A.N. This isn't going to become daily. The only reason I'm updating today after updating yesterday is so that I can keep the upload schedule as fluid as possible in order to get the most updated as I can before school restarts. As is probably to be expected in my stories, this is the chapter where it gets rather dark. I just can't help myself. But I hope you enjoy.

CHAPTER 3

Win and Lose

They found Hau as he was being congratulated by Gladion. As Hau turned to speak with Elio and Lillie, Elio grabbed is arm and Lillie grabbed Gladion's, then they hurried the two of them out of the town. "What's going on?" asked Gladion. "Is that a ring on your finger Lillie?!" Lillie blushed but ignored him. Eventually they led them to the beach where Kukui's lab was. "What's wrong mate?" Hau asked, noticing the worry on Elio's face. He turned around and pointed to the sky above Iki Town.

The two of them turned around and spotted the Wormhole. Elio saw their faces fall. Hau turned to him. "Should we call-" he began, but Elio shook his head. "Not natural" he signed. Hau stared at him. "What do you mean it's not natural?" he asked. "Faba summoned it," Lillie replied. "He's going to use it to crush Iki Town with a Guzzlord if Elee doesn't meet with him in Aether Paradise where we rescued Nebby from." Gladion looked furious.

""I've spent so much of my time on that dammed Paradise," he said. "How have I never noticed that he's still there." "I thought he was arrested!" said Hau. "Apparently not" Elio replied. "So now we have to confront him in the Aether Paradise, or he'll destroy Iki Town with a Guzzlord. Want to come with?" Hau nodded. "You bet I do!" he said. Gladion nodded. "I'll be coming as well." "That's good," said Lillie happily. "Now let's go!"

Elio contacted Kukui and let him know what was going on, and told him to make something up about why Hau had to leave early. After a few moments, Kukui responded. "I told them that you had one of your panics and he left to make sure you were ok! I'll make sure no one looks upwards, don't worry. Go kick that evil douche's ass, yeah!" Elio smiled, thanked him, then put his phone away and told the others what Kukui said. Then, they made their way to the dingy boat they used to travel with across the islands.

They made it to the island with a bit of worry over the boat's safety, but other than that, they had no trouble. Lillie and Gladion used the devices they had to check and see if anything was going to be shot from the Paradise. When they determined that there wasn't, they opened one of the doors and Elio guided the boat in. He docked it with ease, then they clambered off. One of the workers was surprised to see them.

"What's going on?" she asked. "I thought you were being sworn as the new Kahuna of MeleMele Hau." Elio scribbled something on his notepad. Despite the fact that Lillie had been teaching them all sign language in order for them to effectively communicate with Elio, he still had to use his pad with most of them. "Did you see anyone go into one of the basement rooms?" he asked. "No," the woman replied. "But now that you mention it, no one is able to get into the lowest one at the moment. Something's blocked it off."

"Then that's where Faba is!" exclaimed Hau. The worker stared. "Faba's here!?" she asked. "Yes," Elio scribbled. "I want you to gather up as many Aether Paradise workers as you can and bring them down there. We may need your help detaining him." The worker nodded. "What's he up to?" she asked. Gladion explained the situation to her, then the four of them departed before she could say another word. The woman stared after them for a few seconds, then ran down a different corridor to fetch any worker she could.

The four of them ran down the stairs and lifts, eventually making it to the door that the workers couldn't access. "Give me a few seconds to override the locks" Lillie told them, before stepping up to the door. But Elio was impatient to get this over with and get back to Hau's celebrations, so he pulled out his Noivern and had it use air cutter. After a few tries the door was blown off. He returned it to it's pokéball then they ran in.

Inside the room stood Faba, who was grinning maliciously at them. He was standing over a machine and pressing a few buttons. "Welcome!" he said. "Welcome, our silent knight. You might be wondering why I called you here." Elio scribbled, "Just spit it out so I can kick your ass quickly and get on with my life!" Faba glared at him. "If you want to be threatening," Faba told him, "Then learn how to speak."

At those words, Lillie bellowed with rage and charged at him, raising her fist to strike. But that was what Faba wanted. As she ran, he pressed a few dials and buttons then dived out of the way. At that moment, another Ultra Wormhole opened in the room. Lillie leapt in the air to land a blow across Faba's face. But before she could, the gravity of the Wormhole began to pull her in. Elio screamed loudly and ran to pull her out. As he did this, Faba cackled. "With you out of my way Elio there'll be no one to stop me from carrying out my plans!" he bellowed.

But Elio wasn't going to let him get away with this that easily. He quickly threw out his Incineroar and had him grab Lillie while he ran and tackled Faba to the ground. Faba threw him off and forced him into the gravity of the Wormhole. Hau quickly grabbed him and pulled out his Decidueye. Without a word he grabbed the two of them by his talons and pulled them away. Faba grew steadily angry that his schemes weren't going to plan.

He quickly ran over to his terminal and an image of Iki Town appeared in front of them. "Elio!" he yelled. "If you don't do as I say right now, I'll drop the Guzzlord! Most of Iki Town will be dead before anyone can even pull out a pokémon to defend themselves with." Elio froze in place. "Good," said Faba gloatingly. "Now, step into the pull of the Wormhole. The longer you take, the more of your friends I force in ahead of you." To prove his point, he pulled out a Tauros and had it primed to charge at the others.

Elio looked frightened at the idea that his friends and his new fiancé would be forced into some Hell, so he stepped forward. But as he was beginning to struggle against the pull, an idea struck him. He turned to Lillie, who had a terrified and sad look on her face. He scribbled a note so that Gladion would understand. "Take care of my pokémon for me." Lillie burst into tears as she read it. But Elio then added, "If I miss, make sure they start attacking that machine" through sign language.

Hau and Lillie nodded to show they understood, then Lillie subtly relayed it to Gladion. As Elio continued walking to the Wormhole, he pulled out his pokémon and threw them to Lillie. But, conveniently, They burst from their balls and immediately began attacking the machine. Faba could only stare as Elio began running out of the wormhole's pull and the Wormhole over Iki Town dissipated. To save himself, Faba pressed a button that he had in his coat.

"You may have been able to close the Wormhole over Iki Town," he said angrily. "But I've managed to slow the closing of this one, so there's still time for me to trap you in it!" Elio ignored him and continued to struggle against the Wormhole's pull. Lillie reached over and grabbed him and pulled him out of its range. She embraced him out of relief of not loosing him a few minutes prior, which Elio returned. But as he looked up, he saw Faba order his Tauros to charge at them. Not for the first time did Elio sorely wish he could speak. Then he'd be able to warn Lillie about it and they could escape. But since they were roughly the same size, he couldn't just pull them both out of its trajectory.

So he did the only thing he could think of. He shoved Lillie off of him and away from the Tauros. Lillie looked apologetic at that. But before she could apologise, she understood why he did that when he tried to run, but was struck full force by the Tauros's horns. She screamed as he was thrown, bleeding, into the Wormhole. She quickly sprinted over to him to pull him away again. But, as she was beginning to make progress, a large, black arm came out of the portal and grabbed hold of him.

Lillie gasped as she saw it. "Necrozma!" she said, her voice filled with dread. She tried harder to pull him away from the Wormhole, but all that resulted in was her being dragged closer. As she was about to be lifter off of her feet, Gladion dived on top of her and pulled her away from Elio. She noticed that he had some escape rope tied around his waist, with Hau on the other side, pulling the two siblings away from the Wormhole.

Faba watched all of this with mad glee. "Well, well, well," he said maliciously, "It seems I'm not the only one with a vendetta against Alola's Silent Knight!" Lillie very much wanted to skewer that man for his comments. But instead she just watched in horror and desperation as Elio struggled against Necrozma's grip, but to no avail.

Eventually he was almost completely dragged into the Wormhole, which despite Faba's interference was almost shut. All he could do at that point is start crying, then sign one more thing. "Goodbye Lillie. I love you." Then he disappeared through the portal, and it closed behind him a few seconds later.

Lillie just knelt there, staring at the place her fiancé was just a few seconds ago. She didn't pay any attention to Faba's cackle of victory, nor to Hau's scream of rage and despair as he charged at the mad scientist. She didn't pay any mind to the sounds of Faba fleeing through a hallway when the rest of the Aether Paradise workers showed up to help them. She barely registered Gladion's comforting hand on her shoulder, before he, Hau and some of the workers charged after Faba. She just stared at the spot for a few more minutes, before she dropped her head to the floor, and wailed in untold sorrow.

Sorry for how depressing that got at the end. As I've been saying in some other stuff I've written, my mental health has been atrocious lately, and it's been really affecting my writing. But still, I hope you enjoyed. If all goes according to plan, the next chapter should be out before the New Year. I hope you all had a good Christmas, and I'll see you next chapter.