Disclaimer: The answers to "What do I own?" and "What is war good for?" are the same. Absolutely nothing.

Chapter Seven: Dreamscapes

Chris's POV

I was having another dream, that might have been a memory falling through the cracks. I was walking, down a long, wide, concrete road, probably to get somewhere. There was someone next to me, but no matter how much I willed myself to look there, my head wouldn't budge from it's position, fixated on the sky, devoid of all detail, and completely black. Why was the sky completely void, even at night, there's the moon, and always stars, right? And, why would someone travel at night? That's when you stop to rest, unless you're in a desert of course, but, there was grass on the side of the road. I kept walking, with my traveling companion always there. My mouth then began to speak words for me.

"Yeah, so, I guess you're gonna follow me, then."

Silence.

"Look, I know you found me beat up on the side the road, mate, but its not like I'm gonna right up and die on you, is it?"

More eerie silence, even at night there was some sound. Why was it so quiet?

"There's just no shaking you, is there?"

Then, I heard a response, it was speech, but it was garbled, as if this memory had been tampered with.

"Look, I don't think I'm gonna be able to understand you, mate. I mean, I'm a human, and you're a pokemon." Ah, it could be the remembering itself too.

More garbled audio.

"Listen, I know you can understand me, and you seem to a smart one, so I'll tell you where I'm heading." Finally, some answers. "I was on a train to Topeka before you and I met in there, yes, I remember you were there. Anyway, the guy who captured me told me he was instructed to kill me and dispose of the body. He knocked me out, then I woke up to see you standing over me. Which reminds me, how did you get out?" I finally turned to face my companion, but either due to the darkness or another reason, I couldn't get a fix on who he was.

"Oh yeah right, I wouldn't be able to understand if I tried. Anyway, the official reason I was heading to Topeka was relocation, but, it was actually so I could work under this professor guy. Apparently he knows something that explained why time stopped and how it could be fixed." Time stopped? "I know, sounds too good to be true. But, he's one smart cookie. Not to mention after I got the letter saying I was to be relocated for this very reason, those guys started chasing after me." I started walking again. "Anyway, I may be thirteen, but I apparently have a very rare gift that would be very useful for repairing what happened. The human population in America is down to like, five hundred thousand, from close to three hundred million!" Holy shit, something huge must've happened. "Everyone else is either dead, or turned into brain-dead zombies by that dark plague stuff. Even stranger, is that you pokemon showed up shortly before time stopped. According to the Professor, that definitely isn't a coincidence. Anyway, we're walking along an interstate highway, so it shouldn't be too long until we find a map." We continued walking, and I had the sensation of time passing, as my dream fast forwarded.

I was in some kind of building, and the words "Rest stop" came to mind. I was standing in front of a map.

"Okay, we're about twenty miles outside of Topeka, in somewhere called Wabanusee County. Let's see..." I pointed at a small town on the map called Paxico. "That's where the professor's lab is. It was built shortly after it happened, and built there because it's close to a highway, and because it was small enough that it wouldn't really ever be noticed. Let's see, we're about two miles off. Should take around forty minutes to get there if we take our time. But first things first." I turned to my traveling companion. "Let's see if there's any food in here, I'm starving, and you don't look much better, mate."

I began to look through the building for stuff and found a large, old flashlight. I took it and flipped it on, thankful that it still had batteries. I then came across a bunch vending machines. In them were chips, candy bars, pretzels, and an assortment of soft drinks and bottled water. "Oh that's brilliant, but how am I gonna..." I suddenly realized that these vending machines were missing their caging, which surprised me. How did I know they had caging? But I then looked at my heavy flashlight. "Smashy smashy." I demolished the glass on the vending machine and when my companion came over, "Wait a minute mate, there's glass all over the floor, I'll just throw you all the food." Oh yes.

We ate our fill and washed it down with old water bottles. "I'm surprised this hasn't all gone off yet, but, I guess that's a side effect of time stopping." We took a couple of bottles, and then we moved to the parking lot. "Hang on a minute, mate, I have an idea." I ran back inside and went to the maintenance room, and found it unlocked. I took a screwdriver, a rag, and some wire cutters. I ran back out, my new friend all the time staring at me like I was crazy. I found a compact car and bashed the window in. I reached in and opened the door then wiped away all the glass with my rag. I unlocked the doors and opened the passenger door. "Get in." My companion got in, and closed the door behind him. "Alright, an old mate of mine showed me this once, I'm hoping I get it right."

I unscrewed the the panels on the steering column and removed them. I handed them off to my companion "Here, hold these." He took them and placed them in the seat behind him, perplexed. I then found the ignition cables and cut the red wires. I stripped them and twisted them together with the rag. The electronics turned on. "We are in business." I then found the brown wire and did the same, but then I simply touched it to the red ones. I waited about one second for the engine to turn over then pulled it away. "And that, my friend, is how to hot-wire a car." I put the car into gear and drove off, my friend simply staring at me in disbelief.

The scene changed again to me standing in front of a door, pounding on it. My companion was at my side.

"Professor? You in there?"

No response.

"Professor?"

Silence.

"You know what, I'm coming in."

I opened the door.

"Holy shit!"

In the lab, equipment was overturned, papers were littering the floor, and the professor was standing in the corner, cradling his head. I ran in and went up to the professor, an old man with flowing white hair, my companion simply staying at the door.

"Hey! Professor!"

"Hmm?" He looked up at me with eyes that seemed distant.

"Are you alright? What happened here?"

"I'm fine. Those bastards came in and nearly destroyed the lab, and I just got news that the student being sent over was captured or something, probably dead." He shook his head. "The situation's looking grim, son. Anyway, why are you here?"

"I'm that student you mentioned." I responded.

"Really? You made it, that's great news! Well, let's see if you actually have the gift." He turned around and began to sift through the rubbish as if looking for something.

"Um, the gift?"

"You'll see. Oh, you can come in too, (garbled)" Huh? I guess whoever made me forget this definitely didn't want me knowing my friend. He pulled out a small box, labeled "incandescent bulbs." At that point I began to feel a little dizzy. "Ah, here it is!"

"Some light bulbs, professor?" I had a feeling it wasn't light bulbs.

"Oh no, this isn't a box of light bulbs, son." He opened the box and pulled out an ornate gear, about four inches across. It looked as if it wouldn't run anything, but as I saw it, I began to see some colors flashing in front of my vision. I shook my head in an attempt to clear it.

"What the heck is that, professor?"

"Well, before I tell you, I want you to take it."

"Okay, whatever you say..." He dropped the gear into my hand. Suddenly, I felt really dizzy and the colors were flashing by at an incredible rate. Suddenly, everything went to black and a white line drove itself across my vision. Suddenly, A white flash consumed my entire field of vision and I saw a blurry scene come into focus.

There was a pedestal, and on it was an ornate gear, the very same one I held in my hand. In front of it were two pokemon, one significantly larger than the other. They both began to speak, but, even though I couldn't understand them in real life, in this vision, it was as if there was some universal translator or something, and I understood everything.

"So, you want me to guard the time gear, Dialga?"

"Yes, you know what would happen if it were to be removed from here, don't you?" The rest came into focus, the scene showed the gear at the edge of a lake.

"Oh, I know. So, when someone actually finds this place?"

"Oh, that probably will never happen, but when that happens, I want you to do what you do best."

"Wipe their memories?"

"Yes, make sure that the secret of Fogbound Lake never makes it out of here, Uxie."

"Yes sir."

The scene quickly faded and I was back in the lab, the professor staring at me intently.

"Alright, professor, I have two questions. Number one, what the hell just happened, and, how'd you get your hands on a time gear?"

"Ah, you see, this is just a cheap imitation of a time gear, it merely was cut from the same temporal stone. And what you just experienced is a very rare gift, known to exist in only a few humans and pokemon."

"A rare gift?"

"Yes. To experience it's full potential and see complete scenes, however, it's necessary to have a trusted companion."

"Um, I did see a complete scene."

"Really, then you must really trust your friend there."

"Oh, yeah I guess so. Heh. Anyway, what's it called, that gift?" The dream then began to fade. No, not yet! I still have so many questions.

"Yes, it's called the-" Then the dream completely faded, the last thing to go being the gear I held in my hand.

I slowly drifted awake in the Guild, and it was still the middle of the night. I mulled over what the dream was about. And the dream within the dream, what was that? Fogbound Lake? "A dream within a dream... Why is that so funny?" I muttered to myself. "Why is it all so confusing?" the dreams weren't exactly abstract, but that didn't make them any less, well, confusing.

I decided I'd go back to sleep, wanted to get as much in before the resident alarm clock ruined it.