Adult-FanFiction.org : Anime

The Dark Type	By : Manifest Destiny Category: Pokemon > General Views: 36315 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. Pokemon is copy write by GameFreak, INC. and Nintendo. I make no money from this story, nor do I seek any.

Chapter List
- 33
- 34
- 35
—————
Chapter 34: A New Future
—————
“…”
…Everything hurts.
My body was sore in every place I could imagine. Every little movement that I tried to make felt like something was pushing back against me, but in reality it was just my own stiff muscles struggling to move on their own.
…My head.
“…”
The world around me sounded muffled and quiet. I thought I could hear something nearby, but I couldn't make it out.
“… taking too long? Want me to wake her up?”
Like the sound of scraping metal, the burst of words ripped my mind from the haze that had been clouding it.
Suddenly, I was made aware of someone nearby. I could hear what they were saying now, not that I could understand what they were talking about.
“No, I think we should let her take her time. This is probably a lot different than when you were kept in stasis.”
“I don’t like thinking about that…”
Whoever was talking, their words were making my head hurt.
“…Sorry.”
I was so tired. I really wanted to go back to sleep, or to whatever I was doing before, but there was something else now. Not my sore body, stiff muscles, or the growing headache I felt coming on. Something… weird.
…What is that?
It’s like an itch on the back of my head…
Why does it feel like… something is wrong? I can’t place what it is, but it feels so familiar.
And why does the air taste so salty all of a sudden?
I opened my eyes a little bit, but quickly shut them tightly again, wincing at the bright light all around me. As I tried my best to squint through the sunlight, I raised my head up from the ground to get a better look at my surroundings. The first thing that I managed to recognize was the imposing sight of a Houndoom sitting on the grass a few feet away from me. He was looking at something else when I first spotted him but his attention quickly focused on me once he noticed that I was awake.
One look in that hellhound’s eyes sent a wave of memories crashing through my mind.
I was attacked. Ambushed at Iruni’s campsite all because that boy was overreacting about something that I didn’t even do. Not yet, anyway; a future version of me did it. During the attack, that Houndoom of his and Rikalia had hit me hard with heavy blasts of Dark type energy. Everything after that was fuzzy. What had happened to me? How long had I been lying here unconscious?
Either way, I knew one thing for certain; I didn’t have the time to be asking myself those kinds of questions.
Pushing myself up from the ground and crawling backwards, I tried to move away from glaring canine as quickly as I could.
I have to move! I’ve got to get away!
If I didn’t hurry and get away from Iruni’s Pokémon right now, I would be in danger of…
Of…
Being captured… but, why wasn’t his Houndoom attacking me anymore?
He hasn’t moved from that spot since he noticed me. All he’s done so far is watch me.
Looking up to the open sky above me made it obvious what had happened. I don’t know how I didn’t realize it sooner; it had been staring me in the face even before Karros had looked at me.
It was daylight out now, not the middle of the night like it had been when I was attacked. The trees around us were different and the air tasted strange because we were somewhere else now.
I was captured.
Turning around, I saw the human responsible for this disaster.
Iruni Thomas was sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree with his arms crossed, looking down at me through a pair of dark-lensed glasses.
“Sleep well?”
He even had the nerve to smile at me.
How… dare he!
Did he think that this was funny? I had thought that he at least cared a little bit about what I was trying to do. He said he wanted to help!
Clearly, I had been mistaken.
My anger got the better of me and pushed away any and all other thoughts. I didn’t care about his Houndoom nearby, or about whatever Iruni might do to me now that I was his captive.
I just wanted to hit him.
I hopped to my feet and tried to run towards him, but a quick, clawed hand gripped my shoulder and pulled me backwards. The sudden and forceful tug in the opposite direction threw me off balance and I landed hard on my back. As my vision cleared up from the rough landing, a pair of red eyes came into view and glared down at me.
“Be gentle, Rika.” Iruni stood up and walked over toward me. He knelt down a few feet away from the two of us and beckoned his Sneasel to his side.
“You don’t get to attack him,” she quietly said only to me.
Rikalia kept a watchful eye on me as she made her way over to her trainer.
As I sat up from where I had been thrown, while I watched the Sneasel move away from me, I was stuck with another wave of confusion. Something about the picture in front of me seemed so out of place that it nearly made me forget all about my anger. I had been feeling something strange from the moment I woke up, but being startled by Karros must have pushed it to the back of my mind. Now, seeing Rikalia in front of me brought it back in full force.
Just looking at her made me feel as if something was wrong, but I couldn’t place it.
“How are you feeling?” asked Iruni. “Are you hurt anywhere? She really wasn’t supposed to be so rough with you.”
Rikalia grumbled something quietly and looked away.
‘How am I feeling?’ I asked back, dumbfounded by the casual tone he used.
This young boy had managed to bring back my anger in just a few words. I stood and turned away from him, already out of patience for the false kindness sprinkled throughout his words.
‘How do you think I feel?’
“I can’t know that unless you tell me. It’s important for a trainer to care about the physical wellbeing of their Pokémon.”
When I didn’t respond, I heard him let out an annoyed sigh, I suspected because I didn’t rise to his taunt.
“Look Celebi, there are health concerns to look out for when it comes to keeping a Pokémon locked in suspended animation for a long period of time, and I can’t exactly take you to a Pokémon Center. Work with me here.”
While he was talking, I had been looking around the immediate area, trying to figure out where he had taken me. It was clearly not anywhere near Viridian City, where I had so stupidly decided to check up on him in person after he had ran into one of Cora’s less-than-friendly allies. The air also didn’t smell or taste like anywhere I had been since…
Since the last time I had been near the sea…
Wait… He said…
I looked back at the human, fear and panic rising quickly in my chest.
‘What do you mean… “long period of time”?’
When I remembered that I had been attacked, I had just assumed that it was now the morning following my unfortunate visit, but considering the drastic change of location and what Iruni had just said…
As much as I had lost faith and trust in that boy, it was obvious that he was telling the truth, and that I had been kept in that capture device for a considerable length of time. This was bad— even worse than being captured!
There’s no way it could have been that long, could it? The events of that night felt like they had just occurred moments ago, but I now knew that couldn’t be the case.
Humans and their capture-spheres…
It was obvious that I had lost consciousness and had been moved while I was detained in the device. Some time was bound to be unaccounted for under those circumstances, I knew that much. Even if it wasn’t the following morning, it had to be within a day or two. It had to be.
It just has to be!
But… then why do his words fill me with such an intense feeling of dread?
Why would he say “long period of time” if it had only been a few days?
Is this that familiar feeling that I can’t put my finger on?! Is that why it scares me so much?!
Looking over the faces of Iruni and his Pokémon, it was obvious that none of them knew the gravity of what they had done.
‘What exactly did you do to me?! What did you do?! What day is it?! Tell me!’
As my panic continued to grow it became harder and harder to focus on the timeline, but I kept trying anyway. I needed to figure out how much time had passed, no matter what. If I’d been kept in that damn ball for more than a few days, I would have to seriously—
“It’s been two months since I captured you. Right now it’s the beginning of August.”
Wha— But…
No, that can’t…
I was…
I couldn’t string together a complete thought.
I felt like I was going to be sick.
The mere idea of being gone from this world for so long made my stomach turn.
But now I knew. It made sense now— that strange feeling that had been bothering me since I woke up. Now I knew what it reminded me of. It wasn’t exactly the same as I remembered it. It felt duller and more subdued than the real thing. That’s why I couldn’t place the sensation right away. Plus, it’d been five years since I had last felt it in full.
It was the feeling of existing in one moment in time, then suddenly finding yourself in another. I don’t know if other creatures besides myself would even notice the sensation, but I could. I might not be able to control how I travel in time, but I could always feel something when I did.
The last time I had felt something like this, my best friend tried to kill me. I had thought that was the absolute worst thing I would ever experience.
This was worse.
‘Why…?’
I sank to my hands and knees, unable to look up from the dirt beneath me. I retched, but nothing came up. I was just frozen in place, struggling to not pass out from shock. I couldn’t believe what I had just been told. The reality of it was…
…far too cruel.
When what little strength I had in my arms finally left me, I fell down onto the dirt like I had been when I woke up. Now instead of sleeping, all I could do was soundlessly sob.
Everything was ruined now and there was nothing I could do.
Two.
Whole.
Months!?
“I didn’t think she’d take it that badly…” I heard Rikalia mutter. Some genuine concern wormed its way into her words toward the end of her sentence. I wondered if she really meant any of it.
“Celebi, I’m serious; if you’re not feeling well we have medicine for you. You’ve probably never even been in a Poké Ball before, so you’re probably in shock from being kept in one for so long.”
Somehow…
This boy managed to make me even angrier.
‘Oh… now you care about what you’ve done to me!?’ I rolled over onto my stomach, glaring up at the foolish child. ‘Where was all that concern back when you attacked me, huh? Did you really think your actions through that night? Oh so you planned ahead and got me some medicine? So what? Who cares about what happens to me?!’
I fluttered my wings and floated into the air, raising myself up to match his height. I flew right up to his face and gave him a smack with what little strength I had in me.
“Hey!” Rikalia reached up to try and pull me away from her trainer, but Iruni waved her down.
‘I had important things I was supposed to do, you idiot! Did you even think about that?!’ I hit him again, barely enough to jostle his head on his shoulders.
‘I have to keep things going the way I need them to! If I don’t, then Coralis will never get home!’
I slowly descended to the ground, panting hard.
‘The most important thing I had to do… I had to…’ I shut my eyes. ‘I was supposed to stop him… from getting killed… back in the first week of July…!’
I stepped forward and grabbed his shirt, trying my best to pull him down towards me. He seemed to humor me and leaned down closer.
‘And you made me miss it!’
Rikalia stepped forward and removed my hands from her trainer’s clothes without saying another word. I didn’t care anymore. These two truly deserve each other; both of them only care for themselves and not about what happens to anyone else around them so long as they get what they think they want. Selfish.
‘You got him killed! All for what? Some petty little revenge against me? How are you supposed to work with me now, huh? I already told you I can’t time travel how I want, remember?! It’s not like I can just go and save him! What am I supposed to do now?!’
I pulled myself free from the Sneasel’s grip, glaring at her and the uneasy look on her face.
‘Yeah, you should feel bad, Rikalia!’ I pointed to Iruni. ‘You and your stupid trainer ruined everything!’
A small series of beeps followed by a ringing tone came from my left.
I looked up at Iruni, who had pulled out an electronic device of some sort—humanity has made far too many for me to recognize them all at a glance. Iruni tapped another button and the ringing tone got significantly louder.
‘What are you—?’
[“Hello?”]
Even though I had been speaking telepathically, my hands shot to my mouth, covering it up. I was too afraid to make a sound. I couldn’t.
I couldn’t… believe it.
“Hey, Coralis.” Iruni spoke aloud toward the device, keeping eye contact with me as he did. “It’s Iruni. How’s your group doing these days?”
…it can’t be.
This has to be some sort of recording, right?
[“Ah, it is nice to hear from you, Iruni Thomas. We are doing very well, thank you for asking. How about yourself? Are you still traveling in the Kanto region?”]
How is this possible?!
“I just got back into Johto a little while ago actually. The reason I called was because I was wondering if you guys were anywhere near Olivine City. I was thinking we could all meet up and go out to dinner again like we did in Violet.”
No no no no!
I shook my head back and forth, waving my hands in the air to try and get him to stop. Even if Coralis was alive, actively seeking him out with myself in tow would be the worst possible thing Iruni could do.
[“Unfortunately, no. We are currently on our way back to Blackthorn City; it would seem that Jacob is no longer willing to wait any longer and wishes to see if he can best Clair in battle,”] Coralis told him. [“I am glad to hear from you. You have not let your past misfortunes weigh down your ambitious spirit. I admire that in someone as young as yourself.”]
“Speaking of misfortunes,” Iruni said, nodding toward me. “Did you ever figure out who almost hit you guys?”
[“I take it you are referring to my near collision with that vehicle?”] Coralis’ voice carried such a light-hearted tone that I almost didn’t recognize the voice coming from the speaker.
Before he continued speaking, I heard something I hadn’t heard in years. He was…
Laughing?
[“It could have been much worse, considering the circumstances, but since I was not injured I decided it wouldn’t be a wise use of my time to pursue the culprit. I will say that I have adopted the habit of walking the furthest from the road whenever I can.”]
“That’s a good idea,” Iruni gestured silently toward the device, offering it as proof that Coralis was alive and well. “Well, tell everyone I said ‘hi’. I’ve got to get working on finding a place to sleep for the night.”
[“Very well. If we do happen to cross paths, I would enjoy spending some time exchanging stories of our travels. I’m sure the others would as well.”]
“Definitely. You know how to reach me.”
[“Indeed. Farewell for now.”]
Iruni ended the conversation with Coralis and the device went silent.
“You had me a little nervous for a second, but see?” Iruni asked. “He’s fine.”
I stood still and let Iruni’s words pass me by. Today has just been filled with things that I just couldn’t understand. How could this have happened? Why didn’t the future that I saw happen like it was supposed to? What changed? What did I miss? Did I forget something?
“Hey,” Iruni said, trying his best to sound kind. “Are you going to be alright?”
‘I just… don’t know anymore.’
I sat down on the ground in front of him, looking down at my hands. I thought I had things… at least somewhat under control. I was convinced that if I didn’t constantly push and pull things to where I needed them to be, then everything would fall apart. I was cut off from the world for two whole months, unable to monitor or affect anything, and things somehow worked out okay.
‘Has everything I’ve done until now been meaningless? Is the world really better off without me in it?’
I heard a heavy sigh come from the human, then felt a warm hand gently rub my head.
“Come on.” Iruni stood up, stretching his back before walking toward the trees. “Let’s go for a walk.”
‘…okay.’
Normally, I wouldn’t have just gone along with what some human told me to do, but after seeing how different the future ended up becoming without me guiding it, I was out of answers. I was lost. Everything was new. Even if he was the one who locked me away, Iruni knew what went on during the past two months.
Maybe he can tell me something useful.
As I floated up into the air and started to follow him, I looked back at the two Dark type Pokémon staying behind. I expected to see Rikalia and her watchful eyes on us as we went on our way, but she was facing away from us and rummaging through Iruni’s backpack for something.
Before we left the immediate area, Iruni paused and called back to his two Pokémon.
“Can you two get the campsite started?”
Karros gave a short bark as an affirmative, and Rikalia simply nodded without looking away from whatever she was searching for.
Isn’t that a bit cold for those two?
‘Won’t Rikalia be joining us?’ I asked him.
“I already let her know that you and I would need some time alone,” he explained, voice low enough that I only heard him. “We need to talk.”
He continued walking away from the open air of the small clearing he had chosen to set up his camp. I followed close by, growing more confused about the situation by the second.
‘If you were worried about that, we could always just talk like this, you know,’ I said as I tapped the side of my head.
“It’s not just eavesdropping I’m worried about.” Iruni looked to me with an expression I couldn’t quite place at the time.
Iruni and I continued to move further away from the in-progress campsite; much more than I thought was necessary. Several minutes passed us by without any sort of conversation. The only sounds to speak of were the human’s footsteps through the short grass and other plant life that grew on the forest floor. I still didn’t know our exact location, but occasionally a gust of wind coming from my left would remind me that we were somewhere close to a large body of salt water. Iruni had mentioned to Coralis that they were close to a place called “Olivine” in Johto. Maybe that was one of the region’s coastal cities? I’ve always been bad with the names humans use to call their settlements.
When we came to a spot in the woods where the trees were effectively blocking out all sunlight, he finally stopped and stood still for a moment.
I assumed that he was gathering his thoughts, and even though I was curious, I didn’t try and read his mind. I doubted that he would have appreciated the unannounced intrusion.
“Have you tried to teleport away yet?” he suddenly asked me, turning to face me for the first time in a while. Iruni had removed his dark glasses now that we weren’t in direct sunlight. I could see his eyes now.
‘I don’t have to try,’ I blew a clump of dead leaves at his face; nothing that could harm him, but I wanted him to know that he was getting on my nerves. ‘I already know that I can’t.’
In the time it took us to reach this spot in the woods, I had managed to calm myself down considerably from my panicked state from earlier. During our silent stroll, I took the time to try and focus on the timeline, trying to get an accurate idea of when exactly I was now. While I was trying to figure that out, I could feel a… “gap” in my abilities.
Jumping to a different point in time is incredibly similar to warping yourself through space. Several species of Pokémon have learned to teleport from one spot to another, but I am—almost—uniquely talented to travel through time as well. Strangely however, I found was unable to reach out and feel other places in the world, even ones close by.
Everything felt… the same.
Like trying to remember the details of a dream after you’ve woken up, my ability to warp through space escaped me like it wasn’t even there.
Instead of risking accidentally jumping in time and losing Coralis for good, I decided to not try and force a teleport, even if it was just a few feet.
“Good. Now you know where you stand.”
‘Do I now?’ I crossed my arms and floated in front of him. ‘And where is that?’
Iruni reached behind his back and showed off the green and black ball he had caught me in.
“These things have ‘obedience levels’ that you can alter. They can restrict what kinds of techniques you can, or can’t, use. Obviously, if an unruly Pokémon could just do whatever it wanted, then catching it in a ball wouldn’t be any different than putting it in a metal cage.” He crossed his own arms and mimicked my pose, “Basically, you won’t be able to do anything I don’t want you to.”
I rolled my eyes. ‘Just so you know, I don’t plan on helping you get any more of those little badges or win you any extra pocket change, no matter what kind of restrictions you put on me.’
“Well, that should go without saying,” Iruni said. “As far as the rest of the world knows, you’re just a fairy tale and I’m going to keep it that way. I’m not even sure if my bosses bought the little excuse I gave them when my Pokédex tried to catalog you that night, but thankfully we’ve made it this far without anyone asking what’s in this Dusk Ball.”
‘Sorry for not “getting it”, but where is it that I’m supposedly standing again?’
Iruni looked around the area, likely checking to see if anyone or anything had shown up in the short time since we stopped moving.
“If you do something I don’t like, or refuse to cooperate, you’re going right into your ball and I’m handing you over to Coralis myself.”
…
…
Is he serious?
“Hahahahahehehe,” I laughed out loud; it had truly caught me by surprise.
‘Okay, now I know you’re just messing with me. Was this whole ‘catching me’ stunt just to try and seem like you have any idea what you’re doing? Acting tough for somebody?’
“I mean it.” Iruni gripped the thing used to contain me and stared angrily at me beneath the shade of the trees around us. “Go on, tell me I’m joking.”
Oh no.
He is serious…
‘Well I sure hope you’re joking,’ I gathered myself as quick as I could. I needed to get that idea out of his head before anything else.
‘In the infinitely long list of bad ideas that you’ve had or ever will have, I promise you that giving me to Coralis is the absolute worst. And I mean that from the bottom of my hearts.’
My mental connection to the human in front of me was riddled with Dark aura—clearly from keeping his Houndoom and Sneasel around at all times—which made anything other than simple communication needlessly difficult, but I still tried to pour my true feelings into what I was saying.
‘I’m not saying this just for my sake, but for yours. Both of yours.’
“…”
Iruni was silent, but I could tell that my words had reached him.
They just didn’t have the effect I was hoping for.
“I knew it.”
He let his shoulders fall and sighed heavily before turning away from me and sitting down in front of a tree.
‘Huh?’
Iruni spoke into the empty air in front of him.
“You never outright said it back when you and I talked in Goldenrod. You just sort of implied it like you always do, but now I get the whole picture.” He stared off into the distance and readied his next accusation.
“You put Rikalia and I together on purpose because we were a part of your plans; that much I know. But if something bad happens to you, she and I are in danger too, aren’t we?”
…
Damn.
I guess this saves me from having to tell him.
‘I mean…’ I tried my best to sound apologetic. I really didn’t mean for this whole situation to turn out the way it did. ‘It’s not like I’m holding both of your lives hostage or anything. That’s just how things are. Until I get Coralis home, there’s always a chance that—’
“Just,” he cut me off, holding a hand up in the air. “What do I need to do?”
‘What do you mean?’
Iruni stood up suddenly and quickly closed the distance between us, “I mean, what do I need to do to make sure that doesn’t happen?”
‘Okay, okay, I get it! You’re upset!’ He had me backed up against a tree with his sudden burst of anger.
“I’m well past ‘upset’! This is me at the end of my patience with you,” he threateningly pointed “my” Dusk Ball at me. “I want answers. And I want them clear and simple. Now, what exactly is at risk?”
How am I supposed to answer his questions when the answers are just going to make him angrier?
‘…everything, possibly.’
Iruni gave an exasperated sigh, but I continued before he could lose his temper again.
‘Alright, look; if we’re going to really get into this, there’s one thing that you need to understand. When you time travel, the past can be rewritten. Events can be changed or even erased from history like they never happened at all. Now think about things that I’ve done, like taking Coralis into the future…’
“Or making it so that Rikalia and I ever meet.”
‘…or you saving your sister from that fire…’
“What!? How is that—?”
‘Hey! You were the one who wanted answers! Don’t get mad at me if you don’t like them!’ I looked away from him. ‘If… something were to happen and my past is changed somehow, that affects everything I did after that point. I might do some of the same things again, but… that’s not very likely.’
“And why not?”
‘Well, why would I? Think about it; if I never took Coralis forward in time, I would never look for a future where I fix that, then I wouldn’t have ever found you and your Weavile—’
“My what?” The anger on Iruni’s face fell away in an instant, replaced with a look that slowly drifted from confusion to disappointment. Like I had just stolen something precious away from him.
‘Oh like that was supposed to be a surprise! You get what I mean, don’t you? If I have to walk the past five years backwards just to illustrate a point, we’re going to be here for a while. It’s this simple: name something I’ve done or pushed along since dragging Coralis here, and you can consider it undone if my past gets changed!’
“And giving you to Coralis is going to cause that?”
‘Well, duh!’ I threw up my arms; I had thought that he had figured some things out already. ‘Coralis has been working for the past five years, gaining allies like Sebastian and that guy who attacked your sister, all to capture me and use my time travel powers to change the past.’
“Wait, hold on. That was him? Coralis has been leading those people this whole time?”
‘Oh come on, Iruni! How is this news to you? Am I going to need to hold your hand and walk you through the whole thing? You had to have suspected Coralis was doing more than just bumming around Blackthorn City for almost five years!’
“I did, but not— Shit.” He dragged his empty hand across his face, taking a few steps back until he was up against the trunk of a tree. “All this time that I’ve been trying to help get him home, he’s been working with—”
‘He’s been in charge of some very dangerous people who would like nothing more than to use my powers to change time for their own personal desires. You might’ve gotten to know Coralis’ nice side, Iruni, but he’s been motivated by nothing but his hate for me for the last five years. He’ll do whatever it takes to get home.’
Iruni shook his head. I could tell just from watching where I floated that his mind was racing.
‘You having second thoughts about keeping me tethered to you yet?’
“No.” He looked up at me with the most scared expression on his face that I had ever seen. “Just one more question, then we need to go back.”
I nodded for him to ahead, but he hesitated.
As the silence dragged on, I realized there was only one question that could trouble him so much.
Go on. Ask it. Then at least you’ll never even think about handing me over ever again.
His voice trembled in his throat as he finally managed to force it out.
“What… would’ve happened to… Rika… if… if I never found her that night?”
Even though I knew it was coming, I found it was my turn to wrestle with a response. Still, I was determined to not let the silence drag on too long.
‘Do… you remember something that I told you when we first met?’
“What…?”
‘That kind of knowledge can mess with your head…’
Iruni shut his eyes and turned away as if he had been struck by something.
He already knew the answer to his question.
“No matter what,” he looked at me, wiping away a few tears that had betrayed his composure, “Rika can’t know.”
‘Are you sure that’s the best idea, considering—’
“She can’t know!” he yelled. His gaze locked down to the ground beneath where I floated. “Why do you think I had to talk about this so far away from her? There’s no way I could stand to watch her find out that… you caused everything.”
‘Just like how you caught me to get a little payback, you’re letting your selfishness get the better of you. Go ahead and keep telling yourself it’s just for her benefit.’
When he looked up at me angrily, I stopped his response with something I knew that would shut him up.
‘I pulled Coralis through time itself—dragging him away from his wife and son—because I thought it was the right thing to do at the time. I was wrong. I learned the hard way that you should think long and hard about the things you do to the ones you love. Don’t be like me.’
“Our situations are nothing alike!” Iruni waved his hand aggressively through the air, as if to swat away the comparison I drew between us.
“Never. Tell. Her.” He held up the Dusk Ball in an empty threat. “Understand?”
‘Your funeral.’
I began to float back the way we came.
After a few seconds, a pair of footsteps began to follow me. It didn’t take long for Iruni to storm past me up and take the lead back to the campsite.
—————
Iruni pulled his sunglasses back down over his eyes before he stepped out from under the cover of the trees and back into the afternoon sunlight.
Even though it had been months since he and his Pokémon had been trapped down in the underground catacombs of the Ruins of Alph, direct sunlight still stung his eyes more than usual. He could still remember the fear and panic he felt when he first managed to find his way out from those tunnels; the entire world around him was so bright that the first few hours above ground had blinded him. It wasn’t until later that evening did his vision begin to come back. Ever since, Iruni had had a creeping worry of losing his vision permanently if he wasn’t careful.
Once he returned to his latest campsite he was greeted with a short bark from Karros. The Houndoom had done his best to help set up the area for their needs, but by himself the most he had accomplished was having dug a small pit for their fire.
Rikalia was somewhere else at the moment, at least he thought.
“Where’d Rika go?” Iruni asked.
“Up.” Karros told him. The Houndoom still went overboard with his use of Dark Pulse when talking to him.
A short survey of the surrounding trees revealed the Sneasel’s current hiding spot. Rikalia sat upon a high branch with her back turned to the campsite.
On the ground, a jumbled mess of fabric and metal rods gave Iruni a good idea as to the cause of her sullen mood.
“No luck with the tent?” he called up to her.
“…I tried.”
“I know you did,” Iruni sighed, letting go of a bundle of stress he had been holding onto. Rikalia never could get the tent set up on her own, no matter how many times she kept trying.
His Sneasel dropped back down to the ground and walked over to him, picking up one of the tent’s support poles.
As Iruni watched her handle the metal rod with her two-clawed paws, he couldn’t help imagining Rikalia as taller, with a collar and crown full of feathers, and three sharp claws on each hand. Celebi had said in their future that Rikalia would be a Weavile, but he couldn’t figure out why that surprised him.
I figured it’d happen one day, but…
“We can put it together now,” she said, not quite looking Iruni in the eye. “Hey, what’s with the look?”
Rikalia looked up at him fully with a concerned expression on her face.
“It’s nothing. Let’s get this set up,” Iruni said, starting to spread out the base of the tent. He decided not to say anything—since it belonged to her, after all—but still noticed that while he and Celebi had been gone, Rikalia had taken back her Umbra Ball and now had it slotted in place on her gauntlet.
‘Oh, you were putting up shelter?’
Celebi floated over to the two of them, looking over the pile of pieces with a curious expression.
‘I’ve seen one of these before.’
She pulled the rod that Rikalia had in her claws with a telekinetic grab and extended her influence over to the rest of the parts as well. In a fluid series of impossible motions, the components of the tent pulled themselves together and assembled the final product in just a few seconds.
‘Like that, right?’
“Hey!” Rikalia snapped at her. “We were going to do that!”
The Sneasel flexed her claws at Celebi, lowering herself to the ground and preparing to pounce, but Iruni stepped between the two Pokémon.
“Rika…” he said, trying to calm her down. “She was just trying to help out.”
“Nobody asked her for help!”
Turning on the spot, Rikalia ran off back to her tree and climbed up to the same branch she had been sitting on when Iruni first saw her.
‘Okay…’ Celebi spoke to him, he hoped privately. ‘I think I get why you don’t want her to know I played match-maker with you two…’
‘Shut. It.’
“Well, thanks for setting up the tent,” he said, trying to keep a friendly tone with the Time Travel Pokémon. “Try and help Karros with— whatever he’s doing. Just give us a minute.”
‘Fiiiiiine…’ Celebi rolled her eyes and drifted away, floating through the air at a cocked angle.
Iruni took a deep breath and made his way to the tree Rikalia had taken refuge in. Even though there were countless things on his mind that he felt he needed to tell her, he knew he could say none of them. Their relationship had… changed enough as it was, without the true weight of Celebi’s involvement in their lives adding another layer of complications and confusion.
Coming to a stop at the trunk of the tree, Iruni knocked against the bark with the back of his fist.
“Want me to have your dinner sent up there?” he jokingly asked, hoping to diffuse the situation as quickly as possible.
“…”
She didn’t turn around or even seem to react to his presence beneath her.
“I won’t charge for delivery, promise.”
A sidelong glance was Rikalia’s response, but it didn’t last more than a few seconds before she turned away again.
“Well, if you want to stay up there, I won’t—”
Suddenly, the Sneasel jumped down from the branch, hopping limb to limb down the side of the tree, and landed on the ground on the opposite side of Iruni.
“…I don’t want to…”
“What?” Iruni moved around the base of the tree to get closer to her. “I couldn’t hear you.”
“I don’t want to be up there!” she turned around and hissed. “I just…”
Rikalia looked away, holding onto the gauntlet she wore on her covered arm with her opposite paw.
“I can’t stand her! Everything about her just makes me feel like I’m worthless.” She looked up at him with pained eyes. “I thought that after we captured her I would stop feeling like this—and for a while it did—but now that we let her out… it’s all coming back again…”
Rikalia sat down on the ground and pulled her legs in close to her chest, making herself as small as she could.
“I know it was just the stupid tent… but when I saw her put it together like that without even trying, I just wanted to… it made me want to…”
“Get back at her?”
“I don’t know… I wanted us to build the tent like we usually do. Then she comes in just does it.”
“Rika, she’s not going to take me away from you.”
“…” Rikalia turned away from him, mumbling something that he couldn’t make out.
“I’m still far from forgiving her for everything she’s done to us, so if you want to hate her, I completely understand,” Iruni told her. “You’re not worthless when she’s around. You know that.” He reached out to try and comfort her, but she backed away from his touch.
“Then why does it feel like I am? What did you need to talk to her about so badly that you couldn’t have me around?”
“It wasn’t just you, Rika. I didn’t want anyone around—”
“But why did you need to talk to her in private at all? What could you have to talk about with Celebi that the rest of us can’t know? Aren’t all of us involved?”
“Rika—” Iruni bit his tongue, feeling boxed into a corner. He knew that Rikalia would be curious about his private chat with Celebi; she was initially against the idea when he first brought it up. Thankfully, he managed to convince her to trust his judgment.
“I had to… make sure of some things,” he told her. He didn’t want to lie to her, but he hoped he could keep some things a secret.
Rikalia’s expectant gaze told him to continue.
“I was afraid that, if we were to mess up and things went wrong… Kate might end up dying.”
“…What do you mean?” asked Rikalia.
“Because of how much Celebi has messed with our lives, if something happens and her past gets changed, there’s a good chance that you and I wouldn’t be there in Saffron that day to save her from that fire.”
Everything that Iruni just told her was true; he had gotten more specific details from Celebi as to why Dalton Drake would still set her apartment building on fire in the supposed altered timeline. Sebastian and Dalton had taken an interest in hunting down Celebi to use her for her powers before they even met Coralis, and would still attempt to complete the old, half-baked plans of Giovanni to change time for their benefit without him in their lives. Events would continue as they had with little deviation and still lead to Sebastian and Dalton mistaking Iruni for his sister, and then to the latter interrogating and attacking Katelyn in her apartment.
“If it weren’t for Celebi, I would have never ended up deciding to go to Saffron City to ask Sabrina for help. If we never did that, I wouldn’t have been able to— we wouldn’t have been there to save her.”
“…that’s terrible.” Rikalia shivered. “That’s so awful! How can so much happen just because of her?”
“I don’t really know…” he said, having trouble believing it himself. “But you see what’s at stake now, right?”
Rikalia nodded, looking down at the ground in thought.
“This makes me hate her even more though.”
“And that’s okay,” Iruni said. He crouched down and reached out to her again, Rikalia this time letting him show her some physical affection. Iruni slowly rubbed the fur on her head, dragging his fingers over her blue ear feather.
“Hate her all you want. Once we figure out how to get Coralis home, you won’t even have to look at her.”
Rikalia raised one of her paws and grabbed hold of Iruni’s hand, gripping it tightly.
“Are you sure we can even do that? What if we never… get rid of her?”
“We will, I promise. One way or the other.”
When Iruni stood up and tried to pull his hand free, Rikalia refused to let him go. He looked back down to his Sneasel and looked to her pleading eyes. She grabbed onto his hand with her other paw, trying to bring him back down to her height. Iruni’s resolve held out and he turned away from her, tugging on his own arm away from her as gently as he could.
The disappointed whine that he heard come from behind him begged him to turn back around, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
Things had changed, but not how either of the two of them would have liked.
“Come on.”
Iruni drudged back toward the camp, Rikalia following a few feet behind him.
The sight that awaited them was not one that Iruni was expecting; Celebi back down on the ground with Karros lying down on top of her, pinning her to the ground.
‘There you are! Tell you little claw-beast to tone down the Dark Pulses! I was trying to call for help!’
“What happened?” Iruni asked, feeling a smile creep across his face at the odd situation.
“Escape.”
‘No I wasn’t! I was going to grab some dead branches I saw earlier on our little walk!’
“Well, let her up anyway,” Iruni said. “We have to get some things cleared up with everybody.”
Karros did as he was told and stood up, moving away to give Celebi some space.
To everyone’s surprise, Rikalia stepped forward and offered a clawed paw to the Time Travel Pokémon to help her up.
The two of them stared at one another for a moment, Celebi having to look up from the ground at the Sharp Claw Pokémon. Fluttering her wings, Celebi rose up to match Rikalia’s height.
‘I don’t remember asking for your help,’ she said.
“Celebi, don’t be—” Iruni started, but Rikalia spoke up.
“What about Coralis? Do you remember him asking for your help?”
Celebi’s eyes narrowed, staring down Rikalia face to face.
“Stop.”
Karros growled and advanced on the two of them, putting himself in front of Rikalia and forcing her back away.
“I was trying to be nice, Kar. Growl at her!”
“That’s enough, both of you!” Iruni raised his voice to silence the commotion unfolding in front of him.
“This all has to stop if we’re ever going to get anything done! I won’t expect the two of you to get along, but at least try to not kill each other while we have to work together!” Iruni looked to Celebi, who was hovering far away enough to be out of anybody’s reach.
“Why would you provoke her when you knew how she would react? You yelled at me for not thinking things through earlier, so what were you thinking just now?”
Celebi pouted and hung in the air, crossing her arms.
Iruni turned to face Rikalia, who immediately looked away from him.
“Please, let’s just stop all this pointless fighting.”
‘Wow, look who went and grew up.’ Celebi floated closer to Iruni, poking him in the cheek. ‘I can’t help but wonder what else I’ve missed.’
“Celebi…” Iruni warned, reaching behind his back.
‘I meant it. You and the dog are the only ones who have their heads on straight. I certainly don’t.’
Celebi flew above Karros, who was still standing defiantly in front of Rikalia.
‘Listen, little Rika.’
“Don’t call me that,” the Sneasel glared.
‘Rikalia. Whichever. Even if it means nothing to you and your little grudge against me, I’m sorry. If I’m honest I’m still royally pissed about being crammed in a little ball for two months, so some of that came out at you. You guys… are willing to help me fix my awful mistake, and that’s more kindness than I’ve had sent my way in years. I shouldn’t be pushing back against the only people who want the same thing I do.’
Celebi floated down and landed on the ground in front of Rikalia.
‘Hate me if you want. I’m used to it. But please…’ Celebi bowed her head, looking down at the grass at her feet.
‘I need your help…’
Iruni watched on in silence from where he stood, impressed that Celebi would lower herself so much just to apologize.
“Just focus on getting your friend back home,” Rikalia said, reluctantly offer a hand to the bowing time traveler. “I’ll help.”
Celebi righted herself and took Rikalia’s hand with one of her own.
‘Thanks. I won’t be able to do it without you.’
—————
To Be Continued…
—————
- 33
- 34
- 35
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

The Dark Type