Prologue

"…"

"How does that old fairy tale go again…?" Celeste mused, crossing her legs. The woman could not see her companion very well, but, since there was no answer, she continued. "I guess it has to start with 'once upon a time'," she cleared her throat as if she was going to tell some grand tale. "Once upon a time, there was a fair princess in a castle. And then one day an evil florges gave her a poisoned applin and… hum… I guess a knight and a charizard saved the day in the end?"

Still silence.

"Well…" she said, trying to keep her train of thought. Why did she think the fairy tale angle was good again? "What I'm trying to say here is that this was supposed to be my fairy tale, you know? My dream come true," Celeste completed gesturing to the madness surrounding them. "I was going to be the princess in the castle, and probably the big hero with the charizard, too," With a sigh, she continued. "But no matter what I do, it seems I will always end up being the stubborn applin who couldn't sit still and ended up getting poisoned by an evil florges…"
Celeste was not even sure her rambling was being heard, but kept going anyway. She was too frightened to shut up.

"… I mean, if you think about it, that has to be the literal worst. To find that one florges that knows toxic," she pressed on. "Although, if you really think about it, it's a good move for a florges, not many people expect that… maybe I should try to get one on my team. Or maybe you should! It would work nicely with that togekiss of yours," Celeste smiled charmingly. Who was she even smiling for again?

"That is it," she decided. "Once we are out of here, we are going to catch new pokémon. A florges for you and an applin for me. Heh. Aria is going to hate the applin."

"… Celeste," the other person stuck in that dreadful place with her finally spoke. "What the hell?".

"…"

Celeste shut up for a moment, unsure of what to say next. But only for a moment. The tension in the silence was killing her.

"Maybe we only get me an applin?" she conceded.

Celeste heard an annoying huff. Great. Now her only company was annoyed too. Not that it matters, it definitely didn't.

"Look, Celeste, you can get any pokémon you want. I will even help you out. But can you please focus, just a little, on the monstrosity wanting to kill us?"

Celeste could not see well in the dark, but she noticed her friend (were they friends?) gesturing to the distorted sky. Not so calm and collected now, huh? Celeste thought. She was being petty. Typical.

"Right…" Celeste sighed in defeat. She didn't want to think about their situation. "So—"

GYAAAAAAA

They both nudged closer together, startled at the sound. The monster, their warden, was looking for them. After a second shriek, Celeste found she might actually prefer the silence. It definitely beats certain death. Wasn't she supposed to be calm and collected too?

"Tell you what, I think I have a plan," said Celeste while jumping up and extending a hand to her companion. "We run for our lives!"

"I thought you wanted to be the hero?"

"Come on, we already established I'm the applin, not the hero," Celeste said, looking at the approaching monster. "Besides, I'm pretty sure Giratina is the sort of monster that eats little applin."

"… why did you follow me here?"

"Excuse me. Follow you?" Celeste snorted, "Preeetty sure it was the other way around. Your almightiness was the one who could not trust me to stay alone in the ruins, remember?"

"… We don't have time for this…" Celeste could basically hear the eye roll.

GYAAAAA

Giratina was close. They needed to run. If they somehow survive this, they could argue later. How did it come to this again? The two of them never exchanged more than pleasantries before this morning. Now they were stuck in the distortion world together, running away from some angry, god-like being.

Unfortunately, Celeste knew they couldn't outrun Giratina. She got teary. The woman didn't want any of this to happen and yet, instead of being productive, her brain was thinking of ways to convince her companion that the water in her eyes was sweat, not tears. Why was she still trying to play strong?

She looked at her shadow and saw a pair of yellow eyes looking back at her.

NO. She thought vehemently.

She was not letting her friend fight that monster. She reached for her pocket and held one of the miniaturised pokeballs. No way she was putting ANY of her friends in this sort of danger. They would hate that she didn't ask for help, but it didn't matter. She was the trainer, after all.

The creature in the shadow was battle ready and prepared to jump out of the darkness.

"Please, stay there, Shy. It's safer," she pleaded to the worried ghost while clinging to its pokeball.

Celeste looked around to see if any pokémon had been called. Not even one. It seemed neither trainer was stupid or brave enough to try fighting Giratina. Unfortunately, the woman also realised that looking around while running was a bad idea. This was the distortion world after all and, as the name implied, space did not behave properly there.

With that realisation, Celeste missed a step and fell down. Or perhaps she was falling up? And just like that, her life flashed through her eyes.

How cliché. Celeste thought as she heard another cry in the distance.

GAAAAAARGH

But even the cry soon vanished. Everything vanished. All Celeste could see now was the bright sunlight on her face. She was 14 again. So young. She was stepping out on the port at Vermillion city with one of her best buddies jumping around her feet.

"Aria, we are finally in Kanto!" Celeste said grinning, "This is where our journey truly starts."

Notes: took me forever to gather the courage to publish something. This is my first fic and much like my main character, I'm starting big. It's my new year's resolution to get through to the end, so I really hope you like my Celeste and her friends. (There will be lots of familiar faces in this one).

Anyway, reviews are much much appreciated.