Lusamine's very presence was intimidating, even when she wasn't near to Lillie. Nebby had been taken from her upon her return, and now she had no idea what was about to happen. Her mother was turned away, fiddling with something.
"Lillie, my dear," she began. "I know what's to come. I'll be united with my Beast, just as I planned. But it is not right that only I," Lillie felt too exposed, too vulnerable, "can enjoy its company. That only I can feel its love." Lillie frowned. Where was this going? "Now, Lillie, you're going to feel what I feel. How and when? I don't know. But I'm going to gift your undeserving, wretched self with my Beast's love."
Lillie didn't know if she should run or stay for Nebby's sake. "Mother..." she began. Lusamine didn't listen. "Mother, don't use Nebby- Cosmog to-"
"There was a boy here, not long ago. He was able to do what I could not - keep the Beast here, for study... at least, parts of it. You have him to thank for this generosity." She turned, holding a shard of white glass... which wriggled in her grip like a large, disgusting slug.
Lillie leaned away. "What are you-" Lusamine marched to her, Lillie backing up until she was trapped against the door. "Don't touch me with that thing!"
"Oh Lillie, you are deluded. It truly saddens me to see that you may never appreciate Nihilego..." Nihilego. That damn name, what her mother wanted her to be, what she'd dressed Lillie up as, what she'd demanded her to look like. Lillie hated it. "I'll make you. You'll know its love constantly. You'll be inseparable..."
Lusamine's fingers closed painfully over her delicate neck, knocking her into the door. Lusamine clutched the shard in between elegant fingers and conjoined the daughter who mimicked Nihilego and the Beast itself, sliding venom into her spine. Lillie gasped and tried to stop Lusamine, but everything was already becoming hazy. Lusamine finally released her. The shard was limp, still writhing but less energetically. Her mother now returned to the mirror where she admired herself briefly, throwing the empty shard to the floor. She raised her heel over it and crushed it with a grimace. "It was corrupt. After blessing you," Lusamine justified the action. Lillie moved forward slightly, ready to beg for her to spare Cosmog again. The venom. She could feel it.
It crept and crawled. It slipped and slithered into her head and she knew her humanity had shut down to facilitate the Ultra Beast's motives. It was - it felt so - good?
The door burst open behind her.
Sun was there. His black hair looked windswept and unkempt, brushing it out of his eyes, and he was sweating. He held out a Poké Ball in challenge toward Lusamine and she ignored him. Lillie meanwhile felt like her heart was going to burst. She wanted to tackle Sun to the ground and hug him endlessly, show him how much he meant to her now that he had come back for her, and tell him she loved him. How much of it was her and how much of it was the alien spreading through her was impossible to tell.
"Ah. Sun. It's been a while since I last saw you..." Lusamine spoke.
"Wha-?" Lillie exclaimed. How did Lusamine know Sun? How did Sun get here? Why was he-
He was here to save her.
The influence swelled like a disgusting, bloated tumor in her chest. "Y... You came? You actually came to help me, Sun?" Sun had that soft expression, the one she could melt into and be comforted by and believe in. If there was an expression for 'it'll be okay,' Sun owned it. He nodded.
"Hmm," Lusamine thought aloud, stirring Lillie back to the danger at hand. Rage was building up in her. She wanted to be alone with Sun. She didn't want her mother to be there. "So you know one another? A gifted," Lusamine gestured with a sweep of her arm, curling her fingers into her palm, "young Trainer like Sun... and he bothers with someone like you?" Lusamine sighed. "How disappointing."
Lillie's fury boiled over. "I don't need your approval, mother! Or your permission! I will save Cosmog!" She felt the strings that the symbiotic thing had wrapped around her inner workings growing tighter, felt it feed off of the outburst.
"My... you do say such incomprehensible things." Lusamine looked less than amused by Lillie's words. "Calling me 'mother?' I don't have any children! Certainly not any wretched children who would run off and reject my love! So tell me, Lillie, how you'll save that Pokémon. What can you do? You've failed to convince me to listen to you. You don't even have the strength of a Trainer. The only thing you have done on your own is steal someone else's research material!"
Lillie bowed her head, hiding her expression. She had to hold off the creature and make herself heard at the same time, but it would grow stronger with every emotion she felt...
"You're not beautiful enough for my world..." Lusamine turned away, the blonde sheet of her hair glittering in the stark white room, beautifully tended to as usual, the crystal similar to the one on her chest that she used to hold it all together visible. "Since you're here anyway, you can watch me summon my sweet Beast. And then... you can leave."
"I am not being," Lillie said through gritted teeth, "foolish or selfish! I am asking you to listen, mother! Do not sacrifice Cosmog for that beast's sake! If you open the Ultra Wormhole, Cosmog will... Cosmog will die!" Lillie was finding it harder and harder to believe her words.
Lusamine wasn't even deigning to look at them any longer. "You're right. It probably will die. Because I'm going to force it to use its power whether it wants to or not!" Lusamine pulled aside the mirror doorway into the passage leading to the trophy room. "Maybe if you really had been a daughter to me, I would have listened to you..." she smirked. "Too bad." She descended the hidden staircase in no rush, knowing the teens wouldn't chase after her immediately.
Lillie faced Sun again. Her words were rushed - she couldn't meet his eyes. "Sun... I really am happy that you came after me... but... but... I have to be selfish again... I have to ask you one more time," she steadied herself and looked at him directly, feeling that raw carnal rush that evolution had suppressed and Nihilego was releasing. "Please, help me! Help Nebby! We have to save Nebby!"
Sun nodded once and put his hand on her bare shoulder, nearly making her give in entirely. The feeling that the venom gave her, of having her own self-control switched off, bubbled and popped inside her. "You don't need to ask, Lillie." It took all her strength, both mental and physical, to resist the following burst of impurity. Sun moved past her, Poké Ball held like a grenade, eyes determined and focused. He moved one step at a time toward the staircase. Lillie followed.
The thin passage opened out into a bridge after a descent that felt too deep. It led to a white octagonal platform, in turn connected to a white H-shaped platform. Either a deep pool or the open ocean lapped against the platforms gently. "What... what is this place?" Lillie asked herself. She'd never seen it before. Beneath her feet this whole time had been this strange antechamber... how far did her mother's evil go back? What experiments was this room for, what had Lusamine done here while she and Gladion had played upstairs in the mansion during their youth?
"Don't know," Sun replied simply. He stopped suddenly. "She's there." His voice told her that she could turn back if she wanted, but that was the last thing Lillie desired. Sun had only gone up against sporting opponents, happy Kahunas and jolly Trial Captains, average trainers. Lusamine had no such jovial ideals. She needed to protect him. He didn't know what he was getting into.
Lillie looked ahead. Lusamine was stood in the centre of the platform, surrounded by blue shapes... no, ice blocks... with Pokémon inside! Sun's expression darkened at the abuse of the creatures he loved so much. The President wasn't what she had made out to be during his previous visit. She was a monster.
"Come then," Lusamine called to them both. "Hurry, this way." She rested her chin on her hand and grinned, amused by their pursuit. She approached them as they confronted her, and Lillie hesitated. Sun didn't. "What do you think? It's my private collection," she drawled. She seemed so... proud. Like this was a museum of interesting knick knacks, rather than a display of live specimens, trapped forever.
"I think it's disgusting," Sun dismissed. "I thought you loved Pokémon."
"Oh, sweet Sun, you don't understand... my precious babies will be preserved for all eternity here." Lillie was sickened by her mother's ways. She knew Sun would be infuriated. She tried to indicate to him that he shouldn't be rash, shaking her head. But she herself had to resist attacking her mother now, with Nihilego supping every different feeling she was cycling through. Lusamine was volatile and unpredictable. "But my poor Beast... what confusion, what rage must it feel, arriving in this strange world? It would not be right to confine its feelings in such a small case as these ones... it will need to express itself. I think I will let it express all its fury upon the Alola region as it will! And I will love it, and it, it will choose me to love in return!"
Footsteps, quick and darting, echoed from the passageway. Hau emerged into the room and rushed to Sun and Lillie's side. Gladion followed, face set in a scowl. "Sun, Lillie," Hau called. "I'm so glad you're okay!"
"Ah. Sweet Hau. So you came too?" Lusamine glanced between Sun and Hau, then focused on Gladion standing between them. "Hmph. And Gladion. Must you be so untidy?"
Gladion ignored the slight. He'd heard worse. "Will you listen to me at least? You must not open the Ultra Wormhole. You cannot let the Beasts run wild!"
Lusamine came closer to her son, appraising him, did the same to Lillie. Then, she let loose, her composed facade giving way. "The daughter who stole my Cosmog from me - and the son who took my Type: Null! All I ever," she swept her arm out violently, hands curled into claws, "did was give you two all the love I had, and all you did was betray me! You have no right, none at all, to ask for my attention now!"
Hau looked confused. "What? Daughter? Sun?" He'd misheard what she had meant exactly, which would soon be a twist on irony. "Wait!" he realised, looking between the three blonde haired, green eyed figures in the chamber. "You all are a family?!"
Lusamine's rage was curbed by Hau's words somehow. "Perhaps once we were... Sweet Hau. But those wretches beside you left me. But it doesn't matter now. Nothing matters now. I was able to open the Ultra Wormhole just with the gases extracted from Cosmog when it was in Aether Paradise, wasn't I?" She turned her back to them all, and they noticed a black cube-like device. A cage for Nebby. "But now I have Cosmog itself inside this crate here... if I use its entire body, how many Wormholes can I open? How many sweet Beasts will come to me then?"
"Please!" Lillie begged. "Stop! If Nebby isn't- if you make it use too much of its power, you don't understand what could happen! Like when we ran away from the Paradise, and it couldn't move for ages after that... if you use too much of its power, it will die!" This was the last of her calm. If Lusamine did any more Lillie would take the power she now knew and would use it to stop her by force. Nihilego couldn't smile, but she felt its power grow ever stronger at her wavering mentality and imagined the faceless creature leering.
Lusamine scooped up the crate and turned back to them. "Watch," she demanded as she held it out. "I will open the Ultra Wormhole for you... come to me, my sweet Beast!" The crate began to glow brightly, and she raised it in her hands, lifting it aloft as a blue blast erupted from the case. Nebby cried out in pain from inside the black box. A wisp of gaseous energy passed through the top of the case and exploded high above their heads. It pushed the air backward and created a tunnel through the nothingness.
Lusamine looked up into it directly, and everyone present saw the look on her face. Unadulterated corruption, nothing but a hunger for that which was not natural. As if planned, a Nihilego began to descend from the portal, the Beast elegant and calm in its actions. Shard by shard it came together, lithe and elegant, until their density was such that it resembled a smooth, single creature, Nihilego's true form.
Lillie's head buzzed with a sort of static. Nihilego was so close. It knew its hosts and seemed to be passively interested in both Lillie and Lusamine. Her mother was visibly twitching. How must she feel now? With that insidious monster mere metres away?
Holographic screens lit up behind Lusamine, alerting her that other Wormholes were appearing across Alola. "You see! All over Alola!" Lusamine was moving without humanity now, stumbling and slavering like a wild animal. She choked with emotion, and turned back to the children with crazed eyes.
Sun rushed forward to stop her torturing Nebby and Lusamine countered by approaching him as well. They both slowed down, a metre between them. "It shouldn't be long now. Soon, they will be among us. Our world will be theirs. Theirs will be mine!" She was espousing her beliefs to Sun directly more than any of the other kids. She took up the case again, cradling it in her arms. "Oh, Cosmog, your power has served me well."
Another set of footsteps rang out from the corridor. "Madam Prez!" Guzma shouted, startling Lusamine out of her embrace of Cosmog's cage, the President glancing up at him. "The experiment was a success, huh? Looks like it's time to catch this sick wicked Ultra Beast and beat down these annoying lil' upstarts!"
Lusamine nodded, not entirely there. There was euphoria in her whole body, but there were still steps to take before she could marinate in it. "You're right, Guzma. Quiet those children for me. I don't want to hear from them again." Guzma paced towards them and Gladion spoke up. "I'll stop the Beast! My partner Null was born to be a beast killer! Hau, you take Guzma!" Guzma snorted. Sun might have been a problem - a big one - for the Boss of Team Skull, but that Hau kid wasn't anything in comparison. "Sun, stop the President! If we don't-" Gladion hesitated. Lusamine was bearing down on Sun. He was out of formation- Sun was further ahead than the others by a few good steps, closer to Lusamine than he was the other kids. Guzma cracked his knuckles as he sloped toward Hau: Hau weighed up his chances and ran. "Sun-" Gladion called his name.
Sun wasn't intimidated by the President. He didn't care about Gladion's worry. He didn't know how bad it could be. They hadn't warned him.
He was ready to duel her in a battle, Decidueye's Poké Ball in hand. "Sun, forget it!" Gladion shouted. Lusamine stopped in front of him, and Sun saw the beginning of the idea in her eyes. She suddenly swung the case with Nebby inside into Sun's chest and he reeled back. Instinctively, to save Nebby, he hugged the case and pried it from Lusamine's hands, Lillie screaming at the attack her mother had made on Sun. How dare she? Lillie would rip Lusamine limb from limb and prove to Nihilego that she was a host more worthy- Lillie shut out the thought before she could act on it. Sun pushed down on the button built into the case and it deactivated the object. The portal above fizzled, and Nihilego began to blink in and out of existence.
"Catch!" Sun called and threw the black crate at Lillie. She threw her arms out in panic and caught it. Her heart swelled. Sun, so selfless, so kind, so- she watched as Sun smiled at her before turning back to Lusamine. Her mother drew back her arm, hand flat, and smacked him across the face. Hard. Sun toppled over from the force, and Lillie needed to act. She glanced up at Nihilego and saw it fading back into Ultra Space. Sun shutting down the case had collapsed the portal. Its power was weakening. She couldn't defeat Lusamine without it.
Gladion put out his arm to block her, knowing she'd want to intervene. "We have to go," Gladion insisted. He was right, but they couldn't leave Sun. Lillie could fight her. She would. The alien would help her. It'd give her the strength she needed to take revenge on her mother after so long. She just had to give in.
"No, Gladion, he'll get hurt-" Lillie tried to move around him, but he kept her back. He needed to understand. She could do this, she just had to let it swallow her, sink beneath the quicksand surface, be consumed in the tar pit of Nihilego's will. It buzzed in her mind stronger. If Gladion would keep her from Nihi- from Sun, she'd fight him too.
"We have to, Lillie." Gladion didn't understand, she could do it, she could save him - Sun, her - Sun...
"No-" he was wrong, he was wrong, she could do it. They wouldn't leave Sun there. Hau was a coward, and she hated him for giving up on them so fast, allowing that to pile onto her mental state, Nihilego reaching deeper.
"Lillie-"
"NO, GLADION, I WON'T LEAVE-" she was desperate. She wouldn't lose him. She pushed him aside and- Gladion threw his arm around her and pulled her toward the passageway. Lillie screamed, reaching for Sun, who was on the white platform, propped up by his wrist, Lusamine stamping on his back to force him down. "NO, SUN! I- SUN, NO!"
Guzma was preoccupied watching Lusamine beat the child that he couldn't, and she was too absorbed in the act to chastise him for it. Gladion shoved Lillie back and she toppled over as Gladion glanced back at Lusamine, Sun and Guzma. Sun was flat on his face and Lusamine was cracking his skull with her heel, drawing blood as she repeatedly drove the black spike into his head. His red ran onto the white ground. Lillie pushed up and Gladion caught her again.
"Wait-" Sun begged. He begged. Sun was too strong to beg. Sun needed her. She needed to prove herself to Sun. Lillie wanted to speak. She wanted to help. She had to drink from the poisoned chalice of Nihilego's power, she could, she would, there was no other choice - Nihilego vanished, the portal closing completely, Nihilego passing through with it. Lusamine looked up at Lillie, sensing Nihilego was gone. Both their heads cleared up somewhat. All her childhood fears, all her traumas, rose painfully.
Gladion took her hand and ran, pulling her after him. They had to keep Nebby safe or Sun saving it would mean nothing. Lillie screamed again as she watched Sun vanish forever.
The portals across Alola had collapsed before an invasion could begin. Sun releasing Nebby in time had saved the world from annihilation.
She never thought she'd see him again.
Lillie woke in a cold sweat. "Oh- oh no-" she whispered, glancing over at where Gladion was snoozing. "Oh..." she sighed, glad she hadn't woken him - she held her head in her hands and tried to steady herself. It was the Ultra Beast. Her mother had told her what Nihilego was many times when she was growing up, and now that she knew how she felt about Sun, even in his Aether form, it was coming back to amplify those feelings and make them dangerous. She'd been in denial. She hadn't wanted to believe it... but her subconscious bringing that memory to her so clearly told her that the venom was the cause, that it was serious.
But the effects should have worn off, shouldn't they? Lillie caught sight of the sun hat on the end of her bed, which she had to wear every time she left the house, just so she could resemble the alien. She felt her skin crawl as she tried to reach out to the remnants of the poison inside. And it responded. An inconceivably strong burning feeling caught light in her stomach and she clamped her hands over her mouth to avoid screaming in horror as it twisted her body.
"Please..." Lillie begged it. "Don't do this to me."
The hat was changing shape. There were tendrils reaching out from it, searching, tasting the air as they probed for prey. Lillie watched, horrified as they snaked through the air toward her. "Gla-Gladion..." she mumbled, her throat too dry, her voice too quiet - she needed Gladion to protect her, needed Sun to protect her, she inhaled and prepared to wake him by screaming -
One of the white tendrils darted forward and plunged into her mouth. The density and compactness of the shards in this form made Nihilego feel smooth as rubber, slick as water. Lillie gagged on the tentacle as it kept her silent. The hat wasn't a hat anymore, it was the bell of the Beast itself, having snuck into their dimension, their home, her room, her bed...
More and more feelers wrapped over her, tying her to her bed in a cocoon of glassy shards softer than a blanket. There were more tendrils than there were originating from Nihilego itself, which meant there was another Beast, perhaps under her bed. Lillie struggled but it continued to tighten with more and more tentacles, feelers intertwined with her fingers which struggled to grasp at something in denial, in terror, until it was as if she was in a tight, slippery sleeping bag. Her vision was blocked by one last white limb, and she was wholly mummified by the Beasts.
Then all at once every shard flicked slightly out of formation and there were thousands of needles full of venom pointed at her body. As they plunged into her simultaneously, pumping her full of poison, she
woke up again, this time for certain, into reality. Gladion was sleeping. She was fine. Everything was fine. Her hat was just a hat. She shook her head at the nightmare and lay back onto her pillow, looking up at the ceiling.
She was being silly. It had to have worn off. It had been at least a month. There was no way it could have-
She noticed an odd sound, a popping, a slurping, and a tentacle gripped her face, pulling her head to the left to rear back its injecting tip and force it into her cheek- it spoke in a voice she could not comprehend, but understood, "Soon."
Lillie woke up and cried out. This time Gladion woke. "Lillie? What's wro- oh my- you- Lillie, you-" Lillie tried to scream but she didn't have a mouth. She had lots of limbs, lithe and thin, but they all had minds of their own and reached out to Gladion to tell him to calm down, relax. She had no means to speak with. "Lillie, don't- it's me, Gladion, your brother! Lillie!"
The insect was annoying her. She wrapped a feeler around his face, gagging him on it, and yanked violently, breaking her brother's neck. He fell lifeless in front of-
Lillie woke up and screamed. Gladion woke up too. "Lillie? what's wrong? Lillie?" She had already broken down into tears.
"Gladion, I'm not right... I'm..." she couldn't tell him that she'd been infected. He wouldn't trust her anymore and she needed him to help Sun. Sun... the name set off the emotional buffer again and she choked as her primary feeling changed from fear to an intense love that made her retch from its sheer volume.
"Lillie," Gladion assured her, "come on. Go back to sleep. We're safe. She's not going to hurt us."
Lillie swallowed the painfully strong emotions, shutting them out as she had been quite efficiently until now. She had to pretend that was the case. Anything for Sun. Anything for- Arceus, that damn... damn reaction, like a surge of power, like a crack of thunder. She lay back, and couldn't sleep.
Sun's hair was tousled. His fingers were unresponsive and his glassy eyes stared unseeing. He couldn't think. He knew words were being said.
Heartbeat.
It jolted him back into life briefly, and he felt his index finger curl a small degree.
Heartbeat.
Sun coughed. The words became clearer. "I've got you. Sun. Sun, can you... are you..." his eyes felt wet, slippery. He was blinking too much trying to clear his sight.
"...sorry, Sun, so..." It was still too blurry to see a thing, even guess what the dashes of colour were. He was being cradled. Rocked gently back and forth.
Heartbeat.
There could only be one person who was willing to love him like that. He wanted to snuggle closer, feel her against him, because that was what made him comfy. He couldn't move. "Sun, honey, say something, please..."
Heartbeat.
'I'm okay, mother,' he thought. He couldn't speak. His jaw wouldn't move.
"You're everything to me now. Please. I've ruined everything else. I've destroyed what I could have had." Lusamine took one of his hands and put her lips to it. Sun felt a warmth in that hand begin to pass down his body and tingle with feeling again. "Baby, talk to mommy."
"Mo... ther?" Sun croaked. Lusamine gasped and hugged him tightly.
"Sun, your mother is so sorry, so sorry for what she did to you. It wasn't me, Sun, you know that, don't you? It wasn't me." She was asking him these things and he didn't even know what had happened. It felt like there was a blank on how he'd got to here. "Sun, sweet child, I'll never do it again. For you. For my baby boy."
"D-do... what?" Sun coughed again.
Lusamine fell silent. Her eyes darted around the room. "Sun, honey, your mother is going to go and... take care of the room for a moment while you rest, okay?" She lay him down and a soft mattress cushioned his back, while she tucked him under the sheets. He didn't want her to go. His mouth moved wordlessly as he tried to reach out to her, but didn't have the strength to raise his arm.
His head hurt so, so much. Turning it was white agony and moving it at all was a solar flare of pain. He could faintly hear Lusamine moving around and pushing things. He got a sense that the room had earlier been disturbed by something and that the furniture had been upended. He couldn't see what she was doing.
"Mother..."
"I'll be right back, Sun." There was a motion in the shape that he knew was Lusamine as she swept her hair irritably. Sun closed his eyes and focused on the sounds of scraping. It gave him clarity - that sound was an absolute sound, there was nothing false about it. His other senses had failed him, so he'd cling on to what was functional. "Oh, Arceus," Lusamine whispered in a voice she thought was too quiet for him to hear.
"Mother..." Sun repeated. "I didn't..."
"Sun, I'm sorry, please, forgive me," Lusamine rambled as she finished whatever restorations she was making to the room after what she had done to him. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have made you-"
"Mother, I didn't take the-" Sun choked. "I didn't take the venom." He had to tell her the truth. He had to be honest with her. He had to. Lusamine had rushed over to his side again, lying beside him and running her fingers through his hair.
"Sun, good boy, you sensible... oh, I'm so glad. No matter what, Sun, you mustn't let me take any more of that poison." What she had done under that wretched thing's influence was reprehensible even to her. Sun deserved nothing less than her purest, kindest love, and she had exhibited to him her most depraved, base side.
She had to take this chance. Nihilego had tore her apart, had plugged into her corporeal form and made her its loyal sock puppet. Sun had saved her from herself twice. He was all she needed. He was. He could bring the family together again. Lusamine wasn't being evil by doing this, she wasn't, she cared, she loved him, he loved her, there was nothing wrong with what she had done, excuse excuse excuse excuse excuse.
She had to stop feeling these... regrets. She had Sun now. He was hers. His blonde hair was between her digits. His soft green eyes were peering into hers. What was done was done, and she could make the most of it now. It reminded her of when times were simpler, when his skin wasn't peeling away from his body. Eventually she'd just be able to relax and experience soft indulgences with him just as she'd always wanted. He was her canvas. Her little baby boy, her masterpiece, her magnum opus. There was much suffering on his road, but she knew it was for a good cause. She had to mold him and sculpt him carefully so that when the time came for her to divert all her love to him she'd have the perfect son she wanted. She'd make him forget and remember and forget until everything came together.
She'd loved him his whole life, watched him grow-
That wasn't right. That thought was a lie. She cast it aside, marking it as erroneous.
She'd loved him ever since she'd changed him, watched him learn to love her back both voluntarily before the use of the machine and forcibly afterwards. He was such a good boy. This was making her nostalgic almost for the time that she had struck the false Sun down and the thought to keep him as her pet had crossed her mind, locking him in the pit, performing all manner of surgeries to help him become beautiful.
She began to drift away into fantasy. Sun was alone with her in the mansion. Lillie and Gladion had been expunged from her home. Sun was as beautiful a young man as ever, and they loved each other with all they were, filling the hole in her heart that had existed for so long she had accepted its permanence.
Why Sun though? She knew why. It wasn't because he was a symbol of an enemy she had overcome, nor that he was a weapon to smite Lillie and Gladion's belief in 'heroes' with. It wasn't because he wasn't hers and it wasn't because she'd been impressed by his strength. It was his innocence, his obedience.
In her imagination he knelt for her, grovelled at her feet, begging for her love. She played with his heart but was never cruel. He had the cognitive ability to take over all the running of the Foundation and at last leave her free to do as she willed while he kept the place in top form. How he could calm the monster inside her and put her at peace with his voice and his words. He was a cure. And yet, by showing him the venom, telling him to take it...
She had almost turned Sun into herself, her shadow. Lusamine was secretly proud of Lillie. Somehow Lillie had always been able to resist it, perhaps because she wasn't taking any more venom. If Sun had become like the President it would have all been for nothing. He was meant to be perfect, and that meant better than her. His kindness, his intelligence... it couldn't be destroyed.
Sun himself was deeply confused. Lusamine was far away, lost in her fantasies and her imagination, her ideal, immutable future. Was it all a test? Was she going to get rid of him now because he hadn't willingly joined with Nihilego? He recessed into the bedsheets, pulling away from Lusamine. The action took her back to the present - why was he hiding?
"Sun, baby, I love-"
"I'm sorry, mother," he murmured. "Please don't- don't hurt me."
"I won't, Sun. Didn't you hear me? You're a good boy. You are," she insisted. "I was wrong and you were right."
'Not possible,' Sun's brain registered. She had to always be correct. That was just the way the world worked. "Mother, I'm sorry I disappointed you," he said. He shrunk deeper under the duvet, only his eyes and forehead poking out now. His limbs screamed in protest as he did. The ache was like a bloodless severance, uncomfortable, impossible to master the pain of.
"No, Sun. You're..." she caressed Sun's face with the back of her hand, "You're so smart."
"But you hurt me," he said. He wasn't speaking accusingly. He sounded ashamed. "I was bad. Just tell me what I did wrong."
"Sun." Lusamine was insistent. "You did the right thing. Your mother... she... she lost herself for a moment."
"Is this why Lillie and Gladion are afraid of you?"
That cut to her core. He was only being honest, being that innocent, sweet child she needed him to be to keep her sane. That he still hadn't lost that pure streak was an act of Arceus.
"N-No, Sun. I promise to you, I'll never hurt you again." How many times had she made these sort of pacts, swearing to do what she could not? "Honey, we'll be a real family." Why had it taken Sun being hurt to see what she had become? He wasn't her damn son. Lusamine's thoughts wrestled with that simple fact, trying to twist it, trying to convince her to ignore that and say it was destiny that he'd fallen into her arms. Telling herself he was what she'd wanted all along.
Another vortex of emptiness was opening inside her gut, reminding her Sun was not hers to do with as she saw fit, he wasn't a toy, he was her adopted son.
"Mother, I'm scared of you."
'Oh Arceus, please no...' Lusamine begged mentally. Not now. Not when she wanted to turn over a new leaf. Not when she was ready to change for the betterment of all her children. She was ready to believe that love could quell how she was, what she was, that it could silence the evil in her soul. That she could stop her black heart from beating and feel warm blooded once again. That the dark and the dust could be cleaned off, and the knife could be withdrawn without inevitable exsanguination. "Sun, don't be scared, please," she said.
Sun pulled away from her hand as he had before the machine was used on him. He couldn't stop loving her now, surely. He wasn't created to ever stop adoring her. She hadn't thought it was possible. "I-" he made a noise of discomfort. "I don't want you to hurt me-"
"No, Sun, I won't, I won't-"
Sun's every portion of his body was taut with the pain of being tossed around, battered, every sinew stretched and bruised. He didn't believe her. "Mother, I... don't touch me..." he shied away from her.
She wouldn't force him into anything, wouldn't tighten the chains around him to make him obey. She couldn't abuse that power anymore. "Baby... Sun, honey, please listen to me..." There had to be a way. "What can I do to make it better?"
"Leave me alone," he mumbled and hid under the covers. "Don't..." he trailed away. Lusamine was in shock. How could this have happened? Her little boy, gone all wrong, betraying her and all she had done for him. He was hers. His body and soul were her damn property now, he shouldn't have a choice. She forgot her decision moments ago to not manipulate him.
"Sun... mommy loves you."
No answer. Did he think he was better than her? Cleverer, just because he didn't take the venom? He wasn't better than she was. He was her slave. He was her trophy. He was her prize. And she'd claim it again and again if need be. Tearing his hiding space apart by ripping off the duvet, she watched as he tried to squirm away. "Sun- Sun," she said, catching him around the waist. He gave a short scream. It hurt to hear.
Lusamine pulled him to her side, where he wriggled desperately in an attempt to escape. "Sun, shh. Mommy's got you. You're safe. You're safe. Shh. Shh." He was still pushing against her in a panic. "Sun, it's me, it's me, please, Sun, baby, calm down..." Gradually his struggles grew weaker and weaker as he fell further and further into the influence of the drug she had become to him.
"Let me go..." he pleaded quietly. Lusamine's hands clamped over his mouth, and he shut his eyes in resignation. He let himself go limp and stopped all resistance. Her hands left him. "I... I lo-love you... mother..." he choked. He was still trying to prevent himself from speaking the words. She could hear it in his voice.
Lusamine had to turn up the strength of her power over him. "Sun, baby, you're perfect..." she caressed him in her hold, ever so gentle, treating him with the love he deserved. "Never again, Sun. Never again. Your mommy loves you," she lied. His mother was dead. She loved him.
"Never... again?" Sun tried to clarify it.
"Never." She was being very careful with him, massaging him in an attempt to make him lower his guard and forget it all. "Sun..." she embraced him wholly, lying back as he gave up all semblance of struggle. He leaned into her and took a deep breath of her scent, his body twitching orgasmically.
"Mo-other..."
Now he clung to her dependently and gratefully, as he should. She gave him the gift of this new life. Lusamine wouldn't ever hurt him again. He had to be close to her, he had to defuse her now. Her path was clear at last. She locked her fingers with his. "Sun, I'm so sorry..."
So much had been done in the name of that thing, Nihilego. So many terrible acts, touching the furthest reaches of justified morality. This had to be the end of it. Sun's eyes peered up into hers and at last she saw his intrinsic trust once again. Lusamine hugged him tightly. "Sun."
"Mother?"
"I'll change. I will. I will." She wasn't saying it for Sun, she was saying it for herself. "All of you, I'll love you all. Sun, I'm so glad you didn't... didn't..." she had nearly exposed him to Nihilego too. "Sun, baby, I need to... I need to be alone for a little while, I need to think. "
The pattern of their fingers, dark in light, shifted. Sun's eyes flickered with doubt again, but they softened quickly. "Mother, are you... do you..." he didn't know what he wanted to say. It was his character to want to help. "Hmm," he hummed as he fell quiet again, snuggling against her, now reluctant to leave.
"Oh, Sun..." she didn't have words. It was unfeasible that she could be thrown this far off her equilibrium by a little boy who thought the world of her.
The world had to balance out somewhere. The boy in her arms who she had realised she was truly attached to, who she wanted to believe really was her son, was about to become a nightmare, all thanks to her.
Sun was deluded. He had been since he was reborn, his directive to first obey his mother and worry about his own wellbeing second. Only fear had stayed his hand when he refused to take the Nihilego venom, and that to him was unacceptable. Lusamine was counting on him to be her perfect son. If him being scared was enough to make him disobey, he could never achieve that.
So he had to retroactively correct his mistake.
Lusamine was out of the mansion, tending to public matters as the face of the Foundation. Whenever she was among high-profile guests she made sure to never allow Sun to be close to her, for fear they'd see through him. She wasn't going to be long, and hadn't called upon Wicke to watch over the children. This was her first mistake.
Sun now had a goal in mind he inexorably marched toward. He slid aside the mirror to access the secret passageway that led below the mansion. Descending the thin corridor of steep steps, he trembled. He would make it right. He would obey. She'd said he'd done the right thing, but he'd disobeyed her, not listened to her orders, and that was shameful.
He had to allow Nihilego into him. He had to know it the same way she did. Maybe it was good. It was a way to become closer to her, and any way of doing that had to be followed through.
The air became cool and crisp. The Pokémon, unbeknownst to him, were still hidden under the black cases that matched the size of the ice blocks. In the centre of the room were the Nihilego shards.
His footsteps echoed. Tap, tap, tap... the rhythm ingrained itself into his own head, leaving it empty when he stopped in front of the alien body components. He had come here to prove himself, how dedicated he was to her, how much he would do to please her. When she found out he'd done it, she'd love him even more.
Surely she would.
Surely.
He twisted the release lever and the ice hissed. It shrunk back for him, presenting him with the shards that began to twist and turn, bending to feel out their surroundings. It was disgusting to watch, their individual malign intellect showing in how they all reached in different directions, unable to escape the ice, rolling like fat white slugs.
Sun took the largest. He needed as much as possible to prove that he was good. That he could be just like her. It was eight inches long and its point was like that of a needle. It tried to curl over his hand but Sun squeezed it, forcing it to conform to his will. Anger was stirring in Sun's subconscious for reasons he didn't have.
He lifted it up and pointed the needle toward him, intending to drive it into his forearm. Nihilego squirmed. He could see the black venom within the single piece bubbling and boiling.
Sun jabbed himself with the white syringe. After puncturing his skin it came to life in a whole new fashion, trying to force its way inside him. At first Sun was so shocked he couldn't react and it slid an inch deep into his upper arm - then he held it tighter and forced it to relinquish every drop of its nectar to him. "No," he growled to it. "You listen to me." Whatever possessed him to speak to it he didn't know.
The shard went limp, Sun withdrawing the slightly slimy creature from himself. His arm was bleeding slightly. No problem. He jabbed Nihilego back into the ice and twisted the lever again. He heard the ice crackle its way back over the components of the Ultra Beast.
Nothing was happening to him.
Why hadn't it worked?
Why was he...
Wasn't there supposed to be something else a high a feeling like floating a revelation a something a new a old a good a bad a light a dark a left a right a
TRIUMPH HE KNEW! HE KNEW he knew why it was it was because Nihilego WAS PERFECT! At last he understood. Lusamine wanted to protect Nihilego because Nihilego deserved protection. It was the final, beautiful master of all things and Sun would gladly become a host to it, he would allow it to grow in him like a flower in bloom, allow it to tell him sweet things and switch off all he was and make him become all he could be.
His mother was ALWAYS ALWAYS RIGHT because NIHILEGO was ALWAYS ALWAYS RIGHT and it was telling her to SAVE IT PROTECT IT. He had to as well. He had to give up his body for it, and he would. Every moment was a new enlightenment for him.
THOSE WHO STAND BETWEEN US WILL BE GROUND TO DUST.
THOSE WHO GIVE THEIR BREATH TO SPEAK AGAINST US WILL HAVE IT CHOKED FROM THEM.
THOSE WHOSE HEARTS BEAT AGAINST US SHALL BE SILENCED.
THOSE WHO ARE BLIND MUST SEE.
Nihilego was speaking to him he was sure of it. It was wise and older than the planet. It knew what he could never hope to know, never want to know - a burning black sun in a hellish red sky, beneath which hulking and diminutive Beasts roamed. Even thinking of reversing the connection they now shared and using it too peer into Nihilego's mind made Sun retch. It was like looking into a bottomless pit that only ate, ate light, ate soul and ate heart.
Sun was split in half by the monstrosity, the crime against nature, the hellspawn the demon the angel the god Nihilego. It spread love through his body, his veins choked with its being. He understood.
Nihilego wanted him and his mother, wanted both of them to protect it as it protected them, showing the parent and child infinite care and adoration in return for their unwavering vigilance in protecting it. They needed to get to it. Sun wanted it to consume him wholly, devour him in threads of venom that would pick his bones clean after showing him the culmination of all mankind could feel. It was showing him this new emotion, this unending pain and searing suffering - but it was bliss. It was just as he felt toward his mother. No... this was stronger!
Sun became concerned. Lusamine was his. There was nothing, nothing greater than her. He didn't want Nihilego to take her away but it should, it deserved them both, it deserved all the love that it could be given. He wouldn't let it have her, though. Feeling Sun's resistance Nihilego forced more depraved imagery onto him, imprinting his mind with corpses of flesh things that had stumbled through Wormholes into Nihilego's embrace and had known true euphoria before death. Sun balked at the visceral sight in his mind's eye.
He needed that feeling. That pure, animalistic rush of primal force. He needed to reach Nihilego and allow it to consume him and his mother, and Lillie, and Gladion, and all of Alola if it wanted.
The last name in that list, the last human name, stuck out. Gladion. His brother, who had tried to drive Sun and his mother apart, who had taken him away to live with that awful professor and his strange shack of a lab, Gladion, who did nothing but reject all of Lusamine's love. Those who stand between us will be ground to dust. Those who give their breath to speak against us will have it choked from them. Those whose hearts beat against us shall be silenced. Those who are blind must see. Sun knew what it meant.
Sun's head was incinerated by the roaring flame of his spite, remorseless degradation of all he knew. "Liar, liar, Gladion," Sun managed. That he'd managed to put those words together in the mental state he was locked into was a small miracle - a black fluid, a byproduct of Nihilego infection ran over his lower lip and down his chin, dribbling. "Liar."
He took a shaky step back toward the mansion above. He knew what he had to do and how to do it. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and spreading dark liquid all around his lips, he staggered his way up the steps, an inhuman smile on his face, his vessel no longer truly his own. Nihilego was sharing with Sun, giving him some small amount of agency.
Unbeknownst to Sun, he'd failed to ensure the shard he had taken was completely refrozen. As he paced away to teach Gladion a lesson, it wiggled and shook, chipping away at the ice until it broke free and of its own accord began to move with its own intelligence, controlled by the Beast from beyond the veil of the Ultra Wormhole.
It was looking for another victim.
Gladion had no idea.
When Sun had told him that he needed to speak to him, privately, Gladion had thought of an opportunity to lock Sun up, get Lillie and then force him off of the Paradise. That was not to be.
Gladion had the upper hand at first, leading Sun down to the small, hidden access port where the pit was. Gladion had spent some time there himself in his youth as punishment before he had first escaped with Null. Sun couldn't remember his time in it, so they didn't know they had the experience of being inside the pit in common. It was Gladion's idea to shut Sun inside, use the trainer ID with Lillie and escape. Gladion would take every chance he had.
The white square was unassuming, a small bolt lock the only indication that this was not a normal part of the Foundation's plating. The two boys were well out of the way of watchful eyes, which Gladion hoped could buy him some time. Sun watched him passively as he opened the trapdoors.
As they'd walked to the pit Gladion had noticed Sun sporadically and intensely glancing at him, in a way that reminded him of Lillie's recent nervous twitches or Lusamine's constant watchfulness. And he'd noticed something else too. Sun's eyes. They weren't exactly like his anymore. They looked darker, like they were wet. It threw Gladion off. The final thing to tip Gladion off to his 'brother's' current instability was the black liquid Sun seemed to be having a hard time keeping in his mouth. He'd kept on wiping his chin, thinking Gladion hadn't seen it.
Gladion had. And he'd seen it before, too, when his mother was having one of her less lucid moments. So Sun was likely in the final stages of her plan for him. Maybe if he could intervene soon enough...
"Alright, get in," Gladion said, gesturing to the pit. He didn't expect it to work right off the bat, and it didn't. Sun laughed.
"Gladion... don't think I don't know what you want." Sun sniffed and made a sucking sound with his mouth, the black overflow dragged back into his gullet briefly. "I know. I..." Sun stumbled toward him.
"Sun, I'm not going to-"
"You hate us, Gladion," Sun told him. "You..." Sun had staggered into Gladion's personal space. He put his hands on Gladion's hips, Lusamine's biological son uncomfortable with her adopted son's closeness to him. "You..." Sun placed his forehead against Gladion's but was distracted from speaking further by a long, gooey strand of black venom hanging from his mouth. Sun spat it out.
Gladion could feel a heat in his chest, in his shoulders, that told him this was dangerous. He had to run now. "Sun. I'm not trying anything-" the smart half of Gladion's brain was screaming, 'Fucking run.'
"Gladion," Sun stopped him, and the oddly similar but no longer identical eyes looked into Gladion's head on. "You want to keep me and mother apart."
Gladion tried to pry Sun away, and when that didn't work, he moved them both to be closer to the pit. To be in a position where he could shove Sun in. This had been a big mistake.
"You want," Sun said, "to take me away from her." He finally let go of Gladion, shaking with rage. Gladion knew he had to do something now.
Gladion pushed Sun, who wasn't expecting the strike and was knocked into the pit, staggering backwards, still too tall to close the trapdoor on - it was barely big enough to fit a crouching person, and Sun would have to be subdued for Gladion to lock him in.
Gladion dropped in after Sun and punched downward, Sun falling with a thump against the hard surface. It felt good to hit him. Gladion was willing to admit that. Sun cried out in agony and Gladion quickly stepped out of the pit and threw one half of the trapdoor shut, then while standing on the closed portion to stop Sun from reopening it and escaping, he shut the other half - or tried to. Sun barely managed to get his wrist out in time to prop the trapdoor open and Gladion wasted no time in kicking Sun's fingers to get him back into the pit, where he could lock him in.
"AGH!" Sun shrieked, and Gladion could hear him hyperventilating. Gladion crushed any pity he had for Sun and kicked again. Sun pushed against the trapdoor desperately and managed to push the half Gladion wasn't weighing down open again. Gladion kicked again, this time in Sun's face, emerging from the hole and into the light for a moment before Gladion's foot drove into his nose.
Sun flailed desperately as he was knocked back. Gladion had enough time to slam the doors shut and flip the lock before Sun could recover. Sun banged on the trapdoor from below, but he was stuck in the pit again - and the pit was bringing back memories he hadn't quite forgotten. The memories had an interesting side effect too - it quenched Nihilego briefly, made it harder for the Beast to influence Sun because there was so much more for it to contend with.
"L- LET ME OUT!" Sun shouted.
"You're staying there until we can fix you, you little-" Gladion was elated at his victory over Sun but Sun cut him off.
"Gladion?! What are you doing here?! Is Hau here too? Are you here to rescue me?"
Gladion didn't want to believe it. It could be a ruse. But Sun had mentioned Hau. "Sun, what's Hau's favourite food?" Gladion had to test. Make sure that Sun wasn't faking remembering.
Sun's mind went blank. He couldn't find the memory anywhere. It was one he had specifically fed to the machine to stall for time, so there was nothing at all to cling onto there, no piece of it that could be dug up. "I don't- Gladion, I tried to- Please, Gladion, I want to go home-"
Gladion made a gut decision and instantly pulled the bolt lock back and opened the pit again, Sun blocking out the sudden harsh light with his wrist. "Gladion, Lusamine, she, she kept me locked in this pit and made me look like her and said I was going to be her son, Gladion, we've got to-" Sun took Gladion's outstretched hand.
Everything was positive. Sun had been able to think about Lusamine and what he was now without switching back. The memories seemed to have fluctuated. He hadn't mentioned their time at Melemele island. Maybe he couldn't remember that right now. "Sun," Gladion said, trying to calm him down. "We're going to get out of here. I'm going to get Lillie. You need to wait in that pit a little longer. I'm going to close it, but I won't lock it, okay?"
"No, Gladion," Sun said, fear in his face. "No, I can't go back in there, Gladion, please." Sun was shaking his head vehemently, refusing to go anywhere near the pit, standing further from it than Gladion was. "Why is Lillie here? Is Hau here too? How did you get back here? Did you-"
"Sun, Sun, listen. You need to hide in the pit. Please, just be brave. I promise you, I swear, I'll come and get you out." Gladion needed Sun to trust him now. This chance was one he couldn't waste. "Me and Lillie, we're gonna get you away from Lusamine, we are." Gladion saw that Sun was showing no reaction to the word 'Lusamine' anymore. He could have cheered with elation if he wasn't so scared of 'Aether' Sun coming back at any second.
"...Gladion, please don't make me go into the pit again. What if she takes me away again and does something else to me, something worse? I think she's going to hurt my brain, Gladion-" Sun looked desperate, so afraid.
Knowing this had already happened made Gladion heartbroken. Sun was begging him to prevent an event that was already in the past from occurring. He took charge of the situation, standing firm and taking Sun's shoulders as Aether Sun had taken his waist moments ago. "Look at me. Trust me. Please, Sun."
Sun's lower lip quivered, his eyebrows raised in apprehension. He mouthed the word 'but.' "Gladion... she'll hurt me..." he started crying openly in front of Gladion. "The things I had to do for her, Gladion, I had to fake it, she made me kiss her, she made me-"
"Oh, Arceus, Sun," Gladion said, knowing all this had happened before Sun was mentally converted. "She's evil. But if you trust me, I can get you away from her. Now. But you have to get in the pit."
The strength in Sun's legs vanished and Gladion had to struggle to hold the younger boy up against him. This was completely the old Sun. The way he acted, the raw emotion. Gladion needed the other part of Sun, the one who battled and planned, the one who was driven by logic and determination. It was selfish of Gladion to think this - of course Sun should be emotional right now - but he needed that side of Sun to help him. There were so many Suns it was hard to keep track.
"Come on, Sun, please, listen to me, please," Gladion tried to break through again. "If you don't hide, Lusamine might find you. Just do it. Close your eyes."
Sun looked over his shoulder at the gaping square, unmarked, uncovered. He trembled. "Arceus, Gladion, I don't want to..."
"Sun, please! If you don't do it our mother will-" Gladion stopped himself short. Lusamine wasn't their mother, she was his mother. "If you don't do it- oh, no, Sun-"
Sun's face had gone blank. Gladion reacted quickly and pushed Sun backward toward the pit, but Sun was ready for it now and braced himself against Gladion's force. Sun cackled with maniacal laughter as Gladion tried to push him again, this time Sun grabbed his wrist and yanked it downward, planting his knee into Gladion's ribs as Gladion was tugged down by the force.
"Our mother, Gladion!" Sun closed his fingers around the back of Gladion's neck and thrust him forward with gusto, Gladion falling to his hands and knees at the lip of the pit, his eyes widening with unfiltered terror. "You're not worthy to call her your mother!"
"Sun, LISTEN TO ME-" Gladion pushed to his feet and Sun elbowed him back down to the ground again. "SUN, YOU HAVE TO-"
Lusamine's experiment gone wrong laughed and laughed, throwing his head back from the sheer hilarity of it all. "Gladion, I'm glad you reminded me. I just don't know what came over me." Sun kicked Gladion in the back but Gladion refused to topple into the hole. He put his hand out to steady himself and faced Sun, just in time to see the sole of Sun's shoe close the space above his face. He knew that he couldn't fall into that grave. He had to stay outside it and force Sun back in, but- Sun kicked him again- that seemed impossible. Gladion focused through the burning pain and saw Sun crouched over him. "You nearly convinced me, Gladion." He shot out his hand and clamped it onto Gladion's face. "Now we'll convince you." Sun pushed him back, back, back, tilting him gradually toward the edge.
Gladion growled. He'd fought Guzma before. Sun was a little bitch in comparison. Summoning all his strength he put his hands on either side of Sun's wrist and sharply pulled, knocking Sun off balance, then swept out with his leg to trip him. Sun fell beside Gladion and the two started a wrestling match on their knees, equidistant from the hole, right beside it.
Sun was still laughing, not even flinching. "Gladion, you always - hated me, hated how close I - was to mother, and hated - her too -" Sun condemned between hits and throwing his own punches. "You're sad. You can't - see that she -"
Gladion wasn't going to listen to any more rambling. He roared as he launched his whole body toward Sun, elbowing him into the pit and collapsing on top of him. They struggled briefly in the small space they now shared, but Gladion was able to kick Sun against one of the side walls, winding him. While Sun struggled to get up again Gladion hoisted his upper torso free of the yawning chasm.
"No, Gladion," Sun growled, not a single care in the world. Gladion felt Sun's hands clamp down on his waist and drag him back down into the pit, tossing him onto his back. Sun rested one knee on Gladion's chest and punched him in the gut twice in rapid succession. As Gladion reeled from the strength of those two decisive blows Sun let him have it.
Every part of him was lighting up with pain, and the corrupt Sun was not hesitating in the slightest to increase the volume of agony being dished out. Sun was going to kill him, Gladion realised. He had to beg. "Sun, stop- Sun-"
Sun's barrage stopped momentarily, only for Gladion to feel an unyielding grasp on his neck. Now Sun was choking him. The light from the Alolan sun above was making everything blurry, and he was seeing stars. Everything began to fade out, blackness creeping in the corners of his sight. Sun was going to kill him. Sun was going to-
"SUN!" Gladion rasped with the last of his breath. He pleaded with whatever could be listening in his muddled thoughts, begging a benevolent force to bring Sun back. It wasn't just Sun's life on the line now - it was his own. "PLEASE!"
Sun let go. Gladion heaved, his breath wheezing as he inhaled. He couldn't say another word, only splay out a hand defensively. Sun was cast in shadow, the celestial body he was named after hanging over his shoulder as if taking an interest in the beating. The brightness made it impossible to see a thing, much less Sun's face. Gladion took a few deep breaths.
"S- Sun, please-" his outstretched arm was trembling. "Sun-" Gladion didn't know if he'd survive another attack, and being unable to see Sun's face was terrifying. Was Sun just pausing to make him think he was safe or had Sun been able to remember something?
"Gladion, you took me away from her."
"NO, NO SUN, LISTEN-"
Sun hit him again and again and again and again and again and-
