I woke to Pip's footsteps pacing around me. He took quick glances to see if I was okay until it finally registered that I was awake. He knelt next to me. "You're awake!"

I sat up slowly so as not to make myself dizzy. I groaned. "What happened?" It was a dumb question. I knew what happened!

"Dusknoir took us through that black hole...what did the Officer say it was? The Dimensional Hole?" He explained. "It looks like we're in a jail. It's structured differently, though."

He was right. We were more in a cavern type place that had iron bars placed neatly to allow passage in but not out. I couldn't help myself. I had to try the door myself. It didn't budge.

"I'm so confused. Why? Why did Dusknoir take us too?" Pip started to cry. I didn't blame him. He was scared and felt betrayed and was confused. I was confused but something about his behavior seemed normal…it bugged part of me while the other part was only set on surviving. It was the only thing we could do now.

Something besides instinct took control. I held the Pokémon and hummed a soft and sad tune. He cried into my neck softly while I rubbed his back. "We'll figure it out." I whispered. I jumped when I heard the door open.

The Sableye laughed. "Good, they're awake." Two at a time they took us, blindfolded and led us.

"What's going on?" Pip demanded. "Hey no need to push!"

I felt the rope around me before they took the blindfold off. The pillar straightened my back to an uncomfortable straightness. Everything was dark. It took several minutes for my eyes to adjust.

To my left I saw a familiar Pokémon, blue and white and scared. "Pip!" I smiled happily.

"Oh thank goodness! You're here too…wherever that is."

Someone to my right sighed. "I guess you two don't even know what's going on so you can afford to be nonchalant about all of this."

I frowned. Grovyle was a thief. He's the bad guy isn't he? "But if Grovyle's here…" I said aloud to myself. If he's here then…we're criminals? What did we do?

"I would get why they would want Grovyle but why us? We didn't do anything?"

"Well obviously you two did something they didn't like." Grovyle snapped.

Lights turned on from the ceiling. Dusknoir came in with a horde of Sableye.

"We're ready, Dusknoir, on your command!" They said.

"Hey, you two." Grovyle whispered loud enough for only us three to hear. "More than likely they'll attack us with Fury Swipes in a frenzy. It'll probably cut the ropes. Or at least loosen it enough for us to attack."

"And if they don't do any of that?" Pip looked scared.

"Then we're done for." Grovyle sounded so calm about all of this. It was unbelievable!

"Then you may commence." Dusknoir never left the room. He wanted to watch us die.

The Sableye swiped at us randomly. My face started to burn along with my body through the ropes. I whimpered.

"Endure it. It's almost there!" Grovyle told us.

Soon I felt the rope start to break under my weight. I looked at him, waiting for the command.

"Now!"

The three of us shot out from our rope prisons and pushed back the wildly attacking Sableye.

Grovyle took out a luminous orb. From where he hid it I didn't have time to ask before the flash of light swarmed around us. The next thing I knew dirt surrounded me. I tried not to breathe too loudly even though the tight space made my heart race with a panic attack.

"That trickster! He used a luminous orb to escape! We shall follow in pursuit!" I heard their footsteps leave but didn't move until Grovyle dug me out.

"We don't have enough time. Let's hurry." He ran ahead. Even in this time he was so fast that Pip and I could barely keep up. It was a lot easier for me to keep up than him.

After several minutes of sprinting Pip started to complain.

"Pipe down. We're almost there!" Grovyle stopped to push a heavy metal door that led outside.

Pip stopped dead in his tracks. No winds blew. The rocks hung suspended in space and time. The only light that shined were the artificial lights of the lamps. It was everything Dusknoir had described but way worse than I could have imagined.

"I don't understand." Pip whispered as he followed Grovyle.

"Pip…" I was worried about him. He was so confused and so hurt and betrayed. Then again, could you blame him?

"Can we rest?" I asked Grovyle. "Just so Pip can catch his breath."

"We don't have a lot of time but we can very quickly." We stopped. Grovyle leaned against the wall of a cliff and Pip stared back at the way we came.

"Why is this happening?" Pip asked nobody in particular. "Didn't Dusknoir prevent this from happening?"

"He was playing you, kid." Grovyle twisted the twig in his mouth. "He lied so he could catch us." Under his breath I heard him whisper harshly to himself, "We were so close too!"

Pip shook his head. "I can't believe it! I just can't! Not you! I can't believe you!"

"I thought I had your cooperation."

"Yeah maybe back when we were being killed but we aren't there anymore!"

"Fine then. Rest here for as long as you'd like. If I don't have your trust or cooperation then we should go our separate ways." Grovyle started to leave.

I watched him until he disappeared into the fog. "Pip he was our only way home."

Pip sighed. We started to walk in the same direction. "I know but I can't trust him. Dusknoir…he was a good guy, wasn't he?"

I shrugged. "There's no telling, Pip. But look at the situation we're in. Does it look like Dusknoir is a good guy now?" I rubbed his flipper to try and calm him.

He sighed. "I guess not…" After what felt like an hour we stopped to take in the view. I was right. The only lights there were came from the jail house that we just came from. They looked like the monotone version of the twinkling lights of the Illuminus and Volbeat.

"It's beautiful but…that's the jailhouse." Pip was depressed.

I hugged him and started to hum softly the same sad lullaby I sang to him in the jailhouse. "Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we just team up with Grovyle until we get out of this time and into ours. After all of this is over we can focus on our Guild and forget any of this ever happened."

Pip nodded. "That's the only thing that can be done, I guess…" He looked at me. "I'm so sorry, Ash. I know you've been hurting too. You've been scared and confused just as much as I have but you pulled through strong and I've been doing nothing but mope. From now on, Ash, I swear I'll be just as strong as you are!"

I smiled and didn't let him know I wasn't scared…because all of this was as familiar as the palm of my hand. "Let's find Grovyle. He shouldn't be far." We started off again. We followed the trail. At some point we came across a waterfall or at least what would've been a waterfall had it been flowing. Droplets were suspended in space and time, never falling, never splashing, simply suspended in time with all color drained from it. Pip frowned.

"I wonder where we are…" He looked at me. "Hey how about we use your Dimensional Scream ability to figure out where we are!"

I touched the waterfall expecting the dizzy spells to come immediately. Nothing ever happened.

Pip was as disappointed as I was.

We continued to follow the trail into an underground cave. We went deeper and deeper. As deep as we could go.

Grovyle was in a small open area, defeated by some unknown enemy.

"Grovyle!" Pip ran to his aid.

"No!" Grovyle spat the words out. "Get away! They're here!"

"Who?" I started to look around. All I saw was a strange rock next to Pip.

"Next to you, Pip."

We looked at the rock.

"Intruders!" The voice was one and many voices at the same time. It was strange and ghostly. "I shall destroy anyone who trespasses onto my land!" The rock opened up. It looked like a circular saw shape.

Pip jumped backward. "Who are you?"

"I am Spiritomb! I am made up of five hundred unrested souls!"

While Pip talked to the Pokémon I used a bullet seed attack. Where the seeds came from I wasn't certain but I wasn't going to question it either. The Pokémon quickly retreated back into its rock and ran away. Whatever possessed Grovyle ran away with it.

Grovyle stood. "You two…you saved me. Thank you."

"So that's what a bad Pokémon looks like."

It wasn't a question but he answered Pip anyway. "No. This is the result of what the darkness can do to Pokémon. He was nothing more than a timid Pokémon who lost himself. That's all. That's how most Pokémon are in this time."

"Grovyle, we want to get back to our time. Will you help us?" I didn't want to waste time. It was better to just get to the point.

"Do you trust me, then?" Grovyle was asking Pip.

"No but I do want to get back to my time."

"I told you, kid, there's no point in continuing if you can't trust me."

"I want to hear you out, though. And decide for myself."

Grovyle thought it over. After a long moment of silence he nodded. "Fine, but not here. Come on."