Chapter 13

"Did you honestly think you could get away, kitten?" Korina asked, drifting through the entrance towards her. "I know humans have trouble conceptualizing the future, but come on. Even if I gave you a week head start, I would be there the instant I stopped waiting." There was a flash of bright light from where she floated, and a faint glow across the tent.

Suddenly she was on the other end, still baring down on Lane with no less malicious an expression on her face. "Just like that. Distance is an illusion, kitten. I might've been regions away, but I was a paw's breadth away. To think I thought about bringing you home an enigma berry."

Lane lifted unsteadily into the air, hovering at Korina's eye-level as best she could. She had improved with practice, though she couldn't stop dead and hold in place the way the mew did it. "I wasn't trying to leave, Korina! You can ask my friend—I told her to leave. I didn't want you doing anything weird to her."

Lane drifted slightly to one side, until her body was directly between Korina and Elisa's frozen form. "I was afraid you would do something weird to her, like you did to me. I just wanted them to leave, honest."

Korina's eyes narrowed, and she zoomed right up into Lane's face. She hovered there for a few seconds. Lane felt a familiar pressure against her thoughts, one she was beginning to recognize. The touch of another being reading her mind. Go ahead and look. I'm telling the truth.

Korina relaxed visibly in the air, drifting away from her. "You wanted to go. But you decided to stay." She folded her little arms, looking thoughtful. "I guess you didn't disobey. So you are capable of loyalty. You just have these ties binding you. All we have to do is sever them, and you can focus on more important things."

Korina drifted around her, pushing her aside. She hovered down beside where Elisa lay, just beside her head. Elisa's eyes twitched faintly, but that was all. She was helpless.

"No!" Lane squeaked "Don't hurt her! Just let her go meet Dominic and go. They were going to leave just like you wanted. You saw my memories.

There's no reason for you to do anything to them!"

Korina did a little loop in the air in front of her, turning her back on Elisa.

"I didn't have to do anything. But I decided to uplift you, and now I'm committed. Memories of this one are distracting you. The more you think about her, the less you'll think about your own improvement.

"I won't hurt her—all I have to do is erase one memory. I'll make her forget about you, and you forget about her. I don't have to change everything else, so stop with the melodrama. I'm not going to make you not exist or turn you into a kitten. Well… more of a kitten."

Lane shoved past her, flying straight for Elisa. She pushed Korina aside, focusing her will on her friend. She had no idea what Korina had done to her and no way to reverse it, but she could still do simpler things. She lifted Elisa into a sitting position, floating between them.

"You can't!" She was crying now, but she didn't even care. She barely even noticed that she had started floating in place without wavering now. "I thought you were the superior race, Korina! Do you not know what a girlfriend is? You can't just erase that! Even if you erase our memories, you'll leave a…

big empty hole.

"Besides, Elisa has been with me since the True-Myth Club formed. If you erase her, you'll take away most of what I learned hunting for you. I learned to love mythical Pokémon while we were together. I don't have to be perfectly focused to work hard! Haven't I been a good student so far? Aren't I doing enough?"

Her strength wavered and she dropped into Elisa's lap, resting her head against one of Elisa's frozen hands. Not that she thought the protection would do her much good, but at least she felt better. It didn't even matter that humans were so gigantic.

Her friend twitched, and suddenly started to move. One hand curled protectively around her, trapping her there. She could've flown away, but she hesitated. Human hands might be gigantic, but they were warm and gentle.

“Do you feel what your mate does, human child?” Korina asked. Had Elisa been able to understand everything she said? She was still trying to figure out how telepathy actually worked.

The human overhead moved in ways Lane couldn’t make out from her lap. But she felt Elisa's agreement without needing to watch. "Not the way I would've said it, but yeah. It wouldn't be fair to erase our memories. Do you

have any idea how long I've been trying to get Lane to notice me? You'd be erasing years of work."

Korina drifted away from them both. Lane peeked her head between Elisa's fingers, watching the bigger mew. She could easily have killed them by now, or worse. Yet she hadn't done any of the terrible things she threatened.

Were they just the way she got Lane's attention?

Korina gestured, levitating the plush Celebi doll off the floor and floating beside it. "You're lucky you didn't piss them off. You think memories are bad, at least you still get to be born." She tossed it aside again, hanging upside-down in front of them. "When there were still people on this planet, we wondered if the degenerate adapted forms of life were even capable of forming relationships with each other.

"I wonder if you're different. Lane, you might just be reinterpreting what the hormones of your primitive life showed you." She gestured, and something dragged Lane out from between Elisa's fingers. She didn't resist—Lane's body would've yielded far sooner than the force of Korina’s pull.

"Why do you even care?" she asked, wiping away the moisture from her face. "Just because you want to hide alone underground doesn't mean the rest of us do! Of course we can have real relationships!"

Korina's face split in a mischievous grin. "Well it's a good thing the two of you are so certain about this, because you've just made a testable proposal.

Lots of opportunity for you to learn, kitten. And for me to learn about you."

She turned her eyes on Elisa again, and this time her whole face lit up in a brilliant blue glow, washing over her. She wobbled and collapsed, unconscious.

That was more than just putting her to sleep. "What did you do to her?"

Korina pulled her over, wrapping one paw around hers and floating out of the tent. She caught a brief glimpse of Lopunny's pink eyes watching them as they vanished into the night. "Not what you were afraid of. But you were making such bold claims about me. Now we'll see if you were right."

She didn't take them back home, as Lane had feared. They drifted up into the trees, where they could rest on a low branch and not be easily visible from the ground. But they weren't high up. She could still see her own tent clearly, and even make out Elisa's resting body on the floor.

"Now, kitten." Korina fixed her with a furious glare. "If you want to stay and watch, you have to be well behaved. You stay up here with me, and you stay quiet. Got it?"

She nodded once, defeated. "I'll obey."

It didn't take long—the sound of loud rustling echoed through the trees for a few seconds, along with snapping and breaking plants. Dominic appeared, carrying an oversized flashlight in one hand and a can of the most detestably smelling gas Lane had ever seen.

She nearly took off and flew away right then, though the breeze kept the stench from lingering for too long. Even in the gloom she could make out the logo on the side of the bottle. Repel?

Is that why it works? Arceus, that's terrible.

"Elisa?" Dominic rushed to the tent, bending down to help her. Elisa wasn't trapped by mew's powers anymore it seemed, because she sat up easily, taking Dominic's offered hand. She rose unsteadily, leaning on Lopunny.

"You found the camp!" Dominic said, only a little nervous. "Is Lane off taking a piss or something?"

Lane couldn't see her face clearly, but he could taste her disorientation, like soggy oatmeal against his brain. "He's already gone, Dominic. He left a note, see?" She held up a piece of crumpled paper, one that Lane didn't recognize.

Dominic took it, tilting his flashlight down to read.

"She doesn't remember what just happened," Lane whispered. At her size, there was no danger of being overheard. "I thought you said you wouldn't take her memories."

"I wouldn't erase her memories of you," Korina shot back. "I suppressed ten minutes. If you get melodramatic again about how I'm murdering her, I'm gonna push you off this tree."

Lane said nothing. It still seemed like a violation, but not so bad as erasing one of the most important people in her whole life. "You made a note too?"

The Pokémon grinned back at him. "I've seen into your head enough to know what your writing looks like. While I was in there, I realized you would hate me if I took Elisa away. That wouldn't make you focused." She reached over, patting Lane on her head with one paw. "I'm sorry, this is for your own good."

" What is—" But Dominic started talking again, and she fell hastily silent.

"You're kidding me. Arceus help him if he went into the Orchidae Conservation Zone."

Elisa snatched the note back, holding it to her chest. "You know Lane.

Once he gets something into his head, he… he never gives it up." She sniffed, wiping away tears with the back of one arm.

"He's going to get himself killed," Dominic said. "Or maybe arrested and thrown in jail for life. There's no mew up in Orchidae. It's locked down for a reason."

"I know," Elisa sniffed, her hands balling into fists. "He didn't even take his supplies. He doesn't have a single Pokémon partner…"

"We can call the rescue service," Dominic suggested. "Prison is better than being dead. He'll probably thank us, once he gets rescued. Maybe he can… plead insanity or something."

Elisa picked up her doll, squeezing the stuffed Celebi against her chest.

"I don't have to erase her," Korina finished. "You just need to understand that the relationships of lesser species are products of chemistry and convenience. They don't really feel anything. Go on, Lane. Watch your mate leave you behind."

Lane leaned out over the edge of the branch, as far as she dared. She didn't want to see it, but Korina wasn't giving her a choice. This might be the last time she ever saw them.

And on some level, this was probably for the best. If Korina let them go, then they'd never be in danger from her inscrutable legendary whims. They could go back to their lives.

"Put that phone away," Elisa snapped, pulling it out of Dominic's hand.

"Don't even think about it. We're not turning him in. He's not trying to steal national secrets, or capture endangered species. He just wants to meet a legendary."

"Won't matter what he wants if he gets killed." Dominic didn't fight her, though. "It's the kindest thing we could do, Elisa."

"No it isn't." Elisa bent down, hefting her backpack from the ground inside the tent. "I'm going after him."

"You're… what?" Dominic's mouth fell open. Beside Lane, Korina's did too.

"You heard me." Elisa tossed the stuffed doll to Lopunny, then pulled a headlamp out of her pocket. "He'll be going to the falls, right? We can catch him before he gets hurt. Or you can go back to Cayari without me. Up to you."

Dominic groaned, tightening the straps on his backpack. "You know I'm not afraid of rough terrain. I stayed back so you two could…" He made a gesture with two fingers, one Lane couldn't catch. But he could feel Elisa's embarrassment, and that was all it took. "I'll come."

"Then let's go," Elisa said. "We'll keep hiking until we find his trail. He can't be that far ahead."

Lane backed away from the edge, grinning smugly back at Korina. "What was that about real feelings, Mew? Is that not real enough for you?"

"We'll see," Korina grumbled, her ears flattening in frustration. "You better hope they don't give up now. For your sake."