It's not much longer until that final ting signifies the conclusion to all we've been working for, the resolution to what must have been months of tedious, boring grinding. Frankly I'm impressed the team stood up with it, and though some days have been worse than others, there's a unanimous cheer as I hold up the Pokedex, the brightness so high that it lights up the whole cave like Flash.

"That's it! We're done!" I call, and Fang, recipient of the new level, grins toothily. He's a little battered, likely in need of a Hyper Potion, but he's been refusing help all day. I just think he's glad to know he's not holding us up anymore.

The others are celebrating as soon as they hear the ding, with Pisces showing slightly more emotion than usual and Minerva rushing up to Fang to nuzzle him directly. The two of them, Fang's mentor and coach respectively, have spent a lot of time with the perky Umbreon, and they're glad to be done with it too.

"Level 50, all around." Reginae says, by my side. "Not bad, not bad."

"Not bad?!" Fang says, practically ecstatic. He jumps with joy around the cage, pantomiming the ensuing battle. "We're incredible. We're going to walk in there and all the Elite Four members will be on their knees. We're gonna-"

"We're gonna take a break, now, right?" Minerva asks with a nervous laugh. "Please."

"Why don't we celebrate back at the hotel?" I ask, and the whole team perks up.

"What do you have planned?" asks Ten.

"Food," I say, "And going to sleep."
Another unanimous cheer. I'm on fire today.

It's not even sunset when we get back, though for Pisces, we've come to the end of the line. She's long since resigned herself to her fate, and bears no ill will to those of us small enough to use most of the amenities provided by society, but I still feel bad patting her down and promising to see her again tomorrow.

"Get me something good for breakfast," she tells me, then turns to the rest of the group with her usual shrewd expression. "As for the rest of you, don't go too crazy on the food. Tomorrow may not be the day we challenge the Elite Four, but I can assure you that bulking out on junk food just after all that training will carry its own consequences."

"We won't," lies Fang.

She sees right through him, but just flares her nostrils and taps the Pokeball to her head.

The rest of the team, giddy with excitement, runs through the revolving door and skids to the right, turning into the lobby. The Indigo Plateau's hotel is decorated in (what else?) glorious purples, with irises in every vase and dark rugs beneath the furniture. There's also typical fancy hotel fare, with chandeliers spanning half the ceiling and exuberant wealth on display everywhere. I was convinced for most of my childhood that places like this were made up, like palaces, and now I'm staying in one.

My team takes no such time to admire the lobby. Instead, they cram themselves into the elevator, which is specially made for Pokemon and without Pisces can fit us easily. The elevator takes us up to the third floor, and we all plunge into our respective beds in the hotel room.

The room itself is mainly cream, with large down blankets and even larger pillows. It's built for comfort and even features sweets and a few spare Potions on one of the tables, bought there for our time to unwind (as written in large cursive letters on a notecard) by the hotel staff.

"Feel like going out?" I ask, sinking a few inches further into the bed.

"Nah." say all the remaining Pokemon, in unison, and I call up room service.

We order pancakes, because damnit, health food is for chumps and people who didn't just finish grinding. Then we order some ice cream to go with our pancakes, the fancy kind you see other people eating at restaurants and wish you had the kind of financial resources to order on a whim.

The delivery is faster than a Jolteon, and the next thirty minutes consist of us eating pancakes with insane amounts of syrup off plastic trays while my teammates recount their best battles from the last few days. Usually, I listen with rapt interest, but I've heard most of these before. Heck, all of us were there for these. As a trainer, I have free license to be brooding anyways. I swirl my raspberry sorbet defiantly and find the mint leaf reminds me of how Celebi smells.

One more thing on my mind.

I realize I've lost track of the conversation altogether when Minerva nods my way, tails waving, and says, "I'm just happy to retire here at the end of the day."

"True. This must be what the inside of a Luxury Ball feels like," sighs Fang, kneading the blankets with his paws.

"It sure costs more than just buying you all Luxury Balls." I tell them, thinking of looking over the bill again. The numbers go into six digits after three months, between food and housing, and it's... well, let's just say I've spent all the cash from defeating the gym leaders up and called my mom up several times to ask for the money I've spent back. If we hadn't been done by now, we might have had to camp just outside the Plateau and eat canned food while we finished training.

"How are you even paying for this?" asks Minerva, echoing my sentiments. "Won't we need money when we're going into Kanto?"

"Money? Ha!" I laugh, getting up to take their bowls and stack our plates on the table in the corner. "What do I need money for, food? Once we defeat the Elite Four, we'll be rolling in dough anyways. If we fail, all of you are dead and everyone I know and care about will die shortly after, so money will be a non issue."

"This has been pleasant." Reginae says. "Can we get to the sleeping part soon?"

"Sure, but then we wouldn't get to watch TV. Who's up for excessive television?" asks Fang, looking around with his tail wagging.

"I don't care how nice the hotel is. There's nothing on hotel television. Ever." I say, falling back into my bed. "Vetoed."

No one has any response to that, so we sit staring at the ceiling until I have the decency to at least turn off the lights.

***

I don't know what I was dreaming about.

All I know is that it's early in the morning when I wake up.

My eyes rove over the bulk of the team, looking for signs of movement. I'm half sure they're all asleep, which will have to be good enough. There's something pulling at me tonight. I get up, slip on new clothes over my old ones, including a battered overcoat, and then pull on shoes. I grab some granola for good measure and enjoy a midnight snack, the honey-coated grains sweet in my mouth.

Reginae stirs, turning to me and resting his head near my feet with his eyes still closed. I step out of the way and place the rest of the granola down, resolving to save it for later instead.

I don't know why I'm so nervous- it's not as if we share dreams or anything. I should be able to sneak out without an issue, but just to make sure, I throw the bag over my back and lock the door on the way out, sure that their lack of thumbs and reluctance to destroy hotel property will give me enough time to make the round trip.

I walk as if still dreaming down the stairs, dressed in a basic outfit that I'm sure would look horrendous in the daylight, but will at least keep me warm in the brisk chill of early spring.

The cave looms over me, its stalactites like bronze fangs.

I feel a wave of guilt as I trace the entrance with my eyes, trying to hesitate, but I know I can't go back until I do what I came here for.

Red wins this one.

I throw the Master Ball into the darkness.

A massive figure fills the entrance of the cave, the body bright white as it emerges from the Pokeball, taking shape far too slow. It grasps out at the floor with its too-large arms, the skin becoming real and rubbery as it settles in its form, and the detail of the haphazardly sewn together limbs glimmer in the starlight. Across his back, blue spikes blaze into existence, jutting out around the spine, which is stretched tight against the skin. The spikes themselves look like someone thrust them there, like throwing knives, all of them not quite symmetrical. I look up towards his face, shuddering, and see the same human eyes from three months ago watch mine with intense panic.

They're still his. They are the gray eyes that appear at the back of every hazy memory, the last piece of his body they couldn't destroy. He seems to recognize me, but he has no name to give to my face- either that, or he's in too much pain to speak.

I don't want to know which. I don't know how to comfort him, how to ask what to do next, to ask if he's ready to spend the rest of his existence in the void alone, locked in a Poke Ball.

He sniffs, nostrils flaring, and I feel the tingle of a warped bond near the back of my mind. He remembers me, that much is certain, but his energy is nothing like that of the rest of my team.

As I watch him, hardly recognizable, all of the Ethan I know runs through my mind again. I can hear him choke on his own breath and wonder if he knows it, too, wonder if in the back of his mind he's thinking of pancakes or something ridiculous, of memories long tarnished for me by two years and the end of the world. I should have said more. I should have done more. I should have-

He's muttering something beneath his breath.

"I'm right here." I promise, half to steady myself. "I've got you."

"You." Ethan replies, the word rough around the edges but nonetheless there. He bends down closer to my level, so close that he can almost put his head to my hand, and I hear something in the back of my mind. It's static, which grows into a bloodcurdling screech. I can't tell if it's human, Pokemon, or machine, but it's him, calling out, and as the sound grows clearer it lapses into the sound of something, I have no idea what, drowning.

His gray eyes watch mine, struggling to communicate, trying to convey something, but the calm is ending. One of his hands- wings- one of his limbs flies out and the reaction is instinctive.

I whip out the Pokeball with all the speed I couldn't muster for Basil and withdraw him before he can hurt himself... or me. He disappears at twice the speed he came out, practically normal, and I stand at the edge of the most dangerous cave in the world, empty, one more, at the entrance.

"I'm sorry." I whisper into the night air.

You didn't do this. whispers an old voice in my head, but knowing the changes caused by the timeline shift, there's no way to tell if I did this. All of this could be a direct, impossible result of my interference, a Butterfree effect beyond anything I can imagine.

Red would love that. He would love knowing that I, too, deliberately or otherwise, was just the world-destroying monster he was.

I'm the world-destroying monster about to go on to challenge the most powerful trainers in the Kanto and Johto regions in two days, and even though I can't stand myself right now, half of me just wants to lie down and cry it off until the morning, or at least go to sleep. These emotions are only going to get more bitter in the cold and I hate myself for coming here, I hate myself for falling for Red's trap, I hate the fact that I'm not strong enough to last more than a few minutes.

Not yet.

The walk back is frigid but I manage.

I push open the lobby door and turn towards the hotel section of the Indigo Plateau, taking the elevator up to the third and topmost floor of the hotel. Room 311. They must have a lot of vacancies.

It takes a minute to locate my key in my pocket, just long enough for me to panic, but I'm relieved to find it next to the TM case. I pull it out and jam it into the door, slumping against the bed with my overcoat still on.

The team's still asleep. I swear at myself for worrying so much, and then again for not getting the rest I'll need for the next few days.

Not much longer now...

I'm going to save this world if it kills me.