Author's Note: Much shorter and more laid-back chapter this time, but, hey, we needed a breather. Anyway, I've always been pretty fond of this part of the game for various reasons. The sunrise scene in particular is one of my favorite moments for both Grovyle and the partner, so I took the chance to toss in a little backstory for Felix here.

Chapter Sixteen: Memories

Claire was vaguely aware that she was purring contentedly as she rolled over. She was lying on something warm, and the wind was gently ruffling her fur.

Wind?

After jolting up, Claire pressed a paw to her forehead and tried to quell her dizziness. As her vision focused, it became clear that she was sitting on the beach near Treasure Town—the very same place she'd first met Felix.

He was currently sitting a few feet away from her. Felix and Rin had woken up already, and the two of them were idly watching the sunset. Iris was stirring nearby, and Claire turned around to see Grovyle lying behind her. She realized with some embarrassment that her head must have been resting on his stomach.

He and Iris sat up near-simultaneously, and Iris groaned as she rubbed her eyes. Rin and Felix turned around at the sound, scampering over to the other three upon realizing they'd gotten up.

"Oh! I'm glad you guys are awake now…" Felix sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. "Well, it hasn't been too long, but…"

"Where is this?" Grovyle asked.

"We're not too far from the guild," Claire explained. "This is actually where I woke up after…what would have been our first trip, I guess."

She gave Grovyle an uncertain look; it was still sinking in that the two of them had been partners. In turn, he gave her a pitying look before he nodded.

There was a moment of silence, interrupted only after Iris folded her arms and got a cross look on her face.

"You know, speaking of the guild… I bet we can't go back there right now, huh?"

"What? Oh…right." Rin awkwardly looked over at Grovyle. "I'd love to go, but…"

Grovyle winced. "I apologize, but…is there any place we could go instead? We shouldn't stay out here in the open for much longer."

"Um…I know a good place," Felix mumbled. He awkwardly shifted from foot to foot instead of looking excited, however. "It's past Treasure Town, though, on Sharpedo Bluff."

"Well, it is getting late…" Grovyle briefly cast his eyes over towards the sunset. "There will probably be fewer Pokémon around, so it'll be easier to sneak through Treasure Town. I've got a bit of experience with that."

He promptly started walking towards the path leading back to Treasure Town. Hesitantly, Team Shadow followed him, all casting nervous glances at each other. It felt strange having to sneak around in a place they were well-liked, Claire mused.

"The guild's recruits have usually finished up any errands by now—" Grovyle cut himself off, shaking his head. "But you probably already knew that."

Claire nodded. "So the crossroads should be safe for now?"

Grovyle nodded back as they approached the area. He peered around a nearby tree, and then darted towards the opposite side of the road. After they scampered over to him, Grovyle explained quietly as he started creeping forward.

"It would probably be safer to approach the bluff from this side of town." He paused, giving Felix a brief look. "You might want to put out your tail flame."

Felix nodded and did as told. As everyone else had, he caught the unspoken implication that his tail flame would have stood out amidst all the shrubbery.

While there were more shops on the northern edge of town, Grovyle's assumption proved correct. There were more places for them to hide, and there were more bushes and other plants to stop and rest under. While there were always at least a few Pokémon out in Treasure Town in the evening, as long as they crept by one by one and kept low, they could get through without notice.

They ran into a close call after diving behind Kangaskhan's storage. There was an unfortunately long line; it made sense, as many teams had items they needed to deposit after a day's exploration, but it also meant they had a greater chance of being spotted. On top of that, the team in the front of the line seemed to have a particularly large number of items to store.

Fortunately, one of the pair, a Clefairy, pulled the last few berries out of her bag and laid them on the counter. As Kangaskhan picked them up, Grovyle quickly turned to Team Shadow.

"All right, as soon as they leave—start running as soon as they turn around!"

Clefairy and her Jigglypuff partner waved goodbye to Kangaskhan, and the team behind them started fumbling through their treasure bags as they walked forward. Taking advantage of the precious few seconds when none of them were paying attention, Team Shadow scurried after Grovyle.

They breathed a collective sigh of relief upon reaching the bluff. The sunset had started to fade, alerting them that the trip had taken longer than they'd expected. After looking over his shoulder, Felix approached the large bush in the bluff's center.

Iris glanced around as well. "So, what exactly are you looking for?"

Biting his lip, Felix wordlessly tugged at the edge of the bush, revealing it to actually be a hollowed net. A rough set of stairs plunged into the ground, and Claire felt her eyes widen.

"We've been here so many times and you never mentioned that," she said, letting a grin creep onto her face.

"Well, um, let's go inside and I'll explain," Felix mumbled.

He scampered down the steps, and he was closely followed by the rest of the group. The bluff's "mouth" was quickly revealed to be a moderately-sized cavern, with a messily constructed bed of hay and a few other basic necessities strewn about. As everyone settled down, Felix scratched the back of his neck sheepishly as he looked at everyone.

"This is where I used to live before I joined the guild," he explained.

"I can't imagine you being comfortable living right over the ocean," Iris commented. "What did you do when it rains?"

"Well, I wasn't here very long," Felix muttered. "So it didn't matter too many times…"

Everyone else just shrugged. There was a short pause afterward, during which Claire felt her eyes tug towards Grovyle. He caught her gaze, and he shook his head as a small smile formed on his face.

"I worried about you while I was traveling, Claire. I'm glad you found a good group," he said absently.

"They are pretty great, huh?" She grinned, and then paused. "Speaking of that…how did we meet?"

Grovyle's expression was almost wistful, and Claire had to admit she was surprised to see the look cross his face. Even when they'd been working together to get back to the past, he'd barely looked at them with anything more than a neutral expression.

"You found me after my…" He paused, and then settled on, "Well, when I really needed somewhere to go. Your family basically adopted me."

"So…we were pretty close, then? Knowing that, it's kind of weird just calling you 'Grovyle'…" Claire laughed.

"I suppose it would be. My name is Leaf."

Claire's eyes drifted to the leaves on his wrists and head. Iris burst into laughter, and Claire couldn't help giggling herself. It seemed like a pretty obvious name, even if she felt bad for laughing. Rin and Felix merely blinked at the revelation, however.

"To be fair, I was still a Treecko when I got the name," Leaf added. "And to answer your other question, yes, we were. You needed me for your Dimensional Scream ability to activate, since it requires you to have a trusted partner around."

Felix looked mortified at this revelation. "But she had one just a few days after we met!"

"Why does that embarrass you?" Leaf cocked his head to the side. "Is Claire not important to you, too?"

"Well, yes, but…" Felix trailed off. "It's just…a little sudden, is all…"

There was a short silence, during which Rin and Iris had puzzled looks on their faces. Before Claire could ask what they were wondering, Rin piped up.

"They're called 'Dimensional Screams'? You never told us that," she commented.

"Oh, yeah… You guys went straight back to the guild after we helped Marill and Azurill, right? So you didn't hear Dusknoir call it that," Claire explained.

Leaf's eyes widened. "You told Dusknoir about this?"

"Yeah…" Claire sighed. "I guess that's how he figured out who I am, along with me telling him my name… I know, it sounds dumb now to trust him, but he'd just saved our lives at the time."

"He did?" Leaf's brow furrowed.

Felix nodded. "We'd gone to look for this item for some friends of ours, and we were attacked by a group of Manectric and Electrike. We probably would have died if he hadn't shown up at just the right time."

"So we thought we could trust him," Claire finished.

"It's not your fault, Claire," Leaf replied, shaking his head.

Hesitantly, he put a hand on her shoulder, and Claire smiled at the gesture. Leaf settled down next to her after that, and Claire almost thought there was another embarrassed look on Felix's face. It vanished quickly enough, though.

"So… How did your plan work?" Iris asked. "I mean, we saw the future. I guess it would be pretty hard to play hero in a place like that, huh?"

"We used Claire's Dimensional Scream to locate the Time Gears," Leaf started. "Well, it ran in your family, actually, and your mother found the first one. There were a couple you both saw, and there was one you found all on your own.

"Anyway, as I told you before, the Time Gears fix the flow of time once they're taken to Temporal Tower. We had to find them first, though, and then we had to travel back in time to collect them."

"Wait, that's what the Dimensional Scream is supposed to do?" Claire frowned. "I've gotten plenty of them from things that have nothing to do with Time Gears."

"You explained it to me once, and it's supposed to work the way it does here in the past," Leaf answered, shrugging. "Apparently, it only became that way due to the paralysis. For a while, nobody thought the ability even existed because of that."

"Huh." Claire mused on that for a moment before going on. "Well, whatever the reason for that, I'm still glad Felix was the one who found me when I woke up. I mean, even if it was thanks to Dusknoir, I probably never would have found out what the Dimensional Screams actually were if I'd been alone somewhere…"

"How did you two meet, anyway?" Leaf asked.

"It was…" Claire paused to think. "I remember waking up there on the beach, and my head really hurt… Then I noticed these—" she pointed to her scars and ear notch "—were bleeding pretty badly, so I tried to clean them up."

Felix winced. "With ocean water."

Iris, Rin, and Leaf wore identical surprised expressions. Claire laughed before she went on. It was pretty funny to think about it now, all things considered.

"Yeah, with ocean water. I didn't exactly have much of a choice. Anyway, that's when Felix saw me, and we joined the guild shortly afterwards. I didn't have anywhere else to go, so I decided to just…see if it was any fun."

She grinned sheepishly, and Leaf appeared to be mulling things over for a moment.

"That's right; you and Dusknoir both said you'd lost your memories," he muttered. "So you wouldn't have known if you had a home or not."

"Why did that happen? And how did I get these, anyway?" Claire pointed to her scars again. "I mean, they were still bleeding when I first woke up, so I guess they would have had to have happened either during or right before we went back… But nothing happened the last two times we went through those portals."

Felix, Rin, and even Iris were watching intently as Leaf stopped to think again.

"Something…strange happened when we traveled back the first time," he replied slowly. "It was like there was something coming towards me, and you shielded me from it… Though I haven't precisely figured out what 'it' is yet."

"So…is that why I turned into a Pokémon?" Claire asked, puzzling over this new information. "And that's probably why we got separated, too."

"As for your second question, yes," Leaf confirmed. "I'm not sure exactly why the disturbance turned you into a Pokémon, but I guess it makes sense that you became a Meowth. Your mother's partner was a Persian, and you were pretty close with him, too."

Claire stopped to think about this again, nodding to herself. If she needed a partner, then her mother must have needed one, too, right? And maybe that had imprinted on her somehow, or…something like that. Then, another idea occurred to her.

"Oh! Could you tell me about my family, then?" Claire's eyes lit up. "You mentioned my mother a couple of times…"

Leaf looked away from her, eyes closed, and Claire frowned. Her three teammates all looked as confused as she felt; why was he pausing? Eventually, Leaf looked back at her, shaking his head.

"I'll tell you another time," he said quietly. "You've already had a lot of information thrown at you, and we need to get some rest tonight."

"We do!" Iris agreed. "I bet you wanna get started early tomorrow, huh? Though it'll go much faster now that you've got us to help you!"

Rin sighed at Iris's over-enthusiastic comment, but she nodded in agreement. It was getting late, Claire silently admitted. Looking between the cave's "teeth," she saw that the sun had completely set by now.

"Yes, we'll have a lot of work to do, unfortunately," Leaf replied.

At this, Felix quietly got up and walked to a large barrel off to the side of the cave. He pulled out some hay, looking over his shoulder as he did so.

"For beds," he clarified. "The floor gets kind of cold…"

The rest of the group proceeded to help Felix set up some makeshift beds, and Claire yawned as she finished hers. As tired as she was, she really wished she could have asked Leaf some more questions… On the other hand, she didn't want to do anything to slow him down, either. They'd need to be able to wake up early the next day, and this time, they'd do their mission correctly.

Well, she'd do things correctly, Claire thought as she drifted off.

Felix sat near the edge of the bluff the next morning, watching the sun rise. While he normally preferred sunsets, he'd spent too long in the dark future, and the light was absolutely beautiful. The gentle early-morning breeze helped; that was another thing he'd taken for granted before.

He shivered as his mind dwelt on the things they'd seen in the future. Beyond everything else they'd learned, it was surreal to think the world could ever be like that. And yet somehow it had been (or would be, or…something. Felix wasn't sure how to put it).

Suddenly, a shuffling sound snapped him out of his thoughts, and Felix tensed as he turned around. Fortunately, the culprit was Leaf and not one of Treasure Town's residents.

"Mind if I join you?" the Grass-Type asked.

After Felix shook his head, Leaf sat down beside him. They sat together in silence for a few moments, watching as a few more rays of light spread over the horizon. Felix looked over at Leaf, and he blinked when he realized Felix was staring at him.

"I-I didn't wake you up coming out here, did I?" Felix blurted out.

"Well…yes. Somewhat." Leaf shrugged. "I would have woken up soon anyway; I just wanted to be sure nothing happened."

"Oh."

Felix looked down for a second. The sentiment was appreciated, but it still felt strange. Leaf was the last Pokémon he'd expect to hear such a thing from; Felix had spent too much time thinking of him as a criminal.

But he'd been Claire's partner, even if she didn't remember him, and they'd been friends long before Felix had ever met Claire. He couldn't doubt her judgment, could he? Besides, she'd been working on the exact same thing, and surely his leader couldn't be wrong, could she?

"What are you thinking about?"

Felix jumped when he heard Leaf's voice again. The Grass-Type was giving him another hard to read look, something between concern and general curiosity. He bit his lip before replying.

"It's just…" he sighed. "It's so hard to believe. Claire's done so much for me, but I can't listen to both her and Dusknoir…"

Leaf's eyes hardened, and Felix backpedaled.

"I-It's not what you think! I know Dusknoir was wrong now, but I spent so long thinking he was a hero. And Claire was with you, so…" Felix shook his head. "I wonder how different everything would be if Claire had stayed with you the whole time… Maybe it would have been easier for you."

"But it wouldn't have been for you, would it?"

The question stung; Leaf had picked up what Felix had left unsaid. He sighed, bending his knees up to his chest and resting his chin on them before going on.

"No. Sometimes I think I rely on her too much."

"She relies on you, too, you know. Think about it: she wakes up with no memories, and you were the first Pokémon to show her any kindness. It's no wonder she had a Dimensional Scream so soon after you met."

Felix smiled hesitantly. "I guess so. It's just… Lately, I've almost been feeling like she's been a replacement for my mother or sister or something like that…"

Leaf raised an eyebrow, and Felix took that as a cue to keep going, even if he felt awkward about it. He'd never even mentioned this to Claire herself, after all.

"Don't get me wrong, my family has always been really supportive of me, especially my dad's side… So maybe 'replacement' isn't the right word." Felix bit his lip again. "But I'm the youngest of six, and there are lots of explorers in my family, even among my siblings… I'm also right after my only sister, and my mom was really excited about having a daughter… So I've just always felt like I've had a lot to live up to.

"Then, when I met Claire, she was really nice to me right away. She was never too busy for me or anything… I'd always wanted to join the Wigglytuff Guild, so I could become as good at exploring as everyone else in my family, and I know I wouldn't have been able to do that if Claire didn't go with me."

Leaf paused for a while, looking at the sunrise again as he absorbed all that information. For a moment, Felix swore there was an almost worried look on his face, but it vanished quickly enough. What was that about?

"Hm… You know, when I first saw a sunrise…I thought to myself that Claire would love it. Of course, she doesn't remember that she 'shouldn't' have seen one before meeting you," Leaf murmured, clenching his claws slightly. "She didn't even get to enjoy it properly. But, listening to you…I realize Claire was my only 'light' of sorts while in the future. She has that effect on people, giving them hope when they wouldn't otherwise have any."

Felix nodded, and the sunrise grew brighter. It was nearly dawn; the rest of the team would be rising soon. To be honest, he was glad none of them were up yet. As strange as he'd felt telling Leaf about his family, Felix wasn't sure if he wanted anyone else to hear about it either.

A slight smile crossed Leaf's face, and Felix couldn't resist doing the same. It was hard to imagine how seeing a sunrise for the first time must have felt… But he thought he could come close, at least, after thinking about how much he'd missed the light while in the future.

"You know… Both my first sunrise and my first sunset made me realize how beautiful this world is. It strengthened my resolve to fix it. It's the things you take for granted that are the most incredible."

Leaf's musings were simple yet surprisingly profound, and Felix nodded in agreement. No matter how he'd felt about Leaf before, he thought he'd come to an understanding, and maybe they'd even made some sort of connection. And that was a start.

As morning fully arrived, Felix found himself sitting closer to Leaf, and he was relieved when Leaf didn't push him away.