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Description
"You've come to take me back, haven't you?"

This picture also comes with a short story.

A word of warning – this contains spoilers for Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team and Explorers of Sky and, by extension, all related PMD games. Proceed at your own risk.

Feel free to skip the story if you want. There are some notes right at the end after the final tilde.

Background Music: Ne Irascaris: William Byrd – Hilliard Ensemble

~

There was no sign of him. Grovyle silently lowered the covering at the top of the stairway and glowered.

He had been perfectly clear. People in Treasure Town were bound to have found something odd in Dusknoir's sudden abduction of the exploration team, and even a glimpse of one of it's members would spark off a search. With the Guild involved, they would have to relocate – and quickly. He was fairly confident he could get past Wigglytuff, but the other two were nowhere near as experienced.

Fool! That Meowth's emotions will get us all killed!

An ugly thought started to form in his mind. The scrawny Meowth had distrusted him from the start. Perhaps he had been too trusting. It was entirely possible that the Meowth was making his way to Officer Magnezone and his goons even as he was lying here doing nothing.

Sure, his being spotted would be far worse than either George or the Meowth but, if necessary, he would be able to slip away. George was still safe under the bluff, and that was what mattered. All that was needed was for one person to take care of the Time Gears.

He had to move.

He raised the covering again and looked around, carefully. Nothing had changed. There was a faint sound of the surf and the wind through the trees, but everything else was still. Some disturbed earth showed signs that a burrowing Pokémon had been here some time in the last few days, but otherwise there were no tracks. The moon was full, illuminating the bluff like a searchlight.

Typical.

One moment he was in the bluff, the next he was out under a clump of trees not far from the cave entrance. He glanced back. The covering was still in place. Good. He paused for a long moment, listening for any sign that his presence had been detected. Nothing moved.

He scanned the bluff from this new vantage point, determined not to miss anything. The first moments after leaving cover were always the most dangerous. After that, cunning would always be an option. If necessary, he could scale the cliffs to move around the town. Nothing stir-

Wait.

There was a shadow at the base of the town's signal flag. He had to hand it to the stalker – his shadow was almost concealed by the gentle motions of the flag's own shadow. But it wasn't good enough – he'd played this game too many times before. He crouched down to get a better look whilst gauging how many strides it would take to reach the cliff edge. There was enough clearance under the flag to make out all the details he needed to see. White. Brown. Fur.

The Meowth.

He felt a pulse of rage, then quelled it hastily. Anger wouldn't help here. The area around the flag was completely exposed. There would only be enough space behind the flag for one, so he would have to deal with this quickly. He braced himself, then moved with a forced slowness towards the flag. Speed would only draw attention to himself now. The pace did nothing for his mood.

He passed the edge of the flag and the Meowth came into view. It didn't stir.

He's not even paying attention! How does he even function on a exploration team?

He made to move towards him, to take hold of him as quietly as possible and force him back to the bluff. As he did so, something flared on the Meowth's face. Tears. He'd been crying. No matter. He had to …

…

Trembling. Tears streaming down my face. A hot wind burning across the plateau.

"Didn't we …

Aren't we friends?"

Pain.

…

"You've come to take me back, haven't you?"

The Meowth hadn't moved a fraction.

"Shut up!" he hissed. "We're exposed. Get back to the bluff. This can wait."

He really should deal with this now. Stun him if necessary. He'd done it before. And yet something prevented him. He felt a sudden affinity for the Meowth.

Perhaps he will come willingly.

But the Meowth was already speaking.

"If you're worried about anyone else finding us, you can stop right now."

The voice was rigid, a strong, unwavering monotone. It sounded strangely calm, although he knew it was forced.

"In case you've forgotten, my sense of smell is a little better than yours. There's no-one here. There isn't even anyone in the streets of town. And I'll know as soon as there is."

"It's still too risky. We need to –

"I have to know." The Meowth grimaced, but otherwise remained still. "I couldn't stand it down there. I knew there would be things about George that I might never know, that his past as a human would be strange to me. But I'd never guessed -"

The voice finally broke, choked.

"You want to know about him, about the two of us, don't you?"

The Meowth was right, of course. Anyone coming up to the bluff would be detected a mile off. Perhaps this was a good time to deal with this. He would have to eventually, and George would never forgive him if he left his partner in such a state.

The Meowth nodded, weakly.

" This –"

Grovyle shook himself. This was going to be harder than he had thought. It had been so long since he had talked about these things to anyone, let alone in such a situation. This would be good for him as well. He tried again –

"I'm sorry."

Good start.

"This is my fault. I should have seen the signs from the start. A Pokémon who is also a human, a Pokémon who can use Dimensional Scream, even your cursed team name …

"I always thought I would know. That when I found George again it would be obvious, that I would be able to see who he was. I never thought that he would be a Pokémon, let alone a Pikachu."

The Meowth frowned slightly, but said nothing.

"When I was much younger, I found a Mudkip in a forest close to where I used to live. It was in pretty bad shape, so I took it home and cared for it. When it came around, it told me that it's name was Luke, and that it was a human.

"Do you remember when the mystery dungeons first appeared?"

The Meowth looked confused.

"No, I guess it must have been before you were born. Luke appeared shortly after the first dungeons did. The whole world was in pretty bad shape. No-one knew what the dungeons were, and all sorts of Pokémon ended up getting trapped inside them. Something about them turned whole groups of them insane, attacking anything on sight. Some of us wanted to help, and so we formed groups to seek out the lost Pokémon. We called ourselves rescue teams.

"I wanted to do something to cheer this Mudkip up. Something about him made me feel sad – a Mudkip shouldn't be unhappy. A rescue team seemed like a good thing to be part of, so I suggested that we should give it a try.

"It certainly cheered Luke up. He seemed very eager to help out, so when he was better we started working. He came up with the name, you know.

"Rangers."

A spark of surprise flashed in the Meowth's eyes.

"Luke was George". He corrected himself "is George. George is his middle name. That's one more thing that alluded me."

Again, the Meowth looked confused.

"I'm getting ahead of myself. We worked well together as a team, very well. He provided the offensive force whilst I dealt with groups. His Protect and my Agility got us through everything the mystery dungeons threw at us.

"Luke had no memory of his time before he became a Mudkip. All he knew was his name. I could tell it upset him, but he put on a brave face and busied himself with our work. He had such terrible dreams …

"We made a strong name for ourselves. We surpassed the strongest local teams. Eventually, we found the source of the dungeons. A meteor was streaking towards us, cracking open the ground and all of our minds. Xatu, a Pokémon wiser and more obtuse than any I have ever met, sent us to the sky to consult Rudy, a Rayquaza. She refused to aid us, but we managed to persuade her."

…

Wisps of cloud. A deafening throbbing in my head. Rayquaza roaring.

"Take charge of your destiny!"

Exhilaration.

…

"She destroyed the meteor. And then Gardevoir tried to take Luke away from me."

He paused for a moment. He glanced back towards the town for a moment. He'd been lost in the tale.

Don't lose focus. This is important, but the Time Gears must come first. As must George.

"It was tough. She had made Luke into a Pokemon so that he could deal with the meteor. Luke, as good a human as he was a Pokémon, claimed he wasn't worthy of such an important task. He asked that Gardevoir remove his memories so that he could prove his worth. It was rather noble. But his task was done, and he had to return to the humans. She took him.

"But something happened. Somehow Luke managed to convince her otherwise, for within hours he appeared in front of all of us outside our team base. I've never been happier in my life.

"We kept working, joyous. Luke's memories slowly began to return, and everything seemed to be fine. The numbers of Pokémon trapped in the dungeons were even beginning to tail off.

"But it wasn't fine. Luke told me, when he'd remembered enough, that he'd left people behind. His transformation into a Mudkip had happened suddenly and he hadn't had time to say goodbye to those he knew in his old life. To his family, his friends, he had just disappeared. He knew they must have thought him dead.

"We both knew he had to return. We put it off, and for a while we grew closer than ever, but neither of us could let the idea go. Gardevoir had promised that Luke could – must – return to being a human.

"That last night, we returned to the forest where we had first met. He promised me that, once he had said his goodbyes, he would come and find me. Gardevoir came in the night and took him away."

"I kept working. We had many members on our team by this point – Rangers was famous. I worked closely with one of our oldest members, a Linoone called Sebastian. He was a great help, and part of his cheer always dragged me back to good spirits.

"But the months passed, and Luke didn't return. I grew steadily more and more unhappy. I thought that he had abandoned me. One night, in a fit of despair, I went down to Luminous Cave and evolved into what you see now."

He looked down at himself sadly. The leaves on his hands still mocked him.

"Luke and I agreed that we should never evolve, at least when we discovered the cave. This change was an act of defiance I have always regretted." A sense of urgency filled him. "This is important, Alex. Don't evolve. At least not until you're ready. It's as much a curse as a blessing. I am stronger now, but my size makes it much harder to be as stealthy and nimble as I was as a Treecko. Sebastian found it amusing. He never did understand. He evolved as soon as he saw the cave.

"And Luke did return shortly after, riding on the back of a caught Lapras. Pokémon Square, my home, was more remote from the human-inhabited continents than I had first thought. Luke had been searching for me for months. I felt terrible at having doubted him.

"It was very different working with a human. He lacked the powers he had as a Mudkip, but his very presence had a strange power over the Pokémon we encountered. Capturing foes was much simper than mere recruitment. We enlarged the base to accommodate his size, something else I had to get used to, but we kept working as before.

"It was Xatu who discovered the paralysis. He spent his days watching the Sun, and noticed an irregularity in its movements. Rudy confirmed his fears – a creeping paralysis was spreading from across the ocean.

"Pokémon Square is on another continent, far from here. Luke and I headed off alone. There was still too much to do around our own base, and we were confident that we could handle anything the new land could put before us. We left Sebastian in charge and headed towards the paralysis as fast as we could.

"But we were too late. We passed the boundary of the paralysis whilst we were still on the sea. One minute, waves were washing against the flanks of our Lapras, the next the sea was as flat as glass. If Luke hadn't had a Poké ball with him, our Lapras would have been trapped in the water.

"When we landed, we headed towards what seemed to be the source of the devastation. As we were almost at the source, we came across Celebi. She told us of the Time Gears and Dialga. Celebi was – she helped. Dealing with Luke as a human was wonderful, but difficult too. It was good to have someone to talk to.

"We tried assaulting the tower itself, but the defences were formidable even for the three of us. That was when Celebi suggested that she send the two of us back in time to recover the Time Gears. It seemed simpler than a direct attack, so we agreed. Celebi sent us back – and it went wrong. I ended up in a forest far from here and Luke ended up with you. Some of Gardevoir's power must have remained dormant in him – that's the only way I can imagine his transformation having taken place. His change of form, his loss of memory – it's too similar.

"I thought I had lost him again. But I knew that, if I collected the Time Gears, time would rewrite itself. Perhaps that change would make everything right. Even if it didn't for me, some other Grovyle wouldn't have to deal with the paralysis, wouldn't have to leave home. That's why I went after the Time Gears with such fervour. It was foolish – I shouldn't have let grief crowd my judgement."

"And neither should I."

Grovyle started. Alex had turned towards him and was looking him square in the eyes.

"I'm sorry for doubting you. This is – I have much to think about, but I had no idea that you've been through so much. I'm so sorry. I've had it easy."

Grovyle was stunned.

"George, I mean Luke, is a good Pokémon. We've both seen that. I'm sure we can work this out. His loss of memory isn't the fault of either of us."

There was a momentary lapse Alex's strength. Tears were flowing again.

"This isn't going to be easy, but we can get through this. We have to. When it's all over, let's sort it through then. But please understand that this is going to be hard for me."

A hot wind burning across the plateau …

"As it will be for me. I promise to give you the space you need, whenever you need it."

"Thank you."

For a moment, the only sound was the sea and the wind.

"Let's head back." whispered Alex. "Losing sleep will do us no favours."

"Yes."

Alex started towards the stairway. Grovyle let him past, then followed.

"Alex."

"Yes?"

"Let's always do our best."

Alex lifted the covering of the stairway and the warmth of the base enveloped them.

~

Well this took a while. Research is keeping my fairly busy – remind me never to grumble about being busy during the Summer again! On the plus side, I've completed my PhD Confirmation of Status. That's the last hurdle between me and my thesis, which is both great and somewhat daunting.

This is something I've wanted to make for quite a while. I think I made the first sketch around early August. I wanted to do it justice, so I waited until I had a suitable block of time to work on it.

I've put a lot of thought into how I do my shading in recent pictures, but working on something of this size was still rather slow. I don't mind too much, though, as when it's done I have the flexibility to play around with the lighting fairly easily.

I had a bit too much fun working on the flag. I set the design out flat originally and then rotated it onto the curve of the flag (which isn't a standard curve). Inkscape could probably do the rotation automatically, but I worked everything out manually. I have a draft which has far too many construction lines. Can you tell I've been thinking about geometry and symmetry at work recently?

When I was looking around for images of Grovyle, I met with something interesting. It seems that to me that there's a discrepancy over whether the leaves on Grovyle's arms are above or below the wrists. Different sprites, and even detailed art, seem to differ. I'll put it down to differences in individual Grovyle, I guess. I decided to put the leaves above the wrist because this position makes more sense to me. A climbing Pokémon will be better camouflaged with leaves in this position. Moreover, leaves on the inside of the wrists will tend to cut against the body! I may be thinking about this in the wrong way, though. Feel free to correct me.

This scene is pretty much as it played out in my head when I saw it in-game. The story itself is very much non-canon, and I gloss over some information given in the game. For one thing, Grovyle in the game has never seen the Sun whereas he clearly has in my interpretation. I wrote the story quite quickly after finishing the image. It's the first fiction I've written in a little while, so I'm feeling a little rusty!

This work was inspired by 's works At the Cafe , Charmander's Betrayal and PMD - Quilava . Go check them out if you haven't already – they're very much worth seeing! Thanks also to who gave me some initial ideas on how to deal with the stars.

The layout of the bluff and the flag are taken from in-game shots of the bluff from Explorers of Sky. Meowth is based on models of Team Rocket's Meowth from the anime episode 'The Ghost of Maiden's Peak' and images from Bulbapedia. Grovyle is based on models of Ash's Grovyle from the anime episode 'Exploud and Clear!' along with images from Bulbapedia and Explorers of Sky.

Description
"You've come to take me back, haven't you?"

This picture also comes with a short story.

A word of warning – this contains spoilers for Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team and Explorers of Sky and, by extension, all related PMD games. Proceed at your own risk.

Feel free to skip the story if you want. There are some notes right at the end after the final tilde.

Background Music: Ne Irascaris: William Byrd – Hilliard Ensemble

~

There was no sign of him. Grovyle silently lowered the covering at the top of the stairway and glowered.

He had been perfectly clear. People in Treasure Town were bound to have found something odd in Dusknoir's sudden abduction of the exploration team, and even a glimpse of one of it's members would spark off a search. With the Guild involved, they would have to relocate – and quickly. He was fairly confident he could get past Wigglytuff, but the other two were nowhere near as experienced.

Fool! That Meowth's emotions will get us all killed!

An ugly thought started to form in his mind. The scrawny Meowth had distrusted him from the start. Perhaps he had been too trusting. It was entirely possible that the Meowth was making his way to Officer Magnezone and his goons even as he was lying here doing nothing.

Sure, his being spotted would be far worse than either George or the Meowth but, if necessary, he would be able to slip away. George was still safe under the bluff, and that was what mattered. All that was needed was for one person to take care of the Time Gears.

He had to move.

He raised the covering again and looked around, carefully. Nothing had changed. There was a faint sound of the surf and the wind through the trees, but everything else was still. Some disturbed earth showed signs that a burrowing Pokémon had been here some time in the last few days, but otherwise there were no tracks. The moon was full, illuminating the bluff like a searchlight.

Typical.

One moment he was in the bluff, the next he was out under a clump of trees not far from the cave entrance. He glanced back. The covering was still in place. Good. He paused for a long moment, listening for any sign that his presence had been detected. Nothing moved.

He scanned the bluff from this new vantage point, determined not to miss anything. The first moments after leaving cover were always the most dangerous. After that, cunning would always be an option. If necessary, he could scale the cliffs to move around the town. Nothing stir-

Wait.

There was a shadow at the base of the town's signal flag. He had to hand it to the stalker – his shadow was almost concealed by the gentle motions of the flag's own shadow. But it wasn't good enough – he'd played this game too many times before. He crouched down to get a better look whilst gauging how many strides it would take to reach the cliff edge. There was enough clearance under the flag to make out all the details he needed to see. White. Brown. Fur.

The Meowth.

He felt a pulse of rage, then quelled it hastily. Anger wouldn't help here. The area around the flag was completely exposed. There would only be enough space behind the flag for one, so he would have to deal with this quickly. He braced himself, then moved with a forced slowness towards the flag. Speed would only draw attention to himself now. The pace did nothing for his mood.

He passed the edge of the flag and the Meowth came into view. It didn't stir.

He's not even paying attention! How does he even function on a exploration team?

He made to move towards him, to take hold of him as quietly as possible and force him back to the bluff. As he did so, something flared on the Meowth's face. Tears. He'd been crying. No matter. He had to …

…

Trembling. Tears streaming down my face. A hot wind burning across the plateau.

"Didn't we …

Aren't we friends?"

Pain.

…

"You've come to take me back, haven't you?"

The Meowth hadn't moved a fraction.

"Shut up!" he hissed. "We're exposed. Get back to the bluff. This can wait."

He really should deal with this now. Stun him if necessary. He'd done it before. And yet something prevented him. He felt a sudden affinity for the Meowth.

Perhaps he will come willingly.

But the Meowth was already speaking.

"If you're worried about anyone else finding us, you can stop right now."

The voice was rigid, a strong, unwavering monotone. It sounded strangely calm, although he knew it was forced.

"In case you've forgotten, my sense of smell is a little better than yours. There's no-one here. There isn't even anyone in the streets of town. And I'll know as soon as there is."

"It's still too risky. We need to –

"I have to know." The Meowth grimaced, but otherwise remained still. "I couldn't stand it down there. I knew there would be things about George that I might never know, that his past as a human would be strange to me. But I'd never guessed -"

The voice finally broke, choked.

"You want to know about him, about the two of us, don't you?"

The Meowth was right, of course. Anyone coming up to the bluff would be detected a mile off. Perhaps this was a good time to deal with this. He would have to eventually, and George would never forgive him if he left his partner in such a state.

The Meowth nodded, weakly.

" This –"

Grovyle shook himself. This was going to be harder than he had thought. It had been so long since he had talked about these things to anyone, let alone in such a situation. This would be good for him as well. He tried again –

"I'm sorry."

Good start.

"This is my fault. I should have seen the signs from the start. A Pokémon who is also a human, a Pokémon who can use Dimensional Scream, even your cursed team name …

"I always thought I would know. That when I found George again it would be obvious, that I would be able to see who he was. I never thought that he would be a Pokémon, let alone a Pikachu."

The Meowth frowned slightly, but said nothing.

"When I was much younger, I found a Mudkip in a forest close to where I used to live. It was in pretty bad shape, so I took it home and cared for it. When it came around, it told me that it's name was Luke, and that it was a human.

"Do you remember when the mystery dungeons first appeared?"

The Meowth looked confused.

"No, I guess it must have been before you were born. Luke appeared shortly after the first dungeons did. The whole world was in pretty bad shape. No-one knew what the dungeons were, and all sorts of Pokémon ended up getting trapped inside them. Something about them turned whole groups of them insane, attacking anything on sight. Some of us wanted to help, and so we formed groups to seek out the lost Pokémon. We called ourselves rescue teams.

"I wanted to do something to cheer this Mudkip up. Something about him made me feel sad – a Mudkip shouldn't be unhappy. A rescue team seemed like a good thing to be part of, so I suggested that we should give it a try.

"It certainly cheered Luke up. He seemed very eager to help out, so when he was better we started working. He came up with the name, you know.

"Rangers."

A spark of surprise flashed in the Meowth's eyes.

"Luke was George". He corrected himself "is George. George is his middle name. That's one more thing that alluded me."

Again, the Meowth looked confused.

"I'm getting ahead of myself. We worked well together as a team, very well. He provided the offensive force whilst I dealt with groups. His Protect and my Agility got us through everything the mystery dungeons threw at us.

"Luke had no memory of his time before he became a Mudkip. All he knew was his name. I could tell it upset him, but he put on a brave face and busied himself with our work. He had such terrible dreams …

"We made a strong name for ourselves. We surpassed the strongest local teams. Eventually, we found the source of the dungeons. A meteor was streaking towards us, cracking open the ground and all of our minds. Xatu, a Pokémon wiser and more obtuse than any I have ever met, sent us to the sky to consult Rudy, a Rayquaza. She refused to aid us, but we managed to persuade her."

…

Wisps of cloud. A deafening throbbing in my head. Rayquaza roaring.

"Take charge of your destiny!"

Exhilaration.

…

"She destroyed the meteor. And then Gardevoir tried to take Luke away from me."

He paused for a moment. He glanced back towards the town for a moment. He'd been lost in the tale.

Don't lose focus. This is important, but the Time Gears must come first. As must George.

"It was tough. She had made Luke into a Pokemon so that he could deal with the meteor. Luke, as good a human as he was a Pokémon, claimed he wasn't worthy of such an important task. He asked that Gardevoir remove his memories so that he could prove his worth. It was rather noble. But his task was done, and he had to return to the humans. She took him.

"But something happened. Somehow Luke managed to convince her otherwise, for within hours he appeared in front of all of us outside our team base. I've never been happier in my life.

"We kept working, joyous. Luke's memories slowly began to return, and everything seemed to be fine. The numbers of Pokémon trapped in the dungeons were even beginning to tail off.

"But it wasn't fine. Luke told me, when he'd remembered enough, that he'd left people behind. His transformation into a Mudkip had happened suddenly and he hadn't had time to say goodbye to those he knew in his old life. To his family, his friends, he had just disappeared. He knew they must have thought him dead.

"We both knew he had to return. We put it off, and for a while we grew closer than ever, but neither of us could let the idea go. Gardevoir had promised that Luke could – must – return to being a human.

"That last night, we returned to the forest where we had first met. He promised me that, once he had said his goodbyes, he would come and find me. Gardevoir came in the night and took him away."

"I kept working. We had many members on our team by this point – Rangers was famous. I worked closely with one of our oldest members, a Linoone called Sebastian. He was a great help, and part of his cheer always dragged me back to good spirits.

"But the months passed, and Luke didn't return. I grew steadily more and more unhappy. I thought that he had abandoned me. One night, in a fit of despair, I went down to Luminous Cave and evolved into what you see now."

He looked down at himself sadly. The leaves on his hands still mocked him.

"Luke and I agreed that we should never evolve, at least when we discovered the cave. This change was an act of defiance I have always regretted." A sense of urgency filled him. "This is important, Alex. Don't evolve. At least not until you're ready. It's as much a curse as a blessing. I am stronger now, but my size makes it much harder to be as stealthy and nimble as I was as a Treecko. Sebastian found it amusing. He never did understand. He evolved as soon as he saw the cave.

"And Luke did return shortly after, riding on the back of a caught Lapras. Pokémon Square, my home, was more remote from the human-inhabited continents than I had first thought. Luke had been searching for me for months. I felt terrible at having doubted him.

"It was very different working with a human. He lacked the powers he had as a Mudkip, but his very presence had a strange power over the Pokémon we encountered. Capturing foes was much simper than mere recruitment. We enlarged the base to accommodate his size, something else I had to get used to, but we kept working as before.

"It was Xatu who discovered the paralysis. He spent his days watching the Sun, and noticed an irregularity in its movements. Rudy confirmed his fears – a creeping paralysis was spreading from across the ocean.

"Pokémon Square is on another continent, far from here. Luke and I headed off alone. There was still too much to do around our own base, and we were confident that we could handle anything the new land could put before us. We left Sebastian in charge and headed towards the paralysis as fast as we could.

"But we were too late. We passed the boundary of the paralysis whilst we were still on the sea. One minute, waves were washing against the flanks of our Lapras, the next the sea was as flat as glass. If Luke hadn't had a Poké ball with him, our Lapras would have been trapped in the water.

"When we landed, we headed towards what seemed to be the source of the devastation. As we were almost at the source, we came across Celebi. She told us of the Time Gears and Dialga. Celebi was – she helped. Dealing with Luke as a human was wonderful, but difficult too. It was good to have someone to talk to.

"We tried assaulting the tower itself, but the defences were formidable even for the three of us. That was when Celebi suggested that she send the two of us back in time to recover the Time Gears. It seemed simpler than a direct attack, so we agreed. Celebi sent us back – and it went wrong. I ended up in a forest far from here and Luke ended up with you. Some of Gardevoir's power must have remained dormant in him – that's the only way I can imagine his transformation having taken place. His change of form, his loss of memory – it's too similar.

"I thought I had lost him again. But I knew that, if I collected the Time Gears, time would rewrite itself. Perhaps that change would make everything right. Even if it didn't for me, some other Grovyle wouldn't have to deal with the paralysis, wouldn't have to leave home. That's why I went after the Time Gears with such fervour. It was foolish – I shouldn't have let grief crowd my judgement."

"And neither should I."

Grovyle started. Alex had turned towards him and was looking him square in the eyes.

"I'm sorry for doubting you. This is – I have much to think about, but I had no idea that you've been through so much. I'm so sorry. I've had it easy."

Grovyle was stunned.

"George, I mean Luke, is a good Pokémon. We've both seen that. I'm sure we can work this out. His loss of memory isn't the fault of either of us."

There was a momentary lapse Alex's strength. Tears were flowing again.

"This isn't going to be easy, but we can get through this. We have to. When it's all over, let's sort it through then. But please understand that this is going to be hard for me."

A hot wind burning across the plateau …

"As it will be for me. I promise to give you the space you need, whenever you need it."

"Thank you."

For a moment, the only sound was the sea and the wind.

"Let's head back." whispered Alex. "Losing sleep will do us no favours."

"Yes."

Alex started towards the stairway. Grovyle let him past, then followed.

"Alex."

"Yes?"

"Let's always do our best."

Alex lifted the covering of the stairway and the warmth of the base enveloped them.

~

Well this took a while. Research is keeping my fairly busy – remind me never to grumble about being busy during the Summer again! On the plus side, I've completed my PhD Confirmation of Status. That's the last hurdle between me and my thesis, which is both great and somewhat daunting.

This is something I've wanted to make for quite a while. I think I made the first sketch around early August. I wanted to do it justice, so I waited until I had a suitable block of time to work on it.

I've put a lot of thought into how I do my shading in recent pictures, but working on something of this size was still rather slow. I don't mind too much, though, as when it's done I have the flexibility to play around with the lighting fairly easily.

I had a bit too much fun working on the flag. I set the design out flat originally and then rotated it onto the curve of the flag (which isn't a standard curve). Inkscape could probably do the rotation automatically, but I worked everything out manually. I have a draft which has far too many construction lines. Can you tell I've been thinking about geometry and symmetry at work recently?

When I was looking around for images of Grovyle, I met with something interesting. It seems that to me that there's a discrepancy over whether the leaves on Grovyle's arms are above or below the wrists. Different sprites, and even detailed art, seem to differ. I'll put it down to differences in individual Grovyle, I guess. I decided to put the leaves above the wrist because this position makes more sense to me. A climbing Pokémon will be better camouflaged with leaves in this position. Moreover, leaves on the inside of the wrists will tend to cut against the body! I may be thinking about this in the wrong way, though. Feel free to correct me.

This scene is pretty much as it played out in my head when I saw it in-game. The story itself is very much non-canon, and I gloss over some information given in the game. For one thing, Grovyle in the game has never seen the Sun whereas he clearly has in my interpretation. I wrote the story quite quickly after finishing the image. It's the first fiction I've written in a little while, so I'm feeling a little rusty!

This work was inspired by 's works At the Cafe , Charmander's Betrayal and PMD - Quilava . Go check them out if you haven't already – they're very much worth seeing! Thanks also to who gave me some initial ideas on how to deal with the stars.

The layout of the bluff and the flag are taken from in-game shots of the bluff from Explorers of Sky. Meowth is based on models of Team Rocket's Meowth from the anime episode 'The Ghost of Maiden's Peak' and images from Bulbapedia. Grovyle is based on models of Ash's Grovyle from the anime episode 'Exploud and Clear!' along with images from Bulbapedia and Explorers of Sky.