1.Ash's Story (Part 2: Johto)

Chapter 94: Time's Broken Rainbow

We hadn't left Ilex Forest yet.

Will's Psychic Medal still felt cool in my pocket. The forest had settled after his box-shaped lights vanished, but the trees didn't feel normal.

Pikachu stayed on my shoulder with his ears low.

Pikachu tilted his ears toward the shrine path, "The forest is too quiet again. Something is waiting ahead."

"I feel it too," I whispered.

Lillie walked beside me, one hand near my sleeve, with Togetic floating near her shoulder and Espeon keeping close to her leg. Ethan, Kris, Reisa, and East followed in a tighter group than usual. Nobody asked whether Koga was waiting at Route 36. The path toward the Celebi shrine had gone bright ahead of us.

Kris opened her notebook, then closed it without writing.

"This isn't the same feeling as last time," Kris said. "Something is happening at the shrine again."

Reisa listened to the trees with a troubled expression. Azumarill pressed against her leg and gave one low chirp.

"It sounds wrong," Reisa said softly. "Like two songs are crossing over each other."

Togetic drifted closer to Lillie, "Celebi is near again."

Espeon's ears lifted, "The shrine light is moving before the wind."

East stopped first when the shrine clearing opened. Noctowl settled beside him, feathers lowering as both studied the shrine.

Someone stood beside the shrine.

Ariel turned when we entered the clearing. Her Contest jacket was dusty from travel, and one hand rested against the shrine post as though she had arrived earlier but couldn't make herself step closer. The place had drawn something raw from beneath her usual smile.

"Ariel," I said. "What are you doing here?"

Ariel's eyes moved from me to the shrine.

"Mom told me I might feel something if I came here," Ariel said. "She wouldn't tell me exactly what. She just said I needed to see it myself."

Lillie's brows lifted slightly at the name.

"By Mom, you mean Sabrina," Lillie said.

Ariel nodded once. "Sabrina is my mother. Giovanni is my father. Silver is my brother, and he is not in the memory you are about to see."

The shrine flashed green before anyone could answer.

Celebi appeared above the shrine in a burst of leaf-colored light. It looked small, but the whole forest bowed around it. The air folded inward, carrying the sound of distant running water.

Celebi's wings folded, "Watch what happened, Ash."

Ariel looked at me. "I'm coming."

Celebi turned toward her, and its eyes softened.

Celebi lowered its head toward the shrine, "She may come with us, but what happened before cannot be changed."

I looked at Ariel. "Celebi says you can come, but we can only watch the past."

Ariel swallowed hard and stepped beside us.

"I understand," she said, though her voice shook.

The shrine light swallowed the clearing.

Route 22 appeared around us like a painting made from cold air.

The road stretched west of Viridian, but it wasn't the Viridian I remembered after the Earth Badge. This memory was older. The sky had the dull color of a day after defeat. The grass moved without wind. We stood near the path, but our feet didn't bend the weeds.