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teshamerkel · 3 years

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Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Seekers of Soul

[Chapter 26] (29 Pages)

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The trio recuperates, and Nia discovers that her aura has changed.

TW: Panic Attack

Nia wakes up slowly, a heavy fog of exhaustion making her thoughts feel thick and syrupy. She’s warm and comfy, so she shifts in her bed and considers going back to sleep as she stretches her legs—only to wince when the motion pulls painfully at her skin.

Nia squints her eyes open against bright sunlight, lifting her head to blink down at her body, where bandages are wrapped around her limbs. Shiny patches of ointment with a sharp medicinal tang peek out from under the bandages and slick down her fur. Oh jeez, she really got banged up. No wonder stretching hurt.

Nia slowly shifts in her nest to get a better look around the room. It’s…pleasant. Warm, neutral tones and wooden floors. Large windows with shades pulled halfway down, leaving rectangular patches of sunlight slanting across the small space. Plants are potted around the room, offering a splash of color, and little cabinets are installed into one side of the room. She’s alone, lying in a too-large nest.

Then the door creaks open, and Nia looks over to see a familiar little ball of feathers squeezing through the gap.

“Junie!”

Junie jumps, wide eyes snapping up to Nia. “Nia! You’re awake!”

The rookidee hops awkwardly to Nia’s side, and Nia tries to sit up from her nest. She immediately regrets it, groaning from the painful pull at her burns and the ache in her ribs, not to mention the way her head spins nauseously. Her throat feels strained, and she can’t hold back a sudden coughing fit that burns her throat and lungs.

Right, the fire. She must have inhaled a lot of smoke.

“Whoa! Slow your roll, chickadee!” Junie flutters closer and guides her to back into the nest until she’s lying down again.

Nia slowly manages to control her hacking fit, but her body aches even more terribly than when she’d woken up. Ow.

“Are you okay?” Nia finally manages to croak.

Junie blinks at her. “I should be asking you that! You’re the one who’s been out the longest!”

Nia stares back at the little bird, brow furrowed as memories of the fire slowly trickle back into her mind. The building was coming down, and Junie was still trapped inside so Nia went in after her. There was so much fire, surrounding her in choking heat and ash. Then there was that debris she couldn’t move to free Junie, the wave of dizzying, wrenching despair falling over her, making her feel hopeless…

She’d been so sure they were going to die.

Nia rubs at her eyes and takes a few deep breaths. Well, clearly they made it somehow. She feels lightheaded with relief. Or maybe just lightheaded in general. Tobias would—

Tobias, running towards them through the fire, panic on his face. His gaze flicks up, and Nia follows it, her heart dropping as she sees the ceiling above them crumble—

“Tobias! Is he okay?!” Nia gasps.

“Yup!” Junie chirps. “A bit banged up, a few broken fingers, but otherwise grumpy as usual!”

Nia has to stop herself from bolting upright in her nest. “A few broken fingers?!”

Junie waves her off with a wing. “Just fractured. He says he’ll be fine in a couple days.”

Nia doesn’t point out that the charmander is probably lying to put up a tough front, instead trying to calm her pounding heartbeat. He’s alive, at least. And relatively okay. Nia catches sight of Junie’s leg, wrapped up tight in a cast and sticking out awkwardly, and her stomach sinks. She wishes they were all doing better than just ‘okay.’

The rookidee follows her gaze and laughs. “Don’t look so upset! I’d be a lot worse off if not for you!”

Nia meets Junie’s eyes, frowning. The action pulls at a burn on her face. “What do you mean?”

Junie pauses, tilting her head. “You don’t remember? I got trapped in the rubble and you refused to leave me—which was stupid, by the way—and the ceiling came down on us.”

Nia shivers, once again thinking of the wave of crushing stone bearing down on them. The overwhelming instinct to protect as she threw herself over Junie, and then—

Nothing.

“Nia?”

Nia realizes she’s not breathing, sore fingers trembling and clutching at her legs. She swallows and tries to shove away the lingering fear.

“How did we make it out of there?” Nia rasps. She knows Pokémon are durable, but she thinks even they shouldn’t have survived that much force crushing them. Junie especially, delicate, hollow-boned thing that she is.

“You saved us!” Junie chirps, hopping stiltedly in front of Nia to make eye contact.

Nia leans back. “Me?”

“Yeah! When you covered me, I saw this bright flash of blue, like fwahhh!” She spreads her wings. “I passed out after that, but Toby saw it too! We think it looked like your aura.”

“My aura?” Nia echoes, a hand drifting to her chest.

She couldn’t have done that. All she’s been able to do is channel her aura through her body and make little semi-solid forms in her hand, and she even sucks at that. She’s never been able to spread it out or project it away from her body, and she’s certainly never made it strong enough to stop something as heavy as that stone ceiling.

Junie just shrugs. “You should ask Toby. He seems to know more about it.”

“Where is Tobias?” Nia asks, looking around.

“I made him go get us some actual grub, since I’m tired of hospital food and can’t carry anything on my own. Oh, he’s going to be so mad when he sees you woke up without him!” Junie laughs, not sounding at all concerned about the charmander’s fury. “He’s been really worried!”

At that, Nia suddenly wonders if she really did die in that fire. Tobias? Worried about her? Sure, he’s made sure she didn’t get left behind in dungeons and he’s been trying hard to be patient with her, but she finds it difficult to believe he’d be openly concerned over her once she was in the clear from dying.

“Don’t look so surprised!” Junie says, somehow managing to smirk even with a beak. “It’s adorable, actually. He’s been pretty much glued to your side. Even sleeps next to you.”

Nia blinks, flustered heat rising up under her fur. Junie has to be joking. But then she casts her gaze to the side, realizing that she’s not in a single too-large nest--instead, her own nest seems to bleed into another one about the same size. Her nose is still raw from the smoke, but she can smell the familiar sun-baked stone scent of Tobias lingering on the straw.

“I knew he cared about you!” Junie chirps, hopping again to settle next to Nia’s head, looking comfortable enough that Nia guesses the rookidee has also been sleeping here.

Nia thinks again about how genuinely terrified Tobias looked in that split-second they’d made eye contact in the fire.

“Did Tobias pull us out?” Nia asks, not wanting to strain her throat but too curious not to know.

“Mhm. Dug through the rubble to find us and tried to carry us out.”

“Tried?”

Junie shifts, a note of unease in her voice. “Well...he asked me to fly, but I…I couldn’t. So he tried to carry us. But I guess he passed out? Another rescuer must’ve found us in time.”

Nia’s gut twists uncomfortably. She wishes Tobias were here so she could look him over herself, make sure that he’s really okay and not just lying to the doctors or something.

He really did all of that for them? Dug through the rubble to find them, tried to carry them to safety? Has been worrying about her, been voluntarily sleeping by her? Nia can hardly believe it. She wonders if it’s strange that she finds him risking his life to save theirs more believable than him willingly watching over her and worrying for her well-being. Probably not. The charmander’s a grump, but he takes his responsibilities as a Seeker seriously.

Nia stares thoughtfully at the nest beside her, slowly settling back down into her own. Junie resumes her chatter, saying something about them being moved to this room by themselves once Nia was stable enough. Nia hums at the appropriate times, trying to listen even though she feels fatigue creep up on her again, making her eyes heavy. She’s just so tired.

Nia doesn’t know when she crosses the line between thought and dozing, but she wakes up to the smell of delicious, savory food. Well, that and a hushed, heated conversation.

“What do you mean she woke up?!” Tobias hisses.

“She woke up! Must’ve been waiting for you to leave.” Junie teases.

The following growl, quiet and threatening, means Nia needs to wake up and play peacekeeper. She grumbles, “You two are impossible.”

The arguing stops, and Nia slowly pushes herself up onto her arms, remembering how painful it was to sit up last time. She yawns and squints at the late-afternoon sunlight pouring into the room.

Junie is grinning, and Tobias is watching her with an unreadable expression. Nia offers the two of them a smile that she hopes isn’t as strained as she feels. She doesn’t realize how tense Tobias is until he relaxes, shoulders slumping and face softening. Oh.

Maybe he really was worried.

“So what’d you bring? Something good, I hope!” Junie chirps, pecking at the boxes of food at Tobias’ side. He bares his teeth and snatches them out of her reach.

“Who says I got you anything?”

“Me! Because I’m the one who suggested it! And I almost died!”

“You’re gonna wish you did if you don’t back off,” Tobias growls.

“Oh, please, like you’d kill me in front of Nia.” Junie huffs.

“You wanna try me?”

“Do it, coward! You won’t!”

Nia laughs. She can’t help it. She’s just so relieved they’re all relatively okay, so she laughs, even if it hurts, and she can’t seem to stop laughing, leaning forward to hold her stomach. When she finally starts to get a hold of herself, she wipes tears from her eyes and sits up to see Junie and Tobias both staring at her. Oh no. Another burst of giggles bubble from her chest, and this time when she laughs, Junie joins in. Tobias doesn’t, but he does look like he’s fighting off a smile, rolling his eyes.

Nia holds out her hands and makes a grabby motion. “J-Just give me the dang food. Clearly you two can’t be trusted to share nicely.”

Tobias huffs but hands over the tasty-smelling boxes. Nia lays them out in the nest and opens them, feeling her stomach growl at the sight. Some kind of rice in one box, and vegetables in another, swimming in a deep brown sauce with chunks of something that looks startlingly like meat but must be a vegetarian version, like the hot dogs they’d had.

“Oh! Hang on! I saw the nurse restock earlier.” Junie flutters into the air, wobbling as her cast throws her off-balance, and then goes to one of the room’s cabinets, opening it and pulling at something inside with her beak.

Tobias leaps up and hurries to her side, hissing, “You’re gonna drop ‘em! Stop!”

The two wrestle over what turn out to be plates and utensils, eventually making it back to the nest without dropping them so they can each scoop some food onto their own dish. Nia digs in, practically drooling over the flavor, and watches Tobias and Junie do the same, feeling some sort of peace and normalcy wash over them. Well, as normal as they can get when Nia’s aching all over, Junie can’t seem to get settled with her broken leg, and Tobias keeps dropping his fork due to his bandaged fingers.

Between bites Nia manages to ask, “How long was I out?”

“Two weeks!” Junie chirps, whipping her rice-covered face up to give Nia a despairing, wide-eyed look.

Nia’s heart drops.

Tobias snorts and rolls his eyes. “Stop messing with her. She’s gullible enough when she isn’t injured.”

Oh. As Junie sticks her tongue out at Tobias, Nia hurriedly shovels more food into her mouth, fighting down her embarrassment for falling for that.

“The actual answer is about two days,” Tobias says.

Nia cautiously lowers her food, brow furrowing. “Two days? B-But how are we affording that?”

Tobias’ expression twists. “What?”

“The hospital,” Nia presses, waving a hand at the room around them. “We barely had enough money to come to Ghatha and back, so…”

Tobias blinks at her, looking dumbfounded. “Hospitals cost like...nothing? Especially after an emergency.”

“Oh.” Nia blinks back at him.

“Are you telling me humans charge you to get healed when you’re hurt?” Tobias asks, looking genuinely offended. “Like, enough that you were worried about it?”

Nia looks down at Junie for help, but the little bird just chirps a smug sound before returning to her food. “Don’t look at me. I wasn’t American.”

Ah. Nia didn’t really register that she was until this moment, but it makes sense from what knowledge she does know. It doesn’t really feel like a surprise.

“Where were you from, then?” Nia asks curiously, ignoring the bewildered look Tobias gives the two of them for not elaborating on the whole Hello yes pay us to save your life thing.

“Germany!” Junie chirps proudly. “Gotta say, since you’re American I’m kind of surprised you’re fluent in German.”

Nia stares at the rookidee. “I’m not. I only know English.”

Junie freezes mid-bite, then slowly turns to stare back. “…What language are you speaking right now?”

“English,” Nia repeats, voice a notch higher.

“I’m hearing you in perfect German so please tell me how that’s possible.”

“German?” Tobias speaks up.

Nia and Junie both turn to him, equally wide-eyed.

“T-Tobias,” Nia starts, swallowing hard. “What language are you speaking right now?”

The charmander looks completely thrown. “Uh. Ordirune? Like you two?”

Nia suddenly remembers her near mental breakdown that first day in the library, when she realized she was fluently reading a language she didn’t know. It makes sense that the same thing has been happening with speech.

Doesn’t mean it’s not freaking her out.

“O-Okay. Okay. Uh. I totally forgot to bring this up at the human convention. Junie, do you—?”

The rookidee has gone back to her food, burying her face in her rice. Her voice is muffled and hard to understand when she says, “I’m willing to act like nothing’s weird about this if you are.”

Nia’s curiosity is dying, but on top of everything else she’s currently grappling with, she’s not sure she can handle this world-shifting discovery at the moment. Plus, right now she doesn’t have the guild library to look to for answers, or Avery to discuss this with, and she’ll just drive herself nuts thinking about this too hard without some hope for a solution.

(But she is absolutely looking into this when they get back to Bethoc’s Haven.)

“Are you telling me you two aren’t speaking Ordirune?” Tobias asks, increasingly loud as he looks between the two of them.

“Apparently we are,” Junie teases, lifting her face. She has rice stuck to her feathers, but she seems like she’s already recovered from her shock. “Whatever that is.”

Tobias looks to Nia as if she’ll be able to solve the craziness of this situation. She gives him an apologetic shrug. “I have no clue how it works, but no, we’re not speaking...Ordirune? I don’t know what language all of the guild’s books are in, either, but for some reason I can read them just fine.”

Tobias stares at her, a frown on his face. Then he sighs, picks up his plate, and starts to eat without another word. Well, tries to. With his hands bandaged up so stiffly, the fork is back to slipping from his fingers.

Tobias growls and tries to maneuver the utensil, only managing to fling it from his lap and into the nest. He glares at where it disappeared. Nia opens her mouth, and he cuts her off with a hand jabbed in her direction. “Don’t. I don’t need help.”

Well. Nia’s jaw clicks shut as she bites back a smile. Maybe she’s getting a bit predictable with her mothering. Junie laughs.

“How did you even mangle your hands so badly?” The rookidee asks, pecking at some of her vegetables.

Tobias gives her a dry look. “Digging out your bodies.”

Both Nia and Junie still, looking again at the charmander’s hands and then back at his face. He rolls his eyes at the surprised expression on Junie’s face and the open guilt on Nia’s. “I’ll be fine in a few days. Would you rather I left you two under there?”

“Of course not, but...” Nia murmurs, knowing she still looks as upset as she feels. She didn’t know Tobias got so hurt saving them. She pushes her plate away, suddenly not so hungry.

The charmander throws up his hands, looking frustrated. “Look, d’you want Junie to get all mopey about you almost dying to save her?”

Nia reels back. “Of course not!”

“Then don’t start up the waterworks over me. I’m fine.”

Nia meets his gaze, honest as usual and not looking for an ounce of pity. She sighs. He’s right. Except now Junie just looks doubly upset, and it’s a foreign, uncomfortable expression on the chipper little bird.

“Hey, remember that I don’t regret saving you either, okay?” Nia says softly, giving Junie a smile. “Even if I got hurt. It’s our job, and you’re our friend. We chose to help.”

Junie looks down at her plate again, quiet, but nods.

Tobias snorts. “Should’ve been my job, since I’m the fire type. Idiot.”

Nia gives him a sheepish smile and searches for a change in topic. “Junie mentioned something earlier about me using my aura when the ceiling fell. I don’t remember that, but you saw it too?”

Tobias’ brow furrows, and he looks down at his plate to scoot his food around. “Yeah. When the ceiling fell there was like...a flash of blue energy.” He looks up to meet her eyes. “It looked like your aura. Exact same color. It curved around you guys like a bubble, or a shield or something.”

Nia frowns, humming a thoughtful sound. That’s so strange. Her aura certainly can’t do that.

...Right?

Nia closes her eyes and reaches for her aura, focusing on where her soul sits in her chest. What she finds is a tiny blue flame, small as a match, as if her aura has run dangerously close to vanishing entirely. Yet, it feels...different. Deeper, somehow? Like this tiny flame is just a drop of water in the ocean instead of a drop of water in a bucket. Like some sort of blockage has burst open and now she can feel...more.

Curiously, Nia pokes at it, urging it to flare back to its usual size, only for her aura (her body?) to respond with a backlash of prickling pain. She yelps, immediately pulling away from her inner self to clutch at her chest.

“Hey—don’t push yourself!” Tobias snaps. For once, he sounds more worried than angry.

Nia cracks open her eyes to see Tobias leaning close, hands poised as if to grab her. Junie is watching her with worry.

“I-I’m good. I just...I tried to call my aura, and it’s...different? I’m not sure how. A-And it looks smaller than usual? Like my energy is low or something.”

Tobias sits back, frowning. “Maybe you did use your aura, then. Is your aura finite? Can it be used up?”

“I’m not sure. Val never lets me push myself that far.” Nia wishes the medicham were here to help with this. “From what I understand it’s kind of like my life energy, but I’ve always felt sick and exhausted way before it got to this point.”

Tobias stares at her, clearly deep in thought. “Maybe your body usually protects you from using too much at one time because it’s dangerous to you.”

“But when I was backed into a corner and it was life-or-death,” Nia continues, catching on. “It lashed out full-power to keep me safe?”

“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” Tobias says with a shrug. “You have been sleeping for two days straight. The doctor thought you just overworked yourself, but maybe your fatigue is actually from aura backlash.”

Nia nods, slowly. “I-I guess that makes sense.”

Tobias doesn’t look satisfied. “The only other thing I can think of is a move called protect. It can form a wall or bubble like that, and stop almost any move for a brief period of time. That would explain how you kept tons of rock and debris from flattening you two, but I don’t think riolu are even able to learn it naturally.”

Nia pauses, the description niggling at her memory. A move called protect? A ball of blue energy, surrounding her, defending against fire and force...where has she heard of that before?

“What do you mean we can’t learn it ‘naturally?’” Nia asks instead.

“Some Pokemon don’t just learn moves spontaneously, like I did with dragon rage,” Tobias explains. “Not every Pokemon can learn every move, but sometimes they can be taught by another Pokemon instead. We call those moves TMs—trained moves.”

Nia tilts her head as she listens, intrigued. “So I could learn certain moves,” She starts, slowly. “But I’d need another Pokemon who already knows them to teach me? And protect is one of those moves?”

“I think so,” Tobias says, face twisting in thought. “Usually Pokemon can only learn protect naturally if they have like…a shell or something. I’ve never heard of a fighting type like a riolu just learning it on their own. That’s why this all feels so weird.”

Nia looks down at her paws, clenching them in her lap. It makes more sense for her to have used her aura if she shouldn’t be able to use protect. And yet, the word is sparking some kind of memory. She thinks again of Tobias’ description—a blue bubble of energy, shielding her from destruction. From the fire.

All at once she thinks of Will, smiling at her warmly, and then a line of yamask in a row, the smell of books and a picture of a Pokémon—a pikachu, she realizes now—flashes through her mind. Her breath catches as she straightens in her seat. Wait, that’s it!

“I read a book when I first came here,” Nia breathes, desperately trying to recall that collection of fairy tales and what it said about humans. “It mentioned that move! Protect! I think it said something about all humans being able to learn it, regardless of their species. It’s one of the few consistent things in our situation.”

Tobias doesn’t look as excited like she thought he might. If anything, he looks more conflicted, crossing his arms. “But that’s just…unheard of. And if it’s true then that means it wasn’t your aura, but I swear it looked exactly like it. And with your aura levels being so low it makes sense for there to be a connection.”

Nia makes a frustrated sound in her throat. “Maybe Val can help us figure it out when we get back home? It seems like we’re getting cues from both sides. If we could recreate it—“

“No,” Tobias meets her eyes with a sharp look. “Not until you’re back to full strength.”

Nia feels a warmth in her chest at his open concern, and she holds up her hands with a laugh. “I know, I know! Trust me, I don’t really feel like passing out again for two days.”

Tobias nods, satisfied, and opens his mouth to say something else when there’s a quiet knock at the door. They all turn, and Nia expects a nurse or doctor to step in for a check-up.

Instead, she’s shocked to see Will poke his head into the room with a concerned look. When he catches sight of their group he lights up, red eyes shining. “Oh, thank goodness.”

“Great,” Tobias grumbles, already glaring daggers as the yamask floats in and closes the door behind him.

Nia bumps her partner’s leg with her own. “Be nice.” Then, louder, “Will! It’s good to see you again.”

“I wish it could be under better circumstances,” Will says as he floats to their side, a regretful smile at his lips. His thumbs rub at the edge of the golden mask he carries. “I’ve been wanting to come check on everyone who was caught up in the fire.”

“Then why’d it take you two days to do it?” Tobias growls. Nia bumps his leg again, a bit harder. “Keegan was here the morning after.”

Will winces and looks away, gaze drifting to the window. “Ah, I’m afraid I’ve been a bit busy helping with the investigation.”

“You’re part of it?” Tobias asks, voice thick with suspicion.

“Investigation?” Nia asks, tilting her head first at Will, then Tobias. “What investigation?”

Will rubs his face, looking ten times older than he had at the conference when he was all charm and charisma. “Keegan suspects foul play in regards to how the fire began, so we want to thoroughly explore all possibilities before laying the blame on Hugo’s troupe. There weren’t any casualties in the fire, thank God, but there were a lot of serious injuries and, ah…property damage.”

Nia blinks at the explanation, still trying to play catch-up. Foul play?

“Whoa! Are you like secretly a detective?!” Junie asks, fluttering closer.

Will finally cracks a smile, shaking his head. “No, no, nothing like that.”

Tobias folds his arms. “Then why are you part of the investigation? Last I heard you aren’t a pyrotechnics expert.”

“Tobias,” Nia protests halfheartedly. She knows he doesn’t like the guy but he doesn’t have to be so openly hostile.

“No no, it’s quite all right, Nia,” Will soothes, giving first her and then Tobias another rueful smile. “We are investigating for any possible tampering, so it’s good to be suspicious at this stage.”

“Tampering,” Nia echoes. “What do you mean?”

Junie shifts a bit closer to Nia, something almost…uncomfortable in her expression. Wary? Tobias narrows his eyes at the yamask.

Will opens his mouth to speak, then hesitates, gaze moving over the three of them. Nia notices how he lingers on her burns, on Tobias’ bandaged fingers and Junie’s broken leg. His face tightens with something like resolution. “I know two of you already know about this, but I still want to ask that you don’t spread word of this needlessly. It’s only a working theory at the moment and could cause unnecessary panic if word spreads.”

Nia blinks, alarmed, and welcomes it when Junie clumsily flutters into her lap. She holds the bird close. “U-Uh…sure?”

Will sighs, looking down at his mask. “Keegan was suspicious from the start that the fire was not an accident, taking the troupe’s reputation and precautions into account. While we aren’t sure of anything yet, the Pokémon looking into it are leaning towards the idea of foul play. We suspect the fire was set intentionally.”

“Why would someone do that?” Nia asks, horrified. She vaguely remembers hearing about crimes of arson in the human world, but never dreamed of something so mindlessly destructive happening here in the Pokémon world.

“And again, why are you so closely involved with the investigation?” Tobias asks, gaze sharp.

Will’s expression tightens. “I was not only the one who put this event together, but I was also uninjured, unlike most folks who were around at the time. They wanted to make sure I didn’t see anyone suspicious.”

Nia’s surprised that Tobias doesn’t say anything to that, and glances over at him. He’s not quite looking at the yamask, anymore, instead staring through him into space. He looks like he’s thinking hard about something.

“Well, did ya?” Junie asks Will, feathers fluffed up in agitation. “See anyone suspicious, that is!”

Will glances at Tobias, looking uncomfortable. “Well, I don’t want to throw around accusations…”

“Just spit it out,” Tobias snaps, suddenly sounding much more on-edge.

Nia almost scolds him again, but cuts herself off when she looks at him. He’s tense, spine ramrod straight like he’s about to bolt to his feet and fight. His eyes are wide and a bit wild. His tail flame is bright.

Will sighs. “Well…I did notice a particularly powerful-looking arcanine lurking about on his own who I don’t remember seeing earlier in the day. Which could mean nothing, of course! There were plenty of powerful fire types there that day. But I thought I should mention it to the investigators, so I think he’s currently their prime suspect.”

Nia stops listening halfway through Will’s explanation. She’s too busy looking at Tobias in concern. The charmander’s breath had caught at the mention of the Pokémon—an arcanine. Surely that couldn’t be the same arcanine that they’ve been looking for, right? The outlaw?

But Tobias must be thinking the same thing, because he’s clearly somewhere else, wide eyes staring sightlessly at the floor, breaths growing harsher by the second, fingers curling into shaking fists—

Nia hurries to grab the charmander’s damaged hands and uncurl his mangled fingers before he can hurt himself. He jerks out of her hold, gaze flicking up to her but seeing nothing, looking right through her. His body is tense and trembling, like his fight response has abruptly switched over to flight and he might run off at any second in a panic.

Distantly Nia notes that Will has stopped speaking and Junie has fluttered out of Nia’s lap to chirp something over Nia’s shoulder, but she shushes the chatty little bird and focuses on her partner. Tobias is whispering something, and she leans forward to hear, straining her sharp ears.

“He was there. He was there, I saw him, he was in the fire, I didn’t remember but he was there he—”

Nia frowns, more than a little unsettled by the charmander’s weak voice and frantic words. She wants to dissect them more, think on them, ask him what exactly he means (he wouldn’t just believe Will that easily, surely? But he mentioned remembering—did he see the arcanine and block it out?)

Whatever happened, right now it looks like he’s...dissociating? She thinks that’s the word. Or maybe on the edge of a panic attack. She’s not sure. Didn’t he have a panic attack at the guild? When he saw the post about the outlaws and decided to create a Seeker team.

Someone says something and Tobias flinches, and Nia shoves all of her thoughts aside for now. The most important thing right now is to help Tobias, even if she doesn’t know how to do that and can feel anxiety tightening in her gut. Should she touch him? That didn’t go so well when she grabbed his hands, but—

“T-Tobias?” Nia tries. Nothing. No recognition, no sign that he even heard her. Hesitantly, she lifts her hands to his face, trying to get him to look at her. “Tobias?”

Tobias tenses up further at the slight brush of her palms, but doesn’t jerk away this time. Okay, okay, what does she do now? Try his name again? Distract him? Talk to him? Oh God, she has no idea how to help him and his breathing has gone shaky and harsh, almost wheezing, like he can’t catch his breath—

“Nia, if you can get his attention, you can lead him through a breathing exercise. He needs to calm down or he’ll pass out.”

Will has lowered himself next to her, brow pinched and gaze focused on her partner’s stricken face, and her first instinct is to tell him to leave, to hide Tobias away when he’s this vulnerable, but the ghost type sounds so calm and confident. Like he knows what he’s doing. Nia clings to that strength.

“H-How can I get his attention?” She squeaks, trying not to panic right alongside Tobias.

Will frowns, glancing over his shoulder at the sunlit room. “Get closer, narrow his vision. You don’t happen to know any ice types on staff, do you? If we had some ice we could put that in his hand to snap him out of it.”

“I-I can get ice!” Nia hears Junie chirp, and then the flutter of wings.

Tobias is still breathing harsh, eyes flicking back and forth and seeing something Nia cannot. He’s shaking almost violently beneath her touch, and she hates it. Hates that he’s so terrified and trapped in some horrible memory where she can’t reach him.

A little desperate, Nia leans forward, right in his face, and tries to get his attention, tries to shut out the world. He’s almost too close to see, but she catches his flickering gaze. “Tobias. Tobias, please, you have to calm down. C-Can you calm down and breathe? Tobias? Toby?”

Nia’s not sure what prompts her to use the nickname Junie forced upon him just a few days ago, but as soon as she says it, blue eyes snap to hers. Not quite seeing her, but paying some sort of attention. He heard her.

She can’t decide whether to laugh or cry, so she just gives him a shaky grin. “G-Good! Good, okay. Toby, can you hear me? Can you nod if you can?”

A heartbeat passes, and then a jerky half-nod that almost bumps their noses together. She laughs, and thinks that his eyes focus on her a bit more. “Great! Okay, u-um, uh—“

“Keep asking him questions. Keep him here.”

“R-Right, okay, Toby—Toby? Hey, look at me. Good! Okay, how about, uh...”

“Ask him to list something. Colors, sounds—“

“What colors do you see?” Nia asks, latching onto Will’s helpful directions.

Tobias’ eyes focus on hers again. “R-Red.”

“Good! What else?”

His gaze flicks to the left ever so slightly. “B...Black? And blue.”

“Anything else?”

His gaze moves down to where Nia knows there’s a burn on her cheek. “Pink.”

Nia doesn’t even know if that one’s right, but she grins anyways. “Awesome! O-Okay, uh—“

“Have him do a breathing exercise before he faints. 5-6-7. Five seconds in, hold for six, release for seven.”

“Tobias, can you breathe in for me?” Nia asks. “Deep breath!”

The charmander tries, she can tell he does, but he only manages a short, shaky inhale before releasing it and gasping in another.

Nia’s stomach drops. “O-Okay, that’s okay, just try again. Deep breath.”

She takes a breath, sees him try to match her before letting it out far too early. Is that bad? She doesn’t know. She doesn’t know what she’s doing!

Tobias must pick up on her own panic, because his breathing stutters into another gasp. No no no, she’s supposed to be helping, not making him worse!

She just wants to help!

A lance of of pain shoots through Nia’s chest, and she squeezes her eyes shut with a whine, automatically following the pain to her raw, exhausted aura. Except the little blue flame is no longer a weak, still thing in her chest. Instead, it’s thrashing and flaring with her emotions, seeming to grow larger by the second, like it’s being fed by her panic. But this hasn’t ever happened before!

Nia tries to figure out where the building energy is coming from, realizing all at once that she hadn’t been imagining the feeling earlier of having access to more. It’s like the well of her aura has suddenly gotten deeper, filled with more energy than before, and now it’s overflowing and feeding that fire in her chest, stoking it into something more sensitive to her emotions.

That only makes her panic more, and the tiny blue flame of her soul grows and grows and grows until it’s too much to be contained. It rushes outward, throughout her body, to her legs and tail and arms, and she rips herself away from Tobias with a yelp. What is her aura doing?!

Tobias flinches and makes a small, desperate noise in the back of his throat. Nia wants to reach out again, but she can’t touch him, not like this. Not with her aura flaring like a blue inferno and reaching towards Tobias with an almost fierce protectiveness.

Will shoots her a worried glance before taking her place in front of Tobias. She hears him say something in a low, soothing murmur.

Nia’s aura has never done anything like this before, never felt like it was fighting back against her. If anything, her aura has always been too unresponsive, slow to follow her orders and too weak to do anything but brush at others’ energy through her skin.

She’d prefer that weakness over this raging thing. It doesn’t feel much more powerful than it was before, just...unfiltered. Unrestrained.

And she has no idea how to control it.

For once, she feels dangerous. Like a bomb waiting to go off, too much power building in a body too small to contain it.

“Nia!”

Nia’s eyes snap open, and there’s Junie, in front of her face. The little bird rears back, staring at her eyes with a surprised expression.

“Are you okay?” The rookidee asks, gaze flicking to the side of Nia’s face and then back again. “You’re, uh, glowing.”

Nia looks down to see that she is in fact glowing, body outlined in the blue of her aura and brighter than it’s ever been before. She’s not even trying to do that.

Junie glances down at Nia’s hands, surprise souring to dismay. “You’re shaking!”

“My aura,” Nia grits out, shutting her eyes again to look at it. The energy is still larger than usual, but it almost looks like it’s...calming, slightly. Swirling anxiously, but without the sharp edges of panic.

“C-Can I help?”

Nia shakes her head, watching her aura like it’s a snarling dog about to snap at her fingers. But despite her fear and confusion, the energy only continues to calm as the seconds pass. Nia can finally hear Will again, counting and breathing with Tobias. She doesn’t realize she’s following along until her aura finally stills, settling in her chest. It’s calm again, larger than it’s ever been but manageable. A lion calmed from its frenzy to purr contentedly at her side.

Nia cracks opens her eyes. Junie is looking between Nia and Will.

“Back with us, Tobias?” The yamask asks.

Tobias! Nia takes another moment to check on her aura, confirm that it’s under control, and then she scoots over to Will’s side. The charmander blinks sluggishly, but his gaze flicks to her. “Nia?”

Wow, he sounds out of it. Nia’s chest aches, with emotion this time instead of her aura. “Y-Yeah, Toby—Tobias. How’re you feeling?”

Tobias doesn’t even respond to her slip-up, pressing his palms into his eyes and groaning. “Like I got trampled by a rhyperior.”

Will gives him a sympathetic smile before turning to Nia. “And you?”

Nia winces. Tobias was the one who had a panic attack; they should be focusing on him, not her. “F-Fine. I don’t know what happened. My aura just went crazy.”

Will’s gaze moves between her and Tobias, thoughtful. “Aura can sense emotions, correct? Perhaps some of Tobias’ fear bled into your own emotional state.”

Nia frowns, wracking her brain for what Val had told her she would eventually be able to do with her aura. She can kind of read people’s emotions when she’s purposefully looking at their aura, sure. And she does sort of...feel them for herself, too? But never like this, unintentionally and without touch.

“But I wasn’t looking at his aura. I wasn’t even touching—“ Nia stops, catching herself. She was touching him, wasn’t she? Cupping his face. She wasn’t touching his aura or using hers, but...

Tobias doesn’t react, eyes lidded with exhaustion.

“Maybe the emotion was strong enough for you to pick it up regardless?” Will suggests, hand at his chin. “You are partners, after all—it would make sense for you to be more in tune with one another.”

Nia looks at Tobias again, waiting for his usual vehement protests to any implication that they’re anything even close to friends.

The charmander just shrugs, drained of his usual fight. “Sorry, I guess.”

It’s somehow flippant and genuine all at once. Nia blinks. “I-It’s not like you did it on purpose.”

Tobias doesn’t answer. Instead, he just rubs at his eyes and grumbles, “Whatever. I wanna sleep. Either talk quieter or get out, Will.”

Nia can’t manage to scold him right now, not when the charmander looks so utterly exhausted. She remembers he was the same after the panic attack at the guild, too. So instead, Nia just gives Will an apologetic smile. “Sorry. Panic attacks wipe him out.”

“Still here,” Tobias growls, shooting her a weak glare. There’s her prickly partner!

“It’s quite all right. I should be heading to other rooms anyways.” Will smiles apologetically at them yet again. “I’m sorry for interrupting your rest, and for...well, potentially triggering your panic attack, Tobias. Was it the, ah…the specific Pokemon I mentioned?”

Tobias winces again, eyes squeezing shut

“Yeah,” Nia murmurs for him.

“Then apologies for that as well,” Will says, looking remorseful. “Before I go—will you all be in Ghatha for a bit while you recover?”

Oh. Nia doesn’t actually know. They’d planned on staying after the Human Convention anyways, to investigate the outlaw trio, and sitting on Fliss’ back for hours on end with the wind tearing at her wounds sounds awful right now. But just in case, she looks to Tobias.

The charmander glances at her, gaze flicking down over her burns. “Nia’ll need a few days to rest.”

“Your hands need to heal too,” She reminds him, gently.

Tobias looks back at Will. “And I want to stick around and look for that…” He stumbles, takes a deep breath, and his voice only shakes a bit when he continues. “That arcanine. If he really did set the fire, he needs to be brought in.”

Nia frowns. She knows the explanation is mostly a cover for his true animosity towards the arcanine, but this whole debacle couldn’t have helped lessen his desire for revenge. He’s gotta be even more angry than before, if that’s possible.

Well, they’re partially here in Ghatha to hunt down leads on the outlaw trio, anyways, and this might be a big one, so it makes sense for them to stay until that’s resolved. They’ll have to send a letter to Maggie and August to let them know.

Nia cringes. Maggie is going to give them an earful for this one.

“I’ll stick around for a bit, too,” Junie chirps, “Can’t do much flying with a cast on my leg. ‘Sides, Toby’s gonna need an extra hand.”

“You don’t even have hands!”

Before Tobias can really get going, Nia interrupts, “We weren’t planning on staying longer than a couple of days, but Tobias mentioned us being able to take on honorary guild work to make money and explore the area. So I guess we’ll plan on doing that once we’re well enough to leave the hospital?”

Will nods. “That sounds like a fine plan. Keegan has been a wonderful help, and I’ve heard nothing but good things about the guild here in town, so I’m sure you’ll have no issue signing up for missions.”

“Then I guess we’ll probably see you around,” Nia say, giving the yamask a tired smile.

Will smiles back. “Indeed. And I’ll be sure to let you all know once I hear anything new about the investigation.”

Tobias nods. “Good. Keep us in the loop.”

“Of course.” Will bows to them again and floats towards the door. “I’ll let you all rest. Have a good night.”

Nia and Junie wave as the ghost type leaves the room. Tobias just shuffles over to his nest and flops down, curling up and making himself comfortable.

“You know it’s only mid-afternoon, right?” Junie asks, fluttering over to Tobias’ side.

“You know you could shut up, right?” Tobias growls, turning away.

Junie chirps a laugh and turns back to Nia. “Ball of sunshine, this one.”

Nia bites back a laugh, watching as Tobias slowly melts into his nest, probably enjoying the warmth and sunshine pouring into the room. Nia definitely doesn’t want to disturb him, but she feels sort of restless, despite her wounds. It’s probably the worry about everything Will told them. And Tobias’ panic attack. And her aura suddenly freaking out.

Cautiously, she prods again at her aura, but it’s still calm, burning bright in her chest. Huh. Maybe after resting up and healing from her injuries it’ll act normal again? It seems fine now.

“I think I’m gonna take a little walk around the hospital,” Nia announces quietly, looking at Junie. “Wanna come?”

“Sure!”

The two of them head towards the door, Nia at a slow pace that pulls less at her burns and wounds. They probably shouldn’t be walking around without a doctor’s permission, but they won’t go far or anything, just take a look around the halls.

Before they close the door, Nia’s gaze catches on Tobias again, already sound asleep. He seems like he bounced back all right from his panic attack, but she still worries. What if they do find something solid about the arcanine in their own investigating? What if they find the arcanine himself? If he really was at the fire, then it’s suddenly a very real possibility. Just the unexpected mention of the Pokémon was enough to send Tobias spiraling again.

And that same Pokemon may be responsible for the fire. For all three of them almost dying.

It’s...a lot. And a lot to be scared of. Why would the rogue even set the fire in the first place? What should they even do if they find a real lead? Nia isn’t eager to face any fire type in combat any time soon, let alone such a powerful outlaw. They wouldn’t stand a chance if they fought him.

Nia shivers, taking a deep breath as she shuts the door and follows Junie’s short, careful hops out into the hallway. She needs to stop thinking for now, and try to relax while she can. She won’t be able to do much of anything for a day or two anyways, so until then her and Tobias will just have to wait and heal and keep an ear out for any news from Will or Keegan. Then they’ll decide what to do next.

“Let’s look around and find something cool to sneak back to our room!” Junie chirps conspiratorially, glancing down the hallway with a glint in her eyes. Nia has the distinct feeling that the little bird was the kind of human to hijack a wheelchair and go flying down hospital ramps in their old world.

Nia shakes her head, smiling. At least their recovery won’t be boring.

#pokemon mystery dungeon #pmd #pokemon #charmander #riolu #rookidee #pmd seekers of soul #tesha draws #tesha writes

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