I came to sprawled out on a cold stone floor, and in a cell larger than the town square, made entirely of grey stones that were unaffected by my body's heat. I let a sigh of frustration my eyes settled on the greyscale bars marking the only entrance and exit point of my cell.

"Damn it!" I growled as I approached the cell door also made of more bars. I grabbed the door from the interior of my cell and tested its strength with a shake. The bars felt like metal under my paws confusing me. They appeared to be made of the same grey color stone, as the walls and floor. The bars remained unfazed by my attempt at shaking them proving their durability.

"Anyone there?" I called out into the darkness that ruled over the hallway outside my cell.

"Still think I'm the bad guy kid?" Grovyle muttered from somewhere close by in the darkness, his usual sarcastic tone sounding forced.

"I wasn't sure you were the bad guy before the fight at the crystal lake and this confirms it." I replied knocking on the bars before me but producing no sound. The silence thickens leaving me feeling uneasy, as I remember Grovyle was going to be punished for causing the paralysis.

"Wh–"

"Akuma, I hope you can finish what I started." Grovyle's whispered prayer interrupts my question.

"Grovyle," I paused waiting for some confirmation he was listening, but instead of Grovyle I was answered by the growl of a Sableye.

"It's time." Grovyle said as the door to my cell swung open as if by a switch hidden out of view had been activated. I was soon surrounded by four Sableye, invoking the memory of Ryzu's death, and became paralyzed. I was lead further into the darkness of the hallway following the Sableye's prodding.

We had been walking for a few minutes, before stopping near what I guessed was a pillar, but with world paralyzed there wasn't any breeze to tell if we were outside. Ahead of me, I heard movement coming from Grovyle, and because I was scared of being left alone with our captors I took a hesitant step forward.

"No, stay." One of the Sableye behind me growled yanking one of my wings, causing me to yelp out in pain, and quickly spinning on the spot breaking her grasp on my wing. When I looked at the Sableye that had touched my wing, was obviously annoyed with me.

"We'll tie him up after I show the prisoner their place, so hold him still." The Sableye behind me acted as ordered and each held one of my arms outstretched, as their leader skulked behind me with a devious smile on her face. I couldn't see her well, to begin within the room nearly devoid of light, but I had started using my aura field to see my immediate area once we left my cell. She was walking closer to me from behind closing the distance like a predatory closing in on their prey. I knew what her target was from the moment she stepped behind me, my wings. Pain shot through me as I felt her pulling on my left wing, but I kept quiet to dissuade her from continuing her sadistic fun.

"Trying to play brave that's cute, but I planned on removing these anyway." She snickered digging her claws into my left wing causing a muffled whimper to escape my lips and pulling with more strength than before. I wasn't able to keep myself from screaming out as I felt phantom flesh tear away forcefully intensified by my aura being in contact with someone else.

"Stop playing around and get him ready for his punishment!" Dusknoir roared from somewhere in the darkness. The Sableye flinched from fear, but quickly recovered leading me to a pillar near Grovyle. I was then pressed against the pillar forcing my wings behind me, as I was bound to the pillar with coarse rope. I kept my body tense as the rope was tightly wrapped around me.

"Sorry about this kid, but we won't die here." Grovyle whispered from the nearby pillar beside mine. There still wasn't enough light to see, but I could see the aura of the Sableye as the distanced themselves from our pillars.

"My name's Akuma not kid, but what's your plan for escaping this?" I replied releasing my tensed muscles loosening the rope enough for me to move one paw.

"During our execution, those Sableye might break enough of the rope for us to escape, follow my lead from there. That might be our only chance to make it out of here." Grovyle explained testing the strength of the rope around him.

"Your plan for survival is dependent on the Sableye hitting the rope they tied us up with?" I asked baffled by the plan's reliance on enemy attacks.

"You have a better one, kid?" Grovyle chided making an effort to show how vain it was to attempt breaking the rope was and causing the Sableye nearby to chuckle sadistically.

"Can you use lead blade right now?" I ventured turning my head to watch him intently, as more Sableye entered my field of aura.

"Yeah though it won't help much. The ropes are too tight for me to cut them." Grovyle admitted revealing how frustrated he felt about being captured through his aura.

"I'll handle the rest of cutting us free, but it's up to you to find our escape route." I reassured Grovyle. A pale green light burst to life from Grovyle's forearm slipping through the ropes for only a brief second alerting Sableye nearby. Suddenly a large spotlight blinded us causing everyone to groan as our eyes adjusted to the light.

"Our Overlord has arrived to witness the execution of the rebels Akuma, and Bandit Kronos. The last of the history manipulating filth." Dusknoir's voice echoed throughout the large chamber and was followed by a roar that my body recognized before my brain.

I fought back the urge curl up and hide as I used copycat and a sharpened leaf sprouted from my forearm, the light from it snuffed out by the larger spotlight. I jerked my arm upward instantly freeing myself from my bindings and rushed over to free Bandit. The second Bandit's bindings hit the ground he used an orb shrouding the area in a blinding white light. Before the light faded Bandit grabbed my paw and ran leading us away from Dialga, The Time Pokemon.

We stopped running once we found a decent resting place along the rocky terrain of our paralyzed planet. The world was still in grayscale even outside the drab castle belonging to Dialga. Stones from an unknown structure we stuck perpetual falling, and what little fauna still existed appeared more like sculptures littering the area.

"This would've been so much easier with Luca here." I huffed between gasps of air as I sat near the rock wall, making sure to keep my wings away from it.

"You can't be him, he was more introverted and slow to act. We'd only been separated for a month or two nobody changes so much that quickly." Bandit said anxiously trying to piece everything together.

"Yeah, I'm Akuma Kronos the same Riolu you use to call a human to make fun of how useless I was in a fight. The same Riolu you took to the past and got separated from on the journey there." I confirmed looking at Bandit's aura for any signs of a positive change. It changed from relieved to agitated as he took in everything the news meant.

"Why were you trying to stop me from collecting the Time Gears, that was our plan from the beginning?" Bandit stomped towards me, expressing his anger through movement. He reached out for me once he was close enough, and hugged me tightly causing me to yelp.

"Sorry, we'll figure everything out later." Bandit released me as the sound of our pursers became audible. He turned his attention to the direction it was coming from and listened intently. "We have to get going, think you can keep up with that broken… wing?"

"Long story, but I should be fine." I nodded hoping to urge Bandit into action. He studied me for a short time but sighed his defeat looking out of our alcove.

"Okay come on." Bandit dashed out and down the poorly maintained path, with me in tow. Bandit deftly navigated pass the undergrowth and roots intermittent through our route. He glanced over at me to make sure I was keeping up well.

"Where are we going?" I managed to ask as I began to get more comfortable with dodging the tricky terrain.

"Celebi, she should be able to get us back to that time." Bandit answered once he noticed I had closed the distance between us. "I'll have to thank your friend for helping you become more coordinated." He smiled returning his gaze to the path ahead.

I was starting to get winded when our path leads to a cave entrance. Bandit stopped at the mouth of the cave and began looking around.

"Wha–"

"Kangaskhan statue. It has some food I stored before we went to the past." Bandit interrupted checking behind a large boulder and returning with a perfect apple. "Eat up." He tossed the perfect apple to me with a confident smirk.

"Cut it." I replied tossing it back to Bandit.

"You haven't eaten all day, eat the damn apple." Bandit growled as he caught it, and glared at me. I returned his smug smirk, a moment passed as we stared at each other before Bandit submitted. "You're definitely my Akuma."

We shared the perfect apple and rested hidden near the cave entrance. While we are I could feel my wings dissipate, and the aura return to my body. Bandit watched in awe as the wings vanished but remained silent on the topic.

"On the other side of this cave is the forest Celebi lives in. We'll have to hope she's managed to avoid getting caught by Dialga while we were in the past." Bandit explained heading through the entrance of the cave.

"There's hardly any light in there, do you have a light source?" I looked into the darkness ahead anxiously.

"I've been through here a few times so just stick close." Bandit extended a paw for me to hold and I obliged. Bandit led me through the darkness of the cave quietly notifying me when a rock or dip was just ahead of us.

"Big Stone, watch out." Bandit whispered as he carefully stepped over it, I felt a sudden aura of hostility from below us. Reflexively I jumped backward releasing Bandit's paw, as I felt an electric wave fly past me.

"An attack just came from that rock." I explained to Bandit in the darkness ahead of me.

"Damn, we couldn't manage to hide from a Riolu. We're going to need more practice masking my presence." A shrill medley of voices seemed to emanate from the ground itself.

"It's probably a ghost type so I don't think I'll be of much help fighting it." I admitted remembering all my attacks wouldn't do any damage to a ghost type.

"It's too dark for me to see anything, how am I supposed to hit it?" Bandit asked searching the darkness in vain before shaking his head defeated.

"It seems our prey can only dodge until too tired to move." The voices let loose a cacophony of laughter. Bandit and I had reflexively covered our ears because of how painful the sound was to hear.

I produced an aura sphere, which shedding a small amount of light on our surroundings, "Yeah that's a smart idea use the aura to light the area." Bandit declared scanning the more illuminated room. I had a different plan though and shifted my focus to the area the first attack was fired from.

"Let's see if this works. Scatter!"

I hope you enjoy the chapter and are looking forward to the next update.

Luca, Akuma, and I are all still answering any questions and comments so don't be afraid to leave a review.

See ya next chapter!