I can't believe it. Can you believe it? We're here — the end of the first arc.
This chapter will be… not the longest in the actual story. However, I have a MASSIVE author's note at the end of this, where I'm going to be talking about a lot of things. It isn't bolded, because that much bold hurts the eyeballs. But you'll know where the author's note begins.
Thank you for coming this far, but we've still got a ways to go.
Raigeki sat on the beach.
He was alone for the moment, just a blessed moment of peace to sit and watch the krabby blow bubbles.
It had been seven months since he had survived Temporal Tower, saved time, watched a god die, and lost Scout.
Sean too. Grovyle was gone as well, Mane spoke about Celebi with some fondness. Dusknoir was gone; also, Rai wondered if that was a good thing or not.
A soft wind blew as the sun began to kiss the horizon, bathing the sky in a pinkish hue.
Mane had been having nightmares for the past months, waking up constantly through the night. Sometimes several times a night. Ultimately, Rai had started to curl up with him. It didn't always help, but Mane slept a little better at night.
The litleo was physically alright. With Lapras' Aqua Ring and Chimecho with Chansey's expertise, he was fixed up. There was a gap in the fur on his neck where a thin scar ran through, he couldn't always turn his head quite as far anymore, but he was okay overall.
He hadn't taken the cost of saving the world well, however.
Rai breathed in a deep breath as his mind fell back into memory.
"And then they disappeared," Rai explained to the whole guild. Whole minus Chatot, of course.
He had somehow dragged himself to Lapras, who gave him many comforting words on the trip back to the continent, after tearing the Relic Fragment out of the Rainbow Stoneship. It was his. He owned it.
Rai couldn't speak; he could only think and remember. The guild had welcomed him when he returned, happily despite the loss of Chatot still having shaken them.
It didn't take long for their cheer to diminish when Rai was alone. No Sean, no Grovyle. Just him.
Things only grew more sombre as he explained Scout had managed to find a way to get back to the past himself and Striker taking Dusknoir back to the future.
Mane had come out. He is refusing to sit in the medical bay when something was being told. He remained quieter than anyone as Rai finished telling the story. He hadn't reacted when Scout had gotten back, when Striker and Dusknoir had come to save them from Primal Dialga, or even when Dialga died.
He slumped to the ground after Rai told them of their disappearance and wouldn't speak for the next three days.
Rai was locked in the medical bay with him during those three days. His injuries weren't life-threatening, but Chimecho still wanted him under constant observation. She had someone sitting with the two of them any time she wasn't present.
Rai himself didn't have much to say, either. He needed to tell the story to Treasure Town once he was well, but all he wanted to do was sleep.
After four days, he decided he had sulked enough and left the medical bay with Mane to give Treasure Town a lesson.
"Are you going to be able to do this?" Mane asked the first thing he had said since the news was dropped.
"I can," Rai answered, forcing his head up, "and I will. Because I am the only one who can."
Mane nodded and used his rather loud behaviour to draw attention before speaking with a Hyper Voice. "EVERYONE LISTEN UP!"
Once enough pokémon were gathered, Rai began to speak.
He spoke of the dark future, which Mane chimed in to give more context. Speaking about Scout's first arrival, of Sean and Grovyle, and their mission to save the world.
Rai recounted the experience of Brine Cave and Chatot's sacrifice. Wigglytuff, who was in the crowd himself, smiled sadly as Rai recounted through tears Chatot dying to save him.
He spoke of the Hidden Land and the struggle to reach Temporal Tower.
Through building emotion, he spoke of Striker's sacrifice, Scout's return, and the climb through the tower. He spoke of Primal Dialga coming from the future, and Grovyle and even Dusknoir also coming to a stop it. He spoke of Scout throwing the Time Gear and Sean charging him with Thunderbolt.
He did not speak of his own actions in saving time by placing the final Time Gear. This was not his story, and he was not the hero here.
He explained Dialga's death, the new Dialga, and then Sean and Scout disappearing.
He had trouble speaking of the last of it.
"We cannot let this happen again," Rai proclaimed. He was choked up, he was tearful, he was sniffling, but he wouldn't break down. "The world nearly ended, and brave pokémon sacrificed themselves to save the world. We cannot let this happen again, tell the story, and don't let them be forgotten. That's what he asked me, in the end, to not forget. So please…"
Kangaskhan came up and hugged them both, sensing Rai was finished. The town slowly dispersed, muttering and chatting to themselves. Exploration teams would begin to carry this story far and wide, even if some details would get murky as time passed.
Time would pass, at least.
Raigeki sat on the beach.
He was no longer alone; his peace was not broken, however. Mane sat with him, had come looking for him after he didn't return.
Bidoof had offered to go, but Mane stepped forward without hesitation. Rai was his teammate, he'd check on him.
It'd been seven months since he had nearly died, Chatot had died, time was saved, and Scout and Sean had disappeared.
Mane was not a pokémon that liked to dwell on the past. It wouldn't do well to reflect too often, and he could get lost in his own regrets that way. The majority of those regrets were how he had treated Rai, but now he had a few more to weigh on him.
A gentle breeze was blowing, tossing their fur as the sun dipped below the horizon; the sunset was beautiful.
Despite his nightmares for the past few months, he wasn't doing so bad. He told Rai, reluctantly, that he was dreaming of the dark future he had gone through. Just a couple of days, at most, he was there, and yet he still remembered it with such intense memories.
What he didn't tell Rai, but he knew Rai had figured out, was that he also dreamed of Scout. He wondered what happened to him. He even occasionally dreamed about Sean, but that was less often. Sometimes he had trouble remembering who Sean was, a riolu would pop up in his mind, and he'd remember. It was odd, there was no lack of recall of Grovyle, Celebi, even Dusknoir.
He hadn't asked for it, but Rai had begun to sleep on the same straw bed as him. There were many things Mane wanted to say the first few times, flirty remarks to push Rai back to his own bed, soft thanks for being so kind. Ultimately, they didn't talk about it.
Neither did Corphish or Loudred, on occasion, they needed to be woken up. For that, Mane was grateful even if he'd never say so.
His neck was fine now if a little stiff on cold days. He had easily dealt with it, being a Fire-type. The scar was cool, but he kept it hidden with the Silver Bow.
Something about it felt like Scout, so he kept a hold of it. He wondered where it came from since everything from the future had disappeared. Not the bow, however.
Mane would take it as something to remember. And he would remember, as he sat with Rai watching the krabby blow bubbles. The shinx understood, sitting with the Relic Fragment back around his neck. They both liked having something to remember others by.
It had taken a few weeks for Rai and Mane to decide they had grieved enough.
They hadn't, but the world didn't stop just because they lost people. Didn't stop, because Rai had saved it.
The Kecleon Brothers gave Mane a discount, to his surprise. He was sure they overcharged him usually. Perhaps this was just the regular price, then?
Rai was busy speaking to Kangaskhan about getting some stuff for their job today. A psyduck had been lost in Drenched Bluff. It would be easy for them, even Mane could probably do it himself, but the guild had insisted on starting small to get back in the swing of things.
Once things were ready, they set off. Chatting a little to pass the time until they reached the dungeon, Rai gave an anecdote about the first mission of Team Ion being to Drenched Bluff to find a psyduck. He doubted it was the same one, however.
It wasn't until they had neared the dungeon did the matter of the bag come up. Mane was carrying it since he was the one who had done the shopping, but as they reached the dungeon, he reflexively went to hand it over.
Rai gave him a puzzled look before they had a moment of mutual understanding. Mane pulled back and remarked.
"You look hot today," he babbled. Rai gave him another puzzled expression.
"Thanks…?"
"Yeah. Yeah…"
Neither took the first step into the dungeon.
Rai was the first to speak after they stood in silence for a minute. "We can't just… stare forward. Someone needs help."
Mane nodded and took a jerky step forward. Rai's soft footsteps behind him reassured him. But it was weird. It was strange to be carrying the bag when that was Scout's job.
It was tricky to find the right item when Rai got hit by a Water Pulse that confused him because he wasn't the one who normally retrieved the items.
They stumbled their way onwards and found Psyduck. She chattered along as they made the rest of the way through the dungeon, even stating that they had saved her before.
"Oh, oops," Psyduck winced. Team Ion had saved her before, but not Mane. The litleo had a brief expression of discomfort before he made a sleazy remark that sent them all into an awkward silence.
No one really spoke until Team Ion had returned Psyduck safely to Treasure Town, and she rewarded them.
"It's not always going to be like this, is it?" Rai asked as they walked slowly up to the guild.
"It can't be," Mane answered. They walked with notable space between them since they had always walked on Scout's sides.
It was odd, Mane had found. There were so many little things that were missing.
Scout was sitting next to them in the mess hall.
Scout sleep-talking about truly random topics. He wondered what a 'shower' was.
Scout was holding the bag and tossing them the items they needed when they needed them.
Scout taking them to the hot springs because he was the weirdest meowth ever and wouldn't bathe himself, no matter how much Mane had offered. He had even caught Rai almost offering too, but Scout always made a hairball joke, and Rai fluffed up instead.
Neither of them cried for Scout. But it still hurt, an ever-present ache that slowly went down day by day.
Corphish and Croagunk liked to keep them company, even join them on a few missions.
Sunflora always wished them a good day. Chimecho would check up on them without bothering them.
Dugtrio would save missions he thought they would enjoy. Diglett would share their feet jokes with Mane, and Loudred would share jokes about being impulsive with Rai.
Wigglytuff didn't lock himself in his room but instead joined the guild more directly. He often would restock the larder himself, so no one else was dragged down by THAT job. Unlike Rai and Mane, he still did cry.
Not just for Chatot, but everyone. And he sat by Chatot's grave every night. Mane had even heard him softly singing in the dead of night.
Bidoof remained a little odd. He left the guild more often at later times, sometimes staying out for entire nights. He came back with a lot of knock-knock jokes, however, so it wasn't worried over.
Scout might have been gone, but they were pulling themselves together piece by piece, day by day.
Some days were harder than others, some days were easier. The worst days usually came when Wigglytuff had an episode. Without Chatot around anymore, Wigglytuff cycled through emotional states with alarming regularity.
He was able to keep himself together enough to run the guild. He was, however, clingy and constantly on the verge of a breakdown. No one knew what to do for him, they could only pat the Guildmaster on the back until he was able to stop shaking and go back to work. He had taken on Chatot's duties, he was clearly unfit for the tasks, however.
Stocking the larder was one thing, Chatot had also chosen which requests to accept and which ones to discard. With Wigglytuff accepting every single request, the boards were flooded with pokémon asking for simple things, untrue requests, and dangerous ones that brought Sunflora and Corphish back bruised and injured.
Wigglytuff was trying, however, he just wasn't prepared to do this. Not when on the constant edge of a breakdown.
He didn't Yoom-TAH thankfully. Or, perhaps, unfortunately. There was no pep to Wigglytuff anymore. He seemed to have lost the sparkle in his eyes and the guild, and the town, began to realise how much Wigglytuff's constant positivity meant to the area.
No one was sure what to do. Team Go-Getters had stuck around, deciding to be useful even if the major danger had passed. As the guild fumbled, they took on many of the more difficult rescues in dungeons that had begun to appear where the freezing storms had been most fierce.
The guild may not have known what to do, someone new, however...
"Pokémon detected! Pokémon detected!" Diglett called one day, going the rounds as usual.
"Who's footprint? Who's footprint?" Loudred replied. It was just another day.
"The footprint is... Armaldo. The footprint is Armaldo!"
Loudred was quiet for a moment, checking the wanted posters. Before he could answer, a zip flew through the room fluttering the papers everywhere. "Dammit!" he cursed, grumbling as he had to pick them all up and re-stack them.
Croagunk blinked in surprise, he had caught a pinkish blur zoom through from Wigglytuff's room moments after Diglett's voice reached the room. He wondered what this was about.
On the guild's grate, Armaldo looked down with impatience. "Am I cleared or what?" he snapped, privately hoping that they didn't have an ancient wanted poster of himself or anything. He wouldn't put it pass Wigglytuff to have put one up as if it was a medal of honour and had forgotten to tell anyone what it really was for.
Diglett began to say his apologies, as Loudred was cursing really loudly now, but before anyone could say much Wigglytuff appeared in the top of the guild. Chatot's old roost.
He stared out in naked hope for a moment, meeting Armaldo's eyes. He began to raise a claw in greeting when the guild's gate opened and Wigglytuff leaped out. "ARMALDO!" he cried and slammed into the old explorer, nearly knocking the sturdy pokémon over from the shock of the impact.
Armaldo coughed, tilting back but regaining his balance. It had been a while since he had been on the other side of Wigglytuff's affection, but his old skills in withstanding it were still tried and true.
"What are you doing here? Where have you been? How have you been? Why did you come? Please don't go," Wigglytuff said all in a single breath, nearly crushing Armaldo's exoskeleton with his strength.
"I... heard," Armaldo grunted, trying to pry Wigglytuff's deceptively strong arms from his torso, "about Chatot." Wigglytuff sagged against him and Armaldo had to catch him before he simply slid off like a deflated balloon.
Wigglytuff sniffled. Armaldo looked down at him.
He whimpered again. Armaldo gave a weary sigh and closed his arms around Wigglytuff, giving him a hug. Even now, years down the track, this little Fairy-type was just as emotional as when he was an igglybuff.
As Armaldo's eyes moved past the now bawling Wigglytuff, he noticed a simple grave situated by the side of the guild. He rubbed Wigglytuff's back, this would be okay this one time.
The guild all watched him with confusion and vague suspicion as he came down, knocking his head and tail on the walls as he entered. He ignored them, carrying Wigglytuff to his room and letting him fall asleep on him.
He noticed the piles of requests on Wigglytuff's table and glanced at them.
Help please. I ned to seee Korfish in Dank Cave. Send help soon. Reeward, a million Purfect Apps. Signed ~ Prince
That was one that had clearly been marked for approval. Armaldo sighed, sat down, and began to properly sort through this mess while Wigglytuff slept.
"It's been a while, hasn't it?" Rai said, turning to Mane, "since everything returned to normal."
"It's weird," Mane replied, nodding. "It's kinda like nothing changed? Since that future was stopped, it never happened. And everyone who came to a stop it… is this what things were supposed to be like?"
"Us being on a team?" Rai asked.
Mane smiled a little. "Heh, maybe. It still feels…" he trailed off, not really knowing how to finish that thought.
Rai understood, however. "We're missing someone," he said, glancing back out to the horizon. "Even if he wasn't really supposed to be here, it doesn't change that he was. All of them."
"I wonder how things went originally?" Mane asked, looking out himself. "When we went to the future Treasure Town, I actually found myself. I was just at my house, near the door. And you… you might have been still there. I hope it wasn't you, though."
"I wonder if I joined the guild?" Rai asked, before shaking his head. "I… I don't think I did. I never could, until he said I could."
"You always could," Mane replied. "I just made you think like you couldn't." He paused, looking up right into Rai's eyes. "I'm still sorry about that."
Rai smiled, glancing at Mane. Even now, the litleo still looked unsure about where they stood. He felt bad, this was his fault. "You don't need to apologise anymore" Rai said, watching Mane relax. He almost sagged, Rai wondered if he really hadn't said it sooner. "I forgave you a while ago. Sorry for letting you think I hadn't. Thank you for being here with me."
"You don't need to apologise," Mane said, frowning slightly in discomfort. He willed himself not to turn away, "and you're welcome."
Rai got up to sit closer to him.
"Do you think it's possible we could find him?" Rai whispered, leaning onto Mane. "Ask Dialga? He was a bit upset before, but…"
"I think we could look," Mane said, leaning back. "Treasure Town is in one piece again, Team Go-Getters have been doing the whole guilds work with rescuing so many pokémon. Can't believe so many new dungeons have spawned, though. Armaldo's keeping Wigglytuff and the guild going. We could leave for a bit."
"I want to see Sean again," Rai whispered.
"Scout," Mane replied, rolling his eyes.
Rai coughed, inner ears going pink. "Will I ever get that right?"
"If you call him Sean when we get him back, I may have to smack you."
Rai giggled, and the two continued leaning on each other as the setting sun lit up motes of dust in the air, falling and coalescing.
The Hidden Land was a beautiful and terrible place.
Rolling hills tore up the landscape as chilling mountains erupted from the floating mass of earth. Forests and dungeons covered the island, inviting adventure and danger on every corner.
A floating citadel was a beacon to all that could see, but few could ever reach it. Didn't help that the final piece of the Rainbow Stoneship had been removed on the way back, but neither Striker nor Guardian could really fault Rai for that.
Dialga was able to grant them passage anyway.
It was bizarre. After failing to stop Primal Dialga from reaching the past and leaping in after it to drag it back, Striker, Guardian, and Saniya believed their time was up.
The wind had begun to blow. An aurora lit up the sky, giving Saniya a moment to see what a living world could look like. Before it too began to disappear into motes of light.
The three had huddled together, and there was no complaint to resting against Guardian with Saniya in his arms. Guardian had made the right choice in the end; to his friends, that was what mattered.
Primal Dialga had disappeared before they did, and the three accepted their fates. They had saved the world, that was what mattered.
However, then they were back.
Guardian had been the first to react, being the sturdiest of the three. Saniya had taxed herself completely to stop time from folding in on itself during Primal Dialga's rampage in the past, and Striker had closed his eyes to feel one last time simply.
So it was Guardian who spotted an oddly small Dialga looking over them with a mixture of confusion, concern, and irritation.
"Huh," Dialga said as Striker and Saniya also noticed they existed. Such clever pokémon.
"How?" Guardian spluttered, looking back and forth. There was no sign of Primal Dialga, the aurora, or anything.
"How, indeed?" Dialga rumbled, glancing back and forth. When no Palkia came screaming down to smite him, he decided to explain as best he could. "Somehow you three have been plucked out of the void that stupid future got dumped into and brought back to this time. I can only assume the thing that got stuck in the fence, who else could have done this?"
"What?" Guardian said.
Dialga shrugged. Odd look on a quadruped. "Arceus. I guess it must have woken up or something and decided to make my day, and Palkia's day, a lot more complicated." Dialga looked back and forth again, checking once more for the dragon with an attitude. "Well, come along. If you have to exist, then you can help me fix the tower. I've been trying for the past two weeks, but I can't really put up walls with these feet."
Guardian picked up Striker and Saniya; both were stunned speechless, and slowly began to float after Dialga.
They were alive. And, if Dialga was to be believed, they were in the timeline they had saved.
"How long has it been since time was restored?" Saniya asked, she wanted to fly up and support herself, but her wings were not responding.
"Two weeks, as I said," Dialga replied.
"Why are you so small?" she added, not flinching when Dialga glared.
"The previous Dialga died from the injuries delivered by that THING you three failed to keep in the future," Dialga snapped, all three flinched. It sighed and tried to act nice. "You can make up for it by helping me. Okay?"
And so the days of Striker, Saniya, and Guardian became something odd. Saniya was ecstatic beyond words that she was not only alive but in the past. Or, technically, the present now that their future no longer existed.
According to Dialga, this was the timeline now. The future did not exist anymore.
Guardian struggled the most with that. Having erased countless lives, even lives that were hardly worth living, was not easy on his head. But as time continued, his memories of the future grew hazy. He sometimes forgot who his servants were; sableye or yamask or druddigon or…?
Striker and Saniya also had difficulty recalling things from the future. Dialga, once asked, explained with some of their ever-present frustration that since those things did not exist anymore, they would eventually forget completely.
Sean and Scout were not being forgotten, however. The three made sure of that, to remind each other each day, to not let their spirits fade. Even if they technically didn't exist anymore anyway.
Saniya was the first to find something upsetting. In the dark future, she couldn't time travel particularly easily. Teleportation was possible, but that was about it without the Passage of Time. Despite time flowing normally again, she still was unable to time travel.
Dialga was growing more comfortable with their presence by the point she learnt this and was more accommodating to answer.
It might have helped that progress on repairing the tower was faster than it had anticipated with Striker and Guardian setting up foundation throughout the days.
"Time is under too much stress for any time travel," Dialga explained to the disappointed Saniya, "natural response. Neither of us nor can the other Celebi, travel through time right now."
It was odd, however, how easy it was to fall into a routine.
All three have lived with their lives on the line, going moment to moment, the stability that Dialga gave was comforting. Each day they had something to do, more of the tower needed repairing, ferals warded off, and Dialga needing to be talked down from raining Draco Meteor's down on the Hidden Land in frustration.
They didn't speak of Sean and Scout except for the very first time they talked to Dialga, asking if they had returned as well. Dialga had told them no, and that was it.
That was it until seven months later.
"Okay, you three," Dialga said, standing proudly before Guardian, Saniya, and Striker. Temporal Tower was not fixed, but it no longer looked like it was going to fall over if a stiff breeze blew across it, "I must thank you for everything you have done."
"It was no problem, Master Dialga," Guardian said, giving a bow. It had been simple for him to call this Dialga master, and this Dialga didn't dissuade it. Even when Saniya and Striker gave Guardian a hard time about it, he didn't stop.
"Perhaps not," Dialga rumbled, "but without your assistance, the tower would still be in shambled. I could have done it myself, but I can see the value of the assistance. Perhaps this was why you were revived? But… even if not, then." Dialga glanced back to the tower.
The three waited in silence. Dialga had called them to the Old Ruins to talk, which was odd since it usually called them up to Temporal Tower if it needed to discuss anything.
Praise was unusual, especially from Dialga.
"Why did you call us here?" Striker asked, deciding to be the upfront one. "It is a bit unusual."
Dialga turned back to them and nodded. "Your company has been valued, but I have a hang of things now. I think it is time for you to re-join the rest of the world, find your own paths. Live your own lives."
The reactions from the trio were varied.
Guardian flinched, reeling back in horror. Striker looked back and forth between his friends in rapid surprise. Saniya beamed with joy.
"M-Master Dialga?" Guardian stuttered. He took a breath and composed himself. "Surely, there is more work to be done. It would be undue to leave you completely."
Dialga's expression morphed into a stern look, with a hint of amusement. "What would you do if I ordered you to leave and live your own life?"
Saniya giggled. The revolving expressions of pain and horror on Guardian's face were hilarious to her; she was glad Dialga had started to pick up a sense of humour. She accepted all the accolades for being responsible for that.
"You want us to leave?" Striker asked, deciding to give Guardian a break from his fit.
"I want you to do more with yourselves," Dialga replied. "For whatever reason, you were revived, despite the risk that poses, despite the anger that Palkia might have shown, you were chosen to come back. Whether it was a reward for what you did, or for a purpose, I do not think you should remain here forever."
"I understand."
"Master Dialga, isn't there anything else I can do here?" Guardian was grasping at straws now. Striker punched his shoulder, and he gave the grovyle a hurt look.
"You can't hide here forever," Striker said.
Saniya floated up to his other side. "He's right, you know?"
Guardian hesitated. "I… I do not deserve to go back," he admitted. "What I did to the pokémon in this timeline, it is unforgivable. It would be better for you two to return as heroes, I should stay here."
"Not going accept that, Guards," Saniya giggled, flicking the sensor on top of Guardian's head. "You saved the world in the end, plus hiding out here is no good. You have to face the world. They will probably not be happy at first, but we will be there for you. You'll always wonder, otherwise."
"Plus, I am not giving you a choice," Dialga pointed out.
Guardian gave a world-weary sigh.
Dialga saw them off, having summoned Lapras and given them all a packed lunch. Guardian looked back a lot as Dialga grew smaller and smaller. It was larger than it had been when they first saw it, but still small compared to Primal Dialga.
Honestly, that had helped.
Saniya looked forward, glancing back only to wave. She was unbearably eager to see the world she had heard so much about but never been able to experience.
Striker sat between them, thinking over Dialga's last words to the trio.
"Thank you for your help. This is not your only reward."
He didn't want to think about what that could mean. There was no point, but he did anyway as Lapras carried them to Treasure Town.
The quiet moment Rai and Mane were enjoying was spoiled by three things all happening at once.
In the distance, now above the setting sun, swam a familiar blue form. Huddled on Lapras were three visible figures. One of the figures sprang into the air and began flying back and forth excitedly. A hint of green and grey could also be seen, one climbing up to wave and the other huddling down to try and avoid being seen.
Further distracting the surprised pair was the arrival of Bidoof, having been sent after Mane to see what was taking the two. Bidoof himself spotted the motes of light shining behind Rai and Mane and squeaked in alarm.
"What's that?" Bidoof gasped, pointing with a paw. Rai turned to Bidoof and then around, eyes settling on the light as it began to coalesce.
Mane, however, didn't notice. He was too busy waving to Saniya, having recognised the pink pokémon, and began to jump in excitement.
Rai made a choked sound, which drew Mane's attention to the light, now fading as a riolu, and no one more blinked in surprise.
Mane gawked. "Sean?"
"Litleo? Shinx?" Sean replied, exceptionally puzzled. He heard someone shout his name and glanced out to sea, as Striker and Saniya found they couldn't wait any longer. The celebi had Striker floating behind her as she zipped towards land, screaming.
"SEAN!"
"Riolu?" Bidoof spluttered, jumping back as Saniya's speed caused a wave to break harder against the shoreline. Striker dropped to the ground and leaped for Sean faster than Saniya, tackling the riolu in a shameless explosion of hysterical joy.
"Celebi?" Mane asked, blinking as she began to teleport in uncontrollable glee. She grabbed Bidoof and shook him in excitement before flying into Beach Cave and exiting the other side in only thirty seconds.
Lapras shored up, and Guardian glanced off awkwardly.
"Dusknoir?" Rai gasped.
Mane growled. "YOU!"
"He's okay!" Saniya cheered, grabbing and shaking Mane next. "We all are! Yippee! Where's Scout?"
Sean finished patting a weeping Striker's back, letting the grovyle pull back, to repeat that. "Yeah. Where is… oof," he groaned, buckling suddenly.
"What's wrong?" Striker asked in alarm. He took a careful look over Sean, finding numerous injuries scattering his form he hadn't noticed when he tackled him.
"You look just like you did before…" Rai mumbled, reeling from everything that was going on.
"I want to know why Dusknoir's here," Mane said woozily, stumbling from where Saniya had set him down. Mane tried to pull himself together, but he fell over instead.
"He did save me from Dialga," Rai pointed out, finding it easier to focus on facts rather than questions. "You know that. But… you are all here. H-How?"
"Where's Scout!?" Mane added, half-buried in the sand.
"What's going on?" Bidoof asked, but no one answered him.
"We were revived by something 'greater' than Master Dialga and had been helping Master Dialga repair the Hidden Land," Guardian explained.
"You?" Mane scoffed.
"Dialga said we'd have something here for us," Striker mentioned, still holding onto Sean. The riolu was in rather poor shape; he couldn't help but worry. "I didn't want to hope."
"If you are all here," Rai cut in, "then where is Scout?"
That was the question that no one knew how to answer.
"How am I back?" Sean asked, looking between Striker to Rai as if they'd have an explanation.
"Is Scout back?" Mane asked, pulling himself up. "And not here? Does ANYONE have any answers?"
"Dialga might know?" Striker suggested.
"I can take you back," Lapras said, deciding to enter the conversation. He nodded as everyone turned to him. "I kindly require a night to rest, however."
"Alright," Rai replied, nodding. He looked to Mane, and they shared a nod. "We'll go to the Hidden Land tomorrow. If Dialga knows what's going on, did it somehow, then he can bring Scout back as well!"
"You're being very level headed," Bidoof pointed out, dizzy from Saniya shaking him.
None of the four from the future said anything to that; all considered things a little differently.
"What are we going to do for now?" Striker asked, being the practical one. "Sean definitely requires medical attention. Can we come to the guild?"
"You want to bring HIM to the guild?" Mane asked, glaring at Guardian.
"He has changed," Striker snapped, Mane rolled his eyes.
"Cool story. Doesn't change what he did."
"I can find my own accommodation for the night," Guardian suggested, but Mane glared at him anyway.
"Like I'm letting you run off alone."
"Then what do you want to do?" Striker asked.
"I don't know!"
"Let's just…" Saniya trailed off, glancing behind her curiously. "Hm. That was odd. Uh, what was I saying?"
"What we should do?" Mane answered. "Because I don't want him out of my sight, nor do I want him in my sight!"
"Mane," Rai said, touching his shoulder.
Mane sighed. "You're not going to take his side here? Even if he did save you."
Rai shook his head. "No, but arguing isn't going to solve anything. We've got to get to the Hidden Land tomorrow, and arguing on the beach isn't going to help."
"What the shinx said!" Saniya said, opening her mouth to continue but pausing again. She shook her head and tapped her ear.
"Are you alright?" Striker asked, still not relinquishing Sean, who was falling unconscious.
"I'm fine," Saniya replied, "I feel like I'm hearing stuff, though. Is this what it's like at a beach? It's weird. I love it!"
"Those would be the waves," Mane said, gesturing vaguely.
"Alright," Rai said, trying to pull things back on track. "I think we all should go to the guild. Understand what's going on here as best as we can. Wigglytuff and Armaldo might be able to help."
Mane decided to accept that, and the seven of them began the trek back to the guild.
Rai, quiet, and puzzled. Mane, annoyed, and cross. Bidoof, completely gobsmacked. Sean, unconscious. Striker, carrying Sean. Saniya, giggling as she looked at things she'd never seen before and chatting everyone's ears off. Guardian, reluctant and uncomfortable.
Despite everything seeming to be over, it seems that something new was building. If Sean could be brought back, then it gave Rai and Mane hope that they could, in fact, find Scout.
Whatever it took.
They would find him.
Authors Note:
So. Here we are. Before you all start SCREAMING at me for the ending, just know that this is not the end of the story. I do, however, have some bad news.
I'll start with that.
I will be going on a hiatus. For how long? I'm not sure. I'm doing this for a couple of reasons. The first and foremost is so I can properly begin planning out in greater detail the next part of the story. I like to have a good idea of important story beats and all that — nothing too precise to start with, but just some good general ideas. I DO have plenty of ideas, but I need to sort them all out.
I am also doing a hiatus to give myself a little bit of a break. I love this story to bits, and honestly, I could keep writing right away. But taking a break to recharge is a good idea, I think.
What does this mean for the story? Well, that's where the good news begins! While I won't be posting a progression to the storyline anytime soon, I WILL be doing two separate things for the story. The first is going back to the first… I'd say 13 chapters, and doing a bit of a overhaul. They are, well, bad.
They are not to the current standards of writing in both actual writings as well as the content. Nothing big should be changing, but I will be taking stuff out, changing stuff a bit, maybe even adding in small things. And we all know how those small things turn out in the end :P
The second thing is that I WILL have a few new things to post! I decided in celebration for 20,000 views as well as 30+ chapters as WELL as finishing the first arc. I will be writing some 'backstory' chapters focusing on things in the backstory of Warped Skies.
For example, the first one I will be writing is about Chatot and Wigglytuff. You know, in honour of Chatot and all… oh, I still feel sad about that.
But yeah, you'll have that and a couple of others I'm debating on to read once I get them done! So I won't starve you all out right away :D
So, with that out of the way, I wanted to discuss a few things. A few things I've wanted to mention before but remained tight-lipped. Don't worry! There are no spoilers, at least not to anyone who's actually read the story (looking at you people who just click on the most recent chapter 0_0).
The very first thing I've wanted to talk about since almost the very first chapter! See. When I first started this story, I had… hmm… positively NO idea of what I was doing. As in, I had ONE story event planned out.
That was it — one thing.
And that was the Dusknoir getting Scout arrested scene in chapter 20. Even then, it was still a bit different from how I originally envisioned it, although I prefer this version.
So yeah. By I had no idea of what I was doing, I mean, in chapter one, Scout was the human. There was no riolu!Sean character. In fact, there was no Scout. He was simply Sean, and that was how things were.
Why did that change? Well. My VERY first reviewer said something just a little tiny bit that made me think. They said. "Meowth is such an interesting choice since that Pokemon is reserved as a partner only."
Now, of course, in Darkness, you can play as a meowth (which is why Scout is a meowth. My most recent playthrough of Darkness was with a Meowth protagonist), but in Sky, you cannot. Only as a partner in Sky.
So, clearly, they meant nothing by it. But that simple comment made me think. "What if he ISN'T the human?" Which quickly spiralled into Sean being made, Scout as well technically, Striker having his companion still, and everything eventually going to hell for Scout.
Thank you, my first reviewer. Even though you're not reviewing anymore, you'll always be remembered fondly.
Once my mind started to whirl, and I began to think of new and exciting things I could do, the ideas began to generate. Originally they were going to fight Drowzee after Scout pretended to have a Dimensional Scream to get them to Mt. Bristle, but I changed my mind and had them fight a different foe.
That foe, as we may remember, was Litleo. Mane.
I actually can't quite remember when I decided to put Mane on the team. I do KNOW it wasn't planned originally. The reason why the foe was a litleo was two-fold. The first was to show Scout that there were pokémon past Gen 4. The second was just to have their first foe be a feline pokémon since they were as well.
Then. That hit me. Feline pokémon. And the idea of this Litleo joining Team Ion popped into my head. It took me a fair while to decide on it, I ummed and erred for quite a while, mostly because I knew I would have no recruitment thing since my feral pokémon don't work that way, so if he joined he would also join the guild and the 'true' team, but ultimately I decided I could go for it.
So, I wrote Scout going to Mane for the Perfect Apple just to taste how they interacted, and while the first meeting was written… poorly, it did reassure me that it could be done. So, then came Amp Plains, I decided to put Mane on the team at about chapter 10 I think. Or some point into the expedition, I can't quite remember.
That leads to my next discussion point. Originally Mane had the REAL Relic Fragment. That Skuntank had sold it, it got passed around a few times before ending up with him.
The reason was that he was going to use it to bargain with Rai to join the team basically. But I ultimately didn't like that, and so I went for Rai and Mane having an understanding in Amp Plains and Rai deciding to give him a shot.
An excellent decision, I think.
Okay… where should I go next?
Hmm… let's look at the guild, I think — the canon characters from the game, all with their little quirks and such. I never intended to do too much with the guild, at least not for a while. I DID know I wanted to explore Chatot the most, and I also planned on exploring Corphish and Croagunk, and no I didn't always have Chatot's death planned. Croagunk will get some focus later on.
Chatot, though, always fascinated me. I don't know what it is, but I just LOVE characters that are assholes but have hidden hearts of gold. Chatot is rude, judgemental, cranky, and up-himself. But he also saves you in Brine Cave, and he rallies the guild after Bidoof in Bidoof's special episode. I just absolutely loved that, and so I knew I wanted to do something with him.
The decision to kill Chatot didn't come for quite a while. I actually got inspired to do it from another story, and I won't say who, but that person could probably guess. And therein lies a quirk in my story design.
When I have an idea, I usually can't let go of it. I can be dissuaded, but I have to be dissuaded pretty quickly, or else things set to hard in my mind. Chatot's death was… fascinating to me, and I began to plan what I could do with it, how it could drive things, what it could mean for the future. We've seen that Armaldo is now at the guild, having come to support Wigglytuff and basically take over Chatot's role. So, we'll be seeing him from now on.
But I was hesitant. For two reasons. First, it's killing a character. One that's reasonably major, just bordering maybe on a main character, and killing characters is… not fun. The second, because Chatot's one of my favourite characters. Just… ouch.
I then had another idea. What if Chatot went to the future? And that spawned yet another thought, what if Scout tells him the real truth?
I decided that if I did send Chatot to the future, he would die in Brine Cave. If he didn't go, Striker would, but Rai would be staying behind no matter what.
As we all know, Chatot went to the future, gained his somewhat main-character role, and then died in Brine Cave. A mutual kill, he got to run through by Kabutops but impaled him in kind. I thought a moment of sheer awesome like that was only appropriate for Chatot's final moments.
I'm sure you all wonder why Wigglytuff never did anything about Kabutops during the YEARS. He knew the creature lurked there. I do have a reason for that, one I think we might learn in the backstory chapter for Chatot and Wigglytuff!
But yes. Rest well, brave bird. You will always be missed.
Next. The future characters.
Sean, Scout, Striker, Saniya, Soothe, and Guardian. I'm sure you see a theme until you get to Guardian. Hahaha, here comes the conspiracy theories that Guardian turned on the others because he wasn't given an S-name.
Nah, I just couldn't find a good enough word. I considered Stalwart, Stronghold, Steadfast, and more, but they just weren't… name enough. You can be assured that Sean DID try to think of an S-name for him, but he wasn't quite able to. And he didn't name Soothe, just so we're clear. Never met her. Her having an S-name was actually a coincidence.
Soothe herself was originally made to be another member of Team Charm. That's why she's an audino, a feminine pokémon with a Mega Evolution. I ultimately went a much different direction with her. I can't actually remember why she was going to be a member of Team Charm... I just knew she had some sort of connection to Wigglytuff.
When I was writing Striker and Guardian, I struggled the most. They are such ICONIC characters, and I was pretty intimidated to write them at first. I think the first chapter with Striker took the longest to come out because I just had no idea how to write him and was always terrified I'd muck it up and everyone would hate me.
I think I did alright, although that is one of the chapters that need some massive revision.
Guardian/Dusknoir is my favourite character from PMD: Explorers, but I was less nervous about writing to him. I felt like I knew how to write him, all grand and wise, with this feeling of almost perpetual amusement to him. Like he knows so much that he's not saying.
Because he does, but what have you?
Guardian's connection to the Planetary Investigation Team was always intended. You could say that that was one of the few things I had planned from the start, like with his scene in chapter 20, but eh. It's kind of a headcanon of mine that he was a part of it once, so I don't really count it.
But I knew I would write his parts with Sean and Striker with that undercurrent of. "We used to be friends."
His connection with Scout took me longer. I at first wasn't sure WHAT I was doing there. I knew Scout had to be connected to them somehow; at first, he was just a member of the team. His deeper connection to Dusknoir slowly came to me as I was readying myself to write Grovyle, and soon, they were father and son, adopted.
I think that was a good change. Since it changed Dusknoir's motivation and character, without actually losing anything that was before, he still wants to stop the protagonists from saving himself from disappearing, but ALSO for his son. Even if it means he has to fight his son to save him.
It, to me, just adds a certain tragedy to him. Such a terrible creature just wants to save his own life and the life of his child, and he's willing to do nearly anything to do that. Dusknoir being afraid of dying, has deeper meanings to it as well, as implied with the Amp Plains chapter, where he kills the shadow manectric and saves Mane's life.
And as shown, we will be able to explore that in the next part of the story :D that's right! Sean, Striker, Saniya, and Guardian will be part of the main cast as time goes on. Sean and Striker already sort of were, but Saniya and Guardian are now properly in place to have their own parts of the story as part of the protagonists.
Guardian is going to have something of a tricky time to start with, though :/ that whole manipulating everyone and nearly ending the world fiasco really weighs him down.
Saniya being crazy, was really fun to write. At first, I was going to write her as a bubbly figure, like in the game, then I thought. "If someone is so genuinely nice and peppy in that place, SOMETHING must be loose up there. Those lights are on, but they're flickering."
And Giratina being the master behind the Planetary Investigation Team was also worked out fairly quickly. I knew Palkia, and many other legendary pokémon, were out of commission in the Dark Future, but not Giratina. How could it help…? I wondered. Then. Ah! That could work.
So, I made it the brains of the operation, the mission control, and a little more that hasn't been revealed yet. Celebi has tried to contact Giratina in the present time, but it doesn't seem to hear her. She's a bit sad about that.
I think the last thing I would like to talk about is one specific tag on A03. M/M. A lot of people have noticed that and asked about it, and I've been all cagey about the answer.
The answer is pretty obvious, but the reason behind it is less so.
See, when I started the story, I had NO intention to write any ships between the main characters. Maybe background characters in relationships, and I had some awkward fun with Scout accidentally calling himself a prostitute to the town gossip. Still, I never intended actually to write anything like that.
But… well, then Scout and Rai just seemed to have something between them. That seems to be a thing with the player character and partner character in all the PMD games, Explorer's, and Super most of all, but I didn't actually expect it to come out in my own writing.
Then it did. Rai almost said something at Fogbound Lake, but Grovyle interrupted him. And again, he was going to try and talk about it in chapter 20, but uh… he and Scout had a terrible argument instead. Oops.
Rai's feelings on the matter were always sort of there. Scout is a lot more complicated. Being a meowth, who was apparently always a meowth, but who's mind knows of the games and also got confused into thinking he's human. He's understandably avoidant of thinking about it, but if he let himself...
To make matters even more interesting was Mane. A shameless, utterly shameless flirt who clearly has a thing for pretty much all the guys, but Rai and Scout most of all.
So, what does this mean for the future? Is it Rai and Scout? Rai and Mane? Mane and Scout (I know at least one person was heavily shipping that)? All three? How would you all feel if it was all three? That is definitely on the table.
I am not stating or promising anything. But I've got a few ideas about where things are going.
BUT.
I want to make something clear. Something I'm pretty sure I said way back when I first asked about shippings. This story is not a romance. Romance will never be a major plot point. There may be some background stuff, character interaction, all that good stuff. But. I despise love triangles and harems. And I don't have a taste for romantic misunderstandings.
Any aspect of any relationship that comes up will be tangential to the plot, most likely, at best. I'd write it into the character interactions, rather than writing it into BEING the characters and interactions itself.
If I were writing a romance story, of course, things would be different, and I'm not saying there can't or won't be ANY drama. But I'd hate to divert stuff from the story to focus on purely that. It's simply not what this story is about. Yell at me if I do end up doing that later on, okay?
So, yes. I think I'll stop here. I MAY add more stuff to this part as time goes on; nothing that is posting this, however. But I would like to leave this on THREE questions for my ever-faithful and eternally beloved readers.
The FIRST: What has been your favourite part of this story? This can be characters, a scene, a whole chapter, a battle, some dialogue, the humour, the plot, the WHATEVER that has just been your favourite part of this story. I'd love to hear it, makes me all warm and fuzzy and write faster as well as plan faster ;)
The SECOND: What has been your least favourite part. Not necessarily something you hated, in case you think everything is wonderful. Hahaha. But in all seriousness. What part of this story was the worst for you? Same rules as above, can be anything from a character to a chapter (was it the Amp Plains chapter?), to a scene, to a plot point. Whatever. Could even by my overly long author's notes!
The THIRD: I want to hear a question from you. You can ask ANYTHING you like about the story! I can't promise I'll answer anything; if I feel like something could spoil something hugely major later on, then I probably won't answer it. And if I am answering on A03, I might delete my answer after I post it (you should still be able to view it on your email, however). But yeah. Any question(s) you have, I'd be more than happy to answer and might add more to this section if I think the answer could be valuable to share with everyone!
Other than that. Yeah. Arc 1 done. It only took 32 chapters, over 300,000 words, and about ten months to do! That's over a thousand words a day put into this on average! Even if I did most of the writing in bursts, rather than piece by piece each day :P
I just have to thank you all so much, again, for reading so far. I've never written a story that got quite as popular as this one. I read every review and try to respond to each one if I can. The response, even the criticism, has blown me away, and I feel the same excitement as day one whenever I post a chapter.
Thank you all for coming along. I can't imagine I'd be nearly as far as if I didn't have my readers along with me. But even then, this has been so much fun to write! Onwards to new horizons as we near the beginning of Arc 2 of PMD: Warped Skies.
:)
Oh, wait… what's this?
"What's that?"
"Sean?"
"Litleo? Shinx?"
"SEAN?"
"Riolu?"
"Celebi?"
"Dusknoir?"
"YOU!"
The voices were distant and familiar and truthful and pleasant.
Scout awoke.
He felt odd. Floaty, almost detached. Thankfully there was no pain, nothing like a few moments, to him, ago.
He looked down, somewhat expecting to see himself still clutching onto Rai while Rai sobbed into his fur. Only… he saw nothing.
That wasn't entirely true. There were sand and twigs. His head swam again, and a view of a body appeared in his vision. Only it wasn't actually there. He just couldn't not see his body when he looked down. It was supposed to be there, so he saw it there.
He looked up. Grovyle was holding Sean, Rai and Mane were balking at Dusknoir, Celebi was flying back and forth in glee. Lapras watched in fond amusement, while Bidoof just stared with a slack jaw.
He tried to smile, but he had no mouth.
He tried to speak, but he had no mouth.
Scout was puzzled. How could he have no mouth, and yet he must have eyes if he could see. He tried to speak again, and this time he spoke.
"Rai!?" he called. Rai did not react.
Quite odd. The fact that no one was dive-bombing him in gleeful joy. Eyes seemed to pass right over him.
Scout tried to speak again, to be heard, but no one seemed to listen to him. "I can find my own accommodation for the night," Dusknoir said, appearing to try and appease Mane.
The fiery litleo scoffed. "Like I'm letting you run off alone."
Grovyle, clearly finding Mane's attitude to be annoying, asked. "Then what do you want to do?"
"I don't know!"
"Hey?" Scout called again, waving his arms he was sure he was supposed to have. "HEY?
"Let's just…" Saniya trailed off, glancing behind her curiously. Her eyes seemed to fall on him, but they didn't, for a brief moment. "Hm. That was odd. Uh, what was I saying?"
Scout's heart leapt. Or, well, his hopes did. But they were dashed, as hopes often were.
Scout's focus swam in and out, and he returned to noticing things properly, as Rai said. "No, but arguing isn't going to solve anything. We've got to get to the Hidden Land tomorrow, and arguing on the beach isn't going to help."
"What the shinx said!" Celebi said with true force.
"Celebi?" Scout tried speaking to her directly. Celebi paused again but didn't look around. She instead shook her head and tapped her ear.
"Dusknoir, what about you?" Scout called. He was gathering that he wasn't visible to them. Perhaps he was a spirit then? Dusknoir as a species were supposed to be spirit carriers or something, he vaguely remembered. It'd make sense for Dusknoir to be able to hear him.
But unlike Celebi, Dusknoir didn't so much as twitch. Even as he walked, or simply moved, right up to him to begin waving. He tried to poke Dusknoir, see if that would do anything.
Nothing.
The seven of them talked a little more before beginning to move off the beach. Scout joined them. Even if they couldn't hear or sense him, he still wanted to be with them. He gazed sadly at Rai and Mane, and he could see the thoughts ticking in their heads, wondering why he wasn't there with them.
"I am," he tried to say, but he had no mouth. He wondered if he could scream.
Whatever Scout was, they didn't know he was there with them. And just like the seven of them missing Scout's presence, they had also missed another's.
It melted into the shadows and disappeared from the sights of those sane and whole. Plans were now able to be set in motion.
"Oh, Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream…"