Author's Note: The combination of plot follow-up and some lighter stuff made this chapter interesting to write. Plus, there are a few small headcanon things in the latter half, and that's always fun.
Chapter Five: Questions
"Well, that went better than expected," Claire commented.
She, Bruce, and Felix were back in Sharpedo Bluff. They'd finished their job in Amp Plains a while ago, and they were waiting for everyone else to come back. Though, really, putting it like that made it sound bad… It had gone quite well, actually.
Claire had left most of the fighting to Bruce and Felix, but she was able to chip in every now and then. She was getting pretty good with Iron Thorns and Gravelerocks, if she did say so herself… While she'd occasionally practiced with them before turning into a Meowth, she'd really had the chance to use them today. The only real mishap had been that early run-in with the Elekid, and even that hadn't been too bad.
(Plus, she thought with a small grin, it had been pretty amusing to see some of the wild Pokémon gaping at her in shock before they finally thought to attack. It was strange, in a way—and she felt weird for being amused—but it was still funny.)
Felix nodded. "Yeah! I bet you'd be able to come with us on harder missions, too."
"Well, maybe not right away," Bruce mused. "She might need to get used to it first. But, still—you did pretty well today!"
"I'm glad I did." Claire grinned again. "I would like to relax while I'm here, but I'll probably come along on at least one more job, too… Depending on what you guys want to do, of course!"
Felix and Bruce nodded, though neither of them had the chance to pipe up again. There were faint voices above them, which Claire took to mean that Rin, Iris, and Darkrai were finally home. Her guess was confirmed a few seconds later when they filed down the stairs.
"You really don't need to worry about it," Iris groaned. "It's not a big deal, so you don't need to keep asking!"
"If it's not a problem, then why won't you explain it to me?" Darkrai insisted.
"Because…well, then it might be…" Rin shook her head, trailing off as her eyes landed on everyone else. "Oh, hello. We thought you'd be back already."
Claire nodded as she, Felix, and Bruce waved at them. She eyed Darkrai, feeling something halfway between curiosity and nerves. Honestly, she still wasn't thrilled about him being there, but she'd at least accepted everyone's explanation. However…what had they been talking about?
"What's not a big deal?" she asked.
"Oh, uh…" Iris looked uncharacteristically awkward. "Well, you know, we just got into a fight at the end of the dungeon, and…"
"Giratina said I opened something called a 'Dimensional Hole'," Darkrai finished proudly. "It sounds like a very rare skill, so I was hoping I could learn more about it. They won't explain anything to me, though…"
Claire froze. He could still open Dimensional Holes? Well, she supposed it made sense, but…how and why had he done it? If Darkrai remembered how to use them, there was no telling where he'd go and what he'd do.
If he truly had forgotten everything, it was unlikely that he'd use them for anything bad… But then he could end up somewhere with nobody to supervise him. And that would be considerably more dangerous; even if anything he did was accidental, it could still cause problems.
It would be even worse if he did remember everything, or if he ended up remembering some things later. Then, Darkrai could intentionally come up with some kind of plan, and it'd be almost impossible to track him down. Claire could see why Rin and Iris didn't want to talk about it, since neither option was good.
Bruce and Felix looked at each other hesitantly. Claire couldn't be sure what they were thinking, but it was probably similar to the thoughts swirling around in her own head. Eventually, she cleared her throat and broke the silence herself.
"Well, you know, it's just that…if it's such a rare skill, you shouldn't use it too much," she replied carefully. "You need to know what you're doing first, right?"
"I guess you have a point," Darkrai admitted. "Perhaps if I could find a place to learn…"
Oh. Oh, no. Claire hoped she hadn't given him any ideas. Her eyes widened for a brief moment before she shook her head and tried to babble out another explanation.
"I mean, sure, maybe you could! But we don't really need that to explore, do we? Like, you know…you guys got all the way through the dungeon without needing it, right?"
"Yeah, see?" Iris added emphatically. "You don't need it to be a good explorer, so just forget about it!"
"I…suppose." Darkrai frowned. "I'll forget about it…for now. I am rather tired, anyway, so it's pointless to keep myself up thinking about everything."
Claire sighed in relief. It was only a temporary solution, but it was something. There was no telling if Darkrai would really let this go—and if he'd been so insistent earlier, it wasn't like her little slip-up had caused his interest. But if they kept an eye on him, then they'd be fine…right?
She could only hope so.
"We ate dinner earlier, but we saved some food in case you guys were hungry when you got back," Bruce said, heading over to the barrel of food in the corner. "So if you want to have a snack and go to bed, that'd be fine."
He dug around in the barrel, wrapping the end of his tail around a few apples. Then, he handed them out and settled back on his hay bed. Finally, Bruce glanced over at Claire as they ate.
"Oh, that reminds me," he added, "Cresselia left us some Lunar Wings a while back. So, you know, we should be safe sleeping tonight."
"It's not like it's my fault," Darkrai cut in after swallowing. "I'm not doing that on purpose. Though I guess it's for the best either way."
Felix nodded. "I mean…I think that's true, and there's always the chance we'd be fine anyway, but…we figured it's best to be safe."
"Yeah, that makes sense," Claire agreed. "Speaking of which…how much hay do we have left? I'll probably need some more to make a big enough bed."
Somehow it hadn't occurred to her sooner, and Claire could only hope they had enough … Fortunately, Rin nodded and stood up. She'd finished off most of her apple, and she headed towards the other barrel in the corner.
"There's still a decent amount left in here," she replied. "So I think you'll be fine."
Claire nodded again as she got up and started digging through the barrel. It looked like there was just enough in there for her to make a good-sized bed, and she started spreading it out on the floor. As she worked, she glanced around at her teammates.
Everyone still looked awkward to various degrees. Rin and Felix seemed the most nervous; they glanced at each other frequently, like they wanted to say something but didn't know what. Bruce was more subtle, looking around at everyone once before shaking his head and stretching. Iris just looked exasperated, while Darkrai seemed more annoyed.
Well, they'd see where this went sooner or later, Claire thought. Soon enough, they were all ready for bed, and they needed some sleep before they could think about things too much more.
She could only hope that things improved tomorrow.
Claire ultimately spent most of the next few days visiting and chatting, but she did want to go on one more (probably-small) job before heading home.
One good thing, she thought, was how the Treasure Town regulars seemed to be getting used to her the more they saw her. Hardly any of them stared at her anymore, and the pair of Ursaring her team spoke to often even started greeting her like nothing was different at all. That was what Claire hoped would happen, so she was glad she'd been right. There was still some awkwardness here and there from a few of them, but, for the most part, things were fine.
That day, she visited Spinda's Café with Felix, Rin, and Team Lightning. Chatot couldn't let all of the recruits off work every day—jobs needed to get done, after all. He had let them relax in small groups at a time, though. It had been a good compromise; everyone could tell that Chatot wanted them to spend at least some time with Claire.
Heliona had propped herself up against the table so she could reach her drink more easily. Given that her entire team lacked hands, they had trouble with fragile things—like cups, for instance. Spinda always left them straws to make drinking easier, but half the time Heliona forewent that and lapped at her Gummi shake like she was eating out of a bowl. Today, she firmly fell into the latter category, and Sydney shook his head as Heliona licked off the side of her muzzle.
"So we've been thinking about taking the graduation exam soon," she commented eagerly. "And Leon and I kinda want to evolve, too, though we'd probably have to wait until after the exam to do it. Because, you know, of how the test was set up. At least for you guys, anyway! If they do it somewhere else, then we may be able to get over to the spring first, and that'd help a lot."
Claire laughed; no one was bothering to hide the nature of the graduation exam now that her team had already passed it. All of the current recruits knew what the test was like, so there was no point.
"Although…I haven't decided how far I want to go yet…" Leon mused. "I'm not sure if I'll go all the way to a Luxray, but…evolution does sound interesting."
Felix nodded. "Yeah, that was something I thought about, too. I almost stopped at Monferno myself, but that was more because…" He laughed sheepishly. "Well, only two of my siblings have evolved all the way. The rest of them had at least evolved once, but it felt weird being 'stronger' than three of them who are older than me. Once I got over it, though, it was pretty nice to evolve twice."
"That makes sense…" Leon nodded again. "I only have one older sister, and she's still a Luxio, but…I'm not sure if that's the reason. I just…want to see what it's like first, I guess."
"Definitely fair," Claire commented. "I mean, I was eager to try it out, but that's because I never thought I'd get to see what it felt like."
Sydney shrugged. "Honestly, I've never been too curious about evolution for that exact reason. I can't evolve, so I don't see what the big deal is."
Claire nodded before taking a sip of her drink. Oddly enough, White Gummi juice still tasted good to her… Maybe it had stuck with her as an acquired taste? She wasn't sure if she would've liked it otherwise, as she hadn't gotten to eat very many Gummis before turning into a Meowth. Certainly not enough to figure out if she had any preferences, at least.
At any rate, her comment had sparked some curiosity in everyone else besides Sydney. They all glanced between each other, and then at Claire as she set her glass down. Before she could speak up, Rin did.
"So…humans don't evolve?"
"Nah, not really, though we do grow more than most Pokémon do." Claire idly tugged on some of her hair as she tried to figure out how to phrase things. "I mean, obviously you guys get older and stuff, but humans still look way more different when they're young or old. So if you looked at one without knowing that, you might think that we evolve anyway."
"Huh," Felix commented, curiously tilting his head to the side. "That's interesting… Now I wish I could see more humans to compare."
"Yeah! See, we are learning stuff," Heliona said eagerly. "You said you know where some are, right? You should totally take us there sometime."
Claire laughed. "Well, I know where some probably are. The area might be different right now compared to when I saw it, so it might be better if I get to look around first."
She paused again, finishing off her drink. Everyone was mostly done by now, but of course it would still be fun to hang out somewhere else afterwards… They were all quiet for a few seconds as they finished off their own beverages.
"Well, that's fair," Sydney replied. "It'd probably be best if we didn't show up in large numbers all at once, either. We can't just impose, you know."
"Of course I know that!" Heliona huffed. "I'm just saying, Sydney."
"Um, he probably meant that in general…" Leon mumbled. "But, anyway…do you guys wanna go somewhere else now?"
"Maybe the beach would be nice?" Felix offered. After everyone nodded, he went on, "Okay, then! I'll bring our cups back to Spinda, and then we can go."
Claire helped him gather up their now-empty glasses. Felix carefully took them over to Spinda, and he returned to their table soon enough. Everyone filed back outside, and Claire smiled once they were all there.
Being able to spend time with everyone like this was definitely nice, she thought. It was even better right now; she could use a distraction… Of course, Claire wanted to see all her friends anyway, she hastily added. But, well…
Claire silently admitted that she kind of dreaded going back to Sharpedo Bluff in the evenings, as much as she hated thinking like that. She didn't enjoy judging other people (or Pokémon), but it was hard not to where Darkrai was concerned. It was even harder with the reveal from a few days ago in mind…
"Hey, look, the Krabby are out earlier than usual today!"
Felix's voice shook her out of her thoughts, and Claire smiled as she glanced up at the rocky outcroppings on either side of the beach. There were small red shapes visible on top of them, which she knew were the Krabby. A few bubbles lazily floated through the air, and the sunlight made them look golden. It was different from the spectrum of color they always became in the evenings, but they were still pretty.
"Yeah…the bubbles look really nice today, don't they?" Leon smiled. "I like watching them sometimes anyway, but…"
Claire nodded. "It's nice to see them in a different…well, light, isn't it?"
Everyone else nodded in return, and they proceeded to settle down on the sand near the shore. Yeah, Claire thought as she proceeded to idly draw patterns in the sand. This really was nice, and she hoped she could finish off her current trip on a positive note.