Awakening of the Blinding One

by Suwako20

Legends tell of a blinding being of incredible power, and how it will one day come to destroy the world. The signs are already showing, pokemon are turning to stone, alien monsters are invading the world... and it all seems to have something to do with me. PMD universe. Collab work.

18. Chapter 18

"Moss! Mooooosss! Stop being so lazy!"

The blizzard had calmed by the time I woke up. Sunlight shone weakly through the bright white overcast sky, but it was enough to tell us it was morning.

"Moss! Seriously, you're being ridiculous!" The chill of the room, along with Sakura's voice, finally managed to break through the haze of sleep. I groaned weakly from the cold, shivering slightly as I opened my eyes and lifted my head. Sakura pouted down at me, her tail waving restlessly. "You always manage to sleep in, you know that Moss?" She grinned, her voice light and playful.

I groaned again and pulled myself up, sitting with the shoulders hunched up and shivering. I looked around the cave at everyone to see what they were up to. Snowflake looked back at me from my side, she seems to have been woken up already but she seemed almost as drowsy I felt. Perhaps we had stayed up talking together a bit too long...

I turned towards the entrance of the cave and found Lunala there, stretching her wings and craning her neck. Standing beneath her huge shadow was Hunter and Vicini, looking up at Azelf and Mesprit, as the latter discussed things with Lunala. They seemed to be paying closer attention to her than Lunala was though. As if she had sensed my gaze, Lunala blinked, turned to see me, and smiled. I grinned and waved back.

"...And it will probably be guarded by..." Mesprit seemed to have a renewed determination inside her, her expression stern as she rambled on about our future moves. She gestured passionately with her arms. Azelf watched her with rapt attention, but besides that showed no signs that he agreed or disagreed with her.

"Hey Sakura..." Snowflakes voice brought me back to myself, and I turned back to the two girls who were gathered by me. "Where's Kubo? I don't see him with the others..."

Sakura winced awkwardly. "Ah. Yeah... he's still not very happy about... everything. He's out there somewhere, it probably wouldn't take too much to find him."

"Hm..." Snowflake replied noncommittally, a frown on her face. Silence fell over us and she stared down at her paws, deep in thought.

I looked between her and Sakura. Sakura still seemed to be feeling a bit awkward... I wondered what she thought of everything that happened. "Sakura- how do you feel about... all that stuff Mesprit said?"

She winced, as if she had anticipated my question. She turned her head to the side, her mouth open but no words coming out. "I-... I'm not sure. Truthfully, everybody in the valley knew not to invade her space, but that was out of respect more than anything else... I don't feel surprised or anything that she has fearsome power, but she never intended for us to fear her, you know?"

I nodded. Sakura sighed and worried her lip. "Azelf wasn't like that, though... from what you told me, he had chased all pokemon away from the nearby settlement and from the cave as well."

"Oh... that's true," I said softly, and Sakura's words also prompted Snowflake to raise her head again.

"You... don't think they can be compared as easily as she did yesterday?" Snowflake asked, her words slow and cautious.

Sakura nodded, but then hesitated and shrugged. "I guess so. I... I feel like they do their jobs very differently... Azelf... I'm not sure whether we can trust him yet, even though I trust Mesprit-"

"Hey!" A voice cut her off and we all collectively jolted spinning around to see Victini waving at us from the mouth of the cave. "Come on out! No more dilly-dallying, we have to get going!"

"Ah- right!" Snowflake jumped to her feet, and Sakura and I scrambled to follow her. "I have to go collect Kubo." Snowflake said seriously.

"Alright, but be quick about it!" Victini said bossily, but the wide smile on her face removed any annoyance I would've otherwise felt about being bossed around by her.

"Right," Snowflake nodded and rushed off, calling out Kubo's name to coax him back to us.

I looked at Sakura as she stood by my side, and then looked back at Victini. "So... what's the plan?"

"Mesprit wants us to get to the shrine as fast as possible, so we'll eat breakfast while we fly," Victini said matter-of-factly, "Lunala wants us to be prepared for any danger though, so she isn't in as much of a hurry."

I nodded. "So... what do you think we should do?"

"I think we should go as quickly as possible!" She replied, putting her hands on her hips rather proudly. "With my help there's no way we can lose!"

"Right," Sakura said with a shake of her head, "the last time we fought Ultra Beasts, we were working well as a team... considering what happened last night, I'm not so sure we'll all be working well together."

"Huh?" Victini furrowed her brows, turning to Sakura in surprise, "what do you mean? I thought we all got along pretty well last night!"

"W-well," I stuttered, "maybe most of us started getting along a bit better near the end. But Kubo is still upset."

Victini waved a hand at me carelessly. "Psssh! He'll be fine! He's always mumbling and grumbling about something, but he always jumps back to the jokes eventually!" I frowned at Victini sternly at her words, but she didn't seem to notice- or care. Instead, movement caught her gaze, and she turned to see Snowflake returning to us, with Kubo in tow. "See? There he is, right as rain!" Victini announced, clapping her hands together cheerily.

Kubo's head snapped up at her voice and realized in mortification that everyone was looking at him now. His eyes darted between all of us, his expression open and anxious, until he closed up and a stony pokerface replaced the wide-eyed vulnerability.

"On second thought..." He huffed and turned as if he was going to go back to wherever Snowflake fetched him from.

"Kubo, no!" Snowflake insisted, "come on, come be with me and Moss... you said that'd be okay..."

Kubo huffed, looking back a her. "...fine." He turned back around again and followed her over to me, Sakura and Victini.

"Hey," Snowflake said with an awkward smile, "we all ready to go?"

"Hi Kubo," Victini waved at him cluelessly. He pouted back at her.

"Hmph."

"Hey everybody," Hunter appeared, walking up to us to smile a bit shyly now that he saw everyone was together. I smiled at him and he seemed to grow a bit more confident seeing that. He set his shoulders back and lifted his head higher. "Mesprit said- well she said- that we should get going once everybody is together again. Should we...?"

I nodded, which seemed to surprise him. "Yeah... I don't think there's much else we can do here... and the flight will still be a long way. We'll be alright."

"Okay," Hunter smiled.

Victini cheered excitedly. "Then let's go!"

The wind was even colder up here, whipping past us like thin strips of burning ice. it was a few hours later that we finally began drawing near to the place on the old Corviknight's map. I was dying for us to get there. Even with Victini shielding me, I was still shivering violently, curled up in a small little ball in hopes of shielding myself from the cold.

Why, oh why did Tapu Fini have to live in the frozen north?

"Ah! We're here!" Lunala announced, slowing in her flight and yelling back at us over the ear piercing whistling of the wind. "The Northern Sea!"

The group of us all peeked over her shoulder to look down at the shoreline. It wasn't much of a beach- there was snow and ice lining the shore and cold water was eerily still, sitting quietly against the frozen rocks and earth. Lunala landed on the beach and lowered her wings for us to get down.

We jumped down and looked around. I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary around. No huge shrine, no large building with pillars, no vortex or Ultra Beasts guarding the area. Was this really the right place? All I could see was the ocean stretching out towards the horizon, and the barren, snowy landscape that had preceded us.

Kubo moved a little ways away from the group. He stood up tall and raised a hand to shade his eyes, looking far out towards the ocean. "So... The shrine is underwater?" He asked.

Lunala nodded. "That's... what the map said."

He harrumphed and crossed his arms. "How are we going to know where exactly to look?"

I couldn't help but second his question. There was a lot of shoreline here. How were we going to find what we were looking for..?

I opened my mouth, but before I could speak, the wind was suddenly blown out of me by a swift kick in my stomach, throwing me aside into a nearby snowbank.

"Moss!"

I could distantly hear Snowflake's voice as I dizzily shook my head, prying my eyes open with a groan. Fuzzily, I could see something white darting towards me- it was tall and thin and it was going to hit me again! I shut my eyes in anticipation-

"EEAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

To my shock, it was not my own scream, but the voice of the attacker. My eyes shot open and I could see the intruder more clearly now.

It was an Ultra Beast, no doubt about that. It was a huge insectoid creature, and it's voice was equally inhuman. It had fallen to its knees, knocked down by a quick and efficient attack done by Azelf. Needless to say, all of us were gaping at him and the beast in shock. Azelf stared down at the beast coldly, his expression serious and controlled.

"REAAAAAAAHH!" A chorus of similar beastly voices cried out, and suddenly we were surrounded by a number of similar-looking beasts. They moved so fast...! It was an ambush!

"Pheromosa!" Lunala cried breathlessly, "I should've known they'd be waiting- I'm so sorry!"

As if set off by her voice, the ambush attacked. It must have been about seven of them- it didn't take long for us to get overwhelmed. Each of us tried to fight one on our own.

Spurred on by the confusion, the fallen Pheromosa growled and spun on its heel, kicking its leg up in an attempt to sideswipe Azelf. He dodged it quickly, but the Pheromosa was fast too- it followed after him and managed to land a punch to his body. Despite its fist being about the size of his body, it didn't seem to be able to hit with its hands as well as its legs. He shook it off easily.

I scrambled out of my spot in the snowbank, distracting a Pheromosa away from its intended target- Vicitni. I spat a bullet seed at the back of its head, inciting its wrath as it turned back and narrowed its eyes at me. I took a hesitant step back. In my brief moment of hesitation, I scanned the rest of my friends.

Sakura and Mesprit were fighting two Pheromosa together, distracting them away from Lunala, who seemed a bit overwhelmed, or perhaps simply anxious, as she had a frightened, helpless look in her eyes. Snowflake and Kubo were individually fighting on their own, as was Hunter, although I couldn't see him. He was invisible, hidden within an illusion. Yet he was fighting, and there was a Pheromosa who appeared to be scrambling to fight against a ghost, unable to see where the attacks were coming from.

Victini was easily taking on two all on her own, which wasn't too surprising- she was strong in her own right and if these things were as bug-like as they appeared, fire would do well against them. And indeed, they seemed quite averse to her fire moves, although she still seemed a bit overwhelmed by the speed with which they moved.

So much had happened in very little time, but as it saw my distraction, the Pheromosa I had attacked suddenly struck. It shot at me with fearsome speed and kneed me in the stomach, shooting me back. I coughed up spit and was flung back. I wasn't totally off -guard this time though, as I caught myself before I landed. I managed to lighten the fall by curling up into a ball, rolling back until I could stop the momentum.

'Well, this works out for me,' I thought wryly, turning the momentum around and using rollout on the Pheromosa, who had been blindly chasing after me. I hit it hard- squarely in the face, sending it back where it came. It landed hard on its knees and I didn't stop, shooting a second, stronger rollout at it.

"REEAAAAHHH!" It cried angrily, glaring at me and changing tactic.

Based on its past moves, I didn't think it could use anything besides physical moves. But it surprised me with a silver wind, whistling through the cold, frozen air and slashing at me. I uncurled from my rollout with a gasp.

With a victorious look on its face, the Pheromosa stumbled to its feet and raised a foot as if it intended to stomp on me like a bug.

"Waah!" I managed to roll to my side out to the way. It glared viciously and quickly moved to follow after me. There was no way I was going to be able to out speed it!

"EEAAH!" The Pheromosa cried as- to my shock- Azelf pitched in again. He had shot into it bodily like a bullet, knocking it down to the ground.

I gasped up at him, sitting up on my elbows. He stared down at me for a moment that felt much longer than it probably was. "You're the leader here, aren't you?" He asked stoically. I blinked and found myself speechless, but nodded. He frowned. "Then lead!" And with that he was gone, zipping off to continue his fight elsewhere. I almost couldn't see him when he moved.

I blinked again.

i turned my head to look at the battle. Everyone was fighting on their own... Lunala still had yet to collect herself enough to fight, and we were clearly not on the road to victory. But what could we do..?

Suddenly Kubo's fight had brought him closer to me, and I jumped. I turned to watch as Kubo flung a smokescreen of his bubbles into a Pheromosa's eyes and then shot a barrage of bubblebeams into it. It stumbled back and fumbled furiously with its face. It didn't take long, however, for it to clear its vision. Kubo froze in shock as the beast aimed a perfect kick to his body, sending him back into the water of the ocean.

"Kubo!" Snowflake cried worriedly. In an attempt to take advantage of her brief distraction, the beast she was fighting hit her square int he jaw and she yelped.

"Aaaagh! No! Do not interfere, this is MY fight!" Kubo growled, leaping back out of the water. He didn't even look over as Snowflake was once again forced to focus on her own opponent. "I can do this myself!"

"Kubo!" My voice was rather reproachful. "We're a team! We need to act like it!"

"Oh yeah? Well we're not exactly acting like it!" Kubo snapped as he dodged a rather close jump kick. "We usually have some kind of plan!"

A plan... That's right...

I frowned thoughtfully, wondering what it was we could do to defeat these creatures. We always used to work so well together... we could use everyone's skills to their advantage. It didn't seem like we were all clashing- surely we could all work together if we just tried- but Kubo certainly felt left out...

'Aha!' I thought suddenly, an idea coming to me. I curled up into a ball and used rollout on the Pheromosa Kubo was up against. It cried out angrily and turned to me.

"Hey!" Kubo barked, "didn't I say not to get in my way!?"

"Sorry man!" I called teasingly, barely managing to duck under the Pheromosa's kick it aimed to my head. "I guess I've got no plans after all!"

The Pheromosa threw another hit at me and this time I had to block it. I wasn't strong enough to fully stop the blow and got knocked down. "Moss!" Kubo flung a smokescreen at it again, distracting it. "Don't forget about me, beast!" The Pheromosa screeched and cried in anger at being blinded again. In its distress, Kubo rushed up to me and helped me away from it.

"Moss- you're not usually this reckless," he huffed at me in annoyance.

I shrugged apologetically. "Those things are fast- if we wanna keep up we gotta think fast too."

Kubo frowned thoughtfully at that. He rubbed his chin, peering back other at the Pheromosa who was now stomping its feet as if it was having a tantrum, furiously wiping away the bubbles in its eyes. "Think fast, huh..?" He turned back to me, and just like I expected, he was smirking.

I knew that look... It had been a little while since I had last seen it.

"Moss- I have an idea. These beasts are too fast for us to take on one-on-one. However..." a mischievous look flickered in his eyes, "we're a lot smarter than them. If we can keep them confused and distracted, they won't be smart enough to keep up with US."

I grinned back at him. "Go on?"

Kubo explained to me that all we needed was to interrupt their fights. Each of the team was fighting on their own, which would be to our advantage- we could ambush each individual Ultra Beast while it was distracted. I nodded, grinning to myself. I could see a cunning glint in Kubo's eyes that excited me. Finally, he wasn't moping!

"First things first, though," Kubo said, turning to our own current opponent, "we'll need to take this one down!"

The Pheromosa was still a bit confused from it's eyes being covered, so it was best to take it out before it could get the chance to recover. I extended out two vine whips to hit it on its left side to direct it's attention. It cried out angrily and kicked in that direction. While it's attention was diverted, Kubo shot a water gun into it's back.

We went back and forth with it in this manner until it was finally on the ground, struggling and incapable of climbing back to its feet. I smirked over at Kubo and he gave me a thumbs up. Snowflake was the closest to us, so she was first.

"Kubo! Moss!" She cried as we both snuck up behind the Pheromosa. Kubo raised a finger to his lips in a "Shhh!" gesture and Snowflake's mouth opened in an "o" shape as she realized what we were going. She grinned and shot an ice beam at the Pheromosa, but it dodged her attack easily, rushing forwards to mega kick her with the same movement.

But its charge was interrupted by a vine whip used as a trip wire by its ankles, and a bubblebeam shot into its back. "REEAAAHH!" It cried, scrambling back to its feet and furiously looking around for the unexpected attackers.

Before it could properly spot us, Snowflake took the opportunity to shoot an ice beam into its face, and it cried out angrily again. "SCREEEAA!"

"It took you two long enough to get it in gear!" Snowflake said chidingly, but the relieved grin on her face removed any remourse we could've felt at her words.

"Sorry, can't hear you over how cool we are!" Kubo chirped back, jumping up and hitting the Pheromosa's back with a bounce. I curled up into a rollout and managed to hit it as well while it was still recovering from his attack.

It was knocked out following my attack and Snowflake laughed, racing up to us. "That was brililant! I could barely land any hits on it by myself!" She beamed.

I laughed and scratched the back of my head as Kubo crossed his arms proudly. "Yup, they're fast but they're not nearly as clever as we are," he pointed to his temple knowingly, "all we gotta do is outsmart them."

"Right," Snowflake grinned and there was a distinct pride for him in her eyes as well.

Kubo seemed to notice, as he huffed and crossed his arms in a more irritated manner. "Well- who are we going to help next?" He asked, hasty to avoid what it was he knew Snowflake wanted to say.

"Hmmm.." I rubbed my chin thoughtfully, looking at everyone else's fights. everyone was not faring the best, but...

My eyes locked onto Lunala.

She still wasn't doing any fighting. I blinked. What? Why was she not fighting...?

She was simply sitting there, her wings curled in on herself, anxiously watching as Mesprit and Sakura attempted to keep a Pheromosa from attacking her. Why didn't she fight? The two were clearly struggling and could use her help...

I steeled myself. "Snowflake, Kubo, help Sakura and-" I hesitated on her name and Kubo noticed- "and Mesprit. I need to get Lunala into the fight too. Can you do that?"

Snowflake nodded. Kubo clenched his fists and his expression tightened. But after only a brief moment of hesitation, he grinned and lifted one hand up to give me a thumbs up. "We'll get it done!"

I nodded at him and he nodded back. I turned and shared a brief encouraging smile with Snowflake before I was off, using rollout to quickly rush over to them, bashing into the Pheromosa's leg from behind as I did so. It cried out in confusion and tumbled over backwards. I could briefly see the equal shock and confusion on Mesprit and Sakura's faces before I had already barreled past them, leaping to my feet right before Lunala.

"Ah-! Moss! What're you doing here?" Lunala croaked weakly, her voice weak with anxiety.

"Lunala! Why aren't you fighting?" I gasped staring up at her with wide eyes. Behind my back, I could hear Kuno and Snowflake joining in the fight against the Pheromosa. I would need to be fast... I needed to help them too.

She shook her head. "I- I'm sorry Moss... I know I should, but I just don't think I would be any good... none of my moves could really do much damage- they resist me and I'm not that strong-"

"Hey! Hey hey hey!" I called, trying to interrupt her rambled fears. Her mouth snapped shut at my words.

"M-Moss...?"

"Lunala... you were very helpful against the Guzzlord. You're very capable of fighting. Just because they resist you doesn't mean you're helpless." I crossed my arms and frowned at her in concern.

"..." She stared back down at me, some unsure look flickering through her expression. My words didn't seem to have convinced her. But why? What could it possibly be that was going through her mind that made her paralyzed all this time?

My muscles loosened and I uncrossed my arms. "What is this.. really about?" I asked gently.

"..huh?" She blinked, "what do you mean?"

"Are you upset at yourself for getting us into this fight? Are you... afraid?"

Lunala frowned, completely perplexed by my questions. "I... no. Not... not the way you mean, at least." I tilted my head, wordlessly asking for her to elaborate, and she sighed. She averted her eyes. "It's one thing to.. to prepare for a beast and to know what I'm getting into... but- what can I do against an ambush? I... there's nothing I can do.."

"That's not true," I said, "you're very strong. Even if it's not a lot, you can help!"

Lunala continued to frown at me... before her expression lit up in realization. "I- I guess I'm not used to being... very strong, I guess. I was always... needing to be saved."

I stared at her a moment. Suddenly, to Lunala's surprise, I laughed. She jumped at my laughter, staring at me in complete bewilderment. "You're not the only one!" I giggled, "I got used to not being strong enough- but look at us now!" I gestured up to her with both my arms.

Lunala blinked again... and her face softened. She smiled down at me fondly.

"Yes... look at us. You were able to save me, and I... I have the ability to save you too, now."

I nodded. She nodded back. "Okay... I'll try." She raised her wings. "What should I do?"

I told her my and Kubo's plan. When I turned to re-evaluate the state of the battle, I was relieved to find that the four had managed to defeat the Pheromosa without me and Lunala's help. That meant that there was only Hunter and his Pheromosa, as well as Victini and her duo of them. Only three left.

"Mesprit, Sakura, you two go help Hunter... the rest of us will help Victini," I said with a nod to them. Everyone nodded back, but before we could move, Azelf flew up behind us.

"What about me?" He asked blandly, just loud enough to be heard. I jumped and blinked up at him., while everyone else spun around, Kubo and Snowflake a bit uneasy at his presence. Azelf merely stared back at us.

"Ah- uh... well..." I stuttered.

"Why don't you just POSSESS one of them, huh?" Kubo said in a surprisingly lighter tone than he usually did with Azelf. "I bet that'd confuse them pretty good."

I turned, dread filling me at the hard, stony gaze Mesprit was pointing at Kubo. I could sense the tension increasing between us by the second.

"That... might actually work," Snowflake said softly.

Azelf blinked. "Huh?"

"Yeah!" Sakura added, forcefully energetic. "Victini is fighting two of them! Maybe we could get the two of them to knock each other out!" As she spoke, Kubo put his hands on his hips in a distinctly smug way. I elbowed him in the chest and he deflated with a cough.

"Sounds like a plan to me. Let's go!" I cried, raising a fist into the air.

"Right!"

Victini was doing.. relatively well in her battle. Her fire kept the Pheromosa away from the most part, they struggled to land their kicks and hits with Victini hidden in a circle of fire. She wasn't doing as well hitting them either, but she didn't seem all that exhausted like the rest of us were. There was a frustrated look on her face her tongue sticking out angrily, but she wasn't injured. She had managed to avoid most damage, but she hadn't managed to cause much either.

We snuck around them, forming a triangle around the battle. Azelf was missing from our group, I hadn't caught a glimpse of him since he zipped off towards the battle himself, too fast to keep an eye on. But I was sure he was planning to participate. I just wished he actually did it as a part of the team. I rolled my eyes, but brought my thoughts back to the battle at hand.

Out from behind a snow bank, an ice beam arched through the air and landed into the side of a Pheromosa's face, knocking it onto the ground. "EEAAAAHHH!" It cried angrily, climbing back onto its hands and knees and looking around for the attack. From within her ring of fire, Victini gasped.

"Huh?" She tilted her head.

Another attack, now from Kubo's location, landed swiftly into the back of the other Pheromosa, knocking it off balance, but not off its feet. It was my turn now!

I targeted the one that was standing, using rollout to emerge from over the small snow hill I had been crouched on, and kicking its feet out from under it. It fell backwards onto its behind, with a strangely sounding "oof!"

"Oh! You're helping me!" Victini gasped again in realization. "Nice!"

After attracting the attention of the first fallen Pheromosa with her words, Victini shot a flamethrower at it. It leapt to it's feet in a flash in the hopes to dodge, but another ice beam to its back pushed it down forwards into the flames. It cried out wordlessly, but it wasn't down yet. It caught itself on its hands and let out a silver wind. The attack slashed at us with sharp winds. I yelped uncurling from my attack.

The second Pheromosa hobbled back to its feet. It turned to face the first, which was now pushing itself up into a stand as well. But- before it could fully stand, it was sideswiped by the second, kicked back into the ground.

"Wha- HUH?" Victini's eyes bugged out as she stared, the ring of fire surrounding her dropping away in her shock. I found myself staring as well, and the confusion on the first Pheromosa's face was evident as well.

"KRRRP?" It chirped in bewilderment from its place collapsed on the ground. I looked up into into the second Pheromosa's eyes, and found that they were glowing a bright, vibrant amber colour. So Azelf has decided to help after all...

'Azelf' ran quickly at the Ultra Beast, and I was shocked at how well he was able to use the beast's own abilities. He obvious had a lot of practice in using others' bodies. I watched, intrigued and mildly disturbed, as he mega kicked the other Pheromosa in the side, sending it flying and into a pile of snow. It was no question that it was now fainted.

He then promptly punched himself in the gut.

"Oh my goodness!" Snowflake yelped at the sight.

The Pheromosa's huge body slumped over, fainting onto the ground in a huff. Then, as if appearing from out of nowhere, Azelf zipped up beside me, staring down at me seriously. "Waah!" I jumped, raising my arms defensively. "Where did you-?!"

"Moss," he said sternly, "we've defeated the beasts, so we should probably get on with our search... or else more ultra Beasts will arrive to slow us down."

"..." I stared at him. He stared back. He tilted his head at my lack of response, and began dusting himself off. My eyes flickered around to see Snowflake, Victini, and Kubo all breaking from their trances, and hesitantly making their way over to us. I looked back to Azelf. He still hadn't moved. I lowered my arms to my sides and cleared my throat. "That was... interesting. You're...quite efficient..."

He nodded. I cleared my throat again, finding it rather dry. "Uhm... but next time, you should probably try to make it clearer to us what you intend to do..."

He frowned minutely. "I was told to possess it... and so I did. What about that is confusing?"

"Well-" I choked, "you're supposed to make it clear WHEN you're going to do that, maybe come with us when we set off as a group instead of disappearing... telegraph things a little bit, you know?"

He stared at me. I didn't think he was really understanding what I was saying. "...But we still won?" he said.

I sighed.

"Hey, Moss!" Kubo cheered, hopping over with a hand raised in the air for me. I high fived him and he slung an arm around my neck. "We really showed them who's boss, huh? They may be big, but their brains are tiny, haha!" He noogied me, and while a part of me wanted to be happy he was back to his old self, the rest of me was not happy at this part of regular Kubo coming back.

"Aagh! Aaaah, stop!" I struggled to escape to no avail.

"Hah! I can't believe I got to see that weird power of yours in person, Azelf!" Victini cheered excitedly, flying up next to Azelf to beam at him. Azelf sweated minutely.

"Uhm... thanks." His eyes darted around to Snowflake, Kubo and I for a brief moment. "Most pokemon don't like it."

"Well I think it's cool," Victini said with a decisive nod.

"...okay." Azelf mumbled in return.

"So... you said the other's won their fight too?" I asked, turning my attention over the snowbanks to where I could see Lunala's large form peaking over. She was now sitting rather comfortably on the beach. Although, when I looked closer I could see amusement in her eyes. I wondered what she was looking at.

"We should get over there," Snowflake said. Azelf nodded at that and immediately set off without another word. "Ah! Wait- uh-" Snowlake attempted to call after him, but he was nothing too fast, and didn't hear. The four of us who remained, exchanged confused glances.

Azelf was... interesting, I decided.

When we arrived at the rest of the group, I realized what it was Lunala had been so amused about. Mesprit and Sakura were chasing Hunter around playfully, although he seemed more irritated and flustered by their antics than anything else. He furiously tried to escape them as best he could, and ultimately ended up running around Lunala, hiding under her wings. He peeked out from behind her with a pout on his face. He looked positively scandalized.

"Hey guys!" Victini called, racing down ahead of us and waving with her hands above her head. Sakura and Mesprit looked up with equally amused grins.

"It seems the danger's all dealt with over here then, huh?" Snowflake asked as we slid down the snowbank to reach them.

"Speak for yourself!" Hunter huffed from under the protection on Lunala's wings. "I say there's lots of danger still!"

"Ooohhhh, do you think we're going to getchu~?" Mesprit waved her hands at Hunter in a gesture that was meant to be haunting, but really just ended up being goofy.

"YES!"

"Hahahaa!" As Mesprit laughed at his ire, Azelf interrupted her by coming up and holding one of her arms, turning it and looking it over. Mesprit paused and frowned at him. She yanked her arm away from him. "You really need to learn to ask before grabbin' me, y'know, Azelf!"

Azelf huffed and crossed his arms. "What? I need to make sure you're not injured."

"I'm perfectly fine, thank you!" she huffed and mirrored him, crossing her arms as well. "I'm not THAT weak!"

"Coulda fooled me," Azelf said with a small grin, clearly trying to egg her on.

Mesprit's face went red. Her buttons were successfully pushed. "Why, you!" She moved to grab at him, but he quickly dodged out of the way. Mepsrit's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You get back here!"

She flew after him, but he was clearly too fast for her, as he effortlessly dodged her every furious grab that she made at him, his expression not breaking once. We watched their bickering with some mild confusion. Was this normal?

"See, I TOLD you danger was still afoot." Hunter grumbled as he walked up beside me. I put a hand on his head, and he huffed, looking up at me. "Am I really that easy of a target for them?"

I grinned and shrugged. "Maybe."

Victini hummed. "So- where do we go from here? We fought those bugs because they were defending the shrine. But I don't see any huge destroyed castles here or anything!" She brought a hand up to shade her eyes and did a once-over around the barren snowy landscape.

"Ah- well there's an easy explanation for that..." Snowflake said softly, which drew her attention.

"Huh?"

"According to the map- it's, uh, under the water..."

"WHAT?" Victini screeched. "HOW FAR UNDER THE WATER IS IT?"

I flinched and could feel Hunter do the same beside me. Snowflake looked to me and Kubo for assistance. But I could only shrug, and Kubo seemed... a little TOO excited about the prospect. Snowflake sighed, and Sakura decided to pick up the slack for her. "It's pretty deep under... We'll probably need to look along the ocean floor for a while to find it."

She started in shock and then jumped into our faces. "Are you SERIOUS?!" Victini fluttered about, energetically flying around i front of us, nibbling her fingertips in stress. "Oh no! This just can't be! I'm FIRE type you know! WATER IS MY ENEMY!" She turned suddenly to stare out at the ocean. She blew a particularly aggressive raspberry at it.

Hunter hummed softly seeing her anxiety. He frowned up at me, and I wondered what it was he was thinking. Was she making him worried too? He had never gone underwater with us before after all... "How are we going to be able to do that? Most of us can't hold our breath for that long- at least I can't..." He asked.

"Well, We've had to do this once before, back when we met Mesprit," I said, "we have these berries that can make us breathe underwater." I hesitated. "Er... Well, Sakura knows the most about it..."

Sakura grinned rather proudly and held her head up higher, stepping forwards so she could see Hunter better. While she spoke, Victini was pouting, flying above out heads and grumpily listening in. "That's right! The pokemon from my parts do it all the time! Its helpful for trade between water and land pokemon after all."

"Oohh.." Hunter nodded gently, "I see... so it's safe?"

Sakura nodded back. "Totally! I would do it all the time back at home!" Her smile became more strained, before dropping from her face entirely. "...back with my friends, we'd always be going down there to play with the water pokemon..."

Hunter frowned in concern. It was clear he wanted to ask what was wrong, but I jumped in instead. "Sakura introduced us to it so we could travel through Mesprit's lake to get to her. It was a bit weird at first, but nothing to really worry about."

"Yeah, but none of YOU are weak to the water." Victini huffed from above our heads.

"Oh, get over it, Vivi! You're not supposed to mope like I do!" Kubo spat a small stream of water up at her, making her shriek and dodge out of the way.

"Hey!"

"What're you gonna do about it?" Kubo said with a smirk, putting his hands on his hips. Victini puffed out her cheeks angrily.

"Now, now!" Snowflake snapped. "Don't you two get back to bickering again! I'm sure you'll be fine in the water, and if not... well, I'm sure we can figure something out."

While they were still going back and forth, I noticed that Hunter was still frowning at Sakura in concern, who watched things with a quiet kind of solemnity to her. I sometimes forgot of what had happened when we met her. Sakura had lost a lot of things... she wasn't the most optimistic of us, despite her usual cheery countenance.

Hunter stepped out and tilted his head, his ears perked forwards. "Sakura... can you show me the berries?" He smiled gently. I couldn't help but smile as well, as Sakura lifted her head, peering over at Hunter with a curious confusion on her face.

"I... sure..." She sat and riffled through her bag until she revealed a single berry. Hunter peered at it.

"Cool!" He took it and inspected it.

Sakura's confusion slowly morphed into a perplexed smile, she chuckled softly. "It's not THAT cool..."

"It's SO cool! I've never breathed underwater before!"

Sakura laughed, "well, I'll be happy to watch you fumble with it."

Hunter glared at her. "Hey!" He snapped, but there was no real bite to his tone. "I'm not stupid, I'll do perfectly fine!"

"Hah! I'll believe it when I see it!" Sakura was smiling genuinely now, and I couldn't help but be surprised at how easily Hunter had managed to bring it out. Perhaps Hunter didn't mind the teasing too much after all.

"Well- I WILL show you!"

"We better get going then, cause I just have to see this." Sakura stood, a grin on her face as she observed the rest of our team. "Hey guys! Are we going now, or what?"

"Oh!" Mesprit stopped, which pulled Kubo, Snowflake and Victini from their squabbling as well. They all turned to Mesprit, a bit dazed. "You're right! Agh, jeez, get a grip," she bonked her own head with the heel of her palm, annoyed at herself, "yes! We need to get going as soon as possible!"

"Right..." Victini frowned, "and what about me?"

"You'll be fine," Mesprit waved her off casually, "This is going to be real cold- it's Moss I'm more concerned about."

"Me?" I blinked. "I'm doing fine..."

"You won't be if you freeze from the cold." She hummed and scratched her chin. "Hmmm..."

"Maybe we could just keep an eye on each other," I offered, "Vivi and I will just have to stick together. She's been keeping me warm well enough up until now."

"Sounds good to me!" Sakura announced, walking up to each one of us and placing a berry in each of our hands. "Now eat these!"

I peered skeptically down at the berry in my hand. It had been a long time since I last tried one of these... how long would it take for us to find the shrine? Hopefully it'd last long enough...

I looked up and watched the others as I bit down on my berry. Lunala had been watching everything quietly, smilling with her head gently tilted to the side. She was quieter than I expected her to be. I wondered if she felt shy, or perhaps felt like an outcast from how much smaller the rest of us were to her... she was a lot larger now than she used to be as a Cosmog. She wordlessly took her berry and inspected it. Would she need to eat more due to her size? It didn't seem so, as she ate it in one bite and nobody thought to offer her a second one.

Everyone else ate their berries quickly, although Victini still seemed grumpy and reluctant. She sidled up beside me, crossing her arms with a huff.

"We can't waste time wading in the shallow water." Lunala said her eyes drawn to me. She must've seen me watching. I struggled not to look away in embarrassment. "You all should hang onto me... and I'll take us out to where the map says we should be."

"The map isn't that precise," Snowflake added softly, "there's still a lot of searching we'll have to do."

"Then we better be quick!" Kubo hopped energetically.

We all climbed onto Lunala's back. She lifted up into the air and began soaring out across the horizon. It wasn't long before she cried "get ready!" and in one swift movement, plunged into the ocean.

No amount of warnings could prepare me for the sudden harsh, splash of cold that caved in on me. I gripped Lunala's back tightly, Clenching my eyes shut against the sting of the salt water. I could vaguely feel Victini tense at my side. My hearing dulled and blurred, but I could tell that it was different from how I would normally hear underwater.

As if to prove this thought, Lunala spoke. "Is everyone alright?" She asked, her voice echoing slightly in the silence of the ocean. Hesitantly, I blinked my eyes open.

Streams of sunlight beamed down from the surface, the water stretched out far around us, a cool deep blue. We weren't too far out yet, so the sea floor was still visible beneath us, rocky hills that raised and dipped into the foggy depths. The occasional stalk of kelp could be seen stretching up from them like tall, eerie forests.

I had to admit, the chill was rather distracting. I looked to Victini and found her grimacing, squinting around nervously at the foreign world around her. I was almost shocked to see her not bouncing with excitement at such a new experience. I reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, making her flinch and turn to me. Seeing my sympathetic gaze, she nodded weakly and shifted closer to me, still gripping onto Lunala's back with all her might. Her body heat pressed into my side and made the cold a lot less painful.

I looked up to see Kubo swimming around Lunala with a calm smile on his face. He seemed to be the only one who had yet to let go of her.

"I think everyone's alright," Kubo replied lightly. I hadn't expected him to come around so fast. Perhaps he was simply happy to be in his element. But he had still yet to talk to- or even look at- Mesprit, so I supposed he was probably still a bit bitter about that.

Even still, he smiled confidently at Lunala. "I'm gonna look around the area. Don't worry about me gettin' lost, you're a pretty big landmark!"

Lunala nodded, and I could tell in her voice that there was a shy smile on her face. "Do as you wish, Kubo..."

"Alright!" He gave her a thumbs up and then began to swim around everywhere. He slipped seamlessly through the kelp, searching for a sign of a shrine or cave. I turned my attention to the rest of the group.

Snowflake seemed more comfortable with being underwater this time than last time. Or perhaps she was just better at distracting herself from the strange sensations. She had a serious expression on her face, looking around from her perch on Lunala's shoulder.

Hunter and Sakura were together. Sakura was smirking, swimming along next to Lunala while Hunter shivered and glared at her stubbornly. He gripped onto Lunala's back almost as desperately as Victini was, but there was a defiant fire in his eyes that made him force his claws to let go. However as Lunala continued to swim forwards, Hunter could not keep up. He yelped fearfully and clasped onto her again. Sakura laughed, and I could tell she was gloating.

"S-shut up!" I could hear him bark out a protest.

Mesprit, well... I could clearly see that she was cold as well, keeping close to Lunala's wings and rubbing her hands together as if any kind of friction could be built between her hands. She scowled and rubbed her arms instead. She began looking around the ocean floor as well, in an vain attempt to distract herself from the cold.

Azelf, on the other hand, looked completely fine to me. He did not show any discomfort, or any reactions to being underwater at all, really. He simply stuck by Mesprit, but did not look at her- his wide, serious eyes scanned the area, never locking onto one place for too long.

With so many eyes on the lookout, I didn't expect it to take so long to find the shrine. As time went on and on, and our search continued, I couldn't help but wonder if we had missed it or something. The cold was taxing even with Victini's presence at my side, and still there was no underwater building in sight. The Ultra Beasts had been there to defend their portal! So where in the world was it?

I could tell a number of the others started to grow tired as well, and we'd surely need to eat more berries before the effects faded...

But before I could suggest we take a break, I heard a loud cry from behind me.

The voice was unfamiliar, and up until this point we hadn't passed by all that many pokemon, and any we did pass were quiet and unassuming. I turned, dragging Victini with me, and peered through the foggy haze of the water.

"What is it, Moss?" Victini asked, her voice distractingly loud.

I held my hand up for her to stop. "Shhush! I think I heard something..." She quieted, and we both strained to listen.

It was muffled a bit, but it definitely sounded like a cry of distress.

"What is that?" Victini asked, her voice still much too loud.

"Well, why not go see?" I asked, and then set off, swimming back towards the sound. "Moss-! Ah, wait up!" She cried and quickly followed after me.

I swam around, looking back and forth for the source of the cry. Finally I turned a corner around a tall wall of rocks, and found a large sharpedo biting and nawing at some rocks. No- it wasn't just some rocks- a small blue pokemon was lodged between them. She must have been trying to escape and got stuck, but now only the outcrop of rocks was enough to protect her from the fish pokemon's large mouth and sharp teeth. She cried out again, 'Aaaahhh! Help! Help me!"

I frowned furiously seeing this pokemon attacking the other so viciously. She needed some back-up!

Victini watched anxiously as I held my hand out and shot an energy ball at the sharpedo. He only noticed the light from the attack the moment before it hit, and turned towards the light right before getting punted in the face by it. "GRAH!" He roared and was flung back, bashing into a large rock that stood alongside the rocky wall.

While he was out for the moment, I swam up to the frightened pokemon, peering into the fissure of rocks. Victini did not follow me, but I felt comfortable just knowing she was watching. "Hey! You okay?" I called into the rocks.

"I can't- I can't get out!" the voice was shaky and panicked.

"Don't worry! I'll getcha out of there!" I replied. I looked around hastily, looking for some way to remove the rocks. "Hmm..." I wondered if I could bash the rocks away. The sharpedo hadn't had much luck, but he didn't have the right move for the job...

I reared back and threw my fist at the rocks. My power-up punch bashed a good portion of the wall away. "Can you get out now?" I called in, but her reply was an anxious 'mm-mmh!' So I reached back and punched the wall again, my attack doing even more damage this time.

The I heard Victini's voice. "Moss look out!"

"RROOAAAHH!"

"Huh?" I turned in shock to see the sharpedo racing at me. He had recovered from my attack. I knew it wouldn't take long, but now I didn't have surprise on my side. I shot another energy ball at him, hitting him in the nose and managing to deflect his movements enough so that his crunch attack landed straight into the rocky wall behind me. "Waah!" I gasped as the force from the impact managed to push me away, sending me tumbling into a couple lines of kelp.

"Gah!" I tried to yank my arms and legs free from the sticky leaves but they wouldn't budge.

Great... now what was i going to do?

I sharpened my back spines and tried to slice through them, but in the water I couldn't get enough friction. They didn't seem to get damaged at all. My gaze jumped back over to the sharpedo in a panic as I heard another cry, and saw him restarting his efforts to get into the rocky crevice where the pokemon was trapped, but now he was managing to dig through the damaged rock..!

I clenched my teeth and reinvigorated my efforts to free myself. But then an ice beam and a shadow ball shot at the sharpedo, throwing it away and making it roar out in pain and anger again. I turned towards his attackers at the same time he did, but while his experession froze with fear, I felt myself smiling.

Victini had gone back to retrieve Lunala, and now she and Snowflake were glaring rather intimidatingly at the sharpedo. He paled, and quickly fled, not wanting to go up against something as huge and foreign as Lunala.

I sighed in relief... before remembering that I was still stuck.

Lunala stayed where she was, watching the scene closely as Victini and Azelf lifted up the fallen debris from all the destroyed rocks. Azelf then wordlessly used his psychic powers to take ahold of the trapped pokemon, and safely pull her out. I couldn't see her perfectly clearly from where I was, but she didn't seem injured. She happily thanked the two of them with a group hug, which surprised the both of them.

"Hey dude, what're you doin' over here?" I turned to find Kubo swimming up to me, grinning at me smugly. "You learning how to wrap presents?"

"Shut up," I snapped back at him and redoubled my efforts to get free. But I only found myself tangled even more thoroughly. "How in the world-?" I growled.

"Haha!" He giggled, "look at you!"

"Very funny," I grumbled defeatedly, "now would you help me out of here?"

He hummed thoughtfully and I already knew what his answer would be. "Hmmm... nnnope! I don't think I will! You need to learn how to help yourself!" He announced, his grin ever widening.

"Then at least tell me what I need to do, you lazy jerk."

"Nope~!"

"Uuugghhhhh."

"You should relax." A new, high pitched voice said. I blinked and looked around for it.

"Huh?"

"You need to relax! If you fight against them, then you'll never be free." I finally noticed that the voice came from above my head. I looked up to find the blue pokemon peering down at me curiously. Behind her, I could see Victini and Azelf, who looked more intrigued rather than worried or amused, to my relief. Although truthfully I was only assuming he was intrigued, as his expression didn't give much away...

At least the others weren't going to laugh at me.

"Hey, what's going on over... oohhh,' and then I heard Sakura's voice, and I knew immediately that I spoke too soon. She swam up next to Kubo and grinned in amusement. "How'd you end up like that!" She laughed.

"Shut uuuup!" I whined.

"Go on now!" The blue pokemon smiled at me, "you helped free me, now I help free you! relax your body and they'll all let go."

I huffed, but I tried to do as she said. Almost immediately, to my shock, the leaves loosened and began to let go of me. I blinked in amazement as they slowly fell right off of me, and I was able to swim away.

Kubo clapped. "Good show! Now you've learnt a lesson about being underwater!"

"No I think my lesson is not to ask YOU for help," I glared at him in annoyance. He only shrugged with a laugh and Sakura joined him.

Snowflake then swam up, a disappointed look on her face and I already found myself grinning. Oh she would not be happy about this.

Snowflake huffed at them. "Just because you two know what being underwater is like, doesn't mean we do." She tsked and then looked over to me with a soft smile. "I'm glad you're alright, Moss," She turned to the new pokemon as well, "you too."

"Thanks!" She smiled and bowed politely. "Thank you all for helping me! I don't want to think what would've happened to me if he caught me..." She shuddered at the thought. I couldn't blame her.

Victini swam up to her and tilted her head. "I'm Victini, the victory pokemon!" She pointed to herself proudly. "And these are my friends!" She pointed to each of us, introducing us one by one. "So, who are you?"

"I'm Manaphy," she replied with a polite smile, "I've lived here my whole life and I've never met a team of pokemon like you! Haha!" She giggled and covered her mouth with her hand. "It's nice to meet you all."

"This is a pretty chilly place to live, don't you think?" Hunter asked, swimming up next to Snowflake and smiling softly at her.

"It's alright to me!" Manaphy shrugged. "My species only live in the colder parts of the ocean. But, our cousin Phione are able to live in warmer climates..." she tapped her chin thoughtfully. "So I've never seen any pokemon like you!"

"Well it's no wonder I've never heard of manaphy before," Sakura said with mild awe in her voice.

Manaphy giggled, "not many pokemon can handle the temperature~" She did a little spin in the water. "speaking of which.. how are you all managing?"

"Barely." I grumbled, opening and closing my fists to keep the blood flowing through my paws. "It feels like sharp glass is burning me all over."

"I'm not fond of the cold myself.." Hunter huffed softly, and Sakura nodded. Victini nodded in that strangely docile way she had been acting lately, reaching out for my arm and hanging off of me. Lunala wordlessly shook her head. I was mildly surprised by this. Perhaps it was because she was ghost type, that she didn't feel affected by the cold?

Mesprit hugged herself and grinned awkwardly. "I mean.. it's definitely not comfortable," Mesprit quipped. I looked to Azelf to see if he had any response as well, but found that he wasn't even paying attention anymore. He floated next to Mesprit, looking around the area in search of the shrine. I couldn't even tell if he was cold or not.

"I don't know what you guys are talking about," Kubo frowned, "it's not cold to me!"

Snowflake nudged him in annoyance. "Kubo. Be nice. I'm an ice-type and I can understand the concept. Not everybody feels like you do."

Kubo laughed. "Well things would be a lot easier if they did!"

"Oh, now you're just being contrarian!" She snapped back.

"Guys!" Before they could start to bicker again, I turned the conversation back to the topic at hand. "We'd love to talk more Manaphy, but we're not just here to sightsee. We're an exploration team- and we have an important mission here."

"Oh? And what would that be?" Manaphy tilted her head curiously.

"Well.." I supposed it wouldn't hurt to tell her. "We need to find the shrine of the guardian legendary known as Tapu Fini. Have you heard of her?"

Manaphy's eyes lit up, and I felt a small bud of hope grow within me.

"Tapu Fini? Of course I do! Everybody around here has heard of her!" She smiled excitedly, "but I'm sorry to disappoint- her shrine isn't exactly a mysterious unknown place! You won't be discovering it that's for sure, haha!"

"Wha- do YOU know where it is?" Kubo gaped at her.

She nodded. "I do! But few would ever want to go there... it's not a safe journey for most, and Tapu Fini herself is... not the nicest, she's rather anti-social..."

I couldn't believe our luck. We had been looking around rather aimlessly for a while now and finally we had a good lead! "That doesn't matter, we still need to go there!" I insisted. Manaphy blinked in surprise at my determination.

"Huh? But why?" She asked curiously.

"The other Tapu have been turned to stone," Snowflake said seriously, "Tapu Fini has been affected too, and we need to find her in order to free her."

Manaphy frowned at her increduously. "Really?"

Snowflake nodded. Manaphy's expression only got more perplexed. "How was she turned to STONE?"

We looked amongst each other. I realized rather suddenly that we still didn't know. There was a lot we had been much too busy to ask...

"It was Necrozma," Lunala said softly, as we all turned to her in surprise, "he opened portals to this world and sent his minions to defeat the Tapu's."

Manaphy still seemed confused. Perhaps even moreso now.

"What she's trying to say is.." Hunter piped up softly, "there's this big powerful pokemon who's come here to invade us... and he has the power to turn pokemon to stone."

Manaphy finally relaxed her expression, pouting at Hunter thoughtfully. "I see..." She looked around the area, peering worriedly at the huge rock formations and the various life growing all around. "I suppose its true there's been an odd atmosphere around here lately..." she murmured.

"How so?" Mesprit asked with a tilt of her head. She swam up next to me and Snowflake, with Azelf close behind. Kubo inched a little bit away as they approached.

if there was anything wrong, Manaphy didn't notice. "Well, there's usually a deep mist that shrouds the surface of the water," she said thoughtfully, "Tapu Fini likes to keep this place secret, so it's a great place for me... but now, well.. pokemon have seemed a bit more aggressive around here."

"There's a lot of places like that." Mesprit hummed. I was sure it sounded a lot like the Misty Valley, with all the dangerous Ultra Beasts who had followed Lunala there when she was still a Cosmog. "I assure you it'll go back to normal once she's saved!"

Manaphy cracked a small grin. "Then there's no time to waste! Follow me, I'll take you there!" She turned and took of in the other direction- to the left of the direction we had been initially going. It seems we definitely needed her help here.

We followed after her rather miserably, but at least we had been able to eat a second helping of the water-breathing berries. If it weren't for Victini I would have already been totally frozen. My body was shivering and I cursed myself for it. As if that would do any good for me.

It must've been not longer than a few minutes, but it felt like ages to me. We passed by a few water pokemon on our way there; some clamperl were closed shut tight at the floor of the ocean, and a few schools of wishi-washi swam by in a panicked hurry. It was more barren here than it probably usually was. The Ultra Beasts must've scared a number of pokemon away. After a long swim, we finally arrived at a sudden cliffside, the ground breaking off and dropping deep down into the ocean. It was like a huge canyon... or perhaps it was as if we had finally reached the edge of a mountain. Either way, I could not see the bottom, or the other side of this sudden, sharp fissure.

Manaphy stopped at the edge of the cliff and we all followed suit, looking around the area for any sign of a gate or a secret entrance to Tapu Fini's shrine. But all there was, was the deep blackness and the open ocean.

"We've reached the Bottomless Sea... although some like to call it the twilight zone." Manaphy said, turning to us. "We're almost there, now."

"ALMOST there? You mean its not here?" Kubo asked as he furrowed his brows. "Is it at the bottom of the cliff?"

"Hah!" Manaphy barked out a laugh, making us all jump in surprise. "What part of bottomless did you miss? Nobody would be able to reach her shrine if it were at the bottom. No, it's not at the bottom... but it IS down there." She turned again and peered over the edge into the stark blackness. "It won't take long, I know where it is."

Victini and I swam up beside her to get a proper look down. I gulped at the sheer scale of it. It looked so dark...

"Oh... I don't know..." Hunter edged up beside me. "I've got a bad feeling about whatever else could be down there..."

Behind us, I could hear Kubo speaking with Manaphy. "It can't REALLY be bottomless. I'm sure its not that far down. Sure the ocean is deep but we've already reached this sea floor, the next level can't be that different. It's just a big lake."

Manaphy's voice giggled, "that's a good one!"

"I'm not joking!"

Manaphy's reply was slower, and in her pause I turned to look back at the two of them. Manaphy's expression was one of mild amazement. "You haven't been in the ocean before, have you?"

"What? You can't just assume that!" Kubo snapped, but the red in his face answered her question.

"Well you'll learn soon enough that a lake is just a little puddle compared to this." She said rather proudly. In fact it gave Victini a run for her money. I immediately knew that would grind Kubo's gears.

But it was then that Manaphy turned to me, a thoughtful expression back on her face. In fact she almost looked... worried?

"Are you sure you're okay to come with us?" She asked me gently. I frowned. But before I could speak, Kubo protested.

"What do you mean? Of course he can!" Kubo crossed his arms with a suspicious glare at her.

Manaphy hummed, not at all reassured by his insistence. She didn't even look away from me as she spoke. "It's just... as you go deeper into the sea, it becomes darker and much colder too. You can tell just by looking at it, can't you?"

I took another look down into the abyss. At my side I could see Victini and Hunter following my gaze. As far as we could see, there was nothing but total darkness. It was intimidating, but... I had to do what was necessary to help protect this world. So I turned back to her. "What about it would trouble me specifically? I got this far, didn't I?"

She nodded but she worried her lip nervously. "Yes, but... well, you see, you're a grass type, so you have some plant cells in your body."

I frowned. What did that have to do with anything?

Victini seemed to want to voice a similar confusion. "Plant cells? Whassat mean?"

Manaphy shook her head, the two antennae on her head swaying back and forth rhythmically. "It means that a part of you is reliant on sunlight for energy." She had seemed to have a bit of a lighter disposition before, but now she was deadly serious. "The light from the sun can barely reach into the twilight zone- and even deeper- in the midnight zone deep within the Bottomless Sea, there is no light at all... it can be deadly for a grass type like you, even more than the cold."

"I see..." I looked back down into the darkness again. "But the trip can't be that long. I'm sure I won't run out of energy by then, especially with Victini with me." I mused out loud to myself. Manaphy heard my words, and made a loud hmph! sound.

I turned to find her with her own arms crossed and a pout on her face similar to Kubo. She huffed at me. "Don't you get what I'm saying! I want you to be safe! You could get yourself killed down there!"

"Surely it can't be that bad," Snowflake piped up gently. She shot a worried glance at me before looking back to Manaphy, who only huffed again.

"It is! You have to- aha!" Her eyes lit up with sudden zeal, and pointed her arm towards something behind me. I jumped and turned to find a chinchou swimming by a few meters away. He seemed to have emerged from the abyss. Manaphy excitedly got up and swam over to him. "Hey! Hey Chinchou! I need your opinion on something!" She called, and the water-type paused at the sound of her voice.

"Coral? Is that you?" He asked incredulously. It appeared that they knew each other. Was Coral a nickname of hers..?

I followed after her, dragging Victini along, and I found that the rest of the team had decided to follow suit as well. Manaphy was excitedly asking Chinchou's opinion about how dangerous the Bottomless Sea was. I narrowed my eyes and found myself flushing in embarrassment. she didn't need to involve an outside in this...

"...and so these explorers think it's important to go down there-"

"Oh?" Chinchou interrupted her rambling. "Explorers?" He asked. with Manaphy's confused nod, he turned to us. "Are any of you from Serperior's guild by any chance? My sister is a recruit there."

"Oh!" Hunter announced excitedly. "We're from there, we met her!"

"Ah! How exciting! Is she doing well-?"

"Chinchouuuuu!" Manaphy interrupted him with a childish whine. "There's no time! You gotta tell them that it's too dangerous for Moss to go!"

He eyed her curiously for a moment before looking back to us. His gaze fell on me quickly. "I assume you're Moss?" he asked. I nodded. He inspected me thoughtfully, his fins fluttering more casually. "Well, it's true that it CAN be quite deadly for grass types down there. I remember my sister told me a story about how she lost her lotad teammate, because of a mission they tried to do down there."

"Really? Oh gosh, I'm sorry..." Snowflake eyed him sadly but he shook his head.

"It's alright... these things can happen, and I never met her, anyway... but- she was very determined to prove herself, so she went down into the Bottomless Sea with my sister and two others." He paused seriously, trying to think on what else had happened. "It's not like they weren't prepared... but when they went in, my sister noticed that Lotad had begun to move slower and slower, even though she hadn't been in any battles yet. She seemed like she was a bit dizzy too, but they all just assumed it was because of the chill or the change in water pressure."

"Water pressure?" Hunter tilted his head.

Chinchou nodded by bobbing his whole body up and down slightly. "Yes. It can get rather heavy down there. It can crush you if you're not careful, so descending and ascending needs to be done slowly."

"I see..." His ears folded back uncomfortably at the sound of that.

"So they kept going, until they got into a fight... Lotad stayed back and didn't participate in the fight- but when they won, they realized that they had no idea where she was anymore." He paused in his story as Sakura whispered a soft 'oh no..' before he continued again. "It was very dark, but lucky they were able to find her with the help of my sister. But.. all they could find was her body, which floated there frozen and wilted... When they took her back to the surface, she unthawed, but it was already too late for her..." He finished his tale, and following his words, we all sat in silence for a moment.

"I'm sorry..." Sakura said, and I turned to see her head was downturned. She hadn't spoke at all during this whole ordeal, and I could now see why. She was shaking slightly. "That's so terrible..."

"Ah- uhm... no, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you-" Chinchou choked in discomfort at seeing the skitty upset. "It's my sister's story to tell, not mine..."

"No, it's alright," Snowflake said softly, "we appreciate your input... it's important we know what we're getting ourselves into..." she turned to me and frowned nervously. I could already tell what she was going to say. "Moss.. maybe you really shouldn't go..."

"Yeah," Hunter added nervously.

"Are you sure you want to come?" Sakura asked. I frowned at her anxious expression. They were all really concerned for me, weren't they...

"Come on guys, you don't know Moss if you think he'd ever back down." Kubo said, swimming up to me and wrapping an arm around my neck. He grinned down at me. "Right?"

I couldn't bring myself to return his grin. I could feel a twisting in my gut at his words. The thought of going down into that dark place, where they wouldn't even be able to find me... I could feel my heart begin to race but I quelled it with a deep breath. It discomforted me that I had to breathe in water and not air, but it did help a little. No matter how frightened I was... it was my duty to help save this world. It was what Lunala brought me here for...

I nodded at Kubo. "Right."

My friends all wilted worriedly. "But Moss..." Hunter murmured.

"No, it's alright." Manaphy said suddenly. We all turned to her in confusion. Huh? Where did this sudden change in attitude come from?

Manaphy swam up to Chinchou, a bright grin on her face. "I think Moss can easily get down there, and there would be no risk to him at all!"

Chinchou stared at her in confusion for a moment... before a look of realization came over him. "WHAT? No Coral, no way, absolutely not! Last time I told you, never again!"

"But Chinchouuuu!" She whined, "just this once!"

"No! Besides, its not like the rest of of them are better off! Land pokemon just shouldn't be going down there," he said. He was scowling rather indignantly, I couldn't help but wonder what had him so upset. "Down there, pokemon don't use their eyes to navigate. They'd all get lost down there. Plus, only the Froakie and Vulpix would be able to handle the cold, I'm sure." He looked over the lot of us, and his gaze fell upon Lunala. He gulped nervously, "and her too, perhaps..."

Lunala tilted her head at his reaction. "Hmmm..." Her gaze drifted to Mesprit. "When I was a Cosmog, I was able to feel cold... you remember, don't you Mesprit?" She asked softly.

Mesprit, who had been thoughtfully watching the exchange, suddenly blinked to life at being addressed. "Oh! Huh? What do you mean, Lunala?" She blinked up at her with wide eyes.

"Well, don't you remember how you used to keep me warm? You always made sure I was comfortable..."

"OH my gosh! Ah- I've been so stupid! You're so right!" She waved her arms excitedly for a moment before turning to Azelf. "Azelf! We can create barriers around our bodies! We could keep our body heat from escaping! And the others too!"

"Oh..." Victini piped up, her hands clutched around my arm. "Can I do that too?"

"Of course! Aha!" Mesprit twirled excitedly. "Now the cold won't be so much of a bother! So there, Chinchou, you can't stop us from going! Got any other rites of passage for us to take?"

Chinchou grumbled irritably. His mood really had soured once Manaphy mentioned.. whatever it was she had wanted from him. "That doesn't change the fact that Moss needs sunlight!" Manaphy insisted, swimming up to Chinchou and flashing some big doll eyes at him. "Pleaseeee! Just once, I promise!"

"Ah..." To my shock, her cutesy face seemed to be doing the job, as he was proverbially sweating bullets at the moment. He scrunched up his face in an attempt to hide how flustered he was. "Oh, alright. Alright!" Her face lit up at his words. "BUT!" He cut in before she could start to cheer excitedly. "...but, it's only because you are my friend. You owe me."

"Hehe~!" Manaphy giggled excitedly, rubbing her hands together. "Yes! Thank you so much, Chinchou~!"

He huffed and grumbled in annoyance at whatever it was she wanted from him, and didn't respond to her thanks. Instead he swam over to me, and eyed me in irritation.

"Listen up, kid." He addressed me coldly and I felt the need to bristle. Who's he calling kid! "It's obvious you won't be able to survive down there, even if your friends can keep your body from getting any colder. It's the lack of sunlight that'll take you out." I frowned. Where was he going with this..? "So... since my body is perfectly adapted to the Bottomless Sea, you can borrow it while you're down there. But if anything happens to me, I swear I WILL find you..." He eyes me coldly.

I shook my head. What? What was he talking about? "Wait- your body? What- how can I take it-?"

"Like this, of course~!" Manaphy sang happily, swimming up to me and Chinchou.

The two antenna on Manaphys head split apart, reaching out horizontally towards both Chinchou and I. A red glow began to emit from the rounded ends. One pressed against my chest, and I looked down at it in confusion. What was she doing...?

I blinked... and then she drew the antenna away. The glow faded away, and she brought her two antenna together up above her head again. I frowned. "Uhm... What was that supposed to do?" I asked curiously.

Snowflake gasped. At the sudden sound of her voice, I quickly turned to look over at her. Every member of the team was watching me, looking back and forth between me and... I looked to the side. Huh?

Across from me, instead of having Chinchou glaring back at me, it was... myself!?

I jumped and hastily looked down at myself. My body was round and blue- and I hadn't noticed it previously, but my vision seemed a bit poorer too. I had small fins and little lanterns hanging down over my face. "H-huh? What's this? What's happening!?" I swam around in a circle before looking back at the Other Me, who had now crossed his arms and pouted in annoyance.

"Coral! You didn't even explain anything to him!" My own body called to her.

"Oh hush, you!" Manaphy giggled and swam up to me grabbing me between her hands. "Calm down Moss, relax! Hehehe, I have an ability called Heart Swap! It means I can body swap any two pokemon for a little while!"

"Wha..." I could hardly believe what I was hearing. So that was her plan?

I looked to everyone else and they all seemed equally shocked. Snowflake swam up to me, tilting her head curiously. I had been looking at Chinchou only moments ago, but I couldn't help but wonder how I looked to her in this body. "Well... I suppose this is the safest way for you to come with us..."

Manaphy laughed again and Chinchou swam up to me as well, although it took him a lot more effort to do so in my body. "Don't worry about your body. I'll wait right here for you when you get back. Then we can swap back. Okay?" He seemed rather used to this by now. I wondered how often Manaphy had swapped him, and for what reasons. But I supposed now wasn't the time to ask.

I nodded. "Okay... will I be able to figure out how to use your body?"

He nodded. "It shouldn't take you too much time to figure it out. But I will say- try to rely on your other senses, besides your eyes... you have those lights as back up. Okay?"

I nodded again. I very suddenly felt very in over my head.

"Well, there's no more time to lose! We gotta go save Tapu Fini!" Manaphy sang excitedly. She swam over the edge of the cliff and did a little backflip in the open water. "Let's go, explorers!"

I looked to Snowflake nervously, and she smiled gently. "I'll keep a close eye on you.." I smiled back, feeling my nerves fade slightly. At least my friends would take care of me...

We said goodbye to Chinchou, who sat my body behind a large rock that stood out rather clearly. Thankfully, this way there was no way we would forget where he was. He waved boredly as we set off, swimming over the edge of the cliff after Manaphy.

I couldn't help but feel more anxious now. How was I going to do this with a new body? Swimming was already easier, but...

"Okay guys! Say goodbye to the sun~!" She looked up and waved up at the sunrays streaming down from the surface. Everyone looked at her like she was crazy. He huffed and crossed her arms. "Lighten up, guys... I always do that, cause it'll be a while until you see it again."

Following her words, we all looked between ourselves uncomfortably. Hunter seemed afraid, and Sakura was surprisingly pretty nervous now too. Kubo seemed more annoyed than anything, but Snowflake, Mesprit, Azelf and Lunala all had serious looks on their faces. They were ready to do what they needed to. Victini... When I looked at her, I couldn't help but frown. She looked up at the sunlight, a worried look on her face. Something about that expression told me she was saying goodbye in her head.

"Don't worry, Moss," Snowflake's words drew my attention back to her, "stick with me, okay?"

I couldn't help but smile warmly at that. I nodded. She smiled back, and then we took our first plunge into the darkness of the abyss.

Manaphy guided us the entire way down. As we went further and further down, we passed by a few frillish, an octillery, a huntail, a lumineon, and a fully evolved lanturn. Each of them waved amicably at Manaphy as we passed- and the lanturn even mistakenly waved at me. I flushed as Manaphy explained my situation to them. It seemed that the few pokemon that were still hanging around this place all knew one another...

As we descended farther and farther down, though, I noticed a strange change that began to come over Manaphy. To my side, I could hear Hunter gasp as he noticed it as well. The red spot on her stomach began to glow, slightly... or perhaps only now in the increasing darkness was I able to see it. Similarly, the yellow spots of her body began to glow softly as well. Even when she was looking away as she lead us into the ever darkening void of the ocean, I could still see the soft glow through her body. How strange... it was almost like I could see through her...

"How much farther is it?" Kubo's voice cut through the suffocating silence of our descent. Although.. the water pressure itself was also slowly growing more suffocating. Chinchou's body seemed to be able to handle it well enough, but... I worried about my friends. I looked back and found Kubo looking around in concern. He was clearly growing uncomfortable with the seemingly endless depths. "If it's too far down.." Kubo continued to say, but trailed off nervously.

I knew what he meant to say, though, and by the anxious shuffling of my friends, it was clear they did too. The water breathing berries could only last us so long, and we only had so many of them...

Manaphy paused for a moment to turn and look at us. "It won't be too far now. And don't worry- there's air in the shrine.' Kubo flinched at her words as she made everyone's anxieties known. A heavy silence followed her words and she huffed. "Oh, relax. Now come on!"

She turned and began to lead us along again. It was getting darker and darker the further we went. I looked around at my friends to see how they were faring.

Hunter and Sakura were to my left, while Snowflake and Kubo were to my right. Mesprit and Azelf trailed behind a bit with Lunala, and I could see Mesprit was saying something to her. Perhaps casually chatting with her... but I could hardly hear what she was saying. In the darkness, her eyes glowed that soft amber light again, and so did Azelf's... I couldn't help but shudder a bit at the sight, so I turened my gaze away. It took a moment to spot Victini, who was also trailing back with Lunala, but rather than swimming up close to her face, she was out next to her large crescent wings. She seemed nervous, which was still odd to me... but since she was protecting herself with her psychic powers now, I was relieved to see she wasn't trembling in the cold anymore.

"This place... it's so strange..." Sakura murmured softly. Hunter and I turned to her curiously. She ducked her head nervously, but continued. "It feels so... isolated. Even though this is open ocean.. I can't see anything! It's almost like being stick in a small dark room..."

Hunter nodded in an almost solemn way. "Yes... even for me- I can barely see anything.." We continued on in silence for a moment before a small grin began to grow on his face. He looked to Sakura with a smirk.

Sakura frowned. "What?"

"Are you saying you don't know the water as much as you said you did? I thought you were a pro," he said rather smugly.

Sakura and I gaped at him. Was that... was Hunter actually capable of teasing?

"Hey!" Sakura finally managed her composure enough to respond. "This has nothing to do with whether its underwater or not! Even if this was us walking deep underground or something! It's not fun being stuck in the darkness!"

"For you maybe!" Hunter cut back.

Sakura flushed. "Weren't you just agreeing with me about it a minute ago?"

He deflated at that, and I almost wanted to encourage him to keep it up. He actually had some confidence there for a second! "Yeah, I was... this isn't a kind of darkness I'm used to, is all..."

"Riiiight," Kubo chimed in with a teasing grin, "but the rest of us? We're all totally used to it, aren't we?"

"Kubo, leave him be," Snowflake chided him, "you've been a real brat today, you know that?"

"Today? Aren't I always a brat in your eyes?" He turned back to grin cockily at Victini. "aren't I, Vivi?... Vivi?" He paused. I stopped as well, and looked back at him.

"What is it?"

"Where's Vivi?" Kubo asked, a worried frown darkening his expression. "She was right behind us a moment ago, wasn't she?"

"Victini? Victini!" I called out to her, looking to Lunala for any sigh of her. But at my gaze, Lunala only blinked in concerned confusion. "Oh no... Manaphy!"

I called for Manaphy to wait, and her softly glowing body was easy to see through the darkness. She stopped and turned around. "Huh? What's wrong?"

"It's Victini, I think she's gotten lost!" I cried.

"Oh dear..." She quickly swam back behind us, "oh, I'm so stupid... I didn't think it would be a problem...! Victini!" She cupped her mouth and called out into the darkness. Then she quickly turned back to me.

"Moss!" Manaphy cried and swam up to me, grabbing one of the glowing lamp antenna's that sprouted from my head.

"Ow!" I yelped.

"Moss, you need to come with me! We'll find her much quicker with you in front, come ON!" She yanked at me painfully and I had no choice but to swim after her. We all began to go back, but I had to lead. I still wasn't confident, but there were more important things to worry about. "Victini! Are you there?" I called. The lamps hanging from my head illuminated every little particle in the water.

"Victiniiiii!" Manaphy swam back and forth energetically through the line of sight I gave us, and Kubo joined her.

"Vivi! Where are you!"

I strained myself to see. Chinchou's body had weaker eyes than mine were- how did that make any sense? What was the point of the lights then!?

Ah, I remembered now.. Chinchou had said that I should use my other senses besides my eyes... but how?

I shut my eyes as I continued to swim. What was I supposed to sense? Could I hear her? No, everything was too muffled besides the cries of my friends... Could I smell her? Ever since we came underwater, I felt like I couldn't smell anything...

And that's when I felt it... a slight shift in the water. Up until now, the waters in the Bottomless Sea had been mostly still, with the slight shifts here and there. But this... felt more isolated. I stopped, forceing everyone else to stop as well.

"Moss! What are you doing! We have to keep looking!" Kubo stopped his calling to scold me. I opened my eyes and looked at him seriously.

"I think I found her- she's to my left!" I said.

"You're left..?" Manaphy frowned. She tapped her chin worriedly before zipping off into the darkness.

"Wha- Manaphy!" Kubo jumped in alarm.

We waited with bated breath, anxiously wondering how far she'd go before coming back. It felt like the water pressure was intensifying the longer we waited. The darkness around us was becoming suffocating. I hoped dearly that I had been right...

"...I found her!" Manaphy's distant voice called back.

We all sighed a breath of relief. That breath caught in our throats, however, as Manaphy came back into the light with Victini in her arms.

Victini looked awful. She was unconscious, completely limp- her fingers, toes, and the tips of her ears were blue. I couldn't tell, but in the small, yellow light my body gave off... she looked pale and sickly.

"Oh, no..." Sakura breathed in horror. Hunter looked at Sakura and back at Victini anxiously. He seemed speechless.

"What are we going to do?!" Snowflake said, "we're not at the shrine yet and we're so far under water now..!"

"Don't worry!" Manaphy gripped Victini tight in her arms. "We're not far from the shrine! Come on! We just have to find it!"

She swam off in the original direction again, and the rest of us couldn't do much other than follow her. What were we going to do? Victini was supposed to be regulating herself, what happened..? She should've been fine! Oh, why didn't I keep sticking together with her like we had been...

We came up to a rocky wall, which I could only see once my lights lit up its rough black surface. Manaphy was zipping up and down its surface, feeling around with her free hand for something. "It's gotta be- it's gotta be here...!"

"Wait!" A voice that hadn't spoken up in a long time cut Manaphy short, and we all turned in shock. It was Azelf, and he was now swimming up to Manaphy, a cold, serious look in his eyes. He reached one a hand out to Manaphy. "Give Victini to me." He said shortly.

"H-huh?" Manaphy blinked up at him. despite her confusion, she did as he told her.

"Hey!" Kubo was inclined to protest, but Hunter grabbed his arm before he could swim up to them. I watched closely as Azelf reached a hand into his bag, shifted through it until he pulled something from it.

The Solar Stone glowed brightly, a shimmering, glittery yellow colour. It was warm and soothing just to look at it. It glowed like a tiny sun, illuminating the area a lot more than my two lamps did. Azelf cradled Victini in his arms and placed the Solar Stone into Victini's lap. He took her hands and folded them over it.

"What is...?" Manaphy furrowed her brow curiously, but her question faded as Victini groaned.

"Ah-!" We all gasped in anticipation as her eyes slowly slid open.

"Mmmhh..." She mumbled. Her gaze was first drawn to the stone, but she seemed dizzy and unfocused. She stared into the soft yellow light for a moment before she attempted to look around, but her eyes didn't lock onto anybody. Nobody, that is, until she sighed tiredly, her head limply falling back into Azelf's bracing arm, and looked up into his glowing yellow eyes. She stared up at him blankly, her lips moving slightly as if she wanted to say something. But nothing came out.

"Don't let go of the stone." Azelf said softly, yet his tone was still serious, "Hold it tight, and don't let go... Try to stay awake, okay?"

She didn't visibly respond, but she did continue to stare up at him. It seemed staring at him was keeping her from losing her focus, at least.

Azelf looked up at the rest of us. "We should get going. She's stable now, but we need to get her out of the water."

Manaphy gasped, and nodded. "Right! I'm on it!"

Less frantically this time, Manaphy began feeling against the wall for whatever hidden mechanism it was she needed to find. I watched Azelf and Victini closely as we followed her. Azelf kept his eyes on her. He stared down at her, and not once did she look away. His gems were glowing a vibrant red in the darkness, as well... how long had they been doing that? I hadn't noticed. Victini hadn't seemed to notice, she was only interested in his bright amber eyes. I wondered how aware Victini really was... she seemed so out of it.

"You're going to be fine now..." Azelf murmured to her gently, and to my surprise, he smiled a little at her encouragingly. She blinked slowly at that.

"What's the Solar Stone doing?" Snowflake asked softly as Mesprit came up to swim beside us. I turned to see Mesprit smiling in relief.

She crossed her arms with a sigh. "The Solar Stone represents the power of the sun... a fire pokemon like her relies on the sun for her energy... it's likely that in all our worry about you, we didn't realize she'd be affected the same way." Mesprit grinned wryly and she turned to me. I flushed in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry..."

"No, it's alright.." Mesprit's smile grew more genuine at my apology. "We thought she could handle it. But it seems she needs the sunlight just as much as you do..."

We looked back at Azelf, and watched as Victini mumbled wordlessly again.

"Here, it's here!"

Manaphy pressed her hand into a small crevice in the rock and shut her eyes... her softly glowing body began to glow brighter for a moment, and then the wall began to glow as well. A strange pattern began to glow a pale blue on the wall under her hand. The pattern reminded me of the markings that had covered the other tapu's shells. It shimmered brightly in the darkness. "Woah.." Kubo gasps softly at the sight. Manaphy grinned at him slightly before giving it a push, and the wall moved in, opening up like a large door. Lunala tilted her head.

"It'll be a tight squeeze..."

"Are you sure you'll fit?" Mesprit asked her worriedly.

Lunala nodded. "Yes, I think so..'

Azelf quickly shoved passed Manaphy and shot quickly into the tunnel that followed. "Ah!" Manaphy gasped and blinked after them. She seemed annoyed at getting shoved before shaking her head. Why wouldn't he be urgent? "Well.. we should follow him!" She smiled at us and waved for us to come along.

Quickly, but less urgent, we went in after Azelf. It wasn't any darker within the cave than outside it, but it still felt discomforting to be inside. My lamps illuminated the walls, and with that we could see how polished and smooth the walls were. There were pillars and etchings carved into the walls, the same as the glowing pattern we had seen on the door.

Finally the cave opened up, reaching tall above out heads, but not quite as large as Tapu Bulu's cavern had been. And to my shock- there was actually air in there! the main floor of the shrine rose up almost above the water, just barely leaving a shallow pool for any water type that might want to traverse the area. But the building itself stood tall out of the water, with the occasional drop of water dripping down from the ceiling. The room echoed melodically, and each drip was a loud ring.

I swam up and peeked out of the water. A pillar had been knocked over, probably from the Ultra Beasts. The place was more than a little run down. Azelf had decided to make perch on top of the fallen pillar. It seemed to be the only dry place in the whole cavern. He still had Victini in his lap, and the Solar Stone was still held between her hands. He turned to look at us as we arrived.

"How is she?" Manaphy asked, walking up into the shallow pool and standing her upper torso out of the water. everyone else followed her, but Lunala remained in the deeper pool. Lunala was still half submerged yet she still towered over us.

"She's okay." Azelf said back calmly, "she might still need a moment to recover."

Snowflake nodded at that, and looked around. I joined her, and found that for once, we were completely alone. No Ultra Beasts were hiding in here, waiting to attack us. I couldn't describe the relief I felt.

"Does anyone see Tapu Fini anywhere?" Mesprit asked, pulling me from my thoughts. Oh right...

"What does she look like? Do you know?" Snowflake turned to Manaphy curiously.

Manaphy shrugged. "Kind of? ...But I know she has patterns on her, like the ones on the walls!" She pointed to the intreseting triangular shapes.

I could tell from Snowflakes reaction that she had also gathered this already. "Well.. let's get looking." She nodded at the rest of us and we started off. Well- THEY started off. I was restricted to the shallow pool in this dumb body.

Not that I didn't have feet- I most certainly did- but I was not anywhere near good enough at using them to be able to walk on them. I had tried to step out of the water, but after Kubo laughed at my feeble attempts, I decided I would be better off just watching.

Instead of thinking about ways to get back at him for that, I turned my attention back to Azelf and Victini.

The warm glow of the Solar Stone helped illuminate the room, which I was thankful for. It would have been dreadfully dark in here otherwise, with the only other light coming from the portal, which left a chilling blue light shining out from inside the building of the shrine. The light from the orb also made it quite easy to see how Victini was doing. She sat curled up in Azelf's lap, her hands pressed gently against the surface of the stone. She continued to stare up at Azelf, but her eyes were less wide and captivated. Instead she seemed a bit more... relaxed.

"Mmhh..." She mumbled softly, "mmh wh-where.. where am I..?" she asked breathlessly. Nobody else in the room seemed to notice her soft question. They were all to busy in their search. But I did.

And so did Azelf. "We found Tapu Fini's shrine. Soon.. you will be back in proper sunlight." He said, and his voice was once again much softer than he usually seemed to be. "You are safe," he concluded with a small nod.

Victini smiled, her mouth slightly open. "We.. did it? Ahh... we're heroes~..! See... I told you I always make sure we win..." She giggled weakly, and coughed wetly for her trouble.

"Ah, hush... you're not quite ready to talk yet." Azelf shook his head, but now that Victini was awake, there was not going to be any stopping her. I barely restrained my grin as she began to struggle in his grip.

"No..! I'm fine- I gotta get up...!' She squirmed in his grip, twisting to the side. She almost dropped the Solar Stone- but Azelf quickly grasped it instead. With him now distracted, Victini was free to slip from his arms. She kicked at him with her feet weakly as she tried to scramble away. "I'm a heroooo~!" She giggled, sitting up with much effort.

"Ack-!" He choked at her kicks. "Victini- don't you know when to stay down?" He frowned at her, and I couldn't help but be shocked at the concerned, yet annoyed look on his face.

"Nope~" Victini giggled again.

"I found her!"

Hunter's voice called out to us, and I quickly turned to him. He stood over a pile of rubble, and pointed down into it with his paw. "She got buried a bit!" He said.

Manaphy, Snowflake, Mesprit, Kubo and Sakura all rushed over to him. They scrambled to lift and roll away the broken rocks and damp mud that had buried the guardian. I couldn't see so well from my position, but it was definitely her- and she was completely in tact. She looked almost like a human woman, it if weren't for the strange shell and the lack of legs...

"Lemme seeeeee! I wanna seeeee!" Victini whined, and I looked back over to them to find Azelf had now looped an arm around her torso to keep her from flying away. She squirmed and wiggled in his grasp, but was too weak to budge him now.

"Do not worry... I can take care of it..." Lunala said, and I watched as she smiled at Victini kindly, before her eyes began to glow. She looked towards Tapu Fini, and then the hidden third eye on her head appeared, and glowed brightly as well. Cracks began to crawl over the surface of the statue, and my friends all backed away from it. It began to glow, and as the glowing increased, snaps and cracks began to pop out of the figure.

Slowly, slowly the cracks grew larger, and the sounds grew louder, and finally with a large BURST! of energy, the light exploded out, and we all had to hide our eyes. It was blinding the darkness of the ruins. Then, after a moment of silence, we all lifted out heads back up towards Tapu Fini.

She was hovering there, all on her own. She was free.

"Uhm... hello, Tapu Fini..." Manaphy waved awkwardly up at her, "nice to.. finally meet you..."

Tapu Fini blinked, and looked down at her. She stared back, not saying a word, before turning her gaze to my friends. They all shrunk a little under her gaze, except Mesprit, who was smiling rather excitedly back at her. Tapu Fini blinked at her for that, before extending her gaze over to me, Azelf and Victini. Victini waved dazedly.

"Tapu Fini..." Lunala spoke softly, and the Tapu's eyes immediately shot over to her. "you know what has happened, don't you...? And what you must do..."

Tapu Fini frowned, but once again said nothing. Then, hesitantly, she nodded. Lunala smiled at that. I wondered what unspoken agreement they had...

Tapu Fini turned, and quickly zipped into her shrine. We watched from the outside as the bright blue glow was suddenly cut short, as Tapu Fini shut the portal. I grinned to myself at the realization.

We... we had done it! We finally closed all the portals!

It had taken so long, and it had been so much work, but we did it! I accomplished what I was meant to do!

It was then that Tapu Fini reemerged from the shrine. She looked around at all of us again, before shooting away again, but this time she went up and splashed into the deep pool of water. "Ah!" Manaphy gasped. "She- she's leaving? Without saying anything?!"

"I wanted to say hiiiiii!" Victini lamented pathetically.

"It's to be expected," Lunala said gently, "she's in a great rush to get back to her fellow Tapu's. There is much work still for them to do."

Sakura frowned at that, as they all slowly made their ways back over to the pool of water that I waded in. "What about us? What are we left to do?"

"Well... there are still many beasts that remain here," Lunala said, "and I do not believe Necrozma will give up so easily... we will need to be cautious."

Sakura nodded. "Right..."

"Oh, cheer up, guys! We just accomplished something great and you're already lookin' at the next thing?" Kubo laughed. "Come on, now! Let's all just celebrate a second, huh?"

"Hehe.. perhaps you're right, Kubo..." Snowflake smiled at him softly, "...for once."

Kubo gasped indignantly, "what're you talking about- I'm always right!"

She grinned, and I couldn't help but smile as well. "No, she's right." I added.

"You stay OUT of this!" Kubo glared at me, and I couldn't help but laugh.

It wasn't too much longer later that we began to make our own way back out of the shrine. Manaphy informed us of an easy exit- a one way path that Tapu Fini would use in order to get out of her shrine with ease. It was a tunnel underneath the water that had a very strong directional current- and so it wasn't too much longer before we were making our way out of the Bottomless Sea.

When we arrived at the top of the precipice again, we found Chinchou waiting there for us, still in my body. I was relieved to see nothing had happened to me. Manaphy switched us back, and I couldn't help but cheer in relief at having my familiar little body back. I hadn't even realized how comfortable I had gotten in this body... it felt definitively mine.

It was then, however, than Chinchou mentioned having shifted through my bag in search of another underwater berry, when he was still waiting for us. It was then that he found that TM I had been too confused to use on myself. "I decided to go ahead and learn it, just for you," he said with a smirk, and I couldn't help but wonder if he had done that as a way to get back at me.

"What did you- HOW did you-?" I was understandably flustered. How was I even supposed to use it?

"You can thank me later," was all he said, before he gave a friendly goodbye to Manaphy and swam away.

I decided that I did not much like him.

Still- once we had finally made our way back to the beach, and dried ourselves off, Victini was finally able to move around again on her own. Watching her jump and twirl excitedly in the air, and feeling my own comfortable fluffy body back... it was hard to be upset about the circumstances. I sat back with Snowflake and Hunter by my side, resting by Lunala's large wing as we watched Victini express her hatred for water. ..And then we watched as Kubo and Sakura chased her around, teasing her about it. She was laughing though, so I could tell she didn't mind. Azelf watched her closely and carefully though, making sure she didn't get herself hurt. I had to smile at that.

Manaphy said goodbye to us, wishing us well and thanking us for the adventure. Mesprit thanked her in return for her help. "Oh, it's no problem at all! I mean it DID get a bit scary halfway in there, but you guys did save me too! I won't forget it!" Manaphy smiled, and said her goodbyes.

I felt rather odd as I watched everyone.

We had done it... We had finally accomplished all we had intended to do...

So why did it feel like we weren't anywhere close to being finished?