The Great Pokemon Conspiracies:

~The Old Chateau~

Chapter Nine: Recalling the Past
(There, Silversong. Happy now?)

Gym Leader Fantina was home.

Yes, this strange house was actually her home before it happened and changed everything. She told us the stranger story of how she was "summoned" to her old house when she was having a seancé at her gym in Hearthome City. It was like a "whisper from the dead" that someone was "trespassing" in her old home.

At that word, Dusk's face reddened. "I'm sorry, we didn't mean to trespass," she said. "We didn't know this was your old house."

Fantina looked uncomfortable at her choice of words. "Non, non, this isn't your fault," she said quickly. "I should have been more careful with my words. Everything's been such a mess since it happened-"

Swiftwing's patience finally snapped. "All right," he said loudly. "Everyone's been going all "it" this and "it" that without telling us even once what "it" is. Come on, it's high time we knew, don't you think?"

Meanwhile, out in the corridor of glaring portraits, Roselio had also burst with impatience. "What is "it"?" he demanded, folding his roses in front of him.

Although they were in different rooms, both Fantina and Gengar let out a long sigh.

"All right, here's what really happened..."

A Note from the Narrator
Again, we must rely on Roselio's account of Gengar's story since Roselio and I were in different rooms listening to different stories by different people. Or Pokémon, in Gengar's case.

... "It is a fire," Fantina began. "A vicious fire that burnt down this house..."

"Almost," said Gengar to Roselio. "Almost burnt down this house, but didn't very thoroughly."

"Despite that, the fire had done the damage," Fantina said. "My daughter..."

"My owner..."

"The girl with the two ponytails. She was gone forever on the day of the fire," Fantina sighed.

"How terrible!" we gasped.

"I'm sorry," squeaked Roselio. "So very sorry..."

"Oui, I know, and it struck me really hard, too," Fantina went on. "She was my only child, and she went down with the house, along with her favorite Pokémon, too. I was in mourning for a long time, until now perhaps, and I have been trying to communicate with her since, through my many seancés-"

"The day was a disaster," Gengar remembered. "That was the day I became who I am now, Gengar the Ghost. Before that, I was Clefable, her faithful companion, before the fire ate all the normality out of me. That was why I said I haven't always been Gengar."

"You mean you've been trying to communicate with the dead?!" Dusk gasped.

"You mean you're now dead?" Roselio gasped in fright.

"Oui," Fantina said. "I decided to become a Ghost-type Gym Leader, to familiarize myself with the undead. I left my old house, trained my own Gengar, and became stronger. But it doesn't seem to make any difference to my attempts to communicate with those on the other side."

"Umm, yeah?" Gengar drawled in a "Duh?" voice. "You're a bit slow to only figure it out now."

"But what caused the fire?" Dusk asked. She doubted that it was because of a simple electrical failure or something.

"How did the fire happen?" Roselio asked, still a bit put out.

"Well, it was because of that horrid butler!" Fantina exclaimed. "Why, he was the simpleton who made a mess in the kitchen and set fire to the house. If he had been more careful, it wouldn't have happened. My husband saw it when he handled the stove wrong but was too late to do anything. My husband felt really bad despite the fact that it wasn't his fault that he decided to live separately. I think he built a mansion somewhere... Meanwhile the butler also went down with the house and my daughter and her Pokémon. My husband and I were the only ones who were safe."

"Well, it was none other than Fantina's husband himself," Gengar sneered. "He was trying to be a know-it-all and fix some electrical stuff in the kitchen, although the butler - he loved my owner very much - had suggested to call a real electrician. The poor butler was killed along with my owner and yours truly, but Fantina's husband got out of it. I believe he now lives separately from his wife, probably because of guilt. If I'm not mistaken he's built another mansion just like this one in this Sinnoh region."

STOP!

Wait and see. Re-read.

If you are careful, you might have already noticed right off the bat that something isn't right.

In fact, something is obviously very wrong with the stories of Fantina and Gengar. Their stories contradict each other's. What is going on here?

(I asked Roselio if he perhaps misinterpreted Gengar's story, but he said he was positive he didn't. But then what... But... How...?

OK. I'm officially confused).