Ears, Book II: The Marriage of Mew

by Mimiga

Finally, after years of hard work and tribulation, the Expedition Society has managed to map out every little nook and cranny in the known world. With their primary goal complete, an uncertain but bright future rests on the horizon. Sometimes dreams do come true. Be wary, for the same can be said about the nightmares.

13. Theft of the Tempest

Dark. Dark enough to where her eyes were so deprived of the sense that she struggled to even imagine a time where there was light. The space she inhabited felt absolutely claustrophobic despite the fact that she could fully extend her arms in any direction, the warm and stagnant air like flowing like dust through her fingers. The overbearing scent of wet earth and exposed minerals burned in her nose. Beneath her feet, a slippery ground covered in loose sediment and moisture. Was it clay, then? It must have been.

Panne took in a lungful of the stale air and snapped her fingers. No heat, no light. Odd. She tried again, concentrating much of her efforts into just getting the smallest flame to emerge. And, like before, nothing happened. It wasn't just a misfire-there wasn't even any warmth to speak of. The Braixen crouched low to the floor and held her breath, her ears pointed high and alert. Maybe there was a wall she could follow to find the way out? Where...where were the walls? Where was anything?

A tiny murmur sounded just beside her shoulder. It was barely a noise at all, but Panne nearly fell backwards with fright all the same. She stared uselessly into the emptiness for even the slightest sign of life, but of course, there was nothing. Just when she was about to write it off as a hallucination, another whisper materialized some twenty feet away, this time from a different sounding voice. Then another came from another direction and seemed to respond to the last. This cavern wasn't empty. She was in the middle of a crowd, their very presence breathing down the back of her neck.

Panne must have sprinted five full seconds before she touched the jagged texture of a cave wall. She immediately pressed her back to the solid sanctuary, but still more individuals popped into existence to mutter incomprehensibly to one another. They filled the unknowable space of the cavern yet produced no vibration or echo. All of these sounds and still the only noises that reacted to any acoustics were her own. The voices were physically somewhere else, but it was like they spoke directly into her ears-into her own head. These things weren't even real.

She followed along that wall as the wet clay matted into the fur of her hands. The disembodied conversations grew in number and in volume as the whispers turned into disembodied arguments. The voices rattled in her skull louder than any crowd could possibly be. Solid sediment went on as far as she could touch. No holes, no hollow indentations, no hopes for escape. There wasn't even a curve to indicate that the wall wasn't just an infinite face of clay in all directions. Not even covering her ears could help stifle the otherworldly debate that exploded into existence.

Unable to think, barely able to breath, Panne forgot about the stupid exit and just started to run. Even though the ground seemed to move beneath her, it never felt like she was ever gaining any distance from the voices. She was surrounded no matter where she tried to go. So much useless screaming, wasting all her precious air! There wasn't even enough left to fill her lungs! What was so important that they'd use it all to just squabble and scream?!

"Shut up!" Panne covered her head with her muddy hands. Her own voice was nothing compared to them, like a pin dropping next to a waterfall. A hot iron of negative emotions gripped around her heart. Hatred, raw and pure. Sorrow and anguish. Desperation. She was caught in the crossfire. The war raged inside her, too. "Be quiet! Everyone shut up!"

They ignored her pleas. They couldn't even hear her. There was so many that it felt like she had been submerged in bodies, drowning at the bottom of a pile of corpses. Panne fell to the wet floor, gasping for even the slightest breath as her throat tightened. There was nowhere else to go. She dug into the ground, her claws gouged deep into the earth while mud and water immediately poured back in and reset any progress she made. Her skull was about to implode in on itself, the inwards pressure so strong that it squeezed the back of her eyeballs.

There wasn't even enough air to do anything but choke. The Braixen slumped to the mud and in a fetal position, gasping through a swollen esophagus. Why? Why did they have to be so loud? Why did there have to be so many? Every pathetic utterance the voices made stung as if someone had tried to shove knives and needles into her ear canal. Why couldn't they all just shut up? Why couldn't they just leave her alone?!

"Help me..." with no air to give her words strength, she could only move her lips to a breathless whisper. It was only a matter of time before her consciousness began to fade. The total, overwhelming blackness that filled her vision had crept into the outer reaches of her thoughts, sinking deeper and deeper until only fluttering flashes of horror remained. Glimpses of images and color bounced around in the aching prison of her head. There were memories of better times mixed in with a primal fear of death. She remembered him. The way he loved her. How he was always there.

"Val. Help me."

Something changed. The earth washed away in a great landslide of motion and sensation. It still felt like she was slipping into a deep sleep, but the world seemed to twist and distort at the same speed as her thoughts. The Braixen shot up and found herself sitting somewhere else. Her breathing was natural, her heartbeat had calmed, and it was so, so quiet. The only noise to be heard was the gentle crackle of the fire behind her.

Stranger yet, Panne didn't even have to look around to know where she was. It was Revelation Mountain, not too long after dusk. They had just finished the world map. They had taken a vacation and went back home. Some kids went lost, so they had to go looking for them on the mountain. Then they found the kids and...wound up here. She glanced around for any signs of life, but there was nobody here. The spots where the kids sat had some sort of aura about it that made them extremely difficult to concentrate on, almost like localized blind-spots in her eyes.

The Harmony Scarf around her neck burned with importance. She didn't even realize she was still wearing it. Of course it felt important, this was the same night Vallion had given it to her. He'd gone through hell and back to get these scarves. All that planning and negotiation and dedication amounting to just these two tiny objects. They truly meant the world, didn't they? Something to transcend time and space. Human and pokemon. Life and death. She could feel the gravity of the gesture on her throat-not like a strangle hold, but like an embrace. It was sweet and kind, but tight with unrestrained passion. It was only fitting that he would use a human ritual to bind them together. Panne's hands hovered over the scarf in the same way that she responded to the touch of Vallion's vines. She glanced over the fire and saw herself through the eyes of someone else. The mirrored Braixen smiled at her, copying the same motion.

Once more, the scene shifted in a rush of dizziness and confusion. A sickly sweet happiness invaded her chest, and it tried as hard as it could to convince her that this was a time of great joy and merriment. The emotions were the clearest part of the vision, as the actual scene she'd been placed in was overwhelmingly fuzzy, like trying to peer through a murky body of water. She could tell that the walls were pure white, and that there were great windows beaming down from across the hall.

Rows of long benches stretched out farther than she could see. The silhouettes sitting in them were faded into near obscurity, but she absolutely knew what they were. Humans. They were all waiting for something-for the ritual to start. Something that expressed a form of everlasting love. Celebrated it, even. Everyone was here to witness that love be incarcerated into eternity. Flickers of understanding came to light without any particular cause or reason. A ring. A pledge. The people you love. The person you love. It all made sense, of course. It was the perfect concept. It was exactly what he needed.

Panne tried to touch her own face, but discovered that she no longer had hands. Panne belonged with me. We're from different worlds, aren't we? If we died, would we go to the same afterlife? Would we ever see each other again? Realization turned to worry, worry turned to doubt. The feelings compounded on themselves as a sense of urgency stabbed into her gut. The white walls turned dark and the windows went out. She could hear the voices again, always arguing. Always shouting to be heard but never knowing why. Blacker and blacker and blacker still until the screams were louder than even thoughts. You don't belong here.

...

The Braixen gasped and opened her eyes to a dimly-lit cabin. Her stiff neck immediately started to hurt from the position it had been stuck in for hours, and as soon as she took her first breath an overwhelming urge to cough took hold. She fought hard to keep the itch at bay for the Servine that was still in her arms, but it was a losing battle. Her sinuses burning, she hacked and sputtered towards the wall, her face contorting from the reawakened pains.

Vallion hardly stirred, mostly because it didn't seem like he was asleep in the first place. "Did you see it?"

She tried to apologize, but lacked the lung capacity to do so for several more moments. "I didn't mean to-.. Yes. I think I did."

"Then it knows we left." Vallion tried to squirm out of her embrace, which she reluctantly allowed once her spasms had died down. His warmth disappearing out from beneath her arms felt like a hole opening up into a chasm. "I don't know how you managed to fall asleep in that. I could barely close my eyes without feeling like I was about to die. You somehow got comfortable enough to snore."

The Braixen sat up against her gear, stretching out all those bruised muscles and gritting her teeth. The water had definitely gotten calmer from what she last remembered. It wasn't perfectly level by any means, but the ship at least wasn't being tossed into ninety-degree angle falls straight back into the sea. Her migraine hadn't exactly gone away, however. Little bolts of pain sometimes passed behind her eyes, sending everything into a dizzying spin for just a few seconds at a time. "Ah, well. It's just that you're so comfy, you know. It gets really hard to resist."

He glanced down at his stomach. "You call this comfy? I'm a tube of muscle and bone and cold. There's no way that's ever been fun."

"Are you kidding? That's my favorite part!" Panne tried to laugh, but fell back into coughing almost just as quickly. The stuffy air trapped inside the cabin certainly wasn't doing her head any good. Any longer and she might pass out for real. "Hey. I gotta go topside for some fresh air, it feels like death in here. You wanna come?"

Vallion rolled his eyes "Nah. I'll puke if I move at all."

She shrugged and came to a wobbly stand. The door to the cabin was shut fast, and after enough yanking finally came loose with a disconcertingly loud squeak. A different murmur came from behind her. Panne stopped and twisted her head around, much to the surprise of Vallion, who probably didn't think he was loud enough to be heard. The Servine instantly avoided her gaze. "Um. I'll- I'll shout if I need you."

Her heart fluttered. "Then I'll come running."

As soon as Panne shut the door behind her, a stupid grin found its way onto her face. That wasn't what he meant to say at all. It was probably going to be something cute, too. There would have been a skip in her step if she wasn't already forced to shuffle through the corridor. One thing that couldn't be buried beneath the sweet taste he left in her mouth was how disoriented she still felt. More striking yet was the absolute silence that had fallen over the Viridian with the storm well behind them. When the wind wasn't howling and the sailors weren't yelling over it, there really was almost nothing to hear. Just the creaks of her own footsteps and the occasional snore and that was pretty much it.

As she scaled the steep stairs and stuck her head out into the open, a wisp of cold, salty wind passed through her fur. A greyish-blue sky stretched out in every direction, brightened so slightly by the band of yellow that began to peer up from the east. The few stars that were strong enough to shine this far into dawn reflected off the shallow puddles on the deck. On the farthest parts of the bow glowed a peculiar red light, which ended up being Ampharos' tail after her eyes finally readjusted to the outside world. He stood motionless against the front railing and stared out into the endless sea. Panne considered stepping back below leaving him be, but succumbed to yet another coughing fit that gave away her presence.

Ampharos turned around, moving the luminescence of his tail with him. He squinted at the Braixen as he rubbed the sleepiness from his eyes. "Hm? Ah, Panne. You're up pretty early. What brings you to this god-forsaken place?"

"Air," she said promptly, gulping down a huge breath for emphasis as she hobbled across the deck. "It gets awful down there. There's nowhere for the humidity to even go."

"And you went down there drenched. I don't blame you for wanting to come up here. Though I probably wouldn't mind a little stuffiness by now." He certainly wasn't leaning on the railing for any sort of coolness factor. It was easy to tell that Ampharos could barely stand, his legs wobbling and his expression flat. Everyone else must have gone below once the weather cleared up. Everyone but him. "It's a lovely morning. Or rather, it's going to be a lovely morning, I'm sure. The sun'll dry this place up in no time at all. Did Vallion make it through alright?"

Panne revisited the sensation of holding the Servine close to her chest, unconsciously hugging herself in the process. Outwardly, it appeared as though she were just crossing her arms. "He's a little pale, but way better than he was. We're pretty sure the Spiritomb's coming as well, judging from the nightmares and all that. Really, really weird nightmares... Other than that, everything seems to have worked the way we wanted it to." Looking out over the bow, she spread herself wide and let the winds billow through her damp fur. The prospect of being truly dry again was well worth the cold. "What are you doing out here all alone? Did everyone else fall overboard or something?"

A yawn escaped past Ampharos' lips, popping in his jaw. "No, they went down. I was the light that the crew needed to work by, and so I stayed here. And I'm not alone." He pointed up towards the foremast of the ship, where Panne's vision still couldn't quite reach. It seemed that someone was all the way up in the krow's nest, though they were almost invisible against deep sky. "We get to go to bed once the sun finally comes up. Then it'll be your guys' shift, manning the ship during the day while we man it at night. I'm very much looking forward to it."

The gentle sea parted before the bow of the Viridian as it lapped at the sides almost apologetically. The yellow had begun to infect more parts of the sky now, highlighting the edges of what few clouds she could see. The rest of the stars reluctantly withdrew back into the night sky to make way for the coming blue. For once, it felt peaceful. The Spiritomb must have been miles and miles behind them now, and probably couldn't cross water the same way it crept across land. The gamble was well worth the trouble by this point. All they needed to do now was follow through.

...

Stepping back out into the sunlight was just as jarring as Panne expected it to be. Likewise, Vallion groaned as soon as he stuck his head out of the stairwell and coiled his vines over his eyes. It was a beautiful day out, which was the problem. Most of the Society with the exception of Ampharos could be already be seen stretching their legs. And then there was Hydreigon, who despite having been topside last night, remained for the day shift. Did they even need to sleep? Could you trust someone who didn't sleep? That's so many more hours that could be spent scheming.

A few of the crew members who weren't involved with the departure were stuck with them for the day, too. A Comfey seemed to be the acting captain in place of the now-resting Clefable, though there wasn't much point. All they really had to do was read off some instruments and minimize the time they would spent out on open ocean. Par for the course, really.

"Everyone's here. Good, no time to rest. No rest for us," Comfey addressed them all in its loudest possible voice, which didn't happen to be too loud at all. No wonder they weren't with the others last night. Regardless, it was audible enough to gather everyone's attention. "Let's start. Braixen. You go up into the nest and keep watch and navigate us. Landmass, pirates, storms, monsters. Use those explorer eyes and stay alert."

Panne nodded, eyeing the foremast with disinterest. "These waters aren't usually that bad, though. Especially not with that storm back there."

"Kyogre feels angry!" The Comfey stared right through her, then half-turned to Vallion. "You. You use vines, right? Vines are useful. They're like ropes but smarter. Sail duty."

The Braixen didn't bother sticking around for everyone else's jobs since they're all going to be stuck up here for a few hours. She headed over to sketchy-looking rope ladder that connected to the base of the foremast, the whole thing swaying in the breeze. Why couldn't it have been Jirachi up there? Or anyone else that didn't particularly care about gravity? Whatever. Resigned to her fate, she set her dominant foot onto the bottom rung, felt the whole ladder react from the new weight, and began her ascent one step at a time.

The entirety of the Viridian slowly shrunk down beneath her, and it really was quite slow. It took several minutes for her to reach the top of a rather short climb just because of how much swaying was involved. Panne finally crawled up onto the wooden platform and gladly grappled onto the main spire of the ship. The vast expanse of water sparkled and gleamed to an almost annoying extent, flashing up into her eyes from every direction. Once the initial vertigo faded and she finally found a comfortable spot up in the krow's nest, it became extremely apparent that this was going to be very, very boring. Necessary, sure, but absolutely mind-numbing.

With nothing to really look out for, Panne watched the others scurry about the deck and carry out their business. Her eyes caught on Vallion, who was being assisted by Kadabra in the turning of some over-sized spool of rope controlling one of the sails. Why would they put Kadabra on that job? Her arms were like twigs and her telekinesis wasn't much better. Even Mawile's horn would have been a better fit, if Mawile wasn't already being drilled by Comfey at the front of the ship-probably over the course or whatever. Hydreigon and Jirachi seemed like they had already completed whatever it was they were supposed to do and were now chatting away over a few open barrels. And that was it. Nothing else to do but give the surrounding ocean another sweep and think.

The heavy glare of the sun combined with the swirling winds had dried her out quite a while ago. Her migraine wasn't quite gone, which was really starting to get worrisome, especially since she had all this time to think about it. What if something very important got messed up in her head? What if she only had days to live because of it? What if it was just a regular migraine compounded by the constant stress she'd been under this whole time? Blocking out all those thoughts didn't do much else but put different kinds of pessimism in her head. Panne pointed her ears forward for shade and kept her lead low, glaring out into harmless, fluffy clouds and blue.

The loud flap of several simultaneous wings broke the monotony at one point. Hydreigon flew up to the krow's nest in just a few beats, effortlessly drifting along at the speed of the ship. They hailed her with a wave of one of their side heads. "Hello! I wasn't aware that Jirachi knew how to craft wonder orbs, too! Now it makes a lot more sense how you've come up with these gadgets of yours! I was always curious at how they came to be!"

"Yep," she replied, not bothering to glance their way.

Hydreigon grumbled as they came level with the base of the platform. "Pardon me, that's not why I came up here. Actually, I was wondering if you'd seen anything strange in the distance, but now that I'm up here, probably not... Hm. The air does taste a little funny, don't you think?"

"What are you going on about?" Panne rolled her tongue in her mouth. "There's nothing for miles around. I'd actually be excited if we saw a ship in the distance at this point. Whatever you're tasting is probably just your imagination. Though I guess Comfey did say some cryptic stuff before I came up here. Something about Kyogre being angry or whatever?"

The dragon shrugged. "Oh well. If catastrophe finds us then there wasn't much sign to prepare. It's probably nothing. Ah, Floatzel called earlier this morning. That's what I was truly supposed to tell you! There haven't been any reported deaths since our departure, and apparently the winds have been starting to clear up! Unfortunately, though it was by design, that likely means the abomination is still after Vallion."

Yeah, she knew that. That was kind of the whole point. As the Braixen stared off into the distance, the constant rhythm of Hydreigon's flapping never left. They just kinda flew along with the mast while mumbling to themselves at unintelligible volumes. After enough time passed she finally whipped her head around. "What?"

"I'm just thinking. Thinking and worrying and wondering. Weighing options and the like."

"Do you really need to be all the way up here to think? I mean, there's no freakin' way the Spiritomb's gonna catch up to us. Look at how fast we're moving! There aren't even many water types out here that can outpace this ship!" She tapped her fingers over the scarf on her wrist. "Really, I don't care what the demon thinks it can do. It's out of our hair."

"That's not-" Hydreigon paused, biting down on their tongues as they processed what they were about to say. "Yes. You're right about that. The rest of our journey shouldn't be too much more difficult. I'll leave you to it, then."

Just as the dragon began to float back down, an opportunity for some answers Panne nearly forgot she wanted appeared before her. She was hesitant at first, but who else would she ask? There was nobody that knew the human world like they did. "Hydreigon!" she reluctantly called out just before they fell out of earshot.

They almost seemed surprised to have been called at all, flipping their flight pattern around once more. "What is it? Did you see something?"

She swallowed at the lump in her throat. "So you're pretty knowledgeable about humans and their...stuff, right? Like things from their world? So before all this happened, Vallion was talking to me about... Uh. You wouldn't happen to know how marriage is supposed to work, right?"

"Marriage? Hmm." All three of their heads tilted in unison. "I guess in this context, you wouldn't be referring to just 'the joining of two things' kind of marriage, then? I can't say I've ever really heard of something like that. Why? What's it supposed to be? How'd Vallion find out about it?"

"A dream," Panne said. "He saw it in a dream. That's why he went through all the trouble of getting these Harmony Scarves in the first place. It's supposed to be this ritual of love between two humans, and somewhere along the line he figured out that there's two matching things they both wear to celebrate the oath. I'm pretty sure I have a good idea of what all that is-" she thought back to the nightmare she only vaguely remembered from last night, what little she had permanently memorized still strikingly vivid. "-but I was just wondering if you might know more about it."

Hydreigon seemed to exhale in amazement, or at least a disguised exasperation. "Alas, it's a mystery to me, too. The occasional visions a human experiences are truly beyond our understanding. There is no such thing as a perfect summoning, and as pokemon as they might feel, there are always cracks in which the past can seep through. There's a distinct possibility that he is the only living thing on this planet that knows of such a concept. Well, him and the abomination now, but I'd hardly consider the latter a creature that could appreciate such knowledge."

"Huh? Why would it know? I thought it failed to suck Val's soul out."

"It did fail to extract his soul! What it didn't fail to steal was his memories. In fact, that's the only thing it appears to have successfully extracted. That includes this peculiar dream he had, along with everything else." The dragon frowned. "I highly doubt that the abomination is lucid enough to even process what it took. It truly is a shame, though I suppose that luckily makes it a little less dangerous in the long run. Especially for you."

Reminded of her duty, Panne forced herself to glare into the horizons just to keep a chill that threatened to run down her back at bay. Something about the way they said that last part did not resonate well. "Okay, that's all I was wondering."

The dragon gave her an emotionless smile before they dove back down to the deck. As cross as Comfey appeared to be at Hydreigon, their shouts were little more than whispers on the wind.

...

With one last leap, the Braixen bridged the gap between her and solid ground once more. Even just having the room to stand up and walk around felt strange, and it felt like a dozen or so knots had tied themselves in the muscles of her legs. Panne made her way over to the canteens as she stretched herself out, the waning afternoon sun still bearing down on her head like always. There really wasn't much to do these last few hours. The skies were clear, the wind was consistent, and the thought of danger hadn't crossed any of their minds. Hell, Vallion had been practicing his vine whips for the last half hour already, and it looked like some muscle memory had stayed with him after all.

Even Comfey, who had been floating around in a fit when they began, stared off into the distance without so much as a peep about how clumsy they all were. Whatever had them all riled up this morning must have passed. At this rate, it'll probably take them midway through tomorrow to get to the Grass Continent. There was supposed to be a secluded village along the northern coast that they and the rest of the displaced Society were meant to meet up at. It was quite a bit out of the way, but technically closer to their destination than anywhere else. She didn't much like the thought that their destination just so happened to be Vallion's dead body.

"So what'd you see up there?" Kadabra idly asked the Braixen in the midst of some unenthusiastic standing stretches. It must have been an agonizing wait down here if she was the one initiating conversations.

"Water," Panne answered. "More water. Some clouds. That's about it. I would've tried to nap but I was thirty something feet in the air and don't feel like arguing with gravity today."

The psychic type flipped the push broom in her hands around a few times before she leaned her weight against it and a mast. "This is the first time I've tried working as the crew on a ship. I didn't realize it would be this boring, though."

"Well it's not supposed to be boring. You know all the crap that the real crew had to go through last night, right? They probably wrestled with levers and ropes in icy rain and gale-force winds for hours. This?" She gestured to the sky. "This is what it's like on a good day. All the bad luck just so happened to have converged onto Lively City when we left, so now there's none left to worry about."

The sound of Vallion's voice rang out from across the way. Panne's ears immediately pivoted towards the noise, her eyes following a second later. Hydreigon's massive form blocked any direct line of sight she had with the Servine, but her ears never lied. Although there was too much white noise to make out exactly what the two of them were talking about, the hushed, flat tones definitely made it seem like there was something fishy going on. What could they have been talking about? Was it about humanity? Magic? Could it be something she would want to be in the know about?

"He seems like he's been doing better," Kadabra knowingly commented.

"He is," Panne said, still putting all of her concentration into the distant conversation. "What? Have you been staring at him again?"

A stutter fell out of her mouth. "That's- We've all been worried about him, Panne! Just because I- Just because I feel the way I feel doesn't mean I can pretend to not care. He's always liked you, anyway. I already know my place."

Hydreigon had moved just far enough out of the way that she could see the Servine's stunned face. The glimmer of paranoia in her chest evolved into an outright pang of fear. What kind of discussion could have made him look so shocked? It had to be bad! Why did they have to be talking so quietly about it, too? If only she were a little closer...

The Braixen shot one last glance at Kadabra, her feet already in position to walk away. "A lot of people like him like you do. You're the only one he's noticed." She approached the dragon from behind slowly enough that it wouldn't interrupt anything, though they probably would've just kept talking anyway. The tail-end of their words finally reached her ears over the omnipresent growl of the surrounding ocean.

"...process is exceedingly simple if you're already prepared to go that far. Anyone who can access that kind of power can do much more, but unfortunately, never the impossible."

"What's impossible?" Panne announced her presence shortly after she had gotten close. "What have you guys been talking about?"

Vallion looked pale. Hydreigon answered in his place. "We've been discussing the manner of ritual we'll be using to recreate his memories, mostly the necromantic parts of it. There is a surprising amount of feats one can perform with just old bones, especially his. I was just going into some of the details as to what that means. That's all."

She nodded and crossed her arms, still glaring at the dragon even as she turned her head. "So Val, how's the sailor life been treating you down on earth? Pretty boring from what I could tell. You...don't look so good. Are you okay?"

"I don't know," he answered, already out of breath. His eyes shifted to anywhere but her. "Maybe- Maybe it was the sitrus bread. I don't know, it didn't really taste right. Maybe it got wet when we got on the boat."

"But the bread was the same as it always was! That stuff used to be your favorite," Panne said with a frown. "Man, your taste-buds really did change when you lost your memories, didn't they? I should have figured that when you started liking spicy food, I guess."

As Vallion gave her a nervous chuckle and glanced out towards the ocean, Hydreigon sniffed the air as they always tended to do. A look of concern creased their features. "As interesting as that may be, and I hate to interrupt the thought, that smell from earlier is still getting worse. Panne, are you absolutely certain you saw absolutely nothing while you were up there? Not even anything particular that's normally not noteworthy?"

Panne narrowed her eyes. The air only smelled of musky salt-as it always has, as it always will be. "Take a good look out there right now and you'll see the exact same thing I saw for the last few hours. It's totally dead out here. Just open water and clouds forever."

"Dead? Ah." The dragon huffed the air. "Ah! It's dead! There's nothing around! Isn't that even a little peculiar? Shouldn't there have at least been pokemon on the surface at some point? Absolutely anything, if only just to check out the ship and leave? But no. We've been out here all alone most of the day. It's just dead out here."

"Then it's..." The Braixen began. "It's like the valley before the Spiritomb struck."

The ocean looked much different the next time she glanced over the side. Before, all the way up on that mast, it was a peaceful expanse that spelled the end of their worries. Now it was no longer peace, but desolation. The ship was tracking its bad omens across the open sea like a streak of mud across tiles. But it couldn't feasibly catch up to them in time, right? The radius of its gruesome powers already spanned an entire valley even before it broke out of its prison.

As it turned out, there was even less time to wonder than she thought. The wind that wafted by her nose carried such a strange and frightening scent all of a sudden. It was something vaguely similar to what it smelled like after an electric type had brought down a lightning bolt-something Dedenne had once referred to as ozone. Even just a slight whiff of it was pungent enough to send her body into a fight-or-flight response. The smell of raw power, cruel and indistinct. The smell of the cave that the Spiritomb had once inhabited but now only held some runes and a cracked boulder. This wasn't even a lure anymore, it was a full-blown pursuit.

The feeling wasn't just exclusive to a few of them, either. A few moments later, Mawile stepped out into the open from beneath the deck and stared up into the sky in anticipation. Jirachi stopped playing with a sextant and blinked at the sun with wide eyes. Kadabra's leg bounced up and down with unkempt anxiety. The fact that the normally boisterous Comfey was completely silent seemed even more sinister. It wanted them to know it was coming! She could tell just by looking up at the clouds! Once puffy and full, they were now stretched out across the horizon into thin strands of vapor by the winds that she once thought had helped them along.

Panne climbed up a small flight of stairs to the stern and glared out behind them, from the wake of the Viridian all the way out to the farthest speck of water. A line of darkness had gathered on the edge of the world. More clouds, darker clouds. They were incredibly distant yet, but that distance should have been scores of miles. There was wetness in the air and chaotic motion to the winds. She tried to look away, but the shadow only seemed to grow wider. The grass swayed from the gusts and brushed at her ankles. Wrathful waves crashed into the spires below with ever-increasing intensity, shaking the very ground she stood on. The birch trees and all their branches quivered in fear at the coming doom. The Scourge Storm was coming to drown the world in its black tide. It's coming. It's coming. It's coming. It's coming. It's coming.

The sky filled her vision. Vallion was screaming and his voice was so far away. An overwhelming pain erupted in the deepest pits of her nostrils all the way down into her throat, causing the Braixen to retch and turn over onto her side, at which point she realized that she had been laying with her back to the floor this whole time. What she thought was crippling vertigo turned out the be the waves beneath the ship, bouncing them up into the air. A pair of vines held her shoulders up as she struggled to find the point where reality started and possession ended.

"It has come! Kyogre's wrath as come!" Comfey's voice somehow stood out among the growing sounds of panic. The groans and creaks of strained wood and ropes, carried along by the hurried shouts of her friends, hit her ears in an all-too-familiar way to last night. She tried to open her eyes and was immediately struck by the wall of clouds that had come from out of nowhere. The shadow of the storm was intensified by the curtains of rain that came with it, further cementing the imagery that it had consumed all in their footsteps. What was left of the sun had sunk even deeper into the sea than she remembered.

"What..?" Panne struggled to say, her airway almost dangerously inflamed.

Vallion pulled her up to a sitting position and sighed. "You were just standing there, completely blanked out while everyone tried to wake you up! You weren't responding to anything!"

The pounding in her head magnified tenfold, the Braixen merely tried to stand back up on her own two feet. Before she could get her bearings, Comfey's surprisingly clear commands cut through the haze. "Enough standing around, we don't have any time to waste! We have to ride the edge of the storm or else we'll be shoved off-course! Headsail two rungs clockwise, topsail three!"

Their frantic work had only just begun. The whole day they had barely even touched these controls. Now it took nearly the entire presence of the Society on that ship to crank all the wheels and ropes they'd ignorantly neglected until now. Panne felt her tenuous grip on consciousness falter several times in the process, only to be awoken once more by the crash of thunder as it rolled over the open seas. Was this ship even prepared to be struck by lightning? Yanking with all her might and weight on a rope that was barely budging in response, it was all she could really think about. It was all she wanted to think about. Anything but what those clouds meant.

With enough hard work and some near-accidents, the sails had been geared to account for the storm's coming gale, and there was definitely a difference in speed. The Viridian was practically cutting through the water with how much wind they were catching. Though it did made the impact of the waves just that much worse. And still, even despite their efforts, there was no hope of outrunning it. She knew more than anyone else the futility of the attempt. Only now when faced with the real thing instead of the nightmare, all she could really do was gawk as her blood ran cold in her veins.

Flashes of lightning flared out from the darkness as the roof of clouds finally crossed in front of the sun. The chaotic cold fronts that crashed into their backs required constant adjustments to the masts, and their navigational equipment had been abandoned. 'Away' was the only direction that mattered at this point. Droplets of rain chased them down and soaked back into the wood, reversing all the hard work of the daylight. Panne could barely feel the rain fall on her head at all. It was as though she were peering at the world through a window from across the room, watching a disaster unfold from somewhere cold and numb.

One of the sailors emerged from below in the panic. A Gumshoos shuffled out into the dying light, took a good look what was unfolding. and spoke with a groggy rumble to his voice. "Oi! How's a man 'sposed to take a nap with all this hollerin'? What'n hell's going on out here?!"

"Kyogre's wrath has come!" the Comfey immediately answered. "We have sinned and must survive the repentance! We must repent!"

The Gumshoos shook their head at the fairy. "Can't 'ave a single voyage without this garbage! So much trouble over nothin', and we gotta all git on and deal with more..." his grumbling trailed off as he disappeared back into the guts of the Viridian.

Minutes later, more of the crew slowly siphoned out of their cabins to join the Society up on the deck. By that point the dark clouds had already overtaken the ship and poured their malevolent contents over them. Ampharos was the last to step out into the open, bags still clearly under his eyes as he slowly surveyed the situation. A crack of lightning not more than a quarter mile away told all that needed to be said. Panne stumbled backwards from the deafening noise, hands tight over the back of her own ears. After a few seconds she remembered to start breathing again.

"Alright, alright! That's enough a' that!" Clefable stood at the elevated edge of the stern and looked out over the crew and the Society alike. "Listen 'ere! This typhoon's picked a brawl she's not gonna win! If it's so damn eager 't swallow us up, then god damn let it try! Society, trade off for the cabins! This fight be personal now! 'N the favor'll be worthless if one of ya ends up fallin' into her maw!"

Ampharos shook himself awake with a few slaps to his face. "What's going on? How did we end up back in the storm? Did we get turned around?"

Comfey came down from their vista high up on the mainmast, yelling in their supernatural volume. "Unrest! Blasphemy! It followed us, Kyogre must have willed it so! Don't you taste the blackness on the air? Don't you feel the evil in your bones? This storm is repentance!"

Following on that notion was Hydreigon, whose expression had become distant. Their words were dry and hopeless. "The abomination has learned to twist the forces of nature to its whim. We have lost our advantage."

"I- I can't-" Panne locked up. Her body braced against the tempest on reflex, but she couldn't move at all. Each breath she took was more shallow than the last, the oxygen in the air seemingly becoming thinner and thinner. Obviously she couldn't let that demon win. Surrender wasn't even an option. All she had to do was pick herself up and move, but it felt impossible. Her bones were granite and her flesh was gravel. Everything was so heavy. It wasn't until Vallion passed in front of her with that worried look stuck to his face that she could even lift her head. Why was it leaving him alone? Why could he move around so freely? Was he simply stronger than her?

It took Mawile and Vallion both to lead her down into the underbelly of the ship. The crew, seemingly invigorated by the challenge, roared their battlecries into the oncoming wind as they prepared to face the beast that she lured to their doorstep. Their shouts could be heard from anywhere on the ship, and seemed to reverberate through the floors and walls like an earthquake. To them, it was a glorious battle, or perhaps an act of flagellation to a certain few. They didn't understand the force that was behind the nature. They didn't know that it was a curse thrust upon them by those they sought to escort. Tonight, they weren't going to escape the vortex.

...

Here they were again, stuck in that bleak, stuffy cabin while the universe tossed and turned on the outside. Panne sat across from Vallion this time, and hardly a word was uttered between the two of them. His gaze went blankly from notch to notch in the wood but never landed on her. They had already lost the race.

The crew's rowdiness above had gained a new sound since she had last heard: coughing. Now the Spiritomb wasn't picky with who it cursed. They would all be under its influence sooner or later. How would the sailors react when their emotions finally got toyed with? Or when their energy gets forcibly drained from their bodies? Would there be even more casualties? Were they all destined to die now? The Braixen curled around her tail and fought off the tremors that traveled down her wrists into her stiff fingers. She didn't need to know every answer under the sun, just how to fight back. If there even was a way to fight back anymore.

A quake of thunder blasted through the ship. Although she wasn't exactly immune to it herself, Vallion braced himself like he was about take a blow to the cheek. A quivering sigh fell from her mouth. "Are you gonna be alright?"

"I don't know," he groaned, his body pressed tightly to the corner. "I'm never riding a boat again."

Panne mustered up a smile. "Oh hush. It's not this bad all the time! Traveling across the sea can be very peaceful when you get used to it. You'll probably bounce back around when you get your memories back, you know."

"...Yeah. I'm sure I will."

Her body felt too cold without him. Even when just a foot away, the loneliness settled in and made the open air uncomfortable. And wouldn't it be safer to be close with the ghost around? The Braixen started to crawl over towards him, but an extended vine to her shoulder kept her at bay. Her ears bent straight backwards. "Why not? You liked it last night."

"But I don't want it now," he answered. His push was as gentle as a flower blowing in the wind, but the force that it exerted on her was like a meteor crashing into the earth. She fell backwards into her spot with a claw stuck tight beneath the scarf around her wrist. For as hard as she tried to suppress it, the contours of her face wrinkled to the beginnings of a ghastly frown and her eyes began to water. I don't want it now. Why not? What changed?

The Servine must have saw the way she reacted, as his head was turned firmly towards the wall. "Don't take it the wrong way. I'm just not the one you should be giving affection to in the first place. I shouldn't have even accepted it last night, and I'm sorry I made that mistake. I'm not the same person as the Vallion you think I am."

"Huh? But...why not?" Panne squeezed at the scarf even harder. "What's supposed to make you different from you? If it's memories, you still don't act that different from how you normally would. And even then, you wouldn't be an entirely different person because of it! You're just- you!"

"I'm not just me. How could you even treat me like your own lover when I learned your name just a week ago? Dark Matter is only a story that you've told me. The last eight years don't even exist to the person I am right now. I've never explored the world or been a part of a family. You have a real Vallion-that's who we're sailing off to get back right now. That's why you're still wearing that scarf on your wrist. You can't give it to me."

Another massive rumbling shook the Viridian to its core. Panne didn't care anymore. "I love you, Val. I love every bit of you, in every way. It's the same way that Mew loved the you that she found after you came looking for me! Hydreigon even said that there could only ever be one Vallion, so doesn't that mean you're still him?! It's not like it even matters. You make my life better no matter who you think you are, and I'll follow you to the end no matter what."

He hummed almost inaudibly and pressed his forehead to the wall. Panne wanted nothing more than to go over there and accentuate her point, to make him understand that he was loved and wanted. He didn't have to be so alone. Instead, all she could do was lay her head back onto her bag and sulk as she struggled not to slide around. Something hard bumped against the back of her neck as the contents of the pack jumbled around. The supplies she would have needed to protect him against the demon only served to make her even more uncomfortable. Even so, she couldn't find it in her heart to blame them. That was her only purpose, too.