Chapter 35 – Arc 3 (Ula'Ula Island) I'll Fight

That night, Lillie had been comfortably curled up in her bunk, still in the same room in which she had shared with Captain Lana. The spunky, little Captain had finally drained herself and crashed in her own bunk a couple of hours earlier, but not after informing her that Captain Mallow had called her to say she would try to pay a visit the following day to speed up Lillie's healing process. That thought had eased her mind some, as she was quite worried following Elio's difficult to decipher texts following his, Selene, and Hau's visit to Aether Paradise. She was tucked underneath a cozy comforter, Nebby nestled in the crook of her arms, as she stared at the bright, blue screen, patiently (or perhaps not so patiently, gnawing at her lower lip and all) awaiting his call, or a response to her text. It had been an agonizing wait, and she was sure she should have been asleep a long time ago.

Yet, finally, Elio had called Lillie and explained to her that they had been taken to Ula'Ula Island, despite their protests, citing that Dr. Wicke had been intimidated by Faba into refusing to wait for boats destined for Akala. At first, Lillie had expected Elio to tell her that Faba had merely been an insurmountable dick, something she was more than used to hearing about, but the story he had to tell her… Of a creature she recognized as one named Nihilego, even if she didn't know anything about it, of a creature much like the one Gladion possessed that had nearly mauled her for Nebby… It had been far more than she could have ever expected. It had made her mouth dry as sandpaper and the more he talked, the quieter she became.

Finally, Elio paused. "…Lillie? You still there?"

"Yeah," she squeaked right away, "sorry, I just…" Her voice quavered, and she pressed the phone to her forehead, hating that the small, cold device was all the connection to him she had. "I'm sorry I insisted you guys go there." It dawned on her, in that sobering moment, if Elio's story of a Power Gem razing the entire interior of the conservational deck was true (which she had no reason to doubt him), that he, Selene, Hau… any one of them could have been severely injured. Or worse. "I should never have—"

"Hey, hey, hey," Elio softly interrupted, "don't be like that. No matter what you said, Selene really wanted to go, and… I couldn't let her go alone, or…" He trailed off, before uncomfortably mumbling, "And I couldn't take the thought of her getting mad at me and leaving again."

All Lillie could do in that moment was give a pining sigh. She didn't know what she could have done to trick fate into aligning her so well to meet with this boy, with his stupid grin, his dumb and meaningless jokes, the fervent, protective aggression, all of which hid away a heart of gold that just ached to be recognized by someone but would never allow it directly. Thinking back to the day in a Pokémon Center where they had simply sat there and watched some TV, ending up dozing off in one another's grasp, she abruptly wished the distance between them wasn't so great, inwardly cursing that stupid, arrogant Faba for everything he had done that day to Elio, his sister, and her friend, Hau—but most of all, for keeping her away from them yet again. It hurt so much to know that he had done it on purpose, almost certainly at the whim of her mother, and… "I just miss you, Elio," she whimpered at last, painfully truthful and raw, a far cry from her usual sarcastic edge. She clutched Nebby closer and he merely readjusted himself to the cozier hold of her arms, with a small pew.

There was a similarly longing exhale on the other end, and Elio whispered, "I miss you, too, Lillie… We can probably head back to Akala tomorrow, to catch up with you… We're just beat for now and have no idea when we'll wake up, haha… You're still with Kahuna Olivia or someone, right?"

"Captain Lana's been keeping me company. And, no, don't," she insisted with a small smile on her face, sad that he couldn't see. She tried to put some genuine sweetness on her tone to sell that she really didn't want him to go through the trouble. "Captain Lana or someone can help me to a boat to get to Ula'Ula. Just… maybe I talk it out with you guys before, and you all can meet me at the docks over there?" At his hesitation to respond, she added, "I just don't think it's worth traveling back and forth so much, and I think Mallow's going to come help speed up the healing of my leg some…" She winced. "It's still pretty bad… I can walk, but it definitely doesn't feel good…"

"Oh," Elio immediately conceded, "if you're sure… I'd… much rather you feel better, of course, it's good that Mallow's gonna come help… Just call us and let us know, okay? Especially if they can't escort you over."

"You got it, Torchic," Lillie snickered halfheartedly.

He laughed, a real, unexpected laugh. "'Kay then, Pepperspray. I—…" He paused, then groaned. "Uh, I think I hear Selene and Hau arguing. They're in the room, I'm out in the hall, we're in the Malie City Pokémon Center, I think it's called. I better go check what's going on… Chat later?"

What would they be arguing about? Then again, they have had one hell of a day… I can see even Hau getting cranky after all of that… "Yeah…" Yet, a rush of clinginess made her go, "Actually, uh, Elio, wait…"

"Yeah?" he asked, almost hopefully, or maybe it was just the anxiety of him wanting to go making his voice sound like that.

Opening her mouth to say something, the words caught in her throat and Lillie choked. She snapped her teeth shut with an audible click and set her jaw, frustrated with herself for backing out at the last second. Awkwardly, she covered up her stumble with, "Ah… thanks, for checking in on me… Ah, good… goodnight, you."

"Hah… goodnight, Lillie."

He hung up, and she leaned her head back against the headboard. "Love you," she murmured to nobody.

The conversation had started simple enough!

They had been settling into the Pokémon Center room, all of them exhausted and beaten and in less-than-ideal moods after the harsh day. Then, Elio had stepped out of the room to call Lillie, and Hau had approached Selene as she prepared her bunk to sleep in. He had nervously asked her a question that had broken open a dam of conflict she had not been prepared to deal with that night. In Alolan, he had asked, "Selene… all that stuff you said to Wicke, at the Foundation… what did you mean by it? You talked more to Elio in Kantonian, I think, but… I didn't catch that, of course, haha…"

"I want to find out what Tapu Koko was trying to say to me…" Selene had answered, finishing fluffing out a pillow before turning to face Hau. Her Dartrix had claimed it in the absence of her stare for himself. "Because if there's anything I can do to help how things work around here, I want to. Maybe it'll help me find my parents. Maybe it'll help keep the crazies from the Foundation from going after Nebby and succeeding in whatever nuts plans they have. Maybe it'll just help us live a little happier. I don't know, but either way, Hau," Selene said, with increasing conviction, "I was given this ability for a reason. I can't keep running from it, and I won't keep running from it…" Especially not if it ends as gruesomely as that fucking book Lillie brought me suggests, Selene had thought bitterly. And oh, Lillie… She doesn't deserve any of this, either… "I… was actually hoping you could help me with that."

That had seemed to cause him some alarm. He had perked up and taken an almost instinctive step away from her, Popper playfully weaving in between his feet and barking occasionally. Hau ignored the Brionne as he swallowed hard, and said, "Help… help you how? How do you plan to, um… talk to Tapu Koko?"

"Well…" Selene had offered him a hopeful smile. "Last time, I nearly spoke to him by seeing a vision from you… Would you let me try to see something again, from your past, and see if Tapu Koko speaks again…?" Floundering, she corrected, "I mean, it doesn't have to be tonight! I'm exhausted, anyway, but—"

"No."

She had blinked, staring at him like a Deerling in headlights. "What?"

Hau plunged his hands into his pockets, stared at the floor, and took another, submissive step away from her, contradicting the firmness of his words. "No… Selene, no. I caught on to what you were looking at in the book… You spoke a lot with Elio in Galarish on the way to the Foundation… You have the same ability as Kahuna Kaua, old Skull Gang leader, yeah?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Selene asked, a little hotly.

"I saw what one of those Tapus can do," Hau dryly replied. "If Tapu Koko's got a problem with the other three, he should solve it himself. Not send you to fight his battles and die in his war."

Growing more and more agitated—perhaps it was the exhaustion, or perhaps it was frustration from him shooting down how much courage it had taken for her to finally try to do something with her power rather than hide it, especially given how he was the one that had convinced her in the past to not let fear control her—Selene snapped, "Who said I was going to do that?" Snorting, she huffed, "Hau, I'll never get to the bottom of this if I just keep bumbling around these islands like this! And clearly, something is very wrong with the Foundation—maybe something Tapu Koko wants me to do could help with them!"

"Kahuna Kaua and everyone else that ever stood up to them or tried to change anything, they—Selene, I met a Tapu!" Hau raised his voice, finally daring to look her in the eyes. He couldn't maintain the look for long, but it was unsettling enough that it made Selene falter anyway. For someone that could be so joyful and playful, he seemed so… frightened, and beaten. "Why can't you just stick to the old plan? Find your parents, then get the hell out of here? Why the need to be a hero? All that earned Kaua was a lightning bolt to the head!"

Popper winced and paused his circling of Hau's feet, nudging his trainer's ankle, as if asking him to stop. To that, and to Hau's words, Selene stamped a foot like a tired, upset toddler (and she felt like one, too, to be completely honest, after the hellish day she had endured). "Maybe Kaua was the only one with any damn sense on these islands!" Maybe if more people than just one tried, something would change!

"Skull thinks so too!" Hau growled at her, starting to arch his shoulders. Despite his hands being in his pockets, electrical arcs occasionally wound their way up his forearms, dancing in angry, red pulses there. She swore his eyes flashed with a crimson briefly as well. "You got a soft spot for the guys that just tried to kill Lillie the other day?"

"No!" Selene almost whined. Hau, why are you being like this? she thought frustratedly. "Of course not! But, maybe they're not all wrong, maybe Kaua wasn't all wrong—"

"You're starting to sound a bit like Kukui," Hau retorted, "which, if you might remember, probably had something to do with your parents vanishing into thin air!"

"Wow!" Selene exclaimed, finally beyond shocked. It seemed she had finally broken quiet, distant Hau, receiving his louder, stubborner, traditionalist brother—and she missed the other guy, to be honest. She pinched the bridge of her nose and flopped down on her bunk. "I honestly don't even know what to say to you right now, Hau."

"Fine, I don't want to talk anyway," he muttered. Looking down, he patted his knees, and started toward the door. "Come on, Popper, let's go get a malasada or something."

"It's eleven at night," Selene barked, "you don't need a—"

What Hau cut her off with was something that didn't translate directly into Galarish, but Selene understood it to mean something akin to "fuck off" all the same. Gaping after him, she had nearly intended to tell him to do the same, as her blood boiled with anger and hurt at his unexpected reaction, but then Elio entered the room. He blocked Hau's path out and raised a brow at the both of them.

"Uh, you two oka"—he was cut off by a yawn—"y in here?" he asked uncertainly.

"Nothing," Hau said, immediately sounding as small and meek as before. "Just need air. Go down for while."

That was it. Though she knew what she was about to say was something she couldn't have hoped to take back, she was too outraged, too beaten, too upset, to care. "That's it, Hau, run away and hide like you always do when it comes to anything!"

He whirled around to gawk at her, momentarily looking as if someone might have suckerpunched him. Yet, then, he finally wrenched both fists from his pockets and unclenched them. His eyes flashed deep, crimson red as thick bolts of electricity shot off his hands and into the floor, pulsing around him and out like a shockwave, all in less than a second. "Fine!" he snarled at her, in a voice so unlike his own. It sounded more like a draconic growl. Elio, who had narrowly managed to jump to a bunk to avoid the shockwave (along with a shivering, frightened Popper and Macho both), said nothing nor did he attempt to stop Hau as he left the room at last. The lights of their hostel room flickered and dimmed momentarily, before returning to full strength, as Selene thought she heard a generator elsewhere in the building kick on.

"What… was that?" Elio asked at last, shaking his head at Selene. Macho and Popper both curled up close to his chest and he idly stroked both pokémon in an attempt to soothe them.

Selene swallowed a rising ball of bile and tears in her throat. "I don't know," she croaked. "I'm… I'm just gonna go to bed."

And with that, she turned over to go to sleep, terrified of what she might have to deal with tomorrow.

"That's it, Hau, run away and hide like you always do when it comes to anything!"

"The Tapus chose you…"

As Hau made his way down to the Pokémon Center lobby, vacant aside from a single woman at the counter in the back, he felt like he might explode from the sheer speed of his heart and the turbulent mix of anger and shame in him. It all made his chest feel too full and he was panting for breath when he took a seat at an empty table, ignoring the questioning looks that woman was tossing his way. He was glad when she picked up a phone after it rang, chattering away about the power flicker that had just occurred. Apparently, she had failed to notice the red, electrical shockwave. He supposed that was a good thing, and it must have not been that strong given it didn't seem to damage the floor it had been sent over, but… he still felt so guilty.

No matter how hard he tried to outrun the path that had been laid out before him, he seemed to get suckered back in twice as hard. He had spent so long flying close to the sun, just far enough below it to avoid getting burned, but it seemed his time was up: his wax wings had finally melted beneath the heat. Because privately, he knew Selene was right. Perhaps she could have worded herself better, as her words had cut deeply, making him feel wounded and alone as ever, but… she was right. And secretly, he admired her willingness to stand up to something after just a few short weeks that he had avoided like a deadly plague for years of his life.

Maybe the tightness in his chest, the pounding of his heart, the electricity surging in every vein… maybe that was just what it felt like to have cold reality finally shoved into his face. Did he want to continue flying too close to the sun, toeing the line between earth and sky, or did he want to pick a side and take a stand? He could stand and help Selene, fight alongside her, dig his heels into the earth, and try to pick up where Kahuna Kaua had failed—or he could come clean to the Kahunas and Captains he had so feared before, bowing to the malevolent Tapus and their forces at work in Alola, pledging his allegiance to the sky at last, a safe, comfortable distance from the flames of the sun.

He bit his lower lip. There was just something so comfortable about the sun being so hot on his back, about not having any real responsibility to any one side, to having nothing truly expected of him anymore… It was so fun to teach Popper dumb tricks, train him to battle on occasion, fight along Selene and Elio, and make jokes with them and Lillie. Truth be told, he didn't want to choose a hill to die on. It was a choice he felt he shouldn't have had to make!

But he had to… and deep down in his heart, he already knew that he wanted his feet to be firmly on the ground, and at the side of his friends, rather than continuing to grovel in fear of the so-called gods that called these islands home.

He just hoped they wouldn't become another story like Kahuna Kaua.