Haedys had refused to leave Persephone again after that incident. Even Percy couldn't blame her for that.

Keeping good on her promise to help the researchers finish their tests, Percy had to follow them back to the lab and sat huddled in the corner while they concluded their series of tests. Something involving Haedys playing with blocks, and using all of her moves for them. Persephone hadn't been paying much attention, opting instead to doomscroll on her phone and mope. And Haedys was hardly invested in the tasks at this point.

It was a bitter relief for both of them when the older man who had found her in the café stepped forward again to practically fling a clipboard into her hands.

"Cayenne told me to let you read it before we passed it up," he grunted resentfully.

Persephone frowned, turning her eyes down to the clipboard and tracing the pen marks all over the elaborate form. Her eyes darted across every checked box and between comment fields.

"PIQ" was marked as 130. The number was meaningless to Percy, but there was a comment beneath it— "Subject displays unusual intelligence for its age and background. Responded positively to several tests involving societal knowledge it does not have a record of acquiring."

She flipped again, reading through another full page of elaborate fields and notes. Her eyes rested on a short list—

Growl

Confusion

Astonish

Confuse Ray

Spite

Destiny Bond

Percy could put together what was obviously a list of the Misdreavus's moves, but she blinked at the final one being crossed out. Fortunately, there was a note scrawled into the space beneath it where more moves might have gone.

"Subject invoked aura patterns for 'Destiny Bond', but aura entanglement interfered. Entanglement appears to run along the same aural pathways. See next page."

Persephone pursed her lips. Well, how could she not with a cliffhanger as exciting as that? But when she flipped to the next page, it wasn't another form that met her. An entire blank sheet of notebook paper had been inserted into the stack of review forms, purely to fit the note that followed.

"C. speculates Subject A may be capable of aura twisting. Interference in Destiny Bond aural pathways supports this hypothesis. C. speculates that entanglement with Subject B occurred through an incorrect execution of Destiny Bond technique. C. offers no speculation on how Subject A is capable of aura twisting at this evolutionary stage."

Persephone squinted. "The heck is an 'aura twister'?" she asked.

The older researcher responded by pulling the clipboard away from her. "I promised to let you see the results, not to explain them to you. Try reading a book tonight."

Percy gaped at the man's audacity and tried out several retorts in her head before finding that none of them worked. The heck was with these people? Did they always treat their participants like this?

Her mouth curled into a snarl, and she tried another question instead—"'C'. Is that Cayenne?" she asked.

The older man rolled his eyes, bringing the sheet over to a computer terminal and signing in. "'C is for Cookie'," he responded disinterestedly. "Maybe you can have one if you go back to your room."

Persephone curled her lip at the treatment, before deciding it wasn't worth the fight. She wanted out of this room anyway.

Of course, the moment she stood up Haedys was hovering by her side. Percy couldn't stop herself from wincing and looking away from the Pokémon. She could feel firsthand how her distance over the past few hours had been making the Misdreavus anxious. Haedys didn't understand why, and Percy couldn't find the words to explain her feelings.

She knew this wasn't what Haedys had wanted, but it was impossible to even look at the Misdreavus without wondering if she was losing her mind.

Persephone didn't bother offering the staff a farewell— they neither deserved nor wanted it. She stepped into the hall and headed straight back to her guest room, knowing for certain that Haedys would be right behind her.

Making her way into the same four white walls and soulless furnishings, she shut the door behind her and sealed herself in once again. Picked up the pillows she'd strewn around the room at some point, flung them onto the bed, and then flung herself face-first on top of them and let out a loud groan.

Idly, her hand reached behind her to grab the TV remote and hit power, the sounds of a soda commercial popping into existence behind her.

"Saaaaaa!" The Pokémon cry accompanied sounds of slicing metal and splashing liquid. The deep tone of an announcer cut in—"Slash Cola! Feel the Slush Rush!"

Click.

A cartoonishly-proportioned Incineroar flexed, propping up a bowl overflowing with flakes of a sugary cereal on top of his bicep. Milk splashed out from the motion as he growled at the camera with a tight grin. "Fighting Flakes! They're greeeeea-"

Click.

"I'm sorry, but we're… we're over, Rodriguez!" a woman in a dated and skimpy red dress with flowing hair exclaimed. There was the sound of disappointed and saddened calls from an invisible audience. Tears welled in her eyes as she flipped her hair dramatically and turned to walk down a path into the sunset.

The camera cut to a man with slicked-back hair in a leather jacket as he reached out desperately after her. "Stacey, no!" he exclaimed. He stumbled forward to follow her before slamming face-first into seemingly nothing at all and falling to the ground in shambles.

The camera panned downwards to reveal a Mr. Mime just out of sight, miming an invisible wall into existence between them. A laugh track played as the man pressed desperately up against it, bursting into sobs as he watched her go.

It occurred to Persephone that television might only accelerate the rotting of her brain.

She scrunched her eyes and instinctually clicked power again, an electronic trill followed by blissful silence. It hung for only a moment before she let out a sigh and finally spoke aloud.

"Do you know what 'aura twister' means?"

It wasn't the opener Haedys had expected nor hoped for. Fearing she'd done something wrong, the Misdreavus had stolen one of the pillows and taken her spot on the desk, a safe distance from Persephone. But even if it was unexpected, she perked up with a tiny bit of hope at the question.

Only to deflate a moment later as she considered the answer.

"…Mi."

Percy nodded, rubbing her nose against the pillow she'd turned face-first in. She'd expected that answer. What was that the smug jerk had said? 'Read a book'? Well, she had something better than a book: the INTERNET.

The young woman rolled over— miraculously avoiding rolling right off the bed— and whipped out her phone. She tapped into a search engine— 'Aura twister'.

"No, not the move Twister," she grumbled, backspacing and trying again. She wrapped the phrase in several layers of quotations this time, '"""aura twister"""' just to be safe, and got the same result. Her grimace tightening, she tried 'aura twister misdreavus (NOT THE MOVE)'.

"Why would you give me the move when I said NOT THE MOVE?" Persephone growled, her fingers gripping tighter around the stupid machine.

What was it the blasted note had said? "at this evolutionary stage"?

Giving it one last go, she tried—'aura twister mismagius'.

Percy let out a defeated sigh as half a dozen StakaOverflow posts from idiots trying to teach Twister to their Mismagius came up in response. She'd already moved her finger to lock the phone again and give up when she noticed one result that stood out: "Natural Aura Twisting in Mismagius: A Notional Study".

Persephone didn't hesitate to tap it, only to be flashbanged by about ten thousand black words on a white screen all at once. Somehow the title hadn't tipped her off that it was an academic paper. And she responded to an academic paper as she always did: her eyelids instantly drooped and her head slumped to the side as she took in way-too-many-words saying way-too-little. The half a dozen incomprehensible, black-on-white line charts looked like if she'd arranged them properly they might form a summoning circle.

Percy shook her head furiously, forcing herself awake. She didn't need to read all of this— she probably wasn't capable of reading all of this. She just needed answers. Just the abstract.

At some point Haedys had drifted cautiously behind her, taking notice of the images of a Mismagius accompanying the article. Her gaze grew fixed on them, only breaking when Percy scrolled the image offscreen.

"Natural Aura Twisting in Mismagius: A Notional Study. Bell A., Saffron University

"In this paper, we propose and explore the notion that Mismagius have some innate capacity to twist aura presentations and that this ability explains the frequency and disconnectedness of anecdotal claims of the species 'casting spells' or 'performing witchcraft' in the wild. Pokémon are traditionally only capable of expressing aura in genetically-defined patterns, resulting in the widely recognized effects referred to as 'moves'. We postulate that the colloquially-recognized 'spells' that Mismagius demonstrate are the result of expressing aura in defiance of pre-defined patterns, effectively producing novel, unrecognized moves. In our study, we demonstrated that among a sample of three Mismagius, all were able to produce anomalous aura readings. Anomalous readings ran along previously-identified aural pathways, supporting our hypothesis. We believe this work shows an exciting promise for future research in this area."

Persephone squinted, and then read the entire paragraph again. When she finished, she noticed something incredibly weird. So strange that it compelled her to read a third time, forcing her to accept the strange conclusion:

She actually kind of understood what she'd just read.

Mismagius could just do some… aura magic and make up new moves. At least, she was pretty sure that was what it had meant. And also maybe Haedys, too?

She glanced up at the Misdreavus hovering by her shoulder, who was staring blankly at the wall of text with that dumb little gape she made when she was totally befuddled. Not too surprising—no matter how smart she'd become leeching off of Percy's mind, she still couldn't read.

"Destiny Bond, huh? And you messed it up, or something?" Percy muttered, staring at the flutter of Haedys' dress to avoid hitting her eyes and spilling all of her… conflicted feelings. "Guess that makes sense. That's sort of like… an aura bond thing, isn't it?"

"Miss…" Haedys muttered. It was one of the few tricks she knew. If you were going to go down, to take them with you and they couldn't hurt you more.

"So you… tried using it on me?" Persephone clarified, squinting as she continued to watch the fluttering of gray fabric. Haedys had graciously avoided trying to meet her gaze, similarly inspecting the young woman's shoulder.

Haedys hesitated a moment. And then nodded. She had been panicking. She'd thought maybe, somehow, she could share that power…

"And instead, you 'twisted' it, or whatever," Persephone concluded. She collapsed back down onto her back again and let one arm splay out as the other raised to rub the bridge of her nose. "And just made up a new move entirely that does… this."

Haedys was silent. Or rather, she'd already been silent but now she was sharing no more thoughts.

"Okay, let's just assume I'm a genius and that's all correct. New question: how? If it's supposed to be a Mismagius thing."

Again, nothing. Persephone's thoughts all appeared to be her own for a long bit. Before a single foreign one crept in, faint and curled up and sorrowful—

I'm sorry.

Persephone let out a heavy exhale and shut her eyes as soon as "she'd" thought it. She knew it wasn't Haedys' fault. Okay, technically it entirely was, but she didn't blame the ghost she was like a child or something. Or maybe that was just Haedys hacking her brain to make her forgive them or something she didn't know and it was all very confusing but—

She wasn't mad. Persephone knew that much.

But at the same time, she was slowly, unwittingly being transformed. Sculpted into someone other than herself. And… Haedys was also definitely hearing this.

"I'm sorry for like, scaring the heck out of you earlier," she relented, letting out another heavy sigh. "It's just… Like…"

Her mind raced trying to think of any possible way to explain these emotions to a practically-wild and practically-a-child Misdreavus. What did she understand of 'self'? What did she understand of individuality? She seemed practically eager to lose herself in another. Haedys would never be able to understand the terror gripping Persephone's chest every time she thought about that tangled chart.

Haedys understood.

That sudden foreign thought made Percy abruptly sit up, eyes opening to lock onto the sad little rag who had fallen to rest beside her legs. Haedys was so light she hadn't even noticed the ghost leaning against her.

Well, she didn't really understand. She wasn't sure what was so bad about any of this. She finally had a friend. Persephone finally had a friend. She had thought that was a good thing.

But even if she didn't understand why this was bad, she understood how Persephone felt. She understood she was scared, and that this wasn't good to her. She understood why Percy had run away, tried to fight it.

She understood Persephone.

…Right?

Percy felt a lump form in her throat at the same time her hand moved to pet the ghost. A pit in her stomach, and a faint smile on her lips. Two deeply conflicting sets of emotions. And the worst part was, she couldn't tell if one, both, or neither were her own.

"I'm not sure if you do," Persephone muttered aloud, finding herself strangely unfettered as she scratched between the goopy tendrils of the ghost's hair. "I don't know if you can understand how I feel without understanding why. Humans are… different, from Pokémon."

"…Mii." The ghost sunk slightly under the scratches, her eyes turning downwards. She knew that one already. Her mom had always made that clear. Humans were strange, and cruel, and dangerous.

Persephone let out a snort at that, leaning back against her pillow. "Yeah. They are," she agreed, if for different reasons. "But humans also care about who they are. And I've caught enough crap in my life for being who I am to give up now."

"Ooh, staying true to yourself above all else. Defying the slings and arrows of a cruel world. How poetic."

Percy's lip instantly curled at Kona's agitating voice drifting from the doorway and ruining the solemn moment. She sat up to glower at him, Haedys turning in surprise.

"How long have you been eavesdropping for?" she grumbled.

"About as long as you've been speaking," he answered openly, and without a shred of remorse.

At first, Percy stared, horrified, before it dawned on her that they hadn't exactly been 'speaking' for long from an outside perspective.

Kona shrugged and invited himself in, bouncing up to sit on top of her desk. His feet hung down and kicked playfully against the chair. "You're right about one thing though—humans are quite different from Pokémon." His lip curled slightly, seemingly against his will. "I find it quite funny that you, who seem to know that well, are so fussed about being a bit closer to the latter."

Persephone scoffed, subtly pulling Haedys closer where her arms would shield the ghost. "Bro, we get it. You're a furry."

That broke the man's façade a moment, and he glared coldly at her. "Is that really what you take away from this?"

Percy shrugged, narrowing her eyes dismissively. "You're literally trying to copy a freak accident that's ruining my life in order to have some super intimate bond with your Pokémon starting yesterday," she countered, shoving the sheets aside as she hopped up off the bed. "You have to realize how weird that is, right?"

Kona's face sharpened, and his mouth and tongue reeled back to strike on instinct. But he hesitated. He scrunched his eyes tight, and when they opened again the fake smile had returned.

"I would have thought you no stranger to the weird, darling. But make of it what you will. I've not come here to debate philosophies with you. Our little arrangement for mutual benefit is… sufficient enough," he offered with a sickeningly paper-thin sweetness.

Persephone eyed him up and down judgementally, before just shrugging. "I guess it is. What did you want?"

The man crammed a hand into his pocket and rifled around far longer than he possibly could have needed to find something there. He dramatically wrenched a folded sheet of notebook paper from it and handed it to her.

"Tomorrow's test schedule!" he exclaimed. "I've left you free in the morning on account of Haedys' nocturnality."

…And her newfound nocturnality, Percy thought bitterly. She unfolded the sheet with a grumble, hating it on principle. She was supposed to be free of other people dictating her schedule when she graduated high school. That was the whole point of taking a journey.

It didn't take long for that schedule to give her pause.

"…Hide and seek?" Persephone asked dryly, reading off the first item of the agenda.

Kona clapped his hands together energetically. "Sounds fun don't you think?"

Even little Haedys was skeptical of that.

"What, did Don turn you down?" Percy snarked.

"No, he'll be playing too!" Kona cackled. "But it would behoove me to test whether your bond can be… suppressed. And testing whether you can hide from one another is a fun way about it."

"…Did you just use the word 'behoove'?"

"So what do you say? And remember— the alternative is a more standardized lab testing of this," he reminded her with an eerie grin.

Persephone had never had good experiences with standardized testing.

"Fine, I'll play your little game," she relented with an emphatic groan.

"Good." Kona hopped down from the desk. It didn't escape Percy's notice that he had to restrain himself from striking a pose as he did, and her weird look intensified. He didn't seem to care though, turning and opening the door. "I'll see you at noon, darlings! Sleep well!"

As he vanished and left them alone once again, Persephone glanced at the clock. By all accounts, she'd been given a gratuitous amount of time to sleep, but she doubted she'd be taking it any time too soon. Trapped in a windowless room the sun was no longer trying its hardest to correct her sleep cycle. All that was left to influence her wake and sleep was the little nocturnal ghost beside her.

To her dismay, she wondered if noon was late enough.

Percy flew past the crumbling, burnt beams of the collapsed wall and into the ruins she called home. Falling past the half-floor and down to the floorboards. She floated along the surface, dancing slowly past the splintered shards and stones with a smile. Moonlight filtered down from high above.

She returned to a tiny hole where an eighth-of-one board had broken inwards near one of the foundational pillars. It wasn't much space at all— maybe half the size of her already-small body. She drew in her cheeks, stuffed her face into it, and squeezed.

Squeezed, squeezed, squeezed! She felt her body squish, collapsing in on itself as she wriggled through the tiny gap. It took a few forceful pushes before she popped out the other end, her body popping back to its full size all at once.

Percy gave herself a vigorous shake, her skirt and hair flying frantically around her, and took in the view from above. That dank, dark, and empty chamber they called home. One far corner of the room was darker than the others— a darkness that even she struggled to see through. She smiled and flew straight towards that inviting darkness.

As soon as she got close, a single red light ignited within it. An enormous hand stretched out, its palm encompassing her entire body, and swallowed her within.

Percy purred, and nuzzled against it as she was dragged in. And a moment later, she was nestled up against the face of a Dusknoir. He was lying at rest on their side in the corner, his very aura darkening the air around him.

They cuddled for a minute before he pulled her away to sit up and look at her with that single, oppressive eye. In spite of his appearance, Percy could only feel affection from him.

'Where is Redeyes?' he asked.

At that, Percy pouted and her hair bundles all sank from her scalp like they had suddenly gotten heavier.

'Horned ones showed up. Mom is making them go away,' she lamented.

'Mm.' He laid back down, content with that answer. 'I see.'

Percy should have been contented too, if Dad was, but she didn't like it. Dad must have noticed how she kept floating there pouting without rejoining him, because he continued to watch her patiently.

'Why does mom make everyone go away?' she finally asked in a sad whimper. 'Horned ones aren't dangerous.'

Dad stared back at her for a long moment. Her orbs vibrated slightly around her neck, skirt fluttering nervously. Had she asked a bad question?

'Too many horned ones will bring predators here. Or humans. And when they change, they may try to take our territory,' he answered.

Percy kept staring at him, still nervous. He'd answered her question, but not what she really wanted to ask. What she was scared to-

'Redeyes was captured once. She was hurt a lot before she got away.' He shut his singular eye as he continued, sensing the real thing Percy wanted to understand.

Why things weren't like in the stories mom told. Why they didn't have a big family all together here. Why it was just them.

He continued. 'She does not want that to happen again. She does not want anything to happen to me or to you. If we are alone, there is no reason for anyone to come.'

Percy was silent, her little mind processing that. She finally let out a small whimper.

'Humans?'

That seemed to catch him off guard, the Dusknoir suddenly tilting his neck and refocusing that eye on her like a spotlight. Usually, she loved his gaze, but now it just made her shy away.

Percy quickly explained— 'That is why she hates them so much, right? They hurt her?'

Her dad shut his eye again, scrunching it tight. His fingers flexed, curling into his enormous palms with resentment.

'She hates them because they are dangerous. Like night beasts. Too many of us brings night beasts to eat. Brings humans too. All the same.'

'They are not all dangerous!' Percy protested.

And then instantly clammed her lips shut, eyes widening as she realized what she'd said.

If Dad hadn't picked up on her words, her reaction definitely caught his attention. His eye opened narrowly, staring straight at her with a gaze that demanded an explanation. She shrank under it, the edges of her skirt suddenly whipping as if in a storm. She glanced aside.

'It is nothing… A small human came here. It was alone, and it did not seem dangerous. So I watched it.' Forgetting why she was so nervous, Percy's head perked up and she looked back at Dad with curiosity glistening in her eyes. 'Why was it alone? Do small humans not group?'

But Dad wasn't paying any attention to her idle curiosities. The Dusknoir had shifted upright, going from eye level to towering over her. His gaze shifted up to the dark ceiling above, suddenly alert.

'Human? Here?' he asked sternly.

'It was moons ago,' Percy responded, pouting at her question being ignored. Maybe the small human was just lonely. 'It is not here anymore.'

Dad continued to stare alertly up at the ceiling as if he'd see through to the ruins above. But he finally relented, grunting and relaxing his shoulders. He glanced at her.

'If there is a human again, you must tell me,' he demanded.

'But they were only a-'

'Immediately,' he growled.

Percy let out a sad squeak and bowed her head, her hair tendrils practically melting off of her head. 'Okay.'

Her dad let out a heavy sigh, and his tense stance relaxed further and he began to sink back to the ground. Slowly falling into a restful position again. He looked a bit regretful, seeing the sadness so clear on her face.

'Do not forget, little one.' He reached out to pull Percy close again. 'If you do not want them to be hurt…

'Better I find them than Redeyes.'