Marshadow had followed her out of the Border without her realizing it until she was at her campsite. She had been inside her tent about to sleep, but the sight of the Marshadow's shadow cast upon her tent, the visual of its outline pressed against the fabric by the moon's light, jolted her to full awareness. Her heart raced, nearly beating out of her chest. "What the hell?"

She wasn't going to be terrorized by Marshadow, not when she had pledged to everyone that she would be stronger. She pushed herself out of the sleeping bag and out of the tent, coming out swinging and with a battle cry, but the pokemon was gone the second she opened the tent. She looked around, but it was nowhere.

A nightmare?

She put her hands down, sighing. Her shoulders dropped and she let her head hang, too. The relief and embarrassment flooded her, but she didn't let it overtake her. She exhaled evenly, determined to sleep well tonight without nightmares of the Marshadow that'd attacked her. But as she touched the flap of her tent again, she felt it before she saw it: the Marshadow just a centimeter within her peripheral, waiting.

"What." She asked between clenched teeth. She took a breath before turning her head to look at it.

Stupid Marshadows weren't as expressive as Snorlax or Gengar. Still, she knew how they were feeling because they put out a vibe or presence that she picked up on like she did with all ghost pokemon and most others, that intuition of hers that picked up on some other level of energy. And this one.... was curious.

About her? Why?

She held its gaze, but it did nothing. She blinked at it, unwilling to break first. She sensed no aggression, but she also didn't feel any affection from it. But why else would it follow her?

It moved towards her; she hated it, but she flinched, instinctively.

For all her work with re-normalizing her life or whatever after the events at the water routes, she still had that stupid animal instinct to hide. Because fighting hadn't worked and running at come at a cost. It was a bitter pill to swallow, her failure, and it was exacerbated by the cruel way she treated her pokemon afterwards, like salt in a wound. Her shame was two-prong, almost three with the way her fear lingered around her, the way she cowered away from the Marshadow before she steeled herself, straightened her posture and leaned in towards it.

She hadn't looked away when she flinched and she wasn't now, even as shame made her want to. But she was Ranger Robin Coello, friend of ghosts, and she couldn't afford to hide. She couldn't afford be scared of any ghost -- it would betray her entire message, her foundation, her purpose in life. "What." She repeated, tone even but forced.

And it turned its head in curiosity. "Why'd you follow me?" She gestured wide with her arms, voice raising in her anger and confusion. "Why not stay in the Border? No one asked you to come here! You don't belong-" She cut herself off and looked away this time. She wanted ghosts to belong, that wasn't what she meant. But Hoenn felt safe to her, outside of the water routes... she didn't want the scariest pokemon she'd ever faced to ruin her sanctuary. But. This wasn't the same Marshadow that she had been attacked by earlier in the year. Her baggage wasn't its cross to bear; she was a hypocrite for trying to do that to it.

She exhaled slow, then met its eyes again. "Why are you here?" She asked quieter.

Like a flash, it flew into her tent. "Hey!" She chased after it, but the Marshadow was resting on her pillow like a person would, staring at the ceiling of the tent.

"Bro-" she started informally before she checked herself. "I-- c'mon. You came here to take my sleeping bag?"

He was between her and her pokeballs. She didn't think he'd go for violence, as she hadn't seen 'play with your food' behaviors from any Marshadow before. She didn't want to stay up all night waiting for the pokemon to make a move. "I'm not playing games with you. Get out of here." She made a shoo'ing gesture. The Marshadow flickered backwards, knocking into one of her pokeballs.

Spiritomb popped out, and Marshadow looked at it with a strange expression. Instinctively, Robin dove between the two of them, awkwardly not on all fours but on three, with one arm braced outward to add distance between Marshadow and Spiritomb. "Don't touch him," she insisted steely.

She stared him down. Marshadow blinked.

"Did you come here for my pokemon?" It shook its head no. "Did you come for me?" It nodded. "Why?" It blinked.

Okay, that's on her. Yes or no questions only. "Are you here to hunt me?" No. "You want a fight?" No. "You here to explore the non-Border land?" A pause. Then, a nod. "Okay. But you're around me. You think I'm a tour guide?" No answer. She exhaled slowly, trying not to give into her frustration. Marshadow pointed at Spiritomb. "My pokemon," she observed aloud. "You want to see them?" Slow nod. So not quite true? "You want to see Hoenn with them and myself?"

An enthusiastic nod.

Okay, so he did want to use her. At least he wasn't trying to knock all her pokemon out and contribute to her abduction. This Marshadow had a low bar to clear in terms of being the best Marshadow she'd ever met. Even still, she didn't need this thing on her team. It did not listen, it still brought up raw memories, and she wasn't knowledgeable enough about anything from the Border to feel comfortable keeping a Border pokemon close to her out here.

"No, I'm not going to do that. You can find someone else." 

Three weeks.

It took three whole weeks for Robin to cave. Marshadow followed her through the shadows and revealed himself at night. Sometimes, in her peripheral, he saw her mimic her gestures and emotions. She felt like a test subject and the victim of a prank in even strokes. On the twenty-first night, she sighed loudly in her treetop rented room. She felt his presence, now, long before he made himself known.

She ranted at him for several minutes as he creeped closer. Then, she found herself complaining at him while he sat at the foot her bed in the same manner she was sitting. She rubbed at her temple, suddenly aware of what they would look like to a third observer. She saw herself in her mind's eye.

He had been haunting her for weeks, hounding her until she'd relent and let him come along. But he had been following her all along, anyways. While she still had her misgivings about this kind of pokemon given her first experience with a Marshadow, he was distinctly acting like a lost soul, and she had become a Ranger to help those. Ghosts were her reason for becoming a better trainer, Ranger, and person.

So, she relented. Marshadow was a member of the team.

Marshadow was officially a member of the team.

Sinistea seemed to like it. But, she liked everything and everyone. All was good, except that she solved one problem and opened the door to another. Marshadow was an outsider slowly melding into the team, but now she had type: null. It was... a unique situation to be in.

She felt good about taking in black sheep, in a sense, but she was wracked with guilt every time she looked at it. Marshadow had been a harbinger of fear, and now this poor creation was a reminder of her other shortcomings and a reminder of her unhinged behavior back in the laboratory. She had nearly killed the scientist. Could she make amends in some cosmic way by nurturing the type: null away from its artificial instincts to hurt?