A/N: Eight days. I'm so sorry for taking this long to get to writing this chapter. But I hope the wait was worth it.

In Team Space-Time's last adventure, peril was narrowly averted by all parties attacked by Unod the World Destroyer. Unfortunately, Grovyle's party lost a member, as Sneasel found out. The news shook her hard. So hard that she accepted the Dark Blessing directly from Unod herself, believing her lies.

Chapter 6 – Setting Out to Battle

In the Guild's Audience room, the Guild crew and the visitors from the future were gathered to discuss a new plan.

"First of all," Chatot said. "We need to know what she looks like. I didn't get a good look at her before she banished us from Power Cave."

"We can fill you in on that," Pugno said. Pelame and Grovyle nodded in agreement.

"I'm surprised she LET you look at her," Loudred said. "Let alone tell you her NAME while she was kicking your butts."

"She looks human," Grovyle said. "I think she actually is human. She's very elderly, though that doesn't stop her from being a capable fighter."

"She has pitch-black hair," Pelame said. "She keeps it up with a hairclip that looks like a snowflake, and she has bangs hanging in front of her face."

"Her posture isn't normal, even for a human," Grovyle said. "She slouches." Grovyle slouched his own posture to demonstrate. "Like this." His demonstration was a bit too good, as he soon fell flat on his face.

After a good laugh, the descriptions continued.

"She has on an outfit unlike anything I've ever seen," Pugno said. "It's like she's wearing capes on every part of her body. It flowed like a cape would. It actually looks a bit royal how she dresses."

"A snowflake-shaped sigil was on the front and back of it," Pelame said. "It looked just like her hairclip."

"Her eyes were white," Grovyle said. "With an orange ring around the pupil."

"Her flesh was a pale shade of beige," Pugno said. "And it was really wrinkly, per her age."

"She's also wearing something really hard on her feet," Grovyle said. "It felt like metal when she kicked me."

"A very important thing to note is that the only move she telegraphs is her laser attack," Pelame said. "She points her middle finger straight to the ground as she points at her target with her index finger. And she has her thumb between her index and middle fingers as she does that. But every other one of her moves come without warning, so watch out."

"Okay," Chatot said. "We know what she looks like now. Anything else we should know, other than her unpredictable fighting style?"

"Two things," Pugno said. "You'll know you're near her when it smells like something died nearby. It also gets cold wherever she is."

"And the other things is what she sounds like," Pelame said. She then cleared her throat. "She sounds…something like this." She rasped her own voice in an attempt to sound like Unod. It hurt her throat to do so. She coughed a little bit and drank some water to relieve herself.

"If only that would happen to UNOD, right?" Loudred joked.

"Now we just have to find her," Celebi said. "So… how should we go about doing that?"

"We can't split up. It was disastrous when we tried that last time."

Pelame and Pugno's fur stood on end when they heard who said that.

"Every Pokémon deserves another chance," Guildmaster Wigglytuff said. "The Great Dusknoir will be coming with us to deal with Unod. After all, he's Grovyle and Celebi's friend now."

"Besides," Chatot said. "He knows a lot of things in general. He'll be a very valuable asset to us in this upcoming battle."

"Well," Pelame seethed. "I can't trust him yet. But if you want him to tag along, I won't contest that decision."

"Me neither," Pugno said. "After all, Pelame promised Grovyle that she'd give Dusknoir the time of day. I'll do the same."

"Very good," Chatot said. "Now, back to the matter at hand. Unod threatened to completely destroy the Boiling Forest. We've received word from Officer Magnezone that she made good on that threat, which is why it's a good thing Pelame and her friends got them to safety. They are now staying here…" he got out a huge Wonder Map and pointed at the Hot Springs. "…with Torkoal, the town elder. But that still leaves us with where Unod is heading."

"POKEMON DETECTED! POKEMON DETECTED!" shouted Diglett from the sentry area. "THE FOOTPRINT IS…UXIE?"

"Uxie?" Pelame asked. "The guardian of Fogbound Lake?"

"YOU MAY ENTER!" Loudred shouted. In an instant, Uxie appeared in the Audience Room.

"Uxie, are you okay?" Grovyle said.

"Yes," Uxie said. "But I couldn't save the lake. A strange creature attacked me directly, before I even had the chance to create my Groudon illusion. She was too powerful…"

"No way," Bidoof said. "Unod got you, too?"

"That's what her name is?" Uxie asked. "And how do you know her? You all weren't attacked by her, too?"

"Some of us were," Pugno said. "She tried to get me killed, along with Pelame and our new recruit Sneasel. Not to mention she almost got Grovyle killed, too."

"In fact, she took control of him and used him to kill the Sneasel's sister," Pelame said. "We haven't seen Sneasel since she found this out."

"What happened to you, though?" Dusknoir asked. "It couldn't have been your Time Gear she was after? Doesn't she know it's not there anymore?"

"No," Uxie said. "The Time Gears aren't needed anymore. They're all in Temporal Tower. She said something about 'putting the world back the way it was meant to be.' I don't know what she meant by that, and I never got a clear explanation out of her. She struck me down and destroyed the lake. She knocked it over and flooded the Foggy Forest. I saved as many Pokémon as I could by sending them to the Hot Springs near town, but not everyone made it out alive. I saw her heading toward Mount Horn, which is making me think she's on her way here to Treasure Town!"

"Well, I guess we know where to GO now," Loudred said. "We just head her off on the path we took when we went on that expedition YEARS ago."

"Wait a moment," Pelame said. "Treasure Town isn't where she's going."

Pelame walked up to the Wonder Map and pointed at Fogbound Lake.

"If she were to continue going down that path," Pelame said, tracing an imaginary line down the theoretical path Unod was taking. "It would take her to—"

Pelame backed away, horrified. As soon as she reached the end of the line, she knew what Unod was up to.

"Her target isn't Treasure Town," Pelame said. "It's Brine Cave."

"But why is that her target?" Chatot asked. "The only point of significance of that area is that it leads to the Hidden Land, so unless she has an errand there, I don't know why she…" Then Chatot realized what Pelame was getting at. "Oh dear, this isn't good!"

"So, Master Dialga is her target," Dusknoir said.

"Master Dialga?" Celebi asked. "You don't need to call him that, Dusknoir."

"I know," Dusknoir said. "But Unod can't be allowed into the Hidden Land. If she's trying to destroy the world, Temporal Tower is perhaps the best place to start."

"Paralyzing the planet would make things easier for her," Grovyle said.

"But Dialga is the Deity of Time!" Uxie said. "He can't be completely destroyed!"

"She might just be able to," Celebi said. "Besides, she doesn't have to kill Dialga in order to stop time. If she destroys the Tower…"

"…Then time itself collapses," Pugno finished. "And Primal Dialga will be at her beck and call."

"And if Unod already destroyed Uxie's Lake," Sunflora said. "She could get to the Hidden Land by tonight!"

"We can't delay a moment longer!" Chatot said. "If we're going to stop her, we must leave now!"

"Then that is what we'll do!" Guildmaster Wigglytuff said. "Everyone, we're moving out! YOOOOM-TAAAH!" At the sound of the Guildmaster's Hyper Voice, everyone dispersed at once.

"Remember," Chatot said. "We're heading toward Fogbound Lake! Unod will be along the straight path from there to Treasure Town!"

As the crew left, Pelame called out to Dusknoir.

"Is there something you need?" he asked.

"The Guild's crew decided to trust you to help us," Pelame said. "And I promised Grovyle to give you a chance as well. Today will be that day, so I suggest you don't do anything that makes me think I'm right in believing that you're up to something. Because if you do, then I can't be held responsible for what I'll do to you in response. Do I make myself clear?"

"Very clear," Dusknoir said. "One way or another, you will see that Grovyle was right in trusting me."

With that, the two followed the rest of the guild crew.

By the time the crew reached the other side of Craggy Coast, they had been joined by Team Charm, Team AWD, and Team Skull.

"Never in all my life did I think I'd be on the same side as you fools," Skuntank said. "Don't think this changes anything. We just have the same foe; that's all."

"I understand," Pelame said. "You want there to be a world to mess around in. You'd never understand, but we really do appreciate the help."

"Treasures of the world belong to me, anyway," Weavile said. "If this Unod creature has her way with the world, what would there be to take?"

"Likely nothing," Zubat said.

"Yeah," Skuntank said. "She's a miserable creep."

"Preaching to the choir on that one, stinky," Weavile said.

"It says something about this creature that even you two," Lopunny mused. "Who lead unethical Teams despise her and think she's cruel."

"Yeah," Chatot said. "Hatred of Unod appears to be bringing us close together."

"Very funny," Weavile said. "I'll never call myself friends with any of you."

"Seconded," Skuntank said. "As soon as we give Unod what she deserves, we're going back to the status quo."

"Speaking of whom," Pelame said. "We should be getting close. It's getting a bit cold."

The party braced themselves for the impending arrival of their foe.

"What took you all so long?"

A/N: Sorry again for taking forever getting this one up. I hope it was worth the wait.

By the way, here are some explanations of a few things: when Pugno is talking about Unod's clothing, he's describing an outfit resembling royal robes (a lot like a royal Kimono, but not completely like one). And when Pelame is describing Unod's laser attack, she mentions a particular gesture. When Unod uses her laser attack, her hand is in the form of the letter "K" as said in American Sign Language, but there's no way a Pokémon would know that.

With that said, look forward to the next chapter!