Iterations

Once stepping into the guild, it only took moments for everyone there to notice something was up. The Breloom kept staring at him with a concerned look, while everyone else tried to not be noticed doing it. They weren’t very good at that.

“So who do we tell all of this to?”

“The Guildmaster for one, and I’d like for Team Acolyte to know about it as well.” Mark didn’t get his sight off the floor during this. “Verm has helped me a lot while you were recovering. The least I can do is to keep him in the loop.”

“Okay. I’ll go get Gren. Simon, you know where Verm’s room is, right? You can let them know to come down.”

“Sure, I can- Wait. You know Verm? Since when?” Rachel gave him a look, and apparently that was enough. “Right, cycles… God, this is confusing…”

And just like that, Mark was alone again. He went to the corner of the lobby, sitting down on one of the cushions. He still hadn’t fully recovered from the mental breakdown he just had, but he wasn’t feeling bad right now. In fact, he wasn’t feeling anything at all. He felt numb, like he wasn’t actually there.

Just a few moments later, he saw everyone gathering around him. Simon, Rachel, Gren, Verm, Siobhan, Dot… And then some more Pokémon that didn’t get called, but still wanted to see what was going on out of concern. On the right, Sanah, Alphonse, Dave, and a fire pig he had never seen before but could assume it was Tyson. On the left, Nikki and Luka, the two girls that tried to be there for him when he was at his lowest. And at the center, along with Gren, the other three staff: Charlie, Lily and Lance.

Mark felt self-conscious at seeing so many people around for this. It was a big deal, but mostly just for him. He felt guilty at seeing all of them around for what was essentially nothing they could help with.

Rachel took center stage. “Well, there are… a couple more Pokémon here that I was expecting. Do we… do we need a recap or…?”

“I think that’d be a good idea.” Gren responded. “I don’t know what this is about but let’s make sure we’re on the same page.”

“Okay.” Rachel took a deep breath before speaking. Her confidence really went down after their trip to Apollo’s Sanctum. And Mark knew why, she didn’t even expect to get out of that place. Judging by how few three’s there were on the wall back there, cycles never seemed to get this far. “So, first things first, we all know that Simon is human, right?” She got a few nods in response. “Okay, well. Mark is a human too.”

That did get some shocks, mostly from the teams that weren’t that close to Mark. He knew that he would have to get some clarifications done, but luckily Rachel did that for him. “We don’t know which legendary sent him here, and he doesn’t remember his past life, just like Simon.” She cleared his throat. “But that is the least important part here. We’re in the middle of something bigger that revolves all around Mark. That’s why I also wanted the Guildmaster to know what is happening.”

“You’re telling us that there being two humans here at once, which are always sent to this world in the event of a global disaster, isn’t the important part?” Alphonse asked.

“Somehow, yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

Rachel took a moment to prepare herself before talking. Mark knew how difficult it was to explain this, so he couldn’t blame her.

“So, you’re not going to believe me when I say this, so I’m asking you beforehand to let me finish and then you can all ask everything you want.” She continued. “We’re all stuck in a time loop. And it all revolves around Mark. It starts when he was sent to this world, and if he dies, the cycle resets. Some Pokémon seem to retain their memory from previous cycles, me included. But some others, like Mark, and I imagine everyone else here, lose their memories when starting again. So for all of you none of this has ever happened before.”

That sentence was met with silence. No one was saying anything.

“Well, you were right, we’re not believing this.” Gren said. “You do understand that what you’re claiming is crazy, right?”

“But she’s right.” Mark didn’t even notice he said that out loud until everyone looked at him. Well, he already talked, might as well continue. “I’ve had some… memories back. Not of my human life, but of past cycles. I can confirm everything she’s saying.”

They still didn’t seem too convinced. “She led us to her hideout, from before getting in the guild. There’s documentation on every cycle so far. Something about phases or whatnot.”

“Right, that’s another thing I should explain. There have been two instances where Mark has been in a certain death scenario. Sometimes, but not always, he defies logic and comes out on top. Due to how he always dies in one of those spots, I’ve called them phases. Phase 1 was up until the fight with Abomasnow. Phase 2 was until our encounter on Apollo’s Sanctum. Now, we’re on Phase 3.”

“You were going to kill him?!” Dave shouted.

“Cycles have variations. Most times, he either kills himself somehow or something different happens. But this time, yeah… I’m not proud to admit it, but I did try to kill him.”

Simon put a paw up while the rest murmured. “Yes, Simon?”

“Has there been any variation where…” He gulped. “Where Rose survived?”

Mark already knew the answer to that. “I… I’m afraid not, Simon. That has always been a constant.”

That hit Simon harder than it probably should have. He slumped down and leaned against Mark, staring down.

Charlie was the next one to speak. “Question. You say we’re on Phase 3, what’s the death that Mark goes through supposed to be? We can probably prevent it if it has happened before.”

“That’s why I’m so nervous now. Phase 3 has always been an attack of a Legendary. Presumably, the one behind all of this…” Wait, so we know the culprit? “But here’s the thing, it’s always a different Legendary.”

“A different one?”

“Let’s see. We fought Ho-Oh, we fought Reshiram, we fought Mewtwo, we fought…”

“Wait, how many cycles have made it to this Phase?”

At that, Rachel sighed. “Five. Out of more than thirteen thousand, only five have made it here. And none have gotten past.”

More silence. Mark didn’t know that part. All of his memories were from before this point. Only five cycles? They had no information, then.

Lance stepped in. “Are you absolutely sure of what you’re saying? Because if this is a joke, it’s in very bad taste.”

“I am sure. If you don’t believe me, you can ask some of the Pokémon in town, or even better, the ones that attacked the guild with Zigg. The main reason they’re attacking is because they’re going insane by keeping their memories after every iteration.”

“Wait.” Simon said. “Is that the reason I’m being targeted so much?”

“Not really, most townsfolk don’t remember anything, and the ones that do are losing their minds too much to plan an attack. Almost every ambush you’ve suffered has been because of them blaming you for random things. But Zigg? He actually believed you were the one behind the cycles.”

“Okay, hold on.” Sanah said, using her vines to massage her head. “If that’s the case, how did the first loop even happen? Did Zigg attack for no reason on the first go?”

“Honestly? Yeah. Back on the first iteration, Zigg and I were acquaintances. He planned an ambush on Simon because, as every other Pokémon in town, he blamed him for his bad life. But doing that, he killed Mark, resetting the cycle. Both of us noticed this, and Zigg thought that it was because he missed his chance to kill Simon. I tried so hard to make him change his mind, but as you can imagine, instead he convinced more Pokémon that knew about the cycles to join him with the sole purpose of killing Simon.”

She pointed at Mark. “As for you, I have no idea how you got here. I have no idea why you’re relevant to this, but you are. And these mysterious moments you get where you defy the impossible are only more proof to me that you are special.”

“What moments?” Nikki asked.

“I’m guessing…” Mark spoke up, still trying to process everything. “I’m guessing she means when I managed to move even when I was under the effects of a Foe-Hold.”

“Correct, and also when we were about to fight, you somehow suddenly remembered everything. I did nothing there, it was all you.”

Lily made some signs. Man, he really should learn sign language, at least for her. Seeing both his and Rachel’s confused face, Charlie translated.

“She says that the worst part is that there’s no real Legendary to connect this to, since you fought different ones every time.”

“I mean…” Simon was nervous. “There’s one that can control time, right…? Even if they’re the ones that brought me here…”

Right. “Dialga.”

Gren seemed to think for a second. “Okay, I can try to figure out where Dialga’s location is right now. It seems way too easy for them to be the one behind this, but maybe we can get some clues.” They turned to him. “You two, you’ve been through a lot lately, and my research is probably going to take some time. So I advise you to take things slow for a while and focus on yourselves. You deserve a break, anyways. Everyone else, don’t investigate on your own, but please do tell me if you find anything.”

With that, Gren seemed to have ended the meeting. Everyone slowly left until only the members of Team Timeless and Team Acolyte were left.

Verm wasn’t saying anything, mostly still trying to process everything.

“Are you okay?” Siobhan asked Mark.

“Yeah, I… I think so.”

They nodded. “We’re gonna go to our room, but feel free to talk to us if you need to vent. Same goes to you, Simon, you know we’re here for you too.”

And so they left, leaving only the three of them. Nobody was saying anything.

‘Just… what am I supposed to do?’