Author's Note: Fairly long chapter this time, but there's lots of important stuff in here. Also, I finally get a chance to include Dusknoir, which I wish I'd gotten to do a bit more often in this fic. Anyway, speaking of that, some things discussed in this chapter make more sense if you're familiar with chapters 19 and 31 of Darkened Skies: Side Stores.

Chapter Six: Theories and Plans

Claire couldn't sleep that night.

It wasn't because anything bad happened recently; she was grateful the past few days had been so nice. No, that wasn't the problem, exactly. The issue was that something had gotten stuck in her head, and she couldn't stop thinking about it.

Darkrai had wanted the future to be in its formerly-chaotic state, hadn't he? Even if he didn't remember that now, it had been his goal at one point. And if that was what he wanted…maybe he'd been there before.

Obviously, he had to be from the past, in order to have carried out his plan in the first place. But wouldn't he want to see whether or not he'd succeeded? And if he could open Dimensional Holes, then he had a way to get there. It was true that Claire didn't remember seeing him before the whole incident with Azurill and Palkia, but that didn't rule out the possibility.

And if he'd been to the future before…then what if someone else had seen him? Maybe Claire could learn if anyone had. And if she could find someone who'd talked to him, maybe she could…

Well, Claire wasn't sure what she could do then. Frowning, she rolled over and looked around the bluff. Everyone else was asleep—even Darkrai himself, even though he usually stayed up later than the rest of them. Right now, fast asleep, he looked so…harmless. It made it easy to forget what he'd been like.

Sighing, Claire turned around again and squeezed her eyes shut. She had to get some rest in case everyone wanted to do something tomorrow… There wasn't a point in coming back here if she was too tired to enjoy her time with her friends, right?

She just…had to get that out of her head, and then she could get some sleep. Claire would be fine.

The next morning, there was an odd buzz in the air once everyone stepped outside. Claire recognized it after a few seconds—it was the same feeling she'd gotten when Andrew, Celebi and Leaf came back to get her. Sure enough, a Dimensional Hole started to expand in the air in front of them. Then, Celebi and Leaf dropped out of it, with Celebi holding onto Leaf's shoulder as they regained their balance.

"I really should be used to that by now," Celebi groaned. "Anyway, I think…this should be right? Hopefully—oh, Claire, dear, how convenient!"

"Hey, guys," Claire greeted, trying to ignore the hopeful look on Darkrai's face. "And I'd say you got it right, given you came out here, and all."

"No, no, I meant the time! …Er, the length of time you've been here," she corrected herself. "You've had at least a few days, right?"

"It's been almost a week." Claire nodded. "So you didn't come back, like…the day after I got here, or anything."

"Oh, good," Celebi sighed. "Getting the timing is always tricky, especially with the extra steps we have to do now… Anyway! How's everyone?"

"Fine, fine," Iris replied with a grin. "You caught us at a good time—we were just gonna go do some jobs, but we haven't started anything yet."

Leaf blinked. "Well, if you're busy, we don't want to take you away, Claire."

Claire shook her head. "No, it's fine! Like she said, we haven't actually left yet, so you're not interrupting. I'll go ahead and go with you guys, if everyone else doesn't mind?"

Her teammates glanced at each other before shrugging and nodding. They'd more than proven they could manage without her for a little while, so this wouldn't be too different for them. Besides, they knew how easy it was for her to come back now, too.

"Yeah, that's fine," Felix agreed. "It's kind of sudden, but I guess you'll be coming back again soon?"

"Yeah, I will! See you guys later, then!"

She waved at them, though her eyes lingered on Darkrai for a few seconds as they headed towards Treasure Town. Celebi and Leaf caught her gaze, and they looked at her curiously.

"That's a very…interesting friend you have there, dear," Celebi observed. "When did he join your team?"

"A few weeks ago, from the sound of things." Claire frowned. "And, actually…well…I guess it'd be best to talk about it when we get back."

"Well, that sounds…ominous," Leaf commented dryly. "But we do need to hurry before the Dimensional Hole closes, so…"

Claire nodded, and they walked towards the portal. Instinctively, everyone held onto each other as they stepped inside. Although Claire was used to the spinning sensation by now, she still closed her eyes—the light was rather bright at first.

Soon enough, they'd be home, and then she could get everyone's help with sorting through her thoughts.

Claire had been quiet ever since stepping out of the Dimensional Hole. Granted, it hadn't taken too long to get home… Despite reappearing near Dusk Forest, Celebi could just teleport them to New Treasure Town. Still, they'd been back at their hut for a while now, and Claire was struggling to figure out how to explain things.

To be fair, things were fine now. It may not have made that big of a difference… However, Claire had assumed that things would stay fine specifically because Darkrai had been taken care of for good. Explaining the real cause of their timeline while also admitting that he was on her team now just seemed…well, 'awkward' was putting it lightly.

Fortunately, Celebi and Leaf had given her some space, though Leaf was eyeing her in his own unique 'wary but concerned' kind of way. It somehow managed to help and not help at the same time. Claire knew the Grovyle meant well, but the attention was mildly distracting.

Luckily, Andrew and Jirachi stepped in a few minutes later, carrying some things they'd gotten at the market. Andrew set down his basket on a shelf in the back of the room, glancing over at Claire as he spoke.

"Oh, you're back already. How was your trip?"

"Already?" Claire blinked. "How long has it been here?"

"Uh, three or four days, I believe?" Jirachi tapped his chin thoughtfully as he spoke. "Granted, I was napping for most of it, but I think that's right."

"Oh. Well, I guess that's a little shorter than it was for me, though only by a day or two." Claire shrugged. "Anyway, it was…fine, I guess?"

Andrew raised an eyebrow. "Just 'fine'?"

"Well, that is…um…"

"Right, there was something you were going to tell us," Leaf noted. "About that new teammate of yours, yes?"

Claire took a deep breath. Well, there was no point in putting it off anymore, right?

"Uh, yeah," she said awkwardly. "Actually, there's another thing I should probably say first? I should also probably apologize for not saying it before, because it's kinda a big deal, but I just couldn't figure out a good time to do it."

After another pause and deep breath, she continued, "Well, we knew that what happened was because Temporal Tower collapsed, right? It turns out that, uh…a whole bunch of other stuff happened in the past after I got sent back there, and we found the Pokémon who did it. Ruined Temporal Tower, I mean. And we thought we took care of him for good, but he came back, and…"

Claire eyed Leaf and Celebi. "It's the same Darkrai you saw with my team earlier."

There was silence for a few seconds as everyone processed this information. It was hard to tell what everyone thought, really… Andrew had his usual flat expression on his face, while Leaf and Jirachi were looking off to the side thoughtfully. Celebi was the most visibly surprised, with her eyes wide and mouth slightly open, but she didn't speak up right away.

"On the one hand," Leaf finally said, "I wouldn't have thought finding out who did it would make that much of a difference. I mean, we did fix the problem, so…Dialga should have things under control again."

"But on the other," Andrew mused, "I'd really like to know why he's hanging out with your friends."

"And," Celebi huffed, "why you didn't tell us he'd joined your team sooner!"

"Well, in my defense on the last one, he wasn't there the last time I was," Claire replied sheepishly. "As for the rest, Felix and everyone else said they were 'trying to keep an eye' on him, which is good, but… I don't know. I'm still kind of uncomfortable with it, and I'm not sure if there's anything we should—or even can—do about it. They said he's got amnesia like I did, but…"

"If that's true, then there might not be anything you really 'need' to do," Jirachi commented. "Unless he actually does something again, then it may be fine to just wait and see."

"But if it's not true, then…" Leaf frowned. "Just 'waiting and seeing' could give him the chance to do something again."

"Also true." Jirachi yawned as he floated over to his nest in the corner. "I think I'm going to…take another nap, though. You guys can think on it more, and…I'll try to help when I wake up."

He promptly fell asleep, and everyone sighed and shook their heads. Jirachi was certainly helpful when he was awake—everyone remembered how much research he'd done back in the days of the Planetary Investigation Team, after all. Claire supposed he deserved a break, in one sense. Still, his tendency of spending most of his remaining time napping led to situations like this, where Jirachi seemed less dedicated than he really was.

"Well…it's true that he hasn't done anything yet," Claire admitted, glancing back at everyone else. "Still, something else that occurs to me is that Dialga may have met Darkrai at some point. Because, I mean, he had to have gone to Temporal Tower in order to attack it, right?"

"Very true," Celebi agreed. "It may be a good idea for you to visit our dear Dialga and see if he knows anything about it. If nothing else, it may give you some ideas on what to look out for."

Claire nodded. "That sounds like a good plan. Maybe sometime in the next day or two, then."

Leaf nodded as well. "In the meantime…I know I suggested you should watch out, but try not to worry too much, all right?"

That was really all she could do for now. Claire sighed and nodded again. Then, she stood up and idly started going through the things that Andrew and Jirachi had brought home. Maybe sorting through it would give her a distraction.

Still…she had a lead now, and that was a good start.

Most of the times Claire had been in the Hidden Land in this time period, it had been for the sake of using the Passage of Time, now that she thought about it. Well, that and the escape from the stockades, she thought with a shudder. So, technically she had some experience with a few other areas… But the fact remained that she'd only been to Temporal Tower once, and the actual trip to the Hidden Land wasn't something she'd had to think about much.

The first time had been a short visit to chat with Dialga and see how he was doing. At the time, he was still in the process of repairing Temporal Tower, though he'd been almost finished. As such, he hadn't had the time to think about setting up a barrier to entry like he had in the past.

This time, though, it was slightly harder to access—but Celebi could get them through it with some effort.

"Let me see," she muttered. "It's not quite as strong as what you say Dialga had in the past, but I do need to know what to watch out for… Fortunately, he told me last time I saw him, so I just need to pay attention, and…"

Celebi nodded to herself, and then she rested her hands on Leaf and Claire's heads. Her eyes glowed, and the trio then lurched forward in an odd, sluggish way. It was different than her usual teleportation—Claire almost felt like she was swimming through an odd gel-like substance. The ocean beneath them seemed small and far away, and the sky was dark despite it being the middle of the day.

Then, suddenly, there was a shimmer of light, not entirely unlike the beam Lapras had used as an entrance. It was wider, though, almost like a large sheet. Celebi directed them through it, and they gasped for air once they materialized on the Hidden Land's shore.

"Well, that certainly was something," Celebi wheezed. "I am going to have a talk with Dialga dearest about that later! Surely he could set up something easier for me, at least."

Claire managed a giggle. "That would be nice, wouldn't it?"

Leaf merely groaned as he stretched out his limbs. Then, he shook his head and followed the others as they made their way towards Temporal Tower. Fortunately, the tower itself was in roughly the same place as it was in the past, despite the dungeons being different now than they were then. Celebi was able to warp them around any rough spots, but she was too woozy to teleport them directly there.

That was still a help, Claire thought. Sure, she was a little shaky from their initial warp to the Hidden Land, but at least they didn't have to fight their way there… Claire was relieved they could save any amount of time.

"You know, I am pretty impressed with how well Dialga's fixed this place up," Leaf mused. "I'd seen the tower with Dusknoir before when…well…you know. But there were so many chunks of it missing that there were actually fewer floors to go through, if I remember correctly."

Leaf and Celebi had explained the whole situation to Claire already—hence her earlier labeling of the Ghost-Type as 'the pretty okay Dusknoir.' She nodded, glancing around as she replied.

"I guess the only times I've seen it was when it was at its full strength. I mean, it was kinda beat up when we climbed it in the past, but it was still in one piece… And by the time I came here in our time period, Dialga had already repaired it."

Though Leaf hadn't been there for that trip, Claire remembered. It was such a bizarre feeling to reflect on things now… The climb had been full of so many complicated feelings; she'd been sure she was going to disappear, and a bit hurt by Leaf hiding that from her, yet understanding why he had. At the time, Claire hadn't been in the mood to look around much, but she was sure it had looked much better than it did on Leaf's first trip.

"Though technically, if you think about it, you two weren't far from here when you came to me for help," Celebi commented. "But you didn't get to sightsee, did you?"

Leaf snorted. "Not in the slightest."

Claire laughed and shook her head. Maybe it was morbid to laugh at their stockade experience, but at least she could be relieved that they'd gotten out of it in one piece. She supposed laughing was better than being depressed about it, anyway.

Finally, they reached the pinnacle, and—much to their relief—Dialga was up there. Dusknoir and Missy were as well, though none of the Sableye were around. They were probably off running some errand or another, Claire figured. They turned to face the new arrivals, and Dialga nodded at them in greeting.

"Good day; it is nice to see you all again. Is there something I can do for you?"

"Well, uh…" Claire suddenly felt awkward. "I'd like to say we came for a nice chat, but…"

"It's not like you to be so nervous, Claire," Dusknoir commented in amusement. "I assume it's something important, then?"

"Yeah, that is…well, long story short, there's some stuff going on in the past, and…" She took a deep breath and looked back up at Dialga. "Do you happen to know anything about a Pokémon called Darkrai?"

Both he and Dusknoir froze, though Dusknoir shook himself out of it more quickly. Missy simply blinked, looking between them in confusion. Claire assumed this meant the Misdreavus hadn't heard anything about him… But that made Dusknoir's reaction all the more interesting, when she thought about it.

"You never mentioned anyone like that to me." Missy frowned. "Would you care to explain what that look was for?"

Dusknoir sighed gustily. "Yes, I… Well. There was a Pokémon by that name who visited the Tower a few times and…gave us some tips. It's…"

Here, he glanced over at Claire. "Well, it's how the Sableye found you sometimes. I never brought him up as I was suspicious of where he was getting his information, and I didn't want to drag anyone into it if I didn't need to. I'm still not entirely sure where he came from, to be honest."

Claire cringed. Suddenly a lot of things made sense… She'd always wondered how Dusknoir had conveniently known where she was, after all. If he'd been getting information from Darkrai, that would explain things.

…But if Darkrai had been spying on her, why hadn't he tried anything sooner? To be fair, he had come after them exactly when Claire and Leaf had gone through the Passage of Time. Keeping tabs on them would explain how he knew when that would happen. And it made sense that Darkrai thought he wouldn't "need" to do anything if Dusknoir successfully taken care of her sooner…

At any rate, Dialga had remained quiet for the past minute or two. Finally, he sighed, shook his head, and glanced down at everyone.

"Darkrai…that is a name I haven't heard in a very long time. In the past, he came to Temporal Tower to learn from me." Dialga looked almost wistful as he continued. "He claimed he wanted go against his species' reputation and prove he was better than all that, but…it was a ploy from the very beginning."

Claire nodded. "He was the one who damaged Temporal Tower, right?"

Dialga's eyes widened. "How could you possibly know that?"

"Well, uh…" Claire awkwardly tugged on her hair. "About that thing I said was going on… Darkrai showed up a while back and caused some more trouble that Palkia had to help us fix. He admitted what he'd done to the tower, but we managed to defeat him, or so we thought. But then he came back again, and my team's trying to keep an eye on him, so I thought maybe… I don't know. I hoped maybe there was something you could tell me that would help?"

Dusknoir and Dialga looked at each other thoughtfully. Missy was sulking at all of this, presumably upset at being left out the whole time. Claire couldn't blame her… Honestly, if she'd known Darkrai had been lurking around in the future, and apparently so close to her at a few points, then she would've liked to do something about it. It would've saved her a whole lot of trouble in the long run.

(Of course, this was with the benefit of hindsight—and who knew what would've changed if Claire did have the chance. That was a whole other Buneary hole to deal with, and the situation was already complicated enough without throwing anything else into the mix.)

Dusknoir finally said, "Well, more information would help. What exactly is going on? And when you say 'keep an eye on him,' do you mean he's joined you?"

"Well…basically? I mean, he's a part of our team now, so…yeah." Claire shrugged. "And he seems to have forgotten a lot, if not everything… Except he apparently opened a Dimensional Hole in a fight he got into recently, so we're all worried that if he starts remembering things, he could cause trouble again."

"Indeed…" Dialga nodded. "Darkrai is quite clever, I'll give him that. Even if the amnesia is genuine, he could always come up with a new plan. He must not be underestimated."

Claire knew that, even if there had been a small part of her than genuinely hoped Darkrai could be kept under control. It was the whole reason she'd wanted to come up here for advice, after all. She didn't like being constantly on edge, but…assuming that Darkrai could do something at any time was probably the safest thing to do.

"So…I guess just keeping watch on him, or…keeping more watch," she muttered. "Like…rotating shifts or something? I don't know… It feels kind of extreme, but…"

"I don't think there's such a thing as 'too extreme' in this case," Dialga replied stonily. "It is partially my fault everything happened the way it did, after all. If I had paid more attention, as my friend told me to, then perhaps I could have prevented it."

His…friend? Claire brightened suddenly; she had a decent idea of who Dialga meant. A visit to his past self may be helpful, too, now that she thought of it. But she needed to focus on the conversation at hand first.

"I guess you're right," she replied. "And that's probably the best thing we can do right now, anyway. I'll see if I can suggest some kind of…schedule or something for watching him when I go home again. Well…kind of 'home,' but you know what I mean!"

Ah, this whole 'time travel with friends in both periods' thing was confusing. Claire wasn't sure if she'd ever be able to settle on which time was 'more' home to her. But, again, that was something she could decide on later.

Leaf just snorted and shook his head. "Didn't you say Iris likes to stay up late? If you're really nervous about things, I guess it couldn't hurt to have her watch him while everyone else is asleep."

Claire laughed again. "Right—and Rin usually gets up early, so she could take over if Iris wants to take a nap or something."

"It sounds like you already have a good plan," Dialga said approvingly. "Or at least the beginnings of one. Discussing this with your friends once you see them again is likely the best way to go about it."

"Yeah, I thought so, but it's still reassuring to have some backup on all this."

Dialga nodded. "Is there anything else I may do for you?"

"Nothing I can think of for now, but…" Claire shrugged. "I guess if everyone wants to hang out and talk about other stuff, that might be fun?"

"I suppose a distraction would be nice." Dusknoir sighed. "Besides, the Sableye should be back from their check on the new Time Gears soon. It's all we had to worry about today, so a chat couldn't hurt."

Claire nodded and sat down on the base of a nearby pillar. Leaf and Celebi joined her quickly enough, and she smiled as they all squeezed together. She was still somewhat nervous about things, but…well…

At least she had some ideas now, and that was better than nothing.