Chapter Text
After the mission to help with the excavation process, the Rising Volt Tacklers were caught up in a few other small jobs to try and cover the money they had lost in recruiting Lapras. Getting another one of the Six Heroes on their side was worth it in more ways than they could ever hope to count, of course, but it was admittedly a bit frustrating that they had to go to so much trouble to cover their bases in the aftermath. At least the Pokémon from Lapras' group would be able to eat for quite some time with the food they had taken.
First, there had been a job to find a Pokémon that had gone missing. Liko had to admit that job was a fairly simple one, though it was strange to see Friede and Cap arguing for so much of it. She hadn't thought it was possible for the two of them to struggle so much with friction between them in the first place, and yet, there they were. Liko was glad when everything was resolved by the end of the day though. She also made a mental note after the fact to never call Cap cute just in case it sent him into another sneezing fit. Opal couldn't figure out how that allergy even worked, but she decided to respect it in the end for the sake of not hurting a friend.
After that, they picked up a few other odd jobs that Liko couldn't say she understood. Dot had been evasive about it, but she said there was some research she needed to do in a small town with someone she had met online. Liko and Roy had gone out to investigate, and at the end of the day, Liko remained very confused about what in the world Dot had gotten her involved with. She was doubly confused when the same girl she had spoken to during that trip out of the ship turned up in a Nidothing video alongside a battle that was eerily similar to the one she had witnessed. Liko didn't know what in the world had happened there, but she was glad to have been able to witness something caught up in a video she enjoyed so much. It was interesting if nothing else, though it did confuse her and then some.
At present, the group's finances were almost back to the place where they had been before, and they were ready to move on. They had still lost a little bit in the way of money, but Friede and Orla seemed to think it was enough for them to continue traveling, so the group would be looking to the future soon enough. Liko was looking forward to going out on more adventures, and she knew Opal was eager about it too. Opal was still new to going out and exploring the world as a member of the Rising Volt Tacklers, and she really hadn't done that much during the last few missions. Instead, she had preferred to hang back and let Liko take care of it.
Two nights after the mission in the small town, Liko laid down on her bed and stared up at the ceiling. She could feel Opal's presence nearby, and that was enough of a reason for her to spark up a conversation with her. "I think you should try to do something when we go out on our next mission," Liko said. "You're a really talented battler from what I remember, and it would be nice if you decided to come out of your shell and show that off for a while."
Internally, Opal's cheeks flared pink at the compliment, and she stared down at the ground with a frown. "I don't want to get in the way," Opal murmured. "You know the rest of the people on the ship a lot better than I do, and... I'm not going to interfere with your work. It wouldn't be right of me to do that. I think it would be better for you to do it."
"I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit," Liko countered. "You're great at what you do. I remember you being talented when you trained with the Explorers. I don't remember much of it, but..." She shook her head. "That's not important. I want you to try and get to know everyone else a little bit better. I don't want you to feel like you have to hide all the time."
"But..." Opal started to protest, but she silenced herself again just as quickly. There was nothing she could say that Liko would accept as an excuse. Opal could say again and again that she felt like a bother and that she was intruding on the life that Liko had built before she even existed... But Liko wasn't going to hear her. Instead, Liko was just going to ask that she step into the present and join her current life. Opal didn't need to push the world away because she was afraid. Liko wanted her to move past her fear and find something she could enjoy in the present instead of chasing the pains of the past.
Liko was on the verge of voicing this when something flashed just outside of her window, and she yelped as she slammed her eyes closed. Realistically, she knew the light must have just been lightning. The weather report had said it was supposed to storm that night... But in her mind, all she could think about was the dark room Spinel had taken her to when he decided to change her life and tear her apart. The shadows had been absolute back then, and they felt ready to swallow her whole... Save for the occasional jolts of light that came with his Pokémon doing something out of the ordinary. They had attacked her and wiped her mind over and over back then, and her only choice had been to stand there and take it.
Liko's body moved on its own as she grabbed her pillow and then slammed it in front of her face to try and block the light out as much as possible. She knew she was only going to spend the entire night stressed if she could see the lightning, so if she couldn't reverse the storm and send it back where it had come from, then she was at least going to do her best to keep from having to look at it. All of a sudden, trying to coax Opal out of her shell was secondary to keeping her heart rate under control. It was just a storm, and yet, it was reminding her so much of Spinel that Liko almost felt like she couldn't bear it.
"Hey..." Opal started, her voice a bit stilted. She wasn't used to having to comfort people. In the past, she hadn't been given the opportunity to take care of anyone in this way. Her only method of aid or defense had been to take over Liko's body entirely, but that wasn't going to help them at all. Opal already knew the storm was going to stress her out too just as the ocean had sent both of them spiraling and crashing into the ground previously. "Everything is going to be alright. We're not back there."
"Still..." Liko murmured back, the word muffled by the pillow to the point that it only came out of her lips internally. She pressed her eyes shut even within her own mind like she thought that would do something else to block out the lightning. In the end, it didn't matter, and she could still see the next flash around the edges of her eyesight buried beneath the pillow and hiding her face in her brain too. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop the way her body jolted from the shock either. "I don't think I like storms."
Opal wanted to tell Liko that she didn't like storms either. If there was nothing she could do to stop the weather from tearing them apart from the inside out, then the least she could do was offer a bit of solidarity. Opal's words were stolen from her lips just as quickly though when another clap of thunder echoed just outside of their window, and she flinched instinctively. She clamped her eyes shut a little bit more like she thought that would be enough to fully protect her. It never would be, but she could at least hope the situation would turn around soon enough. "This is going to be a very long night."
~~~~~
Just as Opal had anticipated, she and Liko were up for most of the night. She was resistant to getting on their phone even now that she had access to a device like that, thinking it would only keep them up later. That meant they spent most of the night trying to not acknowledge the weather beyond their window. They talked to their Pokémon until all of them had fallen asleep, and even after that, Opal wanted to keep whispering something just so she had something else to do aside from think. Her head was pounding the following morning, and the sting wasn't getting any easier to bear with time. She had hoped she would be able to catch at least a little bit of rest before she had to get up and face the rest of the day, but she was sorely mistaken. Instead, her body just wanted to fight her more and more on the fact that she was awake, and there was nothing she could do about it.
Opal wasn't sure of how much sleep she and Liko had or had not gotten. She was sure they had dozed off a few times, but it was impossible to track when they had been so focused on just closing their eyes and playing dead there in the darkness. All Opal really knew when morning came was that she needed some fresh air. She hated that the rest of the world was going to smell like rain, but she had no other choice but to face it. Staying in their room wasn't helping anyone, so she had to get outside and hope that was enough to turn her situation around for the better.
As it turned out, Opal wasn't the only one who was in need of a little bit of time to recover on the heels of the storm. The rain had done a bit of damage to the exterior of the ship, and Orla would have to repair it before the group got off the ground again. Opal had to wonder if perhaps the group hadn't taken on enough miscellaneous missions before they tried to take to the skies once more. If that was the case, then she would do what she could to help... Not that it ever wound up amounting to much. She was too afraid of invading the rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers' lives. They had wanted Liko around, not her, and she felt like she would be a parasite and a bother each time she stepped into the rooms they were in. It made her skin start to crawl, and Opal couldn't bear it, so she ultimately avoided everyone else as much as she was able to get away with it.
That wasn't to say that she wanted to stay away from the rest of the crew. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Opal would have loved to be able to open up around them enough to feel safe for the first time in her life. She didn't want to spend the rest of her days on edge or wondering if she should go back to the Explorers. She wanted to feel safe there in the present. She wanted to kick the voice in the back of her head that told her she was only good for something when she was serving others. She wanted to destroy that which told her she should return to Spinel as soon as she was able to do so. The best way of handling that was to bond with the others on the ship, and yet, it felt wrong. Opal wasn't supposed to do that. She wasn't supposed to be there at all. she wasn't supposed to exist, and yet, she did anyway, and it felt like she would spend the rest of her life trying to make up for the fact that she had been brought to life against everyone's will.
Opal meandered her way through the ship toward the infirmary. Hatenna had darted away from her at some point, having taken a fascination with Chansey's healing abilities. Mollie had thought it would be a good idea to check in with all of the Pokémon before they started flying again, and the brief dock on the ground was the perfect opportunity to do it. Hatenna wanted to be included too, and she constantly imitated Chansey's Heal Pulse move to make sure she was able to help. It wasn't doing much just yet, but Opal could see potential in Hatenna. She could do anything she put her mind to, and Opal would encourage her through it however she could.
"We owe Hatenna a lot, don't we?" Liko's voice echoed within Opal's mind, and Opal instinctively went stiff from her place in the doorway of the infirmary. "When I look back on it now... I think I understand what happened when we first found her. I felt strange and hazy at the time, but... I think you were the one connecting with her. I think she resonated with you for your kindness, Opal."
"What?" Opal echoed back, her eyes widening. She hadn't ever thought of herself as kind before. In fact, she didn't think of herself as much of anything other than a shadow. She wasn't Liko, and that was all she knew. She was defined less by what she felt explained her personality and more by what she lacked. Could a person's entire identity instead be attributed to how little of an identity they had?
"I felt like something was strange when I first met her, and I think it was because of you," Liko insisted. "I think she could tell you were there even before we could, and she wanted to get to know you better. It was really sweet... And it makes me wish I had noticed what was happening sooner."
Opal couldn't stand the kindness Liko was sharing with her, and her skin felt like it was going to shake its way right off her bones and into a pile on the floor. She didn't like it when people were nice with her. It was overwhelming and suffocating in a way she couldn't put to words, and the only thing Opal knew now was that she needed air. She had to get out of the ship and onto solid ground. She couldn't stay in the place where she knew she wouldn't be able to connect with anyone because she was not meant to exist in the first place.
Hatenna and Sprigatito trailed after Opal as she walked off the ship and onto the grassy ground below. Just as she had expected, the air smelled like rain, but she supposed it was tolerable. The stormy ocean within her nightmares had never smelled like much of anything on account of it only existing inside of her head. She hated the storm while it was happening, but she could tolerate it well enough now that it was over. She felt broken as could be for struggling at all, but she supposed this was a progress even if it didn't feel like it would ever quite be enough.
Opal stared up at the sky with a frown. It was so perfectly blue, a far cry from everything she had ever grown used to over the course of her strange life up to that point. She had spent most of her days locked away behind the Explorers' base's closed doors, and when she was able to leave it behind, she was confined to the darkened skies of her mind's internal world. She was unused to seeing beauty like this even though it was all she had ever wanted deep down. This really was the breath of fresh air she had been chasing, but she still found her chest tight when she thought about it. As nice as this was, it still felt wrong. She wasn't supposed to be there enjoying the scenery of nature. She didn't know what she was meant to be doing with her life, but it wasn't all of this.
Sprigatito had started to sniff at the air from her place on the ground, and she meowed while staring in one direction. Opal snapped herself out of her thoughts and followed Sprigatito's line of attention off into the distance. "What is it?" Opal asked. Sprigatito didn't answer her verbally, though Opal supposed that was to be expected since Sprigatito didn't exactly speak the same language as her. Still, if Sprigatito thought there was something relevant to be found in the area, then Opal was going to do everything she could to investigate it. That felt like the least she could offer.
It didn't take long for Opal and Hatenna to find what it was had caught Sprigatito's attention. Lying on the ground was a small white mouse, its eyes closed and its breathing shallow. Opal's eyes flew wide open, and she crouched beside the mouse gently. "Hello?" she called out even though she knew once again that there probably wouldn't be too much of a point to it on account of Pokémon not speaking the same language as her. "Can you hear me? Is everything alright?"
The mouse remained still and silent, though when Opal picked it up, she found that it was still breathing. Good. That meant there was a chance for it to pull through even though she wasn't entirely sure of what hardship had put it in this position in the first place. Opal didn't know anything about the mouse, but she was determined to learn as much as she could in order to help it. She couldn't just walk away from a creature she knew was suffering. There had to be something she could try.
Liko took over her and Opal's other hand, and she reached into their pocket to pull out their phone. With a little bit of tapping on the screen, Liko was able to open up the Pokédex, and it immediately activated with information about the Pokémon in question. Opal didn't pay much attention to what her phone said, but she listened for long enough to be able to hear the Pokémon's name. "Tandemaus..." she murmured to herself. She looked up at the screen even though it felt wrong to even consider giving her attention to something that had been taken away from her during her time with the Explorers. Opal frowned when she realized the image displayed two mice for some reason. She had no idea why in the world her phone would want to show two of them at once. Wouldn't it make more sense to only show one? That was the way it was for all of the other Pokémon she had seen before... Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say it was the method the phone had used to show Liko all of the Pokémon they had looked at in the past. Opal wasn't going to say that time was hers when she knew better than to believe it was already.
"We should get back to the ship," Liko suggested, pushing their body to its feet. "This Tandemaus is hurt, and I think it needs all the help it can get. I'm sure Mollie will be able to do something to help it to feel better. We just need to give it to her."
Opal's chest tightened. She didn't want to have to go back to the ship when she already felt like such a bother in the limited time she had spent there. Why did she need to talk to someone who she felt was going to be more comfortable with the other half of her? But she couldn't think like that now. Tandemaus needed her help, and that meant Opal had to be willing to set her insecurities and fears aside in favor of stepping up and doing what had to be done. Maybe she could just let Liko handle the conversation with Mollie. That was something she could agree to do without any issues.
At this point, Opal knew she had to get over herself. There were more important things for her to worry about than whether or not others thought of her as an intrusion or a parasite. She could go right back to strategizing ways to stay out of the way of others once she was sure Tandemaus was safe. It was just a trip to the infirmary. It couldn't be that bad. She could do this. She knew she could.
~~~~~
Tandemaus, on the other hand, could not.
It all felt like a blur. It had happened too fast for Opal to fully register what had happened until after the fact. She and Liko had taken Tandemaus back to the ship, and Opal had stepped back to let Liko explain the situation to Mollie. In theory, that should have been the end of it, and they shouldn't have had to worry at all about the rest of the healing process since Mollie would be able to take care of it.
In practice, Tandemaus jumped out of bed and ran off the ship as soon as it was given the chance, and Liko and Opal were driven right back out of the Brave Olivine to try and find it. Opal was terrified out of her mind that they weren't going to be able to find it. Tandemaus was tiny, and if it was running around, then it could end up hiding in the shrubbery and then disappearing from view. How were they supposed to look after something that was so easy to miss? Opal wasn't going to give up without at least putting in a bit of effort, but it worried her more than she could ever hope to describe.
"I don't understand why Tandemaus ran off," Opal murmured, rubbing at her arms anxiously. "Wouldn't it want to stay in the infirmary where it's safe?" Tandemaus had clearly been injured because of the storm, but it would never have to worry about something like that ever again if it only stayed with the Rising Volt Tacklers. What reason could it possibly have for going out into the world again? Why would it wander back out into the wilderness that had already hurt it once?
"Hold on a moment," Liko realized, reaching for her phone and starting to tap at the screen once more. Opal politely pretended she wasn't doing anything, the wrongness around having anything to do with a phone still refusing to leave her so long after she walked away from the Explorers. Liko continued her search for information though, eventually striking gold with a gasp. "I was wondering why there were two mice in the Pokédex's overview... There are supposed to be two of them! They belong together!"
"Then it left to go and search for its other half," Opal concluded, her eyes widening. In an instant, everything made sense. Opal knew exactly why the Tandemaus would run off. After all, she probably would have thought about doing the same if she had been in its situation. She knew what it was like to feel like a fundamental piece of herself was missing. How could she not? She had lost so much of herself when she was forced to join the Explorers, and she had lost yet another piece when she was forced to leave them behind. Opal simply never felt like a complete person anymore, but if she had been in Tandemaus' position with an easy way to pursue the other parts of her... She would have done it in a heartbeat.
In that way, Opal couldn't help but sympathize with Tandemaus. She had felt lost and alone when she didn't have Liko by her side since they were being kept away by the various barriers of their memory. Now that they had found one another again, Opal refused to let go for anything in the world. They needed to stick together, and Opal knew Tandemaus felt the same way. So as soon as she was able, she was going to do what she could to help the two pieces of Tandemaus to reunite. She and Liko needed each other, and the two mice that made up Tandemaus' group name needed each other too.
Opal glanced around for any signs of white against the greenery of the forest, and eventually, she found what she was searching for. Tandemaus was standing in front of the entrance to a cave, screaming at the top of its lungs. Its voice was soft and frail, strained from the storm it had been forced to weather the night before, but Opal could still tell what it was trying to communicate. It was trying to call out for its friend, and Opal had to help it to reach its destination.
Opal walked up behind Tandemaus, crouching down beside it. "Is your friend in there?" she asked softly, and Tandemaus looked up at her. It pointed into the cave in distress, and that told Opal everything she needed to know. There was a tree blocking the pathway leading into the cave, but she was sure she would be able to slip through it if she was able to hold her breath and maneuver at the right angle. Even if Tandemaus managed to reach its other half, it wouldn't do much when it no doubt needed healing. Since the other mouse hadn't tried to find the one beside Opal yet, then that meant it was probably too injured to even think of venturing out into the rest of the world. It needed help, and Opal was going to be the one to deliver it.
Opal wasted no time in slipping through the gap, her Pokémon joining her a moment later. She was lucky she had managed to fit into the hole. She doubted she would have made it if she was too much larger. Any adult would have gotten stuck if they tried to get through a gap like that. It was a good thing Opal had run off on her own to try and find Tandemaus then. If Mollie had been the one to do it, then--
"Liko!"
Opal froze at the sound of Mollie's voice, turning to look through the gap in between the fallen tree and the ground outside the cave. Mollie was crouched on the ground with a pale face and worry screaming through her eyes. "What in the world are you doing?" Mollie demanded, her concern overpowering any gentleness she would have tried to show under other circumstances. "Why are you in there? Let me help you out!"
"I'm alright, Mollie," Opal found herself saying even though she knew she should have stepped back and let Liko take care of it. Her heart was racing from a firm need to defend herself, and she couldn't seem to leave it to Liko regardless of how much she knew she should have. "I just... Tandemaus is missing its other half. I think it's in this cave. I'm going to do what I can to help it and then get out. I'll be back as soon as I've found the other one, alright?"
Mollie's eyes had gone wide when she realized she wasn't talking to Liko but instead Opal. It was the first time she had ever knowingly talked to Opal since the other half of Liko tended to spend most of her time hiding away so as to not be a bother. If Opal was willing to step up and say something now, then that meant the situation truly was serious. "H-Hold on a moment!" Mollie called after Opal, but it did nothing to stop her from what she knew she had to do. If the other part of Tandemaus was in there, then Opal was going to find it and then deliver it to safety.
Opal followed Tandemaus slowly through the cave, glancing around for any signs of white in the darkness. There was very little light down there, and she felt like she should have brought a flashlight... Until Liko quickly activated the light on their phone's camera instead. Opal pretended to not acknowledge the light, shrinking away from it as if it was going to burn her skin right off her bones. She had been forbidden from using technology when she was with the Explorers so that she would remain as isolated from the rest of the world as possible. She didn't know if it was ever going to stop feeling wrong that she could freely use it whenever she wanted to now. Liko always caught her by surprise whenever she touched at the device's screen.
Opal's thoughts were interrupted a moment later when she finally found what she was searching for. A second mouse was sprawled out on a rock inside of the cave. She ran over to it, and the mouse beside her followed suit. The two pieces of Tandemaus reunited at once, though the one on the rock was incredibly weak. It couldn't even lift its head for longer than a moment or two at a time. Opal's heart began to race. She had to find a way to get it back to the infirmary. If Mollie was still there, then surely she could give it back to her...
But she almost didn't know if Tandemaus was going to be alright long enough for her to take it back to Mollie at the entrance of the cave. Beyond that, she didn't know if jostling it would cause more problems when it was already so notably injured. No matter what she did, it felt like she was running the risk of hurting the mouse more than it already had been. Standing there and feeling indecisive wasn't going to help her at all, but she wasn't going to feel better if she made a choice and it turned out to be the wrong one either. Every potential outcome was simply too overwhelming for her, and all she could bring herself to do was stare down at the mouse.
Hatenna let out a soft cry nearby, and Opal looked down to find she had gone back to imitating Chansey's healing move from earlier in the day. "Hatenna...?" Opal asked softly. Hatenna didn't back down from continuing to copy Chansey though, and after trying another two times, something began to spark across her body. Warmth pressed its way out of Hatenna's hat and then toward the fallen mouse. Its wounds began to heal in an instant, and it looked like it had never been hurt in the first place. Its energy was still drained, but it was a notable step up from the way it had looked before.
"Hatenna... You just learned how to heal!" Liko cried out excitedly, taking over her and Opal's lips in an instant. "I'm so proud of you!" Liko crouched down toward Hatenna, and the Pokémon offered her a small smile. Liko didn't spend too long looking at Hatenna though since she heard a light groan coming from the fallen mouse a second later. Liko gasped and turned to pick up Tandemaus before starting down the path back toward Mollie. Surely she would be able to take it back to the Rising Volt Tacklers' resident healer without any issues.
Mollie was pacing frantically just outside the entrance to the cave when Liko and Opal returned. "Mollie!" Liko cried out, and the nurse froze before falling to the ground in front of the collapsed tree. "We were able to find the other half of Tandemaus! Hatenna even healed it up enough for us to bring it back to you!"
"Liko!" Mollie exclaimed, relief washing through her features all at once. "I'm so glad you're back. I can take Tandemaus so you can climb back out." She reached her hands down through the hole in the ground, and Liko pushed herself up onto her toes so she could hand the mouse to Mollie in between the gap. With a bit of maneuvering, Mollie managed to extract the Tandemaus, and she let out a small breath of happiness. "Alright. Now that I have the other mouse, you can get out of there. You're going to get hurt if you stay down there for too much longer than you already have."
Opal nodded, planning to clamber back up through the hole... But she was silenced by a quiet cry from the mouse that had led her there in the first place. It was still staring into the cave with wide, anxious eyes, crying out for something it could not seem to put into words. Opal frowned, turning to face it with a tight heart. "I... I think there might be something else down here," Opal told Mollie. "The Tandemaus we found before is still afraid and trying to go and search for something... I don't know what else it could be worried about, but I don't think it's going to come up again."
"But you have to get out of there before something else collapses," Mollie pressed. There was a desperation in her eyes that Opal didn't think she had ever seen before, and it made her heart skip a beat. "The tree out here already blocked most of the entrance, and I don't think the cave is that stable after the heavy rainfall last night. You need to come back out again."
Opal wanted to say it was out of character for Mollie to be this worried about her. If there was ever anyone in the world who worried about what happened to wild Pokémon, it was Mollie... But this wasn't just about wild Pokémon. It was also about Liko and Opal, two girls who had already been lost to the Explorers once. If there was a chance they would be put in danger once more, then the rest of the group was going to have to account for it and then do everything in their power to rescue them. No one could stand the idea of Liko and Opal being hurt a second time, and Mollie was particularly worried. She hadn't been able to stop them from going into the cave, but she could certainly advocate for them to come back out as soon as they were able to do so.
"We... We have to find the other mice down here," Opal concluded slowly. "We're going to be back out as soon as we're able to find them and then bring them back. I promise. Everything will be alright. Just wait there until we can come back out. We'll be okay, and we can help to heal all of them once we're sure they're safe. I promise."
Opal knew Mollie was going to protest, so she didn't wait long enough to hear it. Instead, she took off through the cave in the same direction the first mouse was trying to go. It was weakened and moving slower than usual, giving Opal ample time to catch up. She could only hope its energy was able to hold out long enough for it to lead her to its destination. If not, she supposed she would be able to ask Hatenna to heal it, though there was no way of saying for certain if healing was going to be enough to truly help here. If the Tandemaus' problem was exhaustion, then there was only so much Hatenna would be able to offer.
Eventually, Opal found herself at a split in the road. The Tandemaus was standing at the junction with worry in its eyes, glancing down both of the pathways in search of something it could consider familiar. It couldn't find anything though, and its shoulders began to slouch over at the idea that it could fail to pursue what it was searching for. Opal wasn't entirely sure of what it wanted to find, but she wasn't going to give up without at least trying to fill in the gap that had been left behind in its heart on the heels of the storm.
Hatenna let out a soft whimper, and Opal glanced down by her feet to find the Calm Pokémon was shriveling away from Tandemaus. That was right. Hatenna was able to sense the emotions of others, and if they were too strong, then it wound up hurting her. Opal let out a slow breath and picked Hatenna up. "If it's too much for you, then you can go back in your ball," Opal told her. "I don't want you to push yourself more than you have to. We can try to search on our own. We'll be okay if you need the break."
For a moment, it seemed like Hatenna was going to take Opal up on the offer to rest and recover until she felt better, but she shook her head after thinking about it. Instead, Hatenna glanced between the two paths, settling on the road on the right as the correct one to follow. Opal nodded, and she began to walk down the cave's pathway. She trusted Hatenna more than anything, and if her Pokémon companion truly thought this was the best way to go, then Opal was going to commit to it. In the worst case scenario, they could double back upon learning they were wrong, and they would still find what they were searching for in the end.
Luckily, the group was proven perfectly correct just a few moments later. Hatenna's connection with the emotions of others was the best way to guess which path to follow, and it led them to another set of mice sprawled out on a rock. These two were much smaller than the previous set, and Opal couldn't help staring at them with a frown. She could recognize now that Tandemaus came in sets of two, but that didn't explain just why the one beside her was so distressed that it couldn't leave them alone even when it should have been happy in safety.
"Wait..." Liko whispered, taking charge in the moment Opal's shock dropped her guard. Liko reached for their phone once again, and she tapped away at the screen quickly. Opal pretended it wasn't happening once again, knowing that if she had been in control, she would have been writhing in discomfort at the mere idea of looking at her own phone. In the Explorers, contact with the outside world had been forbidden for the sake of keeping her safe... Or so the others claimed. Now, she knew it was all a matter of control. It bothered her deeply that Opal couldn't seem to escape that control even now, but there wasn't much she could do about it. She couldn't shake the feeling off regardless of how hard she tried in that moment, so she would simply have to be patient until she could do something more.
Liko finally seemed to find what she was searching for, and Opal summoned all of her strength to look at what her other half was interested in. There was a new Pokédex entry on the screen, and Opal recognized that it wasn't for Tandemaus but instead for its evolution. The next form of Tandemaus, Maushold, was very similar to what had come before it... Except for the fact that it had two other, smaller mice just in front of the larger ones. It was no wonder there was so much distress on the first mouse's face; it hadn't just lost its partner but its entire family. There were four of them in total, and all of them had been separated by the storm.
"Hey..." Opal whispered as she approached the two sleeping mice. The larger one jumped up beside them and started trying to rouse them from slumber, but it seemed that the tiny pair was simply too weak to be pulled into the land of the waking in the moment. Opal glanced down into her arms at Hatenna, finding the Pokémon had buried her face in Opal's shirt. "Hatenna, do you think you can help them? If you can't, then you can go back into your ball. I don't want you to feel like you have to--"
Hatenna moved before Opal could even finish the thought, concentrating as much of her energy as possible into the edges of her hat. Magic began to surge from her body and toward the sleeping mice. Slowly but surely, Opal could have sworn she saw color return to their faces. The mice may have been entirely white, but Opal was certain they were changing for the better thanks to Hatenna's healing abilities. They wouldn't be perfectly strong right away, but if they were at least making progress in their recovery, then Opal was willing to consider it a step in the right direction.
The mice opened their eyes slowly, and Opal felt her face break out into a wide, relieved smile. The larger mouse embraced the two children, and they all began to chatter to one another in a language only they could understand. Opal almost felt heat start to pull at the corners of her eyes with the promise of oncoming tears, but she didn't want to let them fall. She didn't know if she would be able to get herself moving again if she succumbed to the touching beauty of the moment.
"Hey, you three," Opal began, and the mice all looked up at her. The smaller ones seemed startled at first, but they didn't move to hide behind their parents. Instead, they relaxed at her presence remarkably quickly, and Opal was left wondering if there was something about her that had soothed the Pokémon... Not that she knew how to say for certain. "The last member of your family is with our friend. Can we take you back to her? She'll be able to take care of you and heal you the rest of the way."
The mice all agreed quickly with Opal's suggestion, and they moved to follow the path through the caves toward Mollie... But their energy began to give out on them remarkably quickly. Opal should have expected that. They were tiny, and that meant they had to take a lot more steps to cover the same distance she did. Opal maneuvered Hatenna into the hood of her jacket before crouching over and picking up the three mice. They were all delicate in her grasp, and Opal found herself strangely fond of them. Something about having them there with her just felt right.
In a way, Opal found herself almost envious of them. She wasn't used to having people care about her like this. Liko wanted to take care of her, but the two of them had only found one another recently. Amethio did his best to help Opal too, but the situation between them was a bit complicated because of everything that had happened when they were with the Explorers. Opal didn't think of herself as really having a family at all because she didn't know Liko's parents or grandmother at all. She knew vaguely of what they were like through old memories she could peer into, but that didn't do much to create a concrete connection like what Opal was searching for.
She didn't know if she was meant to have a family at all. What reason would she have for being welcomed into any world Liko was already occupying? Opal couldn't stop feeling like a bother and an intrusion. Liko may not have thought so, but Opal certainly did. Liko had a life before Opal showed up, and it didn't feel right to Opal that she could swoop in and take over what Liko loved after the fact. It didn't feel right that she was there at all, and yet... She was. She had no choice but to try and figure out where her place was in Liko's life, and she could only hope she was able to find a conclusion one day that she could be vaguely satisfied with.
"You can have a family if you want one, you know," Liko suddenly said, and Opal's eyes widened. "The rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers don't think of you as a bother the way you do. I'm sure they would all be happy to get to know you. And you're not intruding on my life. We're going to have to learn to share, and I want to try. And... I hope you'll be willing to try soon enough too."
Opal wished she could have come up with a response to that, but she couldn't find the words. Nothing seemed right anymore, and the entire world was too much for her to bear. All Opal could concentrate on was putting one foot in front of the other. Maybe she would be able to debate the logistics of familial connection after she had gotten three of the members of Maushold to safety. Everything else could wait.
As Opal continued on through the darkness, she could feel her energy starting to drain. It wasn't severe enough for her to need to sit down or take a break, but she knew she would need to rest when she arrived back at the Brave Olivine. Her blinks grew slower and slower, and each time, she found her eyelids playing out images against her mind. Opal couldn't quite make out the details of any of them though. All she knew was that she had been in a dark place, and... And that something bad had happened.
Opal didn't understand why this was happening. She barely remembered what it was that her mind was trying to throw back at her, and she couldn't exactly hope to get to the bottom of it as long as she didn't know what she was looking for. Opal took in a slow breath, willing herself to calm down as much as possible. She almost felt like it had something to do with Spinel, but... But she didn't want to acknowledge that as the case. She was fine. She was free of him now, wasn't she? There was no reason for her to think about him now that she was out of his reach and liberated of all he had done to her.
Opal shouldn't have been worried about anything to do with the Explorers anymore. She didn't know if she would ever be able to say that she felt safe with the Rising Volt Tacklers because she didn't belong with them the way Liko did, but she should have felt fine enough. Spinel wasn't a concern these days. Opal knew that, and yet... She couldn't seem to push the images out of her head fully. It was haunting her every time her eyes fell shut. She didn't know a thing about what it was that she was seeing, but it wouldn't leave her alone. What in the world was wrong with her? Why couldn't she just understand? Why couldn't she remember?
Soon enough, the light at the end of the tunnel came into view, and Opal could see Mollie's silhouette still crouched in front of the entrance. There were others floating around her though, blocking out some splotches of the sunlight as they worked away at something Opal couldn't quite pin down yet. Opal blinked away all of her concerns regarding Spinel and continued toward the light. She was fine, and even if she didn't feel fine, she knew she would feel a lot better when she was able to secure the safety of the Maushold pressed against her chest.
"I'm back," Opal found herself saying. All of a sudden, Liko wasn't there to speak for her at all, and Opal was left wondering if perhaps the other girl had done that on purpose. Liko wanted Opal to be able to do more to stand on her own two feet and interact with the other members of the Rising Volt Tacklers, but she couldn't do that as long as she was always around. What reason would Opal have to let herself open up if Liko was always there to take over in her stead?
"Opal!" Mollie cried out, recognizing the distorted cadence as a sign that Liko was not in control of their body anymore. Opal fought the urge to squirm uncomfortably on the spot. She didn't understand why anyone wanted to be around her at all, much less why Mollie was being so strangely kind to her. "Are you alright? Did anything happen in there?"
"No," Opal answered. "But I found these three." She elevated herself onto her toes, reaching up through the gap in the cave's entrance to deliver the three members of Maushold into any arms that may have been waiting on the other side. "It wasn't a Tandemaus at all. There were four of them total, and they're a Maushold."
A few other sets of hands helped to pull the Maushold away from Opal, and she recognized the people in question as Orla and Roy. "A Maushold... That explains a lot," Mollie murmured. "Will you be able to get out through the hole now? Or do you need us to try and move the tree?"
Opal's eyes widened. That must have been what the rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers were doing there. Mollie had grown anxious about Opal going into the cave on their own, and so, she had called the rest of the crew for help just in case they couldn't get out by themselves. If they moved the tree out of the way, then the rest of the crew could go in after them. "I'll be alright," Opal replied. She crouched down and lifted both Sprigatito and Hatenna up through the hole in the cave's entrance, and Dot and Mollie received them. From there, Opal pressed her foot against a protrusion in the wall and pulled herself up through the gap.
A few stray pieces of dirt had fallen on Opal's head in the time it took her to push through the hole, but she brushed them away once she was on her feet. She didn't have much time to process how dirty her hair was though. Mollie rushed toward her all at once, pulling her in for a tight embrace. Opal froze for what felt like an eternity, barely able to process what was happening. Why in the world was Mollie hugging her of all people? Surely Mollie would be fine with showing such affection toward Liko, but Opal... None of them knew her. Opal was ruining all of their lives by being there, and--
"We were so worried about you," Mollie whispered into Opal's ear, and Opal found herself relaxing into the hug at last. Mollie was warm and soothing in ways Opal never would have expected... Or perhaps it would have been more accurate to say that she never let herself expect anything. She hadn't thought Mollie would want anything to do with her at all, and so, she never thought about it once.
After the hug had lasted a sufficient amount of time, Mollie pulled away from the hug and braced her hands against Opal's shoulders sternly. "Never do something like that again, alright?" she demanded. "We were going to pull the tree out of the way so we could go in after you when you stopped responding to us."
Opal winced. She probably hadn't replied to any texts Mollie and the others sent her because of her stubborn refusal to use their phone. After that, Liko took over and was too busy taking care of the members of Maushold to check, so neither one of them knew just how much worry they had brought on the rest of the crew. "I'm sorry."
"As long as you're alright, that's what matters most," Orla said, walking up behind Mollie and placing a hand on her shoulder. Mollie nodded her agreement, though there was still considerable tension pulling at her posture. "For now, I think we should head back to the ship. I think these little ones are going to need healing."
Opal nodded, her gaze falling to the members of Maushold. They weren't doing well necessarily, but they were at least in a better state than they otherwise would have been thanks to Hatenna. Opal tilted her head back to enjoy the sensation of Hatenna against the back of her neck, and the Pokémon let out a small noise of happiness at the touch. "Yeah... Let's get going."
~~~~~
The rest of the afternoon passed by very peacefully, and Opal was beyond glad for it. She didn't know if she would have been able to deal with too much more activity after all she had already been forced through that day. She wanted a bit of time to breathe... Though it took a while for her to get it. Once the Maushold were healed, they proved to have a lot more energy than anyone could have expected, and it took a while for Opal to help Mollie wrangle them into a resting position again. They would be free to run around and play as much as they wanted after they had fully recovered, but getting them to that point was going to be a bit of a challenge given their impatience.
Opal let out a sigh of relief as she sat down on her and Liko's bed in their room. Opal could hardly believe she was saying this, but the day had gone... Well. She didn't know how she felt about the rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers, and she doubted that was going to change for quite some time, but she was making progress. They wanted her around, and that was a significant step in the right direction. Opal hadn't given herself the chance to accept they could want her company before then, but now that she had, she was already feeling miles better than she had been before. Everything felt like it was starting to relax, and Opal could only hope the feeling continued well into the future.
Of course, she was going to have to set aside at least a little bit of time to figure out how in the world she was going to handle the other problem weighing on her mind. She had been doing her best to not think about the strange images that haunted her during her time in the cavern earlier in the day, but she couldn't ignore it forever. Sooner or later, it was all going to catch up with her, and she was fully aware of it. Until then, Opal was just hoping she would be able to make a bit of sense out of it. She needed to understand what she was dealing with before she could come up with a plan to counter it, after all.
"Do you know what that was about?" Liko asked as she picked Hatenna up out of her hood and set her on the bed next to her. Hatenna pressed against Liko's thigh gladly, chasing any bit of touch she could find. Hatenna had learned a lot that day, but it was clear that she was exhausted after everything that had happened too. Opal should have seen that coming; Hatenna had never done well with excessive activity.
Hatenna was the perfect one to calm her down after a long day of running around though, so Opal continued to stroke the top of her head softly. "I... I'm not sure," Opal admitted. She was slightly more aware of what had happened with Spinel during her time with the Explorers, but she still wouldn't have gone so far as to say that she actively knew what had happened in full. Strange images liked to push against the corners of her mind to fight for her attention, but that was the most that ever seemed to happen. There was only so much she could glean from all of that, and it didn't seem to get any easier to sift through as she thought about it more. "Something bad happened, but I don't remember any of the details."
It frustrated Opal to no end that she couldn't recall what had happened to them. If anyone was going to know the truth, then it was bound to be her, but... She just didn't know what was going on. She had been created because of Spinel putting her through something awful, but she didn't know what any of it was. Surely the memories would have wound up on her side of her and Liko's shared mind if her job was to protect Liko from the cruelty of it all, but... But that didn't mean much of anything in the end, did it? Opal still didn't know what was going on, and she was starting to doubt that was going to change for quite a while.
Hatenna let out a soft noise, and Opal looked down at her with a frown. Hatenna was watching her carefully, clearly able to sense the strong emotions brewing beneath the surface. Hatenna had always been good at gauging Opal's feelings even when Opal herself had no idea what was going on. Hatenna was one of the first things to bridge the gap between Liko and Opal all that time ago, so Opal supposed she shouldn't have been shocked. She just wished she knew what to do about it. How was she supposed to make anything out of a situation she knew nothing about? How was she supposed to temper her emotions and soothe Hatenna when she didn't understand her feelings at all?
"You did a lot to help us today, you know," Opal told Hatenna, and she picked up the small Pokémon before pressing her against her chest. "I don't think we would have made it anywhere near as far as we did without you, Hatenna... And I'm not just talking about helping Maushold." If not for Hatenna, Opal and Liko wouldn't have understood each other anywhere near as well as they did now. Their knowledge of their situation was still minimal, but Hatenna had done something to close the distance between them. It didn't matter how little they knew; they were making progress, and Hatenna had started them down that path.
"How about this?" Liko asked, and Opal perked up with a soft hum. "Even though we don't know much about what's going on right now... We can try our best to make the most of what's happening in our lives. We can do something to feel better together, and it'll all work out in the end. I'm sure of it."
Opal's face softened into a smile. She didn't know where this journey of hers was going to take her, but she found herself more confident in facing it now than she had been earlier in the morning. Opal didn't need to fear all connection with others. If it had helped her to meet Hatenna and Liko, then it couldn't have been anywhere near as bad as she feared. "Yeah... I'd like that."
Opal and Liko were bound to run into the Explorers again at some point, and there was nothing they could do to fully escape that fate... But Opal was going to be ready for it. She was going to do everything she could to take care of herself and Liko in preparation for the day they next saw their enemies. She would do what she could to make her life her own, and she would escape the cycles of pain that had once dominated her creation. She would change everything for the better, and she would have her friends right there by her side as she did it.
Opal hugged Hatenna a little bit tighter, and she felt Hatenna hug her back too.
