Author's Note: Here's one that stems entirely from the fact that we have two party members who hail from the Northern Desert. It makes sense that Rin and Iris would be the ones to figure out how to get past the quicksand pools, really. (Also, I guess this would logically take place right before the Grimy Food chapter.)

Quicksand Desert

Claire frowned as she looked at the desert stretched out in front of her. They'd come out here like Dusknoir had told them, but…it looked like they'd reached a dead end. All she could see were large pools of quicksand. If there was anything past that, they'd have a hard time reaching it.

"What should we do, Claire?" Felix asked anxiously. "I don't see any way to get around that quicksand…"

"Yeah…" Claire agreed, her frown deepening. "If there weren't these big rocks out here, we could figure out how far to the left and right they go, but…"

She gestured helplessly at the large boulders off to their sides. Finally, Claire just shook her head. It didn't look like there was anything else they could do.

"Maybe we should just go back to the guild," she sighed. "Maybe someone else will have had better luck than we did?"

Felix sighed as well. "Yeah… I mean, it's disappointing that we didn't find a Time Gear, but…maybe someone else did?"

"Hey, sorry we took so long!"

As Claire turned around, she saw Iris and Rin approaching them. They had gotten behind when Claire had asked them to look for extra supplies, but they'd come back empty-handed. Iris shrugged as she popped an apple out of her bag and started munching on it.

"So, did you figure out what to do?" she said between bites.

Claire shook her head. "No. We're going back. We should probably tell everyone there's no way forward here."

Iris and Rin looked at her, and then slowly glanced at each other. Claire blinked; did they know something she didn't? If they had any ideas, it would be helpful to hear… Eventually, they both just shrugged and shook their heads.

"Well, I guess we have been out here for a while," Rin said. "Maybe we should go back either way."

"Yeah, if we stay out too late, we'll run out of stuff." Iris shrugged as she finished off her apple. "And we can't have that! Let's go."

They all nodded and started making their way out of the desert. Having some food and rest sounded good, Claire admitted. Still…she couldn't help looking over at Rin and Iris every so often as they walked.

What had they been thinking about earlier?

The next day, Team Shadow returned to quicksand pools. As it turned out, none of the other recruits had any luck finding the Time Gears, either. Maybe they'd all just…overlooked something? It was possible.

Claire frowned again as she looked at the area in front of her. She was getting that nagging feeling again… While the area had felt familiar yesterday, it really did now. And she'd figured out how to get past the Groudon statue before… What if she could do something like that now?

"Any ideas, Claire?" Felix asked.

"Well, I'm not sure, but…maybe I could get a Dimensional Scream?" she replied uncertainly. "If I can just find a good place to do it, then…"

"Why would you need to do that?" Iris blinked. "I mean…don't you just jump?"

Claire stared at her incredulously. "What?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you just…jump," Rin added.

Felix's mouth was agape. "Jump? Where?"

"Uh, into the quicksand?" Iris replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Claire and Felix stared at her for a few seconds before turning back to the pools in question. It sounded completely ridiculous, but…it was true that they had no other ideas. If there wasn't anything beneath the sand, though…

"Are you sure about that?" Claire asked.

"Um, yeah! I'm completely sure." Iris nodded. "We always heard there was a hidden cave out here somewhere. Every once in a while, we'd get Pokémon passing through our part of the desert who said it was beneath the ground. It must be out here!"

"We were going to tell you yesterday, but…you seemed pretty set on going back to the guild, so…" Rin shrugged as she trailed off.

"I would've tried it if you'd said something! But…I guess we can do it now, then."

Iris grinned. "All right, let's go!"

Claire took a deep breath as the four of them approached the nearest quicksand pool. It sounded counter-intuitive, but…it was the only idea they had. And it made sense that Rin and Iris would have some clues on the area… If anyone knew how to proceed, it would be them.

She closed her eyes and jumped forward, and she coughed as she started sinking down into the sand. Claire covered her mouth, trying to keep too much sand from getting into it. How much longer would they be dragged along like this?

Finally, she felt some air around her lower paws. The next thing she knew, Claire had crashed down onto solid ground, and she winced before straightening up. Soon enough, her three teammates fell down beside her, and Iris looked around proudly. They'd landed in a small cave with piles of sand scattered across the ground, and there was a hallway extending off to the side.

"I knew it!" she cheered. "I knew we were right! Now let's go find that Time Gear."

Claire grinned and nodded, and the four of them quickly scampered towards the hallway. She couldn't believe she hadn't thought of this yesterday, but it didn't matter now. As long as they were here, they had a chance of stopping Grovyle, and they needed to investigate while they could.