Chapter Eighteen: Through the Flowers of Time

"A Caterpie may change into a Butterfree, but the heart that beats inside remains the same." - Brock, Bye-Bye Butterfree.

(Khan POV)

Tobias carried Alex's limp body in his arms. His tears dripped to the cold stone floor as Asa and I drudged behind him. He was hobbling slightly; Alex was too heavy for him, but he refused to let either of us take him.

"Don't touch him! Nobody touch him!"

It was the first time he'd ever yelled at me.

We were headed to the Innermost Caverns. Plain sandstone, twisting paths and crumbling steps and Unown tiles lining the walls. Through an archway, beneath the word (if read right-to-left, as Asa advised):

I

This was the origin of the Halo Mountain's power, a gift left behind by Legendary Pokémon thousands upon thousands of years ago. Said to have the power to warp reality. Good. Because that was exactly what we needed right now. If there was anywhere in Itori that would revive Alex, it had to be here.

"Is he still warm?" I asked Tobias gently.

He nodded.

Good. That means there should be time. There must be time. There has to be. Please God.

My arms were aching after pounding the Ditto into the ground. Asa had dragged me away, yelling that I was going to kill them. I felt a mix of gratitude and resentment at his interference. But mostly gratitude. I didn't want that to be me. I didn't want to be a murderer.

You already are.

In my mind's eye an Ursaring stood with their neck bent at an unnatural angle, eyes bugging and tongue lolling out.

We turned a corner. A blue-and-pink flower made of crystal was nestled between the wall on the floor. Tobias kept walking, but as he passed by a cyan glow came from his body, leaking into the Time Flower as its petals unfurled.

Tobias sat at a dock under a grey sky, a Blastoise by his side. Goldenrod Tower loomed above them.

"It doesn't matter where I am," the Blastoise said, "I will always be your friend."

"I just…" Tobias said, "I know it's stupid…"

"Go on. I'm listening."

"I just have this horrible feeling in my tummy," he pointed, "that I'm not going to see you again. Like, ever."

The Blastoise took a deep breath and sighed. "Do you know want to know something interesting? About how souls work?"

"Okay."

She said: "When two people, any two people, develop a bond, their souls meet like this." She knitted her fingers together. "And even if they come apart, that trace of their soul will always be there. Nothing can destroy it. So no matter what happens to me, Toby - and I'm not saying anything will, because I'll be nice and safe up in my big shiny tower - there will always be a bit of me in you. So if you want to see me," she looked down at the water, and he followed her eyes, "you'll know exactly where to look."

A shaft of golden sunlight pierced through the clouds, onto the reflected faces of the Blastoise and the Squirtle.

The Time Flower closed.

I remember Tobias telling me the story of him and Bruiser, his first teacher. That's when I took a shine to him.

Another Time Flower sat several feet away. And then another. And then another. We were walking through rows of them, tip-toeing along caverns of them, hundreds upon hundreds, more than I could ever have fathomed. Suddenly Tobias' foot caught on one and he stumbled, almost dropping Alex on top of another. He howled in anger and kicked it hard. Bad idea. Asa's vine shot out and caught him before he could fall backwards onto the sharp crystal.

Then an orange glow came from Alex's body. A few inches away, another opened. A vision stretched out before us, bathed in orange light.

A small, round, chubby-cheeked face, laughing in a high-pitched voice. Black hair, brown eyes, pale brown skin. A human.

(Wow, did they really start off that small?)

Wind blew white waves through long green grass, as a Charmeleon lifted the squealing three-foot tall ball of human into the air, catching him again as he fell.

"Up! Up!" the small creature cried.

"My arms are getting tired there, bud," said the Pokémon.

"Up, Fizz! Up!"

The Charmeleon made as if to put him back down, then tossed him again, even higher this time. The child screamed, laughed as the Charmeleon him again.

"Who was…?" Asa began.

No one knew. Alex himself probably wouldn't have known.

Tobias did his best to weave around them, but it wasn't long before his partner's body was glowing yet again. Another time flower opened.

The human, now roughly four-and-a-half feet tall, sat at a table with yellow frosting smeared across his face. A Charizard with a napkin tried to wipe it off. Another threw back her head and laughed as he wriggled.

They were sat at a table surrounded by a dozen or so Pokémon I didn't recognise. He was dressed in as a Charizard, with a Charmeleon-shaped cake in front of him. Three of his friends were Charmander.

"That must have been his tenth birthday," Asa said, wistfully. "The one thing he'd asked for was a sword. His parents compromised and bought him a wooden one. To make up for it they bought a small fire opal for it."

Suddenly the ten-year-old human stood up on his stool, whipped out his (admittedly very well-made) wooden sword with the fire opal embedded in the pommel, raised it to the sky, and declared:

"In another ten years, I will be the most legendary soldier in all of Itori! You'll see!"

Most of his friends cheered for him. A few rolled their eyes. Enya and Cedric were watching him with doting eyes. The Time Flower closed. We kept walking. Another one opened.

An older Alex in battle, slashing a steel sword left and right, cutting down wild Pokémon, surrounded by comrades in blue-and-orange.

Alex kneeling before Queen Octavia, her sword resting on his shoulder, the Victory Hunters watching on with pride. And behind them, Lord Dreigo Varia, a satisfied smile on his face.

Alex in blue-and-black, clashing swords with a Skarsgard Gallade. A Skarsgard Charizard swooping down to meet him, fire streaming from his jaws. Alex turning to face him. The Charizard's eyes widening, wings buckling, crashing to the ground a safe distance from the human.

Alex standing before Evron's Barrier, a stunning orange rift of light opening up before him. Honcho the Honchkrow, Crackfire the Exploud, Kanani the Kommo-o, Bieito the Beartic, and Dreigo the Hydreigon standing behind him. Jessie calling his name, begging him to stop, as Prometheus the Incineroar drags her away. Her calling for help. Alex giving an order. Prometheus clutching her to his chest and piledrived her into the ground.

Tobias screwed up his eyes and kept walking. His knee banged against another flower, so hard I heard the smack from several feet away.

A rough cave stone, dyed blue by the glow of phosphorescent plants. Laboured grunts and heavy footsteps. A colony of Zubat passing by overhead, a voice crying out in alarm and blue arms shield a limp orange shape.

"It's going to be okay," Tobias whispered to the unconscious Pokémon. "I'm going to get you out of here. Don't give up! Please, stay alive!"

A Whismur came bouncing down the tunnel.

"Stay away from us!" Tobias yelled. He fired a Water Gun at her before she could respond.

The Whisper Pokémon dodged with ease. She stared at them for a moment, then leisurely walked the other way. There'd been a look of deep compassion in those eyes.

Tobias watched, mouth agape. When the flower finally closed, I scooped them both up in my arms.

"You're not walking the rest of the way," I told him. "You don't have to do this alone."

Tobias hesitated for a moment, then nodded, nestling into my chest, clutching Alex close to his.

We passed through Ecru Springs. Warm light, an angelic humming. Time Flowers grew around its circular walls, through the cracks in the dusty sandstone. Unown tiles, repeating the word:

H S S

E E H

N I I

K C N

A H K

O O A

U

Tobias pointed to the pillar of pale-brown light. Alex was by far strong enough to evolve, they both were. I lowered him down and he lifted Alex, offering him up to it. The Spring emitted nothing. Tobias climbed back up into my arms we kept walking.

On our way out, another Time Flower bloomed.

Fully-grown, he looked just like the Alex from the Ruby Forest Time Flower. In it, he was donning the Varias' black-and-blue. He picked up a sharp steel longsword, the guards and pommels decorated with fire opals. He fixed a helmet over his chiselled face, closed the visor. All we could see were hardened, determined eyes.

"Ignore them," Tobias whispered to his partner, "that isn't you. We know who you really are, and we're going to bring you back. There will be a thousand Time Flowers showing the real you, you'll see." His own eyes burned with resolve. "I'm going to save you, Alex."

(Kara POV)

Baylee's head rested on my lap. I stared up at the grey stone ceiling, the last of us lying listlessly around me. We could hear cries from the surface. The walls and the floor were warm, too warm. Every single one of us was in danger, Baylee and I knew. But how could we possibly help them now? I had never felt so powerless.

We'd been reunited with the Renegades, who sat across from Baylee and I, leaning against the wall, looking just as hopeless as I felt. Mr. Finley had picked us up along the way. The Swampert was rubbing at his temples. The wild Marshtomp, Winford I heard his name was, was desperately trying to reason with him.

"They just won't go, boss," he said, exasperated. "It's a death trap out there, even for water-types. You can't just expect them to march out to their deaths."

Mr. Finley looked at him calmly. "They will die if they remain here."

I thought I sensed something else in his voice then. A kind of care, a worry. Maybe it was just me reading my own biases into it. Hell if I know. I climbed up onto the highest ledge I could find. A few eyes turned up, all dojo Pokémon. I coughed. Not another head turned.

"God's sake," Mr. Finley mumbled.

Then he slammed his arms onto the floor. The cavern shook, and for a sickening moment I thought it would crumble on top of us. The walls held steady, and faces finally turned up. I called out to the crowd:

"I know you're scared. I know you're lost, you're confused, you're tired. We all are. But that's the thing, we're all going through the same thing. Reach out! To your friends, to your family, ask for the help you need."

"My friends are dead, Kara," said Jed, a Chatot from my Dojo.

I froze.

"I had to leave my family back there," said a Magmar, one of the Miner Pokémon, "I was the only one strong enough to survive the journey."

"We can't "reach out" to people we don't have," said Greavard, another student of mine. "Look around you, look how many of us are left!"

I looked to Baylee, to Thrasher, to—

Where was everyone else?

"I'm alone…" came a quiet voice in the crowd.

They were right. It was easy for me to talk, wasn't it? Baylee was there, Thrasher was there, I still had my girlfriend and my best friend. But most of them didn't have anyone to reach out to. Some of those Pokémon came to my Dojo in the first place because they had no one else at all. How could I have been so— No. Beating yourself up won't get you anywhere. Take a deep breath. Think.

"You're right," I said. "I'm sorry. Most of you don't have anyone to reach out to. Most of you have lost people you loved. Some of you might be here because you've never really had anyone you could trust with your life. You're surrounded by strangers, by former enemies. Of course you need more than just "reach out.""

The crowd listened in silence.

"You might not have anyone. But you don't need anyone else to save you. Your friends and family are out there, and you'll find them someday. But right now, you are enough. You have the power to rescue yourself, and deep down a part of you knows it. It might be small, it might be quiet, and there might be other parts of you screaming that it's wrong, that you're doomed, that you can't possibly make it through this and get back to the life you know you deserve. But trust that voice. It's the greatest friend you'll ever have."

"We're up against a God," said a Miner Lairon. "Face it, Machop, there's no chance."

"Not here there isn't," I said. "Out there we have a fighting chance, but down here, there's nothing we can do but wait for the worst to happen."

"What if we get hurt?" said Tia the Pawmi.

"What if we die up there?" a Miner Nacli joined in.

"We might. I won't lie to you, we might. But down here we'll rot. And that tiny voice that tell you to keep fighting will keep crying out for you to listen, until it's too late. There's only one thing we have left, and we can only find it out there. It's hope."

Silence.

"Your lives are at stake," I said, arms dropping, finally at the end of my tether. "What more could you possibly have to lose?!"

Dust motes floated down from the ceiling. Above us came the sounds of bodies crashing to the ground. Then silence yet again. I put a hand to my face. I couldn't look at them and speak calmly at the same time. "If you want to sit twiddling your thumbs waiting for the end, fine. I can't stop you. But I'm going up there no matter who comes with me. If I die alone, that's fine too. I'm going to die knowing I had a life worth fighting for. I'm going to die knowing that I'd lived. I-"

Harriet got to her feet. Then Fortis. Titan, and Yukiko. Baylee followed. Then Trasher. Iggy stood in his gangly way and barked out to the last of his Pokémon:

"Come on, you lazy ballsacks! Do I pay you to sit on your asses crying like a bunch of Bonsly? Get fucking moving!"

One by one they all got to their feet. Mr. Finley nodded to me as he led his Pokémon through the tunnel, towards the pink-red glow. I gave him a curt bow. I had no love for that Swampert, but if he could bring his Pokémon to safety, I would not to stand in the way of that.

(Khan POV)

The doors to the Innermost Caverns were locked by a seal. Two concentric circles with a line running through the middle. Asa took the plates and held them up to the doors, face hardened by desperate hope. Mercifully, the plates began to glow.

The circle glowed, magenta and sky-blue. The circle opened, turned sideways, and the doors slid away, spraying ancient dust and gravel. We stepped into a rectangular room, every footstep echoing off the carved sandstone walls. Geometric patterns ran along the edges of the room, and underneath, the Unown.

Steps separated the room into halves. On the other side lay a stone tablet, almost like an altar, carved with bizarre symbols and lines. It was more than ten feet across; it looked heavy enough to hold a thousand pounds.

But the mural behind the slab drew my eye the most. The only splash of colour I'd seen in all the Inner Caverns; brilliant blues and rich pinks and deep yellows and shining whites. They were Gods, I knew by instinct. An instinct all Pokémon have, mortal or not. On the outskirts were three pixie-like Pokémon, one with strong-willed eyes, the other brimming with emotion, the other with the sober expression of deep knowledge.

In the next circle were three much larger Pokémon. A four-legged creature with steel horns shaped like Fortis' swords, and a crest with a diamond at its centre. A being two-legged and tailed, with blade-like wings and an armoured shoulder embedded with a pearl A serpentine creature with six wings ending in pointed claws, looking down at the centre of the mural with an expression of rage.

At where the largest Pokémon of all was carved. White. Four legged. Horns leading to a flowing mane. A golden wheel studded with green gems. An impenetrable expression on a face carved with reverence. More detail had gone into drawing this Pokémon than in ever other carving in the Inner Caverns combined. They were looking up to the sky, captured in a pose of regal elegance.

The Unown stared down at us from their sandstone tiles.

"This is where the source should be," Asa said, gazing around as if he'd suddenly spot it in the middle of all these indecipherable carvings, "the question becomes, how to summon it…"

Tobias was looking at the altar. "Is it safe?" he asked.

Asa hopped on to test it for himself. He turned in a circle, dusted it off with his foot. "I'm not sensing anything."

Tobias gestured for me to lower him to the ground. Asa hopped out of the way as he hoisted his partner up in his arms and carried him wordlessly to the altar, almost trance-like. He slid Alex onto the slab, pushed him as far in as he could. We waited.

"Come on," Tobias said to the walls, "we're here. We travelled all this way to find you. Do something."

Nothing happened.

Tobias slammed his fist against the stone. "Come on! What do I have to do to get you to listen? We've been on every Mountain, we've met the Guardians, we've brought you their stupid plates! What more do you want from me? Do something!"

Nothing happened.

Tobias gave an angry howl and fired an Ice Beam at the mural. Asa's Gem shield appeared just in time to protect it.

"Don't do that!" he yelled. "You have no idea what kind of power you're messing with!"

"What use is it when it won't even listen to me?!"

"Tobias," I said, stepping forward, "you can't force the Gods to bend to your will. Anger and bargaining won't help you here."

"Then what will?!" Wet, agonised eyes looked up at me for answers. "Just tell me what to do and I'll do it! I'll do anything!"

We waited. Nothing happened.

Tobias let out a scream that wrenched my heart in half and launched an Aqua Tail at the tiles above the mural. Asa cried out but it was too late. The water struck them, and they clattered to the floor. Asa's vines snapped tight around him.

"I'm sorry, Tobias, but I can't risk this place thinking you're a threat, I'm going to have to—"

"Wait!"

The Squirtle's eyes were wide. "Let go."

"Tobias—" Asa began.

"Let go of me right now!"

"Release him, Asa," I said.

Reluctantly, the mage obliged. Tobias sprinted around the slab and picked up the tiles. He laid them out on the floor.

I

"It's the tiles," my student said, looking up at us with wide eyes, "that's how Fitzroy summoned the Legendary Pokémon. It's the Unown!" he slapped his hand against the ground.

"Fitzroy summoned Regidrago with the word "Yoretsu,"" Asa said, rubbing his chin with his vine, "that doesn't tell us what word we'd need for Alex."

"Why don't we start simple?" I said. "Try "Alex.""

Asa used his vines to reach up and pull L, E, and X from the walls.

A L E X

We looked to the stone slab. Nothing happened.

"Maybe…" Asa said, "maybe they think we already have an Alex, since he's technically…"

"You're right," I said, "maybe we need to be more specific."

""Old Alex?""

"I'm worried they might just age up his body."

"How can they do that?" Tobias said. "He's dead."

He pushed one of the "M"s forward. "Try "Former Alex.""

"Are they going to understand that?" I said.

"Good point," said Asa. "Agh, I know a few words in their language, let me try…"

Asa plucked six more letters from the tiles. Tobias arranged them in order.

I

N O

A L E X

Silence. Then sound.

Whisperings from the tiles. Movement as carvings became bulging black shapes. Light as they began to glow. Rattling as they began to shake.

The Unown peeled off the walls and circled around us, their murmuring growing to a cacophony as they revolved in circles, imperfect symmetry, but all moving with one purpose. Blue light filled the room, and I saw it was coming from the diamond of the blue four-legged God on the mural. The shape carved into the slab lit up blue with tendrils of gold, then the light spread, surrounding him.

Alex's body had turned pure white, as if he were about to evolve. I ran forward but Asa held out a paw to hold me back.

"Don't," he whispered, "it's working."

"Please God…" Tobias gasped.

Alex's body became pure light. Then it stretched, forming a shape six feet tall. The Unown were shouting now, their voices drowning out my cries for answers: "What's happening?!"

Blinding flashing. A high searing sound, and suddenly the whole room was white.

…

We were paralysed for several moments. We could have been unconscious for all I know. I do know we woke up on the floor. By the time I opened my eyes the Unown were gone, and all the tiles were back in their places. Tobias and Asa rose at the same time. For a moment, none of us dared to move, for fear of what we would or wouldn't find on that stone slab.

Tobias looked first. He was paralysed, expressionless, as he often is when he's in shock. I saw Asa's jaw, his eyes welling with tears. Finally it was my turn.

A strange creature lay on the slab. No tail. Long, thin limbs. Fairly muscular. Black hair, high cheekbones, pale brown skin. A Chariz-Fang hung loosely at his wrist by black string. Tobias gave a confused choking sound, looking to me for an answer I wasn't sure I could give him. But Asa could.

"It's… It's him…" he said. "It's Alex. He's a human."