Back at the Expedition Society…

"There's something that I still don't quite understand…"

Ampharos tilted his head at the ghost. "Something else?"

"Regardless of our memory loss prior to the Tower's collapse, the fact remains that the three of us had started to disappear after time was restored. In fact, we did disappear for a brief moment. How do you explain that?"

"Well-"

"I can answer that."

The two turned to the source of the voice, entering the room to join them.

"Who are you?" Dusknoir asked.

"I'm Mawile. Sorry to intrude, but I was in my office and couldn't help but overhear you guys. I did a lot of investigation on all of this along with the chief back in the day."

"Ah yes, Mawile here is our archaeologist," Ampharos said. "Please, go on, if you would be so kind."

"The chief told you about Darkrai, right? Well, my question for you is... where do you think he was all that time when Dana and Grovyle were in the past, trying to undo what he caused?"

"How do you expect me to answer that? I didn't even know of Darkrai until today."

"Surely the mastermind behind the whole ordeal wouldn't have just sat back and let his plan foil, right? He could've easily done what you did and gone after Grovyle to stop his mission. I was really curious about why he didn't do that since it would be so simple, so I looked into it, and…"

"And what?"

"There was more time travel, in addition to what you guys did. And there's another Celebi."

"Wh-What?!"

"Darkrai decided to be a little more crafty. Perhaps to give himself more of a challenge maybe, I don't know. The other Celebi has been friends with the chief for a long time, and so he was happy to fill us in on everything. To put it simply, Darkrai forced him to send him to the past. But not to the time period you three went to. He went further back, and found a way to get to… the parents. Your parents, Grovyle's parents, Dana's parents… and he redirected their paths in order to ensure that they would never meet. So that you guys were never born."

The ghost had gone pale. He was about to storm out of the building like Grovyle did because this was all too much.

"Darkrai is able to generate dimensional holes on his own," she continued. " But he needed Celebi's help to get to those specific time periods instead of ending up somewhere random. Celebi wanted to stop him, but he would've been easily overpowered. And Darkrai had threatened to eliminate all of his friends and loved ones if he ran away or interfered."

He thought in silence for a moment, not even blinking.

"If what you say is true…" he managed, "then why would he have gone after my parents? I was essentially on his side, trying to preserve the future that he wanted."

"It wasn't part of the original plan. He went and did that as soon as your heart changed and you joined forces with Grovyle and Celebi. He didn't waste a moment."

"You've got to be kidding me…"

"But hey, he failed, didn't he? Basically fell on his face when every single one of his plans were foiled."

"I need some air."

He turned away and started floating towards the main door.

"Hey," Mawile called after him. "If you go through the town's entry gate, there's a small forest that's good for calming the mind. And if you go through the dungeon beyond that, you'll come across a place called Serene Village. That's where I go sometimes when my mind needs a break, if that helps."

With that, he was off.

Mawile turned back to her chief. "He's still carrying a lot of guilt, isn't he?"

"Indeed. But he has a good heart. I'm certain of it. We happen to know a fellow like him, don't we? Four of them, in fact."

"Yeah… we do."

A/N: This little add-on wasn't originally part of the story. I realized a plot hole I established way after the fact and just wanted to address it. I know it's a bit of a stretch, but there it is.

Again, all the time travel stuff trips me out. ^^'