*Riku's POV*

"Riku? Riku, are you awake?"

I opened one eye to see Alpha gently prodding me with a stick. Groaning, I stood up to look at the Mawile. My body still hurt from yesterday, and, now, I had to fulfill the role of a great war hero.

Is it even doable? Can I be a leader? Risk believed in me, but can I really do it? I thought, as Alpha informed me of the situation,

"I'm beginning to worry about Beta, Riku. She hasn't shown her face in the Guild for three days now, and..."

"Hold on one moment," I stopped him mid-sentence.

"Three days? I've been out for three whole days!?"

"Well, I didn't really want to bother you... After all, you did basically reconstruct my face. Figured you needed your beauty sleep after that," the Mawile quipped.

"But what's happened in three days' time? Did I miss anything?" I asked, while thinking to myself,

How am I going to lead if I can't even stay awake to lead?

"I went back to Xatu yesterday to ask about Beta, and he has told me that there is something lodged within her that is keeping her from accepting Risk's death. I just now understood what he meant- there's a spirit inside her! I didn't want to wake you up, but I had a feeling that you would help..."

"In that case, we have no time to lose! Where are Photon and Cedric?" I asked, a twinge of curiosity in my voice.

"Already with Beta- she's been hiding out at Sharpedo Bluff, but no one can get close enough to adequately reason without getting their face ripped off. I can attest to that fact..." He traced the outline of the slowly-healing wound with his hand.

"I'll see if I can drive out whatever's playing with her mind. It's been a while since I worked with spirits, but I'll try!" I said, donning Risk's pendant and scarf, as the Mawile quickly began to lead me to her.

Outside, the sun was barely rising in the sky, and no other Pokemon were out this early. I'd have guessed that it was slightly past midnight if my body wasn't still trying to get used to the idea of movement. We walked past the empty stalls of Treasure Town, and Alpha showed me to a small panel in the ground.

"Be quiet when you enter- Cedric and Photon are already inside, and we don't want either of them to get hurt!" he whispered to me.

Nodding, I slowly descended the haphazard stairway to the floor below. Photon was unconscious, and Cedric was cowering the corner, obviously afraid of something Beta did. However, I noticed something odd- Photon's pendant, which held Darkrai sealed inside, was glowing.

Nevertheless, memories of our great escape from Gengar came flooding back to me, and I almost started crying, right then and there.

Focus, Riku! Like Risk said, now is not the time to mourn! Steeling my nerves, I nervously walked over to the emaciated, sleeping form of Beta and tapped her on the shoulder.

I jumped back in surprise when she whirled around instantaneously,

"Why have you come back?!" she said, in an incredibly low voice, giving me a to-the-point, forceful glare.

"Beta..." I tried to say, but her horn-jaw slammed into me with such force that I was pushed through the rock wall on the other side of the cliff.

Holding on to the edge of the precipice for dear life, I dared not look down at the endless ocean below me. Beta stood up and approached me.

"Please, I just want to be left alone. I don't need anyone else getting involved. He's dead, and it's all because of these rescue teams..."

"Beta, please," Cedric walked up to Beta to try to put his paw around her, but this gesture infuriated the Mawile.

"What do you care?!" she shrieked, her horn-jaw turning and engulfing the Leafeon. Cedric simply waited, knowing that she wouldn't actually harm him, until the first bit of fluid touched him. He yelped in pain, and I heard it, clearly, even though it was muffled by the walls of the maw.

"Riku! It's... burning me! Help!"

Obviously Alpha had heard the plea for help as well, as he came rushing down the stairs.

"Beta!" he scolded her,

"Spit him out, this instant! Your maw isn't healing him!"

The Leafeon continued to struggle, as the two Mawile each heightened their tone of voice at each other.

"So what if I'm not?! The only person that needs healing right now is Risk, and I can't fit digested snake-fat in my maw! Why should I care about the others?! Give me one good reason!" Beta yelled at her brother. Alpha wasted no time answering,

"Because Risk would want it that way!"

At this, Beta was taken aback. Her horn-jaw lulled open, and the saturated Cedric tried to painstakingly slide his way out of her maw. He had the majority of his body out when the horn-jaw shut again, trapping his back right leg in a vice grip. The painful noise Cedric made next was indescribable, as Beta's teeth sank deeper and deeper into the Leafeon's leg.

"Beta! Stop this!" I screamed at her.

"And what could you do about it? I could kill this Leafeon, right here and now, and there would be nothing that you could do! What's to say he won't die, anyway?! Just like Risk did!"

The Mawile bit down harder on Cedric's leg, and I feared that she would shred his bones in her rage. Quickly, she opened her horn-jaw, only to pull Cedric back into the gaping maw with its tongue. He cried out in pain, and I knew that Alpha had been telling the truth all along.

This isn't Beta... I have only one chance to stop whatever spirit is playing on her emotions!

Desperately, I said to her,

"Beta, please! Don't kill him!"

She looked at me and laughed,

"Why should I listen to you... Wait, no!" the Mawile cried, as I jumped toward her at incredible speed. That one moment of surprise was all I needed to close the distance between us, and I firmly planted my paw on her chest in an attempt to rid her of any Ghosts inside her. Then, something went wrong- something that had never happened to me before.

I felt an enormous surge of pain course through my spine, and I struggled to keep my paw in place, let alone stand. Next, the image of a black book, written in Unown, impressed itself in my mind. As I studied the cover, a ghost Pokemon appeared and opened the book. I gasped,

It's that same marionette thing from before- it's the Necromancer!

The Necromancer, in the strange vision, looked at me, its yellow zipper of a mouth opening to produce one of the most terrifying sounds I have ever heard, coupled with an ultimatum,

"It isn't that easy to stop a master magician, you know. Do you think this is a joke? You do, don't you? Hahaha, the Dark Arts are much more powerful than you ever imagined! Now, where were we? Oh yes, I was busy creating my own undead army! I'll be seeing you- the next time we meet, I shall be in control of this petty world! My name is the last thing you will hear before you die- I am... Von Spectre!"

The image faded, and I was pulled back into reality by Cedric's paw tapping me on the side. Although the Leafeon was gravely wounded from his time at the receiving end of Beta's rage, I doubted that he would trust either Beta or me to heal him. I watched him pace around the room nervously, shaking as much of the acid as he could off of himself.

Photon woke up a few minutes later, and I was about to explain what had happened, when Alpha reappeared at the front of the room.

"Beta, are you OK? I heard all this screaming and noise, so I came back to check on you..." His gaze fell when he saw Cedric's wounds,

"Beta, did you cause this?" he demanded, pointing to the crumpled Leafeon on the floor, blood falling from the puncture wound in his leg and acid dripping from his fur.

He turned back to me,

"Riku, can you...?" he started to say, until Beta spoke up, her voice and stature back to normal,

"No, Alpha. I'm the one who caused this..." She looked truly penitent for what she had done,

"So I need to be the one to fix it!"

She approached Cedric, a single tear in her right eye, and talked to him as a mother would,

"There, there, Cedric. I'm incredibly sorry for what happened to you, and I'm willing to fix it. You just have to let me...:"

"No!" he cried, struggling to stand on his punctured leg.

"I don't want to go back into your mouth! I don't want to die...!"

I spoke up as to clarify what happened to him,

"Cedric, listen to me. Beta was possessed by a Ghost Pokemon..."

"A Ghost? Like Gengar?" he asked me, fear still in his eyes.

"Yes, like Gengar. But this one is much more indomitable than Gengar ever was. I have the power to communicate with the spirits inside Pokemon when I touch them, but the spirits really do fight back. This one happened to be none other than the Necromancer, itself..."

"You're not serious, are you?! Do you really expect me to believe tha..." he tried to make my theory sound ridiculous, but I didn't care,

"Perhaps you'll believe me if I told you I found out what 'Spectre' meant." I swiftly answered, staying as calm as I could. His widened in alarm as I continued to explain.

"It's the Necromancer's real name, Cedric! The Necromancer is Von Spectre!"

The Leafeon's gaze fell.

"Possession..." the word crossed his lips like it was poison,

"What a terrible thing to do! But tell me more, what did you see when the Necromancer appeared to you? Perhaps it will help us find where it went."

"Well, it opened a black book, lit a ghostly candle, and began to write. Then, it turned to me and told me that it would be creating an undead army to conquer the world with..."

"The Necromancer is doing what?!"

"Specifically, it said that it would be in control of 'this petty world,' but I assume it means the same thing..." I was interrupted by the noise of a loud explosion outside.

"That came from the Guild! Quickly, we have no time to lose! Something's there, and by the sound of it, it isn't friendly! "

We sprinted up the stairs and back into Treasure Town, Cedric barely limping along behind us. I glanced back at him to make sure he was still able to walk, and I pressed on. I heard another explosion, and, this time, the ground shook.

Something extremely dangerous is happening at the Guild! I just hope that the place doesn't collapse on top of everybody...

We made it to the entrance of the Guild in record time, where the source of the explosions was waiting for us...

What kind of Pokemon is that?! Wait a second, I've seen that Ghost before...

Images of my previous encounter with a Chandelure passed in and out of my mind as I stared at the haunted chandelier, motioning for the others to not make a sound.

We just need to sneak past it, and we'll be... I whispered for everyone to follow exactly where I step, like the entrance to the Guild was a minefield. I had figured out what area the Chandelure was able to detect motion in, and we moved accordingly. Everything was fine, until...

"Oof... What?" I bumped into a solid invisible something, and almost blew our cover. I eyed the Chandelure curiously.

Luckily, this thing doesn't have the best of hearing... Perhaps it only responds to Ghosts? But that doesn't matter right now- we need to continue!

The three of us continued our makeshift game of Minesweeper around the Guild's entrance, careful not to disturb the Pokemon as we entered the Guild. However, once we're past the Chandelure outside, things didn't get any easier...

Quickly, I surveyed the main lobby of the Guild,

There's... there's no one here! But where could everyone have gone?!

My thoughts were interrupted by a large purple figure appearing out of the floor. My blood boiled.

"Kekekek! Nice to see you all again! Oh, about nobody being here, while you guys took the liberty of taking a walk, this place was defenseless! I couldn't resist swooping and kidnapping everybody! It's just so fun!" Gengar smirked at me,

"Why don't I invite you guys to the fun, too? You seem a little tight-lipped! Kekekek! But first... " Gengar disappeared for a split second, reappearing behind Photon and knocking him to the ground with a single shadowy punch.

"I'll be taking that," Gengar laughs, removing Photon's necklace and placing it around its own neck.

Alpha tried to jump at Gengar, horn-jaw poised to strike, but it intercepted the Mawile with a quick one-two punch in the gut that sent him sprawling backwards.

"Why you little..." Alpha roared, wiping the dust off of himself and preparing for another charge.

"That's enough outta you! Let me show you a new trick that I learned from the Necromancer, himself. It's called Imprison! I bet you can guess what it does- oh wait..." Gengar pointed at me,

"You've already seen it, so you don't get to play!" Gengar turned to a figure behind itself and laughed. I guess that it was probably the Necromancer.

"Take him away- I'll mess with him later!"

Immediately, I felt three presences overtake me at once. By their varying power, I guessed them to be the Three Sisters.

But why would they?... I thought, as I felt my insides practically shutting down. Then, I finally understood what happened, and I shook with anger,

It was all a trap! "Team Rascal?" Just another attempt at the lives of that filthy puppet's opponents! You killed Risk with your underhanded treachery, and I'm willing to bet you were that thief Alakazam was bent on finding in the first place! Everything you've done was monstrous, and I refuse to let it happen any longer!

With a renewed fire in my eyes, I picked myself up from the ground and shouted,

"Stay away from me, you intolerable spirits!" I shouted, as a wave of energy coursed through me, accompanied by a voice- Risk's voice,

"Ready?!"

I may have just been imagining it, but the fact that I heard the voice of my friend one last time gave me hope.

"I'm... not going to let... You possess me, this time!" My breathing began to become regular again, as a blue glow surrounded me.

"Kekekek! Hmm- what's this?!" Gengar obviously didn't know how to handle the situation.

I guess it figured that it would have been that easy to get rid of me, alone. But I'll never be alone, not anymore!

I touched the glowing pendant around my neck and was immediately greeted by a warm, fuzzy feeling all over.

Gengar began to back away in horror,

"Ugegegege... that can't be! How could you have..."

"Be quiet, Gengar!" said the voice from behind the Pokemon, now clearly recognizable as Von Spectre's,

"You've stalled long enough! I have what I came here for... Now either get rid of these useless Pokemon or I'll do it myself! I promised Riku that I would have an army... Haha, I can't very well fulfill my end of the bargain if you're completely incompetent. But you did manage to get the pendant- it is safe to leave. Goodbye, Crusaders- the next time we meet shall be our last!" Von Spectre laughed as it and Gengar disappeared into the wall in front of us.

I turned towards the rest of the group, wondering why they never moved an inch during the entire encounter. Tentatively, I touched Photon's neck with the tip of my paw.

It... its... my entire body shivered,

It's as cold as stone! They're frozen, but they're encased in ice or anything. I can still feel their hearts beating, so why can't they move?!

"Well, I guess I'm in this one alone... I have a feeling I would have ended up like the rest of the team, was I not wearing his pendant.

Solemnly, I walked out of the Guild, knowing that, first of all, I needed to find someone who understood what was going on. That someone would have to be Alakazam.

If I start now, then I'll make it to the Lightning Field in a few days' time. I don't know if my food supply will last me that long, but it's my only option at this point!

Determined, I slowly walked towards the horizon, the red sunset reminding me of the interior of Risk's untimely grave...

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