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Journey of the Chosen

Disclaimer: Don't own pokemon, never have, never will. All rights are reserved to Pokemon and their respectful owners. Only the idea of this fanfiction based story is mine along with said original named characters, which exclude original pokemon animated story characters.

WARNING!

Many chapters contain generous amounts of detailed sexual situations based around two teens around the ages of 14-15 along with their pokemon. This Chapter contains intense Adult material that is unsuitable for anyone under age of 18.

If you are not 18 or older please leave now.

Marks of reference: *** means Time laps or paragraph break, ( ) represents thoughts and sounds, " " normal speech, < > represents Pokespeech if any, ~ ~represents psychic/aura speech if any in early chapters, **** end of chapter.

Writers note: Sorry everyone for taking so long to finish this one. It was a really hard chapter to complete and while this version ( at least until this note of it disappears ) is the near raw version of the chapter and is mostly spell checked I will sometime in the future finish the final edit.

The final edit once I get to it, ( Depending on if and what readers ask for it in comments ) may include a more finished end to the chapter.

** ** This was originally meant to be posted Christmas of 2013, but got waylaid for many months and now a couple years on account of college and life. Please remember to comment on the flaws and good points of my stories that you find exceptional, as they " even now" continue to help improve my writing skill.

Thank you ^_^

Chapter 23

A break in Time

It was late the next morning before the trio woke. Dawn and Evin being naked had been cause for some excitement, but it was only two days before Christmas and they had a job that needed doing, so the two teens dressed quickly after enjoying some EZ coco they made from a few packets the room was stocked with. Leaving the pokemon center they first had a chat with the nurse where Rika eventually brought up the Unknown. Evin then stated that he was aware of their kind, but that he had already decided that they were too unpredictable to depend on and that he wouldn't count on anything working out with them.

Rika was somewhat crestfallen when he said that he wouldn't count on them for help, but it didn't bother her too much either since it was a long shot. Walking outside was like walking into a meat freezer. It had gotten colder since yesterday on account that there was a storm coming and snow was already falling. They quickly made their way to the market and stocked up on some of their more important supplies of food and extra shelter for cold weather since the last thing they ever wanted was to lose digits to frostbite.

Their camping gear properly altered and their supplies full they left down rout thirty-two hoping to be able to find a passable means of being able to time travel. The army had closed off the rout to other trainers, but since Evin did have some means of involvement since he had been sent by the professor they rather hesitantly let them pass. Dawn's nerves were in knots and Rika was also likewise alert and expectant of an ambush. Putting themselves in known danger was a new feeling.

It was nothing like chasing after thugs or only knowing that there could be people out there that could cause them harm, but more like walking into an ursaring den knowing you were going to piss off a whole nest all at once and maybe worse than that even. All three were tense as they walked along, but it still wasn't enough to prepare them for what popped out at them next after they had gone quite a way down the road.

"Get out of here!" yelled a scrawny white haired old man as he ran out of some bushes waving a stick in the air like a madman. What came next struck Dawn and Rika as even more surprising as Evin knocked the old man clean off his feet with only a glancing thought with his powers. Puzzled and bewildered that he had not been able to sense the man before this he had been surprised and now angrily asked, "What are you doing old man? And how was it that you were able to sneak up on us? ... Speak!"

The man was dazed and shaking. Evin guessed that he was dazed from being knocked down but shaking from the cold due to how raggedly feeble and scrawny he was. By the look of the old dirty rags for cloths he wore Evin also guessed that he must have been some kind of hermit, but of what kind of nature he could not gauge since his mind seemed to be hidden somehow.

Evin nudged the man with his boot, but all the old man did as he continued shaking while staring blankly into the sky was start deliriously muttering over and over, "Cannot go back. Not again. It cannot leave." Evin ran the words through his head over and over, but for the life of him he couldn't make sense of what the three verses meant. Minutes passed and nothing seemed to change as the old man continued like a broken record, but just as Evin started to step away to rejoin the others the old man lashed out and grabbed Evin's ankle as he screamed, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!"

All at once the man's life flashed before Evin's eyes, a disorienting effect as he quickly witnessed all of the man's misdeeds; though what he was beginning to understand was that the man was already being punished. Kicking the old man's hand off, Evin stepped away. Rika and Dawn converged on him and asked about what had just happened before he said, "That man was once a member of Team Rocket... or more correctly still is. But he's not just any member, the leader of their current operation with Celebi."

Dawn looked between Evin and the old man that was now slumped face down in the snow motionless. What Evin said didn't make much sense, as she continued looking between the old man and her significant other, but then she noticed the man had stopped breathing and alerted the others. But when the others didn't in move to help she asked, "What's wrong?"

Evin shifted his bearing as he brushed freshly fallen snow from his hair and said, "He has been time broken. It was a punishment which was bestowed upon him for his crimes and cruelty against the legendary pokemon and the unknown, and it was me who initiated it with the help of the corrupted celebi... I doomed him... to be caught in a never ending time loop until time consumed him, and we just witnessed his last moments. Look, even now his body is still aging as time catches up."

And as Evin had just said, Dawn watched in horror as the old man's body withered and quickly decayed, as what would have taken months and years of erosion to accomplish happened in only a matter of seconds. It was like something out of a horror movie as everything the man once was turned to dust and with a small gust of wind began slowly blowing away. Dawn was thoroughly freaked out and Rika felt cold in her fur as Evin tried to make sense of everything he'd seen. But then it was like someone had opened the door for him once he realized what the man's past experiences meant to them as he then said, "I know how we can stop them!"

His sudden statement of confidence snapped the other's away from thinking about what they had just seen and piqued their curiosity as they all moved a bit further down the path to get away from the slowly shrinking mound of dust. In his head Evin had it all worked out and informed the others that he knew where they could find a way to get them where they needed to go without using Team Rocket's corrupted celebi, but that they would all need to split up to take on different tasks.

***

Dawn wasn't at all thrilled with the plan Evin had come up with; not one little bit as she now walked alone. This was the first time she had been completely on her own since the time before she and Evin had become lovers, which didn't exactly give her a warm feeling since her experience back then had been quite bad. Though even now, she was slightly comforted by the egg that now lay nestled away in her backpack and the knowledge of that her task was supposed to be the least dangerous of the three.

Rika was given a task that would require her to confront and distract some of the dumber Team Rocket members, which was dangerous, but because of what she was it was not fatal task if she was captured. Evin's task however had caused both Rika and Dawn a great deal of worry and in Rika's particular case a bit of a panic attack. It was his task to free an uncorrupted celebi from Team Rocket's mobile airship base that they kept there as an unspoiled backup before he would then travel to the past to confront the corrupted celebi and Rocket members causing trouble there.

Though she knew that he was more than capable of his task, Dawn feared for his safety since it didn't take a genius to see that the fate of the timebroken man had affected Evin's countenance. She was sure that the man's fate weighed heavily on his mind even though he hadn't even done it yet. The idea made her shiver. Just the thought of knowing that he would be directly responsible for inflicting that kind of judgment on someone even though he hadn't yet just set her mind into overdrive, which for Evin she knew that it must be at least ten times worse.

The snow was sticking to her beanie cap again so she took a moment to take it off and give it a shake before tucking her hair back into it. Piplup was with her, so she was comforted to at least have a little company as she made her way over to the cove just off of rout thirty-two. What she was looking for once she got there she hadn't a clue since Evin didn't give her all the details. He had only told her that it was important that she go there and that it most likely wasn't as dangerous as what he and Rika were attempting.

Dawn sighed. Though she liked being safe she could only contemplate what would happen while she wasn't there as she imagined the indescribable chaos Evin might cause. The snow was at least six inches deep and was making muffled sounds with each step. Piplup was having the time of his life as he slid around and tried cheering her up by being cute which did eventually get Dawn to crack a smile. Giving her head a shake, Dawn tried to push all her unpleasant thoughts away deciding that it wasn't good to dwell on things that she couldn't change. So with the confidence that Evin was immortal and that he could track Rika where ever she was, Dawn forced herself to be calm and think of a brighter future.

It was late afternoon by the time the beach came into view. The waves were blue but the beach was white as the path she was walking on. For a moment as she approached the water Dawn was almost sure that Evin had only sent her here just to be safe. All she could see was snow and water, and after finding a suitable location she started her first order of business of making a somewhat permanent camp as per Evin's instructions. Her other instructions had been to look up and down the beach for something out of place once the camp was in fit order and to make sure she took Herdier and Cilia with her when she did.

After getting the camp set up and a fire burning, Dawn was completely certain that all Evin done for her was remove her from the action. Sure she was happy to be far away from all the danger, but she felt rather put out that he would try to trick her like this. The snow made a poof sound when she kicked a small snowdrift and while she prepared to go for a walk her other pokemon were taking care of pushing the snow out of the camp and using it to camouflage the site by building ice walls. Piplup lead the ice wall construction and after each block was finished he'd give them a light spray of water to harden them into perfect bricks.

Leaving Piplup to his job with Servine and Sewaddle, Dawn took Cilia and Herdier with her to look around the beach. As pointless as it seemed, Dawn had decided that just a look around couldn't hurt and that by taking a walk she could take her mind off the fact she had been duped into house care duties. Walking along, Dawn investigated the west side of the beach and after about two hours deemed that it was time to go back. Upon returning, Dawn found that Piplup had gotten slightly carried away and instead of just building a wind breaking camouflage he had built a great big igloo large enough to surround the entire tent and camp fire.

It was quite a sight, which at the same time perfectly camouflaged their shelter. So much so in fact that if she hadn't remembered where the camp had been she would have lost it. Stepping through the leafy curtain that had obviously been made by Servine and sewaddle working together, Dawn found it to be quite warm inside. Herdier and Cilia joined the others by the fire that was starting to run low on wood and sighed with relief as the warmth seeped into them while Dawn took off her wet boots and set them close to the fire to dry before going to the tent to bring out lunch.

Coming back out of the tent, Dawn asked the others where Piplup had wandered off to since she had noticed that he wasn't present. Servine pointed to the door with a vine and hissed as she indicated that he was outside somewhere. Dawn sighed and decided that she would wait until her boots were dry and he got back before she would explore the southern shoreline, though she really couldn't complain since it was so cold outside.

***

Meanwhile, close to Team Rocket's air ship: The alarms of an attack sounded all around as smoke began to billow from one of the wings of the airship. Rika had used an aura sphere on it and was now retreating into the forest with a regimen of Rocket members hot on her heels while some others stayed behind to repair the damage. Once the members that were chasing Rika were well out of sight Evin moved in and incapacitated the ones repairing the ship.

(This is almost too easy) Evin thought. His ability to put people to sleep had been perfected with Ian as it was now as simple as flexing his hand to put someone into a deep sleep that would last for at least two hours if undisturbed, which was a very handy technique to have in his situation. Tampering with memories was still beyond his reach and moving large heavy objects could still incapacitate him or leave him weak and dazed, so he had to make due with what he could count on as he put yet another reinforcement regimen down to bed with a wave of his hand before they could call out their pokemon.

Evin had found during his training with Ian that while he could knockout humans for a couple hours with his skill pokemon were a bit different and could wakeup in under a half hour or could resist the hypnosis altogether. So trying to keep things simple Evin mainly focused on putting people to sleep before to could even try to call out any pokemon at all.

Infiltrating the ship was easy. Men and women fell like flies in front of him as he traversed the halls of bolted metal, destroying cameras all the way. It was the moment of truth as he finally reached the front of the plain where the hold for captured rare pokemon was and after admiring the robust lock they had put on the door he blasted it with an aura sphere. The door swung open on well-oiled hinges and revealed five men in black and red uniforms and one white coated scientist all with three pokemon per person called out to defend their holdings.

Seeing their pokemon all called out already, Evin's first thought was (Oh crap!) before he quickly put the six men to sleep. Upon seeing their masters' limp bodies hit the floor, the pokemon were momentarily confused before Evin managed to put two to sleep. Seeing two more of their own go down, the others burst into a flailing rampage of rage and began attacking anything within reach before charging after Evin. Evin's shields held for a moment under the onslaught of two ursaring using thrash, but popped like a bubble when a panicked Electrode used a powered-up explosion that decimated everything in the vicinity.

Including Evin, the explosion did a lot more than just knock everything unconscious, but had blasted a twelve foot hole in both the roof and floor of the airship and had destroyed many of the countless pieces of equipment Team Rocket had stored in that room as well as damaging a certain container.

***

Rika was doing her best to evade capture and knockout any that were foolish enough to challenge her one on one. Her ability with using psychic powers had also grown during Evin's training with Ian, and while she was indeed strong with the ability it still wasn't the same as his. In revers to his powers hers were more physical, as she could attack and move the heavy objects, but could not put others to sleep like he could. It was an infuriating dilemma for her, since she would have preferred to have finished up quickly to be able to join Evin in the air ship.

But then something caught her attention as a far off explosion occurred and after a few more moments of play hide and go seek she once again lost her internal aura connection to Evin. With a whimpering groan she gave away her position and for a moment she hesitated when three Rocket members confronted her. But then with an exhale of determination and resolve she bashed all three members and their pokemon aside as she made a quick dash back to the airship.

Upon arriving at the gigantic metal rock that could supposedly somehow fly in the air, Rika dashed strait inside ignoring all the sleeping bodies littered everywhere. Cocooned or not she was determined to get Evin out of that metal monstrosity before they could take off with him, but upon arriving at the scene of the explosion she was devastated.

***

Dawn had waited around for a few hours keeping track of the time with her pokenav, but once her boots were dry and she was about to go looking for Piplup he returned with an ice sled fill with enough wood for the next two days. Dawn was immeasurably relieved with his return and hugged him in thanks before she told the others to take care of the camp while also beckoning Cilia and Herdier to come with her. Both pokemon sighed in resignation as they less than enthusiastically stood up and padded over to her side, then together as a small team they left the giant igloo into the falling snow.

It was getting late in the day when they left for the second time and it was getting colder as well. Cilia walked so close to Dawn to keep warm that she had almost tripped her a few times, but Dawn didn't blame her since her own jacket was starting to gather frost around the rims and her nose had already gone numb. Less than an hour passed by before Dawn declared their search futile; her gloves were crusted in ice and the rest of her outfit wasn't much better. Herdier wasn't very affected, but Cilia having such short fur needed warmth and jumped into Dawn's arms.

Dawn wasn't opposed to carrying her pokemon back with her that way since it also gave her something warm the carry, but on their return journey they spotted something that only slightly stood out from the snow in the increasing wind. Dawn wasn't sure what it was, but when they got closer they saw it fall in the cold snow. Getting even closer Dawn could finally see that it was a pokemon, but from what Dawn could tell it was in trouble as she and Herdier ran over to it to check.

Upon getting right up next to where it lay curled in the fetal position, Dawn realized that it was a gardevoir and then looked around to see if there was a trainer nearby. With chattering teeth Dawn spoke her thoughts aloud, "What's a gardevoir doing way out here? They aren't equipped to be in weather such as this." Cilia and Herdier both nodded in agreement before Cilia then used her psychic powers to communicate with it.

There was no physical response but Cilia then hopped down from Dawn's arms and proceeded in trying to get the others to help get the gardevoir back to camp. Dawn had already decided the same, but was now trying hard to figure out how they would move it since Cilia seemed so concerned. Herdier came up beside the gardevoir and sized it up before standing adjacent and indicating that he wanted them to put it on top of him. Dawn and Cilia glanced at each other and did as he wanted so they could use him as a living transport sled then began walking beside him while keeping the gardevoir steady on top of Herdier's back.

It was just after Dark when Dawn and the others she was with were discovered by non-other than Piplup that had left the warmth of the shelter to go looking for them. For him the cold was welcomed, but the sight of his trainer nearly frozen while helping the others bring in another pokemon that didn't look like it was doing very good set his emotions aflame as he then tried to one man team push them towards the igloo. Dawn couldn't help getting a smile on her face even though it hurt to feel the skin stretch and managed a small chuckle as he un-helpingly pushed them along.

Entering the igloo was like entering a furnace because of how cold they were. Dawn felt her nose and face burn from the warmth while everything she was wearing suddenly felt like it was turning to slush as the ice melted. Quickly peeling herself out of her cloths, she helped the others get the gardevoir closer to the fire, but when the burning on Dawns face was becoming nearly unbearable she had them all stop as she said, "We shouldn't take it any closer, this is just fine to get warmed up; Servine, Sewaddle, can you two make a bed for this one? I'm sure it would appreciate not waking up on the cold wet ground.

The two grass types were on it in an instant as they both threw out leaves and Sewaddle quickly weaved them into a nest. It had taken them all of fifteen seconds, but the end result was anything but sloppy workmanship. Together they all put the gardevoir to rest and it breathed a sigh of relief as color came back to its green features. Dawn felt relief knowing that she had saved it, but then another question came to mind as she thought, (This couldn't have been what Evin had sent me out here for? No, this was a freak accident, he couldn't have known about this...) determined to decide that Evin hadn't seen this coming Dawn decided to drop the idea altogether and focused on getting warm and dry.

By the time she had finished setting her wet equipment out to dry by the fire, Dawn made the remark that the campsite now looked like a hillbilly convention as her cloths were lain haphazardly all around. The pokemon didn't care how it looked, but just huddled all around the fire to get warmer; all except Piplup anyway. It had turned into a full blown blizzard outside and while Dawn had finally gotten into some warm dry cloths all she could imagine was how Rika and Evin were doing right that very moment, wondering if they were still fighting or if they were seeking shelter.

***

Rika sat near the ragged hole blown in the airship looking at the scorch marks of Evin's outline and the bloody dent in the wall where it looked like his head had impacted with devastation. As she sat there in cold silence she wondered (Where is my Evin?). Tears rolled down from her eyes and dripped on the metal floor just as the Rocket members that had been chasing her caught up and spotted her from down the hall. The first member to see her and what she was looking at said, "Oh my god... What happened here?" But that was all that was needed to snap Rika back into reality as she turned towards humans darkly and cried into their minds, ~where is my Evin?~

Suddenly the walls of the airship began to shake and iron cages in the holding room began to rattle before some started falling. An iron cage about the same size as Rika herself started to fall through the hole in the floor, but was caught by unseen power as yet another scream of devastation once again wailed through their minds with enough intensity to incapacitate a few of the members, ~WHERE IS MY EVIN!!!~

To anyone outside the ship when it happened it would have sounded like a mindless slaughter as screams of terror and pain radiated from within the craft along with the squealing sound of metal scraping against metal until all went silent. For a moment nothing moved as smoke continued to billow from the gaping holes in the craft as all went silent inside and out. Minutes later Rika stumbled back out of the craft dazed and confused, no one followed.

Lines of tears streaked down her fur and if it wasn't for the knowledge that the place was going to be crawling with Rocket members from the surrounding area and the unconscious ones waking up she would have sat and sobbed her sorrows away. Once again Evin had disappeared right from under her nose and she could find no trace of him to follow. She doubted that he was dead on account of what happened last time, but all the same to her, he was gone again, leaving her in a vulnerably wounded state of mind as she now stumbled back into the forest.

The snow began to fall harder and Rika searched for some sort of shelter as her instincts told her that a storm was coming. She had followed the path that Dawn had been sent on but had no idea where the ocean was as her vision deteriorated into a total whiteout from the wind and snow fall picking up. Her fur kept her mostly warm, but it was starting to get colder by the minute. Howls on the wind occasionally played tricks on her ears, making her think that she had heard the faint call of one of their group, but when she stopped to listen all she could hear was the cold lonely howl of the approaching storm.

Soon her eyes were useless and her ears could not be trusted and her fur was doing little to stop the cold from biting her flesh. Being that she didn't know where she was going anymore she decided that she needed do something about her situation and sat down to meditate. Calming herself and opening herself up to the aura around her, she searched for Dawn's spiritual life-force.

She saw ice and water pokemon flourishing all around along with a few dim glows of other pokemon suspended in hibernation nestled away in their underground dens, but also saw a few unfortunate souls fade from existence. She felt a chill crawl up her spine as she knew that she was risking the same thing happening to her by being out in the open like this. She widened her search and pushed her spiritual sight to its furthest reaches, but then she found it. A small spec of thriving life all bunched together a ways off to her left.

Keeping the aura vision open, Rika quickly dashed off towards what she saw in the distance as she ran through snow that was getting to be almost knee high. Her dash soon became a run, which then regressed into only a fast walk as the cold began taking its toll. Her frozen tail had been long forgotten and the spikes on her paws felt like the tips were facing the wrong way as sharp pain radiated through them. Her eyes still saw absolutely nothing as all was pitch-black all around even though she was sure that she should have seen a campfire by now which puzzled her.

Using her aura she studied the area they were staying in and eventually came to realize that it was completely hidden from sight. Her feet numb and her fur turning into a frosty coat of ice she used her last trump card as she came to a stumbling stop and weakly called for help using her psychic ability.

***

Dawn had been in deep thought for a while now as she imagined all the possible scenarios that Evin and Rika could get themselves into, but nothing could have prepared her for what happened the very next moment as a whisper of a voice asked for help. At first she wondered if she was imagining things since it had been so subtly quiet, but then out of sudden curious paranoia she decided to ask Piplup to go check outside. He was happy to do so as he was then greeted by a refreshing winter blast to the face once he had gone through the heavy triple layered curtains that had been rewoven a few more times.

Piplup couldn't see a thing outside, but since Dawn had asked him to and also because he quite liked the cold he began patrolling the perimeter. He had made it half way around before he finally sensed something. A little movement, a puff of breath snatched away by the wind; he ran over to get a better look. What he found was a half frozen over familiar face that he hadn't been expecting, then he heard Dawn's voice on the wind and called out to her with all of his might. Dawn soon showed up with Herdier trailing through the snow beside her and like before they used him as a living sled again and Propped Rika on top before hauling her back to camp.

***

Rika slowly woke to the sound of crackling wood and the smell of chocolate marshmallow smores. Slowly she opened her eyes and saw Dawn above her at the fire burning another marshmallow. She tried to move but found that her arms and legs were tightly bound and looked down to find herself wrapped in a bundle of blankets. She whimpered her protest and got Dawn's attention as the girl turned around just in time to show that she had gooey marshmallow allover her lips and teeth when she smiled.

The image was less than picture perfect, but would have been fun for laughs as she tried to push the thought away before Dawn then said, "Rika you were being reckless, you almost died out in the snow. Why didn't you just find some shelter until morning?" Rika's eye twitched since the same thought had occurred to her once, but the real reason behind her bad judgment was a much more painful issue as she then said, ~Evin is missing again...~

Dawn got an exasperated look and in the same tone she said, "Why is this not a surprise. He keeps doing this, what happened to him this time." Rika couldn't keep a completely straight face as Dawn's statement made her sound like an older married woman talking about her husband or son, but relayed what she had seen in the airship.

Dawn sat next to her and mulled over what Rika had described, and after a while she said, "Well, it sounds like only one of two things could have happened. The first being that he was cocooned by his powers and they somehow carted him off before you got there; or the other, where he was taken through time by the celebi he went there to free. Why do I think only these things could have happened? Well number one he's too stubbornly durable to not be able to survive something like that, and number two, this would have happened even if he succeeded without there being an explosion. Yes I know that you are worried that he has been captured or hurt, but in this particular case I think it would be best to just hope for the best."

***

Evin woke in a field of green grass surrounded by wild flowers. The smell of fresh air, flowers, wet grass and burned hair filled his lungs as he took a deep breath. The smell immediately caused him to choke a little, but that quickly passed before he saw a blade of grass bend on its own accord. Looking up just as he sensed it, he saw a celebi fly over his head before coming down to one of the flowers in front of him and nuzzling it. The sight of it in front of him was somewhat amazing, as its wings actually did nothing to keep it airborne but stayed afloat due to its powers.

For that moment he had forgotten about his mission, but in the next he began to wonder how he had gotten here as he tried to remember what had happened. All he could recall was breaking into Team Rocket's airship, after that it was kind of a blur. Obviously more had happened on account of his burned hair and singed coat, which he hoped could be somehow washed since replacing his current gear was next to impossible.

Celebi continued nuzzling flowers as it was apparently drawing nurturance from them as it moved from one to the next, and after a few minutes of this it finally took notice that he was awake. By its emotions Evin could tell that it was grateful to him for coming to its rescue and using his aura he communicated his own intentions of wanting to save the other celebi. From what Evin understood from his knowledge before ever coming to this world, celebi were beings of not only time but purity, which made this celebi's feeling of regretful hopelessness understandable.

But knowing that there were ways to undo the corruption to a pokemon's heart he then said, "At the very least I need you to help me fight against what Team Rocket is using your friend for and though you think there is no hope, I know of a way that might undo what they have done. Though what happens after that is a mystery even to me." His information struck celebi's curiosity before then peeking into the future.

Knowing that it could do that was a little offsetting since he didn't know what all it could see, but with renewed hope it agreed to help him. Standing up, Evin took a look around. It was an entirely different place than he had been before, but also a different climate as the season had turned warm. He guessed that it had taken them into the past, but what part of it and where was another story.

"Are we in the timeline that was disturbed by Team Rocket's meddling?" Celebi simply shook its head and flew away. Seeing his only means of escaping the past flying away, Evin hastily followed and tried to catch up. It was not easy keeping pace with a pokemon that could fly through small holes and vines without any hindrance. He'd gotten taller during his time in this world and his arms and legs had also filled out a little as well, but none of that was to his advantage while trying to fit through the nearly impassable trees and netlike vines as he tried to keep up.

Finally they breached the greenery and he stood upon the edge of a large lake with a small island in the middle. It took him a moment to recognize the scene, but then he said, "We are at the hidden plateau. Why would you bring me here?" Celebi flew in a small circle above him, but Evin still couldn't gauge what it meant or wanted even from its emotions. Then it was like the world had gone dark as something approached. Celebi hid behind him and Evin prepared for the worst.

Yellow lightning struck, but his shields automatically deflected it before splitting a tree in half. Evin could suddenly feel the minds of serval pokemon around him as they had somehow appeared there, but the one he had also expected was not among them and judging from their hostility and that he could now see Pikachu's double he guessed that this was before Ash had come. Evin didn't know if this would be a problem or not; he didn't want to change the past more than he had to since everything he might do would have a huge impact on the future.

More pokemon unleashed energy attacks, but now that Evin could see them coming they were all simply deflected upwards. Calling out to those around him he said, "I mean you no harm! Please stop attacking!" Anger and puzzlement surrounded him, but Evin didn't let that bother him as he kept a calm and unthreatening demeanor. The pokemon came out of hiding and surrounded him at the shoreline. None looked happy to see him and some looked like they wanted to charge, but didn't since they weren't sure what he was capable of.

It was a standoff, and it was only broken when Celebi came out from behind him and used its powers to calm the angry mob in front of them. To the pokemon, celebi were embodiments of peace and prosperity and they knew that they never freely time traveled with just anyone, though as to why they were there they could not imagine and quite frankly neither could Evin.

Confusion washed over the masses, but then the Pikachu took charge and indicated that it wanted him to follow him. He nodded that he would comply and started walking behind the pikachu that had now taken the lead. He walked for nearly a half hour before the Pikachu finally stopped and hollered at him to stop. Pointing to an old log in the water, Evin was hesitant to get on, but did so against his better judgment as he straddled the log and filled his boots with water. The pikachu jumped onto the front end with a stick in its hands and started rowing and with Evin's help they were underway moving swiftly through the water towards the island with Celebi flying overhead.

As Evin had expected, the water was very clear and pure as he paddled with his hands and thankfully not very cold since he was soaked up to his thighs and elbows. The pikachu didn't seem to be bothered by Evin's presence anymore, but was still weary as it cast quick glances over its shoulder now and then. Evin still wondered why Celebi would have brought him here at this time and it seemed to be an odd idea to even think about training at a time like this.

But then the more he thought about it the more it kind of made a bit of sense; since by training now he would save the time he needs to train in his rightful timeline for doing the things that need to be done without hesitation. (Did Celebi somehow know that I needed to be taught how to control my powers better? Or is there something else it brought me here for?) More questions and possibilities came to mind, but the one that made the most sense would have been that he would get trained.

Worrying about how long this was all taking was also on his mind, since he had left while Rika was still in danger. But at the same time now that he was traveling in the past no time was actually passing since the time he had left, but with being in the past it was all starting to get a bit confusing. The veins on his temples throbbed as he had given himself a bit of a headache from thinking so much, but he just hoped that whatever time Celebi brought them back to wouldn't be too far from when he left.

The log impacted the island shore and the pikachu jumped off and started running inland. Evin wasn't about to try and keep up with the little rodent while his arms and legs were waterlogged, so he just took his time as he wrung out his sleeves and took off his boots to dump them. Once his boots were back on he then preceded further into the island following Celebi who seemed to be getting more excited.

Further in he then saw the spring of purity that he remembered had waters so pure that they could even heal some wounds. Celebi landed perfectly in the middle and took a sip without ever disturbing the water's surface before cheering with glee as it then flew off with boundless energy. Evin smiled a little, but as before he was a bit worried about getting left behind if it got sidetracked by something or scared off.

As of yet Evin still hadn't sensed Mewtwo's presence, but in the next moment he heard, ~Why have you come here time traveler?~ The mental voice was hard and menacing as it sounded almost like an accusation, but he recognized it to be the very one he had been hoping to meet as he replied with his voice while quickly looking in all directions, "I am not sure of why myself, but I do know of this place and your identity as I had been trying to get your attention back in my own timeline. How is it that I cannot sense you?"

~You are psychic as well?~ Evin didn't know if it was being genuinely curious with its last question or not, but replied, "Yes I can used psychic powers, I am about as different from other people as you are to normal pokemon and perhaps even more than that." Mewtwo's mental presence finally registered on Evin's mental radar, but its reply was guarded as it asked, "Why would you have been looking for me in the time that you came from, and what makes you so different from other humans that makes you think that I would ever trust you?"

Evin became slightly irritated as he though (What is this, fifty questions?) and replied again, "In my time I had begun my search to find you because you are the only one capable of being able to fully teach me about the powers that I poses since they are identical in nearly every way to yours. As to why I am different from the other humans, aside from my powers I am not even from this world or dimension. It's all very complicated, but I was landed here by some sort of god that has augmented me with powers that I cannot even begin to comprehend as new ones sometime surface and overwhelm me because I have no idea how to control them.

Everything that I know how to do now has only come to me by feeling and a lot of pain and anguish, yet at the same time I know there are more things that I can do and I am afraid of hurting those around me if my powers get out of hand. As far as I can tell, I was only brought to this world with the sole purpose of stopping the wars that are soon to come between Team Rocket and the other factions that will someday be fighting for the dominion of this world. In the time that I came from Team Rocket is the largest threat the world has ever faced and they have already overpowered me once when I thought I was ready for them. So I'm asking, no I beg that you would see past your hatred of humans long enough to give me the training I need."

All was silent after Evin finished. He waited for a reply or anything to indicate that he would get an answer. A minute passed by, then a second minute and so on, and after nearly five minutes of not a sound Mewtwo finally said, ~If that is the true reason that Celebi has brought you here, I will consider it, and even then I think I might consider it just to spite my creators more.~ Evin breathed with some relief, but then said, "Then I guess all there is left to do is wait until Celebi returns from its over-energetic joy flight around the island. It took one sip of that water and took off."

Mewtwo suddenly appeared before Evin hovering over the water as he had teleported. He inspected the human in front of him and even sensed the power stones embedded in the gear Evin wore and asked, ~What sort of contraption are you wearing?~ Evin wasn't sure of what kind of reaction he would get, but decided to tell him as he said, "It's a device that allows me to empower a pokeball to catch already caught pokemon. Since I'm working closely with the resistance against the warring factions of Team Rocket and the other teams that have been capturing legendary pokemon I needed a means to quickly free them and snag tech fit the bill perfectly. It is also an amplifier for my ability to project a force field to shield myself, which is much like your barrier ability."

~Have you used it?~ Evin shrugged and said, "Just once so far, to free a crazed groudon that was going on a rampage of angry confusion from its captor being killed. It's still a bit on the nuts side even now on account of what Team Rocket had done to it before they decided to use it as a frontline juggernaut, so I wasn't able to release it right away. It will recover over time, but it will never truly trust people again. I don't know what Team Rocket has planned as they seem to be content for now to twist and corrupt their minds, but my gut tells me that there is still more to the plot of the master scheme of whoever is pulling the strings."

Once again it was silent for a little while, but then Celebi returned and did a summersault over the water's surface before regarding the two powerful beings at the shoreline. The two pokemon exchanged silent conversation and Evin finally understood why Dawn hated when he and Rika did the same thing. A few uncomfortable moments passed and there was still no change; then minutes began to trickle by and a few pokemon came and went. Evin waited and was trying to be patient, but he was quickly reaching his limit now with how long it was taking them to finish silently conversing about him.

Finally the silence was broken as Evin heard in his head, ~Very well, I will train him, but don't get too comfortable, it's not going to be a pleasant experience for either of you.~ Curious Evin asked, "I'm not sure what you two talked about this entire time, but what does training me have to do with it being hard for Celebi as well?" ~She has asked for a way to be able to telepathically communicate with humans as she has decided to join you in the fight against Team Rocket and her sister. She is concerned that if she doesn't become one of your party now that she might by chance be captured again and perhaps become just as corrupted as her sister. In other words she is putting her faith in you that you will be able to free her sister and revers what the evil humans in Team Rocket have done.~

Looking at Celebi Evin asked, "You know what freeing your sister implies, yes? It will require us to first defeat her in battle before then recapturing her and after that it will not be an easy task in reversing the corruption she has been inflicted with." Celebi nodded to what he had just said, "I don't currently have any pokeballs on me so for now we will simply have to focus on the training." Turning towards Mewtwo Evin then said, "That said, I had no doubts that this would be a grueling process for me, since every step I have ever taken in this world to obtain or control the power within me has come only from a lot of pain, so don't hold back." Mewtwo got a devilish smirk and Evin heard, ~You might regret not wanting me to hold back.~ and came at him with all of his mental force.

***

Dawn had seen many things, but nothing could have prepared her for what she found out when Gardevoir had woken from her coma. She had begun conversing with the other pokemon ever since the moment she had woken, but after nearly two hours as they had reached another part of the dialog, Rika nearly flipped out and to Dawn she said, "This... gardevoir is the one that was lost at sea the first time we lost Evin."

Dawn felt a bit faint, back then she had known for sure that the gardevoir had died at sea, but now that it was in front of her she could only wonder what in the world was going on. Sure she felt a degree of relief that it wasn't dead and that she could now tell Evin that he didn't need to worry about it anymore, but then again was he the one that made this happen? (He's traveling with a Celebi so I suppose this could be possible... Oh! I'm just going to wring the information from him when he gets back, thinking about this kind of stuff just makes my head feel like its twisting.) Dawn sighed, "Don't bother thinking about it for now Rika, it's just too confusing. When Evin gets back we can both wring his skinny neck for information; he at least owes us that much after the scare he gave you."

Rika sighed as well and even had to chuckle a little when she thought of how troublesome being Evin's mate has been since the very beginning; though she couldn't complain since she was the one who had chosen him to be her special companion, fully knowing that he was no ordinary human. She hadn't understood what that had fully entitled back then, but now that she could sit back and think about it, even with all the terrifying separations she wouldn't have it any other way.

Getting past her kind's usual tendencies of panicking whenever the their aura connection is lost or not being able to live on without their significant other were just her first steps in finally reaching this state of mind, but now she felt complete and felt stronger than ever before. Her resolve was as firm as steel and her wrath on those who hurt her loved ones would be more powerful than her passion for the loved ones she protects. She would no longer let Evin's sporadic disappearances faze her and would not hold it against him when he returned; it was just simply how things had to be and she would love him even more with each time he came back to her.

Dawn could physically tell that Rika had finally resolved something that had been troubling her and looked on in gladness when Rika joined the others at the fire and finally ate some food. It had become an all too common occurrence that whenever Evin wasn't by Rika's side that she wouldn't eat because of how nervous she got, but now finally seeing her freely eat and laugh with the others Dawn breathed a sigh of relief. The thought that Evin might have returned crossed her mind, but for now it would only have to remain a subtle hope since she didn't want to change Rika's new found good mood.

Time went on and the storm raged outside the shelter. Dawn figured that the storm might be disrupting the army's operations to infiltrate Team Rocket because it was so bad, but so long as everything went according to Evin's plan she doubted that it would make a difference. After the arrival of the gardevoir and finding out that it was the one that had been lost at sea Dawn had no doubts that Evin had been fully serious about telling her that her job had been important, but then again she wondered if he was also thinking about the shelter from the storm.

***

It had been nearly two weeks since Evin and Celebi first began training with Mewtwo before he finally stated, ~You are ready, and yet your body can handle no more. You can find out for yourself the true limits of your abilities and bend them to your will.~ Celebi had learned how to use telepathy within the first week, but it had taken Evin that entire first week to finally break through his mental barriers that prevented him from freely wielding his full power. It was a matter of both the way he thought and the difference between using a feeling over the intent to reshape reality, and by breaking through that barrier he finally felt free. Free to use his powers however he liked and free of the burdens of the fear of accidentally hurting those near him.

Mewtwo had shown him all kinds of methods of using psychic powers to overcome even the most grueling of tasks, from being able to summon storms to even being able to control the minds of others and viceversa their memories. It had all been so overwhelming at first, but now he could even hold his own against Mewtwo in an all-out battle of the minds and physical psychic strength. The pain that he had been forced to endure to get this far had been nothing compared to what he had endured in the past, but the training itself had still stripped him of a lot of a lot of sleep and health as it had left him looking like a pail-faced undead zombie with black bags under his eyes.

Evin also finally understood how Mewtwo was able to hide his mind from being sensed by others with either aura or psychic abilities and had taught him how to do the same by using the skill that Evin only knew as safeguard. By using that skill it rendered himself mentally invisible to other psychic and aura users, which for him being linked to Rika through their aura link made the skill a bit of a double edged sword, but for the particular plan that was beginning to form in his mind it was perfect. Mewtwo still didn't like Evin much, but respected him as a near equal individual as he bid them farewell before they disappeared when Celebi teleported.

For a moment Evin felt relaxed, but that quickly changed in the next moment that he had suddenly begun to feel weightless and found himself falling towards the dark waters of the sea. Using his new found mastery over his powers he was able stop his fall and fly just over the highest waves. Celebi was tired, but then refreshed herself using healing bell before then opening her time portal.

Upon their arrival in the new timeline Evin didn't like what he saw. By the looks of where Celebi had brought them and the rough seas below it was as if he was being reminded of his worst failures since coming to this world. But then there it was; the ship that he had been on just before he had met Ian. Celebi had already cast safeguard on them so that the current time Evin and Rika wouldn't sense them and then they watched as the entire terrifying scene of nature's destructive power unfolded.

It was like revisiting the memory only more vivid as he watch people get swept overboard; he wanted to help them now so much that it was painful, but he knew that he and Celebi could not interfere. The scene played out and the moment that they were sure that the Gardevoir was well out of sight of the ship and current day Evin's reach they swept in and plucked the unconscious pokemon out of the ocean. After that they watched the last scene of what happened to Evin on the deck of the ship.

Evin rubbed his shoulders and said, "That really busted me up bad. Had I been a normal person I would have died thrice over from that. The first time being from the injuries I suffered from, like broken bones and ruptured organs, and the second time would have been being ripped through the barrier bars on the ship and the third would have been inevitably drowning. I was briefly conscious underwater, but I thought for sure that I was going to die."

Once the scene was fully played out and not wanting to take any more chances, Evin then had Celebi time jump them before any surprises could happen. Coming out of time warp again seemed to feel weird, but now Celebi was completely drained as she fell into his arms. Now holding two pokemon in his arms after stabilizing them, Evin contemplated where he should take them next. Not knowing how injured the gardevoir was he decided that they needed to go to a pokemon center and asked Celebi, "What time did you bring us to?"

Tiredly she looked up at him and replied, ~I've brought us to the time just three days before Team Rocket uses my sister to burn down the forests of Goldenrod. Evin looked around at the now calm sea below them and decided on the place to go as he used his own powers to teleport the lot of them to the shoreline of Goldenrod City.

Upon their arrival Evin thought he felt fine, but then he suddenly felt overbearingly drained as the energy quickly left him and his legs began to shake beneath him. Standing was a bit of an issue now until Celebi helped him worked through his momentary enfeeblement as she then used healing bell. He felt mildly refreshed as the pokemon's healing skill took the edge off his body's feeling of weakness, but even then he still felt overwhelmingly tired and used up as he stumbled into the city with the gardevoir and Celebi still in his arms.

The first time Celebi had time jumped with Evin had taken a lot more out of her than he had been aware of when he had first awakened some time ago now. A fact which he had only learned after Celebi had gained the ability to speak with him telepathically as he had found out that they had been in the meadow of wild flowers for three days before he had awoken.

Evin had expressed his gratitude to Celebi after finding out that he had been in the proses of being cocooned by his powers when Celebi had found him in the airship after freeing herself from the damaged containment unit. He was a bit surprised though that she had not only taken them through time but had teleported them as well, which in turn had left her completely drained when they had arrived at the plateau.

Now, even after his training with Mewtwo, Evin was feeling the strain of teleporting so far in one try as if he had just learned the skill for the first time. As he entered the pokemart some people looked at him with mild interest while others just continued on with their daily lives oblivious to what was soon to come. Inside the shop he was able to acquire a pokeball where he then shortly after officially made Celebi part of his team as she willingly touched the ball and let herself be caught. Tiered beyond all compare, Evin then sought refuge at the pokemon center and continued to carry Gardevoir in his arms until he reached the front desk and asked after the nurse.

Deciding to take a day to rest and make sure the gardevoir would survive her ordeal, Evin used his powers to get checked in under a different name and got the gardevoir some treatment as he tried to rest his legs at a booth. His head still swimming from drowsiness he resisted the urge to just let himself fall asleep as that would then break the mental block he was keeping on Joy so that she wouldn't remember his face after he was gone.

Messing with other peoples' minds had always been a tricky business, but Mewtwo had shown him all the extra pointers that he needed to know which made it surprisingly easy, but even then it still felt unsettlingly invasive and wrong to be able to warp other people's minds to his own will. He would have preferred not to resort to such low handed methods of manipulation, but in his current predicament it was a demanded necessity.

Once Nurse Joy had finished with Gardevoir and had stated that she would be fine in a couple days Evin thanked Joy out of habit and hefted the pokemon in his arms one last time as he went upstairs. Inside the room Evin set Gardevoir in a chair near the door and released Celebi, Zora, Shadow, and Victini and explained to them what the situation was. Evin had let them all out during his training with Mewtwo, but had refrained from explaining the details of his plans since he didn't want any of them to worry about the others and how long their stops were taking.

His plan was relatively simple, Celebi had brought them three days before Team Rocket initiated their first experiment on the forest outside of Goldenrod and once they were all rested they would infiltrate Team Rocket's operation site. From there he intended to have the dark types along with Celebi takedown the corrupted celebi while he and the others excluding the unpredictable Groudon dealt with the root of the problem. Everyone was in agreement with the plan, but right then none of that mattered, this was their night to relax and enjoy good company as they welcomed the newest member to the team.

Victini was overjoyed to finally get to meet a celebi up close and the others were likewise in good cheer as they tried to show her all the comforts a pokemon center room had to offer. Evin in the meantime took off his armor for the first time since leaving the pokemon center in Violet City; it had been about two weeks since he had last had a bath and as the armor came off he could really smell the obvious neglect.

The muscles around his arms, chest, and back cracked and popped as he maneuvered his way out of the gear and cloths, sounds that made him wonder what an actual professional massage would be like. For a moment he thought that maybe Rika would be happy to give him one, but then the imagined thought of her beating the pulp out of him crossed his mind and he thought (On second thought, She'd have to be trained to do that... She's about as delicate as a ballpein hammer.).

He then thought of what Dawn might be capable of, but it wasn't hard to guess that while she would have the delicate part down that she would still lack the strength to work the deeper muscles. Thinking of Dawn switched his mind over to thinking about what she must be going through on her own, though the whole time warp thing was kind of twisting his mind up since at the current time period she wasn't having those problems.

He had already restored the safeguard around himself to keep the possible current day Rika from picking up on his presences, since he had no idea how far in the past he really was. So he just hoped that by refreshing his ward that it would stay active even when he slept. In the bathroom Evin finished disrobing and put the washables into the laundry. In favor of a relaxing bath over a shower, he then filled the tub and eventually after making sure it was cool enough slowly got in. Then just after he was starting to feel comfortable, as per usual, all the pokemon invited themselves in and joined him.

The tub wasn't huge, but was big enough to accommodate those who joined him in the water while Zora and shadow were just content to lie down next to the tub and wait for later. Celebi was rather new to what a hot bath was like and while she didn't actually get into the water she did let Evin sprinkle a little water over her. Victini treated the bath like a hot spring as she settled into the end of the tub and let the warmth soak into her fur before sighing with relief.

It had been quite a while since Evin had enjoyed just a plain old bath with no extra excitement to make things livelier; granted, he did like his frolics in the baths and showers with his three girls, but he had almost forgotten what it felt like to just be able to sit back and relax without a care. An hour, then nearly two hours passed and eventually Evin decided that it was time to get out.

He had expected a little bit of a reaction from Celebi seeing him naked as he stepped out, but she just seemed to acknowledge that he was moving from one place to another and didn't seem to think there was anything special about seeing a human without cloths on. The way she saw it, she met pokemon all the time that had no coverings at all and while humans did hang out for all to see a bit more than most species of pokemon, she saw no significant difference and took clothing to be little more than a habitual vanity that humans had invented to seem more modest.

Shrugging off Celebi's lack of notice and also being a bit glad for it, Evin set to grooming each pokemon. For Zora and Shadow Evin used a brush designed for plush fur pokemon and for Victini he used a brush for short fur, but when he came to Celebi he found a buffer pad that only ready "Bug type". Looking at Celebi he held up the pad and she floated over; after getting a closer look, Evin noticed that while her body had the typical bug-like shell, that her arms head and legs really didn't have a shell at all, but more of a soft bristly hair.

He held the pad out in front as he offered to groom her, but then she shook her head as she told him, ~I have no need for that since I am already clean to pristine perfection.~ she made a little giggling sound and then flew in a circle. Evin shrugged as he though, (Okay, well that's one awkward moment that I don't have to deal with out of the way then.) One quick rinse in a cool shower later, Evin put his cloths in the drier since they had finished washing over an hour before that.

Since it had been over a week since he had last changed into fresh cloths, Evin had put his entire washable outfit into the wash before his bath and now busied himself by sitting in front of the washer cleaning and polishing the non-washable parts of his armor while he waited for his laundry to finish. As he scrubbed, the idea of being in danger had never occurred to him in his exposed state, as a pair of big yellow eyes had been watching him ever since he had gotten out of the shower. Seeing Evin walking around the room without his cloths now that he had nothing to wear, had Zora feeling a little on the frisky side, as she now began to stir and slink around the room.

Working quietly next to the washer while polishing the meatal armguard of the device he was working on, Evin was still unaware of the dark shadow that had now crept up behind him. He was completely oblivious to the idea of an attack at the moment, so when the moment came that Zora's yellow eyes flashed he had no time to react before she had jumped on top of him. After a moment of struggle Evin finally stopped fighting and just glared up at his captor.

Zora's smile was only matched by the lust in her eyes, but Evin was not amused in the slightest since he was still very tired and not even relevantly in the mood for any rough and tumble fun. ~Awe, no excitement from this position? It's been a while since you last indulged me, why won't you play?~ Evin didn't want to be drawn into another one of her mind games since she had an innate talent to be able to twist things around until it sounded like he had been ignoring her and said, "You should have be a lawyer with the way you bend reality to suit your desire, but no, I am not in the mood tonight and we will all need our rest for what is to come tomorrow."

~Awe, you're just shy because of our new friend. I'm sure she won't mind.~ Evin rolled his eyes as if to justify his earlier statement and said, "No." Zora's frustration became more evident as she then began on a few sympathy tangents only to be answered each time with an unwavering "No." and after the third time she finally resorted to her trump card and began to cry. Evin had a look of mild discus as tiers rained down on him while her tantrum unfolded an all the while all the other pokemon in the room except Celebi just rolled their eyes from knowing about the insatiable lust that Zora was prone to going to extremes to fulfil.

Her bluff called by nearly everyone in the room, Zora's attitude immediately changed from that of a sobbing four year old to that of outright enraged dominant force, as she then quickly disappeared with Evin in her arms and reappeared on the bed in the next room as she told him, ~You're going to help me with this needy frustration of mine weather you like it or not!~

Evin just smirked and said, "Wanna bet?" For a moment Zora was confused, but then she gasped as she looked behind her and saw her ball floating in the air and reacted too late before it shot her full of the red light. She resisted it at first, but with Evin's help the ball finally began to absorb her within itself before finally settling down on top of the fridge. Evin sighed once it was all over. The extra brain power it took to force a pokemon to be withdrawn into their ball against their will was a trying feet of mastery over his new powers, but it was a skill that he intended to put to more practical use later on in the future.

For now however, Evin only felt tired; he knew Celebi was a bit confused from what had just transpired, but he trusted that his other pokemon would fill her in on the details since he really didn't want to himself. Bouts of shy embarrassment were feelings that he could never seem to rid himself of in the presence of others, no matter who they were. When it was just Dawn and Rika in bed with him he felt totally relaxed and at easy since he knew both girl's every thought and feeling, but when there were other pokemon in the room he had always felt very self-conscious. Adding Zora to their bed had always been a bit of a problem and he always remembered her dangerous moments of threatening to let others around their little group know about their alone time happenings.

Evin sighed again and started silently talking to himself as he brooded over why Zora was so hard to handle, "It's got to be because she is a dark type. Mischief and fowl play are the stock and trade of a dark type's mind, but she gets too much of a kick out of making me feel uncomfortable and then uses my feelings against me." Evin made a rumbling growl in his chest as he clenched his jaw and thought back to when he and Ian had been in that destroyed market building and Zora had directly threatened to reveal the strictly secret relationship they had.

He had never been very impressed by her antics, but lately she was becoming a real problem as she knew all too well how to pull his strings and push his buttons. Lying flat on the bed sprawled out still in the nude, Evin thought back to when Zora had first met their party. Back then she had been small and cute, but now she was a full-fledged predator in every regard for the word. Rika could be just as scary at times, but she more often than not had a lot more regard for what he felt about situations, even if she did get an ornery streak once in a while.

The other pokemon made their way out of the bathroom only to discover that it was unusually quite after what had just occurred. Jumping onto the foot of the bed, Shadow discovered Evin sprawled out with a look of deep thought creasing the features of his face. He softly barked the way his kind normally did and Evin just sighed and said, "Yeah I'm okay, Zora has just been put on timeout in her ball over there." and pointed at the pokeball on top of the fridge.

Shadow sighed with exasperation as he looked at the ball and then did a circle as he curled up to go to sleep. Victini and Celebi came out of the bathroom flying around the room playing as they had seemingly become friends in the last few minutes and eventually settled to one side of the room near the door as they began to exchange their life time stories. Minutes wore on into hours and for a time Evin dosed, but then all went still as the room became deathly quiet. The sound of air being pierced and burned was the only prelude of warning before the entire wall behind the bed exploded.

Evin and Shadow had been sent flying and narrowly avoided having the bed land on them before a robotic voice quickly declared, "Abnormal pokemon and human anomalies detected, tactical code 277 lists human subject for termination and test analyst, code 189 lists pokemon for capture, action for immediate termination of human subject authorized." With no more warning the robotic pod deployed a set of machine guns and just as the barrels began to spin Victini shot the drone in the side with flame burst. The drone was knocked off target from the attack as bullets began shredding the outer walls of another room, but before it could get realigned Evin had already shot an empowered aura sphere.

Upon impact the drone exploded and shot debris in all directions. Without his armor on, Evin's aura shield was not only harder to project, but much weaker as metal shards tor through the barrier and stabbed him and Shadow in a multitude of areas. Celebi had deflected the debris that had come at her Gardevoir, Victini, and Zora's ball with her psychic powers, but once the smoke and dust had cleared there was only the sound of Evin and Shadow crying out in pain as jagged pieces of metal protruded from several placed of their bodies.

Evin cried out as he forcefully removed the pieces from his shoulder, chest, gut, and legs, but more than that Evin feared for Shadow since he had taken a couple pieces to the chest and another to his midsection. Holding back a sob as the pain numbing shock of the sudden damage to his body began to wear off, Evin forced himself to begin healing as quickly as possible, but with the extensive damage he had taken it was taking much too long as each second worsened his pain even more. People running up the stairs could be heard, but even in his exposed state embarrassment was the last thing on his mind as Nurse Joy and two other young male trainers rushed in.

What the Nurse and trainers saw before them was a scene of horror as they took a moment to survey the area. They saw Celebi in front of them protecting the others, but beyond that it was the sight of a great disaster. A burning smoking hole through the side of the pokemon center, gunfire holes in the walls and next room over, and a naked male trainer drowning in a growing pool of his own blood while his nearby umbreon jerked and flailed with large jagged pieces of metal sticking out of it. Nurse Joy didn't understand what was going on with the trainer, but knew there wasn't a moment to lose for the umbreon as she quickly called for action, "You two, take the trainer down stairs stat and see to it that he isn't in danger of bleeding to death or worse while I get the umbreon into emergency and call the surgeon for the trainer."

Without a word more Nurse Joy quickly but carefully went over and picked up Shadow and ran down stairs. The two other trainers that couldn't have been any older than ten and twelve years old themselves were in shock, but also moved into action as they worked together to pick Evin up and get him downstairs. Picking him up though caused Evin let loose an unnerving yell of pain and in a daze of pain and blood loss his reasoning factors had been frayed to the point that he began lashing out at anything that moved. It was only by the efforts Victini and Celebi working together that they were able to keep Evin from hurting the two trainers as they got him downstairs, but just as they finally set him on the operating table his wounds finally began closing.

Evin was drenched from head to toe in blood, but minutes later as the haze of pain finally lifted and he asked the two trainers, "Where is my umbreon? How is he?" The two young trainers were already plenty well spooked from what they had seen, but they only shook their heads as neither one had heard from Nurse Joy since she had left them upstairs. Evin tried to sit up and neither trainer tried to stop him as they were too freaked to even begin to want to get near him.

His head swam in a circle before he collapsed back flat on the table and then put the same question to Victini and Celebi. Both pokemon shook their heads before Celebi said, ~Because he's a dark type we can't get a direct read from him, but from the nurse I gather that she is still working on him but dare not to delve deeper into her mind less I risk disrupting her concentration.~ Evin grunted as he tried to sit up again, but as before he felt light headed and collapsed.

He looked at the two frightened trainers and seeing that they weren't going to be of much use at anything else he asked, "Can one of you go upstairs and bring me my cloths and armor?" One of the trainers nodded and Evin then said, "Victni, can you go with him and make sure that everything gets collected?" Victini nodded as well and then followed the trainer upstairs.

The remaining trainer finally got up the courage to ask, "What happened up there?" Evin ran a hand down his face and said, "I let my guard down... A robotic Team Rocket drone somehow detected me and now all of this has happened. I didn't even know they had things like that..." The trainer looked sullen for a moment and then said, "You can't be held responsible for something like that. Who in their right mind can predict what those whack jobs will do or create next. All you can do now is be thankful that that things didn't turn out worse than they did."

A dark scowl spread over Evin's features as he then darkly said, "That's not all I can do. Once I can stand again, I'm going to make every member of Team Rocket sorry for ever being born, and once I'm done with them even their lofty ambitions will seem like a child's fantasy." The trainer looked frightened by his statement as he had pressed his back against the wall before he finally mustered himself enough again to say, "That doesn't exactly sound like a good thing to do. I know Team Rocket is bad and I even have my own reasons for hating them, but that doesn't exactly mean I want to make them all wish they were never born."

Evin turned a scowling eye towards the train and asked, "Why not? What did they do to you that you hate them?" The trainer fidgeted beneath Evin's vengeful glare and finally said, "They didn't do anything to me directly, but they did steal my girlfriend's pokemon and.. um, well... have their way with her." Evin snorted, "And I bet she'd be in whole hearted agreement that those bastards deserve any cruel fate thrust upon them. No, I am not eager to deal out the kind of judgment that I have in mind, since as a matter of fact I had at one time avoided getting mixed up in these affairs, saying that it was none of my business and listening to others that said it wasn't. But after many run-ins and much consideration, destroying their organization and finding the puppeteer behind it all has become my desired goal. So don't judge my intent on what you know so little about; the root of their organization is evil."

The other trainer just then returned with Victini looking even more clammed up than before as he quickly handed Evin his garb. Evin forced himself to sit up and waited a moment for the dizziness to subside, then slid himself sideways on the table and began to dress. He reeked of freshly dried blood and knew that he would need to wash everything again, but for the moment the only thing he wanted was to find out how Shadow was doing.

Clipping on the last strap, Evin finally got off the table and stood. He wobbled for a moment and felt like he weighed a million pounds, but then straitened and managed the walk over to the critical wing. The emergency room light was still lit bright red when they arrived, so being that there was no window to look through and no other way to get information, Evin sat in a chair and waited. Gardevoir had been moved to the recovery room since Victini had brought her and Evin's belongings down as well, so for the moment it was just Celebi keeping watch on Evin since Zora and Groudon were still contained within their balls. Evin drifted in and out of a sleepy daze, as he was not quite relaxed enough to let his guard down again, but at the same time could not completely fight off his fatigue.

Sunrise was only an hour off when the light outside the emergency room finally faded and Evin stirred in his light headed stupor as he then waited for the door to open. A few minutes went by and nothing could be heard. As tired as he was Evin was also restless to find out the results of Shadow's injuries and just about the time he stood to knock Nurse Joy finally emerged wiping blood from her gloves.

The smell and sight of blood was nothing new to him at the moment, so preparing himself for the worst Evin asked after Shadow. Nurse Joy shook her head and said, "He will live, but I'm afraid that he will be unable to partake in strenuous activities for at least a month or two and even then it might take longer. The metal cut the deep muscles of his chest, damaged one of his lungs, and nearly penetrated his vital organs, but for now I've knitted the muscles and have cleaned and stitched his wounds as much possible. He's lost a lot of blood, but If he hadn't been as fit or well fed the results would have been much worse I'm sure."

Nurse Joy sighed as she then continued, "You've taken very good care of your umbreon so he should eventually make a full recovery, but I can't help but wonder what happened to cause this all to happen. Do you know what happened, and has the surgeon had a look at you yet?" Evin contemplated what he should say since he was still trying to preserve the timeline, but his only conclusion was to just come out and tell the truth of it all as he told her about the fight that he and Celebi were waging against Team Rocket.

"I am still trying to preserve the future timeline, but with this new technology that Team Rocket has used against us they are forcing me to ask for help. In the near future Team Rocket has established a well-fortified base Within the Ruins of Alph and by using a celebi that they have corrupted they are attempting to change their future standings in the war against the army and other team related factions. In this time they are going to start by burning down the entire forest outside this city just to see the results in my time, but it is my intention to stop them before they commit such a heinous crime." Evin looked at the emergency room doors and sighed as he then said, "With my umbreon down and myself in this weakened state I need the help of everyone we can get."

Both of the young trainers were still nearby with wide eyes when Nurse Joy now apprehensively asked them, "Did the Doctor from the nearby hospital ever come over and examine him?" They both shook their heads and didn't say anything. Nurse Joy then asked, "And his wounds?" The oldest trainer finally spoke up as he then said, "They just sort of closed up on their own when we set him on the table." Troubled Nurse Joy then turned back to Evin and asked, "You are human, right?" Evin had a somewhat troubled look on his face as he answered, "Yeah, but it's a very long story how I became the way I am now."

Joy was a bit annoyed that the doctor was running so late and even though Evin's story seemed valid enough with Celebi sticking so close to him she asked if he would mind having the doctor have a look at him once he arrived. Mildly impatient Evin restated, "Like I said before, I'd rather not mess-up the timeline any more than I need to, but if he shows up here soon I wouldn't mind."

Joy grabbed the nearest phone and dialed the number for the hospital, the phone rang a few times and then an assistant answered and Joy asked, "Did Doctor Valentine already leave for the pokemon center call that I issued a couple hours ago?" "Yes mam." came the reply, "He left about five minutes ago after he had just finished attending to two critical patients that had stumbled into the city badly injured and rambling about Team Rocket planning to do something terrible in Ilex forest."

Nurse Joy hung up the phone and then turned to Evin before saying, "The doctor is already on his way here. First if you will permit it, I would like for him to be able to have a look at you to make sure it is okay for you to be up and about, especially after losing so much blood. Then if you are well enough I will tell you my idea for a plan of action."

Evin's curiosity was roused as his sluggish thinking had just caught up with the full implications of what he had been asking, and though he didn't like the idea of risking permeant damage to the future he saw little choice at this point and said, "I know I'll pass on the not being injured part of being examined, but as for the blood lose, I'll just have to do as I've always done and improvise. This isn't the first time something like this has happened and though I keep getting dizzy spells and might even pass-out I don't want anyone to worry about what happens to me. I am immortal as far as I can tell, which means that in the worst case scenario of me being badly injured I will only be forced into a three to seven day long coma inside a psychic bubble. So I don't want any crazy heroics for my sake. Your lives are more important than my safety."

Nurse Joy and the trainers weren't sure of what to make of all the things Evin had just told them, but the one thing they with no doubt understood was that they were not supposed to try anything too risky that would jeopardize their own lives. Celebi worriedly landed in Evin's grasp and tucked her head into the crook of his arm as she was still unaccustomed to just how durable Evin truly was. She remembered him mentioning something about dying thrice over in their last time jump, but she hadn't taken it very seriously at the time. In most cases she would have been able to see a person's future just by being near them, but with Evin she was certain of nothing, which for the first time in her so far very short life added the element of a thrilling mystery.

Being carful of her wings, Evin gave her a pat on the head to be safe and reassure her that things would be fine. Just then the doors to the pokemon center opened and in walked a man with long gray hair wearing doctor's garb cloths stuffed with splints, needles, thread, cast wraps and bandages in case he had to set bones and fix open wounds. The look on his face spoke of near hysteria as he quickly walked over to Nurse Joy and had been expecting either a dead patient or one that was near dead as he said, "I got held up by a couple dire emergencies before I could get over here, where is the patient you spoke of and what for the love of Arceus happened to this building, there's a whole chunk missing!?"

Joy glanced at Evin then back at the doctor and said, "A lot has changed since I last called you. The patient I had called you here over is this one right here, but due to special circumstance, he is now uninjured, but has lost a lot of blood." The doctor furrowed his bushy gray eyebrows as he said, "Uninjured, but lost a lot of blood? How can that even be possible?"

Slowly Evin unbuckled his gear all the while explaining some things and showed him the places he had pulled the metal from his shoulder and gut. The doctor could easily smell the scent of the near freshly dried blood wafting off of Evin before he had even taken his shirt off, but even after he had looked over the spots that Evin had showed him he asked Joy, "How do we know that this isn't some kind of an elaborate trick or prank? The boy seems to be in perfect condition aside from being a little pale where he's not covered in blood, if it is his blood even."

Nurse Joy frowned and said, "You'd have a valid point if it weren't for the events that had occurred a little while back and I also have a couple young trainers here that say they saw his wounds close on their own accord." Joy then explained everything she had seen and did when the center had first been attacked and also enlightened him of the umbreon that she had saved and the real possibility that Evin was a time traveler with Celebi.

Doctor Valentine was in a slight state of shock by the time Nurse Joy had finished her full report and had seen a small demonstration from Evin that his powers were very real. However the effort of using his powers in the state he was in nearly knocked Evin off his feet. Celebi kept him up right and steady using her powers, but said to all, ~His reserves are completely exhausted after healing the extensive damage he's recently sustained, if he continues like this he will likely slip into a regenerative coma, but if that happens now we will fail our quest and will not be able to get a second chance.~

Joy asked, "Why can't you get a second chance?" Celebi took a thoughtful moment to blink and replied, ~Because only the god of time is allowed to break the rule of time travelers that have already revisited a single point in time once. Lesser time travelers such as my kind are not powerful enough to stop the amplified backflow of energy created by entering the same visited timeline as our past or future selves. In other words there can only be two, present and past or the viceversa present and future. Meaning that we only get this one chance to fix what has been done.~

The explanation had Evin's head swimming in confusion, though for what it was worth, Nurse Joy and Dr. Valentine seemed to understand the concept of what they just heard. Everyone finally on the same page and Dr. Valentine now part of their operation, Nurse Joy related her plan to stop Team Rocket.

***

On the fringes of the forest after dark the pokemon in the area were restless. Evin and his new group of companions made their way towards the Alph ruins by the cover of darkness by cutting strait through the dense forest by paths that only Nurse Joy knew. By way of a preemptive strike the night after the attack they intended to save as much time as possible so that their disappearance from the pokemon center may go unnoticed. They had taken the time during the day to let Evin rest up a little and get things in order as far as repairs and explanations to what had happened to the pokemon center, but by darkness they were able to pass people and pokemon unseen.

Getting through the forest in the dead of night was a trying task for those unable to sense their surroundings or for that matter not used to the rout that they were on. Nurse Joy navigated with experienced accuracy and helped the two young trainers and the doctor keep from running into things since they carried no lights. Evin and his pokemon brought up the rear and made sure that no one got separated since they had the help of extra sensory that only have powers could bestow and also kept close watch on what might try to sneak up on them since the rear was the most vulnerable position.

Pokemon of all shapes and sizes were in a continuous state of unrest and by the groups passage would often release whatever kind of ranged attacks they had in their arsenal from their dens if they had any. Sometimes these random attacks startled the group when one of the shots were directed directly at them, but for the most part Evin was able to easily deflect the shots on account of the automatic barrier his suit could project.

Many questions had been directed at Evin over this, but he had chosen to keep that particular information to himself and didn't budge when they grew curious time to time and persisted to pry. The moon was only a small sliver tonight so the paths were often so dark that they all would stumble time to time, but eventually they finally found the target of their journey together as the trees gave way to the open path on rout thirty-two only a stones' throw away from the ruins of Alph.

To the naked eye their seemed to be nothing of significance happening in the area, but for those with the ability to since life around them it was as if the bellows of hell itself were firing the area into a frenzy. Evin had no idea what was going on below the surface of the ruins, but he guessed that it was far worse than he could imagine. Sneaking around to the front of a cave Evin spotted another drone exactly like the one that had attacked him patrolling the entrance. Franticly Evin pulled back hoping that it couldn't sense him. He had long since refreshed his barriers, but he wasn't sure if that made a difference for machines, but now the only question was how to destroy it without alerting those within of their presence.

One of the young trainers had him covered though as he pulled out a pokeball and released his tangrowth. A pokemon Evin considered to be the weirdest he'd seen yet was a mesh of dark vines with two eyes peering from within, and upon its master's request it shot out vines from all over its body and completely engulfed the drone. It was only a matter of a couple seconds before the strange pokemon had consumed the mechanical devise and upon constriction the drone ignited like a grenade, but from the density of the vines it had been constricted by it had been completely muffled to little more than a dull pop of a weak firecracker.

Tangrowth then pulled back its burned vines and seemed to be pleased with itself as it had rather enjoyed breaking something, but now was not the time to bask in the glow of a small victory as its trainer called it back and they inspected the entrance again for anything they might've missed. From what they could see there were no cameras or motion sensors, just a bunch of dark ruined entrances that led to unknown wonders. Evin didn't like it, the energy in the area was going haywire and was making him get flashes of nausea and dizziness and made Celebi huddle up into a ball of fear and pain. Whatever was going on was at its peak and after recalling Celebi into her ball Evin motioned for them to keep moving.

Going inside the first of many buildings they found nothing but a few unknown circling around in riled up frenzy, but there weren't enough of them to cause things to happen. The next building was even less enlightening as it was completely empty with no signs of activity. The third and fourth buildings however had been a bit dangerous and Evin had ended up bringing out Zora in one of the encounters only to end up having an argument in the process of defending themselves.

The others were left woefully out of the loop for the entire confrontation between Evin and Zora, so all they could obtain from speculation was that she was furiously mad at him and didn't want to listen to orders and often times turned away from him and their opponents. The unknown in this time even with all their mysteries and powers proved not to be very smart and often enough incurred Zora's wrath when they used hidden power against her, which often enough caused her to literally explode at them with night daze.

Zora was scarier than an enraged ursaring as she near literally destroyed her opponents, then most everyone including Evin just stayed out of her way as she exited the building. Outside Zora looked up at the sliver shaped moon and out of sheer anger roared up at it loud enough to shake the ground. The others looked at Evin as one of the young trainers said, "Well there goes our cover," and the other said, "and my ear drums." Evin just sighed and told them that they had just had a bit of a fight the night he had been attacked.

Everyone just sighed the same way Evin had and walked outside to be greeted by two drones, a man in Team Rocket executive garb and a Celebi so corrupted to its core that the colors of green it had once possessed had turned soot gray and black. Something was off with the unknown though, as right after the Rocket executive said "you are too late" serval seemed to swirl above the corrupted celebi before each one then came to a standstill in front to spell "".

It took Evin but a moment to decipher what they were spelling, but once he was sure of what he was seeing anger engulfed him as he unleashed a burst of energy in the form of psychic shout that caused the unknown to disperse in random directions. Then, as if the order had already been given, the two drones opened fire with their duel machine guns, but were not able to penetrate Evin's shields this time.

Zora was currently nowhere to be found and it was taking all of his concentration to keep the aura shield up and strong against such an onslaught of ammunition fire. The others were stunned only momentarily, but now they all called out their strongest to defend them. Joy called out her chancey, Dr. Valentine his hypno, the oldest of the two young trainers called on his charizard, and the youngest trainer called out his magneton. It was a well balanced team and as they shot their counter attacks back at the drones they exploded like before with shrapnel going in all directions.

Having jumped for cover once he'd known the drones were going to be overpowered the executive had also taken the next moment to activate a failsafe as he then used the controls that forced the unknown to do his bidding. After the explosions of the drones Evin's shields were cracked from the shrapnel, but had held firm this time on account of that he was prepared and equipped for it. But even then, his powers had now drained his reserves and his vision of the world around him now seemed very dim.

Evin was the team's only significant line of defense against a psychic type such as a celebi and as he now fell to his knees the man holding the remote called for the celebi to mind wipe the intruders and cast them aside. Looking up at the dark celebi Evin's mind finally made contact with it and at that exact same moment he used all his power to block its attack against the others and nearly blacked-out.

Reality seemed to twist for a moment, but Evin was too preoccupied to figure out what it was, before he then heard one of the young trainers yell as he was attacked by an oversized tyranitar. Joy then gasped when she laid eyes on an entei about to fire at her chancey and had her pokemon use light screen to nullify the attack before it hit. Evin's concentration faltered as he heard a grand battle unfolding behind him as one powerful immortal pokemon after another just seeming to appear and add to the fray while the unknown danced in the sky above.

Shadow was sidelined due to his injuries and Zora seemed to be nowhere in sight, Evin didn't know what else he could do until Celebi's and Victini's pokeballs popped open on their own accord and added their combined strength to his. Together they began to overpower the corrupted celebi and bit by bit Evin began to catch quick flashes of its memories.

Memories of the multitudes of torture methods used on her, the corruption of her mind and even a few cases of seduction had brought the celebi lower than any kind of redemption could save, and with tears streaming down from her eyes the celebi helping Evin told him, ~She is dying, and at this point nothing can save her...~ That was all it took to bring back the memory of the man that had turned to dust before his very eyes, which in the deepest recess of her darkened heart pleased the celebi that they were fighting to no end.

She wanted her revenge far more than she wanted life, but still had no means to fight back as she continued fighting on the Rocket executive's behalf. With a wayward thought while Celebi and Victini kept the corrupted celebi in check, Evin snatched a black pokeball from the executive's belt and waved it at him. The executive shouted, "Give that back now boy! You know not what you meddle with!" Evin smirked, "Actually I think I do." and positioned his hands to crush the ball between his hands.

"NO! You mustn't do that! It will go berserk if you do!"

Leaving it up to chance Evin crushed the ball anyway, and upon doing so the corrupted celebi unleashed an awe inspiring torrent of darkened energy to form a dark time rift in the sky. Upon the dark rift fully forming, it began pulling things toward it like a massive gravity well grabbing hold of anything near. A few of the immortal conjurations of the unknown were pulled in, but without the unknows' influence the conjurations simply vanished. Seeing his chance with this new distraction, the oldest of the young trainers had his charizard swoop in and burn the controller the executive had been using and once destroyed the unknown simply dispersed in all directions except into the rift.

The gravity pull building stronger and stronger this was the moment Evin had dread since the moment he had seen the time broken man's memories. Looking at his burned hand and the crushed black pokeball next to Evin the executive finally yelled, "What have you done!" and just then a missile blasted off from the nearby forest in the direction from whence Evin's party had traversed. The man then wailed in a half laughing sadistic sort of way that made the hair on Evin's arms stand on end and using his power he quickly crossed the distance between him and the man and grabbed him by the back of the neck. "What did you do!?" Evin interrogated as he shook him like a ragdoll, "Where is that rocket headed?"

The executive smiled in such a way that it marked just how insane he really was. Even for a Team Rocket executive this man wasn't the typical type, as by his very nature he just wanted to watch the world burn and Team Rocket had only been the best means to fulfill that wish. The man's mind was so twisted that just the closeness of it was enough to make Evin want to vomit. "You're too late.. The missile will hit Goldenrod and the resulting fireworks will be a sight to behold. The deaths of hundreds will be your only reward for your victory over me here today! Many more just like me still exist and the coming of the new era will be written in the blood of those who stand in our way!"

Quickly relaying his thoughts to Victini she knew what to do as she had already shot off after the still quickening projectile. From the missile, to the unknown, to the corrupted celebi that awaited Evin's final decision as the time rift continued to grow in size and gravitational strength, Evin looked and thought about all three. The man needed to die and he had become the sentencing judge as he looked up at the dark rift and felt its pull nearly picking him up off the ground. The portal had to be used, or else someone else would surely die the death worse than death that was owed.

From where they stood they all watched as Victini attacked the missile and sent it spinning out of control; Evin feared for Victini's safty, but then watched as she managed to shoot it with a fire ball from a somewhat safe distance that slowly caused a chain reaction. Victini pulled away from the missile just in time then to watch it finally explode in a great burst of fiery might before the concussion wave knocked her from the sky. Either with a heavy heart or the fresh wave of anger that now coursed through his veins, Just as the man cried out ,"NO!" from seeing his final defeat Evin launched him into the void.

Finally appeased with the fulfillment of its function the portal began to shrink and as it shrank so too did the life-force of the corrupted celebi as it collapsed on the ground. Celebi went over to her, seeing her sister beginning to lose all color was enough to let her know that the danger had passed. She cried and pleaded with her sister to try to pull through, but to no avail did the other celebi even try to move from where she was as she only shook her head and wipe Celebi's tears from her cheek. Evin watched then as the other pokemon slowly perished before then withering into a dry husk. Celebi began to mourn the death of her lost sister as she sobbed and in doing so summoned a portal from which other celebi poured through.

Circling above, they let their sister mourn and even joined in on a few choice notes, but once Celebi's tears had started to run dry they joined her on the ground. Together they sang a strangely tuned song for a time and once it was over the others returned to the portal with the body of their fallen sister. Celebi remained behind and bid them farewell, but soon the light of the portal faded and the world seemed to become very dim except for the glow of the fire that rained down from the sky.

It was well into the day by the time everyone had regrouped and the mood was rather depressing. Zora was still nowhere to be found and Evin looked at the crushed black ball on the ground before then reaching into his pocket and looking at the white ball that Nurse Joy had given him. Inside the white ball, which was nothing more than a temporary containment ball, rested the gardevoir he had saved from before. As he thought about all the things that had happened he released the guardevoir from within and asked Celebi if she could send only her to the time that Dawn was waiting for them in.

Celebi wiped the tears from her face and nodded as she said, ~I could send her to our original timeline alone without over exerting myself, but then she won't have anyone around to look after her when she wakes.~ Evin shook his head, "Before you and I met I had made special plans for this in case I found something extra along the way which in this case is this gardevoir. We are not too far from the drop location I told her to keep an eye on, but I also need to be sure that she will end up appearing at the proper time."

Celebi's eyes lit up for a moment as she concentrated, she looked a little troubled, but then softened as her eyes returned to normal. ~It can be done, and though it won't be pleasant for her at first she will be found by the person you spoke of.~ Evin nodded and told Nurse Joy that he needed to go do something before they could all returned to the pokemon center. She assured him that they weren't going anywhere for a while and that she and the doctor needed to look to the injured unknown before they left anyway.

Evin gave her an affirmed nod and with gardevoir in his arms started jogging south. His energy was spent, but with the help of his powers he managed to reach the drop site quickly and took a moment to catch his breath as he now looked out over a sunny beach. Gardevoir lightly stirred, but didn't wake as he set her down and just as Celebi opened a time portal Evin lifted gardevoir with his psychic powers and sent her on her way.

Once the deed was done he fell flat to the ground totally spent. He knew he had to get back up to rejoin the others, but his body wouldn't even muster the energy to even lift a finger as he only stared up at the sky. Cool ocean wind blew over the beach and even felt a little refreshing, but still wasn't enough to make him budge. Celebi used healing bell again, but that too seemed ineffective as he still didn't move. She feared that there was possibly no stopping him from falling into a coma, but he then reassured her that he would be fine after a few minutes.

His thoughts were what the executive had said about there being more like him and the new era he spoke of. By all means Evin knew that Team Rocket was one the worst crime organizations to ever come into power, but he had never taken them for being the chaos worshiping nut-jobs like the guy he had just thrown into the broken time rift. Thinking back to Ian's arch enemy the Revenant, Evin wondered at who could possibly be worse than that pulling the strings.

The idea of ever running into an enemy worse than that demon shade sent a cold shiver down his side. Though they did find that light based objects and attacks could hurt it, Evin still wasn't so sure that they would completely vanquish it by that method alone since he wondered if the Revenant had been completely whole or there. In other words his thoughts were if it was capable in being in multiple places at once.

Finally mustering his willpower, Evin heaved himself up off the ground shaking the thoughts from his head for a more appropriate time. Celebi helped him dust off and asked if he was feeling okay. Once again Evin reassured her that he was fine and opposite of their last fast run out to the beach he adopted a slower walk back while Celebi flew around checking trees for flowers and berries.

It was late afternoon by the time Evin returned, and the others converged on him as they had begun to think that they had left by time travel. Evin ensured them that he had too much to fix before he could do that and even made mention of his wayward zoroark since she was still missing. No one knew where she had gone to, which made Evin feel that much more uneasy. Making their way back through the forest during the day was much easier than at night so the journey back through the forest only took but a couple hours. Victini found them on the outskirts of the forest as she had been doing her best to keep any flames that had managed to make it to the ground from starting fires. It had been a busy day for all of them as they finally walked back inside the doors at the pokemon center, but now it was time to say their goodbyes.

The two young trainers had finally warmed up to him and wanted to exchange numbers to keep in contact. But then Evin reminded them all that he had come from the future and that to preserve the future he needed to put blocks on their minds to ensure nothing changes, but reassured them that they would eventually remember right after the time in which he returns to his present. No one was happy to hear that he was going to tamper with their minds; even if it was to save the future, they didn't like the idea of forgetting everything that had just happened.

Giving them all very little choice since a few were already trying to say no Evin did what needed to be done as each one then quietly laydown and went to sleep. He knew that each would someday remember everything that had happened, but all the same felt bad that he had to take their memories captive for a while. Gathering all of his equipment Evin then left the center and made his way into Ilex forest where he hoped to clean out the last few members of Team Rocket before setting out to search for Zora.

***

By the time Evin entered the forest it was almost dark out and the hoothoots and noctowls were starting their evening hunts. If it wasn't for the randomly placed scorch marks on the ground from fights long over, Evin would have thought this place to be very peaceful, but from the signs that he was seeing in places here and there he wasn't sure that being in such a place after dark was the best idea he had had in a while. Victini and Celebi assured him that they would stay awake and keep their eyes peeled for strange activity while he got a little sleep.

He wished he could feel better about it than he did since there was little chance for anything to be able to overpower or sneak past two legendary psychic pokemon, but all the same felt edgy as he tried to get some sleep. Edgy or not, Evin's mind and body didn't miss the chance at getting a good rest as he was asleep in seconds and dreaming in only a few minutes as he dreamt of simpler times back when he and his dad did projects together.

The project of the dream was of when they had made a functioning remote controlled sail boat with a mast so big that the top literally came up to his waist when it was in the water. Working on the boat with his father had been the best part about the project even if it had taken them nearly a full week to complete it. But in his dream days blended into hours and just as their work was nearly finished the dream shattered as he heard a loud mental ~Wake up!~

Evin jolted up strait from where he was sitting. One eye seeing foggy blotches while the other was still clear before he blinked and rubbed his eyes. "What's going on?" he groggily asked trying to sound more alert than he really was. ~Something that we cannot sense with our minds approaches. We didn't know what it was so Victini fired a warning shot trying to scare it off, but it only decided to circle around instead.~ sleep and weariness quickly leaving his body Evin asked, "Have I been asleep for long?"

Victini spoke up to Celebi and she replied, ~She says it's been about five or six hours since the sun is still a while away from rising.~ (Not a fantastic amount of sleep, but better than I could hope for given our situation.) Evin thought. Cracking his sores bones and muscles Evin focused his mind and in only a few moments Evin knew what was skulking around in the shadows and called out sounding a bit annoyed, "You can quit playing games now! I know it's you Zora!"

A growl was heard way off in the trees behind them, Victini and Celebi did a one-eighty as they had for sure thought that they had located the threat and had been facing it, only to find out now that it was still where it had started from. Suddenly they all heard ~Psychics are easy to fool, but you damn aura users always spoil my fun.~ and from the shadows Zora appeared before them as she sauntered into camp and sat next to Evin.

By the look and sound of her she didn't seem to be still holding a grudge, but that to Evin didn't say a whole lot since she was good at lying. "What have you been doing this whole time?" Evin asked, sounding rather skeptically curious. Zora looked at them and just shrugged as she said, ~Oh, this and that. Blowing off steam.~ The blowing off steam part Evin could understand, but he was starting to feel a bit angry that while he and the others had been in dire danger that she was off have a tantrum.

"So you mean to say that while we were fighting for our lives, in a mess that you caused for us with your mega roar, you were out here blowing off steam at trees all because I denied you something you wanted?" Zora had a momentary look of oops on her face, but then said, ~I didn't say that I was blowing off steam at trees exactly.~ Evin's eyes narrowed on her as he said, "What do you mean?"

Zora let out a sarcastic sigh, ~Well if you haven't noticed by now then you are pretty dense. The whole time you were fighting and even after that, you and your group never encountered even a single other Team Rocket member, am I right?~ "Well yes, but that-" ~And in all that time didn't you think it rather odd that a Team Rocket executive with so much riding of him would be so alone when he confronted you?~ "Well yes to that as well, but-" ~I have been trouncing Rocket grunts left and right all day and night with and without their pokemon to help them. So don't even bring your anger to bear at me, or you will lose and I will hit you so hard that you fly clear back into Goldenrod.~

Evin and the others exchanged worried glances before Evin licked his lips and asked, "And what did you do with them once you were done with them?" Zora then let out a devilish sounding cackle as she then said, ~Oh don't worry, I didn't kill many of them. There is a pile of them not to far away from here wounded and trapped within my illusions. It will be hours before they can even begin to muster coherent thoughts, much less move.~

Evin looked to Celebi and asked, "Did she gather them all up for us then?" for a moment Celebi's eye glowed brightly, then she said, ~Yes, and the bodies of the dead are also nearby, so it shouldn't take us too long to finish up and return with them to the proper time from whence we all came.~ Zora nodded and swelled her chest as she stood strait and said, ~Damn right their all there. Else I'd be teaching them a new lesson.~

Evin breathed a sigh and wiped his face; his work was far from over, but now he could see the finish line in sight as he got his things together. Together they all made their way over to the pile Zora had mentioned and when they got there Evin saw about forty men and women all heaped together, some unconscious, some groaning and a few others that just lay there twitching.

Evin had to hand it to Zora, had a better way for letting off steam that what he would have ever thought of, though on some she did go a little overboard; to testament that, there were three other unmoving bodies lying nearby. Looking at the sorry pile of losers Evin asked Celebi if she would be able to time jump this many at once and she got a look of pure prestigious pride as she replied, ~I most certainly can.~ and with no more to add to it she opened a time portal which Evin then machine gunned each and every Team Rocket member into before finally jumping in himself with the others.

***

The connection was instantaneous; Rika could once again feel Evin's presence even though he was still far away. Getting up from sitting with the others at the fire she was too excited to speak and almost did a little dance as she tried to get Dawn's attention. Dawn had been asleep in the warm fuzzy solitude of her blankets when Rika started jumping up and down and making noises she didn't understand. But the one thing she did catch was the look of either extreme excitement or distress as she bolted up right and came over to her wearing her night gown.

The air of the igloo was cold but not overly so since the two grass types had been working overtime and had lavished even more time since the shelter's completion to help insulate it from top to bottom. By now the igloo had become more like a nest hovel with leaves and silk coating everything the fire wasn't burning including the ground since the melting ice had been getting things wet.

"Okay, okay, slow down. What is the problem?" Dawn asked. Rika could hardly contain herself enough to slow down; if it weren't for the raging blizzard outside she would have been using her pent up energy to run to Evin's side, but now all she could get out were two words, ~He's... Back!~ breathing for a moment she finally steadied herself and continued, ~I can feel him again.~

Dawn breathed a sigh of relief, but then glanced at the flexing silk weaved door flaps that were the only things keeping the wind out. "Sorry honey, you're just going to have to wait till he comes here. No one is going out in that, and I'd think Evin to be foolish as well if he tries to come here right now. It's not like he--. What's wrong?"

Rika's ears went down and she said, ~He's gone again.~

***

One by one each Rocket member hit the snowy forest floor with a thump, including the bodies. When Evin emerged he felt the connection with Rika surge into him and knew right then that she was aware of his return. The timing of this wasn't exactly perfect, but for the moment it also didn't matter as he mustered his power to teleport everyone and thing he had with him. Shifting from one place to another, one moment he saw snowy trees and forest, the next he was standing in Commander Valnsar's command tent looking at a very stunned corporal sergeant and commander as they looked at Evin and the pile of people they appeared with.

The look of complete befuddlement on the commander's face was priceless, and in loving that reaction so much Evin couldn't resist the urge to say, "My mission is complete. Seeing that you still have your hands full with not being able to get in past the storm I'll just leave this pile of scum here with you. I have no more use for them." and before the commander could even utter a word Evin teleported again with only his pokemon this time back to Ixel forest.

Upon seeing the forest again Evin and Zora nearly hit the ground laughing in hysterics. Celebi didn't know what the joke was exactly, but just seeing them happy was enough to make her smile too. They were all tired again, but one last job still remained; the biggest trick in history. "Are you able to jump us two more times?"

Celebi looked a little worried, but said, ~I'm pretty sure I can, but I've never jumped so many times so close together before.~ Evin thought about it for a moment and said, "Once more is all we really need, So it's no big deal if you can't go again that soon after. All Zora and I have left to do now is make my past self and an entire city think that the forest was burned down in another time to spurn my old self on his way." Zora then scoffed, ~Hum, that will be fun.~ then she brightened up and said, ~Forget fun! This will be freakin awesome! Fun is just scaring you and the girls, but this, this will be you pulse and entire city. This will be the illusion to be remembered until the end of time!~

Celebi had a look of mock-horror on her face and Evin said, "Well it seems someone is all fired up and ready to get this party started. Celebi, could you do the honors?" With a giggle, Celebi opened the new portal while Evin safeguarded the lot of them. Then with their heads held high they entered to finish their final task.

They arrived nearly twenty-four hours before they needed to stage their ruse of the century. Evin knew that his old self and company were already in the city, so keeping his current group's presence under the radar was of the utmost importance as they began herding all the pokemon of the forest out. Celebi was a pro at getting the wild pokemon to follow her out willingly and Zora, well she was more of a menace, but still got the job done as pokemon ran away from her. A few people tried to pass through, but with his new skills Evin found it to be a simple task to just turn them around and make them forget.

The bug pokemon and ursaring were probably the most stubborn, but they too just like the humans were made to leave without a fight. Moving an entire forest full of pokemon was a beast of a job, but nearly as taxing as his training with Mewtwo had been. If Evin had been handed a mirror right then he wouldn't have recognized himself. It had been too long since he had last had a good meal and even longer since he had a full night's worth of sleep. He was running ragged, but still kept strong as he worked throughout the entire night and kept everyone's safeguard fresh.

Finally, by morning, the trap was set. It was almost time for their little play to unfold and he had to concentrate to remember what plants he needed to suck the life force from to convince his past self and Rika that the forest was dying in another time. Zora was handling the visual effects, but Evin had to make the wave of death to the foliage feel real.

Time trickled by and minutes seemed to last forever before they finally spotted their target, Evin's past self-walking and talking to Dawn oblivious to what was about to happen. The suspense of the moment seemed to almost give it away as Dawn was the first to notice that something was wrong. She looked spooked as she looked from one side to the other, then they watched Evin's old macho-self step forward and open his senses.

Spotting the small plant beside his past self, Evin squeezed it dry and then Zora started going work while he began to squeeze the life from every single small plant he could in a solid wave. Spooked and now running away, Evin watched as Zora finished the job and fell flat on his back from exhaustion since his role was finally complete. From the side of his vision he then watched his old self turn and look back at the now non-existent forest. It had taken an awful lot of work and preparation, but now it had finally paid off.

Zora wasn't quite yet done though, since she still needed to hold the illusion for a good while longer until they were sure that the old group left the city along with the resulting mass exodus, so for the time being Celebi and Evin just saved their energy. It was nearly two hours later before Zora finally announced, ~I can't hold it anymore. The pokemon are already retruning to their homes and more and more people from both sides are beginning to wander in.~

Evin sat up and just said, go ahead and leave off it then. I'm sure we have already accomplished what we were here to do." And by his words Zora collapsed and breathed a deep breath. Evin then said, "I have to admit, those illusions of yours are getting quite good. I believe you may have surpassed your teacher with this one." Zora smiled with pride at his complement, but was too weak to stand after exerting so much into keeping the illusion up for so long. Removing the ball from his belt, Evin told her as most trainers did that she had earned a good long rest, though unlike most in normal battles she had more than earned it as he returned her to her ball.

Evin groaned from weariness. He felt like he could pass out and never wake again from wanting to sleep so bad, but as before he asked Celebi if she had it in her to jump them one last time. She too looked a bit droopy, but she managed a tired smile and nod before then struggling to open a portal. Grabbing her on the way in, they then finally returned to their rightful timeline.

***

Once again Rika's ears perked. It had been a few hours since she had last felt him, but now, no matter how weak it was, she felt him again. Dawn was sitting next to her this time and asked, "Is he back again?" Rika nodded, but then said, ~Yes, but this time he is very weak. He's not hurt, but tired.~ she closed her eyes and tried to feel how he felt. ~Yes.. So tired he could easily fall into one of his comas. He has pushed himself past his limits.~ Dawn looked a little worried and asked, "You don't think there's anything we can do to help do you?"

Rika shook her head, ~No, he is still too far away for us to do anything. As you once said before, all we can do is wait for him to come to us.~

***

Evin landed knee deep in a snow drift after leaving the portal. Celebi was now just as tired as he was and perhaps a bit worse off and yet he himself did not even have enough energy left to keep the wind from biting them or for that matter to teleport them elsewhere. He knew where he had to go to meet up with Dawn and the others and by the feel of his connection with Rika he knew that she was safe and out of danger.

Exhausted in every way possible, Evin made his way into Goldenrod city. It was a very quiet place to be now that there weren't thousands of people running around being loud and the pokemon center once again looked to be in one piece, but with closer inspection he could still see where the repairs had been made. Walking in Nurse Joy greeted him like any other trainer, but after only a moment later she said, "Ti-time travel... Time traveler." And with a shake of her head she had remembered everything, including having her memory being temporarily blocked.

"You have some nerve to just stroll in here after what you did. Your past self was here only a few days ago and now the you I remember from so many months ago that left a whole in my roof is standing right in front of me yet again." Evin just chuckled and said, "I missed you too. A lot has happened since the last time I was here, but now it is finally finished." Joy smirked, "So you succeeded then?" Evin groaned, "Yes, better than you could possibly imagine, but I and my pokemon are in dire need or rest and they need a checkup far worse than I do."

Looking him over with concern Nurse Joy then said, "I'll look at them right away, but then again you really don't look so well yourself. Shall I call up the good Doctor Valentine?" Evin just gave her a mournful look. The look he gave her looked pretty bad, so she then immediately said, "Yes I think I will." and gave him a key to get into a room upstairs.

Entering the room tired and bleary eyed, Evin contemplated washing up like the last time he had been here in the past since he still reeked of blood along with the new and now very apparent smell of sweat and grime. The idea of another attack made him flinch. He knew that he was far too weak to weather another assault like what happened before, but then again he needed to clean up sooner or later and sleep was just something he couldn't avoid one way or another.

Rubbing the chill of fear from his arms, he once again entered the bathroom. The air was chill, but the water warmed up quickly as he opted for a shower instead of a soak. Peeling off his cloths he could finally see just how pale he really was and was deeply concerned from the way his limbs looked unnaturally thin. Dumping his washables in the washer like last time Evin then looked in the mirror right after and confirm that he really did look terrible.

Even with all of his amazing healing powers, his body looked like it had become withered and worn. Either by his diet on Mewtwo's island of only berries or by the combination of that and the ceaseless training he had endured at the hands of his merciless teacher, Evin's body was at the brink of limitation. The very sight of himself made him feel sick. Most of it had come off with his cloths, but he could still see old blood covering his overwhelmingly pale skin in blotchy patches that often enough ran along the curved dips of his muscles as his body seemed to have absolutely nothing other than bone and muscle left.

Looking away from the mirror, he wondered if Dawn or Rika would even recognize him. The thought of them seeing him like this bothered him, but if it weren't for the training he had received from Mewtwo he'd still be at the mercy of his own powers and for that he was extremely grateful. Clearing his head, he got into the shower and forced himself to relax as he rinsed off the remnants of yet another bad memory best forgotten.

***

Refreshed and dressed again, Evin was in the middle of his examination from Doctor Valentine when a call from Professor Juniper interrupted. Doctor Valentine had already been acutely aware of Evin's mysterious situation, but nothing could have prepared him for the new revelation that he and Evin would experience.

"It's nice to see and hear from you again so soon Evin. I was afraid that you would still be out in the field, but it seems that we are both in luck. I've had another breakthrough on the research of the blood sample that I got from you so long ago and since then I've unlocked one mystery after another. The variables are endless, but it would seem in theory that your powers can in fact be passed to others, but at the same time clings to your blood as the main host or carrier."

Evin was a bit perplexed and said, "You make it sound like I'm carrying some sort of contagious disease." The professor rolled her eyes and replied, "Oh please, I wish it were that easy. The substance in your blood which I will simply call god essence chooses the sub-hosts that it bonds to. In other words it seems to have a will of its own on who it will infec--oh, um. Pass to. It's a really complicated substance to work with, but I think I have also figured out how it gave you the power to heal."

"Okay, and that's important because?" Professor Juniper seemed astonished for the moment before saying, "Haven't you ever wondered how your powers healed you?" Evin had a bit of a clueless look and said, "I've never really thought too much about it. I've always thought that it was like a psychic recovery thing." Juniper shook her head and said, "You couldn't be more wrong."

Evin and Doctor Valentine frowned as both asked how that was possible. With a sigh Juniper continued, "As mysterious as psychics are none in known history have been able to regenerate at the speed and rate that Evin has in the past and none have ever been wrapped in a cocoon of aura and psychic energy. My theory derived from my research is this. The god essence inside of you acts as not only a partial power-source for using all of your powers but is also the direct source of healing as it seems to be keeping a constant record of your body's physical status. In other words it is not necessarily simply healing the damage but reversing it."

Evin's thoughts were still processing when Doctor Valentine then said, "But doesn't that insinuate that time is merely being alter on his body?" Juniper shook her head again, "No, time has no part in this. It's still hard to say for sure at this point, but it's a lot more like a data save and restore." Valentine sat back in a chair with a brooding look about him while Evin thought about his Ds that had fallen out of his pocket that day his troubles started.

It was a thought that almost made him laugh, but at the same time wonder how far it could go. So far he had seen no physical limits, but what he was not sure of was his mental state, as he thought back to when the Revenant had attacked his mind in an effort to dominate him. It wasn't something that he was not eager to test, so for now he decided to take after something slightly more to his interests as he asked, "How many ways can this god's essence I carry spread?"

Juniper cocked her head to one side slightly as she studied him and said, "I'm not yet sure of all the ways it can be transferred, but blood is the surest way so far. It's not so contagious that it is able to spread it by air or saliva since it evaporates instantly to air contact, but by a large amount of blood from a wound, direct transfer, or perhaps even intercourse it might be possible. But like I said before, it seems to have a mind of its own and might not take to even a direct transfer."

Juniper's head tilted the other direction and she asked, "Is there something of concern that I should know about?" Evin's eyes momentarily darted back and forth to those around him as his face reddened. "Well that's a yes if I ever saw one. So what was it?" Feeling the heat rising from his jacket he asked in a mournful tone, "Now?" "Yes now." Juniper snipped.

Evin could feel his heart beat in his fingertips as he then said, "Well as you already know, Rika and I had that run-in together that time that she had come in heat and, well, that produced and egg, so I was just wondering what might come from all of that." Juniper looked a little disappointed like she had hoped to hear about something else and then said, "Honestly I can't say if anything would happen, and even if it did I'm not sure what kind of results there would be since you are the main host. Unfortunately the only way to find out is for it to occur, because until it actually does happen, it's all blind guess work."

Finally Doctor Valentine sat back up and asked, "By any chance professor, is there any way we as physicians could use this substance to save people's lives?" Juniper's eyes drifted down as she said, "Unfortunately no. With it being so unpredictable it isn't a reliable method and I'm afraid that once you infect someone with it if it accepts them that there is no way to remove it, and then there is also the fact that there is no knowledge to go on to even say that it would even give them powers to heal."

The doctor had a look of concentration as he then dismissed his idea before he then said, "Thank you professor, that's all I needed to know. However I do hope that you will look into it in future applications if you have the time." Juniper chuckled, "I've been working with this boy's blood for months and it still defies reason and logic. If I find anything useful you'll be the first one beyond Evin that I contact since it is a very personal subject to him. My only hesitation on this subject so far has been that in the end we still know nothing about this mysterious mystery god."

Doctor Valentine sighed, "Hmm, that is a question I too would like the answer to, but for right now that will all have to remain as it is while I try to focus on what is in front of me. This boy of yours seems to be having some negative reactions to his own powers of late. After examining him and now understanding a bit more about his condition, I've come to the conclusion that the overextended use of his powers can cause more than just fatigue and coma to occur.

If my theory is right, when he exhausts his energy reserves in both his body and the essence you spoke of in execs over a longer period of time, it begins to eat away at his body's natural resources of fat tissues and perhaps eventually even the meat and muscle would then be in jeopardy. Now I'm not sure if his powers can repair that kind of damage or not, but what I am sure of is that without having at least the minimum amount of natural body fat left that it will cause growth problems. You need to get him to promise that he will not over use his powers to these extents again."

Juniper frowned, "Unfortunately that isn't something I can force upon him since that sort of thing will be his call from now on since he now knows that using his own powers can come at a price. And I can assure you that this sort of thing as of yet hasn't been a common occurrence." Doctor Valentine looked no less concern, but took Evin to one side as he said, "Doctor's orders, take a vacation from everything for a while until your physical appearance returns to normal. By then your body should be strong enough to keep pace with whatever it is that you do, but remember this, over-extending yourself in one battle might not do too much damage but to keep it up for days could cause very serious irreversible side effects."

Evin nodded and took his warning with deep consideration and asked, "What should I do for now then?" Valentine smirked and said, "Gorge yourself like and ursaring and sleep like one, your body needs a long rest and the sustenance to rebuild what has been taken from it." Valentine looked him over for a moment before he continued, "I'd give it about a month before you start looking like yourself again. Some real RNR for about a month or two would be the best thing for you if you want to be at one-hundred-percent when your journey continues."

Evin looked blankly at a wall and wondered if he was allowed to take a break from everything. A month of nothing to do but spend time with Dawn and Rika and yes even Zora; doing nothing at all except the occasional fun filled frolic now and then.

The idea was appealing, but he doubted he'd ever find that kind of time or money to stay in one place that long. The idea of a pokemon center being an option also crossed his mind, but then again he remembered the drone that had attacked him. How it had found him in the first place he still wasn't sure and if there had been anyone in the next room over from him they would have possibly been killed.

A populated area was a bad idea, there was no doubt in Evin's mind about that. He and Dawn would just have to figure something out later; for now though, his thoughts and attention returned to those around him as he said to the professor, "I think I will take Doctor Valentines advice and find a secluded place to rest for a while." The professor scrunched her face in a look of concern as she asked him why not stay at the center before he then informed her of the drones he had previously run into.

"I'm sure that it had to of been only a random precaution they had used to keep other time-travelers from interfering. I have run every sort of test possible on the substance in your blood and not once did I find it to be abnormally traceable. Granted it could have been the psychic power that you put off that could have attracted it, but unless they are on guard close by, I don't see any reason to being scared of staying at a pokemon center. The walls are built to withstand attacks and the nurses are masters of the medical arts. Team Rocket knows better than bother them too much."

A breath of laughter nearly left his mouth as he added, "Well, mabe most nurses are masters and not to be trifled with, but I know of one that had some trouble with some hooligans." Juniper glared, "Let's not squabble over a few technicalities. She was ill prepared for it and still very young for a full-fledged nurse."

Evin just smiled and chuckled. Seeing that she had informed him of all the information that he needed to know, Juniper bid him to have a good long safe rest and hung up the call. Nothing but a lot of thinking was left for Doctor Valentine as he then bid Evin farewell as well and Nurse Joy then returned to her duties behind her desk and handed Evin the four pokeballs she had been looking after and said, "Other than needing rest, they are all fine. The Celebi and umbreon however are like you going to have to take an extended rest to recover injuries and recuperate power.

Celebi are delicate pokemon to keep, so my suggestion to you is to not use her in any major direct physical type battles. They are time travelers of purity and while they are able to work great wonders they are not fighters. Keep her out of harm's way please." Evin nodded saying, "I'll try to." But the truth was that Evin had a lot on his mind now, but then couldn't keep from yawning. "Go get some sleep. I had the walls reinforced since the last time you were here since I couldn't figure out what had happened the day you blocked all of our memories. It'll take more than some drone to blast a hole in these walls again."

Evin halfheartedly smirked as he said, "That's what I'm afraid of." and then proceeded upstairs back to the room he'd been in a while before his checkup. In the room he set the pokeballs in a chair and then went to the fridge. Inside it was stocked with all sorts of hearty foods that usually weren't part of the normal cold box menu.

As the doctor had said, he then gorged himself until he could eat no more and promptly after collapsed on the bed where he fell to sleep before his head hit the pillow. Dreams played in his mind the likes of which he hadn't seen in a long while. Some of his old school, some of home, but mixed in with those there were a few that seemed to come more and more into focus as dark visions.

Scenes of figures cloaked in darkness with no discernable features clashed with swords while pokemon garbled in armor blasted beams from one side to the other. To Evin he could see no good or bad side, just the figures all fighting to the death until none stood. To one side of the battle Evin could see a land covered in white light with a mountain at its center, while the other seemed to be dipped in the darkest shade of black, also with a mountain at its center.

The two were as identical as a mirror image and to Evin this all made little sense. At least that was until the Revenant appeared before the black mountain and himself before the white. (Is this all just an elaborate chess game between gods?) Evin wondered. The similarities started to make sense and to him it clearly stated that he wasn't a pawn, but then as he continued that train of an idea he wondered how many more people out in the world had been elevated beyond a pawn.

His first thought was Ian since the Revenant seemed to be his archenemy and that made sense, but as for others he could think of no one that could go toe to toe with the Revenant the way he and Ian did. Then the thought occurred (Am I meant to find the others?) ~Yes.~ was the only response he then got before he woke to his shoulder being shaken.

"Wake up! Come on. There we go, come on." Evin's eyes opened and for a moment he thought it was Dawn shaking him again. But then it occurred to him, (Light red hair?) and a moment later his eyes finally began to adjust as Nurse Joy appeared over him holding his shoulders while shaking. "What's wrong now? Is there a reason you had to get me up?"

Nurse Joy's expression became that of relief as she saw him finally wake and said, "You've been asleep for two days!" It took a moment for what she said to register, but when it did he shot up from the bed looking around wildly as he said, "I should have left a long time ago! Has anything happened since the other night?" Joy just shook her head as she said, "I'm afraid not. The city has been pretty quiet ever since a few days ago and while you slept through the day yesterday I had taken the liberty to see to feeding your pokemon. But when today began and still you slept I began to worry."

Evin relaxed a little as he sighed, "Yeah, leave it to extreme exhaustion and blood loss to make me sleep well." He thought back to the dreams he had just had, (Were those all real visions? Or could they just be something my mind made up?) and shook his head to clear his head a little. "It's time for me to get going; my friends should be waiting for me where I left them and they are probably wondering why I haven't yet come to them."

"I doubt they are wondering too much since a harsh storm has set in for a while. A blizzard has been raging for the last few days." Evin's eye's went wide with surprise as he shouted, "A storm; really!? I need to go now!" and with that he grabbed his things and Teleported before Nurse Joy could say another word.

***

The storm outside of the ice shelter had been raging so hard for so long that it had long been buried deep beneath the snow and ice. The fire burned low from the lack of air even though Piplup had dug out a tunnel to the surface, but because he had to periodically dig it out again the air still dwindled. For now everyone was motionless, Dawn knew that they needed an extra vent to stabilize their situation, but with the storm still raging none of them could go outside. Rika had tried in the past to fix the domed roof with a vent, but had almost caught hypothermia in the process before being dragged back inside.

Dawn's eyes nearly closed as her sight drifted along the walls of their shelter. She had been up for the past two days trying to figure out ways to build vents, but the wind was always so erratic that it wasn't long before it was coming at them from another direction. Her options had all been spent and her resources were depleted. She wondered where Evin was and what he was doing since Rika had told her the day before that he was sleeping, but with her out of commission she had been left to her own vices of only guessing.

To a degree she hoped that he wasn't out in this storm trying to get to them, but to another she did. She had no more ideas to offer and was much too tired to even try to think of another. She wondered if he had known about this storm before he had sent her down rout thirty-two to set up a temporary shelter or if he was in a panic that very moment knowing that he had sent her here to get trapped in yet another dangerous situation.

But knowing Evin, she guessed the later of the two and dismissed the thought altogether. She was worrying over nothing now and she hated it. Shaking herself awake, she started to sit up, but then the world around her shook as something popped into existence. Suddenly Evin was standing before her, but when she got a good look at his face all she could say was, "You look terrible." Evin looked worried as he said, "And you don't look much better. I heard that a storm had set in only a few moments ago so I came as quickly as I could." Dawn sighed with relief before saying, "Yes, and I have you to blame for this crisis. We are trapped here with our air dwindling away since the snow keeps burying our vents and entrances."

Dawn furrowed her eye brows as her mind finally clicked and she then exclaimed, "In which case how did you get in here just now and how is it that you only found out about the storm only a few moments ago!?" The commotion woke the others and Evin replied, "Um, well, that's kind of a long story, which I will eagerly tell you once we get a handle on things around here."

Thanking a moment to come up with a solution, Evin decided on a great way they could possibly remedy the situation with the wind constantly changing directions. The entire plan would rest on Victini's shoulders though, to make it work; but he needed the help from one other as he released everyone from their balls. Looking to Celebi and Victini Evin explained his plan.

Together with Celebi, she and Evin removed a layer of sand from the ground and compressed it into a long hollow pipe. Forming sharp teeth at one end and a smoke-stack cap on the other to keep the snow out of it; then Evin had Victini breath fire over it while he and Celebi held the form. At first it was a low heat which made the air around the pipe shimmer, but then it became an inferno as the sand began to glow cherry red. It was difficult to hold the form while compressing the sand with each breath of fire, and with the oxygen being consumed so quickly it wasn't long before all of them starting to feel dizzy.

Soon the shine of cherry red had transcended into a bright golden liquid glow and with a final compression of energy Evin deemed that it was time to let it cool, while he and Celebi kept it up in the air. Sweat poured from everyone because the room was so hot and everyone now gasped for breaths while waiting for the pipe to cool. Soon the pipe's colorful glow had begun to fade and while the end result wasn't a very pretty color of glass or for that matter very clear, it was solid.

Using his powers, Evin sent the glass pipe out the entrance and with a mental vision of the outside of the shelter he found the perfect spot to drive it in as he began turning it like a drill. With the teeth it had on one side Evin had it cut through the ice to eventually price through the silk and leaf barriers of the inner sanctum before finally letting it rest. A few teeth had broken off in the proses, but they no longer mattered as the new vent started preforming its job beautify after having Victini clear it with one last blast of hot air.

Slowly, the temperature of the shelter stabilized and breathing became less and less of an issue as they let cold air gust in through the entrance to push the used up hot air out the vent. It still wasn't the best of situations, but now everyone was starting to feel comfortable again. Rika now slept a little easier and it wasn't until that very moment that Evin finally asked why she was asleep still and found out that she had fallen from the cold only the day before. Dawn assured him that she would recover and that all she needed was rest.

But all Evin could do was regret his choice of having Dawn camp this far out. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, since he knew that no one else would be this far out, but now he could see the results that his choice had inflicted on those close to him and wished he had done something else. Their supply of food was in good stock, so he was at least sure they wouldn't starve before he had at least a little time to recover more, but with the storm raging so hard, he wasn't sure how long they could stay in such an exposed area.

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(Final Edit may also include chopping this part two chapter in half. Please comment if this is a good idea.)