trees out here, canopies wide enough to obscure anyone walking around from observation. The grass formed a comfortable walkway to a tiny artificial pond, where Aspen stopped to drink.
She flopped onto her side, watching Shiloh with just one eye now. "Guess you're part of this now too, huh? They'll hunt you as much as they hunt us. More, since you're like... one of a kind. I'm nothing special. Couldn't even save my little sisters when they needed me."
Even without the ability to read emotions, Shiloh felt the pain of those words, along with the tremendous weight of guilt that came behind them. She floated over, nudged the little shaymin with a stupid bird hand. "You fought hard for your sisters. I bet you would've fought until they caught you too."
Aspen grunted angrily, turning away from Shiloh. "It doesn't matter how hard I tried. They still got away with everyone else. I failed, and I guess you failed too. All we managed to do was fly into danger a second time, and run into trainers we couldn't fight. Mom had to save us."
Shiloh raised both paws defensively. "I'm sorry all that happened. I'm sorry about your sisters. But you can't expect me to know how to fight for you, or anyone else! I'm human, remember? Lane changed me a week ago."
Aspen stood, slipping forward into the water. It wasn't deep, and she floated along the top in front of Shiloh, washing a little of the ash and dust from her white fur. "You didn't do nothing though. You gave me the instructions I needed. You told me what to do. Without your help, I would've been caught. And there was something else..."
She turned towards Shiloh now, facing her in the water. "When I was fighting, I felt..." Then she stopped, glancing towards the fence. "Wait a minute. We're around humans again. We're outside, Lane is resting, there's no one to stop you. Is this the part where you run away from us?"
Shiloh looked up, facing off in the direction Aspen indicated. Of course she could still make out all the different human voices, going through whatever it was people did in this town.
The legendaries deserved to be left to their fate, really. Kidnapping Shiloh did not entitle them to her help. Aspen was right, she wouldn't get a better chance to run than this. With a little persuasion, Rotom might even be able to help translate for her, helping her get in touch with a professor.
She didn't owe the kittens anything, they weren't her sisters. So it sucked to have an awful mom who kidnapped people, the world wasn't fair.
But it wasn't just the kittens who were gone. They got Briar and Mirage. They probably had the rest of Shiloh's team too, though she wasn't as particular about most of those Pokémon. Briar was her best friend, through countless adventures. If she ran now, there was no telling if the legendaries would even bother rescuing him.
"I'm staying," she said, sprawling defeated in the grass. "I would run back to my kind for help, if things happened differently. But why don't we save your family and my friends first? I can't be a Pokémon champion without Briar there cheering me on, it just wouldn't be right."
Shaymin hugged her, wrapping stubby little forelegs around her shoulder. The gesture didn't work quite the same way as it might for two humans in the same position, but the intention was obvious. Even if the physical gesture confused her, she could still feel Aspen's emotions.
"Thanks. I—my dad's gone too. I'm not sure I could face all that without your help."
You're not very well trained. I'm not sure you can face it no matter what we do together. Shiloh would've spoken her mind to a human trainer about their Pokémon without hesitation, people needed a realistic idea of their abilities if they ever wanted to improve. But somehow that felt wrong to say to someone about their own abilities.
"Can you let go?" she squeaked instead. "You're getting me all wet. I think every fire type has to hate the water. It's in our contract or something."
She did, giggling quietly at her remarks. "Didn't you say you were going to be human again one day, Shiloh? Don't get too used to all your new powers if that's true. When you leave, you won't even be able to understand Pokémon anymore."
It was her turn to laugh. Understanding Pokémon was one of those abilities that most trainers would kill for. Even Shiloh had dreamed of understanding them so well that he mastered their language. But that was before he discovered the truth—Pokémon could understand humans just fine, and that was far more important. He didn't need to know exactly what they said to turn them into winners.
"I'm not a Pokémon," Shiloh said. "I'm a Pokémon master, maybe the best trainer to ever live. I can count my defeats on one hand." She turned back towards the house, where a girl wearing only a blanket slept away her exhaustion. The girl who cheated, to hand her the worst defeat of her life.
She didn't hear what Aspen said next, because that was when she heard something else. A ringing sound, one that seemed to come from the trees overhead, the plants scattered around the pond, and the grass beneath her.
It started to glow, brightly enough that Shiloh backed up towards the house. How had Team Plasma found them so fast? What were they targeting her with, some kind of orbital laser? Or maybe just an army of powerful grass types.
Her shock didn't overcome her sense. Shiloh lifted into a hover, body tense and ready to defend herself. Whatever was coming, she couldn't run from it now. The mew was unconscious.
She wasn't the only one to notice it, either. The passing human voices all fell to hushed whispers, and she felt their mixture of casual emotions shift towards curiosity and fear. They didn't know what was coming either.
The only one who didn't seem afraid was Aspen. She remained in the grass, waving Shiloh to join her. "It's nothing to worry about! I've never seen him visit in the middle of a town before, that's new."
Before she could ask what the shaymin meant, the air split open, and something emerged from the light beyond. It formed into an almost humanoid figure—the right number of arms and legs anyway. But the proportions were all wrong. Its head was huge, its arms too short.
She saw the eyes first, glowing a brilliant blue. Then the color returned to the rest of it, and he dropped to the ground.
He landed in the grass, panting from the exertion.
Shiloh knew what this creature was, from what legends survived from its home in Johto. It was one of the mythical Pokémon she had considered and then rejected for her own world champion team, since time travel didn't have much use in battle.
Celebi.
The little Pokémon turned towards her, and his wings buzzed in... embarrassment? "Shiloh? W-what are you doing here? Isn't it—"
Shiloh blushed, unable to look directly at the grass-type. Whatever she was expecting from an encounter with this particular mythical creature, she wasn't supposed to think he was cute. "How do you know my name?"