There's no such thing as a graceful descent into darkness. Yet here I am, diving right into it nonetheless—the rope braced under me and tightened around my waist the only thing to keep my cargo and I from plummeting into the unknown, shadowy depths of the ruins below. The hole within the floor above only faintly illuminates the seemingly bottomless drop, but the Aura Sphere I balance in one hand paints the nearby walls and their intricate hieroglyphs in a vivid, blue light. Ancient, worn faces etched into the stone stare back at mine, as if they're cursing me for disturbing their millennium-long slumber.

It's not even strange anymore to think of how used to it I am. However, unfortunately for my youngest teammate, that's far from the case. The tiny Shaymin squirms to bury herself deeper within the bag cradled within my lap and I wrap my spare arm even tighter around them both to reassure her. Ri and I have helped her train and taken her on a number of jobs with us, but this is really her first major exploration since she began her apprenticeship at Wigglytuff's Guild.

I barely notice it at first, but a familiar shadow soon drops over us. "Are you two still ok?" my partner calls down from above.

"We're fine, but we're not there yet," I shout in reply, "Keep lowering us." The bundle in my hold squirms a second time at this, but I'm not about to retreat unless she asks me to. Her kind is used to open skies, so I can't imagine she's enjoying this much, but if she's going to be a member of our team than she needs to be braced to handle anything. So I only ask, "How are you holding up, Azalea?"

I can't see much more than a pair of eyes glistening up at me in the dim light, but I can spot both the nervousness and resolve in them. "I'll be fine," she answers softly, "Really, I'm just a little anxious is all."

Right… Although her aura says otherwise, I'll pretend to take her word for it. Besides, we have work to do.

Nothing more is said as we're lowered further toward the heart of the Concealed Ruins, the massive, hidden temple that Ri and I uncovered on an exploration with Team Charm earlier in the year. Thanks to Darkrai's plot, we never got the chance to investigate it until just a few weeks ago—the passing months since he vanished spent hunting him down and cleaning up after his mess. Worrying if or when he'll come back to strike again…

There's been no sign him, but that still hasn't afforded us a moment's calm. Time and space struggle to maintain a fragile balance as the world desperately tries to fix itself. There's no telling when the next disaster might hit. And, even with all my memories come back to me, I'm right back where I started looking for answers.

Cresselia handles herself, so at least there's one less worry off our chests. While, Ri, the rest of our team, and I keep up our investigations on top of our regular work as explorers, she taken the liberty of searching for any clues as to where Darkrai could be by herself. She visits us in dreams sometimes, usually just to give the regular update that she can't find anything, but still…

The rope tugs to a halt and there's a shout from above that they need to knot another cord to it if we're going down any further. We wait.

As I said, all of us in Team Crusade have been exploring the Concealed Ruins for weeks now, but that doesn't mean we're alone: We've made it a full expedition by enlisting the Guild's help and our friends followed us across the Grass Continent not long after we left Treasure Town. The difference this time, however, is that we're no longer apprentices receiving direct orders on where to be or what to do from Chatot or the Guildmaster. Actually, as the ones who discovered this place, Ri and I were told that we had to step up and take control of the operation ourselves.

It's an honor—especially given how young we still are—but I don't think either of us is honestly all that thrilled about it. I can't forget Wigglytuff pulling us both aside the first day they arrived here to set up camp. We had given him a report on how the mission was going, as expected, and then he asked us what we wanted him and the others to do next. In no way were we ready for that, but he wouldn't take no for an answer.

I have complete faith in the both of you! he had beamed, flashing his usual, bubbly smile. Amazing how after all we've been through something like this can still rattle us, because I'm not sure if we can actually pull it off… It wasn't all that long ago when we were just apprentices ourselves, and a part of me still can't believe that we graduated already. How are we supposed to take charge of the very same people we trained alongside and who taught us so much first?

No. Subtly dropping my gaze, I look back once more at Azalea as we begin to descend yet again. I don't think that Ri and I are ready to lead at all. Sure, we both can step up when we have to, but this is different. Ri could do it, but he still lacks the confidence to really take control. And as for me, well… I'm just not the person I was when I led the Resistance in the Dark Future. It's as though, somehow, by willing to give up everything, I stopped caring about things like risks and inexperience in order to focus on what had to be done.

Now though, there's far less for me to give up on and nothing I'm willing to lose. The stakes have always been the same—our homes, our lives, our world—but now I can't make the same sacrifices that I once did so easily. Not myself. Certainly not anyone that I care about. If I take the lead and I make a choice that gambles them away, there's no way that I could move past it. And I've failed so many times already, with Grovyle, and Ri, and Manaphy—!

I'm not only an explorer, I'm a Guardian of Light. There are responsibilities that I have to accept. I just wish that they'd stop piling up like this before I start to lose pace of them all. We're just not as ready as everyone else thinks we are—not for this. Not like the world's ever given us much of a chance to prepare ourselves for anything…

Day by day, I find myself leaning more on a simple bit of sage advice. When everything is falling apart around you, there's only one thing you can really do: Brace yourself. Funny to think though how it seems like it's easier to do that when the world's falling to ruin than it is when taking the lead for our friends.

Finally, we touch ground. No sooner have my toes scraped against its dusty surface, I clumsily reach up to tug twice on the rope to give the signal to stop lowering it. "Time to get to work," I murmur, sliding Azalea and the Treasure Bag by my feet before I start to fumble with the knots to untie myself. She does as I told her to earlier, sticking close to me, and I intensify the power of my Aura Sphere to cast a brighter light on our surroundings.

It's not like we're looking for anything specific—we don't even know why this place exists to begin with—but we've been trying to comb every inch of it for anything useful. If there's one thing we do know about this place, it's that it predates any written history any of us know about. There's no telling what kind of secrets might be locked away here. Maybe there's even something that could help us figure out what to do about the world's still fragile balance.

"See anything good?" Loudred impatiently shouts down at us. Normally, he'd team up with Diglett, but when we found that hole to this part of the temple, we asked him to give us some extra muscle in case we needed to lift anything large back up. As for Diglett, he and his dad could probably dig a series of tunnels that could uncover anything about this place, but it's so old that any amount of damage done could risk burying us alive. We have them reinforcing parts of the temple's structure to make sure this place doesn't fall on top of anyone.

"Nothing yet!" I take a look around. I was hoping we'd uncovered some new passageway, but this seems just to be another one of the many wide chambers that we've come across so far. Each of them are always filled with their own treasures of a sort, but never anything that really catches our eye. From the decorum of the space to the ruined fabric draped along a lump of stone, and thatched padding only barely recognizable beneath a layer of mold, this looks like it was once probably a bedchamber—maybe for someone important. There's a wide set of double doors, but when I walk over to them, I can tell that they're blocked on the other side. Likely a cave-in—which doesn't help my suspicions on how unstable the structure of the temple could be.

"Well, try to hurry it up! Chimecho's gotta be done with dinner soon and I'm half-starved!"

"Really? In that case, I think I'll take my sweet time!" I snark back.

"Like you'd wait either!"

"Just nibble on an Energy Root!"

All during our mild bickering, I continue my exploration of the room. Beyond the tattered fabric on the 'bed' and the walls, pottery and chests are strewn about the area. I can't imagine finding much in them that's worth anything though, given the state they're in. Nevertheless, I pick one of the few ones my size and carry it over to the rope—placing it within the sling and securing it before tugging on the cord only once this time and watching as it's pulled upward.

"What kind of Pokemon do you think built this place anyway?" Azalea asks, staring at one of the much larger chests with a sheepish expression. I know how she feels. Anywhere else, if Ri and I were to find a treasure box, the biggest ones would have to be carried by the both of us together. Not that there aren't exceptions, but most of the ones we've seen here are so massive that the two of us could easily lock ourselves inside them if we wanted to. As if the size of them alone wasn't unnerving enough, the one beside us has a latch in the shape of a face distorted from the wear of the years.

"Big ones," I shrug, "Maybe Gollurk." Actually, some of the doorways are just over half the size of one, but we've seen plenty of murals depicting them, the ceilings are usually high enough, and I know chests like these would be paperweights to their species. Besides that, most of the other relics that we've found suit bipedal Pokemon the most.

Strange as it is, we've only really seen a few of them around here. The area is fairly isolated—the closest village about an hours' trek toward the northeast—and the Pokemon that live in it aren't all that diverse: Gollett, Shuppet, Baltoy, and Pidgey just to name a few. I can't see many of them making use of a place like this, no matter what the murals and glyphs say.

If I'm being honest, the temple itself seems a little too well-made for any normal Pokemon, nevermind its age. It reminds me of the ones we saw in the Hidden Land and the Spacial Rift. Given that we had to fight a Regigigas to get to it though, I guess it's not all that surprising—and he and the other titans have been depicted along these walls plenty enough themselves. We're inside the ruins of a legendary's keep.

I'm more stunned to find that there aren't any Unown buzzing around here like they were in Aegis Cave, but I'll count that as a blessing rather than another question to add to the swarm. Beats having to chase them down like we did before for spelling practice…

Something catches my eye. Near the 'bed,' covered by sheets of once luxurious cloth, I spot the texture of wood. Whatever is buried beneath there, it's larger than the surrounding chests—tall enough that the lip of it inches above me. Anything this big usually would be made out of some kind of stonework, so I can't resist pulling back on the heavy fabric to reveal it.

I have to be careful. It's not like we're going to have much want or use out of these, but they're still artifacts by anyone's standards. I don't know how deteriorated they've become through the unknown ages and a part of me can't help but grimace at the inconvenience.

Little by little, the cloth is tugged away while the wood beneath it groans at every slight shift. Eventually, with Azalea's help, the bulk of the fabric is set in a careful pile on the ground and what's left uncovered is a worn, ornate desk lined with empty racks. At first glance, the intricate detailing of the woodwork seems to be all there is to it, but on closer inspection I find an open crevice from a broken, hidden cabinet along the bottom. I run my fingers against it tentatively until I'm able to slip them through the widest part of the gap: I still can't manage to fit my hand all the way through though, and so—with a huff—I pull the door back.

Snap! No matter how careful I try to be, wood splinters at the motion. I inwardly wince, but continue until I've just enough of an opening to reach inside. I feel papers and old leather—documents of some kind that no doubt Dusknoir would be happy to get his hands on with as little as he's been able to do with his expertise this expedition—but my eyes widen at the real prize. Metal. Something relatively small and cold to the touch. And from the shape of it, it's a key.

My heart nearly skips a beat and all at once my relative frustration is batted away by an explorer's lust toward a new find. In this place that was already so well hidden and protected before Ri and I discovered it, in which the doors are usually made of heavy stone and left unlocked and most of the chests are easily opened, to find a key is its own treasure. We've only managed to find a handful, and to find one kept secret like this one… It must be able to unlock something important!

"It looks like we might just have a long night ahead of us, guys!" I shout for my companions above us to hear. I can feel my entire body spark to life when I wriggle my hand back out of the cabinet with the treasure. At the sight of it, Azalea's own face lights up, but—enclosing my hand around the key—I bring one finger to my lips to keep her quiet. Already I can hear Loudred's renewed complaints:

"Are you kidding me?! If there's that much junk down there, we can just get it out tomorrow! Better yet, we can just find new junk literally anywhere else in this heap of rubble!"

All while he continues his rants, I pick back up the work on inching the cabinet door further and further open without breaking it. It takes some doing, but, finally, I'm able to get the documents out as well—pulling them out onto the flat of my palm so that they won't bend. Meanwhile, Azalea dashes to where we left the Treasure Bag: She returns scooting over a thin, but wide container made of plywood that I neatly settle the papers into with the same care I would use if I was tucking in a baby.

I want to investigate this room some more to figure out who might've stayed here, but for now this is enough. More than enough! Gathering a few more things, Azalea and I make our way back over to the rope as it descends into view. "Well, long hours are just a part of the job," I call up before I begin to set the next load, "Besides, we'll be too busy celebrating to try getting any sleep!"

All at once, the Normal-type's shouts end in a sputtering halt. Then the anxious questions and cheers come after.