A/N: I'm back with another chapter. I'm sick, but I'm still willing to write. Thanks so much to Subject666 for offering to be a beta reader for this story. You have no idea how grateful I am that you're taking the time to catch my grammatical errors and typos. As for all my readers, thank you for the kind response I got from the first chapter. It made my day right before I graduated reading those responses. And now time for some reviews.

FoxOnThePie: Haha, sorry no spoilers. You'll find out soon enough about Moon's connection with the Aether Foundation. And I couldn't forget about Sun. He is the male protagonist after all. Oh and I wasn't planning to include romance in this story (I'm bad at writing it), but it might change if there are continuous asks for it in the future.

Subject666: Shh no spoilers. Hehe~


Ch. 2: The Guardian Deity

When she had finished eating, Nashima had immediately sent the boys out of the room and quickly, but gently brushed Moon's untamed hair. After making sure her hair was brushed thoroughly, she helped Moon out of her pajamas. She didn't question why Moon was wearing the white clothes she had been wearing before she was found like Hau how did, and instead helped Moon into new ones. It was embarrassing, to say the least. While Moon didn't remember ever changing out of clothes before, she didn't like the feeling of changing out of them and how naked it made her body feel. It was uncomfortable.

Eventually, Moon was fully changed and was allowed to look at a mirror Nashima had brought with her, so Moon could see fully what she was wearing. She was now wearing a tan top that had pink and yellow flowers decorating all over it and turquoise shorts. She was also wearing red-pink and black shoes that had yellow laces tied together to make a cute bow on each of them as well as an odd red-pink hat with an odd white symbol on it. Moon stared at her new appearance in awe. She never knew she had looked like the person she was currently looking at in the mirror. It was weird and yet, she couldn't take her eyes off of herself. She wanted to memorize every detail she could see in the mirror about herself. It helped washed away the uneasiness that had came when she was changing.

"Do you like it, dear?" Moon heard Nashima say.

Moon looked up from the mirror and nodded with a small smile.

Even though Moon's smile was small, Nashima could not help but smile at finally seeing Moon smile. "I'm glad to see you like it," she said. "My neighbor gave me these clothes when I asked if I could have some for you. She was happy to help."

Nashima turned and walked towards Sun's desk and grabbed a small bag that had been placed on top of it. She opened it up and placed some items in it, one of which Moon instantly recognized as a small first aid kit like the larger one Nashima had brought with her when she brought the food. Nashima continued to place things into the bag, while Moon watched from the side quietly. Once Nashima had finally made sure everything Moon would need was in the bag, she handed the bag for Moon to take.

With uncertainty, Moon took the bag from Nashima. Understanding that Moon did not know what to do with the bag, Nashima helped her put it on over her shoulder. Once she had made sure that Moon knew what she had placed in the bag for her, Nashima led Moon out of Sun's room. She brought Moon into a much larger room room filled with many furniture and decor. Moon could not help but stare at all the furniture with wonder. It brought warmth to her heart chasing away all the uneasiness that had snuck in. It made her feel wanted and welcomed, something she had been afraid to feel for a long time.

"Wow! You look really nice, Moon!" A familiar voice called out from the side of the room that unmistakably belonged to Hau. Moon looked towards the direction of the voice and found both Sun and Hau leaning on a counter in a small kitchen area looking at her with amazement noticeable in their gaze. Moon felt her body shiver at their staring. While the way they looked at her was filled with so much kindness, she did not like being the center of attention of their gaze.

"Sun, Hau, don't you think it's time you lead Moon here to Iki Town?" Nashima suggested, smiling.

Shocked out of their stupor, both of the boys incoherently said a few words and bumped into each other before their faces turned bright red. They walked out of the kitchen area, embarrassed about their actions and mumbled a small apology to Nashima.

Nashima, the ever kind mother she was, accepted their apologies and told them to watch over Moon. While she no longer had a fever and looked better, she could relapse if not taken care of. After giving them that warning, she then sent the three off with a blessing that they would have fun.

When the three stepped out of the house, Hau immediately took Moon's hand into his and began to guide her away from the house to a dirt path with Sun not too far behind them. As he led her on the path, Moon found herself staring at the world around her. The ground was littered with many different kinds of vegetation from palm trees to bushes that had colorful flowers growing from them. The sky was a magnificent shade of blue that had a bright yellow ball of light displayed on it. Moon stared at this ball of light in wonder, but quickly had to look away. It hurt her eyes to stare at it longer than a second.

As Moon continued to gather in all her surroundings soaking everything in like a sponge, she did not noticed that Hau had stopped walking. She felt herself bumping into him as a result, but a warm hand from behind her helped her gained back her balance.

"Whoa, are you okay Moon? You seem out of it." Moon heard Hau say behind her as she looked at her savior, who just happened to be Sun. She shyly nodded at him in gratitude for his help, which Sun seemed to understand.

"You've never been here before, have you?" Sun asked slowly.

Moon nodded in response to his question. She had never seen anything like the world she was currently seeing beyond the dark place she had been confined in. In the darkness, she remembered she could not see anything nor even touch anything. The only thing she could do was hear voices, but those voices always made her afraid. Especially HERS. She always ordered the people who gave her injections to inflict more pain on her. It was suppose to help her connection with the ones SHE wanted Moon to communicate with. But to Moon, it was a never ending nightmare. But now, she was free. Even now, it still felt weird to Moon being out of the darkness and being in a world full of light and color, when all she could ever remember was being in a solitary world that was only pitch dark. It truly made her heart wrench at seeing a world she never knew was out there.

Noticing that Moon was thinking hard about something, Sun took her hand into his, surprising her, and began to walk her over to a fence that had been a few feet away. Once they had stopped in front of it, Moon felt her body froze at the scenery that laid in front of her.

Below her was a vast amount of blue that seemed to go on endlessly. It crept towards the sandy shore brushing each stone with a gentle caress before running away, only to repeat the process in a cycle that sounded so soft that it almost seemed ethereal to watch. The way the sun shone off the rippling water, warping the blue into rich, warm colors, made it almost impossible for Moon to describe its majestic beauty. She truly was in awe of the ocean that was in front of it. It was breathtaking.

"So what do you think? The view here of the ocean is fantastic, don't you think?" Moon heard Hau ask. She nodded her head to his question, not taking the time to take her eyes off the scenery. She was too absorbed in it to care. All she wanted was to continue looking at what Hau called the ocean and continue hearing the gentle sounds it made. It was simply too beautiful to ignore.

After what seemed like hours to Moon, Hau and Sun pulled her away from the scenery to continue their way to Iki Town. While she was sad that she couldn't continue looking at the ocean, she was happy that Sun and Hau gave her that time to enjoy it. While they didn't understand a lot about her, they did understand that she was new to quite a few things. It made her happy that they were taking the time to allow her to learn these new things.

Eventually, the three found themselves in front of a small wooden gate that led to an area surrounded by wooden buildings. As the three walked closer to the area, Moon soon realized that it was a wooden podium that was decorated with odd lines. Standing near the podium was a man wearing a white lab coat with his back towards them. When he turned around, she recognized that it was Professor Kukui. And he looked uneasy unlike the first time she had saw him.

"Hey there!" Kukui said, his worry quickly diminishing for a second as the three teens stopped in front of him. "Welcome to Iki Town young miss! This town is where folks come to worship the Pokémon that watches over Melemele Island. Tapu Koko keeps us all safe and happy here, see!"

Kukui frowned again looking around. The three teens saw this instantly. Hau took it upon himself to ask Kukui what was wrong.

"What's wrong,Professor?" he asked.

Kukui stopped looking around and turned towards Hau with a small smile. "You see. We were supposed to meet the Island Kahuna here."

"Island Kahuna? You mean Gramps, right?" Hau asked.

Kukui chuckled and nodded. He started to rub the back of his head with his hand in an absent-minded way. "Hala wanted to be the one to give you three your pokémon, but as you can see, he is still not here yet."

"Then we can go look for him!" Hau exclaimed excitedly. "I bet Gramps is on Mahalo Trail! He goes there often! We'll be back Professor!"

"Hey now, wait-" Kukui started to say, but it was too late. Hau grabbed both Sun and Moon's hand and led them in a flash towards where the ruins were located. He sighed to himself with a smile once he no longer could see their silhouettes. Although he would rather have the kids stay and wait with him for the Island Kahuna, he was sure they would be fine. After all, the Guardian Deity of Melemele Island would be watching over them.


"Hau, I doubt that your grandfather is here," Sun said with a little bit of irritation.

Hau, being the type of energetic boy he was, was completely oblivious to the irritation noted in Sun's voice. "Nah. Even if he isn't, wouldn't it be cool if we got to see Tapu Koko!?" Hau said, looking back with his eyes twinkling in excitement.

Sun sighed at this and looked back at Moon with a sincere look. "Sorry, you got dragged into this, Moon. Hau means well, but sometimes his antics can get out of hand."

Moon only gave a small smiled back at Sun. When she had first met Hau, she admitted that she did not like his energetic personality. But after spending the last hour with him, she had to admit he was a nice person. His personality compelled him to make others smile. And while he did not see this yet, she was sure he would see that in time.

"Come on you two! The bridge is over here!" Both Moon and Sun could hear Hau say as he turned around a corner up a flight of stairs. They both took a step forward to follow him, but a shout full of pain stopped them. They both instantly recognized who made that sound of pain. It was Hau.

"Hau!" Sun yelled. He grabbed ahold of Moon's hand to make sure she wouldn't be left behind and dashed forward to where Hau's voice came from. They turned around a corner and found Hau kneeling on a ground holding a hand to his cheek, while his eyes were squinted in pain. Standing in front of Hau a few feet away from him were three odd dressed people, one female and two males. They wore black bandanas with a skull motif in punk attire and a chain necklace with a silver S on it. They also wore white shoes and black tank tops with a cross in the front. Standing in front of the three odd people on four legs stood a Salandit. While Moon did not recognize what the creature that resembled a salamander was, Sun did. He glared at the pokémon and individuals, while moving forward to Hau to make sure he was okay.

"Aww look, another kid. Didn't you three know that this here is our turf now?" the female said. Even though her mouth was covered, Moon had to guess she was smirking.

"What turf? This place does not belong to you!" Moon heard Hau say with pain noticeable in his voice. She turned towards him seeing that he was no longer closing his eyes in pain and was now standing up. He glared at the three individuals in front of them as he continued speaking.

"This place belongs to Tapu Koko!"

"Oh really?" one of the males said, chuckling. "Saladit, go and show im what Team Skull thinks of that!"

The black salamander like pokemon jumped up and with its tail, hit Hau hard on his stomach sending him back to Sun. Sun caught him and helped him to the ground, while glaring back at the odd dressed people. They were laughing now at the silent Hau, whom was curled up and grimacing in pain.

"Stop it!" Sun said with anger. "Hau did nothing to you three!"

"Ya think we care? He should have just shut his mouth when we told him to leave. In fact, let's teach ya a lesson as well! Saladit!" The same male commanded narrowing his eyes at Sun.

Moon watched frozen as Saladit jumped up and prepared to hit Sun with its tail, who curled himself around Hau to protect him from the force of the attack. As she watched, she felt her heart thump faster against her chest. She was afraid. She was afraid of the people that stood before her and the others. She was afraid of the pokémon that was now about to hit Sun with its tail. But most of all, she was afraid of her friends getting hurt.

She did not know why her body suddenly moved at that thought. But it did. And when it did, Moon found herself in front of Sun and Hau arms outstretched ready to take the brunt of the hit from the pokémon's attack. She barely heard Sun telling her to move out of the way. She barely heard one of the grunts telling the pokémon to use dragon rage, because of her courage. She barely felt the ball of raw, purple energy hitting her and pushing her to the side of the cliff they were standing on. She barely felt her body fall towards the rushing waters that was below her as she heard Sun and Hau scream her name.

No, all she was focused on was the thumping in her chest and the fear that was tightening around her heart. Moon wanted to understand if this was how the blonde-hair must have felt when she placed herself in front of her and the people that were after them. She wished she could ask if feeling this fear was alright to have. But she couldn't, of course. She realized that she probably would never get that chance by how badly Sun and Hau screamed for her name.

But before Moon could accept this, she felt something grab onto her body and carry her back up to the cliff. She vaguely heard the people called Team Skull panic and leave as she was gently placed on the ground by her savior. When she finally regained her bearings, Moon found herself staring a magnificent yellow and orange pokémon. It's head and torso were black with white markings on its chest, just above its eyes, and on top of its head. Extending from it head was a large, orange plume with bristles along its black, with yellow markings covering the top bristle. The lower half of its body had four pointed projections, while its arms had round, yellow structures encircling it shoulders. On each of those arms was a shell that appeared to be half of a bird mask. What strike most of the pokémon's appearance to Moon was its eyes. They were small and blue, with yellow markings behind them, but they stared at Moon as if they were looking deep into her soul. Even if she wanted to, Moon found herself being unable to look away from those eyes. They kept her rooted in spot.

But just as quickly as the pokémon had saved her, it let out a mighty caw and flew away up to the sky, leaving no trace of it behind. Realizing that those blue eyes were no longer on her, Moon exhaled slowly. She did not noticed that she had been holding her breath in the whole time.

"Moon! Are you okay?!" Moon heard a familiar voice called behind her. She turned to see Sun walking towards her, while allowing Hau to lean on him for support. Hau was still grimacing in pain and his right cheek had a small cut on it that was bleeding slightly. But she could tell he was not paying attention to his pain. Like Sun, he was giving her an expression of worry.

"Whoa... I can't believe Tapu Koko came to save you Moon..." Hau said slowly taking deep breaths in to help with his pain before continuing. "Gramps always use to tell me that Tapu Koko rarely comes out..."

"You're not hurt though, are you?" Sun asked cutting in with worry noticeable in his voice.

Moon shook her head at Sun's question. Seeing this, Sun sighed in relief. But his relief was soon replaced with the feeling of anger. "What were you thinking?! You could have been seriously hurt if Tapu Koko hadn't come to save you?! And you," Sun said turning towards Hau. "You were being too reckless again! What will the Professor say when he sees us come with you looking like that?!"

"Ah, lay off Sun. We're all fine and that's what matters. Besides," Hau said turning towards Moon, who was looking down at the ground now. "You're scaring Moon."

Sun blinked and looked back at Moon now noticing that she was indeed scared. He sighed and gave a small smile at Moon. "I'm sorry Moon. I get a little shaken up when my friends get hurt. I just hate it that I wasn't able to do anything for you guys..." he murmured quietly mostly to himself.

Moon heard this though and looked up from the ground. She walked over to Sun and placed her hand onto his, raising it a bit. Sun blinked at this gesture and found himself gazing at Moon's eyes unsure what she was trying to tell him. What he did not expect for her to do was open her mouth and speak.

"T-thank you..." she said in a hoarse voice. She released his hand and stared back at the boys with uncertainty, unsure now of what they thought of her now that she had spoke to them. She spoke because she trusted them. They had worried about her and gave her confidence in herself just like how that blonde-hair girl had done. She wanted them to know how she felt about them, and felt that maybe speaking to them would be the best way.

"You-" Hau started to say in shock. He then burst into laughs before stopping and hissing in pain.

"Sorry," he said looking back at Moon with a smile. "But I'm glad that you're finally speaking to us."

Sun nodded smiling fondly. "Yeah... thank you, Moon. Now let's go before Hau here passes out from the pain."

"Hey! I'm right here you know!"

Sun chuckled, playfully rolling his eyes. "I know. That's why I'm saying it." He turned and began to help Hau down the flight of stairs. Moon took a step to follow them, but stopped upon seeing something shiny laying on the ground where Tapu Koko had been. She walked over towards it, kneeled down, and picked it up looking over it with curiosity. It was stone with distinct patterns on it. Somehow, it made her hand feel warm.

"Moon, are you coming?" Moon heard Hau call in the distance down the trail. Upon hearing his voice, she placed the sparkling stone in her bag and ran towards where Hau and Sun were. Even though she had just met the two an hour ago, she was happy that she did. While Hau was too energetic for his own good and Sun overprotective, they both were generally good people. They both made her feel less afraid and unsure of herself, something that she had thought only the blonde-hair girl could do for. It was for that reason why Moon picked up her pace. She wanted to spend time with them. She wanted to learn more from them. She wanted to simply be there with them, her friends. Because as odd as it might be, she was afraid she would never get that chance again.


A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed! Next chapter, the starter pokémon will finally be presented. Now who will get what has already been decided. Have fun guessing though until the next update!