With the assistance of Hypno and Candela's machoke, Brutus, Spark gathered his sorry-looking ensemble in the middle of the stone platform. Blanche and Candela lay side-by-side next to the duffel, which had been purged of unnecessary supplies and stuffed almost to bursting with the pokéballs that had been in Dr. Dillinger's pockets. Rutabaga sat next to Blanche, under strict orders to monitor their condition so Flicker could take a much-deserved break. The cart sat a little ways back. Spark figured they wouldn't need it, and it looked like it had taken some damage from the fall anyway. It still rolled, but wobbled precariously and groaned with each rotation of its wheels. Spark felt an odd kinship with it.

"Nice work, Brutus. We're on the home stretch," Spark said as he called Candela's pokémon back to his ball. He placed the pokéball in his pocket, next to Flicker's pokéball, where the ponyta now rested. Candela's pokémon had truly gone above and beyond the call of duty during this nightmarish adventure, and unfortunately, Spark would have to rely on them once again.

"Kite, can you help me out?"

Spark released Candela's pidgeot, who soared out of her ball with gusto and flew a few laps around the area, scouting it for security, before hovering in front of Spark to await instruction. Kite was a bold, unshakeable sort of pokémon, but Spark could sense a nervousness in her, and though she tried to keep her attention on Spark, her beak occasionally turned to the side so she could look at her trainer.

"Candela's just sleeping, Kite. She'll be OK once we're out of here. We all will be OK," Spark told the pidgeot. It was so much more complicated than that, but Kite needed the reassurance. "All we need to do is get to the top of the chamber. Can you fly us up there?"

Kite chirruped and puffed up the feathers on her chest.

Spark smiled. "I didn't mean to doubt you. I'm not sure what it's going to be like up there. Can you check it out and find a place to land? Then we can go up in shifts."

Kite clicked her beak, and with a mighty beat of her wings, shot upward. Spark watched her shrink as she ascended and realized just how big the space was. This might be a longer process than he'd originally thought, but it was still doable. Kite was fast, even for a pidgeot. Though she'd have to be careful with her cargo, Spark was sure she'd still make good time.

Hypno, who had been standing next to him, in case he started to fall, tugged Spark's sleeve.

"What's up, Hypno? Am I forgetting something?" Spark had a creeping feeling that something was going to go wrong. After all, most things had gone wrong in the past… how long? Few days? It may as well have been months.

Hypno pointed to Dr. Dillinger, and Spark's stomach felt queasy. He didn't want to think about her, and he didn't want Hypno to think about her, but the pokémon clearly still felt something toward her. Dillinger had been the only trainer he'd ever known, as far as Spark knew. As abusive and unforgiveable as she was, Hypno had bonded with her. And now, she was gone.

"Do you want to say goodbye?"

Hypno nodded, but didn't leave Spark's side.

"Do you… want me to come with you?"

Hypno closed his hand around Spark's. Spark wasn't ready for this. He didn't know if he could look her in the face again. But if Hypno needed this from him, it was the least he could do.

Spark let Hypno lead him across the stone, and Spark once again wished he could just lie down. How wonderful it would be to get out of here and lie in the grass again, to see the sky, the sun…

Hypno paused next to Dillinger and bowed his head. Spark waited quietly, looking anywhere but at the unmoving body at his feet. After about a minute had passed, Hypno squeezed Spark's hand and looked up at him, anticipating something.

"Should I say something for her?" Spark offered, hoping he'd misread Hypno's intentions.

Unfortunately for him, Hypno nodded, and Spark couldn't defend himself from the pokémon's misty eyes.

"Uh… OK, give me a moment…" Spark tried to organize his thoughts. Once more, he wondered what exposure Hypno had had to this sort of thing, this semi-funeral for a woman so many would rather simply forget. But of course Hypno had dealt with death before, and perhaps had held a ceremony such as this for Dillinger's victims. Maybe Dillinger didn't deserve this bit of kindness, but Hypno did. After some contemplation, Spark delivered the best eulogy he could come up with, under the circumstances.

"In another world, maybe Dr. Dillinger's life would have been different. Maybe she could have used her mind for good instead of evil. I'd have liked to see that world. But in this world, her ambition turned her into a monster. Maybe it's for the best that she died here, in this place she was so desperate to get to. This way, no one else will be hurt by her. This way, we can all move on."

Spark paused to gauge Hypno's response to his speech. The pokémon kept his head solemnly lowered, which Spark supposed was a good sign.

"I want to wish Dr. Dillinger a peaceful rest, but I can't do that in good conscience. Instead, I wish for her victims to be at peace in the knowledge that she is gone."

Hypno placed his free hand on his face, perhaps to conceal tears.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Dillinger," Spark said, his tone quieter and more intimate than before. "This didn't have to be the end of your story. Maybe you could have changed."

He didn't believe his own words. He'd witnessed the impenetrable blackness of her heart. Her last chance to repent had been when Hypno shared his memories with her, but she'd rejected that chance so violently that even had she survived, there could be no coming back. But Hypno needed that glimmer of hope, that validation for the years he'd spent at her side.

And the pokémon did seem satisfied. He let go of Spark and crouched next to Dillinger's strangely peaceful body. He placed his hand over hers.

As he did, Kite swooped back into the pit and landed a bit clumsily next to Spark. Her feathers were ruffled and crooked, which immediately raised alarms in Spark's head. Hypno picked up on the shift in mood and sprang to attention.

"Kite! Did you find a landing place?"

Kite shook her feathers back into position and hopped from one foot to the other restlessly.

"Can you show me?" Spark pressed.

Kite lowered herself so Spark could climb aboard. She was willing to show him what had flustered her, which Spark had to take as a good sign. Spark limped up to her and, with no small degree of effort, pulled himself onto her back. Suddenly, he wondered if he'd have the strength to hold onto her feathers. His hands didn't grip as tightly as he wanted them to, and every small twist of his body sent bursts of pain through his abdomen. But he needed to assess the situation, and the only way to do that was to see it for himself.

"Rootie, Hypno, can you hold down the fort?" Spark asked.

Hypno clasped his hands apprehensively, but Rutabaga bobbed her head in affirmation. Spark could see the strain in her face, even from across the platform. She was trying to follow his instructions, but she looked ready to bolt into his arms at the drop of a hat. He wanted to take the time to comfort her, show her that he was alright, but their window for survival seemed to close a little more with every passing minute. She'd just have to trust him.

"Thank you! We'll be back in a blink," Spark said, grinning.

Kite took that as an indication that she was cleared for takeoff and blasted upward. Spark held tight to her with all the strength he could muster as she spiraled upward, mercifully keeping her body as parallel to the ground as possible. Up and up they climbed, until Spark couldn't bear to open his eyes and see the deadly distance he would fall if he failed to hold on. He'd have to remind Kite to carry Blanche and Candela in her talons, since they couldn't ride her in their conditions.

Spark's heart jumped as Kite abruptly tilted to the side to adjust for a strong breeze. But why was there wind? Spark thought of the updraft back in the room with the river of magma and rock bridge. It made sense that the extreme temperature would create choppy flight conditions there, but there was no magma here.

He opened his eyes as Kite veered toward the wall of the chamber. Above him, the wind roared and spun, and beyond that, he could barely make out a glowing orb, the twin of the one from the great hall, the one they had used as a portal in the first place. Spark didn't remember there being so much chaos surrounding the first one. At least, not before it had been opened.

Kite landed on the trail, which was about eight feet wide, and sloping rather steeply upward. She tucked herself low to the ground so the wind couldn't knock her loose. Over the edge of the trail, Spark could see hundreds of feet down, to where Blanche's ice sphere was a white dot among navy shadows.

"We're most of the way up," Spark said, mostly to himself, partially to Kite. "At least there's that, right? Just a little bit of hiking, and we'll be at the door. This is fine. We're still fine. It was silly of me to think that maybe, just this one freaking time, things would work in our favor."

Kite watched him out of the corner of her eye, and he immediately felt remorseful.

"I'm sorry, Kite. This is as high as you can safely go, and that's not your fault. Really, it's not much further. Do you think you're strong enough to bring up the cart?"

Kite blinked.

"I'm gonna assume that's a 'yes.' Good. We can do this. Are you ready to bring up the others?"

Kite nodded.

"Great. Be careful with Blanche and Candela, OK? Make sure Candela is totally out before you pick her up. Hypno can help with that," Spark said, carefully sliding off of Kite's back. "In fact, bring Candela up first. I have something that will keep her down."

His knees buckled as he put weight on them, and for a heart-stopping second, he thought he might slip down the trail, pushed by the wind. Spark caught himself with his hands and crawled to the relative safety of the wall, grimacing at the wave of pain the short fall had caused. Impulsively, he grabbed at his wound, and found the covering over it to be warm and wet. He cursed under his breath.

Kite chirped at him, sounding like a much smaller pokémon than she actually was.

"Don't worry, Kite. Just get the others."

Kite lifted her wings, and the wind whisked some of her feathers into the air. As she leapt off, Spark called one final reminder to her.

"And don't forget the bag!"

Once she was out of sight, Spark reclined against the wall, his hand still cupped over the crimson tear in his shirt. He could smell the briny tang of his own blood. He squinted at the corkscrewing trail and reassured himself that the rest of the climb wouldn't be so bad. He could have Brutus pull the cart, and though he didn't think it could hold his full weight, he could at least walk along next to it and use it for support. It wouldn't be fun, but it would be doable. One last push. That's all that was left. No more of the Lost, no more darkness, no more Rockets…

"That was very sweet, what you said about me down there."

Spark nearly choked on his breath. He recognized the voice instantly. How could he have forgotten?

Dr. Dillinger leaned over him, her hands behind her back, her hair whipping in the wind. Her face was clean and white, with no signs of charring, nor of the broken nose Blanche had given her. Even her lab coat was bright and clean, just as it had been when they'd first met.

"You're not real," Spark croaked.

"Of course I'm not real, you dimwit," she spat. "I'm dead. You killed me."

Spark squeezed his eyes tightly shut. "You're a hallucination. I'm imagining you."

Dillinger groaned. "I'm wounded that you'd forget about me so quickly. But not as wounded as you appear to be, am I right? Ugh. I know. It was a weak joke."

Maybe if Spark ignored her, she'd vanish. She was a figment of his imagination, after all. Just a side-effect of sharing his brain with a legendary bird. Nothing to get worked up over.

"You're never going to reach that portal, you know. How much blood can you lose before you pass out? And what happens then? Without you there to stop it, Moltres will wake up and burn you and Blanche and Candela to a crisp. Pitiful. Unless, of course, Hypno steps in to save you again. Poor Spark, always the damsel in distress. But I wouldn't count on any help from that runt."

"Shut. Up," Spark hissed.

"You're the only one doing any talking, Sparky," Dillinger said. "I'm just your imaginary frenemy."

Spark grabbed a hank of his hair and held tight. He had to snap out of this. He couldn't let Dillinger get under his skin from beyond the grave. She wasn't going to win. He'd beaten her at this game of taunts and insults back in the maze, during his very first encounter. This time, she wasn't even a physical entity. Just a memory to be locked away, ignored.

"I know what you're thinking, Spark. I'm in your head, remember? You can't ignore me. I'm part of you. Hell, maybe I'll always be part of you."

"Stop it," Spark blurted.

"Wouldn't that be fun? You and me, together forever. Think of the wonderful things we could do!" Dillinger piped cheerfully. "For example, I could appear outside of your shower, making the same face I made when you electrocuted me. I bet you'd even be able to smell the burning hair. Oh! And I could tell you what I'd do with your pokémon if I had the chance. Picture it: me drilling a hole into Rutabaga's fuzzy little head-"

"SHUT UP!"

Spark doubled over, the force of his outburst causing a wave of overwhelming pain to rush through his body. He jerked as a hand touched his shoulder and he opened his eyes.

Hypno stood in front of him, breathing rapidly, distraught.

"When did…?" Spark couldn't finish the question. His throat felt like it had been shredded from the inside out.

Kite stood over Candela a few feet away. Hypno must have ridden up with her so he could keep an eye on Candela. Spark hated that Rutabaga was alone with Blanche, but he was grateful that Hypno was there to bring him out of the delusion.

"I'm sorry," Spark said hoarsely. "I'm OK. I wasn't yelling at you."

He was so tired of saying that he was OK. He wasn't. And it was patronizing to tell Hypno that he was, he knew that. But he didn't know what else to say. His head felt heavy, and he struggled to keep his neck straight.

"Kite, please get Blanche and Rutabaga. And the cart. And the bag." Spark winced. "I'm sorry I'm putting all this on you."

Kite fluffed her feathers in what was almost a shrug. Then, she dove over the side of the trail.

Spark couldn't look Hypno in the eye. He didn't want to pokémon to know how shaken up he was. Hypno and all the others were relying on him. If Zapdos was protecting him, like Moltres had accused it of, then where was it now? Articuno had more or less abducted Blanche, Moltres had straight-up possessed Candela… So what was Zapdos doing, aside from torturing him with the ghost of a dead villain?

Hypno patted his face somewhat roughly.

"Ow, hey," Spark complained, touching his cold fingertips to the old welt on his cheek. It dawned on him that Hypno had never really been told about what was happening. Surely he'd picked up bits and pieces, but it was about time someone filled in the gaps. "Hypster, I have a lot to explain in not a lot of time. You know how Candela and Blanche aren't themselves right now? It's because of the birds. I'm affected, too. I'm… seeing things."

Hypno angled his head to the side inquisitively.

Spark swallowed, and the taste was coppery and thick. "You remember what happened with Dr. Dillinger, how I couldn't see where she was? It's still happening. I'm still seeing her, hearing her."

Hypno looked away for a moment, processing.

"I know she's not really there. It's just… I don't know. It feels so real," Spark said. "But it's OK. I can ignore her. We're so close!"

Hypno didn't look as pleased as Spark had hoped he'd be. He was doing it again, lying to Hypno. What kind of fool would lie to a psychic pokémon?

"I know, Hyppy. I can't just ignore her. But I've got you, don't I? I can trust you to keep me grounded," Spark said, smiling at Hypno. "You're strong and you're smart, no matter what you've been told. You are something else, Hypno. Something wonderful."

Hypno's eyes lit up, like a fire had been ignited within him.

Kite appeared over the side of the trail again, carrying Blanche in her talons. Rutabaga clung to her back, obviously unhappy with the wind and the height. The flying pokémon landed carefully, draping Blanche onto the stone. Rutabaga jumped from her back and scampered toward Spark. Kite squawked, insulted by her rider's distrust of her aerobatic abilities, and descended back toward the pit to retrieve the bag and cart.

Rutabaga nestled into Spark's arms, and even though it hurt, Spark hugged her tightly. He planted a gentle kiss between her ears, like he'd done when she was a newly-hatched pichu, before she'd even had a name. Hypno watched intently, as if he were studying the interaction.

"Alright, that's all the time we have for being sappy," Spark teased, ruffling Rutabaga's fur until her cheeks sparked in pretend annoyance. "Rootie, I still need you with Blanche for a while. They've been holding steady, but that could change at any moment. Hypno, help me get to Candela. We can't run the risk of her waking up."

Even with Hypno's guiding hands, standing up was harder than before. Spark's body felt heavy and unfamiliar, like it belonged to someone else and he wasn't fully in control of it. He kept himself low, resisting the driving wind, as he made his way to Candela. He got to his knees next to her and pulled Waik's vial from his pocket. Rutabaga curled up next to Blanche's head, blocking their face from the wind, and kept a wary eye on Spark when she thought he wasn't looking.

Spark uncorked the vial and wrinkled his nose at the strong stench, so potent that not even the torrents of air could dissipate it. He'd intended to wait until Candela started to wake, just in case it was dangerous to double-sedate her, but he couldn't trust himself to move fast enough to deliver the dose at the right time. He propped Candela's head up with one hand and tipped the vial toward her lips with the other.

Candela's nose twitched, and before Spark could tilt the contents of the vial into her mouth, her golden eyes burst open. In a flash of motion, Candela's hands shot up and grabbed the neck of Spark's shirt, nearly causing him to drop the solution. Spark let her head fall back against the stone, momentarily dazing her and giving him an opening. He placed his hand near the base of her neck and pressed her to the ground as she started to kick and squirm.

"Candela! If you're in there, listen to me!" Spark shouted.

Candela bared her teeth like a wild pokémon, and Spark shifted his hand up her neck, holding her just beneath her jaw. She choked a little, and the guilt Spark felt was almost unbearable.

"I'm so sorry, Candy," he said. "I have to do this."

Her snarl eased and for the briefest of seconds, her eyes looked human again. Spark thrust the vial to her lips and poured the noxious liquid. The moment of humanity vanished, and Candela thrashed and rocked her head violently in a desperate attempt at evasion. Hypno grabbed her legs before she could use them against Spark, but her arms remained free. She battered Spark's chest as he finished pouring and moved his hand from her throat to her mouth to force her to swallow. The blows were clumsy and weak, and Spark wasn't sure if it was because she was drowsy or because she was holding herself back.

Gradually, her convulsions softened, and her wildfire eyes dimmed and closed. Spark slowly removed his hand from her face and cringed at the red handprint of blood he'd left across her dark skin. Though he was fairly sure it was his blood, not hers, he checked her again for signs of injury.

Once he was satisfied that she was both unconscious and unharmed, he wiped her face as clean as he could get it with his sleeve. Then, he leaned back and sighed heavily. With shaky, rubbery fingers, he pressed the cork back into the vial, which still contained half of its contents. Hopefully, he'd administered the correct dosage.

"It would have been nice to know that this stuff doubles as smelling salts," Spark panted. "At least we can use it again to wake her up once we're outside."

Hypno let go of Candela's legs and squatted next to Spark. As he did, Kite rose over the edge of the trail, pumping her wings with all her might, straining under the load of the small rickshaw and duffel she clutched in her claws. She clattered both objects onto the trail and landed, chest heaving, beak parted to get more air.

"Spectacular, Kite!" Spark cheered, but the act of raising his voice irritated his throat, making him cough. He covered his mouth with the back of his wrist out of polite reflex. With his free hand, he pulled out Kite's pokéball, and the pidgeot eagerly disappeared into it, without him having to say anything.

"Now we just need Brutus, and we're home free," Spark said, digging in his pocket for the machoke's ball. As he pulled it out, his numb, purple-tinged fingers slipped, and the pokéball clunked to the floor and started to roll.

Hypno leaped into action and snatched it up before it could get far, but the shock of what might have happened made Spark's head spin. As he calmed down, Dillinger reappeared, leaning casually against the cart. Spark clenched his fists. He hadn't expected to see her again so soon.

She didn't need to say anything. She merely smiled at him and tapped her fingers against her wrist, pointing to an imaginary watch. The message was all too clear, and Spark was sick of hearing it.

You're running out of time.