-Chapter III: Remember The Way-

-Amber-

"W-wait, what do you mean, gone?" she asked the Delphox, who looked just as concerned as she was.

"I mean that they're not anywhere!" Valerie cursed under her breath and turned to Roy. "Give me your spellbook."

"Uh-"

"Just give it!" she snapped at him. He jumped slightly at her sudden aggressiveness, and Amber narrowed her eyes. "Why are you so concerned?"

"Because… reasons. Amber, you'll hate me, but you'll thank me later."

"That… that doesn't make any sense…" she just facepalmed as Valerie flipped through the book, stopping suddenly near the end of the pages. "Okay… this should work… vratiti njegova sećanja."

The book was surrounded by a light pink aura that quickly dimmed, and Connor seemed to relax slightly before shaking his head back and forth for a moment. "It didn't work."

"Ah, what the hell…" her wand extended into a six-foot long staff, and she slammed the blunt end into his forehead before anyone could move, knocking him out cold.

Amber, Grovyle, Celebi and Tyranitar all rushed forward as she threw up a protect barrier, which Tyranitar bounced off of without making a dent. They were all glaring at her, and the Delphox shrugged innocently. "Sometimes the old-school methods are effective."

"You're lucky you didn't kill him!" Amber raged.

"It's not luck if it's planned."

"You planned on knocking him out?!" Amber looked at Connor anxiously, small lines of blood dripping from his nose as he laid on the ground. She clenched her fists and turned back to Valerie. "Why?!"

Roy placed his hand on her protect barrier, somehow lowering it. Valerie appeared just as shocked as everyone else. The Kirlia teared up and held his hands out between them. "Please, don't fight… I'm sure she has a reason… even if we don't agree with it."

"There is nothing to be gained from hurting him that badly!" Briar seethed.

"Actually, my spells didn't work, which hasn't been an issue in almost six millennia. There's something powerful at work here. Something more powerful than any of us."

"But… Valerie, why did you have to knock him out? And why not explain yourself instead of being super vague for no reason?" Roy asked.

"There's always a reason…" she whispered those words before tensing up and looking towards the entrance of the hut. "I, uh… I have to go." she vanished in a small tornado of fire, and Amber growled softly whilst transforming into her human form and placed her hands on Connor's face, cleaning the small line of blood off with the edge of her robe as he laid unconscious. "I'm so sorry that you're going through this… I would never wish this upon anyone..."

"Can I just… say something real quick?" Galvantula raised his hand and spoke up, as if it were a statement rather than a question. "If something's got Valerie scared… I think we need to be worried."

"She's not scared, she's nervous," Briar said. "There is a difference. Her composure changes on a dime as soon as there is something she can't control."

"Same difference," Galvantula said. "If she can't restore his memories… then-"

"It's not an option," Roy said. "He needs to be the leader we know. Our team needs him."

Tyranitar shook his head and extended his hand at the Kirlia. "Roy-"

He cut the rock-type off by slightly raising his voice. "You all might know him for who he was in your future, or wherever you came from, but to us… to me… he is the leader of our team. We have to bring that Connor back."

"It might be impossible" Briar said. "If anyone could have done it, it was Valerie. But apparently this is beyond her power. Roy… I think we might have to consider all possibilities. Including the possibility that he will never have his memories of your team restored."

-Valerie-

"Come on, come on…"

She frantically tossed another book to the side, reaching for the next one and flipping through the pages, searching for an answer. Even with an eternity to learn, she still had so much that she didn't know. Right now, her biggest issue was why her spells didn't work.

"It doesn't make any sense… That can fix any form of amnesia… Why didn't it work?"

She skimmed across the pages and groaned, tossing the book to the side in frustration. She had already gone through almost 100 of her books, slowing down time so she could read them without being pressured by time.

She picked up one book, labeled 'Levi's Three Simple Steps to Curing Short-Term Memory Loss'.

"That's not what I need! His memories are completely gone!" then she gasped as a new thought occurred in her head. "Perhaps it happened when his spirit left his body… Maybe it's not the right spirit…"

Then she buried her face in her hands and sighed. "No, it's definitely him… Come on, Val… You're getting rusty. You should know this… think… how does this end…"

She closed her eyes, and suddenly she was on top of Temporal Tower, standing in the presence of Dialga. A face she never thought she'd see again. One that she knew for millions of years, and still looked the same as the first day she met him. She gasped and knelt on one knee, looking to the ground out of respect for her former master. "Dialga…"

"VALERIE."

She felt the air around her and sighed wistfully. "I… I'm not really here, am I?"

"NO. I SENSED YOUR TEMPORAL MANIPULATION AND DECIDED TO SPEAK WITH YOU."

"Y-Yes sir…" she didn't raise her head. Whether it was out of respect or out of fear, she still wasn't sure. Dialga could wipe her from existence if he wanted to.

"MY ORACLE. I WISH TO HAVE IT BACK."

"Oracle…" she grimaced, but nodded slowly whilst extending her wand into the six-foot-long staff that split into a V-shape at the top with a small fireball between the branches. She turned it over and twisted the bottom of the staff off, pulling out a small time gear, no larger than two inches across, from the compartment inside. "You mean this..."

"YES. I WANT IT RETURNED TO ITS RIGHTFUL PLACE."

"But… I am forbidden access to the Hidden Land. How will I return it?"

"ONCE TEAM FIRESTORM'S FUTURE IS SECURED, YOU WILL BE GRANTED ACCESS SOLELY FOR THAT PURPOSE. I AM WILLING TO WAIT UNTIL THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW. I FEEL A DISTURBANCE IN THE FLOW OF TIME, AND I WISH TO MAKE SURE IT IS TAKEN CARE OF."

"What do you think the disturbance is? Where is it coming from?"

"IT IS ORIGINATING FROM A TIME MANY EONS AGO. NEAR THE BEGINNING OF THE SEPARATION OF THE WORLDS."

"From that far back? Why are you just now addressing it?"

"FOR REASONS BEYOND YOUR UNDERSTANDING."

"And I thought I was vague…" she muttered before clearing her throat and speaking up. "Beyond my understanding, huh? Whatever you say..."

"GOOD. SEE TO IT THAT THEIR FUTURE IS SECURED."

"I… I will."

Then she opened her eyes, and she was back in her home, with the piles of books on her left and right as she continued sifting through the thousands of pages, hoping to find an answer. "Okay… Let's do this. There's bound to be something here. I have to secure their future."

After what seemed like hours of searching through every page of her vast library, she slammed the last book closed in frustration and laid on her bed, staring at the roof while she pointed her wand at the mountains of paperback novels, including several written by renowned healers in other realities, placing them back in their rightful places without even thinking about it. "Come on… Think…"

"Valerie?"

She sighed and waved him away without averting her gaze. "Go away, Roy. I need to think."

"I was actually thinking about that… What you said earlier."

"What?" she rolled on her side and glanced at the Kirlia, half-surprised that the Mismagius wasn't floating there. "What did I say? I don't remember."

"You said that there was something more powerful at work… something that's keeping his memories from you. I think it might be Dialga. Or maybe Giratina."

"And why would they do that?"

"Because… Dialga might want him to… um… I…"

"Roy, I appreciate you trying to help, but…" her voice faltered when she observed the fireplace to her left. The flame was perfectly still, and appeared to be suspended in time. She didn't feel a single breeze, now that she was paying attention to her surroundings. Yet Roy was standing there, completely unaffected. "...how are you doing that?"

"Doing what?"
She glanced back and forth between the Kirlia and the crimson flame, and her jaw hung open slightly. "You're… you aren't suspended in time."

"What? Time isn't frozen," Roy said while slowly looking around. "...Is it?"

"Look to your left."

The Kirlia turned his head and arched an eyebrow at the perfectly still flame. "...Well, this is awkward."

"That's my line," she quickly said, her curiosity growing by the second. "How are you doing that?"

"I dunno," Roy shrugged nonchalantly and snapped his fingers, and the flame sparked to life, swaying in the gentle breeze that glided through her fur. "It just… sort of comes naturally, I guess."

She tilted her head, her jaw hanging open even wider. "You mastered Temporal Kinesis…? Wh-when?"

"In the desert. I wasn't sure what it meant at first, since that was a weird case of time travel, but-"

"How… how did you learn it so suddenly?" she asked, completely baffled at this newfound power. "It took me decades to perfect it like that!"

"Uh… I don't know? I just… was alone in the palace, then the next thing I knew, I could control time almost as well as you, even without chanting the spell. I just didn't realize I could until I regained my physical body."

For the first time in a long while, she was at a loss for words. This Mismagius- er, Kirlia/Mismagius, had shocked her time and time again. But this was his most impressive feat to date.

"But… I shouldn't be able to, should I?" he asked.

"No… you shouldn't." Valerie sat up and beckoned him closer. "Not unless you were a Temporal Guardian or a Grand Reaper."

"Grand reapers can control time?"

"Yes… Time and space. That's why they're the most powerful," she admitted. "Dusknoir tries to keep that a secret, but it makes sense, since they have to be pretty much everywhere at once to guide the billions of souls that are lost across the temporal tree every second."

"Huh. Yeah, that does make sense, doesn't it…" Roy sighed and looked off to the side, teary-eyed and scowling, and Valerie hugged him gently. When she did that, he broke down, crying into her fur. She teared up slightly at the sight of it. She knew perfectly well what he was going through. And she didn't want anyone to go through that kind of heartbreak. Especially not him. Not in this way.

"I miss them so much…" he sobbed.

"I know…" she stood in silence as he wept, allowing her mind to drift back to the problems at hand. He might be even more powerful than I thought… if he can already control time…

She looked down at him as he took a deep, shaky breath, and smiled wistfully. Once this was over, she was going to miss him. She laughed internally at the thought. Missing someone seemed like such a foreign concept. Everyone she really knew was immortal, so she didn't have to worry about that. But as much as she hated to admit, Roy had actually grown on her quite a bit. He had made her life a little bit more exciting, since she had someone who could learn almost everything she had to offer. That hadn't ever happened before. Even with the Roy in other timelines… they couldn't learn this quickly.

Then her eyes welled with tears as she looked down at the Kirlia, who was still crying into her fur, making streaks of gold in her shining silver pelt. No need to get all sentimental, Val… he's not coming back from this.

-Plague-

"This way… quickly." she ushered Ryder forward through the narrow fissure in the cliffside. She felt the strong psychic energy take hold, and she focused on the point she wanted to go. When they emerged from the other side, Ryder stumbled forward, at a loss for words as they appeared at the crossroads of Treasure Town. She had used that passage too many times to count, so she was used to it.

"Go to Wigglytuff," she said. "He will help us."

"Wait, what just-?! Did we teleport?!" the Marshtomp exclaimed.

"You mean you don't know about the passages to these crossroads?" she asked.

"No! We don't have those!"

"Well that's too bad. They're quite useful when you can't teleport by psychic means. Now let's find Wigglytuff." she employed a light hypnosis to clear his mind of the past few minutes, and he just smiled at the mention of the Guildmaster.

"Wigglytuff?" Ryder asked. "Awesome! The guildmaster will know what to do for sure!"

Plague fluttered forward, noting the beating sun directly overhead, and landed on the grate in front of the tent.

"Pokémon detected! Pokémon detected!" a somewhat high-pitched voice shouted from below.

"WHOSE FOOTPRINT? WHOSE FOOTPRINT?" a booming voice sent shockwaves up through the grate, causing her to flinch.

"The footprint is Venomoth's! The footprint is Venomoth's!"

"...CLEARED FOR ENTRY! STEP FORWARD, AND GET YOUR FRIEND TO STAND ON THE GRATE!"

The color was drained from the Marshtomp's face as he stepped forward onto the grate, and the voices spoke up again.

"Pokémon detected! Pokémon detected!"

"WHOSE FOOTPRINT? WHOSE FOOTPRINT?"

"The footprint is Marshtomp's! The footprint is Marshtomp's!"

"CLEARED FOR ENTRY! YOU MAY ENTER!"

The gate in front of them rose from the ground, and Ryder stepped forward cautiously. "Do you think they'll know who I am?"

"Unlikely," she replied. "You're from a different reality, right?"

"I think so…? I mean, I'm not from here, if that's what you mean."

"Then they won't know who you are. Even if you recognize all of them. So don't give it away. I don't know how that would affect your world."

"Got it…" he sighed and looked over his shoulder at the empty space behind them, and Plague took a deep breath, trying her best to sympathize. "Ryder… I mourn for your loss. I truly do…"

"Yeah… Sure you do," he said without looking at her. He climbed down the ladder, and she followed shortly afterwards. They were met by the Chatot that Plague had read about, and Ryder put on an obviously forced smile. She understood perfectly well. He had been through a lot, after all.

"Hello! I'm Chatot, the guildmaster's right-hand pokémon! Are you by any chance here for-"

"Actually… may we speak to the Guildmaster? It's about Team Firestorm," Plague insisted. "We're here to help."

The flying-type paused and seemed to be in deep thought before nodding slowly. "...Follow me, if you would."

They both followed the bird pokémon down the next ladder and came to a double wooden door with lighter swirl-like patterns imprinted on them. Chatot knocked on the door with his beak. "Guildmaster? It's Chatot. You have guests!"

"Come on in!" the voice, whom she presumed belonged to Wigglytuff, rang through the door, and Chatot pushed the door open slowly. "Guildmaster, there are two pokémon here to see you."

Wigglytuff turned around with a smile and waved at Plague. "Oh, nice to meet you, friend! And-"

His smile faded the moment he saw Ryder. "Your name is…?"

"Ryder." the Marshtomp said. "Guildmaster, is everything alright?"

"You… How are you here?" the pink fluffball looked absolutely shocked to see the Marshtomp. He nearly fell over before Chatot caught him and glared at them, obviously worried for the fairy-type. "What is the meaning of this?!"

"Chatot, I'm fine," Wigglytuff assured him as he sat on the ground, taking deep breaths as he regained his composure. "It's just… my talents have been acting up… It's fine. Go check up on the apprentices."

Chatot visibly hesitated in leaving, eyeing her and Ryder warily. "Guildmaster, are you sure-"

"Yes."

Chatot's eyes widened as did Ryder's. The flying-type nodded slowly and dramatically marched out of the room, closing the door behind him. The instant the door closed, Wigglytuff teleported and had Ryder pinned to the wall. "How are you here?"

"I… I don't know!"

Plague tried to use psychic, but the guildmaster just shrugged it off and pressed even harder against the Marshtomp's chest. "Answer me! I can feel your temporal energy! You're not from this timeline! How did you cross over?"

"Gah! Some… some Delphox with silver fur brought me here; She said I was needed for something!"

Wigglytuff gasped and released his hold on Ryder. He teared up and looked away from them. "I'm sorry… But you have to leave."

"What? Why?" the Marshtomp asked.

"Because you don't belong in this world! You belong in your own! None of us know you, but you know each of our names, don't you?"

"Yes…? I know that this isn't my timeline," the water-type said. "But how do you know that?"

Wigglytuff sighed and slumped his shoulders. "She knows better…" he grimaced and fiddled with a small green orb. Plague was still too shocked to say much. This Wigglytuff had moved so fast that she couldn't follow him. But she could track psychics even when they teleported. Whatever he did, he moved faster than teleportation, which, for a pokémon besides Ninjask, should be impossible.

"How did you move so swiftly…?" Plague asked. "Not even teleportation is that fast…"

"That's not for you to know," Wigglytuff said. Ryder's voice broke into her head, catching her slightly off guard.

"He seems a lot different than the Guildmaster in my world."

"It's to be expected," she replied telepathically. "He's under a lot of stress, with Team Firestorm being extinguished and such."

"I know, but still… he seems different."

"Of course he's different! This isn't your Wigglytuff! You knew this going in!"

"Wigglytuff… what's wrong with me being here?" Ryder asked. "I just want to help this team in any way I can.

"It won't matter," Wigglytuff said. "Their fate is already sealed."

"What? Are any of them left?" Ryder asked, tears forming in his eyes.

"Only two. Connor and Roy. But Connor is…" the Guildmaster shook his head and closed his eyes tightly. "He has no memories of any of us."

"Only two… Then I have to help them!" Ryder exclaimed. "As long as there is one left, I promised Caroline that I'd-" he choked back a sob and scowled. "If I'm not supposed to be here, then by all means, you can send me back to my world when it's all said and done, but please… let me help first."

"There's nothing you can do at this point," Wigglytuff muttered. Then the Guildmaster looked at her, and she tensed up with just one look into his eyes. She could feel his anguish and rage as if it were her own. How he'd managed to keep it in, she had no idea.

Then his entire demeanor changed in that next instant. Even his internal emotions were replaced by a happy-go-lucky sort of attitude.
"Okay, friends! Let's figure out how to help them!"

Ryder arched an eyebrow and glanced at Plague, and she shrugged, just as confused as he was. Wigglytuff… he is certainly strange.

Alright, so I took a bit of a darker twist on the Guildmaster, but it's not how he normally is. Anywho, for my American readers, I hope you have a good Memorial Day, and don't forget to honor the soldiers that died protecting your freedom.

As always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! If you have any questions, comments, concerns or theories about what might happen later, or who this 'mystery being' making the temporal jump is, feel free to leave a Review or PM! It's always appreciated!

Much Love!

-PL