The dimly lit space of the distortion world looms and stretches out into eternity. Its dark skies separate themselves from the ground by emptiness. Only the enormous stalagmites stretching into the darkness above filled the otherwise barren expanse. However, in one space, Gods make their presence felt. A court. With stalagmites used as construction material, bent by the overwhelming power of the goddess of space, Palkia herself. An entire compound had been created, a towering pedestal ascended into the sky far above the ground below. This is the location of the god court.

The buildings surrounding the outer rim of the leveled top were designed specifically to house the most brutal and powerful criminals. Each of the prisoners had the power to destroy the fabric of reality if they had the chance to escape. Luckily, the entirety of the compound was made of distortion material which can only be moved, destroyed, or created by Arceus, Dialga, Palkia, or Giratina.

All of the gods are now in attendance with their audience of Time Keepers. Thousands of Celebi take their place atop of the massive platform awaiting the judgment of one of their own. The deep glow of red eyes held by the gods looked over the writhing crowd of pokémon. They were silent. Waiting. Watching.

Out of the back, opposite of the gods and directly behind the crowd of Celebi, one makes his approach toward the stands. The mile long distance between him and Arceus was almost over. He was shackled… his hands cuffed; his feet bound and wings clamped together. Across his teal chest were distortion chains, combined with the other bindings, he was trapped. They bound him to this dimension. For he was a criminal, charged with the ultimate offense… The imminent destruction of reality itself.

The walk was almost over; the incarcerated hung his head low as he dragged the heavy chains along the ground. As he passed by, the other Celebi moved around him allowing him passage to where his fate was to be determined, some even spitting in his path. He was also a Celebi, one of them. A Time Keeper. Charged with the duty of protecting the timeline from its unstable form. Protecting history, and stopping rouge time travelers. His blue skin and red eyes were the only thing that separated him from the other Celebi. A genetic mutation. One that the race thought had been eradicated a long time ago.

The blue Celebi finally came to the stand and stood before the four most powerful beings in existence. Palkia, the god of space and dimensions. Dialga, the god of time and age. Giratina, the god of life and death. And Arceus, the god of creation. “Dialga… Since the circumstances of this crime fall under the jurisdiction of your ‘Time Keepers’ you have the floor.” Arceus said in his booming voice. The sound echoed throughout the Distortion word for all to hear.

Dialga stepped forward, his powers governing time completely obvious as his after image trailed his ever movement. “Crystal!!” Dialga’s voice resounded with a preceding echo as if time itself knew the events that were to be unraveled before it even happened. “You have been convicted of a most terrible crime! The destruction of time!” A wave of gasps went through the crowd of Celebi as the nature of the crime was reviled. “You have violated the honor of the Time Keeper’s code and tore open a hole in the fabric of reality that threatens to consume everything, until nothing is left!!” Crystal hung his head lower to the ground until his antennae tapped against the cold stone. His chains were heavy, but his guilt and grief were heavier. He was regretful of the outcome, but not the reasons behind his crime.

“You stand there, accused of this crime… How do you plead?” Dialga’s opening statement had come to an end. Now it was the Celebi’s turn to voice his case.

Crystal held up his head for the first time since his capture. He hadn’t gotten a chance to speak in over three years, but now… his story can be told. He looked to the gods with defiance in his blazing red eyed stare. “You… Hold us accountable… For crimes that we could not possibly know we were to commit. Everyone here; we all know what this power is like! All of the information in the universe is never enough... Even the thoughts and history of the world flowing through our minds whenever we make that jump… IT’S NEVER ENOUGH!”

Dialga narrowed his eyes at the statement, leaning in closer to hear the next part. “How can we possibly know?... How can we be certain that something like this will never happen to us? Time… TIME IS NEVER CONSTANT!! NEVER PREDICTABLE!” Upon releasing that outburst, a rush of time energy blasted from Crystal’s center. In the real world, it would have caused centuries, millennia even to pass by in an instant within that pocket of space, but in the distortion world time travel is irrelevant. Never the less, Dialga, and the other gods took it as a threat and instantly subdued the blue Celebi within a psychic sphere.

“I’ll ask you again Crystal… How do you plead?” Dialga said in a low grumble, his anger building. Crystal took a long pause from within the sphere weighing his options. “I’ll tell you… after you hear my side of the story…”

“Grrrrr!! Your insolence knows no bounds!!” Giratina’s raspy, disembodied voice echoed throughout the dimension from all directions. “We do not care about your side! We see the aftermath, and that is all that mat-”

“NO!” Palkia cut him off. “I for one need to hear this in order to make a fair judgement.”

“Crystal, you will tell you story. But… it must only contain the truth! The whole truth, and nothing but the truth… Otherwise, you shall be executed on the spot!” Arceus commanded to the Celebi. “And I’ll know if what you speak is lies.” His reaction made Crystal smile. He had been waiting for thirty long years to tell this tale, and now… here was his chance. The last chance. Maybe he could make them all see the futileness of the Time Keepers. Maybe he could bring this whole system down with him now, and undo the damage he caused in the process. Surely Dialga himself could contain that kind of paradox.

“Well then… I guess I should start at the beginning then shouldn’t I?” Crystal stated. The gods released him from the psychic bubble they had trapped him in. “It all started when I was born…”

Crystals statement had earned a wave of groans from the crowd of Time Keepers behind him. Even Dialga had let out an irritated grunt. “In the interest of time, I suggest we move the beginning of this story to the time you were granted your Time Keeper’s abilities.” Palkia spoke in her deceptively soft tone. The Blue Celebi laughed, “Yes… I, suppose that would be a better starting point. I’d hate to make the god of time wait for a few minutes.” He gave a small chuckle to himself knowing he was treading on thin ice with the gods as it is.

“All right then, it all started when I was granted my inherent Time Keeper abilities. Of course, you know my father, Nylus. He was the one who trained me to use my powers…