Author's Note: I'll be uploading in smaller chapters from here on out. After writing a bit of Into the Moon, I realized short chapters are significantly more encouraging for me, especially considering I got burned out writing chapter 11. I'm not writing less - I'll just divide the content up into smaller chapters.

I need to stay calm.

Mark ran away from a crimson glow bathing the backs of camouflage-clad soldiers and crumbling concrete buildings lining the street. They stamped over debris and fallen comrades while shouting and screaming. Pokemon joined them: Houndoom and other four-legged creatures outpaced them while the smaller Pokemon like Audinos fell behind. A torrent of ghost Pokemon with wide smiles ran the opposite way, phasing through anybody running into them.

The hue intensified as it caught up to them. The cries of soldiers cut out one by one. Mark dared glance back. A maelstrom of blue and purple mist crashed and churned beneath where ground once was. Stars swarmed around in the misty void, all fenced by the red glow at its circumference. Bodies dead or alive caught in its expansion fell out of the world. The ghosts dove into it with laughter and tears running down their faces.

There's a bang and an explosion threw him into the air. Mark's ears rang so hard he could not hear his own screaming as he crashed into the gravel. The wall of the void still advanced. He dug his fingers ahead of him and dragged forward with all his strength. Agony coursed through him, especially in the leg that was closest to the blast. Warm blood dripped down his thigh, his hands, even his eyes. Bodies lay around him and new ghosts pulled themselves out from the skins of the newly deceased. They looked to the void and eagerness grew across their faces.

Mark closed his eyes. He took a deep breath, tuned out all the pain and focused on this final moment of peace. But his end doesn't come. The red circumference staked itself just beyond his foot. A formidable barrier holding in the misty ocean beyond, the stars shifting around like a million lilies in a pond. Waves of ghosts still ran past them all to dive off the cliff, forming a beautiful waterfall of spirits. Their deranged laughter lingered even once they fell out of sight.

I need to stay calm.

He shuffled away, putting safe distance between himself and the cosmic sea. He rubbed his forehead - blood trickled from cuts above his brow. He examined his body - red circles soaked his leg, but no shrapnel pierced his body.

His hearing gradually returned, picking up howls of pain among the cacophony of the cheerful ghosts. A man lay with his arms wrapped around his leg. His foot was blown off and blood flowed into a growing puddle beneath the hideous wound.

Mark got on his knees and shuffled up to his side, ignoring the pain flowing through his leg. The amputee rocks himself and clumsily gasps for air between breaths. "Save me! Please save me!"

He tossed a first aid kit off himself and popped it open. A plastic tourniquet is pulled out. Mark kept a collected expression as he wrapped it swiftly around his thigh. The bulk of the soldier's leg made it an awkward fit. "This will hurt," Mark said and wound the windlass. The soldier's face bunched up and horrid screams left his mouth. His back arcs yet he fights hard to restrain himself. Tears well in his eyes.

"This pain will end eventually," Mark said. |Just keep holding on. You will survive this, I promise". The windlass tightened as far as it could. Blood has slowed to a trickle at the end of his limb and Mark felt no pulse when he checked. "The bleeding is stopped. Your wound will clod and then we will release this. And you'll get to an emergency camp as soon as we can. This pain will pass."

The soldier's tears ran down his cheeks, glistening them. His eyes are red and his breathing is sporadic. But he nods to Mark.

Mark exaggerated carefully paced inhales and exhales while looking into his eyes. The soldier mirrored him. It brought him away from hyperventilation and lessened pained cries. The odd ghost whizzing over or through them distracted him, but Mark tapped his attention back to him before he stared at the looming void too long.

A few meters away, a soldier barely crawling with a uniform coloured more red than green collapsed. The soldier craned his head up. "Oh my god, Jacob?"

Jacob didn't move.

I need to stay calm.

"Jacob? Is that you?! Say something!" the soldier asks again. He lurched his shoulders to get a better look.

Mark patted him. "Hey! Focus here!" Despite his own words, he couldn't tear himself away from watching the fallen soldier alongside the other. A Banette's arm reached out of the chest and patted around until it clutched the uniform. The rest of its phantasmal form pulled itself out of the body. It peered at its newly made arms.

"Jacob! Are you with me?" The soldier wiggled around to get closer, ignoring that it caused a new volley a anguished shouts.

Mark pinned him down and nudged him until he looked back. "We have to focus on getting you out. You can make it. There are people waiting for you. You can survive!"

The words only worked for seconds. He glanced back. Mark couldn't hold himself back from looking too.

The ghost stood on its old body. It faced itself toward the void.

The soldier's breathing became uneven again. "Don't leave us! I need you!"

"Jacob!" Mark shouted. "We have a mission!"

It dashed and dove beyond the red barrier, joining the others tumbling away below.

"Jacob! No!" The amputee screams. His whole body buckled. Mark threw his body on top of him to hold him down, but he fought.

"Stop!" Mark shouted.

I need to stay calm.

The soldier twisted and jerked. Mark dug his boots into the gravel to keep pressure on him, ignoring the pain igniting inside his leg. Blood seeped into his eyes, stinging them and mixing with his tears. The soldier's agonized shrills reached a hellish pitch. "Let me die!" He shook and batted his arms at Mark. "Please let me die!" The breath between his screams became faint.

I NEED TO STAY CALM.

Mark's back bangs against a tube. His legs continue scrambling as if he could push through the solid wall. Arms wrap around his head and tears roll down his face.

"Mark?" Layla says. Both sets of claws cover her mouth.

"Get away from me!" he shouts, holding a palm out against her while sliding his body in between two tubes.

She runs up and grips his shoulders. "Mark!" She shakes him until he looks at her. "Mark! Look at me! What's wrong?"

His head darts around. His body jerks to throw her but she holds tight. Eventually, his eyes lock on to her's and the tension dissolves. He's left panting heavily and clamping his arms around her forearms.

"Mark!" Layla says, mouth hanging low.. "Just tell me what happened!"

His lips quiver. He forces air back into his lungs. "Layla. Why do you keep talking about humans using dark magic?"

"W-what? Uh, t-the legends. It's in a lot of them. They supposedly used all sorts of dark, 'evil' magic, stuff that is forbidden. It led to them dying out or something, or so it says in these legends. Why? Are we in danger? What's going on Mark? Please, just tell me!"