This chapter is kind of a remix of this fic, and you can also read this fic for more context, if you want.

Turns out if you're not being tortured into insanity as you're absorbed into an uncaring mind hive, your take on Helix is a little different.

Chapter Text

The caves go deep. Red was looking forward to reaching Mt. Moon when he started his journey. The furthest he’s ever been from Pallet was when Oak brought him along on a trip to Pewter two years ago, and while he was there Red heard a lot about the unusual pokémon within the mountain and the many legends that surround it. He was planning to fully explore the cave system once he reached Mt. Moon, maybe make a map, definitely fill out entries in his new pokédex. Of course –

WOOP WOOP HEH THIS GUY IS NEVER HARD ISN’T THERE AN ELIXIR UNDER THAT ROCK THAT’S IN POK ÉMON TOWER DUMBASS CLEFAIRY COUNT 17 HOPE THIS CHARMELEON LASTS DO THE ROCKET GRUNTS SEEM WIMPIER THAN USUAL TO ANYONE ELSE GUYS WE NEED TO DON’T YOU DARE BRING THAT BACK IT’LL BE RAINING AGAIN ONCE WE GET OUT OF HERE JUST YOU WAIT FOSSIL TIME! FOSSIL TIME! FOSSIL TIME!

– things haven’t gone quite like he planned.

Having an extradimensional mind hive (at least that’s what the Voices say they are) stuck in his head has been… interesting. Sure, he’s lost his race to the Indigo Plateau with Blue basically immediately, and every so often enough of the Voices will disagree on where to go next that he’ll trip over nothing and fall flat on his face, but they know so much about Kanto he’s never once gotten lost. The Voices always know exactly what he needs to do to get past an obstacle, they’re experts at battling (though translating their knowledge into actual strategy is somewhat harder) and when they’re waiting for their pokémon to get healed they tell him silly stories about the many people they know.

(Earlier on in his journey, Red tried to fill out his pokédex, sketching rattata and pidgey on Route 1. Every time he got started, the Voices would remember other kids on other journeys who did the same thing, and he would see filled out pokédex entries perfectly describing mon he didn’t even know existed. The world outside Pallet Town used to be this huge mysterious place where anything could happen, and now Kanto is so simple and familiar and banal that the Voices complain about it. He’s stopped updating his pokédex.)

The guy Red beat last time he came through here – MIGUEL, RIGHT? OR FRANK NO THAT’S THE ROCKET WITH THE RATICATE – is giving Red the same weird look he’s gotten from a lot of people since he started his journey. It’s a mixture of ‘why are you moving like that’ and ‘what’s wrong with your eyes’ and ‘how the heck did you beat me?!’ Red first saw on Blue, who’s proceeded to yell it at him every time Red kicks his ass. After a few seconds of incredulous staring, Miguel pinches his nose and says, “Fine! Pick one already!” He gestures to two dusty rocks lying in a heap on the floor, and the Voices completely lose it.

HELIX HELIX HELIX HELIX HELIX DOME DOME DOME DOME DOME WE MISSED YOU GUYS BETS CLOSE IN THREE TWO ONE DID YOU MISS US WHO WOULDN’T MISS US – At first Red is a bit confused. He’s heard of Helix and Dome before, in the stories the Voices tell him; Helix is the Voice’s best friend, or near enough, a companion in chaotic adventuring who pulls them out of trouble as much as they return the favour. Dome is rule-obsessed and really doesn’t like the Voices, but cares deeply about the same world they love and is also really fun to tease. Red’s managed to gather that Helix and Dome aren’t ordinary humans from the Voices’ rambling stories, but he didn’t think they were rocks – HERETIC HEATHEN AREN’T THOSE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE TO BE FAIR WE HAVEN’T ACTUALLY SEEN ANY FOSSIL GOD TEMPLES YET THE KID’S PROBABLY NEVER HEARD OF THEM WHO HASN’T HEARD OF HELIX MORE LIKE WHO ISN’T TIRED OF HELIX LET’S PICK DOME THIS TIME DO YOU WANT TO GET THE KID’S EARS WHINED OFF

While the Voices are arguing, Red examines the fossils. They look like ordinary rocks, just big enough to require two hands to pick up, with faint ridges that could be long-dead sea creatures etched onto their surfaces. They’re not glowing or talking or anything, but the longer he looks at them the more he realises that there’s something off about them, a weird... Red can’t think of a word, can’t even pinpoint the sense he’s using, but these definitely aren’t just rocks. Since Red’s always liked ammonites, and his hand seems to be moving right anyway, Red reaches out and touches the helix fossil –

The abyss opens. It’s so dark, all around him, like a universe without light. Vast, ancient, all-consuming, it could swallow up Kanto and not even notice, it could burn the stars out of the sky, Red instinctively reaches for the Voices but they’re muffled, he can barely hear them, he’s all alone, falling into the –

The void twitches. And then it looks at him.

Screaming, Red crashes back into reality. The Voices roar back to life – WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT IS THE KID OKAY THE HELL HAPPENED TO – and he’s back in his body, which, he notes absently, has been flung down the stairs away from the dig, away from the pit. Red can still see the gaping hole, only now he can see how the cavern and the nerd and the air itself are all drawn towards the endless chasm at the bottom of the world, how the stalactites are slowly twisting into spirals, how everything he’s ever known is just a growth on the back of something that can’t possibly be the Voices’ oldest friend.

But – HOW DID IT GET SO FRAGMENTED IT HASN’T SCREAMED LIKE THAT SINCE OLDEN DO WE KNOW ANYTHING THAT COULD HAVE WOUNDED IT THAT BADLY IT DIDN’T EVEN RECOGNISE US – and memories are flitting around along with the words, of chaos and fire and war and death, worlds destroyed and remade and devoured, Kanto in ruins, laughing cultists crushing a pokémon egg –

Red has reached the top of the mountain, freezing hands gripped tightly on his sword. The boy he’s been searching for is standing maybe a few meters in front of him, palms facing up, head bowed down. The spirals that dance through the falling snow perfectly connect to the spirals carved into his skin, and the surrounding spacetime crackles and snaps with building power. The boy looks up, and Red sees his own face.

He isn’t aware of what happens next, of how his terror melds with the Voices’ panic until the only thing in their shared mind is ‘I have to get away!’ He doesn’t register that he’s running for the exit, eyes bleeding purple and limbs clipping through stone. The next real thing he’s aware of, beyond the memories and fear, is wind on his arms and sunlight beaming down. Churro (when did he get out of his pokéball?) is yanking his leg and shrieking, and dew is dripping onto his trainers. He isn’t breathing. Maybe he should try doing that again?

While his pokémon attempt to protect him from an unseen enemy and the Voices try to figure out what’s even happening, Red collapses into the grass just outside the eastern entrance to Route 4. He notices the fractals rippling through the leaves of the trees at the bottom of the hill, and giggles.

Miguel waits until he’s absolutely sure whatever that was isn’t coming back, and then stuffs the fossils into his backpack. Sighing deeply, he heaves his backpack on and pulls himself to his feet. The mere fact that Team Rocket is looking for fossils in Mt. Moon, according to Brock, is reason enough to smuggle as many as possible out to the Pewter Museum. Miguel doesn’t agree that getting the fossils away from the Rockets is worth removing them from their geological context, but on the other hand he’s getting paid.

As he walks, though, he can’t help but notice something coming off the fossils in his backpack. He can’t put words to what he’s sensing, and isn’t even certain what sense he’s feeling it with, but he can tell. There’s something weird about them.