I sit once again in the ever so slightly damp chair within the shack, listening to the wind whistling through the evening air and the enthusiastic crunching of Gengar as he eats the third chesto berry I've brought him since the last time he deigned to respond to my questions. 'Perhaps today? Maybe he treated his previous extra answers as an advance to be repaid.'

I find myself waiting with bated breath in anticipation, and can't help but notice the old Gengar seems to be eating very slowly compared to before. I narrow my eyes a bit in consideration, but opt to simply leave my thoughts unsaid. I sigh and lean back into my seat, closing my eyes for a bit.

Eventually, several minutes after the chewing has ceased, I hear a weary sigh followed by a simple "Gen." Glancing over I see them leaning onto their hand with an unenthused look on their face, their other hand waves me on, seemingly telling me to get on with it.

"Is there something odd about me Gengar? A reason why most Pokemon would find me concerning to be around? You three so far are the only Pokemon besides normal types to not treat me strangely. Or perhaps this treatment is strange but simply in a more positive manner." The words rapidly flow from my lips, the thing I've been pondering for over half a decade now, answers to which may finally be within reach.

Gengar sighs, rubbing its temples for a moment in apparent irritation with my question. "Gen, gen, gen, gen, gar." They pull out their tongue with their fingers before allowing it to snap back into its maw like an elastic, then follow this by pointing at its eye, then the places a nose and ears would be on a human face. He finishes the process with a so-so gesture before looking at me with expectation.

"It's a sense but not the normal ones a human would have… is there something strange about my aura? That had been my running theory for a while but I had no real way to be sure."

Gengar offers a token golf clap towards the first part of my answer, before suddenly stopping with a look of surprise and sudden intrigue on its face as I ask about aura. They nod their body yes, but then immediately shake it no after, rotating their hands together in a circular gesture like a wheel in reverse.

"Yes my aura is strange, but it's not the cause of my issue…" 'Reverse, reverse what…' My mind hitches, momentarily unsure what precisely Gengar means, but it makes no further offer, seeming to either believe in my powers of deduction or deciding that if I can't figure it out I don't deserve to know more. 'Reverse my thinking?' Suddenly it clicks "You think my aura wasn't the initial cause of my problems, but another symptom. But what is the cause then?"

Gengar nods, before leaning back into their seat and rubbing their fingers under their mouth in thought. "Gar" It raises its hand and suddenly all the shadows in the room seem to stretch and reach toward them. Rapidly a pulsating black and violet orb and energy quietly screams into being, like the dying wail of a person muffled to be kept hidden. It grows, from marble-sized to baseball to a size rivaling that of Gengar themself as they raise their arm over their head, black energy crackling off the orb and grasping out into the open air with tiny desperate shrieks, each spark seeming to reach out for the only living thing nearby, me. With a simple flourish, Gengar casts it off into the open air of the evening sky through the hole in the roof, where it spirals off in an erratic, wobbling fashion before imploding upon itself with a final shudder-inducing mournful wail at its end. I find myself rooted on the spot, my eyes fixated on the spot where the Shadow Ball vanished from being, inexplicably shedding tears.

"I…" 'It was more than the other Shadow Balls I've seen, so much more, as if it had a will of its own.' "The simple answer would be ghost type-energy, but that feels like a disservice, something more, spirits, memories, will, I'm really not sure, but something important to ghost types."

Gengar looks… unsatisfied with my answer, as if I was close, but simply not enough to really understand. "Gen, Gengar." They point towards me, and suddenly I hear a shocked squeal, looking over towards it, I see Misdreavus peaking over the edge of the hole in the roof. He quickly apparates next to me and snatches my satchel with his hair before dropping it next to Gengar. The old ghost rummages through my bad before pulling out the notebook and pencil I often use, scribbling something on a piece of paper, tearing it out, and handing it to Misdreavus to bring it to me.

The paper is filled with lines of what looks to be meaningless scribbles. 'Is it art? It looks to be line by line though, and separated with spaces in between each scribble, like an approximation of writing almost.' Pokemon generally don't bother to learn human languages, seeming to have some ability to sense the intent behind our words as well as the noises other Pokemon species make, writing is basically something that only rarely shows up in a few species, although pictographs and pictures thought to be made by Pokemon have been seen before.

"A message?" I receive another nod paired with a so-so wave of the hand. "Not necessarily a message, but something that can be understood as such" They nod again, but once more wave their hand. Gengar points at themself and Misdreavus over my shoulder and nods their head yes, points at me and nods no, then points off around in a circle and gestures so-so.

"You and Misdreavus can interpret a message, but I can't, that part makes sense but…" I give more consideration to the third message. 'Everywhere else, so-so…' "Other Pokemon notice the message, but don't understand it properly? Ones that aren't Ghost types?"

Gengar nods and seems to relax in its seat regarding my question answered, and honestly it has been, but I can't help but slip in the thought my mind is fixated on from this revelation. "... Just what the heck does the message say?"

The Ghost looks thoroughly unamused at the follow-up, and begins grumbling as they rummage through my bag yet again, pulling out the second chesto berry I had brought in potential further thanks since I felt this question would be a bother. They lift it up into the air for observation and say nothing else.

My blood runs cold, and I feel a bit of trepidation at the potentially concerning answer I blurt out. "Food?" I receive a blank look before Gengar and Misdreavus both break out into riotus laughter as if I've said the most absurd thing they've ever heard.

Still chuckling and miming wiping away a tear, Gengar raises the berry yet again, pointing at me while shaking no, then themselves while nodding yes. They bring the berry close to their chest in a way that seems defensive, and covetous, as if the berry is a precious thing no one else can- "Belonging? Mine? As in something declaring me as their own?" 'What would cause some ghost to possess me, I haven't seen one in this entire lif-' It clicks suddenly, the memory I've mostly ignored yet still can vividly recall with but a thought, the words echo through my skull, rattle through my very being once again as I recall them. "Finally found you, just like I swore I would. Just rest now, and hopefully, I'll see you soon." Misdreavus recoils, as if physically struck, and Gengar's eyes widen in surprise and fascination.

As I leave that evening, I find one core thought repeating in my mind. 'Just who or what are you, and how long until you find me again?'

[Gengar]

Even on the best of days, Gengar found that he was never quite able to be anything more than tired. Each day the moon rose and fell, his tiny world bathed in that ugly golden light of dawn, before returning to the, perhaps not pleasant, but peaceful monotony of night yet again.

For a long time, He expected each cycle he spent to go on like that into eternity, the seasons would change, the humans and Pokemon would grow old and pass on, and Gengar would wait here in this dilapidated shack, until the end of time if that's what it took, for them to return.

When the Fragment came with the Banshee, Gengar had been displeased by their presence, but allowed them to do as they would, too tired to fight.

They existed peacefully for a time, but eventually, they brought a human child before him. For a moment, he almost lost himself to rage and struck the boy down, incensed at the nerve of the two, yet he stilled his rage in the end, allowing the child to return home and live, rather than die for the foolishness of the other two ghosts.

He can't deny though, that part of the reason he stilled his hand was the sheer oddity of the creature.

The Boy was wrapped in crimson and violet Miasma so utterly thick, Gengar believed if he could siphon not but a third off the Boy, it would more than triple his own strength. Yet bizarrely it clung to him like a cloak, as if pinned and stitched into his very lifeforce, which seemed to be getting dyed into its colors and taking bits and pieces of the energy into itself as time went on, only minuscule fragments of fragments, yet it was enough to make his lifeforce look more ghost than human.

And oh how it screamed out, not with any of the negative emotions Miasma was typically cloaked in, but with raw, maddened, obsession. It spoke of a ghost utterly fixated on this singular child, desperately trying to reach them, and promised a grizzly and terrifying end to anything that dared to bring it harm.

But only a ghost would recognize the deeper meanings, to other types, it would simply appear as if the Boy was followed by a dangerous and unhinged specter, coiled around the Boy and screaming promises of violence and filling them with eerie chill.

It was the centerpiece of it all that truly showed how far gone the specter that had made it was. Weaved into the Boy's being was what Gengar could only presume was a true Destiny Bond, not the fickle thing so often used by trained ghosts, but the curse of life for life, death for death, the thing that most ghosts only ever hear about in whispers among the eldest of them. Anything that killed the boy would suffer an agonizing erasure, even a ghost, but nothing besides a ghost would even know that before they found themselves suffering their excruciating fate. Truly the utterly useless protection of some unhinged Elder, a normal Destiny Bond weaved in the same incredible manner might have actually done something to aid the child by incapacitating something that knocked him out, rather than killing something once he was already a corpse.

The Boy themself was a bit strange, with their obsessive and targeted curiosity, and their generally calm demeanor, they frankly did not even particularly seem to act like a human child at all. He was nothing like her, and yet perhaps that was better, seeing him didn't tear open the old wounds in quite the same way as being with someone just like her would have. Gradually, Gengar found himself growing fond of the boy, much to his chagrin.

The boy would sit, share food, and ask questions at times, but often he would just sit in Gengar's company relaxing into the evening, staying with the old mon in his endless mourning for just a little bit. Making life seem just a small bit better.

A part of Gengar couldn't help but despise the Boy for it, but he found himself unable to bear to ask him to leave. Even the few times the Boy asked a question that had irritated Gengar, such as about his Evolution, he only found himself waving them off for the evening.

When the Boy asked the Banshee and the Fragment if they would follow him on his journey Gengar didn't understand the portion of him that felt frustrated to not be asked as well, despite knowing that he would have refused. The Fragment dismissed the Boy, uninterested in fighting and seeking only to follow its own path, while the Banshee, haughty thing that it was, hesitated and declared that the Boy would have to prove itself worthy before it would consider following. It was clear to Gengar though that the Banshee wished to follow the Boy, but feared the wrath of the unknown Elder still.

Small cycles passed, and the cycle of seasons followed, until two simple cycles had been completed and the height of summer was reached for the third time since they had met.

Together Gengar and the Boy sat amiably in the shack, the daylight making its descent beyond the horizon. The Boy seemed to be conflicted on a manner, and Gengar watched out of the corner of his eyes with interest.

"Today might be an odd question, for a long time I found myself wondering what it was about you that made me feel so strange to be around you." The Boy quietly spoke into the room, his voice just barely audible.

"If this question upsets you, I'm sorry, but would you tell me what they were like?"

Gengar sits silent for a moment, before comprehending the meaning behind the question. The shadows in the room coalesce towards him, and his body bulges and swells with barely contained malice and Miasma, toxic smoke wafting off him and eyes glowing red with rage. "YOU WOULD DARE? WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT WRETCHED CHILD-"

The Insolent Whelp tenses under the gaze of an enraged ghost, but seems to brace himself and force out a few more words.

"Before I go, do you mind if I tell you a story?" He utters, and for a brief moment, Gengar sees the Miasma surrounding him change, taking on an aspect of deep melancholy mixed among the Elder's influence.

Ever so slowly, Gengar restrains himself, letting his curiosity peak through. He nods, and the Boy lets out a tired sigh.

"A long time ago, in a different life, in a different world, there lived a strange and lonely little boy. A loving mother and father cared for him, and though they were a strange pair they did their best. But around others, the boy always felt shy and alone, especially among the other children."

"Then one day, the Sun appeared. Not the one in the sky that seared down from above, but a soft warm light in human shape who took the boy by the hand and played and smiled. Who looked at the boy's strange ways without a hint of judgment, only joy." Gengar stares as the Boy's eyes glaze over, someplace far away, a small fleeting smile graces his lips.

"And for a time things carried on like that, they reveled and played, and began to grow tall as the days and years passed."

"Yet one day the Sun's smile began to grow more clouded, and the boy, smart as he was, found himself confused, as he was just a bit broken, and often couldn't understand people's hearts. Was the Sun not talented, was he not smart and well-liked by those around them? What could be wrong? The boy thought to ask but, worried he would be found troublesome, left it alone, to be brought up by his friend should they feel the need."

"Perhaps it was pressure from expectations, or fear of being found out different. Perhaps they were bullied where the boy couldn't see, or maybe they just had grown tired."

"The boy would never know, one day the Sun set over the edge of a bridge, and never rose again."

Gengar looks at the Boy and sees nothing in his posture or his face, he looks as if he's somewhere far away, placid and calm like the surface of a lake. The Miasma surrounding him tells a different story though, responding to him outside his notice, writhing in irritation and loathing.

"The boy grew into the empty shell of a man, unable to find the will or desire to become more. People came and went, and his family was broken with death, and each time someone vanished, he could only find himself wondering again and again how people could simply move on and forget."

"For a time, the boy thought to chase after his Father and the Sun, to plunge into the abyss in hopes of seeing them again, but couldn't help but hope that maybe someday things would become better, and didn't want to leave his mother to suffer. For a time he tried to become more, to do more, but in the end, how could he."

"The only things he wanted in that world were already long gone."

The Boy Who Was Once a Man looks at Gengar, and the ghost finds himself stunned, looking at eyes that seem to almost match his own, filled with simple understanding.

"It took my death to find the resolve to try to be more, I don't want to waste this chance I have now, but I will never show disdain for your vigil. I really just wanted to ask about your past and learn a bit more about a friend."

"And who knows, perhaps one day they will find themselves here in their next life."

Gengar watches as the Boy, as Izzy begins to head out to exit the shack, likely to head home.

"Wait" Gengar begins to push himself up, the chair in which he sits clinging to his form and body as he does so, before he simply allows his body to phase away, returning to his fully incorporeal form. For the first time in 150 simple cycles, Gengar leaves the seat in which he has waited, apparating before Izzy. A tiny gasp can be heard from up above, and Gengar sees yellow and red eyes quickly vanish from up above the roof, but chooses to pay it no mind.

"Do you truly wish to know?" Gengar tilts his head and attempts to once again break the language barrier with gestures as he's grown used to these recent cycles. Izzy responds with only a small smile and a nod.

Gengar gently pulls the piece of himself which holds those precious memories of his own to the forefront, and channels the Miasma into a Confuse Ray.

Then the Boy sees.

[Isaiah Solus (Gengar's Recollection)]

Haunter cheerfully floats through the forest under the cover of night, searching for his next mark. 'Far too long since I've had my last good human scare, it's nearly been four whole nights! Spooking other Pokemon is all well and good, but humans always have the best reactions.' His fingers wiggle with hyperactive energy and a throaty chuckle that sounds like an old smoker's cough mixed with a Politoed's croak rumbles through him.

Yet after nearly four hours of searching without any luck, Haunter's enthusiasm can't help but begin to wane. 'Why do all these silly humans waste perfectly good moonlight and instead run about while the sun is out.' He was looking forward to a nice serving of Miasma tonight, and while he'd heard mention of a faster way to get it, the method seemed like a bit of a waste to him.

Finally, Haunter hears muffled shouts and trudging through the undergrowth of the forest. 'Could it be? Two whole humans to scare together? Tonight's looking lucky after all!' He speeds off in the direction of the noise, and from a hidden position above, looks down at a man carrying a large brown sack over his shoulder, noise and rustling coming from inside. 'No no, this won't do, half my audience will miss out on my performance being carried like that!'

Haunter sends one of his hands off, filling its nails with ghost type-energy and slicing through the top of the bag, from within which a little girl spills out. The man jumps and begins wildly looking around before tossing out a Luxio, which immediately puffs up and starts charging electricity. 'Hehe, I suppose that's my queue.'

Slipping his main body into the Other, Haunter hops out and appears directly in center stage, he lets out a riotous cackle, bulges his eyes out of their sockets, and slits his tongue like an Ekans while wiggling both halves. The man shrieks in terror while Luxio jumps to attack him with Bite, right on queue, and one of Haunter's hands slams directly on top of Luxio's head from out of the shadows and shuts its mouth against the ground before dissolving partially into poison gas. The other grabs the man by the back of his pants and hoists him up to hang from a tree branch.

"AHAHAHAA! Thank you! Thank you! You're too kind, I'll be here all week if you need another good scare." Haunter cackles with glee, then fires a Miasma-laced Confuse Ray at the struggling Luxio for good measure. He begins to siphon up the small bits of it that the man's fear released into the Other for him to enjoy, but as he's doing so, he notices the girl staring up at him with wide sparkling eyes. "Oh? A fan? I didn't know they made humans with good taste in performance. I'll give you a follow-up free of charge!" Haunter grabs the top and bottom of his mouth and yanks it open till it's twice the size his body usually is, his eyes roll back into their sockets and rollout onto his tongue, which he then undulates to bounce them up and down, cackling all the while.

Instead of a scream though, the little girl just burst out in laughter! "Noo, this can't be right" Haunter lets go of his jaw, letting his form quickly snap back into place before circling the tiny humanlike creature and observing it from all angles for closer inspection. He rubbed his chin, grew his eyes, looked under and over, and even knocked on her skull, but all she kept doing was giggling and laughing. "But no matter how I look you're still a human! Did you evolve from the easy-to-scare ones? Maybe you have a special ability?"

"Thanks Mr. Ghost for savin me! My name's Maggie." The child doesn't answer the questions at all, but instead wraps him in a big hug.

It feels nice and warm, like nothing he'd felt before.

Such is the beginning of the ten simple cycles Haunter and Maggie spent together, in that short time she taught him many human things, and they spent many fun days together. Sitting staring up at the stars in the night sky, sneaking around the small town of "Sunyshore" and pulling pranks and jokes together. Sharing food and chesto berries next to a fire in the abandoned hunter's shack in the woods we found together, so Maggie could stay up with me through the night.

We would rarely go three nights apart without seeing each other and never more than seven, we were almost inseparable. Haunter was there with Maggie through her good times and her bad, and even as she grew older and would more and more often come to see him with a frown on her face, Haunter always did his best to cheer her up, and she'd always leave with big grin instead.

She told him of so many things he didn't quite understand, about her mother's passing leaving her alone so often when her sailor father was gone. About how her father began to drink more and act strange and aggressive in the house. He asked if she needed him to do something to help, but she said it was just foolish human things and not to worry, her father loved her.

Haunter never should have listened.

The door of the hunter's shack opens, and Maggie strides in rapidly. Haunter looks at her with concern, confusion, frustration, distress, and fear all pour off of her like rain from a storm cloud into the Other.

"What's wrong Maggie? You all in one piece girl?" He circles around her, trying to see the issue, but nothing seems apparent.

"Don't worry for now Haunty, everything's gonna be fine." the second half of the sentence seems more like she's trying to convince herself than Haunter. "I just, I mean… I think it's time to go, and I wanted to know if you would come with me Haunter. I never really thought I'd be a trainer but I think it's best I leave."

"Of course! We'll take our two mon show on the road Mags! You and me spookin' the world!" He gives a hearty laugh, and Maggie's smile manages to break free again, her eyes curving into crescents and her laugh rings through the room.

"Yeah, just you and me Haunty, that's all we need."

She does stay long after that, and once she leaves Haunter sets out to collect things from the woods that they could use to save a bit of time later. 'Aren't ya proud Mags, look at how responsible ol' Haunty can be eh? I definitely won't let ya down!'

The day passes, and the next evening quickly arrives.

And Haunter waits.

And waits.

And waits.

It isn't till the sun crests over the horizon that Haunter realizes something's wrong. He dashes off to Maggie's house, slipping into the Other to reach it as fast as he can, he goes straight through the wall and comes face to face with Maggie. "Ouf what a relief girl I thought you were in troubl-"

"GET AWAY, I'm LEAVING and you CAN'T STOP ME!" Maggie screams and recoils from something, and immediately I pull in front of her to protect her from-

There's nothing there

"Mags what's wrong?!"

"AHHH! Haunty HELP!" Haunter whips around, but nothing is near her, he doesnt understand.

"I'm not a witch! Haunty is a good boy! But if you think that JUST LET ME GO DAD!"

Haunter stares in confusion, filling with rage. Maggie is under attack! And he can't even see how.

"HGH! …haunty please …save me…" What sounds like a dying gasp escapes her lips, before a final desperate whisper leaves her, as she slumps to the ground.

"Maggie, pull it together girl, I'm gonna get you help" Haunter reaches for Maggie, but she feels wrong instead of soft and warm, she feels like him. He looks over her-

And sees a second Maggie lying on the floor, blood pooling from the back of her skull, her body long since cooled.

"M-M-Mags?" he reaches for her, and the first he saw gets back up and suddenly begins it conversation with the air a new.

Haunter's body shakes, his being overflowing with rage, furniture in the room rises and scatters, shattering against the ground. His memory goes black.

Haunter comes to dripping in red, carrying Maggie's body in one hand and pulling along the piece of her left in the Other with his second. He's stronger than hes been in his entire life.

And yet has never felt weaker than in this moment.

"It's ok girlie, now you can be a ghost just like me! Trust me it's way better than the whole human thing."

His only response is her hysterical shrieking.

"It's ok, just give it a bit of time and I'm sure you'll adjust in a jiffy."

Five simple cycles.

Haunter brings the piece of Maggie to the shack, and every moment of every day, tries to relive the memories of the past with them. Tries to share food, watch the stars, tell stories, and go out to play pranks.

And yet the only response he receives are her final desperate pleas. '

" …haunty please …save me…" The words echo in his mind endlessly, a perfect reminder of his failure.

Yet he cannot bear to leave her, this fragment of what she was, incomplete as it is. It's all he has left but memories.

It takes five cycles for him to realize that Maggie will not become a true ghost, no matter how long he waits. She was not strong enough, did not possess the iron will the legends speak of that it takes for a single creature alone to become a ghost on passing.

"…haunty please …save me…" Haunter takes one final look at the Echo, the stain Maggie's horrid passing left on the Other, the only thing left of her besides bones in the earth.

And takes it into himself, all the Miasma it was made from. The terror, sadness, and confusion, she felt in her final moments living. The love she held for him, even cherishing him more than family even to her dying breath, the final bit of hope she held, before the Monster finally snuffed it out.

For the second time in his memory, Haunter's mind goes blank and he drifts into sleep.

Gengar awakens in his place.

[Author's Note]

Hey everyone me again! Thanks for reading and all the reviews once again, and exciting milestone (at least to me lol) The fics made it to 100 followers, so huzzah.

I ended up rewriting a few portions of the chapter, part of me wanted to rewrite more but I opted to let it fly at this point. Sorry about the schedule, but honestly I care more about writing something I feel happy about than strictly adhering to it sorry folks hopefully I'll get better at keeping it with time.

So this is the first Pokemon POV chapter, I hope ya'll liked it. I decided to do Pokemon POV specifically in 3rd person writing, but with the Pokemon as the narrator, so tell me if that feels odd for the future. Also, I italicized Pokemon speaking to emphasize that the words being said by them in their POV is not actually what comes out of their mouth, I hope that isn't too confusing with italicized thoughts as well, but if it is, let me know and I'll try to find a different method for one of the two.

Finally gonna be frank, the next chapter looking to be a doozy and doesn't really have a great place to split it, if it ends up being as long as I think it might (upwards of 10k words) I will end up skipping Friday release and drop it Monday. I'll try my best to still hit the Friday goal, but since I'm aware of the issue I wanted to let ya'll know ahead of time.

A small note on the Pokemon POV, if it wasn't apparent, simple cycles are the seasons changing 4 times, i.e. years.

Secondly, I just wanted to reaffirm, that this is not going to be an edge fic or a fic with tons of brooding, that said this is meant to be a found family story, and many major characters will have some amount of history, some heavier than others, does not mean we will live in brood land all the time, but it will come up at times. Izzy tells a storybook version of his past but also affirms he's making efforts to move on from it, Gengars still living in his, but will hopefully climb out.

Finally, slightly spoilery territory, but also just wanted to clarify because I really don't know when exactly I would place it in the story to fully clarify what happened at the end stop reading the AN now if you don't want info on the evo. I really like weird evolution methods for mons that don't have clear ones, but Haunter often ends up getting stuck with "needing to be a ridiculously evil murder ghost to evolve" in fics that use them. The specific thing that makes Haunter evolve in this setting, is taking in an Echo of someone with memories of love for them, which while still allowing for "ohh super evil murder monster" also allows for, heroic turnaround moments when a precious teammate passes, or loving memory of a good life with a trainer letting them evolve.

Anyway, thanks again as always for your time, Constructive criticism is always appreciated, I'll catchya next time.