Sneasel stared at the ground where Buizel had been less than 20 seconds ago.
She didn’t know how to feel. Outraged? Lost? Completely hopeless?
Eevee began to whimper. “It’s so dark…”
Sneasel stood up. She had to at least comfort her charge. Focusing, she summoned a little blue beam that circled around her palm.
It already wasn’t bright, but the darkness of the dungeon sought to almost completely stifle it. Determined, she put more power into it until it was bright enough to cast a very dim light across the room.
Eevee gasped and ran towards her. “Miss! Miss! You’re not- you didn’t-“
“Shhh.” She gently caressed the shaking bundle of fur. “I’m still here.”
“Where did everymon else go?” he whimpered. “Please don’t leave me too…”
“I won’t.” Her voice sounded harsher than she had meant it to. “Not by choice.”
“Th- thank you…” Eevee sniveled a little bit. “Wh- where did the others go?”
“Deeper in, I think.” She hoped. “We just need to find the stairs down.”
They began to tread through the rest of the dungeon, painfully aware of the floor beneath their feet that could open up and swallow them at any time.
Sneasel tried not to think too hard about what just happened. If she did, she would most likely break down crying. Why had that happened? Why had it taken Buizel and Shaun?
Would it get them next?
She shuddered and her handheld light dimmed slightly. Glowering at it, she willed it to go brighter. Ice Beam wasn’t supposed to be used like this, but their only light source was lost, and she was pretty sure that neither of them could relight it.
Eventually, they came to a room with a set of spiral stairs in the middle that led further down. Sneasel held her light over the stairs to see more rooms below them.
“Do- do we have to go down those, miss?” Eevee asked timidly. He had hardly breathed since they had left the previous room.
Sneasel nodded. “I’m afraid so.”
They carefully climbed down the stairs, terrified that it would do something to them, but they remained solid.
“It’s so quiet here,” Eevee mumbled once they had returned to roaming through passageways.
“The fact that it is means that there’s a problem,” Sneasel said quietly. It had been bothering her since they had entered the dungeon, but she only now realized what the problem was. “There’s usually an abundance of feral Pokemon in these. The fact that there isn’t means that something’s wrong.”
“W- what’s wrong?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she replied. It was the simple, awful truth.
As they entered another room, they suddenly heard the faint pattering of footsteps. Sneasel tensed, her entire body going into fight or flight mode. Beside her, Eevee gasped and shrank behind her legs. “Wh- what’s that?!”
From another corridor that led into the room, Buizel ran in, panting. He froze as he saw the other two Pokemon, leaning against the cavern wall for support. “Oh! Sneasel!”
“Buizel,” she said icily. “Don’t scare me like that when I’m actively wielding an Ice Beam.”
He laughed nervously. “Oh, um, sorry about that.”
“What the heck happened?” Sneasel asked. Something about this encounter was feeling very off. “You just sunk into the solid stone floor and disappeared.”
“I- I dunno,” he replied. “I kinda just woke up down here. I’ve been trying to find a way back up, but-“
“We need to find Shaun,” Sneasel said, cutting him off. “Have you seen him down here?”
Buizel looked slightly confused. “What? Um, no, but-“
“We’re finding Shaun before we leave.” Sneasel’s tone left no room for argument.
“Um, alright,” Buizel said. “There’s nothing the way I came, so…”
Sneasel shrugged and they began to walk around the room. “Buizel,” she said, stopping suddenly, “There’s no other exit from this room.”
“But there’s nothing that way,” Buizel insisted, tugging at his scarf nervously.
“We’re going that way,” Sneasel said. She suddenly wheeled to face him. “Why are you arguing with me about this?”
Buizel hunched his shoulders unhappily. “Okay, okay, fine.”
As they began to go down the hall that Buizel came from, Sneasel had the growing sense that something was deeply wrong. Buizel never, never, never argued like this, especially with her. She tried to shake it off by telling herself that she just didn’t know Buizel that well, that she hadn’t ever really gotten to know him before.
It didn’t help.
As they turned the corner down an especially long hallway, Buizel began to fidget. Sneasel wouldn’t have noticed if he didn’t keep touching the walls, making little scraping noises that kept making her and Eevee jump. “Will you cut that out?!” she said, whirling to face him.
“Oh!” Buizel was startled. “Um, I-“
“S- Sneasel, is that you?” His voice drifted down the hall to them. “Where are you?”
Buizel’s mouth hadn’t moved.
Sneasel’s head snapped to look down the rest of the hall. The light above her hand dimmed, mimicking the drop she felt in her stomach.
“Who- who was that?” Eevee asked in a very small voice.
He had also noticed the discrepancy.
In response, Sneasel started down the passageway again. She desperately tried to think about anything else other than what was happening and failed.
The passageway opened up into a small room. It was somehow darker than the others they had just passed through, which didn’t grant Sneasel any confidence.
“Oh, Sneasel!” Buizel said with relief, stepping out of the shadows. “I was-“
He froze as he saw the Buizel with Sneasel and Eevee.
Sneasel and Eevee slowly looked at the Buizel that was standing next to them, who was staring at the other Buizel with a haunted expression.
Sneasel’s brain kicked into high gear. “Alright.” She pointed at the Buizel who had followed them. “Go stand against the wall,” she said, pointing into the darkness of the room. “You too,” she told the other Buizel.
They obeyed, trying not to look at each other. Sneasel walked into the middle of the room, Eevee hesitantly accompanying her.
Sneasel closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, trying to clear her mind of any thoughts that didn’t need to be there. As she calmed her mind, the Ice Beam that was floating above her hand flared brighter, causing the other Pokemon in the room to wince.
“Okay,” she said, opening her eyes. “I’m going to assume that you both claim to be real, and that the other one is fake.”
Both of the Buizels nodded silently. Sneasel resisted the urge to groan. “I’m going to ask you two questions,” she continued. “Answer in your own words, or this Ice Beam will end up in your face, and you both happen to be a Water-type. Got it?”
Both of the Buizels nodded again, their eyes watching the Ice Beam orbit above her hand silently.
She closed her eyes, trying to think of good questions. They had to be ones that would conceivably catch a pretender, but not so obtuse that they’d confuse the real one. After a few seconds, she had one.
“What is Shaun?” she asked.
“A human,” said one.
“A Time Gear,” replied the other. They glanced at each other sideways.
Eevee cocked his head. “Those both sound like lies.”
Sneasel bit her bottom lip. “But they aren’t lying.”
Eevee looked up at her in shock. “They aren’t?”
Sneasel closed her eyes again and grabbed the next question that came to her, the Ice Beam in her hand growing brighter. “How many messages have you seen?”
“Four,” one said.
The other looked at its clone askance. “Five, actually.”
“Well, those are two different answers…?” Eevee said, drawing the statement out into a question.
Sneasel shook her head. “That was a bad question, I don’t know the answer to that one.” Buizel, why do you always have to keep things to yourself?
It took her another minute to think of a decent question, her Ice Beam beginning to actually light up the room. “What is the scarf you’re wearing called?”
“A Shimmer Scarf,” they replied in unison.
Eevee blinked. “Wow, they’re good.”
Sneasel tilted her head in thought as the Ice Beam above her hand began to look more like a blue fireball. Did she even know him enough to ask good questions?
One pitiful question occurred to her out of the corner of her mind. She sighed and asked, “Buizel, what do I keep telling you?”
They stared at her blankly. Even Eevee looked at her funny. “Isn’t that question too vague?”
The Buizel to her right shuffled a little in place. “Um, ‘you’re talking backwards’?”
The Buizel to her left rubbed the back of his neck. “Less talking, more walking? Or, um, substitute ‘walking’ with whatever else we’re supposed to be doing.”
Sneasel pointed at the Buizel on the right with the Ice Beam.
Instantly, the fireball left her hand and flew at it. But instead of just freezing the Buizel and blinking out, it lit the entire corner of the room on blue fire.
Sneasel, Eevee, and the other Buizel scrambled away from it. “What the heck?!” Sneasel hissed.
The Buizel that was on fire looked down at itself. “Oh.” It looked back up at them and grinned, a smile that was far too wide for its face. “Well played.”
As the fire raged on, it slowly turned black and began to melt, the grinning face still watching them as it melted into a black, hissing puddle on the ground.
And then, as suddenly as it had begun, the fire died.
Sneasel stared into the darkness for a long moment before working up the courage to summon another Ice Beam. This one was significantly dimmer compared to the last one.
Buizel and Eevee stood there, also staring into the corner of the room. Eevee slowly drifted to Sneasel’s side, and Buizel rubbed the back of his neck again. “That was, um. Something.”
Sneasel nodded slowly. “Not a Pokemon.”
There was silence for about a minute before Sneasel took a deep breath. “Well. You’re the real Buizel, right?”
Buizel nodded emphatically. “I think if you hit me with an Ice Beam, I wouldn’t, um, burst into flames and then melt.”
Sneasel let out a single, unamused laugh. “You don’t say.”
“How did you know it was me?” Buizel asked.
Sneasel blinked. “I’m… not actually too sure. I think you did something that only the real Buizel would do.”
Eevee had been squinting into the dark corner without much success. “Is that stairs?”
His comment drew the attention of the other two Pokemon. Sneasel walked over to where the doppelgänger had been a minute ago and held her Ice Beam over it.
To her utter disbelief, a set of stairs lead down deeper into the dungeon.
“Yes, these are stairs,” she said faintly as Buizel peered down them. They were the same spiral stairs they had used earlier. “What in the world…?”
“Do you think Shaun is down there?” Buizel asked suddenly.
Sneasel didn’t want Shaun to be down there. “As much as I hate to admit it, most likely.”
Buizel held out his paw and summoned a Swift, which orbited above his paw in a very similar manner to Sneasel’s Ice Beam. “He still has a broken leg, and he hasn’t navigated a mystery dungeon before.”
Sneasel glanced at him. “And you have?”
Buizel grinned half-heartedly, a far cry from what had just burnt in the fire. “Well, no, but I dream about it sometimes.”
“Hopefully nothing like this,” Sneasel said as she started down the stairs.
Even though they now had Buizel’s swift, the darkness was still a constant presence, looming over them as they tried not to think too hard about what they had just seen. Buizel still fidgeted, but it was mostly with the fins under his arms rather than their surroundings.
“Um, mister Buizel?” Eevee asked at length. “Is it true that mister Shaun is both a human and a Time Gear?”
Buizel sighed. “Yeah.”
“How is that possible?” Eevee continued. “The last time I saw him, he looked like a Shinx.”
“I don’t know.” Buizel played with the stars orbiting his outstretched paw, pulling them away and watching them float back into place. “I wish I did know, but he doesn’t really… talk much about himself.”
“So, like you?” Sneasel asked.
Buizel looked up, one of his stars fading out of existence. “Huh?”
“You hardly talk about yourself,” Sneasel elaborated. “I didn’t even know if you had parents until I had to ask Shaun about the whole Time Gear thing.”
“Well, yeah,” Buizel said after a moment. “It’s… mostly Haunter, I guess.”
Sneasel nodded. She had seen Haunter tormenting Buizel for years. “I understand that, but you should probably still open up to other Pokemon more. I had the hardest time trying to think of questions that would actually get your clone.”
Buizel sighed again. “It’s really hard to do that when no one wants to be your friend.”
Sneasel looked at him. “Who ever said that no one wanted to be your friend?”
He deflated a little. “No one has to ‘say’ anything. They’re always ‘too busy’, or they at best treat you with indifference.”
Sneasel looked at the Ice Beam orbiting above her palm guiltily. A faint, faint memory surfaced where Buizel had asked her something and she had brushed it off, too many other things on her mind.
Buizel resumed playing with the stars orbiting his paw, despite the fact that another two had fizzled out. “I know I have a family, which is a lot more than some ‘mons can say, but…” Another star disappeared. “Even they can’t be around all the time.”
Sneasel waited. This was something that had been on his mind for a long time, and she needed to let him get it off his chest.
“Am I selfish?” Buizel asked suddenly. “For wanting a friend? For anymon else to talk to besides just my parents? The only other Pokemon I considered a friend was Shaun,” he continued, yet another star burning out. “But he- he doesn’t seem to understand what a friend is. He just thinks that I keep hanging up because I’m- I’m obligated to.”
“Uhm, mister Buizel, sir?” Eevee asked, butting in. “If it’s any consolation, I think of you as a friend.”
Buizel looked at him blankly. “Huh?”
Eevee stared at the ground bashfully. “Well, um, you had no reason to help me find my mother, but you did anyway.” He glanced up at Buizel. “Is that not worthy of my friendship?”
Buizel didn’t say anything for a while. They walked through the long, silent, empty hallways.
“Eevee?” Buizel said finally.
“Um, yes, mister Buizel?” Eevee nervously replied.
“Thank you.”
The silence prevailed until they reached the next room.
Sneasel paused at the entrance. “Wait.”
Buizel and Eevee stopped behind her. Buizel glanced at his paw in confusion and resummoned his Swift. “What’s wrong?” he asked as he did so.
“Look,” Sneasel said simply.
A few dozen eyes looked back at them, glowing faintly in the dark. Eevee took one look and backed behind Sneasel’s legs.
“What the heck?” Buizel muttered under his breath.
Sneasel experimentally threw her Ice Beam over the eyes. As it flew over them, Sneasel inhaled sharply and Buizel tensed.
From what little the move had illuminated, Sneasel had realized that the room they were in had a small group of Shinx, all with varying shades of blue eyes. The move hit the far edge of the room with a crackling of ice and went out.
“Well, I think we found where Shaun is,” Sneasel remarked. She produced another Ice Beam to act as a light and held it up in a futile attempt to brighten her surroundings.
“I get the feeling if you tried doing the quiz thing again, you wouldn’t get far,” Buizel muttered.
“No kidding.” Sneasel inhaled, calming her mind again. She would need to if she wanted to get everymon out of this alive. “Alright, which one of you is real?” she said, the light in her hand flaring up.
“Me,” the eyes chorused in Shaun’s voice, watching the light.
Buizel shuddered. “Wow, I hate that.”
Sneasel walked into the group of Shinx, leaving Eevee to hide behind Buizel. They obligingly parted, letting her see them up close. They looked a lot like Shaun, with the same dirty and unkempt fur and bright, almost vividly blue glowing eyes.
Sneasel folded her arms the best she could with one hand outstretched. They also all had a copy of the scarf and splint that Shaun had been wearing.
“Hey,” Buizel called, a little removed from the rest of the Shinx, “come look at this.”
Sneasel waded out of the group of Shinx and walked over to Buizel. One of them had distanced itself from the others and was watching the other Pokemon warily. “What is it?”
“Have you noticed that none of the other Sh- Shinx have really been limping?” Buizel asked. He gestured to the one in front of him and said, “This one is limping, like, really, really badly.”
“So you think it’s Shaun based purely off of that,” Sneasel said.
“Well, not only that,” Buizel admitted. “His eyes are the same blue that Shaun’s eyes are supposed to be.”
The Shinx was still watching them curiously. “So you’re saying I’m Shaun?” it asked.
Buizel nodded. “Yes, I think so.”
The eyes suddenly disappeared. Eevee suddenly shoved Buizel to the side as something unseen leapt for Buizel’s throat and barely missed.
Sneasel tracked its movements as it skittered across the floor and fired her Ice Beam at it.
Like before, the thing caught on fire, casting almost blindingly blue light across the room. It hissed like an ice cube in a fire, slowly beginning to melt as it grinned at them, a smile that was too large for its face.
Unlike before, the face had no eyes.
Everymon, including the crowd of other Shauns, watched in horror as it melted to the floor as a puddle of black sludge, the fire disappearing suddenly.
After a minute had passed, Sneasel summoned another Ice Beam, her hands trembling a little. “New rule, informed guesses only,” she said, trying to keep her voice steady.
From the pitiful amount of light the move cast, she saw Eevee looking pale, Buizel shivering and clutching his sides, and the rest of the things watching her with varying horrified expressions.
“So you all still think you’re real?” she asked them. They nodded slowly, never taking their eyes off of the Ice Beam orbiting above her hand.
“Mister Buizel, sir, please don’t cry,” Eevee begged. “If you start to cry, then I’m afraid I’ll start to cry…”
“I… I was wrong,” Buizel said, his voice very unsteady. “I- I nearly died-“
Sneasel marched over to him and hauled him to his feet. “Get up,” she growled. “Nothing’s going to improve if you sit there.” She was just as horrified as Buizel, but she didn’t dare show it in front of the rest of the things that claimed to be Shaun.
“M- Miss Sneasel?” Eevee said, a little taken aback.
“Look,” she said, jabbing Buizel in the chest with a claw. “We need to get out of here alive. We are never getting home if we either die or leave Shaun. Do you understand me?”
Buizel closed his eyes and took a long, shuddery breath. “I- I do.”
“Good.” As she turned away, she began to feel a little guilty for venting her feelings at Buizel instead of doing something healthier, like punching a wall.
“Lullaby,” Buizel muttered. “That’s what that message was.”
After glancing at Buizel curiously, she returned most of her attention to the things in the room. They had watched this exchange without saying a word, which only served to unnerve her further.
As she breathed slowly to calm her mind again to maybe possibly come up with an idea, Eevee asked from Buizel’s side, “Um, mister Shaun, why do you see yourself as a burden to Buizel?”
“I wasn’t ever wanted,” a Shaun replied simply. “Why would anyone start now?”
“Oh.” Sneasel got the impression that Eevee cocked his head sideways in thought. “Why weren’t you ever wanted?”
“I was an accident,” another Shaun said. “I tried to prove myself, maybe finally get their approval, but it didn’t work. It’ll never work,” it concluded, shaking its head sadly.
One of the clones suddenly took an intense interest in the conversation. “Hey, that’s not true.”
Sneasel smiled a little to herself with a sudden idea. “Have you ever had any friends?”
Yet another clone shook its head. “No,” it said. “Any ‘friends’ I had never really stuck around.”
The dissenting Shaun glowered in the general direction the voice had come from. “I don’t- I- That’s probably not true, either!”
“So you think that Buizel will also leave you?” she asked.
“Yes,” said a different clone.
Buizel walked up, his Swift orbiting his paw again. “Would you believe me if I said I wouldn’t?” he asked with interest.
Another clone shrugged. “Not really. They’ve all said that, but they’ve drifted away all the same.”
Sneasel intentionally began to let her Ice Beam dim as she circled the group, who was now focused on Buizel. She watched as Buizel scanned the crowd and asked, “Why?”
“Too focused on trying to get approval,” said one clone.
“I pushed them away because I was afraid,” said another.
The one dissenting clone stomped his foot angrily. “That’s- none of that is true! None of it is!” His voice was unsteady.
“Are you pushing me away?” Buizel asked, a little sadly.
“Yes, but not out of fear,” replied a different clone. “More out of envy than anything.”
Buizel blinked in confusion. “What do you envy me for?”
“Your parents,” a clone spat. The sudden aggression made the three real Pokemon flinch. “You of all people would have the most caring parents in the world, when you don’t deserve them.”
“That’s not true at all!” the dissenter yelled, his voice clipped. “I- you- you just-“
“Why do you envy his parents?” Eevee asked, surprised.
The clone looked at the floor. “My parents never loved me.”
This simple statement silenced the entire room. Sneasel, who was mid-tiptoe among the crowd of Shinx, paused in shock.
“They- they didn’t?” a stunned Eevee asked in a small voice.
Another clone sighed. “I was an accident. They never wanted me in the first place. So they were indifferent to anything I did. Anything I’ve said. I’ve been chasing their approval my entire life.”
“I-“ The dissenter began to choke on his own words. “That’s- I can’t- you-“
“I’m…” Buizel looked at the floor. “I’m sorry.”
“They all say that.” The clone looked away. “But they’ve never meant it.”
Sneasel knelt down next to the dissenting Shaun. Tears glistened in his eyes as he watched his own clones slowly remind him of his entire past that he hadn’t wanted to remember. “N- nothing is true!” he sobbed. “It’s all lies! I- I-“
Sneasel hugged Shaun. She had never been good with hugs, but she was willing to put that aside for right now.
As she did, the rest of the clones vanished, leaving them in a large, empty room. Buizel and Eevee looked around in surprise before spotting Sneasel and Shaun and hurrying over.
“How-? How did-?” Shaun asked, his voice unsteady.
“You’ve built walls that a copy of you wouldn’t have had to,” Sneasel replied.
Buizel also knelt down and hugged Shaun. “And, for the record, I really am sorry,” he said softly. “I’ve never not meant what I said.”
Shaun was completely still. Buizel had let his Swift go out, and Sneasel’s Ice Beam had disappeared a while ago. It was only them and the darkness, which had lost any hold over them.
“Um, mister Shaun?” Eevee said meekly from the darkness. “Sometimes, it’s okay to cry. It’s only us, and I promise I won’t cry too.”
A sob escaped from Shaun. “I- I shouldn’t-“
“Don’t be afraid of tears, sir,” Eevee said. “It’s a natural part of who we are.”
Shaun began to sob uncontrollably. He ducked beneath the hug and hid his eyes under his paws, afraid of anyone seeing the tears.
But no one would have thought less of him if they did.
After Shaun had calmed down somewhat, Sneasel stood up.
“We should get going,” she said, her voice oddly clipped. “We still have one more Pokemon to find.”
“Yeah.” Shaun finally stood up, his broken leg reminding him it was still there. “I’m- I think I’m better, now.”
Sneasel made another Ice Beam and began to look around the room. “There should probably be a set of stairs now,” she said. “It’s what happened last time.”
Buizel summoned a Swift and stood up. “Let’s start looking, I guess.”
As they began looking around the room, Eevee glanced at them in confusion. “Uhm, mister Shaun?” he asked as Shaun started to follow Buizel. “Can’t you light up your tail?”
Shaun paused. “Oh! Right! I can do that!” He mentally willed his tail to light up, unsure if it even would.
His tail immediately began to shine like a lightbulb, illuminating the room as clearly as if he had brought a floodlight. Sneasel and Buizel both paused and turned to look at him, and then looked at each other.
They both burst into laughter, catching Shaun a little off guard. “Why didn’t we think of that?” Buizel asked. “We should have thought of that!”
“Other concerns, I guess,” Sneasel said with a grin. She glanced around the room and spotted a set of spiral stairs almost immediately. “Wow, who knew that you could find things easier when you could see?”
Shaun began to grin a little. “Were you two not bright enough to think of that?”
Sneasel giggled, something Shaun thought very unlike her. “Wow, you’ve lightened up pretty quickly,” she said.
Buizel groaned in agony. “Making light of the situation, I see.”
Shaun laughed, surprising himself. “I didn’t know you two liked puns!”
“Lowest form of humor.” Buizel rolled his eyes. “Be glad you’re not doing this around my dad. He’s awful. And light puns are his specialty.”
Eevee looked around at them, confused. “What?”
“I’ve got a bright idea,” Buizel continued. “We should probably continue down the stairs and actually find Glaceon.”
“Aw, you’re no fun,” Sneasel said as they walked towards the stairs.
“I don’t really like puns,” Buizel admitted. “There’s hundreds of other jokes and everyone goes and picks arguably the easiest one.”
“I didn’t know you were so opinionated about humor,” Shaun remarked as they descended the stairs. “What’s your favorite kind of joke, then?”
“Brick jokes,” Buizel replied promptly. “There is something so unbelievably hilarious to me about leaving a joke without a punchline, only to finish it in a completely different context.”
“Those are a lot harder to set up, though,” Shaun complained as they alighted on the floor below.
“That’s half the fun,” Buizel said. “Jokes should take some effort instead of just being wordplay.”
They kept up the lighthearted talk as they wandered through the dungeon. It felt good to joke, to laugh, to not think about what just happened.
Eventually, Shaun sobered. “We’ve gone pretty deep into this dungeon, now.”
“Do- do you think it goes much deeper?” Eevee asked nervously.
As he spoke, the walls slowly began to slope away from them, their footsteps starting to echo throughout the dungeon. The darkness began to feel even more oppressive, Shaun’s light dimming as they entered a large room.
They didn’t realize how large it was, at first. Shaun gazed around at the seemingly sudden lack of walls in consternation. “Wow, this is a big room.”
They stopped just short of a ledge, Buizel nearly stumbling off of it. “Whoa.”
“Shhh!” Sneasel hissed at him. “Look!”
They all stared at the Pokemon who was watching wordlessly from the ground below. Shaun thought it looked vaguely like Eevee, but it was much larger, its fur a shade of light blue instead of brown. It seemed to have geometric bangs that trailed almost to the floor, a darker blue color than the rest of its fur.
Eevee started to tremble a little. “That’s- that’s Mom,” he said uncertainly, “but she might be- might just be an illusion…”
Sneasel summoned an Ice Beam. “Well, if there’s any other clones in this room, then I’ve got a surefire way to check.”
“I just want to leave,” Eevee said miserably.
Wordlessly, Sneasel launched the Ice Beam across the room.
Shaun watched as it flew through the room, barely illuminating the heads of more and more Glaceon. He felt his heart drop the further the beam traveled, still illuminating the same Pokemon, over and over.
After far too long, it hit the far side of the room, the delayed sound of crackling ice reaching them shortly after the light disappeared. For the first time Shaun had seen her, Sneasel looked actually worried. “That’s- that’s a lot.”
Eevee had gone completely still. Shaun glanced at him and realized he was trying very hard not to cry. He draped what he hoped was a friendly arm around Eevee’s neck. “It’s okay,” he said gently. “We’ll find her.”
Sneasel glanced at them and almost swore under her breath. She quickly walked over to them and gently shook Eevee. “Breathe. You need to breathe.”
Eevee automatically took in a breath, which sounded more like a sob. “She- I-“
Sneasel picked up Shaun. He looked up at her, confused, until she jumped down the ledge. Buizel and Eevee followed, Eevee’s movements remaining very deliberate. They walked past the first Glaceon, and then predictably encountered a wall of Glaceons, which looked the same as the first one.
Buizel stared at the floor in thought as Sneasel put Shaun down. “Lullaby,” he muttered, “why can I only remember that one word?”
They began to walk into the crowd of Glaceons, feeling their indifferent stares. Shaun got the impression that they wouldn’t have talked even if they wanted to. Eevee deliberately stared at the floor, making the occasional gasping hiccup. Shaun had no idea how they were going to find his mother. He didn’t even know what they should’ve been looking for.
Buizel glanced at Eevee curiously. “Does the word ‘lullaby’ mean anything to you?”
Eevee nodded miserably. “Yes,” he said, his voice cracking. “Every night, before I went to sleep, we used to sing a lullaby to each other. It- it helped me sleep at night, when I- I was scared.”
“Do you remember it?” Buizel asked.
Eevee nodded again.
Buizel folded his arms and looked into the darkness that loomed above them. “…Do you think you could sing it?”
Eevee looked at him. “Wh- why?” he asked, his confusion melding with his misery.
Buizel rubbed the back of his neck. “I… have a hunch.”
Eevee stared at the ground again. He seemed to have some sort of internal struggle before taking a deep breath and starting to sing.
“When the light is running low, and the shadows start to grow,” he began unsteadily, “And the places that you know- seem like fantasy-” he choked on the last word and went quiet.
“There’s a light inside your soul, that’s still shining in the cold…”
A faint, faint voice responded. They all froze, and Eevee gasped. His voice shook as he continued, “With the truth-“
“-the promise in our hearts,” the voice responded weakly.
They slowly began to move through the crowd of Glaceon again, whose stares began to look less indifferent and more angry.
“Don’t forget,” Eevee continued singing. His voice was beginning to grow a little stronger, but it still had a worrying waver to it.
“I’m with you in the dark,” the voice replied in a similar waver. It sounded like it knew the words well, but its voice had become rusty from disuse.
“Don’t forget,” he repeated. They were beginning to draw closer to the source of the responses.
“I’m with you in the dark…” the voice finished wearily. Shaun thought they were probably only a few feet away from them at most.
Sneasel had a good ear and fantastic directional memory. She carefully led them through the crowd of other Glaceon, when they stepped out into a small clearing of sorts.
In the middle of this clearing was a Glaceon, lying on the ground exhausted and malnourished. Eevee gasped as he saw her and ran to her side. “Is- are you- can-“
“Yes,” she replied simply in a soft voice as she nuzzled his face. “It’s okay, heartspark. You don’t have to cry.”
Around them, the other clones began to fade away, but they didn’t notice.
“I’ve missed you,” Eevee choked. “The- almost the whole village has. The other adults haven’t come back yet, and-“
“Shhh.” Glaceon gently nuzzled her son again. “I’ve missed you too.”
She looked up at the other Pokemon standing there. Buizel was nervously fidgeting with his fins, while Sneasel looked away in a poor attempt at privacy. Shaun just watched, a longing, hungry look in his eyes that he didn’t want to admit was there.
“You’re the ones who brought my son to me?” she asked. “I- I must thank you.” She looked down at the ground, seemingly ashamed. “I tried to rescue other Pokemon who fell in here. I… got them out, but I got lost, myself. I knew the rules of the shades, but I couldn’t fight against my own. They were my own worst enemy, my despair, my doubts, my grievances.”
Sneasel nodded in understanding, still looking away. “Which is why you needed somemon else to find you.”
Glaceon nodded. “It’s… been difficult.” She pushed herself upright with great effort. “We should go home.”
They left the room. The darkness seemed to have lost any hold over the dungeon, merely being darker than usual. Shaun’s tail easily let them retrace their steps back.
Glaceon stumbled several times during the way back. Every time, they all stopped as she regained her footing and Eevee worried over her. “I can last until we get out of here, my spark,” she softly told Eevee the fifth time this happened. “I just need some rest.”
“We can rest here,” Eevee suggested, his worry evident in his tone. “We don’t have to push you so hard.”
Glaceon shook her head, her long hair nearly touching the ground. “It’s better that we get out of here.”
After another few stumbles, they finally arrived at the first floor. Shaun and Buizel carefully avoided the spots they had disappeared in, even though the cave had lost its power. “I’m, uh, not keen on repeating that particular experience,” Buizel said sheepishly.
“I would expect so,” Glaceon said. “This mystery dungeon needs to be completely blocked up.”
After one last stumble, they finally arrived at the cave entrance. Stepping outside, Shaun was amazed to see that it was night. “Oh wow, how long were we in there?”
“About six or seven hours,” Riolu said from the cave entrance. He watched with professional interest as the group shambled out, looking exhausted. He wisely didn’t say anything, instead bending down and picking up a bundle that sat by his feet. “I brought the medical supplies here just in case,” he said proudly.
Glaceon beamed at him. “Oh, thank you so much for your foresight,” she said. Riolu looked at her and continued to stare as she laid down in the grass. “I need- I need to rest for a moment.”
Sneasel took the bundle from Riolu and looked inside. “Well, there’s less in here than I’d like, but I can make do.”
Shaun sat and listened to the sounds of unfamiliar crickets as Sneasel carefully doctored Glaceon. His leg was beginning to throb painfully again, but he didn’t say anything out of fear of being forced to rest. It was bad enough that it was quiet. His thoughts spun around his head wildly, waiting to be dissected at great length when he was supposed to be asleep.
After a few minutes, Sneasel stood up. “Well, all she needs now is rest.”
Buizel looked around. “We probably shouldn’t rest here.”
“I want to go home,” Eevee agreed sadly.
Glaceon pushed herself up again. “We can.”
“But- but you’re still hurt!” Eevee protested.
“I feel much better, thanks to Sneasel’s help,” she said calmly. “I’ll be able to at least make it home.”
They walked down the path to the village, the island only seeming grayer in the darkness. Shaun’s tail was beginning to flicker a little, signifying his exhaustion.
As his leg was still broken, he lagged behind the others. Buizel glanced back and noticed. He subtly drifted back until he was walking beside Shaun on the road, a short distance away from the others.
“So, um, about the…” Buizel rolled a paw in the air. “…cave, thing.”
Shaun sighed. He knew this conversation had been inevitable, but he had hoped that it wouldn’t have been so soon. “What about it?”
“Well…” Buizel blew out air and looked up into the starry sky. “I… also had a- clone.”
Shaun glanced at him in sudden interest. “Oh, really? How many were there?”
“Just one.” Buizel continued staring at the sky, as if searching for something. “But it found Sneasel and Eevee first. I…” He paused for a moment. “Seeing an exact replica of myself, standing next to them… it was haunting.”
Shaun looked at the ground, trying to imagine this and failing. “That’s… it does sound haunting, yeah.”
“After it was, um, immolated, Sneasel told me something that I hadn’t thought about.” Buizel glanced at Shaun. “Do you think I’m too quiet?”
Shaun looked up at him in surprise. “Huh?”
“Too quiet. Too…” Buizel searched for the word. “I want to say ‘reclusive’, but that’s not it.”
Shaun cocked his head consideringly. “I don’t think that’s the right word either, because I know what you mean.” He scuffed the ground a little as they walked. “I guess I haven’t really thought about it. Honestly, I haven’t really wanted to. You’re you, and I’m me. If we had-“ Shaun flinched a little as he said it. “-had secrets, they didn’t matter. It was just nice to be ourselves around each other.”
Buizel was quiet for a moment. “Do you really envy me my parents, or was that something it just said?”
Shaun looked into the sky as well. It seemed to be missing something, but he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what it was. “I’ve… done a little bit of soul searching, after that. I- I really despise myself for admitting it, but… yes. A little, tiny part of me does envy you for them. Not by choice,” he hurriedly added, “I guess it’s just because of- all of that.” He didn’t have the heart to unpack everything that had happened in that room.
The unfamiliar crickets chirped in the trees, and the smells of summer; A bit of humidity, the dense greenery of a forest in midsummer, and something else Shaun couldn’t identify wafting around them as they walked.
“I can’t decide if I’m lucky, or if you’re unlucky,” Buizel said finally. “It was… kind of a shock, hearing that.”
“What, the envy thing?” Shaun asked.
Buizel hesitated. “The, um, parents, thing.”
“Oh.” That particular sore spot was still raw, and he still didn’t want to talk about it. “At least we saved someone.”
“Yeah.” Buizel exhaled the word. “It was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be.”
Their conversation dropped off as they reached the village. The other four Pokemon were in the center of the town, discussing what to do next.
“…fell apart as we got here,” Eevee was explaining. “And everymon else seems to have moved on to check the other islands.”
Glaceon tilted her head. “I don’t think getting across the water will be much of an issue.” She glanced at them as they caught up. “We should probably get down to the beach, in that case.”
Shaun mentally groaned at the thought of more walking. His leg was starting to hurt more and more, and a peculiar tiredness was starting to grow behind his eyes. “What’s wrong with staying here?”
Buizel looked at him askance. “You’re the one who read the book.”
It took Shaun a second to remember what he was talking about, to which he responded with a silent “O”.
They began walking towards the beach. This path was longer than the one from the mystery dungeon, to Shaun’s faint chagrin.
“I really am sorry about that, by the way,” Buizel said, when the rest of the group was ahead of them again. “It’s… not something I’ve really experienced.”
Shaun laughed a little, without much mirth. “It’s not like I can remember much of it anyway. I’m… not entirely sure where they got all of that, actually. I know the… things… weren’t lying, on a fundamental level, but…” Shaun shook his head a little. “I can’t really remember anything about it. Nothing’s there.”
There was silence for a moment. Subtly, Glaceon slowed down to match their pace, but they didn’t notice.
“I’ve been thinking more about myself, honestly,” Buizel admitted. “Having somemon you think you know relatively well be almost unable to tell you apart from a clone is, well… it’s a bit eye-opening, you know?”
“I guess you need to be more transparent,” Shaun said. “I have noticed that you don’t really talk about yourself, but I never thought about it that much.”
Buizel sighed. “I really, really miss my parents.”
Shaun nodded. “Yeah. I wish that we could just go home, but, um, you know…”
Buizel glanced at him. “How did you even send us to the past, anyway?”
“If I knew, I’d tell you,” Shaun replied. “I… also want to go home.” He trailed off on the last word. “I wonder if that’s why I… don’t really want my memories back. I’d know a bit more about who I- was, sure, but there’s… there’s a lot of pain there. It’s nicer here, where at least I can, um, observe your family, I guess.”
Buizel snorted in amusement. “You’re practically part of the family already. Even before the, um, ‘reset’, I saw the way Mom and Dad looked at you when they thought you wouldn’t notice.”
Shaun looked at Buizel, confused. “What?”
Buizel shuffled his feet in the gray dirt that constituted the path. “I don’t know what they thought of you because I never had the presence of mind to ask. But even after the whole Time Gear thing, they still… love you.”
Shaun’s eyes widened. “What? How?”
“They see the loneliness in your soul,” Glaceon stated, causing the both of them to jump. “You were never loved, so they cannot help but love you.”
Shaun eyed her warily. “How long have you been listening?”
“Since I heard about Shaun’s parents,” Glaceon admitted softly. “The shades are not bothered by things like memory loss or protective walls. They are flawless copies, with their only flaw being they have none.”
Shaun blinked. “That’s… really profound.”
Glaceon sighed. “Yes, but they often force you to confront things about yourself that you wish you’d never have to. I wasn’t alone in this, but by the time I realized my mistake, there were already too many.”
Buizel tilted his head. “You know, I was wondering about that. Why did I only get one, um, ‘shade’, while Shaun got around a dozen or so, and then you got…?”
Glaceon shook her head. “Even that I do not know.”
Shaun looked into the sky again. Something important was missing. “Hey Buizel, what’s missing from the sky?”
Buizel peered around. “I don’t know. That’s been bugging me, too.”
“Maybe it doesn’t exist yet,” Glaceon suggested.
Shaun looked at her sharply and then relaxed. “Oh, right, you heard that too.”
“It sounds unbelievable, but I haven’t ever seen you before.” She glanced at them consideringly. “Are you from Fifty Island, then?”
“Born and raised,” Buizel replied. “Shaun’s, um, a bit more of a complicated case.”
“I see.” She glanced at the children ahead of them, who were chattering happily to each other. “I understand that something… irreversible, happens sometime in the near future.”
They glanced at her, and then at each other. “When did we ever tell you about that?” Shaun asked.
She laughed a little, “Oh no, not from you two.” She looked up into the night sky. “Arceus has been guiding me my entire life. I used to be raised on Sitrus Island, but after Eevee was born, he bade me move to Fifty Island, the smallest and most secluded island in the archipelago.”
Shaun glanced at Buizel’s worried face. “Arceus?”
Glaceon gave him her full attention. “Arceus is the creator of all Pokemon. He created the Legendary Pokemon, which in turn created the land, the skies, the seas, the stars, and everything except for the souls of Pokemon. That is Arceus’ personal responsibility.”
“Oh.” Shaun felt a little clueless, and more than a little uncomfortable. “Oh hey, we’re here.”
The beach that they had arrived at was gone, having been replaced by seawater that scaled more than halfway what had been up the cliff. They arrived at where the ramp had led down to the beach, which instead now sloped down into the water.
“Not sure how we’re going to get back,” Sneasel said, watching the water rise and fall.
Glaceon glanced around at the group thoughtfully before walking out onto the seawater. Shaun watched as little ice stepping stones formed underneath her feet as she walked out a few feet from the cliff and began to sing.
It was a wordless song, more akin to humming than actual music. But as the water reared up around her, it coalesced into ice seemingly instantly, quickly taking the appearance of a boat-shaped iceberg.
Buizel shivered a little looking at it, but everyone else was watching in complete awe. “How powerful is she?!” Sneasel hissed. “The amount of control you’d need for half of this alone-!”
Glaceon’s song changed. The ice she was standing on slowly began to form itself into a proper looking boat, with hand railings and benches, carved elegantly out of the ice. Shaun vaguely wondered how it didn’t just melt.
She stopped singing and looked at them, a slightly tired look beginning to form around her eyes. “We may leave, now.”
Eevee hopped onto the boat first, followed by Sneasel, then Shaun, whose leg complained loudly as he landed, and then lastly Buizel.
Riolu stood on the shore, alone. He swayed a little uncertainly as he watched the other Pokemon board. “Can- can I come, too?” he asked suddenly.
Eevee tilted his head. “But, um, what if your parents get worried?”
Riolu’s shoulders slumped a little. “I don’t have parents.”
Glaceon thought for a moment before nodding. “You may come with us.”
Looking surprised, Riolu jumped onto the ice boat and sat down on one of the benches.
Moving to the bow, Glaceon looked at Sneasel. “Sneasel, do you think you could be in charge of repairs?”
Sneasel was caught off-guard. “Huh? Me?”
Glaceon nodded her head in affirmation. “I’m… not entirely recovered, so I can’t keep the boat maintained entirely and navigate, too.”
“Uh, okay,” Sneasel said, shrugging a little.
Glaceon smiled kindly at her before turning to face the ocean and beginning to sing again.
This was an entirely new song, with a new meaning behind the melody. As Shaun picked up on this, a chilly wind began to blow the boat across the water.
Even though the sun had set, it was still hot. The boat’s occupants all sighed in relief, except for Buizel. He was shivering very uncomfortably.
Shaun noticed this out of the corner of his eye and glanced at him. “You good?”
“Not exactly,” Buizel said, his teeth chattering. “C-cold.”
“Has a natural weakness to Ice-type moves,” Sneasel elaborated as she walked past them, looking for any cracks in the ice. She found one and used an Ice Beam to fix it. “Not surprised he’s not a fan of the boat.”
The wind skipped the boat across the water at a pace that Shaun thought was impossible. Several times, he saw a wave that threatened to crash into the boat and sweep them off, but its course was always diverted, somehow. He vaguely thought that it was Glaceon’s doing, but he didn’t dare ask.
Partway through the voyage, Glaceon called Sneasel up to the front of the boat.
Sneasel approached her, feeling slightly nervous. “You needed me?”
Glaceon didn’t stop singing, she just added words. “You seem surprised by this sculpture.”
Sneasel looked down at the ice beneath her feet. She hadn’t noticed until just now that there were little scratches in the surface of the ice, mimicking the boards of an actual boat. “Well… yes, I’m a little shocked. How powerful are you to just make this?” she asked.
“It has nothing to do with power,” Glaceon hummed.
Sneasel glanced at her sharply. “I couldn’t make something like this if I had seven years.” Her gaze drifted to the delicately carved columns that held up the railing. Riolu had stood up and was leaning on this railing, watching Glaceon adoringly from a distance. “I don’t- I can’t understand how you can just do this.”
Glaceon glanced at her over her shoulder. “…Have you not been raised by an Ice-type?” she asked, her voice still following the melody.
Sneasel flinched a little and looked elsewhere. “…no.”
A wave splashed nearby, sending drops of water spraying over Eevee and Riolu, who laughed raucously over it. “Ice-types are inherently drawn to others,” Glaceon sang softly. The wind dropped a little with her voice. “Some use ice to freeze and snuff them out, afraid of them. I do not wish to bring suffering,” she said, looking over her shoulder at Eevee with gentle love. “I only wish to spread joy, and my powers have grown to reflect that. It is much more difficult to bring joy than to bring suffering, but those who would use their powers for an altruistic purpose will grow beyond those who only serve themselves.”
Sneasel stared at the ice boards again. “I… I think I understand.”
Glaceon smiled at her. “May we all understand the foundations of our world,” she sang.
“Hey, Sneasel!” Shaun called. “Pretty large crack over here!”
Sneasel nodded in farewell and resumed her duties in maintaining the boat, quickly skating down to the end of the boat and patching up the crack Shaun pointed out.
“What were you two talking about?” Shaun asked with curiosity. His tail light had grown a lot dimmer since Sneasel had last seen it, and it was beginning to flicker like a candle.
Sneasel shrugged a little and said nothing. Shaun watched her and then nodded. “Not my space to pry, got it.”
A large wave crashed into the side of the boat, rocking it slightly. As the wave turned to mist above the boat, the cold wind froze it, turning it into cold sparkles. The boat’s passengers watched in awe as they slowly drifted around the boat, catching the starlight and gleaming brightly.
Eventually, Shaun made out the lights of Island Village. He stood up on his seat just as a large wave crashed into the side of the boat. It would’ve knocked him overboard if Buizel hadn’t grabbed his tail and hauled him back up.
“Thanks,” Shaun gasped. “I thought I was a goner.”
“D-don’t mention it,” Buizel chattered. “We’re almost there, a-aren’t we?”
Shaun nodded. “I saw the lights of the village, we’re close.”
He hadn’t realized how close until they had rounded a tall rock and the dock floated into view. Glaceon gently guided the boat to a stop at it, and they all stepped off of the boat onto the dock.
Sneasel looked at the boat, slightly sadly. “Just… leaving it to melt?”
“Yes,” Glaceon said quietly, no longer singing. It was clear that the ordeal had taken a lot out of her, as she faintly swayed as she walked. “Ice is temporary, but the memories it creates will last.”
They quietly walked into Island Village. Everymon else had gone to bed already, leaving them standing in the middle of town, Shaun’s dimming tail illuminating the houses.
Eevee and Glaceon immediately veered towards a house that Shaun assumed was theirs and went inside. Riolu stared around at the island appreciatively. “It’s so- so colorful here! So vivid!”
Shaun laughed unsteadily. “Who knew that ‘Gray Island’ wouldn’t be colorful?” The tiredness behind his eyes had only grown since they had departed.
Glaceon and Eevee walked outside again, Eevee carrying something in his mouth. Shaun thought that it looked like a scroll of some sort.
“What’s this?” Buizel asked as Eevee deposited it carefully at his feet.
“A map of the islands,” Glaceon said. “If… something happens to the archipelago, I want at least something to remain of it.”
Buizel picked up the map. “Oh, thanks.” His voice had an odd weight to it. “This- this is a great gift.”
“Reward,” Glaceon said softly. “You came to the aid of someone who could not aid themselves.”
“Thanks,” Buizel repeated.
Glaceon glanced at Shaun’s tail, which was beginning to stutter. “Your time here is almost up, I think. Remember us, won’t you?”
Shaun looked at her, confused. “What…?” he asked faintly, swaying back and forth.
“Shaun? You okay?” Buizel asked, concerned.
“I’ve lived through worse,” Shaun replied uncertainly as his light went out.
He then passed out, hitting the dirt ground with a muffled thump.
Instantly, the world went into black and white again with a click. Buizel looked around and inhaled. “Wait, are we-“
Buizel had the sudden and violent sensation of being shoved to the right as the world around them smeared. He stumbled and nearly fell over, and Sneasel was caught off-guard entirely, falling to her knees. “Ow,” she said.
click.
The cold paving stones of Island Village’s commercial district met Buizel’s feet. Before he could look around, Sneasel caught his arm and slung Shaun’s unconscious body over her shoulder and ran out of the square.
She dove into a bush, Buizel following as a matter of course. “What’s the big idea?!” he gasped.
Sneasel held up a clawed hand. “I need to see something.”
Buizel looked around at the town square that he had known for his entire life, the streetlamps casting pools of light onto the road. “Is there something different-?”
She shushed him. “Wait.”
Buizel watched the dark town square curiously. Nothing seemed to happen, but after a minute, Sneasel sighed in relief.
“What?” Buizel stared at her. “What was that all about?”
“Something happens in a few days,” she answered vaguely.
“Ooookay?” Buizel said. As he looked around the town square, he realized what had been bugging him. “Oh. Oh. I just- I just remembered that my parents have no idea where I disappeared to. And I’ve been gone for hours.”
Sneasel glanced at the unconscious Shinx over her shoulder. “Ah. So you’re going to be in some epic trouble.”
“He is,” a familiar voice said ominously.
They both froze and slowly turned to see Floatzel looming above the bush, arms folded. Buizel knew his mother well enough to know that he was, in fact, in deep trouble.
“Um, hi, mom,” Buizel began hurriedly. “I can explain-“
“You will explain to both me and your father in the morning.” Floatzel’s face was obscured by the darkness, so he couldn’t see her expression. “It is almost midnight, Buizel.”
Buizel inhaled through his teeth reflexively. “Almost mid-!”
Sneasel carefully draped Shaun over his shoulder. “Here, hold this. While you face your music, I have to go face mine.” She smiled painfully at him. “Um, see you eventually, I guess.”
“You too,” said Buizel faintly as she hastily departed from the bush.
Floatzel watched her go. “I didn’t know you made friends with her.”
Buizel remembered that he was still carrying the map that Glaceon had given them. “Oh, um, mom? Can you carry this for me?”
Floatzel took the map and glanced at it. “What is this?”
“Map of the archipelago,” he replied without thinking. “Can we go home now?” he yawned.
Floatzel turned the map over in her paws. “Archipelago?” she asked, confused.
Buizel yawned again. “Yeah.” His brain had mostly gone into autopilot at this point. “Got it from Glaceon.”
Floatzel glanced at him again before sighing. “We should go home now.”
As they walked up the path to the lighthouse, Buizel had the presence of mind to look at the sky. The red star was still there, glimmering brightly. Something about it being here now confused Buizel, but he was too tired to think about it.
As they entered the lighthouse, Buizel yawned and put Shaun on the floor, beginning to sway unsteadily. “Oh, um, mom, can you check Shaun’s leg? I think he made it worse.”
He didn’t remember hitting the floor, nor did he remember being carried up to bed.