Author's Note:

So… it's been a year. In my defense, this part of the fic had some pacing issues that simply couldn't be fixed piecewise, and my solution was to just write the next several chapters before uploading. At least that should mean consistent updates for a while!

Oh, and I know penguins can't breathe underwater. I also don't care, so I've decided that water-breathing is now a universal trait among Water type pokemon :)

"They're gone. Went chasing after that explosion…" I said, quietly pulling myself out of the ground. "That was your friend's doing, wasn't it?"

No response. Looking down, I realized my newfound ally had fallen unconscious from his injuries.

"I guess I'll have to carry you out," I reasoned. "Which of your friends was it, I wonder? If it's the Shinx, he won't get far. The Piplup, however…" my thought slowly faded to silence. 'There's no point in speaking if you can't hear me. Regardless of who saved us, that chase won't last long. We have to escape while we have the chance.'

I hoisted Chikorita onto my back and ran toward the nearest exit. When we were free of the stockade, I slowed my pace to think up a plan of action. We obviously had to get back to the past, but it was too dangerous to linger on this island for long. Besides, time travel was impossible on my own; I needed to regroup with Celebi before anything else. That meant I had no choice but to go to the one place our enemies would never dare to attack.

'If we're going there, then I can't afford to dawdle. We'll be totally exposed once we reach the shore,' I thought to myself, resuming my sprint. It didn't take long to reach the beach, though I chose to follow the forest's edge for cover until I reached my destination. 'Okay, here's the boat we arrived in. No humans to row it, but I think I can manage.'

I placed Chikorita in the boat and pushed it to the sea. Upon reaching the shoreline, I climbed in and used the oars to guide us across the water. 'I'll never understand how this thing can just glide over the ocean like this. Especially after seeing water in the past. This time feels… alien to me now.'

As the distance between us and our captors grew, my passenger began to stir. "Uhg… where… am I?"

"It's about time you woke up," I noted.

"Grovyle?"

"You're remarkably calm."

"This is no place to panic," he answered. Taking note of our surroundings, he added, "I guess we're still alive. Too bad my Synthesis won't work to keep it that way."

"You're conscious. You'll survive," I reasoned, "and assuming you don't mind sticking with me for a while, I have allies who can heal you."

"That's good to hear," he said, "and speaking of assumptions, I assume you can explain at least some of what's going on?"

"How much do you know?"

"We're in the future, time isn't flowing, and Dusknoir tried to kill me," he answered. "So, the first thing I need to know is why the planet is paralyzed. The time gears should have been returned to their rightful places, so why wasn't time restored?"

"Because the removal of the time gears had nothing to do with the stopping of time," I answered. "Do you see that crumbled tower, high above the island? That is Temporal Tower. Its temporal control supersedes the time gears, as its power is directly linked Dialga himself."

"The tower looks like it's collapsing," Chikorita observed.

"That's right. When the tower destabilized, so did Dialga's power. When it crumbled, time stopped, freezing it mid-collapse."

"And the time gears could prevent that?"

I found myself relaxing a bit from that statement. "You catch on quick."

"Enemy of my enemy," he explained. "The only thing I know is that I can't trust Dusknoir."

"And that is perfectly justified. I just didn't expect you to fill in so many blanks." I continued rowing, waiting for his next question. After a bit of thought, it eventually came.

"I just don't understand why Dusknoir tried to kill me," he pondered aloud.

"I don't know either. My best guess is that he saw you as some sort of threat. After all, with what you've pieced together so far, there is little doubt you would grow suspicious when returning the time gears wouldn't work."

"But why is Dusknoir against us in the first place?"

"Another mystery," I answered, "I met him in your time, but I can only assume he's working for Dialga. With the destruction of time, Dialga reverted to his ancient, primal instincts. He won't allow any changes to the past, regardless of consequence. Why someone would align with that ideology is beyond me, but as far as I'm concerned his motives don't matter."

More contemplative silence. I saw Chikorita attempt Synthesis a few times, but in this world's perpetual darkness it had little effect. "Believe me, I miss the sun too. Having seen your time, this one seems harsher than ever."

"How long ago was my time, anyway?" he asked.

"Relatively speaking? Celebi claims it's been a few million years. It's hard to know for sure though; while evidence of your civilization still exists, there are absolutely no biological remains dating back to your time. Apparently there was some kind of mass extinction event that completely erased the ancient pokemon from existence."

"An extinction after an apocalypse? You mean even if we save time, our world still might not survive?"

"It's possible," I conceded. "But we'll never know for sure until that time comes. As far as you should be concerned, the world ended when time stopped."

The silence returned, though whether Chikorita was considering my point or just attempting Synthesis again I wasn't sure. "Where are we going now? You said you have allies, so who are they?"

"The only one you'd know of is Celebi," I explained. "As for the others, you wouldn't understand."

"Answer anyway," he countered, "This is not the time to start acting suspiciously."

"I suppose you're right, though I'm afraid my answer will be meaningless to you," I said. "My other allies are humans."

"Humans?" he repeated, though not inquisitively. "And you're from the future…" His response was beginning to alarm me, but I allowed him to continue his thoughts. "Everyone who knows about humans is from the future…"

"Chikorita?"

"I'm from the future…" he continued to himself.

"You're… what?"

"And Dusknoir captured me. Dusknoir… said his ally had 'contained the other thief.'"

"No… you can't be…" I muttered as the realization hit me.

"That double-speaking spirit! He was talking about me!"

"You really are him, aren't you? Brandon?" I confirmed.

"Grovyle, please," he began, his anger giving way to frustration. "I know I screwed up, but that's all I know. I lost my memory…" he trailed off. "Please… who am I?"

I just stared in shock at the revelation. As desperate as he was for answers, however, only one thought came to my mind.

"As if I needed another reason to hate you."

"They went this way!"

"We know that you dolt. Just keep running."

"Silence yourselves. We'll be upon them soon."

As I fled from the prison, I could hear Dusknoir's gang chasing me, and gaining fast. I knew I couldn't outrun them much longer, but I also didn't trust the surrounding forest to hide me. With the total lack of color here, my blue feathers would give me away.

"Grovyle must be desperate. He should know better than to leave a trail like this," I heard Dusknoir somewhere behind me, confirming that hiding wouldn't be an option.

As the distance between us continued to shrink, I spotted a clearing up ahead. When I reached the tree line's end, it became clear that I hadn't just left the forest; I was now on a beach, overlooking a seemingly endless expanse of paralyzed water.

"I see them! They're cornered at the island's edge!" a Sableye called out.

"Cut off their escape. Three on each side," Dusknoir commanded as he reached the clearing, pausing briefly when he saw me. "Crest? How did you…"

"Y-you… you know you d-don't have time t-to fight me," I stammered. "And besides, I've got the sea to m-my back. I-I'm not c-cornered."

"You've made yourself a problem, and knowing Grovyle he's probably already escaped," Dusknoir thought aloud. "As much as I may hate it, it's too dangerous to leave you alive. I'd ask forgiveness, but given the circumstance you'd never give it."

"Y-you can't catch me here. I'll just outswim you," I said, my confidence slowly growing.

"Can you, though?" Dusknoir asked. "Can you swim in water that doesn't flow around you?"

"I… don't know. But… I can still hide under the water-"

"The water that is too thick to breathe?" he countered, the Sableye closing in from either side of me. "Face it, you're trapped. Surrender yourself peacefully and I'll give you a painless death."

There was silence as my enemies awaited my response. 'The water is too thick to breathe, and too stiff to swim through,' I thought, 'but I don't have any other options.' Making my decision, I opened my beak as if to speak before sprinting into the ocean.

"After him!" Dusknoir commanded as I flailed in the unyielding water, trying my best to swim more away than down. In my struggle, I discovered that I could still dive relatively quickly, allowing me to put some space between myself and my pursuers once again. The water formed a tunnel behind me though, and I quickly realized the Sableye would have the air they needed to follow me. If our chase reached the ocean's floor, it wouldn't take them long to catch up.

In a moment of desperation, I fired a Bubble Beam at the tunnel's roof, displacing the water enough to cause a collapse and buy me some time. 'The Sableyes' tunnels aren't as clear as mine are, so they won't have much air to work with. If I just dive a little further, they won't be able to reach me.' My dive eventually reached solid ground, at which point I determined I was no longer at risk of capture.

I used this relative safety to create an actual escape plan. Sure, I couldn't be followed, but I couldn't go anywhere either; the water above me wasn't fluid enough to pull myself through it as I swam. If I couldn't swim, I was stuck at the bottom of the ocean. Just how bad was that, though?

I took a tentative lungful of paralyzed water only to immediately cough it back up. 'Argh… ow. So that's what drowning feels like. I think I was fine not knowing that.' Still, Dusknoir was right when he said I couldn't breathe this water, which meant my now-limited air supply was a serious problem.

'Okay, you don't have much air, so you can't afford to panic. Just focus on finding a way to the surface,' I thought to myself. 'If I go back to the shore, I'll be captured, so the only way out is up. I need a way to propel myself through water… wait, that's it!'

Sure, the water around me didn't flow, but what about the water within me? I dove into the paralyzed ocean again, firing a weak Bubble Beam ahead as I did so. Just as I hoped, the attack collapsed around me, giving me just enough traction to propel myself before draining to the bottom of my air pocket. Using a near-continuous stream of Bubble Beams, I quickly rose through the water, breeching the surface as far from the island as I could.

I finally allowed myself to relax a bit. I escaped, I had air… and I was stranded in the middle of an unmoving ocean. At least that last problem wasn't immediately life threatening. I continued swimming, with nothing to orient myself but the tunnel behind me, looking for any land to rest on. Eventually, I spotted something far to my right. Some sort of jagged landmass, almost like…

'Icebergs… and that shape… it can't be…'

Before I could investigate further, however, I felt the water around me begin to shift. 'A current? Wait, the water isn't flowing. So, what is- ah!' I was interrupted from my thoughts when I was lifted into the air, the suddenly-moving water lifting me in some sort of bubble. Before I knew what was happening, the bubble dropped me onto a floating wooden platform. In a panic, I prepared a Bubble Beam to ward off whatever had just captured me.

"Nice job, getting it in the boat- hey, hey! Don't attack, we're friendly!" one of my captors said, speaking Knownun.

"Did you really expect it to not be scared? She did lift it out of the water without warning," another said.

"Oh, just shut up before I throw you overboard," the third shot back. Its voice was different from the other two, so I could only assume it was female.

While they continued their bickering, I focused on figuring out what these… things were. They had long arms and legs, and their white fur was localized to the tops of their heads. Their bodies were pale, resembling the deep-sea monsters in ancient legends, and covered in some sort of grey cloth. If the paleness was a result of the constant darkness here, then these creatures likely didn't exist in my time.

"Wait," I said, getting their attention, "are you… humans?"

The three just stared at me blankly. "Um… hi?" one eventually said.

"Luther, what are you doing?" another asked him in response.

"Talking to the pokemon?" Luther answered.

"You don't actually believe all of that amounted to 'hello,' do you?"

"It might!"

"It didn't," I said, disappointed. "You really can't understand a word I'm saying, can you?"

Another set of blank stares. "Apparently ancients don't speak Knownun," Luther reasoned.

"You guys are really terrible at this," the female said. Turning her attention to me, she asked, "Can you understand us?"

I nodded in response.

"Oh, thank Celebi, you are intelligent," she sighed in relief. "Well, we should introduce ourselves. I'm Carol, that's Luther, and he's Calvin."

"Hi there, little penguin thing!" Luther said.

"Luther, that's a Piplup," Calvin corrected.

"Still a little penguin thing," Luther defended, although I had no idea what he meant by that.

"Just ignore them, Piplup," Carol assured me. "Do you have a name?"

"Yes, my name is Crest," I answered before realizing she couldn't understand me. "Um, like this…" I tried making a wave-like motion with my flippers.

"Wave?" she guessed. I shook my head and pointed upward.

"The top of a wave?" I nodded. "So… Crest?"

I nodded again to confirm her answer. "Well, Crest, I'm sure you're very confused about what's going on. We'll fill you in on the way back to our village."

"We're going back already?" Luther asked.

"Yes, we are. The elder wanted us to save the ancient, remember?"

"Grovyle has a boat stashed away that he can use. Since the ancient was fleeing like it was, he should have had enough time to make his own escape," Calvin reasoned.

"Crest, were you being chased?" Carol asked.

"Yes," I said, making sure to include a visual confirmation.

"That settles it then. Luther, signal the village," she commanded.

"Alright, Double Thunder!" Luther announced, raising his arm to stiffly point to the sky. As he did so, a beam of yellow plasma shot from his fingertips, with two larger pulses quickly firing through it.

I cowered away slightly from the lightning, but Carol comforted me. "Relax, it's just magic. I promise it's perfectly safe." Seeing my nervousness grow, she added, "Oh, it's the magic part that scares you, isn't it?" I nodded. "Don't worry. We can control it," she explained, another small bubble of water floating above us. The bubble then dropped on top of me before flowing back into the ocean. "Besides, my Water magic is the fastest way to get back to the village. We'll keep you safe until then, I promise."

As Carol finished speaking, a current formed beneath us, propelling our floating platform forward… and away from Blizzard Island.

'We almost lost half the guild…'

It had been nearly a day since Crest and Brandon disappeared, but their absence was already taking its toll on the guild. Wigglytuff closed operations for the time being, though I didn't yet know his official reason for doing so. With our Psychic Link broken, communication between myself and the Guildmaster was temporarily limited, so I could only assume it was an official mourning period. Still, that seemed odd to me; while our recruits had gone missing, none of us were willing to declare them dead. If the other continents weren't busy recovering from the paralysis right now, we'd almost certainly be under investigation for the disappearance of Team Strength.

Of course, not all of the team was missing. Jolt was still here at the guild, although he had been relieved of his duties until further notice. He was taking the disappearance of his teammates really hard, but at least Gligar was around to cheer him up.

I wasn't sure how long it would be until the guild resumed normal operations, but I decided I should at least attempt to prepare for a return to normalcy. That meant the first thing I had to do was talk to Wigglytuff.

I made my way to his chamber, not bothering to knock or follow any sort of protocol. Between the temporary closure of the guild and my existing knowledge of his secret, Wigglytuff had little regard for Chatot's rules.

"Ah, Chimecho. Is something the matter?" Wigglytuff asked when he saw me.

"The Psychic Link broke," I explained. "I thought you might want to re-establish it."

"So, it did break then. I suspected as much, but I don't have the Psychic abilities needed to know for sure," he reasoned. "Perhaps now would be a good time to try a guild-wide link?"

"Not happening," I said flatly.

"Why not? Did someone refuse?"

"I never bothered to ask anyone. I doubt they would be willing to give up the privacy of their minds."

"It's a matter of practicality-"

"No, it's not," I shot the idea down. "The mind is too personal. If you were a Psychic type, you'd know where to draw those limits. Besides, even if I wanted to complete a webbed link, I can't now. I don't have the Psychic Charm anymore."

Wigglytuff considered that for a while before responding, "Alright. We'll just re-establish the previous link then."

With Wigglytuff's understanding, I focused some Psychic energy into his mind. "Good. The link is back, care to test it out?"

'I trust your abilities. Such a test isn't necessary.'

'And yet you test it anyway,' I thought back.

"In any case, it works," he said. "What happened to that charm you made, anyway?"

"Brandon has it. He can't use psychic abilities without it."

"Oh…" Wigglytuff responded solemnly, "That… makes sense."

"Don't blame yourself for what happened. None of us could have known what Dusknoir was planning," I reasoned.

The Guildmaster remained silent. I turned to leave, but stopped when I heard his thoughts. 'I should have told him…'

"What was that?" I asked.

"You heard that, didn't you?" he said, "Don't worry about it-"

"You should have told who? And what should you have told him?"

Though Wigglytuff appeared uncomfortable with the question, he did eventually answer. "Shortly after Dusknoir came to the guild, he asked to speak with Brandon personally," he hesitated briefly before continuing, "I should have warned him that Dusknoir didn't trust humans."

I was shocked by that. Though I wasn't sure what a "human" was, it wasn't hard to fill in the blanks. "You knew?"

"I-"

"You knew that Dusknoir didn't trust Brandon… and you didn't tell anyone?"

"Obviously I regret it now, but-"

I didn't hear the rest; I had already Teleported away.