Before she can leave the expedition grounds, Munchlax cries out. She turns to see him on the ground, pinned by some invisible force. "Mun!" She falls to her knees at his side and curls her hands around his waist to pull him off the ground, but the invisible force's heavy weight prevents her. She looks up and around, but nothing, and no one, is there. Panic fills her. She tugs at him more frantically, but the normal type does not budge.

It must be a psychic type's interference, she was sure of it. They'd always had it out for her. But there were no psychic pokemon around. Even strong pokemon had range limitations. "Mun, I don't understand," she said as he whimpered. She couldn't lift him up, and if she waved her hands above him, there was no invisible anvil or anything keeping him down. She began to dig at the ground around him, like the force was some stiff shape that they could avoid if he moved away from it, beneath it.

The dirt gives way beneath her hands quickly, thankfully. The wet dirt is no match for her panic. She creates enough of a ditch to tug him down and sideways, pulling him from beneath the source. She clutches him to her and rises to her feet, booking it. She didn't have anyone else to rely on, no one else to save them. "I've got you, Mun. Always." The duo moved through the expedition grounds until it rolled into something unfamiliar. Despite the stress of it, she took some comfort in the self-reliance of it all. She had Mun and he had her. So long as they were together, there was nothing insurmountable.

The scene folded away from them. The two of them were back in Dewford. Her heart clenched at the sight. She was more established than before, more than the rookie she had been when she left home, but nothing substantial had changed. She had Mun and her stories of all her many adventures, but that didn't change that she lacked what her family had. They linked with psychic pokemon, had visions from before they could talk. There was something beneath the surface that separated her from her siblings.

She could not predict the weather or the obstacles to face or the news to receive. It was impossible for her to tell if someone was irritated or thoughtful or sorrowful at a great distance. She could not use her pokemon to strengthen her own visions or prophetic dreams.

But. She had excellent intuition. She could intuit the emotions of a ghost pokemon with ease. She had a natural inclination towards friendship with them. She had a strong bond with her pokemon like her siblings with theirs. She certainly had dreams and nightmares and let them guide her.

Sure, she lacked the psychic abilities, but she had inherited that sixth sense, that supreme connection with pokemon. Conviction and dedication sang in her veins all the same. She held Mun's hand as the scene blended from the entrance to Dewford to her family home. Her last obstacle, of course.

The front door opens before she can knock. Typical. Her psychic family couldn't resist opening the door before she could announce her arrival, a habit that began in childhood when she would try to sneak into the house from unusual angles and at odd times to prevent their precognition (to no avail). She swallows down the distasteful comment she wants to make as she walks inside, though the sourness is unmistakable on her face. Her mother is slow to look up from her book where she is resting on the couch; despite her premonition of her arrival, her mother takes her time in acknowledging her.

She holds her chin up high. She's a Ranger, a high enough level to have her own standing in Hoenn, to have students under her belt and connections to several cities. "Mom," she greets, but her older brother cuts her off before she can continue. He talks about her Munchlax, who has stayed by her side despite the overwhelming aroma of sweets wafting over from the kitchen. For his impressive appetite, it truly comes second to his loyalty. He knows her insecurity in dealing with her family, the insurmountable obstacle of connecting to them when they share something with each other she can never possess.

The thought used to keep her up at night. Every night.

But now, it's a bit of a relief. She exhales as the realization washes over her, and the weight that pressed her shoulders down no longer oppresses her as it had before. They're obligated to be similar to each other because of their shared gift, obligated to perform at identical levels of power to each other, obligated to carry the family torch and continue the psychic legacy. She gets choice. She picks up Mun, rests him against her hip like he doesn't weigh as much as he does -- but she's strong enough for him, much as he is for her.

He asserts that she's here to train her psychic abilities, but she gets to smile and, truthfully, insist she's just here for the family's other inheritance and claim to fame: excellent sweet pastries.

Her older sister comes up behind her, arms wrapping around her chest and constraining her. "I found a new pokemon! Let me show you!" She insists. Robin groans internally -- it's most likely a psychic, knowing her family -- but she's just made some peace with a long-term turmoil, so she lets it go amicably. "Okay, show me."

Her sister guides her to her room. She opens the door and.

And there's shadow. Everywhere. What? What happened to her room? Robin takes a step inside and within the indiscriminate darkness, she somehow makes out these little tendrils with sharp bits at the end, makes out some kind of golden faceplate. Robin grabs one of the tendrils and finds herself tugged forward and falling.

The darkness around her moves like a blur (somehow, she can determine it is moving) and she finds herself in some distorted version of the world. It feels a bit like the smog she'd encountered on the beach or like the weird expeditions to Mt. Pyre. There's something otherworldly about it. Robin feels the figure from before looming around her, but she already knows she won't see him if she looks. He's something special. Something legendary. But she doesn't know his name.

His energy fills her. She finds her vision enhanced in some odd way: she can see an additional layer over the reality she is living in. The spirits of pokemon and people alike fill her vision, flickering in and out as if she were filtering through time periods as her eyes flicker across the chaotic scene. The ability to see all ghosts instead of just the pokemon that show themselves... it's odd. It feels like she's looking into a shadow realm she shouldn't have access to.

She likes it.