Chapter Text
It happened again, Emmet had made two servings of breakfast instead of one.
Oh Swords, he was even left waiting in the kitchen for nearly an hour, waiting for his slakoth brother to wake up! Emmet didn’t even realize until he opened Ingo’s room to check on him, only to be met with still, dusty air and an empty bed.
What a joke! Even from wherever-he-was Ingo was still causing Emmet to run late!
Not one to waste food, Emmet took the time to pack away Ingo’s breakfast for tomorrow morning. Now he really had to stuff his face with his own breakfast and throw on his uniform if he didn’t want to cause any delays in the schedule. Emmet practically leapt out of his apartment door.
Only to slip and fall flat on his face.
Who put his mail on his doorstep??? Not only was that not following safety, it could have easily been stolen!!! Now Emmet had rug-burn on his palms and his chin might bruise!!!
Emmet got up and reached down to pick up the offending mail, he should at least bring it inside, but he paused at what he was seeing.
Slightly scuffed and partially open from being tripped over, was a map, a railway map. It was near-black grey and had lines of all different colors branching across it and splitting off from eachother more like nerves than tracks. In the center was a dot, perfect white, which read “YOU ARE HERE.”
Emmet... was not in the mood for pranks.
He picked up the map and balled it up in his fist, determined to throw it away. He was shocked by the feeling of something solid folded into the map, it felt quite heavy despite being so small.
It intrigued him enough to open the map back up, which caused the creases to disappear as if the map had never been crumpled. Emmet retrieved the object from within the map.
It was a chronometer - or a conductor’s pocket watch if you weren’t a nerd like him - it looked quite nice, the same blackish-grey as the map with a white triangle that pointed upwards if you held the watch upright. How verrrry original. This prankster really went all out.
Emmet groaned at letting this delay him even more than he had been already. He locked his apartment door, not bothering to take the map and chronometer inside, he’d more than likely toss them in the first trash can he saw.
Although there wasn’t much time to search for a trash can with the breakneck pace speed-walk Emmet took to the closest station. The only reason he caught the usual subway to Gear Station was because it was delayed. It was lucky, but bugged Emmet nonetheless. Just one more thing to be going wrong today...
Emmet was fidgety, and the only thing in his hand was the chronometer. He idly clicked the ‘set time’ and ‘reset time’ buttons on the side throughout the train ride.
It took about 20 minutes for Emmet to realize this 10-minute ride wasn’t over yet.
The train hadn’t slowed down or stopped had it? No, Emmet would have felt it if it had. Emmet checked the time on his X-transceiver, this train was verrry late!! Concerningly late!! What happened??
Maybe his clock was set wrong?? But it was the middle of November, Daylight Savings Time had already passed, and his X-Trans was on the charger all night!
Emmet supposed he did have another time-keeping device on him... but with how he was fidgeting with that thing he had no doubt it would be wrong.
He opened the chronometer up, a little note fell out but he ignored it for now, this prankster wouldn’t get another one over him, nope!
The first thing he noticed was the sheer amount of faces on this thing. Clocks, digital displays, meters, far, far too many for a typical pocket watch. Thankfully it was easy enough to identify the face which told him the time of day.
It showed 8:30am, this was the time the subway pulled into Gear Station.
Emmet began to hear the tell-tale whistle of the train slowing down, he felt the jolt as it came to a stop. Emmet was at Gear Station, on time. The Chronometer was precise.
... What???
..... Maybe Emmet should hold onto this thing for the time being.
...
Emmet’s work was distracted and felt Agonizingly slow.
He was eternally grateful he was on the doubles line today, using his own team, fighting in his preferred style. Emmet felt like he could single-handedly ruin the reputation of the singles line with the sheer fog in his brain.
When a challenger told him that they would like the battle replay after their match, Emmet was obligated to allow them, despite how off he felt today and how poor his performance ought to be compared to normal. He clicked the stopwatch in his pocket, marking the time the match took place so it could be retrieved easier later.
“Alright!! Go Serperior!” The trainer cheerfully began the battle.
Emmet was trounced. All his predictions were wrong, nearly every move was a misplay on his end. It was verrrrrrrrrry frustrating! He really wanted nothing more than to go into the battle cameras and delete everything, but the challenger needed their replay. Emmet clicked his stopwatch once more and prepared for this challenger to take their leave and for a new one to arrive.
“Alright!! Go Serperior!” Wow! This one had a Serperior too?
Wait, no that’s wrong. This was the same challenger, the same Serperior as well even though it was suddenly healthy again despite never touching a healing machine.
Emmet sent out Eelectross and Archeops just like last time. They were fainted just seconds ago, but now they were awake and raring for battle, it was as if nothing even happened. The challenger filled the second slot on their side of the battlefield with a familiar Carracosta.
Emmet remembered that last time (this time?) Archeops was targeted by both pokemon. Carracosta’s Aqua Jet did just enough damage to Archeops so that Serperior’s Leaf Storm finished it off before Archeops could eat its Sitrus berry, then Contrary activated and the battle was essentially over before it had begun (If Ingo were here he’d applaud the brilliant strategy. He was not.) Archeops didn’t even get a chance to get off an Earthquake.
What if Emmet just used Protect instead?
Before he gave himself too much opportunity to think if this was cheating or not, he ordered Archeops to protect itself. Both of the opposing pokemon’s attacks struck the barrier uselessly. Serperior never got its Contrary boost, and was then paralyzed by Eelectross’s Thunder Wave.
The track to victory was suddenly clear. There wasn’t a single thing stopping Emmet from taking the win. For the first time today, Emmet knew what he was doing, and the results were verrry good. The challenger left the car with a good-natured huff at their defeat.
Oh! Emmet nearly forgot to save their battle-end time (since he already did so...?) Emmet took out his stopwatch, pausing just before lapsing the time.
This was not his stopwatch.
Emmet stared at the Chronometer. This thing was verrrry odd indeed. Time seemed weird around it, weirder than even the base level of time-weirdness in Emmet’s brain these past few months.
A thought crossed Emmet’s mind. Oh Dragons, he really was going insane wasn’t he?
Thinking he was holding a time machine. How absurd.
... Emmet rrrreally wished he had read that note.
---
Ingo had been staring, entranced, for some time now.
Whatever was on this paper - it seemed close to a map, but of what lands he had no clue - felt achingly familiar while at the same time completely alien. The colorful, criss-crossing pathways seemed to go on forever, branching off and very rarely connecting back up. There were so many paths it should have been impossible to follow any singular line, but Ingo found when he focused it was actually quite easy.
There was a black dot in the middle of the page in contrast to the near-white background. It was labeled in a language he shouldn’t have been able to read. “YOU ARE HERE”
Ingo found something else fascinating about that dot. If he really focused, he could see it move. Always forward, never back. Whenever it met a branching path it chose one with conviction and continued its march.
The map also came with some metal thing. It looked like a newly-hatched shellder. Smooth and pale with the tiniest protrusions along the opening of the shell. The most notable feature was a dark grey triangle on, what Ingo assumed was, the top, which pointed to the ground when Ingo held the shell by its chain.
It was a symbol Ingo was sure meant something. It rang too many bells in his head and made his heart ache in all the right ways. He couldn’t place it right now though, which made sense, it was such a simple shape.
He gently tried to pry the shell open, it was shut tight. While he was adjusting it in his hand he accidentally pressed down on the button the chain was attached to, causing it to flip open on its own.
A note fell out of it, it was written in the same language as the map, the one Ingo knew he didn’t know. Ingo stared for a second, puzzled at the dials and numbers and round faces and arrows, before picking up the note to read it.
Ingo,
The device containing this note is a Universal Chronometer. It was designed specifically for you and your ease of use.
With it, you can travel the multiverse. Simply wind the clock up to your desired time, and set a destination for your desired “station.” To “switch tracks” to a parallel universe, just press the ‘leap’ button when your timelines cross. Be very careful and never travel without your map.
I hope with this item you can find what you’re looking for.
Ingo checked the note front and back to see who sent it, but found no name other than his own.
Perhaps if they met, he would thank them.
One thing was certain. He was given this gift to “find what he was looking for.” Ingo already knew that “what” was really “who.”
The Man in White was in his dreams, his reflection, he walked by his side wherever he went. Their presence was comforting as it held him to the ground and motivating as it pulled him towards the unknown.
Ingo had always needed to find them, but he had no clue where to begin. Looking back at the map... it’s sprawling tunnels, endless tracks. He knew where he was, but the Man in White’s train could be anywhere, have any destination, could have left its station at any time. Some may argue his destination was still out of reach.
Despite that, Ingo was certain it was finally time to start searching.
...
Ingo sat on a cliff in the highlands, the one with the grandest view of the valleys and Jubilife village below. He played his flute in long, beautiful notes, putting extra effort into Lady Sneasler’s song and savoring its melody. He knew this would have to be the final time he played it.
His Lady sat by him after some time, already aware of the somber news her warden had for her. She vocalized, soft and questioning, it could almost be described as a mumble, the kind of question you don’t want to ask because you already know the answer.
“My Lady, I think the time has finally come that I depart from this station.”
Sneasler’s timid expression dropped somewhat into cold acceptance. She averted her eyes from Ingo and stared at the setting sun. If Ingo didn’t know any better he’d be concerned she would stop listening.
“I have been given the opportunity to finally start my search for the man in white. As much as I am devoted to you and my duties as a warden of the Pearl Clan, my heart tells me that I do not belong here, as much as I am welcomed. My place in this world, this... universe, it is not here. It is with that man.” Ingo looked down at his hands around his flute, he looked over at Sneaslers claws. “Please know that I love you. I will miss you.”
Sneasler stared out into the valley, and stared, and stared. Ingo worried she was angry, that his decision truly was selfish. Sneasler finally moved, she dropped an arm around Ingo’s shoulders, depressing his collar and worsening his slouch even further. She growled, a decisive “Snaaarrrr” that usually meant she was about to do something she only half-didn’t want to do.
Ingo straightened up against the weight on his shoulders, his head held higher than it had been in years. “THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH, MY LADY!!!!!”
“Naarrr!!” Sneasler groaned and picked at her ear with her pinky claw. Just as Ingo was about to apologize she pressed her face into his chest and purred. She would miss him too.
“I promise I will see you just before I depart... I still have to tell Irida and perhaps Meli as well. You will listen to them with me gone, won’t you?”
Sneasler looked up, making a face, “snert.”
“If that is how it is...” Ingo sighed, Sneasler stayed curled around him until the air grew too cold for her warden to bear. Ingo returned to his tent and Sneasler to her cave.
...
Goodbyes were easier than expected. It was almost as if everyone expected this day to come except for Ingo. Ingo forfeited his warden’s band and Pearl-clan tunic, being gifted a plain one instead. Irida took his departure in stride, she seemed hopeful towards the prospect of finding a new warden and wished him the best. Meli complained a bit and acted like he simultaneously cared more and less than he did.
Ingo also stopped at the training grounds and donated his team to Akari. These were the hardest goodbyes. Gliscor almost didn’t stay, but Ingo thought that things should be left where they belong, as they belong. Ingo’s team was part of Hisui, just like Ingo was part of something else. He didn’t want to be the cause of such longing, even though Ingo knew that was unavoidable. At least Ingo knew that the one person who could care for his team the correct way, and the only person who might allow him to see his team again someday, was Akari.
After his rounds were made and his goodbyes said, Ingo returned to his tent. He was shocked to find Lady Sneasler waiting for him, curled up by the fire. She had even fueled it for him.
“My Lady, you did not have to wait for me here, I would have found you myself.” Ingo sat on a log near the calm flames.
“Sne!” Sneasler shifted a bit closer to them. She looked him up and down and sniffed at where his warden band used to be. She grumbled a bit. “Sneerrr...”
“I know, my Lady... This is how it must be done. You were the first to know of my departure.” Ingo sighed and patted her head. She seemed indifferent to such affection.
A quiet moment passed between them. Ingo was about to announce his leave then Sneasler suddenly raised her head. “Snar!!”
“Oh? Did you remember something, my Lady?” Ingo watched as she dug around on her basket, looking for something nestled within its padding.
She finally pulled out something and presented it to Ingo. It was a partial ring of tree bark, secured by twine. It looked a Lot like a crude recreation of his warden band. The main difference was instead of being adorned with a carving it was decorated with purple feathers. They were shed feathers from Sneasel kits...
“My Lady... did you make this?” Ingo put it on without a second thought. Sneasler purred, she was very pleased her gift was accepted, It even fit perfectly.
Ingo felt like he was smiling, though part of him knew he probably wasn’t actually. Sneasler didn’t care, she knocked over Ingo’s hat and groomed his hair. He had to look his best for the man in white!
“Hahaha! Hm... I will be gone by nightfall... farewell, my Lady.”
“Sneease...” She purred one last time and stalked away over the cliffs.
Ingo watched her until she was out of view, then took the Chronometer out of his pocket.
---
Emmet stared down at the device as it ticked, it was a little bit off compared to the clock, Emmet had a feeling the Chronometer was the more accurate one.
It was nearly 11pm. His shift was over and he was ready to go home, but he needed that note first. The car he rode today would be arriving shortly, it had already been sent to the railyard for the night but Emmet had requested it be sent back to Gear Station for a moment.
Unfortunately, the way the timing worked out, the only station clear for long enough to send it in was the Singles line. So he waited there. Waited. Waiting. For something so familiar. For someone to pull into the station and greet him.
Emmet would cry if he stared at the tracks any longer. He looked at the chronometer instead and noticed a small blinking button on its edge. “Leap,” it read. So curious, why now?
He hovered his finger over the button in pure curiosity. He wouldn’t press it since he didn’t know how it worked, but he was just so verrrry bored.
The clock struck Eleven. Emmet felt the ghost of a rumble, the sounds of... wet... somethings moving. The station around him flickered between cracked and broken to horrifying and alive and back to normal again.
Emmet could swear he saw a horrible fleshy Thing pull itself along the rails, the size of a train, but made of meat and moving itself by mangled limbs rather than wheels. He thought he saw veins reaching for him.
He dropped the Chronometer with a jolt and covered his mouth with both his hands. His mouth held the taste of rust and blood, he nearly wanted to vomit. Until it all disappeared.
He looked around. The station was normal. The taste in his mouth was gone. On the tracks was a normal train car, the very one he requested being pulled by a small engine. By the Dragons, did he really have to add Hallucinations to the list of things wrong with him??
Emmet picked the Chronometer back up and went inside, searching under every seat. He really hoped no one picked it up, it would be so much more difficult to find out how this thing worked without it.
Aha! Emmet picked up a folded paper from the ground, this had to be it! He was sitting right here!
He eagerly opened up- a coupon... half off a casteliacone. They weren’t even that expensive to begin with.
Emmet sighed deeply, sinking to sit on the floor of the car with the force of his deflation. The rest of the car was completely clean. There was nothing here.
The “leap” button was still blinking at him. It hadn’t actually stopped. Emmet checked his map, maybe there were instructions there? Just in case?
Emmet saw the dot that showed him where he was. Around it was a red pathway, it twisted and curled around his current route. It seemed... like it wanted him to jump tracks?
His finger hovered above the “leap’ button once more. The cabin air became unbearably hot and humid, the floor felt like it was giving way slightly and its dampness was soaking into his pants. If he focused on these sensations too closely, they vanished.
... Would Emmet really forgive himself if he didn’t follow the only lead he had on his brother since he vanished?
He pressed the button.