#ceebee

    “I should rest after that fight with Dialga. This is YOUR chance to make this RIGHT,” they told them.

    Uxie nodded, “we understand.”

    “GOOD. Then, I will…” Palkia trailed off. “I will…”

    One final look over the group. Finally, Palkia spotted what they were looking for all this time; a sign of weakness. Their gaze landed on Nelvana. She stiffened under their sharp orange eyes.

    “HUMAN. I see you have a CURSE…” Palkia’s face twisted into a shrewd grin. “AMNESIA, I see… I could… REMOVE that for you.”

    “No thank you,” Nelvana blurted out, tightening her grip around her weapon.

    Palkia let out a broken laugh, “I wasn’t ASKING.”

    Uxie advanced slightly, while the other Lake Guardians remained in their previous positions. They glanced at Palkia, searching for confirmation of what the space god wanted from them now. Nelvana instinctively stepped back, and found herself slightly relieved when Alex placed his hand on her shoulder. Before Palkia could go on with their new plan, there was a buzz of energy from the rock Edgar still held, and Giratina finally spoke up.

    “Palkia!” Giratina cried out, “please, stop wasting your time with this! You’re doing more harm than good, and I can’t keep sitting here and saying nothing!”

    Palkia flinched at the sudden voice, eyes searching for their mysterious sibling, only to eventually pinpoint the source to the enchanted stone. What was confusion and almost nervousness quickly faded back into a grin.

    “WHY should I listen to YOU?” Palkia snapped, “YOU, who tried to destroy us all centuries ago, working with the ANOMALIES now! HA! You CERTAINLY cannot DO anything from that state, there is NOTHING you can DO.”

    “Please, just listen to me!” Giratina pleaded, “you need to think this through! Your actions here could have terrible consequences!”

    “You know NOTHING, Giratina!” Palkia responded sharply, “you shouldn’t even BE HERE!”

    With that, Palkia opened their mouth again, purple flames flitting out for mere seconds before they blasted an entire beam of dragon-type energy towards Edgar. The duskull threw himself into the wall, disappearing inside to escape the attack, dropping the rock in his hastiness and leaving it to clatter on the ground. Alex swiftly swiped the stone into his bag before Palkia could take notice. Edgar didn’t return from hiding. Giratina was silent, but their presence remained in the stone.

    “NOW!” Palkia growled, glancing back at the Lake Guardians. “That HUMAN’S amnesia is to be removed, to remove them from the fight. Prioritize killing the ANOMALIES FIRST, got it?”

    Nodding, Uxie turned their gaze to Nelvana, and the other two of the trio advanced to float beside their sibling. Nelvana dug her claws into the ground, bracing herself for the fight, for what Dialga had warned them against, anything, but all she felt was a momentary prodding in her mind, blocked by the psychic shield.

    “I’ll back you up,” Ceebee assured her quietly.

    “Master Palkia, there is a psychic shield protecting the entire group,” Uxie informed them.

    Palkia snarled, “fine! Then KILL the celebi FIRST!” they ordered.

    Nodding once more, this time the Lake Guardians turned to look back down at Ditto, who flinched away under their gazes. The sludge-shaped pokemon’s reluctance and exhaustion was suddenly forced into aggression as their body began to change and shift into a form that only Nelvana found familiar from the dimensional scream vision. The now malformed houndoom let out a gurgling howl before lunging at Ceebee, flames already beginning to escape their maw.

    Before they could even get within feet of Ceebee in the air, however, the ditto-turned-houndoom was tackled out of the air by a blur of green. Alex slammed Ditto to the ground, hissing back at the strange creature before punching it with his fist powered by electric energy. Snapping their sharp teeth at the grovyle’s throat without any success, the larger pokemon began to kick at the one on top of them, and the two began to tussle. Wrestling to beat the other, eventually the imposter houndoom managed to shove Alex to the ground instead, pinning him with their forepaws. Flames once again began to burn at the pokemon’s mouth, their fangs sharp and burning the brightest.

    Lunging into the fray, Tsuki dove over to the fighting pair. She sank her teeth into the throat of Ditto before they could pull off their fire fang attack, yanking them off the grovyle and tossing them away against the nearby wall. Ditto splatted against the stone, the form of a houndoom dripping away as they returned to their original pink form.

    “You alright?” Tsuki asked Alex.

    “Yeah, I’m fine,” Alex assured her; though scratched up a bit after that tussle, he was truthful in his words.

    Dissatisfied, Uxie projected the memory of a new pokemon for Ditto to transform into. Whimpers turning into hisses, the transform pokemon began changing forms once again, this time growing much taller and adorning their body with feathers rather than fur. Ignoring how they still weren’t complete in some aspects, and how the feathers appeared almost sickly, Ditto had transformed into a blaziken, just like those from Scorched Plains. Keahi’s eyes widened at the sight, and zie winced, stepping backwards slightly.

    This didn’t slow Tsuki or Alex, however, who threw themselves back into the fight against the imposter. The absol’s horn glowed with psychic energy, going in to lead her attack with a psycho cut, while the grovyle took a moment to boost his speed, lavender energy pulsing from him momentarily as he used agility. A blaze enveloped the ditto-turned-blaziken’s leg, and they kicked at Tsuki as she lunged at them, forcing her to take the brunt of the hit to get off her own attack.

    Meanwhile, from behind the Lake Guardians, Edgar carefully moved out from hiding. Silently, he began to ready a confuse ray attack, which he shot towards Uxie. The legendary spun around as he launched the attack, managing to move out of the way of the move just in time. Scowling, a golden glow appeared from under Uxie’s eyelids, and they shot a rainbow beam back at the duskull. Startled by the retaliation and unable to dodge, Edgar was struck with the full force of the extrasensory attack. He let out a yelp, before dropping to the ground unconscious.

    Immediately afterwards, Uxie was stuck by a shadow ball. Dusknoir advanced towards the legendary trio, already prepping another ghost-type attack for them. Seizing the opportunity, Damien dashed over to where Edgar was, dragging the smaller ghost-type pokemon into the shadows with him so he could heal his friend without the risk of being attacked again.

    Palkia growled, “MUST I DO EVERYTHING MYSELF?”

    Leaving the Lake Guardians to deal with Dusknoir, Palkia took a single step towards Ceebee, swiping a claw at her. Zipping out of the way, Ceebee retaliated by clapping her hands together, blasting Palkia back with a dazzling gleam. Palkia yowled, and was struck by a kick of sand to the face right afterwards followed by a bonemerang attack.

    “We’ve got your back too!” Keahi told Ceebee, and Nelvana nodded.

    Letting out a roar, Palkia threw their signature move at the trio against them, leaving them to just barely scramble out of the way with the previous aid of the sand attack. Recognizing the status move’s use here, Keahi dove back at the legendary with a quick attack, following it up with another sand attack to trip Palkia up more.

    Creating seeds on her own hands, Ceebee lobbed several leech seeds at Palkia at well, the tiny items digging into the larger pokemon’s skin to steal their energy and return it to the celebi. She hadn’t been hit yet, so the healing was currently useless, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to avoid being hit forever.

    In the back, Nelvana glimpsed Damien and Edgar returning to the battle, going to help Dusknoir against the Lake Guardians. She tried not to pay them too much mind, not wanting to get distracted in her own battle, but she found it good to know that not only were those two back but they were helping where their typing would be the most beneficial.

    Through squinted eyes and a snarling face, Palkia held up a hand, collecting a swirling blue aura energy in it and turning it into a sphere before throwing it in the direction of Keahi. The attack wildly missed the torchic at first, but looped around and struck zim in the back, knocking zim onto the ground. Zie struggled to get back to zir feet for a few moments before managing to just barely pull zirself into a crouch.

    Satisfied with this outcome, knowing that the torchic, while not quite defeated, wouldn’t be able to get up and fight again properly for at least a couple minutes, Palkia repeated the same attack against Ceebee. Nelvana tried striking Palkia with another bonemerang attack to force them to lose their focus, but the legendary still pulled off the move and hit Ceebee with the aura sphere. She resisted the fighting-type move, but it was still damage done.

    Wincing, Ceebee lifted her hand towards Palkia, creating a barrage of magical leaves to strike the legendary with. Like the aura sphere attack used before this, magical leaf never missed, and Ceebee didn’t hesitate to continue repeating the attack again and again to continue swarming Palkia with bladed leaves.

    Nelvana glanced up at Ceebee and Palkia battling. She teetered on her feet for a few moments of hesitation before hurrying over to Keahi’s side, helping zim stand fully.

    “You should go see if Damien has an oran berry for that,” she told zim.

    “Will you two be able to hold off Palkia on your own?” Keahi asked in response.

    Nelvana paused, “…I don’t know, but you’ll be able to help us more when you aren’t an inch away from defeat. Can you walk there on your own?”

    Keahi nodded, “yeah, yeah I’ll try… You should keep helping Ceebee, don’t worry about me. You two need to protect each other in this fight.”

    Though hesitant, Nelvana let go of her partner. Keahi staggered, but managed to remain upright. The pair nodded at each other before Nelvana turned back towards the legendary and mythical in battle. She took one last moment to focus herself again, before rushing back into the fight, throwing her club at Palkia to get off another bonemerang attack.

    Annoyed by the extra damage they were taking, Palkia finally turned their attention to the cubone again. They snarled at Nelvana, who stiffened at the scary face. Roaring, they let loose a hydro pump attack next, still widely missing despite Nelvana’s speed being lowered. Growing increasingly frustrated at this, they used a different water-type move, creating a large orb of water and sending it in a wave at the cubone instead, this time knocking her back against a wall, where she was left to recover.

    Nelvana groaned, using her bone to help support herself as she stood. Water clung to her hide and only seemed to weigh her down even more. Regardless, she took a couple shaky steps forward, stubbornly returning into the fray; she could swap out once Keahi got back, but she needed to keep supporting Ceebee in the meantime.

    Ceebee’s leech seed and periodically using recover were keeping her afloat for now, but even she knew she couldn’t defeat Palkia on her own. While neither Nelvana nor Keahi were the best type matchups against Palkia, Ceebee was thankful for their help in this fight.

    Ultimately, however, Palkia got off the hit they wanted. As Ceebee took another moment to use recover to heal herself from all the aura spheres, Palkia finally seized their opportunity, striking her with their power gem attack. Cut off from her healing and already weakened from the aura spheres, Ceebee dropped.

    “Ceebee!” Nelvana yowled, forcing her aching legs to hurry over to her ally, to pick up the fight where the celebi had left off.

    She didn’t get that chance. In her haste, she forgot the very reason it was especially important to protect the psychic-type of the group. Momentarily, Nelvana’s gaze met Palkia’s, and everything went black. She was unconscious before hitting the ground, her body going limp and crumpling onto the rock floor.

    She was human.

    She had two parents, Karl and Nikki, and two siblings, Ashleigh and Quintin. Her mother had black hair and Ashleigh had dirty blonde hair, but everyone else had brown hair. All of them except Nikki had blue eyes, and while both parents were left-handed, all three children were right-handed. Nelvana was taller than both of her siblings, which she took pride in. Her father was more withdrawn than her mother, but both did their best to support their children, just in different ways. Karl enjoyed scrounging up old games to play together. Nikki always wanted a proper garden, for more than just food. Ashleigh liked staying up late and talking about everything. Quintin was quiet, but exceptionally bright, and did his best to memorize everything about pokemon.

    She had a pokemon in the family as well. There was a purloin who lived with then as well for all of Nelvana’s life, her name was Achta. Achta, as Nelvana’s parents told her, offered to help them when they had first taken this cave as a home. Achta offered to help protect and forage for them in return for the shelter and support. Aside from her parents, Achta was the one who helped teach Nelvana a lot of the pokemon language when the young human showed great interest.

    She was in a cave with her family. This was their home. This was where she was in most of her early memories. As her parents would tell her in her later years, they had once lived with a larger community of humans, but moved somewhere without as many people to start a family. The cave wasn’t much, no one in the family were particularly skilled in construction, but it was home.

    She and her siblings everything they knew from their parents in their home, from linguistics to math to their survival skills. For a couple years, when Nelvana was around five years old, there were a couple other human families that moved into the area, and the parents decided to school all the children together, and let them make friends and learn compassion. Eventually though, Ashleigh’s friend Marcus disappeared. His family left the area soon after. After that, the security around the area felt broken, and the families began interacting with each other less and less, until Nelvana’s family was the only one in the area again.

    She remembered that despite the dangers of the dark world around them, the idea of exploration grabbed Nelvana’s interest. Once she and her siblings were allowed to wander out a bit more, Nelvana would go climbing to the tops of trees and look out into the monochrome horizon. She was smart enough not to wander too far from home, but there was still the fascination to see more, and to imagine what it must have looked like when there was color and light.

    She was young and she had many nightmares. Many of them repeated themselves, and she could never quite figure out how to solve the problem before she got eaten, or chased into the pit, or simply scared awake. Each time, she would run back to her parents and stay with them for the rest of the night for protection. This happened nearly every night, to the point her parents began growing concerned that their child had an unusual number of nightmares. One night though, they stopped. Nelvana still got nightmares, but not nearly as many, and never the same ones she used to get. No one knew why this happened at all, but they were thankful that everyone could sleep more peacefully.

    She asked many questions. Many of those questions could not be answered. She asked about what the world was once like, and why things were so grim now. She asked if they could fix things someday. She asked why none of the gods were doing anything to save them. These were all questions that were expected to be asked by a child growing up in this timeline, but that didn’t make them any easier to answer.

    She started carrying a stick with her when she went outside. It was large, and could provide more protection for her than her fists. Her father was teaching her and her siblings to use actual weapons, but they weren’t experienced enough to use them outside yet. Nelvana never ended up using the stick, but it made her feel safer to carry around, now that she was older and understood the dangers even more than before.

    She had been strongly warned against Dusknoir and the sableye army. Her parents told her and her siblings that neither Dusknoir nor the sableyes should ever come by the area, nor have any reason to harm any of them if they did show up, but that it would be easy to become a target, and it would be easier to hide instead of confront. This warning didn’t come into use until many years after first being mentioned.

    She was outside when she heard them. The rumbling that could only belong to the feet of many, many creatures. Nelvana knew that there weren’t any other groups that travelled with so many numbers to create such a noise as they travelled; she had been warned about this. Too far away from home to run back and too scared to risk accidentally leading an army back home anyway, Nelvana ran until she found some rocks to hide behind. Just as she crouched, however, she saw something else. A treecko, trudging along nearby, not seeming to notice the distant sound of many someones approaching. Someone as small and as distracted as the young ‘mon would be easy prey…

    She went and dove over, grabbing the treecko and swiftly moving her hand to cover their mouth as she hid them both behind the rock again. Not taking to being suddenly grabbed, Treecko began punching Nelvana wherever their arms could reach, and they bit their tiny teeth into her hand, drawing blood. She had to bite her own lip to not make any noise from the pain, but she kept her grip firm around the smaller being. Suddenly though, Treecko stopped, as they finally cued in to the steadily growing noise of sableyes thundering towards their direction. The pair were silent as the wave of dark purple ran by them, passing in front of the rock and not noticing the two behind it in their hurry to get wherever they had to do. Staying quiet even moments after the army left, Nelvana slowly moved her hands away from the pokemon, lifting her bleeding hand up to examine the damage. Treecko quickly jumped off her lap and moved a few feet away from her, but paused and turned back to face her.

    “˙noʎ ʞuɐɥʇ pu∀ ˙ʎɹɹoS” he told her in a mumble, staring down at his feet.

    She blinked, “¿uɐɯnɥ ʞɐǝds no⅄” she blurted out.

    “Uh… ¿ʇıq ǝlʇʇıl ∀” he replied, blinking back.

    “I… I can speak a bit of pokemon too,” Nelvana told him.

    She continued speaking to Treecko. For whatever reason, loneliness, curiosity… he stuck around. Though their conversation was shaky between two languages, they managed to carry on a small conversation. He told her that he was alone, and she offered to let him come back to her home with her family. It was a risky offer, knowing that there were people that would take advantage of kindness and rob them blind, but she saw the still very recent scar across his muzzle and knew she had to help. She knew he wasn’t bad. He was hesitant, but eventually agreed.

    She brought Treecko back home with her. She was worried her parents would be upset about her bringing a stranger back home with her. She was right, but not completely. They focused on helping Treecko first, asking what happened and properly fixing up the wound on his nose. It would be later that night that they would warn her against bringing random people back home with her, but they still accepted Treecko into the household for as long as he would need. He acted like he wouldn’t stay long, but before any of them knew it, he had become part of the family.

    She named him Alex when he told her that he didn’t have a name, but wanted one. They sat for hours writing down ideas, mostly his suggestions that she wrote down for him, but in the end, he picked one of her few ideas. It had only been a couple months since he had been brought to the cave with her, but they had already become close friends. When the treecko had first moved in, Nelvana dedicated herself more than ever before to learning the pokemon language, and Alex set himself to the challenge of learning the human language back. It was challenging, to learn a language, but they set about it at a steady pace together, and this experience strengthened their bond.

    She didn’t ask much about what happened to him before they met, as he had been pretty tight lipped when first arriving, and she didn’t know if he would be comfortable with it. Alex had eventually told her about his past, being an only child to two parents, that had been mercilessly killed days before he had met Nelvana by Dusknoir, because of how his parents sought to collect time gears and change the past to fix the future. Alex didn’t know much about the mission itself; his parents hadn’t mentioned everything to him yet, but he told Nelvana he still wanted to follow in their footsteps. Nelvana had been hesitant at first, this being a wrench thrown into what structure her life had, but she knew that she wanted to help too.

    She didn’t bring the idea up to her parents about her decision for weeks after telling Alex. They still weren’t certain of where their own plan would take them, and didn’t want to throw unnecessary stress onto them in the meantime. Instead, they continued living the best life they could together with their family. This lasted another few months.

    She had her first dimensional scream vision when touching a strange fruit her and Alex had found when exploring. They were curious about the unfamiliar plant, and after discussing the idea for a few minutes, Nelvana reached out to grab it for a closer inspection. She felt dizzy and witnessed a scene of a bidoof and a shinx, the former of which eating the very same fruit, and reporting feeling sick afterwards. When she came to after the vision, Nelvana found Alex sobbing into her shoulder, his tiny arms exhausted from attempting to shake her awake. The encounter terrified the both of them, and they hurried back home, the fruit forgotten. Achta was the only one who had an idea of what had happened, and she explained what the dimensional scream was to the pair. Stories of humans carrying the dimensional scream ability were carried around pokemon by word of mouth, and she had heard the tale many years before Nelvana’s parents moved into the cave.

    She had her second dimensional scream vision a couple weeks later, and when this one showed her that a time gear was in the nearby dungeon of Treeshroud Forest. After this, she told her parents everything. She had talked to them about the first dimensional scream vision when they had gotten home after the incident, but now she told them about her and Alex’s plans to travel back in time to save the future. They were hesitant and scared, as good parents should be, but eventually supported the idea. It wasn’t fair to live in such a desolate land, and if they had a chance to change that… perhaps it was worth the risk. If the dimensional scream had proven anything, Nelvana and Alex had a chance for success, or so they believed.

    She left her home almost two years after meeting Alex. They had taken months to prepare themselves and try finding other time gears in advance. While they were unable to locate any other time gears from the safety of the cave, they were confident that the dimensional scream would be able to point them in the right direction once they got going. Biding her possibly final farewells to her family… they were off.

    They still had to travel quite a ways to get to Treeshroud Forest, even if it was the closest dungeon. They had to pass through another forest to get there, which was the territory of a large poochyena pack. Deciding to risk the more direct path, knowing this would be the beginning of many battles to come, they were confronted by the pack. One of the poochyenas managed to jump up and sink their teeth into Nelvana’s left shoulder, but was thrown off and pounded away by Alex. They managed to defeat most of the pack, but when Mightyena showed up, and began counting down… they took their chance to flee. Alex would perch on Nelvana’s right shoulder, even long after the wound had healed to just scars.

    They completed the Treeshroud Forest dungeon together, and took the time gear out with them, only come face to face with Dusknoir and his sableye army. He remembered Alex, remembered the scar he gave the treecko after killing his parents. They fought. There were so many sableye. The time gear shattered. Nelvana cried, she cried but she grabbed the pieces, holding them close. She was scared that their quest had already ended. Dusknoir demanded the pieces. She refused. He cut her cheek; a threat of more pain if she didn’t comply. She still refused. Breaking out from his fight against some of the sableye, Alex rushed over to help protect Nelvana; his partner. He glowed, glowing white as his form changed and grew and suddenly it was a grovyle that stood to defend the human and not a treecko. They escaped with the time gear pieces.

    They decided to keep collecting time gears despite the first one breaking. Maybe they could fix it. They had to try. They kept going.

    They continued to fight Dusknoir at every turn, but they refused to give up. They hid when they had no plans of which dungeon to look in next, and then would keep going when they got a lead. The other time gears had guards. They managed to trick Uxie with a mirror, erasing the legendary’s own memories of the time gear they guarded. Knowing the likelihood of encountering the other Lake Guardians, they plotted other strategies so that they wouldn’t have as much of a close call as they had with Uxie. Despite that, Dusknoir and his henchlings continued being their biggest foes.

    She never truly got used to the dimensional scream visions, but she understood their importance, and Alex always made sure to watch over her while she experienced the vision. Often, they would warn them about nearby dangers and important locations, but there was one she couldn’t quite wrap her head around. There was Moltres, attacking them. She could hear Alex yelling, there was a torchic running nearby. But most importantly, there was color. She told Alex about this part, and it brought them new hope that they would be able to make it to the past. She didn’t tell him that she had a terrible feeling that she wouldn’t make it herself.

    They had collected their third time gear when Alex mentioned the Planetary Investigation Team. His parents spoke of it; they were technically a part of it. Deciding to see if maybe this group could help them, they located the base and made their way in. As it turned out, while they were welcoming, the Planetary Investigation Team did not approve of the two teams attempting to save the world on their own, especially after learning why Alex was no longer travelling with his parents, but with a human instead. The Planetary Investigation Team did agree that this was the best plan, but feared Dusknoir too much to act on it, instead using their time to continue research. In the end though, someone was willing to give them directions forward.

    “You two are truly determined in this mission, hm?” Torkoal asked them, politely guiding them off to his room.

    They both nodded. Torkoal smiled softly back at them.

    “That’s good. We need that sort of determination in these times. The others are determined, but their hope is faltering. Many of our members have attempted to follow this plan with no avail. You may think that the others here are cowards, but they have only seen brutal failure, and they do not want to continue repeating that. Even though should this plan succeed, it will change everything for the better, they no longer want to make that risk themselves,” Torkoal explained, “however, I can tell that you two will not give up. I do not remember where the other time gears now, I’m afraid that my memory isn’t what it used to be. I do remember who will be able to help you though. You need to find Celebi.”

    “Celebi?” Alex repeated, gripping Nelvana’s shoulder as he leaned his neck closer down from his perch to Torkoal to listen more clearly.

    “Find Dusk Forest. That is where Celebi hides,” Torkoal told them, “you will not be able to travel back in time without them. Primal Dialga has the door locked to travel through time. The time gears are the key, but only Celebi can use them,” he continued, “I wish you both the best of luck. To activate the dimensional scream, you must have a terrific bond. Do not lose sight of that.”

    They didn’t linger around the Planetary Investigation Team much longer after that, and though it felt bitter to see so many struggling to hold onto their hope, it was still somewhat reassuring to know there were others on their side.

    They travelled out to Dusk Forest together. For once, this could almost be considered peaceful. There was the dungeon, but no other pokemon had made their home in the area. Clearly Dusknoir was aware that there was no time gear there, and didn’t follow them into the area. The strange sense of security felt more unnerving after everything they had been through, but in the end, there were no major dangers.

    They met Celebi, who was pink and not green, who was she and not they. They explained their plans, and she enthusiastically agreed to join them. She knew where the last two time gears would be, and admitted that she had wanted to do something about this timeline for awhile, but never knew how. Alex disliked Celebi at first, thinking her to be a coward for hiding here for her entire life and never helping anyone. Nelvana reminded him that she probably feared Primal Dialga as much as the rest of them, and despite being a mythical, didn’t stand any chance on her own. He accepted this reasoning, and it didn’t take long for the new addition to grow on him. When she requested a name, “to be remembered by,” Nelvana eventually suggested Ceebee, and Ceebee found it to be perfect.

    They continued on their mission together. Despite having a new group member, their travels didn’t get any easier. Dusknoir had no qualms adding Ceebee to his targets list, and continued finding new ways to be an obstacle to the group.

    They had close calls. Nelvana’s wound on her belly bled more than Alex’s on his chest, despite both being from sableye, and she felt dizzy from the blood loss, slowly panicking even after they had removed themselves from immediate danger. Alex got shoved down to the ground on his belly in a moment of weakness, and the sableye tore his back apart. Were it not for Ceebee’s dazzling gleam, they likely would not have gotten out in time. It took awhile to recover from that incident, but Nelvana and Ceebee remained with him the entire time. Ceebee told Alex how Nelvana cried so much that Ceebee had to apply most of the bandages, and how Nelvana ended up falling asleep from exhaustion from staying up on watch for so long. The human and grovyle pair stayed even closer together afterwards, to protect each other, to never leave each others’ sides. He vowed to never turn his back on an enemy again, even for a second.

    They once had Dusknoir offer alliance to them. Nelvana was forced to a kneel before him, her thigh bleeding from more claw marks. Alex and Ceebee continued being swarmed by sableye. Dusknoir offered that if they changed sides, “Master Dialga” could give them power over this land; clearly, they were strong enough to be useful to the corrupt legendary. Nelvana turned him down, and when he began opening his mouth to drag them all into the spirit realm. She slashed her sword across his mouth, and in his agonising pain, the trio had time to escape. Dusknoir never seemed capable of trying to utilize his ability again after that, but Nelvana only felt a twinge of guilt after everything that foe had done to them before.

    They collected all the time gears together. Sitting, hidden behind a rock shelter they had made nearby Temporal Tower, they celebrated their last night before the most important part of this mission. After travelling back in time, they would no longer have to fear Dusknoir or Primal Dialga. All they would have to do is make a teleport gem, and enjoy the sunshine until the final step; destroying the meteor itself.

    “Hey… I’m not big on speeches, you know, but…” Nelvana began, sitting up slightly to address her teammates. “We’ve been through a lot, and I just want you both to know that you’re my best friends. No matter what happens in there-“

    “We’re going to succeed,” Alex interrupted, grinning confidently even though he was fully aware of the possibility of failure.

    She smiled back, “of course we are,” Nelvana agreed, “but as I was saying… no matter what does happen, I don’t regret anything. I’m so glad to have met you both, and that we’re out here doing amazing things together.”

    “Aww! That’s super sweet of you to say, Nel!” Ceebee squealed, “you guys are my best friends! I didn’t really… know anyone before meeting you two, but you’ve showed me so much and made me a part of your group… I can’t wait to be able to see the past together; it’s going to be wonderful,” she continued.

    “It is, it really is…” Alex murmured, “you guys are… family to me. I don’t know where I’d be if I hadn’t met either of you. Probably dead.”

    “Don’t joke about that!” Nelvana snapped, but she was smiling and her eyes were teary and she was just so… happy to have this moment together.

    They hugged together, staying close and talking about what the time before this dark land would be like, and what they wanted to do together when they still had time. Deep down, they all feared that all those hopes would never come to fruition, but they didn’t dare say it. They all knew the risks, they were all prepared, so why dwell on the negatives when they could dream for the positives?

    They entered Temporal Tower together after they had rested. Primal Dialga awaited at the top, as did Dusknoir and what was likely nearly all the sableyes in the land that he could rally up. There were a few other pokemon mixed in the hoard, but they were unfamiliar and blended in to the sea of ghost-types. They fought. Ceebee took the time gears, to add them into the pedestal so that they could open the portal. Nelvana and Alex, all they had to do was hold off the swarm long enough for Ceebee to sneak by and do her job. There was fear. There was the one broken time gear. Ceebee insisted it would work, but this was their first and only chance to try. After what felt like ages, the swirling portal opened wide.

    She was following Alex to the portal when it hit her, a shadow ball to the back. Nelvana crumpled to the ground. She heard shouting, but between that hit and all the others she had taken in the fight, her head swam just trying to fully stand up, leaving her to lean on her partner as they crawled towards the portal.

    “Ceebee!” Alex called out, turning his head back to look at the celebi as the pair neared the portal. “Ceebee! Come on! We’re almost there!”

    “You have to go without me!” Ceebee yelled back weakly as she fluttered just barely out of reach of some of the sableye, who lunged up at her as she struggled to hold open the portal. “I can’t keep it open much longer, you have to go!”

    “We aren’t leaving you! We were supposed to do this together!” Alex screamed at her, anger hiding his desperation.

    They just barely ducked as one of the sableye leapt at the pair. Alex swallowed his breath, looking down at Nelvana, who looked back up at him weakly. If they stayed too much longer, they would lose this fight. With one final glance back, he guided his partner through the portal, leaving Ceebee behind as it closed behind them.

    They carefully made their way through the void that was the portal through time. Ceebee had told them what it should look like, and that all they had to do was make it to the end, and they could be dropped out at the right time. Thus, in silence, the two began their trek.

    “H-Hey, are you alright?” Alex asked Nelvana, eventually breaking the silence.

    “Yeah…” Nelvana murmured back, “I think so…”

    “That’s good, I think we’re almost ther-“ Alex was cut off as the world around them began to shake violently, swirling around them. “Woah! Hang on!”

    “I… I can’t!”

    They did their best to hold on, but arms wrapped around each other was torn into barely gripping each others’ hands. Nelvana could feel her strength leaving her, the pain of her wounds and the spinning that this portal had turned into made her feel dizzy and hard to focus. She let go.

    She was thrown out of the portal, and vaguely she knew she was falling, falling through the sky. Barely, the recognized that the sky was a light blue, before her vision slowly faded to black, and she lost consciousness.

    Distantly, Nelvana knew that this had to be it. Her conscious thoughts barely surfaced through the sea of memories to know that this, this was the moment Gardevoir found her. This would be where her memories got wiped in the first place. Finally, this would be ov-

    She woke up in another void. This, she knew, was the spirit realm. Or, some form of it. She had visited it far too many times between dreams with Gardevoir, and that encounter after the Rayquaza fight to not recognize it. So, this was where they went after disappearing.

    She was human, and for a moment this was strange to her, after being a cubone for so long. Despite that, her long buried muscle memory kicked in at least, and she stood up to her full height, beginning to look around. With any luck, she would be able to find everyone else who had been erased when time was reset.

    She did find Alex and Ceebee first, and they had a joyous reunion, as they all feared the idea of being separated from each other. They already had been forced away from the rest of Team Galaxy, the idea of being then separated from each other here would have been devastating, though none of them felt like bringing that fear up despite all feeling it. Alex asked if Nelvana had her memories back here, to which she had to reluctantly admit that she still didn’t b̶u̶t̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶ ̶d̶i̶d̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶ ̶d̶i̶d̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶ ̶d̶i̶d̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶n̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶w̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶u̶p̶

    They began searching the spirit realm for others. Alex perched on Nelvana’s shoulder, just as he always did when she was human, and Ceebee fluttering beside them. Even though Nelvana’s amnesia would be a hinderance to catching up with any old allies, they still all agreed it would be good to do so while they had the chance. They still all hoped that they would be able to return to life soon, so this would be their last chance for any goodbyes.

    They found others, but the first familiar face turned out to be Dusknoir. Though they tried avoiding him, he approached them, and reluctantly they turned to face him. He shook in place, his eye not quite focusing on any of them despite looking in their direction. Somehow the smile on his belly seemed to stretch wider, but it didn’t look any happier.

    “What do you want?” Alex snapped, “you lost. Do you have to get any last-minute threats out at us?”

    “Was it worth it?” Dusknoir sneered back, a broken laugh escaping him. “You succeeded but you’re gone now, and so is everyone else. Was it worth it?”

    “Yes, it was worth it,” Nelvana told him, “of course it was.”

    “Then why don’t you look happy?” Dusknoir questioned.

    She steeled her gaze despite her shaking hands, “because, when we went back in time, we met the most amazing people. And we miss them,” she told him, “but this was all still worth it. Because even if we never see them again, at least they will live a happy future in a world that wants to live too. If I had to make this choice, I would do it hundreds of times over without regretting anything, just to know that they will be able to live out their lives, and so will generations after them.”

    They waited for an answer from Dusknoir, but he didn’t respond. He only teetered back and forth, hands curling in and out of fists. His gaze, his expression didn’t change.

    “Let’s leave. We don’t need to spend our time talking to him,” Ceebee told them, “it isn’t worth it.”

    They agreed, and began leaving, but then, then was when Dusknoir spoke up again.

    “Are you looking for your family, human?” he called out, “you won’t find them! You never will!” he continued, voice raising on the edge of laughter as he went on.

    “What are you talking about?” Despite her instincts, Nelvana turned back and addressed Dusknoir again.

    “They’re gone! I killed them myself!” Dusknoir answered, laughter bubbling forward but sounding shaky and almost like he wanted to do anything but laugh. “You won’t find them here! I killed them! After you went back in time!”

    “You’re bluffing,” Alex hissed.

    “Go ahead and look then! You’ll see!” Dusknoir taunted, voice broken. “You’ll see!” He wasn’t lying.

    “…Let’s go,” Nelvana growled, turning away from Dusknoir again, leaving him behind.

    They never did find Nelvana’s family in the spirit realm. Just as they could never be expected to find Alex’s parents, or anyone else who died; they all had long moved on to the proper afterlife by now. They did find others though, they spoke with the Planetary Investigation Team again mostly, but when conversation ran dry, the trio went off and sat by themselves, waiting for Gardevoir.

    They leapt back up when Gardevoir finally arrived, telling them that Dialga had promised to bring them back. She led them away from the others from the dead timeline, and brought them home.

    Nelvana’s eyes shot open, and she gasped for her breath, tears already beginning to form and stream down her face despite only barely haven woken up. She continued gasping, choking on her own breath as her mind attempted to grasp everything she had seen. She couldn’t even focus on where she was, what was around her. Vaguely, she wondered if she was still in the battlefield, but she couldn’t manage to see for herself as the tears in her eyes turned everything misty.

    “Nel!” Keahi’s voice called out to her, but Nelvana could barely let out a gurgle of a response.

    Orange, orange and yellow faded into sight through the darkness around her. Nelvana reached out with shaking hands, grasping the feathers of her partner and pulled zim as close to her as she could while she continued to sob, clinging on to the one thing that could ground her. Keahi let out a meek squawk at suddenly being grabbed, but didn’t resist whatsoever, allowing zirself to provide whatever comfort zie could in this moment. She couldn’t stop thinking about her own past, about the things better left off forgotten, about the things she now managed to remember when everyone else forgot.

    Her headgear rattled, already muffled by the torchic that Nelvana continued holding close to her. Despite that, the painful sound echoed in wherever they were, and became the only sound that pierced her thoughts.