DISCLAIMER: While this is in the POV of Millie, I would like to at least let the reader have some imagination and freedom and feel as if they are there. I hope to do a good job at that and I hope you enjoy the series!

This is supposed to be a prediction/what-if story to The Indigo Disk dlc set to release soon. I am merely going off of ideas and the like, so whether or not you feel this spoils you of the upcoming dlc or not is entirely up to you.

Warnings will also update as see fit! For now, sit back and relax! Enjoy the story!

Prologue

Year: ???

Month: ???

Day: ???

Current Time: ???

Place Of Interest: Area Zero

Sometimes the work doesn't feel like it cuts out for us. Why did Briar want us to explore this crater, anyway? Other than the strange symbol on the ground, I and the Research Team have come up empty-handed.

We continue to delve even further into the crater that sits in the very center of Paldea; an abyss that this region is most popular for other than its flashy culture and studious academy.

Never mind that the team and I have set up camp near what we believe to be the fourth research station. Despite our stroke of luck, we don't have a good feeling about this one. The exterior is charred and dented; scored by the claws of unknown beasts that dwell within the caverns of Area Zero…we need to be careful. I also cannot seem to mistake the smell of rot in this building….something truly has died here.

…

We took a good look at the interior of the building and it looks like an altercation took place. We cannot pinpoint when this occurred precisely, but from what we can gather the victim, or victims likely did not survive, or barely made it out in one piece. It seems the brutality of nature did not stop for the scientists who spent most of their days down here. It would be no surprise if some of the scientists lost their minds, or gave up on the project entirely.

We spent the rest of our day researching each claw-mark, unable to deduce any existing pokémon they could belong to. Confused as to why no pokémon fit such criteria, we trudged onward. I began to feel a bit light-headed, so I sat down for a bit. I believe the shift in energy from the crystals must be affecting me in some way, though I cannot exactly figure out why.

We finally stopped at our final destination, the lab where it all took place. Rumor had it that a professor who previously worked here, Turo, held a Time-Traversing Device that could bring you to the future. It was only a few months ago the Paldean Champion had stopped his plans by a hair, but according to what we have been told by the residents of Mesagoza and those who can only share so much of the incident, we are lucky to live another day thanks to them.

…

The Research Team and I finally stepped foot in The Lab. As soon as we do, we all report that we have a sinking feeling in our guts, all of us feeling the same dread and unease overcome us.

Nevertheless, we must push our feelings aside when it comes to research, The Crater, and the secrets it holds within its maw.

We walk down a steep hallway, the air here still and stuffier than the outside. I can feel the hairs on my body prickle from apprehension. There are specks of dust gathering in crevices, proving that this lab has not been touched or inhabited in quite some time. To be in the center of Paldea…all this uncontrollable energy running around you…I would not put it past Turo if he had gone insane.

We make our way into the central lab. This is the place we are looking forward to the most, as it may have some of the answers to our long-awaited questions. I and the team do not waste any time getting to work, scrounging for what we could.

As I begin to pursue the secrets of Paldea, I cannot help but notice something that has caught my eye.

It is a broken whiteboard in the back that had been used. Usually, we scientists would have thrown these out, or replaced them, but seeing as Turo had no options other than to shove it away, or to break it and deal with it later…

But then the faded scribblings on the board caught my eye. To any average person, they could be overlooked. To me and my team…these were no ordinary markings…

…These were encryption keys.

I called one of my men over so we could decipher each key thoroughly, making sure that each one was correct and that no symbol was misperceived as the other.

Once we had finally finished writing down and deciphering each key, we realized this key was for a virtual device—a computer!

Without further hesitation, my men and I looked for the main control panel of the lab and sure enough, Turo's computer was open and we could easily access the control panel.

We began to hastily put each key we had written down in order within the small box that the computer gave to us, hoping for some sort of clue that could lead us closer to the secrets Paldea held within. My fingertips shook with excitement at each keypress, my tongue stuck out at the corner of my upper lip as I looked at the blue screen in anticipation.

Inputting the last key, I pressed enter.

Invalid Input. Try again.

This was…frustrating, to say the least. That moment of excitement whittled away into disappointment. There was no way it could be right, even with what correct information we had. We could only take so much from that broken-down whiteboard, after all.

It was as if all hope had been lost…all of our progress for nothing so far…my shoulders drooped. As I began to sulk, wondering why the encryption key had not worked, one of my men called for me.

"You're going to want to see this! It's important!"

Without another thought I rushed over, urgently wanting to see what they had to say. Maybe the tera crystals were starting to get to my mind, but I was desperate for more information, to say the least.

My colleague began to inform me of a collection of old, dusty books they had found in the back. They were easy to miss if you weren't looking close enough, but they thankfully had been able to get a glimpse of them! We may have just been saved!

I thank my coworker as he hands me the books. They are very flimsy and worn-out, only hanging on just barely by their spines.

As I place them down, I gently open the first worn-out book I had placed before me. I figured if I was going to do this, I was going to try to do this in order. There are no specifics to the order of diaries so far…

As I open the inside, the crackling of the worn-out spine is almost nostalgic to my ears.

I wasted no time blowing off the dust, my men gathered around me as I began to read the excerpts of Professor Turo and his research within the confines of his lab. He mentions being alone, as his wife and the rest of the research team had abandoned him. How very harsh…were they even allowed to do that?

It seemed that his determination had not faltered. He had decided to make a clone of himself not too long after, though it was not suggested when this idea was decided, as the dates were often scrambled.

…As meticulous as the Paldean scientist was, he had his moments of missing the greater detail…and that is probably a leading cause of why we are here today.

And so I kept reading. It seems the cloning project had been a success on his part! The only issue now was, how could we tell who was writing? While one would think that AI is not perfect—and while you'd be right—the Tera Crystals provided below the surface of Paldea can create such perfect beings, beyond the comprehension of the human mind. We wonder how Turo himself had done it, as he is very vague about the process. He had explained it as if "something had possessed him" to make a perfect model of himself.

Was that even possible? Or was there some external force present at the time?

That is a question we would have to come back to later. We keep reading. Turo begins to drone on about other miscellaneous projects, along with being proud of the success of AI Turo. Most of the information for the rest of the first diary is about the time machine thereafter.

That is when I decided to open the second diary. I had mentioned they were not in order, so my men and I scrambled to find which one correlated with what until we had concluded that this diary I am about to mention correlates perfectly with the first. I open the diary, and as I had suspected, he begins talking about developments about the time machine. I had failed to mention that we had been taking notes of the time machine, as we believe it could be important for future scientific endeavors.

Professor Turo may have made mistakes, but we here at Blueberry Academy will not be so reckless with our mistakes. I and the research team are confident that we will learn from the mistakes of the past and move onward toward a better future.

As I keep reading, Turo begins to explain how he begins to feel homesick. He doesn't care much for the surface, but he misses his son in particular. He hadn't seen him since he was a child, and he particularly felt horrible for abandoning him. He begins to ramble about how this, along with being the sole researcher and developer of the time machine among other things, has taken a toll on his mental health. He could not get time to see his son as he wanted to, as a cultural breakthrough for Paldea came first and foremost. It pained him as he knew this would affect his son for many years to come, and many more.

He never goes back into detail about this, so we believe this to be some sort of way he vents out his emotional frustrations. While he did have AI Turo at the time, he admittedly could not talk to him like he was a human, I would assume, as Turo was….Turo. I'm sure that makes some sense, but for the sake of the report, I won't get into it. I begin to read more in-depth on his inner ramblings, and eventually, they begin to switch up. Something about a "Project Venus"? I was confused, as it had appeared out of the blue. From here on out, his words began to become vague, or he would ramble over something out of context.

And so he began to develop Project Venus. This was a bigger project at the time than that of the time machine, so I read deeper.

As I finished the second diary, I pieced together the third diary. It continued with the same progress mentionings of the project until it was done, still having been vague the whole way through. Maybe this was supposed to be a secret? Something he had been ashamed of? It seemed he had taken great care with this project, going so far as to mention taking care of it maternally, along with AI-Turo. AI-Turo was the main caretaker of the project, as it seemed to have grown more fond of him than Turo himself. As it all seemed to settle, we noticed some of the pages were blank, or were missing some context. I began to flip through them until I noticed erratic scribbling, the words "failure" and "Project Venus has failed" written over and over on the paper. I got confused, so I began to flip through more of the pages.

These were the ramblings of an insane man, no doubt.

The writing seemed to go from erratic rambling and scribbling…back to the formal writing that Professor Turo had always written with since the beginning of these entries…this made me raise my brow. What was going on? Suddenly, the mentioning of Project Venus was no more, and it seemed as if it was right back to just progress on the time machine. This was very uncharacteristic indeed, and we cannot be sure what happened during the period that those pages were written. As I was about to close the book, it seemed as if random symbols and letters were written in very small letters on the back of the page. My heart had almost stopped.

I gathered my men and we started to take notes. They were in an odd sort of order, from the top of the page to the bottom instead of straight across.

Nevertheless, we started to write them down on the whiteboard, piecing them together with the other symbols until we had finally found our answer.

…Or so…we had thought….

As we input the keys into their respective slots on the computer, we got through successfully! The men and I cheered momentarily before we were met with a blank screen.

We all just stared at one another, each with a blank expression. What was supposed to happen now? Was this not supposed to happen? What had we done wrong?

It was now that we were burnt out and could not do any more here. I had read the last of the diaries, and it was the professor writing down the adventures of the Paldean Champion, and that was it. Where I finally thought we would have our answers and it all just halts….as if time itself had just stopped.

I am sad to conclude this report with a confusing end, but there is not much else I can say. Maybe we haven't struck gold here, but our time here is over, and I am not sure how much longer I can stand being in this area. I don't know what's coming over me, but I am beginning to feel very irritated. I know history itself would never present itself to us, and that we are to stay vigilant, but as I write this, I have been getting a headache.

….Do you think it's the Tera Crystals' energy causing my lethargy?

Signing off, ????

…

The research leader who was writing the paper finally put their paper and pencil down after they wrote their signature. Sighing, they rubbed their temples, grabbed the paper, and got up from their chair.

"I just feel like it's one roadblock after another," they grumble, stumbling after the group

"If we keep this up, then how will we as an Academy put ourselves on the map?"

Another member of the group walked over, placing a reassuring hand on their shoulder.

"Hey, it's going to be okay. Maybe this was a bit ambitious. Even if this research expedition is not handled by us, why don't we let sleeping dogs lie and go back with what we have?" As they suggested that, the other men that surrounded the inner lab nodded. The leader looks hesitant at first.

"Are we sure that's a good idea? We came down here to find the secret of Terapagos…if we go back up empty-handed, what then? We will surely get an earful from Briar, will we not?"

As they speak, the men begin to talk amongst themselves anxiously. Very good point. The reassuring man from earlier speaks up.

"I…don't think that's entirely true. Miss Briar is ambitious when it comes to this research project, yes, but she above anyone should know how difficult this is. The only reason she couldn't come down with us is due to that inauguration-preparation-bullshit." They waved their hand dismissively of it, which earned a glare from the leader.

"It is not bullshit! There are exchange students near and far from all corners of the world coming to visit Blueberry Academy! While this is another way to put us on the map, don't you think that is not a wonderful thing not only for us who represent it but for Unova as a whole?" They extend their arms.

"Besides, rumor has it that the Champion of Unova will be there himself! It's not often that he explores outside of Unova like this!"

The leader was very eager about this opportunity, maybe a little too passionate on the subject as they began to ramble about it. While the men did share the same sentiment, they were all exhausted from the day's work. The reassuring team member sighed.

"Alright, I get your point. We will see what we can do. For now, can we just…get out of this lab? It's too stuffy for all of us researchers to be in here at once."

He made a good point. Without hesitation, the lead researcher nodded.

"I agree. We should head to the surface for a while. I am sure we will find something to please Briar on our way back. How does that sound?"

The men all cheered. It seemed as if nobody wanted to be here any longer.

"Alright, then it's settled. Onward, my men!"

And so the research team began to pack up and head out. As they did so, the door slid closed behind them, the lab back to its lifeless, dormant state.

….

Suddenly, the main computer the scientists were using earlier lights up, and a loading screen with what seems to be a bar on it lights up.

"Activating Project Venus. Initialization Phase: 0.01%."