"Thought the parting hurts, the rest is in your hands!"
Of all the things Grovyle could have said, that was, in Sol's opinion, the most dickish move ever. Eevee may have believed in heartbreakingly sweet, that Grovyle was saying how he hated to be parted from his friend a second time but would make the sacrifice for the greater good. But Eevee didn't know the whole story. To Sol's ears, he was basically saying this:
"I'm going to heroically sacrifice myself in order to guilt you into continuing on. It's up to you to save the world and I don't care whether you're feeling conflicted over the whole 'disappearing' thing or not."
How dare he do something like that! Why couldn't have Grovyle just told her earlier? What the Hell was Sol supposed to do now?
Sol glared at the temple ruins below, getting smaller and smaller as the Rainbow Stoneship floated up to Temporal Tower suspended in the air above the Hidden Land. In any other case Sol would have been somewhat concerned with flying on a thick, stone disk that spat out rainbows, but at the moment she was far too pissed off to care.
"I hate you."
Those had been Sol's last words to Grovyle. And she didn't regret them one bit. Sol was beginning to wonder if all she had ever been to Grovyle was a means to an end, even back when she was human. Had he ever cared? Or was he just like Dusknoir, using her for her Dimensional Scream?
"Do you think he'll be all right? Grovyle?" Eevee asked and sat down next to Sol. She shrugged but didn't say anything. "He cared about you a lot, but now... now he won't be able to see you again... I don't now what I'd do if that happened to me."
Sol's heart nearly stopped.
"You'd manage ok."
"No, I wouldn't. You're my best friend! What would I be without you?"
"You'd still be Eevee," Sol said, trying hard not to cry.
This wasn't fair! Sol didn't want to just disappear! She had known from the start that this mission would be dangerous and there was a good chance she wouldn't be coming back, but that slim chance of success was all she needed to keep going. She might win or she might die, either way she could fight for victory. But she couldn't fight against this.
She stared up at Temporal Tower with a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. Would she be able to go through with this? Would she be willing to press on knowing she was dead, win or lose? Sol wanted nothing more than to turn back.
No one ever told her how long it would be before Temporal Tower collapsed completely. Grovyle said it was soon, but soon compared to what? His knowledge would have come from Celebi, and to a Pokémon such as her, decades could pass in the blink of an eye. For all Sol knew, she could live a full and happy life before the planet became paralysed. And the worst part was, she knew Eevee would turn back if she asked him to. He'd be plagued with guilt for the rest of his life, but he would let Temporal Tower collapse.
"Are you ok?"
Sol looked at Eevee and forced a smile.
"I'll be fine. Looks like we're almost there."
Temporal Tower loomed ahead of them, dark blue stone reaching up to the sky above. The Rainbow Stoneship approached a narrow, rocky path that floated in the air. There was a grinding noise as it slowed then came to a stop, and Eevee and Sol stepped out onto the path.
"Whoa. The top of the Tower's glowing red. What could it be?"
"Rule of thumb, anything that glows red is bad," Sol said. "If I had to guess, I'd say we'd better hurry up before we have a pissed off primal Dialga on our hands."
They followed the path to the base of the tower. The red glow was no longer confined to the top as pulsing lines criss crossed the tower like giant veins. With hesitant steps they entered Temporal Tower's dark interior.
It was cold inside and their footsteps echoed ominously. Sol cast her eyes about nervously. She could have sworn someone was watching her, but no matter how many times she checked no one was there. It was as if the shadows themselves were stalking the two, melting into the dark to remain hidden. Sol shuddered at the thought.
"Why do we always end up somewhere dark and scary?" Sol muttered. "Why couldn't Temporal Tower have been built in a sunny meadow or beside a beach resort?"
"A beach resort? Really?"
"Hey, even legendary time deities need a vacation every now and again. Besides, he'll be a lot less intimidating if you picture him lounging on a beach chair and drinking out of a coconut with a little umbrella."
Eevee laughed. "Where do you even come up with these things?"
"I don't. The voices in my head do."
He rolled his eyes. "When we get back, I'm getting you tested. I'm pretty sure now that you're insane."
Sol's smile froze in place. She wouldn't be getting back. As soon as history was changed she'd be gone. How was she supposed to tell Eevee?
Damn it, Grovyle! This is all your fault! Something like this should have been revealed before we set off, not moments before we're done!
Suddenly, there was a rumbling from deep within the tower. The walls began to shake and clouds of dust fell from the ceiling.
"Run!"
Sol covered her mouth and nose with her arm and ran through the thick fog of dislodged dirt and dust. Tremor after tremor rocked the tower.
"Look out!" Sol cried.
There was a crack and crash as part of the ceiling caved in close behind them. Fine debris filled the air and it was getting hard to see. Was the whole tower about to come down on their heads?
"Move, move, move!"
Eevee and Sol sprinted up through the tower. The tremors eventually calmed, but Sol didn't trust them not to start up again. They kept running until they reached they very top of the tower and into the open air.
For the most part Temporal Pinnacle was empty. A columns, most broken, lined the path to the far end where a short set of steps lead up to a wall inscribed with glowing runes. They seemed oddly familiar to Sol, though she didn't know-
"Knowledge is key. It is what sets us apart. Our minds are uniquely suited to understand what others could never hope to grasp, and that is why we are superior. Yet, look at this mess!"
Sol scowled at the instructor as he walked amidst the chalk symbols she had so carefully and painstakingly drawn on the smooth stone floor.
"The spatial runes are passable, but look at this! One whole time rune in the whole arrangement and you managed to ruin it completely! I expected more from a Wanderer recruit."
Sol heard her classmates giggling. She glared at all of them, but they just smirked back.
"Start the whole thing over," the instructor told her.
She bit back a complaint and simply nodded. With a damp cloth in one hand she erased two hours of hard work in the span of a minute.
Sol blinked and the memory was gone. What the Hell was that about? Every time she remembered something her past seemed weirder and weirder.
"Look, Sol!" Eevee exclaimed. "On that wall! It looks like there's spaces for the Time Gears to go! We need to hurry!"
Eevee ran forwards, Sol just a step behind. She supposed her past no longer mattered if she was going to die soon anyways. Was death the same as not existing?
A deafening roar shook her from her thoughts. A figure swooped down, big enough to blot out the sun and cover them in shadows. The ground shook as it landed and Sol was knocked off her feet. Her eyes widened as she beheld Dialga, the massive Pokémon radiating power and, to her great distress, anger.
"SO IT IS YOU!" he bellowed. "YOU SEEK THE DESTRUCTION OF TEMPORAL TOWER!"
"What?!" Eevee cried. "You're wrong! We-"
"I WILL NOT LISTEN TO YOUR LIES! YOU DARE BRING RUIN TO MY TOWER?! I WILL SHOW YOU NO MERCY!"
"What do we do?" Eevee whispered. "Time failing must be effecting his mind, turning him into Primal Dialga! Does that mean we're too late?"
"Not if I have any say in it," Sol growled. "I'll distract him. Try to sneak around and put the Time Gears in place."
"No one can beat Dialga in a fight!"
"I don't have to win, I just have to keep him occupied."
"Sol-"
"Go! Before it's too late!"
Eevee hesitated, then nodded. Sol faced Dialga as Eevee slowly stepped towards cover amid the broken columns.
"If you're so intent on destroying me, stop talking about it and just do it already!" Sol yelled and took a few bold steps towards Dialga.
"MOST ARE NOT SO EAGER TO MEET THEIR DOOM!"
"Most aren't nearly as pissed off as I am! Everywhere I go there's some dumbass legendary who tries to kill me and I'm fucking sick of it! Not a one of you fuckers knows how to ask questions! Add that to all the other shit I've been through today and I really don't give a flying fuck anymore! So stop yapping like a little bitch and bring it ON!"
Dialga roared. Sol roared right back at him. She was past caring at this point. If she was going to die she wasn't about to spend her last moments being cautious and afraid.
Chunks of rock and stone ripped up from the ground, encased in purple energy. Dialga roared again and sent the rocks hurtling towards Sol. She ran towards them, then at the last second dove onto the floor and slid underneath them. She jumped back up to her feet and continued running without pause.
Sol raised her staff high and brought the bladed end plunging down into Dialga's foot. He roared again and tried to shake her off, then brought his head down to bite her in two when that failed.
Sol didn't even flinch. She raised a glowing hand and shot off a Focus Blast, hitting him directly in the face. Dialga was thrown into a rage. He roared and stomped his and whipped around his tail, completely destroying several of the already crumbling pillars.
Sol ripped her staff out of his flesh and jumped off his foot. She ran back several paces and shot off two more Focus Blasts in quick succession, this time hitting his side.
Dialga's head whipped around to face her, eyes glowing with anger. He opened his mouth wide. Instead of roaring a pulsing ball of energy formed within. Guessing what was to come, Sol made a dash for the unbroken pillars. Before she reached them, the ball whipped past, missing Sol but blowing her intended cover to bits.
There was nowhere to run. For a moment it was oddly silent on top of Temporal Tower. Sol turned around slowly to see Dialga's massive red eye staring at her intently, close enough to touch. Rocks and stones floated in the air around her. The moment she made a move, they would crush her.
"THE END OF THIS BATTLE WAS INEVITABLE. A SINGLE RIOLU HAS NO CHANCE AGAINST ME!"
"I'm not a Riolu," Sol said defiantly.
Dialga paused for a moment. "SO IT WOULD APPEAR. BUT IN THE END, IT DOES NOT MATTER."
With a speed unexpected from such a large Pokémon, Dialga's leg kicked Sol over and a heavy paw pinned her to the ground.
"YOU WILL STILL DIE."
"You can't kill what never existed," Sol said quietly. She twisted her head to the side to look at Eevee, frozen in place on top of the steps with the last Time Gear in hand. "Do it, Eevee! Do it now!"
Fighting through concern for his partner, he turned back to the wall and fitted the Time Gear into the slot. The moment it was in place, the whole Tower began to rumbled and shake. Purple bolts of lightning flashed in the sky and struck the floor around them.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Dialga bellowed.
Great cracks appeared in the floor. Eevee screamed as a bolt of lighting hit the ground near his feet and he tumbled down the steps. Dialga roared and took to the skies once again. Sol didn't do anything. She stayed where she was, laying on the ground, watching the dark, swirling storm clouds above.
"If I never existed, will anyone even remember me?" she whispered to herself.
A great flash of bright white light consumed her vision, then it faded to black.
...
"I must say, I'm quite surprised you actually managed to succeed. But even in success you mess things up."
Sol didn't bother to respond. She knew this was a dream. That was the only explanation as why the black clad human appeared before her, familiar blue eyes looking out from behind the bars of her cell.
"I had plans. Nothing huge, but they were important. But the chance has passed me by, all because of you."
"What does it matter?" Sol snapped. "We're going to disappear anyway."
H-Sol smirked. "How cute. You speak as if you actually know what you're talking about. I will enjoy watching your demise."
"You are me. My demise will be your demise, too."
"I am not you," H-Sol said, all humor replaced by anger. "I'm not nearly as incompetent as you. Now leave. Enjoy what little time you have left and leave me in peace."
"You are such a bitch."
"Leave," H-Sol hissed.
Sol's surroundings began to blur together in a swirl of grey and black. Then she woke.
...
"Sol! Please, wake up!"
Sol cracked open an eye, and was greeted by the sight of a bright blue sky, wispy white clouds, and a shining yellow sun. The sudden light hurt her eyes, but she couldn't bring herself to look away. It seemed to her to be the most beautiful and wonderful sight that had ever existed.
"You're awake! Thank goodness! You wouldn't move at all! You had me terrified!"
Sol smiled up at the small, four legged creature with brown and white fur and long ears. His big eyes were filled with concern.
"Didn't this happen before?" Sol asked. "This feels really familiar."
Sol shook herself and struggled to standing. She was still on top of Temporal Tower, now looking in much worse shape. Sol was surprised that the tower was still standing at all.
"What happened?"
"YOU HAVE RETURNED THE TIME GEARS TO THEIR RIGHTFUL PLACE, AND TIME HAS BEEN RIGHTED."
Sol spun around to see Dialga standing amidst the ruins, looking no less massive and intimidating.
"YOU HAVE NO REASON TO BE ALARMED. I HAVE REGAINED MY REASON. TEMPORAL TOWER HAS TAKEN HEAVY DAMAGE, BUT IT WILL SURVIVE. AND IT IS ALL THANKS TO YOU."
"Does... does that mean we managed to change history?" Sol asked.
"YES. YOU HAVE PREVENTED THE PLANET'S PARALYSIS. TIME HAS RESTARTED IN PLACES WHERE IT HAD STOPPED. THE WORLD'S PEACE... HAS BEEN RESTORED."
Eevee let out an excited whoop. Sol smiled thinly. So it was done.
"ALLOW ME TO THANK YOU, AND APOLOGIZE FOR MY ACTIONS. I WAS NOT IN MY RIGHT MIND. YOU HAD THE COURAGE TO STAND UP TO ME EVEN AS I RAGED OUT OF CONTROL. NOT MANY COULD HAVE DONE THE SAME. THANK YOU."
"Yeah..." Sol said, looking at the destruction around them. "I don't suppose you could give us a lift back down? I really don't relish the thought of walking down a crumbling tower. We already almost got crushed on the way up."
Eevee winced at her boldness, but Dialga laughed, a rumbling sound akin to thunder. "OF COURSE. IT IS THE LEAST I CAN DO. THE RAINBOW STONESHIP SHOULD STILL BE OPERABLE, AND LAPRAS WILL BE WAITING FOR YOU BACK IN THE HIDDEN LAND."
...
Sol felt as if every breath she took was stolen. She waited for the moment when she would start to disappear. She wanted to ask Dialga if he could somehow stop it from happening, since he was the Temporal Pokémon, after all. But she figured he had to already know what was going to happen to her. If he was willing and able to do anything about it, he would have said something.
They were dropped off at the bottom of the tower. Ruined bits of stone and masonry littered the base, and whole chunks of the tower were missing. Sol was glad they didn't have to climb through it.
As they walked down the path back towards the Rainbow Stoneship, Sol felt physically ill from the nervousness. But nothing happened. For a brief moment she allowed herself to believe that Dusknoir and Grovyle had been mistaken.
Then the weakness set in.
At first she thought it was just from all the battling and walking she had done. But it grew steadily worse. It felt as if she was wading through water with lead weights attached to her legs. Then it became harder for her to breathe and her entire body felt heavy. It got to the point where her legs could no longer support her and she fell to her knees.
"Sol! What happened? Are you ok?!"
"I-I'm sorry," Sol said. her breathing was becoming laboured and talking was difficult. It was like she just couldn't force enough air into her lungs. "I would have told you sooner, but I only just found out myself... Dusknoir told me, as well as Grovyle... With history changed, I'll never have been born..."
"What? What do you mean?!"
"I'm disappearing... but everything will be ok... If I was never born, then you'll probably won't even be able to remember me... I speak from experience when I say you can't miss what you don't remember."
"Sol!" Eevee cried. "You... You can't!"
"I don't really have a choice in the matter..." Sol wheezed. Why was it so damned hard to breathe? And her head... it was getting hard to think... where was she, again? Was she supposed to be doing something?
"I-I can't do this without you!"
Sol blinked. What was this little creature before her? Why was it crying?
"Sol!"
Who was Sol? Was she Sol? Or was the creature Sol?
"Don't leave me!"
It looked so sad. She didn't want the creature to be sad. So she did the only thing she could think to do. She hugged it tightly. It hugged back, sobbing into her shoulder. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again she saw something that made her want to scream.
A beast made entirely of shadows floated in the air, watching them with cold eyes. She tried to scramble back but was too weak to do much more than fall backwards.
"Sol... I'll never forget you," the brown furred creature said.
The shadow lurked behind the creature. She wanted to warn it, to tell it to flee, but nothing came out. She was quickly fading away, her entire body transparent like a ghost's.
Why can't I breathe?
Then she was gone.
...
The shadow watched with a fierce hatred as the Riolu disappeared into nothing. She had meddled in his plans and deserved all she got. The Eevee cried pathetically like a child over a lost toy. His anguish was amusing to watch but it was not enough.
Sol had been correct. It would be soon that the time line would catch up with itself and erase all trace of her. All would forget, except for those with the knowledge to protect their memories such as himself, and their minds would replace the gaps with their own explanation of how things happened.
So the Eevee's sorrow would only be temporary. The shadow didn't like that. He wanted to watch him suffer for what he did. The shadow wanted to draw out his pain for as long as possible. But how?
Different ideas flashed through the shadow's mind. He chose the simplest, subtlest one. Those almost always proved to be the most effective.
The shadow would make it so the Eevee would never forget. He would remember events as they truly happened without any gap filling. Not only would he remember what was lost, but no one else would be able to recall Sol ever existing. How long before his own teammates turned against him? How long before he doubted his own sanity? How long before he was driven mad by his memories of Sol and having no one believe him?
Oh, yes. That would work nicely. With an evil smile the shadow began his work.
And so ends part 1. I hope everyone enjoyed it. It may be a while before I start on the second half of this fic. I want to finish up some of my other stories which have been seeing some neglect due in large part to this story, but that shouldn't take too long since they only have a few chapters to go.
If you're wondering about the whole memory thing, it never made sense to me that if people from the future disappeared because they never existed, why were people still able to remember them? How do you remember something that never existed?
Unnamed Generic Guest: You wanted Darkrai, and there you go. I love writing evil characters. They are just so much fun. I would like to thank you for mentioning him in your review because he completely slipped my mind for a bit. I planned to have Eevee remember Sol, but was trying to figure out a plausible explanation for why. This sounds a whole lot better than 'the power of friendship'.
darkrai6543: I feel like I've been kind of mean to Grovyle... Oh well, I'll make up for it when I do the prequel. And I look forward to the Palkia-Sol plotline as well. I just love conflict.
Mister L: Villains are always my favorite characters in just about everything. It's probably why I love playing Overlord. Very few games have you playing as the bad guy.
FlameUser64: You bring up some interesting points. I'll think about them.
I was surprised at how many people spoke up about the special episode. A couple left comments in their review, and a whole lot more sent me PMs about things I could do to keep Dusknoir in character. I really wasn't expecting that. If you all really want it that badly, maybe I'll write something up. No promises, though.