Chapter 17: Betrayal
A few days passed after Laura's departure for her visit with Mason, and soon enough the day arrived that she was scheduled to return home. It was evening, and Paula paced nervously in front of the entrance to Team Rainbow's base; she had expected Mason and Laura to return hours ago…
Just when she had begun to contemplate heading out to the Eastern Forest to retrieve Laura herself, she spotted them.
"Welcome home!" she exclaimed in joy. But the joy quickly turned to worry when she saw that Mason was carrying Laura on his back.
"Is something wrong? Why are you carrying Laura?" she asked Mason.
Laura rolled her eyes and answered on Mason's behalf. "All I said was that I was a little tired, and he insisted on carrying me even though I'm perfectly capable of walking."
"A 'little' tired?" Mason scoffed. "Laura, you were dead on your feet, practically walking like a zombie, before we were even a quarter of the way here!"
"A… a 'zombie?'" Laura asked in confusion. "I've heard that word before… but where…?" She winced and massaged her temples as she tried to remember.
"What did I say about trying to force your memories?" Mason demanded in a stern tone.
"…You're right… I'm sorry," Laura quietly apologized.
Mason sighed. "It's okay. I know how frustrating this must be for you…"
"Still no luck, huh?" Paula asked with a disappointed frown.
Mason and Laura sadly shook their heads.
Mason carried Laura inside and placed her on her bed, where she quickly fell asleep. Paula followed suit shortly after Mason left. The next morning Paula woke up easily, but she had trouble rousing Laura. When she finally managed it, Laura looked around in utter confusion.
"Huh? What am I doing at home?" she asked as she rubbed her eyes.
"What do you mean? Mason carried you here last night, remember?" Paula asked, slightly concerned.
Laura frowned before it slowly came back to her. "Oh… right…" she said. "Huh… I guess I must have been more tired than I thought… I can barely remember that… Weird."
Paula agreed that it was strange, but neither was overly worried about it. They just got up and did their jobs like usual. But things soon began to get stranger and stranger…
Over the next few days, Laura became increasingly lethargic. It seemed like it took her double the effort to move and react, even to the simplest of things. In fact, one night after a particularly tough day of jobs during which Laura nearly fainted—twice!—the duo entered their home and Paula turned away from Laura for less than a minute to put away the treasure bag, when she turned back around she found Laura out like a light. What's more, it was nearly impossible to get her up the next morning.
"Laura. Laura? Come on, Laura… wake up…" Paula ordered as she tried to shake Laura awake.
Laura merely grumbled into her pillow.
"How can you still be tired?" Paula wondered. "You got, like, twelve hours of sleep last night!"
Laura mumbled unintelligibly.
Paula sighed. "Well… you have seemed worn-out ever since you got back from Mason's… I guess we can afford a day off."
"…Yay… yawn…" Laura quietly replied as she pulled the blanket she got from Drowzee over her head.
Paula laughed at her friend's antics and set about trying to find something with which to amuse herself. Just when she had spotted Laura's art supplies and decided to once more try her paw at painting, she heard someone call to her outside.
"H-hey! Paula! Laura! I've got a message for you!" whoever it was said, sounding anxious.
"Huh? What do you think it is, Laura?" Paula asked, turning back towards her. Laura merely pulled the blanket higher up over her head. Paula sighed in exasperation and poked her head out of the entrance to see who it was. To her surprise, it was a very worried looking Bidoof.
"What's up, Bidoof?" she aked.
"Oof… Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf just contacted Guildmaster Wigglytuff," Bidoof explained. "They said that they had something important to show everyone, and they wanted you two to see it as well."
"They want us there?" Paula asked in surprise. Then she frowned and looked back down at Laura. "But… Laura isn't feeling a hundred percent today. Can't they show us later?" she asked.
"Oof… Golly, I don't know," Bidoof said, shuffling his feet. "They asked for Laura specifically… I reckon it must be real important…"
"Well… all right," Paula sighed. "You go on ahead; we'll meet you there shortly."
Bidoof left, and Paula went back inside to try to wake Laura again.
"Sorry, Laura, but I think we'll have to take that day off some other time. The Spirit Trio has something important to show everyone," she said apologetically.
Laura groaned in disappointment, but she did eventually get up and agree to head over to the guild.
The duo reached the lowest level where everyone had congregated. Throughout the whole trip over, Laura had felt unsteady on her feet, and she was barely able to keep her eyes open…
"HEY!" Loudred exclaimed when he noticed the duo. "Finally you're here!"
"S-sorry… are we late?" Paula asked.
"No, Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf have yet to arrive," Dugtrio explained.
"Oh, good," Paula sighed in relief.
She and Laura moved to join the others… but, much to everyone's surprise, Laura tripped and fell to the ground.
"Oh my gosh! Laura, are you all right?" Sunflora asked with concern.
Laura merely nodded, and a slight blush rose to her face.
Barely a second after she and Paula took their places, the Spirit Trio arrived.
"Good. Everyone is here…" Uxie said, looking around the room. He gave a lingering glance to Laura before turning to Wigglytuff and asking, "Shall we get started?"
Wigglytuff nodded. "Sure! What did you need to show us?"
"This," Uxie said, pulling out a bag.
The instant Laura saw it a massive wave of dizziness washed over her and she almost collapsed. Azelf felt the dramatic, momentary loss in her willpower and looked over in alarm.
"Laura, is something wrong?" he asked with concern.
Laura blushed and shook her head. "I'm just… tired," she quietly explained.
Azelf frowned, but then he turned around and gestured to his brother to continue.
Uxie opened the bag and the items inside fell to the ground. Everyone stared at them in horror.
"Eek! Oh my gosh!" Sunflora exclaimed, bringing her leaves up to cover her mouth.
"N-NO WAY!" Loudred yelled, frantically shaking his head as if to deny the objects' presence.
"Squawk! It-it can't be!" Chatot yelped, wings fluttering. "Are… are those—?!"
"Yes," Uxie confirmed in a grave voice. "They're Time Gears."
The five Time Gears that had previously been taken to Temporal Tower lay on the floor. Something was seriously wrong with them; they weren't really glowing with that peaceful, blue-green energy anymore. They were dark… and almost looked like they were rusting. Occasionally one would give off a flare of light, but it would be so tiny and weak that it was barely noticeable. As Laura looked at them, her eyelids began to droop…
"Golly!" Bidoof exclaimed, causing Laura to snap out of her daze. She shook her head and tried to focus her attention on Bidoof as he continued, "What's the matter with them?"
"Did we… did we do something wrong when we put them in place at Temporal Tower…?" Paula asked.
"No," Azelf replied. "You did everything you should have. They're simply… running out of energy."
Everyone looked at them in confusion. "HUH?"
Uxie sighed before explaining, "The Time Gears work like this: The gears are full of energy which they use to regulate time in their areas. When they were put into Temporal Tower, they gave up that energy in order to keep it standing. Now, their energy levels are low."
"So… what? Are you saying we need to recharge them?" Diglett asked.
Masprit shrugged. "Essentially, yeah," she said. "Or else…"
Everyone gulped. "Or else… what?" Diglett asked.
"Or else they'll try to recharge themselves by pulling from any available energy source," Azelf explained.
"What? So you're saying that the world might end up paralyzed after all?!" Corphish demanded. He turned to Team Rainbow. "Hey, hey! Did you two know this would happen?" he asked frantically.
Paula shook her head. "No! Grovyle never said anything about that!"
"It's not surprising," Azelf began. "Not even Dialga knew about it. But… unfortunately, if this continues it won't just be time that suffers. Because of their deep interconnection, space will suffer as well…"
"Squawk! What?!" Chatot demanded, flapping his wings in alarm. "S-so how do we recharge them?!"
"We're not sure," Uxie admitted, "but we were hoping that you might be able to help us… Laura."
Everyone turned to look at her in surprise, but she just blinked in confusion.
"Surely you studied the Time Gears when you were in the future?" Uxie asked. "Perhaps you came across something that Grovyle did not?"
Laura frowned and crossed her arms, trying to remember. She began to grimace in pain, but, knowing how important this was, she persisted in trying to delve deeper into her past. Suddenly the pain made her feel like her head was being split in two and she fell to her knees, groaning in agony.
"Laura!" Paula cried out in alarm, rushing to her side. She knelt beside her and placed a comforting paw on her back before shaking her head and turning sad eyes towards everyone else. "It's no good," she said. "She still can't remember…"
The Spirit Trio frowned in disappointment, looking at each other and sharing a telepathic thought.
"Laura, why don't you try touching the Time Gears?" Uxie suggested. "Perhaps a Dimensional Scream will come to you."
Laura was still wincing, but she nodded and, with Paula's help, shakily stood up and made her way over to the Time Gears. She placed her hands on them and instantly became dizzy.
"Okay, here we go…" she thought as the second wave of dizziness overcame her. "Ugh… this one's going to be strong…!"
Her eyes glowed brighter and got a faraway look…
It was raining—
The vision violently cut off, and the force sent Laura sprawling on the floor, screaming in agony.
"L-LAURA?!" everyone cried out in alarm.
Once more Paula rushed to her aid. "What happened?! Are you okay?!" she asked.
Laura moaned in pain once more before staring at the Time Gears. "It… it pushed me out…" she muttered in disbelief. Then she reached for the Time Gears once more. "Let me try again…"
"Laura, I don't think that's a good idea…" Paula cautioned.
Laura shook her head. "I'll be fine," she said as she placed her hands once more on one of the gears. After two waves of dizziness, her eyes acquired a faraway look as the vision restarted…
It was raining. Lightning was flashing, and the rumble of thunder permeated the air. Two figures, one taller than the other, were running through the trees. The smaller figure was holding a Time Gear in its hand. But the gear… it looked odd. While it wasn't rusted or dark like the ones in the present, it did seem to be rather… dull. It wasn't even glowing blue-green in the slightest. It just seemed to be gray… like stone. More Time Gears were peeking out of a bag that was slung over the smaller figure's shoulder, and they all appeared to be in the same condition as the one in its hand. The two figures made it to a rocky wall and came to an abrupt halt.
"Uh oh… We ran past the cave…!" the taller one exclaimed, its voice beautiful and feminine. She looked around and spotted an indent on the wall. "Oh!" she breathed. She grabbed her companion's hand and led them over to it. "Here's another one! We'll take shelter here, Laura!"
The Dimensional Scream ended, and, for some reason, the guild was lit up by a burst of light.
When the spots had cleared from everyone's eyes, they saw, to their alarm, that Laura was kneeling on the ground, arms wrapped around her chest, shaking in terror.
"N-no way…" she stuttered.
She scrambled to her feet, but the room suddenly seemed to pitch and lurch and she fell back down. Paula took a step forward to help her up, but Laura simply scrambled away on her knees before fleeing the guild.
"Laura! Wait for me!" Paula called, preparing to follow her.
She was intercepted by the Spirit Trio, who looked rather grim…
"Paula, we'll go after her," Azelf said. "You should stay here…"
"B-but…" Paula stammered, seeming unsure. Azelf felt this through her willpower, and used his abilities to make her lose her will to leave. "Well… okay," Paula agreed rather unhappily.
The three left, and the rest of the guild began to discuss the strange and terrifying turn of events.
"Hey, Dad?" Diglett asked. "What do you think charged the Time Gears in the first place?"
"Hm… It had to have been something incredibly powerful…" Dugtrio murmured.
"Why would Laura just RUN AWAY like that?" Loudred asked no one in particular. "Did she SEE something?"
"If she did, then it must have been something pretty bad…" Chimecho replied.
"I've never seen her run away that fast…" Croagunk noted before he glanced at Corphish with a mischievous grin. "At least… not since the 'picture' incident… meh heh heh…"
Corphish heard the implication and was about to make an indignant remark when his eyes caught sight of the Time Gears again.
"H-hey, hey! Is it just me, or do those Time Gears seem to be shining a little brighter?" he asked rather incredulously.
Everyone looked over and was shocked to see that it was true.
Meanwhile…
Laura had made it to the beach. By this point, however, she was staggering with exhaustion. She tripped again and fell face-down onto the sand, but rather than try to get up, she merely rolled over onto her back.
Her thoughts were frantic. "Why… what was that?" she demanded of herself, trying to find an explanation. "That figure… she said my name! But… why? And why are the Time Gears…?" She grimaced in pain. "Ugh… my head hurts… and I'm so tired… why…?"
"Laura! Are you all right?" a voice called out in concern.
Laura glanced back in the direction she had come from and saw that the Spirit Trio was worriedly floating towards her. She managed to sit up, but the efforts left her dizzy.
"I… yeah," she said in a soft, wavering voice as she shakily brought a hand to her forehead. "I'm… f-fine. S-sorry for running out like that, I just… that vision…!"
The Spirit Trio was surprised. "So you did have a vision?" Mesprit asked. "What was it about?"
"There… there was rain. And… and two figures were running through a forest…" Laura began. "They… they had Time Gears with them, but they looked… odd. There was a woman's voice… it sounded worried. The two had overshot their shelter, but she found them another one. And… and then… she said my name…!" she looked at the trio with a lost and confused expression on her face. "I… this probably sounds crazy… but I swear… I… I think she was talking to me! That voice… I keep hearing it in my dreams! I should know her! But I can't… I just can't remember…"
Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf shared a grim look before Mesprit opened a telepathic channel.
"Poor girl… I can feel her confusion and despair," Mesprit informed her siblings.
"This is bad… it didn't work!"Azelf said. He mentally sighed in despair, "I guess we don't have a choice, now…"
"I know…" Uxie agreed, sounding solemn and grim. "I wish there were another way… but it looks like we'll have to resort to Plan B…"
Mesprit and Azelf shivered. "Plan B…"
Uxie turned to Laura. She was frightened and confused. "…It will be all right, Laura," Uxie assured her, trying to sound comforting. "Everything… everything will be fine." He offered her a hand, saying, "Here, let me help you up."
Laura took his hand, but as he began to help her up, she felt dizzy…
"Oh no… not another Dimensional Scream!" she moaned internally as another wave of dizziness passed over her. "But… this one isn't as strong, so…"
Her eyes glowed brighter and got a faraway look…
There was a cavern filled with crystals. Some of them were pale yellow, but others seemed reflective. They reminded Laura of mirrors…
Near the center of the cavern she saw three of the mirror-like crystals. They reflected the image of Mesprit, on the right, and Azelf, on the left, kneeling beside something between them on the ground. The "mirrors" were too high for her to tell what the thing was, but she thought that she saw a flash of green…
In the third crystal, in the middle, she could see a reflection of Uxie. He was floating towards the thing lying on the ground between his siblings. When he reached it, he stopped.
"Believe me when I say this," he said, sounding rather sad. "We would not do this if there were any other way."
"Don't be frightened…" Mesprit pleaded.
"This will all be over soon, and then we'll take you home. We promise," Azelf assured.
Uxie moved forward again. "Please forgive us, Laura…" he asked as he knelt behind the thing on the ground that Laura was now almost positive was her in the future. "But this must be done. For the good of the world…"
His eyes opened and began to glow. Then, suddenly, a bright light shone, and a wordless shriek of agony echoed throughout the cavern…
As the vision ended, Laura could hear Uxie's voice, full of concern, asking "…Laura? Laura? Are you… okay?"
She lifted her stunned face to stare at him. Then she realized that he was still holding her hand. She yanked it out of his grasp and started to tremble. Mesprit could sense her mounting fear.
"Uh oh…" she said telepathically. "I think she knows…!"
The Spirit Trio slowly advanced towards Laura and she, though stumbling, quickly backed away.
"Now Laura, just… just calm down," Mesprit said. "Everything's going to be okay…"
Laura shook her head and continued backing up at the rate of their advance. Her eyes widened in fear when she felt something hard touch her back and she realized that she was cornered against the stone wall that housed the entrance to Beach Cave. The Trio continued to slowly close in.
"Laura, listen to me," Uxie ordered, trying to sound gentle. "We need to take you with us for a while. We need—"
Azelf felt a sudden surge of determination within Laura, and he cut his brother off with, "Uh oh!"
Laura broke away from the trio and started to run. Unfortunately, Azelf's forewarning allowed him to catch her.
"No, you don't, Laura!" he said firmly.
"No! Let go!" Laura shrieked as she tried to pull away from him. "LET GO!"
A few minutes earlier…
Back at the guild, everyone was still chattering about the Time Gears, Laura's flight, and so on and so forth. Paula, now that Azelf was gone and was no longer influencing her willpower, began to grow nervous.
"Maybe… maybe someone should go after them," she mumbled.
"You heard them, Paula. They will bring Laura back," Dugtrio soothed.
"I know, but… it's just that Laura was really tired this morning. We weren't even going to go out today… I'm just worried." She glanced at the ladder that led to the exit and frowned. "I'm going to go after them," she decided. "I'll be back soon!"
Paula headed out, and, just as she had reached the crossroads, she heard a voice call out, "Paula! Hey! How's it going?"
She turned to see Mason heading towards her, waving cheerily. "Mason!"
"Hey," he said, grinning. Then he frowned and looked around in confusion. "…Huh? Where's Laura?" he asked.
Paula shook her head. "I don't know," she admitted. "She just left the guild a few minutes ago. Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf went after her, but…"
"The Spirit Trio?" Mason asked in surprise. "What were they doing here?"
Paula suddenly frowned with worry. "Well," she began, "you see—"
The sound of a shriek cut her off.
"No! Let go! LET GO!"
"What?!" Paula exclaimed, whipping around. "That… that sounded like Laura!"
"It came from the beach!" Mason said, a horrified expression on his face. "Let's go! HURRY!"
Back on the beach, Laura was desperately trying to fend off the Spirit Trio.
"Laura! LAURA! Stop fighting me!" Azelf commanded as she used Pound on him.
Laura was still shrieking, "No! NO!"
She managed to break free from his grasp and begin to flee again, but Mesprit intercepted her and tackled her to the sand.
"Laura! It's all right!" she said. She tried to use her powers to calm Laura down. She knew it was a desperate gamble, seeing as prior experience had shown that many of the Spirit Trio's special abilities weren't very effective on her, but this time it seemed to be working…
"Sh… sh… That's right… it's okay… you're fine…" she cooed as Laura slowly began to stop struggling. "You're okay… everything's fine…"
"HEY! What are you DOING?!" an angry voice demanded.
The Spirit Trio looked over in surprised to see that Mason and Paula had arrived on the beach and were looking at them with horrified expressions. This caused Mesprit to break concentration, and Laura's terror returned ten-fold.
"Mason! Paula!" she sobbed. "Please help! They're trying to kidnap me!"
"WHAT?!" Mason and Paula shrieked.
Paula immediately hit Mesprit with an electric attack, knocking her off of Laura. Laura scrambled away, back towards her friends.
"Ow…!" Mesprit moaned as Azelf helped her up.
"Mason! Give Laura over to us!" Uxied demanded.
Mason held Laura close behind him and shouted, "You're not taking her anywhere!"
"Mason, be reasonable—"
"Reasonable?!" Paula demanded hysterically. "You're trying to kidnap Laura! Why? I thought we were friends!"
"Mason, return Laura to us now!" Azelf demanded.
He used his powers on Mason. Mason was almost swayed, but he quickly realized what Azelf was doing and shook it off. "Don't you DARE try to use your powers on me!"
Azelf glared. "Fine!" he spat. "We didn't want to hurt you… but you're leaving us no choice!"
The Spirit Trio attacked, and Team Rainbow and Mason fought back fiercely. It was a brutal fight, and everyone sustained injury. At one point, Paula let loose an electric attack so large that it darkened the skies…!
Meanwhile, at the guild…
Everyone had finally calmed down a bit, and they were beginning to worry over the fact that neither Laura nor those who had gone to retrieve her had returned yet.
"Oof… you know, everyone's been gone an awful long time…" Bidoof said.
Loudred opened his mouth to make a comment… but before he could say a word, the room suddenly got dark.
"Eek! What's going on?!" Sunflora asked, looking at the darkened sky outside the window.
Wigglytuff frowned. "I don't like this…" he said. He turned and headed for the exit. "Everyone! I'm going after them!" he exclaimed.
"Wait, Guildmaster! I'm coming too!" Bidoof said.
"And ME!" Loudred added.
"Hey, hey! So am I!" Corphish said.
In the end, everyone ended up following him out. But in their hurry to leave, no one noticed that the Time Gears were flickering…
Back at the beach, the fight was still raging on. Everyone was hurt, bleeding, and nearing exhaustion. It was especially bad for Laura, who had already been exhausted to begin with.
Suddenly, she experienced a severe wave of vertigo and tumbled to her knees.
"Ugh…" she moaned.
"Laura?!" Mason and Paula called in worry.
The Spirit Trio took advantage of the duo's momentary lapse in concentration and attacked them. It was too much, and the two began to black out.
"Mason! Paula! No!" Laura cried out in despair.
Azelf immediately grabbed her by the shoulders and tried to dampen her willpower while Mesprit sent her calm feelings. Uxie forced her to look at him and then used Yawn.
"Sleep, Laura," he commanded gently. "Don't worry… you'll see them again soon. I promise…"
Laura was unable to fight the exhaustion any longer. "Ma…son… ugh…" she whispered as she fell asleep.
Azelf's restraining arms were the only things that kept her from falling forward. He picked her up, and the trio began to depart with her.
"N-no…!" Mason uttered desperately.
But it was too late. In a flash of light, the four had teleported away.
"L-Laura…!" Mason weakly called in despair before he blacked out.
It wasn't long before the guild members reached the beach.
"Oh my gosh! There's Paula! Sunflora exclaimed upon catching sight of her friend. She rushed forward… only to stop dead in her tracks when she noticed all the blood and evidence of the fight. "Eek! What happened to her!?"
"Hey, hey! Mason is here too!" Corphish exclaimed, catching sight of the celebi and hurrying over to him.
"MASON?" Loudred asked in surprise. "What's HE doing here?"
Bidoof looked around, not seeing any other signs of life. "Oof… And where are Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf, and Laura…?"
Wigglytuff frowned in concern. "…Right now, Paula and Mason are more important. We need to get them back to the guild now."
"Right!" Chatot agreed before ordering, "Come, everyone! You heard the Guildmaster! There will be time for questions later!"
"R-RIGHT!" everyone exclaimed before gathering up Paula and Mason and heading back towards the guild.