Chapter 47 – Arc 3 (Ula'Ula Island) Ultra Deep Lament

Cool to the touch against his battered body, Elio loved laying there against the earth, and he lavished the calm silence. It felt so inviting and lovely, to simply lay there and rest. He was so exhausted and felt so beaten…

It wasn't long before he had fallen asleep there (or perhaps passed out was a better explanation). Either way, he awoke an indeterminate amount of time later, and he felt unusually well-rested. Slowly sitting up, he winced as he felt a vague pain in his feet, but otherwise… he felt good. The surroundings were unfamiliar; dark, jagged, with weird lights reflecting and bending over the black, stony earth, like the way light refracted over the waves of an ocean. Yet, he could breathe the air freely. He didn't appear to be in water… Even though the air was cool and slightly misty, as if a low fog were condensed around him. He supposed it was possible, it was dark enough for there to be a fog, even if he couldn't quite make it out by sight… Running a palm over the ground beside himself, he found himself fascinated at how smooth and comfortable to the touch it was, despite looking so sharp and unforgiving.

Strangely, despite recalling how he had fallen through that portal over the box at Aether Paradise, he didn't feel any panic. He didn't feel upset, angry, hurt, scared, apprehensive, or anything in-between. Looking up at the inky, clouded sky, he flopped onto his back and enjoyed the sweet, unperturbed darkness. He didn't know where he was, but he knew he had to be far from Alola, and he found himself almost surprised at how little that bothered him. He was aware that he would almost certainly die there, whether of thirst, starvation, or whatever predators awaited him further in the shadows of that unknown landscape, but the awareness was distant, as if lost behind a fog just as thick as the mist hugging him in that shadowy environment.

Closing his eyes, the acceptance of his circumstances settled in, and he exhaled slowly. In the end, he didn't have many regrets, he supposed. He had tossed his Poké Balls down at the others against the wall before hugging Selene, and he had seen Lillie reach down and snatch them up. With a small grimace, he sighed. Okay, so he did regret that. The pain on Lillie's face as she watched him talk to Selene and as he slipped to the portal was unmistakable. The same could have been said about his sister. Not that he wanted to cause them such pain… but what else was he to do? He couldn't have tossed a pokémon; they would have just gone sliding to the other end of the room much like the others or would have just added to the chaos. Yes, although it would be terribly hard for Selene and Lillie to get over, he had done what he felt was right… He had saved Selene, pushing her toward the wall, and he had discovered in those last fleeting minutes that she had found Mom and Dad. How—or why there—he wasn't sure, but he hadn't had time to worry about that. Looking over at Selene just before his arms had given out from clinging to that pillar, he had been filled with such a bittersweet joy to see Mom and Dad again. At least it helped ease his mind that someone was there to keep Selene safe in his coming absence and he was certain that Lillie, for as passionate as she was about pokémon, would keep Macho and his other pokémon safe.

More selfishly, he figured that he felt so calm because in those last, fleeting moments with Selene… she had apologized. She had cried and hugged him, digging her fingers into his back, and she had pushed her forehead back against his when he leaned forward. He had felt so bad for the sheer agony in her tone. After all, he didn't want her to feel so awful. He had wanted to do anything to make her feel better—that was why he had leaned his head forward in the first place, to touch against her forehead, and quietly will her to know that everything was okay. Licking his lips anxiously as he recalled the sensitive memory, he remembered cutting her off mid-apology and just telling her to… let go. Not only to let go of the pillar, so he could push her to safety, but to let go of all of those confused, angry, guilty feelings she harbored for him. He didn't blame her for before; they had both just been scared. Just as she had said to him before, people make bad choices when scared… and then, a lump rose in his throat.

He had asked her to let go of him.

Despite so much drama over his fears she would eventually push him away and despite the rage he had felt when she finally had, it had all melted away when he realized she was in such danger, and he might never see her again for real. He had recognized her for what she was: his scared little sister. As he had clung to that pillar and hugged her, all was forgiven, and he felt a sorrowful pang of guilt for having been so angry at her for not understanding that he was frightened as well. She shouldn't have had to recognize that, and he shouldn't have been so terrifyingly violent and wild in all the confrontations they had shared against the scum of Alola. Lightly threading his fingers in her hair, he had come to the solemn conclusion that they had both been placed in situations far beyond their control, and he truly felt neither of them could be faulted for how far they had fallen from grace.

The calmness he had felt while laying there slowly started to slip away. He swallowed against that painful lump of bile in his throat and flopped an arm across his forehead. So, he had found something he truly regretted: not having the time to tell her all of that. As emotional as it had been to press his forehead to hers, he hadn't had the time to explain all of what that meant, how he forgave her, how he hoped she'd forgive him, and how he wanted her to move on with Mom and Dad, and how he wanted them to protect her. He hadn't had time to tell Lillie how he loved her and knew she would be okay, and how he truly trusted her with Macho and the others…

Unaware of how much time had truly passed, Elio finally forced himself to shakily clamber to his feet and investigate his newfound surroundings. It was hard to motivate himself to get up from the unreasonably comfortable earth, but curiosity, and the inability to bear thinking about everything he hadn't managed to say before he left his family and friends behind, drove him on. He found that the surroundings didn't change no matter how far he went. It seemed he was truly lost in an oceanic void, a never-ending sea of blackness.

Yet, just as he was thinking about laying down and giving up his search for… whatever it was he was looking for, he heard a girl sobbing. That made him perk up. Heart beginning to pound, he cupped his quivering hands to his lips, and called, "Hello? Is someone there?"

"He's not here."

The sobbing came again. Straining to hear where the source was, he stumbled blindly in the direction he thought it was coming from, giving a startled jolt when a rock faded into view from the inky fog. Straddling it, Lusamine had both hands pressed to her face, and she was mewling pathetically as she bawled. Her hair was matted and in a tangled mess rather than the beautiful, conical shape he had seen it before; her dress was in tatters and he found himself awkwardly trying to avoid staring at where a gemstone embedded to her clothes had come away from her top, ripping it down the center, revealing much of her body below. Dark makeup dribbled down her face and hands. Even with her obvious distress, Elio wanted to be furious with her, but he didn't have the energy. He almost laughed at himself. Back in Alola, he had angered so easily. Where had that energy gone? It was like he was back looking at the tired Dr. Faba again, knowing that he should have been fighting, but wanting to lay down the hatchet and beg them to see reason, wanting to believe they were better than they were.

Despite knowing how futile it was, he sank to his knees in front of her, staring at her shoes to avoid being rude. "Lusamine?" he rasped.

"He's not here," was all she repeated, spluttering the words.

Tiredly hanging his head, Elio asked, "Who?"

"Mohn. Nihilego. Sauboh. Lillie. Gladion. Zyra. Guzma. All of Aether," Lusamine listed off the names between sobs, wiping her face like she wanted to clean it so she could look at him, but she only succeeded in smearing much of her makeup further across it. Whimpering, she admitted to him, sounding so achingly broken, "I thought… I thought if I did what Nihilego wanted… after that first night we met…" She shook her head and was racked by another powerful sob. "He made me feel wanted… like I might see Mohn again…"

"Lillie's father… right?"

She nodded and clamped her hands to her face again. "Over time, I… I thought I'd never see him again… I just threw myself at anyone who'd pay me attention… and I remembered how wonderful I felt when Nihilego's venom was in me…"

Elio was only half-following, but he said nothing, only letting her talk. Guiltily, he supposed even having her psychotic self as his only company was better than the suffocating silence from earlier, reminding him of all the words he couldn't have said to everyone he cared about. With a wave of shame, he realized he enjoyed being there to listen to her words… Was it solidarity he felt?

"…I wanted that feeling back… and I kept wanting it back… I can barely remember a time I wasn't on it," she cried. "And I… I drove away everyone when I was on it… I kept thinking, either I'd get Mohn back, or Nihilego and I would be together… I collected pokémon I thought were pretty to keep me company…" Digging her fingers into her messy hair, she was nearly incoherent as she wailed, "And I hurt them. I hurt them bad. The people, the pokémon, everyone. My own two kids ran away."

Fidgeting his hands, Elio didn't know what to say. He had heard the stories from Lillie. He wasn't about to tell Lusamine, no matter how wracked with guilt she seemed, that Lillie and Gladion shouldn't have fled. He felt a distant prickle of anger, but not enough to make him want to truly be furious with Lusamine. Not anymore. He still didn't have the energy… even if every fiber of his being was telling him she deserved it. Her sadness didn't grant her the right to have torn everything apart like she had. So, why couldn't he say that?

Guiltily, he knew exactly why. He had harmed Lillie—and Arceus-only-knew how many others—by zealously yelling at Faba back at Po Town. Elio himself had hurt his friends and family and driven them away, too. Flare of panic blossoming in his chest, Elio wondered—were he and Lusamine really that different?

"And I was willing… to go so far… as to kill her, I was so angry at her," Lusamine blathered on. "I was so angry that she took Cosmog away… Mind you, I thought Cosmog would… would let Nihilego come for me, or help me find Mohn…"

He remained silent some more… What was there even to say to her…? He did set his jaw at the mention of her having wanted to kill Lillie. He hadn't known that part. He had deeply feared for that, of course, but hadn't realized it was the truth. His lips twitched as he refused to acknowledge the thought trying to creep its way into his mind, that he had nearly assisted in Lillie's demise by yelling at Faba as he had back at Po Town. Reality really could be stranger than fiction.

"…But Cosmog just brought me here. There's nothing. Just darkness for miles and miles." Lusamine brought her knees up close to her body and hugged them tight. "I can't even give up now, if I wanted…" She cried harder. "There's not even a way out!"

Missing the calmness from earlier, Elio scratched the back of his neck uncertainly, and hated himself a little when he found himself sympathetically mumbling, "Maybe… maybe just don't worry about it," as if he felt some kinship with this woman.

"Don't worry about it?" Lusamine echoed dumbly, her hands falling away from her splotchy face, which was a mix of flushed red from her crying, and inky black from her running makeup. "But… but how do I just… not worry about it?" Shaking her head, she sniffled, "Wait… who are you?"

Legitimately surprised, Elio blinked fervently. "You… don't remember?"

"I barely remember anything," she muttered sadly. "Just how I felt… bits and pieces… It's all so confused…"

"My name's Elio," he told her. What was the point of being angry at her? What good would condemning the last person he'd ever know with hateful comments and vindication do? If he did feel some form of connection with her, who else would have to know? He was stuck there. The idea of slowly succumbing to insanity due to loneliness in those dark depths was a terrifying one. So, he talked to her. "Elio Isono. My sister and I moved to Alola…" Trailing off, he laughed. "I don't even know how long ago, to be honest. It's been such a blur. But my sister and I moved here a while ago…" Smiling with a bittersweet warmth to himself, he chuckled. "I met this… most interesting girl. She refused to train pokémon, she would tell off any of the locals that wanted to be mad at her for not taking on the Island Challenge, and she even peppersprayed me at one point just because I was annoying her, more or less. She had no pokémon, but I fully believe she was the most dangerous of us all. She was nothing but piss and vinegar." He was smiling so wide. "I loved it."

Lusamine just blinked at him with big, round, green eyes.

"Lillie," Elio explained, snickering some more. "Your daughter. She's incredible."

Hanging her head, Lusamine whispered, "I'm sorry… For everything… I never… never really wanted to hurt her…" Her voice choked out. "At least, I don't think… I don't know… It's all so confused… When I had the venom in me, all I could think, was how much she reminded me of Mohn… and I couldn't have him back… He was gone. He was gone, and I couldn't have him, but she and Gladion… were spitting images of him…" She tugged at her own hair again in stress. "It made me so angry, even though I knew it was wrong, deep down…"

Awkwardly letting a silence drag on, Elio finally got the gumption to repeat himself from earlier: "Just… don't worry about it."

Lusamine sounded dumbfounded. "How can you say that?"

"Look around," Elio scoffed. "None of that even matters now…" Giving her a half-smile, he sighed. "I shouldn't forgive you for all of that. In fact, I don't. But… I am glad to know that… well, at least I think you're telling the truth, so… I am at least glad to know that you never really meant for all of this to happen…" He almost laughed. "People like you and me, we just… we get carried away, I think…"

"I didn't, I swear," Lusamine broke into sobs again, rapidly shaking her head at him. "I—wait, you and me…?"

Just behind her, fading in from the darkness, Elio saw a crystalline tentacle reach for the woman's body. "Lusamine, watch out!" he exclaimed, leaping to his feet, forgetting her question immediately. Instinctively, he reached for Macho's Poké Ball, but of course, he didn't find it. He had nothing left on his person aside from the very clothes on his back. His bag had been lost in the chaos back on Aether Paradise, too.

"What?" Lusamine whipped her head around and screamed at the sight of the tentacles reaching for her. That same monster from back on their first visit to Aether Paradise drifted out of the darkness, and wrapped those tentacles around Lusamine, probing beneath her arms and tightening like a constrictor around her abdomen. With every struggle as she tried to fight out of its hold, the grip only seemed to tighten and tighten. "Let me go, Nihilego!" Lusamine begged, banging her fists against the glassy tentacles, tears pouring down her face even more. "Let me go, you horrible thing! No!"

Able to hear the blood rushing in his ears from sheer panic, Elio cried, "Lusamine!" Yet, he could only watch in horror as Nihilego raised a tentacle, and he could see a needle-like point protruding from the underside of it. Despite Lusamine's struggles, she had no hope of fighting off that beast, and it plunged the needle deep into her inner left forearm. Elio clenched his eyes shut as his skin crawled, because he could see the purple viscous fluid pumping down Nihilego's tentacle and into her body. As soon as the venom reached her veins, as if on cue, Elio felt he had to open his eyes. He saw Lusamine's eyes dilate, her tears stop, and she all but fell slack against the creature's grasp. Within a few seconds, she was raising a trembling hand to sensuously stroke the creature's glassy body.

"Lusamine, no!" Elio shouted, stamping a foot in frustration. All that calmness from earlier left him in an instant and he licked his dry lips. He didn't want to give up! He didn't want everything to be over! Somehow, watching Lusamine fall victim so easily to that monster reignited the fire deep inside of him, and he snarled, "Put her DOWN!" What would Lillie think if she knew her mother hadn't meant to actually do everything she's done…? That it was the venom…? Maybe she doesn't deserve forgiveness, but… maybe it would make Lillie feel better…

"I knew my Nihilego would come for me in the end," Lusamine crooned, the apologetic, guilt-ridden person from seconds ago gone. She affectionately nuzzled Nihilego's smooth frame. "Mmf, how much I've missed this warm, perfect feeling…~ How much I've been longing for this moment…~"

Nihilego let out a jingling sound and flared its tentacles that it wasn't using to support Lusamine. One stroked her across her forehead, and they abruptly began to fade in and out of view, like smoke dissipating in the wind. Feeling as if he might start to hyperventilate, Elio fiercely demanded again, "Put her down, NOW! St-stop that!" I'm not done. We're not done.

The Nihilego and Lusamine vanished from view altogether, but Lusamine's deranged, disembodied voice was heard still, leaking from the darkness. "Oh, save your breath, pet," she sweetly insisted. "It'll all be over soon. I'll have my beautiful world. Me, my Nihilego, and all the other prettiest creatures of this world and the next…~"

Stumbling back as he felt a twinge of fear from her sounding as if she surrounded him on all sides, Elio swallowed against a dry throat. "What about everything you just told me?" he desperately tried to remind her. "About… Lillie, Gladion, Mohn—"

He yelped and flinched as an image of her flashed all around him, repeated, as if in a grid pattern. But it was more of a silhouette, like someone's shadow against a wall as lightning flashed outside. "THEY DON'T MATTER!" Lusamine screamed, voice ricocheting around the abyssal darkness. "Not anymore," she added much more quietly… contentedly. He blinked in abject terror as he took in her form, noticing that every time she flashed into view, she didn't look… normal…

At last, she reappeared just in front of him, and he was blown away by what he saw. At first, he thought that Nihilego was behind her, and supporting her with its tentacles, but… that wasn't the case. The glassy, bulbous body of Nihilego's head (or at least, Elio supposed it had to be its head…) was around Lusamine's and her hair was dark, dark like the makeup he had seen running in rivulets down her face earlier. Glittery, golden eyes peered down at him from below an errant wave of black hair, and he noticed similarly golden lines coursing through her hair. An inky blackness, tinged purple at parts, had crawled up her legs and tainted her clothes. Was that venom drenched across her body…? "If you submit, little friend," Lusamine crooned, "perhaps you can be part of my perfect world…~" She winked at him. "After all, people like you and me, we belong together. Don't we~?"

With that, he saw her shoulder move, and one of Nihilego's broader, blackened tentacles reaching out to him. He scrambled away and cursed in all but a whimper under his breath. "Lusamine, please," he begged in a crumbling voice, "please, you have to—y-you need to remember everything you just told me, a-and you need to… to fight this!" He locked eyes with her and desperately willed her to understand, but his heart sank the more he stared. Those gleaming, golden eyes of hers were ringed with dark, running makeup still, and despite how sad they seemed, he got the sense that nobody was home. Despite the dangerous glitter in them, they came across as… lightless. For as domineering as she sounded, she no longer had control over herself at all; it was most certainly just the Nihilego in command now.

"So, you want to stand between me and my Nihilego's perfect world as well," Lusamine summarized, pressing her lips to a thin line as she regarded Elio. She fiercely then flared the tentacles, a few glassy shards of rocks flying from them in a terrifying display, much like the Power Gem Elio had watched raze Aether Paradise on their first visit there. "Then you will die the same as the rest who aren't beautiful enough for my world!"

Cowering, Elio covered his face and clenched his eyes shut. I hope she just makes it fast, was all he could think.

Yet, when a few moments drew on and he didn't feel the bite of rocks digging into his flesh, he nervously looked up, in time to see Lusamine staring up curiously. He traced her gaze and found her staring at a tear in the darkness, much like that which he had fallen through back on Aether Paradise. Jumping to his feet, Elio felt a trembling smile creep onto his face. "Who's there?" he heard Lusamine demand.

Through the tear, a beast much smaller than Nihilego, but big enough to carry the two people aboard its back, flew in. It looked similar to a Golbat, but… so much more majestic. Elio's jaw actually dropped as he looked over the pokémon's broad, star-spangled wings, and its beautiful, golden-crowned head. Its wings looked like they were a night sky drawn between crescent moons, and with every powerful beat of its wings, the constellations on its body glittered differently. It flew low, next to Elio, and the two people on the back of it were none other than Dulse and Zossie. Blinking in disbelief, Elio said, "You… it's you two." Feeling a flare of panic and distrust, he jumped away from them. "Wh-what do you want?!"

"What a beautiful creature… and one that can tear through worlds like my dear Cosmog… Of course, so can my lovely Nihilego," he heard Lusamine distantly drawling to herself. "As beautiful as it is, it listens to ugly ones such as you, making it ugly in turn…"

"Get on!" Dulse commanded in his stiff, deep voice. "You are lucky to be alive, but it will not remain that way if you do not come with us!"

"Please!" Zossie cried after, trying to give him an encouraging smile, even though Elio could see how frazzled she looked. "Th-this is the Ultra Deep Sea, in your words… It's home for Nihilego like the one that's possessed Lusamine! If you don't come with us, that might happen to you!" She shook her head. "Nihilego toxins are nothing to play with!"

Deciding he had far better chances with them than with Lusamine or any other Nihilego that apparently called such a place home, Elio nodded feverishly and awkwardly tried to situate himself behind Zossie on that star-spangled pokémon's back. "Wh-what is this pokémon you're riding on…?"

"Pokémon?" Zossie echoed. "Oh, uh, this is Lunala! She's kind of an Ultra Beast more than a pokémon, though…"

"Hold on!" Dulse barked, and Elio instinctively wrapped arms around Zossie to cling to her as Lunala flew high, avoiding a barrage of glassy rocks as Lusamine shot a deadly Power Gem after them.

"Thank you for opening a portal back to Aether Paradise for me!" Lusamine cackled after them. "There was something there I forgot!"

"What is she talking about?" Elio asked breathlessly (but didn't dare move his head to try and see what she was doing). He felt frozen in place.

"I don't—"

Dulse's reply was cut short when Lunala stopped, and they were all angled in such a way that they were able to watch Lusamine reach through the portal their Lunala had appeared through and return with someone clasped in her tentacles. Feeling as if his heart might have stopped, Elio whimpered, "Wh-who is that?!"

"Get off me!" a loud, blustery male voice came from the person in Lusamine's clutches. "You crazy bitch!"

"You were the last one there on that sinking island," Lusamine crooned, "you must have missed me."

"I was looking for Plumeria!" he snarled. "Not your crazy ass!"

"Guzma," Zossie grimly told Elio.

"We cannot engage her in this state," Dulse called above the noise, "we have to go, now, to our homeworld to take the necessary precautions to keep her from finding Ultra Megalopolis and the Blinding One, or else all worlds are in grave—"

Lunala lurched and an ethereal howl escaped the creature's throat as something struck it. Closing his eyes again, Elio just clung to Zossie, tight enough to squeeze the life out of her, he was sure. They crashed to the ground in a whirling mess of starry wings and the clattering of Dulse and Zossie's suits. When they did, Elio rolled off, feeling a sharp pain run up his body, starting in his neck and spreading up and down to his feet and temple respectively. He groaned, but no sound came, and he suddenly felt too weak to get back up.

"She shot a Power Gem at Lunala," Dulse explained through puffs for breath. "Come, we have no more time for talking, we have to go!"

Zossie's voice was faint. "Dulse, look… They're opening portals to everywhere…"

Peering up at the sky overhead, Elio was inundated with hundreds of flickering lights. Squinting, he soon realized they were not lights, but the reflections of lights from various portals that had opened up throughout the dark sky—and they were reflecting off the glassy bodies of many, many more Nihilego than just the one that had merged with Lusamine. Distantly, he heard Lusamine cackle, above the clanging noises of the various Nihilego, "Wonderful work, my friends… All that is beautiful shall be mine…~ Maybe starting with wherever that starry beauty you three were riding came from. Oh, Dulse, Zossie! You escaped as well! I almost didn't recognize you… You have something quite beautiful in your homeworld, don't you?"

"We will never lead you back there!" Dulse fiercely spat at her. "Forget it!"

"You would condemn yourself, that little Zossie, this boy, and that creature of yours all to death, just to avoid leading me back?" Lusamine almost scoffed. "You do understand that I am going to find it eventually, no matter what you do, yes? Whether you die or not makes no difference to me."

Elio just draped an arm across his face. "Go," he wanted to snap at them. Maybe Lusamine would be entertained by him for a while. Or maybe it would just buy him some silence, some of that peace and quiet he had enjoyed at first. Suddenly, being rattled with thoughts of everything he had failed to tell his family and friends didn't seem so bad, as long as he would be left to do so in peace. He had had enough of this chaos. Of Lusamine. Of everything. He just wanted it to be over. "Just go!" he tried to say again. But still, no sound came. Why couldn't he speak…? That flare of pain ran through his body again and he sighed, a raggedy, spluttery noise, and he relaxed against the ground. He vaguely smelled the scent of blood.

"You cannot control the Blinding One!" Dulse's voice broke as he shouted back at her. He sounded beyond frustrated. "Honestly, you aren't even controlling that Nihilego! It's controlling you! This fantasy you have to draw together everything you find beautiful… it's nothing but that! Fantasy!"

"Dulse," Zossie whimpered, "look…"

Elio's vision had started to gloss over and he was unaware that she was looking at him.

"Dulse, we have to go back to Ultra Megalopolis, he's hurt!"

"We'll lead her right to the Tower… To the Blinding One…"

"Dulse!" Zossie was desperate. "He'll die!"

Elio tuned them out. As much as he wanted to keep fighting, to push through, he just… he just couldn't… he had done so much… Couldn't he just get a small break of silence…? Just a tiny break…

That was all he wanted…

~1 Week Later~

"Going to need to start with you telling us what you were doing there. The day Aether Paradise sank."

Rapping his knuckles against the wooden table in front of him, silver handcuffs clanging against one another, and seated in some interrogation room of an Interpol satellite building, Nanu was furious. Ahead of him, an all-too familiar face was questioning him. Grizzled, brown hair lightly salted with white and silver fell over the forehead of a man only somewhat younger than he was. A man he would have loved to never have seen again. "I'm not talking to you, Looker," Nanu spat, glaring intently at the table, like he might have wanted to bore a hole through it.

Sighing in frustration, Looker took a seat across the table, and ran his fingers through his own hair, as if he might have wanted to pull it out. "Believe me, Nanu, you're not my first choice of who to talk to, but it just so happened to work out like this, so can we forget the past for a few minutes, and you tell me why you rounded up half a dozen kids or so on a suicide mission to Aether Paradise, despite you having illicit knowledge of just how dangerous that was?"

"Very impartial questioning technique," Nanu growled.

"Nanu, I am rapidly losing patience," Looker huffed and slammed a fist against the table, "of all the people on this planet, you should have known better than this. Because of this stunt of yours, three people are presumed dead, others are missing, Arceus himself only knows how many pokémon are dead, and all of the evidence we needed to convict the others of the Aether Foundation responsible for the atrocities committed there is at the bottom of the ocean. Congratulations, you made a modern lost city of Atlantis."

Flinching, Nanu hated it with a burning passion, but he recognized that Looker… was right. He had let his excitement upon learning that Selene was a Mind Jumper get the best of him. Guiltily, he gnawed his lower lip, recalling how he and the previous leader of the Skull Gang were quite close, once upon a time. He and Kahuna Kaua hung out all time. Because of that, Nanu knew much of the Kahuna's mysterious powers, and he had seen how they had brought so many people together. He had watched the Kahuna speak to angry locals, that had practically arrived to Po Town with pitchforks and torches, and convince them to see things his way. Kaua had been excellent with his powers… he had also just been intimidating. Tapu Bulu had cut him down in his prime, and the fallout was impossible to handle for those left to suffer in Po Town without Kaua's incredible gift.

Clenching his left hand into a fist until his knuckles were white, Nanu understood he had filled Selene's head with ideas of grandeur, with lies that she would be the next Kahuna Kaua, even though she had such little grasp on her powers, and Lusamine was far too gone to be reasoned with, anyway. He had realized his mistake just too late. In the aftermath of the sinking of Aether Paradise, Hau's Primarina, Popper, had died fighting Type: Zero (even if he had managed to drown the abomination first). Elio had fallen through the wormhole Lusamine and Dr. Faba had summoned utilizing Nebby's power, sacrificing himself to save Selene from suffering such a fate. Nebby was… well, there was no telling what had happened to the creature. It was lifeless and unresponsive, but Lillie swore up and down he was still alive, refusing anyone to take the pokémon away from her afterward. Lusamine had, of course, dipped through the wormhole before everything had gotten that bad. And even as they were rushing to escape the sinking Aether Paradise, Lillie and Guzma had reminded them about Plumeria, and Guzma had rushed off to find her. Yet, he didn't come back before they had to bail, and Plumeria was found already limping around the docks, waiting in a panic for others to show up there, talking with a terrified Makua, who was struggling to keep the Skull boat near enough to board without risking it taking damage from the falling debris. Although they had found Hau along the way and brought him with them, he had been almost as incoherent as Selene. (Not that Nanu blamed him… They all got a glimpse of what had become of Popper.)

As for after? Well, they had all been swept up by Interpol, who had been circling the sinking island in their fleet of boats like hungry Sharpedo, for interviews. From Nanu's understanding, Selene, Hau, Gladion, Lillie, Acerola, and Plumeria were quickly released from custody, and despite Interpol's offers to assist them in whatever ways they needed, they had spread out across Alola like bottles drifting in the open sea. The events aboard Aether Paradise, and in Selene's case, the traumatizing reality that Miki and Inaba had to remain in Interpol custody, apparently had been too horrible for their group to survive it. He had heard whispers that Lillie had disappeared into the wilds of Poni Island; Selene had returned to Ula'Ula, to stay in Malie City at Kukui's insistence (not that Nanu had any idea why she would have trusted him); Hau had also returned to Ula'Ula, but hadn't gone with Selene, and so, his whereabouts were unknown; Acerola had returned to her post as a Captain of Ula'Ula at last; Gladion, Makua, and Plumeria had returned to Po Town, to try to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of Guzma's disappearance.

Guilt wasn't even a good enough word to describe what Nanu felt. Shame might have fit better. There was a reason he and Looker had such bad blood between them. For over a decade, Nanu had hated his former partner with acidic words and hateful remarks, because of his mistake on Nanu's final mission with him as a member of Interpol. They had been tasked together to deal with an Ultra Beast—a rare, incredibly powerful pokémon of another world that sometimes appeared in Alola—that had already attacked someone from Iki Town. Indeed, Nanu had kept it to himself, but he knew the person that had been attacked was Hau. More specifically, his parents had been targeted by that beast and had not survived the encounter, whereas Tapu Koko himself had rescued Hau. Kahuna Hala had been the one to provide the description of the incident to Nanu, who had passed the information on to Interpol, and they had immediately been assigned to take care of the beast. Unfortunately, it had moved on quite the distance from where it was first spotted, and they had needed to use bait.

For Ultra Beasts, 'bait' meant using a person who happened to have Ultrarian energy pouring off them, usually after accidentally passing through an Ultra Wormhole. These people were referred to as 'Fallers,' and Fallers never had any idea that they were just that much more desirable to Ultra Beasts. Lip twitching, Nanu recalled that was because Interpol never shared that information with them. "It will just make them panic if they know these ridiculously powerful monsters from other dimensions are drawn to them!" his superior had shouted at him when he had confronted her about the grim practice of utilizing Fallers to attract UBs. Instead, Fallers were often asked to assist Interpol field detectives under the guise of being a local guide or acting as something of an intern. Bitterly, he had clenched his jaw when that superior had barked that response at him. Anabel, of course, was unaware that she herself was a Faller.

Put simply, Nanu's final mission with Interpol, the one that had driven him to finally retire and find a place as far from the rest of humanity as possible, was that fateful attempt to force a Guzzlord back to its homeworld. The Faller they had taken with them, a woman who had been led to believe she was more or less behaving as their intern, had been killed by the monster when Looker had faltered and frozen up, failing to issue an attack. That wasn't all. Nanu's own pokémon had died as well as a result of Looker's failure to provide backup.

And yet… by taking advantage of Selene's gift and filling her head with rosy tales of what she could do with her Mind Jumper ability… hadn't Nanu done the exact same thing? Perhaps it hadn't been Selene that had paid the price of it and instead, Elio, but still… Selene was certainly suffering as a result of his actions. Hau and Lillie, too.

"I thought we could stop it," Nanu finally replied to Looker, all of the strength leaving his muscles, making him look suddenly slack and frail within the heavy handcuffs tying him to that table. Just like that, he seemed to look so much older than he really was. "I thought we could reason with Lusamine and save Lillie without all the hell I knew you guys stormin' Aether Paradise would bring. I thought that would be even more chaotic and might even get that poor girl killed in the process."

"That doesn't even make sense," Looker growled, "because of… whatever happened on that island and it sinking, we weren't even able to safely board it once we finally arrived to help you all, and look at what actually happened!"

"I can't tell you who. But some of those kids have powers. They were selected by Tapus to be Captains or Kahunas," Nanu admitted solemnly. "I can't tell you to protect them. They've been through enough. But I thought that with their powers, we could save it all… without a bloodbath…" He grimaced as he thought of the absolute bloody mess they had discovered near Hau and the deceased Popper.

There was a long stretch of silence. "How well did that go?" Looker asked dryly.

Hanging his head, Nanu scoffed. "I s'pose I deserve that. For all the hell I've given you over the years."

Another passage of silence. Looker ended it with a grunt. "Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't be so cruel… I just…" Looker wiped a hand across his face. "I just can't understand how you could go and make the exact same mistake I did, despite you seeming to know so much better…"

"I guess I shouldn't'a been so harsh on you, then," Nanu chuckled sadly. "Found out just how easy it is to make a mistake in the heat of the moment."

Clasping his hands together on top of the table, Looker cleared his throat. "Let's start over, then…"

Nodding slowly, Nanu mumbled, "Yeah… Yeah, I'd like that."

Looking at a paper underneath his hands, Looker asked matter-of-factly, "What do you know about Miki Isono and Inaba Isono? We have reason to believe they assisted the Aether Foundation in the cruel and unusual fabrication of manmade pokémon, more specifically, we believe they assisted Dr. Sauboh Faba."

The rest of the interview was far more routine, even though it left Nanu feeling number and number the more they spoke. All he could do was think back to the horrible aftermath of their venture onto Aether Paradise, and wonder how on Earth things had gone so terribly wrong… And he wished so, so badly, for Selene, Lillie, and Hau's sake, that he could turn back time. He was sure he had irreversibly damaged at least two lives that fateful day aboard Aether Paradise. Even more when he remembered that Inaba and Miki were the parents of the presumed-dead Elio.

Yet, while there was plenty of alternate realities out there, there was no way to turn back time and undo such horrific trauma. He internally cringed. He knew that all too well… After all, cheap rent wasn't why he lived so close to Po Town. He had settled there in hopes of living as far away from the horrors he had seen in his time with Interpol as possible and had taken the job of police officer in Alola because he knew just how useless Alolan police officers were.

He missed his Meowth.