PMD: Warped Skies

by Team Ion

Playing the part of the hero sounded fun at first, until he took a meaty punch to the face. Stranded in a world reminiscent of a game he once knew, a human-turned-Meowth struggles to retain his humanity while filling the shoes of the game's protagonists. However, this is not a game. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers, SI-OC/Isekai. Cover by Bograbbit!

30. On Our Way

So… yeah. You're probably wondering what the HELL I just did at the end of the previous chapter. Haa… :'(

After that behemoth, this chapter is a little shorter. Still not 'short' but not passed 17,000 words like the previous one!

---

"Sean," Striker said, rousing the sleeping riolu.

Sean yawned and cracked his eyes open, squinting against the sun and coming up to rub his face with his paws. Some water splashed onto his hanging tail and he twitched before leaning over to scoop some up and throw it into his face.

The salt burned and Sean briefly regretted everything.

As Sean carried on, Striker carefully made his way over to Rai. It was about two steps, but his surface was rocking, and he didn't want to fall off.

"Shinx?" Striker asked, giving Rai a poke. Rai frowned and mumbled something, trying to turn over. Thankfully the craterous texture of the shell prevented him from rolling into the water and Sean's groaning helped bring him to consciousness as well.

"W-where?" Rai asked, yawning.

"We are nearing the Hidden Land," Lapras said, having overheard everything. Rai blinked and sat up, remembering where he was.

"Right," he said, quietly. The rest of the memories from the previous day began to hit him and he found he didn't want to look at Striker. Looking at Sean was also unwelcome, so he stared past Lapras' neck instead.

"Is that… what is that?" Rai asked, peering forward to a break in the sky and sea before them. It was minute and difficult to see at first, simply a twist in space, but once one spotted it they could not unsee it.

"Why are the waves twisting?" Striker asked, alarmed at the prospect of something he was not prepared for.

"Do not be concerned," Lapras soothed. "That is the edge of the gap in time. That is the portal through which we will reach the Hidden Land."

"Is this what Spinda meant?" Sean muttered, his eyes mostly free of salt. None of the others responded to that, as Lapras began to speed up.

His fins touching a clearer water, all three of his riders jolted with the sudden increase in speed.

"W-woah," Rai squeaked, clutching on as Lapras began to go faster and faster until his fins began to leave the water.

"Okay," Lapras said, voice steady, "here we go." All three grabbed onto whatever they could to steady themselves, but it was unneeded. There was no turbulence or rockiness to their movement, even the wind rushing by their ears was pleasant.

"I'd advise closing your eyes for a moment," Lapras said, all three obeying. Everything began to go white and he too closed his eyes before his head touched the ripple in time and space.

"It is safe now," Lapras said and all three opened their eyes carefully.

"Lapras?" Striker gasped. "Is that it?"

Sean finished. "This is the Hidden Land?"

"Yes. This is the Hidden Land. Dialga's domain." He nodded towards where a tower stood before everyone realised there was no ground or sea below them.

Rai started as he saw into the abyss. "We're flying?" Rai squeaked, clutching on even harder.

"Is that it…?" Striker muttered.

"No. I am crossing the sea of time," Lapras answered as they began to approach the landmass. From their vantage point, a great deal of the Hidden Land could be seen.

Mountainous spires jutted from the ground, dotting the landscape with pyramids of danger and adventure. Between the peaks, thick, green, woodlands sprung, carpeting the land in the natural splendour of untamed wilds.

"We're going in," Lapras said, "hold onto something." He nosed his head down and sped up even further, approaching a part poking out of the landscape, a natural shoreline for the sea of time.

Lapras came to a gentle stop, resting seemingly in mid-air. He swayed a slight amount, moved by an invisible current. Carefully, the three climbed off and onto the floating, but perfectly solid, land.

"Thank you," Sean said, quietly bowing to Lapras.

The transporter smiled to him and bowed back. "There is no need to thank me. I've done what I can."

"What can you tell us of this place?" Striker asked as Rai took a deep breath, smelling the area.

"Very little, I am afraid." Lapras' demeanour changed to a quiet apology. "I have not been any farther than this port. All I can say is that Dialga awaits at the top of Temporal Tower." He nodded again to the floating citadel, still visible even from this point. "And that the Hidden Land exists one perfect second out of sync with the rest of time."

"What does that mean?" Striker pressed. Lapras smiled at him.

"Nothing that can help or hinder your work here," he said, "it is simply the means of guarding this place. Besides the one specific entrance, it is impossible to find the Hidden Land for it exists one second beyond the normal time and always does."

Striker nodded. "We did truly need the key, then."

Lapras nodded once more, looking to Rai as well as the shinx turned back. "That is one last thing, actually," he said, "the… 'key' unlocks more than just the entranceway. I do not know exactly where or how, but my family has passed down for generations that such an item unlocks the path to Temporal Tower as well in a place I only know as the Old Ruins. Guard it well."

Rai looked to the Relic Fragment, heavy and relaxing against his neck. He nodded. "I'm not losing it," he said, deciding to omit saying again.

Lapras nodded one last time. "Do not dawdle," he instructed, raising himself up. "I will wait for you here, but time is truly of the essence. You must repair Temporal Tower by any means, Dialga may not welcome you in their state, however. I can give you only one piece of advice, distract it and set the Time Gears within their place. That is all I can hope you must do."

"Thank you," all three said and Lapras smiled.

"I wish you a safe journey."

Rai, Sean, and Striker stepped forward, the steady presence of Lapras watching them leave before they were consumed by the dungeon that existed before them.

"There is no doubt in my mind now," Striker said as they entered the dungeon. He looked to Sean, who nodded back.

"There wasn't much to begin with. Dialga's citadel is the same, so we have been in the future of the Hidden Land before."

"Only that it was connected to the rest of the world," Striker said, "Dialga must have lost control of the defence mechanism."

"Does this matter?" Rai asked, eyes set firmly ahead.

"Yes," Striker answered, "the two of us know the landscape well. While some areas are undoubtably unfamiliar, many of the dungeons are the same. The one we are within right now was known as the Forest of Woe and is an excellent path to where I believe we need to go."

Sean smiled slightly at the name while Rai gave them a disturbed look. "Fun name for a dungeon," he pointed out.

Striker laughed. "Aren't they all?"

Rai frowned and turned away, putting his eyes back on the dungeon as something shook.

Or, really, everything shook.

One of them shouted out in alarm as the world shifted, Sean toppled over, and Rai's claws came out to grip the ground. A wall of trees simply crumbled into nothingness as the tremor began to cease.

"What… was that?" Rai gasped. Nothing had attacked them, nothing besides the dungeon itself.

"I do not know," Striker answered, helping Sean up with a grunt. He hadn't fallen over himself, but something had struck his leg and the limb rang with pain.

"Whatever it was," Sean said, breathing fast, "it can't be good. We better hurry up."

Looking left and right, the trio of time savers began to speed up. Striker concealed any pain in his leg with a smile and they pushed on as pokémon began to appear.

It was most unsettling. From cracks in what passed for walls in this dungeon that led into a null space, creatures materialised.

Some were reaching out, trying to claw their way out. Some succeeded but moved immediately to attack. There was no sense in their minds and no mercy reflected in their eyes.

Striker always struck first, Sean copying a Bullet Seed or Energy Ball to back up his moves. Rai's attacks inflicted the most effect, stunning the enemies with shocks of electricity.

Some stopped completely after Rai blasted them, only staring forward in utter silence until they were either knocked out or the trio had pushed further, leaving upright headstones of pokémon watching them go.

"Do it again!" Striker ordered as attackers formed through the cracks in the walls, or spilled from entrances into the room they were in. Rai nodded and discharged all the electricity he could, blanketing the creatures in a shock wave of energy.

He panted for breath as they ran past, each former attacker simply staring at them as they left.

"What are they doing?" Rai asked, keeping stride with the two bipedal pokémon.

"I don't know," Striker answered, risking a glance back while Sean watched their path. "And I don't like not knowing."

Sean's tassels quivered and he braked to a stop, throwing an arm out that clubbed Striker in the belly. "Watch out!" he yelled, Rai not being blocked in kind.

From the barest crack in the wall, unnoticeable if one wasn't looking for it, a manectric came tumbling through, snarling and spitting.

Rai was pinned as it landed right on him and he let loose the storm in reflex, only for it to be absorbed completely by the manectric.

It tried to bite his throat out, but Striker grabbed its head in time and wrenched it away as Sean slammed his palm into its side and something exploded with force.

The manectric was thrown into the wall and it cracked its head and went down. All three of them watched it warily, but it didn't get up.

"Here," Sean said, extending a paw for Rai. Rai was a quadruped, however, and just stood up.

"Thank you," he said, bowing his head.

Striker began to move forward. "Let's continue," he said, before nodding to Sean. "Good work, Sean. Keep an eye out for anymore."

Sean nodded as Rai's face screwed up slightly. "I felt it coming," he said, flicking one of his tassels. Striker nodded happily and they continued on.

"I wish Sea-Scout was here," Rai said, quietly. He quickly pinched his mouth closed, he hadn't meant for it to slip out.

The other two gave him sad looks of different varieties. Sean a guilty one that lasted only a moment before he looked away, and Striker an emphatic one that met Rai's eyes.

"Yeah."

"We have to keep going. For him."

---

Dialga roared. Dialga screamed. Its head was tossed around on its long neck, eyes bulging and spittle flying.

A pulse of power burst out and Scout was nearly blown back from the shockwave. Dusknoir roared out in pain, desperately shielding Scout from the blast.

"Master," Dusknoir gasped, trembling as he held one hand out to placate the rampaging legendary while the other hand held Scout firmly safe. "Please. I have a plan. I have a plan."

Dialga screeched something else and pulsed out again, before it took flight. Dusknoir groaned in relief and his grip on Scout loosened for a moment.

Scout tore himself free and leaped back, claws coming out on both paws as he raised his good arm in an attempt to be threatening.

"Scout!" Dusknoir coughed, spinning around on him as the sableye, now with Dialga gone, snuck back in and surrounded him. Dusknoir raised a hand, trying to placate him. "It's alright. You're safe now."

"Safe?" Scout spat, tears pricking his eyes. "SAFE?"

"YES," Dusknoir roared back. The sableye all flinched. "You are not in that accursed time. It makes you think differently." Dusknoir's voice turned to pleading. "It makes you think a sacrifice is worth it. It's not worth your life, Scout! It isn't! Please listen to me!"

"I will NOT!" Scout screamed, "you are a coward and a traitor and don't deserve-"

Two of the sableye took their chance and pounced on Scout, grabbing him by the arms and holding him firmly as the others ran in to restrain him.

"LET ME GO!"

"You will hurt yourself," Dusknoir croaked, covering his face for a moment.

Scout growled, voice warping. His vision went black for a moment as Scout pulled both arms down, throwing the sableye over his shoulders before slashing up with his claws. The double Night Slash knocked the two sableye flying and Dusknoir groaned again.

Scout growled again, eyes going completely black as the Dark energy coursed through his claws, dripping onto the pale stone.

"Scout," Dusknoir said, warningly. Holding his arms up again. "Do not fight. You will be safe, you will be protected. Just let me PROTECT YOU," Dusknoir yelled, voice breaking, "you have no place to run and everyone else has abandoned you. I am everything you had and everything you need! STOP THIS!"

Scout shook, shaking and trembling. "No," he whispered, shaking his head, "all you did was take everything from me."

The darkness receded as Scout's claws went light again. He fell to his knees and covered his face, tears splattering the ground to wash the blackness away.

"Scout," Dusknoir said, softly. He floated over to Scout and picked him up, gently, in his shaking arms. "It's alright. I'm here." He pulled Scout to his chest and nodded to the sableye. The other four were supporting the two Scout had slashed, none of them were saying anything.

Scout didn't reply, he just continued to shake as he was carried away from where the Passage of Time lay, dormant and unusable.

Dusknoir felt Scout begin to relax, stop shaking, and begin to breathe properly again. He gently stroked Scout's back, focusing on the areas he knew Scout had always enjoyed when he was raising him.

"You know who I am now, correct?" he asked, quietly, as they began to make their way back to the stronghold. It wouldn't take too long, with Master Dialga's help he had a shortcut or two the sableye had taken to get ahead of them in the first place.

There was some time before Scout responded. The sableye kept up the background chatter to hold the madness at bay until he felt Scout shift, he had a feeling he was ready to talk.

Which one of them was ready to listen, however, was the real question.

"Sean told me," Scout replied. He, as much as he hated to admit it, was safe now. Not as safe as he would have been and now trapped with Dusknoir, but this was okay. He still wanted to freak out, cry, bury his head in Dusknoir's cool hands and just sleep, but he clearly didn't get what he wanted.

That thought made him smile a little. "Mane makes such good points," he thought, fondly thinking back on their one-sided argument yesterday, or today he wasn't sure really. How that felt so long ago already, he didn't know.

"What did Sean say?" Dusknoir probed, Scout was replying but he had to know everything.

Scout decided to be honest. He was too sick of double truths and technical statements to lie. He wasn't even sure why he would, anymore.

"He told me that you raised me," Scout answered, speaking clearly even though his face was still partially tangled in Dusknoir's fingers. "That we first met them when we tried to rob them, and that the fight it caused somehow turned into friendship."

Humming slightly, he restarted the petting, Dusknoir nodded. He missed this, his fingers twitched so often without being able to groom Scout's fur or give him a pet behind the ear. Was that unbecoming for his guardian, probably, but for so long they only had each other, and habits weren't easy to break.

"It was Sean," Dusknoir explained. "I was fighting Striker when he was still a treecko, you had already ran off with their bag and the human wasn't particularly able for combat but pursuing you. You came back running when you heard me cry out and the human wasn't far behind. We were arguing, nearly missed the fact we were being surrounded by something far worse than just bandits."

"Worse?"

"The monsters that crawl upon the land." Dusknoir said. "We had to work together to fight them off. I wonder if he regrets that… no. I don't wonder that. I wonder if he would do different if he, somehow, was able to go back to change that, let me take a blow?"

Scout frowned, he felt like he knew where this was leading. He remained silent, letting Dusknoir talk.

"I would like to ask him, but I don't know if he'd be able to give me a truly honest answer. We may be enemies now, but there were a great many times we saved each other. I was given the name 'Guardian' by Sean, you know?" Scout nodded. "Yes. Because I protected us all. It is painfully ironic to them now, but I still hold true to that name. I am a protector, not a destroyer."

"This world is destroyed, Dusknoir," Scout replied, voice weary and quiet. He raised his head, rolled over and rested in his hands rather than being carried like a log. Scout looked up, he looked forward, he looked from side to side.

"Why is this worth more to protect then what the world used to be?" Scout asked, feeling Dusknoir's silence behind him. Even the sableye were quiet now. "You saw the world. Treasure Town. The millions of people living in the day and the night. The food, the water, living rather than surviving."

Dusknoir remained silent, one of the sableye quietly asked. "Living rather than surviving?"

It meeped and Scout gathered that Dusknoir had glared at it for speaking and for asking that specifically.

He leaned back, looking up to Dusknoir's dulled eye. "Are you trying to live? Or are you trying to survive?"

"They are the same thing," Dusknoir whispered back, anything louder and it'd be a croak.

Scout smiled, he pulled himself back up and looked forward. "You were in the past. You were all in the past. You know that's not true."

"Scout…" Dusknoir slowly pulled him up against his wispy, yet still firm, chest. "Surviving is still better than being erased."

Scout sighed sadly, he wondered if it was possible to convince Dusknoir. Grovyle had befriended him, somehow, in the game, but was there enough time for that?

"What if you aren't erased?" Scout asked, quietly. "Would you save the world, then?"

"There is no question of it, Scout," Dusknoir replied, "to change the past to such an extreme, everyone in this world would be erased. The greatest loss of life ever unknown."

"How many people died when the world was ruined?" Scout retorted. "I see mostly Ghost-type pokémon… like you."

Dusknoir gave the weakest, shortest, laugh. "Yes. Just like me."

Feeling chilly all of a sudden, Scout instinctively tried to pull back, but Dusknoir's grip while gentle, was firm.

"The sableye too," Dusknoir said. "None of us may truly remember who we were before, but none of us want to die again."

"What if you won't?" Scout repeated.

"Changing time erases us all. Me and you. I cannot accept that."

"But how do you know? What if there was a way otherwise?"

"There is no other way, Scout," Dusknoir said, voice tinging with a hint of frustration.

"You know Dialga only cares for its own survival," Scout snapped. "Why would you listen-"

"Dialga didn't tell me that."

Scout paused. He looked back to Dusknoir. "Pardon? Who did then?"

"Giratina," Dusknoir answered. Scout's eyes widened, that was a slight snag.

He had no real answer to that, so Scout turned back around to the front. They were passing over some hills of darkness, a few wretched creatures lurching around. It didn't seem like a dungeon, something better and worse.

He had only one real ace left to use, but to tell Dusknoir?

"When the future is changed," Scout said, focusing on the when and not if, "can't Dialga do something about that? Sane Dialga, in the past? It's the ruler of time, an actual deity. Couldn't it revive someone erased?"

"Malarkey," Dusknoir replied. "That is fanciful, Scout."

"But how can you say it cannot happen?" Scout replied. "What about Arceus? Or other legendary pokémon. Who do you think they'd revive? The heroes who saved time and sacrificed themselves, or a villain who tried to stop it."

Dusknoir's hands clenched reflexively, nearly choking Scout before he was able to control himself. A sableye gave a most nervous giggle as Dusknoir took a breath.

"Don't…" he said, voice dark, "call me a villain."

Scout nearly flinched at the deadly tone, but he didn't back down. "It's what you-"

The next time he woke up, he was being carried to his cell. Dusknoir was muttering things under his breath, but his head pounded, and ears rang, and he was having trouble making it out.

Despite Dusknoir's still trembling anger, he gently set him down and quickly began to restrain him. A pair of sableye brought in extra tools and by the time Scout was fully awake again, his paws were tied behind his back, the chain that had doomed him to this was fastened by a thicker, shorter, chain and even his tail was tied and pinned to his leg.

"Is this really necessary?" he asked, Dusknoir startling at his voice.

"Ah, Scout," he began, voice all rumbly, "this is simply a precaution after the last time." He turned to the assembled sableye and all flinched as his eye lit up with murder.

"One of you," Dusknoir growled, "will watch him. You will not let him out of your sight. If he escapes again there will be nowhere you can hide from me. Understand?" The six of them rapidly nodded. "Good. Choose amongst yourselves and don't choose the one that watched him last time, I need to begin preparations. Meet me at the Dusk Spire immediately."

Dusknoir floated away. He briefly paused to glance back at Scout and appeared to wish to say something. He shook his head and continued on, not spitting whatever it was out.

"O-okay," a nervous sableye began.

"Not you," the other five said in unison. He nodded and Scout knew it was the one who had been guarding him before. He watched carefully as the other five sableye decided amongst themselves.

The one that seemed to be seen as the leader of the five was quickly standing with the nervous sableye. Lead Sableye had to lead them.

Chill Sableye was voted out next, and Aggressive Sableye insisted it'd be too boring to stand around with a sullen meowth.

Quiet Sableye and Hungry Sableye played Grass-Fire-Water to decide, playing best of three.

"Score!" the not-so quiet sableye cheered, he had won and therefor was able to have the easiest job of watching the prisoner.

"Don't sneak off to snack," Lead Sableye ordered, getting a nod from the sableye remaining behind.

"Good luck." He grinned, saluting them off. The other five sableye disappeared and the two were left alone.

Scout tested the restraints. They were unpleasantly good. With his paws behind his back and pointed upwards, he couldn't stick a claw through the chain to Night Slash his way to freedom again, and the chain itself was thicker anyway.

He couldn't get as close to the bars and his tail was not appreciating being stuck down to his leg. He was well and truly stuck.

Scout's eyes fell on the sableye left to guard him. It was watching him, but had already sat down to relax, laying against the wall picking at its dagger-sharp teeth with a claw.

It noticed him staring. "What?"

Scout glanced away. It sighed. "Whatever. Let's get the awkward part out of the way. I'm Sableye, you're the guest of honour that's not allowed to go anywhere. One of us gotta be talking at least a little bit or we'll go coocoo. Hear me?"

Scout shrugged, he didn't really want to talk. For now, it could chatter on itself. He had something to try.

"Scout?" he thought, crossing his eyes before closing them. "Scout? Can you hear me?" The mystery of who he was had been digging at him since the first time he was imprisoned, much nicer conditions in the Team Magnezone prisons he had to admit.

Chatot had tried to reassure him that he was no killer and several pokémon had said that he was Scout, just a little different. He, however, still couldn't be sure.

He hadn't tried to communicate with the original owner of the body, unless he was and something else was afoot, but Scout was sure of something. He, or whoever originally was Scout, was not aware of any game that this world was apparently a part of.

Unless he was simply much better at being sneaky then he was now, one of the others had to have known something.

Part of him wished he was able to ask Dusknoir, but the rest of him was sure that would have been a bad idea anyway.

"Scout?" he tried again, trying to focus hard. "Scout? Meowth? Owner of this body that might not be me? Hello? Is anything there."

He waited.

Nothing.

Scout sighed and opened his eyes, blinking the blackness out of them and giving his head a shake. He missed something as it fell to the dark ground.

Sableye was staring at him again.

"You're not gonna go wacko on me?" it asked, "why were you shaking your head all wildly?"

"Just shaking some loose thoughts out," Scout replied, it groaned.

"He's going nuts on me already."

Scout laughed. It was fake but sounded plausible. Sableye paused at the sound, laughter wasn't common in this time, and began to believe his own proclamations all the more.

"I'm fine," Scout said to its worried look. It was worried for itself, he knew, but that was also fine. "Hey, so I'm bored, so why don't we play a game? Tic-Tac-Toe in the dirt, it'll be fun and something to do until Dusknoir and the others get back!"

Sableye was thrown somewhat off guard by the sudden friendliness and narrowed its eyes, eyelids moving over the gem-encrusted eyes for a moment before they pulled back. It met his eyes for a long moment before shrugging, Master Dusknoir might even reward him for entertaining his kid.

"How are you going to do this?" he asked, coming closer.

"You make the board," Scout replied, "and I'll tell you where to put my marks. Here's what you have to draw…"

He began to give Sableye step-by-step instructions while his mind whirred. Maybe there was another Scout, maybe there wasn't. But that could be worked out later. For now, he had to get out of here.

Scout's eyes met Sableye's as often as he could do it without looking incredibly suspicious. Celebi had told him that a weak Hypnosis, like his own, could leave a target more susceptible to suggestion.

He was going to test this out.

---

Rai groaned and pulled himself forward. Sean stuffed an oran berry down his maw and Rai found the energy to power onwards.

The Hidden Land was brutal. He was just a shinx and things like garchomp were around to really make his day all the worse.

Sean wasn't having the easiest time either, but he was more used to surviving from moment to moment and knew what battles to pick to fight and what ones to inflict pain and just run from.

Striker was the real saving grace. His strength was impressive, and he seemed to take it upon himself to keep the other two from the worst of the trouble besetting them from every side and occasionally from apparent breaks in reality.

Always fun.

Rai, however, was still feeling Brine Cave from yesterday. Not only Chatot's sacrifice but the wounds Kabutops did manage to inflict on him. Nasty cut in his side and various twinges from fighting Omastar and the dungeon in general.

As the bag holder, Sean was the least tired or injured, but he did what he could. Copying Rai's own electrical attacks to stun enemies into simply staring at them and directing the two to press the advantage on the right enemies while instructing them to leave the worse ones alone.

Rai appreciated the directions, even if being ordered around gave him painful memories of Chatot.

There wasn't time to lay down and lick his wounds, however, so Rai continued powering at it. Things were difficult, but progressing, until two of them made a mistake.

Rai, having grown used to zapping an enemy and then just moving on, was unprepared for one to attack him anyway. It had blinked at him for a moment after the electrical shock, and he moved on to continue fighting.

Having taken his eyes off it, he was completely unprepared for it to retaliate with a deadly parade of flying poisonous barbs.

Striker, being ever-vigilant, saw it coming and moved.

"Grovyle!" Rai yelped as he was tackled out of the way. "What?"

Striker grunted and pushed off him, tearing numerous purple spikes out of his scales. The attacker, something that could barely be described as a venomoth, came around for another go at it. Then it exploded from the tossed Blast Seed Sean threw out.

He had a pecha berry, which Striker immediately swallowed, and they got out of the room. Rai was trembling and Striker tried to lay a comforting hand on his back.

Rai immediately shrugged out of it and turned back to him. "Don't you DARE ever do something like that again," Rai shouted, Striker blinking once before growing affronted.

"Protect you?" he demanded.

"I don't NEED protection," Rai growled, tears spiking the corners of his eyes. "I don't WANT protection. I don't want ANYONE sacrificing themselves for me EVER AGAIN."

Striker was unmoved. "I am not the kind to just allow a teammate to be wounded, especially one with a unique advantage here."

"What did I just say?"

"Please don't," Sean groaned, voice as tense as a wound spring. He took a breath and steadied himself, but his tone was still fraught with simmering tension. "Don't argue, don't shout, don't be idiots and try and make bad blood here and now. Just breathe and walk on."

Rai and Striker gave him a look but acquiesced. Sean felt the weight in his bag and the emptiness of his belly. It wasn't much farther now, and the attacks were, thankfully, growing thin.

Once the trio entered the stable zone of the dungeon, Sean dropped the bag and sat down with a sigh.

"We've got to take a break," he said, when Striker objected. "Have some water, eat this." He divided a few apples and they were taken with no fuss.

Sean sighed and closed his eyes. He wasn't intending to have a nap, he just wanted to think without everything assaulting his vision. Striker would watch over the area, it was pointless to ask him to relax.

Rai, on the other paw, held a more contemplative expression.

"I, uh… I haven't asked this before," he began, feeling suddenly nervous. Sean cracked an eye open and Striker glanced his way. "But I wanted to ask you both about Sean."

"I'm Sean," the riolu pointed out. Rai's expression flashed with horror before annoyance settled on it. Sean tensed, fearing Rai was going to start an argument.

"I'm sorry," Rai said instead. Sean breathed a sigh of relief. "I've known… Scout," he said the word deliberately, tasting it with a frown, "as Sean for so much longer. I keep thinking of him with that name."

"He said he was having a bit of trouble with it too," Sean offered, "in the future," he added in explanation. "Thinking he was, well, me for as long as he had and still with no real memories of his actual past…"

"So he still doesn't remember?" Rai asked, Sean shook his head.

"That is very odd," Striker said, glancing back to them before returning to watch the exits. He spoke anyway. "Memory loss in that regard. That… isn't natural."

"Head blows and time travel are natural?" Sean joked, Striker gave him a reprimanding look, but it was soft, and he smiled anyway.

"We were attacked when travelling through time," Striker pointed out, Rai chose to listen quietly for now. "And nothing like that happened on your second trip?"

Sean shook his head. "No. Nothing attacked us. It was difficult to 'see' but it was easier the second time, I wasn't even unconscious for as long."

"Hm." Was all Striker had to offer.

Rai decided now was a good time to chime in. "How did you travel back in time?" he asked, partially curious and partially wanting to know the details for later.

"Celebi helped us," Sean answered, happily. "She's capable of opening the Passage of Time."

Rai nodded. Something to ask about later, he had something else he wanted to ask even more.

"What was… Scout like?" he asked, quietly looking down at the grass. Sean smiled and exchanged a grin with Striker.

"Feisty," Sean said, "very quick."

"He was probably the most sensitive of us all," Striker added, knowing more of the nuances about Scout then Sean did. "Picked that up from… well, his father."

"Dusknoir?" Rai asked, getting a solemn nod from Sean.

"Yeah. Guardian, that's his name, was a big softie to. Always be cuddling Scout, because of that Scout always wanted cuddles too."

"During rest time when he should be keeping sentry," Striker said, waving a hand dismissively.

"Or when we were on the move." Sean grinned.

"He enjoyed collecting things."

"Loved seeds, his favourite were always Blast Seeds and Plain Seeds."

"He picked that up from Sean, lover of explosions and tasteless seeds he is."

"They are a good palate cleanser!"

"Sure."

"What about your obsession with orbs?"

"Orbs are practical and useful! Stop bringing that up!"

Rai started laughing, snapping them out of their focus on each other. Both of them smiled and shook their heads at each other.

Despite Rai's laughter, it sounded almost sad. He smiled at them. "You really were a team, huh?"

Sean nodded, but Striker had something to say. "We were." Sean's frown deepened but he took a breath and dispelled it. "A family too, close as brothers, or in one case, father and son. But even then, I've never seen him as happy as he was with you."

Rai's ears went pink as Striker smiled at him. "I didn't travel with the two of you for very long and, to be honest, seeing just how happy he was that left me doubting if it was really him."

"He wasn't happy?" Sean asked, Striker gave him a look that held a thousand different emotions, thoughts, memories.

"Can you compare how we are here to how we were there?" Striker asked, shaking his head. "He was as happy as he could be in the future, but…"

Sean nodded. Striker gave him a comforting smile, he knew Sean always put it on himself to make sure they were all cared for. Part of him regretted saying that, but there was more of him that wanted to give comfort to Shinx.

Of the two, only one of them would really need it in the long run.

Then, a smirk lit his face as a devilish idea popped in his head. Before he could really think it through, Striker said. "Oh and I caught a little something between you two. Especially at the light show at the lake."

Rai immediately jolted as if he was zapped and went red in the ears. "Excuse you!?"

Sean laughed as Rai fluffed up. "That's pretty cute."

"I'm not cute!" Rai growled, yet despite the words and the behaviour, the retort was without any heat. His fur settled and he sighed, he missed Scout.

"Scout was definitely the sharpest of the five of us," Sean added, feeling like Rai could use some extra stories. "Those eyes I think."

"He was our scout after all," Striker said, smiling again. "Sometimes I wondered just how much you really understood how accurate your names for us were."

Sean grinned at him.

Striker stood. "We've rested enough," he said. Sean nodded. Rai sighed but got up in kind and cracked his back.

"There can't be that much more, can there be?" he asked, as they began the walk out of the safe zone.

---

"Damn," Scout cursed, "you win again. How are you doing this?"

"Heh," Sableye chuckled, scratching out the board, "guess I'm just a master at this."

They had played Tic-Tac-Toe with some difficulty for a while so far. Scout had won the first game and then about one out of every seven games since then. He was visibly frustrated but doing his best to keep his cool.

"Okay. I'm going first. Circle in the middle."

They played again, with the sableye managing yet another upsetting victory.

"I blame this entirely on having a concussion," Scout defended as Sableye laughed at him. "Fine. Can we try a different game? I saw you playing, uh, 'Grass-Fire-Water' earlier? How do you play that?"

It was tricky having nubby paws and not the spindly finger-claws of the sableye and he was forced to go Grass more often than not. Which Sableye took delighted advantage of.

He gave up and switched back to some variations on Tic-Tac-Toe that he could think of. 4 in a row on a bigger board, even moving onto 5 in a row that took time to scratch out to have a field big enough.

Through the dim lighting and his restraints, Scout couldn't see the board quite well and could only direct Sableye as best as he could, from the constant giggles he wondered if Sableye was cheating but didn't say anything.

He instead blamed the lighting, the concussion, and continued to make Sableye giggle with passive-aggressive remarks and humorous anecdotes he concocted as best he could.

"Yeah, Sean with his big long fingers was always the best at playing the Turn Your Head and Cough game, but no one really liked playing that."

Thankfully, Sableye didn't always understand the drivel he was putting out.

His reproachful tone when recounting stories that didn't happen were enough to make the thing giggle.

"Five in a row!" Sableye crowed, raising its arms victoriously. Scout peered at him suspiciously, but quickly sighed and bent his head.

"Gah, dammit. I'd ask who taught you, but it was me."

"I don't need no teaching," Sableye proclaimed, pointing a claw at itself. "I've always been the smartest of the pack."

"Really now?"

"That's right."

"What's two plus two?"

"Four."

"Dammit."

Scout got a sneaky gleam in his eye. "What's one plus one?"

"Trick question."

Scout sighed theatrically and tried to storm off, the chain caught, and he landed on his belly.

Sableye giggled, but a little more worried this time. More of a nervous titter. "Don't hurt yourself. Master Dusknoir wouldn't be happy about that."

"Sometimes I forget," Scout sighed and pulled himself up. His right arm was still stinging, but he was getting movement out of it. Bits of scattered memory of being carried gave him the idea that Dusknoir had done something to his arm.

The green goop that wasn't, thankfully, pus coming from his injured paw implied he'd tried something medical. Scout hoped that was the case, at least.

"Well, what do you want to do now?" Sableye asked, bored again. "Wanna try and break my streak?" it asked eagerly. Board, or dirt, games were much more enjoyable than sitting around in monotony.

"Maybe later," Scout replied. "I'm really hungry."

"Yeah, me too."

Scout nodded. He was aware, most of Sableye's own stories had related food in some way.

"Well, what's there to eat?" he asked, meeting its diamond-covered eyes.

Sableye paused slightly and blinked. It was still weird to see eyelids closing around those diamonds, bulging out for a brief, unsettling, moment. He wondered why it even had eyelids, he was sure he'd seen a sableye conked out and snoring with diamonds facing right up before.

"The Master feeds us at allotted times," Sableye replied, sounding a little unsure of himself. "I don't know where it comes from. I've tried to learn, but he threatened to break my fingers and skip me out for lunch one day."

The second comment disturbed Sableye more than the finger-breaking threat that turned Scout's stomach a little.

"I have food," Scout replied, easily. He glanced around, his bag wasn't there. Dusknoir hadn't been so careless as to leave his bag in the jailing room again. "It's in my bag though."

Sableye lit up happily, before frowning as it glanced around. "Oh, uh… not here. It's in the weird room with the medical stuff we put on your paw because it was all yellow and smelling funny."

"I'm really hungry," Scout said, meeting Sableye's eyes again. Part of him thanked his lucky stars he was adorable enough to get his companions from this time to teach them moves, and even more lucky that his body remembered even if his mind didn't.

At least, he assumed it was working. He had gotten Night Slash down fairly well and even Shadow Ball had been easy even though he had to watch his blood dissolve dozens of times over a couple hours.

Celebi had said he got something out of his attempt with her.

"Dusknoir probably wouldn't want me starving," he added again to try and push. He was getting a little nervous now. Were the diamonds interfering or had Celebi just been bored of sitting around.

"Yeah! Yeah. Yeah…" Sableye glanced to the door. "Yeah. I'll be back."

Scout breathed a sigh of relief as it disappeared. As much as he would like to try, the chains were unbearable thick, and he'd nearly shattered his claws breaking the thinner ones. He would not be able to break them.

Even if he had, going out alone would be a dire mistake. Once was three times too many.

So, for now, he had to keep at it.

Sableye appeared again quickly, panting and unsettled.

"I should NOT have gone," it said, and Scout cursed inwardly. It did, however, have his bag. "Master said not to let you out of my sight."

"I'm still here," he said, lazily, as if it was no big deal. "And hey! Since you brought me some food, how about we share!"

"Share?" Sableye asked, looking down at the bag in confusion, as if he was wondering why it was there. "Share what?"

"An apple," Scout said and almost immediately Sableye was drooling. "You, uh… like apples?"

"Yes."

"Well." Scout suppressed a smile and gestured. "Pull one out."

Sableye didn't need telling twice. Already, he was moving on from his earlier panic. Food was on the mind now."

It took the brief moments of a skilled forager to retrieve the apple. Sableye broke it in half and offered out the bigger half.

"I'm not THAT hungry," he protested, "and you're bigger than me."

"Why are you being so nice?" Sableye asked, getting suspicious. It did pull the larger half back and offer the smaller one through. Scout couldn't quite reach it, so it took some careful steps closer.

His paws were still bound, so Sableye had to awkwardly hang it in the air until he was able to bite into it and pull back. The apple was munched, juice spilling down as he awkwardly tried not to drop it into the dirt. Took some time.

"Why shouldn't I be nice?" Scout asked, once he dropped the apple, feeling like not addressing the question would only ruin what was being fostered already.

"You're a captive," Sableye pointed out, "I know Master Dusknoir likes you and wants you safe, for some reason, but you're still trapped here, taken from everyone you were with before. You definitely didn't want to be here."

"You didn't put me in here," he said, looking sadly down at most of the apple. He was, in fact, quite hungry so he shelved his thoughts and bent down to eat it off the floor. Once another few bites were down, and Sableye also ate his half, he continued.

"You're nice to me, it'd be rude to be, well, rude back."

Sableye gave him a funny look at being called nice. He recalled schooling the meowth completely in games of wit and skill. But, at the same time, he wasn't torturing or taunting him.

Well, a little bit of taunting, but perfectly friendly stuff.

Beating him so badly could maybe be constituted as torture, certainly sounded like it without context.

But they shared some laughs, that was what counted, Sableye decided.

"If you're still hungry I have a gummi too," Scout said, totally smoothly.

"What's a gummi?" Sableye asked. In that moment, Scout felt closer to Loudred than he ever had before.

"You… don't know?" While he did enjoy Plain Seeds a lot, they were a great pallet cleanser or safe snack to munch on, he did overact on his enjoyment of them. It was hilarious to see others get so confused over it.

Gummi's, however, were delicious. Closest thing to gummy treats from the world he probably wasn't from. But he had vague memories of something soft, chewy, and delicious.

"It's that yellow… long thing in there." Scout scrambled for words to describe it. He couldn't remember if bananas existed and couldn't think of any other way to describe it.

Sableye still managed to find it. There weren't many yellow things in his bag.

He held it out dubiously. "That's the one!" Scout beamed. He regretted not being able to save it for Rai, he would enjoy it the most, but sacrifices had to be made.

"I dunno about this one," Sableye said, not entirely trusting something he didn't recognise. Scout shrugged.

"More for me then!" he said happily, getting as close to the bars as he could. Sableye carefully poked it through until he was able to scrape off a bite.

It was like Sableye thought he'd try and chomp onto his fingers or something.

Sableye watched him chew and swallow, somewhat uncomfortable for the both of them, and when no ill effects occurred, he took a taste himself.

It took nearly two whole seconds that might not even tick before he had stuffed the remainder into his mouth and was chewing frantically.

That too was a little uncomfortable to watch. Especially when it moaned and shuddered. He wondered if he should look away and cough.

"What was that?" Sableye demanded, coming up to the bars. Scout turned back, hoping the display was over and there was nothing more to see.

"A Yellow Gummi," he answered happily. "Not the tastiest kind for you or me but pretty good nonetheless."

"Pretty good?" Sableye repeated before he rattled the bars. "PRETTY GOOD? That was the most beautiful thing I've ever tasted, and you say something tastes BETTER?"

He was spitting a little, not helped by the saliva generation. Scout really wished for use of his paws to wipe his face. "Y-yes?"

"Where do I get them."

It took a lot of willpower to not grin at that. A great, great, deal.

"Treasure Town," he answered, before shrugging. "Well, not Treasure Town of THIS time. Ugh." That was a thought, however. "More like the past. I haven't seen any in this time."

Not a lie. He had the Yellow Gummi since before everything had gone to shit. Rai had pleaded for it, but he said they should save it to make a drink out of at Spinda's Café. Otherwise, not a single gummi had been spotted in this terrible place.

"Oh." Sableye looked crestfallen. Scout began to feel a little bad, his captor almost looked ready to begin weeping the kinds of tears recounted in ballads.

Maybe this would be told in odes to glory, if he could play this right.

"I know a way to the past," he said as plainly as he could. No simpering tone or smooth silky tenor. Plain speech, bold and brash.

Sableye was immediately back on guard. "Oh, no-no-no," it said, stepping back. "I'm not falling for any tricks you hear?"

"Not a trick," Scout replied. "I've been to the past and I know… what… yeah three different ways back here. Although one is the stupidest thing ever and the other might be a bit tricky. The third way, however, that'd be easy."

"I don't wanna hear this!" Sableye snapped, stepping further back. "You're gonna spin something! I knew you were too nice!"

"Did I play my hand too soon?" Scout feared, but it was too late to back down now. "I'm not asking you anything," he said, which was true for the moment. Part of him wondered when he'd gotten so comfortable with technical truths. "Just pointing out something."

"You're not gonna trick me!"

"Like how there are no gummi's in this time."

"Yo-" Sableye froze. "Th-that don't mean nothing to me," he said, weakly, as his stomach rumbled. "That also means nothing."

"I know the way," Scout continued, speaking brightly. "I even know how you could escape. Dusknoir wouldn't really notice you gone, would he?"

Sableye continued to hesitate, but he did answer a direct question. "Probably not… the others though… big meanies, but…"

It continued to look unsure, but that was leagues better than adverse. "Well think of this way," Scout said. "Dusknoir told you to keep an eye on me, right? If I'm leading the way, you won't be letting me out of your sight. It's not like I can do much with my arms tied behind my back like this."

"You're just telling me what I want to hear!" Sableye retorted.

"So you do want more gummi's?"

It cursed. "Damn right I do! Can't believe I was in the past for so long and never got a taste. I'd never have left." It began to salivate again. Scout decided that backing off was better for now, let it come to its own decisions.

They waited in silence. Silence long enough for sounds to begin rattling around in their heads, veins whispering and each blink beginning to hiss out words.

Scout considered asking for another game of five in a row when Sableye broke the silence.

"How?" it asked, very quietly but perfectly audible in the silence of the future. "How would you… go back?"

Scout smiled, this one he couldn't help. "There are three main ways," he answered. "One is silly, Dialga." Sableye shivered. "Second is difficult, Celebi." Sableye shook his head. "The third, however, that one is easy."

"What?" he questioned again.

"The hole Dusknoir is using of course!" he said happily. "I guess it's kinda Dialga, but we don't need to go anywhere near it. Just wait out Dusknoir's hole until it's safe to enter and jump in. He won't even know!"

"How do you know where that is?" Sableye demanded. This was the kink in Scout's plan. He had only the vaguest of ideas, knowing that the dimensional holes pathway was through time and space. Going from Treasure Town and they landed in the Hidden Land.

But he did, however, remember where Dusknoir's Dimensional Hole exited Dusknoir, the sableye, and Grovyle.

He had an idea of it, at least.

"Dusknoir was muttering his plans when he thought I was unconscious," Scout replied. "He says a lot under his breath, I noticed."

"Where is it?" Sableye asked. Scout gave him a smile.

"Ever heard of Barren Valley?" he asked. Sableye's gem-encrusted eyes lit up.

"Yes."

"The portal is somewhere around there."

Sableye nodded, looked at him, and hesitated again. "I…" Scout waited. "I don't know. If we get caught, Master Dusknoir will probably not be happy."

"If it comes down to it," Scout said. "I'll back you up. Say I tricked you so you can blend in with the others. He can't tell the difference between you I heard?"

"Yeah, that's right. I… I dunno. This is crazy."

Scout met his eyes again. It was risky to try Hypnosis again. "You've been to the past before," he said softly. "Don't you remember how wonderful it was? Dusknoir would not even notice you're gone, and even if he did and decided to chase you he'd never find you in the past. It's safe, much safer than here. I… I just want to be with my friends."

"You want to change the past," Sableye grumbled.

"And how much help was I?" Scout replied, only mostly self-loathing. He sighed. "I knew stuff and I didn't tell anyone. Keeping secrets is what led to all this. Yes, I want to go back to the past, but so do you, right?"

It was silent. His claws itched.

"R-right."

Scout breathed out a quiet sigh of relief. "Okay! I can get us both to the past, but we have to work together. Neither of us can do this alone, we need to work as a team."

"Well… what do I have to do?" Sableye asked.

"Just take off the cuff," Scout replied, kicking out the leg in question, "you can keep me bound if you want, it will mean you'll be doing most of the fighting though, we'll mostly be running away from enemies."

"I'm great at running away!"

"Me too!"

Sableye nodded and stepped closer, awkwardly. "Uh… okay, step back." Scout complied and Sableye nervously came into the cell. He could see, now that they were closer, small dark points within the gems of its eyes, flitting about nervously.

There was no key, but Sableye was able to carve through the old metal with only a little bit of cursing. He would have damaged Scout's own leg, but the Ghost-type moves used just passed harmlessly through.

Once it was down, Sableye stepped back, nervous again. Scout just smiled thankfully at it and it gave him a shaky nod.

"Could I carry the bag?" Scout asked, stepping out of the cage. "Just to be a little useful on the move."

Sableye helped get it onto his shoulder and Scout nodded to him. "Alrighty then. First, we'll need a map. Also, I'm not sure about calling you Sableye…" he didn't want to ask for an actual name, so he suggested one himself. "Mind if I call you Danny?"

The sableye blinked. "I've never had a name," it replied, a shadow of a pout crossed its face. "Except for the others calling me hungry and glutton and fatty. You can call me anything other than that."

"Danny then." Scout nodded and Danny gave a hesitant nod back.

"What does it mean?"

"It's a human name," Scout answered as they began to move. Quietly, even though this entire building was currently uninhabited. Shadows still moved and their eyes fixated on every dangerous surface. "It means whatever you want it to mean."

"Even awesome?"

"Even 'the Great and Powerful."

Danny grinned. Many sharp teeth capable of breaking rock, which seemed odd. Flatter teeth would make more sense, but Scout didn't want to dwell. He just hoped he wasn't still unconscious and dreaming he was actually pulling this off.

"I like that."

---

"I don't like that." Sean frowned as a trio of maddened creatures were all trying to pull themselves from a crack.

This place was even worse, with tremors shaking the land more often and breaking open more pits from which things crawled out of.

Visually they were pokémon. Physically they were pokémon. It was difficult to consider them pokémon, however, even ferals had a certain shine to their eyes.

"I don't like it either," Rai said, and they quickly moved on.

"It shouldn't be much longer now," Striker said. "If this place is anything like the one in the future, then the second leg is substantially shorter."

He was, thankfully, correct.

"Good memory," Sean breathed as the dungeon began to change. Eager to get out of the dungeon, all three began to speed up, moving from a walk to a run to a sprint.

The ground changed from dirt and grass to cracked old stones, placed deliberately in a time long passed.

"Woah." Rai whistled as they began to slow, the dungeon was behind them now, just a ripple in space behind them.

"This is the place," Sean said, glancing around, "the ruins, it actually looks pretty close to how it was in the future."

Striker nodded. "Perhaps this place wasn't as affected by time breaking as we thought," he suggested, "or the recent troubles with time have already affected it."

They looked around as they walked, from the sprawling woodlands to their right, to hand-built walls to their left.

As they walked further, the walls became murals.

The first was barely anything at all. Whatever was there once, had been smoothed away by the sands of time. The barest hint of three spheres and an arch could be seen, with vague figures below it.

The second was of a mew, eyes azure, hanging above an old, corroded, sphere. It was difficult to tell what it was. The planet, perhaps?

Sean traced his paw on the wall, glancing up at Mew and what lurked behind it. It didn't look like the planet to him.

There were footprint runes and unown text carved into the wall, but they were so degraded it was impossible to make out more than a few words.

"Mew. Matter. Man," Sean read before they continued on.

A third mural, depicting what appeared to be Groudon and Kyogre warring was seen next.

"What is this place?" Rai asked, watching each scene as they passed by. Dialga and another pokémon back to back. Twin red lights shining from a chamber into darkness. A creature consuming the sun as the moon watched.

"This must be the Old Ruins Lapras mentioned," Striker said as the murals ended, and they walked through a crumbling stone archway.

They found themselves before a great many steps leading up to where the sun shone, it was difficult to look. Plant life had overtaken this area as well, grass was sprouting through cracks in the stairs, vines tangled around old statues often reduced to wrecks.

"This appears to be the top," Striker commented as there was no more stairs to climb. The three of them looked around.

Rai poked forward, sniffing along a huge pattern on the smooth, flat, surface. Sean spotted a stone tablet, a marker that looked unsettlingly like a gravestone, and moved over to it.

Striker, endlessly paranoid, kept watch.

"There's a hollowed out spot here," Rai called, pawing at a gouge in the otherwise smooth surface of the top.

"These are unown letters," Sean said, from where he was reading. "Really clunky ones, English isn't that hard," he muttered under his breath.

"You are biased," Striker called from where he was staring. His eyes had fallen off watching where they were and up. Forward, floating in the sky, was Temporal Tower. Sean saw where he was looking and nodded.

"This is too painful to read out loud," Sean called, "so I'll just summarize. This is called the Rainbow Stoneship. It needs to be completed with the Key to the Hidden Land." He turned to Rai, standing by the indentation. "Fit it into that spot, that'll activate this thing. It'll take us to Temporal Tower, it doesn't quite say how… just, 'hold on.'"

"Put it… in here?" Rai asked, staring down. He saw the Relic Fragment swinging on his neck and grabbed it with a paw. He looked it over for a moment.

He remembered finding it, stumbling across it in the simplest of days, just playing hide and seek with his siblings.

He remembered losing it, losing what felt like the only connection to his family he had left.

He remembered regaining it, and what it ultimately cost.

He took the Relic Fragment off and began to push it into its place.

"No."

Rai yelped as something exploded, knocking him flying. Striker reacted first and managed to catch him, but something else darted out to snatch the flying Relic Fragment.

"Wheh-heh-heh," the sableye giggled, tossing it to Dusknoir who nodded as other sableye ran up the three staircases. Two on each, except for the one that stood with him.

Five sableye, one dusknoir.

"That is quite enough of that," Dusknoir said, closing his hand around the Relic Fragment. "To think you got so far and is this…" he tried to squeeze down, but it would not budge. Dusknoir squeezed until it began to cut into his hand.

"Guardian!"

"How did you get here?" Striker growled, arms shining green as he readied himself to cut the sableye down.

"Humph," Dusknoir snorted. "Quite simple, actually. I simply had Master Dialga warp us here directly. To lie in wait if you somehow managed to reach the Hidden Land. If not? Time is almost ready to collapse regardless. It was simply a matter of patience. Of time, which is not on your side."

Striker growled, Rai crackled with electricity.

"Hoo-hoo-ha. Unfortunately, you are all coming to the future with me."

"Where is Sean?" Rai demanded. Dusknoir hesitated for just a moment.

"There." He pointed to the riolu.

It was almost funny.

"Urk, you know I mean Scout!"

"Hoo-hoo-ha. He is fine young Shinx, he is safe, and he will remain safe once you are stopped."

"Are you threatening him?"

Dusknoir gave him an offended look. "You… you don't know. Do you?"

"Guardian," Sean snarled, stepping forward as the sableye all grow nervous.

"Hoo-hoo-ha. Hoo-HAHAHAHA." Darkness spun and all three staggered as their own shadows twisted against their legs. "Sableye, drag them down."

"Wheh-heh-heh." The sableye all clambered over them and began to force them down the steps. Dusknoir continued trying to break the Relic Fragment as he went, but it was impervious to his attempts.

Down the other end of the Old Ruins Temple, lay a courtyard ancient and decaying yet still in one piece. A hole in reality rippled, seeking to drag those of the future back to its time.

"Shinx," Striker said.

"Riolu," Rai muttered.

"Striker," Sean finished. As one they struck back, forcing the sableye off them and scrambling for cover.

Dusknoir spun on them as they went back to back and side to side.

"I would expect nothing else," Dusknoir said, tossing the Relic Fragment into the hole behind him.

"NO!"

It disappeared and all three growled.

"You truly have no chance of winning now," Dusknoir said, spreading his hands as the sableye regrouped. "Give. Up."

The five sableye giggled and scraped their claws, the three pressed in closer. Electricity crackled, green energy bloomed, aura surged.

"Very well," Dusknoir sighed, raising his own hands. "If you feel so defiant."

The shadows twisted as the battle begun.

---

"This… isn't really working," Scout wheezed as they ran for the umpteenth time.

As it turns out, when being led by a cowardly sableye who fought only in overwhelming numbers it was not wise to believe things would be smooth sailing.

To further compound the issue, his arms and tail were still tied down, preventing Scout from helping in battle at all. He really didn't want to try a Hypnosis on these wretches creatures.

As the shrivelled cherry on this sundae of disappointment Scout wasn't entirely confident he was leading them on the correct path.

He had an idea, but it was flimsy at best. He had a plan, but his arms were tied, and every opponent were monstrous beings that needed to be avoided.

"How… far… have we… gone… in?" Scout gasped as they once again evaded something better left alone.

Danny gave him a worried look. Meowth was really not looking great and he hadn't fought at all. "Hey, uh… are you okay?"

"Fine," Scout replied, still trying to catch his breath. "I'm fine." He nodded, managing to speak two words without gasping.

Danny looked unconvinced. "Are you-"

Something screeched from behind him and Danny screamed, leaping forward over Scout as something with pincers and far too many legs swiped out from above them.

Scout jerked from the screech and Danny's sudden leap, but spotted the ariados as it descended upon them, poison drooling from its mandibles.

It lashed out with a leg and Scout leaped up and twisted around. He yelped out as the spiky ends cut into his back, but also found agony ringing through his right arm as the rope tying him arms together was shredded.

On the ball of his paw, Scout spun around lashing out with a Night Slash and cut through the ariados' face. It reeled back, screeching, and he took this as opportunity to run after Danny.

He leaped over a web spat at him and continued running, feeling wetness drip down his back.

"Danny?" he called, hoping the sableye would hear him and hear him quickly. "DANNY?"

He cursed and swung his bag around, he dug his paw into it, avoiding the few bits and bobs still in there. His paws touched something smooth and he dug it out.

"Giratina?" he hissed, pressing his mouth to the glass and breathing all over it. It fogged up. He wiped it off with his aching right arm and spoke again. "Giratina please, I really need your help."

The darkened reflection of himself sat looking forward, peering fearfully and desperately into the mirror. Nothing was happening. His paw tightened around it.

"Giratina? Legendary One? Holy God of Antimatter? Come on, ANSWER ME I NEED YOUR HELP!"

He really wanted to throw the mirror but doing so would be rash and stupid and he'd prefer to stop being both those things.

Finally, at long last, being fashionably late as ever, Giratina's eye peered through.

"I am the great dragon of the other world," it rumbled, voice eldritch and echoing. Any monster in the dungeon creeping up on Scout shied away as the voice whispered through their senses. "Why have you summoned me?"

"Ah… are you serious?" Scout asked, voice suddenly small.

"Ha. No. Your face is entertaining though." Giratina's voice still held an unnerving quality, as if below the rumbles there was a tiny voice whispering along with it.

Scout bit down on his tongue to stop himself from saying rude things to this immensely powerful being. It dawned on him that perhaps Celebi wasn't crazy at all, she had simply learned from Giratina raising her.

"Celebi informed me you had been dragged back into this time," Giratina said as Scout looked around. Danny was still nowhere to be found, and he'd feel safer with another body with him at the very least. "But you have escaped? Impressive work, Scout."

"Thank you," Scout replied, looking back. "Look, I hate to make demands or begging or anything, but I really need your or Celebi's help."

"Anything that I can do," Giratina said, great eye blinking, "I will do."

Scout managed a weak smile and nodded. "Dusknoir has been sent into the past to wait for everyone at the Rainbow Stoneship," he explained. "And I think I can get back to them through the portal he's using. But I'm not entirely certain where it is, it should be somewhere around the Barren Valley dungeon."

Giratina nodded. "I can search through my world, find a specific type of distortion reflected when Primal Dialga creates his rule-breaking portals. Are you aware he can break his own rules? It is exceptionally frustrating since it falls upon me and my world to smooth those things out."

Giratina then went on an angry rant about Dialga, and Palkia for that matter, that Scout tried his best to listen to, but he was still keeping an eye out for Danny.

"And then they wouldn't stop arguing over WHO got to keep the shroomish."

He didn't call out, since it seemed a bit rude.

"I could not believe the time Palkia tried to hold a self-help seminar. Palkia Positivity? What?"

With Giratina rambling on, thankfully the enemies were shying away.

"Dialga is just so pompous, sometimes I want to take Palkia's side. It's not Taco Tuesday! It just isn't!"

He could hear something, something familiar, scraping of claws that reminded him of the sableye. He hurried his pace.

"But then there's that time Palkia decided to abduct three innocent pokémon and toss them into the Spatial Rift with bets on how long it'd take for them to get out, or if they would at all. Such callous actions I made sure to make them apologise for."

"Danny?" Scout called, turning a corner. Giratina's rambling grew quieter as it realised it should probably he focusing more on searching than talking.

"Meowth!" Danny screeched, rushing forward to cling to his legs. Which knocked Scout over. Scout awkwardly patted the sableye on the head until it composed itself.

"I thought I was going to become one of them," Danny admitted, once Scout was able to extract himself. "I was running and then I noticed you weren't behind me and the walls began to talk, and my eyes reflected words and I was going crazy!"

"We're both good now," Scout said, presenting the mirror proudly. "I've got help."

Danny blinked, then realised Scout had gotten out of his bindings. His tail was still strapped to his leg, however. "How did you get out of those!" Danny gasped, pointing the accusing finger at him.

Scout gave him a deadpan stare back. "When the ariados tried to eat me, it cut through them."

Danny shivered at that. "I hate arachnids," he admitted, shuddering again, "I think one… well, doesn't matter." He didn't want to say that, felt far too personal when he hadn't told anyone besides the other sableye.

They all knew how the others first died.

Danny was giving him an uneasy look, but there was no way he was going to offer to be bound again. He wasn't nearly kinky enough.

"Look, I came to find you, and with my paws free I can actually help us get through this rather than just run. Okay? We're still in this together."

Slowly, Danny nodded. "Together."

"I've found it," Giratina rumbled, deciding to return to this conversation. Danny nearly leaped out of his skin at the terrifying voice.

"What is THAT?" he squealed.

Scout clutched the glass to him, just in case. "A friend," he answered, "this is going to get us there faster."

"Friend?" Danny repeated.

Scout turned the glass over and Danny recoiled again. "Th-that, THAT-"

"Hello," Giratina said pleasantly. Danny nearly fainted. "I can guide you there, follow my instructions."

"B-b-but."

"Come on," Scout coached, stepping past him. "Giratina has been helping since the beginning."

"Keep it away from me," Danny grumbled, but followed after him.

With Giratina's attention, dungeon pokémon continued to shy away from them until they had exited.

"You have still got a distance to go," Giratina said, voice shivering and whispering. "But you are getting close. I would advise speed over caution, for when Dusknoir touches the portal it will close."

Danny groaned as they began to speed up again. Walking sucked. Scout dug into his bag and retrieved his final apple, offering it out to be split.

"Uh…" Danny glanced to the mirror, where Giratina's terrifying eye was lurking. It all reminded him of Master Dialga, and he felt his ever-present hunger vanish. "N-no thanks."

Scout raised an eyebrow but shrugged. "Suit yourself," he said, and sliced it in half anyway. The apple was dried out, somewhat mushy, and almost completely tasteless. It was food and liquid though, so he ate it and was happy about it.

Danny swallowed. Giratina was directing them, but it couldn't get him, right? His eyes flicked to the half of the apple Scout wasn't already eating and he licked his lips.

"On second thoughts," Danny said and tried a smile. It was a ghastly thing. "An apple would be perfection."

Scout handed it over, restraining the laugh at Danny's sudden shift of expression from nervous to embarrassed. Danny took the apple silently and began to yell at himself internally. "Perfection? An apple would be perfection? Could have said thanks. Could have said I'll have a bite. But no-no. For me, an apple would be perfection."

He bit down and felt nothing but shame. "I loathe myself." The food, however, did help and he felt better.

They entered another two dungeons, cutting the travel time down by possibly days. With Giratina's guidance and voice, they were left alone, and Danny began to relax around it.

He was a little terrified when Giratina returned to recounting embarrassing stories about Master Dialga, but the other legend's voice did not summon Dialga, so he giggled along to the story about Dialga tripping down the stairs of Temporal Tower.

Scout made a conscious effort not to point out their good luck, he knew that doing so was inviting trouble.

Danny, on the other hand.

"This is going great!" he said, as everything went wrong.

A barb of steel nearly pierced Scout's paw, but instead shattered the glass he was holding and sending shards flying everywhere.

The two sane pokémon paused.

"Oh no," Danny groaned as Scout clenched his paw as best as he could.

"I'm going to start screaming now," Scout said, faux-calmly, "I don't know when I'll stop."

Danny took a step back before all the dungeon pokémon came for them.

---

"RaaaAHHH!" Rai roared, laying the last two sableye to the realm of sleep with a Thunderbolt.

The battle had gone better than expected. Despite their weariness, the sableye themselves weren't in the greatest of shape and were easily dispatched.

Dusknoir was the real problem. Sean and Striker fought him together and they counted on Rai to keep the sableye at bay.

He took one down with one shot, it giving just a soft meep before it collapsed. The others turned on him, but that was the plan.

Rai picked them off one by one as Striker grappled with Dusknoir. Arms seeping with solidified energy clashed with Dusknoir's shadow-burning fists with Sean taking pot shots by copying Rai's own electrical attacks.

With the sableye done, Rai turned back to see what he could do to help. At first, however, he stared at the three.

He had looked up to Dusknoir so much. He had looked up to Grovyle as well. But Grovyle had earned forgiveness, Dusknoir had taken Scout from him twice.

With eyes narrowing, Rai built up electricity, Charging as much as he could.

Sean spotted his action and nodded as Striker leapt back. They fired twin Energy Ball's at Dusknoir, colliding with the sensitive eyes on his stomach and causing him to flinch.

With his angle clear, Rai discharged everything he could into Dusknoir, shocking him with everything he was worth.

Dusknoir shook from the electricity coursing through him but didn't make any sound. He endured, he pushed himself clear, and the battle continued.

With Rai in the mix, things were harder and easier. Rai was rash and unpredictable. Dusknoir was able to grab the shinx more than once, but with a shock or a sudden Bite he was forced to release him before he could toss him into the future.

Striker was predictable, but easily the most powerful. And Dusknoir knew his opponent could predict his own actions as well. They were a dance of power and pressure, determination vs perseverance.

As Dusknoir slammed his hands in a clap, with Striker's head in the middle, Striker uppercut him with arms shining with Power and cutting grey holes in his body.

Sean was the least of his problems on his own, but with his bothersome capacity to duplicate everyone's moves, he was an outstanding nuisance. From doubling up with an attack or matching Guardian's own moves with weak, but strong enough, copies, he found himself slowly, but surely, being pushed back.

Striker was breathing had and Guardian met his eyes with his own for a moment. Striker was grinning, chest heaving. This was almost like old times, when they would push themselves to be as strong as they could, all to make sure they would both be strong enough to save the world.

Save the world.

Dusknoir flinched, Scout's words hit him all over again. His eye flicked up, to where the sun danced in the sky rather than being locked in place forever.

He hesitated.

And took a triple attack for his troubles.

"GWOAH!" Dusknoir roared as everything went black and then white. "Oooh…" he groaned, staggering forward as his wispy end almost fluttered away completely. He began to sag in the air.

Dusknoir collapsed.

"We… we did it?" Rai gasped, sitting down in relief.

"I…" Dusknoir seethed, pressing a hand flat in the ground to push himself back up. "NO! I REFUSE TO LOSE!"

Rai yelped and got back up as the sableye all gathered around Dusknoir, glaring angrily at them. A pulse of power burst from Dusknoir, blowing his three enemies back.

"Gaah, dammit," Striker groaned, trying to pull himself up.

"Guardian," Sean growled.

"No," Rai sighed, blinking the disorientation out of his eyes.

"Humph. So foolhardy," Dusknoir snapped. "You dared to challenge me when you had already lost? There is no winning, you have LOST!"

"Erk, Dusknoir is truly tough." Rai got back to his feet. "But we WON'T give up."

"That's right," Striker said, pulling Sean up as well. "As long as we still stand."

"You won't win," Sean finished.

"Your determination is admirable," Dusknoir admitted as the mouth on his stomach began to move. "But this is the end." His stomach mouth opened up, revealing a gaping void.

"His stomach!" Rai squeaked, getting bad memories of the time he was in there.

"He's going to use Shadow Ball," Sean cursed, in their state Dusknoir's full power would be a mortal blow.

Energy began to form, and the world began to shake. Whether it was from another tremor or because Dusknoir's power was so mighty, no one was sure.

"The stomach mouth," Striker hissed.

"The eyes were always sensitive," Sean added.

"We have to force everything we have down there," Rai finished.

The other two glanced to him and nodded.

Black tendrils of energy coalesced into vantablack as Dusknoir's Shadow Ball grew larger and larger.

"NOW!" Dusknoir roared and the sableye moved, surprising the three.

They had all tried to strike the Shadow Ball, that had yet to be fired. Shadows from each of the sableye stretched forward rapidly as their moves were lost into the growing strength of the Shadow Ball, striking through them and snaring their legs.

"It's OVER!" Dusknoir bellowed before roaring out and blasting the behemoth of a Shadow Ball at them.

It was almost inconceivable at how large it was, Rai was sure Dusknoir had said something about there being a certain size range for the move and this was CERTAINLY not keeping to those rules.

That was it. "NOW!" Rai screamed, just leaping ahead. With no other options, Sean and Grovyle did to, striking out with limps and heads to strike the oversized Shadow Ball.

Due to its size, it did not explode on impact. Instead, it bounced back at Dusknoir.

"WHEH!" a sableye leaped forward and managed to pull Dusknoir out of the way, sending the Shadow Ball into the portal and away from now.

With their legs released, but Dusknoir unharmed, the battle began anew.

---

Scout and Danny jumped when something thunderous exploded in the distance.

"What was THAT?" Scout gasped. The two of them shared an uneasy look, the sound came from their destination.

Without Giratina to guide them any further, the two had fought, or rather fled, their way out of the dungeon and continued running as fast as they could.

They were almost there, it was the final dungeon the glass had been shattered in. Now all they had to do was find it.

Rocks were crumbling to the ground, locked in place. The trees were dead, or in a few cases brimming with frozen life.

It was in a small clearing that they found, hole in time and space rippling in the air.

Danny's eyes shone from within the gems. "Th-that's it!" he said, astonished. He turned to Scout who was grinning widely. "You actually were telling the truth."

Scout stretched out his paw for a handshake, Danny shied away from it. He pulled back, but his smile was still wide. "It's nice to be right again," he said, before chuckling. "Right for the first time, really."

Danny crept forward, but Scout spoke. "We need to wait," he hissed. Danny looked back with confusion. "If we go now, we might run into Dusknoir and the sableye just waiting. We have to wait for a very specific moment."

"What?" Danny demanded. He was itching to go, but Meowth's words held sense. He relied on others sense to get him anywhere.

"When the other sableye come through, that'll be our moment to jump in!" Scout answered. He was uneasy about the prospect, what if it closed after they entered? He hoped that simple didn't happen. Or if travel was technically instantaneous.

Whatever it was, they couldn't just roll out and be grabbed by Dusknoir. He had to wait.

Something laid on the ground near the foot of the portal and Scout found his eyes falling on it. "Is that…?" he muttered before gasping.

It was far away from their vantage point, but he knew that rock. The Relic Fragment was here.

He grew antsy, wanting to run out and just leap into the portal. The Relic Fragment surely meant the others were there. He wondered if the sableye had come through already.

Scout glanced to Danny, the sableye had kept his side up to this point so he would as well. They waited.

The portal rippled, and Scout got a look at the other side for once.

First the curtain of reality shivered more violently then the soft ripples of earlier. Than something simply was spat out, darkness rippled in the hole in space but nothing more dramatic than that.

Danny gasped, it was a sableye. Whoever it was stumbled to their feet and drunkenly stumbled away. Another sableye was spat out and another and another until five of them had exited. With Danny beside him, Scout knew that should be all of them.

"Now!" he yelled and the two burst into a run. The sableye were already out of the clearing, although one might have turned back upon the yell.

Scout grabbed the Relic Fragment as they ran past and the two of them leaped into the portal.

Danny had felt brief indecision upon seeing the others, burned and injured, but he was doing this for him. They didn't need him, they didn't like him. He wanted to live in the sunlight, where things weren't so dangerous, where apples and gummi's existed for all.

Time tore at Scout reminiscent of the last time he had suffered this, he thought he tasted Danny screaming as they leapt through time, but all his senses were muddled in this area regardless.

Sean's theory of time travel proved true. The more one did it, the easier it became. Scout remained conscious as he was spat out, although highly disorientated.

What he did see and know, however, was Dusknoir trying to hurt someone. His claws turned to black sabres and he lanced forward and impaled Dusknoir with a Night Slash.

"GAH!" Dusknoir roared as something stabbed him from behind. He was a Ghost pokémon and held a hollow body, so the attack merely hurt rather than disabled.

It also held him in place.

"S-Scout?" he asked, seeing who had stabbed him from behind. His belly was open, he was distracted, and so a final combined double Energy Ball and Thunderbolt blasted him from within.

Dusknoir staggered back, Scout's claws losing their Dark energy and returning to normal. Smoke billowed from his belly while grey ooze seeped from multiple points of his body.

Dusknoir weakly shook his head. "N-no." And collapsed.

As he fell, Sean and Striker saw who was standing behind him.

Sean gasped and Striker's weary eyes widened.

They had no time to say anything, as Rai had already moved.

"SEAN!" he screamed and tackle-hugged Scout. Throwing the meowth on his back, while Rai sobbed into his chest.

"Is he ever going to get our names right?" Sean asked, pouting. His smile couldn't be hidden, however.

"Let him have this one," Striker suggested, also smiling as Rai tearfully licked Scout's face, trying to clean his filthy fur.

Too many tears continued to fall, however, so he had to keep cleaning them away.

Scout lay in something of a daze. Time travel wasn't easy, he wasn't sure how he had even managed to remain standing at first, all his energy abandoned him afterwards. Then he was on the ground with a familiar weight on his stomach.

The zaps from the tongue slowly began to restart his mind and Scout's heart lurched. He opened his eyes to find Rai crying over him.

Immediately, his arms snapped up, wrapping around Rai in a desperate hug, nearly crushing the shinx against himself.

"Rai?" he asked, voice tinny and fragile.

"You're here," Rai said between fits of sobs. "How? How? I don't care. You're here."

Scout began to laugh, and he hugged Rai further, burrowing his face into his friends fur and laughing and sobbing.

A way away Danny laid slumped over and unconscious. No one noticed him there just like they didn't notice Dusknoir begin to get back up.

Sean was whooping and cheering. Striker was easily the most composed, shaking his head at the theatrics but still grinning without restraint. He hadn't seen such happiness before, that more than anything reaffirmed his decision to leap between Rai and Dusknoir.

"Y-you?" Dusknoir stuttered. He had lashed out, his son was here somehow, this couldn't be. This couldn't be. The Relic Fragment rolled between Rai and Scout and he knew Scout had picked it up on the way back.

Striker had seen it coming, eyes so sharp, and took the attack for them.

Rai gasped as Striker crumpled.

"What did I say?" he whispered as Scout blinked in confusion. Rai tried to pull enough fury up to strike back, but his elation about Scout's return confused him and he was unable to make a spark.

"STRIKER!" Sean cried out, running to his partners side.

"No!" Striker's arm lashed out and clubbed Sean, knocking him flying back. "No…" he growled, eyes narrowed on Dusknoir.

The look in his eye would nearly make Striker weep. For this brief moment, Dusknoir looked unsure, he looked regretful, he looked upset. He looked like Guardian, for just this one moment.

"Uwrow…" Striker growled, voice breaking deep. "WrooooOOOH!"

Striker leaped forward, grabbing the arms of his lost friend and shoving him back.

"Grovyle!" Rai yelled out, going to stand.

"Grovyle!" Scout yelled out, vision returning to clear.

"Guardian," Striker growled, forcing him back as the larger pokémon struggled. "I'm… I'm taking you with me! We are BOTH going back to the future!"

"Wha?" Guardian spluttered.

"What?" Sean yelled, running forward. "Striker, I'll go!"

"NO!" Striker yelled, turning back briefly. His tail lit up then slashed through his bag, toppling it to let the Time Gears spill out. "Only I'm strong enough to contain him in the future. You two... you three have to continue without me."

"Striker!"

"Grovyle!"

Sean's eyes filled with tears and he shook his head. "N-no. There has to be another way."

"Urg, release me!" Guardian shouted, Striker shoved him back a few more feet.

"Keep quiet," he hissed. "Sean, Scout, our time together was the greatest of my life. I am proud to call you my friends. But he won't stop, nothing else will stop Guardian. It has to be me."

"Wait?" Scout asked, steadying himself on Rai. Striker did not wait, he continued to force Guardian back. "Grovyle!" he hesitated, thinking of a hundred things to say. He settled on one thing only. "We'll make sure your spirit shines."

Striker nodded, almost a smile. "Shinx! Take care of them for me."

Rai started. "Me? Take your…? What, no. I can't."

"You will," Striker replied, "because you can. You and Scout are… the greatest of combinations."

"Unhand ME!" Guardian yelled, he had nothing to brace against, floating in the air. "RELEASE ME!"

Striker pushed and Guardian lost more ground. "We're almost there," he grunted, breath hitching as Guardian really tried to force him way back. His belly mouth was open, but he had no more Power to use. "Quiet!"

"Sean!" Striker yelled as Guardian's back neared the portal. "Take care, Sean and don't cry. I am lucky to have known you. I am lucky to have called you my friend. Although the parting hurts, I leave the rest in your hands."

"Striker… alright. I'll save the world."

Striker grinned and nodded, Sean took a breath and nodded back.

"Sorry for the hold up, Guardian," Striker said, forcing him back the last few inches.

"SCOOUUUUUT!" Guardian cried as he and Striker were drawn in by the portal. It rippled once then blinked, disappearing completely.

"Grovyle," Rai whimpered. Scout leaned onto him and he sniffled and blinked his tears back. He gave a thankful smile to Scout. "I got you back, at least." He licked Scout's cheek and the meowth blushed a little.

"Rai, I… I… I'm so sorry for everything," Scout said, chest tightening until he felt like he couldn't breathe. He palmed the Relic Fragment forward. "I picked this up on our way back."

Sean spotted it and sighed in relief. "You grabbed it," he said, quietly. "Thank god." He took a breath and pulled his head up. "Okay. We need to put that in the Rainbow Stoneship before anything else goes wrong."

Rai nodded as he took the Relic Fragment in his mouth, he began to run forward, but noticed Scout wasn't following.

"I'm just going to help him pick up the pieces," he called, quietly. Rai understood what he meant and began trotting up the staircase, glancing back often to make sure Scout was still there.

"Are you okay?" Scout asked as he and Sean began picking up the Time Gears.

"Striker knows what he's doing," Sean replied, not looking at him. "It's great to see you again, though. I'm glad you're okay."

Somehow, that hurt. He knew Sean wasn't saying, meaning, or even implying anything by it. But the riolu's gaze still fell on where the portal was, where Grovyle had sacrificed himself.

"It'll be…" Scout began, almost saying it'd be okay. He paused, however, he had no proof of such a claim and no time to be saying more. "I'm with you," he said, changing it.

Sean gave him a smile as Scout's eyes noticed an outlier.

"Danny!" he cried and ran forward. The sableye was completely unconscious but breathing. "Good, he's alright."

"Isn't that…?" Sean asked, unsure.

Scout shook his head. "This ones okay. He helped me get back, even if I had to bribe him to do it." He stepped back, but a thought occurred to him as he saw Temporal Tower looming in the sky. "Actually… do you have any gummi's?"

Sean was able to procure a Purple Gummi and Scout also left an apple by Danny's side. He hoped the sableye would wake up in time.

"It's what I promised him," he said quietly. Rai called something inaudible from above, but Scout looked up to wave, beaming in happiness.

"Go ahead," Sean said with a cheeky smile. "I'll give you two some privacy," he added with a wink.

Scout flushed again but had no retort. He scampered up the stairs, giving the one who really wanted to be alone some privacy.

Sean's smile faded as he looked back, back to where Striker had disappeared. He bowed his head, he wouldn't let the tears fall because Striker would be mad at him for lagging behind so foolishly.

Still, he couldn't help but look back. The final sacrifice of his partner now lost to the sea of time. Sean wiped his eyes, he couldn't keep a promise not to cry after all.

Sean wondered what Striker's final moments would be. If they'd even notice, or if the time change would happen instantly. He hoped for the latter, quick, like nothing happened at all.

But no matter what, he would fight to see it happen. Fight to save the world and die trying. He dried his face and followed after Scout, still having trouble making it to the top. Regardless of what he felt now, he would remain ready to fight.

Scout knew what was coming better than Sean did. How long it'd take for time to remove them, he hoped Dusknoir would still have a change of heart but was ready for 'Striker' to appear even if he didn't. He hoped disappearing wouldn't be painful. But he would still be ready to fight.

Rai didn't know what was coming, he was only aware of what had happened. The loss of Striker, he emphasised more with Sean then he ever had before. But the retrieval of Scout, he had to ask how he had done it, that had left him feeling happier than he could remember.

Maybe it was hysterical happiness, Chatot was dead, Striker was gone, and they still had to save the world. But for now, he would smile as Scout came lagging up puffing for breath. He'd smile with eyes bright. He'd smile and be ready to fight.

They were ready for the final fight to the finish.

---

THE KITTIES ARE REUNITED! Gah I've been aching to write that, couldn't help but grin widely when I finally got to it. Just paused and smiled, a little like how I paused and sighed in the previous chapter. You know what scene.

You know a while back I actually had a reader, jokingly I presume, ask me NOT to kill Chatot in Brine Cave. I always felt bad when I reread that review, since I knew what I was planning. But yeah. No wham moment in this chapter, it was the previous chapter that held it. I mean… hey, can't be too predictable!

Haaa… I still feel bad. Chatot was always my second favourite character in PMD and I came to appreciate him even more with this story. You deserved better than this psychotic writer you fussy, wonderful, cranky bastard.

Also, to Setech and a couple others, very nice eye on the previous chapter. The hero (Sean) the partner (Rai) and Grovyle (Grovyle) were the ones to set off, just like in the games. Haha, that was very much unintentional at first (I had Chatot dying and Mane getting injured planned down ages ago) but it is funny how that works out. I'm sure it means nothing.