>>13731878For real?
I always imagined it took place a few months after the events of the Kanto games. That the Gym battle with Red and the defeat of Team Rocket was the last thing he could take before killing himself in desperation or something.
Here's an idea though, but that's more WHAT A TWEEST than plausible headcanon:
Celebi and the time travel were part of a plan by Red to end Team Rocket once and for all, and that plan is what set the entire plot of HG/SS in motion and what the final confrontation on Mt. Silver is about.
With a little more working out, it could work as a ridiculously elaborate comic or something, I guess. 