We followed Grovyle in an alcove. We sat around in a half circle. "This should be good for now." Grovyle sighed. "I guess I should start from the beginning. A bunch of us both Pokémon and what little humans who were residing in this world were outraged by the darkness. We sought to stop the planets paralysis from ever happening in the first place. Everyone sought out to find the Time Gears." Before Pip could interject Grovyle raised a hand. "Let me finish. It is true that time would stop if I took all of the Time Gears but only until we got to Temporal Tower and put them in place. You see in your time Temporal Tower collapsed and time was forever ruined. Dialga, who is the deity of time, had no purpose suddenly. So, he became Primal Dialga to give himself purpose. For some reason he doesn't even want to change the course of history so he sent Dusknoir after us."

All eyes were on Pip. When he didn't answer me Grovyle turned to me. "Do you believe me?"

His eyes weren't hateful anymore. They were longing. There was someone he missed. "I believe you." I whispered.

Pip got up and started to go back the way he came.

"Pip! Where are you going?" I stood up, ready to give chase if he didn't stop.

"I need to ask Dusknoir if this is true…"

My heart ached at the comment.

"Didn't you say you were going to make the decision yourself?" Grovyle paused. After a long minute he put a hand on Pip's shoulder. "It's times like these…when things are tough…that you have to be strong. If you decide to trust me I won't be far." Grovyle started to leave.

I stared at Pip. "Pip…we have to get home. He's our only way home."

Pip sighed and nodded. "Let's follow him."

We caught up with Grovyle quickly. He led us to a forest all too familiar. So familiar that I had to stop. If I closed my eyes I could imagine the tents of the guild.

"Come on! Get moving!" I heard Chatot squawk at me! When I opened my eyes all I saw was Grovyle. "Come on! Get moving!" He demanded of me.

Pip gave me a worried look. "This feels like Fogbound Lake." I whispered as we continued deeper into the forest.

"I hope Celebi is here." Grovyle said.

"Who's Celebi, Grovyle?" Pip kept up pace with him.

"Celebi is a Pokémon who can time travel. She sent me…" He paused and clutched the oval shaped pendant. "She sent me to the past. Because of that Dialga is after her too. She's a bit odd so don't say I didn't warn you now." He stopped in a clearing and cleared his voice. "Celebi? If you're here come on out! Show yourself!"

We waited for a long while. "Maybe she isn't here…" I told him.

"No she is. Celebi!" He called again.

"Maybe she was…captured!" Pip looked horrified.

"Captured? Please!" The voice came from all around us. From behind Grovyle a pink figure appeared. "I cannot be captured!" She looked like a fairy made of flower petals.

"S-sorry for doubting you." There was a small laughter in his tone.

Celebi danced around Pip, giggling. "It's okay!" She danced around Grovyle. "Oh, my dear, it has been far too long!" She flew to me but stopped and looked deep into my eyes. I tilted my head and she shook hers. She whispered to herself, "No. That cannot be, she is not here." She flew back to Grovyle's face. "It saddens me to see you here, my dear." She took Grovyle's pendant and opened it.

"What are you doing?" Grovyle tried to snatch it from her hand but she flew higher. The pendant was a bronze locket. Why did Grovyle keep it so close?

She looked from the locket to me then back and forth like that. After she was done she gave it to Grovyle. "I just had to see her." She whispered. Grovyle shooshed her.

"We need to get back to our time." Grovyle explained. "Do you still have the Time Passage up?"

Celebi nodded and started to lead the way, giggling as she went.

"What's a Time Passage?" Pip and I followed.

"Celebi needs it if she plans on traveling through years and years."

"Centuries or generations. By myself I can travel through years upon years but nothing over 100." We stopped near a portal that looked much like the Dimensional Hole thing that Dusknoir sent us through.

"Stop right there!"

"That voice." Grovyle turned.

My heart sank to my stomach when I saw the Sableye behind and around us. We turned back to see Dusknoir in front of the Passage of Time. "We let you go this far but we won't let you go any further." He gave a small, sarcastic bow. "Thank you for leading us to Celebi, Grovyle."

Grovyle growled. "You sneaky little snake. You followed us to get to Celebi!"

Dusknoir laughed.

"There's only one way out of this, everyone!" Grovyle prepared to fight.

"Did you think I was dumb enough to come alone?" Dusknoir pointed to a cliff above. Dialga sat perched above, roaring Angrily at the sky.

Grovyle fell to his knees as Dusknoir laughed. "What happened? Where did all of your bravado go, Grovyle? Are you giving up already."

"Yes…But know this, Dusknoir. There is still hope. As long as my partner, my best friend, is alive you will be stopped!"

Dusknoir grinned an evil grin. He was enjoying Grovyle's defeat all too much. "Oh? And who, then, is this partner? Go on, tell me her name. No. Tell them, tell Exploration team Pokémon the name of this partner."

Grovyle clutched the pendant. "Ashton…Ash will stop you!"

Pip stared at me. "Grovyle, Ashton is right here."

Grovyle and Celebi stared at me. Celebi's lit up attitude was suddenly drained. The light in her was gone.

"No. You can't be Ash. Ashton was a human."

"So am I." Grovyle stared at me in disbelief. "I was turned into a Pokémon and developed amnesia but I'm the Ashton you're talking about."

Grovyle shook his head. "No. We each had a locket."

Dusknoir held something in the air. The pendent looked just like Grovyle's. "You mean this one? I believe you dropped it on the beach." Dusknoir threw it at me. It hit the ground and opened up. The picture inside had tan and brown tones. One picture was of a girl no older than twelve hugging a Treeko so tightly he looked like he wanted to bite her. In the other picture was Grovyle and the girl now grown to fifteen. They were both determined and even had makeshift exploration team badges.

Grovyle stared as I picked it up.

Dusknoir laughed.

"That means we've failed." Grovyle hung his head, not knowing what to do.

"Celebi, can you teleport everyone to the Passage of Time?" Pip asked.

"Maybe without Dialga around. But with him around there's nothing I can do."

"It just needs to be long enough to get us close to the Passage. Can you do that."

"Sableye, attack!" Dusknoir ordered.

Celebi flew above us. "One way to find out. Time to Travel!" I closed my eyes for a second against the flash of light that surrounded me. When I opened them I saw Dusknoir's back. Above us Dialga roared.

"We're a few feet too short."

Celebi turned to us. "Jump in!"

"What about you?" Pip was more worried about her than about his own well being. He was living up to his promise so far.

"Don't worry about me. I cannot be caught. Go! GO!"

Reluctantly Pip jumped through. I followed shortly after. Then Grovyle.