Spinning, her whole world is spinning.

Deeper and deeper, Dexys is dragged through a white abyss. A howl overtakes her hearing, the light becomes unbearable, and she makes the mistake of blinking.

Flashes of pasts, futures, and distant worlds blink around her. Countless bodies of pokemon unconscious and conscious float through the ether, struggling against invisible chains as they descend deeper into The Sea. Those with the right minds latch onto the objects falling with them, the smart are already on their way out.

The first thing she does after coming to her senses is leap towards the nearest object. She catches herself on a piece of a broken hull. She looks down into the depths below and shouts.

"Louisa!"

Something hits the metal she's holding onto. Right below is Louisa, holding his throat - his tail clinging to a frilly pink steed. Whiskey holds onto a broken mast, keeping them both from becoming lost.

Dexys leaps off the object to another, then bounces off - criss-crossing between distorted masonry and shipwrecks on her descent. She "lands"' on a floating door perpendicular to the pair. Whiskey is holding Louisa's neck tightly. The Lizard is gurgling. Dexys says something-

Crack!

And is drowned out by a deafening crack. A water bolt flies out from nowhere, striking Louisa's neck, the heavy hoof of a Rapidash barely saving his life. The culprit: another Louisa. The reflection watches them in terror. One blink of the eye later, they vanish.

Another? A p;ast memory? It matters not, it's too dangerous to be here, time is too warped. What could be seconds here may be hours in the world above. Dexys needs to get them out of here fast..

"Whiskey!" She calls to the Rapidash. "Did you see anywhere pointing back?"

"Aye, miss. Back to my world and yours as well." Whiskey lifts his injured hoof, all but ignoring the ichor spewing from it. He holds it against his 'chest' in a gesture of farewell. "Worry not for me, my fate lies below, and yours to the surface."

She looks below. Between two pieces of rubble lies a fissure in reality: a world reminiscent of the night sky. Crystal towers as tall as mountains await beyond the veil, the cosmic city lit by artificial sunlight. Dexys' heart skips a beat. It is home.

Looking above, another fissure sits in the middle of a burnt-out sail. Black shores, and a cold, eternal night. She thought she may have a choice, but Whiskey makes it for her. His front hooves give way and he lets himself fall, his shining mane leaving behind a trail of pink light, leaving Louisa to her.

The Rapidash' fate lies in the homeland, hers is here, with Halcion. If she had any time to make this decision she may have left her love for a world without Darkrai, back to the ones who have been wondering all this time where she had left and why. Though the feeling of parting hurts now; it is the right choice.

The blurry memories of their faces fade with Whiskey. Though their time was brief, she will never forget this knight.

Dexys breathes in the ice cold "air". With a kick she leaps to Louisa, pulling him off the plank he was suspended upon as she careens past them onto a ruined wall. His tail wreaths around her. Panicked, and choking.

She bends her legs; him his tail, and together they push against the ancient masonry. They soar past armored warriors, glide over the ruined ships those souls once inhabit, then soar towards the hole burnt through the cloth. The air of the outside world grabs hold of them, dragging the two back to their reality.

In an instant, they are back on the beach. She hits the black sand as Louisa crumbles out of her arms. He starts to wretch violently.

She, much more well in comparison, gets right up. Before she can lay a claw on him he spits out a mass of dark, black water. After a few moments of awkward heaving, Louisa is okay enough to speak..

"I thought…" Louisa stutters, "I didn't think you'd come for me."

"What makes you think that?" Dexys squats on the beach next to him. Excluding the grave mark Thunderbolt left on him, Louisa's wounds number in the few. "I've been through the Sea at least once in my time, to let you in there alone would be irresponsible."

"No-not…I thought you'd go with him." He motions to his chest, where her badge would be. "You're not from here, don't you have people-"

"Yes."

The word leaves her mouth instantly, anything to not think about the chance of a lifetime she threw for this man's life - for Halcion too, but mainly so this Inteleon would not suffer years upon years of wandering the endless Sea.

Did she have a family? Are there most certainly guildmates waiting for her? The answer to both those questions are a resounding maybe. She made the selfish choice - she can find peace in knowing Louisa is alive because of her. She can be certain that in her place, her Halcion would have likely done the same.

"There's things I know which made me a target. With Darkrai gone, and everyone else far, far away - I think I can stand living here." She says. "You'll only complicate things by asking me why, I saved you because I wanted to."

The last thing she wants is everyone to idolize her. She is a famous explorer, famous for wanting to be left alone and just doing her job rightly. Louisa responds with a sigh.

"Thanks." he says.

"Thank you for not making me reconsider."

Is this really what she has to say to someone whose life she has saved? How is one supposed to react anyways?

She sniffs the air. The cold wind sweeps through her hair. Up above, a half-moon lights the sea; waves glistening like the stars overhead. Her home was like this, a place full of stars in a world of glass. A great light shone on them like that of the Sundown Guild; a light she would come to fear but she knows not why. She gave up those memories to flee to here, it is the tithe she paid to The Sea.

"What is with your choking?" Dexys asks, breaking the silence.

"I couldn't breathe." Louisa says. "No matter how much I tried to, it felt like there was something stuck in my throat. Evidently, it was the distorted waters. It's the Sea's doing, same as the…shadow of myself I saw."

He quivers, rubbing his temples in thought.

"I knew it was coming; I don't know how or why. I felt it." He is going too deep, so he quickly shifts the conversation elsewhere. "I need to go back to check on my babygirl, sort out the society.. As for the gears I no longer have the fight in me to keep hunting for them."

"Either Masters finished Darkrai off or she's still out there." Louisa coughs. "I chose to believe the former.":

For the split second she was still aboard she saw Masters already descending on her. She is done, probably, the reality where Darkrai is running amok is too terrifying for her to humor. She will know which reality she is in when she sees the old ghost.

Dexys nods in agreement. Standing up, she offers a hand to Louisa and pulls the lanky creature onto his feet.

She looks past him. The cove looms in the distance as a monument to all the battles fought there. The eternal night of the Dark Season obscures the passage of time, although the tracks leading here are still fresh in the sand. She begins to retrace her steps towards Lapis Town.

"Let's go." She says. "Staying here does no one good."

Halcion is unconscious, barely alive after all the wounds Darkrai has inflicted upon her. Dark Void has taken her, until racket band does its thing she is no more than a pile of dead weight.

Masters is lifted through the sea, out of the dungeon, then left ashore like a beached fish. He catches a glimpse of his savior: Rayquaza - Mismagius - whatever she is - nods at him before fading into nothingness. He lies there spitting out a tired question.

"Why?"

Halcion, Louisa, Dexys - he has all of them to thank for bringing him so far. Without them he could not fathom what Darkrai would do to all those trapped at sea, but never, not in his years of wandering did he feel so alone. His only partner through all of this is gone. The only thing left of him is a stone Masters clutches near his heart.

Why him, why did this have to happen again? The questions berate him as he folds in on himself, weeping, and Weeping, refusing to see the truth right in front of him.

Lucario wasn't taken from him for any cosmic, charmic reason: it was a choice. The world decided to take Lucario away from him for using his scream and all he can do is rattle his chains and shout.

Someone hears him. He looks to see two figures shamble down the coastline. Dexys carries a wounded Inteleon on her shoulders. When she spots the Typhlosion in the distance she nearly lets Louisa fall, dragging his half-conscious corpse over the sand as she hurries up to her unconscious love.

"Halcion!" She calls out to her partner. She leans next to her, and glances at Masters "Is she okay?"

Masters nods.

Louisa,wounded, slowly walks his way to Masters and throws himself down next to him. The Inteleon breathes an exhausted sigh.

"Save for nightmares, I assume she will be well. And you?" Louisa nods at him. "You certainly look worse for wear."

Masters has not had a chance to look himself in the mirror, and at this point, he is afraid to. His own cold, ghostly blood streaking down his face. The wounds will close in time with a few drinks or the help of Celebi, but there are some which can't be undone with a meager little heal pulse.

He saw Louisa vanish into the sea, Dexys too. This leaves one other. He looks to the two as he holds his shoulder.

"Where's Whiskey?"

The Zoroark, hounding over the unconscious Dragon like an ursaring, perks up. With a deep sigh, looks Masters' way with sadness.

"He departed - left to the place he and I both called home." Dexys speaks. "Did he not bid you farewell?"

He's alone. Whiskey thoroughly warned him but feeling is still a somber one, panged with the guilt of realizing this whole search is in vain. But Whiskey's farewell was a voluntary one. Whiskey wanted home, and the least he could do was honor the knight's decision by holding back his tears.

"He did, he helped me bring down the ship." Masters digs under his cowl. The gear Mismagius gave him is tied tight around his neck - same place where Lucario kept his. "His contract with Lucario is over. He chose to go home, I wasn't going to stop him."

The more this conversation drags on the further the missing seat on the table becomes evident. Louisa, breathing hoarsely and gripping a wound near his neck, speaks for all of them.

"Where…where's Lucario?"

Masters takes everything in. Lucario is gone, there is no bringing him back. He wants to break into tears, but he has shed enough already - Lucario would have had his head by now. Nothing can change what has happened; the sooner he accepts this the sooner Lucario can move on.

Yet the words of a serpentine phantom haunt him.

"There may yet be a way for you to absolve yourself."

Of what? Lucario's death? The gears could not bring his partner back. He had gone through this entire mission to end up worse than he was before. What could possibly correct this mistake? There is no way to bring a man from the grave short of Lucario lingering in this world as a spirit.

His breathing hastens as he retraces his steps, whizzing past memories of bickering with and fighting alongside this fellow all the way to the very moment he set foot on this continent. He came here at the behest of an old friend - Minstrel - the only pokemon in all the lands to whom he's told his true story. It is him who told him about the Gears here, gave him the hope he could bend time to bring back the man closest to his heart.

It is Minstrel who began this journey, and in the tavern he calls home Masters saw something strange: a feather which glowed in the pitch darkness of the bar - shining, scintillating. A Rainbow Wing, a presumed nothing artifact which an old barkeep went to him on and on about. It belongs to a bringer of happiness, of fortune, of…re-birth.

If the spirit told him the truth, then there is one way to absolve himself from all of this.

He has been silent for long, staring out emotionlessly to the distant Sea. A bell sound shakes him back to reality as Halcion flutters her eyes open. Dexys hugs her tight, and Louisa looks over to Masters. The Inteleon speaks in a somber tone.

"I'm sorry for your loss."

Masters reaches into his cowl. He brings out the black metal gear, and it shines within his palm, bright enough to catch the attention of all those around him.

"Platitudes won't bring him back, though the thought is appreciated." Masters speaks. "The rest of those gears are in good hands. I was told to keep mine so whoever decides to get all these gears again will have to go right through me."

Louisa resigns his journey with a sigh. The two others to the side look his way, the Zoroark nodding, and her partner being too tired to fuss about all of this. The fight has left this group, and Masters would have too, if he had not remembered the phantom's peculiar words.

"The Murkrow here." Masters says, feeling the large cap slung around his back. "Would they know stuff? Do you think they'd listen to anyone with a Honchkrow hat?"

"Likely, yes." Louisa confirms. "When I saw your partner donning the cap I assumed he had climbed the ranks somehow. I doubt they will question you if you approach them. Why do you ask?"

"I'm looking for answers, and I think a mailing business is the best place to start." Masters unsling Lucario's old hat, holding it out for all to see. "If you've any questions, tell me, because I plan on burying this hat later. I don't want to babysit for a family that numbers in the hundreds."

"Neither would I." Louisa says. "But I've no questions I could ask them my own fellow adventurers couldn't find for me. Although I would prefer to return to Winter with a Time Gear, the fact they are in safe hands should be good to sate her. She is in no place to fuss about them having done nothing with hers in her time."

"She had a gear?" Halcion coughs. "Wait a minute, you're working with Winter?"

'"Have been from the start. I've been using her Gear. I can tell you some other time." Louisa turns back to Masters. "Where to now? I won't rest until Celebi sends my girl back. My journey does not end, I need to make sure all my fellows are safe."

"Neither does mine." Halcion climbs to her feet. "I need to get back to my guild - tell them all about this, and until then there's safety in numbers."

Dexys nods. Everyone's attention turns to the weary phantom as he looks towards the sky, recounting his steps. This one hat was given to Honchkrow's son, then the son gave it to his only friend in life. This silly thing is the key to every piece of mail running through this place - or at the very least the key to their archives. Questions, such as the mysterious feather, and the mysterious boss who funded this quest for the gear lie behind the Krows' bureaucracy.

So, turning around to whence he came, he leads the way. Mismagius has much to answer for, and if he cannot find her, then the hundreds of eyes he controls across the continent will hunt her down.

"Let's head back to Halfway Rock." Masters says . "I have a thing or two for those birds."

Part Three: Crack The Sky