Author's Note: This chapter was fun for several reasons. Iris being Iris, a small joke at Dusknoir's expense, and, of course, the Guild's recruits are always great. There are also a couple of small moments here that vaguely reference Unwound Time, though they're nothing too specific.
Chapter Two: Explanations
"Well, um, we can…we can explain," Felix offered awkwardly.
Honestly, they'd known full well that Darkrai was something they'd have to explain to Claire when they saw her again. Still, it had been difficult to come up with a good explanation. Felix wasn't entirely comfortable with Darkrai, either, but he'd at least had some time to get used to him. He could only imagine how Claire was feeling right now.
Bruce, Rin, and Iris all looked at each other uncomfortably, while Darkrai merely blinked at them. It was clear he was picking up on the mood of the scene—heck, even before now, it was obvious he'd noticed their general discomfort around him. In spite of everything, Felix did feel guilty about that part, but…what exactly could they do about it now?
"Well, listen, we can't just stand here!" Iris groaned. "Felix, Claire, come over here for a second. We're gonna talk about this."
Claire nodded as she followed them towards the far side of the crossroads. From her unusually thin-lipped, forced smile, it was clear she expected a really good explanation for this. And Felix knew they had one—he just hoped that he could phrase it well enough.
"Okay, listen," Iris whispered dramatically once they had gathered together. "I know this looks bad, but we recently found him wandering around when we went on a job at Miracle Sea. And we figured, 'Someone's gotta watch him,' right?"
"And, you know, it felt like he didn't remember much, if anything," Felix added. "So it seemed like Palkia was right when he thought Darkrai would lose his memory, too."
"It could be an act," Claire pointed out, briefly glancing over her shoulder. "I mean, he's tricked us before, right?"
"Yeah, we thought about that, but…" Iris frowned. "He hasn't done anything yet. It's been a couple of weeks, so I kinda figured if he still had his memories, he would have acted on them by now."
"And besides, we thought it'd be better to go ahead and grab him before he finds someone else. If it turns out that we're wrong, it'd be good to have him where we can watch him in case he needs to be stopped," Felix finished.
Iris nodded. "So that's it, basically! …Ooh, I feel like such a Dusknoir, now that we're saying it again."
"Well, you know, speaking of him, it turns out that he's actually…" Claire paused, hand half-raised in an almost-thoughtful gesture. "…Well, not 'great,' but 'pretty okay' after all. And really, taking that page out of his book is probably a good thing in this situation either way. But…"
She frowned again, biting her lip. It was plain that she still wasn't comfortable, but she seemed to realize they had a point. What else could they do? What could anyone do, honestly?
"You know, 'the pretty okay Dusknoir' doesn't have that nice of a ring to it," Iris said, tapping her chin. "So you're gonna have to tell me the story on that later!"
Well, thank Arceus for Iris, Felix thought. Even with some of her usual shenanigans, she was good at providing a distraction when it was necessary. Claire actually smiled again—and even giggled a little—at her comment. Felix sighed, starting to feel relieved. He was sure they'd have more talking to do later, but…at least things were okay for now?
"It's actually a pretty interesting story!" Claire nodded. "But you guys were about to go on a job, right?"
"Mm-hm!" Iris glanced over her paper again. "It's a request to go explore a place called 'World Abyss.' Someone in Spinda's Café just gave this to us, and since I'd never heard of it before, I thought it sounded pretty cool!"
…Yeah, that was peak Iris, all right. She'd probably gotten distracted on her way to the Guild, and then she'd just accepted the first offer that was "interesting" enough. Felix shook his head, though he smiled when Claire laughed again. At least she was in a better mood, so that was an improvement. Hopefully that would make it easier to go over any questions she had later.
"So," Iris went on, tucking the note back into her bag, "we better get on that. I'm gonna go grab Rin and you-know-who, and we can talk more when we get back."
"Yeah, I'd really like to catch up, but I figured you guys would have stuff to do today," Claire admitted. "Since I am kinda coming in on short notice and all… Maybe we can have a free day tomorrow, if we can't do very much tonight?"
"Yeah, I don't know how long this is gonna take, so that sounds good," Iris agreed. "So, that's the plan, then! Off we go!"
The Grass-Type strode back over towards their teammates. After a bit of muttering, Rin and Darkrai followed her. They both glanced at Claire—Rin with a concerned expression, and Darkrai in confusion—and then the trio was off.
Felix sighed again as he watched them go. All things considered, that had gone pretty well… Still, he was realizing how bizarre this situation truly was. Darkrai wasn't just any old former enemy; he'd nearly destroyed the world twice, and he was responsible for the way Claire's home had once been.
He really did seem to be genuine with the amnesia, though. Felix knew Darkrai had been an exceptional actor, but they'd managed to break through all his illusions and lies eventually. If he was going to trick them again, surely they would've noticed by now… He'd had long enough that 'trying to get their guard down' didn't seem plausible, either.
But, at any rate…he was getting distracted. Felix and Bruce had intended to get a job or two done today as well. They'd have to get going soon if they wanted to do that, and he glanced at Claire with an admittedly-nervous grin.
"Well, um, we were going to do some jobs today, too. I'm not sure if you'd want to come along, though," he offered. "I mean, can you fight as well as you used to? And it might be fun to see the Guild members, too…"
Claire sighed as well, but she seemed to be relaxing slightly. Felix was sure she still had questions, and he'd do his best to answer them later if she felt like talking. Her grip on her bag's strap had loosened, though, and she almost had a smile on her face. Finally, she nodded, and Claire glanced up at the stairs before looking back at him.
"I can fight a little bit," she said. "Not as well as before, but I can handle myself if I need to. And it would be really nice to see the Guild back in working condition."
Felix and Bruce blinked at each other. Now that he thought about it, the Wigglytuff Guild probably didn't exist in the future. Still, the phrasing seemed kind of odd… Naturally, Claire would have more experience with the future than they did, but it sounded like she knew something specific.
"What does that mean?" Bruce wondered.
"Oh, uh…" Claire idly tugged at some of her hair. "I'll tell you later. Let's go look for something!"
She strode towards the Guild, and Felix and Bruce hurried after her. Now, Felix really had the time to get a good look at her—and his attention was partly drawn because he'd finally noticed how tall she was. Or at least, Claire seemed tall compared to him; Felix had always been on the average size for his species.
While her skin was about as pale as her brother's had been (which made the still-present scar stand out more), her eyes were darker and her hair was lighter, if he was remembering correctly. Claire's hair also had a wave to it that Felix found rather interesting. And she said she'd seen even more variety than that; maybe humans were more akin to Spinda or Unown than "simply" like shiny Pokémon. Though on the other hand, perhaps it shouldn't have surprised him so much… Felix's own father was shiny, after all, so he should've been used to the variety.
He was shaken out of his thoughts when he heard Diglett's voice calling up from the tunnel beneath the grate. "It's Infernape and Glameow and—and, uh…"
"GEEZ, Diglett!" Loudred's shouting was, as usual, audible all the way out here. "It's not LIKE YOU to mess up AGAIN!"
"It's…it's really weird, though!" Diglett replied nervously. "I've never seen any Pokémon like that before!"
"FINE! I'll go out and SEE who's THERE!"
Soon enough, Loudred had appeared in the guild's doorway. He nodded as he looked at Felix and Bruce, and then he squinted upon seeing Claire. His mouth hung open even wider than usual as he tried to process what he was seeing. Felix had to admit his confused expression was funny, and he covered his mouth and tried not to laugh.
"Uh, hi," Claire said awkwardly. "It's me—you know, Claire? I mean, you guys didn't really call me by name very often, but it feels kinda weird to just call me 'Human' or something, even if I'm probably the only one here, so—"
"YEP, you sound like HER," Loudred groaned. "But they're not gonna BELIEVE this! I better go down and TELL everyone!"
He scrambled back inside, and his yell of "Hey, EVERYONE! You HAVE to SEE this!" echoed up the ladder after him. Claire, Bruce, and Felix glanced at each other before shrugging and heading inside. Well, everyone was going to see them anyway, right? They may as well go in and make things easier.
Felix went in first, followed by Bruce and finally Claire. For a moment, Felix wondered if Claire could still fit through the entryway… Then again, there were species of Pokémon who averaged around her size or bigger. If the Guild could accommodate them, surely she would be fine.
They arrived on the first basement level around the same time everyone else got there. There were already a couple Pokémon present; Chimecho was at her podium, and Sunflora and Corphish were checking the outlaw board. Soon enough, the rest of the Guild's recruits—including Chatot and Wigglytuff himself—had piled into the room.
"Wow, are you really friendly-friend Persian?" Wigglytuff gasped. "You look so different!"
"Pokémon change all the time, Guildmaster," Chatot pointed out. "But, still…even then, we've never seen a human at the Guild before. You…are a human, yes?"
Oops, Felix thought. He wasn't sure if that had ever come up, even back when they'd had to explain the whole 'Claire came from the future to save everyone' situation. Of course, he and the rest of Team Shadow knew, but he didn't think they'd ever directly told this to everyone else.
Claire nodded. "Yep—though I never saw any come through Treasure Town while I was back here, either. I know of one or two places where some might be, but I guess they don't come out very often."
"Yes, yes…" Chatot idly tapped his chin with his wing. "I heard a report once, a long time ago… Apparently, there are small colonies of humans out there, but it's rare that they interact with Pokémon."
"I wonder why that is," Heliona mused. The Vulpix grinned suddenly and added, "That just means you have to come visit us a lot, though! I mean, we want to see you a lot anyway, but then you can tell us all about humans, and—"
"Slow down, Heliona." Sydney the Absol, one of her two teammates, rolled his eyes. "You can't throw that at her all at once!"
Their third team member, Leon the Shinx, smiled nervously. "It is nice to see you again, though. And I'd like to hear more about humans, too… If you feel like it, of course."
"That sounds fun," Claire agreed. "Most of the stuff I know about humans comes from how we had to do things in the future, though. I don't really know a whole lot about humans here in the past… But if we weren't about to go do some stuff, I'd try and find out some more, since I do have an idea or two."
Felix guiltily rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I mean, if you wanted to go look anywhere specific, I don't want to hold you back—"
"No, no, I already agreed to come along with you guys. It's fine." Claire waved a hand dismissively. "Though I'm gonna be here for a few days, so that's always a possibility, too. If we don't come back and visit the Guild again, of course."
He nodded. "Right, of course. I'll go ahead and start looking at the job lists if you want to keep talking?"
Claire nodded as well, and he went over to the regular request board. Felix didn't want to pick something too overwhelming, but Claire said she could take care of herself… Maybe he could find some kind of mid-ranked job. That sounded like a good compromise.
As he looked, Felix could hear the rest of the Guild still chattering at Claire. Diglett was curious about her feet—she was wearing shoes, Claire said, so it was really best to remember what those looked like. That only got Diglett more curious, so Claire obligingly pulled off her shoe—and another layer she called a sock.
By the time Felix had picked out a job and headed back over to the group, Claire had already covered her feet again. She looked up curiously as Felix approached, noticing the request in his hands.
"Oh, are you ready to go now?" she asked.
"Yeah, I found a job at Amp Plains," he said, glancing down to double-check the details. "A Combusken wants someone to find a lost Pecha Scarf."
"Sounds good to me." Claire looked over at Bruce. "Is that fine?"
Bruce nodded. "It's been a while since we've been to Amp Plains, I think, so it could be fun to take something there for a change."
Felix tucked the note into his bag before looking around at everyone. "All right, well…we need to go now, but we can always come back and hang out tomorrow or something, if you want?"
The recruits gave various cheers and nods of agreement. Then, the three of them were off—with Claire again waiting for the other two to go first. There was still plenty of room for all of them, but she did need a little more space than Felix and Bruce did.
Once they were outside again, Felix gave one more glance in Claire's direction. Now that everyone was in a better mood, he was even happier to have her back again. And, really, they had plenty of other things they could talk about, besides the obvious (and possibly unpleasant) topic.
Now they just had to get their current job done, and Felix was genuinely curious to see how that went. It would make for an interesting experience even if it hadn't been suggested as a distraction… Felix nodded to himself as they approached the crossroads.
Yeah, this would be fun, and he decided he was going to make the most of it.