Helix was having second thoughts on Dome's plan.



At first, it had seemed simple enough. The Voices possess Red, Red goes on his journey with Charmander, Red picks up the Helix Fossil, the road of history continues. Everything was supposed to be all hunky-dory.



Except it wasn't.



First of all, Red didn't even get the right Charmander. Instead of Abby, he wound up with a male named Churro. How the hell that had happened, Helix couldn't even begin to guess, and he was the frickin' GOD OF ANARCHY. Normally, this should have been His domain.



Second... Red seemed a tad confused.



He'd beaten Brock, as he was supposed to. He'd beaten Misty, as the Voices loudly insisted he do. But he'd gone to the PC at the Voices' insistence and released his Kakuna, much like his brother Abe had during his journey. And he'd boxed Churro. Not released, but simply boxed. Did he somehow remember his sorrow at losing Abby in the original timeline? Was this his way of going half with the Voices?



Helix shuddered to think what would happen if Red ever encountered an Eevee.



---



"Is he well?" the Weedle asked.



The Fearow that Red had named Effigy turned towards his companion. No one so far had been able to tell the larva's gender, so Red had nicknamed them 'Genderbug' and threw them on his team. Given that the team currently had a Beedrill and that Red had already released a Kakuna, the Weedle clearly did not have very high hopes of survival.



Effigy sighed. "No, our trainer is not well. Anyone with eyes can see that. He boxed his original companion without so much as a twitch. He released Kakuna and Magikarp with zero remorse. He walks into walls, stumbles off of ledges, breaks into other people's houses and crashes into their furniture. His god is a ROCK, for crying out loud. He shouldn't be trusted with a potted plant, yet alone a team of Pokemon."



"Then why don't we leave?" Genderbug asked.



"Because that's not how the ancient contract works. In times long past, in the days of Ransei, our ancestors joined together with ancient humans to work, play, and do battle alongside each other. The ancient contract states that when a Pokemon binds itself to a human, they are loyal to each other until either the human breaks the contract, or one of them dies. This is the way it is, and the way it's always been."



Genderbug looked down at the ground. "Um... does it have to be this way?" they asked.



"For a Pokemon to break the ancient contract is to commit the most grievous of sins," Effigy said. Although the way he said it, he clearly had his doubts. "While we are allowed to rebel against weaker trainers that we have not originally bound ourselves to, that is the only allowance we are given. We are to serve any and all worthy trainers who seek to command us."



The Weedle made a face. "Well, that sucks."



Effigy was inclined to agree. "We need to find him a doctor. Somebody who takes mental health cases. Preferably somebody who won't die."



Genderbug nodded.



"But first," Effigy said, "we need to get that fossil away from him."



---



"I'm sorry," Effigy said to Red, "but this is for your own good."



Red had been cornered in the Pokemon Center by his own Pokemon. Effigy was in the lead, his wings spread wide in a threatening gesture. A male Nidoran crouched by Red's feet, spines bristling. A male Beedrill, not Genderbug, hovered menacingly to Red's right, his drills inches from his own trainer's chest. And Genderbug sat on top of a Rattata's back, ready to nip at Red's ankles should that become necessary.



Red stared in absolute horror. This was not what the Voices had told him would happen.



"Now," Effigy said slowly, "you are going to take that damn rock, go to the PC, and put the rock inside the PC, and nobody is going to get hurt. Got it?"



"You're traitors," Red spat. "All of you. Have you forgotten the ancient contract?"



"You mean the contract that requires that we help our trainers?" said the Beedrill. "This is for your own good, Red. You're not well."



"And if I don't, you're just going to murder me, aren't you?"



"We're in a hospital," Effigy pointed out. "Any physical harm that comes to you can be repaired. But this is a matter of mental health." He gestured towards Red's bag with his beak. "Now. The fossil."



Still glaring daggers at the Fearow, but unwilling to put himself at further risk, Red hatefully pulled out Lord Helix's mortal remains, gave one last glare at Effigy, and pushed a button on the PC. There was a flash of light, an electronic noise, and the fossil was gone.



Red's Pokemon backed away slowly. None of them wanted to be near the murder machine, especially not with Red in this mood of his.



"Fine. It's gone," Red sighed. "Now what?"



"Now we get you the help you need," Effigy said firmly. "Have you ever heard of a Mankey called Dr. Abby Camden?"



And he could have sworn that Red's eye twitched when he said the name Abby.



---



Effigy should have paid attention to that twitch.



The meeting with Dr. Camden started out well enough. She asked Red a few questions, gave him some paperwork to fill out, and several minutes later, took the papers from him. They were covered in A's and B's and directional outputs and wild ramblings about nothing in particular.



It went downhill from there.



When Dr. Camden asked Red when he first lost his motor controls, he'd answered "When I first started hearing the Voices." When questioned further, Red admitted that he didn't know where most of the Voices came from, but "the most important one" came from the Helix Fossil that he'd found in Mt. Moon.



Dr. Camden had asked him to show her the fossil, and Red said (with no small degree of disgust) that his Pokemon had forced him to put it inside the PC.



The Mankey, not having any frame of reference for how bad an idea this was, asked Red to get it out.



Chaos ensued.



By the time the dust settled, Red had put nearly everything he owned inside the PC, boxed a great number of his Pokemon, and released two of them. He'd managed to get Effigy back out shortly after boxing him, but his Rattata and Nidoran were trapped inside the computer.



And Churro was gone. Not boxed anymore. Gone; gone to wherever it was that Pokemon went to after being released. Even the Voices themselves weren't really sure about that, although a sizable number of them saw it as murder.



On top of that, he'd accidentally put the S.S. Ticket into the PC. The ticket that, the Voices insisted, was all too necessary for progressing on his journey. Which meant that the Voices were still, still, STILL pressuring him to return to that damned machine for another go at Russian roulette.



But he had the Helix Fossil again.



And the thought of that terrified Effigy.