Chapter 33

They didn't continue on to Saffron right away, as much as Lane wanted to. But just because she had exhausted all her strength while flying. There was no denying how wrung-out and tired her body had become. She needed the rest. Even Elisa, who had spent almost all of the trip safely inside the pack, needed some time to recover.

Dominic just vanished, practically mid-sentence as he promised to see them again in the morning. "There are safe places to sleep underground,"

Cedar said, gesturing towards the bushes. "It's the Gracidea, their roots leave large hollows for us. It's safer than being on the surface, especially looking the way you do. You would be in the same danger as your sister if the primals knew you existed."

Lane couldn't have said if the strangest thing she saw that night was Dominic traveling through time, or Cedar shrinking down to look like the others. She still didn't know how the process worked, but it didn't seem difficult for him. One second he was big, the next… he was still bigger than Lane, just not by as much. Or… she was big? Lane was too nervous to ask how the shaymin thought about their own identities.

It was comfortable, if crowded. There was no concept of personal space down in the dark—everyone huddled together, in the damp embrace of soil and roots. Even Elisa slept, calm for the first time in days. That was worth it, despite everything else.

But then morning came. Lane and Elisa shared their breakfast, though neither prepared to continue the flight. Apparently this wasn't somewhere they lived—it was an island atop a distant mountain, where few humans could reach and no sign of their visits extended.

"You would be better off flying on with us," Cedar said, as the others started to change. Cedar already had, before they woke up. "Your sister

wouldn't want you to get hurt. I know you want to rescue her. But if you could save her, she could've saved herself."

Lane shook her head, flying close to him. "Cedar, Korina is in danger because of me. She wasn't always very kind to me… but I'm not going to abandon her. You can't convince me."

Cedar considered that a moment, then licked her a few times. Despite the wildness of his hair, he smelled like flowers. "You're a brave kitten, Lane.

But you're just like your family. You would be safe if you just felt satisfied with what you have. But you insist on going out there and fighting, even when it's out of your league. Sure you won't stay?"

Does he really think I'm like them? I'm not even really a mew. Am I?

"Yes." She floated away from him, back to where Elisa was pawing at a flower, trying to get it down to reach. Despite her objections to flight, she'd apparently decided today was the day to brave new things. "If you can point us towards Saffron, that would be helpful."

"If you mean a place and not the flower, I can't. But I know there are humans at the base of this mountain. They send offerings, sometimes. Know the respect to show us, so we let them visit." If you need a human place, ask them. But not too loudly, because word will reach the great powers eventually.

Humans talk, and Pokémon listen. You know one, you must understand."

"I… guess I do. Thanks for the help, Cedar."

Cedar nodded, then landed beside Elisa. "Before I go. You are… Elisa.

Even if you do not go with us now, you will be welcome later. Visit at the right place, and the right time."

Elisa nodded weakly. "I'm… glad for the invitation, thanks. But I don't want to be a Pokémon. I'm not like Lane."

"We don't always get what we want," Cedar said, waving his tail dismissively. "Sometimes those who understand give us what is best, instead.

You will understand one day."

He pressed down on the flower, lowering it down for Elisa to stick her head inside. Lane watched, fascinated to see the process in someone else. It looked as disorienting as it had first felt. But when Elisa removed her head, she didn't look much like a humble rodent anymore.

"Woah," she said, voice much deeper. "That's a headrush."

"Keep an eye on the kitten until you join us again," Cedar said, then took off. "Our clan still owes a debt. Help pay it for us." He joined the crowd of

shaymin darkening the sky. Slowly they passed over the mountain, fading from sight.

"Are you ready yet?" Dominic asked. "Pretty sure that was just one night."

Lane spun, and wasn't that surprised to see Dominic hovering in the air behind them. His wings seemed to be physically part of the process, though with as little they were actually beating, maybe that was just her imagination.

He wasn’t warping gravity, anyway.

"We're… yes." Lane turned, glaring at him. "It was just one day. Though…

wait a minute. You can travel through time." She circled around him, dodging so close that he withdrew. But he was much slower by comparison, despite all his practice. "We don't have to rush anywhere! Just take us to before the disaster happened, and stop us from blowing up the Starfall!"

"You didn't blow up the Operand of Desire," he said, antennae flicking in Lane's direction. "They did. And they tricked me into sticking my face into it, so I'd be born. Which is why we can't do anything about it, so don't even suggest it. The Principle of Temporal Consistency would stop me from interfering with my own creation. Probably by sending me to detention for like, centuries or something. I don't want to piss them off, so… let's not get me onto probation a second time, okay?"

Lane opened her mouth to question what Dominic had said, but like everything since her friend had returned, Dominic was several steps ahead. By the time she could process it, he had already moved on.

"You were right about this, Lane," Elisa said, from underneath. Well…

she wasn't on the ground anymore. She zipped past them through the air, until she smacked into the side of a tree. She didn't fall so much as drift back down in an arc, flying past them. "This isn't so hard! I'm flying already, look at me!"

Lane caught her, for long enough for her to slow down. It probably wasn't a good idea to try and hold on with her powers when she didn't know how shaymin flew, exactly.

"For the second time, I am the biggest." Elisa puffed out her chest, grinning toothily at them both. "And the fastest learner. Hold your applause, please. The praise is too much."

Dominic leaned in close, whispering into Lane's ear. "I know you love him like this, but I can't stand it. Can you get him to shrink?"

Lane drifted away, sniffing at Elisa. "It doesn't freak you out?"

"Hmm." She twisted around, as though trying to look at her tail. "Less than five minutes ago. Suddenly it all seems pretty chill. Except one thing."

Elisa practically pounced on Lane, dragging her down with him to the ground.

"I'm not letting Cedar have you, Lane. You're mine. Don't you wander, or I'll catch you."

"I won't." She squirmed free, mostly by lifting Elisa with a little gravity.

This is probably why she doesn't give this up. The Sky Forme is so much more confident. Do they all switch personalities like that?

Lane could remember a little of that confidence, and she missed it. Not enough to go back to it, though. This was proper flying, even if she didn't have the same endurance.

"Anyway, I don't know if I could bring passengers yet," Dominic continued, as soon as Lane was up into the air again. "The older ones can do it, but… it went bad the last time I tried. He shuddered, eyes haunted. "There's a rule for beginners like me: while you're part of events, you follow them. Now that I'm with you, I stay with you until the end. To do otherwise isn't worth the paperwork."

"Seems like you're taking to this pretty good," Elisa called. "You wanted to be human even more than me. Way more than Lane. Why didn't you go back and undo all of this? Be back at home, playing your video games?"

Dominic rolled his eyes. "Remember the dying part? I died—all of us did.

The only part of my past I can make it back to is that moment." He flexed one hand, then the other. "I know how stupid this sounds right now. You're both so little, you see this like humans. One day you'll see more, and you'll be like

'Wow, Dominic was so wise. Why was I so attached to being human anyway?’"

"They got their recruiting wrong," Elisa grunted, with a little bitterness in his voice. "I was supposed to be traveling through time, not a shrub. And don't you love fire-types? That's why you liked Victini."

"Her?"

Lane spun, feeling a sudden wave of emotion from Dominic, overwhelming the detachment from before. Was he blushing? He smacked himself with one tiny green hand, face getting even darker. "Right, right! You haven't met her yet. I'm gonna keep doing this. Do you two want to save Lane's mom or not?"

"Yes," Lane said, before Dominic could try to spin some excuse to leave.

"But she's not. My mom was human."

"First was." Dominic patted her on the shoulder, expression sympathetic. "So what's your plan? You should know that I know even less about fighting than I do about time. Way less. I can't beat whatever trouble your mom got herself in."

"We're going to find the moonlight creature haunting Saffron City," Lane said. "He's a genetic experiment my mom—" She stopped herself, then glared at Dominic. "My sister used to know. I think they might be friends? But also he almost ended the world or something? It's complicated."

"Mewtwo?" Dominic burst out laughing. "You're gonna… fine, alright. I don't know how this went down. Maybe that happened. But right now, you can't forget the reality, all wishful thinking aside. It's dangerous for you, Lane.

Me too, but I can run faster than anyone can catch. We need a way to get all the way to Saffron without getting caught."

"We could take the train?" Elisa suggested. "I mean… everywhere has a train. I saw tracks when we were landing last night. We find that, we ride."

"Oh, sure." Dominic rolled his eyes. "We'll just fly right on, nobody will notice. On our way back, wouldn't want to miss the Annual Gathering of Legendary and Mythical Pokémon Researchers."

"No…" Lane began. "But Cedar did say the village gives offerings to the shaymin who visit. You're one of their patrons, Elisa. I bet they'd share something with you. Say… some clothes I could wear? Maybe an old phone?"

Elisa slid past her in the air, hard enough that Lane spun. She was probably trying to grab her, but without the dexterity to know what she was doing. "Can you do that?"

"Of course she can do it," Dominic answered, before Lane even opened her mouth. "This is Lane you're talking about. How would she talk to the True-Myth Club if she couldn't?"

"Yeah," Lane agreed, feeling a little rush of confidence. "Of course I can."

Hearing a time traveler express confidence in Lane's abilities as though describing something she could already do certainly helped build her confidence. But even if everything Dominic said would be true one day, it didn't mean it was true now.

The flight down the mountain hadn't been hard, even carrying the stolen purse and Lopunny's pokéball safe inside. The only thing we have left of our

humanity is a pokéball trapping someone who was never human. Maybe that was poetic. Lane had never really understood poetry.

As it turned out, finding the right place to go when they reached the village wasn't hard either. People pointed at Elisa, gasping and cheering as he passed over their homes. The town reminded Lane quite a bit of Cayari, where they'd gone before meeting Korina for the first time. It was made of a few dirt streets, with ancient homes tucked into the trees rather than clearcutting them out of the way.

There was one significant change: she hadn't expected so many people to be dressed like Elisa. The streets were hung with green and white lanterns, and stalls with food packed the central street. A good half the people she saw were wearing white and green, plenty with little fox-ear hats.

Duh, the migration. They had to see us coming down and flying away.

As Elisa flew, many of the people below flocked in the same direction.

There was a temple dedicated to the seasonal visitors, with carefully cultivated Gracidea flowers outside.

"What's the plan?" Dominic asked, easily the most nervous in their group. Even with most eyes watching Elisa, Dominic was still uncomfortable with the attention on them. "Are you just gonna ask?"

"I will," Elisa said. "I might as well just tell them, uh… something. It can't be that hard. So long as I don't look like too much of an idiot, so they stop caring when the other shaymin visit. Otherwise it's fine."

You sound so much braver than before, Lane thought. She followed all the way to the shrine—an ancient structure of wood, with room for a few people inside at a time. There were no priests or attendants, just a simple spot in the middle with a bronze statue of a shaymin looking regal.

Nothing like Elisa, as she skidded to a stop on the rough wooden deck ahead of the two of them. A few of the locals pointed and gasped. Lane caught

the faint camera flash from the back of the crowd. Just because these people were rural didn't mean they were from the past.

"You change first," Elisa said, nodding into the temple. "I'll ask for their help while you're doing it."

Dominic followed her, landing on an empty shelf. "Go on then, Lane.

Sooner the better."