Ruby woke up earlier than everyone else, she was far too excited to sleep. She took a quick look at Sapphire. Sapphire was sleeping peacefully, her scarf and metal leg laying beside the comfy bed. Ruby was happy. Sapphire worked so hard, she deserves a good rest.

The fighting type made her way out of her room, and headed for the common rooms. When she got to the dimly lit common area, she spotted a familiar face. It was Crooks, the snarky teenage delivery bird!

"It's you again! I'm surprised you're up so early" Ruby greeted the spearow. He turned around a little shocked.

"Woah, stalk much? I'm just doing my duty, of course I'm up early. It's part of being a world class mailbird like myself"

"You sure talk all big, you're acting like you're a guildmaster or something!" Ruby laughed.

"What? Is the postal service not important? Should we all just quit and leave you guys without any mail or packages?" he sneered. Ruby rethought her original thinking.

"No. You're right, you are important" she said. The bird huffed.

"I'm always right. Now I really gotta get back to what I was doing" he said while sliding a satchel over his body, "I gotta deliver these by noon. Smell you later" and with that he flew away. At least I'm not as narcissistic as that kid.

Ruby decided to wander a bit. She never really got the chance to look around the guild at an hour like this. Still dark and mostly empty. She was surprised when upon entering the mess hall, she spotted another familiar face. Eclipse?

"Hey, good morning" Ruby tried to say softly.

The luxio was still startled though, jumping in her seat. She turned to face the intruder, and her scowl returned when she saw it was just the wimpy Ruby.

"Can't a girl get any goddamn privacy here. Can't be in my room, can't be out here. Maybe when I die I'll get some quiet" she barked.

"I'd be sad if you died," Ruby said thoughtfully. She was tempted to give out a rude remark, until she remembered the brief conversation she had with Shadow.

Eclipse looked genuinely surprised to hear that, but she tried to hide her shock, "Fat chance anyways. What do you want, I'm busy"

"With what?" Ruby asked. She only then noticed that Eclipse was writing and scribbling things out on a piece of paper, "Are you writing a letter?"

"Good job, you can see. Now go"

Ruby was really tempted to just leave, but she wanted to keep talking too. She felt like she could get somewhere deeper with the troubled teen.

"Whose it for? Friend? Family?" She avoided saying her mom. She didn't know whether or not she could tell Eclipse that she knew her mother had died.

Eclipse sighed in frustration. "What? Think you can help me? Guess what, you can't" she said, and went back to writing. She hid the words behind her paw, so that Ruby couldn't read it.

Ruby sighed, but took a seat that was away from Eclipse, but still within hearing range. It was an awkward silence, only filled by the sound of pencil to paper.

Shockingly, Eclipse spoke up, "I know about what Dad told you, by the way. I could hear it"

She gasped, open jawed, "But it was so loud and-"

Eclipse interrupted, "I know. It's a luxio thing, we can hear pretty well. There's lots of sounds right now that I bet you can't even hear. But…yeah. I know what you're trying to do"

She stuttered, "I'm sorry, I just…I'm sorry. About what's been going on. I don't know what it's like, I never even had a real mom. But I know it must stink a buttload to lose one" Ruby said earnestly. She wasn't sure if she could give advice, "I wish I could make it better, but I can't"

Eclipse didn't say anything for a bit, but then she chuckled a little, "At least you're honest about it. I appreciate that. Everyone else gets all weepy and shit. They try acting like they know my pain, or know how to fix it. Eating green food or working out or any of that spiritual crap I keep hearing won't fix a damn thing. Just let me be in pain for fucks sake"

Ruby smiled on the inside, I knew we could get somewhere, "I'm here if you want to talk. I've always been a bit of a therapist for my friends, you know" she said, and Eclipse snickered a little.

"You're weird, you know. You got that whole naive adventurer thing going on. You keep being pumped about learning and shit. It's funny" Eclipse said before standing up. She crumpled up the paper she'd been writing on, and tossed it into a garbage bin, and left before Ruby could react. The adventurous pokemon was tempted to go garbage diving to see what she had written, but thought better of it. Surely Eclipse must have trusted her enough to just toss it like that.

…

As the Sun rose, more and more pokemon woke up and made their way to eat a hearty breakfast before the big trip. Sapphire sat with Ruby, yawning.

"When did you get here?" Sapphire asked.

"About an hour ago. I'm just too excited. Where's Rusty?"

"Probably still sleeping. I bet you 10 poke that he's late" Sapphire chuckled.

Rusty was one of the last pokemon to arrive, he was hardly awake. But he made it just in time for Guildmaster Cleos instructions.

"Head to the shoreline in an hour. There will be a boat there that will take us to the first destination. We have to pass through Rocky Bluff before we can find the Gem filled Mystery Dungeon. Gather up all the items you think you'll need and we'll depart. If you're late, we will leave without you" He said.

Everyone scrambled, not wanting to miss the expedition. Ruby sat still for a moment however, thinking about what she would need.

"Sapphire, you're an expert on items and stuff, what should I bring?" she asked.

"Hmm…A bit of everything, healing wise that is. A few oran berries, and a few reviver seeds too, just in case. And I'd also bring some pecha and rawst berries too, in case there's poison or fire types along the way"

Ruby nodded and darted to their shared room to pack.

…

The sea was deep blue and sparkling. Ruby stood behind the guardrails of the large speedboat. Despite the sun, the wind sent shivers down the mienfoos back. Autumn was coming soon and she wasn't excited. Her fur was thin and couldn't hold heat to save her life. Sapphire, however, was pumped for the fall colors and autumn traditions. Despite their different opinions on seasons, they both agreed the ocean was beautiful. Right now, they could see the blurry colors of fish pokemon swimming beneath the surface.

The image of some rocky mountains came into view, looked like that was the Rocky Bluff Cleo talked about. After the boat hit the shoreline, the pokemon departed. Ruby was so grateful she would have this chance to be on an actual expedition, this would be way better than what they've been doing in class.

Cleos Wife, the whimsicott named Breezy, spoke to the group after everyone departed, "I will put everyone into a group. Eclipse, Sapphire, and Token will go with Team Sonic Boom, please get together now" she commanded. The kids did as they were told. Eclipse groaned at having to go with her dad.

"Ruby, Tyrone, and Rusty will be with Team Jet. Make sure you stick close to your team. Do not wander off without them, that's your warning" she said.

…

Eclipse, Sapphire, and Token followed Shadow and his teammates throughout the bluff. The pathway was luckily not another mystery dungeon, but it was pretty high up. The air was thin, and the cliff was steep and jagged. They had to be careful to lose their footing. In the air they could sometimes see bird pokemon flying around. Sapphire half expected to see Crooks the mailbird, but obviously she didn't.

Alongside Shadow the luxray was his trusty team members, Xavier the escavalier and Rosy the roserade. Sapphire knew everyone was in good hands with Team Sonic Boom, they were one of the highest ranked teams in the Guild. Eclipse had a problem with Sonic Boom, though, as she kept complaining about minor things. It almost seemed as though she was purposely trying to annoy her dad.

"We couldn't have found another way? We really have to climb this stupid mountain for the dumb dungeon?" she whined.

"E-eclipse, stop it. Can't we all just enjoy the view? The s-s-sky looks really pretty" Token spoke up in protest.

"Shut up Token, we don't want to hear your stuttering blubber" Eclipse said.

The luxray had enough of this attitude, and broke his role as team leader to be a father, "Eclipse, he's right. There's no use complaining about anything right now. I'm sorry to embarrass you, but I will ground you if you keep this up" he announced.

"Ugh! Whatever, I wish I was dead right now" she groaned. The two feline pokemon fell into an uneasy silence, unsure how to continue the conversation. The rest of the climb was filled with awkward looks back and forth between every pokemon. The mood had turned sour.

Suddenly, Shadow called out, "I think we've found it, look" he pointed towards a large opening. It looked like a textbook mystery dungeon.

"Wow, looks like we found it first too!" Sapphire announced.

"Yeah maybe, haven't heard from the other team yet, and there's no trails. Come on, let's get going" Rosy said. The 6 of them went into the dungeon, and turned on their tracking devices.

The dungeon was glowing, gemstones were embedded within the navy blue wall. Each gemstone was a bright vivid color, it was jaw dropping. But the dungeon was also home to mystery pokemon. That's what the guilds called them, anyways. Mystery pokemon were not like normal pokemon. They spawned in mystery dungeons only, and had little sentience. They walked around and attacked anything that moved. And once you defeat one, they disappear without a trace, as though they never existed.

Shadow spoke, "There's an enemy, over there" he pointed towards a mystery wooper, "Would any of you be interested in trying to defeat it?" he asked.

Sapphire immediately took action, leaping to fight the pokemon. She started by using stomp on it, which did big damage. The wooper tried to attack back, but Sapphire jumped to the left to dodge its shoddy attack. Thinking quickly, she powered up her horn to use a psybeam.

Once the magical beam hit the poor wooper, it vanished into thin air. Sapphire won the fight.

"Nice job, Sapphire. I expected nothing less. Lets keep going, everyone else will have the chance to practice eventually" Shadow complimented.

Token was too nervous to try fighting quite yet, but Eclipse took great joy in using her electric moves against the wooper. Being an evolved pokemon, she was pretty strong. Sapphire had to admit, she was jealous of her and Tyrone. She wished ponyta had a middle evolution like they did, but they didn't. She has to wait until she's well into adulthood to evolve into a rapidash. At least she would evolve eventually, some pokemon never got to evolve at all.

They had gone down a couple of stairways by now. It seemed as though this was an underground dungeon. They were about to descend another staircase when they heard a low rumble. Token was frightened by it so badly that he hid behind Shadows leg.

"Now now, there's no need to panic. This isn't anything unusual" He said while he kept going. The kids had no choice but to trust the feline, he was an expert after all.

"I bet it's a big monster waiting for us" Eclipse jokes to scare the poor slug pokemon even more.

"Eclipse, don't scare him. That isn't nice" her father retorted. She only huffed in response.

However, the low rumble seemed to turn into low growls the farther they went. Token was practically shaking, begging to turn back.

The low growl suddenly turned into a voice, it was loud and all around them, "Leave this place now. We will not hesitate to destroy you for what you've done. Leave me and my sister alone"

It must have been a physic pokemon using their powers to send a message. Everyone froze, unsure how to proceed.

"I'm afraid you might be mistaken. We are an exploration guild, we mean no harm to anyone" Shadow said, taking charge of the situation.

There was no response for a minute or two, until, "An exploration guild, you say. I see. If you are being truthful, then leave"

"Who are you, and why must we leave?" Shadow asked the odd voice.

"Who we are is none of your concern; Know that we are stronger than all of you combined. Leave now, or else we will lash an attack on you. Legendary pokemon won't take another death"

"Another death? I'm confused here" Shadow tilted his head.

"When the moon strikes red, a legendary has perished. I am inclined to believe you, but me and my sister will take no chances. Leave" the voice boomed, causing everyone to involuntarily cover their ears.

"Let's get going, before things get ugly" Shadow demanded, leading the group away from the stairs. The kids only looked at each other, thoughts racing between the 3 of them.

Authors note:

This chapter was a slog. I would write a sentence or two, and then feel lost on how to continue. The past chapters flew right from my fingertips, but this one was hard. Nonetheless. I hope it was an ok chapter. I haven't started the 6th chapter yet, so it may be awhile