Updates! Randomness! Things! Also I'm back to Mark's point of view for now, and for all of you who have seen Lucario and the mystery of Mew, there's a bonus for you in this chapter! As always, enjoy and review! Feedback really helps me know what you guys want to see!

Chapter 10: lost in the past

I knew it was going to be a bad night when I found my dream to be at the maw of Hypno's cave. I could see in this dream, and as soon as I stepped into the cave, I wished that I was blind again. Children lined the walls, perfectly still, as if this scene wasn't disturbing enough, one of the kids turned to me and spoke in the voice of a young girl.

"Do you know why he takes our eyes?" the question was creepy enough on its own, but then I realized that the child's eyes had in fact been taken out, leaving only the black, lifeless sockets. The image was still burned into my mind as I shot up in my bedroll, screaming.

"Mark? Mark, what's wrong?" Dusk asked, gripping my hand. After I calmed down I told her what I had seen.

"Oh no, this is bad, this is very very bad!" she whispered, her emotions were too jumbled to read as she stood, still hanging on to my hand, and led me outside of our camp.

"Where are we going?" I asked, sensing the auras around us we ran. I received no answer other than our footfalls on the forest floor. Suddenly, a strong aura shot upward from underground. I dug my heels into the earth beneath me, pulling Dusk to a stop just as the aura burst from the ground.

"WHO DARES TRESSPASS UPON MY DOMAIN?" a voice like an avalanche thundered in my mind.

"we offer no threat to your land, we only seek the Meadow Of Time." Dusk said, this surprised the entity, it's aura resembled a large man, standing about three feet taller than me. An ancestral memory tugged at my mind. Regirock I thought, the first guardian of the Tree Of Beginning.

"THOSE WHO SEEK PASSAGE THROUGH MY DOMAIN MUST PROVE THEMSELVES WORTHY!" Regirock said, and with that it began charging a Hyper Beam attack.

"Dusk, get back now!" I said, forming an Aura Sphere in my hand. I launched my Aura Sphere into the charging beam, causing a crash to ring in my ears. I dashed toward Regirock's aura, forming a barrier of aura around one of my fists, then striking the dazed golem, knocking him to the ground. I stood, breathing hard, as Dusk joined me.

"wow, that was amazing Mark! I never imagined that you could manipulate aura like that!" Dusk praised me as I recovered, i needed to be sparing with my aura: using too much in a short amount of time could put me in a coma, I'd learned that the hard way.

"BE WARY YOUNG ONE, YOUR NEXT JOURNEY MAY BE YOUR LAST. . ." Regirock had regained consciousness by now, and with that warning, he dove back into the earth from whence he came. I hope he isn't saying what I think he is. . . I thought as Dusk and I returned to the task at hand.

"so . . . this Meadow Of Time that you mentioned, does that have something to do with Hypno?" I asked as we walked.

"Yes and no, you've heard of time flowers before, right Mark?"

"Yeah, I encountered several when I was living with Luke in the mountains."

"Well, imagine a wide meadow full of them."

"Impressive."

"That's not even the most amazing thing about it, I've heard stories of travelers stumbling upon the meadow, and the time flowers showing them any event they wished."

"That's . . . really something." I said, my voice shaking slightly. I felt Dusk's questioning eyes boring into me, and I couldn't hide it anymore, I told my friend about the real reason I was blind:

It was a cool night, the moon rose high over a small town, illuminating the houses in an eerie blue light. A young boy played close to the edge of a deep forest that stood watching over the peaceful town. Two shadows slipped out of a darkened house, unseen by the boy as they crept closer to him. The boy was snatched up by one of the shadows and carried into the forest, his mouth covered to keep him quiet. The shadows swiftly reached a moon bathed clearing, the trees here seemed to warn all who looked upon them to turn back and return home, as the shadows entered the clearing, their features were revealed, they had an unsettling resemblance to the boy, the child squirmed and kicked, trying in vain to free himself. The trio came to the center of the clearing, when they arrived, the air shimmered, revealing a rope and a post bearing manacles, the person holding the boy quickly bound the young one to the post and secured the manacles on his wrists and ankles.

"Wh-wh-why are you doing this? I thought you said we wouldn't play this game anymore!" the boy cried out as a hand struck his face, tears began to well up in his young, unknowing eyes. the taller figure fixed the boy with a glare,

"Do not speak unless the Master permits you, boy!" the other person, a woman, looked at the man with irritation.

"We need to hurry; this must be done by midnight." The man said, pulling a long knife and a lighter. he turned the lighter on and heated the blade until it was glowing hot, he then lunged at the child, striking his eyes with the searing blade, his screams of agony rung off of the trees around him, and a shadow seemed to separate from its place on the forest floor, the shadow moved along the ground until it was at the edge of the clearing. Upon sensing the boy, the shadow rose, revealing a dark creature with a red growth around the face, its head held two glowing blue eyes and no visible mouth. A white plume billowed atop its head, giving it an almost ghostly appearance. The new arrival launched a purple ball of energy at the two humans that were trying to burn the third's eyes out. The adults fell to the ground and began to squirm and whimper as if they were having some kind of horrible nightmare. The boy was crying as much as his damaged eyes would allow, the creature approached slowly, showing the small boy that it was not a threat, then its right hand glowed purple and grew to look like a claw, there was a sound of metal breaking and rope snapping, and the child dropped to the ground, shaking and sobbing hysterically. The creature picked the young boy up and carried him back to the edge of the forest, as soon as his young feet touched the ground he was of like a bullet, not looking back.

"Oh sweet Arceus, no wonder you told Flare a different story. . ." Dusk had her arms around me as I finished the painful story. "I know this may be hard for you to answer Mark, but do you know who those two people were?" I shuddered; pain welled up in my chest.

"those people were my parents."