With looming revelation of Lusamine's increasing strength, Moon knew that the mission was switching over to a new phase; except this time, it was moving forward without her. Moon's chair scrapes the plywood floors as she pushes herself out of it. Her eyes downcast as she places her hands on the edge of the table; a small sense of stability in this mess.
Everyone gazes at her, waiting for her to fill in the silence.
"We can't just sit here like Psyducks when it's confirmed that something bad is going to happen in a matter of days-if not hours," Moon tries to say sternly, but a shaky voice and downcast eyes proved that she was fully aware of what was coming next. "I know the team will be changing," her eyes lift to look at everyone with a forced smile, "but if there's anything else you need me to report please let me before sending me off to-" her shoulders slump, her smile faltering ever so slightly as Looker clears his throat interrupting the young girl.
"There's no need for that," his voice forces Moon to listen. "We're not letting you go from the force, Agent."
"WHAT?" Sun and Rotom properly react by screaming out, the questions flowing out of their mouths while Moon stood there in stunned silence.
It took a second for her senses to come rushing back to her, but Sun was not having it.
"How can you be keeping her on the force? YOU HAVE ME!," his frustrated groans were loud, as he began pacing with his arms crossed. A small pout found its place on his lips.
"Detectives, not that I'm not happy with your choice, but what is the meaning of this, Bzzt?" Leave it Rotom to be the most sensible out of the group. Moon holds her breath as she waits for Looker's response.
"It's unorthodox, that I know..." Looker clasps his hands together on the table, probably his own mechanism to stay calm. "Moon learned the ins and outs, it wouldn't make sense to drop Sun in with no knowledge. Except this time we hope we can do this without any major hiccups." Looker may have been generalizing, but it was Moon's final warning.
"Yes, of course!" Moon rapidly responds, fully accepting the second chance she had been given. "Thank you, Detectives."
Looker shakes his head, brushing off her premature gratitude, there was a lot more to say.
"We have a proposition for phase 3 of this mission..."
Moon's mind races across all the possible scenarios. The most probable was assigning Sun with her, an unfavorable, but expected team combination.
"President Gladion, we are asking for your cooperation."
She didn't see that coming.
Gladion looks at Looker as if he was an Ultra Beast himself, eyes blown wide.
"I know this may seem strange, but you've been actively hunting the Beasts down. You may be able to lay out a pattern, help us find a way to your moth-"
"No."
Gladion's voice was unwavering.
If everyone was speechless up until this point, they were all unable to breathe now.
"President we beg of you please reconsider," Looker interjects, but Gladion only stands up instead of listening to the pleas.
"This is a mission I started on my own and I'm going to finish it on my own."
That wasn't the right answer. Anabel lets out a haughty laugh in response, Gladion's head quickly turning towards her. She was no longer peaceful and calm, no, this was the Anabel hardened by years on the force. "This is your chance, President," an unsettling smirk grows on her face as her eyes bore into Gladion. "Your chance to finish your 'mission' as you call it."
It was honestly amazing how he was still standing tall when Annabel's callous way of speaking could make anyone feel small and inferior.
"Is it pride? Self-righteousness?"
Gladion's lips form a thin line, unable to formulate a proper response. Anabel scoffs at how quickly he was to stay quiet. "Or is it your vendetta?. Unfinished business, if that's what you would prefer to call it, Gladion?"
She places her chin in the palm of her hand while her free hand holds up two slender fingers.
"In the end you only have two choices: either you help us out and end this once and for all, or we send you back on your 'solo trek', where if you end up in our way we'll do everything in our power to make sure our agents come back alive and our mission is complete."
Anabel didn't play games, she dominated them. And in this current game, shivers were being sent down everyone's spine and threats were anything but empty.
"So what's it going to be?"
The question hangs heavily in the air.
Gladion takes a deep breath in before exhaling slowly.
"What do I have to do?"
Her furrowed eyebrow is quickly replaced with her more neutral look; now reassured that their mission could end in anything, but failure. "We want you to work with Agent Moon."
Sun reacts loudly again making him stumble on the chair he was previously seated in.
"WHY IS HE WITH HER?"
Moon rolls her eyes at the veteran.
"She still has a guise as an Aether employee, Sun. Having these two together would be the least suspicious of our choices," Anabel says as she chooses to ignore the rest of Sun's complaints "but, there is one catch to all of this. Moon's role and Gladion's."
"I assure you Detective I will do everything in my power to make sure things go smoothly," Moon says confidently, but when Anabel gives her a concerned look her stomach sinks at the possible ultimatum.
"We can't have your life be at risk anymore, Agent," she pulls out a single Pokeball and places it in the middle of the table.
"You're going to have to battle."
"BULLSHIT," Sun interrupts as everyone was now forced to pay attention to him. "First of all you're keeping her, but now you're asking her to do the one we all know she can't?" He scoffs as his hand gestures over at Moon. "The rookie hasn't trained a Pokemon since when? Her Decidueye died? And it's not like any of you to forget that happened right before she joined us."
"Agent..." Looker tries to diffuse the situation, but by the look on Moon's face the damage had been done. It wasn't a secret- all of headquarters knew the story - Team Rocket parading in Kanto. Kidnapping, selling, and killing Pokemon for their lucrative boss in an attempt to make money. Moon just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and her Decidueye paid the price.
"She's weak-willed, I know it. She knows it-heck even you know it given that you made me her back up!"
"Agent that's enough!" Looker yells, breaking his usually suave demeanor. The Detective went off; something about Sun not excelling on all his marks either, how he was assigned a backup his first mission. Moon could care less, as she stared at the sole Pokeball sitting across the way - teasing her. She had the power to say no, she could avoid the risk of losing another Pokemon. She could walk out right now and leave behind the International Police and return to a normal civilian life...
No, she wasn't going to give anyone the satisfaction of that. She begins to reach forward, her stomach lurching as she accepts her final decision, but Gladion intersects and grabs the Pokeball.
"If Moon is to work with me I'll be giving her a Pokemon instead," he hands the object back to Anabel who had a shocked, albeit amused look on her face.
"As long as she's battle ready, it doesn't matter to me what she uses."
Moon looks at Gladion, her eyes at the brim of tears, her heart clenching for reasons she still hadn't had a chance to decipher.
They were partners now, she had to continue trusting him.
Gladion nods his head, "deal."
It took them well into the night discussing how the rest of the operation was going to go down.
Gladion and Moon were to stay low at the Aether Foundation as the sifted through employees who still had ties to Lusamine. Gladion already knew a few of who would let information slip with the proper incentive. They were to send signals out of Ultrabeast sightings and possible pop-ups to the rest of the force, and Moon had to be training on the sideline.
Sun complained the entire time their tasks were explained. His whines focusing on how he came out to Alola for naught and how he should have Moon's position- but Looker, finally fed up, decided to ignore his pleas and hand over his assignment without an emotion.
Sun was to contact the Kahunas and Trial Captains. Alert them to halt all trial activities for it was getting too dangerous to pass out tainted crystals. With their help they would go on Ultra Beast searches, following the signals from Gladion and Moon. Luckily for Sun, Gladion had alerted Hau that day Moon first came to Alola. They've been waiting for a signal to defend their region as a whole.
Once Moon grew comfortable with battling again, she and Gladion would join them on the field.
And if things went according to plan Lusamine's location would be known by then.
Everything was overwhelming to say the least, but as the night drew on everyone's fatigue hit. Moon offered her bed and couch to Looker and Anabel. Their slumber came fast; regional travel would do that to you. Sun knocked out on the floor once he heard he had something to do. Rotom glanced at Moon and Gladion who were wide awake. His eyes were half closed as he floats up to his assigned partner.
"Go to sleep you two, tomorrow is a big day. Bzzt," Rotom murmurs before he hovers over to a table, leaves the dex, and enters his Pokeball.
Moon gives the Pokemon a small smile, before turning around to see Gladion's emerald eyes staring right at her.
"We need to talk." She nods silently as her eyes glances around at all the sleeping bodies. She grabs two water bottles off the table, and beckons him to follow her outside to the overlook.
Moon's motel on Akala Island was anything but luxurious. It was plain, humble, but stable, something she came to appreciate after years of moving around.
7 regions out of 7.
A 100% completion rate of living on different lands; seeing different people, pokemon, and views, but she had to hand it to Alola: It had one of the most beautiful nights she had ever seen. The sky was clear as the ocean glistened under the moonlight. The salty sea filled the air around them as the sounds of crashing waves and occasional rustle of grass accompanied their contemplative silence.
If only all of this was under different circumstances.
She sees Gladion in her peripherals let out a sigh. "Two teams searching for the same person..." he murmurs. The events of today were probably sinking in.
Moon passes a water bottle to him. "I'm sorry about all of that. Detective Anabel can be quite…"
"Convincing?" Gladion interjects, a half-hearted chuckle escaping him.
"Yeah...that's one way to put it," Moon says with a quick shrug as she opens her water bottle and takes a sip. Gladion stares down at his own bottle, his fingers fidgeting with it slightly.
"The mysterious International Police…" he looks at Moon with pure curiosity. "Do they always drag civilians into their cases?"
Moon puts down her bottle slowly as she looks back at him. Alola had a lot of green in its scenery, but now that it was dark the green of his eyes reflected the moon beautifully.
She couldn't help but think it was the best green in this entire region.
Gladion lifts an eyebrow at the lack of her response.
"Um...yeah," she pulls her gaze away hurriedly focusing on the ocean in front of her "that's how most of us end up on the force...at least that's how I did."
An awkward silence falls over them. Questions, apologies, answers, there was so much they had to talk about - it was hard to figure out where to start.
"I hoped you would agree you know?" Moon quietly begins, "I spent a long time at Aether mulling over your alliance. I thought someone who cared so much about his Pokemon clearly couldn't be evil-—so when the attack happened I couldn't help but to think I made a mistake," a sad smile pulls at the corner of her lips, "I'm sorry about that."
"You shouldn't trust me, Moon," Gladion states matter-of-factly as he looks ahead.
"Why? Cause you're her son? Cause you want to do this alone?" Moon questions as her head snaps towards him.
"No it's just—"
Moon doesn't let him continue.
"Just cause you're related or the fact that you didn't see it coming doesn't mean you have to make yourself a villain!" Moon wasn't mad, just upset that Gladion had it more out for himself than anyone else. "You can't blame yourself for an accident caused by some messed up people…" Moon whispers at the end, trying to get her point across the blonde's head.
"Shouldn't you be saying that to yourself as well?"
Moon didn't even need to look at Gladion to understand what he was insinuating. Her Decidueye's death- it wasn't her fault Team Rocket attacked a hospital. It wasn't her fault her Decidueye took a blow meant for her.
"I tried you know? To save Decidueye," Moon says with a sad sigh, her sleeve quickly coming to wipe away the tears threatening to fall. Gladion doesn't say anything, but worry seemed to etch its way onto his facial expression, as if he was saying that he understood, that he knew she tried her best. "Sorry. Anabel told me once during training that two things would be my downfall. My lack of battling, and my emotions." She snivels, "Arceus, why is Anabel right about everything" she says with a half-hearted laugh.
"Scarily accurate too," Gladion adds. "I was just selfishly trying to make things right. Maybe to just prove that I was capable; to prove that I was strong enough, that I wasn't like my mother. She saw right through it. How do you handle it?"
"I don't," Moon says jokingly and a small laugh escapes her. Her concerns of battling, of working with Gladion, of the argument - it all faded away - but suddenly his laugh joins hers in a synchronized rhythm and everything clicked into place. As if the fate of a region wasn't in their hands and everything was seemingly right for a millisecond.
One small happy moment in midst the turmoil, but the Alola breeze brings them back to reality.
Alola was beautiful, but its weather was harsh and unkind. Too hot during the day, too cold during the night. She pulls in her legs closer, hugging them to keep down the trembling.
"So what are we going to d-" Moon stops her sentence when she feels a heavy fabric drape her shoulders.
She gives Gladion a confused look, but he purposely looks away towards the ocean.
"Put it on."
With her face heating up it was hard to say she was still cold. "Thank you," Moon says shyly, pulling the fabric over her head. It was far too big for her, but there were no complaints. It was soft and warm like the smile he was giving her.
"So what's the truth about you, anyways?"
"Huh?" Moon asks with a puzzled expression.
"The. Truth. About. You," he says in a staccato. "If we're going to be partners I'm going to need to know a little about you, Agent."
Moon scoffs, "there's not much to know about me."
"I mean you're right…"
Moon pouts at his response.
"What?" his hands come out as if he was surrendering. "I read your file after you got hired!"
"Har har. Jokes on you, Mister President," Moon sticks out her tongue playfully, "my file is comprised of a bunch of things. Both fact and fiction," she says this with a little too much pride as she gets closer to him. He takes it a notch up when he also leans in, cutting her off from her tirade.
"Humor me then."
She feels her mouth run dry as she pulls away; not wanting him to see the effect he had on her.
He laughs again.
A sound Moon was learning to enjoy all too much.
"What do you want to know?," she asks meekly. She couldn't help but to be scared that he would ask her how she joined the force, or why she was continually triggered by battling even if she had to be surrounded by it.
"I just want to know if the Moon working for the International Police is the same Moon that was working at Aether."
"Kinda. I'm more panic and less secrets. I still love poison Pokemon and my charm? All a ruse," she gives him a cheeky grin. "If you want real answers you're going to have to ask a more straightforward question than that."
Gladion tsks. "Fine, where are you from cause I know it's definitely not from here." He eyes his jacket that was a size too big on the girl.
"Um...Kanto," Moon hesitates, "technically."
Gladion quirks an eyebrow.
"Headquarters doesn't know this, but I was born in Alola, mom was from here so we were on a quick visit-that's how I got Rowlet," Moon pauses, suddenly aware of how comfortable she felt admitting this to Gladion. "What they do know is that I spent most of my childhood in Kanto, but soon it was Unova, then Hoenn, Johto, Sinnoh and Kalos. Alola was a place I never came back to-until now."
"Why keep it a secret? Have you ever wanted to come back?" Gladion asks, only to have Moon interject.
"This has to be a two-way exchange mister!"
He shrugs, "hey, I'm just trying to figure you out and if I have to report you for malpractice!" he jokes as Moon quickly pouts.
"I have a license! Thank you very much," Moon says with a quick click of her tongue. "I studied and and practiced in Kalos before I moved alone back to Kanto. As for coming back," Moon pauses, never so much admitting this to even herself.
"I've always wanted to just...under different circumstances, maybe that's why I always kept that small part of me a secret, a fact only known to myself and not a company of spies," she laughs, but the tone was a lot sadder than expected. Next time, if there was a next time, she would come to Alola for fun.
Gladion nods, accepting her answer as he extends his legs and leans back ever so slightly. His eyes close as if he could relax for once. "You said equal exchange. You have two questions. Shoot."
"Who are your closest friends?" Moon figured she might as well take her time to really get to know him.
"Probably my sister, Type: Null, Hau, Wicke," he responds without missing a beat.
"Hau surprises me the most," Moon adds in disbelief. "He doesn't seem to match your aesthetic," she waves her hand around vaguely gesturing to him and his all black wardrobe.
Gladion lets out a breathy laugh, "oh trust me, it took me a while to warm up to him. Way too happy, but he's a good person, and well he better be given that he's dating my sister."
Moon bites her lip before asking the next question, hoping it wasn't too insensitive- to nosy- "Where's your sister now?"
Gladion looks at Moon, "you might've crossed paths, Lillie's in Kalos for school."
"Has she contacted you at all during this whole mess? Does she know?" Moon asks in disbelief. She figures they were close, but maybe Gladion was really good at hiding things from her.
Gladion nods. "She's reached out, but I told her to stay put. Wicke has wanted us as distanced as possible- from our mother and the foundation for a long time. I, at the bare minimum could grant that to Lillie if not for myself."
Moon hums in response. It really was just like him to not want to get his sister involved, and it seemed that Wicke has wanted to protect them for a way. No wonder she said nothing about the familial ties in her report. Moon looks over and sees Gladion watching the waves crash down on the shore below them.
"Moon, how long has the International Police been working on this case?," Gladion asks indistinctly, and seemingly out of nowhere, his voice almost being drowned out by the ocean.
An exhausted sigh fills the air. "Since the first casualty, an UB Task Force was created almost right away." Moon remembered how chaotic headquarters were at the first sign of danger. Agents were being sent out left and right, researchers were trying to figure out what was happening in the tropical region, and as more and more staff began to disappear they needed to bring in newer recruits. "I wasn't put on until Lusamine's disappearance, and well now we're here." Moon places her chin on her knees and pulls them closer to her body. She didn't want to think about the possibility of failure, or the chance that she or anyone else assigned (or coerced) wouldn't be safe at the end.
"Gladion," Moon says quietly, "what are your dreams?"
The question stumps the blonde. For a minute or two they're surrounded by the same silence from earlier, only this time it was more comfortable.
"After traveling the world, running Aether was one," he says with sad chuckle, well-aware of the circumstances. Moon feels her heartstrings pull, figuring it wasn't this Aether he wanted, and the forlorn look on his face confirms this. She hears him shift and sees his hand, the one closest to her, clenching at the grass beneath them.
And without a second thought, she places her hand gently on his, surprisingly causing him to relax. But what was even more surprising was the warmth between them seemed nearly impossible in the breeze.
"Hey M-"
A small beep on Gladion's wrist prompts them to pull apart. He pushes the button on his watch, a scowl on his lips directed towards the interruption.
"That's probably a sign to go to sleep," Moon announces sadly as Gladion stands, before reaching down to help pull her up. His sweater slouches awkwardly off her smaller frame as she stands, but he unexpectedly steps closer to her. His hands get to work readjusting the way-too large jacket back up in its place.
With him being so close Moon couldn't help but study his features. He had long eyelashes and a small scar on his cheek. His eyes looked darker in the shadows, and the permanent furrow in his brow was much more subtle up close. His breathing was slow, and she swear she could see a small tint of color on his cheeks.
Moon prayed to Arceus that he couldn't hear her heart; finally coming to terms with her body's reaction to the blonde.
Anabel was right; emotions would be the end of her.
He finishes adjusting the jacket and pulls the hood over her head only to catch her staring, but for once she didn't turn away. "Why did you help me?" Moon asks under her breath without realizing the words left her lips. His hands hesitate, as Moon hoped he understood it was about his actions with Anabel and not the jacket, but instead all he does is finish adjusting.
"How about I tell you when we're done with all this business"
His evasiveness piqued Moon's curiosity, and she could see him mull over his choice of words-almost as if Moon would think he was being suspicious again, but no she had come to terms with his secrecy—-giving him a small lopsided smile as she extends her pinky finger towards him. "Fine, to new beginnings then?"
He returns the smile, interlocking his pinky with hers, "I wouldn't have this any other way."