Chapters like these never turn out like I planned... Hope it's all right!

Reviews are awesome and great motivators, just so you know. Hint, hint.

Sol inhabited a realm of opposites. It was deafeningly loud while eerily silent, dazzlingly bright while completely dark, heavy as lead while lighter than air, warm and comforting while cold and frightening. Layer upon layer of contradictories that made no sense at all but at the same time did.

Sol didn't like this. She didn't like it all. She tried to move, get away from it all, but discovered that there was nothing of her to move. Without a form, she just existed amid it all. Then she was scared, and then she was terrified.

Was she dead? Was this what death was like, just waves of sensation and feelings she had no control over? As Sol began to panic, her surroundings grew darker, more chaotic, as if she were cast out into the vast ocean during a harsh storm.

She wanted out. She yelled with a nonexistant voice and clawed with nonexistant hands. But everything was made up of the same nothingness, growing darker and darker until it became completely black, the noise screeching in a high pitch while various feelings of fear, pain, loss, sorrow and worry washed over her, feelings originating not from Sol but from the chaos around her.

Calm yourself.

The message floated through the nothingness, coming from someplace beyond. It surprised Sol enough to stop her panic.

Who was that? Did they know what was going on, how to get out of this place? But how was Sol to ask if she didn't so much as have a mouth to voice the question?

As Sol began to think instead of completely freaking out, her surroundings lightened, grew calmer, until they were back to their original state of opposites. It was distracting, all the sensations and feelings hitting her all at once. Sol wished she were someplace more peaceful, where she could actually think-

Snap. Her surroundings suddenly changed like flipping the page of a book, switching from the nothingness to the beach near Treasure Town. It was dusk from the look of it, the sun just beginning to set in the distant horizon, its pinkish light reflecting off the ocean waves that hung suspended and unmoving, as if Sol wasn't really there but was instead looking at an extremely detailed painting.

That was when Sol started to freak out again, scrambling back with a shout only to trip and fall over a sand dune, dimly registering that she once again had a body.

She had to get away, get away from this place of trickery, find somewhere safe-

Snap. The beach was gone, replaced by her room at the guild. Jak and Eevee were there, the latter admiring his relic fragment while the former stood in the corner with her usual expressionless face.

"Eevee! Jak! Something weird is going on!" Sol exclaimed, jumping up from the bed she found herself on.

They didn't react, frozen in place like wax statues. What was going on?!

"They're not real."

Sol's head snapped over to see Uxie floating in the doorway.

Snap. Once again her surroundings changed, turning into the stony clearing where Sol, Eevee and Jak had fought the illusion of Groudon and had first met Uxie.

"Hmm. It would seem you associate me with this place. Unsurprising."

"What is going on! Where are we?!"

"We are currently in a room in the Magnezone Squad Headquarters."

"I... I don't understand."

Uxie was silent for a moment, regarding Sol with a face as cold and emotionless as carved stone.

"It would seem your past self was rather interesting. Most others, especially fighting type

Pokémon, would have been pushed back into their subconscious until the bond was broken... but you, you not only remained aware but managed to manifest yourself... That requires training, even for ghost and psychic types who have natural affinities for such things. For a human to learn is quite the feat, especially given how much effort you would have to put into it, all just to be able to defend yourself against highly unlikely to occur psychic attacks. You may have lost your memories, but it would seem instinct has taken over..."

"What the Hell are you going on about?! I just need to know what's going on without any of your monologues!"

"I'm trying to explain it to you."

"Not very bloody well! Why do I keep teleporting everywhere?! Why is everything frozen in place?! Where am I, cause this sure as Hell isn't reality!"

Snap. The scene changed once more, and Sol found herself standing on a frozen in time river of water in a dim tunnel, faint glimmers of multi coloured light visible from somewhere beneath the surface.

Uxie looked around, curiousity breaking through his usual impassive features.

"You associate this place with fear and panic... interesting..." he murmured to himself, not truly talking to Sol.

"Enough with this 'interesting' business. Just answer my questions!"

"You do not remember. You came to me for the location of the Time Gears, and to prove you could be trusted you let me search through your memories."

"That doesn't explain where we are now."

"I already told you, we are in the Magnezone Squad Headquarters. If you are refering to our current surroundings, that would be your mind. Our at least we're seeing your mind's attempt to make sense of something it can't understand. As for why it keeps changing, that's because your thoughts keep changing and you involuntarily change your surroundings to match your thoughts. You associate me with Fogbound Lake, fear and panic with this place."

So... So Sol was running around inside her own head? How was something like that even possible?

Snap. They were in the Guildmaster's quarters now, but without any other people or furnishings.

"But how can I be here, seeing the inside of my mind while my mind then processes what it sees in my mind? While my mind is, at the same time, focusing on something else? That's like... That's like... That's like something so messed up I can't even think up a good metaphor."

"If you use the word 'like', it becomes a simile, not a metaphor."

"Who cares?! I'm inside my own freakin' mind!"

"If we have that all cleared up, I will return to the matter at hand, assuming your done with switching up your memories and thoughts around while I'm trying to look at them. I had made a lot of progress before you started your tantrum in the subconscious and mixed everything up."

"How do you 'look through' memories?"

"It is a lot simpler when you're not throwing up images like these. The mind is a complicated thing and not easily explained, but I need to get deeper and away from these superficial thoughts."

"Ok. How do we do that?"

"I was already there. It is a lot easier when the mind's owner doesn't gain awareness. But if you just stay calm, don't get emotional, don't think hard about anything, and do what I say, I'll get this done quickly."

Snap. This time they were still at the guild but on the second floor at the outlaw bulletin board. Sol stood beside a frozen Eevee while Uxie stood beside a frozen Chatot.

"Just so you know, I've seen some of your memories. I know what your associating me with right now."

"Right. Awkward. Let's get on with it then."

Like pulling back a curtain, Uxie pushed the scene away to reveal a deep grey fog strangely familiar to Sol yet she couldn't place where she had seen it before.

"So... fog. Not exactly exciting. I'd have expected my mind to be filled with more giant robot laser/sword battles, cool monsters, high speed chases and videos of cats doing people things."

"Please stop talking. It is difficult to concentrate when you ramble on with insanities in a thinly veiled attempt to mask your nervousness."

"Ah, what?"

"I'm inside your mind. The whole purpose of this was so I could see you weren't hiding anything. And to answer that question you're frequently asking yourself, you do often act like a bitch."

"Ok, thanks for that."

There was a period of silence as Sol watched Uxie slowly walk/float along. Occasionally he would reach a hand out to touch the fog, which would coalesce beneath his fingers and ripple like water. Images and memories would flash across Sol's vision whenever he did this, and she got the feeling he was seeing it too but in more detail. He wasn't searching through every single piece, scrutinizing every moment, but rather skimming along the top and searching for anything that stood out.

"It would seem you have nothing to hide, at least from what you can remember," Uxie said after a while. "Many memories, a store that I would have believed impossible for any human to possess, remains hidden."

"You can sense the memories I've lost? Would it be possible for you to help me recover them? And what do you mean by 'believed possible for any human to possess'?"

"Memories can be odd at times, but in general the very old have many memories as well as those who have experienced much. I may not be able to see them but I can tell that they are there, like seeing the outline of something hidden under a blanket. Given how big your store of memories seems to be, and of course taking into account that your not nearly old enough to have such a store, it would wager that your past self was also an explorer of some sort and saw and did much. Or perhaps your Dimensional Scream ability has something to do with it. As for unlocking them... I am unsure. Perhaps, but I would have to go even deeper, and it could have unknown effects."

"Well... we could go deeper and take a look, since we're already here. If it looks bad, we can just go back, right?"

"Your understanding of the mind isn't very accurate, but it is true we can at the very least look. Follow me."

Is there such a thing as distance in the mind? Are thoughts and memories held separately or are they stacked upon each other, eventually becoming so intertwined that they occupy the same space? Or are they like a giant chain, all connected to each with various relations like some venn diagram?

Sol didn't know, and she was fine with that. Some things are better left in the dark, and she didn't think she would ever be able to understand anyway. But what about her past self, as Uxie put it? Did the human Sol have a better grasp of such things? What was this 'training' Uxie talked about?

This was what Sol hated most about her memory loss, that simple not knowing who she was before. If human Sol had been in her position instead of Riolu Sol, would she have done things differently?

As Riolu Sol was about to find out, yes. Definitely yes.

The farther they ventured the denser the fog became until Sol could barely even see Uxie just a few feet in front of her. How he was able to navigate Sol didn't know, and she really hoped he knew where he was going and wasn't wandering about aimlessly.

And then, without warning, they broke through the fog. A long strip of off white ground ran off into the horizon in both directions while thick fog walls ran on either side of the clear area. Directly in the middle was a chain link fence, stretching up impossibly high and reaching out to the horizon on each side.

"This would be the barrier to your memories."

"It's rather... obvious. I'd have thought my mind create something a bit more subtle and symbolic, not throw up a neon sign."

"Again, this is just your mind trying to make sense of something it can't. Come now, let us see if we can find a weak point..."

Uxie approached the fence and followed it, lightly touching the metal barrier at times while murmering something under his breath. Sol followed a few steps behind, both nervous and eager to learn if she would be able to get her memories back.

What had she been like? Kind and compassionate, or an utter bitch like Sol sometimes believed? Brave, cowardly, selfless or selfish? And what had she seen and done before becoming a Riolu? Did she have a family out there, friends?

Somethimg occured to Sol then. What if she did have a whole other life somewhere? What would she do? She couldn't just ditch Eevee and Jak the moment she had another option. And the Time Gear crisis wasn't just going to stop because she got her memories back. If there were people out looking for her, what would she do when she found out?

"Hey, what's that?" Sol asked, pointing to a spot beyond the fence where a black clad figure appeared from out of the fog.

Uxie tilted his head to the side and watched the figure as it ran towards the two.

"I do not know."

The figure got closer and Sol was able to make out more details. It was a young human with long, light brown hair and the same slitted pupils as Sol had. She wore thick black clothing, looking more like some sort of leather armor than regular clothes, with a symbol of intercrossing, multicoloured lines stitched over her heart. A long, white staff hung across her back.

Also, she looked pissed. She glowered at the two through the gate, slowing to an angry march as she approached Sol and Uxie. The human looked set to kill them both, a fierce mixture of anger, hate and loathing in her face.

"Um... Hi?" Sol said, not quite sure how to react.

"Get. Out." the human growled, focusing on Uxie.

"Who are you?" Sol asked, but the human ignored her.

"I'd suspect this to be your past self, or at least how you imagined she would be," Uxie said. "Again, this is your mind trying to make sense of things, so it throws up images from your imagination. You could have been exactly like this, or someone completely opposite."

"I said get out of my head!" Human Sol snarled. It looked like the fence was the only thing keeping her from tearing Uxie to pieces.

"The hostility is probably a result of your nervousness of getting your memories back."

"Well if she's waiting for us on the other side, maybe we should keep the fence up. You know, so we don't end up torn to shreds?"

"She is simply a manifestation of your feelings. Completely harmless."

"I'll show you harmless! Bring down the fence, and we'll see what happens then! Come on, I dare you! And you!" H-Sol turned her anger filled gaze on Sol. "How dare you willingly let someone enter our mind!"

"Hey, don't get mad at me! I need to prove to Uxie that he can trust me with the locations of the Time Gears so we can keep them safe from that thief Grovyle. It's really important, and even Dusknoir is putting his full focus on the case."

H-Sol looked completely stunned, then loathing and contempt returned to her face.

"You idiot! You stupid, clueless, ignorant moron! I'm ashamed to share a name with you, nevermind a brain and body!" She turned back to Uxie who had returned to inspecting the fence. "GET. OUT. OF. MY. HEAD!"

Uxie ignored her, not even glancing over.

"I said. GET OUT!"

Sparks flew, literally. Everything, the fence, the ground, the fog, all erupted with crackles of electricity. Everything began to glow blue, Human Sol brightest of all, and she slammed her hands against the fence. The world exploded in a flash of blue and white, and then it all faded to black.