Enjoy!
Chapter 33
The Umbreon
Carry and I raced over to the door and peeked out from behind Wylie.
We both gasped, too.
The world was dark as a night with a half-moon. Pokemon were everywhere, some standing frozen and some lying dead, their guts spilling out onto the ground. The ground outside the guild used to be up a floor, first of all (I guessed it expanded), and second it was beautiful and calm and green. Now it was withered and yellow with the occasional red stain.
"What the f**king hell?" Carry demanded. "What happened to this place? To the pokemon?"
We three turned to face Grovyle and Celebi, hoping for answers.
Grovyle closed his eyes and began the story.
"Darkrai used to be good, but one day he suddenly turned evil. He went around haunting poor souls forever, trapping them in nightmares. Then he found himself the hidden land and slowly began to corrupt Dialga, therefore corrupting time. The corrupted time messed with the earth, many pokemon, and several legends.
"The legends joined Darkrai, the pokemon turned evil, and the mystery dungeons started appearing. Darkrai learned of Mew's ability to purify souls, which she could use to fix Dialga and time, and he went after her.
"He couldn't find her, so Darkrai then found a way to contact the human world and made several humans bow down to him when they joined something called a Black Fur." Grovyle glanced sympathetically at Celebi as he said, "He then forced Celebi to let one of the humans through.
"His name was Craeg, and he became a skuntank and Darkrai's Chosen. He and his partner, Skun, killed you, Austin. (By the way, when I first heard your name I was suspicious of the fact that you might have been him, but hearing your friend was Wylie was what really convinced me.) Wylie, Carry (who was called here to protect you, Austin), Jared, and Heather tried to stop Drakrai from killing Mew, the only one who could stop the corruption of time. You four failed because they couldn't kill him without Celebi or Austin's waves, so the earth has turned to this.
"The few pokemon who weren't frozen in time kill each other mercilessly now. Jared and Heather were killed this way, so now only Wylie and Carry live."
"Craeg," I said in a small voice. I looked at Carry, who nodded.
"Them," she said weakly. "Well, at least we know now what they are."
There were five knocks on the door.
"Speaking of Wylie," Grovyle murmured, then yelled, "Come in."
Future Wylie stepped into the door. He looked so... different. His fur was a bit darker. Scars wove in patterns across his chest and knotted around the left side of his face. He looked at Wylie for a long moment before saying, "You're from the past, aren't you?"
Future Wylie walked forward until he stood in front of his twin. I noticed he was a good four inches taller than my Wylie.
"We are, I believe. Hello," Wylie said, looking a bit incredulously up at his future self.
"Hello," F.W. said in a deeper voice than Wylie's, looking down at him.
"This is weird as hell," Carry muttered, shaking her head.
"No kidding," F.W. said. "It'll be weirder soon, too, considering Carry is about to get here."
"I'm coming in, Grovyle!" Carry's voice shouted. Her voice wasn't like sandpaper as usual, though. It was liquid smooth.
Future Carry was slightly taller than our Carry and had a grace to her that our Carry hadn't quite developed. Every step she took made her look as if she were dancing, I thought. Her eyes were slightly narrowed as she took in each of us, her eyes portraying distrust. She looked very calm and comfortable with it, as if she were always this way.
Yeah. Well. The big differences stop there. She looked at our Carry, narrowed her eyes further, sat up straight and demanded from Future Wylie in our Carry's same normally-sarcastic-and-accusing voice, "Who in the name of f**king hell is this?"
Our Carry responded by raising her eyebrows, looking at our Wylie, and demanding, "Wylie, you've got Uxie powers. Explain. Now, gosh damn it, Now."
"I can see the swearing doesn't stop," Wylie murmured to the older version of himself.
F.W. nodded. "It has gotten worse since we were your age, I think."
"I didn't think that was possible," our Wylie said to him.
F.W. responded with, "That's what I thought. We were wrong."
Carry suddenly stood and looked wildly around, then began to pace in circles. "No. No. No, no, no, no, no, f**king no, gosh damn it! This is NOT f**king possible!"
Everyone quietly turned silent gazes to her.
I whispered, "Carry, we're in the future. It's alright."
Carry sat in front of me and sighed softly. "You know, Dark, it isn't okay. I swear to gosh, we are dreaming. You're probably running from those assholes still. Them. I'm in a coma in that damn hospital bed. None of this really exists. Or that's what I'd like to think, but I know you can't feel pain in a dream. And you know what, that's all I'm feeling right now.
"That's it. Pain, pain, pain. In this future, everything is dead or doomed. Any pokemon who isn't frozen in time forever is mercilessly slaughtering the other for food so they or they and their families don't die.
"And Austin is dead and, Dark, you don't exist here. And you know, in our present, poor Jared is still probably sitting over Heather's corpse, waiting for us to return when we probably never, ever will!" Carry stood up and shouted, "And you say it's alright! That it's okay! Well, damn it, Dark, it IS NOT OKAY!"
She sat down and stared at me fiercely, a rush of red coming to her face beneath the purple of her fur, and she began to shake. The anger slowly was disappearing, and I knew she was going to cry. Something inside then me told me what to do. I didn't know how she'd respond, but I stepped forward and put my head on hers, the closest thing to a hug I could give her.
It was kind of nice to have her there. I liked it.
"This sucks balls," Carry said from beneath my chin, her voice cracking.
"We'll get through it," I said to her quietly.
Carry took a long, deep breath before stepping away and looking up at Wylie. With a shaking voice she asked, "How can we get back?"
"Why would he know?" F. C. asked our Carry. She looked at our Carry with an expressionless face.
Carry sat up a little taller and the redness in her face began to seep away. "Uxie's dead in our world. Wylie inherited her powers."
"She's dead here, too," F. W. told us. I couldn't get over the fact that he was taller. Wylie was short enough that I barely had to look up at him, but I needed to tilt my head considerably higher to see Future Wylie. Also, his voice was deeper. Future Wylie looked down at our Wylie with something like respect in his eyes. "Though she only died a week ago. I've not had any opportunity to use them for good, but you do. Use it for good, Wylie."
"I won't get much of a chance here," Wylie told them honestly. "I understand there is a time hole where Celebi can get us back through since she can't take more than one of us through time, but I'm not sure where it is." Wylie closed his eyes for a moment and wondered, "I think a place called The Nightmare is where it is now."
Celebi closed her eyes and bit her lip. "I was afraid you'd say that. That place is terribly dangerous."
"Where most of the savages live," F. C. murmured quietly, shaking her head. "I would almost say it isn't worth it, but if you can prevent this..." Future Carry met each of our four gazes one at a time and in her silky-smooth voice said very distinctly, "Do it."
"You know none of you will exist then," Austin said. He had somehow, without me noticing, woken up and gotten over to the wall and now was leaning against it with his arms crossed and intense gaze pinned to the Future crew. I couldn't tell what he was thinking about them. His face had no emotion on it, like Future Carry.
Future Wylie met Austin's gaze, then closed his eyes and nodded.
Future Carry said softly, "Of course we do, Austin."
Grovyle, who was on the wall to the left of Austin's, nodded at him.
Celebi said, "We know. That's why we're going to help you."
"If we can prevent your death," Future Wylie began, "and Uxie's, Jared's, and Heather's if it wasn't already too late, and all the death of all the pokemon frozen in time or slaughtered..."
"Then we will," F. Carry told us, looking up at Austin with a very, very sure gaze.
"That's very brave," our Wylie commented. "I thank you all for being willing to sacrifice yourselves for this."
"And we'll be going with you," Grovyle told us very seriously. "I've been there many times. It won't hurt to go again."
I turned my body to fully face him. I asked, "I'm not sure who you are or if I can trust you. They may trust you, but I won't until you can prove it to me." I glanced at Austin, who glanced at the green pokemon and gave me a slight nod. He appeared to approve of him enough.
Grovyle smiled and said, "Very good. I was wondering when one of you would ask me besides Austin who's been watching my aura this entire time." He glanced at the blue wolf, who nodded but didn't say anything. I wondered if he was still hurting from the sadness that barraged him earlier. I would have if I were him.
"So?" our Carry asked. "Are you going to tell us?"
"Yes," Grovyle nodded. "I'm the pokemon who tried to get the time gears and put them in place in order to prevent time from stopping. I succeeded, and that's when I found out that Drakrai was corrupting Daialga and Dialga had more power than time gears."
"And this mew thing can fix Dialga and time?" Carry asked, tilting her head in wonder.
"Mew is the only one who has the power to purify Dialga again. If he becomes too unpure, like in our world, then time stops and he won't be able to pick it back up again. He'll die, actually. Then time will be lost forever," Grovyle said sadly, shaking his head. "But if Mew purifies Dialga in time, then there's no worry and he can fix it."
"If he dies, what about his Chosen?" Wylie asked. I could hear the fear in his voice, a thread among the lace, and knew he was wondering about Ashy.
"I know you're wondering about Ashy, if the same things might happen to the already-evil Palkia. Ashy was killed by Drowsee, Azelf's apprentice. To answer your other question, though, Dialga's Chosen was killed by Darkrai when Dialga was just barely too corrupted to choose another one," Future Wylie said, closing his eyes and tilting his head down to the floor with sadness all over his face. "Darkrai knew his Chosen could save things."
"No!" Wylie suddenly shouted, referring to Ashy's death.
"But Drowsee is dying in that cave since I hit him with the waves," Austin said, scrunching his eyebrows at F. Wylie. "Wylie, she'll be fine since she won't ever come in contact with him."
Wylie shook his head, tears forming at the corners of his eyes. He closed them and hugged himself. "When Ashy was told about someone needing to go... save Azelf's being she looked away. I could tell she was thinking about doing it, Austin. He's going to kill her."
"Drowsee was never hit with the waves when she was killed," Future Wylie explained. "As long as Austin for sure hit him, then she should be alright."
"Either way, we need to get back right away," Wylie said, then squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head away. I will save her no matter what."
F. W. put a paw on our Wylie's shoulder and whispered, "Good luck."
"Okay, then," Grovyle said. He turned to me and asked, "Do you trust me?"
I looked to Austin, who said, "He wasn't lying at all. Plus, Celebi trusts him. I know that isn't the best reason, but still."
"... Okay," I agreed finally.
"Then follow me," Celebi said, smiling bittersweetly. She looked at Austin and instructed, "Keep an aura shield up at all times, Austin." He nodded.
And so we left, preparing ourselves for yet another dangerous part of our mission to save the world.
Author's Note:
And so enters fully the future crew. Wylie and Carry and ridiculously different here. I like it and hope you guys are enjoying this part of the story :D