As she watched him scurry away, Lillie shook her head. She couldn't believe it—she wouldn't believe it. There was no way he could simply not know who she was, was there? What sense did that make? She didn't know how or why he was there, but she knew that was her father, someone she had decided a long time ago that she would never have a prayer of seeing again, and then he just fell into her lap, with apparently no recollection of who she was—after everything they had been through, was she being mocked?
…No. Perhaps he was just intimidated and confused by the getups they were in, not to mention, they all looked like hell, borderline unrecognizable, from the multiple days they had spent literally beyond the confines of this world. Staring off after where Mohn had disappeared with intense focus, Lillie suddenly gritted her teeth and stamped a foot. Then, she started to pull off that temporary exosuit she had been given to wear over her usual attire for their travel back to Alola. Just as she started to throw the fabric from her arm in a heap, leaving her in basic white clothes, she felt Elio latch onto her right forearm. Instinctively tugging against the grip at first, she paused and gave him a bewildered, questioning look.
Patiently, he shook his head. "Lillie, calm down," he rasped at her in that uncanny tone. "We—"
"That's him, I know it's him," Lillie cut him off, desperately. She lightly pulled against his grasp, but he didn't let go. "I—I need to talk to him, maybe the suits scared him, he doesn't recognize me—"
"Lillie…"
Ignoring the concern laced in his voice, she just shot him an annoyed glare. Her frustration made her barbed tongue fly without her truly thinking about what she was saying. "You should take that helmet off, too, you know. Along with the rest of that suit. Yours makes you look really—"
Recoiling at those loaded words, Elio raised a brow at her. She might have called his tone hurt if it didn't sound so eerily inhuman. "Makes me look what?" he asked, bordering on accusatory.
Realizing how bladed her remark had been, Lillie froze. "I'm… I'm sorry," she admitted hesitantly, frustration only mounting. She didn't mean to insult him, or anything, but—but that was her dad! Mohn, who she and Gladion had truly believed was GONE! He was alive! Why couldn't Elio just cooperate on this? They had to go and handle this now! She had already waited so long, and—
"I can't take the helmet off because it's how I am talking to you right now."
Thoughts coming to a screeching halt, Lillie blinked up at him. She had barely registered what he said. "What?"
Taking a deep breath, Elio gave her a measured look, then a patient smile. Loosening his grip on her arm, he said, "Look, I… can imagine what you feel. I saw my parents for a few minutes before… well… a lot happened. I want to see them again, but… take it from me. Losing your head over it isn't the way to do it." Cheekily grinning much wider, he snarked, "Also, I'd love to take the helmet off, really. This getup they got me in looks cool, but it's not really comfortable. Ultrarians are good at making things to kill stuff. Comfort's not exactly their specialty."
Dulse annoyedly barked, "I heard that."
Elio, still beaming, cast a mischievous look over his shoulder. "You were meant to!" At Dulse's blank stare, he prompted him further. "Like… because I can talk, you know? You were meant to hear me?" When Dulse still didn't react, Elio just groaned and looked back at Lillie. "Anyway, my point is, I can't take the helmet off, because Dr. Colress explained that without it, I can't speak. He—"
As if on cue, interrupting him, the uncanny doctor interrupted with a grandiose clearing of his throat and strode in front of them all. "Not if he wishes to speak, he can't! That helmet was quite a fun side project to work on, though I admit it took me far longer than it should have, since my focus was elsewhere." Adjusting his glasses and tucking his hands behind his back, all in a display that one could mistake for polite, Dr. Colress cocked his head to the side. "When the Nihilego attacked Mr. Isono here and the field agents Dulse and Zossie, it used something akin to Power Gem on them. I'm sure trainers such as yourselves do not require me to explain what Power Gem is, but a Nihilego's is much more powerful. One such bladed rock sliced Mr. Isono's vocal cords. In fact, it quite near killed him entirely. He is lucky to be alive. But I am a doctor of discovery, not so much one of the flesh, and that is a wound no ordinary doctor could hope to heal anyway. So, I did not bother with an attempt at mending what cannot be repaired. Instead, I merely altered the helmet to have something like 'fake' vocal cords. The part that tucks around his chin and somewhat below takes in various inputs to determine the appropriate vocalization. I admit, it is not as lifelike as I would like, but it is as good as I can get it without more invasive measures."
"Do you just do that all the time?" Elio dryly asked once Dr. Colress was done. "Like, you just stole all my thunder. I was going to explain it."
"You do not know the details," Dr. Colress retorted immediately, almost snidely.
"I don't think she needed the full breakdown." Elio rolled his eyes, then focused on Lillie again. "Anyway, do you really believe he would forget what his own daughter looks like? I mean, what's he doing out here on this island in the middle of nowhere, didn't you say he was a professor? And your mother…" Elio grimaced, rubbing the back of his neck. "Something else is going on. I don't think it's a coincidence we got dumped here in the first place, in the same area someone else that got unlucky with wormholes happened to get dropped off."
He reassuringly stroked her arm after all of that, and Lillie took a shuddery breath. Her heart still thrummed in her chest and she still felt the primal urge to rush after Mohn and force him to look at her, to make him understand—but she couldn't deny that what Elio was saying made sense. She almost gave a disbelieving little giggle to herself. Was it now Elio keeping her rooted to reality, when in the past she had watched him helplessly as he gave in to his fear of these islands? She wasn't blind to the calm amusement in his voice, even right then. The genuine laugh, the semi-joking tone, all bringing her back to that night she had spoken to him and told him that she appreciated his attempts at humor… when they were actually him. It was clear he wasn't pretending anymore.
Surveying him as if it were the first time she was seeing him in so long, Lillie slowly nodded, privately wondering what it was out there that had given him that confidence at last. Especially considering what Dr. Colress had just said. Her legs started to feel unsteady as it registered that he had told her Elio had quite nearly died out there. "You're right," she quietly admitted, biting back the emotions welling in her throat. "You're right."
"Besides…" It was Selene who interjected this time. Eyes turned back on her. She clasped her hands in front of herself as she nervously flitted her gaze between them and the ground. "I… I am not magical, at least not in the way you were thinking… I can showcase memories. I can see those of others. I can do some other stuff. But I can't plant memories… I can show him memories all I'd like, but I can't guarantee he'd believe them." Uncomfortably shifting in place, Selene seemed to almost shrink into herself. "On top of that… Even if I could… I don't… don't think it would be right to plant memories in his head, even if they're technically ones he should know already… If he can't recall them himself, I'd probably have to just use what you and Gladion remember, and that just wouldn't even be the same… I don't think it's wise to use what I have to try to make people do things they normally wouldn't do on their own…" She guiltily looked up at Elio as she continued. "People have to come to understand things in their own way. If you get them to just blindly follow you, it… might not turn out how you expect. People shouldn't put each other on pedestals." With that, she looked away.
"Okay, now that everyone's done talking about their feelings," Rosa sarcastically chimed in, rudely pushing between Elio and Selene to stand beside Dr. Colress, "Colress, we should go."
Groaning and throwing his head back almost dramatically, Dr. Colress lamented, "All of this, and I never even got to test those machines! That wretched woman actually ruined it all."
Rolling her eyes and smirking, Rosa comfortably leaned against Dr. Colress. He didn't even flinch at the sudden added weight. "This world and the next over almost got blown up, and you're just upset you didn't get to experiment on the angry light dragon, aren't you?"
"Of course!" Dr. Colress responded, jerking his head to look at her. Abruptly latching an arm around her and hugging her uncomfortably close (which forced him to hunch over her since she was shorter than he was), he seemed to look into the horizon with a wild-eyed, beaming smile. Emphasizing his words with movements of his hands, he gushed, "Imagine! The power that can be invoked from a beast that controls an endless supply of those crystals, and can control other beings, turning even the common Solgaleo and Lunala into unstoppable behemoths! It is untapped power, reminiscent of that of pokémon, but so much more! And to imagine that people were slumbering on such knowledge for centuries!"
"Wow," Rosa started with a giggle that eventually gave way to cackling, "that 'beast' went and offed itself, and look at you, practically salivating over how strong it was."
Lillie flinched at that. Curling a lip, she stamped a foot and glowered at them. She had been putting up with Dr. Colress' seemingly nonstop chatter and Rosa's unbridled remarks for days. She was not unaware of the blatant disrespect for the present Ultrarians, or the fallen Necrozma.
And seemingly, neither was Selene.
Given everything that was going on, Selene was growing frustrated with this deranged doctor and his shady mistress. Whatever their business had been with Necrozma, it was done now, and their gross vulgarity was no longer welcome. Honestly, she had been over it within a few minutes of Rosa opening her mouth during their confinement back in Ultra Megalopolis, when the captains of the URS were still debating what to do with them. They needed to explore Elio's theory about this islet, or at least address the discovery of Mohn in some way, and they also had to meet back up with Hau, Gladion, and the Captains and Kahunas from back at the Altar to determine the current state of Alola, to decide where to go from there—they simply had too much to worry about to be dragged down by this ill-willed duo. "Who even are you two?" Selene finally snapped, marching toward them. She fully intended on finding out whether they wanted to tell her or not, and then find a reasonable way of sending them packing.
Yet as she neared them, Dr. Colress just gave her a quizzical stare, while Rosa flicked shut the diamond-shaped visor of her helmet over her face. Selene froze in place as two digital, white circles, seemingly meant to represent eyes, appeared on the visor's 'screen.' "I wouldn't do that, jack," Rosa darkly taunted, crossing her arms from where she was still leaned against Dr. Colress. The digital eyes upturning in sinister delight, in a way that might have indicated she was cruelly grinning beneath that mask, Rosa warned, "You might not like what you see in there." With that, she unraveled from Dr. Colress and tapped on her helmet, darkly laughing.
That made Selene a lot less sure of herself. Frustrated, she just spat, "Fine, then, I don't really care. I just want you two to go away."
"My, that is one way to thank someone for helping your brother," Dr. Colress mused coolly, though it was apparent he was just teasing. Selene didn't catch anything in his tone or body language that even mildly suggested he was actually offended. Part of her might have even believed he was privately proud. Loudly sighing, he shrugged. "Well, it does not bother me either way if we stay or don't. I suppose I will take my leave and merely adapt the research I have on the Z-Crystals for now for use; such a waste after so much effort, by far… Anyway, the islet we have found ourselves on is known to locals as the Poké Pelago. It is a remote archipelago that is not officially recognized by anyone, really, but is something passed about by word of mouth here. Locals bring their pokémon here to let them enjoy a respite from their everyday lives with humanity. Some believe it is important to allow their pokémon a 'vacation,' so to speak, and believe it makes them stronger. I found no evidence to support such a theory, but nonetheless, that is what they believe. It is also where the local Skull Gang releases many of their ransomed, stolen, or abandoned pokémon. This Mohn has always been what I believe is best described as anxious during visits from other Alolans, however; I believe it may be from prolonged isolation prior to others discovering this islet and him on it."
Just as Selene was preparing to launch into a flurry of annoyed demands, most of which revolving around "I don't care, just go" and aimed at Dr. Colress, they all were caught off-guard by the sound of a distant yell. Even Rosa's expression fell away to alarm as she stood at attention, craning her neck in an attempt to get a better view beyond some of the overgrown berry trees surrounding them.
"Back! Back, you little—eep! Ah, help!"
"That's my dad," Lillie anxiously whined, already digging in her pockets for a Poké Ball. When she found it, she pitched it, revealing the Alolan Ninetales Elio had entrusted to her.
"We should definitely go check that out," Elio agreed, sweeping a look after them all. Focusing on Dulse and Zossie, he swallowed nervously. "Did they let you two keep the Furfrou Dulse caught here…? Do you still have that Solgaleo or Poipole?"
"I still have my Furfrou, yes," Dulse replied matter-of-factly.
"And I have the Poipole, but the Solgaleo still needs to rest…" Zossie admitted. A little bewildered, she curiously pressed, "Why?"
"Because you're here now, and people tend to frown at the idea of using big scary weapons to beat pokémon down," Elio almost teasingly told them.
Although feeling a bit more anxious to get going due to Mohn's apparent cries of distress from the distance, Selene stole a second or two to bask in the familiarity of Elio's more relaxed tone. It had been so long since she had heard it, after all… She had missed it. As she reached for the Poké Ball to release Bowtie, she snarked a clarification for Zossie and Dulse, "What he's trying to say is, if there's a pokémon attacking Mohn, you should help us by battling it rather than trying to use the weapons and stuff you have on you, because that will probably just freak Mohn out even more."
With that, Selene gestured ahead of herself to Bowtie, locating a trail that wound through the berry tree forest. The Decidueye ghosted through the trees ahead of her while she took to following, and Lillie, Elio, Zossie, Dulse, and even Dr. Colress and Rosa trailed behind, along with their own pokémon (except for Rosa, Selene fleetingly noted). Admittedly, she wasn't entirely sure why the last two came with—perhaps they were just curious? They seemed to do whatever they wished on a whim, anyways. None of them exactly had the time to worry about it, she supposed.
When they tracked the source of Mohn's cries down to a raft anchored to the shore of the islet, Selene admittedly wasn't sure what she was looking at. She and Bowtie halted and examined the scene ahead of them in bewilderment. Mohn looked like he was flinching away from an invisible attacker, hunched against a tree, while a Rockruff and Crabrawler agitatedly lunged at where the would-be assaulter should have been standing. Getting as close as she felt she could, Selene cupped hands around her mouth and called, "Mohn! What's going on?"
As Elio, Lillie, Dulse, Zossie, Rosa, and Dr. Colress caught up to her, Selene wasn't sure she heard Mohn correctly when he yelped, "A sm-small origami… thing is attacking me!"
"Origami… thing?" Selene echoed, frustration mounting as she felt more and more lost.
"Ninetales, Blizzard! Freeze whatever it is!" Lillie shouted from behind her. Yet, seconds drew on with the Rockruff defending Mohn and Lillie's Ninetales making no move to attack. Eyes all befell the Ninetales as he stood with his fur on end next to Lillie, but adamantly refused to move. Sounding more and more desperate, Lillie shakily pressed, "Ninetales? Blizzard, come on…"
That was when Elio pointed forward. "Ninetales, Blizzard, now!" he called.
That seemed to urge the Ninetales into moving at last, but just as he was preparing to send the cold chill cloaking around his tail Mohn's way, the earth shook as a shadow passed overhead, and what looked like a living torpedo dove at the ground just in front of Mohn and his two pokémon defenders. Breath hitching in her throat, Selene only vaguely recognized the beast that had just appeared in front of them as the behemothian Salamence. Blood-red wings stretched out against the sky as an icy blast scored the ground next to it, seemingly stopping the unseen attacker, and just like that, the Rockruff and Crabrawler next to Mohn relaxed, and everything was silent for a moment. From the back of the heaving Salamence, a black-cloaked figure clutched at the proud, cerulean horns crowning the pokémon's skull, seemingly praising it.
Lillie was the first one to break the standstill, darting over to Mohn. "D—I mean, M-Mohn…" She sounded strangled. "Are you alright?!"
Quivering as he tried to stand on jelly legs, Mohn breathlessly mewled, "U-uff, I… I think so… Just… some c-cuts…" He drew a quaking hand over his face, then collapsed back to the ground. Selene winced; he looked like he was on the verge of passing out. At the very least, he didn't look injured… she supposed he was just frightened and overwhelmed, more than anything.
As callous as it might have sounded, however, she was far more concerned about the person astride the Salamence. Narrowing her eyes at them, Selene shared a glance with Bowtie, and after he nodded at her and slunk closer to the Dragon-type, Selene picked her way closer to it, too. The black-clad figure on its back stood up and, when the Salamence extended a wing to the ground, walked off as if it were a ramp. Pitching a Poké Ball at something on the ground, there was a tiny flash of red light, and the ball bounced back into their palm.
"Who are you?" Selene dared to call out, feeling her heart start to pound. Her nerves were too unsettled to hope to try to focus enough to take a look into this mystery person's memories, especially at such a distance.
The cloaked figure abruptly turned around and shook off the hood of their getup. Long, lilac hair tied into a single ponytail escaped her shadowy clothes and she beamed at Selene. The tension in the air seemed to decompress all at once as this mystery woman waved a gloved hand exuberantly at her. "Hello! I'm sorry if my Salamence and I gave you a scare." She revealed a Poké Ball in her right hand then, one unlike any Selene had ever seen. It was crosshatched with various shades of violet and indigo, with a gleaming, silvery line marking its center. "Your friend here was under attack by a particularly nasty little creature… One that's almost smaller than any known species of pokémon."
The Salamence growled then, shaking out its powerful wings.
"But Salamence have amazing eyesight," the woman explained, rolling her eyes. Focusing on Selene again with a more measured expression, the woman dipped her chin slightly. "You can call me Anabel. I'm afraid I have to get straight to business, though. That man," she gestured with her chin toward Mohn, "what do you know of him?"
When Selene opened her mouth, she was cut off by Anabel making an addendum to her question.
"—And don't lie. I recognize the outfit you're wearing. You and all your friends here in these suits must be close to this situation."
"What situation?" Selene almost begged, shaking her head. It was exhausting, but she knew this could potentially be a clue to Elio's theory, at how it couldn't be coincidence they had been dropped to this islet. She had to talk to this woman. Though, as scrutinized the woman's appearance more and more, she thought she looked familiar… Perhaps she had been with the Interpol agents that had picked her and the others up following that nightmarish day aboard Aether Paradise.
"The situation regarding the UBs flooding into Alola. I'm the head of Interpol's Ultra Space Division. I can tell based on the outfits you and your friends are wearing, that you are either from a dimension known as Ultra Megalopolis, or you were working with the Aether Foundation. So," Anabel paused and clicked her tongue, lazily flashing Selene a badge as if afraid Selene may not believe her, "I'm going to need you to tell me what you know of that man"—she gestured toward Mohn—"and what you have been doing the last few days." Narrowing her eyes to measured slits, Anabel shifted her weight back and forth momentarily. "Hmm… You look familiar, too."
"I believe we all can assist in answering these questions." Selene jerked her head to the right, then to the left. Dulse and Zossie flanked her on either side, the prior having been the one to respond to Anabel. To her surprised looks, the two Ultrarians just nodded encouragingly at her. Somehow, Selene intrinsically understood that they were looking to support her and help Anabel with her investigation.
Taking a deep breath, Selene exhaled her anxieties away. "Thank Arceus they're willing to help with that, too," Selene tiredly joked, "because it's still a long story, even with my abilities." Turning a bit more serious, Selene set her jaw and looked Anabel directly in the eyes. "And I am not a part of the Aether Foundation. I'll clear that up right now."
Raising her chin, Selene swore Anabel regarded her with a tad more respect for that spiteful declaration.
Working together with Dulse and Zossie, occasionally supplementing with her ability to project memories, Selene answered Anabel's questions. She was grateful for the help, and she noticed that the explanation process went a lot smoother with their assistance…
Selene could not handle this burden—or gift, curse, whatever one wished to call it—on her own… but Alola needed it. The truth regarding the Tapus, the Z-Crystals, and so much more was shrouded in so much fear and anger. In the back of her mind, as she felt herself working in tandem with the two disgraced Ultrarians, she remembered how, when she and Elio had first gone out with Professor Kukui, he and everyone else had tried to plant this idea of Alola being a harmonious place, where people and pokémon alike worked alongside and helped one another, in their minds. For nearly the entirety of her journey and the chaos that had ensued, she had believed it to be utter nonsense, as she had seen how divided they were. She had seen how people and pokémon alike could rip one another to shreds over differences and miscommunication time and time again on these islands—but suddenly, she felt like she understood.
Professor Kukui and so many others had not been trying to sell her a lie. Their actions spoke volumes; they knew Alola was not what it used to be. They had been trying to tell her what they knew Alola was meant to be—what they wanted it to be.
As their explanations came to a close, as she heard Lillie swallowing her own pain to talk a hysterical Mohn down in the background, and as she heard Elio talking to someone in the distance, Selene heard her own tiny, solemn inner voice from the back of her mind: Kukui's plan worked. There's so much here I still have left to do… Even if this is over soon, and I can go home… Even if Mom and Dad can come back home with us… How can I turn away from this place? Hau? Gladion? Lillie? Knowing everything that I know…?
Alola's beauty isn't skin-deep. It's buried like a diamond, and we all know how it's supposed to shine…
When Elio was sure the danger of the situation had passed (he had listened to Lillie talk to Mohn and smiled as she dropped the 'dad' topic, and he trusted Selene, Dulse, and Zossie to handle talking to the woman on the Salamence), he had returned to where the Ninetales had frozen up, refusing to move or obey Lillie. Sighing as he bent down in front of the pokémon, he thought he understood. He remembered the way it had glared at him when he had tried to leave on his own at the Altar to follow Necrozma, and while at first he had thought it was simply feeding off Lillie's hurt at the moment, its refusal to listen to her painted a different picture. Once at eye level with him, the Ninetales pulled his lips back into the beginnings of a snarl, and mutinously lowered his ears. Elio ignored the threatening display and bravely stroked the pokémon's head. The Ninetales tensed, but the fearsome look on his face faded.
"I'm sorry," Elio whispered to him, scratching his head gently. "I didn't mean to abandon you, or anything, you know… But you really grew up under Lillie, right? I mean, I didn't get to battle with you much. I never even came up with a nickname for you… or any of my other pokémon aside from Macho, really…" As if on cue, the Incineroar peeked around Elio to curiously give the Ninetales a once-over. He had been thrown out in anticipation of a fight earlier, just after Selene had tossed Bowtie free.
The Ninetales stared at Elio as he spoke. The urban legend of how intelligent Ninetales could be was prolific in Kanto; some believed they could understand human speech fluently, others believed they had memories that could stretch a thousand years or more, more even lived in fear of them, believing they could mind-control those they did not care for. Elio had never given the whispers any considerations, really, but something told him the pokémon understood everything he was saying.
"Lillie needed you more than I did. She still needs you more than I do. I'm sorry, if that's not what you wanted…" Elio guiltily smiled. "But the best way you can help me right now, is to help her, if that makes sense… Just because we might be apart, doesn't mean I stopped caring about you, you know. I'm so proud of you for listening to her and helping her all this time while I was gone. Really, I am. I just…" Elio sighed. "I need to know I can trust you to keep doing that. If you refuse to listen to her like that again, you might get her really hurt… And I know Lillie. I'm sure she cares about you deeply, too, and takes care of you."
The Ninetales' expression softened some, and his ears flicked.
"Can I trust you to keep her safe, when she asks you to?" Elio encouragingly asked. "To obey her, instead of me?" With that, he withdrew his hand, holding it hesitantly away from his face. Oh, if only his past self from a few months ago could hear him now, asking a pokémon to play its role of defender better. He had seen the alternatives to protecting oneself from powerful creatures in Ultra Megalopolis. Privately, he felt that on Earth, they were lucky that friendship, trust, and mere battling could go a long way to prevent so much. The Ultrarians were often not so lucky in their encounters with Ultra Beasts. Even if battling wasn't perfect and not always kind to the pokémon involved, the alternatives were a lot more grim…
In the end, the Ninetales slowly dipped his head, and then touched his nose to Elio's withdrawn hand. He was sure it was a 'yes.' Grinning a bit wider, Elio abruptly hugged the Ninetales, laughing a bit (which, admittedly, sounded off even to him, thanks to his mechanized vocals). "Thank you, Snowy."
The Ninetales indignantly squirmed out of his hold and gave Elio a look he could only interpret as, "What did you just call me?"
Laughing a bit more as he stood up, Elio put his hands behind his head. "What? I finally thought up a nickname!"
"And how long did it take you to come up with that one?"
Jolting, Elio looked up. Rosa stared back at him with the digital eyes of her diamond-shaped visor, the rest of her metallic suit making light, nearly inaudible clicking as she moved from between the shadows of the tall berry trees. She sidestepped the Ninetales and continued to approach him, even as he started to backpedal from her. "What do you want?" Elio warily demanded.
"That woman down there with the purple hair," Rosa started as she raised both hands to her helmet, "you should give her this." She suddenly pulled the helmet off herself. The digital eyes on the visor immediately fizzled out. Blinking to adjust her real, brown eyes to the true brightness of the outside world, Rosa thrust it at him, and he clumsily caught the helmet. It was a little heavier than he had imagined it being… Especially for a girl that looked otherwise so small. When Elio confusedly glanced back at her, Rosa just cut her eyes at him. "It has the same mind-controlling technology the masks your parents wore had in them, just with some other stuff piled on top. That woman down there's a member of Interpol. I had the Shadow Triad go check it out, your parents are still being held by them."
"Forgive me if I sound like an ass when I ask this, but… why?" Elio nervously asked. "You don't exactly strike me as—"
Cutting him off, she muttered, "Because your sister actually did something about that beast that wanted to destroy everything. Colress was going to let us sit there and watch it happen… There are people around I don't want killed by that raging monster." Scornfully curling a lip at him, "Sorry, in case you thought I grew a soft spot for you all of a sudden. That's for your sister. Now hurry up, before Colress realizes I destroyed the trackers and voice recorders in that thing and has the Shadow Triad track it down to steal it back. Trust me, they'll find it, with or without trackers. My way just slows them down a little."
Hesitantly, Elio called, "But, wait, won't he, uh, notice the helmet is gone? What will he do to you?"
"I can sure take it back, if you want," Rosa snidely spat, agitatedly huffing. "Look, don't worry about it. Just go, alright?"
Although he couldn't help but feel some concern for her, given the way he had seen her and Dr. Colress interact before, he just kept his mouth shut and nodded. Inwardly, he looked down at the helmet in his grasp. I hope this works… for our sake, and Rosa's. Would hate for her to do that for us and it not even work to get our parents released… This should prove that those mind-controlling masks were a real thing going on at Aether.
With that, Elio headed out into the open, Snowy and Macho on his heels, to give the woman by the Salamence the mask. Then, he'd regroup everyone and decide where to go from there. His mind was still working, trying to piece together how Mohn could have lost so much of his memory, and what it meant that they had all ended up on this islet. He looked forward to talking to Dulse and Zossie in particular; together, he was sure they could figure it out.
Guiltily, he realized just how excited he was at the idea of diving headfirst into that mystery. Again, he thought of how terrifying this would have all been to himself just a few months ago, but now? He was thriving on it. Truth be told? Elio had loved learning about the Ultrarians, the beasts they encountered day in and out, privately learning from their ways to put his own foolishly black and white feelings regarding pokémon and battling into perspective—their line of work was something fascinating to him, and something that he had felt gave him purpose. It stung that he couldn't go back at all, but… he supposed that was fine. He could help Lillie with Mohn, and it wasn't like he could leave Lillie or his own family, anyway. So, what did it matter that he couldn't go back? It had never been intended as a permanent thing. What kind of monster would that make him to ditch this life for that?
No, he'd make do here, he'd find another purpose here, starting with helping Lillie with Mohn and unraveling the mystery surrounding this 'Poké Pelago.' He truly couldn't imagine leaving Lillie or Selene ever again, anyway…
Still, that didn't stop his mind from daring to whisper to him despite his best efforts to quell the thought, You can still care, love, and be apart. You told the Ninetales as much.