September 1st, First Year

Smoke and fire and shouts. Smooth tiles creaked and clattered beneath their feet, sending them tumbling onto the hard, warm floor. They scrabbled at the scorching air in front of them, pushing, reaching, squirming as the inconceivably heavy object upon their back crushed them slowly into the ground. They felt wet. Warm. Unpleasantly tired… Scared.

A body. A small body. Red and orange in the harsh light. Two wide, frightened eyes peering around the room. Claws on tile. A quivering tail. Smoke and fire and more shouts. The creature was in front of her now, its low voice wispy and hoarse.

A terrible wind swept into the room. A dull feeling throbbed through their skull. The flames crawled onto the ceiling. The shouts grew quieter. The thing on their back grew heavier. Am I… dreaming? Is this… is this a dream? They scrabbled harder at the floors, inching, moving, dragging themselves forward, the object- a metal beam- pinning them to the floor. A memory…?

"What kind of memory is this?" The creature before them asked incredulously. It was shaking in place, its long tail curled under its belly as it stared at the growing flames. The tiles shook and a pallid light covered the floor. The creature fled, vanishing in the daylight… but not its twisting shadow. The shadow, small, distorted and vague, slithered toward them, twisting around their chest like a gentle vice-

Jaku awoke in a cold sweat, her heart racing and her ears ringing. She gasped, putting one hand to her face as she shut her eyes and focused, casting the night terror out of her mind. "It's just a nightmare," she croaked. "This is exactly why I don't sleep anymore."

The damp warmth from her nightmare had followed her into the waking world, covering her like an unpleasant blanket. She put one shaky finger to her neck, flinching as something hard and hot poked up against her neck. She peered down… a claw? She held up her hand, pausing when a clawed paw appeared before her face. The tips of the claws were fractured and split, dark with a viscous substance that dripped onto the cocoon of mottled blankets around her. A quick sniff affirmed a fact she would've rather not known- the substance was blood. Assumably her own. "What the hell is going on here?"

Jaku rose tiredly, immediately noticing that she was both still a pokémon and that apparently, somebody had moved her to the medical wing in Jubilife Village. When the hell had that happened? And more importantly, why was she bleeding? She felt the tender flesh around her neck, finding only one shallow scar across her throat leading down to her belly. "Oh yeah. I almost forgot about the Goodra. Huh." She ignored the fact that her internal organs were no longer spilling out of her body. Was she supposed to be wrapped in bandages?

"I don't understand," she murmured, huddling into the wet blankets. "That should've killed me- should've- I wish- no wait." Jaku growled, her thoughts in disarray. She tried again. "The beginning of the maze- dungeon- mystery dungeon- I died so I should've restarted back there. Right. So then why am I here in Jubilife?"

The medical wing was tattered as though something wild had stormed through the room. The curtains were torn, the equipment had been tossed to the floor, and the wallpaper was peeling. Jaku peered closer. Was that a hole in the wall? It smelled as though something had died and had been left to rot underneath her bed. Kind of like raw sewage, her tattered mind suggested, supported by another voice, one so sudden and concise that it nearly frightened her.

"Rotting flesh. It's rotting flesh. Is it your flesh or somebody else's flesh? Maybe it is raw sewage."

"Dunno," Jaku replied aloud. It didn't sound like Dialga nor Azelf but it certainly wasn't her own voice. Maybe Mespirit if the deity had decided to join in the mental discord. She looked around the room but saw nobody else. She frowned. Of course. Of course, one deity had to always be swimming around inside her head. "Mespirit, do you know what's going on?"

"It stinks. Why are we here anyway? You should really do something about that smell. You should burn whatever it is that's rotting. Just burn it. Get rid of it. Do something about it."

So Mespirit didn't know either.

It was… so quiet. Jaku looked around the medical wing, her eyes landing on the strange shadows on the walls and floors. She could hear the Kricketots chirping and it was so, so cold. It didn't help that she was still wet with her own blood. She really needed to get a towel to wipe herself down. That and… where were Azelf and Dialga? Ever since she had retrieved the first time gear from Lake Valor, the two gods had been incessantly chattering in her ears, filling her head with criticisms, directions, mental retributions, and most importantly, noise. White noise, like constant rumbling thunder or shifting gravel. It had been so long since everything had been so… quiet. Then again, Mespirit is here in their absence.

When was the last time she had slept? When was the last time she hadn't been awake during the long hours of night, plotting and planning and scribbling? When was the last time that her thoughts were truly her own? She pondered this, leaning against the pillow the ward had provided her with. The pendant. The last time she had gotten restful sleep- or any sleep, truly- had been before Dialga had gifted her with the ability to transcend time and wield it. "…What day even is it?"

"Monday? Tuesday? It's probably Tuesday. You should get a calendar. Track the days until he comes back."

"Until who comes back?"

"Emmet. He's coming back. You're covered in blood because he tried to kill you. Shouldn't that be obvious? It's old blood. He was just here only a handful of minutes ago."

Jaku blinked. "Emmet tried to kill me? Really?"

"He's going to kill you next time. He wants revenge for being chained up and he wants you out of the way so that he can take Ingo back to the future. Once you die, he can use Celebi to travel home. He didn't manage it this time. You're a pokémon now so either he's planning on capturing you or he's planning on slicing open your throat. He didn't do it deep enough this time; he'll certainly cut deep enough next time."

Jaku… Jaku didn't question it. She didn't take Emmet for the kind to kill in revenge… but she wouldn't put it past him. She stared at the mess of blood on her hands, torso, and bed, shivering. She was smaller now, wasn't she? And she was injured and without her time pendant… was Dialga still protecting her?

"No. You're on your own. Trust no one. If he asks about you, people will think he's Ingo and send him right to you.. He'll come back and kill you if you stay for too long. You should hurry up and move. Hurry up. Get out of this room and-"

She was brought back to reality as a horrified scream rang out through the building. Jaku got to her feet, pausing when she realized that she wasn't alone in the room. There was a nurse standing in the doorway, their petrified eyes locked onto her. The nurse whispered something. Muttered something. It sounded garbled like trying to talk to somebody while underwater.

"Uh… I can explain-"

The nurse screamed out into the hall with her strange, muddled words. She backed out of the room, tightly shutting the door as footsteps pounded on the ceiling and stairs outside her room.

Oh. OH. "I'm just gonna go now." With what little strength she had, Jaku wrenched herself out of the blood-soaked blankets and leapt at the closest window, falling clumsily onto the wet grass below. She scrabbled for purchase in the mud, hurrying as fast as her legs would carry her into the hills just behind the Galaxy Headquarters. There was absolutely no way she could be caught by humans, let alone by Emmet. She didn't want to know what the man would do with her if he managed to catch up and contain her.

Jaku skidded up to a fence, leaping up with her claws before sliding down on the other side. "That was a lot easier than I thought it would be." She ran a little further into the woods, only stopping when she could no longer hear the panicked voices of the villagers nor footsteps in the tall grass. She sniffed out a shallow burrow and quickly burrowed inside, shoving her tail in first as she swung around to face the entrance. It really didn't help that her tail flame, as weak as it currently was, was giving off a weak reddish light.

"Okay. So I'm stuck as a pokémon," Jaku monologued quietly to herself, stopping every so often to lick the blood from her scales. "I'm not sure why or how considering the fact that I'm only supposed to turn into a pokémon when I encounter mystery dungeons. That's just… weird. How did I even get like this in the first place?"

"Dialga and Azelf are punishing you. You died before you got the time gear, so they're making things harder on you. They can still hear you- talking to me. They can still hear and see you- every move that you make. They think it's funny, too."

The last thing Jaku could factually remember was fighting that alpha Goodra and being… Jaku shook her head. Best not to remember those unpleasant details. She remembered being stuck in the mud. A pair of gentle hands cradling her head. A low but panicked voice. She hadn't taken any of her pokémon with- Jaku froze. Her pokémon. Where were her pokémon? She cussed under her breath and emerged from her burrow but then paused. Her team was safe in Jubilife. If anything, the villagers would just stick them in the pastures.

"Not for long. The villagers might just release them. They want to damage the pokéballs. Keep them trapped. Pokémon are vile creatures to them, remember? You should stay away from the village or you'll get captured and trapped too."

"A good point to make, Mespirit. Thank you so much for your helpful advice. Any other tips?"

"Don't go back to Lake Verity. Emmet told Ingo and Ingo told Akari so now they're all against you. They're planning to ambush you. To force you in a corner. They don't know that you know, so if you see them, don't say anything. Don't believe a word they say. Stay away from them and stay away from people who know them. They're all against you, my champion."

"Aren't you supposed to be against me?" There was no response.

Jaku groaned. There were so many questions for her to ask! How did she get to Jubilife? Where was her time pendant? Where were her gears? How did she transform into a pokémon outside of logical boundaries? And then, if she'd been brought into the infirmary as a pokémon, why was the nurse so panicked? She shook her head. Nothing made sense. Even moreso as she continued to try and groom her scales. No matter how hard she rubbed her scales into the dirt, the blood remained like a bad dye job.

…Maybe Lord Wyrdeer might know. The noble had accompanied her on her last mission. If anything, he would've been present when she had emerged from the time rift collapse. Jaku collapsed back into the burrow, the plights of her injured body catching up to her. Tracking down Lord Wyrdeer was much easier said than done, especially now that the two gods could no longer reach across the void and summon the great noble for her. She would have to track the great brute down.

"Don't do that. Lord Wyrdeer is against you as well. Dialga and Azelf sent him on a chase for you. Don't go to sleep tonight. Do not let yourself sleep."

Jaku paused. She swallowed and put her head to the dirt, digging her claws into her arms to keep from falling asleep. "Is everybody against me now? Is it because of Emmet? Was I stupid to bring him to Lake Verity in the first place?"

No response. Well, this couldn't possibly be any worse, Jaku thought miserably as she huddled in on herself. Fatigue spiked through her limbs, forcing her to curl up into a ball as her eyes drooped shut. She could detect sharp pangs of hunger in her belly and the brutal sting of thirst in her throat. Great. All of her old human needs were catching up to her too. Just what she wanted. She sighed and used her long claws to cover up the burrow with dirt. She'd sleep on it despite Mespirit's warnings and hopefully, her nightmares would stay away this time.

September 2nd, First Year

Jaku flinched as water droplets rained down on her scales, immediately turning to steam. The Magikarp in her jaws flailed, quickly silenced as she readjusted her grip and ripped off the thing's head, spitting it back into the river. She paid no mind to the growing nausea in her belly, focusing solely on quickly quelling her hunger and adjusting to the new… changes.

Now that she was a pokémon without her time pendant trapped into staying in the wilderness, she had to attend to her needs, which meant coming to the river to fish. Only before dawn, though. Before most humans were awake. Otherwise, somebody might see her and bring that information to Emmet or Ingo or Akari. With the three hunting her down, she couldn't risk anything. Not even staying on the surface too long to savor her catch.

She didn't even entertain the concept of hunting land pokémon; she could try, but then she would just imagine her own gaggle of pokémon. She certainly felt hungry enough to eat a Croagunk or an Eevee. Maybe it was just her new body, but raw meat was just far more appetizing than ever. Once she had eaten her fill, she tossed the corpse back into the river and fled back underground.

One perk that she enjoyed about her new form was that she could move through the earth as easily as swimming. It was comforting; the feel of loose dirt and mud seeping into her scales as she tunneled beneath the mountains tapering the Obsidian Fieldlands to the north. It was almost like swimming if not for the fact that she didn't have to hold her breath. She hadn't noticed that she had webbed paws before or that she could break the little spindly clay "sticks" on her face or back to move faster through dry earth. She had spent a better portion of the day slathering herself with wet clay, trying anything she could do to hide the bloodstains on her scales that refused to wash off.

Finding her way around was very difficult. Unlike calm water- where you could pick a direction and swim in it- swimming through dirt and rocks was a lot different. She certainly wasn't used to it. She could dig for only a few minutes and fall right into a pocket of gravel, becoming disoriented to the part where she would have to resurface and try again. Other times, she would run right into a solid piece of rock; those required more time to break through and by the time she was ready to rest up, her claws were aching.

As she dug a little farther, she paused; something was also burrowing beneath the earth.

"Could be dangerous. Could be one of Emmet or Ingo's pokémon. Tunnel further. Keep going. You can escape faster if you dig to the river. Go out to sea. Get away from the fieldlands."

She continued to burrow deeper into the earth, scowling when the other tunneler followed suit only a few paces behind her. No matter which way she turned, the other creature would follow, breaking whenever she breaked, continuing whenever she continued. It's deliberate, Jaku reasoned, her speed slowing as the spines along her back began to raise. They're doing this on purpose. With a nervous sigh, Jaku emerged onto the surface under the shade of an oak tree, readying herself for a fight.

The surface was quiet. Windy but devoid of pokémon sounds or footsteps. It was cold up top. The tall grass rustled. Jaku listened for the sound of human footsteps or voices, hearing none.

All of a sudden, something large and bulky poked its nose out from the tunnel, one long steel claw anchoring into the turf as it pulled itself up and out. "Could've sworn somebody was digging over here," the creature spoke in its gravelly voice.

"Who are you?" Jaku demanded. "Quit stalking me or I'll toss you in the river!"

The large pokémon turned a long dark brown snout her way, its face shielded by steel plating. Its arms were long, also edged with steel claws and scales. The strange pokémon had miffling red patterns across its arms and belly. It crossed its arms, its beady eyes narrowing as if amused and irritated by the small threat.

"What kind of pokemon are you supposed to be? Some deformed fire-type?"

Jaku raised an eyebrow. "And you're supposed to be some kind of legendary pokémon?" she shot back. "Listen pal, you dug into my tunnel. What do you want? Who sent you?"

"Nothin'," the mole pokemon retorted, defensively holding up its claws. " I wasn't sent by nobody, I swear. I was just curious- not a lot of pokémon are makin' holes in the ground. Seemed like I was the only one. Uh, I'm Excadrill by the way. Just Excadrill. Who are you?"

"Don't give it your name. Lie. Use any other name. Remember, they sent this creature after you to trick you. Make up a name. Make up any old sound. Just get this thing away from you."

"I'm Boa," Jaku lied.

"Is that a nickname or is that the name of your species?"

"Uh… a nickname?" Jaku replied nervously. "I don't- I'm not- live alone. I live alone." Jaku snorted, regaining her composure. "I got separated from my colony; the humans brought me here as an egg a long time ago. I dunno what I'm supposed to be."

"You got a trainer?" Excadrill asked in return. "Haven't seen many of them here."

Jaku paused. "I… I may have eaten my trainer-to-be when I was a baby." Before Excadrill could respond to that (Jaku didn't even know how to respond to that- where had that even come from?), she continued. "I heard my old caretaker say that my kind are known for eating all kinds of things. Back when I lived with them of course. Don't know why they left me around a baby. I don't even remember why or how it happened but uh… that's how I got my name."

Excadrill stood with a shocked and disturbed expression on his face. He took a hesitant step back, his beady eyes narrowing until they were just shiny points in the dark. "I'm… not surprised. You… you ate a human child?"

"I didn't mean to. They threw me out because of it.. I can barely remember it."

In a softer undertone, Excadrill muttered, "I would've thrown you out too if I were them," before fixing his posture. "Listen, that's… interesting and all but do you mind if I ask you a little question? You look kinda busy and it's about time I get outta your hair."

"It's working. Keep lying. Get that thing away."

"Uh… sure, I guess. Shoot."

"Listen, Boa. I'm lookin' for somebody. I think we got lost? Separated maybe? I don't remember, but I got a feeling he's around here somewhere."

"Who?"

"My trainer. I mentioned him earlier. He's hard to miss. Tall, scary, looks cranky all the time."

Jaku blinked. This had to be Ingo's pokémon. There was no mistaking it. The scarily tall height, and imposing stature, the perpetual frown on his face. She faked thinking for a minute or two, scratching in the dust with her tail before brightening. "Does he wear a hat?"

Excadrill looked as though he had struck gold. He turned to look at her excitedly. "He does! A black hat! He's also got a matching jacket to boot! It's like- it's black and brown. Black and red?" Excadrill shook its head. "Anyway, I haven't been able to find my trainer in ages! Had to break out of my own pokéball when it had been a few hours without him."

Jaku felt a bit perturbed. Yes, pokémon could break out of their pokéballs at any time, but just the offhand thought that they might not be able to escape their confines- like Ingo's Chandelure- made her a lot more cautious about running into pokémon wielders. Or in her case, her hunters. "Is his name… Ingo, by any chance?"

"Yeah, that's him! You've seen him? Where? How long ago?"

"Haven't seen him recently, no," Jaku shrugged. "I think he's to the east- in the swamplands. That's the last place I saw him. Maybe that other human is with him. They look nearly identical, the two of them."

"Wait, wait, wait-" Excadrill stopped her. "They're both here? What're they both doin' here? This place don't look nothin' like Unova. The boss's brother wasn't with us during that weird check in the tunnels neither." The mole shook its head. "Eh, I'll just have to see this for myself." It turned back to her. "Thanks for the info, Boa! Sorry if I pried too much. Oh, and how do you know my trainer and his brother?"

Jaku scratched at the back of her head, noticing that the blood spots on her torso was far too obvious and visible. She rushed to cover herself with her tail, hoping that Excadrill hadn't been looking anywhere else but at her face. "Let's just say this isn't the first time I've run into one of Ingo's lost pokémon. You're not the first. That other one- Chandelure- I found her first. She practically dragged me right to them."

"Oh, great! Chandelure is with 'im! Boss will be just fine, then. I really oughta thank you but I best get to goin'. I've been tunneling around in snow and ice for far too long. Those icelands to the north sure do get cold. It'd do me good to get back to the boss."

"Okay. You have fun with that."

"I will. Thanks again, Boa." The mole gave another sniff and then tunneled back underground. Right before he dipped underground, he turned. "And hey, maybe now that you're grown, you might find a nice trainer. You don't look too good, partner."

Jaku blinked. "What do you mean?"

Excadrill raised an eyebrow. "That's a nasty scar on you. Downright dreadful. If you partner with humans, they'll fix it right up for you. You gotta find yourself a nice one, though. Maybe find some humans; they're usually happy enough to take you to a pokémon center."

"…What's a pokémon center?"

Excadrill opened his mouth to speak but paused. "How come nobody around her knows what a pokémon center is?" He shook his head and dove back into the tunnels with a wave goodbye.

Jaku gave a sigh of relief before flopping down against a nearby tree, ignoring the strange itch to burrow back into the ground. Finally! Alone once more! No more weird conversations! She carefully climbed the tree into its top branches, not surprised when she found herself in the middle of the Horseshoe Plains. She really needed to go somewhere else that wasn't Trouble Valley.

Noon passed without much fuss. She had wandered east toward the Oreburrow Settlement, careful to avoid tunneling into the village and to that degree, Lord Kleavor. With her new heightened sense of hearing, she could hear the great noble stumbling around in the woods with its giant axe hands. It was hard to miss as a matter of fact. Tunneling was a lot faster than walking and a lot less tiring than running.

At one point, she had accidentally tunneled into a river, nearly getting swept downstream only to get stopped by the remains of a sunken canoe that were sticking out of a small island. Jaku pulled herself ashore, semi-grateful that her tail flame apparently didn't follow the same logic as regular Charmanders did… How did it go again?

As night began to fall, Jaku finally ceased tunneling, pulling herself out of the ground near the same cave that she had once contained Emmet within. It had been untouched since. The cover of bark was still there. A few new trees had fallen into the stone hollow, Jaku adjusting them with a few good Stone Edges so that the logs were now propped up in front of the cave entrance. It wasn't much, but at least there was a full river and shelter for her. She carefully crawled inside the dark cave. She could pick up a handful of scents, knowing them to belong to Emmet and her pokémon but unable to tell apart whose was whose.

"You shouldn't stay here for too long. Emmet knows where this place is. Any good guess and you're as good as dead. Move camp. Dig into the walls. Leave this place."

Jaku carefully regarded Mespirit's words and promptly put them off for later. There were a few things she wanted to check on before she would go back underground.

A few of her belongings had remained in the cave after her previous trip; a set of clothes, a few rations of berries, some sections of rope, and even the gear texts she'd been working on. She made a small campfire using broken tree branches, pulling the small objects close to read them. If she was going to remain as a pokémon for a while, she would need to craft the same items she'd had before she had lost them all in that mystery dungeon.

From the scraps of old clothing, she made a functional bag that attached to a makeshift harness around her chest. She used another scrap of clothing- most likely the remnants of Emmet's Gingko Guild uniform- to make a yellow and white neckerchief. It didn't feel right having her entire neck exposed and hey- it was old blood on that fabric. Nothing a little wash in the river couldn't fix.

Then came the gear texts. Those, Jaku carefully set out in front of her in a semi-circle. Each paper had similar and wildly different scribblings all over the pages, most written in charcoal or blood. All of them were merely copies- transcriptions of what the glyphs and writings on the time gears implied. Jaku let her eyes wander over toward the cave entrance, her tail curling inwards as she leaned back against the cave wall. It would be a long time before Ingo would need these, but Jaku preferred to finish them long before her time in Hisui was up. At this rate, she would rather hide them then give them to him.

Dialga and Azelf had done a number on her mind. After such a long mental presence of having the two dominating her thoughts, the silence of their absence was deafening. They had told her a great deal of knowledge for every milestone that she passed, like treats to reward an overleveled pokemon when they stopped ignoring their trainer.

First and foremost, the gears were for Dialga and their constructed tower. Dialga had told her that while his current form had been "frenzied" in a sense, the future version of him had taken notice and was restarting a loop to ensure that every issue of himself wasn't left to fester and destroy time. That was her job; she would collect the gears, bring them to Dialga's throne on Temporal Tower, and then help restore the flow of time. Once she finished her job, she would cease to exist and life would go on. Then, Dialga would send the gears to Palkia- the god of space- to send to Ingo who would use them like some kind of key for his own power. Ingo would use the power of the gears and then put them back in their respective places like some backwards game of simon says or maybe musical chairs. Once Ingo was done with his turn, then Akari would be able to do… whatever it was she was supposed to do. Azelf and Dialga hadn't said anything about the girl. Jaku shook her head. Even remembering the tiny little details made her brain hurt.

The papers- the translations- were apparently needed as Ingo wouldn't be able to read the gears when he inevitably would receive them. Jaku found it incredibly funny that a grown man wouldn't be able to make sense of such a simple writing system.

Time gears didn't have poems or instructions on them. No. Time gears warned of disasters associated with the gear's selected stage. The gear from Lake Valor had numerous inscriptions warning of flooding, earthquakes, sudden legendary pokémon appearances, and the like. Some even had specific messages engraved from time travelers like herself who had once beheld the ancient artifacts, their initials carved into their warnings. Jaku hadn't had the opportunity to create one herself but then, Dialga had warned them that once they finished their job, anything and everything to do with them would be erased from everybody's minds.

"That's a good thing. Means you don't have to regret anything or worry about the consequences of your actions- nobody will even remember that you existed. You can do as you please now."

"What about the fact that Ingo, Emmet, and Akari are hunting me for sport right now?"

"Worry about them during the day. Sleep now. Sleep while it's dark. Do not pursue the time gears. They will expect you to chase after them. Sleep, my champion. Sleep and regain strength. They desire to catch you and make you suffer because you know things they don't. They desire to hurt you because it might entertain them. They desire to steal your power, using it as your own. But your power is beholden only to you. If they catch you, they will kill you- but first, they must catch you."

"Thank you for the speech, Mespirit. Very heartwarming." Carefully, Jaku buried the objects in a soft portion of the wall, digging deep so that no prying noses would sniff them out. She carefully removed her pack and neckerchief, storing those too. After completely burying the front entrance to the cave and putting out the fire, Jaku burrowed into a section of the wall and covered that entrance as well, curling into a ball in hopes of finding an easy path to sleep.