I am woken by a bright light and opening my eyes, I can see a white roof. It takes me a moment before I am more aware, and I sit to look at myself. Looking down, I was, a pokemon and a human? Looking down, its like I had two clear pieces of cellophane, each with a different image and tint, overlapped, and swapping between which is in front. It was making me disoriented and nauseous, but I looked around. After a few minutes of blocking out blurred or incredibly difficult to make out things, I was lying on a bed in the left corner of a silver room. There was a bedside cupboard that changed shape and colour beside me. The white roof I saw was in one, the bottom of a bunkbed but in the other, it was a ceiling with a fan hanging down.

There was a dresser, in both wood and some other material, that changed positions and size from the opposite corner to me to the corner at my feet. Above me in the room with a normal bed and human body was a long shelf with I don’t know what on top. In each version, I can see a door. The first is a black wooden door on the right wall with other is a white door on the same wall beside it. When one comes into focus, the other closes. At the end of the bed in both versions is a sleeping person sitting on the floor with their head resting facing towards me.

One is the woman I was going to marry, Ruby. The other is Jennifer.

My body feel heavy as I fall backwards and the world flashes.

I am woken to the sounds of the morning. The sun is already up and Jen isn’t in the tent. Looking out into the light, I can see Ollie with his back to me. I get up and stretch before leaving the tent and see both trainers and their pokemon enjoying their morning, so I joined them.

[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/618692866566389772/795564484147544065/Alternate_Eyes-time_gap.png]

The morning activities passed quickly as we headed off and nothing has come out of that wall I saw in the cave. But I guess there won’t be for a while cause of all the water. Hope that ranger is okay. It would be ironic that the rescue operative needs help. Walking along the route, the heavy rain had done a number on some sections of the road, I assume. Considering how the road looked so far, they seemed well maintained so large wash outs and small potholes would probably be recent. Along with the tree that’s blocking the road. And I have no idea why, but this made me pissed.

I spent about half an hour taking my anger out on it before I felt better. Well, it is more the case of there wasn’t enough left to take my anger out on. All that was left was groves, slashes, splinters and some chunks of wood and bark on the road. The whole time, the thought of the pokeball altering my mind kept coming back when I felt calmer and now there wasn’t enough left to vent.

Panting, I turn to see Jennifer and Oliver not behind me on the road.

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Hello? I call slightly worried to which I see the twins heads pop out from behind some trees further back along the road I then notice carved across the road behind me is a grove where I used Dark Pulse.

“Are you okay Shade?” Oliver somewhat fearfully calls from his hiding place. “There has been something bothering you since the cave, hasn’t there.”

I run over to the twins and they flinch a little which makes me hesitate in my stride. Im suddenly spinning and rolling along the ground before coming to rest and standing back up. The trainers have come out from cover with Oliver being calmed down while Jennifer was still slightly shaken.

“Can you explain to us what’s going on?” Oliver asks me, holding Jennifer’s hand which had a slight shake to it. I look down into the dirt and start to write before stopping, erasing, and trying again. And again. And again. Every time I got close to finishing, I just crossed it out, and started again.

The two waited for me to finish, probably reading in their heads as I go along. 5, 10, 15 minutes passed as I struggled to say what I needed so I had another idea. Erasing my current explanation, I wrote into the ground:

*I’ll explain at the next camp, I need to think of how to say it.*

“Okay Shade.” Jennifer said with concern in her voice. “Think about it.” She added with a small smile.

Thank you. I say. But it didn’t help remove the knotted feeling I had in my chest.

[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/618692866566389772/795564484147544065/Alternate_Eyes-time_gap.png]

I stayed a further distance in front of the two the whole way till our campsite which was next to a rocky bank with several trees that has a small stream flowing past. The whole trip all I could do was think about how I would say it. We had even stopped under a large shady tree in that had an entire 10 meter section of space to itself and had lunch which I skipped just so I could think. I could just not say anything and just leave them. Should I though? Nothing was stopping me now with the dusk ball in several pieces lost somewhere in that cave system. Hell, I could have probably had a good attempt at leaving the trainers in the hole and made it out by myself and left then. I’m not sure what is stopping me doing it though. It isn’t the any after affects from the pokeball as I can feel it and it isn’t the same thing. More like an itch I can’t scratch and plus, I can feel them both as separate influences and the pokeballs affect is so minisolo I can easily ignore it to focus on the other.

Do I actually just want to stay with these two? That felt wrong and right saying. The urge to just be as free as I want saying to leave but at the same time, saying this is still being free.

I look over to the trainers and their pokemon from my spot in a tree next to a river and could see they had their tents up and a small gas stove with a pot on top. Hoot, Aron, Fen, and Froakie were playing with Oliver and Jennifer. Well, playing for them, training for the trainers. The light of day was fading to the dark of night as I sat here. I put my head down so im looking at the ground so I can think.

Ever since that ball had broken, my emotions have been so out of wack that it is hard to think of what the right course of action would be. Its both a blessing that I can have my freedom but also a curse as I cant think or feel straight. I glance up to see both Fen and Jen cheering while Aron and Ollie looked defeated with Aron having some marks on him. Through the trees and over the horizon rose the full moon. As I looked at it, my mind felt clearer and my body stronger. The blue marks on my body started to glow with a silver tint and my mind felt clearer but my mind was still in a wreck.

With this new state of mind, I hopped out from my tree and headed over to the twins to talk. Cause not only did I need some help to cope, I needed answers.