Author's Note: We know how the late-game went from the hero's point of view, so here's what Grovyle was doing in that time. I've always wondered how the guardians reacted to him the second time around; I'd imagine it's much better, for the most part. Of course, I do needlessly torment Ditto here (though this is something I vaguely alluded to back in the Limestone Cavern chapter), and Azelf is a tad awkward, though this was quite fun to write nonetheless.

Chapter Nineteen: Cooperation

Leaf wasn't sure how to feel when he arrived at Limestone Cavern.

It wasn't because he'd had to fight through the other dungeons on the way again; they had been easier this time by virtue of experience. Rather, it was because of how Leaf had left the guardian last time. Sure, he'd found it convenient then, but…

Sighing, Leaf entered the cavern. After Treeshroud Forest, at least he'd expected the area to be paralyzed. That was…well, not really a comfort, but something he could plan for, anyway.

Leaf hurried through the dungeon, avoiding fights as much as he could. It was difficult, considering how badly the sort-of paralysis was affecting the area's residents… Despite the comparatively short time that time had been stopped here, the Pokémon were already much more aggressive than they'd been before. That was another reason for Leaf to make sure he did things correctly now.

He allowed himself a short break upon reaching Limestone Cavern's branching area. Fortunately, Rin had packed him a good deal of Oran Berries, and he sat down to catch his breath as he ate one. Claire really was lucky, he mused, to have met such good teammates. They hadn't had much left back at the bluff, but they'd been willing to give him most of it, anyway.

Soon, Leaf stood up and passed through the false wall again. He was having a harder and harder time sneaking past the cave's residents the further he went, and he got some particularly large bruises from an angry Dragonair late in. Really, he was lucky Limestone Cavern was a fairly small dungeon. That gave him fewer chances to get into fights by default, and he was still pushing himself too much.

When he reached Ditto's chamber, Leaf felt his heartbeat speed up… He didn't know what he would see. Slowly, he walked forward, and his stomach hitched when he reached the back of the room.

Ditto was frozen in place in the same area Leaf had last seen him. His formerly bright-pink skin had a dull hue to it now, and he was so stiff that Lead would've assumed Ditto was a statue if he didn't know better. At least Ditto must've had the time to eat the Oran Berry Leaf had offered him, as the guardian's injuries were all healed.

"I'm sorry," Leaf said quietly. "You probably can't hear me, but…"

Suddenly, there was an odd gleam in Ditto's eyes, and he seemed to be looking straight at Leaf. Had his eyes just moved? Leaf inhaled sharply; despite being frozen, it was possible Ditto was still conscious.

"Can you hear me?" he asked hesitantly.

Ditto's eyes shifted again; his barely-distinguishable pupils moved to the side before focusing back on Leaf. Biting his lip, Leaf looked away before going on.

"I owe you an explanation, I suppose," Leaf murmured. "Have you heard of Temporal Tower? I need to take the Time Gears there to…fix the tower. Things will go back to normal here once I've been there. I promise you that."

Ditto's eyes shone with tears that were unable to fall. As he walked away, Leaf had to close his eyes. His fault—even though Leaf knew that blaming himself wouldn't help.

When he entered the far chamber, the Time Gear was sitting uselessly on its pedestal, just like the one in Treeshroud Forest had been. Leaf sighed as he picked it up and put it gingerly into his bag. This time, there was no rumbling, no fear of being frozen, and no swarm of panicking Pokémon, but Leaf almost wished there was. It would have been preferable to the way the cavern was now…

Before he could berate himself any more, Leaf fled the cavern, more motivated than ever to finish his mission.

Out of the three lakes, Fogbound Lake was the closest, and Leaf immediately set out for it. The trip was still long, but at least now he wasn't stopping back at Treasure Town each time he collected a gear… That helped a little.

And he'd come to expect the temporary paralysis, even if he didn't like it. When Leaf arrived at Foggy Forest, there was a dull, grayish tint in the air that he knew couldn't be fog; time had stopped shortly after he'd lifted it. Frowning, Leaf proceeded through the area as quickly as possible.

Leaf couldn't help sighing gustily when he reached the clearing. While it wasn't as bad as its future counterpart, the waterfalls were stopped in place and the sky was somewhat dark. He couldn't let it get any worse.

Steam Cave's residents were more aggressive than they'd been the previous time, too. Not that Leaf blamed them, but it made getting through the dungeon more difficult than it had been before. When Leaf reached the midway point, he was nursing a rather nasty gash he'd gotten from a wild Yanma, and Leaf cursed silently as he paused to eat an Oran Berry.

He dreaded reaching the top, knowing what awaited him… However, when he arrived at the plateau, Leaf stood there in complete silence for a few seconds. This time, there was no rumbling to indicate the Groudon illusion's heavy footsteps.

Confused, Leaf cautiously took a few steps forward. He then jumped higher than he cared to admit when there was a bright flash of light several feet ahead of him.

Uxie was waiting for him in the gap between the hills in the distance. Surprisingly, the Psychic-Type merely waved at Leaf before heading towards the lake. Leaf followed him warily, wondering what was going on.

When Leaf approached him, Uxie was quietly observing Fogbound Lake. There was a geyser mid-eruption in the middle, held in place by the area's paralysis just as the waterfalls had been. After a sigh, Uxie turned towards Leaf with a small smile on his face.

"You know… You could have told me what you needed the Time Gear for last time," he chided, but there was a hint of humor in his voice.

Leaf raised an eyebrow. "What…? You're saying you would have listened? And why the change of heart now?"

"Maybe I would have, but it's hard to know for sure." Uxie paused, though his smile grew a moment later. "And you'll have to thank the Guild later. They sent recruits to tell Mesprit, Azelf, and me what was going on… Even though Azelf told us when one of them reached him, it was still nice to let all of us know."

"I see." Leaf nodded. "So…you know why I need the Time Gears, then, yes?"

"I do. It's strange…" Uxie sighed. "The other guardians and I were told there was some other purpose the gears served, but we were never told what, precisely, that purpose was. Dialga said he'd let us know 'when the time was right,' but…"

"This seems like a good time to fill you in," Leaf answered pointedly.

"Exactly, and that's been worrying me." Uxie frowned. "It makes me wonder if…"

As the guardian trailed off, Leaf felt a flash of worry himself. How had Uxie intended to finish that sentence? It could have been something that Leaf needed to know, especially if it was something about Dialga…

Uxie quickly shook his head, having caught Leaf's nervous look.

"I apologize; I'm likely just thinking too much. Hold on…"

Uxie vanished, and his silhouette was temporarily visible in the middle of the frozen geyser. A few seconds later, he reappeared in front of Leaf, and he was holding the Time Gear. He handed it to Leaf, who carefully put it in his bag with the other two.

"Good luck," Uxie said. "And remember, we're on your side this time."

"Thank you."

With an appreciative nod, Leaf hurried away; he was starting to feel better about things now.

When he arrived at the Northern Desert, Leaf carefully headed towards the quicksand pits. They were just as still as everything else was; they almost resembled plain conical slopes covered in normal sand. When Leaf leapt towards one of them, he simply slid downwards in an almost comical way.

Grunting, he shook himself off when he hit the ground below. Leaf wasn't sure if he'd ever get used to that—then again, he wouldn't really need to. At any rate, he hurried through Quicksand Cave, trying to reach Mesprit's chamber as soon as possible.

Mesprit was waiting for him when he reached the lake, and she was actually grinning at him. She waved excitedly, and Leaf approached her with a curious expression.

"Hey, there!" she called. "You'll be wanting this…"

Mesprit was already holding the Time Gear, and Leaf darted up to her.

"Indeed." Leaf nodded. "I'm a bit surprised at how quickly you all are accepting this, but…"

Before she handed him the Time Gear, Mesprit paused and suddenly had a more serious look on her face. Leaf was taken aback; Mesprit was staring at him rather intensely.

"It would've been nice if you hadn't attacked us last time," she said. "Why didn't you tell anyone what you were really doing?"

Leaf sighed. "I'm…not really sure. All I knew was that I hadn't been able to trust anyone before, and, well… You know what everyone's reactions were to me taking the Time Gears."

(And there was the fact that Ditto hadn't listened to him the first time around, either. This didn't seem like a good time to mention that, though; it probably would've sounded like Leaf was just blaming everyone else. Fortunately, he didn't need to worry about it, as Mesprit nodded a moment later.)

"You have a point there, I suppose."

Her serious tone dropped, and Leaf felt an extreme wave of relief washing over him. The guardian was abruptly cheery again as she floated towards him. Leaf wondered offhand if her mood was affecting his as some kind of side-effect of her emotional powers.

Either way, he assumed it didn't matter much. As long as Mesprit was willingly giving him the Time Gear, Leaf wouldn't question any of the minor details.

"How many is it that you have now?" she asked.

Leaf secured the gear in his bag before answering. "Four. I'm almost finished, so your lake will be back to normal soon, I promise."

The two of them stared out at the frozen water. Large waves sat in place further back in the lake, while the water near the shore refused to move any closer to them. Mesprit frowned and closed her eyes before looking at Leaf.

"That's…that's been the worst part, to be honest," she admitted. "I know it was necessary and only temporary now, but…"

"You still felt responsible at the time?" Leaf finished. "Well…I felt the same way when I failed before. We're making up for it now, so don't worry anymore."

Mesprit's eyes were a bit bright as she gave him a nod in confirmation, but her grin was wider, too. Giving her a quick smile of his own, Leaf hurried away, determined to keep up his deal this time.

Now was as good a time as any to leave a message for Claire, Leaf decided.

He headed towards Treasure Town cautiously. Even though Claire had to have told everyone the truth about him while explaining the current situation, going about in public made him nervous. It would likely take everyone some time to fully accept him, so Leaf restricted himself to sneaking along the edges of town again.

When he reached the bluff, Leaf quickly glanced over his shoulder and scurried inside. Surprisingly, all five of the beds were still set up… More importantly, though, there was a scrap of paper sitting on the nearest one. Leaf curiously picked it up, recognizing Claire's handwriting as he read it over.

'Dear Leaf,' the message started, 'I hope this message finds you safe! I'm not sure how many of the Time Gears you'll have by the time you read this, but we told the guild to warn the lake guardians so they don't fight you again. You may want to wait a little while just to be sure they have time to get there… Of course, if you've already been there by the time you see this, you'd already know that…

'Anyway, it's a bit slow, but we're making some progress on finding the Hidden Land. Be sure to let us know how many Time Gears you have when you get here! Oh, and I don't know if you have any paper, but just in case, we left you some. From, Claire.'

Leaf smiled absently as he tucked the note into his bag. He took one of the sheets of paper lying near the middle of the cavern and quickly penned a reply, being sure to thank them for the messengers. When he finished, Leaf started to walk towards the stairs, but then paused and turned around again.

Claire had asked him about her family when they'd last stayed here, and she deserved to know. If he didn't tell her soon, he might not have another chance… Leaf grabbed some more paper and raised the pen again, but then he hesitated; would telling her really be a good idea? Her mother was dead, and she wouldn't be able to reunite with Andrew, anyway. He didn't want to depress her or give her a sense of false hope.

Leaf couldn't do that to her. It wasn't fair at all, but he just couldn't. Sighing, Leaf abandoned the idea and left the bluff. There was one Time Gear left, and now was not the time for dwelling.

When Leaf arrived in the final chamber of Crystal Cave, the crystal puzzle was already open. It confused him at first, but he supposed Azelf was expecting him. This time, it was a good thing.

It also helped that Crystal Cave wasn't paralyzed. After seeing so many Pokémon suffering from frozen time, it was refreshing to see the regular ones here.

He assumed Azelf would be waiting for him near the lake like Uxie and Mesprit had been. When he reached the final chamber, Leaf was proven right, but Azelf didn't face him right away. Instead, he was staring intently at the lake.

Leaf couldn't blame him; unlike the other lakes, the water here was moving as it should be. It was one of the many minor yet beautiful things that had driven Leaf's resolve even more… He wouldn't let this place stay frozen after he took its Time Gear.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?"

Azelf jumped when he heard Leaf's voice. He smiled as he turned around, however, and the guardian nodded as Leaf approached.

"It is," he replied softly. "It's surprising how little I thought of it before, but…"

He looked away, though, and Leaf cringed. While Azelf wasn't showing it much, it felt like he nervous.

"Look, ah…I'm sorry about last time," Leaf mumbled.

Azelf chuckled. "No, don't worry about it; I was being too stubborn. You were only doing what you thought you had to do."

It was a weak justification; they both knew how badly Leaf had hurt him. There was nothing that could be done about it now, of course… Leaf still shuddered, though, thinking about what he'd done to Team Shadow as well.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Azelf vanished. He reappeared in the middle of the lake, reaching down for the Time Gear. When he handed it to Leaf, a deep rumbling sounded from the back of the chamber as the lake stilled. Leaf had to steady himself as he put the Time Gear in his bag.

"I warned the dungeon's residents that this would happen," Azelf shouted over the din. "Let's get out of here!"

He put a hand on Leaf's shoulder, and his eyes started to glow. Soon enough, they materialized outside the cave, and Leaf sighed. Though he'd gotten used to teleporting, between Celebi, Jirachi, and his fondness for Escape Orbs, Leaf didn't exactly like it.

Azelf waited until he saw some of Crystal Cave's Pokémon exit the dungeon before he looked back at Leaf. Despite the fact that they'd been prepared, Azelf was clearly relieved to see they were making it out safely.

"Go," he said seriously. "We're counting on you."

"I know. I won't let you down!"

Leaf nodded over his shoulder as he dashed away. Anticipation ran high as he started making his way back towards Treasure Town.

He was finally doing what he was supposed to have done last time, and now there was only one thing left to accomplish.