Chapter 21: An Execution, Revisited
The Magneton officer had gone through his Treasure Bag, taking the Time Gears and the Opal Band. Trey was left tied up in a room with Drakken, one of his Sableye minions, and the local Sheriff, a Magnezone. The room was dark, save for a shaft of moonlight that fell on him. Even if he could free himself of the ropes, the Sheriff made certain that he was kept paralyzed at all times. There was no escape.
"What's your name, Grovyle?" the Magnezone asked.
Next to him, the Sableye slashed off the rope binding his snout. Trey winced at the act, even if he only felt the air move, not the claw. It stirred something in his mind, some horrible image that made his heart want to scream, even if he didn't remember it all that clearly.
"What is your name?" Drakken repeated
He kept silent. The Dusknoir knew his name. He had cursed it to heck at one point, if Trey recalled right. Still, he saw no reason to answer any question that they had.
And they had a lot. Where did he get the Treasure Bag and an old Guild Badge? Trey realized he couldn't answer that one, even if he wanted to. What was he planning on doing with the Time Gears? Why was he out to steal them? Where and who was his partner? Was there anyone else he was working with? Where had he come from? Why had he attacked the triplets when they were simply doing their duty? Did he have any grudges?
As it became apparent that he wasn't talking when they were simply asking questions, the Sheriff twisted his magnet hands around. "We need you to cooperate. We have been polite. Please answer the questions."
He didn't say anything. He didn't even shake his head. He just looked at them, mostly Drakken.
The Magnezone then fired a Thunderbolt into him. The pain of an unguarded attack like that was excruciating. But as the Sheriff said something, Trey's mind stirred. The jolt of electricity and a giggle from the Sableye had reminded him of something.
He had nearly been executed by a Sableye crew under the command of Drakken, but it seemed to have happened before and after Drakken had become a Dusknoir. And he had been sentenced, not as a Grovyle, but as a Treecko. It was him, and… and… Stacy, and Kip, while Sally had been dragged off the Primal Dialga. They had been Team Marmalade, a novice explorer team that had been captured and sent to the future for no apparent reason.
But there had been a reason, Trey realized. And that reason was him. Drakken had wanted to make sure to kill him, both as a Grovyle and before he could grow into being a Grovyle. It was his failure to steal the Time Gears, his failure to recognize a good trap, that had killed the three best friends that he had ever had.
The Sheriff tried to get his attention by attacking him again, but Trey screamed and tried to lash out. The images of Stacy being slashed by the Sableyes, the pained gasp of Sally when Drakken had taken her away, the thud of when Kip hit the floor, those were all going to repeat themselves horribly soon. And when it all mixed with everything else, of the isolation with Bubbles and the clan, but then the total horror when she had viciously and terribly killed one of their own under the madness of the darkness… and others… Trey struggled and tried to strike out as if he could fight those images away. But one of the ropes slipped up his neck, then nearly strangled him.
His captors managed to cut the rope before he died, but he blacked out.
"Yeah, you'd think he was going through something horrible," a voice said. There were crackles of electricity. "But who knows? Maybe he has seen something awful and the interrogation reminded him of it."
Too true, Trey thought. He was lying on a straw bed in a locked room. Some daylight fell on him. As his skin was starting to get warm, he considered getting up and moving. But his mind was in an awful mess. How could he forget about Stacy and Kip, and his life in the past? It had happened in the accident in the Passage, but it still seemed unreal. Maybe that was why Sally never remembered anything. That enemy which followed them, it had attacked with a spell that harmed both mind and body. Was it Drakken? But if it were him, why didn't he just kill them there? Or appear with them?
And was there any chance left of him changing the future?
"Still, that's no reason to do what he did," another voice said. "He could have ruined the whole world."
It was going to be ruined, he thought. And it would be ruined forever. What could they do now against Primal Dialga?
And yet, that wasn't as much of a guilt bringer as knowing that he had failed to save his friends, those many from this time and those few from the future. They were going to die, some sooner than the rest, and they had no clue that it would happen. This was a total failure, which made him a horrible Pokemon, and friend.
For a bit, he considered escaping when they came for him. But that wasn't to be; one of the Magneton guards zapped him into paralysis before they entered and tied him up securely. They gave him back his bag, perhaps not wanting anything that could add a paradox left behind. Unwittingly adding insult to injury, they handed him over to four Sableyes and Drakken to be dragged back to the future.
Drakken put his hand on Trey's shoulder as they left the Sherrif's office. "You know what's going to happen now, don't you Trey?" he asked in an amused cruelty. "You could have been a great asset to us, but you tried to fight fate. Don't worry; your punishment will be appropriate for the crime."
"Wheh heh heh," a couple of the Sableyes snickered upon overhearing this. Drakken smiled smugly in Trey's view. The Grovyle would have liked to express his opinion about that, but was tied up too well.
And then they had to shove him right through the main road of Treasure Town, in full view of everyone who lived there. All the people that he had known, in a time that seemed terribly long ago and terribly right at hand: Kazza the Alakazam, Mimien the Mr Mime, Casey the Kangaskan, Keaton and Richard the Kecleon shopkeepers, Bethany the Buneary, Matti the Marill, Azeri the Azurill. And then the Guild members: Flora, Larry, Chiaka, Bartleby, Charlie, Junior, Senior… and Team Marmalade.
He looked to Sally, who gave him a bewildered look. Did she recognize him? Did she realize the danger they were all in? And he saw Kip, the Skitty whose words had helped him temper the darkness inside him. And Stacy, his first love, the sweet girl who treated her team like extended family. And… he saw himself, Trey the Treecko who loved books and had no idea about the horrors he would shortly encounter.
Trey the Grovyle struggled for a bit. If there could only be some mercy… surely, the other legendaries didn't want the world to fall into endless darkness and paralysis. Hopefully, there could be some last minute change to this horrible play. But there wasn't. The ropes were too tight and the Sableyes too watchful. One shoved him through the dimensional hole and to the front steps of Temporal Tower in the era of darkness.
Once they got through, the Sableye with him giggled, then continued to push him along the halls. Others joined in. After a while, they slashed his ropes, then tossed him and his old Treasure Bag into a cell. Before he could get turned around, they had the steel bars down tight.
A sick feeling rose in Trey's gut as he recalled what was happening elsewhere. Drakken would take Sally and run off to the future with her. While everyone was shocked, the Sableyes would grab him, Stacy, and Kip. Marmalade would try to fight back, but Trey would wind up with a gash down his face that would leave him practically blind. They would get thrown in a cell while Sally was sent to Primal Dialga. Then, at some unspecific time, they would be brought to an execution chamber, tied up with him as a Grovyle… and then…
And then somehow, the young Treecko would survive.
Trey ran his paw along his head leaf. It still didn't make sense. He had been weakened by infection and fever. The Sableyes had slashed the heck out of him. So how did he wind up alive, sometime in the past of this future?
He then recalled something he hadn't thought much about. In his memory, the Grovyle had spoken to Stacy while they had been left alone and tied up. What about? He couldn't remember. Maybe, just maybe, something had happened.
Ropes… wall… slashing…
A plan began to formulate in Trey's mind. He didn't know how far he could take it. But there was a potential chance to save his friends after all.
When the Sableyes next came for him, he was ready. He kept his body limp and let them drag him off to the execution site. They tied him up, then went to fetch the other three. Trey observed the stockade room without the effects of fever. It was a large one, completely enclosed in gray stone. The floor was made of tan dirt. The door was just an open hole. Around them, there were floating ghostly lights. He was tied up to a tall wooden pole. Two other poles were to his left. Inexplicably, they let him keep his Treasure Bag. Okay, this was looking doable. That is, if he could get someone's trust.
The Sableyes came back in with the three Pokemon members of Team Marmalade. Kip was giving his guards a hard time, but they knocked him down with a Stun Seed and left him alone. They did the same to Stacy before pulling her to the middle post. They simply dropped the younger Trey. The older Trey saw how red his wound was and shuddered. The Treecko struggled to do something, but he was clearly not capable of doing anything in this situation.
"Hands off me," Stacy said, trying to be brave. But it didn't work. They started tying her up. One of them hit her hard, causing her to cry out. The older Trey almost closed his eyes, but couldn't bring himself to ignore her like that, even with the hideous giggling that the torment caused.
Again, he felt guilty in forgetting them. It wasn't really his fault… but what had caused his and Sally's amnesia? What had attacked them? Probably one of Primal Dialga's forces, but there wasn't much of an opportunity of learning that one's identity.
Once the Sableye squad had Stacy all tied up, they pointed and laughed at her. Trey wondered at why he had never heard a single one of them speak, ever. Were they not quite civilized?
Then one of them yelped, leaping several feet into the air. The younger Trey had managed to hit it in a sensitive spot. All he got for that was extra kicks until he fully collapsed, then extra torment as they were tying him up. Why did his life seem to end up like that a lot? He tried to do something good and wound up getting his snout shoved into the dirt for the effort.
The Sableyes looked to each other when they were done, then hopped away to report the job done. Next to him, Stacy was looking at his younger self. "Trey."
Time to go for it. "Stacy," he called quietly.
She ducked her head back, then turned to look at him. "Huh? How do you know my name?"
"We don't have time for that. Do you have your Treasure Bag?"
"Um…"
"I can get us out of this, but you have to trust me. Now do you have it?"
She raised her head, but still seemed shy. "Um, yes, I do."
"Good. Now, those Sableyes attack with their claws. They're going to come back in here on the order to execute us."
"Execute? But why? Maybe you were a thief and a bad Pokemon, but we haven't done anything…"
He felt queasy at her calling him a bad Pokemon… but he couldn't let that stop him. She didn't realize who he really was. "It's what you could do that their leader fears. That's all that they need to kill you and your friends. That is why we must do something, anything, to get away."
"But we're tied up."
"I know, but their Fury Attack isn't well aimed. It's enough to cut through these ropes."
"The ropes?" She glanced down at all that was holding her to the post.
"If they weaken enough, do whatever you can to get out the rest of the way. It's going to be hard, but our lives depend on it."
"What about Trey? He's gotten sick so suddenly. I don't even know if he's paying attention."
The Grovyle knew that his younger self wasn't. That was why he had to wing this whole thing. "I'll handle that."
"Why are you helping us?" Stacy asked, curiously.
"I'll explain later," he said, looking at the door. Drakken was entering the room, accompanied by nine Sableyes. The older Trey took a deep breath and hoped against all odds.
Stacy felt bewildered. So much had changed so suddenly. This morning, if it were still the same day, they were congratulating and thanking Drakken on a job well done in catching the Time Gear thief. Now Drakken was trying to kill them, Trey seemed to be half-dead, and she was plotting an escape with the mysterious Grovyle.
But to save her friends, she was willing to do anything. Resolve started to form within her shell. She could do this. She could be strong. However, what if they didn't attack as the Grovyle thought they would? No, don't give in to doubt like that. There had to be hope, and mercy for Pokemon who tried to do good always.
The Sableyes looked to the Dusknoir, who held them off. He went over and picked up Kip by the skin behind his neck. "You could be blessed by the darkness, if you so choose," Drakken told him. "It is a part of you, so stop denying it. Embrace your darkness by joining us."
Kip held his ears back. "I will only embrace the light of my darkness," he growled. "I want nothing to do with total darkness."
"So be it. I gave you the chance." He then flung Kip hard into the stone wall, making a nasty thump. The Skitty then fell on the floor. Stacy felt sick on seeing that. Kip was trying so hard to become acceptable, but the only thing he got for his declaration away from darkness was to be tossed away like junk. Although it inverted what she had believed, she felt no regret now in acting against Drakken.
Drakken then spoke to the Sableyes. While he did that, the Grovyle whispered, "Get ready. This won't be pleasant."
Stacy swallowed her nervousness, or tried to. "I know," she said softly.
"When you hit the ground, close your eyes."
The nine Sableyes then giggled as if amused by something. Probably some twisted joke, the Squirtle felt. They didn't seem like normal Pokemon.
"Things must remain as they are," Drakken told them, as if it were a death sentence. "All unknowns and rebels must be removed. And thus, this is your fate." He then nodded.
The Sableyes came forward and began to attack with their claws, furious and wild. It was just like the Grovyle had said. And it hurt. Stacy tried to be brave, but a few times, she squealed at a particularly close hit. Then she noticed the ropes snapping away from misaimed swipes. She pressed her paws against the ropes until she felt they could almost give way. Although she was feeling faint, she attacked the ropes with a simple hit. The weak attack worked, breaking the ropes entirely and causing her to drop to the ground. Although injured, she made it clear that she intended to fight for her life, and for those of her friends.
Surprised by this behavior, the Sableyes jumped back and squalled. Almost as soon as Stacy got down, the Grovyle got himself free as well. He reached his bag; Stacy remembered his odd instructions and closed her eyes. She heard the shattering of an orb followed by sharp shrieks and squalls. "It's just a Luminous Orb!" Drakken called out, although he sounded pained as well. "The light will fade!"
Stacy heard the snapping of ropes, but didn't hear Trey hit the ground. Rather, she felt herself grabbed, and then dragged down. When she opened her eyes, there was only a faint glow. Yellow dirt faced her. When she turned her head, she saw that she was in the left arm of the Grovyle; Trey was in the right, unconscious from the attacks and his fever. It tugged at her heart.
"Shh," the Grovyle hissed, but that was it. He seemed intent on listening.
The sounds above were muffled, but she heard the Sableyes squeak. "What!" Drakken demanded, worried. "That damn… Where did they go?"
The confused sounds from the Sableyes made their lack of knowledge clear.
"I don't care what you think! Go find them! We can't let those rebels remain alive."
The group raced from the room to search the halls. The Grovyle waited for a moment, then pulled them above ground. Stacy immediately turned her attention to Trey, giving him a Reviver Seed. He stirred, enough to eat an Oran Berry she offered him. She saw the Grovyle go over to check on Kip. Soon, he walked back over with the Skitty. "Not too bright, are they?" Kip said.
"You're all right," Stacy said, smiling at him.
His fur was matted together with blood, and some bruises showed through. But he was able to walk, maybe even fight. "Of course I am; I've got a hard head and I can play dead as good as anybody. So how is he?"
"Still weak."
"We can't stay here for long," the Grovyle told them. "There's no pardons with this group."
"How are we…?" she was going to ask how they would do that with Trey in the state he was, but then a Sableye flew into the room, hit the middle post, and fell down unconscious.
They were worried, but then Sally ran into the room. She looked frazzled, but smiled when she saw them. Then she got worried again when she saw Trey and how sick he was. She knelt by him and Stacy.
"Good work on getting free, Sally," the Grovyle said. "Do you remember me?"
She looked at him, then thought. Nodding, she signed something. Unfortunately, Stacy couldn't tell what she was trying to say.
The Grovyle still understood her. "Yes, exactly."
"Oh right, you were his partner," Stacy said. "Or Drakken said so."
"Um, we'd better get going," Kip said. "I'd like to get out of this fruitcake place."
"Right," the Grovyle said. Sally picked Trey up. "If we head down, we should find the exit to the caverns." He led them out.
It was a hurried and tense trip down the strange tower. They had to hide from wandering Sableyes, then rush to the next passage down. When they got to the exit platform, there was a long stone path heading below them. The Grovyle headed down, watching and occasionally attacking something just out of view.
The world around them really was paralyzed, Stacy noticed. Rocks that should have been falling were hanging in midair. There was no wind, no light in the sky. Everything was opposite of what it should be. Sort of like the situation with the Dusknoir and the Grovyle. She should be doing whatever the Dusknoir, the accepted hero, said. Instead, she was following the thief, the Grovyle. It made sense at the moment, but then it didn't. And then, the thief was the one who wanted to help them when the accepted hero wanted to kill them.
They came, oddly enough, to the entrance of a cave. The Grovyle held a hand up for them to wait, then looked the way they had come. "I guess we're okay to stop for a bit. How's he doing, Sally?"
She was holding him in her arms, so only indicated that he was still asleep and fevered. She sat down against the wall, not bothering to put him down on the hard rock.
"What now?" Stacy asked, panting a bit.
"Or more important, what the frell is going on?" Kip added.
"Well first of all, my name is Trey," the Grovyle told them.
"What?" Stacy asked, startled. "But that's his name too."
He seemed to know that, because, "That's because I am him."
"That's crazy," Kip said.
Sally shook her head. Adjusting how she held the Treecko, she pointed to the Grovyle's scar. Then she pointed to their Trey.
"That's right," Trey the Grovyle said. "This is when I got the scar."
"But you're a thief time traveler, and…" Stacy started to say.
"No, I'm a bookworm ninja," the Grovyle corrected.
Kip snickered. "Well that sounds like our Trey, anyhow. The only person that can be described with those two words in one phrase."
"Which you made up," he pointed out.
"Maybe," Stacy admitted. "But then how are you here in two different bodies? I mean… it shouldn't make sense."
"We have a couple of friends who helped us get to the past initially," Trey said. "If we're where I think we are, we may be able to find them in the forest below."
"And why doesn't Sally remember anything?" Stacy asked. "And why did you attack us back in Mespirit's lake? You could just be making this up to trick us." She ducked her head in her shell, very confused.
The Grovyle did wince on hearing that, and looked down guiltly. "Yes, I did… and I'm sorry about that. I didn't remember at the time, but…" he reached into his Treasure Bag and pulled out two things: a Guild badge and an old friendship bracelet. "I still have these."
Stacy took the badge and wiped some of the grime away. 'Team Marmalade' was hidden there. So… "Trey? But how could you forget about us?"
"Sally and I were attacked on our way to the past," he told them. "I didn't see who it was, but she pulled me out of harm's way. She took the brunt of the attack, and thus lost most of her memory. I lost some of mine; I had just enough to remember our mission and all the reasons why I hated this era of darkness. So I didn't know…" he froze, then brought a paw to his lips for silence.
There was a distant giggle of a Sableye.
"Let's go," Trey the Grovyle said. The others agreed and followed him into the cave.
It was a peculiar dungeon, with long thin walkways over dizzying heights. And those walkways moved, constantly, so it took a careful eye and planning to end up at the passage of a steel gate. Every now and then, they heard a cry, call, or giggle from the pursuing Sableyes. They didn't encounter one on the way down, but there were plenty of wild Pokemon to block their escape route.
And these wild Pokemon were different. They seemed feral compared to the ones from Stacy's time. They watched with wild paranoid eyes and attacked even if they had to go out of their way to do so. Some of them seemed as malicious as the Sableyes. "Even the wilds have gone into darkness," Kip noted in a grim tone.
"They're the Primals," Trey told them. "They have returned to pure base instinct and hatred. They only think of their own survival and will kill anyone that might be a threat." He glanced back up at the tower. "A few Primals still hold some shreds of intelligence, enough to fool and manipulate others. Drakken is one of them; so is his master."
But that small exchange ended there for the time being.
At the end of the strange dungeon, they found themselves immediately standing in front of another one, this one within a forest. They hadn't been in there long when two strange Pokemon teleported right in front of them. One was a bit taller than Sally and feline in form. The other was fairy-like, around two feet tall. And quite pink, at that. Stacy thought that her color might be a liability in this darkness.
"Sally?" the feline asked incredulously. "And Trey? What are you doing here?"
"Oh I get it now," the pink one said. "This is the crossing point."
"What are you talking about?"
"Chill out," Trey told them. "We're kind of being pursued here. Okay, real quick, this is Stacy and Kip, my other two teammates from the past when I was him," he pointed to the Treecko, "and this would be Mewtwo, the son of Mew, and Celebi, the Time Travel Pokemon. They're the ones who got us back to the past." He looked to the two legendary Pokemon. "Something got screwed up."
"Obviously, or you wouldn't be here now," Mewtwo said. The group began moving into the dungeon.
"So everything in the time loop must have gone exactly as before," Celebi said, disappointed.
"What the frell is going on, I ask again?" Kip asked, again.
"The group of us have been moving along a stable time loop," Celebi explained. "A time traveler goes into the past, does something to his past self, then goes back. His past self, in the meantime, lives life until he becomes a time traveler, goes back and does the exact same thing as before, then continues on. Time loops are usually small and that's a very simplistic example. This time loop, though, is quite massive and complex. I didn't intend on it to happen. It just did."
"I got pulled into the future in your event," Trey the Grovyle said to Stacy. "Then somehow, I wind up in a time between our home time and this time. I lived… I don't know, it's impossible to tell…"
"Twelve years," Celebi said. "You arrived as Mew and Mewtwo went to find Sally when she was seven, and you left for the past when she was nineteen, by her perception."
"Right, I lived twelve years in this era of darkness. She and I met, we trained up for the mission, then we went to the past. And then, something attacked us in the Passage of Time and screwed up our memories. So I forgot quite a bit up until a little while ago, and Sally forgot just about everything on her life."
"You did?" Mewtwo asked, shocked.
She nodded slowly.
"Thus, everything remained exactly as it was. Except I still don't know how I went from that to this," Trey pointed to his younger self, then himself.
"If it's a stable time loop, I will be able to take him and place him at the point where I found you originally," Celebi said. "And it gives us another shot at fixing Temporal Tower."
"That broken down place you just came from is on the brink of collapse in your home time," Mewtwo explained. "Trey and Sally went back to gather five specific Time Gears in order to fix that."
"If we have another chance, let's take it," Trey said.
"This is all very weird," Stacy said, having considered what they were talking about. Then she smiled up at the Grovyle, her Trey as much as the one in Sally's arms was. "But I believe you now. You are one of us. Right Kip?"
"Thinking about this time travel gives me a headache," the Skitty grumbled. "But fine. If the ninja bookworm Trey says so, I'll believe it."
"So long as we're setting things back right," Celebi said. Stacy thought she heard a hurt tone in that, but she couldn't figure out why. Maybe she was just imagining things.
The two legendary Pokemon led them to a strange thing of glowing blue archways in a tunnel, which led to another dimensional hole. "It feel stable enough," Mewtwo said. He stopped by Sally and put his paw on her arm. "If I had time, I'd help heal your memory, but…"
She smiled, but shook her head. They didn't have time.
"I hope you'll remember me before," he paused, as if uncertain about saying something.
"How nice of you." Drakken appeared, along with nine Sableyes, in between them and the Passage of Time. "We have all the rebels in one place, Master Dialga. We can destroy them now."
There was that horrible roar again. When Stacy looked up to the source, she saw a frightening sight. There was a giant of a Pokemon standing on a cliff above them. His armor was dark blue and rough looking. And, although his neck was so tall, she could see that his eyes glowed horribly red.
"There is no escape," Drakken said in a dark tone. "History must not be changed. At all. No reason is good enough. Your very life," he pointed to Celebi, "corrupts and taints the purity of time. You must be eliminated by Dialga himself."
"I am not the corrupter," Celebi said, but her bluff wasn't that good. She was noticeably nervous.
So too was Trey, Stacy noticed. He seemed to break at that point. He felt helpless, but didn't want to feel that way, yet couldn't think of a way out of this trap. She could, though. She wasn't too sure of it. While Stacy might have been the leader of Team Marmalade, she usually wasn't the source of their best plans. But if she could just get a moment…
She turned to Kip. "Can you distract them from Celebi a sec?" she whispered to him.
"Suicidally?" he asked. However, his perked ears showed that he had confidence.
"Preferably not, but do it."
He nodded, then stepped forward. "Uh-huh, your master is real pure," Kip taunted. "Pure darkness, madness, and evil purity. Ye legends, I thought I'd seen the worst in an outlaw Happiny, but you, Mister Big and Tall Dialga, you are an evil that should never have been conceived."
Dialga roared in a fury, his eyes glinting. But Stacy's attention was elsewhere, as she tugged at Celebi. "So you time travel?"
"Um, not very well with him this close by," she said.
"We don't need to go far," she whispered on. "Just to the other side," she pointed.
Her eyes seemed to twinkle. "Oh, I see. Yeah, I can do that in a jiffy." She raised her hand up, then caused the whole group to appear on the other side of Drakken and the Sableyes. Behind them, there was a smoking spot where Kip had been standing.
"Oo, ya missed," Kip couldn't help taunting.
"Quick, get going!" Celebi called. "Finish the job!"
"Right," Trey the Grovyle said.
Sally passed Trey the Treecko off to Mewtwo, then ran after Trey the Grovyle, Stacy, and Kip into the Passage of Time once again.
Celebi then banished the Passage of Time. "There," she said.
Primal Dialga roared, so Mewtwo grabbed her. After doing a quick teleport jump, they combined their efforts to get out from Dialga's lands for good. They ended up at the beach below Sharpedo Bluff.
Mewtwo looked down at Trey. The young Pokemon was shuddering, but not from the events around him. "His fever's growing rapidly," he said. "It could be lethal."
"He will survive," Celebi replied with confidence. "Because he has survived already. Put him down. A past version of myself will be along shortly and we must be gone before she appears."
"Stuff like this is why I won't use time travel willingly," Mewtwo grumbled, but he put Trey down on the sand. "So now what?"
"I think we're out of the time loop. So…"
"So now we're out of the loop entirely."
"Right. And we could shortly disappear, never to remember these times again."
The air around them shifted as Celebi returned them to their proper position of time. Trey vanished, staying to continue his role in the time loop. Mewtwo looked out at the dark ocean meeting the dark sky. "As much as I hate this era… there are things that I really don't want to forget."
"Really don't want to forget," she echoed.
