It was silent, and dark. A gentle flow of air brushed past the soft, blue fur of an unconscious Lucario. How long he was laying there was hard to tell, but the gathering of leaves on his body might have been a clue. He eventually woke, blinking the sleep away from his eyes.

"Uhg…" Rio groaned, sitting up. "Am I, outside?"

He couldn't exactly recall what had happened, only vaguely remembering being dragged towards the mountain.

"Isn't someone else supposed to be here?" Rio asked, looking around. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, but he could feel something was off. The sun was high above him, but hardly any sunshine came from it. There was a breeze, but everything was still. He was alone, but… was he?

The woods were less than inviting to say the least; the darkness between them was supernatural, and the trees themselves looked just about ready to snatch him up if he walked too close. Rio hoped to spot the mountain above the treeline, but the trees simply didn't allow it. Were they always that tall? Pushing his worries aside, Rio went forth following a path between the trees.

Inside the darkness of the forest was like walking in a dense fog. It was deafening; any noise Rio made was quickly snuffed out inside it. Whenever he spoke it was like talking with his head in a box.

"What is this..?" he muttered. "Am I still on Sunset?"

Deeper into the woods he walked, following the path as best he could. Eventually, it started to fade. Slowly growing thinner and thinner until it vanished entirely. There was nothing behind him, nothing before him, and nothing around him. The trees were densely packed, their leaves allowed no light to pass through, what little there was to begin with.

Rio continued onwards anyway, led by only his instincts, and the faint tug of curiosity pulling him forward. The silence was replaced by a dull hum growing louder ever so slowly. The sensation of dirt and leaves beneath Rio's paws gradually turned into cold stone, as well as the trees around him.

It was too dark to see anything, but… he knew what was around him. He knew where he was, but he didn't know the name. He couldn't remember. For the first time since he started walking, Rio stopped. "I shouldn't keep going. I need to head back."

"...Don't…"

The voice echoed around Rio's head, no, from inside it. It was… familiar? "Why not?"

"You cannot return from whence you came. What lies ahead is all there is for you."

"I… don't want to keep going," Rio said, holding his head. "I can't. I shouldn't."

"It is not your decision to make."

Rio stared into the darkness that lies ahead of him. There was something there, looking back. That dull hum was coming from it, whatever it was. It walked closer, and the hum grew louder.

"No, I refuse." Rio tried to take a step back, but he couldn't move. The thing grew closer and closer, glowing strands of green tapered off it's body like vines and tendrils, outlining it in a menacing light. Rio turned to run, finally managing to move.

He was a clearing in the forest. The sky was darkened, blocking the sun. The trees were normal, swaying in the wind. It was silent again.

Rio fell to his knees, gasping for air as if he was holding his breath this entire time. "Wh-What? What is going on..?"

He turned his head to the sky, watching the blackened clouds float gently in the sky. It helped soothe his nerves. Rio brought his head back down to realize he wasn't alone. Across from him, on the other side of the clearing, sat a Zoroark, with his back to Rio.

"H-Hello?" Rio asked, standing up. He got no reply. Rio slowly approached the Zoroark. "Are you alright?"

As Rio was close enough to hear the Zoroark, he stopped. The Zoroark was sobbing, holding something in his arms. Rio tried to place his paw on the Zoroark's shoulder, when the fox's head snapped around. Red eyes stared into Rio's.

Then everything went black.

Rio woke in a cold sweat, panting heavily. He was in a bed, in the infirmary. On the bed to his right was Kora, snoring softly. To his left, Tia. And at the foot of his bed was Zen, Eva, Minerva, and the young trio. For some reason, they looked ready to fight.

"What're you guys doing?" Rio asked, backing up a bit. They each studied Rio for a moment before letting out a sigh and relaxing.

"Just a precautionary measure," Jay said, waving his claw. "Don't worry about it."

"Y-You guys were about to attack me! I should definitely worry about that!" Rio exclaimed.

"It's like Jay said, it was precautionary. You're overthinking this," Zen shook his head as he sat in a chair.

"You're underexplaining this! I was knocked out, why would you need to beat me up at all?!" Rio asked, throwing his pillow at the Bisharp. It was skillfully caught and thrown back at Rio, hitting him in the snout.

"Honestly, Blue, ya gotta chill for a sec," Minerva snickered, putting down a chair. "You're fine now, right? We didn't do nothin' so there's nothin' to get all heated up about."

Rio shot a glare at the Meowth. "Easy for you to say, you're the one who was about to beat me to a pulp with a damn chair."

"Semantics," Minerva shrugged.

"That is not how you use that word," Rio growled, then grinned. "Whatever, I'll just remember to jump you with a chair the next time you pass out. See how you like it."

Minerva stuck out her tongue and sat on Kora's bed, giving Rio a "yeah right" look. Zen cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention. "Alright, Tia and Kora don't need to be awake for this, the Outlander is more than enough."

"What're we gonna do?" Rio tilted his head, sitting on the edge of his bed.

"Hopefully, figure out what the hell happened to Tia," Eva said. "That and make sure you're feeling alright."

"Me?" Rio asked.

Zen crossed his arms and shut his eyes. "Yes, you. Do you not remember absorbing the Berserk Aura from Tia?"

The Lucario thought for a moment, then shrugged. "I mean, I remember running at her with Kora, but not much else after that."

"Interesting," Zen hummed. "Regardless, surely you can see why we'd be on guard now, right?" Rio stared blankly, pulling an annoyed sigh from the Bisharp. "Of course you don't. How brazen of me to assume you have knowledge of your own powers."

"Since you and Kora took in all that aura from Tia, we were worried you'd both turn against us when you woke up. Luckily for us, that didn't happen for you," Eva explained. "Still not sure about Kora though."

"He's fine, I guarantee it!" Minerva nodded, patting Kora on the shin. "If Rio's fine, why wouldn't he be?"

"Other than the fact that Rio isn't naturally a Dark Type, nor an ordinary Pokemon, nor has he gone Berserk twice under different circumstances, I believe we have room to be suspicious of Kora," Zen said, tapping his foot. "Actually, I'm surprised Kora has only gone Berserk twice. What's stopping it from happening to him again?"

"That's a fair point, but we should probably focus more on Tia who shouldn't have gone Berserk at all," Jay said.

"Yeah, if it can happen to her it can happen to all of us, so we gotta be ready!" Nina added.

"And it wouldn't hurt to sit around for a while. I don't think I gave my food a chance to settle before jumping into a fight. Hehe," Lucas chuckled.

They brought up good points, but Rio was antsy. Too antsy to sit and chat about ifs and buts. "How're we gonna talk about what happened to Tia if Tia's still asleep?" the Lucario asked, scratching his ear.

"We ask the Pokemon she was after," Zen nodded to another bed, or maybe the two sitting on it, Nate and Zeke. "Whatever they did probably set her off, or played a hand in it. If we can get something substantial from them, then we most likely won't even need Tia."

Nate flicked his tail from side to side, anxious. "And the sooner we get that over with, the sooner we can get outta here. I don't want us to sit and wait for any of her residual rage. I enjoy not being thrown across the room, thanks."

"It's not like we have anything interesting to point out, either. We were heading out to find you guys when she suddenly showed up and lost it because we were still here," Zeke said, rubbing his bandaged just. "It's a miracle she didn't tear us apart right then and there."

"Weren't you basically right behind us? How long were you fighting her?" Eva asked.

"Not very long before you guys came to help. Why?" Zeke leaned on Nate's shoulder, wincing slightly. The others looked at each other, then back to Zeke and Nate.

"Assuming you were close behind us, which I honestly cannot remember, you'd have to have been fighting her for… nearly an hour," Zen said, reading the confusion on the Blaziken and Feraligtr's faces. "We were gone and trapped in a blizzard for quite some time."

"You guys actually left?! When?" Nate exclaimed, his tail slamming on the bed behind him.

"I just said when; almost an hour ago. Forty minutes at the very least." Zen stood up and walked over to Nate and Zeke, looking over them. "Are you both well?"

Zeke looked back at Zen, taking a deep breath. "We're perfectly fine, aside from what Tia did. What about you lot? We can't both be right."

The room fell silent; Zeke had a point. Rio's ear twitched, and something brought his attention to Kora. He stared for a moment before something clicked. "Didn't that same thing happen to Kora? He said he was underwater for a few minutes, but he was actually under for a while?"

"That is what he told us, yes," Zen nodded. "Are you implying whatever happened to them is what happened to him? They weren't even underwater."

"Maybe? How the hell should I know?" Rio shrugged. "But the same thing happening twice is something to take note of."

Jay paced back and forth, thinking. "That'd normally just be a coincidence, but in this case, I'd say something was up too. I don't know Kora too much, but I get the feeling he isn't, uh, all there all the time."

Nina jabbed her elbow into Jay's side. "With Nate and Zeke, we know we can take their word more often than not. Not to say we can't take Kora's but, two witnesses are more reliable than one."

"But… what does that mean for us? We have no idea what happened to Kora, so knowing it also happened to Zeke and Nate kinda brings us back to square one, right?" Lucas asked.

"Unfortunately, yes," Zen let out a sigh, sitting back in his seat. He looked over at Nate and Zeke again. "I take it you do not know what would have happened either?"

"Nope. The only thing I think was off was a chill going up my scales," Nate said. "Pretty sure that was just from the chill from outside or something."

"Then there really ain't nothin' to talk about, and we just wasted a whole lotta time," Minerva groaned, falling back in the bed. "Goddamnit."

Eva turned on her heel and snapped her claws. "Actually, we didn't waste that much time. We know the thing that happened to Kora also happened to Nate and Zeke, we just have to figure out what that is, and we might know what happened to Tia!"

"And we do that how?" Minerva raised a brow.

"Um… er, well," Eva stuttered. "I-I don't, uh, know."

Z popped up from the other side of Kora's bed, startling Minerva. "You guys are interesting to watch, honestly. It's like you're just a buncha friends hangin' out."

Minerva cleared her throat and patted down the fur that spiked up. "We might as well be hangin' out. We'd get just as much done. Also, the hell are ya doin' behind the bed?"

"Sittin'." Z rested his head on the bed.

"A-Are ya mockin' me?" Minerva asked, growling faintly.

"...Maybe."

Minerva threw a pillow at Z, resulting in an explosion of feathers of cloth. Z retaliated with his own pillows, both hitting Minerva in her hard-to-miss head and knocking her off the bed. Zen shut his eyes, massaging the sides of his helmet as Minerva and Z went back and forth hitting each other with pillows.

"I'm getting a headache for some reason. Perhaps this is too much foolishness for me to properly deal with," Zen groaned.

Before the pillow fighting got out of hand, Jax entered the room with a less-than-pleased look about him. "Sorry, guys, looks like we're on our own for this."

"Miss Nari and James couldn't come to help?" the young trio asked.

"They're busy gettin' caught up with paperwork. And since we already got Tia knocked out, they aren't rushin' to help us when the problem's already dealt with," Jax said, leaning against a wall.

"Well, we wouldn't wanna both the higher ups with somethin' like this now would we?" Minerva said, throwing another pillow at Z. "She only almost crushed some o' us to death, ya know?"

Rio hopped off his bed and stretched. "Well, whatever. I doubt we'll need their help anyway. Hows about we go do literally anything other than sitting in a room?"

"I second that," Minerva yawned, jumping onto Rio's shoulder. "Oh, this is nice, actually."

"Ok but why though?" Rio asked.

"Well my usual ride's outta commission so I'll make do with you," Minerva snickered, patting Rio on the head. The two glanced over at Kora again, confirming he was still out cold. "See? Can't ride someone when they're sleepin', Blue."

"Alright, fine. Anyone else wanna come with?" Rio asked, smiling. "I can't guarantee I can give you a ride, though."

"I can give a ride or two too," Lucas offered. "I'm more than strong enough to handle it."

"Hell, I don't see why I shouldn't offer my services too," Z shrugged, getting on all fours. "Come one, come all, no one needs a license for this ride at all."

"I'll take you up on that offer, Z. Zoroark fur is a whole lot softer than dragon scales," Jay nodded. "I wonder if you can fit as many as Kora can."

"Guess that leaves Lucas for me," Nina said, hopping on her fiery friend's back. "Onwards to, uh, whatever we're gonna do."

Everyone but Zen, Eva, Nate, and Zeke left the room. Each of them stared blankly at each other. Except Nate, who held his snout shut in an effort to not say anything during that whole… thing.

"I can't," Zeke said, clutching his chest. "I-I just, can't."

"What?" Eva asked. "Are your injuries acting up?"

"N-Not exactly," Zeke said, holding back a laugh.

Perplexed, Eva turned to Zen for answers, but the Bisharp was already gone. On a possibly unrelated note, the sound of metal bashing against stone echoed through the halls. "I don't understand what happened, and for some reason I don't think I want to," Eva decided. "I'll go join the others. See ya."

There was only so much they could actually go and do inside the guild, but they'd rather bumble around inside than test their luck outside again. It looked like a field trip was in order, and the first destination in mind was the supply area.

"So everything everyone in the guild owns is just, in one place?" Z asked, gazing upon the large, item-filled room. "Seems kinda, not that smart if something happened here."

"Like what?" Jay said, lowering his head over Z's.

"Well, like, say a blast seed goes off. Any other blast seeds are gonna explode too, and that's just gonna be a big ol' mess." Z picked up a blast seed, gently placing it away from everything else.

"It's a good thing we hardly have any, then. They're oddly hard to come by in the dungeon we've visited," Nina said as she hopped off Lucas' back.

"A lotta those kinda items are, actually," Lucas added.

"That just means they're worth more when ya sell 'em," Minerva snickered. "I might have to hit up one of those dungeons or whatever whenever I get the chance."

"What is a dungeon, anyway?" Rio asked, looking over a fancy collection of climbing gear. "Are they full of dragons or something? Monsters?"

Jax sat himself down and crossed all his arms. "It's strange to explain, but a mystery dungeon is a place that keeps changin'. Like, the layout, whatever is in it, everything."

"Does someone make that happen or..?" Rio snapped a strap on his arm, and struggled to get it off. "Doesn't make much sense otherwise."

"Mystery dungeons definitely don't make sense. They're pretty much magical in a sort of, twisted, random kinda way," Z explained, eyeing a sparkly something under a pile of tent supplies. "They're fun to go through, in my opinion, but not a lot of people like them."

"With good reason. Why would you like going into a place full of ferals?" Jay scoffed, trying on a green hat. "The items might be worth selling, but definitely not enough to warrant frequenting a dungeon for it."

Minerva hopped onto Rio's head and crossed her arms. "Sounds like coward talk to me. I'd jump into a volcano if the pay was good enough."

"You're also crazy, apparently," Rio chuckled, getting his ear flicked as a result. He finally got the strap off his arm and startled fiddling with some chains he found. "So, I guess I should probably know about ferals, huh? They sound friendly."

"Some of them, yeah. Most of the time, they're territorial little scumbags that attack anyone that approaches," Z said, digging through a pile of junk. "I almost got swarmed by a gang of Butterfree once. It was a nightmare."

"Wait, ferals are Pokemon?" Rio asked, managing to tangle his legs in the chain.

"Yep, Feral Pokemon. They communicate saying their species name and live in the wild, or in dungeons. They're fascinating, but if I ever decide to study them," Jay laughed.

"There aren't any ferals or dungeons on Sunset; I've heard that before the guild moved in, the owners of the island cleared them all out," Nina said, trying to help Rio out the chains.

"They gotta be strong Pokemon to do that! I wanna meet 'em!" Lucas exclaimed.

"You can meet one of 'em, alright," Jax said, puffing out his chest. "Ever heard of Diana?"

The young trio blinked, looking at Jax. "You mean, Kora's mom?"

"Yep! She and Kora's old man wiped this island clean of any dungeons or ferals! Took 'em only two days, as a matter of fact," Jax laughed, pounding his chest. His face started to drop, suddenly. "It's a shame only Diana's around though. Orion's someone everyone shoulda known."

"Oh, he's…" Nina winced. "That's awful."

"Sorry for bringing him up, Jax," Lucas said, rubbing his arm.

Rio's ears twitched, annoying Minerva enough to return to his shoulder. A familiar sensation pulsed throughout his body at the mention of Orion, but he couldn't place why. It looked like a similar feeling washed over everyone else as well, seeing how they quickly lost interest in being in the supply area.

"What should we do now?" Z asked, having given up on finding the shiny thing. "Maybe some food?"

"Nah, I don't think so. Maybe we can just hang out in the Cafe anyway? There's plenty of room there, and literally no one else would be there," Rio suggested, rolling his shoulders as the chain was removed from his body.

Just as they were leaving, Eva finally caught up to them. "Guess I'm lucky I decided to come here. How'd you get here so fast?"

"We raced here," Z said with a grin. "And I won."

Eva put her paws on her hips and rolled her eyes. "Wow, a fox on four legs winning a race? I'm shocked."

"We're about to go to the Cafe so we can relax for a while," Rio waved to Eva as he walked by.

"Oh so I missed something? Damn," Eva shrugged, laying herself on Z's back. "I would have asked first but my legs are killing me. Sorry."

Z shook his head. "Don't worry about it, I'm happy to help."

A few minutes into their trek to the Cafe, and Jay realizes that he never took off that hat. "Oh, shoot, I gotta put this back," he said, hopping off of Z. "I'll catch up in a bit, don't wait up."

"Alright, but if we do end up getting food, I'm eating yours!" Lucas chuckled.

Jay hurried back to the supply area as fast as he could, but as he entered he was met with the strangest chill crawling up and down his back.

"Ok, that's maybe not good," he muttered, looking around. It took him a moment, but he eventually found the source; a tall, menacing, red wolf. "L-Lee?"

"Afternoon, my friend," Lee waved, rolling a decoy seed over his claws. "I hope I didn't startle you too bad?"

Jay realized he was incredibly tense and took a deep breath to relax some. It didn't really work. "No, not at all. What brings you here?"

Lee raised a brow, chuckling. "Is that rhetorical? Or did you forget already? Not that I'd blame you with what you and your friends had to deal with a little while ago."

"Oh, right, the Time Gear. Wait, you know what happened to Tia?" Jay asked, slowly approaching the Lycanroc. "Why didn't you help?"

"If such a large number of Pokemon can't handle one Berserk Meowstic, I doubt they'd be allowed into any guild, let alone the Sunset Guild," Lee flicked the seed up and caught it. "Besides, I still can't risk my presence being known to all of you just yet. Maybe after I get the Gears, I'll pay you all a formal visit."

Jay didn't let his suspicion be known. It'd be easier to look casual if he also had something in his hands to split his attention, so he picked up the nearest thing to him. It was a little box, one he didn't even know was here. "That'd be nice. I can't imagine the amount of stress working for a god is, especially one of the most powerful ones like Dialga."

"Yes, yes, this whole thing has probably taken centuries off my life," Lee chuckled, pulling a blast seed seemingly out of nowhere. "But, such is the cost of following divine ordinances. Let it be known that, above all else, I am not one to disobey my Lord."

"You mean Dialga, right? I don't think I've heard anyone refer to him as 'Lord,' or any god other than Arceus." Jay tried to open the tiny box but it wouldn't budge. He had to remind himself to focus mostly on Lee a couple times, but whatever was in this box was too enticing to fully ignore.

Lee had a third seed, another blast seed, and started juggling them. "It's not something many people do nowadays. Referring to one's Lord as such is, old-timey, as you would say."

"More like archaic," Jay chuckled.

"I might as well be a fossil, by that logic," Lee laughed.

The Grovyle looked Lee over, somewhat confused. "You don't look that old, really. Hardly any older than most of the Pokemon here, if I had to guess."

"Hmm, guess I look good for my age," Lee hummed, catching the three seeds. "But enough about me, I need to know where that Gear is. Any ideas?"

'Alright, gotta play it careful here,' Jay reminded himself. "No, sorry. We were mostly sidetracked by Tia and recovering from the cold. And two of the people that work under the Guildmaster are caught up on work, so there goes our best bet at figuring it out easily."

"Quite," Lee sighed. "And my own searching has come up flat. Normally you can tell when you're close to such a powerful tool, but that sensation hasn't yet come to me. It's a feeling of uneasiness that travels up your body, commonly mistaken with a ghastly chill."

"A chill?" Jay froze for a second. "That's, interesting."

"I believe it has something to do with the divine power stored inside the Gear itself. Specifically, the power to manipulate time," Lee spoke calmly, but his eyes were watching every inch of Jay's body. It was his turn to study his subject. "Reverse time, hasten time, and even stop it. Such a thing is inherently unnatural to a common Pokemon, but plenty are born with an innate sense towards it, be it at varying levels. Some would label it a sixth sense, despite there being more than six of them."

Jay tried again to pry the box open, playing it off as him not being phased by the description, but his tail leaves were standing straight up. Usually a telltale sign that he was unnerved or highly cautious. Hopefully, Lee wouldn't notice. "Again, interesting. I guess I can say I don't have that sixth sense. Either that or, uh, I haven't bumped into the Time Gear yet."

"You'd be surprised. Plenty of objects are capable of triggering such a sense. Be it powerful items, natural disasters, unnatural weather, and some Pokemon as well. You'd feel uneasy around them at first, but eventually that sensation will subside, and only ever come back whenever you split and meet up again," Lee explained, balancing a seed on his claw as he watched Jay. "What am I saying, I doubt you've felt that before, right?"

'Oh no, this is not good. What do I do?' Jay gulped, trying not to let this get to him. Lee had figured him out. "I-I wouldn't know off the top of my head, actually, I think."

Lee took a step closer, causing Jay's head to jolt up suddenly. Lee has a sneer on his snout. His jagged teeth on full display. "Perhaps, but anything able to pull such a sensation from someone usually leaves a big impression. They'd be unforgettable, to say the least. Sound like anyone you know?"

Whatever control Jay had on the situation was yanked right from under him in an instant. Yet he didn't allow himself to break. He could hold on for just a little while longer, he told himself. Pulling confidence from deep within himself, Jay took a step towards Lee. "Actually, yeah. You heard of Zen? He's left an impression on me, but I can't remember if I felt chills when I first met him."

"Interesting. You're referring to that Bisharp, yes? He does have an air of authority around him, doesn't he? No wonder your friends teased you about how you look up to him," Lee snickered.

'Oh for…' Jay facepalmed. The tension was sliced in half, which helped, but at what cost? "Oh all the things you know about us, why is that one of them..?"

"Because it's memorable. It's not everyday I get to witness such childish activities with my own eyes! It brings me back to when I was much, much younger. I envy that about all of you," Lee admitted. Two of the seeds he had vanished, leaving only the decoy seed. "Your youth is something to be cherished, and the things you feel during should be embraced, not hidden away."

This really turned into a lecture, didn't it? Jay was grateful for that, at least. "I-I, well, I guess? What do you expect me to do, just tell him? He looks down on his friends, why would he act differently towards me?"

Lee tilted his head, a genuine confused look on his face. "Are you serious? He already has a soft spot for you. If I were to guess, I'd say he prefers intellect over brute force, despite himself being remarkably powerful. If anyone had a shot, or was at least able to not be down on by him, would it not be you?"

Jay blinked, staring blankly at Lee. "R-Really?"

"How can you not see that he already respects you?" Lee asked, smiling. "I say you should give it a shot. What's the worst that could happen? Does Zen look like the type of Pokemon to cut ties with someone that likes him? He'd probably let it go to his ego, if anything."

Without knowing it, Jay started to smile. "This, I, uh… I mean…"

Lee let out a laugh, having already gotten next to Jay and placing his paw on the Grovyle's head. "No need to overthink it, kid. He's not going anywhere, and neither are you, right? You have all the time in the world, but so does everyone else."

"Huh?" Jay looked up, now remembering just how short he was compared to Lee.

"You shouldn't wait too long, alright? Never know when someone else grabs his interest before you give yourself the chance to," Lee rubbed Jay's head and started walking past him. "There's a saying I live by, 'Do whatever you have to, to do whatever you need to, while you still have the chance.' It's like Carpe Diem, but wordy as hell."

Jay turned to watch Lee go. "Uh, thank you, Lee."

"Don't mention it. I'll keep on looking for that gear. And you can keep whatever's in that box, if you get to open it," Lee waved as he left the room.

Silence fell upon the storage area. Jay stood there, ultimately confused about what had just happened. He got relationship advice from the most suspicious Pokemon he'd ever met. Did Lee even know he was reading him like a book? Jay had absolutely no idea. He looked down at the box in his claws, placing it in his satchel.

"I should… meet up with the others."