"I've been here before," Kate said as she stepped through the darkness. Her arms coiled themselves, ready for a fight. The hair on the back of her neck stuck up like pins. It was the cold feeling as if someone were watching you.

However, Kate paid no mind as she trekked through the aimless eternity. Her footsteps held no echo, and not a single wind blew. There was nothing to see. Hear. Feel. Kate felt numb. The only think keeping her centered was the piercing glare in her back. She wondered if she could shake it, but nevertheless, it followed her. Never gaining an inch closer or farther away.

"I know you're there," the woman said quietly. Her shoulders were relaxed as the shadows seemed to dance, "Reveal yourself."

From the smokes, a man started to form. Kate's eyes grew flat as Blake Hall stood before her, just inches from her nose, "You called for me?"

Kate shook her head, "No. I didn't." She threw her arm, dispersing shadows across the darkness. She spun around, trying to follow the fading black wisps, "Show me who you really are."

From the distance, she could make out the image of her parents, "Have you really forgotten who we are?" They stepped closer and closer but Kate simply turned away. Denying they were true.

Then before her, Kate's young sister appeared. Not the older robotics expert who dreamed of being a mechanic. The small child she remembered playing tag with across the fields in her satin blue dress stood before her. The girl had pigtails that bobbed as she rolled on her feet, "I'm the madness in everyone that you try so, so hard to locked away."

The ranger didn't bat an eyelash as she walked through her sister as if she wasn't even there. From the corner of her vision, Kate made out the shape of her best friend. Blonde curls flying everywhere, and stray hairs coating the green school uniform.

"I'm the voice you try to quiet in the light of day," Rhythmi sung. 

Erma came to face her next, "The voice that overwhelms you when you're left alone."

Kate threw her hand threw the old woman's face as she continued to walk straight. "You aren't showing me who you are," She hissed with each stomp. Her pace picked up as all the people she met in life raced by. Ms. April, who taught her at Ranger School. Browly, her target-clearing mentor. Voices shouting all at once with words Kate struggled to understand. Isaac, the misguided kid-genius. Blake's second, the idiotic Wheeler. The shifting and forming shadows tried to lead Kate away. Tendrils reached out to snap her wrist, fruitlessly falling through.

Because Kate was real.

Finally, she came nose to nose with the love of her life. Keith smiled, an apathetic glaze over his face, "I'm the monster that hides under your bed at night. The one you think you can silence with sleep. But you know it only gets worse."

Kate threw out her arms in an X, crossing the man away. As if giving in, all the shadows melted together. Spiral pillars creating a creature she knew. His body was made out of shadows, as a white plume of smoke simmered from his red crown. A blue eye peaked out at Kate who just continued to shake her head.

"Give in to me, Kate. No matter what," Darkrai said quietly, "You can't get rid of me for I--"

Kate threw her hand into his face. Her fingers bent like claws as she tore the pokémon's face away.

There before her was a girl. Kate was looking in a mirror as the shadows dispersed, leaving the two staring tiredly.

"For I'm you," the reflection hushed, a Litten's smile curling across her lips.

Kate stretched her arm out again, but this time, the speaker was just out of reach. Her fingertips just millimeters from her reflection's nose. But each step she took, the reflection fell back in a perfect match.

Giving in, Kate stopped. She simply turned her head. Examining for a few moments before deciding to speak. Her hoarse voice spoke, echoed across the world that once held no sound.

"You aren't me," She said, eyebrows curling up sadly, "You may be a part of me. But you aren't everything. You are a darkness that has haunted me since I was born, one that often gets louder than I would like. You're louder than many other people's darkness. But that doesn't make you any more powerful. And, I know I can't be rid of you."

The reflection smiled at that, knowing it would always have a home nestled deep within Kate's bones. But Kate held up a hand, to say that the monster was jumping to conclusions.

"You've kept me up till sunrise in our arguments, you've made me do so many things. You've kept me locked away from the world for so long because I've let you. And the thing is, I'm not completely sure if I can ever really beat you," Kate's breath tugged away. The reflection looked as if it was beckoning it, but Kate stole her air back, "Not on my own. But know this--"

Kate extended her arm for a hand shake.

"I may not ever destroy you. But that's not the role of a ranger. We capture and keep in control. I will keep you under control."

The reflections smile broke, along with the rest of the illusion. The world pittered away, only to paint a hospital room. The dark shadows were cast away by a dawn slowly cracking over the horizon. From out the window, Kate could make out the sandstorm leaving. 

The beeping of her heart monitor slowed, becoming relaxed. The thick tubes stuck into Kate's right arm pinched. But it was proof she was alive. And this was real.

Kate turned her head, checking the rest of her room. Her monitor spiked the minute she saw Rhythmi curled up in a chair just beside Kate's bed. Her hair was a knotted mess and the Operator uniform was completely disheveled. A thin blanket was placed over her legs that Rhythmi pulled close to her heart.

The patient reached out her hand, gently shaking her best friend, "Rhythmi, hey, wake up."

The blonde just grumbled, shouldering Kate away. A few seconds passed before Rhythmi shot up, "Oh my Arceus, you're awake!" she flung her arms around Kate, a tight hug putting an uncomfortable pressure on the arm Kate had bruised herself. "Arceus, I was so worried for you Kate! The minute you said hospital and I sent you the coordinates, I requested temporary leave to find you and Keith. Keith! Oh Mew, what the heck happened, Kate?"

A smile burned at Kate's cheeks. This Rhythmi really hasn't changed, "It's a bit of a long story. Keith and I went to the Hippowdon Temple to get a Lunar Wing from Cresselia there. She-- she wanted to battle first before giving any sort of favor. The battle was really rough. I almost lost my life if Keith didn't save me. And because of that, he was a hair away from death. We were both pretty beat up but..."

"You're both here now," Rhythmi finished, taking her best friend's hand. She could ask so many more questions, but only one question kissed at the back of her lips, "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine."

Kate's words came out so fast, as a prepared answer right at the tip of her tongue. Sighing, Kate shook her head, "No. I'm really not, Rhythmi. I mean, I'm beat to hell, but my bones will heal. I've been sick. For awhile. No, not like cancer before you say it..." Kate couldn't look at her best friend. Her eyes were drawn instead to the corner of the ceiling. Little globs of tears started to form, "I... I have depression, Rhythmi. I've had it for awhile. And, as of the last few years, it's been really kicking my ass. I've recently started seeing a psychologist. I-It's hard to simply just get out of bed, talk to people, or feel anything. And... Rhthmi... " Her voice trailed away. The world doubled around her as Kate shook.

"I hate myself. I hate myself every day."

Kate was wiping away streams of tears. She still couldn't look at Rhythmi as the blonde woman climbed into the hospital bed beside her, "I thought if I told the voices in my head to shut up enough times, that they'd be wrong. That if I didn't say it out loud it wouldn't be true," Each of Kate's words dribbled out with a quake to each one, "Some days I wish I just was never born to begin with, and think of all the ways I could just die. The ways the others around me could die. And I hate myself for even having those thoughts, Rhythmi! I must be some sort of monster!"

Snot had built up and was already running down Kate's face. Her body was trapped in a world of freezing shakes. Rhythmi just listened, wrapping her arms around Kate through the storm. Kate's crying face broke through, twisted and gnarled with raw emotion. Her choked sobs echoed down the hospital, a few nurses stopped by, trying to figure out what's wrong, but Rhythmi just waved them away.

"I know that I have so many wonderful people in my life like you, and Keith, and that everyone says I'm not alone," Kate whimpered, "But every second is filled with this soul-crushing loneliness and I just can't take it Rhythmi. It's killing me, every day."

"Then there are the days where I feel just absolutely nothing. Just a void where happiness, laughter, anger, I'd take the sadness and fear over this suffocating numb feeling. It's like nothing is real, that there's nothing to care about or that anything matters at all because it's all just-- nothing!" Kate finally gave in, curling into Rhythmi's chest, "I-- I can barely even tell Keith this! Because he thinks he can fix me. That some magic feather will take all the darkness that haunts me away, but it won't. There isn't just some cure... I just feel stuck in life forever! Never moving, watching others fly by as I sit here and do nothing but feel like fucking shit.

"It just feels like, no matter what angle I take this, I will never feel happiness again. And I would rather die than live a life like that, Rhythmi! I don't want to be living this life! Every night I just want to give in to all the dark thoughts and just end it!"

Rhythmi's own tears soaked against Kate. The two just cried and cried as the morning sun rose above them. How could anyone want to hear that their best friend didn't want to be in this world? How could a parent imagine losing their child? How could it have gone this far without Rhythmi ever noticing? She thought she knew everything about this Kate. But she realized there was this labyrinth her best friend was lost in that she hadn't anything but a keyhole glimpse in before.

Kate's hands turned numb from all the sobbing, but she couldn't stop. Hiccups took up each word, "I feel selfish for just breathing air some days, Rhythmi. I feel like I'm nothing but a washed up ranger. A failure of a daughter. A failure at being your best friend. And I'm left asking over and over, what's the fucking point? and I hate it. I hate everything inside my mind right now, Rhythmi."

The day carried on. The mess of words and feeling spilled into muddled wails. 

Kate finally spoke tiredly, "I need help, Rhythmi."

Rhythmi replied, "How can I help you?" her soft voice comforting Kate, pulling the girl closer. The simple words just had Kate crying harder. Her wheezing sobs trickled only little bits of air back down.

"I don't know," Kate broke, "I don't know..."

The minutes ticked away, letting the two best friends rock back and forth on the hospital bed. The rest world passed by, as Kate's universe came crashing down.

"The darkness. It's never going to leave me alone, will it? It's not temporary, is it? Half the time, it feels like the happiness is the temporary one." Kate finally breathed, her tears slowed as she pulled Rhythmi closer. The blonde hair caught in her mouth, but she didn't mind. Her words came out quietly, like a Rattata scattering through.

Rhythmi nodded, still keeping Kate close. Carefully pulling back, she came face to face with the mess of her best friend. Brown hair knotted into her face, eyes swollen and red, and skin ghostly pale. "Kate, I love you. And I will be here for you through every step until you can love yourself." She took Kate's weak and shaking hand, "I... I can't know what you're going through Kate. Because I'm not in your head. But if you are willing to work to find help, I will be there all the way, supporting you. Because, Kate, I can't imagine going on a single day, knowing you aren't in this world. And I know these words might be meaningless to you now, but I still want to have midnight gossip phone calls. I want you to be the Maid of Honor at my wedding. I want us to take that just-girls road trip in Alola. I want you, and no one else, to be my best friend and I am so glad that you're in my life.

"And if you aren't happy in this world, then... I can't let that stand. I don't want to ever lose you, Kate. I know Keith feels the same way. I know your parents do. I know your sister wants you to see her graduate, but none of it can change the war going on inside your own mind," Rhythmi stroked down Kate's hair as she smiled at her best friend through all the tears, "I will be your support, your operator, your best friend through it all."

Kate and Rhythmi pressed their foreheads together, fingers interlaced. Kate's soft cries bounced with a small amount of laughter. She couldn't tell why. She just felt everything all at once. 

 Six words finding Kate's lips. 

"I want to be happy again."