'I don't get it,' I thought, staring at the headstone in front of me, 'You were my best friend, and yet now, your grave means nothing to me. I just can't seem to care…'

After we agreed to wait in the human village, the Elder gave us a tour of the local area. She thought I would want to see my old home, and my old friend, but without my memories it was all meaningless to me; this grave was little more than a rock now, and the implications of that fact terrified me. Is this how I would react if Crest died? I knew it wasn't a fair comparison, but the thought kept nagging at me.

'Is it because I don't know how I would react?'

"Brandon?" Crest approached from behind, "Are you okay? You've been at that grave for a while now."

"I'm just overthinking things," I answered, "and I hate it. It doesn't feel right, knowing that this is a friend's grave, yet I can't remember enough to care."

"It's not your fault," he comforted, "I mean, it's not like you chose to lose your memory, right? And without any memory, he's a stranger to you."

"I know, but… that's just not as reassuring as it should be," I hesitantly explained. "What about you? Where did you go off to?"

"Well, when I escaped from Dusknoir, I saw Blizzard Island. I wanted to figure out where we are now, so I followed the Elder around town for a while. We're in a forest, and there's a spring at one end and no other major landmarks."

"So, Mystifying Forest then? I guess that's one mystery solved," I reasoned before noticing something, "Hey, where's your silver bow?"

The bow I'd expected to see Crest wearing was gone, and in its place was his relic fragment, hanging from its string. "The Elder suggested I try using magic, so…" he raised a flipper, and a cape suddenly appeared over his shoulders, "…she gave me this. I don't really understand the specifics, but apparently it refracts light to appear invisible. That way I look like I'm unarmed until I need it. Actually, the Elder sent me to get you. She said you should practice magic too."

"Practice magic? I guess I probably used to know some spells, but I'm not sure how necessary they are now that I'm a pokemon."

"I think we should still try it," Crest explained, "I'm still not exactly comfortable around magic, but at this point things are too dangerous for us to not take any advantage we can get."

We returned to the orphanage and found the Elder waiting for us. "It's good to see you, Brandon. Did Crest explain my offer?"

"You want us to learn magic," I answered, "or I guess re-learn, in my case."

"Correct," she replied. "So, what will you do?"

"We have no reason to avoid improving our abilities. I assume magic will help us with our mission, in battle or otherwise?" I asked.

"Some of both," she explained. "I won't have time to teach you much, but you should try to master your old spells again. Here, take the light band; I've imbedded your crystal charm into it, so it should help with both of your elements." I put on the band and realized the addition of the psychic charm wasn't the only modification the Elder had made; the band had small holes throughout it that let my seeds poke through, letting me use my vines freely.

"How does it help?" Crest asked, having me translate.

"Magic works by manipulating a kind of energy called mana. Enchanted items like the ones I've given you make focusing your mana easier. Although, those particular items aren't actually enchanted; they're made almost entirely of manifested mana, making them both efficient to use and nearly indestructible."

"They're indestructible? Is that why you made Crest's cape invisible?"

"That is correct, young one. It seems your transformation hasn't dulled your mind one bit, has it?"

Crest didn't seem to follow that. "Wait, why is it important for my cape to be invisible and indestructible? I mean, I certainly appreciate it; I'd prefer something less 'regal' and more 'adventurer,' but it sounds like you have a practical reason."

"It's so you can use it to block attacks," I explained.

"Even if you choose not to use magic, that fractal cape should still be useful to you," the Elder explained. "Which is good; you likely won't become proficient in the short time we have."

"Didn't you say I have a 'high capacity for magic?'" Crest asked.

I relayed the question, and the Elder answered, "By pokemon standards, you do. The typing you use for moves is different and more specialized than mana, so most pokemon struggle to use this kind of magic. Your potential would be considered average among humans."

"From what I've heard, that's still better than me," I said.

"Perhaps, but you have experience, whether you remember it or not," she explained. "Now, are you two ready for your lesson? I want you to start by attuning yourselves to your charms. Now Brandon, I can tell that you have experience with this from your crystal charm, so focus on the light band. Try to cast Thermal Glow; it's a simple spell that covers your body in light to protect you from the cold."

I practiced on my own while the Elder guided Crest. I managed to gain some control over light mana sooner than I expected, though the control I had was too limited to do much with it. Crest was struggling a bit more, but eventually managed to conjure what I could only describe as a cold aura around one of his flippers. He never focused it into a full spell, instead only using it to manipulate his cape. By the end of our session, I had gained enough precision to move light around, eventually creating a white glow around myself.

"You're both fast learners," the Elder congratulated, "but I believe that's all we have time for, for now. Celebi should be here soon."

"I'd rather not do nothing," I said. "And we likely won't stay here long once Celebi shows up. Are there any other spells I should practice, or at least be aware of?"

"You really haven't changed, have you? Still as dedicated as ever to your mission," the Elder pondered. "But yes, you did have other spells before. I wouldn't recommend practicing these immediately, but you used to know Blind, which is performed by encasing your target's head in light, and Mind Lock, which protects against mental attacks. Is that enough for your purposes?"

"Yes, that should be enough for me to figure things out."

"I'm still not sure how I feel about magic," Crest said. "I'm just worried something will go wrong."

"Then don't use it. Your moves are already strong enough," I reasoned.

"What matters is that you are prepared for what is to come," the Elder said. "There is little reason to use a technique if doing so will put yourself in danger. If you aren't prepared to use magic in combat, then stick to what you know. Now, you two go rest until Celebi gets here."


'Good news: they're alive. Bad news: they're back and time isn't fixed yet,' I thought to myself as I flew to the human village. In hindsight, I should have seen this coming; we were attacked on our way to the past. Still, for Grovyle and Brandon to only recently return to this time, they must have made some progress before getting captured. And I've got to admit, I was glad I'd get to see them again.

'Even if such should have never happened, under ideal circumstances.'

A disappointing thought, though one that quickly vanished as my destination came into view. I made my way to our old meeting place, but stopped when I saw a green figure standing outside.

"Grovyle!" I called out, diving to his level before landing on his head. "You're back!"

"You say that like it's a good thing," he said scornfully before relenting, "but it is good to see you again."

I sighed. "Serious as ever, I see. You're so boring."

"As if you don't know why I'm disappointed," he argued.

"Wow, you really are upset. Oh yeah, Brandon is here too, right?"

"Unfortunately…" Grovyle muttered.

"What was that?"

"He's inside. The idiot lost his memory and screwed everything up," he explained.

"You know he isn't stupid," I insisted, resuming my flight. "Although, if he lost his memory…"

"There's too much to explain, it will be faster if you meet him," Grovyle interrupted. "Come on, you know better than anyone that we don't have time to waste."

"Not that you're wrong, but you really need to relax," I said. Following him inside, I was met with a peculiar sight: the human Elder appeared to be teaching two pokemon magic. They quickly turned their attention to me, however.

"Celebi's finally here," the Chikorita noted, speaking Knownun.

"That she is," the Elder agreed. "Welcome back, Celebi. Why don't you join us over here? You need to be caught up on a few things."

"Of course!" I answered. "Grovyle, could you fetch Brandon, wherever he is? He really should be present for this meeting."

"There's no need. Brandon's already here," Grovyle said.

"He is? But where-"

"Here," the Chikorita interrupted. "I'm Brandon."

"You are?" I looked to Grovyle for confirmation. "So, this is what you meant then?"

"Yes. He somehow got turned into a pokemon."

"Incredible," I thought aloud, "monster and animal DNA are fundamentally different. This kind of transformation should be beyond impossible."

"Perhaps that explains my amnesia," Brandon said. "In any case, we've been preparing ourselves in your absence. I've been busy relearning my old spells, and Crest has also been experimenting with magic."

"Crest? I take it that's the Piplup?" I asked. 'Why does that name sound familiar…' I turned my attention to my newfound ally, idly curious as to where that sense of familiarity was coming from, when I noticed the charm hanging from his neck. 'No, that can't be! They brought The Survivor here?' I realized, trying to hide my astonishment.

"Yes, I'm Crest," Piplup answered in Pokesh, "The legends I've studied say you can travel though time. Does that mean you're also capable of bringing all of us back to my time as well?"

"Of course! My power is how Grovyle and Brandon made it to the past in the first place," I proudly boasted. "Although, with the planet paralyzed, I can't travel freely though time anymore. We have to travel to a place where remnants of time still exist for my power to work."

"Specifically, there is a sort of gate called the 'Passage of Time' on Lost Island. It's the direct result of Dialga's inability to control his own power," Grovyle explained.

"Which means Dialga will notice us when we try to use it," Brandon reasoned.

"That's right," Grovyle said, "but that's not all; Lost Island is the very place we escaped from when we got to this time. Dusknoir will almost certainly be waiting for us at the portal."

"Dusknoir?" I asked.

"He's the one who captured us," Brandon answered. "Dusknoir is stronger than either me or Crest, and he has a hoard of Sableye at his command. Even with four of us, we're still outnumbered."

"Your worry is pointless; Dialga is our main concern," Grovyle objected. "Those gremlins are nothing, especially with Celebi on our side. We just need to be wary of their existence."

"He's right, I can take them," I added. "And besides, you're much stronger now than when we last met. We have nothing to worry about."

"You haven't even seen him fight…" Grovyle muttered.

"I've seen his human form fight. It can't be worse than that," I whispered back.

"If Dialga is our biggest threat, then we should leave as soon as we can," Brandon continued, hopefully oblivious to that last tangent.

"Agreed. So, here's the plan: we leave immediately for the Passage of Time, which we'll use to go just as far back as we did before," Grovyle asserted.

"That's not possible," I said.

"Why not?" Brandon asked.

"Complicated time travel reasons. All you need to know is that you've already made irreversible changes to the past, so I can only send you back as far as the moment you were brought back to this time."

There was a brief silence as the implications of that fact sank in. A moment later, Grovyle spoke up. "I wish we had more time… Fine then. We'll go back as far as we can. When we reach the past, we'll gather the time gears as quickly as possible before going to Temporal Tower. Any objections?"

They all waited on me for confirmation. "Alright then, let's go!"


"There really are a lot of stairs, huh?" Gligar noted as we returned to the guild. "Don't you get tired climbing all of these every day?"

"Not really," I answered, "Why are you walking, anyway? Isn't flying easier for you?"

"I'm walking because you're walking."

"I feel like there's something wrong with that logic."

"What logic?" Gligar asked, though I suspected she wasn't looking for an answer. "Sometimes I just don't want to fly. It can feel weird, always looking down to pokemon who are the same size as you are."

"I guess," I agreed, watching her awkwardly hop up the steps. "Though you don't seem to be very coordinated on the ground."

"Well, you should see me under the ground!"

"I have. You burrowed through quicksand on our first exploration," I reminded her.

"Then my point is proven!" she boasted. "Oh, and speaking of explorations, do you think I could join your team?"

"I'll ask Chimecho. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to accept new members."

"Well, she's right there; let's go ask her," Gligar pointed out as we reached the guild's peak.

"If Chimecho is outside, she's probably busy with something," I reasoned, noticing that Sunflora was also outside the guild.

To my surprise, Chimecho actually waved us down. "Jolt, there you are! I've been looking for you."

"You have? Why?" I asked.

"Well, mostly because I have some questions," she answered, "and… I'd rather not ask Wigglytuff. He's been making too many mistakes lately."

"I wouldn't know, I'm still new here," I said. "Anyway, what did you want to ask?"

"Do you know what a human is?"

I don't know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't that. "I don't really know," I said, "The only pokemon who know anything about that are Brandon and Dusknoir. They tried to explain it to me a few times, but I could never really follow. Why?"

"Apparently Wigglytuff knew Dusknoir didn't trust Brandon," Sunflora answered.

"Just because he was a human?" I inferred.

"Possibly," Chimecho explained, "but I think there's more to it than that. Dusknoir seemed to think that Brandon was the other time gear thief."

"Well, yeah. Why else would he drag him into the future?" Gligar reasoned.

"That's not our point," Sunflora said.

Chimecho clarified, "We all know Brandon; he's not evil. But we also believe he was one of the thieves. So, that would mean…"

"The thieves are the good guys?" I speculated.

"That's what we thought, too," Sunflora agreed, "and that's not all."

"We just received news from HAPPI. Well, received isn't quite the right word; this was meant for the Guildmaster, but I kind of intercepted it," Chimecho explained. "Apparently returning the time gears hasn't restored time anywhere."

"It hasn't?"

"It's not permanent, is it?" Gligar worriedly asked.

"We don't know," Chimecho explained. "The guardians thought returning the gears would fix everything, so it shouldn't be-"

"Unless something else is causing the paralysis," I cut in. "The thieves are the good guys, and returning the gears did nothing. So, we need to collect them again, right?"

"Exactly," Chimecho agreed. "That's why I don't want to tell Wigglytuff. I don't think we have time to be bound by the guild's rules."

"Oh my gosh, you really pepped up!" Sunflora said. "I thought you were still mourning."

"Well, I was… but clearly we don't have time for that now," I said. "If we haven't reversed the paralysis, then it will probably spread here soon. You need me ready to help."

"Just don't push yourself too hard," Chimecho warned. "We'll split up to gather the gears. Between the guardians and the early paralysis reports, we know where all of them are now."

"Wait, there're four of us and five time gears, right? That means someone will need to get two," Gligar reasoned.

"We're skipping Crystal Cave. That gear was never removed, so taking it would actually cause some damage. We need to figure out what to do with them first," Chimecho said.

"Okay, so who's going where?" I asked.

"I'll be going to Steam Cave," Chimecho explained. "Sunflora will get the gear from Limestone Cavern, Gligar gets Quicksand Cave, and you'll go to Treeshroud Forest."

"Make sure you ask Mesprit before you take the gear," Sunflora told Gligar. Turning to me, she added, "Your time gear doesn't have a guardian, so you can just take it when you find it."

"Alright, then let's go. We can meet back at my room later," I suggested.

"Good. Collect your gears, and try to find out what we need to do with them, if you get the chance. Don't be afraid to come back late if you find a lead; follow it, the rest of us will wait at the guild while you do so. Got it?" Chimecho said.

"Got it," the rest of us answered.

With that, we split up to gather the time gears. I broke into a run as I followed my map to Treeshroud Forest, with only a single thought on my mind.

'After everything we've done to prevent the planet's paralysis, somehow things are still getting worse. Crest, Brandon, wherever you are, you'd better hurry back, because I can't do this alone…'