a/n: This is my first chaptered fic, so I hope that it is a good one. It starts three years after the second ending of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explores of Sky, so yes, it will contain spoilers for that game. Chapter three and on will also contain spoilers for the In the Future of Darkness special episode (special episode 5).
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon (duh)

"Ugh"

Draco opened his eyes. It was earlier than he normally woke up, but that time was getting later and later every day.

He sat up on his bed of leaves and looked out the 'mouth' of Sharpido Bluff. The shadows were still long, indicating that the sun was just rising. As he gazed out, something in the distance caught his eye. It appeared to be a blue moving island. At first, Draco thought it was a wailord, but then he noticed two dorsal fin-like structures on it. He continued to stair at it, but it soon disappeared under the waves.

Draco caught himself scratching at the spot where his missing chest spike should have been. It had become a habit of his ever since he lost it in a rock slide. But his spike was not the only thing he lost; that painful land slide was the whole reason why he went on missions solo, the whole reason why there would not be someone waking up with him telling him to make it a great day, the whole reason why... he was alone.

Draco closed his ruby eyes as the biting memories flooded his mind.

Kindle, his exploration partner and his best friend, had found him knocked out on a beach with an odd case of amnesia. Draco could only remember two things; one was his name, but he had long since forgotten the other. As a riolu and vulpix, they had joined Wigglytuff's Guild, traveled through time, and were credited with saving the world twice. They both evolved, and Draco found Kindle's ninetales form even more lustrous; he realized that he loved her. Draco wanted to be with her forever, and it looked as though this would be very easily obtainable.

Until that day.

It should not have been a problem. A new dungeon had been discovered that scaled the side of a mountain, and, being bored with the ease of of other dungeons, Kindle and Draco went to check it out. They showed up at the midway point and stopped for a rest. Even though they were only half way up the mountain, the view of the valley was spectacular. Draco glanced over at Kindle. Her fur glistened in the sun light and compelled Draco to say something.

"You know Kindle, there's something I've been wanting to tell-"

CRACK!

Their heads suddenly whipped around to find the source if the noise. They found it quickly, but that find brought immediate fear and adrenaline. Seconds later, they were thrown from their perch as they were swept away by several tons of rock flowing down the mountain.

For an immeasurable amount of time, Draco was smashed back and forth by the impeding boulders, then an incomprehensible pain in his chest was present. Ultimately, it was his steel type subbing that saved him.

It eventually stopped; Draco dug his way to the top with one thought in mind: find Kindle. Above ground, he spotted a yellow tail. Upon excavating it, he found her, body bruised and broken. He picked her up, ever so carefully.

Kindle lifted her head slightly, then her mouth opened. "Draco-" she inhaled sharply, "what...what did you want...to tell me?"

"Kindle! It'll be all right! Your gonna be fine."

"No...Drac-" her eyes misted over, and her head fell limp.

"Kindle? No! Kindle!" Then the tears came, and Draco was racked with sobs.

The rest of what happened that day was a mire blur. Draco knew that more than one someone came to help him. They bandaged his chest and somehow got him back to Treasure Town, but during all of it, he never let go of Kindle.

Try as hard as he might, he couldn't stop the tears. Draco flopped back onto his bed, and became unaware of his surroundings as he withdrew into himself.

A loud banging brought him back to consciousness. Draco sprung up, looking around for the source of the noise. It took him a few seconds to realize that it was in fact someone knocking on the door. He climbed up the stairs to open the door and see who it was.

Upon opening the door, Draco found the sun directly above him (almost noon! He had been asleep that long!) and a friend of his, Lore, sitting on his doorstep. Lore was an average absol, unless you counted the fleck of blue in her left eye. She had joined Kindle and Draco on team AuraFlair not long before they went to face Grovyle at Crystal Lake. She had been one of the only two other members of the team who had decided to stick around after Draco had disbanded the team after Kindle's death.

"Were you asleep?" she asked him.

"What makes you think that?"

"I've been knocking for five minutes."

"Oh...yeah I was. But why don't you come in?"

"Thank you," Lore said as Draco stood to the side to let her in. He then lowered the door and followed her back down into his one roomed home.

"You got anything to eat?" she asked.

"Yep," he answered, reaching into a cupboard and pulling out two apples: one fore Lore and one for himself. He tossed hers to her and she just barely managed to catch it, her long claws digging into it slightly.

"So, other than the food, why you here?"

"Well, as a matter of fact..." she said between ravenous bites out of her apple, "I overheard something that you might be interested in... You know how you used all five time gears to stop.. Time from breaking down?... Well apparently," by now, she had fished with the apple, core and all, "there's a sixth time gear, and its on Mt. Bristle."

"That's unusual, worth checking out. What do you say we head up there and see what we can find?" Draco asked.

"Sure," she responded, and Draco grabbed the old, beaten up treasure bag before taking his first bite out of his apple.

"Top of Mt. Bristle, and I don't see any time gears," stated Draco.

"Well I didn't think it would be that obvious, after all, we've been up here before. Maybe it's inside a cave; maybe you can see it from up here," Lore said, peering over the edge of a cliff.

"Maybe," said Draco, stepping next to her.

A noise like the release of energy, followed by a muffled thump, sounded behind them. They simultaneously spun around to face what had landed behind them: Dialga.

"YOU SEEK THE SIXTH TIME GEAR. UNFORTUNATELY, THERE IS NONE, HOWEVER..."

Dialga stopped talking as a low growl could be heard. Seconds later, the cliff crumbled away under Lore and Draco. As they were falling, the growl erupted into a cry that sparked a dimensional hole beneath them. The last thing they heard before they started spinning was "YOU'RE NEEDED IN THE FUTURE."

a/n: So there's chapter one. I wright slow, so don't expect chapter 2 any time soon (though the more support for this I get, the faster I'll get it done). And the romance won't come till the end (sadly). And,yes, I like them (parentheses).