Hello! This story still has a few more tales to tell.

Let's start with Soothe's story, right from where it began.

The light didn't shine. The wind didn't blow. Remnants of a world that once was, lingered like a shameful memory. The ground was dark, the sky was dark. Everything was dark.

It made a splash of colour blindingly radiant. An unmoving body of an audino, lying on its side.

Nothing moved.

Then something moved.

The breath was knocked into it with a jolt and the audino gasped, ragged breaths of stale air forced into lungs that burned with the need to breathe. It leaned up, gasping and coughing, almost shaking with the force of its awakening.

"What?" it gasped, a soft tone before it coughed again, and she spoke. "What?"

Bright green eyes cleared, rubbing tears of awakening out with curious paws. She gasped, feeling the fluff of the limb and stared at it blankly for a very long moment.

Just stared. Blank-eyed, brows almost furrowed, staring as if something else was meant to be there. Like it was meant to be something else. Yet it always was.

Laughter tinkled. It was a strange sound in the silence around everything, the oppressive nothingness shattered by a kind sound of mirth. Laughter was not common in these places.

The audino gasped, jolting to her feet and looking back and forth in mounting horror, fear taking her senses for a ride. "Is someone there?" she called, the sound was like a bellow in the complete silence around. She winced, painfully, her large ears stinging with the force of her own voice. "Is this some sort of joke?" she asked quieter but no less forceful. "H-Hello?"

"My goodness are you alright?" the owner of the mirth revealed itself to the purple-furred audino. Her mouth slowly fell open as she took in two curled horns cupping a white and purple furred face. Abashment took the expression of what had to be an indeedee. "Hello, I am Indeedee. Are you okay?"

A more realistic-looking indeedee, the fur looked soft enough to be lost in and the face was far less flat than the images would have had her believe. An indeedee, nonetheless.

The eyes were guarded but reflected some sort of weary, wary, kindness to them. She appeared to be alone in this dark place. "I lost my manners for a moment," Indeedee said, stepping fully into sight. "I am not used to seeing others often, my apologies." She curtseyed.

Audino stared at her, blankly and confused. "Y… what?"

Indeedee looked up, she seemed to study her for a moment. That in a way set Audino more at ease, this strange place with a strange person, they weren't just going to trust each other immediately. Either one could be a threat to the other.

"Are you okay?" Indeedee asked seriously. "You were staring at your arm as if you'd never seen it before."

"Where am I?" Audino demanded although part of her had a feeling of recognition. Like she had seen that dark sky and frozen stones in another place, in another way.

"The name of this place, I do not know," Indeedee replied apologetically. "Besides a few, naming places is no longer much of a concern. You feel…." She took a breath in like she was tasting the air. "Confused. Do you know where you are? Where this is?" She gestured to one of the floating stones. "Why that is like that?"

Audino looked and stared for a long time. Her emotions were a turbulent storm of thoughts and feelings, settling on shutting down when they began to get overwhelmed. She grew calm, chuckling softly. "This is a dream."

Indeedee sighed. "Many mutter that upon waking. I am sorry. Time has fallen, this is no dream, but it is a waking nightmare."

"That's a pokémon," Audino continued muttering. "A pokémon. Nope. Dream. Dream. I'm not here, this is some wild dream and I'm…?" She looked at her arm again before looking down her body, trailing her eyes down and then back, staring at her tail.

Seeing that seemed to send a new wave of revulsion through Audino, and she trembled again. "Nope. Nope. Nope."

"You seem to be panicking," Indeedee pointed out.

Audino was shaking her head, but she turned to face her and, to Indeedee's confusion, gestured dramatically. "Well, lead on then partner. Let's see where this road takes us."

Indeedee blinked once. This was a rather strange person, why would…? It didn't matter, this was the place. She was certain.

She smiled and shrugged. "Better than hoofing it on my own. It's dangerous to go alone anyway."

"Why are you alone?" Audino asked immediately.

"For my own reasons," was all Indeedee would say. A cryptic comment, but they didn't know each other, and it didn't matter anyway.

Audino began to follow, humming an odd tune as she went, her voice catching as her eyes flicked back and forth before the hum was forced out of her lungs. What a strange pairing of pokémon in this strange time and strange day.

"My name…?"

Audino and Indeedee had spent a night together. Audino was scared and confused, Indeedee was a native to this new, dark, world and held in patient silence.

She had taken a very curious look over her body, even with the indeedee around her she could not help but search herself. From her larger ears picking up everything around her, to her fluffy tail, and everything else.

She seemed giddy at the exploration of her body, or maybe panicked. Indeedee could tell, not that she'd say that.

They were partners now, perhaps. This was how it started in stories like this, wasn't it? And it never started with it, but the bond was cemented with a name. It wasn't her name, but she was free to choose who she was now.

"…Victory."

Indeedee smiled, yet that smile was a little hollow. She wondered if that was really true. So, she gave her own maybe true in return. "Greetings, Victory. Core is what I am called."

They both had purple fur and felt strongly. That was enough of a reason for partnership in these lands, but they had found deeper connections. Core had a very dry sense of human, Victory quickly found.

"This pokémon of this town are most pleasant. Say hello."

Victory could feel the interaction coming, her eyes were so damn sharp it was weird and disorientating at times. In a world so dark and silent, what sounds there were cracked like whips across her senses, and she developed a tick, a twitch of her head, as they entered a town.

It was amazing. To see so many pokémon in the flesh, even if it was in this time. This part of the story. She had never really thought about how other pokémon had lived, she had a distant memory of the Planetary Investigation Team having asked pokémon if they'd be okay with ending this timeline.

That implied there were people to ask, of course. Towns still existed. She wondered if Treasure Town was here, and how terrible it would be to see.

She did as Core told and got chewed out in aggression suspicion. She sensed a near-attack, but the pokémon noticed what she was, and their tune changed.

Core showed her how to survive, how to use a dungeon to one's advantage, and brought her to two towns to offer healing aid. Core got gratitude, dry and shrivelled as it was, and Victory was able to see the pokémon who survived.

Despite the demands of her services made rudely, she still felt for them, and she healed. She could use Heal Pulse at least. Healed them until her Power ran out, stuffed her face with dry apples and shrivelled berries, and continued.

Everyone was hurt.

It took a week. Just one. The sun did not rise or set, but Core still kept track of time. Someone had to with all the clocks lost to the sea. One week, and around eleven hours. That was when Victory told Core the truth.

Core had told her the truth and Victory felt for her.

"Pokémon are all like this. There is little love or charity these days. They'll use you until they can't anymore."

"I don't care," Victory replied. "Someone needs to do something in this dark and horrid place."

"You won't be loved for it."

"I still don't care. Even if they don't care, and I know most of them probably don't. But if it helps one person have a better day, a brighter moment in this awful time. Then it's worth it."

Core cracked a sardonic smile and sighed and pulled her away from town. Victory decided she had someone clear to start with. And resolved to prove to Core that while one good deed might not change the world, it could still change a person. She'd give her hope, and maybe they could even find Celebi.

"Core?" she asked, in the safest part of the dungeon. It was nice staying in a place that remained static, but things still moved and didn't remind one of the desolate world outside.

"Yes?" she replied softly, but her eyes were fixed on her.

"Can… can I tell you something that's going to be really… really hard to believe?"

"You can tell me anything." Core took her paws in her hands and sat down with her. "Whatever it is you have to say, I'll listen."

She smiled; it sometimes looked like an odd thing on her face, like she wasn't used to smiling. Victory hoped to change that.

"I'm… I'm human," she said, it all spilled out at once. "Please don't think I'm crazy! I know there were other humans that became pokémon and, and, well, the world… is like this."

Core blinked slowly. "That is true," she said carefully. Victory felt a wave of relief, that she wasn't laughed at or rejected immediately. "That's not all, is it?"

Victory felt her heart do a funny flip. She hadn't expected that. She expected Core to question what she said, not what she didn't say. What she didn't say was so much harder to believe. "I…."

"You can tell me anything, Victory."

"…I'm not just a human," Victory admitted. "…the world I come from…."

"Yes?"

"Do you promise you won't think I'm crazy?"

"Victory." She took her paw in her own and squeezed them. "It's you and me. I trust you. Do you trust me?"

Slowly, she nodded.

"Then I'm all ears."

"Okay. The world I come from, it's called Earth. And on that planet, we have a series of… let's call them stories. One of the biggest is just called Pokémon. And of the many stories in that… there is one called Pokémon: Mystery Dungeon."

She stopped there, trying to read Core's face rapidly, hoping there wouldn't be scorn, or disgust, or just rejection.

Instead, a smile began to pull at Core's face. For a moment, just one moment, Victory was relieved.

Then Core reached forward, touching her hand to Victory's cheek. It was a strangely-tender touch, they had known each other for a week after all and Core had never touched her. Whenever she pulled her around, it was with a Psychic, never by touch.

"Thank you," Core breathed, it was a breathy sound filled with something akin to reverence.

Victory started to feel strange. "You're… welcome?"

"Not yet," Core replied, her hand tightening on her cheek, and their eyes met. At that moment, the person who would come to be known as Soothe felt her relief fade to fear. That was not a look a friendly friend gives you.

Her hands tightened on her fur, and when did her other hand grasp her face as well? "Core, what are you doing?" She reached up, grabbing her by the wrists but Core's grip was iron strong.

"Shhhh," Core hummed, soothingly as something pulsed, and Victory lost feeling in her lower body, suddenly feeling weary and exhausted. "I just need…I just need to see it for myself."

What was she doing? "C-Core?"

"Shhh."

She didn't want this. "Core, please!" She tried to pull away. "No stop, what are you-" Core wasn't letting up on the pressure.

She began to scream as Core's fingers dug in further than her fur, further than her flesh and bone. Proverbial hooks dangled in and snatched up important things. The shadows twisted and spun around them, curling in delight as their mistress wielded their most profanely arcane powers for their good once more.

She howled as she began to see the inside of her own skull. But not her brain or blood, but flashes of memory. Moments. Dozens. Hundreds. Thousands of moments. Her life flew like pages scattered in a windstorm, she wanted to grab out to them, she was losing them, she was losing who she was.

She thrashed and tried to kick, but something buzzed deep through her very bones, and she fell limp under Core as Core's eyes bored through her own, into her brain, and began to tear through her life. It felt like the pages of her life were being torn to pieces under the ravenous gluttony of the animal bearing down on her.

She began to go limper, spots filling her vision as everything began to wave in and out like it wasn't real. Wasn't real. Couldn't be real. This couldn't be happening. It was all a nightmare, and she was going to wake up….

Or maybe sleep.

Something deep inside her, deeper than what Core had bothered to reach, flickered, almost going out.

Then It Refused.

The pressure was off her body, off her mind. It was in tatters, but anything broken could be mended with enough scotch tape. Core was laughing hysterically to herself, and she used that to anchor herself. Her bones felt like molten metal, her muscles feeling like they were tearing from the pressure to move them.

She Would Move.

She Was Still Alive.

And so she ran.

She heard Core curse a filthy term and a flicker of energy plucked fur from her back, but she had run out of the safe zone, and from it out of the dungeon.

Core had told her once that dungeons were the only stable points in this dark world, and that you could wind up about anywhere after leaving one.

So, she ran out.

Then ran back in.

Horrid ferals avoided her as if she was tainted until she reached the safe point that had almost been her death.

In her panic, she hadn't considered Core might have been waiting for her.

She wasn't.

And so she turned back and left the dungeon again.

And entered it.

Again.

And again.

And finally, after cycling through snapshots of a world over a dozen times, she left the dungeon and ran.

For it was not safe.

Nowhere was.

Nor did she have much time before the madness would take her anyway.

It wouldn't even give her the honour of dying as herself.

She stumbled down a path of frozen thorns.

As she began to fall, a flash of pink lit her vision and then darkness.

She was unconscious.

"I'm not leaving them!"

She was unconscious.

"I've seen what happens, there's no one else around."

She could still hear.

"There is no town close by. And I can't move them. Please, just let me do this one thing."

She was conscious.

"Who's there?"

"Eek!" A flash of pink as she began to lean up.

Her eyes didn't need to adjust to the light, for it was always twilight. Core had mentioned places in the world being stuck in complete light or dark, but this liveable section was constant twilight.

Audino looked around, her head felt sluggish like she was carrying a few rocks around in her skull. It hurt but hurt too much to even focus on. Everything just felt slow, disconnected. She blinked, turned her head, and then she was on her arms and knees trying to stand.

A stilted gasp for breath, on her belly on the cool ground, blinking again, the pink was back.

"H-Hello?" the owner said, peering nervously down at her as she blinked dumbly up. A little pink pixie floated there, looking like she could fit into her paws if she cupped them together.

She blinked again, and she was cupping them, almost trying to reach up for the pokémon. It floated back, as a mirror left on the ground hissed and rumbled threateningly.

She blinked and her head was turned towards the mirror and the pokémon was talking again. "H-Hi? Um, you okay? I, um. Saw you collapse outside. Um, if you don't attack me I'll heal you."

She sounded nervous, wary, even afraid. Something about that just didn't seem right, but her thoughts were a mixture of different jigsaw puzzles trying to fit together.

Audino didn't manage to offer a response and the pokémon hovered in carefully. A light mist was blown over her, and every moment under it began to settle the rockslide of her thoughts.

Her eyes slipped shut and when they opened, she was able to focus again. "Thank you," she said, Celebi had placed space between them again. The mirror was out of sight.

Sensing friendliness, Celebi flew in a little too close a little too fast and Audino flinched, darting back as she threw her arms out to protect herself.

They didn't collide, thankfully, and it served to halt Celebi in place. Audino lowered her arms, heart pounding as she had reacted on pure instinct. Her head was beginning to hurt again, she couldn't even begin to think about what just happened to her.

Her eyes fell downwards, cast towards the ground. In the back of her head, she recognised this pokémon very well. She had thought of her not a few hours ago possibly. Time was hard to tell here.

And now Celebi was here? Right in front of her?

She didn't trust fortune that good.

And yet, Celebi smiled at the frightened and injured pokémon before her, holding a distance away, and began to speak. "Hello. I found you unconscious on the ground. I'm Celebi, who are you?"

"I can't stand my old name. Dead to me now. I don't care what you call me."

"Hmmm. HMMMMM. HMmMMMMMmmMmmM."

"Don't go all fleshy on me."

"Wut?"

"What?"

Celebi giggled. "You're still so dang funny. How 'bout this? I'll give you a name if you give me one?"

There was a stern clearing of a throat by her side, but she ignored it.

Audino did too. She knew Giratina didn't like her. It had said so much to her face right away. It didn't want anyone close to Celebi.

She could understand that.

It was fascinating, really. The Planetary Investigation Team had to come from somewhere, after all. Although Celebi from the games, while a bit flighty, was reasonably mature.

It had never occurred to her, just like the existence of towns, what the other Creation Dragons might have been doing. Giratina was stuck in its world but was still able to speak through reflective surfaces.

It was guiding, raising Audino would even say, Celebi. And to a clear purpose. To save the world.

Something about that, however, rubbed Audino just the slightest bit wrong. Celebi was a free spirit, but each time a smile as bright as the lost day flashed across her face at a silly or sarcastic joke Audino made, her eyes flicked to her mirror and the smile changed.

She didn't think it was right for Celebi to live her life for the purpose of disappearing, not knowing she'd be able to see the world she was giving up everything to save.

And if that was the way it had to be, at least Celebi could live her life in the meantime the way she wanted to.

That's why Giratina didn't like her, she believed. In the course of a couple of weeks she was already convincing Celebi to shake off some of the shackles, do something silly, something lazy, something unproductive but fun.

And she smiled more often now.

For someone so full of life, even in this depressing place, Audino believed this was right. Yes, there was a story to follow. That Celebi had been a little blushy around Grovyle (who wouldn't be, though? She totally could see some hate-love between him and Dusknoir) but otherwise had been a fairly bound individual.

She couldn't claim to know the person based on an image on a game screen.

She wanted to know the real person.

Yes, there was a game plot. The world had to end to be saved and Celebi would get to come back.

Audino wondered if she was meant to be the human.

Audino didn't sleep well at night.

There was no Grovyle, Celebi seemed younger, there was no evil indeedee, nor any mention of Giratina. Could she really trust the 'game' to even happen?

Maybe she should do something. Whether she was meant to be the human or not. Maybe….

"Okay, okay." Audino pushed the divebombing celebi off her. "Okay. Uh… Cel."

Immediately she winced at herself. That was lame. That was so damn lame. That was so lame she wanted to hide her face in shame.

"I LOVE IT!" Celebi squealed.

"I do not," Giratina growled. "Not only is it pointless, you have a name already, but it's just a lazy shortening of Celebi."

"I. Do not. Care!" Cel retorted and gave Audino a hug and spun her around. "It's literally a nickname like in those fun stories Audino tells! Ooh, you should tell another one, please, please, pleeeaasse!"

"Fine, fine, fine. Okay. Uh. Hmm. Let's start with a bit of a joke under there."

"Under where?"

Audino snorted.

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing." That was so childish, but she couldn't help it. It was the first time Cel had heard her make a sound of amusement and latched onto it.

"Under where? Under where? UNDERWHERE?"

"…this is suffering," Giratina groaned.

"Do you know where it is?"

"Mmmmm."

"MMMM!"

Audino laughed harder.

Cel broke into giggles as well, Giratina shook its mighty head but decided to say nothing. Celebi was smiling freely, that smile not slipping even for a moment. She looked happy without strings attached for once. It was….

It turned away, it still didn't like this. Didn't like this distraction. Didn't like the question mark that was the oddly-coloured audino.

Audino told a lot of stories that night, many of them just winding setups to jokes.

"Your mother is a calculator, and your father ran on windows vista!"

It didn't make any sort of sense to the pink celebi, but she laughed all the same. Humour in being confusing, she liked that a lot. The strange randomness of the humour, the non-sequiturs, would stick in her head firmly. Something silly to make fun of the world around them.

She listened to Audino talk until she grew tired, curling up against the larger mon.

"You're really soothing, you know?" she said, eyes drooping. "I don't think I've been this calm… ever. Thanks, Soothe."

Soothe smiled down at her, a rare showing that Cel didn't see. She let her hug her to sleep. She wouldn't sleep for a while, and it wouldn't be until Cel woke up would she realise she had been dubbed with a name.

She was Soothe.

She had her bag packed full to bursting. Neither of them doubted that she needed it.

Despite her strength of personality, Soothe had never been able to pick up much more than Heal Pulse and a few ramming Tackles. She compensated with what items they could find in dungeons and Cel's own overwhelming power.

Not many pokémon were willing to risk facing a legendary pokémon, even if knowledge of what celebi were had been forgotten, her raw power was its own warning.

As a duo, however, they were among the most tolerated outsiders in the violence and disarray of the Dark Future. Audino carried health and wellbeing like a cloak, and the celebi seemed to glimmer with the last true light in the world.

Soothe lived up to the name she was given. Whenever Giratina wasn't being difficult, she and Cel would traverse the Rubblebelt, searching for pokémon to help and towns to offer their aid to. Cel had enough power to prevent anyone from succeeding in any attempts to force them to stay and Soothe bartered health for food and item.

Giratina continued to disapprove. "She takes their food. So little of that is fit to eat anyway."

"You just don't like her."

"I have reasons to not trust her, Celebi."

"Well, I do."

Soothe pretended to not hear Giratina most of the time. With her ears, she caught every word, and she knew Giratina was doing it on purpose.

The matter remained silent between them.

Soothe could not keep track of time easily in this forever twilight, but Cel could. It was closer to two years than one did a plan finally become possible.

Cel had been searching. Frequently, before Soothe joined her. She was immune to the madness of the Dark Future for she always had Giratina by her side. She searched the most difficult locations, places where the rain itself was frozen in time and a razor-sharp barricade to movement itself.

Places where time was even more unstable and things crawled out of cracks in time and space, bereft from Dialga and Palkia's guardianship.

She scouted around, searching for something important.

A duty she had neglected while enjoying life around Soothe.

Giratina's urging would not stop, however, and eventually, even Soothe could not ignore it any longer.

"Cel?" she asked one day, or was it evening? "Am I stopping you from something important?"

"Yes," Giratina snorted.

"Giratina!" Cel snapped.

"Stop eavesdropping, audino."

"As if you aren't doing it on purpose," Soothe retorted. Cel was immediately looking stressed and so she dialled it back. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Cel sighed, although it clearly wasn't. Her two favourite people didn't get along and that weighed on her at times.

"What is it?" Soothe had an inkling already. "That you are meant to be doing?"

"Tell her," Giratina said. "Perhaps then she will show responsibility."

"Could you," Soothe began, before stopping. Deciding not to argue.

Cel frowned, staring down, but took a breath anyway. "Okay. You know that, as Celebi, I used to be able to control an aspect of time?"

Soothe nodded.

"Well, obviously I can't do that anymore. Not like I could at least. When time broke and the previous celebi sacrificed themselves to stabilise it, something was left behind. Our Power, a final sort of pathway for time has not completely broken, only in the now. In… in the past it is unbroken, and so, it could maybe be fixed. There is a… thing, I guess you could call it. A Passage of Time. Using it, I can access the past! Or, at least, someone else could with my help."

"Celebi," Giratina warned.

"Shush, you told me to."

"That's too much."

"Well, I already was going to offer anyway."

"No."

"You can't stop me."

Cel looked up from the mirror and flashed a frustrated smile. "Yeah… so, yeah. That's what's going on. I need to actually find the Passage of Time, key myself to it so I can find it again if and when it moves."

Soothe slowly nodded. "How come you haven't asked me yet? That sounds damn important if you could change the past. Stop all this."

"Well… well, I like spending time with you."

"I'll help you find it!"

Cel brightened up for a moment before frowning again. "And… if we do change the past, this future won't just brighten up. It'll disappear, taking everyone with it."

And there it was.

Soothe hadn't really thought about that.

It was true that the Dark Future was preserved in the games, but how did that work? She almost bit her tongue, wanting to tell Cel everything for a moment.

The thought made her gut twist even as she opened her mouth.

"Cel, I." Her breath hitched as Cel reached forth and tore- "Am still willing to help you. To save the past from becoming this, I'd do it."

If Cel noticed her words trembling for a moment, the way she awkwardly changed the way she was speaking, she didn't comment.

Giratina definitely noticed, however, and its opinion of her remained unchanged.

Soothe couldn't know how long they spent together in the end. But Cel held onto every moment.

"I'll… I'll miss you so much," she said, holding Soothe's paws with her hands as they stood before the Passage of Time.

It shimmered with cerulean light that blended into golden yellow. Like the sunrise over a sparkling beach.

"Just remember," Soothe said, trying to hold her voice in check so she didn't break down. "Keep searching. If I'm not able to get this done, you'll need a backup plan. Okay?"

"Don't talk like you'll-"

"I could. You know I could. I'll do my very best. I'll do everything I can. But if I take too long, if I fail, don't hesitate to send me some help, okay?"

Cel smiled even as she teared up. She was pulled into a tight hug, Soothe letting her own eyes fill with tears.

"T-Take care, Soothe," Cel said. "I'll see you later, okay?"

"I'll see you later. Take care, Cel."

They continued hugging for a moment longer, and then another minute on top of that. Both were reluctant to let go, and again Soothe felt the words she didn't say churning up her gut ready to explode out and say everything.

She hesitated just a moment, just long enough to hold onto 'later'. She let go of Cel and fell into the Passage of Time.

Soothe sat on the cliff's edge of the Wigglytuff Guild.

She had sat in this place, although not truly here for it had been rebuilt, many years ago. She almost couldn't remember it.

Memories that were almost blinding in their sharpness, feeling like they had just happened every day for nearly twenty years was finally beginning to fade somewhat. The good, but also the bad. It was a relief to be sure on both accounts.

She kicked her legs out absentmindedly, she was in no danger. Even if she did fall, it'd only be a few feet before she'd catch herself in a Protect.

She was not

"It's been a really long time," Saniya said nostalgically, sitting next to Soothe. They weren't seated as close as Saniya could remember.

She had often perched on Soothe in some fashion, marvelling in the touch of another, something she continued with Team Sunrise.

Now, there was air between them, cold and distant despite mere inches separating.

Saniya would like to close it as if it was never there. It had taken weeks for Soothe to accept physical contact and months to get used to it. And that was due to one trauma.

The pokémon who sat next to her now had lived through more terrors than years many had lived.

"Do you remember how long?"

Saniya did, but she had found she didn't like to bookkeep time too rigidly.

"Too long," Saniya said.

It had been weeks since Skyfall. The world was adjusting to the new hope of the fallen one being vanquished for good. And they had checked, to alleviate remaining fears.

The actions everyone took, however big or small, would be commemorated and recorded. From the permanent sacrifices of the likes of Torkoal and Violet to the smallest embers of hope that pulled the people through.

"Mm," Soothe hummed, raising her head to look at the stars. Saniya just looked at her, and saw the vibrancy of the emerald green in her eyes. Truthfully, there was no physical difference between now and when she and Trill had met her and Scout.

She liked to think she saw a difference, though.

"…I asked them to look for you," Saniya admitted. She felt Soothe's eyes fall onto her, but this time she kept her eyes forwards. "When I sent the guys into the past."

"…that so?"

"Yep. You told me to send you help if you took too long."

Soothe cracked a smirk. "Heh. Fair enough." She continued smiling as she looked over the dark horizon of the early morning. "How long between me leaving and you meeting them?"

"Time was funky wunky."

"But you know how long it was."

"It's no secret. When you were in the past, the Passage of Time connected the timelines in a slightly more firm way. A moment here was a moment there."

Soothe slowly nodded.

"Pretty sure Giratina was searching for a way to communicate with Sean's universe Giratina the moment I suggested sending you to the past."

"Hah. I mean, that ended up being a good move."

Saniya scooched a little closer. "Hey."

"Hey. You ever teach the guys you adopted how our super special awesome surprise secret super sandshake?"

Saniya giggled. "Nope. That was just for us."

She scooted a little closer.

"Do you still remember our super special awesome surprise secret super sandshake?"

A smile crossed Soothe's face. "Of course." She raised a fist, Saniya brought hers up too. What followed was complicated and an onlooker watching would be lost.

The handshake was finished when they revealed what was in their clenched fists, a small pile of sand that sanded the other slightly.

"That's so weird," Soothe laughed softly.

"It was your idea," Saniya accused, giggling as well.

That it was.

"Might have been my idea, it was your idea to make it so complicated."

"What's complicated by up down, side, left, up left lefter lefterest, do a twirl, do a backflip, do a one-handed handstand, do-"

"It wasn't that complicated!"

"Well, it could have been had you not argued me down."

Soothe smiled at Saniya and Saniya grinned back.

The moment continued as Saniya's nodded her head slightly as if she was about to fall asleep. "I can't believe we're here," she murmured.

She turned, breaking eye contact to look out over the darkening sea. "I never thought about a sunset while in the Dark Future. It seemed like the setting of the sun was what the world was trapped in. That it marked the end of light and laughter and left everything cold and dark."

"But it is just as beautiful. Seeing the sky change colour, the stars begin to shine brightly. Not only knowing and believing that the sun will rise again but taking solace that it isn't always risen. That there is time to rest, knowing that it is safe to close your eyes."

"Very poetic."

"Yeah. I'm pretty amazing."

Soothe cracked a smirk.

"Can I ask you something?" Saniya said softly.

"You just did."

Saniya giggled and scoffed at once.

"But go ahead."

Saniya finished giggling and took a nervous breath in. "Why did you never tell me… anything, really? Anything about who you really were. I figured it out eventually, but only with a lot of extra contexts. We were together for nearly two years… a lot like Trill and Rhythm I guess."

Soothe breathed out a soft sigh. She had been waiting for that question. They hadn't pushed the question either, but it was both a surprise and not a surprise that Saniya was the one to ask first.

"I was just afraid."

Saniya raised her head from the horizon to look at her. "Like Scout?"

"I think Scout was afraid because of me. Because I had told someone, and that someone ended up being Nelia. And so every time I thought about telling someone the truth afterwards, a coldness squeezed my stomach, and I lost my nerve."

"So… you didn't really trust me?"

Soothe considered the words for a moment.

"I've wondered that myself, actually. During the times I had nothing to do besides think. A lot of the time I decided that, no, I didn't trust anyone and was right to. Here, and now. Now that I'm free of it and can think clearly myself again…."

"Yeah?"

Soothe flicked her eyes up at the stars, searching for something for a moment. "I didn't want to burden anyone. Which is silly, I know it's silly. For you, you were so… innocent. Which seems wrong to say considering where you were brought up. You were quiet and rigid when we first met, but you opened up into something amazing. I didn't want to take that away. I didn't want to confuse everyone. I didn't want to live this world as if it was a story I could dictate."

Saniya listened in silence.

"I didn't trust. Myself. And if you can't trust yourself, in a way you can't really trust anyone else. But I cared for you. Do care for you. So much. Maybe too much, so much that I wanted to protect you all from what was coming. Cel… Saniya… I'm sorry."

"May I hug you?" Saniya's voice trembled slightly.

Soothe hesitated, but only a moment before opening an arm up.

Saniya zoomed into her plush fur with a short, tight, squeeze before releasing her. "I know you don't like to be touched," she said, before yelping as Soothe pulled her back in.

"It's okay," Soothe said, voice thick with emotion. They held together for a long time in a hug.

"I don't quite get why no one seems angry with me," Soothe said after some time. "I still got so many people hurt, and Darkrai didn't deserve what I did to him."

"That's just how pokémon are," Saniya replied. "I know we can be jumpy and quick to judge, but we also are happy to forgive and move on. No one deserved to suffer like you did. So much. And still, you fought to save the world. You never should have tried to carry it all yourself. But you made it through. We get to see the sunrise together like we used to talk about. We get to see the sunset together and live in the world we never thought we would get to."

Soothe didn't reply, but she didn't need to.

They had sat through the night. The sunrise was coming.