FFWWWWWWWIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSHHHHHHH…

The light slowly fades, the energy slowly dwindling out until nothing is left, the group left to their own devices once again. As the light fades, they discover that they’d been transported to… Seemingly just the outside of the room to the Control Panel, although, the paintings on the walls representing the different symbols of power were no longer scrawled onto the walls, its surface completely blank.

“…Did we make it?” Lexxi asks, slowly looking around the cave. “It doesn’t feel like we went anywhere at all. Maybe something went wrong, or…”

Pixie flies out closer to the arch in the cave, peering her head through. Her eyes widen, a smile forming on her lips as she gestures for everyone else to come over and take a look for themselves. “We’re heeeeeeeeeeere.~”

Quickly rushing over to Pixie’s side, peering out the exit to the cave, the group is met with a wondrous sight. The sun hangs in the sky, painting it a bright, vibrant orange with just a faint tinge of blue off in the distance. The outside was full of lush plant life, towering mountains far off beyond the horizon, the grass a more faded, pallid shade of green, taller and a bit more rough.

Small lakes were scattered throughout the land, the bodies of water still and motionless, completely undisturbed, shadows of tall trees stretching out across the grassy, bushy landscape.

The most notable thing was the atmosphere. The air was hot and humid, very musty to the point of almost being sweltering, looking as though there were more bodies of water than there really were if one looked off into the distance.

“Oh man,” Rickety starts fanning himself to try and cool himself down, stepping slightly back into the shade of the cave. “Is it supposed to be this hot out? How did you guys live like this?”

Pixie giggles, arching an eyebrow at Rickety. “Come on, it’s just a little heat! Nothing anything of you can’t handle! Besides, plenty of lakes to take a nice little dip in if you want.~”

_{“I think I’ll pass, thanks.”}

Glyph peers out of the cave, his eyes sweeping the surrounding area, scanning the area carefully. “It doesn’t seem like Dusknoir’s launched his invasion yet, at least not from where we are, anyway. We still need to get to Temporal Tower as soon as possible.”

“Speaking of,” Uxie ponders, thinking out loud. “…I don’t recall you ever mentioning a plan, Pixie. We get to the past, and then what happens? Where do we go from there?”

“Oh, I know a group of Pokemon who can help us. Follow me! I’ll bring you to them!”

The heat was even more intense as the group all step outside, the summer sun beating down on them relentlessly. Maybe Lexxi should’ve picked up that Blizzard TM from Kecleon’s Shop after all…

---

_{“Uuugggghhh…”} Rickety groans, still fanning himself, his hair sticking to his face from sweat. “How long have we been walking? I don’t know how much more I can stand this heat.”

“We’ve been walking for five minutes.” Glyph plainly says as he glances back at the Riolu. “Like it or not, you’re gonna have to deal with it.”

Rickety huffs, rolling his eyes as he frowns at Glyph. “Easy for you to say. You’re a robot, you don’t have to worry about feeling like you’re being burned alive. Heck, you’re probably even getting charged up since you’re a grass type and all.”

“My leaves aren’t real, remember? I’m not getting any benefit from this, much less you.”

_{“This suuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks.”} Rickety shakes, wiping the sweat off his brow. “I’m sorry, guys, can we just take a minute? I need to cool off.”

“At a time like this?” Glyph scoffs. “You can’t be serious.”

“In all fairness, Glyphy,” Pixie speaks up, glancing back at the group. “Their bodies probably aren’t as adapted to extreme conditions like ours are. We do thrive in this heat, after all! I’d already notice it was much cooler in the future, it’s no wonder they’re so hot.”

“Even the hottest of summers back in our time don’t even get this hot.” Azelf says, nodding his head. “I’ll admit, Uxie and I are handling it very well, but the humidity is rather stifling. It’s so musty and arid out here.”

“It’s so much worse when you’ve got a whole body covered in fur, too.” Lexxi says, fanning herself off with her tail. “I know we’re in a bit of a hurry, but we can’t stop Dusknoir if we’re too exhausted to even take him on. Can we please just rest up for a moment or two? We’ll only take as long as we need before we get moving again.”

Pixie hums to herself for a moment, wings fluttering. “Mmmmmnnnn… Fair enough! I guess I should’ve warned you in advance, to be completely fair.”

_{“Oh thank gosh.”} Rickety mutters, slumping himself under a tree right next to some shrubbery, letting out an exhausted sigh, eternally grateful for the glorious shade in this unrelenting heat.

Lexxi is about to rest under the tree with Rickety, but she hears a noise, the sound of rustling. Her ears flick, trying to find the source, and worryingly enough, it happened to be coming from the bush that Rickety just happened to be laying down beside.

A pair of glowing, yellow eyes peers out ominously from the bush, staring right at Rickety. The bush begins to shake and ruffle, and Rickety does seem to notice this. He briefly glances over at the bush confused, his eyes widening when he sees those two glowing eyes staring back at him.

A Pokemon lunges out from the bushes, trying to strike at Rickety with great force. A pair of fangs, he thinks he sees, launching straight at him, as he skitters back on his butt and tries to back away as fast as he can, the unfamiliar Pokemon letting out a loud, violent snarl as it misses its attack, eyes tracking back towards Rickety.

It looked like a Jigglypuff, but much bigger than average size, had more defined paws and body markings around its eyes, but the most notable different was the long, curled back ponytail residing on the top of its head rather than than small, curled tuft that Jigglypuffs have.

Pixie hums curiously, glancing over back from all the noise, her eyes landing on the Pokemon, going wide. “Huh- Wait! Scream Tail, hold on!” She quickly flies over in front, guarding Rickety and Lexxi with her arms outstretched. “You don’t need to hurt them, they’re with me!”

The Pokemon, Scream Tail, gasps in surprise, eyes going wide and mouth going agape, its tiny little fangs visible. “Pixie?” Its look of shock slowly turns into a look of pure joy and happiness, the Pokemon hopping over and wrapping its little arms around her in a hug. “Pixie! Scream Tail not seen you in forever!”

“Scream… Tail?” Rickety arches an eyebrow, sharing a confused glance with Lexxi before turning back to face the two. “Now I’m really confused. You mean that’s not just a Jigglypuff?”

“Oh!” Pixie briefly hugs Scream Tail back, giving it a pat on the head before smiling, gesturing to them. “This is Scream Tail! She might look like a Jigglypuff, yes, but she’s not exactly the same. Just like Pokemon in the future, Pokemon in the ancient past are much different than our descendants! And that includes their names.~”

Pixie giggles softly. “The same applies to me as well. You’re probably more familiar with my descendant, Celebi. But me? I’m a Chrono Voyager.~”

“Interesting…” Uxie tilts their head to the side curiously. “Similar genetic makeup and body structure, but I can sense a greater, much stronger ferocity coming from within her. To think that such a strong Pokemon evolved into something more docile.”

Scream Tail hops on over to Lexxi and Rickey, bowing her head down at them. “Scream Tail apologize for trying to hurt you and turn you into today’s meal. If you all friends with Pixie, then you all friends of Scream Tail too! Scream Tail recognize all of you as friends of Amixtika!”

“Uhh-” Rickety blinks a few times, standing back up shakily. “I-It’s fine, we’re kinda used to being jumped at this point, anyway. Happened less than an hour ago, in fact!”

Lexxi chuckles softly, giving an awkward nod of her head. “It happens more times than you’d think.”

Scream Tail’s eyes land on Glyph, staring at him curiously, her eyes wide with wonder. “Who that Pokemon? Why rest of friends fleshy and squishy when that friend look like shiny metal tree?”

“That’s my Glyphy!” Pixie exclaims. “Soooooo, he’s my boyfriend, and-“

“You don’t need to elaborate further than that, Pixie.” Glyph says flatly, rolling his eyes, muffling a quiet chuckle to himself.

Pixie pouts her lip out at Glyph, humping playfully. “Y’know, for a robot, you can be pretty moody.” She turns her head back to face Scream Tail. “Aaaaaanywaaaaaaaaayyyssss. We came back because it’s important. We need to get to Temporal Tower as fast as we can. You think you can help us, Scream Tail?”

Scream Tail’s expression changes quickly, nodding determinedly. “Temporal Tower starting to fall, Master Dialga starting to get antsy. Scream Tail cannot reach Temporal Tower, but she know friend back at camp who can help! Come, new friends!” She turns around, starting to hop off in another direction, beckoning for them to follow.

Rickety and Lexxi, their confusion making them forget about the burdening heat, begin to follow behind with the rest of the group. “Did she say Dialga?” Rickety asks, looking up at Pixie.

To which Pixie nods. “Dialga resides over Temporal Tower, making sure the timeline remains perfectly stable and keeps going. If even he’s starting to freak out, then things are getting bad, really bad.”

“…Do you think we have ancestors here too, Azelf?” Uxie wonders along, tapping against their chin. “I know we’re three of a kind, but I can’t help but wonder how much we’ve retained what’s been passed down to us. _{If… Arceus had created three other lake guardians before us.}“

Azelf tilts his head curiously at Uxie. “Does the idea worry you, Uxie?”

“Worry? No.” Uxie shakes their head. “It simply intrigues me, tickles my mind. I suppose, if anything, it makes me recognize my own mortality amongst the rest of the Pokemon out there, that there’s more out there that even we don’t know. After all, we didn’t know the true purpose of the Time Gears, despite guarding over them for the majority of our lives.”

Azelf hums to himself, eyebrows furrowing as he floats above the ground. “I guess that is something to consider. Everything we’ve known is being twisted and turned on its head. Why were we not given this information? Why was it withheld from us?”

“Must have been for one reason or another. Just hope it’s a good reason.” Uxie sighs. “The more we learn, the more confused I become.”

“Yeah, it’s all going over my head too. I just wanna get our sister back, send Dusknoir packing and head home… Then again, I suppose helping save the world is better than sitting at the bottom of a lake for years on end.”

“Fair enough.” Uxie smiles softly. “…Now I’m wondering what our ancestors would’ve looked like, how different they’d be from us.”

“Maybe your ancestor would have their eyes open all the time, as opposed to them being closed.” Azelf playfully teases with a smirk.

“Azelf, that thought alone is too horrifying to even consider.”

---

Scream Tail had led the group to a much more lush area, the plant life a little more on the vibrant side in this part of the region. They’d been led to a mountain with a rushing waterfall pouring into a massive river, a hollowed out cave residing just behind the waterfall. “Friend camp is here! It small, but cozy!” Scream Tail exclaims, happily and eagerly bouncing into the cave.

Lexxi glances up at the waterfall, a sense of deja-vu washing over her. “Hmm… A giant waterfall with a cave hidden behind it. Now where have I seen this before?”

“The whole place does bear a lot of similarities to our time.” Rickety says, scratching at his head. “It’s a lot more familiar than the future, that’s for sure. Feels like walking through a weird, dreamlike version of Treasure Town. _{Not that we didn’t already do that, but, y’know.}“

“That’s because humans haven’t had the chance to completely ruin the planet yet.” Pixie jokes, flying on over to the cave. “I kid, but this time period hasn’t been fully introduced to humans just yet! Now come on, follow along!~”

“Fully?” Rickety tilts his head to the side, the group following Pixie and Scream Tail into the cave and- Whoakay there are a lot of surprisingly familiar faces in this cave.

Ancient Pokemon, all much more rugged and brutish looking than their descendants. A larger Donphan with longer, greater tusks, a… Is that a Volcarona? A flightless Volcarona walking on four legs, much fluffier than its descendant. It had wings, but they were clasped together, not ready to break apart and fly just yet.

A Pokemon that resembled Misdreavus, a bit more familiar than its descendants, though it still looked rather odd, the ‘hairs’ on its head much larger, fluttering in the wind blowing into the cave. Strangest of all, a Magneton- A hairy magneton, spicky metallic clumps sticking to the ends of its magnets, standing and usings its magnets as legs.

“FRIENDS!” Scream Tail shouts, catching the attention of the Pokemon in the cave. “Scream Tail happy to announce that Pixie has returned! And not by herself, Pixie brought friends to help us too!”

Oh gosh the other ancient Pokemon are loud too- Nowhere near as loud as Scream Tail, of course, but it’s hard to make out each of their individual voices, everything turning out as just one big amalgamation of sound.

“Everyone, please, settle down!” Pixie raises her arms up, laughing nervously. “I appreciate that you’re all happy to see me back, but we have very, very important matters to discuss relating to what I’ve found since I left.”

“Are they related to why more of us have been disappearing, lately?” The Magneton asks, its voices all clashing together, all sounding completely separate and distinct from each other, with different inflections and tones of voice, despite all speaking in unison. “We haven’t had any disappearances in a few days, thankfully, but that just makes us more worried that something big is coming…”

Pixie’s expression grows a touch more nervous, rubbing at the back of her head. “Well… Yes, that is the case, yes. While I was in the future, I learned that a Pokemon called Dusknoir was using a time machine to pull our friends from the past, to turn them into machines, to invade our time period and use them against us.”

“T-Time machine?!” The Misdreavus-like’s eyes widen in surprise. “You mean like the woman of metal had used?!”

“Similar, but not the same.” Pixie shakes her head. “And remember, Flutter Mane, it wasn’t her that pulled us from the past, it was her living counterpart.”

“Woman of metal?” Lexxi tilts her head. “What’re they talking about?”

“Woman of metal was human!” Scream Tail says, smiling as she explains. “Woman of metal called herself Sada. She show up one day out of nowhere! Woman of metal while strange, treated us very nicely! She guided us, taught us how to fight for ourselves against the larger Pokemon!” Scream Tail’s expression saddens a little. “But one day, woman of metal stop waking up. Not know what happen to woman of metal, but we honor her with each battle we fight!”

“Like… Turo?” Rickety arches an eyebrow, sharing a confused expression with Lexxi. “Two human AIs, both ending up in the past and future? What- Were they partners too or something?”

“Turo’s terminals back in the base revealed that Sada was his wife.” Glyph says quietly. “It’s likely they built their AI counterparts to aid them in their research, but their programming compelled them to stop their course of actions after they had passed away.”

“…Well, I guess that’s, uh…” Rickety shuffles awkward, scratching at his head. “Really, strangely wholesome in a messed up kind of way?”

“Flutter Mane,” Pixie says, the group’s attention turning back to her. “Is Roaring Moon around? We’ll need him if we want to make our way to Temporal Tower.

“Roaring Moon? Ah-! Yes, I do believe he’s awake! It may take a while to get him here, but I’ll do my best to bring this all to his attention!”

“Perfect.” Pixie nods. “While you’re out, see if you can’t seek Korraidon’s help either. If you run into any Pokemon on your trip, tell them all to meet back here. We’re gonna need all the help we can get if we’re gonna take on Dusknoir’s army.”

“At once, Pixie! I’ll be back as soon as I can!” Flutter Mane nods their head, rushing out of the cave with their ribbon like hairs twirling behind them.

Pixie smiles, turning her attention back to Scream Tail. “Round everyone up. Dusknoir could be getting ready to invade at any second now.”

---

Some time later, dozens, if not hundreds of Pokemon had all gathered outside the cave’s entrance, the group all standing just on the hill right outside, Rickety, Lexxi, Glyph, Uxie and Azelf standing on the sidelines, just taking everything in, while Pixie and Scream Tail did the pep talking.

“Everyone!” Pixie calls out, raising her hand up into the air. “Our world is crumbling, time itself is coming apart at the seams, and it may appear there’s very little we can do to stop it. The actions of Dusknoir, in his attempts to change the past, to take our home and morph it into his image, has ripped time itself apart. With Temporal Tower beginning to collapse, it’s likely that we might not have a lot of time left…”

“But we can still do everything we can do delay it and give ourselves as much time as we possibly can so that my friends and I can reach Temporal Tower and stop it from collapsing! We will all do our best to ensure that we can all live for another day! And for more to come after that!” She gives a determined smile, glancing over to Scream Tail, nodding as she heads back over to the rest of the group.

Scream Tail, now at the helm, begins to rile up the crowd, speaking loudly. “The one-eyed ghost seeks to invade our home with his metal clones of our brothers and sisters! We will not allow him to do more harm to our home than he already has! We will fight! We will be victorious!”

The crowd of Pokemon all cry out together, cheering. Rather loudly. _{Why does everything in the past have to be so loud?}

“Together, we will defeat the metal machines and keep our home, and the home of everyone else safe! Everyone! Together, all as one, let the world and the machines hear our battle cries!”

“ONE!”

“THOU SHALL NOT KILL!”

“No way.” Rickety stares blankly, dumbfounded by what he’s witnessing. “Is she…?”

“TWO!”

“PEACE FROZEN STILL!”

“I think she is.” Lexxi says, ears pinning back against her head a bit, trying to shield herself from the sheer amount of noise.

“THREE!”

“RELEASE YOUR HATE! DEVIATE!”

“Surprised?” Pixie playfully asks, smiling happily as she briefly glances at Rickety and Lexxi. “I felt the same energy coming from Wigglytuff when I first met him.” She glances back at Scream Tail. “It makes me happy that her spirit and energy are still with the world all these years later.”

“It’s… Just a little uncanny, I admit.” Lexxi says, tail idly swaying back and forth. “But I guess it’s sorta charming.”

“Yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom…”

_{“You’re gonna wanna cover your ears for this one.”}

“TAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”

Scream Tail claps her hands together, creating a resounding, reverberating shockwave that crashes all throughout the surrounding area, causing the ground to rumble, the trees to shake, rocks to fall down mountains, to cause waves in the waters of the lakes.

But after the ground stops rumbling from Scream Tail’s cry, it begins to rumble again. This time, much more violently. The group looks off into the distance, seeing giant portals, massive Dimensional Holes all opening one after the other.

Robot Pokemon all begin to flood out of them. Hundreds, more than over a thousand, all rushing out of the Dimensional Holes, making a beeline straight for the group that had gathered.

One Pokemon led the pack, looming ominously as the group of robots all followed behind it.

A light blue body of metal, two tails with sharp, pointed edges, a pink, metallic mesh wrapped around its face, electricity sparkling and crackling from the conductors in its hands.

Mesprit.