Entering The Dream was a strange experience for Sean, Scout, Twila, and Mawile. Blending their dreams together, mixing their minds with another's, to be transported into a realm based on nothing but thought.
The process was surprisingly gentle, not even a thought of turbulence.
The experience was something Scout and Sean were at least somewhat adjusted to, leaping through time felt similarly strange, though at least this one wasn't as dizzying.
They fell into The Dream dropping them through layers of reality, falling further and faster and longer and slower. The Dream was not just one pokémon's mind, but many, with distorted space blended with the power of Darkrai and Cresselia.
Scout, Sean, Twila, and Mawile fell until there was no more to fall.
Coming to as they all lay down on a dirt track, the four pokémon stood up together. Scout brushed dirt off his fur, Sean didn't even notice it as he rubbed his head, Mawile frowned at the trees around them and Twila studied the sky. They had their bags at least.
It was Scout who was the first to speak of their surroundings. "This is different to what I was expecting," he said, giving the area around him a perturbed look. "This isn't the nightmare dungeon that I was anticipating."
"Well, you said Darkrai called it The Dream," Sean pointed out.
"Still weird," Scout replied. "It's more the dungeon I was expecting, but Darkrai does have a bigger distortion, maybe the dungeon thing was more of a prototype?"
"We do not know what Team Go-Getters is or was experiencing," Mawile pointed out before pointing out their path. "Regardless, take a look around you. Doesn't this place look familiar?"
The three took a long moment to take in their surroundings. They had entered The Dream through Wigglytuff's dream, but he was nowhere in sight. What was in sight were trees, green grass, a smoothed rocky trail, and more trees.
"This is the trail to the beach," Sean noted, recognising the winding trail. "Huh."
"Yeah." Scout nodded. "Okay, this is making a little more sense, but still. I think we should get a move on and talk this out."
Nodding to him they all started walking. It was a picturesque view as they walked. The green trees, fluffy with leaves, swayed in a gentle wind, spreading a flowery scent of springtime energy to their senses.
"Darkrai did talk about The Dream replacing the real world," Scout pointed out. "So, it obviously can't all be dungeons."
The sunlight twinkled merrily above, beaming down a gentle warmth that wasn't too hot and had no single cloud in the sky to dull this delightful day.
"There are likely still dungeons around, however," Twila pointed out, getting some nods in return. "We'll need to be careful. Dungeons are dangerous enough, but a dream-based one is a complete unknown."
"And Darkrai could be anywhere."
The song of the world hummed along with the wind, ruffling the furry mon's fur, but Mawile was relatively unaffected. After the wind passed there was not a brush of air, it came in bursts as if it was being turned off and on.
"Think Treasure Town is up there?" Sean asked as they wandered up the trail, keeping sharp eyes and ears on their surroundings.
"Looks like it," Scout said, pointing. Frowning, they all noticed the looming Wigglytuff head in the far distance.
The bright pink head of Wigglytuff crested over the trees, gazing down at them with a welcoming smile. This was The Dream and the guild still stood firm above Treasure Town, beaming down a blank-eyed shadow of protection.
A little unsettled by it, but also heartened in a way, the four sped up a little. It would not do to let their guard down, but the guild being there was at least comforting. Treasure Town simply didn't look right without it peering over the whole area like a protective guardian.
As the trail wound to a straight path, they spotted the crossroads. From a glance, it looked like an exact replica of what it was in the real world and a closer look still only yielded a few inaccuracies.
The writing on the sign was illegible, as reading in dreams was never very workable. Spinda's Café was in the right place, but its bricks were blue instead of slate grey, and the guild still stood. That was a rather large inaccuracy.
The three pokémon came to a stop at the crossroads, looking at their options. To the left was the town, still standing with a distant buzz of noise coming from it. The guild ahead was a clear choice. And to the right, the path stretched into the wilds and housing district.
"What do you think?" Sean asked. "Guild or town first?"
"Town," Twila and Mawile said.
"There'd be more pokémon there, probably," Scout agreed.
"I do think we should be careful there," Mawile said. "And not just for Darkrai. Let's be careful about what we say to the pokémon here, we should treat everything with at least some measure of caution and suspicion."
That was easily agreed on and so off they went. Splitting up while in a dream realm seemed like a foolish idea. Time was of the essence but getting themselves into trouble was no more helpful.
Treasure Town opened up quickly to them, the well-worn trail abandoning the wild trees for the placement and security of the town. Duskull's Bank, the first landmark of the town proper, was firm and unyielding.
Duskull was floating in his teller's spot, red eye bouncing between his eye sockets and observing them keenly as they passed by.
There were a lot of pokémon within the town, and yet not all that much activity. Treasure Town was a pitstop for many exploration teams, coming in and going out on jobs and adventures. Despite that, few pokémon were coming in or leaving, most of the pokémon were congregated within the town square.
Ursaring and Teddiursa gossiped with Cherrim. Team Joy was holding a choir sing-along. It was loud and distracting and not very good, but many pokémon were lending their voices in a merry chorus.
No one gave the four new pokemon a second look at first.
It was Corphish who spotted them first, scuttling back from the marketplace. "Hey-hey!" he greeted. "Hey-hey! Hey-hey! Hey-hey!" And then froze.
"Hi Corphish," Scout said, fighting to keep his voice level. It hadn't been that long since he had seen him, but it felt like an age ago.
Corphish was observing them for a moment. "Hey… uh, huh. It feels like it's been ages since I saw you." He clicked a pincer, eyes searching Scout for a moment.
"Heh, me too. Funny how time flies?"
Corphish nodded, a little distracted. "Where's Shinx and Litleo?" he asked, before waving to the rest. "Riolu. Mawile. Braixen." He turned back to Scout, then blinked again. "Uh, hey?"
"What's up, Corphish?" Sean asked nicely and casual. No one else said anything.
"Not much," Corphish answered. "Not since… uh… hm." His eyes were growing foggy and he turned around and scuttled off, muttering under his breath. He paused once more to glance half-heartedly back at them before continuing.
The four of them communicated several complicated things with just expressions and sharp gestures before hurrying on.
A few other pokémon regarded them curiously.
"Little dudes!" Electivire called, waving energetically at his not-destroyed shop. "Where… where's Sshhhinx…?" He got immediately distracted, however, by Xatu floating about opening boxes in the street.
A set of the children that Sean knew, Grookey and little Pawniard, came running up to him asking him to teach them how to string up Banette like they did a while back.
Before Sean could answer they ran off with confused expressions.
Crossing the bridge brought them into the marketplace. There were a few teams selling goods within the marketplace, but not as many as usual. Shuppet of Team Ebony was floating about with a particularly perturbed expression and upon spotting them she gave a double-take and quickly floated over.
"Psst," she hissed, passing Twila. "Follow me."
Twila glanced at her sharply and then back to the others. "Shall we?" she asked. They followed.
Shuppet took them behind the flea market, where she and Murkrow stored a lot of the dusty treasures they tried to sell.
"You haven't been around lately," she said, immediately. "I know because I know everyone. I'm no Sunflora, but I still get to know everyone."
"We've just been busy," Sean said.
"Cut the crap," Shuppet snapped, her eyes were wide and fierce but there was a measure of something else behind them. Fear. "I know something is up. Pokémon aren't coming, or leaving, Murkrow doesn't even seem to hear me half of the time and now you are here, the first new pokémon I've seen for like… a week. Celebi said… we… a dream?"
This was a surprise. Shuppet of all pokémon?
They still were being careful, however.
After Shuppet said her last words her expression began to daze out. "I… ugh," she was mostly just a head, so she shook her whole body. "What's happening to me?"
"We're in a dream world," Sean said, deciding to throw caution to the wind. "And we're trying to work out how to find the pokémon responsible. Darkrai. He's this big, spooky, fella. Pitch-black skin, this big red growth, pure blue eyes."
"Yeah… that's what she," Shuppet said, eyes beginning to slide off them.
"Shuppet!" Sean said, raising his voice and she blinked.
"I… what is happening to me?" An edge of fear entered her voice and she immediately flew at Sean and latched onto his shoulder with her fabric-like body. "Please don't let me become like… uh… the…."
"Shuppet? Shuppet!?" Sean shook his arm gently, but she was uncurling.
"Dusknoir and Grovyle are at Kangaskhan's Storage," she said flatly, just something tiny remaining flickering in her eyes. "They know where Celebiiiii…."
She then phased through the wall and left them.
Sean bit his lip, looking at the others. "Should I have not told her that?" he asked.
Mawile shook her head. "Something was already going on with her," she said gently. "That was an informative experience, however. From what we've seen in town. Whatever is happening, the pokémon here do not seem to realise they are dreaming."
"And those that do, maybe not for long?" Scout added.
"So far." Mawile nodded. "Well, at the very least, we have our next destination."
"Should we go, though?" Sean asked, although his eyes shone with badly concealed hope. He wanted to see Striker and Guardian again, and it sounded like if they knew where Saniya was, they might be aware of where they were too.
"I imagine that Darkrai knew we came in immediately," Scout pointed out, speaking the words they were thinking after Shuppet's little nudge. "This is his world after all. If he wants to put us through some sort of fetch quest…." He trailed off, frowning.
Hurrying, they set out for Kangaskhan's Storage. The Dream was still quite accurate. The shops were in the right place with the right shopkeepers, the town was of the right overall size, it was only the little things.
Words that couldn't be read or constructed in nonsense sentences. The overall glassy-eyed expressions everyone had that was making Scout in particular most uncomfortable. And the strangely regimented weather patterns.
A gust of wind blew every two minutes, Mawile had counted it out. A small, but thick, cloud crossed the path of the sun, dimming its shine for twenty seconds every twenty minutes, and grass sprung up after stepping as if no weight was placed on it.
It was all very odd to her, looking closer than the others did. With Scout's whiskers twitching with his fraying nerves every few seconds, she felt confident that they were guarded and allowed herself to test these things out.
The likelihood their intrusion was unnoticed was minuscule anyway, but if Darkrai, Cresselia, or both of them wanted to waste their time, then for now they'd play that game and talk to who needed to be spoken to.
Twila herself watched the places Mawile didn't, instead of focusing on the small differences she kept her eyes on the shadows and the looks in people's eyes, fingers always on her wand just in case.
Mawile hung back as Sean spoke to Kangaskhan, the riolu and then the meowth getting a crushing hug from the matronly pokémon. She didn't hang back outside as they were allowed entrance to her storage, however.
Standing alone here was not advisable.
Kangaskhan's Storage was a breath of dusty, nostalgic, air to Sean. He had spent many a day in these dim walls, counting and organising the belongings of dozens of pokémon.
He had wondered why they didn't store their stuff in their own homes. And then he'd been to Azumarill's house and realised that they didn't have that much space for this stuff. What could be fit, was fitted, and what couldn't be was either donated or stored.
Kangaskhan's Storage wasn't free by any means, but with as many pokémon that used her services, she charged a pittance. And with her kindness, those who might have trouble paying, like Azumarill for a while, were handwaved.
Scout hadn't been in here nearly as often as Rai had never had much to store and took most of it out in the early days of their team. Mawile and Twila agreed to guard the entrance as Sean went in to find them.
"Striker?" Sean called out, voice echoing in the large building. Largest in the town by far, only the guild may have been larger, but vertically rather than horizontally. And the guild didn't count anymore. "Guardian?"
"Sean?" One of them returned, it was Striker's deep voice and Sean brightened like someone had lit up a Christmas tree inside him. He almost moved to run but caught himself and walked with Scout.
Splitting up was not advisable.
He led them to the spot that Team Sunrise had carved out as their own, finding Striker and Guardian with a box in front of each of them. They were sorting some objects with expressionless faces and looked up in unison at the duo.
That was creepy.
The blank-eyed expressions held for only a moment as Striker and Guardian took in their guests. Guardian's eye flickered to a happy pink when he laid his eye on Scout and Striker braved a rare, happy, smile at Sean.
Then both of them froze. "Saniya," Striker gasped, sending a panicked look at Guardian, before leaping to his feet. "Darkrai took you two as well!?"
"No, we came in ourselves," Sean said, startling Striker.
Striker quickly stepped forward. "Sean listen to me very closely-" He stopped and groaned, grabbing his head.
"Dammit, this keeps happening," Guardian growled. "Alright." His hand snatched out to grab Striker by the shoulder, sensing the wood gecko pokémon was about to leap forth. "Striker distance is for the best here."
Striker gnashed his teeth, shook Guardian's hand off, but did relent. "Alright. Fine. What are you two doing here?"
"We came into the Dream," Scout said hesitantly. "To try and figure out… what to do?"
Guardian gazed at him sadly. "What's happening on the outside?" he asked.
"We repelled a feral attack," Scout answered, fighting to not look at Striker. He could feel Striker's gaze already, the weight of Saniya's absence here. "We're doing the best we can."
"What's going on?" Sean asked. "Actually, no. We know what's going on, but no one else here seems to remember… for long."
"I presume you encountered Shuppet, then?" Guardian asked, getting a set of nods in return. "She sent you to speak to us?"
"She did," Scout agreed. "But she couldn't talk for long before…." He finally glanced at Striker, who frowned. "How?"
"Saniya," Striker answered. "She's been trying to reveal to everyone here that we are trapped in a nightmare cast by Darkrai. Unfortunately, we always forget."
Guardian nodded. "Tell any pokémon here and they will likely, eventually, regain some sense and understanding. But soon enough we all begin to forget. Some forget sooner, some can struggle to retain their senses. The longer we remain awake, the more we can hold out. But it is impossible here to hold off from sleeping and once we do, we forget."
"Saniya has been trying?" Scout asked, speaking up for the first time since they entered. "So, she remembers?"
"At first…?" Striker groaned, holding his head. "Ah, dammit. Dammit. Okay, Guardian do it!" Guardian gave him a gentle, but still firm, smack on the back of the head with his hand wrapped in flames. Striker jolted, but the blow seemed to knock some sense into him. "Pain is grounding," he bit out to the concerned looks.
"At first she had similar struggles to us," Guardian said. "But she was reminded by Lucario and was able to retain more of her sense even after sleeping. Recently, however, she appears to have retained her mind entirely. That or Lucario is able to remind her successfully each morning, either/or."
"For the record." Striker flicked a single Bullet Seed at Scout, it collided with his koban with a clink and he stumbled back from the blow. "That was for Saniya."
"Striker!" Guardian snapped, hand on fire again.
"It's the principle," Striker snapped back. "I understand he had to use the feather, but I am still not happy Saniya is in such danger."
"You know what happened to her?" Scout asked with crushing, being pulled up by Sean. He wanted to just be left on the ground.
"Saniya explained everything," Guardian said. "After she disappeared and returned, she knew what happened. It was relief to hear, no one in the know was aware of what was going on outside here. That confirmation you were all okay and still fighting helped bolster our spirits."
"Shuppet told us to come to you," Sean reminded, getting them back on track. "Even though it could have been a Darkrai trick, we had to come. So, why?"
"Playing his game isn't wise," Guardian rumbled disapprovingly. "But… well, we still haven't discussed why you are here." He glanced to Striker who was frowning in kind. "You said you came here intentionally… Dream Eater?"
They nodded.
"Beheeyem got us in," Scout explained. "And we've come in because we need to find some information on Darkrai. This is HIS world, there has to be some sign of him. He wouldn't make this place and never enter it himself, even…" Scout trailed off, he didn't want to continue that just yet. A guess that had come to him shortly after they arrived here.
Even if the guess was correct it wouldn't help him on its own. But if he knew it for sure, he had an idea of where to go next.
"Shuppet sent you to the right place," Striker sighed, eyes beginning to glaze over. "Guardian I can't…." Guardian raised his fist but Striker raised his hand and grabbed his arm. "No. Just… I need to talk."
He turned back to Sean. "Saniya and Lucario are your best option for learning anything more." His voice was getting unnaturally flat. "They are not here in town, I do not actually remember when we saw them last. We… she… they… uhhh."
His eyes rolled and he dropped, Guardian catching him and laying him down gently. Sighing sadly, Guardian turned to them as Sean raced to his side.
"The one thing we've come to understand," he said, drowsiness flooding his voice as well. "Is that Darkrai does not care for us to know. In a way, perhaps, that's a mercy. This place is terrible. It's just like the Dark Future. Nothing changes here, everything is static, frozen, and we're not allowed to know either."
"Guardian," Scout said, running up too. Guardian picked Scout up and Scout brought his claws out, digging into Guardian's dark and ghostly flesh. "Guardian, focus! Where can we find Saniya and Lucario?"
Guardian stared at him blankly. "Son...?"
Scout had been under a lot of stress. From the Dark Crater finale going entirely wrong to everything that happened after, he had retreated into a state that let him take things as they come and respond accordingly.
Seeing Guardian like this, however. It was ripping a crack in his chest open and he knew if he fell into it he wouldn't be able to get out of it. "Guardian," Scout said, a brief whimper managed to break through his throat. He rubbed his forehead against Guardian's, the cool metal hitting cooler ghost-flesh.
"Mt. Bristle," Guardian said, before gently setting Scout down and collapsing next to Striker.
Sean and Scout stared at their fallen family in grave concern.
"Meowth, Riolu," Twila called from the entrance. "Come on. We can't just stare at them. Dusknoir told us where to go next."
Pulling themselves away, they quickly left Kangaskhan's Storage and raced through town.
The sun occasionally moved down when their eyes weren't on it, cresting closer to the horizon. Some pokémon were falling asleep in the streets, their companions blindly trotting on without them, some even tripped and decided to curl up and go to sleep as well.
Stepping around the fainting town was more than a little unsettling. Something ached in their hearts when they had to ignore a few of the younger children lying prone in the streets. This was not real, just a dream, but it was a cruel one regardless.
"I don't like this place," Scout said, he was rubbing the top of his eyes a great deal. Just the top of his eyes. Only there. Not wiping his eyes at all. The pressure wasn't getting to him in the least.
"It's reminding me of the time we found Treasure Town in the Dark Future," Sean added softly. It wasn't the same, of course, but it was still bringing back memories that even a paradox couldn't wipe out.
"You came across the town in that time?" Mawile asked quietly. "What was it like?" She got a double Look from Sean and Scout for asking and blushed slightly when she realised how insensitive it was to ask. "My apologies."
"No, no, maybe talking will help," Scout said. "The whole town was dark and frozen, no one was moving… well, not at first."
"I only heard your story about the luxray puppeteering the frozen pokémon," Sean said. "Electricity can move things frozen in time," he added for Mawile's benefit.
She nodded in understanding. She had learned that when asking the right people back when she still lived in town. Rai never liked to tell his part in the final fight, but Sean never failed to reminisce about the shinx walking through collapsing time wreathed in lightning.
Scout didn't continue for a moment. "Mane and I never talk about it because it's… well, awful. But we think that luxray might have been Rai. It had the Relic Fragment and seemed to… recognise us for a moment, or at least Mane. Or maybe it was just the nightmare monsters infesting the place trying to confuse us, even with foggy memories I know that place didn't make much sense."
Sean nodded slowly. "Saniya never told us how long the world had been frozen like that. I know she boasts about knowing the time always, but I honestly think she didn't really know. Time messed up and all probably made working out that long to be tricky." Luxray live for quite a while and with time on the fritz back then, Scout could never be sure that wasn't Rai.
They left the town and hurried on. Despite being a dream, they were feeling the effects of labour creeping in on them. Fast walking, not quite running, was making their hearts beat fast and quicken their breaths.
"You know, if I remember right, The Nightmare left you getting hungry faster," Scout said as they stepped onto the trail leaving town. "But that might have just been Azurill's nightmare. Fear of growing hungry, and I'm also pretty sure a lot of the pokémon you fought in the dungeon were similar species to people in town."
"Fear of growing hungry and his friends turning against him?" Mawile guessed.
"Right. I mean, probably. That was never spelled out in my memory. Just implied because of it."
They still had their travel bags and as soon as the town was left behind, a more obvious change in this world became prevalent.
"Well that's weird," Sean said, noting the trees lining up on their sides. "It's all the same." There were only about three different trees, and then that was copy-and-pasted a hundred hundred times, forming a wall of trees.
Dangerously similar to a forest dungeon, only the track was wider and there were no ferals in sight.
"Do you think feral pokémon will be in any dungeons here?" Sean asked. "Because the only ones we've seen here are pokémon actually in Darkrai's nightmare."
"Darkrai's nightmare has been spreading," Mawile pointed out. "Treasure Town is on the fringe, we lost contact with you but the town was not the only place that went dark. The shaymin have been doing their best to scout around and find pokémon that could be helped, but the world is large and they can only fly so fast."
They knew this, of course. Mawile and Ampharos had let everyone in on what they knew, but she also was nervous and coped by talking facts.
Bleak facts, but still facts. "Often wise we found large groups of pokémon similar to the dishevelled state of ferals, one or two towns were entirely asleep with what appeared to be signs of a battle abruptly ceased."
"I cut Darkrai's arm off," Scout complained. "How is he running about doing this?"
"Treasure Town may not have been his first target," Mawile pointed out.
"He still unleashed the ferals beforehand," Scout replied. "And made that big show and dance. He's theatrical. Ugh, he told me that himself."
"He tells you a lot of things," Sean said.
"Yes," Scout drawled. "And I wish I knew why. I can only guess he's doing his best to confuse me."
"Not very hard to do," Sean muttered.
"What was that?"
"It's nothing."
"Boys," Mawile said before Scout could press the matter. "Another… well, just look."
They took their eyes off each other to find the air before them shivering in a vortex of dark energy. It looked like a dungeon entrance, right in the middle of the road with no way around it. The trees were packed too tightly and trying to press between them, even for Scout, found an inexplicable number of twigs and branches almost pushing him back.
They couldn't go around this.
"Before we enter this," Mawile said because they had no choice. "Promise to me that you won't decide to have an argument at some critical moment? If you have some sort of issue to discuss, do it now."
Sean blushed but Scout did not. The meowth had moved past the emotional state Guardian and the town had revived in him and back to the standoffish, distant, calm that the situation had instilled in him.
"I'm…." Sean almost assured her he was fine but that'd be just a foolish lie. No one was fine. He sighed. "I'm just stressed."
"Blame Darkrai," Mawile said without hesitation. "Blame the one causing the problem. Blame the one that nearly destroyed time and is sending the entire continent, perhaps the world, into this waking nightmare. Blame him and use that anger to focus on stopping him."
She then glanced at Scout. "Is there anything you want to say?"
Scout eyed her for a moment, glanced down, and shrugged. "I want to tell Striker he's hardly a saint and also made mistakes." He rubbed his koban aggressively. "And we didn't finish our talk before Palkia showed up," he muttered.
"Talk? What talk?" Sean asked.
Scout looked up at him. "He didn't tell you?"
"No."
Scout shifted, rubbing his arms. "It's nothing, it's between Striker and me."
Mawile shared a look with Twila, that couldn't do.
"Look," Mawile began, but Twila spoke up next.
"We can't be letting things like this out here and now when Darkrai could be ready to use anything against us. You look like you've got more to say, Meowth."
Scout looked at her with a sharpness that wound up having her eyes still on his for an uncomfortable amount of time.
It seemed to do the trick, however. Scout cracked first.
He glanced at Sean in shame. "I'm sorry. I wish I had never… threatened to hurt you back on that night, I was mad at Striker but took it out on you."
Sean rubbed his neck. He remembered that night well. The first time everything ever had just gone entirely wrong. He had broken Striker and Scout out of jail and escaped, but they were pursued. People had caught up and chaos ensued.
He remembered Scout grabbing him and threatening to kill him. That was the moment Striker had stopped seeing him as the same Scout he had known so well.
That if Guardian could betray them, why not his son?
But now to Sean it suddenly made sense. Scout had looked so furious with him as he held his claws to his neck, but the anger wasn't directed at Sean at all. He had wondered why Scout had been so angry with him. It had been towards Striker, sunken deep within him in a way for him to ignore and pretend like it wasn't there.
Striker had almost killed Rai after all.
It was a little relieving to hear that Scout wasn't actually threatening to kill him, at least not genuinely. Even if he had acted rashly, that moment had come up in his meetings with Azumarill a few times. That look of absolutely no mercy in little Scout's green eyes had scared him.
"You need to finish that talk with Striker," he said.
"Yeah, but he was just trying to push me into a fight. If Palkia hadn't attacked right then, he was about to attack me anyway."
Sean frowned, that didn't seem like Striker.
"You do know that I've forgiven you?" Sean asked, not sure if he'd ever actually said that. They hadn't ever really spoken about that night before.
Scout briefly looked like a weight had lifted, but it settled again with a heavy stare. "Thank you, but… I wanted to hurt you. I don't even know why. Hurting you would hurt him and that's what I wanted. I actually wanted to, and that's not even the first time I've felt that way for something. I wanted to hurt Mane when he knocked Rai out."
His eyes cast away to a different time. "When Striker slashed Rai like that, for a moment, I might have been able to hurt him badly. I remember that damn moment so clearly. When Rai dropped I tried to skewer him. Striker dodged just in time, but if he hadn't…."
Scout glanced at his right paw, remembering the claw blade that had been aimed right at Striker's back. He had put every bit of force he had into that.
"The Dark Future did stuff to us all," Sean said heavily. "I know none of them like to talk about it, but everyone has killed before… even I have." He remembered that heavy rock in his hands when Striker was out cold, bleeding.
"Even if we can pretend that 'ferals' or 'monsters' don't count… it does." The weight of the rock would never leave his paws. "Striker was just acting on reflex and so were you. It kept up alive in the Dark Future but we are NOT there anymore."
Scout nodded. "But we're close," he said, gesturing around them. "We're standing in a place where the world doesn't change."
"Scout… have you talked to Rai or Mane about this? Or even Azumarill?" Scout hesitated before shaking his head. Sean reached over and touched his arm. "This is the kind of stuff no one needs to handle alone."
Scout gave a weak smile and nodded. "I know. I just don't like talking about this, I feel like I should be able to handle it all myself. And I normally can! It's just… when someone gets hurt and I get angry I feel like I'm a different person, just acting to stop whatever is going to hurt someone I care about by any means possible."
"Meowth?" Mawile spoke up, startling the two as they had all but forgotten she was there. Glancing sheepishly at Mawile, they listened as she said. "I admit it's difficult to entirely wrap my head around what you know and the implications of how you know it. But… do you believe in fate?"
Scout paused before shaking his head. "No. I don't, actually."
Mawile nodded. "Neither do I. Prophecy is a fickle thing at best, a day or two is the furthest even the most powerful seers can reliably see, and even then the possibilities past that are said to be almost impossible to determine. It is true that perhaps things may have been handled better, but they also could have been handled worse. Time still stands."
"And you know that Darkrai is smart," Sean added. "Come on. You've heard this stuff before. It's not your fault that he's done this. Like what Mawile said, focus on who's really to blame."
Scout sighed and nodded. "I know, I know all that. It's not that I'm still blaming myself exactly, I just hate the fact that things HAVE gone this way. The whole world is in danger again, we don't know where Darkrai or Cresselia are, they have Saniya, everyone is falling asleep."
Scout shook his head. "I'm just a meowth," he said, jolting with a weird, painful, lurch. "I'm not the hero, you are. I'm not the partner, Rai is. I'm not anyone. I'm not even supposed to exist!"
"Exactly!" Sean snapped, startling Scout. "You aren't some character in a video game destined to save the world! But you were still there, fighting alone in the Dark Future, to get back to help us. You got us the Relic Fragment again. You were standing against Dialga itself, even though you weren't supposed to be there, getting the Time Gears in while critically ill. You were dying scout. It doesn't matter if your 'story' didn't have a place for you. You made your place yourself!"
"Sean I…" Scout set his jaw and closed his eyes to take a breath. "I think… I think we've dawdled long enough," he said, giving something close to a smile. "But… thanks. I'm sorry I've been so down lately. But you're right, I know you're right."
"Are we settled and ready then?" Mawile asked. She received a pair of nods. "Alright. Into the dungeon."
They stepped into the portal and then stepped out of it immediately.
"Wha?" Scout asked as they appeared elsewhere. "Where are we?"
"Not a dungeon, it appears," Mawile said, frowning. Behind them, the portal remained, but perhaps rather than a portal into a dungeon, it was a portal in the more traditional sense.
"Is this the foot of Mt. Bristle?" Sean asked, looking up. They joined him in staring, the mountain seemed to peak into the clouds and further.
"This is the one," Scout said.
They glanced at the portal again curiously, the trees around them were more natural, but still with that stiffness that permeated this realm. Trails leading to, away, and to the sides of the dungeon entrance were where they were supposed to be.
The path heading behind them was cut off by the portal, anything they could see through the trees blurred off into a void.
"I wish Striker and Guardian hadn't dropped before they could explain more," Sean sighed as he stepped forward. "But we know Mt. Bristle is our place. We were ready before, so let's move it."
They marched in a horizontal line, stepping up to the dungeon with no hesitation.
They walked through the entryway, the light from the outside being replaced by the omnipresent light from the dungeon.
"You think ferals get enough sleep?" Scout asked as they looked around. "With it always being daytime in here?" Even at night, the light was always present.
"Maybe that's why they're always so violent," Sean joked.
"It's theorised that whatever creates the dungeons leaves a lingering effect that can drive pokémon mad if they are exposed to the dungeon for too long, but it's difficult to prove," Mawile commented as helpfully as she could.
"Lucario was talking something like that," Sean muttered. "She didn't say much though," he added when Mawile cast an interested eye over at him.
The dungeon was empty. Not a single pokémon besides each other was around. It was just them and the sounds of their footsteps echoing in the empty rooms.
Sean and Mawile had both entered the Circh dungeon before, so they had experienced an empty dungeon before. Scout had not. "This is creepy," he said, claws extended and ready. "I feel like something's going to jump out at us at any moment."
He kept an eye on the ceiling, not wanting to be surprised by an ariados here again. Or any swooping aerodactyl.
Yet there was nothing.
With anxiety mounting, they walked until the dungeon began to change, picking up the few stray apples and berries that were around.
Walking into the final room they were greeted with something different. The rocks at the end were gone as if they had never been there, and no sign of the magnagate either.
What there was, however, was a pair of tents, a Treasure Bag, and some parchments placed up behind them.
There was also a pokémon.
"Where the fuck did you come from?" Lucario asked, pausing between a bite of an apple.
"From the corridor outside," Sean returned casually as if everyone wasn't stunned to see Lucario again. Keira continued eating her apple because she was a bastard before tossing the core to the side.
"Saniya! The furries have come back to you."
With a bang, Saniya appeared. "SEAN?" she yelled, spinning around before spotting him. "SEAN! SCOUT! And… you…." She gazed at Mawile in confusion before shrugging it off. "YOU! TWILA!"
With a telekinetic nudge, she pushed them all together before bombarding all four with a special Saniya hug.
"S-Saniya, you're actually," Scout began, muffled. Sean was just hugging her back.
Mawile detangled herself, and Twila by proxy, letting Sean hug Saniya tighter as Scout teared up. "You're okay," Sean was repeating, holding her tight to prove it to himself.
"I'm okay," Saniya agreed, patting them both. "Sorry for worrying you."
Sean sniffled and pulled back, wiping his face. "Don't apologise, I've just been really scared for you."
Scout managed to detangle himself and stepped away. He felt the air move before he felt Saniya hit him in the back. "Scout! Are you okay? I didn't hurt you did I?"
"Me?" Scout asked, turning back. She wrapped her arms around his neck in a loose hug, not letting him go. "What about you?"
Saniya smiled all too kindly at him. "It's okay."
"But-"
"Scout," Saniya cut over. "What other choice did you have? I stayed awake for long enough to help, it's okay I don't blame you. In fact, it's probably helped even more, I now don't forget about this whole dreamy nonsense and so Keira and I are palling around to get shit done."
Mawile immediately noted Lucario's name in her mind forever.
Lucario could see those cogs turning and finished another apple, debating if head trauma-based amnesia would work in a dream before deciding Mawile was the trustworthy sort. She HAD asked her a million and one questions the last time they met, so she was confident she was right about Mawile.
"Alright," she said, clapping her paws free of imaginary apple juice. "Considering that you definitely weren't around before, something has changed."
"We've come in with the assistance of Dream Eater, Lucario," Mawile said, speaking the name with only a bit of reverence. "Seeking to find a clue on Darkrai's whereabouts."
"Well, you picked a good place to start," Lucario said. "This whole dream world seems to be the collective experience of everyone asleep. You got to Mt. Bristle with a weird portal, right?" They nodded. "That's a place that's not quite 'filled in' yet. There aren't enough pokémon asleep, I think. The rest of the world is like that too, filled with weird portals, magnagate-like tunnel dungeons, and spots of civilisation."
"Please tell us what's going on outside?" Saniya asked, floating back with Sean and Scout holding her hands. "Is everyone okay? And where did Mawile come from?"
"Jirachi worked, kind of," Scout explained as they headed to the campsite. "He can only summon stuff, only one of something, so we got an untainted cresselia feather, woke up Chimecho, Beheeyem turned up, and they were able to contact help which brought up Ampharos and Mawile."
"Oooh," Saniya said. "Ampharos, Mawile, and Jirachi huh? You swung that together early did ya?" She winked several times at Scout and he blushed and avoided Mawile's eyes. Saniya and him had maybe discussed a few broader things that Scout knew when she got him talking, he may have mentioned the Expedition Society to Saniya so she could bet on it and win.
Mawile affixed Scout with a very long, hard, scary look that made him exceptionally nervous. Her eyes narrowed and he felt like his soul might be torn out, but then Lucario took their attention back to the matter at hand.
Sean had quickly gone over what they knew to Lucario as well and the ancient pokémon nodded wisely. "Well," she said, bringing everyone to their seats. "Sounds like we're fucked."
Silence fell.
"Please tell me you're joking." Scout winced.
She waved her paw from side to side. "Ehh, mostly kidding. That's quite the situation we have. Alright, what we know on this end: The pokémon here can be reminded that we're all having a collective seizure, but they spazz out and forget soon enough."
"By the way, how did you know to come here?" Saniya added.
"Shuppet directed us to Striker and Guardian and they were able to tell us in time."
"Ah." Saniya smiled sadly, she hated not being with them. Not that Lucario wasn't… company.
"The world is mostly all unfinished and weird," Lucario continued. "But as time has gone on here, more places have been filled in as more pokémon have turned up. So, we figured that as Darkrai drops more people into this nightmare the more it's getting bigger, more real. That's thanks to Saniya, she let me know what you found out from Darkrai himself." Lucario nodded to Scout.
"You don't have any idea where he might be?" Sean asked.
Lucario and Saniya shook their heads. "Not a clue. The further out into the blind eternities you go, the thicker and more confusing it gets. Not wanting to just drop off into oblivion, neither of us have gone too far."
"I've gone pretty far!" Saniya boasted. "Since I can fly and all. It's how we were able to find Evertrail Town! Team Go-Getters is still over there, they didn't want to leave the pokémon there defenceless. They were able to remember for a good amount of time, probably because they were the first here or something. Can't say for sure now though."
"If they've been here the longest," Mawile pointed out. "It may be possible they have some idea."
"If anyone would," Lucario agreed. "It'd be them. Resourceful team, I have to give them that. But before anyone goes gallivanting off, let's chat to Scout for a moment."
"Me?" Scout asked, ears going up.
"Yeah." Lucario nodded, eyes piercing right through him. "You're the guy who always knows something else that's going on. So, what have you kept to yourself that you haven't mentioned yet? You wouldn't have come here if you didn't have some idea of what to do next. That or this is the last-ditch effort, but you don't look miserable enough for that to be the case."
Scout sighed and nodded, Sean and Mawile immediately protested.
"What have kept to yourself now!?" Sean demanded. "I thought you were done with secrets!"
"Just let him speak," Twila cut in.
"It's just a guess," Scout defended. "It makes sense to me. Darkrai said that he created this Dream by distorting space. If he had to damage Temporal Tower directly to damage time, then he probably had to be in Palkia's domain to affect space. That's the Spacial Rift."
Sean gawked at him. "Why didn't you mention this before?" Sean asked. Mawile looked like she wanted to be writing things down but it would be pointless here.
Scout was blushing heavily. "Well… I've been so tired lately that I didn't even think of it until we came into The Dream. We're not exhausted here and my head cleared and I thought 'Oh wait, that makes sense'."
Wetting his lips, he added with a sheepish shrug. "And nothing I said isn't something that I haven't told everyone already," Scout pointed out. "You know that Darkrai's done this by space, he was all chuffed about Palkia dying so there had to be something there. And if he's not there? I have no idea where the Spacial Rift is, and we only initially got there when Palkia TOOK us there."
Sean nodded, accepting that was fair enough. "Yeah… but what about Dialga?"
"What about Dialga?" Saniya asked. Lucario had already gone off to start pulling out rough maps she had made.
"Dialga might be able to show us where it is?" Sean guessed. "Or even take us there."
"I bet Giratina would know…."
"If Dialga can, we still need to use a feather to wake up Lapras, at least a day to get to Dialga, get it to help us, get through the Spacial Rift dungeon, and if Darkrai is NOT there then we've wasted like two days at least. We have to be sure that Darkrai is there!"
"And how…?"
"Meowth may have a better point than he knows," Mawile said. She turned to Lucario and called. "How much of the world is formed?"
"That's what I'm grabbing these maps for," Lucario called back, folding them up and tossing them over. "Roads, dungeons, towns. We've got a huge blank spot that we haven't explored yet, I don't know if one day here is one day there but I've been here well over a week now. Maybe even two."
"That's about right."
"Neat."
Lucario came back over, Saniya fluttering about in thought.
"If Darkrai wants, nay believes, that The Dream can replace reality then wherever he is doing this must be attached to everything," Twila theorised, glancing at one of the maps.
"Dimensions are a tricky business," Saniya added. "Giratina would ramble on, and I kinda got it thanks to my connection to the dimensions of time and space. Celebi don't just travel through time, after all. The Passage of Time did not plop you down where you entered it or nothing would get done."
"That legendary stuff spins my head sometimes," Lucario snorted. "But go on, sounds like you have an idea?"
"Right." Saniya nodded. "In order for this weird collective hallucination to exist the way Darkrai seems to want it to, it'd need to BE another world in a sense. Space. So, interfering with Palkia's domain does make sense. Dreams are a weird thing too, especially for my type of pokémon, there would need to be some kind of pathway connecting where one goes to where one comes from."
"So, you're saying a pathway has to exist?" Mawile asked.
Saniya nodded. "Indeed. And since you are here, not even with Darkrai's interference, it can't be something just tied to him or Cresselia. It'd need to exist elsewhere, spreading across the world."
"Many pokémon have been falling asleep just in proximity of others and not waking up," Mawile reminded her.
"Right. That's another aspect of this spatial manipulation. To frick with space this much, you'd need to do it in Palkia's domain for sure, but in order to make it work like it is I reckon it exists in both dimensions. This Dream and the real world, there would be a focal point where they overlap. I think, this is some high-level legendary mechanics here and I can't say for sure that this is how it works. We don't transgress on learning about other domains that much, Giratina just rambles a lot and I have a connection to both time and space."
"So, are you saying I might actually be right?" Scout asked, perplexed by the simple concept of him being right. Surely it had to be wrong then, but Saniya was smart she just was also a ditz.
"I'm wondering if we can find Darkrai here, we might even be able to wake up… hmm, but maybe not." Saniya rubbed her chin. "We are just thoughts and maybe souls here, hard to say for sure. We can use our Power, so we are still connected to our bodies in some way. Unless we teleported over, I don't think we could wake up that way. Hmm, it is becoming a world though, I wonder how time works here?" She trailed off.
"But if we could get there," Lucario said. "We might still be able to do something. If Darkrai or Cresselia, by the way, I totally called the fact you shouldn't trust her, are there we might be able to do something about them." She cracked her knuckles.
"You said just to be careful about Cresselia," Sean protested.
"And who blindly trusted the murder bird?"
He couldn't quite refute that point.
Energised by this discourse, the group began to chatter before Sean raised his voice. "We still have no real leads though," he pointed out. "And Scout is right, we can't really go out there without being sure. Time here does seem to be about the same as time out there, so we've been here for a few hours at the very least. We need to work out what to do first."
"Go to Evertrail Town and speak with Team Go-Getters," Lucario said. "That'd make sense. They've been here the longest, perhaps they even started where we need to go."
"We shouldn't all go, however," Mawile argued. "If Team Go-Getters cannot help us, we cannot afford to waste time. Darkrai has shown a fascination with Treasure Town, perhaps just because so many of you were there, but considering what idiosyncrasies we've seen and heard from him, there may still be something important there."
"We haven't found anything there," Saniya replied, shaking her head.
"At least one of us can check it out," Mawile pressed the point.
"I'll do it," Scout volunteered. He smiled at the few surprised looks he got. "Sean, Saniya, and Lucario know Team Go-Getters much better than me and we're all on the same page of information here so there really is nothing more I can say to help. I'm also small, I could probably look in places the rest of you can't, and you know I have a keen eye." His koban glinted proudly.
"I'll go with you," Twila said firmly, she was given a surprised look but didn't budge. "This is Darkrai's world and he has long been interested in Scout, so I think someone needs to be there to back him up."
"I mean, I did cut his arm off," Scout pointed out, still a little proud about that.
"All the more for me to back you up, he's probably after revenge."
Scout nodded, he didn't mind backup but there was still… something troubling him. He didn't have time to think about it now, and being alone with Twila would probably give him a chance to settle it.
"There are also the formless wastes," Keira added. "Saniya has done a lotta work exploring them, but there is still a great deal of it to cross. If this Spacial Rift is anywhere I'd guess it's somewhere far away from everywhere else."
"I do have a very vague idea of where it is supposed to be," Scout offered. With Lucario's crudely drawn maps on hand, he was able to scratch a circle in the general area. "It was off over the sea if I remember right."
"Yeah, the dickhead probably would make it that annoying. Nothing like Dialga's pretentious shit, but equally as annoying."
Plans readied and pokémon prepared, they got ready to set out.
Scout and Twila would return to Treasure Town to look for anything that may have been missed by the others. They intended on checking out the guild post haste.
Saniya would teleport Keira, Sean, and Mawile as close to Evertrail Town that she could to speak to Team Go-Getters.
Then Saniya would go off into the darkness, searching for the Spacial Rift. There was nothing truly dangerous in The Dream. They hoped, at least.
The Dream had been entered, but there was no sign of its master. No sign that they knew of at least.
With two arms here, not the one he had been reduced to in the real world, Darkrai's eyes followed Scout as the meowth waved to the others before setting off, with just a single braixen in his way.