Miki leers at me, agitated. "No one is above consequence."

"That's what you think. I have reason to believe otherwise. Have you heard of Red?"
    Miki shivers. "Even him," she says softly. "There will be a Goldeneye who will rise up to fight him. He can not be allowed to destroy this world. If it is necessary I, along with Morty's new team, will ascend the mountain and fight him ourselves."

"Those are some brave words, seeing as you only have two years left."
    The doors to the Bell Tower open before either of us can speak again. In fact, they open entirely out of their own volition, which is more than slightly terrifying.

"Do they usually do that?" asks Reginae.

"This building gives me the creeps." Luna shudders.
    Rose chirrups happily, toddling towards it with stubby arms stretched wide. I pick her up and she chirrups indignantly. "Ashleeeeeeeeeeey! I wanna go in! There's pretty music in there!"
    "I can't hear anything." I say.

Miki reflectively examines Rose, running a hand over her head spikes. "What your Togepi hears is actually unique to her species, which is said to have a connection with the ancient legendaries of Johto. Does the sound resemble bells?"
    "Yep!" Rose says. "They're loud. Can we go? Please?" She tries to crawl out of my arms but I have a vice grip around her.

"We can indeed, although I'll need to change into a more suitable form." Miki falls to the ground and her form is cloaked in fire. Everywhere the flame touches leaves fur and soon we are faced with a Flareon that's twice as large as a normal one, each of its nine tails radiating a powerful heat. Her dark eyes are rimmed by black and she's got long, trailing fur that makes her look more like a Ninetails than a Flareon.

"We can enter now." she tells me, her voice a low purr. "It's proper form for any guest to enter a sacred area only when accompanied by a kitsune guide."

I stare blankly at the magnificent architecture of the Bell Tower, which is so different from the Burned Tower that it's hard to believe the two were once twins. The wood is polished as if it had only been installed days prior and the center, rimmed by a small gate, is a large hole that must stretch all the way up the tower. The entire thing is breathtaking in its massive scale and the colossal feeling of power both. All the air here threatens to crush me.

"Come."
    "Alright guys, we need to-" I say, but Miki bares her teeth.

"What?" I ask.

"They may not come. One human is enough. Bringing an entire team is grounds for sacrilege." she growls.

"They're staying on my person." I say defensively.
    "As you will." Miki dips her head slightly.

Reginae swells with indignation. "You're kidding me! You're just going to let her do this? Ashley, we're your team! You have to keep us out in case anything happens and-"

"This is a dangerous place." Rose echoes, speaking in a voice that is definitely not hers.

"Welp, this is officially way too creepy for me. Back in the Pokeball, boys!" Luna calls, and I withdraw her.

Reginae fixes me a nasty look before he returns to his Pokeball alongside D'spinas and Rose.

"Ashley," Ten says, placing his wing on my leg. "Good luck."
    He disappears as well and I tuck them in my pocket in the smallest size the Pokeball will allow. An odd emptiness fills me.

"Good." Miki mutters, "Now let's go. I must admit I do want to know where you're from. The things you know are not only shocking... they may be a threat to us."

I get the feeling that Miki may be a little less restrained in this form than her human one.

Keep on your guard.

I brace myself for an impact that may or may not be coming as Miki lunges over the center towards the stairs and jumps straight up onto the second floor at a near impossible angle. I race around it myself and begin mounting the stairs. By the time I get up to the second floor, she's already next to the stairs again. I run only to hit a dead end. Turning, I rush the other way and jump over a gap on the floor. My climb up the stairs is nothing short of animal and Miki is only halfway across the floor this time, which is riddled with tiny gaps leading nowhere. She smirks. This is not just a trip to the top- it's a challenge. If I'm worthy, I'll have to be able to keep up.

You can do this. All you have to do is focus on me.

Celebi's voice rings in my mind. My vision flashes green and I begin to see thousands of trails in front of me, each of them complete with a phantom version of myself. I align myself in position with the one whose trail leads straight to the stairs and wind through hundreds of dividers in the room. Miki is perched sprawled out over several near the end. We move on.

The next room is divided in two. I take a giant leap following another future-self and find myself on the other side. Celebi's wings flicker out in bright green behind me.
    Miki raises a fox eyebrow. I can tell she's impressed.

The phantoms have switched to Celebi's form. My body is much lighter than before, and I have to look down at my only slightly green hands to remind myself I'm still human.

I move forwards and for a second my vision flashes to a forest surrounded by trees. I fall down, scraping my knee on wood below. Blood wells up and I know this is one splinter that will not end well. Getting back up, I pull a large woodchip out of my leg and cringe in pain as it comes right out. Trying not to scream, I move on.

The next floor is nothing but stairs on both sides with nothing but a void in between. Miki herself barely fits on the platform. She glances back before ascending the next flight of stairs in a single bound.

Free.

I find myself on the other side without thinking anything. My body moves outside of my own command.

I'm sitting in the Illex across worlds. Time and space are one and I, the singularity, control all of it. The other legendaries are safe in their domains. This is a good life. We have nothing to fear...

Oh, but you know that's not true.

The darkness is coming to consume you. Not a plant in this forest will be spared of its wrath.

I shake my head, hitting a wall and falling back down the stairs. Inches from falling into the abyss, I focus on Miki's fur instead of myself. I can't lose control now.

Shafts of moonlight shine through the stairs, which must be the last. Between me and them is nothing more than a single, easily traversed plank. Miki is watching me with keen interest now.

My heart beats out of my chest. Fear and exhilaration course through me as Celebi wrestles for control. We aren't just one mind or one body anymore- we are a wildly flipping coin about to land and my eyes flash with visions of a thousand worlds.

Every single possibility of where I could be is real and if I can't focus on the here and now I'm going to fall. It's that simple.

Bronze opens his mouth and is gone. I'm sitting next to Morty at the beach. Ethan is baking me blue pancakes at a restaurant. I'm standing by my mother in the Hall of Fame, having defeated her and now about to take her place as Champion. Chompers and I stand on the edge of oblivion. I am above this, sitting on the top of the tower and Morty isn't there. Miki and I are back at the hotel and-

Stop stop stop stopstopstop!
    Morty draws in for a kiss... Bronze plunges into the lava... someone I don't know is curled around me late at night and things are okay for once in our lives... something inhuman is watching me and-

Crack.

My vision sears green. Celebi's "wings" are the only thing holding me in balance. I put a foot back and the plank cracks slightly.
    Thousands of future selves surround me. I watch as a few fall into the abyss and disappear.

One of them is just ahead. I look at her path and close my eyes.

Thump.

I land on the other side. I jumped. I'm safe. I-

My hands shaking, I draw myself up into the moonlight. An old friend is sitting there, meditating in the wings of a giant bird painted pure gold.

"Morty."

Morty turns around, his eyes full of golden fire. He gasps upon seeing me and my heart flutters for a second and I realize he's indignant, not relieved. Still, for a second, I thought I saw some flicker of familiarity in his eyes. I almost convinced myself he knew.

"Miki, is this another challenger? I told you not to let any in-" He pauses. Miki flicks her tail.

"She's no challenger. She also made it up here by herself."

"All the floors? Even the gap?"

"Especially the gap."
    He slaps his hand against his face. "I'm sorry. I know you're not stupid enough to bring someone up here for no reason."

Miki looks irritated. "You must have been really deep in meditation to even think I just bought a challenger up here on my back. Challengers aren't even allowed up here. The only creatures who can climb the last few floors can be neither Pokemon nor human. Instead, they must be a mixture of both. Such as me, you... and her."

"What Pokemon?" asks Morty, his eyes wide as he examines me.
    I speak for myself, snapped from my trance. "You wouldn't believe me."

Did he know last time?

"It's you." he says, relief in his voice.

It's me. It's me, it's me, I remember you-

"Celebi." he finishes.

"Yes." I say, my voice cracking. Tears flood my eyes. "Yes, I'm..."

"That must've been traumatizing. I'm sorry if the journey up caused you any harm. In the meantime, we should probably get ya back down. This time, Miki can help us with the return journey. We have a lot to talk about."
    "That wasn't the only thing I wanted to tell you about her. Morty, she-"

"Being the flipping Celebi Goldeneye we've been tracking for years qualifies as several million things. I can't believe this. We have a chance. I don't know how much you know about what you are, but Miki and I are going to show you everything there is to know." He tells me. "Just grab onto Miki and we'll get you down so we can talk at my house."

Miki scoffs. "That's not what I meant. You will speak to him about your other abilities at the house, Celebi."
    Slightly threatened, I get onto Miki, who bursts with heat at my presence, and he jumps on in front of me.

He turns around, "Wait, what was your name?"

"Ashley." Every word he says is breaking my heart. All the incredulousness of our first encounter is well and truly shattered. Everything about this is wrong but I don't know what I expected. I don't know what I wanted.

What do you want, Ashley?

"I want you to remember." I murmur, clinging onto Miki's fur with my legs and my arms as she descends the floors at a breakneck pace. If one of us was to let go or if Miki's fur wasn't so long and my wings didn't keep fluttering in and out of existence, I probably would have broken my neck by now.

"Is something wrong?" he asks.

"Do you... I..." I stutter.

"I'm a Goldeneye too," he confirms. "Seriously, there's no reason to cry. Miki and I won't hurt you."

"You already have. More than you could ever know." I say.

His face twists in confusion.

Miki stops at the bottom. "I told you she was different."

"Celebi." Morty repeats. "One of the few Pokemon capable of travel through time."
    I slide from Miki's back, feeling sick. In the moonlight, I have become more than a thirteen year old. The moon makes my form look older, or at least, I imagine so, and we well and truly reunite.

His eyes are full of amazement, awe, and fear.

I can only imagine how I look to him.