How long has he been here? Hours? Days? Guzma could not tell. When he finally opened his eyes, his sight was met with a blinding white. The room is white, the floor is white, the walls are white, even the goddamn lights are incandescent white, and he wondered how in the world he is not blind yet. He never really had any problem with the color white – his hair is dyed white for the Tapus' sake – but now it is getting in his nerves. He could now understand why that boy Gladion prefers dark colors, even while wearing his Aether uniform. If Gladion is given a chance, he would turn this place upside-down and paint it with black. Not that Guzma will stop him. Hell, he will even join him!
Guzma leaned against the wall for support as he stood up. The impostor, or the other him, must have thought that he might try punching his way out. Not that he is wrong. His wrists were bound behind him with a piece of cloth, tight enough for it to hurt like hell. He tried worming his arms through to no avail, so he waited. Sun, no, Moon told him to wait. The boy that Gladion has been hounding for weeks now was actually the free-spirited First Alolan Champion all along. He could not wrap his head around it when he learned that, when Sun, himself, revealed it during the time he followed the boy after their match. Guzma even told him about her when she is standing right in front of him! He stopped him, told him to wait for him, and asked him a question.
"Kiddo, wait!" Guzma remembered Sun slowing down and glancing at him. He was panting a bit when he finally caught up to him. The boy may be small in height, but his footsteps are quick and light. "I have a question for you."
Sun looked jilted being stopped for a question when he was obviously in a hurry. Guzma ignored the obvious because he really wanted to talk properly to the kid. "What is it?"
"Have ya' met her? The First Alolan Champion?" Guzma noticed Sun's shoulders tensed from the question. "Before I met the kid, yer boy is a real nasty piece of work. Ya' might've heard 'bout me and my Team Skull. We belong to nowhere and we don't care 'bout it." His expression softened a bit. "But that was before. I met that girl and I tell ya' what, she is nothin' like any of us. She's a carefree, loud 'n annoyin' lass, but I respect her. Everyone in Alola does. If that kid didn't come here in Alola, things would not be the same."
"And ya' kiddo," Guzma pointed at him. "Ya' strangely remind me of her. Yer nothin' like her, but I could see her in ya'. Ya' act like the President's son, but it sometimes felt kinda forced. Are ya' tryin' to run from somethin', kid? If that's the case, ya' better face it. Why? Because that is somethin' that I learned from our Champion."
He recalled the strange shift in Sun's expression. After a moment, the red-eyed Trainer finally decided to face him properly and opened his mouth to speak. The words that left his lips were not what Guzma expected. "I'm not running away from anything. Guzma-san...I am Moon." The kid looked at him with those eyes, the very same eyes that the former Team Skull leader once met at the top of Alolan League in Mount Lanakila and the eyes that faced him in the battlefield earlier. "And I need your help."
Then, Guzma was a mess of disbelief and Are you shittin' with me, kid? Wanna fight, huh? Once he got over it, he was all questions and Sun-who-turned-out-to-be-actually-Moon answered most of his rapid-fire questions with the best of her abilities as she dragged the older man to Ula'ula Island. The former Champion promised to answer the rest of his questions once things settled down a bit. She desperately needed his help, and Guzma could not just say no to her.
Moon revealed the most important parts to him - like the fact that Alola, their Alola, was being invaded by the parallel versions of themselves, how another Lusamine has taken over the Aether Foundation and has an another version of his Team Skull, or Ultra Team Skull as Moon calls them, kidnap her own father, Kukui's wife, and two aliens for throwing a wrench in her plans to take over this Alola completely, and Necrozma's connection to the disease that he heard affected even Hala's Pokémon. She needed his help in rescuing the four people that she believed could help take down the other Lusamine and help he did.
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The Guardian of Alola
FanficShe was the First Champion and Hau is the next. She was her protector and now Lillie is the one who protects. She was once at his reach but now Gladion can only chase after her phantoms. Two years they spent growing together and five years spent mou...
