Loneliness. Panne felt the loneliness long before she she started to comprehend the scene around her. Howling winds were pounding on the walls with a deafening force. The Expedition Society was in ruins before her. The corridor she found herself in was shrouded in darkness, grime and dust covering every rotten surface. The storm outside poured through gashes in the brickwork, leaving the porous rubble glistening with rain. Discolored paint peeled away from the walls-or what was left of most of them. And above all else, the acute stench of black mold. Destitution and ruin.
The Delphox brought her fingers together and cast a flame near one of the many holes to the outside world. It illuminated a deluge of raindrops for some time, then was promptly extinguished as a gust flooded in through the opening. There was only a black oblivion out there as far as she could tell. Grabbing at the Harmony Scarf on her wrist, she surveyed the ruins that had been so meticulously created for her. Even despite the horror and despair that clouded her head, she had to remind herself that this was the Spiritomb's doing.
"What's the matter?" she called out into the stale air. "This sucks, yeah, but it's not really all that scary! You must be losing your touch. Maybe I should blow you apart a third time to see if I can remind you how to make nightmares?"
Only the gruesome weather cared to respond. So that's how it's gonna be, huh? Fine. Panne spat at the dark before she continued down the corridor, her feet bumping into every manner of damp debris. Bits of the ceiling had crumbled away in places, and between the supports sunk inwards like it was going to come down at any moment. Fat droplets fell from these points and smacked the top of her head while she walked by. The upstairs must have been totally destroyed bad if this much water was getting in. Did she even want to imagine?
A tattered cloth hung in the doorway was the only thing that kept her from seeing the remains of her own room. The Delphox sucked in a preparatory breath and tore the curtain away, her tight-lipped expression quickly developing into a frown. It was all gone. Every priceless memento and every meticulous map-even the constellation map pinned to the ceiling-was utterly destroyed. Ruined scrolls, wet books, broken glass and rotten cloth. Everything was strewn about the room like someone tried to loot the place but gave up halfway through the attempt. Against her better judgement, she went inside for a closer look.
Since most of the contents of her trunk were already scattered or missing, digging to the bottom didn't take much effort. All she ended up finding was grime and mold, though. All the keepsakes that Vallion had given her were either destroyed or gone entirely. A few of them were supposed to be things that only the two of them knew about, but there they were, utterly ruined along with the rest of her memories. Wiping her hand on her fur dress, Panne turned heel and left the terrible sight behind her, chanting beneath her breath that it was all merely a dream.
The energy of the hall seemed to change as soon as she stepped back out. Where there was once only complete emptiness now buzzed with a silent kind of terror. Ears twisted back, she ducked back into the room and stuck only her head out from around the corner. No immediate movement or sounds, but she clearly wasn't as alone as she once thought. Panne stowed her flame into the palm of her hand. If she was able to make fire, then she was able to fight back.
Ever so faintly, something spoke up. It came from the direction of the center of the compound. Just a few broken syllables buried beneath the rage of the storm. It was Vallion's voice.
It was obviously a trap. There's never been a more obvious one in all history. But the sound it made was so convincing, so hideously lifelike, and so very much as if he were in trouble. Panne felt her heart skip in response. His memories were somewhere in this stupid monster, right? She'd definitely seen them before. However slim the chance may be, this might be something very real. Dammit. Swallowing at the lump in her throat, she ignited the ends of her fingers once more and took off towards the meeting hall, internally swearing at how gullible she was.
The tile floor and its compass rose were all but shattered. Most of the center was submerged beneath a pool of black water, its surface constantly ripping from the waterfall that came from the broken skylights. Nothing ever came of the tension in the air. It was still just as dead as everything else. No Val, no ghost. Not even something particularly scary at all. Just more dread and sadness.
"So, what? Is this all? Yeah, the window's broke and all that." The cold echo of her words came right back to her. "Are you just threatening me some more? Is this what you expect to do to the Society? Come on, answer me already! I know you're there!"
For as loud as she could shout, that didn't make it anymore true. The only thing here was the threatening aura that crawled up and down her back. Panne flung her flame this way and that, illuminating the carnage of time in all four corners of the chamber, finding nothing. It felt as though chaos would burst into existence at any moment and justify the tingling terror that screamed in her ears. A shadow should have suddenly grown and swallowed her up! The ceiling should have come crashing down over the top of her head! Something! Anything! Anything but...this.
It's only a dream. It's really only a dream. The Delphox's legs buckled and gave, dropping her halfway into the icy pool that had devoured where she once stood every morning. The dawn would peek through the skylight and brighten the wall behind them. Raging gusts of wind tore through the chamber as the storm infiltrated the compound through collapsed brick and shattered glass. Ampharos would repeat the Society's motto with unrivaled zeal, though occasionally his voice would crack from having woken up so recently. The rain never stopped pounding into the walls with every ounce of malice nature could muster. A waft of a breakfast that still cooking. A sticky whiff of rotting mold. The warmth was there, but it grew more difficult and more difficult to remember. Soon, even those would be gone.
The water rippled. There was a flash of something in the dwindling light. Slick emerald scales, soaked and shiny. Panne immediately tried to look away and found the action utterly impossible. The pale skin of a bloodless body, limply bobbing from the slight currents the falling rainfall produced. Eyes stuck wide with the final thought of fear, but his amber irises were burnt out and hollow, staring straight through her into oblivion. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't move. Her whole body erupted into a frenzy of unbearable sensations, yet her whole body was completely numb. She couldn't even move her tongue to silently plead for release.
The darkness finally came. It slithered up behind her as every one of her instincts screamed at her to flee. Slowly, triumphantly, it entered the corners of her vision as a deathly chill grasped the nape of her neck. She could do nothing but gawk at the long-dead corpse in front of her while tears soaked her cheeks.
"We'll never be apart," Vallion said so close to her ear that she could feel his breath.
...
Panne opened her eyes to a thatch roof. She shot up, struggling not to vomit as a coughing fit seized her. Her friends stirred from the cacophony, but it was impossible to resist. The ghost's sickness was inside her already. As soon as she managed to get her lungs under control, another fresh wave of hell descended upon her as last night's alcoholic binge reared its ugly head. Her stomach turned and her temples pounded, the waking world a nightmare in and of itself. But anything was better than the dark place she just came from.
The Delphox did the rest of the hut a favor and attempted to drag herself outside before any other colorful noises left her face. She at least managed to sleep until daylight this time, but it wasn't looking too good. The summer blues had been completely and utterly replaced by a whole palette of depressing greys. The scent of a storm was already on the wind. All it took was a brief glance at the ocean for visions of those dark clouds to flash behind her eyelids. After shuddering rather violently, she quickly decided to never look that direction again and instead turned her gaze towards the carnage left behind by the festival.
All that remained of the mighty bonfire was just a large pile of ash, which stirred up small clouds as the vicious winds occasionally whipped past. There was pretty much trash as far as the eye could see. Debris from all the food, or palmwood bowls strewn about, or spills that had dried into the dirt. It was incredible the damage they had done to this place in just one night. Though that's what tends to happens when you get a lot of pokemon in one place who aren't really used to civilized life. It was at least kinda funny to think about how many wildlings in the region were out there totally hung-over right now.
"Only one of you?" a shrill voice emerged from seemingly nowhere. A Staraptor sat alone atop one of the higher perches-the same one that usually followed the elder Sceptile around. A single flap of his incredible wingspan and he was on the nearest perch to her. "How lucky. These things always cause such huge messes. Sceptile is always far too prepared to call on them at a moment's notice, don't you think?"
Still a little startled, the Delphox only shrugged. "I- I don't know? I kind of still feel like I just got here. Would feel kinda off to have an opinion like that already, D-..?"
"Dalo." His unblinking eyes studied her further. "Just an observation. Like the weather. Your leader warned of a storm that had been following you, did he not? A terrible storm that would threaten our homes. The others are so confident, but I call it arrogance."
"...Mm. I guess." Panne backed up, peering over her shoulder for any reason to leave. "You didn't come down here just to talk about the weather, though, did you?"
"I came out here to see the Society off. The festival took its toll, so you're the only one out here." The Staraptor preened himself as if to put a break in the conversation. While his head was buried in the flight feathers of his wing, he began to cough and hack like she had heard too many times over the last couple of weeks. Upon recovering, Dalo shot her with the coldest glare. "Oh, I've seen your kind-always keen on trying to meddle with things they cannot control. And you bring your mistakes down onto the shoulders of others in the process. Perhaps you could learn to simply leave well enough alone."
That was more than enough reason for Panne to shift gears. Now it was less about how she was going to get away and more about how well she could take on a large Staraptor in its prime while she was still sick. "What's your problem, then?! Do you got something against explorers? Last I checked, we haven't done anything to you!"
The flying type scowled at her as if she had unwittingly spoken some sort of blasphemy. "You…You are meddlers! You are celebrated and idolized, and for what? What you save will never amount to what ends up being destroyed! My father was right about you people!" He let out a screech, and quickly fell into an uncontrollable fit of rasps and hisses. As Panne recoiled from the horrible noise, Dalo extended his wings and burst into the sky, disappearing behind the trees in a matter of seconds.
With that mess...resolved, Panne found a nice wall to slide down and gasp while her insides did a few flips. The stress didn't help. She knew that the Spiritomb was almost here. If the stench in the air, the worsening weather, and the moody villagers weren't enough evidence, her own nightmares were. This whole stretch of jungle was probably going to get messed up once the damn thing got up to speed again. Had they doomed this place to a gruesome fate just by existing? Could they have landed the ship farther down the coast and avoided this entirely? Not that it mattered enough to worry about. Forward was the only direction they should be thinking in.
Yeah, that's definitely right. The longer they stayed here the worse it was going to get for everyone involved. It's what Vallion would want. It was time to go.
...
Nobody felt good. Those who didn't end up drinking too much were plagued with a particularly restless sleep, and a few of them barely slept at all. Every ounce of hope that Panne had worked so hard to shove back into Vallion was completely gone by the morning. There were still bags beneath his sullen eyes, and he pretty much refused to look at her. She knew why, of course, and it ate at her so badly that she wanted to beat herself across the face. But there was no time left to feel sorry for herself. They had already gathered everything up and strapped on their packs, all set for the dreariest expedition in the entire history of the Society.
A flash of a compass, a glance at the map, and they were off. Everyone who could take flight had already lifted above the treetops while the rest of them unceremoniously trudged into the undergrowth. Though the northern wilds of the Grass Continent weren't particularly difficult to traverse, it was only going to get worse the farther inland they traveled. Not to mention the fact that their destination supposedly lied in the most treacherous jungle in the entire region. There was no way they could maintain a fast enough pace to outrun that thing. It was only a matter of time now.
Just as Panne was really beginning to dread it, a droplet of rain landed right on her snout, causing her to sniffle with disdain. It was the first of many more to come. It didn't take long for the infrequent taps to evolve into full-on showers, revitalizing the mud beneath their feet. Just when she was starting to enjoy being dry, too! In the far distance, lashes of thunder drove the Society to quicken their march. Altaria flew down to report that the storm was certainly going to beat them to the valley they were meant to cross this afternoon.
So much bad news and there was nothing they could do about it but keep walking. That all-encompassing trance of travel never quite set in with how miserable it all was. The Delphox's fingers meandered down to the Val's scarf, as they always did whenever she wasn't paying attention. There was always more to worry about besides the inevitable. Like Vallion. Like the way she ruined their dance. Like how much guilt got stirred up inside her when she looked at him. It was obvious she couldn't go on like this forever. She had to act where she still had power.
"Hey," she greeted him softly. Despite being soaked yet again, her throat was as dry as ever.
Vallion blinked as rain streaked down his blank expression. The way he turned to her was like she was just another part of the scenery. "Hm?" he murmured disinterestedly.
Not a particularly promising start, Panne thought to herself. "I... You know, for having only had that body for a few weeks, you got used to dancing pretty quick. You should have seen how long it took me to figure out how to run when I first became a Braixen. Let alone dance."
"It wasn't worth bothering with. Too much trouble." He evasively ducked behind a sapling, creating a divide between them.
Panne lacked the agility to follow him so closely. "Oh Vallion, you can't just say that! You were smiling and laughing and everything! I saw!" He dipped past another bush and got even farther away. She choked, struggling to keep a fresh round of sobs down. "What happened to you? Why can't you just tell me why you've been acting like this? You know I'd all do anything to help you, right?" Further and further. Her legs just couldn't keep up, and her dress kept catching. "Please tell me what's wrong, Vallion…Will you at least talk to me a little?"
"There'll plenty of time to talk later," Vallion muttered.
She wanted to scream as loud as she could, but she only barely could keep her voice down enough to not alert the others in the first place. "Vallion, if I'm the problem, then please just tell me-I can change! Whatever it is, I can change it!"
"You're not doing anything wrong." One more tiny dash was all it took for the Servine to slip out of earshot. Always within sight, but far enough that his point was made clear. He might as well have been on the other side of a ravine. Panne quickly fell to the back of the group so that no one could hear her sniffling. Clutching herself in a withdrawn embrace, she dug her claws past the matted, wet fur and into her shoulders until it hurt. She didn't believe him.
A few hushed conversations were whispered among the party, but the wind was getting worse. A tiny itch, barely conspicuous with everything else that was wrong, appeared in the back of her throat. Why care what the Spiritomb did now? What was it going to do, make her even more irritable? It didn't matter. The feeling of defeat had finally let the emptiness in. Minutes melded together, hours trudged by. The scenery never seemed to change, but she never bothered to look up, either. It was all just the prickling sting of the rain, the growl of the storm, and a permanent scowl stuck to her face.
...
It was hard to tell how long had passed, but judging from the darkness behind the clouds, evening must have been settling in. That or the demon itself had spread itself thin above them to smother out the light. Either way, fatigue was starting to become a real problem. The foothills of Mt. Bristle were proving to be a difficult stretch of land, not made any easier from the impassable flora and slick mud. The terrain certainly wasn't going to get any better from here. No use in working themselves to death now when they still had days to go.
Of course, easier said than done. With a severe lack of flat, clear ground, it took another twenty minutes of searching just to even settle on a good spot for camp. Setting it up was so ingrained into their muscle memory that it hardly took much conscious thought anymore. With the exception of Vallion and Kadabra, who both lacked experience, not a single order needed to be given.
Every single bag they had brought held at least one piece of the tent, from the tiniest parts with singular purposes to the bulk of the thing. Metal supports and rings, a heavy-threaded fabric, poles that extended and locked into place-dozens of individual pieces that came together to make up one of the most specialized sets of equipment the Society owned. Almost every blacksmith and tailor in the damn city had a part in the creation of this thing, and the cost of the investment was steep, but the result was hard to argue. There were truly none other like it.
After all the final pikes and knots were secured, the Society hurriedly piled into the shelter. The wind could do nothing but batter uselessly against the walls once the entrance was strapped close. A lantern was lit and hung from the center support, its soft yellow light a pleasant change for the endless grey. The next few minutes were spent simply trying to get comfortable and dry themselves off. The air in here admittedly felt easier to breathe, though it might have had something to do with Hydreigon burning a bushel of sage they'd collected on at some point along the way.
Once some cheap semblance of comfort had been achieved, the Society piled into the center of the tent for debriefing. Altaria hummed a quiet tune while Mawile pulled out her Expedition Gadget. Dedenne tuned it to the right frequency a moment later. The Connection orb smouldered as their call went out. The few seconds of peace they had earned ended when a startled shout erupted from the speaker.
"Oh hell! There you guys are!" Floatzel's voice buzzed throughout the tent. "Why did nobody bother to call me last night? Seriously, how are you supposed to call this a real expedition if you're not even going to make reports?! I didn't become chief so that you could keep ignoring me!"
"You're chief-in-training still," Mismagius added with a soft chuckle.
Ampharos shook his head. "No no, he's right. We should've remembered to call. And I shouldn't have four bowls of wine." He cleared his throat. "Anyway! We all successfully met up yesterday, recuperated over the night, and powered through a sizable chunk of the northern jungles over the day. That being said, we still do have a storm on our tail, and a very angry clump of ghosts. There were plenty of wildlings while the sky was clear, but we've been completely alone now that it's caught up. We passed through the a mystery dungeon on the way here and it was as desolate as a desert."
"Hm. That's...unnerving. Normally you can't walk five minutes without someone getting offended that you exist on Grass Continent. I really wish I could be out there with all you guys. All this paperwork and waiting has been making me freak out, you know? And it's not like I can do anything about that ocean project right now, either. Psh. Whatever." He shrugged and leaned into the orb. "Is Vallion still alright?"
"I'm fine," the Servine said on reflex.
Dedenne sighed. "I mean, fine as in wet and miserable. It's a hell of a walk to get this far while it's pouring buckets."
"Hmph. You ride on Ampharos' shoulder every time it's convenient, so I can't imagine it's all that tough for you," Mawile spoke up.
"Well I can't see over the bushes! What, you want me to get lost or something?" replied Dedenne with the same vitriol.
"I'm just saying there's no way you're as tired as the rest of us."
Panne folded her ears back, already utterly enraged by the shouting. "Shut up! Stop letting the Spiritomb make you mad or I'm gonna shove you both back out into the goddamn rain! Just ignore the stupid thing and cough it out already!"
"Woah! Hold on, everybody hold on! Stop shaking the gadget for a second!" the Connection Orb vibrated with Floatzel's voice. "God, you're all already going crazy and you've only been out for- what is it, like two days? Can't you-?" He suddenly stopped, peering deep into the refraction. "...Panne? Do I even want to know what happened?"
In the background of the projection, Archeops clamored into view. "What? What's going on? Is Panne okay?"
Oh, right. She had already forgotten not everyone knew about what happened on the Viridian. The Delphox leaned in closer with a smug look stuck to her face. "Yeah, it was gonna be a surprise when I got back. I was going to stand two feet over you and just wait for you to realize it was me."
"What?! I'm not even that short! What are you talking about?" Floatzel hogged as much of the orb as possible despite Archeops' attempts to sneak in. "That hardly even matters, anyway! Evolution makes people taller, so what? All it did was pull your ears up another four feet into the air."
"You're both sleeping in the rain!" Dedenne shouted above the both of them. It earned a few chuckles here and there, but just that alone was more important than anyone could know. The oppressive weight that loomed over their heads at all times had receded ever so slightly. It was enough to entertain the thought that maybe not everything was so bad. That it always could've been worse. At least they were all still together.
The debriefing itself was short and sweet. As soon as it ended, the gadget went away and the ration came right out. Hard biscuits and dried fruit were hardly glamorous, but not a single stomach there was about to discriminate. Conversations trickled in between bites-mostly complaints or banter, nothing too interesting. It wasn't until she heard Hydreigon begin to speak that her ears twisted to attention.
"I just think it's peculiar how a creature who spent so much time in isolation and darkness can act so deliberately," Hydreigon said to Mawile. "I can only wonder how closely it must have been listening this whole time. I suppose it would have been quite loud to be so close to Revelation Mountain during the last waxing of Dark Matter. Still, it hadn't succumbed to madness by that point anyway."
Mawile crossed her arms, a finger eagerly tapping on her forearm. "What does a human soul earn it after all this effort, though? What makes it so valuable that the Spiritomb would chase us across the earth to get it? To be fair, Vallion's not the only human alive right now, right? Surely there's another somewhere that would be much easier to steal. So why Vallion?"
The Hydreigon clicked their tongue. "A human's soul might not give it any control over the elements or a stronger form, but what it does give is power. The power to change the world. The power to rewrite destiny. Nature herself cannot even reproduce a creature so influential. The abomination at least has the sense to recognize this. Whether it would actually work or not is not something I know has ever been tried. Would the universe think it a human, or a monster?
"As for the fixation on Vallion, I suppose the most logical answer would be that it's already integrated his memories into itself. That seems simple enough." The dragon shrugged, then downed a whole biscuit in a single gulp as if the act of eating was too much of a distraction. "A minor issue, to be sure. It'll play in our favor when we do get around to trapping the beast and ending it. There are several tricks I know which would keep it in place for just long enough."
In an instant, Panne pushed her way into the conversation. "What kind of tricks? You're not thinking of using Val as bait, are you?"
Hydreigon seemed surprised at first, but their face lit up at the chance to explain something complicated. "Not so! The mystery dungeon in which Vallion's body resides is strong enough for particularly powerful magic to crystallize. Synthesizing these reagents together in the correct ways can lead to great discoveries and even greater tools. I'm sure you have had your fair share of smashing less-useful emeras and for the potential in their dust, so the concept is closer than you may think."
"Of course," Mawile answered. "Though we mostly specialize in wonder orbs, I suppose. And by we I mean Jirachi. I have a feeling you're not talking about our information network, are you?"
The dragon's shoulders fell as they sighed. "No, but I am still very impressed with your Nexus. Even I wouldn't have thought of such creative uses for orbs. In my humble opinion, it's honestly one of those most breathtaking achievements of this age."
"Is someone talking about my Nexus?" Jirachi flew overhead, right on cue. "You have no idea how long it took to tune! Oh, and all those times we lost all our data! You hardly ever know what you should be prepared for until everything's already gone wrong and you can only get ready for the next build that-"
"Put a battery charge meter on the gadgets!" Volcarona shouted from across the tent.
The chatter trailed off again, but Panne's suspicion wasn't so easily shaken. She scooted closer to the Hydreigon and repeated herself, unable to disguise the coldness in her voice. "What kind of tricks?"
The dragon blinked at her through innocent eyes. "Well I was going to say that we could create a different kind of artificial wonder orb. There's a way to create a kind of zone which acts rather similarly to a miniaturized mystery dungeon, trapping anything inside and keeping everything else from getting in. It's more of a barrier than a dungeon now that I think about it, but the properties of the wall would affect you in the same way...Why are you glaring at me like that?"
An impenetrable arena, is that what they were proposing? Like something they could trap Vallion and themselves inside of? "I just have a bit of a headache still, that's all," Panne finally replied.
"You still don't trust me, do you? Not even after last night."
The Delphox exhaled through her nose. "I want what's best for Val. I want to make sure what's best for Val doesn't conveniently change at any point before he gets his memories back."
Hydreigon looked away dismissively. "You need to think harder about what's really best for Vallion. Pestering me isn't going to do any good." With that, the dragon yawned and curled up into rather massive a ball. Mawile raised an eyebrow to the whole ordeal, but buried herself into her field journal without another word.
When it came time for the light to go out, Panne crawled her way over to Vallion's side and laid down just a few inches away. Even if he was just going to continue to ignore her anyway, she still felt a little better while next to him. There must have been so much weighing him down. The Delphox resisted the urge to roll over and embrace him, her arms twitching with a will of their own. 'How bad are the nightmares for you?' she wanted to ask. 'Are you staying warm enough? Do you need my towel?' They were such simple questions, she could ask them to anyone else here without a moment's hesitation. Anyone but him.
The fuzzy throes of sleep approached again, bearing with it an omen in the upper reaches of her sinuses. It crossed her mind to just stay up and bear the insomnia, but she probably didn't want to be awake to hear what was outside the tent walls at night. Who knows, maybe she'll even be able to tap into Vallion's memories from inside the demon again?
But in the end, all that waited for her was a night of muted horror.
...
Jirachi flew circles around the Delphox, somehow unaffected by the vicious gusts. "Yeah, but what kind of foresight is it? Do you see the future roll out from behind your eyelids? Does the fire play the future out like a weird puppet show?"
Panne hesitated to answer, mostly from the steep decline she was attempting to scale with the rest of the Society. "Not really? I don't know, I've only been a Delphox for like three days. Your guess is as good as mine how most of this junk works."
The beat of four wings fluttered overhead as Volcarona butt in. "Sure, but red fire? All I've ever seen you make is the regular stuff!"
"Three days, dude. And it's not like I've had any free time to test it," Panne said.
Jirachi flipped upside-down to speak directly to Volcarona. "If you wanna know so bad, why don't you figure out how to make your fire red, too?"
"Seriously? How do you expect me to do that? I'm a Volcarona, not a Delphox! My job is just to make a lot of tons of fire, not special glittery kinds!"
"Oh you big baby. You can't just give up before even trying!" Jirachi shouted after the bug type, the both of them flying off until the storm's growl obscured their bickering. Panne hardly gave a second thought. She was more focused on the ways the situation could get worse. Was the wind this harsh an hour ago? Did those clouds look any darker than usual? Were there any dark omens or ominous premonitions to feel for? The Delphox continued to shoot nervous glances at the sky every few moments, always anticipating that a dark blotch would be approaching from above the treeline.
Wincing from a dozen tiny pains, she passed through yet another stickler bush as just about everything possible caught on her dress. This was no place for her kind. It had never been more clear than it was for now. The long fur was meant to combat gusts of sand and desert suns, yet only served to slow her down here. No proper adventurer would ever let such an inconvenience weigh them down for this long. But here she was, still stumbling through the jungle, too stubborn to just lob the damn thing off.
It was especially bad now that they'd crossed over into the inner regions of the Grass Continent. The trees grew higher yet and spread as far as their branches could reach. Constant showers and eternal humidity were the usual for this place, but the output of the Spiritomb's storm proved too much for even a place like this. When they did finally come across the first of many rivers to cross, the natural banks were already well underwater and the current was dangerous even by Floatzel's standards. The only option was to be carried across one-by-one.
Altaria, Hydreigon, and Volcarona got to ferrying while everyone else waited at the water's edge. Even stopping for just a second was enough for Panne's fatigue and anxiety to sink in. Her eyes darted from tree to tree and her legs wobbled with a dull ache. Sitting still wouldn't do, they hardly had time as it was. She wasn't about to be the one that held them back.
That's when she got to thinking. What was the most efficient possible way to get around? Probably flying, of course, but it's not like she was particularly good at that. And levitating things beneath her was...
...It was something she was working on before. But what about now that she had evolved? After some brief searching, Panne found a fallen tree with a sufficient amount of decay that she could pry parts from it. She tried for a branch, but ended up with a strip of mossy bark instead. Anything was good enough at this point. Lips pursed, she levitated the debris at her side and returned to the water's edge.
A deep breath later, Panne strengthened her telekinetic hold and sat down onto the bark mid-air. The pressure behind her eyelids tightened and the object buckled inwards. And then that was it. Having fully expected to tumble to the mud, Panne sighed with relief and began to test her new limits. It wasn't that hard at all, actually. She hardly even remembered what made the process difficult in the first place. Rising up, lowering back down, turning and moving and twisting in the air. So long as she could keep her balance and keep whatever she was riding on straight, it shouldn't even be that bad. A victorious glow spread throughout her body.
"What are you planning on doing with that?" Mismagius asked her, already unaffected by the obstacle. "Are you planning on surfing in these rapids? Because if you are, I'll first need to give you the rundown of what it's like to become a ghost."
"Yeah, no. Keep that to yourself. I'm perfectly content with being alive." A few more experimental maneuvers later, Panne beckoned to Vallion. "Alright, Val. You ready?"
The Servine kind of just glared at her for a few seconds, then looked back at Altaria, who had come down to carry him across next. "Uh. I- No. I'm not ready for that. What are you even doing?"
"What's it look like? Flying across! It's faster and cooler if I just float myself over instead of being carried, right? Come on, do you really think I'd drop you?" It was more of a joke than it was a serious offer, but she extended her hand nonetheless. There's no way any iteration of Vallion would ever agree to-
"Fine!" he shouted above the wind, avoiding the Delphox's eyes at all costs. "Just- fine! I'll get on!"
Her ears tilted back. "No, I- I was just kidding. You don't actually have to get on if you don't- Oh!"
Panne's telekinesis shuddered as the Servine suddenly hoisted himself up behind her. "I'm tired of indecision! Tired of being goaded into stuff! If you're really serious about how you wouldn't drop me, then prove it!"
Even with Vallion's body pressed tightly into hers, there was absolutely nothing reassuring about this. She gripped the front of the bark with both claws and doubled down on her concentration. This would have been a stupid parlor trick in any other circumstance, and Val was willing to put his life on the line for it? Was she even willing to do that?
"Just hurry up with it," Vallion muttered to the back of her head. With a deep breath, the Delphox steadied herself and willed the wood to pull forward.
Altaria immediately positioned herself a few feet below them, flying dangerous close to the rapids. "No no no! Panne, don't mess around in a time like this! You two are going to get hurt at this rate!"
"Come now, mother-bird! You're going to frighten Vallion right off!" Mismagius chimed in while Volcarona and Jirachi cheered on from the other side.
For all the risk it posed, and despite the both of their weights, the crossing wasn't particularly difficult. Panne grit her teeth every second her feet hung above the rushing water, only breathing out once solid ground was beneath them once more. A prickling numbness flooded into her temples as soon as they landed. Vallion unraveled himself from her torso and slithered off, still refusing to look directly at her.
Talk of Panne's little discovery ended up lasting for another half-hour or so until all conversations tapered off into the hypnotic march. Consumed by wonder and boredom alike, Panne forgot about the looming storm tested the boundaries of her telekinesis instead, finding rocks along the way to toss around and maneuver. One of the major changes she noticed from becoming a Delphox was how much more precise that particular ability of hers had become. They had inched along the top of that river, but she was pretty sure rocketing across could've also been an option.
They ended up following one of those overflowing rivers for a couple miles until it finally opened up into the dreariest looking bog. Its waters were murky-brown with the mud that had been washed away, with the open roots of swamp plants infesting the surface like veins. And apparently, it was flooded beyond hope. After a quick flash of the map, a series of cliffs on the south side of the bog were their best bet at passing through without swimming. There was definitely going to be some climbing involved.
It was quite funny now. Panne had probably scaled dozens of mountains in her life using just her claws and her will, and now all she had to do was snap a decent-sized root off a toppled tree and elevate herself right up with the other lucky fliers. Vallion refused to ride with her this time around, so she just stuck close beneath him in the case of any accidents.
Even for the legendary Expedition Society, progress had slowed to a crawl in the evening. Partly from fatigue and misery, partly from the horrible four-foot deep mud puddles and vine walls, and partly from the goddamn wind and rain that never, ever went away. It was nowhere near as intense as it was over Lively City or the Viridian, but any other typhoon would have petered out or blown away by now. They've hardly seen a handful of living souls the whole journey, and a couple non-living ones they preferred not to think about. The ghost was only stalking them and nothing more. What's the matter? Couldn't it just strike at night?
"What are you waiting for?" she hissed at the sky.
"Hm?" Ampharos muttered from behind her. "What's who waiting for?"
"The Spiritomb! Who else?" Panne said. "It's just sitting up there, following us like it thinks it's being sneaky about it! What's so important that it has to wait up in the clouds the whole time?"
Hydreigon nodded their three heads. "Yes, so very careful. More cunning than it should be. It knows we are taking Vallion to have his memories restored. It knows how vulnerable the kind of ritual we're using will make him. It's waiting for the perfect moment to strike. The level of wisdom and awareness this abomination exudes is so far beyond the conventions of any normal creature that I'm starting to wonder if this Spiritomb was a prison for cultists or whatnot."
"It doesn't matter what it used to be!" the Delphox snapped back, growling mostly to scratch at the itch in her throat. "I don't care what it's made out of, I want it dead already!"
Dedenne groaned from across the group. "Yes, we know. We heard it the last few hundred times."
"Well I really, really really mean it! I swear I'm going to-!"
As Panne moved to punch at a passing tree, the branch she had been riding shifted out from under her. She missed horribly and watched the world slow as she tumbled over the lip of the adjacent cliff. Her claws reached out and pulled at the roots and mud in that final airborne second, slipping away with both in her fists. Only the most primal thoughts could flash through her head at that moment. The wet brush of the leaves she crashed past. The cold wind blasting into her back. She could still break the fall. Vines or- or branches or-
A black mass slammed into her side and encompassed her vision. The impact left her gasping and bruised, but at least it wasn't the ground. Then she realized what exactly it was that caught her and frowned again.
"And this is the second time I've had to carry you out of danger," Hydreigon said as they carried her back to the top of the cliff. "Twice now you would have died for your recklessness without my help. I realize there's always going to be Mew inside you, but you could at least try be a little more careful than she would be."
The Delphox pushed away from Hydreigon as soon as physically possible. Brushing herself off, she dug her feet into the mud and pretended like she wasn't shaking. "Thanks, but it wasn't really necessary. I would've been able to catch myself if you gave me a few more seconds. I've taken worse tumbles."
Hydreigon just blinked at her. Their shadow seemed to make the very air grow colder. "Really? You've taken worse tumbles? Than that two-hundred foot slide into quicksand? What if it had been someone else that saved you? Would you be so incredulous then?"
She scoffed and turned her back. "They know what I'm capable of. I'm just making sure you do, too."
"ENOUGH!" Before anyone else could even speak up, the dragon shouted louder than they ever had before. The sound was almost supernatural, like Panne had gotten punched in the back of the head with it alone. "I've had enough! Enough of this childish game you like to play! Stop pretending you can tiptoe around your feelings and say what you mean! Say it in front of everyone for once!"
All eyes had turned to Panne. The stares of her friends were like spotlights as they burned into her fur. Even the cacophony of the storm was deafened by the blood that rushed to her ears.
"...Panne?" Ampharos began. "What are they talking about? What're you supposed to be saying?"
"Nothing!" she yelled.
"No. Not nothing." The dragon menaced every row of teeth they had. Glistening rows of razor sharp canines, and behind them was a speaking tongue that almost seemed worse. "For as badly as you want to help Vallion, nothing good will come unless you set aside your suspicion. If you're not going to use words then we will be forced to use action. I know a language that you can surely speak."
Panne sucked in a deep breath, just in case there needed to be fire in the next few moments. "So now you're just going to threaten m-"
"Yes! I am going to threaten you! I'm threatening you right now!" True to their word, Hydreigon extended their wings and lurched forward a few feet. She raised her arms and got ready to shoot back, but the dragon had merely postured at her. Several of the others also tensed up to fight back. "Once we cross this section of jungle and set up camp, we will fight. It will not be a sparring match. It will not be a duel. I want you to fight like you're trying to kill me."
In the swell of surprised voices, Altaria's came out on top, her feathers all puffed right up. "You're out of your mind! That is absolutely one-hundred percent out of the question! I don't care who you are!"
The Delphox couldn't help but stutter. "What? I'm not going to try to kill you! I mean, what does that even prove? What's the point?"
"The point is that you're too stubborn to understand me in any language other than battle, so I'm going to have a very important conversation with you."
"This is just insane. Settle this like civilized pokemon!" Dedenne said.
Mawile shook her head. "We don't even have the time or medical supplies for this. Where do you even think we are?"
But Hydreigon refused to be persuaded. They ignored everything and glared solely at Panne. "You will not kill me. You cannot kill me. This isn't going to work unless you truly try, though. If you hold back even a little from this point on, you may find yourself severely hurt, and you will only have yourself to blame."
It was at this point that Ampharos could finally step in. "Well hold on just a minute! Is any of this really necessary? Sure, we may have our disagreements, but we can't afford to let ourselves be weakened by squabbles like this, can we? Any kind of major injury at all could spell trouble. I'm sure the Spiritomb has been waiting very patiently for such an opportunity."
"Oh I know it has," they said. "As much as I appreciate the wise advice, I'm afraid we're well beyond that now. Unless Panne comes to terms with her own fears, that is."
"This isn't bravery! It's stupidity!" Altaria shrieked.
"Fine. I'll do it." Panne felt so terribly small beneath Hydreigon's gaze, but she didn't have a choice. If they were going to betray her at all, she might as well get it over with while there wasn't any other problems to deal with. She looked to Vallion, but he turned away as soon as their eyes met. Was he disgusted? Did he hate her for this, too?
The Dragon huffed. "I know you'll do it. Come this evening, I'm hoping to never have to be accused by you ever again. Now let's get going already. This discussion isn't bringing us any closer to an understanding."