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Ruby jolted in her skin when the faceless apparition was suddenly her. It was one thing looking at herself in a mirror, but this? She felt light for a moment, like her very being wasn't sure which body it was supposed to be in. Then, it was Isaac, and Ruby did a double-take to make sure her fellow Rocket was still standing next to her.

[break][break]"Knock it off!" she snapped. Arceus, this thing was annoying. Annoying, yeah. Totally not creepy at all. Not even when it rubbed its featureless chin.

[break][break]Isaac said it before Ruby could: They weren't dead. They couldn't be dead, right? A dead person's heart wouldn't be trying to break out of its ribcage, would it?

[break][break]Unfortunately, fearful curiosity won over spite, and Ruby looked at Isaac's shoulder in his stead. "Oh, fuck off with that!" she shouted as she swatted at the hand. Fucking hell, it was cold. No wonder Ruby was shivering. "We get it, you're a scary Ghost-type here to freak us out and eat our souls or something. Forget it! You're getting off our sub now! Cerb, light it up!"

[break][break]But there was no response. No growl, no bark, and definitely no stream of fire aimed at the so-called ghost. Ruby tried again: "Cerberus! Flamethrower!" Still nothing. "Hey, are you listen... ing?"

[break][break]Ruby had never seen Cerberus look so afraid before. Hell, she'd never seen him look afraid at all before. He was always so sure of himself, even if he was at a clear disadvantage, but now, he stared at the apparition with huge, scared eyes, lowered ears, and a visibly trembling body. That... That wasn't right. Cerberus wasn't supposed to be like that. And was Ruby still shaking, too? No, no, that couldn't be. Ruby wasn't afraid of some measly Ghost-type. Ghost-types were easy for her, given that one of her preferred types was Dark. Ghost-types, for all their trickery, could be fought and taken down. And that should have been something Cerberus was happy to do. And yet... And yet...

[break][break]She took a deep, trembling breath. "What the hell do you want?" She tried to sound intimidating, but her voice was low, even shaky.

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Ruby grit her teeth at the specter's non-answer. If she weren't dealing with... well, this, she would smart-mouth the floating bastard. But she was dealing with this, so she'd have to take a different approach. "We're not 'kids,'" she said with way less bite than she wanted.

[break][break]Watson looked worse than Cerberus did. Ruby didn't even know Totodile spikes could droop like that. Yet Isaac was right there to comfort him despite being just as scared. Shit, now Ruby just felt like a wimpy asshole. "Cerberus," she said, voice low yet firm. "Get behind me." It wasn't like Ruby could do anything against this ghost, but she was not going to be a jerk to her Pokémon. That was saved exclusively for other people.

[break][break]Cerberus kept his eyes on the ghost as he padded over to Ruby. Rather than stand behind her, though, he pressed himself into the side of her leg. It seemed Ruby wasn't the only one trying to preserve their pride here, even if the Houndour was still trembling.

[break][break]She narrowed her eyes a bit at the figure's explanation. "What, you're saying you died 'cause you didn't have any friends?" Ah, yes, calling out people's bullshit, the perfect cure for fear.

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"Oh, you fucking—!" Great, the ghost was a smartass. Just what she needed. ... Actually, it was what she needed. Channeling her snark was a great way to avoid focusing on the real issue! Her outrage morphed into a smirk. "You're still saying you've got no friends. Sucks for you."

[break][break]Ruby hadn't really believed in an afterlife before all this. Had that been a lack of faith? Or a way to ignore the fact that if there was one, it wouldn't be pleasant for her? She'd done plenty of bad shit in her life, and she didn't plan on changing that anytime soon. It was the only way she could live at this point. And if Arceus or some other deity decided that meant she deserved to be in Hell? Then fuck them for giving her no other choice but a life of crime.

[break][break]Fuck them even more for giving her hope for anything else and then tearing it away.

[break][break]Isaac, on the other hand, was taking a different approach. Ruby could appreciate him telling off this jackass of a ghost, but she didn't appreciate the shaking that came with the ghost's laughter. She wobbled on the newly unsteady foundation.

[break][break]"Yeah, screw this place," she said. Now who was the one latching onto false confidence? She paused when she saw the fog that covered the path behind her, though. Caught between the unknown and a creepy, annoying ghost. She was grateful Isaac's back was turned to her when another shiver skittered up her spine. Naturally, she missed all his nervous tells, too concerned about her own.

[break][break]"Keep your ears open, Cerb," she said. Then, gathering all her courage, she jogged after Isaac into the darkness. For all she knew, she was running head-first into another layer of Hell. But—and she couldn't believe she was saying this—Isaac was right. If she didn't want to be like this scrawny excuse for a Rocket ghost, she couldn't just let something like this push her around. She'd rather be in a Hell of her own creation than one that someone else made. At least then she'd know what she'd be in for.

[break][break]But if things did go wrong? She was absolutely blaming Isaac.

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It felt like walking against a current, but that didn't stop Ruby from continuing forward. She wasn't dead. She wasn't dead, dammit, and she was getting out of this weird place before... Before what? Before she actually died? Nope, screw that. Ruby still had a reason to live, and she would not end up like that sorry excuse for a ghost.

[break][break]And she would not end up like her mother.

[break][break]The ground, if it could even be called that, fell away, leaving Ruby feeling like she was floating. She tried to move her arms and legs, but they suddenly felt like lead weights instead of limbs. And suddenly, she couldn't breathe. Dammit, no, not like this! She didn't want to die. She couldn't die! She would keep fighting, no matter what it took, no matter how much she had to struggle, no matter—!

[break][break]And then she was unceremoniously dumped on the hard, cold floor, coughing and cold and... soaking wet? What the hell? She opened her eyes to see a blurry dark-gray-and-blue mass staring at her. Something nudged the side of her face, whining worriedly. She blinked a few times, and her vision cleared. "'Rachne? Cerb?" she asked, voice heavy and weak. "The hell is...?"

[break][break]Then she heard Isaac's half-wheeze, half-groan and saw him being punched in the stomach by his own Aggron. It would have been funny if Ruby weren't so damn confused. Isaac spoke her questions before she could. She watched Kiryu point to the closet, then walk in to show just how small it actually was.

[break][break]"You're fucking with me," she muttered, though she didn't know to whom. She pulled herself to her feet and stared into the closet as if that would make it grow again. Nope, still just a tiny-ass closet with... was that some kind of stove? She squinted in the dark. Weird, it looked like it was on, but...

[break][break]Ruby threw a hand over her eyes as the world was suddenly flooded with light. "What on earth is going on in here?" an unfamiliar male voice asked. A hurried set of footsteps approached, and Ruby peered out to see what looked like a scientist, complete with glasses and a lab coat.

[break][break]"Hell if I know," Ruby said. "One minute we're in a creepy-ass endless closet, then suddenly we're out here."

[break][break]The scientist blinked rapidly. He turned toward said closet, which was decidedly not endless, and then had to do a double-take. "Oh no." With one hand covering his mouth and nose, he ran inside and cranked the knob to the "OFF" position, then dashed back out and slammed the door behind him. "Okay, this is going to need to be quarantined, what kind of idiot just leaves the gas running like that all night...?! Did you say you two were in that closet? ... Why are you wet?"

[break][break]"I don't fucking know!"

[break][break]Beside her, Arachne chittered. Though she couldn't say so, she had been called out of her Poké Ball by a panicked Cerberus when Ruby had fallen unconscious. Something had been wrong with the air, so she'd picked Ruby up in her water bubble and carried her into the hallway.

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"Yeah?" she whispered back to Isaac. "Why wouldn't...?" The pieces slowly clicked into place. The endless closet didn't actually exist. They were here in the hallway, having been rudely awakened by their Pokémon. And Pagliacci was going on about a gas leak.

[break][break]Okay. So either they had actually almost died and caught a glimpse of Hell, the so-called ghost was royally fucking with them, or they'd somehow had the same gas-induced dream. Ruby wasn't sure which was freakier.

[break][break]"Yes, yes!" Pagliacci's nerdy voice cut in at Isaac's mention of the infirmary. When had he gotten so close? "Gas inhalation can be very dangerous; you two need to get to the medical bay now!" He had the gall—the audacity—to start physically pushing the two in that direction.

[break][break]"I can walk, dammit!" Ruby snapped, slapping his hand away.

[break][break]"Oh, yes, of course," Pagliacci muttered, rubbing his now-sore hand. "But no skipping out on treatment! Go straight to the medical bay and tell them what happened! I'll be there shortly; I've got to make sure the gas hasn't spread."

[break][break]Ruby let his words fade into her ever-growing who-gives-a-fuck fog. "Yeah, yeah," she said dismissively as she followed Isaac. Arachne and Cerberus walked on either side of her, the former ready to catch her if she fell or something.

[break][break]She looked down at whatever Isaac had pulled out of his pocket. It was just a coin, so Ruby didn't give it much thought at first... but then she realized it had no face. And it was etched with "See ya soon!" instead of whatever gibberish they wrote on coins. Isaac threw it into the closet. Ruby never heard it land.

[break][break]"Nope, fuck this," Ruby said. "Put me on all the pain meds and knock me the fuck out." She picked up the pace, ready and eager to get this over with and put tonight behind her like a bad dream. Because that's what it had been, right? Just a bad dream? Ghosts weren't real, after all. They couldn't do shit to her if they didn't exist.

[break][break]She pointedly ignored the feeling of being watched as she walked.