Hello! Welcome to The Curse of Forgotten Time. This is my first fanfic, well, ever. I hope you enjoy it. (However, it most certainly is NOT the first version of this story. Wouldn't want to inflict THAT on anyone.)

Just for the record, almost all of the characters in this story will be OCs.

This story was originally posted on Serebii forums, under my other account, also named Shattersoul.

I plan on posting a new chapter every Sunday.

I do not own Pokemon. Sometimes I wish I did, but I do not.

*Text* - Telepathy

Prologue

My eyes fly open as the tell-tale sound of footprints echo through the ruins. For two hundred years, these walls have served as my haven, my refuge, and my home. They have also served as my prison, one of the last mementos still surviving of what I used to be. It had been decades since another creature had been within these ruins, centuries if I discounted my partner. And I know why they are here. A voice fills my mind, a familiar voice.

*They're in the ruins.*

Wordlessly, I reply. Could I even respond verbally now? It had been so long.

*The ones you were speaking of earlier? The ones we assisted before? The ones who defeated him? The heroes?*

*Yes, those two. They've entered alone, just as I requested.*

*Do they know who we really are? Much more is at stake here than ever before. This is our last, and only chance.*

*We can't keep this a secret forever, and our time is finally running out. Of all of the possible secret keepers I've examined over the years, these two show the most promise.*

*How long until they reach the deepest floor?*

*I'm not entirely sure. Should be a long while, however.*

*Excellent. You should come down here: I can only assume that you are expected to not be on the surface.*

I make a gesture, and reach out with my mind. Immediately, a dark, swirling vortex materializes before me, held open by the force of my will. For but a moment, it floods the chamber with a violet glow. In an instant, an Umbreon stands beside me. Nil. The portal's closing soon after, flickering and fading without my continued focus, eventually disappearing altogether with a nearly inaudible snap. I turn to Nil, my partner.

*This is our only chance, you know. Such an opportunity will never present itself again.*

*I know. This is all or nothing. Failure isn't an option.*

I pause for a moment before I reply, instead choosing to walk over towards one of the corners of the room. I approach an altar, engraved in runes, and grab the bag atop of it: a decrepit sack practically falling apart due to age. It takes me a moment to undo the rusty latch that holds the bag shut, but it takes little, if any effort. I smile as I reach within it, retrieving what little possessions I still own. As I do so, I glance back down towards the altar. Although at some point this altar may have served some nefarious purpose long, long ago, it was now only a table. An ornate table, but a table nonetheless.

I spread the handful of objects across the table, as I finally respond.

*We had quite a journey to get here, didn't we.*

*Indeed we did.*

One by one, I examine the trinkets. A handful of metal scraps, red and white. A single, colorless stone, held aloft by unseen forces. A small leather pouch, full of shaped metal, now without meaning. A crystal pendant, in the shape of a crescent moon, darker than the night sky. A star-cut ruby, still us pristine as it was when I first obtained it.

I turn away from my possessions, and return to the conversation with my partner.

I grin for a moment as I ask a question we both know the answer to.

*How did we end up here? I remember that I used to hate being with people. Now, we need to go looking for them. Before, it was just so we don't go insane. And now, it is so we aren't forgotten.*

*I only did it so that YOU wouldn't go insane. I was doing fine.*

*We both know that if I had went, you would have soon followed.*

*We both know that you would have never let that happen in the first place.*

*And so, it seems that this is the only remaining path forward.*

The only path was ahead of us. But still, here I was, entrenched in the past. My own story, what had brought me here, to this very place, so far from where I had begun. To a life so different from the one I used to own. It takes very little to have fully submerged myself in my own memories. The memories of who we were, and how we got here.