Chapter 11 - We Rescue Ourselves

“P-please, tell me that’s a Milotic.” Celeste’s words quivered in the air, before vanishing with the wind. Anyone could tell the difference between Milotic and Gyarados, even in the distance. Hopefulness sounded more like coping. “Do… we battle?”

Could they even?

She recalled an earlier conversation she had Surge, only a few days before. “I’m not mad enough to do this,” she’d told him, when they were talking about fighting a Golem. She eventually went after it. But what about now? Surge wasn’t around. Was she mad enough to fight a Gyarados?

“Do we run?” Delia asked, eyes on the water. “Looks like it’s heading straight for us.”

Celeste exhaled. Summer was over today, she realised. Not a particularly good day to die. Autumn was too much fun for her to miss it. She drew in another breath and her gaze lifted to the sail. “We can’t outrun it…” her eyes narrowed. “But what if… we sat still?”

Delia looked confused for a second.

“Doubt rubber boats make for a tasty meal.” Celeste moved to where the sail was tied, urgency in her step. Time was slipping away. “We keep quiet and pray it ignores us.”

Her fingers flew, working the knots. The cast was off her arm, but pain shot through her wrist with every tug. She bit back a groan, motioning for Delia to come help. Their design for the sail was so flimsy, she’d compensated by tying a damn good knot. A decision she was regretting right now.

“Watch for the hooks,” she cautioned her friend, stepping back to seize the sail. The Gyarados was closing in. Panic spiked. “Or just rip it off. We need to move. Now.”

Glancing back, Celeste noticed Aria was already on it, using her Swift. With a few quick moves, they had one end free, and Celeste grabbed for the tarp. The dark shape under the water loomed closer by the second.

“Hurry!” her voice cracked as she fought with the sail. The sea was growing rougher around them. Amidst the turmoil, Aria shouted a warning to Delia, who moved away just in time for another Swift to fully free the sail. With a final tug, Celeste draped it over her Slowpoke. No time to secure it properly.

As the boat stilled, the immense shadow of the Gyarados slid silently beneath them. Celeste held her breath, waiting. It passed without so much as a glance their way.

Celeste turned to the others, breathless. “We did it, we—”

Aria’s eyes were wide with alarm, while Delia pressed her hand to her chest, blood dripping onto the side of the boat. “Just a scratch,” she assured her Eevee, her voice gentle. “Better a Swift than catching a Hyper Beam, right?” She tried flexing her hand, grimacing as she inspected the cut. Celeste could see it wasn’t deep, despite the blood.

The blood…

Celeste’s gaze locked onto its trail. From Delia’s hand, the blood dripped down to the boat with a fraction of it escaping into the sea. A tiny smear of red, barely there against the vast blue. Still… was all it would take, right?

A memory flickered—from a trip she took to a fishing village in Hoenn with her parents. They’d been after tales of Manaphy but ended up caught on old sailors’ stories. Usually about Gyarados. Territorial, ruthless, drawn to the scent of blood and weakness Gyarados.

Shit.

The shadow beneath them shifted direction, now circling back and narrowing its path around them. Delia and Aria didn’t notice it right away.

“Let’s get that wrapped up,” Celeste said, voice steady as she approached her friend. She ripped the rim of her shirt without a second thought, fashioning a bandage. Aria let out a soft, regretful bark.

Was there a way out? Could they take it on?

“You’d have to be mad to fight an evolved Pokémon.” Her conversation with Surge played out again. She also remembered what nurse Joy told her on that same day. “…he seems to think you were brave. I disagree. Getting yourself hurt is reckless and puts your Pokémon in a difficult position.”

Brave, reckless, or clever—what could they do? Celeste eyed a jagged, broken hook at her feet. A plan, desperate and dangerous, formed in her mind.

Tying off the bandage, she caught Delia’s wide-eyed fear. She offered her friend a reassuring smile. Aria’s attention had shifted to the lurking shadow of the Gyarados, and soon, the others sensed it too. Good. They missed Celeste quietly seizing the pointy hook.

“Hit the water when it’s not looking,” she instructed, hiding the hook on her back. Confusion spread among them, but Aria, ever perceptive, picked up on Celeste’s cue. Her small form tensed.

“Veev?” Aria tilted her head, eyes narrowing.

Celeste managed a shaky smile. The waves grew rougher, the lurking beast nearly upon them. “When you see a chance, dart,” she added.

“Veev!” Aria shouted. She’d caught up, like she always did.

No time to second-guess. With a genuine, fleeting smile, Celeste plunged into the water, Delia’s and the Pokémon voices fading behind her. Trainers weren’t supposed to do this, but facing a Gyarados head-on wasn’t an option. They needed a distraction, and she was it.

—*——*—

Celeste’s arms churned through the water, her breaths short and ragged. She barely surfaced before diving again, only to see a glimpse of the Gyarados’ deep blue scales cutting through the water surrounding the boat. Clutching the hook in her good hand, she bit down on her lip hard, then pressed the sharp edge into her palm.

Blood welled from her lip first—a single drop—followed by a thin stream from her hand, far less than what Delia had lost. Her wrist throbbed, her grip weak, but the scent of her blood was enough. Before she surfaced again, she caught the Gyarados’ eye trailing down toward her.

As it breached the surface, the sea turned chaotic. This was Celeste’s first time seeing a Gyarados up close. She knew they often looked angry, but this one… it seemed ravenous. Its eyes narrowed to slits, fixated on the blood seeping from her hand, and its gaping mouth revealed pieces of flesh that carried the scent of burnt fish. A roar shattered the silence, the wind whipping into a frenzy. That wasn’t even a move yet.

It wouldn’t be just some wind, would it?

A glow ignited within the beast. A flicker in its belly that swelled into a blinding fury as it travelled up to its maw. Mesmerised, Celeste watched the Hyper Beam’s light swell, casting the Gyarados’ scales in a brilliant sheen, while throwing stark shadows across the water. It was terrifyingly beautiful.

Distant shouts urged her to dive. Reluctantly, she submerged just as the beam lit the water above her. She twisted to watch, time slowing as the attack hurtled towards her.

So, this is it? she mused, oddly detached.

Eyes shut, she braced for the end, regretting her botched attempt at heroism. The light intensified, seeping through her closed lids, painting her end in a surreal green. It… felt strange… like time had stopped. Even underwater, it was like the scent of fresh rain falling down on the fertile grounds of a faraway forest surrounded her.

What’s happening? she wondered silently. Surprisingly, got an answer.

A soft, silvery voice responded in her mind. It was tinged with annoyance. “This is wrong, Celeste. You can’t keep your promise like this,” it said.

Promise? she asked in her mind. Who are you?

The voice huffed, “Not you. Not yet. What a mess.”

But—

Before she could probe further, the light engulfed her, reality fading to green.

—*——*—

Celeste rolled her eyes at the image of her younger self dodging rocks in front of her. “So I’m getting a recap? How cliché,” she said, annoyed. “If I’m going to die, I rather skip it,” she finished, trying to remember when that happened. A decade ago? Maybe more? Watching these reruns felt like a twisted punishment.

“You’re not dead,” came a familiar, silvery interruption. “Not yet.”

Great. That voice. It was unmistakable. It belonged to a certain forest nymph she didn’t want around. This had to be hell, right…? Well… maybe this was a step above from Distortion.

“Might as well be… things are all kinds of broken these days,” she shot back, a touch of defiance in her tone. “A little help would’ve been nice, though.”

Her comment earned a disapproving huff, which, frankly, felt like a small victory.

She settled more comfortably to watch days long gone swirl around them. There were Geodude as broken as her life and Slowpoke blinking lazily into better days.

“Do humans always treat their promises so lightly?” the voice eventually asked, clearly not appreciating her attitude.

“You tell me.” Celeste retorted, her smirk widening at the sound of another disgruntled huff. “I had a plan, you know? When you said you wouldn’t help. It was a damn good plan.”

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The silence that followed spoke volumes. Was she a torment to them as well? The thought amused her. She leaned in to watch the next memory. Still from years ago. This one was from the time she and Delia got stuck in the middle of the ocean.

She furrowed her brow. Memories… That should’ve just been a memory, but…

“How’s this not a recap?” Celeste asked. “What did you do?”

She turned, expecting to see the creature with her, but found nothing. And then it hit her—she wasn’t exactly there, not in the physical sense. She was there, but not there. She remembered her fall, back in the Distortion World, the crash, the… confusion. How did she not end up dead after that?

“Hey, if this isn’t a memory…” Her voice trailed off as she experimented. Somehow, she willed herself in front of the ocean and reached towards the water with her nonexistent fingers. Faint ripples formed around her.

“Stop that,” the annoying little critter said, but Celeste kept doing it anyway.

She chuckled, pondering the chaos she could cause. Step in a Butterfree here, a storm there? The ripples grew under her unseen touch. Perhaps her plan wasn’t such a lost cause after all. The thought brought an invisible, yet unmistakable, grin to her face as she pushed harder, stirring the water into a frenzy. Pokémon scattered from the disturbance, and then, attracted by the commotion, a Gyarados approached.

“Look at what you’ve done!” The nymph sounded more exasperated than ever with its voice still smooth, but a few notes too high.

Celeste couldn’t help but snort. The Gyarados headed straight for her younger self’s lifeboat. “Well, looks like today’s really is day I die.”

For that, she got yet another huff.

—*——*—

Gravity slammed back into Celeste, though her body still felt strangely buoyant. Blinking her eyes open, she found herself encased in a green bubble, with a Hyper Beam blasting hard against it. Water enveloped her.

Water? But she wasn’t drowning, just… submerged. Was there even water in the Distortion World? Had she not been sent back?

What the hell did you do, you little green—

Something clicked, snapping her out of her thoughts. The Hyper Beam fizzled out and something pulled her upward. When she broke through the surface of the water, the slap of the wind against her face was startlingly real.

“Fix this,” that all-too-familiar, condescending silvery voice commanded. Celeste could only huff in response before being unceremoniously dumped onto the lifeboat. She shivered, noticing blood from her hands staining the rubber beneath her.

She looked up, then.

Hovering just before her wasn’t the green prick, but Delia, a good ten years too young and wide-eyed with concern. Aria, Pat and Powder approached, too, circling her protectively. They were all… so small and different. This was surreal.

“Glad you want me alive,” he muttered under her breath as she staggered back to her feet. Delia came to her, asking a million questions she couldn’t answer if she wanted to. “I’m fine, really,” Celeste reassured her, forcing a smile.

“Cee, how did you…?” Delia’s voice trailed off, eyes wide and searching. Aria and Powder seemed to mirror the question, though Powder seemed more inclined towards cuddles than answers. She was so precious at this age.

“Dunno, magic?” Celeste offered with a half-shrug before she let her gaze drift back to the water.

The Gyarados was still there, circling them. She recognised the way it moved. It was charging another Hyper Beam. She turned to her injured hand again and snorted. Younger her was misguided, sure, but attracting the Pokémon with the allure of blood wasn’t all that bad of an idea. The wild ones weren’t trained to keep the predator part of their brains in check, after all.

“Time to act fast.” She winced as she squeezed more blood into the sea, ignoring the chorus of protests on her back. “Do you really want to wait for another Hyper Beam?” She turned around. Seeing all those worried young faces brought a knot to her stomach. They… weren’t used to this sort of stuff yet, were they? She’d faced Gyarados a million times before, but never with such an inexperienced team. What… kind of moves did they even knew at this point?

Glancing at the sky, she noted its green tint. Did it look like this to everyone? Before she could go deeper into thoughts of time and fairies who aren’t really fairies, Gyarados emerged. Delia recoiled, but Celeste stood firm. She’d seen bigger and meaner.

“Pat, think can you pull off a Disable?” she asked, calm. Mid-instruction, Aria called her attention with a tackle. Her Eevee… so weird she was still an Eevee… had an angry, defiant glare in her eyes that screamed, “you are being stupid”.

No duh.

“We need to battle it. No way around it,” Celeste smiled as Gyarados roared in frustration. From the corner of her eyes she glimpsed Pat’s attempt at Disable had worked. She steeled herself. “My Aria barks louder the bigger the opponent is. Don’t you think we can handle this?”

Aria’s stance softened, and she turned all serious to the Gyarados. Little chest puffed and all. That was Aria for you. Same since she was a little Eevee, ever so afraid to change.

“Aria, distract it,” Celeste commanded with a smirk. Turning to Powder, she added, “And Powds, hit it with a Freeze Dry, will you?”

Her ice Vulpix blinked like she was the Slowpoke. Less than reassuring, really. Didn’t she know how to do this yet?

As the wind picked up, she turned to Aria and Pat, only to see a weak-ass Swift barely even tickling Gyarados’ sturdy scales and Pat’s blank stare.

Great. She’d overestimated this whole situation, didn’t she? This wasn’t her well-trained team yet. They need more handling and not for her to play around like this was bug-catcher Jimmy or something.

Shit. Take this seriously, Celeste, she told herself, noticing the smirk on her lips. Well, she’d always likes a challenge, didn’t she?

“Pat, Yawn,” she shouted, bracing herself against the lifeboat’s wild sway. The ocean raged beneath them, whipped into a frenzy by the Gyarados’ Hurricane. “Aria, forget the scales. Go for the eyes, the mouth—hit it where it hurts.”

Glancing back, she caught Delia on the floor, eyes still wide, trying to process the chaos. “Your Shellder knows Protect, right?” Celeste asked, piecing together a plan on the fly. Delia managed a nod. “Perfect, get her up. Get her to help. Powder,” she pivoted back, not missing a beat, “you know Powder Snow, yeah? Let’s see if we can mess with the wind.”

Aria’s Swift was a sight, nailing the Gyarados square in the face and drawing its wrath. Celeste dropped low, adding her weight to steady her team, her gaze locking on Slowpoke. He was still staring instead of yawning.

With a click of her tongue, she snapped, “Focus, Pat. We need that Yawn, now.”

The Gyarados, now sporting a half-shut eye thanks to Aria’s aim, had wrinkled its entire face and seemed even more angry.

“Pat!” Celeste’s voice hardened. She caught Shelly being released, all ready to cast Protect, and raised a hand to pause them. She poured every ounce of belief she had into him: We need you, buddy.

And just like that, Pat yawned, releasing a slew of barely visible bubbles that popped with the sounds of lethargy. The Gyarados, unable to mimic the gesture, answered with a roar that intensified the storm. Powder’s attempts at counteracting the winds with Powder Snow were brave but fell short. She was still too young.

“Now, Delia!” Celeste commanded, and the barrier went up at her friend’s call. Safe for the moment, they could only hope the Yawn would take hold quick, sending the Gyarados to sleep.

Celeste found herself wishing time would speed up, then chuckled at the irony. She glanced at the unnaturally green sky, noticing how the clouds stood still, unaffected by the hurricane below. Closing her eyes, she let the familiar scent fill her senses. Petrichor, the smell of fresh rain falling on the dry forest soil.

“Will you help?” she whispered to the green sky. Shelly’s barrier was already cracking then.

Silence was her answer, but the barrier sparked green, strengthened. “Subtle,” Celeste muttered with a snort, knowing full well where the sudden assist came from.

It took twenty more seconds for Gyarados’ eyelids to drop close. The barrier didn’t even rattle. Not how Celeste like to finish her battles, but oh well. She smirked when their opponent dropped back into the depths all the same. Soon there was nothing in the sky but a gentle breeze.

Her team, along with Delia, were visibly rattled, prompting Celeste to step forward. “Hey, I’m—”

Her apology hung in the air, unfinished. The green glow enveloped her, and weightlessness seized her once more. She exhaled a resigned sigh as she watched her current form collapse, leaving her spirit adrift once more.

—*——*—-

“What happens now?” Celeste asked the sky.

A voice, light and ethereal, fluttered down. “You have a promise to keep.”

She snorted, though in fact, her heart sunk. “Great, so it’s back to Distortion for me?”

“If you wish to return…”

She bit her lip. “I…. Can’t you talk to Giratina? Maybe you can—”

“Talk? to Giratina?” The laughter that followed was rich, echoing around her in a way that made her cringe. “You humans are funny.”

Celeste took a deep breath, though no air came to her lungs. “What then?”

There was a brief pause. “You mentioned a plan?”

—*——-*—

Celeste blinked open her eyes to a misty forest where flowers wilted and re-bloomed in an endless cycle. The rain fell thin over her shoulders and into the soft ground, bringing up a scent that felt nostalgic and comforting, yet earnest.

She stirred.

The shadows around her moved with grace, painted in hues of green by the light filtering through the trees. It was too bright—blindingly so. Squinting, she tried to focus, but it was no use.

Another stir, and the sensation changed completely. Now, she felt the sun’s warmth caressing her face, and the gentle wash of waves against her back. Her eyes fluttered open to a sky ablaze with the colours of sunset—no longer green, but a vivid oranges and reds.

“What…?” she murmured, pushing herself up. “Was I… dreaming?” The realisation that she was lying on a beach, sand clinging to her fingers, jolted her. Weren’t they adrift at sea just before? Her head throbbed, a sharp pain shot up on her wrist and the cut in her palm stung.

Then something—or rather, someone—tackled her arm.

“Aria?” There was her Eevee, pressing close with a worried “Veev.” Pat and Powder were there too, looking just as worn-out. Scanning the surroundings, she spotted Delia, who seemed to be inspecting what was left of their lifeboat. It was in pieces. “Delia!” she managed to call.

Turning, Delia’s face was filled with concern. The beach they’d washed up on was far from the idyllic ones they were stranded before. The usual Krabby scuttled nearby, but Rattata also darted in the underbrush, and amidst the natural debris, a plastic bottle caught Celeste’s eye. Could this mean—

“Are you… okay?” Delia approached, searching Celeste’s face for something.

“Where are we?” Celeste’s voice trembled, then she stammered on, “W-what happened?”

“I don’t know…”

Celeste sought some answers in Aria’s eyes, but found none there. She then reached for the plastic bottle, clinging hard to it.

“Cee… you saved us there.” Delia finally said, her gaze also lingering on the bottle. “The way you battled against that Gyarados… and that look you had in your eyes. You were truly something else.”

“B-Battled?” Celeste frowned. “I didn’t…” Her mind raced, fragments of memories were all she had—jumping into the water, the flash of a green light—no, wait, Hyper Beams weren’t green. “I don’t remember battling.”

Delia and Aria shared a look. “You and the Pokémon did,” Delia insisted. “It’s all a bit hazy for me too, but you took down that Gyarados. It fell asleep because of you.”

“Beat a Gyarados?” Celeste echoed, disbelief in her tone. “And… how did we get here again?”

With a shake of her head, Delia sighed. “Maybe it was the Hurricane?”

“Hurricane?” Celeste echoed. Again.

With a gentle nudge, Delia prompted, “Are you hurt? You’re acting even weirder now. Let me check if hit your hea—”

“Hey, stop that!” Celeste shuffled, half-annoyed.

And that’s when someone else arrived.

“Oh, my!” The new first non-Pokémon voice in what felt like forever cut through the air. A woman with pink hair, styled in those unmistakable loops, stepped around a cluster of rocks, her eyes wide as they landed on the scene before her. She set aside the basket she was carrying, wiping her hands on her apron as she hurried over. “Are you two okay?” she asked.

Relief. For a moment, all Celeste and Delia could do was stare at the familiar face. This wasn’t a Nurse Joy they had met before, but it was a Nurse Joy. Comforting, caring, civilisation dwelling, Nurse Joy. Celeste’s chest began to swell, her breath caught in a hitched gasp as tears welled up. Then the tears spilled, tracing down a path over her cheeks. Her body trembled and her lips quivered before giving way to a soft, half-laugh, half-sob. Delia didn’t move a muscle.

“Maybe it’s best if you come with me to the Pokémon Centre,” the nurse suggested, her gaze taking in their sunburnt faces, chapped lips, and tattered clothing.

“Warm food and a real bed?” Celeste managed to get out between her sobs and her laughter.

Joy nodded, gently guiding them towards the path back to civilisation. “Whatever you’ve been through, it’s over now.”

“Over…” Delia finally spoke, her voice barely above a whisper. Her eyes then snapped back to the present. “How far are we from Pallet Town?”

The question made the nurse pause, her brows knitting together. “Pallet Town?”

Celeste sniffled and wiped away her tears. “No one knows where that is, Delia,” she said with a shaky smile. “Its a tiny place near Viridian City.” she explained, satisfied. Viridian was a big city, after all.

A moment of silence hung in the air before Nurse Joy’s face showed a flicker of realisation. “Oh, you mean in Kanto?”

Delia caught her breath. “We’re… not in Kanto?”

“Well… yes and no. You’re on One Island, part of the Sevii Archipelago.”