"(Not after a comment like that,)" Ginger answered, still wearing a freaked expression.

"(And you know Sidney best,)" Suzaku said, smiling slightly. "(Maiden's right. Do it for her.)"

Ginger looked ahead at Sidney, who's entire body seemed sagging slightly as she walked, and she exhaled slowly. "(Well, I lived a long and prosperous life,)" she sighed, staring at the ground. "(Alright. For Sidney...)"

"(I'm sure you'll do just fine. But we'd best wait until evening, I think, after they've had a full day to cool off. And if we could keep them apart all this afternoon, during our pause for lunch, we could prevent the addition of insult to injury. And now, I believe I will float up by Sidney until our noon break. Perhaps... Ginger should stay here, until it is time to begin our plan in earnest.)"

It was the quietest trip the group had ever taken. Sidney had led the way, not even glancing back once during the long march. They did stop for lunch, but Sidney had chosen to alienate herself from everyone else, finding a nice secluded rock several yards away. Ginger hadn't said much either, mostly worried about Sidney--but also upset about having to talk to a bloodthirsty undead spirit later that day and about whether or not she would be around for tomorrow.

It was rapidly becoming night, and still no one had mentioned stopping to rest. Koga, though, was starting to get anxious. He knew they couldn't continue their journey like this, but he was afraid he'd mess everything up--exactly like last time. "Hmm, it's getting dark," he said. No response. Pretending like he thought no one heard him, he coughed loudly, clearing his throat. "Let's stop now. I've got a good story for you kids this time. One you've probably never heard before."

Cassius looked at Koga coldly for a moment, then sighed and nodded, and put down his bag to make camp. He wasn't particularly eager to hear another made-up ninja story, but felt unable to escape. Plus, he remembered what happened the last time he ran from such a tale, just one night before.

Maiden, more adept at reading emotions, looked up at Koga with a curious look, noting the difference in tone from his usual storytelling beginnings. She kept an eye on him as she began to collect sticks for a fire, wondering what his next move would be, and hoping he wouldn't have a Pandora moment and say exactly the wrong thing.

Sidney didn't feel like sticking around for another of her teacher's farfetched stories either, but she was a little famished and decided to stay just long enough to get some dinner. She took her seat, Ginger plopping down beside her. "(Does this story involve more ninja zombies?)" the pokemon asked, eager to hear anything, as long as it helped to take her mind off of her worries.

"Please, master, I'm not really in the mood to hear another of your made up tales," Sidney sighed, shaking her head.

"Who said they were made up?" Koga said, answering perhaps too quickly. "Aha! No, this isn't one of those stories. I'll tell you now, that this is a tale is true. It's about something that happened to me long ago, and how, even now, I never be able to rid myself of it." He gave a faint smile. "It's a tale about true love...and about heartbreak."

Even worse than ninja zombies, in Cassius' opinion. He tried to unpack faster without seeming to be in a hurry, wondering if he could forage some berries instead of sticking around to eat. The last thing he wanted was to sit around listening to a love story mixed with scenes of random ninja violence. Sidney didn't need to get any more ideas, she was being quite creative enough with her projectiles as is.

But Maiden smiled, and settled down once she'd finished her stick collecting, conveniently close to Pandora. It looked like Koga'd prove helpful this time, if he played his cards right...

Sidney wasn't about to sit around for a love lecture either, and she started to get up when Ginger suddenly decided to jump onto her lap. "Ginge, get off," she said, somewhat irritated, but the absol didn't budge.

"(Oh, a love story. Even better!)" Ginger said, recieving a strange look from Suzaku, who was lighting the fire. "(Everyone, quiet!)"

"Right, so I told you all about Sabrina and me--how we were coworkers, friends, and potentially in love." He stopped right there, looking over at Cassius, who he noticed was rushing to unpack. "Ah, Cassius, when you're finished with that, would you be a good lad and organize my poisons for me? I'm afraid some of the labels have peeled off while in my backpack--must be this summer heat--and you're more of a connoisseur than I am."

Cassius was about to protest- and maybe make some remark about not ordering around one's elders- but as he looked up to do so he got glares from both his pokemon, and suspected there'd be no way out even if he refused Koga's busywork task. Which was, if nothing else, at least somewhat tasty. "Very well" he muttered, bitter but not quite energetic enough to object. Perhaps, if he finished quickly, he could escape before Koga got too unbearable or Sidney tried to throw things.

"Where was I now?" Koga said, turning back to the rest of his audience. "Oh, yes. Well, at first, Sabrina didn't like me. I was a bit of a flirt, you see, and about as much of a show off as Lt. Surge, if not moreso. I thought that if I had the looks and the body, I could get any girl I wanted. But Sabrina was nothing like the other girls. She saw right through my macho facade...literally. She was constantly probing into my mind, wanting to know if I was thinking about her--and I did think about her, all the time. I saw her as a challenge, y'see. All the other girls had managed to fall head-over-heels in love with me, but wooing Sabrina was like trying to woo a raging gyarados. I tried everything, from flowers, to chocolates, to a group of singing and dancing clefairys, and the harder I tried, the more I began to realize that I was actually falling for her. And she secretly liked me as well, although she would never admit it openly."

As Koga went on with his story, Sidney was looking more and more depressed. She didn't know where he was going with this, and she wished she could just go hide in a tree where she didn't have to socialize or listen to anymore of Koga's mind numbing stories.

Cassius was trying not to listen, but even if he usually exaggerated a bit he was a pretty good storyteller. He found himself keeping an ear on it as he sorted through Koga's poison bottles, tasting each and re-labeling them methodically as he pretended not to even notice the presence of others. He glanced at Sidney for half a moment, then turned away, gloom unbreached by Koga's story, which Cassius suspected would end in gloom and sadness anyways. Seemed that was love's lot in life.

"And you pretty much know the rest," Koga went on, barely looking up anymore. "I convinced her to go on a date with me, and it turned out disastrous. I had said the wrong thing, and Sabrina had become furious, barely speaking to me at all after that day. For the longest time I thought it was her fault for reacting the way she did, but I came to realize I was just as guilty for not trying to see things from her point of view. We were two very different people--I had grown up learning the ways of the ninja and she had spent most of her childhood meditating in her room, isolated from the outside world--and so we couldn't be expect to understand each other completely. But by the time I realized this, it was too late.

"Thinking back on it now, I was far too young and impulsive to know what was best for me. Don't get me wrong, I loved my wife and I've grateful to have shared my life with such a wonderful woman...but I often find myself regretting letting Sabrina go, and wondering what things would've been like if I had just apologized from the beginning. She was the only girl who made me feel complete, and I let her go all because of some silly misunderstanding."

Koga fell silent, letting his story end there, and he appeared grim...almost sad.

Oh, that was it. Cassius had assumed there was an ulterior motive behind the story, but that was particularly fitted to the situation. But a slight difference in childhoods was one thing, a difference of species and two hundred years' time something else altogether. Besides, in Koga's little story feelings were mutual, and Cassius wasn't so sure the same could be said between him and... her, who so quickly brushed off the pouring out of his heart as some stupid excuse. If she couldn't even tell the difference...

"I'm going to take a walk" he muttered, leaving the poison sorting unfinished and getting up, not leaving time for anyone to object. Maiden smiled softly, and looked over to Ginger.

When Ginger met Maiden's gaze, she inwardly flinched. If Maiden wasn't such a nice pokemon, Ginger would've probably ditched the entire mission--but she had promised herself she would do it for Sidney. "(I, uh...nature calls,)" she told the ninja, hopping off of her lap and quietly following Cassius. She felt like a convict marching to their execution. Hopefully Koga's story had helped to calm the angry ghost down instead of making him more likely to strangle the nearest living object.

After Ginger had left after Cassius, Sidney got up to leave as well, somewhat angry with her master for trying to help when Cassius was obviously too big of a jerk to be worth the effort. Koga frowned as she walked away, silently wondering if he had done the right thing.

Maiden got up to leave too, ready to do her part of their little "mission" (and perhaps a little more courageous than Ginger due to ghosts' immunity to fighting-type attacks.) She paused for a moment as she passed Koga, and bowed (or nodded her head, sort of the same thing) to him. "(Thank you)" she said, knowing he might not understand but trying anyways. And, with that, she fluttered off after the angry ninja.

Cassius, meanwhile, stopped soon after he was out of hearing range of the camp, remembering his last experience wandering too far away. He sat down on a convenient rock and stared upwards, sighing deeply and looking, lucky for Ginger, more depressed than angry.

Ginger stopped a few feet short of Cassius, unsure or whether or not he knew she was there or not. "(Um...)" She struggled for the right thing to say, remembering that Maiden had told her that this was a delicate situation that required a lot of tact, which wasn't one of Ginger's strong points. "(Uh, hey there,)" she said, laughing nervously. "(Looking at the stars?)" she ask, turning her gaze up to the sky as well. "(Yeah, they're...um...really pretty...)"

Sidney hadn't wandered far from camp either, stopping to lean against a sturdy tree trunk and wiping tears from her eyes with her scarf.

Ginger startled Cassius a little, but he was sort of used to her popping up at inopportune times. "(You)" he said morosely, not even having heart enough to make it sound like a dangerous accusation instead of a mournful statement of fact. "(Oh, just go away.)"

Maiden, on the other hand, had a little more tact, even if she too could pop up out of nowhere quite suddenly. "(A rather more sorrowful tale tonight than our usual fare, was it not? But I suspect Koga's long lost love was not the source of your current tears.)" She floated a few feet from Sidney at around knee level, close by but allowing Sidney her space. "(You seemed as though you could use someone to talk to, after... well, I'm not quite sure what, but you've seemed very unhappy today.)"

"(You know telling me to 'go away' isn't going to work,)" Ginger replied, although she didn't use her usual obnoxious tone while speaking. "(But talking to me might. I know something happened between you and Sidney. And don't try telling me that nothing's wrong. Yesterday morning, Sidney was the happiest I had ever seen her, and that night she was the complete opposite. You guys are close friends--and, if you're willing to talk about it, I'd like to hear from your mouth what happened to your special relationship. I...wanna help.)" Even though she didn't sound as sincere as Maiden, she did mean every word of what she said, and she bowed her head sadly.

"Maiden?" Sidney said when she saw the floating pokemon. "No, I...I'm alright," she answered, trying to dry her eyes in case the ghost hadn't seen her crying yet. "I...don't know if I want to talk about it."

"(How very useful of you)" he muttered, not sure whether or not to buy her sudden change of heart. He sighed again, and looked in the other direction. "(It was nothing, just... I was trying to explain something to her, and ended up realizing how she really feels.)" He shook his head. "(It's different, between us, and she'll be angry about it for awhile, but... it's for the best in the end, I suppose.)"

"(That's alright, too)" said Maiden, giving a little nod/bow and making sure she wasn't in Sidney's way. "(May I keep you company?)"

"(How she really feels?)" Ginger said, puzzled. "(What are you talking about? Sidney's crazy obsessed about you, even though she may not know it. Ever since you left Hoenn a year ago, all she ever talked about was coming to Kanto--not just because she was born here, but because she wanted to see you again. She usually avoids men, but you're the only guy she's ever shown interest in. I would know--I've been her best friend for seven years, and I also know she wouldn't get angry unless it was something serious.)" The absol frowned, then fixed the trainer with a curious stare. "(What...exactly did you say to her?)"

"Sure," Sidney answered Maiden. She looked down, still too distracted with her own thoughts to really pay Maiden much mind. But then she said out of the blue, "Have you...ever known Cassius to lie? I mean...about anything?"

"(I... told her about an old ghost curse, that would make anything between us life-threatening for her. She... she jumped on it instantly. Didn't even stop to hesitate, like she was trying to get rid of me, assumed I was telling some stupid, selfish lie.)"

"(...Lie?)" Maiden looked confused, then smiled. "(Lying is a little different for pokemon, you know. Our language relies more on the intent of what you're saying than the words, which makes it rather difficult to tell falsehoods. Some pokemon have that skill, Cassius... sometimes he might exaggerate, or avoid the truth, but I can't remember the last time he flat-out lied, and I doubt he's ever done so without being completely transparent about it. Has he... seemed like he's trying to hide something again?)"

Ginger continued to stare at Cassius, incredulous. "(Fifty years as a human and you still don't know anything about them,)" she said, her voice gradually escalating. "(Of course she doesn't believe it--I don't belive it--but apparently you do, so...fine. But what you need to understand is that humans are weird when it comes to chosing their mates. It doesn't matter if you're the strongest, fastest, or smartest--although those are all pluses. If that were the case, don't you think she would be chasing after Shade instead?)" Which Ginger was happy it wasn't, since she called dibs on the hot ninja first. "(What matters is how the other person makes them feel. When they find they like someone, it's just as important that the other person shares their feelings, otherwise there's no mutual bond.)"

The absol seemed frustrated now, wrinkling her nose at the ghost. "(Oh, don't you see? She thinks you made all that up because you don't like her--to get rid of her. Do you really think she would be this upset if it were the other way around?)"

"I guess I've just been blind then," Sidney sighed, trying not to look the misdreavus in the eye. "First, he lied to Moltres, telling him that he found me amazing and beautiful. And then he makes up this stupid story about some life-threatening curse he has and how dangerous it is for us to be together instead of coming straight out and saying he didn't like me and wanted out of the relationship."

That did make Cassius pause to think. Mutual emotional attraction was always important, of course, but since humans lacked any sort of social order... was that really all they had to go on? So Sidney, with all her strength, could really not realize how... incredible she really was? "(Humans!)" he growled in exasperation, sounding like he might do something violent, but instead he just collapsed again. "(She... really doesn't know?)"

Maiden took a moment to sort this out, then frowned. "(Oh, Sidney... I wondered if he'd said something of that sort, but... the curse is not a story. To ghosts, it's as real as the moon and stars, with instances of it happening throughout our history. Even if you do not believe in it, Cassius does, very strongly, and for him to worry about it taking hold... I do not like to put words into the mouths of others, but he must care very deeply for you.)"

"It's...true?" Sidney said, glancing over at the ghost. "So, then...he really..." She looked like she was going to burst into tears again, but she held her composure. "Cassius... He really was trying to protect me." She looked away sadly, still uncertain whether to believe it or not. "But why? I don't care about some silly curse. He said the odds were slim, but I think we can beat it." 'Nothing ventured, nothing gained,' as the old cliche went. "I mean, why sacrifice something good when you can have something better?"

So much for tact--but Ginger tried to be understanding, and refrained from calling Cassius any mean names. "(Know what? That her strength scares people? That she could have any man she ever wanted?)" she asked. "(Of course not! She's been oblivious for as long as I've known her. All she knows is that when she's around you, you make her feel special. The fact that she can probably twist your arm into becoming her mate is far from her mind.)"

Ginger realized that she probably hadn't been as comforting as she could've been. "(Ah, c'mon, Cassius. Cheer up,)" she said, giving a nervous grin. She turned her tail to him. "(You wanna kick me? I bet you ten berries you can't send me soaring over that tree. C'mon, I know you've always wanted to.)" She gave him a wag. "(Or you could go talk to Sidney instead and make everything right again.)"

"(To be truthful, I agree with you, Sidney, but Cassius... has gambled with this curse before, and lost. He's protective by nature, I think, and to be unable to fight against something is a great frustration and fear. Be... be gentle with him, if you return to his side. He is more easily frightened than you might believe.)"

Cassius laughed, a sinister, maniacal sound, though he didn't mean for it to be. He got to his feet, and stared at the sky for a long moment. "(It doesn't change the root of the problem, the curse... but I hate seeing her so angry at... everything. I guess I should explain how I feel, even if I can't do much more than that, and hope she'll forgive me.)"

"I...I've been so...mean to him," Sidney said, subconsciously placing her hand over her heart. "He probably thinks I hate him. I have to apologize--let him know that I didn't mean to be so...harsh. I just hope he can forgive me..."

"(Yeah...)" Ginger looked up as well, staring at the bright moon, the luminous light seeming to fill her up with energy...and she silently hoped that Maiden wasn't having any difficulties getting through to Sidney. "(But you know Sidney. She doesn't stay mad for too long. I'm sure if you explain things to her, she'll understand.)" She seemed to be trying to convince herself, as well as Cassius. "(But, still...good luck...)"