This fic, which also has a lot of PMD2 spoilers, was written under the impression that, once you stopped the collapse of Temporal Tower, the old future would disappear instantly, rather than giving you a half hour or so to hang around. The idea was conceived the day before I actually saw the ending, and was finally written after, although how long after I'm not sure.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Time/Darkness (c) Nintendo, Chunsoft, and GameFreak
In the End
Miranda panted hard. This was much, much harder than either she or Chlora would ever have imagined. Dialga was tough, very tough. Going down into a runner's crouch to steady herself, the human-turned-Charmander checked their supplies. It wasn't bad, but not good either. They had enough Reviver seeds to withstand a few more attacks, but if Dialga kept using Roar of Time, they were done for sure.
"You okay?" Chlora's voice was concerned. Turning her head, Miranda nodded to the Chikorita. Her partner, like Miranda herself, was already pretty badly off from the damage they had both sustained. Their usual tactic of using Miranda's Smokescreen to shield themselves from possible damage had been thwarted by some IQ Skill or another Dialga possesed, throwing off their entire strategy. Their new one was much simpler: try to outsurvive the legendary.
"Ready?" she asked, bracing herself for another onslaught of attacks - both dealt and recieved.
"Whenever you are!" Chlora replied, lifting up the large leaf on the top of her head, and in that instant, Miranda knew what she was going to try to do.
Good luck, she thought, hoping her friend would have the time to complete the attack. All further preparation was abruptly cut short as Dialga recovered from his paused status and moved within attacking range.
Leaping into the air, she loosed a great gout of flame and shouted "Take THAT!"
The Flamethrower hit its mark, and Dialga let out a roar of pain. Hearing the terrible sound, Miranda couldn't help but wonder how, let alone them, Dialga could take? Their attacks, while paling in comparison to the legendary's, were nothing for a Slowpoke to yawn at... But then again, Dialga was a legendary... doubtless it could take nearly anything they threw at them and hardly break a sweat...
"Miranda, get him closer!" Chlora's shout, "And don't let him use Roar of Time!"
"How in the world am I supposed to do that!? Silence Orbs don't work here!"
"THEN JUST GET HIM CLOSER, SMART ONE!"
Miranda bit her lip. This was going to be hard... No one sane would bait a Legendary as powerful as Dialga and moving towards him might move her into the way of what Chlora was planning...
In the end, Miranda resorted to the least sane thing she could think of.
"Hey you big dummy!" she shouted, stepping forward and hurling one of their last Gravelrocks, "Why don't you try taking me on, or are you nothing more than a baby Togepi!" It succeeded in fixing Dialga's sole attention (and wrath) on her. The Gravelrock hit him right on the red gem on his chest, and it's eyes flashed furiously in Miranda's direction.
"Oh shavit..." the Charmander muttered as the enraged Legendary moved forward for the kill.
But Dialga had taken no more than five steps when Chlora shouted "NOW!" and Miranda, turning to see what her partner was shouting about, ducked out of the way as the Solarbeam sped between the Chikorita and the master of Time.
For a moment, time itself seemed to freeze. Then slowly, ever so slowly, Dialga fell. Smashing into the ground with a great crash, and lying there as Chlora lowered her leaf and Miranda got up gingerly from the ground where she had fallen.
"We did it..." the latter whispered, then shuddered slightly as she realized what this would mean...
--
Chlora didn't notice Miranda's reluctance. "We did it!" she echoed, though with much more enthusiasm, "Come on!"
All this effort, all this work, watching so many friends come and go, beating so many enemies, nearly being destroyed by Dusknoir so many times, all finally had meaning. They had made it. Just put the Time Gears back in the tower, Grovyle had said, and Temporal Tower will not collapse, the future will be saved. If there was even the tinest shadow of doubts in her mind at that moment, she ignored it.
She led the way past the prone form of Dialga, exhilaration flooding through her at their success. There, behind their foe, was the altar with the five gaps in the wall for the time gears.
"You still have them, right?" she asked, turning back to Miranda.
"Yeah," Miranda replied, and for the first time, Chlora noticed her partner's uneasiness.
--
"You okay?"
For a moment, Miranda wanted to say no. Wanted to tell Chlora the truth, that if the past was fixed, she and Grovyle would disappear. Dusknoir would too, of course, but no one was mourning his loss. It would be so easy. Just tell her, Miranda. She won't put in the Time Gears. And you can go back to the Wigglytuff guild, and keep up your work as a rescue team. Control the damage the collapse of Temporal Tower would make. She had lived in a world where time had frozen once, hadn't she? Surely she could do it again. It was clear that the past would not be fixed until the Time Gears sat in their proper place, otherwise she would have disappeared already, wouldn't she? No one would blame her and Chlora if they knew...
But then Miranda remembered Grovyle's burning look of fierce hope when he had talked about how it was to experience the sunrise, wind, so many thing she had come to take for granted when she had lost her memory, things she could now not remember living without. She remembered how dead the future was, without light or happiness, except the happiness Pokemon like Dusknoir got from watching the misery of others. And she remembered the people at the guild, the friends she had made here in the past. The might not blame her, but she never would be able to stop blaming herself.
"I'm fine," she said, pulling out the Time Gears Grovyle had given them, "Take the Gears and put them in."
"Me?" for a moment, Chlora sounded puzzled, "But you..."
"There's no time! Put them in, without you I wouldn't have even got this far." Miranda stuffed the gears into Chlora's paws, trying not to betray regret or fear, and, slightly bewildered, she accpeted them and turned towards the altar.
And then the world came crashing down.
--
The earthquake came out of nowhere, striking just as Chlora had set down the Time Gears at the top of the stairs. Letting out a yell of shock and fear, she bounced down on each tier, landing with a crash. After the initial shock, the ground subsided to a soft trembling, barely discernable but threatening to get worse at any moment.
"Chlora..." Miranda's voice made her look up. The Charmander looked as though she had taken a beating too, and her eyes were wide with fear. "You have to get up there. Now."
Nodding, the Chikorita got to her feet and barreled up the stairs. With utmost care, she took the first Time Gear and pushed it carefully into its rightful place. As she did so, light flared, not from the time Gear, but from behind her...
She turned to look and saw nothing but Miranda, only...
"Miranda? Are you... can I see through you-?" She asked in confusion.
"Don't worry about it!" Miranda shouted, "Just keep putting in Time Gears!" The ground's trembling had begun to intensify...
Turning and picking up another Time Gear, Chlora put it in its correct place. As another flash of light glared from behind her, she called "Surely if we both do it it'll go faster!"
"Just do it!" Something about Miranda's voice scared Chlora, enough that she obeyed the command without question. She picked up the third Time Gear, which was beginning to rattle among the remaining pile as the ground's quaking grew still worse.
As the third gear slid into place, Miranda let out a yell, and a moment later, a second bolt of lightning from the red storm above them hit the ground a foot away from where Chlora was standing. The shock knocked her down for a moment, and as she got up she half-turned to see if Miranda was all right.
"NO!" Miranda's voice was nearly hysterical, "Just keep putting them in! I'm fine!"
Her sense of foreboding was increasing, but the ground was beginning to roll with the strength of the tremors and the wind was beginning to whip up to ferocious speeds. The Chikorita picked up the fourth time gear and slid it into place.
--
Miranda knew that Dusknoir had been right. Knew from the moment that Chlora had slid the first Time Gear into place, for Chlora had been right. Miranda had become slightly translucent, and as more and more Time Gears were placed in the tower, her own form was becoming fainter and fainter. It was imperative that Chlora not see, because if she saw, she would know, and she would not put the remaining Time Gears in.
But now... there was one left...
One gear between Miranda and nonexistence.
"Chlora..." she moaned, tears beginning to stream down the sides of her face, and for a moment, the wind seemed to fall silent, and there was nothing except her and her partner...
"Chlora... you're the best friend I've ever had. I'll miss you more than anything in the world..."
--
The quiet, desparate words of her friend reached her ears, and suddenly more afraid than she had ever been thus far, Chlora turned to look...
--
Seeing Chlora turn, Miranda screamed, panic-stricken "DO IT! DO IT NOW CHLORA!"
--
The ground had begun to shake so badly, that Chlora could barely stand, and as her friend screamed the desparate command, the Chikorita picked up the very last Time Gear and slammed it into its opening, completeing the five-pointed symbol.
The ground seemed to crack beneath her very feet. She screamed, heard Miranda yelling as the wind blew so hard and fierce and lightning crashed all around them, and they were surely too late, for the very ground was collapsing beneath their feet...
And then there was silence. And the ground was calm again, and the wind had halted into stillness.
Am I dead? Chlora wondered, and opened her eyes.
She was not. She was there, at the top of Temporal Tower. The sky had turned a clear and dazzling blue, flecked with soft, cottony clouds. Looking around, it was clear that the Tower had still taken heavy damage, and Chlora had little doubt that it would need repair. Still...
"We did it Miranda!" she shouted, getting up and turning around, taking in the sight of the saved tower "We stopped the Tower from collapsing! See? WE DID-"
And then she froze. "Miranda?" she whispered.
There was no Miranda on the top of the tower. There was only the feebly stirring form of Dialga, the shattered remains of the tower, and the wind.