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Hello, readers. Hopefully you are all well and unstressed and not computer programming (because that's stressful... unless that's what you really love doing).
ChaosAngel4us- I'm happy that you're happy. And perhaps I do have an idea- believe me, there are stories I'm begging authors to write faster, too. :)
sloganlogan- Thanks! Me, too.
MourningBlack- Yeah, sorry bout the cliffies, but it's so hard to tie up all the ends in one chapter. Plus, gotta keep you peeps reading somehow. :)
obsessed-beyond-reason2001- I am truly honored to have a fangirl. Eeep! I'll do my best to keep updating as much as possible.
Bronze Barometer- Yes it did. I'm such a pooh-head. Poor Mel. We haven't heard the end of his story though... I think...
My-Earings-Are-Awesome- I think you're one of my real-life friends (I mean, I've met you), right? I epically fail at figuring out which one... Rui? I suspect. If not, sorry 'bout this. Yes, let's exchange short stories.
Okay, my New Years Resolution: I will write a chapter a month. Status: Failed, by 18 minutes. I'll keep at it.
Thank you everyone for reading and/or reviewing!
Next Chapter is called Bon Voyage.
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Chapter 31: Power Exchange
"Are you ready?"
Above the clouds, a boy and his father rode atop a tireless Charizard. The father peered over his shoulder at his son, awaiting a response. He swatted his black wind-whipped hair out of his eyes.
The boy stared ahead, following the Charizard's gaze. The hood of the boy's dark cloak flapped to the beat of the Charizard's wings.
"Answer me," the father demanded.
The boy smiled slightly, as if he was enjoying a pleasant view despite the fact that it was cloudy and nearing dusk.
The father closed his eyes slightly and turned his head back into the wind. His Charizard began to descend. Behind the father, the son clenched his fists in order to physically stop himself from shivering.
"Tal can track Mew up to about a hundred yards without the assistance of the other twenty-some Team Glop'emm psychic Pokemon we've been using to track Mew at a distance," the father explained. "Tal's going to need to direct all of his power into tracing Mew's energy. Charizard, here, will be prepared to take off after Mew at a moment's notice. All we have to do is attack and beat down the pink twit. Are you ready?"
"Father," the boy said quietly. He spoke just loud enough to be heard over the wind. "This is our eleventh operation and third occasion we have pursued Mew's psychic imprint to the northeast area of Mint Mountain. You have meticulously explained the plan each journey. I am well prepared to find and shut down yet another spoon-bending Abra support group. You have even prepared me for the distinct possibility of a telekinetic toilet-cleansing Slowbro operation—"
"I didn't ask for mockery. Are you ready?" the father interrupted. The Charizard slowed the beat of its wings and clumsily landed a third of the way up a large rocky slope. The boy easily slid down one of the Charizard's wings, landing lightly on a crooked boulder. The father followed less gracefully. "We will both attack Mew at once. Have you prepared your Pokemon?"
The boy remained expressionless as he stated, "I did not bring my Pokemon." Only a slight tilt of the boy's head away from his father revealed that the boy might be fighting a smirk.
"Then you'll use one of mine," the father said, climbing across several stones and dropping out of sight behind them.
The boy frowned. This was not the reaction he had wanted. After carefully maneuvering his body around the mountainside's crackling crevices, the boy arrived beside his father in front of a large cavern. The father had already released both Tal and his Houndoom from their Pokeballs. The Houndoom watched the cavern's entrance with ears pointed forward and legs tense, prepared for action.
"Tal and Charizard will wait here," the father said. He held a Pokeball out to his son. "Most of my Pokemon would not willingly submit to your command in battle. They are too powerful."
"They consider themselves more knowledgeable and experienced than me in battle," the boy corrected. He glared at the Pokeball. "I won't battle."
"You don't have a choice."
"Yes, I do."
The father sighed. "Why are you choosing now of all times to be rebellious?"
The son crossed his arms.
"I hate it when you do this—hide your real emotions behind an empty smile, try to get me to lose my temper. I know your game."
"You taught me well."
"This is not the time or place. Just take the Pokeball." The father held the Pokeball towards his son.
The son did not respond.
The father shrugged and took a step back. "Well, I have to command Houndoom. I'm going to release her and tell her to do her best, but if no one gives her orders—" The father shrugged again. "—she might end up like the Eevee she replaced, with her insides spread about the cave."
The boy stood still, his eyes widening in appall. The boy quickly recovered his emotional slip, rearranging his expression to look bored.
"What, did something I say get to you?"
"It's not something to joke about," the boy said quietly. "You just… replaced… the Eevee with another from Team Glop'emm's collection and nobody noticed. Darcleye explains his Umbreon's hatred for the new Eevee as mother-daughter rivalry. And you act so casually towards the situation, like the baby Eevee guts on your desk were your office's typical decorum, like… like it doesn't matter."
"It doesn't matter," the father said. "The Eevee is dead. I did what was necessary. Now there's this one." He pressed the release button on the Pokeball in his hand. "We have a job to do."
The boy watched the Eevee materialize. He allowed himself one glowering look at the Pokemon before silently following his father and his father's Houndoom. The Eevee ignored the boy, choosing to trot ahead beside the Houndoom.
The cave was dank and smelled of molded fruit. Waving a flashlight along the ground, the boy spotted Cornn berry peels among the cracks. If the boy had not been had perfect vision in the dark, everything would have appeared brown and shadowy, as the only sources of light came from Charizard's tail at the cave entrance and the two flashlights carried by the father and son.
The boy had taken less than twenty steps into the cave when a pair of purple glowing eyes appeared directly in front of the group. Immediately, the father yelled out, "Crunch!" and his Houndoom lunged.
The boy pointed his flashlight at the purple eyes, lighting up a floating pink body attached to the creature. Mew somehow looked different than the boy remembered. Maybe it was bigger.
Mew dodged the crunch attack and then stared at the father for a moment. The boy suspected that Mew was trying to use psychic on his father and was failing because of his father's dark twined shirt. Mew created a psychic barrier to protect itself from Houndoom's flames.
Houndoom lunged again, and again, Mew floated out of reach. "Help me!" the father called, chancing a glance at his son. The boy crossed his arms and sat down on a stone.
Mew's fist lit up and connected with the Houndoom's stomach the next time the Houndoom attempted a Crunch attack. The Houndoom crashed against the wall, but shakily rose. "Dark pulse," the father commanded. A dark stream of energy from the Houndoom's mouth went through Mew's protective barrier and hit Mew's side. Mew retreated slightly.
In the midst of the fighting, the Eevee growled. She looked from the father's face back to the son's face, waiting and wishing for an order. When the boy smiled at her in a no-way-in-hell-am-I-going-to-tell-you-to-attack manner, the Eevee decided to take matters into her own hands by charging at Mew.
The boy realized what would happen. He leapt off the rock towards the Eevee. Mew had already stopped the Eevee from charging. The Eevee floated in a purple aura, struggling against Mew's psychic. As Mew telekinetically flung the Eevee backwards at the sharp rocks along the cave walls, the Eevee let out a cry of pain.
The boy pushed off hard against the ground and caught the Eevee, stopping the psychic propulsion and preventing the Eevee from further injury. The Eevee looked up at the boy's eyes and twitched her nose.
Suddenly, the Eevee started to glow white. The boy had seen evolution before, but holding an evolving Pokemon—feeling the Eevee's body narrow and the fur grow shorter—was a completely different experience. It sent chills down his back.
A few seconds later, the boy was holding an Umbreon. The boy's attention was brought back to the battle when a nearby rock exploded. The boy turned away from the explosion to prevent the rock shards from hitting Umbreon despite the cuts they created on his own shirt and skin.
Houndoom released another stream of dark energy from his mouth, but this time, Mew countered the energy with an identical stream of energy from its own mouth. Stray spurts of energy exploded more rocks.
The father's eyes widened as Mew's dark energy overpowered the Houndoom's. The explosion flipped Houndoom onto the father. The Umbreon struggled to get out of the boy's grasp, but the boy held tight, preventing the Pokemon from attacking. Mew raced out of the cave.
The father scrambled out from under his Houndoom, scraping his hands against the rocks in the process. He ran out of the cave and jumped atop his Charizard. The boy walked slowly after him.
"Go! Go, damn it! Why aren't you taking off?" the father yelled. Charizard pointed a claw at Tal and whipped his tail around impatiently. The boy could see that Tal was concentrating with all of his strength; the spoons he held bent in opposite directions. "Tal, what the hell is taking you so long!"
"Father, Tal will not be able to track Mew," the boy said. He climbed onto Charizard behind his father, taking care to not accidently crush the Umbreon in his arm.
"I don't want to hear another word out of you—I ought to teach you a lesson—"
"You've taught enough lessons for today," the boy interrupted. "How do you think Mew got away?"
The father was silent. His leg trembled slightly.
"You taught it how to use dark pulse. It can now emit dark energy and prevent any psychic Pokemon from tracking it."
The father's fists clenched and unclenched quickly. The father was motionless for a moment—then he nodded curtly and returned both Tal and the Umbreon to their respective Pokeballs.
As Charizard flapped its wings and took a short running start, the boy commented, "It'll be a challenge tracking Mew now. Are you ready?"
o o o o o o o o o o o o o
I heard him before he approached. He was loud, and he was not alone.
I swiveled my tail in anticipation. I could run… well, float. These big feet were no good at running… But the man would find me again—the man always followed. It was better that I faced him when I was prepared, at least according to my Mew predecessors.
I was strong. I was legendary.
I sensed his Pokemon. There was the Charizard and the Alakazam outside of the cave, preparing for if the man failed. The man's pessimism gave me a little confidence.
Approaching with the man was a young Eevee. Her mind was overwhelmed with curiosity and fear of the dark cave, strategies of previously fought battles, and a strange bitterness that reminded me of the unripe Cornn berries I ate for breakfast.
Of course, I could assume the man's Houndoom approached as well, even though I could not sense it.
I tried to sense the man's thoughts, but failed. I knew the man was there—his Pokemon were thinking of him and interacting with him—but it was as if the man had gained the powers of a dark Pokemon. Perhaps the man was touching his Houndoom's fur.
Suddenly, the man yelled, "Crunch!"
I was temporarily blinded by a bright light, but I floated upwards, hoping to dodge the Houndoom's attack anyway. I was lucky; the Houndoom missed. Next time I would have to be quicker, smarter—
{Stronger, 868,013,} Father Mew demanded. I blinked. {How do you expect to continue the Mew lineage with this pathetic psychic? I know Abras that use their energy more efficiently.}
{Hear, that? You're pathetic,} Celebi taunted.
I sent another psychic blast at Father Mew. He created a barrier and sent it back at me. I dodged. {You're not even trying!} Father Mew yelled. {You cannot leave until you give this your all. Again!}
Again, I created a ball of psychic energy and sent it at Father Mew. What else could I do? Celebi giggled and casually flew backwards to sit on a giant boulder.
I was sick of this. It was useless—
—to reach out my mind, feel the structure of every nook in the cave. I had planned on collapsing portions of the cave on the man—give him a concussion, maybe—but now I couldn't sense him. The only being I could sense in the cave was the Eevee. I squinted into the dark, trying to rely on my eyesight. I made a rock fall on what I thought was a silhouette—
Flames came at me. I put up a barrier. The brief light allowed me to glimpse the silhouette, which turned out to be an odd rock formation. I also saw the Houndoom begin to lunge, and I managed to dodge.
"Help me!" the man called. I noticed two dim beams of light, but kept my focus on the Houndoom. The next time the Houndoom lunged, I punched the Pokemon in the stomach hard, aiming to throw the dog where I suspected the beams of light were coming from. The man either moved or I missed—Houndoom hit the rocks. I focused on the rocks; they trembled.
"Dark pulse!" the man yelled. A beam of energy hit my side, and I recoiled at the pain. The Houndoom fired another beam, forcing me to dodge.
Suddenly, I saw a white fur ball running at me. The Eevee had finally decided to take some action. Maybe if I telekinetically held the Eevee in front of me the man would stop attacking… Then again, what if he didn't care? He'd already proven himself ruthless.
I stopped the Eevee with my mind, wincing when another dark pulse hit my tail. I could test the man—move the Eevee out of the way if it was about to be attacked—
And then the Eevee was gone. I couldn't sense her. There was a bright light—
Searing pain ran through my stomach. Blistering bubbles nipped at my arms, tail, back. The Houndoom stood over me baring his teeth, resembling a beloved pet of the grim reaper.
It was then that I decided Houndoom was a fitting name. Very—
Fine. If he wanted me to give it my all…
My stubby arms began to extend, my snout narrowed and elongated, my tail shrunk—and then my transformation was suddenly halted. Something was preventing me from taking shape of a Houndoom. For a millisecond, I panicked, believing I might be stuck in midmorph. I returned to my Mew form wary, but slightly relieved.
Father Mew made a "Tsk" noise with his throat. {Can't have you using any of those flashy tricks. This is a test of your psychic prowess.} It occurred to me that he had just used his psychic to prevent me from transforming. It also quickly became apparent that he continued to hold my body rigidly against the ground with his mind as I struggled to move my limbs. Between the Mew's paws gathered psychic energy. The energy ball flew at me and—
—exploded a rock above the Houndoom, causing the Houndoom to misfire dark energy into the cavern wall I lay against. A hole in the wall sizzled. If only my energy could do that…
I watched the Houndoom prepare to fire another dark pulse by taking a guttural breath. It didn't look hard—Pokemon always had a way of making attacks look easy. I watched the energy leave the Houndoom's mouth. Instinctively, I took a breath.
I opened my eyes and found a strange beam of dark energy leaving my mouth. It deflected the Houndoom's energy beam slightly and exploded a rock.
I could use dark pulse. Whoa. I could learn that attack?
As Father Mew threw the energy at my helpless body, I grinned. I had picked up a few tricks from my murderous stalker through my early years. I widened my mouth, sending a dark pulse at the oncoming energy ball. The pulse easily split the ball into two harmless blobs and continued forward to strike Father Mew in his chest. {You're the one who told me to give it my all,} I said.
I flew forward, transforming as I flipped through the air. Long ears. Soft paws. Snow-tipped, fluffy tail—a thick tail growing brighter and stronger.
A tail perfect for striking down a neurotic, pig-headed elder Mew.
Father Mew fell to the ground and I gently landed beside him. I stretched my legs and shook out my body, smiling. I had missed this body. "Eevee," I growled, just to hear my voice. I turned to Celebi. {Take me back,} I insisted.
{Before or after Anita is sent to an asylum?}
{Take me back to the moment I left,} I demanded.
{It'll cost you.} Celebi fluttered off of the boulder to the fallen Mew.
{Take whatever.}
Celebi patted Father Mew's head. {What's left of this poor fellow's power and all of yours.} Celebi smiled sweetly and looked at me with wide blue eyes.
I did not hesitate. {Fine.}
Celebi closed her eyes. A misty light floated from Father Mew's body to Celebi's fingertips. Celebi then turned to me. I suddenly felt weak and slightly nauseous. My eyesight blurred.
As I fired another dark beam, more accurate this time, I thought of the implications. What if I could use this newfound attack to hide my strong psychic? I wouldn't have to fight this man—he wouldn't be able to find me!
I heard an "Oof," and I blinked—the Houndoom must have been pushed onto his master.
{Sayanara!} I yelled gleefully as I sped out of the cave.
For the first time since my birth, I felt free.
A smirking green angel floated toward me and dug small fingers into my fur. The world spun and my body was painfully compressed—
Suddenly, I couldn't breathe. I opened my eyes, only to feel a sharp painful sting. I managed to glimpse blue before tightly shutting my eyes. My limbs thrashed wildly, but seemed to move slowly.
When I opened my mouth to yelp, salty water rushed in. Panicked, I attempted to give myself a psychic boost out of the water. Only when my attempt failed did I remember that I currently lacked power. I struggled and somehow managed to break the surface.
As I gulped as much air as my lungs would allow, Celebi flew in front of me.
{We had a deal,} I thought.
Celebi giggled. {But placing you at this moment is so much more painful for you, so much more fun for me, and perplexes several others. Ta ta!} Celebi disappeared in a flash of green.
Freedom is overrated.
o o o o o o o o o o o o
"Why'd Anita just run off?" I asked nobody in particular. I thought Anita would celebrate or collapse in exhaustion after the battle. Instead she had dramatically said, "She's here," and ran out of the room. Maybe she had finally lost her mind.
Sparky shrugged and bent over to feed his Jolteon a revive. "Probably wanted to make a grand exit. I would have had sparklers, but to each his own."
"Um," Mel started. He looked at me with wide eyes. "Erin, that's exactly what happened in the dream I gave Anita."
"Anita ran off?"
"No… yes… no. She didn't run off because I didn't get to that part. Anita just got her badge and the dust and then had a feeling that Apple was alive… or at least that's what happened in the dream I gave her… but this was just like that. The bag of dust wiggled just the same way…"
"Whoa, wait. What happened was the exactly the same as the vision you gave Anita?" I asked.
Mel nodded.
The room was silent. I nervously laughed. "So, you want to give me a vision next time?"
o o o o o o o o o o o o
I felt her. Just like in my vision. I stood outside Sparky's gym and looked out toward the ocean, where I felt Apple's presence. The sun was starting to set, and the water was rough. I couldn't see Apple with my eyes.
I sent out my mind. {APPLE!}
There was no response. A flicker of familiarity appeared in my mind, not two hundred meters away from the cliff's edge.
I jumped off the cliff, creating a slanted psychic barrier below me. I elongated the barrier as I slid down, allowing it to fade away behind me. My head felt like it was being ripped in two from the exertion. I had to reach Apple. That was all that mattered.
"What the…" I hear Erin call from the cliff edge. She must have followed me out of the gym. "What the hell is she doing? Anita!"
It was definitely Apple I felt. A hundred meters to go. I thought I saw a brown speck in the vast blue waves. {Apple?}
"Anita, I wanna slide, too!" Mel yelled.
My insides seemed to tighten. Why couldn't I see Apple? She had to be all right. She was alive. I felt her. Fifty meters to go.
Faintly, I heard, {A…Anita?}
{APPLE!} I leaned back on my psychic slide to gain more speed. Apple was alive! Apple was alive. I ignored the questions of her disappearance attempting to push themselves into my brain. I didn't care. As long as Apple was alive and okay and—
My body immediately tensed up as my skin came in contact with the freezing water. I kept my eyes shut and held my breath underwater while kicking towards where I sensed Apple. My hands came in contact with something wet and soft, but not slimy like seaweed. I kicked upwards until I surfaced above the water.
"Apple!" I gasped, opening my eyes. My hand was in Apple's fur. Apple was visibly shaking from the cold and struggling to keep her head above the surface. I pulled her to my chest and tightened my arms around her, silently willing her to never leave me again.
I didn't know what to say so I pushed my overwhelming emotions at her, and dove into her mind. Her mind was faint—it felt like there was something in her mind that I should be seeing but was fading away. {Anita… glad… see you… but too… much.}
I pulled out of her mind immediately. The wet Eevee looked nearly unconscious. I had to get her to the Pokemon Center. I made a barrier with my mind and clambered on to it, my fingers barely sticking enough to allow me to pull Apple and myself up.
I had rested only a moment when the barrier failed and we fell through to the water. I was suddenly very angry with myself. I could do this. I was strong enough. I had to be strong enough. I created another barrier, but this time I didn't even make it on to the barrier before it disappeared.
Focus, Anita. I tried to forget that I was holding Apple and that Apple's mind was barely audible and that I hadn't had a proper conversation with Apple…
"Wooper!" A Wooper appeared in front of me.
"Anita, grab on!" Erin yelled from above me. I grabbed the Pokemon's foot, doubtful that Wella would have the strength to pull me.
I was proven wrong when my arm was suddenly strained from Wella's acceleration. I tightened my grip around Apple and turned my head so I wouldn't swallow salt water. I felt Apple's exhaustion and began to feel fatigued myself. The waves appeared to melt into the darkening sky as my eyes unfocused.
My consciousness was pulled from my body.
It was dark. I looked down, but was unsurprised when I didn't see a body.
{Stop trying to force yourself into my mind.} Apple's voice echoed around me. I couldn't see her. {Anita, trust me on this: leave.}
{I'm not trying to get into your mind,} I replied. {I'm just happy to see you.}
{Please, leave,} Apple said.
{I don't know how.} Blue light crackled briefly across the darkness. Despite my lack of a body, there seemed to be a strange unstable weightlessness about me, like I might fall at any moment.
{I can't hold you back much longer,} Apple replied. {I'm not supposed to tell. Please don't make me tell. Please.}
{Tell what?}
Suddenly, the darkness shattered. I was in a valley of green grass, lightly sprinkled with blooming cherry trees. I had a body again and could feel the small breeze against my ankles and through my loosely fitting clothing. The cherry trees barely cast shadows, as it was midday. I stood on a slope. Up the slope, to my left, I was shocked to see a large group of Celebi murmuring amongst themselves in a large huddle.
I turned my gaze to my right. In the center of the valley, there were several Mews lined up in straight rows facing me. In front of each Mew was a large boulder. The only exception was one Mew that floated between me and the rows of Mews, facing them.
The boulderless Mew raised a hand. The boulders all rose. Each Mew was completely focused on the telekinetically floating boulder in front of them.
{What is this?} I asked. {Apple?}
{The one in the third row, second from the end is me,} Apple replied. A Mew appeared next to me.
{Apple?}
The Mew nodded and its tail floated limply to the ground. I threw my arms around the Mew for a moment and then took a step back.
{What's going on? Where is this? Where am I?}
Apple looked at me with resignation. {You were never supposed to see this.} She waved a three-fingered hand towards the Mews that continued to concentrate on their boulders. {It's our most tightly guarded secret. Any person knowing puts us all in serious danger.}
I felt betrayed. I didn't keep anything from Apple. I thought she hadn't kept anything from me.
{Anita! It's not like that… It's…} Apple blinked her eyes slowly. {I'm going to explain everything. You've already seen too much anyway… Arceus help me if this gets either of us killed.} Apple floated down to the ground, wrapping her tail in a circle around her. I sat down next to her. {You already know that every five thousand years I— a Mew— bursts into flames, releasing excess psychic energy, and a new Mew is reborn from the Father Mew's ashes.
{But that's not the only way to force my kind into the rebirth fire stage. Basically, anything that should cause us to die forces us into rebirth. Because of our strong healing ability, we rarely even approach this point. You can stab us, beat us up, cut us up, and we'll still heal.} Apple shuttered. {Like when you found me. I was so weak, but I couldn't die.
{In the past, there's only been two ways Mews have been forced into rebirth before they reached five thousand years old. Decapitation is one. That only happened once, though. Generally, we can psychically stop whatever's about to cause the decapitation. The other method is being stabbed through the head with something imbued with the dark type—an object or part of a Pokemon. We are unable to heal that type of wound to the brain.
{In order to stay alive—not burst into flames—we need training to protect ourselves. When first born, there is nobody to teach us how to fight. Our lifecycle makes it so there is only one Mew in the world.} Apple turned her head around to look at the group of Celebi behind her. {So to learn, we have to time travel.}
The scene presented before me suddenly made much more sense. {Celebi take you back in time to learn from previous Mews.}
{The Celebi. There's only one.} Apple nodded to the group of Celebi. {She's just from multiple time periods. Yes, she takes us back in time, once to learn the basics in a group like this, and once to learn more advanced techniques—} The scene suddenly changed. There were two Mews bouncing into each other over and over again in the air above a grass field, each surrounded by a purple psychic bubble. A Celebi sat nearby on a ledge, cleaning her wings. {like this. We each have a one-on-one battling session with our predecessor—our Father Mew. The Father Mew isn't supposed to let us leave until we have fully mastered our powers.}
{So what's with all the secrecy?}
{Obviously, knowing what makes a Mew go into the rebirth stage is dangerous information for me and anyone who wants to cause the type of destruction rebirth creates.}
{But I would never—}
{There are ways of extracting information from you, Anita. Torture, hypnosis, ghosts, and strong psychics. But it's more than that. See, we are entirely dependent on Celebi.}
{So?} I picked at the grass and thought it was odd that I could actually feel the thin blades between my fingers.
Apple looked at the sky. {It's a little known fact that Celebi can generate less psychic power than a Drowsee. Mew, on the other hand, can generate about a hundred thousand times more psychic energy than the typical Alakazam.} There was an explosion in the sky as the two Mews fired blasts of psychic energy at each other. Apple continued, {Time traveling takes a lot of power. We need to time travel and we can supply the psychic power, but only Celebi has the ability to use psychic power to time travel. We have a pact with Celebi—we give Celebi power in exchange for time travel.}
{Again, I ask, so?}
{So, Celebi is kind of resentful towards my kind because she can't time travel without us. Typically, when she takes our power we provide enough energy for about one and a half time travels. Thus, when she takes one of us back in time to meet our predecessor and then forward in time to return to the present, she gains enough power for about one time travel. We only go back in time to train twice in our lives, which basically means that Celebi only gets one full time travel—there and back—other than taking us back for training, every five thousand years.
{Celebi resents us because we limit her power. But seriously, what other choice do we have? I sure don't want some little green fairy messing with the time stream every two minutes. Anyway, the rest of the world perceives Celebi as this little all-powerful legendary Pokemon, and Celebi doesn't change this perception because it wouldn't be beneficial for her survival. My kind can't let anyone know that Celebi depends on our power because someone might try to find a way to provide Celebi with that power without using Mew as a source. You even knowing about our agreement with Celebi is a risk to the agreement.}
I was annoyed. {You didn't have to tell me all of that.} I sure hadn't asked her to. {You could have just left it at the pact with Celebi thing.}
{Anita, if you're going to know something, I'd rather you know the full story—not just pieces. If you only knew pieces, you'd likely go looking for answers elsewhere and reveal pieces to other people who might be able to piece together the big picture better than you can.}
{Okay, okay. But you know I won't tell anyone.}
{Not intentionally.}
I ignored Apple's comment. {So you disappeared because you went back in time to learn from your Father Mew, right? Why didn't Celebi just bring you back to the exact time you disappeared?}
{Celebi and I don't exactly get along. At all. She's a bit of a manipulative bitch. She knows my kind will still supply power for her, even if she brings us back a little late.}
{Why can't you just transform into Celebi and use your own power for time travel?}
{Oh, I can. Most Mews aren't like me—they actually develop the ability to transform much later in their life, not until after a hundred years or so. Thus, Celebi is necessary for most young Mews needing training from our predecessors.}
{But why didn't you in particular transform and come back to the right time after your training?} I asked.
Apple's tail twitched. She watched her memory-Celebi flap towards the sky, performing flips and corkscrews through the air. {Something Celebi told me. That I was being tracked. That if I transformed, someone who was looking for me would find me.}
{She could have been lying.}
{No, duh. But even so… she might not be. And that would be a big risk for a couple of missed days.}
{Well, we'll look into it. Apple, I missed you so much. I had a vision about you returning. It came true.} I showed Apple the vision.
Apple frowned. {Very strange. I… I think Celebi did that purposefully. I think where and when she took me was based off of your vision. Maybe...}
{I'm just glad you're back,} I said, wrapping an arm around Apple's pink shoulder.
Apple leaned into me. {Me, too.}
The scene began to fade away into darkness, but my mind mingled with Apple's for much longer, simply enjoying her existence.