#ilex shrine
Team Neo-Rocket’s final goal is to get to the shrine in the Ilex forest, and summon the legendary Pokémon Celebi!
If you want more information on this project, check out the JohtoorMemories of Kanto tags on the blog.
When you first encounter the Ilex Shine, as you travel from Azalea Town to Goldenrod City, it is being studied by Professor Leaf Orchid. Some of her Pokémon are enjoying the forest and helping her investigate. Her Venusaur, Pidgeot, and pink Azumarill are all puttering around the shrine.
Professor Orchid notes that locals have been reporting some strange occurrences by the shrine, and she has come to investigate. Could they have anything to do with Team Neo-Rocket? Still, it’s nothing for you to worry about right now. She will let you know if anything of import happens.
It isn’t until you’ve chased Team Neo-Rocket out of Mahogany Town that you will need to return to the shrine. Team Neo-Rocket swiped an important artifact from Mahogany Town: The GS Ball. A Pokéball made of gold and silver, with a center latch button made of sparkling crystal, there has been some debate as to the origins and use of the item. It has proven ill-suited for capturing Pokémon, but some legends connect it to Ilex Shrine. Associate Professor Gold confirms that those legends are likely why Team Neo-Rocket would have stolen the GS Ball, and you need to hunt them down before it’s too late!
Sure enough, you will find Dante at the Ilex Shrine. He assures you that you are too late to stop him; once he places the GS Ball in the shrine it will summon Celebi, and allow him to travel back to the past he’s been working so hard to replicate.
The legendary Pokémon Celebi does appear, and grants his wish: Dante is warped back into the past, and you are pulled along with him.
You have now been transported back in time by more than 20 years! The Johto region is a very different place, and Dante is nowhere to be found. Celebi is also entirely absent. Finding Dante may be your only way home!
As you work your way through Ilex forest, a bug catcher to the south will tell you that a strange man did rush past, heading for Azalea Town.
In Azalea town, Dante is arguing with some locals in the Slowpoke Well. The locals, along with Gym Leader Bugsy, are asking why Team Rocket can’t take a hint; Team Rocket’s already been run out of town by a powerful trainer, why would they try and come back? And why only send one member?
When you confront him, Dante flees the town, back toward the forest, but not before insisting that slowpoke tails were never a very lucrative venture, anyway.
When you return to the forest, you run into an unexpectedly familiar face: Indigo, who, according to his account, was the only one brave enough to try and follow you. He promises to keep an eye on Ilex forest while you investigate [whatever’s next].
However, Indigo will not be your only ally. At the northern edge of Ilex Forest you will also find a young trainer from Kanto.
She introduces herself as Leaf. She has recently completed the Kanto gym challenge, and has traveled to Johto to challenge herself. She is hoping to face the powerful trainer traveling Johto, battling the revived Team Rocket, but first she wants to help you defeat Dante, especially since he has threatened her and other trainers. Leaf also asks you questions about this “Team Neo-Rocket” thing that Dante was going on about, and mentions that by traveling back in time you and Dante may have created a new timeline, altering the Pokémon world, if only slightly.
With Leaf’s help you are able to trace Dante’s path through Goldenrod city, where he is attempting to take control of the broadcast tower. However, Team Rocket already has control of the tower. Two grunts are preventing Dante’s access to the tower, with one grunt insisting he can’t enter because he doesn’t have a proper ID number or any of the necessary information, where the other grunt thinks he should be let in, as he’s obviously a member of Team Rocket.
However, he abandons this argument to battle you. Once you defeat him, the grunts no longer have any qualms about removing him from the broadcast tower premises. After all, whether he’s Team Rocket or not, what use is a guy who can’t even defeat a kid in a Pokémon battle?
Outside the station, Leaf helps you force Dante back to the shrine, where Indigo is waiting. However, Dante refuses to use the GS Ball to summon Celebi again. Instead, he wants to help fix Team Rocket’s past failures and create a future where Team Rocket controls all of Kanto and Johto, if not all of the Pokémon world. Leaf informs him that what he wants doesn’t matter, because she has taken the GS Ball from him while he was distracted by your battle. Leaf places the GS Ball on the shrine, and wishes you good luck. She’s sure you’ll meet again. Celebi returns to the shrine, and transports you through time once more.
Standing at the shrine is an old man in a dark coat. The man comments that he recognizes the red “R” on Dante’s breast pocket. It’s a mark of failure, he explains. A mark of mistakes. He asks Celebi why it would show him this, an unfamiliar man making the same mistakes he fought his whole life for. Celebi has no answer, but the man has advice for Dante:
Greed will get you nowhere. It will only leave you isolated, with no company but cold coins or the shadows of hiding. Chasing greed makes you a target for defeat by those who know better. A child, filled with enthusiasm and supported by friends, will always be greater than a man chasing power for power’s sake.
The man explains that no matter how many times he tried, greed always led him back to ruins, and to isolation. The more you follow greed and power, the more pointless it becomes. To repeat the same actions time and again and expect different results is a form of madness. You cannot recreate the past, and you cannot reach true success through greed. He has found no power more potent than the bond of genuine friendship he has managed to make with some of his Pokémon. His Persian and Nidoking leap out of their Pokéballs to confirm this point.
The old man turns to Celebi and asks if that’s the right thing to say. Is this how the Pokémon wanted him to face his past? Celebi still gives him no answer, but in a blink, you, Indigo, and Dante are transported through time once more.
Professor Orchid is waiting for you both when you return to Ilex Shrine in the present, as are Gold, Silver, and Kris.
Silver takes Dante to face justice for what he’s done, and Professor Leaf Orchid confirms that your trip to the past must have been causing ripple effects in the present. This clears up much of the confusion, and will also allow for more focused study going forward!
While in the past, there are a wide variety of new Pokémon and alternate forms of familiar species that you can discover! When you return to the present, Professor Orchid will even update your Pokédex to properly document them.
Now that you’ve made it back to the present, you’ll need to focus on completing your Johto League challenge! Team Neo-Rocket has been defeated for good, and there’s only one gym left before you challenge the Elite Four and Champion.
After you have been inducted into the Johto hall of fame, you can return to the Ilex Shrine to battle and capture Celebi. If you have Celebi in your team, you can travel back to the past once a day, and explore to your heart’s content! However, you will not be able to go any further than Goldenrod City or Azalea town in each direction, as people don’t believe your gym badges are genuine.
