A thin bridge spanned across a large expanse, maybe thirty or forty feet above where the ground beneath might have been—Ash didn't know, he couldn't see the bottom of the ravine from where the treetops of the jungle clustered beneath.

On the rocky, sun-baked ridge where he stood, just beneath the ledge of lush grass fields up ahead, Ash had stopped to look at the scenery while he waited. This was a new section of Mahalo Trail that Ash had never been to, but it was incredibly familiar. It was much like the section of bridge that he had taken before—the Plank Bridge, leading up to Ruins of Conflict that he had visited on one of his first trips exploring Alola—but this was a new section. In fact, from a distance he could see where the original bridge spanned. It was very different from the one that he had crossed just moments earlier, and that was still being crossed in that moment.

A creaking sound pulled Ash out of his distraction. He looked over towards the source of the sound—something he had heard near in the near immediate range of his person. Just in the corner of his vision, a large wooden post had been driven into a dust-filled hole in the rock, bending gently under the duress of the rope. The practically ancient rope looping around the post squeezed like an old hand gripping it, the lengths of rope wavering stiffly.

"A-Ash… I… The chances of this bridge holding are—whoooaaa—are between seventy-two thousand six hundred and—aaahh…!" Lillie cried out suddenly, breaking the droning sound of the rope stretching itself.

Ash—and Pikachu, who had climbed onto the grassy ridge above them and perched his squatty yellow body on the knot of an exposed tree root—looked over to see where Lillie's voice had come from. Though Ash knew it was his role as the person not in danger to stay calm, he couldn't stop himself from wincing with fear. He had to make sure that his feet were still on steady ground and a safe distance from the rocky edge of where the ledge ended.

The bridge snaked through the air, caught in a small side-to-side shimmy with the last vestiges of a small gust of wind passing through its thin frame. Just past the center was where Lillie stood, on the most stable section of wooden planking there was left. Most of the planks that made up the bridge, held by sections of looped-around rope to make a flexible and sturdy floor for people to cross on, had fallen through or remained crumbled, leaving some sections that required big leaps of faith. The last major swing in the bridge had passed Lillie, moving its way up towards the posts that had been planted by Ash like a rising crowd doing the wave. She was still holding onto the ropes with a grip that had turned her whole hands whiter than usual, praying silently that there wouldn't be another gust of wind.

The rickety sounds of the bridge were louder for Lillie in the epicenter of all the action. Though she thought the bridge had mostly settled, she felt the whole thing swing again, making her body sway out towards the side, her body bumping hard against one of the tattered lengths of rope she was clinging to. Snowy, the white Vulpix clinging to her shoulders for dear life, gripped with tiny paws to the collar of Lillie's dress and the bag slung over her shoulders. The little feral legs on her kicked and pawed ineffectively at Lillie's back as she tried to push off and get back onto her shoulders.

Snowy slipped off, dropping down onto the boards beneath with dusty thump. The sway of the bridge in response sent her sliding down the tilted boards, barely stopping herself when she kicked and wedged a doughy paw into where a board had splintered off and become smaller. One of her forepaws was able to stop herself against the rope that bordered the bottom edge of the bridge, keeping herself up.

"It's okay Lillie, there's no need to be afraid. You've got this!" Ash shouted, his reassuring voice echoing over the ravine, sounding distant from where Lillie was.

"I'm not afraid!" Lillie shouted back, closing her eyes as she visualized her next move.

It had taken all of Lillie's strength to let one of her hands let go of the bridge's rope. Even though she had thought to lean against where her other hand held the rope, the sudden drop and tilt towards that side made her think twice—even if it was just a small dip. Planting both feet at the edge of the boards, leaning her body and her center of gravity towards the middle of the bridge, she reached into the duffel bag that hugged her side. Her hand nudged through the front flap until she found the lone item inside—Snowy's Pokeball. Taking a glance to where Snowy was struggling and sending micro vibrations through the section of bridge she was standing on, she took her Pokeball, pointing the capture button and pressing.

Lillie had accounted in her mind for the gentle lift in the bridge she was standing on once the weight of Vulpix was removed and stored safely in her Pokeball—it was basic physics to her. She had shut her eyes, looking away from the blinding red laser as it flashed in front of her. Once she felt that 'lift', the small springing motion that ballasted her up before settling back from a slightly higher spot in-air, she let her eyes open, finding the steps ahead of her.

She had kept the Pokeball in her hand, gripping it for safe-keeping. Instead of putting it back in her bag and letting her hand find the rope again, she moved forward with only the thought of getting across as quickly as possible. She took a few more steps, watching the planks stay sturdy beneath her as she still had a few good planks left. When she reached a gap in the bridge where a plank had been, she didn't think any more about it and pressed on with a wider gait.

Ash had breathed a sigh of relief, feeling better that Lillie was now moving—but it wasn't to last. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see something moving, accompanied by a rushing sound. It was the sound of a gust of wind whistling over the rocky walls of the ravine, coming close, and when he looked over to see where it was coming from he saw the swaying tops of trees moving in a line—the same 'wave' he might have seen in a crowd before—approaching the bridge.

"Lillie!"

Lillie looked up, dumbstruck for a moment until she felt it. Her hair whipped around her as the bridge suddenly swung out. Her body nearly flipped, almost perpendicular as she fought to keep her balance, holding on when the bridge suddenly swung out the opposite way. In the flash of a moment when she knocked against the side of the rope, she felt her grip on the Pokeball loosen, getting whisked out of her hand, hurtling in an upward arc and then hurtling down towards the ground.

She watched as the ball tumbled through the air, her eyes wide and silent. She watched without any feeling behind her eyes, knowing that something was now very wrong.

The bridge then swung out again, snapping violently back like a rubber band, away from where it had warped out. The force of the bridge swinging back made Lillie take stumble forward, moved against her will across the narrow width of the bridge. She stumbled, her feet fumbling on the ground and tripping. She reached out for the length of rope in front of her, the taut guardrail that was supposed to be the best protection against her slipping and falling, but she missed. Her body tumbled forward, more force stil coming from the bridge as it swung back and sent her whole body like a ragdoll into the side of the rope. Her stomach caught the rope—a move that anyone watching from the outside, including Ash, could see the wind getting kicked out of—but it didn't stop her momentum. Her whole body flipped, her arms ineffectively reaching out and swinging around as she fell face forward.

Then, Lillie's legs kicked up behind her as her body flipped over, her stockings only lightly catching against the rope as she tumbled and fell down towards the ground, toppling and spiraling in air. Her white hat flung itself free of Lillie's head, unbinding her groomed and well-kept platinum blonde hair as it parachuted up.

"Pika-a!"

Pikachu's cry broke what felt like an endless silence to Ash. He watched from the edge of the ridge, hearing tree branches snap when his friend smashed through the tops of the trees below.

A muddy section of rock stood at a steep incline, pressed to the base of the large and dusty cliff side Ash had just finished scaling down to. His sneakers hit the ground with a thud, landing on the small ridge beneath another one he had just descended from, having crawled along rocky grooves and small landings that cascaded down the face of the ravine like ladder steps. He had reached the last one, and though he had hoped for some kind of sloping path that may have been left behind from years-old explorers, he was left with this steep hill beneath. As he surveyed, leaning himself over the edge for a moment to look over and down, he planned his move briefly—he would have to jump down and land on it, planting his feet on the steep mass of rock and old mud, somehow stopping himself and then taking a few steps down what had to have been a sixty or seventy degree incline. All the possible trips and stumbles came to mind, something that wouldn't have made him as sick as he was if he wasn't thinking about coming across where Lillie had crashed.

"Jeez… Where's Rotom Dex when you need him? Sure could use someone right now, even just to talk to about… this… " Ash grumbled, his hands curling into fists where they were held out at his sides, balancing himself where he stood. The toes of his sneakers crept over the edges of the cliff, keeping him as precariously over as he could to look into his landing zone below.

Just behind, Ash heard Pikachu kick off of the ground, his paws quietly scuttling across the dry rock. Before he could look behind, he felt a rush of air between his legs, looking down to watch as a yellow blur launched itself out from behind him. Pikachu leaped over the first, very steep hump of the rock and mud, gliding down to land on a hump in the formation that Ash hadn't seen, before racing down over the last and much steeper end of the mound. Before Ash could say 'Alola', Pikachu had landed on the wild grasses below, only slowing himself when he reached the shade of the trees.

"W-Whoa…!"

Ash felt himself tipping forward, caught off guard by Pikachu. One of his legs had slipped over like he was going to take a step forward, kicked out to re-balance himself. He waved and swung his arms behind him, paddling at the air to put himself back. When he managed to get a foot back on the ground behind him he took a breath, gasping.

"And there goes my other buddy. Great," Ash sighed, hanging his head for a moment.

Shaking out the tension from his shoulders and rolling them, Ash took a step back. He then hurried himself to the edge with pounding footsteps, leaping over the cliff's edge like he was ready to pencil dive into a pool. He reached with his legs, watching as the ground passed beneath him for a split second before a foot landed. The impact was hard, he could feel it through his leg, and even though it had taken a lot of effort to stop himself it wasn't enough—he was sliding, both of his feet finding no traction. The old mud slid out beneath his sneakers, grating over the rocks as he felt his body sliding. He took a few quick steps as he slid to bring him to the edge and jump again.

Ash stumbled, toppling through the air, shouting as he watched the ground race to meet him. He landed in a particularly large drift of grass, an airy rush cushioning him as he disappeared beneath the tall lengths. He landed on his side, still sore from it but managing to lose a lot of the hard impact just solely by hitting the grass beneath. It took several moments before Ash's arms reached out of the drift of grass, his fingers clawing at the dirt and dragging himself along his belly. Untangled, he was finally able to put his legs beneath him, putting him into a half-squat as he stood himself up. He had to take a moment to breathe and recover from the excitement of the day.

Up ahead, through the cover of darkness from trees overhead, a light shone through. There was a break in the 'roof' of the forest, where several branches had crashed in and been smashed by an impact: something had fallen from the sky to crash into the dirt below. Sunlight streamed through where something had visibly landed, making a bright and glowing spotlight on the ground, a marker for Ash to find Lillie.

Ash stood himself up, swallowing. He had been carried down to that point from the ridge above by pure adrenaline and a rush to come and save his friend, but it was now wearing off, visibly. The sweat that had formed all around his face was now growing cold, the blood draining beneath his tan complexion. His eyes grew faint and fuzzy as he thought of all the things he might see. Short of breath, he wondered if he should have just gone straight away to get help, instead of finding what was presumably a very hurt Lillie. He walked, passing where Pikachu had stopped at the edge of the forest, following Ash through where the grass hadn't grown nearly as much. The dry, crunching remains of the tropical leaves came behind Ash, reassuringly as Pikachu hung back. They shared a look when Ash paused to look back, with Ash unable to understand the strange, nauseated look on Pikachu's face.

Ash's footsteps slowed as he approached the glowing spot of sun on the forest floor. He stepped over broken branches with healthy leaves still clinging to them and fresh, pulpy points where they had just snapped off. There was a lumpy spot in the ground where something had made a hard impact. This had to have been where Lillie had landed, there was no mistaking it, but there was no Lillie. She was gone.

"L-Lillie…?" Ash asked aloud. For a moment, he turned his head, looking around for where his friend might have gone. It was possible, at least to him, that Lillie had survived the fall and possibly walked off.

As he turned his head, searching the surrounding areas for a sign of Lillie—anything at all—he found it. His eyes grew wide in terror.

There was a leg lying in the dirt.

Ash was shocked, but he wasn't disturbed. It was clear that the leg was severed, and yet… it wasn't. Ash couldn't really explain what he was seeing. There was something disturbing about where the leg was lying in the dirt, but not for the reasons Ash might have been disturbed when he first saw it. It clearly belonged to Lillie—obviously clad in the long white stocking that led up to just beneath where her knee would have been. Ash had seen cuts and where flesh had clearly split in injuries before, but this didn't look like it at all. The skin was torn just at where her calf ended, severed, but it looked papery. Getting closer, it looked like rubber, translucent and glowing near the edges like it was hollow. Ash thought he could see a near invisible grid that lined the inside of it from above, and as he passed around it he could see the inside of where the leg had been severed. Hanging out of the end of it where the flaps of 'skin' had been torn asunder, Ash saw tubes and cords resting on the ground, severed and fraying with wires sticking out.

A large, metal rod stuck out of the leg, prodding out into the dirt. At the end of it was a hinge, and it looked like it had been significantly warped. Where a bolt had formerly been attached was a large, stretched out hole that had been seemingly torn out. A glint in the dirt drew Ash's eyes to where the missing bolt rested in the dirt.

There was a part of Ash that almost wished it was a severed leg and not a mechanical part—it would honestly be easier to explain—but that wasn't going to be the case today. He looked, devoid of any emotion or feeling, down into the mostly hollow length of the leg. Large metal disks had been fitted to fill out sections of the leg, keeping it rigid and formed. On the inside of the leg, the grid Ash had seen from the outside lined the interior of Lillie's 'skin' like it had once been in a mold. Cables and hoses were coiled inside, linking to large hydraulic columns that passed through hinged sections of the fitted metal disks, supplanting where muscles would have been in a normal human leg.

"P-Pika!"

Though the sound of Pikachu's terrified cries startled Ash, he didn't show it. As he stood himself up, his eyes were locked on the leg in the dirt beneath him, quivering silently. He had to think to breathe, his breath coming out in stunted gasps that still left him deprived and hazy.

Pikachu was looking at something, he had frozen where he stood on the ground to look. Though Ash had an idea of what he might look over and see, he really didn't—he didn't know what to think any more. As he turned his head, he willingly ignored what was ahead of his vision in the forest, instead looking back to Pikachu. Even though he knew what Pikachu was probably looking at, looking at him made his heart sink, visibly. He then turned, looking back towards the ends of the forest.

Standing in a clearing between trees, an arm propping herself against the side of a tree while she balanced herself on one leg, was Lillie.

She looked dirty, ragged, but she was alive somehow—and surprisingly in one piece, for the most part. Her face was dark and overshadowed, even without her hat on, her bangs messed-with and dirt staining the sides of her cheeks. For a moment, it looked like her face wasn't sitting right, but a blink removed any suspicion of that for Ash as his view of Lillie became instantly clearer. She looked distraught, holding that same silent terror that Ash had in the features of her face—even if it wasn't the same kind of sanguine horror. All she had was missing a leg, where just at the ends of her skirt her leg was hanging down, just beneath the knot in her leg where her knee was. There wasn't any blood or gore, just cables and wiring hanging loose. The skin, though it had largely held its shape, was just as tattered at the ends of it as the leg that Ash had found.

"Ash… I'm…" Lillie stammered. She looked on the verge of tears, even though she didn't look like she was in any pain.

Ash's world was spinning. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't believe what was happening as his dead eyes stared out, only blinking to look up at Lillie. Her eyes seemingly glowed under the darkness of her own brow and the shade of the tree, glinting, looking glossy and… lifelike. Ash knew they weren't real. Even though it looked as though Lillie was silently begging him to believe they were, he couldn't.

"A… robot…?" Ash asked, finishing Lillie's thought.

"No—Ash—wait…!"

It was too late. Ash fell back, his leg going limp beneath him. The ground rushed to meet with him quickly, and when he hit it he didn't feel it—there wasn't anything he could do. He stared out at the forest scene in front of him, unable to look away. A dark shadow encompassed his vision from the side as Pikachu hopped across to see him—Ash unable to see Pikachu's face as it darkened but he knew it was distressed by the tiny, incomprehensible cries Pikachu was making—and the world went black.