…Zeno? Hey, Zeno. Hey!
Are you… there? Um. Are you still mad about me yelling at you earlier?
…
Oh. What are you doing there then? Why were you looking at the do-
What? N-no, come on! I just got here, I don't wanna go back yet. Huh? I… no, I ate something today. I had some coffee and cookies, remember? N-no, I'm not hungry! I promise I'm…
Agh! Don't look at me like that! Like you… know something I don't, stop being so fucking smug! I am not going back, okay!? I barely feel like I got anything today from Bruce, and nothing from Annie. Of course they don't wanna share with me. That's how it always is, that's how everyone fucking treats me…!
N-no! Of course that doesn't count. Bruce was lying, and you're fucking lying too so don't take his side! He told me, remember? That can't be the…
Ugh, whatever. I'm not arguing with you about this again.
I already told you. I can eat later. Pah, no, I'm not dizzy or anything. I've been doing this since long before you came, dipshit. Wh-no, not this this, you know what I mean!
…Night? No it's not night, fuck you. Don't…
…
What? How'd I… where'd the time go? I could've sworn I came through just… a little bit ago. Yeah. Yes, I took a nap but…
Oh, shut up, I told you I'm not hungry. I don't care if this kills me a few months from now. As long as it keeps me alive today that's all I-
T-that's not the point. So what if they come to ask questions? They already did once and I told them off, it's fine. And it's not like I'd want to go back to do anything but sleep anyway, what the fuck do you think's waiting there for me besides the computer and… hgh. No, not tonight. I don't feel like I should… hold her tonight. Ha, doesn't feel safe for either of us. What was the therapist said that one time? 'Are you a danger to others or yourself?' Can you imagine if she saw me now? No, no… She's better off alone for now. I'll keep working on this until… hgh.
It has to happen soon, Zeno. I can't keep myself going for much longer. What? No, I'm not giving up, I just… I'll keep my promise to Guille, even if it's the last thing I do. Even if I'm not the one who finishes it, even if it's Chroma, it'll happen before I die. That much I can swear on.
…God. I feel sick. Even in this body I… it keeps following me. Yeah. Yeah sure, that's why, but do you blame me for not wanting to go back? There's nothing there. I could watch more of those videos, make myself sicker, ha. Or I could keep talking to all those losers… or Ollie. He said he'd be around this week, that maybe he could swing by but… no, I'm not getting my hopes up. He's nice, but… I'm not gonna pull the trigger on that anyway, who the fuck am I kidding? And I'm not gonna find mom's… hh. Fuck.
…
Let who go? Bruce and…? No, I… I can't now. They'd know it was me, Zeno, and if anything it'd just confirm the suspicions that they already had. I'd out myself as the disgusting little fuck-up I am.
…Ugh. Why'd you even bother telling me you can't lie if you keep telling me bullshit like that? I'm not stupid, I know everyone already gave up on me, so you can stop trying to convince me otherwise, okay!
What do you mean by that? You were there, you heard him! We're all forgiven from the beginning no matter what, so he already knew I'd end up like mom, he fucking knows he's gonna come back and find me there a-and…! N-no one's gonna be surprised, no one's gonna miss me or mourn me and they're all just waiting for m-me to die, they all know and you know so stop fucking lying to me! Do you know what it's like to wake up e-every day and see your own corpse r-reflected in everyone's eyes no matter what you do, no matter how sorry you are!?
Yes, yes he meant it like that, don't lie to me! Say it to my face then, tell me he's not just waiting, knowing that e-every time he opens the door he could f-find me there already… W-well, I saved him from that! I trapped him in h-his own personal little heaven so now-n-now he won't have to…
I'm already enough of a burden, okay? I don't have any money and I don't know how to pay the bills, so what's even the point? No one wants me around. T-the only people who offered to house me for a while probably just wanna fuck me a-and even Ollie…
I'm… I'm okay, I'm fine! Don't tell me to breathe, fuck off! I'm not d-done yet, I still haven't… I just need a little more time. If I can make this song perfect, then I can at least-
Huh?
…
I-I'm…
NOT!
FUCKING!
HUNGRY!
It has nothing to do with that, so shut the fuck up! I'm always like this, stop lying, stop trying to make me think I-I'm… AGHH! G-god, I wanna… fe-eel like I'm g-gonna throw up, fuck… h-haha, Zeno… Z-Zeno, I'm…
I-I'm f-a-ah…
I d-don't f-ee-eel s-so g…
Z…
… …
… … … … …
H-ah… Wh-huh?
…Ah. Shit.
How… How long was I out?
Oh. Okay, um… ah. Mew, my head. Y-yeah, help me up, shit. There.
Um, thanks. I don't know what… I-I mean I feel like I was…
I'm sorry. Fuck. Are you happy? Yeah. Yes, I'll go back and eat something, calm down. Hm? No, shut up, you're still lying. And stop bothering. It doesn't matter how many times you try to delay it, I'm… insistent too. I'll get there in the end, and there's nothing you can do about it.
Huh? No, I'm not… That's not it. I'm not letting them go, stop asking. There's no stopping this.
…Besides.
Even if I wanted to. I don't think I'd have any plans for living after that. They wouldn't forgive me. No one would.
You think I should try? Yeah, I know. Listen, I appreciate the sentiment but I don't think it would happen. Bruce might, but he's a dumbass so who c-
H-!
H-huh!? Z-Zeno! Zeno d-did you hear…?
…Back there? What? No, that's… not steps. No one can get in, you told me I was the only one…! What!? W-who else would…!?
…
Oh.
Haha, oh, shit.
U-um, the steps are getting closer. They are getting closer, right? Fuck, fuck! N-no, nonono, t-there's no way o-out behind me, I'm… gh-haha… Z-zeno, what do I do? T-they can't see me, I c-can't…
…Yeah. Y-yeah, you're right! He can take my place. That's what I have him for. That's what I…
…
Chroma. Chroma, wake up.
Yes. Yes… Today is your birthday. And I have a gift for you.
Would you like to know your life's purpose?
To say that Hope passes out mid-fall would be inaccurate. At no point does she lose consciousness; she clearly sees the hole form under her feet, then the light from above shrinking as she plummets down, Hunter's scream in her ears and her own heart frozen solid in her throat.
Then, it fizzles out. Like someone changing the channel on a T.V., yet the character on screen remains there as though the pixels forming them froze in place. There's no more light from above. Amidst the spike-sharp panic in her veins she feels the pressure and temperature in the air change. Cold. So, so much colder. She spins, facing down, instants stretching into long, crawling seconds as she thinks she's about to die. She doesn't, because something inexplicably dampens the speed of her fall.
She does, however, eat major shit when she crashes against the rocky floor that suddenly appears beneath her.
"Ghaghk!"
It's painful, there's no helping that. Hope hits the ground like a wet sack of potatoes and screams out a curse that would make even Hunter blush, her vision swimming and her skin pulsing like her heart's melted and formed a film under every inch of skin.
But she's not dead, she can tell that much. And a second after, she also realizes she doesn't have a broken bone or a strain or… anything besides a scrape and a few bruises she'll feel tomorrow. Sprawled on that dusty rock, her eyes widen at that realization. Tentatively, with a sharp inhale, she pushes against the stone and is surprised to find herself on her knees without much difficulty.
"H...Hah?"
It's the rapid, desperate flapping of wings coming from above that startle her back to reality, and into jumping to her feet all at once, pain be damned. She cranes her neck upward, eyes wide, struggling to adjust to the darkness.
"Mallard! Here, down here boy!"
She opens her arms and the Hoothoot smashes into her chest with as much force as he can muster. She wastes no time squeezing him tight against her, drawing from his warmth. Both of their hearts calm, so close to each other now.
"W-what happened?" She raises him to eye level, frowning. "Where are we? We were just falling and…"
"Hoo…"
They look up in unison, searching for a faint light that's simply not there. Wherever they fell from, it's farther away than should be physically possible.
It's only when she looks back down, into her Pokemon's eyes, that yet another idiosyncrasy from this place catches her attention. She can see him. Light, there's light somewh-
"Ah! Mew-!"
Her neck cranes as she glances over her shoulder, a bright dancing flame staring her in the face and almost giving her a heart attack. She jumps, only now feeling its heat. How the hell did she not see it before? All…
All of this… before? What?
She can't for the life of her remember seeing or hearing the flames combust to life, but they must've at some point while she wasn't paying attention. They're torches. Rows and rows of them, held high by small Pokemon statues standing atop pillars of stone, lining up the length of wherever the hell she is now. A cave? No, it's manmade, that's for sure. Pristine walls of carved rock form a long, claustrophobic hallway in front and behind her, stretching endlessly until the farthest torches are but little specks in the distance.
"Is this… still the ruins?"
It's the same behind her as she turns around, only now she sees there are small gaps in the carved walls. Entrances toward… other samey corridors. Also illuminated by Pokemon statues carrying torches. Also painted with thousands upon thousands of Unown stretching into infinity. Like an underground maze.
Despite the weirdness of the situation, or maybe because of it, it's a worryingly casual observation that leaves her mouth next.
"I feel like I've seen statues like that before," she whispers to Mallard. "They look kinda like Rhydon, don't they?"
"Phoo…"
She can tell Mallard isn't in the mood for those kinds of observations, and she can't blame him. It's only by focusing on this little thing, then slowly stretching her senses outward, that she manages not to freak out. One step at a time. She can do this, she's not lost or stranded forever or about to die, she's… just in another part of the ruins, somehow. She can find a way out.
"...Speaking those words must've brought me here," she decided, playing back the last few minutes in her mind. "Maybe… This is what Bell was looking for. Oh Mew, I hope I can get back so I can tell her… Just what did I get myself into?"
"Hoot!"
"Right, yes. Ourselves."
She lets go of Mallard so he can perch on her shoulder, then looks down at the Pokegear on her wrist, squinting at the irregular light of the flames falling upon the screen. It still works. Her heart jumps in excitement for a moment, before she unlocks the screen and sees the 'no signal' symbol on the top right.
"...Damn."
Throwing her hands down with a huff, she gives the scenery around her one last look, carefully, trying to catch anything that might point back home. No such luck, unfortunately. The statues are all exactly the same, and while the amount and types of Unown painted onto the murals differ from one to the other, she honestly can't make out a single formed sentence or even a word out of them. It's completely random, as far as she can tell.
No, wait… no, it's nothing. A few seem to appear more often than the others. A-C-G-T-Z… that's all, she thinks. Maybe they were the favorites of the people who painted these? No, it doesn't matter. She's probably just seeing patterns where there are none.
"Mhm. Okay, I think we should… start moving," she finally decides. "Doesn't feel like anyone's gonna find us here. What do you think, Mallard?"
With a bit of nervousness to his chirp, the Hoothoot points his wing forward then pecks at her cheek in response. She giggles at the tickling.
"Okay Mr. Navigator, I'm counting on you," she says with more confidence than she actually feels. "Get us back home and I promise I'll buy you so many flavored pellets you'll grow like a Spheal."
"Hoo!"
It doesn't take long for Hope and Mallard to feel like someone or something is watching them, which at first is easy to attribute to the literal thousands of painted eyes set squarely on them. But the more Hope walks -and pointedly doesn't find an end to this place- the more she suspects the source of that feeling is somewhere behind them. Somewhere in the darkness that doesn't seem to retreat as much as it should against the flickering of the flames.
Thankfully for her mental state, she's become somewhat of an expert at ignoring that which she doesn't want to think about.
"Hay un destino que no tiene pruebas, por eso esta historia…" Hope sings under her breath, rocking Mallard back and forth against her chest to the rhythm of the song. "Puede que muera con una verdad olvidada en tu memoria… Será un camino que no tiene huella?" she looks down at the Hoothoot, as though asking him the question. "La suerte que le ha tocado a la estrella que… te ha… de guiar…"
"Hoo-hoot-hoo…"
There's no way Mallard's peanut brain is allowing him to hoot along to the song, but Hope believes he's making the effort nonetheless, because the thought of it calms her. It's Guille's favorite, and it's never failed to calm her frenzied heart whenever the worst of her mind drew arms against her. It's fine, the song tells her. There's a light at the end of these tunnels. There must be, right? Like, realistically speaking. She ought to hit a wall at some point, and then she can use it to guide herself along to an exit and-
"Hoot!" Mallard chirps suddenly, very loud.
"FUCK!" Hope responds and jumps in place, hugging Mallard hard enough to squeeze the air from his tiny lungs. Every mental barrier she's erected shatters all at once. "M-Mallard! For fff…Mew's sake, don't scare me like that!" she shrieks, heart in her throat. "G-god, you almost…"
"Hrrroo! Hoot-hoo!"
"What? What are you hooting a…at…?"
There is an eye staring at her when she turns around. An actual, floating, fleshy eye standing out from the darkness by how blindingly stark and unblinking it is. She catches it on the edge of her vision, and ices in place. Then, slowly, not once blinking, as though the thing would disappear if she did, Hope turns around and focuses it on the very center of her vision, unfortunately confirming that no, it is not an optical illusion.
Hope stares, and the eye stares and the light of the flames does not reflect on it, and Hope notices it and finds it very hard to breathe all of a sudden, each inhalation coming in sharp like tiny trickles of lightning carving their way up her lungs. For a second that is definitely too long, she thinks she's about to die. And then for some reason her stupid brain reminds her of something Hunter once told her.
If you ever find yourself in trouble, aim for the balls, his voice resounds crystal clear in her mind. It honestly never fails.
It's stupid, but Hope does squint to make sure the eye doesn't have a body or… well, parts she could kick at should it come to it. Of course there's nothing.
Cool. Thanks, brain, I knew you were gonna get me killed one of these days.
Before some delirious part of her mind can answer with a 'You're welcome' the eye finally, finally blinks, and it's like a thousand kilograms are lifted from Hope's shoulders. She gets a lungful of air into her, and the sudden intake of oxygen must restart her brain, because an obvious realization dawns on her then.
"Oh," she whispers. "Unown, right. Dios santo, I'm so stupid…" She closes her eyes and grabs onto a statue not to fall from the flood of sheer relief. "Um… hi? S-sorry, you kinda scared me."
The last of her fear disappears as the creature floats toward her, the torches finally reflecting off its tiny, vowel-shaped body. It's… that's an A, right? She's pretty sure. Not that she wants to stop and cross-reference it with all the painted ones around her, she doesn't need to be that sure.
Mallard squirms and uselessly tries to free his wings from her embrace, a sound like a growl rising up his throat and the feathers on the back of his head rising up.
"Hey! Behave, this is a friend," Hope scolds him, and the Hoothoot obeys, if only momentarily. He still stares daggers at their new visitor. "That's better. So-um… hi? How are you? I-I'm Hope by the way, Hope Oesterling, do you have a name? Or would it be just 'A', you know? Haha… S-sorry, I'm a little nervous. You can um… say something, if you'd like. Can you say something…?"
The Unown doesn't move much during her ten-second rambling, though it does start floating around her in slow circles, never taking its eye… or itself wholly, off her. And all the while, Hope feels…
Well. It's complicated, as always.
There are official, smarty-pants words you could use to describe the thing she does mentally with Pokemon, the stray threads of psionic energy she gets a faint aftertaste of, the shed skin of their mindscape flashing briefly through her senses… but she's all but forgotten those terms in the many years since her diagnosis, since those snooty League psychics explained it all to her. It's stronger the more developed a Pokemon's psyche is, or the more attached she is with them.
It's probably the former with this little guy, because she's picking up on a lot, and by very pointedly not trying to.
It's static in her tongue from that one time she licked a happy meal toy when she was eight, and later learned it was because they're doused in a repellent chemical so that kids wouldn't swallow them. It's the feeling of laying on her stomach in front of the T.V., channel-hopping with a big smile on her face. It's skittering electricity climbing up a radio cable. It's a hundred thousand voices all melting together into what is paradoxically pure silence, like mixing every single color to end up with white. It's also white, the color itself, the heat and sharpness of it, searing her mindscape something awful.
Every muscle in Hope's face tenses in an effort to shut herself off from that feeling, and she somewhat succeeds. Enough to be functional, at least.
"You're very loud for being mute, you know that?"
Unown blinks in response, but in a way that she can tell is… surprised? Like it didn't expect for her to realize…
"Wait… You can tell I'm picking up on that stuff?"
It blinks again, immediately after her question, which confirms it. Hope's mouth falls into a little 'O', and she momentarily forgets about her predicament because this is a first for sure.
"I've never met a Pokemon that could…" She takes a step forward, eyes wide, excited. "Um… Sorry, it's a lot, what you're putting out. If you had any other form of communicating… But we can use blinking! Blinking's fine. I can ask you questions and you can…"
Her sentence trails off, because she notices something odd in the Unown's movements. It squints, the eyelid… tensing? With effort, she's pretty sure. And it's body starts to shake ever so slightly, as though-
"-Tshk!"
"Ahh!"
Hope jumps back, letting go of Mallard and almost throwing the back of her head straight into the torch behind her. But it's hard not to, as the Pokegear in her hand comes to life all of a sudden. It's a sharp, crackly feeling like the one that comes out whenever she turns on the radio. Swallowing her heart back into her chest, she looks down at the device,all the while Mallard nervously flaps his wings behind her, eyes set on the Unown.
"W-what? Did you turn it on? It's…"
Her eyes fly open at the sight of the three little bars coming to life on the top right corner of the screen.
"I-I have a signal! Did…" She cranes her neck to look at the Unown, voice a whisper. "Did you do that?"
Before she can even lift a finger to call Hunter or Bell or anyone else, the Home screen is replaced by the radio app as its installation card lights up and turns on inside the device all on its own. Another burst of static breaks through the silence. Then, the bright white line marked with all the available frequencies starts scrolling rapidly back and forth, the number at the top increasing and decreasing at random intervals, as though searching for a specific broadcast. A scratchy, incomprehensible cacophony of voices fills the air, making Hope wince and Mallard start hooting in protest.
"W-what are you doing?" She can only whisper, keeping the arm with the Pokegear at a healthy distance. "H-hey, go easy on this! It's too loud, try to-"
"Tshk!-And you can say goodbye to those pesky stains and Hello to your new kitch-Tshk!"
Hope seizes up, not only because the radio finally stops on a frequency for more than a second, but also because the man's voice distorts something fierce the moment he says 'Hello'. Then the static returns, but this time for only a moment before another voice resounds. A woman's this time, then another, then an older gentleman's.
"-Tshk!-ount your lucky stars because we have an unbelievable discount on meats and cl-Tshk!-if what you want is to make new friends then don't miss-Tshk!-investigations are still pending, with clues being found in unlikely places within-Tshk!"
Her eyes grow increasingly wider with each incomplete sentence blaring out of her Pokegear, the distorted, shrieky segments within each one forming together into a sentence in her head. The moment she realizes that, her face brightens. Like a kid being given a big, shiny present to unravel.
"Haha…hahaha-no way! Are you serious!?" She looks into the squinting creature, currently shaking hard with effort. "You can talk? Through the radio!?"
The reply comes after a moment, a familiar young voice bursting through the static, belonging to some girl from Violet's radio network whose name she doesn't remember.
"-Tshk!-if you want the most vibrant green for your Vileplume's leaves then you must consider a Vitamin D substitute during the winter months. It's not easy to come across one that is safe for Pokemon consumption but-Tshk!" After that, another couple frequencies follow in quick succession. "-we must remember that words matter for-Tshk!-eryone knows that Ursa-rings are a dummy yummy treat for your stom-Tshk!-and I wouldn't mind but they make it quite diffi-Tshk!-she was my everything and-Tshk!-as an injury it doesn't hurt quite as much as-Tshkshshjhhhhhh-!"
A sudden, electric shiver seems to course through the Unown then, it's eye shooting wide and the iris bouncing within the borders. The voices in the radio get jumbled, chaotic, then degenerate almost entirely into what almost sounds like… a voice.
"Tshkkkshh!-hhhh-hurt-hurt-hurtyyuruhuuyuhuuuyhuuyur-shhhhelloh-hellhoohoelloHLL! HLHEH! HLHUHLHUELLOHLOH!"
Hope takes a sudden step forward, raising a hand toward the Unown. "H-hey, it's fine! It's okay buddy, you don't have to push yourself! Slow breaths, okay? Um-can you breathe? Just calm down…"
It's like a bunch of syllables from a dozen different people are being mashed together then endlessly repeated through the speaker in random intervals, and while not as unpleasant as the static it's still a lot in these particular circumstances. The Unown keeps at it for a few seconds, all the while Hope tries in vain to shush it into silence, until finally it snaps out of it just as fast as it had started.
"Hhhoooehhehoehodrllgoouuuuehueh-BIRD!" The sudden, crystal-clear scream catches her off guard. It sounds almost like a glitching computer finally escaping the endless loop it'd trapped itself into. "Tshk!-Thank you for listening and-Tshk!-asked her to please don't let me locked outs-Tshk!-trying to not fall into the sewers beneath-Tshk!"
After that last burst, the radio quiets down into its normal hum, leaving Hope very confused and a little bit concerned.
"I… won't let that happen to you, don't worry." She tries to sound genuine, even though she's pretty sure there aren't any sewers nearby. "Are you okay? You don't have to push yourself just to give an answer, just take it easy yeah?"
The Unown spins on itself, its eye always set on her.
"-Tshk!-and a big scoop of ice cream for your worries-Tshk!"
"...Cool."
Hope chooses to believe that's a yes, and in the ensuing silence she's finally able to take more than a couple consequent breaths, slowly reigning in her heartbeat. The adrenaline of the situation and the excitement of meeting a new friend are still fresh and hot in her veins, mouth is dry and tasting of dust. It takes her a good few seconds to trim the dozens of thoughts buzzing in her head into a manageable few, but Mallard is always patient and, thankfully, so is Unown apparently.
First she checks if she can connect to her messenger app or call anyone. Nope. Whatever Unown's doing to the signal, it only works with radio. But that's fine, she can think of other ways the little bugger can help.
"Okay. Okay!" She takes in a deep breath, hyping herself up. "This is great, this is actually really really good! I didn't break every bone in my body in that fall and I met you, buddy! And maybe you can even help me find the exit and then I can show you to Bell and everyone wins. That'd be nice, right? Yeah. Okay…"
Hands on her hips, she takes in the endlessly repeating scenery before her one last time, nodding to herself.
"First things first," she says with a sigh, looking back at Unown. "Do you have a name? Like, you specifically."
The hum of the radio remains constant and monotone. Unown's eyelid droops ever so slightly, though it's hard to tell which emotion it's meant to represent.
"No? Well…" It's hard to hide the giddiness in her voice. "Want me to give you one? Oh! How about-"
"-Tshk!-これからいっしょにがんばろう-Tshk!"
"O-oh?"
It's Kantan, her brain tells her, then takes another second to also provide the translation, though halfway through mouthing it she realizes it's not really needed. What she's looking for is phonetic.
"Work togeth…? No, wait, Kore! Your name's Kore?"
Another half blink, and with this one it looks away from her for the first time. For a moment anyway.
"You weren't being coy, you were just searching for a frequency that could…" She laughed, shaking her head. "You're amazing. Okay, Kore, nice to meet you! I'm Hope, like I said before. And this here is Mallard. He's also very glad to meet you, aren't you Mallard?"
Landing back on her shoulder, Mallard squints at the intruder suspiciously. Though to Hope's relief, he stops himself from going straight to pecking, which is his response to most anything that bothers him.
"We're from Violet, very near here," she continues explaining. "And we kind of… ended up here without meaning to. And don't get me wrong! Your place is super cool and spooky, but I kind of… left a friend back there, and he's probably freaking out really bad right now. Would you happen to know the way to the exit? I'd really appreciate it…"
Kore spins until its two little legs are pointing up and starts shaking with effort. Hope smiles expectantly as voices come to life from the static of the radio.
"-Tshk!-and I asked him can I please sleep in the-Tshk!-new line of fridges from-Tshk!-say your last prayers tonight, bucko-Tshk!"
Hope's smile drops. "U-um…"
"-Tshk!-guard our rear and I'll lead the way to th-Tshk!"
"Oh! Yes, good." She breathes a sigh of relief. "Yes, you can sleep in the fridge or whatever you want if you get me out. So um… You first?"
Keeping one hand on Mallard just in case, she steps aside and lets the Unown float toward the same direction she'd been heading before. As she swiftly follows, she sees it turn on the first hallway on the right. The cavern they emerge into looks practically identical to the one before, but Kore doesn't slow down so she trusts this is the way out.
On the way she tries to make some small talk, mentioning Hunter and Bell and the mission she brought them here to help with, but Kore rarely responds. And when it does it's with a barrage of complete non-sequiturs like: 'Three more Sentret in the hole', 'It's stinky in here!', 'Remember to brush your Miltank' and 'Did you know that Tentacruel can go as far underwater as 120.00000000000000sorrysryhsrhyhshthysuuuhryhrhyushuurhyhhuurrrysuuruhro-MILES PER HOUR ON YOUR BRAND NEW CAR!'. That last one had been hard on the poor thing. Hope can't blame it, sometimes her brain short-circuits like that too.
She figures they've been walking for about ten minutes when a sudden sound breaks up the monotony, sharp and urgent.
A ringtone.
"Ah!"
Kore makes the radio spit a burst of loud static at the sound. It shoots up for a moment only to then hide under Hope's arm, sticking to her sleeve. Mallard hoots aggressively and rustles his feathers, but Hope just shushes him into silence.
"Hey, it's fine! It's just my 'gear, we must've gotten close enough to the exit that I have signal now," she explains. "That for sure must be Hunt-"
But when she raises her wrist to look at the screen, there's nothing. Only the radio, still stuck in the valley between frequencies, spitting out a low, constant hum. Hope blinks, her mind freezing for a moment. Where-?
The next ring gives her the answer, realization washing over her. She lets out a little 'Oh!' then grabs the little bag hanging from her shoulder and unzips it, pulling something out right as the next ring comes.
Bell's Pokegear. She'd completely forgotten she had it. She'd been meaning to fix it while they were waiting for her in the ruins, but between that wall puzzle and then all of this…
"Thank goodness it didn't break during the fall," she whispers. "But who could be calling…?"
Unknown, the screen reads. Nothing more, besides the accept and ignore buttons. Hope's voice trails off, and for a moment she hesitates before pressing the button, her next blink coming slower, the light of the torches around her making her eyes itch. Kore remains stuck to her sleeve, completely still. But no… Why wouldn't she answer? She's already lost, how could it make things any worse?
Shaking her head at her dumb bout of fear, she presses the green button and sends it up, the entire screen lighting up that color for a moment as the call comes through.
"Hello?" she asks immediately, voice shaking a little. "Um…"
But there's no voice, not even a sound coming from the other side. That's when Hope remembers, and groans in irritation.
"Right, Bell said the speaker didn't work. Shit…" She licks her lips, still feeling them dry, and speaks into the call once more. "Hunter? Anyone? I c-can't hear you if you're talking, but I'm fine. I'm down here somewhere in th-"
"T-thirteen…"
A voice crawls out of the speakers, moribund. The last of someone's strength attempting to cut through the jaws of silence closing in around them.
"Th…" The voice struggles. It's one Hope knows, she thinks, but amidst how quiet it is and how deafening her heartbeat is, she can't be sure. "Thir…teen. P-point five…"
"Thirteen… point five?" she repeats softly. "W-what is-?"
But the call is cut before she finishes asking, and the three of them are alone with only the walls and the crackling of the flames again. She blinks, then exchanges a quick glance with Mallard. Beside her, Kore delicately floats out from beneath her arm, staring at the device with caution.
"...What the fuck, even?"
Hope doesn't like swearing, but she can't help but let that out. Shaking her head at the absurdity of it all, she puts Bell's Pokegear back in her little bag and sighs, lost in thought for a moment.
"Do you know what that was about, Kore?"
But no reply comes, no wave in the calm water that is the low hum of the radio. Hearing it now, however, Hope feels an idea start to emerge, and once again she brings her Pokegear up, grabbing the sides with her other hand.
"Thirteen point five. That could be a radio station, huh?" she asks, but once again gets no answer. "Let's see."
She pinches the little dial on the side of the device between two fingers and slowly turns it clockwise, drawing a sound from the radio like a tape being fast-forwarded. As expected, she doesn't see a line notched where 13.5 should be, which means there's nothing fixed on that frequency..
And yet when she stops it there, it stays. And what's more, a sound other than the low hum of static erupts out of the speakers.
"Hh!"
It's a wavy, shivering sound at first, like a mix between a whistle and some kind of wind instrument. In the short instant before it fades, and a full second before the next sound comes, the oddly calm thought crosses Hope's panicked brain that… It sounds familiar. Because she's heard it before. Because it's clearly the underlying sound that distorts the words from the radio that Kore uses to communicate.
It's a cry.
That instant of understanding stretches for a full second, and then time resumes with a jolt. Hope takes a step back in the space between heartbeats, and she feels Mallard's talons close tighter around her shoulder. Kore visibly shivers, its eye opening even wider, if that's even possible.
And then, from the frequency that by all means shouldn't exist, music plays. The instrument Hope thought she heard a second ago comes to life. A flute.
Dust shakes and vibrates along the walls, along the carvings, the stone itself creaking as though trying to free itself from solidity. The fire soon follows, waving and twisting on itself with no wind to carry it. It pulses, louder and brighter, coming apart at the seams. The entire cavern groans, the earth waking up from its slumber.
But Hope doesn't notice at first, too entranced by the melody being played. It doesn't last more than a few seconds, a few discordant notes dripping from the instrument like blood from an open wound. It's wrong and beautiful and makes her temples throb, and by the time it ends it's like she's woken up from a dream -blinking away the trance and taking her first breath in a while- and into a nightmare.
Because suddenly they're not alone, and the entire world feels like it's shaking. She doesn't know how she's failed to notice.
She's surrounded by Unown now. They're pulling out of the walls, dislodging themselves from their likeness, blinking hazily as though waking up. Leaving holes in the stone where they emerged from.
"W-what?"
Up and inward they float, pulled by some sort of magnetic force placed right above Hope. It pulls them out of the stone at first. Every carving, every painting becoming that which it meant to represent, and for a moment Hope holds on to the idea that's all it'll be, just a few hundred, maybe a few thousand Unown waking up from their slumber.
But then the first of them emerges from matter that does not represent it, and everything starts going to hell.
Hope can only whimper at the sight. It's the walls that disintegrate first, breaking apart into countless of them as they're pulled into the spinning, pulsing maelstrom of Unown above her. They all stare inward, into the empty center where the sound of that flute evaporated. Where a knife of wrong divineness has been stabbed into the fabric of reality. It beats, deafening Hope for a second, and then all the fires in the torches go out.
No, they don't go out, Hope realizes in horror. They break, unraveling into more of them. She can feel the ground soon following, crumbling under her feet, and then she sees Kore. Even in the complete darkness she's been plunged into, the white of its eyes is as clear as day as it starts being pulled upward as well, sucked in.
"No," she whispers, less a cry than a statement. Her eyes shoot wide open and her body comes to life in a blur of motion and panic. "No!"
Faster than she's ever sprung to movement before, she jumps and grabs Kore's little leg with one hand, while the other closes around Mallard's roundness atop her shoulder. There's a second of tension where she thinks she might be pulled up as well. But then Kore breaks off from that force, and her feet hit the ground. She lurches forward, takes a fast, deep breath and then secures both Pokemon tightly against her chest.
"H-hold on tight!"
She turns around and hits the ground running, as fast as her legs can manage. It's dark, she knows. At any moment they could run straight into a wall, and it's the opposite way to the exit, but her body doesn't care about any of that. She's barely breathing, and she can feel both Pokemon shivering against her embrace, Mallard not quite as eager to pick a fight with Kore now.
Her next heartbeat comes, but she doesn't hear it, nor the thump of her hurried steps. Above and behind, the storm of Unown swallows all sound within the gash of nothingness at their core, spinning in growing and shrinking concentric circles around it, humming something that Hope doesn't hear with her ears, but feels whirring in her bones and deep in her brain.
Some sort of song.
It pulls apart at the seams of the world, unraveling the walls and ceiling, even the floor quickly disappearing behind Hope. She feels it, with every step and sharp inhalation. The pressure drops, air tightens inside her lungs. That… thing at the center of the Unown contracts further and further, each heartbeat weaker, like a muscle tensing to its limit.
Hope runs, until she can't hear the blood in her ears, until she can't feel her feet touching the ground on her next step, until even the dusty smell and taste of the air disappear from her surroundings. She doesn't know if she's tripped, if she's falling or fallen or dead. She closes her eyes that no longer see and screams at the top of her lungs, but even that sound is snuffed from her lungs, alongside what remains of her senses.
…
The next beat comes, and all of it returns to her in a wave. She stumbles forward, gasping, almost face-planting the stony floor. But before she can even stumble her next step, she feels it.
Behind her, the sphere of nothingness expands like a bomb going off. It swallows all on its path, and soon it's upon Hope, who can't even turn to see it as it washes over her faster than she can blink.
"Ahhh!"
And then it's past her, and she's…
Not dead, as she confirms with her next blink. Nor falling into the endless abyss, though there's no longer a floor to support her.
"Hhh-ghahh…"
Little hooks of static nibble at her skin and the muscles underneath, making her spasm in little uncontrollable shakes all over, blood almost completely gone from her face. She doesn't let go of Mallard or Kore. Even when she finally sees it over her shoulder, even when her legs threaten to give in and the cold, ruthless weight of impossibility shoves its hand into her throat and pulls what little air she's managed to gulp in.
She holds onto them for dear life as she turns on her feet and comes face to face with a gargantuan, all-encompassing spire of red light and freezing mist.
"..."
"G…gh…"
Alive. That's the first word that crosses the frozen blankness that is her mind at that moment. Even before she first blinks, before her brain can even try to process the sight before her, she knows she's being seen.
And when that thought crosses her mind, it solidifies before her. Whether because she actually notices it or because her brain is grasping at whatever pattern it can hold onto to give the impossibility before her an understandable shape, it doesn't matter. The ocean of rolling dark mist and the jagged shards of crimson light floating within it come together behind Hope's eyes to form… something. A figure.
It becomes clearer with her next blink, and then the next, and finally she can inhale again. The air tastes like nothing but cold, but she'll take it with how itchy with heat her skin and blood is. Though right now she's even grateful for that. Standing up to her full height, she hugs her friends tighter and squints.
A miniature sun burns with a red so bright it's almost blinding, staring at her, an eye. Beside it, another much larger shard of light almost seems to form half a crown atop the one eye, but then sharply bleeds up and down the left of its face like a spear, covering where the other eye would be. The third, largest crimson shard lies within the swirling spire of that dark mist that would be its torso, opening up in pointy, jagged petals of light from within a triangular core, almost reminding Hope of a Gardevoir's heart.
The red hue from those shards seems to almost fall around its shoulders like a cloak. And from behind its eye and crown, the mist sprawls down and outward like clouds rolling down a waterfall, a long, flowing mane of what Hope can't help but see as hair.
It's with those realizations that her other senses, having lagged behind, return all at once and she notices something else about the impossible entity before her. It's singing.
It's a deep, feminine voice like emptiness itself, like drops of water falling down a big chasm. Its… no, her song is not one to rouse, but to quiet. To lull tempests and put out stars in the-
As soon Hope blinks, that thought gets away from her and she shakes her head, confused. How did she know that? What…?
"W… Who are you?"
It's the smallest her voice's ever been, she and the two Pokemon in her arms iced to the ground, fearful of breaking the entity's song. But she can't help but ask. Yet she doesn't get an immediate answer. The mountain of rolling mist pulls back and the crimson light pulses softly, her one eye closing for a moment as her song deepens, her incorporeal head swaying ever so slightly from side to side.
Above, Hope catches a glimpse… no, many glimpses of something. At first she thinks they're stars, and they might as well be that far away from how small they look compared to the impossibly massive entity before her, but no. They're Unown. They dot the inky sky with splotches of white from their eyes, floating and blinking endlessly down at them, at the scar in reality they've summoned to lull them back into sleep.
"Um…" That thought urges Hope to ask, because it's the only way her brain can make sense of any of this. "A-are you the one w-who controls the Unown? O-or makes them?"
The singing stops. It's not abrupt, simply the end of one hum which does not roll into another. The mist expands, as though the entity were exhaling deeply, and then her eye opens once more, boring into her.
"..."
"I-I…'m sorry, I-"
Once again, it's not a sound, not something that can be picked up by her ears. But they are words, and they appear bright and crackly in her brain like someone shoving a flashlight in front of her face. She staggers back, so overwhelmed she almost doesn't process them.
Why are you here?
Kore stills against her, though Mallard's fearful quietness doesn't change. That makes Hope realize that not just anyone would be able to hear this… To hear her. She swallows, ignoring the urge to drop on the floor and get in the fetal position, and somehow finds it in her to answer.
"I-I didn't mean to…" She tries to look for the words. "J-just stumbled here, the radio… I'm s-sorry."
Whether she's understood or not, it's hard to say. The next burst of words that cleave into her brain like a knife of static don't make it clear either.
You are not doomed.
Hope blinks, taken off guard. "U-um… I hope not?"
I foresaw… another, not you. Do you wish the same as the last child?
Even though her voice is but a hundred million threads of angry, luminescent noise inside her brain, Hope can almost feel a sigh in that question. Sadness.
"What?"
I can take your heart, like I did -'s. Have one of my children guard it with its life, until they you choose is willing to accept it. To make their chest its new home.
Hope doesn't know how to answer, other than to simply stare at that heart of crimson light in a confused daze, reeling. The entity seems to nod, her one eye closing again.
Then would you make a wish of your own?
Wish. That word again, hitting her like an arrow this time, waking her up from the trance she's in. Hope blinks and inhales sharply, straightening up as a dozen thoughts run through her head. Old memories, stories she's heard as a child. Rhymes she used to love, but not quite believe until…
"I… is it true, then?" she asks, voice wavering with fear. "Y-you can… grant wishes?"
She doesn't answer. Her eye opens halfway, like sunlight being filtered through a small window. All is deathly quiet.
"C-can you…?"
No logical part of her brain is involved in what comes out of her mouth next. Horror and confusion freeze her on the spot, climbing up the nerves of her body until even her mind feels numb, but this sparks something in her. A door left closed in her heart. A question like an open wound, left to fester for over a year. And no one would give her an answer, and no one would acknowledge it eating away at her from the inside until…
Until she simply had to learn to live with it. Her pain ignored, waved away as simple grief instead of… this. Whatever this is. Not knowing. Always having a part of her thinking that just maybe, he wasn't…
Her own namesake, turned against her, wrapped like a rope around her neck. So who could blame her for asking?
"Can you tell me?" she begs, lips wavering, nothing on her mind but the question behind her lips. "Where's… Guille? W-what happened to him? Is he…?"
The next few seconds grow long, stretched by a silence crawling on its stomach like a soon to be dead man. When the voice stabs into Hope's mind again, she detects a hint of regret in the burning static.
…a wound at the center of the world, isn't he? She asks no one. Do you wish to know? Truly?
"Yes!" Hope screams, raw and desperate. Adrenaline and motion force her to take a step forward, thawing the fear freezing her in place. "A-anything, I'd do anything, please tell me!"
…Why?
The question catches Hope off guard. How is she supposed to…?
"Because… I have to know," she argues, laughing weakly. "I h-have to! And so does Bell…" she adds, embarrassed that it's taken her this long to remember the person that Guille meant the most to. "She deserves to know! I-if she, if we don't then we can't… We won't be able to… You know?"
There's a shudder in the mist, rolling waves straightening up for just a second, the entity's eye widening ever so slightly.
Bell?
Surprised… no, confounded. Hope picks up on it, but she doesn't care. She takes another step forward, carried by momentum alone as she feels her heart coming back to life inside her chest.
"So, can you!?"
I can, she says, blinking away the confusion. And in return… will you stop her? The child that came before you?
"What?" she asks, only a moment after remembering what the entity has already told her. "Who was here already?"
I cannot tell.
The muscle under Hope's cheek tweaks in irritation. "Well… What did they ask for?"
Her wish? I cannot tell. But in my child's attempt to fulfill it, hell will be brought down to Earth in retribution, and many will die.
"Wh…!?" That is not the answer she's expecting. It's almost enough to make her forget completely about her wish. "W-why?"
Because it's what you deserve.
Hope staggers at that. There's no malice in her statement, but there's no kindness either, it's simply a fact to her. Hope can't quite bring herself to ask what she means by that, too distracted by the possibility of…
"A-and, you want me to stop this person?"
I want nothing to do with you, the entity answers casually. You will attempt this, and you will fail. So will the other child. And in the end, you will either die or learn the truth you seek, and lose your heart in the process. The entirety of you will not survive this ordeal, one way or the other.
"..." Hope's eyes widen for a second, then the skin around them tenses with anger. Her grip on Mallard and Kore tightens. "...I doubt that," she whispers. "I'm a tough girl. I said I'd do anything, and I mean it."
There's no response to that. Only a moment of silence that could be seen as mournful, then the entity calling out to someone who's not Hope. A familiar name, spoken with emotion for once.
Kore.
"Wh-!"
Hope can't stop the Unown from flying out of her grasp, floating up toward the entity and stopping right in front of the mist and burning light that one could mistake for her face. It blinks, leaning from side to side as though trying to communicate. It's then that Hope realizes it's practically the same, that psychic feedback she kept getting from Kore that was like nails on a chalkboard, it's just a smaller, much more garbled version of this… thing's voice in her head. Even then though, she can't seem to pick up on what Kore's saying.
The entity responds nonetheless, and this time Hope can't quite catch it. It's a whisper. A stray thought that flies through her brain, in through one ear and out through the other. Kore replies with a noise of its own, and only then does the reply reach her.
I see. Then I'll trust you to see this tale to its bitter end.
Kore shoots up happily, and its sudden outburst of emotion is picked up by the radio on Hope's Pokegear, a stray handful of words falling off the speakers.
"-Tshk!-and take a fat sip of that!-Tshk!"
Incredibly, the entity narrows her eye and laughs. It's such a sharp yet harmonious sound, like waves on an ocean of static. The kindness in her voice then is nothing like when she addressed Hope before.
I love you too, my child. Keep this one safe from your sibling, won't you?
"Wh-what are you talking ab-?"
Everything goes black before Hope can finish asking the question. The crimson lights go out all at once, and though she's suddenly plunged into complete darkness she can feel the mist and the cold rushing inward toward a specific point above them, being sucked in at an incredible speed. She opens her mouth to gasp, to scream, but once again her air is stolen from her lungs, and-
…
And she's back. She doesn't fall, like she thinks she does for a second, but instead wakes back up to reality with a painful, sobering jolt.
"AH!"
First thing she does is check if Mallard is there, and indeed he still rests between her arms, every feather in his body ruffled something fierce. But he's there, alive. She can feel him shivering against her.
"Hhah…"
A tension she didn't know she was shouldering evaporates from her body, leaving her dizzy and weightless. It takes effort and a wide stance to avoid falling on her butt. The air comes in thin for a few seconds, until she can breathe normally again.
"K… Kore?"
The Unown makes its presence known with more static from her Pokegear, and as she turns around to welcome it she notices that they're not in the same place as before. She sees a staircase behind Kore. It's wide enough to accommodate at least five people, made of the same material as the rest of the caverns underneath the ruins, the same identical torches lining up the walls going down to where she is. Here, however, there are no Unown carvings to be seen.
Realizing that down here must be somewhere, Hope then turns her neck the opposite way and comes face to face with… the end of the road.
"Huh?"
A gate? It's not wood or metal but dark, almost burnt-looking stone, carved into what looks like a pair of twin doors easily thrice as tall as her, and as wide as the cavern itself. The edges of the carvings are eroded by time, and she can't make out what any of them are meant to be.
She unconsciously takes a step closer, then another, her brain so overwhelmed and heart pulled in so many directions that it's all she can think to do. But before she can reach the doors, she hears something on the other side. Hurried steps. A hushed, quiet voice echoing through the stone and dust.
Someone's on the other side, and judging by what that… entity has told her, Hope can imagine whom it may be. Not that it stops her from calling out, of course.
"Hi? Is anyone there?"
On the other side, all goes deathly silent. Impatient and, by now, overwhelmed beyond the capacity to be scared, Hope sighs and steps forward, pressing her palm against the doors.
The stone whirrs something fierce, a deep earthly roar as the twin doors begin parting before she can apply any pressure against them. A chilly wind blows from within, forcing Hope to squint at the growling darkness. There are no torches inside, yet the ones behind her cast a pale light onto the guts of the cavern, crawling forward and outward, until the tail of it reaches someone's shoes, then starts crawling up their legs.
Hope curses under her breath and-
And I will take it from here.
Dust may inevitably return to dust, and ashes to ashes. The truth may be destined to rise to the surface, its outline already visible from above the waves… But I will not allow the words to be said, setting that truth in stone, placing it like nails upon her coffin. Not before it's time, not for those undeserving.
If someone is to extract her still-beating heart, they will do so already knowing its shape, what it hides underneath. They will do so lovingly, mournfully. Or they won't do so at all, and she will die regardless. And so will Violet, hung by the weight of its sins.
The scope of this catastrophe, then, will ultimately fall on your shoulders, Hope.
Keep that in mind as we go along, yes?