.
A Different Story
"There is a ghost here. A lonely, heartbroken spirit. The ghost of everything that could've been and never was."
–Jennifer Donnelly, The Tea Rose
By the time Misty arrived at the Pokémon Center, she was quite winded. She wished she could have leaned against Ash for the second half of the walk, but it would have been obviously unnatural to passersby. So she'd powered through.
"Nurse Joy," Misty greeted, her voice high and breathy as she tried unsuccessfully to ground it. "How are you?"
"Misty!" Nurse Joy exclaimed. "I haven't seen you in weeks—and look at the color you've gotten on your skin. I hope you were wearing sun block."
Misty looked down at herself. She supposed she had gotten a bit tanner while she'd been in Cinnabar—not to mention all the time she'd spent outside walking before getting there—but mostly she'd just gotten a few more freckles on her shoulders. "Sun block, umbrella, and long sleeves."
"Well, that's delightful, dear. What can I do for you?"
Misty dropped both of Lily's PokéBalls on the desk as well as all of hers. In the madness since her poisoning in Cerulean Cave the previous day, her Pokémon had never gotten healed from their sparring match. Healing items would have been enough, but since she was at the Pokémon Center, they might as well get a full treatment. "Two fainted, four tired."
Nurse Joy nodded and took the minimized 'Balls in her palm. "It won't be long." Then she turned and headed into the back, Chansey taking her place at the desk.
Misty looked around the Center. There wasn't anyone else in the lobby, although she didn't presume that no one else was in their rooms or otherwise staying in the Center that night. But the lack of Gym challengers should have a direct correlation to how many people were staying in the Center and vice versa. At least the lack meant that the Gym's Pokémon could be treated right away.
"I'm gonna go look and see what other Pokémon are staying here," Ash said excitedly as he flew through the door Nurse Joy had just walked through.
Usually while Misty was waiting for her Pokémon to be healed, she'd go off to do some other chore in town. Grab some PokéChow from Mr. Samon, maybe pick up some frozen meals or takeout for herself, or else go to the PokéMart and pick up some supplies for the Gym. Some of those things probably did need doing today, but she wasn't up to them. Still, there was something she could do.
Misty went over to the row of phones and chose one randomly to sit at, grateful that the lobby was empty save for herself and Chansey. For once, she didn't have a familiar number to dial, so she picked up the phone and punched for someone else.
"Operator," she heard on the other side of the line.
"Hello, please connect me to the Officer Jenny in Viridian City."
"If this is an emergency, you must hang up and dial 121 to reach your closest police station."
"This isn't an emergency," Misty clarified. "I need to be connected to Viridian City's Officer Jenny."
She ended up having to jump through a few hoops before she could be connected with Jenny herself, including having to flash her credentials and turning on her video to prove that she was, in fact, Misty Waterflower. But after all that, she was rewarded with the sight of Officer Jenny on the other side of the screen.
"You're lucky, Misty," Officer Jenny started with. "I've had a lot of desk work lately. Can you be quick?"
"Yes, very quick," Misty said. "I just wanted to ask if the bodies had been found yet for those two missing kids."
A shadow fell over Officer Jenny's brow. "No, they haven't," she admitted. "Though we're definitely operating under the assumption that this is a recovery mission."
"Okay," Misty said. "I'm going to try to help with that."
Jenny's face scrunched in confusion. "Misty, I can tell that you're calling from the Cerulean Pokémon Center right now. You're nowhere near Viridian—what are you going to do?"
"I'm not quite sure yet," she said, hoping that vague words would feel less like a lie. They didn't. But hopefully it would lead to a good outcome. "But I think I have the means to help and I'd like to try. Don't worry, though—it won't get in your way."
Officer Jenny was eyeing her suspiciously, and for a moment Misty thought she was about to be pressed more. Police officers weren't exactly trained to be trusting, after all, even if Misty did have some semblance of authority in the situation. She knew that Officer Jenny probably also looked at her and just saw a kid trying to be a hero, like so many youngsters with Pokémon did. Adults tended to hate that.
"Fine," Jenny said instead. "Do call immediately if you find anything out. And don't do anything illegal. I have to go now."
"That's fine, that's all I needed."
Officer Jenny nodded. "Great. Have a good evening, Misty."
"You too."
The call ended and Misty's stomach tightened a little. Everything with Daniel and Fay had been something she'd been avoiding, subconsciously or not. She hadn't really forgiven them for what they'd done to her in the forest, despite accepting their apology. At least, she hadn't forgotten them then. But in the past few weeks she'd spent with Phoebe, she was thinking maybe she had. Regardless, it was her job to help them out.
It was still a while longer to wait, but Ash kept on flying back into the lobby to tell Misty about the Pokémon that were in the back. As Misty'd suspected, there weren't too many, but Ash would always be excited about Pokémon, whether it was one or one hundred.
The apprehension Misty had felt before calling Officer Jenny was just about half of what she felt now. Misty had been about to call Fay and Daniel as soon as she returned, but Phoebe, of course, had offered a couple ideas. First, Misty should sit and eat something—not a bad idea—and second, that she should let her sisters watch—not a great idea.
Okay, it wasn't a bad idea, but it didn't feel like a good idea. There was still work to be done around the Gym and it was getting late and her sisters already had to take on a larger load of duties than what they were used. Plus, they couldn't see Fay and Daniel, so what exactly would they get out of the meeting?
"Easy," Phoebe responded as Misty put her finished bowl of soup into the sink. "I'll stand back and act as interpreter. And as for everything else, the Gym is fine. So stop worrying so much, you worrywart."
There was nothing much for Misty to do but roll her eyes at Ash, who gave her a shrug as if to say, "You know her well enough to expect this." And then Phoebe called for her sisters to join them in the living room.
Misty stepped out of the kitchen and into their living room, feeling like she was about to put on a show. She wondered if she might be better received with a cape and a top hat as she surprised and amazed her audience by summoning two real, not-so-live ghosts.
As Misty tried unsuccessfully to settle her nerves, Phoebe filled the sisters in on essentially what was happening, breezily skating over the fact that Misty was somehow involved in a murder mystery. That would probably take some further explanation later.
She tried to remember that this might not even happen. It could be like when she'd tried to summon her mother and hadn't managed it. She still hadn't really tried to summon Ash, even if she had managed it once or twice by accident.
And then she had to put that all out of her mind. Trying to call a ghost was almost something meditative. No distractions, no external influences, just picturing their living room with the monochrome neutrals her sisters had chosen and ignoring the fact that maybe she shouldn't be bringing these ghosts and their history of violence into her house.
She imagined Fay with her purple hair in its angular cut. The strong brows over her deep-set eyes. Her matching blue shirt and pants. Probably a frown. Then she moved onto Daniel, a round face surrounded by medium brown hair that had grown too long on the road, covered in part by a backwards cap. His bright eyes and his khaki shorts that hung over his knobby knees and meatless legs. She added the slightly blue cast over them that separated every ghost from the living.
Some of the details came to Misty from the pictures of them that she'd seen in the Viridian Pokémon Center. The rest came from when Ash had brought them to her just north of Pallet Town. She probably never could have imagined them if she'd only had her memory of them in the Viridian Forest to go off of.
And imagine them she did, because when her eyes opened, they were both there in the flesh, looking noticeably journey-worn in comparison to the stiff couch cushions that Misty and her sisters rarely leaned against. Misty immediately took a breath to tamper down the flight reflex that seeing them triggered in her, remembering that Ash was there. If things got out of hand, he could take care of them just as he'd done before.
"Hey…" Fay greeted, looking confused as she took in her surroundings. "Lemme guess. Our murderer is here." She turned to Misty's sisters. "One of them?"
The words were facetious as they oozed out, and Fay's face was unimpressed as she returned to Misty. "Hi," Daniel said, generally free of expression, easily ignoring Fay's comment.
"Hello," Misty said, suddenly feeling like she was presiding over the strangest business meeting of all time. One in which there would be no compensation or restitution. "Can we talk?"
Fay slumped and gave a big sigh that rattled one of the lampshades. Misty's eyes flicked over her sisters, who looked surprised, and Phoebe, who was presumably explaining everything to them, and then to Daniel.
"She's getting better at controlling it."
Misty nodded, trying to ignore how dry her tongue suddenly was. "Right," she said. "So I've realized that I owe you both an apology."
"What?" Fay asked, her posture jerking up again as she took a step closer to Misty.
Misty couldn't tell if Fay's mood swings were a result of what Ash had been talking about—the irregular emotions that a ghost can't control soon after death—or if this was just the result of her personality being frozen at fourteen.
"Well, I promised to help you both," Misty said evenly. "And I have failed. Not because I tried and failed, but because I didn't try. Not since the last time we spoke, at least. And I'm really sorry about that."
Misty was tense as she returned her gaze from where it had accidentally fallen to the floor back up to Daniel and Fay's eyes. They were both silent for a moment and Misty couldn't parse what emotion was on Daniel's face. Fay's nostrils were flaring and it looked as though she was trying to hold back some anger. Misty prayed that she could.
Finally, Fay said, "And now?"
"And now what?"
Fay crossed her arms over her chest, looking every bit the embittered teen she was. "What are you gonna do now?"
"I'm gonna help."
"How?" Daniel asked quietly.
Misty took a hissing breath in through her teeth. "Well, actually I'm gonna need your help."
Now Fay was surprised, eyes wide and looking shockingly innocent. "What can we do?"
"It's gonna be hard," Misty said, intertwining her fingers and squeezing them together. "But I'd like for you all to look for your bodies. The cops haven't found them yet and that's stagnated your case. If we can find your bodies, then we can start to piece together what's happened."
"Why do we have to do that?" Fay asked, her thick brows hunched back down, drawn over her eyes. "Don't you have Pokémon who can do that? Don't the police?"
"If you're talking about following a scent, I'd bet that's faded by now," Misty explained. "But for all Pokémons' talents, you have something that Pokémon don't have."
"What's that?" Daniel asked.
"Ghosts are drawn to their own bodies—their final resting places," Misty said, feeling like Phoebe. "If you can tap into that pull, you'll be able to find them faster than any Pokémon or person."
"Okay!" Fay said quickly. "We can do it! And then you find who killed us!"
"Right…" Misty said, taken aback, once again, by Fay's quick about-face. "Well, just bear in mind that if you do find your bodies…it'll be hard."
"It won't be hard for me!"
"No," Misty tried again. "It'll be a difficult thing to look at. These are your own bodies, and you've been dead weeks and weeks now. They won't look like how you remembered. It'll be upsetting."
Fay's expression went hard. It looked like anger to Misty, but that also just might have been what the girl's face looked like. "I can do it."
Misty nodded slowly. "I know you can."
"Daniel," Fay barked. "Let's go."
Daniel looked at her and then to Misty. "Is there anything else?"
"No," Misty said, shaking her head. "Just let me know as soon as you find them." Then, hastily: "Just don't talk to me if I'm out in public!"
"She's serious about that one!" Ash seconded.
"Pika!"
"We can do that," Fay said, chin tilted up, empowered now that she had a mission.
The two ghosts rose a little higher in the air, giving Misty one last nod before shooting through the roof and off…somewhere. Misty let out a breath of relief, grateful that Fay hadn't somehow broken a hole through the ceiling doing so. A bit of stockpiled adrenaline leaked into Misty's system as she shook her limbs out and basked in the relief that there hadn't been any violence or outright hatred of any kind. It had been a victory. A small one, but a complete one.
Then: applause.
"Woo, good job, Misty!" Phoebe said, bouncing away from Misty's sisters and over to Misty herself. Phoebe grabbed Misty's hands in hers and swung her around a little bit, cheering. "That wasn't that hard, was it? Honesty, transparency, apology, asking for help. It was beautiful!"
"Yeah, like, we couldn't see everything, obviously," Daisy said, joining in, "but judging from Phoebe's description, you were very mature, baby sister."
"Heaps of pride, Misty," Lily agreed.
"Like totally," Violet seconded.
"Yeah, that wasn't that hard, was it?" Phoebe asked.
Misty shook her head, a ghost of a smile on her face. "No. I could do it."
Everyone had dispersed after Misty's little show. Ash to watch the freshly healed Pokémon back in action, and Misty's sisters to return to their Gym duties. Phoebe went to the grocery store, since food was the one thing all four sisters were atrocious at. And since Misty didn't want to spend her whole day being a de-poisoned blob, she headed for the office to do some paperwork. She probably couldn't swim or train or lug heavy bags of PokéChow, but she could at least lift a pen.
She was surprised when Lily was already there.
"Oh, hey, Misty," Lily said, looking equally surprised. Misty wondered how similar their faces looked in that moment. "I just, um, thought I might be most useful in here."
"Likewise," Misty said, flipping on the overhead light and illuminating the wall full of dark wooden bookcases, filled with tomes about Water Pokémon and binders full of the Gym's history. She walked over to the desk where Lily had the small desk lamp on, but the sun was setting and she'd strain her eyes without the overhead on as well. "But I didn't think that you counted paper pushing as one of your best skills."
"Yeah, like, applying the perfect gel manicure, teasing my hair, and signing my name quickly but legibly are, like, my top three," Lily enumerated in what was possibly the first joke she'd ever told that Misty was in on. "No, I just feel a little Pokémon-ed out today."
Misty couldn't relate. She'd never felt 'Pokémon-ed out' in her life. Still, Misty thought there was something vaguely familiar in what she'd said. "Still feeling your loss?"
Lily gave a huff and then turned to Misty with an expression that Lily would usually avoid for fear of wrinkles. Her brows were pushed up at the corners, creating a few lines in the center of her forehead while the corners of her mouth were pulled down, dimpling her chin.
"Misty, I'm, like, so sorry that we made fun of you when you lost that match just before you left. That was, like, so shitty, and I can't imagine how you felt when we were all teasing you."
Misty sighed and took a seat in the chair across from Lily's, the one reserved for the rare visitor who was there for paperwork instead of a match. Usually League officials or someone trying to get a modeling contract out of her sisters.
"Yeah, it sucked," Misty said, though she no longer felt any of the anger that had been raging in that moment. "But now that I know more about the…circumstances of our relationship I can't really blame you guys."
"Oh, Misty," Lily said, shaking her head. "You totally can. You totally should. I mean, what Daisy said was legit. I mean, she's been in an abusive relationship, so she knows how to spot one. But we're, like, adults, you know, and we still said things to you that, like, shouldn't go beyond the days of being the bitches in the school yard. That's not excusable."
"Wait, back up," Misty said. "Daisy was in an abusive relationship?"
"Like…yeah?" Lily said, looking confused for a second. Then she dropped her face in her hands. "Ugh, we haven't told you, like, anything worthwhile, have we? Fuck. No wonder your Pokémon hates us."
"Well, can you tell me now?"
"It's not really my story to tell, baby sister," Lily said. "There's not much story to it either. It's not like he was, you know, physically abusive. It was all emotional. The same stuff that Daisy identified for you. He didn't like all the water shows that we did, saying that he didn't like the way we were dressed and that we were using our bodies for profit. He wanted her to spend more time with him and that she got to see us all the time, even though she was spending less and less time at the Gym. He called me a slut, but, like, more subtle, like he was trying to get Daisy to see me as a bad influence. It was all fucked up."
"I had no idea. To be honest, I don't really remember any of your boyfriends specifically. Just some faces here and there."
"Just as well," Lily waved off. "None of them were winners."
"Yeah…seems like."
"Oh, well this one was particularly bad. I mean, Daisy would say that she needed to spend more time at the Gym and then he would say that he never said she couldn't—even though he was the reason she was spending less time here—and then he'd turn around and start doing it again, making her feel like she was crazy."
"It sounds crazy," Misty agreed.
"Yeah, well it's easy to see in a story," Lily said. "But when it's actually happening it's much harder. Like, Daisy's not stupid and she's not a victim, but she was with this guy for months while me and Vi were just like: what? What's up with Daisy? But she broke up with him and we've sort of put the pieces together afterwards."
Misty's mind was reeling. It was suddenly abundantly clear how completely and totally she'd failed to see her sisters as full human beings with full lives till now. "That's not even why she broke up with him? She only realized after?"
"Yeah, she just didn't like him anymore, no wonder," Lily said. "He wasn't successful in making her only rely on him since the three of us have always been so close. And so in talking about it during and after and, you know, learning more, we've been able to piece it together."
"Wow," Misty said, wondering how she could have missed all of that. "Sounds like she was lucky."
Lily raised her eyebrows and nodded almost to herself. "Yeah, we all were." Then she turned back to Misty, her expression firm. "Which is exactly why we should have been better sisters to you. If we had been, there would have been no truth in what your Banette was saying and then we could have all moved on."
"Yeah," Misty agreed. It wasn't a nice truth, but it wasn't a new one. In fact, her sisters' antagonism was one of her oldest truths, which was probably why it was taking so much thought to undo. "Luckily, it's not too late to start."
"Right!" Lily said, brightly. "So, like, what would you have done if you'd been the one battling today?"
"The one battling?" Misty echoed.
Never in her life had any of her sisters asked her for battling advice. She'd learned from them initially, of course, but after she'd turned ten and could go out and battle in town and could start taking on some of the Gym Battles, she'd quickly surpassed them. Nevertheless, they'd never really acknowledged her increased skill, beyond letting more and more of the work land on her shoulders.
"Well, a whole match can be decided by one wrong move at the beginning," Misty began. "That Swagger immediately caught you off guard and the match was pretty much over. You could have had Dewgong jump in the pool to try to shake it off and then you could have used its increased Attack stat to your advantage."
"Persian couldn't have used U-turn if Dewgong had been under the water," Lily realized. "And then we could have, like, performed more of the match with it only having the platform and not all that extra ice. Phooey!"
Lily smacked her fist down on the desk as she seemed to replay the match in her head.
"Yeah, well, I'm not sure that would have been enough to turn the whole match around," Misty offered, unsure if her words were helping or hurting. "She was a really tough customer."
"But still," Lily moaned, "it was embarrassing."
"Maybe," Misty said with a shrug, earning a sour look from Lily. "But it also gave us something to talk about."
That softened Lily's gaze. "Yeah, well, hopefully next time I don't have to be, like, a shitty Gym Leader for us to talk."
"Well," Misty started, pulling some papers towards her, "we can also be two good Gym Leaders who don't have to talk?"
Lily smiled, handing Misty her pen and reaching for another one. "Tough. But it's a place to start."
When Lily checked out on the paperwork to start getting ready for bed she suggested Misty do the same. The idea sounded good to Misty's ears—she was emotionally exhausted—but all the naps and sleeping through the day yesterday and messed up her sleep schedule.
Whenever her insomnia had made her feel like that in the past, Misty had always gone about trying to trick it. She brushed her teeth and washed her face. Changed into pajamas and turned out her lights. She even went as far as to crawl into bed and act for all the world like she was asleep. But she wasn't. And she wouldn't be.
Truth be told, she didn't even want to sleep all that much. The past day of sleep had plagued her with strange dreams of the Spirit World—third plane as she now knew it—and people who were none too happy with her. It was hard enough to deal with the latter issue while she was awake, and she had tried to deal with it today. She wasn't ready to lie in bed praying for sleep that wouldn't come, and dreams that she didn't want when it finally did.
She was frustrated. Frustrated with her body, still recovering from the ridiculous poisoning incident, and with her mind that was still hung up on her brief but dizzying stint in third plane.
Misty hated being frustrated. She tossed in bed, knowing that each movement took her further from rest, but she constantly felt either too hot in her core or too cold in her toes. It was as miserable as insomnia had ever been for her. So, she ripped her blankets off and did the one thing she always did when she felt like there was no hope of sleep on the horizon.
She put on a bathing suit.
With that, Misty snuck down the hallway, and made her way downstairs with a towel in hand. She walked past the pool first, always taking comfort in passing by the enclosures full of Pokémon and making sure that at least some of them were sleeping well. They usually were, but she was never alarmed when they weren't; Pokémon didn't always keep the same schedules as humans, after all. As she passed by the young Seel pups—still being well cared for by their mama—Misty contemplated adding one to her team in case she had to replace Jellicent. She'd make sure to teach it Signal Beam and maybe Toxic if she could get her hands on a TM.
After making the rounds, Misty made her way back to the pool and spread her towel on the ground, starting off by sitting on it and just dipping her toes into the pool.
Misty would always associate the feeling of water with relief. The pool and the ocean were places of escape. There was no noise, there was no weight, there were no demands. She was free. She knew there'd been an incident when she'd nearly drowned as a kid, but she didn't remember it, so all of her memories under the water were good. And so even just having her legs halfway up the shin submerged made all the insomniac torture dissipate.
"Can't sleep either?"
Misty chuckled, kicking her legs in the pool. He'd probably been hanging around the Pokémon enclosures too and seen her. "That's because you actually can't sleep."
"Heh, I guess that's true."
Ash was silent for a moment as he hovered over with Pikachu on his shoulder, and sat down next to her. The pool at night always cast a ghostly glow about the room. The room's only light came from the ones in the pool, which refracted all over the room like a planetarium light show. Ash and Pikachu's otherworldly glow fit right in. Ash gave a little hum and said, "You know, for a second, in the dark, I thought you were Lily."
"What?" Misty asked. "Why?"
Ash nodded at her body. "Doesn't really seem like a 'Misty' bathing suit."
Misty blushed when she looked down and remembered that she'd gone with the turquoise bikini that her sisters had gotten her on the anniversary of their mother's death. It had still had the tags on, since she hadn't stuck around long enough to wear it. There was a chance she wouldn't have anyway, half out of spite, half because it wasn't what she usually wore. Ash was right—she usually was a one piece kind of gal. Bikinis just weren't practical for swimming laps or training Pokémon.
But it wasn't like she could work out right now anyway, with her body still as weak as it was. She'd only come down for a casual dip, and now it was possible that she wouldn't be getting any further in the water than she already was.
Wearing it had seemed like the right thing to do now that she was getting along so much better with her sisters. When she'd put it on, she was pleasantly surprised to find that it fit perfectly. She'd felt pretty, and she knew that had been her sisters' intention.
Now, under Ash's gaze, she felt a little self-conscious and crossed her arms over her belly.
"No, I mean, you look nice!" Ash said quickly as he noticed her squirm. Misty kept her eyes down at the water, though. Ash and Pikachu wouldn't have had a reflection anyway, but the pool's light and her feet rippling the water kept her from having one either. Hopefully Ash couldn't see her blush.
"Thank you," she said meekly.
There was an awkward silence for a couple of seconds before Ash decided to try again. "Hey, you didn't freak out when I snuck up on you this time!"
That was enough to break through the shy discomfort and Misty smiled. "Maybe I'm getting used to you."
As if to prove the point, Pikachu naturally floated into Misty's arms and, as if by habit, she began stroking him, taking comfort in the nice, repetitive action.
"So, why can't you sleep?"
Misty shrugged. "Probably too much napping. And I'm sure I'll accidentally sleep through all the morning chores and the cycle will continue. You know, whenever I actually fall asleep."
"I can always wake you up," Ash offered.
"As long as it's you and not Pikachu," Misty joked. "I can only imagine his wake up calls."
"Pi kaa," Pikachu sighed contentedly, causing Ash and Misty to chuckle.
"Is there anything that helps you fall asleep?" Ash asked. "Or a time where it used to be easier to fall asleep?"
Misty didn't really remember, but she was pretty sure she'd slept better before her mom had died. But that could have just been a kid thing. Kids needed a lot of sleep, right? So it probably made sense that she'd slept more back then. Besides, what did five year olds have to worry about anyway?
"I guess my mom used to tell me stories sometimes," Misty finally offered. "Read stories before bed. Old books from when she did it with my sisters."
"My mom did that too," Ash said with a wistful smile. "Lots of Pokémon stories. I loved them."
Misty grinned. "The Pokémon stories were the best."
"Yeah," Ash agreed, and Misty wondered if they'd heard the same old stories, or if some from Ash's time weren't told anymore. Or if the ones Misty had heard were all new, or if they'd been ones that her mother had been told too when she was a kid. "Hey, what if I told you a story?"
"But that would be a ghost story," Misty joked. "I never liked those as a kid."
"I don't have to," Ash said, quickly backing up.
Misty felt the opportunity of Ash opening up slipping away and she leaned toward him, as though to pull him back, jostling Pikachu nearly straight out of her lap in the process. "No, please. What's the story?"
Ash took Pikachu back and held him up face to face. "What story should we tell her?"
Pikachu seemed to think for a moment before returning with, "Chu pi pikachu."
Ash shook his head. "I'm not sure that'll help her go to sleep, Pikachu."
"What is it?"
Ash looked at Misty nervously. "He thinks I should tell you the story of, um…how we died."
Misty raised her eyebrows. This was a story she'd never imagined she'd be able to get from Ash. She'd given up the idea of trying to badger it out of him and figured it was something he didn't want to tell. Out of respect for him, and empathy regarding what Brock had told her about the war, she'd come to terms with that. But now that he was offering it to her?
"I would love to know that story."
"As a bedtime story?"
"No, I would just love to hear you tell me that."
Ash groaned, giving Pikachu the evil eye. He pointed a finger right in his face and said, "This is your fault, you know?"
Pikachu bit his finger.
"Hey!"
"Pika chu, pi ka chupi," Pikachu enunciated.
Ash sighed, then said softly, "He thinks it'll be good for me."
"Maybe it will be," Misty offered.
Misty remembered the ghosts that Phoebe had summoned in Cinnabar. They all had seemed to benefit from telling their stories and having them heard, even those who'd struggled to do so. For the little boy who'd drowned, it was all he'd needed to move on. He just needed to be seen. Maybe that's what Ash needed too.
Then Misty's heart stuttered.
Ash…moving on? Astonishingly, she hadn't much considered it beyond when they'd first met. Usually, a ghost moving on was at the forefront of her mind with every interaction with them. It was what her Connection was meant to do, what she was meant to help with. But Ash had quickly become more than just any other ghost—he was a friend. An important one at that. And him moving on…well, it hardly felt better than the thought of her mother moving on.
"Misty? I can always tell a different story. I can just go off my last one and tell you how I met my other Pokémon."
Misty looked at Ash with wide eyes. Ash, who had been trapped on earth for thirty years. Ash, whose concern was making his eyebrows heavy on his brown eyes. They seemed even darker in the midnight blue light. She turned away. It was his story to tell, and if he wanted to, she would hear it. If this was the thing that made him move on, then it was her duty to let it happen.
"No, please go for it."
"Okay," Ash said, taking a shuddery, nervous breath. Misty wondered if he was having any of the same musings she was. "I was sixteen. It was actually during the war."
Misty raised her eyebrows, trying to play the part of a girl who didn't already know that particular fact. "Is this a blood and gore story? Because you're right, that might not be great before bed."
Ash exchanged a knowing look with Pikachu. "Actually, it's not really. It wasn't on the battlefield."
"No?" Misty asked, genuinely surprised.
"No. I, erhm, we didn't really like battle. Well, that kind of battle. We didn't like war. I try not to think about it a lot. Luckily, we didn't have to see much."
Ash was looking down, dipping a finger into the pool as though hoping to trace patterns but, of course, the water only moved from the ripples Misty's legs were making.
"We don't have to talk about that part," Misty offered.
"Yeah…thanks. Anyway," Ash cleared his throat and his voice perked up, "the war was coming to a close. Not that the soldiers on the ground knew that at the time, but I guess it was. But this led to one of the biggest battles of the war."
"The one with the mysterious Pokémon?" Misty asked eagerly.
Ash nodded, taken aback. "Yes, that one. How did you know?"
"We've been taught about it," Misty explained. It was one bit of history that she hadn't needed Brock's expertise to memorize. Because this part centered a mysterious Pokémon, and that had been enough for her to always remember it. "It's practically a legend. But…you were there?"
"Yeah, well, kinda. We were more on the outskirts. I didn't see what the Pokémon was, just that there was a lot of commotion and then the tides of the battle began to turn in our favor. But…" Ash shook his head. "The point is that after that, people were frantic. They didn't know what had happened or what to do. I didn't know what to do either. Then, all of a sudden, this woman from the Johtan side began chasing me."
"Attacking you?" Misty asked.
Pikachu and Ash shook their heads at the same time. "No, just chasing me away from the battle. Towards the bay west of the Pallet peninsula. I just kept running that way, not knowing that I was headed for the water until it was too late. We hit the shore and then she had us cornered."
"Is that when it happened?"
"Not yet. That's when it got weird. Out of nowhere, this old lady appeared. The younger asked her if I was "the right one" and the old lady said yes. I had no idea what she was talking about, because I had never seen her before in my life. The younger one started coming at us again and Pikachu and I backed into the water, but there was nowhere to run. I was about to call for Pikachu to attack when the girl pushed us into the water. Then there was nothing we could do, because Pikachu would have shocked all of us. But that was when a boy from my regiment suddenly ran out of the woods."
"A boy from your regiment?"
Ash nodded. "He was about my age. I didn't know him very well. Come to think of it, I don't remember much about what any of them looked like, it's been so long. Anyway, the old lady and the boy started fighting. I think the boy was trying to save me? But by this point, the girl who had me and Pikachu was really trying to push us under the water. Next thing I knew, the boy jumped into the water after me and Pikachu, but I guess it was already too late. The last thing I remember is seeing a Pokémon underwater…but I couldn't make out what it was. And then the water went dark. And then when I woke up, I was like this. In third plane."
Misty was leaning into Ash with rapt attention. Pikachu had to nose her hand so that she would keep petting him. "Wow," was all she said at last. "That's not a story so much as a mystery. So were those two women just rebels from the other side who were trying to kill you for being Kantonian?"
Ash scratched his head. "I don't know. That doesn't really make sense, because we were in battle. There were plenty of more threatening Kantonians there than me, and also some weaker. Why would they have picked me off?"
"I don't know. Wow," Misty said again, after a pause. "That was quite a story."
"Yeah," Ash said, looking wistful for his first time during the retelling. He seemed to have distanced himself from the story he was telling, as though he'd been talking about someone else.
"It's interesting that you're not wearing your uniform," Misty commented, fingering the hem of Ash's blue jacket. "I assume that's what you were wearing."
"Mm," Ash hummed, brow furrowed as he took his hat off his head and held it. It was a League cap in less-than-pristine condition. "I guess I never liked wearing it."
"And so fate was kind enough to put you in something else," Misty said with a smile. "That's nice, at least."
"Yeah," Ash said with a heavy breath. "I can't imagine if I had to wear that thing for the rest of my existence. This is my journeying outfit."
Misty smiled as she looked at it, taking it in for the first time. He was in jeans that were definitely journey worn with little grass stains and spots of dirt. It was the afterlife—they didn't have to look like that. But they did because he wanted them to. When people died and came back as ghosts, they tended to look like how they saw themselves, sick people looked healthy, people who'd died in accidents were restored. Ash had never seen himself as a soldier, so he didn't look like one now.
"Thanks for telling me," Misty said.
"Ah, well," Ash said, waving it off, "I guess Pikachu's right. It's probably important to tell someone these things."
"As someone who's been doing an uncomfortable amount of truth telling lately," Misty said, "I can confirm that."
Ash laughed. "Well, thanks for being that person. Was it enough to distract you enough to go to sleep?"
Suddenly, Misty was reminded exactly of why she'd needed distracting in the first place. "Hah, distracted, yes. Sleep…I don't know."
"You can keep snuggling with Pikachu, if you like."
"Pika!" Pikachu said, standing up to give Misty a hug.
"Aw, well, how can I say no to that?"
Ash began pushing himself up. "I'll walk you to your bedroom."
Misty let Ash help her up, acknowledging how kind his eyes were, even after recounting the story of his own death. He was so generous. After Misty toweled off her legs, he walked her to her door and Misty put her hand to it, cracking it open before turning back to Ash. "If you decide you need to snatch Pikachu back, you don't have to feel nervous about coming in. Just give me a couple minutes to change clothes."
Ash looked down and rubbed under his nose, actually looking a little embarrassed. "Thanks, but I think I'll just keep an eye on the Pokémon for the rest of the night."
Misty chuckled. "Why do we need security cameras when we have you around?"
"You don't," Ash said with a wink.
Misty blushed, turning back to her room. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
"Pi kachu!"
Misty told Pikachu to turn around as she slipped off her swimsuit and put her pajamas back on. Then she crawled back into bed and patted a spot beside her for Pikachu to curl up on. She put an arm around him so that her comforter would rest on top of that instead of falling right through his ghostly form.
As Misty felt Pikachu snuggle against her, she realized that Ash had told his story, and he and Pikachu were still there. They hadn't moved on. Misty felt relief at the realization, but it wasn't the same as when her feet slipped into the pool. Instead, her heart beat faster and a smile tugged at her lips. Her body grew warm again as her blood pumped excitedly through her veins and this, all of this, was the opposite of settling down for sleep.
"Stop it," Misty whispered to her chest. It was her own body—it should listen to her.
"Pika?"
"It's nothing, Pikachu. Let's sleep."
And slowly, with Pikachu's warmth and even breathing as her beacon of focus, she did.
A/N: Does every single one of these Cerulean chapters end with Misty falling asleep? I guess it's a natural ending point, but still.
It's a bit disjointed. It's a lot of talking. Tbh, the last scene is the only scene from this chap that was in the original draft. And I'm sure it's that patchworking that makes the piece feel a little choppy. I'd also like to say, on a more serious note, that this chap has two really heavy topics in it. I hope that the short conversation about abuse didn't come off as too flippant-everything Lily says is a reflection of how I'm characterizing her. She's loose-lipped, she's not the most serious. Hopefully it's okay. And anything I have to say about the war story in this fic is honestly insufficient. I made the classic Pokemon War Theory creepypasta a war of annexation in this fic because I had read a blogged fantheory on it back in the day and had liked it. And in this present time, with tragic wars of annexation going on in the world, it feels ill-conceived to have written this war as superficially as I did. I actually ended up changing later sections about it to be even less realistic than it already was, keep it in a more PG place, both so that it fits in better with the tone of this story-which has darkness, yes, and nods to creepypastas, but is never truly a darkfic, tragedy, or horror story-and because it feels inappropriate to do kind of a halvsies portrayal of war when we know how horrible war actually is. Also, because Ash's character would be pretty unrecognizable if he actually went through something that dark, rather than a more PG version of it. I'll revisit this topic once we get to the later chapters that touch on it more, but I wanted to throw it out there now that Ash has talked about it.
