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Espir regrouped Alexis in the lobby of the hotel, both of them rushing for the doors. They didn't know anything about this world beside what the doppelgangers had told them. They couldn't trust any of that information either, so they were back to square one- except for the homicidal copies of themselves trying to chase after them.
Espir wasn't sure how much of the Marshadow that this world has, had a connection with him. Was the Marshadow of this world harboring an Espir of its own? Or was it simply a Marshadow through and through?
He knew that there was something up with this world, too. Not just the fact that their counterparts were evil, but that they now knew about them and likely wanted to trim the loose ends.
Another thought ran through Espir's mind as they ran into the streets and headed for the fastest route out of the city. How many other people were evil here? Was it a universal thing, or did they happen to get extremely unlucky on the twisted doppelganger lottery?
They didn't know who they could trust, nor the rules of this universe, so they could only look out for each other. So, they ran. They had to get away, to safety, away from other people.
Espir and Alexis aimed to run in a north-westerly direction, as fast as they could. Once they knew they were safe, they would be able to think up what to do, or how to get back home- but they had lost their team, their friends. Were they strong enough, or smart enough, to somehow trick and defeat themselves?
Espir believed he might have some advantage on the Marshadow of this world, but their telepathic communication was a huge bonus that they had over him and Alexis. They would need to have a plan that would hold up to improvisation. The other team could talk to each other and change to fit Espir and Alexis' attempts at winning, but Espir and Alexis couldn't improvise while keeping each other on the same page. They were in as tight a spot as they had ever been.
Espir thought he had the advantage over the other Marshadow because he figured that he was the only one with Espir running the controls, instead of a normal Marshadow. He could be unorthodox and trusted his own mind over that of a Pokémon's, although the Marshadow might be naturally more gifted at utilizing its own abilities. Only time would tell.
The forests north of Veilstone helped to obscure the pair as they continued to run and, before they knew it, they were heading in a path that would eventually lead them to Mount Coronet. It seemed like, at least for the moment, the doppelgangers had given up the chase.
Both Alexis and Espir were near exhausted from running at such a speed for so long. Alexis, finally, tripped and fell. Her legs had been struggling to carry her for the previous mile, but she had ignored the pain and continued running. The fall, however, finally forced her to take a break.
Espir could tell Alexis was panicked. She had that slightly wild look in her eyes that people got when they were just going through the motions as their minds spiraled through hypothetical scenarios, each one scarier than the last.
Espir sat down on the ground beside Alexis as the girl's exhaustion worked over her. The adrenaline faded slowly and the fear set in deeper with each passing moment. Finally, she began to cry. At first, the tears were defiantly held back. Then a couple escaped their confines, until Alexis had both of the balls of her palm rammed into her eyes to try and stem the flow. It was no use and Espir could feel every agonizing moment of sadness, of fear, of self-loathing.
"We need to get back to them," Alexis said, finally, after allowing herself the time to gather her breath back from the tears. As soon as she had said the words, she attempted to stand to begin walking back in the same direction that they had come.
Espir stood in front of her and didn't even need to try pushing her back down into a sitting position, as her legs were too tired to try standing in the first place.
"We need to, Marsh, we can't just leave them there," Alexis said wearily.
Espir needed to communicate to her, but had no means of drawing anymore. He held up his arms to signal for her to wait, or at least pause, and then he held up a finger- another subtly different signal to wait.
He pointed back the way they came, and then to himself and Alexis. He then put a hand to his head and a hand to Alexis'.
"I know they'll have the advantage if we go back," Alexis said, "but we don't need telepathy to beat them. We just need an opportunity. Catch them off guard and we have the upper hand for a moment. Then we can just take our Pokéballs back, and our friends, and then run away again. Maybe they'll decide we aren't worth chasing and leave us be?"
Even as Alexis said it, she didn't believe it to be true one bit.
Espir put a hand to his chest and then motioned back the way they came, nodding. Then he held up his finger again and pointed at the both of them, following it up with a mimic of what he hoped was the universal charade for 'sleeping'.
"I am pretty tired," Alexis admitted, to Espir's shock.
Espir had first meant to convey that they both needed to wait because the doppelgangers had the telepathy advantage. Then he meant to say that he also wanted to return, but they were both tired and needed rest before attempting anything further. Alexis appeared to understand both attempts on her first time guessing- a feat that had never been done between the two of them.
The weather wasn't the worst, though it was likely to get quite cold out during the night. They needed to set up camp and hope that the doppelgangers had given in on the attempt to chase them down.
Espir let his mind wander a little as they both sat before the small campfire, warming up slightly before bed. His doppelganger and Alexis' doppelganger. They were both evil, it would seem. Espir was comforted by the thought that his likely wasn't him but the actual mind of a Marshadow, but the concurrent thought he had only made him more worried. Did this reality show that, if Alexis didn't have him talking to her constantly, then she would turn out to be much more of a sadistic, mean and selfish person?
Espir knew those thoughts were silly, considering how Alexis had been the entire time the two had known each other, even if they were having their troubles more recently. Espir knew that Alexis cared about her Pokémon, even if she had a small problem with choosing actions with their best interests at heart during the more important battles.
Alexis looked severely stressed, tightly wound as if even a stray gust of wind could make her snap. Espir wasn't surprised. She had had a terrible day and lost much of what she held dear. She was forced into a different world, a different reality, and had to watch as she- her doppelganger- betrayed her and attempted to kill her. On top of all of that, she had a recent history of bad dreams and Espir understood not wanting to go to sleep only to continue the torment. She, however, needed to sleep, otherwise they would have no chance against those other two. They needed to be at their best to have any hope at winning back her Pokémon.
Eventually, though it took longer than Espir would have liked, Alexis fell asleep. Espir had already decided to stay up for a while longer to keep a lookout on the doppelgangers if they managed to catch up.
The doppelgangers never came, although something else that was curious struck Espir's attention.
Espir began to feel a warmth pass through him and he looked over to see Alexis smiling in her sleep. Whatever was happening, she wasn't having a nightmare, but a rather pleasant dream. It must have been the first time that Espir had been nearby Alexis and noticed her having a dream that didn't have her twisting and turning through the night.
Espir wasn't sure what the cause of the pleasant dream was, but he was happy nonetheless, that Alexis was finally having an opportunity to have a genuinely good night's sleep. He did his best to avoid disturbing her as he, too, decided it was late enough for him to fall asleep. While there was still a chance for the doppelgangers to attack, it was unlikely they'd be able to track them all the way out to the campsite. Espir also needed some sleep, in order to be able to adequately face the doppelgangers when they inevitably met once again. He let the cheery feelings of Alexis warm his ghostly form as he, too, fell asleep.
Espir woke up, the next morning, to a wonderful smell of cooking meat.
He opened his eyes and saw that Alexis had re-ignited the fire without his help and had already begun cooking up their rations to start off the day. She wasn't normally much of an early bird, but Espir could see a clear, happy smile across her face. She hadn't noticed that he had woken up, but she looked incredibly cheerful, nonetheless. He was glad, though he did need to also get up from his rest.
He was curious as to what had caused her unusually good sleep and happier morning routine. Alexis was always chipper to start the day, but it felt… more vibrant, or more intense this morning.
"What's got you all chipper, today?" Espir asked, forgetting in the moment of waking up that she couldn't understand him.
"Good morning, Marsh," Alexis said, turning and smiling as she heard Espir speak. "How did you sleep?"
"Not too badly, though you won't know a thing about this answer anyway," Espir said, the Pokémon pet name Alexis had for him, reminding him of who and where he was again. Not being able to communicate with people, especially the one person he now spent the majority of his waking life with, was a lonely and sad existence for him. He had to remember to not become bitter about it, as it wasn't Alexis' fault. He wondered to himself if that was potentially what had caused his irritation towards her to mount in recent days. Their lack of communication was a huge obstacle to try and get past and he had to try to do it while already struggling with the fact that he was stuck in a different body, in a different universe.
Alexis had now also become stuck in a different universe and she had gotten over it seemingly overnight. Espir wasn't sure what had caused her to have such a good night's sleep, but he wanted to figure it out.
"That's good," Alexis said, absentmindedly, causing Espir to wonder if- somehow- she could understand him, all of a sudden.
"Can you hear me?" Espir asked. "Do you know what I'm saying?"
"So, I'm sure you're asking what the plan is for today," Alexis said, ruining the slight glimmer of hope he'd had. "We need to get back there and get our friends back."
Espir nodded. Poor communication aside, he fully agreed with needing to retrieve Letos and Staravia from those strange doppelgangers. They couldn't wait too long either, otherwise they'd lose them for good.
"So, what do you think we should do about it?" Espir asked.
"Oh, me? Yes, my sleep was really good actually," Alexis said, as Espir rolled his eyes while she wasn't looking. "I've been having these terrible nightmares recently, but last night was entirely the opposite. It was quite brilliant. I'd finished my Pokémon journey and become the greatest trainer in all of Sinnoh. It's just a dream, but one I hope to fulfil once I've gotten back out of this strange place."
Somehow, even in all of this, Alexis was keeping fast to her hopes. Espir wasn't sure whether to be bemused, or inspired. He couldn't see a way out of their current problem, not one that they could intentionally produce. Whether fighting against that inevitability was bravery or madness, Espir didn't know, but he was going to do it anyway- for Alexis, and for their friends.
"Would you like some breakfast?" Alexis asked. "It's just about done and we'll need all our energy to face ourselves again, especially after all that running yesterday."
Alexis was right. Espir knew that he would be cramping a lot, if not for his ghostly form. He was always impressed with just how much Alexis was able to physically do. She ran for so much longer than he could have imagined himself running, in human form.
Espir accepted the small plate of food that Alexis gave him. She never questioned why he was so happy eating human food, but he guessed that she had never seen a Marshadow before, so she didn't know what they naturally ate. Espir was definitely happy that his new body was able to eat human food. He didn't know how much he'd be able to stand if he had to eat Pokémon food. He didn't even know what Pokémon usually ate, especially ghosts. Why did ghosts even need to eat?
"Are you about ready to head off?" Alexis asked, as Espir was finishing up what he was eating. Espir nodded and handed the plate back to her, right as he heard a twig snap close by.
Espir swung his head around, staring in the direction of the noise.
"I'm afraid you won't be heading off anywhere."
As the voice leered over the quiet forest campsite, numerous people began to step out of the shadows, from behind trees. Each one with a uniform emblazoned with the symbol of Team Cosmic.
"Damn," Alexis muttered. Espir couldn't help but agree. Damn, indeed.