I rummaged through what little I had in my room. I knew I had a locket somewhere but I didn't know where. I threw books and rummaged through a million broken backpacks.

"Here!" I yelled and started cutting out the picture. Treeko watched as I fit it into one side of the locket.

"What did you do that for?" He asked.

"I made this locket for a special moment like this one. I want to remember the start of our adventure. I've read before that there used to be exploration teams. They've all died out by now but you and I can bring them back. Do you want to form an exploration team with me?" I spit out the words. What if he rejected my proposition? Why would he if he's already agreed to change time forever?

"What would our team name be?" He started to think.

I took that as a yes. "Exploration Team of Time, Darkness, and Sky!" I yelled out.

He laughed. "That's too long to remember! How about just Exploration Team of Time?"

I smiled. "Fine but our official name is Time, Darkness, and Sky!"

"Hmph. Fine but if people ask me then I'm saying Time!"

"Fine, it's a deal." I pinched his cheek just to annoy him. He blushed and glared up at me.

I put the book I read to him in my backpack and stood. "I'll make us both a badge so we can be official!" I grinned at him and started to walk off.

Everyone in the village saw us off. We had no idea where we were going, only that we needed to find old libraries that still stood.

"Okay checklist!" I said after we were so far away that the lights were nothing more than a blur. "So we need to know where the Time Gears are, if they're guarded or not, and then we'll go back and find out how to go back into time…Oh and we also need to know where to find the Hidden Lands but there isn't much documented it sounds like so we may need to investigate that on our own."

Treeko nodded with each item listed.

We continued walking through the darkness for what felt like could've been hours. Treeko couldn't walk as far as me so I carried him for a few more miles before sitting down and resting myself. I hummed softly and started to etch in small details on the sides of the locket. I didn't notice I was humming the lullaby I hum to myself when I'm scared.

"Where did you learn that song?" He was leaned against me and starting to fall asleep.

"I made it up myself."

"What are you drawing into your locket?" He climbed up to look over my shoulder.

"I want to etch in a Time Gear. There was a picture in the book." I pulled it out of the backpack and opened the page to a snowflake item that looked like would've been a green-blue. "This." I pointed to the picture.

"It looks so pretty." He sighs softly.

I put it back and stood, letting him climb on my head. I flung the backpack on my back and started walking.

"The writing in the book…what was that?"

"Unknown runes. There were Pokémon once called Unknown and humans used them as alphabets. Not many humans can read them now, though. Just me and Nate. And nobody in the village knows footprint runes so we can forget about reading anything written that's not written by humans."

"I can read footprint runes. If I teach you how will you teach me how to read Unknown?"

I nodded, smiling. "Of course! Why not?"

Finally we came to a library and I set him down. "Let's get to work!" I give him a book about how to read Unknown runes while I read a book on Time Gears. We never stayed in a library for too long lest someone catch us.

After Treeko could read Unknown runes at a steady pace I started to learn how to read footprint runes.

In the Eastern Forest was a giant library. By the time we got there I was fourteen years old. I felt myself grow into the age.

I braided my hair as we explored the inside of the four story high building. Treeko ate his berries as he read and I simply skimmed the pages.

Treeko sighed. "How many more Time Gears do we need the locations of?"

"Um…One. But I think I know where it is." From my backpack I produced a map of the past. Back when time flowed normally. There were four circles and I circled the last location. Eastern Forest. "But remember they are all hidden so when we get to these locations there will probably be like traps, hidden doors, anything."

"What are you two doing here?" There were four Sableye that had us surrounded. Treeko stood, ready for a fight.

I picked up the books and tried to hide it from them. "Nothing." I lied.

One of the Sableye shot at me and before I could do anything it used fury swipes. I screamed and let it go. It grabbed a book and backed off before Treeko could hurt it. The Sableye looked through the pages I bent the corners at.

It chuckled. "What do you need information about the Time Gears for?"

Without thinking Treeko yelled out, "We're going to change history!"

"Shh!" I shushed him. "If Primal Dialga finds out we're done for, remember?"

"You should listen to her…but she doesn't seem so smart if she knows she'll be killed and she still will risk her life for a fate you can't change."

Another Sableye added, "You think you're the only one with that idea? Countless others have too and Master Dialga has defeated them all. You should quit before things get deadly."

Their sharp claws gleaned in the lamplight. I took out blast seeds from my backpack and threw it at them. While startled Treeko hit a few with his tail. The rest he used a blast seed attack.

I took out more blast seeds but they were already starting to run.

"You'll regret that!" They yelled as they ran.

"Man!" I turned to Treeko. "You can't tell every Pokémon that!" I was scared to think all of this could be for nothing. "We have to go back home quickly." I packed the map away and threw another book in my bag.

"S-sorry…" Treeko looked just as scared as I felt.

I picked him up and put him on my head. "Just…please be careful." I ran out. We couldn't stay at the library any longer or else the Sableye would come back and attack us…or worse Primal Dialga would.

It only took another year to reach home. I was fifteen now, getting ready to call myself sixteen. I had grown a little bit but all of my clothes still fit me from a few years ago.

"You're kind of short for a human, aren't you?"

I grinned a little bit. "You're the one to talk… 'shorty'." I heard him make a displeased sound from the top of my head.

We got closer and closer to the pale, artificial lights. I started running, I couldn't wait to see everyone again. The lights got brighter and brighter as we got closer and closer.

Treeko squirmed uneasily on my head. "Do you smell that?"

Shortly after asking me I smelled it. It smelled like something had burn. I slowed down as we approached the burnt down village. I stopped, horrified at the scene. Ashes lay everywhere. The only things that stood were the lamplights that hung from trees but the lights were ready to burn out at any given moment.

"Nate?" I screamed as I forced my legs to walk through the village. "Ruth?" I didn't get an answer. "Somebody?" I started to cry. "Anybody?" I whispered as I approached the middle of the village, where Treeko and I had given our speech.

"This is too much for a young girl and Pokémon to handle alone." I heard my own voice that told everybody this.

But now we have no choice…

I didn't feel Treeko move from my head to stand in front of me. I let my legs give out and the cold tears spilled from my cheeks to the ground. I raised my head up to the sky and I let out a scream.

Treeko put his arms around my neck and he let himself dangle at my chest and he hummed the same tune I hummed to him when he felt sad, or mad, or couldn't go to sleep. I'm not alone. I have Treeko. But I can't believe they all died like this. Who would do such a thing?

I wrapped my hands around him. He was so small that he fit into both of my hands. I still couldn't believe that he hadn't grown at all but I guess he would when he evolved into Grovyle and again into Sceptile.

"We have to go." I whispered. "We can't be caught here."

I felt Treeko shaking. "Look…" He whispered.

I stood and turned. Behind us were a lot more Sableye than there were at the library. "Did you guys want your butt kicked again?" I challenged and rummaged through my bag.

"Watch out!" Treeko kicked off from me and blocked an attack from a dark ball. He fell limp to the ground. I went to find an oren berry for him but the Sableye used fury swipes and broke the straps to my bag.

I heard a laugh as the Sableye dragged my bag away from me to a pokèmon I've never seen before. "Who are you?" I demanded. My hand bled from the scratches received from the fury swipes attack.

"Me? I am Dusknoir." He rummaged through my bag.

I hid my locket from them in my shirt and went to tend to Treeko's wounds but the Sableye wouldn't let me near him.

"You think you can change history, can you?" He flipped through the books that I had taken years to memorize. He handed the Sableye the whole bag. "Burn it." He ordered. "The rest of you, take them with us."

They forced Treeko to stand. He coughed horribly as they pushed us out of the village and toward somewhere unknown. At one point I could see lights down below, similar to the lights at the village but much brighter than that.

"When we get there, prepare for an execution." Dusknoir ordered.

Treeko and I looked at each other. We knew this was a suicide mission from the start but now there was no way out of this mess. Now the possibility of death became real.

"I have an idea," I mouthed to Treeko, "but you have to trust me."

Treeko nodded. He would trust me with all his being now and I would trust him with mine. We were the best of friends, after all. And I wouldn't let it die just because I suggested a suicide, and possibly impossible mission.