From the Elder's house, each of them looked out at the mountains, which were still obscured in the distance by the blizzard, even though the city was now relatively warm, at least by their standards. Volcarona's Sunny Day didn't reach that far. When they left, it would be another treacherous walk through the blizzard, and then an even more dangerous journey back to Dellevis to find the Bronzong.
None of them really wanted to leave. The atmosphere was surprisingly cheerful after what they had seen when they first arrived. The city was much bigger than they had thought, stretching out along the valley floor for several miles. Kids were running outside playing in the snow while their parents worked to clear the snow out from around their nearly buried houses. Some of the older kids would help their parents and look disapprovingly at the kids who were slacking off and enjoying themselves. Some people were sitting in their doorways with thick blankets wrapped around them. They assumed that these people were the ones who had gotten sick, who had recovered somewhat since they had last been in the city. There was someone clearing out the snow around each of the houses where a sick person lived. They assumed that the other people in the village were making their sick neighbors their priority.
For bringing back the plants used to make the medicine for the disease, Stoutland was being treated like a hero. A few people, who they assumed were related to the sick ones, were bringing him gifts, mostly small amounts of food. He didn't seem to care though. He was busy standing next to the parents of his partner, who were holding her up so she could see Volcarona.
"He's not really a bad person at all, is he?" Quill smiled. "Actually this is kind of a nice side to him."
"The connection between pokemon and humans is a strong one." Morrigan walked outside behind them. The elder had given her a new cloak to replace her damaged one, although she seemed disappointed. She must have really liked her old one. "Sometimes I wonder how truly practical partnerships between humans and pokemon are, at least the ones that seem forced from the time the human is born. Still, I'd hate to imagine what the world would be if either humans or pokemon were forced to live alone. It must be such a lonely world. We need each other to survive, that much I'm sure of. Humans need pokemon for protection, and pokemon need humans for companionship. Both need each other to bring out the best in them, like what Stoutland's partner did for him."
"I'm not looking forward to leaving…" Lucario said, looking out on the blizzard that was afflicting the mountains in the distance. "It's too bad there's no way to call the Bronzong here."
Lily wrapped the cloak that had been given to her as a gift around her shoulders. "Well at least we all have something warm to wear this time. Almost all of us, at least." She glared at Hypno, who had refused to wear one.
"We'll have walk a long way to get to Mt. Victoria. I think we should be okay from here though. Shouldn't you go tell Faris what happened?" Aamira asked.
Lily looked reluctant to leave, but she looked to Morrigan. "I can trust you to watch over them, can't I?"
"Of course, you can trust me." Morrigan replied. "Really this is more convenient for me anyway. I would have had to go to that forest to prepare for something, so I might as well go along since we're all travelling in the same direction."
"What are you doing in the forest?" Aamira asked.
"You'll see. Trust me, you have more to worry about right now than whatever I do in my spare time."
Quill took the time to stock up on some items before they headed out. Unlike in Glacies in his own world, the people here really liked fire types and were excited to meet one that could talk. Quill felt bad that he didn't have any money that they used in this world, but when asked to show them what the money where he came from looked like, they all became excited to see the little bronze, silver, and gold coins. Quill always carried some money on him, even in a world that didn't use it, but never carried as much as a platinum coin on him. For a gold and a couple of silver coins, he had been able to stock up on food and any other supplies they might need, including some of the medicine they had made from the plants Stoutland brought back, just in case.
Lily had left before they had even finished preparing to leave in order to find Faris as quickly as she could. Aamira and Lucario walked around the west side of the city where it was just barely snowing and a little colder in order to find a good place to walk through. Morrigan had gone off on her own somewhere, but they weren't too worried about her.
"Isn't this the first time you'll be seeing that world since Zoroark messed with your memory?" Aamira asked.
Lucario nodded. "I know which of my memories are real and which are fake. Sometimes they get a little jumbled up, but it's not so bad. Once I started to ignore the fake ones, they started fading a little. Some of the more powerful ones just won't leave me though and I'm not sure if I even want them to. Is that strange?"
"I don't think so. I kept having nightmares about the night my friends supposedly died even after losing the rest of my memories. I had no idea who they even were and that dream made me feel terrible, but it was all I really had left of this world and that life. I guess it's kind of weird that your situation is so relatable to mine."
"I feel the same way. I remember before you lost your memory you used to have nightmares all the time, but you always refused to tell me what it was about."
"While we're in that world, why don't you take a trip to Atra? I'm sure everyone's worried about you and it might be good if you can see it for yourself if you have any lingering doubts."
Lucario shook his head. "I have no doubts. I'd much rather go back with you and Quill to help figure this out. I might be from an entirely different world, but Zoroark made this personal for me. I feel a strong connection to this world now and I want to protect it. Besides—"
Aamira waited for him to finish what he was saying, but he cut off suddenly and didn't finish. "Besides what?"
"…Nothing. You see that area over there at the base of the mountain? It looks like it slopes up just slightly but disappears into the cliff side. I bet there's a cave there that we could go through."
"Yea looks good to me." Morrigan said from behind them, making them both jump.
"Would you stop doing that!?" Aamira shouted. "I swear you just use that Leuminite to sneak up on us all the time."
"Well what else would I use it for?" Morrigan asked. Aamira hadn't expected her to be so direct.
Unlike with Morrigan, they could sense Quill approaching them. He wasn't alone either. He ran towards him with a Larvesta running at his side. They recognized it as the one who had helped them inside the volcano.
"Larvesta wants to join us to help us get through the blizzard." Quill explained. "He was waiting for me when I went back to the Elder's house to say so."
"That's great. Why were you at the Elder's house though?" Aamira asked.
Quill looked strangely excited. "This place is great. It's just like one of the cities back home. I was able to get some supplies by trading them the coins I would normally use for around the same rates. Even though we wouldn't use them, there are all of these shops like the ones back home. Banks, item storage, even a dojo! They use the Elder's house as a dojo! Not just that, but Beartic can swap out moves, so she was able to help me relearn Sunny Day."
Lucario looked up at Volcarona. They were surprised she wasn't getting tired yet. "You know, I thought she looked a little familiar the first time we saw her. Don't her wings look just like Solar Flowers?"
"Yea they kind of do, don't they?" Aamira replied. "More than just kind of. When they glow when she uses Sunny Day, she looks just like a giant Solar Flower floating in the middle of the sky."
"I'm going to work together with Quill!" Volcarona said. "We can both use Sunny Day. We're not as good as the boss, but together we should be able to keep the whole group warm and keep some of the snow off of us."
"Works for me. I'm so sick of this weather." Morrigan grumbled irritably.
They couldn't exactly keep where they were going a secret from Larvesta. There was a Celebi in this world, but from how they knew time travel worked, she would only be able to send them into the past of the world she was in. In order to go back to when Cyrus and Darius lived, they would have to go back to Quill's world first, since they lived in that world before the humans were kicked out by Ho-oh.
Larvesta was really excited to hear about another world. Apparently he had already told Volcarona that he had planned to go on a journey and probably wouldn't come back. He had been planning on just going his own way after they got out of the mountains and was going along with them in order to repay them for what they had done. Now that he knew where they were going, he was determined to go along with them.
Lucario stayed near the front of their group in order to spot any enemies that might try to sneak up on them through the snow. Quill walked by him talking excitably about returning home for a while. Larvesta was hanging onto his every word. Aamira hung back a little and walked by Morrigan. Though it had taken a while, she was assured by now that she could trust her entirely, even having never seen her face.
"I think we're more alike than I originally thought." Aamira said. "Our voices might be completely different pitches, but I thought we sounded pretty good."
"Yea I think so too." Morrigan agreed. "You used to do stuff like singing and piano lessons all the time when you were younger. It's almost funny that you were able to read music before anything else."
"It's kind of weird though. You say that but I don't particularly like music. I can still play the piano but I don't really feel one way or the other about it."
"Understandably. You might not have wanted to learn. Little lessons like that were all just used to distract you from the rest of the world, keep you inside and away from seeing the truth about what was happening. When you were taught to read by Darach, that must have opened up hundreds of other worlds to you, if only in printed pages of books by that point."
"I know you can't tell me who you are, but can you answer one question about yourself?" Aamira asked.
"It depends on what it is."
"You didn't used to be a pokemon did you? Or you aren't a human born pokemon or something like that?"
Morrigan stumbled a little, as if she couldn't decide whether to stop walking or not. "What would make you think such a thing?"
"When that herd of Bouffalant showed up, the conversation between you, them and Alan seemed a little weird, but I couldn't really figure out why. Then in the volcano I realized what it was. You could understand what that Bouffalant was saying and you could understand Larvesta too. Sometimes I forget that humans can't normally understand pokemon, since I'm usually only around Quill and Lucario and I can understand all pokemon myself. It's hard for me to imagine what they sound like to most humans. I asked Lily before she left though and she confirmed that she couldn't understand Bouffalant or Larvesta. The only reason she knew what they were saying was because Hypno can speak to her telepathically and translate almost instantly. And another thing. I noticed even before fighting off the Larvesta that you're a lot stronger than most humans would ever be, but I had never really questioned it before then."
"Well, I guess I slipped up, didn't I? The answer is yes to both questions. I was born a human with human parents who were both at one point pokemon themselves. Early in my life I had found a way to assume my true form as a pokemon, just as they had eventually returned to their forms, but I eventually reassumed a human form."
"Why? You were meant to be born as a pokemon. Wouldn't you want to be one?"
"Well according to Zoroark you were born to help him in his mission, whatever that might be, so shouldn't you be doing that? I was born as a human and it was what I was more comfortable with. Besides, it's more convenient for me this way. Humans have so many different appearances whereas pokemon of the same species generally look very similar, distinguished only by a slight variance in markings or other physical features or by scent and aura. It's much easier to go around disguised like this, while I might be recognized otherwise. Not to mention, pokemon rarely attack humans. If there's ever a fight, it's normally humans attacking humans or pokemon attacking pokemon. Like this, I can deal with more or less any humans who would try to attack me and it would be less likely for pokemon to try."
"So it's easier for you to keep a low profile like that. I guess it makes sense. That means whatever happened to you must have happened while you were a pokemon I guess. So what kind of pokemon were you?"
"If you know most of what happened had happened while I was a pokemon, what makes you think that I would tell you what I was?"
"Why can't I see your face then? I really do trust you, but the way you hide under that hood makes me think that you don't trust me."
"Someone might still recognize me, even as a human. I'm just saying that it's easier to hide my identity as a human, not that no one would recognize me. I do see your point though… As long as I wear this hood, you'll probably never trust me fully. Alright. I need to keep wearing it for a while longer. Even in weather like this I can't risk being seen by someone. I promise though, after I finish my business in the forest, I'll have no need to hide it any longer. Once you come back, I'll show you. That being said, when you go into the past I need you to look into something for me before then.
"What's that?" Aamira asked.
"I've mentioned it before, but things aren't going the way that Anima said they would. I trust her abilities more than I trust my own thoughts. I know even the predictions she made could be inaccurate, but I find it hard to believe that the current chain of events could have strayed so far of course on their own. I'm convinced now that something has caused it, most likely on purpose."
"I could just try to use my abilities to find out, couldn't I?"
Morrigan shrugged. She didn't look too interested in the idea. "You could try."
Aamira ran up and let Quill know what she wanted to do. It was harder to concentrate to get in synch while walking with a raging storm swirling around them, but they managed it. Aamira didn't get anything though, just confused words and feelings that she couldn't make any sense of.
"It's not working. When I tried to find out about Kyurem I didn't get anything at all, but this is completely different." She said to Morrigan.
"I thought as much. The universe is held together by aura, so it's possible for you to learn anything from any physical location through space. Time is held together in the same way, which is what allowed you to learn about Volcarona and what made your mother so gifted at reading the future. With time being messed up, the aura's being messed up along with it and looking for the cause didn't make it any easier."
"Kyurem absorbs energy, so I guess it's understandable that I wouldn't be able to find out anything about it either." She went quiet for a second before asking another question. "You seem to know a lot about how Aura Reading works. Are you an Aura Reader too?"
Morrigan laughed bitterly. "I wish I was sometimes, but no. I just happened to have a lot of knowledge on the subject."
"Right… well, I guess I'll look into what happened to cause it, but why look in the past? Wouldn't it be something in this time that caused it?"
"Who can say? Maybe Celebi can tell you, or maybe it did originate in the past. I've looked into it and I haven't been able to figure out anything though. Everything was synched up well enough in the beginning, but it went a little strange after you defeated Zoroark for the first time."
"For the first time? So I was supposed to defeat him again."
"Yes, defeat him, take back the kingdom and all of that. Zoroark would just vanish after leaving and never be seen or heard from again. That's how it's supposed to go, but everything is so far off of what it's supposed to be that I'm worried that the end result won't be the same. Just be careful. It's hard to say what could happen. You might not even make it back."
By the next night they had managed to get out of the blizzard and the mountains had become gradually smaller. Everyone else had managed to fall asleep, but Aamira couldn't stop thinking about what Morrigan said. Now that she thought about it, her survival was always more or less guaranteed by some legend or prophecy. Up until now she had thought that this time was the exception, not realizing that it was still going the same way it had always gone before. The only difference was that this time the prophecy was written by her own mother and Morrigan was probably the only person in existence who knew what was going to happen. That is, what was supposed to happen. Now things were exactly like Aamira had thought they were. Nothing was guaranteed. In the past she had fought against a sort of destiny or fate that seemed to leave her with no control over anything, but it wasn't there to guide her anymore.
Speaking of destiny, Aamira remembered what had happened to Destiny right before she had turned back into a pokemon. It happened during that fight with Zoroark. If that was around the time when everything was messed up… Destiny couldn't have something to do with this could she? Aamira could tell that she didn't die since they shared a mind before then, but how did she escape? Did she actually escape or did someone somehow rescue her from what would have been her death? Either way, that would mean she was still alive somewhere. Where was she?
Eventually Aamira managed to settle into a restless sleep. She wasn't exactly worried about the future. Even with legends, they had never known what was going to happen. It would have been nice, though, to know what was going to happen. At the same time, she didn't want to find out if it was something bad.
They traveled for a couple more weeks as they headed west, staying in the mountains where people didn't normally go. Even so, they were still on their guard as they neared and passed the border between the two countries. A pokemon working for Zoroark could be anywhere.
The weather gradually became warmer and sunnier to the point where they actually started to see plants. Larvesta's eyes went wide when he saw a tree. Having grown up where the only plants he ever saw were small ones that grew around the volcano, this was his first time seeing anything like it. Quill assured him that it wasn't the best that he would see. Soon they would see the forest, which was made up of much bigger trees and if Larvesta went to Quill's world with them, he would be completely overwhelmed by the sight of Sylva.
Finally in the distance they spotted the mountain with the split peaks that made up Mt. Victoria. Larvesta was riding on top of Morrigan's head, since she was the tallest of all of them and he could get the best possible view of the forest.
By the time the sun had started to set, they managed to find their way to the mountain. Morrigan left them there to go to the forest, so the four of them continued into the mountain on their own. Victini was still using the Dominion to guard the place, but all of the pokemon inside left them alone. Maybe it was because they had already gone through once before and proved that they weren't a threat.
It was night by the time they got to the top. At the top they found Victini curled up on a bed of leaves sleeping soundly. Aamira walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. Victini screamed and his eyes shot open. He flew back away from her, his ears burning a bright orange as he prepared to defend himself. He calmed down almost immediately when he realized who it was that had woken him up.
"Oh, hiya. What are you doing here?" he asked.
"We came to get the Bronzong to send us back to Quill's world. I hope we're not bothering you."
Victini shook his head vigorously. "Oh no, no, not at all. No sir. I've been… kind of lonely actually… You don't visit much anymore and I have no reason to go to the lake since Celebi came back… The Bronzong aren't very good company. Latias comes by every now and then when she's tired from exploring, but not very often."
"It's good to hear she's still doing okay. I've been kind of worried, but I couldn't think of a way to find her." Aamira said. "I'm sorry, but we should really go as soon as we can.
Victini nodded. "I understand, yes sir. Alright then." He turned to the Bronzong. "Hey, you two hear what she said? Can you get that portal open?"
"We can't." one of them said. "It was only open for a short amount of time before to let Quill and Latias into this world. It closed after about a week."
"Oh, right…" Quill said. "I forgot Mew told me that would happen."
Aamira sighed. There was a small pool of water that Victini used for drinking water. She walked over to it and touched the surface. "I guess there was no avoiding this."
After a while the surface of the water started to glow and Mew's image appeared on it. She looked curious about why Aamira would be contacting her after all of this time. "Hey, what's going on?"
"The situation here has gotten a little out of hand, I guess you could say…" Aamira said hesitantly. She explained everything that had happened since Quill came to this world. Surprisingly Mew didn't look mad about Zoroark taking back control of the kingdom, as well as Neltona. She just looked annoyed.
"I know I'm not there and I can't necessarily be there at just any time to help you, but I really wish you would tell me what's going on more often. It sounds like something he would do. Lose, hate you for it for a while, come back and mock you about your inevitable defeat, and then win in the end. None of this is really much of a surprise and I don't know much about the pokemon of that world so I can't say I'm exactly familiar with what Kyurem's doing. Even so, I'd just like to know what's happening. I'd like to join you soon to help fight, if that's alright."
"Yea, I'm sorry… I guess we could talk about you joining us later, but for now can you help get us through?"
"If defeating Zoroark depends on it, then I'll do it. Two minutes only though, just enough to get through. When you want to go back, you'll have to contact me again."
Aamira nodded. "I understand." The water went back to the way it was before and she stood up. "Well, that went better than expected."
A while later the Bronzong confirmed that they could open a portal into that world again. Larvesta looked ready to burst from excitement. He didn't really understand any of what had happened, but he was ready to go and there was no convincing him otherwise. The Bronzong rang and a small portal opened on the ground between them. Not wasting any time, they each walked through and came out barely a second later in front of a familiar lake in the middle of a gigantic forest.
Aamira thought something about this world just felt so much more peaceful. It even kind of smelled nicer, although that might have just been because of the many plants that were surrounding the lake, including flowering berry trees. It was still a little light in this world. Quill remembered that the first time he had gone to Aamira's world, it had been later there than it had been in his world. Their days were about the same length, but it looked like the sun set sooner in Aamira's world, not to mention in the opposite direction.
While Larvesta was running around excitedly through all of the plants covering the lake shore, they tried to decide what they should do next. It was late and they were tired from climbing the mountain. They considered going to Espeon's house, but it would be a little crowded with the four of them showing up unexpectedly, and Daisy probably wouldn't be able to get back to sleep if she woke up and saw them there. Eventually they decided to go back to their own team base, which was in the Investigator's Brigade building.
Unfortunately Gengar was still awake by the time they got there and within seconds everyone else was awake too. Machoke, who Aamira forgot had evolved, Nuzleaf, Lairon, Glameow, Shuppet, and Delibird were all there. Somehow the team seemed kind of small though.
"I knew you would be back. Nuzleaf here didn't think so." Machoke said.
"You muscle headed liar!" Nuzleaf shouted. "I never doubted our leaders for a second!"
Glameow sighed and shook her head. "These two have been arguing over who should be the new leader for months now. Nuzleaf was the first to join, so he thought he should do it, but Machoke keeps saying he's the strongest so it should be him."
Lairon laughed. "Yea, they were both saying that we should just move on and choose a new leader already, but the rest of us knew you'd be back."
"Well of course they would be!" Delibird shouted.
Shuppet nodded. "Of course."
Though he was the first to see they had returned, Gengar looked the happiest that they were there. It wasn't because he was always smiling either. In fact, he was close to tears.
They explained to the team everything that had been happening. There wasn't any point holding out on their friends, after all. They were disappointed to hear that they would be leaving the next day and insisted that they stay, just for a while. The café had become really popular by the time Quill had gone back to Aamira's world. They thought that the least they could do was all go there tomorrow, maybe with Espeon, Daisy, and Typhlosion if he was still around, and any of their other friends.
Aamira nearly jumped in surprise when she opened the door to her room. The building attached to the Investigators Brigade building that served as their base was more or less a perfect replica of their treehouse in terms of the layout. Even her room was the same. The only difference from when she had last seen it was a box near the back of the room.
Aamira walked over to it and took the lid off. It was filled with letters. Some of them were in old yellowed envelopes, which she realized must have been the ones that Delibird had delivered to them back when she and Quill had been running from the police in Ignis for crimes they didn't commit. Some looked newer though and there were many more letters in this box than what Delibird originally delivered to them.
She picked up one of the newer unopened letters and turned it over to the front. It only had her name on it. These were letters that had been sent to her since she left. Didn't people know she was gone? But the only time she personally got mail, it was from Lucario back when they were training together in secret and he needed to send her a message.
Aamira opened the letter and read it.
"Hey, Aamira. You might not remember me, but you and Quill once saved me from Stony Ridge back when you were Bronze Rank. It seems like a long time ago. Depending on how long you're gone this time, it would probably feel even longer for you. I was at the tournament in Ignis too, but just watching. Someone like me couldn't compete in something like that, but I watched every one of yours and Quill's battles. You were both even more amazing than I remember. I'll tell you though, I was surprised when after Quill's victory that Rhyperior came in and arrested the two of you on the spot. What was that all about? Well now that Quill's back, he's been saying it wasn't the real Rhyperior, but I don't really get it. Either way, Quill came back and I was so glad, but where are you? Everyone wanted to know. Everyone's really worried. He finally told everyone the truth. A lot of weird rumors have gone around about you before and it continued after he told everyone, but I was there to hear his original version of the story. So is it true? You're really a human who came to our world to help us and now you've gone back home to help them? I can't imagine what that must be like. When he said it, I couldn't believe it, but the other teams already knew, didn't they? You know what though? I don't care if you're a human or a pokemon. I know you've helped a lot of people and I'm sure you can help humans just as well as pokemon. Please be careful and promise to come back to us. Please? It's been almost a year now since Quill came back, but there hasn't been any word of you. Please… I never got the chance to thank you."
The letter was signed by Bellsprout. Aamira vaguely remembered having a rescue mission that involved saving a Bellsprout in Stony Ridge, but there had been so many missions that the exact details of this one were completely lost to her. She took her Aura Glass out of her bag and just sort of stared at it for a few minutes. Bronze Rank… That really was a long time ago… She opened and read a few more. They were all more or less the same as the first. Sometimes they were written by people she had helped rescue, sometimes by complete strangers and sometimes the writer didn't even specify, but they were all more or less the same.
She couldn't help but think that this is the way it was supposed to be. She was no one when she first came to this world, just a weird Riolu with no memory who knew nothing at all. She and Quill had to really work and struggle to get to where they were. That's what made them so well known here. Back in her world, all she had to do was be born. It was much easier running into people who knew her name who she had never met, when she knew that it was because of something she had done. There was another common theme in a lot of the letters. No one cared whether she was a human or a pokemon when she came back. That was something that was great about pokemon. Morrigan had said that being a human was more convenient for her, but at this moment Aamira couldn't imagine wanting to be anything else other than a pokemon.
Aamira read letters until she felt dizzy and nauseous. She had barely made a dent in the huge box. She jumped into her hammock the way she had done so many times before and rested one of her arms over her eyes. Her eyes hurt and she felt like everything was spinning. It was hard to get to sleep like this, but she didn't regret taking the time to read all of the letters that she had managed to read.
Sometime the next day she was woken up by a knock on the door. Aamira rolled out of her hammock and went to open it. Quill was standing there with Lucario just behind him.
Quill gave an awkward sort of smile. "Remember when you used to have to wake me up like this?"
Aamira returned his smile, but she still felt exhausted. "Yea, I probably stayed up too late last night."
"Doing what?" Quill peered into her room and noticed the pile of open envelopes under her hammock. "Oh I completely forgot about those! There was a point where a whole bunch of people started sending in letters like that and it was making Delibird exhausted delivering them all. They must get heavy when there are so many. But then after a while people just stopped sending them and they've just been sitting in that box since then."
Aamira glanced back at the box of letters. It seemed like a lot of letters, but now that he mentioned it, it wasn't that many for being gone for two and a half years. "I guess they all just got tired of waiting."
"Still it's nice that you're taking the time to read all of them." Lucario said. "I'm sure that would make them all happy."
Someone shouted up at them from down the ladder. Quill looked in that direction and groaned. "What are they up to… That Machoke went and rented out the whole café for lunch. What's weird about it is that everyone else is actually helping him. Delibird's been running around frantic since last night. Just how many people are they getting?"
Aamira shrugged. "Who knows? Let's just enjoy it for now. Who knows when we'll be able to come back here again."
"This is so strange. I'm used to seeing you dread any sort of public appearance or needing to go anywhere that involved meeting a lot of people who would do nothing but celebrate the fact that you exist." Lucario said.
"Well this is completely different. There's nothing formal about this. Besides, weren't they just going to invite some friends?"
"Well…" That was what they had agreed on last night, but Quill looked a little skeptical.
They headed out but as soon as the café came into view, they wondered if this was a good idea. They could already see that the place was full of pokemon, even though Machoke had rented the whole building. They had promised though, so they walked towards the building. Almost immediately they heard a familiar voice shout "there they are!" and all of the pokemon inside came rushing out to greet them.
So their team was telling the truth when they said it would only be friends. Aamira just didn't have a visual in her mind of how many people that would be. Almost everyone in town was there. Oddish, Vileplume, most of the shop workers, Roserade, a Muk who they had once rescued from under a landslide, Dragonite, Happini, Espeon and Daisy, of course, who were there with a somewhat terrified looking Mudkip who Aamira didn't recognize, and a few people from the neighboring cities. That was already nineteen people.
From other countries they met Blissey from the main Investigators Brigade building in Pacis, the real Rhyperior, a Ludicolo that Aamira had once battled in Tempestas, one of the Politoed from Aequor who had laughed at Aamira's singing, Exeggutor who had rented his tree out to them before he left to evolve, Froslass from Glacies who played the Ice Flute for the festival, Dragonite's sister Dragonair, Grovyle and Autumn, a few of the Cyndaquil from Lava Lava Island, a few very tired looking Pelliper who were resting in a corner of the room with Delibird, Beautifly and her son Dustox from a traveling performance group, Togepi, Togetic, and Togekiss, and Charizard.
There were whole teams there too. From Sylva there was Team Sky and Team Overgrow. From other countries there were Team Spark, Team Blitz, Team Phoenix, Team Hydro, Team Sirocco surprisingly, Team Rapids even more surprisingly, and Team Sandstone. She wasn't entirely sure whether or not to consider Team Rapids a team from Sylva, but considered them one from Aequor instead. They were lucky she even considered them a team. Looking at the discolored shell on one of Crawdaunt's claws though, she felt bad. Aamira had done that after losing control. At least it had healed.
All together Aamira managed to count seventy-seven pokemon there, counting Wigglytuff, who Quill explained was the owner of the café. It was no wonder she thought her team looked small. She never realized she had gotten so close to so many people. There were still others who she could think of who weren't there, either because they were just really hard to find or were in another world.
It was definitely strange meeting everyone like this. A lot of these people had never met each other before. Everyone was having just as much fun talking with each other as they were talking to the returning members of Team Sleuth. Aamira found out from Ambipom that Team Rapids got back their official status as an Investigation Team from helping her team and Team Sandstone take down a huge number of Bounty Hunters. Togepi and Togetic were playing with Daisy and her Mudkip friend. A lot of people wanted to talk to Team Sandstone, who had more or less replaced Team Sleuth as the most famous team while Aamira had been gone, so it was hard for her to be able to talk to Roy.
Aamira overheard Lucario talking to Gabite from Team Sirocco. Apparently that discovery that Lucario made that got him promoted to Master Rank had something to do with where Gabite came from. Hippopotas looked as excited as always to hear about the Glass Onix, but also a little disappointed that someone else had found it first.
Aamira talked with the leader of Team Spark, at one point a Pikachu but now a Riachu. Apparently like Charizard's father, his own wasn't around anymore, so he had taken over Tempestas while still somehow managing to keep his team together. The same had happened with a Swablu in Divum, but Aamira didn't get to know any of them very well.
It was such a nice atmosphere, but at the same time it was exhausting. Somehow Wigglytuff looked the happiest out of all of them. He went on and on about how great friends were, but at the same time Aamira had the feeling that this was the most business he had ever gotten at one time. There was a good chance it was just because of all of the money he was making, but it was hard to tell and no one really cared one way or the other.
Aamira ended up answering a lot of questions about what her world was like. Aside from the few who had seen her as a human, no one here had seen a human before, so it was hard to imagine a whole world filled with them. A few seemed interested by the thought of a country inhabited by a lot of fire types and another inhabited mainly by electric types both constantly on the verge of war. Even in her world, things were like that.
Lucario and Quill got a lot of questions about it too. Lucario really got their attention when he mentioned how his memories had been replaced with fake ones. Everyone wanted to know what his fake memories had been like, but he didn't want to talk about too much of it.
Larvesta on the other hand, was anxious to say anything he knew since he was actually born in that world. Throughout the day he had been listening to stories about Investigation Teams with awe and was taking the opportunity to finally tell some stories of his own. People were especially interested to hear what he had to say since he was a pokemon that didn't exist in this world.
"So what are you going to do now?" Ambipom asked Aamira.
A few people nearby had heard her. Those people went silent and soon that silence had spread through the café. Everyone was suddenly looking at Aamira. She felt surprisingly anxious. Aamira hadn't thought about it until then, but she hadn't once mentioned their plant to go back in time.
"We only came here to get some information. We'll have to leave again soon." She said, with everyone groaning or reacting in some similar manner in response. "Believe me, I'd give just about anything to just stop now and stay here, stay in the café the entire day and just stay in this world for every day after this one, but I just cant. A lot of bad things are happening in my world. Extremely powerful legendary pokemon running amok, kingdoms at war, and the person who caused all of it whose motives I still don't know. I have friends in that world two. One of them whose face I've never seen, another who is actually my Godfather, and a lot of others too. I can't just leave them all there with everything that's happening. But there's no way I'm going to leave here forever. This world is my whole life. There's no way I could leave it for good."
This seemed to calm a lot of them down, but a gloomy feeling had settled over what had otherwise been and continued to be a lively party. The sun started to set. They needed to leave soon. Slowly everyone started to leave. Many of them stayed until after the leaders of Team Sleuth had left.
Suddenly the three of them were alone again, standing on the shore of Lake Harmony. A light fog had rolled in, but it wasn't nearly what it used to be back when it was called Shroud Lake. Quill was having a difficult time moving. Diasy had clung onto him for a while, begging him to not go or to take her with them. Of course they couldn't do that.
"I'll try to call Celebi." Quill walked slowly up to the edge of the lake, and shouted Celebi's name. A while later a bright light appeared over the lake.
"Hi there. Need something?" he asked.
"Do you know about a couple of humans named Cyrus and Darius?" Aamira asked him.
Celebi nodded, bobbing up and down in the air. "Yea of course. I'm guessing you're not just here to ask me about them though."
"We need to go back in time to meet them." Quill said. "We need to figure out how to stop a powerful legendary pokemon."
Celebi looked over the three of them for a moment, nodded, and flew down in front of them. "Alright. I don't think you would ask unless you really needed me to do this. Once you go back though, you'll have to find another Celebi to bring you back here."
Celebi started to glow and he held out his hands. The three of them took hold of Celebi's hands. For a second all of them were caught up in the light. To anyone else who was around, it would have looked like they had just vanished.
The few times any of them had done this, it was almost instantaneous, but this time was different. Aamira felt herself moving through what looked to her like some weird tunnel of light. She looked around but Quill and Lucario weren't there. Maybe there was more than one tunnel like this, but they couldn't all be in the same one. It felt like it was taking a long time though. After a while Aamira started to feel that something was wrong. Just as she had started to think this, she sensed someone there with her. She couldn't see anyone, but she could physically feel whatever it was that was attacking her.
Aamira couldn't move. Rather than her moving through the tunnel it was more like the tunnel itself was moving around her. She had been completely immobile the entire time. Whatever it was that was attacking her though, it was hitting hard and definitely capable of moving.
'What is this…?' Aamira thought, her mind racing as she tried to figure out what to do.
Just as she thought she couldn't take anymore, she saw something red and black streak by her and heard something that sounded like a sharp metal blade slicing against something. The attacks stopped after that, and she felt something grab her.
"I've got you." The unfamiliar voice said to her, though Aamira was unable to reply. "I can't keep it away from you for long, but I can at least get you where you need to go."
What was going on? Aamira saw a bright light ahead. Was that the exit? Just as she started to wonder about it, the tunnel was gone, and she was laying in the grass somewhere in the middle of a forest. Her eyes started to focus in the different light level. It was night here, wherever she was. Something in front of her caught her attention. There was a Banette hunched over and a Sneasel standing between it and Aamira. Aamira recognized the Banette of course, but that Sneasel… It couldn't be…
The Sneasel looked over to the right. Something was approaching them and Daisy didn't seem too worried about it. The Sneasel glanced back at Aamira, looking worried, but ran off leaving her there.
So Daisy had been the one who attacked Aamira. Maybe she was trying to redirect her course, if that was possible. If that was what she had been trying to do, judging by who it was that had appeared in the corner of Aamira's vision, she had succeeded. For some reason it had never occurred to her that Aamira could run into him in the past. She had done it before, after all. Daisy had brought her right to Zoroark.
"Oh, what did you do, you mischievous little imp?" he asked Daisy as if he were talking to a pet that had done something bad. "Somehow I doubt that my future self wanted you to do this." He walked towards Aamira and Daisy stumbled away from him, suddenly looking as scared as the Sneasel had. "Maybe that's not the case? These injuries look brutal though."
Something seemed to cross Zoroark's mind and he smirked. "Oh, I understand now. I'm supposed to use her as bait, right? That's why she had to be injured." Daisy nodded quickly in reply. "Well thank my future self for me then."
Zoroark walked towards Aamira and picked her up to carry her somewhere else. She couldn't move at all. She had no idea what Zoroark had meant by using her as bait, but it didn't sound like anything good. She wondered where Quill and Lucario had ended up, but only had enough energy to worry about them for a few seconds before she started to slip out of consciousness.
