Prologue

“How does that old fairy tale go again?” Celeste mused, crossing her legs and observing the strange world surrounding her. A realm of mirrors, darkness, and distortions was not where she expected to end up.

Although, in hindsight, she should have seen it coming.

With a cheeky smile, she glanced at her companion, only to be promptly ignored. Which was… something else she should’ve seen coming.

“I guess it has to start with once upon a time.” Celeste cleared her throat as if she was going to tell some grand tale. “Once upon a time, there was a fair princess in a castle. And then one day an evil Florges gave her a poisoned Applin and… hum… a knight and a Charizard saved the day in the end?”

Silence. Her friend was a tough crowd.

“Well…” Celeste said, trying to maintain her train of thought. “What I’m trying to say here is that all of this,” she circled her fingers in the air, gesturing to the chaotic surroundings, “was supposed to be the gran finale of my fairy tale, you know? I was going to be the princess in the castle and the big hero with the Charizard.” She sighed and slumped her shoulders. “Well, maybe not with a Charizard, but you get it. The thing is, I’m out of ideas about how to be a hero, and I’m certainly no princess. I suppose, if anything, I’m the Applin who couldn’t sit still and ended up getting itself poisoned…”

She paused for a moment, studying her companion’s expression. The distant look, the fear—she felt those emotions too, but she’d be damned if she let them take over.

“… I mean, when you think about it, that has to be the literal worst. To find that one Florges that knows toxic,” she pressed on. “Although it is a clever move for a Florges. Not many people expect that. Maybe I should try to get one on my team. Or maybe you should! It would work nicely with that Togekiss of yours.”

Celeste smiled. Not truthfully, but charmingly.

This felt like an end, and… it sucked. She tried very hard to rack her brain for ideas, but the truth was, she was just… exhausted at this point.

“That’s it,” she snapped her fingers. “Once we escape from here, we’re going to catch new pokémon. A Florges for you and an Applin for me. Heh. Aria is going to hate the applin.”

“… Celeste,” her companion spoke out. “What the hell?”

She pressed her lips together, nervously fidgeting with a lock of her hair. “Maybe we only get me an Applin?” she asked, but the only answer she got was an annoyed grunt.

A million thoughts came to her head. Petty, childish arguments they could have to pass the time and not think of—

A roar echoed in the distance. Piercing their ears and their hearts, like a dagger, slowly sinking in.

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“We need to do something,” her companion said with urgency.

Celeste nodded, quiet this time. The creature, a being known as Giratina, roared again, closer. Shockwaves rippled through the otherwise stagnant air.

Was it taunting them?

“Listen, I think I have a plan,” Celeste said, springing up. “Well… kind of plan. Not my greatest, but—”

One look was enough for her to shut up and extend a hand while she picked some rock with the other. She angled her wrist, grateful for the years of practise she had with her pokéballs and threw the rock as far as she could.

“Now we run in the other direction,” she forced a grin at widened, exasperated grey eyes staring at her in disbelief. “What? I told you it wasn’t my greatest plan…”

“Don’t you want to stand your ground and fight?” The question was hesitant and came as a surprise. The best answer Celeste could muster was a snort.

“Fight… that thing?!” she felt the need to say. “I don’t have a death wish.”

“Yet you came here.”

“You followed.”

They were staring at each other now. Celeste’s face throbbed and her entire body ached. She wanted to tell her friend that all she wanted, all this time, was to fix their world. That wasn’t a bad goal to have. Yet… there they were… not even in the world anymore.

“We don’t have time for this…” the other person said, as the ground began to rumble.

“Run or fight, we gotta do this now.” Celeste let her hand hover over the pokéballs in her belt. “It’s your choice, but… please choose run.”

Shadows, as distorted as the world itself, reached the ledge where they were hiding, and Celeste’s hand tightened around one of her pokéballs. She did not want to let her pokémon out in that place, so she looked at her friend again.

Friend.

She kept referring to their relationship as friendship, but was it really? Maybe in another life they could’ve been friends, but not in this one. They were just two people stuck in a hellhole together. Heck, this morning she would’ve barely called themselves acquittances.

“Let’s run,” a decision finally came and Celeste didn’t have to be told twice.

She didn’t even look back when she started to sprint, her legs straining to push her forward faster than she had any right to be.

Yet in her own shadow, a pair of big, round yellow eyes appeared. They were pleading and worried. She could use one of her pokémon to go faster, those eyes told her. If not, one of them could fight or distract—

“No,” she clenched her teeth. Their only chance was to remain unnoticed, and they would all do that together.

Too much had gone wrong already.

Desperate for another hiding place, Celeste scanned her surroundings. There was nowhere to go. She turned to her companion, who ran ahead with a more confident stride.

“Watch out for the floor! It’s shifting.” The warning shout pierced the air.

Celeste gasped. The ledge where her feet were about to touch disappeared, and a nauseous sensation took over her body. Up became down as she tumbled through the void, her body crashing into a mixture of mirrors and rocks.

She grunted weakly, trying to make sense of the world that was spinning ahead of her. “Please,” she called, hoping anyone or anything would listen.

Who would even, at this point?

Celeste exhaled as another mirror broke behind her back. The shards shattered and spread around her, disregarding gravity itself. Their motion slowed, however, and the world slowly stopped and began fading away.

In the distance, Giratina let out one more cry, but that too vanished in time.

“Time. What a joke,” she thought to herself, managing one last chuckle.

She closed her eyes, waiting for the end, but hoping for a miracle.

What she got, strangely enough, was the bright sunlight peering through her eyelids.

Before her, distortion had turned into the radiant midday sun, where the only ripples were made by ocean waves crashing on the pier of a bustling port.

That was Vermillion City, she realised, watching a young girl step out of a boat. Her dark brown hair rattled in the wind and her deep and hazel eyes, sweet like honey, gazed excitedly at the future ahead of her.

Celeste remembered that day. She was merely fourteen years old then, starting her journey and feeling absolutely invincible.

“So I’m getting a recap?” she muttered to herself, amused. “How cliché.”