Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Grovyle! Grab them and get to the time portal, i don’t know how much longer i can hold them back!,” The voice belonged to Celebi, who was currently projecting a large psychic barrier to keep Dusknoir and his group of Sableye lackeys away long enough to allow them both to escape to the past.

The grass type gave a pained nod and quickly ran over to and kneeled down beside them, gently putting one of their hands on the human’s arm.

“..Can you stand by yourself?,” He asked, a look of concern forming on his usually stoic face as he saw the very rough condition they were in.

Though, given they both had just unsuccessfully tried to fight Dusknoir and his six Sableye lackies before Celebi had intervened, it wasn’t a surprise that they both were as injured as they were.

“L-let..let me try,” The human replied, to which Grovyle gave a small nod.

After taking a few seconds to gather what strength they could, the human tried to push himself up off the ground though they let out a loud yelp of pain and fell back down into a heap.

“..N-no..no i cant.” They said, which was followed by the pokemon reaching their other hand out to them.

Getting the signal, the human reached their own hands out and took the pokemon’s into them, gripping hard enough to make sure they didn’t slip out.

“Ready?,” The grass type questioned, glancing at them.

They gave a soft nod. “Yea, let's make it quick. I don’t think Celebi’s barrier is gonna last forever,”

Grovyle nodded, before pulling the human up onto their feet then looping their left arm around their back for support in a single, fluid motion.

The human winced as the distinctive iron-y taste of blood filled their mouth, though they quickly spit it out onto the ground before they looped their right arm around them.

“You good?,” The pokemon asked, having noticed them wincing.

“Yea..let’s just get going already,” the human answered before wiping their mouth off with the sleeve of their ruined jacket.

Giving a hesitant nod, the pokemon continued to lead the way towards the portal, being careful to not go too quickly just in case.

Celebi’s barrier, however, had already starting to crack in several places, this causing the time traveling pokemon to let out a noise of distress as she focused more of her psychic energy in an attempt to hold it together for a few minutes longer.

As she did so, the two were getting closer to the time portal, which was glowing brightly like a beacon of hope against the bleak gray of the world around them.

However, they stopped in their tracks as the human suddenly went limp in the pokemon’s arms, who quickly pulled him close to stop them from falling onto the ground.

“Grovyle..you’re going to have to go on..without me,” their human companion stated, as they coughed up more blood, the drops pooling onto the dirt beneath them.

The grass type pokemon’s eyes widened in surprise, though rather than respond with words he simply picked up the human into their arms bridal style.

This action made their face turn a bright pink, arms immediately moving to wrap themselves around the grass type’s shoulders for support.

“We’ve worked too hard to give up now, so like hell am i leaving you behind, got it?,” Grovyle stated, his grip tightening but not enough to actually hurt them.

To this, the human gave a rapid nod. “O-okay,”

The grass type then continued on toward the time portal, stopping when they were in front of it.

“I’m gonna have to put you down onto your feet, can you handle that?,”

The human gave a soft nod in response, though they was uncertain if they actually could, given they could barely pick themselves up off the ground moments earlier.

“You can lean on me if you need to,” which was followed by Grovyle gently setting the human down onto their feet.

It was by some miracle that he managed to stay standing, though he gently leaned against the pokemon and wrapped their arm around them for support, which made the grass type give a rare smile in response.

Grovyle then reached into the bag that was still somehow hanging off their shoulder, rummaging through it before they pulled out a dirty looking glass bottle that contained what looked like melted gold.

“You first,” he said, uncorking the bottle and handing it to them.

The human took it from them and drank half of it in one gulp, grimacing hard before handing it back.

“Eugh, i swear to Arceus, we gotta find something else to make this with besides old apples and sitrus berries,” he said, wiping his mouth on his sleeve again.

The grass type drank the rest of it and shivered due to how sour it was. “We’ll figure something out once we’re in the past,”

However, a yell at the same time as the sound of what could only be described as glass shattering came from behind them, making both Grovyle and the human turn around towards it.

“CELEBI!” The duo yelled as they saw that her barrier had been shattered and that the Psychic type had been tossed to the side, laying in a heap on the ground like a tiny ragdoll.

Standing where the time traveller pokemon once was was Dusknoir, whose hands were sparking with dark energy, and even though the pokemon had no mouth it was clear he was smirking in triumph.

“..I guess the old saying is true, ‘if you want something done right, you’ve gotta do it yourself.’” He said.

The ghost type then turned towards the duo, Grovyle stepping in front of the human and using Leaf Blade, his body shifting into a protective stance.

“You go on ahead through the portal,”

“W-What? What about you?,”

Grovyle turned his head back to them. “I’ll be right behind you. NOW GO!,”

They gulped and did as Grovyle ordered them to, the pokemon then rushing towards Dusknoir, who retaliated by launching a large Shadow Ball into the air, which split itself into several smaller ones.

These smaller orbs then fell back down towards the ground like meteorites, quickly gathering speed in their descent.

The grass type barely managed to dodge them, dust flying into the air from where they impacted, though this proved to be a boon as it allowed Grovyle to get close to Dusknoir without risk of being seen.

Before the ghost type could even attempt to counter the grass type, the latter leaped forward from the massive dust cloud, his elbows making contact with the former’s body.

He managed to slice into Dusknoir’s body in several places, all of which immediately began to bleed with some even getting on the blades themselves.

This was followed by an ‘X’ slash across Dusknoir’s face, which caused the reaper pokemon to yell in pain.

Though before he could react, the ghost type grabbed him by the throat, choking him before he tossed them to the side.

They slid across the ground for a few feet, coughing up some blood once they came to a stop and letting out a soft groan after.

The human meanwhile had ran into the time portal, though turned back when he heard Dusknoir yell and his eyes widened in shock as he saw his companion get grabbed and tossed away.

“GROVYLE!” He yelled, tears forming in his eyes as he saw them lying on the ground in a heap, unmoving.

Dusknoir chuckled darkly as gathered more dark energy into his hands, forming it into another Shadow Ball.

The human would’ve run into the time portal if he wasn’t completely paralyzed by fear, the tears that had formed in his eyes when he saw grovyle beginning to fall down his face.

At the same time, Grovyle let out a groan and raised his head up to see what was happening, his eyes widening as he saw his companion frozen in place.

“Goodbye, human.”

The ghost type then launched the orb of dark energy straight at them, whizzing through the air and exploding after it hit him square in his chest.

The human’s sight went completely white as the sound of what he recognized as the swirling of the time portal filling the air around him, before he felt himself slam hard into something or someone and he fell into deep unconsciousness..

—————————————————————————

It was a sunny afternoon in the area known as Tiny Woods, pokemon of all kinds coming and going between the tall trees, grass and shrubs.

It was then that a Froakie hopped forward through some tall grass. They were wearing a dark blue bandana around their neck as well as a pair of small fingerless gloves.

He hopped a few steps forward, before the water pokemon let out a yawn and stretched it’s arms out, the joints popping softly.

“Phew..we finally made it!” He said, though he sounded a little out of breath.

He was followed after by an Infernape wearing a red bandana around their own neck, with a pair of worn looking aviator goggles.

Likewise, the fire monkey pokemon looked tired, having darker cicles under her eyes and who looked alot more roughed up than the water type did.

“We would’ve gotten here alot sooner if you didnt keep going after every item in this place, ya know,” She said, which made the froakie rub the back of its head with one of its hands.

“Wait up guys..!,” A voice called out from behind them, and they both turn towards it, seeing a Smeargle come running towards them.

She was wearing a bag on their back and as well was wearing a light green bandana around their neck. Though, she suddenly stopped short and bent over, looking completely out of breath.

“I swear to Arceus, you guys HAVE to slow down..!,” she said, giving a soft glare to both of them as they were catching their breath.

After a few minutes, the painter pokemon stood back up, fixing the straps of the bag back onto it’s shoulders with a small huff before fixing the bandana around her neck.

“Sorry, Smearg. Here, take this,” Froakie said as he hopped over to the painter pokemon, holding out its hand to them.

The normal type pokemon looked down, seeing that he was holding a plump looking Oran Berry, which they took and bit into.

“Thanks,” Smeargle said, before taking another bite of the berry.

“Here, Fern. You should eat one too,” the water type said, holding out another large oran berry, which he tossed into the air for her.

The fire type caught it in her hand, giving a soft smile to the Froakie before taking a bite, some juice getting onto her face after she did.

She quickly wiped it away with the back of her hand. “Come on, let’s look around for what we came here for,”

The other two nodded and each went in a different direction to cover more ground, all being careful in case they encountered anything hostile.

Some time passed in relative silence, until it was broken by Froakie speaking up. “..Hey guys, i think i uh, found something,” he called out from within some tall grass near the treeline.

“What did you find? Is that what we came here for?” The Infernape asked.

“No, not exactly..I think you should just come see it for yourselves,” he replied.

It took them a minute or so to get to where their teammate was, but once they did, the two were completely stunned by what they saw.

Lying in a heap on the ground before the trio was an unconscious Frogadier, the usual dark blue complexion one would expect to see was instead a very pale blue one.

They also looked to be covered in scars, as well as what seemed to be fresher wounds, with small traces of blood having oozed out around the edges.

With some hesitation, the infernape stepped towards them, kneeling down and placing two fingers firmly against their neck after moving the water type’s head to the side a little with their other hand.

“Are..Are they, y-you know..?” The frog pokemon asked.

After a few seconds the fire type felt the unmistakable beat of a pulse against their fingers and she let out a soft sigh of relief.

“They’re alive, but only just barely,” she replied before she then lifted the Frogadier into her arms with shockingly little effort.

‘Frogadier definitely should weigh more than what I'm feeling right now..No, let’s just get him to the medics back at the guild. We’ll worry about finer details later.’

She pushed this thought to the side for now before suddenly running past her two teammates, both of them running after her.

“H-hey! Where are you going, Fern, we still need to find what we came for, remember?!” Smeargle asked, gripping the straps of her bag a little tighter.

“..They’re barely alive, Smearg. I’d rather come back another time to get the job done then let someone die when we could’ve helped them,” She replied, not slowing down as her grip on the smaller pokemon tightened.

The trio, after some time exited Tiny Woods and kept on running until they finally reached their destination, which was revealed to be a large building at the top of a cliff that was shaped like the head of a Wigglytuff.

“Oh thank Arceus, we’ve finally made it..!” Froakie exclaimed before he collasped onto the ground, heavy panting following after.

Infernape and Smeargle were in no better shape, the latter having fallen onto her back out of exhaustion, while the former fell to her knees while still holding tightly onto the injured pokemon, not wanting to cause anymore harm to them than what had already been done.

Before anyone else could say anything, a Diglett popped up out of the ground in front of them, and seemed rather surprised to see them.

“Hey guys! You’re back early..-,“ they said, before they then noticed the injured pokemon that their friend was holding.

“Oh dear! W-what happened?! A-are they okay?!,” The ground type asked, panicking.

“Diglett..just get the medic’s, and HURRY!,” Infernape snapped, breathing heavily still.

The ground type pokemon then quickly popped back into the earth and hurried back inside as quick at they could, leaving the three by themselves.

“How..How is he, Fern?” Smeargle asked as she picked herself up off the ground and into a sitting position.

Glancing down, she put two of her fingers onto their neck and inwardly sighed in relief as there was still a pulse and it seemed like it had gotten a little bit stronger in the time they had left Tiny Woods.

“He’s hanging in there, Smearg. Surprisingly enough,” The fire type replied, to which the normal type pokemon nodded.

At that moment, the Diglett popped back up from beneath the ground in front of them, shaking itself off afterwards.

“They’ve got a room ready for him, but you’re gonna have to bring him down to them.” They said, before popping back down into the ground.

“..Go on ahead, Fern. We’ll wait right here.” Smeargle stated.

Infernape gave a nod in response before she slowly stood up, making sure that the unconcious frogadier wasnt going to fall out of her arms before she walked into and then jumped down the hole that lead into the Guild.

And a few moments later the two landed at the bottom of the hole, the fire-type letting out a small noise of pain as she did.

Not wasting any time, she made her way to the Medical Wing, barely taking a step inside before an Audino ran up to them.

Without saying a word, the Fire-Type handed the unconscious pokemon over to them, the Audino cradling them in her arms before speaking.

“..We’ll do our best to make sure he makes it, don’t worry.” She said, though it did little to soothe the Infernapes' worries.

The healer pokemon then ran down the hall and headed into one of the rooms, the door to said room shutting closed a few seconds after they went in.

She should’ve felt some form of relief now that the frogadier was in the proper care of the medical staff, but the fire type only felt her concern growing every second she stood in the hallway.

Letting out a sigh, Infernape turned on her heels and walked out of the medical wing, accidentally bumping into Lucario as she stepped through the door.

“Oh! Sorry,” she said, though inwardly cursed herself for it.

“No need to apologize, accidents happen sometimes,” the aura pokemon said as he brushed it off with a simple hand wave.

“..Though, are you alright? You seem to be upset about something,”

“Huh? Oh yeah, I guess you could say that,” Infernape replied, the question catching her off guard a little as she tensed up involuntarily.

Lucario hummed to himself in response, his curiosity peaked. “Do you wanna talk about it?,”

The fire type’s concerned expression softened a little, though it was followed by her letting out a sigh. “Sure,”

The two then walked together down the hallway and took a right turn, entering into what looked to be a meeting or common area that was decorated with a couple of couches, tables with chairs and what looked to be a fireplace set against the farside wall.

It was thankfully mostly quiet, with only a few other guild members hanging out and talking amongst themselves.

Lucario and Infernape walked over to one of the tables, the latter taking a seat in one of chairs while the former going over to a nearby cabinet and rummaged through it, pulling out a bottle of liquor and two small glasses, bringing them over.

He set the bottle and glasses on the table before taking a seat himself, pouring them each a drink afterwards.

“So, what’s bothering ya?,” he asked, before taking a sip of his drink.

The infernape took a drink of her own before speaking. “We found an injured pokemon while out on a job,”

He gave a soft nod before he took another drink. “Well, that certainly explains why you were coming out of the medical wing, at the very least,”

She nodded, taking another drink. “Yea, poor guy was in pretty rough shape..,”

“Did he tell you what happened to him?,” he asked, finishing the last of his drink then pouring himself another.

The infernape shook her head. “He was unconscious and barely had a pulse when we found him, i was surprised he was still alive to be entirely honest,”

“Well, he’s in good hands. There’s no one better than Blissey and her nurses at taking care of injured pokemon,”

She let out a soft sigh. “I know that, it’s just..something doesn’t feel right about this,”

He raised an eyebrow “And what exactly would that be?,”

Infernape took another drink before she spoke. “Well, he looked like he got swarmed by several hostile pokemon at once, and it looked like it happened more than once give all the old scars he seemed to have,”

Lucario gave a solemn nod, sighing. “Dear Arceus..i can’t help but wonder how long he was running and fighting for before he ended up in the state he’s in now,”

Infernape gripped her glass tighter. “I don’t even wanna think about it,”

The fire pokemon then let out a sigh, gulping down her drink and setting it down before standing up. “I’m gonna see if some more jobs are available, but um..thanks for this, i really needed it,”

“I'm glad I could help, but just be careful. You know how dangerous it’s been getting out there as of late,” he replied.

She nodded and then left the room, leaving the Lucario by himself at the table, who simply poured himself another drink.

—————————————————————————

“Hey, Fern’s back!” Froakie said as he noticed her come up the ladder, the water type hopping over to her and being joined by Smeargle.

“So, how..is he?,” Smeargle asked, looking up at her teammate who let out a soft sigh.

“They took him in for treatment, but I haven't gotten any updates so far,” Infernape answered, her two teammates nodding softly.

It was then that the fire type noticed that it was now very late afternoon, nearing sunset as the sky was a mix of blue and orange with some soft purple shades mixed in.

‘I guess we were talking for longer than I thought..though, the alcohol certainly helped I suppose.’ she thought as she stared at the setting sun ahead of her.

“Maybe we should head back inside, it is about time for dinner,” Smeargle said.

“Yea, I'm starving,” Froakie replied.

Infernape gave only a nod in response and followed her teammates inside, giving a final glance back at the setting sun behind her before she climbed down the ladder into the guild.

Dinner was soon after served and went by as it always did, some small arguments interspersed through but these were thankfully snuffed before any actual fighting broke out.

Though she wasn’t really focused on any of it, something that several other guild members caught onto but didn’t bring up as they didn’t want to bother her.

Thankfully, after dinner the guild started to slowly wind down for the night, the many members shuffling off to their rooms to rest and prepare for whatever missions awaited them tomorrow.

But, Infernape didn’t join them. Or rather, she wouldn’t be doing so yet. She just..she couldn’t.

Not until she knew for certain.

Walking into the medical wing, she saw that the small nurses station was empty, though it looked like someone had been there pretty recently.

Which confused her a little bit as usually Blissey herself was usually the one manning it during the night.

She then noticed that a door was open on the left side at the far end of the hallway, and she began to make her way towards it, seeing as it was really the only option she had.

Stopping in the doorway, the Infernape saw that the Frogadier was lying unconscious in the bed, an oxygen mask placed onto his face and his upper arm was connected to a Rotom that had taken the form of a large monitor on an i.v. pole.

Speaking of, there was an i.v. placed into his lower arm, leading up to a half-full bag of clear fluid.

“You came to see him too, huh?,” a voice from behind her asked.

She turned to face who was speaking, letting out a soft sigh of relief when she saw it was Lucario from earlier, who had a soft smile on his muzzle. “Fucking Giratina, you scared me..but yes i am,”

“They said he’ll make it, though there’s something else..,”

Infernape raised an eyebrow. “And what exactly would that ‘something else’, be?,”

“Well..He woke up after they finished treating him..,” Lucario said, rubbing the back of his head with his hand.

“He did? What happened? Did he say anything?,”

He sighed. “He started freaking out, saying how he shouldn't be a pokemon and all that. They ended up having to sedate him to keep him from hurting himself,”

“Dear Arceus. Wait, do you think he’s..?,” The infernape pondered.

“If you’re thinking he may be a shifter, then you aren’t the only one,” he answered, letting out a small yawn.

“What do you mean by that?,”

“Cause all of the nurses are thinking the same thing. Especially Blissey,”

Infernape gave a nod and let out a small sigh. Her feelings about something not being right were correct, it seemed, but she couldn't help but feel like there was more to it than just that.

She glanced over at the unconscious pokemon before speaking. “Any idea when he’ll be awake?,”

“Probably sometime in the morning, if I had to guess. Let’s just let him sleep,”

The fire type nodded in agreement and the two prepared to leave, though a groan made them stop in their tracks and both turned around at the same time.

To their shock, the frogadier had awoken and was sitting up in the bed, using one hand to keep themselves propped up as they used their other hand to remove the oxygen mask.

He then raised the same hand to eye level, a look of disappointment on his face as he then let out a sigh and shook his head.

“..Hey, are you alright? Do you need anything?” The infernape asked, making the frogadier turn his head towards her.

“Can…can I have some water?,” they asked, their voice barely above a whisper.

Lucario gave a look to the infernape before he spoke up. “Let me go get Miss Blissey, she’ll want to look you over before she lets you drink anything, ok?,”

“O-ok..,” they answered, and the aura pokemon then swiftly left the room, leaving the two of them alone with one another.

“You..You’re the one who saved me..?,”

The infernape smiled and nodded. “I was, yes. I guess you heard the nurses talking when you first woke up?,”

The frogadier nodded, his eyes moving down to his hands and he let out another sigh. “It just..feels so weird,”

“I’d imagine it would. But, you aren’t alone, we’ll help you figure all of this out, ok?,”

The water type nodded, as the lucario came back into the room with another pokemon in tow, him assuming this was the Miss Blissey the jackal pokemon had mentioned.

“Ah, good to see you’re finally awake,” She gave a small smile as she walked over to him, setting some things on the bed next to him. “I’m just gonna take your vitals and check how your injuries are healing, ok dear?”

The water type nodded and let her begin to check him over, the rotom taking the form of the monitor transforming into a pulse reader, which she slipped onto one of his webbed fingers.

“Ok, your blood pressure is a tiny bit below normal, but given the circumstances I'd say that is fine.”

The pulse reader then beeped, and she looked at what it read before writing it down with what his blood pressure was.

“Now, i’m going to remove your dressings and check your injuries, then dress them with clean ones, is that ok?”

The frogadier gave a nod, and let the Blissey get to work once again, with her beginning to remove the dirty dressings and toss them into the nearby waste bin.

“What’s your name? Can you remember your name at all?,” she asked as she tore open a small alcohol pad, before she gently rubbed it across the injuries on his arm, which made the frogadier flinch a little bit.

Taking a small breath in then out, he closed his eyes and began to think, the sound of his heart slowly thumping in his chest. My..My name is..Al..My name is..Al..e..My name is..Alex,”

‘So, his name is Alex.’ Infernape and Lucario thought at the same time.

The head nurse smiled and wrapped the injuries up in clean dressings. “There we go,”

“Can i have some water now, please?,” Alex asked, clearing his throat as his voice was still somewhat quiet.

“Of course,” Blissey answered, leaving the room to get him what he asked for.

Once she left, the two pokemon were getting ready to leave, but they stopped when Alex spoke up. “Please..i don’t want to be alone. Not right now,”

Both of them looked at each other, though lucario was the one who nodded and walked over across the room, taking one of the seats near the bed. “I’ll stay with you. Infernape, you go rest, alright?,”

The fire type wanted to argue, but she felt her tiredness finally catch up to her and could only give a nod before she left the room.

She quietly made her way to her bed, being carefuly not to wake her teammates, closing her eyes and soon falling peacefully into sleep..

Chapter Text

How much do you exactly remember, Alex?,” Lucario asked as he sat in the chair, his tail swishing back and forth slowly.

“I..I don’t remember anything besides my name,” He answered, letting out a small sigh. “Sorry, just everything else is a complete blank.”

The aura pokemon simply shook his head. “No need to apologize. You likely have severe amnesia from..well, whatever happened to you for you to end up like this,”

Alex gave a soft nod, taking a drink from his cup of water, setting it back on the bedside table next to him.

“You’re also very likely what is known as a Shifter,” Lucario stated, crossing his arms. “Shifter’s are very rare on this continent, not sure about any of the others, though,”

“And you believe i’m one of these shifters? What are those, exactly?,”

“Yes, mainly because of your reaction to seeing your new body. I’m not sure if you remember that or not, though,”

Oh, he sure did remember it. He panicked pretty badly when he managed to catch a glimpse of himself in the mirror about the large wash basin, so much so that the nurses ended up jabbing a needle into him to put him back to sleep, and it made him shiver uncomfortably at the memory.

“As for what a shifter is exactly…Well, they’re human-pokemon hybrids that have the ability to change, or shift, between their human and pokemon forms, hence their given name,”

“That..that makes sense, i guess?,”

Lucario sighed softly. “Look, I know this is alot for you to understand, but like we said, you aren’t alone and we’ll help you every step of the way,”

Alex nodded, letting out a sigh of his own. “I understand that, i just..god this feels like a fucking fever dream i can’t wake up from,”

The aura pokemon could only give a small nod in response, reaching a paw and gently setting it on Alex’s webbed hand, a gesture that seemed to have caught them off guard for a moment, but he didn’t attempt to pull away from him.

The frogadier let out a sigh. “Sorry, i’m being selfish, aren’t i?,”

Lucario had to keep himself from jumping out of the chair after hearing their question. Why..why would he think that, let alone say it out loud?!

“No. You are not being selfish,” he stated, taking a moment to calm down before continueing. “Don’t ever think or say that, ok?”

Alex gulped a little bit, but gave a small nod. At the same time, he couldn’t help but feel a small bit of familiarity with the pokemon’s words.

Strangely, it felt..comforting? He couldn’t quite put a finger on exactly why it felt that way, though.

“…Do you think you can help me shift back into my human form, Lucario?,”

“Of course, i’d be glad to. But for right now, you should get some more sleep, you look exhausted,”

The frogadier wanted to argue, but he knew that lucario was right. Even though he had woken up only minutes earlier, it seemed like exhaustion wasn’t entirely done with him yet.

“Alright. Will you still be here when i wake up?,”

“Of course i will. Now, get some rest, Alex,”

He gave a nod, laying down on his back as the aura pokemon grabbed the blanket and tucked the water type pokemon in. “There we go. Comfy?,”

Alex gave a small nod again, letting out a yawn as he then shut his eyes and laid his head down, drifting off into sleep not long after.

Lucario smiled softly as he watched him fall asleep, letting out a yawn of his own and he laid back in his chair, drifting off to sleep himself after a few minutes passed.

—————————————————————————

Alex slowly opened his eyes, finding himself not in the medical wing, but in a desolate wasteland of some kind.

Picking himself off the dust covered ground, he noticed how barren and dead everything around him looked, all of it being a very dull and lifeless grey.

Even the sky above was blanketed in dark grey clouds, though the human couldnt help but feel an all encompassing feeling of dread wash over him as he tried to make sense of wherever he was.

”You really thought you could run from me, didn’t you, you little worm?” A deep, booming voice snarled from behind him

His eyes widened as he slowly turned around to face whoever was speaking, his body shaking and frozen in fear.

he then slowly raised his head up to see who exactly was talking, but was taken aback at how gigantic they seemed to be, and he couldn’t help but feel like an actual worm in comparison.

”W-who are you..?,” Alex stuttered out, his eyes meeting those of the giant, which were a blazing orange and seemed to glow in the dimness surrounding them both.

And that wasn’t the only part of the gigantic being that was glowing, as what looked like lines that went across it’s body were also glowing in the same blazing orange color.

Though, this did little to allow the human to actuqlly see what they looked like, and only added on to the fear he was drowning in.

”Who i am matters not..,” The gigantic being stated, stamping the ground with what was assumed to be one of it’s feet. “..For i am the last thing you will ever see!”

He then roared loudly, shaking the ground as an orb of energy began to form in its mouth, which slowly grew bigger and bigger as the seconds passed by.

Alex couldn’t bring himself to try to run, or even move as he tripped over himself and fell onto his back, his body shaking even more as tears began to form in his eyes.

Another loud roar filled the air as the ball of energy was blasted towards him, transforming into a laser beam and it was headed directly for him.

He let out a loud scream as he was completely enveloped by it, his vision going white as it felt like he was getting burned alive..

—————————————————————————

Alex let out a loud scream as he shot up in bed, his body shaking and drenched in a cold sweat, with his breathing heavy and panicked as he felt a pair of paws grabbing him by the wrists.

“Alex! Alex, it’s ok! You’re safe! It was just a bad dream!,”

The human looked up to see who was speaking, seeing that it was Lucario, who was also the one who was holding onto his wrists.

Even so, it did little to actually calm him down, his body still shaking like a leaf as the cold sweat slowly dripped off his skin and onto the hospital bed.

“Just take deep breaths, ok?” The aura pokemon instructed, his hands moving from around his wrists to laying on top of them. “Can you do that for me?”

The human closed his eyes and started to slowly calm his breathing, breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth.

“There we go, just keep it up, ok?”

He simply nodded in response as he continued the slow breathing, his body calming down and no longer shaking as badly after a few minutes passed.

“I..I’m sorry,” Alex let out a sigh, gently moving his hands away from the lucario’s and setting them onto his lap.

“Don’t you dare apologize. You have nothing to apologize for,”

“But..,” the human tried to say, but he couldn’t even get the rest of his sentence out before Lucario interupted him.

“No. No buts. You have nothing to apologize for, especially because you can’t help when you have a bad dream,”

The frogadier gave a soft nod, finally noticing that it was morning outside, the light from the sun streaming in through the nearby window and brightening up the room.

“…It’s morning already?,”

The lucario nodded, picking up a small plate of berries and handing it to him. “Yea, and here’s some breakfast. Infernape dropped it by before she headed out,”

Alex took the plate and picked up an oran berry, not even hesitating before taking a big bite out of it, the juices from it going all over him, mainly on his face and hands.

Though, this didn’t seem to bother him as he quickly scarfed down the rest of it, moving onto to the other berries on the plate.

’I should’ve figured he would be starving, especially given how skinny he looks..but i guess it was worse than we thought.’ Lucario thought as he watched the water type eating like he was on the brink of dying of starvation.

The human turned frogadier could only give a shrug in response as he scarfed down a large pecha berry in only a couple of bites, before turning his attention to what was left.

“Don’t eat too fast now, or you’ll choke.”

The water type gave a small nod as he finished the last berry on the plate, before setting it down on the bedside table next to the cup of water that was still sitting on it.

“Sorry, I guess it's been a while since I last ate anything,” Alex said with a shrug. “I just wish I could remember…”

The aura pokemon gently set a paw on his shoulder. “You will eventually, i’m sure of it,”

“I sure hope so,”

A silence then fell over the two after that, which lasted for what felt like hours, though really only lasted about five minutes, before Lucario broke it.

“Do you want to try shifting into your human body?,” Lucario asked, crossing his arms as he spoke.

“H-huh? I-i mean, sure i can try..?,” he answered, the pokemon’s question having caught him completely off guard.

But, that didn’t mean he wasn’t willing to try, even if it ended up failing in the end, at least he attempted it.

“Alright. Now, close your eyes,”

Alex nodded and did so, his vision being nothing but darkness as he heard Lucario speak again.

“Now, i want you to envision what you used to look like in your human body, ok?,”

“B-but, i have amnesia, remember?,”

He then felt one of the aura pokemon’s paws be gently placed on his leg. “I know, but just because you cannot consciously remember, it does not mean that it isn’t in your subconscious somewhere,”

The human couldn’t really argue with that line of logic, though he still felt pretty hesitant towards the idea. But, he knew he had to try, even given the possibility for failure.

“O-ok. I’ll try,” he then opened his eyes. “Though, how am i going to find it if i don’t know what i’m looking for?,”

“I’ve got a friend who can and would be happy to help, let me go get them real quick, ok?,”

Alex gave a nod before Lucario then left the room, leaving him by himself.

’I hope this works..’ He thought as he laid back and tried his best to get comfortable.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to wait long for the jackal to return, and he had a strange looking pokemon in tow with him, who was holding a silver spoon in each of its hands.

“Alakazam, this is Alex. Alex, this is Alakazam,” Lucario stated, while using a hand to gesture between them.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Alex said, sitting up in bed. “Can i ask why you’re holding those spoons?,”

“They’re to help me focus my psychic abilities,” she responded, spinning the spoons in her hands a few times. “Now, i’ve been told that you are a Shifter?,”

The frogadier gave a nod, and Lucario spoke up before he could. “Yes, though he has amnesia so he can’t remember what he looked like before..this,”

“I see. Well, I can help with that,” She stated, and both of them looked at her. “..I meant the shifting part, not the amnesia part,”

“So, you can’t help me regain my memories?,” the human turned pokemon asked, to which she gave a nod.

“It is better, and alot safer, for you to regain your memories naturally rather than try to force it through the use of psychic power.”

She crossed her arms before continuing. “If i were to try to do so, it could do unnecessary and irreparable damage to your mind..not just mentally but physically as well,”

Alex gulped and nodded slowly. “Y-yea..that wouldn’t be good,”

“Not to be rude, but let's get back on track, shall we?,” Lucario asked, and the two nodded.

The human then closed his eyes once again, feeling his body relax as it had previously, and he slowly slipped into a meditative state in front of the two pokemon.

Once the aura pokemon was sure he was fully in said meditative state, he turned to the psychic type. “Ok, you’re up,”

Alakazam nodded and raised her hands, her eyes and body starting to glow as the energy began to flow into the two spoons she was holding.

The psychic energy then began to coalesce in the air between the tips of the spoons, forming into an orb-like shape before it flowed through the air and over to where Alex was laying and connecting to his head, covering it in a big bubble like aura.

The Steel-Type smiled, then walked over to and sat back down in the nearby chair, letting Alakazam work her magic as he knew there wasn’t really anything he could do at the moment.

But, he’d be ready in case his help was needed. Though, he hoped that that wouldn’t be the case.

However, only a few minutes passed before the psychic type suddenly collapsed onto her knees and the psychic energy slowly faded away.

This made Lucario hop up onto his feet and run over to her, kneeling down beside her as her breathing was labored. “Alakazam?! What happened?!,”

“Some..Something or someone..just pushed me out,” She answered, her breathing still labored, though it was slowly getting less so. “And before you ask, no, it wasn’t Alex himself.”

“What?? Do you know who it was?,”

The Psychic-type shook her head. “No, but it felt..powerful,”

Lucario then helped her to her feet, leading her over to and sitting her down in the chair he was sitting in not moments before.

“What do we do now?,”

“We wait. And see what happens,”

—————————————————————————

The human slowly opened his eyes, finding he was falling through what looked to be an endless black void, however, this was soon broken by what looked like a circular platform made of white colored glass.

He was then flipped feet first, and landed on the glass as lightly as a feather. “..Huh? Where is this…?”

”Alakazam? Can you hear me?” He called out, hoping that he’d get a response, though the only response he got was silence. “I guess not..”

”So much to do, so little time...Take your time. Don't be afraid.”

The voice made Alex look up at the “sky” above him. “Huh? Lucario, is that you?”

”Now, step forward. Can you do it?”

The frogadier raised an eyebrow but seeing as he didn’t really have a choice, he followed the voices instruction, walking forward to the center of the platform.

”you seek what you used to be..i can help you, but first, you must show me the real you.”

“What..?”

The voice once again did not respond directly to the human’s question, rather an ornate looking door appeared at the edge of the platform in front of him

”Wonderful..i guess i’ve got no other choice, then.”

Walking forward, he stepped up to the door, almost hesitating for a moment before he gripped the doors handle and twisted it, pulling it open in a fluid motion.

Upon doing so, his vision went completely completely white from the bright light that poured from the door, as he felt himself get pulled through the doorway and into the unknown beyond it.

Thankfully, this only lasted for a few moments as his vision slowly returned to him, and he was confused as he was standing ankle deep in the ocean.

It was also a very sunny day, a bright, shining sun mixed together little wisps of clouds hanging high in the air all within a bright blue sky.

The sounds of seagulls periodically filled the air above, the birds then being seen flying out into the horizon of the ocean in front of him.

”Huh? Wasn’t i just..?” He asked himself as felt the sand between his toes as the water moved against his feet.

Turning around, as he really had no other option, he saw that he was actually pretty close to a beach that was connected to what looked like a tropical island.

”Hey, mysterious voice! Are you gonna tell me why i’m here?!,” he yelled into the air, even though he knew he wouldn’t receive a response.

Letting out a sigh, he decided to play along and walked out of the water and onto the warm sands of the beach, raising a hand up to his face to block out the sunlight that hit his eyes to keep himself from becoming blinded.

”Hey, Alex!” A voice called out to him, making him turn his heard towards wherever it came from.

The human saw that the person speaking was a human woman on a large wooden terrace that was hanging high in the air by several sturdy looking large ropes between two wooden structures, though looking closer he could see she wasn’t the only one up there, but he couldn’t see too well what they looked like.

”..Huh? Do i know you??,” he asked in response.

The woman seemed to giggle before speaking once again. “Have you been spending too much time in the sun again? Come on up here! Everyone’s been waiting!,”

Alex let out a soft sigh before making his way across the beach to where the woman and the other two were waiting, quickly finding a ladder that he climbed to get up to it.

”..Ok, i’m here. Why do you need to talk to me?,”

Now that he was much closer, he could see there were indeed three people waiting for him, and he was now a hundred perecent certain that he had absolutely no idea who they were.

However, they all felt very familiar, as a feeling of comforting warmth radiated from deep within him as he laid his eyes on them.

The woman who spoke to him before was the first to turn and face him, and she had long dark brown hair, a fair complexion with blue eyes and was wearing a blue t-shirt with jean shorts and sandals.

The second was a man taller than himself, with dirty blonde hair and a fair complexion like the woman’s and brown eyes, though he was wearing a grey tanktop with red and white swim trunks and waterproof shoes.

The third was the strangest to him, as it was another man, his complexion also fair, if a little bit pale, his hair a dark brown with blond tips, blond roots and dark green eyes. Which were covered by a pair of thick rimmed square lensed glasses.

his attire also didn’t match theirs, being a black shirt, grey jacket and blue jeans, all of which looked dirty and ruined.

he was, thankfully wearing shoes, though they were just as dirty as the rest of his attire.

”we just have to ask you some questions is all,” She gave as an answer. “Well, its more like just three questions, but still.”

Alex raised an eyebrow. Three questions? Thats why they asked him to come up here? Well, he couldn’t lie and say that it hadn’t worked, at the very least.

”ok, whats the first question?,”

She gave a soft smile. “What's most important to you?,”

He went into thought, closing his eyes. “Hmm…well, i’d say…friendship is most important to me,”

“Your friends must mean alot to you. You sound like a good friend yourself,”

He was caught off guard, however, when he opened them and saw that she had seemingly disappeared, leaving only two of the other people left.

”Huh? Where’d she go..?,” he asked, looking around to see if she’d moved anywhere, but them the blond haired man approached him, his question going unanswered and ignored.

”What is it that you want most out of life?,” he asked him.

”Ok..Well..,” he went into thought again, crossing his arms. “Being strong, that’s what i want.”

”you want to be strong, huh? That’s rather admirable,”

Much like the woman, the first man disappeared into thin air as well, leaving only him and second man still standing.

Though, something felt strangely familiar about them, and this feeling only grew as they walked over to him.

”Are you ready for your last question?,” the man asked him, to which Alex gave a nod in response.

”What are you most afraid of?,”

”Hmm,” He closed his eyes again, going into thought for a few minutes before opening his eyes. “…I’m afraid of being indecisive.”

The man gave a soft smile, his body beginning to fade away into light, and all the pokemon could do was watch as it happened.

This last for several moments until there was nothing left, except for a small orb of light that floated where the man was standing.

The orb then flew towards the frogadier, making contact with their chest, seemingly disappearing into and being absorbed into their body.

Before he could even begin to process whatever the hell just happened, the mysterious voice began speaking again.

”You want friends..”

”You want to be strong..”

”…You’re afraid of being indecisive.”

Another door then appeared out of thin air in front of him, and he walked up to it, getting ready to open it, though the voice spoke up again before he got the chance.

”Your adventure begins in the dead of night. Your road won't be easy, but a rising sun awaits your journey's end.”

He then opened the door, the same bright light filling his vision as it had previously, and he was taken back to the white glass platform.

”i’m back here again?” He said to himself, taking a step forward.

This caused the white glass to crack and then shatter into small shards of light, revealing what had been hiding underneath.

the platform was now a beautiful stained glass mosaic depicting two figures, one being the man the frogadier had just talked to and the other being the frogadier himself.

both figures looked to be in a peaceful sleep, though the latter was upside down so instead of being face to face, they were feet to face, forming a yin-yang of sorts.

the rest of the platform was made of varying shades of green and blue stained glass, all arranged in a beautiful mosaic pattern.

”You have shown me the real you..for that, i have rewarded you.”

As the voice finished speaking, a large and ornate looking mirror appeared in front of him.

his eyes widened in shock as he looked in the mirror, seeing that he was no longer a frogadier, but he was now the man that he just saw and who was also depicted on the mosaic.

”This..This is me?” He gently placed his hand against the mirror’s surface. “Not entirely what i was expecting, if i’m being honest..”

the mirror then vanished, being replaced by another ornate door.

”Guess this is my way out.” He said, before opening the door and being engulfed in light once again, the door shutting and disappearing behind him.

—————————————————————————

Alex opened his eyes slowly, letting out a yawn and slowly sitting up, him seeing that he was the only one in the room.

’I guess Lucario and Alakazam left to grab them something to eat and drink.’

Which was fine with him, though he did wish one of them was here. Oh well, at least they’d be in for a surprise once they got back.

“Alex, dear? Is that you?” A voice from the doorway of the room asked.

Which made him turn his head, and saw that Blissey was standing in the doorway, holding a bag of i.v. fluid, and she had a look of shock on her face as she laid her eyes upon him.

“Yea, it's me, Miss Blissey,” he gave a small smile. “Do you know where Lucario and Alakazam went?”

“They left to get some fresh air about twenty minutes ago, i’m sure they’ll be back soon,”

She then walked into the room and over to the where the iv pole stood, removing and unhooking the empty bag, followed by hooking up and hanging the full bag on the hook on top of the pole.

“Are you hungry, dear?”

Alex’s stomach rumbled loudly in response, making the nurse pokemon chuckle. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

She gave a smile before leaving the room, and it was then that both Lucario and Alakazam came back into the room, the two’s eyes going wide when they saw him as he gave them a friendly wave.

“Alex?” They both asked at the same time.

“Yea, its me,” he gave a small smile again. “Though it certainly wasn’t what I was expecting, I'll be entirely honest.”

“Nonetheless, we’re happy to see you got back to your human form,” Lucario said, to which Alakazam simply gave a nod in agreement.

“So, what's the plan now that I'm human again?,”

“To be entirely honest? No idea. But, we’ll help you through it, no matter what happens,”

“But why? You barely know anything about me,”

“I don't know how you humans operate, but we pokemon look out for one another, whether we know each other or not,” Alakazam explained, making both Alex and Lucario look at her before she continued speaking.

“And while you’re only half pokemon, you’re still one of us, and we’ll have your back no matter what.”

The human felt a smile form on his face and he gave a nod. Though, before the conversation could continue, Blissey walked back into the carrying a tray that held a good sized bowl of fruit salad and a big bottle of what looked to be milk, gently setting it down on Alex’s lap.

“Here you go, dearie,”

Alex nodded and picked up the fork, beginning to eat the fruit salad. “Thanks, Miss Blissey,”

“It is of no issue. A nurse takes care of any and all patients under their watch, after all,”

She then left the room, but not before telling both the steel and psychic types to make sure he ate as much as he could and to retrieve her should anything happen.

“Perhaps once you are feeling up for it, we can show you around the Guild and Treasure Town,”

Alex took a moment to swallow the food in his mouth before speaking. “Treasure Town? Where’s that?,”

“Treasure Town is located not far from here, you’ll be able to see it from outside the guild entrance,” Alakazam answered, taking a seat in one of the chairs near the bed.

“..But for the moment, lets focus on getting you better enough so you can actually see it for yourself,” Lucario interjected from beside her.

“Right. Sorry,” The psychic type said, inwardly chastising herself.

“Don’t beat yourself up over it, I'll likely be able to see it in a few days,” Alex stated, having eaten some more of the fruit salad, though he uncorked the bottle of milk and took a swig from it before speaking again. “It’ll just make it more worth it in the end,”

The three each shared a smile as the human went back to eating. He had no idea what was really going to happen from here on out, but he would face it as it came, and hopefully he would figure out exactly why he was brought here..even if it killed him in the end..

Chapter Text

The next few days passed with relatively little issue or fanfare, and during that time Alex had slowly started regaining weight so he looked a little bit less rough, which was a good start, at least.

As well as he had managed to regain enough strength to be able to stand on his own feet, however, walking was an entirely different story.

While he could walk, he couldn’t walk for too long, and as such Blissey got him a cane to help him, the man engraving his name into the handle in case he ever lost it.

Speaking of which, Alex was currently walking down the hallway of the medical wing, holding a cane in his left hand. His body was thankfully covered by a robe tied off at the waist so it would stay closed. “How are you feeling today, Alex?,”

Stopping in his tracks, he turned his head towards the person speaking, and smiled at seeing it was Audino, one of the nurses who had taken care of him when he first got brought in. “Oh, I'm feeling pretty good today, Audino. Thank you for asking,”

The fairy type smiled and nodded. “That’s good to hear. Do you want to try going outside today?,”

“I’d like to, yes, though i’m going to need help. Are Infernape or Lucario free right now?,”

“I’ll go find out, lets get you back to your room to rest a little so you’re not worn out, ok?,”

Alex nodded and the two headed back down the hallway to his room, the audino helping him sit down in a chair next to the door before then leaving to go get either one or both of the pokemon in question.

He gently leaned his cane against the wall next to the chair, letting out a small sigh as he slowly relaxed and waited.

Though, he didn’t have to wait too long as Audino soon returned with both Lucario and Infernape in tow, which surprised him but maybe they both hadn’t been busy..

“You ready to go?,” Lucario asked, and the human gave a nod as he grabbed his cane and stood up, using it for support.

The three then walked out of the room and the medical wing, entering into the gathering area of the Guild, where the ladder that lead outside was located against the far wall.

“Here, i’ll carry you up.” Infernape then squatted down, holding her hands on either side behind her.

Alex gave a nod and walked over to her, wrapping his arms around her neck and his legs around her waist.

“Hang on tight, ok?” She then stood up, and the human held on tight as she started climbing up in the ladder, being followed by Lucario, who was carrying his cane.

When they finally reached the top of the ladder, the first thing the human felt was the warm breeze against his face, before he was almost blinded by the bright light of the sun hanging in the blue sky above them.

“The sun is so bright, the land is so beautiful and the sky is such a bright blue…it’s just like we dreamt it would be..”

Alex put hand up to his mouth as he realized what he just blurted out, but having no idea why he said it. He had seen the sunlight and the sky from his room in medical wing, why would he be acting like he never did before?

And on top of that, who was ‘we’? Alex was the only one they found, unless he wasn’t and there was another person out there somewhere that he just didn’t remember.

Yea, that had to be it..maybe he would find them soon. He could only hope, anyway.

His two pokemon companions had heard what he said, but neither spoke up about it as they knew he wouldn’t know why he said it or what it meant.

However, they did put it in the back of their minds for now, as they could talk about it later.

“Here, i’m gonna let you down, ok?” Infernape asked, to which Alex gave a nod and he was gently set down onto his feet, the aura pokemon giving him his cane once he was standing up fully.

“Now, look out in that direction,” Lucario said, holding out his hand as he pointed towards a certain direction in front of them.

The human followed where he was pointing, and his eyes widened when he saw that in the far distance was what looked like a good sized town, several buildings making up the layout as well as what looked like stone pathways and lights.

Beyond that was the ocean that sparkled in the sunlight and stretched onto the horizon.

“Wow…!,” he slowly smiled as his eyes sparkled in awe.

They both chuckled. “Just wait till you see it up close,” Infernape stated, Alex climbing onto their back and holding on tightly with the aura pokemon carrying his cane.

The three then walked over to and began to walk down the stairs that lead up to the Guild, the human wondering how everyone made it up and down it everyday, given how many steps there looked to be.

They soon reached the bottom and Alex saw that they were now at a large field or meadow that was split by a dirt path that went in the four cardinal directions.

At the center of the path was a large sign post hammered into the ground to keep it from being knocked over, and was decorated with several arrow shaped signs that pointed in all different directions.

“The left path leads to Treasure Town, the right leads out into The Wilds, and the path ahead leads to The Beach and the ocean beyond.” Lucario explained as he stopped beside them.

The human gave a nod. “I’m not too heavy, am i, Infernape?,”

“Of course not. I’m stronger than I look,” She answered. “Besides, I don't mind because you still can't walk too well.”

He gave another nod before the three started moving again, heading down the left path towards Treasure Town.

Thankfully, it didn’t take them long to arrive at the town, Alex’s eyes going wide in awe as he saw how full of life it was, pokemon of all shapes and sizes walking about.

“So, where do you wanna go first?,” Infernape asked as she let him down off her back, Lucario handing him his cane as he slowly stood up onto his feet.

Looking around, he saw several buildings in front of him, though the one that caught his eye was a shop on the right side of the street that had a sign on its roof that read ‘Spidop and Tarountula’s Clothing Shop!’ With text below that said: ‘Everyone is welcome! Day or Night!’

The outside of the building itself was decorated with finely weaved threads of all different colors and sizes, two large windows showed off the interior of the shop and had mannequins showing off different outfits to any and all potential customers.

“That one,” he answered, pointing to it. The two then nodded before all three headed over to it.

Lucario opened the door, letting Alex go in first before he and Infernape followed behind him..

—————————————————————————

The interior of the front of the shop was spacious and rather fancy looking, several large shelves set against the back wall and the left side wall held what looked like rolls of fabric of all colors and types, which looked to be categorized by shades of color.

There were also smaller shelves set about the space that had already made shirts, pants and shorts all folded and arranged by size, material, etc, as well as small benches that were likely used by customers as they shopped.

The ceiling had small orb shaped lights hanging by what looked like wires, providing enough light to allow someone to see, but not so much that it would be considered blinding.

Besides the lights, the ceiling was covered in the same finely weaved threads of different colors that were seen outside, little round ‘o’ shaped hooks holding it up and allowing it to be easily pulled when that certain color needed to be used.

These dozens upon dozens threads lead to behind the front counter and through a doorway to what looked like a backroom that held a large sewing loom that had dozens of buckets of what looked like all sorts of differently colored dye’s.

Slowly stepping up to the front desk, Alex gently hit the small bell resting on it, causing it to ring with a loud ‘ding’ sound.

After a few moments a spider like pokemon stepped out of the backroom, and the human had to keep himself from stepping back in fear.

’T-This must be the Spidops mentioned on the sign outside.’ The man thought as he felt Lucario’s paw on his shoulder, bringing him out of his thoughts.

“Alex, this is Spidops. She owns the shop along with her dozen children,” the aura pokemon explained, though it did little to actually calm his fear.

“N-nice to meet you,” he said, inwardly hitting himself as he noticed he was stuttering.

“Nice to meet you as well, and it is alright to be afraid of me, many people are,” She stated, giving what Alex thought was a small smile. “Now, what do you need?”

“I need clothes, cause i can’t wear this robe around everywhere, ya know?,”

“Understandable. You are a shifter, correct?,”

Alex nodded. “I am, yes. Are you one as well?,”

Spidops shook her head. “No, but i have a couple as regular customers,”

“There are others here besides me? I thought they were very rare?,”

“They are, but you’ll probably get to meet them at some point,” Lucario answered, his tail wagging a little bit behind him.

“Anyway, i’ll need to take your measurements. So if you’ll follow me to the backroom, please,” the spider pokemon stated.

The human gave a nod and followed Spidops into the backroom, where she shut the door once they both were inside.

“Ok, now if you would please remove your robe, i can take your measurements, then we can talk about what specifically you want,”

Alex’s face went a bright shade of red, though he did as she asked, slipping out of his robe and setting it on a nearby chair.

“Do not worry, this won't take but a moment, I promise.”

The human gave a nod and let the spider pokemon do what she had to, and she quickly took the measurements of his arms, shoulders, neck and waist, before quickly writing it all down on a notepad, which she then tore out and recopied it on the next page.

“Ok, you can put your robe back on now.” to which Alex did, tying the sash to make sure it didn’t fall open.

The spidops then led him back out to the front of the store, and both of his companions gave him a smile, which helped him calm down.

“Now, we have plenty to choose from already in the shop, but i can make any custom if you desire it.” She then handed lucario the piece of paper that had his measurements on it, and the aura pokemon nodded.

Thankfully, shopping for clothes was pretty straightforward, as Alex quickly picked out several pairs of pants and shorts, along with shirts and both short sleeve and long sleeve jackets, following the measurements spidops gave them.

The man was surprised to see they had underwear in this world, though perhaps the other shifters had introduced them to the concept. Nonetheless, he grabbed several pairs of boxers in a range of colors, mainly black.

They easily filled up two bags, however, the human then realized he had no actual money to pay for any of it, and even if he did, it likely wouldn't be the kind that this world typically used.

“Here, let me,” Lucario said, pulling out a small sack of Poke’ from one of his pockets and handing it to the Spidops.

“What? You don't have to-“ Alex tried to say but the aura pokemon cut him off mid-sentence.

“I know I don't have to, but I want to,” he said, and the human gave a small nod. “Like I said, we’ll help you every step of the way, and I meant it.”

The man smiled. “Thanks, Luc,”

“Its no issue..wait you’ll also need shoes,” Lucario said, realizing that the human was still barefoot when he glanced down.

Thankfully, Spidops had also took measurements of his feet and gave him a pair of tennis shoes in his size. “Can i go change into something more appropriate other than this robe?,”

“Of course, changing rooms are that way,” Spidops said, pointing him in the direction of the back of the store, Alex heading there through a small entryway and went into the first changing room, locking the door behind him.

He then undid the sash and removed the robe once again, before pulling out and changing into a pair of boxers, followed by a pair of dark blue jeans.

He then put on and the tied the laces of the shoes, smiling as he looked at himself in the mirror, raising a hand to his chest.

His fingers gently traced along the dark pink horizontal scars that curved both around his ribcage and the front of his chest towards his breastplate.

While he didn’t remember exactly why he had these scars, it gave him a very good feeling when he looked at and touched them.

He then bent down and pulled out an olive green shirt, slipping it on, and then heading back out, bringing the bags of clothes and the robe with him.

“Ready to go?,” Lucario asked, to which the human nodded, and the three headed back outside after saying goodbye to Spidops, though Alex wondered where her kids were.

However, unbeknownst to them, several Torountula crawled out from behind stacks of different clothing or came down from the ceiling, and Spidops gave them all a soft, motherly smile as she couldnt help but chuckle at their shyness.

—————————————————————————

“Ok, where do you want to go now?,” Infernape asked, though before he could even think of a response, a loud cry came from behind them.

“THIEF! THIEF! SOMEONE STOP THEM!!”

The three turned on their heels after hearing the cry, though both Infernape and Lucario got barreled over by what looked like a Gengar carrying a sack of stolen goods.

Alex, not wasting a second, grabbed his cane from beneath the handle and quickly threw it through the air like a spear as hard as he could towards the back of the Ghost-Types head.

And it hit its mark dead center, causing Gengar to trip up and fall over, sliding across the ground and dropping the sack, which slid a little farther than he did, as the cane landed on the ground a good distance ahead after hitting them.

Perhaps it was the adrenaline from seeing his quick thinking actually work, cause he ran over to where the Gengar had landed and quickly snatched up the bag as several pokemon came up to help.

“Hey, you got him!,” one pokemon, who was revealed to be a Machoke, said.

“Yea..holy fuck..though i honestly thought that that wouldn’t work, not going to lie,”

“Well, nonetheless, you did good, kid!,”

Alex gave a small smile though the adrenaline seemed to have finally worn off as his legs shook before he fell onto his ass, thankfully hanging onto the thiefs sack so he didnt drop it or let it hit the ground too hard.

“Woah hey, you alright?!,”

“Yea..Yea, can you get my cane for me, please? Its just over there,”

The machoke nodded and quickly went to grab it, bringing it back and handing it to him. “Here ya go, kid,”

The human took it from him and used it to slowly push himself up and onto his feet. “Thanks, my names Alex, by the way,”

“You can call me Machoke. So, you’re a shifter, huh?,”

Had word about him really traveled that quickly? “Uh, yea, i am..how’d you know?,”

Machoke chuckled. “Well, mainly because you're a human. And only shifters can become human so..,”

“..Oh. Right,”

At that moment, both Infernape and Lucario ran up to them, while the other pokemon had apprehended Gengar and were holding him so he couldn't escape.

“Alex! You ok??,” Infernape asked, to which he gave a nod.

“Yea, i’m ok, Infernape. Though, are you guys ok? you were the ones who got barreled over by that guy,”

“We’re ok. We’ve faced a whole lot worse than that,” Lucario answered.

“Alright. Now, let’s get this back to whoever it was stolen from,”

Both pokemon nodded and Alex turned to Machoke. “Do you need any help with him?,” he asked, giving a tilt of his head towards Gengar.

“Dont worry, we can handle him. Besides, we’re just gonna take him to the guildmaster and let him deal with him,” the fighting type answered.

The human gave a nod and the three then walked away, though they didn’t get far as they were approached by a green chameleon-like pokemon.

“Have you seen..Oh! You got our wares back!,”

“Huh? Oh, yea! Here ya go,” Alex said, handing the sack to them, and the chameleon opened it and began to rummage through it.

“Oh Alex, this is Kecleon, one of the two Kecleon brothers. They run the local item and wares shop where explorer’s buy things before going on rescue missions,” Lucario explained.

The human nodded before turning back towards Kecleon, though his eyes went wide in shock as he had pulled out an emerald heart shaped pendant. “H-hey thats mine!,” he blurted out as he then grabbed it from him, catching all three pokemon by surprise.

“Woah Alex, are you sure that’s yours?,” Infernape asked.

The man did not respond as tears began to form in his eyes as he held the pendant in his hands, even though he had no idea how he knew it was his or why he was tearing up.

He supposed it was just a feeling he got when he first saw it, and it must’ve meant alot to him if he was almost crying now that he had it back.

“Infernape, I can say with certainty that the necklace is definitely his,” Lucario answered as he got a look of the human’s face.

Alex then put it around his neck, clasping it so it wouldn’t fall off. “I’m..I'm sorry. I didn’t mean to act like that, i just..i can’t remember anything and seeing the necklace triggered something in me-,”

“Hey, hey. It’s ok, I had no idea it was yours. However, i do want to repay you for getting mine and my brothers wares back,” Kecleon stated.

The merchant pokemon then rummaged through the bag more until he seemingly found what he was looking for. “Aha! I found it!”

He then pulled it out, revealing it to be a large, bright yellow colored, star shaped fruit with a single lear on its top tip.

“What kind of fruit is that??” Alex asked.

“..That’s a Paopu Fruit! How’d you manage to find one?,” Lucario answered.

“That's a secret I'll never tell! But I want you to have it, as a reward for helping us,” Kecleon said, handing the fruit to the human, who hesitantly took it.

“They say that if you share the same paopu fruit with someone, you’ll remain a part of each others lives forever,” Infernape said, making the human’s face go bright red and almost drop the fruit, though he quickly caught it.

“I-i see,” the human said, which made the three pokemon chuckle.

“Well, i’ll be getting back to the shop now, i hope i’ll get to see you stop by sometime, um..” Kecleon said after tying the bag closed and slinging it over his shoulder.

“My name’s Alex,” the human said, to which the chameleon pokemon nodded and then walked away.

Though, Alex’s eyes looked down at the star shaped fruit he held in his hand.

“You’d better keep it safe. Who knows when you’ll meet that special someone,” Lucario teased, chuckling.

Alex’s face went a bright red again and playfully pushed him. “S-shush!,”

“Anyway, where do you wanna go now?,” Infernape asked, though the human’s stomach let out a loud growl, making her chuckle.

“Ok, let's get some food, then,” the aura pokemon said. “We know the perfect place, come on.”

The human nodded and followed the two down the street, all three stopping in front of a large japanese styled building, alleyways on both sides and had a large sign sitting on top of it that read:

‘Incineroar’s Ramen Shop and Bar’

His stomach growled even louder after reading the sign, the two pokemon chuckling again before the three headed inside.

—————————————————————————

The first thing Alex was hit with upon stepping inside was the smell of good home cooked food, and it made the human’s mouth start to water.

The interior was what one would expect of a ramen shop, a large bar-like area up front surrounded by about a dozen or so booth seats with tables between them next to the windows.

It was also lit by the same orb-like bulbs that he saw in Spidop’s shop.

“Luc! Fern! Glad to see you two dropping by!,” a female voice called out from behind the bar which looked to be connected to a large kitchen through a doorway behind it.

The human then got a look at who was speaking, seeing that it was a large red furred and muscular anthropomorphic cat with black stripes across her body.

Her outfit was what you’d expect of a chef, wearing a large grey apron tied around her back and a bright blue bandana on her head with her ears sticking out of the top.

“Oh? Who is this?? Never seen you around here before,” She asked once she noticed the human was there with them.

“Incineroar, this is Alex. He’s a shifter, and he’ll be staying with us for the foreseeable future,” Lucario explained.

“A shifter huh? Looks like we have something in common!,” She gave a large smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Alex!”

“Wait, you’re a shifter too??,” Alex asked, to which Incineroar nodded.

“Yep! I know i may not look it but i am a shifter, i just prefer to stay in my pokemon form most of the time,” she gave another large smile. “Now come on and take a seat and order up whatever you want to eat, you look absolutely famished.”

The human nodded and the three sat down at an empty booth, picking up menus to look through them.

All of the food listed sounded good, and he had trouble choosing just one. “Man, all of this sounds good to eat,”

“Then why don’t you order a few dishes? You need to eat to put back on weight anyway,” Infernape said, setting down her menu on the table.

“Yea, just order say a couple appetizers and a main dish, but don’t over do it. You don’t want to make yourself sick,” Lucario said, agreeing with her.

Alex nodded and looked through the menu again before choosing a few..or rather choosing about a dozen things off of it.

Which, when they got brought to the table both Lucario and Infernape thought he wouldnt be able to even make a dent in it..

Though, they were immediately proven wrong as the human, after trying a single gyoza, began eating like his life depended on it, scarfing down the food in between taking drinks of the drink he ordered.

“Um, Alex maybe you should slow down before you end up being sick-“ Lucario started to say, though the look Alex gave him made him gulp and go quiet.

To say Incineroar was impressed would be an understatement, though she was also concerned as she had never seen someone eat her food the way the human was.

She knew her cooking was good, hell she would even say it was great or even amazing, but he was eating like he hadnt had proper food in who knows how long, and it only made her concern towards the fellow human grow.

He soon finished eating, setting the last plate onto the small pile of them that had built up, before letting out a small burp. “Oh, excuse me.”

Meanwhile, Infernape and Lucario had barely made a dent into what they had themselves ordered.

Incineroar chuckled as she approached the table, keeping her concerns hidden for the moment. “Gotta say, i’ve never seen someone who enjoyed my cooking as much as you, Alex!,”

“It was great! I havent ate like that in a while,” He said, rubbing his belly in satisfaction.

Both of his companions gave smiles, though Incineroar could tell they were just as concerned as she was.

“Hey, do ya’ll mind if i go on ahead and check out more of the town?,” the human asked, to which the two shook their heads.

“Go on ahead, Alex. We’ll catch up once we finish our food,” Lucario answered.

He nodded, thanking the incineroar for the food, before grabbing his cane and walking out of the restaraunt, Incineroar taking his place once she was sure he was gone.

“So, you guys noticed it too..?,” she said, letting out a small sigh before she spoke.

—————————————————————————

The human stepped out of the shop and into the bright sun once again, seeing that it was now late afternoon into almost evening, and smiling as he looked around to see where he would go next.

Deciding to just pick a way and go with it, he went right and headed down the street towards what looked to be the main square, though had to stop and sit on one of the benches located around the edge as he felt out of breath and like he needed to rest before continuing.

Setting his cane down next to him, he let out a content sigh as he simply enjoyed the scenery around him. “This is nice..”

He knew he could likely see the rest of the town tomorrow, so Alex felt no rush in going to see the other shops and things it had to offer, as it wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

After taking a few more minutes to get his strength back, he got back up and began walking around the town, the late afternoon creeping into evening even more as the bright orange sun had begun to slowly fall over the horizon, and the moon began to rise in its place as the sky turned a darker blue.

He then slowly approached the entrance to Treasure Town, walking through it and down the path, heading towards the guild.

He also knew he could take his time and wait at the bottom of the stairs for both Lucario and Infernape, cause the latter would likely want to carry him back to the guild and to his room in the medical wing.

However, as he finally approached the crossroards, he saw what looked like a black mass splayed out in the middle of it, though once his eyes adjusted they widened in shock as he saw it wasn’t a mass..

“Holy shit, thats a pokemon!” He said to himself before he booked it over to them, getting onto one knee using the cane as support.

Being closer allowed him to see the pokemon more clearly, and the first thing he noticed was that they were wearing a black coat with the hood up, so he gently pulled it down so he could see what they looked like.

The first thing he noticed was their hair, which was shapd like a wispy cloud and colored completely white, making it’s cloud like shape even more appropriate and it seemed to cover one of their eyes.

The second thing he noticed was they were black as night with what looked like a red spiky growth around its neck. Their arms were also skinny, as the sleeves of the cloak almost dwarfed them and which ended with hands that had clawed fingers on them.

Alex simply assumed they had legs, though didn’t want to check to confirm it as that felt a little creepy to him to do so given they were unconscious.

However, one thing he knew he could do was place two fingers against the pokemon’s neck to feel for their pulse, which, after almost a minute he felt the tell-tale sign of a pulse against his fingers.

Which did give him at least some solace in knowing that they were alive and not dead.

“Oh arceus, what do I do?? I can’t carry him back to the guild on my own but I can't just leave him out here!”

As if the creator pokemon had answered his question, both Lucario and Infernape were running towards him, both having spent time looking for him before an Ambipom told them they had seen him leaving the town.

“Alex! There you are! What's going on? Did you fall over?” Lucario asked as the two came to a stop.

It was then that he noticed the collapsed pokemon in front of him, and he kneeled down beside the human. “Alex, did you-?,”

“What?! No! I just found them here!,” he felt almost offended that the aura pokemon would even insinuate that he was the one who knocked them out. “Though, i’ll admit i’ve never seen a pokemon like him before..”

Infernape kneeled on the other side of him, though it was then both pokemon’s eyes widened when they got an actual look at the pokemon in question.

“No, it can’t be…,” she said, though the human was just confused.

“Um, do you two know him??,” Alex asked.

“He’s Darkrai..The Legendary dungeon explorer…,” the aura pokemon answered.

This just confused the human even more. Why hadn’t he heard of him, if he was such a famous figure?? But he then remembered he’s only been at the guild for a few days, and he hasnt really talked to anyone given he has been in the medical wing the entire time.

The fire type then gently lifted the fellow dungeon explorer into her arms, supporting the head with one hand and looping her arms under his knees.

However, she then kneeled down so Alex could ride on her back, which he quickly did, wrapping his arms and legs around her and the four then ran down the path that lead to their destination.

It didn’t take them long to reach the large staircase, and they began to run up it towards the guild.

“Does he work for the guild??,” the human asked, his legs tightening a little around the fire type’s waist.

“In a way, yes. He is more of a freelance explorer, working jobs all around rather than staying in one place like most of us,” Lucario answered, to which the human gave a nod of understanding to.

“Wonder what brought him here,” Alex said. Though he had to admit, he was growing more curious about Darkrai as the seconds ticked by.

“You’ll prob get to ask him when he wakes up. For right now, lets get him to Blissey and then you to bed,” Infernape said as they had finally reached the top of the staircase.

“Huh? What are you three doing out so late??” A voice said, which caused the three to look to who had spoken.

While Infernape and Lucario seemed to recognize who was speaking, Alex did not. Though he could see it was another pokemon, this one being a parrot like one whose head resembled a music note with a pink beak and colorful feathered body.

They were also quite smaller than the trio, however, size certainly didn’t matter as the human felt like the pokemon could easily kick his ass if he wanted to.

“Right..forgot about Chatot..,” the fire type stated, as she let the human down off her back, which he did and slowly stood up with his cane.

“Oh, Alex, this is Chatot. He’s the second-in-command of the guild,” the aura pokemon explained as Chatot hopped over to them, before fluttering up and landing on top of the human’s head.

“Uh..?” The human said as he then saw the pokemon’s head in front of his eyes, their eyes narrowing as they seemed to be studying him. At least, thats what Alex guessed they were doing.

It didn’t last long, however, as the pokemon the hopped off of his head, fluttering again as they landed in front of the three.

“It is nice to meet you, Alex,” they said, which was followed by the gate covering the guild sliding open and Chatot standing to the side.

The three took it as a blessing that he didn’t ask why they were carrying an unconscious pokemon, but perhaps he didn’t feel the need to ask.

They then headed down the ladder, Alex managing to make it down on his own, and once the trio were in the main area, they made their way to the medical wing.

Blissey was, unsurprisingly, sitting behind the desk of the nurses station, who jumped up when she saw the unconscious pokemon in the Fire-Type’s arms.

She then moved quickly, getting Darkrai into the examination room, though asked the three to stay outside, which they agreed to and let her get to work.

Thankfully, only about five minutes had passed before the nurse pokemon stepped out of the room and addressed the trio. “Well, it looks like he at least has some minor scrapes and bruises. However, he seems to have fallen unconscious due to not feeding for a while,”

“Not feeding? What is he, a vampire?,” the man asked, to which the nurse nodded.

“He is, though he can still eat regular food like any pokemon can,” She answered, which made his eyes go wide and he felt his face go warm as his cheeks turned a shade of light pink.

“Anyhow, i’ll get him moved to a room and help Alex to his bed, you two go get some sleep in your own beds,” Blissey said, which the trio nodded to.

The nurse pokemon then moved the Dark-Type to the room next to the human’s, before helping him to his own room, flushing the human’s i.v. before hooking it back up and helping them into bed.

“Goodnight, Blissey,”

“Goodnight to you too, Alex. Get some rest and you can visit him in the morning,”

She then left the room, leaving the human alone as he got comfy and laid down, falling asleep after a few minutes..

Chapter Text

Darkrai awoke slowly, his head feeling like it was being split open by the head of an ax and letting out a small groan of pain.

He also felt weak and very famished on top of it, and it hit him like a barrel of bricks that he had forgotten to feed and had likely fallen unconscious on his way to the guild.

The dark type figuratively slapped himself as he realized his stupidity, though he knew there wasn’t anything he could do about it now.

He then slowly sat up, a clawed hand rubbing his face as he finally noticed he was in a hospital room. “Huh? How did…? Well, I can only assume someone must have brought me here, then..”

“And you would correct, Darkrai,” a voice coming from the doorway of the room said.

He turned his head to see who it was, letting out a small sigh of relief when he saw it was Blissey. “Oh, Blissey. Its um, nice to see you,”

“I wish i could say the same,” and it was then the Dark Type knew he was in for a lecture from the nurse pokemon.

“Look, i've got a splitting headache and i feel like i’m starving so can we please save the lecture until after im feeling better?,”

“Fine. And here,” She said, before she set a tray onto his lap which had a fruit salad on it as well as a large blood bag next to it.

“Thanks,” the dark type said as he began to eat, to which the nurse pokemon smiled before she then left the room.

He quickly finished the fruit salad before grabbing the blood bag and opening his mouth wide, looking like something out of a cartoon as he then bit down into the bag and began to drink from it.

Darkrai always saved feeding for after he ate regular food as he hated the taste of blood intermixing with the taste of food, which did sound strange given he was a vampire, but it was just how he did things.

He soon finished off the blood bag and tossed it into the nearby trash bin, letting out a satisfied sigh as he felt the famished feeling fading away.

Though, the dark type couldn’t help but wonder who exactly was the one who brought him here, knowing that it could be really anyone, minus Team Meanies or Team Skull that is.

“..Hey, glad to see you’re awake,” another voice from the door way said, making him look to see who it was, though he certainly didn’t recognize it.

He then saw it was a human man with messy dark brown hair with blond tips and a fair but pale complexion with dark green eyes, who was also holding the handle of a cane in his left hand.

He was also wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and he looked like he had been awake for a while. “..Ive never seen you before,” Darkrai stated as he kept his eyes on him.

“Oh! Well, i only just got here a few days ago, though my name’s Alex by the way!,” the human said, giving a smile to him.

“…My name’s Darkrai,” he responded.

“Nice to meet ya, though im just glad to see your ok, cause you were looking a little rough when i found you last night and all,”

The dark type’s eyes widened a little. “You..you’re the one who found and brought me here??,”

To which Alex nodded. “I sure was, though i had help carrying you cause i don’t have all of my strength back yet,”

“Well, i..thank you, for helping me,”

“It wasn’t a problem, really. I just like helping people, to be honest,” he gave another smile with a shrug.

Darkrai gave a nod, his cheeks turning a soft shade of pink. “Well, still. Thank you,”

The human nodded too, smiling as his cheeks also turned a soft pink and he stepped into the room, taking a seat in the chair near the bed. “So, you’re a dungeon explorer? And what exactly are dungeons, anyway?,”

“I am yes, though i don’t work for one specific guild,” he answered, though for some reason he didn’t mind the human taking a seat near him. “As for what dungeons are exactly..how much free time do you have on your hands?,”

“Ive got all day. Though i’ll need to go walking a few times to keep my strength up and make sure my legs dont get lazy on me,”

The dark type nodded. “Well, dungeons are..confusing in several ways. The main one being their origins, as they don’t have have a very clear origin to them..or at least one that’s easily explainable,”

The human gave a nod before speaking. “Maybe you could try? If thats alright?,”

Darkrai seemed to think for a few minutes before nodding once again. “Hmm..well, the most prevelant theory and the one thats the most believed is that the mystery dungeons are natural, yet unnatural at the same time,”

“Like they’re the normal world but shifted and twisted into something unnatural?,” Alex asked, to which the dark type nodded.

“Something like that, yes. Though there’s also the way it makes pokemon act when they’re inside of it,”

This made the human raise an eyebrow. “What do you mean? Do the dungeons change pokemon’s personalities??,”

“Less of changing their personalities and making them more wild, or feral. They lose all concious thought and only rely on their base instincts and what seems to be self preservation,”

“That’s…very concerning,” the human said, though hearing the words ‘self preservation’ made his heart skip a beat and cause him to put a hand onto his chest in what seemed like fear.

And it was something Darkrai picked up on. “Are you alright? Was it something i said?,”

“Oh, yea i’m ok,” Alex answered. “It’s just i’ve got amnesia and i can’t remember anything-,”

“…You have amnesia too??,” the pokemon asked, his bright electric blue eyes widening.

“Wait…YOU have amnesia??,” the human answered, just as surprised as the dark type was.

—————————————————————————

Alex was…well surprised to say the least. He thought he was the only amnesiac at the guild, and yet he was proven wrong when Darkrai basically confirmed he had it too.

It at least made him feel less alone, as he had someone who truly understood what you were going through.

“So, does that include pokemon who go into these mystery dungeons??,” the human asked.

Darkrai shook his head as his head seemed to just float like a cloud in the air. “No. Only the pokemon who were in the area when it becomes a mystery dungeon are made feral..though even then it doesn't affect every single one of them,”

“Huh..thats certainly odd,” Alex said, which the dark type nodded in agreement to.

“That it is. Of course that's only on this continent. The other continents have their own fair share of mystery dungeons by the dozen, or so i’ve been told,”

“How many are there? And which continent are we on right now??,”

“There are six in total. Sand, Mist, Water, Air, Grass and the Mystery Continent,” he explained, counting them off of his clawed fingers. “The continent we are currently on is the Grass Continent, one of the three largest continents in the world.”

“Wow, sounds like a big world out there,”

“It is, but it’s a beautiful world. Perhaps you’ll get to see it for yourself,”

The human smiled and nodded. “Do you think i could become an explorer like you?,”

“Well, I don't see why you couldn’t. You’d have to talk to Chatot and Wigglytuff about it, of course,”

He knew Chatot; he had met him last night when they were bringing Darkrai to the guild. Though he had yet to meet Wigglytuff..

“And you’ll have to learn some training in fighting as well,” the dark type said, which caught the human’s attention.

Not to say he wasn’t a fighter, he was, but he felt a little bit inadequate compared to pokemon, even with him having a pokemon form himself.

“Is that all?,” Alex asked, stretching out his arms as he spoke.

“Well, its a bit more complex than just simple fighting. But, it’ll be easier to understand if you see it with your own eyes rather than it being explained,”

“Oh? Like it being demonstrated?,” to which Darkrai gave a nod.

“Exactly. Though we’ll have to head to Marowak’s Dojo in town cause i’m not paying for any possible property damage,”

He then got up out of the bed, thankfully still wearing the hooded robes he was in the night previous, to which Alex also stood up.

“Um, I can't walk very far, remember? Besides I don't know if Infernape or Lucario are free at the moment so-“ he started to say, though was cut off as the dark type raised a clawed hand out to him.

“We won’t need them. Now, take my hand, and hold on tight. Oh, and take a deep breath and hold it,” Darkrai stated.

The human, with some hesitancy, took the pokemons clawed hand into his, gripping it tightly, though not tightly enough that it would hurt.

He then took a deep breath and held it as before he realized it his entire world had went black, though was almost blinded by the morning sunlight that shined in his eyes.

Once his eyes adjusted, he saw that they were standing near the main square of Treasure Town, many different pokemon going about their business and not really startled to see them suddenly appearing out of thin air.

“Huh? How did we..?” Alex asked, to which Darkrai chuckled.

“Its a move called Dark Void, it allows me to move through the shadows and pop back out anywhere i want,” he explained. “It also enables me to put enemies into a very deep sleep.”

“Sounds pretty handy,”

“Very, now, lets get to Marowak Dojo, its just over there,”

Alex nodded and they walked to the building in question, the dark type suprisingly opening the door for him. “Thanks,” he said before stepping inside.

“Welcome,” Darkrai then followed behind him, shutting the door behind them.

—————————————————————————

“Take off your shoes, you don’t want to mess up the floor and you really don’t want to piss off Marowak,”

The human nodded as he slipped off his tennis shoes, setting them off to the side before the two walked across the tatami floor, which creaked softly under their feet as they arrived at a large shoji door.

Which was then opened by Darkrai, revealing a very large room beyond it, which was full of all sorts of different pokemon sitting on what looked to be wooden bleachers on either side of the room with a large tatami mat floor in the center surrounded by more hardwood flooring.

At the moment, a fight was taking place between two Marowak, both using large bone clubs, however one of them had the tips covered in a ghostly green flame.

“There are..two Marowaks?,”

“They’re brothers, though one is a regional variant of the same pokemon,” the dark type explained, though this just made Alex more confused.

“Ok, imagine two people who are related but live in entirely different parts of the world. That make sense?,” Darkrai asked, to which after Alex seemed to absorb what he just said, he gave a nod.

Their attention turned back to the fight at hand, as the marowak using the bone club with flaming tips used it to summon several smaller wisps in a large circle, before launching them at the other marowak, who blocked and dodged them with the grace of a skilled fighter.

“Wow…” the human said in awe as his eyes lit up and sparkled.

The dark type let out a small chuckle, his cheeks turning a soft shade of pink again, though neither he nor anyone else seemed to notice.

The fight, however, quickly came to an end as the marowak using the flaming bone club knocked the other to ground and stood over them with said bone club pointed at their neck.

“I win, brother,”

“You got lucky,”

The marowak helped the other up onto their feet, though they then noticed the human and dark type pokemon standing and watching.

“Oh, Darkrai! It is good to see you back in town, but, who is your friend?,” the normal-type marowak asked.

“This is Alex, he’s a shifter,” Darkrai answered. “He wanted to learn how to fight and use his elemental powers, so i brought him here,”

Ok, maybe he didn’t exactly want to learn how to fight, but if the human wanted to become an explorer, he’d have to learn how to fight to defend himself and others.

“A shifter, huh? What pokemon can you shift into, if i may ask?,” the Ghost/Fire type marowak asked.

“A frogadier. I haven’t tried shifting back into it, yet though,” Alex answered.

“Thats fine. We can work on that later, for the moment, working on the basics will do just fine,” the normal type stated.

The human gave a nod as the ghost/fire type marowak snapped his fingers as two machoke’s carried over two barrels that were filled with what sounded like water.

Setting them down on either side of him, they opened the lids and his suspicions were confirmed as they were indeed filled with water.

“What are the barrels for??,” Alex asked.

“To teach you to control water, as its the elemental type you’re most closely tied to,” the normal type marowak answered.

The human nodded, and Darkrai went and took a seat on the bleachers.

“So, how will this work exactly??” The human asked.

“Hold each of your hands over one of the barrels and relax. Allow your mind to be at complete ease,” the fire/ghost type marowak answered.

The human nodded and followed their instructions, hold his hands over the barrels, open palms facing towards the surface of it.

He then closed his eyes and took slow breaths, feeling himself slowly relax both mentally and physically as the minutes passed by.

“Ok, now open your eyes and move your arms upwards towards the sky,”

Alex nodded and opened his eyes, before moving his arms upwards as they instructed.

As he did so, the water began to flex and move, before it then slowly began to rise into the air in what looked like a column, as if it was following the movements of the human’s hands and arms.

“Wow…” he said in awe as he watched the water move.

“Now, move your arms in a circle and then down towards your sides,” The normal type Marowak instructed.

The human followed his instruction, the water forming into a large ring which then moved and wrapped around his midsection like an oversized hula hoop.

The water was also flowing like it would in a stream, the soft sound of which filled the air around him.

“Good, good! It seems like you’re a quick learner!,” The fire/ghost type marowak stated, smiling.

Alex smiled as he watched the ring around him, which flexed and wiggled with any and all of the little movements his fingers made.

He could also hear little ‘ooo’s’ and ‘awws’ made from the pokemon sitting on the bleachers, making his cheeks go a more darker shade of pink.

Though, he was caught off guard as a few targets were placed against the far wall in front of him.

“Now, i want you to cock your arms back, and them throw your fists forward as if you’re striking someone, and try to hit the targets in front of you,” The normal type instructed.

The man nodded and cocked his arms back and focused on the three targets. He took a deep breath and then threw his left arm forward as of he was throwing a punch.

As he did so, a blast of water was launched from the ring of water he held around his midsection, hitting the target dead center and when it made contact it splashed water all over it and the floor around it.

Alex’s eyes widened as he then threw his right arm forward, causing another blast of water to be launched and hit another of the targets.

“Wow…” he said in awe, before he then continued to launch more of the blasts of water at the targets until the ring of water had run out.

“Incredible..” he heard Darkrai say from where he sat on the bleachers, and it made his cheeks go dark pink again, with him rubbing the back of his head with his hand.

The barrels of water were then moved out of the way, though he swore he heard giggling coming from a few of the pokemon in the crowd.

“Incredible, indeed,” The ghost/fire type stated.

The man smiled. “So, what now?,”

“Well, now that you can harness and control your elemental type, we can continue our lesson later. For the moment, go sit down and simply observe,” The normal type answered.

Alex nodded, walking over to and taking a seat on the bleachers next to Darkrai. “You did really good, ya know,”

The human gave a soft smile. “Thanks. i know it probably seems like i’m a mary sue or something,”

The dark type shook his head. “You aren’t, trust me,”

“You think so? I mean i've already seemed to have gotten the hang of using my elemental type-,”

“That was just the basics. All water types are able to get the hang of summoning and controlling water rather quickly…”

“…But the same can also be said about every pokemon type when it comes to their repsective elemental type,”

The human nodded before the two turning their attentions back to the two marowaks, however one of them was now standing off to the side while a different pokemon came up to the other.

The pokemon was what seemed to be a giant polar bear with a beard that looked to be made of ice. “Huh? What pokemon is that?,”

“Oh, thats a Beartic. Though pay close attention, cause the Ice and Water elements are very closely related with one another,”

“So, does that mean i can use ice type and elemental moves as well?,”

“Thats quite possible, but i mean more that ice affects water alot more than most, for example an ice beam can freeze any water you have solid and make it unusuable, for example,”

“Wow. Lets hope i dont ever have to fight an Ice Type pokemon then,”

“You wont have a choice in the matter. Especially if you go to the more northen parts of the continent,”

Alex gave a nod as the fight between the Beartic and Marowak began. The former covering its paws and claws in a thick layer of ice to form what looked like a pair of gauntlets as the latter gripped its bone club as the tips became alight in the same ghostly green flames from earlier.

—————————————————————————

The fight, despite the typing of the two combatants, was pretty evenly matched, mainly through the way both of them made use of their elemental magic and movesets.

However, it was inevitable that someone had to win, and that victor would be the Beartic, as he managed to shoot an ice beam at the marowak that hit him in his chest, knocking him out of the ring and freezing him so he couldn't move.

“Woah!” The human said, which most of the other pokemon shared a similiar sentiment as they also had looks of surprise on their faces.

Which was followed by a small Fire-Type, which Darkrai told him was a Magby, coming down from the bleachers and defrosting Marowak.

Alex could only imagine how cold an ice beam was, and he hoped he wouldn’t find out anytime soon.

The human and pokemon watched as the Normal Type Marowak helped the Fire/Ghost Type Marowak onto his feet and helped him over to sit on the bleachers.

It seemed like the Ice Beam had affected him more than just freezing him, and he hoped he would be ok.

“We’ll have to call the training off for today, sorry everyone” the normal type stated.

While some grumbled, others simply gave nods and everyone started filing out, soon only Alex and Darkrai being the ones left.

“Come on over here, you two,” The normal type stated, and after a moment of silent contemplation between them the two walked over to him.

“I thought training was done for the day?,” Alex asked.

“It is, but tomorrow is a free day, meaning we won’t be having anyone in the dojo,” The normal type answered.

“So, thats when his training begins?,” Darkrai asked, to which the marowak nodded.

“Yes, and we’ll be training both his water typing and him using normal weapons,” The Marowak answered again.

The human nodded, though felt a little nervous at the prospect of using weapons. “Right..when should we be here?,” The man asked.

“After you both eat breakfast will be fine,” Marowak answered.

The two nodded and then made their way back to the entrance, with the hum slipping his shoes back on and then they headed outside in the late afternoon sun.

—————————————————————————

“So, what do you want to do now?,” Alex asked as he and Darkrai walked into the main square of Treasure Town.

“How about get some food and drinks and watch the coming sunset?,” the dark type answered, to which the human nodded though was caught off guard a little bit by his question.

“…Ya know, If you wanna ask me out on a date, you can just ask,” the man asked, giving a cheeky smile as they walked towards Incineroar’s, which made Darkrai’s face go a deep red.

“Ohhhh, you think you’re really funny, dont you?,” the dark type stated, which made Alex chuckle.

“Judging by how red your face is right now, i’d say i’m a comedy genius,”

Before the human could react, Darkrai had tackled him to the ground, pinning him down as his face got very, very close to his own.

“I could sink my fangs into your neck right now and drain you of all of that warm blood pumping through your veins,” he stated, his voice low and rather surprisingly husky even for his seeming lack of a mouth.

Alex’s face turned a deep red as he listened to the dark-type speak. His heartbeat also becoming elevated as the pokemon’s head moved to the side of his neck.

“Oh, you like that idea don’t you?,” Darkrai asked as he opened his mouth and his surprisingly long and tentacle-like tongue licked a spot on the human’s neck, making him shiver as his fangs then barely pressed against the same spot.

However, he was taken by surprise again as the dark type pokemon began to chuckle, making the human’s eyes go wide as the pokemon’s head rose away from his neck.

“T-That’s not funny, dude!,” Alex said, which only made Darkrai chuckle more.

“Oh no, its not funny, its fucking hilairious,” The pokemon said as he let go of and got off him. “You should’ve seen your face, if i had known you’d become that flustered i’d have done that sooner.”

The human was about to pick himself up off the ground, though the dark type then held his hand out to him, which he took and lifted onto his feet after which he was given his cane.

The two then headed to Incineroar’s shop, ordering their food and drinks to go before then heading to a good spot that overlooked the ocean, taking a seat on a fallen over tree trunk, and then both began to eat their food before it got cold.

A calm silence fell over them as they ate, though it was clear there was some tension between the two given what happened earlier and all, the soft orange glow of the sunset covering them and everything around them.

The dark type let out a soft sigh. “…Look, i’m sorry about before,”

Alex finished the bite of his food he had taken before speaking. “Why? We were just messing with one another, weren’t we?,”

“No, no, not that part. About almost feeding on you,”

“Oh, well, I accept your apology, even if you didn’t need to apologize for it,” he said before taking another bite of his food. “…Wait, you don’t feed from people, do you??,”

The dark type nodded. “No i dont. I usually feed using blood bags or vials. I only feed on someone if its the only option i have or if they’re someone i know and who are ok with it,

The human gave a nod himself. “That's fair, I suppose. Though, does feeding on someone turn them into a vampire or?,”

“Not typically. You have to either ingest my blood or have it transfused into your veins in order to actually become a vampire like myself,”

That wasn’t exactly what Alex was expecting if he was being entirely honest. But, he found it very interesting all the same.

“How long have you been a vampire?,” the human asked after taking a final bite of his food and putting the empty containers off to the side.

“Well, by this point, it's been thousands of years, give or take a few decades,” the dark type answered, which made Alex’s eyes widen in surprise.

“You’re thousands of years old?? Man, i’m only 22 years old myself,”

“Mhm, though honestly it doesn’t bother me. You lose track of it after a while,” Darkrai stated, giving a shrug as he too finished his food and set the empty containers next to the humans.

He then reached into the inner pocket of his cloak, pulling out two wrapped ice creams, handing one to the human.

“Oh? When did you get these??,”

“I have my ways, but let's eat these before they melt,”

The human nodded as they unwrapped the ice cream and took a bite, smiling at the salty yet sweet taste of it. “Huh, it’s salty…but sweet,”

“It’s called Sea Salt Ice Cream,”

“Sea Salt..Ice Cream?,” the human repeated before he took another bite, another calm silence falling over the two.

It was funny, that name sounded so familiar to him, somehow..

“…Hey Alex. You with me? Your ice cream is gonna melt if you don’t eat it,” a voice beside him asked, though it didn’t sound like Darkrai, which made him turn his head to see who it was.

His eyes widened as he saw it was the same woman from his “dream”, still wearing the same outfit she had been previously.

“So, you excited about going to college?,”

He had no idea what she was talking about, but he seemed to respond as if on autopilot. “Um..i guess i am?,”

“I figured you would be. You didn’t spend all that time studying for nothing, after all,”

”it was a lot of work, i’m surprised i made it,”

she smiled and took a bite of her ice cream. “We’re gonna miss you, you know. You better call us every chance you get!,”

”I will, Claire, i promise-,”

his eyes widened when the name came out of his mouth, a single tear falling down his face as he turned his head towards her..

“…Alex? Alex? Alex!,” another voice called out to him, making him shake his head as his mind was brought back to reality.

Turning his head, he saw Darkrai was back in place of the woman called Claire, a look of concern on his face. “Are you ok??,”

“Oh, yea, I'm alright, Darkrai,” he answered, rubbing the back of his head with the hand that wasn’t currently holding his sea salt ice cream.

Of course, the dark-type didn’t buy it, but he didn’t want to push the human to tell him what happened. “Alright, if you’re sure,”

The two finished their ice cream, throwing away their empty containers in a nearby bin before Darkrai used Dark Void to get back to the Medical Wing, reappearing inside the pokemon's room as it was now early evening.

“You know, this was nice.” Alex said as he readjusted himself using his cane.

“It was,” the dark type responded, and even though it wasn't visible, he was very much smiling. “You had better get some sleep, you’re starting training tomorrow,”

The man nodded and walked back to his room, undressing down to his boxers and laying in the bed, falling asleep after a few minutes.

Meanwhile, Darkrai let out a sigh as he laid in his own bed. “My fangs were so close to his neck…it was only supposed to be a joke and yet, i actually wanted to taste his blood…,”

’Perhaps you could ask him if you can feed from him,’

“Maybe. But he’d probably say no,”

’you dont know that. He might be ok with it.

“Still. I don't want to ask until we get to know each other better..”

’fair enough. Now, lets get some sleep, shall we?’

The pokemon nodded and closed his eyes, falling into sleep after a few minutes as well..

Chapter Text

Morning came quicker than both would have liked, but it had come and they ate the breakfast Blissey had brought them before they dark voided to the Dojo, where the Marowak brothers were waiting for them.

“Good morning you two. Are you ready to begin?,” the normal type asked, to which Alex gave a hesitant nod.

“Good, now..,” the fire/ghost type stated before he grabbed and brought out a small rack of several different weapons. “Choose whichever feels the best to you.”

The human nodded and walked up to it, trying out several different weapons, though none felt right in his hands, even after swinging them around a few times apiece.

This changed, however, when his eyes rested on a twin set of knives, the metal blades colored a brilliant sapphire blue while the handles were black but had the same sapphire blue color in spots.

He grabbed them and gracefully twirled them around in his hands a little, though felt an odd familiarity with them, as if he’d handled knives at some point before all of this.

“Not a bad choice, especially given your pokemon form is a Frogadier,” the normal type stated.

Alex nodded as he twirled the knives again. “It just felt like the right choice, i guess?,”

“Fair enough. Now, let us begin,” The normal type stated, summoning his bone club to his hand.

The human gave a smug smile on his face as he held the two knives in his hands. “Lets go, then,”

The next few hours felt like an absolute blur to the human, though it mainly consisted of him getting the absolute hell pummeled out of him, his body feeling like he got run over by a semi truck.

Not to say he didn’t at least attempt to fight back, which he most certainly did, but it was like a desert rain frog trying to fight a crocodile.

Which is why he was currently laying on the dojo floor, covered in sweat as the two knives he had were laying on either side of him and he was panting like his life depended on it to get air back into his lungs.

Darkrai, who had been watching the whole time from the sidelines, walked over to where Alex was lying and sat next to him, having what felt like a smug grin on his face.

“…Don’t you dare say it.” The human said, glancing at the pokemon sitting next to him.

The dark type chuckled. “I don’t think I have to. You ate your own words quite well, to be entirely honest,”

Alex huffed as he slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position, even despite his body screaming at him to not do so, and he felt an odd warm feeling go through him from what felt like deep within himself. “Why don’t you try it then, mister bigshot?,”

“Alright, now watch how a pro does it. And pay close attention, cause you may end up learning something,” the dark type pokemon answered, helping him move off to the side, and ruffling his hair before he then approached the Marowak.

Darkrai summoned a pair of twin scimitar to his clawed hands, made of what seemed like an ink like black substance.

Without even a word between the two, the dark type vanished into thin air, reappearing behind them and ready to strike.

However, the normal type managed to spin on his heels and block the blades with his bone club, and it was then everything became a flurry of movement, strikes and blocks followed by retaliations.

Darkrai zig-zagged backwards as he dodged the swings and thrusts of the normal types weapon before snapping his fingers and summoning several small shadow balls that he then launched towards Marowak.

The normal type swung his club like a baton, deflecting the shadow balls and making them fly off in random directions, crashing into the floor, bleachers, walls and ceiling.

“Wow..!,” Alex said, his eyes sparkling in awe as he watched the fight unfolding before him.

Darkrai then flexed his hand, making a large pool of shadowy, ink like subtstance beneath the Marowak, before he then clenched his clawed hand shut.

This causing several shadow claws to appear from the pool, all curling in an arc in an attempt to skewer the normal type.

However, he used his bone club to launch himself into the air, dodging the claws which was followed by him tossing his club at the dark type.

Darkrai blocked it using his scimitar, knocking it back at them and rushing towards the normal type. Though they caught it and rushed towards the dark type.

Much like the fight with the Beartic, there had to be a victor, and it would be the dark type as he slashed through the normal type, causing them to fall to the floor and drop their bone club.

He then unsummoned his scimitars before walking over to the marowak and helping them off the floor. “You really didn’t hold back,” Marowak stated.

“And neither did you. Though, i had to give our one human audience a good show,”

He then glanced over at Alex, who was still sitting on the bleachers, though still was watching intently and gave a friendly wave to the dark type when he saw they were looking at him.

The dark type seemingly smiled as he gave the normal type an odd looking pecha berry before then walking over and sitting down next to the human.

“So, what did you think of our little performance?,”

“It was incredible…i hope i can become that good at fighting someday,”

“You will, just keep practicing and never give up, no matter how beaten down you get or may feel,”

Alex smiled and nodded, before he was handed the same odd looking pecha berry Marowak had. “Oh, um…?,”

“Don’t worry, this berry will help heal all of your injuries so you’ll be as good as new,”

The human gave a hesitant nod and took the berry, holding it in his hand and seeming to study it for a few moments before taking a big bite out of it, then chewing it up and swallowing it.

Upon doing so, he immediately felt a strange feeling course through his body from his head to his feet, the soreness and bruises that had been blooming all across his body all slowly fading until they were completely gone.

“Wow..i feel a whole lot better!,” alex said, which made Darkrai smile a little.

“That’s the power of the Mythical Pecha Berry,”

“Mythical Pecha Berry?? Where’d you find something like that?,”

The dark type chuckled, the same warm feeling washing over the human again as he heard it. “That’s my little secret,” he said, putting a clawed finger up to his where his lips would’ve been as he spoke.

“And is your little secret too good to be told?,”

Darkrai seemingly smiled. “Well, maybe one day i’ll tell it. But, for the moment, do you feel ready to try again?,”

The human then nodded, standing up and walking to where the Marowak was waiting, picking up his knives off the floor and twirling them in his hands.

The next few hours after were much of the same as previously, however Alex had quickly picked up on the techniques and was now able to at least defend himself better than he had before, but still ended up becoming bruised like a banana.

“I believe thats enough for now. We can pick this up tomorrow.” The normal type stated, with the human giving a thumbs up as he was once again laying on his back on the floor.

“Shall we go get some ice cream?,”

Alex smiled and nodded. “Sounds good to me,”

Darkrai then helped him up to his feet, giving him his cane as they then left the dojo, stepping out into the late afternoon sun.

After grabbing their ice cream, they headed to the same spot they went to the day previous, watching as the sun slowly started setting over the endless ocean in front of them.

“You know, its strange…,” Alex stated before he took a bite of his ice cream.

“What’s strange, exactly?,” the dark type asked.

“Well…even though we only met each other yesterday, it feels like we’re becoming friends pretty quickly, dont you think?,”

Darkrai took a bite of his own ice cream before speaking. “I mean we’re both amnesiacs. We understand what each other is going through and feeling better than anyone else, so us being friends this quickly isn’t that strange,”

“Yea, i suppose that’s true,” the human said, looking out at the ocean as he took another bite of his ice cream.

“Plus, we do banter like we’re friends,” Darkrai said, to which Alex gave a soft smile and nodded.

A peaceful silence then fell over the two that lasted for a few minutes before the dark type spoke up. “…You know, you did good today. I know it may not seem or feel like it, but you did,”

The human smiled softly again. “Thanks. I know i’ll get better the more i train, i just have to be patient and willing to try,”

“Anytime, and practice makes perfect, as they say,” Darkrai said, taking another bite of his ice cream.

However, they both were surprised when a letter was dropped from the sky and landed between them, looking up to see a Pelipper flying away from them, before curving and then flying off to the left towards somewhere.

The dark type picked up the letter, seeing it was adressed to both of them, before opening the envelope and taking the letter out, unfolding and looking it over, his eyes scanning the paper in a back and forth motion.

“Oh, its a letter from Guildmaster Wigglytuff,”

“Huh? What does it say?”

“It says he wants to meet you to speak with you personally, and he said to come to his chambers this evening,”

“Oh…um-,”

“He wants me to come with you. So you won’t be alone,” the dark type said, putting a clawed hand on his shoulder.

“Thanks, Darkrai,”

“No problem. Come on, lets finish our ice cream and get going, we don’t want to be late,”

The human nodded and both of them finished their ice creams before dark voiding back to the Guild, reappearing within the Medical Wing, and saw that the sun had fully set and it was now early evening.

They ate the dinner Blissey brought them, talking more as they did so, and once they were both done the two stood up after setting their empty dishes down.

“Come on, i’ll teleport us there,”

Alex nodded and took Darkrai’s clawed hand, before he then teleported them down to outside of Wigglytuff’s Chambers, and the dark type knocked on the door using his free hand.

After a few moments a male sounding voice spoke up from behind it. “Come in.”

Darkrai then opened the door, and the two stepped inside, shutting the door behind them once they were inside.

—————————————————————————

Alex looked around the large room as they entered, impressed by how it was decorated though he stopped in his tracks as he felt Darkrai put his arm out in front of him.

“Ah, good! You’ve both made it!,” a voice called out in front of them, making the man look up to see who was speaking.

And he was taken aback when he saw a large, chubby pink bean shaped rabbit with large greenish blue eyes and rabbit ears sitting on a rather ornate looking carpet.

They both then took a seat cross legged on the floor in front of him, with Darkrai then speaking.

“Alex, this is Guildmaster Wigglytuff. Wigglytuff, this is Alex, our newest resident and shifter,”

“It is nice to finally meet you, Alex,” the normal/fairy type pokemon said.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Wigglytuff,” the human responded.

The pokemon smiled softly and gave a nod. “So, i’ve heard you want to find answers to why and how you ended up here?,”

“Yea, I know I'm still healing up but I can't just sit around without having any answers, you know?,” Alex answered.

“And you can’t remember anything about where you come from?,” Wigglytuff asked, to which the human gave a nod before speaking.

“Yea, everything’s pretty much a blank, other than my name, my age and all that stuff,”

“He also wants to become an explorer, Wigglytuff. I told him he’d have to talk to you about it, though,” Darkrai stated.

The Wigglytuff then seemed to go into thought, however it was hard for the two to tell as his eyes remained wide open and they couldn’t help but feel a little creeped out as the pokemon seemed to stare into their very souls.

“Well, I don't see why he can’t be! We could always use more explorers!,” the pokemon suddenly said, which caused both to almost jump from fright. “Though, he’ll need an exploration partner to keep him safe.”

“An exploration partner? What’s that?,” alex asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

“Most explorer’s don’t go solo, Alex. Many join up with one or more pokemon to form an exploration team, in fact it was an exploration team that had originally found you and brought you to the guild to receive medical treatment,” Darkrai explained, to which the human nodded, understanding.

“Yes, which is why Darkrai is going to be your exploration partner!,”

He started to try to speak, though the guildmaster raised his paw. “This decision is final, Darkrai,”

The dark type simply nodded. “Yes, Guildmaster,”

“Good, now we’re gonna have to get a room set up for you, Alex, but it shouldn’t take too long,” the normal/fairy type said.

“He can use my room. I never use it anyway except for short stays,” Darkrai said, to which Wigglytuff gave a nod.

“Alright. I’ll talk to Blissey about when you’re going to be discharged,” Wigglytuff said, to which Alex nodded. “Now, it's starting to get late, so you two head back to the medical wing and get some rest,”

The two nodded and left the room through teleporting, and it was then that Chatot fluttered onto Wigglytuff’s head from behind him.

“Do you think that was a good idea to pair them up together? Darkrai is a freelance explorer, after all,”

“I do, yes. It’ll help Darkrai to become more..sociable, for lack of a better term,”

“And what about Alex?,”

“It’s mainly to make sure he doesn't get hurt, whether intentionally or not,” The normal/fairy type then yawned, stretching his arms out. “Come on, lets get some rest. We have another busy day ahead of us, tomorrow,”

“That sounds good to me, old friend,”

The two then headed through a nearby curtain, both hopping onto a large bed and got comfy, with them falling asleep after a few minutes with smiles on their faces.

Alex and Darkrai, meanwhile, arrived back in his hospital room, the two yawning at the same time as they both felt sleepiness wash over them.

“I guess it’s time for us to get some sleep, huh?,”

“That it is, yes…We’ll talk in the morning, ok?,”

The human raised an eyebrow. “You sure? I don’t mind staying up a little longer,”

The dark type nodded. “Yes, I'm sure. Besides, we both need our sleep. It has been a long day,”

Alex nodded, wanting to say something but knew it would probably get them both into an unnecessary argument. “Ok, goodnight, Darkrai. See you in the morning?,”

“Of course, and goodnight to you too, Alex,”

The human smiled and left the room, heading to his own and climbed into bed, setting his cane down so it was leaning against the bedside table, with the dark type getting into his own bed as well.

Both of them then fell into sleep after closing their eyes, the soft patter of rain starting to hit against the windows next to both of them.

—————————————————————————

Darkrai groaned softly as he awoke, the sounds of rain being the first thing he heard as he let out a small sigh. “It would be raining today, wouldn’t it?”

The dark type pokemon let out a yawn as the door to his room opened, and he saw that Alex was standing there.

“Oh, good morning, Alex.”

“More like a good afternoon. You’ve been sleeping like a rock all day,” the human said, walking over to and taking a seat in one of the chairs near the bed.

“Oh, fuck me..,” Darkrai said, putting a clawed hand over his face.

“I mean, are you offering? Cause i gladly would, but we barely know one another,” Alex said, another cheeky smile on his face.

“…You really think you’re funny, don’t you?,” the dark type asked, glancing at him.

“Yes, yes I do,” the human answered, chuckling a little bit.

Darkrai shook his head. “Anyway. We need to talk,”

“About what, exactly?,” Alex asked, crossing his arms.

“Well…it’s about our partnership,” the dark type answered.

“…Oh??,” the human asked, a worried expression on his face.

“It’s nothing bad, i promise. We just need to figure some things out is all,”

“What things, exactly?,”

“Well, to start, you remember that i’m freelance explorer, yes?,”

“Of course, i may have amnesia but i’m not that forgetful,”

The dark type nodded before speaking. “And it is because of that, that i want to ask you to be careful whenever i’m gone, can you do that?,”

Alex gave a nod and a thumbs up. “I’ll do my best, but, what if something happens and your not around?,”

Darkrai seemingly smiled as he reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out a smooth, dark blue colored and oval shaped stone that had a thick piece of string wrapped around it and tied tightly so it wouldnt fall out.

And it seemed to glow softly in the pokemon’s clawed hand. “Hold out your hand,”

The human slowly did so, and the stone was gently placed into his open palm, his hand closing around it to make sure he didn’t drop it.

He then pulled his hand back to him, opening it and looking at the stone. “Its beautiful, and it looks pretty old,”

“It was a tool used by ancient mystery dungeon explorers several centuries ago,” Darkrai explained. “As for what it does, it allows for communication between two or more people even across great distances.”

“Oh, so its like a cellphone?,”

“In a sense, yes. Anytime you wish to speak to me, just take the stone out of your pocket, hold it up to your face and say my name,” the dark type explained, pulling out an identical stone from his other coat pocket. “Go ahead, try it out,”

The human nodded and then held the stone up to his face, which had started glowing brighter after he did so, lighting up the area around him. “Darkrai,”

After he said the pokemon’s name, the stone in the dark type’s clawed hand glowed brighter, lighting up the area around him as well, and he heard his own voice cone out of the stone, sounding like a quiet echo.

“See? Pretty cool, isn't it?,” the pokemon asked, his voice also coming out of Alex’s own stone in the same quiet echo his had.

The human nodded, putting the stone into his short’s pocket and the dark type put his own stone into one of his coat’s pockets. “It is very cool,”

“Just don’t be afraid to contact me anytime, ok?,”

Alex gave a nod in response, smiling as their conversation was cut short by Blissey knocking on the doorframe of the doorway to the room.

“I hate to interrupt, but i need to borrow Alex for some medical tests,”

The human and pokemon nodded and he got up from his seat, following Blissey out of the room, leaving Darkrai by himself.

The dark type pokemon took out the stone from his pocket, holding it in his clawed hand, before a single tear fell down his cheek and dripped onto it..

’No, i wont..i wont ever let that happen again..’ he thought as he closed his hand around the stone.

Chapter Text

The rest of the week was spent in relatively the same routine, Darkrai accompanying Alex to his training, followed by the two grabbing ice cream and going to the same spot overlooking the ocean, watching the sunset together.

They did, however, break it up by grabbing some food and drinks at Incineroar’s Ramen Shop & Bar, though that started rumors they were dating, but they paid them little mind as they weren’t true.

On top of that, Alex had recovered pretty well over the week, having regained enough of his strength that he no longer needed to use his cane.

And he had also been finally discharged from the medical wing and was moved into Darkrai’s room, which wasnt very big but he liked it nonetheless.

“I’ll only be gone a few days at most, ok? The dark type said as he finished packing his bag, slinging it over his shoulder. “If you have need of me or want to talk to me, just use the stone i gave you.”

“Ok, just be careful,” Alex answered, to which Darkrai nodded.

“I always am. But you be careful yourself,”

The dark type then teleported out of the room, leaving the human by himself.

“Well, i guess i’ll just head into Treasure Town, spend the day there,” he said to himself before he quickly got dressed and headed out of his room and out of the guild, walking to Treasure Town while enjoying the sunny weather.

Unsurprisingly, the town was bustling with life, many different pokemon of all shapes and sizes walking about, going about their business.

“Alex! Just the person we were looking for!”

The human turned towards the voice, seeing that the two Kecleon Brothers were running up to him. “Oh hey you guys, why were you looking for me, exactly?,”

“Because we have something at our shop we want to share with you! Come on, its just over this way!,” the green kecleon said, before the two then ran back towards their shop.

Alex followed after them, the human catching up to them a few moments later and seeing their shop was apparently inside a very large arabian styled tent, painted both purple and green and with several sturdy looking ropes holding it in place that were attached to several eye hooks dug in the ground.

The front flap of the tent was open, and the man stepped inside, seeing that the shop was set up in two halves, one half on green carpet & the other on a light purple carpet.

There were two counters set up near the back of the tent, seperated by a wood wall, and he could see different things on both sides.

The left side, from what he could tell, sold items like berries, seeds, orbs and the like. Basically everything an explorer or an exploration team would need for going on missions.

The right side, however, had items that Alex had never seen before, what looked like cd discs that were all sorts of different colors, as well as what looked like small chests that were red, blue, yellow, and pink.

“Welcome to the Kecleon Shop, Alex!,” the green kecleon said as the human smiled.

“It looks nice, you two,”

“Glad you think so, though lets not get distracted!,” the purple kecleon stated.

“Oh yes! Give us a moment, Alex, if you could, can you turn around until we tell you, please?,” the green kecleon asked.

“Oh, uh…Sure,” the human answered, doing as the pokemon merchant asked of him, followed by the sounds of shuffling coming from behind his back.

This continued for a few minutes before the purple kecleon spoke. “Ok, you can turn around,”

The human then turned around, seeing that the green kecleon was holding a large and very beautiful apple that seemed to glow with a golden aura and made the human’s eyes go wide in awe as he looked at it.

“I know, right? Thats the power of a Golden Apple!,” the green kecleon stated.

“Golden Apple? Is it like the mythical pecha berry?,” the himan asked. “It seems valuable, why would you want to share it with me?”

“In a way, yes. But, we wanted to share it with you, for helping us get our things back from Gengar,” the purple kecleon answered.

Alex smiled and nodded. “Alright,”

With some assistance from the human, the apple was then cut into three equally sized pieces, with a crescent shaped curve in the middle where the seeds once were.

Alex, along with the two pokemon, then each took a bite of their piece, the crispness being the first thing he noticed, which was followed by what he could only describe as the most perfect tasting apple he had ever had.

“Woah….!?,” the human said, his tone full of complete awe.

“Thats most people’s reaction when they first try it,” the green kecleon said.

“Its incredible,” Alex stated, taking another bite of his piece.

“And, it comes with an interesting effect!,” the purple kecleon said.

The human raised an eyebrow at the comment, finishing off his piece and swallowing it. Though, it was then that he realized what the effect was, as his belly instantly felt full, as if he just ate a big meal.

“Whoa..why does my belly feel full??,”

“Thats the power of the golden apple! It makes your belly feel instantly full with just a single bite,” the green kecleon answered.

“That’s amazing,”

Both kecleon smiled and nodded, finishing their pieces of the apple. “That was good,” the purple kecleon said.

Alex nodded on agreement. “Hey, where do people get explorer teams get their jobs from exactly?,”

“Oh, well they typically go check the Job Board at the Pelipper Post Office,” the green kecleon answered.

“And where is that?,”

“Just go to the east edge of town, there’s a dirt path that leads right to it. Trust me, you can’t miss it,” the purple kecleon answered.

The human then nodded, saying goodbye before leaving their shop and heading where they told him too, though he stopped to say hi to Incineroar along the way.

Once he arrived, he spotted the dirt path the purple kecleon brother mentioned, and began to walk down it, soon arriving at a large cliff area that overlooked the ocean.

“Wow, when he called it the Pelipper Post Office, he was not joking..”

The building in question was shaped exactly like a Pelipper, the mouth being where the front desk was located.

Standing, or at least Alex was presuming they were standing, behind the desk was a Pelipper, with a few more flying out behind them carrying messenger bags on their shoulders.

Walking over the building, it didn’t take him long to see what he assumed was the job board, though it wasn’t as cluttered as the human thought it would be.

His eyes scanned the board, until they rested upon a small poster, seemingly having been hung up earlier in the morning, and he gentlt pulled it off the board, the small part where it was pinned ripping off.

It was a missing persons poster for someone named ‘Alakazam’, and it made him think for a second that the one he met with lucario went missing.

However, this worry was immediately quashed as the photo was actually of a very old looking Alakazam, the whiskers on their snout being much, much longer than hers and their face being very wrinkly in places.

‘Says here they were last seen heading into Waterfall Cave and they havent come out since..’

So, it was simple search and rescue mission, then. Plus, it seemed to be a good payout, judging by the amount of Poke’ they were offering as a reward.

“Oh, thank Arceus, Alex! Just who i was looking for!,”

The human turned to face who was speaking, seeing that it was the Alakazam he had been introduced to by Lucario. “Oh hey, whats up??,”

She was about to speak, until she laid eyes on the flyer he was holding. “Oh..you found it,”

“Is this guy someone you know?,”

“Yes, he’s my grandfather,” the alakazam answered. “Are you gonna take the job?,”

Alex gave a nod. “Someone has to, so why not me? But, i’m guessing you want to join me?,”

The alakazam gave a nod herself. “Yes. But let us get prepared first,”

The human gave another nod before he felt the psychic type grab his hand and the feeling of teleporting washed over him like a tidal wave in the ocean and the two reappeared back in the guild.

Upon his feet touching the ground he felt his legs give under him, making him fall onto his hands and kness, gasping hard for air as he felt like had just gotten pulled up above water after nearly drowning.

“Oh arceus! Alex i’m so so sorry, i shouldve warned you!,” he heard her say as she kneeled down beside him, a look of concern on her face.

“It’s..It’s ok,”

Though she didn’t believe him, she gave a nod and helped the human slowly regain his breath and then helped him stand up onto his feet.

Once she was sure that her friend was ok, they two grabbed their explorer bags from their rooms and teleported to Kecleon’s Shop, grabbing enough supplies for the two of them and packing everything up.

The two the teleported away to their destination, hoping they werent going to be gone for too long, as the wilds got more dangerous when the sun went down, especially in Mystery Dungeons..

—————————————————————————

They both soon reappeared in front of a very, very large waterfall that fell over the large cliff above them and into a large lagoon that emptied into what the human assumed to be an undergound river.

“Uhm..Where’s the cave??” Alex asked, not seeming to see it anywhere.

“It’s behind the waterfall, Alex,”

The human’s eyes widened a little as he looked at the large waterfall, and he couldnt help but wonder how they were going to get past it, as he didnt see a path that lead behind it.

“Um..” he said as he saw Alakazam backing up by a good few large paces, with her then stopping in place and looking at him.

“Come on, we’re gonna jump through the waterfall,”

Alex gave a hesitant nod and walked over to her, taking her hand in his and the two them dashed together towards the waterfall, before jumping when they reached the very edge of the lagoon.

The duo managed to get through the waterfall by their momentum alone, landing completely dry on the other side.

If the human had to guess, the psychic-type likely put a barrier over them both to keep the water off.

“You alright?,” Alakazam asked, to which the human gave a nod. “Good. Come on, we can’t waste any time.”

Alex gave a nod and the two started to make their way forward into the cavern, the psychic-type summoning a ball of light so they could see their surroundings.

The cave was unsuprisingly damp and a little bit cold, water dripping from the ceiling and walls and small puddles forming on the stone floor.

Small, round stalctites also hung from the ceiling of the cavern as did stalagmites from the floor.

“Any idea as to why he’d come here?” The human asked.

“If i had to guess, he probably came here to meditate, as its pretty quiet here in comparison to other mystery dungeons,” the Psychic-Type answered as they took a left down a split path, going deeper into the caves.

He remembered Darkrai explaining Mystery Dungeons to him and how they warped reality and made the pokemon within go feral, but he never mentioned that some were more quiet than others.

“What do you mean? Are some less active than others?,”

“Something like that. I don’t know all of the exact details, but the leading theory is that the mystery dungeons are slowly becoming intertwined with the environment around them, thus allowing normal reality to slowly leak in and fix/heal what was broken,”

“Oh, i guess that makes sense…but maybe the size of the mystery dungeon plays a role in it, too?,”

“…That would make alot of sense, now that you mention it,”

Alex gave a small nod as they continued to walk through the caverns, thankfully not encountering any hostile pokemon along the way, until the two entered onto a cliff that overlooked a large and open cavern.

“Wow..look at this place…,” the human said, the awe clear in his voice as he spoke.

Alakazam nodded and seemed to scan the large room ahead of them. “There’s an exit on the other side, come on and follow next to me,”

Which was followed by her hopping down, landing with a soft thud, and the human following suit, landing next to her.

“Any idea where you grandpa is in here?,”

“I can sense he’s here. But his psychic energy is strangely muted, and its making it hard to pinpoint where its coming from,”

“Maybe him meditating is causing it to become muted?,”

The psychic-type shook her head. “No, it shouldnt mute his psychic energy. in fact, it should increase its potency,”

“Then what do you think is doing this?,”

“Honestly, i’ve got no idea,” Alakazam answered as they walked. “It’s making me worried.”

“And you have every right to be, but we’ll find him, i’m sure of it,”

“Right,” She stated. Right, gotta stay positive.’

“..Hey, stop for a second,” Alex stated, bringing the pokemon out of her thoughts, and they two stopped walking.

“Whats up? Is it a feral pokemon?,”

“I’m not sure, exactly. i just got the feeling we aren’t alone here,”

The psychic-type nodded, moving the orb of light to the side as she summoned an orb of psychic energy in her free hand, with Alex taking out his dual knives, both prepared to fight if needed.

They both could sense something or someone was coming towards them, and it wasn’t until a few moments later that they could actually see what it was.

And it was revealed to be Alakazam’s grandfather, seemingly no worse for wear and having a surprised look on his face as he saw the two before him.

“Grandfather!” The alakazam said before she ran to him, enveloping him in a hug, which he returned.

Alex smiled as he stayed silent and watched, not wanting to ruin the moment between them.

A few minutes passed before the two seperated, and her grandfather finally noticed the human was standing there. “Oh? Who is this, Alakazam?,”

“Oh, grandfather, this is Alex! He was the one i was telling you about,”

“Oh! You mean this is the amnesiac shifter you told me about?,” to which she gave a nod. “Its nice to meet you, young one,”

“Nice to meet you too,” The human stated. “though, why are you here, of all places?,”

This seemed to make the old pokemon perk up and a smile formed onto their face. “You’ll just have to come see it for yourselves,”

The much older psychic-type pokemon then began to lead the two deeper into the caves, until they came across a large room that looked to have been dug out by someone or likely more than one person.

The interior was filled with what looked to be different offerings, from dried spices and herbs to what looked to be actual gold coins, all held in what looked to be wicker bowls and baskets that dotted the room.

“Wow..how did no one know this was here..?,” Alakazam asked.

“Quite simple. This place was hidden behind a large crack in the wall that not many pokemon or humans could fit through,” her grandfather answered.

“And you smashed it open, i’m guessing?,” Alex asked, to which the older pokemon gave a nod to.

“I may look old and frail, but i’m still the same powerhouse i was when i was your age,” the old pokemon answered.

“Fair enough,” the human stated. “Though, is this all there is, or what?,”

The older pokemon smiled again. “Oh, all of this is just small fish. Just follow me and i’ll show you both what i mean,”

The two looked at each other for a moment, but followed the elder deeper into the room, until he stopped in his tracks.

He then raised his hand and snapped his fingers, making two orbs of psychic energy appear in mid air on either side of the trio, brightening up the area alongside the soft glow of the torches.

Both Alex and Alakazam’s eyes went wide as they saw what the elder was talking about, which was revealed to be what looked like a large mural seemingly carved into the cave wall itself.

The mural, which was heavily degraded due to likely several centuries of being exposed to the damp cave environment, depicted what seemed to be a gigantic deity standing on top of what looked to be a gigantic tower, with several large gear like objects floating around the deity.

Beneath the bottom of the tower was another large gear symbol, though this one was surrounded by a larger gear shaped vector with two crossbow shaped vectors coming out of it on the upper right and lower left sides, and ten arrow-like vectors, five on the upper left side and five on the bottom right side.

“Wow..Alex, what do you-,” the psychic-type asked, though stopped midsentence when she noticed the state her human companion was in.

The human looked to be in a trance of sorts, seeming to have a thousand yard stare as he continued staring at the mural before them.

Before either could react, Alex started walking towards the mural, though his movements were slow and sluggish like a shambling corpse.

Once he stood only a few inches away from the ancient mural, he slowly raised his arm and set his hand, palm open and flat, against the large gear symbol beneath the bottom of the tower.

Upon doing so, the symbol began to glow and said glow began to snake its way onto the human’s hand and arm, stopping at his shoulder.

After what felt like a few minutes, the glow from both the symbol and Alex’s arm faded, the two pokemons eyes going wide when they looked at it.

His left arm now had what looked to be a tribal tattoo made with vibrant green ink going from his wrist to his shoulder, the design looking intricate and purposeful but yet was very beautiful at the same time.

On the back of his hand was the same symbol that he had just put his hand up against, which was still glowing softly, though this faded away after a few moments, and was the same vibrant green color that the tattoo was.

“Alex…? You ok?,” She asked, putting a hand onto his shoulder.

This seemed to bring the human back to his senses, making his head turn towards her. “Huh? Oh yea, im ok…Why do you ask?,”

“Were..Were you not aware of what just happened?,” to which Alex shook his head.

“No, why? Did something happen??,”

She then gently raised his left arm to where he could see it, which was followed by the human letting out a soft “…Oh,”

“Grandfather, any idea what this means??,”

The elder pokemon gently held up Alex’s arm as he looked it over. “Hmm…it doesn’t look familiar at all to me, unfortunately,”

“Do you think Wigglytuff would know anything?,” the human suggested.

“Its quite possible,” the elder answered as Alex lowered his arm back down to his side. “For now, lets head back to Treasure Town, it’s likely starting to get late.”

The three all nodded in agreement, and with an actual warning to take a deep breath and hold it this time, they teleported back to the entrance of Treasure Town, where it was now late afternoon and slowly encroaching on early evening.

“I’ll look through my library and see if i can find anything about Alex’s new tattoo, for the time being, i believe it’d be better if it remains covered up until we know exactly what it means,” the elder Alakazam stated, with the human and younger alakazam nodding in agreement.

“Cover it up with what, exactly?,” the human asked. “Maybe wrapping it up in bandages and an arm sling?”

“That’s likely the best option. I’ll see if Blissey wouldnt mind letting us borrow an arm sling,” the younger alakazam answered.

The two then said their goodbyes to the elder pokemon, before making their way back to the guild, thankfully getting there just as dinner was beginning to be served; though they made a quick pit stop by the medical wing so Blissey could wrap up and put his arm into a sling.

“Hey! There you two are, we were beginning to think somethin happen..,” Infernape stated, though stopped mid-sentence as she noticed Alex’s bandaged up arm.

“Don’t worry, its nothing serious. I just accidentally hurt my arm while in Waterfall Cave,” the human stated as both he and alakazam took a seat at the table.

He wasn’t sure if they believe it or not, but its not like he could tell them what really happened, at least not yet anyway.

He couldnt help but think on what he saw on the mural as he started to eat, the first thing coming to his mind being the giant being perched on top of that tower, which was very likely the same one he saw in his nightmare only days previously, though then there was also those gears that surrounded them..what could they mean?

They seemed both familiar to him and extremely important at the same time, though why he felt that way about them was a complete mystery.

“You ok, Alex?,” a voice asked, bringing him out of his thoughts.

He looked up to see who had spoke, seeing that it was Lucario, who he hadn’t noticed had been sitting across the table from him.

“Oh, yea, i’m ok,” the human answered, though it was clear to anyone that he was lying.

But, the aura pokemon didn’t push it, as now wasn’t the appropriate time, so he simply just nodded to his response.

Meanwhile, under the table, Alex’s other hand went into his pants pocket, reaching for and grabbing the stone Darkrai had given him, giving it a gentle squeeze.

’I’ll tell him tonight…i have to.’

—————————————————————————

Thankfully, the rest of the dinner went overall well, though Alex left the table early once he had gotten his fill of the food.

Once inside his room, he shut the door and let out a small sigh, pulling the stone out of his pants pocket, which glowed softly in his palm and lit up the darkened area around him.

He smiled softly and walked over to his bed, setting the stone on the bedside table before undressing down to what he slept in and then layed down.

Alex then reached for and grabbed the stone, holding it up to his face before speaking into it. “Darkrai..?”

He didn’t have to wait long for a reply, as the stone began to glow more brightly and the dark-type’s voice came through it.

“I’m here, Alex,”

The human smiled softly when he heard Darkrai’s voice, it bringing him a small boost of happiness. “I hope i’m not calling at a bad time or anything. I know its probably late as well where you are and all,”

“You could never call me at a bad time, i did tell you that you could call anytime, remember?,”

“I remember, though um…hows your day been?,”

Alex then heard what seemed to be a series of shuffling noises on Darkrai’s end before he responded. “Busy, to say the least. But, i wont bore you with details right now, how’s your day been?,”

The human seemed to hesitate for a moment, but he quickly steeled his nerves. “…Darkrai, can you keep a secret?,”

“Of course i can, but why do you ask?,”

Alex hesitated for a moment once again, but steeled his nerves again and explained everything that had happened over the day to the Dark-Type, not leaving a single detail out.

Once he finished, he waited for Darkrai to respond, hoping he hadn’t broken them with what he said.

“…Does anyone else know?,”

“Besides Alakazam and her grandfather, no, you’re the only one,”

“Good, just keep it wrapped up until i get back, ok?,”

Alex nodded and couldnt help but wonder if the dark-type knew something about what was on his arm, but decided against asking any questions as he likely wouldn’t get any worthwhile answers.

“Alright, i will. See you soon, ok?,”

“Of course, now get some sleep, you sound exhausted,”

The human couldnt help but chuckle a little as the stone stopped glowing, indicating Darkrai had put his away, and he did the same, placing it in the drawer of his bedside table.

He let out a small sigh and took off his glasses, setting them on the bedside table, before he laid down fully and shut his eyes, falling asleep after a few minutes.

As he fell asleep, dark storm clouds had begun to gather over the grass continent, completely smothering the moon and stars, which was followed by what at first was only droplets of rain; but quickly spiraled into a torrential downpour, accompanied by the flashes of lightning and the boom of thunder.

—————————————————————————

At the same time, in a faraway forest, the pokemon that called it home were scurrying around in an attempt to hide in whatever cover they could find to stay out of the rain.

However, even despite the downpour, one pokemon was determinedly walking their way through it, wearing what looked to be a hooded cloak, likely to keep the rain off of them.

Their yellow, lizard like eyes scanned the area around them as they walked towards their destination, as id making sure there was going to be no one attempting to stop them from what they were going to do.

Not that it would have mattered, even if someone did try, his leaf blades would make quick work of them.

The pokemon pulled their cloak closer to them as they had begun to shiver, gritting their teeth and steeling their resolve as they continued walking despite it.

“It can’t be too far now…” the figure said to themselves as they continued walking.

Thankfully, they didnt have to walk for much longer, as they soon found what they were looking for, and upon seeing it, the pokemon couldn’t help but smirk in triumph.

“I’ve finally found it..one of the legendary Time Gears..!”

The figure reach their hands out and plucked the gear shaped object from its resting place of floating in the air, the sleek blue metal surface feeling strangely warm as they ran their fingers over it.

’The first of five..once i have all of them..i can save the world, and him..’

The figure had no actual idea who this ’him’ was, but they could feel deep down that he was very important to them, somehow.

They then put the gear into their bag that hung from a strap on their shoulder, and began to walk back out of the forest as time began to slow down until it entirely stopped, leaving the area coated in a very familiar shadw of grey…

Chapter Text

Unsurprisingly, it was still pouring down the rain outside when Alex woke up the next morning, and he couldn't help but let out a sigh of resigned annoyance when he looked out of his bedroom window and saw that it was.

’looks like i'm gonna be stuck inside all day.’

Getting up out of bed, he stretched out his arms and walked over to the dresser, pulling out a simply grey t-shirt and a pair of shorts, which he quickly put on, before he headed out to where the dining hall was.

Unsurprisingly, both Lucario and Infernape were already there, both drinking what seemed to be coffee, and they both looked at Alex when they sensed his presence enter the room.

“You’re up early.” Infernape stated, a small chuckle leaving her. “Don't worry, you didn't miss breakfast or anything, it's being cooked as we speak.”

“Then why are you two the only ones up besides me?,” Alex asked, letting out a small yawn as he took a seat at the table.

“Most of the guild tends to sleep in, especially on a rainy day like this one,” Lucario answered.

“How’s your arm feeling?,” Infernape asked, before taking another drink of her coffee.

“Extremely sore, but at least its not broken,” the human answered, which the Fire-Type gave a small nod to. “Blissey told me to keep it in the sling for the next few days.”

Both pokemon gave a nod as a few more pokemon sleepily shuffled in, each taking a seat at the table alongside them.

These pokemon being a Scizor, a Machoke, this being the same Machoke the human had met at the beginning of the week, and a pokemon Alex didn’t recognize, but they looked like what a fusion between a shark and a dragon would look like, dark purple scales covering its body with a bright orange-red and yellow underbelly.

“Alex, meet Scizor and Garchomp,” Infernape stated, and the human gave a friendly wave to them both.

“So, you’re the shifter we’ve heard so much about?,” Scizor asked, his eyes scanning the human as they moved up and down a few times. “You dont look like much.”

“Yes, i am. Why? You wanting an autograph?,” Alex answered, a small, cheeky smile on his face. “Also, dont judge a book by its cover. It makes you look like an asshole.”

Scizor seemed to scowl and was about to say something, but Infernape stopped him in his tracks by only saying a single word.

“Dont.” She said, giving an angry look to the Bug/Steel type, which seemed to shut him up as he just crossed his arms.

The human looked at the monkey pokemon amd gave what could only be described as a look of thanks, which she smiled at.

At that moment, more pokemon began to file into the dining room, taking their seats at the table and talking amongst themselves.

Thankfully, breakfast was soon served, being cooked by both Chimecho and Incineroar, and everyone ate their fill before heading off to do whatever it was they had or wanted to do.

Though, Alex wasn't sure what he was going to do. He certainly wasn’t going outside, that was for sure, but other than that, what could he do?

He reached a hand into his shorts pocket, his fingers rubbing over the smooth surface of the communication stone, and he deep down wished Darkrai was at the guild and with him, rather than being wherever he was.

The thought made his face heat up a little bit as well as made his stomach flutter, though he pushed these feelings down and went to the common area, hoping that it wouldnt be too crowded.

Thankfully, the only pokemon that were in it when he arrived were Alakazam, who was sitting at a small table with Chatot, a chessboard between them both, as well as the Gengar the human had stopped from stealing the Kecleon Brothers wares earlier in the week.

Not wanting to interrupt their game, Alex took a seat on the couch nearest the table, though he could help but smile as he saw the Psychic-Type and Normal-Type were in what looked to be a stalemate, an equal amount of pieces having already been taken from each side.

It was rather interesting to see, or at least the human thought so.

It didn’t take long for Chatot to gain the upperhand, moving his knight into the perfect position and quickly checkmating Alakazam’s queen.

“Checkmate.” The Normal-Type said, smugness clear in his tone.

“You got lucky this time,” The Psychic-Type stated as she used her psychic energy to reset the pieces back onto the board.

“Luck has nothing to do with the fact that i’m just better than you,”

Alakazam rolled her eyes, though then noticed Alex sitting near them and smiled. “Didn’t see you come in, want to play a game or two?,”

“Sure, but i’ve never played before,”

The Psychic-Type nodded as Chatot fluttered over to the couch the human was sitting on as he got up and took the Normal-Type’s chair.

“Then i’ll teach you,” she stated, to which Alex gave a nod.

The next few hours went by rather quickly as Alakazam taught the human about chess, from the mechanics to the moves each piece could make, and while it was alot to learn, Alex somehow managed to take it all into his head rather easily.

“Ready to play now?,” Alakazam asked, resetting the pieces onto the board.

“Mhm, lets play,” Alex answered as their game began, allowing the Psychic-Type to go first.

—————————————————————————

“Are you thinking about that pet of yours again, Darkrai?,”

The dark type turned his head towards who was speaking, seeing that a Zoroark had taken a seat on the arm of the couch he was sitting on.

“What the hell are you on about? Alex isn’t my “pet”,”

“You heard me. And you don’t have to lie to me, Darkrai, i can keep a secret, you know~,”

The vampire’s right hand clenched into a fist as the shadows around the room began to subtly twitch and spasm as he felt his annoyance towards the fellow Dark-Type grow by the second.

“I told you, Alex is NOT my pet, or anyone’s pet. He’s his own person, Zor,”

“Sure he isn't~”

The shadows around the room twitched and spasmed more violently, though the Zoroark didn’t notice.

“Why are you even here?,”

“What? I can’t visit my fellow vampiric friend because i want to?,”

“We are not friends, Zoroark. I only tolerate you since you get me information whenever i need it. Besides, you only turn up when you need something yourself,”

The other Dark-Type feigned being hurt by the Mythical Pokemon’s words, doing an overdramatic fainting backwards motion so he was laying across their lap.

“Oh, you wound me, Darkrai!,”

“Get the fuck off my lap. Now,”

“I don’t think i will, it’s too comfy~”

Darkrai simply snapped his fingers and several shadow tendrils appeared and wrapped around the Zoroark’s appendages and yanked him off of his lap, making him land on the floor in front of him in a small heap.

“Don’t complain, cause i did warn you,”

The Ilusion Fox slowly picked themselves off of the floor with a small growl. “What crawled up your ass and died today??,”

Darkrai didn’t respond, and even if he did it wouldn’t have mattered. He simply got up and left the room, heading towards the room he was renting from the guild, which he entered when he got to it, shutting and locking the door after.

The shadows around the small room were still twitching and spasming as the dark type began to take slow breaths to calm himself, said shadows slowly becoming stationary after a few minutes passed.

He then reached into the pocket of his coat, wrapping his clawed hand around the communication stone and giving it a gentle squeeze.

“Just calm down..you don’t want Alex to see you like this..”

The Dark-Type felt his face heat up, his grip on the stone tightening as he went and laid down on the bed so he was looking up at the ceiling.

The sounds of rain hitting the window were the only ones Darkrai could hear as the grip he had on the stone loosened as the seconds went by.

He had to stop himself from lifting up the stone to his face and saying the human’s name into it, to which he let out a soft sigh.

“He’s probably busy, i’ll talk to him later…,”

The dark-type set the stone on the small bedside table before getting comfy, falling asleep after a few minutes passed.

—————————————————————————

“Checkmate.” Alakazam said as she moved her Rook into position to claim Alex’s King.

“Damn it, i thought i had you this time,”

“You almost did, but you’ve got to work on your strategy, especially late game,”

The human smiled and nodded as the Psychic-Type reset the pieces back onto the board. “Want to play another game?,”

Alex shook his head with another smile. “I’ve gotten my ass kicked at chess enough for one day,”

The Psychic-Type chuckled a little bit. “Fair enough,”

The human nodded and got up from his chair, stretching out and letting out a semi loud yawn, which made Alakazam chuckle.

“Go take a nap, sleepyhead,”

Alex nodded and walked out of the room, heading down the hallway to his own bedroom, which he opened the door and walked inside, shutting the door behind him.

Once inside, he let out another yawn, taking off his glasses and setting them on the bedside table before he laid down and got comfy.

He took out the communication stone from his pocket, holding it in his hand as he ran his thumb across it’s surface as a small smile formed on his face, his cheeks turning a soft shade of pink.

“…He’s probably busy. I’ll talk to him later,”

The human yawned and set the stone on the bedside table next to his glasses, then laid down and fell asleep after shutting his eyes and getting comfy again.

—————————————————————————

Alex slowly opened his eyes, finding himself not on a beach or a dark wasteland, but rather surprisingly, a large meadow underneath a cloudless, deep blue sky, with himself sitting underneath the shade of a large tree in the middle of it.

“Huh..? Why am i here..?”

The human slowly picked themselves up onto their feet, though before they could even get a chance to look around his surroundings, a groan from the other side of the tree drew his attention and he walked around to see who or what it was.

“…Huh? D-Darkrai??,” the human stammered out as he saw the Dark-Type was waking up in the same position he had only moments before, his cheeks turning a shade of pink.

“Huh? Alex?? Why…Oh. Oh dear,” Darkrai said, turning his head towards him when he heard their voice.

“H-how and why are you in my dream? N-not that i’m not happy to see you or anything,”

“Well, to explain the how, i’m not just a vampire…im one of the gods of dreams, specifically over nightmares and bad dreams,”

“…Y-YOU’RE A GOD?!,”

The Dark-Type gave a small nod. “I…I wanted to tell you sooner, but…i wasn’t sure how i could or would. Though, now you know,”

The human nodded and took a seat next to them. “But that doesnt answer why your in my dream,”

“Well, as one of the gods over dreams, i can enter the Realm of Sleep whenever i please, even subconciously while say i am sleeping-,”

“Wait wait, hold up a second. You’re asleep right now too?? And what’s the Realm of Sleep??,”

The Dark-Type gave a small nod. “Yes, i am. It has been a long day, so to speak,”

”Fair enough, it’s been a long day on my end, too. But what’s the Realm of Sleep exactly?,”

”Well, it is where you go when you fall asleep every night. Any and every time you dream of anything, you are within the realm of sleep, though you would never know it,”

“Like this place we’re in now?,”

Darkrai nodded. “Exactly,”

Alex nodded, letting out a content sigh as he relaxed back against the trunk of the tree. “Wait, so because your a god of the Realm of Sleep, you can enter people’s dreams?,”

”Pretty much, though neither me nor my counterpart ever do so, unless we deem it necessary,”

”…Then why did you enter my dream?,”

The Dark-Type’s face turned a soft pink at the human’s question, and he had to re-compose himself for a few moments before he answered.

”I hadn’t meant to, where i am currently asleep myself, i suppose i just sort of drifted through the realm of sleep and into your dream without meaning to,”

The human gave another nod, the vampire relaxing back against the trunk of the tree as well, crossing his arms over his chest.

”…Are there other gods besides you?,”

”Yes, there are. But, they aren’t as active amongst mortals as me or my counterpart are,”

”Can you tell me about them?,”

”i will another time, Alex. Lets just enjoy this while it lasts, shall we?”

he nodded and the two relaxed once again, letting out content sighs as they just enjoyed the peaceful serenity they were in.

the human then slowly leaned over and laid his head on the Dark-Type’s shoulder, making the pokemon turn their head to look at them, though they seemed to smile a little at the sight before turning back to face forward.

it wasn’t long after that the all too familiar sounds of the human sleeping were heard, and it made him chuckle softly but he made no attempt to move or wake them.

he then glanced down at his right side, lifting his right arm and letting out a soft sigh as the same tattoo that covered the human’s own left arm, even down to the gear that was on the back of their seperate hands.

He felt a pang of guilt for not telling Alex what it meant, or even telling him that he had one himself, but he didn’t want to potentially ruin what they had.

But, Darkrai also knew being truthful would ‘soften the blow’ so to speak. Even then, it would hurt somewhat, as the truth always tended to do.

he shook his head and set his arm back down. He’d figure out how to explain everything once he was back at the guild tomorrow, or so he hoped anyway.

with another soft sigh, the dark-type laid back against the trunk of the tree, slowly shutting his eyes and joining Alex in sleep, a soft smile on his face.

—————————————————————————

“aww..look at them..,”

“Shush! You’ll wake them both up!,”

“They’re both pretty heavy sleepers, I don’t even think a stampede of Rhyhorn could wake them up,”

The voices belonged to Incineroar, Lucario and Alakazam respectively, all three whispering amongst themselves to make sure they wouldn’t accidentally wake the two up.

“Those two are never beating the rumors of them being a couple…look, darkrai’s holding alex like he’s a stuffed animal for Arceus’s sake,” The Fire/Dark Type said.

“Makes me wish i had a camera,” the Steel-Type stated, a smirk on his face.

“Darkrai would absolutely kill you, just so you know,” The Psychic-Type said.

“It would be so worth it,” Lucario said.

“Come on, lets let the lovebirds rest,” Incineroar stated, the two nodding (though rather begrudgingly) in agreement, before the trio left the two to rest in peace.

Though, this only lasted for about another half an hour before two loud yells came from Alex’s bedroom, followed by a loud thump sound and a loud groan of pain.

This caused the three to run back to the room, opening the door to see what had happened and they couldn’t help but chuckle at what they saw.

Alex was sitting up in his bed, his face a bright shade of red, though he was looking down at the floor as they saw that Darkrai was laying on his stomach, groaning with the blanket laying over him.

Though, they also assumed his face was the same shade as the humans given they could not see it.

“So..i guess you two finally woke up?,” Lucario asked, a small smirk on his face.

“Not. Another. Word,” the Dark-Type answered from his position on the floor, though it only made the Steel-Type chuckle.

“Are you two ok?,” Alakazam asked, ignoring her friends chuckling.

“Besides both of us feeling embarrassed, we’re fine..” Darkrai answered, with Alex nodding in agreement with him.

The Psychic-Type gave a nod. “Good, now, its quite obvious you two have some stuff you need to get off your chests, so we’ll just be going,”

This was followed by both Alakazam and Incineroar having to drag Lucario away while the latter squirmed and complained in their grips, until it soon became quiet once again and the two were left alone.

“So..Um..,” Alex was the first to say, rubbing the back of his head with the hand that wasn’t in the sling as his face turned a soft shade of pink.

Darkrai’s face also turned the same shade, and he seemed to hesitate a little bit before he himself spoke. “I guess we really do have something to talk about, huh..?,”

The human gave a nod as he slowly then took his arm out of the sling and then removed the bandages, letting them fall to the floor, revealing the bright green tattoo that covered his left arm from his shoulder to wrist, and the large gear tattoo on the back of his hand.

The Dark-Type then gently grabbed the humans left arm and lifted his right arm, placing it next to his and showing they had matching tattoos, making the humans eyes go wide.

“Y-You..you have the same tattoo??,”

“I do, yes,”

Alex nodded but didn’t move his arm as he then asked. “What do they mean? You said you’d explain once you got and-,”

“I know, I know. But, it means..we’re soulmates,”

The human’s eyes widened again and it wasn’t even a few seconds after that he fell backwards, causing Darkrai to immediately jump onto the bed to check on him in a panic.

Thankfully, the pokemon’s fears were squashed by the fact he had only seemed to have passed out from the revelation that the two were soulmates, as he groaned softly as Darkrai held him.

“This is going to be harder than i thought, isn’t it..?,”

Chapter Text

Alex awoke slowly, letting out a groan as he slowly sat up using one arm and rubbing his eyes with the other.

“Hey there, sleepyhead.”

He then looked and saw Darkrai was sitting at the end of his bed, who seemed to have a small smile on his face.

“Hey..How long was i out for?,”

“About an hour and a half, give or take,”

The human nodded, stretching his arms out a few times, both popping as he did so. “So, are we really..soulmates?,”

The Dark-Type gave a nod, as he felt his face heat up and his cheeks turned a soft pink. “Yes, we are,”

The human’s own cheeks then turned a soft pink color, and he rubbed the back of his head with his hand. “How long have you known?,”

“Since you told me about that,” he answered, pointing at the tattoo that covered the human’s left arm.

Alex nodded, his cheeks becoming a more bright shade of pink. “It does explain why we became good friends so fast, at least,”

The dark-type nodded. “Yea, it does. But, i think even without us being soulmates, we would have become quick friends,”

“Most likely. I mean, we do get along like peanut butter and jelly,”

Darkrai couldn’t help but chuckle at Alex’s words, though it was the truth. “I’ve never heard it described like that, but it fits rather well,”

The human smiled and nodded. “That it does,”

“..Do you want to try?,”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “Try what? A relationship?,”

The dark-type nodded. “Yes, if you’re ok with that,”

“I mean, i am ok with it. But, can we take it slow?,”

“Of course, Alex,”

Darkrai then scooted over to next to him and put a hand on the human’s owns before he then placed a gentle kiss to his cheek, making Alex’s cheeks turn a soft shade of red but also made him smile.

“T-thanks,”

The dark type smiled, his mouth forming on his face for a few moment before it disappeared. “It’s no problem. But, do you want to tell everyone or keep it between us?,”

“I mean, everyone already thinks we are, so i really don’t mind telling everyone,”

“I figured as much, but i wanted to get confirmation on your part,”

The human nodded, gently taking the pokemon’s clawed hand into his own, their fingers intertwining with one another.

“..So, what do you want to do now?,”

The dark type shrugged. “No idea,”

Alex nodded again and seemed to go into thought for a few minutes before his eyes widened and he snapped his fingers, which was followed by him running out of the room.

Thankfully, Darkrai didn’t have to wait long as the human ran back into the room and looked to be holding something behind his back.

He then revealed to the pokemon what he was holding, which was a Paopu Fruit. In fact, it was the same one he had been given by the Kecleon Brothers.

Seeing it made the Dark-Type’s face go a bright red, something that made Alex giggle. “Aw, your all red,”

“You..You wish to share it with me?,”

Alex nodded. “I do, yea,”

He then handed the pokemon the Paopu fruit, who took it into his clawed hands, looking it over for a few monents before he took a bite of it from the top left corner.

Darkrai then handed it back to them, who took s bite out of the top right corner. “Mmm, this is tasty,”

“Very much so,”

The human smiled and nodded, sitting down next to him once again before they finished the fruit, each eating half of it so it wouldnt spoil.

“How long till dinnertime?,”

“I’d say a couple of hours, why?,”

“Well, i was thinking we could go to Incineroar’s Bar and drink a little bit, if thats ok,”

“As much of a good idea that is, lets wait, ok? I don’t think everyone would like it if we came back drunk off our asses,”

“Ok, thats a fair point,”

The dark-type nodded, stretching his arms out and yawning. “Sorry,”

“Its alright,”

The human then smiled as he leaned against the pokemon, laying his head on his shoulder, which made Darkrai smile as the sounds of the rain outside filled the room.

——————————————————————————————-

The next couple of hours seemed to pass in a blur, the sky outside turning from early to late afternoon, to early evening as the rain still continued to come down.

Unsurprisingly, Alex had fallen asleep once again as he still leaned against Darkrai, though he didn’t mind but knew he couldn’t let him sleep all day.

Putting a clawed hand onto the human’s shoulder, he gently shook them a few times, causing them to slowly awaken and their eyes to open.

“Mmm…Hey,”

“Hey to you too, sleepyhead,”

The human smiled tiredly, yawning and sitting up, cracking his neck and stretching his arms out. “We should get to dinner,”

The dark-type nodded, taking the human’s hand into his own before then dark voiding out of the room and reappearing in the guild’s dining room.

They were surprised to see that they were the first to arrive, and took seats so they were next to one another.

“Why am i not surprised to see you two sitting together?”

The two turned their heads to see who was speaking, seeing Incineroar standing in the door with a small smirk on her face before she took a seat at the table across from Darkrai.

“I mean, we are together so…,” Alex said, to which the dark type nodded and kissed the human’s cheek.

“I knew it! Though, i’m happy for you both,” Incineroar said, smiling softly.

“Thank you,” The Dark-Type stated.

“So..When is the wedding?,” She asked with a small smirk on her face.

This question made both of their faces turn a bright shade of red, which made the fire/dark type chuckle.

“Thats not funny,” they both said at the same time, which only made her chuckle again.

“Oh no, its not funny. It’s fucking hilairious, especially cause you two look like tomatoes right now,”

The two then looked at each other, knowing she wasn’t wrong in the slightest bit. That didn’t mean that it wasn’t a little embaressing, though.

“Anyway, im glad to see you two have finally realized your feelings for one another. Though, everyone else will tell you the same thing,”

“Were we really that oblivious?,” Alex asked, to which Incineroar nodded.

“You two were like two blind guys fighting when someone yells ‘they’ve got a knife!’ and you both run in entirely different directions,”

Both the dark-type and human rubbed the back of their heads with their hand, unable to really respond to what she just said as they knew it was in some ways true.

Though, before their conversation could continue, more guild members started to flood in and take their seats at the dinner table.

Soon after dinner was served, everyone talking amongst themselves as they ate, though neither Alex or Darkrai paid it any mind.

Once they both finished their meals they silently excused themselves, heading out of the dining room, though no one seemed to really notice nor care as everyone was still chatting amongst themselves.

The two, meanwhile, made their way back to Alex’s bedroom, shutting the door closed once they were inside.

“..So, what do you want to do now?”

“Hmm..lets go get that drink, shall we?,”

“Sounds good to me,”

The Dark-Type then held out his clawed hand, which the human took into his own and they dark voided out of the guild together.

——————————————————————————————-

After a few seconds they reappeared outside Incineroar’s Bar, they headed inside and took a seat in one of the booths, seeing the place was empty except for themselves.

The dark-type smiled as he snapped his clawed fingers and a few shadow hands appeared behind the nearby bar, grabbing a large bottle of sake and a couple of cylindrical shaped porcelain cups and bringing them over to the booth they were sitting in, setting the items on the table.

“Do you think Incineroar will mind..?”

“As long as we dont end up wrecking the place, she wont mind,” he answered as he opened the bottle, pouring out an equal amount into both cups.

“Kambai,” Alex said as he picked up the cup with one hand and held the bottom with the other as he then took a sip from it.

“Kambai,” Darkrai said, doing the same as the human did.

The two shared a few more sips before setting their cups down as gently as possible, the sake inside barely moving an inch as they did so.

“Ya know, even though it’s only been a week or so since i’ve arrived here…i already feel at home here, with everyone,”

“Thats good, though i hope ‘everyone’ includes me,”

“Of course it does, Darkrai,”

“Good,”

They then took a few more sips of their drinks, though when the human put down his cup, he put his right hand over yhe back of his left, covering the gear shaped tattoo on it.

This wasn’t lost on the dark-type, who immediately clued in that something was seemingly bothering the human, no, his human.

“Something is bothering you, isn’t it?,”

“Huh? Oh uh…yea, i guess so,”

“Do you want to talk about it?,”

Alex gave a nod after a few moments before taking a few more sips of his drink. “It’s about the mark on the back of my hand…,”

“The gear shaped one?,”

The human nodded once again. “Yea. It just feels so familiar to me somehow, is all,”

The dark-type nodded. “Perhaps you saw it before?,”

“I most likely did at some point. I just wish i could remember,”

Darkrai nodded, moving his hand and placing it over Alex’s own. “I know. I wish i could remember too,”

The human smiled softly. “We’ll both remember eventually, i’m sure of it,”

The dark-type nodded, smiling softly too. “Right,”

Alex took another sip, his eyes scanning the room until they laid upon the jukebox sitting off to the far side against the wall, which sparked an idea in him as he got up snd went over to it, looking through the selection until he found a song he found interesting.

That song being “Ma Meilleure Ennemie”.

Once he selected the song, he walled back over to where Darkrai was sitting and held out his hand with a bow. “May i have this dance?,”

The dark-type visibly blushed, but took the human’s hand into his own and stood up, with Alex leading him to the middle of restaraunt floor as the song he selected started playing.

Je t'aime, je te hais, je t'aime, je te hais
(I love you, I hate you, I love you, I hate you)

Je t'aime, je te hais, je t'aime, je te hais
(I love you, I hate you, I love you, I hate you)

Je t'aime, je te hais, je t'aime, je te hais
(I love you, I hate you, I love you, I hate you)

Je t'aime, je te hais, je t'aime, je te hais
(I love you, I hate you, I love you, I hate you)

The two then slowly started to dance with each other, even despite them being more than slightly buzzed due to the sake, as well as neither knowing what the words meant but they didn’t really care.

T'es la meilleure chose qui m'est arrivée
(You’re the best thing to ever happen to me)

Mais aussi la pire chose qui m'est arrivée
(But also the worst thing to ever happen to me)

Ce jour où je t'ai rencontrée, j'aurais peut-être préféré
(On that day when I met you, maybe I would rather)

Que ce jour ne soit jamais arrivé (arrivé)
(That it never happened to me (To me))

La pire des bénédictions
(The worst of all blessings)

La plus belle des malédictions
(The best of all curses)

De toi, j'devrais m'éloigner
(I should stray away from you)

Mais comme dit le dicton
"Plutôt qu'être seul, mieux vaut être mal accompagné"
(But as the saying goes "Bettеr than alone, is to be in bad company")

It was then that Darkrai decided to take the lead, gently grabbing Alex’s hands and pulling him close, before wrapping one arm around his waist and placing his other hand on the human’s shoulder.

This caught him off guard but he smiled as they slowly started to sway from side to side, and the human gently rested his head against the dark-type’s chest and listened to his heartbeat.

Tu sais c'qu'on dit "Sois près d'tes amis les plus chers"
(You know what they say, “Stay close to your dearest friends”)

Mais aussi, "Encore plus près d'tes adversaires"
(But also, “Even closer to your adversaries”)

Mais ma meilleure ennemie, c'est toi
(But my best enemy is you)

Fuis-moi, le pire c'est toi et moi
(Flee from me, the worst is you and I)

Mais si tu cherches encore ma voix
(But if you keep searching for my voice)

Oublie-moi, le pire c'est toi et moi
(Forget me, the worst is you and I)

Pourquoi ton prénom me blesse?
(Why does hearing your name hurt me?)

Quand il se cache juste là dans l'espace?
(When it hides right there in the vicinity?)

C'est quelle émotion? D'la haine ou la douceur, quand j'entends ton prénom?
(What kind of emotion, is it hatred or pure sweetness when I hear your name?)

Je t'avais dit "ne regarde pas en arrière"
(I had told you, not to keep looking behind)

Le passé qui te suit, te fait la guerre
(Your past will follow you and wage war on you)

Mais ma meilleure ennemie, c'est toi
(But my best enemy is you)

Fuis-moi, le pire c'est toi et moi
(Flee from me, the worst is you and I)

Mais ma meilleure ennemie, c'est toi
(But my best enemy is you)

Fuis-moi, le pire c'est toi et moi
(Flee from me, the worst is you and I)

Je t'aime, je te hais, je t'aime, je te hais
(I love you, I hate you, I love you, I hate you)

Je t'aime, je te hais, je t'aime, je te hais
(I love you, I hate you, I love you, I hate you)

Je t'aime, je te hais, je t'aime, je te hais
(I love you, I hate you, I love you, I hate you)

Je t'aime, je te hais, je t'aime, je te hais
(I love you, I hate you, I love you, I hate you)

The two slowly stopped as the song came to an end, both having a small smile on their faces before they seperated and Darkrai led them back over to their table, with the two sitting back down.

They then continued drinking, making it through the rest of the bottle and a 1/4th of another before they decided they had had enough and dark voided back to the guild, leaving the items on the table but also a small pouch of Poke’ to pay for it.

However, due to the dark-types drunken state, his dark void ended up landing them somewhere other than their intended destination, which was meant to be the humans bedroom; but rather they teleported into the medical wing, both collapsing in front of the nurses station in a drunken, giggling heap.

Blissey peered over the desk and let out a sigh before walking out from behind it and picking them both up and carrying them into the breakroom and laying them both down on the couch set off to the side.

She then walked out of the room, shutting the door to the breakroom as quietly as possible so as to not wake them up, before then taking her seat back behind the desk with a sigh.

——————————————————————————————-

Alex let out a groan as he woke up the next morning, his head feeling like it was being squeezed by a large vice and his stomach feeling like it was doing backflips, threatening to upchuck everything he ate and drank the night previously.

“Fuck me…”

Another groan came from next to him, making him roll over and peek over the side of the couch he was laying on, seeing that Darkrai was laying on the floor.

“..Why are you laying in the floor??”

The dark-type looked up at him, rubbing his own head with his clawed hand. “Probably rolled off while i was asleep..fuck my head is killing me,”

“Yea, mine is too. Ugh, we definitely drank too much last night..”

Darkrai nodded in agreement, groaning again as he slowly picked himself up off the floor. “Yea, we most certainly did,”

Before their conversation could continue, the door to the breakroom opened, revealing Wigglytuff holding a tray with two bowls of soup and two glass cups of what looked like smoothie’d berries.

“Glad to see you two are finally awake. Here,” she then set the tray on the arm of the couch and them left the room without saying another word.

The two then grabbed a bowl and began to eat, not wanting to make the head nurse upset and also that they were actually pretty damn hungry, even despite both of their stomachs feeling like they were doing backflips only a few minutes earlier.

“So, whats the plan for today?”

“Hmm…well you do need to train more on shifting into your pokemon form,”

The human nodded. “Yea, but i dont think i’ll ever need it,”

“Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it, Alex,”

“…I hate that you’re right,”

The dark-type chuckled and kissed Alex’s cheek, making the human smile before the two continued to eat the soup until they were finished.

They then drank the smoothies, feeling the medicinal effects of the berries they were made with make their headaches and joint stiffness vanish like it never existed in the first place.

“Ok, you ready to head to the dojo?”

Darkrai nodded and took the human’s hand in his and they dark voided out of the room, reappearing outside of it.

“At least it’s sunny today,”

“Yea, thank Arceus. Come on, lets go in,”

The human nodded and they both went inside, leaving their shoes where they had previously and walked across the room and stepped through the double doors into the actual training dojo.

Unsurprisingly, the Marowak brothers were inside and were sitting in the middle of the floor, seeming to be meditating, though they each opened an eye when the two walked in.

“We had a feeling you were coming…why do you two reek of alcohol??” The Normal-Type asked.

“We were drinking last night, simple as that,” The Dark-Type answered.

“Anyway. Why have you two decided to visit?,” The Ghost/Fire Type asked.

“I want to learn how to shift between my human and pokemon form,” Alex answered.

The two brothers each gave a nod, before standing up and stretching, then picking up their bone clubs.

“Alright, but before we begin, you must know that it will not be easy and likely will be very painful, given you’ve never practiced before now,” the Normal-Type Marowak stated.

“Well, i still want to try, despite that,”

“We hoped you would say that,” the two marowak stated.

And hooo boy, were they right, as the next several hours were filled with the most physical pain that the human had ever felt in his life.

“It is almost sunset, perhaps we should stop for the day,” the Alolan Marowak said.

“No, No..i can keep going…i feel like i’ve almost got it,”

The human was currently down on his hands and knees as his skin had patches of light blue skin splotched throughout it, but not only that, his fingers had almost became more webbed and had started to fuse together, and one of his eyes had turned into his pokemon forms, showing he was at least mid transformation into his Frogadier form.

“Alex, you do not need to keep pushing yourself, if you do, you’ll very likely injure yourself and pass out from the strain,” The Normal-Type Marowak said.

“…I don’t care. I’m too close to give up now,” Alex said, panting hard as his body currently felt like it had been stretched and twisted past what could be considered survivable.

Darkrai, meanwhile, was sitting on the first row of the bleachers with a look of concern on his face. He knew the human was very stubborn, though he had no idea he was stubborn to the point of forgoing his own health, and it worried him alot.

“Alex, please. You need to rest,” the dark-type stated.

“I’ll rest once i’m done, Darkrai,” Alex said, which made the dark-type sigh.

The human then stood up, starting to focus once again after he shut his eyes, the splotches of blue skin becoming larger, though this was juxstiposed by the immense amount of pain his body was going through as the transformation continued.

At the same time, a blue aura surrounded the human’s form, which glowed brighter and brighter as the seconds ticked by.

And it was then that the glow suddenly overtook his body and he started screaming in pain, though this only lasted about 30 seconds as the glow slowly vanished and the humans screams went silent.

When it fully vanished, in Alex’s place stood a frogadier, standing up on two feet. Though, before anyone could react, he fell forward and barely caught himself with his hands.

Which was followed by him coughing up blood and then fainting, swirls in his eyes as he laid in a heap on the dojo’s floor.

“ALEX!” Darkrai yelled as he hopped up and ran over to his unconcious form, kneeling down beside him and using one hand to lift him up and using two clawed fingers on his other against his neck to check his pulse.

He then let out a sigh of relief when he felt said pulse against his fingers, but that did not mean he still wasn’t worried over him, which he very much was.

“Go ahead and take him to Blissey,”

The dark-type didn’t need to be told twice and dark voided out of the dojo, reappearing in the medical wing in the blink of an eye.

Before he could even try to call out for help, Audino ran up to him, taking the unconcious shifter from him and down the hall into a room on the right side, shutting the door once they were inside.

Darkrai then took a seat in one of the nearby seats and let out a worried sigh. ’Please..just let him be ok..’

No, no! He would be ok. He was in good hands.

Or so he hoped..

——————————————————————————————-

Alex slowly opened his eyes, letting out a groan as his entire being felt like it had been run over by a truck, which then backed up over him several times.

He slowly lifted himself up into a sitting position, feeling what seemed to be a blanket fall onto his lap and the slow beeping of a heart monitor beside him.

“Am i..in the Medical Wing??”

“You are, yes,” a familiar voice from beside him answered.

The human turned his head towards it and saw that Darkrai was sitting in a chair next to his hospital bed with a worried look on his face.

“D-Darkrai..i..,”

The dark-type shook his hand and simply put his clawed hand onto the human’s. “I know you’re sorry. I’m just glad to see you’re ok,”

Alex nodded, though still felt bad about it nonetheless. “Well, i still want to say it anyway, so, i’m sorry,”

“I accept your apology,”

The human smiled as the door to the room opened and Blissey stepped inside, pushing a small cart that had a tray of food, what looked like a small cup of medicine and a couple pieces of medical equipment.

“Glad to see you’re finally awake, Alex. How are you feeling?” Blissey asked.

“I’m fine, other than feeling like I got hit by a car,” Alex answered.

“Good, now eat and let me take your vitals and you can get back to resting,” the head nurse stated.

Alex nodded and let her do what she had to do, beginning to eat on the food that she brought him. Once she had his vitals, she then left the room, leaving the two alone again.

“You just relax, ok? I’m not going anywhere,”

The human smiled and nodded as he continued eating, soon finishing the food and he set the tray on one of the tables beside his hospital bed.

He then got comfy, letting out a yawn and soon after he fell back into a deep sleep, Darkrai smiling as he watched Alex’s chest slowly rise and fall.

The Dark-Type himself smiled more as he himself relaxed in the chair he was sitting in, closing his eyes and joining his soulmate in sleep..

Chapter Text

It was a calm, quiet night at the Wigglytuff Guild, the bright moonlight cast by the full moon hanging in the sky pouring in through the many windows and blanketing everything it could touch.

And that included the many pokemon that called the guild home, who were sleeping peacefully in their beds.

Well, most were sleeping peacefully, anyway.

Alex was the only one who was tossing and turning in his bed, his breathing unsteady as he let out small noises of distress, with the blanket being pulled every time he rolled over and he started to kick his legs as if he was running or trying to fight back against something.

This continued as the shadows began to shift in the far corner of the room, stirring and wiggling around before a shadow figure slowly began to rise from them.

This figure was revealed to be Darkrai, who stepped out of the corner and looked at the sleeping human, a look of deep concern coming onto his face as he then walked over to him.

Raising one of his clawed hands and holding it palm side down over them, he closed his eyes and focused, taking slow breaths.

After a few moments, a light purple mist began to rise out of the human’s head, which coalesced into the nightmare pokemon’s clawed hand like he was creating a tiny nebula within in.

After a couple of minutes the mist stopped coming out of his head and it finished coalescing into Darkrai’s hand, now fully formed into a light purple orb that looked very similiar to a Will-o-Wisp if not for it looking like it was made of ghostly mist rather than ghostly fire.

He then began to turn his hand over, almost looking like he was going to purposefully drop the orb, until he pinched it by its very tip, letting it hang in the open air as it gently swayed back and forth.

This was followed by him slowly lifting up his hand as he opened his mouth at the same time, his cartoonish triangular teeth being put on full display.

’Down the hatch.’ the dark-type thought as he then dropped the orb into his gaping maw, which closed like a bear trap as he then began to chew on the orb several times, silently gagging as the taste hit him, which was a deep seeded fear only present in very bad nightmares.

Which was followed by him swallowing it, or trying his best to as he gagged even more, before it then slowly and noticeably slid down his gullet.

Once he felt it hit his stomach, he closed his eyes as he allowed the contents of the orb to fill his mind.

The chill of the dark wasteland hit him like a wall, and it made him even more worried as he realized it was another of these dreams.

”What’s happened here..? Why does everything look so dead and lifeless?”

Ok, that was definitely Alex’s voice. Though, it wasn’t exactly difficult to recognize given he’s heard it over and over these past couple of weeks.

But, he seemed scared and confused, if not terrified of wherever he was. Though, he also had no idea of where exactly this was as no part of the world was dead and lifeless, in fact it was quite the opposite.

”Because the flow of time has been stopped all across the world. Without the flow of time, nothing can occur, and as such..well, you see the results,”

That was another male’s voice. Who it belonged to, Darkrai had absolutely no idea, but whoever it was, he could tell they were someone Alex held close to him, even if he couldn’t remember.

”Why did the flow of time stop? I thought time was immovable?,”

Perhaps it was wherever Alex originally came from, but it certainly wasn’t here. It was the god of time’s job to keep time flowing normally, which he had done this through the creation of his Time Gears.

These gears were, in the god of time’s own words, like the gears of a grandfather clock. They all worked together to keep everything running smoothly, but if one or more were ever to be taken out of their proper places, well..

The fellow god never mentioned what would happen should this ever occur, but the dark-type could guess it would definitely be not good at all.

”Not here it isn’t. It can easily be disrupted, but i know there is a way to fix it, i just have to find it”

”Can I come with you? I don't want to be a bother but i've got nowhere to go and..,”

”Of course you can. Come on, i found a place nearby we can stay at for the time being until we get a plan together,”

He thought for a moment that the dream ended there, as everything went silent, though this was proven false as the conversation then continued.

”W-What’s your name?,”

”Call me Treecko, what’s yours?,”

”..A-Alex,”

”It’s nice to meet ya, Alex. I do wish we could have met under better circumstances but, you know..”

”You couldn’t help it, i’m just glad you saved me from those crazy things..”

”It’s no problem. Now, come on, who knows if anymore are gonna show up,”

Darkrai then slowly opened his eyes as the dream faded away completely, though his attention was then diverted as he saw the human was waking up.

“Mmm..Darkrai?,” Alex asked as he opened one of his eyes and saw the dark-type standing before him.

He smirked a little as he crossed his arms. “Of course, who else did you think it would be?,”

“Hmm..No one in particular comes to mind,”

The dark-type chuckled and kneeled down, kissing the human, who gladly returned it before they slowly sat up in their bed.

This made the vampire smile a little. “..Do you want to talk about it?,”

“What’s there to talk about? I know you used Dream Eater on me, so you know what happened,”

That was true, and hell, this wasn’t even the first time he had used the move on his soulmate this week, but that was besides the point.

“I know, but you know talking about it will help you feel better,”

Alex sighed and nodded, knowing Darkrai was right. “Yea..”

The dark-type smiled softly. “What do you want to drink this time?,”

”Do we have hot chocolate?,” the human asked.

“I’ll go check, but if we don't, what would you like?”

“Hmm..Chocolate milk!,”

Darkrai chuckled softly. “Alright. Just stay right here, ok?,”

To which Alex nodded in response and the dark type then slid out of the room through the shadows, leaving him by himself.

This only lasted a few minutes as the dark-type reappeared in the room holding a large glass of chocolate milk in his clawed hand, which he gave to the human, who gladly took it.

Alex then took a small drink of it and smiled a little, which made Darkrai smile a little too.

The dark-type then sat down next to him on the bed. “Now, are you ready to talk about it?,”

The human took another small drink of it and nodded. “Yea, i am,”

Darkrai nodded, simply waiting for the human to talk. This was about them and not him, after all.

“I..I think that pokemon was my old partner in that dark wasteland i saw in my dream when i first woke up after being brought here,”

The dark-type nodded, remembering Alex told him about that. “And what do you think happened to them?,”

The human shrugged. “I don't know, i…I think I would know if they had died, right? Like i’d just feel it deep down inside,”

Darkrai nodded again. He wasn’t being uncaring or anything, he was giving Alex the spotlight to speak his mind and didn’t want him to feel like he was taking that away from him.

“That is a very fair assumption. But,do you think they ended up here with you?,”

”I mean…Maybe? If they did they certainly didn’t end up where i did,”

The dark-type nodded, placing a clawed hand onto his back and gently rubbing it. “We’ll find them eventually, i’m sure,”

“I..I hope so,” The human said as he slowly leaned into Darkrai’s touch, allowing himself to relax, if only the slightest little bit.

“And then there is this gear symbol on our hands..i just feel like its really important to all of this, but i have no idea how exactly,”

The dark-type nodded. He knew what the symbols were, the Time Gears, though they were supposed to be at Temporal Tower under the watchful eye of the god of time, as they have been since he crafted them when the world had just been created by Arceus.

But, what he heard in the human’s dream had him very worried, as the flow of time being disrupted and coming to a complete halt would be a disaster of world ending proportions if it ever happened, and judging from what that Treecko said, that very disaster occured.

With the dark, lifeless wasteland that Alex described to him likely being the end product of the flow of time coming to a halt.

But the question was, when did or would it happen? It couldn’t have been the past as if something like that ever did happen, he would definitely remember it.

So, the only option left was that it happens in the future, but how long exactly into the future? Days? Weeks? Months? Years?

He could only guess, given it was impossible to know exactly when, though this only made his worries grow as a result.

Darkrai was brought out of his thoughts as he felt Alex lean into him more, his head laying on the dark-type’s shoulder.

He looked and then wrapped an arm around him, a soft smile coming onto his face. “We’ll figure it all out, you have my promise on that,”

”Thank you,”

He smiled more and nodded, kissing the top of the human’s head. “Welcome,”

Alex then let out a yawn, which made Darkrai chuckle. “Get some rest, you sound like you need it,”

The human was going to argue, but he knew that the dark-type was right. Besides, they could talk more in the morning, anyway.

He nodded and relaxed as he felt Darkrai to lay him down, smiling as he then felt him kiss the side of his head and then stand up.

He then felt himself slowly drift off to a deep, dreamless sleep, courtesy of what he was sure was Darkrai using Hypnosis on him.

Once he was the dark-type then dark voided out of the room, but made sure to leave a shadowy doppleganger behind to keep watch over the sleeping human in case anything happened.

He needed to go talk to his brother about this.

——————————————————————————————

Dialga laid comfortably on the Temporal Pinnacle, the night sky, one of his dear sister Palkia’s creations, shining with billions (if not trillions) of stars and the light of the full moon.

This was another of his sisters creations, and from it were born both Darkrai and Cresslia, who each took dominion over a seperate but connected aspect of it.

Which were the New Moon and Full Moon, respectively. And speaking of…

The god of time slowly raised his head as he felt a strange breeze blow over and past him, before looking in the direction where it was going, his red eyes glowing in the darkness.

He almost smiled when he saw the form of Darkrai appearing from the shadows cast by the pillars around the outer edge of the pinnacle, and who made his way towards him.

“Ah, Darkrai. What brings you here, and at such a late hour too, brother?”

For the record, the two aren’t actually brothers by blood. None of the other gods were really related either, they just used the terms ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ in the same way communes of monks did.

It was actually Mew of all people who brought this up, having spent time with several communes in the early days of the world, with everyone finding the idea agreeable and thus they’ve used them since that day.

”Are the Time Gears safe, Dialga?,”

“…Of course they are,”

The dark-type crossed his arms with an unamused look on his face. It was clear the hesitancy in the dragon/steel-type’s voice was all too obvious.

”Brother.”

“…I hid a few away, to keep them safe,”

“…How many is ‘a few?’,”

“…Five,”

”FIVE?! YOU HID FIVE OF THEM AWAY?!,”

Dialga winced a little as Darkrai yelled, but he knew it was only because he cared about them.

“What happened, brother?,”

“I…I had a vision of a dark cataclysm. One where the flow of time came to a halt because the time gears were stolen away, and i had been become lost in the bottomless depths of insanity,”

“So, to hopefully prevent it, i sent five of the 8 Time Gears away and put in the care of only those i trust enough to carry out the task,”

Ok. It most definitely wasnt a coincedence that both Dialga and Alex dreamed of the same dark wasteland, meaning they both were connected to it somehow..just another thing that made his worry grow, but he was doing a good job at not showing it.

“You gave one to Azelf, Mesprit and Uxie, didn’t you?,”

Darkrai actually had no idea where the three Lake Guardians were, as they tended to be very private and kept away from others most of the time.

Hell, most of the gods did, though the three guardians were the avatars of Willpower, Emotion, and Knowledge respectively, and as such they held a special connection to mortals.

But, perhaps after granting such gifts to the world, they decided to just sit back and watch everything unfold. It wasn’t an entirely unheard of thing for the gods to do, after all.

Dialga nodded. “Yes, I did. And the last two i hid away myself in places no one would ever think to look,”

This did little to actually calm the dark-type as he knew this ‘dark cataclysm’ was likely still going to occur even with the steps taken by the god of time.

”And how do you feel?,”

”I feel alright, Darkrai. I appreciate your concern for me, but i am ok,”

“And what have Palkia and Giratina said about you doing this?,”

”They reacted similarly to you. But they understood why i did it once i told them what i’ve told you,”

”Well, if you start to feel strange in any way, you need to let someone know, and bring the Time Gears back immediately,”

”I will, brother, you have my word,”

Darkrai nodded and then started to walk away, but Dialga stopped him. ”Oh, and brother?,”

The dark-type turned his head so he was looking back at the god of time “what is it?,”

A small smirk then came onto the dragon’s face. ”You absolutely reek of the scent of mortals, and especially of one mortal in particular. Have you finally found a proper mate or are you just up to your usual antics?,”

This question, as well as his older brother smirking, made Darkrai’s face turn a deep shade of red. “I-i um well you see..,”

The god of time chuckled at his reaction. ”It is alright brother, i’m happy for you,”

”I-i…i mean, he does make me really happy…like really, really happy,”

”Then i suggest you make your claim of him, before someone else tries to,”

Like hell that last part was ever going to happen. Alex and him were soulmates, and as such no one actually could take the human away from him, but he wasn’t gonna tell him that.

”I-I will, brother…eventually. When the time feels right,”

”Good,”

The dark-type nodded and then dark voided away, leaving the god of time by himself once again.

he did wonder as he drifted back off to sleep if he would ever get to meet this mortal, mainly cause he was curious as to what this mortal had that caught his brothets attention.

—————————————————————————

By the time Dakrai returned to the guild, the sun was already starting to rise above the nearby horizon, though he didn’t care as he knew he didn’t miss much while he was gone.

However, he didn’t reappear inside Alex’s room, but rather outside of Wigglytuff’s chambers, and while he expected the guildmaster to be asleep or to just now be waking up, he didnt expect him to speak out before the dark-type could even move.

“Come in, Darkrai,”

He gulped and slowly walked inside, seeing Wigglytuff sitting on their carpet, their eyes wide and the same small smile on their face.

Always up bright and early, aren’t you?,”

”Guildmaster duty often requires punctuality, Darkrai,”

“No offense, but punctual isn’t exactly a word i’d use to describe you, Wigglytuff,”

The guildmaster chuckled. “None taken, old friend. But, i know you didn’t come here just to talk about nothing,”

Darkrai nodded. “It’s about Alex,”

“Is it about his dreams?,”

”Yea, i had to use Dream Eater on him again, and what i heard..he’s slowly remembering but its giving him really bad nightmares,”

Wigglytuff nodded, a worried look on his face. “Was anyone else awakened this time?,”

“No, thankfully. He woke up after i used dream eater and we talked about what happened,”

The guildmaster nodded. “You want to know if there’s anyone who can help, don't you?,”

”I mean, we’ve tried Drowzee, Hypno, Sinistea, Polteageist, and hell even Jigglypuff! Who else can we turn to??,”

“Perhaps it is not help with his dreams that he needs, but rather he needs answers,”

”And where or from whom are we gonna get these answers, exactly?,”

Wigglytuff went into thought for a few minutes before answering. “You’ve heard of Xatu, yes?,”

”Isn’t he the Seer who can see the past and future through staring up at the sun?,”

The guildmaster nodded. “Yes, and he lives deep within the Great Canyon. Apparently he’s considered a hermit because of it,”

”Hmm…the Great Canyon’s pretty far away, though. I doubt i could dark void both me and alex there without me passing out the second my feet touch the ground,”

“Then you’ll just have to find another way for you two to travel there,”

Darkrai nodded. “I’ll figure something out,”

“Oh, i have no doubt you will,”

The dark-type smiled though he suddenly looked up and to the left, which made Wigglytuff chuckle.

“Go to Alex, old friend. You’ve gotta talk to him anyway,”

Darkrai nodded and dark voided away, reappearing in the human’s bedroom, where he saw said human was waking up slowly.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty.”

”Mmm…good morning to you too,”

The dark-type smiled as Alex got up out of bed and walked over to the nearby dresser and dug through the drawers to get some clean clothes, which he then changed into.

Though, the human recognized the look on the vampire’s face almost immediately, and knew what was about to happen.

”We need to talk again, don’t we?,”

Darkrai nodded. “Yes, we do,”

Alex nodded too and stretched. “Talk over breakfast?”

”Of course,” the dark-type answered before holding out his clawed hand, which the human took before they teleported away, reappearing outside Incineroar’s Bar a few seconds later.

“Ramen for breakfast? Now you’re just spoiling me~,”

“Cause you deserve to be spoiled,”

Alex blushed a little as they headed inside and took a seat in an empty booth, both ordering what they wanted and it soon came to their table, before they both started to dig in.

”So, what do you want to talk about?,”

Darkrai took a moment to finish the food in his mouth before speaking. “Well, it's about your dreams lately,”

”Oh..,”

”It's not bad, I promise. It’s just i believe i’ve found a way for you to get some answers involving them,”

“You have? What did you find?,”

And so the dark-type explained his conversation with Wigglytuff, Alex paying attention to every word until he finished.

The human then went into thought as he went over everything Darkrai just told him for several minutes before speaking. “Lets…Let's do it, i mean it couldn’t hurt, right?,”

The dark-type smiled and nodded as they both then returned to eating their not so traditional breakfast, finishing it after several minutes.

”Are you guys heading out already?,”

They both turned and saw Incineroar standing there wearing a typical ramen chef’s outfit and a huge, toothy smile on her face.

”Yep, we’re trying to figure out a way to get to the Great Canyon and-,” Alex explained

”Great Canyon, huh? That is far from here..oh! Why don’t you two just borrow my motorcycle?,”

Both the human and darkrai looked at each for a moment before looking back at Incineroar. “You have a motorcycle?,” Darkrai asked.

”Yea! Been building it piece by piece for years now, but its finished and i couldn’t be prouder!,”

”Where is your motorcycle?,” Alex asked.

“It's out back! It's got a full tank so just grab it and go!,” Incineroar answered.

They both smiled and thanked Incineroar, before paying for their food and teleporting back to the guild and getting their travel bags good and ready, then teleporting once again to behind the bar.

The motorcycle was one of those old, classic ones from the 1960's, chrome and a bright cherry red paint decorating it with a large sidecar attached to the side by several bolts.

They set their bags in the sidecar’s seat, not really have any other choice, but they knew they'd be safe there at the very least.

”Wow, she wasn’t kidding,”

“No, she wasn’t. Come on, i’ll drive,”

Alex nodded and helped get the motorcycle up before they both hopped on it and drove out of the village and towards Great Canyon together.

——————————————————————————————

Several hours passed by in what felt like a flash, and it was now nearing sunset as the two were still riding the motorcycle.

Alex, who was been hanging onto Darkrai from behind, let out a loud and tired sounding yawn, making the dark-type glance back at him.

“Come on, let's make camp for the night,”

The human nodded as the motorcycle was quickly pulled off to the side of the road and then parked, with both of them getting off of it.

Both then walked over to a much bigger open area and set their bags down, before Darkrai dug through his and pulled out what looked like capsules from Dragon Ball Z.

“You’ll want to stand back, Alex,”

He nodded and took a good few steps back as the dark-type pushed a button on three capsules and tossed each of them in a different direction.

After a few seconds, the capsules popped and released a cloud of smoke, which dissapated after several moments and revealed a large (and comfy) look camping tent, a cooking grill and a large mobile shower had come out of each respective capsule.

”Wow..How did you fit those in those things?,”

“Shifters made them. Though they were originally created in The Mist Continent, they’ve quickly gained traction through the others as well,”

”We humans have brought a lot here, haven't we?,”

”Yes, you all have. Now, I'll get something cooking, you can take a shower if you’d like.”

The human blushed a little as the dark-type began to cook, and he dug through his own bag, pulling out a fresh change of clothes before setting it on top of his bag and then opening the shower door, which was very translucent so as to give privacy, before he stepped inside and shut the door behind him.

Though he remembered he needed a towel and washcloth, which he quickly got out and grabbed before heading back inside.

He set the towel on top of a small bench outside the door, keeping the washcloth as he’d be using it to wash his body.

He quickly took his clothes off and tossed them over the door of the shower, making them form a small pile on the ground, before he then turned the knobs to actually turn the shower on, which hissed to life as hot water began to come out of the shower head.

He then moved so he was standing under it, allowing the water to cover him as he began to get his hair wet.

Once it sufficiently was, he grabbed the shampoo and squeezed a good amount out onto his hand, which he then used to lather up his hair, making sure he gets it everywhere.

He then stepped back under the water and started to wash the shampoo out of his hair, making sure he got all of it before he then grabbed the body wash and lathered up the washcloth with it before using it to scrub himself from head to toe, then washing it all off like with the shampoo.

He smiled as he felt a lot better, before then shutting off the water and grabbing the clean towel and using it to dry himself off, before he grabbed the change of clothes and put it all on and stepped out, stretching.

Feel better?,”

”Much better, yes. Whats for dinner?,”

”Steak with grilled vegetables,”

”Sounds delicious,”

Darkrai nodded as Alex joined, sitting beside him, the smell of the food slowly making them more and more hungry as the seconds ticked by.

After several minutes, the food was finally done and the Dark-Type served Alex first, then himself, before they both began to eat.

”This is delicious, Darkrai,”

“Glad you like it, Alex,”

The human smiled and continued eating until he finished all of it, letting out a small burp as he set the plate on a small seat, though his eyes drifted to something that glinted in the grass nearby, making him get up and walk over to it to see what it was.

He kneeled down and he picked up the object from the ground, which was revealed to be a slanted retangular slab of metal that was as green as the grass around it and the surface glinted like a mirror.

”Huh..?” He said to himself before the plate started to glow the same green color before it then became an orb of light that floated in his hands before it flew and disappeared int his chest, which glowed in the shape of the orb before it faded too.

”…What just happened??,”

”Alex? You ok?”

Alex turned back towards Darkrai, who was looking at him with a look of concern on his face.

”Yea, i’m ok, just really confused,”

”Oh? What happened?,”

So Alex explained what just happened, and Darkrai’s eyes widened a little bit when he heard about the green metal plate.

“You must have found one of Arceus’s Plates! But, i’ve never heard of one doing that to anyone whose found one before,”

”Maybe he wants me to find them? But if he does, why can i absorb them?,”

The Dark-Type shrugged. “No clue. But, you should keep looking for them,”

“I’ll do that. But i wonder what i can do now?,”

He looked at his arm and hand, which was covered by the plaid sleeve of his shirt, however, he focused for a few moments and little vined started to grow out of the end of his sleeves, with them curling around the cuff of said sleeve.

Pulling up his sleeve, he saw that vines were growing like veins down his arm, covering it like it was a fence post, but it strangely didn’t hurt when he gently tugged at them.

With a little focus, he made them grow a little more so they went past the end of the sleeve, before he then focused on his bag and made the vines launch towards it and wrap around the handle, where he then dragged it towards him.

“Whoa. You can use Vine Whip now!,”

“Is that what's this is called? Neat, wonder if i can use other moves too?”

Darkrai nodded as Alex let out a yawn, which made them chuckle.

“Let's head to bed, we got a big day tomorrow,”

The human nodded as the Dark-Type finished eating, before they both walked over to the tent and unzipped the front before crawling inside, seeing that it was a good size on the inside, with two sleeping bags laying on the floor with an electric lantern sitting between where the pillows were.

Alex quickly undressed down to his boxers, making Darkrai blush as he got ready too, and they both laid down facing one another.

Goodnight, love,”

“Goodnight, love,”

The dark-type then kissed him, the human returning it before they both fell asleep together after shutting the lantern off.

However, Darkrai only slept for a few hours before awakening as a sweet scent filled not just his nose, but the entire tent.

Even in his groggy state, he knew it wasn’t Alex using Sweet Scent, cause that was a Normal-Type move and he couldn’t use those, well yet anyway.

He then realized what time of the year it was, and he silently and figuratively slapped himself when he did, as he should've realized sooner and planned for it.

“Alex. Alex, wake up,” the dark-type stated as he gently shook him by the shoulder.

”Mmmm..Huh? What's goin on?,” the human asked as he opened his eyes and slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes.

lAlex..you’re in heat,”

The human felt his face heat up. “W-what? How?? Im human!,”

Darkrai sighed. “Its because you’re a shifter. It happens to all of them at different times of the year, and right now, all Water-Type shifters are in heat, so its not just you at the moment,”

Alex nodded. “so..how can we make it go away?,”

The Dark-Type blushed deeply. “W-well…we have to..do THAT,”

Do..That?…Oh. OH,” Alex blushed deeply too, realizing exactly what Darkrai was talking about.

The Dark-Type nodded. “Are you ok with trying that?”

”I mean, yea…i’ve just never done it before…,”

Darkrai blushed hard. He had no idea that Alex hadn’t done this before, but he knew that they’d just have to go slow, which he didn’t mind.

”Then we’ll go slow, just let me take the lead snd if you’re uncomfortable with anything, just say “stop” ok?,”

The human nodded blushing as the Dark-Type kissed him, with him returning it as he was gently pushed over with Darkrai gently crawling so he was laying on top of him

”Ready?,”

”Yes,”

The dark-type smiled and kissed him again, the human smiling too as he let him take over, knowing he’d take good care of him…

——————————————————————————————

Alex was the first to wake up the next morning, cuddled in Darkrai’s clawed hands and arms as his body felt sore all over and he was covered in scratches, bruises and bitemarks, but did he regret any of it? No, not at all, but right now he just wanted to take a shower as he felt like he needed one.

Being careful to both not hurt himself or wake up the Dark-Type, he made his way out of the tent and shivered a little as the early morning air went over his unclothed body, and he quickly made his way over to the shower and got inside, turning on the hot water.

He smiled once it was nice and hot, before stepping under the water and letting it cover his sore body, letting out a content sigh as he relaxed.

This lasted for several minutes as he closed his eyes, but he then felt a coldish breeze followed by a pair of arms wrapping around his waist, claws gently gripping his hips as he felt nuzzling into the side of his neck, followed by a peppering of small kisses.

Well now, look what i’ve found,”

”Oh shush, i was trying not to wake you,”

“I wouldn’t have minded. Besides, you can’t blame me for admiring my handiwork~,”

Alex smiled as he felt darkrai rub his hips more.
“What am i, a painting?,”

“Well, you’re body is quite the canvas, and not to brag, but i think i made something beautiful of it,”

“That you did. Thank you for last night, love,”

”You’re very welcome, Alex. You get washed up, i’ll cook up a quick breakfast and then we’ll pack up and get on the road, we do have to get to Great Canyon today,”

Right, i’ll be quick,”

“Ok, just be careful,”

Darkrai nodded and teleported out, with the human quickly scrubbing down his body and washing his hair, before shutting off the water and drying off, stepping out of the shower, grabbing an outfit and changing into it.

This outfit consisted of a grey tank top with red plaid button up shirt, a pair of olive green shorts that went down to his knees and a pair of leather sandals to finish the look.

He then quickly tied his hair back into a small ponytail using a hair tie, smiling before he walked over to Darkrai, who was cooking what looked like more roasted vegetables, and it smelled very good like it did last night.

”Come on and eat, i’ll get things packed up,”

Alex nodded as he was handed a plate of the vegetables, where he then began to eat it, as his companion used his shadow tendrils to pack everything back up into their capsules, before he placed the capsules in his bag.

The human finished the vegetables as Darkrai did the same, the two then grabbing their bags and putting them in the sidecar before moving the kickstand and they both hopped on, driving off and heading towards the Great Canyon.

By the time they finally arrived at the entrance, it was near noon and the sun was already high in the bright blue sky, little wispy clouds slowly floating by every now and again and several Flying-Types could be see flying by overhead as they parked the motorcycle and got off, grabbing their bags from the sidecar and putting them on their backs.

”Well, here we are,”

”Wow..so how big is this place?,”

”Gigantic. Xatu is on the very far end, so, if we start now, we’ll likely reach the far side by sunset,”

Then let’s not wait around, come on,”

The Dark-Type nodded and the two headed inside the canyon through the large crack like opening, the motorcycle sitting in the spot they left it as a tiny Natu peeked out from behind a medium sized rock, making a cute noise before it followed after them, its tiny, clawed feet carrying it as it did so..

Chapter Text

“Wow..this place is beautiful..” Alex said as the two walked, the walls of the canyon towering over them and everything else.

These walls were decorated by small, letter shaped carvings, which the Dark-Type explained were based on Psychic-Type pokemon called Unknown, as well as these small, round shaped holes that looked like they had bird’s nests inside them.

The vampire then explained that Natu lived in this canyon alongside Xatu, so they made these holes and nests to give them a place to sleep at night.

Darkrai nodded in agreement, pulling up the hood on his robes. “That it is,”

This didn’t go unnoticed by the human, who gave a small smile. “…Whats up? You don’t like the sun here?,”

“I can normally tolerate it, but here it feels like someone has cast Sunny Day, over the entire canyon”

Alex raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Sunny Day? Is that some kind of pokemon move?,”

The dark-type nodded. “Its a Status move, it basically intensifies the sunlight, and that gives a boost to fire types and any fire-type moves that are used,”

The human nodded. “It does? Well, i don’t really feel hot or anything,”

“That’s because you’re a Water-Type, due to being able to shift into a Frogadier, and Water-Type’s have an type advantage over Fire-Types,”

“Because water puts out fires?,”

“Exactly, though you’d still get burned or hurt a little bit if you were hit by any moves of that type, the damage would be almost unnoticeable,”

The human nodded and they both continued walking, the sun beating down on them, as well as the Natu was still following after them.

Neither were aware of the little guy doing so, though, the tiny Psychic/Flying type still running on its tiny legs and kicking up tiny clouds of dust as it went.

“…Think we can stop and take a break soon? We have been walking for a while now,”

“Yea, i do need to check the map anyway, make sure we’re going the right direction,”

The human nodded, the two continuing to walk until the reached what looked to be a large natural tunnel, the top of the walls of the canyon having grown outwards to form a roof, however there were what looked to be holes in said roof as they could see beams of sunlight in places.

“Lets take a rest in there, get out of this heat,”

Alex nodded once again as they quickly headed into the tunnel, thankfully not having to go too far before they found a large flat topped rock outcropping which they climbed onto, mainly to keep them off of the tunnel floor.

This was to keep them safe from Skorupi, who were known to live in this Mystery Dungeon alongside several other pokemon, at least thats what Darkrai told him.

Once they got settled in, Darkrai got the map out of his bag and rolled it out, using a few smaller rocks to keep it open as he got a small electric lantern out of his bag and turned it on.

At the same time, Alex took a drink from a small canteen in his bag, putting the cap back on and setting it down.

“Are we going in the right direction?”

“Hmm. From what the map is showing, we are. There is still quite abit to go to get to the far end, but if we keep going we should still reach it by sunset,”

“I’m guessing we’re going to have to spend the night here?,”

“Probably, but it won’t be that bad,”

The human nodded, taking another drink from his canteen, though he let out a small hiss of pain due to still feeling sore in places.

“You ok?,”

“Y-Yea, just still feeling a little sore is all,”

The Dark-Type nodded and dug through his bag, pulling out what he was looking for and tossing it to Alex, who caught it with his cupped hands.

Which was revealed to a red colored, small punching bag shaped berry. “What kind of berry is this??,”

“Its a Chople Berry. It provides protection against Fighting-Type moves when eaten, but Fighting-Types actually use these after they get through training or exercising due to it’s ability to sooth soreness,”

The human nodded and popped the berry into his mouth and began to eat it, swallowing it after a minute or so of chewing.

Once it hit his stomach, he felt a warmth begin to radiate through his body, making the soreness he had been feeling fade away.

“Wow…”

“Incredible, right? I’ll have to teach you about the other berries once we get back to the guild,”

Alex nodded and they quickly got packed back up and headed out, continuing to walk towards their destination.

However, the tiny Natu had finally caught up to them, running out in front of them and them both stop walking to look down at them.

The human kneeled down. “Hey, little guy! Have…you been following us?,”

The Psychic/Flying Type gave a small nod, before hopping a few times in times, though this made Alex raise an eyebrow in confusion.

“Hey Darkrai, i think this little guy is trying to tell us something,”

The Dark-Type gave a nod in agreement with Alex’s words. “I’d say he is, though it seems like he can’t speak like we can,”

“Wait, i thought all pokemon could talk??,”

“Not all can, Alex. Its confusing, but thats just how it is,”

“Ok, hmm…one hop for yes, two hops for no, sound good?,”

The Natu gave another small nod, which made the human smile. “Awesome! Now, were you following us to accompany to us to Xatu?,”

The tiny bird pokemon gave a single hop in response, before making a small chirp like sound and began to run ahead of the two, stopping and then hopping in place several times while making the same small chirp like sound.

“Come on, lets follow them,”

“After you,”

The human smiled and started walking, with the Dark-Type following after him, and the duo followed the Natu as it lead them deeper into the canyon.

————————————————————————————

“…What do you mean they aren’t here??” The Zoroark asked.

“Its like i just told you, neither Darkrai or Alex are here at the moment. Why are you even looking for them in the first place, anyway?,” Incineroar answered.

“I’m a friend of their’s,”

Incineroar chuckled. “A friend of Darkrai’s, maybe. But definitely not Alex, that boy’s too nice to be hanging around someone like you,”

“And what is that supposed to mean?,”

“It means whatever the fuck you want it to mean. Now, unless you’re going to order something, i suggest you leave cause ive got a lot of customers waiting,”

“..Give me the spicy ramen, please,”

The Fire/Dark Type nodded. “Ive got some orders ahead of yours, but i’ll make sure you get it nice and hot,”

The Dark-Type nodded and took a seat at the bar, sighing to himself. “Maybe i should have thought this over more…,”

“Yes, you definitely should have,”

The new voice made the Zoroark turn to face whoever it was, and it was revealed to be Lucario, who took a seat next to them.

“And who are you?,”

“Lucario. You must be Zoroark,”

The dark-type raised an eyebrow towards the fighting/steel type. “Didn’t know i made that much of an impression,”

“Oh it isn’t that. Your aura gave you away,”

“My aura?,”

“Yes. Your aura is similiar to Darkrai’s, so its easy to pick out of a crowd,”

“Why is that, because we’re both Dark-Types?,”

“Nope. It’s because you’re both vampires,”

Zoroark’s eyes widened a little bit as Lucario had a small smirk on his face. Though, before the dark-type could respond, the aura pokemon continued speaking.

“I don’t know why you’re here, but i suggest you don’t cause any trouble, especially towards Alex. Are we clear?,”

The dark-type could only give a scared nod in response.

“Good,”

Before Zoroark could even think of a response, his ramen was set in front of him, followed by Lucario’s being set in front of them.

They both then began to eat, a tension of sorts growing between them, though both did their best to ignore it for now.

Unsurprisingly, the jackal pokemon finished his meal first, putting a small pocket sized bag of poke’ on the bar and standing up. “Just stay out of trouble,”

He then left, giving one last glance to the Dark-Type before leaving.

Ok. Maybe he should have thought this through a little bit more…but, he was here now and he was going to see this through to the end…

Even though he had a feeling it wasn’t going to end well for him.

———————————————————————————

Alex and Darkrai, meanwhile, were still following the Natu through the canyon, the little guy seeming to have an endless amount of stamina as it was a good couple of feet ahead of the duo.

“Man…i really need to exercise more…” the human stated as he breathed heavily, stopping in his tracks to catch his breath.

The dark-type stopped beside him, reaching a clawed hand and gently rubbing his back in an up and down motion. “Once we get back we can focus more on your training,”

Alex nodded as he took a couple of minutes to regain his breath and slowly stood back up when he did.

Though, before either could move, the ground beneath their feet began to shake, drawing their attention towards it.

They began to look around, trying to find who or what was causing the shaking, and Darkrai’s eyes widened when he saw what it was.

“IT’S A TAUROS STAMPEDE!” The dark type yelled as he quickly grabbed both the human and the small flying/psychic-type and disappeared into his own shadow with them in tow.

At that moment, a dozen or so Tauros came stampeding past where they were once standing, the ground shaking like an earthquake as they all went by, and once they were all off in the distance ahead; Darkrai reappeared out of his shadow with Alex and the Natu beside him.

“Holy Arceus. That was…surprisingly nice feeling, like i was being wrapped up in a warm hug,”

The Natu gave a nod in agreement, with the dark-type giving a nonexistent smile in response.

“Though, i wonder whats got them all riled up?”

“Probably a skorupi, if i had to take a wild guess,”

“Im guessing Skorupi are like scorpions?,”

“Essentially, yes. Though they aren’t as dangerous as their evolution, Drapion,”

Alex nodded in understanding as the Natu ran ahead of them once again, and the two continued following it deeper into the canyon, the sun now in its early afternoon placement in the sky above.

Thankfully, by the time the very late afternoon rolled by, they had reached the far end of canyon, the bright orange glow of the sun covering everything as they walked up to the large plateau that lead up to a massive cliff.

Standing near the edge was what Alex could only describe as a brightly colored bird pokemon statue, its head tilted upwards towards the sun, seeming to watch it intently and it also didn’t seem to notice the three’s arrival.

The natu made several chirping noises as it bounced up and down, though the bird pokemon did not turn towards it, instead it spoke.

“Ah, you two have finally arrived.” The pokemon stated.

“…You’ve been expecting us this entire time??,” Alex asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, of course i have. I have forseen your arrival for a long time now,” the pokemon answered.

“Then you know exactly why we’re here,” Darkrai stated.

“That i do, yes,” Xatu said, finally turning around to face the two.

The psychic/flying-type then unfolded its wings, before speaking once again. “You are likely already aware that you two are what is colloquially known as soulmates, correct?,”

“Yes, why do you ask?,” the dark-type pokemon answered.

“Because you’re not just linked to each other, as there is another out there you have yet to find,” Xatu stated.

Alex and Darkrai’s eyes widened before they gave a glance to one another, with the human being the one to speak up first. “So, there’s another soulmate to us that we have yet to find?? Why did we not sense them before if that’s the case?,”

“Because they have not discovered their soulmate mark yet, like you two have,” the bird pokemon answered.

“However, you three are also linked to the fate of the very world itself. As indicated by the symbols on the back of your hands,” they continued.

“You mean these gear symbols??,” Alex questioned, to which Xatu gave a small nod.

“Exactly, which, those symbols represent what are known as the Time Gears, a set of godly artifacts that keep the flow of time in this world running continuously; and, that without them, the flow of time would come to a halt and a world ending apocolypse would occur,”

While Alex looked confused and worried, given the dream he had only a day previously, Darkrai’s previous worries were only confirmed, and it made him feel like his heart had fallen into his stomach.

“Do you know where these Time Gears are..?,” Alex asked, looking down when he felt Darkrai’s hand grab his own.

“Most of them, i do not. But i DO know where one is,” the psychic/flying type answered.

“…And can you tell us where it is??,” the vampire questioned, feeling his eye twitch a little.

“If you would give me a few moments, impatient little vampire, i will,” Xatu answered.

The bird pokemon cleared his throat a few times before he then continued speaking, its eyes glowing a bright blue color. “The Gear is in the lake bound by fog, protected by the one who gave the first life of this world the power of the mind,”

The human raised an eyebrow in confusion, turning his head towards the dark-type. “Uh…Darkrai, you know what this guy’s talking about?,”

“Hmm…i think so…? Anyway, now that we have our answers, we should head back to the guild-,” the dark-type started to answer, but Xatu cut him off.

“You are not travelling back tonight. You both will be staying here until morning,” the bird pokemon stated firmly.

“…Right. Come on, lets go set up camp somewhere where we won’t be bothered by any wild pokemon,”

Alex nodded and followed him, soon finding a good area to set up camp not too far from where Xatu was.

Once they did so, they ate supper, which was just leftovers from both their supper the previous night and breakfast that morning, cleaning up and then getting ready to head to sleep, the human changing into what he usually slept in.

“Goodnight Darkrai.”

“Goodnight Alex,” Darkrai then placed a gentle kiss on the human’s forehead. “Sweet dreams.”

“You too, love,”

They both smiled and Alex was unsurprisingly the first to fall asleep, the dark-type holding the human in his arms as their breathing was slow and calm, indicating he was sleeping peacefully.

This made the vampire smile a little bit, before he too fell asleep, resting his head on Alex’s right shoulder, his face buried into his neck.

Alex awoke first and early the next morning, smiling as he saw Darkrai still sleeping, his chest slowly rising and falling with his steady breathing.

He carefully and quietly wiggled out of the dark-types arms, before getting dressed and sneaking out of the tent, zipping it closed behind him.

However, before he could even put a thought towards what he could possibly do, he got the sudden urgent feeling in the back of his mind that he should check on Xatu, so, grabbing his two knives from his bag, he quickly ran towards where he hoped the pokemon was ok.

——————————————————————————

It thankfully did not take him all that long to arrive where they had left the psychic-flying type the evening previously, however when he got there, Xatu was nowhere to be seen, which only made the human worry more.

The large cliff was completely barren of life other than Alex himself, a soft breeze blowing past which kicked up some dirt, forming clouds of dust against the rocky ground.

The human let out a small sigh. “Maybe i’m just imagining things…i should just head back to Darkrai,“ he then turned around, and his eyes went wide at what, or rather who he saw. “…Who are you??”

Standing at the entrance to the large cliff was what Alex assumed was a grass type, given how green they looked and from what he could the pokemon had blades of grass on its arms.

Most of its reptile-like body was covered by a tattered brown cloak, a belt around its waist which had several pockets attached to it and a golden buckle, while its head was covered by the hood of the cloak, though he could see it had yellow, reptile like eyes.

And yet…Alex felt like the figure was familiar to him, somehow…but he just couldn’t remember how.

And it wasn’t helped by the fact the tattoo on his arm began to glow softly, though he shook his head and ignored that for now.

The cloaked figure shook their head despite being intrigued by the now glowing tattoo. “Who i am doesn’t matter. Now, where is Xatu?,”

“Why do you want him?? If you’re even thinking of hurting him…,”

The figure scoffed. “I’ll be the one asking the questions. And why shouldn’t i? After all, between the two of us, i’ll be the only one who will be walking away from here alive,”

This was followed by the blades of grass on the figures arms extending a little bit and glowing a bright green color, his body moving into a fighting position.

Alex scowled angrily in response as he gripped his dual knives tightly in his hands. “Tch. Guess again!,”

The wind started to pick up a little, with the clouds of dust becoming more substantial as the two rushed towards each other, weapons drawn.

Darkrai, meanwhile, awoke with a start, gasping as he sat up and he put a clawed hand against his bare chest, his own heart beating like he just run a marathon.

“What the fuck. Why…?” His eyes then widened and he looked around, seeing that Alex wasn’t there. “Wait, where’s Alex?!”

He quickly slipped on his clothes and got out of the tent, his panic growing as he saw that the human, no…HIS human was still nowhere to be seen.

“Where could he have gone?? There’s no way he couldve walked back through, could he??” He quickly smacked the cheeks on his face with his hands a few times to center himself. “Focus, Darkrai, focus! Ok, if he didn’t go that way…then he likely went to Xatu.”

He then felt a shiver go down his spine, making his eyes widen a little bit. “I’d better hurry, cause i just got a really bad feeling..”

He then started running towards where Xatu was, hoping to Arceus himself that he didn’t get there too late.

———————————————————————————

Speaking of which, Alex was thrown backwards by the grass-type’s leaf storm, knocking him back a good few feet and causing him to slam into the ground in a heap, his body covered in cuts and bruises from their fight; while his knives clattered onto the ground a foot or so behind him.

He then tried to lift himself up, though didn’t get far as he fell back down, letting out a small squeak of pain as he did so. “Ow…”

The figure smirked as he walked towards the human laying on the ground, making a ‘tsk’ noise as he did so. “Is that really all you’ve got..? Cause i didn’t even break a sweat,”

Alex attempted to raise his head once again, managing to get it high enough to glare up at them though said nothing.

Though, a large will-o-wisp like fireball then fell from the sky and exploded in between both of them, making the human duck down and cover his head with his arms while the grass-type backflipped away before it could even touch him.

This was followed by Darkrai landing in front of Alex, the human looking up and smiling a little bit once he saw him. “Darkrai!,”

The dark type turned around and kneeled down before putting a clawed hand beneath the human’s chin, gently lifting up his head and placing a kiss against his forehead.

However, this was immediately proven to not be a normal kiss, as Alex felt re-energized and the deep pain that was going through his body almost instantly faded away, though before he could ask what they just did, Darkrai stood up and turned around to face the grass-type.

“Now, who the hell are you, and why did you attack Alex?,”

“Hmph. Like i told your little boyfriend, who i am doesn’t matter. As for why i attacked him…Heh well, it’s simple, really. He got in my way,”

The dark-type clenched his fist, before summoning his shadow scimitar to his hand, gripping the handle tightly as he glared at the figure. “I’ll show you what happens when you fuck with what isn’t yours,”

“We both will!,”

This made Darkrai turn his head to the side, seeing that Alex was now back up on his feet, having run up to beside him and was holding his knives in his hands.

The two then nodded to each other before facing the cloaked grass-type, the grass blades glowing and growing once again.

This was immediately followed the figure leaping forward into the air, spinning and launching a couple dozen leaf like blades towards the two, though they dodged it and ran towards them.

This was followed by a fast flurry of blades, blocking, slashing, and dodging, and if anyone were watching their battle unfold, they likely wouldn’t be able to keep up.

The enemy pokemon smirked, however, and suddenly rushed towards them, looking as though he was aiming straight for the man, however he changed direction aimed for Darkrai; but Alex quickly jumped in front of him and crossed his arms to defend against the surprise attack.

All three were shocked when a small barrier of water suddenly appeared where Alex had held up his hands, blocking the attack as it shimmered, before the human smirked and countered, the barrier shattering and him delivering a hard kick to the grass-type’s abdomen.

This kick sent them skidding across the ground as they gripped their stomach, their body trembling a little though they managed to stay standing.

“Eugh…OK. You want to play hard ball? Lets see how you two do against THIS,” he pulled out a blueish-grey colored metal plate, and smirked at Darkrai. “Looks familiar, doesnt it~?”

Darkrai’s eyes went wide, before an angry scowl crossed his face. “How do you have that?!,”

The grass-type didn’t answer, simply tightening his grip on the plate as a dark energy flowed out from it and into their arm and body, a chuckle escaping them as it did so.

“Is that one of Arceus Plates, Darkrai?,”

The dark-type nodded. “It is, yes. It is called the Dread Plate, and it is of the same type as i am,”

The human nodded, though before either could react, the grass-type leaped into the air towards them and moved his arms, causing several bolts of dark electricity to shoot out and hit both of them.

It did however hurt Alex more than it did Darkrai, due to him having a weakness to Electric-Type attacks and all, but he quickly shook it off and got back into the fight.

To his credit, the human managed to land a good few hits, though he was caught off guard as the grass type seemed to vanish into thin air, before reappearing above him and attempting to slam down onto him, but thankfully he managed to dodge roll out of the way.

Darkrai would, of course, get his own hits in, and it was clear he was the better of the two when it came to combat, but he knew as long as Alex continued training, he would be as good as him in no time.

Back to the point, it had rather quickly turned into a flurry of movement, the two dodging both his lightning attacks but also him creating dark fireballs; which he launched at them though they were caught off guard several times by them splitting into multiple smaller ones, but the two still managed to pepper him with hits when they saw an opening.

And it didn’t take long for the duo to gain the upper hand, with the grass-type ending up slamming into the ground once Alex knocked him up into the air twice, going higher with each hit but knocking him back down to the ground with the third and final hit.

The human, meanwhile, landed on the ground next to Darkrai, who had wide eyes and a mixed look of surprise and proudness on his face.

Alex gave a smile and a thumbs up to the dark-type, the two watching the still form of the grass-type as they laid on their back on the ground, though they quickly jumped back onto their feet, the two preparing to fight again if necessary.

The grass-type however, did not move from where he stood, instead pulling out a smoke bomb from his cloak. “Hmph. You win this time…but consider yourselves on probation from now on.”

This was followed by him then throwing it down onto the ground, where it exploded in a large and dense cloud of smoke, making Alex and Darkrai cough for around thirty seconds before it completely faded, but left the oddly mixed smell of sugar and gunpowder in the air.

And once it faded, it was revealed the cloaked figure had vanished into thin air, not a single trace of them left behind.

However, the human suddenly fell onto his hands and knees after his legs buckled beneath him, and the dark-type acted quickly and kneeled down beside him, a look of concern heavy on his face.

He then began to gently run a clawed hand up and down Alex’s back in a slow pattern, sometimes stopping to rub a small circle in a certain spot before returning to the previous movement. “That fight took a lot out of you, huh?”

Alex could only nod, due to feeling so physically exhausted, but it was enough for the dark-type to understand.

“Come on, lets get you back to camp and into a nice, hot shower. Then, i’ll cook a good breakfast,” he placed a kiss onto the side of the human’s head. “Does that sound good, hmm?,”

The human nodded once again, before the dark-type snapped his clawed fingers and shadow tendrils formed, gently lifting and flipping him onto his back and allowed the pokemon to scoop him up into his arms.

He then lifted Alex’s head up and placed another kiss against his forehead before carrying him back to their camp nearby.

Unbeknownst to them, however, was the fact that Xatu, as well as a good dozen or so Natu were standing on the cliffs above the entrance to where the former usually stood, simply watching as everything unfolded..