.

Dark

"Sometimes, the only way to exorcise old ghosts is to pack your bags and move in with them."

―Yasmine Galenorn, Songs of Love and Death: All-Original Tales of Star-Crossed Love

Misty rolled her eyes. She couldn't help it. It was her only mode of resistance as screaming pierced her eardrums—luckily, it was a masculine voice, so not too piercing. But still, it took more than a bit of restraint not to cover her ears.

One ghost. There was only one ghost here, as opposed to the many Phoebe had summoned in Cinnabar, and none of those had been screamers.

Misty refused to believe that this could be because of Phoebe's hairbrained chanting. And it seemed overly self-pitying to chalk it up to bad luck, but really. Someone had to acknowledge her bad luck here.

"Calm down," Misty said steadily to the ghost shouting his head off in front of her. It was hard to estimate his age when his mouth was wide open, distorting his face like that, but he didn't look terribly old. Thirty, maybe. Maybe younger. Which was sad, if she thought about it, so she didn't and stuck to her mission. "Please, sir, calm down."

Nothing. And it had been less than a month since her last screamer, too. Misty resisted the urge to make like Noir, who was backing away from the upset man rapidly.

Then there was Ash, who came over, attempted "Excuse-mes" on his lips. Misty wasn't even certain they could be heard over the wailing.

"What's going on?" Brock asked, seemingly uncertain if he should take a step forward to support, or back in self-preservation.

"There's a ghost," Misty started with the obvious, "and he's screaming bloody murder, like a Ninetails who's had every goddamn tail stepped on, oh my God, shut up!"

Despite Misty's explosion, the ghost didn't hardly seem to stop for breath. Not until Ash, who had continued ever closer, put one hand on his shoulder and murmured, "Hey, buddy."

The wailing turned to a whimper, which turned to a mighty strong sniffle as the stranger finally looked up at Ash. Ash smiled.

"Hey, it's okay," he continued. "Gosh, sounds like there's a lot on your mind. Wanna tell us what's up?"

"C-C…" the ghost stuttered, mouth slack, expression distraught as he looked around the cemetery.

He drifted, passing through gray stones and the flowers at their feet. Ash, Pikachu, and Noir followed along right behind as Misty, with Brock trailing behind her, wove through the plots before the ghost stopped at a particular one. More or less.

Misty bent down, rustling through the offerings of food, chrysanthemums, and water that littered the ground. Underneath, though, was just dirt, bare of the moss that had crept up some of the older looking stones. Carved into the soil, however, was a neat square.

"Is this his resting place?" Ash asked.

"I don't know," Misty replied. "I mean, there's no headstone."

"Maybe it's a recent death," Brock murmured under his breath, as if he was concerned about the ghost hearing. Misty certainly couldn't see any recognition on the ghost's face that he had. "The stone could be in production right now."

"That might explain why he's so upset," Ash offered.

"Yeah, all that that you said about unstable emotions or whatever," Misty added.

She might have followed up, stating that this ghost seemed to fit that bill, but he was still right in front of them after all. So Misty walked around to place herself in front of him and try again. At least he was quiet now.

"Hey, uh, sir?" she started. "We'd like to help you find some peace. Could you maybe share what's upsetting you?"

The ghost looked miserably at the ground and once again, Misty was uncertain of his age. With his chin bent into his neck like that, all his features looked like they were reaching down, sagging under the weight of his depression. It accentuated the lines around his mouth and downcast eyes.

"C-Cave," he said, his voice barely carrying. Misty had to crane in to hear it.

"Cave," she repeated. "A cave."

This was mostly for Brock's benefit. Even if he wasn't getting all the same stimuli that she and Ash were, she still wanted his brain on their side.

"What else?" Misty encouraged. A cave was definitely a place—it couldn't be a condition or a person and it probably wasn't a miscommunication either. But it could be anywhere.

"Cave," the man said again, and Misty forced a tense smile on her face, her short nails digging into her palm as she clenched her hands. Patience, patience…

"Yes, a cave," Misty said through her teeth. "Which cave?"

"D…Dark."

Misty squeezed her palm tighter. Every cave was dark. Even her good old Cerulean Cave was dark right past the entrance where she trained. And without a Pokémon who knew Flash, she never ventured further for just that reason.

Just as Misty was about to grit out another bit of cheery encouragement, Ash's eyes grew wide.

"Dark Cave!" he exclaimed. "We need to go to Dark Cave!"

After a bit more wheedling, Ash and Misty had been able to coax out two words besides 'dark' and 'cave'. 'Missing' and 'Pokémon.'

That had been all that Ash needed, wanting to fly across Route 31 as soon as the word 'Pokémon' fell from the man's trembling lips. But as Brock caught piecemeal bits from their conversation, he drew Misty back, something popping up in his memory.

"It showed up in the university's weekly email…" Brock had said as he scrolled through his student email account, Misty and the ghostly crew hovering over his shoulder back in the dorm.

It turned out that a university with its own in-house cemetery also had obituaries. And just days ago, there had been an obituary for a man who had fallen to his death in Dark Cave. He'd been a Trainer, but no Pokémon had been recovered.

Which was how they now, an hour later, found themselves in Dark Cave, two Magnemite from the university's breeding center revolving around the motley crew's head. Every time one circled in front of Misty, she squinted, the bright light given off by their Flash remaining something of a shock, despite its decent throw in the large cavern.

"No hints about where this might have occurred, of course," Misty grumbled to herself as she stepped lightly on the rough terrain.

Misty had considered for a moment back in town, asking the local Officer Jenny for details about the case, just as she had in Viridian. But Misty was a Gym Leader in Kanto, not in Johto, and even though they were the same government under Indigo, it felt like a little more of a stretch. Her family wasn't necessarily a household name here and besides: she had Brock on the case with her this time.

Not to mention three ghosts. And just because an experienced team of police couldn't find something in this dark, winding cave, it didn't mean that a team of ghosts couldn't.

"How did you get these Magnemite to obey you, Brock?" Ash asked, not nearly as affected by their Flash as Misty was, circling around with them as they went.

Misty relayed his question and Brock replied, "That's part of what we've been doing in these pre-semester weeks. It's a doctor's job to make Pokémon comfortable quickly so that they'll obey small commands. And I've already spent some time with these two."

"Treating Rock Pokémon is about as close as it gets to treating Steel Types," Ash added.

Brock hadn't had any difficulty taking the Pokémon off campus either. All he needed to do was sign them out under the guise of 'exercise'. Which wasn't a lie.

"He'd been climbing," Misty murmured to herself, eyeing some of the walls of the cave as the Magnemite flew past. They were walking through a rather large opening at the moment, and the walls were shadowed and distant, but to her untrained eye looked too sheer to climb. They had to go deeper. "Climbing, likely participating in pre-season training. If he was a Trainer, why weren't his PokéBalls on him?"

"Maybe it wasn't a quick death," Brock offered grimly. "Maybe he was injured and tried to save his Pokémon or get them to help him in his last moments. But without the coroner's report, we'll never know."

If they were lucky, maybe there'd be yellow caution tape strung around the area where it'd happened. Either because the location was still a crime scene or because that particular spot in the cave had been deemed too dangerous.

If they were unlucky…at least they had all afternoon.

"Ash, do you know where the scalable parts of this cave are?"

"Hmm." Ash floated a little ways ahead of the crowd—the ghosts were already the ones leading the group—and looked in all directions before coming back, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "Sorry, climbability just isn't something that ghosts think about much."

"Fair enough."

"What I do know," Ash continued, "Is that there are ladders in the cave to navigate with."

That was actually a good clue. Even if this guy had been a seasoned Trainer—which he probably was, as his obituary had stated that he'd been thirty-one—a cave wasn't the place to venture from the Trainer path.

"So we should be on the lookout for ladders…" Misty mused, squinting into the darkness.

"I know one way we can do that," Brock said, pulling a 'Ball out of his pocket and tossing it in the air.

Despite the Magnemite's Flash, the bursting light of the PokéBall was still enough for Misty to throw her forearm over her eyes, blinking out stars before she saw Crobat emerge in front of her. Then, she couldn't help but crack a grin and say, "Hey!"

"You know, Misty, it's totally unfair that this guy's got to go on these kinds of adventures with you so many times and this is my first one."

"I dunno, Brock, I'd love to say that those days are over, but you had to go and move," she replied, the grin still standing but now curled into something teasing. "I hope this time can give you a good enough taste for it."

"Yeah, we'll see," Brock said, chuckling along with her before returning his attention back to Crobat. "Crobat, Supersonic! Find the ladders in here!"

Crobat began a slow rotation around the cave interior, supersonic waves bouncing off every crag and cranny. Misty wondered if their departed Trainer had carried a Pokémon like Crobat in his party that could have made traversing the cave easier. Or if he'd been totally blind, and that had been his downfall.

After a moment, Crobat let out a screech, and began flying at just a slight angle off from where they'd been creeping forward through the cavern. "C'mon!" Brock called needlessly as their whole group followed carefully.

They approached a wall. For a moment, Misty couldn't see anything special about it—there were bulges in the wall, hit sharply by the Magnemite's light, and shadows as dark as the cave unlit. Then she spotted a wooden ladder imbedded in the stone, its footholds only thick enough for the toe of a shoe to grab hold. It didn't look rotted anywhere, but it couldn't be the sturdiest thing. But the fact that it was in one piece led Misty to believe that this wasn't where their poor ghost had fallen.

"Alright, let's go," Misty said, taking a step forward.

"Lemme help," Ash said, floating just behind her.

Misty didn't say anything, but she raised her elbows so Ash could hold her around the narrowest part of her waist. She'd lost count, at this point, of the number of times Ash had taken her life in his hands like this since that first time in the Viridian Forest. Maybe she didn't need it this time, like she had off the side of Phoebe's boat, but Misty wasn't going to chance it at the site of a recent death.

Just as she'd made it a few rungs off the ground, a scream pierced through the low chittering and scrabbling of Pokémon in the cave, causing Misty almost to lose her grip as she looked left and right for the source of the noise. Was someone else in trouble? Or was there a cave-dwelling Pokémon that made a very human-like scream?

"Are you okay?" Brock asked.

When Misty looked down at him, Brock's brows were drawn in concern. "I'm fine!" she shouted as she reached to regain her grip and Ash tightened his hold on her.

Her voice carried over the scream, though Brock's hardly had—he hadn't raised his volume at all. And now that she thought about it, the scream wasn't echoing like it should in a wide cavern like this. Then, she realized that it sounded familiar. She sighed.

"Come out!" she yelled. "Follow the light—we're over here!"

In all her years with this Connection, Misty had never said 'follow the light' to a ghost before, and, frankly, she'd never thought she would. For whatever expertise the universe thought that she had or had decided to give her, she certainly didn't know if the afterlife came with a bright light or any of the other hallmarks humans had bought into over the years. But here she was, shouting it from the depths of her lungs, although with a different implicit meaning, beckoning an annoying ghost over to her–something else she'd never thought she'd do.

In the Magnemite's dayglow Flash, the irridescence from the screaming ghost was almost nonexistent. He'd almost pass as a living human if it weren't for the fact that he was hovering instead of walking and passing through boulder and stalagmite alike as he made his way to them.

It was like being approached by an ambulance, the sound almost unbearable as he grew close to their gang. Noir faded from sight, and Misty wished she could do the same. Well, she supposed technically she could, but she didn't want to deal with the pain she'd been left in last time. Plus, old Screamy McYelling could just up and follow her to third plane, and who knew if his screaming would echo there.

"Yes, we hear you!" Misty yelled, taking one hand off the ladder to press against her ear. "Are we getting close?"

The screaming stopped and Misty allowed her hand to lower. The ghost took a heaving breath in, and for a moment Misty was foolish enough to think that he was going to speak.

She should have known better.

As the screaming started up again, she wondered idly if he'd even needed to take that breath, or if he could scream through his whole afterlife. Of course, she'd punch him into his next plane before he ever got the chance.

"Are! We getting! Close?!" Misty tried again, her abs tensing with every shout, maximizing her volume. Her own voice echoed back at her from ever one of the cave's innumerable angles, but the ghost didn't stop. Misty breathed a heavy breath out her nose, snorting like a Tauros and raised her hand to smack the guy across the face. Just one good smack on the cheek should do it.

Suddenly, Ash jerked her back and Misty lost her balance, one sneaker sliding off the lower rung she'd been standing on. Not that it much mattered, as Ash's grip on her was secure, but it did kill the rage momentarily as panic instead splashed in the pit of her stomach.

Ash put her fully back on the ground and then turned his attention back to the ghost, his expression harder than Misty had ever seen it. She suddenly realized how angular all his features were from his thick, drawn eyebrows to his pointed, fiery eyes, to the sharp line of his nose. And when his voice came out, it was the most cutting of all.

"Calm down and help us find your Pokémon, or if you can't calm down, leave."

His voice was low, scary even. The mischievous rasp that usually made Ash sound like a kid who'd been talking, playing outside all day was different. Now his voice was full, the rasp nearly gone but to press a bit of extra fervor into his tone. For a moment, Misty glimpses the soldier that he might have been, facing danger head on, unwavering.

"Leave," Ash repeated, and this time the ghost vanished, and with him, all the noise in the cave. It took a few moments for Misty's ears to start registering the sounds of Dunsparce scurrying across the floor and Geodude digging through rocks.

When Misty looked at Ash again, his face was still closed off, simmering lowly with anger. Meanwhile, her face must have been curious or questioning, because when Ash turned to her, his shoulders fell, chest softening as a tense breath released out his mouth.

"If he can't help to find his own Pokémon, then we don't have time for him," Ash said simply. "The Pokémon need help."

Misty nodded, words slow to catch up with her again. Finally she said, "Then let's keep going."

She reached for the stairs again and, without having to renegotiate, Ash helped to guide her up the ledge. Brock, when his turn came, couldn't benefit from the same assistance, but he did have Misty reaching over the edge to take his hand when he made it to the top. And, if he had fallen, Misty wouldn't have hesitated to jump and catch him, knowing that Ash would be able to catch her.

When they were all on higher ground, Misty looked down only to find that she couldn't see much of the cave floor she'd just stood on. There were a few glimmers caught by the small ponds that made the cave smell even more damp and metallic, but there wasn't much splashing to speak of. Not too much water life. But even if they weren't on a mission, the fact that the ground below her had all but disappeared kept Misty from being as interested in the water as she usually would have been. She backed away and turned to her friends.

"Okay, so what have we got here?"

The path they were on was thinner than the wide cavern floor down below. Brock edged toward the wall as he said, "Keep a hand on it, just to be sure."

Misty followed his lead, palming the cold, smooth wall. If she ran her fingers up and down, it got rougher and smoother in parts, almost oily in the area just about level with her shoulder. Clearly she and Brock weren't the first ones to hug the wall up here.

"Ash, is there any kind of, like…ghost residue that lingers in a spot where someone's died?" Misty wondered. If there was, maybe he or Noir would be able to seek it out. Or else, maybe a Pokémon with Foresight, or perhaps even Misty herself could sense it.

"Not that I know of," he said, once again floating ahead, keeping an eye on the trail for safety. "Ghosts are drawn to their resting place. Maybe that's where they died, but it's usually a burial ground. That's all I know."

"Have you gone to yours?"

The words were out of Misty's mouth before she could stop them. The merciless echo of every syllable reverberated in the open cave, asking Ash the question over and over again until nothing but the sound of their footsteps could be heard. She bit her lip, a pathetic likeness for closing the barn door after the Tauros have left. She chewed it hard enough that it was almost a stronger sensation than the bright burning of her cheeks, flourishing from her neck to her ears.

"No," Ash murmured, and Misty was glad he was facing away from her. The adherence to their goal, the focus on the ledge they traversed was as good a thing to focus on as any to dampen her misstep. Then he continued. "I don't know where it is."

"Oh," Misty said stupidly. "I'm…sorry."

Was she crazy for figuring that he'd looked for it? If he hadn't had an official burial, wouldn't he take advantage of his abilities as a ghost and look under water, under soil for it?

Ash carried on, not paying much mind to her apology but to shrug his shoulders, "I think you still have to know where it is. You feel that longing for sure, I definitely do, but I don't know where it's pointing me towards."

Misty released her lip, the stinging fading almost immediately. She'd almost romanticized Ash's description of having wandered the world for the last thirty years, imagining all the Pokémon he'd seen, all the Battles that had been fought. He'd described how lonely it was, of course, but at the same time, what an opportunity, right? To observe the whole world at your leisure? But maybe it didn't feel that way if all that adventuring was for the sake of feeling, an everlasting tether to a body, a trauma, that you could never place.

She winced.

"Okay, never mind that then," Misty said, unsure if she should say more, do more. Ash didn't seem particularly upset by the fact, at least not in his voice. But the back of his head wasn't particularly emotive. For a moment, Misty wished she could reach beyond his shoulder, to the tip of his chin and guide his face back towards hers.

But alas.

They continued on. Noir came back and their group regained their formation. It was impossible to gauge distance in the dark, much less while climbing up and down different ledges. As much as there was very little to see ahead, there was even less to see behind. The only quasi-reliable measure she had for how far they'd gone was the ache in the soles of her feet, brought on quicker by the hard, uneven stone than the grass and dirt she was used to. Her feet bore the distance and her watch reminded her that outside, the sun was still out, though past its peak. Time was running out.

Crobat was using Supersonic all the while, and Brock commented over it every once in a while, saying things like, "There's not much manmade here, so something perfectly round like PokéBalls should stand out," and "Don't worry, the frequency is different then what would be used in Battle. It shouldn't Confuse any Pokémon."

That last detail had been a relief to Ash. Although Misty could constantly hear the little noises of Pokémon throughout the cave, they weren't seeing many. She supposed that for Pokémon who were so accustomed to the dark, the spot of brightness their group was bringing with them would be alarming. The only Pokémon who crossed their way were Zubat, who were blind anyhow.

Brock was a calming presence. If he was picking up on any of the moments of tension between Misty and Ash or with the other ghost, he wasn't asking for clarification. She'd tell him after, maybe. After the stress was gone. In the meantime, he just passed her a protein bar, and they both munched away while walking at their slow, careful pace, using their Pokémon to help them get past the bigger boulders that even seemed to block the main path.

It went on like that until Crobat began to screech, diving down from the ledge they were on, like a Pidgeot hunting a Caterpie. Everyone was shocked out of the silence they'd fallen into, and the ghosts followed Crobat down. Misty lowered to her stomach in an attempt to see, the cold cave rock chilling her through her layers, pinching the plasticky fabric of her windbreaker.

Brock was quick to follow her after directing the Magnemite to tail Crobat about five or more meters down. They lowered their light just slightly so that Misty and Brock didn't have to squint into it, and instead could see a more natural glow of the rocks below. Dozens of stalagmites, all different heights and absolutely pathless. Someone certainly could have died here. She was only glad that, if he had, she wasn't catching sight of any evidence to that fact. No blood, at least.

"What do you see?" Misty asked.

The question was directed towards Ash, but Noir and Pikachu both chattered as they pointed to a group of rocks on the ground that Ash was floating closer to.

The rocks looked like a series of stalagmites all reaching up together like fingers pinching a berry. And from one of them, the Magnemite's light caught on the bright white lower half of a PokéBall. It was covered in cave dust, reducing its shine, but it was unmistakable, still attached to a brown leather belt to boot.

"That's it!" Misty exclaimed, scooting an inch closer. "Get it, Noir!"

Ash lowered down close to the 'Ball, his body phasing through some of the rocks. "The rest are here too! All six!" he announced, filling Misty's chest with a sense of relief. Everyone was safe.

Noir floated over to the one visible 'Ball plus gripped her small hands around the edge of the belt and tugged. The 'Ball didn't move.

"You can do it, Noir, try again!" Brock encouraged.

Noir nodded and tugged again, her head throwing back as she tried to put all her body's force into it. Still nothing.

"It's snagged," Ash said as he looked close again. "Between the first and the second 'Ball, the belt is snagged on these rocks."

"Okay, so we'll break them," Misty said, thinking fast. "Brock, use your Geodude."

Brock didn't hesitate, rocking onto one side to slip a hand into his pocket and feel around for Geodude's 'Ball. When he got it, he released it into the air with a cry, "Geodude, use Tackle!"

Before Geodude could even enter the brightness of Magnemite's light, a gray blur shot through the wall and smashed it into the ledge. The reverberation caused Misty to grab frantically onto the edge of the rock, even though she was at no risk of falling. "What happened?" she gasped.

"An Absol!" Ash exclaimed.

"It's an Absol," Misty whispered to Brock, trying to catch a glimpse of it, but it must have jumped back into the shadows. Geodude, on the other hand, was floating back up to them, waiting for another command. Or maybe just trying to get away from its assailant.

"Seriously?" Brock asked. "Those are incredibly rare."

"Oh my gosh," Ash gasped, looking back at the rocks. "Guys, there's an egg here."

Misty squinted, trying to catch any glimpse of it, but couldn't see anything but brownish gray rocks. "I don't see anything," she said.

"It's dark blue, almost black, right in the shadows of the rocks," Ash exclaimed. "We can't break them or we'll hurt the egg."

"Or get butchered by an Absol," Misty added before relaying the new info to Brock.

"Ash is right, we can't risk the egg," Brock agreed as he returned Geodude. "And neither of us have Pokémon with any real dexterity."

Misty clenched her fingers harder against the stone. A large drop of water splashed onto the back of her hair and she shivered. They couldn't have come all this way, and even found the Pokémon, only to not be able to get them out. They always could turn back, mark the path, and come back with Pokémon who could do more, or the tools to get down there safely themselves, though they were short on time for that. Or they could contact the police and let them know what they'd found. But they were so close. And this was Misty's responsibility.

"How did an egg even get in there?" she suddenly asked, looking at the tight gaps between the stalagmites. It was nothing that a full-grown Absol should be able to fit more than a paw through.

"There's a bigger gap on this side," Ash said, floating opposite from where the 'Balls were, pointing at the ground. "She could have laid it here or nearby and moved it here for safety."

"Hard to make a nest in a cave," Misty mused. Then she set her jaw. If an egg could fit there, certainly five unactivated PokéBalls could. "Okay, Noir, take off the first PokéBall and give it to me."

It took some wiggling on Noir's part to get the snagged PokéBall to unlatch from the belt, but with some effort she was able to, and floated up to give the 'Ball to Misty. Misty took off her pack and slipped it inside.

"Good, now try and fit through the gap and get the rest," she instructed.

As Noir drew closer to the egg, Misty heard growling to the side, from around where Geodude had been smashed into the wall. The Absol was getting territorial over the egg, probably ready to strike at any moment. Misty wasn't sure how fast it would be, having to navigate through all those stalagmites, but she'd obviously made it through them once to get the egg there, and could surely do so again, especially if she was pissed.

"Careful!" Misty hissed, and Noir faded into second plane. She passed easily through the rocks and reached for the 'Balls, but of course, her hands went right through. "Try in first plane and be quick!"

But Noir didn't phase back into first plane. She contracted and articulated her body, but the subtle glow around her body never dissipated. She passed through the tops of the rocks and looked at Misty with her eyes tilted down at the outer corners—as bereft as Misty had ever seen her. "Bay nette nette."

"It's the rocks," Ash explained. "There's not enough room for her to be in first plane."

"Dang it," Misty said, feeling her limbs grow colder and colder against the rock as her ideas seemed to run dry. They should have brought more tools, like rope and a wider variety of Pokémon. Where was that worldly experience she'd thought she had just yesterday?

"Ash," Brock called into the dark. "Why don't you try levitating them?"

"Me?" Ash asked, and Misty almost snorted. She didn't know whether it was more ridiculous for Ash to ask if Brock meant him, or for Ash to verbally ask Brock anything at all.

"That's a great idea, Brock! Ash, see if you can do it!"

Ash looked uncertain for a second more, but then his face hardened with a fraction of what Misty had seen when he'd been firm with their ghost earlier. "Yeah, okay, let's do it."

He floated directly over the 'Balls—Misty didn't know if proximity made a difference in his powers, but it certainly couldn't hurt. His chest became stiff, like he was holding his breath, and the faint glow around him grew wider, making his skin and his clothes paler to her eyes.

She couldn't see what was happening but craned her neck toward him anyway. All she could see was Noir and Pikachu floating nearby, providing moral support. In her head, she was cheering him on, but she didn't want to break his concentration. She reached for Brock's hand, also clenched against the ledge, and placed hers on top, squeezing his knuckles. This had to work.

Suddenly, Noir darted forward slightly, and Ash slumped forward, air releasing from his body with a woosh. "He got one!" Misty whispered to Brock, her nails accidentally sinking in below his knuckles. Then she realized that she could say it louder and called, "Woohoo, way to go, Ash!"

Wearily, Ash looked up and gave Misty and Brock a thumbs up while Noir carried the 'Ball up to Misty. She took it and placed it beside its partner. Two out of six. One third of the way there.

The following minutes consisted of Misty staring while Ash's pallor grew starker and starker, the light around him blooming. It might have been beautiful, perhaps even angelic if it hadn't looked like the glow was eating him alive, blurring his lines, washing out the color. Meanwhile, she was digging little half moons into Brock's knuckles, and when she realized, she couldn't even stop. Her whole body was tense, fraught with helplessness as she watched the scene below.

The only one with any real movement was Noir, bobbing up to her and Brock and back down to Ash as the third, fourth, and fifth 'Balls made their way into Misty's bag, each after a significantly longer pause than the last.

"Does he look okay?" Brock whispered after many minutes of stillness. Misty had nearly forgotten that, for him, it looked like nothing was happening until suddenly Noir had a 'Ball in her hands. To be honest, it didn't look like much more than that to Misty. Ash's body was rigid from top to bottom, his glow blocking out any view she might have of the 'Balls.

"…No."

Sixty seconds more and nothing changed. Then ninety. Misty was trying to think through other strategies when she suddenly heard a sound from down below.

"Pi…ka…chu."

It was a grunt at best, tense with the effort of lungs that were held tight, vocal folds that were squeezed nearly too taut to vibrate. Moreover, Misty wasn't sure what Ash meant until Pikachu's ears perked up and then his tiny paw was on Ash's shoulder, and the glow began to extend further.

Misty gasped, glued to the scene as Pikachu's body stiffened the same way as Ash's in unwavering concentration. It had never crossed her mind that Pikachu might have the same powers as they'd seen in Fay, those so similar to Psychic Pokémon. Then again, a few weeks ago no part of this would have crossed her mind.

In her head, Misty was chanting come on, come on, come on, the words sticking to her teeth, clamping her jaw together until it hurt around the joints. What kind of strength did Pikachu have? Was it more because he was a Pokémon? Less because Ash had been the only one practicing? Did he actually have to perform the telekinesis or was he just lending Ash some of his extra energy?

Misty ran out of questions as Ash suddenly doubled over, heaving gasps that sounded tamped and choked without the hollow echoing of the cave. She wondered if he sweat, if his palms were damper than the floor of the cave after all that effort, or if it was contained, something she'd see no evidence of now that his body had snapped out of the tension, his spine undulating with every breath.

Pikachu too seemed to have been flattened, despite only working for a fraction of the time that Ash had. He too was on the floor, only in Misty's sights because of the glow around them both that was now becoming faint again, returning some of their color. Making them look real again.

Misty missed the first tap against her cheek, but felt the second as Noir's fabric-like hand jammed her cheek against the hard bumps of her molars, still clenched together as almost a sympathy pain for an effort that wasn't her own. As Ash and Pikachu's bodies continued to unwind and recover down below, so too did Misty open her mouth, letting her jaw click, and remove her nails from Brock's skin. The slight tug the action took made her think that maybe she'd dug deeper than she'd even thought, and they'd have to check for blood once they had decent light again.

Only then did she take the final 'Ball from Noir and put it in her backpack. A full set of six. Misty was glad for it. Lots of Trainers walked around with fewer than six Pokémon, and if they'd found a 'Belt with any other number, there'd be no way they could have been certain they weren't missing someone. Goodness knew their ghost wouldn't have been any help in figuring it out.

"Are you okay?" Misty called below, not caring about the Absol and letting her voice carry. Their mission was over, and there was nothing an Absol could do to two ghosts.

Misty heard a couple more panting breaths, and then, finally, a thumbs up from Ash.

He was okay.

It was a few minutes more until Ash or Pikachu actually had the strength to float back up the sheer drop, and when they did, Misty scrambled to her feet to meet them. "Ash!" she exclaimed, reaching out to him just as all the blood in her body plummeted to her feet, sending her weak knees buckling.

"Woah," Ash said, lunging to catch her and set her back up on her feet again. She'd been lying prone for so long that her body, it turned out, needed a moment more to adjust to being vertical again. Pins and needles began licking at her feet and up her stiff legs. They didn't keep her from throwing Ash's arms off of her, not quite managing to let them go in the process.

"How dare you try to help me up when you're the one who just nearly passed out?"

"I wasn't going to pass out!" Ash defended, his voice still airy with the heavy breaths he was continuing to choke down. "I'm not even sure that I can!"

"Well, you had me fooled," Misty groused, taking her arms back to fold in front of her chest.

"What she's trying to say," Brock said, placing a hand firmly on Misty's shoulder and looking just over it in Ash's general direction, "is thank you, we couldn't have done it without you."

Ash put a hand behind his head and laughed self-deprecatingly. "Hopefully, we don't have to do it again." Misty wondered if maybe he was blushing, but she couldn't tell even as the Magnemite rose back to eye level. His color was still a little pale.

"Yeah, hopefully," Misty echoed. Because if a ghost didn't pass out when they were strained…what happened to them? Misty didn't want to find out, not where Ash was concerned. "Let's go."

They'd only taken a few steps when Misty keyed into a voice in the distance. Someone else had come all this way? Police? Or a traveler ignorant or uncaring of the recent reports of danger? Misty didn't have to wonder for long as she clued in on the glow in the distance that was growing larger and larger. As he approached, the words became clearer. With his mouth running at the same speed as his body barreling toward them, their ghost was saying "Take care of them, take care of them, take care of them."

Misty opened her mouth to reply that she would, that they'd be brought somewhere safe. But before she could, just as his racing body was about to pass her by, his body was overtaken by its own essence—glowing brightly enough that Misty had to cover her eyes—and moved on.

A/N: Okay...let me know if you noticed a difference in writing quality, because I sure did! Tbh, some bits of this chapter looked better than stuff I'm writing now, which was mildly disconcerting, but it also was really interesting. It validated the timeline and the things I had improved on in the 2020-2022 gap. It's funny, because my note with concerns for this chapter reminded me that it had been a bit of a slog to write, but my memory of it was much more positive. I always enjoy when I manage a chapter that's mostly action, and that's what this one is, so that's my bias. I love love that Brock got to participate in this one-it feels really special. I hope that it wasn't boring, as 25yo!me seemed concerned about. With today's relatively fresh eyes, I didn't think it was, but I know that the "action" is still pretty, eh, minor.