Chapter Text
With its mane billowing in the wind, Suicune took in the night breeze, trying to process the events of that day. More importantly trying to understand why it felt so drawn to Knuckles.
The echidna was undoubtedly brave and unlike those who had been harboring fear and hate for it and its brethren for all this time. But it was far more than that.
The grass next to Suicune rustled and it turned in an instant, causing Knuckles to flinch for a moment.
"Hey. Sorry if I scared you. Just wanted to thank you for vouching for me earlier".
Suicune studied the echidna's face without moving.
"I went and gathered these as a thank you" Knuckles outstretched his hand, a few of Suicune's favorite berries in his giant palm.
Suicune's eyes opened slightly. Had the echidna picked those by accident? And if not, how did it know they were Suicune's favorites?
Cautiously approaching it sniffed and then took one with its tongue. Soon enough the rest of the resistance was gone and it was digging in.
Knuckles smiled in bliss, forgetting Suicune and he were not partners yet. He proceeded to pet the back of its head.
Suicune jolted in response but didn't run away. It merely stared at Knuckles again who froze, knowing the aurora pokemon's power.
The two remained in that position for a few seconds not taking their eyes off of each other. Eventually Knuckles kept rubbing the beast.
Not even a second later, Suicune closed its eyes to the touch. It felt… familiar.
Yet it had never been pet before.
Knuckles allowed himself to get lost in the moment though questions started popping up in his head.
Most of them revolved around the same question.
Was he changing the past? Or had he already changed it? And if so what was to come for his friends in the future?
Celebi, pretending to sleep near Entei, observed the moment shared between Knuckles and Suicune with a warm smile.
Eventually Knuckles stopped and left Suicune to its solitude again, needing to get some shut eye.
Suicune returned to processing everything though it was disrupted immediately.
"Where is your pride?"
Entei was looking disapprovingly at Suicune. The latter didn't respond.
"First you let him ride you and now you let him pet you like you're some average meowth".
"You wouldn't understand".
"Wouldn't understand you're making the same mistake again?" Entei reminded him.
Ever since their rebirth thanks to Ho-oh, the beasts had been on the run, away from civilization. Humans were terrified of them. Just like with everything they couldn't understand or control.
Suicune allowed itself to remember those dark times due to its brother's cold remark.
At first it, Entei and Raikou were on their own, each left to fend for itself. And that existence was the loneliest Suicune had ever been.
Of course with its new form its power was increased to a considerable point and upon meeting Raikou again, one time when it was defending a bunch of pokemon from some hunters, Suicune also took to protecting the weaker pokemon, inspired by its thunder brother.
Entei on the other hand, remained distant from the two even after that, as it valued power and believed having Suicune and Raikou by its side would be a drawback.
Its mind was changed when it battled a man wielding a dragonite and was overpowered for the first time. Suicune came to its aid driving back the dragonite with aurora beam.
And since that day the beasts had been looking out for each other, giving themselves the titles of brothers.
Of course despite their new bond, the three beasts had differing views on humans. Although a lot of time had passed and people had stopped actively chasing them, trusting them again was no easy task.
The beasts had approached or been approached by humans more than once in their long lifespan. And more often than not, the ones approaching them ended up betraying them in one way or another.
But there was one encounter for each beast that cemented what they sought or rather the type of person they sought to call their partner.
Raikou had been approached by a poacher, who pretended to be terrified of the magnificent pokemon, though slowly tamed it. Once that had happened she trapped Raikou and had it kept alongside her collection of other pokemon, most of them weaker than Raikou.
The legend of thunder knew from the first moment it could easily escape as it had never revealed its true power to the poacher but couldn't leave the other pokemon behind yet couldn't take the poacher's pokemon on alone. Therefore it withstood the abuse from the poacher while helping a pidgeotto escape and find Entei and Suicune.
The rest was simple. Its two brothers arrived and took down her pokemon while helping the captured ones flee towards freedom.
As for the poacher… Raikou couldn't forgive her for the mistreatment on the other pokemon. Therefore it feasted on her flesh, savoring her pleas of mercy as it did so.
Although it later came to regret killing her like that, the event gave Raikou clarity on what it sought. It wanted to find someone who shared its desire to protect those who couldn't protect themselves.
Entei, unlike Raikou, valued power. Its dominating presence intimidated most of its foes even though it didn't possess the ability of the same name. Furthermore Entei had inherited the move sacred fire from Ho-oh, increasing its power even further.
Throughout its existence as Entei, twice it had been tempted to ally itself with two humans. Both of those times it was incredibly disappointed.
The first one was an aspiring pokemon wielder, who wanted to be the best in his village and in the land. But that young man had an extreme lack of confidence, mentally surrendering every battle before it even started unless all the odds were on his side.
One random day, that man came across Entei and his desire for power was felt by the beast. Sharing this desire the duo started making a name for themselves throughout Johto.
But as time went on, Entei found itself more and more relied on by the man, reaching a point where he refused to use his other pokemon, and even more than that, having grown accustomed to a lot of his opponents submitting the moment Entei hit the field.
Eventually Entei was fed up, as the man's desire for power was overshadowed by his cowardice. And Entei despised cowards. So it abandoned the man in the middle of a battle, leaving him to face the results of his cowardice alone.
The second time Entei had tried placing its trust on someone, it was the other side of the spectrum; the guy was power hungry.
He abused Entei's power to get anything he wanted for a while. Entei drew the line almost instantly when the man ordered him to burn down the house of a girl that rejected his advances. Entei did obey his command and burned something down. Him.
After that, Entei was done. Despite knowing now that it sought someone who valued power as well but without losing themselves to it, it didn't believe anymore that anyone was like that, and tried to dissuade its brothers from trying to see the good in humans.
Its argument clashed with Suicune, as it sought a true connection. It wanted very badly for someone who wouldn't be afraid of it as those people were back in the day.
Being seen and treated like a monster had scarred the beast's soul. It sought a connection that would heal it.
He remembered one of those moments very clearly. Immediately upon their resurrection thanks to Ho-oh. His eyes had crossed with those if a little boy. The pure joy and amazement in its eyes had filled Suicune with peace and gratefulness for Ho-oh bringing it back to life.
And all those positive emotions left when one of the residents of Ecutreak city took a rock and threw it at Suicune.
The rock landed next to its right paw. But it had more than enough impact as it was.
Suicune and its brothers fled the scene immediately not desiring to hurt the humans.
But that look on that little boy's face haunted Suicune. The desire to no longer be feared and find a partner was permanently etched into the deepest depths of its wild heart.
And it felt like Knuckles was the one who could give it that.
Its gaze found Knuckles who had fallen asleep stargazing, lying on the grass, holding something
Curious and against its better judgement, Suicune approached.
"Hey I'm talking to you" Entei growled.
Suicune reached Knuckles and just observed him, not knowing a human would call that act creepy.
Its eyes fell on the item. With its face it moved Knuckles' massive palm off it. It was an image.
The moment Suicune saw the picture it was sure that this was it. Reality was going to break. Knowing about the future was just this dangerous.
On the image was it and its brothers. Next to Suicune was Knuckles. And next to Entei and Raikou two others he didn't recognize.
Suicune stumbled back.
Knuckles and it were meant to be partners in the future. Surely it wasn't supposed to know that. Knuckles had probably forgotten to hide the photo due to falling asleep.
"You alright?" Entei approached Suicune in concern before also seeing the image.
"What kind of trick is this? What even is this?!" Entei roared in anger, surprisingly not waking Knuckles up.
"You see it too?"
"I see it but it can't be real. Look around, a Noctowl must be playing tricks on our minds".
"What's all the commotion about?" Raikou also approached having woken up from the growling and barking.
"Look at this" Suicune took the photo with its mouth and showed it to Raikou.
"Woah. That's us. What is this magic thing?"
"It's a photo" Celebi interjected.
The three beasts looked at the mythical pokemon, Suicune still holding the photo in its mouth.
"What's a photo?" Raikou asked in curiosity.
"It's a piece of paper humans can encase images in with the help of a machine. Such devices are common in his time period" Celebi explained.
"In his time period? Then… aren't we supposed to not know about this?" Raikou asked with concern.
"Who cares about this?! Who is that blue guy next to me?! You mean to tell me I allowed myself to make the same mistake again?" Entei roared in anger.
"I can't tell you everything. But I can tell you that what you see is the future where he comes from. In other words you three and Knuckles and his friends are destined to join forces".
Raikou took another look at the photo.
"Is that yellow dude a nice person? I seem to be rather happy with him".
"Raikou don't you get what we stumbled upon?" Suicune finally opened its mouth causing the photo to fall "we weren't supposed to know any of this. Now everything could change".
It then turned to Celebi again.
"Do you know any of this? Have you seen this future?"
"No. But from my experience with time travel… I think what you see is a future you can choose to have".
"Choose?" Raikou wondered.
"Yes. After all it is our choices that shape the future, not our knowledge of it. You can know the future and still make a choice that will change it. That's what humans believe at least".
"And why should we follow one of their ideas?" Entei asked in fury.
Suicune looked at the sleeping Knuckles again.
"There is only one way to figure out what to do. Ask him".
"You're joking right? Didn't you learn anything from my encounters? From what Raikou went through? Just like everyone, this one will betray us too. It's always been this way" Entei again reminded him.
"You don't know that" Raikou countered "they can't be all like that".
"And I say they are!" Entei roared as its mane heated up.
Lightning bolts crackled on Raikou's mane as the two beasts growled.
"Enough!" Suicune barked.
The two beasts went silent.
"I have the final say and I believe what we see is the truth. We will seek out the details tomorrow morning. End of discussion".
Entei growled in anger but refrained from acting out. Suicune was the alpha for a reason.
"Fine" it barked before laying down next to a tree again and closing its eyes.
Raikou took one more look at the photo before mirroring Entei's behavior. In the photo it saw itself being literally hugged by the two-tailed fox.
It peaked Raikou's curiosity about Knuckles' friend.
Suicune was the last to go to sleep.
As Celebi curled itself inside Suicune's mane just in case the hunter found then while they were asleep, Suicune decided to ask one more question.
"Do you know what is to come regarding Knuckles and his two friends? When it comes to me and my brothers that is".
"I do".
"How?"
"I can't say. I was tasked with coming here and making sure you three meet Knuckles properly".
"Tasked?"
"Shouldn't have said that. Forget I said anything" Celebi replied before also falling asleep.
Suicune was somehow left with more question marks than before asking the question, but also went to sleep.
The hours passed by very slowly that night. For the heroes in both the past and the present.
In the morning of the present, Ash woke up, finding his rival already awake, running laps around the lake while tapping into his bond with Raichu to increase his speed.
Ash walked towards the lakeside, causing Sonic to stop running, his shoes rubbing against the grass as he halted.
"Anxious?" Ash asked.
"You have no idea".
"You know I've been thinking… there is indeed a good chance Knuckles will meet his grandfather and mother. But wouldn't he know what that could cause?"
"He would indeed".
"So we agree. There isn't really a reason to worry. He's not dumb. He wouldn't risk you and Tails like that".
Sonic's look however inferred something else.
"What is it?"
"You don't know everything. Knuckles will be tempted".
"Why?"
"Do you remember Molly from Greenfield?"
"Can't forget her even if I wanted to" Ash joked.
"Knuckles revealed to me that day why he was so invested in saving her too. It's the same reason he was the only one of us able to convince her to let everything go. Because he too has lost his parents".
"Really? I… I didn't know. I thought he was making it up".
"It's the truth. And more than that" Sonic continued "it's all because of his grandfather who was obsessed with Celebi. Can you imagine what is within Knuckles' grasp right now?"
Ash nodded. He allowed himself to recall all the memories of his mother. He couldn't imagine a world without her.
"Knuckles could try convincing his grandfather to stop in order to prevent the death of his parents, right?"
"No. I doubt that could be prevented like that. He would have to be in the very moment of their deaths to prevent it. But by redeeming his grandfather, he would be preventing the death of his grandmother and the eight horrible years he lived in his grandparents' house. And by doing that he wouldn't move in our neighborhood and wouldn't meet me and Tails".
Ash was overwhelmed. Knuckles literally had the option to have his family back. It was indeed a very delicate situation.
"Which is why we should wake Celebi up and get this over with as quickly as possible".
Ash struggled to counterargue this.
"Alright. It is for the best".
Just as the two rivals agreed, Sonic noticed a black tentacle heading straight for Ash.
"Watch out!" he shouted as he pushed Ash out of the way before dodging the tentacle himself.
More tentacles appeared. It was him.
"Battle stations!" Sonic called out to everyone.
Tails and the beasts reacted immediately. Tails locked eyes with the marauder, begging the latter to give him any reason to hurt him.
"Thought you'd gotten rid of us… didn't you, twerps?" Jessie mocked the heroes as she and her two allies stood against them with bug nets
"You should know by now team Rocket doesn't give up so easily!" James added.
"Maybe today would be a good day to start" Sonic fired back.
Meowth gulped, still scared of Sonic but didn't let it show.
"All right… we ain't leaving without that Celebi".
"Entei?" Sonic called over his shoulder "how would you like some meowth for lunch today?"
Entei's head turned instantly, causing Meowth to hide behind his allies.
"Why do I even bother with those imbeciles?" the marauder thought without losing his smile.
Pikachu attempted to attack the marauder. A red forcefield protected hihim from the thunderbolt. Raichu tried following up by smacking one of the vehicle's robotic feet but was thrown back.
"Nice try" the marauder mocked, taking advantage of their surroundings and causing several trees to fall over.
As the beasts protected everyone, one of the tentacles encased Celebi and with an evil grin the marauder zapped it with electricity.
"Celebi!" Sam reached out.
"Let it go!" Tails flew on the vehicle beside the marauder and attempting to stun him.
With lightning quick moves, the marauder slammed his huge fist against Tails' cheek, knocking him down as well as his stun gun out of his hand.
Quickly taking aim, the marauder attempted to fire at Sonic.
Nothing happened.
Tails' two tails wrapped around the marauder's body in response.
"Fool. Only I can use this" Tails turned him around and attempted to punch him.
But he was no Knuckles. The punch merely annoyed him but also gave him an idea.
Quickly wrapping his arm around Tails' neck, placing him in a headlock, the marauder took a dark ball out of his vest and threw it at Celebi.
"Dark ball go!"
The dark ball captured Celebi immediately.
"No! Let it go!" Ash demanded.
"No chance! Celebi is mine!"
"You'd like that!" Sonic's voice was heard as he grabbed onto a tentacle and letting it carry him up to the marauder.
With a quick flip, he kicked the dark ball out of the marauder's hand.
Ash caught the dark ball.
"I got it".
"And I got him" the marauder said maliciously as he still kept Tails in a headlock.
"Let him go and face me!" Sonic challenged him.
"I call the shots here hedgehog. Give me back my Celebi and get off my vehicle or your friend is toast!"
With those words, he grabbed the sides of Tails' head.
"Tails!" Cosmo reached out.
Sonic gritted his teeth in rage.
"Let him go".
"Then do as I say or…"
"Forget about me Sonic! Save Celebi!" Tails demanded as his tails frantically moved due to the pain of the headlock.
"So what's it going to be hedgehog? Celebi or your friend?"
Sonic exhaled in frustration before jumping off the vehicle and landing in front of Ash.
"Give it to me".
"You can't give it to him".
"Give me Celebi".
"No".
"Give it to me dammit! I'm not going to lose another friend to team rocket!" Sonic pleaded.
The place went silent with the only exception being Tails' groans of pain.
Ash closed his eyes in and gritted his teeth, hating himself as he handed the dark ball to Sonic.
Sonic turned and threw it to the marauder.
"There. Now let Tails go!"
The marauder grinned and sent out Celebi. The empty look and soulless eyes broke the group's heart before the mythical pokemon unleashed a powerful burst of energy all around it, sending trees tumbling down and even Ash, Sonic and Cosmo straight into the lake while wrapping the rest in vines.
"That's it Celebi! Show me more of your power! Ahahaha! With a Pokemon like you, no one will ever stop me!"
Celebi took one look at the group with its soulless eyes and flew by the marauder's vehicle as it began making its way through the woods, slowly gathering twigs, branches and leaves around it.
The group minus Ash, Sonic and Cosmo were forced to watch as the marauder took Celebi, Tails and unknowingly Jessie and left, the vines rendering them unable to act.
Raikou in particular, fought against the vines, roaring nonstop and discharging thunderbolts all around it as its eyes watered.
As Sonic emerged from the lake, followed soon by Ash and Cosmo, he was surprised to find he didn't feel angry, sad, in despair or even rageful.
His mind was in perfect peace.
"I told you we shouldn't have surrendered! Now he's got Celebi!" Ash shouted at his rival.
Sonic, with a dead calm expression, took a knife out of Knuckles' stuff and freed Entei which in turn used its flames, aided by Knuckles' Typhlosion to free the others.
"What do we do now? Celebi is with him" Sam asked them.
"As is my Tails" Cosmo added.
"For now" Sonic said with a chilling calmness "but when we're done with that guy he's going to wish he was never born. That I promise you all".
"What are you planning to do?" Misty asked Sonic.
"The marauder has taken my best friend and Celebi which is the key to saving my other best friend. For that I am going to give him a very good reason to fear me just as his old boss does!"
"You know sometimes you really creep me out. But I'm in" Ash bumped Sonic's shoulder with his fist "what's the plan?"
"There's plenty of us here. And we got a lot of pokemon at our disposal including three legendary pokemon. I think we can come up with a good plan rather quickly" Sonic said confidently.
Raikou was already tapping its paw on the ground in anxiety but hearing that they wouldn't go to save Tails right away almost caused it to run away to do so alone had it not been for its two brethren.
"Patience brother. We will get him back. I promise you" Suicune attempted to calm it down.
Raikou pretended to shimmer down but didn't really. It couldn't come to terms with Tails being held captive. He had saved it back then. It needed to return the favor.
As the heroes in the present got to planning in order to ambush and beat the marauder, the day was just beginning in the past, with Knuckles waking up early, pondering what to do to pass the time.
As Celebi had explained it would take three days for it to recharge its temporal aura and return him to his own time. And since he didn't have his pokemon with him, thankfully from a certain point of view as two versions of the same Suicune interacting would probably have dire consequences for all of reality, he couldn't train with them or just hang out.
As he began considering several ideas, he heard familiar voices nearby.
Sabre.
Knuckles wanted to go livid. That fool just wouldn't stop.
But there was something else too.
Ever since he could remember, even though Knuckles condemned his grandfather's obsession and despised him for it, he couldn't help but ponder on one simple question, consisting of just one word.
"Why?" he thought to himself.
Why was Sabre doing all of this?
Even after the death of Jenna-lu he wouldn't stop thinking about Celebi. What kind of person loses the love of their lives and still thinks of something else?
Without even realizing it, Knuckles was now walking towards the direction of the voice, leaving the beasts and Celebi behind.
His entire being was showering in a mix of emotions. But at the same time it was screaming at him to stop. Simply interacting with Sabre could change everything.
But the memories of his parents and grandmother kept him from stopping.
"Why did they have to die because of you?" Knuckles whispered.
He didn't ponder this question in anger. He did it in sadness. For whatever reason it happened, there was no changing it.
He even wondered if he even wanted to know the reason. But nothing stopped him. Something even stronger was driving him.
Before he knew it he was hiding behind a bush near Sabre's camp.
As Lara-le was playing with a nearby caterpie Sabre was obsessively studying his map, trying to make sense of where they were before proceeding with the search.
Knuckles' very core was screaming at him to turn around and walk away before he was spotted.
Caterpie eventually left.
"Papa I'm hungry. Can we go get something to eat in Azalea town?"
"Not now Lara-le. We can't stop now. We're close, I can feel it".
Lara-le huffed.
"When are we going home to mommy? She must be missing us".
"We will return soon with Celebi".
Lara-le approached her father.
"But what if we don't? What if we just let it be and go home?"
"WE CAN'T GO HOME WITHOUT CELEBI!" Sabre exploded scaring Lara-le and even catching Knuckles by surprise.
Sabre's look immediately switched to shock upon realizing what he had done.
"I'm so sorry Lara-le. I shouldn't have screamed" he apologized hugging her.
But Lara-le was still saddened.
"You are scary when you act like that Papa".
Sabre was heartbroken to hear that.
"I know and I'm so sorry".
"Sure you are" Knuckles thought from the bush.
Sabre kissed Lara-le's forehead before continuing.
"I know I have made you sad a lot of times Lara-le but I want to promise me that you will never forget that I love you. You and your mother are my entire world. Promise you will never forget that".
Lara-le nodded. Sabre hugged her again.
Knuckles was disappointed by this development. And yet…
"Promise me you will never forget that I love you".
The way Sabre spoke those words… they betrayed a sense of… longing for that very same love. And that confused Knuckles to no end.
Against his better judgement he walked out of the bushes.
"Hey".
Both Sabre and Lara-le turned their heads towards him.
"You!" Sabre scowled as he sent out scizor "where's Celebi!"
"Far away. I sent it off".
"Youuuu… you took it away from me! After everything you had to get in my way!"
"Why are you doing this? Why are you so obsessed with getting Celebi?"
"And who are you exactly to ask me this?" Sabre asked back.
"Who I am is irrelevant" Knuckles replied before noticing Lara-le had walked right front of him, getting caught off guard.
"Are ok mister? From yesterday?"
"I am just fine little girl" Knuckles patted her head gently, getting a bizzare feeling of warmth.
"Get back Lara-le" Sabre warned his daughter "and let daddy find out where Celebi is".
Knuckles struggled to remain calm.
"Why are you taking your daughter on such a journey? I know Celebi considers kids pure and shows itself to them sometimes but using her as a bait for it? That's just low. Why do you even want Celebi to begin with?"
"You wouldn't understand even if I told you".
"Try me then".
Back at the lake of life, the legendary beasts slowly awoke to find Knuckles missing.
"Where is he?!" Suicune looked around frantically.
"We need to find him and quick. He can cause immense damage to reality!" Celebi warned the beasts.
"I hear voices nearby" Raikou looked towards the direction he could hear the voices coming from.
Suicune, with Celebi hiding in its mane rushed towards the voices, closely followed by Raikou and Entei.
Almost immediately they came across Knuckles and Sabre talking.
"I knew it!" Entei almost roared in anger "he is betraying us!"
"We don't know that" Raikou countered.
"We need to get him away from them. The more he talks the more likely it is he will cause a change in time!" Celebi told Suicune urgently.
Suicune however didn't move. Instead it was looking at Knuckles and listening what he was talking about, its heart hoping that Raikou was right and not Entei.
"Come on. Just try me. Why are you pursuing Celebi instead of being home with your family?"
"I… I need to find it ok? I have to!"
"This is no reason. Your family should be a hundred times more important. Your wife, your daughter… your future grandchild".
It was a huge gamble. By saying those final words Knuckles had either caused a change great enough to eradicate him or nothing at all if Sabre was as far gone as he always suspected.
"My family will still be here after I find Celebi. But he won't".
Knuckles didn't expect this answer. While he did feel some disgust at Sabre taking his family for granted, the other half spoke volumes.
"Who is he?"
Sabre gasped realizing he slipped up.
"Doesn't matter. Tell me where…"
But he didn't need to complete the question.
He noticed the beasts in the trees, Celebi in Suicune's mane.
"There! Get them!"
Sabre's pokemon, having strayed off before a decision was made on where they would go all ambushed the beasts. Now aside from houndoom, Tyranitar and scyther there was also a nidoking and a piloswine.
Piloswine and Nidoking attacked Entei and Raikou with their ground moves, dealing great damage and getting their attention.
"That enough of an answer for you?!" Entei roared before engaging their opponents, instantly knocking down the ice type piloswine with a flamethrower. Nidoking on the other hand would be harder to deal with.
On Suicune's end, it was ganged up by Tyranitar and scyther, with its escape route being cut off by houndoom.
"Daddy stop you're hurting them!"
"Listen to your daughter! They have nothing to do with this!" Knuckles pleaded.
Sabre didn't listen.
"Suicune! Surrender Celebi and you and your two brothers can walk away!"
Raikou blasted Tyranitar with a thunderbolt, only to be struck by a counter rock slide.
"What do we do brothers?" it barked as it took a defensive stance.
Entei attempted to attack Sabre only for Nidoking to strike with sludge bomb hurting the volcano pokemon.
Knuckles was completely lost. The situation had spiraled entirely out of control. There was no way that the past wasn't changed anymore.
"Sabre please stop! Your daughter wouldn't want…"
"Keep my daughter out of your damn mouth! And you scyther! Stop wasting time and get that Celebi!"
Obeying, Scyther took advantage of Suicune's lack of concentration from the continuous assault and the deep betrayal.
Scyther sliced a small piece of Suicune's mane off, grabbing Celebi with its scythes at the mythical pokemon's neck.
Knuckles' mind was made up.
It no longer mattered whether the past, the present, the future, reality or anything else was changed anymore.
Sabre wouldn't get Celebi. Not like this.
Knuckles wouldn't let it happen.
Rushing to Suicune's side, he dodged a a rock throw made by Tyranitar before throwing the rock with all his strength at Nidoking, giving Entei and Raikou the opening they needed to fight back.
With its scythes holding Celebi in place, Scyther was unable to react when Knuckles grabbed it by the waist and slammed it down, before picking Celebi up and putting it back on Suicune.
The aurora pokemon was at a loss for words. It wasn't a betrayal after all. Only a misunderstanding.
"No! Houndoom stop them!"
Houndoom unleashed a flamethrower towards Suicune and Celebi. Thinking quickly, Knuckles raised Scyther and used it as a shield against the flamethrower.
As the beasts observed the echidna defending them from the attack, Suicune heard Knuckles whispering sorry to scyther as if he regretted having to do this.
Once the attack was finished, Knuckles threw scyther away and looked at Suicune, momentarily forgetting it wasn't its partner again.
"Hydro pump!"
Suicune charged its attack, unaware of the incoming rock slide.
Both Knuckles and Entei rushed in to intercept the attack, Entei taking the brunt of it and Knuckles deflecting a few rocks.
Entei looked sideways towards Knuckles and wondered if it had really misjudged the echidna. Furthermore it wondered if what it and its brethren had seen in that photo was true.
If this blue hedgehog in the photo next to him was indeed worthy of its allegiance.
Even with all of Sabre's pokemon knocked out, he wouldn't quit, rushing to his motorbike.
"Lara-le come quickly!"
"But daddy our stuff"
"We'll get more! Come!"
Knuckles spat and turned to Suicune.
"Please get me and Celebi out of here!"
Suicune nodded and Knuckles quickly rode it just as Lara-le hopped into the side-car.
Suicune and the beasts took off with Knuckles and Celebi, racing through the woods. But they could still hear the motorbike.
"What's the plan?!" Raikou barked.
"We outrun them!" Suicune barked back as they kept racing towards the outskirts of Ilex forest.
As the past beasts fled the forest, the present beasts were waiting patiently, save for Raikou, for the heroes to finalize their plan.
"Alright. We're going to ride the beasts and follow the path of destruction. Once we hear them in the distance, Ash will get me off ground with his Noctowl, I will hop onto the marauder's vehicle, free Tails and then we all fight him head on".
"Ok but how do we save Celebi?" Ash asked.
"We'll cross that bridge when we get there. We don't know exactly what we're facing so we'll need to assess the situation up close. Tails, I and the beasts will probably handle Tyranitar. Worst case we will have to send out our entire teams to combat Celebi but let's hope it doesn't come to that. Are we all ok?"
Everyone agreed and so did the beasts letting out a bark each.
Sonic gasped.
"What's wrong?" Brock asked.
"How many barks did you guys hear?"
"Two" Cosmo answered.
The realization hit everyone like a truck. Including Entei and Suicune.
Raikou had left without anyone noticing.
"Dammit! We got to catch up! It's going to try and save Tails alone!"
"What's so bad about that? Won't it give is time to catch up?" Sam inquired.
"Tails did the same for Raikou a while back. It didn't end well".
Quickly riding Entei, Sonic helped Cosmo and Sam climb on, as Brock Misty and Ash rode Suicune.
"Let's go!" Sonic called out as Entei charged forward.
As the heroes gave chase, with James and Meowth following on foot as Jessie was accidentally captured during the skirmish, the marauder, alongside the captive Tails who was held in place via one of the vehicle's tentacles, observed, the former in glea and the latter in terror as Celebi slowly began using pieces of the forest as twigs, branches, leaves and much more to slowly form a protective orb around it. Once the orb was complete, Celebi started forming a huge draconian armor around it, so big that trees were uprooted in its passage.
"Hahahaha! With such power nothing can stand in my way!"
"I wouldn't bet on it!" Tails challenged him, only to be zapped by the tentacle's electrical feature.
"Feisty little fox. But not even your hedgehog friend will stand in my way anymore" the marauder mocked him.
"Uh, excuse me, Mr. Masked Person but could you let me out of here?" Jessie tried to get their attention, trapped on Celebi's armor.
"No. I don't think I will. I think I like you two helpless fools witnessing my ascent to absolute power".
"Oh I'm very impressed. You and Celebi are extremely powerful! Now just get me down from here and… I think I have a proposition for you. We can find the boss together. Offer him Celebi and the little twerp here and together defeat the hedgehog and those other twerps once and for all".
"Hehe… do you really believe I would hand over the most powerful pokemon in the world… to that failure of a boss?"
Both Jessie and Tails were shocked. But Tails was for more than one reasons. If the marauder really knew what kind of power he controlled…
"The boss needs to be afraid of me now. I can destroy Sonic the hedgehog with Celebi. Therefore I can also destroy Giovanni".
"But what about team rocket? You're one of them! Are you just going to let them really end?"
"They were done for the moment they failed to stop this one" he pointed at Tails "from saving Raikou. The hedgehog's sidekick. With no real pokemon. And they lost to him. I knew in the moment I wouldn't go down with them. And certainly I won't use this power to bring them back when I can do so much more…"
"I'm no sidekick!" Tails protested only to get zapped again.
"But how can you be sure you can beat the hedgehog?! The only one powerful enough for that is the boss!" Jessie insisted.
"Whoever said I would need to beat him?"
Tails, panting from the electric shocks, was now sure.
"So this is your plan. You're going to force Celebi to recharge its temporal aura and go back in time… and kill Sonic before he becomes a threat to your team!"
The marauder burst out in laughter.
"Silly fox. Of course not. Why would I kill the hedgehog before he destroys team rocket the first time around? With the boss in exile, everyone will bow to me as the witness the hero of Kanto fall at my hands!"
"You'd wish! Sonic and the others will stop you! They're on their way right… gaaaah!" he was forced to stop as he was zapped a third time.
Small bolts of yellow electricity crackled at his fingertips causing him to smile.
The next moment Raikou, its face a mask of rage jumped high in the air landing on Celebi's armor.
"Now you're in for it!"
Raikou summoned a thunder attack and struck at the marauder's vehicle.
The attack was blocked by Celebi using its draconian armor.
"Celebi! Subdue that beast!"
Vines wrapped around Raikou's paws too quickly for the beast to react. Raikou attempted to escape by firing an attack that would be eventually known as discharge.
But the vines didn't let go. In fact they lifted the legend of thunder high above ground as it struggled to get out.
The marauder grinned taking out another dark ball.
"No Raikou!"
"Dark ball go!"
The dark ball absorbed Raikou and caught it before returning to the marauder.
"Point proven. I achieved in one second what the entirety of team rocket failed to do with tens of grunts! Raikou is mine!"
He sent out the beast of thunder. Raikou let out an eardrum breaking roar, accidentally pinpointing their location to the others who were still chasing them down.
Raikou continued to roar and bark until a dark aura began enveloping it. Tails looked on with his heart breaking as the legendary pokemon that had placed its faith in him was completely engulfed in that shadowy aura.
But the cherry on top came when Raikou opened its eyes.
The white of his eyes had turned completely red.
"Aah. Very interesting. It appears Raikou has so much contained power it is overflowing in the form of this aura. I think I will dub this form… Shadow Raikou" the marauder commented pleasantly intrigued.
Tails took in the sight as he struggled to keep despair at bay. Raikou had gone fully savage because of the dark ball.
Sonic and the others witnessed it from afar when they got close enough.
"Dammit we're too late. He caught Raikou!" Sonic saw through the binoculars.
"An enhanced legendary and an enhanced mythical?" Cosmo uttered in question of their odds.
"We stick to the plan. Ash get me in the air".
"You got it" Ash climbed off Suicune and called out Noctowl.
Ash mounted Noctowl and took off with Sonic grabbing onto the flying type pokemon's feet.
"Once Tails is free attack!" he instructed the others.
Taking out Raichu's pokeball he waited patiently before they were right above the draconian armor of Celebi.
"Now!" Sonic declared as he let go, freefalling.
"Pikachu! Thunderbolt on the armor!"
"Pikaaa… chuuuu!" the electric type unleashed its power, tearing a small hole in the armor.
"What in the…" the marauder managed to utter before his eye caught Sonic landing on the armor with Raichu by his side.
Before he could react or press any button on his vehicle, Sonic hopped on again and slammed his fist into the marauder's cheek causing him to stumble back.
"Now! Iron tail!"
Raichu's tail slammed into the tentacle holding Tails captured, severing and freeing the fox, who instantly carried Sonic away as Raichu used quick attack to land back onto the draconian armor of Celebi.
"You meddling kids never give up. I'll give you that much. But you can't stop me! With Celebi and Raikou by my side you cannot win!"
"Are you sure about that?!" Ash's voice was heard as Noctowl fired confusion on Raikou, causing it to misfire a thunderbolt on the armor.
In response, Entei and Suicune blocked the marauder's path, with Brock climbing off and sending out Onix.
Ash also had Noctowl land and sent out Bayleef, cyndaquil and stood side by side with them, Pikachu and Noctowl. Sam also called out his charmeleon.
Sonic and Tails also sent out their remaining pokemon as well as the rest of Knuckles' pokemon. A massive army now stood against the marauder and his enslaved pokemon.
"Heh. I like those odds. Celebi! Destroy them all!"
"Everyone split!" Sonic called out as the heroes broke formation, encircling the marauder.
"Fine then! Tyranitar! Break the twerps! Raikou destroy the hedgehog and your pathetic former partner!"
A huge battle broke out with Ash, Misty, Sam, Brock and Cosmo fighting off Tyranitar. Half of Knuckles' pokemon including Suicune were assisting them, more specifically, victreebel and Heracross.
As for Typhlosion, Ampharos and Knuckles' Tyranitar, they were fighting against the shadow Raikou, alongside Sonic and Tails' pokemon, including Entei.
The battle was ferocious. Typhlosion and Entei were working off of each other unloading barrages of flames on Raikou. Sonic and Knuckles' tyranitars, aided by Sonic's hitmontop were trying to physically subdue the beast to no avail. Lapras, Butterfree and Quagsire were trying to help with their ranged attacks from afar. Tails' scizor and Steelix alongside Sonic's Meganium were the vanguard, taking the brunt of Raikou's deadly electric blasts. As for Raichu, it was leading the charge, determined to not let team rocket take anything from it again.
But the more they struck, the stronger and the more savage Raikou got. It unleashed a discharge so powerful, it blasted the two Tyranitars and hitmontop away, knocking them all out at once.
The enraged Raikou then clashed with Raichu, sending waves of power coursing through Sonic's body as he felt every bit of the clash.
"This isn't working!" Tails tried to tell Sonic "Raikou is just too strong to fight head on! And I can't keep hurting it like this!"
"We need to bring it down!" Sonic insisted "otherwise we can't free Celebi!"
His line of thought was cut short, when Raikou bit down against Raichu. Before Sonic could even process the feeling, Raikou threw Raichu against him.
Raichu and Sonic both tumbled down.
"Raikou please stop!" Tails pleaded without thinking.
Raikou surprisingly stopped momentarily. The marauder, although focused more on Tyranitar's battle with Ash's group which wasn't going well for him, took notice of it.
"Raikou! I order you to destroy them now!" he said pressing the button of the dark ball, unleashing more of ball's influence on the thunder pokemon.
Raikou, completely under the dark ball's control, blasted Sonic and Raichu with thunder.
Tails could only watch as his friend and his Raichu writhed in pain as they were fried by the thunder, resulting in an eventual explosion that sent them flying in different directions.
Raichu crashed into the draconian armor of Celebi and was quickly ensnared by its vines. Sonic on the other hand was sent flying into the woods.
"Sonic!" Ash witnessed this, realizing they were now on their own as one by one, Sonic and Tails' remaining pokemon were faltering before Raikou.
Tails took the chaos around him in as he tried to make a decision.
It was unwinnable.
They couldn't beat Raikou.
But maybe they didn't have to beat it. Or Celebi.
"Ash! Listen up! You need to get through to Celebi! I will keep Raikou occupied!"
He then turned to the rest of the pokemon fighting Raikou.
"Help them. Save Raichu! Sonic will be ok. I will draw Raikou away!"
And with those words, and a deep hope that Sonic was indeed ok, he called out to Raikou.
"You heard him! Come destroy me!"
With a loud growl Raikou started pursuing Tails, who took off, heading away from the battlefield as the remaining pokemon joined the fight against Celebi and Tyranitar, doing their best to turn the tide.
Pikachu joined them, riding on Entei who called out to him, aiming to free Raichu from the armor.
"Hey!" Jessie called out to the duo "please free me too I'm closer!"
"Poor Jessie" James uttered as he and Meowth were observing the battle from afar.
"Yeah. There's no way we could ever fight off Celebi if the twerps cannot" Meowth admitted.
Raikou looked around with its red eyes reflecting its savage state of mind, growling and roaring, trying to find Tails.
Tails saved it the trouble by revealing himself.
"Raikou. It's me. Please stop. This isn't you!"
Raikou growled revealing its saber teeth.
"You're being controlled. This isn't you" Tails repeated "you wouldn't ever hurt pokemon. You defend them remember?"
Raikou stop for a moment before unleashing a thunderbolt that Tails barely dodged.
Something about this encounter felt familiar to Raikou. Not just a feeling of deja vu but everything.
As if it had found itself in this exact moment a lifetime ago.
Little did it know the moment was coming for its past self as it now raced through the fields of Johto, alongside its brethren, with the motorbike of Sabre following, unable to outrun him completely.
"We can't keep running!" it warned Entei and Suicune.
"Then let's take him out!" Entei suggested.
"No!" Suicune vetoed it, unwilling to be seen as a monster again.
Knuckles looked over his shoulder. Sabre and Lara-le wouldn't stop.
He tried desperately to think of any out to this.
He noticed the bell tower of Ecutreak city in the distance.
He got a crazy idea. There was a spot in that place noone had found.
"I know how to outrun them!" he screamed so he could be heard over the loud wind by the beasts and Celebi "get us to the burned tower!"
The beasts were perplexed. Why would Knuckles lead them to the place of their death in their previous life?
Suicune didn't question this for a long turning towards the city. Entei and Raikou soon followed, fully trusting of Knuckles despite the questionable decision.
Arriving outside the city, the motorbike sound still audible behind them, they raced across the rooftops observed by the citizens who were amazed by their appearance.
Sabre on the other hand had trouble keeping up with them in the city. He was forced to turn multiple times, racing through alleys and even almost running over a couple in the middle of the street he used as a shortcut, seemingly ignorant to the fact it was a pedestrian zone.
"Daddy watch out!"
"Don't worry Lara-le! We got it!"
The beasts arrived outside the tower. Knuckles took a deep breath as Sabre would take a few minutes to catch up.
He looked at the ruined tower, wondering if this idea would change anything in the timeline. How would the beasts react once they saw their statue forms?
"One problem at a time" he thought as he was about to tell them to get inside quickly before noticing something strange.
The sign declaring the tower a dangerous area, the one Morty had claimed was there ever since the last time the beasts were spotted before disappearing wasn't there.
Knuckles then made another connection in his mind.
The beasts were gone for 40 years. And he was right now 40 years in the past.
The sound of a motorbike brought him back to reality.
"Inside go!"
The beasts rushed inside, finding themselves in the burned main chamber.
The trapdoor was exactly where Knuckles remembered it was. But his mother's symbol was not there.
With his breathing growing faster, he opened the trapdoor.
"In here! We hide and wait for him to leave!"
The beasts walked through the trapdoor to the basem*nt and Knuckles sealed it shut, making sure it blended perfectly with the floor.
At first Celebi started glowing by using its power to light the absolute darkness around them but Knuckles motioned it to stop. There were probably holes on the walls.
Footsteps were heard above them as rushed steps walked in.
"I know you're in here! Show yourself Celebi!"
Knuckles and the 4 pokemon remained dead quiet.
"I said show yourself!" Sabre screamed taking something heavy and throwing it on the floor which creecked.
Knuckles realized the heavy object landed on the piece of the floor Sonic fell through the first time they came to the tower.
One by one the puzzle pieces began falling neatly in place.
With his eyes used to the darkness, Knuckles looked around finding exactly what he thought.
Nothing.
The statues were not there.
"What do we do?" Raikou growled quietly.
"We have to get out of here" Entei urgently said.
"How? There's only one way out and if we go he will keep coming for Celebi" Suicune reminded them.
"If only I could leave. Another one of my kind would appear somewhere else and he would have to leave" Celebi said via telepathy so Knuckles could also hear it.
"But your temporal aura is not fully recharged" Knuckles said.
"There is another way to recharge it".
"There is?" Suicune asked Celebi surprised.
"But I can't use it. It involves taking the temporal aura of living beings for a long period of time".
"In other words… ours?" Raikou barked shocked.
"Yes".
Knuckles was racking its brain upon hearing this fact.
If his gut was right then he knew the answer to the question he was going to ask Celebi.
"What would happen if you took their temporal aura to restore yourself?"
"They would be frozen in time. Like statues".
That was it. The final piece of the puzzle.
The mystery of the beasts disappearing finally made sense.
Ironically Eusine was right.
Knuckles did know more about it than he was letting on. Just not at that time. But he knew.
Because he was the one who had caused it before.
And now his linear life was leading him to make it happen.
"Do it".
The 4 pokemon looked at him in question.
"Take their temporal aura".
The three beasts barked in shock witn Suicune even stumbling back.
"Didn't you just hear what would happen to them?"
"I knew before you answered".
"How?"
Knuckles took a deep breath. Everything depended on how he would explain the future to the beasts.
"I come from a time where you 3 have been missing for 40 years. My friends and I found you by accident. And by the same accident we freed you from your statue forms. From the first moment you 3 bonded with my 2 friends and my past self… or is it future self… anyway there was an inexplicable connection that led me and my friends to continuously interacting with you 3. Eventually we joined forces to save Johto from a group of very bad people".
The beasts looked at each other in disbelief.
"I know it sounds crazy. But it's the truth. I couldn't understand why it was the case. But now I see it always has been the case and I just needed to discover it by coming here and setting it all in motion. Please. I beg of you to trust me as Celebi trusted me to keep it away from Sabre… from my grandfather".
With the exception of Sabre's footsteps exploring the upper floors of the tower everything fell into silence.
"Celebi?" Suicune looked at the mythical pokemon "if we were to be trapped in those forms… would anything be able to bring us back?"
"Yes. I can link his temporal aura to your statue forms. The moment his future self comes and touches your statue he will release all 3 of you".
"But how do we know he is going to touch the statue?" Entei correctly doubted Celebi, as it was all or nothing in a game of luck.
"I will. Because I already did so before" Knuckles confidently said.
The beasts looked one final time to each other and nodded.
"Do it. Take him home" Suicune nodded.
He then looked at Knuckles.
"You better come and release us" Celebi translated to Knuckles.
Knuckles reached out with his hand.
"Don't worry. I will".
Suicune nodded and pressed its forehead against Knuckles palm, sniffing it in the process.
He wanted to remember the scent. So it could be sure it was Knuckles when they met again.
As the beasts stood opposite Celebi Knuckles remembered something else.
"Wait. Before this happens you need to know. We will not be ready for us to join me and my friends when you awaken. You will need to test us. Watch over us. And when the time is right, and you will know when it's right, you will be called to join us".
The three beasts nodded.
"Alright. Here goes" Celebi said and invoked its power.
A pink glow engulfed the room.
Suicune closed its eyes.
This was probably the biggest leap of faith in the history of leaps of faith.
But somehow it was at peace.
It was sure Knuckles would come.
As the three beasts were slowly having their temporal aura removed, each experienced a vision.
Suicune saw its reunion with Knuckles in that secluded beach in Cianwood in the third person, its battle on mount Tensei with Knuckles… and then further ahead. The two adventuring together, exploring ruins, having the time of their lives.
Entei saw its future battles with Sonic, its soul ablaze with the power it felt shared between Sonic and Raichu. It even saw further ahead, far into the future. He saw the same Raichu, alongside Sonic, battling a kid with a blue jacket with its partner being a blue humanoid pokemon wielding a huge blue shuriken.
But Raikou… Raikou's consciousness went ahead in time by 40 years for a few moments.
The glow stopped and Celebi flew around in excitement, fully recharged.
Knuckles looked over at the beasts.
They had been turned into statues.
"And so destiny begins" he thought.
"Are you sure this was the right move? Freezing all 3? I got too much temporal aura. Maybe we should return… "
"No. It needs to be" Knuckles declared not taking no for an answer.
Celebi looked down with a blank stare.
"Alright. Well since I got to blow some temporal aura off before returning to the time stream normally… do you want to visit any cool place? As a thank you gift?"
Knuckles found the idea very tempting. But he then remembered several other instances in team Sonic's journey that could require intervention.
"How does your time travelling affect your temporal aura?"
"Usually travelling takes my entire aura. But with that much… I might be able to take you to quite a few places before being done. So be careful what you ask for".
"Ok… what if I asked you to take me to the next day right here?"
"Next day? That would take almost no energy".
"Good. Let's start with that".
Celebi was perplexed but obeyed, opening a time ripple and passing through it with Knuckles.
The duo arrived at seemingly the exact same place. Only it was quiet.
The statues of the beasts were right there. Everything was coming together.
Knuckles smiled and walked out of the basem*nt, pushing the huge trapdoor open.
Celebi flew out then Knuckles sealed the door shut and spread dirt all over it, camouflaging it perfectly.
He then took a sharp piece of woods and started carving a weird symbol on the wall.
"What are you doing?" Celebi asked him.
"Making sure my other self finds Suicune and the others when they come".
"But won't anyone else identify the symbol?"
"No. It's my mother's symbol" Knuckles explained finally understanding.
He repeated the process with the entrance to the tower and then had Celebi borrow a piece of paper and a pen from nearby without permission and wrote the message he and his friends found that day before fleeing the scene.
"Alright we're done here. Now get me to the future".
"Excited to reunite with your friends?"
"Not yet".
Celebi was confused when Knuckles asked it to take him to the day he's past self was tortured at the hands of the iron mask marauder.
Before going through the time ripple, Knuckles asked Celebi to use Sonic's temporal aura as a sort of compass so they would appear nearby but not see him.
They found themselves exactly where Knuckles hoped; a few meters away from Sonic walking through the woods.
Knuckles waited for a few seconds before mimicking Tails' voice.
"Sonic help!"
The past Sonic turned in response.
"Tails? Tails!"
"What are you doing? He mustn't see you!" Celebi warned him.
"I know. Follow me!"
The two tailed Sonic for a while as he raced through the woods looking for Tails. After a while Knuckles used his own voice.
"Sonic help us!"
"Are you insane?" Celebi tried to stop him.
"What is going on? Whoever you are quit it!"
"Go there so he can see you and then lead him to where my temporal aura is".
"To you?"
"Yes but my past self! Go!"
Celebi appeared within Raichu's field of view. Raichu touched Sonic with its paw showing him Celebi.
"Sonic this way" Celebi invited him and flew away.
Sonic and Raichu gave chase with Knuckles in close pursuit.
The 4 raced through the woods for about 3 minutes until Celebi hid up in hearing the voices of the marauder battling Tails and Knuckles.
"There they are! Let's go Raichu!"
"Rai rai!" the mouse pokemon cried out as they rushed to battle.
Celebi returned to Knuckles.
"How did you know?"
Knuckles grinned.
"Wait. You lived through this too?"
"Sonic did and told us. I simply came here to make sure if it was me or not".
Celebi was dumbfounded. Its mission wasn't supposed to be this complex.
"Ok. Is that it? Do we go back to the right time now?"
"No. Not yet. Our last two stops were us making sure the timeline is secure. Now I want to go where you offered to take me to visit".
"Ok. Where would that be? Burned tower disaster? Lugia and Ho-oh leaving Ecutreak city?" Celebi took a couple of guesses. Throughout its life those were the two primary reasons Johtonians wanted to time travel.
"No. Green hills. Use Sabre's temporal aura from when he was five".
Celebi was very perplexed now. Why did Knuckles want to go back even further?
"Why then?"
"I have my reasons".
Celebi trusted Knuckles and obeyed. The two went through the time ripple.
The duo found themselves in the woods near a small cottage in the countryside. The town of Green Hills could be seen in the distance.
"Huh. Smaller than I imagined for this era" Knuckles commented.
"Why are we here?"
Knuckles stealthily made his way towards the cottage, followed by a reluctant Celebi.
On the front yard of the house was Sabre, a five year old echidna playing happily though alone.
"Where is the other Celebi?" Knuckles inquired.
"Say what?"
"My grandfather claims he saw a Celebi when he was 5. Today" Knuckles explained before gasping.
Was this his doing too?
"There can't be more than one of me at the same time except for very special circ*mstances" Celebi reminded him.
This confirmed Knuckles' suspicion.
Life could indeed be very cruel.
"Go. Let him see you".
"What?"
"If he doesn't see a Celebi, his life changes. And I am never born".
Celebi knew it to be true. With a heavy heart it flew in front of Sabre.
"Woah no way!" Sabre exclaimed jumping up "Celebi! You are real! I knew it!"
The young Sabre then rushed inside.
"Mommy, Daddy! Celebi is on our front yard!"
The sound of a glass breaking reached Knuckles' ear, causing his eyes to widen.
"What happened?"
More sounds like that could be heard. Sounds of stuff getting smashed.
"I told you not to tell him that story you idiotic woman!"
"Athair please…" a female voice begged him before the sound of punch caused Knuckles to fall back.
Unable to resist the urge, he rushed to the window and cautiously looked inside.
The living room was torn apart. The young Sabre was curled in the corner, hugged by his mother, whom Knuckles vaguely remembered was named Crystal-la.
And in front of them stood a livid Athair the echidna, Knuckles' maternal great grandfather. Holding a belt.
"I will NOT tolerate such disrespect towards the mighty Ho-oh in my own house! You two need to be disciplined!"
"But daddy I'm telling you I saw it" Sabre pleaded before the belt came down on his head.
Knuckles averted his gaze. He felt the urge to throw up.
He didn't even know what to feel. Sadness? Pity? Anger? Compassion? Disgust? All at once?
Unable to take this anymore, Knuckles asked Celebi to take them further ahead by locking onto Knuckles' grandmother, Jenna-lu's temporal aura when she first got together with Sabre.
They arrived at the exact same cottage, again making their way to the window cautiously.
Inside were Athair and Crystal-la, with Sabre introducing his girlfriend, now fiancee, Jenna-lu to them. Knuckles felt so much nostalgia upon seeing his grandmother alive and even felt pity for her. She didn't know what she was getting into.
The echidna family, then sat at a table and after about an hour during which Knuckles was absorbing everything and even felt somewhat jealous that he never got to experience something like that, Crystal-la asked how the two met.
"During my trip to Johto. We met at the Ilex forest" Sabre explained.
"Yeah. To be more precise, Celebi's shrine. Boo here was looking for it and I told him all about it" Jenna-lu joyfully said.
Athair broke the glass he was holding.
"Dear are you ok?"
"Yeah. Small accident. Excuse me for a while" he said and headed to his and Crystal-la's room to change as he had spilled wine all over himself.
Sabre followed him.
Knuckles walked around the house as silently as he could, startling a wild oddish by accident as he could hear the two echidna arguing.
"Why did you do that?! In front of Jenna-lu?!"
Athair didn't reply.
"Answer me father!"
"You will go in there and break the engagement!"
"Say what?!"
"I will not tolerate my daughter-in-law having such disrespectful beliefs!"
"Is this about Celebi?"
"Don't say that word in my house boy!"
"For Ho-oh's sake father! Stop denying it! Celebi is real! And I saw it!"
Athair responded by pushing Sabre to the wall and delivering a devastating punch to his right eye.
"How much more of a disgrace can you possibly be?! Mighty Ho-oh is the supreme being of our world! To even claim a pokemon has the ability to time travel, a power greater than Ho-oh's … it's a sin to even think about it! Mighty Ho-oh saved your grandfather from death you ungrateful bastard child! And what do I ask?! To give it its proper respect!"
"What's going on here?!" Crystal-la and Jenna-lu rushed in, with the latter's presence forcing Athair to release Sabre.
"I'm not disrespectful father. Celebi's existence is not an insult to the power of Ho-oh".
"Sabre I think it's better if we left" Jenna-lu took him by the hand.
"I agree" Athair looked at her with disgust.
Knuckles, outside the house, laid against the wall. He had started to regret coming here. But he had to see this through to the end.
Rushing back to the main entrance, Sabre asked Crystal-la to accompany Jenna-lu to the entrance of the yard as he wanted to talk to Athair alone, echidna to echidna.
"Why are you doing this to me father?"
"Because you're an ungrateful son of a bitch who wouldn't exist without the intervention of mighty Ho-oh".
"Father… I do respect Ho-oh. And I do respect you".
"If you do you will do as I say and dump that disrespectful girl!" Athair shouted that final sentence.
"Please father just give her a chance".
Athair got into Sabre's face.
"Leave my home boy".
Sabre, tears in his eyes relented and followed Jenna-lu outside.
Knuckles followed the two for a while until Sabre sat by a rock, comforted by Jenna-lu.
"Why? Why won't he love me? Why won't he accept me?"
"Baby he does love you. Maybe he is very harsh outside but…"
"No… you don't know him. He will never be convinced… not until I bring him Celebi".
Knuckles and Celebi quietly looked at each other.
It was Athair's abuse that triggered Sabre's obsession with Celebi all along.
"But still…" Knuckles whispered "why did he begin disassociating himself from reality when I came into the picture?"
There was one more stop. The time after he and Sabre met in the past.
With Celebi leading the way the two arrived in the desired time.
Sabre this time was in a hospital.
Having to react quickly, Knuckles put together a disguise to pass off as staff and quietly followed Sabre, hiding Celebi underneath the disguise.
The latter made his way to a room where a clearly terminally ill Athair was lying in a bed.
"Father I'm here".
Athair weakly looked at Sabre.
"What took your sorry ass so long?"
"I was in Johto father".
"You were literally called 2 days ago".
"I know. But I found it father. I found Celebi!"
Athair's look became a mix of disapproval and disappointment.
"And where is it then?"
"It… got away".
Athair spat.
"A disappointment till the very end. Chasing a myth instead of paying respect to the pokemon that is the very reason he is alive".
He grabbed Sabre's wrist with a sudden surge of strength as the cardiogragh started beeping from the sudden increase in heart rate.
"You... are not my son" Athair uttered with the most bitter tone he could muster before involuntarily letting go.
The flatline beep echoed through the room.
"No, no, no! Someone help! My father is dying!" Sabre screamed.
A doctor and 2 nurses rushed to the room, inadvertently dragging Knuckles in, mistaking him for actual staff.
Knuckles, with Celebi squirming in his disguise, could only watch as the doctor and the two nurses tried their best to revive Athair.
But the old echidna had already passed away.
The doctor closed his eyes regretfully.
"I'm so sorry" he told Sabre "there was nothing we could do. His heart gave out".
Sabre knelt, wheezing.
Knuckles observed his grandfather in pity.
As he left the room, and subsequently the hospital, Knuckles searched for a bit until he found a place where he could just collapse and let Celebi back out.
It all finally made sense. Sabre's obsession, his delusions, his breakdowns. All of it.
All along he was but a son seeking his father's love. And that cruel echidna never gave it to him.
"He worshipped Ho-oh as if it were a god" Knuckles muttered, still lying against the wall in an alley.
He allowed himself to recall all of his painful memories of his grandfather under the light of this new discovery.
So many things made so much sense with this new context.
Athair's death was the trigger for Sabre's grasp on reality slipping from time to time. And in those moments he couldn't tell the difference between Knuckles and Locke.
"This is why he thought my father helped Celebi escape with the help of the beasts. He really couldn't tell the difference".
Although the difference between Locke and Knuckles physically was almost non-existent, everyone he had met in his life who knew his father from Green Hills, told him they looked alike but never mixed them up.
Only Sabre did.
"Because in his eyes I didn't steal Celebi from him. I stole his final chance to hear his father tell him he loved him".
The feeling was incredibly bizzare. He couldn't forget the pain he had experienced growing up because of Sabre but it wasn't really his fault.
It was generational trauma.
And there was only one way to end it.
Knuckles used of all his willpower to stand up.
"Hey Celebi?"
"Mm?"
"Do you have any way of sending a message through time?"
Celebi was rather confused.
"I could use your temporal aura to leave behind a message in the form of a spectral version of yourself but why do you ask?"
Knuckles didn't t reply. He was thinking about the content of the message he would leave to his brothers.
As the reality changing decision was being formed in Knuckles' head, the heroes were slowly but steadily turning the tide of the battle. The marauder sent out his scizor and sneasel again, trying to divide the heroes but the presence of Suicune and Entei was keeping the odds even and maybe slightly on the heroes' side.
But Ash was getting worried. As he and Sam climbed on Celebi's armor, looking for a way inside to get to Celebi and reach out to it, he couldn't see Sonic or Tails anywhere.
And worst of all, he didn't have a chance to verify if they were ok or not.
Further away, Raikou and Tails were facing each other, Tails unarmed and without his other pokemon. Raikou, the shadow aura covering its entire body and its eyes red and savage, was preparing to pounce.
"Raikou you need to fight back. You're stronger than this. Please come back" Tails pleaded again to no avail.
Raikou fired a thunderbolt which Tails barely dodged by flying out of the way.
"Remember all our good times Raikou! Our battles, our cuddles! Our adventures!"
Raikou stopped moving allowing the memories to sip in before unleashing a powerful roar and firing discharge.
Tails felt his fur stand up by the unimaginable amount of electricity emitted.
Raikou, lost in its savage state, pounced again while still emitting discharge.
Tails dodged but didn't fly away. Instead he grabbed onto Raikou's fur in determination.
His gloves were burned off as he felt his entire being fried from the inside.
"RAIKOUUUU! PLEAAASEEE!" Tails screamed his lungs out until all air was gone and the electricity kept his muscles from moving to bring in more air.
Raikou roared again without stopping emitting electricity until it met a pair of eyes opposite it.
A pair of familiar eyes.
Raikou's own eyes.
In front of him stood another Raikou.
The shadow Raikou, still using discharge just locked eyes until the other Raikou roared.
"Remember!"
That roar wasn't another Raikou's roar.
It was its own roar.
And then the shadow Raikou remembered what it saw the day it was turned into a statue.
Its consciousness travelled into the future.
Into this exact moment.
It wasn't another Raikou. It was its past self.
The shock of realization allowed the memories to fully invade Raikou's mind as it remembered Tails saving him, their battle against Gary, the two joining forces on mount Tensei, the battle of Goldenrod city, all their cuddles at Cosmo's place, all their missions against poachers.
Forcing itself to stop firing discharge, Raikou roared once again as the shadow aura dissipated and its eyes returned to normal.
The marauder sensed the dark ball he had caught Raikou in shake on his vest before it malfunctioned and broke into two.
"What?! It broke free?!"
Ash and Sam heard those words. They knew Tails had done it.
That meant Celebi too could be saved.
Raikou exhaled trying to calm down. It was back.
Turning to Tails its eyes widened.
The fox's fur was black from all the burns. His gloves had been completely burned off. And worst of all he wasn't moving.
Raikou purred and licked Tails trying to wake him up to no avail.
Refusing to believe what it did, it rushed to find its brethren.
It found them having been cornered by the marauder and the Celebi. Although the Tyranitar and his other two pokemon and gone down, Celebi was just far superior to them all.
Everyone looked at the arriving Raikou before noticing Tails on its back.
The marauder grinned maliciously.
"So the fox perished trying to save its pokemon. How touching. And how pointless".
Raichu, still trapped on Celebi's armor, repeated this in its head in disbelief.
Lightning cracked on its tail.
"Rai" it cried out to Pikachu which was still trying to free it, telling it to get back.
Pikachu did so just in time before a lightning bolt came from inside the woods, striking Raichu and freeing it from the armor after a few seconds.
"Say what?!" the marauder said in shock as Pikachu and the now freed Raichu jumped off the armor.
From inside the armor, Ash and Sam felt the impact of the lightning as they were trying to talk Celebi down. Looking outside from a crack in the armor they saw the same thing.
"Raichu is free!" Sam exclaimed.
"But how?" Ash replied in question.
The battle sounds died down as everyone heard calm but determined steps coming from the woods.
Out walked Sonic. His face nothing more or less than determination, stemming from rage.
His gaze turned to Raikou and the crispy Tails on its back.
Slowly he looked at the marauder again.
"Playtime's over. Let's finish this. Just you and me!"
The marauder from atop his vehicle laughed.
"You don't stand a chance against the power of Celebi hedgehog!"
"I don't have to. Ash and Sam are on it. Now come get me!"
Raichu went to stand next to its trainer.
"Heh. Easy to fight me when I got no pokemon other than Celebi left isn't it?"
"Who said anything about pokemon?" Sonic replied.
Everyone looked at him in question.
"Go help the others Raichu. He is mine and mine alone".
Raichu wanted to object but read its trainers thoughts and nodded.
Sonic then stood against the marauder as his vehicle's tentacles waved around threateningly.
"You really want to play it like this hedgehog?"
Sonic didn't reply. Instead he got down on his knees and pushed against the ground as if he was about to take part in a race.
Raichu's tail crackled with electricity again.
Yellow bolts of lightning also crackled on Sonic's arms and legs towards the ground.
The marauder's eyes widened before having the tentacles of his vehicle grab a huge rock and prepare to throw it at Sonic.
The latter closed his eyes.
"Alright. I can do this".
The lightning bolts crackling on his limbs turned blue.
"I gotta go fast" he said as he raised his eyes to meet the marauders. His green pupils turned blue for a moment.
The marauder threw the boulder.
Right before the boulder slammed into Sonic, he disappeared as a strong wind current struck everyone.
Before the marauder could even process what happened, one of his vehicle's spider legs was slammed with extreme force, causing the entire thing to lose balance and almost fall over.
Everyone watched in awe as Sonic appeared stationary again, having moved faster than sound itself.
"What is this?!" the marauder said in horror.
Sonic grinned before dashing forward again too fast for the naked eye to process.
This time he grabbed two of the machine's tentacles and with the appliance of force so extreme due to the speed it was applied at, he tore them off.
The marauder couldn't comprehend this. Somehow Sonic had acquired a power mirroring his name.
Supersonic speed.
Ash witnessed this in disbelief, remembering Tails' words at that pokemon center right after Sonic's first encounter with Entei.
"He could conceivably become as fast as a pokemon using extreme speed".
And he was right.
"Celebi! Destroy that hedgehog!"
Celebi unleashed a number of vines towards Sonic.
The hedgehog moved once again too fast to see. Hopping on and running in the massive vines he found himself running circles on Celebi's armor.
"Free it! I'm not used to this yet!" Ash heard as an echo from outside, reminding him of his own task.
"Sam help me! Sonic can only buys us so much time" Ash told his time displaced friend.
The two turned back towards Celebi.
"Celebi, we're not your enemies! We're trying to save you! Try to remember!"
"Celebi… you brought me with you here to the future!"
The vibrations on Celebi's armor began getting more uneven as Sonic was slowly losing his balance.
"Celebi" Ash grabbed the sides of the glowing orb Celebi had created around itself "Sonic is fighting for you. The beasts are fighting for you. Our friends are fighting for you. We are fighting for you. Come back to us please!"
Celebi's pupils started dilating and shrinking rapidly as it fought off the control of the dark ball.
Sonic on the outside could feel the armor loosening under his feet. He tripped, falling off the armor but landing on his feet, rubbing against the ground as he slid back facing the marauder again.
The latter was about to attack Sonic again when the dark ball he had caught Celebi in also began to malfunction until it broke in half.
"No!"
The armor collapsed as the free Celebi flew outside using its psychic power to carry Ash and Sam away.
The marauder, livid, turned back to Sonic.
"You and your meddlesome fox friend got in my way for the last time, you blue rat!" he yelled as his vehicle's tentacles flew towards Sonic.
The hedgehog grinned, instinct taking over.
"I'm not a rat! I'm Sonic! Sonic the hedgehog!"
He curled into a ball and started spinning incredibly fast without moving.
The tentacles were repelled, one even breaking.
"What in team rocket it this?!" the marauder stumbled back, falling away from the controls.
"What is he doing?" Sam asked Ash.
The latter could only watch as Sonic, whose body emitted the same blue bolts of lightning for a few moments was launched forward, too fast for the naked eye to see, ramming through the marauder's vehicle, ripping the core out and emerging from the other side with a superhero landing, still grinning.
The vehicle let out some mechanical failure sounds and then toppled sending the marauder to the ground.
Before he could move to escape, Sonic stood over him, causing team rocket's assault hound to cower in fear.
Sonic looked over at Tails' burned body and then to their defeated enemy.
"Give me one good reason not to beat the hell out of you".
The marauder gulped but needn't worry.
"You know what? Never mind. You're wearing the reason" Sonic said before smacking the marauder on the neck, knocking him out.
"Everyone ok?" he turned to the others.
They did seem ok for a moment. The next moment Celebi weakly fell into Sam's arms as its green body began wilting.
"What's happening?" Brock rushed to Sam's side as did the beasts.
"I don't know! Celebi are you ok? Wake up!"
Sonic looked down at the marauder's vest, at the dark balls.
"The dark ball must have had a corrosive effect on Celebi. Entei here!"
Entei rushed to its trainer's side as Sonic put the marauder on Entei's back with a lot of effort before riding the beast.
"We got to get Celebi and Tails to the lake of life quick!"
Everyone rushed to the lake only to find it tainted and dirty.
"What happened here?" Ash immediately questioned.
"Celebi's power affected the forest. The lake got dirty because of the corrupted power" Cosmo correctly assumed.
"What now? How do we heal Celebi?" Sam urgently asked.
Sonic took a moment to think before remembering something Knuckles had once said about Suicune during one of their lazy days after the battle of Goldenrod city.
"Suicune. Please purify the water quick".
Suicune nodded and raced over the polluted surface, slowly clearing the water and turning it back to a bright blue.
As soon as Suicune was done, Ash and Sam placed Celebi in the water, while Sonic did the same with Tails.
With the lake's water glowing, Tails' fur slowly began returning to its normal color as the fox opened his eyes weakly before jolting up.
"Raikou!"
The beast of thunder rushed to its trainer's side, licking and rubbing against Tails, who was relieved Raikou was ok. He looked to Sonic with question but the hedgehog just nodded, assuring his friend he would tell him everything when it was all over.
"It's not working" Ash's voice made them both turn.
Sonic and Tails both saw the still wilted body of Celebi, safely stashed in Sam's arms, not being healed by the lake.
Sonic's heart shattered at the realization.
"We're too late" he uttered.
"No! We're not! We'll keep trying. See? These are those berries we found in the forest. Here you go. That's OK. Uh, Celebi?"
But the time travel pokemon still didn't move.
"CELEBI, YOU CAN'T DIE!" Ash screamed his lungs out to no avail.
Sam knelt inside the water.
"Celebi didn't do anything wrong. It was a human being who forced Celebi to destroy the forest. Celebi never even had a choice. And now… it can't have a choice. Now it's too late to choose 'cause Celebi is gonna die!" Sam said sobbing.
Sonic and Tails were also sobbing. Suicune with them.
Knuckles was now lost in time. There was no getting him back.
The treetops suddenly started emitting a blueish glow.
"Again?!" Tails yelled in shock.
"The voice of the forest" Cosmo uttered in disbelief, instinctively grabbing Tails' hand.
"How can this be?" Sonic was taking the sight in "Celebi is dead!"
A golden light appeared as soon as the blueish glow englufed them.
From the light came out countless Celebis, all flying around the group of trainers.
"Tails… pinch me so that I can wake up" Sonic had now seen it all.
"I'm the one who needs the wake-up here. This is totally impossible! Those Celebis have to be, at least some of them, different time versions of the same being. The timelines should normally be ruined and yet…"
The other Celebis all started using heal bell to heal the forest as well as the fallen Celebi.
The combined usage of heal bell, with a small bit of temporal aura from all the other Celebis restored and revived the wilted Celebi that flew amongst its kind in joy.
The group of trainers as well as the beasts were all amazed at the sight. It was a once in a lifetime event.
The other Celebis then created the golden light again and started flying into it, each returning in its own time.
Celebi flew back down to meet Ash and Sam. They knew what was to come now.
"Celebi is going home. And now would be my chance to follow it home" Sam said before crossing eyes with Sonic "if there was a choice to make here".
The hedgehog nodded. That was how it had to be.
Ash surprisingly, was smiling.
"Looks like you're goin' home, Sam".
"Yeah, I guess so".
"Don't worry. It won't matter… 'cause wherever you are, or whenever you are—heh—we'll always be friends".
"Thank you, Ash. You're a great friend. Thank you all for everything. Maybe I'll see you again…someday!"
"I know we will! I'll see you!"
"Good-bye!" Sam waved at the group as Celebi took him into the golden light, which then disappeared in a huge flash.
Everyone covered their eyes. When the flash was gone Sonic looked forward in anticipation and hope.
"Sonic".
It was Knuckles' voice.
Sonic and Tails looked up and saw their brother looking at them.
Suicune barked and dashed to get to its trainer.
But the North wind literally ran through Knuckles to everyone's confusion.
"What the?!" Ash stumbled back in shock.
Suicune tried rubbing its head against the echidna only to again walk right through him.
"This isn't Knuckles" Tails surmised.
"Sonic… Tails... my friends, my brothers… if you're hearing this then my plan is taking place in this exact moment".
"Plan?" Sonic and Tails exchanged a worried look.
"During my stay in the past, I discovered a lot. And more specifically about my grandfather".
"They interacted" Tails whispered "and somehow the timeline is still intact".
The projection of Knuckles then continued.
"Growing up, I always believed the worst that can happen to one is if they grew up without parents. But Sabre… no… my grandpa grew up with a father who never loved him… it was he who created the generational trauma of my family".
Sonic and Tails remained silent trying to process the news as well as what Knuckles meant.
"My grandpa didn't deserve to suffer as he did. And I can't return to you. Not before trying to put him on a different path. If… this is the last time we talk… thank you both. For everything. For all the brotherhood, all the fun and hard moments and especially for this grand adventure we had in Johto. Farewell".
Just as the farewell was spoken, Sonic connected the dots in his head.
"No Knuckles no!"
But the projection disappeared. Sonic knelt, unable to handle the realization.
"You ok?" Tails rushed to his side followed by Ash.
Sonic looked at them, first Ash and then Tails.
"He is going to try and change everything".
"What do you mean?" Tails asked him.
"Knuckles said he wants to put his grandfather on a different path. For him to be able to contact us, whatever that way was, he found a Celebi in the past".
Tails now too connected the dots.
"He's going to offer it to his grandfather!"
"Yes. And his grandfather could use its power".
Ash also reached the conclusion.
"And if that were to happen".
Sonic looked at Raichu and Entei.
"All this… will be undone".
The realization hit the rest of the group as soon as they saw Sonic looking at his two pokemon with sadness. Cosmo rushed and hugged Tails, the fear of an imminent separation taking over her entire being.
Just as Knuckles' projection told them, the real one arrived at the present in Green Hills.
To his shock, the home he had grown up in was reduced to rubble. And to his even greater shock, he could see Sabre in the distance, sleeping in a cardboard box.
Knuckles waved his head to remind himself why he was here. Whatever reason his old home was destroyed it didn't matter. It could be fixed.
But it would all be up to Sabre.
He took a deep breath.
"Are you sure?" Celebi asked him telepathically.
"I have to do this. He is my grandpa. I need to try and save him".
With decisive steps, Knuckles walked to the house's ruins.
"When I tell you, you reveal yourself" Knuckles instructed Celebi.
Sabre's body moved at the sound of Knuckles' footsteps.
"Who goes there?" he asked weakly.
Knuckles didn't expect it to be that hard. That was the same person who had made his life miserable until he met his brothers.
"Hello. Grandfather".
Sabre's face twisted in confusion as he was not fully associated with reality in the moment.
"The son of Locke. What are you doing here…? Did you come to finish what you started the day Jenna-lu died?"
Knuckles looked at the poorly dressed, obviously drunk, pathetic old echinda in front of him. He searched inside and despite pain from his past found only the desire to forgive.
"No. I came to end your suffering".
Sabre scowled.
"Then go ahead and do it. You took everything from me anyway. What more have I got to lose? My home? Gone! My family! Gone! Celebi?! Gon…"
Knuckles whistled the moment Sabre spoke the word Celebi.
The mythical pokemon emerged from behind him, causing Sabre to gasp.
"C-Celebi… after all this time… how did you…?"
"How doesn't matter. This is your life's desire isn't it? It's yours. Yours to do with as you please".
Sabre struggled to get up, his old body weak from all the drinking.
"As I wish? I can… go back?"
"Yes. You can go back. Erase your mistakes. Be with my grandmother and mother again. Your life can be just as you envisioned it".
Sabre looked at Celebi with longing. In the pink pokemon's power laid the promise of a reunion with Jenna-lu the love of his life and Lara-le, his little girl.
And of course…
"I love you son" the imaginary voice if Athair rang inside Sabre's head.
But before he completely submerged himself in this daydream, he realized something.
"What's the catch?"
"Catch?" Knuckles slightly tilted his head in question.
"What is your price for using Celebi's power? That I can't change anything before my little girl met your pervert father?!"
Knuckles took another deep breath. He forced himself to remember what he saw in the past.
"There is no catch grandfather. Celebi will do your bidding without any strings attached. You can have the life you always wanted".
Sabre was now perplexed.
"Don't you know what's going to happen if I do what you suggest I do?"
"I'm well aware".
"You will be erased from existence you moron! Don't you realize that?!"
"I do".
Sabre tried to approach Knuckles, stumbling as he did. Knuckles grabbed him to keep him from falling.
"What… what game are you playing son of Locke?"
"No game grandfather. As I said. I just want to end your suffering".
Sabre couldn't wrap his mind around what he was hearing.
"What do you care about my suffering? It is you who caused it".
"No. That was your own father. Athair".
Sabre gasped. Knuckles knew his great grandfather's name but Sabre never allowed it to be spoken in their home.
"I know how Athair treated you grandfather. He made your life miserable and all you ever wanted was his love. Now you can have it. Celebi will grant you that".
Sabre was flirting with insanity.
"Why? Why would you risk your own existence for me?"
"Because. Everyone I met in my path thus far blessed me. My mother gave me life. My father gave me a path to follow, his passion for the ancient past. My grandmother… my second mother, gave me all I would need to survive. And after them… my two brothers, Sonic and Tails. They gave me the love that kept being taken away from me" Knuckles teared up as he spoke of his friends.
"I focused on the past. On the pain you inflicted on me for a very long time. But through everyone's love I learned to let go. And when I found out you were never the cause of my pain… I couldn't let you continue to suffer. For all you did to our family Sabre… you are my grandfather. And I want to forgive you for everything".
For the first time in Knuckles' life, Sabre looked at him in a different light. He no longer saw the son of a perverted older man who eyed children.
He saw his little girl's kindness in Knuckles. Her unending desire to reconnect with him, to be a family again.
In Sabre's mind all of his memories of his daughter and his son-in-law replayed and he realized how much his daughter truly loved him and how much Locke had tried to earn his respect and prove he loved Lara-le.
And then Jenna-lu. He remembered all of the times she supported him and was there for him when he chased Celebi, how she had tried so many times to show him he was loved and the selfless act of taking Knuckles in despite knowing what an effect he had on Sabre.
He saw it all manifest in his grandson, who came back after 2 years, offering to give up his entire existence so Sabre could hear a singular 'I love you' from someone who was supposed to do that no matter what.
Tears run down the old echidna's cheeks as the emotions rampaged inside him.
"What have I done? Oh my beautiful daughter, my love! I ruined everything!" he yelled out as he sobbed, only now truly understanding what he gave up in pursuit of Athair's love.
He felt Knuckles' massive palms wrap around him.
"They never stopped loving you grandfather. Wherever they are, they are happy and they have forgiven you for everything. And they wouldn't want you to continue living like this".
Sabre looked up to Knuckles.
"It's too late for me Knuckles. My life is already ruined. I have nothing left".
"You're wrong. You still have me. And I'm not going anywhere. Not if you make this choice. Because it's never too late to make another choice. Even if that choice buys you only a moment of happiness… it's still worth making. I know that first hand".
Sabre buried himself in Knuckles' embrace, feeling the ghost of his father disappearing from within, his entire being only now filled with newfound love for his grandchild.
After the emotional release, the two echidnas stood up.
"So… what now?"
"Now I have to return to my friends. They're waiting for me in Johto. But have no worries grandfather. We will be back after the upcoming Johto league. And when we do, we will help you rebuild our home".
"You'd do that? Even your friends?"
"They will need some convincing first but I believe they will. They are the best" Knuckles smiled proud of them "in the meantime, come with me".
Following his grandson, the two echidnas walked all the way to Green Hills, reaching Sonic's place.
Knuckles knocked on the door. Jet opened.
"Woah! Knuckles?! You guys are back?!"
"Not exactly. It's a long story but I need to ask a big favor of your parents".
Sonic and Jet's mother came on que.
"Knuckles what a surprise. Is Sonic with you?"
"No Ma'm. I'm here alone and I hate to ask but… this is my grandfather Sabre. His home has been destroyed recently, not sure by what. I hate to ask but… could he stay with you for a while, until me and the others return and help rebuild it?"
"We'll do more than that. Honey!" she yelled towards the inside of the house "didn't you say Cyrus was in town?"
"He is why?" Sonic and Jet's father replied.
"I think we should cash in that favor he owes us".
"Ok. What should he have the company do then?"
"Help rebuild a house. I'll give you address in a bit" she said and turned to invite Sabre in who was at a loss for words.
"Come in Mr Sabre. Have no worries. Your house will be restored in about two weeks".
Sabre graciously thanked Mrs the hedgehog and stepped through the door. Before walking in further he turned to Knuckles.
"You have indeed found two brothers if they are anything like these people".
"I know" Knuckles said with a smile.
The two echidnas then nodded and Sabre followed Sonic and Jet's mother in the house.
Jet turned to Knuckles.
"What'd I miss here?"
Knuckles chuckled.
"A lot. Give me a couple of hours to meet with Sonic and Tails and then give us a call. I have a loooot to tell you all".
Intrigued, Jet nodded and then went back inside the house.
Leaving the city, Knuckles found a quiet place to bring Celebi back out.
"Well guess everything turned out fine".
"It did. Do you have enough temporal aura to take me to my friends?"
"There will be no need for temporal aura for that. You will only be travelling through space since time period doesn't change".
"Then thank you. For everything".
Celebi nodded and opened a time ripple.
The other end of the ripple opened by the lake of life, where everyone was waiting defeated, expecting reality to change and them with it any second.
"Look!" Brock pointed.
"A time ripple!" Tails immediately identified it.
Out of the time ripple walked Knuckles.
"KNUCKLES!" Sonic and Tails both shouted before rushing in to crush his spine with a hug.
"What were you thinking you red idiot?" Sonic asked him, his voice showing concern rather than sarcasm.
"You will understand" Knuckles assured him as he greeted Cosmo and Ash's squad.
Celebi looked on at the reunion through the time ripple with a smile as it closed.
Celebi then proceeded to open another ripple, but this time not to another time period.
Celebi passed through the ripple and found itself in a dimension filled with nothing but darkness.
"Here we are. The temporal dimension".
In front of Celebi stood a massive quadruped pokemon. Celebi bowed its head once the being acknowledged its presence.
"I did as you ordered. Master Dialga".
Dialga, the pokemon god of time, nodded.
"Good. Very good my agent. Now there is just one final mission for you".
"Yes master Dialga".
Dialga used its power to open a portal to an unknown time.
"In lies your final mission".
Celebi bowed to Dialga and flew through the portal finding himself in its shrine at Ilex forest.
The sound of foosteps immediately reached it as it came face to face with Sonic the hedgehog and his Raichu.
Sonic grinned.
"Shiny Celebi. Just as I planned. Raichu you ready?!"
"Rai rai!" Raichu cried out as it charged into battle against their target.
