A/N - This takes place long after Unova. Anachronistic order is a common practice of mine and I apologize for that.
Ailette walked along the shoreline outside Kukui's house on Melemele Island, letting her mind wander.
Above her, countless stars twinkled in the night sky as their light filtered through the atmosphere.
Reaching to her neck, she pulled out a simple charm on a string and pulled it over her head, causing her hat to tumble to the sand. Shaking her head, she sighed in relief as her body reverted to that of a zorua.
Even after a decade, she still couldn't keep the illusion up indefinitely on her own. She knew if she evolved, she'd be able to do so, but being a zorua offered many more advantages, the largest one being size...
Closing her eyes, she let the wind caress her fur and she hummed happily.
Her mind turned to her classmates and she wondered how each of them would take knowing she wasn't what she appeared to be.
Kiawe would probably be angry that a pokémon was using a Z-Ring. Lana would probably gush over her. Sophocles would want to do experiments. Mallow would probably be weirded out and Lillie...
She winced as she imagined the look of horror on her face as she realized she'd touched a pokémon.
Yet at the same time it felt silly that she'd freak out over it. Maybe realizing she unknowingly touched a pokémon would help her get over her fear.
Her tail twitched anxiously as she wrestled with the idea of revealing herself.
She'd made it through Unova and Kalos without revealing herself to anyone but her really close friends. Here, she'd be revealing herself to a lot of people simultaneously.
She idly wondered if the Tapu knew what she really was. Probably. Previous Legendary pokémon had picked up on it really quickly and it was only by her begging them not to that they hadn't told anyone else.
Ailette glanced back at Kukui's house and yawned. It would be morning soon and she had school. Slipping the charm back over her head, she stretched and went back inside.
Lillie, Kiawe, Sophocles, Mallow, Lana and Kukui all stared at the wobbling poké ball on the ground in varying states of shock.
Lillie, in her excitement of Shiron's hatching, had botched her attempt to catch the fox and the ball had flown wide and hit Ash Ketchum square in the face.
Usually when a poké ball hit a human, it just bounced off without issue, so everyone had been stunned when Ash's body had turned into red energy and had been sucked into the orb.
It burst open and a terrified Ash backpedaled away from it, eyes wide.
"T-the heck was that for?" he squeaked.
"We could say the same!" Kiawe barked. "What happened?!"
"I..." Ash looked around the room, eyeing the large open windows. Before he could dive out of it, the Roto-Dex zoomed into his face.
"Explain!" it chirped. "How were you able to go into a poké ball?"
"Could he be...a pokémon?" Lana suggested.
Everyone stared at her, then at Ash.
"Kanto has some odd pokémon if he's from there," Mallow muttered.
"Professor, did you ever see something like this in Kanto?" Sophocles asked.
Kukui stroked his chin, frowning. "Can't say that I have. But I didn't really do a lot of exploration. I wanted to experience Kanto's gyms. Now I'm wishing I had paid more attention..."
"Hey, where'd he go?" Kiawe said.
"Huh?"
Everyone turned back to Ash, only to see he was no longer in the room.
"Oh dear, we've let him go," Lana said. "What should we do?"
Kukui crossed his arms, drumming his left fingers on his right bicep slowly.
"If he is a pokémon, you have to be careful around them, especially if they've been startled. I imagine we gave him quite a scare. Let him come back to us and maybe we'll get some answers."
"And if he doesn't?" Lillie asked.
Kukui shrugged. "Then there's nothing we can do."
"Except catch him," Kiawe muttered under his breath.
"Why would Tapu Koko give a pokémon a Z-ring?" Sophocles wondered aloud.
Kukui shrugged. "Who knows what goes through their mind. Well, as exciting as that was, Lillie, you wanna give catching Shiron another try?"
"She's gone!" Lillie yelped.
"...Probably went after Ash," Mallow said, looking out the window. "Oh dear, what a development..."
Kukui pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Alright, looks like we've got an outdoor extra-curricular activity to do..."
Ailette and Pikachu sat on the shore of Melemele Island, watching the setting sun paint the ocean orange.
"Coming to Alola was a mistake," Ailette said quietly. "We came here to relax and forget about...Kalos, yet here we are, making trouble for everyone around us."
She flopped back onto the sand with a frustrated growl and let her disguise dissipate.
"It's not been easy," Pikachu replied, glancing at her. "But we've had plenty of enjoyable experiences, right?"
Ailette thought back to the time she'd dived off Prism Tower to rescue a berserk Garchomp and the time she leaped into a volcano to rescue Pikachu, and grimaced.
"Depends on your definition of enjoyment," she muttered. "Kalos was fine until Akagi showed up and a quarter of the region's pokémon were used as a fuel supply for an ancient weapon."
"We stopped him though," Pikachu pointed out.
Ailette glanced at the scars on Pikachu's back, then down at the ones on her legs.
"...Yeah, we did."
They listened to the sound of the waves for a while as the sun sank lower, turning the sky a deep violet.
"We should probably get back." Pikachu's voice snapped Ailette out of her drowsing and she sat up. "We've got a lot of explaining to do."
"And we were doing so well, too," Ailette grumbled. Resuming her disguise, she brushed the sand off of herself and stretched. "Uhm...I don't suppose you know the way back?"
Pikachu blinked. "Nope, I was too busy trying not to lose you in your mad dash from the school."
Ailette glanced at the ocean then turned so it was on her left instead of her right. "May as well start walking until we find someone to ask for directions, right?"
"Hold that thought," Pikachu said, ears twitching. "I hear...voices."
Jumping onto Ailette's shoulder, he pointed down the beach. "Sounds like it's coming from there."
Heading in the direction Pikachu indicated, it wasn't long before the sounds of combat reached their ears. Coming around the bend, Ailette came to a stop and stared.
The entire beachfront was a mess. Huge chunks had been torn out of the ground and Ailette looked up to see a massive hunk of rock floating in the air.
"It's over," came a quiet voice.
Ailette glanced back down and squinted.
A thin blond-haired human stood behind a red and white-furred bipedal pokémon, who then dropped its paws, causing the floating boulder to crash into the ground, causing the beach to shake.
Ailette stumbled back as the shockwave hit, causing her to yelp. Flinging her arms up to protect her face from the stinging wind, she blinked as red and white filled her vision.
"Are you with them?"
Ailette stared at the pokémon in front of her, then at the boy who had spoken. His pale green eyes blazed with a fury that eerily reminded Ailette of Professor Akagi's stare and she shook her head more out of reflex than an answer.
"Hm...you're not dressed like them, so I guess you're telling the truth."
Ailette winced at that before looking past the boy, seeing a group of people wearing black and white outfits lying among the rubble.
She was glad she'd gone with a gold and white outfit and squeezed the front of her shirt.
"If you'll excuse me, I have to return Shiron to my sister."
Ailette blinked the haze from her mind and saw an Alolan vulpix cradled against the boy's chest.
Without another word, he walked past her, followed by his pokémon, who gave her a cursory sniff.
"Leave them, Lycanroc," the boy called.
With a huff, the lycanroc turned and followed its trainer.
Ailette stared at the wreckage that used to be a beachfront before turning and following the boy.
"Why are you following me?" he asked, glancing at her as she came up beside him.
"I know Lillie," she said. "She's your sister?"
The boy narrowed his eyes before nodding. "Gladion," he said by way of introduction.
"Ash," Ailette said, the lie coming naturally. "And this is Pikachu."
"Odd coloration for a pikachu," Gladion said.
"He's been sore about it ever since he evolved," Ailette said with a smile.
"And I'll be sore about it until I evolve or die," Pikachu grumbled, touching his pale yellow cheeks.
Ailette stroked his dark orange fur and chuckled.
"So how do you know my sister?" Gladion asked.
"I'm staying with Professor Kukui, who introduced me to his students he teaches at the school," Ailette said. A shiver went down her neck and she glanced back at the lycanroc, who was trailing behind them.
"He only evolved recently and he's been restless ever since," Gladion said, tucking his hands into his pockets. "Those punks were harassing a pokémon, so I went to stop them. Imagine my surprise to find out it was my sister's vulpix."
"How'd you know it was hers?" Ailette asked. "It was only born this morning."
"Anyone worth their salt would recognize an Alolan vulpix egg," Gladion said with a shrug. "She's been talking my ear off about it ever since she got it."
"I guess that's what a sister does," Ailette said.
Gladion grunted, lapsing into silence.
Ailette perked up as they reached Hau'oli City and she bid farewell to Gladion and went back to Kukui's house.
Ailette and Pikachu wandered through one of Melemele's meadows, taking in the sights, sounds and smells.
Pikachu enjoyed the breeze through his fur and Ailette idly brushed her hair out of her eyes, subtly adjusting the length of her bangs as she did so.
The flowers rustled and the duo tensed, expecting another grumpy Oricorio to pop out. The birds had proven to be highly territorial and the yellow variant that lived here had proven immune to Pikachu's electricity.
What popped out of the flowers surprised both pokémon.
"Pew!" said the odd nebulous creature.
"What the heck is that?" Ailette asked as Pikachu jumped off her shoulder.
The creature stared at them, bobbing gently in some unseen wind. It moved closer to Pikachu, who let out a slow breath, relaxing.
"Pew!" said the creature again, waving its odd head extensions. If one could call a rough sphere a head, anyway...
"Uhm...nice to meet you?" Ailette said slowly. If it was a pokémon, she couldn't understand it, and given Pikachu's twitching ears, neither could the mouse.
The creature hopped around the human excitedly before leaping onto her head.
"Careful there," Ailette said. It was surprisingly light and she gently touched it. Her finger met some resistance and the creature wiggled its extensions at her.
"Pew!" it said sternly.
"Sorry," Ailette said, petting it instead, causing it to chirp happily and snuggle into her hair.
"Should we tell Kukui about this?" Ailette asked, holding out an arm for Pikachu to climb on so he could sit on her shoulder.
Pikachu shrugged, careful not to disturb the creature. "May as well. We're not gonna get any answers ourselves concerning this thing."
Ailette grimaced, her right hand tightly clasping her left wrist as she remembered the last time she had poked her nose into anything.
"Right," she murmured. "Let's drop it off and distance ourselves before we have another Kalos on our hands."
Pikachu shivered and the creature let out a soft pew as it sensed its companions' discomfort.
A/N - Consider this exceptionally loose canon in regards to the overall story.