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"If you're seeing this, I don't exist anymore."
The girl on the screen pauses and just for a single moment, takes in a small shuddering breath. Her dyed blue hair is striking against the dim cave wall she's leaning against, moving lightly with each breath she takes. She clutches at her right arm, closes her eyes, and forces out a steady voice. She doesn't open her eyes again.
"And that terrifies me."
It certainly wasn't what any of them were expecting, upon the completion of the Pokédex. Professor Oak especially looked confused, seeing as the only thing he had programmed into the Pokédex was a certificate of completion.
Certainly not...a video of a crying girl. Especially not one who was familiar enough with the Pokédex to record video on it, when the only six Pokédexes he could recall being given out in Kanto and Johto were to Red, Blue, and Leaf, aside from the three people standing in front of him. Samuel Oak looked around at the three children in front of him, now teenagers in their own right, after many years of growth and journeys together.
They all looked confused.
He took the Pokédex out of Lyra's hands and tried to shut it down, confused by this unexpected development, but the Pokédex kept playing the video despite his efforts.
The girl continued talking.
"It's March 24, 20XX. At least, it is for me when I'm recording this. Silver, I....I don't know how to even do this. I know you're not here. Mew....Mew said it'd try its best to send these over to...to where you will be, but it couldn't guarantee anything. I don't know if there'll be anything left of me there."
The girl on screen fidgets with her necklace, a dull worn out pink just barely visible off the screen.
"I don't want to do this," she whispers. "But Mew said it wasn't powerful enough to sustain the timeline, and eventually we'd all decay and fade away. In the new universe, Mew said, there would be a God Pokémon powerful enough to sustain the universe and timelines. But that Pokémon doesn't exist here, so this timeline can't live on. And Mom...and you...and everyone else. Everything would be better there."
Saying this, the girl's closed eyelids quiver, despite holding her sitting posture steady. She blows out a small breath from her mouth. Like she's calming herself down.
"But Mew doesn't have the full power to tear down the universe so it can start anew."
Silver has no idea who this girl is or what she's talking about. Today's date is March 24, 20XX, but this couldn't possibly have been recorded today, since Lyra's had the Pokédex for six years already. She's his age, he can tell, but wracking his brain gives him no idea who this girl is. It appears she knows him though, and although Ethan and Lyra are staring at him in shock, he can do nothing but return their surprised faces back at him.
He gives a confused shoulder shrug back, turning his eyes towards the screen.
The girl he knows he doesn't know still haunts the screen.
"Take care of Mom for me, okay? If I'm not there. Not that she'll really need you. If what Mew says is correct, she'll...." the girl trails off again.
It appears to be a habit, like she is expending every last bit of energy to focus on these words. Like she doesn't know what to say.
"She'll have a new d...a new daughter," she manages out, obviously a thought infinitely hurtful to her. "One that's nicer, one that treats her well, one that's even more accomplished. I finished the Pokédex but...what's the use if this is a dead end? That new girl....she'll be in a world of infinite happiness and possibilities. With Mom. And Mew...Mew said that you'll have new people who are important to you. That girl who replaces me and... someone else, even. Two kids our age, who'll both have a Pokédex and journey with you. You'll steal a Pokédex and starter from Oak again and everything. I wish I could meet them with you. I wish I had more time with you."
The girl on screen opens her eyes just the tiniest bit, and tears spill out from the small opening they've been granted.
She shuts them again, like a cloth slapped over a hole in a dam.
Lyra's not a dumb gal--she knows the implications before Ethan and Silver can even start to wrap their minds around it. From the moment the girl on the screen mentioned the date, she had realized that this wasn't some normal timeline shenanigans. In fact, from her theology knowledge, there were legends of Pokémon with indescribable power who could control time and space that were discovered in Sinnoh. She wouldn't be surprised if something like that was happening.
But still, everything adds up to a strange answer. There is a girl on the screen. Her videos are recorded on Lyra's Pokédex. Her accurate prediction of two people who would end up journeying with Silver. Her premonition that she would be replaced, fully and entirely, by another girl. There was no other logical conclusion other than Lyra was the one who was chosen to replace her.
Lyra wished she could ask Mew what was going on; Mew had allowed itself, for a brief moment, to be captured by the trio for the Pokédex many years ago. It didn't feel right, however, to keep Mew trapped in a Pokéball when such horrible things had been done to it already. So the three of them had released it and watched it go off into the distance, never to be trapped by humanity again.
But she wonders if Mew were here, what it'd tell her.
Glancing at the two boys next to her, who are clearly confused, and at the professor, who seems deep in thought, Lyra clutches at the Pokédex tighter. Should this be something they should even be watching?
"This new girl....I shouldn't blame her. But it's hard to think that she'll get all the happiness, all the love from my mom and you, in the new world and sacrifice nothing for it."
The girl on the screen twists her mouth bitterly. Fidgets again with the pink thing on her necklace, just slightly off screen.
"But hey, it's what you all deserve. Everyone deserves happiness, the chance to go on. Deserves someone better, someone who brings more joy," she mutters before stopping for an extended period of time. "But what did I do to deserve this? Why...why did the universe say "Kris must suffer?" How am I meant to be okay with this?"
So her name was Kris, Ethan surmises. Doesn't know how it's spelt. (He thinks it's short for Christine; not that he'd have any way of knowing.)
She looks, upon closer inspection, superficially like Lyra. Her hair is tied up in two twintails, but the texture of her hair is different, jagged instead of Lyra's soft hair. Instead of Lyra's femme attire, Kris's is more practical for fieldwork. And the two have different eye colors, from what Ethan can tell in the brief moments the girl on the screen opened her eyes.
Most of all, he notices how differently Kris held herself. It's with a certain resignation; one that Lyra definitely doesn't have. Lyra always has the bounce of someone who has inherent faith in herself, a naive yet reasonable attitude towards self-love. Kris, while she appears to be confident, holds herself much more quietly. Like someone who knows true confidence is knowing which hardships you can't endure.
Kris, he surmises, probably was talented. She must've been, if she was the only one in Johto to have legitimately been given a Pokédex. Silver must've stolen a Pokédex in her timeline too, and Ethan almost snorts due to how unsurprised he is. He glances at the aforementioned former thief, who is holding himself stiffly in a way that indicates that he doesn't want anything to do with this.
But he hasn't run away yet, Ethan thinks fondly.
So much has changed since they first started.
"But there's nothing I can do. I can't just watch everyone just...distort and decay. I saw you freeze in time yesterday, Silver. You looked like you were pained."
There's the cry of Mew just off the screen. Kris turns her head towards where the noise is coming from, lowering the Pokédex slightly while her focus is on Mew. She stands up and the screen orients to a view of the ground, shaky and nothing but brown dirt and the occasional clip of sneakers clipping into screen as the girl walks.
As she continues to walk, however, brief glimpses of snow and ice appear on screen. She eventually stops on an intricate section of cave floor, with delineated, artistic lines in blue.
"Wait! How do I pause this, how do I pause this!? "
Lyra grabs onto Ethan's arm, grabbing at his sleeve, glancing hurriedly around at Professor Oak and Silver, who both don't have any idea how to perform her request. Luckily, although Ethan looks startled at the sudden grab, the boy reacts quickly enough and peers at the screen closely.
"Oh wait maybe it's this," Ethan says. He then presses the B button, and the screen flashes and the video diary closes. The four people in the room all share a brief millisecond of silence before it's broken.
"ETHAN! What did you do!?" Lyra screams, shaking the Pokédex with her eyes wide.
"I-I don't know! Here, let's try hitting the button again!" Ethan shouts back, finger trembling as he wavers between the decision to press the button or not.
Thankfully, the video pops up again, paused.
There's a collective sigh of relief, but the largest sigh of relief is from Lyra, whose eyes are glued to the screen, intricately retracing the lines.
"I swear, I think I've seen this before! Ethan, you know how you had to ring the bells in order to summon Ho-Oh right?"
"Yeah. This doesn't look like the Bell Tower though."
"No! That's not what I mean! I mean, when you handed me that Azure flute and I played it, I ended up somewhere that looked like this! It was off the map of Johto and Kanto, but it seemed connected to Sinnoh and I saw Arceus there!"
Ethan blinked.
"So that's where you saw Arceus?"
Lyra nodded fervently.
"Yeah! It was like, this triangle on the ground with different colored corners. That looks like where she is now!"
"Mew, do I stand in the middle?" The video continued, with a distant chime of agreement from Mew. The Pokédex camera was reoriented to span across the cave, where ice surrounded a large summoning triangle drawn on the ground, intricate. "This little pocket dimension that you've opened up, you're sure is where we have to be? This is where that new Pokémon will awake in?"
Another twinkling affirmation from Mew.
"Alright. Guess it's time then."
On screen, the girl took out various things from her bag. A handful of rations, some Pokéballs, a first aid kit. She put all of them back in the bag, before taking out a final item.
A knife.
Silver tensed up a little. He glanced around at the others, who were nervous and most likely wondering what she was going to do with it. His breath out was terse, small.
Although he had no doubt what was going to happen, it shocked him that the girl on screen would have it. He could never imagine Ethan or Lyra carrying that preemptively; how this girl, who claimed to have existed with him, would be a person like that, he couldn't reconcile with the current friends he had.
He almost couldn't believe that he knew what was likely going to happen next.
"Mew, I'm scared."
There was no response from the Pokémon. The camera angle of the Pokédex now showed no bit of the girl, instead only showing the cave in front of her, symbolic of the world that would exist soon. To go forward, without the past. Without her.
"Agh!"
A shout that occurred simultaneously with a crunch, but then followed by small whimpering.
"Mew, tell me I'm right. T-tell me that they'll be happy, please," followed by painful crunching and wheezing. The sound of things dropping to the ground, some that were light pinks, and one that was a heavy thud. "They loved me as much as I loved them, please...please."
"Mew? A-are you gone? Already?"
"M-Mew?"
Sobbing.
And then it quiets down for a long time, camera still rolling.
"I...think we should maybe turn this off, kids," Professor Oak says with a low, stern voice.
The kids can't look away from the screen. As an adult, he needs to step in. Lyra is close to crying, breaths irregular and trying to steady her chest. Ethan can't seem to blink, staring at the screen as if he's waiting for something positive to happen. When the professor glances over at Silver, he sees the boy grab at his arm tightly, face lowered to hide emotion.
He moves to take the Pokédex out of Lyra's hands, gently, when there's the sound of crunching footsteps on the Pokédex.
Now all four pairs of eyes stare at the screen.
A small pile of dust kicks up on the air in the far distance.
An echoing sound.
An endless, shimmering light that was too bright to distinguish, a booming cry that entered the room.
LET THERE BE LIGHT
When Lyra goes back home, it's hard to pretend that nothing's happened. When she sees her mom, she hugs her hard--but she can't shake the feeling that she doesn't deserve it. She stays in bed the rest of the day, giving the excuse that now that she's finished the Pokédex, her fatigue's caught up and she needs a good nap.
Her group chat with Silver and Ethan is suspiciously quiet.
She doesn't know when they'll be able to talk about it again; it seems all so big. But time goes on, like nothing happened--and really, nothing has. It happened in a different time; not this time, so it goes on.
But they don't know what to do with that knowledge.
A week later, when they all gather near Goldenrod City to meet up with Whitney for a stroll through the mall, Silver receives a call on his Pokégear. He's sitting down on a bench with Lyra and Ethan, who are tuckered out from Whitney's extreme enthusiasm for "all products cute!"
Whitney, thankfully, has been called back to the gym for impromptu leader duties, since it is during the workday after all. The three of them catch their breath in silence. The mall excursion was a wonderful way to distract themselves, but now that it's the three of them by themselves again, it's hard to exactly voice what's going on through their heads.
The Pokégear keeps ringing, and Silver looks at the caller ID and sees that it's Professor Elm.
Odd.
He picks up. Doesn't say anything, but hpmh's into the phone to let Elm know he's listening.
And suddenly, it seems like time stops.
"Today on the news: an unresponsive stab wound victim suffering from hypothermia and blood found within the Ruins of Alph by a hiker! Paramedics immediately took her away, but circumstances surrounding this crime has been murky. Here we have an interview with the hiker from New Bark Town who found her...."
When Lyra, Ethan, and Silver rush into Elm's lab, the poor professor is busy fending off news-reporters. The inside of the laboratory is darkened--the paparazzi and anyone looking from the outside can't see a thing. The three of them barge through the crowd, Silver elbowing them aside while Ethan apologizes profusely for Silver's impoliteness. When they get to Elm, the man contorts his body to let the three in.
"Oak'll be here soon," he calls back, before wincing, as the crowd of paparazzi go "Professor Oak is connected to this brutal crime?"
Lyra quickly pieces together that Professor Oak probably told Professor Elm about the diary videos right after it happened, although there's no time to ask about that right now.
Lyra trips and Silver throws an arm out, stopping Lyra and Ethan from progressing further, as their eyes get used to the dark. Judging by the scowl on his face and his determined gaze ahead, Lyra doesn't know if he's protecting them from fumbling around in the dark, or if he's protecting them from something they don't want to see.
Two nurses shuffle around the laboratory, various medical supplies strewn about the floor as a makeshift hospital. Three teenagers stand still amongst the noise, watching them from ten feet away.
The television in the laboratory is broadcasting the news, the unnatural glow silhouetting the figure of someone crumpled on the floor, barely breathing, her hair almost neon blue with the artificial light.