"I know I've sort of talked about this a lot, but because Cosmog is so young I've been thinking about it again," Ash said. "Which is… about how you treat people and Pokémon who are afraid of something, or scared of something, or can't do something right. Or just when they do something which isn't the way you meant it."

He patted Cosmog. "And it's just to do with how… you shouldn't feel bad for getting something wrong. Sometimes you do anyway, but you shouldn't feel like you have to feel bad, and if you do feel bad anyway that's not wrong either."

Lillie put up her hand.

"This is something you've talked about before, but that's because it's so important, isn't it?" she asked.

"Right," Ash agreed. "Even making mistakes can lead to learning great new things! A lot of the ways we do things happened because of accidents… can you imagine how different things would be if nobody had ever decided to do dance moves along with their Pokémon as part of doing an attack?"

"...how do you keep doing this, seriously?" Kiawe asked. "It really must have been such an amazing realization the first time anyone did a Z-move, I never thought of that before."

"If I recall correctly, most Pokémon researchers think that the Tapus passed on Z-moves to humans," Kukui said. "It must have been quite a First Impression!"

"Didn't you do Genesis Supernova without needing to be told?" Pikachu pointed out.

"Yeah, that is a good point," Ash agreed. "Maybe there's something about synchronizing just right with your Pokémon, and with a Z-crystal, that you get the idea of what to do without needing to be told? I know so far Meganium, Pikachu and Aten's special Z-moves have all gone off with the first attack they used to try out the new Z-crystal… it's still amazing to think about, though, either way."

"Is that related to the kinds of evolution you talked about before?" Snowy checked. "I know that Pokémon like Eevee can evolve because of different kinds of friendship?"

"Yeah, Pokémon who evolve from friendship are related," Ash agreed. "A lot of it is about… understanding, and accepting. For the Pokémon, that means themselves and their trainer and knowing their trainer understands and accepts them. That's how it works best."

He shrugged. "But sometimes things take time to work out! Like Lillie's brother Gladion, he has a Pokémon who we think would evolve from that, and the Pokémon wants to get all that sorted out, but it takes a lot of things all fitting together to turn that into actually getting it sorted out. Just knowing you're afraid of something is, at best, the start of working out how to not be afraid of it… and there's no shame in not being able to get it worked out."

"Like my being afraid of Pokémon," Lillie said. "I've put so much work into it because I don't want to be, but…"

She held out her hand, and after a long moment Cosmog drifted over. Lillie tensed up, then slowly relaxed as Cosmog alighted on her hand.

"Wow," she murmured. "You really don't weigh anything, do you? Like a cloud."

"My data indicates that Cosmog does weigh something!" Rotom announced. "It is just that that amount is extremely small."

Lillie giggled. "And you're kind of ticklish!"

"Is that a good thing?" Cosmog asked.

"I think it can be!" Ash told them.

"You're doing really well, Lillie," Kukui said.

"Yeah," Sophocles agreed. "I'm not nearly that good with the dark."

Lillie sighed. "It's a pity Gladion's Pokémon still isn't sorted out, then."

"Gladion!" Cosmog agreed, and then with a flash they were suddenly on top of a hill.

"Ash!" Gladion said. "What was-"

Lillie gasped, pointing at Silvally. "I – that was-"

She sank to the ground, and Ash pulled Ibid from his pocket.

"Get Lokoko please," he said.

Ibid teleported away, and Gladion held out Silvally's Pokéball. "Silvally, you should-"

"No!" Lillie interrupted. "I don't-"

She took a deep breath. "I don't know what's going on, but I don't know if it's their fault. I want to ask."

Snowy nosed into her side, and Lillie trembled.

"Everyone stand back," Ash decided. "Snowy, you too – Lillie might need you now, but it's up to her to decide that."

"But-" Snowy protested, then stopped. "I… rrf! You're right but… I want to help her."

"Did I do something wrong?" Cosmog asked, worried.

"I think maybe you made a mistake," Ash said. "But it's okay, we'll sort it out-"

Lokoko appeared, yawning, and her tails lit up.

"What Pokémon is that?" Sophocles frowned.

"No idea," Togedemaru admitted.

"What's even going on?" Mallow asked. "Lillie, are you okay?"

"Please be okay," Snowy said anxiously.

"There was something that happened," Lillie said. "Before. With that – with Silvally."

She waved in Silvally's direction, not looking at him. "I was scared – I am scared. But… what happened, Silvally?"

"It is… not a happy memory for me," Silvally told them, slowly. "It is hard for me to remember. Part of me remembers things too… vividly."

He lay down. "I had been created by… Professor Faba… to fight Ultra Beasts. I saw one, threatening the girl Lillie, and I… tried to save her. I think I did."

"Professor Faba?" Lillie asked. "He works with my mother. I don't…"

She stopped. "I just remember something scary happening. And then you."

"Then Professor Faba… took me away, and…" Silvally shook his head, raising a paw to his mask. "He put this mask on. Then Gladion rescued me."

"It sounds like we need to ask this Professor Faba guy about what happened!" Ash decided. "Cosmog, don't teleport us, I might need to get some other Pokémon ready."

"You think this Professor Faba might be like that guy with the Mega Wave, from Kalos?" Pikachu checked.

"Maybe, or maybe it was all some kind of big misunderstanding!" Ash said. "That's why we need to ask him what happened. It just sounds like we might need to teach him a lesson about taking care of Pokémon properly!"

"And, because it's Ash, he means that literally," Lokoko chuckled. "The same lessons he's been teaching everyone else, I think."

The doorbell rang.

"Really?" Burnet asked, tutting, then got up. "It's not like tracking Ultra Aura is easy, there's always an interruption…"

She opened the door. "Yes, what is… um."

"Hi," Lillie said. "You work with my mom, Lusamine, right? Professor Burnet?"

"Yes, that's me," Burnet agreed, distracted by the large number of rare Pokémon outside, and said the first thing she could think of. "Um. Shouldn't you be at school? It is a school day, right?"

"There was a bit of a mistake," Ash said helpfully. "And it turns out we might know why Lillie's afraid of Pokémon. Do you know if Professor Faba is busy?"

"He's probably too busy to talk today," Burnet replied. "I'm too busy to talk today, really. We've been trying to track down a source of Ultra Aura that's been appearing all over the place – first here in Alola, in several different places, then just when we were sure about that it appeared in Kalos, then Johto… it even appeared on the moon."

"Oh!" Ash said. "So what is Ultra Aura anyway, is it to do with Ultra Beasts? Is that like normal Aura? I could help with that, I can see Aura and my friend Lucario's an expert at it! My Starly's a trained Lucario too."

"How can a Starly be a trained – what?" Burnet asked, now completely lost.

"He's been trained by a Lucario and he's an honorary Lucario as well," Ash clarified, in a way that didn't actually clarify much. "So that's almost everything you need to be a Lucario except having evolved from a Riolu."

Burnet blinked.

"I think I might know what meant you were detecting Ultra Aura in those places, but the problem is that either it's not really very good at working out what's an Ultra Beast or if it is good at working out what's an Ultra Beast it's not good at working out what kind of Ultra Beast is the kind of Ultra Beast you need to worry about," Ash went on. "Do you know where Professor Faba might have left his notes about Silvally? I want to check with someone who knows about putting artificial Pokémon together, I know some experts, but he might not have done a great job with Silvally especially if he had to put a weird mask on him. And it'd be great to know what Silvally was reacting to years ago when he accidentally scared Lillie."

"Artificial Pokémon?" Burnet repeated. "Silvally? What's Silvally?"

"Oh, right, that's a nickname, right Gladion?" Ash checked, glancing over his shoulder. "I don't think we ever got his species name."

"Ibid informs me that his species name as originally built was Type Full," Arc said, floating out of Ash's pocket and giving Burnet even more to deal with. "However, with the addition of the mask his designation has changed to Type Null."

"Type Full and Type Null?" Burnet repeated. "That reminds me of something… hold on a minute, I need to see if I can make sense of any of this."

She went back over to her computer, switching from the Ultra Aura model, then stopped.

"And how did you get to the Aether Paradise anyway?"

"We flew," Ash's Pikachu said. "Really, you'd think the Latias, Latios, four Dragonite, Noivern and Charizard would be a clue."

"I will level with you," Burnet said. "I think I saw them but immediately got overwhelmed by everything else."

She flicked through the drives, then nodded. "Ah, here it is, I thought it was here somewhere. Type Full is described as a failed project to stop Ultra Beasts… a project which produced, specifically, no output. Not a failed output… and certainly not a Pokémon."

With that, Burnet stood up. "I'll take you to Faba's lab," she said. "Hopefully we can get all this sorted out."

"That would be great!" Ash agreed.

Aten sprang out of his Apricorn Pokéball. "I will not tolerate this any longer! You are letting a perfect opportunity go, and I have a much better suggestion!"

"Professor Faba?"

Professor Faba looked up from his desk. "What is it, Professor Burnet? I'm busy."

"Lusamine's daughter's here," Burnet replied. "She says she remembers something that happened a while ago, but not all the details. Do you think you could help her out?"

"Oh – of course," Faba agreed. "You should get back to work, Burnet. I'll deal with it."

"Thank you, Professor," Lillie said, putting her bag down. "It's so scary… I want to know what happened, but I can't remember."

"Then I'll sort it out," Faba told her. "You won't have to worry about that again."

He sent out his Hypno. "Hypno, Hypnosis. Remove her memories of the incident."

Lillie's bag burst open, producing Zoroark (who hit Hypno like a ton of Snorlax and sent him through the wall), Aten (who started snarling at Faba) and Moltres (who hovered overhead). At about the same time, Minimized Latios appeared about a foot over Lillie's head.

"What is this?" Faba demanded.

"That's what I want to know!" Lusamine retorted, walking in through the door. "Did you just order your Pokémon to wipe my daughter's memories?"

"I – but-" Faba began, then sent out his Alakazam. "Teleport!"

He and Alakazam vanished.

"Told you that was better," Aten said smugly.

AN:

In Aten's view, the main purpose of politics is public humiliation and people doing what he says.

This was both.