Chapter 26

Quinn's plan took a lot of time, but what was time to a Celebi? It wasn't as though he had to worry about missing deadlines or failing to defend his thesis. His whole civilization didn't exist yet. None of them would be born for a very, very long time.

The worst part wasn't finding food, or shelter from the near-constant rain. It wasn't even occasionally dealing with the territorial wild Pokémon. Lucky for him, most Pokémon had no interest in fighting. They seemed able to sense the danger he posed, even if they couldn't clearly articulate it. So long as he didn't threaten them, he could talk his way out of any misunderstandings he encountered.

He couldn't just put his message near the Mew observatory, or else the wrong cat would find it. Even leaving it in the language only the two of them spoke wouldn't work—if they destroyed it, Avery couldn't read it. And worse, they might start looking for him.

He had to make a few assumptions, or else he'd never be able to find her at all. First: that she would only travel when she was old enough to do so safely. Flying across an ocean would require even greater power than he had, so might be quite a few years.

Importantly, it would also guarantee that she was able to fly wherever she wished when she arrived, even crossing between the islands if she wanted to.

If I was in her place, and I had no idea where to go to look for a note, where would I start?

The answer, of course, was the highest point on the island. Past the observatory and its artificial lights, past the telescope and its constant view of the sky, Quinn found the caldera of a dormant volcano.

It took a little more time to make a tool he could carve with. He needed to build big enough that she wouldn't miss it if she visited, but small enough that Mew from the observatory wouldn't stop to notice. In the end, he elected for carving letters into stone blocks, then levitating them up the other side of the mountain one at a time, so no Mew from the observatory would see him.

Naturally he used his old language, except for the dates. If Avery came from Starfall, she would probably expect the same systems in place as the world she had left behind. And dates would be critically important, given the message he left.

He kept it short, in case anyone else did find it. Hopefully the Mew wouldn't have a Rosetta Stone. But they were also Mythical Pokémon, and likely wielded powers he didn't understand.

"Q – when next?"

Didn’t need to be an eternal monument, carrying the mysteries of the ages forward for future generations to ponder over. But that was fine, he only cared what one specific Pokémon had to say. Making the message short meant he could repeat it many times, and scatter it all over, with the big letter containing the smaller words.

If any cat did find it, hopefully they would mistake it for something artistic.

Importantly, each copy of the message left plenty of room for a reply. But if Avery had enough power to fly here, she would find a way to write something down. It couldn't be that much harder!

Quinn did consider trying to make a trip to get their friends back. But ultimately, he had a lot of time traveling to do, and bringing others around for the trip made each jump more difficult. So that particular retrieval would have to wait. Maybe the teleporting expert could come out of the crystal to help him when they were done with the more urgent mission. Avery would probably love to see Baast again.

Since he was alone, all he had to do was move ahead. A few years at first, then more and more with each one. A jump ahead, and a few days to check each one of the little monuments he had left behind.

If there were any cats on the islands, none of them ever bothered him. He never saw them flying through the jungle, or felt their minds probing for him. But he didn't stick around for long enough to sense, either.

As the time without an answer grew, so did his boldness. Quinn stacked the carved blocks, he got good enough with his psychic powers that he could imprint the question without even finding something to carve with. Just a thought, some focus, and the words were there.

If only getting an answer back was so easy.

He kept coming back. Day, week, month—measured in the progression of the sun and the movement of the constellations observed by the little glass computer still chugging away in the back of Stella's cave.

Until one day, he found his answer.

It wasn't easy to check that time, what with the volcano having become active in the intervening years. He had to jump a little farther, until a particularly stormy day of torrential rainfall and gale-force winds kept the crater clear enough for him to fly.

Ish. He still surrounded his face with a layer of “cloth” made from leaves he'd woven together. It helped with the scorching sulfur, anyway.

His eyes still watered as he flew past the wall of rough blocks he'd built, shaped more or less into a shelter he had sometimes used from rain or hurricane on the desolate island.

Shame humans couldn't come around already and start their whole civilization thing. The locals should be friendly to a Legendary.

But this time, he saw it: scorch marks in the stone, carved across many of the rocks. As though someone had stood in the center, and drawn a powerful laser across the whole structure.

A date, with enough digits to know it included a time as well. And a single letter. "A"

He flew back to the cave, ignoring the protests of the Zubat along the way, until he found the crystal.

Despite his best efforts, there was still a layer of dust and growth over his friend's protective shell. A little crust to break apart to get her free. But that wasn't his goal this time, so he made no attempt to reach her. How long had passed from her perspective? Something he could ask when this was all over.

He went instead to the glass tablet he had left in its protective shell. The fabric around it had gone stiff and crumbly near the edges, and several large chunks fell away as he lifted it out. Importantly the screen still came on, giving him a date.

Avery's date had already come and gone, by several years. Fortunate that he happened to be a time traveler.

He traveled back a little further, so he would have plenty of time to make it there. The volcano was still active that day, spewing an enormous torrent of poisonous gasses high into the air.

Enough to make travel up the mountain incredibly difficult. His feeble attempt at a shield would do little against toxic gas.

He could've gone back to the cave to get Stella's help. But now he was further back than the Stella he had already found in the future, creating a potential dangerous loop of causality. He knew little about that subject, certainly not enough that he could make safe assumptions about how the mechanics would function.

The last thing Quinn wanted was another visit from Dialga. So he did something simpler, and hid in the jungle and watched.

The local Pokémon had stories of him by then; a fairy who sometimes visited, and never stayed very long. He had helped them enough that he could count on a favor or two, if only from inherited goodwill.

"I'm waiting for a Mew," he told the first Flabébé he found. "I know she'll be this way."

Not entirely true, of course. The message had not included anything terribly secure. If someone had threatened Avery in interrogation…

This still might be a trap. "Can you help me find her?"

"Only one here," said the Flabébé, bobbing up and down in the air in front of him. Several others gathered to watch. Yet the wild Pokémon never reacted as strongly to his presence as humans might. Being trapped in the past did have some advantages. "In the metal place. Lower than here. With the shiny."

"I know there's someone in the observatory. But that isn't the one I'm looking for. There should be a different Mew here. She's gonna go up to the peak soon. Can you watch for her? When you see one coming this way, get me?"

That particular Flabébé had no interest in getting involved with the dangerous cats. Fortunately for Quinn, there were plenty of other Pokémon around, and several were willing to help. He didn't have as much to give, but he could still promise reward. If finding Avery meant doing a favor for one of the island's wild Pokémon, it was a trade he could happily accept.

Within hours, it paid off. A little Stufful, scampering towards him along the uneven slope with obvious purpose in her steps. "Fairy! Fairy, the cat is coming! Like you said!"

"Where?"

He dropped lower in the trees, settling at her head level. "Tell me, before she gets too far."

They did, albeit after he reiterated his promise of future assistance to the little pokemon. But that favor would have to wait for another moment, because he shot through the trees with every ounce of speed he had. Someone was coming, someone who had read his sign and marked something in reply. It could only be one cat.

He sensed them before he saw them—a pressure against his mind, as with the others back in Absentia. This cat was more like them than himself. This was confidence and power, enough that he felt little about her emotions. A little excitement leaked out, anticipation for something. But whether that meant seeing him again or dragging him screaming back to Starfall—

He followed that impression until he was close, using the trees to conceal his approach. He had months of practice navigating these jungles, if not decades. All a matter of perspective.

They were close to the peak by the time he finally emerged from a black stone outcrop behind her, and got his first good look.

She dressed the same as many cats he had seen—with a vest on her torso. Despite their advanced civilization, the cats cared little more for physical modesty than any other Pokémon. So he could tell she was a girl without getting close.

She stopped at the edge of a narrow canyon, and something flat lifted from inside her vest. It twirled through the air—smaller than a fist, with a narrow crystal on one end and a button on the other.

"You're not very good at masking your feelings," she said. Not very loud, though clear enough for his sensitive antennae to pick up on. "Welcome back, time traveler."

She spun in place, then lowered the device back into her vest.

Could Quinn recognize one cat compared to another? Not easily, especially not one that he had only seen as an overgrown ball of fluff that could've crushed herself to death with a pebble. The mind of that kitten wasn't much different than her body, really. Tiny and vulnerable.

"Avery?"