Trip woke up in a chair next to the bed. His hand was still holding Victoria's and as he looked up at her face he saw that she was twitching, as if trying to get something off of her. Trip grabbed a bad of dried purple tulip petals and held it under Victoria's hand. She immediately relaxed and her blind, unseeing eyes opened
"Trip?" She whispered
"I'm here" Trip said squeezing her hand "I'm here"
"He was coming for me, he got much closer"
"Who did?" Trip asked Victoria, his eyes raking her face for signs of pain and suffering.
"You can't tell Gary," Victoria said "It would destroy him, Promise?"
"I Promise"
"Gary's chasing me"
"W-What do you mean?"
"He's the one chasing me"
"How…"
"He is… every time I see what it is… It's Gary… Gary surrounded by shadows"
"How can we stop him?"
"There's a flower"
"Yes…"
"I keep seeing it when I'm running… I'm running through a field and it's covered in purple tulips"
"With gold?"
"Yes with golden swirls round the tip"
"What do we do with them?"
"If you crush them with… something"
"With what"
"I don't know…It's hard to see…"
"What could it be?"
"It's a crystal… It's a blue crystal"
"Where can we find one"
"It's in a cave, I think it's in Sinnoh, in Mount Coronet"
"how do you know Victoria?" Trip asked worried about a trap
"I can feel it"
"We'll find it"
"Gary can't know…It would kill him"
"OK, I promise" Trip leaned forward and kissed her.
Misty was writing an essay for her science teacher in the Library when Ash walked in with Paul. Her eyes flicked over to him and they made eye contact. Paul and Ash walked over and sat opposite her.
"Misty..." Ash whispered "H-How's Victoria?"
"She's not exactly great, thanks for asking" Misty said with a voice as cold as ice "The clues where in the fact that she doesn't respond to anyone and appears to be half blind"
"Well... I think I can help" Ash said as he held up a silken pouch
"Whats in the bag?" Misty asked curiously
"A blood stone" Paul answered
"A what?" Misty said incredulously
"It's a stone that is either blood red or electric blue, It has been used in medicines since forever" Paul said quickly
"And how will this help?" Misty asked as she took the pouch and pocketed it
"It has a mineral that helps Bug type Pokemon recover" Ash said
"Where did you find It?"
"I was given it by Cynthia actually" Paul said "It helps Pokemon grow stronger, the healing is just a side effect"
"What is the difference between when It is red and when It is Blue?" Misty asked with a lump in her throat
"Well... When It's blue it heals" Ash said carefully "But..."
"When It's red It destroys" Paul finished.
"Destroys what?" Misty asked
"Your mind an-" Paul started but Ash cut in.
"This is about Victoria, when this stone is blue it will heal her" Ash said as he got up, "Now, we need to go" and Ash walked out of the room with Paul hot on his heels. after a couple of seconds Misty followed suit but headed towards the medical ward.
"so you're sure this will help her?" Gary asked as he held the glowing crystal in his hands,
"Positive" said Misty as she picked up the silken bag and placed the crystal in it.
"How do we keep it blue though?" Drew asked as he looked through a thick book on minerals and healing properties.
"I don't know," Misty said as she pocketed the bag "We need to find out that before any action"
"I'll look after It" Gary said as he held his hand out for it
"OK?" Misty said as she brought out the bag and gave it to Gary.
"How is Victoria?" Dawn asked as she leafed through an equally large book on healing herbs.
"Trip spends all of his time with her" Gary answered with a voice of steel
"But how is she?" Dawn asked again
"She's making progress, Trip is speaking to her in conversations now" Drew answered
"I should be helping her" Gary said with agression
"It doesn't matter, she's being helped and that's all that matters" Misty said
"But It should be ME!" Gary shouted
"You're jealous!" Drew whispered "Thats why you want to help so much, you want to be her champion!"
"This doesn't matter at the moment" Dawn said curtly "All we need to do is help her back to health"
"I know what we have to do, It says so here" Drew said flicking back to the problem with Victoria and not quite meeting eyes with Gary. he pointed to a ritual in his book. "All we have to do is place the Crystal on her head at night and that will help her recover. The rest is down to her."
"So this will all end?" Gary asked still not looking at Drew
"Effectively all that we will need to do is help her recover and then" Drew answered
"We can work on destroying what ever monster was causing this" Gary cut in
"I think we're working with much more powerful forces than we can manage" Misty said and Dawn nodded her agrement
"I don't think so" Drew whispered and everyone looked over at him with shocked expressions "I've just worked out who caused it"
"WHO?" Gary shouted
"That spider... thing that we met on the Darkball mission. It spat into Victoria's eye, didn't it? and It came out of the shadows, and Victoria blew up the whole base, didn't she? what if it hadn't finished with her...? or us...?" and the five began runing to thye hospital ward, remembering the Danger Victoria and Trip where in...
Trip was sitting with Victoria when he heard a scratching on the window. he turned slowly and saw an Ugly, scared face attached to a spider body. It looked evilly at him with glowing red eyes and smashed open the window. Trip flung himself in front of Victoria to protect her as the Gargantuan spider body pulled it's way into the room. Trip was hit with a sickening smell of rotten flesh and decomposed limbs. he wanted to retch but he stood his ground in front of Victoria.
"Ohh, whats this" the Spider teased as she turned her head to the side and cackled teasingly.
"Get Lost Spider face" Trip shouted and picked up the ward chair brandishing it like a club.