Shadow drifted through the ink of the shrine’s darkness.
It mattered not how far she went, only that she proceeded forward.
She would wander until she was granted audience.
Hopefully the Ancients wouldn’t be too offended by her tardiness.
Contrary to her expectations, a small candle lit itself almost immediately, fighting bravely against the dark.
Gastly stopped and studied it curiously. It belonged to a tiny ghost, though not one she had ever seen before.
The Pokémon appeared asleep, the candle atop its head burning on its own.
“Few are those foolish enough to delay a Summons,” a voice whispered amidst the dark.
Shadow raised her eyes.
Before her floated the Ancients themselves.
The oldest and most powerful Ghosts on Johto.
And perhaps anywhere.
A Gengar held the middle seat.
To his left, a Bannette.
To his right floated a ghost she did not recognize, but looked like an evolved form of Misdreavus.
Shadow hadn’t known they could evolve.
In front of them all sat a Sableye.
Shadow studied him curiously… he looked familiar.
The Sableye stared back unblinking.
Shadow had heard the Ancients numbered five yet there were only four.
The Pokémon with the flame was unique, but did not have the pressure the other’s did.
She turned her attention back to those before here.
All were gigantic, if not in form, then in presence.
“You remain silent, young Drifter,” the Sableye whispered. Shadow realized it was he who had spoken earlier.
She bowed, not of free will, but because there was no other action to take. Something about the Sableye though…
She glanced up again to see him smirking at her.
“I was curious to see one who would ignore a Summons,” he chuckled, confirming her suspicions that he had indeed been the Sableye on the roof. “It pleases me you enjoy our city.”
Shadow nodded, not knowing if she was allowed to speak.
Never before had she felt so small.
“Any other ghost and I would have been furious,” the Gengar cut in. “But you are of my line — ” he trailed off, the sound of his voice causing Shadow to feel faint.
As one, the four froze and stared at her in silence and Shadow knew she was expected to speak.
“I have answered your summons,” she bowed. “I was delayed on account of my trainer.”
“Loyalty is to be commended,” the evolved Misdreavus nodded. Her voice sounded like it danced on the edge of the shadows.
Sableye nodded his agreement. Gengar and Banette regarded her impassively.
“Most never stand before us,” the Sableye whispered. “Yet we summoned you — “
“Disappeared you did, from the Hallow-winds — “ the female ghost echoed.
“In the timeless forest,” Gengar finished.
They regarded her.
“Curious,” the Sableye stated.
It must have been Lord Celebi, Shadow realized. Something told her she should not speak of it.
The three continued.
“When you emerged —“
“You were the same —“
“Yet different.”
The Gengar leaned down.
“Curious, is she not, Mismagius?”
The female ghost watched.
“Little ghost,” the Gengar continued, “You have been granted an audience. What is it you seek?”
“Power,” Shadow answered without hesitation.
She sought power, for only with power would she be free.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Only with power would she protect those she desired to protect.
Gengar cackled, the sound spilling through the darkness.
How weak was she, that a mere laugh could almost unmake her?
“Gengar,” Mismagius chided. “You will send her back to the Hallow-winds.”
The Gengar sighed.
“So fragile,” he lamented, regarding her. “Yet so bold. The last to stand before us asked for a boon, a trinket.”
He regarded her.
“For his impertinence, I tore him apart.”
The Gengar smiled.
“His reformed essence is interesting though, and now provides a nice light.”
Shadow looked back down in horror, to the tiny Pokémon that slept.
The Banette shivered, and Shadow realized she was laughing.
I had… forgotten. Forgotten the cruelty of Ghosts.
Yet cruelty wasn’t the right word. Ghosts lived by a code.
She had not known its name to be cruel until she met her team.
Until she saw what the world could be like, outside of Ghosts.
She waited, and the Gengar bent down once more.
“And here you stand, asking of us Power. Bold. Bold indeed.”
He grinned widely once more, the smile splitting his face.
“A true Gastly.”
The Mismagius raised one eye in surprise while the Banette looked put off.
The Sableye cocked its head and smiled.
“So it shall be. Come, little Gastly. Come with me to the Hallow-winds.”
Shadow froze. The Hallow-winds? Why?
The Gengar turned to regard her.
“You hesitate.”
“I… I can’t enter the Winds, Great One,” she whispered.
The Gengar floated close, the darkness deepening beyond even midnight.
“Can’t, or won’t?”
Shadows stared into the Gengar’s eyes and knew fear. A ghost couldn’t die. Not truly.
If they were destroyed, their essence drifted back to the Hallow-winds, to form a new Ghost one day when the conditions were met.
Somehow, she knew this Gengar could stop that from happening.
“The Hallow-winds keep Ghost’s pure, as they should be.”
He paused.
”What Mismagius calls loyalty, I call weakness. Ghosts are power. Ghosts are mystery.”
Shadow shivered. She knew of what he spoke.
“You will enter the Hallow-winds, and you will be stripped of your attachments. Who is it you have grown so attached to, you would wish to remain a lesser Ghost?”
The name came unbidden to her mind.
MunchMunch.
She knew she cared for her Teddy, but she would willingly evolve for him for the sake of power. So they could reach the heights they were destined for.
But MunchMunch...
“I can’t,” she whispered, not understanding why and yet hating herself.
Hating herself for giving up the chance at power.
The Gengar cackled, yet this time there was no mirth. He leaned back to join his compatriots.
Sableye seemed intrigued, Mismagius sad.
Banette watched eagerly.
“You wish to become a Haunter, one who haunts the dreams of mortals. Yet you are attached.”
“You may be one of my line, but you are pathetic,” the Gengar gestured dismissively.
He inhaled, and in his hand a great ball of shadow grew.
He eyed Shadow as one might eye a fly.
”You will be purged of your attachments. If not in this form, then in the next. Perhaps you will remember better what a Ghost is then.”
“No!” she screamed, but Gengar cared not.
The Ball of Shadow descended and Shadow felt herself unraveling.
No! She couldn’t!
What would MunchMunch do!?
As the Ball of Shadow approached, she felt her gases dissolving, unable even to flee. The Gengar turned dismissively as she faded.
“You should be grateful I am allowing your essence to reform.”
Please she whispered, to whom she knew not.
…
Please!
A great chime echoed through the dark, freezing everything.
Shadow convulsed and something inside her moved.
Shadow gasped as the gift from Celebi materialized before her.
She had forgotten it existed.
It spun softly, darker than the darkest darkness.
The chime echoed again and time resumed.
The Shadow Ball crashed against the Gift and broke like a child’s first Water Gun.
Like Happy’s first Hyper Beam, she realized.
Gengar turned in surprise.
“What — ”
The Gift dissolved, having served its purpose. In its wake was a small, shining stone, which slowly drifted forward and merged with her once more.
So I wasn’t forgotten, Shadow whispered.
How could she ever repay a gift so freely given from the Lord of Time?
She gasped, pain and gratitude warring within.
Is this… emotion?
“Enough,” a voice sighed, the darkness trembling.
A Gastly drifted slowly from the Void, and each of the ancients bowed their respect.
Even the Gengar.
Shadow floated, stunned. If the others felt immeasurable, this Gastly was outside power itself.
Here… here was the Fifth.
“Leave us,” the Gastly sighed across the void once more, and each of the Ancients faded.
____
The Ancient Gastly floated before Shadow. His body looked… old.
Worn.
The normal darkness of a Gastly’s shadows replaced by pale wisps of grey.
“Great One,” she bowed.
He snorted, and his voice rumbled across the darkness.
“If I were Great,” he spoke, his words slow — as if each cost power to say. “I would have acted sooner.”
He regarded her.
“Forgive me, for my mind was elsewhere. Yet the Lord of Time knew it would be so,” he spoke. “And chose otherwise.”
He exhaled, and Shadow felt herself crushed.
She reeled as her mind expanded.
“You have asked for power, little one. Therefore, I grant you Dream Eater.”
He stared at her.
“What power will you choose? Will you stay the course?” he whispered.
Shadow fought to speak, but the pressure was too great. The Gastly’s eyes widened in realization and the pressure disappeared.
Shadow gulped a breath of air.
Preposterous, as Ghosts didn’t need to breathe.
“Thank you, Great One,” she spoke, her gratitude true as she sought to digest the information placed in her mind.
He nodded.
“But… I don’t understand?”
“A Gastly becomes a Haunter in one way only,” he spoke, the words heavy.
She drank every syllable.
“You must become one who haunts, little one. You must take the innocence of a child, take its dream for your own.”
He sighed.
“Yet not just any dream. You must eat the dream that holds their hope.”
He stared at her.
“You must take their future. There is no other way,” he finished softly.
Shadow felt her sorrow at the words echoed in the Gastly’s own.
She understood.
Here was one who had remained a Gastly.
“You can choose what you eat from a Dream, little Gastly. You can take what does not hurt. Ghosts are known to devour small dreams, for through small dreams we can almost feel. Yet… you can also take what will give you your namesake.”
If it were in the past, she would have slipped into the Hallow-Winds immediately, where all emotions and attachment were stripped. She would have found a child without hesitation. She would have been a Haunter before the night was out.
She would have returned to her Trainer, powerful.
Now? The cost was too great.
To abandon her Teddy? Her MunchMunch?
Impossible.
“It isn’t fair,” she whispered.
The Gastly nodded sadly, the void rippling around him.
“No. It is not.”
He gestured and the tiny flame ghost Pokémon drifted away, leaving them in the dark.
“I must go,” he sighed. “The Winds beckon. I will be watching.”
He blinked, his great eyes plunging her into shadow before illuminating her once more.
”There are many paths, little ghost. You have piqued the interest of the Lord of Time, and therefore mine. I wonder… if you will stay the course?”
With that, he was gone.
And Shadow was alone.
My Store Manager is a Goblin! .
Support for my original writing is always optional, but deeply appreciated.
