I woke up, to see a shadow disappear behind a hill. I looked up and saw something indicating some life in this dead world: a star, but not only yellow. It was a light blue and pink, too. It then blinked out, and I noticed Grovyle on the ground next to me. He got up, as did I. That was when I noticed I was human, again.

     "You're... alive..." he said. "Thank Arceus."

     "You saw Celebi and I dead before the shadow?"

     "Yes..." Grovyle started looking around. "Where is she?"

     "I don't know. I saw you two dead in my dream... Did you hear the second voice? I think Celebi was spared, or she could protect herself somehow."

     "I was spared," Celebi said from behind us.

     "How?" Grovyle and I said at the same time.

      Celebi shook her head. "We must hurry. I'll tell you on the way to Foggy Forest."

     Without giving us time to argue or agree, she started off, leaving us to follow. "The Shadow only trifles with one other legendary directly, Cresselia," Celebi said once we caught up. "The rest of us dare not say his name. Arceus warned the rest of us about fighting him, but Cresselia never listened, even with her type disadvantage. However, being the Lunar Pokémon, she thought it would make up for her type disadvantage. She wanted to dedicate herself to combating the Shadow. The moon is the only light in the darkness, and with Arceus as the Alpha Pokémon, it left him open to worry about more than the Shadow's problems. Cresselia was rumored to be executed shortly after time stopped and darkness prevailed. No Pokémon has seen her, so the rumor seems to be true."

     Grovyle and I were quiet. I noticed Dusk Forest coming into view. "I've never seen the Shadow, but I believe I know his name."

     "Do not say it!" Celebi exclaimed.

     "I won't, it seems to hold more negative weight here," I soothed.

"So we know the five locations we need to traverse," Grovyle stated. "Should we go to the past immediately?"

"Probably," I said. "Arceus knows what might happen if we stay too long. Whatever we need, it can come from the past."

Celebi nodded. "We should rest beforehand, though. Once we go back, things will get hectic. Primal Dialga will most likely send Dusknoir or the Sableye — or both — to kill us. Rest will be a luxury we may not get."

"After that nightmare I say 'agreed,'" I said. "I didn't get any proper sleep from that. I could use a calm night."

"I second that," Grovyle said. "And it looks like it's not all that far from being our last commodity, Pearl. There, in the distance, what do you see?"

I looked where he was, and noticed the tip of rock over the trees. "The clifface."

"That's right," he said. "This is the last place we should see here if we succeed."

"Team PokéFriends will succeed. We have no choice, unless we want to die." I broke into a run. I was tired, but it felt good, running just because I wanted to. Not because we were being chased and our lives depended on it. I heard Grovyle and Celebi pick up their paces behind me.

     I reached the clearing first, but that was because Grovyle wasn't trying. Our moss beds were still there, though it looked like other Pokémon had taken advantage of our abandoned camp.

I was about to start clearing the moss when Grovyle stopped me. "If this place looks abandoned from when we were taken to their camp, they won't think to leave any special guard or investigate too thoroughly."

"What about our scents?" I asked.

"There have been many Pokémon here. It should be able to cover our scent in a few days' time. They won't be able to find the Passage anyway." Grovyle walked back over to his old moss bed, and Celebi to hers.

"I'll keep watch," she said. "You two need it more immediately than I."

I was about to argue, but I couldn't. "Thanks, Celebi," I said instead. It felt like sleep claimed me as soon as I relaxed. I remembered no dream when I woke up at Celebi's urging, though that might have been because there was more pressing matters to attend to.

"Sableye," she hissed. I saw Grovyle was getting up, too. He looked like he was forcing himself up, and I shared the feeling when I did the same. I grabbed my bag. "It's time to go."

We nodded. "Right," Grovyle said, quietly. "Come on, once the Passage opens, we'll need to go through it quick."

"Does it make noise?" I asked.

"Yes," Celebi said. "It will have to be quick."

     "Alright. Let's do this. Grovyle and I will make a distraction elsewhere to drag them away. Then we'll come back."

     "No," Grovyle hissed sternly. "We are in no shape to do so. Celebi can activate the Passage and we can get through before they realize anything is here. Come on, Pearl. Otherwise we'll be headed for Dialga."

"We have to do it now," Celebi said, starting to concentrate. A blue glow came from the clifface. "Arceus protect you both."

"Wait, aren't you coming with us?" I asked, startled. "But we're a team, and Team PokéFriends can't separate."

     "I must," she said, sadly. "In order for me to keep the Passage open, I must remain here. I may see you two again. If not, we've been successful and time will unravel us." Tears started to form in her eyes. "Pearl, I found this old buckle, it belonged to an exploration guild. Take it and remember me."

     I hugged her, and Grovyle was right behind me. But he was the first to let go. "I'll miss you," I whispered. "For you, if not the world, we'll revive this world and bring life back." I crouched and quickly hooked the buckle onto my bag.

    "Pearl," Grovyle said, suddenly urgent. "We have to go." He pulled me up, and brought me over to the clifface and the glow, that was slowly getting louder and bigger. An arched pathway started to form. "Are you ready, Pearl?" He asked this without looking at me, and I could see he was trying to hold back tears. I myself had no such strength, and they fell freely down my face.

     I steeled myself, and my voice was neutral when I said, "As ready as I'll ever be, Grovyle."

     The portal finished, and Grovyle turned, saluting to his friend. We counted as one, "One, two, three, jump," before jumping into the unknown. Well, hey, at least I've done it one time before, right? How different could this be?

     This time was different. I was conscious the entire time. I called out to Grovyle, "Grovyle, don't let go!" Our grip was slipping, since we didn't go for each other's wrists. We went, hand-in-hand. "Grovyle!" I screeched, and we couldn't hold on to each other. In the blue vortex void, we started drifting farther and farther away from each other. "I don't want to say good bye!" I cried out.

"Then don't!" Grovyle called, keeping calm. I had a feeling it was for me, but I didn't know. "I will find you! Find the gears on your end, and I'll do the same! Once you find them, meet at Treeshroud. It will be our final destination unless we are near it, after Fogbound Lake, the labyrinth, Northern Desert, and Crystal Crossing! Remember!"

"I will!" I called back, more under control. He disintegrated, and before I did too, I saw my necklace. My Poké with a four leaf clover cut out of it. I grabbed it, for luck, and I felt myself disintegrating, and strangely, my bones breaking and an inner sense of warmth. I fell on something soft and passed out, my body unwilling to take in all of this while awake.

✦ ✎ ✦ ❦ ✦
August 13, 2016
And here is the end of this book! Next March third I will start the next one, based fairly heavily (in my opinion) off of the games. Still, I'll be mixing stuff up, such as who says what, and actually how many are in the exploration team! I hope you guys enjoyed my idea of what happened in the future before the game, and I hope for feedback! Thanks for reading, friends. I'll see you in the next book, hopefully. ♪