Lovin' the reviews! To all those who included a "nooooo" in their review, I'm sorry to say that things will be getting worse for Eevee and Sol before they get better.
Sol had been standing in the corner for over an hour now. Her tail would twitch angrily from time to time, but other than that she didn't move from her self imposed time out, staring at the smooth, grey bricks that made up the walls.
Why did she do this? That was anyone's guess. Perhaps it was an action driven by guilt, leaving her unable to look upon her opulent room while her team rotted in the dungeon. Perhaps it was because this was the spot farthest from the roaring fireplace and she didn't believe herself deserving of being warm and comfortable. It was all her fault, after all. Or perhaps she was just trying to confuse any who might have been spying on her.
Sol didn't know when Dusknoir had the chance to set all this up, but the room she had been given was lavishly decorated and furnished. The bed alone was almost the size of her entire room back at the guild, the thick bedspread a complicated pattern of red and gold. An ornate, golden mirror hung on the wall over a long, ebony table laden with combs, brushes and various other grooming supplies. Nearby was a shallow pool sunk into the floor with a thick, red curtain that wrapped around the area that made it possible to section it off from the rest of the room. Sol had been told that a group of Magmar heated water on the floor above and the simple pulling of a chain would send steaming water streaming down into the pool, but that wasn't something Sol planned on doing anytime soon.
Were those Pokémon willing workers, or were they captives, like Sol?
Sol closed her eyes, and rested her head against the wall. She had been stupid and careless, just like Jak had said. Looking back, Sol could clearly see all the little things she should have picked up on.
Dusknoir had said that time going out of whack was caused by the Time Gear thefts, yet time was getting messed up long before the first Time Gear was stolen. Grovyle had been muzzled, and the only reason that would have been necessary was if Dusknoir was afraid of what he might say. How had Dusknoir known what Grovyle's plan was in the first place? Actually, how would anyone, anywhere know what taking Time Gears would cause? Everyone in the past barely knew what they were! And then there was the question of why would anyone, no matter how corrupted and twisted they may be, would want to cause the planet's paralysis? Sol may not know the true story, but she sure as Hell knew what it wasn't.
Sol glanced over at the window, the shutters firmly closed to block out the sight of what lay beyond. When she had first awoken in this room, the first thing she had done upon finding the door locked was to run to the window and throw it open, hoping for an escape route. What she had seen shocked her to the very core.
It was dark outside, but not the dark Sol would associate with night. This was... unnatural, the sky a perpetual slate grey yet not completely black, like a blanket had been thrown over the world to block out the sun but a few stubborn photons managed to pass through the weave fibres.
Everything was so still outside that window, like one large, depressing painting. Far, far below Sol could see what looked like a deep valley with a twisting ribbon at its center that may have been a river. Steep cliffs rose up on either side, a desolate wasteland of barren rock on one side and the odd, castle like structure that Sol found herself in on the other. If Sol leaned her head far enough out and looked over to the left, she could see a narrow bridge connecting the two sides.
Looking out at it all for the first time, Sol had been gripped by a memory, and it had not been a pleasant one. She had stumbled back, gasping and shuddering with the sudden intense feeling of hopelessness.
Find the scouting team, assess the problem, then find a way back to Kalikan. It had sounded so simple when she had been given the mission, but it had gotten complicated very quickly.
Sol looked up at the uniform grey sky and longed for a sky of bright blue with a blazing sun, hot enough to banish the persistent chill. It was always cold here, and even the largest of fires couldn't seem to warm her up completely.
Sol scanned the muddy ground as she walked along the bank, footprints upon footprints imprinted on the mud after centuries of treading feet, the impressions never worn away by wind or rain. So static and unchanging this was place, so cold and unfeeling.
Her eyes eventually found what she had been searching for and Sol felt all the sorrow and hopelessness she had been holding back crash over her.
"Oh, Lyl..." Sol whispered quietly.
Sol had avoided the window since then. Looking beyond served no purpose other than to sadden her. There would be no escape through there, not with that drop.
Not that she would have been able to leave even if there was a flight of stairs out the window leading to a sunny meadow filled with butterflies and lollipops. Eevee, Jak and Ren were locked up tight in the cells below, and Dusknoir had made it clear that their continued survival hinged on Sol's cooperation and obedience.
That was the worst part. Not that their hero had turned out to be a lying bastard, not that the future was a twisted mockery of what the world was supposed to be, not that they were trapped here or even that there was no way home. No, the worst part was that it was all Sol's fault.
It was Sol that Dusknoir had wanted, her and her Dimensional Scream. The others, they were insurance, hostages. If Sol stepped out of line, it would be them who paid the price. All because she had been stupid and naive, trusting some stranger more than her friend and team mate. Jak had been right all along. And yet it was Sol with the personal room while Jak languished in a cage.
Sol hadn't even been able to face the Charmander. Sol hadn't apologized for not listening, didn't tell her that she was right, Sol had just run away like the coward she was. She had demanded to see her team, demanded proof that they were ok before she would do anything Dusknoir told her to. And then what had she done when it was granted to her? She made given some half assed excuse then ran.
When Dusknoir had explained what Sol would be doing for him, she had been angry. She wanted to scream and rage, to attack and regardless of the consequences. But fear held her back, fear of what would happen to her friends. Sol had felt physically sick when she had agreed to work for him, wracked with guilt and shame. She had torn off her bandana soon after that, not wanting her future actions to be associated with Team Wanderers, to be associated with Eevee, Jak and Ren who's only crime was trusting her.
Sol heard the turning of a key in a lock. She turned as the door swung open, revealing three Sableye waiting on the other side. Sol had been expecting this, and mutely walked out of the room and followed them down the hall.
The castle was massive, larger than any building than Sol had ever seen, and she had only walked a fraction of its many corridors and rooms. Somewhere deep within, in a room only Dusknoir was allowed to enter, was Dialga. Sol wasn't told much of who he was, but gathered that he was a Pokémon even Dusknoir feared. Sol was perfectly happy staying as far away from this Dialga as possible.
Dusknoir waited with an even larger group of Sableye. He greeted Sol warmly, as if she were there willingly. Sol kept her eyes straight ahead, refusing to even look at him. They left the castle and traversed the bridge, the Sableye forming a circular barrier with Sol and Dusknoir at the center.
"It's simple, Sol. Dialga trusts me to ensure no one threatens him or his power. With your ability, you will aid me in this."
No response.
"All you have to do is touch a few items, a few suspects, and we'll do the rest."
No response.
"As I've explained before, your Dimensional Scream works a bit differently here. Only events connected to the Time Gears will trigger a vision, but I'm sure you'll find that to be a very broad topic. Many things can be linked to the Time Gears in even the most indirect way. Really, even this conversation could be consider connected to Time Gears enough that it would show up in a vision."
No response.
"Sol, please don't be difficult. If you just accept this, you will find that lord Dialga's favour brings about a very comfortable life."
Sol turned her head and looked directly into Dusknoir's eye.
"Go to Hell," she said coolly, then went back to staring straight ahead. Dusknoir sighed and made no further attempts at conversation.
It was close to an hour of walking before they left the rocky landscape, replaced by a wide path cutting through a dark, thick forest. Several Sableye held up glowstones to ward off the gloom.
Sol briefly considered making a run for it. In a forest like this, it would be easy to lose any pursuers. But that would leave Eevee and the others completely at Dusknoir's mercy with nothing holding him back. And Dusknoir would never stop trying to hunt Sol down. At first Sol thought he may have been exagerating just how much power he held, but that was before she had gotten a look at the castle from the outside.
That place was massive, which made it a glaring target for any who saw it, especially given the wealth of valuables within. That such a place didn't need concealing, that it could sit right out in the open in plain view without fear, spoke volumes of just how much the locals thought of his might.
Or perhaps it was Dialga they feared, not Dusknoir at all? But when it came down to it, did it even matter?
Sol wasn't sure just how long they walked through the forest. It was hard to judge time in a place where nothing ever changed. Though, technically, no time had passed since they first stepped foot on the path. Technically, no time had passed at all since Sol had arrived in the future?
How is this possible? Sol wondered. Why are we not frozen as well? Why is it when I drop something it falls to the ground instead of freezing in the air? Why do I still get tired and hungry?
It was all too confusing and complicated, but time has always been a hard thing to understand even when it flows normally.
Eventually, they reached their destination. A small town, really just a clumping of a few ramshackle buildings, stood in the center of a large clearing, a few rotting tree stumps poking up from the ground from where trees had been cleared away. That was another question to add to the growing list of unknowns. How did something rot and decompose if their is no time?
Sol studied the stumps from a distance, wondering how everything worked in this world. There was a reason why she chose to focus on such an irrelevant detail at that time. Sol didn't want to think about what was going on around her.
The town primarily consisted of Burmy and Cherubi, and at the moment they all stood in a line, helpless to stop the Sableye as they tore through their homes and belongings for anything suspicious. Several other Sableye sat back and idly sharpened their claws, keeping a careful eye on the locals to ensure they wouldn't try to interfere or flee.
This group of Sableye had been sent ahead long before Sol and Dusknoir had left the castle. They were meant to do all the dirty work, at which point Dusknoir would step in to decide how to procede.
Dusknoir spoke with one of his underlings, too far away for Sol to make anything out. She was fine with that. As far as she was concerned, the less she knew of these Pokémon and their fate, the better. Sol just wanted to do her job and get out of there. Perhaps it was cowardly of her to think in such a way, but all of this was bad enough without have to listen to all the horrible little details.
Dusknoir nodded to the Sableye, and a Wormadom was roughly pulled from the crowd. A few of the others cried out in protest, but were silenced with a firm look from their captors, razor claws held in clear sight.
"We have received eye witness accounts claiming that you have been speaking treason of our lord Dialga," Dusknoir announced. "What have you to say about this?"
"I... I don't know what you're talking about!" the Wormadom sputtered, obviously terrified.
Dusknoir gave him a cold, hard stare.
"So be it then. Seer, come here."
So, this was it, then. Sol trudged over reluctantly, dragging her feet along the ground. She was glad Dusknoir hadn't used her name. She hated being linked to something like this.
Two Sableye stood on either side of the Wormadom, preventing him from fleeing. With a wave of his hand, Dusknoir signalled Sol to use her ability. With a growing sense of dread, she tapped the terrified Pokémon on the shoulder.
For a brief moment nothing happened, and Sol allowed herself to hope it wouldn't work, that she wouldn't have to be a part of this. But then the dizziness hit, then the vision.
"I'm just saying, if it's possible that those three can change everything, stop this from happening in the first place, nothing would be too great a price, don't you think? I'm not sure what the Time Gears have to do with it all. Wasn't there one in that forest east of here? Shroud something? I don't know, somewhere around there."
The vision ended, depositing Sol back in the present. Dusknoir looked at her expectantly, the Wormadom with fear in his eyes.
Sol didn't know what to do. Should she claim she hadn't seen anything? She had no idea what she looked like while having a vision. She could twitch uncontrollably and sing nursery rhymes for all she knew. There was no telling whether Dusknoir would be able to tell when she was having a vision or not. Then he would instantly know her lie for what it was, and then there was telling what would happen.
Or she could lie about what she saw, exactly. Say that the Pokémon had talked about some stupid mission that some others were on (Sol had no idea what that had been refering to, but it would be best to throw that in anyway. The best lies have a bit of truth) and how they were fools to think they could find the Time Gears.
But that was still risky. Sol didn't know what 'eye witness' Dusknoir was talking about. Maybe he already knew everything he needed to and this was just a test. Was a stranger worth jeopardizing Eevee's, Jak's and Ren's well being?
No, Sol finally decided, though it made her want to throw up. There was no good way out of this.
"He was speaking to someone, I'm unsure who, talking about three people trying to change something, that it was well worth it, and then a thing about Time Gears and how he thought he knew the general location of where one was."
"I see..." Dusknoir mused as the Wormadom broke down and started crying about how he meant nothing by it, that he was just discussing a current event, and how everything would be better if the planet had never become paralysed.
"You six," Dusknoir said, gesturing to a group of Sableye. "Take the seer back the way we came. I will finish up here, and her presence is unnecessary."
Sol was led away, grateful that she wouldn't have to see what would happen next. The farther away she got, the fainter the Wormadom's pleas became, until they faded away completely.