A/N: Um... yeah... for those of you who are still reading this, thank you for your patience and I'm very, very sorry that this took so long to update. And to everyone who has recently added this to their various lists, thank you. So, without further ado... here's the next chapter!
Chapter 32: "They Didn't Have One"
Treecko wasn't sure how long he sat there, huddled up in his ball of misery, but eventually his stomach growled and he decided to head home to eat dinner. As soon as he entered the cave, however, he noticed that the atmosphere seemed… different. It was just too… quiet—even when you took into account that the world was paralyzed.
Treecko ignored it and decided to just go along with his normal routine. But with every move he made, he just felt like something was missing. It took him longer than usual to heal himself and prepare for dinner… but in the end, it didn't matter. As he rooted around for some Pecha Berries, he came across a Plain Seed and immediately lost his appetite.
When it came time for bed, Treecko just laid on his back, staring listlessly at the ceiling. He stole a short glance at the big, empty bed beside him before quickly rolling on his side, facing the far wall. He spotted the treasure bag that he had put against it earlier when he returned home and hesitantly went over to it and took out the picture that Laura had painted of his parents and their team.
He stared at it silently, the listless and empty feeling inside him growing with each "passing second," before he sighed and dropped his face into his hands. "Why… why do I feel like this?" he wondered. "I feel the same way that I did after Mom and Dad left. But… I haven't known that girl for nearly as long! And… and why do I feel so… so guilty? Did I… did I overreact? I'm so confused…"
Treecko sighed mournfully again before turning his head to stare once more at Laura's empty bed. He frowned when he noticed something white sticking from beneath the pillow and immediately crawled over to investigate. He pulled it out, and was surprised to see that it was a folded piece of paper. One of the corners was folded back, allowing him to catch a flash of what looked like a green tree, and his mind suddenly went back to the second "night" Laura had stayed with him. She had begun a painting of a green forest, but hadn't quite finished, and, aside from that brief glance he'd had when he had asked her what she was doing, she hadn't let him look at it. Treecko glanced around nervously, as if he afraid he would be caught in the act, before slowly unfolding the rest of the painting.
The forest had been completed, and the paper was filled with green. But that wasn't the only color there was; peeking out from behind the trees was this strange pinky-orange color… actually, it kind of reminded him of his old friend Celebi…
Treecko blinked as a memory came to mind. "From what I've heard, at one point during a sunrise the sky would take on a color similar to your old friend Celebi," his father had said.
"So… does this mean that it's sunrise in this painting?" Treecko wondered, before continuing to inspect the artwork.
On the bottom of the page was more of that strange writing like on the picture of his parents. Treecko still couldn't decipher it, so it was once again ignored. But what couldn't be ignored was what he found in the middle of the painting.
It was him!
Treecko sat, stunned, as he scrutinized his painted form. Laura had captured him on the page executing a perfect Iron Tail and splitting a boulder apart—something which he had told her was one of his ultimate goals, but that he had never been able to do before. But what struck him the most was the brilliant smile on his face. He never smiled like that. He was never happy enough for it. But Laura… in the picture, she had wanted him to be happy. She had wanted him to be happy, and to achieve one of his goals. And to be in a world where time moved and the sun shone…
Treecko sniffled and wiped the beginnings of guilty tears from the corners of his eyes before carefully refolding the picture and sticking both it and the one of his parents into his treasure bag.
Depressing thoughts roamed his head with abandon, rendering sleep impossible and causing him to toss and turn all night…
The next "day" Treecko went out to train, to find comfort in a routine… but, just as with the "night" before, it didn't work. He quickly abandoned his attempts and returned home. He paused outside the entrance, almost reluctant to go in to what he knew would be lonely silence… only to freeze when he heard a shuffling sound come from within. Immediately his eyes brightened with joy and a grin spread across his face as he sped inside.
"Laura?" he called out in hope, looking around eagerly for his friend…
Only to freeze when he was instead met with the Stunky siblings.
A myriad of emotions passed through his mind. Fear, shock… and anger. "What are you doing here?" he demanded.
"Ooh… Looks like someone's upset," the youngest stunky girl snickered. "What's the matter? Was the little chicken expecting someone else?"
"I said: What are you doing here?" Treecko growled. "How did you find this place?"
The eldest stunky snickered. "So, not only is he a big chicken, he's also a dumb one. Chaw-haw-haw… We followed the blood trail that your little human friend left, moron!"
Treecko silently cursed when he remembered Laura's injuries from the first time he had brought her home.
"As for what we're doing here…" the eldest stunky continued. "Well, we told you we'd get revenge, didn't we?" At Treecko's look of confusion she smirked smugly and glanced over his shoulder. "See, we weren't the only ones to notice the trail… here he is, Sir, just like we said."
"Indeed… You have done well, children," came a deep voice from behind him. Treecko froze in alarm before quickly whipping around and coming face-to-face with a dusknoir, who was looking at him appraisingly.
"You look just like them," the dusknoir mumbled. "Of all the pokémon for her to run into, it just had to be you. The son of the leaders of the Planetary Investigation Team…"
Treecko blinked. "The… what? You… you know my parents?" he asked in surprise. At the dusknoir's menacing glare, he gulped, "Who… who are you?"
"I am Dusknoir… Master Dialga's best agent," Dusknoir obliged with a cruel smirk.
Treecko's eyes widened and he took a step back. Dusknoir smirked again before glancing towards the Stunky siblings. "You may leave now, children. Be sure to send in my… associates, on the way out," he ordered.
The siblings eagerly complied, and soon enough four sableye swarmed into the room, armed with rope. Despite his attempts to fight and escape, Treecko was easily subdued.
"Why are you doing this?" Treecko demanded. "What do you want with me?"
Dusknoir was very smug as he replied, "It's quite simple: you're bait."
"B-bait?" Treecko repeated in confusion. "Bait for what?"
Dusknoir frowned and turned away before answering, in a somewhat more subdued voice compared to before, "Bait for the one Master Dialga treasures above all others… the little girl with the rainbow-colored eyes… Laura."
Treecko was stunned into silence as Dusknoir immediately turned and left his home, signaling for the sableye to follow.
The band continued to wander the forest, dragging Treecko along with them, as they looked for Laura. They weren't having much luck, even with the sableye—whose names Treecko learned were Un, Dos, Cuatro, and Cinq—continually calling out to her in a cajoling manner.
"Come out, Miss Laura!" Cinq pleaded. "Wheh heh heh… No one's mad at you! You don't have to be afraid!"
"Everyone misses you!" Un added. "Let's go home, wheh heh heh!"
"We have Treecko with us!" Cuatro offered. "Don't you want to see him again?"
Upon hearing Cuatro's attempt at coaxing Laura out of hiding, Treecko flinched in guilt before sighing. "…Your plan isn't going to work," he mumbled, causing Dusknoir to glance in his direction. "We got in a fight and I… she probably hates me now. She's not going to come out and risk getting captured just to help me."
Dusknoir shook his head in slight amusement. "You obviously don't know Laura very well at all," he chuckled darkly. "She always puts the welfare of others before her own. She'll come out to try to save you the same way she tried to save your parents."
"Wh-what?" Treecko asked in surprise. "M-my… my parents? What are you talking about? What—?"
"Laura!" Dusknoir suddenly shouted towards the ever-present shadows, cutting him off. "I know you're out there! I have your companion with me, and unless you want him to get hurt, I suggest you show yourself!" He paused, but when no human appeared from the forest, he sighed. "Very well, then," he said as he turned towards Treecko—who froze in fear—and pulled back a glowing, blue fist in preparation for attack. "Ice—!"
"WAIT!" a voice cried out before Laura came crashing through the trees and skidded to a halt in front of Treecko with arms outspread to protect him. "Don't hurt him!" she begged.
"K-Kid!" Treecko spluttered, stunned at the turn of events.
"So you decided to come out after all," Dusknoir said, sounding both smug and… relieved? "A wise choice."
Laura frowned. "What do you want, Dusky—" she she sharply cut herself off, her brows furrowing in thought before her frown turned into an outright scowl and she continued, albeit more slowly and with a little more pronunciation trouble, "Dusk-no-r?"
The sableye all cringed, and—to Treecko's surprise and confusion—Dusknoir reacted as if he'd just been slapped across the face. He visibly sagged as he softly answered, "…I want you to come home, of course."
Laura glanced back at Treecko before biting her lip and facing Dusknoir again. "If… if I go back… will you let Treecko go?" she asked.
"If you come willingly," Dusknoir assured.
Laura took one more glance at Treecko before her arms dropped back to her sides and she nodded her head in assent, taking a step towards Dusknoir.
Treecko's eyes widened in shock and alarm. "No!" he yelled in protest. "What are you doing, Kid?! You told me you ran away from home! Don't go back for my sake! After what I did to you… why would you even consider helping me?!"
Laura looked back with a sad smile, and Treecko was further stunned with her answer: "'Cuz we're friends."
Dusknoir frowned at this before sighing and taking Laura's hand in his. "Come, Laura," he commanded gently as he began to lead her away. But then he suddenly glanced back and looked between Treecko and the sableye before ordering, "Sabeleye, you know what to do! Undo those ropes."
Laura was confused by his tone of voice, but the confusion quickly gave way to horrified understanding when she heard Treecko's agonized screams. She whipped around to see that "undoing the ropes" involved the sableye attacking Treecko with Fury Swipes!
"Stop it!" she screamed, pulling at her arm in an attempt to make Dusknoir let go of her. "You promised to let him go!"
"And we are," Dusknoir insisted. "They're just cutting the ropes off."
"They'll kill him!" Laura screamed, her escape attempts becoming increasingly more frantic and disorganized.
"Perhaps," Dusknoir admitted, "but at least that will prevent him from continuing his parents'—ARGH!"
He cut off with a yelp of pain when Laura bit his arm to make him release her. But when he saw her take advantage of his momentary lapse in attention and rush back towards Treecko, he gasped out in alarm, "Laura! Get back here! Stop—!"
"AUGH!"
Everyone froze upon hearing Laura's scream of pain. In the chaos that always followed an attack of Fury Swipes, none of the sableye noticed until too late that Laura had gotten between them and Treecko and, thus, blocked the latest volley of attacks with her own body. Her chest was dripping with blood, and slashed bandages dangled from her arms. No one moved as she slowly turned to undo the rest of the bindings on the gasping Treecko.
Dusknoir was horrified. "Laura… why would you do this?!" he demanded as he rushed forward. "Don't you remember what happened when you tried to stop the Planetary Investigation Team's execution?! You nearly died!"
Treecko startled at the Ghost-type's words and stared at Laura with wide eyes. "Those injuries…" he whispered, his voice thick with pain, guilt, shock, and sadness as he thought back to the first time he'd brought Laura home. "Don't tell me that they were from…!"
Treecko didn't get a chance to complete that thought as Laura was ripped away from him.
"Laura, get out of the way!" Dusknoir ordered as he tried to restrain the injured child.
"No!" came the expected response.
"I said move!" Dusknoir repeated as he attempted to drag her away from the scene.
"No!" Laura screamed even more hysterically. "You already killed his parents… you are NOT killing Treecko too!"
At this point Dusknoir was growling in frustration. "Laura—"
"NO!" Laura shrieked.
For a moment, Treecko wondered if she had learned the move Hyper Voice. Her scream had been so loud that it had caused the tree branches around them to shake. But he immediately dismissed the notion when the echo had died down… but the branches continued to shake. But then he realized that it wasn't the branches that were shaking… instead, it was the ground itself!
"Waah!" One of the sableye—Cuatro, maybe?—cried out in fear. "Wh-What's going on?!"
The shaking intensified, and then the air around them began to feel… strange. Treecko thought it felt almost like when he was hit by Flying-type attacks, except it wasn't as precise. He didn't know what was happening.
But apparently Cinq did.
"Wheh heh heh?! Wind?" he exclaimed in terror. "Why is there wind blowing?! This world is paralyzed! There shouldn't be any—"
Apparently the wind didn't care that it wasn't supposed to exist, as it suddenly intensified—along with the shaking ground—and began to whip at Laura's hair.
Laura seemed unaware of what was happening—even as rainbow colored energy began to surround her—as she just continued to shriek.
"I WON'T LET YOU HURT HIM!"
The rainbow energy completely encased her body, and Treecko cried out in alarm when some of it seemed to jump over to him and enveloped him completely as well. The entire area was lit up by a flash of bright, blinding light, causing Dusknoir to feel, rather than see, a clawed hand wrench Laura out of his grasp.
Soon enough the light cleared… only to reveal that Laura and Treecko had disappeared and a horde of rainbow-colored crystals had taken their stead. The sableye all looked around in confusion and worry before they jumped at Dusknoir's roar of, "Don't just stand there! Find them!"
"Wheh heh heh! Yes, Lord Dusknoir!" the sabeleye saluted before scurrying off with Dusknoir in tow.
The area was still for a few "moments"… before the silence was broken when a voice echoed from the ground.
"…I think it's safe to go up now," the slightly deep voice said, sounding muffled from the layers of dirt its owner was beneath. "Seriously, Kid, I'm glad you gave me that TM. It probably just saved our lives…"
Treecko popped up out of the ground—having used Dig—cradling Laura in his arms. He looked around in confusion at all the crystals and took a few unsteady steps before pausing, as if suddenly realizing something, and looking down. He nearly dropped Laura in the shock of what he saw.
"I… I evolved?!" Treecko—now Grovyle—exclaimed in amazement. "But… how is that possible?! And…" he looked around in confusion once more, "Where did all these crystals come from?!" He felt Laura move and suddenly glared down at her. "And you, Kid!" he began in a tone both reprimanding and worried. "What was with all that—"
Grovyle cut himself off when he realized that the "movement" he had felt from Laura was actually her body's frantic twitching in response to the residual sparks of rainbow energy that she was still emanating. But the energy quickly subsided and her body relaxed. Grovyle immediately knew that she was unconscious. Her head lolled and Grovyle cringed with guilt when he recognized the bruising caused by his slap. It stood out in stark contrast to her blood loss-induced, sickly pale skin.
Grovyle shut his eyes and sighed before adjusting his grip so that Laura was more secure in his arms. "…Don't worry," he murmured gently. "I'm going to treat your wounds as soon as I can. But we need to get to a safe place first." Grovyle frowned, mulling the options over. "We obviously can't go back to my home, so where… oh! I know! We'll go there! It's close by, and hardly anyone goes there… it's perfect!"
With that, he began his trek—unsteadily at first, since he wasn't used to being bipedal—out of the forest.
Oddly enough, Grovyle's intended destination was another forest a short ways away, separated from the first by a bit of wilderness. Once they had reached it, Grovyle began looking for a suitable hiding place. He quickly found the perfect one: under the roots of a giant tree. He carefully gathered up some leaves—snatching some right out of the air where they must have been in the process of falling when time stopped—to make a bed for Laura before he laid her down to begin examining her injuries. With a bit of trouble he removed the tattered remains of her dress (inwardly cringing as he imagined what her reaction would be when she saw that all the hard work she put into repairing it had been for naught) and froze in horror at the revelation of just how bad her injuries actually were.
He thanked Arceus for the fact that: 1. There was some water pooled by the tree roots that was clean enough for him to safely wash her wounds, and 2. Dusknoir hadn't bothered to take away his treasure bag, so he still had some of his items. Granted, it wasn't a whole lot, but between his stuff and whatever Laura had in her bag, he'd hopefully have enough to work with. Luckily Laura had some fresh bandages with her, so he doused them with juice squeezed from his supply of Oran Berries and wrapped up her most serious injuries. Then he put her back in her dress. It was more to keep her warm than anything else, since she was way too cold for his liking and it was too dangerous to start a fire. He considered covering her with more leaves to act as a blanket of sorts, but ultimately decided against it since he hadn't been able to bandage all of her wounds and he didn't want to risk infection.
Once he had her settled, he sat back to wait for her to regain consciousness.
And he waited…
And waited…
And waited…
Eventually he fell asleep… but she was still unconscious when he woke up. She didn't look like she'd moved even a finger, let alone curled up into her default sleeping position, and she was still ice-cold.
"Why… why won't she wake up?" Grovyle fretted as he checked her temperature. "Is she sick…? No, she's too cold for that. Maybe… is that the problem? But if it is… how do I fix it? It's too dangerous to build a fire here…"
He looked at his surroundings again before biting his lip in worry and checking her temperature once more. He winced at how cold she was before he got a determined look on his face. "Maybe a small fire would be okay," he decided before setting about gathering supplies for camouflage.
Grovyle hid the entrance to the hideaway as best he could before leaving for a quick firewood-gathering excursion. When he returned with an armful of wood, he set it down close to Laura and then went to replace the camouflage so that there would be even less of a chance for someone to discover his fire. But he was so busy with the task that he didn't notice that his motions had caused Laura to stir.
She slowly blinked her eyes—whose rainbow colors, for some reason, seemed muted—open and looked around in confusion, but she didn't make a sound or any attempt at movement beyond sluggishly turning her head to get a better view. It wasn't until he turned around to retrieve the firewood that Grovyle noticed she was conscious, and the realization made him gasp in happy surprise before rushing over.
"You're awake!" he exclaimed in glee. "Thank Arceus… I thought that you'd never wake up!"
Laura's thoughts were still sluggish, so she stared at him for a moment in confusion before hesitantly asking, "…T-Treecko…? Is… is that you?"
Grovyle frowned, worried that she'd somehow sustained a head injury or something that made her forget what he looked like before mentally slapping himself when he realized that of course she wouldn't know he had evolved.
"Well… sort of. I evolved, so I'm 'Grovyle' now," he quickly explained.
Laura stared at him blearily, still trying to figure out what was going on. "Okay… but… you said you never wanted to see me again…"
Grovyle cringed, looking down in shame as he quietly said, "That's… I shouldn't have said that. I was just…" He trailed off. Then he sighed and, screwing up all of his courage, looked her in the eyes. "I'm sorry," he apologized with sincerity. "And… I need to thank you. I never expected you to come save me like that."
Laura furrowed her brow. "I… saved you? When? What are you… what are you talking about?"
Grovyle frowned at her, his earlier fears about the concussion creeping back into his mind, and slowly prompted, "Remember? When Dusknoir and his sableye minions abducted me and—"
"They what?!" Laura interrupted, bolting upright with wide eyes. "When did—"
Her question was cut short when she became dizzy and her face took on a gray pallor as the pain and blood loss from her injuries finally registered. Grovyle immediately pushed her back down. "Don't try to get up!" he ordered, the sharpness of his voice not quite succeeding in masking the worry he felt. "Those sableye injured you pretty badly…"
"But they…" Laura trailed off in confusion before trying again, "I… what happened? Why am I… why did you…?"
Grovyle frowned at Laura's inability to complete sentences. "…What's the last thing you remember?" he asked, a sneaking suspicion forming.
Laura furrowed her brows in thought. "…I was looking for a place to sleep…" she began slowly. "It was right after you… uh…" she trailed off, blushing slightly and looking away. Grovyle cringed when he realized she was talking about their fight. But before he could apologize again, she continued, "And then… nothing. I… I can't remember anything else." She blinked before her eyes widened in fear. "Why can't I remember anything else?!"
Grovyle frowned. "Amnesia, then," he deduced, his suspicions confirmed. "But… why? Despite all my earlier wonderings to the contrary, I know it isn't because of a head wound… perhaps it had something to do with that weird energy she was giving off?"
He would have speculated further had he not noticed Laura's shivering and continuing panic. "Are you still cold?" he asked, both as an attempt to distract her and because he was still worried about her health. When she hesitantly nodded, he moved over to the wood pile and gathered some of it into his arms. "Okay. I'll build up a fire, and then I'll tell you what happened."
"…and then I brought you here and treated your injuries," Grovyle finished, noting with pleasure that Laura had warmed up and now looked a lot calmer. But then he frowned when he noticed that the calm seemed tinged with guilt…
Laura sighed. "…I'm sorry," she apologized in a small voice.
Grovyle blinked. "What? What do you have to be sorry for?" he asked.
"I didn't want you to be part of this," Laura explained. Then she frowned in thought. "Did… did Dusk… Dos, and them actually see you evolve?" she asked. "'Cuz… 'cuz if they didn't and they still think you're Treecko, then you could probably start over somewhere else…
Grovyle bit his lip and glanced away. The possibility of fleeing and assuming a new identity had occurred to him too, but… "I don't know if they saw my evolution or not," he admitted before looking her straight in the eye and saying, "but either way… I'm not going anywhere."
Laura was surprised. She opened her mouth, as if to question his motives, but Grovyle, anticipating this, shook his head and put out a hand to stop her. "You don't remember this, but… you called me your friend," he said by way of explanation. "I… I feel the same way about you," he admitted, "and… and I promise, I'll never abandon you again… Laura."
"You… you used my name," Laura whispered, stunned but pleased. But the moment was ruined when her stomach rumbled with hunger, and she blushed from embarrassment.
Grovyle grinned in amusement before helping her to sit up. Laura winced as it caused her pain to flair, but, to Grovyle's relief, she didn't become ashen like before. Grovyle then began to root through his treasure bag, muttering, "I think I have an Apple in here somewhere…"
When Laura's stomach growled again, however, he lost patience and dumped the bag onto the ground to have an easier search. A few Apples, seeds, and berries fell out… along with Laura's pictures of him as a Treecko and the one of the Planetary Investigation Team. Grovyle immediately gave Laura one of the Apples and then, after a moment of hesitation, he picked up the picture with his parents.
"Laura," he began hesitantly, "were… were you telling the truth? Are… are my parents really," he gulped before stuttering, "d-dead?"
Laura, who had just been about to take a bite of her Apple, froze at his question before lowering the fruit from her mouth and looking at the ground. Her silence confirmed Grovyle's fears, and his eyes became misty and his voice trembled when he continued, "So… s-so your injuries earlier—when we first met—they were from…?"
Laura sighed before glancing at him and then lowering her gaze to the ground once more. When she finally responded, her voice was rather muted. "I… about a year ago, Alg… Dialga, had Dusky… Dusk—" here she paused, brows furrowed in concentration as she struggled with the pronunciation of Dusknoir's name. "Dusknar," she finally, though still incorrectly, managed to say, "take me from my…" she hesitated again, "my… my guardians. He brought me to Temporal Tower, and I stayed there as Dialga's… friend, I guess? But… a few weeks ago he made Dusk… he made me, move to a mountain close to the forest where we met. That's… that's where I met your parents.
"I… I wasn't supposed to," she admitted, "but I had the biggest cell, and their group wouldn't fit anywhere else. They had to put us together. I wasn't supposed to see them be killed either, but… Cinq made a mistake and started it when I was walking past. I… I tried to stop it, but—" she cut off, shivering in remembered pain. Grovyle winced in sympathy. When she had composed herself, Laura continued, "I ran away as soon as I could move again."
"I see…" Grovyle mumbled sadly, staring at their picture in mourning.
"They talked about you a lot," Laura mentioned, causing Grovyle to look up at her in surprise. "I mean… I didn't know it was you, but they talked about their son, and since that is—"
"They… they talked about me?" Grovyle interrupted, sounding both incredulous and hopeful. "But… they left me. Why would they…?"
"They loved you. A lot," was Laura's simple answer. Nonetheless, it brought tears to Grovyle's eyes. Laura looked away in guilt and whispered, "I'm sorry I couldn't save them."
Grovyle hastily scrubbed away his tears. "Don't… don't apologize," he ordered. "It isn't your fault."
When he saw that his assurances did nothing to remove her misplaced guilt, Grovyle looked around for something to distract her. He settled on something that had bothered him ever since he first laid eyes on them… "So… these symbols," he began, pointing to the top of the picture he held. "What are they? I've never seen writing like this before…"
For a moment Laura looked surprised. But then she blinked, as if remembering something. "Right," she mumbled. "We're the only ones who use English…"
"'English?'" Grovyle repeated.
Laura nodded. "Yeah. It's what my people use when we write." She gestured for Grovyle to give her the picture, and when he complied she pointed to the letters on the top. "These letters are 'R,' 'I,' and 'P.' When they're put together like this with the periods—those little dots, see?—it stands for 'Rest in Peace.' And those letters," she gestured towards the painting of him as a treecko, "spell out 'Thank You.' For… y'know… letting me stay with you and teaching me how to fight and stuff."
Grovyle blushed at the gratitude and—unsuccessfully—tried to hide it with a cough and the question, "S-so this pinky-orange stuff in the background… that's supposed to be a sunrise, right?"
Laura blinked again in surprise. "You know about sunrises too?"
Grovyle shrugged. "My parents told me a bit about them. But this looks a bit different than what I imagined," he explained, deciding to forgo telling her about the dreams he had of a pink celebi holding a Luminous Orb.
"Oh. Well… the real ones look better anyway," Laura said before glancing down at her bracelet and frowning. "It's too bad that the world is paralyzed, or you could see one now."
Grovyle stared at her. "What are you talking about?"
Laura stared back. "It's morning," she explained, as if it were obvious. "That's when sunrises happen."
"Uh huh," Grovyle huffed, crossing is arms. "And how do you know that it's morning?"
Laura pointed at the adornment on her wrist. "My bracelet lets me tell time," she explained.
Grovyle didn't believe her, but he decided to just let the comment pass. "In any case, after you finish eating we should probably go look for a new place to hide. I doubt that anyone would think to look for us here, but just in case…" he trailed off as he started repacking their meager supplies. After Laura had eaten her Apple Grovyle put out the fire he went over to her. He slung one of her arms around his neck, helping her to stand. "I know it's probably a little hard for you to walk at the moment," he said as put one of his arms around her waist for extra support, "but don't worry, I'll help you."
The two friends' search was slow-going. Part of it was because Grovyle had barely mastered the basics of bipedal walking—let alone walking while having to support someone else—but most of it was because of the immense pain that Laura was in. No matter how carefully they trod, she still winced with every step. So, once more, Grovyle cast about for something to distract her.
"So, uh… where were you planning on going after you escaped from Dialga? I mean… if we hadn't met?" he asked. "Back to your old home…?"
Laura was quiet for a moment before she responded, in a voice that startled Grovyle because of how flat and emotionless it was, "…No. It's too far away. I wouldn't be able to get back without help." She paused and then gave a slight glare as she finished, "Besides… I don't want to. The only reason I would ever go back is if Relatia needed me."
The name sounded foreign to Grovyle. "Relatia?" he repeated. "Is that one of your guardians?"
"No!" Laura shouted, glaring at Grovyle in anger. But when she saw Grovyle's wide, surprised eyes her look softened and she sighed. "Sorry. It's just…" she sighed again. "No. My guardians were nothing like her."
"So then…?" Grovyle prompted, trying not to set her off again.
He needn't have worried, though, as Laura gave him a cheery grin and explained, "Relatia is my mistress. She's the leader of my people."
Grovyle was still a bit confused, but Laura didn't seem inclined to explain further and instead was looking fondly at her bracelet. Unfortunately, this also meant that she was not looking at where she was putting her feet, which caused her to trip over a tree root. But luckily for her, she managed to grab a nearby branch to steady herself and prevent falling.
"Careful!" Grovyle admonished.
"S-sorry," Laura apologized sheepishly. "I—" She cut off and her eyes widened when she began to feel dizzy. "Oh…!"
Grovyle looked at her in concern. "Are you all right?" he asked, noticing that she seemed a bit wobbly on her feet.
Laura nodded, and a happy smile grew on her face when she was hit with another wave of dizziness. "The… Dimensional… Scream…!" she explained breathlessly.
Grovyle was even more confused. "The what—hey!" he cried out in alarm when Laura's eyes suddenly began to glow and acquired a far-off look…
It was night. The storm was intense… the water was coming down in a deluge, and the strikes of lightning and crashes of thunder were near constant. But they served nicely to highlight the pokémon that was braving the elements and dashing through the forest, all of its focus on completing his goal. Laura couldn't entirely make out who it was because of the driving rains, but it still helped immensely.
Suddenly, the figure froze, its attention caught by something. As Laura followed its gaze she saw, to her great surprise and awe, that the "something" was a Time Gear. The pokémon reached out to grab it, and—
"Laura? Laura!" Grovyle called frantically as he shook his unresponsive friend, hoping to rouse her from her trance like state. To his relief, it seemed to work; Laura's eyes lost their glow and she blinked back into awareness. When she saw Grovyle's worried look, she gave a small grin.
"It's okay," she assured. "I just had a Dimensional Scream!" Grovyle just stared at her, feeling totally lost. Thankfully for him, Laura took pity on him and explained, "It's a very rare ability among my people—it's prized by Relatia herself! For those with the ability, sometimes when we touch stuff, we can get visions!" Laura paused, and her grin widened before she turned to Grovyle. "I need to thank you!" she suddenly said. And before Grovyle could even ask, she went ahead and explained, "When you're my age, you need a trusted partner nearby to trigger the visions. I couldn't have done it without you, so… thanks!"
Grovyle still didn't quite understand what she was talking about, but he got the basic point—which was that Laura, apparently, was clairvoyant on some level—and curiously asked, "So… what did you see?"
"Well… there was a storm—that's a type of weather when water falls from the sky and… oh, you know about weather already? Okay, well, anyways—there was a pokémon making its way through it, all the way to… a Time Gear!" she explained with enthusiasm.
Unfortunately for her, that enthusiasm was lost on Grovyle. "A… a Time what?"
"A Time Gear!" Laura repeated, feeling slightly exasperated. "You know, from the legend!" At Grovyle's lost look, she frowned. "Wait… you don't know the legend either?" she asked, sounding crushed. "But… that's my favorite legend! How come no one knows it?"
Grovyle shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, but I have no clue what you're talking about."
Laura gave a rather tragic sigh before launching into a half-hearted explanation. "…Relatia is the goddess of time and space. The Time Gears are modeled after her symbol. See?" she held up her wrist so that Grovyle could take a closer look at her bracelet. "They look like this, only bigger. The Time Gears were supposed to be used at Temporal Tower to prevent its collapse, but…"
"…It looks like that didn't happen," Grovyle finished, glancing around at the frozen forest.
Laura nodded glumly in agreement before getting a determined look on her face. "But my vision proves that I'm right!" she declared. "I can change that! If I go back in time, I can collect the Time Gears and put them into place at Temporal Tower! That way it won't collapse, and the planet won't be paralyzed anymore!"
Grovyle stared at her again, and then a grin slowly grew on his face. "…Okay. I'm coming with you!" he decided.
Laura's eyes lit up at his words and a smile of her own began to grow, but then, strangely, it began to falter. "I… I can't ask you to do that," she said sadly.
"You don't have to," Grovyle said, his voice firm and his mind made up. "It's like Dusknoir said: I'm going to continue my parents' work." Laura's smile came back, and Grovyle grinned in response. "So… let's get going, Partner!"
Laura's smile faltered again. "P-Partner?" she repeated.
Grovyle shrugged. "After everything we've been through, I think it'd be more fitting than to keep calling you 'Kid.'"
Laura scowled when she realized that Grovyle wasn't going to use her real name anymore… but then an evil grin grew on her face and she agreed, "Okay then… Grovy."
"G-Grovy?!" Grovyle spluttered indignantly.
"Mm hm… That's your new nickname!" Laura replied in a sing-song voice, still smiling evilly. Then she got a thoughtful look on her face and her smile grew wider. "Oh! And while we're picking names for things… we should think of a team name, too!"
Grovyle stared at her, partly out of incredulity for her idea and partly because he still couldn't wrap his head around his new nickname. Laura didn't notice, and proudly declared, "I know! We can be team 'They Didn't Have One!'"
"…What?"
"'Cuz, 'cuz that way, if someone's looking for us, and they ask someone else what our team name is… the reply will be that 'They Didn't Have One!'" Laura explained happily.
Grovyle's eye twitched, and then he couldn't help but burst out laughing. "Come on, Partner," he said through chuckles. "Let's keep looking for a hiding spot. You need to rest if you want a swift recovery." His gaze swept the area, and he noted, "Lucky for us, Treeshroud Forest is a big place. I'm sure we'll find the perfect spot soon."
"Okay, Grovy," Laura nodded. But once more she didn't pay attention to where she put her feet, and she almost tripped over another tree root.
"Whoa!"
"I told you to be careful!"