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Chapter 62

The Other Side

The second that Terron leapt through that portal, he instantly regretted what he had done.

While he was desperately trying to get answers from these mysterious beings that seemed to know something about him, he decided that chasing after them to some unknown and potentially dangerous world was not worth it. He had no idea what he was about to face, and worst of all, there was no turning back.

Terron watched himself fall through a void as his only exit closed behind him. At first, there was nothing but darkness surrounding him as he fell away from the disappearing light of the portal. He couldn't see anything as he freely fell, pushing his hands into his helmet so that it couldn't go flying off his head. But as he fell further into the seemingly bottomless abyss, light once again came back into his vision.

He was quick to find that this light came from a multitude of what he thought were crystals suspended in the air, somehow unaffected by gravity. They remained there in the air as he plummeted, each of them giving off a light, lavender glow that seemed to cease as soon as Terron flew right past them. This went on for quite a while, the crystals growing more and more numerous the further he dropped into this endless pit. It went on for so long, in fact, that Terron began to worry that it would go on for forever and that he would have to live out the rest of his days falling in some bottomless dimension.

But thankfully for him, he didn't have to succumb to that fate, for all of the lights vanished and he suddenly crashed into what felt like a giant pool of water. He hadn't seen anything of the sort while he was plummeting, but he didn't bother to question what had occurred. All he knew was that right now, he was suspended in what he thought was water, holding him in its lukewarm grasp. There surprisingly wasn't any pain unlike what had happened the other times the Cubone came in contact with a large amount of water.

Not wasting any time, the Cubone held his breath and swam up to what he felt was the surface. It took some time, for he had lost orientation of his surroundings after falling for so long, but he was able to find it before he had grown too light-headed from his lack of oxygen. He took in a deep breath as he wiped the water out of his eyes before blinking them back into focus.

What lay before Terron was something he never would have seen in his wildest fever dreams.

The Cubone found himself wading in not a pool of water as he had imagined, but rather some sort of pink fluid that was much thicker than water, but not quite gelatinous. It simply hovered in the middle of the endless void surrounding him, the fluid remaining in the air without anything supporting it. It was as though there were some sort of invisible bowl holding all of the liquid, and then something else was also holding that bowl. Terron looked around to see if he could find what was making this seemingly impossible feat a reality, but found that there was nothing.

But there was more to surprise the Cubone other than the mysterious fluid he found himself in. Surrounding him from every direction he looked were hundreds of roads made out of what appeared to be light, each one the same light pink color as the pool fluid and appearing just as transparent. But Terron noticed that the further away from the pool the road was, the darker the colors seemed to get, changing from a shade of purple, to blue, to crimson, and then all the way to black. The sky around him had also changed. It was still filled wit impenetrable darkness that stretched as far into the distance as Terron could see, but now there was something else. Every so often, what appeared to be a lightning bolt of purple flashed across the darkness. With each flash, the world was illuminated for a brief second, allowing Terron to see that there were other hovering pools of the pink liquid in the near distance before they became one with the darkness once again.

Terron swam toward the nearest road connected to his pool, and then carefully touched it with a paw. A strange sensation went through his body, like a weird tremor, but it was quick to pass and Terron was able to press his paw upon the surface firmly. With a huff, he put his other hand on the road and pulled himself out of the fluid before allowing himself to sit down. He noted that his clothes weren't even the least bit wet.

This place is really, really weird. Terron thought to himself. No wonder why those Unown are so weird themselves. I'd probably start talking like them if I had to stay here all the time.

The Cubone sighed as he looked up at the odd sky, watching the bolts streak through the sky, hitting some unknown target somewhere in the strange dimension.

What have I gotten myself into? Terron wondered. I don't see any Unown anywhere, and they're my only way out of here. Instead I'm just… here. Whatever here is. Ugh, I just had to get caught up in finding out the truth… I shouldn't have jumped into that portal. I really shouldn't have. Now I'm all alone while Novus and Nyx are probably worried sick about me…

Terron growled under his breath as he fell onto his back, banging the back of his head into the road. He found that it didn't hurt him at all. In fact, it almost felt like bashing his head into a pillow. He knew the road hadn't been that soft a moment ago when he pulling himself out of the pink water.

Place keeps getting weirder and weirder by the second. It's almost like that weird dream place Nyx sent us to in Erebus Woods. That weird dream within a dream, or just single dream. I don't even know anymore. So many weird things keep happening that I don't even know how to explain anymore.

Terron closed his eyes as he tried to calm himself, knowing that having these thoughts would get him nowhere. He knew there was a way out of the dimension, and he needed to have a collected and composed mind in order to find it. Being flustered with his situation would accomplish nothing.

After the Cubone took a few deep breaths, he opened his eyes and sat back up. He was about to get to his feet and wander down the road into the darker depths, but then noticed a flash of light below the pool of pink, like a tiny meteorite zipping by. He squinted his eyes as he watched the light grow brighter until something crashed upward into the pool. Terron went closer to the ledge as he watched something drift to the very surface. He couldn't make out what it was, but it seemed to be moving, whatever it could be.

When the object emerged from the pink water, Terron quickly recognized what it was.

"Nyx! Novus!" he cried joyously.

The two Pokémon turned their heads toward the Cubone, and then quickly made their way over to him. The two of them pulled themselves out of the pool, and just as with Terron, neither of them were covered in the fluid. They were completely dry, not a drip of water on their fur or skin.

But despite this, neither of them seemed very happy. They were both shooting Terron a disappointed frown, which quickly killed all of the euphoria gathering within the Cubone.

"Terron, what were you thinking?" Novus asked in exasperation. "Why would you chase after those Unown? You're lucky Nyx was fast enough to get us through that portal when she did. It nearly closed while we were going through it, and let me tell you, you do not want to have a portal close on you when you're only halfway in."

"Sorry," the Cubone said sheepishly. "It's just, those Unown seemed to know something about me and I just had to know what it was. I didn't want them to get away like some… other things that also knew something about me."

The Quilava sighed as he took a seat next to the Cubone, his eyes wandering around the vicinity. Unlike Terron, he didn't seem very surprised by the sudden surrealism of the environment. He looked upon it with a more mildly puzzled gaze. Nyx, on the other hand, remained where she was and kept her stare glued to Terron. While her agitated glare was long gone, there was something else in her eye. Though it was only in faint traces, Terron thought he saw a vague uneasiness in her eyes.

"So this is where the Unown live."

"It would appear so," Novus stated. "Though, it seems that they are not in this particular area. They must be elsewhere in this strange dimension… whatever this strange dimension is. I would have thought that they lived with the other great beings, but it seems that none of them are here."

Nyx nodded silently as she drifted away from the Quilava and hovered across the pool, looking around in every direction she could. Neither Terron nor Novus made an attempt to call to her. They knew that she wouldn't abandon them, so they didn't worry when she faded into the darkness, disappearing from their view.

"Maybe they just have their own dimension they live in," Terron then suggested, turning to Novus. "I mean, I don't think the other legendary Pokémon would want to put up with those guys. I sure wouldn't want to be stuck with them for who knows how long."

"Perhaps," Novus shrugged indifferently. "The Unown might live in this strange dimension since they are difficult to control by just about anyone, even to the creator. It would make sense that they did not follow the other great beings back to the realm where the creator sleeps."

"Wait, what do you mean Arceus is sleeping?" Terron asked. "Isn't he awake and watching over everybody right now?"

"If the creator was actually awake, I am fairly certain that we would not have these Blight Demons running rampant through Shiron and consuming the population," Novus said dryly. "He would have ended this tragedy a very, very long time ago…"

"Well why is he asleep? Did something happen to him?" Terron asked, pressing further.

Novus frowned as he gazed into the pink water below him. He looked down upon his reflection and gently touched it with his paw before swirling it around, distorting the image. For a brief second, Terron thought he saw something other than the hazy image of a Quilava staring back at them, but was unable to make out the details. All he knew was that it had two massive blue eyes.

"Do you remember the story I told you long ago? The one with the great beings and their encounter with the original Blight Forest?" Novus asked in a subdued voice.

"Yeah, I remember," Terron answered. "You said that after a Darkrai, who was apparently Nyx back then, Rayquaza, and then an Entei, Suicune, and Raikou were swallowed up by that forest, all of the legendaries fled. You said they didn't ever go back there or else they'd be lost for forever. Why?"

"Well, there was a part of the story I was never able to share with you," the Quilava then said. "You see, the story did not end with the great beings abandoning this world so they could protect themselves from the blight while Reshiram and Zekrom stayed behind. The great beings found a way to destroy the blight that consuming their world. Or rather, the creator decided to take action when he saw none of his creations could do anything to stop this calamity. He decided that our world wasn't ready to become extinguished from existence just yet, and certainly not by this insidious presence.

"So, he and what I now know is the Primogenitor clashed, and after a long and tiring battle that lasted for several hours, the creator finally won. But unfortunately, he found he could not kill the Primogenitor no matter what he did, so he sealed it away in a hidden location he suspected no one would find it in. But doing so left him exhausted and with little energy left, for the conflict had taken quite a toll on him. So, he went into a long slumber, where he slowly recovers from that fight that occurred so long ago while the great beings watch over him, making sure that no one will come after him in his vulnerable state."

"Wow… so that's what happened," Terron said, awestruck. "But, why didn't the legendary beings come back here if the Primogenitor was defeated? I mean, the danger was gone, so what was the point in staying away from here?"

"Because the captured great beings were still missing," Novus answered solemnly. "If the Primogenitor truly wasn't a threat anymore, then the five who vanished off the face of the planet would have reappeared. But instead, they stayed untraceable. Erased from existence, one could even say. Therefore, no one went back to the planet. They were still very much cowardly and still are to this day."

"But, what happened to Nyx and the others then?" Terron wondered. "If the Primogenitor was sealed away for centuries before something caused it to wake up and wreak havoc again, what were those captured legendaries doing?"

"We remained stuck within Blight Forest as we always were, though now locked into a deep slumber."

Terron and Novus quickly swiveled their heads back to the body of water to find that Nyx was among them once more, hovering not too far from them. The two instantly jumped back at her sudden presence, for they hadn't anticipated she'd come back so quickly.

"Nyx, warn us next time!" Terron cried as he took in a few deep breaths, calming his frantically beating heart. "You nearly gave us a heart attack! We can't hear you coming back since you don't have any feet or anything."

"You never had a problem with this before."

"Well that's because we weren't in this weird dimension where who knows what can happen," Terron stated. "We're kind of feeling on edge here."

"You two did not look like you were on edge when I was coming back here."

Terron released an irritated sigh as he shook his head, but chose not to further press the subject.

"What do you mean you were stuck in Blight Forest?" Terron then asked.

"When the Primogenitor captured us, it did as I told you and filled us with the blight before it realized it had to brainwash us to control us. But it did not have us leave that horrible place. We stayed there, waiting idly as the Primogenitor continued to eat everything in sight it could get ahold of. It thought it could find a use for us, given how powerful we were compared to the other creatures it ate. But when the Primogenitor fell and was sealed away, all of us fell into a coma. We should have been cured of our blight and allowed to be normal Pokémon again, but we were not because the Primogenitor was still alive. It still kept us in its grasp as it too slumbered. We could not do anything. We only awoke again when the Primogenitor woke up and found a way for us to be useful. I know not what happened to the others, but you know very well what the Primogenitor had in store for me."

"That's… horrible," Terron cringed.

In his mind, he could already see Nyx and the other four legendaries collapsed underneath a twisted tree's canopy, all of them locked into an eternal slumber for centuries. He could only imagine what had happened to their bodies during that time. Filled with the plague or not, he imagined that sleeping for that long would take its toll on anyone. Then to think that the second they woke up, the Primogenitor immediately sent them off to do its bidding. Even if Terron didn't know what the other legendaries were doing, he imagined it was a horrifying experience for them. They were probably watching their plague control their bodies right now, completely helpless as the demonic entities committed unspeakable acts. They were truly puppets without a will of their own.

"Nobody ever found you guys?" Terron asked. "I mean, I'm pretty sure somebody would have found you guys if you were asleep for that long. Sure, it's a creepy forest, but somebody would have gone in there eventually."

"Blight Forest is not a forest, I am afraid."

"Wait, what are you saying?" Novus interjected, shooting the Darkrai a confused glare. "I clearly remember that wretched place to be a forest. I saw those trees and I saw you get dragged in there by those branches, not to mention you modeled Erebus Woods after that horrifying place. How was it not a forest?"

"On the outside, yes, Blight Forest was a forest. But that was to deceive you, for Blight Forest was nothing more than a portal to the Primogenitor's home, a dimension inaccessible to nearly everybody."

"What?" Novus faltered. "You mean, that was nothing but an illusion? Something to cover up what that forest truly was?"

"Yes. That was how I was able to make the environments that my copies stayed in appear corrupted when they really were not. The Primogenitor gave me that power when it commanded me to make those Mystery Dungeons so that it could lure in more food than its typical method of sending legions into cities."

Novus seemed to be at a loss. He slowly turned his gaze away from the Darkrai, apparently trying to collect his thoughts and make sense of the information he had been told. Though he tried to hide his face, Terron could see the glimmer of dread shining brightly in Novus's eyes.

"Are you okay, Novus?" Terron asked gently.

"Yes, I am fine," the Quilava spoke hollowly. "I'm merely dealing with a few unpleasant images in my mind right now. This conversation has stirred them up out of my subconscious and made me think over them once more."

"You mean when you saw Blight Forest and watched all those legendaries get sucked in?" Terron asked.

"More like a conversation I had with someone after all of the legendaries left this planet," Novus sighed. "I am wondering what he would think, knowing that those five great beings were never found and became tools to the Primogenitor. I do not think he would be very happy to see that Reshiram and Zekrom were unable to find them, given that they remained on Shiron and Kuron to protect those worlds and its inhabitants."

"No, probably not," Terron said quietly.

Novus's frown seemed to grow even more upon hearing this, but he said nothing more. He only shook his head as he looked down the road behind the three of them and got to his feet.

"We should find a way out of here," Novus decided. "Talking will not grant us an exit."

"Yeah, you're right," Terron said. "We've wasted a lot of time just sitting here. How do you think we should try to get out of here?"

"We can start by travelling down this road," Novus answered. "I do not understand this odd dimension very well, but staying in one place surely won't get us anywhere."

"Alright, well let's get going then."

The Quilava walked forward, prompting Terron and Nyx to follow behind him. They left behind the pink pool, its warm glow growing more and more faint with each step they took until it was nothing but a dim speck of light in the distance. The road beneath their feet, on the other hand, continued to remain pink wherever they stepped, always staying the same color while the more distant parts of the road held darker shades. Somehow, with each step they took, the road would shift colors, making it seem that the group was going nowhere. And for a while, the group did start to think that they were going absolutely nowhere. Other than the pool disappearing, nothing about their surroundings had changed. There were still other levitating bodies of pink water in the distance, there were hundreds of other paths twisting through the air into unknown depths, and the purple lightning still seemed to strike in the same location as it always did. It really seemed that they were forever doomed to wander in the dimension.

But just as they were about to give up hope and discuss a new plan, a branching path appeared before them. This path, quite unlike the other roads they had seen far into the distance, was a radiant white. It was almost blinding to look at it.

"That's odd," Terron said, stopping beside the new path. "We haven't had two paths to choose from before."

"I suggest we take it," Novus replied. "It's certainly better than continuing on this currently endless path."

"Well wait, we don't even know where this path goes," Terron argued. "What if the second we step onto this path, it starts falling apart so that we can't ever go back? I mean, there has to be a reason why this path looks different from the other ones."

"You would rather remain stuck in this dimension you forced us into?" Novus shot back.

Terron scowled at the Quilava and was about to give him a retort, but before the words could leave his tongue, he saw Nyx swoop past him and Novus. Holding back his sharp words, Terron watched as she went to the side of the road before letting herself drop a few feet, allowing her waist to run parallel to the road. Then, she set one of her claws along the road's surface and drifted forward.

Though dragging her claws against the energy road emitted a low screeching sound, nothing else seemed to happen. The road didn't fall apart, nor did any other sort of unusual event occur. From what Terron and Novus could see, the path was completely safe.

Terron and Novus cast each other a glance, and then wordlessly stepped onto the road. The moment both of their feet touched the bright light, the road behind them disappeared, leaving them stranded on the new path before them. Just as with the other paths, they couldn't see very far without meeting a wall of darkness.

"Seems there's no choice now," Novus remarked. "Hopefully this road leads somewhere."

"You know, I just thought of something," Terron then said. "Why don't we just have Nyx carry us around? She can fly around, so it's not like we'll fall down and sink into the bottom of this place. Because you know, there's those weird pools everywhere we look, but we can't ever get to them because the road never takes us there. So maybe Nyx can take us to one of them. I mean, you guys came here through one of those pools, so maybe a way out is by going into another one."

"I suppose that's true," Novus agreed. "Then Unown are levitating Pokémon after all, so naturally you and I were never meant to be able to traverse through their odd little world."

"Exactly! So let's go find Nyx and get her to take us to one of those weird pools."

Without a moment's delay, the two Pokémon dashed down the brilliantly-colored road. However, they were not too hasty in their sprint, lest they slip and go careening off the edge and into the bottomless void below them.

Moments later, they found Nyx stopped in the middle of the path, her back turned to them.

"There you are!" Terron cried. "Glad we caught up to you! We had a-"

Terron stopped himself as he and Novus came to a halt right behind the towering Darkrai. What now lay before them nearly made Terron's jaw drop.

Now that it was no longer shrouded in the darkness, Terron could see that Nyx had stumbled across a very strange sight. The three had hit a dead end in the road, and what now lay before them, in massive quantities and levitating in the air, were spheres. They surrounded the road the three stood upon, each one made out of what looked like the same light as the road they stood upon it. Each one was about the size of Terron himself, being perfectly spherical in shape as they each gave off a yellowish hue.

But what surprised everybody the most was that these spheres were not transparent. There was something within each of the spheres. Something that seemed to be a multitude of different colors, each sphere's internal contents a different mix of shades than the ones surrounding it.

"What are these things?" Terron wondered aloud.

The Cubone took a step toward the nearest bubble-like object. He peered at it, squinting his eyes as he looked at its surface. Now that he was closer to it, he was able to see that the one he was currently looking at seemed to hold the image of dozens if not hundreds of small, metallic buildings clumped together. All of them held these strange lights that flashed in bright colors, some completely encased in the neon coloring while others were only partially covered, such as what appeared to be a giant wheel with what he thought were little jars attached all around the wheel's outer rim.

"What am I…?"

Terron turned his head to look at another one of the other spheres. This one held a massive amount of black buildings with blue lights, all of them much taller than the ones he had grown accustomed to in Shiron while a few manage to seemingly graze the sky. Between each of these buildings were grey roads that held strange, blue and white lines upon them.

The Cubone couldn't help but continue to stare at that particular sphere. Something about it seemed very familiar to him. Something he couldn't understand.

"These spheres hold very strange images," Novus remarked. "I do not think I've ever seen anything quite like whatever they are showing."

"But what are they?" Terron asked with a distant voice.

"I couldn't say," Novus replied. "But if I had to assume, I would say that they are locations of sorts. To where, I don't know. But that is the only plausible explanation I can come up with. After all, this here sphere holds an image of Unown Ruins."

The Quilava pointed a paw at one of the spheres close to where Terron stood. Slowly, Terron peeled his eyes from the location that fascinated him for some unknown reason before setting his sights on the one Novus spoke of. Sure enough, he was quick to find that he was staring at Unown Ruins, particularly the labyrinth that they had all met the Unown at in the first place. Terron nodded slowly upon seeing this, and then immediately brought his gaze back to the sphere with the massive cluster of black buildings.

"These are portals."

"Come again?" Novus asked, turning his gaze back to the Darkrai.

"These are portals to different locations. The Unown must use them to visit Shiron. I recognize many of these locations to be places from that world."

"How do you know that they are portals, though?" Novus then asked. "They could simply be windows that would allow the Unown to watch these locations. Or, they might be something entirely different altogether."

"Because I have been through portals. These spheres give off the same vibe and aura as the portals I went through did. There is no denying it."

"You mean the portal we just went through?"

"Yes. That one, along with the Primogenitor's dimensional portal. They felt the same as these ones currently do."

"Well, I suppose I can trust your judgement on that. It's not as though there's any harm in it. Very well, let's go through the one that has the Unown Ruins and-"

"Wait."

Novus and Nyx looked over at Terron, finding that he was still staring at the sphere he had been fixated on for the nearly the entire time they had found the portals. His eyes were eerily blank as he continued to stare at it.

"This place… this place is familiar to me," he said quietly.

"That one?" Novus asked, stepping beside the Cubone to look at the peculiar sphere. "What do you mean when you say that?"

"I mean that it feels like I know that place," Terron answered. "Like I've been there before. But no matter how hard I think, I can't remember ever going there."

"How odd," Novus mused. "Perhaps you went there before you met me on an errand for the Fellowship? Because this location certainly doesn't seem familiar to me."

"No, I've never seen this place on Shiron," Terron said with a shake of his head. "Plus, there's something… off about this place. It doesn't feel like it's on Shiron. Like it doesn't belong there."

"Terron, that makes absolutely no sense."

"Well it's true! I don't know why I get that thought, but it doesn't feel like it's a part of Shiron. It feels like it's out of this world or something."

"If it's not on Shiron, then where do you suggest it could be so that you feel that it's familiar to you? Where else could you have possibly seen this location?"

Terron didn't reply, choosing only to stare at the massive skyscrapers wordlessly. He knew that he had seen this place before. He knew he had; he just couldn't remember when or how.

"That is the city you used to live in as a human."

The Cubone's heart stopped as soon as he heard those haunting words echo in his ears. Suddenly, everything started to click together in his mind, and he was able to realize why the strange sight had captivated him so easily. He swiftly shot the Darkrai a disbelieving look, finding that she was staring at the sphere as well, though with more reverence than awe as Terron had previously.

"Wait a minute," Terron started to say. "Are you telling me that what I'm looking at…?"

"Yes. That is Kuron."

Terron turned back to the Kuron city, his mouth hanging ajar as he gazed into it even deeper than before.

"That's… Kuron," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Kuron… where all of the humans live… where I used to live…"

"Nyx, how do you know that Terron is human?" Novus interjected, equally as baffled.

The Darkrai didn't answer, only keeping her blank gaze on the Quilava. Novus growled under his breath as he turned to Terron, who was staring in wonder and fascination at the portal to Kuron before him.

"Terron, how does she know that you are human?" he asked.

Just as with Nyx, Terron didn't give an answer. He could only internally revel in glee at the sight of his old hometown, the thought that it was literally only a few inches away from him. He didn't even hear Novus's question because of how excited he was. Though he had never held too much interest in Kuron, he was soon to realize this had only been because he didn't think it was possible to see the world again and because he always had his mind occupied with other thoughts. But now, that was no longer the case. Seeing the human realm before him, literally inches away from him, did something to him. It sparked an irresistible longing within him, like a sort of nostalgia that filled with him an overwhelming happiness.

I could go visit Kuron right now if I wanted to. Terron thought. It's right here. I could see how everything and everybody's doing. All I have to is jump into that portal and I can see my old home.

But how will you get back if you go into that portal?

Terron's gleeful attitude quickly ceased as soon as his plagued self's words entered his mind. He frowned as he continued to stare into the portal.

I'll find a way back. Nyx said she brought Dimitri here to Shiron because she opened up a portal. She's probably still got that power.

If she really had that power still, then why are you and Novus wandering aimlessly in this Unown dimension? She would have opened up a portal back to Shiron if she still could make rifts.

Why are you so adamant about me not going back to Kuron?

Because you have more important things to do back in Shiron. Besides, what would you do in Kuron? You can't visit your family; you're still a Cubone. The second they see you, who knows what will happen. It's safe to assume there are no Pokémon on Kuron. It's pointless to go back when you have obligations back in Shiron. You'll only become stranded and let Shiron become overrun by Plagued Ones.

But it's still my home. I just need to know what Kuron was like. I just want to know what everything was like before I got amnesia…

Cubone Dimitri, you have no idea what you're getting yourself into. Go back to Shiron while you can.

You're not the boss of me.

Terron took a step forward and was about to enter the portal to his home world, but was abruptly interrupted by a sharp stinging in his mind. He groaned as he clutched both sides of his head, squeezing his eyes shut.

Get back to Shiron. Do it now.

No. I want to see my old world.

The pain in Terron's head intensified, causing him to let out a hiss as he stumbled back.

Stop it… stop doing this to me. Just let me get to Kuron! Let me see it!

I'm doing this for your own good. You need to get back to Shiron.

For my own good?! You don't know what's good for me! Don't try to sound like Nyx where you think you know me better than I know myself! Is it wrong that I want to see the world I was forced to leave behind so long ago? Is it wrong to want to see if everything I ever cared about as a human is still okay?!

You're going to be stranded on Kuron. You'll never be able to get back to Shiron where you're truly needed right now. You can go back to Kuron one day, but not right now.

Terron was about to shout another violent retort, but then the Cubone suddenly felt someone violently shove him in the side. Thanks to the unexpected force, the Cubone tumbled over, sprawling out along the white pathway as a few of his bone weapons fell out of his open pockets. The Cubone hastily stuffed the bones back into his coat before he looked over to see who had attacked him.

He was astonished to find Novus standing above him, glaring down at him with fire burning in his eyes.

"You're really starting to irritate me with how you keep ignoring my question," Novus hissed.

"What question?" Terron asked, still dazed from the sudden impact and the lingering pain of his migraine.

"How does Nyx knows that you're a human?" Novus asked, his anger seemingly flaring up upon stating the question.

"Oh," Terron said sheepishly. "Well… like I said, it's a long story and I really don't want to talk about it right now…"

The crown of Novus's head suddenly became aflame, prompting the Cubone to crawl away from the enraged Quilava. Novus let out a loud snort, causing a fireball to escape his breath and temporarily fill the air with smoke.

"Terron, I'm really tired of having you say that to me," Novus spat. "This is a massive secret you're hiding. Whatever happened to making it so that we don't share secrets between each other? I always thought you prized our group for being unified."

"Well look who's talking," Terron then said, his own words filling up with poison. "You won't tell me why you're still alive when you should have died a long time ago. Don't you dare act like you're better than me when you're doing the exact same thing."

"That's different," Novus growled. "I cannot tell you because telling you the truth could endanger all of us. My secret will put us in peril, and I will not let that happen until I feel there will no longer be any danger. You, on the other paw, don't have that excuse. You're not telling me your secret only because you are uncomfortable talking about it."

"I told you that I'd tell you what's going on," Terron shot back. "You just need to give me time to figure out how to talk about it because it's a really, really long story. With all of this stuff going on, there's been no time for me to think about it!"

"And when exactly will this time come?" Novus challenged. "A couple of days? Months? Years?"

"And when are you going to be able to tell when your secret isn't dangerous anymore?" Terron said, mocking Novus's volatile tone. "When are we ever not going to be in danger with how things are right now? You're not any better than me, Novus. Quit trying to make it look like I'm the bad guy and just-"

Something suddenly lifted Terron off the ground by the back of jacket, cutting off the rest of his words. He yelped as he squirmed in the air, trying to free himself from whatever had him wrapped up in its grasp.

"I am very tired of you two arguing."

Terron stopped struggling. He knew whose voice was speaking in his mind. He turned his head to find that he was being held up in the air by Nyx, her claws keeping a firm grip on his coat. In her other claws was Novus, who she held by the back of his neck. All of the fire engulfing his head had been extinguished, leaving him just as helpless as Terron. Terron wasn't sure if he had put it out himself, or if Nyx had done something to him to prevent him from resisting.

"Quilava, I am going to show you what Cubone Dimitri has been hiding from you this entire time. I tire of this pointless conversation and wish to see it end. You two could make much better use of your time if you did not argue over something that could be solved so easily."

"Cubone Dimitri?" Novus asked slowly. "Dimitri… is that his real name?"

"You will see. It is time for a trip."

"Wait, you don't mean…?" Terron started to say.

Nyx didn't give an answer. Instead, she tightened her hold onto the two smaller Pokémon, and swooped toward the Kuron portal. Terron felt his plagued self writhe within him, filling his mind with a stinging headache as it seemed to hiss incomprehensible gibberish. But just as he was to bring this to Nyx's attention, she sank her claws into the back of his neck. The migraine and screeching immediately ceased, and Terron's plagued self was seemingly subdued.

And yet, he still could feel a vague sense of dread coming from it as the Darkrai plunged into the portal with him and Novus in tow.

At first, Terron didn't see anything. As soon as Nyx had dragged him through the rift, Terron's vision went completely white. There was nothing distinguishable in that white void, not even shadows of objects flashing before him.

But then, colors flooded into his vision, and his eyesight was restored. Terron blinked a few times as he shook his head, still seeing bright flashes of the ethereal light in his sight.

"We are here."

Terron felt himself get lowered to the ground as Nyx's claws released him from her grip. He looked up at her, finding that she was staring into the distance ahead of her.

And so, with great anticipation building up within his chest, Terron followed her line of vision and set his sights upon the human realm.

Kuron was absolutely nothing like Shiron. Though he knew he was only seeing a very small fraction of the world, he knew without a doubt that the rest of Kuron was very similar to what stood before him. As he had seen within the Unown portal, he found himself standing in the outskirts of a very large city made entirely of massive buildings, a good amount of them being skyscrapers. Some of them were the typical rectangular shape he had seen a few times on Shiron, but others had a much more bizarre design, such as being shaped like giant spheres or being a massive needle with a disk towards the very top. In a couple of places, Terron even saw buildings shaped to resemble giant rings. But no matter what the design was, every single one of those structures towered over not just him, but Nyx as well, who had always been one of the taller creatures he had ever encountered on Shiron. But now, in the human realm, she was just as tiny and insignificant in stature as Terron was back in Shiron.

Everything in the city also had very strange lights. While it was night in Kuron for a reason Terron couldn't understand, he almost wouldn't believe it was thanks to how much the city was illuminated. In Shiron, Pokémon provided light by lighting a few candles , lanterns, or had glowing gemstones of sorts. But even with these things, the relentless darkness of the night was never vanquished, only driven off by a meager amount. But here in Kuron, that was not so. The light here, which seemed to fill every single building and street, fought back against the darkness with tremendous power, radiating a good majority of the city. There were a few dark places where no light could reach, but they were scarce. It was not like Shiron where there was always darkness waiting at every corner, only temporarily fought off by the tiny light of some insignificant item.

Terron looked upon the nearest light source, which he found to be a strange line running through the chrome ground beneath his feet, glowing a bright blue color. There were dozens of them through the streets, all the same color, though for what reason he couldn't imagine. He had honestly thought one would suffice, given how much it radiated its odd light. He stared at it with a puzzled gaze, watching it seemingly move toward the city, as if the light were actually a river that was steadily flowing by. At first, he thought it was electricity. It certainly wasn't yellow like the electricity he had seen electric-types discharge or the lightning bolts that fell from the sky in a terrible storm, but he couldn't think of what else could create this much light. But then, something in his mind quickly corrected him, telling him it was something else. He tried to press the thought further in an attempt to figure out what this unknown light was, but he found there were no answers to find.

"So this is Kuron," Terron said, mesmerized by everything. "This is where I'm from. It's so different than Shiron… I'd honestly think it was some alien planet if I didn't know better."

"In a way, it can be considered an alien planet. When humans and Pokémon were separated, the humans had already crafted a number of unusual inventions that made their lives easier. When Pokémon were still wild, humans had already developed societies for a very long time and were steadily advancing themselves into powerful beings. For example, they had made these little metal objects that could allow you to speak with someone that also had a metal object. You could talk to each other from any distance in an instant. Being separated from Pokémon did not stunt their ability to further invent, so you can obviously see what has occurred after centuries passing."

"And Pokémon can't do the same?" Terron asked.

"No. This ability to change their environment and manipulate it into something nature never would have imagined is something only humans can do. No other creature can do that."

Terron slowly nodded. In truth, he almost couldn't fathom what he was looking at. Everything around him seemed to have a strange surreal vibe to it, like it was something that shouldn't have been able to exist in reality. And yet, here he was, standing among it. Terron figured that if he hadn't have lost his memories, he would have had an incredibly difficult time adjusting to Shiron. He couldn't imagine being able to live in a world as complicated and distracting as this, only to be thrust into a much simpler world. In a way, being an amnesic was beneficial.

"So what exactly is it that you want to show us?" Novus then spoke up. "You said you wanted to show me what Terron has been hiding from me."

Terron snapped out of his stupefied gaze and looked back over at his friends. He found Novus, while somewhat captivated by the sights of Kuron, had his eyes glued to the Darkrai in an apparent effort to remain undistracted. The Darkrai was indifferently looking back at the Quilava.

"Yes, I remember telling you that. Well since you brought it up, I will tell you what you want to know."

The Darkrai drifted away from the Quilava and toward the looming city before bringing herself to a halt. She pointed to the buildings behind her with a finger, still keeping her gaze on the puzzled Quilava and anxious Cubone.

"Fifty years ago, the Primogenitor woke up from its slumber after being asleep for centuries. I do not know how, but it somehow recovered from the clash with our creator and once again began to infest our world. Except this time, it found that the world it had been trying to infest before had been split into two, one dimension being Kuron and the other being Shiron. So for a reason I am unable to answer at the moment, it decided that it wanted to focus on Shiron and devour everything in sight. So it woke up myself and the other legendary beings it had captured, and we were given tasks. As you have figured out, I was given the role of making the Mystery Dungeons. And since I had to pretend that I was brainwashed by it, I made those dungeons and trapped Pokémon within them, only to send them off to the Primogenitor later. I thought that someone would find a way to stop the Primogenitor. I thought perhaps the other legendaries or the creator would come back and put an end to this. But of course, no one came.

"When I saw that no one would be able to stop it, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. So twenty-five years ago, I summoned a human out of his realm and brought them to Shiron. I thought that because the Primogenitor was not attacking Kuron, it meant that it had no power over them. I remember it could centuries ago, but not this time, so I thought something had changed. So I sent a rift to find a human being for me who could help me. A human I could turn into a Pokémon and make them fight against the Primogenitor, where they would be immune to its blight and finally kill it or at least put it back to sleep. That human my rift found was a little boy named Dimitri. It stole him right out of this city when he was sleeping in his room."

"Terron…" Novus said quietly, subtly looking over at the Cubone.

"That is sadly only half-correct."

"What do you mean?" Novus then asked, looking back at the Darkrai. "Terron is a human, isn't he? You even called him Cubone Dimitri."

Nyx seemed to smile to herself as she steepled her claws together.

"When I brought Dimitri to Shiron, I quickly decided that I wanted to send him back, for he was too young to be caught up in any of this. But then somehow, the Primogenitor discovered what I had done and appeared just as I was to send him away, and attempted to suck out his life force. There was a struggle between it and I, and I managed to make Dimitri a Pokémon as I had wanted. Except, I made him two Pokémon."

She pulled her claws apart and directed one claw toward the Cubone.

"You know one half to be Cubone Dimitri, the one who was unable to keep a majority of the memories. Then the other half is the one you know now to be a callous Sableye, the calculated and insidious side of Dimitri who is the one who kept the memories."

Novus didn't say anything, for his jaw was agape and his eyes were frozen wide. Nyx shook her head as she lowered her claws and stared back at the spacious city.

"Cubone Dimitri was stolen from me by the Primogenitor, and I was barely able to hide Sableye Dimitri away before the Primogenitor finally brainwashed me. But, I made an effort to help those two even when I was unable to control myself. I split off a part of my soul to be Chloe so that she could help Sableye Dimitri in his darkest hours, and after twenty-five years of trying, I was successfully able to have a copy of myself to steal Cubone Dimitri out of the Primogenitor's realm and brought him over to Shiron. But as you have been able to tell, I could do nothing else for him. I was already spending a good majority of the little free will I had left in maintaining that Turtwig.

"But now you know, Quilava. That is how I knew Cubone Dimitri was human and why I care for him. I have nothing left to say regarding that."

Terron looked over at Novus, seeing how well he was taking the information. As he had been previously, Novus was still in complete shock over everything he was told, stiff as a board. He didn't even seem to be breathing. Terron was about to walk over to the Quilava, perhaps to comfort him, but soon saw that he was coming back to reality.

The Quilava sighed as he averted his gaze from the Darkrai.

"So that is what happened," he said in a subdued tone. "I see."

"Are you okay?" Terron asked him, keeping his distance.

"Yes, I'm fine," Novus assured. "Admittedly I feel very confused as to how you can even split a soul in half like that and have the result end up as you and the plagued Sableye… but I suppose I have no right to say anything about that. The blight could do a number of unusual things to someone's spirit, not to mention that even the concept of tampering with someone's soul no matter what it may be is a very… complicated manner."

"Does it change anything about the way you see me?" Terron then asked.

Novus was quiet for a moment. He stared at the ground, wearing a long frown as he seemed to deeply contemplate over something. Terron didn't even bother trying to say anything and simply waited for the Quilava to finish.

"Somewhat," Novus finally said after a while. "I admit that it's baffling to think that you're only half of a person… but maybe I shouldn't be very surprised. Ever since I met you and we've discovered what the blight really is and how it works, everything has slowly started to make less sense. Then also, I suppose I'm still peeved that you didn't tell me this for quite a while, even if I can tell why you didn't want to talk about it. It truly is a very… challenging subject to go over."

"Yeah, I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier," Terron said with a rueful tone. "I just really didn't know how to talk about it. Maybe I was even scared that you'd be off-put by it."

"Well I can certainly understand that reaction," Novus chuckled dryly. "But rest assured, the way I see you hasn't been altered very much. You're still technically a human in a body of a Cubone. You're just much more complicated than simply being a former human."

"Well you don't have to accept it all right away. You can take your time," Terron suggested tenderly. "I won't hold that against you."

"I know. But, I think I am fine for the most part," Novus then said. "I think the shock of the moment has mostly passed now."

Terron smiled as he watched the Quilava shake his head, and then look back at the Cubone. He returned the smile, mutually assuring the bond between them, before returning his gaze to Nyx. She was still staring out into the city, seemingly paying no attention to the two.

"Thank you for telling me about Terron," Novus said with a bow. "I'm sorry that we were so contentious before."

"It is fine. Now you two can work more efficiently together."

"But there's just something I don't understand," Novus then said, his happy smile turning into a puzzled frown.

"And what would that be?"

"You didn't have to bring us here to tell me that you were the one who brought Terron into this world," Novus stated. "You could have simply explained it to me and I would have believed you. So why did you bring us to Kuron if that was the case?"

Nyx finally turned away from the city to look back at the Quilava again. There was a knowing glimmer in her eyes.

"Because Cubone Dimitri wanted to see this place again. He longs to see the world he was stolen from, so I saw no reason why he could not see it again. I thought that I would let him see it for a while."

Terron and Novus were baffled to hear this. While Terron did know that she regretted bringing him to Shiron, he didn't realize that she was willing to bring him to Kuron for a temporary time to help make up for that. To him, it was almost too difficult to believe. He would have thought that she would keep him away from Kuron, lest painful regrets and memories come back to him.

But what was even more surprising was what she said next.

"Besides, you have something you need here, do you not, Quilava?"

"What are you talking about?" Novus asked reluctantly. "I have never been to Kuron before, and there is nothing in this world that is of use to me."

"I do not know whether you are lying to me, or you really do not know. But if you really want me to answer your question…

"It is because Zekrom is here in this dimension."