Chapter 44
Part 3
Oh, little child…
Have you any concept of where you are?
Of which direction you travel?
To what fate you rush headlong into?
Tell me, little one…
Can you see?
Can you see things as I do?
Can you look into the infinite hall
and see what will become of you?
What will become of us all?
Or are you blind, as all mortals are?
Do you see time
with a beginning, with an end?
A bounded road,
conveying its passengers seamlessly
each to a singular destination?
For who else but I can see time as it really is
in all of its flowing glory,
with all of its spreading branches?
Who else can know what fate you carve
with your blind actions?
Who else but I,
the one created to oversee it?
I, who harbored time's first ripple
within the fabric of my being?
Alas, though time is omnipresent
I am not.
Though I stand here, far away,
So very far away…
Soon… we shall meet…
Temporal Tower, 4F
"I saw something," Char mumbled to himself for the fifth time.
It seemed to have taken the little Charmander all of ten seconds to grow accustomed to having his arm again, forgetting the pain of being crippled and the rush of having his own ember consuming him from within. Something else had now taken hold of his mind; something which disturbed him far more deeply than a simple injury.
Char had caught a glimpse something in the void between his death and rebirth. Something which, he imagined, also caught a glimpse of him.
"We are on a mountaintop, it seems," Prince reported from several yards ahead, wincing as he gazed over a drop-off. "I recommend not approaching the cliff, unless you have a pair of wings readily available."
Had he really seen what he thought he had seen?
He couldn't tell. His mind went over and over it again, remembering the indescribably odd sensation of dying and then being resurrected... and he just couldn't tell. He couldn't tell if he had actually seen those glowing red eyes staring into his soul, or if it was merely something he felt...
"Char!" Scythe snapped, clanging a blade on the ground in front of the Charmander's face. "You have your arm back, now pay attention. You no longer have an excuse to be lost in your own world of pain."
"Scythe, I-" Char tried to spit out. "When the Reviver Seed worked, I thought I saw something-"
"Pokemon see many strange things when they are revived," Prince hummed, his attention drawn by the new environment as he searched for a path across the mountainside. "It is said that, for a sliver of a moment, your soul leaps from your corporal being and witnesses the void outside of the timeline. The eternity. Some call it... the Hall of Origin. Some Pokémon claim they can even see their own souls for a moment-"
"Ray, for the love of the gods, please stand away from the edge," Scythe snapped, his patience long gone. "I will not have another of our seeds used in such rapid succession."
"Actually, Scythe, it is possible a seed will not save him if he were to fall," Prince added. "It is possible that stepping off the cliff would result in him plummeting to his death from one of Temporal Tower's windows. Something similar happened to a good partner of mine the last time we explored a dungeon manifest as a tower... it is difficult to tell where exactly the anomaly ends and where reality begins again."
Char cracked a tiny smile as he watched Ray tense in fear and slowly back away from the end of the ledge. He had to admit, the sky beyond the false mountain looked colorful and inviting; clouds tinted orange and purple floated in a clear blue sky as the sun peeked between them.
But…
Those eyes. There they were, burned into his vision, even upon the beauty of the sky.
"Hey," Lily said to Char, a look of concern briefly flashing in her eyes. "Are you going to be alright?"
"I think so," Char replied. "It's just... I guess being revived for the first time threw me a bit. Not to mention losing my arm… I'm trying to forget about it as fast as I can."
"Ugh. I hate being revived, myself," Lily blurted with a laugh. "Makes me want to throw up. Though I guess that's a good thing that I want to avoid it as much as possible... But yeah. You can see some really strange stuff before you blip back."
"It's... it's not really that I saw something..." Char tried to explain. "It's... it's that... I still see it, I think."
"When you close your eyes?"
"No... it still feels like... whatever I saw, it's still there. I just... can't see it. Like there's a curtain in the way, but it's still there, waiting for me on the other side. And I... really don't like it. I... hope I'm not going crazy."
"At this point, Char, I think we've all gone crazy to some degree," Lily said, rolling her eyes.
As Lily walked ahead to Prince's side, Char's eyes wandered around. The team traveled upon a mountain trail. On one side, a steep drop-off; on the other side, the mountain's peak loomed surprisingly close. The air was crisp and clear, but a bit thin; Char briefly recalled his episodes of altitude sickness before pushing the thoughts away, hoping the problem would not return.
But as Char struggled to stifle the unpleasant memory of flying, there came another flash of familiarity.
This feeling he had, bothersome as an unreachable itch… he remembered it from somewhere. Somewhere… recent?
"We're being watched," he whispered to himself, trying to jog his own memory…
"Perhaps... this is the peak of Red Haven," Scythe wondered. "But we would need to be several hundred years in the past for it to look anything like this. Since then, the peaks have been sanded down and replaced with shelters. Then again... that is only if the Temporal Tower is playing tricks upon the six of us personally, sending us to places we have seen before. If not... this mountain could be anywhere."
"As for myself, I do not recognize this place at all," Prince admitted. "This is no dungeon or mountain I've ever explored. At any rate, we should put those X-Ray lenses away for now; visibility is quite clear at the moment, and I do not want those things lost. Who has them?"
"I do," Lily replied, untying them from her neck. "Char gave them back after the staircase."
Char snapped his claws. In an instant, it had come to him.
"Ray," Char said. "Remember those goggles we found in Blackriver City?"
"Y-yeah," Ray responded, caught off-guard. "I think I brought them with us. You want them?"
"Please," Char answered, fretting with his claws in anticipation of what he might see with them. "Hurry, before they're done putting away the X-Ray glasses... I think we're being watched again. I think there are ghosts here!"
"Ghosts?" Saura repeated, almost hiding the quiver in his voice.
Ray stood on his hind legs and slung Team Ember's bag around to his front, undoing the opening to allow Char to dive in. Once the goggles were in hand, Char lifted them to his face and peered through the red-tinted eyeholes. Ray and Saura waited in suspense for his report.
"Char," Scythe suddenly snapped, almost making the little Charmander fumble the bulky eyewear. "… do you see anything?"
"Nothing," he said at first, glancing to the mountainside and then to the sky. "Nothing so far. Hmm… these aren't nearly as useful as the X-rays. They can't see through anything…"
"Hmm… Char, I agree with you that something is out of place here," the Scyther uttered, looking away. "I can feel it. Whatever you saw in the moment that you were dead… might be the truth. It was smart to look for ghosts. If ghosts were here, so be it… I just… wish I knew what was wrong."
Lowering the goggles, Char wished he could breathe a sigh of relief knowing that his mentor agreed with him, but he knew now that his own thoughts and feelings were bleeding over into the Scyther's mind to some degree. Nevertheless, he hefted the goggles over his shoulder; he was going to keep them close for a good while.
… … …
Yards passed as the team plodded down the path, enjoying the pleasant scenery of lush plant life and colorful pebbles strewn across the ground. The blue-stoned mountain was an impressive sight, sending Char a fun tingle of vertigo (much better than the horror he'd feel in his stomach by turning his head and glancing down the cliff). All in all, it wasn't the hostile Mystery Dungeon landscape Char had grown accustomed to recently. It almost made him feel relaxed.
"Hey, I can put those back in the bag if you want," Ray said, tapping him on the shoulder and indicating the goggles. "They look a little heavy…"
"Not yet," he replied, clutching them more closely.
He kept his eyes sharp for some nasty trick of the Mystery Dungeon that would bring doom upon everyone. He imagined his Call radiated into Scythe more than ever, for the old Scyther's mind seemed locked upon the same topic.
"The mountaintop," Scythe muttered to Prince, but loud enough so that all could hear. "Perhaps it will erupt and rain lava upon us all. Unless this is truly Red Haven. Red Haven contained lava internally, but was not a true volcano. It had no crater, no shaft. Its pressure was relieved by a series of hot-spring craters in a seven-mile radius, tunnels dug by the ancient Pokémon of Ambera to equalize the pressure and craft a suitable habitat for fire-types. Even without them, the lava would not have erupted from the mountaintop, but from the ground, not nearly enough to build up such a mountain…"
"Then again, this is a Mystery Dungeon," Prince reminded him. "They have no need to follow the true laws of physics. If it wants to dump lava upon us, it will."
"Easy for you to say, fire-type," Scythe scoffed in reply. "You can trudge through lava ankle-high with no lasting damage. You and Char. The rest of us prefer to consider our options." He kicked a pebble across the path. "Prince, you have more knowledge of fire than I. Tell me, do these stones look to you like they are dried lava?"
"All rocks are dried lava," Prince returned with a smirk, "just as all ice is frozen water. It only depends on how long ago the rock solidified."
"You're not helping," Scythe grumbled. "Do you see any indication that what we tread upon is an active or otherwise dangerous volcano?"
"Um..." Saura offered meekly, "I don't know very much about lava, but... if this were a volcano, do you think all these plants could have grown like this? Some of those trees look... hmm, at least a decade old."
"That is a good point. Thank you, Saura," Scythe sneered at Prince. "Therefore, if there is little cause to worry about drowning in lava, or invisible ghosts, what dangers lurk here? We should at least learn what Pokemon species live in this territory..."
"Honestly?" Prince considered. "A mountain peak like this, from the looks of it... we should beware of Dragonite."
"And I would trust that you know best how to counter them," Scythe shot back, matching the Infernape's smirk. "What with Team Regret, you've worked with more dragons than I."
"Haven't you still got that Gabite on your team? You mean to tell me you've never trained with him?"
"Dragonite and Gabite are very different types of dragons. Gabite are far superior in terms of resistances and strengths..."
"If they are so much stronger, then you should have no trouble countering the inferior type of dragon."
"Gabite do not fly."
"Yet you do."
"You are still not helping. ...Remind me again what use I have for you, now that we are here in the tower?"
"I have explored five mystery dungeons for every one you have stepped into, old friend," Prince said with a swagger, his subtle sarcasm replaced with cockiness. "You might be the tactician here, but I am much more familiar with the phenomenons present in these dungeons. For instance-"
*Slump*
With no warning, a pitfall trip opened beneath Prince's feet, and he disappeared below the surface of the ground. A yelp arose from the party.
"Well, someone's going to have to help him up," Scythe said, not even cracking a smile as he indicated his lack of hands.
Wasting no time, Lily and Saura jumped forward and extended all their vines into the crater. Char pounced and skidded to a stop at the lip's edge, peering curiously inside.
The pit was not too large, and did not have any discernible traps lining the bottom like the other pitfall traps Char had witnessed. It simply looked murky and uncomfortable. Prince looked unharmed as he sat at the bottom for a minute, rubbing his forehead and cursing to himself for not paying attention to his surroundings.
"It's alright," he called back as the vines were offered to him. "I'm alright. I can get up myself..."
Char watched as Prince groaned and crawled to the lip of the ditch, perplexed as to why the dungeon contained a trap with no discernible hazard at the bottom. Poison spikes, death spikes, sticky goop... he'd seen them all. But this one was smaller, shallow, and completely empty.
Maybe this floor is giving us a break after all, Char imagined. Though... it stinks a little bit down there. Maybe it's a poison gas trap? It doesn't seem to be doing anything...
"Uh-ugh," Prince grumbled, climbing out from the ditch. "I am alright... When it comes to traps, I have seen many worse. This one was relatively harmless"
"Perhaps because it wasn't a trap," Scythe noted unexpectedly.
Char turned to the Scyther, whose gaze was cast away from the group and to the opposite side of the pit. Buzzing his wings, he leapt the pit's length, his eyes focusing intensely on the ground.
"It's a grave."
"A grave?" Ray repeated. "But there's nothing buried down there. How do you know it's a grave?"
"Otherwise," Scythe explained, nearly mumbling to himself, "it wouldn't have a footstone."
The five Pokémon were quick to rush to Scythe's side. Indeed, at his feet, there sat a reddish, rectangular plaque. A couple words were etched in its surface.
"The writing is Unown," Scythe noticed. "I cannot read it. Char?"
Intrigued, Char dropped to all fours and squinted at the small writing on the plaque. Saura and Lily crowded around him.
"It says," Char reported, "Here rests… the hero."
"There's more," Prince noticed, crouching next to him and tracing his finger across its surface.
"Here rests the hero with… the silver soul. Unknown and forgotten, he fought until the end… … …Char."
"Yes?" Char answered reflexively.
"No, Char…" Prince repeated. "That's what it says. Your name… is written here."
What?
Char shook his head. He pounced onto the plaque's surface, scrutinizing its words. Indeed… there they were, the four Unown letters which made up his name, the name he was known by in the Pokémon world.
"This… is my gravestone?"
"B-but you're not dead yet!" Ray cried, panic overtaking the Raichu as he jumped down into the ditch and seemed to search for a dead body. "This… hasn't happened yet!"
"Precisely," Prince noted. "This place… it must indicate an event… in the future."
A foreboding silence fell over the group as implication sank in.
"Wait!" Saura cried, containing his panic. "Maybe it's not you, Char. There are lots of Pokémon named Char! Some aren't even Charmander! Char… Char, are you okay?"
Char hadn't moved. His gaze was fixated on the stone and the words imbued upon it. His limbs trembled, threatening to buckle and no longer support his weight.
"No…" Char said blankly. "No, it's me. I… I have the silver soul."
"What does that mean?" Saura asked.
"I… I don't know…" Char admitted, tracing his claw over those words. "I… I have a silver soul… someone… someone told me that, once… And I… I wanted to be buried on a mountainside…"
"What did you say?" Scythe demanded.
"I don't know…" Char uttered, freezing up. "I… just…"
Where did that come from? Char asked himself. I wanted to be buried on a mountainside… I never said that! I never even thought that! What are these, memories? Are my memories coming back?
Did I… die? Did I die before I was turned into a Charmander, and buried here?
No, no! Otherwise the gravestone wouldn't say "Char", would it? It would say… my real name…
Char's eyes darted from word to word, carefully rereading the contents…
He fought until the end…
He looked again for his name, but…
It wasn't there.
The word Char, which had been there just moments ago, was now missing.
His trance was broken just in time to see a reluctant Ray about to zap him back to his senses.
"N-no! Don't!" Char pleaded, rolling away from the Raichu. "It's okay. I'm back now. It was weird! The word on the stone changed! I saw it. This place is trying to play tricks on us! This floor is playing mind games!"
"Mystery Dungeons do not play mind games," Prince noted. "Mystery Dungeons contain random happenstance. Only the Pokémon within them are capable of confusing you…"
That's it, Char realized. The Pokémon within!
Char stood up, throwing his goggles back onto his face…
…only to find a small Shuppet lounging at the bottom of the pit.
In a convulsion of surprise, Char lowered his goggles from his eyes as if to prove his vision wasn't failing him. When he put them back on, the Shuppet reappeared before him, now sitting on the grave's footstone and mere inches from his face.
As Char took a frightened step away, the invisible ghost nodded its head at him, then at the surface of the gravestone, where more words were being etched into it before his very eyes, while other words were being removed. It took Char a moment to realize what he was actually seeing: the etchings were somehow being re-arranged to form a new message!
DO YOU LIKE IT?, The gravestone now read.
Char's claws clenched the goggles hard, but he tried not to lose his cool. "Like what?" he feebly demanded of the ghost.
The Shuppet nodded again, causing more letters and lines to switch positions.
YOUR MEMORIAL.
"How did you know I wanted to be buried on a mountain?" Char tried further, picking his words carefully. "How did you know I had a silver soul?"
The Shuppet smiled.
I HAVE BEEN WATCHING.
I KNOW YOU.
"You're trying to trick me," Char accused it, testing to see how it would respond. "You're just… reading my mind and playing games."
The Shuppet glared at him this time, as if thinking of how to reply. After hesitating, it bowed its horn down upon the stone's surface one more time…
I KNOW YOUR REAL NAME.
Char felt as though a block of ice had been shoved down his throat. He glared back at the ghost, scrutinizing its appearance. Wondering… just where it had come from.
"NOW!"
*SLASH!* *BANG!* *THUMP!*
Char shirked back as Ray, Scythe, and Lily suddenly appeared in his vision with flailing vines and glowing claws, overwhelming the small ghost with a surprise attack. The thing shrieked for a moment as its phasing form was flung back into the burial pit, then it simply disappeared.
"Ahh-! Thank you," Char managed to say, pretending the encounter had not affected him. "How did you see the ghost?"
"When I realized there was a ghost there, I dug into the bag for some Eyedrop Seeds and passed them around," Ray explained. "All I knew was, if the wild Pokémon are smart enough to talk to you in a Mystery Dungeon, there's no way that can be good."
"There's another issue," Scythe said, a ring of solemnity in his voice.
Char turned to the Scyther. His face looked pale-white.
"That ghost was a Watcher."
Char blinked.
A Watcher? He'd been so preoccupied by the fact that a wild ghost Pokémon had been talking to him about his own gravestone, he supposed the recognition hadn't clicked in… He clutched his goggles hard, staring at them as though they had somehow tricked him, and it occurred to him that the strong red color-filter of the lenses had probably made the ghost look normal to his eyes.
"That makes no sense," Prince cut in. "Char was speaking to that ghost. I've seen and battled thousands of Watchers… not one of them spoke."
"Yeah, and the sun is out," Lily added. "Watchers are only out in the night, right? It looked like a normal ghost Pokémon to me…"
"I wasn't… speaking to it, actually," Char corrected. "It wasn't talking to me at all. It was changing the words on the gravestone. Didn't you see?"
Char looked at the gravestone once more. It was completely blank.
"That's beside the point," Prince replied. "The ghost was literate. No recorded Watcher has ever displayed such a skill."
Scythe's gaze landed somewhere very far away, as if he were trying to stare into the past to remember something he had once seen.
"Lily? What did you say?…" Scythe mouthed, staring down upon his own shadow. "That the sun is out? It does not seem like it will be out for very long…"
Char looked at the sky.
The sun…
…is setting?
"…We have to find shelter!" Char realized. "The Watchers are here! They're coming out! We have to find shelter!"
"I see…" Prince said, nodding and clenching his fists. "The dungeon intends to trap us out in the open and have us swarmed with ghosts, does it? We could jump inside of this hole and cover it, but since a ghost already popped out of the covered hole, I wouldn't trust it. Our best bet would be to take shelter in the mountain. Come, let's find a cave."
The shadows seemed to extend from the trees just as fast as the team hurried past them; Char was horrified, and somewhat disgusted, at the antics of the dungeons' ghosts. It wasn't the first time ghost Pokémon had played a cruel trick on him, only to swoop in and attack once the trick was revealed.
His head still spun with the ghost's words. It knew something… something about him… his name? What was his name? Did it know more? Char didn't know how it was even possible. He almost wished the ghost were still around, so he could interrogate it. And if the ghost was indeed a Watcher… would the other Watchers be of use to him?
"There's no time to look for a naturally-formed shelter," Prince decided as they approached a solid rock wall. "The sun sets too quickly. We must make a cave."
"Got it!" Ray said, setting his bag on the ground so he could dig into it. "Let's see… don't we still have a bunch of those iron thorns in here somewhere? Maybe we could attach them to some sticks, and make pickaxes out of them…"
*CRUNCH*
With a surprising explosion, a dozen small rocks cracked from the wall and crumbled away, leaving a sizable dent. Prince retracted his fist.
"It's been a while since I've had to use this technique," Prince admitted, examining his hand as though for serious injuries. "I suppose it's good I haven't forgotten it just yet. YAARH!"
Once more, Prince's fist shined with internal power as he executed another karate-like punch upon the mountainside, expanding the hole even further. The dent was now deep enough to shelter one Pokémon. Char was very impressed at the Infernape's show of power; he and Saura couldn't seem to pick their jaws from the ground for a few moments.
"Doesn't that hurt?" Char blabbed, wondering if he could do the same.
"I don't feel a thing," Prince answered. "And that is very fortunate. Without the factor of pain, terraforming becomes less about the technique and more about the brute force, but you still need to know how to do it… *crunch*… efficiently. It's about knowing where the weak points are, to bring down a large wall in as few moves as possible. HUFF!-."
As Prince continued to smash in the wall, a sizable stone clunked Char in the head. Char waited for the inevitable rush of pain, but it never came; the concussion had felt like a bag of feathers.
"Ow!" Saura cried, shaking his head as pebbles rained down onto him. "Watch where you're shooting those things!"
"Watch where you're standing," Prince told him, winding up for another punch. "Char, want to come help me? I can teach you the technique…"
Char looked at his claws, then curiously up to the busy Infernape. Something clicked in his mind.
"Prince... you can't get hurt by rocks, can you?"
Prince halted his work, turning his surprised but sincere attention to the Charmander.
"Correct," Prince replied. "Rocks cannot hurt me."
"And they can't hurt me, either?" Char wondered.
"Correct," Prince said again. "You're very observant, Char. You must want to know why. I will explain it to you… *crunch* … after you've helped me dig this cave."
Tossing the goggles back into Ray's bag, Char stepped up to the large nook in the wall which Prince had created with his bare hands. He clenched his claws, wondering if the strength to tear down slabs of solid rock lied somewhere in him, too.
"Focus the white energy into your fist," Prince instructed. "When you strike, pretend the rock is as intangible as the surface of water, and do not hold back."
Char didn't know exactly how to focus the energy into his whole fist, though he managed to make his fingers glow white by invoking the instincts for Metal Claw. Resisting the fear of a bad bruise, Char clenched his fist, aimed, and smashed the rocks as hard as he could.
A couple tiny pebbles exploded at his face.
"Do not strike straight, but from an angle," Prince further directed, continuing his work. "This will direct the fissures you create, allowing large parts of the rock to separate when the fissures connect. If you strike the wall straight-on – YAHH! - the fissures will travel straight back, and none will connect."
Char tried again. He eyed a good place and swung his charged fist in an arc, making sure to punch toward the nearest crack that Prince had created. A rock about the size of his fist broke away.
"It's no use," Char said, flexing his claws. "I'm no good at this…"
"Prince, do not rely on Char," Scythe warned. "The sun has almost set. Hurry and make enough room for all of us."
"Fine," Prince grumbled, rearing back his fist and making it glow as bright as a Sol-rock torch. "I'll double my efforts… YARRHHH!"
The cliff rock seemed to fold like paper as Prince's mighty fist arced into it. The rocks thunderously shattered as dust and debris fell away, revealing a very impressive new dent. Prince stood straight up, examining the hole and looking very proud of himself.
*Crumble…*
*Crumble…*
"Almost got it," he reported, plotting his next course of action as the rocks still noisily settled.
*Crumble…*
*KA-CHAAAACK!*
A split-second before it happened, an expression of recognition crossed the Infernape's face, followed by a look of shame.
*CRRR—UMMMMBLE!*
*THUMP.*
At the alarm of all of the members but Prince, a massive slab from the cliff-face, directly above the dent Prince had worked so hard to create, simply disconnected from the wall and smashed Prince's body into the ground.
Saura cried out in panic. He tried to rush forward to Prince's aid, but was forced back by the giant cloud of dust and rock-shards rolling off the avalanche.
When the dust cleared, Prince lay pinned to the ground beneath the incredible obelisk he had created, with only his head and a few inches of one arm free.
"Prince… you're still alive!" Saura cried, cringing at the painful sight.
"Ahh… Yiiiyiii… I'm fine, I'm fine," Prince gasped, his bright head-flames licking the obstacle which pinned him. "Immune to rock damage, remember? It's a little hard to breathe, though… Nnnnhhh, now I remember why I stopped using that technique. Never was good at directing the cracks, couldn't keep them from going straight up… Ahhh…"
"You… idiot," Scythe growled, though it was obvious to Char he was almost about to burst into laughter this time.
"Ohh, you don't have to tell him," Lily sighed, rolling her eyes. "He's done this to himself before. Three times. I purposely never let him teach me how to rock-smash."
"Enough," Prince grumbled, his voice a weakening wheeze underneath the giant weight. "I suggest you try to find another hiding place while you still can. Use a Luminous Orb to hold off the ghosts. It doesn't work for very long, but it does help. Find some kind of shelter before they come…"
"Very well," Scythe said. "Come, let us heed the advice of our attending dungeon-crawling expert. I feel so very privileged to have someone like him accompanying our team."
While the others began walking away, Char stood and studied the rock which trapped Prince in place. He had a thought.
"Char, what are you doing?" Saura called back.
"I suggest you go with the others," Prince told the Charmander. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine for now."
"Hold on," he answered, inspecting the rock's weak points, "I might be able to break this."
*Crumble…*
Char's claws were only just starting to glow when he heard the thunderous rumble. He shot a panicked glance around for the source of the noise.
But… I haven't even hit the rock yet!
*CRRR-RRR*
*CRRR-UMMMBLE!*
"No!"
Char felt a massive force collide with his head, and everything went black.
… … …
It took Char a minute to realize that he had not, in fact, been knocked unconscious.
His vision had gone dark. He noticed no difference between opening and closing his eyes; even the familiar glow of his own tail-flame did not reach his perception. Nothing hurt too much, although his body was sprawled in an incredibly uncomfortable position, his neck quickly cramping from being twisted too far to the side. When he tried to move, he found his limbs resisting his commands; his body was filled with such an intense heaviness that he couldn't even budge.
That's when he realized: he was buried beneath a pile of large rocks.
"Char…" a muffled voice called. It was Prince.
"Y-y-yes?" Char answered, not sure at first if he could even speak.
"Oh… so you are in here…" Prince's voice sighed. "I thought for a moment I saw you escape. Unff… Well, at least I suppose we got the shelter we needed from the ghosts…"
I guess there is that, Char thought to himself, rolling his eyes.
"What do we do now?" Char asked him. "Just wait here?"
"Just wait here," Prince repeated, "and hope the others find a suitable hiding place in time… and think to use a Rollcall Orb to bring us there. Are… you alright, Char? You're not hurt, are you?"
"I'm… getting pretty cramped…" Char admitted, "but it's really nothing compared to losing my arm. I think I'll be alright. I just hope the others will be okay. I'm tired of getting separated…"
"I hope so, as well," Prince sighed.
Char was quiet for a moment. He felt how the rocks pressed down upon him, blocked his motions and pushed his limbs in odd directions, but remained powerless to crush any part of his body. He was merely imprisoned. Groaning, he tried to wriggle his way forward and nudge some of the rocks away from his face, but it wasn't possible. He was thankful that air was still getting in.
"So… is now a good time to tell me why we can't be hurt by rocks?" Char inquired.
"Perhaps. But it is something I wanted to show you," Prince replied, "and I'm not in the position to show you right at this moment… but… I have an item, one that I try to keep on my person at all times when adventuring. It renders myself and all fire-types within a certain distance from me immune to damage from rock-type attacks. In fact, it was the primary reason I insisted on coming with you. I knew you and I would both be made stronger without having to worry about one of our greatest weaknesses harming us."
"I'm glad you brought it, then," Char replied. "It's saved my life a few times already, at least…"
Can I get out of this? Char wondered. If I could move… maybe…
Trying not to panic, Char systematically tried to force each muscle in his body to extend; surely one of them could find a weakness in the rock pile and help to unbury him.
"I'm… sorry, Char," Prince said unexpectedly. "I didn't… mean to be this useless. Scythe was right, in a way… Just look at what kind of asset I've been to the team. I've done very little to help but falling into traps and burying you in avalanches. I suppose I must confess… I haven't set foot in a dungeon in over eight years myself, and even then, none of my experiences in dungeons could have prepared me for this one. Still, I… I thought I could be more dependable than this… And I am sorry."
"It's not your fault," Char replied, trying very hard to force his neck straight. "The dungeon wants to hold us back and it's doing a good job of it. And I guess I'm sorry… for acting like such a brat just now. When my arm was missing, I mean. The world… really seems different when a piece of you is missing."
As Char tried to stretch and gasp for a good breath of air, he felt a rock – one that sharply poked him in the muzzle – very slightly give way. He tried to nod his head and depress it farther, hoping it would cause a rockslide and relieve some of the pressure that kept him from moving.
"No matter," Prince responded, as Char continued to curiously poke at the rock in front of his face. "Fire-types have their pride… though you might find that it gets us out of just as many situations as it gets us into. Me, I'm getting you to the top of this tower if it kills me… and I'm not dead yet."
Clink. Char heard a rock shift above his head somewhere as he toyed with the pile.
"What was that?" Prince asked. "Are you trying to get out? There's no need to; we're safe from the ghosts in here."
"I don't care," Char declared. "I'm getting out of here."
"Why?"
"Well, for one thing… ugh…" Char tried with all his might to nudge that one stone, protruding like a lever in front of him. "I might just be going crazy… there might not be Watchers here at all. I guess I just jumped to that conclusion."
"I… suppose, there is that, yes…" Prince replied.
"For another thing… if there are ghosts…" Char said, momentarily giving up on his struggle. "I'm going to let one of them touch me."
"What did you say?"
"I'm going to go talk with the Watchers. Because… I think they know something about me. I think… that ghost was telling me the truth. And I want to know what my name is."
CHOMP. Char bit down on the closest rock to his face, trying to thrash it back and forth.
"Char… do not let yourself be blinded by the ghosts…" Prince warned. "They only want to destroy your sanity, and they will tell you whatever you want to hear. They should not be trusted. I say this as an advisor to you… don't be foolish. Not at this point in time."
Prince waited for some acknowledgement of his words, but none came.
"Please… don't listen to them. You will learn your past when we reach the top of the tower," Prince pleaded further. "They are tempting you. Trying to take you away from us… Char, this isn't an intelligent decision…"
"…Char…?"
"…Are you still there…?"
"Char? Please tell me you haven't suffocated…"
Ssssss….
Ssssssss…
It took nearly a whole minute underneath the pressure of his fiery fangs until Char felt the rock becoming malleable. He spewed a mouthful of glowing, putty-like magma.
"I'm sorry, but I've made up my mind," Char told him, watching the puddle of magma as it oozed around the other rocks. "This is a Mystery Dungeon… if anything happens to me, we have Reviver Seeds. I'm going to find out what the Watchers know. I'm going to do this while I have nothing to lose."
"That's beside the point, Char," Prince yelled in frustration. "You're not understanding me. What if those ghosts tell you lies? Can I trust you to not believe them? Can you even trust yourself? Char, listen to me. They might not even be the Watchers. They might be some clever indigenous species of ghost Pokémon trying to play tricks on passersby. If they feed you lies that you believe… the Reviver Seed is not going to heal that."
"No…" Char responded, watching the quickly-cooling magma he'd created. "No, it's… more than that. They're watching me. I saw them when the Reviver Seed was used."
"Saw what, Char?"
"I… don't know… there were… these eyes, I saw them just before I was revived… and I can't get them out of my head."
"What are you saying? The Watchers appeared to you when you were revived?"
"No, no… I… grrrrr…."
Char pushed the rock pile with his forehead as hard as he could, hoping the molten rock had caused some slight instability in its structure. Sure enough, he heard a small cascade taking place somewhere up above. The surface of the rock pile was closer than he had imagined.
Knowing there was no risk of a concussion, Char bashed his head against the rocks, once, twice, forcing his claws deep into the crusty dirt underneath for strength. Bellowing and roaring like a frustrated beast, Char gave his all and dragged his body forward, inch by tiny inch, feeling the pile shifting upon his back as he made slow progress…
"I… don't… know what I saw…" Char growled. "But… they do… EHHHAAAH!"
Giving one more mighty push, Char felt the rocks give way and part, revealing a clear view of the late evening sky.
"Prince… Please trust me with this," Char said, taking a rest and laying his head down for a moment. "If I come back believing something that's not true… Saura will talk me out of it."
"How do you presume that?" Prince returned.
"Because…" Char said, infusing his words with a bit of irony. "I believe most of the things that Saura says. You could say… we have a way of communicating that's… a little bit deeper than most could understand. I… can't really ignore him."
Char waited for Prince to respond. He eyed a cloudy, moonlit sky, noting the lack of any visible Watchers so far. He realized he did not have to worry much about the others, just as long as they weren't attacked by ferocious Pokémon; if the Watchers were not out yet, he trusted their ability to find suitable shelter.
"Alright… then go," Prince responded. "After all, I am little more than a servant to you, human… so, go, do what you will. I wish you good luck in finding the answer you're looking for. I would stop you, but the rock that sits on me is there by my own doing, so I suppose I have no right."
At that, Char clawed his way to freedom, stretched out his severely cramped muscles, and wandered off into the night.
… … …
Where are you going?
Char held his tail as far in front of him as it would stretch. Its flame was weakening.
Why are you alone, Char? Pokémon are supposed to have companions. Where are you going, all alone?
Ignoring his doubt, the Charmander marched across the shadowy mountain trail in search of Watchers. He kept his eyes to the dark clouds, wondering when the swarm might descend upon him… or if he had been mistaken in expecting them to appear.
Large, billowing clouds covered the stars today; he could not stand still and appreciate the sky this time. He kept a sharp watch out for danger, while staying as far from the drop-off as he could manage.
There was nothing to accompany him as he hurried along; no crickets, no owls, nothing but a barely-perceptible breeze to remind him he was out in the wild…
Do your companions mean nothing to you, Char? Why have you left them behind? Aren't you tired of being separated from them?
"My name is not Char," he told himself. "I want to know what it is."
I thought you were happy being a Charmander. I thought you never wanted to go back to your human life. Where has this sudden resolution come from?
Some leaves rustled. Char dropped to all fours and froze in place, waiting for some unseen foe to make the first move. He just as quickly looked over his shoulder to make sure nothing was stalking him.
"I have to know who's watching me," Char whispered to the voice in his head. "Someone's watching me. They've been watching me this whole time! Ever since I came to Ambera! I need to know what's going on… I can't get it out of my head now."
And what about your companions, Char? Why can't they help you?
"Because… nobody was watching them," Char mouthed, carefully creeping past the tree that had startled him. "It was me. Always me. I appeared in Ambera alone… I will find my own answers… alone!"
He ran for it, leaving the mysterious tree in his dust.
Were you?
Or did you come to Ambera because you were alone?
Did you come to Ambera…
To hide?
Because you needed to run from something?
"YAHH!"
Lost in his thoughts, a steep, powder-covered incline in the terrain took Char by surprise, nearly sending him flying down into a dark gap in the rocks. Panicking, he anchored all his claws into the dirt and climbed back up.
What if you don't want to find the truth?
What if the truth… will doom you?
What if… nothing lies at the top of this tower…
But your doom?
Char blinked.
"This mountain… it must be sending out psychic signals," he told himself. "It's making me go crazy. No, no, it's… mountaintop… lack of oxygen. Fire-types… need more oxygen than other creatures… to burn their fire. I'm… There's no reason for me to… be overthinking this. I can't… I have nothing to lose. Come now, no panicking. Just get this done. Nothing to lose…"
The night grew darker, the clouds shifting over the moon and stars in turn. The mountainside was nothing but a dark curtain to Char's eyes. He scanned for some platform, some lookout point he might perch upon to watch for the ghosts, but the shadows were shapeless except for the silhouette of the mountain's peak against the sky.
But then…
There appeared a small speck of light in Char's field of vision, like a star that had fallen onto the land. He could not tell how far away it was, only that it floated somewhere over the dark lands in front of the mountain…
Is that…?
It drifted, a greyish-yellow orb of light, flickering like a firefly, a barely-noticeable candle flame. Char watched in fascination, taking tiptoed steps in its direction… until another, similar light appeared many feet in the air above the first.
Char felt a chill in his chest.
Here they are… the Watchers…
I've never seen them appear… like this…
Char turned his head, gazing upon the dark landscape and bearing witness to the all-too-familiar lights which began to speckle it…
"Aaahh!"
A yelp escaped his throat as he found that a disembodied aura of light had formed mere inches from his nose. He jumped back in fright, where he waited, stunned and horrified, for the Watcher to assume its worldly appearance.
The light glowed for a moment – such a small, insignificant light, like a Luminous Orb which had come out as a dud. Within the center of the light, a dark, ominous sphere took shape… a sphere which appeared to be aflame, but producing no light itself…
And just like that, the light vanished from sight, except from two tiny pinholes upon the sphere, where it remained, glowing… eerily glowing…
Recognition clicked in. It was a Gastly. A Gastly-type Watcher, to be exact.
The Watcher's blank stare fell upon the Charmander, as though targeting him.
Char tried not to panic. He rooted his feet to the ground and held his breath, staring down the Watcher.
"Here I am," Char whispered. "Touch me."
The Watcher didn't reply. It only stared at him, emotionless…
"You want victims?" Char asked it. "You want to take over me? Corrupt my mind? Well, here I am! I give myself freely! Consume me! Destroy me! Do whatever you want!"
Char thought the Watcher started to look confused at his demands… until he noticed that two more Watchers had drifted up behind him; a Duskull, and some sort of Pokémon he swore that he had never seen in all his life.
Gasping, he quickly turned, and saw two more that had been staring at the back of his head. The Watchers were forming a loose circle around him, and… merely watching.
That's when Char thought to look over the cliff—and felt his throat tighten as over one hundred of the ghastly lights filled the cloudy sky, like driftwood coming in from the ocean…
"Well?" Char demanded, getting ahold of himself and talking directly to a nearby Misdreavus. "Which one of you is going to touch me? Which one of you gets the privilege? Power sustains your greed, for only the one you need. Right? And I'm the one you need! ? I'm the human-turned-Pokémon you've been looking for! Or… you already knew that, didn't you? You know who I am already, don't you? Heh… so… go ahead! Take me! Take me and be done with it!"
It was the strangest thing… as Char looked into the eyes of the Watchers, the Watchers which were now beginning to completely encircle him… he could have sworn they were acknowledging his words. They all appeared… confused, as though their unchanging blank stare represented surprise. Char thought their movement patters were subtly affected by his demands.
He began to notice their sounds. They did not shriek like the night Saura had activated the Call, but they made quiet little hums and sighs that could only be heard from up close. Char had been mistaking their sounds for the nocturnal insects… only to remember that there had been none.
"Hisss…"
The sound, like a cloud of steam escaping from a kettle, came from behind. Char turned, and found himself staring at a Dusclops – a very large, frightening type of Watcher he had wished never to encounter.
"Is it you?" Char asked it, trying to give himself confidence. "Are you the one they chose? Go ahead, take me. C'mon. I'm not going to move… I have nowhere to go! You have me surrounded! So just take me, already!"
To Char's horror, the Dusclops loomed closer and closer to him, showing no signs of stopping.
This is it, Char realized. I'm… I'm about to be corrupted. Get ready.
Arceus, what have I gotten myself into…?
Just as the horrible, discolored mockery of a Ghost-type Pokémon was close enough to breathe upon, Char whispered:
"I only have one final request… you have to tell me who I am."
For a moment, the Dusclops locked gazes with the Charmander, staring at him with its glimmering, demonic eye… before it cupped both of its large hands around his head.
… … …
Pain…
Pain… in… tail…
Tail… hurts…
Nnnnnhhh… what happened?
Char awoke from a nap. A long, uncomfortable nap. Something was crushing his tail, and it felt bad. Tails were sensitive things. But it was his first time having a tail, so he didn't know that.
Where am I?
Why is it so dark?
Something brushed up against him. Something large, something alive.
"Aahhh! Ahhh!"
Char snapped his eyes open and sprung awake, terrified, only to smack his head against something. A rock of some sort. It hurt a lot. He had no idea it was there in the first place. He let himself fall back to the floor and clutched the bump on his head, waiting for the ache to subside.
That's when he noticed what stood in front of him.
It looked exactly like Saura. Uncannily like Saura. Same size, same complexion, same lack of markings that most other Bulbasaur had. Only… something was wrong with its eyes. Its eyes resembled those of a Watcher's. They were blank, and glowing. Unnaturally glowing.
The Bulbasaur-like creature did not respond. It simply took a few steps back… and stared.
"You're not Saura…" Char said to it. "W—who are you? What are you?"
"I am the one you have chosen to trust. Why should it matter who I am?"
Something about the Bulbasaur-creature's voice shook Char to the core. Rattled his stomach, his mind. Spoke into his body, rather than just his ears.
"You're a hallucination," Char determined, sitting upright. "I'm dreaming. I don't remember how I got here… No, this is… this is the Gravelerock Tunnel. The place I first woke up as a Charmander. This has to be a dream."
"Whether I am real, or a figment of your imagination, is a truth I will not tell. You will choose for yourself."
Char could not tear his eyes from the horrific clone of Saura. That face – that friendly, inviting face he knew so well – it was… murdered by the presence of some darker, destructive force that now resided behind it. Yet, it was still unmistakably Saura, his best friend. Char felt so confused at the mixture, it made him feel nauseous.
"Ask questions. I will answer. Know that my answers might not match your questions if I so choose. But they may be trusted."
"Answers?" Char repeated. "Answers…"
Yes. He did want answers. He could remember that much. But… where was he? If this was a dream, where had he fallen asleep? He just couldn't remember. He dug his claws into his head, trying to jog his memory…
Watcher.
Saura's eyes. They belonged to a Watcher.
The Watchers had captured him.
Where? When?
Why?
Why had the Watchers captured him? What mistake had he made? How had he been so foolish to have been captured by a Watcher?
For answers.
What answers?
He stared into the darkened Saura's eyes… the unmoving, unblinking eyes...
Sluggishly moving his tongue, Char managed to formulate some words…
"You… you're a Watcher. Why… do the Watchers exist? Do they have a purpose?"
The demonic Bulbasaur bowed its head.
"You do not know how time works."
Char tilted his head. He did not understand.
"Time does not work the way you think it works. Mortals have not the capacity to understand time. Past and present are lies. They are different than what you were taught. They do not exist the way you believe them to. All which exists… is fate."
Fate? Something about that word rung clear in Char's subconscious.
"Can fate be changed?" Char inquired.
"Fate is changed with actions. Every action changes the future. Only certain actions may change fate. Only certain souls may change fate."
The Bulbasaur looked back into his eyes.
"Fate may be destroyed… with one action. One anomaly."
The Bulbasaur's body glowed with dark power. From its twisted seed, there sprouted several vines. No, not vines… tentacles. They waved around in the air before Char's eyes.
"What is your purpose, Watcher?" he asked again, shaking with fear.
"To remove the anomaly."
Char panicked, standing up straight and slamming his head back onto the protruding slab. He slumped back down again with tears in his eyes.
"Get away from me, demon!" He screeched, trying to shove the Bulbasaur back. He scrambled onto all fours and tried to get away, knowing the thing only wanted to destroy him.
The Bulbasaur protruded his tentacles and wrapped his trashing limbs, gently placing him back where he had started. Char got the picture that he wasn't quite done yet.
"So… is that it?" Char demanded. "Is that it? Am I the anomaly? And you Watchers are all here to destroy me? I… I expected something… something more, I guess."
"You are not the anomaly. The anomaly is an action. The anomaly exists only in the future. For the anomaly to be removed, fate must be changed."
"How far in the future?" Char asked it.
"What meaning does it have to you? Whether soon, or far… in the flow of time, it means nothing. The anomaly requires but one moment to manifest, or one moment to overturn."
"What good does that tell me?" Char cried at it. "I'm a Charmander. I am a creature who lives in the bounds of time. Lengths of time are important to me! You can't just say that everything's over in the blink of an eye because you're some kind of immortal drifting spirit who –"
Char stopped short. A more important question had returned to his memory.
"What…is my role in all of this, then?" he asked carefully. "Who…am I? What… what is my name?"
The dark Bulbasaur frowned.
"You know my name… don't you?" Char accused it. "You've known my real name all along."
"I know your real name."
"I know!" Char clamored, his voice squeaking in exasperation. "One of the other Watchers told me that. On a gravestone. So… what is it? What is my real name?"
"It is meaningless to tell you. It is merely a word. It affects nothing."
"Too bad!" Char shouted, standing up on both feet and staring down the abomination. "I want to know it! If you don't tell me what my name is… I'm never going to believe you're anything more than a dream!"
"It is your choice, to believe… what you will…"
Char was about to say something else, but a jolt of power shook his body. He found himself powerless to move, powerless to cry out… He could only watch the demon Bulbasaur as it became engulfed in light, its piercing gaze burned into his vision…
The light came for him. It was warm, welcoming, strengthening…
… … …
When the light faded, Char found himself facedown upon a dampened stone. He lifted his head to find that he had been reunited with his team members in a dimly lit cave. Saura, Ray, and Lily all seemed to be intently staring at the cave walls. Only Scythe seemed to acknowledge him, standing over the Charmander with a dark, resentful gaze.