I don't want to go, so I book us another night at the hotel with the prize money automatically transferred to my account from winning Surge's gym battle. The EXP points alone were more than worth the challenge, but I'm not shy about taking a little bit of financial compensation.

"So," I ask the team, who look up with a mixture of boredom and indifference, "Looks like we have a free day."

"The end of the world is coming up on a few months. There are no free days." Minerva informs me, though she's glaring at the whole group out of the corner of her eye. "I'd be up for grinding the next route. Who's with me?"

No one is with her.

"Fine, see if I care when all of you guys get pounded by Sabrina's gym. This goes double for you, Fang- don't think your Dark typing is going to save you." she scoffs, heading towards the door outside. "Ashley's going to back me up. Just you see."

I look to the rest of my assembled Pokemon, then back to her, and mutter, "I admit I'm a little scared about the next few gyms. This is uncharted ground for me. We should all be in our best possible form in case something goes wrong." I swing the door open and a blast of fresh fall air sweeps the whole lobby, the city scents mingled with the distant promise of sunshine. "Plus, it's nice, isn't it?"

As we approach the next route, which bridges Vermillion and Saffron, I realize that Kanto's routes aren't so much actual paths through the wilderness as tidy little places for trainers to face off. The grass is clipped to a precise height, the path is short, and trainers mingle the road in alarming frequency. The whole thing makes me feel like I'm some kind of bizarre theme park instead of walking between two legitimate cities.

A Meowth sticks its head out of the grass, eyes darting from patch to patch, then it makes a run for it across the path on all fours.

"Catch it!" yelps Minerva, and before the poor kitten can run away a Great Ball hits it in the side of the head and it clicks at once.

I wince, hoping I haven't hurt the poor thing, and walk to pick it up. Minerva scans the area, ears perked, but I sense frustration emanating from her. As the Pokedex pings with the new information I frown. "That can't be right."
"What?"

"Level fifteen. He's level fifteen." The Pokedex pings again, asking for a nickname. 'Cream', I decide, putting it away for later stashing in the PC. "Are they all like this?" I ask the team.

Reginae squints at the scrawny Pokemon of the area, heads hardly scraping the top of the grass. "Yep."

"How are we supposed to grind for a level fifty and up gym in an area with wild Pokemon capping at fifteen?" Minerva asks, practically burning up with aggravation.

"I think it's on purpose," I tell her, pointing to the trainers. "We're going to have to fight them."

Several people turn at the word 'fight', Poke Balls bared. I feel a ripple of energy through my team, an electric surge of excitement linking all of us. "I think we can handle this." I tell them.

Trainers come up one at a time. We're more than happy to brawl with all skill classes and ages, although it pains me to see how many of the younger trainers are making do with two Raticates and nothing else. The reasoning behind it, even more disturbingly, seems to be that these Pokemon are easier to replace.

At least, that's what I figure, given that not one of the people I fight that day has a single Potion on hand.

My Pokemon, on the other hand, need constant healing despite having taken the 'best possible form' bit to heart. I spend most of my time spritzing on Potions or taking notes on their form, trying to find weak points for us to improve on in the future. Reginae's stamina is lacking, and he keeps trying to experiment with his Reflect to the point of overusing it. It's not Protect, it won't block everything, and fire attacks are generally completely unaffected. Still, I watch as he slams aside Raticates by blocking them and swivelling the barrier around to hit them, and I can't help but feel a bit of pride.

As for the others, Minerva's still Minerva, though I wish she had a little more complexity to her battle style than "blast things until they stop moving". Fang has the other problem- his combination of full-out attacking moves, status effects, and agility make him versatile, but he's lacking in the power we need for the knock out. I'll have to find some TM moves that might work better. Pisces isn't going to listen to any lip I give her about her strategy.

Ten... Ten is falling out of the sky.

My Noctowl plummets towards the earth with a shrill cry, which turns into elation as his locked wings and crest blaze with fire. It's the same blue blaze as before, and he slams his opponent with enough force to send them both flying back.

"Ten!" I yell, running to help him up.

"Bloody hell, I have the worst migraine right now..." he mutters.

"This really isn't going away, is it?"

Ten shakes his head.

"We still don't have any idea what it is, either?"

"Not a bloody clue." He's lapsing in and out of that fake accent again, which is never a good sign. I sideline him reluctantly for the rest of the day. He watches the others with disappointment glittering in his eyes, and the both of us know that he'll be sitting out gym battles if he can't get this under control.

We're all sore and bedraggled when we enter the town again, but thankfully it's not hard to find our way to the Pokemon Center. It's a beacon even amongst the flashing neon signs at the core of the city. The imposing building opens up to a rush of warm air and the scent of sterilized equipment. I put the team back in their Pokeballs and laze about on the couch while my Pokemon are healed.

Lying here reminds me of one of the first nights I spent with the new team, when it was just Reginae, Ten, and I. We were in Cherrygrove and I still felt awful about the whole ordeal.

Will I ever stop missing what was? No.

I feel okay, though, tonight. I've felt okay for the last few months.

It's a strange feeling, and it rarely hits you all at once, but in a city as big as this one it's obvious how far we've come.

"Ms. Hart?"

I retrieve my Pokemon and realize I have unfinished business. The team pops out and I get to work at the PC, entering my password from when I was twelve- xxdragonstarsxx- and try not to cringe at my terrible taste in just about everything. I hadn't changed it because I open the PC once in a blue moon, but right now I'm considering it.

"Do you have any Pokemon in there?" Minerva asks, laying her head on the counter.

"To be honest? I don't end up using them very often, if at all. I've considered releasing my box team, but I'd prefer not to send a bunch of wild Pokemon out into wilderness they're not level-adjusted for." I say, clicking in Cream's Poke Ball and depositing him for the PC.

"Oh, we can transport them to local Pokemon Centers," Nurse Joy informs me, disregarding how I'm speaking to myself in the middle of a public area. "That way they'll be safe and sound with other wild Pokemon

"You'll get them back close to their original habitats?" I ask, feeling my spirits lift.

She nods.

I decide to keep Cream for potential future use, but purge the rest of the PC. Nurse Joy smiles. "Thank you for your service. Have a nice night, ma'am."

"So," I ask the team, glad to have that weight off my shoulders, "Where to next?"

***

We return to the hotel room after a brief meal and the team passes out on the spot. I manage to change and brush my teeth before falling onto my bed. These five-star hotel beds are pampering me. I don't know how I'm going to sleep when we start living in the wilderness again like a bunch of disappointing feral Pokemon.

I watch the windows, streaming with city light, until one darkness turns to another and I lose consciousness.

I wake up hours later from an uneasy dream and know from experience I won't be going back to bed for a while. It's well past midnight, making it the perfect time for round two of night escapades. Fang lights up the next room over, his rings glowing in his sleep as he lies half on top of Minerva. Reginae's curled against them, and Ten is perched on the edge of the bed.

They look so peaceful like this.

I slip a sweatshirt on over my pajamas and open the door, the sliver of light from the halls burning my eyes.

I feel a soft tug against my outerwear. Reginae's grabbed the shirt with his teeth and his amber eyes catch mine. They're large and watery, the bright glint of them visible even in the darkness.

"I know what you're doing," he whispers, letting go and craning his neck so we're even with each other.

"You can't stop me." I reply, resolute as one can be when sneaking out of a hotel at one in the morning in their pajamas.

My life is complicated.

"I don't want to stop you. I just want to come with you."

"Oh." Well, that can be arranged.

Reginae and I walk the halls like twin phantoms, our footfall light and the world just a blur of bland color. I wipe sleep from my eyes and press the elevator down button. It pulls up almost immediately, at one would expect in the middle of the night, and we file in.

I try to scrounge up some conversation topics from the back of my foggy mind, and realize there is something I've meant to mention for a while. "So, not to be blunt, but is Minerva... into any of you?"

Reginae tilts his head, "Kind of a weird question. How would you even reach that conclusion?"

"She's been a lot more affectionate lately. With everyone."

Reginae lets out a soft, tired laugh that turns into a yawn about halfway through."Yeah, like that's the most of our issues. Ten breathes fire? No biggie. Red talking about how three of us won't make it? Small potatoes. Minerva being nice? Oh no. That's the deal breaker."

"I kind of miss having couples on the team." I admit.

"I don't think the universe waits around for romantics. Supposedly, you and Morty are a couple, but I think it's a little more complicated than that." Reginae gazes towards the ceiling. "Give the man a break, won't you?"

"I would, but I think I just keep trying to go back to what we had when I know it's never going to be the same. Arceus, I just keep lashing out at him..." I feel my face burn with guilt.

"Do you remember when we first met?" he asks.

I smile. "We kind of hated each other."

"I thought you were crazy." he says, then pauses. "I mean, you are. I was right."

"Thanks," I tell him, glad to have his full confidence.

"Still, I was way too harsh- especially after I knew what you'd been through. I never lost anyone important enough to understand why you missed them so much so we just kept rebuking you for it, like you'd just wake up one morning and be better. It was selfish, honestly." he sighs. "Sometimes I wonder if Rose died knowing you care as much about us as you cared about them." he says.

The elevator stops humming and we walk out into the night together, the streets still lit by lamps and the glow of signs. There are few people, which just means there's no one around to judge, but I'm still glad as it passes into the distance. We wander from roads to paths, then into the depths of the forest, and the silence of the night takes us again. The hush and lack of light are a comfort on my weary senses.

"I used to know the scientific name of all these trees," Reginae tells me. "All of them."

"Yeah?" I yawn.

"I thought I'd be just that much smarter when I evolved, but apparently you don't really get better at everything when you grow up. You just learn to manage. You change."

"Guess so." I shrug.

"So, are we going to do it?" he asks the woods.

I throw out the Master Ball, and Reginae's glum weariness ripples into shock and fear as the figure overhead takes form. Ethan is massive, almost blotting out the sky, and his disjointed teeth and hands are visibly malformed even in the shadow of the rest of his body.

Reginae takes a step back. "I can hear him."

I tap into our connection, but it's no better than the Elite Four. Frustrated, I push harder, and feel Celebi's power activate within me. Timelines branch out around me before converging, falling on top of each other like a thousand near-identical photos being layered at once. Everything has a hazy blur about it, the imperfect outlines making this new world all the more foreign, but Ethan's speech is becoming more coherent.

Legendaries can perceive multiple timelines at once. Ethan must be trying to communicate with me across all of them, completely unaware of what he's doing.

I'm here now, I tell him.

A few vague words emerge from the static, pulled forth through the soup of timelines.

I knew you'd come back for me.

Ethan's eyes focus on me, and he moves his head forwards so that we're almost touching. I run a hand down his smooth skin. The action of touching anything in multiple dimensions is a strange one, as if the action is occurring slower and faster than you intend it to, both at once. Texture, too, is odd in a way I have no words for.

It hurts to breathe.

I hurt everywhere.

I place a hand on the Master Ball. "Are you better in there? Does it hurt less?"

Cold. Don't want to. Don't want- no more silence-

He rears back, and the world begins to unfocus again around me, splitting off into billions of parallel timelines on the edge of my vision. I try to pull myself back together, but Ethan's not trying to communicate anymore and Celebi's powers are far harder to control than I could've imagined. It's like trying to stop a waterfall with my bare hands.

Reginae lets out a plaintive cry of pain and the world snaps back to the single space-time continuum I'm used to. The surrounding area feels flat, and I realize the lack of dimension is just the reality I'm used to, without the overlapping universes.

With a sensory overload like that, combined with what must be the still new sensations of legendary power, I can only wonder how Ethan can manage to communicate at all. He's cowering away from me, neck drawn back and body hunched. The dark, too-human eyes regard me with sadness as the millions of unfocused voices whisper in my head: Didn't mean to. Didn't want to. Didn't mean to hurt.

The background thoughts are overwhelming him now, and the conversation goes back to static again. Ethan opens his mouth, trying to make sound, but nothing comes out. He chokes on his own tongue and that sets off another round of trembling, his body struggling to hold him up.

I hold up the Master Ball and he looks at me with wild fear in his eyes.

I try to coax him in: "I promise it won't be for long. I'm going to save you, buddy."

Ethan returns to the Master Ball, and I tuck him away in my bag, trying to ignore the guilty twinge in my heart. Whether I like it or not, I'm playing right into Red's trap and my own emotions now. There's no way I can leave him in there.

"Reginae." I say, calming myself. "Are you okay?"

"I could hear him." Reginae says. "He just started getting louder and I couldn't take it anymore. Hopefully I didn't mess it up... did I?"

I shake my head. "No. This is a lot better than coming out here alone."

"Good. That's good."

The bond between us is taut and bright, but I don't need to search it to know that both of us are right on the verge of falling asleep where we stand.

(a/n: jfc i hate this chapter)