Chapter 20: Blood of the Legends
Trey moved through the foggy forest carefully. He didn't want to lift the fog this time. It helped to hide him from the locals. And the Opal Band would hide him from the Guardian. At least, for a little while. So he would have to find the entrance to Steam Cave on his own.
He noticed the Time Gears tugging stronger in a particular direction, both at once. Were they trying to hook up to the next one? Trusting the devices, he followed their lead until he came across the statue of Groudon. He was surprised to find it tipped over in this time too. What had knocked it over, if not the struggle against the era of darkness?
Knowing where that was, he was able to locate the Steam Cave entrance. The humidity was thick, hazier then before. However, it was moving ever so slightly, which made it more bearable than it had been when he and Sally had come through here. Still, Trey was relieved when he emerged into the cooler and less oppressive fog.
There was a roar as he tried to cross the open area to the last stairway. A giant red Pokemon emerged from the fog. "Turn back, or I will be forced to send you back," Groudon growled in a deep earthy voice. "I know what you mean to do here; you will be punished severely for this attempted theft."
Supposedly Groudon, Trey thought. "You aren't real," he said, then sent an Energy Ball at the mirage.
He roared in indignation, then sent a stream of flames after the Grovyle. It dissolved the fog in its direct path and made any droplets near it glow orange and red. Acting quickly, Trey launched a Totter Seed at him. It failed to hit. However, he didn't stay long enough to see that. He leapt onto a nearby wall and scrambled up quietly.
The Groudon mirage used Sunny Day, vanquishing the fog and brightening the area. While it made it more dangerous to Trey (probably without Uxie realizing it), he had already gotten up and over the ledge. The mirage roared again.
Now that the fog was clear, he saw Uxie floating above a stone platform in front of the lake he guarded. His mind was focused on the platform and battle below. From his words through the mirage, he wasn't going to listen to any reason for taking the Gear. So Trey did what he had to. He rushed across and slashed Uxie with Dark Edge across the head.
There was a massive scream as the mirage was ended, blending into the frightened gasp of pain from Uxie. The pixie collapsed to the ground; he looked up to Trey with closed eyes and an expression of bewilderment and fear. Deep inside, Trey felt a sudden conflict of thoughts. The darkness tried to hiss that Uxie should be killed, so there was no witness to his theft. But another strong force made him feel horrible guilt at having the blood of an innocent Pokemon on his leaves. No, not just innocent, not even just any legend, but the Being of Knowledge, an aspect of the mind that Trey valued greatly.
A strong tug from the Gears snapped him out of it. "Sorry," he said quietly, then went into the lake and swam quickly towards the dome of light.
It came out as easily as the others. When Trey surfaced from his dive, he noticed a golden light of a teleport from the platform. So Uxie had gotten away, and with his psychic third eye, he would know what Trey looked like. He might even know his name. And he could have sent that information to his two siblings, who guarded the remaining Gears.
Trey was going to have to be more careful.
It was the fourth day that Trey had been trying to cross the Quicksand Desert and it was still awful. There was absolutely no cover from the bright sun or the whirling sandstorm. He had to use Dig to rest every few minutes, either from overexposure to the sun or from the sand steadily beating away at his skin. It irritated his scar, leaving a stinging sensation across his face. His progress was slowed to a crawl. Even traveling at night didn't help.
Finally, he had to resort to digging his way through the sand in order to pass through the worst of the storm. It was miserable, trapped underground under shifting sands. If the structure of his improvised tunnel weakened, it collapsed on his body and he had to struggle up to the surface, than immediately go back down to continue on.
When he came up in the eye of the storm, he was momentarily relieved. "It wasn't that bad in the future," he grumbled. "It had all been hanging in place until we brushed it away with rain."
But then, that was probably one of the few good things about the era of darkness. It was not enough to make up for even a second of that horrible and tragic battle that he had experienced then.
Now he had to jump down into a whirlpool of sand, with geysers spitting up plumes of sand every few minutes. He had to resist watching it in awe in order to jump down in to drop to the next dungeon. Once he was out of the intense sun and sand, Trey began to feel better. He made as much progress as he could, then settled into a hidden nook to sleep.
He carried on in the morning, ending up at a vast underground lake. Trey had gotten into this room by crawling through a tunnel that led to the ceiling. After scrambling around, he found a shaded spot that seemed good for hiding and observing. He then looked around for Mespirit and found her. She was on a stone platform, much as her brother had been.
Her tails whipped around as she seemed tense and wary. Trey figured that he would have to enter the water silently to avoid her notice. And even then, she might know something was up when he approached the Gear. Or maybe she would feel the other three. He certainly did, feeling their ticks and tugs in his mind.
"I know someone's out there," Mespirit called. She had a voice that sounded like it should be playful, but blatantly revealed that she was angry.
Trey went still. He had his Opal Band, right? Right, it was there on his head. After several minutes, she still hadn't looked his way for very long. She was bluffing or oversensitive. She sighed, then paced around. Now she appeared deeply worried and upset.
Guilt twisted his insides. She knew her brother was badly injured. Or maybe even dead? No. no, he hadn't hurt Uxie that badly. And Trey didn't want to hurt Mespirit now. But in her state of mind, she would probably blow up (or blow him up) if she sensed him in any manner. Maybe if he knocked her out quickly, so she didn't notice… but then what about when he took the Gear and Quicksand Cave froze? He didn't want to leave her to get frozen while injured. And why hadn't he thought of that with Uxie?
Then again, he had underestimated how hard Dark Blade would strike.
He crept to a point above Mespirit's pacings.
She looked to the main entrance of the area, then vanished. Trey bit down on his tongue, to keep from saying something in disappointment. He had to keep his hiding place. Then he heard a voice from the entrance. "There's a lake, here underground?"
"Yeah, it's pretty common, actually, but most people don't go deep enough in caves to see… look, there's a glow out there!"
Trey held still as he watched a pair of Pokemon on the platform. There was a Squirtle and a Treecko, walking side by side. Although they seemed kind of familiar, he couldn't place them. Maybe he'd seen them on the road and never actually met them.
"That must be a Time Gear," the Treecko stated.
"Hold it!" Mespirit reappeared, now fuming with anger. "It's you!"
"Huh?" the Squirtle asked, in a startled and naïve tone. "What about us?"
"You two ruined Uxie and stole the Time Gear he had, didn't you? He shouldn't have trusted you."
"No we didn't," the Treecko said, flustered. "We met him, but…"
"He told me about your intrusion and how you were the only ones who could have known. And now he's dead because of you!"
Trey felt a moment of cold horror. He had killed Uxie? But, how? And how could he ever forgive himself of that?
"N-No, he's not dead," the Squirtle said, afraid but giving Trey a sense of relief. "He's in Treasure Town's…"
"Shut up! I haven't felt him in five days! Now I'm going to ruin you!" She sounded in a mood to kill.
She was distracted, though, making this the perfect moment to attack. Trey let go of the rock he was hanging onto, flipped around on his way down, then slashed her on the neck with Dark Blade. Fairly certain that the young explorers would be too frightened to attack him, but soft enough to take her out of there, he felt that this was the best way to handle it. "I'm sorry," he told Mespirit after letting her go. "But it must be done; I need that Time Gear."
"Hey!" The Squirtle managed to find courage enough to step forward and stand up against him. "You're not taking that Time Gear!"
"You two are going to stop me?" Trey asked skeptically. He didn't want to bother with these kids.
"Yeah, we will," the Treecko insisted. There was something to him, some sort of sense of honor and justice that, while nice, was horribly misplaced.
As much as he didn't want to, he replied, "Fine." He then sent a pair of regular leaf blades at them, angling them so that they didn't strike at full force. That should inform them of how serious he was and yet enable them to leave with Mespirit. "This is more important," he told them, then dove into the waters.
They were frigid, trying to freeze up all his senses. Trey pressed on, following the dome of light until he came upon the fourth Time Gear. He took that.
But as he held onto it, he felt a touch of déjà vu. Not from taking the Gear, but from… something. Maybe coming back through this wretched desert again? Or maybe… he remembered Celebi telling him that she always felt like Trey was on the back curve of a time loop. Of course, he'd never figured out what she meant there. Maybe this was just a side effect of time travel.
He didn't bother to check on the kids or Mespirit, but used an Escape Orb to leave quickly.
The Primal Sableyes appeared in Crystal Crossing.
Trey almost felt angry. He was so close to his goal. But he couldn't lose sight of it now, especially not to some little giggling devils. Going in small tunnels and following the Gears' lead, he made his way to his goal. He entered this cavern the same as the last.
Azelf was hovering over his platform, quiet. Only the occasional swish of his tails showed that he was alert. He was focused, prepared. Trey was cautious as he crept along the ceiling. A slight misstep and the legendary would be onto him.
Or, a slightly loose fragment in the ceiling would slip out when he let go, causing it to fall into the water. The tiny splash that broke the silence was like a clap of thunder to both highly alert Pokemon. Azelf turned to the splash, then looked up.
Trey leapt off the ceiling, landing six feet from the pixie. He rushed forward, then rolled to the side as Azelf sent a blast of air at him. He knew who he was dealing with. Moving in still, he struck Azelf down with Dark Blade. Then he said, "I'm sorry, but understand that I'm saving your life." He struck Azelf once more, knocking him out of commission.
He then moved closer to the lake and looked over it. He had two Escape Orbs. If he left one with Azelf, would the initial expanse of the freeze energy be enough break the orb and get the pixie out of here? Maybe, but he wasn't certain. How else could he make sure that Azelf was gone? Maybe just place him on the warp panel and hope that someone came across him? That seemed far-fetched, but if that was all he could plan…
"Hold it, you son of a Chansey!"
Trey froze. Who had snuck in here with him? The voice didn't seem familiar… and yet it did. He turned to see, but something struck him in the arm. A fire ran through his nerves, causing them all to rebel. A Stun Seed. Then he found himself being pulled away from the lake by the same Squirtle and Treecko that had shown up at Quicksand Desert. What were they doing here? "You aren't getting this one," the Squirtle said firmly to him.
There was one thing she didn't think of; them grabbing him broke the effect of the paralysis. "This is more important than you realize," he replied, right before throwing them off and making a dash for the lake.
But right before he could dive in, the surface of the lake rapidly turned white and hard. It froze with surprising speed, then continued growing upward into large crystals with sharp points. He had to cut himself short before one of those crystals impaled him. This wasn't supposed to be happening.
Trey's heart started pounding. "What's going on?" he asked, stunned.
"Uxie told me about you," Azelf said. When he glanced into one of the crystals, he saw a reflection showing a Skitty with the pixie. "So I prepared an extra measure, in case I fell. You're not getting my Time Gear."
With his mind reeling, Trey wasn't sure what to do for a moment. This was one of the five that he had to have. He couldn't replace it with any other Gear that happened to be lying around other dungeons. And… and something about this group of young Pokemon stirred his mind. He wasn't sure what it was. It was the same strange déjà vu as before.
No, he couldn't lose his focus. Not now. He turned back to the others. "You don't realize what you're doing. My mission must be completed, or else. You lost to me before; do you want to challenge me again?" He could defeat all four of them, if it came down to it. Azelf was already injured and bleeding while the three explorers seemed inexperienced. And they couldn't surprise him any further. Really, if only the young fools knew the danger their peaceful world was in…
But they wouldn't back down. "Of course," the Treecko said defiantly. "You're the one who's causing the problem."
"What you're doing isn't right," his Water friend added.
"Do you even know what the problem is?" he asked them. Of course they couldn't understand, but this struck him as just plain ridiculous. Before he could tell them anything more, a dark mass shot across the room right for him. Trey dodged the all too familiar attack. When he looked around, he saw a ghostly yellow antenna moving across the floor. How the…? "Drakken! What are you doing here?"
The Dusknoir came up through the floor, staring him down. "I came after you, of course. And now I have you cornered."
It wasn't going to end like this. It couldn't end like this. To express his frustration, he got ready for a fight. "Are you so sure about that?" he taunted.
Drakken narrowed his red eye at Trey. The Grovyle looked at him equally hard, carefully reaching into his Treasure Bag. When his enemy rushed at him to attack, he grabbed an Escape Orb and smashed it against the Dusknoir's fist. It sent Trey right back to the entrance of Crystal Cave.
But now the underground lake was turned to crystal ice and Primal Dialga's top servant was in this time, after him. What did he do now?
Trey lay low for a few days around Crystal Crossing. He watched the lake, but it remained frozen. A few times, he walked on it. That only confirmed that it was not ordinary ice, nothing he could use Dig to get through. The Time Gears tugged hard at their fifth unit. For a bit, he wondered if it could bring itself out just by that connection. That didn't work, but it was a nice thought.
With nothing to do but wait, his mind began to wander. It kept drifting back to the battle at Amp Plains. Even when waiting at Limestone Cavern, he hadn't had a moment since where there wasn't something else to distract him from it. The images of death and chaos played cruel games with his heart, stirring the darkness and trying to drive him to murder. If one of those Sableye were still around the dungeon, he was almost certain that it would be a real battle just to restrain himself from killing the Primal. Sometimes he wound up chipping some crystals off the wall, imagining that Drakken was in those crystals. Other times, he cried.
One day, he noticed the triplets in the cavern. They weren't trying to hide; Mespirit's laughter echoed around the crystiline halls, stirring him from his restless thoughts. For a moment, he mistook it for the Sableyes. But then, their giggles were nothing like the joyous and cheerful laughter coming down the halls now. Not too much later, he saw the three floating through the halls, talking quietly amongst themselves.
"No, it was a Geodude," Azelf said. "A friendly sort of guy, really. He just wanted some slopes to roll down, but didn't want to harm the crystals. I told him it was okay."
"Yeah, they'll grow back in good time," Uxie agreed.
"In the meantime, it makes pretty crystal dust for the hallways!" Mespirit cheered, swooping down to pick up some of the crystal dust to spread around. It was pretty, sparkling in a whole range of blues.
They went on. After a moment, Trey crept out of his hiding place and followed them. Where was Drakken? There was a good chance that he would show up. But the triplets were together. Even with his training and equipment, the Grovyle didn't think he could take on all three at once. They would be able to coordinate their attacks as if they were one. So he would have to work around them.
They came to the underground lake that Azelf guarded. Uxie looked over the crystalized lake, then said to the others, "Well this is extreme, but we don't have much of a choice."
"Or advice from high," Mespirit noted, on a sad tone.
"But sealing the Gears in the immediate area will buy us time to track down the thief and retrieve the ones he stole. So, are we ready?"
As the three spoke to each other, Trey wondered why they were talking aloud. If they could use telepathy, why not? Unless they were confident that they weren't being watched. And their plan was to seal many Time Gears? They really didn't realize what was going on. He only needed five, only a specific five, that were supposed to be on top of Temporal Tower. Maybe he should have said something when he had the chance, like back in the hospital. But then, would they believe him? It would sound like a crazy story in this peaceful age. And how could he know who to trust? He didn't know anyone in this time other than Sally and Drakken. Anyone could betray him.
"All right, let me clear this one up," Azelf said. He focused his power and removed the crystal ice from the lake.
Good. Once the three of them were focused on their sealing power, he should be able to slip into the lake and take the Gear unnoticed. At least, until he had it removed. It would give them time to get away too. This was a lucky moment. Trey silently moved along the wall, reaching the point that was closest to the Gear. He waited patiently for the chatter to be gone for a few minutes, then dove into the lake.
He got blindsided by a Sucker Punch underwater. Drakken, Trey thought spitefully. Quieting his inner darkness, he struck back with Dark Blade. He missed the Dusknoir and instead got grappled and pulled deeper underwater. The Grovyle fought back by kicking backwards; he could last a decent amount of time underwater, but he would need to surface before the Ghost did. Managing to get one arm free, he flipped himself around and lashed out with Leaf Blade; it caused a tremendous disturbance in the water.
Unfortunately, that disturbance disguised a Air Slash from above. A Thunder Wave soon followed, leaving Trey weak and paralyzed. Drakken grabbed him tightly in one arm, but managed not to disrupt his paralysis state. He then brought Trey above water, where the three pixies were waiting.
A trap, Trey thought. The whole scenario had been a trap and he had fallen right for it. So he'd failed in this last ditch effort to save the future from darkness.
The shame of failing Celebi hurt the most.