Pokemon Mystery Dungeon - SoF - Twist in Time
Chapter 36 - The first Time Gear
"Ri?"
~ BGM: Mistic - Persona 3 (Extended)
Cobal's voice slowly pulled me out of unconsciousness. My senses slowly returned to me and a constant throb from my belly came with them. Everything felt numb somehow and bringing up the strength to open my eyes was a struggle. When I finally managed to open them, the blurry image of a concerned Lucario and an Uxie entered my view.
"She's awake..." Uxie said with a slight tone of indifference in his voice.
I realized that I was laying on the ground, my head being held up a bit by Cobal. 'Ugh... What was that just now? The voice...'
"Can you speak?" Cobal questioned.
"Y-yeah," I answered weakly.
"We're inside the barrier, right next to Fogbound Lake... We wanted to wait for you to wake up before we talk about taking the Time Gear..." Uxie explained.
I slowly rose my body into a sitting position and inspected my surroundings. Fogbound Lake was to my right, however everything was black and white and looked nothing like the beautiful scene my friends and I had witnessed a few weeks ago. Right in the middle of the lake, the Time Gear was floating above the surface of the frozen water.
My whole body felt numb and I was panting while I spoke up again. "I see... Before we talk about the Time Gear, I'll try to explain a few things to you." I looked at Uxie with an apologetic expression on my face. "That includes why I completely lost it when Mesprit attacked my friends."
Deciding that Celsius should hear about this too, I quickly contacted her.
'Celsius?'
Finally have some time for me, huh? First you yell at me and then you don't respond to my calls for an hour... You know, I'm actually a little hurt.
'Sorry for snapping at you... But it's kinda hard to be in a good mood when you're almost killed and your inner demon messes with your head...'
Inner demon?
'I'll explain it to Uxie and Cobal now... Listen up, you should know the next couple of things too.'
Ooh! Are you going to reveal some kinky secrets of yours?
'You want me to yell at you, don't you?'
A chuckle echoed through my head. Sorry!
Ignoring Celsius' comment and bringing my attention back to the two Pokemon next to me, I focused my gaze on Uxie, who was responding to me. "Your partner already told me that you felt like being influenced by something."
"Yeah... Again, I'm sorry for what I did to her... I'll have to apologize to her in person when I see her again." A sigh escaped my mouth. "I just remembered a lot of things... About a certain ability of mine... It's called Demon's Embrace."
"It that the reason your eyes looked different?" Cobal asked with a concerned look.
"Yes... I'm able to draw power from the darkest part of my soul with this technique but at the same time I get influenced by my bad emotions. It's why I was so angry and why I couldn't really control myself at Underground Lake."
"Why would you use an ability like that if you knew that you'll go berserk when you use it?" Uxie asked in a stern tone, sending me a glare with his squinted eyes.
"Uhm... I didn't know that I had it until now..." I replied. "I most likely used it subconsciously..."
"Subconsciously? How can you use a technique like that without knowing it?" Cobal asked with a confused look.
A thoughtful expression wandered onto my face while I folded my arms. "I think learning this technique comes with a side-effect."
"A side-effect?" Both of the present Pokemon repeated.
"I remembered a couple of voices... One of them said that I get nightmares if I don't use the technique for a long time. I think that the dark energy of my soul builds up over time and tries to break free when my soul or body isn't able to hold it back anymore." I replayed the voices in my head while I connected the new information with my memories from Underground Lake. "Two days before the incident with Mesprit, I started to have nightmares... And when I got angry at her for hurting my friends, that anger must've triggered the ability and released the energy somehow."
"Any ideas how to deal with that side-effect?" Uxie questioned. "What if you start to randomly get into that state and hurt other Pokemon when the dark energy tries to break free?"
"I think I know how to handle this 'condition' now... Just now I was able to control myself. I was only angry but I didn't feel any influence like at Underground Lake. If I release the energy before it can get to an amount where the dark emotions would overwhelm me, I can keep myself from going berserk."
"I see... So it's pretty much like a glass that slowly fills itself with water. Instead of gulping all of it down when it's about to spill, you only take a small sip whenever the water is about to reach a level that you don't want it to reach," Cobal illustrated, receiving him a nod from Uxie and me.
"If only I had known about this earlier then Mesprit wouldn't be..." I stopped there and looked at the psychic-type next to me with a sad look. "Uhm... How is she exactly? They only told me that Magnezone brought her to you after Grovyle defeated you..."
His expression turned grim. "Several broken bones, a dislocated shoulder, damaged organs, a lot of inner bleeding and her whole body was covered with cuts and bruises."
Balling my paws into fists, I grit my teeth and cursed at myself. "I won't let something like that happen again-"
That sentence made me blink as the whole scenario suddenly felt familiar to me. Rather than being happy that I seemed to remember something from my past, the familiarity of the situation made me sad and rather disappointed at myself. 'I already let it happen again with Mesprit, didn't I?'
Please try to cheer up a bit... That guilt you're sending right now makes me feel kinda- Oh! We're ready to head to Wigglytuff's guild! Hear you later, Corrine's yelling at me for falling behind.
'Bye, Celsius...' Letting out another sigh, I pushed those thoughts out of my head and returned my attention to the present Pokemon. 'I'll tell Cobal about Celsius and the others later... The Time Gear is more important right now.'
"Uxie... Now that Ri is awake, can we hear your answer?" Cobal questioned the psychic-type.
The psychic-type seemed to be in deep thought for a moment before he folded his arms and looked at us with a serious expression. "In my whole time as a guardian of the Time Gear, I never thought what other purpose than maintaining the flow of time in the surrounding area the gear could have. I knew that it originally came from Temporal Tower and that they had some kind of secondary purpose but we were never told that the energy inside them could restore the tower if it was damaged."
Uxie focused his gaze on me. "Now that I know that Dusknoir and Grovyle come from the future, I understand the reason behind your friends actions... I can't imagine how it must be in a world where everything looks like... Well..." He pointed at the time-frozen lake to his left. "This..."
"Will you help us then?" Cobal asked in an expectant tone.
The guardian returned his gaze onto me. "I'll allow you to take the Time Gear but that doesn't mean that I'm forgiving you."
"I understand... But..." My expression turned grim while I reviewed the recent fight in my head. "Do you really think that my actions justify you to kill me?"
He seemed to be affected by my words but simply responded by returning a grim look.
Cobal placed his paw on my shoulder. "I already talked with him about that topic and that you despise the thought of killing... Please, calm down... We can't waste our time with another argument. Let's talk about the Demon's Embrace topic later." He seemed to force a smile onto his face and let go of me. "Are you okay with that?"
I stopped my glare and let out another sigh. "Right..." My view wandered towards the Time Gear that was floating above the middle of the lake. "Let's get the gear." I tried to stand up but immediately when I moved my body, a jolt of pain wandered out from my stomach. "Ugh..."
"Here, let me help you," Cobal offered, helping me back onto my feet. "Can you walk?"
"Yeah." With shaky legs, I slowly started to walked towards the edge of the water, Cobal and Uxie following closely behind me.
"By the way, have you made and plans on what to do after your business here is done?" the psychic-type to my left asked.
"We're heading to the next Time Gear, of course... I think if we head to the Southern Jungle first and take the gears from the Northern Desert and Crystal Cave afterwards, we will take the least time," I answered while I imagined a map of Treasure in front of me and planned the fastest route. Limestone Cavern was the farthest away from Treasure Town and the other two locations were reachable within a day from it, meaning that going south first and heading north next was the smartest approach.
Cobal cleared his throat and gave me a serious look. "We should look for a village on our way there. We have to find a doctor to look at your injuries."
Touching the stained bandages on my stomach, I thought about his words for a moment. 'I would've bled out if I hadn't eaten that Oran Berry from before... Chimecho said that a berry like that only mends the wounds but it still takes time for them to completely heal. Getting help from a healer would be a good idea but we can't waste any time.'
I was still debating on an answer when we reached the edge of the lake and stopped in front of it.
"Let's talk about it when we're done here, okay?" I answered, giving him a forced smile. 'Finally getting our hands onto one of the gears is more important right now.'
My view then fell down onto the frozen lake in front of me. "Uhm... Can I walk on this water?" I said, hesitantly placing my foot onto the surface.
"You can... The whole water is solid now. That's why I placed the gear above the lake and not on its original place, being at the bottom," Uxie explained.
Trusting his words, I put my weight onto my foot and found that it really was solid.
"Shouldn't I get the Time Gear? What about the symbol? What if it drains all of your aura and you die when you touch the gear?" my partner threw in with a concerned voice.
Raising my right paw into my view, I looked at the bright glowing symbol on its backside. "And what if touching another Time Gear releases the Time Gear I've somehow fused with? We'd have two gears then and wouldn't have to worry about the problem anymore."
Not giving him any time to object, I began to wander towards the middle of the lake and tried to ignore the pain on my stomach that came from the movements.
"Ri, please wait..." Halfway there, the Lucario grabbed my shoulder and stopped me. "What you are trying to do is too risky... We know that the gears affect your aura and that this has some bad effects on your body. You're already in a horrible condition and now you want to do something that will most likely drain even more of your energy?"
"What if I can somehow unlock the power to time travel I'm supposed to have that way?" That theory made me blink and think further into it. "What if this whole mess with the Time Gears is why I can travel through time in the first place?"
The Lucario blinked as well and seemed to be in deep thought for a moment. "T-this makes sense... But if you really are able to travel through time because of the Time Gears... What event caused you to fuse with the gear and turned you into a Riolu with no memories what so ever?"
That question somehow gave me a severe headache. Pictures of a forest, a Time Gear laying on the ground and a pair of red eyes inside of some kind of black fog rushed into my mind. "Ugh... I..."
"What's wrong?" Uxie called from the edge of the lake.
"Nothing... I'm fine," I replied, giving the psychic-type a reassuring gaze before I face Cobal again.
"Another memory?" the Lucario questioned quietly.
Accessing the memories again somehow wasn't possible anymore as every time I tried to remember one of the images, I only received a headache. "I'm not sure... I think I know what caused this whole mess but everything is really foggy."
"Oh..." He responded with a concerned expression and let go of my shoulder. "Are you really sure you want to grab the Time Gear in your current condition?"
"Let's stop worrying about me and finally get this over with," I said before I grinned at the Lucario. "Are you okay with that?"
He actually returned a chuckle to my tease about his usual question after a proposal. "Alright, let's do this... I'll focus on your aura and interfere as soon as it gets to a dangerous level. It's already low but as long as there's even a tiny flame left inside of your body, you're going to make it." The knight broke eye-contact and muttered something under his breath before he moved his gaze onto the floating gear in front of us.
My own view wandered onto the artifact while I slowly continued to step closer to it, keeping a close eye on the symbol on my paw. 'I hope this will finally explain what this symbol is all about.' Right in front of the Time Gear, I stopped and inspected it for a second.
Taking one last deep breath and bracing myself for the worst, I reached my right hand out to grab the gear. 'Here it goes.'
~ Stop music
My eyes widened as soon as I touched it and a surge of an unfamiliar energy rushed through my body. The Time Gear began to glow brightly, causing my eyes to shut tight. Everything suddenly turned white and my whole being felt as if I was floating while I noticed that my energy was sucked out of my body.
The sensation almost made me lose consciousness but I bit through it and after a while it faded and my senses returned to me.
Chapter 6 - The Expedition
'Ugh... Is it finally over?' I felt even more exhausted than before when I opened my eyes again. The image I was greeted with surprised me. I was still at Fogbound Lake but stood at edge of the lake. What was even more surprising was the fact that somehow all the color had returned to the area. 'What the-?'
It was nighttime and the water was luminated by a bright turquoise light that came from the bottom of the lake. Knowing what would normally cause this, made me look down at my right hands and I luckily found that the Time Gear was still there.
However, my arm looked a little strange. It seemed to be transparent and flickered in a green light. My whole body was somewhat transparent and was giving off a dim glow.
"What the hell?" I scanned the area for Cobal and Uxie but I couldn't see either of them. "Cobal? Uxie?"
No response. My last hope was that I could still reach Celsius but just like with the other two, there was no response when I called out to her in my mind.
'What happened? How can there still be color and why is there a Time Gear at the bottom of the lake?' That was when realization slowly struck me. 'Time... I'm in another time! But where- or better, when am I?'
Just then I heard a couple of voices, coming from behind me. I turned around and looked at the opening inside of the huge wall that surrounded Fogbound Lake.
"I can't believe we actually get to see Fogbound Lake!" A familiar, male voice entered my ears while I tensed up and focused my eyes onto the entrance.
When three figures stepped out of the shadow of the opening, I gasped.
A Pikachu with a red scarf around its neck, a Chimchar with pair of desert goggles on its head and a backpack strapped onto its back and an Uxie were now in front if me, looking at me with wide open eyes.
My mind was about to break down at that moment. "R-Riley?! O-Ozu?!"
"Who are you and what are you doing here?!" Uxie shouted and tensed up.
"Why do you know our names?" the Chimchar questioned while he and the Pikachu tensed up as well.
"Why I know your-" I ignored Uxie tried to deal with the fact that Ozu just claimed that he didn't know me. The first thought that came go my mind was that he probably didn't recognize me because I was a Lucario. "It's me! Ri!"
The Pokemon in front of me responded with confused looks. "We don't know anyone with that name," Riley stated, making my eyes widen in shock.
'They don't know me?! How can they-'
At that moment I realized that something was missing...
Me.
'I'm not here... We came up here together but I'm not here! It this... Is this another timeline? One where I didn't get teleported to the guild? Or maybe... Maybe this is a timeline where I never existed in the first place!' It took me a while to process this and when my thoughts shifted to all the pros and cons of my current situation, another question of Uxie interrupted them.
"You're the thief..." The psychic-type pointed at the glowing artifact in my right hand. "And now you're here to steal the Time Gear from Fogbound Lake." He looked at the two Pokemon next to him. "I need your help, you two. We have to defeat her and take back the gear-"
"W-wait! I'm not the thief!" I yelled, holding my paws out to them in a defensive position. "This is the Time Gear from Fogbound Lake!"
"Explain," Uxie simply replied, the dust around him raising into the air from the power he was focusing around him.
"I'm from another time! I..." My eyes fell onto the now confused Pokemon next to the psychic-type. "From where I come from, I was a member of Team Ignition!"
"You know our team name?" Ozu asked, seeming to get even more confused.
"Y-yes! You're Riley and you're a human that has lost her memory! You're Ozu and your dream is to become one of the greatest explorers in the world!" I continued in a desperate tone. "You formed the team after Riley helped you to get back your Relic Fragment from Zubat and Koffing! You saved Azurill from Drowsy because of Riley's ability to see into future!"
That caused their eyes to widen. "How can you know?!"
"Because you told me in the timeline I come from!" I explained.
"Is this t...r...u...e?" Uxie's voice suddenly sounded as if it was being slowed down. His body and the bodies of my friends slowly stopped to move while the whole scenery around me began to flicker in a green light.
A frown wandered onto my face. 'First I end up in another timeline where I probably never existed and now this?'
"What is happening?" The three Pokemon in front of me seemed to be frozen and began to give off the same light as the rest of the area. "Uhm... Hello?"
My eyes widened when the green light slowly turned grey and rectangular fragments of the floor around me began to break into smaller black particles that floated into the air, revealing a black void underneath them. 'What the fuck is this?'
When the ground underneath me began to turn grey and busted into a cloud of small rectangles, I jumped back a bit and grit my teeth as my stomach lit up in pain. This caused me to lose my grip on the Time Gear in my hand and right when it left my paw, it felt as is some sort of connection between the artifact and me was broken up.
My whole body was suddenly drained of the little energy I still had left and the edge of my vision turned black while the last thing I was able to see was how my friends busted into the same black particles as the surroundings did.
'Ugh...' My last thought before I completely lost consciousness was one simple word.
'Fuck...'
Pain and exhaustion... That were the first two perceptions I had when I regained my consciousness and opened my eyes again.
I felt like a mess. My whole body felt numb and my vision was blurry. It seemed as if a dense fog was laying over all of my perceptions and even thinking properly was a struggle.
It took me quite some time to realize that Cobal was carrying me in his arms. 'I'm back? What the hell happened back there?' The Lucario stopped when he noticed that I was awake.
"Ri? How are you?" the Lucario questioned in a concerned tone. "Whatever the gear did you almost drained your aura to a critical level."
Although I wanted to reply with my common response to that question "I've been worse", I decided to remain silent as saying this would've been a lie. I didn't remember if I actually had been in a worse condition before but my current state definitly fell into the top ten.
"Not good..." I replied weakly. "What happened?"
"After you touched the Time Gear, your whole body began to give off a green glow and it almost looked as if you were transparent for a minute of so," he explained. "The glow faded when the gear suddenly fell out of your hand. It seemed like you were in some kind of trance and then you fainted."
'So I was still in this time while I was in the other one as well? Ugh... My head is killing me... I'll think about this later...' After processing his words, I asked the next obvious question. "What about the Time Gear and Uxie?"
"I have the gear in one of my pouches... I didn't find the symbol on your paw after we left Fogbound Lake so I assume that the gear doesn't radiate the energy that affects you. One possibility would be because it was taken from its original place... Or maybe it's because you somehow absorbed a part of its energy when you touched it and that's why it doesn't activate the symbol anymore," he continued.
"So touching the Time Gear didn't solve the problem with the gear from Treeshroud Forest and only brought up even more questions... Ugh..." A frown wandered onto my face. 'It only managed to throw me into another timeline... Great...'
"But at least we are one step closer to finishing this mission," the Lucario replied. "Uxie said he would contact Azelf and visit Mesprit afterwards, meaning that we won't have to fight Azelf at Crystal Cave."
"Oh..." My dazed mind was still trying to process the events from the other timeline while I turned my head to the side to inspect my surroundings. I could see that it was evening. At the same time I realized that the two of us were on a soiled path with forests at its sidelines, I also registered that Cobal was holding me in a rather embarrassing way...
My cheeks heated up a bit and a sigh left my mouth as memories of Grovyle's and now Cobal's faces being dangerously close to mine flew through my mind. 'Bridal style... Why do they always have to do that?'
"Where are we?" I asked, looking at our surroundings again.
"We're heading towards Southern Jungle right now... However, I've heard of a small settlement that lies near the eastern border of the jungle so we're making a little stop there," the Lucario explained.
"Right... I still need someone to look at my wounds." I looked up at my partner face again. "By the way... Can you let me down, please?"
He stopped and gave me a concerned look. "Are you sure you can walk?"
"I'll try..." The knight thankfully let me down onto my feet but as soon as I tried to put some weight on my legs, I kinked in, almost falling onto my knees. "Dammit..."
Cobal lifted me up by my shoulders and supported me. "You've lost a lot of blood and whatever happened to you when you touched the Time Gear must've put a lot of strain on your body too. Let me carry you."
I didn't like the idea of having to be carried like the way he did before. When I was just about to reject his offer, a throb of pain shot out from my stomach and I began to doubt that I could walk on my own like this, no matter how hard I tried. 'Fine... But I'm not going to let myself get carried like a bride!'
An idea popped into my head. "Uhm... Can you piggyback me? It's kind embarrassing if you hold me like that."
The knight blinked and turned red for some reason. "Y-you want me to piggyback you?"
Raising an eye-brow, I wondered why he would react like this to such a simple request. "What about it? Better than the way you carried me before."
"But that way I'd have to-" The knight eyes swayed downwards for a second and it almost seemed like he had a blush on his face. He muttered something under his breath but I could make out something that sounded like the words 'displays' and 'grab'.
I was a little confused by his sudden weird behavior. "What?"
The knight faced me again and shook his head before he cleared his throat and his face returned to its calm expression. "It's nothing..."
He turned around, squatted down a little and prepared his arms to carry my body. I slowly slung my arms around his neck and put my thighs onto his readied hands. When he suddenly moved his hands onto my rear to get a better grip on me, I turned a little red from the way he held up my body.
"All good?" Cobal asked, turning his head to the side.
"Y-yeah... I'm okay," I answered, trying to ignore the fact that he had his hands on my butt.
The Lucario looked forward and started to walk again. "Try to get some rest... We'll talk about what happened to you later... Are you okay with that?"
"Okay..." I said, resting my head against the back of his head and closing my eyes. After a couple of minutes, when I was just about to fall asleep, Celsius' voice rang through my mind.
Dammit, this is boring... Maybe she'll dream of me if I shout at her mind long enough... Hello, Ri! I guess you're still unconscious... Are you having some perverted dreams about you and that Grovyle right now?
My left eye twitched. 'The only thing I'm dreaming about is you hanging from the ceiling and me using you as a punching bag.'
R-Ri?! O-oh! Ahaha, sorry! Please forget what I just said!
'If you talk about the things you saw in my head one more time, I'll see that that dream comes true.'
Yyyeah... I'll remember that... Anyway, are you okay? You've been unconscious for quite a while.
'Yeah... There has been some complications... I'll tell you about them another time... Have you three been to Wigglytuff's guild yet?'
Yes, we have... And well, Wigglytuff and Magnezone were just about finished with their discussion about you when we arrived. We told them everything about you and Cobal and about our plan. It looks like the three of us are the messengers for the other teams.
'That's great... Cobal and me are heading to Southern Jungle right now.'
Hey! That's where I'm heading too! Corrine is on his way to the Northern Desert and Siavon handles Team Raider at Crystal Cave!
'Let's meet up at Boulder Quarry then... I guess we'll reach it first so we'll wait for you.'
Sounds like a plan.
'Anything else from Wigglytuff?'
Well, he's starting to look for Temporal Tower... The other guild-members don't know about our little mental-link but they said I should tell you that they'll have a little word with you when you come back to Treasure Town.
'Ugh...'
Chatot mentioned that he'll have you write the mission-letters for the next two months after you finish your mission.
'Paperwork?! But I'm not even part of the guild any-'
Nope... Wigglytuff destroyed the letter for the federation that was meant to expel you, meaning that you're still associated with the guild.
'I'll have to thank him for this but I'm not a part of Team Ignition anymore... Not until I've found a way to save my friends and they want me back on their team.'
About the thing with being on your old team... Wigglytuff has some kind of surprise for you when you come back to Treasure Town.
'Huh?'
I don't know the details... He only said that he would explain everything to you when you're back...
'Alright... I'll remember to ask him about this...'
'Uhm... I'm sorry to end our conversation like that but I really need a rest... I'm tired as hell and somehow my whole body is numb.'
Right... Well, I hope you get better soon... We'll continue our chat when you're fit again. Bye!
'Bye, Celsius...' I decided to tell Cobal about Celsius after a little nap... I felt completely exhausted and everything that was on my mind was to finally get some sleep. Cobal's shoulder actually turned out be quite the comfortable pillow.
It didn't even take me more than a couple of minutes to doze off.
A pleasant feeling crawled over my body when I woke up again. Comfort.
I was rested on something that seemed to be a mattress, felt a pillow under my head and a blanket on top of me. 'Mmmh... This bed feels nice... Wait... A bed?'
Letting out a yawn, I slowly opened my eyes and was greeted with the image of a wooden ceiling. 'I'm inside somewhere...' I raised my body into a sitting position and inspected the room I was in.
It was a small rectangular room with a window to my right, a door to my left, a closet in front of me and a small nightstand next to the bed I was sitting on. Just then I realized that I hadn't receive a jolt of pain from the movements.
Pulling the blanket off my body, I moved my gaze down onto my stomach. The bandages were gone not the slightest trace of the two cuts that had been on my belly could be found on it, causing my eyes to widen in surprise. There wasn't a single scratch on my whole body. "W-whoa, what happened to my wounds?"
"Huh?" A voice said from outside the door. My eyes focused on the entrance of the room while the door opened and a pink Pokemon stepped into the room.
I recognized it as an Audino but gave it a confused look when I saw its eyes. They were green instead of the blue ones that the species usually had. The Pokemon had some kind of necklace around its neck... There was some strangely familiar marble attached to it but when I tried to look at it a little closer, the normal-type spoke up.
"Well, look who's awake again! Hi, I'm Peon!" it cheered with a female voice.
End of Chapter - 36
Yup... Ri destroyed the original timeline of the PMD Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky games in this chapter... Great job!
I wonder if this is the Time Scar, Celebi talked about in chapter 34... Well, too late to ask her about it now, is it? (Damn that was evil...)
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