From the minute Kate jumped into the underground caves, Keith followed with the pure intention of getting the entire story of how she was apparently saved by Darkrai. He wanted to make absolutely sure she wasn't hiding anything else from him that could hurt her.

Then he saw the Duskull.

Keith froze at the sight of it, going pale as he watched the Ghost-type float eerily up into the ceiling and out of sight. When it was gone, he sighed in relief. Kate watched him curiously.

"What is up with you and Ghost-types?" she asked. Keith groaned, Kate's secret completely forgotten now.

"My older brother," he grimaced. "He always scared me out of my wits when I was a little kid with scary stories. It's not as if I'm terrified of ghosts or anything, they just creep me out…"

Kate blinked. "Doesn't that still make you scared of them?"

"Ugh, just keep walking!"

The two strode on, and eventually they reached a small clearing in the caves where they noticed a large hole in the ceiling. It seemed as if they would be able to get to the second floor in the caves by going through. The only problem with that plan was the fact that it was easily ten feet above them.

Keith looked around. "Do you think there would be any Drifblim here?" he inquired. Kate nodded.

"Yeah, I saw one earlier when we were walking." she answered.

"OK then, we can capture it and use it to float up to the next floor," the redhead declared. "They have a special move that lets us levitate between floors like this."

Kate was curious. "How do you know that?" she asked.

Keith rolled his eyes. "Full fledged Sinnohan here, remember?" he reminded. "I learnt about all that stuff from the street performers in my hometown."

"What town did you live in?" Kate questioned.

"Jubilife City," Keith answered. Kate goggled at him, which made the boy uncomfortable. "…Something wrong?" he asked.

"I've heard of Jubilife!" the brunette exclaimed. "It's that really big city, right? The one with all the tall buildings?"

Keith sweatdropped at her choice of words, but checked himself when he remembered that growing up in a small beach village she wouldn't know of such things. After all, look how shocked she was when first setting foot in Puel!

"Err, yeah," Keith confirmed as they searched for the Drifblim. "It's one of the major cities in Sinnoh, and it's also where a lot of TV shows are produced. There're a lot of weird things there, like street performers, random clowns, reporters everywhere… but all in all, the place is pretty energetic. It's impossible to be bored there. …Hey, why are you smiling?"

Kate had been grinning at him as he spoke, trying to hold in laughter. "Because," she giggled slightly, "that sounds just like you, Keith! You're weird, random, energetic, and it's impossible to be bored around you."

Keith had slowly but surely gone red at these words. "Wha…" he started, but then shook his head as if the blush were an annoying fly, and muttered, "Whatever," to cover it up.

Kate kept on smiling. "I really can't wait to see what your family is like, Keith," she said eagerly. Keith winced.

"Trust me, you don't," he assured. Kate stared.

"Why is that?" she asked politely. The corner of Keith's mouth twitched in a slight smile, but then he sighed.

"My brother's OK, if not a bit annoying, but my dad… Arceus, my dad," the boy groaned. "He means well, but he's just so… so weird. He works as a cop for the Sinnoh FBI, and… well… he takes things a bit too far."

"How so?" Kate inquired. Keith ran a hand through his spiky hair exasperatedly.

"He thinks everyone's guilty until proven innocent," he explained, "he's always hiding behind poles and stuff like a freaking ninja, he wears this stupid trenchcoat thing 24/7 and he even thought of this stupid code name to go by instead of his real name. You understand now?"

Kate stared at him more, but then she smiled happily. "He sounds like a fun person!" she said.

Keith choked on thin air. "Fun?" he gasped. "You… you think that…" the teenager goggled more at the sight of his preteen companion still smiling obliviously at him.

"You've got it wrong;" he muttered crossly, "my dad really is weird. I don't know how Mom was able to put up with—"

But then he cut himself off abruptly, eyes widening as he realized what he'd been about to say. Kate was concerned. "What is it?" she asked.

"It's nothing," he answered coldly, then added, "I see the Drifblim."

Kate followed where he was pointing and did indeed see the large purple blimp Pokémon floating aimlessly around. She quickly captured it, and the two moved back to the clearing.

Keith was relaying instructions to the Drifblim, and was just about to tell Kate to hang onto one of the strings hanging from its body when something very odd occurred.

'So, you're afraid of ghosts, are you?'

"Huh…?" Keith looked around curiously. Kate turned to him.

"Something wrong?" she asked. Keith looked very puzzled.

"Did you just hear something?" he questioned. "Like a girl's voice?"

Kate stared at him. "…No…" she answered warily. "Keith, are you feeling alright?"

Keith jumped. "No, it's just… I… I'm fine," he assured, laughing the matter off. "Must be my imagination."

Kate cast him one more odd look, then turned back to preparing Falsetto and Treble for the ride up. Keith watched her back self-consciously, hoping that she didn't think he was going crazy…

'Oh, so you like that girl?'

The voice was back. It was a girl's voice, childish and high with… a British accent, oddly enough, but the weird thing was that it seemed to be resonating from inside Keith's skull. "Wha—" he gasped quietly so Kate wouldn't hear. The voice ignored him.

'Hm. Pretty cute. I can see why you're crushing on her.'

OK, now he was really getting freaked out. "Who is this? What are you doing in my head?" Keith hissed below his breath.

'You don't have to physically talk, you know.'

"What?"

'Right now, our souls are linked. You can talk to me just by thinking.'

Keith didn't really understand, but he decided to give it a shot.

'Like this?'

'Perfect!'

'Get out of my head!'

'Hm, let me think about it… NO.'

The redhead exhaled angrily as he strode over to the Drifblim. What was going on? He didn't get why this weird… voice, he supposed, had just decided to 'link souls' or whatever, but that wasn't the point here. He needed to focus on the Mission at hand. Kate was holding onto one string of the Blimp Pokémon, and Keith moved his left arm to grip the other.

That was when things got really weird.

Suddenly, his right arm moved against his will and curled itself around Kate's waist. Kate squeaked in surprise while Keith's eyes just widened at the unnecessary action. Immediately, the possessed arm yanked Kate tight against Keith's chest and both their faces burned.

'Aww, what a lovely scene,' the voice purred.

'What in the—did you do this?' Keith demanded mentally. He was distracted, though, by Kate's figure wriggling around against his own body.

"K-Keith," she stammered, "W-w-what was t-that for—?"

Keith decided it wouldn't be best to tell the brunette about his new friend, the voice that had mysteriously popped into his head and talked to him.

"Nothing," he covered up hastily, "I just thought it'd be more convenient to do it like this."

Kate blinked. "How so?" she asked uncertainly.

"It just is!" Keith groaned. "Trust me, OK?"

Kate stared a little longer, but then she smiled hesitatingly. "…OK," she nodded.

Keith felt his chest give an unnecessary thump at this action, but then he was distracted by the voice again.

'Oh my, my, MY. I am receiving some VERY high patterns of affection in your soul wave,' the voice mused. 'You really do like this girl, don't you? What's her name, by the way?'

'Kate,' the redhead answered irritably, trying to keep his expression gentle towards Kate as he battled with the annoying tone in his head. 'But why don't you just go into her head and figure that out?'

'Because,' the voice sighed melodramatically, 'she's not scared enough.'

'What?'

'You see, I can only link souls if the human is feeling scared, uneasy, uncertain… and you, dear, fit the profile to a T.'

'I'm not scared! Especially not of some stupid ghosts!'

'That's not it. Well, that's not all of it. It would be harder for me to link on your ghost-phobia alone, but when combined with the feelings you have around that girl, err, Kate, it was easy. You're derailed around her, worrying about what you're going to say or do and how she'll react.'

'OK, so you can invade my head now. What else?'

'Well, I now have full access to all your hopes, dreams, secrets, and thoughts in general.'

'What?'

'I can also control your body whenever need be.'

'WHAT?'

'You want a demonstration?'

'No, wait, I—'

But Keith was too late, as at that moment his head jerked down so that his face was buried in the crook of Kate's neck. Kate jumped, her face turning even redder. "K-K-Keith, w-what are you—"

"Just to make sure you don't fall while going up," Keith managed to get out. He tugged on the Drifblim's string he was holding onto, and the group floated up. Keith's features hardened as he lifted his head back up to a normal position.

'Am I going to receive anything positive out of this experience?' he demanded crossly.

'As a matter of fact, yes,' the voice answered happily. 'In exchange for allowing me this lovely fun time, I'll be giving you full directions on how to get to your destination in the caves. You're meeting with that cowboy guy, right? He's fairly hard to miss. I'll lead you to him, and I'll even guide you through all the secrets you'll need about this place.'

'Why would you want to do that?' Keith asked curiously.

'Because,' the female, childish, British-accented voice said darkly, 'I want these weird black-suited suspicious characters out of my territory as much as you do. So do you want my help or not?'

A short silence passed as Keith considered the pros and cons of the situation. Finally, he gave a mental sigh.

'Fine,' he accepted, 'I'll take the offer.'

'Then we have a deal, partner,' the voice said cheerfully. Keith groaned in his head.

'Why do I have a bad feeling about this?' he muttered.

'Oh, don't be so pessimistic. This is going to be fun!' his new companion assured amusedly.

.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

"…OK, let's go this way next."

Kate looked at Keith oddly as he once again decided which path to take through the caves. "Keith," she inquired, "how are you able to know what direction we should take so easily?"

Keith jumped slightly, answering hastily, "I… uh… I'm just guessing! Ahahahaha!" Kate shrugged and went on ahead, and Keith sighed in relief, grimacing when he heard Voice (yes, that was his name for her now) stifle a laugh.

'Shut up,' he growled mentally. Voice huffed irately.

After a few more minutes and more awkward dodges of Kate's questions on how he knew where to go, the group finally reached Sven.

They spotted the cowboy-hat Ranger and his Luxray, Dewny, crouching behind a large rock and looking out at the next clearing. The two ran up to him.

"Sven!" Kate called quietly. Sven jumped a little as his head whipped up to see her, but then he relaxed as he recognized his mock younger sister.

"Oh, Katie!" he smiled. "Keith! Here, come on."

They quickly hid behind the same rock Sven was at, and the elder Ranger's body tensed up again. "Take a closer look," he whispered.

Kate and Keith looked out at the clearing to see at least twenty Dim Suns loitering around the cave, apparently looking through the infinite number of rocks the area had to offer. Keith grimaced. "Great, a bunch of gloomy, darkly dressed goons we have to take out," he deadpanned. "Lovely.

Voice growled. 'I don't like it,' Keith heard her mutter. 'I can't stand these shady characters violating my caves."

'Yeah, yeah, just shut up,' Keith grumbled back. 'We'll take care of the problem, so don't worry.'

'You better.'

Keith ignored this last quip and turned back to the scene. "So how do we get them to clear out?"

Sven shrugged. "Dunno, but we gotta get them out fast. Y'know that black stone that Professor Hastings found? The one that apparently powers the Gigaremo?" the other two nodded and he continued. "Well, apparently this is the place where all those stones are mined. The stones are called 'Dark Shards'. They're running low on supply right now, apparently, so all these grunts are out searching for more. We need to stop them."

Kate nodded in understanding. "So what can we do to get them away from here?" she wondered. Sven shrugged, his mind just as void of solutions as hers was.

Voice, however seemed to have a plan. 'OK,' she said firmly, 'go find a Hypno and then move back to the last clearing we were in. There should be this strange, glowing door. Use the Hypno's Psychic powers to open it, then catch the Pokémon inside and—'

"Slow down!" Keith yelled, but this time he accidentally said it aloud. Sven, Treble, Falsetto, and worst of all, Kate looked up at him curiously.

"…Keith," Kate said slowly, "none of us were talking."

"Or moving," Sven added, peering around the rock to make sure no Dim Suns had noticed them. "Are you feeling alright?"

Keith froze, praying he could make it out of this one. "No… I, uh… Y'know, maybe I was just, err, hearing things! Yeah, that's it! Ahahaha!"

'Smooth,' Voice muttered.

Keith allowed himself a brief scowl before continuing, "A-anyway, I think we should go look for a Pokémon to drive all these idiots away. Let's go this way, Kate. Sven, you stay."

He ignored Voice's murmur of 'Sneaky'.

Sven, however, smiled faintly. "Alright," he accepted, "but be careful, OK?"

He reached out and hugged Kate.

Keith's blood boiled as he saw Kate's face go deep crimson at the sudden contact. He felt waves of amusement that weren't his own in his mind, and if they weren't his, then of course they had to be his mental intruder's.

'What anger I feel,' she murmured. Keith growled in his head at her to shut the hell up. Voice scoffed.

'Alright, alright. If everything makes you so upset right now,' Voice sighed, 'then why don't I just get his hands off her?'

Keith's eyes narrowed. 'If you try to control my body again, then—!'

But what happened next wasn't Voice taking over his physical systems, but something even odder.

A ghostly wind moved through the caves. Parts of the current rolled out of the main airstream and began to curl themselves around Sven, coiling all over his arms and tugging them forcefully away from Kate. "What the—?" Sven exclaimed as the wind stopped abruptly.

Kate, who had noted the wind as nothing but a slight breeze, turned to Keith and smiled. "Let's go."

Keith, however, was shocked as he walked alongside Kate back to their next destination in the caverns. '…What are you?' he asked of Voice.

Over their mental link, he felt an eerie smirk. 'All in good time, Keith,' she murmured, 'all in good time.'

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"Wow, Keith, this Skuntank will be perfect to drive those Dim Suns away!" Kate cheered as the two walked back to Sven. "…But… how did you know exactly where it was?"

"…Err… men's intuition," Keith lied awkwardly as he endured another snigger from Voice.

Kate shrugged as she stroked Falsetto contentedly, looking down at the huge, smelly purple stunk Pokémon that was tailing behind them now after the female Top Ranger's clever Capturing. "But still, this guy is pretty cute, isn't he?"

Keith gaped at his partner in disbelief as he looked down at the Skuntank. "Your sense of cuteness is seriously messed up," he commented bluntly.

Kate grimaced. "Shut up," she retorted in a grumble.

Eventually, the two reached Sven again, who grinned widely at their catch. "A Skuntank!" he exclaimed. "Perfect! Now then, ah… I believe it would be best for you all to find some cover, at least until the Skuntank's… err… special move wears off."

Kate and Keith, having learned about this 'special move' in Ranger School, nodded, not quite wanting to experience it for themselves.

"Don't worry, Treble's got it," Keith grinned, looking down at his Shieldon. "You know what to do, right?"

"Hell yeah, I do!" Treble answered readily. Keith's grin grew wider.

"Alright then, let's go!" he nodded. "Treble, use Protect!"

Treble closed her eyes, and at once her head plate began glowing white. Slowly a transparent, silvery dome formed around the group, and when Keith pressed his hand on it and pushed, he was pleased to see that it didn't give. 'Good,' he thought, 'how bad would that have made me look if it hadn't held like before we started practicing that move?'

'I can hear you,' Voice sang. Keith growled out loud, something Kate didn't miss.

"Why did you just growl?" she asked blankly. Keith jumped.

"N-no reason!" he laughed nervously. "OK, let's start the Skuntank's 'special move' now!"

Kate nodded at him, then towards the Skuntank. The large purple Pokémon inclined its head in response, understanding, and then it slowly lumbered toward the center of the clearing where all the Dim Suns were.

Keith noted that he couldn't hear anything that was going on outside their happy little safe dome, but he noticed the goons mumble amongst themselves curiously about what a Skuntank was doing in front of them. Then he saw the Skuntank's mouth open in a roar.

That was when the chaos started.

A faint green sheen painted the space outside their Protect-covered area, and immediately Dim Suns scattered everywhere, mouths open in silent screams and hands covering their noses. Meanwhile, the Skuntank simply began to deliberately totter off back to its small cavern where they had found it. Keith raised an eyebrow as it passed, impressed. He'd known its Stink move to be powerful, but certainly not to this extent.

Dim Suns ran past their dome, not noticing or caring about their presence. All they wanted was to get out of the cursed clearing now.

The group of Top Rangers waited a little longer, but then when the last of the suspiciously green air had dissipated, Keith finally told an exhausted Treble to dispel her Protect move.

Kate, Keith, Sven, their Pokémon and Keith's very content mental friend walked into the clearing, looking around.

Sven inspected the wheelbarrows of black stones carefully. He took a few and inserted them in his pockets, explaining that he would need to turn them over to Professor Hastings after the Mission, and then he happily ordered Dewny to vaporize the rest with her Thunder attack, which was done within a few moments.

As the group proceeded to move into the next room, Voice stopped Keith suddenly. 'Hold on,' she ordered.

Keith deliberated slightly in his steps, unable to stop walking for fear of alarming Kate and Sven more than he already had, but slowing enough to keep himself from reaching the next clearing for awhile.

'What's up?' he asked.

'You've just found out your crush was rescued by a Pokémon of darkness as a child,' Voice recited, obviously having taken this fact from his memories, 'you've had a strange voice enter your head, and that strange voice also happens to have ghost-like powers. Do you believe that anything of the paranormal or supernatural could frighten you in the least now?'

Keith hesitated for a moment, but then reluctantly answered, 'Actually… no, not really. I mean, it's not as if I wouldn't be freaked out if things started moving by themselves or disappearing at weird intervals, but… when it comes to Ghost Pokémon, I'm not that scared anymore.'

A short silence passed. 'Ghost Pokémon, huh…?' Voice murmured quietly. Then Keith felt the light wave of a smile in his head. Voice continued clearly, 'Good. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. If you really want to prove to me that you mean what you said, though, then you'd better be ready to take on the next opponent…'

"Huh?" Keith whispered aloud. He understood, though, when he saw what awaited them in the next room.

It looked pretty simple, actually. There were five medium-sized stones, each with a rather odd design on them, and… well, that was it. There was nothing else in the room.

Keith was the first to catch on.

Kate, not noticing anything amiss, blinked. "Well, there's nothing in here," she commented, starting to walk forward to the next door. "Let's go on and—"

"No, wait!" Keith shouted, grabbing the girl's wrist and pulling her back. "It's a Pokémon. I know because they live in Sinnoh—they're crazy rare, though."

Kate's eyes widened as she stared at the rocks. "And there are five of them?" she asked incredulously.

"No," Keith muttered. "There's only one."

Suddenly, a purple glow emitted from one of the stones, slowly becoming larger and larger until a huge… vortex thing came into sight, mainly colored light purple but also having a ring of green spots on it, and green eyes and a mouth. One of its eyes had an odd black swirl in it.

"It's a Spiritomb," Keith confirmed, stepping forward and preparing his Fine Styler. "Don't worry, I've got it."

Kate gaped at him. "But… your whole ghost thing—" she started, but she was interrupted.

"I've seen and heard too many ghosts today to be scared of them anymore," Keith scoffed. "So just leave it to me. CAPTURE ON!"

Keith began circling the Forbidden Pokémon, but the task then proved to become difficult when the Spiritomb began switching from stone to stone, causing the Top Ranger to have to move his Capture Disc frequently to keep up with it.

'Ugh, this is so stupid!' he muttered, becoming more frustrated as he was forced to switch positions once again.

'Need any help?' Voice inquired innocently. Keith grimaced.

'No thanks,' he answered firmly, 'the only help I'd take is a PokéAssist, and Treble's too tired from using Protect earlier to get in the battle. Besides, a Ground-Type wouldn't do any good on this thing.'

'What if I told you I could do a PokéAssist, though?' she answered smugly.

"What?" Keith replied aloud, but at that precise moment, a green blur flew into the Capture Disc, turning it a grayish-purple. Keith, not able to stop circling for fear of being hit by one of the Spiritomb's many attacks, noticed that with every circle, large gas-like ghosts floated out of the Disc, stopping the Spiritomb and even getting some extra points with it. Eventually, it was captured and promptly departed the area, one of the stones hopping pathetically away.

Keith just stood there with the other two Top Rangers, dumbstruck, as he tried to comprehend what had just happened. Finally, he growled and shouted at the Capture Disc, "OK, quit trying to hide yourself! Come out of there already!"

Slowly, a dark, pale green blur rose slowly out of the disc, becoming clearer by the moment. Eventually, it was revealed to be a Pokémon, a Ghost-type one with ruby-like jewels encircling its neck, its green hair swirling around it with purple tips at the end, and sinister yellow eyes with red irises and a plain black pupil.

It was a Misdreavus.

Keith stared with his eyes narrowed at the ghost slightly, and the Pokémon simply stared back, unfazed as she smiled calmly at him.

Finally, Keith bent his head down as he laughed. "So, you're the one whose been in my head this entire time," he sniggered.

"That would be correct," Misdreavus—no, Voice answered happily in her own Pokémon tongue—except for the fact that Keith could understand her perfectly even without using their mental link.

Kate was shocked. "Keith… who is—"

Keith cut her off swiftly. "I'd try to explain the story, but you'd think I'm crazy so I'll keep it to myself. This one's name is Voice, by the way," he filled in plainly. "All that matters now is that this weird little Ghost-type is my new Partner Pokémon. She's also the reason I knew which way to go in the caves."

Kate was still confused. "But… that's… How is that possible that you know she even wants to be your Partner? And how is it possible that she told you which way to go when she wasn't even with us?"

Keith and his newest Partner looked at each other briefly, and then they smiled at the brunette.

"A little voice in my head told me," Keith answered brightly.

.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

"Oh… wow," Kate mumbled as she looked up.

"Ditto," Keith grimaced as he copied her stance.

The group had moved on to find a huge, gaping hole in the wall. There were ladders and excavators and Gigaremos and Miniremos everywhere, but not a single Dim Sun goon or grunt in sight.

Sven peered around. "We're too late," he sighed. "I've been on the trail of this thing for a long time… Someone's already taken it, though. Inside this hole was something huge, something that could make thousands of Dark Shards."

"What was it?" Kate asked urgently.

Sven looked up darkly. "A stone filled with complete darkness, and no hint of light," he sighed grievously. "I'm talking about the Shadow Crystal."