It's here.
Chapter 21: Last Goodbye
As the Rainbow Stoneship continued its arcing course to the floating island of rocks, Nate looked at his sapphire necklace, barely realizing that he was still holding it in his clenched hand. The gold gem set in the Explorer's Badge atop the crystal seemed to glimmer in the light of day.
'Martha… Psymon, Maribel, Regina, Augustus, Tisha, Yrja, Wattson, Ferra, Tempest, Terrence…' Nate thought. He held the necklace to his chest, 'I will save you all. The best I can offer you is to ensure your deaths never happen.'
Technically one of them still drew breath, but had died in every other sense of the word long ago…
The rainbow behind the ancient vessel dissipated as it slowed to a stop at the very end of a stone pathway. Once it stopped moving with a rumbling sound, Nate pocketed the necklace in his bag again, and jumped the slight gap between the Rainbow Stoneship and the start of the path. Taking a deep breath, he started dashing up the circuitous way on all fours with Agility. There was no time to waste!
As he ran, he saw that there was a vortex of red clouds spinning above the top of Temporal Tower, almost like a hurricane. The ominous sight only made him redouble his efforts.
Within a few moments, he arrived at the entrance of the structure. Looking at the otherworldly make-up of the doorway, and the red patterns glowing from the entire tower in warning, Nate felt a sense of urgency. His entire life had led up to this moment—for him to save the world.
But first he had to prepare. Opening the base of a Kangaskhan Rock nearby, he immediately ate an Oran Berry from inside and then broke three more into halves in order to use them later. He paused and broke another two to store for later. With no more Reviver Seeds, he couldn't risk running out of healing items.
As he packed the bag, he felt his hand brush against a smaller bag within his own. He frowned as he remembered Celebi's death. During his attempt to distract… his opponent, he had used the dash from Substitute to quickly lift the bag from Celebi's corpse and store it in his own. He squashed the depression quickly, though; Nate couldn't afford to falter now.
Guzzling down a Max Elixir from storage as well, Nate emptied the bottle as quickly as he could and felt his electricity surge up again. Once that was done, he closed the drawer into the base right as he felt a tremor come from the tower. It settled after a brief time, but Nate couldn't say the same for himself.
'I have to hurry!' he thought as he turned to run into Temporal Tower. But right as he started moving, he stopped and looked at the head of the Kangaskhan Rock. 'The Adventure Log…'
Nate fingered the badge and necklace within his bag, flashes of the one he refused to acknowledge as her former identity anymore coming to mind. He might be wasting time, but he could at least change one thing about the future before beginning his climb.
All of Team Rapid, sans Martha, was sitting around their usual spot at Spinda Café. They simply refused to believe that Nate would completely abandon them. Well, Augustus and Wattson weren't going to hold their breath, but the rest were faithful. Martha was still sulking in her room at the guild, but she had cooperated long enough to give them the Adventure Log.
The book was laid open on the table, open to the most recent page, where new entries would be made.
Terrence scratched his head, nearly bumping Wattson with his wing, "He sure is taking his time."
"Nate's always been straight to the point," Psymon said.
Maribel frowned, "There's a good chance that he might see updating the Adventure Log as a waste, if what Augustus told us is true."
"Then why're we sitting here?" Augustus asked. He had told them that Nate wasn't coming back, but not all of the details of what he had figured out.
Ferra shook her head, "We can't mobilize without Martha or Nate's orders, and Martha isn't going anywhere."
"B'sides," Tisha added, absently twirling her club in her hand, "y'all got anythin' better to do?"
"No," Wattson answered.
"Not really," Tempest added.
"Me neither," Tisha finished.
Regina sighed, "Forsooth, the suspense is chilling. Would that we could see whither he lies right now rather than hear after the fact."
"It's not that simple," Yrja said. "Nate must've had his reasons for going without Martha. I'm sure he had the best of intentions…"
"Well you know what they say about roads and good intentions," Augustus remarked negatively.
Tempest grunted, "If you're just gonna try to drag down our spirit, there's the door, you downer."
"I'm not a downer, I'm realistic," Augustus defended.
Maribel sighed at the discussion before going back to watching the book. Her eyes widened.
"Quiet, everybody!" Maribel called. Everybody turned to her and then followed her gaze. They crowded around, trying to see the words being hastily scrawled into the most recent page.
Martha had her head buried in the hay that composed her bed, the other one having been moved out of the room. She didn't want to do anything, and only the plate of food left near her bed, eaten at far too slow a rate, ensured that she didn't starve from her dismal state.
Wigglytuff and Chatot were very understanding about Martha's depression and allowed her the day off. Chatot also instructed the other apprentices, besides Chimecho, to give her some space and simply tend to their own duties. Chimecho was given a pass because she reasoned that, as the medic, she had to make sure that Martha stayed in a reasonably healthy state.
Unfortunately, nothing Chimecho said could get through Martha's impenetrable gloom. Chimecho always prided herself on her patience, but getting little to no reaction from Martha worried and discouraged her greatly.
Another hour would've passed without event in the dour Eevee's room, but outside forces had other plans as a frantically repeated word became clearer—and from a voice that she hadn't heard since he and the others bugged her for the copy of the Adventure Log that was by her bed.
"…tha, Martha, Martha, Martha, Martha, Martha!"
The leader of Team Rapid turned her head to have one eye looking at the doorway and Psymon ran in, waving his arms. The Water Pokémon waved his hand urgently for her to follow and yelled, "You have to see this!"
Martha buried her face again and murmured through the hay, "Don'wanna…" In response, Psymon's eyes glowed blue and Martha was lifted out of her bed with Confusion. She was nonplussed for all of five seconds as Psymon turned around, moving her to be toted in front of him.
Once the shock wore off, she started protesting, "Hey! Put me down!"
"No!" Psymon started running her out of the guild, the other apprentices and Chatot looking bemused at the sight.
Chimecho looked up from her desk at Martha's shouted objections and Psymon refusing each time while they passed through the guild's first sublevel.
'Well… Not what I would've tried, but I can't argue with results, I suppose,' Chimecho thought to herself.
Everybody kept watching the words being written, and they saw that the message was for Martha above anybody else as the words kept forming.
Psymon ran down the steps into the bar, Martha just hanging in the air, tired of struggling against her recruit's psychic hold.
"I got her!"
He set Martha down in a chair with the Adventure Log on the table right in front of it, Martha immediately turned to leave once she was free. But Terrence sat on the ground right behind her with his wings spread to either side of her.
"Oh, no you don't," the massive Pokémon said in a tone that gave no room for argument. He turned the Adventure Log back a page and pointed at a paragraph, "You're staying right here and reading that entry."
Martha sighed and turned her eyes to the book in front of her, thinking her recruits had turned to some arbitrary page with inspirational words—or maybe one of her more meaningful adventures. It didn't matter. All of the entries would only remind her of him.
Her eyes traveled listlessly to the entry that Terrence's finger pointed to. Once she started reading it, she was confused before her eyes widened and started from the beginning, paying attention now.
"Martha, I'm not sure when or even if you're reading this, but I know you'll always have access to this book. Should anybody else be reading this, find Martha, but feel free to read this as well.
"I'm sorry that you have to find out this way, but I didn't have the courage to tell you this face-to-face. I also don't have much time; Temporal Tower has started to collapse, so I'll get to the point. Martha, I knocked you out and kept you from going to the Hidden Land with me and Celebi for selfish reasons."
Martha looked around at the recruits, confused, but Maribel just urged her to keep reading while she looked away.
"I did that, and hurt you so much, because I couldn't bear the thought of seeing your expression when we completed my mission. Martha, the truth that I've been hiding from you and almost everybody is that when history is changed, all the inhabitants from the future will disappear."
Martha gasped, tears coming to her eyes after reading Nate's secret. 'He'll… what?!' She couldn't believe it. The Eevee read the sentence again, to make sure she hadn't misread it, but the words were clear as day. She broke out into fresh sobs, curling up in her chair.
Terrence gave her some space while Tisha, Psymon, Maribel and Yrja offered what comfort they could. After a few moments, Martha wiped her tears away and kept reading.
"When I told you I didn't belong in this world, I didn't just mean my dissonant character. I meant that Grovyle, Celebi, Dusknoir and I should never have been born. The planet's paralysis isn't meant to happen. That's why I have to stop the destruction of Temporal Tower, even at the cost of my own life. Even if we all disappear, a new future will replace it—one of peace. And the Pokémon that live here in the past will continue to be happy."
When Martha reached the end of the page, Wattson reached over and turned the page for her. Partway through the page on the right, the glow of freshly written letters was completely faded on the last paragraph, signifying that Nate had passed on his message and began his climb. 'So it's too late to write something back to him…' Martha thought, disappointed. Regardless, she started at the left page.
"You may be wondering how anybody could have such resolve to do this. Dusknoir wasn't lying when he called the planet's paralysis the utter ruin of the world. Grovyle and I had nothing to lose and nothing to go back to. Neither one of us had to worry about missing the other, because everybody would disappear. That unfortunately changed for me when I met you."
Martha raised an eyebrow at that, but decided she would get an answer quicker by reading on.
"I tried to keep myself distant from you, emotionally, while I gathered information to return to Grovyle. But despite my best efforts, you managed to get yourself into my heart, and I could already tell that you cared deeply for me. I wound up helping you with your dream, not because I had to, but because I wanted to. Against my better judgment, I let myself consider you and our team some of my closest companions.
"I knew that it wouldn't last. And when Celebi informed me that Grovyle was dead, the dream was over. I couldn't play as 'Ian' anymore. I tried extremely hard to get everybody to hate me so that they wouldn't miss me after my inevitable lack of return. The only ones I seemed unable to convince were you and Wigglytuff. You know what measures I took after that."
Martha turned her eyes to the last paragraph on Nate's entry.
"I'm sorry if I ever made you feel hated or scorned. But know that I care very much for you, along with each and every Pokémon of the team, the guild and Treasure Town. I'm glad that I got to know you, Martha. I'm so lucky that you were my friend, and I'm proud to have called you my partner in leading our exploration team. I don't want to say goodbye, but this is the way it has to be."
A bittersweet feeling filled Martha. She was happy that Nate had sent her this message, but the depression from the fact she'd never see him again nearly outweighed that happiness.
Even with both of his companions dead and going it alone through Temporal Tower, Nate still managed to find one silver lining in his situation. None of the Pokémon in Temporal Tower were resistant to his electricity. It was quite different from his experience sending clones in to scout in the future.
'A lot can change in 500 years' past, I suppose,' Nate mused as he took down a Bronzor with Thunderbolt before it could use Hypnosis. One of his clones had been captured by Dusknoir and brought to be hypnotized into his service with one of those, so he knew to be wary of the Steel/Psychic-types.
Nate let out a light chuckle to himself as he jumped over the unconscious Pokémon, 'I only wish I could've seen Dusknoir's face when he realized he had a clone, while I was getting away with their books.'
But when he remembered Dusknoir's demise, he couldn't help but feel bad for making jokes at his expense. Even as he absentmindedly dodged a Lunatone's Rock Slide and retaliated with Iron Tail, he thought, 'He wanted to avoid disappearing, and he wound up being murdered instead. And since it was that one's doing, his death is on my hands as well.'
Nate didn't like Dusknoir, but he would never wish a fate like his on anybody.
Nate found the staircase and quickly ran up it, arriving at a rest point. While inside this point of Temporal Tower, he could hear a soft, but distinct, rhythmic ticking noise. It was comforting to hear that the structure still seemed to be functioning.
However, his comfort was cut short as a tremor swept through the tower—one worse than the last quake.
Once it subsided, Nate let out a determined sigh through his nose and decided to be quicker about his task from now on. No more fighting; just Thunder Waves for all the enemies except those he literally couldn't avoid fighting.
'That way I have time for this,' he thought, moving closer to the Kangaskhan Rock.
Team Rapid watched the Adventure Log closely, and Psymon had the quill primed with his teammates' messages ready to send.
When new letters started glowing on the page, Psymon shouted "Now!" and started writing on the page next to it.
The instant that Nate touched the quill to the paper, the opposite page started glowing with new letters being written. It caused him to stop writing as he saw words being formed in footprint runes.
"Nate! You can do this! We all believe in you because you're our fearless leader! Even if you never evolved into a Raichu, you'd still be the most awesome Pikachu ever!
"-Psymon"
Nate blinked at the message, but before he could write a response, more words started showing up.
"We would never have had hope to grow as strong as we have without Martha's and your guidance. Not just ourself, but everyone on this team.
"-Regina"
"We know that you can save the world, Nate. No matter how much you may deny it, I don't think Ian and Nate were that different from each other after all. Either way, you always cared for everybody and stayed determined to protect the innocent.
"-Yrja"
"You can always fight through anybody in your way! Anybody who's beaten me isn't allowed to give up! If I hear that you lose, I'm going to have to evolve and fly to Temporal Tower to beat up Dialga myself and then whip you into shape!
"-Tempest"
"While I still don't like the con that you ran, you showed me that not all exploration teams are self-serving crooks. Thanks for that.
"-Augustus"
"Guess I should apologize about the skull-clubbing I gave yer clone a while back. I thought I was protectin' the future my Natalie would grow up in. But it was always you protectin' us. I'll always be grateful, Nate.
"-Tisha"
"My instinct has never led me wrong before, but I never imagined I would be on a team where one of my leaders went to save the world. I always thought there was greatness in you, Nate, but I was wrong. You are great!
"-Maribel"
"Reach deep down and bring out that power from your half-pint body I'm still trying to catch up to! If you can do that, you'll never lose!
"-Terrence"
"You gave me a second chance when nobody else would, even when you barely knew me, and I'll always remember my promise to you. Be sure to deck Dialga extra hard for me!
"-Wattson"
"Even though I haven't known you all that long, I think I speak for everybody when I say that we'll always have your back. Even if we can't be there with you, know that we'll be there in spirit. Can you feel our faith in you?
"-Ferra"
"Nate, all this time you've been looking out for me. I bet you're worried about how I'll go on without you. But I'm going to be strong! You taught me a lot of what I know about being an explorer and how to handle things, and I'll use that! So don't worry about me, because I'll keep leading our team, even if you disappear! I'll never forget you, Nate. You say that you were lucky to know me, and I was lucky to have met you. You taught me what courage is. You helped me form a team, and brave new challenges. You're my best friend, and I'll miss you, but I won't be weak anymore.
"Thank you, for everything.
"-Martha"
Nate read through each team's messages, and he did feel each one of them with him. He didn't feel alone anymore. A tear went down the side of his face from the sheer happiness he felt. But another tremor shook the tower soon after he finished reading the messages.
He quickly wiped his face and then wrote on his own page.
"I was just going to give a status update, but thank you—for your kind words, and your faith in me. I can't write much more. The tremors are getting more frequent. I'll write back when I've stopped the destruction of Temporal Tower."
Nate quickly stuck the feather in like a bookmark and closed the Adventure Log before forming a 50% Substitute for an extra set of eyes and an extra sentry to use Thunder Wave. As they both ran, Nate ate half an Oran Berry and created another 50% clone running alongside the duo.
With the knowledge already planted in them, the two didn't need instruction to act as his guards. The trio of Nates traveled through the upper portion of Temporal Tower, sacrificing mobility for dealing with opposition swifter.
With each of the doubles using Thunder Wave, Nate was able to recuperate from the dip in energy and look for the stairs on each floor. Even the Salamence and Metagross in the Temporal Spire didn't get in his way with the sentries at his side. Only the Porygon-Z posed a slight problem, having Discharge, but like the original, the substitutes resisted electric attacks. And after the Virtual Pokémon was dispatched, Nate could feed them more energy to compensate for their slight damage.
Once they saw light up ahead, each of them used Agility to clear the stairs in a matter of moments. They came up to the Tower Pinnacle, and immediately noticed that everything was bathed in a red tint.
Up above, the red vortex of clouds had magenta lightning bolts dancing through, seemingly generated from the eye. Even worse, a tremor more severe than the previous ones shook the tower. All three Nates knew that the tower could fall apart at literally any time.
When Nate took in his surroundings, the temple-like atmosphere complete with stone pillars, his vision instantly tunneled when he saw a staircase leading up to what seemed to be an altar. It was constructed out of the same cobalt colored substance, along with strange silver metal and had a round tablet mounted on it. He ran over to the altar, accompanied by his clones. As he got closer, he saw five gear-shaped indentations gouged out of a circular pattern etched into the tablet. The incomplete pattern glowed with an ugly red color, serving as the origin to the patterns on the rest of the tower as they flashed in warning.
Nate reached into his bag as he made to climb up the stairs, but a lightning bolt from above struck the step right in front of him, knocking all three of them back with the shock wave.
Once he collected himself, the area went dark. Nate made a "tch" sound, having been hoping to avoid something like this.
A loud growl sounded over the pinnacle before a powerful voice spoke hatefully, "SO! IT'S YOU! YOU SEEK THE DESTRUCTION OF TEMPORAL TOWER!"
The two clones closed ranks around the original, their cheeks sparking as they readied for battle. Nate called out, "I know you won't listen to me with time stopping, so I won't even bother trying to argue."
"TIME… STOPPING… TIME…!"
To the sound of a mighty roar, light flooded the area again, becoming blindingly bright for a moment, and once it faded, Dialga stood in front of the trio.
He looked every bit as imposing as their shared memories of Primal Dialga. The gargantuan Pokémon towered over Nate and his cobalt skin had red patterns crisscrossing along the unarmored portions of his body. The gem on his chest – ordinarily blue, if the mural was correct – glowed as red as his eyes.
They took a step back as Dialga roared again and got ready to battle. The clones stuck close to Nate because if the original took a grievous wound, with no Reviver Seeds, they would fail.
"YOU! YOU DARE BRING RUIN TO THE TOWER!" he shouted.
"Noooo, that's not it! Pleeease, you have to believe me!" Nate dramatically said, knowing it would make no difference.
"SILENCE!" Dialga growled loudly, readying for battle, "FOR ALL THOSE WHO THREATEN TEMPORAL TOWER… I WILL SHOW NO MERCY!"
Dialga roared again, and Nate noted that his heart was in the right place, but his mind was slipping. 'So he's not quite as far gone as Primal Dialga… Hmm… Maybe a little percussive maintenance will fix him up long enough for me to get to the altar.'
Dialga roared again and began his attack.
Nate concentrated and used Double Team, using it as a cover to form another Substitute as his other two hid among the clones. Dialga's claws glowed and lengthened as he swiped at the rapidly expanding group. A handful of them fizzled out, but more replaced them, growing into an encompassing circle.
Growling, Dialga broke apart a pillar with Ancient Power and sent the fragments combing through the ranks of illusions. He spotted one that ducked down and raised his foot to stomp down on it, but while he was distracted, the three others jumped and latched onto him, before shocking him with Thunder.
Meanwhile, the one left on the ground started charging Focus Punch. Dialga roared in pain and frustration before shaking off the three other Nates. As his torso gem glowed and his tail crest expanded, one Nate quickly called the others over before the two threw up Light Screens. They needed to stay on the side away from the altar, or one of Dialga's attacks could destroy it and ruin their chances of placing the Time Gears.
The fourth briefly thought of abandoning attack and seeking strategic retreat, but then squashed that thought and rushed forward, determined to connect and damage Dialga before being eliminated.
The clone managed to strike right before Dialga fired his own attack. But, even with the powerful attack, at only a quarter the strength Dialga managed to shrug it off and went on to blast the temporal beam of energy at all four of the Nates, eclipsing the entire half of the pinnacle that they were standing on.
Still watching from where she stood frozen, the Umbreon internally smiled as she saw the indigo beam of energy blast from the tower.
'Even if by some miracle of trickery, he isn't disintegrated, there's no way he'll be able to fight after experiencing Dialga's wrath!' She laughed in her mind, 'Like his friend before him!'
While she was celebrating Nate's defeat, Martha heard an odd sound. If she could move, her brow would furrow. She knew that sound from somewhere.
Following the strange sound, there was the sound of heavy footfalls and a sigh of relief, accompanied by an annoying (and strikingly familiar) droning sound. A couple more steps were heard and a voice said, "Hope they make it. We haven't got much time!"
A chill went down Martha's spine. 'I know that voice.'
The sound from earlier echoed again, and there were more footsteps and wing flaps now. She so desperately wanted to turn around to confirm whether or not what she was hearing was true. But the only confirmation that she needed was when an orb of light appeared from her body.
'No,' she denied to herself. More light orbs started floating from her body, 'No, no, no, no, nonoNONONO! NO! This cannot be happening! He betrayed me! I cannot have been so weak-minded!'
There was a new sound, a shimmering one, and another irritatingly familiar voice groaned before speaking up, "Ugh… The timelines must've overlapped. Good. You're all here. Nate's fighting Dialga now. We need to hurry!"
"Don't blame us, hon," another feminine voice said. "Can't be easy to be the last ones through the gate with those Sableye varmints an' the big hoss on guard now."
The sound echoed through the ruins again as Martha was well on her way to disappearing now. After that, the dimensional hole – for that was why it was familiar – disappeared. No more words were exchanged. Two mighty wing beats along with smaller wing flaps and buzzing sounded off before three shadows, one large and two small, sailed across her view. They were headed for Temporal Tower right as the Roar of Time was ending.
Before Martha disappeared completely, she heard a fluttering sound and a voice sounded right behind her, next to her ear.
"I told you that you would meet your end soon. You were already dead, murderer."
Martha spent her last thought screaming a curse at the pink figure that flew past her to catch up with the others before she dissolved into light. The Stun Seed, the only evidence of her presence, crumbled into powder that blew away on the wind before it even hit the ground.
The attack practically tore through Nate's Light Screen like tissue paper. His other two clones were wiped from existence and Nate put up another Light Screen, trying to condense it around him so that he didn't meet the same fate.
The attack seemed to go on for an eternity. Nate felt his shield beginning to crack and split, the temporal energy eating away at it, but he put all of his energy into maintaining it. This must have been the point where he failed last time. But if he lived, he could still fight!
The attack seemed to go on for whole minutes, but Nate knew it was the illusion of Dialga's attack. A few seconds in the temporal storm was usually all it took to tear one apart. If Dialga could keep up the attack for minutes, it would feel like he was being attacked over hours of time.
Even with the relatively short duration, Nate felt his strength rapidly ebbing away as he tried to put more into the Light Screen. As soon as the attack was finally over, Nate immediately dropped it to save what energy he could.
Nate fell to all fours, desperate to catch his breath. He tried reaching for a berry, but collapsed to the ground.
'It's… too… much…!'
He looked up despairingly as Dialga was breathing hard himself. If he wasn't so exhausted, this would be the perfect time for Nate to retaliate.
He thought back to his team, counting on him to succeed.
'No…! I… can't give up…!' Nate tried to pull himself up, managing to grab half an Oran Berry. But he fell back to the ground, the healing item falling out of his grasp. Every muscle in his body screamed in pain from trying the basic action. He couldn't do this alone…
After almost a minute, Dialga roared, back to full strength. Nate could only lament his failure.
"Grovyle… Celebi… Martha… I'm… sorry…"
"Don't worry! We'll always have your back, Nate."
Nate's ears rose at the distant voice. No… It couldn't be. He must be hallucinating from his near-death state—except Dialga was no longer looking at him, turned towards the edge of the pinnacle. Wing beats could barely be heard over the edge.
"I know we said we'd be there in spirit, but I think we can do better than that!"
Nate forced his head to turn, looking where Dialga's gaze was, and seeing an Aerodactyl – no, Terrence steadily rising over the edge. He was quite larger than when Nate last saw him, and he had three smaller flying Pokémon behind him. A Staravia, a Vibrava…
Nate blinked and shook his head, trying to wake up as he looked at the third Pokémon. She had died right in front of him! She couldn't be back!
Celebi waved awkwardly, "Hi, Nate."
Dialga used Ancient Power, sending stones at them, but Terrence's eyes glowed blue. The stones changed their path and started orbiting around him as they sharpened into rough diamond shapes. Then he returned the attack as a Stone Edge. The attack did little against Dialga's steel hide, but it bought enough time for Terrence, Maribel, Tempest and Celebi to land.
After he landed, other Pokémon got off of his back. A Marowak, and…
Martha.
Even though she was still an Umbreon, she was clearly different from the one that Nate had seen mere moments ago—her bearing, her smile, and the amethyst necklace that she wore once again with her badge mounted on it. He simply couldn't believe that she was somehow really here.
Dialga roared and fired his Roar of Time at the new party, but Terrence spread his wings around and over the group, calling up a Protect shield to defend them.
Nate's eyes widened and he slammed a fist into the ground, forcing himself to stand, even as he swayed and took the berry half from the ground before crunching it down. Filled with new energy, even with his half-broken body, he yelled, "You leave them alone!"
Nate shot a Thunder at Dialga as he continued using Roar of Time and the attack forced the deity to cut his own prematurely.
After the attack wore out, and Dialga was left panting, another voice spoke up. One that Nate never thought he'd hear again.
"You've fought alone long enough, partner. Let us handle Dialga. You get the Time Gears to the altar."
A green blur jumped over the side, evidently having climbed up the side of the tower. Nate unfortunately didn't have time to greet his oldest friend. He held his bag containing Time Gears close and started limping his way to move around Dialga.
Both Martha and Grovyle took the lead while the rest spread out. Dialga sent fragments of the pillars at Nate with Ancient Power as his claws lengthened to use Dragon Claw, but a bone club span through the air, shattering the stones into dust before hitting Dialga in the side of the head, causing him to growl loudly in irritation. After it bounced off, Tisha jumped and retrieved it out of the air.
Once she landed, she extended her club and held it like a bo staff as she taunted, "C'mon ya overgrown, steel-hided Girafarig, show me what ya got!"
Tisha joined Martha and Grovyle's attack using Bone Rush to accompany Martha's Dark Pulse and Grovyle's Leaf Blade. They couldn't reach very high on Dialga's body, so Tisha took the lead, forcing Dialga to take a knee by vigorously attacking his leg.
As the trio of Pokémon attacked his front, Maribel, Tempest and Terrence attacked him from the air. Terrence bit into the side of Dialga's neck with Fire Fang while Tempest used Dragon Breath on his back. Maribel flew high into the sky in a somersault and careened down, being enveloped in flames before they turned into a radiant blue glow. With the preparation complete, Maribel charged into Dialga's freshly burnt back with Brave Bird.
Celebi clasped her hands together as she fluttered in the air and her eyes glowed blue for a moment before they returned to normal. Once that was set, she waved her hands and broke another pillar to use as ammo against Dialga with Ancient Power.
Dialga roared and was covered in a white glow, before it shattered and the fragments condensed into a shining orb. He shot it at Terrence before firing an Aura Sphere right after. But Terrence didn't raise Protect right away. Instead, his wing glowed and he batted the Metal Burst away with Steel Wing. Then he called up a Protect barrier to shield against the Aura Sphere.
Nate had reached the steps leading up to the altar, but he had to maintain his balance as the fierce battle was shaking the tower pinnacle. Dialga noticed that Nate was almost at the altar and turned, getting ready to fire a Roar of Time at him.
Team Rapid, along with Grovyle and Celebi, gathered between the Temporal Pokémon and Nate. As Dialga charged up, Maribel used Sunny Day, strengthening Grovyle as he charged his own attack.
Martha started gathering dark energy in a vortex, shadows forming into a sphere in front of her mouth, Terrence and Tempest had raw energy gathering in their mouths as they readied Hyper Beam, Tisha had flames gathering in her mouth and Grovyle was rapidly drawing energy from the sun into his head leaf. Once they were done, they fired the attacks into the vortex, causing the Shadow Ball to grow exponentially.
With a mighty roar, Dialga fired his most devastating attack, and the Pokémon from the future retaliated with their combined attack. The giant Shadow Ball still had a ring of darkness around it, but it shone from inside with glowing yellow fire. The two attacks met head on and reached a standstill.
Dialga continued his stream of temporal energy, beginning to force the attack back before Martha and Grovyle started hitting the sphere again with Hyper Beam and Solar Beam, while Celebi sent a telekinetic wave with Psychic, pushing it forward again.
Even so, there seemed to be a deadlock between the two attacks, neither making progress. Nate put in the third Time Gear, taking another one and jumping to reach the higher slots. Maribel quickly came to his aid by grabbing the Time Gear in her talons and turning it to fit into the hole.
The trio of Pokémon from the future started wearing out while Dialga still seemed to have energy to spare, but Celebi was counting down in her mind.
'Three… Two… One…!'
She called out, "Martha! Grovyle! Squeeze out the last bit you can, now!"
As the trio did just that, it only made marginal progress. But a rainbow orb of psychic energy came in from behind Dialga. Once it struck the back of his head, Dialga faltered, the stream of his attack disrupted momentarily.
'NOW!' all three Pokémon thought. They capitalized on the moment and pushed forward even harder. Dialga roared, trying to make up for the lost ground, but it was too late. The combined attack hit him and eclipsed him in an explosion.
Maribel grabbed the last Time Gear from Nate and turned it to place in the last indentation. Both of them watched hopefully as the tablet was eclipsed in a white glow before the Time Gears melded into the stone, changing into its color and completing the pattern. The restored pattern glowed in the same color as the Time Gears now and the patterns on the rest of the altar changed as well.
The smoke faded around Dialga to reveal him panting hard and on one knee. He tried to stand, but wound up falling to the ground, growling weakly.
Suddenly, the tower started shaking fiercely, the storm above growing even more intense. Maribel dodged out of the way of a purple lightning bolt that nearly struck her, and all of the Pokémon gathered up.
"What's going on?!" Tempest shouted.
Grovyle looked at the completed tablet, "You put in the Time Gears! That should've fixed everything!"
"No…" Celebi muttered, "Were we too late?"
Lightning struck one of the remaining pillars, breaking the top half off, and a fissure split the ground near the altar while more purple lightning rained down.
"Everybody, to me!" Terrence called.
The group gathered closer, and Terrence covered them with his wings, forming a green Protect barrier in a dome as a flash of light flared through the entire area. Everybody shut their eyes as the light temporarily blinded them.
Once the light cleared, the Pokémon from the future still took some time to blink the spots out of their eyes. Terrence hesitantly lowered the barrier, and everybody looked around. There were no more tremors, and the pinnacle wasn't bathed in the red glow from the storm. In fact, the storm had vanished.
"D… Did we do it?" Maribel gingerly asked.
"YES, YOU HAVE."
Everybody turned, surprised and afraid that Dialga was standing again. Even though he looked tamer with the red patterns gone and his gem blue, Tisha stood at the front-line while Terrence tried to look as imposing as possible, even though he was less than half the Temporal Pokémon's size.
"YOU HAVE NO CAUSE FOR ALARM. I HAVE REGAINED MY REASON."
The group relaxed, but only slightly.
Dialga continued, "TEMPORAL TOWER HAS TAKEN HEAVY DAMAGE… BUT IT HAS SURVIVED. NOW, OBSERVE."
The blue gem on Dialga's chest glowed white and everybody saw a vision. A forest glade was shown; wind blew, dew fell from the leaves, it looked the way any forest should.
Grovyle said with wonder, "This is Treeshroud Forest…"
"Time is all fixed up!" Tisha said happily.
Next the group was shown a view of Treasure Town, Martha laughed in relief, "Ha-ha, everybody in Treasure Town! They're fine! Everything's back to normal!"
When a vision of the Hidden Land in pieces and Temporal Tower with pieces missing from it was shown, Nate commented, "Temporal Tower… We stopped its destruction right before the worst happened."
When the visions faded, the Pokémon looked up at Dialga. He declared, "TEMPORAL TOWER HAS SURVIVED THE CRISIS. TIME HAS RETURNED TO NORMAL HERE… THUS, TIME HAS RESUMED IN PLACES WHERE IT HAD STOPPED. BECAUSE YOU STOPPED THE RUIN OF TEMPORAL TOWER… THE PLANET'S PARALYSIS HAS BEEN PREVENTED. THE WORLD'S PEACE… HAS BEEN RESTORED. ALLOW ME TO THANK YOU. I THANK YOU, NATE, FOR REACHING THE HIDDEN LAND, AND ALL OF YOU FOR COMING IN HIS HOUR OF NEED. YOU PREVENTED THE RUIN OF TEMPORAL TOWER IN THE NICK OF TIME. THANK YOU. ALL THIS, I OWE YOU."
The group let out a collective sigh of relief, looking about ready to collapse and just wait for the end, before Nate remembered something.
"Wait," he said, catching everybody's attention. "I'm not done. There's still something I promised to do."
Grovyle and Celebi looked confused while the members of Team Rapid perked up and started moving again.
"That's right!" Tempest recalled. "Quick, let's fly to the bottom of Temporal Tower!"
"Actually…" Nate said, "before that…"
He took out his necklace and badge and slipped it around his neck. This time, only Martha recognized the significance of the gesture, but she looked really happy.
Dialga nodded, "THAT'S JUST AS WELL, AS I MUST SEE TO THE REPAIR OF TEMPORAL TOWER. FAREWELL."
When words started appearing, the rest of the Pokémon knew that the world was safe, even though others were shouting it outside. They had wanted to hear it from Nate.
But they also knew that Nate wouldn't come back after this message.
"It's done. Temporal Tower remains standing, and the planet's paralysis has been averted. I had help. As corny as this sounds, your determination to help me lasted"
After asking Martha, he got a more precise approximation.
"537 years. You all came from the future to help me when I couldn't take anymore. Words can't express how grateful I am. In a weird, roundabout way, you all really were with me at the end. Thank you. I couldn't have done it without you. Even after I disappear, I swear that I'll never forget any of you. Continue the good work; I'll be watching from wherever I am.
"-Nate"
Slipping the Adventure Log back into the statue's mouth, Nate sat down with his friends, talking with them about everything and nothing. A brief tremor momentarily disrupted them, and they worried for a moment, but decided that Temporal Tower must still be settling back to normal.
While Nate was discussing his luck with the Pokémon in Temporal Tower, he realized something.
"Wait a minute," Nate said, standing up in a hurry. "Dusknoir! If he's alive, he could've gone back and-"
"Dusknoir was taken care of long before we came here, Nate," Martha reassured.
Nate didn't understand, and Grovyle commented, "Your partner's knowledge of events that would happen became quite useful. Dusknoir – or rather, Duskull, at the time – was recruited into the resistance very early on. He became their spy in Primal Dialga's ranks."
"Who do you think held off Primal Dialga while we came here?" Tempest asked.
Nate was stunned speechless for a moment before he did something that Team Rapid, Grovyle and Celebi had never seen him do before.
He laughed. Not a chuckle, nor a mocking one, a genuine laugh that rang out over the sky. He fell onto his back as he panted from exhaustion and the effects of changing history beginning to wear on him, "Leave it to you, Martha, to recruit my greatest enemy and make him an integral ally."
Martha lay down, curling around Nate's smaller form, "It's what you would've done if you were in my position."
"I wouldn't be so sure," Nate said. "I don't always make the best decisions. My actions in the past 48 hours doomed two timelines before everything settled back down."
"'Two'?" Maribel asked.
Nate realized what he'd let slip and tried to backpedal, but at everyone's insistence, he sighed and said, "There was a twisted version of Martha, and let's leave it at that." It would be extremely disturbing to mention what that one did, considering her victims are right here. Celebi seemed to know, but didn't say anything, thankfully.
They continued talking, even when all of them started to feel the exhaustion. The conversation only stopped when an orb of light appeared from Terrence's body. Everybody noticed, but didn't say anything. The time had come.
"Heh," Terrence chuckled. "Go figure I'd be first; it'll take more time to disappear all of this." He weakly flexed his wings as he sat on the ground, still chuckling. Maribel went over to comfort him, even as light started coming off from her body too.
Everybody wound up pairing together as light emitted from their forms at varying rates. Grovyle held Celebi in his arms, the pink time traveler trying to hide her blush, but too weak to say anything. Maribel perched on Terrence's arm and the two of them leaned their heads together, both of them with their eyes closed, just enjoying each other's presence in their final moments.
Tisha and Tempest sat side-by-side, Tempest huffing and saying, "Wish I had time to slap my past self silly for not swallowing his pride and telling her."
"That'd be a paradox. Either way, ya'd wind up on opposite sides o' the timestream in the end," Tisha pointed out while patting him on the back. "I just wish I could see my sis one more time. The day she evolved, I never felt prouder o' my little Natalie."
Maribel vanished first, quickly followed by Tempest. Terrence disappeared, his body temporarily a beacon as the rest of him dissolved into light. Grovyle and Celebi's light seemed to dissipate together, and Tisha closed her eyes, wishing for the past Natalie's safety as she, too, evaporated into orbs of light.
Martha and Nate held on the longest, not moved from their previous position, and not speaking while they waited.
As more of their bodies dematerialized, Martha muttered, "…Nate?"
"Yeah…?" he weakly said in response.
"I… love you…"
Nate paused, knowing that she did, but still surprised she said it. As the last of them turned to pure light, Nate whispered, "And I… y-"
The two of them broke apart into orbs of light, with only the sound of Nate's falling necklace interrupting the shimmer of their disappearance.
Martha knew. Somewhere deep in her soul, she knew that Nate was no longer in this world. She stared over the ocean as she sat on the beach near Treasure Town. It wasn't quite sunset yet, but it was getting close. If she waited a few more hours, the Krabby would be coming to blow bubbles at the sunset.
Martha closed her eyes as she gave a moment of silence for Nate before standing up. She didn't come here to feel sorry for herself—only to honor Nate's memory.
She had promised, after all.
'I'll be strong, Nate.'
Three months had come and gone while Martha led her team to rescue Pokémon, explore new dungeons with the clients who discovered them and arrest outlaws.
The very next day, Martha gave the order to have everybody in Team Rapid tell the story of what happened to avert the planet's paralysis. The world had literally been on the brink of ruin, and she had to make sure that nothing like that ever happened again. Everybody told it to those who would listen in Treasure Town, to their clients on missions, and to traveling Kecleon merchants in mystery dungeons.
They didn't spare any details, either. They told of how Nate had to lie because nobody would believe him, how the Pokémon of this time wound up helping ensure their own doom by capturing Grovyle, how Nate wound up having to wait until the state of the world literally could not be denied, and his fate for completing his mission. It wasn't a happy story, but it told of a fight for peace—a hope for future peace.
The world healed from the scars of time's near destruction and the Pokémon of the world eventually returned to their cheerful routines. This, of course, meant that it was back to the rigorous training at Wigglytuff's Guild for Martha.
Under Martha's leadership, Team Rapid climbed through the ranks at an unprecedented pace. In the time since Nate had left, Martha had achieved Diamond Rank and soon went on to rise to Super Rank.
One evening, as all the other apprentices were reporting back from their daily work, Martha instead left to go out.
Bidoof noticed and called, "Howdy, Martha. Going out?"
"Yes," Martha nodded. "I'm going for a walk."
"Sounds nice, yup yup," Bidoof agreed. "It'll be dinnertime soon, though. You don't want to be late for that!"
Martha gave a light laugh, "True, true. I'll only be a moment."
She walked over to the beach, and was surprised to see the Krabby blowing bubbles as usual. The Eevee looked around, marveling at the sight. She had never had time to come here with the guild's training schedule.
'In fact,' she thought, 'I think the last time that I saw this was…' She smiled fondly, "It was when I met Nate…"
"Finally, I have you all alone…"
Martha whipped around at the voice, her stance guarded as an inky pool of darkness slithered from behind the rocks. As the shadows writhed, a familiar Pokémon started rising from the mass of shadows.
"D-Dusknoir!" Martha uttered in disbelief. "How…?! The planet's paralysis was stopped! You shouldn't be here!"
Dusknoir held up his hands in a placating gesture as his lower body still rose, "Calm down; you'll scare the Krabby away. I've grown rather fond of this sight while I waited for you."
Martha kept her guard up, but her mind started processing what Dusknoir's return could mean. Her eyes widened, "Wait… If you're back, then that means…?"
"Yes," Dusknoir answered as his tail emerged. "I waited to find you alone, because he wanted you to make the decision without any influence from your peers."
Dusknoir turned around to face the entrance to Beach Cave. His hands glowed with an otherworldly energy, black with blue lines of energy twisting through the mass, and he shot both of them forward. When the two blasts met in the air a short distance away, there was a flash of light and a warbling sound. When the light faded, Martha was looking at a dimensional hole, the warbling rings of blue energy continuously traveling into the dark portal from the hole's outline.
Martha watched in awe as a figure eventually emerged from the dimensional hole, who, despite his best efforts, still face-planted in the sand. Regardless, he stood up and brushed off his face before opening his eyes. Martha noticed that he had kept his promise. A blue crystal necklace glimmered in the setting sun, with a Gold Rank Explorer Badge mounted on the center of the oval gem.
"N… Nate?"
"Hi, Martha," he greeted nervously.
Martha looked like she was conflicted whether to hug him for coming back or tackle him for not being back sooner. Dusknoir started floating towards the path leading to Treasure Town.
"I'll keep watch from the shadows to ensure there are no interruptions," he offered. "Call me when you've made your decision."
The two partners stared at each other for a bit, before Martha demanded, "Tell me something only Nate would know!"
"Vigilant, very good," Nate praised with a nod. "Something only I would know, hmm?" He put his hand to his chin in thought before adopting a mischievous smile, "Before you started habitually waking up early, I'd greet you every sunrise with a light zap to your spine."
Martha laughed, unable to believe this surreal conversation as she shook her head, "Ticked me off good every time…"
"Would you rather have had the other alarm clock?" Nate asked in a deadpan tone.
Remembering the pain her ears went through on that day, Martha shook her head. The two of them shared a laugh before Martha's expression grew slightly more serious.
"Nate," she asked, "what did Dusknoir mean by 'my decision'? And how are you and him back?"
Nate shook his head, "Even Dialga himself – who is much saner now, by the way – isn't quite sure what happened. All he knows is that a higher power wanted to keep us around. Me, Grovyle, Celebi, Dusknoir, the Team Rapid of the future, everybody from the future of darkness returned with time being restored after 500 years of the planet's paralysis. My personal guess is that the old timeline separated and now lives side-by-side with this one. It would certainly explain why my badge hasn't updated its rank. But that brings me to what your decision is."
"I'm afraid that nobody from the team can come with me back to the alternate timeline, as that would cause a paradox," Nate explained. "But… do you want me to stay here with you?"
Martha blinked and tilted her head, sure that she had misheard, "…What?"
"This whole journey, neither of us ever really had a choice in the matter," Nate outlined. "This time, I'm giving the choice to you. Should I stay here?"
The question stunned Martha speechless. Her mouth moved a few times, like she would answer, but no sound came out. Soon, she looked down, seeming to give the question some serious thought. Nate waited patiently for Martha to come to her decision.
At length, Martha spoke up, "I… You probably know how desperately I want to say yes."
"…'But'?" he prompted.
"'But,'" Martha agreed with a nod before continuing. "But… I can't just pretend that I didn't promise because you're miraculously back from… whatever happened to you. I'm touched that you would give me this chance, and I couldn't be happier that you're alive, but… I can't rely on you forever."
Nate wordlessly walked over and pulled Martha into a hug. Martha rested her head on his shoulder, and he said, "I understand. I'll never forget the time that I spent with you training at the guild."
The two pulled apart and looked at each other for a bit before calling out, "Dusknoir!"
The Ghost Pokémon came back to the beach, saying, "You've decided, then? Bidoof was coming by, but a simple Confuse Ray had him forget what he was coming here for."
Martha nodded, "I appreciate the offer, but Nate belongs in his own timeline. I have to learn to stand on my own."
"I see." Dusknoir nodded and floated towards the dimensional hole, turning to wait for Nate, "Shall we?"
Nate pulled Martha in for one more hug before breaking away and nodding to Dusknoir. Once he was at the portal, he turned and waved, "Goodbye, Martha. Good luck with your explorations!"
"You too!" Martha called back. "Good luck in the future!"
Nate nodded and turned, walking into the portal and disappearing. Dusknoir followed shortly after, and the portal closed with a shimmering sound.
Martha watched the space where the dimensional hole was for a moment before nodding and saying, "I will be strong, Nate. I'll be the best explorer ever!"
With that said, Martha turned around and started heading back to the guild.
It's done.
Such a feeling of accomplishment fills me for finishing this story. Thank you, all of you, for reading this story and reviewing. Especially ProfessorLugia, Tatopatato, Philip Harbindinger, Tony Anderson, and PsychicEevee103, thank you for giving me support through writing this story. Also, though it might not have been as much support, Antex-the-Legendary-Zoroark, Seas and Shadows, Ryuukuchi, Ultimate Black Ace, flashyhero, Kiri Kaitou Clover, OblivionWings, DeltaMLP, Emblem of Light, Caelys, Pikachu564 and Grey917. I'm glad that my story was such a good one for your reading enjoyment. I'm going to be taking some time to hopefully finish some of the other incomplete stories that I have. But, there is one thing that some of you readers may look forward to.
When I started this fanfic, I had no intention of writing out the post-game content because I couldn't see a way to make it new and interesting. Well, now I have. Nate's mission is done. Now it's Martha's turn. It'll be Her Story.
It probably won't be soon. But it will happen.
See you when I see you.
-AeroJester203