Sun knew that he wouldn't be going back to his room. He knew that Gladion had been dismissed so that he and his mother could share some special time together. So he took her hand, feeling her bare skin against his fingers and shivering in delight. He'd been away for too long. He knew it from the gaping hole in his heart that was slowly swelling up again, repairing itself with every millisecond he was allowed to look at her radiance.

She led him toward her room, where he knew he'd be rewarded for his loyalty, for knowing his place where Gladion did not. He didn't even pay attention to his dark arm any longer. His mother had either not noticed or didn't care. He wanted to be closer, pressed up against her, feel her warmth beside him. But no, it was inappropriate at this time to do such a thing. The lights of her room were dimmed, and the air was cold.

She shut the door.

"Sun," she spoke. The single word was encased in honey and sugar and all manner of other sweetness, almost sickly but not quite. She kneeled in front of him, and found herself looking up to him, for anything that told her he was less than perfect.

His beautiful green eyes appraised her similarly, darting over her without cease, taking in all of her. He wanted to be hers. He dropped into a kneel too. He didn't deserve to look down upon her. "Mother..." he begged. He wanted so much from her. He was greedy and selfish and wanted it all.

Lusamine rose, and shut her eyes, smiling. When she opened them Sun was stood again, as she had desired. Believing she had forced him to stand through her actions alone gave her a shot of power, a taste of something she loved so much. "Sun... baby..."

"Mommy," he whined pathetically, nearly crying as he placed his hands on either side of her hourglass waist, feeling her soft hips under his hold. He wanted more. More more more.

"Mmm..." Lusamine bit her lip, trying to control herself: she remembered how she had originally intended to keep him pure and free of all of her sexual advances, but that seemed a distant memory. So much wasted potential that would have been. She placed a finger under his chin, coaxing his head upward to look into her eyes again, exert full possession over his mind.

"M-Mother-" Sun gasped. "You're so- so- beautiful..."

"Come to bed, Sun," she murmured, her lips barely moving; but Sun still watching every change, every slight motion. She moved away from him to her bedside, took off her heels and stripped off her dress, discarding it without a care in the world, allowing Sun to take in the sight of her slender body in her plain white lingerie.

She turned back to him and crossed her arms, tapping her foot in a pattern, patiently waiting. Sun knew that it was his turn and stripped down to his boxer shorts, the segmentation of his arm from dark to light made completely clear. He went to the other side of the bed and they began to pull the curtains around the four poster canopy, finishing together.

When all was done, they lay nearly naked, in a tiny island square shut off from the outside. Dim gold light passed through the beige curtains creating a beautiful filter over everything, capturing the moments of dawn where everything was both glowing and dull.

He lay beside her, Lusamine on her left shoulder, Sun on his right. They were not touching at all. Just observing each other.

With a gradual finality, Lusamine drifted her hand over the sheets with quiet scratching noises, Sun barely able to resist shivering from the sensory nature of the moment. The dim lights and the enclosed space - it felt like the world was a bubble where only the two of them existed. Her hand crept onto his face.

His flesh was so smooth under her fingers, under her feather light touch, gliding her digits over him. He felt good. He felt pure. At the same time though Lusamine wanted to discard all that she had done to make him perfect and force him to experience the full potential of her adoration as himself and not as what she'd made him. Wanted him to be exposed to her purity.

He was melting into her touch, lips barely parted as he breathed steadily and silently. She ran her thumb over those soft lips as she paid attention to them, knowing he'd have no complaint at all. "Mo-" she pressed it a little harder against his lips to shush his moan without speaking.

The hand on his face crept to the apex of his spine and pulled him close. He was so very eager. "Sun, your mother loves you very much."

"I know," he whispered. "I- I'll never trust Gladion again. I-"

"Shush... this isn't about him. This is about you."

Lusamine didn't feel any of the fire, any of the darkness. This wasn't Lillie or Gladion, this was Sun. "My sweet child."

Sun moaned incomprehensibly at her words. He was all she ever wanted and Gladion had proved he wasn't worth it. Lusamine had to get rid of him soon. She didn't care about Gladion, she cared about Sun. Guzma could have ditched Gladion at sea and left him to drown and she wouldn't have batted an eyelid over it.

She shifted herself to be closer, now centimetres away. She had control over him, and only had to take her hand from his back and gesture - folding her fingers into her palm as if beckoning with her whole hand - for him to make up the last of the distance himself.

He duly did, closing the gap and lowering his head against her collarbone, making a quiet purring noise. Lusamine bowed her head and kissed his cheek. He tried to hide his coy smile but couldn't, blushing.

Lusamine breathed his name and Sun looked up at her. Whatever she was going to say vanished from her mind as she saw his eyes up close. "Sun... your eyes are so pretty."

Sun clumsily moved his arm, nowhere near the same deliberate precision Lusamine used to make him helpless to her. His index finger tapped her on the nose, surprising her. "Like yours."

"Just like mine." She fought down a surge of rage that manifested from nowhere, made her want to rip Sun apart with her bare hands. Sun noticed her smile fade.
"Mother, I'm so glad I look just like you." As he spoke his emerald eyes darted to his dark arm, and he looked ashamed.

"Sun. You're just like me. You don't need to worry about that. That can be fixed," she promised. "I still love you, no matter what." She let go momentarily, moving back along the bed so that she could lie against the headboard, placing her pillow against it and ending up in a half-sit, at a slight angle.

Sun went to follow her, but she had other ideas. She only had to softly encourage him with light touches, and he obeyed her unspoken wants. He lay atop her, facing upward, head resting just below her breasts. She combed through his hair and he visibly struggled to remain still, so cute. "Mmm-" he couldn't stop himself from making the noise. He moved slightly upward so his forehead was now against her cleavage.

She didn't move him away, smirking slightly at his odd mixture of innocence and attraction. Again, cute: she continued to idly comb his hair, going along with the pattern it naturally fell into, swept to the right. She centred her hand over his head and scratched his scalp gently. Sun purred again and pushed back further, much to Lusamine's amusement. She continued to calmly and softly rake her nails in small circles over him.

"Sun, you're my precious little boy," Lusamine told him. "You're mine."

Sun unexpectedly jerked and tried to get up - Lusamine barely managed to keep him in place, moving the hand that had been on his scalp to his shoulder to hold him down. "Sun?"

"I'm not perfect anymore?!" There was fear creeping into his voice and that made Lusamine unhappy. She wanted him to enjoy this, to be able to do what she wanted without Gladion's resistance or Lillie's fear.

"What makes you think that?" She had to put both her hands on his shoulders and hold him down. "Sun, relax, relax-"

"You said precious, not-"

"Sun, shh..." Lusamine understood her mistake. "You're perfect. You are." She had moved her hands around his waist to hold him tighter. "You are, Sun."
He tried to get up again, much to Lusamine's dismay. "Mother-"

"Sun." She violently jerked him back down onto her, shocking him enough to temporarily get through his confusion. "You're perfect. Relax." She placed her hands over his eyes, her elbows below his shoulders so her arms formed a kind of harness. "Listen to your mother, Sun. You're a good boy. You're a perfect boy. You're mine."
In the dark, with nothing to latch onto but her words, Sun was at ease again. He stopped trembling and listened. "Sun... my baby boy. Let me calm you." Her fingers began to tap on his face rhythmically and he groaned with pleasure again.

"Mommy." He squirmed a little bit but wasn't trying to escape anymore. "Mommy, I'm your-"

Lusamine placed her hands over his mouth to silence him. "Oh, Sun..." the madness of however long it had been set in. A boy who wasn't hers lying on top of her, covered in her skin and with her eyes and with nothing in his mind but her. She giggled and that became a cackle of crazed emotion before that became a howl of laughter.

"Mommy, are you-"

Her hands had momentarily left his face to take his arms and puppet them - but she wanted him to be silent more than she wanted to move him. She clasped both over his mouth again as her mirth subsided gradually. "Oh... Sun. I hope you're ready for when it's just you and me. No Gladion. No Lillie. Just you and me, forever. You'll be safe with me. You'll be loved by me."

"I love you, mommy." His voice was muffled by her grasp, but she let him speak.

"I love you too, Sun." Lusamine began to pull the covers up over them both, Sun snuggling against her as she did so.

"Mother," he moaned as the soft weight of the duvet pressed from above and Lusamine's smooth bare skin supported him from below. She ensnared him in that comfortable trap, knowing he couldn't hope to think straight. Now he had calmed down and was suppressed by the sheets Lusamine took his wrists again and guided his hands to her hips, making him touch her waist, the apex of her long legs.

"Touch, Sun," she encouraged. "All that you wish."

Sun quaked again, groaning as if he was in agony. It all clicked in that moment.

Lusamine had always wanted a cold, clinical perfection, a mirror image, a flat surface, a block of ice. Sheer and unbreakable, a complete picture. Sun was that. He was a whole thing, unbroken and broken, beautiful and ugly, perfect and awful. And that duality had shown her the beauty in that which was not flat and plain. Even now she allowed that dark hand to touch her because it belonged to the boy who was always meant to be her true son-

-but could he have shown her the truth without it? Would she still have had the same revelation had they all escaped her with the Cosmog? If their paths had crossed again would she see that innocence and barely restrained fury that she sometimes saw existing in tandem? Would she see the sweet wandering and the laser focus if he had never been changed?

There wasn't time to think these things. There wasn't space, not while Sun continued to awkwardly feel her beneath him. She needed to forget the sensuality of the moment and let him do as he wished. Lusamine could feel a cold sweat of fear. She didn't have to do this. If anyone found out that would be the end of all her machinations. Gladion and Lillie deserved better than her. Sun was a horrific abomination because of her, not a perfect child. The doubts and the fears crept and crawled, made her want to shriek and shirk from their claws that threatened to take everything.

"S-Sun," she whispered hastily, unable to stay calm. "Please- please do whatever you want to me. Make me forget, Sun. Make me happy." Letting him take charge would give her the opportunity to focus only on what he was doing and sweep her away from-

-what was he doing? He was just cuddling her. He'd moved off of her chest and was clinging to her waist beside her.'No, damn it,' she thought. The doubts grew louder. She'd raped his mind completely and made him lesser. He couldn't function without her. He was doomed to half a life. The chill deepened, ice forming in the bottom of her spine.

She was evil.

"Sun," she whimpered. Tears were forming, stinging her eyes. She had to look after him. She had to do the best she could for him. "S- Sun-"

"Mother?" He picked up on her distress and eyed her, concerned.

"Please..." she begged of him. Take her away.

"What do you need?" He sounded scared again. He was arching over her, hands on the mattress so he could look down upon Lusamine.

She'd told herself this wouldn't happen. Sun was only an experiment. He was built to hurt Lillie and Gladion, as a proof of concept. He wasn't long term and he wasn't completely perfected, as the removal of the skin on his arm attested. He was created to be her perfect son, but she didn't realise that meant she'd love him.

"You," she breathed in response, voice high pitched from the swelling, bubbling unease. She wanted to touch him but couldn't move. She was helpless as she ever could be. Sun understood at last. He placed his small hands evenly on her waist again, lying flat atop her, now face down against her. He cocked his head slightly to one side, at the same level as hers, and went in to kiss her.

"Mmm-" Lusamine let loose all the pent up adoration she had for him. "Mmm." She kissed him deeply, as she had when he had chosen not to leave her. It felt like it had been years since then - before Faba's machine had been complete and Sun was already willingly taking on the role of her son. That made it all okay. He had wanted this, she was reminded. He hadn't left when he had the chance. Their tongues raping one another, their senses both muted and heightened by the sensuality of the moment, they melted into one another, both dependent. Lusamine wouldn't let him stop. When he tried to withdraw his tongue she licked over it hard and fast, making him tingle with the strange sensation. Their lips smacked against one another and their saliva formed bridges between them that broke as quickly as they came into existence.

Sun was becoming more and more enthusiastic the longer it went on. She could see the almost scary change in his eyes. He was becoming animalistic in just how far down he was reaching to find more love to show her. The fact that everything had worked thus far was a miracle. He had no flaws mentally - he believed he was her son and he loved her with all he was. Lusamine had her reservations at the time, but Faba's technique was worthy of praise.

This was Sun's own monster. His own primal force, awoken by the energy of the moment. He was like her now. Too alike.

Sun squeezed her shoulder as he leaned harder into her, forcing breath from her lungs. Lusamine tried to take some sort of authority over Sun but he was gone too far. He wasn't kissing her lips anymore, he was kissing everywhere, her neck, her jaw, her chest. "Sun-" she began, thinking of how to slow him down. She wasn't scared, or at least didn't think she was. "Sun- oh-"

Lusamine didn't know how to feel or what to do about it. She'd never been in this position. The kind she had the power to put Lillie and Gladion into. The kind she had put Sun into.

She didn't like it.

"Sun, I think-"

He couldn't even hear her over the blood rushing in his skull. There was a loud buzzing of the ruined thoughts, half formed memories that told him not to do it being suppressed by the sheer noise of the obsession he had acquired in his evolution.

He would protect her no matter what. He would love her no matter what. He would touch her no matter what. He would kiss her no matter what. He would be hers and she would be his. Unbidden, what little spark of resistance some remaining chunk of personality could provide became a flame. Four five three four eleven SE. Sun malfunctioned.
Lusamine had her elbows close to her chest, hands pushing against him, when he stopped scrabbling at her like an animal and went limp. "Sun?" She didn't know what had happened. "Sun? Are you-"

He mumbled something.

"What?"

"You did this to me."

"Did what, Sun?"

"Made me yours."

What was going on now? "Sun, what are you talking about?"

"I want to go home."

Lusamine could feel all the colour drain from her face, goosebumps prickling on her skin. "No, Sun. You want to stay." She raised herself into a sitting position, casting back the covers and laying his idle body in her lap. He was staring at her, bewildered.

"No. I want to go. I want to go home."

"Sun. You want to stay."

Sun tried to sit up, and she held him down, brushing her hair back as she did so, trying to restrain him physically if she was unable to mentally block him. "I shouldn't be here. What happened to me?" He didn't recognise her. There was no fear or anger that someone who had been through what he had may carry. He was asking simple questions that he wanted answers to.

"Sun, you're my perfect son." Lusamine didn't know how to handle this. Her whole life was about a battle for control; control of the Foundation, control of her image, control of her children. Illusions sometimes, reality others. Gripping Sun in a clamp, pressing him down as he continually, robotically tried to get up was the only way she could take any sort of control here.

Sun still had a few issues that needed to be resolved after all. Gladion may have done more damage than she thought.

"Please can I get up?" Sun asked politely.

"No. Look at me, Sun." She twisted his head to look directly into her eyes, hands on his soft cheeks. "Look at me. You need to stay."

"Y- yes... I do." A smile crossed his face again. "Mother."

Lusamine exhaled a sigh of relief. "Oh, Sun."

He relaxed in her lap and she ran her fingers across his chest gently. He was twitching again at her touch, a sign that the moment of weakness had passed. She lifted him on top of her, lying back and dragging the covers back over them. Leading Sun back into the soft, golden heaven, where he was wrapped in warm, clean bedsheets and illuminated by calm light. Where he clung to his adoptive mother's smooth skin and kissed her velvet lips. Where he was loved and loved in return. Where her hair ticked him as it fell over him, and where everything, not just him, was perfect.

A noise like a wind chime woke Sun, but it wasn't a natural sound. It kept stuttering and repeating insistently, and it was irritating. He didn't know what the source was, and he didn't want his mother to be disturbed by it - she deserved a rest. Despite his wants, she stirred from her sleep shortly after him, and made a loud tutting in disapproval. "This had better be important," she mumbled, half asleep as she recovered the dress she had cast aside the previous night and slipped it on, forgetting her leggings and her heels, as well as the crystal that normally sat over her chest. Her hair went unstyled and untamed.

"Sun, here please," she asked of him and he quickly got dressed again, leaving his collar off and following her to the mansion's double doors - Sun realised the insistent sound was the doorbell. It must have rung before in his lifetime so why hadn't he recognised it?

He put his body against hers as she reached for the handle and she put her arm around his shoulder instead, the other hand now taking over the objective of the first. The door clicked open. It was the sweaty angry man again, Sun thought.

Guzma smiled at the sight of Lusamine, but his eyes darted to Sun and he looked uncertain. "Uh... morning, miss Prez."

"Guzma, it is... is the sun even up?"

"Yes, mother," Sun said, misinterpreting and mishearing the question. Guzma glanced at the horizon.

"Uh, sorta. You said we'd talk in the morning," he explained. "I'm here."

Lusamine rolled her eyes and her brow furrowed, her expression reading only frustration. "Guzma. I was going to invite you in at a reasonable time. I did not expect you to arrive at my door in the early hours of the-"

"Oh, shit, miss Prez, my bad. My bad." Guzma fumbled his words, not making eye contact. He had some sort of plan coming here this early, and was doing a bad job of hiding it. "Uh, I guess I'll-"

Lusamine didn't have the patience to listen to an apology or an explanation. "Forget it Guzma. Come on through."

Guzma's expression brightened as much as it was possible for it to - there were still creases in his forehead that told of pent up rage, and his smirk wasn't at all subtle. "Ya mind if you... uh, dismiss the kid?"

Sun felt much more awake. He wouldn't refuse to obey his mother if she did demand for him to leave, but he didn't want to. Lusamine's grip on him tightened. "I do mind."

"Oh. Uh, sorry, miss Prez. I, uh, thought..."

"You thought wrong, Guzma." Lusamine had already thrown open the door to her room again, not bothering to wait for their guest. He rushed after them.

"Guzma, I am going to have a shower and dress myself properly. Sun will keep you company while I do so. If you're going to be so rude as to wake me so early, you could show me some patience while I make myself presentable."

Guzma and Sun were both unhappy about the arrangement.

"Mother, I don't think that's a good idea."

"Bad plan, miss Prez."

Guzma and Sun glanced at each other. Sun retreated behind Lusamine. "Be quick, mother," Sun requested, and Lusamine nodded.

"Just wait here," she requested, collecting what she'd wear for the day - an exact replica of what she wore the day before - and retreating into the ensuite.

Sun and Guzma were left in awkward silence. Guzma sat down at the square black table and rapped his fingers on it impatiently. Sun yawned widely and hesitantly sat by Guzma, on the other side of the table.

Guzma eyed Sun curiously. "Ya'll believe it too."

"Huh?" Sun asked.

"Ya believe it. 'Ts crazy." Guzma found himself beginning to develop reservations about working with Lusamine. When the kid had come to Po Town and carved a path through every one of his boys and girls for the sake of a Yungoos, Guzma had wondered how it was possible to beat such a force of nature.

Lusamine had known. Now the kid was a puppet with her hand up his ass. "Believe what?" Sun asked.

"Nuthin," Guzma waved the question away. "How come ya ain't with ya brother 'n sister?" Sun shifted in his seat, blinking away tiredness.

"Mother wanted me to stay with her." Sun yawned again and stretched out as he did so, his bones making a cracking sound. He sighed with contention as he relaxed again. Guzma stifled his own yawn.

"She, uh... she..." The President may be as messed up as Plumeria said she was.

"Mr. Guzma, thank you for bringing me back."

"No- no problem, kid." Guzma appreciated Sun's respect. Mr. Guzma was right. Damn, she'd fixed the kid up good. "I work wit' her a lot so it ain't no thing."

"Cool," Sun replied, but he didn't sound interested. Guzma didn't mind too much, so long as he didn't have to have any awkward conversations with him. "Mr. Guzma, what do you think of my mother?"

Guzma's eyebrows dropped. He was suspicious. "Uh, she's cool." Maybe the kid was passing on everything he said to her. Little creep. "I got respect."

"Okay," Sun replied and rocked back and forth on his chair nervously. He was wondering if Guzma was romantically interested in Lusamine, but didn't voice his concerns. He didn't want Guzma around. They settled into an awkward silence for a length of time, the only sound in the room Sun's chair creaking as he moved. "Are you going to stay?" Sun asked.

"I just wanna talk to the Prez. One to one, ya know?"

"I'm not leaving."

Guzma glared at Sun. "Kid, you're gonna come up with an excuse to leave. I don't care if you're her favourite now or not, you gonna get out or I'll throw ya out."
Sun glared back. "No."

Guzma stood, launching his chair behind him. It scraped along the floor and toppled onto its back with a clatter as he placed his large hands flat on the table. "Kid. I will smash you to little fuckin' pieces if ya don't listen to me. You aren't gonna stop me again."

Sun didn't even blink, despite how diminutive he was in size to the goliath Guzma. "I'm not leaving unless mother tells me to."

"Kid-"

The door clicked and Lusamine came back through it. She looked between Guzma standing over Sun, at the chair Guzma had knocked aside. Sun beamed at the sight of her. Guzma's enraged expression disappeared, trying to cover his tracks. There wasn't much he could do though, as Lusamine was not easily deceived.

"What are you doing, Guzma?" Her voice was cold as an Avalugg's tread. Invisible frost filled the room and Sun and Guzma both shivered in response.

"I was, uh, jus' talkin' to ya kid here-"

"He said if I didn't leave that he'd smash me to little pieces."

Guzma blanched at Sun's condemning words. "Uh, that's an exaggeration-"

"Guzma. I told you to be very gentle with Sun. I'm very glad he wasn't hurt while you retrieved him," Lusamine stepped over to the table, marginally taller than Guzma in her heels, "but if you dare lay a finger on him in my presence, you'll be my enemy, Guzma. And that's," Lusamine placed her hands on the table as Guzma had previously but there was more poise, an arch in her back so she could glare straight at Guzma, "not a place you want to be."

If anyone else had threatened him like that he would have knocked them out cold right there and then. But the President was alright, he knew. She still knew he was strong, and that was enough. "Fine."

"Apologise to Sun."

"Sorry, kid." Guzma muttered, hardly sincere.

"Pick up your chair. How rude, throwing my furniture around with such contempt." Guzma's early arrival had really done him no favours thus far, and now he was messing up on even more counts.

"Sorry, miss Prez." He did as he was told, not paying mind to either Sun or Lusamine as they watched him right his chair and drag it to the door. "Alright, but what you two looking at?"

"You," Sun replied. Lusamine chuckled lightly. She lifted another chair and placed it close by Sun, so that he could be close to her - and she could be close to him. He shifted his chair a little closer still and leaned against her, eyes shut with contention.

"What did you want, Guzma?" Sun mumbled something unintelligible, even though the question wasn't directed at him. He hooked his arm through Lusamine's and she took his hand, even though it was the dark one. She lay her hand on his head and massaged his scalp as she had the night before.

"I wanna say that I'm here to jus' chat." Lusamine's expression dropped even further. "How early do you have to wake me? For a chat?"

"Listen, miss Prez. I appreciate ya. I do. But I'm thinking you could help my team out even more. Y'all got some strong Pokémon around here. I'm sayin' if you could lend us over a few, we could-"

"Guzma. That's not why you're here."

"Okay, okay!" Guzma put his hand to his face, embarrassed. "Thing is, you said we'd talk - and uh, we're talking now. I thought you'd have something to say."
Sun mewled as she found a particular spot on his head to scratch, drawing Guzma's attention to him. "Guzma, I wanted to speak to you in private. But I won't dismiss Sun. He needs to be with me for now, until someone else can watch over him."

"What about Lillie and Gladion? Them two?"

"You think I can trust them?" Lusamine hissed. "Gladion took him away. Lillie is a liar. He is not to interact with such creatures."

Sun wasn't paying attention, continuing to speak nonsense at the edges of silence. Guzma was truly disturbed by him at this point. "What can't ya say in front of him, huh?"
"I just don't want him to know all of our business."

"Why not? You got 'im good. Look at 'im, don't even know where he is." Guzma gestured to Sun, who seemed to have somehow fallen back to sleep. "Jus' tell me."
"Guzma, I think it may be time that we ended our partnership."

"Huh? No, no, miss Prez, there's still a lot we can do for each other!" Guzma sat up straight in his seat, panicking. "Listen, you know what I'm good at. Ya can tell me the word and I'll beat down anyone who gets in ya way!"

"I don't need that anymore, Guzma. I just want you to distance yourself from my company now. You've done a great job delivering what I desire. The Cosmog and Sun. Now I think it's time-"

"Miss Prez, please! You said you wanted the Cosmog for a reason, yeah? You wanted to-"

"Guzma. Hush."

"No, miss Prez, I gotta-"

"Guzma-"

"-LUSAMINE!" Sun was stirred by Guzma's shout. He sat back in his chair fearfully, but upon seeing Lusamine was still by his side he relaxed some. "Ain't no one ever seen me the way you do! Don't tell me to go! Not like everyone else! I ain't tryna get told I'm a piece of shit everywhere I go anymore - jus' keep me on, alright? I ain't gonna wake you this early again, and I won't hurt ya son, I-"

"Guzma, calm down." Lusamine was trying not to laugh at how simple it was to manipulate him. While his early arrival had surprised her the conversation was following exactly as she expected it. "We can still be in contact. I simply have no need for you at this moment in time."

"Miss Prez," Guzma sighed. "I like you, alright."

Lusamine pretended to be flustered, widening her eyes slightly. "You- you-" in fact, it was almost too easy.

"Yeah, miss Prez. Jus', I'll do anythin' ya need."

She avoided his eyes coyly, and also had to hide her amusement at the level of control she had. "I'll... I'll keep it in mind, Guzma. Perhaps I may find use for you yet." He was just another puppet with his strings twined to her fingers. Lillie, Gladion, Faba, Guzma, Sun - all of them were her little troupe of entertainers.

"Alrigh', miss Prez. Jus' so long as we got an understanding here. Jus' give me the word." Guzma looked thoughtful - too thoughtful. Both Sun and Lusamine saw through the act, but Guzma thought he had them fooled. "Ya should come Po Town sometime. Ever since the kid tore-"

Lusamine cleared her throat loudly. Guzma hesitated. "Huh?" Lusamine's face visibly twitched at his idiocy. She shot a glance at Sun, who wasn't paying any attention to Guzma's words. Guzma realised his mistake.

"Oh. Uh, ever since Po Town got, uh, tore up-"

"Guzma, I have no desire to fraternise with your companions." Lusamine ran her hand along Sun's shoulder, massaging it gently, extracting more cute noises from him.
"Alright, jus' let me talk to ya again later, when the kid ain't around. I think we need ta, like, debrief, yeah?"

"You've wasted my time enough already." Lusamine's touch on Sun became firmer, squeezing yet more hums of satisfaction from him. "Guzma, don't push your luck."
"Miss Prez-" Guzma was irritated by how much attention she was showing Sun and how little she seemed to care for him.

"-How many times do I have to tell you to not call me that?!"

"President Lusamine-"

"-Better," she approved.

"-please. Gimme a chance."

"Guzma. My patience, even for you, is not infinite."

"Fine!" Guzma threw up his hands in the air and his chair scraped along the ground as he stood. "Fine, I'll let ya be, if that's what ya want."

"Thank you, Guzma. If I decide I want to speak with you, I'll send someone for you later." Lusamine leaned back in her chair elegantly, trying to hide a smirk. She'd call for him later and he'd thank his lucky stars. Then she could explain to him what she wanted him to do next without Sun to pick up on the exploitation and stealing of Pokémon they were in the business of.

Guzma left. He dipped his hands deep into his coat's pockets and slouched his way out of the room, and out of the mansion, rubbing the back of his neck. "That coulda gone better."

Sun and Lusamine were left alone again. "You're manipulating him, aren't you?" Sun's voice was low and even held a level of arrogance. He continued to be unpredictable.
Lusamine at first thought it was the original Sun speaking, but a look at him and his loving gaze told her he was just perceptive of her methods, far more so than Guzma. "Yes, Sun, I am."

"You're very clever," he applauded. Lusamine appreciated the compliment far more than what it was worth, kissing him on the forehead and making him blush. "He'll do whatever you say."

"Yes, he will," Lusamine couldn't keep a straight face any longer as she spoke. Guzma wasn't the only one being controlled.

"Can I go back to sleep?" Sun asked.

"Yes, Sun."

"Will you come with me?"

"No, Sun." There was little point in getting ready for the day then going back to bed.

"Can I stay up?"

Lusamine laughed. "Yes, Sun." How sweet.

Lillie and Gladion hadn't slept. Gladion had been describing the whole journey to Lillie, every time that Sun had showed any of his past self and every time Sun had gone too far into the fantasy. Lillie's expression hadn't changed once. It was unusual. Even when Gladion mentioned the destruction of Kukui's lab she continued to look impassive.

"The code. What is it?" Lillie asked finally.

"Four five three, four eleven SE," Gladion replied, reading from the documents he'd managed to keep hidden. "And here." There were a few photos intended to be used with Sun's Trainer Passport, of him before he changed - Gladion passed one to Lillie. "I thought you might... might want it."

Lillie's hands didn't shake, she didn't smile and she didn't cry. She took it. "Sun... I'll help you. I will."

"We'll help him," Gladion reminded her.

"Yeah." She wasn't listening. "I'll help him." Gladion was concerned for her. He knew Sun had meant a lot to her, but only time would tell just how far she'd go to get him back. "Gladion, I've been busy. I should mention... I've managed to reach out to someone."

"What do you mean?" Gladion asked carefully.

"Faba."

"What?!" Gladion jolted, shaking his head. "No, you can't-"

"It's fine. His position is in peril, so he'll do anything to save it, including help us." Lillie brushed aside Gladion's protests. "I'll handle him."

"How are you going to- you know that he tried to get me, Sun and Hau captured when we came back for you, right? He could have turned us all into what Sun is now!" Gladion couldn't believe Lillie had done that without consulting him first.

"I'll take care of it. We're working on fixing him behind her back, but the code will help."

"The code? Lillie, that's his trainer ID. It's a part of his-"

"That is a password to get around what mother has done, no more and no less." Lillie wasn't going to mess with any specifics. She was going to stop at nothing now.

Whatever Gladion thought of her plans, the allies she made, she didn't care - and she already had ideas of how to use this new weapon.