Author's Note: Lots of stuff going on this chapter, despite its length. While it's mainly Treeshroud Forest, I had some fun writing everyone's interactions before and after. I cut off just before actually entering the guild because I have something special planned for next chapter... but you'll see in a few days.

Chapter Seventeen: Starting Over

Iris grumbled incessantly upon waking up that morning. She got nothing for her complaints but an exasperated look from Rin, who was currently helping Felix sort through their remaining supplies. In the meantime, Claire and Leaf were both examining Leaf's Wonder Map.

He looked up from the map, casting a confused glance in Iris's direction.

"She seemed so eager last night." He frowned, turning to Claire. "Is this normal for her?"

Claire nodded sheepishly. "Yeah, you'll get used to it. Iris isn't exactly a morning Pokémon… Anyway, where should we go first?"

"I got my first Time Gear here… I think it would be good to start there again."

Leaf gestured to Treeshroud Forest, and the map obligingly zoomed in on the area. He watched Claire contemplate the idea; she rested her chin in a paw as her eyes narrowed slightly.

"Well, you do have some experience with the gears' locations, but that's kind of far away," she pointed out.

"Exactly. It took everyone a while to notice that it went missing the first time because of its distance," Leaf clarified. "Besides, the sooner we get it out of the way, the better, and it has no guardian."

"So we can cause less attention?" Rin piped up.

She and Felix had finished dividing up their healing items, and she distributed them as she asked the question. Leaf nodded in response as he slipped the berries into his bag.

"Oh!" Claire's eyes lit up. "Makes sense to me. Felix? Iris?"

Felix nodded, and Iris mumbled something that almost sounded like "yes" as she rubbed her eyes.

"All right!" Claire grinned. "Let's get going, then."

As the five of them headed towards the bluff's stairs, however, Claire cast Leaf an uncertain look. He put a claw on her shoulder, hoping his smile didn't look too awkward, before following Felix up the stairs.

They were doing this together this time, and that was all that mattered.

They'd left early enough that Treasure Town had been nearly deserted; even most of the shopkeepers hadn't been in town yet. This meant it was easy enough to reach the edge of town, but the trip to Treeshroud Forest was still long. While it was nothing that Team Shadow couldn't handle, the tension along the way was thick enough to cut through.

Leaf was relieved when they arrived. Last time, getting there had been the most difficult part; now, reaching the Time Gear seemed easy. However, Iris didn't seem to agree, even if she was wide awake now.

"Does something here feel…weird to you?" She frowned, pausing before following everyone else into the forest.

"What do you mean?" Claire asked.

"It's just…it didn't take us all day to get here, did it? But it looks pretty dark in there…"

Leaf hesitated. The shadows did seem too long, though it could've just been the thick canopy playing tricks with his eyes. He shrugged, beckoning to the group as he darted ahead.

"We'll be fine," he replied, though he was trying to convince himself as much as them.

"We do need to hurry," Claire agreed. "Let's just think of it like a race, okay?"

At the suggestion, Iris perked up considerably. She eagerly kept up with Leaf and Claire, while Rin and Felix kept a close watch from behind them. As long as they were all happy, Leaf didn't mind how Claire went about doing that, and a light smile crossed his face.

Still, he was glad that Claire had come up with a way to preoccupy her teammates for multiple reasons. The further they went into the forest, the more he thought that something was off. It was too tense; the local Pokémon kept hissing shooting paranoid looks at the group of five. They seemed more aggressive than they had before, and there were more scrapes than Leaf was comfortable getting into. The shadows got longer and longer as well, and the forest itself seemed to be getting darker.

Leaf shook his head. He couldn't get nervous now, if only for the sake of keeping Claire and her friends upbeat. Nonetheless, they eventually realized something was wrong.

"You're shuffling again, Claire," Rin said softly.

Claire jumped at her teammate's voice, but she sighed and settled down a moment later. Leaf hadn't noticed it himself, despite having caught it when they'd been in the future together.

"I just… It feels like I should be." Claire looked confused. "Like when we were in the future…"

Leaf froze. That couldn't be it, could it? Now that he thought of it, the forest did feel like that. It was almost the exact same way it had been when he'd first taken the Time Gear…

"Wait…" Felix frowned. "Now that you mention it… But Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf said they'd put the Time Gears back, right?"

Leaf did recall hearing them say that right before Dusknoir had taken him to the future. That should've reversed the effects of him taking the Time Gears… So if the gear really was here, then it should've been fine.

"Yes. So everything should be all right," he replied. "We're almost there, so we've got to keep moving."

Team Shadow nodded, but they looked more worried than before. Clearly, they'd picked up on the forest's atmosphere more than Leaf thought they had… Claire and Iris were at least trying to look cheerful, though Rin and Felix were having less success.

When they finally reached Treeshroud Forest's final clearing, Leaf sped up. The faint glow of the Time Gear up ahead indicated that it was indeed there, and it was just as impressive-looking as it had been last time. Claire scampered up to Leaf, her eyes widening as she looked at it.

"I saw one of these at Uxie's lake, but…" she trailed off.

"You've never gotten quite this close, have you?" Leaf finished.

She shook her head. Before either of them could go on, Iris started grumbling audibly.

"Did it just start raining? I swear I just ran into something…"

Leaf raised an eyebrow. Turning around, he winced as he felt a few droplets slide off the leaves on his wrists and tail; he'd been walking so quickly before, he must have not noticed. Yet he hadn't heard any rain start, either…

"Um… Look at this, guys," Felix called.

He was pointing at a nearby tree, and when Leaf squinted, he could make out a few raindrops falling off one of its lower branches. No, he corrected himself, they were hanging there mid-fall. His eyes widened as Claire, Rin, and Iris all inhaled sharply.

"D-does this mean…time is still frozen here?" Felix asked quietly.

That's what it had been. Leaf had been suspecting something had been wrong the whole time… He nodded silently.

Iris scowled. "Hey! The Time Gear is where it belongs, so… Why?"

"I bet this means we don't have much time left…" Claire said, biting her lip.

"Yes… That's what I'd guess, too." Leaf sighed gustily. "If time didn't go back to normal here, Temporal Tower must be getting close to collapse."

"How long do you think we have, then?" Rin asked.

Leaf frowned. "I'm not sure. We'd better go on and take this one."

He walked over to the pedestal and carefully picked up the Time Gear. Out of the corner of his eye, Leaf could see Felix flinch as the teal light faded from the area. He paused before putting the gear into his bag, feeling uneasy as he faced the rest of the group.

"We should hurry back to the bluff," he said. "We need to decide carefully what we're going to do next."

"Yeah…" Claire nodded. "Let's go!"

Leaf placed a claw over his bag for a moment, trying to reassure himself as he felt the Time Gear again, and hurried after Claire as she left the clearing.

Claire sighed when she hurried into the bluff. It had taken them longer than expected to get back, despite leaving from Treeshroud Forest immediately. It had partly been due to the fact that Treasure Town had been bustling with activity when they'd arrived, so they'd had to take great care to sneak past everyone.

Still, the trip had altogether taken a full day, and even she was getting tired by that point.

"Isn't there some faster way to do this?" Iris groaned. "Did all the Time Gears take you this long to get last time?"

She laid down on her stomach, peering up at him over her folded arms. Leaf sat down as well, frowning. Maybe she could've put that better, but Iris had a point.

"I didn't exactly have the luxury of being able to consult with a group," he pointed out. "So while I have a map, I was unable to come up with some 'quickest route' to all of them."

"Where did you get a Wonder Map, anyway?" Claire wondered. "I thought those were guild-issue only."

"Ah… When I first got to Treasure Town, a Skorupi I met gave it to me," he explained. "She said she got it from someone who was on an exploration team. Anyway, we do need to come up with some kind of plan now, so if you all don't mind…"

Claire nodded. "Of course! We could probably help you come up with some quicker routes, too. Which one are you thinking of getting next?"

"Well, there's one around here that wasn't too hard to get last time…" Leaf gestured towards the southern portion of his map. He then closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "However, I think it would be best if we split up for now."

"What?" Iris blinked. "Why?"

Claire felt her stomach sink. Somehow, the idea of splitting up intentionally seemed so much worse than doing it on accident, despite everything that had happened last time… Leaf quickly caught the look on her face and went on.

"It's just…we need to look for Temporal Tower," he clarified.

"Right." Felix nodded. "You said we have to take the Time Gears there…"

Rin blinked. "You need to look for it?"

The phrasing did seem odd, Claire realized. Leaf cringed, causing everyone to look at him in confusion.

"Let me rephrase that. We knew that Temporal Tower is in a place called the Hidden Land, but that's all. It's the Hidden Land that we need to find."

"Oh." Claire folded her arms. "Did we have any clues about where the Hidden Land might be?"

Leaf shook his head. "That's the problem. According to Celebi, no one has ever been able to figure out where the Hidden Land is, at least in relation to anything else."

"But how…?" Rin puzzled.

"Temporal Tower is too powerful to be somewhere easily accessible," Leaf explained. "However, if anyone has any leads on where to look, it would be the guild's members, don't you think?"

"That's a good idea!" Claire agreed. "Chatot knows all kinds of things. Even if he doesn't know where it is specifically, I bet he's at least heard some rumors about it."

"Do we really have to go talk to Chatot so soon after getting back?" Iris groaned.

She rolled over onto her side, facing away from Claire and sulking. Claire laughed as Leaf gave Iris a confused look.

"It's a long story," she said. "Anyway… Come on, everyone. Even if they don't know anything, it would be better to have help looking, right? And they're probably worried about us…"

Iris sighed, Rin nodded, and Felix smiled apprehensively. While they were probably worried about just "magically" showing back up at the guild, Leaf had a point. And as much as Claire hated the idea of splitting up with him, the apprentices would be more likely to believe them if he wasn't there.

"We should spend some time getting ready, then," Rin pointed out. "We'll be able to get more supplies after we go to the guild, but we should make sure Leaf has enough."

Claire nodded. "Also, if we wait until around dinner time, we can be sure everyone will be there." She paused before turning to Leaf and adding, "How will we keep in contact with you, though?"

Closing his eyes, Leaf groaned and rested his head in a claw for a moment. It seemed he hadn't thought of that. Fortunately, he came up with something soon enough.

"We can leave notes here," he replied. "It should be easy for you all to come back and check every once in a while, and I've gotten used to sneaking around enough that it shouldn't be too difficult for me, either."

Claire nodded. "That makes sense. Now let's rest up for a little while, shall we?"

Everyone gave agreements of varying enthusiasm—with Iris being the most eager for rest—and Claire felt relieved as she laid down.

Claire was slightly cold when she stirred a few hours later. Stretching, she looked towards the middle of the room. Felix had stayed up to light a fire in the cave's center, but it had apparently gone out while they'd slept.

She then looked towards the mouth of the cave, trying to guess the time from the bits of sky she could see. It wasn't quite sunset yet, but the sun was getting lower in the sky… They'd have to leave soon.

Leaf was sitting near the cave's teeth; he was the only other one awake. Claire slowly walked over to him, and he looked up as she sat down next to him.

"Are you all right?"

"I think so," she sighed. "It's just…everything would have been so much simpler if we'd just thought of asking you what you were doing before."

"Hindsight is everything, you know," Leaf replied. "You had no reason to think about asking me."

'Because of Dusknoir' went unspoken, but Claire couldn't help thinking it anyway. And that thought caused something else to occur to her. She frowned, resting her elbows on the stalagmite in front of her as she leaned forward.

"What if Dusknoir comes after us again?"

"Worrying isn't like you, Claire," Leaf chided, though he rested a claw on her back gently. "We'll have to think about that at some point, but that's for later. Right now, we just have to focus on our mission."

They were silent as a light breeze blew over them. Then, Claire nodded as her usual grin returned to her face.

"Yeah…you're right," she admitted. "And I really am excited about seeing the other apprentices again."

Leaf gave her an encouraging look before turning towards the rest of Team Shadow.

"Good. Let's wake the others and get going, then."

They gently shook the three awake, and Rin and Felix got up immediately. While Iris grumbled again, she woke up considerably more quickly than she had yesterday morning. Once they were finished stretching and collecting their bags, they gathered near the stairs.

For a few seconds, they looked at each other in a nervous silence. Then, Leaf gestured to them and hurried up the stairs.

"Let's go."

It was abrupt, but there really wasn't much else to say. Fortunately, it was late enough that while there were a few teams around Treasure Town, there weren't too many. Sneaking towards the crossroads didn't take very long, but Claire still felt relieved when they reached the guild's staircase.

"So…we're ready?" Iris asked.

"We all know what to do," Leaf confirmed. "Don't worry about me. Good luck!"

"Yeah…" Claire bit her lip, but then grinned again. "Good luck, Leaf."

She flung her arms around him, and Leaf stiffened awkwardly. It was honestly kind of funny, the clumsy way he returned the gesture and patted her on the head. Claire supposed he didn't seem like the overly-affectionate type, but she couldn't help giggling when Leaf finally pulled back and fled the area.

"Aren't you two just adorable," Iris teased.

"Let's just go," Felix mumbled.

The four of them collectively took a deep breath and started walking up the steps. For some reason, the grate in front of the guild's entrance looked more ominous than usual; Claire could understand how Felix had been afraid of standing on it once. Before she could talk herself out of it, she grabbed her teammates and stepped onto the grate. Claire heard Felix's breathing speed up, and she couldn't help wondering what was taking Diglett so long…

Finally, she heard Loudred's voice, though just barely.

"Diglett? WHAT are you DOING? If there's no one THERE—"

"There's… There's… Visitor detected! Visitor detected!"

"Ugh… At THIS time of day? Who IS it?"

"It can't be… But it looks like…Chimchar… And I think Meowth…and…"

"Hey! DIGLETT?"

There was silence from the tunnel for a few seconds, leaving Loudred shouting at nothing. Then, Diglett burst out of the ground in front of them, causing Felix to jump in surprise. Diglett's eyes widened as he looked at them, and Claire have him a hesitant smile.

"Uh… hi?" she said.

"It's them! It's Team Shadow!"

At Diglett's statement, the gate covering the guild's door rattled open. Not a moment later, Team Shadow was practically stampeded by the recruits; the first ones out were Bruce, Team Lightning, and Bidoof, followed closely by Sunflora, Corphish, and the others. Their voices were barely distinct from each other as questions flooded out of their mouths.

"How—when—we thought you—"

An irate squawk pierced through the noise, and suddenly Chatot was shoving recruits out of the way to make room for Wigglytuff. The apprentices silenced as Wigglytuff paused, looked at Team Shadow, and broke into a grin.

"Welcome back!"

It felt official at his greeting, and Claire beamed as he led the team inside.