Morai looked over her room and prison cell one last time. When she was arrested and brought here, she didn't have much with her, so there wasn't much to worry about leaving behind. She had barely written anything in the journal the doctor had given her, but she held Past Morai's journal in her hands, trying to decide what to do with it. She went to tuck it away in a drawer, but opened it first, landing on a random passage.

"Am I destined to die alone?" she softly read.

I have Light and Shadow Morai with me in my dreams, but in the end, when I wake up, there's no one to wake up to. I put on my metaphorical mask and pretend like I'm not hiding some terrible monster in my shadow. If I ever were to take this mask off, to show everyone my true face, I think they'd all abandon me.

"After all, who could love a monster?" Morai finished. She lingered over those words, running her fingers over the old ink.

"I wrote this," she whispered. "We thought the same thing. Even though she didn't look or act like me...she still thought herself a monster on the inside."

"Morai," Sheridan called from the doorway, causing Morai to quickly snap the book shut and turn around.

"Are you ready?"

Morai nodded. She tucked the journal away in the back of a drawer, hesitating to leave it behind.

She's dead. There's no need to take the past with me.

As they walked down the hall, Morai found herself hesitating again.

"Might I stop by the garden for just a moment?" she asked.

"You're the Champion, so I suppose when you defend your title today is ultimately up to you," Sheridan shrugged. "But do make it quick."

The prisoner knelt in front of the two empty spots where Light and Shadow Morai were memorialized in the Dream Realm. It had begun to drizzle, leaving the stone slick and wet with the early morning rain.

"Whatever fate befalls me," she said, "I hope it leads me back to you someday. I'll hold my head high as I fight viciously like you told me, Shadow Morai. And Light Morai...well..."

Morai struggled to find the words for her other counterpart.

"You could've taught me how to love...if I hadn't sent you away. But you showed me love."

"She's insisted on stopping by there for a minute every day since she finished redoing it," a guard said as he and Sheridan watched from inside. "But she's already been there once today, and she's taking longer this time. She usually doesn't talk, either..."

"Even though you're gone," Morai continued, "your stand-in has done a good job of being stubbornly kind and calm in your place. But I'm afraid I still can't find you. Though I miss you, there's little room for you in my soul. I'm not warm and kind like Maria. You would've liked her."

"She's going to run," Sheridan said matter-of-factly, not looking away from Morai. Pollie joined them as they watched.

"Please forgive me," Morai said, plucking a rose from a bush nearby without caring to watch for its thorns. "I've killed you, but am unwilling to bring you back. I suppose your blood, too, lies on my hands."

The Mask Maker layed the rose in Light Morai's empty place. With a sigh, she rose from the ground and brushed herself off. The guard was called away by Arthur, leaving Pollie and Sheridan to watch her as she went back inside.

"This is your test, Pollie," Sheridan said. "Alola and her escape attempt will be your proving grounds."

Pollie nodded. When Morai returned, the nurse caught her off guard.

"Oh, look at you!" she said with a growing grin, circling her. Pollie was wearing a guard uniform as opposed to her usual nurse's attire. "I didn't know the International Police handed out badges so readily."

"I showed promise," Pollie said, crossing her arms. "And I don't officially have one yet."

"Well, I'm looking forward to being the catalyst for your promotion...or your demise," Morai said.

"If you do as you should," Pollie replied, "there won't be either. But I think we both know what lies ahead."

Morai gave her a smile as they headed toward the main entrance. Despite having lived here for months, there was much of the cathedral that Morai was unfamiliar with, which was intentional on Sheridan's part. This would be the first time she was consciously passing through the entrance, the other time being when she had been arrested and unconscious because of the serum. She looked around with a curious smile before feeling a sharp sting in her neck.

"Hey!" she growled. She had clenched her eyes shut, hiding the flare of red that came from her surprise. "What was that for?"

"You're not going to see anything until we get to familiar grounds," Sheridan said, holding the offending gun in her hand. "I didn't want to hear your complaints or arguments."

"Thank Arceus we can still use these," the chief continued after Morai had fallen unconscious.

Morai woke up in a dimly lit space, her hands still cuffed in front of her. She was seated across from Sheridan and Pollie. When she looked over, she was surprised to find Maria's head resting on her shoulder, Maria herself fast asleep.

"What is this?" she whispered.

"She wanted to come," Sheridan said, nodding to Maria's bow that was sitting in the corner. The arrows were nowhere to be seen, and Morai rolled her eyes as she figured that they had been considered potential weapons and moved. "She mentioned good archery locations. I'm guessing she'll stay behind on our return trip and come back later."

"Yeah, but what is this?" Morai asked again.

"She...fell asleep?" Sheridan answered. "We've been in the air for...well, never mind."

Morai tried to cross her arms and remembered with a sigh that she couldn't. She could smell Maria's floral perfume, the same one she'd always worn.

I thought you had left, she thought. Never to be seen again.

The prisoner acquiesced to her situation and leaned her head back, closing her eyes. It was better than staring at Sheridan and Pollie the entire flight and risking them seeing the potential glow of her eyes in the dim cabin.

"Since you plan on keeping me in the dark...heh...could you at least tell me how long the remainder of our trip is?" she asked.

Sheridan checked her watch.

"About twenty minutes," she said.

Morai let out a sigh. She was disappointed. She had hoped to see something new, something that would've told her where they came from. Even if she were to be successful in her escape on Alola, she was still curious as to where the hell they had been keeping her. It had seemed so desolate, as if it were in a totally different dimension. Even when familiar faces would come to visit, it was as if they were visiting from a different time period or planet, coming to watch her live the nearly inhuman life of a dangerous prisoner. Morai reflected on what faded memories she had, playing them as if they were a movie until the sound of shuffling made her open her eyes. Sheridan had pulled out a bottle of concealer, trying to cover the faded wounds on her face and neck that Morai had given her. The prisoner didn't say anything or let on that she could see it, but she assumed that people would see Sheridan's wounds as a sign that Interpol was struggling to control The Mask Maker. It would be bad publicity for the organization as a whole.

"Eh, boss?" a voice sounded over the intercom.

"What is it?" Sheridan asked.

"You might want to look down."

The chief slid one of the small window shades up and turned around to look. Judging from the sigh and shake of the head she gave, Morai guess it was something for Sheridan to be worried about and her to be excited about.

"Clear as much of the area as you can," she said, pinching the bridge of her nose. "At least clear a path to the door of the Pokémon League. No one gets within six feet of her."

"Ah, do I have spectators?" Morai asked with a grin, leaning forward to get a better view of the ground down below.

"Ouch!" Maria exclaimed. She had hit her head when Morai moved, causing her to wake up.

"Oh, Maria, I'm sorry! I got excited and forgot you were there!"

Pollie looked at Morai with a mix of confusion and suspicion. She was extra vigilant, seeing as how the Champion's predicted attempt at an escape was to be her test for becoming a guard and badge-carrying member of the International Police. But strangely, Morai seemed more sincere than usual, treating Maria with extra care.

The small jet landed at a temporary runway on the ocean just outside of Tapu Village. Morai stood up, eager to go outside, but Sheridan made her back up until she nearly reached back of the cabin. The chief unlocked her handcuffs and listened to her prisoner immediately protest as she went to lock them again behind her back.

"Is that truly necessary?" she sighed. "I at least have to defend my title. I'd have no reason to try anything before that."

"Still," Sheridan replied, "I've seen you choke someone out with those in the front. If you can do it with them behind your back I'd be obliged to just let you go out of shame."

Morai opened her mouth to speak, but Sheridan stopped her.

"Don't try it," she warned.

As they descended the steps onto the beach, the first thing Morai did when she reached the ground was take a long, deep breath in and out.

"Alola, Alola," she sighed. "It's been...too long."

"Alola," Nanu said, appearing from the entrance to Tapu Village. Strangely, Guzma of Team Skull was with him. The purple Team Skull tattoos on his arms had been removed, and although Morai couldn't see it, she remembered that he had painted a big red 'X' over the logo on the back of his jacket after the events of a few years prior.

"It's been a while, Nanu," Morai said. "And Guzma, too."

The former Team Skull boss squinted his eyes and furrowed his brows as he looked Morai up and down, then he looked to Nanu.

"You're pulling my leg, Nanu. There's no way this is the Champ," he concluded. "The kid I knew was a yay tall girly toothpick."

"I'm not her anymore," Morai said, "but I'm the Champion, and I do remember you."

"Prove it!" Guzma growled, holding an accusatory finger to her face.

"I still have the Moon Stone you gave me at the beach. It's at my old home here in Alola."

"You...you...it is you!" he exclaimed, clapping her hard on the shoulder. "What the heck happened?"

"Drugs," Nanu interjected with a small smirk.

"They're not—oh, never mind. We've already had this conversation once," Morai sighed. The Kahuna gave her a puzzled expression, but she didn't elaborate.

"What are the two of you doing here, anyway?" she asked instead.

"To beat you down if you act up, of course!" Guzma replied before anyone could answer, pounding his fist into his other hand. "But I gotta admit, it just wouldn't feel right getting into a physical scrap with you. You may look scary now, but you're still my old enemy-turned-pal."

Nanu eyed his apparent assistant with slight surprise at his warmth toward Morai, causing him to change course.

"B-but I am ripping that title out of your cold, sorry hands! That hasn't changed in all these years."

"Well," Sheridan said, secretly happy that Morai was being unwillingly exposed to old memories, "we'd better get a move on if we want to—"

The sound of a strange bell caused the chief to stop speaking.

"Oh, great," Nanu sighed, pinching his nose. Guzma crouched a little and looked up and around with a worried frown.

"What is it?" Sheridan asked.

"I think I remember that sound," Morai said as the ringing grew louder and louder, "It's Tapu—"

Before she could finish her sentence, something sent her flying backwards into the black sands of the beach in front of the village. When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was the outline of an uprooted tree flying straight toward her, causing her to roll to the side to narrowly avoid getting crushed. She looked up to see a very angry Tapu Bulu hovering above her.

"What the heck is that?" Pollie cried.

"A Pokémon you don't wanna see angry," Guzma said with a deep frown. "And it's angry."

Sheridan and Pollie rushed to Morai's side as Nanu watched with a resigned expression on his face mere feet away.

"Undo my hands!" she yelled. "I don't have my abilities! I'll die if you don't!"

Sheridan hesitated, looking to Nanu for help, but he simply stood there. Even Guzma looked at him, but he understood the Kahuna's reasoning behind not interfering. Pollie's and Sheridan's Pokémon were incapacitated almost as soon as they were brought out, and Morai hadn't gotten hers from the Pokémon Center yet.

"Sheridan!" Morai growled. "I can't try to escape you if I'm dead! At least give me a fighting chance!"

Before the chief could act, Morai was wrapped in thick vines that had grown from the land nearby, pulling her towards the village. She planted her boots into the ground and pulled against the vines with all of her strength, but that wouldn't hold her for long.

"I wouldn't fight it, kid," Nanu said as she was slowly pulled past him. "You'll only make it angrier."

Morai considered his words for a moment before sighing and letting go. The vines around her loosened, giving her a false sense of safety before a vine wrapped around one of her ankles and drug her quickly through the sand. She gained speed, nearly leaving the ground as the source of the plants moved through the village into the sandy Ruins of Abundance next door.

"Well, I hope you said your goodbyes," Nanu said, causing Maria to gasp.

"You're the Kahuna! Can't you do something?" Sheridan asked.

"As the Kahuna I've found that it's best not to interfere with Tapu Bulu. Unless you want to end up like this very village, that is...or Jerry over there," Nanu replied, nodding to a single skull that had various tropical plants growing through it. "It's peaceful unless you offend it...and, well, she offended it."

After everyone eyed him for a long time, the police officer finally sighed and slumped his shoulders.

"But I guess I could try to appease it, since no one else has a death wish," he groaned. "I thought she was a criminal. Her absence wouldn't exactly be a bad thing."

"Hey man, she was our friend!" Guzma called as the Kahuna headed towards the ruins.

"Maybe I can convince it to strike me down instead," Nanu muttered under his breath.

"I don't know what you all are doing, but I'm not just going to sit here and wait for someone else to solve our problem!" Maria exclaimed. She retrieved her bow from the aircraft and took a Pokéball from her belt, calling Decidueye out. The tall bird flew up and did a loop in the air before coming down to grab its trainer with its talons and carrying her towards the ruins.

"Hey, hey, that's stupid!" Guzma called, running after her and calling his own Pokémon out to stop her. "You shouldn't mess with things you don't know about, or you'll get smashed to pieces!"

Back in the ruins, Morai had been forced to her knees at the alter. Her handcuffs had been twisted apart and broken by vines, but the same vines still restricted her movement. Now that she was alone, she tried to use her psychic powers to free herself, but a vine wrapped tightly around her neck and began to crush her throat.

"Alright, alright, I get the message," she coughed. "No hypnosis."

The Tapu loosened the vine's grip, hitting her hard upside the head as it moved in front of her.

"Are you going to give me a fighting chance, or are you just going to kill me?" she breathlessly said, bowing her head. "Either way, I understand your anger because of my crimes against the people of Alola."

Tapu Bulu looked at her with curiosity. It wasn't expecting such self-awareness and readiness to die.

"I was their Champion and defender alongside of you, the other Tapu, Solgaleo and Luna. But I abandoned it, turning against the very people I had promised to protect. I don't regret what I've done, but I'm aware of what I've become. I don't try to see the future very often, but I suppose that whatever fate befalls me is what I deserve. Still, I'd like to die doing what I love, even if I fail."

Nanu had made it to the edge of the altar room by this point, but upon hearing Morai's speech he didn't reveal himself. Tapu Bulu used the vines it was controlling to set Morai down off of the altar, her hands finally free. She could've run, theoretically, but she stayed put and faced her captor.

"Thank you," she said. "I will fight with my head held high. I hope you don't mind a few scratches on that shell of yours as a parting gift, should I truly die."

Nanu debated whether to try and interfere, but it seemed like an agreement had been made between Morai and the Tapu, an agreement Morai didn't seem to mind. She knew what she had done and was seemingly okay with the consequences that had caught up to her, as long as she got to face them doing what mattered to her in the end—perhaps the only thing that mattered to her anymore: fighting.

The fight was obviously unequal. Tapu Bulu was standing—or hovering—at six foot three inches, making it about three inches taller than Morai, but the small height difference isn't what gave it the advantage. Morai was trying to fight a deity, a Pokémon with the power to control all plant life and make it grow at will. It could uproot trees and swing them around with ease as it had first done when she arrived on the island. Still, Morai fought with everything she had and the island guardian seemed to recognize her effort. It held itself back, making her fight hard but not instantly crushing her with power it had. She recognized this and stopped mid-fight.

"Don't disrespect me by holding back!" she yelled, her eyes glowing furiously red. "If you're going to kill me either way, go full power or my death will be worthless!"

Tapu Bulu obliged. Morai managed to hold her ground for a little while longer, landing some strikes and leaving scratches on its exterior, but the gap of power was too great. After being struck by the Tapu's horns again, vines caught her up, immobilizing her and wrapping around her throat. She knew that she didn't have much longer until her trachea was crushed.

This is it, she thought. I hadn't even spent ten minutes in the open air before being captured again. I didn't even defend my title. But in the end...I'm not sure the Champion title mattered to me anymore. I said I wanted to escape and take control of the islands, but all of their guardians wouldn't have allowed it. I'm alright with this...dying here, in this sacred place, fighting as hard as I can against an island deity. I was alright with dying the day I was arrested, too, as long as I was fighting and being true to what I've become. The only question is, who will they remember after I'm gone? Past Morai...or the monster she became? Will love or fear be the driving emotion behind their memory?

The darkness that Morai had seemingly succumbed to wasn't permanent. She woke up to find herself on the ground gasping for air, Nanu standing right above her.

"You're bleeding," he said, hands on his hips. "And...your blood is black. We'd better get back to the others."

"W-what happened?" she coughed. "Am I not dead? What did you do?"

"Nothing," the Kahuna replied. "It decided to spare you. Not before giving you a good beatdown, evidently."

"Oh," Morai sighed, looking at her injured leg. She had a hunch it was done on purpose, greatly interfering with her plan to run after she defended her title.

"It's none of my business, but do you really think you deserve death for what you've done?" Nanu asked.

"No," The Mask Maker replied. "I don't wish for death, of course, and I will fight for my life with all I have given the chance. But if it comes for me and it's clear that my time is up, there's no use in fearing or fighting it. The only thing I can do is look it in the eye and give it my famous smile."

"Hm. I guess that's not a bad way to go through life," the officer concluded.

He and Persian helped Morai out of the ruins, where two trees had barred entry for anyone else. Maria and Guzma were fiercely battling outside, but Maria cut the fight short when she saw Morai.

"Oh, Morai! You're alright!" she cried, hugging the trainer around the neck. "I thought you were going to die in there!"

"Me? No, I could take a Tapu on any day!" she joked. A threatening ring came from inside the ruins.

"A joke, of course!" she called back. "You've got a Decidueye. That makes sense. Do you use its arrows?"

Maria explained her archery teamwork with her Pokémon as they headed back to Sheridan and Pollie. A few more International Police vehicles had gathered on land, various officers, some of whom Morai didn't know, gathering around.

"The doctor's in there," Maria said, pointing to a big black van.

"Aren't you all medically trained?" Morai groaned. "I don't see why you can't bandage my leg."

"I'm a guard today, first and foremost," Pollie said, "Sheridan is the commanding officer, and Maria still isn't regarded as your nurse anymore unless she wants to be."

"Besides, he seemed eager to talk to you," Sheridan added. Morai sighed as she made her way into the back of the large vehicle, which turned out to be a makeshift medical station, causing her to groan even louder.

"No matter where I go, I always end up in a lab," she said, "and always in front of someone like you."

"It's great to see you too, Morai!" the doctor replied with a smile. Morai didn't care to ask for his name anymore, simply thinking of him as "the doctor." "I haven't been that annoying in my scientific endeavors, have I? I've always made fair trades with you when it comes to all of the poking and prodding into your soul that I've done...speaking of which..."

Morai crossed her arms and frowned as she sat down, watching as the man pulled a Chansey egg from a fridge.

"Now, I see that you're injured in a very inconvenient place for escape, and I'd be willing to trade this very rare and nutritious Chansey egg for your account of what happened in the lab a mere day ago," he said with the tone of a Galarian used car salesman.

"Throw in some blood and you've got a deal," his patient answered.

"I swear, you're going to make me end up anemic," the man sighed. "Alright, fine. I'll give you that now, but the egg comes after you explain everything, and—oh sweet Arceus, your blood is black!"

"Yeah, that might be because I have a glorified dye running through my veins," Morai sighed.

"Oh I know, but it's so interesting!" he exclaimed. "You don't see anything like it unless someone is critically ill and there isn't enough oxygen in their blood. But in your case, it's simply because of that faux serum. I don't know whether it speaks more to your hypnosis or Colress's scientific prowess that such a good fake was created while he wasn't even conscious...speaking of serum again," he continued, setting a glass down on the counter. "It's your turn."

"It made me dream," Morai said. "That's all."

"Dream about what?" the doctor asked, leaning in.

"A pancake shop here in Alola that my old friends and I used to frequent. I had evidently attacked someone, and no one realized it until they touched me and saw me for who I really was. Knowing it was a dream, I attacked one of them, blacked out for a moment, and was arrested."

"I see...but you're cutting a lot it out for the amount of time you were unconscious. It doesn't add up. I need to know everything," the doctor frowned. "The devil is often in the details."

"The two counterparts from my dreams were also there," Morai sighed, urging me to do different things."

At this, excitement shone in the doctor's eyes.

"And what did you do?" he asked.

This is it! This serum might've done more than I thought if it guided her to—

"I listened to Shadow Morai and tackled Mallow," Morai answered, causing the doctor to frown.

"But then I paused before doing anything else."

The doctor's expression grew excited again.

"Why?" he asked.

"I just...took a moment to reflect, is all. I didn't have time to make a choice, anyway. I was arrested after that by Nanu, who told me I was addicted to the serum and that..."

"That what?"

"Nothing," Morai replied. "That's all. I woke up to you grabbing my shoulders after that."

"I wanted to see how much you moved around in the state you were in, but you grew violent and angry," the doctor explained. "Do you...feel any different? Do you feel any shift in the balance of your soul?"

"No," Morai flatly replied.

"I see," the man frowned again. "Well, you've upheld your end of the deal. I suppose I should give you this. But Morai, if you do manage to escape, I hope you'll find me."

"So I can still be a lab Raticate?" Morai frowned. "Why would I do that?"

"In your...choice of lifestyle, you may encounter problems specific only to you. There are but a handful of people who can solve those, me being one of them, and I'd bet that I treat you better than the scientists at Team Rocket."

"I'll think about it," Morai said, eagerly eating the egg she was given. She looked down at her shin and moved her leg around. It was feeling better already. The sound of a knock on the metal door followed soon after, and Sheridan appeared.

"If you're all fixed up, we should really get moving before the serum runs out," she said. "Are you ready?"

Morai nodded.

"As I'll ever be," she replied.