Medusa walked through the hallways of the ship, deep in thought and full of worry. A single corridor separated this section from both the staff quarters and the passenger's quarters. Lillie's explanation for their presence had caused quite a stir, but the people on the ship had accepted it easily enough. She and her colony had put on a small show for the passengers, and a more elaborate show for the girls who had invited them in.
"Leon," Medusa said, turning to look at the corner of the hallway several feet behind her. "What are you doing out of bed?"
"I know you wanted me to sleep with the family tonight," Leon said, as he left his hiding spot. "But I wanted to check on Pinkie Pie. I'm supposed to be protecting her, afterall."
"She is safe on this ship with or without you. Though we are stationary until the fog lifts, there is nothing here to fight. You've been through enough as it is. I never thought the House of Eevee would fail to guide your group safely. I will file a complaint with the High Council, later."
"Trouble has a way of finding us, mama. I'm not so little anymore that I can't fight, either."
"You are far too young to be fighting the foes you've met on this adventure. You could have easily been killed. If I had known…"
"You would have said no to my request?" Bartholomew said as he walked around the corner behind Leon. Medusa paused a second in thought. She had heard his heavy footfalls, just as she had heard his whispered conversation with her son. Neither of them had been as quiet as they had intended to be.
"Yes," Medusa said finally, pushing back the memories of her husband that accompanied the water-type leader's presence. "I would have declined to send him."
"And what good would that have done? He's grown quite a bit. He's become more powerful and more confident. A short conversation was enough to show me that. How much might he improve by the time this adventure is over?"
"But if he isn't protected, as he should have been, then he won't survive to improve at all," Medusa said, angrily. "You expect me to send my children to die just like their father? Just like…"
"Perseus died honorably," Lord Bartholomew said, bowing his head in respect to his friend's memory. "He defeated many powerful foes, saved many lives, and fought with unerring courage."
"You used the same words when you laid his broken body before me!" Medusa shouted. "The council, and the princesses, used the same words when they honored our dead in Canterlot! They didn't help when faced with my husband's death then, and they don't help now!"
"Mama," Leon said, hugging his mother in an attempt to calm her down as he had on the day his father had died. "I know it doesn't stop hurting, but even Laurie and the others say it's gotten a bit better over time because we have family with us. Papa lives on in our memories, right?"
"He… he does," Medusa said, patting her child's head gently.
"Papa would want me to honor our family by helping Pinkie Pie. That's what you told me on the day you sent me off. I can't help her if I'm not there. I protect her, and she protects me. We're friends, mama. Please, let me continue traveling with her!"
"I've never heard you talk with such conviction about anything," Medusa said, as she considered her son's wish. "Have these girls really made that much of an impact on you?"
"They have. They taught me that we can't simply act like this is good versus evil when we're dealing with Pokémon that have genuinely suffered. We have to change hearts and minds, rather than just beat down an enemy."
Medusa considered her son's words for a moment in silence.
"I just want our friends and family to survive. I just want us all to get through this together, but Gotham showed me that might not be possible. If not for Dain…"
"Gotham was a disaster," Lord Bartholomew said. "That's what Welshi told me before we left, and from what little I saw, she's right. We will be far more careful in the future, but there are no guarantees of safety in battle."
"And mother thinks I should send my children out into that. It's a meat grinder, and I hate it."
"She sent you, didn't she? And you've blossomed into a great champion. If Joan hadn't already claimed you, I'd have you leading the Furies in my stead."
"You are too kind, Lord, but it took the death of my husband to make me what I am today."
"And the desire to protect others. Don't sell yourself short, Medusa. Don't sell your children short. They will grow and learn as others have. Give them a chance."
Medusa smiled and looked down the hallway to their left. The girls that her son had been traveling with slept down there this very moment. She opened her mouth to give her consent, but a scream interrupted her.
"That's Sunset Shimmer!" Leon said as he detached himself from his mother and ran down the hallway. Lord Bartholomew and Medusa shared a worried look, and hurried after him.
Bartholomew broke down the door to Sunset Shimmer's room with his shoulder, splintering it with the force of his weight. Sunset Shimmer watched him out of the corner of her eye, but she was frozen with fear as she had been for the past minute. The child's hand was reaching out for her neck, inches away from grabbing hold of her and Bartholomew's entrance hadn't stopped it. His Mud Bomb did, though.
The attack struck the boy in the chest and immediately washed away the façade, revealing a Phantump that shivered under Bartholomew's furious gaze. Sunset Shimmer fell, as if released from some horrifying trance.
"What do we have here?" Medusa said as she entered the room behind the Mega Swampert. She looked over at the Phantump and frowned while Leon peered around her curiously. "You're nothing but a child. What are you doing here?"
"D-distracting you," the Phantump said as he turned to look at Medusa and moaned sadly.
"What were you trying to do to our friend?" Bartholomew said, angrily as he advanced on the little ghost-type. "You're far from any forest. Who sent you?"
He raised his hand, forming another Mud Bomb in it as if threatening to strike. Medusa put a flipper on his arm and he lowered it.
"Answer our questions, child," she said, her voice soft and stern. "We will not hurt you."
"If you give us an answer," Bartholomew added.
"No, we will not hurt him at all, Lord Bartholomew," Medusa corrected. She paused a moment before remembering her place, and she blushed. "Please, he is only a child."
"He would have killed Sunset Shimmer had we not heard her scream while walking down the hallway. If we turned our backs here and left, he would no doubt kill her in our absence."
"Lord, please."
"I have to agree with Medusa, Lord Bartholomew," Sunset Shimmer said, finally regaining her senses. She was sitting on the ground where she was working to catch her breath after holding it for what felt like ages. "He is a child. He should be given leniency."
Bartholomew looked from the pony to the Primarina and back to the Phantump before lowering his hand.
"Y-you're right," he said, apologetically. "He should be given leniency, and taught the error of his ways without violence."
"Thank you," Medusa said, bowing her head in gratitude. Then she turned back to the Phantump. "Tell us what you're doing here? Were you sent by Korrish or Charles?"
"B-both," the Phantump said, shakily. He wouldn't meet their eyes, but instead looked at the ground.
"Why did you take such a ghastly form?" Sunset Shimmer asked. The blood and water from the frozen boy's body had disappeared when the Phantump had been revealed, but the image was still fresh in her mind.
"That's… how I looked just before I died," the Phantump said.
Sunset was speechless for a moment, her heart suddenly filled with sadness for the child. Medusa and Bartholomew shared a look of concern, and the Phantump used their momentary lack of caution to try and escape. He turned on the spot and began to phase through the wall, but Medusa's eyes lit up with psychic power and she stopped him. She took hold of him and pulled him back as gently as she could, as a mother might pull a belligerent child aside to scold them. Sunset Shimmer walked up to him and gave him a hug. For a moment, he tried to phase through her to escape, but unused to such sentiment and suddenly yearning for more, he quickly became solid and embraced her with tears in his eyes.
"Th-they left me to die!" he said, anger and sorrow pouring out of him as he spoke. "Th-they said I was a sacrifice to the forest and they left me to die! I tried to follow them and they beat me until I could barely move… and… they left me…"
"So, you became a Pokémon?" Sunset Shimmer asked kindly. She could feel his sadness pouring through him and into her at his touch. It was painful, but she withstood it for his sake.
"To try and make them happy," he said, pulling away slightly and nodding. "I… wanted to look like one of the forest Pokémon they revered. I just ended up scaring them. So I returned to the forest and slept in my tree stump for awhile."
"It sounds like your parents were part of a cult," Lord Bartholomew said, his tone far more kind than it had before. "Such cults haven't existed in human society for hundreds of years, to my knowledge."
"I don't know how long I slept," the Phantump said between tears. "But when I woke, there was a group of Trevenant nearby talking about a Mewtwo named Charles. I didn't quite understand what they were saying, but they said I could get revenge on bad people like my parents."
"Your parents are long dead, most likely," Medusa said as she sat down next to Sunset Shimmer and the Phantump. "And it doesn't sound like you ever really wanted revenge on them."
"I… I just wanted them to love me…"
"I can't replace your parents, but I can be your friend," Sunset Shimmer said. "If you'll let me."
"You need to help your friends," the Phantump said, pulling away from her completely and looking down at the ground. "I was here to distract you, afterall."
"What were you here to distract us from?" Medusa said, ashamed she had forgotten such an important detail in such a short amount of time. She, Bartholomew and Sunset Shimmer all began moving cautiously toward the door, but Leon beat them.
"Pinkie Pie," he yelled as he ran out of the room as fast as his flippers would carry him. Then the girls all screamed together, and the sound of Pokémon battling filled the hallway.
Leon ran to Pinkie Pie's door and rammed it with an Aqua Jet, but it didn't budge. He fell back and tried again, but still it didn't budge. It glowed with a ghostly light, as if sealed by some curse. His mother took hold of all of the doors with Psychic, and forced them open with a wave of her flipper. A Shuppet hovered above each of the girl's beds, stabbing dolls that looked like their victims while dodging attacks from the girl's partners. The girls screamed and convulsed with each stab.
"Get away from my friends!" Sunset Shimmer yelled, running despite the pain in her legs. She grabbed hold of each of the Shuppet and teleported them directly in front of her before blasting them with her magic. The little ghost-types screamed as they were hit, and when the light faded they were piled on top of one another against the far wall of the hallway, unconscious.
"Shuppet can't do this alone," Bartholomew said, already running down the hallway. "There's got to be a Mismagius here somewhere, casting a spell."
"I'll catch up with you, Bartholomew," Sunset Shimmer called after him. She turned to her friends who were already walking out of their rooms.
"I had the worst nightmare and woke up with this," Rainbow Dash said, wincing in pain. She removed a hand from her stomach to show the growing bloodstain there. "I've got more."
Sure enough, there were stains appearing on her arms and legs where she had been stabbed. Whatever magic had been cast to give the girls nightmares had transferred their injuries into the waking world. The other girls had similar wounds, and they all looked scared.
"C'mon, girls," Sunset Shimmer said, as she lay down on the floor. "Make a circle. I've gotten pretty good at healing spells lately."
"Alright," Applejack said as she limped over. Her right knee had several pinholes around her kneecap, and the leg of her pajamas was covered in blood. "But I think we better rethink our approach to Charles and Korish. If this keeps up, they might just kill us."
Medusa and Bartholomew ran down the hallway as fast as they could, stamping out the ghost-types they came across as they made their way to the deck. There they found Ceto leading the colony in defense of the ship. Lillie led the Aether Foundation employees and their Pokémon in protecting the passengers, but the ghost-types were as numerous as the Frillish and Jellicent had been. The defenders had their hands full.
"Where is the leader?" Lord Bartholomew said as he and Medusa ran up to the Primarina.
"Dead," Mistress Ceto said, with a smile.
"Mother, please," Medusa said.
"Learn to laugh a bit, dear. It would do you good."
"I've found something, Great Aunt Ceto," one of the other Primarina yelled. He was pointing at an entry port that led down to the lower parts of the ship. A sign hung above it that read: Employees Only. "It smells… bad down there. Like death."
"Then that's where we should go, right?" Medusa asked, trying to sound more confident and jovial. "I hope there's only one dead body down there, right mother?"
"Better," Mistress Ceto said with an approving nod. "Though you need to work on your delivery a bit, Medusa. Now, onward!"
Suddenly a bright light shone from the bottom of the entry tunnel, along with the sound of metal being deformed. A Bewear suddenly appeared and swatted a group of Dhelmise out of the air with a Brutal Swing, saving three Aether Foundation trainers and their injured Pokémon.
"It looks like we'll be sharing our suit," Mistress Ceto said, with a wry smile as she watched the fairy light dissipate. "Joan always did have a lovely singing voice, so it won't be so bad. Though we may have to send the rest of our colony back to the city if we decide to go as far as Alola. There's simply not enough room down there for such a long trip."
"My apologies," Lady Joan said as she climbed out of the service tunnel a minute later, her two Clefairy guards and newly appointed Mimikyu guard close behind. Hwan held an unconscious Mismagius in his claws, dragging it on the ground as he scuttled up from the entrance. "We don't wish to impose."
"Not at all, dear. I have to ask, where have you been?"
"Tracking Charles and Korrish. I sensed their presence here for just a moment, as if Charles was calling out to me. Then they vanished."
"Hmm, we should talk about that. Those two are behind the mess you see here."
Mistress Ceto motioned toward the ship deck where battles were still taking place, though the Bewear was making short work of the ghost-types.
"My brother sent him to help us," Joan said as they watched the fighting-type throw Brutal Swings one after another, the humans and their partners narrowly avoiding his powerful attacks in the process.
"I'm here to get Fluttershy," said a small, stoic looking Rapidash that climbed out of the service tunnel after Joan and her bodyguards. "I wouldn't mind seeing Pinkie Pie, either."
"Maud?" Medusa said, half-surprised. "That's a good look for you."
"Thanks. I chose this since there were no rock-types that resembled ponies. The flames are cool."
"We'll take you to them Maud, dear," Mistress Ceto said, as she led the group back to their quarters. "Let's retire… again. Sleep is important. We'll speak to Lillie about this mess in the morning. Poor girl."