"Hey sis, how come you never told me this story before?" Zerobi asked with an expression that suggested more intrigue than that of anyone else in the room.
"… What relevance would this story have carried to you?" Celebi replied, now broken from the trance of retelling such an old tale.
"Not much, I suppose, but I still love this kind of stuff!" Zerobi laughed as she stretched her arms, Lucario following suit. Zoroark had decided to sit down when it became clear she was staying for a while, and her expression showed deep contemplation.
"Yeah, great story. Too bad the world was destroyed," Lucario chided while cracking his neck, dispelling the effects of dedicating most of his day to watching TV and starting at Celebi, "At least that's what I got out of it."
"Groudon has been aimlessly roaming underneath the earth's mantle ever since," Zerobi explained with satisfaction, suddenly wishing the special issue of occult magazine detailing Groudon's many tunnels underground wasn't now a smoldering heap of coal.
"And Kyogre… Well, we never found her," Celebi whispered as she tried to remember, "And considering how every description of her aura was marked down as 'BRUTAL'… I assume she fell before Groudon and is no longer with us."
"When was she with us? We didn't exist back then," Lucario muttered, wondering why he was feeling sympathy for creatures long dead when a thought suddenly hit him, "Wait a minute, so that deal they made…"
"Now that Mew's lineage is gone… Do you think Darkrai considers it void?" Zoroark suddenly spoke up, letting her inquisitive eyes fall on Celebi, "In the end Mew could not prove her point, and so he decided to let Groudon resume his destruction of the world?"
"That happened over three hundred years ago," Celebi pointed out with a hint of surprise, "You honestly believe someone like Darkrai would willingly put his plans on hold for that long?"
"If he really is immortal, three hundred years might not be such a big deal," Zerobi muttered with a sideways glance, thinking about her own dreams of living forever.
"No one is immortal!" Celebi suddenly burst out while slamming her weak arms against the flower she was lying on, "And to steal someone else's life for your own… That is pure madness! It does not work!"
This outburst stunned them, having never really seen Celebi act this way. She seemed fairly remorseless as well, sticking to her point with a stubborn expression.
"Well, yes. It does," Lucario spoke up after a while, jabbing a thumb to his chest, "I'm living proof. Mew used Cyon to revive me."
"Cyon's brain was dead and yours was not, you simply took on his corpse as a platform!" Celebi kept going before shaking her head, "It has nothing to do with exchanging life force or anything silly like that!"
Lucario fell short on words, taken aback by this reaction.
"Then what about me?" Zerobi finally said, "The blood of others prevented me from dying twice. Who's to say it couldn't keep me alive forever?"
Celebi stared at her with surprise, Lucario giving a look of sympathy. Zoroark's mouth fell open for a brief moment before she composed herself. Celebi stared down at her lap, seeing her once vibrant green body as brown and crispy as an autumn leaf. She had just spent the last few months coming to terms with the fact that even legendaries like Mew could die so easily, and now she was being forced to admit that some Pokémon could cheat death? A regular nobody like Lucario? Her own sister, devoid of all special abilities? Even the most evil creature on earth would be allowed to exist forever while her dear friend was forever gone?
She sighed and felt her childlike innocence take another blow. She would carry on Mew's legacy to be a creature of reason and logic, and such matters were always more complicated than they appeared. Such was life.
"Immortality… Can there really be such a thing?" she whispered to herself before looking towards the former human, "Lucario, do you remember anything about meeting Arceus?"
"Mew asked me that all the time," Lucario replied while shrugging, "Sorry. But yeah, if I really did meet him, he must be millions of years old…"
Celebi blinked as Zoroark suddenly threw her hands up in the air and laughed hopelessly.
"So. We need to fight and kill an immortal opponent," Zoroark said with a sinister smile as she looked around the room, "Any suggestions?"
"Ugh… Do we have to?" Lucario groaned, having just made peace with the three champions and not eager to embark on another hunt for certain death, even if it could possibly result in sweet revenge.
"Actually, we do not," Celebi pointed out while wagging her finger, "Cresselia has devoted her life to eradicate Darkrai. If anyone knows how to do it, it is her. After all, it is thanks to her that Darkrai is too afraid to come out in the open."
"Does she need any support?" Zoroark asked quickly, pragmatism in all her glory but still wanting some manner of revenge as well.
"The real problem is Groudon and Kyogre," Celebi admitted with a sorrowful sigh, "If they truly begin to rampage, there will be much carnage and nothing that Cresselia can do about it."
Lucario looked around with disappointment. Zerobi seemed thrilled for some reason but the other two were deep in thought.
"So, uh… We do nothing about Darkrai?" he finally said before standing up and yawning, "Damn it. I want my thirty minutes back."
"Nonsense, you are a valuable asset," Zoroark said nonchalantly, "But I suppose…"
She looked at Celebi for a moment.
"Yes. We must formulate a battle plan to deal with this situation," Celebi agreed to the unspoken offer.
They continued talking as Lucario slowly made his way out of the room, suddenly overcome by sleepiness. It was getting late anyway and since nobody tried to stop him from leaving he decided to go back to bed. He had been experiencing frequent bouts of extreme tiredness as of late, which he figured was most likely a result of his lack of sleep, something he hoped to remedy as he laid down on the makeshift bedding and closed his eyes. The story he had just heard about ran through his mind, though he had already begun to forget the details of it. His head seemed so full, so tired of being constantly pumped with vague information about a world that still seemed so unfamiliar. When would he finally feel like he understood everything? Would he ever?
Unsurprisingly, Lucario had a funny dream that night. It involved a younger version of Red, who looked a lot like his old rival Silver, trying to buy a pear-shaped Pokémon from the store. It was run by a terrible businessman though, because despite Red having all the money in the world they wouldn't sell the green little creature to him. Everything smelled vaguely like curry, and when Lucario was abruptly transported into some other place it still tantalized his nostrils.
And there she was again. Mew had upgraded her style of visitation and chosen to appear out of some dimensional vortex of brightly lit colors to his side. Lucario jammed his thumb into thin air to try and change the channel, but her image had occupied every satellite from the looks of it.
"Stupid batteries…" he mumbled as he got up to change the channel manually. Like a stray cat, Mew was startled by his sudden movement and everything exploded into a haze of red and blue. Feeling the sensation of tripping, Lucario once again found himself lying in the cavern where he had gone to sleep.
From the look of things, he had only been asleep for a few hours. It was pitch black outside, but he was still considerably tired. Feeling rather sheepish to have fallen out of bed and having quite the sleep debt to repay, he went back to the mattress with the intent to wait until everyone else had woken up. He spent another 50 minutes trying to get back to sleep, but nothing came of it. His "bed" on the rock hard soil was simply too uncomfortable and he felt chilly, hovering in the cool night air without underwear. Bored out of his skull, it was only a matter of time before the darkness began playing tricks on his mind again.
"… Damn it…" Lucario muttered. Bereft of one night's sleep was one thing, but two days in a row would be too much. He forced his eyes close, but could feel those familiar and nostalgia blue eyes peering at him. Suddenly wishing he had thicker eyelids, he withstood the temptation for several minutes before finally opening his eyes and seeing Mew there again.
"… Some kinda illusion…?" he whispered to himself with a yawn and got up, marching towards the entrance to see what was playing tricks on his mind and preventing his sleep. Mew disappeared as he approached, but not in the manner he had been expecting. Instead of melding with the darkness like any good optical illusion should, she appeared to flinch, turn tail and fly away.
Lucario stood still for a moment, at first convinced he was still dreaming. His heart made a corkscrew in pure bewilderment as his mouth fell open, throwing himself towards the entrance like a stumbling Rhydon. He gazed around the corner so fast that he accidentally tripped over his feet and fell forward, ground connecting with cheek via a massive thud.
"Mrphh…!" he half-shouted into the ground, raising his head to confirm what his earlier glance had told him – Mew, or whatever that translucent apparition had been was nowhere to be seen. However, he was not about to give up just yet. The corridor leading up to his humble sleeping abode was a long one without too many branching paths. Wiping the dirt from his chin, he strode ahead at a brisk pace, determined to chase down whatever was haunting him.
"Wait!" he yelled, his voice bouncing around the walls, "What are you!?"
"It's just me, dude!" a voice replied from within the darkness. Not the refined sweet vocal chords of a lovely legendary, although some would liken it to the perfect voice for carrying a tune. Standing in the corridor was the Gallade, arms outstretched and a big smile on his face.
"Man, you've got some amazing senses! How'd you know I was coming?" the Gallade asked with astonishment.
"Did anyone pass you!?" Lucario shouted as he forced himself to stop, just barely hindering himself from pushing the Gallade through solid rock for being in his way, "On your way here!? Right now!?"
"Nah man, everyone is asleep… Was, at least!" the Gallade laughed while pretending to covering his ears from Lucario's shout, "I was hoping you were awake, I've got a great off-"
"No! Just…" Lucario continued while clenching his teeth in frustration, "Are you sure nothing went past you? Nothing transparent like… An invisible ghost or something?"
The Gallade's smile lost 30% of its intensity as he looked at Lucario with eyes half-shut in disbelief. Then he started laughing again.
"Oho, you had a nightmare? About scary invisible ghosts?" he chided before hastily looking behind himself in a joking fashion.
"… How could something invisible be…" Lucario started, but trailed off and put his palm to his face, "Forget it. You really didn't see anything?"
The Gallade chuckled to himself a bit, and his smile began to fade a little again as he saw Lucario's earnest expression.
"What happened?" the Gallade asked with a bit of restraint to keep from making a joke out of the whole thing.
"… I missed out on sleep, AGAIN!" Lucario shouted furiously, eliciting a bothered groan from somewhere down the hall and forcing him to lower his voice, "I think someone's raping my mind when I try to sleep. Can psychic-types do that?"
"Sure! No one here though, I can sense psychics and ghosts at 50 yards!" the Gallade laughed, "But never mind that, I've got something to ask you!"
"Wait, I've got something to ask you first," Lucario said while trying to collect his thoughts to the point where he could formulate a proper question. The Gallade stroked his chin as if he was really going to let Lucario have the first word, but quickly changed his mind.
"I'm off to Virbank City to pitch a new movie, and I think there just might… Could be, could be…" the Gallade spoke with a mysterious tone before raising his voice in triumph, "A part for you in it!"
"… Listen…" Lucario spoke with much difficulty to eradicate the offer he had just been given and make room for a more important subject of conversation, "Let's say… I saw a Pokémon peek into my room. And then it flew down this corridor. Is there any way you couldn't have seen it?"
"Now the current trend in show biz is cosplay and wrestling, so the choices are either luchador or… Well, being outrageous!" the Gallade mentioned before snickering to himself, "Up to you, an exposed midriff is all they really want anyway."
"… Who cares!? Answer my question!" Lucario burst out in frustration.
"Can we at least use your likeness?" the Gallade continued, "C'mon, we can get a top of the line actor and you get to review-"
Lucario gave the Gallade a look which meant his patience had gone the way of the box office disaster Portals to Eternity.
"If they were psychic they could've teleported away, I guess" the Gallade said while turning his head away and pouting.
"Yes! That's it!" Lucario shouted and woke up a Spinda who was sleeping further down the hall, "Can I track them down?"
"Just go to the nearest Pokécenter, check the log," the Gallade said with a confident shrug, "Of course, I can't do that because I'm too famous! I'd be swarmed by fans in an instant!"
The scene was not as preposterous as Lucario first assumed it to be as the not-too-distant memory of being the center of attention after teleporting with Blue arose. He wondered what kind of reaction would come from the legendary Mew suddenly dropping down in that big room of a hundred other Pokémon and trainers and suddenly realized why she had always preferred flying to teleporting.
"What if they teleported somewhere else?" Lucario asked with a dismal tone as he felt his one lead was passing him by.
"Well, see, teleportation…" the Gallade explained slowly while crossing his strange appendages that were situated where arms would normally be on a human, "… It kind of works, like, you break yourself up into a million fragments, send yourself to another part of the world and then reassemble yourself. This may sound easy, but in reality it's really, very extraordinarily difficult… Well, the last part anyway. All the Pokécenters around the world have set up these… Thingies that pick up the molecules of anyone teleporting so they can easily reassemble without ending up with your butt merging with a wall or something, there was even a movie about it called 'The Butt That Would Not-"
"You know what? Never mind," Lucario muttered with a tired expression, wondering why he was grilling the Gallade who merely had the misfortune of running into him after a bad dream, "I'm just going crazy like usual."
"Admitting the delusion… Progress!" the Gallade laughed before scratching his chin, "Now I don't know if the same rules would apply to, say, a pink Celebi with a very long tail… Maybe they invented some new way, like Mewportation!"
"Hey man, I'm over that," Lucario lied and quickly checked behind him to make sure someone like Zerobi hadn't snuck up on him. Realizing the corridor behind him was a dead end with nothing but bad memories and a bed made him feel very sleepy.
"I think I'm gonna go back to sleep now," Lucario said as the Gallade nodded and held out a hand with two slips of paper.
"Just think about my offer, and here's two tickets to the premiere in Goldenrod next week," the Gallade said with a wink hinting at something, "Blu and Kabs won't be using them.
Even in his tired state Lucario detected a hint of unease in the air from that last statement. The Gallade was in a very chipper mood for someone who just lost his two closest companions. If he was putting on a facade he was a better actor than Lucario had expected, because the psychic's smile grew wider as he stepped back and shrugged.
"Haha, geez, look at that expression. Why's everyone in mourning, anyway?" he laughed "All I care about is making people happy, and there's nothing I can do for someone who's dead. Why be sad about it?"
Lucario fixed a gaze into him which suggested he was in deep contemplation. In reality his mind went blank as he hazily stumbled back where he came from, the corridor seeming a bit longer than he remembered. There was the occasional voice behind him but he paid it no mind, and the ground was becoming soft as if walking through mud. Not a minute later there was a very tired Lucario sleeping on the cave floor with two tickets sticking out the back of his pants.