5 PAGES! This took me FOREVER! So please, enjoy, for me. NOTE: there will be two sequels: Book Two in the Team Soul trilogy, and The Messiah of Time, which will be about Firestar, and this chapter is why. I swear, the idea just came out while I wrote.

Disclaimer: I own NOTHING, except Star and Algator's names.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Lake

Chapter 5

Timeless Past

We'd arrived back at camp. The Gathering had gone very well, considering three creatures from another world had turned up while Blackstar was announcing ShadowClan's news. It was past moonhigh now, and my eyelids were starting to droop. I yawned, just as I heard Lionblaze speaking to Firestar. I tuned my hyperactive hearing to them.

"They've offered to tell us about their past. I think it'll be a long story, so can the two of us stay at camp tomorrow 'till we've heard it?" I head Lionblaze say.

"Yes, but keep your apprentices with you. And Jayfeather. Actually, I want to hear it too, so count me in as well." That was Firestar.

"Thank you, Firestar," said Lionblaze, bowing his head slightly in respect.

So, we're staying home tomorrow. I thought. And we'll get to hear the Pokemon's story. I hope it's interesting… I wonder how they got here anyway?

"Dovepaw!" called my sister, Ivypaw, "Time for bed!"

"Coming!" I replied. I walked over to the apprentices' den, too tired to run, where Ivypaw was waiting. Suddenly, I thought of something, and turned. Where are the Pokemon going to sleep? I wondered. My question was answered when Grovyle picked up Celebi, who seemed to be weak with cold and exhaustion, and jumped into a tree where he placed her in a relatively safe-looking niche between two branches, before perching on a branch and covering his eyes with his fans, like a bird.

I did a double-take. His fans were growing. At first the leaves had been quite small, and only on his wrists, but now the leaves sprouted from all down his arms, and they were as long, relative to his body, as a bird's wings.

How… How? I thought, unable even to formulate coherent thoughts, and from the whispers and gasps around me, I gathered I wasn't the only one.

Suddenly Graystripe called "Look at Dusknoir!" I looked, and the sight took my breath away.

Dusknoir had stepped into the shadows while we ogled Grovyle, and now he seemed to be dissolving into them. His one hypnotic eye was the last thing we saw before it, too winked out of existence.

Everyone was whispering things like, "Incredible!" and, "How is that possible?" but we all turned to Firestar when he called out, "Quiet!" When his wishes had been fulfilled, he continued, "It seems our guests have some strange powers. However, that does not change the fact that it is time for bed! I promise you all, I will speak with them in the morning. Good night." And so saying, he and Sandstorm entered his den together.

I followed Ivypaw into the apprentices' den. "Good night, Dovepaw," she said.

"Good night," I replied, as I closed my eyes.

The next morning, Lionblaze and Cinderheart were waiting when we got up. So were Jayfeather and Firestar, they were talking with the three Pokemon. When we reached them, Grovyle said "Good! Everyone's here. Now we can begin." And so saying he began his tale.

"My name is Grovyle, as you know. This is Celebi," he pointed at Celebi, "And this is Dusknoir," he pointed at Dusknoir. "The three of us come from the Pokemon World, which is officially called Arcea. I'll start at the beginning. 1,000 years ago—"

"What's a year?" interrupted Ivypaw.

"Four seasons," said Celebi quickly, "A cycle of what you'd call Leaf-bare, Newleaf, Greenleaf, and Leaf-fall. I heard that from the cat called Leafpool."

My eyes went wide. "4,000 seasons?" I exclaimed.

"Yes," said Grovyle simply, "Pokemon have a much longer lifespan than most creatures. Anyway, can I continue?" I nodded, "Good. As I was saying, 1,000 years ago, a star fell out of the sky."

"A star fell out—" I began, shocked, but Jayfeather interrupted.

"Will you be quiet, if it's not too much trouble?" He snapped, "I want to hear this story!"

"…Sorry…" I said, abashed.

"That's quite all right." said Celebi, "but please stop interrupting, or we'll be here all day."

"Anyhow, a star fell," continued Grovyle. "towards us. But, a rescue team of the north, I don't know what they were called, managed to reach the summit of the Sky Tower, The Tower of Clouds, which was made of clouds high in the sky. At the pinnacle, they got the help of Rayquaza, King of the Dragons and Master of the Sky, who managed to destroy the star that was falling. The rescue team somehow made it out alive, but after that fell into obscurity. Celebi was born about 300 years later, and just 100 years later, disaster struck.

"You understand what time is?" he asked us. We nodded, "can you imagine what would happen if it stopped?" we shook our heads. "Dusknoir, show them." said Grovyle.

Dusknoir stood, and held out his forelegs. He began to chant in a low voice. When he finished chanting, he boomed, "As a Servant of Time, I claim my power. May Time Stop!"

Everything around us went dark and gray. The sun vanished. Leaves which had been blowing around in the wind froze. The wind stopped too. The luster of the snow on the outside of the camp dimmed.

I gasped, but my reaction was nothing to Firestar's. He gasped too, but he was gasping for air. He fell to the ground, choking, dying…

Light returned. The wind blew again. The sun reappeared, leaves moved, the snow glowed again, and Firestar, was coughing, but alive and being helped up by Grovyle.

"What happened to Firestar?" Cinderheart asked.

"I don't know," said Dusknoir. He looked worried.

"Are you all right?" Grovyle asked Firestar.

"Fine. I'm fine," said Firestar. "Please, continue the story."

"All right. So as I was saying, 600 years ago, disaster struck. The Tower of Time, Temporal Tower, began to collapse, and, with it, so did time itself. The first person to sense anything amiss was Lucario, who, like Dusknoir, was a Servant of Time. But he was more. He was Dialga's second-in-command, a Knight of Time, and Steward of the Tower. He took the five Time Gears from the Tower, to prevent them from being shattered. He hoped that someone would find them and use their power to repair the Tower.

"One hundred years later, the Tower collapsed, and Lucario died in the cataclysm. Time stopped in our world, and Dialga went Primal, meaning he cared only for self-preservation. He knew, as we all did, that if history were changed, we would all disappear. So, instead of trying to save time, he worked to keep it stopped. The only known way to restart time, you see, was to go to the past and prevent the Tower's collapse. A group of a few Pokemon, all of whom hated our world of darkness, began holding the Cresselian Conventions, which were meant to find a way to change history, and repair time. Dusknoir and I were born around that time, about 500 years ago. I joined the Cresselian Conventions, while Dusknoir joined Primal Dialga. He didn't want to disappear, you see. Anyway, the Conventions were held once every six months, and I attended 400 of them before I met Celebi there. This was 300 years ago. I'd already made one good friend there, whose name was Star. He was a human (you call them Twolegs), and a young one, at that. He had an ability called the Dimensional Scream, which allowed him to see the past or future of something he touched, if two conditions were met.

"First, he had to have a trusted friend beside him, and second, it had to be near a Time Gear. He and I were assigned to find the locations of the Time Gears, since I qualified as a trusted friend of his. When we had found the locations of the Time Gears, Celebi would send the entire convention to the past. There we would collect them, and take them to the Tower of Time, where we would use their power to prevent time stopping. That was the plan.

"Imagine my horror when Celebi caught up with us and told us that the Convention had been attacked by Dialga. Even if we managed to find the Time Gears, we would be going to the past alone.

"Star showed his courage that day. He was determined to continue, when even I had lost hope. Celebi promised that she'd be waiting at her home, Dusk Forest, for when we found the Time Gears.

"We found them, but on our travels, we met Dusknoir. Since then, he was our enemy. Once we had found them, we went to Dusk Forest, and Celebi took us back to the past. We encountered turbulence in the time stream, however, and we were separated. I appeared near Treeshroud Forest, one of the Time Gear sites, and took the Time Gear. Time stopped there when I did that, but it was only temporary.

"Then I went to Limestone Cavern, the second Time Gear site, and the first guarded one. I took that Time gear too. It was guarded by a Ditto, which is a Pokemon that can transform into other things. I defeated it easily.

"Then I went to Fogbound Lake. I discovered, then that others had recently visited the Time Gear, and its Guardian, Uxie. I defeated Uxie and took the Gear.

"I took the next, but that one went less smoothly. I was faced with a Totodile and a Charmander, who had formed Exploration Team Dragonlords, and intended to stop me from taking the Time Gear. They'd defeated the Guardian, Mesprit, who'd mistaken them for the thief of Time Gears. I just ran past and took the Gear.

"Next time, though, I failed. I battled the Guardian, Azelf, when Team Dragonlords caught up with me. I defeated them, and then I discovered that Dusknoir had followed me. He appeared and battled me, and I fled, since Azelf had sealed the Gear in crystal.

"A few days later, I heard a rumor that Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit were going to seal away the last Time Gear forever. I knew it might be a trap, but I couldn't risk it. I returned to the site of the last Time Gear, and was captured by Dusknoir, since yes, it was a trap.

"He seemed to have given a twisted story to the general population. He told them I was a wanted criminal in the future, and that the thievery of the Time Gears was intended to freeze time, not repair it. He had gagged me and I couldn't deny it.

"I was taken back to the future, but for some reason, Team Dragonlords was taken too. At first they wanted to trust Dusknoir and not me, but the evidence was overwhelming. We fled together. I told them the basics of this story on the way to Dusk Forest. We arrived there, but when Celebi was about to send us back in time, we were cut off by Dusknoir and Primal Dialga. It was then that Team Dragonlord's leader's identity was revealed, for, though he was a Charmander, he had been a human, and none other that my friend Star. He'd developed amnesia, and couldn't remember me.

"We managed to escape to the past. I left again to regain the Time Gears, while Star and his partner, Algator, searched for Temporal Tower, as well as informing the Time Gears' Guardians to let me through.

"I got the Gears, and they found the Tower so we set off, but at the Tower's base, Dusknoir cut us off. We defeated him, but not before he'd told Star that preventing the Tower's collapse would cause him to disappear. As we talked, Dusknoir attacked again, in a last, desperate attempt to stop us. I blocked, and to give Star and Algator a chance left the Time Gears, and took Dusknoir with me, back to our time.

"In our time we were attacked by Dusknoir's servants, the Sableye. They seemed to have been ordered to betray him by Dialga, who intended to send a new servant to the past. We made our way to Temporal Tower, me to stop Dialga going to the past and stopping Algator and Star, him to find out why Dialga had betrayed him.

When we reached the Tower's pinnacle, however, Dialga wasn't there. Dusknoir reminded me that it would be much easier to use Celebi's Passage of time than a Dimensional Hole, which Dusknoir had always used. I admit the Idea that Dialga would attack Celebi terrified me. We headed for Dusk forest, and found only a Sableye, who said she had been taken to Frozen Island to the south. We made our way there and found her. I rushed over to her, but stepped between four strange crystals.

"Immediately, the crystals released energy at me. This energy would destroy my soul. It was then that Dusknoir's plan was revealed. He had designed all of this, set the Sableye in those places, all so I would come here and have my soul destroyed. Then, he would take over my body and go to Star and Algator and stop them. At the last minute, however, Dusknoir changed his mind. As we traveled together, we'd developed a mutual respect, even a friendship. He shoved me out of the space between the crystals, saving my life.

"Then Dialga came. He was angry with Dusknoir, and attacked him, but then something happened that distracted us. A wind blew. Time was starting up again. Slowly, true, but now I knew that Star had succeeded. History had been changed.

"Dialga seemed to become even more insane and vicious. However he didn't attack us. He ran off and we followed him to the Vast Ice Mountain. Celebi told us that there was a Passage of Time at the top of the mountain, and if Dialga want through to the past, he could still destroy the tower, so we followed him. At the summit, we battled him, the Dragon of Time, and won. Then the sun rose… I remember my body dissolving, we were all vanishing… We… We disappeared. And reappeared here. You know the rest."

There was silence when Grovyle finished his tale as we all digested what we'd heard. Then, Jayfeather said, "Wow. You really have been through a lot."

"Yeah," I said.

"Our story isn't as spectacular," said Firestar, "But we'll tell you it, if you want to hear it."

"Yes, please," said Celebi, and they settled down to listen.

Algator is my partner in PMD1 red and blue and I'm a charmander. This is a freebie for one of my questions. I added all the old history, and the extra-long-lifespan thing. Read and Review (cliché, I know…)