Chapter 11: Crystal Clear
After the next morning's daily meeting, Team Marmalade met with Bartleby and Charlie in the Guildmaster's office. "We know where the next Time Gear the Grovyle will likely go after next is."
"Would it be the one that Azelf guards?" Trey asked.
"How did you know?" Charlie asked, shocked.
"Because every story about them notes that they are triplets, born from the same egg. There's the Being of Knowledge Uxie, the Being of Emotion Mespirit, and the Being of Willpower Azelf. And, since the two other locations were both lakes in very strange places, I would guess that Azelf also lives and guards a lake in a very strange place."
"That's… absolutely right!" Charlie said.
"Of course it is," Kip said. "He is the bookworm ninja, after all."
Bartleby nudged the Chatot. "He could take over your job, huh?"
"Oh, um... I wouldn't think so, right away. But maybe when you're more experienced." He coughed into his wing, then said, "Yes, another lake in a very strange place. This one is within Crystal Cave. It was on the list that Dusknoir helped us with, but we took it off the list a couple of days ago."
"Why did you take it off if it's the right place?" Stacy asked.
"Uxie asked us to," Bartleby said. "And he asked that you go in to meet with his brother first. He thinks he got the message to Azelf, but is uncertain."
"So you're to enter Crystal Cave and find Azelf. Hopefully you won't find the Grovyle again, but we cannot rule out that possibility. So take caution in your search."
Crystal Cave was exactly as the name stated. The crystals came in all kinds of colors: clear, blue, green, purple, red, yellow, orange, white, smoky, gray, and even an odd black here and there. It was one of the labyrinthine dungeons too, with long twisting hallways and very few lights.
Eventually, they came to a dead end level with a warp panel and three tall crystals: one red, one orange, and one purple. "So now what?" Stacy asked.
"Wish we could make off with one of these beauties," Kip said, hopping over to the nearest tall crystal. "All the rest might be worthless junk, but these ones…" he nosed it. It turned from purple to yellow. "Wow, they even change color!"
"Maybe it's some kind of riddle?" Trey wondered. "Are there any hints about the riddle around?"
"I don't see anything right off," Stacy said, starting to walk around the room to find a plaque or something.
Sally went up and touched the orange crystal. It turned green. One of her visions came over her, which she then showed to Trey.
"That was just a voice this time. But maybe it has some hint. It was… 'match the crystals to the aura of the Guardian'?"
"What's Azelf's lucky color, you think?" Kip joked.
Trey clapped to that. "That's it!"
"Well how are we supposed to know some legendary's lucky color?" the Skitty asked.
"Well Uxie and Mespirit had the same kind of skin, a pale blue, but they both had other colors dominant over that. Uxie had yellow and Mespirit had red… therefore, Azelf is probably blue. Touch all the crystals until they turn blue."
Once they managed to do so, the ground began to shake between the crystals; electricity arched between the top points. Stacy, who had been at the far crystal, ran over to get with the rest of the group before something happened. And something did happen: a large dungeon entrance appeared as a giant arch made of blue and white crystals.
"So there's a hidden dungeon within this dungeon too!"Stacy said. "They really wanted to make sure nobody found them."
"Of course," Kip said. "These legendary Pokemon take their duties really fricking seriously."
They went down into the next dungeon. It too had many many crystals. However, it was filled with long straight hallways with evenly spaced crossings. It was actually more difficult than the labyrinthine design, as all the rooms looked near identical and it was easy to get lost. Thankfully, Trey had remembered to bring the compass so that they didn't get too disoriented while underground.
At one point, they came across a problem. There was a passage to the next level that was only two feet high. Stacy and Trey were just under that height, and Kip could squeeze through even though he was a bit taller than that. However, Sally at six feet tall saw no way she could get herself through the passage.
"This is an odd problem," Stacy said. "Most passages are at least ten foot high and quite wide. What do we do now?"
Sally made some signs.
"Are you sure?" Trey asked.
She answered that question.
"If you're okay with that. She told us three to go on ahead; she'll keep looking around here for another passage. She says she'll be fine on her own and that it's more important that we find Azelf quickly."
"Hmm," Stacy said, reluctant to leave one of them on their own.
"You still have that Rollcall Orb that I insisted on you taking?" Kip prodded. "When an explorer team uses one, it targets our badges. So if we get in a tight spot, or if we find Azelf, we can use that to bring her to where we are. That is, so long as the rooms aren't tiny past here as well."
"I see. Then we'll do that. Take care of yourself, Sally."
She nodded and signed back for them to do the same. Then she started looking around hallways they hadn't gotten to yet.
The three Pokemon went into the small passage. Past that, they found a huge cavern which, like the desert cave, held a giant underground lake. But here, the crystals were larger, almost like ice. And they found Azelf, barely conscious with several bad wounds over his body. Past him, the Grovyle was just about to enter the lake.
"Hold it, you son of a Chansey!" Kip shouted in as loud of a voice as he could manage.
While the Grovyle was startled and turning to check out who was interrupting him, Trey quickly pulled a Stun Seed out of his Treasure Bag, then fired it like he shot his Bullet Seed attack. It burst open when it struck the thief, paralyzing him in a second.
"Good thinking," Stacy said quietly as they ran up. Although the thief was twice as big as they were, she and Trey dragged him away from the edge of the lake. "You aren't getting this one," she said firmly to the Grovyle.
"This is more important than you realize," he replied, right before throwing them off and making a dash for the lake.
Back on the previous level, Sally was still searching for a bigger passage. She felt a tinge of danger through the dense (and somehow familiar again) aura of the Time Gear. She hadn't run into any wild Pokemon since her teammates went ahead. Something wasn't right about that.
"Wheh heh heh," came a high-pitched giggle through the tunnels.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end at the sound of that giggle. It too was familiar. Chillingly familiar. Her unconscious mind released a rush of adrenaline. At another giggle that caused echoes, something triggered in her memory.
Of death and destruction in a world of darkness.
Of everyone around her (humans and Pokemon) dying from berserk enemies, or losing control of themselves and turning into those berserk enemies only to kill the ones who they had been trying to protect moments before.
Almost everyone was gone.
Her guardian had mysterious blue eyes and she could vaguely remember his voice. "I made this armor specifically for you, only for you. It should never fail you." And then, apparently disjointed, "You should stand against the darkness, without letting it take hold. We don't have many heroes left. Just you… and him."
And those little Pokemon that were the source of that chilling giggle, the giggle that nearly always preceded violence or death… the Sableyes… they were servants of the darkness.
Coming back to the present, Sally felt an intense fear for her teammates. The Sableyes could get through that small tunnel without problem. They could take down humans and Pokemon even larger and stronger than her. They could kill her friends before they knew of their threat. Even though she had only recalled fragments, it was enough to know that was true.
Although feeling scared for herself as well, Sally ran for the source of the giggling. She would protect her friends this time.
At the lake, the Grovyle nearly reached the lake when, unexpectedly, the whole lake froze solid. The large sparkling crystals that crisscrossed to form a barrier around the entrance area showed that it might not have been entirely ice covering the lake. The thief stopped just short of running into a rapidly growing (and sharp) crystal. "What's going on?" he asked, stunned.
"Uxie told me about you," Azelf said, sitting by Kip. The Skitty had given him an Oran Berry that he had snatched a dozen levels above and held onto just in case. Although it had helped him some, the pixie still looked to be in bad shape, bleeding on one of his blue horns and over his left eye. "So I prepared an extra measure, in case I fell. You're not getting my Time Gear."
The Grovyle seemed lost and panicked. Maybe he doesn't know where any others are, Trey thought. Then the thief got angry and turned around. "You don't realize what you're doing. My mission must be completed, or else. You lost to me before; do you want to challenge me again?" He seemed spiteful by the end of it, possibly even desperate.
What was so important that he had to ruin time even further by stealing the Gears? Trey knew that the Grovyle was powerful and swift, but he couldn't just back down. "Of course," Trey said. "You're the one who's causing the problem."
"What you're doing isn't right," Stacy added.
"Do you even know what the problem is?" the Grovyle challenged them. But before he could tell them anything more, a dark mass shot across the room. The Grovyle managed to dodge it, then shifted down into a defensive position. "Drakken!? What are you doing here?"
Drakken the Dusknoir came up through the floor, but his attention seemed focused on the thief. "I came after you, of course. And now I have you cornered."
"Are you so sure about that?" he retorted. Watching this, the four observers were shocked. These two knew each other? And how could the Grovyle be so confident when the situation was clearly against him? The Dusknoir came forward to attack; the thief met him in a strange blinding flash. When the light cleared, the Grovyle was gone.
"Hmph." Drakken then turned to the four others in the room. "I'm sorry I came too late, but I was waiting higher in the dungeon."
"You came just in time," Stacy said. "But how does he know you?"
"That is a long story and it's more important that we get Azelf out of here. By the way, where's Sally?"
"She had to stay on the last level because the passage was so small," Trey pointed out.
"Hmm… Stacy, Kip, you both go back with Azelf. Trey and I will look for Sally."
The Squirtle nodded. "All right. Thank you, Drakken." She and Kip helped Azelf to the warp panel and they left the dungeon.
Trey crawled back through the tunnel to the previous level; Drakken simply passed straight through the wall. "We left her here," the Treecko said.
"I hear something," he replied, then led down the passages and into another room.
They found a very tense Sally who turned to them suspiciously. In the room with her were five unconscious Pokemon. All Sableyes, which Trey identified only because he had seen them referenced a few times; they were about as unusual for this region as Treeckos were.
Once Sally recognized them, she loosened up and seemed relieved. Then she got worried again and signed, "Where are Kip and Stacy?"
"They should be back in town now, getting help for Azelf. What happened in here?"
"They frightened me badly," she signed to him.
Drakken looked over them. "These are some associates of mine. They were helping me to watch for the Grovyle."
Sally paled and made some frantic signs. "She says she's sorry about that," Trey told him. "Apparently they scared her and she fought back without thinking about it."
"I see. They can be unsettling. I accept your apology, Sally, and I'm sorry that they would have scared you."
She bowed her head, apparently with her nerves still frayed from the incident. She was even trembling, as if from something more serious than what happened here.
"Let's go back home," Trey told her, patting her leg.
After dinner, the Guild members, some civilians from town, and some other explorers gathered outside the Guild. Drakken was there, with one of his Sableye friends. Sally seemed calmer, but she still watched the Sableye as if she suspected it of something.
"First of all, I am sorry to have deceived you all," Drakken said. "You are good people and I disliked doing so. However, I was focused on capturing the thief and I knew you would have a hard time believing my story."
"That's all right," Charlie said. "Sometimes you have to do that kind of thing."
He nodded. "Right. The truth is, myself, my little friends here, and that Grovyle are all from the future."
"The future?" Trey asked, while others murmured. "How is that possible?"
"It took a lot of doing and I can't fully release that information yet… we don't want more trouble coming from unwitting time travel. But… in the future, that Grovyle… I am uncertain of his name, for he lives a shadowy life… he was a notorious outlaw. He and his partner were responsible for many terrible crimes. Somehow, they came up with the plan and the means to come back in time and steal the Time Gears. If he is successful, he will cause a terrible tragedy, the paralysis of the whole world."
"How would stealing the Time Gears cause the paralysis of the whole world?" Charlie asked. "They do cause paralysis of the area they were in when taken, but the whole world?
"This time period is already unstable, so the consequences here are much greater. And have you noticed that the frozen areas are spreading? It may only cause a freezing when only one is taken, but what if more are taken away and time is undone even further? The end result of this is a terrible future for us all.
"If the world paralysis came into being… the sun would never rise again. The whole world would be covered in darkness. No winds would blow; no tides would change. Life would become an endless suffocation in night and madness, but there would be no end in sight. With no time left to flow, there would be no change. It is truly a nightmare, and one that I have risked a lot to come back and stop before it begins."
"That sounds horrible," Flora said. "Why would anybody want that?"
"Those whose minds are overwhelmed by the darkness already would like it very much," Kip said, rather seriously.
"Yes, but why he in particular wants it, I do not know," Drakken replied. "No matter the reason, we must stop him."
Mespirit floated into the room. "Azelf," she cried, then came over and hugged her brother.
"Oo, careful," he said.
"You're not supposed to be out of your room yet," Uxie said, from where he was floating by Azelf's bed.
"I know, but I'm not gonna ignore him."
"Fine, for a little while," Uxie said.
She was pleased that he wasn't going to argue it out with her over this issue and turned to her other brother. "Did he get you by surprise too? It was like he was trained in taking us out."
"I saved the Gear, though," Azelf said, weakly flipping his tail. "Froze it solid so that no one can get to it without my power."
"Oh good."
"There was some strange news from the Guild last night," Uxie said. Then he told them about how Drakken the famous explorer and the Grovyle thief were both from the future, and about the world paralysis.
"That's horrible," Mespirit said. Then she lowered her eyes. "But… something seems strange about it."
"What's strange?" Uxie asked.
"Well I did get carried away by my temper, but… when that Grovyle apologized to me, I felt that he was sincerely sorry that he had to hurt me. And while he was struggling with a brush of darkness in his soul, it's not in control of him. He's not evil. But then why would he want to trigger a planetary paralysis if he's not evil?"
"There was also something I found strange," Uxie said. "We were not told of the planetary paralysis threat when we were given charge of the Time Gears. It's logical that it would be the end result of a mass theft of many gears, but we were just told that they would keep time flowing near our lakes until time settled down from its current unease."
"The one who told us that wouldn't have lied to us," Mespirit insisted.
"I know; I have faith, don't worry. But it still seems like some information is missing. Like why telepathy between us, born from one egg, was suddenly cut off. I had a horrible time reaching you, Azelf."
"The message I got was unclear and broken," he replied. "But it was enough for me to understand the problem. The explanation would be that someone doesn't want us communicating. Maybe just us three, but more likely, someone doesn't want all of us exchanging information."
"I haven't heard from any of the others in a long time," Mespirit said. "It's kind of lonely. I almost wanted to leave and go visit, but being connected to you both kept me there."
"And the issue with time was supposed to have been cleared up quickly," Uxie stated. "But it's only getting worse. And then this mysterious Pokemon from the future had to come back and remove what little stability was left."
"So he wants the Time Gears," Azelf said. "And that Drakken came from the future after him."
"That's right," Uxie said. "Drakken is an explorer from the future. He knows a lot about this time, though, from reading so much about it in preparation for this mission. So he is willing to do anything to stop the Grovyle and bring him back to justice in the future."
"Then why don't we trap him with Drakken's help?" Azelf suggested. "We won't be caught by surprise this time."
