Sada knew that something was wrong as soon as Turo had led her out of his place wearing only his normal clothes and not the ones he usually showed up with. But she had tried to rationalize it away. Maybe he simply didn't want to go to the village today. Maybe he simply wanted to bring her back and they would stay alone for today, just the two of them. After that single day in his time, she... Kind of needed it. It had been a lot. Her head still felt like it was being hit by all the strange and wondrous things she had seen, but it was... A lot. She needed some quite time to think about it all.

But she didn't think he would just... leave.

When he had suddenly started talking about... Promising him to never change... She had felt her stomach drop and her breath hitch in her chest.

« You are coming back, right?»

She has asked, desperate to see him give that little, barely visible smile and reassure that of course he was coming back, that she had misunderstood everything... But he hadn't. Turo... Romero... had shook his head, and turned away.

He had started to walk away from her, like he had done so many times. She was used to it by now... To watch him disappear in front of her eyes. But this time, she realized as she started trembling... It would be the last. He would touch that bracelet of his and disappear into thin air... And then he would be so impossibly far away and she would never see him again. Ever.

She... She couldn't accept that. There were still... So many things she wanted to see with him...

It had been a hasty decision. She had jumped towards him, focused only on grabbing him, so terrified at the idea of her fingers grasping at nothing but air right as she went to touch his arm... That she hadn't noticed that Turo had already pressed the button to jump back. They had both stared at it in unison for one long, infinite moment... And then she had felt her body get pulled away.

---

Sada woke up in a confused daze; the ground was hard. Rocky. The first thing she took note of was that there was no snow. Slowly, she rolled on her stomach, pointy rocks digging on her skin as she pushed herself up to a sitting position. She blinked, her eyes slowly taking in her surroundings. This was not... Turo's time. Or at least... not what little she had seen. There were no dazzling lights that covered the sky. But it was also not hers, or at least, not a place she recognized. She was not far from the edge of a rocky cliff, lush grass extending all around... She looked up, to see the sky covered by clouds... And when she looked back down, her eyes met straight with those of a creature. Her eyes widened and she jumped up, her right hand instinctively going to her shoulder... Only to find nothing but air, her spear lost somewhere near the cave where Winged King fought against his rival. She felt a pang of sadness at realizing it was probably lost forever: that spear had been the first weapon she had made for herself, together with Father... but she couldn't afford to get distracted by old memories now.

The creature looked similar to one of the grown up forms of the pests that her tribe would chase away from their village to avoid them stealing their supplies... Bright orange fur, it walked on two legs and even seemed to have the same sparks of thunder crackling along its fur.

Sada gritted her teeth as the creature walked up to her; she took a step back, eyes flitting around for something, anything, to use as a weapon... They landed on something as it caught the light, shining.

A tree grew right near the edge of the cliff, almost hanging off it. The roots that secured it firmly in place reflected the light, shining like gemstones. She had never seen a tree made of crystal. Or... Covered in crystals, it looked like. She could question it and examine it later. Sada grabbed one of the roots and heaved, eyes firmly locked on the creature. One piece of the root splintered off, and she pointed the jagged, multicolored shard towards the creature with a snarl.

« Leave us alone!»

Us...? She hazarded another look around after a moment, her heart skipping a beat as she realized something crucial:

... Where was Turo?

They had been together, so...

He hadn't fallen off the cliff, had he?

Her heartbeat quickened and she looked back at the furry creature with newfound determination; not waiting for it to strike first, she slashed forward with the jagged piece of crystal in her hand. The creature ducked low, the crystal passing high over its head, before dashing forward on all four legs. Sada hastily backed up again, an alarmed hiss escaping her lips when she ended up pressed against the tree trunk, the crystal bark pushing against her back. Instead of attacking her, however, the creature ran right past her, disappearing in a hole dug right underneath some of the roots. Two similarly fuzzy but smaller heads as that of the rodent peeked out, their little black eyes shining as they greeted the bigger member of the group with some chittering hisses. A...family? Were those its young?

So... It... Never actually wanted to attack her... Good.

She normally would have taken the opportunity to study the creature, but she had other things to focus on at the moment. Sada pocketed the shard in the bag at her waist -the one thing she had kept with her by virtue of being tied to her clothes -, then cautiously crept towards the edge of the cliff to peer down. She swallowed, scared to catch a glimpse of the telltale glow of Turo's clothes thrown over the rocks at the bottom, body bent and broken by the fall... Thankfully, there was nothing.

She breathed a sigh of relief, turning back around. Where was he then...?

She started walking, soft grass curiously crunching under her boots. It felt a bit like the grass itself was covered in a thin layer of the same crystal that had grown over the tree. He... Hadn't left her, had he? The thought made her start biting her lip, suddenly worried. If he had managed to go back to his time... Leaving her here, in this unknown place... She shook her head.

He wouldn't do it.

Not... Voluntarily, at least. But... If he had simply lost her along the way, like being swept away in a raging river, then...

Her heart suddenly leapt in her chest when she caught a glimpse of dark purple between the grass. There he was!

He must have landed away from her and slid down the cliff... Thankfully the other way from the sharp drop.

Sada started sprinting, only for her breath to quicken when she got close enough to see him better.

His "bodysuit" was not glowing. Or rather it was, but it was so faint it may as well be not there.

That small detail filled her with dread.

She didn't know what it meant exactly, just that it was bad. The glowing lines had never disappeared before as long as he was wearing it. Not... That time he had slept under the stars with her, not at night... The only time she had ever seen them disappear was just last night, after they had gone back to Turo's home, and only because he hadn't been wearing it. He had slowly taken it off then, and she had actually seen him completely for the very first time, and trailed her hands along his shoulders and his back and...

And now the lines had stopped glowing. And there was blood on his face. Sada threw herself at his side, barely able to breath as she carefully examined him. The wound wasn't deep, she could stop it from bleeding, she... It wasn't like the Blood-Fire, not this time...

But then why were the lines not glowing.

« Wake up, please... » she whispered as she tore a strip of cloth from her hood and pressed it to the side of his head. Stop the blood. She... Didn't know what else to do. This crunchy grass and other plants were different from the ones Narjik had taught her to use. For all she knew they could be poisonous. But he was breathing, even as a little rivulet of blood from the wound slid down his face.

He couldn't die here and leave her, he couldn't...

« ... Turo, wake up...» she pleaded, holding his hand tight.

And thankfully, he did. The lines on his bodysuit glowed with more strength as his eyes slowly opened, and Sada threw her arms around him in relief. He was fine. He hadn't left her all alone.

They were lost, and scared, and hurt.

But at least they were together.

---

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Area Zero. All in all, Turo felt that he should be grateful to still be alive and for not having died by getting ripped apart during the jump, or thrown who knows where. The sheer statistical improbability of what had happened was... staggering. They could have landed anywhere and anywhen. The middle of the ocean. A natural catastrophe. In midair, which had almost happened since they must have both struck the ground with some force to get separated and lose consciousness briefly. Or they could have missed the planet completely, left floating in the void of space. And of all possible places... They had landed in the Great Crater of Paldea.

But his mind kept wandering to the device now hanging uselessly from his wrist.

The time-anchor was broken. Even if he miraculously had the tools and pieces necessary to repair it, and somehow managed to do it... The effect of the injection would run out in a couple days time anyway.

And they were stuck in Area Zero, in an unspecified time period.

Sada was helping him stay on his feet, since his legs felt ready to give out from under him at any moment. They had been walking down the cliff, Turo squinting while trying to get his eyes used to the light.

There was... Something strange about it. It was too uniform, too bright, like it was coming from everywhere at the same time. It gave an eerie, unnatural air to the place. He looked back up to the "clouds" that covered the sky. Sunlight had to be coming from there, right...? Looking at the nearest cliff side and following it all the way up until it met the clouds, he felt his legs tremble again. The Crater was much deeper than what he had thought, the rock face impossible to climb.

A sheer vertical surface hundreds and hundreds of meters high.

How would they even get out?

« Umm...» Sada let out a thoughtful hum at his side, shielding her eyes with the hand that wasn't busy holding him up and copying him by looking upwards.

« Even if we make a smoke signal, those clouds would block it.» she commented, looking back down with a sigh, before giving him an encouraging smile.

« ... Let's find a safe place, first.»

Their respective standards of what made a place "safe" were probably wildly different, but he simply nodded, carefully pressing the strip of cloth ripped from Sada's hood to the cut on his head.

« ... Yeah. Let's go.» he didn't comment about the big unsaid question that was hanging between them. He was too scared to voice it out loud.

The first thing he had tried to do was open a screen in midair, but it hadn't worked. He was sure it wasn't his bodysuit's fault. All the independent offline functionalities like the lights and keeping his body temperature constant were still working; those only needed the body heat produced by his normal metabolism to power themselves. It would, quite literally, keep working as long as he lived. It just didn't have anything to connect to.

So that meant they were in Area Zero... But when exactly was impossible to say, except that it was surely before his time.

It made... Sense, in a way. If they were caught mid-jump, it was only logical that they would have been dropped somewhere in the middle, metaphorically speaking... But knowing his past experience in slightly overshooting the landing zone, he couldn't have been sure.

He looked around as they walked, searching for the slightest sign of civilization, feeling a sudden sense of déjà vu to his very first time jump.

Well, the Crater had never been exactly "populated" as far as he knew, but in the course of history people that had ventured down there must have built some infrastructure. There had to be something there to help them get out...

"And then what?"

He gritted his teeth, willing the intrusive question away for the moment.

"Even if you manage to get out, what then?"

He couldn't think about it now. He didn't want to, because if his thoughts lingered too much on where he was, then he would have to think about his family, his friends, his whole life, and Mirai-

He felt Sada squeeze his shoulder and looked down at her, swallowing the sudden lump in his throat.

... She was caught up in this as much as he was, but while the smile had disappeared from her face for a pensive frown, her eyes were still shining as they looked around.

Turo doubted she didn't realize what had happened; she was too smart for that. Too perceptive. She must have been having similar thoughts as him. Thoughts about her time, about the life she had just lost. Then... how could she do it? Was she faking that enthusiastic shine in her eyes? Or was it just... Her nature, to simply make the most of even the direst of situations?

To simply focus on the problem at hand and nothing more?

Maybe that was it.

That was how she had lived until now, after all. Maybe he should start to do the same. No use despairing over what had happened if he didn't even live to see the next day.

« Thank you.» he simply whispered.

As... Selfish as it was to think, he was glad to have her here with him. He looked back up, towards the path that circled around the crater, and his eyes happened to catch a glimpse of something that made his breath quicken. Something that caught the light and glistened. Metallic, and definitely man made.

« There!» he almost shouted, pointing.

It looked like an old prefab, almost completely hidden by the vegetation that had grown all around it. If it hadn't been for what looked like a metallic antenna jutting out from the top, he wouldn't have noticed it. It had been built against the rock of the cliff, and was cast completely in its shadow. The door looked old, it even still had a handle... But it was a building! And relatively modern, too, from the architecture.

That antenna was a good sign; at least it meant they had landed somewhere with at least a radio... And electricity.

He sped up, trying to not stumble as they approached the entrance; by his side, Sada was cautiously looking around, wary of wild Pokémon. To Turo's surprise, the door wasn't locked; it slid open to the side with a rusty creaking noise and some effort by him and Sada's part, and he was the first to step inside.

He caught himself subconsciously gesturing for the lights to turn on, and scowled when obviously nothing happened. R-right...

Sada closed the door after following him inside, plunging them both into an almost complete darkness if not for a rectangle of light coming in from some narrow windows near the ceiling.

What he could see... Didn't inspire a lot of confidence honestly.

The door seemed to have at least kept Pokémon out, because the interior looked untouched, even if abandoned since a long time. It looked like a place supposed to house a small group of people... Probably researchers or explorers from a past expedition. Tables were pushed against the wall, where a couple of what he recognized after a long moment as typewriters were laying, yellowed paper still rolled in, the ink surely long dried solid. Shelves full of books and binders lined the right wall. To the left was a door that led to a small bathroom, an even smaller kitchen, and a room with two bunk beds.

Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, which he promptly ignored as he slowly let himself fall down on one of the beds. He needed to rest for a moment before examining the building more carefully, looking for anything that could help them get out. Sada copied him after shuffling into the room, sitting on the cot opposite from him, her boots made of pelts completely silent on the tiled floor. For a moment, she didn't say anything, absentmindedly picking at a tear in the mattress with one hand.

« ... I'm sorry» her voice was quiet, and it made his stomach twist painfully.

« It's... My fault, right? I jumped with you... And broke the bracelet.» she added, head held low, her long hair covering her face.

« What? No, it's... It's... It's not your fault. I... Should have gone farther away.»

Much better, he shouldn't have said anything at all. He could have just promised that sure, he would see her "tomorrow", that he would be right back, like he had done so many times. He should have lied. For her good, and his own.

But no... He just had to get all sentimental, and get them both stuck at the bottom of the Great Crater of Paldea, in who knows what age.

Sada didn't say anything; he couldn't tell what she was thinking, with barely any light and her face in almost complete shadow. After a moment , she sighed and stood up, kicking up a cloud of dust.

« ... I'll look for food.» she announced, and he just nodded as she walked out. Yeah.

Maybe he could examine the building in the meantime. Try to make himself useful. Most importantly, keep his mind occupied.

---

Sada walked out of the dusty building, determined on doing nothing but what she had announced. She wasn't quite convinced about what Turo had said. Did he blame her, and was just saying it to make her feel better? Whatever it was... It's not like thinking about it would change things now. She had to focus. They had to find a way out... And find a way to survive in the meantime.

They had water, at least. She had seen a pretty deep lake at the bottom of the cliff where they had woken up. And... There had to be berries or something else that was edible. Creatures lived here after all, and you couldn't have only carnivores in one place. There had to also be creatures that ate mostly grass and berries. If she could follow one, or even just traces of them, it would lead her to a source of food. She tried to walk near the rock face, to avoid standing out in the open as much as possible, and squinted her eyes against the strange light to observe the grass. There had to be footprints, tufts of hair or scales, droppings... anything.

Sada heard chittering, and caught a glimpse of one of the rodents from before scurrying away from her. One of the smaller ones. On the spur of the moment, she decided to follow it; it ducked under a small rock passage, and she had to lay on her stomach and crawl on her hands and knees to follow; she didn't like it. It made her feel vulnerable... But they didn't seem intent on attacking her for the moment, so she tried to crawl her way forward as fast as possible. The passage opened up, and she realized that it was a small cave connected to the outside by a hole in the ceiling, just big enough to let some lights in. And some bushes full of berries grow. Her face lit up as she approached the plant; she wasn't familiar with the fruits that grew on it, but the little rodents seemed to be eagerly eating them. She filled her satchel with them, keeping an eye on the two little creatures. They were simply looking at her after having finished eating.

... Maybe they weren't that bad. As long as they didn't try to steal her food. Sada made her way out again and started to head back; they needed to find or make something they could use to store water in, if they didn't want to walk all the way to the lake every time...

A great shadow passed over her snapping her out of those thoughts, and again she instinctively went for her missing spear. Taking cover behind a boulder, she looked up; a great black bird with shining feathers passed overhead, letting out a piercing screech before diving in the middle of the crater. She observed the long drop for a while, watching the bird -she needed to find a name for it... Dark Talons? No...- swoop towards the lake at the bottom and fly up again clutching a smaller bird with fluffy white wings in their grip.

... A spear wouldn't do, even if she made one from one of the bigger trees. If she found herself having to throw it to defend herself or Turo, more often than not it would just end up flying right over the edge and leave her defenseless.

No, she needed something else; something still as swift and deadly, but with more versatility.

She needed to make a bow.

---

"Question: What is an effective way to warm up Eggs?

Answer: Stick it into a Magcargo's shell"

Clavell had to repress a chuckle as he, with some regret, marked the question as incorrect.

"While keeping eggs near many Fire-type Pokémon is an effective method of making sure they stay warm and at the right temperature to develop and hatch, one must pay attention to not exaggerate. Exposing one egg to the heat emitted from a Pokémon as Magcargo at such close proximity would, I'm afraid, at least hard-boil the unfortunate egg." he wrote as a correction, sincerely hoping that the student hadn't already tried their unconventional hatching method.

Kids had the wildest ideas sometimes, but that was why he found his job as a researcher and professor at Uvanja Academy so rewarding. He could observe the future generations of Paldea grow and improve, even if it sometimes led to having to work long hours grading tests. He didn't really mind.

The teacher's office was always a lively place, with students coming in and out to ask questions, so he had taken the habit of grading tests in one of the science laboratories on the second floor of the academy when he needed some quiet time. He had always found the lights and sounds of laboratory equipment relaxing, somehow. It was reassuring, in a way, the sound of something working as intended. Which is why, when one unexpected sound echoes across the otherwise silent room, he drew his eyebrows together in confusion as he looked around. He didn't remember leaving any of the equipment active, and he didn't recognize the sound. Had he imagined it...?

No, there it was again: his eyes finally landed on the source, and he got up from his chair to walk towards one corner of the room. There, sitting unused since a very long time on a table, half covered with what had probably been a picnic tablecloth once, was an old radio. It was supposedly still active, left turned on just in case... but he had never actually heard it work. Nobody had actually heard it work since quite some time.

Clavell removed the tablecloth and fiddled with the dials, turning up the volume. Was it picking up some stray signal? Some interference from a Electric type Pokémon nearby?

He waited a bit in front of the device, but the sound didn't repeat.

Clavell shook his head, and went back to grading his tests.

It had probably been a stray Magnezone from nearby the crater sending some signal that had been coincidentally picked up. The alternative was simply impossible.

After all, nobody had been in Area Zero since decades.