.

Held by Pins

"History is like a ghost. It is as dead as alive."

–Kedar Joshi

"That was messed up."

Misty wasn't looking Phoebe in the eye, but she saw the other girl fold her arms and craft her face into something austere. Phoebe always had something holier-than-thou about her, but rarely did it come with this hardness. It was salt in a wound of her own making.

"I had to tell the truth," Misty whispered.

"No, telling the truth was great. Ten out of ten. Loved that." She didn't sound like she loved it. For once, Phoebe was nearly monotone. "It's the truth you had to tell that's fucked. How long ago did your mother die?"

"Ten years."

The admission was quiet. As though the volume with which she revealed the truth was related to how bad it was. If the words barely left her lips, maybe their weight would be less.

Phoebe shook her head. "Yeah. Man, that's fucked."

Misty nodded. There was no denying it. The worst part was that she hadn't felt any guilt over it in the last ten years. At the time, it hadn't felt like she was keeping her mother to herself—it had just been an extension of the secret she had to keep at all costs. This arm of the lie had never crossed her mind as a potential cost, as something greater than herself.

Now, she was horrified to find that the whole ten years of guilt that she'd avoided hadn't been absent, but had been compiling in quiet. Now, it was on her shoulders, the weight of it new and back-breaking.

"Well, I can see that you know that much," Phoebe said, her voice perhaps a degree warmer. "I wish I had advice for how to correct this one, but I don't."

Misty shook her head. "I wasn't hoping that you would."

Phoebe looked around as she heaved a heavy sigh. There was muck everywhere. The water looked like a lake after a heavy storm where all the decaying leaves and sodden mulch blackened with mold had run off into it. The tiles were slick with the filthy water all the way to the walls.

"Well," Phoebe sighed, "I can't help with your internal strife, but I can get a mop."

Misty was listless, unable to offer anything more than a nod as Phoebe navigated the slippery floor out of the room. And Misty was left with the thought that she'd ruined a happy person. She'd never seen Phoebe so unhappy, even as she'd talked about her own dead sister.

As that was crossing her mind, as all the heat of shame that had burned her face chilled to a steady and even cold, she looked to Ash. Ash, who was looking at her, but whose expression was unreadable. His eyes were wide, but not particularly expectant. His brows were drawn, but not in anger.

"What?" she asked, her voice heavy with exhaustion. She could barely lift it enough to put pitch on the word.

That was enough to draw a readable expression on Ash's face. Surprise. Just a bit, then he shook it off. "Oh, I wasn't going to say anything. Er, I don't really know what to say."

"I don't know. Phoebe said it pretty well."

"Yeah, well, I don't know," he said, beginning to look a little flustered, like a student called on randomly by the teacher. "I don't know, I mean, it's not like she was there. It's not like she's been with you for ten years, so she probably can't say it better than you, right?"

"No, I'd also say I fucked up."

Frustration walked across his expression, though Misty didn't know if it was with her or himself. Ash ran his hands through the sides of his hair and tried again, "No, like, you're not mean spirited—"

"I can be mean spirited."

"—Well, you're not the single nicest person I've ever met," Ash agreed, the frustration making it into his voice for a moment. "but you're not mean. Whatever you did this for, it wasn't to be mean. I believe that. So you did it for another reason."

Really, it was funny. Misty had always thought of her sisters as being mean spirited. Not especially so, but the pranks they played on her with the ghost stories and the bug stories, the jokes they made about how she dressed or how small she'd been. Those had felt mean. But, contemporaneously, the thing she'd done was far worse.

"Hey, maybe you can call your mom!"

"What?" Misty asked, taking a moment to break out of her thoughts. "Oh, call her…"

That was an idea. A surprisingly really good idea. It wouldn't solve what she'd done, but as her sisters had implied before walking out, something might be forgiven if she could conjure their mother for them. It would be a powerful gesture—more than that, it would mean a lot to her sisters.

Misty closed her eyes and imagined the pool before her. The pool, the white and blue tiles, the bleachers on either side, all covered with the film of filth Ominous Wind had brought. She imagined Ash and Pikachu floating in front of her and then imagined her mother beside them. The unchanging long red hair, how tall she was—probably taller than Ash—and her one sundress. She tried not to be distracted by the fact that she could conjure a near perfect image of their mother, and her sisters probably couldn't. The only images they'd be able to conjure up that weren't corroded by time were the pictures scattered around the Gym and in photo albums.

Focusing on the image for just one more moment to cement it before turning it to reality, Misty opened her eyes. But there was nothing. She spun around on the off chance that her mother could have appeared somewhere else in the vicinity, but nothing.

Ash's face looked like someone had pressed pins into the spots marking it with hope—the raised fronts of his brows, the hopeful corners of his lips—but everything else sagged with disappointment. "Didn't work?"

"Guess not," Misty said, not allowing her tone to sink with her own disappointment.

"Chaa." Pikachu floated over to her and nuzzled her hand, urging forth pets that she was happy to give. She'd never be able to hide her feelings from a Pokémon, ghost or not.

"Well, you can always try again later," Ash said.

Misty doubted that would make any difference, but she tried to smile anyway.

"Right. Maybe we just need some time."

Time came, as it does, marked by work. Phoebe returned with a mop and sudsy water while Misty grabbed a net to fish the debris out of the pool before draining the unsalvageable water. Ash and Pikachu hung around, unable to provide anything more than moral support—which Misty needed desperately, even if she was reluctant to accept it.

"You know," Phoebe said as she returned from dumping a load of dirty mop water, "I hear that Alolan Grimer clean up garbage just by eating it. Maybe we throw in the towel and ask that Mimikyu guy if he has one we can trade for."

As was often the case with Phoebe, Misty couldn't quite gauge if the comment was a joke or a true suggestion. But, lacking the humor or energy for a joke, she said, "No can do. If he comes back for a rematch, then he's the one I need the Gym to be clean for."

"Spoilsport."

"Actually," Ash said. "I think that Alolan Grimer only eat actual garbage. This stuff might be better handled by, I dunno, Suicune."

"Great, then all we need is a Suicune," Phoebe said. "Misty, Water is your specialty, get on it."

"Sure thing."

Ash and Phoebe exchanged a look. Misty ignored it and focused on working until she no longer had to be upright. That was day one.

Day two.

"Jellicent is unable to battle. The match goes to the challenger!"

The same match, different outcome. It was the next day and the stands were tellingly empty but sparkling clean. Phoebe was the only one there—well, the only one the challenger could see.

"Good match," Misty said, faker than the day before. "Here's the Cascade Badge. You've earned it."

She was probably coming off as a sore loser, but she didn't really care. Truthfully, Misty had been hoping that he would win. If Jellicent won a rematch where the challenger had been training while she'd been cleaning, then he was definitely overpowered post-evolution. But since Jellicent had lost, maybe he would still be usable for some matches if she didn't train him too hard. Or maybe she was just a worse battler than she'd been yesterday. That was possible too.

Losing that match was the highlight of the day. As Misty inspected the Gym, she realized that there was nothing she had to catch up on. The bills were paid, there were no lingering stacks of paperwork, the aquariums and exhibits were clean save for the daily mucking that was needed, and the Pokémon were all in good health. Phoebe and Ash had said as much about the Pokémon when they'd had the chance to look around the day before.

Of course, her sisters now seemed to be boycotting Gym duties—a blessing in disguise. There were still enough daily tasks to keep busy. Which Misty needed, especially after her one attempted exchange with Violet:

"Hey, Violet!" Misty said, trying to fuse both cheer and remorse into her tone. "I just wanted to say that the Gym looks really good! You guys took really good care of it while I was gone!"

Violet blinked and then said, "You don't have to be surprised about it. We've been doing this longer than you have."

And then she'd left before Misty had the chance to investigate the fact that yes, she had been surprised, and Violet was absolutely right.

Day three.

Misty tried calling her mother again to no success. She made a stumbling attempt to explain this to Lily—how she was trying to get in contact with their mother but couldn't—and Lily nodded her head in understanding. For a moment, Misty thought that she was connecting with her sister. Then Lily said:

"Oh, so you're struggling with not being able to bring your mother back?" Her voice was high with sarcasm and belittlement. "I wonder what that's like?"

That one hurt. But the flagellation was only fair.

It would be an interesting form of karma if, for the crime of keeping her sisters from their mother, Misty's punishment was an inability to contact her. It would be fitting, if it didn't didn't ultimately hurt her sisters more than it hurt her.

But it was possible that calling could only make it to ghosts on second or third plane. Perhaps they had closer ties to earth or humans or something. Ghosts on fourth plane, like Misty's mother, must have had less of whatever connection was needed in order to be summoned. Either that, or her last time with her mother had been the real last time.

That particular panic stayed with her for the rest of the day.

Day four.

No challengers. None for days. And according to the logs—not her sisters, of course—there had only been a few challengers in her absence too. The off-season was keeping the Gym duller than it had ever been, even though she now had two friends staying with her. And she was grateful for their presences, even as it was awkward at moments to have people intruding on her routine. But awkward was fine. Awkward was leagues above uselessness, self-loathing, and regret.

But still, even as Misty felt her sanity breaking, Phoebe broke first.

It was a rare occasion where everyone in the Gym was in a room together. Phoebe and Misty were sitting down to bowls of porridge for breakfast while Ash and Pikachu watched jealously. The Sensational Sisters often skipped breakfast, subbing it for an iced latte or else opting for a breakfast on the go, either with a piece of fruit or a smoothie. On this morning, though, they were reaching for some fat-free yogurt, lingering in the kitchen

"Alright," Phoebe declared loudly, "this stops today."

Halfway through pulling the tab on her key lime yogurt, Daisy looked down at Phoebe and delivered a bored, "What?"

"This!" Phoebe said, gesturing vaguely at the room. "All you sisters avoiding each other. You don't have to see eye to eye just yet, but do any of you really think that pretending the other party doesn't exist is going to solve your problems?"

Misty didn't dare speak. Her opinion on the matter should have been obvious enough, as the person who had done wrong, as the person who had been reaching out for forgiveness. So she just looked wide-eyed at Phoebe, only daring occasional glances at her sisters to try and gauge their potential agreement.

After a moment, and an exaggerated eye roll, Lily sighed and admitted, "No."

Phoebe looked at Daisy and Violet and asked, "Does she speak for the group?"

Daisy's face went through myriad expressions—clenched jaw, narrowed her eyes, widened ones—but Violet, with a sigh of resentment that echoed her sister's, said, "She speaks for the group."

"Awesome," Phoebe said, her voice missing the full exclamation that it might have had a week before. "So what do you say we do something?"

"What kind of something?" Lily asked suspiciously.

"I think we need something that fosters understanding," Phoebe said slowly, and Misty could tell that she was making it up on the fly. "It seems to me as though you girls have never understood each other on any level. So maybe if you can just share some of your lives with each other, then we can move forward."

"What do you mean?" Misty asked, immediately feeling warning signals go off in her head. She had never shared anything with her sisters—anything of substance that was. Everything that she was made of was secret. Of course, that was the problem.

"I mean, let's start peeling back the layers," Phoebe said. "Pull back the curtain a bit."

"Like, bite the bullet and let the Meowth out of the bag?" Violet asked wryly.

"Exactly!" Phoebe cheered, clapping her hands together. She then turned to Misty expectantly. "So? What'll it be?"

"Well, this is it."

About an hour later, the whole crew was in Cerulean Cave—dark, drippy, and dank as usual. And damn cold.

"You know, you could have mentioned that I should have worn tights with my skirt," Lily ground out as a shiver wracked her body. The three sisters were huddling closely together for warmth and security.

"I did say that we were going to Cerulean Cave," Misty said. She was also dressed in only shorts and a thermal, but, then again, she was used to it. "We won't stay as long as I usually do. Anyway, this is where I went to train with this, uh, Banette."

"A Banette?" Daisy asked suspiciously. "I didn't know you had a Banette."

"Well, I never caught her," Misty said. "But my Connection made it interesting for both of us to work together. And this was the only private place I could think to do so. Plus it has all the pools for my Water Pokémon. Even Gyarados."

"Oh, a private place," Lily sneered. "For you to train your secret Banette and Water Pokémon in these miraculous pools. Gosh, where else are there pools in Cerulean City?"

"I felt like I had to hide," Misty said as evenly as she could. "And I'm sorry. But, regardless, this is a great place for training."

"I thought there were a lot of high-level Pokémon lurking about in Cerulean Cave," Phoebe mused as she looked up at the cavernous ceiling, trying to force her eyes to adjust to the light enough to see if there were any Pokémon in the shadows of the stalactites up there.

Misty smiled, relieved at Phoebe's subject change. She wasn't sure if it had been done on purpose or not, as Phoebe seemed genuinely curious, but she was an excellent actress. "I've definitely seen some around. Swarms of Golbat, some Seadra and Seaking lurking about in the water. But I don't think they're used to humans, so they tend to go into hiding whenever I come. We're also pretty loud, so."

"So, this is safe," Violet double-checked.

"Nothing's ever happened to me, and we should only be safer with so many of us."

"Oh. So, like, how often do you come here?" Daisy asked. Her voice was much flatter than usual and there was no eye contact to speak of. But Misty was grateful for any engagement.

"At least once a week. Usually more."

"God," Violet said. "I just thought that you went on a lot of, like, runs and bicycle rides."

"Oh, no," Misty laughed awkwardly. "I don't run. I have insomnia. All my muscles come from sleepless nights spent in the pool. And days spent in the pool."

"You have insomnia?" Daisy asked.

"Since I can remember."

"Coming out at night seems to have a relaxing sensation on some ghosts," Phoebe explained. "The sun doesn't burn them or anything, but they do come out more readily at night. Hence, sleepless nights."

"Um, is that true, Ash?" Lily asked uncertainly.

Misty was surprised to hear Lily try to connect with Ash directly. The girls hadn't had the chance to get used to Ash being around, during these last few days of silent treatment. This was the first attempt.

However, Ash wasn't anywhere around.

"Actually, Ash and Pikachu went exploring lower levels of the cave," Misty admitted, looking awkwardly at Lily. "They won't spook any of the Pokémon and, like Phoebe said, they're really high level around here."

"Oh." Lily blushed.

"But anyway," Misty continued, perhaps over-eagerly, "yeah, it's true. I can't tell you how many times I've been woken up by upset ghosts."

"Wow. I just thought you had terrible eye bags," Lily said, unafraid of how uncouth her tone was "That's why I always tried to get you to use that luminescent concealer. Like, coulda helped."

"Nope. Just terrible sleep and spectacularly translucent skin."

"Yeah, well if you ate food that promoted collagen growth—"

"Hey, how about we have a Battle to really show them what it was like for you!" Phoebe suggested, cutting Lily off.

Misty smiled, despite the rest of her face pulling in confusion. "You've never been here either. You don't know what I do."

"I don't care," Phoebe stated. "We can use my Banette. Just to give a taste. C'mon, it'll be fun!"

"Well, I guess this is why we're here," Misty said, reaching for her 'Balls. Phoebe called out her Banette while Misty tossed all of her PokéBalls into the air.

"Yowza!" Violet called out as the cave was suddenly overrun with Water Pokémon, Gyarados and Jellicent alone causing quite a splash.

"Aw man, one on four?" Phoebe moaned. "This is hardly fair."

"You're an Elite," Misty said, patting Phoebe's back. "You'll do fine. Anyway, usually this is more of a target practice than anything. Your job is to be on the offensive, while all my Pokémon are on the defensive, trying to protect themselves even against Attacks that they can't see coming."

"Ooh, like this? Banette, second plane and then Charge Beam!"

Misty gaped as Phoebe's Banette instantly fell back into second plane and then sent a beam of electricity straight into her unknowing Staryu. Staryu couldn't react quickly enough to dodge, but it managed to lessen the effects of the Attack by performing a Rapid Spin.

"Yeah, I stole your terminology," Phoebe said after sticking out her tongue.

"I was thinking more about that Attack," Misty said, her voice laced in more than a little surprise. "Charge Beam on a Banette?"

Phoebe shrugged. "Technical Machine. When you specialize in a certain Type, you need coverage."

"Right…Maybe best not to use it in a damp cave, though."

Everyone turned to the group of Water Pokémon, who were all twitching from little aftershocks of static.

"Oh, oops!" Phoebe said with an awkward grin, fingering one of the flowers in her hair. "My bad! We'll stick to Ghost moves. Like…Shadow Ball!"

Still in second plane, Banette began forming a ball in its hands. The growing sphere was visible to everyone, but they probably hadn't spotted it, because Banette had cleverly shielded herself in the shadows. There was only a faint purple glow emitting from the Shadow Ball to get anyone's attention. But Banette moved fast, only needing a few moments to form quite a large ball and fire it right at Misty's new Jellicent.

"Dive!" Misty called out.

Jellicent did so, but he didn't expect how much more effort it now took to submerge his bulbous body. Trying to dive speedily took as much effort as trying to drown a beach ball. So while he avoided a direct attack, the Shadow Ball still managed to graze the top of his head while the water from the lake splashed on the floor of the cave from the displacement.

"Yeah, that's gonna be a new challenge," Misty mumbled.

"Well, maybe Jellicent needs to start Battles nearly completely submerged."

Misty gave a little shriek as Ash appeared out of nowhere right beside her, causing everyone to freak out a little bit in return, save for Phoebe, who just laughed. When Misty saw that it was Ash, she put a hand on his chest in relief. And then she shoved him, careful not to push him into Pikachu.

"What? Is there a bug in here?" Lily asked frantically.

"Nope, just Ash," Phoebe laughed. "Keep going."

"Well," Ash continued, a smile on his face as Misty glared daggers at him. "Jellicent's eyes are on the top of its head. It's probably meant to keep the rest of its body under water unless it has to surface for a specific reason."

"While Frillish has eyes in the center of its head because it has a less limiting body type," Misty finished. "Why didn't I think of that right away?"

Ash shrugged. "Frillish was used to being able to keep his whole head out of the water, since it wasn't the majority of his body. But now it is for Jellicent, so he has to get used to keeping his head mostly submerged."

"Um, translation please?" Violet asked, annoyance crinkling her thick brows.

"I gotchu," Phoebe said, summarizing the conversation for the girls.

"Hey, Banette!"

Ash and Pikachu hovered over to Phoebe's Banette and whispered something to it that Misty couldn't hear. Then, Banette's body darkened until it all but faded into the walls of the cave before showing up behind Goldeen. To Misty's surprise, Banette didn't actually carry out the Attack—what Misty was fairly certain was a Shadow Sneak. It only snuck up behind Goldeen and then let out a screech. Goldeen and the other Pokémon started, Goldeen immediately jumping out of the water with a Horn Attack that went right through Banette.

While it was weak and exposed in the air, Banette tackled Goldeen right out of the water, landing with a splat on the cave floor. Misty ran over to Goldeen, who wasn't too weak, since Banette hadn't hit that hard, but he was flopping around pitifully on the rough rock. Misty scooped him up and tossed him back into the water.

"You can't use a Normal Type move against a Ghost Type," Misty explained. "Try a Water Attack next time."

"Hey, how'd you get Banette to listen to you?" Phoebe asked Ash.

Ash shrugged. "It must have wanted to and decided to. It helps to talk in their language."

Phoebe's jaw dropped and she looked at Misty for confirmation. Remembering how Ash had done the same thing back when they had met in the Viridian Forest, she nodded. Phoebe just shook her head. "Well, you'll have to teach me how you do that. Although, the League probably wouldn't have accepted that move."

"Eh, guess I'm rusty with League rules."

The training session continued, Pikachu even joining in with a couple of very well-contained and aimed Electric Attacks just to shake things up. The practice was great, especially since Misty hadn't had much of a chance to work with Goldeen or Jellicent. She only had to try not to let herself get too distracted. The goal was to carry out conversations with her sisters, curt though they were. The context of Pokémon made it easier—and it wasn't the first time. They'd had opportunities to bond over Pokémon for her whole life, and it could have happened so much more if she hadn't trained in private so much.

Slowly, the noises of some wild Pokémon came back into the cave. That wasn't unusual; Pokémon would scuttle away when they heard a human in the entrance, but then the bravest of the lot would venture back out during Misty's stay if they felt safe.

Nevertheless, they didn't usually get too close. Occasionally, some of the Water Pokémon would get caught up in their training, more comfortable with Misty's Pokémon than Misty herself while the land-dwelling Pokémon kept more of a distance. That's why it was strange when Misty heard the flapping of wings a little closer than she usually did. The cave was home to a lot of Golbat and—hideously—some Venomoth, and Misty felt a shiver of worry that a member of the latter species might be making itself known.

Misty looked up just in time to catch a blur of purple, which immediately sent adrenaline tingling to her extremities, readying her to bolt. But it wasn't Venomoth—it was a Crobat. Her relief was short lived as the Pokémon kept flying toward her, and a sharp pain sliced down her arm.

"Ow!" Misty hissed. She looked down at her arm to see a tear in her long sleeve running nearly from her shoulder to her elbow.

Everyone ran to her with her name and noisy concerns falling off their lips and echoing through the cave, sending another rustle of Pokémon running from them.

"Fucking yikes," Lily said as she held Misty's arm out and looked at the thin cut that had been drawn through the shirt. It wasn't a deep wound—there wasn't much blood spilling—but the skin was raised and blooming to a bright red that would scab up thickly. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Misty said. The pain had been sharp when it happened, but it was dulling down to a tingle. Dewgong's horn had scratched her on occasion in the past and this wasn't much worse.

"Okay, I get the feeling we've overstayed our welcome," Daisy said. "Let's GTFO."

"Yes, let's," Violet agreed. "God, Misty, I thought you said the Pokémon here didn't bother you."

"They don't usually," Misty said, looking up to see the Crobat had already gone. "Maybe that one was sick."

"I don't give a damn," Lily said. "Let's just get out of here."

"Yes, one hundred percent," Phoebe said, her voice humorless and firm for once. "You girls go and Misty and I can take another way back."

"What?" Daisy asked.

"Don't worry about it." Phoebe waved her off. "We'll catch up with you faster than you think."

Everyone looked a little confused and hesitant, but Phoebe was as confident as ever, so Daisy said, "Alright, if you're sure," and the girls began navigating their way out of the cave.

Ash and Pikachu floated closer to Misty with looks of concern on their faces. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Misty smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure."

Ash nodded, seemingly satisfied. "Then I guess we'll meet you back at the Gym too," he said of himself and Pikachu before winking out of sight.

"Okay, now what the heck are you talking about?" Misty asked, turning to Phoebe. "I really would like to get out of here."

The adrenaline draining from her system left her head feeling faint and her limbs hanging heavily. More than that, she was unsettled. She'd never been attacked by a Pokémon unprovoked before. Not that she could remember, at least. And the cave suddenly felt less safe than it had a few minutes before.

"Just another little ghost lesson," Phoebe answered. "Don't worry, Misty, I want to get us out of here too. This one's a quick one, I promise."

Misty closed her eyes to avoid rolling them and took a breath. "So, what are we doing?"

"We're gonna teleport."

Misty blinked. "What?"

"Teleport." Phoebe took out a PokéBall and released her Dusknoir. She patted him on the back with a confident grin. "With the help of this guy."

"I repeat: What?"

"You just kind of have to experience it," Phoebe said, shrugging her shoulders apologetically. "Are you ready?"

"Literally not at all."

Phoebe nodded. "Sounds about right. We're gonna do it anyway, okay?"

Knowing by now that there was no use arguing with Phoebe, Misty lolled her head around before settling it towards Phoebe with a dim expression of resignation in her eyes. That motion brought a quick wave of nausea and Misty straightened up. "Fine."

"Great!" Phoebe grabbed hands with both Dusknoir and Misty before giving him a nod. "Dusknoir, off we go!"

Misty's eyes widened as she saw what she had thought to just be a jagged yellow stripe on Dusknoir's stomach open up, revealing a swirling infinity of purple and black. And then that dizzying pool of purple and black was all that she knew, as she and Phoebe were immediately sucked into it.

Misty didn't know if any time had passed, but suddenly she felt like she was waking up. And if she was waking up, that meant that she had to have been asleep, right? Or…what?

"Misty?"

Her eyes peeled open to reveal a world looking just like a Shadow Ball. Or the pool after Jellicent had sullied it Ominous Wind. Really, it looked like any Ghost Attack she'd ever seen. And she didn't like it.

It was swirling. And purple. And black. And dizzying.

"Misty?"

That was Phoebe.

It took a couple turns and a couple tries before her eyes could focus in on Phoebe. Short hair. Big eyes. Flower hair. No purple and black swirling.

"Where are we?" Misty asked as she let Phoebe stand her up. She wasn't aware she had been sitting. She wasn't really aware of her body at all.

"The Spirit World, I think," Phoebe said. "Dusknoir as a species have a special connection to this world, so this big guy can take me to and from it."

"Have I been here before?" Misty asked dazedly.

Phoebe shrugged her shoulders, grinning. "How should I know?"

Misty put her knuckles up to her mouth. It was like her stomach was bubbling to the same non-metrical rhythm of the swirling sea of purple around them. And it was making her feel faint. "So, what does this have to do with teleportation?"

"Well, I guess that since this world isn't physically connected to our world, we can exit it wherever we want. So you enter from where you were and, if Dusknoir knows where I want to go, he just takes us there. He says all he has to do is think about it."

"Just think about it?" Misty asked dully.

"Yeah…Are you okay?" Phoebe asked, cupping Misty's face and looking closely into her eyes.

Misty put a hand up to her forehead. There was a dull pounding behind her left eye, like her optic nerve thought it was at a rock concert. "Is it normal to get a headache?"

"Yeah, I usually get one. Nothing a little acetylsalicylic acid can't solve. I guess this world can be a little trying on the human body, since we're not ghosts. We're probably not supposed to be here, you know, off-limits until after death kinda thing," Phoebe answered playfully, letting go of her chin.

"Pikachupi!"

Misty's head swiveled from Phoebe's concerned eyes to find the source of the new voice. Old voice. It was Pikachu's voice.

"What are you guys doing here? You aren't dead, right? I just saw you guys!" Ash and Pikachu both looked deeply alarmed as they looked back and forth between Phoebe, Dusknoir, and Misty.

"We're not dead!" Phoebe giggled. "Dusknoir just took us here and he will take us back out fully intact. No worries."

"Oh, thank goodness," Ash said, putting a hand to his heart. "That was a close call, eh, Pikachu?"

Ash looked at Pikachu, who was sitting on his shoulder, replying with a relieved, "Chaa."

"Never scare us like that again," Ash said, looking directly at Misty. "Wait, Mist, you don't look so good."

"Yeah," Misty admitted, looking at him through dazed eyes. "I feel dizzy…"

"Is this normal?" Ash directed towards Phoebe.

"Uh, no," Phoebe answered, her concern growing rapidly, if her narrowing eyes were anything to go by. Or were Misty's eyes narrowing? The world seemed darker on the edges suddenly, so maybe.

"Pika?" Pikachu asked, jumping off of Ash's shoulder and trotting over to Misty. He patted her shoulder and she gave him a weak smile of reassurance.

"Okay," Phoebe said, her voice carrying some urgency, as she put a hand on Misty's arm. "Dusknoir, to Cerulean Gym. Now. Ash, come with us?"

"Right."

"Let's go."

"Misty?"

Misty again opened up her eyes and found herself looking up at a fuzzy version of the Cerulean Gym's high ceilings. They were close to the pool. "What? Oh…right."

"Are you okay?"

Phoebe, Ash, and Pikachu were all looking over her as she lay on the ground. Misty tried to push herself up, Ash reaching over to hold her up when she instantly put a hand up to her head.

"Do you have a headache?" Phoebe asked.

"Yeah…"

"That's fine, that's normal. My headache always gets a little better right away too," Phoebe said. "But you are a little sweaty and you look kind of pale. Maybe your body handles it a little worse than mine. I shouldn't have assumed it'd be the same."

Misty nodded, able to feel the clamminess on her skin. It was cold and damp to the touch, like she was still in the cave. "Maybe because it was my first time."

"Why don't we take you to bed and let you sleep it off, huh?" Ash offered, already moving to push Misty up a bit more.

Misty nodded, the motion making her lose her sense of place for a moment, as though she were back in the spinning void. She stopped immediately.

"That's a good idea," Phoebe said, assisting in helping Misty to stand. "We'll grab you a painkiller and some water too. And clean up your arm."

"Mm, what about my sisters?" Misty groaned.

"They've still got a half-hour's walk before them," Phoebe explained, and Misty dimly recognized that of course they did. "We'll—I'll fill them in if you're asleep by the time they get here."

Misty was barely aware as Ash and Phoebe carted her up to her room and laid her down in bed. As they did, Misty grew colder and colder, clutching her comforter as it was pulled over her. Maybe they'd been in the cave too long and the chill had gotten to her. Maybe she should have worn pants. Or maybe there was some strange temperature change she hadn't registered in the Spirit World.

Phoebe gave Misty a pill and dribbled some water down her throat, before doing the same herself. She must have been in pain too but better at hiding it than Misty. Then there was a faint pain down her arm as Phoebe swiped an alcohol-soaked swab down it. Her eyes flickered over to Ash and Pikachu, twin looks of concern on their faces. But if Phoebe had come out of the journey okay, then Misty would too.

Misty let her eyes close and it felt like the whole world did the same.

A/N: The wheels on the bus go clunk clunk clunk. Dang, y'all, I'm sorry, this chapter is so, so clunky. Usually I don't edit these old chaps so much, but idk what's up with this one. I can't say I even remembered most of the first half of it. I think the clunkiness is somewhat consistent with the mood and tone of this chap, which is my artistic answer for not giving it a stronger edit. I hope it works a little better for y'all than it did for me, as there are things happening in this chapter...some nuance between Misty and her sisters that's hopefully being picked up on...and that mysteriously spooky ending ooooh~~ is it obvious? We'll see.