Fear - An Aureliashipping and Lonashipping Story

-19-

"Lillie? Lillie?!" Gladion screamed back at his sister as he shook her shoulders. Lillie continued to panic at the sight of Type: Null. Ash, Lillie, and Moon stood at Lillie's side, not quite sure what was wrong or what to do.

She frantically shook her head as she stared back up at Gladion. "It's here! The Pokémon!"

"What Pokémon?" her brother asked.

Lillie pointed at Null. "T-that one...I remember everything now..."

Gladion gave a thoughtful glance at the ground. "The accident!" he realized. "You recognize Type: Null. Don't you want to thank-"

"That thing attacked me!" Lillie screamed at Gladion. Null flinched back, a confused and hurt look in it's face. Gladion blinked a couple of times, processing what Lillie just said. "Are. You. Insane?!" he yelled back.

He pushed himself off of Lillie. "Null risked it's life to save you! You wouldn't be here if it hadn't attacked the Ultra Beast!"

Lillie shook her head stubbornly. "But...i-it jumped at me! I know for a fact it did!"

"Listen here, you-"

"Gladion, stop!" Moon pushes him back from Lillie. "She's just confused," she continued in a soft voice. "It was so long ago. You can't blame her."

Gladion turned back to look at Lillie, who was locked in an embrace with a very confused Ash. He made a mental note to ask about that later. He turned back to Moon, who had a compassionate look in her eyes. He gave in. "Okay. You're right." he said, more to himself than to his girlfriend.

Shiron was slowly making her way toward her trainer. The white Pokémon gently nuzzled Lillie's hand, which was still on Ash's back. Lillie immediately jumped back from her hug and fell to the ground. "Lillie?" Ash asked, holding out his hand. Instead of taking it, Lillie was slowly backing away from Shiron.

Mallow knelt down next to Lillie. "Lillie? It's Shiron. You love to pet her."

"I...I don't know what's wrong with me!" Lillie said with tears in her eyes. "I do love to pet her!"

Shiron moved forward with a bit of hope in her heart, but it was quickly sunken when Lillie backed away again.

Lillie looked down at her hands. "I can't even touch my own Pokémon...the only one I could touch..." she quietly said. She buried her face in her hands and began to cry, everyone gathering around her for support.

—-

The three Aether agents and two Team Skull Grunts made their way down a foggy path in the forest. Leading them
was Plumeria, holding a map. "Keep goin' straight. We're almost there."

"What are we even doin' here again?" the male Grunt asked impatiently. His partner smacked him in the head. "We're tryna catch a Pokémon, moron!"

The three Aether agents looked at each other worriedly. "Are we sure we want to do this?" Karen asked. Ethan shook his head to dismiss his doubt. "It's for Lusamine." he reminded her.

Natasha stared at the ground in front of her. The battle at the Pokémon Center was replaying over and over in her head.

Her interaction with Gladion and the Grunts stuck out the most.

~~Flashback~~

Natasha shook her head in disbelief. "You...really wanted to get away that bad?"

"Of course he did, he told us stories about Aether," the female grunt confronted the agents. "You people really are a piece of work, ain'tcha?" She turned back to Gladion. "Just come back to us, bro. We miss ya. Ya don't have to run again." she tried to convince him.

~~End of flashback~~

What did they mean? What happened to Gladion and Lillie at Aether? Natasha thought in despair.

"We're here." Plumeria said.

Everyone took in the scene in front of them. A walkway of stone opened up to a large, circular lake. The fog still hung in the air, giving everything a haunting and uneasy look. In the middle of the lake, a small platform had a large lunar carving etched into it.

Plumeria led the group to the platform. "This is the Lake of the Moone," she explained. "We're goin' to find a specific rare Pokémon."

"What's does it look like?" the Grunts asked.

"Um, let's see..." Plumeria mumbled to herself as she consulted her notes from Guzma and Lusamine. "Purple, blue, yellow, black...what in Arceus's name?"

"So it's colorful. Shouldn't be too hard to spot." Ethan commented, scanning the trees beyond the lake.

"Nah, this thing is extremely rare." Plumeria corrected him. She turned to the Grunts. "Start swimming over there and look in the trees, this search may take hours or days."

"Pew!"

The group turned around to find a small Pokémon staring up at them. It's body reminded them of a galaxy, and innocence shown from its small and simple face made of yellow eyes and mouth.

Plumeria looked at her notes again. Her jaw dropped as she looked back up again. "Found it!"

Natasha gulped as she turned to Plumeria. "How does this Pokémon help get Gladion back?"

Plumeria shrugged. "I dunno. All Guzma and Lusamine told me was that Gladion would show up if we had it...eventually."

Natasha wasn't satisfied with the answer, but she still reached for her Poké Ball. "Alright, let's get this over with."

Everyone slowly reached for their Poké Balls, not taking their eyes off of the Pokémon. The Pokémon stared back, a curious look on its face as it slowly became surrounded. "Pew...?"

——

Sorry that this chapter took so long. Let's just say that really painful complications in my life prevented me from writing.

School starts soon too, but I'll try my best to update quicker from now on.

Thanks for reading!