DISCLAIMER: Do I really have to keep on saying this? Probably not, but it's fun to think of new stuff to say... So yeah, I don't own pokemon, nor do I own a mango, a Japanese weaving, or this computer that I'm using. If anyone would like to give me this stuff, I probably wouldn't take them (though a new computer sounds nice and a mango sounds delicious), but I would thank you for the thought.

Spirits of the Past

Part 5: Possession

Evan, who had remained fairly calm since entering the house, was now tense. He stood at the ready just a few feet away from Jenna, who was doing nothing more than staring at him with bright, inquisitive eyes. Natu's feather remained standing straight up on top of its head, and the Girafarig Evan had called out was standing by his side, even more tense than its master. Cynthia had enough sense to take a few steps back from Jenna, so that Jenna was standing almost exactly in between her and Evan. Gardenia was still at her position in the doorway, six or seven feet behind where Evan was standing.

No one said anything for a good long minute. Jenna's hands flexed a couple of times, but her eyes never left Evan. Cynthia was uncertain as to what was going on, and thought it best to wait and see what would happen. Gardenia was scared stiff. She had no more idea that Cynthia what was going on, but her paranoia and instinct told her that something was definitely wrong with Jenna.

Without any noticeable forewarning, Jenna took a step forward towards where Evan was. She was immediately stopped by a beam of psychic energy directed at the floor directly in front of her, fired by the Girafarig.

"Evan!" Cynthia shouted, taking a short step towards him and Jenna. "What are you doing! You're going to hurt -" Evan raised a hand to cut her off. He was concentrating totally on Jenna, who now had an odd sort of smile on her face. Cynthia, confused, stopped her reprimand.

Evan spoke up, his eyes drilling into Jenna, "Who are you?"

The grin on Jenna's face grew a bit wider as she replied, "My name once was Alfred Kershen. I was a butler here in this house." Gardenia let out a little peep of fear at this. Though Jenna's voice remained the same tone as it had always been, it was obvious that the Jenna that Cynthia and Gardenia knew wasn't the one speaking. Cynthia stood, mouth agape at Jenna's - or, more accurately, Alfred's - words.

Evan spoke again. "Leave the girl's body. She didn't know what she was saying." A drop of sweat could be seen running down the side of his face as his said this; whether it was the amount of his concentration or some outside force, Evan was obviously tiring himself somehow.

Jenna's head tilted slightly to the side, as if in curiosity. "Why would I do that?" the butler asked, using Jenna as a puppet. "I have been trapped in this kitchen for decades, and this girl's body is the only way I can get out and have my revenge. Please stand aside."

Evan's jaw clenched. "And what revenge would you be planning on taking?"

The butler, through Jenna, answered, "I have to kill the girl who caused my own death. I know her spirit still haunts these halls, taunting me with her presence. Just recently, her spirit occupied another living being - making this my perfect opportunity to be rid of her. Now, if you'll excuse me - " Jenna's body took another step forward, only to be hit in the shoulder with another psybeam. The body took a step back as Jenna's face grimaced. The bag she had hanging from her right arm got in the way a bit as her hand reached up to clutch the hit left shoulder.

Sandy, who had been standing stunned off to the side, jumped in between the Girafarig and Jenna. The sandslash had been confused at what was happening this whole time. When Cynthia and Evan had held Jenna down, the distressed pokemon had not known whether or not to help her trainer, since Jenna had been traveling with Cynthia for a while. But injuring Jenna had been too much.

"Slash!" the pokemon yelled in anger at Evan and his Girafarig.

"Sandy," said Evan quitely, with more than a hint of urgency behind his tone, "Your master isn't in control of herself. If we don't stop her, something very bad could happen to her."

Sandslash, very confused at this point, remained tensed as she turned to look back at her trainer. What she saw was, physically, her trainer. But behind that, almost imperceptible, was a malevolence that Sandy knew Jenna never had.

"Sand...?" asked the bewildered sandslash, desperate to have her trainer reassure her.

The slight smile was back on Jenna's face again. She talked partially to herself, and partially to Evan, saying, "Ah... yes. I can see as I look through her memories that this girl is a trainer. Quite powerful, if I'm not mistake. And this is Sandy, her first pokemon. And..." The spirit controlling Jenna had her unzip the bag she carried and pull out another pokeball. She tossed it into the air, releasing the golduck from within. The psychic type, unlike Sandy, was immediately aware that something was wrong with his master. He could sense the malignant aura emanating from Jenna's body, totally covering her own, comforting presence. The golduck tensed, as if it would join Evan in fighting. Sandy looked ever more confused at this, wondering how golduck could possibly turn on their own trainer.

"And this is Silver..." finished the spirit, with a look of satisfaction on Jenna's face. The spirit directed Jenna's attention to the two pokemon. "Both of you, listen. Do exactly as I say or that 'something very bad' that this poor excuse for a psychic was talking about will happen to your trainer. Hold these people here and keep them from following me." Silver and Sandy looked at each other hesitantly, unsure of whether or not to obey.

The spirit sighed at their delay, then burrowed through Jenna's bag before coming out with a swiss army knife, opening it to one of the blades. He moved the knife in Jenna's right hand over to her left arm before pressing firmly into the soft underside of her arm. A small trickle of blood to run down her arm.

"This is what I will do to her neck if you refuse to listen to reason. I can escape her body before she dies of blood loss, but it will be too late for anyone to save her. And there is so much more I can do just by damaging her mind alone." Said the spirit through Jenna. The two pokemon, afraid for their master's safety, quickly turned to Evan. They paused for only a moment, as if to show their regret, before attacking. A strong hydro pump hit the Girafarig, who barely managed to dig its hooves into the ground to keep itself upright. Sandy rolled into a ball a went straight towards Evan, who barely managed throw himself to the side in time. Jenna's body made a dash for it, running straight past Gardenia as she scurried out of the way. Cynthia summoned her Milotic to try and stop Jenna's body, but it was already too late - the spirit was out of the room.

It was chaos in the decrepit kitchen. Cynthia rushed forward, gesturing for Milotic to follow, but was thrown back by a psychic attack from the golduck. Girafarig hit the distracted golduck in the back with a psybeam, but the attack barely seemed to affect him. Milotic rushed over to her fallen master's side, who lay groaning on the floor. A water pulse from the powerful golduck KO'd the already injured Girafarig. Meanwhile, as the rolling sandslash slowed its momentum to turn and try to hit Evan, Evan released his most powerful pokemon: an Alakazam. Using psychic, the Alakazam suspended the Sandy in the air, who released itself from its curled-up rollout position. Without Jenna's direction, the sandslash could not figure out what to do and flailed about helplessly in the air. Seeing as both Alakazam and Evan had all their attention focused on the sandslash, neither noticed Silver's rapid approach towards Alakazam. In one powerful movement, he unleashed a powerful mega punch to the back of Alakazam's head, knocking it out immediately. Sandy fell to the ground, slightly flustered but otherwise unharmed.

Thankfully, Cynthia had regained her senses by now. She summoned her Roserade from its pokeball, and commanded a sleep powder on the area where Evan and the battling was going on. Evan, Silver, and Sandy all began to droop before falling over, totally asleep. She recalled the Roserade, then had Milotic do a weak water gun to awaken Evan. He woke easily, and quickly took tabs of everything around him. As he sat up, Cynthia and her Milotic were hovering near him, concerned. His natu, who had been thrown off Evan's head when he dove to avoid Sandy's initial attack, hopped onto its master's head. Around him, the unconscious and sleeping bodies of Alakazam, Girafarig, Sandy, and Silver lay sprawled out on the floor. A bit farther off, Gardenia lay on the ground next to an overturned trash can, which she had tripped over in her haste to get out of Jenna's way. Evan quickly got up from the ground, recalling his injured pokemon.

He turned to Cynthia. "We have to catch Jenna now. Do you remember what that spirit said earlier? Another spirit - the one he's after - just possessed some other living being. That has to be the girl we're looking for. Whether or not your legend of this place is true or not, that spirit of a butler is going to kill that little girl. And even if that is the reason he's been staying around in this world, I doubt a spirit like that would pass on once a task like murder is complete. He'll either continue possessing Jenna's body and do his destruction from there, or - more likely - dispose of Jenna. Once he's murdered the little girl, he probably won't need Jenna, since his body may no longer be bound to the kitchen."

"And what do you need me to do?" Asked Cynthia, realizing that Evan was the one who needed to take charge of the situation.

"I need you to incapacitate Silver and Sandy somehow, before they wake up. Then, you and Gardenia will need to come with me. We have to find that little girl. I think if we can get the spirit inside of her to move on to the next world, then the spirit inside Jenna will dissapate, without being able to accomplish the mission for which it stayed in this world. If I run into Jenna and the spirit possessing her by myself, I'll have no chance at defeating her pokemon - they're too strong."

Cynthia nodded and seemed to think for a moment. She then turned to Milotic.

"Please freeze the sandslash and the golduck - gently, if that's possible." Milotic turned to the two sleeping pokemon, releasing an ice beam that froze the two pokemon. Cynthia thanked Milotic before returning it to it's pokeball and summoning her smaller, more mobile Lucario. If they were going to be searching the house, Lucario would be much more of a help than Milotic. Cynthia looked to Evan, who nodded as if in approval. He turned and, followed by Cynthia, went over to where Gardenia was laying on the ground. She had been far enough away from the battle that she had avoided the main part of the sleep powder attack, though she still looked a bit drowzy. Evan offered a hand to help her up.

Gardenia shifted position a bit to grab his hand and, in the process, felt the hand nearest the trash basket touch something wet and sticky. She jerked her hand away and quickly jumped off the ground without Evan's help.

"S-something's wet there!" She stuttered out. Gardenia's mind had automatically gone to the worst possible wet substance that she could think of - blood. Evan looked where she had been sitting, and noticed a small, slightly green-tinted puddle seeping between the shattered floor tiles and into the earth below. He noticed that it originated from the upside-down waste basket, which he quickly righted. Ancient paper and fruit rinds lay on the ground where it had been. After digging through it tentatively, his eyes alighted on the source of the liquid, which he reached in to grab.

As he pulled out the object, Cynthia recalled the actions of the little girl from the legend she had told the night before:

She snuck into the kitchen and hid the antidote in the trash, then used substitute to send a replica of herself back to eat.

And she remembered what had happened after that.

The butler returned to the kitchen immediately after dinner, but found that the antidote was gone. He looked for it everywhere he could think that he would have put it, but the poison was fast-acting and he soon died.

She gasped at the cracked, ancient vial that Evan pulled out of the pile. It was about half filled with a green liquid, which dripped out of a crack that ran along most of the length of the container. Cynthia, who was an expert on ancient items - since they were often used in her legends - knew immediately what Evan was holding -

A decades-old antidote flask.

Man, the further I go in this, the more it seems I have to go... I really wasn't planning on doing a fanfic this long, but I suppose I'm glad - I love writing this. (Hope you enjoy reading it as well!) Anyway, I really no longer have any idea how long this is going to end up. I keep on writing way more than I expect (which I consider a good thing).

Please review! As I keep on saying, I need all the writing tips I can get!

And I would like to thank Murkrowfeather for being the first (and, so far, only) one to review my story on this site! THANK YOU SO MUCH! It makes me really glad to know that you like it. Also, I love your pen name. So.. yeah... THANKS!