TW: Mentions of grievance, alcohol and censored swearing

Dot's POV:

Last night, I barely got any sleep. I had just stared up at the ceiling all night, thinking of poor Liko.

I just felt so guilty that I let that happen to her, I had let her get all bruised up and die. It just hurts me so much and those thoughts restrained me from falling asleep.

But also, I remembered the way she looked at me when we were about to battle the Umbreon and the way she smiled. I felt I had let her down a lot by not trying to jump in and save her.

Because I couldn't take this anymore, I decided to check my Rotom Phone. It was 6:30 am, which I felt was a reasonable time to get out of bed, so that's what I did.

I dislike looking in mirrors since I don't really like the way I look, but when I did take a glance at the one in my bedroom, I found that my eyebags now looked very clear when I put my hair up.

I did look sad in the mirror, but I wasn't too bothered, especially because I was too tired to be able to care.

I exited my room and closed the door behind me before creeping down the hallway. There weren't any lights on so I knew I had to be quiet otherwise I would wake someone up.

Since my stomach was rumbling as I didn't have any dinner yesterday after what happened, I decided to head over to the kitchen. But to my suprise, when I entered, I found Friede sitting down at the roundtable, drinking a bottle of whiskey.

"Why are you up so early?" He asked, taking a sip from the bottle and staring at me sternly.

"Why are you?" I asked, smiling smugly.

Friede sighed and then said, "I just couldn't get any sleep after... what happened yesterday..."

"Neither could I..." I mumbled in response.

I flipped on the switch and the light did blind both of us at first, but we quickly adjusted. I then poured some milk into a glass before sitting next to him as he chugged down the rest of the alcohol.

"How is Roy?" I asked, immediately trying to stear the conversation away from the reason why we were both tired and upset.

"I could tell that he was very upset and I could hear him crying while I was walking past your bedrooms to get to mine last night," Friede replied.

"Wow, and I thought he was acting cold after what happened..." I said.

"He's just as upset as you are, but you have to understand we are all at different stages of grief after what happened," He explained.

"Oh... that makes sense," I came to the realisation.

There was a moment of silence and then I again tried to start a conversation about something other than Liko, but then that was difficult since she was swarming my mind.

"So, what are we going to do? We can't just leave her lying over there, it's pretty disturbing," I said, pointing at her body all scattered out in the corner of the room.

"I'll try and sort something out, right now you just need to try and not think about her too much," Friede replied, "You'll just feel worse..."

"It's kind of difficult when she's right over there!" I muttered with a lop-sided smile, my eyes' gaze switching from him to Liko multiple times.

He sighed and then got up from his seat. He walked over to the corner of the room and then picked her up gently and placed her in a cupboard nearby.

The rest of the Rising Voltacklers woke up shortly after and we all had breakfast together. Roy refused to look me in the eyes but other than that, everything was running smoothly. That was until my uncle Murdock opened the cupboard and the black haired girl fell out and landed on his feet.

"THE FU-" He screamed, but was quickly cut off by Friede.

"Language, Murdock!" The white haired man said sharply, interrupting him.

"Sorry Friede!" My uncle replied and then gently picked up Liko and put her back in the cupboard before walking back to his seat.

Seeing my friend once again and now looking paler before was too much for me and made me lose my appetite. So I put down the fork I was eating my pancakes with and marched out of the room.

I shut the door behind me but before I could jump onto my bed and cry into my pillow, I got a knock on my door. I did have the feeling that someone had followed me to my room so I creaked it open slowly to find Friede was there.

"I think it would be best if you just stayed in here for the rest of the day, I'll try and sort it all out for you," He said in a whisper.

"Okay, thanks," I replied.

He closed the door behind me and then I was left alone in my bedroom with nothing but my dark thoughts... but I refused to let them take over again like they did last night.

It would be too much for me to try and shoot a new video but because I desperately wanted to be productive, I just decided to edit an uncompleted project instead.

That was quite quick to do so after I posted it, I managed to catch an Iono Zone stream. I decided to spam her with hate comments for the rest of the day so I could let out my repressed anger out on someone I knew wouldn't take it too seriously.

I also decided to feed and play with Sprigatito too. I wanted to try and form a bond with it too just in case Liko didn't come back, and I feel I'm doing really well to keep it happy at the moment.

When that was all finished, I then jumped onto my bed and relaxed. The start of the day had been rough, but I managed to get through it. I'm so proud of myself!

Suddenly, I got a knock on my door again. At first I thought it would be Friede again, but when I opened the creaky door, I found that on the other side was Orla and Mollie.

"Good afternoon Dot!" Orla greeted, waving with her iconic smile that was always glued to her face.

"Oh, hello Orla and Mollie!" I replied, waving back, "What are you two doing here?"

"We recommend you come along with us," Mollie said, gesturing for me to follow behind her as she walked off.

"What she's trying to say is we have a suprise for you, it's a good one!" Orla clarified and then ran to catch up with the pink haired lady.

Full of confusion but also curiosity, I then followed behind the two. I followed them all the way until we ended up arriving at the door that led to the power room.

"Are you sure I should be going in there?" I asked, "I've ruined a lot of things recently... I don't want to crash the airship too!"

"You'll be fine!" Mollie replied and opened the door.

I followed behind them up the stairs until we arrived in the power room. These types of things really interest me and I wanted to observe everything and take it all in but... something caught my eye.

Right at the very end was a glowing transparent column with what looked like a person inside. I ran closer to find that in there was... Liko...

I turned around and then found that now Orla and Mollie were wearing lab coats even though just a second ago they weren't? This is all starting to freak me out!

"What's going on?!" I exclaimed, full of worry and fear.

"Don't panic! Everything will be okay!" Orla said, "Now, let's begin."

"So earlier today, Friede told us about everything that happened yesterday and, we want to help," Mollie explained, "And that's why we have decided to create this mission that we call 'Project Halo'."

"What does that stand for?" I questioned.

"IT MEANS WE'RE BRINGING HER BACK TO LIFE, BABY!" Orla exclaimed, hugging Mollie tightly, but she let go quickly from embarrassment and cleared her throat while blushing, "But in acronym terms, I guess it can stand for 'Helping Angel Live On'?"

"But how are we going to bring her back?" I asked.

The brown haired lady put her hand in her lab coat pocket and then pulled out my best friend's pendant with the gem in the centre now shining once again.

"Liko's pendant!" I squealed, happy to know it was still working, "But how will this bring her back?"

"Well, we're not fully sure, but we think you may be the key to helping us unlock the door of mysteries!" Orla explained.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I replied.

"Put it on and it will all make sense," Mollie answered.

The brown haired lady placed the pendant in my hands and then stepped back to hold the pink haired woman's hand. I then shrugged my shoulders and put the pendant on.

I closed my eyes tightly to avoid the blinding light but a few seconds later I opened my eyes but found it wasn't glowing any differently.

"You need to think of Liko and how much you want her to come back!" Orla said.

"But it hurts too much to think of her..." I mumbled.

"You just need to try, we can bring her back but we need you to do this first!" She replied.

I nodded and then thought of Liko and everything that happened. It hurt, but then I opened my eyes and found the gem of the pendant start to glow brighter.

"It's working!" Mollie exclaimed, "Keep going!"

"But how is this happening?!" I exclaimed.

"This is only happening because your heart is connected to Liko's in some way!" Orla answered.

"What's so special about me?" I asked.

"We don't know yet but you need to focus!" The pink haired woman replied and covered the brown haired lady's mouth to stop her from continuing to speak, which made Orla flustered.

I took a deep breath and continued. It was hard to keep my eyes shut since the light was getting brighter and brighter but I managed to keep them closed until I suddenly heard a noise that didn't sound human.

"Hmmm?" It said.

I opened my eyes to find that hovering right before me was the pokémon that lives inside Liko's pendant. actually, it was her pendant! I was left jaw-dropped as I stared into its sparkling blue eyes.

Orla and Mollie walked up to me and smiled when they saw the pokémon.

"Well done Dot, I knew you could do it!" Orla exclaimed.

Mollie nodded with a smile and then said, "Good job, now for the next part, you'll need this!"

She placed a knife in the palm of my hand.

"What's this for?" My voice started to tremble as I looked at my open hand.

"For the next part, we need to to gently stab the tip of the knife into this pokémon's neck," The pink haired woman explained, "Then we will collect the blood."

I was starting to shake nervously as it felt wrong for them to put all this responsibility on me when I'm only ten years old and have no idea what I'm doing.

"But of course you don't have to!" Orla reassured me after she noticed my reaction, "You've done enough work for us today so if you don't want to do this you can hand over the knife over and we'll do it for you!"

"Yes please," I replied and handed the knife over to her.

Orla handed the knife over to Mollie and the pokémon turned around to look at her. Suddenly, a green dome appeared around the three and I stood back and watched as everything was playing out.

It was difficult to watch as Mollie stabbed the knife into it, but luckily the procedure was quick.

After the green dome dissappear, the two woman walked over to me.

"And that's all for today!" Orla said.

"We just need to do some scientific tests on the blood overnight but by tomorrow, we can then bring Liko back," Mollie explained.

"Really? Thank you so much!" I exclaimed, beaming up at them.

"No problem, goodnight and sweet dreams!" Orla replied and waved me off.

And with so much more energy, I ran back to my bedroom. I explained everything to Sprigatito and then when I was done, I fell asleep quite quickly, dreaming of seeing my friend again...