AN: This chapter is part of my ongoing quest to do a different sort of chapter plot, to further diferintiate this from ALNM. I hope it's a success.

LIV: Nothing In The Dark

"You could have told me the bug-catching contest was today." Charlotte said bitterly. I shrugged.

"You never asked."

It was the next day, and we were walking through the woods. The path we were on overlooked a rather steep ravine to the left, and since it rained last night, the ground was wet and slick. Every step we took made our feet sink into the mud, and I was carrying Anna, Emily, and Saya, with Darheel in his ball, so I got to walk slowly in this muck. Despite me walking slowly, Desiree and Iggy were at the back of our party. Desiree was flipping a brush between her fingers as she walked behind us.

"Something wrong?" Iggy asked. Desiree sighed and shrugged.

"Something is, yeah. I dunno what, just since Anna was in the pokecenter I've been off. I figured adding some blue to my hair might make me feel better" She twirled the locks of blue hair above her left eye, "But no one noticed. I don't really feel better." The two of them began to drift towards the left.

"Is their anything I can do Desiree?" Iggy said. Desiree smiled.

"I'm not sure, maybe" Desiree walked way to close to the edge. Now as I've mentioned before, Desiree enjoys wearing odd, bright clothing. She likes a lot of shiny jewelry, and she likes shoes with heels. Now, do you know what happens when you take heels, and try to walk in the mud, especially on a small cliff? "Oh shit!"

Desiree's right foot sunk deep into the mud when she tried to take a step, causing her to stumble. Specifically, causing her and Iggy to stumble and roll down the hill. Desiree grabbed Iggy as they fell and pulled him against her breast, as the two hit every plant and rock on the way down.

"Desiree!" Virgil was already running towards her when she fell, but she was gone. We all heard a loud thump as she hit the ground.

"Owe." Desiree sat up, shaking her head rapidly, shaking dirt and twigs off. "You okay Iggy?"

"I'm fine Desiree." Iggy said. "I was afraid you'd be hurt, I knew I'd be okay."

"Good" Desiree looked up the hill. "We're fine! Just a bit dirty" Desiree looked down at the neon green stockings she was wearing, "And my clothing is torn."

"You're bleeding Desiree" Iggy said, "I can smell it." Desiree felt along the side of her head, and felt a small bit of blood.

"And I am bleeding. Wow that feels strong." Desiree said.

"We'll try and find a way down!" Virgil yelled, "Do not go anywhere."

"Can do." Desiree mumbled. Her easel thankfully was being carried by Virgil, so it hadn't been destroyed by the fall. Everything else, her skirt, stockings, shirt, torn. Two of her rings were missing, both her heels broke off, and her makeup was smeared with dirt.

"Alright, now where are we Iggy?" They'd landed in a small dirt clearing at the foot of the hill. All around Desiree were trees, bushes, rocks, mud and a thick underbrush. Desiree's hands moved along the floor of the forest, while Iggy's antenna twitched.

"Des, move your left hand back" Iggy said, "You touched something that's not a rock, it made a different noise."

"Oh really? I hadn't noticed." Desiree moved across the ground, until she hit something small and metal. Using her long nails, Desiree pried out a dirty, washed out looking pokeball. As she lifted it up to her face, it enlarged.

"How long has this been here?" The white paint of the ball had been completely scratched off, and the red almost also.

"It's a pokeball!" Iggy said, touching it with his antenna. "Open it!"

"Do you think something's in it?"

"I dunno, just—" Desiree pressed the button on the center, and was instantly blinded by a white light. The light and energy coming from it was so strong that Desiree almost dropped the ball.

"Kira, you're free!" Desiree and Iggy turned at the sound of a raspy voice exclaiming that. It came from behind a bush a few feet away.

"H-hello?" Desiree called.

"Hello. Who're you?"

"Desiree, I just fell down the hill." Desiree put Iggy on her head, and the two crawled over to the voice. They crawled through a few bushes, and came up too a teenage boy. The boy was coated in dirt and mud, and was in a red and white long sleeved shirt, and black shorts. Or they were once, now they were largely brown and torn. The boy had dried blood on the side of his face, and his left leg was swollen and had a large lump in the middle of it.

On his lap was a female Espeon, making happy noises being back with his master. Presumably this was Kira, and she was the one in the dilapidated pokeball.

"Oh my God, kid are you okay?" Desiree crawled over to the boy, who was nodding rapidly.

"Y-Yeah I would be now." The boy said, "My name is Ethan Cooper, and I think my leg is broken."

"It appears to be." Desiree said. Iggy had gone silent, though his antenna were lighting up and wiggling. "I-I dunno what to do, don't worry though, my friends are coming to get me, they'll get both of us." Ethan smiled, and started to tear up.

"I uh thanks. I was afraid I was going to die here, and if I didn't get to see Kira again then I don't know what I would have done."

"Well, you're going to be okay." Desiree said reassuringly, stroking his non-broken leg.

"Desiree, something is weird here." Iggy whispered, but she ignored him.

"So, Kira is this beautiful thing?" Desiree asked, petting the Espeon behind the ears. Ethan nodded.

"This is Kira, my special friend and only pokemon." He said. "We've been together since I was two, my parents gave me Kira to be a pet. She evolved one day, before I decided to become a trainer."

"You're a trainer?" Desiree asked, "For how long?"

"About, oh, two days. Which incidentally was how long I'd been down here. Seriously, I left Goldenrod and almost immediately ended up injured." He laughed, "I was going to be one hell of a trainer, wasn't I? I ended up getting injured on my first day!"

"You might still be, you're not doing that bad. I'm a traveling painter" Desiree said, "And I've thus far finished no painting, gotten sidetracked repeatedly, and burned a hotel down. I wish I painted that, the fire was so vibrant, orange, blue, yellow, colors I didn't even know fire could be!"

"Wow wow" Ethan paused, "Uh I got nothing. I've never set a hotel on fire. All I've got is Kira."

"I've got Iggy." Desiree said, lifting him up. "Before you ask, yes he is blind, he was when I got him and probably always will be." She stroked his head, "I don't care. Iggy is my muse."

"Pokemon can be like that." Ethan said. "Kira was my little psychic ball of joy. When your parents scream, or in my case, my mother screams at you for nothing, they can make you feel better. Kira was always there, she listened to me."

"Even if she can't speak." Desiree said.

"Des? Something is really weird." Iggy said. Kira's red Jew glowed on and off. Iggy fell asleep, unable to say anymore.

"Iggy was the only one who listened to me in boarding school." Desiree said. "That's something I've not told my traveling companions, the ones coming to get me. I was once in a boarding school, and I haaaated it. Everything should be done the way they said it should, according to the rules. It was a horrible place where creativity went to die. The only reason I went there was because both my sisters went there."

"You have sisters?" Ethan asked.

"Yeah, two of them. My oldest one works for some government agency doing security checks or something, every time she talks to me I just hear 'blah blah blah'."

"What about your other sister?" Ethan asked.

"Oh her. She's in jail for being part of an anarchist cell called S.U.N.D.A.Y. that tried to blow up the judges." Desiree said, "I should really go see her. Anyways, she'll be free in just thirty five years."

"Wow. I got nothing."

"Nor do I." Desiree cocked her head. "Your clothes are old, I just noticed they look really old."

"They are old." Ethan said, "I got them from a used clothes store, I got Kira's pokeball used, I found these shoes on the street. As you might have guessed, I was poor."

"I'm sorry for you." Ethan shrugged.

"It's okay. You get used to being poor. That's one of the reasons I decided to become a trainer, I could earn some money and maybe do something else, I dunno. I'd have liked to one day buy new shoes, and a good ball for Kira. I'd have liked just to buy some balls, I only had the one."

"Yeah, you need more." Desiree said. "I wonder what it would be like to get another pokemon. I've considered asking Charlotte or Angela, they're my friends, to catch me something. Maybe an Espeon like you're Kira. I like the purple."

"Purple is a wonderful color." Ethan said. "It would match with blue. I dunno what I wanted for my second pokemon, maybe a flying type."

"Did you always want to be a trainer?"

"Yep. I love pokemon" Ethan said, "I never wanted to be in school, just out in the world with them. My mother refused to let me do it though, every time I asked she refused to let me go on my journey. She kept whining that she'd never see me, or that I'd get hurt and die on my journey. Going out on a dangerous trail after it rained probably wasn't my brightest idea."

"Probably wasn't mine either." Desiree said with a small laugh. "Well, being injured is the spice of life. It's still funny that you're going to spend the first weeks of your trainer life in a hospital." Ethan didn't say anything.

"Desiree, what is your dream in life?" Ethan asked. "Mine was to make it and become the champion of Johto. That would've been incredible. I'd never have been forgotten, that's what I wanted. I'd live on forever through everyone else. So what about you Desiree?" She paused. Kira's Jew flashed.

"My…my dream is to be the-a a painter." Desiree began to breathe heavier. "Not just a painter though, being a painter who is easily forgotten? Who isn't studied? Who doesn't create? I want more then that.

"I see the world as color and light, that's almost all I see and it's all I put on canvas. I want more then that, I want to be more then color and light. I want to paint something real! I want people to look at my canvas and say that is life!"

"I never expected that much reaction." Ethan said, earning a sheepish grin from Desiree. Kira studied the girl and her Chinchou. Her Jew flashed again.

"I never expected to give it." Desiree said, "I kind of felt compelled. I guess it's cuz I can't talk to this with the others in my group. I travel with them, and they are nice, but they don't get me. I'm comedy for them, or someone to carry stuffs, or to lighten the mood. They don't know anything about me, they wouldn't care."

"I understand that." Ethan said, "I always felt like no one understood me either, humans were too complicated. That's the other reason I wanted to be a trainer, to get away from people completely. You never know though, your friends might not be as bad as you think. They probably do care."
"Virgil does." Desiree said, "He wants to have sex with me though, even though I told him I'm asexual, I don't think he got it." She shrugged. "That's another detail of my life I'm not advertising. I learned a long time ago, people don't care if you follow any of the conventional ways things are supposed to be done. Follow none of them, then they freak out."

"You might be right Desiree." Ethan replied.

"Yep." Desiree finally noticed Iggy was asleep on her lap, and smiled. "Alright Iggy, I know you're bored, but it's time to wake up." She tapped him on the head and Iggy jerked to life. Kira's Jew began to glow, but to late.

"He doesn't have an electromagnetic field!" Iggy yelled (my words, not his). Kira's Jew quit glowing, and she sighed.

"What?" Desiree asked.

"I-Humans have like electricity I feel, a charge! Pokemon have it too, I can feel it with my antenna. I hear this Ethan guy talking, but I don't feel him there. I feel his Espeon, but I don't feel him! He's not there!" Desiree looked down at him, then Ethan.

"He's right you know." Ethan said. "Being dead does that to you." Desiree's jaw dropped.

"You're dead?" Ethan nodded with a smile. By now Kira's Jew was glowing non-stop. She began to talk with Ethan, the two speaking in unison.

"Everything I've said to you thus far has been true. I was a trainer for one week, I was poor, I came from a broken home, and I fell down this hill in a rain storm." They said. "All of that was true, just when it happened wasn't. You assumed it was after this rain storm. In fact, it was after one eight years ago.

"It was a particularly bad storm, I'd actually been advised not to come this way for a few days. They said the paths would be washed out, it would be slick, dangerous to walk. I knew better though" They said. "Me and Kira fell down the path after my foot slipped, landed where you see us right now. My leg was broken, and no one was coming to help us.

"Kira stayed with me as I called out for help. I called for three days, after that I couldn't call out anymore. I lasted another two, Kira helping me the entire time. I knew that I wasn't making it out of there."

Desiree was crying now, not speaking though. Finally she thought of something to say.

"How-how-how are y-you here?"

"I told you I wanted to live forever." Ethan and Kira said. "I'd become a champion and I'd live on that way. That wasn't going to happen though, so Kira helped me.

"She recorded my mind, my memories, my personality, inside of her due to her psychic powers. I recaptured Kira inside her pokeball, she could live forever inside of there, and rolled it away from me. Whoever eventually came across it she would give my memories, she would give them it all."

"Your still dead though." Desiree said, not knowing what she meant anymore. Ethan nodded.

"I'll live forever now though, thanks to you Ms. Desiree." They said. "You're not just color and light."

"…Thanks Ethan."

"You'll live an incredible life." Ethan and only Ethan said. "I had to speak to you, I had to know what kind of person you were. You're extraordinary Desiree, and your life will be too. I hope it's wonderful." With that Ethan began to fade away, Kira still sitting there. Soon Ethan was gone completely. Before Desiree could ask about it, Kira's Jew glowed bright, almost blinding Desiree.

"I…see…" Desiree whispered, as Ethan's memories rushed into her. She could see his life, all of it, experience it along with her. When it ended Desiree fell onto her back.

"Desiree!"

"I'm fine Iggy." She pushed herself back up. Kira stood there, staring at the two. "So, you waited eight years? Just to find someone to take your trainer's memories?" Kira nodded. "That is some dedication. I don't know…"

Desiree's eyes drifted to where Ethan had been. A few scraps of clothes, shoes, and such stood out. Sticking out of the mud was an outline, the outline of a skeleton. Ethan's skeleton.

"Desiree? Where are you?" I called out. Desiree turned around, confused.

"I'm here! I'm here!" She turned back to Ethan's body. "I'm not going anywhere."


Charlotte called the National Park, who put in a call to Johto. They would send people out to get Ethan's body in a couple of hours. He'd get a proper burial and his mother would finally know what happened to her son. Desiree waited off away from us, sitting on a rock. She had Iggy on her lap, Kira's ball in her hand. Desiree released Kira.

"I'm letting you go." Desiree said, "I-I can't guess what it's like being stuck in a ball for so long, but I just hope you get over it." Kira looked up.

"Eon espy espeon es." Desiree nodded.

"Sounds wonderful." Kira sighed, and said the same thing to Iggy.

"She says she wants to go with you." Iggy said. Desiree cocked her eyebrow.

"Why? She doesn't know me."

I don't need to know you. Desiree almost stumbled off her rock as the voice entered her head. I just know you were nice enough to wait with my master and to try and help him despite not knowing him.

"You can speak in my brain?" Kira (kind of) smirked.

Not often, but some times. So what do you say, I come with you, you get my lovely purple coat, I get to be around people again. Desiree smiled.

"Deal, but we're getting you a better ball."

Thanks.

"No problem" Desiree looked back at the others. "Good-bye Ethan, I wish I knew you alive."

AN: I put a clue to the ending in the chapter, if you know what it is, tell me in the review.