Author's Note: You have mysticdragon01 to thank for this update; they inspired me to keep writing after I got bored! YAY thank you mysticdragon01, your comments are nice and constructive! If you want a course on how to write a constructive review, read this author's review! Anyways… onto the chapter! All standard disclaimers apply. I don't own pokémon.

Chapter 11: Home? Do I even have one anymore?

After everything had calmed down, Ninetales stood before everyone, ready to speak. Everyone fell silent. "Pokémon of the Planetary Investigation Team! Today we won a great victory! Today we drove Dusknoir and his accursed Sableye away yet again; and we suffered no losses!" Ninetales announced. The pokémon burst into applause, with a few whoops and cheers mixed in. Ninetales continued.

"All this was made possible by your selfless support, your selfless choice to protect our organization!" The members of the PIT cheered again. "We have assured the continuation of our goal: to fix time!" There was more applause and cheering. Ninetales glanced at me before saying his next words. "But we surely would not have won; and I would not be here before you, if it hadn't been for one person." Everything went silent. I felt myself turning red as every head turned in my direction. "We owe today's victory to… Haley. Our own member's daughter, one I… I should have trusted from the beginning." For a second, there was silence, then Grovyle started cheering, and Espeon joined in, and soon enough all of the PIT was cheering for me. I turned red in embarrassment.

"I –I… Thank you everyone. I promise… I will never betray you! And I'll promise you this, too," I added, staring at Ninetales. "Dusknoir will pay for what he has done to us, what he has done to each and every one of us." With those words, absolute pandemonium broke out. There was cheering and applauding and whooping as the Planetary Investigation Team members went absolutely crazy. I stared in amazement at some of the stunts that some of the members were pulling. A Charizard was swooping around the ceiling, his tail fire bigger than I had thought it was possible for a Charizard's flame to go. It was three times his size, and flickered orange, red, blue, and, at the very center, a glowing white. Other pokémon were simply jumping around, doing amazing flips and a few of the younger members were play-fighting with each other.

I stared at Grovyle. "Umm… Why are they so happy?" Grovyle smirked at the look on my face.

"Because, for one thing, they defeated Dusknoir and got Ninetales back. And for another, you just promised that you would get revenge on Dusknoir, and they all believe you." I started smiling.

"Well, what's going to happen now?" I asked Grovyle. He glanced at me for a minute before looking up at Ninetales.

"That's a question to ask Ninetales. He hasn't heard the whole story yet; well, none of us have heard the whole story. Perhaps a meeting is in order…" he trailed off, thinking. Then, without warning, he leaped through the crowd of pokémon and up to Ninetales' side. He whispered in Ninetales' ear, and Ninetales nodded.

"Quiet, please!" He called, getting everyone's attention. Everything fell silent at once. "As Grovyle has just pointed out to me; we need a meeting! PIT Council; meet me in the council room! Everyone else; go back to your duties! I wouldn't put it past Dusknoir or his evil master to spring another surprise attack on us while we're still celebrating and recuperating from our last battle! Now go!" he said, and everyone nodded, serious but still very happy.

Grovyle leaped to my side in an instant, pointing me to a small hallway I hadn't even noticed before. "Let's go, Haley." I shook my head.

"But… Ninetales said the Council! I- I'm not part of any council!" Grovyle rolled his eyes at me.

"That may be so, but everyone who is anyone needs to hear your story, including me!"

"But I told you, in the Dark World!" I protested. Grovyle's eyes gleamed playfully, mockingly as he replied.

"Maybe I forgot. You'll have to refresh my memory!" I snorted.

"Not amused, Grovyle. Not amused." I pointed to my scowling face. "This is my not amused face!" Grovyle took one look at me and burst out laughing, all the while pulling me down the hallway after the other pokémon. I rolled my eyes again and gave up trying to resist Grovyle's antics.

"I'm going to kill you for this Grovyle…" I muttered under my breath. Grovyle just ignored my grumblings; his eyes alight with laughter as he pulled me through the giant oak doors that had to lead to the Council room.

I blinked as a great light flashed before my eyes. It was Ninetales, using Flamethrower to light the torches on the walls of the room. I looked around at the now lighted room. It was simple; there was nothing on the walls, and there was just a long table in the center of the room, with various chairs strewn around it. Either the pokémon didn't care about cleaning up, or the last session had ended rather abruptly; because there were many various pieces of paper and scrolls and even a few books strewn here and there on the table. The chairs also looked as though they had been shoved aside in haste. Perhaps they had been in the middle of a meeting when Dusknoir had attacked.

Then I noticed a large bulletin board behind the head of the table that had many pictures and notes written all over it. On the upper left-hand side of the bulletin board was a picture of Primal Dialga; and underneath the picture was writing that I assumed was notes on Primal Dialga. Right next to Dialga's picture was Dusknoir's picture, and his picture also had writing underneath it. I couldn't read it, since it was written in footprint writing; pokémon's writing. I think that pokémon called human writing Unknown language or something of the sort; Dusknoir had mentioned it once, very briefly. On the upper right-hand corner was some more footprint writing, though as I said before, I couldn't read it.

Right below the scribbled writing in the right corner was a picture of something I'd never seen before. It was gear-shaped (Circular with teeth) and was iridescent blue, with sort of prongs in the middle of it. The prongs reminded me of the markings on Dialga; only these were a darkish blue, while the gear shape around it was a lighter sky blue. 'I wonder what that thing is.' I thought to myself, enthralled by the picture. It seemed to draw me in, seemed to want me to touch it…

"Hey, Haley!" Grovyle called to me, snapping me out of whatever "spell" I'd been under. "Oh, you're looking at the picture of the Time Gear." He said, coming up to stand by my side. I still couldn't seem to look away. Then his words processed, and I turned to look at him.

"Wait, did you say that this was a Time Gear?" I asked him incredulously.

"Yeah, why?" He asked me, looking confused as to why I would be so shocked. I blinked for a few seconds, trying to calm myself down before turning to look at the bulletin board again.

"Well, it's just… I've never seen a Time Gear before, that's all." I replied, taking another look at the bulletin board. This time, my eyes were drawn to a huge map spread across most of the board. It was obviously a map of the entire region, for though I couldn't read it; I could recognize many of the landmarks and dungeons that Dusknoir and I had traveled through. To my surprise, the map even had the Hidden Land labeled, as well as a tiny drawing of Temporal Tower, the Rainbow Stoneship, and the Old Ruins. The entire Hidden Land was covered with tiny red pins, and I could see several of the red pins on other portions of the map. There were a couple blue pins scattered on the map, as well as quite a few green pins. Then, there was one small gold pin off to one side, and by the topography of the map, seemed to lie on a plateau.

Below the map was more footprint writing, assumedly notes about the map. On the lower right-hand side of the board, next to the (assumed) notes about the map were two pictures with more writing underneath them. I peered closer and realized that they were drawings of Temporal Tower; one was before it had collapsed and the other was of how it looked now. Below the two pictures was more writing that I couldn't read. That was really getting on my nerves now; I was used to being able to read. I would have to get Grovyle or someone to teach me how to read and write in footprint writing.

Grovyle led me over to a chair near the end of the table, and sat in the one next to it. I looked around at all the pokémon filing in around us and sitting down. At the head of the table sat Ninetales and Vulpix, waiting for everyone to settle down. Mightyena sat across from Grovyle, both closest to the head of the table. I saw the Nidoking and Nidoqueen that had been part of the Gold Squad sit down next to Mightyena. They weren't saying anything, but were staring into each other's eyes as though they were having a conversation.

My attention was torn away from them as I heard movement beside me. I turned to see an Eevee sit down in the chair next to mine, who was talking to the Charizard on his other side. They sat down next to each other, and continued talking.

"Charizard, you nearly burned the fur off of Petalpaw! You need to be more careful where you let out your fire!" the Eevee was saying to Charizard. Charizard merely snorted, his tail fire rearing up in defense.

"Relax, Umbreon! I'll be more careful, I promise!" the Eevee didn't look convinced.

"You say that every time, but you never change…" the Eevee grumbled, but left it alone. I frowned, confused.

"Hey, Grovyle," I asked, whispering in his ear. "Why is Charizard calling that Eevee Umbreon?" Grovyle laughed.

"Oh, that's because the Eevee that you see is going to evolve into an Umbreon as soon as possible. You see, he has to use his dawn stone right at the stroke of midnight on a day where there would have been a new moon; so you see, it's very difficult for him to evolve into an Umbreon. It's kind of a touchy subject with him, but we have the old calendars to look off of, and he's figuring out the math. Hopefully he'll be able to evolve soon, he's been driving all of us crazy, whining about it for the last… well he's always been whining about it from the day he joined, from what I've heard." Grovyle replied.

"Oh, I see…" I murmured, and then went back to watching the other council members. I saw Espeon across the table, sitting next to the Nidoqueen, and she gave me a wave with her paw, which I returned. To the left of Espeon was an Exploud, who was arguing very loudly with the Fearow on his other side.

"No, no, no, NO! That's NOT how you TAKE DOWN a rampaging Gyarados!" it was saying. The Fearow rolled its eyes and squawked in an almost equally loud voice,

"Oh, YEAH? Then how ABOUT you ENLIGHTEN us?"

"ALRIGHT, I will! First, Gyarados are water and FLYING type, so you need ELECTRICITY!" replied the Exploud, sounding pleased with himself. The Fearow merely shook its head.

"You rattata-brain, we HAD no ELECTRIC type!" It squawked back angrily. Then a new voice raised itself above the din.

"Will both of you just SHUT UP?" It was a Glameow, coming to sit next to Charizard on my side of the table. "Jeeze, you guys never stop going at it!" I could tell from the tenor of its voice that the Glameow was a female. She glared at the Fearow and Exploud while another voice jumped in.

"No, they never do stop, and I don't think they ever will, Glameow, so you had better get used to it. I think the world will come to an end before those two stop fighting. It's like listening to a fight between Kyogre and Groudon go at each other." It was a Houndour, the same one that had been on the Gold Squad, just like Nidoking and Nidoqueen.

Throughout this commotion, both Blissey and Chansey slipped into the room and quietly took their seats on opposite sides of the table, at the very end. They both seemed resigned to the arguing going on around them. Maybe this sort of thing happened all the time.

"The world has come to an end; that's exactly what I mean! The world has ended and still those two are going at it!" Glameow was saying. Both Exploud and Fearow started shouting at the top of their lungs, and I covered my ears as Exploud let out a few Hyper Voices, but no one could hear anything above the other. Suddenly there was a loud,

"HEY! BOTH OF YOU, QUIT IT!" everyone stopped talking immediately as Ursaring came in, his eyes blazing. He stood at the very end of the table, right in front of his seat and lectured Exploud, Fearow, Glameow, and Houndour. "If you guys can't at least keep it OUTSIDE the council room, I will personally escort you out. Forcibly if need be!" He exclaimed, and they all nodded, looking sheepish. He then sat down, and proceeded to look up the table at Ninetales.

"Thank you Ursaring." Ninetales said dryly, glaring at Exploud and Fearow. "We don't have time for your arguments today, Exploud, Fearow. We have much more pressing matters on our hands." I heard the big oak doors open and shut, and everyone turned their heads to the noise. It was Mawile, hurrying to the front of the room to a chair next to the bulletin board. She had a notebook in one hand and a stylus in another.

"Sorry I'm late everyone, but someone misplaced my notebook." She glared around at the council members, and no one seemed to want to meet her eyes, and averted their gaze. "Hmph," she grumbled to herself, but merely sat down and looked expectantly at Ninetales. Ninetales ignored the interruption and went on.

"Now, we all know about Haley," He began, gesturing a paw in my direction. Everyone's eyes flashed in my direction before snapping back to Ninetales. "But, none of us has heard her story in its entirety, and I think we'd all like to know her story." He looked at me significantly. I closed my eyes, preparing myself. 'If I get through this, I'm going to kill you, Grovyle,' I thought scathingly. I opened my eyes and saw Grovyle smirking at me, as though he knew exactly what I was thinking. I grimaced at him, and looked around before starting.

"Ok, I'll tell my story… But I have a few conditions." I said, and Ninetales looked unsurprised.

"Go on." He replied, and so I did.

"First, please don't interrupt me. I'll answer any questions when I'm finished. And second, I promise to tell the truth, so I expect truth in return." I said, and waited until everyone signaled their agreement before beginning my story.

"Ok… I don't know how long it was before I was born that my mom left, but I was born on March 20; 10,056, 100 years after the Tower collapsed. For the first 10 years of my life, my mom and I kept on the move, traveling from safe place to safe place. When I was 11, we found a permanent home on the outskirts of a little creek, just past the Tiny Hills Dungeon. For the next three and a half years, my mom raised me and taught me how to defend myself in a tight spot, how to heal, how to survive…" I trailed off. How clearly I remembered those years, the years we weren't in danger; the years where I had a good life, if a bit boring. I shook myself mentally.

"Then, about two weeks before she was going to teach me how to defend myself against pokémon, when I had just turned 14, Dusknoir showed up at my house. My mom didn't recognize him –but that doesn't make sense, now that I look back. Wouldn't she have recognized him from the start?" I questioned Ninetales. He shook his head.

"Not necessarily. Most pokémon of the same species look alike. Unless their shiny or have any distinguishing marks or scars; such as Grovyle, there's really no way to tell between pokémon of the same species." He said, and Grovyle burst in.

"Yeah, that's why I didn't recognize Dusknoir's name at first. Until you mentioned that he was a servant of-" I broke him off.

"Hey! Remember what I said about that name! It's dangerous." Grovyle looked sheepish.

"Right. Sorry about that." He said; then gestured for me to go on.

"Ok, so my mom didn't recognize him and I definitely didn't recognize him. He basically demanded that I go with him to meet his "employer," and mom asked him who his employer was but he wouldn't tell. He said that he would be taking me whether we agreed to it or not, and I just told mom to let me go, because I didn't want any trouble."

"So you just –went with him? Just like that?" Umbreon the eevee asked, sounding incredulous. I rolled my eyes.

"I thought I asked that no one interrupt me?" I said dryly, and Umbreon lowered his eyes.

"Right; sorry." I shook my head and went on.

"So I went with Dusknoir and he told me who his employer was. I was surprised, obviously, and he went on to tell me about how Temporal Tower collapsed and how that made time stop. Originally he told me that there was no way to fix Temporal Tower, and I believed him." I continued. I then proceeded to tell them about everything, about the reason why Dialga had wanted me to come to him, about the Hidden Land and Temporal Tower and what Dialga had said to me at the top of Temporal Tower.

I told them of the fight between me and Dusknoir, and how I had escaped into the Deep Chasm dungeon. I told them about the Dratini and Aggron, and how I had bluffed my way out of a fight with the two pokémon. I told them how Dialga had contacted me through telepathy and what he had said. I told them how Grovyle had saved me from Gengar and about our fight with the angry Dragonite that had driven us into the dungeon. I told them how Gengar and Dusknoir had shown up and how I had killed Gengar in defense of Grovyle.

"And I guess you guys know the rest." I finished tiredly. No one said anything for a minute. Then Espeon spoke up.

"What is this Dimensional Scream thing? Has anybody ever heard of it before?" she asked the room at large.

"I've heard of it… But, well, it is pretty rare." said Ninetales. "And as far as I know, no one has had it since Temporal Tower collapsed, because of the Dimensional Scream's tie to time."

"How can it help us? Or hinder us?" asked the Nidoking seriously. I swallowed.

"Well as long as Haley remains on our side there's no chance that it'll hinder us, but help us… Well we need to do some research on the Dimensional Scream. Until we get some more concrete knowledge on it, I think it's best just to leave the matter alone." Ninetales replied thoughtfully.

"Well, what do we do now then?" I asked. Grovyle looked at me for a minute before answering.

"I think we need to warn Regina that Dusknoir is on the move. What happens if he shows up at your house and takes her away?" He asked seriously. My eyes widened. I hadn't thought of that. Ninetales broke in.

"I believe that you're right, Grovyle. Haley, you should return home and warn your mother. But I don't think you should go alone…"

"I'll go with her!" Grovyle said immediately, which made me happy.

"Home…" I murmured, enthralled by the idea. Then I looked up, eyes sad. "Do I even have a home anymore?"

Author's note: Well, there you are! Now, since you've taken the time to read it, why don't you leave a review? It would be nice! Thanks again to dragonmystic01, without whom I think it would have taken me forever to work up the will to finish the chapter! The next chapter is Chapter 12: My mom, the… Warrior? Where Haley's mom will be more properly introduced and we'll see more of her character… for a while, anyways! X Giggles sweetly X. Another cliffhanger! Why do I keep doing that? Oh right, 'cause it's fun to keep you guys on your toes! Hee hee.

Random Fact #9: This one is about Gengar. I completely forgot to tell you guys about him… oops! Shrugs shoulders hopelessly. There should be a medical condition where people forget stuff. NOT Alzheimer's, that's different. Oh I got off track… I think I'm ADHD or something. STOP GETTING OFF TRACK HALEY! JEEZE! Ok, onto Gengar. Gengar woke up one morning with his memory gone (no he was not a human before) and he was going crazy until he realized that he could use the move Dream Eater. He was still kind of crazy, so he use Dream Eater to try to see if he could return his memory by doing so. This idea came from 100_Percent_Empoleon, so thank this author for this little fact! I am totally ADHD, because I just get off track so easily… lalalala, oh look! A butterfly! Ok now I'm just being weird. Oh, mysticdragon01, the dark world was kind of necessary after I talked about Ninetales' shadow hold condition and explained what it was and all that, so even after I initially lost interest in the dark world, I still had to struggle along and finish it, but that part's over now! YAY! Now on to the fun part!