//------------------------------// // A Waxing Nightmare Into a Waning Night // Story: A New Dimension, A New Threat // by ZeroChill //------------------------------// Lith and Fei walked down the red and white-tiled corridor, where a fluorescent light illuminated the path to an open area with colorful flashing lights. Techno music hit their ears with the force of a sweeping wave. Their bodies bopped to the beat of the tunes. Entering into the abyss of music, they both felt the music pelting against their fur. They eyed towards a corner, where a dark pink mare with a mane and tail with a darker shade of pink sat at a table, ingesting bottle after bottle filled with golden liquid. The others around her pumped their upper front hooves with eager smiles, chanting with anticipation. “Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!” They all stated. Lith glanced at the scene with a nervous shiver shooting down her spine. Her eyes scrunched at the sight and her mouth grimaced. Witnessing the sudden mood change, a frown formed on Fei’s face. “Is there something wrong, Lith?” “I never knew that this party would have served alcohol.” Lith responded with a stoic tone filled with anger. “Surely you must have known that a club would serve beer, right? I do not see much of a problem with distributing alcohol here.” Fei reasoned. A small and frustrated sigh breezed itself from Lith’s mouth. Her grimace formed into a frown. “I know. Let’s just keep away from the alcohol.” Fei set his sights to his right, where he eyed Mono and Rainbow Dash sitting across from each other at velvet purple booth seats. Both of them engaged in a conversation, and wide grins ready to burst with laughter painted their faces. A myriad of empty glasses sat at their table. “So you are telling me that happened with Lith?!” Rainbow Dash shouted out. “Get out of here!” “I’m being serious! She actually got so mad that she literally punched a hole through the lab wall.” Mono exclaimed with a chipper voice. “Heh, I bet that her punch couldn’t match with my Sonic Rainboom. I’m going at mach one baby!” “If she hits as hard as how her temper is, then you’d probably end up in the infirmary.” “Maybe even a morgue!” Bumping her right front knee into Mono’s right shoulder, Rainbow Dash jeered. Lith stared at the table with a wave of rising discomfort surfacing up her esophagus. She blinked once with disbelief present in her eyes. “Is Mono talking behind my back…?” She uttered out with a silent tone filling itself with virulent rage. She stomped her way towards Mono and Rainbow Dash’s table. Fei rushed in front of her and held out his arms, blocking her path. “Don’t do anything rash, Lith. There could be a really good reason why they are talking behind your back.” Lith stared into Fei’s eyes with a soul-chilling glare. She held out her right upper paw. With her ears lifting open and her eyes charging with a yellow light, a wide Charge Beam blasted itself from her paw into Fei’s face. Fei fell down on the floor face-first. Lith continued towards her path and stood over Mono and Rainbow Dash. “So my temper is so bad that a hit from me can send you to a morgue, eh?” She said with a listless tone void of casual joy. Mono froze up and steered his head towards Lith’s direction. A faint pit formed within his stomach. His eyes radiated with the fear that pulsed through his bloodstream. “L-L-Lith?! Ummm…” Stuttering and looking at his left and right with a nervous shiver, he stated. “Buzz off, Lith! Can’t you see Mono and I are-“Within the middle of her sentence, Rainbow Dash’s words slurred into an imbalanced hiccup. “-are having a good time here?” A stinging aroma of alcohol struck Lith’s nose. Her eyes jolted upwards at the unpleasant odor permeating the area. “Is that… Mono, did you drink?!” She scolded. “How much?!” “Maybe a few… tens?” With an unhinged posture, Mono mumbled out. Lith looked into Rainbow Dash’s eyes with breaths that broke underneath the sting of her betrayal. “Rainbow Dash… why?” She murmured with a despondent tone. Rainbow Dash shrugged her shoulders. “The kid needs to learn how to unwind. We danced for a bit, but couldn’t get passed the first part of the song without looking like he had an anxiety attack. So… I gave him some beer to loosen him up.” She said with a shameless tone. “And look! He’s much more laidback.” Lith stormed into Rainbow Dash’s booth seat and grasped her by the torso armor. She stared death into Rainbow Dash’s eyes and tightened her grip. Her paw charged with an electrical current. “You idiot! There’s a reason why he doesn’t drink alcohol, and it isn’t because he is under the legal age! He has difficulty holding down even one glass of beer. But you goaded him into drinking multiple glasses?!” She screamed. “So? What have you done to help him move out of his shell? Nothing, that’s what. All what you are is just someone in his life who isn’t there for helping him grow up.” Rainbow Dash responded. A small growl passed its way through Lith’s mouth. Sitting up from the ground, Fei glanced towards the rising tension building between Lith and Rainbow Dash. His spine froze at the conflict that readied itself to blow up with a ferocious explosion. He ran towards Mono’s booth seat and grasped his right upper paw with his left hand. “Ummm… we should go.” He said with a discreet tone. Mono’s body wobbled underneath the intoxicating alcohol flowing through his body. “Wow, Lith did not lie when she said you were a lightweight. You definitely shouldn’t be here.” Lith tossed Rainbow Dash overhead and threw her into the turntable. The music stopped with a scratch and the set of stereos collapsed underneath the force of the launched Rainbow Dash. A Signal Beam parted its way through the club and shot Rainbow Dash. A chorus of frightened shouts echoed throughout the area and all of the attendees ran towards the entrance and the red-framed door in the back. Rainbow Dash flew out of the collapsed club equipment and into Lith, tackling her into a booth seat. The seat warped over the impact zone and collapsed under its weight. Rainbow Dash hovered back and stood on her four legs. Her stance wobbled to her left and right. Lith pulled herself out of the rubble and stared forward. She gritted her teeth and held out her upper paws. Her ears raised themselves and all of her eyes flashed in a hazy blue. Rainbow Dash found herself held within the telekinetic grasp of Psychic. Lith lifted her off the ground and suspended her within midair. With a downward thrust of her paws, she slammed Rainbow Dash onto the ground, kicking up a storm of dust. Rainbow Dash leaped out of the cloud of dust and kicked her right hind leg forward. A black knife sharper than a clean-cutting chainsaw leaped out of her boot. She grasped it in her mouth and glared towards Lith. Lith glanced towards Rainbow Dash with widened eyes. She slanted her eyes and gritted her teeth. “Pulling a knife? Are you being real, or is that just the alcohol in your system talking?” “You’re kind of using deadly force in this fight, so I feel justified in pulling out a weapon to use against you.” Rainbow Dash reasoned. Lith grasped her sword and unsheathed it from its scabbard. She pointed the blade towards Rainbow Dash’s neck. “I was restraining myself from trying to kill you. But, two can play that game.” The two combatants rushed towards each other with blades held. Rainbow Dash’s wings kicked up a blast of wind and she hovered in the air. She dived down with the knife in her mouth and aimed it towards Lith’s head. Lith lifted her sword above her and parried the strike, pushing her back. With the added force from Lith’s retaliation, Rainbow Dash kicked her chest with her right hind leg. Leaping into the air, a black cloud formed underneath Rainbow Dash’s hooves and above Lith’s head. A wicked bolt of lightning fired down upon Lith, striking her and sending her flying back. Seeing Rainbow Dash fly towards her with her blade pointed in the flight direction, Lith flipped off of her backside and dodged the stab. She held her blade with her two paws by her right side. She leaped into the air and aimed the blade’s edge towards Rainbow Dash’s right flank. Rainbow Dash rolled to her left, avoiding the slicing strike. She lifted herself off of the ground and glared towards Lith’s direction. The two stood in their current positions and the tension between them burned the club around them. A storm of thestrals burst in through the windows of the club and surrounded the duo. They each glared towards Rainbow Dash and Lith with steeled stances. Rundas appeared from the crowd of thestrals and walked towards Rainbow Dash and Lith. “Lith? Rainbow Dash?” He uttered out with a shocked tone. The two fighters glanced towards Rundas. The shock they both received caused their grips to loosen to the point where their weapons dropped onto the ground. “Oh crap! It’s the heat!” With her voice still showing hefty signs of inebriation, Rainbow Dash shouted out. “R-Rundas?! What are you doing here?!” Lith shouted. “I heard of a disturbance coming from this club in the night district of the city. To think that the perpetrators would be two of my own friends…” Clicking his tongue and shaking his head, Rundas responded with a hurt tone. “I especially do not want to have to be the one to take your lives. But… the evidence here is very incriminating.” Rainbow Dash spat out her blade and glanced towards Rundas and the thestrals with a sheepish smile on her face. “Evidence? What evidence?” Rundas smacked his paws against his face and pointed towards Rainbow Dash. One of the thestrals glanced towards Rundas with a shaky expression on her face. “You know these two?” She asked. “Of course I do. They both are H.O.R.S.E. operatives, and one of them is currently the acting commander.” Pinching his chin, Rundas replied. “I’m suspending my judgment for now, but detain these two and bring them back to H.O.R.S.E.” The thestrals among the group raised their eyes with surprise laden in their pupils. “B-b-but Rundas! We haven’t detained anyone in years. We usually just kill the offenders.” Another thestral in the crowd responded. “I don’t want to get on Spitfire’s bad side when she hears that we are responsible for taking the lives of her next-in-line and her student in the ways of the sword. Do you?” Rundas responded with a stern tone. None of the thestrals batted an eye towards Rundas’s words. A collective sigh passed through their mouths and they closed the distance between Lith and Rainbow Dash. They grasped their limbs. One of the thestrals brought out duct tape from his bag and wrapped it around Rainbow Dash’s body, binding her wings. Another thestral attached a four-spoked device that latched onto Lith’s fur. Her eyes winced from the stabbing sensation jabbing into her flesh. “W-what’s this?” She asked with a fearful tone. “Some new technology developed by H.O.R.S.E. The scientists there couldn’t trust all Pokémon from behaving under the confines of the law, so this was developed to bind a Pokémon’s genetic matrix and leave them incapable of performing any sorts of moves.” The thestral explained. “W-where’s Mono?!” Lith shouted. “That bluish cat Pokémon? He was escorted off of the premises with some stoat-looking Pokémon dressed as a monk and a fox-looking Pokémon dressed as a longma. But I wouldn’t worry about him; you and the pegasus are in some deep trouble. Consider yourself lucky that we didn’t decide to just off you on the spot.” Mono hung off of Sophia’s back, groaning with a groggy and woozy disposition. The world around him swirled in an endless vortex of chaotic desire. Sophia clambered onto a full-sized mattress covered with lime green sheets. She slid Mono onto one side of the bed, where the back of his head rolled onto a pillow. She glanced towards Fei with a worried frown. “Do you think he would be fine over at my home, Fei? It doesn’t seem like he’s going to respond too positively with being at another being’s home against his will.” Sophia asked. “He left his ID back at his locker in our group room, and I do not know the combination to his lock. Thus, we cannot bring him home. Plus, he will be up and ready with you taking care of him.” Fei responded. A warm smile appeared on his face. “Besides, you have taken care of me all these years back when we were together. You should not feel any worries.” Sophia’s frown flipped upon itself, turning into a wide grin. She wrapped her ribbons around Fei and pulled him in for an embrace with them. “Oh, but you’ve taken care of me all these years as well! I’m sure that you would be very capable of taking care of Mono.” She stated. “Yes, well… unfortunately, I have to make sure Lith is alright. I saw that club swarmed by a squad of bat ponies, and I’m afraid as to what that would detail.” Stating these words, Fei walked three steps backwards. He turned around and walked out into the hallway. He lifted his right hand into the air and waved. Sophia cocked her head with a cheerful grin on her face and waved with her right front paw. Hearing the door to her home shut, she breathed a sigh of relief and rolled her eyes. “Well, the night was a bust. It was sad because I really wanted to dance with you, Mono. On the fortunate side, I finally get to shower all of this make-up for my costume off. I’m going to be in the shower if you need me.” Mono’s ears perked up at the swift shuffling of Sophia’s feet leaving the room. His upper right paw hung off the left side of the bed with a swinging limp, and he turned his head towards the door. His blurred eyes picked up a burst of fluorescent light that came from the white bathroom across the hallway. He squeezed his eyelids together and grunted, but continued staring forward. Sophia hummed a happy tune and stepped into the shower basin. She tapped her left paw against a black pad on the wall of the basin and swiped it towards her left. A monsoon of steaming water poured out from the shower nozzle, eliciting a peppy sigh and shut eyes from Sophia. She shut the door, leaving only a mosaic silhouette of her body viewable to Mono. Mono’s eyelids jumped open upon hearing Sophia’s relaxed moans. He saw Sophia grab what appeared to be a white bar of soap through the silhouette and rubbed her chest and neck base with it. He gazed her soapy paw scrubbing her torso down to her front legs. Witnessing her stand up on her bent hind legs, he saw Sophia dig the bar of low towards her abdomen and lowering downwards. His muscles clenched with excitement and his heart beat out of his chest. He lied on the bed, filled with sexual desire. Sophia grasped a bottle of lime green shampoo and poured a dollop of it on her right paw. She lathered her head with the solution and scrubbed behind her ears. Rinsing out what remains of the cleansing fluid from her body, she placed her left front paw on the black pad and swiped it downwards. The torrent of water halted to a stop and she pulled the shower door open. Mono gazed upon Sophia’s dampened coat, where her ribbons and portions of her clumped fur hung down from her body. His breathing became sporadic at the sight. Watching her grab a light pink towel and dry herself with a slow and deep rub, his heart wanted to give in from the sheer power and frequency of the beats. Sophia stepped out of the shower with her fur fluffed from the drying and approached the right side of the bed. She got on top of it and rested her head on the pillow. She faced Mono’s direction and stretched her body out. A wide yawn escaped her mouth. “Mono, would you like to take a shower before you go to bed?” She asked with a sleepy tone. “It might be hard with you to maintain your balance while you are inebriated, but I bet a nice shower will help filter out the alcohol from your brain.” “Uhhh…” Mono uttered out. “You are right… about the balance part. I wouldn’t… want to slip on your…” Mono’s eyes slowed into a close. His mouth shut itself and his breathing relaxed. Sophia smiled and rubbed his left shoulder with one of her ribbons. “Sleep tight, my samurai.” Lith and Rainbow Dash launched from the grips of the thestrals into a small closet. Rainbow Dash stared at the thestrals in front of her with a gnarled frown directed towards them. She dashed towards the doorway. A green barrier erected itself over it, causing Rainbow Dash to bump into it and fall to the ground. “You two are to remain here until we get Commander Spitfire to see you two. I advise that you behave while you are in here.” The thestral to the right said. Rainbow Dash looked towards her makeshift bound and clicked her tongue. “Can you at least tell me why you even used duct tape to bind my wings together? That’s such a random thing to do.” The thestral to the left scratched the back of her head and giggled with an anxious smile. “About that… we weren’t trained to detain perpetrators, so we never have ordinary binds. As for the duct tape, well… let’s just say that some calls we get happen to result in some poorly-timed explosions. We keep around duct tape so that we can seal pipes before they explode.” She said with her stoic stature slipping into a happy tone. “But still, you are not going to be taking that off anytime soon.” The two thestrals left, leaving Rainbow Dash and Lith alone. Rainbow Dash crossed her upper hooves and dropped down to the ground on her nethers. A sulking frown formed on her face. “Great… I never thought I would end a Nightmare Night put behind bars…” Sitting on the floor and making circles on the ground with her right paw. A depressed frown indented itself within her mouth. “…I’m sorry I got us into this, Rainbow Dash.” She said. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and let out an aggravated sigh. “You’re right you’re sorry! We all could have been having a good time at the club had you not attacked me like that.” She shouted. “Why did you even have a hissy fit over Mono and I drinking?!” Lith stared at the room beyond the barrier. A sojourn breath rose from her lungs and her blood chilled. “Mono and I drank alcohol once.” She stated with a defeated tone, eliciting jumping ears and widened eyes from Rainbow Dash. “We were fifteen when we came across a six-pack of beer. There was nobody around and curiosity got the better of us.” With her interest piqued, Rainbow Dash scooted towards Lith’s direction and set her eyes upon her. “What happened after that?” She asked with an anxious tone. “Terrible things happened. It turned out that we were both incredible lightweights and couldn’t handle even half a can of beer without feeling its effects. The both of us were so tipsy that we collapsed on the spot. After shutting the world out from us, we both had night terrors.” With her voice breaking towards the end, Lith explained. “Night terrors?” Rainbow Dash worded out with fear gripping the atriums of her heart. “What makes them different from nightmares?” “Night terrors are terrible. They rob the victim of any sort of security in their sleep. As such, it’s a sleeping hell in all intents and purposes. Our night terrors were no different; mine was when I sat in the back of my parents’ car on the day they died. I visualized myself in that crash, and I remembered my body being pierced by shards of glass.” “What happened next?!” On the edge of her seat, Rainbow Dash shouted. Lith glanced towards Rainbow Dash with a faint smile on her face. She shrugged her shoulders. “Well, I saw some dark-looking eldritch abominations tearing apart the car with their limbs and taking my dead parents away. I screamed and tried to chase after them, but it was like I felt all of the glass inside of me tearing my body apart. Then another abomination appeared before me and started dragging my body through a dark gate.” She glanced over towards Rainbow Dash, who glanced down towards the ground with a frown. An artery in Rainbow Dash’s mind filled with uncertainty. “And what about Mono? How was his night terror?” Tears welled up underneath Lith’s eyelids. Her breathing burned with melancholy. “If I was kicking, screaming and on the onset of a physical seizure… then Mono tried killing himself. To this day, he never told me about what he dreamt. But, it must have exceeded my night terror if he was suicidal for the rest of the day.” She explained. “Lith, please tell me you are joking. You have to tell me you are! You mean to tell me that Mono got a night terror so bad that he tried killing himself?! All because he drank alcohol?!” Rainbow Dash shouted. Lith nodded with a slow movement of her head. Her sad eyes contorted into anger, and she flashed a fiery stare towards Rainbow Dash. “That’s right! Now, because of you, he’s going to have another suicidal night terror, and I can’t be there for him in his time of need.” Rainbow Dash’s heart swelled with guilt. The muscles of her throat clenched themselves, locking the saliva upon the base of her tongue. “I didn’t mean it, Lith! Honest! I only had his best interest in mind.” She stated. She tipped over towards Lith and cupped her front hooves together, moving them and gazing at her with pleading eyes. “I never meant to hurt Mono… I don’t want to have this guilt on my hooves! I… I don’t. Please…” Rainbow Dash’s eyes filled with repentant tears and her cries choked themselves into guilty whines. Lith frowned and lifted her left upper paw towards Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow Dash, please… don’t… don’t act like that. You are a grown mare.” “It’s my fault… It’s my fault… It’s always my fault…” Crouching into a fetal position and rocking back and forth, Rainbow Dash murmured. “Please Rainbow Dash… just… you don't... why are you acting like this?” With her tears streaming down from her eyes, Lith asked. Mono opened his eyes, bringing forth the dark of night into his world. He sat up from the bed and rubbed his eyes. He glanced towards his left, gazing at Sophia sleeping with a peaceful smile on her face. A soft smile appeared on his face. “It seems like she’s still asleep.” He said with a silent whisper. He glanced down towards his body, discovering that none of his costume had adorned onto his body. He pawed portions of his torso and legs with quick speed and anxious panting. “Where did my costume go?! I could have sworn that I slept with it!” “You mean that shoddy garb? Don’t know.” Mono’s stance froze in place. He glanced towards his right, gazing upon the male Meowstic that stood to the side of his bed. He crossed his upper paws and glared at Mono with yellow eyes that illuminated the night. “Who are you?!” Mono shouted. The Meowstic lifted both upper paws towards the sides of his head, smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “You should know who I am. I am a part of you, after all. That beer felt good, didn’t it?” He said with a voice similar to Mono’s. Mono stared towards the mysterious Pokémon with an impatient frown on his face. “What does that have to do with anything? I have no idea who you are, and I do not like the fact that you are in my girlfriend’s room creeping around us at night.” “I have many names, but I think you would probably have a better time understanding who I am if I gave you this for my identity; I am your Id.” The Id responded. “Wait, the Id as in the Freudian Trio first thought upon by Sigmund Freud?” With his ears perked and fear pumping through his heart, Mono asked. “Yep. Then… you must know why I am here now.” The Id walked over towards Sophia’s side of the bed and leaned over her body. Arching his body with his left upper paw, he rubbed the torso of Sophia’s coat with a swift speed. Mono held his right upper paw out with a staunch movement and glared flames towards The Id. “Step. Away. From Sophia.” He demanded. “Such a nice and sleek coat she has. That luster and that form… she definitely wants to be filled with the seed of a male.” With an obsessive tone, The Id said with omniscient direction. “I said step away from her! Step away from her or else I will destroy you!” Mono threatened. The Id stepped away from Sophia and lifted his paws away from her. A sinister chuckle escaped from his grinning mouth. “I know you want to be the one to fill her with your seed. After all, I know all of your desires.” He replied. “So what are you waiting for? She is so vulnerable and ready to be ridden.” All of Mono’s eyes flashed with an aqua blue color. Psychic energy surrounded The Id, but dissipated upon coming into contact with him. Mono’s blood chilled upon witnessing the failure of his Psychic. “It didn’t work?!” “Of course not. I am a part of you, so I have just as much control over your abilities as you do.” The Id responded with a calm voice. “If you don’t breed with the Sylveon here, then you failed in your destiny as a male.” “I’m not going to stoop so low as to do that with her unconscious body. She’s not able to consent.” Mono iterated. “You sound like you care about her… but you don’t. All you care about is making sure that your own genetics is passed onto the next generation. I know you want to fornicate the living daylights out of her until you filled her womb with your germinating seed.” The Id replied with a gnarled grin on his face. Mono looked towards The Id with his eyes narrowed and his mouth curled with disgust. The Id slammed his right upper paw into his forehead and laughed with a maniacal tone. Mono’s stance faltered, and he raised his right eye in confusion. “What’s so funny? I don’t get the humor.” He asked. “I know that look anywhere; it is the look of hatred! You hate me! Therefore, you hate yourself!” The Id responded with a tone that peaked into screaming. “No! I don’t hate myself. I only hate you!” Shaking his head and steeling his nerves, Mono replied. “So you hate your desires then? You hate how you feel the way you feel for Sophia here? You hate how she, your family and your friends always make you feel happy and lighthearted? You hate eating? You hate living? Then you hate yourself.” The Id answered back with a smug grin on his face. “Stop it! You aren’t me! You are just an illusion of myself!” Sophia’s bedroom disappeared in a veil of darkness, leaving only Mono and The Id alone. Black tendrils shot out from The Id’s back and wrapped around Mono’s upper paws. Mono squirmed and grunted under the pressure from the tentacles squeezing his wrists. “Let. Me. Go!” Shouting these, he bit into the tentacles with his fanged teeth. A sharp piercing sensation reverberated from his left upper ankle. Witnessing a flow of blood dispense itself from his wrist, we dropped down onto his knees. “Any pain you try to inflict on me is inflicted on you instead. Anything you do to me happens to you.” The Id explained. Mono looked down on his injured wrist with watery eyes. He glanced towards The Id with a broken frown. “Please… just leave me alone! I never want to see you again!” He pleaded. “No matter what you do, I will always be with you. I will be with you when even a moment’s thought of desire shows up in front of you. You cannot escape me, Mono.” The Id walked over towards Mono with grasped his face by his left cheek. “Now, you better put yourself on Sophia whether she is consenting or not! I want her virginity and so do you!” Mono launched his right upper paw against The Id’s left cheek, knocking him onto the ground and bruising the launched area. Mono felt the blow he inflicted against the Id. His bottom feet skidded along the ground and he felt a bruise on his face. His body trembled from the surprising amount of pain wracked onto it. “Please… leave. I don’t want to hurt you…” He muttered out. The Id stood up from the ground and looked into Mono’s eyes. The bruise on his face restored itself to regular coloration. “We know that isn’t what you want, Mono. You want to hurt yourself. You want to end your existence because you hate yourself. Well then.” Turning his face and directing his left cheek towards Mono, the Id pointed towards the area where Mono struck. “Go end my life, because it is what I desire as well.” “I don’t want to die! I don’t. Please, let me live in peace!” Crouching down on the ground and grasping his temples with a firm grasp, Mono shouted with utter torment. “No wonder everyone considers us to be a bunch of wimps. I wanted to prove them all wrong by not being the weak link on the team. Unfortunately, you are too much of a coward to be able to achieve the simplest of your desires. I will always be with you, and I will always remind you of how pathetic as a being we both are.” With these words, The Id vanished into the darkness, and light entered inside of Mono’s eyes. Mono jolted upwards with panicked panting and widened eyes. Beads of cold sweat dripped down from his face. He glanced around his body, gazing at a white and blue-striped gown adorned to his body. Feeling stiffness in his upper left ankle, he flipped it around. Seeing the deep scratches in his wrist, his heart plummeted into the depths of his intestines. He looked around his surroundings, finding himself on a twin-sized bed within a white room. Sitting on a chair with her head slumping to her right, Sophia slept with saliva pooling on the edge of her lower lip. Mono gazed below her eyelids, where two trails of dried tears ran down her face. He tilted his head away from her. A frown broke out from his mouth. “S-Sophia?” He uttered out. Sophia’s eyes opened. She shook her body and aligned her body’s posture upwards. Sucking in her drool and shaking her exhaustion off, she glanced towards Mono with a frown on her face. “M…Mono? Are you… alright?” She asked with a wary voice filled with concern. “I’m… not sure. Where am I?” Rubbing the tuft of white fur on his head, Mono questioned. “You’re in the Medical Division’s patient ward. I woke up in the middle of the night after hearing some terrified mumbling coming from you. Then… I saw you hurt yourself in your sleep.” Sophia explained. “Hurt myself?” Sophia leaped off of the chair and brought her front legs onto Mono’s bedside. Her eyes lit up with panic and a sorrowful frown plastered itself on her face. “Yes! You were scratching at your wrists and your face! I tried pinning you down, but you launched me against a wall with your Psychic. I’m sorry Mono, but I had to call a squad of thestral operatives around to restrain you and bring you here. I felt useless…” Sophia gazed away from Mono. Her heart trembled with anxiety and a nauseous discoloration appeared on her face. Mono worked up the courage in his heart to look towards her face, seeing tears stream down her face once more. He reached his right paw towards Sophia’s face and wiped away her tears. “Why are you crying?” He asked. Sophia set her gaze towards Mono and looked into his eyes. Her frown deepened into a tortured expression. “I saw how your body acted; you were hurting yourself on purpose. You almost grabbed the sword of your costume and even began cutting your own body with it. Why… why did you want to kill yourself?!” “Because… because…” Mono stuttered out. With tears streaming down his eyes and his nose wrinkling, he looked down onto his bed sheets. “Because I hate myself.” Sophia leaped onto Mono’s bed and embraced him with her front legs. She rubbed the back of his head with her paws, sending warm shocks of care down Mono’s nerves. “Don’t ever say that, Mono. I know that is not true, because you are still capable of loving others. A Pokémon that hates himself cannot do that.” She chided. A trembling pain struck Mono’s head. He winced and let out a sharp cry. Sophia backed away from Mono and saw him lifting his upper right paw to his head. “My head!” He shouted. “Are you hung over, Mono?” Sophia asked. “So this is what feeling hung over feels like? I only had two cups to drink last night. I didn’t think I would be this hurt.” Mono replied. Sophia smirked with a cheery grin on her face. She grabbed Mono’s left upper paw with her right front paw. “You know, I know some remedies for a hangover. And, before you ask, Fei’s father sometimes awoke like that. I will be able to get you up on your feet. Just relax and let me do all the work.” She said with a huff of pride in her voice. Through the pain on his face, a smirk rolled over his mouth.