A.N. Oh my god I am so sorry about that hiatus! I completely forgot about this story for ages, and when I found it again last week, I realised that I had forgotten how I was planning to end this fic. The end I have written right now may or may not be what I originally intended, but I'm like 95% sure that it is. Sorry to the small audience this story has for how long I left it, but it should finally end within the next few days.

CHAPTER 10

Alone and Together

Lillie couldn't stop the tears from falling as she held onto Elio tightly. She refused to let go even when he started indicating that he was beginning to struggle to breathe. Eventually, Selene had to pry her off of the Champion. Elio looked starving and very tired. Selene handed him some of the food they brought. As he wolfed the food down, he signed what happened to him.

According to him, Elio had the entire month in Ultra Space hiding from Necrozma, who he managed to slip away from by hurling a pokéball into its eye and worming his way out of its grasp. Necrozma seemed to have a vendetta against Elio for defeating it ten years ago. Elio managed to survive in Ultra Space by eating only what he could remember was safe. Thanks to his many excursions with Selene and Hau, he knew what was safe and what wasn't.

Once he had eaten enough to regain some of his strength, he stood up and let the others know that he was ready to go home. Everyone gathered their bikes and Elio climbed onto the back of Lillie's. He held onto her tightly, something that made her very happy. She never wanted him to let go of her again. But as they began to head off, they heard an angry cry come from behind them. They froze with fear, and slowly turned their heads. Necrozma was slowly getting up again. As they watched, it began to reach out to grab Elio.

"GO!" Lillie screamed. They didn't need to be told twice. They charged up to Rotom Bikes and sped off. Lillie could hear Elio scream with fright as they sped through Ultra Space. They ran Hau's group not long into the chase. "Hey, you found Elio!" he exclaimed with relief. "What's up? Why do you all look so panicked?" As the question left his lips, they another roar of fury as Necrozma and the Nihilago came charging after them. "Ah, that's why," he whimpered, "RUN!"

And so, with Hau's group now joining them, they all sped through the area as fast as they could. But it wasn't fast enough. The Ultra Wormhole had only just come when the Ultra Beasts had caught up with them and surrounded them, preventing their escape. The people waiting on the other side of the Wormhole began to freak out and climb through to come to their aid. Lillie and Hau ordered all of the trainers with them to surround Elio in a protective barrier. They did so, ignoring Elio's none-verbal protests.

Lillie stood her ground, readying herself to fend the Ultra Beasts off. As Gladion's team joined the group, Necrozma finally decided to appear itself. She released her Primarina to battle along side Elio's Incineroar, who'd yet to be called back. He'd run along side them, fending off any Nihilago that got too close. Now, he was worn out, so it would be too dangerous for Elio use another Z move.

Lillie was nervous about standing in the way of Necrozma and its target, but she refused to let to let the Ultra Beast take Elio away from her again. She steeled herself and began ordering Primarina to attack Necrozma. But Necrozma wasn't in the mood for another fight. So it ignored Primarina's attacks and instead chose to knock Lillie out of its way.

Elio screamed in rage and shoved the trainers protecting him out of his way. Ignoring their protests of how he was too weak, he used his Z crystal and sent a second Malicious Moonsault at the Ultra Beasts. But Necrozma was ready for this one. It managed to back up and avoid the brunt of the attack. The rest of the Nihilago were thrown backwards by the blast of the attack. However, they didn't feint due to how weak both Elio and Incineroar were. The attack ended and Incineroar feinted, Elio not long after.

The trainers all started to panic. No one had ever tried to perform two Z moves without a break before. Gladion ordered for him to be put onto one of the bikes, then they all legged it back to the Wormhole. But it still wasn't enough. The Ultra Beasts began to gain on them again. Thankfully they managed to reach the Wormhole. But Hau stopped and turned back around to face the oncoming Ultra Beasts.

"What are you doing?!" Selene asked. "We'll never get the Wormhole closed in time," he replied. "I'm going to unleash a Z move to buy us enough time." Selene nodded, then stood next to him. "Then I'll do it too!" Hau wanted to argue, but before he could, Lillie stood on his other side. Gladion gently put Elio down on the other side of the Wormhole then joined them. He was quickly followed by others. Soon, every trainer in the region was standing by their sides.

Hau grinned at this. There was no way the Ultra Beasts could survive this. He raised his Z crystal up and told the others to do the same. Once everyone was ready, they raised their others hands and activated the crystals at the same time. Necrozma realised too late what was coming. It tried to back up, but before it could, everyone yelled out the moves and every Z move in the region was sent crashing through the cave they were in, leaving no space for Necrozma or the other Nihilago to dodge.

As the Ultra Beasts were hit with the full force of the blast, the cave began to crumble on top of them. The group very quickly retreated back into the other world and Gladion closed the Wormhole as quickly as he could. Everyone sat or lay around for a few minutes catching their breaths, then they began to cheer. They did it! They saved Elio. As everyone celebrated, Lillie quickly put her fiancé onto her back and began to carry him back to the mainland. Everyone else stopped to help her, full of concern. As he was being carried back to the mainland, everyone thought the same thing, "Please make it Elio. Don't let this all be in vain!"

I really hope that that's where I was originally going with this and not something I came up with in the last week, because otherwise I'd be really disappointed in my past self. But I'll be honest, I was really disappointed when the game said that if two Z moves were done in one battle it would cause both the trainer and the pokémon to feint, and then they never used it in the story. A missed trick there. Anyway, the next chapter should hopefully be out on Monday, unless I forget about this chapter again.