Chapter 41

Lane returned to her present with a crashing impact as dramatic as the one that had taken her away. She was better at it—she managed to hold herself in the air as the transformation faded, and catch herself when she lost the wings.

Mewtwo and Elisa were standing exactly where they had been, watching with the same nervous concern.

"You can't go without me!" Elisa said, nudging up against her. She wobbled, nearly collapsing under the pressure. That particular transformation would probably never get any easier.

"Too late," she said weakly, nuzzling her in response. "I think it's a good thing we didn't. Time travel really does turn people to goo. Sometimes they die."

"Don't even bloody ask," Dominic said. "I have no idea what she did, or how."

"They're impatient to meet us," Lane said, floating past Mewtwo and the others. She could keep herself airborne, though it took constant concentration to do it."

Mewtwo followed without objection, and the others hurried to keep up.

But his eyes were more discerning. "I admit, I expected your training would take longer," he said. "You are… perhaps an inch longer than last we spoke.

How long is that? A few months?"

She shook her head. "Not quite.”

From the inflections in his face, she imagined eyebrows going up.

"Effective training strengthens the mind and matures the body," he said. "If your training wasn't effective, we are doomed."

Massive shapes shifted in the cavern ahead, circling around the central bonfire. There were half a dozen of them in all, with names Lane now knew well. Dialga, Palkia, Groudon, Kyogre. Several smaller creatures, though even

the smallest was far larger than Mewtwo. The ancient gods of human cultures long dead, and plenty that still lived. They were much bigger than she remembered, each one as large as a building.

"They should be locked in constant conflict," Mewtwo thought. "Their struggle for dominion is all that prevents their threat from uniting beyond our control."

"Control is exactly the problem," Lane thought, floating suddenly past him, past her friends. Out where she could see Korina, frozen in shards of pale blue crystal near the center of the room. She was still, body bruised and shoulders slumped in defeat.

"Kitten stop!" Mewtwo commanded. She didn't stop, floating out past him, over to the center of the room. She felt the eyes of so many Pokémon on her as she reached the edge of Korina's crystal.

"Excuse me!" she called, floating high up into the air. As high as Dialga's eyes, each one as big as she was. "I would like it very much if you let my mom go. Please."

Mewtwo reacted with incredible speed, lifting into the air in a blur and putting himself between Lane and the half-circle of deific power. "Whatever anger you hold towards her kind, this kitten does not deserve your wrath. I will accept it on her behalf, as I am deserving."

Lane didn't get a chance to reply, though she didn't have a hope of overpowering Mewtwo. She had about as much hope to do that as he did to win against these odds.

The Pokémon before them did not attack, not at first. They surrounded the two of them, ignoring the others completely. Time had not been kind to these creatures. They hadn't withered with age, instead their powers had only grown. In some ways, that was not a kindness.

There was barely anything left of the people she had left behind subjective moments ago. They had suffered much in all those years, as they had known they would. But she hadn't expected the scars to run so deep.

"It's me!" she squeaked, as loudly as she could. She couldn't get past Mewtwo, but she could at least poke out from behind him. "I'm Lane!"

She'd barely met them, all things considered. If it hadn't been for the ones Dialga called the "Admiralty,” she would've stayed years, maybe leave a stronger impression.

It was on his face she looked, though the Pokémon shared barely anything identifiable to Lane's human self. Her mew self was a little better—

there were hints even now. The exo-suit had grown into his body completely now, every bit of metal and gemstone incorporated.

"Mew that is not," said Dialga, nodding towards Mewtwo. "If you fight here, then this will be the moment of your death."

Mewtwo didn't flinch. "Perhaps. But I may not be the only one to fall here, ancient one. I am not so weak as the one you captured."

"Don't!" Lane floated a little higher, putting herself between them.

Maybe Mewtwo was as overcome with shock as they were, because he didn't pull her back. "Dialga, please don't. My mother doesn't deserve your anger, and neither does Mewtwo. None of us do."

"Much anger is owed," rumbled a great blue monstrosity, with the churning of distant oceans in every word. "Long tortured, long imprisoned, now free. The end of oppression at last."

None of them spoke like Pokémon—but they wanted her to understand them. Their will was so vast, she suspected even humans in their presence probably would have. These were the will of tide, stone, and storm.

"You already won," Lane said. "You had your vengeance. The Admiralty is dead. You were right, and they were wrong. Just like I told you would happen."

Dialga's eyes fixed on her, never wavering. The others muttered to each other, and she could not make sense of what they said. "You were… then,"

Dialga said. "Child of another. Those who would inherit after the Firstborn were undone."

"Yes!" she snapped, eager. She floated closer, and this time Mewtwo didn't follow. "I was there! Longer for you than for me, but… you all live a lot longer than I ever will."

Dialga reached towards her with one terrible limb, wide enough to crush a truck. She held still, floating unmoved in the air. There was no fighting it. That was the point.

She felt only the lightest touch against her, somehow gentle despite Dialga's incredible scale. "I… remember. Not firstborn… second. The ones we fought for."

"You won for us," Lane said. She tried to be brave, but her voice still shook with fear. "I can tell, since the world is still here. It was in pretty good shape, last time I saw it."

There was no battle after that, where the new gods of the world crushed the old ones into red paste. They didn't even leave Lane and her friends to fly up to the surface and rampage with their incredible powers.

Instead, it was Mewtwo and the others left floating there, speechless, as the great powers exchanged a few words of friendly greetings with Lane, then walked away.

Eventually even Dialga left the place behind, vanishing into the “above”

that was time itself. That left the four of them alone with a shard of blue crystal, with Korina still frozen inside.

"I cannot interpret," Mewtwo muttered. "I watched you every moment.

You could have turned no ability on them I would not see. How did you control them? What mastery did you exert that the ancients of your species could not?"

"I didn't control anyone," Lane said. She glanced back towards her friends, searching out Elisa. She'd shrunk back into the little hedgehog, shivering in the dampness of the cavern. Lane picked her up, nuzzling up against her.

Elisa hugged her back, though her expression was harsh. "Remember how Dominic said you have to make it up to him? Same thing he said. That was horrible."

"Sure," Lane whispered, before finally breaking away. "I'll think of something."

"Many have tried a temporal attack against Dialga," Dominic said. "There are textbooks about it. He's too strong, his eyes too intense. Any threat, he counters. I guess Lane wasn't a threat."

"Nope!" She landed in front of the crystal, tapping on it with her claws.

"How do we let her out?"

Korina was still a lot bigger, but not so huge as she remembered. Maybe Lane really was growing.

"I will not complain to end this night alive, and apparently reconciled to the great ones. But if my presence was entirely redundant, then I wish to hear you give the explanation of all this to Korina. The expressions she makes will be my payment for time wasted."

Both his paws began to glow, so bright that Lane had to look away. Then he reached forward, and the crystal shattered around Korina. She dropped limply towards the glass, but Lane caught her, hovering centimeters above those jagged edges.

"Hi Mom," she said. "Sorry we blew up your house."

The mew blinked, fear fading from her eyes. She glanced past Lane, at the strange band of supporters just over her shoulder. She sat up, looking rapidly around the cavern. But her eyes found only empty space.

"They're not here," she said. "I still don't think they like you, but they left on account of you being the one who adopted me." Lane hovered in the air, tail wrapping awkwardly around her leg.

"I didn't know how…" Korina sniffed, floating a little closer. "I didn't know how you could've survived the explosion. Or how you could cause it.

Nobody knows how those relics work anymore."

"We're safe," Lane squeaked. She glanced over her shoulder again, at the awkward, expectant eyes.

A lifetime ago, she'd been someone else. Someone huge, but also small.

Someone strong, but weak. She might be smaller, but in some ways, she'd grown up.

Lane flew up against Korina, hugging her as tight as her little paws would allow. Mew wrapped tightly around her, and didn't let go. She'd never missed anything more in her life.

"I don't deserve this," she said, after finally breaking away from her.

"After the way I treated you, I thought…" She hesitated. "Losing Starfall was a kind of justice. What I deserved."

Lane shrugged. There was a part of her that would never forget those threats. Korina had wanted to take her friends away, had threatened to erase her memories. It would take a long time to let go of that resentment. But then, mew lived an awfully long time.

"You were wrong," Lane agreed. "And I won't let you do it anymore." She folded her paws together, gesturing at the others. "Besides, there's no point.

They're Pokémon now anyway. And I think now that we survived, Dominic is probably gonna take a break somewhen less exciting."

"I am," he said, hovering over from the back of the cave. "Someone's going to notice what we did, sooner or later. I don't know what punishment

they'll put me through, but you're coming too. You wanna copy me so bad, you can join me in detention."

It didn't sound like an empty threat, but she didn't press the point.

Dominic looked up, then vanished in a flash of green light.

"That's what I deserve," Lane said.

"But not everything!" Elisa hurried over, scrambling over damp rock.

Lane drifted down, until they were at head level. She wasn't exactly sure what kind of payback a hedgehog had in mind, but she was ready for that too.

Elisa reached toward her with two stubby paws, and Lane picked her up again.

"Your friend?" Korina said, watching closely. "The mate. Not a bad choice. Decide the role you wish with her by giving or withholding a flower."

Elisa stuck her tongue out at her. "She's too young, and also that's gross."

"You won't think so forever," Korina said wistfully. "Sooner or later, every flower blooms. You'll see."

Liz turned her back on Korina. "Maybe you shouldn't give her relationship advice. Your boyfriend came to die for you, and you left him standing in the shadows over there, awkward as hell."

Korina didn't seem to make sense of the slang, but she didn't need to.

Elisa's intentions were clear in her voice, and Korina turned. Mewtwo lingered by the bonfire, which had burned down to embers now. She licked Lane posessively, then drifted off.

Lane wanted to watch them, but she didn't get the chance. "I've decided how you're going to make it up to me," Elisa said. "You're gonna help me tell my family I'm a chia pet. No take-backsies… you owe me for coming all this way. And for getting all… transmogrified."

"We could try to reverse it," Lane said. "Mewtwo is the most powerful psychic in the world. If anyone can change you back, it's him."

Elisa nipped at her tail. Not hard, but enough that she squeaked in pain, nearly dropping them both.

"I know what I said. You're going to help tell my family what happened.

That's what you owe me."

"Deal."