Spark sank down the wall of the tunnel as soon as he was out of sight of the crystal chamber. He pressed his cheek against the cool stone, trying to get some relief for the throbbing welt that had been left there by Resolute. If only he could soothe his wounded heart as easily.

It hadn't really been Blanche. Those words weren't really theirs. He had to hold tight to this knowledge, or he'd drown in his own vicious, cycling thoughts. They'd been forced to say those terrible things, to drive those knifelike words into him, and it was all because of that mad woman in the lab coat. He'd suspected as much early on in the conversation, but hadn't known for sure until the moment before the vine struck his face. Blanche's façade had slipped, as he'd hoped it would, and the shock and agony in their eyes gave them away.

And yet, for a few minutes, his nightmares had been real. Sure, it had felt pretty damn wonderful to stand up to crazy-lab-coat-lady back in the maze, but she'd definitely gotten to him. Yes, for a few minutes, he could hear how absurd his own insecurities sounded as they poured out of someone else's mouth, but that wasn't really new. He'd told himself a thousand times that his thoughts weren't always founded on reality, but that never seemed to stop them. And then to witness Blanche speak the very words his anxiety-addled mind had so often imagined… It had nearly shattered him.

"But it wasn't real," Spark whispered to himself, trying to swim against the rampant whirlpool of his thoughts. He couldn't be sucked down by them. No matter how much it hurt, no matter how devastating it was in the moment, the entire scene had been staged. Now that he knew that, he could act on it. He had to calm down and come up with a plan, for Blanche and Candela's sake. He couldn't stand the thought of them going through something like he'd just experienced, but that seemed to be the mystery scientist's game.

His introspection was disrupted by a distant, building rumble. Another earthquake? The walls and floor began to shake, and Spark covered his head as small stones broke free from the low ceiling. An otherworldly shriek filled the tunnel, at once discordant and musical. That couldn't be a pokémon… could it?

The tunnel quieted again, but the silence was quickly replaced by the distorted echoes of someone shouting, and then a roar of wind. Spark tensed, ready to race back to the room, but torn by the thought that if he showed up too soon, he'd ruin what Blanche had been trying to accomplish by driving him back. So he waited, excruciating as that was, until things were quiet again.

Once he was satisfied by the time that had passed, Spark hauled himself to his feet again and worked his way back toward the chamber. Each step of his right foot sent another spike of pain up his leg, but the ankle was still essentially functioning as an ankle should, and the less he thought about it, the easier it was to walk.

The chamber Spark entered was not the one he'd left. At least, it had changed so dramatically in the few minutes he'd been gone that it was hard to believe it could be the same room. Snowdrifts crowded the bases of the crystal columns, and the warm glow from whatever had been lighting the crystals had turned a cold blue beneath the layers of frost. It was as if Spark were seeing the inside of a snowflake. He snugged his tattered coat closer around himself and stepped into the snow.

The room sloped slightly upward, and as Spark progressed, the crystals grew larger and more plentiful. As different as the room was, he could picture clearly where Blanche had been standing. But where had they gone? Had they already pushed deeper into the room? That had seemingly been their intention before. Perhaps this was their maze, and the scientist had done something to the cavern to manufacture an additional challenge.

Spark paused to scoop up a little snow to hold to his face for the swelling. As he bent down, his gaze fell upon a scrap of blue fabric protruding from a drift. His heart felt ready to burst as he stumbled over himself to get to the bit of cloth. There was no mistaking Blanche's jacket. Spark shoveled the snow away with his hands, revealing more of the coat, and then a leg, and a hip. He frantically uncovered the rest of them until he reached Blanche's face, blue-lipped and slack, ice crystallizing on their eyelashes. The only evidence of life was the slight steam of their breath in the chill air.

Wasting no time, Spark whipped off his coat and began maneuvering Blanche into it. They were so limp and heavy in his arms, a stark contrast to their usual stiff composure. He wrapped the dry portion of his scarf around their neck and zipped the coat up over it to trap as much warmth as possible. He drew the coat's hood over Blanche's ice-stiffened hair and pulled the drawstrings tight around their face. Then, he pulled them as close to his body as he could, hoping to share his own heat with them. It was only then, cradling Blanche in his lap, that he realized he was crying.

He had to keep it together. They were alive, and Spark would do everything in his power to keep them that way.

"Blanche, can you hear me?" Spark asked, pulling away just enough to see their face.

Their eyelids twitched a little, and their lips parted. "Don't… don't touch me…"

Spark tried his best to ignore the voice in his head that was screaming that he'd been wrong, that Blanche really had meant the things they'd said before. "Blanche, it's me. It's Spark. You're OK."

Blanche's eyes cracked open, their usual sharpness dulled by the cold. "…Spark?" Their eyes shifted to his cheek. "Your face…"

Spark laughed and hoped Blanche couldn't see the remnants of his tears. "Yeah, now we're twinsies!"

"Wh… what?"

"You know, how you scraped your cheek when you fell through the trapdoor… It was a stretch. Forget about it," said Spark.

Spark could practically see the neural connections firing back up in Blanche's brain. Their eyebrows twisted up as they spoke. "I… hit you…"

"It wasn't you. Don't worry about it. Just focus on warming up, all right?" Spark rubbed their arm, trying to provide some heat from the friction, or at least help get their blood circulating.

Blanche shook their head. "No… no, I hit you. I… said…"

They started to shiver, which Spark supposed was a good thing. Better than being so far gone that their body didn't even try to heat itself, anyway.

"It doesn't matter what you said. It was that damned scientist, not you," Spark said.

"Dillinger," Blanche croaked. "But… it was me. I said… those horrible things… I told you to…"

Spark interrupted them before they could get too worked up. "Her name's Dillinger? Huh, she didn't even introduce herself to me. How rude. Listen, like I was saying before, she can get in your head. I know you didn't mean those things. It's really fine."

"No, it's not," Blanche insisted, their voice strained and weak. "You… you believed me… when I said I didn't want you with me… I saw it in your eyes."

"For a moment, yes, I believed you," Spark acknowledged. He didn't like where this was going, but he had to reassure them. "But I figured it out eventually, and I'm sorry I ever doubted you. Dillinger messed with my mind before I found you, so I was ready to believe all kinds of crazy stuff. It's OK now, Blanche."

"No!" Blanche's voice cracked with the effort speaking louder. "You're not OK, Spark!"

"Is this still about my face? I hate to break it to you, but you're not exactly shipshape yourself."

Blanche shuddered and coughed. "No… stop joking around for once and tell me what's going on with you!"

"Trust me, nothing's going on," Spark said. The last thing Blanche needed was an invite to his pity party. It has his problem, and he'd deal with it alone. He wasn't about to burden his friends even more than he already did. "Stop worrying about me and focus on yourself. You're flirting with frostbite and you're already bosom-buddies with hypothermia. We've got to get you out of the snow. Think you can stand up?"

"You aren't... getting out of this conversation," Blanche said through a tight jaw as they struggled to sit up. They drew a sharp, panicked breath. "My legs… I can't… they won't move! I feel them, but I can't…"

"Calm down, it's OK. Maybe if we get you to the tunnel where it's warmer, we can-"

The ground rumbled again, preventing Spark from finishing his sentence. He curled over Blanche's body, shielding them in case the quake broke more of the ceiling loose. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the entrance to the tunnel start to crumble. Great, fantastic, exactly what they needed right now. Another phantasmal cry echoed through the cavern, but it was different from the one he'd heard before. This one was raw and guttural, and it made his head ache. He covered Blanche's ears from the outside of their hood until the sound died out.

Once he was sure the rumbling was over, Spark lifted his head to see the tunnel. It had collapsed in on itself, and he couldn't help but wonder what would have happened had he still been in there.

"Forget the tunnel. The tunnel was awful anyway," Spark said. "You can't stay out here in the cold. We have to keep moving. Remember when you said you couldn't carry me through this?"

He regretted bringing it up as soon as he saw the anguish in Blanche's face, so he hurried on with his thought.

"Well, I figure maybe I can carry you."

Blanche shook their head again and tried to hold onto Spark to stop him from moving. "Spark, you can't… you're hurt…"

"My ankle's a little bruised, that's all," Spark said, trying to believe his own lie.

"Your back isn't fully healed… it can't take the strain of carrying another person," Blanche persisted.

"I need you to trust me," Spark said softly in an attempt to counter the anxiety in their tone. "I can do this."

"I can't trust you when you keep lying to my face!" Blanche said, but allowed Spark to turn his back to them and position their arms over his shoulders. "The wound may be closed and scarring, but the damage was deep… you physically can't do this."

"Blanche, as much as I respect your chronic pessimism and utter lack of faith in me, I'm going to ignore you, so you'd better hold on tight," Spark said, and he hoisted himself and his protesting cargo up.

As per usual, Blanche was probably right. Spark grimaced as he tried to balance out the added weight without overburdening his ankle, and he wondered if he really could do this. But there wasn't a choice. If Blanche could stop worrying about everyone else for a second, they'd be able to see their own dire straits. They'd lost the ability to walk, and could barely manage to get a few syllables out without losing their breath. There was no time to sit around and hope that their condition would improve.

"Spark…"
"You OK?" Spark asked.

"I'm fine, but-"

"But nothing! Let's get to hiking."

He stepped forward and sucked in a breath as the pain radiated from his ankle. All he had to do was ignore it and push ahead. He took another step, and it was easier. So he tried another, and another. Pretty soon, he'd made a pace for himself. Which was all well and good, until the crystal formations grew thicker, closer, more strangely angled. Spark bent to avoid one that slanted from the ceiling, and a sharp pang in his back forced him to freeze in place.

Blanche spoke in his ear. "Spark? Why don't we take a break?"

"We've barely moved, B," Spark said. "It's still colder than Dillinger's shriveled black heart in here, but there's less snow ahead. Just gotta soldier on."

Spark straightened up and pressed forward. The snow thinned, but the crystals became more difficult to avoid. This couldn't be an impassable room. Dillinger was certainly a sadist, but she was a sadist with a plan. After what she'd put him and Blanche through, she couldn't just be letting them wander to their deaths. There had to be something more.

"Where did all the snow come from anyway?" Spark asked.

"Dr. Dillinger used a jynx's blizzard on me," Blanche said. Their teeth chattered between their words, but they sounded less breathy than before. "It was after that earthquake. I could have sworn… never mind."

"No, what were you saying?" Spark prompted.

Blanche's arms tightened around his shoulders. "I felt like I caused the quake somehow. It felt as though it came out of me. Then that cry… I recognized it. You'll think I've lost my mind."

Another brief burst of pain spread through the muscles of Spark's back as he circumvented a horizontal bar of crystal. He grunted and tried to cover the involuntary noise with a reply. "Try me."

Though he couldn't see their face, he could tell by Blanche's small, nervous sigh that they weren't sure what to say. "I… I think that was Articuno, and I think I've heard it before."

"You've heard Articuno before?"

Blanche's voice was muffled as they buried their face in the arm of Spark's fluffy coat. "I told you I'd sound crazy."

"You don't!" Spark said. "The earthquake thing happened to me, too. I felt all this energy rushing out, and then there was this booming noise, and it was like it had come straight out of my memory. It was the sound of Zapdos."

"You met one of the birds as well? Why didn't you say something?"

Spark leaned against a spire for a moment to take the pressure off his throbbing ankle. "Speak for yourself! I told absolutely everyone, but I was just a kid, and everyone knew I liked to tell stories. Nobody believed me, so I eventually stopped telling people. I started to think that maybe I had made it all up."

"So you were a liar back then, too," said Blanche.

"It is still hard to tell when you're joking," said Spark. He took a step forward, but his knee buckled, and he fell against another column to steady himself. With his arms stuck supporting Blanche's legs, it would be all too easy to face-plant.

"Whoa! Let's stop for a moment," Blanche said.

"No, I'm fine," Spark argued. "Just a little patch of ice. So what about you and Articuno? Why didn't you say something?"

"I didn't want anyone to know," said Blanche.

"What?"

"It's difficult to put into words. The moment that I shared with it was so personal. I couldn't go around telling people," said Blanche, and their voice sounded distant, lost in recollection.

"I guess I understand, but- AH!" Spark's ankle had finally reached its limit, and he fell to one knee, using all his strength to keep Blanche on his back.

"Spark! Set me down. We've gone far enough for now," Blanche said. "Let me try to move my legs."

Spark said nothing, and pushed himself upright again. He could see a path ahead, and something dark beyond the next few layers of formations. They were getting somewhere, he knew it. He just wanted to get away from the damn crystals.

"Spark, what are you doing?" Blanche asked, tugging on his shirt to draw his attention.

"I just want to get you out of this room," Spark answered through his teeth. Everything hurt. His face, his back, his useless ankle, his entire worthless body. He staggered forward, the pain ripping from deep in his ankle all the way to his knee.

"No, you want out of this room. It's warm enough where we are. I'm sure if we rest here for a little while, I'll be fine."

Spark couldn't stop. They were close to something, they had to be! He stumbled on, closer and closer to the darkness ahead, to what had to be the end of Dillinger's maze.

Blanche shifted as if they were trying to get down, but they were still too weak to accomplish anything. "Spark, stop! What are you trying to prove?"

Stars flashed before Spark's eyes and he felt himself falling. Everything went black and quiet for a moment, and then he was on the ground, opening his eyes, trying to bring the world into focus again. Blanche sprawled next to him, wincing and appropriately perturbed by being dropped, but with more color in their cheeks than when he'd found them. The shame sat in his throat like a stone.

"Blanche, I'm so sorry, are you OK?" he asked, reaching to touch their hand.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine," Blanche said. They propped themself up on their elbow and glowered at him. "Would you like to talk about what the hell just happened? Or was it just 'nothing' again?"

Spark hid his face with his hand. What had gotten into him? He'd been trying to help Blanche, not put them in greater danger. But, big surprise, he'd managed to screw everything up again. "I don't know."

"That's not enough, Spark. I'm getting tired of asking you what's wrong and watching you dodge your way out of an answer. If I weren't too cold to move any more than this, I swear I'd… I…"

"You'd what?" Spark peeked at them between his fingers. They were looking away from him, transfixed by something ahead. Spark followed their gaze to the great dark thing he'd glimpsed before.

Whatever was happening in this subterranean nightmare factory, it was bigger than Spark could have imagined.