A/N: So it's been a while! Real life has been especially busy lately, and I ran into some writer's block (so, sorry those of you who follow "Missing Scenes," but it's going to take a bit longer), but the good news is that I was hit with a bunch of inspiration for this story in the past few days. That means you're going to get a double post of it this weekend! Part one is quickly drawing to a conclusion, so please stay tuned for more!

Chapter 37: Powerful Visitor

There was an awkward silence in the Wigglytuff Guild, broken only by the soft, gentle murmurings of the goddess of time and space to her worshippers. But Relatia, for her part, seemed not to notice the audience since she segued from joyful greetings straight to the heart of the matter without a second thought.

"I had been trying for years to break down that barrier," she began, pulling back slightly from the hug she had initiated with her two favorite servants, "So imagine my surprise when it just came down on its own like that! Of course, after the shock wore off it became extremely obvious what the cause was…" she trailed off, her gorgeous blue-green eyes sparkling with pride at what Mason and Laura had accomplished. But then she frowned. "Of course, it wasn't a perfect removal," she admitted. "For some reason there's a chunk of time and space that's still blocked off from my access… and, unfortunately, that period includes March 20th of this year."

Laura blushed, recognizing her date of birth. "It's all right, Relatia," she assured, "it was still a good day for me."

"But you must have been so surprised!" the goddess insisted, before giving a sigh of regret. "Ah, well… in any case, at least you had Mason to help you."

Mason winced. "Er, Actually Relatia… there's, um, there's something we need to discuss about that."

Relatia raised a brow in curiosity, but before she could ask Mason quickly added, "But before we get to that… there's actually a reason that we called you when we did. See, we've run into a bit of a problem…"

"A problem?" his Mistress repeated, getting a serious look on her face. "Explain," she ordered.

But before either he or Laura could obey, Chatot suddenly came out of his shock with a furious flapping of wings.

"Squawk! L-Laura! Mason! Is… is this really the goddess of time and space?!" he demanded.

His question seemed to break the others out of their shock as well, and it was Uxie who answered, "Yes… this is Relatia."

Relatia glanced over at the sound of his voice, the serious look on her face dropping when she recognized her old acquaintances. "Oh!" she exclaimed happily. "Uxie! Mesprit! Azelf! How have you three been? I haven't seen you in a long time either!"

"Indeed, Relatia," Uxie replied as he and his siblings each sunk into a bow. "As for how we have been… well…" he winced, stealing a quick glance at Laura before lowering his head in respect once more towards the goddess before him, "…it would be best if we discussed it later."

Relatia pouted momentarily before shrugging. "If you insist. But, please, don't bow to me. You're setting a bad example for the others!"

The guild members, Paula, Cresselia, and Drowzee jumped when the powerful entity gestured toward them. "I recognize Cresselia, of course," she said, giving a nod in the Lunar Pokémon's direction that promised a lengthy, yet invigorating, conversation during which many stories about what had been going on in their lives since the last time they'd seen each other would be exchanged, "but I'm afraid I have not yet been introduced to anyone else."

To the surprise of everyone—although, really, if they had all been in their proper states of mind it wouldn't have actually been that surprising—Wigglytuff stepped forward.

"Hiya, friendly-friend!" he happily obliged, thrusting out a hand for the goddess to shake. "I'm Guildmaster Wigglytuff! But you can just call me Wigglytuff!"

"Hello, Wigglytuff! It's a pleasure to meet you," Relatia greeted, accepting the handshake.

Then Wigglytuff gestured back to where everyone else was standing and continued the introduction, indicating to each of them in turn. "Back there is my trusted partner, Chatot, and all my apprentices: Diglett, Dugtrio, Croagunk, Corphish, Loudred, Bidoof, Chimecho, and Sunflora! There's also Drowzee-who's visiting to help us with that problem Mason mentioned-and Paula! Paula is Laura's exploration partner; they used to be apprentices here too, but then their team, Team Rainbow, graduated. They live on Sharpeedo Bluff now."

Relatia's eyes lit up with joy at the information. "You're all Laura's friends?" she asked eagerly.

"Of course!" Wigglytuff responded with a nod.

Relatia clapped her hands, exclaiming, "Oh, how wonderful!" before causing most everyone's jaws to drop again when she pulled Wigglytuff into a hug.

When she released him she immediately turned her gaze on Paula, who froze up in slight terror. "Wigglytuff said that you were Laura's partner and you live with her, yes?"

Paula was too nervous to do anything but nod… and then she immediately stiffened when she, too, was drawn into a hug by the goddess. But she relaxed slightly when she heard Relatia's heartfelt murmur of, "Thank you for taking such good care of her," in her ear.

"It… it's my pleasure," Paula stammered out, smiling weakly when Relatia pulled back and gave her a warm look before turning her attention towards Laura.

"I'm glad that you were able to find such good friends," she said, pulling Laura into another gentle embrace. "I was so worried about you…"

The apprentices and Drowzee, meanwhile, began a whispered discussion full of incredulity about the most recent visitor to the guild.

"H-hey, hey! Do you think she's really a goddess?" Corphish asked, glancing surreptitiously over at Relatia, who was still hugging Laura.

"Uh… I think so," Diglett whispered back. "Uxie seems pretty sure of it, at any rate."

"Well, YEAH… but do we really want to trust anything HE says? Considering what he and his siblings DID to Laura?" Loudred retorted.

"Forget about Uxie, then," Drowzee cut in, "Laura and Mason seem to be sure of her identity."

"Yup, yup! That's a good point!" Bidoof agreed.

"That, and she did show us a fairly impressive display of her powers over space," Dugtrio added, nodding sagely.

"But… oh my gosh! It's so hard to believe since she's acting so… so 'un-goddess' like!" Sunflora piped up.

"She kind of reminds me of the Guildmaster, actually," Chimecho mused.

"Yes! That's exactly it!" Sunflora exclaimed, happy that someone else was making the same comparisons she was.

Croagunk smirked. "Meh heh heh… I guess it just goes to show you that—as with the Guildmaster—looks can be deceiving…"

Mason, who had been listening in ever since he heard Loudred's horrible-as-always attempt at whispering, shook his head at his friends' antics and decided to get everyone back on track. He loudly cleared his throat, capturing the attention of the room.

"Anyways," he began, "Relatia, like I said earlier… we have a problem."

"Oh, right! Of course. Go ahead, Mason," Relatia said as she broke away from Laura. "What's the problem?"

In answer, Mason simply gestured toward the corner. Relatia glanced over… only to do a double-take and cover her mouth in horror when she saw the decaying state of the Time Gears that were gathered there. She quickly snapped her fingers, causing the space around the one on top of the pile to bend so that the item ended up in her lap. Then she picked it up, bringing it close to her face to examine with a critical eye.

"How did this happen?" she demanded of the room at large.

"We're not… entirely sure," Paula admitted. "I mean… Temopral Tower was collapsing, so we put them into their spots at the Pinnacle to prevent that from happening… but then—"

"No, no, no," Relatia said distractedly, shaking her head. "I can sense that. I want to know why Laura wasn't able to recharge them afterwards."

There was a confused silence for a moment, and then…

"…Wait. What?" Laura asked, feeling utterly dumbfounded. "What do you mean, 'why Laura wasn't able to recharge them?' What could I have done?"

Relatia froze before slowly lowering the Time Gear back to her lap and turning toward her servant. "…Laura. What do you remember about the night the Time Gears were first charged?" she asked, her voice serious and full of trepidation.

Laura frowned in worry at her Mistress' tone of voice. "I… nothing?" she admitted. "I mean… given the legend and a Dimensional Scream I had recently, I know that we had tried to go back to camp to figure out what to do… and then we had to take shelter in a cave when it started to rain, but other than that…?" She shook her head apologetically

Relatia dropped her head into her hands and began to massage her temples. "…Oh, this is not good…" she groaned softly.

"…Why? What's the problem?" Drowzee asked nervously.

Relatia sighed before lifting her head, steeling her courage, and announcing in a clear voice: "I can't help you."

There was a beat of silence before a babble of voices all but exploded as panic at the implication of her words began to build.

"Squawk! What?!"

"What do you MEAN you can't help?!"

"Oh my gosh! Then what are we supposed to do?!"

"Oof… Th-then… then what will happen to our world…?"

"Doomed! We're all doomed!"

"AAAAAAUUUUGH!"

Relatia tried to quell the voices as soon as they began, but their owners didn't seem able to hear her attempts. She scowled in frustration before trying a different tack: she snapped her fingers, and everyone froze in place. Or, rather, in time.

"Calm down," she ordered before snapping her fingers and restoring natural order. "You didn't let me finish."

"Our a-apologies," Chatot stammered out, shaken by the experience. "B-by all means, p-please continue."

Relatia nodded in satisfaction. "Good. Now then… the reason I can't help you is that I am not the one who charged the Time Gears the first time."

"…HUH?" came the room's response.

Uxie frowned in puzzlement. "But… but if it wasn't you… then who was it?"

Relatia shrugged. "Isn't it obvious?" she asked. "There's only one other possibility."

Everyone frowned in confusion, but then Laura's eyes widened in dawning understanding. "Y-you mean…?" she whispered, shakily raising her pointer finger to confirm her suspicions.

"That's right, Laura," Relatia affirmed, a proud smile growing on her face when she saw who Laura was pointing at. "I don't know how to charge the Time Gears because the person that did it in the first place… was you."