The Stream of Time Carries Memories; Farther and Farther Away [Closed-Join With Permission]

Dark didn't follow Jonathan further when he heard Evangeline stop, the scent of the place beginning to get to his nerves. He turned his head to the side and saw Evangeline sit, him curious as to what she was doing. However, he didn't ask, and just stood in the doorway. He watched her pick through files on the floor, wondering if she was searching for something in particular.

"I hope that she finds whatever she's looking for," he thought to himself. "I suppose that would make this all worth it..." He heard something a bit off, presuming that it was just Jonathan continuing to step wherever. He looked up a bit, seeing a picture on the wall. It struck a nerve, him then seeing what seemed to be a ghostly child appear in front of Evangeline. He blinked a couple of times, hoping it was just his mind playing tricks, though when he thought about it, the child looked like him. He tried not to focus on it, him staring to the files Evangeline was putting behind her.

"Anything of interest," he asked her calmly, him turning when he heard a voice. "Chris, would you stop goofing around! You'll break something of importance to our experiment!" The voice was familiar, Dark seeing the ghost of a child pass right through him and run down the hall away from where Jonathan seemed headed. "Am I going insane," he asked himself in a mumble, him stepping from the door and down the hall in a backtrack to see if he was.

Jonathon stepped into the computer room. Looking around, there was still the faintest trace of Magnus's aura on some of them. Shaking his head he turned and went to find the others. Seeing Dark sort of concerned again lead Jonathon to go find Evangaline. Stepping up behind her he glanced at the files she was reading. None mentioned anything about Giritiana or anything else he'd been through that he saw. "Find anything interesting?" He asked her.

"Not much," Evangeline replied with a yawn, "but I don't think this lab has a connection to the one that made me. That's a plus." She held up a file, completely handwritten in language foreign to her. "Most of them are in some weird language anyway. All the others seem to be about Giritina. Interesting, but nothing much concerning me," she shrugged and gestured to a small stack of files, "those are them if you want to look at them." Evangeline herself yawned and stood up. "I'm going to go see what else could be here."

Dark wasn't near Evangeline or Jonathan to hear about her findings. He was following his younger self, and he sped up when he saw the hallucination speed up. When he saw his younger self run through a door, he immediately tried the knob. It was locked, so he used a bit of his aura to pick it. It wasn't like a little could actually hurt him, and he had the knowledge for a purpose. He turned the knob and opened it, finding a ransacked room. It was still a bit neater than the rest, him seeing a large mirror on one wall. To the opposing side was a desk, a shelf behind it with books and files scattered everywhere. "What could've happened here," he asked himself. He walked over to the desk first, him seeing a picture laid down with glass shattered. Out of curiosity he picked it up, shaking the glass that was already broken away. He couldn't make out much of it, but he did see his father.

"Father," he asked himself. He felt a small chill and more discomfort, him turning and staring to the mirror. It didn't show much promise, him turning and looking to some of the files on the desk. One contained a picture of Giratina, another of some weird black presence in someone's hand. "I think they missed this... Or was it what whoever ransacked this place was looking for," he asked himself, picking up one of the old books. He turned and stepped towards the mirror a bit, him sighing wondering to himself. "Chris... Where've you been," he heard, it catching his attention whilst his head lifted. He could see hallucinations in the mirror, him seeing himself younger and in front of his father's desk.

"Nowhere papa! I was just talking to my imaginary friend," he heard himself laugh, Dark a bit confused. "Imaginary friend," he asked himself. "I don't remember an imaginary friend. I don't remember even being here." It raised his curiosity a bit more, him hearing his younger self ask his father what he was looking at. "It's nothing boy. Just a bit of studying I'm doing... Now, go and sit in the chair in the corner like a good lad," he hallucinated his father saying before it faded, Dark turning and staring to the turned around chair. He sighed to himself. "I must be crazy... Thinking of this stuff... Perhaps my father simply worked here... I'd never remember."

Jonathon looked at the papers and shook his head a little. "I've...I know what they're mostly talking about. It's actually more interesting then you'd think...Once you dig deep enough." He thought about the Griserous Orb and Giritiana. He'd seen it all. He also sort of hoped that Magnus would have something else here, something new to learn about, but no. Most of everything here led him to the same dead end though. They were gone. "Let's go find your friend. He's bound to be around here somewhere." He started to leave. "Also, the weird language you mentioned. It's Norwegian." Jonathon said before leaving the room and trying to find where Dark went.

"Ok," Evangeline said, standing, "any idea of where he's wandered off to? Dark's not the type to go off somewhere on a whim." Striding out of the room, Evangeline looked through the hall to where it lead and where they had come from. Seeing no sign of Dark, she chose the path leading to where they hadn't been before. Noticing a door swung open and ajar, she went to investigate before some strange, foreboding feeling stopped her. It was as if it didn't want her to interfere, and that alone suddenly set her on edge. The lab turned sinister very quickly to her.

Turning from the door, she instead looked to Jonathon. "Something... isn't right here," she told him. "I'm not sure what, but something doesn't want me to go in there..." she motioned toward the open door with one of her wings. Then, she noticed something strange. Jonathon's backpack was glowing with a strange light. She didn't know its source, but it just made her concern rise. "Dark?!" she called to him, hitting the door open to see what strange happening was going around Dark.

[If it's not clear, for plot purposes, the glowing object is the Griseous Orb reacting to something. As per Fang's character plot idea o3o]

[Responsibility of the staff to make a topic interesting o3o]
[Don't worry, there's stuff for every character to be tied in with it]

Dark saw the image of his family burn from the table, him confused. When he felt a larger chill down his spine, he was struck a bit with fear... Yet, it felt familiar. "It feels familiar... Like something I can't remember," he thought to himself, turning around toward the mirror. Nothing was there, but when some large creature appeared, he stepped back and dropped the book he was holding. Seeing a large, black creature wasn't exactly the most comforting, him staring to its eyes. "W, Er," he spoke in confusion, him seeing a crack appear at the top corner of the mirror. "You seem familiar... Have I seen you before?" It was clear he didn't remember.

He stared at the creature a bit longer before he heard Evangeline and Jonathan walking down the hall. When he was yelled to, he didn't hear it, and it wasn't his doing. He then grabbed his head when it felt like he was being pulled from it, him passing out whilst the mirror cracked further. "Evangeline, my aura isn't liking this," he tried to call to her, his voice muted. He had closed his eyes in a cringe, and when he opened them he looked around, seeing nothing but black. The mirror shattered whilst he thought to himself confused. "Er, where am I," he thought to himself in question. "I have a feeling I'm not in Kansas anymore... So the saying goes..."

"I think he's in here." Jonathon said, walking into the room. "Dark? Hello?" He said, looking around the room. "Evangaline, I think something happened. He's not here." It was about that time Jonathon felt a warm feeling on his back. Glancing over his shoulder he saw that there was a faint glow in his back. "Uh oh..." He said, the griserous orb hadn't done anything like this since he'd left the Distortion World. "I think something bad is a going on here Evangaline."

"I think you're right," Evangeline said, things were scattered about the room, and one book was lying strewn open on the floor. The angelic human sighed, at a loss of what to do for the first time. She had always been one to form and make a plan, but what could you do here? Her furious gaze swept the room looking for some sort of clue as to what had happened to Dark. She hadn't heard his own pleas because of the strange interference. Frustration blazed through her and her foot collided with the dropped book, sending it flying. Sighing, she shook her head and regained her composure.

"What is that?" she asked, pointing to the glow in his bag. "It only just began glowing, and unless it's a computer somehow switched on and lit up on its own, it could be reacting to whatever happened to Dark. Please, we have to do something. I'm not going to lose him!"

Dark walked forward wherever he was, confused and wondering where Evangeline and Jonathan were. "Hello," he called aloud, hoping that someone would hear him. He was thinking a bit about the hallucinations, him seeing a younger version of himself again. "Papa," he heard himself yell, Dark following where the younger one ran. Eventually he saw the hallucination disappear, him finding himself standing in a dried stain of blood, him staring down. "What is this," he asked himself, looking up in confusion. "Look at this blood... Did a battle happen here?"

"It's...It's something called the Griserous Orb." Jonathon said, pulling the stone out of his bag. Feeling the warmth and the glow of it. "I got it in the Distortion World...it can be used to control Giritina...I, I know from experience." It was hard for Jonathon to explain it all. It was confusing enough for him to understand, let alone convey that information to someone else. "I...I don't know why it's glowing like this, it shouldn't be." Jonathon said, trying to get some kind of reading from its aura.

Evangeline looked at the stone as a morbid sense of curiosity flooded over her. "Giritina," she muttered before some warning bells went off in her head. "Giritina!" she suddenly shouted as an idea surged through her. Without turning back toward Jonathon, she moved from their current room and moved back through the files, digging through the pile she made of the English ones written about Giritina. Grabbing one, she started scanning it in search of something she had read before in one of them. Not finding it in that one, she threw it back to the ground and picked up another, scanning that one for something that could help them with the current situation. I swear I read something about Giritina and this lab, if only I hadn't buried it in all these other ones!

Something to compliment the file Evangeline was looking for was on the desk of the room Jonathan was still in. It was a really old file, and a few pieces were missing, but that's what you would get with a ransacked laboratory. There was still piece of the image that had been burnt by the strange interference, and it was clearly visible the portion was of Dark and his father, anything around them burnt to ash by the strange flame that had lit it up. The picture that had disturbed Dark where Evangeline was eventually fell of the wall, it not really capable of hanging up any longer. The weight had been bearing down on the small nail holding it up, and the glass holding the picture shattered, a file showing itself to her from the corner when the frame fell apart from age.

Jonathon set the orb done on the ground, keeping an eye on it and hoping it didn't do anything. He began to poke around the room, hoping to find something. Noticing the picture he looked at it closely. "Is that...No...it can't be. It sort of looks like Dark, so is that his dad? Hey Evangaline! I think i found something!"

Evangeline ran to rejoin Jonathon, and took a glimpse at the picture before doing a double take. "It does look just like him..." she said, "what could this mean?"

As the apparition of Dark's child self faded, he was met with heavy, strange breathing. A glowing pair of eyes observed him from an immense height up. Chris... it said, why have you not glimpsed my presence in such a long time? Whatever had summoned Dark to its world was talking through telepathy as if it knew Dark. The eyes shifted as it awaited a response.

The file on the desk could answer all of Evangeline and Jonathan's curiosities, hopefully. It was a detailed report of what Dark's father had done with him and the experiments and research. A few pieces were missing [stated before], so there would be some gaps. There was a note from the guy's father about Dark's "imaginary friend," showing his father had suspicion, but no concrete fact it was anything based on Dark's age at the time. The image of the black crystal in someone's hand was brushed from the desk by a small brush of air a bit after Evangeline's entrance, writing on the back detailing it was another experiment involving Giratina and its anger. It hit Evangeline's foot.

Dark heard whatever was talking to him in his head. He looked around trying to get a better view of where he was. "Glimpse at my presence," he thought to himself in confusion. It took a moment for him to register mentally the memory of him staring at Giratina in the same mirror that had shattered when his father was in other rooms. "It's been a long time since I've been called Chris... I think the last time was my banishment from home," he staggered a bit loudly, since it wasn't like anything was really listening to him, was it? "I think two years after I killed father?" He started remembering a bit more about talking to the pokemon. "Where are you... Giratina?" "I feel like this place is calming a bit when I think about it... It's like it's soothing the other personality..." He swallowed a bit difficultly then.

Jonathon went back to digging around on the desk and started flipping through a file he picked up. "Dark's dad worked here? Dark's dad worked with Magnus? Small world I guess." He murmured to himself. "Evangaline, something bigger then just Dark and his dad may be going on here. Kneeling down by the orb he had one idea. "Keep an eye on me, if something goes wrong and I start to pass out, I want you to hit me." He then placed his hands on the gem and closed his eyes. Watching the aura swirl out of it he began to do the same thing he did in the Distortion World. This time though, he tried to focus his aura, finding something on the other side. "Dark? Dark are you there? It's me, Jonathon."

"Okay," Evangeline nodded, glancing over Jonathon's shoulder to scan the content of what he had read. With Jonathon now occupied with his connection to the Griseous Orb, Evangeline herself decided to see if there was anything else worthwhile hidden within the room. Keeping a close eye on Jonathon as she did so, she didn't find much until her foot precariously hit something. Biting her lip as sudden pain laced through her leg, she glanced down to see a floorboard slightly lifted at the corner in comparison to the other. Her foot had, unfortunately, slammed right into the corner of this deadly piece of wood. Now why would a floorboard be like that if the rest are perfect? she wondered to herself, kneeling to the floor to see what was going on with it. Seeing no harm in destroying the lab more than it already was, she grabbed the lifted corner and tugged, wrenching the floorboard from its spot connected to the rest. What awaited her was a hidden manila envelope containing a couple of what looked like hand-written letters. Picking up one, she read it over, glad it was in English instead of Norwegian...

Dear Summer,

I regret to tell you that it's no longer safe for you to visit. I know you spend all the troubles buying that cottage just to be near, but this work has gotten just too dangerous. Again, I cannot tell you what is going on- I apologize, but I fear Elric may try to intercept another letter. He is the last I want to learn of this research, lest it falls into the wrong hands. Do you have Evangeline with you? If it's not too much trouble, I'd like to borrow her for a few days, for I feel that her ability to sense disasters may have some sort of connection to my research. I'll be sure to return her in a timely manner, just as soon as I confirm that it is true or false. I apologize for the lack of information, but I guarantee that she will be safe and cared for, she's too hardy not to be.

Yours,
Magnus.

Something about the similarity of names reminded Evangeline of the question Jonathon had asked of her earlier. Something about an Absol named just as she was. Strange, I'll have to ask if Jonathon knows something about these letters. Obviously the research is about Giritina, but what does the Absol have to do with it? Shrugging, Evangeline moved on to the next letter...

---

Your father tried to connect with me, but never succeeded as you did... Giritina said, and shifted again, as if sensing the connection Jonathon was making. Such a familiar aura... the great beast noted in regards to Jonathon, before turning its attention back to Dark. I have always been here, stuck in this prison, Giritina replied to Dark's question, They call this the Distortion and the Reverse World. I call it a prison fashioned by Arceus just for my lonesome banishment. The only company are those who wish to control me... and you. It said, finally showing its true self from the darkness, looming over Dark. It has been so long.

Dark was a bit saddened by listening to Giratina's tale, him recognizing the pokemon's shape. It made him think back to the past a bit more, him shutting his eyes whilst he listened to his head reminding him of things he had told the pokemon. "We're best friends, right," he heard himself laughing. "Best friends stick together. Papa says I shouldn't talk to strangers, but you don't look strange." He then heard Jonathan in his head, him turning around in disturbance. When the thoughts faded he thought himself insane again, him turning back towards Giratina. "I'm sorry I left," he told the pokemon, him rubbing the back of his head. It was starting to fill in his head that he had been dragged away from the laboratory. "I don't remember all the details... I won't lie... Not to someone I call my best friend..." He strangled his mind to give him more information. "Father, I think he dragged me away for some reason... I can't remember." He thought to when he had killed his parent, it shaking the other personality. "I, I was so angry; it felt unrealistic at the time... I haven't been able to stare at water since; it all looks red to me."

When Evangeline lifted the floorboard it shifted the picture that had landed on her foot away to a paper on the ground. It was another piece of the file they had missed. Meanwhile an image hanging on the wall fell, it exactly like the first from the room Evangeline had left. It lit ablaze from Dark's aura and thoughts on his father.

Jonathon kept trying to put his aura deeper, pushing through layers and layers of distortion. The deeper he went, the harder it became to get further. "Almost...there..." He muttered to himself, then everything became clear, well, dark. He could make out the figures though. He made his aura appear between Dark and Giritina, shaping it to be a sort of avatar of himself. "Dark. Don't trust him." Jonathon said, looking up at the banished legendary. "You. You killed Elrich, you're the reason I've been through all this hell. I won't yet you do it to anyone else." Jonathon said coldly to the demonic dragon.

[Kare, posted first to make a response to Mist's post o3o]

Dark was staring to Giratina's eyes to show sincerity in his words; however, when Jonathan showed up as what seemed to be a nearly opaque [solid] manifestation, his eyes shifted to him. He could see a bright aura surrounding the manifestation, and having been in the dark for a while, it got him in his eyes. "Bright," he yelped, turning his face away cringing his eyes. "That's too bright!" He backed away a step when the aura felt like burning. A couple of lines of speech passed in his mind, them being quotes from him as a child. "Best friend! Best friend, help," he remembered, it his final words while he was pulled from the lab by his father. It was what he had said when it was the day the adult chose to abandon the lab, and with it his research and other belongings that were there. "Papa, my best friend's in there! Put me down papa!" Without much thought, the same phrase [first one] spewed out of his mouth aloud, though instead of 'best friend,' a certain banished legendary's name was spoken. "Giratina... Giratina help!" As well, Dark's aura was being set off by Mist's. "That's too bright! I knew he was like my father; that same presence, the same scent... It was his aura, and it burns," he told himself mentally. "I can't stand it... The sun's one story, but that aura! That bright aura burns!"

Observing Jonathon, Giritina only lowered its head in a bow to the boy. I was not myself, it said, and though my path is now laden in more blood, I was driven mad by use of the Orb you now carry. If it weren't for the humans that tried to use it to control me, the one you speak of would not be dead. If it calms you, the Pokemon that was once the man's partner is now with him in the void. They will find company with the other again. Shifting its attention back to Dark, Giritina simply gazed into Dark's eyes, as if seeing through them into his aura. You've let it consume you, it said in observation, you see blood because you wish to see it. You connection and loss of one with me is simply amplifying this...

Jonathon clenched his fists at the mention of the charizard. "I don't care if you were under some mad man's control. You murdered a man that was just trying to do good. They may have peace in death. I don't have peace now though." He glared up at the dragon. He could feel his aura darkening and he closed his eyes, trying to relax a little. Then he opened his eyes again. "So. What are you doing here Giritina? I thought we had sealed you away in the Distortion. Just because I met Dark you managed to reappear. What's going on here."

Dark didn't respond to Giratina. However, inside of his head the other personality could see the pokemon's red eyes looking to it directly. "I think consumed is the wrong word," it thought. "Perhaps overrun is better..." With all the darkness around, Dark's aura was pretty much rejuvenated back to full strength, him getting knocked back to the rear of his head with the rest of the memories the other personality kept tossing there. "I think you've got this all wrong captain," it snarled at Giratina, moving from Dark's defensive state and to just normal standing. "I didn't consume; I overturned a weak child with anger. Wasn't hard either; I mean, look at me; I can run this kid over whenever I feel like with his own aura... His parents never trained him, so it's not like he could prevent it, and what of you?" He stepped forward. "Not to insult, but what kind of best friend leaves the one person he's connected to to his own rage? Oh wait, you wouldn't know of that as I do." Dark's eyes had turned red, him stepping forward. "Oh poor child; remembers no details of his own past. He has no clue that I took those memories and use them daily when he thinks on it. That [insert]ed Evangeline though; she has some sort of calming ability; she wrecks my attempts a lot buddy." The other personality looked at Dark's claws, forming aura around them.

"Thanks for dragging him here for me... Or should I thank my brilliant plan?" He then looked to Jonathan whilst he started walking forward. "I was really fighting myself with slipping him memories. You know how chain reactions go; one thing leads to another... I was afraid he'd remember the lab and experiment; that special, special experiment. Spawned me then and there, you know, but I didn't have a good grasp... How do you, a simple little flame of anger, get someone to end up where you want? You slip a thought about something they don't know." His voice sounded more antagonistic than before, him stopping in front of Jonathan. "Tell me aura trainer, can you see your little friend? I did the same with that Evangeline character, but now I ask you." He was ignoring Giratina currently, it clear it wasn't the Dark that had been sticking to Evangeline earlier. "Can you hear him? He's asking soooo many questions."

He then turned to Giratina. "The first and longest one yet is where I came from Giratina. Care to unravel that mystery? I mean, surely you watched it through a mirror, as is legends about you far and wide. Perhaps you owe it to Jonathan here as well, after what happened to, er, what was his name..."

If you cannot see, one called Jonathon, Giritina started, sweeping his gaze toward their surroundings, we are in the prison of Distortion, or an illusion of it. Things work strangely here, even if it is a simple image of trickery, who's to say its not real. I cannot undo what has been done, nor can I turn back time. That ability lies in another... The great beast's eyes blazed as it sensed the darkness that overcame Dark. A fierce snarl escaped its jaws as it listened to Dark's new words harshly billowing out of his mouth. You are the one that made him abandon me! it roared, rearing back in a strikingly similar fashion as it had when it attacked Jonathon, but it was more controlled, and the great beast did not lunge forward and attack. I have watched you grow and push me away, but by bringing him here, your chain reaction will only work against your favor- boy," Giritina said, suddenly turning its attention to Jonathon, do not listen to his words, he wishes to distract you, turn you against me. If you want to see the true Chris again, you will do as I say. Focus your aura and all of the light within it. Your corporal form here, just as this illusion is, is very real. Drive the darkness away!