Chapter 22 - Arc 2 (Akala Island) The Law of Alola

"My mother wanted to use Cosmog to open a wormhole. Whether to save my father or just for research, I don't know, but that's why she had it in the first place. She had it locked in a lab in the lower floors of Aether Paradise," Lillie explained tensely to Dulse and Zossie, voice quavering. She desperately hoped they would take her words seriously and she wouldn't have to slip back into that primal survival mode. As she spoke, she was realizing just how draining it was to constantly feel that heavy weight of fear, dragging her down like heavy balls and chains… Oh, how nice it would be to simply speak to people and be understood, and to understand them. "It… Nebby. I've named him Nebby. Nebby was afraid and so was I." Lillie set her jaw and looked Dulse squarely in the face, subconsciously aware that he seemed more the ringleader of this operation than the flighty Zossie. "I don't know what my mother has told you, but she isn't who you think she is."

"I do not understand." Dulse slowly raised a hand to press his palm to his forehead. "President Lusamine informed us that she wished to research and protect the various flora and fauna of this world and the next, and she understood the dangers of Cosmog using its powers uninhibited. She explained that you were a danger because you did not understand the dangers Cosmog could cause, and that you could shock the pokémon into tearing open more wormholes, just as it did when you fled Aether Paradise… We cannot allow that to happen. This is a concerning development…"

"…Oh, it seems obvious now!" Zossie whined, stamping a foot childishly. "Dulse, I think we scared Cosmog into using its power back then! It wasn't Lillie at all!"

"Took you two long enough to figure that one out, didn't it?"

Lillie yelped and jolted, jerking her head to her left. A woman with long, brown hair spilling over her shoulders faded into view, as if materializing from nothing. A black, form-fitting suit clung to her frame. Lillie had a hard time discerning what it was made from, but the way it glittered oddly in the sunlight made her think it was perhaps some kind of metallic mesh. Yet, somehow, that wasn't the most interesting detail about her—somehow, the way she locked her brown eyes onto Lillie was far more unsettling. Her head was the only thing not covered by that strange suit. When Lillie kept gawking at her, she grinned wolfishly. "Sorry, I don't think we've met," the girl giggled, and winked. "My name's Rosa."

Before Lillie had a chance to say anything, another figure materialized beside Rosa. A blond-haired man in a pristine, crisp labcoat, though a blue cowlick circled his head in a way Lillie had never seen before on anyone. She narrowed her eyes at him, though; even as certain as she was she hadn't seen anything like him before, she couldn't shake the feeling he was familiar somehow. He flashed her a brilliant, white smile and then waved lazily at Dulse and Zossie. "Good afternoon, Mr. Dulse, Miss Zossie. I see you have met Miss Lillie! Though, I am surprised it has taken you this long to realize President Lusamine is not all as she seems, mm."

"You knew of this, knew it to be true, and said nothing, Dr. Colress?" Dulse bristled, his shoulders stiffening. Zossie lowered her head just slightly and took a step backward, closer to him, her typical joyfulness seemingly gone as she clung to her friend. Lillie found she didn't blame her. She didn't recognize this Rosa or Dr. Colress, but something about the both of them made her chest flutter uncomfortably. An instinctive part of her brain was urging her to snatch the entire cage Nebby was in and run for the hills, as far from Dr. Colress' piercing amber gaze and Rosa's cocky grin as she could get.

Flippantly, Dr. Colress shrugged and waved a hand at Dulse, then walked toward Nebby's cage. He all but ignored Dulse, forcing the other to scramble out of his way to avoid getting his feet walked on, as he bent down to face the creature in the cage. "Why would I have?" Dr. Colress scornfully asked. "I have no stake in this. Upsetting President Lusamine would not be ideal, though, you see, for you or myself. If you upset her, you lose any chances at utilizing this world's resources to satisfy that little problem of yours. If I upset her, I lose research opportunities I could never have even dreamed of before…" Dr. Colress stuck a finger in between the bars of the cage and wagged it at Nebby. He glared at Dr. Colress and hovered away from him.

"Utilizing this world's resources?" Lillie echoed, raising a brow at Dulse and Zossie. She blinked, balking once again as the detail of their otherworldly armor and pale, blue skin jumped out at her anew. Oh, she felt like she might faint… "What's he talking about…? This world's resources? As in, you have your own world's resources…? Like… you're… you're…"

"Not of this world, no, Lillie. We are of another dimension," Dulse curtly huffed at her, glaring down at Dr. Colress. "Dr. Colress, I do not understand. You expressed interest in helping the Ultrarians. Why now do you behave so apathetically?"

"Oh, come now," Rosa crooned to him, clasping her hands together sweetly in front of herself. "It's nothing personal, Dulse!" After, she glanced to Dr. Colress and more specifically, Nebby, and her lip twitched. She quickly averted her gaze.

"Indeed," Dr. Colress idly replied as he stood back up, brushing himself off. "And I still am helping the Ultrarians!" He whirled on a heel, causing his lab coat to flutter dramatically in the wind around him, and grinned at Dulse and Zossie. "I'm still working on our little project, and I am not completely apathetic. It would be quite a shame if President Lusamine discovered that you have found her out, as I still would like to investigate and learn more of this 'Blinding One' you speak of. As such, I would highly suggest we continue to deceive her and lead her to believe we are still looking for Miss Lillie."

"Hi," Lillie interjected finally, grabbing Nebby's cage and shakily scrambling to her feet, "my name is Lillie, I'm still here, I still exist, and if someone could please tell me what the fuck is going on, that would be great!" She looked to Dulse and Zossie and incredulously asked, "You two are aliens?!" Facing Dr. Colress next, she hissed, "And just who are you? Mr. Mad Scientist? What about a 'Blinding One?' And then you!" Lillie glared at Rosa and grimaced. "Well, you… you're just downright creepy."

"Thank you, I'm flattered, I really try to be," Rosa smoothly responded, cocking her head, and flitting her eyelids at Lillie in an eerily seductive way. Lillie fought the urge to gag and stepped back from her further.

To Lillie's surprise, it was Zossie who spoke next. She brushed just ahead of Dulse and she took a shuddery breath. "Lillie, I know this is a lot… but I think it would be best if uh… Nebby, right?" Zossie smiled nervously and gestured to the cage in Lillie's hands. "I think it would be best if Nebby stayed with you for now… The world we come from is far, far away from here, and you want to keep it that way. The Blinding One… is like the creatures you call pokémon, here, but way, way stronger…"

Slowly, Zossie extended her arms and Lillie seemed to pick up on what she wanted wordlessly. She turned the cage around and Zossie easily undid it, freeing Nebby. He circled Lillie exuberantly, squeaking and pewing as he went.

"My ancestors messed up bad," Zossie sighed, her voice hardly above a whisper. "And if you're right, and Lusi is trying to bust open wormholes without discussing with us at all with Nebby, then we can't let her get her hands on him. For our sake and yours."

"You keep saying scary stuff like that," Lillie quavered, shaking her head, "but what do you mean?"

"The Blinding One is held at a facility back on our homeworld," Dulse interrupted. "That facility is weak and on the brink of failure. Our methods of controlling the Blinding One are no longer viable. The previous method of containment was performed thousands of years in the past and our people suffered horrendous losses before the Blinding One was captured. We cannot afford such a disaster again or our world will be vaporized. The Blinding One can steal the very essence of the stars and use them to power itself into a fearsome beast." He dipped his head and clasped his hands behind his back in a show of respect. The reverence almost made Lillie feel self-conscious, even as her mouth dried in dread at his words. She couldn't begin to fathom what he was telling her. It felt like when she had learned about the friction between Skull Gang and the rest of Alola, except on steroids—another problem she didn't have room in her head to think about, was too horrible to think about. "The Ultra Recon Squad is what Zossie and I are a part of. The Ultra Recon Squad has many sectors spread across many realities and worlds, working to keep errant wormholes from appearing throughout the multiverse, because if the Blinding One does unexpectedly escape before we have found a solution, we do not want to be responsible for allowing it faster and easier access to other worlds."

"Uff, why does everything always have to be so dramatic with you two?" Rosa moaned in annoyance, glancing to Dulse and Zossie, and leaning against Dr. Colress' right shoulder without so much as a warning to him. He didn't seem to notice or care if he did, though, as he was busy clacking away on a small keypad he had opened on his labcoat's left sleeve. She idly (and, Lillie noted, carefully) flicked a finger at his blue cowlick, playing with it as she spoke. "The long and short of it is, Lillie keeps the funny space cloud, and she doesn't tell anyone about this, and we're all good. Right?"

"What do you mean, 'not tell anyone?' I mean, it's not like I'm going to go singing it to the Aether Foundation that I have Nebby," Lillie scoffed back at Rosa, nervously looking between the gathered group around her. "Anyone I travel with will know better, too."

"You've been alone this long, haven't you? What's a while longer?" Rosa callously asked, barely sounding interested. She abruptly dropped her right hand to dig into a pocket on the glittering, metallic skirt she wore, retrieving a small, blue case. She flicked it open with a practiced roll of her wrist and then, through what spilled out, she combed a… deck of playing cards? Lillie blinked in confusion and didn't feel like she was any clearer on Rosa's intention when she finished and flicked a two of spades and seven of hearts at her. She watched the cards flutter to the ground as Rosa giggled. "Play your cards right, Jack, and the jokers in the jumpsuits, Dr. Colress, and I will all take care of this mess." Rosa wrapped an arm around Dr. Colress' shoulders then (and had Lillie not been so nervous, she might have been amused to notice he had to bend his knees and she had to stand on her tipetoes to do so). "Wouldn't you like that? Freedom from all the people holding you back?" Practically purring, she added, "There's a whole world out there you haven't seen yet. I remember being like you… So boring!"

"Mm, come now, Miss Rosa, let's not change the subject so much," Dr. Colress teasingly cooed at her as he briefly tore his eyes away from that screen over his sleeve. "That's a story for another day, and one we most certainly don't have time for!"

"You're right, Unova was a wreck," Rosa snorted.

"Anyway…" Zossie pointedly butted in again, shooting both the doctor and his strange mistress a glare, "take care of Nebby, Lillie." Smiling at her, Zossie then, too, clasped her hands behind her back and started to bounce from foot to foot excitedly. "I think he really likes you, anyway!"

Lillie swallowed hard and glanced over her shoulder at the puffy nebulous cloud wafting there. He noticed her staring and playfully squealed, waving those tiny arms in that adorable way he was known to do. Chuckling at him, Lillie nodded slowly. "Okay… And, I'll be honest, everything you all just said was a lot and I don't know if I caught it all," Lillie nervously mumbled, "but you have my word I'll do everything in my power to keep away from Aether and my mother… I just hope you and your buddy Dulse keep up your end of the deal and keep her deceived…"

"We are experts at our craft, Miss Lillie," Dulse responded dutifully. "Your mother is not the only… difficult person the Ultra Recon Squad has needed to deal with."

"Alola!" Zossie beamed, excitedly performing the awkward, robotic handwave at her.

"See you, Offsuit," Rosa winked. Dr. Colress was lost typing away on the keypad on his arm again.

One of these things is so not like the others, Lillie thought to herself. Nodding in approval to the Ultra Recon Squad nonetheless, Lillie urged Nebby back into the bag, and when she went to say goodbye to the four of them at last before heading back for Brooklet Hill's entrance, she was shocked to find they had all vanished into thin air. Not a trace left of them, not even the cage Zossie had assisted her in freeing Nebby from.

"Great," Lillie breathlessly puffed to herself, "now I'm wondering if I'm seeing things…"

Following the completion of their Water-type trial, Selene's mind was racing. She hardly caught a word Lana said despite the Captain handing them each a Waterium-Z for their efforts and performing a rather silly-looking dance to show them how to use it. Hau and her got to chattering away in Alolan, seemingly joking to one another, leaving Elio to tap his feet agonizingly impatiently behind his sister. Turning the new, blue crystal over in her palm, Selene gnawed her lower lip, finding she had a new, almost fearful reverence for that glinting, glassy stone. She stashed it away in her bag quickly, finding she no longer wanted to look at it.

"Selene," Elio quietly called again, his voice dry as could be, "please… What's wrong?" He stepped in front of her and tilted his head, looking down at her with pleading blue eyes.

Still finding it hard to meet them, Selene looked away after a second and huffed. She wasn't angry at him. She didn't want to scream at him or make it a huge deal. Yet, she just felt so… disappointed, like perhaps she didn't know her brother nearly as well as she thought she did. Rather than seeing his desperate calls for her to tell him what was wrong as concern for her, she thought it sounded more like he only wanted her to explain what was wrong so he knew if he was to blame or not. In fact, in retrospect, so much of what he did seemed like that—done in sheer avoidance of what would bring him blame and disrespect, and that was just so… sad to discover. Like he was so caught up in his own discomfort, he didn't have room to think about anyone else's.

She looked up to him so much for his respect and love for pokémon, but did he actually, or was that all a front, too? Did he do it out of guilt? Had the older brother she would have followed to the ends of the Earth turned out to be little more than a fraud? It simply felt as if a huge portion of her life had been ripped away and revealed to be false… which didn't help her with what felt like a rapidly deteriorating mental state, given that their parents were still missing and she had just come to the mind-numbing conclusion she did have some of these freaky powers the Alolan Captains and Kahunas were known to be gifted with. If she chose to take issue with Elio now, she wouldn't have any family left to help her with this problem of enormous magnitude…

"Sorry," Selene whimpered, shaking her head, "something… something happened during the trial, I just… we need to get out of Brooklet Hill, I can't think with all the running water…" Indeed, the sound of the splashing waterfalls was starting to drive her insane. She was drenched from head-to-toe anyway—she felt like she had seen enough water for one day. Bowtie seemingly agreed, huddled atop her head and preening his wet feathers with mutinous clicks and hisses.

"Okay… We'll talk outside," Elio whispered, nodding vigorously. The panic had already started to dissipate in his tone, at least until another thought apparently crossed his mind and he yelped. "Shit, Lillie! Totally forgot about her, we better go check on her!"

"Oh, you needing a lift out of here?" Lana questioned, abruptly hopping in front of the siblings. She looked younger than Mallow, Olivia, or even Ilima had, and she had a glint of youthful playfulness in those eyes that made Selene want to take anything she said with a grain of salt. It didn't help that she had tricked them into following her into her trial on the guise of getting attacked…

Already in a bad mood, Selene sourly pressed her lips to a thin line, but reluctantly agreed. "Yeah… We just call that Lapras again, right?"

"Oh, pfft," Lana waved a hand. "No need for that. Watch this!" With that, she skipped off the rocky shore and jumped onto the water, but instead of sinking into it, when her feet neared the surface, it rapidly froze to ice beneath her feet. With every step she took, she slid her feet out some to cover more surface area of the water, and it did the same, leaving a trail of ice easy for the rest of them to follow on. Selene felt as if all the blood had drained from her face and, given the way Lana craned to look over her shoulder and giggle at Selene, perhaps it had. "Come on, scaredy-Kantonians! It's not that bad! Hurry, before it gets slippery from the heat of the water! It's solid, so you're not gonna fall through."

"I'm—I'm sorry, you make ice?" Selene squeaked as she uncertainly picked her way forward, touching the toe of her left shoe to the path nervously.

"Make ice!" Lana laughed uproariously from up ahead. "That's not all I do! I can mess with the state of matter of things! Well, some stuff, anyway… Some things are too big or difficult, y'know. I'm still learning!"

"Reassuring," Elio quipped from behind her.

Without even thinking about it, Selene immediately shot back, "You're telling me. I bet you one of us falls through this 'solid' block of ice along the way."

Seemingly relieved by her willingness to joke again, Elio played along, "Don't worry, I'll catch you, lil' sis."

"My hero," Selene snorted back at him, glad to have temporarily forgotten the tension with him. Maybe that disillusioning cover he had been using for so long wasn't so bad. Maybe she had been too judgmental immediately following what she had seen… Maybe if he clung to that cover so hard, it wasn't so bad? So, what if he had started his foray into pokémon activism out of guilt? That didn't mean it couldn't have been genuine by now…

She didn't want to think he was a bad person and that Ekans had been so long ago… She just wanted her brother to help her out with the madness that would come with the revelation she had a Captain's power.

Once outside of Brooklet Hill, Lana waved at them all energetically. "Alright, that was fun! I hope to get to play with you guys again sometime, but I better go back down into the Hill! Mallow wants me to bring her something for one of her 'stews.'" She put up air quotes with her fingers as she said the last word and then giggled to herself something in Alolan. "Anyway, Alola!" she called at last, and with that, she sped back down into Brooklet Hill.

Hau beamed at the group, clearly oblivious to everything that had been going on between Selene and Elio throughout the trial. "Ay, we beat! Water- crystal!" he exclaimed, holding it up. Popper squeaked and jumped from the ground, clapping his flippers eagerly, while Hau cradled an exhausted Ikehu in his right arm. Had Selene not been so preoccupied, she might have asked him why he hadn't gone ahead and caught the Pichu already.

"Oh, there you all are," Lillie called, stumbling out from a patch of trees nearby. Nebby hovered at her shoulder, and she took a moment to get him back in her bag.

"Oh, there you are!" Elio puffed, relieved. It was short-lived, though, as he rapidly switched gears to Selene. "Now, Selene… what's going on?"

"Yeah, it's me… What do you mean, Selene…?" Lillie cautiously glanced at Selene then.

"Huh? Thing wrong?" Hau blinked dubiously, cocking his head at them.

"Yes!" Selene burst suddenly, clamping both of her hands over her face. The torrent of words that escaped her then were beyond stopping. "I've been having these weird… weird… jumps into your memories. All of you. I saw something from Lillie back in the Hau'oli outskirts, I saw something for Hau during Ilima's trial, and just now, I saw something for Elio and now… now I know it's real!"

All three of them froze and just… stared at her, and that sent a bolt of terror up her spine.

"Stop looking at me like that!" Selene almost wailed. "I know what I saw! Tapu Koko or whoever Melemele's island guardian is gave me the stupid stone that's in my wrist"—Selene stuck out her arm to show off the Z-Power Ring—"and now I'm seeing people's memories. I saw Elio's whole thing about the Ekans. All of it. From his eyes. Everything he had to say was coming out of my mouth. One second, I'm standing in Brooklet Hill, fighting that Wishiwashi, and the next, I'm in a blacktop in a Kantonian playground with an Ekans! Oh, and I saw something from that Gladion, too!"

Elio had gone as white as a sheet. "You… you saw that, about me?"

She managed to collect her thoughts well enough to decide that revealing Elio had told them a false version of events wouldn't help anyone. More than that, part of her wanted to just… forget that truth she had discovered about him. "Yes," was all she curtly answered him with, although she tried to give him a long, steady look, one that might tell him she had seen it all, even if she wasn't talking about it.

"Selene, you're—"

Lillie was cut off by Hau, who spoke loudly, as if he hadn't heard her at all. "Am sure is just heat," he suggested perkily, shrugging. "Heat and… parents missing. Make one see thing. Elio told Ekans story," he quickly explained at Selene and Elio's combined, incredulous stares. "What if form vision on what he say? Mind work weird. Heat not help. Sure is nothing."

Lillie just stared at him, but Selene failed to notice, and merely reached a hand to pat Bowtie's side. "Hau… I really don't… don't think it is…" Part of her thought to test her theory again on one of them, but another part of her was petrified of what else she might discover. One reckoning was enough for one day, she thought. In borderline hysterics, she fearfully looked up to the native Alolan. "Hau, what do I do if this is what I think it is…?"

"Nothing," he answered a little too snappily, snuggling his Pichu closer and idly playing with its ears. It tiredly batted a hand back at him. "No worry about. Is nothing. As said… We go back Center for day, maybe watch movie or something, ae? Forget all."

"I'm gonna go for a walk," Selene said, clenching her eyes shut and shaking her head at him. She didn't understand his sudden dismissiveness. He lived there! He knew all about the powers and whatnot, the Captains and Kahunas and all of that! Why was he playing coy? She didn't know, and she was starting to get a headache. Crossing her arms, Selene turned away from them and started to dazedly make her way back down Route 5.

"Wait!" Elio called, then darted after her. When he caught up to her, he offered, "Selene, I believe you… You… you saw it all, didn't you?" He winced. "That's why you didn't wanna talk…"

Swallowing hard, Selene nodded silently.

"Let's… let's go to the Pokémon Center to heal up, then I can… answer any questions," Elio whispered, sounding so, so small. He still looked white as a sheet. "And maybe being a little calmer will help us get Hau to take you seriously…"

Selene just nodded defeatedly, not having the energy to feel anything about what he said. "Sounds good…"

"Hau," Lillie tersely started in Alolan, "what was that?"

He cagily raised his shoulders and averted his gaze from her. "What was what?"

"That's a Captain's ability she was describing," Lillie bristled, "and you basically just told her she was crazy when she was asking for help. What the hell gives?"

Still clutching that Pichu in his arms, Hau set his jaw and then gave her a cold, cold look so unlike his usual expression. "Listen," he hissed, "I did help her. I told her not to think too hard about it. If they think stuff's bad right now, trying to find their parents without anyone's help except us, what do you think's gonna happen if she goes telling a Captain or Kahuna and they freak out because she doesn't want to become one of them despite having a power, because she wants to find her parents? They aren't gonna care and she'll get hurt. Elio will probably get himself maimed by acting like an idiot over it. It's just better if she doesn't say anything about it."

I can't believe this. Lillie was blown away by this side of Hau. "So, making her think she's crazy is better than, oh, I don't know, talking to her and telling her that? That it might be better for her to keep it under wraps rather than tricking her?" I mean, I'm not exactly Selene's number one fan, but even I think that's a bit messed up. Also, what would she and Elio do if they figured out what Hau was doing…? She cursed inwardly to herself as she realized she hated the thought of Elio in particular finding out. He was so protective of Selene… she almost admired or maybe envied him for that. He could be loud and obnoxious in his methods of doing so, but his protectiveness spoke to how deeply he cared for his family, or even those close to him. Something about that was so achingly familiar and drew Lillie in, even if she seemed to fight it every step of the way… Maybe I should tell him all about the stuff with Nebby… Cosmog, the Ultra Recon Squad… My family… Just because everyone else in Alola seems intent on lying, does that mean I have to, even now that the Ultra Recon Squad says they'll leave me alone? I know I shouldn't trust them, but…

"The less she knows, the better," Hau shot back at her huffily. "Trust me. It means there's way less she can accidentally tell somebody…" He hung his head then and chuckled sadly. "Lillie, please… You've lived here a while too, haven't you? You know as well as I do how intense people here can be… I just think it would be so much kinder to let her relax and calm down and just… try to put all our differences aside and do the Island Challenge. We're all in this Island Challenge together. Even you, even if you're not doing it with us."

"You called us a family back when Gl—…" Lillie shook her head, cutting herself off. "When that blond Skull guy was talking at us. You called us family."

Hau tensed. "Maybe…"

"Families shouldn't be built on foundations of lies," Lillie muttered, shifting uncomfortably in place. "Trust me. That's not a road you want to ride down."

"You haven't been honest, either, Lillie!" Hau blurted incredulously, surprising his Pichu awake. It let fly a tiny shock that Hau failed to react to and scurried to his backpack, clinging to the loop at the top of the orange bag. "We still don't have a clue about you other than scary people want Nebby! Why are you trying to highroad me?"

Lillie blinked and then slowly nodded. "You're right, Hau… You're right." With a disappointed shake of the head, Lillie recalled how frustrated and upset she had been with Kukui for his lies, and how adamantly he had stuck to them, like they were his lifeline. The pervasive fear that gripped so many Alolans, even the bright-spirited Hau ahead of her, was sickening. Repulsive. It became so very clear to her right then how much she hated it and how much she hated the idea of their group of four clinging to one another out of fear, each holding their secrets like a hand of cards they were afraid to show to the enemy. They weren't enemies…

Maybe it didn't have to be just her and Nebby.

"If I come clean about myself, Hau," Lillie carefully asked, "will you help me talk to Selene? Will you tell them about you? I think we all need to start over. We all need to be honest… If we want to be what we need to be to find their parents and get through this Island Challenge… Because I think Kukui has something stupid planned that he wants us all to be a part of."

Stiffening in place, Hau grimaced. "I don't… I don't know if I can do that, Lillie…"

Lillie just felt exhausted. "Why not?"

He idly reached behind his neck to try to soothe the frightened Pichu. "I don't… I don't know. But…" He sighed. "I can try. You're right." He finally smiled up at her in that goofy, relaxed way she was used to. "I'm tired of lying."

"Me, too," Lillie chuckled halfheartedly. "That seems to be the only law of Alola, doesn't it? Lie to save your skin."

"So much to fear."

"Mhm."

Hau clenched a fist at his side and Lillie saw an arc of something red flash over his arm. She froze at the sight and at his words, suddenly wondering just what she had pried out of him. "I hate it."