Chapter 22 – Pulling The Curtain

“Mnnuugghhh…” Her whole body feels sore. Not as sore as it was earlier, but still, Lexxi feels a throbbing ache all over her. Where… Where was she? What just happened? She peeks her eyes open, squinting, momentarily blinded by the orange glow of the setting sun coming from the window. “Wha…?”

“Can’t feel my mouth.” She can hear Rickety’s voice beside her, letting out a groan of pain as she hears some shuffling. “Wait- No… Okay, there it is, urrgh.”

Lexxi slowly sits herself back up, trying to keep from causing more pain to herself. She’s only mildly successful, any movement causes small pangs of pain to crash over her, making her wince as she scrunches her eyes shut for a bit.

“Yer’ both awake! Oh thank goodness!” A familiar voice can be heard coming from her other side, turning her head to see a familiar Bidoof staring at the two of them with a relived expression on his face, a few tears seen welling up in his eyes.

“Bungie?” Lexxi mutters, rubbing at her head a bit. “W-What happened? Where are we?”

“Yer’ both back at yer room in the guild. Found ya both passed out in Crystal Cave, you’ve been sleepin’ for the last few hours!”

“Uuggh, I think I remember that.” Rickety groans, sitting back up slowly himself, shaking his head. “I remember us going after Glyph and…” His head quickly turns to Lexxi. “Oh gosh- Lexxi are you okay?!”

Lexxi nods her head a few times. “A little beaten and bruised, but, yeah, I’m fine. For the most part, anyway.”

Rickety lets out a sigh of relief. “Alright, good…” He turns his attention back to Bungie. “What about Azelf and Uxie? Are they alright too?”

Bungie nods. “Mmhm. They weren’t as badly hurt as you two, their injuries were pretty tame compared to the two of y’all. They’re pretty resilient, those two! Toughin’ it out for each other. They’re stayin’ at the guild for now, tryna get some rest n’ heal back up. But I’m glad y’all’re okay too! If anythin’ happened to ya, I’d… I-I dunno but I wouldn’t be very happy!” He says, tears welling up in his eyes again.

Rickety chuckles softly. “Hey, don’t worry about us. It’ll take a lot more for us to go down than that.”

“Don’t make thinkin’ about it any less hard, though.” He sniffles, smiling softly. “…I should let everyone else know yer’ up. Be back in a jiffy, alright?” Bungie heads out of the room, glancing back at Rickety and Lexxi before leaving.

Lexxi sighs and fwumps down against her cushion. “It’s a shame that we couldn’t catch Glyph, but at least it seems like the Time Gear is safe. Glad to hear Uxie and Azelf as doing okay, too.”

“Mmh.” Rickety nods, expression growing rather uncomfortable as he rubs at the back of his head. “A lot happened back there, huh? I’m still trying to process it. Did you hear what Dusknoir said back there? It seemed like… Like he and Glyph knew each other.”

“Vaguely.” Lexxi’s brows furrow, staring down. “I could make out bits of it, but everything was too muffled for me to understand clearly… And I had a vision from the necklace after I’d passed out. I think it might’ve been dangling out of the wonderbag a bit, and I touched it before I went unconscious.”

Rickety blinks a few times, rather surprised and a bit dumbfounded. “Well if that’s not a coincidence. What did you see this time?”

Lexxi rubs at her head as she tries to think back. Surprisingly, it’s a lot harder to remember things while you were unconscious for most of it. “Mmmnn… I think I saw the Traveller sitting on the same beach you found me at, only everything was all different. The sky was green, all the plant life was mostly gone, but it doesn’t even stop there.”

“They went to sleep, and had this dream… I think it might’ve been a dream, I’m not sure, it felt real enough. They saw this figure, kinda looked like he had the same mask design as the necklace.” Lexxi looks over at the wonderbag, seeing the necklace still dangling out from it. “The figure said that it’d ‘guide them to the gates’ whatever that meant.”

“Guide them to the gates…” Rickety reaches for the necklace, pulling it out of the bag, glancing down at his own necklace, before glancing at Lexxi’s. “They’re keys?”

“That’s what I thought when I was watching it play out.” Lexxi says, looking down at her own necklace. “There’s something more to these things than them just having some sorts of powers. Yours controls time, I’m still not sure what mine that, and that one probably does something else, too.”

Rickety hums curiously, eyebrows furrowing as he examines the necklace a bit more closely. “Well… I’m not really sure what it could do either. If each necklace’s power is respective of what they represent, maybe that could clue us in a bit more? Man- There’s so much more to this! And we can barely even dedicate enough time to learning more because there’s just so much going on.” He sighs, placing the necklace back in the bag.

“Maybe once this is all over, we’ll have all the time we need.” Lexxi gives a reassuring smile. “After Glyph is captured and we’ve got Mesprit back, we can go back to doing what we’ve been doing since we joined. Explore, learn, help other Pokemon, have fun together.”

“Heh… That’d be nice, yeah.”

---

“…Am I hearing that correctly?” Chatot stares quizzically at Rickety, the rest of the guild having regrouped in the central hall. “You mean to tell me that Dusknoir and Glyph might’ve known each other before all of this?”

Rickety nods his head, shifting in place a bit. “That’s what it seemed like, yeah, just judging from the way they were talking to each other. Sounds like they have quite a history with each other, too.”

“Hey, hey!” Corphish speaks up, leaning forward. “What happened to Dusknoir, then? We haven’t seen him since the entrance to the cave!”

“We think he went after Glyph.” Lexxi says. “He disappeared too after Glyph ran away.”

“It would certainly add another- _Nngh- Layer to things if they knew each other.” Uxie stammers, leaning against their brother for support, a few bandages wrapped around their body, mainly where the leaves had struck them. “Perhaps we should confront him about this the next time we see him?”

Azelf gently wraps his tails around Uxie’s side, keeping them close. _{“Take it easy, man, you’re still hurt.”}

_{“Even thinking hurts.”} Uxie whines quietly, face scrunched up just a tad.

“…Huh!?” Diglett could be heard from the other side of the room, face looking down through the entrance to the sentry post. “Could you run that by me one more time?!”

“What’s going ON?!” Loudred shouts, quickly turning to face in the direction of Diglett. “We’re all trying to figure things OUT here!”

“Sorry, sorry! It’s Deputy Magnemite!” Diglett explains, everyone else in the guild turning to face him. “I think it’s an emergency call sent out from Officer Magnezone!” He turns back to the hole, shouting down. “Deputy Magnemite! If you could please shout your message down into the sentry post a little bit louder so we can all hear it!”

Faintly, Magnemite’s voice can be heard coming out. “Zz-Zzt! Can you hear me? Officer Magnezone has requested that everyone gather in the main square of Treasure Town on behalf of The Great Dusknoir! Zz-Zzt! All Pokemon in the area have been called for the meeting, not just those in the guild! Zz-Zzt! That’s all! We hope for your cooperation! Zz-Zzt!”

The guild members all look amongst themselves, intrigued, curious. “Hmm, guess we may be getting those answers after all, huh?” Azelf says, glancing over to Uxie.

“Hey, you heard the magnet dude!” Zorora speaks up. “Let’s head out to Treasure Town and figure out what’s goin’ on!”

Rickety and Lexxi share an uneasy glance with each other as the two make their way out with the rest of the guild.

---

Treasure Town was more bustling than usual. Seems like everyone in town had gathered around the square after having heard of Magnezone’s call. They were all gathered around, Dusknoir and Magnezone standing before the crowd, seemingly discussing things with each other.

Once Wigglytuff’s guild arrived, a few Pokemon in the crowd seemed to divert their attention, surprised to see the guild here.

_{“Even the guild members were called, huh? This must be big, very big.”}

_{“And very serious, too!”}

_{“Hey, are those the lake gaurdians? I see Azelf and Uxie, but… Where’s Mesprit?”}

Dusknoir hovers forward, a bit closer to greet the guild. “Ah, you’re all here! Good to see you’re all still in one piece.” His gaze glances over to the guardians, and Team Void. “Glad to see all four of you are alright as well.”

Rickety smiles sheepishly, rubbing at the back of his head. “Thanks for saving us, er, again, Dusknoir.”

“We owe you that much.” Uxie nods their head. “I don’t know what would’ve happened to us if you hadn’t been there.”

“So… What happened?” Lexxi leans forward a bit closer. “What happened? Do you know where Glyph went?”

“I’ll be getting into that shortly. But to give you the short version, I tried to give chase to him, but he seemingly disappeared without a trace.” He huffs, crossing his arms. “Can’t find him anywhere now.”

_“…He?” Rickety mutters, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. “Dusknoir, sir, back at the lake, while you were confronting Glyph, it sounded like you two knew each other. Could you…”

Dusknoir’s gaze narrows a bit. “Ah, you heard that?” He glances away, in thought. “I’ll be explaining that too, please, just bear with me. We need to make sure everybody is gathered before we get into anything.”

---

“Now…” Dusknoir clears his throat, placing his hands behind his back as he looks over the crowd that had all gathered in Treasure Town Square. “I’m sure you’re all familiar with the fact that the Time Gears have been getting stolen left and right from a strange, thieving Pokemon known as Glyph.”

“This last attempt ended in failure for him, thanks to the help of the lake guardians, and of course, Team Void’s efforts to stop him as well. While we should be glad that the Time Gear has been protected, the fact of the matter is, Glyph is still at large. He’ll likely attempt to steal another Time Gear somewhere else.”

“Why is he doing all of this, though?” Azelf speaks up from amongst the crowd, still holding Uxie close to him. “What could he possibly want with the Time Gears in the first place? And what would he even gain from taking our sister?”

Dusknoir lets out a remorseful sigh. “That second question, I’m afraid I cannot answer. That first one, however… I must say in advance, what I’m about to tell you all might sound hard to believe, but I must enforce that this is extremely critical information to understand what’s happening, and why.”

“Earlier, Rickety had asked me if I knew Glyph from before all of this. To which the answer is… Yes.” Everyone seems to chatter amongst themselves briefly, all equally surprised. “If what I’m about to reveal isn’t stopped, it only spells certain doom for all of you. The first matter is Glyph himself. Glyph is… A Pokemon that came here from the future.”

# “WHAT?!”

All of the Pokemon in the square exclaim at once, all chattering once again, trying to comprehend the weight of what Dusknoir had just revealed.

“Future?! There’s no way, that can’t be right!”

“B-But it’d make sense, though, wouldn’t it! Look at him! He looks like a Grovyle, but he’s so different from a Grovyle too!”

Lexxi’s thoughts stir together as she and Rickety stare at each other in disbelief. It did make sense. But not only that, her visions, all of the visions that she’d seen from the necklaces, they all had to come from the future too! But… There’s still more, there’s so much more, isn’t there?”

“I should explain further.” Dusknoir says, taking a deep breath before sighing. “Pokemon in the future are very, very different from what they are now. Technology progresses significantly in the far future, thanks to humans, believe it or not.”

“Humans?!” The crowd all shout together.

“It’s… Complicated. To explain everything would surely go over your heads and only cause more problems, so I’ll try to explain it as simply as I possibly can.” Dusknoir clears his throat and scratches at his head. “Glyph is not a typical Pokemon. He’s an Android, an artificial Pokemon built in the image of a Grovyle. Glyph is just a codename he’s given himself to try and keep himself on the downlow. In reality, he is classified as an ‘Iron Vines’ model.”

“…D-Does this mean,” Rickety stammers, his full attention focused on Dusknoir. “There’s more Pokemon like him out there?”

Dusknoir nods his head. “Glyph is far from the only Android Pokemon out there. I would go as far to say there’s an Android counterpart for almost every Pokemon in existence in the future, all built for one purpose or another. But Glyph is significant. He’s a thief, a sly one at that, one who has avoided capture for ages. Rather than allow himself to get caught, he discovered something sinister he could do instead.”

“To avoid capture to the future, Glyph fled to the past after learning about the Time Gears. In the future, time sustains itself without the need for such things, they become obsolete. But here, in the past, the world is dependent on them in order to keep time flowing.” Dusknoir’s gaze narrows. “…To invoke the planet’s paralysis.

“Planet’s paralysis?” Lexxi tilts her head, wars drooping downwards. “What’s that?”

Dusknoir gazes to the side, glancing down. “The less that is thought about such an event occuring, the better. But to put it bluntly, without the Time Gears, the flow of time will stop entirely, leaving the planet in a cold, deadened state. The future never happens, Glyph erases himself from existence, and the world is left to deal with the consequences of his selfishness.”

Azelf arches an eyebrow, tilting his head to the side. “He came all the way to the past to invoke a time paradox just to keep himself from being caught? Doesn’t he know that if the future doesn’t happen, he’ll never be created? I fail to see what he’s trying to accomplish here.”

“It might be a bug in his coding, failing to make him realize that in doing such an act would still ultimately doom himself.” Dusknoir says, thinking out loud. “Or perhaps he fully knows what he’s doing, and would rather erase himself and everything, rather than being caught.”

_{“Sounds petty.”} Uxie quietly says, huffing to themselves.

“Furthermore, that is also why those vortexes have been appearing, and why Mystery Dungeons have been acting stranger than normal, lately. It’s parts of the future and present, all trying to hold its existence together, like a flame flickering out.” Dusknoir turns his gaze back to the group, standing taller. “But that is why we must capture him and get back the Time Gears! Should we fail, the world would surely end in ruin.”

_{“T-That’s what would happen if…”}

_{“I don’t wanna think about it I really really don’t wanna think about it.”}

“There’s just one thing I don’t understand…” Xero ponders, walking ahead of Zorora a tad. “Dusknoir, sir, with all due respect, I understand that you’re incredibly well versed in a number of things, but how would you know all these things about the future?”

“…That does bring up a good point.” Lexxi says, rubbing at her head. “How do you know all of this, Dusknoir?”

“Ah,” Dusknoir nods. “There’s a very simple explanation for that, and I do apologize for not telling you all of this sooner, but I, too, come from the future.”

Once again, everyone in the crowd is equally surprised. “I never would’ve guessed it, Dusknoir.” Rickety says, his voice still shaky. “You don’t look like a Pokemon from the future at all, compared to Glyph.”

“I had to integrate myself into the past as much as I could, which meant leaving many things behind in the future.” Dusknoir’s expression falls a bit. “I’m sorry for deceiving all of you, but I had to keep it a secret in order to catch Glyph. If I’d made myself obvious, he’d be alerted to my presence. And… I do doubt you would have believed me, anyway, if I had come right out of the gate.”

“Well, er…” Chatot stammers, shifting uncomfortably in his place. “You needn’t worry about that, Dusknoir! You were only doing what you had to to ensure that Glyph was captured! As well as looking out for all of us, as well! You weren’t exactly given a choice in your case!”

“Hey, hey! Chatot is right, Dusknoir, sir!” Corphish perks up. “But, thing is… What do we do now? We’re in deep trouble if Glyph keeps stealing the Time Gears!”

“…He probably won’t go after the Time Gear in Crystal Lake again. I have no plans of unsealing it. There’s one more Time Gear I can possibly think of, the closest one being the Volcanic Wastes deep in the south. I don’t know if he would dare venture into such a place, given he’s likely still a grass type despite being an Android, but it’s the only place I can think of.”

Uxie hums curiously, brows furrowed in thought. “Perhaps… We could ambush him there?” They suggest. “Glyph would likely suspect we’ve all gone back to our lakes to rest. After all, who would expect lake guardians to be dwelling in a land dominated by fire Pokemon?”

“Hmm…” Dusknoir hums, thinking to himself for a few moments, before nodding. “That does sound like an excellent plan indeed! Good thinking on your part, Uxie! But… Are you two sure you would want to? Especially in your state?”

Uxie nods their head firmly. “I care not for how weakened I am. I will not let Glyph get away with what he’s done to us. If he’s truly hiding our sister somewhere, I will not stop until he tells us where she is, or what he’s done to her.”

“As will I.” Azelf says with a determined smirk. “Nobody hurts my younger siblings and gets away with it.”

“…I’ll help too!” Rickety shouts, raising his hand up in the air. “We’ll give Glyph what’s coming to him and make him pay for everything he’s done to not just Azlef and his siblings, but to everyone!”

Lexxi’s ears perk up, smiling brigtly. “I’d like to help out too! Especially if it means finally bringing him to justice!”

Their eagerness causes the others in the crowd to start speaking up as well.

“I’d like to help out too!”

“As do I!”

“We can all team up and stop Glyph together! He won’t stand a chance!”

“Everyone!” Dusknoir suddenly shouts, raising his arms up in the air. Everyone goes back to being silent, all turning their attention back to him. He clears his throat, recomposing himself. “I truly appreciate all of the support you’re offering, and in an ideal situation, banding together against Glyph would be the best option. But I’m afraid this is a matter that only Uxie, Azelf and I will be attending to.”

“Huh?!” Rickety exclaims, eyes widening. “B-But why?! Shouldn’t we all be working together if we wanna-“

“Glyph already knows I’m here, so he’s likely to be extremely wary.” Dusknoir explains. “He would likely suspect something to be amiss upon seeing a strangely large amount of non-fire type Pokemon in the Volcanic Wastes. This is a personal matter as well, for both Uxie and Azelf. It’s only fair they get the vengeance they deserve.”

Rickety stares blankly, before sighing with a nod. “I understand, Dusknoir, sir.”

“You have all already been an incredible help in trying to capture Glyph.” He looks up into the sky, seeing the sun finally beginning to set upon the horizon. “But it’s been a long day for everyone involved, and I wouldn’t want to put any of you through any more of what’s been done. You should all go back home and get the rest you need and deserve. We will capture Glyph… I promise that!”