Chapter 29: Humanity

Everyone stared at Laura, unable to believe that her form had changed from the treecko they were so familiar with to this…thing. At everyone's continued silence, Laura frowned. "Why… why are you looking at me like that?" she asked. Then she blinked and looked around in confusion. "What happened to all the Aura Crystals?" she questioned, looking back to her friends. Then she frowned again and asked, "And why… why are you all so… small?"

Paula finally found her voice and stammered, "L-Laura… we're not small… you're big!"

Laura frowned once more in confusion.

"Laura… how do you feel?" Dugtrio asked.

Laura thought about it for a moment before a smile grew on her face. "… Really good, actually. Better than I've felt in a long time…" she admitted.

"That… that is good," Dugtrio said slowly, "but I meant… do you feel… strange in any way? Or… different?"

Laura frowned again. "I'm not sure what you mean…"

Mason finally recovered the smallest amount and faintly ordered, "Laura… take a look at your hands."

Laura frowned, but did as he asked. But the moment she caught sight of her hands, she froze. "No way…!" she murmured, turning them over and over. Tentatively she reached up to stroke her fur—hair, her eyes widening when it caught in her fingers. "No way…!" she said louder, frantically scrambling to her feet.

Everyone scrambled away in surprise—and, honestly, fear—of her new height. Everyone but Mason, that is.

"I'm… I'm… I'm HUMAN again!" Laura exclaimed in shock. "I'm… but how is this…?!"

Her breathing began to speed up, and when Mason heard it hitch he shook off his remaining shock and flew up to her eye-level, taking her face in his hands and forcing her to look into his eyes. "Laura, calm down," he commanded. "If you continue to hyperventilate like this, you'll pass out."

As Laura looked at him, her eyes widened with a new kind of recognition. "Golden…" she whispered. "Those eyes… they're… Mason. You're… you're him…"

Mason was visibly shocked. His hands dropped, and he asked, "Laura… do you… do you remember now?"

Laura nodded. She looked at her bracelet before biting her lip and slumping back down on her knees. "Yes…" she whispered almost sadly. "I… I remember now. I… I know who I am..."

Mason shut his eyes, seeming to share her emotional torment. Everyone else looked at the pair in confusion, not daring to disturb what looked like a private moment. That is… until Corphish blurted out, "Hey, hey! But how did this happen?! Why did Laura turn back into a… a human?"

Mason glanced at Laura once more before addressing Corphish, almost reluctantly, "…Well she did—apparently—say in her dreams that Aura Crystals could heal her, so… I guess they just did a better job than we thought they would…"

"But that's great!" Wigglytuff suddenly exclaimed, seemingly oblivious to the tension that permeated the air. "Laura is all better now! That means mission accomplished!"

No one acknowledged his comment. Laura and Mason were too occupied with… something, and everyone else was still in shock at seeing Laura's true form.

Wigglytuff frowned before repeating, "I said… mission accomplished!"

That startled the guild members and Paula back to the present, and, fearing that another lack of response would cause Wigglytuff to snap, they cheered, "H-HOORAY!"

Wigglytuff beamed and decreed, "Okay! So now we need to go back home to start on our next mission: Fixing the Time Gears!"

Mason and Laura perked up at this. They glanced at each other worriedly before following the others in exiting the cave, with Laura closing it up behind them.

Everyone was quiet on the way back. Mason and Laura were lagging behind and, by their hushed whispers, it was obvious that they were privately discussing something important. No one was paying as much attention to the surroundings as they should have, so it wasn't really surprising when they wandered into a Monster House by mistake. Everyone jumped in alarm when they were suddenly set upon by dozens of Plant- and Bug-types like bayleef and vespiqueen.

"Squawk! Oh no!" Chatot exclaimed as he dodged an Aerial Ace attack. "It's a Monster House! Humans aren't very strong! We have to protect—Squawk?! L-Laura?!"

Laura didn't need protection. Chatot's surprised squawking had been due to her leaping in front of him and taking down the vespiqueen that had attacked him. In fact, that was the fourth pokémon she had taken down on her own. Everyone watched in awe as she performed a spinning kick on one of the attacking bayleefs' knees, knocking it down before immediately spinning back around and punching another vespiqueen in the face. By the time everyone finally came to their senses and began to help her, she had already taken out half of the Monster House. The remaining enemies were quickly defeated, and Laura took a moment to rest and wipe the sweat from her brow, oblivious to everyone's stares of wonder.

When she finally noticed the awed stares, she confusedly asked, "…Why are you staring at me like that?"

Suddenly Croagunk chuckled, "I always wondered where your unique fighting style came from… Meh heh heh… Going for the weak spots… you're pretty brutal, aren't you?"

Laura blushed at that and looked away in embarrassment. "W-well it's like Chatot said… humans are naturally weaker than pokémon. We get hurt more easily," she sheepishly admitted. "I never would have survived in that dark future if I couldn't protect myself. There was only so much that Grovyle could do…"

Paula nodded; that made a lot of sense. But then she blinked in realization and gasped, "Laura! You… you can remember your time in the paralyzed future with Grovyle?!"

Laura blinked, suddenly realizing that, yes, she did!

"…Most of it…" she said slowly in wonderment. "I mean… as much as I would have remembered had Darkrai not—"

She cut herself off with a sharp gasp and her hands flew to her mouth. Everyone looked at her in concern as she confusedly murmured, "Darkrai…? But that… he…"

"Laura? Is everything all right?" Mason asked.

Laura blinked, taking her hands away from her mouth and faintly saying, "Uh… Y-yeah, I'm fine. It's just… I just remembered something."

"Something important…?" Mason prompted.

But before Laura could answer, a rumble of thunder resounded through the forest.

"Eek!" Sunflora shrieked, grabbing Loudred's arm in terror.

"SUNFLORA!" Loudred said in annoyance, stumbling from the unexpected contact. "What are you DOING?"

"Ooh… I hate thunder!" Sunflora complained, shivering in fear.

"Do you think we'll make it home before it starts raining?" Chimecho asked curiously, looking up at the sky. The beginning of a torrential downpour answered her question.

Everyone continued moving forward for a while, but visibility was very poor.

"This is RIDICULOUS!" Loudred complained. "I can't see ANYTHING!"

"Continuing in these conditions would be very dangerous…" Chatot agreed.

"…Um…" Laura said quietly, causing everyone to look at her expectantly. "I, uh… I know somewhere that we can go. That is…" she glanced at Mason, "if you don't think it would make her mad…?"

"No… that's a good idea," Mason said, nodding. "I think she'd be pleased if we used it for that purpose. Besides… it'd give us a chance to… you know…" he trailed off nervously.

"Right," Laura sighed. Then she looked around briefly before changing directions and starting to walk confidently to the right. "It's this way…"

Laura led the group to the secret door and opened the hatch. Everyone filed into the underground cavern, with Laura closing the door behind them. The guild and Paula looked around in awe at the cavern's size and the lights on the walls. Mason and Laura, who had been in the cavern before and were used to its sights, quickly got busy finding towels and other supplies in the storerooms and distributing them. At one point Laura caught sight of her reflection in one of the cavern's many full-length mirrors and she paused. She stepped closer for a more thorough inspection.

"So… I really am human again…" she thought, finally coming to terms with reality. "And I'm still wearing this same outfit," she noted, seeming slightly surprised. Then she blinked and made a face. "Oh, ew! That means I've been wearing this for over two years! ...Sort of…" She stroked her tangled and windblown hair. "…I look like an absolute mess," she decided.

"I need to go dry off," Laura announced, heading for the room with the flowers painted on the door. "No peeking!"

"Golly!" Bidoof said once Laura had left the room. "Laura must still be shy about us seeing her human form if she won't even dry off in front of us."

Mason shook his head, a slight blush coming to his face. "No, that's not it. She was soaking wet. A towel wouldn't have been enough."

"Hey, hey! Then why didn't she just start a fire?" Corphish asked.

"No, that wouldn't…" Mason began before pausing as realization struck him. He kneaded his forehead and asked, "Do you guys have any experience with humans?"

Everyone was silent, confirming Mason's suspicions. "I guess not," he groaned.

"Honestly… I think this is the first time any of us have seen a real human," Sunflora admitted. "I mean… we've all heard of them, but… oh my gosh! Hearing about them and actually seeing one are two completely different things!"

"Although she did look a little like the female creature from the statue in the Treasure's Clearing," Chatot quietly commented to Wigglytuff. "Laura is taller, obviously… and the cloth she's wearing appears to be different… and her chest is…er…" he trailed off at that, blushing in embarrassment without really understanding why and desperately hoping that Mason hadn't heard his last comment.

It seemed like his wish came true, as Mason just continued from his previous comment by sighing, "Oh, dear…" He lifted his head and frowned at seeing that everyone was still soaking wet. "…I'm being a bad host," he admitted. "Your idea was a good one, Corphish. I'll go start a fire."

Mason floated off in search of wood, and the other pokémon took the opportunity to explore the cavern. Paula ended up in the area that contained the room Laura had disappeared into. She cocked her ears at the strange shuffling noises she heard coming from behind the flowered door, but she passed it off as some human thing that she would ask about later if it turned out to be important. She looked around and hopped up onto a chair that was in front of a table to the left of the ornate door so that she could get a better view. She turned around and started in surprise—nearly falling off the chair—when she saw her reflection in the mirror that was set up on the table. She studied it, feeling very curious. She had never seen a real mirror before. The closest she had seen was clear, still water and the crystals in the Cave of Reflections.

"Weird…" she murmured. "It's so… clear!"

She looked down at the table and blinked when she noticed a folded piece of paper on it. She picked it up and unfolded it, blinking again when she recognized the writing as being in the same language that Laura had used during her brief trial period with a diary. She was surprised when, now that she saw it again, she could recognize some of the letters. She still couldn't read any of it, but it reminded her a bit of the unown from Aegis Cave and the writing that Grovyle had deciphered in the Old Ruins.

The other members of the group made their way to the room and looked around, admiring the doors. Bidoof strolled over to the blue-green door.

"Golly, I wonder what's in here…?" he said as he started to push it open.

He was startled when two shouts of "No!" resounded and Mason and Laura rushed over, with Mason dropping the firewood in his arms and Laura not even bothering to close the door to the room she had just exited. Laura blocked the path to the blue-green door with outstretched arms while Mason hurriedly closed it.

"Waah!" Bidoof exclaimed, jumping back in alarm. "Wh-what's wrong?"

Laura looked at him apologetically while Mason explained, "Sorry, Bidoof, but you can't go in there. That door leads to our Mistress' chambers. No one is allowed in there without her permission!"

"Oof… Sorry, I didn't know," Bidoof apologized.

"It's fine," Mason assured with a sigh, with Laura nodding in agreement. "Just… please don't do it again."

Everyone nodded, and Laura dropped her outstretched arms and headed over to the mirror. Paula sensed that she wanted to sit down, so she considerately hopped out of the chair. Laura smiled at her in gratitude and set a small bag she had been holding on the table before sitting down. She took a brush out of the bag and began to run it through her hair. Mason, meanwhile, started a small fire in the center of the room.

Everyone watched Laura with interest. Something about her puzzled Wigglytuff, however, and when he finally figured it out, he commented, "Oh, oh? Laura! You look different now!"

Laura turned back and looked at him with confusion, and Chatot sighed and gently said, "Guildmaster… Laura has turned back into a human. Of course she looks—"

"No, no, silly!" Wigglytuf cut him off with a shake of his head. "I'm not talking about that."

At everyone's looks of confusion, Wigglytuff explained, "Back in the cave with the Aura Crystals, Laura was all gray. But now she's all white!"

Laura creased her brow before her eyes widened in realization and she exclaimed, "Oh! You're talking about my clothes!"

Laura stood up. Indeed, she was wearing a new outfit. It was much simpler, for one. She had on a white cloth that landed midway between her knees and ankles, with small strips over her shoulders, and the gray cloth on her feet had been exchanged for white. The bandages were gone, so the only bit of color on her apparel came from the Time Gear that had been emblazoned on her belt.

"'Clothes?'" Paula repeated, cocking her head.

Laura nodded and knelt to the ground, holding out her hands. "This is my skin," she began. Then she picked at the cloth that covered most of her body and further explained, "And this is just a dress."

"Oof… So, why'd you change out of your old 'clothes?'" Bidoof asked.

Laura shrugged, "They were soaking wet. Besides… that camouflage won't really be useful here."

Paula cocked her head. "Camouflage?"

Laura nodded. "Remember how everything in the dark future was gray and lifeless? My other outfit helped me to blend in."

"I wondered why you were wearing that," Mason said, nodding in understanding as he stoked the fire. "That gray outfit didn't suit you. This looks much better."

Laura blushed and glanced away as Diglett moved around to study her feet.

"So what are those?" he asked, indicating her feet. "Are they 'clothes' too?"

Laura nodded and took them off. "They're shoes," she explained. Then she wiggled her toes. "These are my feet."

"So that's a human footprint…" Diglett murmured, studying her feet.

"If you're going to memorize her footprint, then you'd be better off memorizing the one when she has shoes on," Mason called from the fire. "Humans generally don't go around barefoot outside."

Diglett nodded and Laura put her shoes back on so that Diglett could follow Mason's suggestion. As he did so, Chimecho floated up and touched Laura's hair, asking, "What about this?"

"My hair," Laura explained, getting back up and sitting in the chair, continuing to brush it. "Mostly it grows on my head, but some also grows on my arms and legs, etc." She set down the brush and stared at her reflection. "It used to be much shorter," she quietly admitted. Then she bit her lip and sighed sadly, "I… I should probably cut it again… or at least trim it…"

Sunflora's eyes widened and her leaves flew to her mouth. "Eek! Cut it?!" she asked in horror. "Won't that hurt?"

Laura blinked in surprise before giggling, her mood brightening a small amount. Mason laughed and assured Sunflora, "No, it won't hurt her. Hair is equivalent to fur; it doesn't hurt when it's cut."

Then he turned to Laura and offered, "Let me do it for you; you probably won't be able to cut it evenly on your own."

Laura blinked before smiling gratefully. "Heh… Yeah. That's why Grovyle always did it…" she sighed sadly.

That statement made everyone feel gloomy, but they perked up with interest as they watched Mason trim her hair with a pair of scissors he had taken from the bag on the table. He finished quickly, and when he was done the length had shortened from reaching the middle of her back to barely brushing her shoulders. Laura looked at her reflection in the mirror and bit her lip. She fingered her now shortened hair and sighed in resignation.

Everyone was confused by her reaction—although Mason's feelings were leaning more towards extremely worried—but Paula and the guild members seemed more interested in the snippets of hair that had fallen to the floor.

"Hey, hey! So what do you do with the hair that's been cut off?" Corphish asked curiously.

Laura sighed again before answering him, "I don't really need it… we usually just threw it into the fire so that we left less of a trail."

"Ooh! Can I have some of it?" Wigglytuff asked with enthusiasm.

Laura blinked in surprise and shrugged. "Uh… Sure. But, um… why do you want it?"

"It's a memento!" Wigglytuff happily exclaimed, before bending down to collect some.

"Oh! I want some too!" Sunflora said, going to collect some of her own.

"Yup, yup!" Bidoof agreed. "Me three!"

The pokémon all scrambled after the hair snippets (and Mason secretly took some as well…) while Laura looked on, slightly bemused. Then she caught sight of the paper that Paula had found and she cocked her head. "What's that?" she asked.

Paula blinked and looked down at it, as if she just now remembered that it was in her possession. "Oh… I think it's a letter," she said, handing it to her friend. "I found it on the table you're sitting at. It looks like it's written in the same language as your diary…"

Laura glanced at it before she froze in shock. She was silent for a few moments before she looked back at Paula. When she saw her expectant face, she quietly said, "…Yeah. It's written in English too."

"'English?' That's what it's called?" Paula confirmed. At Laura's nod, she asked, "So… who's it from? And who's it for?"

Laura lowered the letter and glanced away. "…It's for me," she admitted quietly. "And it's from… it's from the one pokémon whom I taught this language: Grovyle…"

Everyone whipped around, eyes wide with shock. "It's from Grovyle?" they repeated. "Well, go on! Read it!"

Laura sighed before reading aloud, "…Dear Partner… no, Laura… I hope that this letter finds you in safety, and that you weren't harmed in the accident. I was really worried when I woke up and you weren't there. If you're reading this letter, then it means I was right in thinking that you'd head for this cave if we were separated.

I've gone on ahead to collect the Time Gears. My first stop is the one in Treeshroud Forest. Can you take out the ones in the lakes of the Spirit Trio? They might be more likely to listen to a human. If you can't get those, I'll save them for last. Also, try and work on finding the Hidden Land. It's too bad that your legends don't tell of its location…

In any case, I hope that this letter isn't necessary and that we meet up soon. –Grovyle

P. S. I can't believe I'm saying this, but… you were right about this cave. Your bracelet is still stuck in the keyhole (again, I'm really sorry about that…) despite the fact that you—technically—haven't put it in yet."

With that Laura dropped the letter back in her lap and sighed sadly, tears stinging in her eyes. "He really was worried about me…" she murmured. "He called me Laura… He never called me by name unless he was feeling really emotional… he'd always call me 'Partner' or something…" She paused and choked on a sob as she realized something. "When… when we finally met up again… he only used my name…"

Everyone looked at her with sympathy and cast around for something to distract her with. It was Corphish who finally managed by asking, "Er… S-so, hey, hey! What bracelet was he talking about? The only ones I see here are the ones on yours and Mason's wrists!"

Laura rubbed her eyes and sniffled before pointing at her bracelet and saying, "Yeah, this is the one he was talking about. See… Grovyle and I briefly stayed in this cave before we went off in search of Celebi. While we were here, I tried to open that door there," she pointed at the ornate door before continuing, "at Grovyle's request by using my bracelet as the key. But like I told him, I was too young. The door didn't open, and my bracelet got stuck. But I got it back the last time I was here."

"Squawk! Wait, what?!" Chatot asked, flapping his wings. "How could that bracelet still have been there? That dark future no longer exists! It should have vanished along with… erk!" he cut himself off and blushed, realizing how insensitive he almost sounded. "W-well you know who I… it… it should have vanished!" he finished lamely.

Laura shrugged. "Like Grovyle said, I was right about this cave." Her eyes became dreamy and she smiled, "Relatia's Cave…"

Everyone looked from her to Mason (who was sharing her dreamy expression) and felt puzzled. "HUH?" Loudred asked. "Who's RELATIA?"

Mason forced himself back into the present and answered, with a huge grin on his face, "Relatia is the name of our Mistress. She controls time and space."

Paula frowned in confusion. "But… I thought that was Dialga and Palkia's job."

Mason chuckled. "Heh… Relatia is much more powerful than both of them combined. She's the goddess of time and space."

Everyone's jaws dropped in disbelief and they exclaimed, "A GODDESS?!"

"Of course. Why else do you think the Time Gears would be something as out-of-place here as gears? It's because Relatia's symbol is a gear," Mason explained. Then he pointed at his bracelet. "It's also why we wear Time Gear bracelets and why there's one emblazoned on Laura's belt; it marks us as Relatia's people."

Dugtrio shook his head, having trouble comprehending the information. "All right… but what does that have to do with this cave?"

"It's Relatia's Cave," Laura began, surprising everyone with her willingness to talk and explain. "Since she's the goddess of time and space, the rules of time and space do not apply." She gestured widely with her hands. "Right now, we're standing in the past, present, future, and the no longer existent future where Grovyle and I lived, as well as many other multiple dimensions."

Loudred creased his brows. "Then… what's to stop pokémon from all those OTHER time periods from coming here NOW while WE'RE still here? And how will WE make it back to our OWN time?!" he demanded.

Mason chuckled again at everyone's worried expressions. "You don't have to worry," he assured, "it's locked from the inside. We'll automatically be returned to the time and place we entered from. Only Relatia has the power to change the destination while inside the cave."

Laura and Mason laughed when everyone sighed in relief, and then Laura blushed and clutched her stomach when it started to growl.

Mason spun around, suddenly worried. "Laura! You need to eat something!" he told her. "Your metabolism is different now!"

"Not to mention the fact that you haven't been able to eat anything for the past few days," Paula added. "Actually, I'm surprised that you haven't passed out from hunger yet…"

Laura's blush deepened, prompting Croagunk to comment, "Well, one thing's for sure, Laura… that pale human skin of yours is going to make it really hard to hide your embarrassment from now on, meh heh heh…"

As if to prove his point, Laura blushed even harder, causing everyone to laugh.

After dinner (where everyone found out that Laura's taste buds remained the same no matter what form she was in, as evidenced by the fact that Plain Seeds were still her favorite food) everyone got ready for bed. Mason and the other boys headed into the room with the sand-colored door with the strange engravings that made Laura's heart ache while Laura herded the other girls into the room with the flowery door. The girls were amazed and wanted to inspect everything, like Laura's still-drying gray outfit, the other clothing items stored in the chests near the corner, and the scenes painted on the walls. Laura suggested that the other girls sleep on the bed (as they were all small and would fit) while she made herself a bed on the floor, but the pokémon had never seen a human bed before and were a little intimidated. They insisted that she take the bed while they slept on the floor. It took a while for them to coax Laura into agreement, but once everything was settled, it didn't take long for everyone to drift off.

A few hours before dawn, Laura quietly slipped out of her room and headed back to the table and mirror where she had earlier gotten her haircut. She began to adorn herself with miniature Time Gears from the bag with the brush and scissors that she had left out earlier and the more she put on the more she began to look like the statue of the girl behind the ornate door (sans the long hair). For a final touch she put on a Time Gear necklace, but she had trouble with the clasp.

"Let me help you with that," a voice said from behind her. She glanced back to see that it was Mason, and she nodded, allowing him to clasp it for her.

"…Thank you," she said when he was done, folding her hands in her lap.

Mason bit his lip, briefly glancing away before looking back at her and quietly saying, "…You look beautiful…"

Laura sighed, "Mason…"

"I'm serious!" Mason told her earnestly. "You're so… so very pretty…"

Laura turned and gave him a sharp warning look. "Don't," she ordered. "You know that it will never work. Even if we did…" she trailed off and heaved a sad sigh. "…The next one will have forgotten all about you… this… them… everything."

"I don't care," Mason insisted.

"…But I do," Laura said sadly. "Mason… you know that if we could, I'd…"

Mason sighed despondently. "I… yes, I know. I guess… I guess I'll just have to be content with friendship, huh?" he said, rather bitterly.

"…I'm sorry…" Laura apologized, not missing the bitterness.

Mason sighed at hearing the hurt in her voice, and he told her, "Don't be. It's not your fault…"

He glanced at the ornate door before offering Laura a hand. "Come on," he said. "Let's see if the two of us can make it work…"

Laura nodded and accepted his offered hand, allowing him to lead her to the door. Mason opened it and they entered, with the door closing silently behind them…

The next morning…

The female pokémon stretched and sighed happily when they awoke the next morning.

"Yawn… Good morning, Chimecho and Sunflora!" Paula greeted.

"Good morning, Paula!" the two returned.

"Good morning Laur—huh?" Paula said, intending to greet her best friend, but cutting off when she realized that the bed was empty.

"Oh my gosh!" Sunflora exclaimed when she, too, saw the empty bed. "Where's Laura?"

The girls exited the room, intending to see if she had awoken early and gone out to the big room from the night before. She wasn't there. Just before they headed out to see if she was in another area of the cave, the door to the room where the boys had stayed the night before opened and the boys stepped out, looking around in confusion.

"Hey, hey! I don't see Mason out here either!" Corphish said with a frown.

"Oh my gosh! You can't find Mason?" Sunflora asked. "We can't find Laura!"

"Meh heh heh… Well isn't that suspicious…" Croagunk said mischievously.

"Golly! Where do you reckon they went?" Bidoof asked.

Wigglytuff blinked when he smelled something sweet wafting through the air. "Mm… that smells good!" he exclaimed. "Just like Apples!"

He rushed off in search of the source of the smell, everyone else rushing after him in alarm.

"Wait, Guildmaster! If you open any strange doors, they might get mad at you!" Bidoof called out, recalling the "incident" with the blue-green door from last night.

The group followed their noses and ended up in what appeared to be a kitchen. They were surprised to see Mason sitting at a table, massaging his forehead and looking worried about something. He had a plate in front of him that contained the remnants of a meal. Laura was in the kitchen as well, but she was busy cooking something on the stove. She still had on all her Time Gear adornments, but she had put on a pink checkered apron over her dress. Mason looked up at the guild and Paula's approach.

"Oh… Good morning, everyone," he greeted in a rather subdued voice.

His greeting prompted Laura to glance over at the door and give a brief nod of acknowledgement before turning her attention back to the stove.

"How long have you two been up?" Paula asked.

Laura shrugged, "A few hours." She flipped something golden in the pan that she was holding before transferring it to a plate on the table. "Is anyone hungry? I made Apple turnovers for breakfast."

"'Breakfast?'" Paula asked curiously, hopping up onto one of the chairs surrounding the table.

"It's a morning meal," Mason explained. "As I said last night, humans' metabolisms are different than pokémon's. They need to eat more often. Besides," he glanced over at Laura, "these are really good."

Laura blushed, but otherwise ignored Mason's compliment, as she turned off the stove.

"Yay! Apples!" Wigglytuff cheered as he hopped onto a chair and started gobbling down turnovers.

The other pokémon joined in as well, any hesitation they might have had vanished the instant they took their first bite.

"WOW!" Loudred exclaimed, his mouth full of food. "This is DELICIOUS!"

Laura gave a smile of gratitude, but Loudred's lack of manners disgusted Sunflora, and she decided to let him know by saying, "Ew! Oh my gosh, Loudred! You shouldn't talk when you have food in your mouth like that!"

That set off another round of bickering between the two, but no one bothered trying to stop it this time. They were too busy eating Laura's delicious cooking.

"When did you learn to cook like this?!" Dugtrio demanded.

Laura frowned and glanced away, seeming saddened by something. "…I've been cooking ever since I was big enough to hold the utensils," she said quietly. Then she sighed and shook off her negative feelings before taking off her apron.

"Anyways… I'll be back in a bit," she said as she headed out of the room.

Wigglytuff paused in eating and looked at her in confusion, asking, "Huh? Aren't you going to eat?"

Laura shook her head and headed out, calling back, "I already did!"

Once she was out of sight, Mason gazed in the direction she had retreated and sighed rather wistfully, prompting Paula to ask, "Is something wrong?"

Mason startled before assuring, "Oh! No… no, it's nothing. But, uh… as soon as Laura returns, we should probably get going. I'm concerned about the Time Gears…"

Everyone paused as a gloomy mood descended; they shared the sentiment.

About ten minutes passed, and there was still no sign of Laura. Mason had wandered off to replenish the supplies stored in the bag around his waist, and Loudred was starting to become agitated.

"What's TAKING Laura so long?" he grumbled. "We can't just SIT AROUND all day! We have IMPORTANT things to do! Where did she even GO?"

"Probably back to the room where we stayed last night," Chimecho guessed.

"Gr… I'm going to go GET her!" Loudred growled, stomping off towards the room with the flower-painted door.

He heard strange rustling noises coming from within it, but he ignored them and flung the door open, demanding, "Hey, LAURA! What's TAKING so long?!"

Laura had been facing away from the door, but the instant it opened she whipped around and stared at her unexpected visitor with wide, horrified eyes. The look startled Loudred, and he studied her closely to see if he could find the cause.

Laura… more of her skin was showing than the previous times he'd seen her. Her stomach was completely bare, but her chest was obscured by a red piece of cloth that she seemed to be in the process of putting on. And the piece of clothing on the lower half of her body seemed very short, and barely covered any of her legs. He noticed other articles of clothing spread out on the bed.

"Uh… What are you DOING?" Loudred wondered.

At hearing his voice, Laura blushed crimson, sucked in a big breath, and…

A few moments earlier…

"All right, I'm all set to go!" Mason declared as he re-entered the kitchen where the guild and Paula were waiting. He frowned when he noticed that Loudred was missing. "Where's Loudred?"

"He went to go see what was taking Laura so long," Chimecho informed him.

"He did WHAT?!" Mason demanded, just as Laura's shriek resounded through the cave.

"LOUDRED, GET OUT!"

"Oh no…" Mason moaned as he sped off towards her, the others following, alarmed by Laura's uncharacteristically angry–sounding voice.

They came to a halt in the main room, and were stunned by the peculiar sight of Loudred scrambling away from Laura's room while being pelted with various items (pillows, brushes of both the hair and paint variety, a small chair, etc.) while Laura continued to shriek, "GET OUT!" at the top of her lungs.

Finally, when she seemed to have run out of items to throw, Laura demanded, "AND STAY OUT!" before slamming the door shut.

Slowly, everyone turned to face Loudred, who was on the ground. "OW!" he complained as he clutched at his pounding head. "She has QUITE the arm! What was THAT for?"

Mason glared at him. "Gr… You MORON!" he insulted before slapping Loudred upside the head and angrily turning his back on him.

"OW!" Loudred complained again. "What was THAT for?!"

Laura resurfaced about ten minutes later, the majority of her skin once more covered by clothing. She caught sight of Loudred and immediately crossed her arms and turned her back on him with a "Humph!"

She was in one of her rare bad moods, and everyone watched her warily as she put her room back in order and ignored any and all attempts made to calm her down. She was still refusing speak to or even look at Loudred when the final preparations for the journey home were being made, and Loudred finally got fed up.

"I don't see what the big DEAL is…" he muttered.

Of course, his "muttering" wasn't exactly quiet, so Laura heard him and finally acknowledged his existence by shooting back, "The 'big deal' is that you barged into my room when I was still changing clothes and you saw me half-naked!"

Loudred rolled his eyes. "Well it's not like I haven't seen you ALL naked before! We ALL did when you were a treecko!"

Laura (and, surprisingly, Mason) blushed a deep crimson at this before saying, "Exactly! That was when I was a pokémon! It didn't matter then! But it matters a lot now that I'm a human again! Especially because you're a boy!"

"What does THAT have to do with anything?" Loudred asked in honest confusion.

Laura blushed harder and began to tremble in rage before suddenly remembering how odd some of her human behaviors had seemed to Grovyle. She quickly calmed down. "Look," she sighed, "just… just don't do it again, okay? Forget you ever saw that!"

Loudred frowned; he wasn't going to let it go that easily. "What was wrong with what you were wearing EARLIER?" he asked.

Laura rolled her eyes. "I can't wear a priestess outfit in a Mystery Dungeon! It would get dirty! And besides," she blushed shyly, "I made this outfit specifically for the past. I spent a lot of time dyeing the reverse side of my gray outfit… but I never even got a chance to wear it!"

Mason studied it before musing, "Although, one could make the argument that you were wearing it the entire time, given what it's supposed to make you look like."

Laura blinked and looked down thoughtfully at her clothing. He had a point…

"Huh?" Bidoof asked. "Oof… I don't get it…"

"Look closely," Mason said with a grin. "What does her outfit remind you of?"

Everyone studied Laura. She had on a red tank top and green pants. The cloth that had previously been tied around her waist as a skirt was now tied around her shoulders as a green shawl. She was also wearing green shoes on her feet. Her belt was dark green (with a Time Gear emblem at the front in the center) and tied in a large bow in the back. She was wearing a green bandana and had braided some of the Time Gear adornments into her shortened hair. She was also, of course, wearing her Time Gear bracelet and Time Gear embroidered ribbon around her wrist. Paula was the first to recognize what was so familiar about the ensemble.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "I get it! That outfit… it makes you look like a treecko!"

"Oh my gosh! It totally does!" Sunflora agreed.

Wigglytuff clapped his hands. "Wow, Laura! You must really like treeckos!" he guessed. "You're dressed as one… and you even turned into one!"

"My, my, that certainly seems to be the case!" Chatot agreed. But then he frowned in confusion and asked, "But given that you worship the goddess of time and space… wouldn't it have made more sense for you to turn into a celebi, like Mason?"

Laura frowned. "Probably," she admitted. "But…" she trailed off and glanced away.

"But…?" everyone prompted.

Laura was silent for a moment longer before she looked back and admitted, "I think that the reason I became a treecko is that treeckos were imprinted on me as being good pokémon when I was very young. I mean, Grovyle was my first real friend…" she trailed off and frowned before amending, "Well, at least… the first friend who was a friend purely because he wanted to be one, and not just because he was afraid that Dialga would kill him if I didn't at least tolerate him."

She stopped and looked at everyone's incredulous stares and lost expressions before blushing and nervously continuing, "Uh, Anyways… the point is that Grovyle was one of the few friends that I had growing up, and he was still Treecko when I met him."

"Really? He was still a treecko?" Paula asked in surprise. "Then… when did he evolve?"

"Hey, hey! Yeah! And how did you two meet?" Corphish added.

Laura thought for a moment before smiling and sitting down, drawing her knees up to her chest.

"Well," she began, "I was just four years old at the time…"