Author's Note: This chapter is actually a somewhat late addition, and it's fairly minor compared to the overall plot... But I thought it'd be fun to have something from Bruce's point of view, as well as show at least a little bit of how Claire handles things as a human. Also, some things here make more sense if you're familiar with chapters two and three of Unwound Time.

Chapter Three: Working Together

"How are you holding up, Claire?"

Bruce glanced over at her as they ascended the stairs to the second floor. She seemed to be doing well, apart from running out of breath more quickly than they did. Fortunately, Claire had brought plenty of throwing items with her, and she'd been able to chip in with them during the few fights they'd had so far.

"Okay, I think," she replied. "It's been a while since I last did a lot of exploring as a human, but it's coming back to me."

He could see Felix nodding ahead of them. The Infernape was leading them—while Claire was still their "official" leader, she'd agreed that it made more sense to let one of them be in charge for now. (They might want to change their records, now that Bruce thought about it, but they hadn't really had time to sit down and discuss things. Besides, they probably shouldn't do that without Claire's input, either.)

At any rate, Felix paused and let them catch up before heading towards the next hallway. He glanced over his shoulder at them as he spoke.

"Yeah, I feel bad for saying this now, but…I was kind of worried about you before," he admitted. "I guess I didn't really need to, though. I know it's still early, but you're doing pretty well!"

"No offense taken," Claire replied, shrugging. "You guys do have a lot more…easily-accessible ways to defend yourself, I guess? But I had to get used to fighting a lot before we changed the future, too."

Well, at least she wasn't too upset about that, Bruce thought. …Either of those things, really. He supposed the future being better meant she had less reason to be sad about it, at any rate. Besides, any practice she'd had before was clearly working out for her now.

"Anyway," she went on as they arrived in another room, "there's something I've been meaning to ask. Bruce, are your sisters in an exploration team, by any chance?"

"Oh, Cecilia and Flora? Yeah, they made one of their own shortly after I joined you guys," he replied. "Why do you ask?"

He'd mentioned them a couple times before, and Bruce had done his best to write letters to his family after joining Team Shadow. Unfortunately, they hadn't had the chance to set up any big visits yet, but Bruce was still keeping in touch with them decently enough. Still, he was kind of surprised Claire had brought it up—mostly due to the exact reason that she hadn't gotten to meet them yet.

"Oh, well, you know…" She shrugged again. "It's just that you've brought them up before, and…"

"This doesn't have anything to do with what you said about the Guild earlier, does it?"

Felix paused before rounding the next corner so he could pop the question. Bruce had noticed the weird phrasing Claire had used, too, and it was kind of similar to how she was trailing off now. Claire looked slightly guilty now; maybe she'd hoped they wouldn't notice.

"Well, yeah…kind of," she admitted. "I got to visit the Wigglytuff Guild in the future recently—well, what's left of it, anyway—and Leaf and I found a bunch of old notes and records and stuff. One of them mentioned a team of Glameow that I thought sounded like Bruce's family."

"Oh," Bruce replied thoughtfully. "I guess it makes sense that things would've gone differently 'before,' or…however we should put it. And since what made me join you guys here obviously couldn't have happened if you didn't come back to change things, then…joining Cece and Flora makes sense, too…hmm."

Well, that was interesting to think about… Honestly, he'd thought it was strange that Claire's future could still exist if they'd changed things. The idea of some kind of…split universe explained a lot. And in that case, clearly things would've gone differently the 'first' time around, too…

Ugh, this was a lot to wrap his mind around, too, though. Bruce shook his head as they arrived in the next room. He wanted to ask more questions and find out what else she knew, but they did need to focus on their current job.

"Did you find out anything about me?" Felix asked curiously. "I want to know how—Claire, to your left!"

Bruce had gotten distracted enough that he hadn't noticed the Elekid approaching them from the opposite side of the room. Claire hadn't noticed him, either—she craned her head to the side and quickly spun around, trying to get a better view of him. Apparently, that was still a (literal) blind spot for her; the transformation back into a human hadn't fixed her eyesight.

In most cases, Elekid probably would've been shocked (no pun intended, Bruce thought dryly) to see a human nearby. However, Felix's shout seemed to have alerted him to Claire's disadvantage, as he simply grinned and swerved to Claire's left again. Fortunately, Claire being much larger than him gave her more range, and she was able to swiftly kick at him before he got too close. Bruce finished him off with a Bite, and Elekid tumbled to the floor immediately afterwards.

"Whew, that was closer than I thought," she muttered. "Thanks, Felix."

"It's all right; I figured you might still need help on that side. That was a pretty good kick, by the way."

Claire grinned. "Thanks; I'm a lot better at that than punching, honestly. Anyway, uh…you actually…" She cleared her throat and hastily added, "What floor did you say the Pecha Scarf was on, again?"

"Oh, uh…the fifth," Felix replied after double-checking the request. "So it's not too much further now. Should we get going?"

Bruce could tell Felix was confused; he blinked at Claire as he tucked the note back into his bag. Had she remembered what he'd asked before they'd been interrupted? It was true Bruce had thought they needed to concentrate, but now he wanted to know what that subject change was about. Was it something bad or embarrassing?

Oh, well; Claire and Bruce followed Felix towards the next set of stairs. They didn't have much longer to go, but hopefully this kept going well… Bruce was sure they'd be fine, though.

He eyed Claire as they arrived at the next floor. She could probably keep up the pace, but he was more curious than ever now… However, they had plenty of time if she'd be here for a few more days.

Bruce nodded as Felix led them down another hallway. Yeah…for now, he'd think about their job; they could talk more later.