"How are her vitals?"
"She's doing well, m'am. Heart rate is at 130, and blood pressure is stable."
A small smile flickered across my lips as I placed my hand on the glass case. The surface was cool to the touch, and I could feel the gentle hum of the machines that kept her alive.
"Excellent. It appears as though she's right on schedule."
"Indeed, m'am."
As my eyes fixated on the tiny life form that floated before me, I could not help but feel a rush of excitement, proud of not only myself but my team as well. What we were accomplishing was nothing short of a miracle.
This experiment of mine had gotten kicked into gear after a chance encounter, one that I realize now had been decided by fate.
My husband and I had been stationed out on a remote island during an expedition. Other scientists in Alola had mentioned to our team of the strange readings that they had been receiving from the area, and we decided that it was best to go out and investigate it.
When Professor Burnet had shown us the data that had been collected thus far from the island, my husband had blurted out that these were indications that an Ultra Wormhole had formed there, and we could use the measurements on the magnitude of the energy waves to determine its precise location.
See, my husband was obsessed with a very peculiar field of study. He was dedicated to proving to the scientific community that these so called "beasts" from another dimension were slowly making their way into our world.
The Aether Foundation was formed with this goal in mind, and we have earned grants from other renowned pioneers, such as Professor Oak, Professor Juniper, and even Professor Sycamore.
I would oftentimes find myself very frustrated with my husband, as he hardly ever returned with any notable documentation that these creatures were truly out there. I decided to channel my feelings by focusing on my area of expertise, which was Pokémon conservation and rehabilitation.
I suppose that this still holds true now, even if my… focus, is on Pokémon that are not of this world.
I pulled myself out of my musings long enough to see that a fellow was writing down her information on a chart. I gave them all a curt nod before I proceeded out of the lab, the exit door sliding open as I started to make my way down a long hallway.
Several employees gave me a kind wave and smile as they greeted me, to which I replied with a "Good morning!" or "It's lovely to see you!"
The halls were a bit busier than normal, but this could be attributed to it being early morning. It may have looked like a cluttered mess from an outsider's perspective, but every person knew where it is they had to be, and that the foundation would soon be running as a usual smooth operation.
When I arrived at my destination, I placed my thumb on the identification pad, and after the system had scanned the print, it made a soft beep and the doors slid to the side. This was one of the smaller rooms within the facility, and one that only I had permission to at the time. I would not call myself a very nostalgic woman, so I still do not understand why I had decided to leave this office in place. This used to be where my husband did all of his data input, and where he stored all of the research that he collected on the ultra beasts.
My fingers danced along the spines of the upteenth amont of binders that filled the shelves, before I pulled out the one that I had been looking for. It was thick, and an assortment of papers poked out of its confines. I placed it onto the nearby desk, and began to leisurely flip through it, and a smile tugged on my lips when I came across a sketch of a specific ultra beast specie: Nihilego.
This is one of the creatures to be discovered by my husband, and it is also coincidentally the monster that snatched him away.
We had received very many fellows for that trip, and they were an excited bunch of students that ranged in a variety of scientific studies. Before we had even arrived on the island, everyone had a predetermined task, so once we hit land, we would just immediately begin said task.
Both Kukui and Burnet agreed that it would make sense that they would begin looking for the reported school of Corsola that had been spotted during previous trips, so that we could tag them and even bring a few to Aether to support our efforts.
My husband and I on the other hand, would travel to the precise coordinates that he had calculated in order to find the source of the bizarre energy readings. We only had a few interns accompany us, as we both had agreed to having a majority of the students focus on catching and recording data for the species on the island instead.
We trekked through the thick shrubbery, which was easily cut away by the grass and fire Pokémon that we had brought along with us. The jungle was impressive, the trees tall and thick in foliage, and it appeared as though this had been the first time that humans had ever disturbed the environment.
I do not recall how long we walked until we reached our destination. I remember feeling this sense of anxiety, eager to know if this had truly been a wormhole reading, but this all faded away the instant I saw that we had merely made it to the bottom of a steep mountainside.
There was no portal. There was no ultra-beast. There was absolutely nothing.
"Mohn what is the meaning of this?" I had shouted, exhausted, my hair grimy from all of the dirt and sweat.
My husband grabbed the bandana wrapped around his neck and wiped his glistening forehead off. "I… I'm not sure, honey. I am absolutely positive that this is the correct spot." he fumbled to get his travelers pack off of him, and reached inside to grab a strange looking instrument from one of his pokets.
"Maybe this can help us," he said, and flipped on a switch, and the machine whirred to life as it turned on.
A small grimace formed on my face when I recognized what he was using. It was an invention that he claimed could sense wormholes... so far, I had yet to be impressed with this device. Mohn claimed that it could read the intense electro-magnetic energy given off by them, but every time we took this thing for its worth, we were always met with dead ends.
You could say I felt a sense of déja-vu, at the time.
"Are you serious, Mohn? I am not going to waste anymore time listening to your claims about this thing! It has never worked!"
He let out an irritated huff as he fiddled with some of its antennae. "You just need to have some faith, Lusamine."
I let out a harsh cackle. "Faith? That's a new one."
It seemed as though he had something to say at my newfound cynicism, but the earth started to tremble, and cut our petty argument short. Even now it saddens me to think that the last thing we ever did together was fight...
All of us were jolted, alarmed at what was happening.
"Is it an earthquake?" one of the interns shouted.
"This island has actives volcanoes?!" another one screeched.
"No!" my husband exclaimed, and pointed towards the rocks. "Look!"
To our shock, a hole ripped through the minerals and almost caved in on itself, forming a portal on the surface. No one moved, either too terrified or awestruck to react to the situation that was transpiring before our eyes.
The hair on the back of my neck stood up when one slithery white tentacle emerged from the depths of that dark portal. Several more followed after that, and soon a large thing was hauling its way out of the wormhole, its eerie cry sending a chill down to my bones.
My husband was the first to be knocked out of the trance, and he hurled an ultraball at the monster before he lost his nerve.
My breath caught in my throat as I saw it vanish, and the ultraball tumbled to the ground. It didn't even give one small shake before it broke free and made a horrible sound in response.
It was fast, and before any of us could react, it lunged at my husband. It probably would have killed him too, if it had not been for one of our on-hand Charizard jumping into the middle of the fray.
The beast was much more powerful than we took it for, as it easily knocked the Charizard aside with one of its tentacles as though it were a child's rag doll. But our Charizard was a prideful one, and before we could stop it, it had charged head-first at the ultra-beast, its body coated in flames as it unleashed a Flare Blitz attack.
The force of the explosion sent all of us flying in opposite directions. I had the unfortunate luck of tumbling into a tree trunk, and the last thing I remember was giving my head a nasty whack, and then everything faded to black.
When I awoke, I felt a searing pain in my stomach.
I made to scream, but my eyes widened in terror when I saw that the ultra beast had me pinned to the ground. Small tremors rocked my body, the thing letting out another piercing screech as I was gripped by searing hot pain.
The bastard had stung me, and it took all the strength that I had in me to swipe at it in an attempt to release myself.
Fortunately, one good punch to the side of its head seemed to do it, and the creature quickly backed off. I was took weak to stand, and every time that I tried to sit up, pain rocked through my body and made moving almost impossible.
I could only lay there and watch as this thing disappeared back into the wormhole, and vanished without a trace.
… I fondly traced the outlines of the binders label, as I gave a low chuckle. I had been so angry with Nihilego after that first encounter. It had taken my husband away from me, leaving me alone and my son Gladion without a father. All I wanted was revenge, to capture that beast, take it away from its home, and do every test imaginable in order to find out every little detail about the monster that had ruined my family…
How appropriate that the creature that had caused my downfall would give rise to my newest pride and joy.
I had discovered that I was pregnant a little after Mohn had disappeared, but I was unsure if my body would be able to support a whole other human as it was barely supporting mine. I decided that salvaging and implanting the embryo somewhere else, somewhere safer would be the best course of action. However, I knew within me that it would not be strong enough on its own. I decided that infusing it with something tenacious, something resilient, would allow for my unborn child to thrive as they deserved.
Once again, I had to thank Nihilego for the cards that I had been dealt. After it had warped back into its wormhole, Kukui and Burnet stumbled upon a strange Pokémon. It was knocked out, and a species that neither they nor any of our interns could identify. After ensuring its survival, we decided to call it Cosmog, and after several testing trials, we discovered that it was connected to both the ultra-beasts and the wormholes.
It was thanks to Cosmog that I was able to make great headway on my experiment.
I pushed aside the current stack of notes, and grabbed a nearby notebook. It had a white cover, with the name "Lillie" inscribed in pink cursive letters. This was a private project of mine that I had started shortly after the attack on that island, and only a few handpicked by me knew of its existence.
Flipping through several pages, I find one that has several photos glued to the paper like a makeshift scrapbook. I am overcome with a sense of fondness as I linger on a shot of small little baby girl, her tiny hands curled into a fist as she sleeps within a softly lit glass tube.
I glanced up at the clock on the wall, and cursed when I noticed that I had stayed in this room far longer than initially planned. I walked out in a haste, and headed straight back the way I came, back to the lab.
Indeed, I visit her every day to track her vitals and make sure that she is growing nice and healthy, as any mother would. It is always so hard to be away from one's children, afterall.
Author's Note: this is a commission that was requested by Starfighter364. It is a side-story to his main work (which you can check out here: s/10991630/1/Pokemon-Restart-The-Folly-of-Space-and-Time) that will detail Lillie's origin story. I will be posting them here as per request, so I hope you enjoy!