A high pitched yowl tore through the house.

"Hunh?!" Sparky's celebrations were shuffled to a halt. "Wh-what happened there?"

Hopping through the sticky mess of the kitchen, she scrambled down the hallway and up the stairs, only to find a devastated looking Higgle at the top of them.

"H-Higgle?" She mumbled. "What's… going on?"

Higgle's grimace stretched wider, and Sparky finally noticed that the door to his left was half open.

"…oh! Did Socks see Miss Holly?!"

Again, Higgle didn't really respond. He just buried his face between his arms and sighed loudly. So Sparky edged the door open and tiptoed her way into the bathroom, only to find Socks curled up on the cold tile floor, shivering.

"Socks…?" She shook the little Furret. "A-are you okay? What's wrong?"

Eyes wide and glistening with tears, she mumbled nonsense to herself while staring at nothing.

Sparky glanced up at Holly. She hadn't moved since earlier, and it was awesome then. So why was Socks so scared?

Sparky sat down next to Socks and wrapped her arms around the Furret's head. "Hey, it's okay… wanna talk about it?"

Socks just continued whimpering at nothing. Maybe she was just so overwhelmed by it all, Sparky thought. It wasn't a normal reaction, sure, but Socks got spooked easy so it sorta made sense.

But if she didn't know any better, she could've sworn Socks was upset by all of this. Higgle didn't look too pleased either. Something was definitely up here…

"C'mon Socks, you can talk to me…" she rubbed Socks' back. "I-isn't it awesome? Trainer's fly-"

"No!" Socks' voice was shrill and choked. "It's not awesome! It's really really scary, Sparky! D-don't you know what this means?!"

Suddenly the world felt like it was falling away from her. What started off as a happy, fluffy feeling quickly dissolved away to an unpleasant, empty sensation in the pit of her stomach.

"B-but isn't she flying?" Sparky felt the threat of tears stinging. Did she get something wrong?

"No, no no no, she's not!" Socks wailed. "When a human does that, it means that they're-"

Higgle was brought out of his melancholy with a gasp as Sparky released a similar shriek to the one from earlier. Eyes wide, he watched as both of the girls dashed out of the bathroom in a panic, screaming down the hallway and into the bedroom again.

"Oh… dear," Higgle sobbed.

What was he thinking, trying to keep them from seeing it? They would've had to eventually, no matter what he could've done to stop it. And now things were probably so much worse, and it was all his fault.

Higgle pushed himself to his feet. Even his footfalls felt heavy as he plodded his way down the hall.

Now it was his turn to squeak through the half-open door.

"…Socks? Sparky? Where are you both?"

He slowly scanned the room for signs of either of the girls, but the tiny slip of light peering through the curtains wasn't helping. The bed was empty, there was no one on the beanbag, or even just sprawled out across the floor like he'd first expected.

He opened the curtains and found no one, and the wardrobe was empty too.

"Where could they have gone?" He mumbled. There weren't many hiding places in this room, and he definitely saw them both run in here, yet he couldn't find them.

Higgle collapsed onto the bed and conceded. Grief took hold, and tears slipped from his eyes. After a few furious swipes, they kept streaming however, and eventually an almighty sob burst out of him.

What were they going to do now? Not only had they lost Lady Holly, but he had lied to them about it and now they probably hated him for it.

He was a failure as a psychic-type. As a Pokémon. As a living being. Some mind reader he was, not even knowing that his beloved trainer was suffering.

Sir Higglesworth sniffled loudly. He supposed there was a silver lining in the girls hiding from him; they wouldn't see him like this. Pathetic and helpless, crying on his own in a dark-

The beanbag rustled.

Higgle sat bolt upright with an ugly snort and wiped at his face. "W-who's there?!"

He was met with more silence.

A snuffly judder escaping his depths, Higgle squirmed out of the bed and approached the beanbag. It couldn't have moved on its own, could it?

Tentative footfalls on carpet.

"…Socks?" He prodded at the beanbag. "S-Sparky? Are you in there? Let's talk about this, okay?"

"No! I'm not coming out!" Socks sniffled from within the beanbag. "I'm staying in here forever now! The world's all nasty without Trainer!"

"Ohh, I know it is, Socks," Higgle put on his softest voice. "But you cannot stay in there. You'll never know the dangers from amidst that beanbag."

"I'm fine with that!" Socks cried. "What you don't know can't hurt you!"

"B-but you know that is a fallacy, Socks…" Higgle knelt down next to the beanbag.

"Agh, quit it with the long words Higgle!" Socks screamed out at him. The beanbag rustled violently as Socks coiled up tighter in its centre.

"The dangers still exist, whether you know about them or not," Higgle stammered, placing his hand on top of the beanbag. "You can't protect yourself from danger if you don't know about it, Socks. A-and then it could come and gobble you up in the night…"

"Well that's fine with me!" Socks cried. So much for the metaphor. "That way I can be with Trainer!"

"Oh, that is it, Socks!" Higgle yelled. "Come out of there at once!"

"No!" Socks coiled up tighter still. "It's nice in here! Out there's bad!"

"You cannot stay in there forever, Socks!" Higgle strained to unwrap the beanbag from around her. "Let us face the nasty things together, okay?!"

"But why?!" Socks shouted. "There is no together without Trainer!"

"You still," Higgle found a long tail and grabbed onto it. "Have. US!"

"Noo!" Socks resisted. "I'm not comin' out! Never ever ever!"

"Yes you are!" Higgle gave an almighty tug, actually shifting the entire beanbag with his efforts.

"Yaaaagh!" Sock screeched, turning around and raking his face with a seething set of slashes. "I said I'm not coming outta-"

Her boiling rage simmered and died almost instantly when she saw what she'd done. Her best friend's face was covered with bright, glistening red scratches. One eye closed, Higgle just gave her a defeated stare.

"Ohh, Higgle…" She collapsed into his shoulder and sobbed. "I-I… I'm so so so sorry."

"It is alright, Socks," Higgle stroked the back of her head. "If anything, I should be the one apologising to you, for putting you both through this."

Socks shuffled in his arms, and the lightbulb flickered.

"W-where is Sparky, anyway?"

A painful silence rippled through the bedroom.

Higgle could almost hear his shame. Both of them ran off, after what they had seen, and yet he chose to comfort only one of them.

Every hurdle he had met so far, he had missed.

"I'm right here." A muffled voice deadpanned from the wardrobe. Higgle glanced over to see a narrow strip of white and yellow glowering at them from the half-closed doors.

"S-Sparky?" He gasped. "How long have you been in there, dear?"

"Since forever," Sparky pouted. "You looked right at me, but I guess I wasn't important enough…"

"Ohh, now you know that isn't true, Sparky…" Higgle extended an arm towards her. "P…perhaps you just… blended in with the towels behind you so perfectly that I did not see you."

"…they're blue." Sparky didn't even blink.

"I am sorry, Sparky. I truly am." Higgle said. What point was there in arguing? He was just showing what a horrible Pokémon he was with every extra word. Blinking slowly and sucking in a long breath, he fluttered the fingers of his free hand.

Sparky groaned and shuffled out of the wardrobe. With puffed out cheeked and rubbed red eyes, she let Higgle pull her into a hug.

Higgle squeezed her tight. She was all full of static again, and it was probably his fault. Like everything else today.

"So… Miss Holly's not really flying?" Sparky mumbled.

"I…" Higgle started, but his sentence froze where it stood. What could he even tell them? Would they understand? And even then, would they understand why?

He wasn't sure if he knew that part himself…

"Lady Holly has… fallen into the eternal sleep, I am afraid." He said, blinking furiously at the ceiling.

"Eternal sleep?" Sparky's eyes widened. "What's that mean?"

Higgle sighed. Maybe a different analogy would work.

"It means she has… passed away."

"Passed away?!" Sparky cried. "But she's right there! How can she be away when she's there?!"

"Sparky…" Higgle rubbed at his eyes. "Lady Holly is-"

"Dead." Socks deadpanned. "That's all you needed to say, Higgle."

The word tore into him like a knife through butter. Scalding, dangerous tears prickled and he brought both girls tighter, sobbing into Socks' fur.

"Dead?!" Sparky yelped. "B-but how, Higgle? Why? Why didn't you tell me-"

"To try and protect you, Sparky." Higgle spluttered. "I-if you didn't know, then… then-"

"Then we'd still be a family?" Sparky looked up at him.

"Ohh, of course we are still a family!" Higgle insisted. "A-and we will always be a family no matter what, Sparky!"

"But now we're a broken one…" Socks mumbled. "And you know what happens to broken things. They get thrown away."

The urge to defy Socks bubbled, but he just didn't have the strength to do it. It was a very real possibility. What was to become of them now?

Lady Holly would disappear periodically from the house and return with food. How were they going to get food? Where did she even get it from?

"What're we… going to do now, Higgle?" Sparky asked after a few minutes.

Staring off into the distance, a defeated Sir Higglesworth just shook his head slowly.

"I don't know."

Accumula Town's conifer trees swayed gently against a stormy backdrop as three Pokémon moped in the darkening kitchen. It was dinnertime, but there was no loving Trainer to provide them with food. How Sparky managed to work the stove earlier was little short of a miracle, and the kitchen was still covered in syrup because of it. What was going to happen the next time? Would someone get injured? Would they set the house on fire? Why wasn't the old stove working anyway?

Lady Holly made it look so easy. Just another mystery he supposed he was going to have to solve, lest they starve.

With a little gasp, he snuck back into the kitchen. He hopped through around patches of syrup to open the door to the fridge, and then the cupboards, and then the pantry. His sigh deepened each time.

"Ohh, Lady Holly, what are we to do." Higgle grimaced. The shelves were almost empty, save for a few oddly shaped packages. Did Lady Holly use these to make food, he wondered. Some of them rustled, others crinkled, one released a bizarre powder, but then there was the sticky yet not altogether unpleasant texture of plastic wrap.

"Hmm?" Higgle narrowed his eyes. The discovery was wrapped under so many layers he couldn't even determine the contents, but there was a post-it note attached to it with a hastily drawn picture of… him.

Something inside of him withered at the sight, settling in his stomach like a lead weight.

"A-apology accepted, Lady Holly." He almost managed a chuckle. "It would appear you can read the future far better than I…"

Meanwhile in the other room…

"Hey, who's Higgle talking to?" Socks mumbled, her sharp ears pricking up. "He's all mumbles and stuff."

"Probably himself, Socks," Sparky sighed. "'Cos there's no one else, remember?"

"Oh yeah…" Socks deflated. Sparky just mumbled something dejected next to her.

That was until a heavy plate clattered onto the table.

"Huh?" Socks frowned. "W-what's in here, Higgle?

"I am not certain," Higgle tugged at the mound of plastic wrap. The tough, sticky wrap slowly unpeeled to unveil about thirty oval-shaped bread rolls.

"Poffins?" Socks said. "How did you make them so fast, Higgle?"

"Lady Holly must have left them for us," Higgle stared at the confection in his hands. A mild, bitter tang wafted from it. He'd always loved Rawst…

"You were always so smart, Trainer." Socks' face scrunched up.

Higgle took a seat opposite the girls. "It seems as though she still cared for us deeply. In spite of everything."

Rain was spattering against the windows now. With the skies rapidly darkening, Higgle could barely make out the poffin in his hands any more. It was little more than a bitter lump of coal in the dusk. Except it smelled nice, he breathed in deeply and felt the minty fragrance calm him.

Silence descended. Prospects were already bleak, Higgle frowned. Lady Holly had the foresight to make them a stack of poffins, but how long were they going to last? Socks had inhaled two already.

Just how long had Lady Holly been planning this, he groaned internally. How long had she been this way, and he none the w-

"Hey Higgle?" Socks picked her words slowly. "W-what're we gonna do now? We can't stay here much longer, I know that much…"

"What… what makes you say that, dear?" Higgle glanced up at her. Beetle black eyes glinting against her darkened silhouette, he could barely see her any more in this darkness.

"Well…" Socks mumbled. "Trainer used to go into town sometimes and come back with food, right?"

"…yes?" Higgle narrowed his eyes.

"D'you… think that's why there's so many poffins?" She started nibbling on her third. "Be-because she knew that we wouldn't be able to go into town and get food like she did…"

"That does seem feasible, yes." Higgle put a hand to his chin. It looked like he wasn't the only one to reach this conclusion.

"But wait…" Sparky said. "So what're we gonna do when we run outta food?"

The world suddenly fell away from Higgle. Both of the girls had made the same deduction as he, and he had the advantage of context.

"O-oh…" He stumbled. That will teach him for underestimating them. "I um… I suppose we shall have to cross that bridge as we come to it, okay girls? I-if we ration the food it should last longer, and I shall brainstorm until then. How does that sound?"

"I… I don't know," Socks mumbled. "Like, I can't help but feel like we're gonna get thrown away now, cause-"

"-Calm down, dear." Higgle said. "You are overthinking, Socks. I assure you, we will be fine. I'll not let anyone throw us away. Broken or not, we are a family!"

Sparky just huffed at him. "Some family we are. Just how long were you gonna keep this a secret from us, Higgle?"

Socks' face crumpled in front of them, and Higgle wrestled the urge to shout into a huge intake of breath.

"It was…" He swallowed down warring emotions. "To try and protect you both. There are things that are not to be seen, and that was one of them."

"But I had seen already!" Sparky threw her little arms outwards. "Wouldn't it have been better if you'd just told me the truth there and then?!"

"Now now, Sparky," Higgle showed her gentle palms. "Let us both take a deep breath and think about this, okay?"

"Think, Higgle? Think? That's all I've been doing since you told us about this, dammit!" Sparky seethed. Electricity arcing dangerously from her body, she glared up at him with hollow eyes. "You wanna tell me what I'm missing, smarty pants?! Thinking's not gonna bring her back now, is it?!"

Something with Higgle burned. Whether it was guilt or fury, he wasn't sure, but he couldn't show either right now. Not while Sparky was like this.

"If I had told you straight away…" He sighed. "You would have argued about it, insisting that Lady Holly was indeed flying, and when I continued to correct you, you would have gone and gotten Socks, to get her to agree with you. And you saw what happened when Socks s-"

"Oh, so it's perfectly fine for me to see her there, dead as a Doduo, but not Socks?!" Sparky raged. "Why's she so special? Once again, Socks gets all the special hugs while I'm stuck in the damn closet! Just admit you like her more, okay Higg-"

"Sparky!" Socks shrieked at her. "S-s-stop being so nasty to us! Higgle was just trying to help, okay?! Now that's Trainer's g… gone, he's gonna be helping us a-a lot more! So you just shut up for once and let him help… okay?!"

Socks' outburst stunned the both of them into silence. Face screwed up, eyes streaming, she dropped the remains of her poffin and burst from the table, disappearing into another room.

Higgle cradled his forehead. "…that is why, Sparky. I was just fortunate that you hadn't realised exactly what had happened."

"…I was dumb there, wasn't I?" Sparky mumbled. "S-Socks has had a bad enough day, and then I go and make it worse because I dunno how to shut up!"

"Berate yourself no further, Sparky." Higgle pulled the tiny Emolga into his arms. "You were right. I should have told you straight away. In the situation we are currently within, it would have made no difference…"

"I'm so sorry I got mad, Higgle," Sparky mumbled into his shoulder. "I mean, you're just trying to keep us together, a-and I-"

"There is no need for an apology, dear," Higgle stood up from the table. "If anything, I believe it is Socks that we need to apologise to."

Sparky nodded slowly. "Once w-we find her, m-maybe we could all sit in the big beanbag together and eat poffins and watch cartoons on TV? Socks like the cartoons…"

"A pertinent idea, Sparky." Higgle smiled. "And I have an idea where she might be. Come, let us go and be a family."

Balancing a trio of fresh poffins in one arm and Sparky in the other, Higgle quickly glanced into the sitting room, just in case. The darkness of evening had all but washed out the colour, leaving behind a gloomy greyscale.

Carefully bumping his foot against each and every stair to check for distance, he slowly made his way to the top floor, where Socks was sniffling loudly at the end of the stairs. Tail wrapped around herself and coiled tightly, she was staring intently at the bathroom door.

"G-go away!" She picked up on them instantly, her voice thick and harsh. "I-I don't wanna talk right now…"

"We cannot leave you like this, Socks…" Higgle let Sparky down. "You shall become ill, crying yourself to sleep in a dark hallway."

"…it's not gonna be like this every day, is it?" Socks sniffled. "All of us getting mad at each other over nothing? I mean, I scratched your face lots earlier, and I yelled at Sparky just now a-and I don't even like shouting because it makes my voice hurt! Is this what life is now?!"

"O-of course not, Socks…" Higgle dared to reach forward and stroke her head. She flinched at the touch. "Things will get better, I just know it."

A heavy sniffle left her. "When, Higgle? When?"

"S-soon, I promise." Higgle said. "P… perhaps you would like to join us in the beanbag? We can eat some poffins there, and I shall see if I can find some cartoons on the television?"

Socks' head tilted upwards. "…that does sound a little bit nice. Better than the floor, anyway."

The little Furret uncoiled and wobbled back to her feet, showing her face again at last. "I-I'm sorry you guys. I shouldn't get all mad like that…"

"Worry not, Socks." Higgle forestalled. "We have all made mistakes today, and we are all a bit tired. So you two take a seat, and I shall see what is showing on the television."

"N-no scary movies, please Higgle." Socks mumbled. "I-I don't like those very much…"

"Of course not." Higgle's voice was muffled from behind the TV cabinet. It was an ancient model, possibly older than any of them. The darkening skies were only making things more difficult, but despite his persistence, complete with appropriate switch flicking and wire jiggling, the appliance was not powering up.

"Hmm," He frowned at it. "All of the wires and power connectors appear to be in the correct positions, and all of the appropriate switches are in the right places. So why are you not working, television?"

"H-have you tried hitting it on the side, Higgle?" Sparky suggested. "That always worked with me?"

"I am not sure it will work this time, Sparky…" Higgle groaned, squashing into the beanbag. "It seems to be lacking power, and therefore I don't think we can operate it."

"…oh." Sparky sighed. "Does that mean no cartoons before bed?"

"Unfortunately, I believe so." Higgle glanced over to the window, where a lone streetlight cast a distant glow against the curtains. "I do apologise, girls. Will you be okay getting to sleep?"

"U-uhmm…" Socks shivered. "It's… kinda dark and scary."

Higgle and Sparky shared a nervous glance. Lady Holly had taken years coaxing her out of this fear, and now it was back in just one night.

Guilt clawed at his stomach. Were things just going to spiral out of control now?

"H-hold on, I've got an idea…" Sparky muttered, closing her eyes and concentrating. Her face marred into a frown, a little glow of static electricity started bouncing across her body, lighting the room up just enough for the trio to see.

"Wow… thanks Sparky," Socks snuggled up to her. "Y-you guys have been so nice to me today…"

Higgle's frown slowly melted away. "That is what family are for, Socks."

But his comment fell on deaf ears. Half-eaten poffin under one arm, Sparky the nightlight under the other, Socks had dozed off already.

Higgle felt a smile rising within him. "And they say a chipped vase is worthless."

Shuffling alongside the pair and wrapping his arms around them, Higgle was finally able to put this long day to rest. Whatever the future held, it was his duty to keep their little family together.