Moonlit Forest

[Negrek]

Nate turned around from calling out for Sword and found himself staring up into the face of fucking Arceus and pretty much jumped out of his skin. With these weird shitty bodies Diyem had set them all up with, he was honestly surprised that didn't literally happen. He tried to calm his pounding heart, reminding himself that it wasn't real, it was just some fucking trees. Sure. Jesus Christ, Soda.

Nate forced himself to turn away. "Sword!" he squeaked. Oh, for fuck's sake. "Sword!" Better. "You're missing some wild shit already!"

Nate glanced back to make sure they hadn't lost anybody. Strange pokémon roamed the woods around them, but as far as he could tell, everybody was still here. The bayleef, the swampert--huh, it looked like he was conjuring up a bunch of humans? Interesting. And there was Brisa, and--wait, what the fuck was that guy doing here? Who the fuck had invited him?

Nate turned back around, fuming. Great. Just fucking great. So that was one person who they knew for sure had some kind of "brain problems" who'd decided to come along and spill them everywhere for everybody else to deal with.

A mightyena stood in the shadows near the side of the path, watching Nate with gleaming yellow eyes. Nate glanced at it, briefly, then hurried to catch back up with Soda and Shield. The mightyena kept pace with him, flowing silently between the trees.

"Probably that nobody else would be batshit enough to come in here, so Giovanni could do whatever the fuck he wanted without anyone bothering him," Nate grumbled in response to Shield. He focused on the ground again, looking for signs that anyone had passed by here.

Nate used Foresight!

 

[Dragonfree]

The Arceus faded silently without issue. This forest was a joke so far. The way he'd heard it everyone'd been jumping out of their skin last time but nothing was even actually happening, just figures from people's past kind of standing there. In the dark, between the trees, was another Mightyena - what, Shadow? Was that the best the 'cursed dungeon' could do?

Up ahead, shadows thickened into humanoid figures with triangular ears on the top of their heads, six tails and one tail, faint childish giggling as they chased one another. Dave gritted his teeth and pressed his nose into the ground and concentrated on whether he could detect any traces of the same scent as at the holding cells.

Dave used Odor Sleuth!

 

[Namohysip]

At around the same time, Nate and Dave both detected something coming from further east, and then a little north. Tracks of battle from a Mewtwo... or perhaps two of them. The faintest remnant of Blacklight energy. Yes. They were here. And they were here for a while, further in.

Something touched Nate's back, squeezing hard, but by the time he'd look behind him, there'd be nothing there. Claw marks vaguely in the shape of a Charmander left an imprint on his skin--not enough to draw blood... but they were unmistakably there.

Dave would smell cinders or a clean campfire. Someone whispered into his ear something that had no words, and yet felt oddly unsettling nonetheless. It wouldn't get out of his head, and suddenly he was distracted by strange thoughts, like what might happen if he bit Shield on the ankle.

The illusions were moving a little more as they advanced through. None of them were attacking, but they looked agitated and jeering.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa eyed the hallucinations, hesitant to speculate about them for fear of triggering more of her own. The arceus—strange to see a cold reflection of Pop, unsympathetic and unforgiving. A spectral Dave that was not Shadow, so maybe . . . the way Nate saw him? Had they still not resolved their conflict? What had Dave done to appear that way? And Dave's hallucinations... Were those Mia's siblings? Ones that had died? She'd seen glimpses of Dave's world and its humans—

Shiron's visions. They were humans—she assumed they were humans. Brisa tried not to think about—

"Brisa."

Not now.

{Brisa.}

Brisa's head snapped round at the source of the mental intrusion. A dark figure, made of shadow, with an bodily outline like that of the humans the others were hallucinating, and eyes like a delphox'.

"Pa doesn't remember what he looked like as a human," she growled. "This is pure fantasy bullshit."

"You're the one fantasisin'," said Jesse Stranger. "Watch yerself, Brisa. Y'ain't safe around these folks."

Brisa grit her teeth, and walked on.

{Don't ignore me when I'm talkin' t'ya, kid. Y'think ya know better'n me?}

She did. She did. She did.

 

[IFBench]

Saltriv extended vines towards Nate, Dave, Brisa, Soda, and Dave, in an attempt to comfort them, as they released another Aromatherapy from their leaf.

In the distance, a pink and black hand at least five times their height reached towards them, looking very similar to the growths that had came from Darkwhite during their battle with her. In front of the hand, a human figure stood.

"I'm here to rescue you. The group'll be safer without you around. You're nothing but a liability. It's only a matter of time before you severely hurt one of them," the figure said, its initially kind voice quickly shifting to one of disdain.

Stay calm. Just stay calm.

The human figure was grabbed by the hand.

"You should just run away into the loneliest cave you can find. That way, you'll never hurt anyone ever again. We humans shouldn't have to sacrifice our lives for the likes of you," it said, before the hand squeezed it into nothingness.

A yelp nearly emerged from Saltriv's mouth, but they forced it back down. They leaned more against Shiron, wrapping a vine tightly around him. The warm light of a Radiant Rejuvenation enveloped Saltriv, but it did little to quell their worries.

"It's not real. It's not real. It's not real," they repeated to themself.

 

[Namohysip]

"You're damn right it's not real," Soda said with a growl, looking between the team. "Ngh. We'd have strength in numbers against whatever threat there might be, but you guys are letting your inner demons run amok! Collect yourselves or we're turning around!"

"It's not like they can help it," Shield said, glancing left to see a Jirachi and Ampharos scowling at him. Shield looked away. "It looked like Dave and Nate were following a scent. Let's try to keep up. Alright?"

Distantly, giggling echoed through the forest...

 

[Navar]

The human manifestation continued there, smiling an unaturally large smile.

"It's not real, it's not real..." Shiron said, looking away.

It kept grinning. "You're the reason I'm dead. I thought we were friends, but you killed me. It should have been you..."

The Swampert leaned closer to Saltriv, and closed his eyes. For the moment, he thought about helping his friend, and the human faded away. For now. Snapping his eyes open, Shiron sighed in relief.

"They're not real," he said, gulping. "We'll be fine, just keep moving..."

 

[Dragonfree]

Giovanni's scent was clear -- he'd been here. And so was a kind of cozy wood-burning smell, an unintelligible whisper that made his fur stand on end, a strange urge to play, to -- what the fuck, Darkwhite, no.

He looked back up, glanced quickly in Brisa's direction. She was staring toward -- a human? -- no, wait, it was him.

He shifted closer to her, gritting his teeth. "Brisa, don't listen to his shit." It was strange, somehow, seeing him as just some guy, kind of wispy-looking, not even very tall. This fucker had wiped his daughter's memory, killed somebody, invaded his--

He snarled, turning in agitation, wriggling away from an approaching vine. He tried to remember where the apparitions had been earlier, and then suddenly found himself staring straight at Will, solid, eyes wide and staring, blood trickling down from the hole in his forehead.

In an instant his blood turned to ice in his veins, and he couldn't tear his eyes away. Jean (not Jean) stood beside Will, eyes red and puffy as her skin began to bubble grotesquely, proportions shifting, tails splitting apart. Another human figure started to form out of the shadows, icy blue eyes glinting as he raised a gun--

"It's not real," said Mia's voice as she waved a glowing scythe in front of his face, frowning impatiently. "Stop looking at them."

"Yes, I know," he snapped, heart pounding, looking away again. Not over there. No, not Jesse fucking Stranger either. After a moment of whipping his head around he settled on just keeping his gaze focused on Mia, the forest blurring into the background, taking deep breaths. She was there. She was fine. She narrowed her eyes at him, suspicious, but then shrugged and turned to follow the trail.

 

[Negrek]

Nate yelped and spun around when claws dug into his back, but there was nothing there. After a moment of panic, Nate smiled weakly. Right, right. Who were they dealing with here?

"Cute, Sword! But if you don't come out, I'm just going to ignore you. You'll have to come up with something better than that." And then the bayleef sent a vine his way and got his heart racing all over again.

He focused on the ground again. "There was some kind of fight here. Looks like a mewtwo. Maybe two of them." Fighting what? Was this where they'd encountered Sword the last time around? Or was it Giovanni... fighting something? What? There were any number of things in this forest that he might want to attack, of course.

The mightyena was still watching him from the shadows, silent and stern. Nate flashed her a brief smile before tearing his eyes away again.

The apparitions here seemed a whole lot less aggressive than the last time around. Was that because Sword and the mewtwo had been actively attacking them last time? Or were they waiting for everybody to get farther in before attacking?

Happy thought. No good to have right now. Nate tried to keep that one under wraps and sidled closer to Shield. "I don't suppose you could, umm, maybe try remembering some happy memories with you and Sword, or something like that? Something you think might draw her out. Unless, uh, you're worried about all this"--he waved a hand around at the trees--"fucking with whatever you try to think about, I guess."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Saltriv extended vines towards Nate, Dave, Brisa, Soda, and Dave,

Brisa flinched at the intrusion of an unexpected touch, and pulled away. Gods, she was on edge. How could she help but be startled?

"Brisa, don't listen to his shit."

"I'm not," she growled back. "I know what I am."

Jesse Stranger walked beside Brisa Escarpa, cloaked in shadow, orange eyes glowing in a dark face.

"How badly did y'hurt him?" asked the apparition. "How hard was it t'stop? Did y'mean to keep goin'?"

—it was vicious. Paralysed by the Arrest, Dave's throat was easy to get at, to sink teeth into. Brisa shook him like a goddamn ragdoll,—

"He forgave me," hissed Brisa.

"Did he?"

For a second, Brisa's guts ran cold. Had he? Had he said those words? No... But he'd meant it anyway, right?

"Brisa, it's... it's fine. I'm fine."

She grimaced.

"You're slippin'," said Jesse. "You can't afford to relax. What if someone'd seen you?"

She was tired of being vigilant, and sick of being tired. When would she deserve to rest? To not think about this shit?

"You've earned a rest and if anyone said otherwise I'd kick their ass."

"Someone did see me," she replied, firmly.

Brisa smiled to herself over gritted teeth, and kept going.

 

[Namohysip]

"Happy memories about Sword... right... right..." Shield wondered if that would be enough. He had been thinking so much about trying to save her and how she had currently been acting. Maybe thinking about the past... could that awaken anything?

"Sword," he said softly. "Do you remember the night we saved the village from those Litwick? The ones that conjured an illusion of Giratina... to feed off of everyone's fear. Wasn't that fun?"

The giggling got louder.

"I just want to go on more adventures with you, Sword. We have a second chance. We can make this all right..."

"Come on! This way!" Sword laughed, and several Charmander were weaving Shield down. They seemed to be leading Shield in the same direction that Nate and Dave felt the trail was heading...

Arceus reappeared again. He was saying something to Soda, he definitely was, but it was as muted as Wishkeeper's voice had once been to Owen. And the Empoleon, she was back, too, looking disapprovingly at Soda, like he was somehow the bad guy. Soda tore his eyes away, ignoring it. But he had to glance again.

Empoleon had leaned her head against Arceus' thigh, fondly.

Soda stopped walking.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa's hackles went up. Was Soda about to lose his shit over whatever he'd just heard? Was there anything she could do to prevent it?

There was no time. Soda needed to focus on literally anything else. Now.

Brisa used Shining Whiplash!

You need to do yer goddamn job. You've carried this pain this long—carry it a lil' further an' take it out after we get out!

Come on. Come on, you fucker.

{Attackin' an ally, Brisa?}

Fuck, no. Lending a helping paw.

 

[Negrek]

Well, that kinda worked. Right? The fact that Sword wanted them to keep going the way they had been was... good. It was good, right? What other options even were there? But somehow, the charmander apparition beckoning them deeper into the woods only made him more uneasy.

The arceus appeared again, and the empoleon, and for a moment Nate simply ignored them the way he had before. Not his business, and they weren't going after Soda the way the piplup had been the last time, so best to just let it be.

After a few seconds, he realized Soda wasn't following them anymore. Oh, fuck.

Nate glanced back at the apparitions. They were, uh, being friendly? Soda was thinking about... his wife being into evil Arceus?

Nate stole a look back at Soda, but--nope, didn't matter, who cared, all that mattered was Soda not having another full-on freakout and maybe fucking dying or something?

There had to be some way to disrupt this, right? If Soda thinking it could make it happen, Nate thinking it could make it un-happen. He just had to think about those two not being there, and it would be fine, right?

Well, Soda was really worried about that, so it would be like pitting him against Nate. Could he really wish Soda into not thinking about it? Maybe he should just try to change something, like Arceus shoving the empoleon away. Unless that made Soda more pissed at Arceus. Or he could think of the empoleon turning around and going to, to kiss Soda, or just change her into somebody else, or--no, it should be something crazy, something that would snap Soda out of it and make him laugh.

Right, sure, he was going to make Soda laugh at something involving his not-dead wife, that was a great plan. What was, what was something ridiculous, something that would stop Soda from taking this seriously?

Nate squeezed his eyes tight shut, blocking out the forest around him (was that the hum of some kind of attack coming? oh, fuck no, no, not my problem--) and focused on the scene as hard as he could.

So if anyone was going to hassle Arceus, it would be Cola, right? He was a funny little guy. And what would he say?

Nate pictured the baby arceus prancing up to his elder, "Really? You like this guy? Look at him! He's so old! He has no idea how to have fun!"

Cola extended a furry leg and casually tipped Arceus over, so he rolled onto the top of his golden ring thing, legs kicking uselessly in the air. "See? So lame! Wouldn't you rather be with a real mon?" And in Nate's mind's eye, Cola produced a rose held in an indentation that might be some kind of mouth, batting his cartoon-looking eyelashes at the empoleon and reclining casually, head propped on one golden hoof. Nate tried to believe that, as hard as he could.

 

[Namohysip]

Cola had appeared and tried to tilt Arceus aside, but it didn't work. Instead, Arceus and Empoleon both scowled at Cola, who was now batting his eyes at Empoleon just as Nate had envisioned, but to much less effect.

Despite the failure, however, Soda had still snapped out of it and glared at Nate. It seemed that Brisa's Whiplash, which indeed struck Soda and made him hiss with annoyance, had some help in snapping him out, too. "The fuck are you doing?" he said. "Stop getting distracted! Let's follow Darkwhite already."

Task failed successfully.

Shield had gone ahead with the others, only pausing to make sure nobody fell behind. The illusions were becoming more hostile again, and the whispers were starting to dig deeper into their minds. Shield held his head and asked, "Do you sense anything?"

The scent was clearer now. Giovanni and Mewtwo had set up some kind of makeshift hideout-camp here with almost no supplies. They had been without any provisions...

There was lingering Blacklight energy here, too. And when one of the illusions drifted upon some of that Blacklight aura, their movements became less predictable. Empoleon was one of them, who suddenly fired a jet of water at Soda, who weaved out of the way--the beam caught his cheek and he touched it. Wet. The illusions were real.

A swarm of Charmander flew in a spiral around the dark campsite, jeering and cheering.

"Sword!" Shield cried out. "Sword, where are you? Where are you really?!"

A few of them rained Embers down upon the team...

 

[Navar]

Shiron panted, exhausted and starting to panic. The illusion was still right in front of him. Staring at him, smiling, never once stopping that. Like it mocked him, and Shiron knew quite well what that meant.

The manifestation continued. "Worthless. Scum. Garbage. You deserve nothing, nothing, nothing..."

He fell to his knees, breathing more rapidly now. He did it. It was his fault his friend died, and that spectrum, that illusion... it just reminded him of all the bad things he did back home. His body began to glow with a dark aura

But, fortunately or not, he got distracted, making the illusion and the aura go away after he saw the swarm of Charmander. Shiron stood up and focused, aiming at the Embers they were throwing.

"I'll try to put those flames down!"

With a deep breath, he was surrounded by rings of water, and, with a single move, he threw the barrage of water at the fire, hoping to put it out.

Shiron used Water Pledge!

 

[Negrek]

Nate opened his eyes again to find a Cola-phantom flirting with the empoleon--but neither she nor the upright Arceus looked very amused by it. Fuck. Nate tried to think Cola into a more successful position, but instead Soda snapped at him. Nate winced, but at least the zoroark was moving again. "You're fucking welcome," Nate muttered before following at a wary distance.

He picked up the pace a bit when it became clear the illusions wouldn't be content to lurk much longer. There was... some kind of campsite up ahead? Nate ran to see if he could find anything interesting while fighting started to break out around here. There was more Blacklight energy around here? Was it coming from anywhere, or anything? Was there any sign of what Giovanni might have been planning, or even where Sword went? Nate rummaged through the meager camp, looking for clues.

Nate used Foresight!

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Good. At least Soda was keeping his shit together. Nate, apparently, was handling this bullshit just fine, and having Dave along was rendering the phantom of Jesse possible to ignore.

Brisa followed Nate up to a campsite of some kind, and furrowed her brow and breathed deep as she activated her luxray vision and scented the area. If there was something to see or smell, she'd find it. As she scanned about, the proliferation of hallucinations failed to dissipate under the luxray gaze. It figured. They weren't real, which meant there was nothing for her vision to penetrate.

Augh. Fucking cursed dungeon.

 

[IFBench]

Saltriv dodged between embers, as they whipped a vine towards the Empoleon, intending to knock it away.

"Sword!" they pleaded. "Please listen to us!"

Their throughts growing frantic, they tried to Rejuvenate themselves in order to calm down. They didn't want to be a burden. They didn't want to hurt their friends.

Saltriv used Radiant Rejuvena-

In the midst of their move, they were knocked aside by an Assurance, dissipating the energy around them. An Oshawott with a red reunion cape stood near them

"Why? Why did you leave me? Was I not good enough?" Gen said, before leaping at Saltriv with another Assurance. The Bayleef leaped out of the way with a yelp.

They felt so overwhelmed.

Shadowy wisps began to form near Saltriv.

 

[Namohysip]

There was no source, only a lingering presence, possibly from spending an extended amount of time with a source nearby--no doubt because of the Blacklight.

"Guys, keep it together! They aren't real! It's not--SHIT!"

Soda dove out of the way when a Judgement attack had fallen from the air, nearly hitting a spot where Soda, despite his illusions, was apparently standing. The Darkwhite manifestations were getting rowdier.

"Ohhhh, not good--" Soda tried to dive out of the way again. "Goddammit, Shield! Can you get a b--Shield? SHIELD?!"

The Lucario was kneeling down a swarm of Charmander, reaching out toward one like nothing else mattered. He seemed to be trying to talk to them, and the Charmander were just... staring.

That Judgement left visible scorch marks...

Giovanni had been here. Could there be some kind of Blacklight corruption messing with the forest? Was that why it was so hostile compared to everywhere else?

 

[Dragonfree]

They were -- shit. Fuck. They were real, real enough to attack.

Dave felt his hackles rising, looked around for the first time in a little while. There were Charmander everywhere, an Oshawott, the shadowy form of Jesse still standing there with a frown of disapproval. Will was... gone. So was Jean. Did that mean...

...They were still there, just lying in crumpled heaps. He squeezed his eyes shut, it's not them, who fucking cares, sad attempt to get under my skin, and then opened them to meet those piercing ice-blue eyes again, a twisted cruel sneer, a hand raising a gun.

Mia cocked her head in her murderer's direction, and a horrid chill went through him--

The man squeezed the trigger. There was a deafening bang, a smell of gunpowder, and suddenly there was a hole through Mia's head. For a nightmarish second Dave stood frozen, ears ringing, everything spiralling and plummeting. Then...

...the hole closed like it was never there, and Mia looked back at him. "I told you this body is better."