Chapter 12: Yet Another Stupid Death

"GOOD MORNING EVERYBODY!"

"I hate you."

More routine mornings, Stacy thought. It was reassuring. She never had to worry if she and her brothers would be out of food, harassed by wild Pokemon, or separated. And they had a good income now, so she could fix up their house (they could move back after she graduated) and help her brothers enter whatever career they wanted.

After the daily meeting, Charlie had a surprise announcement. "Okay everyone, I've got some news and a request from Drakken. He says that he and Uxie, Mespirit, and Azelf have come up with a plan to capture the Time Gear thief. However, he needs our help in doing so. Indirectly, anyhow."

"What is it?" Flora asked, shaking her petals excitedly. "We'll help catch the thief."

"We'll help trap the thief," Charlie corrected. "Drakken wants us to spread a rumor that the triplet legends will be going back to the lake at Crystal Crossing to unfreeze that Time Gear and use it to seal a whole bunch of other Gears into place so they can't be stolen either."

"Wouldn't sealing a whole bunch of magical artifacts like that be very tiring, even for legends like them?" Trey asked.

"Yes, and that's exactly what we hope to trap the Grovyle with. We do not know how he is getting his information, but if he hears that they are going to be in a long process to seal the Gears, he would certainly take the opportunity to steal the one at Azelf's lake, then any others he can get information on. However, the triplets will be prepared for him, and they have Drakken on their side. They should easily capture the thief that way. In order to do this, we must spread the false information."

Everyone agreed to do so. It seemed like a brilliant plan. As they set out to prepare and go out on missions, they let others know about the 'sealing plan' instead of the true trap plan.


After considering some outlaws and a lost item search, Sally pointed out a kind of mission they hadn't done yet. The paper said, 'I've seen this mysterious area that no one seems to know about. There might be treasure there! Let's explore! Client: Kichu the Pikachu'

"An escort mission?" Stacy said. "My parents would tell stories about this kind of mission. Some clients are good, and some aren't. But you have to make sure that they don't get badly injured, or you might actually lose ranking points. They're usually worth more ranking points if you do well, though."

"Well there's four of us, and Pikachus are said to be good in a battle," Trey pointed out. "So it shouldn't be so bad."

"That name sounds familiar…" Kip mumbled.

As the escort missions were only posted if the client were waiting, they found the Pikachu sitting outside on a bench. "Oh, so you believe me?" he asked. "Great! I show you right where it is! It's got a real pretty entrance and it feels like a strong place of wild magic."

Stacy smiled and held a paw up. "Hang on, we need to pick up some supplies."

"Oh, right, that's good, yeah, to be prepared."

"Hey, I remember you!" Kip stated, puffing his chest up in pride. "You were one of the guys from recruitment day who didn't make it."

Kichu blushed. "Oh, um, yeah, I was there with you guys. But I just got real unlucky that day, believe me! I'm a great explorer, just not an official one, but I'll get in and become famous someday! I'm always finding neat treasures in dungeons. Just this one, it didn't look like I should go in it alone."

After getting some extra supplies, they followed Kichu for quite some ways. After taking an overgrown dirt path away from the main road, they found a large archway of twisted branches. Sharp thorns poked out from those branches, as did dried berries and leaves. An newly made sign sat by the arch: 'hear ar de deeff medow. atvenchurrs bewar.'

"Deaf Meadow, I guess?" Trey said. "That is some atrocious writing."

"Hey, Sally might have some advantage here," Kip joked as they went inside. "She's already deeff."

When they entered, they could hear perfectly fine. And there were the normal dungeon noises: the wind, some water, wild Pokemon cries. "This place doesn't seem that deaf," Stacy said.

"I dunno, maybe the wild ones can't hear?" Kichu suggested.

"They can hear all right," Trey said. "Otherwise, they wouldn't be calling to each other."

"Whoa, hey, jackpot!" Kip ran over to an area on the other side of the opening field. "Check this out! We've hit the seed motherload."

And indeed, there was a group of twelve seeds lying about close together. "These look like Reviver Seeds!" Kichu said. "That's amazing. This would cost a small fortune."

"No kidding," Stacy added. She had never bought one, although she had found several in other dungeons. Now they had twelve. But they had to split it between five and one was a client, so…

"Hang on," Trey said, picking up one of the yellow seeds. "This one looks a bit off. See, it's got these red lines. I'm not sure what that means, though."

"Weird," Kip said. Then he snatched the seed. "Well there is a way to find out for sure." He ate the seed.

"Isn't that dangerous to do with an unknown seed?" Stacy asked. "It might be bad."

"Maybe… whoa, that's some trippy effects… huh?" Kip swayed, then giggled. "Oh, it's… called a Reviser Seed, cause it revises stuff." He laughed hysterically, then collapsed unconscious.

"Weird," Kichu said.

"Kip!" After making sure it didn't have any red lines, Stacy picked up an actual Reviver seed and snapped it under the Skitty's nose. When he got back up and shook himself, she added, "Let's not try that again."

"You never know if you don't try," he countered. "So we don't know which one of those are real and which are fakes?"

Trey, having been examining the remaining ten seeds, picked one out. "This is also one of those Reviser Seeds. The rest are good." He threw the seed away. Or, he tried to. He shook his hand, but the Reviser Seed was stuck fast. "Aw man, now what?"

"It's a Sticky," Kip explained. "It'll be impossible to remove from your hand now, unless you find a Cleanse Orb or get out of the dungeon and wash it off with plenty of soap. When you start finding Sticky items or Grimy foods, then you know that you're in a sadistic dungeon."

"A sadistic misspelled dungeon," Trey said.

But for being a sadistic dungeon, it was awful pretty. There were silky grasses flowing like tides under the sweet-smelling breeze. There were pastel flowers popping up everywhere. The few trees around were gorgeous and dainty.

And then there were the traps. Trey had learned how to spot such things; the ground where a trap lay looked slightly different, like the red lines of a Reviser Seed. But in every open area of Deeff Medow, there was at least one trap.

"How do you know they're traps?" Kichu asked. "They could just be different looking spots of ground. And that spot doesn't look all that different."

"There's also a wild magic there," Trey pointed out. "I spent a lot of training with a Psychic in order to spot them. And that's a tr…"

There was a loud boom as another trap triggered. The explosion was enough to knock Stacy out. "What the hell happened?" Kip asked. "Aw man, now my fur's singed."

Sally, who was using a Reviver Seed on Stacy, pointed to a Golbat that was coming into the room. It fired a ball of grey energy at Kichu. The Pikachu looked puzzled. "Oh, huh? What were we talking about?"

"Oh great," Trey grumbled. Their client had been confused. He tried to gently grab Kichu's shoulder to keep him from stumbling onto one of the three traps in the room, but then the Golbat decided to fire Confuse Ray at him too before Kip and Sally managed to knock it out.

Why did they call that attack Confuse Ray when it was actually a wandering orb? Trey wondered that, right before the air around them warped. It was like walking through a passage. Except, the wild magic decided to cause a whiplash, causing a stinging sensation Trey's body. It snapped him out of the confused state, though.

"Ouch," Kichu said. "What was that?" He stumbled forward, triggering a trap of spikes which raised up and knocked him unconscious.

"That was a Poison Spike trap," Trey said, pulling Kichu off. But then some static shot up the Treecko's nerves, causing him to lose all feeling in his body.

"And that was Static," Kip said cheekily.

"Kip," Stacy warned him as she revived Kichu.

The Pikachu looked tired. "Whoa. Exploring is confusing."

"And to answer your question from before," Kip went on, "you stepped on a Pitfall Trap. It warps you to the next level, but it hurts just enough to keep me from using it as an intentional shortcut. At least in most cases."

On their trip to the next passage, Kichu and Kip both got knocked out by a Magnitude from a Diglett that Stacy then knocked out. Then Sally got knocked out twice on the third level, first by a surprise attack while she was dealing with the effects of a Koffing's smog, then another surprise attack by a Pinsir who used an instant knock out skill.

On the third level, Stacy saw Sally wading through a pool of water that came up to her waist. "Be careful out there," she called. She would have to swim through those waters if her human teammate got in trouble.

She gave a sign that Stacy knew as a reassurance. She dropped down in the water and fiddled with something there. Then she came out with some damp ropes and an odd treasure. As she did, Trey, Kip, and Kichu came out from somewhere. "What'd you dredge up this time?" Kip asked.

Sally shrugged and gave it to Trey. It was a white device shaped like a hoop, with blue stripes at a few intervals. After brushing off some mud, the Treecko looked it over. "Well I'm not sure. It seems like those specialized boost items that are found from time to time."

"I know what that is," Stacy said. "It's a Water Float. It is one of those specialized items; it's meant for an Azurill, Marill, or Azurmarill."

"Oh, like for your brothers?" Trey asked, handing it to her.

"Yeah." She looked over it, then washed it up a bit more. "And it's odd to find something like this lying at the bottom of a meadow pond."

"Yeah, shouldn't a Float float?" Kichu noted.

Stacy chuckled while Sally held up the wet ropes. Apparently, the Float had been tied down to the bottom. Then the Squirtle said, "Aside from that… years ago, my Dad collected a bunch of those special items, like a Marill Dew, and traded them with a sorcerer in order to build them up. At the end of months of collecting and trading, he finally had a Water Float to give to my Mom as an unexpected present. She was an Azurmarill, so it helped her out a lot."

"So it's a really rare one, then?" Trey asked.

"And we could sell it for a lot of money?" Kip added. At the glare he got from Stacy, he said, "Kidding!" then focused on cleaning his ears to not look so embarrassed.

"Well, my Mom's Water Float was supposed to go to one of my brothers when they became adults," Stacy said. "But some time ago, it got lost in the tides. This probably isn't it. That Float's got to be far out at sea, not this far inland."

"It might just be the one you lost," Trey pointed out. "Gremlins might have gotten a hold of it."

"You're right. Anyhow, I think my brothers will be happy to have this back, even if it's not exactly the one our parents had." They moved on.

"Good grief," Kip grumbled as they looked over the fourth level, full of thorny vines. "There's sadistic dungeons, but this place… giving us ten Reviver Seeds , then dropping us down to two, bah. This is like somebody's out to get us."

"Well at least the passage is right there," Stacy pointed out, and led the group over to the woven archway.

Just before they got there, a Wiscash shot up out of a pond and blocked their passage. "No passage!" it shouted.

"Hey, I can handle this!" Kichu said, making his red cheeks glow as he stored up power.

"Wait, no!" Trey shouted.

But then Kichu sent a Spark at the Wiscash. It shrugged off the attack, then jumped up and landed hard, sending an unbelievable barrage of mud at the Pikachu. That attack knocked him out. Trey used Mega Drain on it, followed by Stacy's Swift. After those attacks cleared, Kip darted up and tackled the Wiscash, knocking it out. It vanished as the wild magic teleported it elsewhere to heal up.

Sally revived Kichu, who looked disappointed. "What happened? I shoulda knocked it out immediately."

"That was a Water Type, yes, but it is also Ground Type," Trey pointed out.

"Oh." Kichu was noticeably quieter and stayed closer to the group on the fifth level where, fortunately, nobody got knocked out. But there was an incident of mass confusion that everyone agreed not to talk about it any more.

On the sixth level, they came upon a group of Hoppips, Skiplooms, and Jumpluffs. They saw the group of adventurers and shrieked. Most of them tried to fly this way or that, throwing petals and cotton fluffs all over.

"Whoa, hey," Stacy called. "Don't worry, we're not here to hurt you!"

"Hey, what's going on here?" A Bellossom came into the clearing. "Visitors? Why did you..?" A fluff of cotton drifted onto her head. "CALM DOWN, EVERYBODY!"

The others all stopped. "Um…" one said.

"Sorry," said another.

"We freaked out."

"I can see that," the Bellossom said, barely restraining her anger. "Now, you visitors… what are you doing here in Death Meadow?"

"Death Meadow?" Stacy asked.

"Yes, it says so on the sign outside the dungeon. You can't have missed it."

"You mean on that horribly spelled sign that said 'Deeff Medow'?" Trey asked.

"It-it's a proper sign!" she snapped, putting her paws up so they couldn't see her blush in embarrassment.

"This doesn't seem like a Death Meadow," Stacy said. "It's really lovely."

"Yeah, except for the insane density of traps," Kip added.

"We set all those traps up to keep people from getting here," one of the Jumpluffs said. "We don't want nobody else out here."

"You might do better with a 'Private Property' sign," Trey suggested. "Even if that sign said 'Death Meadow', I'm sure that it would only dare other explorer teams to test their strength."

"Oo, and that won't be good if a strong Fire type comes in here," a Skiploom said.

"That's a good idea," the Bellossom said. "But, um, how do you make a Private Property sign?"

"Do you have another wooden plank?" Trey asked.

After he wrote up an official looking sign for the other Grass Pokemon, the Bellossom offered them a reward: five Oran Berries.


Back at Treasure Town, Kichu said, "All that and we only come up with five berries and a seed? Man, exploring is tough."

"Real treasures require a lucky stroke to find," Kip noted.

"Did you want the Reviver Seed?" Stacy offered.

The Pikachu rubbed his ear. "Well, no. You'll make better use of it. I'll take one of the berries, thanks. Oh, and my reward for you guys… thanks for taking me around someplace new, anyhow." He handed over one thousand Poke and a Cheri Berry. "Good luck; I'll put in a good word about you guys." He then scampered off.

"Well that was a cruddy day," Trey said, once Kichu was out of hearing range.

"Yeah, it was," Stacy agreed. "Let's make a report."

Stacy's brothers were thrilled to have a Water Float again. "You found it after all this time?" Matti asked. "That's amazing!"

Stacy smiled. "Isn't it? You two can decide what to do with it; it will work best with you."

"We can share it," Azeri said, to which Matti agreed.


At the end of one daily meeting, the Guild got a surprise visit from a Magnemite. "I came to report that the Grovyle thief was captured last night. We interrogated him, but he didn't speak to us. Drakken is prepared to send him back to the future now and invites you all to come."

In the town square, quite a crowd had gathered, including Azelf, Mespirit, and Uxie. Mespirit squealed happily and flew over to hug Kip, who reacted by protesting loudly, much to the amusement of others. At the north end of town square, there was a large black… thing. Like a blob, but it seemed more like a hole when looked straight down into.

"What is that?" Trey asked Uxie, knowing that he was the most likely out of the whole crowd to know what something mysterious was.

"It's a dimensional hole," Uxie replied. "They generally aren't allowed to hang around very long. Holes like that cause all sorts of problems by dumping unsuspecting Pokemon into different places and times. But this one was targeted and Drakken assured us that it will be gone once all of the future Pokemon are gone from this time."

"That would be the right thing to do," Stacy said. "Although Drakken has been very nice and inspiring to everybody."

A quartet of Sableyes came out to escort the Grovyle to the dimensional hole, with Drakken following. Sally frowned at the Sabelyes, then seemed inexplicably bewildered upon seeing the Time Gear thief. As for the Grovyle, he seemed stoic, then suddenly made a frantic movement like he was trying to escape. It didn't last long; the officers had tied him up really well and the Sableyes weren't letting him move from the path they were setting. The Sableyes brought him into the dimensional hole to drag him back to his proper time. That left three Sableyes who waited behind Drakken.

"I want to thank all of you for being so helpful," Drakken said. "I will miss you, but I must return to my proper time. You've all been wonderful."

"You've been wonderful too!" Flora called. "Thanks for everything."

"Yes, thanks for setting things right," Casey the Kangaskan said.

"It's been an honor working with you," Drakken added. "Uxie, I'm counting on you to get things set back in place."

The yellow triplet nodded. "Yes, it will be done shortly."

"Good, then I must say goodbye… although, one thing first. I need to speak with Team Marmalade, all of you."

The Squirtle, Treecko, Skitty, and human all came forward. Sally was still eyeing the Sableyes warily. "You've helped us out of a couple of tights spots, sir," Stacy said. "Thank you."

"Yes, you're all quite exceptional." Drakken bowed his head. Then, without any warning, he grabbed Sally by the arms and pulled her forward. "But this is not the time for goodbyes," he added, in a strangely harsh tone. With that, he yanked Sally into the hole.

And before anyone else could react, the three Sableyes grabbed hold of the other three and stole them into the dimensional hole. There was a brilliant tunnel, like a rainbow broken down into static. Then there appeared another blob, another hole. Team Marmalade and their captors now appeared in a totally different space.

The sky overhead was dark. There was no moon, no stars. Just darkness. Strange hissing blue lights on tall posts lit the area, an open stone circle of a platform. In that light, they could see strange forms, like rocks hung in the air with no support whatsoever. And before them, there was an immense stone tower. But it was broken into three gigantic sections, which seemed to be tumbling down towards earth. The collapsing tower was frozen as well. It should have fallen right down and crushed everybody, but it stayed right where it was in the process of falling apart.

The air was completely still and stale. It was cool, but not cold. All around them, there seemed to be a horrid sense of despair and madness. This is what Drakken described when he spoke of the world paralysis, Trey thought. But hadn't they stopped the Time Gear thief? The Grovyle and his guards were nowhere to be seen. Was this really the future?

Drakken checked back to see that the other three were there. "Good," he said, his voice cold and authoritative. "Now…"

Sally's breath sharpened, then she abruptly went into a frantic attack. She jerked her weight away from Drakken, then turned around and punched him in the face. In response, Drakken put his hand over her face and attacked her at point blank with some darkly glowing attack. Trey took the cue to sweep his tail at his captor's feet, then attack it in a similar manner. However, the Sableye lashed out with equal speed, raking its claws deeply into Trey's face. The pain was so harsh that he cried out and closed his eyes. Or, had they been clawed straight off his face?

"Stop this nonsense right now," Drakken said in a cruel voice. Trey heard a gasp from Sally and a cry from Stacy. Kip was apparently muffled, as all that came from him was an angry bunch of gagged jibberish. "I will deal with those three in time. But Sally, we've been looking all over for you. Master Dialga wants to see you and he will not be denied."

"You've been looking for Sally?" Stacy asked.

"She is from this time, your future, as well. She is the Grovyle's missing partner."

Trey was then forced onward by his captor dragging him into the tower. He tried to dig his feet into the ground, to make it tougher. But the Sableye had no problems with pinching, poking, or even slashing him again to get him to move along. The Treecko grew more and more worn out as they went along, as he felt blood running down his face. The injury had been bad enough that he could pass out from blood loss.

And as the Sableye tossed him roughly somewhere, he did just that. He heard the clank of steel and the high-pitched giggling of the Sableyes. Then there was nothing.


"Don't open your eyes," Trey heard Stacy say from nearby. He felt her cool scaly paw stroke his shoulder. "You might start bleeding again."

"Stacy? Where's Sally?"

"She's still gone," Kip said.

In that space, there was a tremendous sound. It was like a howl, or a roar, but too grandiose for either term. It made his bones tremble.

"And that, I guess, is Master Dialga," Kip added.

"Dialga…" his voice was rough.

"Here, drink this." His two friends tried to help him sit up and drink a bottle of water. It was definitely from Stacy; it had a slight tinge of something that he knew was her power. "Your wounds still look bad even after we treated them as best we could."

After he felt a little clearer, he asked, "How long have I been out?"

"I… we don't know," Stacy said.

"There's no window in this cell," Kip added. "And it all feels downright wrong in this hellhole."

"You could always tell time was acting up back home," Stacy mused. "You could always sense what time it was, though. But here, it seems like we've been here only a few minutes and that we've been here for months."

"This must be the planet's paralysis," Trey said. "Dialga is the Being of Time. When he was created, time was formed and set into a regular rhythm. If time has corrupted to the point of not moving at all, Dialga can't be well."

"He sure sounds like a mad 'mon," Kip observed.

"Drakken was supposed to be stopping that," Stacy said. "But then what he just did… I thought he was a great explorer."

"He's obviously not," Kip said sharply. "Kidnapping us like this, hurting Sally like he did… ugh, that was horrible to watch. And to put on an act like that, which fooled even the legendary Pokemon drawn into his scheme… I'm surprised that I didn't sense the darkness within him, but he hid it extraordinarily well."

"But what about the Grovyle, then? You saw how he hurt Azelf. And he got Mespirit pretty badly too."

Kip sighed. "I don't know about that either. It's all crazy and confusing." The whole time he'd been talking, Trey could tell that he was pacing around. He then seemed to kick something made of metal, which clanged in resistance. Kip grumbled curses under his breath.

"Careful," Stacy said. "We're locked into this room. The metal bars won't budge. But we haven't heard a sound from any other creature."

"I'm still tired," Trey mumbled, drooping his head. "My tail leaf feels wilted. And it's so warm and stuffy in here."

Stacy brushed her paw across his cheek. It felt soothing as she let him slip closer to her. Just for that moment, it seemed like things could turn out okay. But then there was still that inner sense of something being terribly wrong. Stacy hugged him to her shell and kissed his forehead. "You have a fever. I wish we could get you to a doctor or a healer."

"Heal Bell won't work on that," Kip commented. Then the quiet padding of his small feet came over to them. "Someone's coming, finally."

There came a high-pitched giggle which made both Stacy and Trey shudder. The steel door came up. From the noise, it seemed like Kip tried to do something, but was soon captured. Stacy and Trey were grabbed roughly and dragged away as well.

Trey tried opening his eyes, hoping he could be of some help, even if he was sick. But his body threatened to betray him, giving him so little strength that the Sableyes eventually dropped him and left him on the ground while they subdued the others. By the time he could get his eyes open enough to see clearly, Stacy had been rendered helpless through paralysis and was being tied up with thick ropes. One of the Sableyes punched her in the head, causing her to cry out and his peers to giggle.

That was almost too much to bear. The darkness hissed in his mind that he should kil them all. However, his more rational side knocked that suggestion down quickly. He was weakened, outnumbered, his companions were tied up along with… the Grovyle.

The thief seemed to be thinking. Plotting an escape or wondering how he could have gotten captured? Why were they being treated the same as him?

The Sableyes giggled again as one of them taunted Stacy as she was fully tied up now. Glaring, Trey managed to prep a Bullet Seed and shot it at the taunter. And not just wildly; he aimed for just above one of the gems that stuck out of its back. As he hoped, it yelped and jumped into the air.

The group of Sableyes hissed as one. Two came over and kicked him down to the floor, then dragged him up to another post to tie up. Their giggles were particularly malicious as they teased and taunted him. But he quickly lost focus on them as the fever began to pressure his mind. It sapped what little energy he had left and made their pokes barely noticeable.

And then they left.

"Trey," Stacy said, concerned.

He tried to reply, but couldn't find his voice. His head was getting dizzy. By the time he could focus, Stacy was speaking with the Grovyle and the door to the room opened. Nine Sableyes were now in the room with Drakken as their leader.

First, Drakken took Kip. It was a strange sight, the large and bulky Ghost holding the little pink feline at arm's length. "You could be blessed by the darkness, if you so choose," Drakken told him. "It is a part of you, so stop denying it. Embrace your darkness by joining us."

Kip held his ears back. "I will only embrace the light of my darkness," he growled. "I want nothing to do with total darkness."

"So be it. I gave you the chance." He then flung Kip hard into the stone wall, making a nasty thump. The Skitty then fell on the floor. He was motionless; with blood starting to seep out? Or was that Trey's own blood dripping into his own eyes?

Drakken then spoke to the Sableyes. The Grovyle said something and Stacy responded, but Trey couldn't quite tell what. The nine Sableyes then came up to them.

"Things must remain as they are," Drakken told them, as if it were a death sentence. "All unknowns and rebels must be removed. And thus, this is your fate." He then nodded.

The Sableyes came forward. That was a death sentence, Trey realized. And these were the executioners. They came forward, three to each of them, and they slashed with their claws. And slashed. And slashed. And slashed. And slashed.