*Music: Luigi’s Mansion 3 – 1B – Basement Track 4

There it was again. That looming feeling that enveloped the area in a thick, invisible haze.

He picked himself up to witness again the intimidating darkness of the abyss that surrounded him. These dreams were beginning to feel more and more familiar as time had passed, so he could at least attempt to get his bearings by walking around.

It was dim, but shapes could be made out that resembled mountains in the distance. Upon looking up, Sanvu saw hanging in the sky some kind of moon, with its white sheen with grey shadows. But it seemed to cast very little light… only enough to make it visible within the sky as opposed to illuminating that much around it.

Sanvu tried to absorb as much information he could get. He was always way more lucid in these dreams than he’d ever been, so this factoid was slightly preoccupying his sense more than anything else, despite the barren surroundings.

“….ness…”

The voice appeared to come from everywhere at once, under, over, like a force that permeated all. Sanvu desperately tried to search for the source, to little result.

“…the darkness… is growing…”

Then more laughs rang out, with less of a ruckus than the prior dream, though the reverberations could be felt as each of the voices tried their best to contribute their own versions to the larger whole of the laugh as it echoed through the space. One couldn’t be sure if they were in sync or literally just the same being, and certainly not in Sanvu’s state could he really tell which it was.

“…spirits… heeyem… grow… this power…”

There was much murmuring to be had as Sanvu tried to pay attention to this. Some were chuckles; others were repeating the word “heeyem” over and over again.

“grow…. the dark spirits…”

Sanvu tried parsing this information in his limited state. A darkness was growing? Dark spirits? He wasn’t in a state to be able to process that information that well. And what was with the “heeyem” part, he couldn’t be sure either.

He didn’t have much longer before the world of the omniscient voices would once again send him off to the world of the waking.

~~

---

Pachuku was already awake, and darting about. Sanvu could hear his steps as he came to, as they darted around in the other room, almost as if he weren’t there. He could swear the air was chillier than usual.

Pachuku heard him shuffle, and immediately perked to attention.

“So, how was it?”

Sanvu knew what he was asking about, and sighed. His voice was a mixture between carefree and worried. “Is it really that easy to tell?” He wasn’t looking directly at Pachuku as he said that, a little wistful.

“It’s easy enough,” Pachuku started, without a hint of concern. “I got enough sleep though, in case you’re worried about that.”

Sanvu didn’t respond. He wasn’t sure how to word it, especially now that consciousness was returning, and with it, the short-term recollections that clarified his funk.

“Was it too hard to say?” Pachuku tilted his head in confusion.

Sanvu sighed, “Yesterday, when we failed that mission… you were… so happy with it, and I can’t begin to fathom why… when somebody could’ve been left in there.”

Pachuku’s eyes narrowed as Sanvu continued, “Especially after we got slammed in that dungeon… if I’m receiving these messages, what will that mean for us if I’m still not learning anything?”

Pachuku nodded, face curled into a frown, “You… haven’t seen much, so I can’t exactly ‘prove’ to you what I mean, but, there’s a reason I’m fine with just helping out a little bit at a time. We won’t get anywhere to solving this if we just jump in and go wild, that’s how we end up like we did yesterday in the first place,” he said, reassuringly.

“Sorry for being all keeper-of-secrets here, but for the most part, I’m sure things’ll work out,” He put a paw to his mouth, head tilted low. “But, every little bit helps, right? Yesterday you were really getting adept with those vines!”

Sanvu huffed in agreement, but was stopped by the blockade of thoughts that kept him from thinking too much about his humanity, so he wasn’t really able to voice anything beyond a small smile.

“I’ll need a moment before I can explain the dream, really.”

Pachuku seemed satisfied, “Alright, don’t keep me waiting though!”

He dashed off, as Sanvu went over to the end of the bed and picked up the slip that said “Return of the Stars” on it. After keeping it; they hadn’t made any progress on figuring out what it meant to Sanvu. He always felt a bit of contempt upon seeing it, but couldn’t voice in particular what it was.

‘What does this mean for me..? I just hope we find out before it’s too late…’ Sanvu thought to himself, as if peering at the slip would reveal to him the secrets of the universe if he just stared at it hard enough. After a hard second, he put it down, and tried to shake off a bit of the feeling still present from the dream as Pachuku waited, with berries at the ready.

“Is it colder than normal?” Sanvu asked. Pachuku waited a while before answering.

“Maybe? No more than usual. Are you sensitive?”

Sanvu was about to answer when Pachuku quickly whipped his head away in what looked like frustration. “Wait, why am I saying that? You’re a Grass-type; of course you’d be sensitive to the cold. Ugh.”

“I was just going to say I’ve always hated the cold. Is it a problem?”

“I’ve heard Grass-types prefer the sun and warm temperatures, so of course you’d be able to tell if the temperature dips. It’s just a dumb question.”

“Not so dumb in my case, at least, I don’t think so…” Sanvu put a hand on the closest place he could consider a chin with his new anatomy. He was puzzled as to Pachuku’s particular brand of frustration; it didn’t particularly seem like a dumb question at all to him.

“Good,” Pachuku shook himself off, clearly bothered. Sanvu decided to change the subject.

“So, uh, about the dream…”

And so he recounted the events as best he could. The multiple voices, the dark atmosphere, and of course, what was said about the darkness growing, and the strange noises he heard. After a while, Pachuku’s ears perked, and he was quite astonished.

“That’s a lot for only the second dream!”

“Third? I didn’t tell you about the first one.”

“Third, right-right, yeah. Still, I almost didn’t know what you were saying but that’d make sense…” It seemed like he was talking to himself with this statement.

Sanvu cocked his head silently; with a brow raised as he silently insinuated Pachuku to continue.

“It almost sounded like when you said they said “heeyem” that sounds like a Pokemon’s name. Beheeyem,” Pachuku mentioned.

“Beheeyem?”

“Yeah. It’s another Psychic-type, and it’s said to be able to take away memories. “

“So… could they be behind this whole problem?” Sanvu left his mouth slightly ajar, surely it wouldn’t be so easy to solve just like this. “Or maybe… they’re responsible for my lost memories…?”

“Thing is, Didra running Mindscape would know a lot more about different Pokemon species than I would, and would’ve probably drawn that line of conclusion herself. Maybe it’s a little more complicated than that. I don’t recall any hanging around here, either. You also said there were like… ‘dark spirits’ that were ‘growing.’ If the Beheeyem are related, we’d also have to figure out what that means.”

“Still, though, do you think a Beheeyem took away my memories? Maybe before you found me?”

“No idea, when I saw you, you didn’t look hurt or anything. It’s plausible, but, I don’t recall seeing any. We could ask around though. That said, it feels like they should’ve taken all your memories, and you still remember being human, and your name, that’s what you said. I don’t know that much about them, but even that doesn’t sound right.”

 “You’re… sure about that?”

“I-!” Pachuku flipped his head away before turning back to Sanvu, pensive. “I don’t, it’s mostly rumour, and what I’ve seen in my brief time being in this town. We could ask Didra or one of the others if they’ve suspected any Beheeyem around, but they could be related to this thing… maybe not you though. I don’t want to think that they are and to have to put you in danger by taking that chance in facing them.”

Sanvu calmed down a little. “So… you care about me?”

“Of course! It’s not that I don’t want to help, but… we still got a long way to go before either of us could face one if they really are responsible,” Pachuku pointed out. Sanvu seemed to calm down completely at that.

There was little problem with the plan as they worked their way to Mindscape. They passed Roin and Ritza on their way, and passed greetings.

---

They met up with Didra again, who ushered them over upon entry with barely a word from Notey. She sat them down in the room that was straight ahead of the entrance, which was something of an office space. They asked about the Beheeyem, only to be told she hadn’t seen any in town for a long time, and that while they’re known for memory manipulation, usually Psychic-types would pick up on the results, which Sanvu exhibited nothing of. Before he could get too disappointed, she started to talk about their mission for the day.

“Normally, I wouldn’t send you on a mission of this calibre, because I would encourage training you in preferable climates, but I’ve been recently informed of something that requires me to send everyone in favourable positions for perhaps solving this mystery.”

Both of them glanced at each other as she continued. “I’ll need you to go to Discipline Cave, again, because I’ve received word that significant energy is brewing there, which suggests that there’s someone trapped there. This mission for you is not meant to be very complicated, so I ask that you treat this with caution.”

“Why?” Pachuku inquisitively asked.

“The dungeon has undergone some changes since you were last there… favouring Dark-type and Ice-type Pokemon. So your mission there is simply to pinpoint the Amnesiac’s general location. Don’t try to make it a headache, given your type disadvantage.”

Sanvu cocked his head in confusion, and Pachuku turned towards him, whispering. “You. You’re weak to Ice, so it’s kinda like yesterday, only instead of my disadvantage it’s yours.”

“Oh.” Sanvu muttered in response, as Didra waited for them.

“Yes, but don’t try to use up all your supplies doing so. Just note how much the badge was flickering or whatnot by the time you’ve spent your effort exploring, and I can bother with the rest later. Not that I’m setting you up to fail, or anything, I truly have no other choice.”

“No worries! We’ll get that info at once!” Pachuku bounded off with that statement, leaving Sanvu alone. He glanced at her a moment, before running off after Pachuku.

---

The two ran to the shop to prepare the items they’d need for this mission since Pachuku would need to do a lot more battling compared to the day before. After that went well, buying themselves a heap of supplies, they encountered Roin and Ritza again as they were leaving.

“Oh, hey!” Roin bounced over. “You guys off on a mission soon?”

“Yeah, but we’re taking our time,” Pachuku answered. He was clearly trying to look less apprehensive, but his head still twitched a few times. “Got word Discipline Cave has gotten a bit of a chilling.”

“Oh you’re going up there too?!” Ritza squealed. “We’ve been told Stony Enclose has experienced changes and we’re to look around there for any sign of Amnesiacs ourselves! It’s only too bad they’re literally next to each other and not the same dungeon,” she moaned, pouting cutely. “It’d be nice if we went together again.”

“Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.” Roin concluded, shrugging as well as he could with his little paws. “Good luck with the Ice-types, I guess.”

“Speaking of the cold, have you guys noticed anything?” Sanvu queried, gesturing around him with an arm. “Pachuku mentioned something weird going on with the seasons yesterday, and I feel like it’s dipped considerably from yesterday to today.”

“No idea.” Roin answered immediately. “Maybe it has to do with the type changes in the dungeons around here, but I’m no expert on that.”

“You said it was Stony Enclose? Wasn’t that, like, Rock-types?”

“Yeah, but for some reason Dragon-types and Poison-types have shown up.” Ritza divulged, bobbing about near Roin. “Didra says it should be favourable, but I’m kinda dreading the dungeon.”

“So, Stony Enclose has changed too?” Pachuku observed, which prompted Ritza to nod.

“Yeah, the two dungeons are slightly connected but are, like, separate. It’s a real shame, since we could’ve figured out the mystery of the changing dungeons together!”

“Well, we will, it’s just that we’ll be on opposite sides of the cave,” Roin clarified.

“You know what I meant!”

“It beats running around in the same dungeon for days on end, I was half-expecting we’d be doing that again today,” Roin joked back. Sanvu adopted a more serious expression, narrowing his eyes, but wasn’t looking at them.

 “What’s wrong?” Roin inquired.

“He’s a bit moody cause our dungeon dive yesterday went to heck,” Pachuku divulged. They both donned more sympathetic looks upon hearing that, their eyes softening.

“Well that’s no good. You guys were practically surging past us for days! Guess something had to break somewhere…” Ritza lowered for a second.

“It can’t entirely have been your fault, though, right?” Roin inquisited, tilting his head.

“We didn’t even put up a fight against the… what was it in the tunnel?”

“Aerodactyl. Underground,” Pachuku dryly noted.

“What was one doing there?!” Ritza squeaked, her eyes widening. Roin had a similar look on his face, before shrugging again.

“Guess it matches with what we’ve been seeing. Pokemon are popping up in weird places, and for some reason, they’re getting weaker in apparitions, plus the dungeon changes we saw like when we went to Mystical Woods. It’s like the dungeons themselves are losing energy.”

“Losing… energy?” Sanvu echoed.

“Yeah, either it’s something affecting the energy system, or maybe they’re being manipulated somehow.”

Sanvu taking this in tried to correlate this with his dream silently, but the relationship was off. The dream mentioned a power growing, that could mean the dungeons, but he wasn’t sure entirely about that. He quickly dismissed it.

“So the Aerodactyl must’ve been just another one of those weird cases then, huh…” Ritza mouthed. “I dunno if I could’ve faced that, to be honest.”

“I guess it’s just like you said, though, huh, Sanvu,” Roin supposed. “Not good to keep it all in, when you could be helping somebody out that way, huh?”

Sanvu sheepishly laughed, but didn’t say anything for a short moment. “…Yeah… I guess.”

He would spare them the dreams for the moment though; Pachuku seemed at ease, with little in the way of odd twitches. Sanvu thought this an improvement, even though Pachuku didn’t really say anything.

They stood together for a moment, watching everything around, idly, making idle conversation. Neither team thought it was the ideal time to split, until eventually, the Treaders decided it was time to leave.

“Good luck out there, guys, for all of us,” Roin encouraged. Ritza flapped her wings a little harder as she was leaving.

“They’ll be back,” Pachuku commented, “Ritza might be weak to Poison but that dungeon sounds like a cinch for them. I mean, Dragon-types? They’re lucky they were assigned that and not us.”

“Why’s that?”

“They’d resist both of our attacks. Ritza has the advantage. Honestly, it should be easy,” Pachuku’s tail swished after he finished talking.

“No such luck for us, unfortunately.”

“You heard her, she didn’t have a choice! Now let’s go and show that dungeon what we can find in it!”

---

*Music: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team – Frosty Grotto

When they arrived at the forest, there was noticeable ice and frost smearing the ground unlike they had seen before. It was enough to make Sanvu think it was the middle of winter.

Pachuku had taken the initiative prior and bought a load of Blast Seeds with the money they’d earned from completing the missions that they’d completed prior, suggesting the explosions would help with the cold even if the seeds weren’t Fire-type in energy. He’d also brought a lot of Orbs, including the one they hadn’t used yet, the Petrify Orb.

They’d returned along Pachuku’s little training area before he’d joined Mindscape, and they’d noticed an increasing amount of ice in the area. Pachuku had made a comment that he was glad to be in Mindscape for now since cleaning up ice was “a chore” for reasons he wouldn’t tell Sanvu about for the sake of keeping the trip interesting. Sanvu wouldn’t stop prodding him about it though, leading to some back and forth in good jest made between the two as they returned along the path, which was seemingly decorated with frost no matter where you looked.

Upon reaching the dungeon, Sanvu was actively shivering without end. Both of the badges were beginning to blink, signalling that Didra was right and someone did appear to be here.

The floor still maintained its odd flat and level floors, but some bits had been chipped off of the walls. And ice seemed to cover pretty much all the walls, insulating it.

So they proceeded down various floors, Pachuku often taking the lead. He deviated far less than usual; where he’d normally be picking up every item he saw, he was a lot more conservative than usual. This was typically warranted, because when Sanvu was left alone, once…

“Augh!”

That was being hit by a Snorunt’s Icy Wind, and Sanvu was on the floor becuase of it. Pachuku had very quickly launched a Discharge in its direction, and it was roasted after he threw a Blast Seed in its direction. He had been too far away to actually eat it for the extra damage, but that wasn’t particularly necessary, it was almost overkill if it hadn’t been for the fact that Didra had warned them that the dungeon was going to be filled with this beforehand, and Pachuku wanted to make up for the prior day where he’d done virtually nothing, just a little bit.

Sanvu meanwhile, in the few battles he was in, did try to use his vines, but Pachuku recommended he Tackle more. It was harder for the Grass-type to wrap his head around, but eventually, he got into the swing of it. Eventually, he continued using the vines, but instead of hitting opponents with it, whenever they were Ice-type, he got into the swing of throwing many of those rocks that Pachuku found in the dungeon. He was practically handing them to Sanvu, and since parts of the walls were coming off, there were more of them than usual.

The dungeon’s population, was, indeed, almost completely different. They encountered a Croagunk or a Scraggyhere and there still, but the rest were all new faces. Sneasel, Smoochum, Poochyena, Vanillite and even Inkay; the latter of whom confused Sanvu until Pachuku explained that it wasn’t their familiar friend back home and they had to be careful no matter what in a dungeon. Whenever the Pokemon wasn’t part Ice, Sanvu’s battling consisted of using the vines to smack or hold them in place, or if it was flightly, hitting them when they got close. Pachuku would then recommend he either Tackle or throw a stone, in this particular dungeon’s case; they were adorned with ice, so they were frosted in nature. Often the ice would chip off, and it’d either land on the foe, or bits would chip off Sanvu as he held onto them. Luckily the shards weren’t that big, and he was slightly grateful for that; holding onto ice was practically miserable when he couldn’t feel his hands.

As they ascended floors, besides the climate change, there wasn’t much different about the dungeon. Pachuku was practically praying on each floor that Monster Houses wouldn’t favour them just since their stock of Orans wasn’t particularly high and Sanvu needed to recover often by hanging out near Pachuku. His Discharge had turned into at least 3-4 rays by now consistently, so he wasn’t really breaking a sweat.

~~

---

Luckily, they experienced none. Sanvu was really the only one suffering here besides that, for reasons that pretty much annoyed Pachuku to no end, since he wouldn’t stop talking about it. Eventually, the two reached the 11^th floor, where the dungeon abruptly stopped.

“We didn’t stop here, last time, did we?” Sanvu observed, wildly looking about. It resembled the area they’d been to, with the large stone plate, but where the wall had been was a large icy boulder.

The badges were alight.

“There’s gotta be somebody here!” Pachuku proclaimed, wildly looking about, taking careful note of the walls, “Yeah, doesn’t look like anything’s here. This is the end.”

“We didn’t complete it that fast before, weren’t there more floors than this?”

“Maybe that’s part of those changes we heard about,” Pachuku noted, “Remember what Roin and Ritza said about how the dungeons are, like, losing energy? Maybe they’re losing whole swathes of floors because of it.”

“Sure, but they could also gain them, as well, I heard them a while back saying that one had increased, or something like that.”

“Then redistributed?” Pachuku was a little frazzled, so he shook out of it.

Sanvu murmured to himself about the dream. “Dark power growing… could the dungeons be that dark energy?”

“Maybe, nothing’s certain though. Anyway, there’s an Amnesiac here, the badges are practically torches. Helloooooo!” Pachuku yelled, to seemingly nobody. “Anybody theeeeeere?”

“I swear if this turns out to be another Ice-type I should have permission to slap you.”

Pachuku snickered, unbothered, before crawling around the boulder, before stepping back, as if shielding himself, “Whoa! Found ‘em!”

Sanvu came closer, and indeed, behind the rock, shivering and curled up, was a Pokemon, slightly bigger than Pachuku. It resembled a dinosaur of some kind, mostly olive green in colour. It was lying down, eyes closed. Its mouth had two large green teeth poking out the sides, and it only seemed to notice them when Sanvu approached, its red eyes opening, and mouth gaping.

“Huh, what is it?” Sanvu asked, as usual, joining it in shivering for a moment.

“Looks like an Axew,” Pachuku informed, “Let’s get it outta here, at least so it doesn’t have to put up with the cold any longer.”

“…Sure, can’t argue with-“

But before Sanvu could even begin thinking about the room the Amnesiacs needed to be sent to, he was slammed into the side by Pachuku who’d taken up a defensive position. Sanvu was quite taken aback, before finally seeing what it was Pachuku had hit him for.

*Music: Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (3DS) – Deep Castle (Inside Bowser)

Phasing through the wall nearby to the boulder and inches away was a large, white Pokemon that resembled a floating woman. Ice adorned its features, which included two white appendages that resembled both arms and long hair at once, along with a large red marking at its center that resembled some kind of band. Its yellow eyes harboured contempt, boring malice that it exuded onto its victims. Luckily, despite that all but one of the Blast Seeds had been used in the dungeon; they still had most of the Orbs and stones, neither of the Minders were going anywhere.

“W-What-“ Sanvu stammered out.

“Froslass! Ice and Ghost type! Should’ve figured we weren’t alone in here!” Pachuku yipped back, his cheeks sparking.

“You’re disturrrrbinnnng the wissshhhhess of the supeeeeriorrrr…” the Froslass droned; her voice deep and smooth. “Leeeave him beeee.”

“Sanvu! Just use the items for this! I think we can take it!”

“Seriously? I can’t even help!”

“If you get hit, we’re done for! Just let me handle the battling, please!”

~~

*Music: Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (3DS) – Stolen Castle (Inside Bowser)

Pachuku then started by lobbing several rays of electricity right at her, which seemed to do little to phase her. Lowering her arms-hair? Sanvu could hardly tell the difference, a chilling gust was spread through the room that morphed into snow. He could hardly move, especially since the dinosaur-Axew, was watching all of this, unable to get up due to the snow covering it.

Sanvu reached into the bag, reaching for the last Blast Seed, as the Froslass stopped paying attention to Pachuku and instead dive-bombed right for Sanvu, preparing for some kind of attack. Pachuku had mentioned earlier that eating the seed would be more useful than throwing it, and so as he put it in, it was as if his mouth had exploded, and before Froslass could pull off her attack, she was stifled by the blast, only to be knocked into the nearby wall to his right by the squirrel throwing a stone he’d retrieved from the bag while Sanvu was recovering. Sanvu was coughing in recovery; and silently mulled to himself to never do that again.

Sanvu inbetween coughs was somehow remaining standing, and prepared himself to Tackle.

“No, do-!”

He sailed right through, landing on his face next to the Axew, as Froslass floated closer to knock both of them out with a simple flip of her arms.

Pachuku zapped her again, and this time, something significant happened.

She stopped in place, Sanvu had awaited her to close in, but she was stuck in the air. Sparks danced around her body as it lightly twitched in certain places, still somehow remaining in the air despite that by all accounts, she should have fallen down.

“She won’t be like that for long! Move, away! And don’t try to Tackle again, she’s immune to that!” Pachuku called out, hoping Sanvu got the gist.

Pachuku was pretty much solely using variations of Discharge, sometimes he’d use weaker 1-2 ray versions, others he’d use 3-rays. Sanvu had gotten into the hang of sending him Leppa berries so then he didn’t run out of energy, but even that was beginning to wane.

Pachuku eventually crept up to Sanvu while he was still at the wall. Froslass was pretty fried, its movements a bit more erratic, but it was still up, even after breaking out of the paralysis. She often tried to close in on Sanvu, but Pachuku was often too fast, and was using his ability to knock Sanvu around to throw her off. This was primarily since he only really had the one electric move against her, since Quick Attack also wasn’t useful for actual damage output. Sanvu was more annoyed by the constant flinging about than anything else, using the badge light to tell when Pachuku was nearby due to the amount of blinding snow in the room. Eventually, Pachuku came and checked on him when Froslass was paralysed again, exhausted, as much as Sanvu was weary from being an almost literal pinball. The Axew was on the other side of the room.

“Hey… got an idea.”

“One that doesn’t involve being bounced around the room?”

“She’s gotta be feeling it soon. I need you to use your vines. She’s too evasive, so I need you to attempt to hold her. Use the Petrify Orb, and try and hold her down. I bet you one more massive hit will take her out. “

“But… I ran right through her earlier…?”

“Not through the vines, it should work. Just trust me on this.”

He glanced at her, as she began to sway out of the sparks that danced around her once more.

“You remember which Orb the-“

“Yes, I do, it’s the only one we have left.”

Pachuku had otherwise packed various “Health” Orbs that would keep the effects of being frozen away for a short while before dissipating. They’d used various amounts of those in the dungeon, leaving the brown and purple Orb as their sole hope.

Pachuku darted off, zapping her with smaller bolts as Sanvu reached in for the Orb, and held it up, eventually, after it glowed for a few seconds before shattering; she was locked in place, falling to the ground, unable to hold herself up in the air any longer.

Sanvu then called upon his vines once more, feeling them snake out, eventually wrapping them around her arms. He could feel her breaking free as he held on tightly, feeling something brewing within him that he wasn’t in the mind to put into words, since he was too busy ensuring she didn’t escape.

Pachuku then darted back in front of her, and all four of his rays of Discharge hit her point blank, freeing her from the petrification, but she was far too dazed to continue, and Sanvu could feel her fight leaving her as he dug his feet in deeper to the ground to prevent himself from being flung around. He still held onto her though, as she draped over the floor.

“Well? You gonna heckle off now?” Pachuku grumpily prodded the Froslass with a paw. She was still conscious, but giggled slightly.

She smirked, an eye directly on Sanvu behind her, her body losing solidity as she phased through the floor, “Yoooourr tiiime is inevvvvitablllle….”

Sanvu was forced to drop her since she didn’t have physicality anymore, and quickly retracted the vines, panting. Pachuku was also panting, though slightly more from all the electrical usage.

“H-hey… g-get the-“ Pachuku pointed towards the Axew to his right.

“Yeah.”

Sanvu wasn’t in any mood to argue or to be excited. He winced at the snow covering the Axew, wiping it off with the vines since he couldn’t really feel his own arms anymore, and tried to arouse it. The badges still glowed in its presence; it had been doing so for the entire duration of the fight.

“We don’t normally get snow… on the Water continent…” Pachuku started. “Our time… time for what? Winter?”

Sanvu was huffing, because he was trying to arouse the Axew, rather than mull on that. He’d found out uncomfortably that the poor thing was too heavy to attempt to lift, so he’d need it to be awake.

“H-Hello?” Sanvu trembled. “A-Axew?”

Luckily, it stirred, though it continued to shiver as it sat up, looking at Sanvu with large red eyes. It almost appeared to be smiling.

“Should probably be careful, y’know-“

“Yeah, I’m in no mood to care about that,” Sanvu dismissed, looking at the Axew. “You alright? Gotta take you to Mindscape.”

“Apfuu?” The Axew babbled.

“Uhhh…”

“Mime-cake? Moolommm…”

It babbled on indescribably until it began wailing loudly. Sanvu at this point had already sent it back, the noise ringing in his ears.

“Do… Pokemon speak other languages…?” Sanvu pleaded rhetorically, but Pachuku didn’t pick up on the sarcasm.

“Besides Unown, no… everyone’s the same generally speaking… maybe he forgot how to speak?” Pachuku looked grim.

“Or maybe he was reduced to a baby…” Sanvu mused, quickly shaking that off in an attempt to stay warm.

“No… even most babies know how to speak. Moment you get hatched most hatchlings know a word or two.  That’s… troubling.”

“Can we get out of here already?” Sanvu groaned, with Pachuku silently agreeing as the two warped themselves back to the front of Mindscape, ending their trip to Discipline Cave.

~~

---

“Yes, I see.”

They’d explained to Didra the trip and how it went, including the Axew who was now in the Amnesiac room. They were in the office space they were in earlier.

“You didn’t have to find him, in particular, the Froslass could’ve merely been petrified and we would’ve sent a team tomorrow, but, nonetheless, I’m glad you two managed to defeat it and bring him back.”

Sanvu couldn’t help but smile, despite that he hadn’t done much, they’d at least helped someone.

“But… what she said about our time… I wish I knew what she meant. That sounds… ominous, very obviously so.”

She turned around, facing away from them.

“I’ll deal with the Axew; you two take your well-deserved rest for the rest of today.”

They left, Pachuku was too enamoured by something to be at ease, thoughtfully tossing his head around with his paws as they left. Sanvu, however, was less agitated, since it was no longer cold, or, at least, as cold as the dungeon, too busy soaking up the relative warmth of room temperature.

“What’s up?”

“The Axew… he’s too grown up to be… y’know, a kid. I hope she can deal with it.”

Sanvu looked over in the general direction of Mindscape as they left. “I’m just too tired to think about it anymore right now.”

Pachuku didn’t probe any further, but this didn’t stop his musing on this all the way home.

---

As the night went on, they relaxed, talking and sleeping. Eventually, Sanvu, when looking at the slip started wondering about something.

When the Froslass had given them her cryptic message, she’d looked right at him. He’d been too distracted with holding her in the vines to properly notice, but it bothered him for the rest of the night. Did that suggest she knew him, somehow? Or that this whole thing was related to him?

As he silently probed those thoughts, it didn’t make much sense. Parts of his memory were already gone, and he wasn’t an Amnesiac. So then what was his ‘time’ for?

There’s also the fact that throughout the fight, she seemed to dismiss Pachuku entirely, instead going for Sanvu. Pachuku had chalked that up to type advantages, but Sanvu felt like the ice and snow whittled enough at Pachuku that she would’ve been able to slam him down as well via the same metric.

And as it compounded, the smirk she gave him at the end… he couldn’t know if it was a typical expression but…

She had adorned it for the entire fight, as if she knew Sanvu somehow.

He regretted not being able to hold onto her longer, staring once again at the slip as if it could somehow answer this whole situation on its own.

Eventually, they called it for the night, the ominous words feeding into their souls for that night before promptly evaporating.