Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum: Scenes From A Memory

Chapter 7: The Dark Eternal Night

"You two – want a drink? Not much of this left, but I think there's enough for a glass for the tree of us." My dad said, holding a bottle of whiskey in his left hand. "Old Pluteney, 21-year old, possibly the finest stuff I ever put in my mouth."

"You sure it's a good idea?" I asked, while Omar was already getting himself a glass, looking quite eager.

"It's all the alcohol there is in here, and besides, there's still running water. I'll get you a glass Floyd." He said, as he poured the whiskey for me. "It'll be fine, don't worry." I looked at the spirit, sitting gently at the bottom of the glass. It had been almost two month by now since I had a drink, and I could use one of this quality to make up for it.

"Dinnae down it ya brute!" Kirk said as Omar knocked it back, the sudden shock and horror making him his accent show its face suddenly. He looked a bit confused as to why my dad looked angry about the treatment of his whiskey. I sipped it slowly, and I could see why my dad praised it the way he did. This all felt very homely with the candle-lit house, though 'lit' was a bit of an overstatement. We hardly had an infinite reserve of candles, so we only ever used up to two at a time for the whole house.

Over the past week or so without electricity made me glad I wasn't born in an Amish family. Sure, we could survive without power, but it didn't feel like living. We couldn't eat hot food, which made some of it quite disgusting, but I suppose it qualified as edible, barely. Worse yet though, life had been, for a lack of a better phrase, incredibly boring. All the luxuries that we once had were useless now, and the television had been set up to be a makeshift table by this point. We could still play pool though, but we had to look real close at the balls to see what colour they were, which was always a royal pain in the neck.

Most of us were wearing coats, hats and gloves indoors by now. Trust the planet to stop rotating in the middle of winter. Grovyle was taking to it the worst though, and I was starting to think of ways how he could stay warm aside from wrapping a hand towel around his shivering body. A pity we didn't have any children's clothes with us that he could awkwardly try to fit himself into. We seemed to be staying relatively healthy, and our food stores were still plentiful, so I suppose things weren't all bad.

"I'm surprised that they managed to keep the water going for this long, though it tastes a bit different now." Grovyle said, drinking the water I gave to him.

"I hope it's still safe to drink. No idea how long it'll last, the government can't broadcast to the public now, and they've stopped mailing notifications in the last couple of weeks for some reason. Seems like they're giving up." I said, drinking my own glass of water. He was right about it tasting a little different, but it was still fine. What was happening outside of our house was a complete mystery to us, and after seeing that horrific entity upon Arthur's Seat, none of us even wanted to know. Omar and Dusknoir were still on poor terms pretty much all the time, but they could still work together if need be, both of them agreeing to follow my father's lead.

Kirk had been trying his best to be a leader to us in these troubled times, and so far, he had been pretty successful in keeping everyone fairly united, though he confessed to me privately a few days ago that he was finding it very hard. Still, the lack of home checks and invasions made things easier. Maybe we developed a reputation for being tough targets after Omar gunned down those crooks in our front yard, or maybe most of the neighbours died of exposure, starvation or were just murdered by each other. Thankfully there had been nothing particularly freaky or unusual, but I did notice our food supplies slowly diminishing which always made me uneasy. There was still plenty there, but eventually we'd be left with nothing, and none of us had any ideas on how to get more outside of raiding some underground bunker which may or may not even exist.

"How's the food treating you? You know, since it's not really supposed to be for pokemon." I asked Grovyle as I went down to get a can of beans. I hadn't eaten in about eight hours and my stomach was begging for some grub. My mouth had different ideas, as we had to eat everything cold now, the beans tasted pretty revolting. "Food...it's fuel!" I said loudly as I swallowed the disgusting, cold beans.

"It'll do I suppose. A lot of the wildlife I preyed upon long ago seems to have gone now. Seems like there's still enough fish in the sea, so Dragonite seems to be fine. Maybe she'll be kind enough to share some eventually."

"Hopefully things won't come to that." I said, wondering if we could even eat uncooked fish safely.

"You two, come over here." My dad said, beckoning us over to join Omar and Dusknoir.

"Now, as we can see here..." He said, getting his own glass of water, and it seemed like the water was falling from the tap a little slower than usual. "I think that within a week or so as a rough guess, we'll not be getting any tap water, and the bottled water we have will eventually run out soon as well. We have four buckets here, and it's about two miles to River Esk. I think we should try to get these full of water while we're still fit, healthy and able. It might not be the freshest water, but it'll have to do."

"Who's going? Will anyone stay behind to keep an eye on the house?" Omar asked as my dad thought carefully about it.

"...Ok, you and Grovyle will stay. I'll go with Dusknoir and Floyd." He said, Omar and Grovyle looking a bit puzzled as to why they were staying behind. "I'll be blunt, I can't trust you and Dusknoir being together while I'm gone, and I really don't want to ask people to do things I wouldn't do myself, hence why I'm going. Hopefully this won't take more than a couple of hours or so. Get ready you two, we're leaving in ten minutes."

"Ok, I'll just need to get my warmer jacket, a hat and gloves. Oh, I'll take the crowbar just in case we run into trouble." I said, taking a big drink of water to ensure I was properly hydrated before wrapping myself up to protect myself from the chilly temperatures. At least there was no snow outside, so time could have stopped during worse conditions I guess. Dusknoir didn't really need to do anything, saying that temperature, aside from extreme cases, never affected him very much.

"You two, you sure you don't want to take these?" Omar said, pointing to the two handguns on the table. "Look, I know you have this 'I cannot kill under any circumstance ever' policy, but I'm sure you could at least scare off any attackers by just pointing them at the bastards." What he said seemed reasonable, as I took one and carefully put it in a large coat pocket.

"Well, uh, I guess Dialga never mentioned anything about not being allowed to point guns at people..." My father said, sounding very unsure of himself as he also took one.

"Might I remind you that threatening to kill is also strictly forbidden." Dusknoir said, folding his arms and narrowing his solitary eye.

"I'll keep the safety catch on. Not my fault if they can't see that." Kirk said, clearly doing a bit of mental gymnastics to justify himself. "Besides, I'm not saying 'I'm going to kill you' or anything like that."

"The Kirk, the High Priest Munro I first met would never do such a thing." Dusknoir said, still dissatisfied.

"You've not known me for that long it seems. I don't think it's even been two years. Besides, I'm still very much in line with Dialga's laws, so it's absolutely fine. Look, we can discuss the details en route, I'd rather not just stand here and do it." Kirk said as he opened the back door and let us through, locking it behind us. We soon joined up with the road, which thankfully didn't feel too close to any houses, and aside from one driver that drove by us, we didn't find a single living thing.

"Shit, I forgot to change batteries!" He said, trying to get his torch to shine so he could look at the map. "Still, seems like my eyes have gotten used to the dark by now..." Kirk muttered, putting his face right up to the map.

"I must still object to you two carrying lethal weapons." Dusknoir complained yet again while my dad was concentrating, and it was finally now that Kirk snapped.

"Because, unlike some people, we can't shoot great balls of shadow out of our mouths or be physically stronger than the strongest man! For fuck's sake, I don't even know how to use this pistol or whatever it's called! I've never even held a gun before in my life! I know you're fascinated by humanity, so surely you would have seen how people defend themselves! Dialga understood this, and it seems like everyone understands this except for you!" Kirk shouted, breathing heavily. "Sorry, but it's important that everyone takes some sort of precaution for defence, and I refuse to be one of those selfish saps who hide behind their pokemon for protection."

"...I am sorry, High Priest Munro. I should have more faith in your wisdom." He said, sounding very apologetic. "It seems like I still have much to learn."

"You didn't have much time to, and I'm still proud of your progress. Anyway, we need to turn left at the next junction, then we walk about three hundred meters, then push through the trees to the right and we'll be at the river." My dad said, pointing ahead down the road into the endless black. We had spent so long in darkness that our pupils had probably become incredibly dilated by now, to the point where we could see our immediate surroundings without that much difficulty, and yet, it seemed like the colour had been literally drained from the world around us. Dusknoir seemed to be able to see just fine. I guess it was rather obvious he would, given the numpty who first discovered his kind and gave them the most unsubtle name ever.

"Ok, I think we're about here. I can't hear the river, but it's a pretty slow flowing one, at least I think it is." Kirk said, coming to a stop and turning right to look at the bushes and trees and started pushing past them. There was northing thorny thankfully, so getting through was easy, except for Dusknoir, his large body getting stuck a couple of times.

"Doesn't seem like anyone's here..." Kirk said, sounding a little unsure of himself at the end as we all heard a strange sound ahead of us on the other side of the river. A strange figure came out of the bushes that looked vaguely human, but it looked very wild and savage at the same time. He looked at us and gave a rather high pitched, yet fierce growl.

"Get away from my river! It's MY river! MINE!" He shouted, waving a stick around threateningly. Well, at least he was trying to look threatening.

"Relax you clown, we'll be gone in about three minutes, and this river isn't going to run out of water any time soon!" I yelled back to him, and he responded by throwing a large stone at us, just falling short, landing on the river bank.

"I doubt he'll try to wade across the deep moving water with three of us here, but we don't know if he's got friends or any weapons. I'd suggest scaring him off somehow." Dusknoir said as I acted on his suggestion as soon as he yelled at us again.

"You remember what one of these are, right?" I said, taking my gun out of my jacket pocket and pointing it at him. "You have ten seconds to get out of here, you hear me?!" I held it firmly in my hand, staring at him intensely. Thankfully, he blinked first before turning around and walking off.

"See? I never actually threatened to shoot him, it's all good. Now, let's get a drink and fill our buckets, just in case he comes back with friends." I said, taking some water in the bucket and drinking some of it. It was extremely cold and made me shiver, and didn't taste good, but it seemed to be functional. I'm guessing my dad either forgot to bring or forgot to order water purification tablets, which was a rather big oversight on his part. Still, it seems like it was safe enough to drink for now.

"Quickly now, we can't stay here for long!" Dusknoir said, filling up both of his buckets. The river itself, much like the tap water, seemed to be flowing just a little slower than it should be. The difference was very slight, but it was noticeable in a way that made me feel uncomfortable. "Right, are we ready to...Kirk?!" He said, as he pointed at my father who was suddenly unconscious on the river bank.

"Think it's a dimensional scream?" I said as Dusknoir picked him up and gently put him over his shoulder.

"I hope so, and we're leaving now. We've got what we came for." He said, already floating away from the river. I cupped some water from the river in my hands and took one last drink before following him.

"So you're in charge after my dad falls asleep eh? A bit presumptuous, no?" I said, carrying the other two buckets behind him. I really hoped my dad would wake up soon, carrying two heavy buckets all the way home would be exhausting at best and impossible at worst for me. A moment later he did wake up, giving Dusknoir an odd look.

"...Put me down. Oh, and, er, thank you." He sounded quite confused, not knowing how to react. Dusknoir gently put him on his feet and I gave him one of my heavy buckets of water. "Well, hopefully this will last us a few days. I hope..." He said, trailing off again, exhaling deeply. Something was clearly bothering him.

"Ok dad, what did you see this time?" I asked. The question seemed like it hurt him and he suddenly looked very afraid.

"I saw the lord." He replied and swallowed. He looked like he was in a terrified sweat by now. "Well, what was left of Dialga anyway. How should I describe this...it was an entity that I can only describe as a broken husk of his former self. All the wisdom and righteousness was gone. He looked crazed, maddened, and I fear he's been reduced to mere primal instinct."

"None of us knows exactly what Dialga looks like though, how can you be sure it was him?!" Dusknoir said, also sounding terrified, his body visibly shivering, his voice not quite as deep as it usually was. Thinking about my father's descriptions, I started remembering a dimensional scream I had many months ago. A lot of what he said seemed to match – a great being being dragged down to animalistic behaviour...

"Father...did he have creepy red glowing eyes? Dull orange lines over it's body? How about real dark murky blue crystal metal stuff covering most of his body?" I said, as my dad went into borderline shock at this.

"Aye...that must be him! Is...is this what our lord and master has become?!" The priest looked like he might tear up at any second. "I had...I...I will..." He eventually started to compose himself after closing his eyes, taking a few long, deep breaths. "I will think about this long and hard when we return home. Maybe...maybe that thing we saw atop Arthur's Seat...that being looked real similar to him." He said, inhaling incredibly deeply, clearly trying his best not to freak out.

"I don't think I ever felt so lost and abandoned..." I muttered to myself, looking down the long dark road ahead. Thinking about it, I really should have been able to figure it out, but I had always told myself that it couldn't be true. A lot of the questions that I should be asking myself about my faith, beliefs and how valid The Righteous Tome really was were shelved. I couldn't deal with them right now as I shivered every few steps, power walking down the road, just wanting to get home. Of the three of us, however, Dusknoir seemed to take it the worst.

"What should we do?! Can we still call ourselves Dialgans?! Should we continue to follow him?! Was it all a lie?! Is that thing out there still Dialga?! I don't want to die!" He said, almost going into blind panic, but at that moment, we heard a similar ominous roar that sounded it like it was half organic, half mechanical. It came from the west somewhere and it silenced Dusknoir's frightened rambling.

"...He's here...that's him. Of all the places he had to be..." Kirk whispered. It was extremely unlikely he'd notice us, but we could feel his presence all around us. We only had scripture to tell us of what he was capable of, and the last thing any of us wanted was to get the attention of a mad god. We heard nothing for an entire minute, so we decided to keep moving. "As for what you were saying...well, only you can answer those questions for yourself, but I'll guide and advise you and Floyd the best that I can. I'm not entirely sure if I can call myself a priest anymore, but my credentials are still there. I'll be needing them..."

"I'd...I'd just rather not think about it at all." I said slowly. How fitting that the world itself became hollow and savage, just as my lord had become, like the two of them were connected by some cosmic bond. None of us said a word to each other, nor did we pay any heed to a couple of pedestrians we saw. Thankfully Dusknoir was there, else we could have been mugged right there on the spot. We eventually arrived home, Kirk sounding quite exhausted after that trek.

"Has there been any incidents?" My dad said to Grovyle and Omar after opening the door and gasping for breath as he put the bucket of river water down on the floor.

"Yeah, a couple of looters. We chased them away though. The door's a bit damaged though, any idea on how to repair it?" Omar said, pointing at the front door. It had a hole near the bottom of it and it was only hanging on by a single hinge. "Nothing was taken though, and we're not hurt."

"I trust you just 'chased them away.'" Kirk said, getting himself some cold beans and a glass of water. "I'll be in my room if you need me, emphasis on the word 'need.' I have a lot to think about."

"Did something happen when you were gone?" Grovyle asked me discreetly as Kirk went to his bedroom.

"He got a vision of Dialga. It pretty much confirms that thing we saw a few weeks ago on top of Arthur's Seat was Dialga, or at least what was left of him. Like my dad, I really have a lot to think about now." I said, getting a candle and my copy of The Righteous Tome, and sat on the couch on the other end of the room. Could I trust a word of this book now? Did Dialga always have this madness inside of him? I could not tell, and the words I read provided no answers to me. I sadly sighed and kept reading for as long as the candle remained lit. Grovyle and Omar were talking quietly to one another at the other end of the room. It seemed as though they had become pretty good friends lately, which made me smile.

"Hey Floyd, you feeling any better now?" Grovyle said, sitting next to me, just as the candlelight faded away.

"Well, can I get your opinion on something? I'm thinking that, as Dialga is now, I don't think I can follow him in his current state. He is just too different as to the one that was described in The Righteous Tome. However, I'll still be following his words he left here. They're still just as valid, if not more correct than ever before, and still remains true to the spirit of the lord. I guess I really should be running this by my dad, which I'll do shortly." I asked Grovyle, who looked very unsure of what to say.

"It's really not my thing, and I really don't know much about this Dialgism stuff at all, but...just do what you think feels right Floyd." He said, trying to comfort me.

"Aye, but what if I'm wrong? There's often a big difference between thinking you've done the right thing, and actually doing the right thing. Why do you think I follow the lord so much."

"Have a little faith in yourself Floyd – did Dialga think that little of humans that he didn't trust them to figure out things for themselves?" He replied as I frowned at him.

"Ahem...you do realise that Edinburgh's probably in complete anarchy right now, right? Seems like mankind kind of fucked up the whole 'decide their own path' thing." I gestured to The Righteous Tome. "It's not perfect – even Dialga himself said that. That being said, it's the best we got. Now I know you'll probably never be a Dialgan, and I'm fine with that, but, like I said, even the best intentioned people can still fuck up and end up doing something horrible. Remember that well."

"I see. Well, good to know where we stand and whatnot, but there is one more question I want to ask – if 'Dialga' asked you personally to do something that went against that book, would you do them?"

"That'd never happen." I said very quickly. "He wouldn't bother with individuals like me. Still, I get your point...well...I guess we'll just have to see what happens. Like I said, I'd struggle to follow him as he is now, but if he actually gave out orders...I'll run that by my dad."

"Just remember to not completely dismiss your own intuition. It's better than you think it is."

"Thanks." I said, smiling slightly at Grovyle. I felt very light headed very suddenly, but by now, I knew what was happening, and I was happy it happened on a nice comfortable sofa instead of outside in the cold. I passed out and was greeted of a vision of a small but beautiful lake, with what I thought were volbeats and illumises flying around. The way they helped to illuminate the lake made it even more pretty, but I was more distracted about a strange object that was hovering just above the surface of the water. There was a strange turquoise glow around it, and the glow itself seemed to form a strange shape all of its own. Looking closely at the object, it looked like some kind of gear, not too different to one that you'd find in a machine. It looked very out of place, and it was clearly no ordinary machine part, but what exactly it was, I had no idea. I then saw a strange being floating by it, covered in pale blues and yellows and had two tails. Like the gear, I had no idea who or what that was, but I had no time to try and figure any of this out as I was thrust back into the waking world.

"See anything interesting?" Grovyle asked, helping me sit up.

"Well..." I then described to him the strange sights I saw in the dream. "...Yeah, no real context to it either. No idea what have that shit was."

"I'd still recommend writing down what you saw in a log book of some kind." My father said, walking towards us. "Even if it appears meaningless or useless, it should still all be recorded. Who knows, there may be a very good reason for getting dimensional screams like that."

"Of course." I said as I looked around for a pencil as my dad went and got me a notepad.

"After you're done, I want you to come speak to me and Dusknoir. It's religious issues, Grovyle, I hope you understand that we might want to keep it between us." He said as Grovyle frowned at him. "Eavesdrop if you absolutely must, just stay out of the conversation until we're done, ok?" Kirk said, looking a little flustered as he lead me to his room where Dusknoir was waiting and shut the door.

"Well, even though I never told either of you two to think about it, I trust you all did it anyway." He said, as we both nodded. "So, Dusknoir – never mind what I think, I want to hear your thoughts and opinions – how do you feel about this book, the Dialga in the past, and the Dialga of the present?"

"Well, I've been a true Dialgan ever since you took me in, and I will remain true to Dialga until the day that I die." He said, sounding quite proud of himself.

"I see...specifically, what do you think of Dialga now?" Kirk asked, his voice remaining very calm and steady.

"Well, he's certainly different, but he is still the lord. I shall still follow him."

"Ok...what if he ordered some kind of, well, genocide against non-Dialgans? What if he asked you to lie and spread anarchy wherever you went? Or anything else that went wildly against his word when he was more, well, himself. Would you still do it? And if so, why?" Kirk's face didn't show any emotion, and looked like he was paying the utmost attention to Dusknoir.

"Then I would still follow his infallible word." He said after thinking about it for a few seconds. Kirk looked at him for a few seconds before looking at me, asking me the same questions.

"Dialga, as he is now, is really is not himself, I don't think we can deny that, but as Dialgans, should we still follow him? I think the question comes down to this: 'Does this Dialga still know better than us?'" I said, struggling to give a straight answer.

"Well of course he does!" Dusknoir said, interrupting my train of thought.

"Let Floyd speak, Dusknoir." My dad said as I continued to think.

"Well...I'll still follow him unless he does something really bad. Sure he looked completely insane in the visions that you and I got, but maybe he just looked really scary or something. It's too early to tell."

"So you're passing judgement on the lord?!" Dusknoir said, sounding a little angry with me.

"Dusknoir, were this the Dialga we learned about before, I'd have said the exact same thing. But he's not, and you have to accept that. I know it's not easy, but the sooner we do, the sooner we can move on, ok? Do you think Dialga would have wanted you to worship that empty shell of a god?" My father said firmly to Dusknoir, much like he did on the way home. Dusknoir paused for a bit and nodded.

"I suppose you're right, but Dialga is closer to us than he ever has been, physically at least. I really don't think we should be in his way or against him in any shape or form. If we make him angry somehow by abandoning him, we'd be lucky if we were 'just' put to death."

"As I have told you and Floyd many times before, doing the right thing is rarely easy. Now, I wanted to talk to you both about something else. Feel free to pass this onto Omar and Grovyle afterwards, by the way. I've been getting more dimensional screams lately, and a few of them were achieved without Dusknoir being present. I think I've figured out the mental trick for them to trigger them manually, or at least gotten really close. I'll try one now and tell you more about it." Kirk said before lying on his bed, holding The Righteous Tome close to his chest. Within about ten seconds he passed out.

"You're starting to not trust us, aren't you." I said flatly to Dusknoir as soon as my dad was asleep.

"I can understand where you're coming from, but this is Dialga we're talking about here."

"You should just trust my dad on this sort of thing, he knows better than both of us combined. Besides, you never got a clear view of what Dialga has become unlike Kirk and I – seriously, just looking into his eyes tells you everything."

"I guess I can see why you'd think that." He said as Kirk started to wake up, oblivious to what we were talking about. He took out a folder of some kind wrote a few things down, including a rough drawing of some kind.

"Anyway, here is what I saw, and it's pretty similar to a vision I got a couple of days ago." He said, showing us his notes. He described it as being in a vast lush forest with trees that looked a little alien, albeit still definitely trees. A few pokemon were around that looked particularly hardy and fierce, but the most interesting thing was the drawing – it looked real similar to the strange gear-like object I saw in my vision.

"Holy shit, I saw that thing earlier on in a vision, except it was over a small but pretty lake! Know what it is?" I said excitedly, looking at it closely. There were slight differences to it, either because they weren't exactly the same or my dad got a couple of details wrong when drawing it.

"Ivan Nazar was always quite flowery when describing things in The Righteous Tome, but something that everyone thought was metaphorical has now turned out to be literal." He said and opened up The Righteous Tome to one of the earlier sections. "Here, he talks about 'the gears of time', which I just assumed was talking about Temporal Tower and Dialga himself, but it seemed like he was referring to a specific component of the tower in hindsight. Now, my theory is that these time gears or whatever they really are were removed from Temporal Tower for some reason and put in different places."

"So if that's the case, then why? Why would Dialga do this or let it happen?" I asked, putting an even bigger shadow over the lord.

"Maybe he was mad before he removed them. Maybe someone else did it. Maybe Arceus did it as a very cruel joke. Dialga promised in here that he would never directly intervene, so I doubt it's his way of punishing the world. Although, I wonder if it would be possible to find out by getting dimensional screams? Now trying to picture a location and time in a different dimension will be, well, extremely difficult to say the least, but the lord hates a quitter. Dusknoir, please be here to help me with this, it's easier with your presence.

"Indeed. I hope you do not discover anything too unsettling." He said as I started to feel hungry again.

"Hey, is it food time yet dad?" I asked, wanting to keep to the rationing schedule.

"Close enough, let's all eat before we give this a try." He said as I climbed into the basement to get some food.

"Guys, quickly gather weapons and supplies and all get in the basement!" Omar said with the most forced whisper, getting everyone's attention. "I saw a group of armed thugs outside on the street, and I think they're ransacking houses. I don't think they'll be here for a few minutes though." We all took his word for it and quickly grabbed any food, weapons or anything else that helps us survive.

"Shouldn't Dragonite discourage them?" Kirk asked, carrying his notes, food, his coat and a handgun all down at once.

"She's away getting fish from the sea right now, she should be back in half an hour." Omar said, carrying down most of the weapons. In barely more than a minute, we were hidden in the basement, leaving little sign that we were here. "Right, I saw them moving from one house to the other, so I'd be surprised if they missed us. I just home the rug under the table hides the entrance well enough."

"So, I guess we just wait then." Kirk said quietly, looking at the door above us. It was extremely cramped with the five of us here, but comfort was the last thing on my mind right now. I saw Omar put a full magazine into his assault riffle, cocked it, and pointed it at the entrance, ready top open fire if someone were to open it.

"Not taking any chances here, I hope you understand." Omar whispered seriously as we all looked at the door, or at least the best we could in the pitch blackness. The air felt even stiller than normal as we listened for the slightest sound of anyone trying to break in. Even after ten minutes, none of us dared to move, except at the sudden sound of a two gunshots in the distance which made all five of us jump in our skin ever so slightly. Eventually, we did hear something bang on our door before it was pushed open. They were here.

"No one make a sound." Omar mouthed at us as none of us dared move. I swallowed hard, trying my best not to panic. A few footsteps sounded above us as they searched the ground floor.

"Huh, you smell anything?" One of them said as the sound of faster, lighter steps approached us. I assumed it was a four legged pokemon that could smell, presumable a dog-like one of some kind. Could it figure out where we were? I felt the weight of the handgun in my left hand that I was holding and I looked at it – it could save my life at the cost of my morality. But what to do? Could Omar scare or kill them all off alone?

"Right, it seems like someone was here not long ago." Another human said from above us. I begged that the pokemon couldn't tell that we were still here as I trembled slightly. Omar narrowed his eyes as I notices his finger moved to rest gently on the trigger.

"By the way, wasn't it this street were four disciples were murdered in cold blood?" A female said, sounding quite angry.

"Yes it was. Why do you think I shot the guy in the last house we were in on sight instead of teaching him about Dialga? He had already resisted us previously, and had to die immediately as a result, as instructed by our master." Someone responded as I heard people walking on the upper floor. Hope I didn't leave anything valuable up there, or anything that could give away that we were still here.

"Ah, that's why. Also, I heard a rumour that the former high priest of this area, Kirk Munro, moved here. I was with a raiding group that ransacked his old house, but we didn't find him or anything useful. A pity, I'm sure he'd be a great leader. Not above the grand hierophant obviously, but he'd be very valuable to us if he knew what we were doing." She responded, as I heard more sounds of searching upstairs, including a few ripping sounds.

"I attended his church services every Monday night. He knew so much, and I'm sure he'd be overjoyed to know that Dialga has returned to this world. Too bad there's not been any trace of him apparently. Maybe he went south or something, since there was no trace of him in Edinburgh, Glasgow or anywhere in between." He said as I turned to look at Kirk who had a face of distilled disgust on his face.

"Well, he'll find out sooner or later." The sound of people coming down stairs echoed throughout the house shortly afterwards.

"There's nothing of value here, though it seems like the people who stayed here were Dialgans. We found three Righteous Tomes throughout the house. Will I have these outdated books destroyed?" Someone said as a a loud thump was heard, presumably slamming the books on the table above us.

"No, I say we leave them an invitation to join us. I reckon they'll come to us and our numbers can grow to spread the new world of Dialga. Leave them there and I'll write a note." The leader said as I heard the scribbling sound as pencil met paper. "We need to keep up with our good work, so we shouldn't hang around here, there's still a couple more houses on this street we need to search. Growlithe, would you stop sniffing the carpet, we know they were here!" My whole body froze at this moment as I saw Omar look down the sights and holding his breath.

"Right, no supplies found here, we're leaving." He said as we heard them all leave. There must have been at least five people invading our home there, but none of us felt comfortable leaving just yet.

"...Stay for another ten minutes. Can't take any big chances." Kirk whispered, looking horrified at the intruder's interest in him. "What the fuck is going on out there, has a cult formed around this primordial broken god? I hope we never have to see them again, as unlikely as it is. I'd rather die than join then, I'd rather we all die than that. Any god that doesn't prohibit murder is no god of mine."

"Sorry if this sounds a little condescending, but I'm actually happy to hear that from you. Also, you're crushing my arm." Grovyle whispered back as Kirk adjusted himself.

"Well from what I heard, these Neo-Dialgans are an absolute plague, an foul excuse for a Dialgan, going against everything he stood for. Who knows what other evil, nefarious stuff they do..."

"Maybe we're being too quick to judge them." Dusknoir responded quietly.

"They have unapologetically killed people. That's all I need to know." My dad responded, sounding bitter. "And if the orders really did come from Dialga, then he can fuck off with the rest of them. I follow what Dialga was, not what he is."

"I wonder if they control the entire city by now?" Omar said. I assumed that they did if they had not been opposed by the law enforcement yet, if there even was such a thing now. Shortly afterwards, we deemed it safe to leave the basement as we carefully returned to the surface. They didn't take much at all, and all of our supplies were in tact. As we expected, the three copies of The Righteous Tome were on the table, with a note on top of them. I saw Kirk writing 'fuck off' in huge letters on top of it before ripping it to pieces and throwing it in the bin. Seems like my father has adopted stronger language recently, no doubt due to the stresses of this painful world we live in now.

"Never expected you to use language like that." Omar said to him, chuckling slightly.

"Never been this angry in years. Please forgive me." He said, resting his fists on the table and lowering his head.

"Nothing wrong with that." He replied and smiled. "Here, I'll get you some water." He walked over to the sink, got a glass and turned the tap on. The water was flowing even slower now, as if we were on the moon. It was still functional, but I had a feeling that we'd be forced to use the water bottles in the basement very soon.

"I think I understand this...water is not alive, so it is starting to freeze in time. Perhaps because we're alive, we are not stopping. It's all a guess, but perhaps because Dialga is still 'alive', living things aren't effected. Temporal Tower was destroyed, so they're starting to freeze. There'll be inconsistencies probably, so it's probably all rubbish. Ok, fill up all the glasses of water and put the on the table, we might as well use it while we still can." Kirk said, as we filled every glass and mug we had with water. Omar looked at the slow water then looked at his rifle.

"I sure hope this thing will still work..." The next three weeks felt even more dreary, and our supply of water was diminishing far quicker than I'd have liked it to once the tap stopped working completely. On top of that, we were starting to run low on food, and we didn't think it'd last longer than two weeks. These time estimates were pure guess work now, as my dad's watch finally failed, so we had no way to keep track of the time. Maybe it was four weeks since the day, maybe it was only two. Time really didn't have much meaning anymore. Kirk seemed to be a little grumpier and was spending half of his time trying to get dimensional screams. Wish he'd use them to locate some more food and water rather than whatever he was trying to do.

Seemed like this perpetually dark world was starting to take its toll on us in different ways. A couple of instances I thought I could hear Omar crying in his room by himself. Out of respect, I never pressed him on the issue. Dusknoir was looking increasingly jumpy by the day, one time panicking when I asked him how he was doing, as if there was a killer around every corner. I'd also hear him mutter 'I can't die' to himself here and there. Grovyle seemed to be taking it the best so far, and was still offering help to us when we need it. He was still a lot more mellow than he used to be, but that was a no brainer given the circumstances. My father became a bit of a recluse, spending more and more time in his room than before. I'd hear him mutter to himself from time to time, and I was wondering if he was planning anything. He never gave a straight answer when I asked him, and if he wasn't my dad, I'd probably be getting suspicious of him by now.

I was currently in a game of pool with Omar, trying to stay a bit happier instead of thinking that we could all be dead in roughly a month. I had gotten quite good over the time I spent here, and this game I almost beat him, potting all the yellow balls before he was able to close out the game. Kirk came out of his room a few seconds afterwards, rubbing his head.

"All of you, listen up." He ordered as we all turned to face him. "I have discovered a possible source of food, but it'll be incredibly risky."

"Are we stealing it from the Neo-Dialgans?" Grovyle asked, to which Kirk gave an uncomfortable smile.

"Yes we are. They're rotten to the core as far as I'm concerned, so it's perfectly fine to steal from them. Of course, some of them are armed, but it looks like all of their weapons were scavenged from the now defunct British military, and they don't have too many firearms or ammunition."

"But we could die!" Dusknoir said, his voice a little higher than normal.

"We're not going to live much longer here, and I'd rather we try this while we're still healthy rather than starved half-dead zombies or whatever."

"Dad, are you ok? You're acting a bit, uh, 'ballsy', for a lack of a better word." I said in response to his unusual gruffness and aggressive ideas. "Is there really no where else we can get food?"

"I had a scry around Edinburgh, and it's pretty much all in the control of the Neo-Dialgans. And no, we're not raiding from innocent farmers just outside the city before any of you suggest that. Oh, my head..." Kirk said, scrunching up his face and held his head in one hand as he groaned slightly. "Using dimensional screams a lot hurts. Still, I have a plan to make this clean, for us at least." The plan he described was surprisingly complex – he must have had a lot of visions to be able to plan all this out to this detail. In short, it involved us sneaking inside to the nearest of their food stores and stealing it without being seen.

"Timing will be key – if we mess this up, we might all be shot to ribbons, or worse. Also, Omar, don't shoot anyone, that'll surely attract people. Also, we might need Dragonite as insurance for our escape. How many of us can she lift?" He asked, Omar frowning slightly at the idea of Dragonite being put in danger.

"It'll be a bit of a struggle, but at the most, she could carry the humans and Grovyle. Dusknoir, can you phase through walls?"

"Well, yes, but it's hard – why can't I get an airlift escape?" Dusknoir said, clearly worried about his own safety.

"Be a grown man buddy. You did say that you were a bit older than Kirk – you can do it." Omar said dryly.

"It'd be real handy if we had a pair of those walkie-talkies since phones don't work anymore. Dragonite could probably put a hole in a wall if we need to, am I right? Because...oh, we can do that then! A lot of those cultists have walkie-talkies on the to communicate, so we'll just knock two of them out and steal them. Then we can leave one with Dragonite so if things go wrong, then Omar here will surely be in danger, and I don't think she'd take to that too well." Kirk said, looking rather pleased with himself for thinking of that.

"...You really have changed, haven't you." Dusknoir said, sounding concerned.

"Think nothing of it. Now, I want a quick peek of where we can get a pair of walkie-talkies. Just give me a moment or two." My dad said before passing out. By now, he was able to trigger dimensional screams pretty much instantly. He tried teaching me the methods for getting visions when and how you want them, but I just couldn't get the hang of it. He got up surprisingly quickly, looking focused and determined.

"It'll be en route to the warehouse. We should leave in about ten minutes as a rough guess. Go get yourselves ready."

"Why didn't you tell us about this before? The whole idea of stealing food from the Neo-Dialgans. Surely you knew about this for quite a while." Grovyle said, given he had natural weapons and didn't need to get as many stuff together.

"Because, Grovyle, I didn't want to make any plans or suggestions that I didn't think would work. I had to be pretty sure, else I could only say 'I 'might' have an idea on how to get more food.' If it turns out I couldn't, I'd just be letting people down. I'm not giving you guys false hope if I can avoid it. I noticed that this permanent night and the fear that death is getting to some of you guys, and yet, you're the one that seems to be staying the strongest in all this. I can't be sure, but I think you'll be the one keeping us together if things get much worse. I effectively became the leader of this band, but it's not easy, and I could use all the help I can get." I overheard my father said as I gathered a little bit of food and water and put them in my backpack. I had gotten used to putting a handgun in my jacket pocket every time I left the house, but thankfully I never needed to ever take a shot.

"Well, that's me ready." I said, grabbing my crowbar in both hands. Thankfully, I could swing this at people to take them out without killing them. Hopefully.

"You are sure that we won't bump into trouble before we get there? Want if we find a patrol group or something?" Grovyle asked Kirk.

"I'm fairly confident. I can't tell exactly what time it is, but I managed to figure out that there's a patrol that's just ending now, and there won't be one for a few hours. Guess they couldn't recruit enough people to control the city effectively whatsoever."

"If they open fire on us, I'm shooting them back by the way. Just making sure you know." Omar said, checking his assault rifle to ensure everything was working.

"Please don't kill them, but, well, I'll be focusing on staying alive rather than lecturing you if it comes to that." We only went outside when we really had to, and it was only in groups of two or three to avoid drawing too much attention. This was the first time that all five of us went out together, six if you count Dragonite. I somehow doubted we'd be getting away with this completely scot-free.

"Hey Dragonite, we're going to need your help. Yes, I know it's harder to get food lately, I know that there's not as many fish as there used to be, but I'll share some with you if this works." Omar said to his pokemon, stroking her arm. "Now, we'll need you to stay away from us but not too far away. If you're seen and you're with us, we could all be seen, so you want to be able to stay away but not so far away that you can't see us. I heard that you can see really good in the dark, so it won't be too hard, will it? I'll signal you if we need you with us." Dragonite nodded and stood up. She flew up into the sky and out of sight, leaving Omar looking puzzled for a second.

"Oh, right, it'll be easier if you just fly above us." Omar said, chuckling as we caught up with the other three.

"I wonder how many civilians are still alive? I doubt they stocked up as well as we did, so maybe they starved to death." I thought out loud. It was a horrible thought, but with everything I seen and lived through for the last several weeks, I found it hard to feel for them too much. It just felt so ordinary by this point. The streets seemed to be completely dead around these parts, many of the houses with broken doors and windows. I heard the occasional sound from people inside houses, and if they managed to survive this long against the cold, the lack of food and the oppression of the Neo-Dialgans, then they were clearly people you didn't want to fuck with.

"Ok...In here." Kirk said, leading us all into an dark alleyway between a couple of houses. He singled us to keep down as he pointed to the street on the other side which had a couple of people walking by, one of them holding a torch.

"Keep quiet." He whispered, as we noticed that they were both holding metal pipes or some other hard heavy pole-like objects. I guess the cult were starved for firearms, which made me feel a little safer. "Now these two, they will split up in a bit. One of them will come into this alleyway to scout out the street behind us, the other will go to the left to check out the other side of the street. Dusknoir and I will stay here and knock this one out, you three go knock the other one out. They will both have walkie-talkies, so we can use them. Also, break their knees when they're down so they can't heckle us when they wake up."

"Will we go into the alleyway to the left of this one?" Grovyle asked, looking behind him just to be sure no one saw us.

"Yeah, attack him as soon as he passes. Try not to be too loud." Kirk said as we left and got into position. I saw Dusknoir phase into one of the walls while my dad hid behind a skip. I held my crowbar tightly as we hid in the other alleyway and waited for the guard to pass.

"Kirk seems really sure about his plan. Not like I have any better ideas though." Omar whispered as eventually, the guard passed by. As soon as he did, I kept low, moving quickly and quietly onto the street and swung hard and true at the back of his head. He yelped in pain and fell to his hands and knees, and while he was concussed, he wasn't out cold.

"That's not how you do it Floyd." Omar said, running up to the guard and hooking his jaw with a hard and swift punch, causing him to slump on the ground. "Right, you gonna break his legs?"

"Uh, sure." I said, feeling a bit apprehensive about this. "It's ok Floyd, he deserves this." I told myself as I swung down hard on his left knee with my crowbar, hearing a disgusting cracking sound along with the usual clunk sound. I swung down at his other knee – it wasn't a pleasant job, but it had to be done. I helped Omar dump him in an alleyway and we relieved him of his walkie-talkie, keys and his metal pipe, which Omar took for himself.

"Hail Dialga." I heard someone say on the walkie-talkie, and I recognized the voice as being my dad's.

"It's me dad. We're coming to meet you." I said, going back to the first alleyway, seeing Dusknoir dump the other guard on the ground between two skips out of sight. He looked quite horrified, but unharmed regardless.

"Now I just hope the keys that were on the guards allow us to get in." Kirk said, inspecting the keys we both acquired.

"You hope?" Omar said, frowning slightly.

"I tried to find out of they could, but it's easier said than done. There are other ways in, but this will just make it easier. Anyway, since we got two of these walkie-talkies, we can give one to Dragonite." Kirk responded as Omar went to get Dragonite from the street behind us.

"If I say 'help us Dragonite', we'll, obviously, need help. You see that wall there? Blast it open as soon as we call for help, ok? Just stay safe aside from that though, understand?" Omar said as Dragonite nodded. She looked scared for Omar's safety and whined softly as she gave him a soft hug. "Is that us ready?"

"Yes, follow me and don't make too much noise." Kirk said as we followed him onto the streets. In spite of having the odd street light still working, it was still mostly dark. We approached a locked door of what used to be a gym and started testing out the keys. Thankfully, we found one that worked as we stepped inside the ominous building. There wasn't anyone at the reception to greet us.

"Right, there'll be a few people inside here, but if you follow me, we won't have to meet many of them." He whispered as he lead us down one of the corridors. We heard a couple of loud voices coming from one of the rooms, but we couldn't make out what they were saying. There were a set of double doors at the far side, and while it was impossible to make out any detail, it looked like a gym hall partially filled with food and water. That being said, the door was padlocked.

"None of these keys work either." Omar whispered, looking both irritated and frightened.

"Well, that's bad. I'd rather not go snooping around more than we need to. Grovyle, think you can cut the chains?" He said, looking at the leaf blades on Grovyle's arms.

"They're too thick, I can't do it. Even if I could, it'd take a while and they'd surely hear the clanging." Grovyle said, and it seemed like we were in a tough spot.

"Ok, we'll need to either try to find a key or have Dusknoir blast the doors open. Either way, seems like confrontation may be inevitable." Kirk said, sounding disappointed in himself. "I knew I should have spent another day planning this."

"Aye, you should have. Still we got this far...hide." Omar whispered, seeing something and gesturing us to hide behind the wall. "Someone's coming, I think it's a human and a houndoom." We heard footsteps slowly heading our way. They didn't sound particularly careful or quick, so it didn't seem like they seen us, possibly due to the darkness of the place – clearly they were trying to preserve as much power as they could. Grovyle and I were the closest to the corner, so it seems like we'd be the ones to deal with this.

"Grovyle, take out the human." I whispered, and while it looked like Grovyle didn't agree, it was clear to him that he didn't have the time to. The reasons were purely emotional. I felt easier about attacking a pokemon than a human, and, even though it probably wasn't the same houndoom, it'd feel great striking one of them after the encounter I had with their kind when I first met Grovyle. I gripped my crowbar tightly and held it above my head. My knuckles went white as I held my breath, waiting for my target to step round the corner.

As soon as they revealed themselves, we wasted no time as I whacked down hard with all of my might, the houndoom not even having a chance to react as it gave a pathetic yelp as it fell to the floor. Grovyle was surprisingly brutal as he lunged right at the guard's throat, slicing it open. He made the most sickening choking sound as he fell to his knees, desperately trying to grab his gun in his pocket as his blood spilled onto the floor. Kirk looked like he was about to throw up and Grovyle looked unsure whether he regretted it or not. His struggling and spluttering soon stopped as we his the dead human and unconscious houndoom in a nearby cupboard. At least I hope it was just unconscious, I honestly never thought about the risk to its life when I swung at it.

"Wait, Omar, can you check to see if there's any keys on him? Maybe we can get inside the gym hall." My dad said, shivering slightly over seeing someone die right in front of him. Omar did so, and about fifteen seconds later, he had a set of keys in his hand, which were covered slightly in blood. Kirk gestured to the door, as Omar tried a few of the keys. I noticed the blood in the floor, and there was no way to clean that up with what we had. If someone came this way while we were in the hall, they'd surely know that something bad happened.

"We're in." Omar said as the five of us went into the hall and we shut the door behind us. There were large piles of food cans and water bottles – just what we came for. We wasted no time in filling our bags full of supplies.

"Hopefully this will last us a week or so." Kirk said as we made out way to the exit, but just as we were almost at the door, we saw lights turn on in the corridor amongst some worried shouting.

"Hide, quickly!" Grovyle whispered loudly as Kirk, Dusknoir and I swiftly ran into a small office room while Grovyle and Omar hid behind a huge pile of food cans.

"You murderers! I'll kill you! We'll kill you all and present your bodies to the lord!" One of them screeched as they opened the door, only to be greeted by a swam of bullets, courtesy of Omar's assault rifle, felling two of them instantly.

"I don't suppose you saw this coming dad!" I said, one again paying attention to the metallic weight in my coat pocket.

"I did not, but, uh, I know we can get out of here! Especially since Omar is so trigger happy." He said, and I found it hard to tell whether he even disapproved that much anymore. He looked around for anything that could help.

"How convenient." He said, picking up a fireman's axe on the table, while also taking a folder of documents and putting those in his backpack. "Must be the local leader's office." The sound of gunshots continued, but Omar and Grovyle seemed to be doing ok. Much like the Russian army in The Great War, these cultists were extremely under-equipped, and were forced to hide behind the wall just outside of the gym hall by just one man and a pokemon.

"You guys, we're getting out of here. I asked Dragonite to come to this side of the gym and she's going to blow a hole in that wall there. Assuming she got the instructions right, of course." He said, pointing to the wall at the opposite side to us as he quickly loaded another magazine into his rifle. "Aw, shit, these guys have got backup now, watch yourselves!" When I saw a speedy liepard rush head on at Omar and Grovyle, only to be met with shuriken-like leaves and bullets to the face, I wasn't sure whether to be worried or relieved.

"Cowards, hiding behind pokemon like that!" I thought out loud as I peeked round the corner only to see something yellow, furry and about the size of a large human standing just a couple of meters in front of me. I pulled my head back just in time to see a jet of fire stream past where my head was a second ago.

"Shit, Omar, need help!" I screamed out, but I could see that he and Grovyle were under even tougher circumstances, and were drawing most of the Neo-Dialgans' attention. I heard loud footsteps of the pokemon get closer, clearly planning to kill us in the office. Still, from everything I seen in life, I'd say that pokemon were usually pretty dumb compared to humans, and that beast wouldn't expect a crowbar to the face as soon as it showed itself. At least, that's what I told myself as I gripped my crowbar tightly with both hands. I didn't see what the other two were doing behind me, but I knew I could protect them as well as myself. I didn't even see exactly what it was that stepped in my vision range, but all I needed to know is that it was willing and able to kill us. I swung round hard with all my might, screaming in both fear and anger as I struck its jaw with great force. I felt the impact shoot through my whole body, but I saw it was going to take one more hit to bring this creature down.

"Stay! Down!" I screamed as I kept swinging ruthlessly at it, not giving it a chance to strike back. Even though what I did was extremely brutal and nasty, there was a deep feeling inside of me that told me that I was a badass for taking down a typhlosion with nothing but a crowbar. I hit it one more time over the back of the head to make sure it wasn't getting up for the next minute or so.

"Need help here!" Grovyle yelled, as I saw him throw a ball of green energy at a particularly large aggron who was stomping towards them. He barely managed to slow it down, and it seemed like we were about to be overwhelmed by this slave army right until there was a strange explosion at the other end of the gym hall, and after the dust had settled we saw two orange legs.

"About time! Cover me Dusknoir, and get that aggron!" Kirk yelled as he started sprinting towards the hole in the wall as soon as Omar opened fire at the enemy again. I'd never seen my dad move that fast before but it seemed like he would be cut off by the aggron. Dusknoir seemed to hesitate quite a bit before launching a ball of some strange shadowy stuff right at the metallic rocky monster from the strange mouth on his stomach. It hit the aggron hard, knocking him over, wrecking the floor that he fell on.

"Put a bit more oomph into it, would you? There's a bunch of them at the door, blast them away so we can escape, ok?" I said, waiting for an opportunity to run.

"But should I? What if I kill them by mistake?" He said, sounding worried.

"Then half arse it then! Just do something! I'm surprised you didn't phase through the wall to get outside earlier!" I said loudly, Dusknoir still looking hesitant and afraid.

"I took on that thing, right there..." I said, pointing to the typhlosion, who was starting to stir. "...With this!" I said, pointing to my crowbar."

"We could get shot, it's dangerous! Besides, I knew getting on the Neo-Dialgans' bad side wasn't a good idea."

"My father ran across, you can do it too! Well, fuck this, I'll go first. I'll put some faith that you'll help me here, but I'm not holding my breath..." I said as Omar gave me a signal that it was 'safe' to make a break for it. I jumped over the typhlosion who was slowly getting to its feet by this point and set my eyes firmly in the large hole in the wall and pushed my body to its limits to get there as fast as humanely possible. From the left, I saw a weavile run right at me, claws at the ready. I was only just able to put my crowbar between me and my attack in time, but I wasn't able to keep my balance throughout all this and I fell to the ground. I wasted no time in getting up immediately as the aggron was almost upon me, roaring furiously. Grovyle leapt into action and assaulted its face, slicing in many different directions, allowing me to make my escape.

"That would have been easier if everyone was covering you." My father said, looking both relieved and angry when he hugged me briefly. I saw Dusknoir taking my suggestion by phasing through the wall and coming over to join us. "Thanks for the help there, much appreciated." Kirk said, his voice oozing sarcasm.

"They're all out, we're escaping Grovyle!" Omar yelled as he fired from the hip as he followed Grovyle outside and the band was reunited. The gym hall by this point was covered in shells, bullets, and no shortage of corpses, the entire room reeking of death. The amount of lucky stars I could count were beyond measure, and I felt as though it was mainly thanks to the extreme disorganization of the cult that we were able to escape. We ran through the streets, trying to get to the outskirts of the city. Seems like we really sent a message to the Neo-Dialgans, since the odd member we did see along the way seemed to be afraid of us, just like they should be. Omar threatened them with a bullet to the head if they followed us, which they took very seriously.

"Sorry that didn't all work out as planned, but we did it, I guess..." Kirk said, obviously bothered by what happened there. "So many deaths though...I wonder who was the real villains in all of this."

"Like you said Kirk, they were evil. They try to kill everyone who doesn't fall in line. They could have just let us go, but no, they tried to kill us. We didn't do anything wrong." He said, trying to reassure my father, but it didn't quite work.

"Still – all this for just a week's supply of food. Have we descended to the level of wild beasts? Still, the responsibility's all mine. I knew there was a chance of this happening, and I did it anyway..."

"You not only oversaw the deaths of many humans and pokemon, but they were Dialgans!" Dusknoir said, and it was the first time he sounded genuinely angry with my dad.

"At least I was useful throughout all of this, at least from the planning side of things. You did almost nothing." He said, not sounding as angry as Dusknoir, but he was still cross for sure.

"This was a terrible idea to begin with."

"Well you weren't complaining back then. If you had made a good argument to not do this, I might have called the whole thing off! But you didn't! Hrm, I wonder why?" He said, giving Dusknoir one of 'those' smiles. Matched with a frown from his eyebrows, he clearly didn't think much of Dusknoir any more.

"I always try to do the right thing – something you decided to stop doing because it was convenient."

"Hard to do that when you're such a damn coward. All you've been whining about all this time is whether you, and only you, are going to die or not. I know you well enough to know that it's all one big excuse. I'm angry, Dusknoir, not just at you but at myself – I should have taught you better."

"And I should have known that you, as a person...you were far too good to be true! I can't believe I looked up to you like this! I'm sorry, but I will not stand here with brutish murderers who go against the will of Dialga! I will not stand in the lord's way!"

"So that's it then...you're leaving?" Kirk said, sounding a little sad. "It's tragic really, I was hoping that in spite of this that we could work out our differences."

"I'm sorry Kirk, I can't stay here, especially with this mass-murdering heretic." He said, pointing to Omar.

"Aye, so you're going to join the other killers then? Good idea Dusknoir. You joining that damn cult to stay in line with your false god?! Good fucking riddance!" Omar said, sounding even more angry than Dusknoir was.

"That is my plan. Still, I hope we don't have to meet again. Farewell, Kirk." He said and left the house without a second glance.

"That's a real shame. Still, I wonder if he'll be accepted there?" Grovyle asked, Kirk and Omar still looking furious.

"He's a traitor, I hope he doesn't." Omar said grumpily. "Still, more food for us I guess. Anyway, Kirk, I thought you'd be super mad at me for killing all those humans and pokemon."

"Oh I should be, and part of me is, but...well, I suppose I can't hold it in any longer. Now, I don't want you getting your hopes up after hearing this, because this won't work. Can you three promise that?" He asked, changing the entire tone of the conversation. The three of us nodded silently, not knowing what to expect whatsoever.

"Well, what if I told you that there's technically a way to undo all of this? All this darkness, all this death. What if that simply never happened? Well, it's possible. The premise here is that the five time gears of Temporal Tower were removed and put in the pokemon world in different places. It would be theoretically be possible to go there, go back in time, get the time gears and deliver them to Temporal Tower. Hey, I said it was possible, not probable. In all this darkness and craziness, I think I'd want to die doing something rather than just hanging on, wouldn't you all say? How about we all give this a shot? I actually have a basic outline of a plan how all this can be done. Here, I'll show you." All of this was way too much to take in all in one go. This must have been what he was so shut in about. Could my father have really been planning to save the entire planet all this time?! Maybe it was all a desperate pipe dream, but I already found myself willing to fight and die for this.

"Wait...this is all in the wrong order..." He said, looking through his notes. "...Dusknoir knows about this. He was snooping in this folder when I told him not to. I don't know what Dialga would think of this, but I somehow bet that this makes us the biggest enemy of the Neo-Dialgans. They'll be coming for us, we can't stay here." He said, taking his notes back and was already frantically gathering things.

"But where will we go?" I asked while gathering everything I could.

"Anywhere away from here, I expect them to come as a small army to try and kill us. Of course, I'm not completely sure, but it's very likely. Take my keys and test my car, I want to make sure it still works." He said, throwing me his car keys. I had a thousand and thirteen questions to ask, but I didn't have time. I walked briskly into my father's car and started the engine – it still worked!

"Excellent, now let's jam everything possible into it. If there's not enough room, use your car as well Floyd."

"I'll use mine too." Omar said, as we ran around gathering everything that would fit inside.

"Right, once we find a place where we can stay, I can explain things in more detail. I'm sure you all have a ton of questions." Kirk said, and to say a 'ton' would be a huge understatement. After all this time living in darkness, I think I saw the very first glimmer of light, something really worth fighting for. For the last two months or so, it really felt like I was just surviving. Maybe now, I can finally learn once more how to live.