A/N: Sorry this is so late! A lot of things happened IRL: deaths in the family, exams and a really emotionally difficult attachment, but most of that is done now (exams are never done, really), so more updates! Unless my next attachment is somewhere with no internet... Anyway, this went really twisted really fast, but enjoy!

After Being Blue
Poke-ball 23: Overflow

They followed Erika to the soft bushy overgrowths near the top of the Tower.

It was interesting, how the mountain curved in to provide that: to support the tower and all the ghosts it nursed, as though helping it reach the sky and the afterlife that lay beyond it. And the garden… Who was that for? For the visitors who grew overwhelmed amidst the dead and the sorrow? Or for the dead themselves who wanted a breath of fresh hair after drowning so long?

And Erika… Why did she choose outside as her battleground? Because she was the mistress of the gardens and the grass-type Pokemon? Because surely she would know that was no advantage against a trainer with a fire-type when the fire could burn it all. And she'd seen her precious greenhouse, that had weathered many fire-type Pokemon and fire-type moves, burn to the ground so why should this place, hovering at the edge of a tower of graveyards, fare any better, especially when faced with the better part of both sorrow and rage.

Blue and Red. Their names were ironic, now. Then Erika was green: the green of some sickness that Red hadn't yet grasped. Or maybe it was more or less than that. The Erika now was vastly different than the one he'd battled at the Gym, but she even then was vastly different to the one he'd fought last year. People changed, that was natural, but there was something about Kanto that made those changes seem so drastic.

Maybe that was that something in the League that twisted even a happy go lucky guy like Red.

And if Blue had been Champion for longer, would he have warped into something unnoticeable as well?

Red pushed forward, Pikachu still sparking on his shoulder. Blue stayed where there was nothing green beneath his feet. Shouldn't he be the one facing Erika? Erika had every right to face Red but Red was facing Erika in Blue's stead… and that was a right mess, wasn't it?

Blue was sure his Pokemon would be rattling in their balls if they could see this scene.

No… They were rattling in their balls. They knew.

Then Erika turned to face them, and there was something in her eyes that made Blue think that he was the blind one. The grass rustled, like it rustled on the routes because there were wild Pokemon even in a place like this.

No wonder the ghosts weren't inside the Tower. They were here, with Erika. They were the wind as well, perhaps. It was hard to tell; they were invisible under the sun but they were chilling and oppressing and, in her eyes, swirling and bubbling like a pot about to bubble over –

Or maybe it was already bubbling over. Grief fed grief, after all.

It was getting colder.

Pikachu left off Red's shoulder and unleashed a Thunderbolt at the grass in front of them. It burnt to a crisp instantly, but nothing scurried.

Ghosts, then.

Erika said nothing, did nothing. Just stared with her bottomless eyes, drowning in spirits.

Blue shivered again. So did his poke-balls. Red's Pikachu glared at Erika, then at him. Red didn't turn around at all.

Why was Red's Pikachu glaring at him? He was Red's best friend, for Arceus' sake! Red who'd always been a step behind until he somehow wound up a step ahead. Red who'd been the most cheerful guy on the planet until his personality did a one-eighty on the throne while Blue's confidence plummeted to rock-bottom after getting kicked off it. Red who was suddenly carrying too heavy a burden and was looking for help to carry it after his back had already broken from the strain, all while Blue did some soul-searching and seemed to find nothing soul-related at all.

Sure, he knew more about the affairs of the League and Kanto, now, but as far as his own soul went…

Really, all he'd accomplished was losing Arcanine while he chased old Gym battles and the cryptic comments of the Elite.

Red and Erika stared at each other. Pikachu stared at Blue.

Blue stared at all of them, and the invisible wind that blew the grass: fresh and charred.

Why did I come here?