It's strange, it just being the two of us after all of these years with the resistance. All the same, however, it felt good to move farther from the boundaries of Treasure Town, just the child and I as it had been when she was very small. Although, I can't say much about the current environment we've found ourselves in.

Lira's hit the teenage stage now or at least has started to, just beginning to bud into adolescence. I find it difficult to believe that I was at the age she is today when we first met. It's even harder to believe she's still maintained the near same level of innocence and whimsy all of these years. Perhaps evolution helped me mature more quickly than she can as a human, but I can't help but feel there's more to it than that, and as I don't know what to do, I'm a bit fearful for her sake. At least she's more cautious around strangers, but if it's someone calling for help, she still would rush to their aid without question or the idea of deceit. The matter isn't made any easier by the fact that, while I would try to explain to Lira the dangers of this world, Ri seems to do all he can to keep her happily oblivious.

"There isn't much hope left in this world, Grovyle," he had told me in secret one day, just after I had been trying to give her a lecture on the risks of trusting people she didn't know; right after he had sent her away from said lecture by having Lira practice her fighting techniques with a few of the young rebel initiates. "Most of us here have lost everything: our homes, our families… our very ways of life have been taken from us. No one here is afraid of death because they see nothing worth living for." He watched the girl's departure from a distance, and we heard her laughter as her voice joined the others of her maturity.

"All except for one of us, perhaps. Grovyle, she's not just some key to finding the Time Gears. If that were the case, anyone could've had her gift, but as I've said the Dimensional Scream chooses its wielder, and that person must be true to their title at the core of their being. Because Lira has such innocence, and such a love and compassion for life, she is a giver of hope. She helps remind people why they're fighting, and why life is worth being cherished. I know it's risky leaving her somewhat blind to her surroundings, but I'd rather risk her being attacked by something we can protect her from than risk destroying something none of us will ever be able to truly help her get back.

"We have a choice. We can either leave her foolishly hopeful and strong enough to face whatever comes her way, or we can leave her wise and fearful to make a decision when the time comes to act."

I'm still not sure I entirely understand what he means by all of that, but neither case sounds good to me. Since he's her teacher and he's yet to steer us wrong, I've chosen to go along with his plan. Maybe, just maybe, it'll do us some good on this quest of ours.

It had taken a few years more after our meeting with Celebi to prepare ourselves for all of this. But finally, our mission to collect the Time Gears had begun.

We would need to move as secretly and as quickly as possible. Though the resistance was currently secure, without Ri giving any orders, all was practically at a standstill. If it continued like this, with little to no moves made against Primal Dialga's forces, I doubt he'd think we'd have all just given up. No, he'd know that something big was being planned, and since it involves the Time Gears, there's a chance he might be able to sense a disturbance with the mythical objects as well. While we're out here collecting them, the rest of the resistance needs to keep his attentions away. A view attacks against some off way strongholds have been coordinated; we can only hope that it'll be enough.

In an effort to speed up the process, the four of us have split off: Ri's gone solo and of course Lira and I have teamed together. Despite the girl's protests, it isn't without good reason. Not only can we move faster when split like this, they'll be less suspicion if we're seen. Lira and I on our own is one thing; to Dusknoir, it's been like that since the beginning. The two of us having help is another. The same thing could be said in Ri's case, with Dialga's forces recognizing him as a traitor, but not knowing him to lead the rebels.

Celebi had offered to assist Ri, but all of us agree that the risk of her getting caught is too great and that it's best if she remains in hiding. Knowing how to reach Dialga's realm in order to place the Time Gears in the remains of Temporal Tower, it's best if she stays uninvolved in appearance. In the meantime, perhaps she can create a bit of chaos on the side to distract Dialga. After all, they've wanted to catch her for some time; revealing herself for a chase could be just the distraction we need.

While Ri visits the lake at Crystal Crave and Limestone Cavern, the two of us will collect the Time Gears at an underground lake in the Northern Desert and Treeshroud Forest. Ri had given Lira a special stone in order to stay in contact with him through their aura, despite the distance, so that afterwards, once we had collected the four, we could regroup at Fogbound Forest to get the final Time Gear. Fogbound Forest is closest to one of Dialga's main strongholds, so it would be best if all of us were there. If for some reason we can't regroup, whoever remains is to go through with the mission anyway until contact can be made, keeping the gathered Time Gears hidden somewhere safe, but away from the main resistance headquarters.

I understand why a Time Gear would be hidden in the place like this; there's absolutely nothing and no one around. The scenery is even more depressing than the rest of the paralyzed planet- and that's saying something- with nothing save for maybe the occasional rock to decorate the surface. In other words, the journey out into this blank wasteland was anything but eventful.

The challenging part was finding a way in. Hours and hours of searching for an opening. According to Ri, there used to be a mass of quicksand pits that would drag anyone who stepped in them to the labyrinth of hidden passageways below that would lead to the underground lake. Actually, we've already seen them, but frozen in time as they are, we had no means of getting through that way. I've already tried using Dig, but it's as if no matter where I dig at, I wind up in the wrong place at the end. I've never been one to fall pretty to superstition, but I can't ignore that there's something paranormal going on.

Eventually, however, we do come across a large rift in the earth to crawl through. Cupping an Aura Sphere in one hand to use as a light source, Lira begins the descent. I have to move fast to jump on a small ledge below her before I can begin my own climb down. I'm not about to risk her falling and she has one less hand to use. This way, if she falls, at least I have a chance to catch her.

Above, she lets out a sigh, "Grovyle, I know what you're doing. I've been climbing for years now and I'm not a little kid anymore: I'm thirteen. I think I can handle this."

"That still makes you a kid by human standards," I remind her as the scene grows even more dark and dreary around me than it is above ground.

"And by human standards, I can legally travel the world by myself at age ten," she retorts, "Come on, when you were my age, you were doing this sort of thing and then some all the time."

I shake my head; there was little so reason with her. "There's a difference. I'm a Pokemon. I was born ready to fight to survive. I can find myself in touch with the natural world and use it in battle. As much as you might not want to consider it, you're a human. And as a human, you have your limitations."

She makes an agitated groan as I look down to make certain I'm stepping where I need to. One lose rock can make all the difference between this realm and the next if we're not careful. Even with my strong eyesight, I have to squint in this darkness. This is the only disadvantage to not allowing Lira to come down first; her Aura Sphere can cast plenty enough light to see where we're going.

Just as the thought comes to mind, Lira lets out a piercing scream. My muscles stiffen and the leaves on my body fray outward in fright, while small bits of rock hit the side of my arm. I snap my head up her way to find her dangling by one arm from the wall of stone.

And then she starts laughing, instantly regaining her footing once she knows I'm looking. "Dude, you should see your face right now! Priceless!"

My brows furrow in irritation. She knows better than that; she nearly gave me a heart attack! As we continue the climb downward, I shout back her way, "If we actually live through all of this, you're grounded."

"What?! Aww, come on! I was only fooling around!"

"You should see your face right now," I deadpan, not even looking myself, "Absolutely priceless."

Even with Lira's Aura Sphere giving off a tremendous amount of light, by the time we reach the labyrinth, we can barely see a thing, save for the small sliver of dull, grey light from the hole above, no bigger than a finger if you held it up for comparison. "Would you look at this place…" she mutters, gazing around, "How are we ever going to find it? More importantly, how are we supposed to find our way out?" She turns her face back up to the opening again, an unsure gleam in her eyes. I know how she feels. If that's our only way out, we'll have trouble. Not only are we exhausted from the trip here, without having had anything to eat or drink beyond what we brought with us, the wall itself is fairly steep, with few ledges we could stop and rest at. Not to mention we have no idea whether or not we'll have trouble carrying the Time Gear with us. Somehow, with all of the information we gathered about them, we never did research their size.

"We'll find a way," I tell her, "But before we worry about that, we need to get what we came here for." I reach over into the pack along her waist and pull free the notebook, flipping through the pages until I reach the passage about the specific locations of the Time Gears.

'…upon realization the need would come. Each Guardian placed a set of trials for any soul that managed to break through their defenses to face. The Guardians felt that only those Chosen, in search of the Time Gears for a just and noble cause, would be willing to sacrifice their hearts and minds in the pursuit. Each region that beheld a Time Gear held a new test… Courage… Prudence… Clarity… Temperance… Diligence…'

"Grovyle," Lira alerts me, "There are things written all over the walls. I think I've seen them before. See if you can find anything in that book about these inscriptions."

I do so, finding the pages about the Northern Dessert specifically, and soon before my eyes is a large row of carefully etched drawings with texts of their meanings alongside of them. An eye is a warning, meaning that whoever enters is being carefully watched by whoever or whatever protects this place. A Togetic symbolizes the test to be faced here: Temperance. A gear, naturally, means a Time Gear.

Lira, peering over my shoulder, looks back and forth from the book to the wall. Before long, she starts walking. I decide to follow- she's the one who's been studying this for hours on end with Ri, not me, but it isn't long before I question, "Are you sure we're taking the right paths?"

"Yes, I'm sure we're going the right way! Judging by the hieroglyphs, we should reach it any minute now…" She pauses in her stride for a moment to examine the patterns on the wall once more, and then turns to me. "The hieroglyphs did say to come this way, right?"

I can't help but roll my eyes as I look upon the embarrassing expression of the child's. She can probably examine it better than I can, so I hold out the book for her to see. And it's her Torchic-scratch anyway that we're reading. Her calligraphy isn't exactly the best, nothing we can blame her for; she was only five when she was abandoned in the woods after all and didn't have much of a chance to practice her reading and writing skills before Ri started helping her, and to be frank it's not like those are the most useful skills to have these days. The rule of 'the pen is mightier than the sword' hasn't accounted for much anymore.

"This seems to be the right way," she says after a moment of reading, "Only… I don't get it. I think we're pretty far in, so where's this test? There's nothing here but a bunch of rocks and dust."

I shrug, "At worst, maybe the Time Gear isn't here at all. That crack we came in through could've been caused by anything, so maybe somebody broke in- or out- and it's been moved."

"It has to be here!" she exclaims, "Ri's the one who got this information. He wouldn't have sent us on a wild Psyduck chase if he wasn't sure!"

"Those texts have been around for some time though," I remind her, "The information could be outdated-"

"Wait!" she interrupts me, her eyes lighting up. "Did you hear that?!" She spins around on one heel, her back to me, peering deeper down the empty hall.

All is silent for a moment as we wait for a sound, but I can't hear a thing, which is odd considering that, as a Pokemon, my senses should be much keener than her own. Raising a brow, I shake my head at her and step forward. "What am I supposed to be hearing?"

"There's singing." Lira speaks in a soft whisper, as if afraid to chase off the noise known only to her. "It sounds sad…"

Slowly, her eyes get this mesmerized gleam to them, and she begins to walk forward. I grab her by the arm before she can get far, but she doesn't look my way and continues to stare out into open space. "Lira, what are you doing?"

"There's someone down here," she replies, "They might need up, or if not, maybe we can get help from them."

"Or whatever you're hearing could be a trap," I tighten my grip, "Lira, don't you think it's at least a little suspicious that only one of us can hear someone?"

She's silent for a moment, her lips curling into a doleful frown. "I think they're in the underground lake's direction anyway." Before I know it, she's broken free from my hold and taken off in a brisk run. I rush to catch up with her, keeping an eye on the beacon that is the ball of light in her hand. "Even if they weren't, we can't just do nothing."

"Lira!" I shout out, but it's like she doesn't hear me, or is ignoring me most likely.

In the case, I see on occasion the items of the test of temperance which she passes by without even the slightest glance. Gold pieces. Rare gems. An elegantly carved piece of art. And all the while, eyes line the walls, with only the occasional gear to pass by. I can't help but get a bad feeling.

Eventually we come to a fork in the path: the one to the left with a continued pattern of the gears, the one on the right ever watchful with those stone eyes. "They're this way!" Lira cries out, pausing momentarily only to say those words before veering to the right.

Almost at the very moment she disappears behind the corner, she screams. I pick up the pace, sensing that this time, it's no childish trick.

We are not alone down here.

I freeze still in my tracks at the sight of the Pokemon surrounding her: a mass of Yamask, a horrifying and angry Cofagrigus, and a huge Gourgeist entrapping Lira in her arms with a deadly grip.