Author's Note: Hey, remember Bruce? Well, here's what he was doing while Team Shadow was in the future. I always did wonder how any Pokémon you'd recruited would be feeling while you were gone for who knows how long, after all... Also, I get to have some fun at Sydney's expense here (sorry, not sorry, Sydney), and Claire's amnesia actually gets mentioned to the guild members (since that's another thing the game was ambiguous on). Anyway, enough rambling before this gets as long as the actual chapter; here you go!

Chapter Eighteen: Companions

How long had it been now? Bruce wasn't sure. It had to have been at least a week, maybe two. Maybe it was even more than that—he was having a hard time keeping track of the days now.

Bruce felt kind of ridiculous. He hadn't known Team Shadow nearly was long as everyone else had… Did he really have the right to be this upset about their disappearance?

Still, he felt…almost responsible in a way. It had happened just a day or two after he'd joined them, after all. Bruce knew it might've still happened either way, but if he'd gone up there with them, he'd at least know where they were.

The future…how did one even get there, anyway? (Well, apart from the obvious "days passing one at a time" thing that happened to literally everyone.) And exactly what point in the future had they gone to? Nobody was sure how to find Team Shadow, even if they had a way to get there in the first place.

For the first day or two, no one had been sure how to react. The other apprentices had sat around in a rather confused way, whispering to each other about what they should do. It didn't help that they were kind of awkward around Bruce, either. Sure, they were all nice, like Claire had said, but no one knew what to say to him. And that made it worse, really.

"Like…Glameow," Sunflora finally said. "It's okay if you don't want to do anything, you know? Chimecho usually does cooking duty, so maybe you could just help her with that if you want?"

"No, it's fine," Bruce lied. "My team usually did rescue missions and stuff, right? I'll take care of that."

Saying "my team" did make him feel better, if only a little. Maybe having something to do would help even more. The next morning, Chatot sighed and finally cleared him for exploration duty, but the bird stopped him before Bruce could head up the ladder.

"Glameow…do be careful, all right? Just…watch what you're doing. …That's all."

Was that a hint of concern in Chatot's voice? Bruce wanted to think it was. He simply nodded in response before heading upstairs.

…Well, he probably wouldn't be able to handle more than one job on his own. Maybe two if he was lucky. Sighing, Bruce reached up with the tip of his tail and plucked a request off the board. Some poor Torchic had gotten lost in Mt. Bristle. He could do that, right?

Right. After a bit of preparation, he was off.

The next few days passed slowly. They kind of blurred together, honestly, which didn't make sense when Bruce thought about it. He had jobs to do, and he wasn't bad at them by any means. The other guild recruits let him eat dinner with them every day, and he was allowed to stay in Team Shadow's room. Everything was going fine, all things considered.

But Bruce still felt…off. Listless. He should be doing more.

More at the guild, more to find Claire and the others, more…something. Bruce wasn't sure.

He fell asleep with a nagging feeling in the back of his mind, unsure of how to fix it.

"Hey, I think someone should talk to Bruce," Heliona announced.

Sydney sighed. "Really, you think we don't know that? But…what is there to say?"

Leon nodded silently. The three of them were currently sitting in their room after dinner, and Heliona had just poked her head out of the door. She hadn't left, but it was obvious she'd been looking in the direction of Team Shadow's room. Huffing, the Fire-Type turned around and strode towards her teammates.

"I don't know! But, come on, he's been taking it the worst out of everybody," she replied. "I mean…I really miss Claire and everyone too, but…"

The Vulpix trailed off, and Leon and Sydney exchanged glances. She'd taken it pretty badly at first, too, even if she wasn't admitting it aloud. After looking between his teammates for a few seconds, Leon finally piped up.

"I think Sydney should."

Sydney stared at him. "What? Why me?"

The Shinx shuffled around awkwardly before replying, "Well, you know… I'm not really the best at saying things all the time, and…um, sorry, Heliona, but neither are you."

It was just for different reasons. Still, Heliona didn't seem offended by the remark. Instead, she just sighed and shook her head before looking at Sydney again.

"He's right, you know," she admitted. "You wanna go now or tomorrow?"

"Fine," he sighed. "I'll go now."

The Absol padded over to the door, carefully glancing around the hallway. No one had felt up to the nightly meetings lately, and he didn't know if Chatot would get snappy at anyone being out this late without that as an excuse. Once he was sure it was safe, Sydney went out and headed towards Team Shadow's room.

Bruce was sitting by the window, staring outside. He wasn't sure if the Normal-Type had heard him or not, and Sydney cleared his throat. When Bruce jumped, Sydney took it to mean that he hadn't been paying attention after all.

"Hey," Sydney greeted awkwardly. "Are you doing all right?"

"…No," Bruce mumbled. "But it's fine; you don't have to worry about it. I mean…I'm sure everyone else misses them, too, right?"

Sydney was quiet for a while. He walked over to Bruce, sitting down and glancing out the window as well. Honestly, he wasn't very good at emotional things—that was what happened when his default response to everything was sarcasm, he supposed. Still, he had to say something, didn't he?

"Mm." Sydney nodded. "I know Heliona, Leon, and Bidoof do. But that means it's okay if you miss them, too, doesn't it?"

"I…I guess so." Bruce sighed. "I just wish there was something we could do about it." He paused, then there was a quiet, "What if they don't come back?"

Sydney cringed. That question had been hanging over the whole guild for the past week or so, even if no one wanted to say it aloud. He'd almost said it once or twice himself, but wondered if it would sound too mean coming from him. There…really wasn't a good answer to that, was there?

Eventually, he settled on, "I'm sure if there's a way to come back, they'll figure out how to do it. There has to be some way, doesn't there?"

Grovyle had come back from the future, after all; so had Dusknoir. (Even if Dusknoir was the reason why the rest of Team Shadow was missing. No one had figured out what that was about yet, though. And no one really wanted to mention it, either.) They just…kind of had to hope that Team Shadow figured out how to do it, too.

Finally, Bruce nodded and said, "Yeah. I'm sure you're right. Thanks, Sydney."

He smiled and brushed his head against Sydney's shoulder before padding over to his bed. Sydney stood there for a few seconds, eyes widening. Goodness, he was bad with physical contact, too, even if Bruce probably hadn't meant anything (other than general gratitude) with the gesture.

"Well…good night, then, I guess," Bruce said as he curled up into a ball.

"Er…yes, good night," Sydney mumbled. "We can…come see you tomorrow, if you want."

He thought he heard something like an "okay" as he bolted out of the room. Once Sydney returned to Team Lightning's room, he cleared his throat and looked at his teammates. Heliona blinked, and then burst into giggles.

"You're blushing!" she sang.

"I am not!" Sydney snapped. "Now, I do believe we need to go to bed. You know Chatot will kill us if we're late to the morning briefing!"

Leon looked confused at the whole exchange, but he shrugged and laid down on his bed. Heliona was still giggling as she curled up as well, shooting another glance at Sydney. He pointedly turned away from her as he sat down, ignoring her teasing remarks.

Unlike her, some Pokémon cared about getting enough sleep, after all—and Sydney insisted that he was one of them.

Sydney's sort-of pep talk really had helped. Bruce wasn't the only one who was worried, and that made him feel less alone. They still didn't know what to do, but…that was something.

(Still, he found himself sneaking out of his room to sleep with Team Lightning for the next few days. Being alone at night just made him feel worse, after all. And if Chatot knew, he didn't say anything about it, which Bruce appreciated as well.)

And then, just before dinner one night, everything changed.

Diglett usually spent a few minutes at the sentry tunnel each evening, just in case anyone showed up late. And, even when Chimecho said that dinner was ready, he didn't come back into the basement. Loudred proceeded to shout down the tunnel at him, and he finally got a response from the Ground-Type.

"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 the faint sound of chattering above them, and Bruce held his breath. What if it was—

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

They were back. Bruce bolted for the ladder, and everyone else stampeded out around him. There, in front of the grate—

Claire was grinning, her eyes watering slightly, and she was surrounded by Felix, Rin, and Iris. It really was them. They were home.

"What happened to you guys?"

The question had been popped immediately after Team Shadow had gathered in the guild's basement. And their response certainly had been…something. They'd relayed everything that had happened after they'd fallen—no, been dragged—into the Dimensional Hole. The truth behind Dusknoir's actions, what the future was like, and Grovyle's real motives; all of it had come out.

It was…a lot to take in at once, honestly. But it made an uncomfortable amount of sense, Bruce thought. It would explain why Dusknoir had taken them with him, and his description of what the hypothetical bad future would be like was chillingly similar to what Claire had described. And…sure, he hadn't known them as long as everyone else, but Bruce didn't think they'd lie about something like this.

Still, the silence was so complete that one could hear a pin drop. The guild's recruits looked hesitantly between each other; no one knew how to respond to that. Suddenly, Chatot burst into spontaneous laughter, and the entire assembly jumped in shock. It would have been jarring even if it hadn't been from the usually-serious bird.

"Please," he gasped, catching his breath. "What part of this story is remotely plausible? Dusknoir is a villain, and Meowth here worked with Grovyle? Do go on!"

"I…what?" Claire blinked.

"Are you saying we're lying?" Iris demanded.

"Oh, no, certainly not! You must be…confused, that's all," Chatot went on, waving a wing dismissively. "So why don't we try to sort out what actually happened and…"

"Look," Iris exploded. "We know what we saw! We nearly died, and you're telling us we're making stuff up?" The spikes on her wrists glinted and stuck out a bit further as she stepped forward. "You're just going to blow off the fact that the world's in danger? If you don't believe us, you can go look in the places where the Time Gears are, and—"

Claire and Rin grabbed Iris by the shoulders before she could launch the Pin Missile. Her needles settled down, but she was still breathing heavily, and Chatot was giving her a stunned look. There was silence again for a few seconds before Bruce finally spoke up.

"Um… No one here thinks you lied."

He stepped forward, and a small smile had crossed his face. Yes, he'd decided to believe them. Claire looked at him in surprise as he walked forward and sat down next to her.

"Oof… He's right, by golly!" Bidoof suddenly added. "I reckon you're telling the truth!"

"We believe you too!" Heliona shouted, and Leon and Sydney nodded in agreement.

"Oh my gosh! I totally believe you guys!"

"Hey, hey! I do too!"

Chatot squawked as the rest of the apprentices burst into agreements, and he wildly looked around at them. The recruits swarmed around Team Shadow again, and it wasn't long before Claire matched Bruce's grin. It didn't last long, though; Chatot cut in irritably as he waved the recruits out of the way.

"Look here!" Chatot glared. "Even if their tale made any sense—which it doesn't!—why in the world would Meowth take so long to tell us this?"

"Oh." Claire looked down at the floor. "I…didn't remember any of it. The first thing I remember at all is…waking up on the beach a few hours before we joined the guild…"

"WHAT? Are you saying you have AMNESIA or something?" Loudred demanded.

Bruce cocked his head to the side as he looked at her. She'd never mentioned that to him before; then again, maybe she just hadn't had the time to do it. The rest of the recruits murmured amongst themselves as Claire nodded. A smug expression formed on Chatot's face as he went on.

"So then how do you know that any of what Grovyle told you is true?"

"I guess I don't," Claire admitted. "But I…"

"That's enough from silly Chatot!" Wigglytuff interrupted. "He's just testing you!"

"WHAT?!"

Bruce blinked, and the rest of the recruits had stunned looks on their faces. Now the situation was just getting surreal…

"He just wanted to make sure everyone believes you!" Wigglytuff grinned; he didn't seem to notice that Chatot was scowling at him. "We're going to do whatever it takes to help you. Right, friendly friends?"

"YEAH!"

The recruits collectively let out another cheer. Chatot shook his head and covered his face with a wing, but no one paid him any attention. Instead, they were all chattering excitedly about what they should do next.

"We did it," Felix choked. "They believe us—"

Suddenly, his stomach growled loudly, and everyone stopped talking. Iris, Claire, and even Rin followed suit, and Claire burst into giggles at Rin's embarrassed expression. The mood had been killed, but the other apprentices started laughing, too, and it didn't matter anymore.

"You came back at just the right time," Chimecho said gently. "We've got four seats at the dinner table that have been empty for too long."

Everyone stampeded into the kitchen with no further prompting. As Bruce settled down at the table next to them, it finally sank in that they were really home. And now, even with the dire news they'd delivered, it felt like everything would be okay.