White Omen had been fighting me all morning. She wouldn't eat, she wouldn't let me tack her up, she wouldn't even let me get on her bareback. Allison had already saddled Candy Dancer and came to assist me in trying to keep the Absol in line, but as Allison got the reigns on her she reared up and made Allison stumble back a few steps, falling on her butt. "Ow! Quinton couldn't have given you a rowdier Pokemon to ride around on!" She complained, standing up and dusting herself off, pointing accusingly at White Omen. "You are a brat."
"She's not usually like this." I touched the onyx protrusion on White Omen's forehead and she looked up at me with wise eyes, scratching her claws along the ground.
Allison gasped and quickly looked at me. "What if she's about to cause a disaster?"
"I feel like there are a lot of other places it would be easier to cause a disaster." I gave a small laugh and turned as Donald walked out of the cave.
"Has anyone seen Percius? He's not in here and none of his stuff is packed."
"Hoki's still here." Allison pointed at Percius's mount, then gestured smugly as a branch snapped past the tree line. "That's probably him now."
She wasn't wrong, the person who stepped out of the trees was Percius, but his eyes were a deep red and he was dragging his lance across the ground, creating a rut that ran behind him. Excalibur knocked me on the back softly and I slowly withdrew the Pokemon from its sheathe, watching Percius suspiciously. White Omen had turned to look at him as well, her eyes narrowing in anger. Donald walked towards him, hands on his hips.
"I know you like to get a morning work-out in, but you should really have all of your stuff ready to go before you wander-" Donald stumbled backwards and fell as Percius's lance swung through the air, missing him by inches. "Okay, sorry!" Donald shouted exasperatedly. In a flash, Ballet was next to him and had him encompassed in a protective bubble as Percius slammed the lance down against it. "What's going on?!" Donald looked up at Percius in terror. He already knew what was going on.
"He's possessed!" Allison confirmed what we all were fearing.
"How do we fix him?" Donald scrambled backwards across the grass and pressed himself against the bubble as far from Percius as possible. Ballet braced herself as his lance repeated slammed against her bubble.
"Only one way I know of..." Allison hesitated before turning to me. "See if Excalibur can do anything about it!"
I drew Excalibur and dashed forward. Only as she slid to a stop on the other side of Percius did I notice that White Omen had moved with me. The Dragon Lancer turned on us and swung his lance again, using it more like a hammer than for its intended purpose, making it easy to avoid his swing.
"Ugh, just stay still!" A raspy voice complained from the trees, White Omen immediately moving to intercept the noise. Distracted by the movement for only a moment, Percius slammed his lance into my stomach and sent me sprawling, Excalibur flipping through the air before redirecting its course and zipping back into my hands just in time to redirect another attack into the ground instead of through my chest. I didn't even get a moment to figure out what had happened before Ballet was standing over me, her hands in the air creating another bubble of protection as the point of the lance once again slammed against it. Donald ran up and tried to tackle Percius but was easily outmaneuvered, Percius grabbing his throat and slamming him into the ground. I seized the moment Donald had given me and rose to my feet, scooping up Ballet who made a surprised noise as I stepped out of Percius's range with her. With more space, I was finally able to see who White Omen had driven out of the forest: A woman wearing a dark purple outfit that hugged her frame with the assistance of a red cloth belt, her eyes now completely black with a red pupil.
"An Assassin Squadron?" Allison lowered her wrist-mounted crossbow in confusion and I stepped between her and Percius as he tried to advance on her, letting Ballet return to her trainer.
"Not anymore." The woman rasped out before licking along her grinning teeth with an inhumanly long tongue. "Now she's mine! Just like this guy!"
Donald stood unsteadily, clutching the object under his shirt. "Let them go!" He dashed at the woman, but her fist erupted with dark energy and she punched Donald in the stomach, launching him several feet where he landed once again on the ground, clutching the impact zone and groaning.
"I don't think I-" The woman's face shifted from smugness to surprise as her words turned into a spurt of blood and Percius dropped his lance. She reached up and clutched a bolt that had been shot through her neck, looking at its origin point: Allison's crossbow.
"You got cocky." She informed matter-of-factly. "Ballet, Psybeam." As she was ordered, Ballet put her hands to her head and looked at the woman, whose eyes rolled back in her head and mouth began to foam before she collapsed to the ground. "Are you alright, Percius?"
Percius clenched his hands into tight fists before releasing them again. "I'm fine." He replied simply. "She ambushed me. I'll be-"
"It's not over." I reported as a black mist began to seep from the body. A purple circular Ghost with a long tongue condensed from the mist, its large hungry eyes immediately on me.
"A Gengar." The way Allison whispered it made it seem like saying its name might give the Pokemon more power, and it very well might have as it immediately rushed for me, erupting once more into black mist and forcing its way into my mouth and nose. In desperation I clutched at my apricorns, trying to send out a Pokemon, any Pokemon, and managed to get one out, though I didn't know it was Achilles until after he had already used the move to force the Gengar to recondense. In retaliation the Gengar licked its tongue across Achilles, tearing a hole through Achilles to reveal his hollow insides and causing Achilles to fall to the ground. Fortunately that had been enough of a distraction for White Omen to dash up and slice its horn through the Gengar, causing it to dissipate into dust as it screamed in rage and pain.
"I think... now it's over." I took several deep breaths, my throat no longer obstructed by the ghostly mist. I looked down at Achilles and sighed, tapping him with the apricorn to return him to safety.
"To think that thing caused us so much trouble and every time you use it it just explodes from being touched." Allison put a hand on her hip, though her ragged breathing betrayed her cool outer-self. Percius continued to stare at his hands, clenching and unclenching his fists over and over. Donald had moved to sit next to the woman and position her in a way that a mortician might, laying her on her back and closing her eyes and mouth. Allison's face twisted into one of disgusted disapproval. "Do you want to leave the corpse alone?"
Donald didn't reply, instead clasping his hands together in a silent prayer over the woman before lowering his hands and resting them in the grass. "She had a Pokemon."
"She did? Why didn't it come out to-"
Donald shook his head. "They knew that wasn't her. No point in trying to save someone who's already gone." Donald looked over his shoulder, returning Allison's disgust. "Isn't that right, Fayeri?" He didn't wait for an answer, slowly rising with the apricorn he had acquired from the body, tossing it out and producing a Zubat who began to screech and flutter about, looking for its mistress before giving up and settling sadly in a tree, hanging upside down and wrapping itself in its wings. Donald pressed the button on the apricorn which recalled the Zubat, and held it out to me. "You're the Ghost Hunter, so I suppose you should carry the Pokemon we got from the possessed person." I wasn't entirely sure about that logic but accepted the apricorn anyways, tucking it away with my own. "She was also carrying this."
"A purple silk cloth?" Allison questioned, reaching out to take it but unable to do so as Donald pulled it away.
"Whatever it is, every single possessed person and Hex Maniac I've ever seen or heard of has had one." Donald looked down at the cloth and went silent before speaking again. "Even my mother had one."
Allison blinked, cocking her head slightly. "How did you mother get one? Moreover, how did this woman get that one? Where do they come from? What's the purpose?"
"I don't know, but I have an idea." Donald dropped the cloth, letting it fall to the ground in a small heap. "A week before she... passed, my mother was on assignment with her team, the Legendary Trio, then called the Elite Four. They were at the Ombrea border, helping across refugees of the on-going dispute at the time. One of them gave the group food as thanks for safe passage, and all of the Elite Four acquired one of these cloths. Managing the food was her job, so she ended up with all of the cloths in her pack and started carrying them with her. She even tied one around her head to keep her hair out of her face when she was battling." Donald stared down at the cloth, letting a long breath out of his nose. "The next week they were sent out with Zacian and Zamazenta to end the dispute, but Ombrea had their own secret weapon. They lead the Elite Four into a trap, a circle they had made for summoning a massive Ghost, and that thing they summoned..." Donald shut his eyes and shook his head. After a beat of silence, Allison continued the story.
"Emilia said it was like a giant Seviper had been combined with an Ariados and Arceus Himself." Allison recounted, her voice soft and sad. "She said it possessed Ethel almost immediately and they had no time to react. Ethel became a force of death itself, and there was nothing the other three could have done for her other than end her misery."
Donald stomped on the cloth. "I think these things attract Ghost Pokemon. Maybe even make it easier for them to possess you."
"Well we can't just leave it here then." I bent down and removed the cloth from under Donald's foot. "We could have Justice or Hoki destroy it." I looked to Percius, who finally stopped flexing his fingers and shook his head.
"I'm not letting that thing anywhere near me or my Pokemon. If you want to carry it around until we find a way to destroy it, go ahead Ghost Hunter." He picked up and stowed his lance before walking towards the cave to begin actually packing his things.
"What about sending it down the Draco Lacrimis?" Allison suggested, pointing at the softly flowing water of the large river.
I shook my head. "Anybody could find it if we do that. I wish there was a way we could... oh, duh." I clicked an apricorn on my belt and turned to Blitzkrieg as he appeared, holding out the cloth. "Ember." In moments, the cloth was nothing but ash.
"That solves that." Allison nodded, satisfied with that conclusion. She looked pointedly at White Omen, who had moved to lay next to the body of the woman and rose her head when addressed. "Are we going to be able to saddle her up now?"
The answer was yes, and we finally set off on our last day of travel. The next day we would find ourselves invited into the Dente Eburneos and meet with the Emperor himself.