This time, it was different.

The green snake felt himself stir, his eyes open to the dream he’d expected many times over, opening to a blackish sky lit dimly by an unknown light source.

His eyes fell on the shadow that also usually appeared in these dreams, now sporting a small aura of energy surrounding it. Due to this, it became extremely apparent that it was a tree of some kind, if it wasn’t apparent before, the long arms in the sky reaching out as if it were touching the sky, perhaps even being burned by it.

There was a haze, as if the dream had some kind of pressure brewing in the air, burning hot, as a heatwave had suddenly taken hold. It made Sanvu’s focus wither; if there were any voices to listen to for that to even matter.

Not a sound in the air, no wind to blow, no voice to shout from beyond the dark horizons, it were as if he’d been abandoned like a child in the middle of nowhere. The only thing he could be sure of hearing were his own breaths, laboured due to the intense heat that blanketed him invisibly.

“Hello?” he shouted, hoping at least one voice might hear him, as it echoed into the unknown distances of the land.

Nothing came. Nobody came. Instead, all that was seen, and he couldn’t be sure if it was because somebody had heard him or that it had been there all along, were four letters written in plain English, painted in what looked like some red smidge of what looked like smoke, clouds or some unknown gas-like substance, floating way high in the sky. Sanvu had to crane his neck to see it.

S-E-A-R.

He only caught a glimpse of that before collapsing, the heat becoming too much to bear to stay lucid even a moment longer.

---

Sanvu awoke, but it wasn’t a pleasant sensation. Everything about him felt heavy for a few seconds before it just subsided like nothing happened. It took him a while to even remember who he was for a brief moment, the blank canvas that happened to be the world only forming definition at a crawl.

He wasn’t the only one.

“Eurgh, hey, Sanvu…” Pachuku groaned, eyes half-lidded, and his head low and held in a paw. “It feels like I’ve been sleeping forever, rough night, huh? Anything weird happen?”

Sanvu recounted what he could, about how he felt hot, alongside the word in the sky and the glowing tree. Also at the fact there was nobody there. Upon finishing his recollection, Pachuku didn’t have much to comment in response.

“Huh. Were the last couple dreams hot?”

“Not that I could recall. This heat was intense… it’s like it was the middle of summer… and so real, too,” he murmured, his body embracing the cooler temperatures of the room that paled in comparison. He looked outside; it looked just as sunny as a regular old day, with no heatwaves to be felt.

“Huh, well, at least you woke up before it could get to you right?” Pachuku supposed, Sanvu sighing in resigned agreement.

“I dunno; should I be concerned about literally choking myself out of bed? You didn’t seem good yourself for a moment there.”

“Sure, yeah, but I’m fine now, and that’s what matters, right? It’d probably do us good to get out of this stuffy place anyways,” Pachuku remarked, as he ran around with little remaining of any sort of visible discomfort.

Sanvu allowed himself to get into routine, but he remained worried. After all, this couldn’t go on forever.

They would have to do something before this would exacerbate into something worse, Sanvu hoped.

---

*Music: Rayman Origins – Sea of Serendipity – The Abyss

It didn’t take long for their grim faces to meet the teammates that both had only somewhat forgotten they were teaming up with today, at the entrance to Mindscape. They were the only ones in the room; it appeared that Didra was either elsewhere in the building, or nowhere to be seen.

The Electabuzz and Duosion were holding a bag, and had appeared to be waiting for them. The floating blob spoke first.

“S-So, you guys ready for the mission? We apparently have to go out to the beachy area you guys went to yesterday. We’re supposed to figure out what’s up with the fog, if we can find anything,” Derjie informed, but looked somewhat pensive. Both nodded, stealing worried glances at one another.

“Right, then we shouldn’t keep our destination a’waitin’,” Tenab grunted, stepping past them all in a huff. With both Pokemon seeming on edge, both the Minders couldn’t help feeling a little uneasy.

They walked in relative silence as the day passed, not even Derjie seemed to want to talk. Eventually, Sanvu whispered to Pachuku as they went.

“What do you think…?” he muttered. Pachuku shrugged, silently.

Through the forest, out to the darkened beach, sand still dark in colour, despite the relative brightness of the day. The sunny day looked otherwise out of place for the gloominess of the wandering Pokemon, but the water still wasn’t visible amidst the fog that smooshed it to the ground. It was a bizarre set of sights to be sure, the mist enclosing the ocean as if the clouds wanted to touch the oceans and make them whole again.

Eventually, they reached the point where the sand became a lighter colour, though it was abandoned. Not a single Pokemon in sight, though that was to be expected after yesterday.

“W-We should be careful,” Pachuku warned; voice shaky. “Wouldn’t want any of us getting caught up in… well, turning… evil…” he stammered, Derjie sighing.

“We know, Pachuku. Thanks for telling us,” Derjie said, almost resigned. Sanvu put his hands on his sides; face scrunching, as Pachuku fiddled with his paws.

“Okay, seriously, what’s up? You two have been acting strange ever since we met up. Have we done something?” he inquired, the two larger Pokemon sharing a sad look.

“Naw, it ain’t you guys,” Tenab clarified, easing Pachuku’s fiddling by only a bit. “It’s this whole… barrier stuff, the weird fog.”

“So, explain to us what you found yesterday, here? We were told yesterday by Didra that you had found some sort of line here, and that the fog was acting strange? She… didn’t give us all the details,” Derjie slumped, which just sort of looked like he was attempting to land, despite that he was never seen on the ground.

They divulged what they’d seen in the prior mission; how the fog appeared to send them back around the way they came, as well as two Pokemon with the dark aura.

“Righ’,” was all Tenab could heave, before kneeling to look at the line with Derjie. In his bag, he brought out some kind of long stick, almost resemblant of a cane, and pressed it near the line. Sanvu and Pachuku could only watch, with Sanvu thinking back to his dream, and how hot it was.

“What does heat have to do with losing hope?” Sanvu muttered to himself, Pachuku catching onto it.

“Sometimes I wonder if they’re messing with you a bit. Not that I think you’re wrong, but these messages… they don’t sound all that… specific, and I hate siding with her on this, but-“

“Messa-what now?” Derjie wondered, looking back. Tenab was still holding the stick. Derjie floated over a bit to listen close.

“Do I want to say? Last time we did, the last few times we did, nobody’s wanted to hear me out,” Sanvu ranted, head turned away from Pachuku and Derjie. “It’s not like you want to tell us what’s bothering you, either.”

“It’s… complicated.” Tenab could only respond. Derjie nodded.

“It would probably help if it’s related to the mission, so…”

“What, my weird dreams?”

“Your what?”

“Y-yeah, it’s been happening a while now,” Pachuku explained, Sanvu still quiet, brows concentrated. “Do you… want to try again?”

Sanvu sighed. “If you’ll hear us out, then I can explain.”

“Yeah, I don’t quite know why weird dreams would have you so worried, though,” Derjie wondered, “But go ahead.”

“Well… I’ve been having these dreams where I’m in some kind of… dark place, I don’t know how I can describe it. In them, I’m not human, but this,” he waved his arm to indicate his now new form. “There’s this voice, telling me things, but they’re not very specific. We think they’re talking about telling Pokemon to lose hope… somehow, and I… think I’m involved in this,” he admitted.

“You’re involved? Why would that be?” Derjie wondered. Tenab had somewhat looked up from his little experiment, but was otherwise still holding it down. Sanvu continued.

“It keeps talking about ‘the leaf’ and that it must be eliminated or something. You’ve all said I’m a plant or something, right? But, there’s something else, too.”

Derjie motioned for him to continue.

“Today’s dream… was really hot. Every one before this were just… loud voices of hundreds of different kinds, and none of them would hear me if I called out to them. But this time… there was nobody, and it was just… so hot… the word ‘sear’ was written in the sky as well…” he shivered, recollecting it. “We haven’t just told you. Didra and Oshee know I’ve been having these dreams, but every time I mentioned it, they’ve been… touchy about it, and refuse to even give it the light of day. If this has to do with me, then…”

Tenab stepped up, walking back over, putting the stick away. His gruff face looked down upon Sanvu for a moment, both sharing uneasy expressions, before something unusual happened.

Pachuku was, for all intents and purposes practically ready to shove both of them out of the way if need be, but Tenab reached out and scruffed on their heads with his hand for a brief moment. He wore a small smile while he did so, before stepping back, face even more pensive.

“We noticed, too,” was all he grunted in response, before giving Derjie the stick, alongside some other black device that looked similar to the dungeon tracker from the other day. Derjie took these in psychic holds, the items floating by his command, before moving away.

“We didn’t wanna bring it up, cause you two have been working so hard we thought you mighta… filled in with the rest,” Tenab explained, which practically made Pachuku jump.

“You’ve noticed it too?! Oh thank goodness we’re not crazy!” he burst, practically cheering. “But… h-how? When’d you start seeing it?”

“We talked about it before we went to Mindscape this morn’, how weird all our missions have been. Just a couple days ago, we also found Pokemon with this dark… stuff all about them,” Tenab divulged, his face stern as he recounted the events. “I managed to shock ‘em out of it, and we got through the mission easy snap, but…” he trailed off, “her response was…”

Derjie flew in a somersault, listening, “She kept on going onto us how dangerous it was that we went in there anyways, despite that our mission was to go to the end to check out the weird happenings that have been going on there! It was just so… weird.”

Pachuku and Sanvu could only listen in awe. “G-Go on, anything else?” Pachuku quavered.

“Then there was that time, even further back a few days ago, that apparently, where Stony Enclose was, there was some kinda new dungeon takin’ its place, and she’d already gone through inspectin’ for our sake. She wanted us to find out if there was anythin’, y’know, new, about the place.”

“We get back, and she doesn’t even remember what Stony Enclose is,” Derjie recounts, prompting the two to look at each other.

“Did you find anything there?” Sanvu wondered, “Our teammates ended up stuck in Stony Enclose, remember? Roin and Ritza?”

Tenab scratched his head, “Your teammates? The who’s? Sorry about this, I jus’ need a reminder.”

“The Treaders! A team within Mindscape, who ended up going to Stony Enclose, and then getting trapped in it!” Pachuku blurted, cheeks beginning to fizzle, “And then everyone seemingly forgot they existed!”

“Oh, yeah, nuts. Durn, that don’t look good now that I just admitted I didn’t remember them meself…” Tenab sighed, sitting down. “You got any readings yet?” he called, Derjie bobbing himself to the sides as if shaking his body was proof of a negative, before turning back down to the stick. “We found nothin’, unfortunately, on that end, just a whole bunch of the dungeon’s new types, apparently Dragon and Ground, for some weird as heck reason.” None of them wore any smiles.

 “What’s that for?” Pachuku questioned while tilting his head to Derjie’s little experiment, the blob moving to explain.

“It’s supposed to detect if this is ‘type energy’ or not, but given Didra, it could be a big load of nothing,” Derjie mused. “It’s certainly not part of the sand, even though it looks like it.”

Pachuku sighed, shaking his head, “Yeah… that’s part of why I wanted to join Mindscape; it seems like nobody’s allowed to do anything to solve this crisis, and now that I’m in it, it’s just been a bunch of running about in circles!” Pachuku kicked the sand with a foot, “and quitting puts us at an even worse position than just laying low.”

“What about Pachuku needing to ‘find an Amnesiac’ before he joined,” Sanvu brought up, arms still crossed. “Despite that a crisis involving Pokemon going evil, getting their items stolen and losing memory of all kinds should entice everybody to want to solve it right away, and to allow anyone to help, of all kinds.”

“That’s been on our mind too, the whole reputation business, despite that Notey never really goes with Didra on expeditions, and is somewhat of an assistant, in her words. How come she hasn’t kicked herself out for being a singular member?” the Psychic-type postulated.

“Maybe its cause she makes the rules,” Sanvu sneered.

“Anyway, we didn’t know who we could tell, especially since Pachuku’s been so uneasy about, I’d thought you’d… caught onto what we found out an’ wanted to like… mess it up,” Tenab explained, Pachuku shaking his head.

“I thought I was going crazy. Only Sanvu seemed to understand that everyone’s been acting so weird! Th-That’s why… I worried…” Pachuku trailed off, Tenab smirking.

“You guys should be careful whatchu say to her. If she is sus, then that don’t look good for the rest of us, especially since we could be kicked out.”

“So you said that apparently, you walk through it, but you just come right back?” Derjie specified, Pachuku nodding.

“Yeah, it’s like the ocean is gone.”

“Durn, I wanna see that for myself.”

“We should see if anything’s changed. Keep this with you,” he handed the stick to Tenab, who decided to walk into it.

“Let’s see how funky this place is…” the Electric-type boasted as he walked into the fog without a care in the world.

Derjie turned back to them, “So you said the dreams are talking about losing hope? What exactly have they been saying?”

They talked about the words and phrases used, and Derjie could only somewhat disguise the terror that crept onto his face despite his own barrier to the outside world being visible for all to see. He moved to look at the line again.

“The line appears to exist, because we can see it, but it doesn’t appear to exist to the stick I was using. Fog like this is usually a Ghost-type thing,” he explained, “If what you said is true regarding their saying our ‘beliefs and dreams’ need to be filled with darkness, then perhaps this is meant to intimidate everyone.” Derjie only somewhat masked his shivering. It was only a few seconds later than Tenab walked back through the fog, looking no worse for wear.

“Since when the heck did the ocean become a giant puddle?” he probed, his head sparking for seemingly no reason. “Yer darn right this is some scary-as barrier here, you’d hardly tell it weren’t just some freak weather accident.”

“We could just say that it’s energy for a barrier,” Derjie supposed, Sanvu and Pachuku concentrating. “For Didra’s sake, anyways, because if we explain that we used something like your dreams as the basis, which you’ve already said she doesn’t like…”

“That could end badly,” Pachuku finished, Sanvu silently nodding in agreement.

“But… if I’m involved… shouldn’t that be something to worry about?”

“It sounds more like you’re some kind of target, rather than you being involved,” Derjie hypothesised, attempting to reassure them, “You don’t remember your own human life, correct? As Didra noted, you’re not any kind of Amnesiac like what we’ve been saving and working with.”

“Y-Yeah, well, except for small things. I can remember how to talk, my name, and that ‘Return of the Stars’ means something to me, otherwise, it all comes up blank.”

“Return of the huh?”

“the Stars, we found it on like, our first big mission, this big slip with writing on it that Sanvu recognises,” Pachuku explained. “Yet another thing Didra ignores.”

“Oh, that’s when you brought that big ol’ poster in or somethin’, right?” Tenab figured; Sanvu nodded in response.

“I wish I knew what relationship that you had with all this, but given this, it’s got to be something. We’re with you, even though I don’t know anything about what these ‘stars’ are or what this is about, it seems like the things that cause the most turmoil seem to be the most related to the trouble,” Derjie guessed.

“We should make our way back. There ain’t nothin’ we can figure out here for now.”

None of them could disagree, as they wandered back home across the dry landscape, this time with none of the uncertainty that they had between each other prior. It was as they turned to leave though that Sanvu turned towards the ocean.

~~

*Music: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door – Ruins of the Thousand-Year Door

Back on the darker sand, he’d looked to his right, to where something looked off. A mound of sand where there used to be something he thought everyone knew.

“Isn’t that…” he started, which prompted everyone to look. They came closer, but were only greeted to a dune of sand.

“The dungeon!” Derjie exclaimed, “It’s gone!”

“Unless a buncha sand fell in on it…” Tenab grumbled, “then good riddance.”

“That’s the second one…” Sanvu noted, Tenab lighting up, almost literally with the spark that danced between his antennas.

“We can tell her ‘bout the dungeon, and how the fog prob’ly meant to close it for some reason!” he exclaimed, “That’ll satisfy her weirdness enough, I reckon.”

“This was where we found all those jars of… stuff, type energy, right?” Sanvu pointed out, “there was one right outside Stony Enclose when that one collapsed too.”

“But what’s it for?” Pachuku wondered, Derjie folding his nubby arms.

“It could be to keep us from bringing everybody back, or… it’s to manipulate everybody.”

“Manipulate how?” Pachuku echoed, curious.

“This is just a theory, but, type energy makes up an apparition in a dungeon right, so it’s that Pokemon’s essence. When you defeat it, it goes back into the dungeon as part of the dungeon’s essence. So maybe… getting dungeon Pokemon energy can affect us Pokemon in other ways we don’t know about.”

“Suggestin’ we’re like… puppets?”

“Perhaps, but that’s just a guess. I wouldn’t know, it seems type energy is useful somehow.”

“Hey, you two,” Tenab looked directly at Sanvu, “We’d like to ask you guys somethin’. Keep all this a secret from Didra, alright?”

“Keep all what, our conversation?”

“The dreams, our speculating, all of it.”

“You’re suspecting Didra?” Pachuku wondered, as Derjie continued.

“She is very suspicious, but we also don’t want to be kicked out, because then that’ll mean we’d have to solve this in a more dangerous manner. She appears to like you, for what reason, we can’t be certain. So if you’re noticing this… don’t get on her bad side.”

“So you’re asking us to work undercover? Like we’ve been doing?” Sanvu hinted, the green blob nodding.

“If you can, try, at the very least.”

“Do what you two mos’ think is right. If you find out somethin’ that don’t make her suspicious, we’ll be glad to hear it.”

“Sure!” Pachuku promised. Sanvu could only nod, smiling all the while. “It’s what we’ve been doing anyway.”

“Keep it up, for everyone’s sake. Cause this ain’t lookin too good,” his hand swept over the direction where the fog was still visible from the non-existent shoreline.

With that out of the way, their return trip was extremely smooth in comparison, with a much less uncertain air, the bitterness from before seemingly morphed into a shared concern rather than the potential for friction.

~~

---

“You’re dismissed. I’ll sort something out for your mission tomorrow to be a little more exciting, then,” Didra finished, after both teams had finished telling her what they wanted her to hear. She donned an expression of something stern, and none of them could be sure if she knew what they knew, because she appeared to walk with some sort of sway in her motion as she walked off, as if unsteady. Before anyone could check if she was maybe alright, she was gone into a room none could see.

With little more than a parting, the Minders made their way home. The afternoon was beginning to set in, the sun lowering, the mist somewhat blowing through the town.

When they got home, Sanvu was particularly stressed. The only people in such a long time who believed him were individuals that they had no idea that they could trust beforehand. He was grateful for such support, but couldn’t help in sympathising with Pachuku’s anxiety.

He didn’t want to be afraid, but he very much felt that way, given that there seemed without a doubt that he was involved, somehow, with why Pokemon were feeling this way. He couldn’t entirely be sure it wasn’t his fault, after all, it’s not like he knew any better whether that was the case or not.

He wasn’t alone, because Pachuku himself had begun to fiddle more ever since they’d returned. It looked almost like time had rewound, and Pachuku was the same anxious squirrel the day he met Sanvu, which piqued Sanvu’s interest.

“You’re feeling it, too, huh?”

“F-Feeling what?” Pachuku stammered.

“I thought they’d make you feel better but… I guess it’s just too much, huh.”

“It’s… not them, it’s exactly them, it’s… argh!” Pachuku raged, before holding his head in his paws.

“I th-thought, for all this time…” he muttered, as his eyes grew watery stores, “that nobody… nobody, could see all of this…”

Sanvu’s face could only grimace, his eyes directly on Pachuku. “I… d-don’t know why I-I’m… so sad but… we’d better not… mess this up… for their sake…”

Sanvu could only get up and hug Pachuku, even as his tears fizzled and spat his skin. He couldn’t find it in himself to cry, being too fatigued, but he couldn’t stand to see Pachuku so upset without comforting him somehow.

And for a while, that was the mood. Eventually, after what felt like hours, Pachuku finally settled down, to where he wasn’t quite as upset, but somewhat normal.

“Th-thanks, Sanvu. Sorry, I know you’re feeling it too, and all-“

“Don’t need to apologise for that,” Sanvu reassured him. “It’s scary; I certainly can’t fault you for that.”

“Y-Yeah. At… at least we’re not alone…” he sniffled, as he freed himself from the former human’s grip, smiling.

The mood having been dampened by the day’s events, the night continued brewing this somewhat dour mood. It didn’t seem like it was going to get any better, so both talked little about it throughout the night, if only so then they could think about something other than the looming danger that threatened to envelope the place they called home.

The approach of something dark was drawing ever near the closer the hours crept towards the darkness hidden in everyone’s minds.