Nina awakened under the radiant glow of a pregnant full moon.
“Nghh… Nitey? Espy? Azzy? Where am I?”
“Bi! Bi-bi-bi!”
“C-Celebi…?”
“Bi. Celebi!”
The girl stirred like a beached Wailord, heavy and slow. “I feel like one too… Urgh. Where am I, Celebi? Did you Teleport out of that hole? Where is everybody?” Nina’s first instinct was to check her belt, where every single one of her Pokeballs were accounted for.
“Cle~ 𝄞”
“Clefa~ ♪”
“Fae~ ♫”
“Clefaee~ ♪”
Looking around, Nina found herself surrounded by a peculiar ring of glittering pink, fairy-like Pokemon; a whole colony of Clefas, Clefairies and Clefables dancing and singing rrily under the silver moon.
To her side, on the ground, was a familiar red and white ballcap — Ash’s iconic hat — which must have fallen off because it was a couple of sizes too large to fit her. “That’s right, we were arguing about who should go after Giovanni. Then Koga showed up. And then, wto…” Nina stiffened. “I hope he’s doing okay…”
“Bi?” A certain sentient brussel sprout drifted in front of her face with a concerned frown, eliciting an assuring smile from the girl.
“Is this… Mount Moon?” Indeed, Nina could make out the familiar sight of the Moon Shrine shining amidst the dark of night, glowing ethereal and solemn like a paper lantern — the resonant illumination emanating from that super-sized Moon Stone enshrined within its wooden confines.
It was a fantastical backdrop punctuated by a troupe of enchanting fairies in the foreground, imparting an almost dreamlike quality to the terrain. As if soone had plucked a scene straight out of the pages of a children’s storybook and transplanted Nina right in the middle of it.
“Bi, celebi-bi!” Celebi gestured and pulled at Nina’s sleeves towards the tranquil lake surrounded by a field of wildflowers and dusted with starlight.
The girl huffed, languidly got up on her feet and begrudgingly allowed herself to be steered. She was simply too exhausted to resist, feet like pillars of lead dragging against the ground.
“Bi, bi. Celebi…”
“w…”
There, by the shore, she found the listless figure of a pink feline heaving in distress, their furry pink form laid atop a nest of blossoms and grass.
“Go to the Moon Shrine, for there is where they lay, broken and spent. Return that piece and it should partially aid in their recovery.” wtwo’s parting words echoed in her mind as Nina bent down and gently scooped the bundle of fur into her arms with a sigh. “I should hate you…”
“www…”
“After all that you’ve put through… Saddling with that leash around my neck. Making fight criminals and terrorists, and just derailing my journey overall.”
“w… w-w…” w whimpered and nuzzled weakly against Nina’s nape.
But the fact remained that Nina had ultimately failed, or partially succeeded if one were to be optimistic. “Despite all of w’s mythical powers, despite the gem manipulating my encounters, w couldn’t hasten the pace of my journey. They couldn’t force to cripple or neutralize Giovanni in Ilex Forest.”
It also wasn’t w who decided to turn a blind eye and put faith in the Pokemon League to contain that bastard. “It was all . I was the one who made those decisions, poorly considered or not.”
It was comforting, in a way, to know that her agency remained wholly intact.
“You did your best, didn’t you?”
“w…”
“You saw a terrible future and tried to change things for the better.” By limiting Nina’s choices, by steering her. Although ultimately, w was never able to compel Nina’s actions. Not fully. “It was all . Ash was saved but Giovanni escaped. All because I was too stubborn and uncertain.”
“w only appears in front of those with the purest of hearts.” Nina pressed her cheek against the fuzzy pile of fur in her arms. “You screwed up, w. You should’ve found sobody more pragmatic.” Sobody more dogged and ruthless… The girl chortled in self- deprecation. “But still, did we do it? Change things for the better?”
The response ca from Celebi, who pressed her forehead against Nina’s. The vision she saw back in the Lake of Rage morphed. Where once there was roiling chaos, now there were only a few wobbly lines. The flow was intact, causality preserved.
“Giovanni was originally supposed to stabilize the wormhole first before taking his sweet ti to look for the perfect tiline — one perfectly vulnerable to manipulation — before invading with a whole army of subordinates. Now, he is all alone out there in the infinite streams of causality…”
In the end, thanks to the actions of Nina, Ash and wtwo, the boss of Team Rocket was forced to cut his plans short and venture into the Ultra Wormhole not out of ambition, but cowardice.
“w.”
“Bi!” The two Myths nodded.
“Heh.” Nina stared down at the furry pink feline. “You silly kitty you… Giving so much of yourself away just to empower your child for that fleeting mont.” Because that was what the w Gem was, a piece of w’s self, a fragnt of their power.
It was the reason why wtwo was able to stabilize his existence and why he was able to ga Evolve without a human connection. Because on the other end of that connection was his inadvertent but loving progenitor.
And so, Nina just couldn’t bring herself to hate w. The girl was resentful of their callous disregard of her desires, definitely. But it was clear to her now that the act of trying to influence fate had taken a considerable toll on w. “And the fact that the rascal was dedicated enough to literally carve out a piece of themself for the purpose.”
The Mythical Pokemon hadn’t just been a detached spectator like Nina once thought them to be. Instead, w was an active player — the only player — in a multi-dinsional ga of chess against the primordial forces that governed our reality, all so that they might avert catastrophe.
Nina reached towards a warmth in her pocket, where light was leaking from the seams, to produce the grey and lilac sphere of an incandescent wtwonite Y. “Here, a gift from wtwo. Or I guess he’s just returning it, since this was yours to begin with.” The girl giggled. “He’s such a tsundere, isn’t he?”
“w!” The furry pink bundle reached for the light and absorbed it into their bosom before rasping softly against Nina’s chest, having fallen unconscious in her embrace.
“Bi…” Celebi let out a mournful cry as she gently caressed her friend’s slumbering form.
“Will w be able to recover, Celebi?”
“Bi. Bi-bi.” The Mythical pixie nodded. But she conveyed that it would take so ti and that w would be vulnerable in the anti. Sa with Celebi as well, actually, though she puffed her chest up and insisted that she was way more resilient than her furry friend.
Nina scoffed. “So what? Am I supposed to be babysitting you two gremlins in the anti?”
“Bi! Bibibibi!” Celebi pouted in indignation, arguing that she never asked w to go this far. That whole thing with wtwo had nothing to do with her!
Nina chuckled then collapsed onto her back. It was over. This stupid quest of hers was done. But at what cost…?
“Bi.” Celebi pressed a hand against Nina’s nose in consolation, to emulate what the otherworldly girl considered to be the true start of her second life long ago; that mont when she first t Tini in Victoria’s nest.
“Hehe. Boop.”
“Bibi. Bi!”
Nina continued laying there in peace, surrounded by fragrant flowers, two mischievous gremlins on her chest and gazing up at that starry night sky. Until she was interrupted by cough, followed by a raspy and ancient voice. “I see you’re finally back.”
The girl jolted and sat up in fright. “Futaba… You’re awake! And, Whitney?”
Indeed, approaching Nina from the direction of the Moon Shrine was the forrly comatosed priestess of the Moon Shrine, looking more shrivelled and frail than ever before, but undeniably lucid. And to her side was the pink-haired Gym Leader of Goldenrod City, her deanour unnervingly sedate with a blurry haze over her eyes.
“Nina, it’s good to see you again.” Whitney smiled. Which was when Nina knew that sothing was wrong.
“What is the aning of this, Futaba? What have you done to Whitney?!” Nina shot a glare at the decrepit form of the shambling old woman.
Futaba coughed. “Oh no need to fret, child. Yotsuba’s just lost in the mories of our ancestors. She will regain herself in due ti.” The woman grinned, revealing a yellow and gaping set of teeth between chapped and purple lips. “More importantly, you’ve fulfilled your promise. And thus, it is ti for us to have a conversation.”
Nina scowled. “Is this so sort of personality transplant? Is that why you wanted to bring Whitney over? Give one good reason why I shouldn’t feed you to my Dragonite right now!”
Nina was not in a good state right now. Her body was exhausted and her mind was still reeling from recent events. So it was natural for her to be a little cynical.
“Hah! Your imagination escapes you, child. And for one, I doubt your Dragonite will appreciate the rancid taste of a broken husk.” The woman groaned as she limped closer to the lake, her hollow visage reflecting from the surface of that of that placid mirror. “I’m dying, child. There’s nothing left of but skin and bones. The only reason why I was even able to last this long is thanks to a deal I made with that little runt in your arms.”
Nina’s grip on w tightened while Futaba reached to her side and grabbed hold of her granddaughter’s manicured hand with tender care and teary eyes. “Once Yotsuba, or Whitney, as she prefers to be called, awakens from her dream, my ti will co to an end. And at that point, the two of you are free to deal with my corpse however you wish. Boil it, burn it, feed it to the Sparrows, none of it will matter anymore.”
“What about the Moon Shrine then?” It would be a pity to let such a historic site go to waste.
Futaba looked into Whitney’s hazy scarlet eyes with a guilty gaze. “I have wronged her. Her and her mother both. So I will leave it up to Whitney to decide on what to do. Or maybe just leave it to Brock. He’s certainly made a ho for himself here… Heh, cheeky brat.” The woman chortled with a hacking cough. “There will be no more shackles binding us now that this shrine has lost its purpose.”
Nina’s eyes narrowed. “And pray tell, what purpose was that?”
Futaba shifted her gaze onto the otherworldly girl, those murky and fathomless pupils gazing deep within her soul. “You, child of Origin. You are its purpose.” Her voice beca discordant, myriad voices overlapping eeriely as the air chilled and the Pokemon ceased in their revelry — the bubbly pink fairies all turning to stare at Nina with deathly stillness.
Nina tensed as her hand drifted to the Pokeballs on her belt.
“Millenia of mory passed down from one generation to the next. All so that a true descendant may know what beca of her people and how this world ca to be.” The enigmatic shrine maiden intoned, those claw-like skeletal hands outstretched. “Now co and receive your legacy, child. For our vigil is finally at an end.”
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