A/N: As promised, here's the second post of the weekend!
Chapter 38: The Missing Piece of the Legend
Jaws dropped. No one seemed able to fully comprehend the information they had just been given, and no one had the courage to ask for more information.
That is, until Chatot all but exploded with, "SQUAWK?! LAURA DID WHAT?!"
Relatia shrugged, as if not seeing what the big deal was. "Well, as Laura said, she and I tried to go back to the camp we had made in the Timeless Forest so that we could figure out how to charge the Time Gears. But it started to rain, and we overshot it. So we sought shelter in a cave instead. We ended up falling asleep before we were able to figure out a solution. But then…" Relatia paused to give Laura a strange look, "…A few hours later, I woke up to a cavern full of rainbow-colored crystals and the sight of you, kneeling on the ground in the middle of a painting of one of those whatchamacallit flowers you like so much, surrounded by a ring of charged Time Gears and sparking with energy. Then you collapsed, and when I was finally able to wake you… you had no memories of what you'd just done."
Chatot's eye began to twitch. "Forgive me for repeating myself," he began, "but… SQUAWK?! LAURA DID WHAT?!"
Relatia rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Exactly what I just said: She—"
"No, no, no!" Chatot cut her off, shaking his head frantically in denial. "You are honestly trying to tell me that it was Laura—or, rather, a past incarnation of Laura—who charged the Time Gears originally?! But neither of you know how she did it?!"
Relatia shrugged. "Pretty much."
Chimecho caught sight of Chatot's eye beginning to twitch even more violently, and, before he could give another disbelieving exclamation, interjected with, "But Miss Relatia, even if it was the Rainbow Child who first charged the Time Gears… what's to stop you from doing it now? Surely you have enough energy this time… right?"
Relatia shook her head. "Unfortunately, I can't," she admitted. "While it's true that I'm currently at full power, the Time Gears are so attuned to whatever energy Laura gave them that they would reject any sort of substitute. Here, watch…"
Relatia lifted the Time Gear that was in her lap back up in the air and concentrated, channeling energy into it. It briefly began to glow with the proper color… but then it shook violently in her hands and forcefully purged itself of the energy, ending up looking even worse than before.
Wigglytuff frowned. "Hm… That is a problem…"
"So… we're back to SQUARE ONE again?" Loudred asked.
Laura looked around the room at the panic beginning to build on everyone's faces and lowered her head in shame. "…I'm sorry…" she whispered mournfully. "My amnesia is always causing problems… First I couldn't remember the truth about Grovyle, and now this…"
Mason whipped around and narrowed his eyes in irritation. "Laura, what have I told you about blaming yourself for your amnesia?!" he demanded sternly. "It's not your fault!—and Uxie don't you dare suggest what I know you're about to!" he suddenly turned toward Uxie with a fierce glare.
"Wha—?!" Uxie spluttered, feeling affronted. "I wasn't going to suggest anything!"
"Oh, don't try to lie to me! You know you were! After all, that's what you did just before Relatia showed up!"
"Well pardon my brother for at least coming up with a plan, instead of descending into panic!" Mesprit said hotly, the negative emotions filling the room starting to get to her. "Or wallowing in self-pity!" she added, shooting a brief, pointed look towards Laura.
Laura staggered back at the verbal slap to the face, and Mason's face grew hot with rage.
"How dare you—!"
"Oh, I dare just fine!"
"You little—!"
"Mason! Mesprit! Both of you CALM DOWN!"
But Relatia's command went unheard and only served to encourage everyone else to join in the verbal brawl. Everyone but Laura, that is. She was too busy mulling over what Mesprit had said.
"…Mesprit is right," Laura concluded. "Instead of mourning my lost memories, I should be trying to solve the puzzle with what I do know. So: What is it that I know?"
She glanced over at Relatia—who was at this point bending space in an effort to keep Mason and Mesprit from trying to strangle each other—and recalled what she had said about that night in the cave.
"Relatia mentioned that the cavern had been filled with crystals, right? Based on their color, they were probably Aura Crystals… and come to think of it… Aura Crystals have appeared other times I lost my memory as well! I wonder if there's some sort of relation…"
She had to duck when a stray Razor Leaf attack came her way, and by the time she righted herself again she had decided, "Yes, there must be. Otherwise why would they have restored my memories when I came into contact with them?"
She had to dodge again when another stray attack came her way, but she wasn't completely successful and it managed to clip her shoulder, pushing her to the side just enough to end up facing the Time Gear that Relatia had abandoned when she went to go try and break up the fight. Then—courtesy of Relatia, who had exhausted all other options of regaining control of the situation—she was stuck staring at it when she was frozen again in time. But the time-freeze didn't stop her thoughts from continuing to race, and the Time Gear only served as more motivation.
"Okay, so somehow when I lost my memories, I also created those crystals… and somehow charged the Time Gears in the process. It always seems to come down to memories, doesn't it?"
Relatia finally deemed that everyone had had long enough to cool off and allowed them back into the normal time-stream just in time for Laura to frown. "So what's so special about memories? What else do they do aside from, well, letting one remember things?" she continued trying to puzzle out. "This line of thought is starting to sound familiar… wait… That's it!"
"I think I know what to do!" she exclaimed, unwittingly cutting off Relatia from where she was about to give an angry scolding to Mason and Mesprit.
"Hm? You know what to do about what, Laura?" the goddess asked, as if she hadn't just been using her powers over time and space to stop a fight between a legendary pokémon and a figure from an important legend.
Laura happily clarified, "I think I know how to fix the Time Gears!"
"Wh-what? You do?!" Uxie exclaimed in surprise, immediately recovering from his former position of cowering in corner in fear of Relatia's powers. "But what about your memories?"
"That's the solution!"
Loudred rolled his eyes, feeling let down by the answer. "Yes, we know THAT! But knowing that doesn't HELP considering you DON'T HAVE THEM!"
Laura blushed slightly before trying to phrase her epiphany a different way so that it could be more easily understood by the others. "No, no, I meant… okay, so memory is part of knowledge, right? That means it's also part of spirit… and another word for 'spirit' is aura! That's the solution!"
Uxie frowned, still not fully grasping Laura's words. "So… you think it was your aura that charged the Time Gears?" he asked. When Laura nodded, his frown deepened. "But… how?"
"The same way it created the aura crystals," Laura replied confidently. "After all… you said that the crystals weren't present before you went to sleep… right?" she turned to Relatia—who was holding Mason and Mesprit apart from each other with an iron grip on their arms.
"That's true," Relatia mused, releasing her captives and nodding. "I suppose that does make sense… so are you going to head to the Timeless Forest right away?"
Laura nodded distractedly. "Yeah I should probably… wait, what?" she blinked as Relatia's words caught up with her. "Why would I need to go there? Couldn't I just do it here?"
Relatia grinned. "Despite how beautiful they are, I doubt that Wigglytuff wants a bunch of Aura Crystals cluttering his floor…"
"Ah… Right," Laura blushed in embarrassment before gathering up the Time Gears and heading towards the ladder.
"I'll look forward to hearing all about it when you, Mason, and Paula get back!" Relatia called out, laughing when Laura stopped so abruptly that she nearly tripped and fell.
"M-Mason and Paula?" Laura asked, turning back around.
Relatia raised an amused eyebrow. "You didn't think I'd let you go off alone, did you?" she asked, laughing again when Laura blushed and indicated that, yes, she had.
"Wait… seriously? You didn't think I was going to try and come with you?" Mason and Paula asked, blinking in surprise when they accidentally blurted out the question at the same time. Laura's continued blushing was the answer.
"Oh come on… you know me better than that!" Mason exclaimed, zooming over to her and grabbing Laura's hand and beginning to drag her towards the ladder.
"Yeah!" Paula agreed, running up to Laura herself and beginning to push her from behind. "Come on, let's go!"
"H-hey! Careful! You're going to make me fall!"
Everyone watched in slight confusion as the trio ascended the ladder, and then there were a few moments of awkward silence.
"Well that was… interesting," Cresselia eventually said, summarizing the general thoughts on the matter.
"Indeed… it certainly was strange to see an incarnation of my Rainbow Child who was not raised on Earth," Relatia nodded in agreement.
"…That... wasn't actually what I meant, but, yes, I suppose that's true as well."
Drowzee frowned, looking between Relatia and the ladder a few times. "So… you're not going with them?" he finally asked.
"There's really no need for me to go; I'm sure they'll fill me in on the necessary details when they return," Relatia said with a nonchalant wave of her hand. But then she furrowed her brows in genuine confusion and asked, "Besides… why would I want to deny them such a good bonding experience?"
A few of the gathered pokémon opened their mouths to give Relatia an answer… but they quickly closed them again when they realized that, really, there wouldn't be one satisfactory enough to please her given the apparently very strange mindset she had.
"Oh!" Relatia suddenly exclaimed, clapping her hands together when she was hit with a flash of inspiration and startling everyone in the process. "I know something we can do while we wait!"
She turned towards the Spirit Trio, causing them to flinch at the sudden attention after such an abrupt topic change. "When I asked earlier, it seemed like you had something important to tell me, but were worried about time constraints," she addressed them, pausing momentarily to give a brief chuckle—because, really, worrying that the goddess of time and space didn't have enough time to talk? What an absurdly amusing thought!
"But now we have the perfect opportunity to talk!" Relatia decided with a grin. "So I'll ask once more… how have you three been?"
The Spirit Trio became blank-faced with sudden terror. They had hoped that Relatia wouldn't remember that little detail for a while…
"YEAH, Uxie!" Loudred cut in, having trouble deciding on the correct facial expression—should he scowl at the reminder of what the trio did to his friend? Or would it be better to wear an evil grin in anticipation for what the goddess would do to them in punishment…? "You should go ahead and fill her IN! I'm sure she'd just LOVE to know what you've been up to…"
"Especially when it comes to the interactions you've had with her precious Rainbow Child these past few weeks, meh heh heh…" Croagunk egged on, having absolutely no trouble deciding to wear his usual, mischievous smirk.
This piqued Relatia's interest further and caused everyone else in the room to add their own expectant gazes to the one she had focused on the Spirit Trio. Uxie and his siblings, for their part, gulped under their piercing stares and began to tremble in fearful anticipation of the wrath of the powerful goddess…
In the Eastern/Timeless Forest…
The trio of Laura, Paula, and Mason had made quick work of the Mystery Dungeon and reached the formerly aura crystal-filled cave in record time. They went in and headed immediately towards the faded flower symbol that was painted on the ground. Laura walked to the center while Mason placed the Time Gears in a ring around her and then went to go stand beside Paula. But it was then that they hit a snag when Laura glanced around and sheepishly admitted, "So… I'm not actually sure what I'm supposed to do now..."
"What?!" Paula spluttered. "But back at the guild you said you knew exactly what to do!"
"W-well technically I just said 'I think'…" Laura mumbled sheepishly. "Which is true! Just… not the specifics of how to actually do it…" she frowned and looked down at the symbol beneath her fee. "…Especially when it comes to this flower symbol."
Mason and Paula glanced down at it as well with puzzled frowns.
"…Hey, what type of flower is it, anyways?" Paula suddenly asked. "I mean, we saw it at Brine Cave, too... and a few other places... and didn't you get a crown of one as a gift once?"
"Well, despite Relatia calling it a 'whatchamacallit' flower, its real name is Treasure's Desire," Mason explained. "So… perhaps it's supposed to act as a focal point for your desires?"
"Oh! I get it!" Paula exclaimed in sudden understanding. "Laura's desire… both now and back when she first drew this symbol… it was to charge the Time Gears, right? So if she just focuses on the flower…"
At Paula's words Laura gained understanding as well and nodded decisively, kneeling to the ground and placing her palms on the symbol. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and began to channel her energy. The faded white paint began to glow with rainbow colors as the energy spread… and when the light eventually reached the Time Gears they lit up immediately, greedily absorbing it.
Paula cheered with glee. "It's… it's working!"
"Yes…" Mason breathed out in relieved in agreement. But then he noticed something and his eyes widened in terror. "But maybe it's working a little too well!"
"Huh?" Paula wondered aloud. "What do you mean?"
"Look at Laura!"
Paula looked… and gave a yelp of fear when she saw that Laura's body was beginning to be consumed by all-too-familiar and ever-so-horrifying balls of yellow light!
"L-Laura!" Paula shrieked. "You have to stop!"
"I… can't…!" Laura grunted with exertion. "I'm not… finished yet!"
"But you're starting to disappear!"
"I… I know!
Mason's eyes widened. "Yet you still won't—?!"
"If it will help keep everyone safe… then I'm okay with disappearing," Laura admitted, briefly opening her eyes—which were glowing so much that her pupils were no longer visible—to give her two closest friends a soft, yet resigned smile before closing them again so that she could concentrate on increasing her energy output.
The light—both the yellow surrounding Laura and the one caused by her energy—steadily began to increase until it was almost blinding… and when it finally reached its peak…
"LAURA!"
…the world went black.