Pokemon: Scenes From A Memory

by Pocket-fulla-shells

Based on what happened before Floyd became a Pokemon, Scenes From A Memory focuses on Floyd's life as a human, how he met Grovyle, his religious devotion to Dialga and how he eventually learns to survive in a blackened, insanity-ridden future and the first steps in attempting to revert the worldwide disaster. Based loosely of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon.

10. Detach From The Outcome

Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum: Scenes From a Memory

Chapter 10: Detach From The Outcome

I fell asleep quickly in the pick-up truck as Grovyle helped keep my dad on track with the map. I don't know how long I had been up for, but I was thoroughly exhausted to the point of feeling ill. The rumble of the engine and the chatter of my friends didn't disturb me at all as I was finally able to rest for a bit. I soon found myself at Omar's old place, where everything was in tact the way I remembered it. It was still night time, and there were no lights on outside, so it seems like even in my dreams, I couldn't escape the oppressive darkness. It had to be a dream, it was far too pleasant. I slumped down on the couch as if I was waiting for something to happen as I stared at the blank television screen.

"Hey Floyd, I'm back. Sorry, took me a while to find a drink for us." He said, smiling cheerfully with a bottle of dark rum in one hand and some cola in the other. He clumsily poured us both a drink and gave one to me, almost filled up to the brim.

"I...I'm sorry that I couldn't be as good a friend to you as you could to me." I said sadly as I took a sip. I couldn't taste much, but something in my brain told me that it should taste very strong, given he filled up an entire third of the glass with spirit.

"Floyd, don't talk about yourself that way dude." He said, putting an arm around me. I thought I smelled alcohol on him, so he must have had a few drinks. Maybe my dream self was also a bit drunk, but it was hard to tell. "It was you who reached out to me back in high school when no one else did. Remember how everyone just gave me funny looks for blaring out and enjoying some Strapping Young Lad in high school? Then you came along and said you enjoyed it. Might not have meant to you much back then, but it counted for so much for me back then. Heh, sorry if I bugged you by sharing all those bands with you."

"It's cool man, I enjoyed about half of them." I said, taking a quick gulp of my drink. "...Do you know what happened to you?"

"What do you mean? Hah, you look rough! Get some more drink in you already and lighten up!" He said, smiling and laughing while taking a large swing of rum.

"Of course...you don't know what happens to you, do you." I said, speaking to a representation of Omar that I dreamed up. "It's not good, and it might be my fault to an extent."

"What happens? Does the zombie apocalypse happen and we go down guns blazing, letting the rest of our friends escape to Skye so they can burn the bridge between the island and mainland so they remain safe?" He said, sounding more excited than anything else.

"Actually, that's not too far off the truth. I...I let Dragonite die because I was too much of a pussy to kill someone, which left us more vulnerable, and then you paid the price." I said sadly as Omar looked at me, looking confused.

"Huh? Well...don't get too angry at yourself dude, it's not your fault, even if you could have technically stopped it. Hey, how did Dragonite and I do before we died?" He said, sounding curious instead of angry.

"You gave the enemies a real hard time. Killed so many of them, before eventually falling yourselves." I said as Omar, bizarrely, looked overjoyed.

"Aw man, we died being badasses! I assume you're still alive, right?" He asked, almost bouncing in his chair as he swiftly finished off his drink.

"Surviving? Yes. Living? Eh, I'll get back to you on that one."

"So, got a kick-ass survival plan? Just some advice though, don't trust anyone. I've seen it all happen, they'll screw you over at a moment's notice."

"Survival's a secondary priority right now when I think about it. We're actually trying to bring the sun back and stop time from completely freezing. It's already frozen every inanimate object unless it's been touched recently by a living creature." I said as Omar looked very interested.

"How the fuck can you do that? Shit's weird dude. You think you can do something as crazy as that?" He asked, as he got himself another drink long before I had a chance to finish mine.

"No, I don't. I couldn't save Dragonite, and I couldn't save you. What chance do I have?" I said sadly, almost spilling the rest of my drink before Omar tugged my arm, getting me to look at him.

"You'll carry on, because you don't have anything left. You can't stand letting effort go to waste. I one time saw you try and try and try to beat Super Monkey Ball without losing a continue. You tried doing it a few times, and you just kept going. You tried for years, and eventually you did it. It didn't feel that good, and it wasn't worth it, but in the end, 'you did it'. I know you'll carry on because you can't quit anything you start. You're obsessive as fuck dude. It doesn't matter what you lose in the process, you'll do whatever you set your heart on. I may be one of your best friends, but if you're really trying to save everyone from that disgusting world, then my death is just a speed hump to your ambitions. You and your, ahem, 'Dialgan justice and duty' and all that shit...please take that determination and make it something good. If I really died defending you, then for fuck's sake, don't let it be for nothing." He said, looking dead serious before relaxing for a bit. "Did I become some kind of anti-hero protagonist in a survival film?"

"You sure did, and you kind of scared me. I can't resent you for it though, so don't feel bad."

"Heh, sorry about all that. I helped keep you safe though, didn't I? What sort of friend would I be if I didn't? Well, you should wake up now, the road's getting a little shaky given you're probably going through small and poorly maintained roads to avoid those bastards. Come speak to me again, ok?" He said and sighed sadly. "I'm probably being tortured right now. I know where you're going, but they don't, and they'll want to know, but don't you worry about that Floyd!"

"I should, I'm sorry for not going back for you." I said sadly as the room shook slightly.

"Like I said, everything for the mission, and I mean everything. Don't worry about me, I'll lie after 'breaking' and say that they're meeting a Celebi in Blackburn, just North-West of Aberdeen. Way out of the way." He said, and given it was all coming from my mind, I just hope what I knew about Omar was true. I suddenly woke up to see Grovyle and Kirk as they were still navigating the narrow roads of the countryside.

"Have a nice sleep? Good, because you're taking over." Kirk said, not giving me a chance to respond. He had some real heavy looking bags under his eyes, both from age and tiredness. He slowed to a stop. Everything seemed so open and empty now, but I was still unsure what threats the darkness concealed, so I didn't feel much safer than before. I climbed into the driver's seat of my mother's pick-up truck and slowly pushed on the accelerator as my father got comfortable, getting ready to have a quick snooze.

"Almost crashed because I was that sleepy, and we'd be in no state to get much further if we're dropping off from exhaustion. We're healthier than those bastards, and I want to keep it that way in case they're tracking us down, so don't go too slow." He instructed, falling asleep almost immediately.

"We're almost at Slamannan, just a small village. I'll keep you on the right direction, I just hope there won't be any trouble here." He said as we passed by a few houses. Seems luck was on our side as we saw absolutely no one as we passed on by. Maybe things were finally looking up for us, and we saw no sign that the Neo-Dialgans had even been here.

"Fuck, I miss Omar...can't believe I'll never see him again." I sadly sighed as I kept my eyes on the road ahead, the lights of the truck being the only source of light all around. "Dreamt of him when I had a wee sleep there, acting like his old self as well. This whole disaster is flat out dehumanizing us all. Well..." I said, looking at the non-human next to me.

"Omar's become very tough, I somehow think he might survive and make them regret not killing him when they had the chance." Grovyle said, still looking at the map.

"You think so? I just hope that's the case. Although I suspect he might be getting tortured so they can figure out where we're going. He'll never tell them though. Knowing him, he'll hang on, and then he'll lie, and by then, we'd already be at Glencoe for sure. Going back to what I said about dehumanizing us...everyone's changing, but you...you still seem like the grovyle I met. Is this really not getting to you?" I asked, as Grovyle kept his nose in the map.

"Turn right up ahead into..." He said as he looked at me and sniggered. "Fannyside road. Wait, you were saying about me not being affected too much?"

"Yeah, I feel like I'm mentally caving in, Omar went from goofy to a ruthless survivalist, Dusknoir become a complete stuffy wimp and Kirk seems to be repressing his feelings. You however..."

"I don't know really. Maybe it's because I grew up in savage conditions. I lived like a wild animal most of my life, this just feels like a return to that for me. Well, not really, but I'm probably more experienced at living on the edge than you humans. Don't forget that I hunted many smaller pokemon such as sentrets and stuff for food, even after I became friends with you. I think I told you I still hunted here and there, I didn't want to be too big a drain of resources on you back then. It wouldn't be fair to leech off your shelter and food for nothing, right? It's not like I can just go out and get a job." He said as I chuckled slightly.

"Guess that's why we agreed to make money from idiot trainers."

"I guess another reason why I don't feel affected to much is that there's just not much point in it. You can't imagine how much I had to exercise self control and discipline before I really learned how to become civilized. Seems like I might have to take it a step further if I have to stop you or your dad from going into the deep end." Grovyle said calmly as I drove carefully down the narrow road.

"Hopefully that won't be necessary. Everything for the mission..." I muttered to myself as I noticed the unfortunately named road was slowly becoming a dirt path as the tarmac gave way to the earth.

"Pretty sure that's not supposed to be there." Grovyle said as the truck shook and shuddered as I travelled over the rough surface. This disturbed Kirk as he slowly woke after a very short-lived sleep.

"You don't need to go this far off the beaten track." Kirk said, groaning as he sat up straight. "Where are we anyway?" I looked at a wooden sign that was placed at the right hand side of the road that looked quite out of place.

"Syrinx. Half a mile." I said, slowing to a stop so I could look at the map. "There is no Syrinx, what the fuck?!"

"Ignore it, might just be some nut-case putting up signs for no reason. Let's just carry on." My dad said, still sounding exhausted. Even some of the roadside plants started looking different as if they were from a foreign country. The path seemed a lot more winding than the map indicated too, as a switch seemed to flick inside Kirk's head as if he figured out what was going on.

"Oh shit...it's happening already." He said, shaking a bit and adjusting himself to look as far as he could ahead. "From here on out, the map's not going to be fully trustworthy. I probably should have told you this earlier, but I had a vision one time of Giratina starting to lose it. Just seeing him makes my flesh crawl, but I digress. What's happening is that places from the pokemon world are replacing places from this one and vice versa. You could say that, in a way, we already crossed dimensions."

"If this were any other circumstance I'd love to take a look, but we need to turn back. We'll just take another route that doesn't put the unknown in our faces. Road's narrow as fuck though, I might need you guys to get out to help me turn this thing around." I said, taking a look ahead and behind me. I heard something stomping around from behind, but it was too dark to see what it was. "On second thoughts, seems like that might be more trouble than its worth."

"Indeed, just go on ahead." Kirk said as I drove off into the unknown. Grovyle folded up the map as all of our eyes were glued to the path ahead. Eventually, we saw what we thought was a building become illuminated, causing me to stop immediately.

"Is that a building or a gigantic rampardos?" I said, looking at it as I heard my father groan.

"Seems to be part of their culture to build their buildings in the image of the owner. Yes, I find it just as cringe-worthy as you do." He said, as I hoped we wouldn't have to navigate the buildings and structures too much. "Still, this, right here, is a true pokemon town. I'm guessing this is just as strange to you as it is to us, Grovyle."

"Indeed, let's just keep moving." Grovyle said, but I only accelerated for five seconds before something landed on top of the bonnet of the truck, making us all jump.

"Woah, I've never seen one of these things move before! Anyway, have any of you seen a dunsparce anywhere?" It said, and it seemed to be a young looking emolga, speaking with what seemed to be a strange Australian accent. It gave Kirk and I a funny look as it tilted its head. "Never mind 'who are you', 'what are you' is the question I'm asking!"

"Er...I am...Robert, and this is my father, Wallace." I said, shuddering at the lie I told. I just felt so natural, just in case this pokemon was in league with the Neo-Dialgans.

"Wait...no way, are you humans? Hah, thought you only existed in mythology! Guess it makes sense in a way, everywhere half a mile outside of town looks completely different now." He said, speaking loudly to be heard over the closed doors and windows.

"We think Syrinx might have been shifted to another world. All the work of an absent-minded deity. Now, we really need to get moving, is there anything strange past this town?" He asked the emolga as it sighed.

"Well, the road suddenly gets hard up ahead, but I'm guessing that's a human world thing. Seems like the never ending night is affecting you guys as well, huh. Well, I've got to keep looking for dunsparce, haven't seen him in days. If you see him, tell him to get his butt back to Syrinx, I've been worried about him. I just hope he hasn't truly vanished or starved like the majority of us...just feels like we're all going to die slowly and painfully here. Hey, try to stay cheerful, won't you?" He said sadly and got off the truck as we drove off. Thankfully the road through town was fairly straight and the other two civilians we saw didn't seem to pay any attention to us.

"I would have loved to have spoken to them. More civilized pokemon, I really wanted to hear what they had to say, but we can't stop for anything like that." Grovyle said, sounding miserable. "I just want to be happy again." I gently patted his head with my left hand, keeping my right hand on the wheel.

"Don't worry Grovyle, we're going to do this together with Kirk. We're all pretty tough, wouldn't you say? I wrecked many pokemon with just a crowbar, half of them bigger than me. I think we can handle whatever the road to restore time throws at us. Too bad I wasn't as badass when that man's lucario assaulted me ten years ago." I said as I heard Kirk grumble.

"That Arciest priest...it was totally worth getting in a drunken fight with him a few days afterwards for revenge. Actually, no, it was one of the reasons why Rhona broke up with me. Still, I won, and he paid for what he done." He said, sounding quite proud of himself.

"Didn't think you'd be the person to do that. Thought you took pride in being a law abiding citizen." Grovyle said as Kirk lazily looked over at him.

"The law didn't punish him. Let's face it, he deserved that busted nose for hurting Floyd like that, not even having the guts to do it himself." He said, as he tried relaxing himself so he could sleep again.

"Are you sure he ordered the attack?"

"Floyd said he did. Supposedly Floyd was heckling his son at school at the time, and got away with it, but I know Floyd wouldn't do that. Just those two playing the victim card, falsely accusing people on purpose while hiding behind that overgrown mutt." My dad said as Grovyle didn't look all that convinced. "Some people just have an axe to grind on others with no good reason."

"Hrm...regardless, it's hardly important right now. It seems like we're getting back onto the tarmac right now. Do we have enough fuel to make it?" He asked as I looked at the gauge. It was hard to tell, but even if we didn't, we could walk the last few hours just fine.

"Almost at least. Shouldn't be too big an issue...unlike that thing ahead." I said, suddenly breaking as I saw something pretty big ahead of us. "A chesnaught. I really should have slammed on the accelerator instead. Grovyle, can you get him to go away?" Grovyle nodded and asked the large bulky pokemon to move. Unfortunately, it only seemed to anger him as I saw a couple more pokemon join them – a nidoking, and, of all coincidences, a lucario.

"Maybe they're from that little town. Muggers I'm guessing. I think we'll be ok, we've fought worse!" Grovyle said loudly to us as my father and I grabbed our weapons and left the pick-up truck.

"You'd get out of the way immediately if you know what's good for you, we don't have time for this nonsense!" Kirk said, gripping his fireman's axe tightly in both hands, staring at the nidoking. It roared back at him and stomped towards my dad. "Grovyle, need some help here!" He sounded far less confident as he held the axe over his right shoulder, getting ready to swing hard at it. Seemed only natural that I'd take on the lucario. I looked at it as it looked at me as it tilted its head curiously at me and growled.

"You'd back the fuck up right now if you know what I did to several other pokemon! Some bigger than me!" I said, holding my crowbar threateningly. It didn't seem dissuaded as it suddenly leapt at me so quickly that I could barely block its kick with my crowbar, causing me to stumble back a couple of steps. As much as I told myself that I was incredibly tough and able to toe it with one of the tougher pokemon out there, the reality was that I had caught every single one of my targets unaware. This was much different as the lucario's eyes were locked onto me as I gulped in nervousness, realising I was possibly outmatched here.

I dived off the road as it threw a small sphere of pale blue energy at me as I heard a small explosion right afterwards as I backed off into the forest. As on edge as I was, I knew I had to keep its attention on me. Perhaps I could use the cover of the trees and darkness to surprise this beast. Unfortunately, it must have saw me as I heard the lucario hit the tree that I was hiding behind pretty hard, making me jump in panic and moving away from cover. It wasted no time as it sped in quickly for an assault, but I was more prepared this time. I blocked the initial blow with my crowbar and took a quick step back so its follow up punch would hit nothing but air. Here was my chance to strike at its head while its guard was down. I swung hard at its head, but it was able to soften the blow by catching and slowing down my swing with its other hand. Being about a foot smaller than me, I could still attack the lucario's face with my foot as I thrust my right leg forward right at it, causing it to stagger back in pain. I quickly followed up with another violent swing, but it swiftly ducked and the next thing I knew I felt a shattering pain on the underside of my jaw as I fell backwards onto the ground.

"Fuck..." I groaned in pain, rolling out of the way when it tried to viciously stomp on my face as I quickly got to my feet. My vision still felt a bit blurry after the blow and I had a feeling that if it wasn't as starved and scrawny as it looked, it could have knocked me out. It growled again as I was forced to back off from every one of its vicious punches and kicks. The lucario seemed to be tireless in its onslaught as I was forced to try and swiftly jab it in the teeth with my crowbar, but that only seemed to anger it further as it kicked me hard in the chest, causing me to lose a bit of breath as I stumbled back against a tree. I ducked just in time as it put all its force into trying to break my jaw with a single punch. It was so hard that I swore I heard the wood of the tree splinter. I took advantage of this and was able to swing hard at his left arm, thinking it would catch it again if I aimed for the head once more. It yelled in pain as I swiftly thrust my heel right onto its jaw, thinking that swinging again would give it too much time to back off.

It roared with fury as it prepared another one of those pale blue spheres between its two hands, not too unlike what Grovyle could do. I had seen this sort of attack many times before, and for me, it would just be a matter of a simple dodge and running into attack its face. I suddenly ducked and leaned to the right as it whizzed over me as I ran and swung wildly at its jaw as I heard something break as it fell over. Yet this lucario would not give up as it leaped up almost immediately to kick me hard in the face, and it didn't stop there. I felt like a living punching bag as I was helpless against punch after kick after punch. Shortly, it did something strange with one of its hands and I suddenly felt a massive blow on my abdomen as I was sent flying in the air for a couple of dizzying seconds before landing on the road.

I felt brushed and crushed in almost every place of my body and I could barely move. I could vaguely hear the others fighting, but the only thing I saw was the lucario striding over me, my vision becoming very blurry as half of my entire body throbbed with pain. It jumped on me, pinning me down with its arms and legs before punching me square in the face. It did so again, and I felt like I heard something break. It kept punching again, and again, and again, and I wasn't sure how much more my bones could take. I tried to speak, telling it that it could take my stuff and leave, but I could barely move my jaw whatsoever. Suddenly, the grunting and the sounds of fists colliding with faces was suddenly silenced by an ear-shattering gunshot from right behind me. The assault suddenly stopped and I felt the lucario fall off to my left side. I tilted my head back very slightly to the back to see Kirk standing there, shivering, with a handgun in both of his hands, pointing to where the lucario's head was. I heard Grovyle run up to me as I saw him look over me.

"Floyd needs help!" He yelled as Kirk just stood there with his mouth and jaws wide open in shock at what he had just done. Grovyle ran and got the first aid kit from my bag and had a look at what they had. None of the injuries I had felt too dramatic aside from something loose in my mouth. I moved my tongue around to find it moving around, making me feel sick. I spat it out slowly, realising that it was a tooth that had broken off. My dad eventually snapped out of shock as they both looked over me.

"Doesn't seem like anything too severe, can you stand up?" Kirk said, sounding worried as he helped me to my feet. Parts of my body felt numb with pain, and while I swayed a bit, I could still keep my balance fairly well.

"Anything broken?" I asked, realising how slurred my speech was. I gently touched my mouth, feeling blood and swollen tissue. I tapped other parts of my body, and while I couldn't be completely sure, it didn't seem like anything was broken.

"Doesn't look like it. Now you see why I made sure that our food packets were nutritionally balanced, so that we could remain healthy and strong against anyone that tried to threaten us. If that were a healthy lucario, you wouldn't be speaking right now, or perhaps even breathing. I...I just hope that was the right thing I did there." He said, pointing to the lucario with a bleeding hole right through its brain. "I just passed the last threshold. I'm a murderer now."

"It was either that savage lucario or your son, of course you did the right thing. Anyway, can we discuss this later, can you help me get Floyd into the truck? I'll try to make sure he's ok while keeping you right, just focus on driving, ok?" Grovyle said, leading me over slowly to the truck and helping me climb in. It hurt like fuck, but I was more concerned about any injuries holding me back from carrying out the mission. There's no way I could fight at my best for a few days now as the taste of blood lingered in my mouth from the space where a tooth used to be. Shame there were no soft foods available, because I needed my energy back.

"Are you two ok?" I asked softly, each syllable causing jolts of pain to shoot through my mouth, but it all seemed like a mere distraction now.

"Kirk's hurt his arm, but he'll be fine. Still, even though they didn't speak, they seemed to be more intelligent than the pokemon that tried to kill us earlier. I wonder if they were from that world where the pokemon started their own civilizations?" He asked as I scoffed slightly.

"So civilized that they attacked us on sight. Should have figured that trying to fight a lucario with a degree of intellect wasn't going to end well." I said, my speech becoming a bit clearer since I was getting used to my mouth being swollen. Breathing was a bit harder than usual due to my ribs taking quite the knock from the lucario.

"Next time we should stay together and not let them separate us like that." He said, taking a look at me. "Hrm, I wonder if there's any internal bleeding?"

"Dad, I think I should lie in the cargo area and have you drive very carefully. I feel a bit woozy, but I should try to recover from this as best as I can." I said as he nodded as Grovyle and Kirk lifted me into the back as my dad gave me his jacket for me to lie on.

"You'll need your strength, I just hope it doesn't come to anything." He said, still looking like he was in shock over what he did. He got back in the driver's seat and drove off slowly, making sure I don't shake too much. I breathed deeply and steadily, trying to get as much oxygen to help my body repair itself for whatever obstacles come my way. There was no time to complain about the throbbing pain in my chest and face as I found out that the skin covering my jaw was broken at some parts, and I could feel the blood on them. There were no real gashes or anything like that, and a most of the bleeding had stopped by now. I slowly looked at my chest, as I saw a large bruise forming on it. Strangely enough, in spite of the large attack on my abdomen, there wasn't much of a visible wound there, but it still made me feel a bit nauseous. I slowly drank some water as Grovyle hopped beside me to see how I was doing after giving instructions to my dad on where to go.

"Feeling any better?" He asked softly, having a look over me.

"Just a bit. I'm tough, or at least I need to be. I'll muscle through this." I said, trying to use as little energy as possible when speaking. I noticed we joined a small motorway as we reached Haggs, which was thankfully deserted, and I'm not sure if the Neo-Dialgans had bothered to spread out this far yet. Kirk still drove slowly, being sure to give me the best conditions possible to recover.

"I wonder if it's possible...now, you do know how some pokemon like me have energy draining abilities? It's never something I used very much, but I wonder if it's possible to do the reverse of that?" He told me, and I already knew what he was suggesting.

"Are you sure you can do that safely? Because while I think I was lucky enough to avoid very serious injury, I don't think I can take much more of this. Besides, how do you know my body will just accept it?" I said as Grovyle paused and nodded.

"Indeed, I'll only try it if there's some kind of danger ahead." He said as I laughed a bit.

"This entire planet is one big massive danger by now. I see what you mean though." I said as Grovyle opened a can of beans for me, as I swallowed each individual bean one at a time to give my munching teeth a rest after receiving a pounding. A few of the teeth felt a bit shifted from their usual position, giving me a cold shiver. "How does my face look anyway?"

"Beautiful! Just kidding, it's pretty messed up." Grovyle said, laughing a bit.

"As long as it doesn't hold me back, it'll be fine." I muttered, eating some more cold beans. They seemed to taste even worse mixed with bits of blood in my mouth, but it was fuel, so I didn't particularity care.

"Are you ok back there Floyd?" I heard my dad call out.

"As ok as someone who got the shit beat out of them can be. And you?"

"Not so good. Just thinking about what I done and what it really means. I really didn't think about it at the time, I just acted. After seeing so many people get killed, it just felt like I was forced to choose who was to live and who was to die, and you saw that I took the obvious choice. That's what it felt like, but I don't think I can call myself a Dialgan anymore. I'd love nothing more than to be, but it seems like the lord's ideology is dead by this point. This ruined world's put us all between a rock and a hard place, but what exactly does it mean? What does it really mean to kill someone? I'm obviously relieved that you're alive and proud that I was able to save you, but...ugh, murdering someone with a single bullet just...I don't expect you to understand until you've done it yourself, nor do I expect Grovyle to understand." He said, still keeping his eyes on the road.

"What do you mean by that?" Grovyle asked, looking a little offended.

"Well, when you devote yourself to a certain code for decades and break the most sacred law of them all, it's hard not to see yourself as a vile villain."

"Kirk, you can't get yourself too hung up about it. Just keep focus on the task at hand. Once it's all over, we'll have more than enough time to discuss this."

"Huh..." He said, trailing off as he accelerated slightly once the road got a little smoother.

"So will you be using your handgun more often?" Grovyle asked after about a minute's silence.

"Might as well really, as much as it sickens me to say it. I'm already evil in Dialga's eyes, both him in his current primal state and the Dialga of the past. Guess I might just keep digging and who knows, I might find light at the end of the tunnel." He said, sounding exhausted and fed up.

"What about you Floyd? You saw how effectively Kirk took out that lucario. Can you find it in yourself to do the same?" He asked as I looked away from him for a bit.

"I dunno really, I guess we'll just have to wait and see when the time comes." I said before leaning close to Grovyle's head so that my dad wouldn't overhear. "My father...he disappointed me in a way. There must have been some non lethal way."

"Seriously Floyd?! After all this, you're still sticking to a code that just restricts your ability to raise the sun again and be this planet's salvation?!" He said, and for what might be the first time in his life, seemed genuinely angry with me. "It's really damn selfish of you in a way, putting a code before the fate of the planet."

"Without a firm moral structure, there might not even be anyone else alive to save! Ever consider that?!"

"Shut up, both of you!" Kirk said, also sounding angry. "In the end, it won't even matter as long as we get Dialga to not remove the Time Gears! ...I really wonder why he did that though..."

"...Sorry, it's just that everything is scaring me right now." Grovyle said, calming down quickly.

"It frightens me too, even with the dimensional scream. As experienced as I am with it, I can never see what happens to myself in the future, and not all of the future dimensional screams are even completely accurate anyway. I think they're more like predictions than anything else." He said, sounding sad and bitter about himself.

"So you're saying the celebi might not even show up?!" Grovyle said, sounding shocked.

"I said the Illumination Theory was a really long shot. I know deep down this probably won't work, and that it'll require luck to be on our side at every turn, but it's something at least! That is why I decided to lead this quest, because it was better than sitting around and waiting to starve to death. Even if we fail, I can at least die knowing I tried to do something about it, and so far, the rotten world's thrown everything at us, and it 'only' took half of the group. I say things aren't even looking that terrible when put in perspective." He said, and I could tell that he was twisting his own words so that it would all seem less hopeless, yet it worked for me at least. "Also, I'm going to speed up a bit here, we're pretty close to Stirling so I want to not attract any unwanted attention. Grovyle, I'm going to ask you to knock out the back lights, I won't want us showing up to any potential pursuers, and road safety is not a big priority right now. Well, it's not unimportant but you get the idea."

"Suppose, I couldn't find a good way to get around this road, so I guess we're playing the price. Hold on Floyd." Grovyle said, as my dad briefly turned off the truck lights as Grovyle shattered the back ones with his leaf blades. "Done!"

"Good work, now hold on Floyd. I mean literally, I don't want you skidding around back there." He said as I grabbed hold of the side of the truck as I felt it accelerate up to a quick speed. By now I think my body had gotten over the shock and had patched up any internal injuries, so I wished I was back in the passenger seat. Grovyle seemed to be absolutely fine back with me however. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying it to an extent. I couldn't see what was ahead of us, so I trusted Kirk to take us past the edges of Stirling safely. "Grovyle, be sure to deal with any pursuers, would you?"

"Of course, I'll keep an eye out for them." I was worried what it might come to, since this wasn't exactly the fastest vehicle, and we did hear of the Neo-Dialgans spreading their toxic influence to Stirling, so seeing patrols here wouldn't be out of the question. A couple of minutes later, I felt the truck veer to the right a bit as I assumed Kirk was avoiding some kind of hazard.

"Doubt they can chase, just a couple of humans on their own. No pokemon or vehicle, can't tell whether they're cultists or not." My dad said, keeping focus on the road ahead. I kept hanging on as he swerved slightly again a minute later as two gunshots suddenly sounded, the second bullet ripping through the side of the truck, barely missing my leg.

"We're not hit, just keep going!" Grovyle yelled as Kirk sped up even more, pushing my mum's pick-up truck to its limits. We had no idea how well they could communicate or if they knew who we are, but if they could, they could organize a blockade if given enough time, but it seems like my dad wasn't going to let that happen. A few moments later, we saw a car starting to pursue us from behind, the bright lights slowly getting closer as it started to hunt us down.

"Grovyle, blast them or something!" My dad yelled as I saw Grovyle prepare a large sphere of wobbling green energy within his hands.

"Good thinking, just make sure you don't miss!" I said as I lifted my head a bit to see them behind us, and it seemed like someone was leaning out of the car with a rifle in hand. "And be careful, he's armed!" We all ducked as bullets flew in all directions, though it seems like his aim was completely rubbish as not a single one hit our truck. As soon as the barrage of bullets stopped, Grovyle threw the sphere of energy at the pursuing car, and it collided hard with the bonnet, causing the car to swerve way over to the left. They stopped chasing us as it seems like Grovyle must have damaged their engine or some other important part.

"Great job! I think we're almost at our exit." Kirk said, pointing to a passing sign that was briefly illuminated by the truck lights. We shortly veered off into a side road, finally slowing down. After a couple of roundabouts, it seemed like we were finally clear of the Neo-Dialgans as Grovyle and I looked at the darkness we left behind. I sighed in relief as much as I could without it hurting me, and I even managed to crack a smile.

"There are no big towns or cities in this direction. I think we might finally be safe, or at least a bit safer now that there's no organized group trying to kill us. I think we managed to pass the worst!" I said, smiling broadly at Grovyle as he hugged me gently. "I'm still feeling a bit weak and woozy, but I think the worst is behind me. Think it would be safe for me to get back in the front seat soon?"

"Just rest there for a bit longer, and be sure to drink some water. I'll need to go slower here anyway now that the road isn't nearly as straight and wide as it used to be. If it gets a bit bumpy, I'll stop and let you in. You've done well to endure such a beating from that lucario, and providing that Omar doesn't tell them, they should have no idea where we're going, not even Dusknoir." Kirk said, sounding a little more cheerful and hopeful than before. "We got this far together, I'm really proud of you. It's hard to judge, but I think we'll be there in about two hours, and then we'll just have to wait until the celebi appears."

"It's impressive that you were even able to come up with this." Grovyle said, climbing back into the front seat to take a look at the map. "Just keep on this road and you'll eventually get there."

"I just hope we don't end up driving through any alien towns that have been planted here along the way, there's still that problem." Kirk said, still keeping his attention glued onto the road ahead.

"I'm sure we'll succeed, because we beat everything that came at us before." Grovyle replied, trying to keep everyone's spirits up.

"I really need to sleep for a while. We'll have plenty of time, but it's just not safe to ever drop your guard whatsoever nowadays. Just in case we're being tracked in one way or another, we should find somewhere like an empty garage to hide this truck and sleep in an empty house, as long as one of us stays awake and take turns of resting up once we reach Glencoe. It's so hard to keep focused now. I don't think I've slept in fifty hours, or at least it feels that way." He said, and as the road got a little more hilly, I assumed that we must have entered the highlands by now. Oh, how I wished I could have seen the sweeping hills and mountains cover the beautiful landscape, covered with tall, towering trees. Instead, I couldn't see shit because it was so dark. That, right there, was something else worth fighting for. It was something pretty small, but the little things can sometimes be just as precious as the big things in life.

"Grovyle, I sure wish I took you here before. It might be a bit cold outside of summer, but I'm sure you would have loved to see all of this." I said, imagining what our location might have looked like if the sun was still here. "...I'm not sure if Omar even got to see any of this. The dude was always a bit of a stay-in city guy unless he was training, and even then, it was only the Pentland hills." I felt sad, thinking about what he might be going through right now. Don't worry Omar, I'll make it all worthwhile for us.

"I wonder what life will be like once the sun comes up again?" Grovyle asked, looking around. "I mean, will it really just go back to the way things were?"

"Most of us are dead probably, so I doubt it, but I do know that whatever it will be, it'll be better than this. At least we'll be able to grow food and be able to see stuff more than ten meters in front of us. Oh, and avoiding becoming extinct." I said as Kirk started slowing the truck down.

"...Uh, want to come into the front?" He said, opening the left door once he stopped. "If you think you'll be fine." I nodded as I got in, but he didn't drive away immediately.

"Loch Lubnaig." Kirk said, pointing out to the large body of water I couldn't make out from the surrounding black. He got out a bottle of water and a food packet and started eating and drinking, as did Grovyle, but I had already eaten recently. "My father used to take me here every summer for a few years for a walk around these parts, back when he actually felt like a dad. When he started becoming...well, not a good person, it kind of tainted my memories of this place. And before you ask Grovyle, I stopped here because I needed something to eat and drink, it keeps me healthy and awake. How are your supplies doing?"

"Three bottles of water and two food packets. Seemed like I underestimated the toll of all the fighting and lack of sunlight would have on me." Grovyle said as I checked my bag. I was doing a bit better, having six bottles and five food packets left.

"I've got six of each. If there's a river, we're drinking from that, but as for food, it's not too good I'm afraid. If we reach Glencoe, we're not moving unless we absolutely have to in order to conserve energy." Kirk said, still looking extremely tired.

"Indeed, and we should stay hidden once we reach Glencoe as you said earlier." Grovyle said, eating some dry meat. Once we were ready to go, I got in beside Grovyle and Kirk as we drove off once more. It felt stiff sitting up as my chest felt a bit crushed, but it was no longer gratingly painful, just very uncomfortable. Looking in the side mirror, I saw just how bad my face looked. My jaw was almost completely covered in a giant bruise with several cuts lining it, some of the blood dried upon my beard. Both my lips had been bleeding too, but were mostly cleaned by my tongue earlier on, and there was more than one nasty looking swell that spiked with pain with the slightest touch. One of my eyes looked swollen, and there had been bleeding there too, some of if having dried upon my left cheek. The other eye just looked a bit bruised, and, surprisingly, my nose had gotten away unscathed, looking much cleaner than the rest of my face.

"Good thing I'm not trying to impress people visually." I said, smiling a bit as I tried my best to put an amusing spin on this, but even my smile looked a little creepy by now. "Eh, better that than a crippled leg I suppose, it won't hold me back too much."

"But what if Dialga refuses to listen us us because of your messed up face?" Grovyle said, laughing for a bit before suddenly stopping. "Ok, that really wasn't funny, sorry about that."

"I don't think the lord will care about that." Kirk said, taking Grovyle's joke seriously. "If only Floyd could drive in that state, I wouldn't mind a few more dimensional screams to see what other information I can find. I want to test a theory that the dimensional screams are predictions of what will happen in the future rather than actual seeing into the future. I think it might show us what will happen if no action is taken by the seer, but it can all be changed if the seer makes different choices based on what he or she saw. Example, if I had a vision of Floyd giving Grovyle a banana, and I went and took away the banana from the cupboard and hid it, you wouldn't give Grovyle the banana. But I have no idea to be sure, and, annoyingly, I've still no idea how I got this power."

"You said it got a bit harder to do as time went on due to, well, time not going along as it should." Grovyle said as Kirk sighed.

"It does, but it doesn't mean I can't do it. I couldn't efficiently scout the area for dangers though, since it's still pretty unwieldy even if I'm pretty experienced with it. That being said, I did see some...things in the future." He said, his voice going a bit lower and quieter. "About a year from now, I could barely find any signs of life, and by two, I couldn't find anything at all. It only goes worse as it goes along. The planet itself starts fragmenting initially and even in the vision I found myself frozen. Eventually I saw absolutely nothing except the faint echoes of an entity I couldn't even recognize, and even whatever that thing was seemed to be in pain. I can only conclude that the other deities eventually went as primal as Dialga has. Hrm, that's a good name for him right now – Primal Dialga. Can't stand the thought of Primal Dialga and Dialga being the same thing, so different titles will be good."

"...I can see why you wanted to confirm that theory. Still, let's just keep going, we can't be too far away now." Grovyle said as my dad looked at the fuel gauge.

"We might be a tiny bit short on fuel, but we can walk the rest of the way." He said as we passed by a tiny, lifeless village. Good to see that no one was standing in our way this time, although I noticed that some of the signs were in Gaelic as well as English now, showing that we were pretty far north of the heavily populated central belt by now. Twenty minutes later, the tarmac changed to dirt once more as we saw more alien planets, signifying that this must be another piece of the pokemon world that had been displaced. All three of us were at the ready, but this time, nothing came. It was quite relieving to feel this alone out here. Much better being isolated than have hidden dangers striking us from every corner. Bits of snow were now lying on the side of the road by now once we left the strange anomalous area, and I could only assume the tops of the hills were completely covered in the stuff. Still, the road itself was clear, so it didn't impede our progress. The road seemed to become more open and felt less hilly after a while as we saw a sign pointed to the Glencoe Mountain Resort. We must be getting close.

"Still a bit to go, about fifteen minutes as a stab in the dark guess." Kirk said, giving an air of determination and relief to our journey, and I was feeling physically and mentally better by the second. I sat up straight and kept my eyes fixated ahead, hoping that everything else would go smoothly.

"Did you see anyone else aside from the celebi in Glencoe?" I asked my dad as he shook his head.

"Nope, and that's a good thing. Well, it's bad that they might all be dead there, but...it's a good thing." He said, looking uncomfortable at what he just said. Unfortunately, it was now that the smooth ride was about to end. Suddenly, we heard a loud sound that was about half way between a pop and a bang, and a second after that, another, almost identical sound happened. Grovyle immediately jumped into the back to have a look at what caused it. We heard the sound of metal grinding and Grovyle yelling.

"We're under attack!" He shouted, as I saw a couple of sableyes jump onto the back of the truck as Grovyle tried to get them off.

"I'm going to speed up, get ready!" Kirk yelled as he put his foot down hard on the accelerator as Grovyle was able to take out our assailants with a swift chain of attacks. He seemed to struggle to control the truck as he was only just able to keep on the road.

"They popped the right hand tyres!" Grovyle yelled, and two seconds later I saw something large and dark come out of the shadows and hit the pick-up truck so hard that it knocked the entire truck over as it rolled off the road and onto the grass and heather to the left of us. I hung onto my seat tightly, praying that I wouldn't get crushed as it ended up upside down. I forced the door open immediately and climbed out, seeing Grovyle was trying to fight off three sableyes all at once. I took my crowbar out of my bag and was able to strike at one of them leaping at me from the shadows just in time.

"Dad, I'm coming to help!" I said as I pulled his door open with all of my strength and helped free his leg while Grovyle kept what looked like an entire squad of those things distracted.

"I think I know who did this, and if I'm right..." He said, looking like he was about to grab his axe, but suddenly changed and took his gun instead, cocked it, and turned the safety off. He pointed it at at a round shadow that slowly appeared to us as Kirk narrowed his eyes. "I'm amazed you had the courage to come after us like that. Now why don't you be a good traitorous coward and just sit on the sidelines while we become the salvation of the universe, Dusknoir!"

"I had no choice – do you think I'm just going to let you do this?" Dusknoir said, looking nervous with that gun pointed right at him. "It is Dialga's will, you are forbidden from changing the future. He said so himself." At this point, I noticed a couple of sableyes sneaking up from behind so I turned to face them, crowbar at the ready. They were a lot smaller and weaker than the lucario I got beaten up by, so I was confident that even in my injured state, that I could take them down.

"You know fine well that Primal Dialga is not of sound mind as is, as of now, unfit for worship. Look what he's done to you Dusknoir! It seems like I made my fair share or errors in the way I inducted you into the faith, but I hardly expected you to be that pathetic!" I heard Kirk say in his stand off as one of the sableyes leapt right at me. It was predictable, so I swung at it right away, hitting it with a loud clunk as it fell to the ground. I backed off to meet with Grovyle who was having trouble dealing with the sheer numbers of them.

"I see you've changed as well. Would you really use that weapon on me? What have you become?" Dusknoir said, sounding genuinely curious.

"I've become a person that the planet needs. Besides, I assume you've been sent here to kill us, so you're hardly one to talk. Besides, I know it's not just misplaced worship. I know the other reason why you're trying to kill us, you pathetic coward!" He replied as I swung hard at a sableye that was about to jump on Grovyle from above before running over to it and smashing its head hard to ensure it wouldn't get up to try and kill us any time soon.

"Doing ok Grovyle?" I said, making sure none of the sableyes were behind me as I ran over to assist him.

"There's so many of them!" He replied, slicing at them and keeping on the move to avoid being swarmed. I was cut off from Grovyle as three of them stood in front of me. I had no idea how intelligent or savage they were, but they seemed smart enough to try and divide and conquer their prey. I stared at them for a second, deciding how best to take them out.

"I'll fuck you all up!" I screamed as I ran at them for a second, forcing them to react. As expected, the ones on the far side leapt right at me, trying to attack me from an odd angle, and I was able to turn and block him off with my crowbar. One of the other sableyes seemed content to just stand guard, ensuring that I couldn't help Grovyle and stopping Grovyle from helping me. I noticed a strange movement beneath my feet, but I assumed it was just a loose shoelace. Seeing the one I blocked off become isolated, I ran in to try and smash its face in with my crowbar, but suddenly I felt a raking and tearing sensation on my back as I felt two sets of claws dig into my skin as I screamed in surprise and agony, accidentally dropping my crowbar.

I saw the other sableye run at me with a strange shadowy aura around its claws and I saw it stare right at my neck. I reached round to grab the sableye behind me by its arms before it made too much of a bloody mess of my back and wrenched it off with both my arms. I saw the other sableye leap at me, getting ready to tear my throat open with a clean swipe, so I lowered my head and clobbered it with the sableye that was on my back, causing them to both fall to the ground. I immediately started stomping on one of their heads, letting anger and fury fuel my assault, but I didn't have much time to as I noticed a strange blue ghostly flame rushing towards me, forcing me to get out of the way. I grabbed my crowbar and heard a few gunshots, telling me that the stand off between Dusknoir and my father had finally ended. The sableye I stomped on seemed to be struggling to get up, but I didn't have time to attack it as the other two of them were already upon me, attacking from opposite sides.

I could only stop one of them so I swiftly jabbed the one on my left with the sharp end of the crowbar in its large gem-like eye, causing it to screech in pain. I, too, screeched in pain as I felt sharp claws swiftly cut across my left arm, leaving a strange crackling feeling as I noticed the strange shadowy stuff lingering around the gash. As painful as it was, they left me open to run and join Grovyle. Taking the opportunity to kick the injured sableye in the face as hard as I could on the way, I ran to join him who looked like he was taking on at least six of them at once.

"I'm here!" I yelled at Grovyle just after I clobbered one of them on the head from behind with all of my strength as I saw him savagely take out one of the sableyes by slicking at its neck, felling it right away. Almost right after though, I felt something slash at my legs, casing me to fall down in surprise and pain. I landed hard on my bloody back causing me to gasp in pain and I saw at least two sableyes pounce on my while I was vulnerable. Arm collided with claw as I was able to get one of them off, but the second one landed right on my already injured chest, making me losing a bit of breath but I was able to punch the assailant off before it could do any real damage. I didn't see the third one try to attack my face from the right, but fortunately for me, Grovyle was on the case as an small explosion sounded as he hit it dead on with an explosive energy sphere.

"Foul beasts, I'll best every one of you! Get out, of, my, fucking, way!" I said, as pain moved all the way to the back as I smashed one of them hard in the face, getting to me feet. This second wind I felt was excellent as I felt strength, be it real or artificial, return to me. I didn't give the sableye I just pounded a chance to recover as I swung down hard with an overhead smash right on its face before turning to help Grovyle. I ducked below another wisp of the mysterious fire than one of them conjured before delivering the same punishment to that sableye. Unfortunately, I didn't see another one of them launch one of those wisps at me as it hit me on the side as it felt like my entire body was on fire, but not even that could quell me as grabbed one of the sableyes that just pounced on Grovyle from behind by the arm and slammed the pest on the ground before impaling it through the belly with the sharp end of the crowbar.

"Thanks Floyd!" He said before suddenly unleashing what seemed to be an entire storm of leaves to injure a bunch of the sableyes in front of us. Suddenly, I saw Kirk suddenly land a few meters in front of me, and he seemed pretty badly hurt. I ran over to him to help him up, as he pointed right in front of him. Dusknoir was there, shaking out of fear and injury as I noticed that there seemed to be quite a few bullet holes in him, but he still looked like he had plenty of fight in him.

"Guns are no good once you run out of ammo..." My father said, looking too exhausted to fight. I stared at Dusknoir and growled slightly.

"Grovyle, can you deal with the sableyes?" I said, gripping my crowbar tightly. I didn't know how much more punishment my body could take, but I wasn't afraid to find out. My willpower to re-raise the sun combined with my unbridled hatred for Dusknoir united as I gave him a wicked grin. "Haha...you really shouldn't have tried to hunt us down!"

"It was all thanks to Omar that it was possible. He didn't tell us willingly, but with the help of a couple of malamars, we just extracted your destination from his mind by force, so we just waited for you to come here! Between you and me, that crowbar of yours won't do much to me." He said, still sounding a bit weak.

"I'll test that theory myself, traitor!" I screamed as I ran at him. I stared at the points where Kirk shot him and decided I'd do well to strike at his wounds to open then up further. I swung hard as crowbar met fist, almost causing me to drop it from his sheer strength, but it seemed to hurt his hand a bit, so I kept up the aggression as I dived in to try and impale the crowbar in him at one of the wounds. He grunted in pain and backed off, and seeing him suffer like that filled me with glee.

"You will not kill me here, and I will not die!" He exclaimed, creating two clouds of shadowy energy in both of his hands. I wasn't sure what he was planning on doing, so I kept a very close watch on him. Perhaps it would be possible to take him out quickly by jabbing this thing right in his solitary eye of his, but for now, I had to avoid a strange gust of the strange shadowy stuff, but I couldn't dodge the second as I found it made me cough uncontrollably and made my skin feel like it was on fire. Yet I still couldn't stop here as when he went to punch me in the face with his massive fist, I found myself still able to thrust the sharp end of my crowbar right at it, causing him to reel back as I almost stumbled due to the force of his blow.

"You fool, you'll kill us all!" Dusknoir said loudly as I charged at him yet again.

"I'm the one who should be saying that, not you!" I shrieked, as Dusknoir's right hand surrounded itself with a different shadow energy as he punched very preemptively before I was even close to him, and yet, something large and heavy collided with my head, causing me to get knocked back onto the ground. Seemed like my injuries were finally catching up to me as I found it hard to move much at all as my vision became blurred and uneven. I tried forcing myself to my feet but stumbled and fell back down before I was even close to standing up. I saw the jaws on his stomach open as I saw him prepare that same very powerful attack I saw him do earlier on when we were friends, except this time I would be on the receiving end of it. I desperately tried to struggle away, but I was a very easy target and not even the rush of adrenaline was going to give me the boost necessary now that my body was ravaged this badly. Suddenly, a small object whizzed right over me and flew right at the ball of darkness Dusknoir was generating, stunning him slightly as he stopped hovering for a moment and fell onto the ground.

"You should have stayed back in Edinburgh if you wanted to extend your pathetic life as long as possible, because I'm ending right here! Die!" I heard my father say, charging at him, gripping his axe on both hands as he chopped at him, screaming like a madman and completely expunging any mercy he might have had before. The exhausted Dusknoir barely even had a chance to respond, and even when he tried to keep his distance to blast Kirk with that strange putrid purple wind, my dad just flat out ignored it and kept trying to hit him right in the eye.

"Kirk, you'll completely destroy this timeline and everyone in if you keep on this road! You'll kill everyone!" Dusknoir shouted in fear, more focused on staying safe instead of trying to kill my rage fuelled father.

"I long accepted that as part of the plan. You should be thanking me that the versions of ourselves in the new timeline will never know of this world, and will never have to suffer through what we have. Who knows, maybe we could still be friends there. However, even this world will be better off without you!" Kirk exclaimed as he swiped viciously at Dusknoir's hand, and it look like he severed off one of his fingers. Dusknoir's grunts of pain turned into a wail of agony as Kirk threw the axe right at him, hitting him right in the eye. It fell on the ground as my dad tried to continue the assault, but he was so focused on Dusknoir that he didn't see a couple of sableyes right at his heels. They slashed viciously at the back of his feet as he suddenly fell forward, yelling in pain as he tried to get the sableyes away from him. Grovyle suddenly came to his rescue, striking down the two sableyes and hitting Dusknoir hard with an energy sphere.

"Dad, catch!" I said, throwing my gun at him so he could shoot Dusknoir, who looked like he was signalling the remaining sableyes to him. He turned round from his prone position and picked it up when it landed next to him. He then proceeded to take a couple of shots at the fleeing traitor, but Dusknoir's sturdiness was impeccable.

"I will not die here, and I will not die tomorrow! I will find you again, and I'll stop you. You will not kill me! You will not defy the lord! I urge you all to reconsider! Don't throw your lives away!" I heard him screaming as he fled back into the darkness where he came from. I hoped sincerely that he wouldn't try to get in our way again, but if he did, I'd be happy to see him pay the ultimate price. Seems like Kirk and I were barely able to move as Grovyle went to try and help me up to my feet.

"It hurts, but if you support me, I can manage to get beside my father." I said as Grovyle supported me. Each step took a great deal of effort and I felt weak due to the exhaustion and blood loss in general, not to mention I couldn't push the pain to my back of my mind anymore. I collapsed a meter away from my dad as I looked at him.

"Hey...good job Floyd. Did I do well? Oh...oh my heels." I looked and while I was no expert, it looked like his Achilles tendons on both of his feet had been completely ripped in half by the sableye. "I don't think I can walk anymore..."

"I don't know what to say...those sableyes, they must have learned how to safely cripple people instead of taking risky throat lunges..." I said sadly as Grovyle, even though he looked in a rough state, was still able to get the first aid box from my bag and wrap bandages around Kirk's wounds.

"I don't know if I can recover from this without professional medical help, but if I can, then it'll likely take too long. I...I think this is it for me. I'm too crippled to be of any use, and the truck is pretty much out of petrol, not to mention the tyres are popped, so I can't make it to Glencoe." My dad said, sounding miserable.

"Dad, I'll carry you there if I have to. You're our leader, it was your choices and decisions that got us this far. I only just lost Omar, I can't go through that again!" I said, trying not to cry as I felt Grovyle put a few bandages on me too.

"You're smart Floyd, and you can follow my instructions." He said, reaching over for his bag and getting the folder of his notes on the Illumination Theory on it. "You'll need these. Now, listen closely, because you can't afford to screw this up. I saw the celebi appear next to a set of traffic lights, between the inn and the mountain rescue headquarters. You'll see it when you arrive in the village if you just keep going across the road. Tell the celebi what you're planning to do, and hopefully she'll listen and help take you to a passage of time where you can go back and warn Dialga in good time. When you arrive there, make sure at least one of you is at that point at all times, you can't afford to miss this chance. You can still walk, can you?"

"I may need to rest first, do I have the time?" I asked as my father nodded.

"You still have a few days, and it's only a few miles away." He said before looking miserable again. "You, uh, may have been overhearing what Dusknoir and I yelled at each other there. It's true – we're not getting out of this alive. Every time I heard you and Grovyle talk about the plans you were wanting to make once we've succeeded in our mission cut me so very deep. Floyd, Grovyle – if you two complete our mission, then you two, along with me, Dusknoir, and everyone else in this timeline will cease to exist. It is, effectively, a suicide mission. I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier, but I wanted your absolute dedication, and after seeing what happened to Dusknoir, I was afraid that the fear of certain death would dissuade you. I'm sorry, but it's the only way." I found myself crying, the tears stinging the cuts on my face. I had never felt like this before, knowing that whatever life was going to throw at me next, my time would soon be over. This feeling of dread and unconquerable primal fear made me shudder, as I could see no way out. Within maybe weeks or months, I'd be a dead man, and so would everyone I knew and loved.

"Floyd, think about it this way – if you succeed, then all the horrors that happened over the past few months will never have happened. Omar, Dragonite...they'll live again. They can live happy with us three in the new timeline that will be created once Dialga makes the decision to not remove the Time Gears. Imagine not having to live through all of this – that is what the new Floyd will do, and he will live his life the way he always wanted to, the way you always wanted to. This rotten timeline will fall into the abyss and it will give way to a better one . In a way, we will die, but in another way, we will live. Sorry if that isn't very comforting. Truth be told, I lost so much sleep thinking about it when I first discovered the truth, but I'm still prepared to do this. Besides, isn't that in a way better than fixing a world that's already thoroughly broken with most of the population dead? It's comforting in a way." Kirk said, smiling slightly.

"I don't want to die...not like this." I heard Grovyle say from behind, as he looked like he was trying not to cry. "Does it have to end like this? We put everything into being the salvation of the universe, and as a result, we die?"

"I'm putting my faith in you two that you will not turn out like Dusknoir. I've seen you at your best and worse, and I fully believe that you'll both pull through. You'll be the heroes of time. I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough to be with you. I'll make it up to you." Kirk said as he gave me his bag. "You'll need the supplies more than I do."

"But you'll die here dad! I'm not sure if I can let that happen..." I said, choking up a bit.

"We're all dead men by this point anyway. Anyway, I really shouldn't keep you here for too much longer, we don't know if anyone else is coming to get us, so I'm going to request one last thing from you." He said, and gestures to the gun that I threw to him earlier. "Floyd, don't hold back. Forget what you learned about what's right and wrong and just go for it. It won't matter who you kill before you go back in time, because, like I said a few times, none of this will matter once its all over. Just don't go too crazy, ok?" He put the handgun gently in my hand. Maybe it really was for the best after all...

"I'll...I'll do it. I'll see this through to its end. I've seen all this horror and realised there are worse things than death. I don't think I'll be afraid anymore." I said, wiping a couple of tears away that were stinging one of the cuts on my face.

"Wish we parted looking better than we do." Kirk said, his face also looking rather beaten up.

"Hah, me too dad." I replied as he reached over to hug me.

"Good luck out there, and please, I'm begging you – don't screw this up. Sorry, I can't think of a good farewell speech right now. I, eh, I usually script my church speeches well in advance." He said, chuckling slightly as I hugged him back.

"I promise I won't let anyone stop me. No man, mountain or pokemon can get in my way for long." I replied as I let go of him.

"Make me proud! Hey Grovyle..." He said, reaching over to him as Grovyle went and cuddled my father briefly. "Look after Floyd, will you? I've never seen him looked so messed up and ugly before."

"He's my best friend, I won't let anyone hurt him. Well, I'll try my best anyway, I've failed too many times." Grovyle said softly as he stood up straight.

"Hey dad, I'm not ugly!" I said, pretending to sound annoyed for our amusement.

"Oh come now Floyd, you're an excellent example of a human being in general, it's just too bad you didn't inherit my good looks." He said laughing as Grovyle helped me to my feet, thinking that I could walk. After that small rest and motivation, I felt as though I could at least make it to Glencoe, where I could find an abandoned house to rest in, as it'd have a nice bed and be sheltered from the cold and all creatures that lurk in the darkness.

"Floyd, Grovyle! See you both in the new timeline!" He said as he waved us off with a smile as I waved back to him as I turned away, leaving my father to slowly starve to death on the heather and grass field as I joined the road and started slowly limping down it. And so, six became two, but even if two were to become one, I would still carry on. I've seen to much to not devote everything I could to it. I would find a way to see this through to its end, I always do, even if it meant having every force in the universe oppose me.

"I...I wanted to spend so much more time with you Floyd." Grovyle said, crying softly. "All of those things we said we'd do, and now we're going to die. I just want all of this to be a bad dream so we can wake up and have the time of our lives. I felt as though I barely got to know the human ways of life, and there was so much more I wanted to learn. I suppose, though, we're the only ones left that might be able to prevent that way from becoming completely extinct. It's just that...I'm not ready to die Floyd. I'm so scared..."

"So am I Grovyle, and yet, we're carrying on anyway. Isn't that true bravery? Come now, as my father said, we'll all see each other in the new timeline we'll make. Besides, is dying in a hospital bed from from disease killing you slowly while you waste away from old age really that appealing? We can die doing something truly incredible instead. Our souls will shine brighter than a billion suns! Actually, there's far more starts than that in the universe..."

"Floyd...that...was really corny." He said while grinning as we did what we could to keep our spirits up as we slowly plodded on the empty road to Glencoe. Kirk, Omar...I wouldn't let you down. I wouldn't let anyone down. I can make it. I can get there. I can be the hero of time. I can get there. I can make it. I'll be strong enough. I can be the hero of time. I can make it. I can make it...