So, this is part of a new approach I decided to try during the time I took off from writing this story - splitting off things into smaller interludes so the full chapters don't get to be quite as long. Maybe it will work, maybe not, but I think this will help focus on individual things too, so let's try it.

There is some discussion of depression in this that might be a little heavy for some readers.

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Interlude #1

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"I saw Dad."

The past several days had been full of stress for Anabel, but those three words from Olivia were what threw a lit match on the dry tinder of her psyche. In an instant she felt as if her soul had left her body but left her mind behind in the shell that remained.

Her dinner with Matt, Trevor and the others had gone by surprisingly fast once Trevor and Zinzolin finished recounting their story. The food was delicious, as the reputation Sushi High Roller earned would suggest, but her thoughts drifted elsewhere. Specifically, to Team Rocket's secret Olivine base. She had to get back there, back to Olivia.

She hadn't really registered where in the abandoned hotel Matt went after they separated. Before she knew it, Rosalie had ushered her into the room where Olivia was resting, a former suite Team Rocket refitted into an infirmary when they took over the building. While its cream-colored wallpaper had begun to peel, and the tiles covering part of the floor were cracked, its former luxury was still more than apparent. Nekou was already there with her Pokémon surrounding her, and although Anabel had so much she wanted to say to her, none of it was willing to come out. All those potential words stubbornly sat as a weight in Anabel's chest.

Anabel had asked what it was Olivia wanted to talk about, and her daughter's three-word reply - "I saw Dad" - shattered her. Sure, she, Matt and Nekou had recently debated the possibility of Rich somehow being alive, but Anabel could see in Olivia's eyes that she truly believed what she was saying. Olivia plainly did not consider it to be a mere dream, but Anabel couldn't conceive of any way it wasn't. Whether that was what she thought to be true or what she needed to be true, she didn't know.

"It was a dream, Olivia." Anabel wasn't even certain if her reassurances were meant to be for herself instead. Either way, her words had no life behind them. "It has to be… he's gone."

"But I saw him, Mom," Olivia insisted, clutching at the ruby-red sheets covering her bed. "There's no way what I saw wasn't real, I know it."

Nekou sullenly looked up from petting her Zorua, who was stretched across her lap, and said, "Rosalie told me you thought you were seeing things before they happened. Olivia, you have to tell us what it is you saw Rich doing…"

"Nekou, I…" There was nothing Olivia wanted more than to let her mother and her friend know what troubled her, to reach out for help with the emotions roiling within her. Yet, she struggled to actually take that step. "I-I… I can't, what I saw was just…"

"I need you to tell me." Anabel absentmindedly undid the button holding her suit jacket closed, allowing it to fall open around her. "Especially if you think Rich is Polaris's leader. I know I let you down for a long time, but please have faith in me. I want to make it right."

"Mom, don't blame yourself. It's not your fault…"

"It's not her fault, but still..." Nekou chimed in, still glaring up at Olivia over the tops of her glasses as she hung her head. "It might not mean shit coming from me, but I agree with Anabel… please tell us, we want to help."

"Well…" Olivia was still hesitant, and she lowered her gaze to the sheets bunched up at her waist as she tried to gather her feelings. "It was… well, there were two separate things…" She was stalling, and when Olivia looked back up, she could tell from their posture and expressions that Anabel and Nekou knew it. That forced her to realize she had to tell them, and she gulped, trying to tamp her worries down. "F-first, at the Gym… right before I blacked out, I… saw myself at the Pokémon League stadium on the Indigo Plateau, and… he was there, still in the costume he wore during that speech. I got face-to-face with him, and he told me it wasn't time for me to join him yet."

"No wonder it fucked you up as hard as it did…" Nekou mumbled to herself. Her hand paused on Zorua's back, and the Dark-type Pokémon looked up at her in confusion. "I've been there…"

Anabel, meanwhile, rested her elbows on her knees, clasped her hands together, and leaned forward to rest her face against them. "That… that's one. What was the second?"

"The second…" Until that exact point, Olivia hadn't given a lick of consideration to how she'd tell Anabel about seeing Rich, unmasked, in Polaris's base. How, exactly, was she supposed to tell her mother that she'd seen seemingly undeniable proof that the person whose absence had caused a rift between them was their enemy? As she pondered that problem, she peered over at Nekou, who had just begun opening a Rage Candy Bar brought by her Sneasel, Marie.

Watching her friend - her best friend, arguably - led to a shift in her thinking. Nekou hadn't been honest with her, just as she was struggling to be open with Anabel. Even though Olivia was plenty bothered by that, and fully intended to say something about it, in the moment she realized something else - when the situation demanded it, Nekou risked everything and came clean for the sake of Olivia's well-being.

Inspired by her recognition of Nekou's actions, Olivia managed to compose herself enough to answer Anabel's question. "The second…" she repeated, "...I saw myself in a hallway in what I'm pretty sure was Polaris's base. I saw Dad walk right by me, and… he didn't have a mask on. It was him. I saw his face, crystal clear."

Hearing this claim made Anabel relax and sit back in her chair, much to Olivia's surprise. It wasn't the sort of reaction her daughter anticipated. "I sincerely believe it was a terrible nightmare. Everything you described has surely been on your mind recently. The Pokémon League, Polaris…" Anabel's thoughts wavered. Her words had started to outpace her mind, and when they synched again, it left her uncomfortable. "Rich… him too. It is the perfect recipe for a terrible nightmare."

"Rosalie said that too," Olivia countered. Even though she understood Anabel's qualms about believing her story, she was growing frustrated. Before she could think twice about doing so, she blurted out, "But like I told her, if I was just dreaming, how would I know about Amelia and Ophelia?"

Anabel gasped in horror, and a few feet to her right, Nekou nearly choked on her Rage Candy Bar. The mood in the room hadn't been exactly positive prior to that, but when Olivia dropped the names of her lost sisters, there was a palpable shift in the air. Where there had once been only worry for Olivia's health now filled with terror and panic.

"Wh-where did you hear those names?" Anabel stammered, her voice muffled by the hand she subconsciously brought to her mouth.

"I saw something that didn't involve Dad, too," Olivia revealed. "It was you, Mom, but as you were during our tip in Lapidaria. You were shopping for clothes for them, and said their names out loud. You held something up and asked which one, Amelia or Ophelia, would like it. Then you said you might ask Dad once you told him."

That was it. There was no way Anabel could deny Olivia's claims anymore, they had solidified like concrete. She even remembered what Olivia was describing; it had been a time she thought about more than once.

"H-how… you can't, you can't know that..." she mumbled in despair, wrapping her arms around herself and rocking back and forth. As much as she wanted to protest, it was swiftly dawning on her that Olivia truly was having real visions, not just dreaming. Anabel could feel the weight of reality crashing down upon her, and as much as it hurt, she knew it would be hopeless to try and keep running. She lifted her head, and a single tear rolled down her incredibly pale face from her sunken eyes before she pulled herself up and moved to the bedside, where she threw her arms around Olivia. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for doubting you, Olivia, for keeping secrets about all of this… I'm so, so sorry."

"I-It's alright, Mom. I forgive you..." Olivia said, fighting back tears herself. "It hasn't been easy for any of us…"

"I shouldn't put that kind of weight on you," Anabel insisted. "It isn't fair to you for me to make you worry about such things."

"I hate to chime in…" Nekou suddenly spoke up, "but there's still something you haven't mentioned. Olivia needs to know"

"Please don't ruin this for us," Anabel begged her.

Despite Anabel's plea, Nekou stood firm, even though she averted her eyes from the pair. "You have to tell her what Maman showed you on the way here. Who she showed you."

"Mom, what's she talking about?" Olivia inquired.

When Anabel saw the earnest, questioning look her daughter was giving her, any resistance she had to sharing what she knew melted away. Even though she knew what she had to say would be painful for Olivia to hear, Anabel had to admit Nekou was right. Olivia did need to know. "Olivia," Anabel said as gently as she could, "the one who took them from us, Dr. Yung… he's one of Polaris's leaders. Matt and Bunny encountered him during the conflict in Goldenrod City."

Initially, there was no reply, and Anabel started to wonder if Olivia had heard her or not. That answer came when she pulled herself out of her mother's arms and clenched her fists in her lap.

"When am I gonna get a break already?" the younger Mistbloom fumed. "I already couldn't have a normal Gym challenge like everybody else, and now I have to deal with Dad and the same people who ruined everything else ruining what was left?! All I ever wanted was for everything to go back to normal! Why is Dad even working with people like him?" Olivia drove her hand into the bed, and once she started, she couldn't help herself from repeating the action again and again. "Why?! How much more does that Yung guy want to take away from us?!"

Olivia's anguished pleading gave Anabel pause. It hadn't been long ago at all that she herself wondered how much Yung would tear from their family, and hearing Olivia echo that question made her protective instincts kick into overdrive. "Olivia, don't rush to conclusions…" she softly urged her daughter. "I'm sure they're coercing your father somehow. He wouldn't do this of his own free will."

"But…" Olivia couldn't say anything more. Her arms went limp at her sides, and instead of pounding on the bed any further, she sank into muted sobbing.

Anabel hated feeling powerless. It was one of the things that kept her trapped in her own depression for as long as she was after Rich's supposed death, since the initial sensation of powerlessness fed a self-perpetuating cycle where she kept beating herself up for what she perceived as new failures. Now that she'd managed to get back to some semblance of her old self, she refused to fall back into it. She again embraced Olivia, and as she did so, she turned her attention to Nekou.

"How could you do such a thing to her." Anabel's words were flat and dripped with a level of venom that was beyond abnormal for her to display. "I wanted to spare her feelings from this, at least for now… you said you wouldn't do anything to hurt her."

"I didn't want this to hurt her!" Nekou protested, her sudden yelling causing Zorua to jump off her lap and run away. Pumpkaboo followed straight after her. "All the fucking secrecy was tearing her up! We couldn't lie to her anymore!"

"Like you're some paragon of honesty!" Anabel lashed out at Nekou. It wasn't a conscious choice on her part, but Nekou provided too convenient an outlet for her anger and frustration. "You lied to her about who you were all the way until you couldn't anymore!"

"Do you really think I was fucking okay with that?!" Tears were forming at the corners of Nekou's eyes, but Anabel and Olivia couldn't see them through her rose-tinted glasses. "You people are the closest things to real friends outside of Team Rocket I've ever had!"

Anabel opened her mouth, but before she could say anything more, Olivia interrupted her. "I want to give you a chance, I really do…" Nekou felt her blood run cold when Olivia glared at her. That look of torment, of a flood of emotions barely being held back, was something Nekou recognized. She'd seen it once before - just prior to Olivia's breakdown in Violet City following Avril's accidental confirmation of Rich's demise. Nekou's heart sank as she absorbed the fact that she was responsible for bringing Olivia back to that place despite her intentions. "I want to believe that we were really friends," Olivia continued, "but how could you be a part of something like this? What did you mean by us being your only friends outside of Team Rocket?"

Devastated at what her actions had done, Nekou eyed Marie, who stared worriedly back at her trainer. Nekou just couldn't face Olivia and Anabel in her shame. "The truth is, this life is all I know… I can't remember anything before the time I spent on the streets of Mahogany Town, stealing from fucking garbage cans to survive. I think I was your age then, Olivia. One day I tried to grab food from a shop Team Rocket ran, and une chose à l'autre, I ended up here. With them."

"I get the sense you're skipping over something," Anabel flatly said, crossing her arms.

"Not really," Nekou weakly offered in defense of herself, "n-not really at all. They caught me and gave me a choice. Considering what little I had - no home, no food, not even any real memories - the answer was obvious."

Anabel said nothing, instead stiffening as she pondered Nekou's description of her past. "I certainly can't blame her for taking any way out of that situation…" Anabel thought to herself, "But, still… there had to be a better option than-"

"Then what?" Olivia inquired, unknowingly breaking her mother out of her contemplation in the process.

"Th-then what?" Nekou nervously repeated. She'd been so on edge that she never realized the conversation was heading straight for her worst memory until it was already too late. "Well…" When the topic was breached, all her traumatic memories hit her at once, leaving her to choke on her words. "I promised not to lie to her," Nekou silently mused as she dwelled on one particular memory, "But I can't fucking tell her that! No, they can't know about it!"

"Nekou?"

Olivia's interruption helped Nekou place a check on her spiraling anxiety. Now centered a bit more, she decided that even if her other memories caused her great distress, she could deal with revealing them to Olivia and Anabel. As for the one she hated most, it could be kept in the dark corner in which it belonged.

"W-well…" Nekou ultimately stammered, struggling to translate the disturbing images populating her head into some sort of vocalized description. "It… wasn't long after I joined that they…" A shiver ran down Nekou's body, and if she didn't know any better, the sensation would have convinced her that her bones had turned to ice. "They sealed me up in an isolation tank to study me for what felt like fucking forever… I'm pretty sure that feeling of being so completely alone is what happens when you die. It's never going to fucking happen again, no…"

Stunned by what she was hearing, Olivia went quiet, her eyes widening as she sat back in the bed. It fell to Anabel to speak up and fill the uncomfortable void that had opened up between the three.

"But…" Anabel's feelings regarding Nekou's story were not very different than her daughter's, even though the elder Mistbloom was able to speak. She absentmindedly lowered her sunglasses, not realizing she had done so until her vision darkened, prompting her to push them right back up again. "Why would you want to be a member of the organization that did such a thing to you?"

"Because after that, they gave me everything that I have," Nekou hesitantly replied, still avoiding eye contact with either of her friends. "It was Ariana - I mean, Maman - she was the one who saved me from that isolation. I was nothing, and to be fucking honest with you, I'm still nothing. Maman was the one who taught me I could live and feel like I could mean something. She encouraged me to live freely, she helped me find some friends by recruiting Ada, Trevor and Rosalie to work with me… I… I don't know what I would have done without her. It was Team Rocket, but especially Maman, who gave me a place to belong. She's the closest thing to a parent I've got."

Anabel covered her mouth with her right hand, masking that her lips had puckered around a silent gasp. "She feels the same way about Ariana that…" Her gaze drifted down to Olivia, who was still seemingly stunned by the conversation. "Was I blinded to this all along? She's just an ordinary person looking to get by, the same as me? The same as Olivia?"

"You're just like me?" Olivia whispered, unwittingly giving form to her mother's thoughts. "I need Dad, you need your Maman…"

"I'm sorry, Olivia, I really am," Nekou said, finally mustering up the courage to look directly at Anabel's daughter but just as quickly looking away. "I wouldn't blame you if you hate me now… just know that I really was always in your corner, just like your mother, Bunny, Matt..."

"Matt was in on hiding what happened to Dad from me," she interrupted, pouting as Anabel and Nekou both turned their heads to her. "Or, at least what we thought happened to Dad…"

"Olivia, don't blame him for that," Anabel promptly intervened, lowering her right hand from her mouth to her heart. "He went along with what I asked him to do, what I thought was right to protect your feelings… now I see I was wrong. I was too preoccupied with how I felt, and I ended up projecting it onto you." Intertwining the fingers on her left hand with those of Olivia's right, she finished, "I'm so, so sorry, Olivia. This at least was my fault."

"Mom…" Olivia uttered, a tear welling up in her eye.

"You can trust what your mom says about Matt, Olivia," Nekou impulsively chimed in. Her mind soon caught up with her, however, and the shame she felt dragged the volume of her voice back down. "He wanted to help you, even if the way he went about it was a mistake. Don't take my word for it, but trust your mom." The check Nekou had on her emotions proved to be only temporary, and the feeling of her thoughts spiralling out of control returned. She glared down at the chipped black tile under her right foot and ground the heel of her boot into it, unable to muster even a fraction of the strength needed to lift her head. "If you want to blame anyone for all this shi going this far, Olivia, blame me. I didn't just hide things from you, I made trouble for my own amusement when I should have been taking it all more seriously. If I would have taken everyone's feelings into consideration, I wouldn't have been messing with him and inadvertently riling you up into resenting him more." Nekou pushed her foot even harder into the floor, cracking the tile further with her strength. "I should be a better fucking person, but it's already too late…"

"No, it isn't."

Olivia's near-instant response caught both Anabel and Nekou by surprise. "What?" they simultaneously exclaimed.

"I want to give you a chance," Olivia elaborated, focusing her attention on Nekou. "You were my friend for this long. I want to believe that was real… if you really didn't care about me, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

While Nekou sat in stunned silence from Olivia's generosity, Anabel again crossed her arms. "Are you sure about this, Olivia?" she asked.

"I'm sure," Anabel's daughter quickly and firmly replied. "Nekou said she should be a better person, so let's let her show it. Besides, we need all the help we can get if we're going to figure out how Dad came back and why he's doing all of this."

Anabel shut her eyes, blocking herself off from most outside influence so she could think clearly. "Olivia is certainly right about that. If we are to understand what Rich is up to, let alone stop it, every little bit of aid helps. And Nekou did say she should be a better person…" After uncrossing her arms, Anabel let them fall to her sides as she reopened her eyes. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend, as the saying goes… no matter who that enemy happens to be." Anabel placed a hand on her daughter's shoulder, and her mouth turned upward to form a slight smile. "I'll have faith in your choice, Olivia. If it turns out to be a mistake, we'll deal with it, but I will have faith that you're correct."

"Thanks, Mom," Olivia said, returning her mother's expression.

Meanwhile, several feet from Olivia's bed, Nekou was on the verge of breaking down. Not only had she never expected Olivia or especially Anabel to be understanding of her, she wanted them to hate her. It was the only way she could comprehend the situation. She did something wrong to them, thus she deserved punishment, and that was that. Her black-and-white thinking left her completely blind to any other outcomes, so when a shade of grey was introduced via Olivia giving her a chance to change, she had no idea how to react.

Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, it was at that moment that Ariana entered the room. Which of the two it was, Nekou had no idea.

"Ah, Nekou, here you are." Dressed in a more militaristic black version of her usual uniform, Ariana carried herself with a far different manner than she usually did. If Olivia and Anabel were to look for signs of the Maman Nekou had just described, they would more likely than not have come up dry. The only sign of her true self came in the brief wave Ariana gave them as she entered. "We're doing the mission briefing for Operation Dreadnought now. It's time we thrashed Polaris in a way they won't soon forget."

End of Interlude #1