3. Acquit Exertion

She felt her soul tear through time and space as she was dragged from her place in the world. Her ears burned with tears as the exposition of the time traveling left her breathless, anxiety eating away of what's left of her unperturbed reaction from before.

Her screams and struggles melted away as the tendrils of light forced both beings deeper into the unraveling passages of time. Memories of things that happened and have yet to happen flashed before her as well. It was all so much to take it at once that Miriam found her eyes shut away from it all.

Darkness swallowed up the rest of her frantic mind until her feet felt the hot, sticky sensation of something that clogged the ground beneath.

Miriam's gaze followed to her trembling hands as she was finally released from the hold of the mystical Gijinka. A cry of horror came out of her gaped mouth as her fingers grasped the edges of her jawline. Blood. So much of it bathed her ankles and the tang of iron her nostrils with onslaught.

"See?" Celebi gestured with a flick of his wrist. "This is what will happen in your time if you don't help me. Oh, and don't think this is any of my doing, on the contrary," he chuckled bitterly," this is the work of a A-class assassin, like you."

The Lucario shook, swallowing the bile rising her throat. "M-me?" She croaked which earned a curt nod from the psychic-grass type. A shudder passed down her already shaken body.

The Celebi seen similar reactions before and this one was no different. Miriam could find no empathy from his bored gaze as the bodies of her loved ones were dead on the ground. Their blood mixed churned and creeped along the bottom of her boots. She took a step back only to slip and fall right into the mess she caused. Her wails were heard of deaf ears as the Time-Traveler did not seek to comfort the agonizing dual type.

By the look in his eyes, he's seen so many cases of where her lover was alive before snatched, either by murder, killed by some freak accident or died by an unknown illness. One-hundred years has passed in the timelines she was end and not much tragedy befallen her life besides the fact of her best friend and beloved dying of old age. Something that came naturally to humans but because of her deacons with Life and Death themselves, earned her the right of a few extra years. Give or take.

Miriam couldn't comfort herself around him. He would be no help to her as she thought of perhaps peeling her skin off to rid herself of the blood. The fear never leaving her mix-matched eyes. Her hands wrapped around her arms, spreading more of the red across them. She whimpered, feeling as if balling up in a fetal position would do her some good.

"Oh," The grass type finally spoke up," don't think this is over." Her tear-stained eyes were wide and unfocused. She sniffled, tongue numb in her mouth as she couldn't find words to speak from.

This was all a bad dream, she told herself. Surely no such thing would come from her and cause such death to her sister, brothers or anyone else close to her, surely?! There was soft chuckles to be heard, as if the mystical Gijinka floating before her (wings rapidly keeping him afloat) as though he could read her very thoughts. "Funny, seeing you like this makes me want to toss you around the other timelines and blackmail you more in what I want. However, i believe this is enough to make you move, eh?" Miriam stiffened when she felt his piercing gaze back over her shivering figure.

All she could do was not. It's not like she could demand him to do what she wanted. He had the power to drag her along wherever he wanted to go and if she pissed him off enough, he'd leave her stranded in the middle of nowhere or worse. She couldn't have that, not when peace started to settle over her seemingly broken lifestyle.

Swallowing she mumbled," tell me what you want me to do." A shadow seemed to spread all around her, engulfing her entire being as if she was no more than a morsel to feed off of. Miriam braced herself for the worst to come. She wasn't about to go out without a fight. Her fighting side prevented such cowardice behavior and it clearly showed. All that her supposed adversary did was snort, laughing darkly before settling right in front of her.

The flowers that danced around his smaller feet did not fit the picture of the hunting stare betrayed by Celebi. No, it only dripped with hidden agenda and malice. His hands pressed against his rounded cheeks, humming a tune that was only familiar to him and made the Lucario Gijinka flinch in response expecting a growl of demands.

"It's not really too much to ask of you, but I'll be really surprised if you go ahead and do it exactly as I want." She could feel his cool fingers grip her shoulders, tightly almost yearning for her to try and move his hands away so he could dig his nails into them. Miriam couldn't have felt more unsure of the situation since the time of when Aken died and the choice of life or death hung in the balance for her.

So many horrors flashed in the back of her mind, preparing her for whatever hell the Celebi was about to bring forth. She started to breathe heavily, clutching at her chest spike and clothing in attempts let a breath of life enter her. Her eyes shut tight as her world spun out of its axis and spiraling down a whirlpool of darkness and despair. Just when she thought she would die from her inner turmoils the hands on her shoulders released.

A gentle breeze flowed around her shaking frame and she squinted her eyes open only to find herself back at the cliffside with the tombstone of her past lover. Miriam's eyes stared at the back of the green-clothed Celebi. Her eyes threatening to spill more tears, mouth opening and closing before...

"I'll never see you again, because I already know how this pans out. I know how you suffer, and how you die. I'm going to go alter the timeline again, enjoy the life you'll live with your loved ones - the life I could have had, had you not ruined it for me, again. Take care." And like the wind itself, he was gone. The young woman couldn't understand the turn of events but something very wrong has happened hear. Nothing changed within this place but herself was a different story.

What he wanted her to do was already happening as the timelines whirled in her mind, things she's never seen before or have yet to see. Sickness clogged up insides, threatening to break her right then and there, but invisible chains prevented her from shock or worse. Celebi's plan had already enacted as recognition flashed in the Lucario's eyes. Her mind worked furiously to bring out the best formula to create such change, and it was all thanks to a desperate mystical being, searching a fore loving life with a noter who long since passed.


A/N: So yeah, much confusion towards the end, but it'll start to piece together in later chapters when 'this' Miriam is brought up again. xD For a tidbit and fact (for those familiar with my chara and the forum itself), this Miriam is the same one from the AU 100 years in the future. It ties into the Main RP of what could have happened in the future for our charries. Undecided as of now but possible.

In this one, Miriam is struck by Timeworn sickness and starts to make little knickknacks to send herself through time and back just so she can 'fix' things that she caused. When it all boils down to it, she fails and thus arc 3(the craziest but most creative of them all) starts to form and cause havoc on the forum itself. Not gonna get too much into it as it's so hard to understood now. The important facts now are, Miriam is going insane thanks to Cele and will try to fudge it up for the others in the end. Okay? Okay.