The Crazy, Red Cat

Different Futures Implement 2

     I was nowhere, my mind reeling from what I had just experienced. Kip was actually Lidin, my childhood friend when I didn't belong to this world, or this time period. He said the story quiet, so Vul and Pika wouldn't hear.

I silently — for I had no choice about how loud I was — went over what had just happened. The lights coming from me as we four walked back to the Rainbow Stoneship was hard to hide, but I did it. It felt strange, almost like my transformations, but without the bone breaking. Only my skin felt light, and it was getting harder and harder to keep down my fear. I had no idea what would happen to me once time had reshaped. Finally, I could stand it no longer.

"Guys," I had said, my voice cracking. They all turned, and more light bubbles floated off of me. "I am going to disappear. From time. From your lives."

Kip rushed over to me, and I saw the tears in his eyes. But he did not beg, he did not plead, he did nothing but hug me. I hugged him back, tears coming from my eyes as I sobbed quietly. "I love you, Kip," I whispered. "I love you."

At the sound of his name, Kip looked at me sharply. "Pearl, I know you."

Those words sounded absurd to me. Of course he did. But he wasn't finished. "You didn't come from this world. Nor this time. You and I lived as humans, in a world where Pokémon and trainers lived together. Your transformations are from our friend, Bill, though with much opposition from your brother, Kevin. You have a party, with your strongest Pokémon a male Charizard, who you had by your side for neigh on ten years now." He kept telling me of many things, bringing out a journal. It had been my first journey, though not one of adventure. It was one of fleeing, being caught, and keeping on the run. Worrying for my Pokémon's safety and my own, and eventually, for Kevin's as well. All this he told me in rushed words as the other two approached. He told me his name was Lidin, and he was my childhood rival and friend since I had gained Charizard as a Charmander.

Vul ran up to my right side, Pika on my left. Lidin and I were in a tight embrace, each unwilling to let the other go. "Pearl," Lidin said. "Your real name is Crystal Fairway, of Pallet Town, in Kanto. You should know before you...leave."

When I glanced down at my talon, I saw I was almost gone. "I...love you...guys," I sobbed. Then nothingness overtook me, and I saw nothing, felt nothing, and was left alone to grieve for myself.

Within my nothingness, I imagined the painstakingly real situation that I had just disappeared from — but from a reversed prespective. Yes, I had had strong feelings for Pika, but Lidin felt familiar. I knew Pika would understand, but I also knew I was going to vanish from history.

     Lidin started having light emit from him. They came, again and again. He kneeled down, telling me who I was, where I came from, and revealing his identity as my childhood rival and friend. Tears fell from his eyes, and mine, Vul's, and Pika's alike. I hugged him close, closer than I had ever remembered being with any one person or Pokémon. I did beg for Arceus to show Lidin mercy. He knew this would happen to himself, and did it anyway.

     "Don't leave me," I cried, as I felt his body start to dissapear. "I've already lost you once, I can't lose you again."

     "Crystal, look at me," he said, quietly, for the first time speaking my real name. Pika nor Vul heard my name. He no longer cried, but his tears slipped down his face all the same. In his eyes I saw determination. "I will forever be with you. Your memories, your past, are yours to keep. But I cannot stay. Love knows no bounds, but it also can't keep the inevitable from happening."

     "Lidin," I said, trying to control my tears and sobs. "I love you. I don't want to say goodbye."

     "I love you, too, Crystal," Lidin said, not in the whisper we were using. He was transparent, now. "Be strong. Tell everyone what happened to me." I knew what he meant. I had to return to my time and dimension, return with the terrible news that Lidin had saved another dimension from paralysis. "Remember me."

     With those final words, Lidin ceased to exist. I fell on the ground, barely feeling Vul and Pika trying to bring me back up. Leave me here, I thought. Leave me here to die. I knew they wouldn't leave me, but I wanted it all the same.

     Pika was calling my name, trying to get my attention. "Pearl!" My name sounded putrid compared to the way Lidin had said my real name. "Pearl, we have to go home." I hear the sadness in your voice, Pika. Don't try to fool me. Pika shook my shoulder.

      Vul's voice sounded in my left ear. "Pearl, please — Kip would have wanted you to continue living. This is what he disappeared for."

     Wanting them to stop annoying me, I stood suddenly, and briskly walked away, back toward the Rainbow Stoneship. "Well?" I called back, angrily. "Are you two coming back to Treasure Town or what?" My voice was a growl, now. I heard their footsteps behind me, and that was the last thing I heard, the Rainbow Stoneship the last thing I saw.

     In the nothingness, I saw Lidin, wanting to fight Primal Dialga and his forces when we were trapped in the future. His face was so determined, it again made me wonder why I didn't think we should have fought. I saw Vul, the first day we met with Team PokéClan, so happy. I remember Pika, his scared, disappointed face when the relic fragment was stolen, after I had just woken up on the beach. Grovyle and Celebi, talking in Dusk Forest in the future, their faces serious and planning. I couldn't bear to see them all. Grovyle and Celebi must be disappearing, now, too. Soon we would all be trapped in this nothingness, unable to talk, live, or see. My only regret was that I left Lidin with hurt, that I never told any of them what would happen to me. I was scared, and suddenly I felt anger shoot through me. Kevin. I would never see my brother again, or Charizard, or any of my Pokémon. But knowing I was gone from my brother forever was heartbreaking. I hope Lidin, Kevin, and Bill take good care of them in my absence. I wish I had Charizard, but for him to disappear because of me would be selfish. I could never do that to him. He is why I was a Charmander all this time.

(To be continued [edited])

I waited in the darkness, not able to actually accept this was my eternal fate. I thought of everyone I left behind, everyone I loved as if they were my family by blood.

At the end, when I could torture myself no longer and my thoughts leaving me in a moment of peace, I saw whiteness.

It grew, or I was headed towards it.