Reader's POV

You wipe the dust from your pants and get up:
"I think we have enough members to drive Team Rocket out of Kanto now."
Blue was still laying in the grass of your garden, relaxing, as he has always done the past few days. He sighs:
"Are you sure, Y/n? Shouldn't we wait a little longer?"
You turn around, as bitten by a snake:
"We shouldn't, Blue. We have waited long enough. I want to find out where they are, and then attack, as soon as possible."
Daisy stops next to Blue to give him some coffee she made, and gives a cup to you next:
"But it's Christmas today!"
You nod:
"Another good reason to celebrate tonight, after we've beat up some grunts and found out where their hideout is."

Steven shows up from behind you, holding May by her waist:
"Y/n is right. I know you Kantonians are glad to be able to stay here for Christmas, but some people also like to be home on Christmas. That won't be possible today, but at least we want to get home as soon as possible."
Lance and Cynthia nod as well, and Cynthia joins the fray:
"I came to Kanto, traveling on my own, just as a nice way of vacation. Don't get me wrong, I like to be here and I love to help you all with this. But I'm sure my grandparents like me to be there for them as well."

You look deep into Blue's eyes:
"I've made my decision. I will go to search for Team Rocket either way, and whoever wants to come with me is more than welcome."

"Y/n"
You hear Lucario's voice in your head, and you apologise to your friends, running back inside, to your room.

"Yes, Lucario? Is everything alright? Did you find Lillie? Awe, I'm so glad this works!"
"Yes, I'm glad your Aura is strong enough. I found Lillie, she's all safe and well, she's sitting next to me now. I've been training her to use Aura communication, I'm sure you'll be able to properly talk soon."
"Lovely! Please tell Lillie I love her, and that I'll be coming soon, and..."
You chuckle, it's still weird to be telling those things to a Lucario. You decide to continue:
"You know what to tell her, I'm sure. I can't wait to talk to her soon... oh, and wish her a Merry Christmas as well! I'm sorry I can't be there for now..."
"That's fine, I'm sure she'll have fun to celebrate it with her family too, although she'd be happier if you'd be here too. But she knows you'll be here soon. I actually wanted to talk with you about something."
"What is it? I'm listening."
"Lillie told me she's suspicious about the Aether Foundation. She told me it's not the same as it used to be. Of course a year has passed, but she says it has a strange, uncomfortable vibe. And that James is a weird one, apparently. She'll watch him carefully."
You hold your breath:
"Please let her watch out for herself as well. I'll come there as soon as possible, it won't be long. Tell her not to trust anyone."
"I will. I'll keep you updated."
"Cheers. I have to go now, I'm going to find some Rocket grunts."
"Be careful. I'll talk to you soon again."
"You too, Midos! Take care!"

No answer followed, so you stood up and prepared to leave. Your bag, your Alolan team, your cap, and Rotom too. This will do.
You open the door to go outside, and, to your surprise, it was snowing!
Unfortunately, Lillie isn't here. I'm sure she'd like this.

You saw the Fellowship, sitting around their fire, listening to a radio. Gladion gives you a sign, beckoning you to come over. You run towards the radio and listen attentively:
To the bosses of the heroic organisations. We, the great Team Rocket, have successfully taken over the Lavender Radio Tower. We are calling out to you. Help us with conquering the world, and you'll get what you've always wanted.
The message kept rewinding over and over again, and the others look into your eyes. As if someone asked you something, you nod and mount Charizard. You look at the whole bunch:
"Is anyone coming with me?"
They all stood up and mounted their Flying type Pokémon. You smiled.
They can be annoying sometimes, but when you need them, they'll always show up.

You hovered above the Radio Tower, and May, sitting on Steven's Skarmory together with him, sent out Kyogre!
Suddenly, it transformed into a blue crystal for a second, only to transform into an even more dangerous-looking Kyogre! Heavy rain started to pour down too, and you already realised this was going to be an easy sweep.

Proton's POV

"How many times has the message been sent?" I ask one of my silly grunts. He stutters:
"1-100, Proton, sir!"
"Wait for 100 more!" I shout at him. He salutes by saying "sir!", and flees into the room he came from. I stare outside. It had been snowing just now, but right now, heavy rain started pouring down. I sigh, because I realise my clean suit is going to be fully soaked again when I'll arrive home.

Suddenly, I hear Jason shouting "Watch out!!!", and I hear the sound of breaking glass. A second later, the entire building was flooded by water. I tried to hold my breath 'till the water diminished, and luckily I succeeded. When I got up, heavily breathing, I couldn't believe my eyes! I saw Lugia, standing in front of me. I gasp and immaculately send out Weezing.
Out of nowhere, a Solgaleo with a man on its back appeared and gave my Weezing a smack, making it fly into a wall, not to come back again.

Onto Lugia's back sat a rather young boy, in his early 20's, with a black and yellow cap. I recognised him from somewhere. He laughed at me and whispered to Lugia:
"Aeroblast."
Lugia opened its mouth slowly. My sight got entirely white, and then, nothing more.

Reader's POV

You dismount Nebby, running towards Proton. You look at his face, shouting his name:
"Proton? Proton!"
You place a hand on the big 'R' sign on his chest, but you can't feel a heartbeat. You turn around and look at Gold, shaking your head:
"Dead."
Gold shrugs:
"Well, better dead than alive, if you'd ask me. I've been chasing that guy for years." He says, petting Lugia's head. You feel rage building up inside you, but decide to contain it for now:
"We needed this man alive, Gold! We only need the admins. They're probably the only ones who know about all their plans. Someone please find us a grunt, alive!"

You get outside in the rain, gathering the Fellowship. You also demanded May to return her giant Kyogre, so it would stop raining. It had been a great help, by blasting water through the building's windows.
Such a pity it didn't leave any survivors.
You look at everyone's faces, tired out, wanting to go inside to celebrate Christmas together. You nod and mount Charizard, but hesitate:
"Wait... where's Cynthia? She's missing."
"I'm here, and with a package!"
Everyone turns around to see Cynthia running towards you with her Garchomp, dragging a grunt, who didn't want to get dragged.
Garchomp puts the grunt down, and you push him down. He struggled to get out of your tight grasp, but luckily, you held on. The grunt starts shouting:
"What have you done to the building?! How are we supposed to send out our message now? Where is master Proton?"
You shrug, smiling:
"That's your problem, not ours. Proton has passed away, sadly, and concerning the building, we'll rebuild it. It just needs some dry weather and new windows, that's all. Now, do you know where Rocket's base is?"
"Of course I do, I sleep in that building. But why would I tell you? You have nothing to persuade me with."
You grab a Poké Ball and send out Garchomp:
"Because, if you don't tell me, your life will unfortunately come to an end."
You wait for a few seconds, but, although the grunt looks frightened, he doesn't move. You beckon Garchomp:
"Do it."
Suddenly, you feel a hand on your shoulder, and next to you stands Alf, looking extremely confident:
"Because, if you tell him, you'll get your freedom."
The grunt looks up at his lookalike, since Alf was also wearing his Rocket outfit again:
"Are you... a traitor?"
"I'm not. Y/n here once beat me, but he gave me my freedom. He is a better leader than Giovanni will ever be. I chose his side."
The grunt looks up at you:
"Will you give me freedom?"
You hesitate, but Alf immediately says:
"He will."

The grunt starts coughing a lot, but he finally manages to say:
"The-the Team Rocket base is Aether Paradise... or it will become it soon, at least."
A cold pain cuts through you like a knife, and you gasp for breath. Alf nods:
"Get up, and go wherever you want."
You slowly release the grunt and let him go. He will probably get arrested by the Kantonian police anyway.
Lillie is in trouble.
That was the only thing you could think of.

Daisy got inside first, and Chansey welcomed you all with some freshly-made cupcakes! You smiled and accepted one, but not heartily. You were only thinking about Lillie, and you couldn't get her out of your head. You already made your decision.

The Fellowship ate the most delicious food, drank some alcohol too and went to bed, one by one. It had been a white Christmas, but your mind was dark like the sky.
It's past midnight... I should probably go.
You silently walked to the door, opened it, and stepped into the snow. You called your Charizard Glide and pet it, apologising for the long flights it has to do today.
"Leaving, are we?"
You recognised Alf's voice, so you kept looking at Charizard:
"Yes." You whisper.
He summons a Noivern:
"I'm coming with you."
You turned around, and saw in his eyes that he took his decision as well, and that there was no possibility to change it. You nod, and he cheers:
"Yes! I'll do my best, I promise!"
Suddenly, a light switches on in your mind:
"Alf! Get your second Team Rocket outfit as well, please?"
"I already brought it with me, why?"
"This is what I need you for. Give me that second suit."
He threw it at you, so you grabbed it and quickly changed in the snow. Now you were looking like a common Rocket grunt.
Good.
"Now, let us go. We don't have much time."
Together with Alf and his Noivern, you flew off, into the distance and the black, snowy sky.

Lillie's POV

I wake up by the sound of commotion in the hallway. Yawning, I sit up. Suddenly, my room's door flies open, and two Aether members come inside. Totally awake now, I face them:
"What does this have to mean?!"
I realised I was still in pyjamas and blushed, but I couldn't be bothered. One of the grunts smirks:
"I'm sorry, Missy. We have orders from the boss. Can you get out?"
I cross my arms:
"What orders? What boss? And what if I say no?"
The grunt's face gets very serious:
"Get. Out."
I hesitate, wondering how far I could push this. The grunt nods to the other one, and that one grabs my arm, trying to throw me out of my own room. Midos, out of its Poké Ball, growls at the grunt, but I give him a sign to calm down:
"It's okay, Lucario. I'll go to see mum."
Lucario nods, so I return him to his Poké Ball and put it away in the drawer, since he'd probably cause trouble otherwise.
I don't have time to put on other clothes, so I guess I'll have to stick with my pyjamas for now...
I walked out of my room, not taking anything with me, but what I saw shocked me:
the entire hallway is red!

I ran to mum's room immediately, but no one opened the door.
She's probably in her office.
I take the warp panel to the big room where we once confronted mum. But no, she wasn't there either. Instead, that nice guy with the red hair and James were having a discussion in the middle of the room, and no sign of mum.
I start to tear up because I had no idea of where mum was, and I was scared because of everything happening.
Why are they standing here?
James smiles and opens his arms:
"Miss Lillie! I'm sorry for the inconvenience."
Silver (I think that was his name) turns around and looks at me, looking both relieved and worried:
"Lillie! Are you okay?" He asks, walking up to me.
"I'm not. Tell me what's happening here, James! Where's mum?"
It only just occurred to me that this room was looking red too. I recoil from Silver when he approaches me, suddenly scared by him. Silver sees the fear in my eyes and stops moving towards me. Instead, he turns around:
"You could better tell her, father."
Father?!
Suddenly I notice James is wearing another suit, one with a red 'R' sign on it, a sign that I'd recognise anywhere.
Silver, on the contrary, was still wearing his plain black jacket.

"Giovanni?!"
Out of nowhere, Faba appears with his Hypno, using Hypnosis, and Silver's angered face is the last thing I see.

Silver's POV

"Lillie!" I scream, turning to Faba:
"This girl was harmless! Can't you see? The only thing she has is her pyjamas!"
Faba shrugs:
"Better an asleep kid than a whining one."
I sigh and turn back to dad:
"Did this really have to happen so brutally?"
Father starts walking in circles:
"Will you ever learn, son? Attacks must happen by surprise."
"There wasn't any attack! We already had the foundation in our grasp for a long time!"
He turns his back towards me, suggesting the conversation was over. It wasn't for me though:
"Where is Lusamine?"
Without bothering to look at me, dad speaks up:
"You know, son, do you really think I'd trust you with that information? Yes, you came back to my side when I decided to reform Team Rocket, and yes, you're leading my troops. Does that mean I'll ever forgive you for abandoning me the very moment I lost the fight against that damn Red?!"
I pick up the sleeping Lillie, who was not weighing much in my arms. Without answering him, I walk away, to Lillie's room.

I put Lillie on her bed and tuck her in. I was about to walk away, but got worried and searched through her belongings. In a drawer, I found a Poké Ball. When I threw it, out came a furious Lucario. I jumped up, but kept calm and whispered:
"Please protect Lillie for me, okay?"
The last thing I do is take the Team Rocket flag in her room away, since apparently, someone decorated her room like every other room: red and with a flag.
She doesn't need to see a Rocket flag when she wakes up.
I nod at Lucario in understanding and leave the room. There was a lot of work to do.

There it is, chapter 33! I'm sorry for the slow upload schedule, I actually don't know how to change it, my life is busy xD but at least there will be chapters every now and then! ^^

The story is coming closer and closer to an end, I'm both sad and glad for that xD I wonder if you'd like the story to end at the end (if you get what I mean) or if you want to have a sequel to this story... the sequel would be much shorter than this story though, looking at my upload schedule xD

The next chapters I write are probably going to be for my Random Book. I'm thinking about doing a chapter about Usum and maybe one about my favourite Pokémon generations ^^

Talking about Usum, I completed it! Well, the main story, that is ^^ I really enjoyed it, but I wonder what you think about it ^^

I think that could be a good question as well:
"What's your honest opinion about Usum?"
I will discuss that topic in my random chapter, I think xD

Anyways, I hope you're all having an amazing day or night, wherever you are! Stay safe, and I'll see you lot in the next chapter!
~Golf