Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Liko smiled as she made her way through the streets of Levincia, Sprigatito cradled close to her chest. Her Rotom phone floated in the air just beside her, and she followed its instructions gladly. As if by a miracle, she had found out about the Spicy Herba Mystica being sold at a shop in Levincia, and she just had to go and get it. Murdock would be beyond happy to finally have some, especially after their previous search and shopping trip to find this specific herb had been a bust. It would be the perfect surprise for him as the Brave Olivine took off for yet another flight. 

"Murdock will be so happy about this!" Liko told Sprigatito, and the cat meowed excitedly in her grasp. Liko rounded a corner as per the directions on her phone, and the Rotom trailed after her. "Just through here!" 

But when Liko turned the corner, she saw... Nothing. She walked forward slowly, a frown starting to develop across her lips. Maybe the shop was just tucked into the back of the alley. The map had said it was just off the main street... But when she reached the back edge of the ally, Liko found nothing. There wasn't even the implication of a storefront that had once been there. A tall brick wall was her only company, and Liko stared up at it in confusion. "Huh? A dead end? But the shop was here on the map..."

Maybe she had just read the map wrong. She could go back out onto the street and check the immediate area for landmarks before trying to navigate herself again. Liko turned back toward the light--

And slammed straight into the chest of a man in a suit. 

Liko fell to the concrete gracelessly, accidentally knocking her phone out of the air in the process. The face on the back of the Rotom contorted with pain, and it let out a few buzzes like static as it hit the ground. Liko rubbed at a new bruise forming from her fall, slowly looking up at the man she had hit. 

"Excuse me. Are you okay?"

The man stood in between Liko and the afternoon sun, leaving much of the details of his silhouette shrouded in shadow. She could make out soft blue hair and a pair of glasses, both framing a concerned frown. The man extended his hand toward Liko, and she realized she was closer in height to his Umbreon than she was to him as long as she was on the ground. 

Liko blinked a few times to try and reorient herself. "Oh... Yes. I'm fine." She turned toward her phone, reaching out to pick it up. Static continued to distort the screen, and Liko frowned down at it. Maybe she would be able to ask Dot to help her fix it. She had never met Dot face to face, but if she asked politely, then perhaps she would be able to recruit her for a favor. 

Liko moved to push herself to her feet, but when she looked up from her phone, she realized another figure had appeared in the alleyway. It was a tan Pokémon with black patterns engraved into its tall head. Its eyes gleamed green, seeming to glow even in the darkness. The Pokémon's hands were outstretched toward her, and she noticed small orbs of red, yellow, and green on its palms. The orbs glowed in a cycle, spinning around from red to yellow to green over and over again. The lights then all went solid, fusing together in Liko's eyes as a single flare of white. 

The glow grew overpowering, and then, everything went black.

~~~~~

"Liko isn't back yet?"

Roy stood between Friede, Mollie, Orla, and Murdock on the Brave Olivine's deck, Fuecoco in his arms. Since befriending and catching Wattrel, Roy had returned to the ship in preparation for takeoff. The technical issues the Rising Volt Tacklers had been having earlier in the day seemed to have entirely dissipated, and Dot had cleared them to leave as soon as everyone as back onboard. Roy had returned with a bright smile on his face and Wattrel's Pokéball in his hand, and he excitedly told everyone of his exploits of making a new friend and catching a second Pokémon. 

That had led into yet another conversation, this time about Liko. Roy had expected her to have returned before him since her shopping trip couldn't have taken her any longer than it had taken him to bond with Wattrel, but when he returned, he learned he had beat her back. Friede, Mollie, Orla, and Murdock had been waiting for both Liko and Roy when the latter returned, so it was only natural they brought Liko up once they were sure Roy was ready to go. 

"She said she was going shopping," Roy explained. He admittedly hadn't remembered most of the details around her impromptu trip; he had been too distracted with Wattrel at the time. 

"From here, she'd have gone to either Artazon or Levincia," Murdock remarked. 

"It shouldn't have taken her this long," Friede frowned, his eyes falling shut. He glanced over to Mollie and Orla after a beat of thought. "Any luck?"

Orla shook her head. Both she and Mollie had their Rotom phones in their hands, and they had been trying to contact Liko ever since Roy returned without her. "I've been trying to reach her, but so far, no luck," Orla replied. 

"No location data either, for some reason," Mollie hummed, only barely managing to tear her eyes away from the screen long enough to shoot Friede a glance out of her periphery. A moment later, she was back to staring at her phone like she thought doing so might give her information about where Liko was even just a second or two sooner. 

"Did her battery die?" Friede asked even though none of them had a way of answering it. As soon as he realized that, Friede stood up a little straighter and adopted his leader voice. "Alright. Let's split up and look for her." 

The rest of the group nodded their agreement, but before they had the chance to disembark and start their search, Friede's phone began to ring. The Rotom buzzed its way out of his pocket and into the air just beside him. "Dot?" Friede asked when the ringing came to a stop. Roy's eyes widened. He had been on the Brave Olivine for a while now, but he still didn't know much about Dot, the ship's mysterious tech support. She liked to stay in her room more often than not, but she was aware of all of the details of what happened on the ship. Roy didn't know if he would ever get used to the idea of someone knowing everything about him without ever needing to look him in the eyes or be in the same room as him. Even now, Roy didn't know what she looked like on account of Friede's screen being turned to face him instead of the rest of the crew. 

"Artazon sounds suspicious," Dot explained from the other end of the line, wasting no time in getting straight to the point. "I tried searching for sightings of a girl with a Sprigatito, and I found a bunch of reports from Artazon."

"That's incredible! You can find that online?" Murdock asked, taking a step toward the phone in shock. 

"Dot, you keep gathering info aboard the ship," Friede instructed as he grabbed his phone out of the air.

"Got it," Dot said simply, and the call ended just as quickly as it had started. 

Friede tucked his phone into his pocket and addressed the rest of the team. "Roy and I will go on ahead. We'll meet up in Artazon."

Everyone nodded their understanding, and Friede called upon Charizard. Captain Pikachu climbed atop Charizard's head while Friede mounted his back. Charizard picked up Roy and Fuecoco before taking off into the sky. In a matter of seconds, the two were out of view, and the rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers all moved to follow the pair out of the city. Roy normally loved the thrill of flying whether it be on Charizard or aboard the Brave Olivine... But he felt none of that excitement today. He knew Liko could handle herself, but dread brewed in his stomach regardless. 

Please be okay, Liko... Please. 

~~~~~

It was almost laughable how easy it had been. 

After Spinel managed to locate the Explorers' target, it didn't take long to figure out how to get her alone. She had been on the search for an herb during a recent shopping trip, and if he baited her out by saying a shop had it, then she would come running. Liko hadn't thought anything of it, and she had rushed right into the trap with a smile on her face. She hadn't even suspected Spinel when they ran into one another. She was too trusting for her own good. 

But it all worked in Spinel's favor, didn't it? If she was even a little less trusting, then he never would have gotten his hands on the pendant so effortlessly. Amethio had insisted on following the path of righteousness and honesty to get it, but he failed to understand that in times like these, cunning wit always prevailed. It had taken Spinel but a single afternoon to do something Amethio had failed at for weeks. How pathetic. 

Spinel lifted the pendant up to the blue light of the screen in his portable office. He had been instructed to take the pendant back to the Explorers' headquarters as soon as he got it, but he wanted to conduct a few tests on it first. No one knew what the pendant did, and if Spinel was able to find out, then he would be three steps ahead of his peers. It wouldn't be hard to do either; Spinel was certain the pendant would reveal its secrets with just a bit of pressure. 

In many ways, the energy it held was familiar. It reminded him of the power thrumming beneath the surface of a Terastal Orb, but there was something distinctly different about it all the same. The pendant was certainly a mystery, and he was determined to get to the bottom of it. Regardless of what Gibeon wanted it for, Spinel would understand it and every truth it had ever held. 

Spinel looked over his shoulder at a door leading into a side room. He hadn't been planning on it initially, but he decided to take Liko along with the pendant after he found her. She was clearly important to the pendant if it had activated in her hands so many times. Spinel could have taken the pendant, but it would have all been for nothing if it turned out she was necessary to bring its power to life. She wouldn't fall for the same trick twice, and so, he removed the need to rely on a second act of deception. If she was ultimately unnecessary, then he could set her free, and she wouldn't have any idea of what had happened to her. If she was needed... Well, that was what thinking ahead was for. 

Spinel tightened his grip on the strings of the pendant. His smile deepened, and a laugh reverberated low and echoing in his chest. How nice it was when everything fell into place. 

~~~~~

Friede didn't understand what they were missing. 

He and the rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers had searched through Artazon after hearing Dot's report, but even when they followed the results she sent to their phones, they came up short. In the four hours since they had started the search, they had found nothing. The group had reunited once two hours ago, but they hadn't been able to share anything new with one another. Roy had run off chasing his Wattrel after the bird caught sight of something shiny, but aside from that, nothing had changed. Liko was simply nowhere to be found. 

The sun was starting to set by the time Friede reunited with Mollie, Orla, and Murdock again. His lungs were burning and desperate for a break, and he gave them the reprieve they sought as he leaned against a metal railing with a frustrated sigh. His Rotom phone levitated just over the edge, and Dot watched him silently, her face creased with concern. "We've looked up and down and haven't found her," Friede muttered. "Something's off here." Cap offered his agreement from his place on Friede's shoulder. 

"We've looked everywhere," Mollie frowned bitterly. "Would Liko really head off somewhere on her own?"

Friede leaned more against the railing. "Could she have been kidnapped?"

"Kidnapped?!" Dot blurted out from the other end of the call. "If so, why were there so many sightings in Artazon...? Don't tell me... Is this info bogus?!"

"Could it have been the Explorers?" Mollie asked, fighting and failing to keep her tone even. 

"Amethio and his goons would have faced us head-on," Friede said, turning around so his back was pressed against the railing. 

"Do you have any other ideas?" Murdock questioned. 

"Those Magneton gathered above the ship... One of them was acting on a trainer's orders," Friede went on as if that explained everything. 

"What?!" Murdock sputtered. 

"That's huge! Why didn't you tell us?!" Orla demanded. 

"Sorry, did I forget to mention that?" Friede asked even though the answer was clear. Mollie, Orla, Murdock, and Cap all groaned in irritation. Friede ignored it in favor of continuing to speak. "Even in battle, the trainer didn't show themself, but they were probably behind the ship malfunctions and the signal issues."

"Right... Our Rotom phones didn't have any signal in Arboliva's forest either," Mollie recalled. 

"A Magneton was hanging overhead then too," Friede frowned. 

"The same trainer then," Orla concluded. 

Friede nodded. "It looks like we've fallen into a trap laid by some unknown enemy."

"But who? Is it someone after the pendant?" Orla asked. 

"We'll worry about that later," Friede told her, starting to walk away. "First, we need to find Liko."

~~~~~

Dot let out a strangled yell of frustration, her head falling into her hands. "Come on! How could I have made a mistake like that?! I should've authenticated it!" Even after hanging up on her call with Friede, she was sitting in front of her computer screens, Quaxly standing on the desk beside her. "Why didn't I think this through?!" 

Quaxly quacked to pull Dot out of her spiral, and she looked up at him with a shaky breath. "You're right. This isn't like me." She went back to typing, her fingers flying across the keyboard at breakneck speeds. "But if something happened to Liko... I can't just sit around. I need real info, but how do I get it?" 

All at once, the idea hit her, and Dot turned to see her Nidothing suit hanging from its hook on the opposite side of the room. If she put out a Nidothing video, then all of her viewers would want to help. If all went well, at least one of them would have had the information she was looking for... But she was going to need massive reach instantly. Her videos performed well, but if Dot really wanted to get to the bottom of this, then she needed a plan that would generate more buzz. She needed to go viral. 

And she knew just the person. 

Dot seized her phone out of the air and tapped away at the screen to place a call to Iono, the gym leader of Levincia. The two had been online friends for quite a while because of their common field of content creation, and they had talked a handful of times both in and out of the context of their work. Iono had been online for far longer than Dot, and she went viral with most of her videos. If there was ever a time to call in a favor, it was now, and Dot prayed with every fiber of her being that Iono picked up the phone. Iono was online more often than she was off the internet, right? Surely that meant she had to have her phone close by. Unless she was in a gym battle, she had to be available, right? "Please pick up, please pick up..." Dot repeated like it was a prayer. 

But before she could say it a third time, the screen burst to life with pastel pink, pale blue, and electric yellow. "Hola-hello-bonjour! Iono here! What'cha need?"

"Iono!" Dot cried out, relief washing through her like a tidal wave. "I'm so glad you answered!"

"Ooh! Nidothing outside the suit! Long time no see!" Iono greeted, her smile growing impossibly wider and brighter. "You've really taken off since we last talked. Your popularity still doesn't hold a candle to mine, of course, but--"

"I have a favor to ask!" Dot burst in, unable to keep her nervous energy bottled up for any longer than she already had. 

"What? What is it? Tell me, tell me!" Iono urged. 

"I need your help! I'm looking for someone!" Dot exclaimed. 

"Whaaaaa? Looking for someone?" Iono raised one hand to cover her mouth, but her fanged teeth still found a way to be visible around her oversized sleeve. "Y'know, I am a Gym Leader, so I'm a busy girl..."

"My IRL friend disappeared! I have to find her!" Dot cut in, not caring how rude it made her sound. A distant whisper in the back of her mind asked her if she had ever called Liko her friend before. She chose to not take the bait, already knowing it wouldn't lead her anywhere good. If she thought about her thoughts on Liko any more than was necessary, then she was only going to make herself feel worse, and Dot didn't want to entertain the idea of growing impossibly more anxious. 

"Ooh! You made an IRL pal?!" Iono questioned, leaning in closer to her phone eagerly. 

"Yeah," Dot replied, all of the air rushing out of her lungs at once. "A very precious friend." She felt heat begin to rise in her cheeks, but Dot ignored it with all the force she could muster. Now wasn't the time. She had to find Liko. 

"Gotcha, gotcha! Readin' you like a book." Iono jumped back into a seat behind her and crossed her legs. "But just 'looking' isn't gonna hype anyone up."

"Right," Dot nodded. "So I've got an idea."

"An idea?!" Iono gasped. "Tell me all about it!"

~~~~~

So far, Spinel had found nothing. 

In the handful of hours that had come and gone since he returned to his office, he had conducted numerous tests to try and draw the power of the pendant. He had hooked it up to a few machines to see if that would give him any new information. He put it under as much pressure physically as he could stand. He had even tried to jolt it with a few volts of electricity. Nothing seemed to be working, and short of completely destroying it, Spinel didn't think this was going to lead anywhere of note if he continued down this path. 

But the pendant had activated when it was in the hands of the target. Spinel had replayed the video footage of the various times the pendant sparked to life, and each time, there was a common thread: Liko had been put in danger. The pendant seemed to only activate when she was in grave peril and needed to be saved from death. If Spinel's assumptions were correct, then the pendant only activated when it was absolutely necessary to save her specifically. 

That was why he had taken her though. Spinel hadn't known for certain if she would be needed to activate the pendant's power at the time, but now, it was clear that she was crucial. So be it then. Spinel would do whatever he had to in order to activate the pendant, and if that meant putting Liko in danger, then he would do it. He couldn't kill her so long as she was such a crucial part of the Explorers' plans, but he could make her think she was going to die. That should be enough to activate the pendant. 

There was only one way to find out. 

Spinel's smile twisted with something sickeningly curious, and he started off toward the room where he was keeping the target. 

~~~~~

"Everybody, are you ready?!"

Iono rose out of a large platform overlooking crowds gathered at the center of Levincia. A screen spanned the outside of the platform, and it reflected Iono's every movement, proof she was being recorded by an unseen camera in the area. All eyes were on Iono, and as the crowd cheered, she thrived off their excitement. "Electrowebbing your eyes! Whozat? It's Iono!" The crowd's shouts grew louder, and Iono spread her arms high above her head. "It's time for 'Whatchagot TV!' As for today's guest, I have a special surprise! So take it away!"

The screen stopped projecting Iono's image as the zoomed-in face of Nidothing appeared across it instead. "Yo-ssu! All you Pokémon trainers out there!" Nidothing cried out as she pulled back from the camera. "Y'all been groovin'? It's the one and only Nidothing!" Quaxly popped up just beside Nidothing, waving to the camera as well. The crowd's cheers only grew louder and happier. 

The screen split itself in half, and Nidothing was pushed off to the left half of it. Iono took up the other side, and she turned to face the crowd with a bold grin. "Your attention, everyone! Me and Nidothing--a real dream team! And it's time to announce today's game! You're going to find our girl on the street!" The crowd clapped and cheered even louder, and Iono's cheeks burned from the strain her smile had on them. It did nothing discourage her from continuing to grin. "To put it simply, it's hide-and-seek. And since it's a collab today, a friend of Nidothing--one of her subscribers--will be doing the hiding!"

"The girl everyone's hunting for is... SprigatitoLove!" The images of Nidothing and Iono both faded away in favor of a profile picture rising up for the crowd to see. The image depicted Liko hidden behind Sprigatito. She was holding her partner up to block out her face, and Sprigatito stared ahead into the camera with the closest thing to a small smile a cat could muster. 

"Coil your eyes wide and get to searchin'!" Iono cried out, raising one arm high above her head. 

"Make sure you find SprigatitoLove for us!" Nidothing chimed in. "Whoever finds her will get a wonderful prize! Don't waste a moment!" 

The crowd followed Nidothing's instructions immediately, and everyone dispersed to try and catch even a tiny glimpse of the one and only SprigatitoLove. "I'll be right back!" Nidothing cried out even though no one could see the costume around the image of SprigatitoLove's profile picture. "Keep searchin' while I'm out!" 

With that, Nidothing hung up the call, and Iono clapped her hands over her head. "Get to it, everyone! There's not a second to lose! Find that fan!"

~~~~~

Dot let out a sigh as she clambered out of the Nidothing suit. She waddled over to her desk and typed away at the screen in search of any reports that would tell her where Liko was. To the people of Levincia and the rest of Paldea, this was just a goofy game about getting attention from Iono and Nidothing. To Dot, this was her only hope of figuring out where Liko had gone. She had to find a way to unravel the truth no matter how ill-prepared she felt. She had to do this. For Liko's sake, she needed to find her. 

Dot dialed a call to Friede once she was near her desk, and he picked up immediately. "Any luck?"

"I set up a game in Levincia with Iono," Dot explained. "Everyone there is going to see if they can find her. So far, no one has spotted her, but I'm hoping they will soon enough."

"We've been looking around Artazon all day, and we haven't found anything," Friede sighed. "We might head over to Levincia since that's the other city in range. If we haven't seen her here, then she might be there."

"The reports were likely all forged in Artazon. It would be a fair guess to say she's actually in Levincia and has been this entire time," Dot said. "But before you go to Levincia, swing by the ship. I want to help you with the search."

Murdock appeared in frame over Friede's shoulder, his eyes wide as could be. "Y-You mean you want to--"

"I want to find Liko," Dot declared. Her heart was screaming in her chest at the mere implication of leaving her room to track Liko down, but she wasn't going to let that stop her now. Maybe the collaboration's viewers would expect her to reappear as Nidothing once the search was over, but if she had her phone, then she would at least be able to call in so long as she found somewhere private. Hopefully, that would be enough. Dot couldn't just sit there in her room while everyone else looked for Liko. She owed it to herself and her friend to do all in her power to bring her back. 

Friend. 

That was what Liko was to her, wasn't she? Dot didn't know much about Liko and had never seen her face-to-face, but she still believed Liko was her friend. Liko wanted to reach out to her in a way very few others ever had. Dot did all she could to make sure Liko was alright and had even worked to ensure she stayed on the Brave Olivine when she thought about leaving. Dot couldn't say she knew much about friendship, but she dared to believe Liko may have been her first friend. 

Friede nodded from the other end of the line. "I'll be there soon. Get ready." The call hung up before Dot had the chance to respond, but she had little to say on the matter anyway. She was riding the high of saying she was going to leave her room for the search, and in a way, she needed to brace herself for all that was to come. 

But she would be fine. She had to be. Liko needed her right now, and Dot could set her shyness aside if it meant finding her friend again. 

Friend. 

The word haunted Dot as she made her way out of her room and onto the deck of the ship with Quaxly at her side. If she had not been so terrified, she may have smiled at the thought of it. Instead, it only made the unshed tears in her eyes feel heavier. 

Liko would come back soon. Dot was sure of it. 

She needed Liko to come back soon. 

~~~~~

Spinel had found nothing. 

It was beyond frustrating just how much time he had put into trying to learn more about the pendant only to come up short each time. His tests had all ended in failure, and the pendant hadn't so much as offered him a spark of its light. He had put it under pressure with hopes that it would do something to defend itself. He had tried pairing it with a Terastal Orb to see if it would spark to life when reacting to something similar. He had even shocked it with electricity to try and bring its defender out of its hiding place. None of it worked, and the pendant remained every bit as simple and unassuming as it had been when Spinel first took it off the target. 

In all past cases of the pendant activating itself, it had done so to defend Liko. The longer Spinel went on without finding any results, the surer of himself he was. Liko was necessary to activate the pendant's power, and Spinel needed to bring her into this if he was going to see what the pendant could do. He was glad he had brought her along when he took the pendant; it would have been such a hassle to go out and find her again to bring her back here. 

Spinel set the pendant down in the open box he had picked out for it. "Come, Umbreon." If he was going to need Liko in order to activate the pendant, then he was more than happy to use her. So long as she was useful, Spinel was fine with doing what was necessary. If the pendant activated to save Liko from life-threatening danger, then Spinel would simply have to manufacture that danger. 

He would have his answers by midnight. He was sure of it. 

~~~~~

Dot was already waiting for Friede when he arrived on the deck of the Brave Olivine. She had her hands shoved in her pockets in a tense imitation of calm, but Friede knew better than to fall for it. Dot was beyond stressed, and it was taking too much of her energy to keep herself even somewhat composed. 

Friede cast Dot a sideways smile even though he knew the circumstances did not call for it. Then again, out of place humor had always been his brand. "Wasn't it a pain to go outside?"

"It is a pain, yeah," Dot confirmed, pulling her hands out of her pockets. "But I want to look for Liko too. I can't let them get away with tricking me... And my friends."

"I understand how you feel... But we're up against a Pokémon trainer. You'll need a partner if there's a battle," Friede reminded her. 

"A partner..." Dot repeated, looking down at her slippers with a frown. 

A small quack pulled both Dot and Friede's attention to another part of the deck. Quaxly was standing there and looking up at Dot with a determined gleam in his eyes. He brushed his wings across the blue tuft atop his head, and Dot relaxed into a smile. "Quaxly!" 

Friede couldn't help but smile. He had expected this outcome for quite some time. Quaxly was simply too close with Dot to turn down the offer of becoming her partner. Even so, it was sweet to see them finally come together for the first time. "Looks like you're all set," Friede grinned. Dot and Quaxly stepped forward into Charizard's grasp, and the draconic Pokémon took hold of them with a roar of agreement. Once everyone was secure, Friede directed Charizard into the air. "Now let's go!"

~~~~~

She knew nothing. 

When she opened her eyes, it had been to muted darkness and a ceiling she did not recognize. A man stood in the doorway of the room, his celadon blue hair framing a smile that felt far more sinister than words could define. The world had succumbed to flashes of red, yellow, and green before going white again, and her memory was plunged into nothingness. 

When she next came to, she was standing in a large, cavernous room. Her eyes strained to make out the details of the place she had found herself in, but she did not try as hard as she should have. Effort felt distant, slipping through her fingers like sand she would never truly have the chance to grasp. There was no reason or logic anymore; there was only the darkness, and the darkness was numbing. 

She heard the cry of some Pokémon across the room before an attack soared through the air. It was aimed straight for her, and even as her instincts of self-preservation told her to move, she could not muster the care to do it actively. When her body moved, it was on its own and not because she had instructed it to. She saw some reflection of green and blue shine across something around her neck, but the details were unclear and muddied. Everything felt like it was. 

She should have cared more about the danger she knew she was in. She should have felt afraid when the attacks from that unknown Pokémon surged toward her. She should have wanted to preserve her safety and her life, and yet, her mind could not pull together the strength. Nothing felt like it mattered. It never could. 

Some distant whisper in the back of her mind told her that she did not know who she was. She never would again, though she could not say for certain why she was so sure of it. The darkness was comforting in a strange way, numbing out the fears that would have shriveled and screamed beneath the light of day. In the shadows, she was nothing, and it was comforting in a way she could not hope to define. 

The man with the muted teal hair stood off to the side as the Pokémon attacked her. His smile had tilted overboard to become a frown as he watched her. He was disappointed, and for a reason she couldn't describe, the thought sent a dull heat raging against the confines of her hollow chest. He wanted something, and she could not give it. She could not decipher if she wanted to help him or if she feared him, but her body trembled regardless. He knew he was scaring and hurting her... As much as he could hurt or scare someone who felt so deeply empty. He did not care in the slightest though. Nothing mattered aside from what he sought, and she was not giving it. She was failing him. 

She did not cry when something like steel glinted near his pocket. She did not scream or flinch when he drew nearer. Her body demanded that she do something, but her mind could not find the wherewithal to care. Nothing felt like it mattered, and she was not going to try and make it matter either. 

There in the darkness, she was as safe as she could have been. 

So some eternity later when the red, yellow, and green consumed her sight, she was afraid for a fraction of a breath before the numbness and the white dulled that too. 

~~~~~

Dot didn't understand why this wasn't working. 

Since she had been picked up by Friede, she had been scrambling all over Levincia looking for Liko. The collaboration game with Iono was drumming up a lot of buzz, but it didn't feel like enough. No one had any clues or hints as to where she could find Liko, and the desperate frustration was beginning to tear Dot apart. Liko couldn't have gone anywhere outside of Levincia or Artazon. Any other city was simply too far for her to go that far by foot. The Rising Volt Tacklers had already searched Artazon for hours, and all of the reports had turned up false. She had to be there in Levincia. 

Dot's mind kept straying back to what Friede had said back in Artazon. He had proposed the idea that Liko had been kidnapped, and while Dot had reacted extremely and negatively at the time, she knew there was a chance he was right. Liko wasn't the type to just wander off, and she wouldn't have gone dark and stopped responding to phone messages on top of that. There must have been something else going on. Amethio had tried to kidnap her back at her school, hadn't he? The other Explorers could have tried to come after her once Amethio pulled out and stopped trying. The Explorers had a history of trying to go after Liko, so it wasn't inconceivable that they could have been behind this. 

No... No, she couldn't think like that. Dot couldn't let herself think like that. She had to find Liko no matter how hard it turned out to be. The Explorers could do all they wanted, but Dot was going to bring Liko home. 

And when she did, she was finally going to see her friend face-to-face for the first time. 

The word friend continued to echo relentlessly through Dot's head as she darted through the streets of Levincia. She and Roy were looking together while Friede searched from the air. There were no reports of anyone finding or seeing Liko though, and it left a horrible pit in Dot's stomach that refused to be filled. It didn't matter how many times she told herself they were going to be fine; she simply couldn't believe it. 

Friend friend friend friend friend--

Dot's mind found merciful silence as she rounded a corner into an alleyway. She looked around frantically for any signs of Liko, but she saw nothing. She was on the verge of moving on when a glint of red caught her eye. Dot paused and crouched down to find a Rotom phone had been left on the ground. Its screen was consumed by static and noise, but that wasn't what caught Dot's attention. Instead, it was the small notch in the top right corner of the phone. Liko had mentioned to Roy once that her phone had been damaged slightly during one of their battles with the Explorers. Dot had seen the dent for herself when watching the occupants of the Brave Olivine through the various cameras on the ship, and she would have known it anywhere. 

"Do you think she's--"

Dot blocked out the voice that sounded both like and unlike hers and began to tinker with the phone. Her fingers were shaking, but through some miracle, she managed to get the device on again. Dot quickly navigated to the settings, and just as she had expected, she was met with Liko's name and smiling picture. 

No. 

Dot's lips wrenched apart in a dreadful, miserable scream, and her free hand moved to grasp at her scalp. Liko's phone was in a dark alley, alone and abandoned, and Liko was nowhere to be found. There was only one explanation for that. 

Roy reached out for Dot's shoulder, and she didn't pull away. Instead, she just clenched her teeth together and ignored the tears streaking down her face onto the screen of Liko's phone. 

It was a kidnapping. 

Her friend had been kidnapped. 

~~~~~

Roy wished he knew what to do. 

He had been doing his best to keep his spirits up after he found himself in Levincia and caught up with the search for Liko, but it was much easier said than done. His mind was racing with a million and one fears he could only hope turned out to be unproven... But he already knew it wasn't going to be that simple. Liko's phone being found in the alley was proof. 

Dot had gone eerily silent ever since she found the phone, and she gripped it with a fury unlike anything Roy had ever seen before. Roy wanted to say something to ease the stress and tension in the air between them, but no words seemed sufficient. Not even a song from Fuecoco would get through to Dot when she was like this, and he knew it. 

Roy did his best to distract himself by searching for Liko down every street and around every corner, but finding nothing only made the chaos rattling around in his stomach worse. Amethio had tried to kidnap Liko back when she first met Roy, and Amethio would have succeeded if not for a lucky spark of light from Liko's pendant. The Explorers were not above criminal activity if it meant accomplishing their goals. Maybe their threats of kidnapping had finally boiled over into true triumph this time. 

Each time Roy thought of that, his mind dragged itself back to the conversation he had last shared with Liko. He had been the last one to see her, hadn't he? She had said she wanted to go and buy something for Murdock, and Roy... Roy had been so distracted with Wattrel that he hadn't given her a second glance when she darted off. If he had paid a bit more attention to what she was doing, then maybe he would have been able to go with her. She wouldn't have been taken if he had been there with her, right? She would be fine if he had been there with her, right?

Roy shook his head in a failed effort to force the thought out of his head. Thinking about all the ways this could go wrong would do him no good, and he knew it. Liko could have still been out there, and Roy was going to do everything in his power to find her. It didn't matter how long it took; he would track her down. He had to. They would bring her back home. 

Roy didn't know what he would do if they failed. 

~~~~~

The search was going just as well in Levincia as it had in Artazon. 

All members of the Rising Volt Tacklers save for Ludlow had arrived in Levincia by now, and they were searching on the ground just like everyone who had been allured by the thought of a personal meeting with Iono and Nidothing. Even though half the city was searching for Liko, no one had any records of where she could have been. Friede had called to check in with all of them at least twice now, but they never had any new information for him. If they knew something, they would have reached out to say it. 

A call from Dot drew Friede's attention to his phone, and he answered it before going back to looking at the ground below. He was still riding atop Charizard, hoping a view from the air would increase his chances of finding Liko, but so far, he had seen no more luck than the rest of his team. "What's going on, Dot?" Friede asked, yelling above the roar of the wind around him. 

"We found Liko's phone," Dot replied, and Friede felt his blood run cold. "It was an alley, but I didn't see any signs of her there. I don't know what happened, but... She's not where her phone was dropped."

The kidnapping theory rocketed to the forefront of Friede's mind, but he did his best to ignore its screeches. "Any ideas on where she could have gone after she dropped it?" Friede asked, though they all knew a lot more would have had to happen than Liko simply 'dropping' her phone. Rotom phones could fly, and if Liko's hadn't gone after her, then... 

"No ideas yet," Dot answered, rasping for breath in between each word. All this running around was a lot more work and effort than she had expected, but she couldn't let herself stop when Liko's safety depended on continuing to push forward. "I... I'm going to call Iono. There's something else I need to do." 

Dot hung up the call before Friede had the chance to ask what it was, and he let out a heavy sigh. He trusted Dot to do what she had to in order to set this right, but he couldn't help his ever-present fear of what could have happened beyond his reach. No matter how he looked at it, he was certain something bad had happened to Liko, and he could only hope he would be able to bail her out of it just as he had in the past. 

He didn't even want to imagine what would happen if he fell short. 

~~~~~

Nidothing's voice boomed throughout the streets of Levincia. No image accompanied her words, but the people in the city all stopped anyway to hear what she had to say. "Yo-ssu, Pokèmon trainers! I have an update to our little game of hide-and-seek! Since no one has found SprigatitoLove just yet, I'm here to add a little something extra to the game! Whoever can find SprigatitoLove will receive a cash prize! Yes, that's right! On top of a meet and greet, I'll offer money to the person who finds her! You had better keep on searchin'! Something big is waiting for whoever wins our game!"

The announcement faded away just as quickly as it had been made, and the clamor and excitement in the streets only raised in intensity. Those who had been uninterested in the search before gladly jumped into action now, and soon enough, nearly every eye in Levincia was searching for a trace of the black-haired girl behind the SprigatitoLove account. The only thing that could make a viral sensation bigger was an even greater prize, and Nidothing had been happy to provide just that. 

Dot let out a sigh as she finished speaking into her phone. She leaned back against the building behind her, and the structure seemed to be the only thing keeping her upright anymore. She hoped this would be enough to get people interested in helping her to find Liko. Dot had a bit of money to toss around because of her work as Nidothing, and hopefully, that would act as a fine enough prize for this impromptu game of hers. Maybe she was jumping the gun and pulling out the extra boost in momentum a bit too early. She knew she could be impatient, and she had been aware of it for years. 

But she couldn't bring herself to care. If impatience and recklessness was what would bring Liko home, then Dot would be impatient and reckless every day for the rest of her life. She knew the idea of a cash prize only made her game more suspicious, and she was fully aware there was a chance people could see this for the desperate hunt it truly was, but none of that mattered. No price was too high if it would bring Liko back. No disgrace was too great if it would give Dot her friend back. 

Friend. 

Roy rounded the corner and stood in front of Dot with a muted frown on his face. If he had any comments to make about Dot being Nidothing, he chose to not voice them, instead watching her for a long, silent moment. Dot didn't rise to the bait of looking into his eyes, knowing it was only going to make her spiral all over again. She had done that more than enough already. 

Instead, Dot let out a thin breath through her nose. "Let's keep going," she told Roy. He didn't comment on the stark contrast between her voice as Nidothing and her voice as Dot. He simply followed after her when she took off again, Fuecoco and Quaxly hot on his heels. 

They were going to find her. They had to. 

~~~~~

Spinel was getting closer. He could feel it. 

Over the course of the last few hours, he had been trying to push harder to learn more about the pendant. Some would call the tests he was performing drastic and violent... But it would all be worth it if he was able to get to the bottom of this mystery. He was closer than anyone else ever had been. The truth would be in his hands soon enough. 

The pendant seemed to be able to tell the difference between the danger he was putting the target in now compared to the risk she had faced in the heat of an actual battle. Her body was enough to get her out of the way, and since her life wasn't on the line as long as her instincts held true, the pendant had not yet activated. Spinel knew he was on the right track though. He was going to find a way to activate the pendant, and the power contained within it would burst forth when he did. 

Until then, Spinel knew he had hit the wall. Liko had seemed off ever since she woke up, and after barely avoiding the maw of danger once again, her legs gave out beneath her. Spinel sighed and shook his head, and he approached her with Beheeyem at his back. The tan Pokémon raised its hands, and lights of red, yellow, and green flashed in Liko's eyes before she went slack again. Spinel sighed once he was certain her consciousness had faded away, and he stared down at her limp form for a long while. He couldn't let her go just yet, not when he was so close to the truth. 

The night was getting late though, and Spinel's frustration was starting to morph into exhaustion. He would have to take Liko back to the Explorers' base and pick up with the next part of his search for the truth in the morning. The base wasn't too far from there, and he would be able to get there soon if he left now. Spinel could figure out how to take care of her on the way. 

Though he couldn't help thinking about the numbness that had risen in her eyes since he began to conduct his tests. Her mind was far from being present in her body now. Spinel had erased a few people's memories over the years, but he had never gone beyond that. He had used Beheeyem's power once and then pulled back. Beheeyem had been necessary a handful of times during the experiments tonight though, and Liko seemed less like a person and more like an empty husk. Any memories that she could have still held were long gone now, and she was a perfectly blank slate. 

Spinel paused and looked down at Liko once again. If she had no memories of her past or who she had been before all of this, then perhaps this was something he would be able to take advantage of. Maybe he could capitalize on her lack of knowledge about the world. With her memories gone, she had no reason to distrust the Explorers. With her personal experiences erased, she was a perfect piece of clay to be molded as Spinel so chose. 

He would never need to worry about her trying to escape or get in contact with her old friends if he gave her something new to replace that past. She was in a perfect position to be changed completely. All of this would have been easier if Liko had simply gone along with the Explorers when they first entered her life. Perhaps this was the perfect chance to make up for lost time. Liko could join the Explorers now, and she would be in the perfect position to help Spinel draw out the power of the pendant and to open the path to Gibeon's goal. 

Spinel chuckled into the dark silence around him. This plan would suit his goals perfectly... And he couldn't wait to put it into motion. 

It was time for the Explorers to gain a new member, and he knew everyone would be beyond excited to meet her. 

~~~~~

Nothing. 

Dot had lost track of how long she had been searching for Liko. They all had. The search had truly started in the afternoon, but over ten hours had passed since then. It was well after midnight now, and exhaustion was starting to take hold of Dot's mind and body. She was normally fine with staying up all through the night, but she could only do that if she was in her room and able to apply her energy as she chose. Running all over Levincia was a different story, and she could feel herself hitting the wall. 

The Rising Volt Tacklers had come together after they all searched through different sections of the city at least three times each. Friede guided Charizard to land at the center of the gathered group, and he glanced around at his crew. "Any luck?" he asked. He knew long before he received a response that the answer was going to be no. If anything had changed, he would have already heard about it ages ago. 

"I can't believe this," Dot muttered, her fingers clenching together into fists. "Liko was taken, and... And..." She didn't know what she was going to say after that, but she cut herself off with a frustrated yell, and she pressed one hand against her face to try and stem her tears. It didn't work, but she at least appreciated the rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers for not saying anything about it. 

Mollie hesitated before she let out a heavy sigh that seemed to make her entire body shake. She seemed so much more frail tonight than she ever had been before. "Maybe we should go back to the ship," she suggested slowly. "We've been at this for hours, and we've had no luck. We can start looking around again tomorrow."

"No!" Dot protested. "What if we're just missing something? If we wait for an entire night, then it could be too late for us to find her again! We have to keep looking! We have to find her, and--"

"Dot, I understand why you're so stressed," Murdock cut in, pressing a hand to his niece's shoulder. "But you can't keep going on like this. None of us can. We need to take a break and keep looking when we're not about to collapse from exhaustion."

Dot wanted to argue against him, to push back until she was able to find Liko and bring her home, but she already knew it was futile. She didn't want to admit it, but Murdock was right. They were all on the verge of losing their grips, and they wouldn't be able to search effectively for Liko if they kept on like this. They needed to stop, and they had to hope with all they had that it wouldn't keep them from being able to save Liko at all. 

"All of Levincia is searching for Liko now too," Orla pointed out. "They could find her overnight while we're asleep. We could wake up to good news. The game is going to keep going after we turn in. That's the appeal of it, isn't it?"

"We're not giving up," Friede assured Dot before she could imply it. "We're going to keep looking tomorrow, and we won't stop until we find Liko. It might not be easy, but we're going to do it. I promise." 

Dot pressed her lips together as she fell silent, and she forced herself to nod around the knot that had risen in the back of her throat. She wasn't going to give up no matter what happened. She would find Liko. If it didn't happen tonight, then she would find a way to make it happen the next day. 

She had to. They all had to. 

~~~~~

Dot barely remembered the trip back to the Brave Olivine. The world blurred by around her, and her exhaustion settled in quickly and brutally in her bones. Soon enough, she felt every bit as dead on her feet as the rest of the crew, though she had no idea how she would be able to convince herself to sleep. Resting felt impossible as long as Liko was still missing.

Dot collapsed onto her bed as soon as she arrived back in her room, her body giving out beneath her the instant it was put under any sort of pressure. She heard herself scream before she registered she was doing it, and she only fell silent when Quaxly settled down on the pillow beside her. The duck offered her a soft quack of solidarity, but it didn't feel like enough. Nothing felt like enough.

They had failed. They had looked all day and well into the night, but they hadn't found Liko. There weren't even any traces of her aside from her phone, and Dot hadn't found anything helpful on it either. Liko was just gone. It was like she had vanished into thin air...

But Dot knew that wasn't what had happened. There was only one way all of this could have happened, and she knew it even if she didn't want to admit it. Liko had been kidnapped, and if Dot had to guess, the Explorers had been behind it. Who else would have wanted to go after her? The Explorers had already been tampering with the internet on the ship. Who was to say they weren't going to make the situation worse by outright taking her? They weren't above kidnapping, and Amethio had proven it time and again. It didn't matter how much Dot tried to deny it; she knew Liko had been kidnapped, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Dot hoped with every fiber of her being that Orla was right. All of Levincia was searching, and there were likely people beyond the city's limits who were trying to find Liko too. At least one of them must have succeeded in figuring out where she went. For all she knew, Dot would wake up to find that Liko had been recovered.

But when Dot was honest with herself, she already knew that wasn't going to happen. She didn't even know why she bothered to hope for it.

Friend friend friend.

~~~~~

Amethio hadn't been back to the Explorers' base ever since he was taken off the mission to retrieve the pendant. As far as he was concerned, his best option was to pursue the black Rayquaza and hope it brought him the glory he needed to restore his reputation in the eyes of his grandfather. If he could capture such a powerful Pokémon, then he would get everything back. He knew he could do it. All he had to do was find out where it was and then see it brought to heel.

Zirc and Onia were typing away on their computers within the sumbarine base they had made their own over the course of the last few weeks. They were doing all they could to track down the black Rayquaza, and they had brought a number of successful reports to Amethio too. They had always gotten there too late to actually catch more than a glimpse of it, but Amethio was sure they would find it soon. If they kept searching, they had to find it.

The ding of a notification noise pulled Amethio out of his thoughts where he was standing near Onia's computer. She clicked on the message and gasped at the sight of it. "Amethio, sir!" she called out even though he was just a few paces away. "It's a message from the Explorers' headquarters!"

Amethio closed the distance to stand behind her seat in a matter of seconds. He looked over her shoulder at the message. It was a brief one, but it sent a shiver sprinting up and down his spine anyway:

'Return to the base. You have a new assignment.'

The message had been sent by Hamber, and Amethio knew he wouldn't have said something like that without a reason. He thought it was crucial for Amethio to return as soon as possible... But why? What new mission could have been more pressing than finding the black Rayquaza?

And yet, Hamber had asked for him specifically. That had to mean something. Perhaps Amethio was being given a new chance to take the pendant... Or perhaps there was something else waiting for him far beyond what he could have ever expected. Amethio was almost tempted to ignore it and keep searching for the black Rayquaza, but he knew he wouldn't get away with it. If he was wanted at the base for this new mission, then he would have to return for it.

Amethio let out a thin sigh through his nostrils. "Start back toward the base."

"Sir!" Zirc and Onia chorused before they got to work. Amethio stepped away from Onia's seat with a frown on his face. Something must have prompted Hamber to request his presence back at the base... But Amethio had an awful feeling about it. This wouldn't happen out of nowhere, so the situation must have changed. Spinel was the new head of the mission to acquire the pendant, and that didn't bode well for anyone. Could he have been up to something? Was that what this was about? Would Amethio ever even know what Spinel was trying to do nowadays? Did he even want to know?

There was only one way for him to find out.

The submarine changed directions, and it took off through the blue in the direction of the Explorers' base.