#lear's throne!

[ As he kept on rambling, the wish started to disappear. His mother was gone again. ]

[ She had kept him hostage, turned violent...it was completely unlike her. ]

[ Lear kept walking. ]

"Every good experience I've had outweighs this shit. I lost mum young, but she wasn't like that."

[ His soliloquy goes unheard. ]

"Alola's ranches, family donations to keep things going, royal perks and all. I miss that."

[ He adjusts his visor. ]

"Picking fresh produce, grabbing honey and one of the Combee stuck to my hair."

[ He looks up, seeing the sky shift more. ]

"I don't need wishes when I have dreams. That's what you want, isn't it? You want our dreams?"

[ The sky seems to respond, shifting even more. ]

"Thought so. Enough of this, I have bigger priorities."

"Everything's just going wrong." Lear sighed, hearing the pacing behind him.

"I know, there's no updates..." Roman replied, the typing in the background coming from Kiichi's laptop.

"Mhm. Apparently there's this festival on."

"Millennium Festival, right?"

"Yeah, shit like that bores me though, I'll leave that to you."

Roman glares over, "Rude."

"What? As I said, it bores me. It's not like those wishes mean anything."

[ Lear closed the doors to the balcony, the two other men bickering inside, muffled by the doors. He looks up at the sky, reaching up with his palm facing the stars, making a small Aura Sphere in his hand and sending it up. ]

"Roman's rechecking the camera footage, trying to gauge how much time we have to get Orea out," Lear sighed as he walked over. In an ideal world, Hoopa could just go and grab the Champion through his rings, but he was chained up, he couldn't move him unless he was free from restraint.

"We have more than just Orea's situation to worry about..."

"Hoopa, what is it?"

Hoopa gave Lear a sad, scared look, "I don't know...but it's not good. I should talk to Darkrai, it's important nonetheless."

[ Before Lear could ask him again, he was gone. ]

——————————

[ Darkrai was frantically pacing back and forth in the hallway, trying to wrap their head around everything, when they bumped into Hoopa. ]

"Ah- sorry!"

"No no, you're fine..."

"...you sensed it too, huh?"

Darkrai nodded, "And Tyranitar's catching onto something being off. Latios has just fucked off to the Gym, but I can tell he's concerned." They choked on their words a little as they stopped speaking.

Hoopa could see the tears, "Whatever happens, it's not your fault."

[ Darkrai doesn't reply verbally, bringing Hoopa into a hug as they began to cry. ]

Hoopa put a reassuring hand on their back, gently rubbing it, "Things have just gone to shit lately, eh?"

"Yeah...T-Toby's hearing about what the other Champions are saying about Orea's rescue mission...he's planning something."

"Shouldn't he not strain himself after that injury?"

"He's stubborn when it comes to justice, same as Koko...he won't back down once he's set on the idea." They carefully push Hoopa away. "You should go, get back to Lear." As Hoopa went to leave via his ring, Darkrai had one last thing to say. "We'll get this sorted, we have the power to."

Hoopa gave a sad chuckle, "I wish."