CHAPTER 16

That night, as Rylan tucked away his reward money for safekeeping, he began to feel as though a thirst deep inside him had been quenched. What could this feeling be? As usual, he couldn't pin his emotions down with words. His heart seemed to be telling him that being a part of Aggron's Guild was something far beyond satisfying; it was as if finding a purpose like this had patched up a gigantic hole inside him.

Rylan placed a paw over his chest to feel his heart…and immediately felt the lengthy metal fragment around his neck. It seemed like ages since he last examined this mysterious object. He lifted it up to his face and took another glance at it. Upon closer examination, it appeared to have very small holes lined up on one side. On the direct opposite side were the words engraved in the language Rylan did not understand. He knew it must be important, given the sentence that Houndoom had almost finished, but something at the back of his mind was telling him not to worry about it right now.

The days passed, and days soon became weeks. The more Rylan became actively involved with Team StarStruck, the less he cared about anything else.

Mission after mission, the three rookies found themselves finishing each task and returning to headquarters in record time. Rylan and his teammates quickly became the talk of the guild.

One afternoon, after the three of them returned to the guild to collect their reward, Gallade greeted them with a proud smile on his face.

"Buizel, Vulpix, and Rylan. Could you three come here for a moment?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," replied Buizel. The team approached Gallade.

"Can you please hand me your badges?" Gallade asked.

Rylan looked at Gallade curiously and untied the cloth bearing his explorer badge from around his waist. As he handed it to Gallade, he noticed pleased expressions on the faces of his teammates.

"Congratulations," Gallade said as he took the badges. "You've been doing an amazing job here at the guild. As a result of your great teamwork and efficiency in completing your tasks, your Explorer Rank has increased. You are now Bronze Rank Explorers."

Gallade reached inside a box next to him and pulled out three new badges, each more lustrous than the Starting Rank badges and colored a bright bronze. Gallade distributed one to each of the three Pokémon, who eagerly accepted them. Rylan couldn't help but smile; he had found a purpose, and he now knew how it felt to be rewarded for his hard work.

"Since you have been promoted," said Gallade, "tonight you must select a room from the second floor. As you know, further promotions will entitle you to select rooms higher up in the guild."

The three nodded. Rylan tied the new badge around his waist, admiring how it looked

"Again, congratulations," Gallade said. "The Guildmaster and I will be expecting great things from you." He nodded his head and walked over to the notice boards.

"Oh, my gosh, this is great!" Vulpix exclaimed. Our first promotion! We haven't been doing this well in a while, Buizel!"

Buizel smiled. "Yeah, we've been doing quite well, lately. I'm surprised. Now, let's go pick ourselves a room."

Vulpix and Buizel packed up their belongings from their old room and rushed up the stairs to the second floor of the guild. Rylan slowly followed behind. As he ascended to the second floor, he noticed that fewer rooms were occupied on this floor compared to the first one. Perhsps promotions weren't as common as he first thought. As soon as he caught up with his teammates, he noticed Vulpix was bounding up and down in sheer delight in front of one of the vacant dormitories.

"This one! This one!" she giggled happily.

"This room? How come?" Buizel asked.

"Shh!" Vulpix lowered her voice, as though she didn't want to attract eavesdroppers. "This was the room that Team Tranquility occupied when they were Bronze Rank explorers like we are now. We'd be standing in the footsteps of legends!"

"And you know this how?" Buizel asked.

"Let's just say I know a friend of a friend who was here in this guild at the time who snuck a peek," Vulpix said quietly.

"Well, I'm not so sure I believe that right now, but hey, a room is a room regardless," said Buizel. "Let's settle in and unpack."

Vulpix rushed inside, prancing around the room for a moment.

"Everything is so clean in here! And the light shining in from the window is so pretty!" she exclaimed.

"We didn't have a window in our last room," said Buizel, "so having some calming moonlight at night will be great."

The three of them set up their beds where they wanted them; Buizel placed his bed close to Vulpix's bed, and Rylan was sure to keep his bed as far away from Buizels' as possible.

"DINNER!" Electrode called out to the guild.

All of the guild members assembled quickly. As Rylan began to eat his food, he overheard a lot of chatter regarding Team StarStruck. Many Pokémon were looking over at them and pointing. Some of them were excited about the team's progress. Some seemed jealous of the team. Rylan was surprised that he and the other two had attracted this much attention.

That night, Rylan went to bed with a smile on his face. Buizel was right about the moonlight; having it shine through the window and into the room was quite soothing. As he relaxed on his side, he felt the key piece press against his body. He was starting to feel a bit less interested in the thing. He shrugged, then removed it from around his neck and stuffed it into his bag.

Almost instantly, a strong feeling of regret stirred in the back of his head. Something, perhaps a past emotion from his human life, was telling him that he had to keep that key piece with him at all times. He hastily reached back into his bag, pulled out the piece, and placed it back around his neck.

As he drifted off to sleep, he began to fade into another dream. He was back in the strange abyss, and the looming silhouette returned to confront him.

"You felt it, didn't you?" said. "When you removed that key from around your neck, you felt me."

"Who are you?" Rylan asked. "What are you?"

"Lost memories are never lost completely," said the silhouette. "They're just misplaced, waiting to be reclaimed."

"What are you saying?" Rylan asked.

"I am your happiness, your sadness, your anger, your past. I am you, and I am not you," said the silhouette.

"Are you… Are you my human memories?" asked Rylan

"I am every recollection of your human life, yes," said the silhouette, "but I am not your free will, your present state of mind. You must reclaim me, but you are not ready."

Rylan could tell from his tone of voice that the silhouette was quite irritable. Was that what he, himself, was like as a human?

"I don't care," Rylan said. "I want my memories back."

Rylan reached out to try and touch the silhouette. As he did so, however, a shocking sensation pierced his paw, and an indescribably unnatural chill started to rush from his paw to the rest of his body, like his very soul was freezing. He quickly staggered back.

"Don't. It hurts," said the silhouette.

Rylan was shaking, frightened. If those were his past memories, his past emotions, they must have been pretty unbearable. After what he had just felt, the silhouette was beginning to terrify him. "I can't…" he said. "I don't want any bad memories."

"It will happen sooner or later," said the silhouette. "The key must become whole again."

"No!" Rylan replied. "I don't want you! It hurts!"

As Rylan exclaimed the same words that the silhouette used, he realized they shared the same voice. This silhouette truly was his human self, his memories given form. Before Rylan could speak to him any further, he woke up from his sleep. Warm, calming sunlight from the window was bathing the room, and Rylan's teammates were starting to wake up as well.

Rylan decided not to tell his companions about the silhouette or the fear that was making his heart pound that morning.