Our story starts in a dead forest. I was being pursued by Sableye. You see, the rebels had been short on food, and I had volunteered to go foraging. After all, we had children sheltered in our camp, and I couldn't just let them starve.

Unfortunately, I had strayed too close to Temporal Tower, and before I knew it, I was fleeing from a horde of Sableye, empty-handed.

"He's here somewhere! Find him!"

I held my breath.

I could hear the sound of many feet beneath me. I gripped the tree trunk a little tighter and curled myself deeper into the spindly branches, praying that they would block me from sight.

"He's nowhere, mistress!"

"Don't be ridiculous, he can't just disappear into thin air!"

How I wished I could. If I so much as made a sound, I was sure that they would find me.

"Keep searching!"

I exhaled impatiently. I didn't want to hang around here all night.

I watched the Sableye below me with keen eyes. They were in a frenzy. Darting about the forest and cackling anxiously. Clearly there would be some sort of punishment in store for them if they didn't capture me.

I'd never liked Sableye. They were a bunch of cowards.

A thin-lipped smirk spread over my face. Perhaps I could use their cowardice to my advantage.

I pried my claws off the tree trunk and took a measured step forward. The branch I was perched on swayed unsteadily. I would have to move carefully, or else it would snap.

The Sableye haven't noticed me yet. So before they could hear the branch creaking, I spread my wings and plummeted out of the tree.

The Sableye let out screeches of surprise and leapt out of my way, like the cowards they were.

I turned sharply upward, and flew off into the grey sky before they could call their mistress.

But they didn't need to. She was already there.

Our eyes met for a fleeting second. The edges of my lips tightened and a wicked grin flashed across her face.

As I said before, you probably know who Dusknoir and Grovyle are. Well, she was the Dusknoir of our time. I wish that I had been the Grovyle, but sadly, there hadn't been a Grovyle. If there had been, Primal Dialga wouldn't have had such a firm reign when Grovyle was finally born.

Grovyle was a good sort—the sort of Pokémon who was the stuff of legends. I was far from a hero. I wasn't interested in trying to save the world.

The Sableye's mistresses name was Morgana Cacturne. She and I are the only survivors from our village. Morgana coped with living in a paralysed world by desensitizing herself to agony. She ignored the agony of nature, of the children born into this world, and the people she persecuted.

That way, she didn't bear the burden the rest of us did. Doing Dialga's bidding helped distract her from over thinking her way of life. If you ask me, continuing like this will just lead her to a very sticky end.

"There you are!" Laughed Morgana.

I felt a sharp pain in my backside. I bit my tongue to stop myself from veering off course, and twisted my head around to see what had hurt me.

A few large, white needles had been stuck into my leg. I recognized them immediately. It was Morgana's Pin Missile attack.

An insane grin on her face, Morgana took aim and fired another few rounds of needles at me. I just managed to swerve out of the way.

I was almost out of range. Just a few more metres and Morgana wouldn't be able to reach me. Using this positive thought as fuel, I flew with more vigour, urging my wings to go faster.

And then, I felt the needles stab into the membrane of my wing.

I spiralled out of the sky and landed in a heap onto the ground, cursing loudly.

"He landed over there!" Cried Morgana. "Go, Sableye! Get him! Get him!"

I struggled to get to my feet. My wing was bleeding profusely. I ripped the needles out of my leg and wing, wincing as I did so.

I could hear the Sableye hurrying to apprehend me. I forced myself onto my feet and limped as quickly as I could in the opposite direction.

Morgana mercilessly shot Pin Missile into my back as I tried to hobble away. I keeled over with a shout.

"Truss him up!" Shouted Morgana joyfully. "Hurry, my Sableye, hurry! Master Dialga will be so pleased with us! Truss him up, truss him up!

I hissed at a bold Sableye that scurried over to me wielding lengths of rope. I snapped my pincers threateningly at his feet and felt a surge of satisfaction when he squealed and hopped away from me.

"What are you waiting for?" Said Morgana shrilly.

"Wheh... he's frightening, mistress!" Said the Sableye weakly. "His pincers look awfully strong!"

"Cowards!" Spat Morgana. "I'll do it myself!"

She snatched the rope out of the hands of the Sableye and marched up behind me, reaching for my hands.

My claws flashed out and fixed themselves around Morgana's elbow. I twisted her arm behind her back and brought my other claw to her neck.

"Leave or I'll kill her!" I rasped.

Morgana laughed like a madwoman.

But the Sableye weren't amused. They were backing away from me. And before Morgana could order them to come back, they fled, like the cowards they were.

Morgana tutted under her breath. "I'll have Master Dialga execute them."

I clenched my pincer around her throat and listened to her choking for a few moments. It was such a fulfilling thing to make someone choke.

"You wouldn't do it!" Cackled Morgana. "We're from the same village, remember?!"

The demented grin on her face made me sick to my stomach. I wanted nothing more than to snap her neck, but I was injured so gravely, I couldn't find the strength to. It was maddening.

"What's up with you?" Hummed Morgana. "Does your leg hurt?"

I hissed at her and managed to clench my pincers a little tighter. Her breathing turned to wheezes.

"I... wouldn't do that if... I was you..." She gasped, still wearing that infuriating grin.

I had no breath to answer her with. I felt like something was constricting my breathing.

"What's up? Can't you... breathe?" She chuckled. "Ever heard of... of Destiny... Bond?"

I released her instantly. She fell to the ground on her knees, gasping and holding her neck.

"You didn't." I whispered.

She snorted loudly. "I did!"

"You didn't."

"No, I definitely did. I... I imagine you're familiar with how Destiny Bond works, hm? Well, if you're not, basically... you have to do everything I say otherwise I'll kill myself and you'll go with me!"

My eyes narrowed to slits.

"Well, okay, I lied, maybe that's not exactly how it works!" Morgana cackled. "But that's how it's gonna work between you and me, flyboy."

Finally, the irritating grin slipped off her face, and was replaced with a deadpan expression much like mine, except there was a sinister curve to her lips and malicious gleam in her eyes.

"Come with me to Temporal Tower." She demanded.

"No."

"Come with me to Temporal Tower or I'll stab myself."

I made a furious move in her direction, but she danced out of range.

"Touch me and it'll hurt you just as bad!" Snapped Morgana. "Destiny Bond ensures that if one of us gets hurt, the other one hurts as much as them! We're joined at the hip, my friend! Until you come with me to Temporal Tower!"

"I'd rather die."

"That's a little melodramatic, don't you think? I mean, mull this over for a few minutes... if you come with me, to Temporal Tower, than there is a very, very, very slight chance that you could trick me and walk away unscathed... but, if we decide to end it here and now..."

And that was how my story began.