Hisses buzz through the cave. Lillie moves close to me, her hands pressed tightly to her chest, full of hope and yet only able to watch silently as Amethio and Gladion reach for their balls.
I would like to help, but my partner’s warning still stands: fighting is no option for me. And maybe it’s for the best. I might be able to take on a few opposing Pokémon, but the memory of Mimikyu and the distraction of her still lying in her cot in the Pokémon Center and not moving would put my team members in danger. Another mistake I can’t afford to make. Leaving it to the other two is the smarter option.
Clenching my hands into fists, I let my gaze wander over the bodies of the three Kommo-o. They are big enough to look most people in the face and the colourful scales on their bodies – often as big as their heads – armour any part that could serve as a weak point in a fight. Raising their powerful front claws, each one lets out a shuddering sound, causing even the ground to tremble; and as Ceruledge swings one blade, Type: Null takes a step back.
In the next breath, the Pokémon charge towards each other, and although I should take the chance to learn, I can’t help but close my eyes and take a deep breath. I don’t want to watch; I don’t want to hear the sounds and screams settling on my skin like fire. In those seconds, I want nothing more than to run away. But Lillie is behind me and my legs are numb.
The blackness behind my eyelids is the only safe place I can find, and yet it’s a place that threatens to swallow me up as my thoughts seep through the cracks of my inner loneliness. Mimikyu’s determination flares. The moment Lusamine spread her arms to claim this world as hers alone. The blinks in which the Pokémon are shattered in their glass prisons – long bound to death.
Behind it lurks the flaming house, the rippling wallpaper, the child pulling me by the arm. My screams, because I use all my strength to tear myself away. The Hoppip burns. I turn the corner into the living room where I’ve always watched my favourite series.
The look on my father’s face.
My mum’s screams.
The laughter of a man.
My whole body flinches as someone puts a hand on my shoulder, and I open my eyes. Lillie looks at me with her round, green gaze and it takes a moment for my racing heart and parched throat to realise I’m still standing in this cave. The memory settling in my skull is just a pale mosaic of days once lived.
“Is everything all right?” Slowly, her fingers slip from my arm. “Do you need another break?”
Two of the Kommo-o have disappeared. One lies unconscious on the ground, its hind legs twitching. The battle has passed me by and a part of me is grateful for the time jump I have subconsciously experienced.
“Everything’s fine,” I mutter. “Fighting just isn’t one of my favourite things to watch right now.”
“I’m sure Mirra will feel better soon!” Lillie’s enthusiasm bubbles over to me. “Besides ... please always remember that this wasn’t your fault. You tried to do what you could and Mimikyu made that decision.”
One she might not have even considered had I thought of something better, and had I not allowed her to use this power that has cost some people their lives in the middle of far too long a night. Not everyone got away. We all know that, even if no one talks about it. It’s amazing how quickly people start to keep things quiet so as not to have to bear the weight of the consequences.
But those are a thousand thoughts I can’t tell Lillie. We have a more important goal in mind. If we want to summon a legendary Pokémon, we can’t allow ourselves to be distracted. Clinging to what’s happened here and now won’t help. None of us. So I put on a small smile and nod.
Lillie is right. Mirra will get well.
And then I’ll do better.
Behind the exit of the cave, the long-awaited altar is waiting. The only thing separating us from the upper area is what feels like three hundred steps, which elicit a long, drawn-out sigh from Gladion. It’s one of those climbs you only consider if your life depends on it, and even then you can’t help but have second thoughts. Still, we dare to take on the challenge. Little by little.
The stone clacks under our soles. Every metre up seems to take us to the top of the Canyon. On the horizon, the sky slowly turns a shallow red colour and even though it will take a while longer, the darkness already reaches out for us.
By the time we leave the last step behind us, the clock strikes six. It is still bright, but the redness at the edges of the world is creeping steadily in our direction. Rotom lets us know, casually in passing, as if it is looking for something to do because it had no other use for the day.
“What now?” Questioningly, Gladion turns his gaze in Lillie’s direction. She seems to be the only one who knows what we’re supposed to do up here and how to go about it. She’s probably done more research than anyone else.
“They say that Solgaleo rules the day, while Lunala watches over the night.” She glances briefly at the reddish clouds above us. “I don’t think anyone would listen to us now if we asked for help.” She turns swiftly towards Amethio and me. “We should wait until it’s dark.”
It will be at least another two hours before the sun sets. That’s time we have to spend up here, between thin air and too much silence. So I move around, lost in thought.
The Altar of the Tides has the charm of a forgotten garden. The almost white stone tiles, which have long since turned grey at the edges, allow us to stand firmly a few metres away from a stone disc carved into the rock like a cross. Short steps to our sides lead up narrow paths, past parched earth and dry grass, up to small podiums that were probably once surrounded by water. Now there is nothing more than dust.
With my fingertips, I dig another candy out of my pocket. The sweetness numbs my tongue and as I try to savour the taste for longer than two seconds, I turn to the others. Lillie is also roaming around, absorbing the image and enjoying the freedom so far above the island. Amethio’s eyes are glued to the Canyon and Gladion has settled down on the ground, enjoying a second rest.
Each of us is silent in our own way and this time I am overcome with the will to break this stillness – at least between me and Amethio. I want to resolve this tension before it’s too late. No one knows how much chaos we will really be thrown into to help Lillie’s mum.
It takes two breaths before I’m standing next to him, staring at the same rocky wall. “I ... didn’t even thank you for a lot of the things you did for me.”
His attention is slow to shift in my direction.
“All this time, I wanted to somehow ... repay you for the help and the Lava Cookies you gave me. But ... I can’t say I’ve been useful since I came here.”
He doesn’t answer, just listens; hears my words as if they are actually valuable in these seconds. So I turn to him.
“Thank you.” My eyelids lower. “For a lot of things. You believed me when I said I could hear some Pokémon. You passed on my request to Gibeon and often reached out to me. I know it’s your job to watch over me as long as I choose to travel with your group, but ... you never had to give me things for my Pokémon.”
“I merely do what is asked of me,” Amethio replies. The harshness of his voice is the same as before, but looking at him reveals more. He keeps his gaze averted and the tension in his shoulders has relaxed. Only slightly, barely noticeable, but for a moment, it seems awfully obvious.
“And I’m sorry ... for what I said ... at the Pokémon Center.”
He only glances at me, but he can’t seem to find the words. There are probably moments when he is awkward, too. This whole moment, this conversation between us – it could hardly be stranger. He avoids too much emotion, while I almost seem to be talking to myself. But the longer I look at Amethio, the clearer it becomes that he is listening. He registers my words. What previously seemed so terribly dismissive now turns out to be his way of lending an ear.
It’s almost interesting to explore him in this way and I can’t help but add a little fuel to the fire – for the sake of my own studies.
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“If it’s easier or more comfortable for you, I’ll ask Gibeon or Hamber, whoever I have to turn to, for another team. Or I’ll set off on my own.”
“You won’t last a day out there.”
“Wanna bet?”
A quick snort escapes him before he turns to face me fully, as if he wants me to understand every word that comes out of his mouth clearly. “You can stay.”
Three words. A single statement, as if he understood my intentions and my doubts at the same time. He takes my apology, my thanks and everything I throw at his feet to make me realise that I’m still welcome. Despite my mistakes, despite the extra work I put him through, and despite our conflicts. As if none of this is work for him. As if I’m the only one who spends all this time worrying about it and not knowing how to fix any of it, while my fickle heart sometimes wants to believe I’m not doing as badly as my brain wants me to believe.
“You really know how to make someone swallow their pride, don’t you?” It’s Gladion who interrupts us. His seat is less distant than it looked and the way he glances at us is reminiscent of a judgemental Jigglypuff.
“Is everything all right?” Lillie, who seems to sense every hint of slight change, appears straight out of nowhere beside us.
“Perfectly fine,” Gladion grumbles in reply, before getting to his feet and taking a deep breath. His flat hands pat the black ripped jeans several times before he crosses his arms in front of his chest. “You’re... still avoiding me, aren’t you?”
Lillie’s eyes widen. For a moment, I can’t help but push myself closer to Amethio so as not to become part of the conversation. Only the thought of Gladion making a similar decision to mine is sobering.
“I... A little,” Lillie finally admits. “I haven’t seen you for two years. You disappeared when mum got worse and made her feel ... betrayed.”
“That wasn’t my intention.” Gladion’s dismissive attitude loosens. “I didn’t know ... that it would get worse. Everything I saw back then was Null.”
“The Pokémon you fought with in the cave?”
He nods. “Faba created it to stand up to the Ultra Beasts. He wanted it to adapt to any type. A Pokémon perfectly equipped for any battle. The result was Null.” He presses his lips together briefly. “They created three of them and everything went well at first ... until they showed defence reactions. Suddenly, they were no longer compatible with the type change. The experiment got out of hand, people got hurt ... and the Pokémon were punished.”
“You ... heard them scream, didn’t you?”
“Often,” he confirms. “You know, I watched the research a lot. I was there when they used electric shocks to drive Null into a corner to put a control mask on it.”
I have to swallow. All that metal encasing its head, as if it’s not sitting properly on its neck underneath, is nothing more than man-made restriction.
“When the experiment failed, they put the three experiments into a kind of ... cryogenic sleep, so they could be easily disposed of. I...” He lowers his head. “I could only save Null.”
His Null. The Pokémon he took because its life seemed more important than his own. Leaving his sister behind was his only option. I can’t put things together any other way and Lillie seems to feel the same way as she buries her fingers in the hem of her loose top and looks at her brother like he's her childhood hero.
“You had to save Null,” she whispers softly before taking a deep breath. “Just like I have to save Nebby and our mother.”
In his place, she probably wouldn’t have acted any different. No one would have. It’s hard enough to get by on your own without money, I know that. It would have been the same for me if I hadn’t found shelter with the Explorers. Gladion had to struggle for two years, always unsure of what the next day or his future would bring. They’ve both made their way, and while I don’t think they’ll ever embrace each other, the tension between them seems to have finally faded. Each of us has taken a step forward. Now we just have to make everything right – even if nothing seems off.
“Domino, would you take the other podium?” Lillie also focusses on our task again. She skilfully digs one flute out of her bag and hands it to me. “Together, I think ... we can do it.”
I want to trust her words, so I take the Moon Flute and look at it for a moment before my eyes wander to the horizon. The darkness creeps further and further across the land. The last light threatens to fade. It’s our chance to ask for help.
Lillie and I nod briefly at each other. We are in unspoken agreement. We don’t have to coordinate with each other to know who will take which podium. Instead, we get over our respective paths and push through our backs. The next look we have for each other conveys determination. Then we put our lips to the metal of the instruments.
I’ve never played the flute before. Music is one thing I used to listen to on the radio now and then whenever I was travelling with my father – from one place to the next. And yet I breathe into the housing, place my fingers over a few selected openings, and create a sound whose melancholy, dull tone is nothing compared to the whispering Lillie produces. Still, our melodies seem to connect as I uncover one hole and block another. Probably my performance sounds awful, but I’m not alone and with the two of us, my lousy playing hardly seems noticeable.
The few clouds above us clear. Moonlight envelops the stage. For a moment, I marvel at the full moon, even though it shouldn’t actually be visible – not even half of it. But it embraces us in all its splendour, while a tremor runs through my body and my arms sag powerlessly. Our melody falls silent and before I can look over at Lillie, I am surprised by a soft glow from below.
Where previously only dust had rested, water now sloshes in a blue play of colours – a monotonous rainbow that still takes my breath away, before the shaking runs more forcefully through my body and I realise the whole Altar of the Tides is trembling. In the next moment, the light spreads, travels up to the rock disc, ensnares it, opens it. What I once thought was a stone slab turns out to be a portal. The light gathers in it, shines, seems to absorb the moon’s gleam deep within itself before casting a colourful beam onto the platform where we were all waiting before. Gladion stumbles back a few steps. Amethio braces himself against the gust of wind.
The beads of light bouncing off to all sides remind me of Coro’s evolution, of the miraculous drops that rolled through his feathers when he became Trumbeak. The same goes for Ying. It brings to mind the transition to a new stage – a change that makes a Pokémon grow.
“Nebby!” Lillie’s sudden cry pulls my attention to her, to the moment Cosmog breaks free from its backpack and shoots towards the light.
For a minute, it seems to bathe in the portal’s beam, absorbing the energy it has been missing since Lusamine’s torture. Then, barely a breath later, the two components seem to merge. Brightness dazzles each of us. A snow-white glow envelops us in the cool embrace of the moon; until it shatters. What’s left are droplets falling to the ground as Nebby rises in all its splendour – no longer small and lost.
The cry leaving its throat sends shivers down my spine. It is beautiful, dark as the evening sky, and yet blessed by the soft glow of the moon. Gigantic wings are framed in golden crescents; another forms the Pokémon’s tail. Stars seem to hang from the tips and its comparatively small claws are clenched into loose fists.
“I can move... The exhaustion ... it’s gone!”
A young woman’s voice, deep and melodic, settles in my head and I breathe a sigh of relief. I can hear it. I can hear Nebby again!
Lillie and I immediately bridge the distance to the Pokémon to stand next to Gladion and Amethio. They both look at the creature in front of them as if it is the most extraordinary thing in the world.
As Nebby’s eyes turn to us – shining like rubies – it takes a moment before it appears to crack a smile on its shapely, if pointed, face.
“Thank you,” it then begins. “You and Lillie ... you gave me warmth and love when I couldn’t take care of myself.”
My lips press together. We all stare at it, but I’m the only one who understands, and though I should pass on its words, my tongue sticks motionless to the roof of my mouth.
“I know you can understand me, Domino. You’ve tried to talk to me before and passed my words on to Lillie.”
It remembers.
“Domino, what does it say?” Lillie’s excitement snaps me out of the dreamlike scenario. The two boys stare at me just as intently.
But I don’t want to answer. In these seconds, I don’t want to open my mouth and share a conversation when I’d like to ask ten thousand questions myself. Yet I am the only one here who understands Nebby in this way and that makes it my fate not to find a place in this exchange.
“It-“
“You don’t have to speak for me,” the Pokémon interrupts me, causing me to stare at it with widened eyes. “Your summoning has given me the power to become Lunala. I hold the light of the moon within me and, like Mother Mahina herself, I am connected to the depths of all the hearts in this world.” The next moment, it turns to Lillie. “Forgive me for not addressing you. These powers ... I must learn to control them subtly.”
The silence spreading is only interrupted when Amethio lets out a soft “It speaks...”. With this, he emphasises Gladion’s horrified expression. Lillie, meanwhile, pulls her nose back and collects herself before clutching the straps of her backpack tighter.
“Nebby... Thank G-God ... you’re all right...” A smile creeps onto her lips. “But please don’t ever do that again! I was so worried about you!”
“You worry about me too often, dearest Lillie.”
“Maybe...” Her shoulders slump. “But I also never thought that the flutes would give you so much power ... or that you would evolve into a legendary Pokémon!”
“It was meant to be. Solgaleo and Lunala created an egg for this dimension, this timeline, this world. They created me for this day.” A strong flap of its wings elicits a sound of amusement from Nebby. “I’m so glad to have seen a small part of this world alongside you! The Tapus always sheltered me in the same place, and I longed for the world. Maybe that’s why I fell into your mother’s hands. Fate brought us together.”
“My mother...” Lillie’s gaze drops. “I shouldn’t ask you to do this... But please, Lu- No. Please, Nebby, I have to see my mother again!”
“If that is your wish, I will fulfil it. You deserve this hope, dearest Lillie.”
Another flap of wings drives a gust of wind between us. With vigour, Lunala takes off towards the sky. A third eye shimmers on its forehead, eliciting a screech from it, which it turns towards the portal before lifting its wings and embodying the image of the moon. Immediately afterwards, energy gathers around its essence, which it hurls in a powerful beam at the now closed stone slab.
An Ultra Wormhole forms out of nowhere, lightning-fast, quite unlike the dimensional rifts that have threatened Alola – a clean passageway that clings to our world with snow-white branches.
“I can only take two of you with me, should I need to carry two more back.”
A simple statement. We all know Lillie will go. But just as Gladion steps forward as her brother, Lunala chases down towards us. Its wings wrap around the blonde – and around me. I want to scream, fight back, make it clear to Nebby I’m not ready to fight, but my voice fails and only the protesting sound of Amethio is audible; disappearing into the background, however, as the light of the Ultra Wormhole fades into blackness and Lunala’s hard wings are all that seem to protect me.