Chapter 5: Trust

Content Warning: Mentions of Child Abuse

Aria and Autumn were completely blindsided by the girl's sudden realization of her circumstances not being what she was told they were, frozen in place as they tried to think through what to do or say, the terror flowing from the girl seeming like it only ever grew by the moment. The Gardevoir wanted to first and foremost reassure the girl that she was safe and that there was nothing here to fear, but of course, their village's safety in large part depended on the girl getting kept in the dark about everything going on around her, and this wasn't a duty she couldn't just ignore.

The two forces clashed inside the tall psychic as the room stayed at an impasse, the Indeedee not wanting to accidentally do something wrong and endanger everyone here, her caring nature having to be forcibly and painfully overruled. With every passing moment, the atmosphere inside the room thickened, Anne's thoughts darting around the place, looking for someplace out before inevitably reminding herself that she was blind, injured and that there was a psychic in the room, the realization making her shrink further into the bed every time. What is that woman gonna use that Indeedee for-

"^Anne. You...^"

In every clash, however, one side will inevitably come out on top.

"^...you are in the middle of the Lillywood forest. We found you after you've suffered your accident, and took you in to patch you up. You are safe here, I promise.^"

Autumn stared completely dumbfounded at her daughter in law at giving out their secret like that, her shock clear enough for the Gardevoir to notice and respond to covertly without looking away from the girl-

"^At this rate she'll have needed her memories cleaned anyway, the least we can do is make sure she feels safe here.^"

Aria knew full well her justification was a flimsy excuse, one that wouldn't pass muster if she were to hear it from anyone else. Regardless of what the child on the bed a few meters away from her had done, they were injured, blind, and utterly terrified, her voice, age so similar to Cadence's at times that the mother within her couldn't resist the desire to comfort Anne any more, though her stoic expression gave little of that way.

Before the Indeedee could argue or even acknowledge that justification, the girl spoke first, utterly dumbfounded by what she'd just heard-

"~W-what do you- is th-this a cabin or-~"

A harrowing thought that had crept up onto the girl's mind had finally forced her to take another look at her """nurse""", eyes squinting harder than ever, mind sufficiently wiped of any idea of what she ought to be looking at to finally realize what it actually was that she was currently feebly trying to stare down. No amount of excess disposable scrubs could ever result in a look like that, why would anybody be wearing red eye protection glasses like that when facing patients, that wasn't just some red patch sewn onto the outfit-

The realization hit the girl hard, vague and cloudy fear and unknown taking shape into a very concrete fear of something very known, her body freezing with a single pitiful whimper before did the only thing she could do in that moment, laying down and pulling the covers onto her head, freezing soon giving way to hyperventilating.

"^I'll take care of this mom, just make sure nobody disturbs us.^"

"^Please be careful Aria.^"

"^I will.^"

With Autumn gone, the Indeedee taking post immediately outside and putting up a Safeguard to keep out most of the outside noise, the room now had only the terrified human and the Gardevoir she was so utterly afraid of, their mental link letting the latter see just what exactly was writhing below the girl's skullcap. Aria recognized some of the girl's fears all to well- fear of death, distrust of psychics as a whole taken to an extreme, acute awareness of just how powerful the wild mon in the same room as her was, contrasting her current powerlessness. The knowledge that, if it so desired, that Gardevoir could've probably killed her a dozen different ways before she even had a chance to scream, including some particularly disturbing ones Aria had never even conceived of before.

Others were related to terms and ideas Aria only knew faintly- she'd heard from her family, way way back, that humans tended to attach some particular amount of frightful reverence to her kin, thinking of them as malicious or evil, the phrase "ghost bride" popping in and out of the broth of Anne's panicking thoughts a handful of times. Tugging at these ideas made the frightened child shake in fear even more, and as nonsensical as the ideas of her gaze stealing souls or her mere appearance bringing terrible omens were, they were made viciously potent by the virtue of the girl believing in them, at least in her current state of panic.

Most of them Aria would've just internally scoffed at when coming from anyone else, perhaps even holding them against whoever held these ideas in a non-overt way- but in this case, she couldn't bring herself to do that, the shaky sight on the bed in front of her much too pitiful for judgement like that, Aria's own thoughts only moving in the direction of comforting the girl. A Calm Mind would've helped for sure, at least in the moment, but sooner or later she would've realized her mind was being toyed with like that, and her distrust would only deepen. The only way to win her trust was to go through this the riskiest, slowest, the most mundane way.

And so, Aria spoke towards the girl again-

"^Anne, we...^"

She considered her words for a while, eventually just going through with the whole truth.

"^...we found you gravely injured and unconscious in the snow. Even if we did know how to bring you over to the human medics, we wouldn't have gotten you there in time. I- I know this isn't what you expected to see and I wish I could've been honest with you from the get go, but I couldn't, and I'm sorry for that. I know you don't trust me, I know you're terrified of me... but I promise you Anne, you're safe here, I- I promise. Neither us nor... your parents will lay a hand on you while you're under our care.^"

The Gardevoir closed her eyes, trying to keep as close of a watch of the child's emotions and thoughts as possible, wincing internally before admitting what felt like defeat-

"^If you would prefer, I can give you some space and time to think it over. There's still some water on the stand for you, and I could bring you some more food if you wish.^"

To say Anne's thoughts were turbulent in response to Aria's words would be the understatement of the decade- from fearful shock at what had happened to her, to enmity towards the psychic at deceiving her, to further fear at the wild creature's fearsome power, the covers getting held that bit tighter with her working hand, to self deprecating shame at her even hiding like this to begin with from something that could kill her with a passing thought, to an attempt at actually considering its offer, all those within a span of moments each.

The intensity of negative thoughts expressed her way and the turbulence of it all was enough to almost give the Gardevoir a headache of her own, but she persevered, observing further still, her stoic appearance cracking into the tiniest frown as the girl admitted internal defeat, so convinced she was going to die that she didn't see any point in even hiding any more. Still, despite how harrowing it was, Aria could tell that at least some of her words had managed to begin worming their way further in, making the girl begin to doubt her assessment of the situation, bit by bit.

For the longest time, Aria's words remained unacknowledged, the psychic beginning to think she should just give her some space on her own volition and let her cool off, before hearing the weakest of whimpers, croaked out words clear to her mind-

"~Why d-did you s-save me?~"

The question gave the Gardevoir a pause, not thanks to what it said but rather what it implied, stinging her a bit. Still, the girl talking back to her was great progress on its own, some of her fear beginning to wane, bit by bit, the finding corroborated by the psychic opening her eyes to see the human trying to peek out from underneath the covers, the blurry sight of her red eyes making her stop that with a quiet whimper.

"^Isn't that what anyone with a shred of heart would do? An injured child out in the cold, about to bleed and freeze to death... why wouldn't we do what we can to save you?^"

That last part in particular seemed to stick around in Anne's mind especially, refusing to wash itself from the girl's focus. Of course, she did attempt to answer it, multiple times no less, each potential response more and more prejudiced and absurd alike- but none of them could withstand being scrutinized for any amount of time, so flimsy they fell apart in an instant when faced with what the girl knew she'd been through so far, especially with how much opportunity to end her that Gardevoir and likely other mons have had. The only idea that avoided being discarded by scrutiny like that was that of her being played with for that Gardevoir's perverse amusement, the wild beast no doubt finding joy in getting to fill the girl's head with a false sense of safety before pulling it out from underneath her not once but twice, the idea so inherently illogical and resistant to being disproved that Aria considered giving up for the time being-

But... even it didn't stick for too long. As scared as the girl still was, not even her panicking mind couldn't quite contort the facts to make that possibility seem particularly realistic, not with everything else that Gardevoir had said to her, be it as a pretend medic or as, presumably, itself. Gradually, that wild, dangerous possibility that the Gardevoir was actually telling the truth began taking up more and more of the girl's mind, certain fear slowly burning into an uncertain doubt, about the psychic, about herself, about whether any of this was even real.

As the child's mind tied itself into knots, Aria took a deep breath before deciding to try something else, her steps as loud as she could manage, almost stomps more than anything, as she slowly approached the bed, wanting to make sure the girl had noticed it. And notice it Anne did, shrinking further underneath the blankets, waiting at what would happen next, every step making her tremble. Eventually, they stopped, the tense silence that resulted making the girl skip a beat or two before she felt the rough mattress-like bedding near her left leg shift as if weight had been placed on it, the gentle rustle of fabric on fabric providing further evidence towards what she thought had just happened.

After getting over the shock of that Gardevoir having sat down on the edge of her bed, Anne slowly attempted to peek out and see just what exactly they were doing now, shaking hand reaching and lifting the edge of the covers just a bit-

Only to see the psychic's green hand laying down on the mattress in front of her, palm side up, ready to be grasped from what she could make of it. The sight transfixed her for a while, exhaustion dulled thoughts churning through what the intent or implication of that gesture even were before that voice reached her ears again, making her shrink and withdraw again.

"^I won't hurt you Anne, I promise. You don't have to fear me.^"

The previous time the girl had heard something to that vein she immediately dismissed it as a cruel joke at her expense, the mental image of safety being dangled in front of her face only for her to get stabbed should she attempt to reach out for it chilling as ever, especially considering just what a Gardevoir like that could do, how badly they could hurt her with their magic. The book she'd been reading and which she still should have in her backpack provided more than enough fuel for terrifying mental imagery of psychic abilities being used to harm her after all, but this time... this time it didn't quite manage to take hold on her. It was still scary, deeply so, but as hard as Anne's mind tried, and try it did very hard, it couldn't manage to make it fit with everything else so far, not this time.

In absence of a concrete reason as to why would that Gardevoir hurt her, the maelstrom inside Anne's mind began calming down piece by piece, enough for it to actually be able to look at what had happened to her and start putting pieces of it all together into a coherent image- an image that had the mon sitting mere feet away from her do what they could to help her out and make her feel safe. It all felt unbelievable in the most literal sense, especially once she had started to think of just where she was, the structure around her nothing like she would've thought existed in these woods, and tried thinking about the fact that she seemed to be being tended to entirely by mons, with seemingly no people around-

Unbelievable, and yet here she was.

Injured, blind, scared- but to the furthest extent she could manage to piece together on her own, safe.

Another peek out from underneath the protective blanket revealed that nothing had changed since the last time, the green hand was exactly where she'd last seen it, though now Anne had enough composure to look further along the arm, seeing the Gardevoir indeed sitting on the bed next to her, though she didn't dare to look all the way up at her face, not yet. If she was safe here, with this Gardevoir next to her, talking to her, seemingly trying their absolute hardest to comfort her- then maybe what she'd heard about them from other kids and some old people wasn't all that true in the end.

For a while, Anne could only eye the green hand laying a mere foot in front of her, still not sure what the gesture implied and still too scared to do much of anything. The longer she laid there though, the more the uncertainty within her boiled, her mind desperately wanting to cling to the idea of safety and to not let itself get torn by all the crippling fear again, but had no idea how to avoid it-

Except, of course, by acting.

Slowly, very slowly, Anne's hand began to reach out from under the pretend cocoon of her blanket over towards the Gardevoir's, part of the girl's mind screaming at her to stop while the rest cheered as loudly as it could for her to continue, the cacophony making her thoughts impossibly hard to follow for a few moments, Aria starting to worry about her backing out-

But thankfully, Anne pushed though, her pink, bruised hand making contact with the green one, the immediate sensation almost beyond description. Their skin was silken smooth, somehow so human and yet simultaneously so different. Softer than a baby's bottom and almost electric to the touch, the tingly, slightly numbing sensation the girl felt when touching it comforting, emanating an odd warmth, but not actual heat. Warm, gentle sensations- safety, refuge, even love, the sum total feeling like it could somehow out-protect the raggedy blanket covering her body.

"^It's okay Anne, you're safe. Take as much time as you need.^"

By the wonderful @anthrodyniacoms on Twitter!

Despite the clear inhumanity of the being that spoke towards her, she found herself nodding in affirmation, the comfort emanating from that Gardevoir's touch gradually stilling the relentless worry inside her head bit by bit, heart calming down alongside it, until all that were left was silence and peace. At least initially- freed of panic that had gripped it, the girl's mind began slowly drifting towards confusion at everything else that was going on, and with it came curiosity, bright and innocent, beginning to shyly peek out into Anne's thought process.

She felt her hand being held that much more firmly at that, though didn't connect the dots herself, instead focusing her entire resolve on working towards facing the world around her as it actually was, and that extended towards the being that helped her out, both in the past and now by helping her calm down. Slowly, the hand was withdrawn before reaching around to pull the blanket down from the girl's face, the sudden light bathing her making her squint extra hard before she looked up at the nearby Gardevoir. She felt a small, tiny bit of her shudder in fear at that sight, some small part of her still rambling on about how she should be afraid- but she refused to give it any more power, trying to focus on the psychic's expression and managing to barely make out a wide smile that filled it.

"^Hello there Anne. How are you feeling?^"

Aria thanked whichever deities were nearby for the girl managing to overcome her fear on her own enough for her to reach out towards her, the Calm Mind infused touch only speeding up what Anne's mind was already well on its path towards. The curiosity she felt slowly bubble to the forefront of Anne's mind made the psychic happier still, the Gardevoir wanting little more in that moment than to comfort this poor child further, and that included satisfying her understandable confusion.

"~I'm... I-I think I'm okay. I... t-thank you... um- what's your name? A-and how do you know m-mine?~"

"^You're very welcome sweetie, my name is Aria. And as to how I know your name... there's a fairly strong mental connection between us right now, and with it come some surface thoughts, your name, how you're feeling, and such.^"

It was a great simplification, true, but entirely appropriate for her needs at the moment. As the Gardevoir began to scoot over closer to the girl, bit by bit, she thanked the stars for her words not inspiring any more fear or disgust inside her, the little one seemingly already aware of at least that bit of what interacting with a psychic implied. It wouldn't be all peaceful though, as while her words didn't make Anne respond with fear, they did made her feel much more self conscious, thinking back to all these things she thought about the Gardevoir when she was panicking, a more sober reexamination making her realize just how messed up and offensive they were, the girl eventually mumbling out-

"~D-does that mean you c-could hear what I was th-thinking all along? If so then... I-I'm sorry...~"

While Anne may have tried to shrink away in shame, Aria had other ideas, the girl flinching at her body suddenly feeling like it was enveloped in the same warmth that emanated from the Gardevoir's hand, the sensation as soothing as it was unexpected, with the former eventually winning out between the two, especially as Aria spoke again-

"^Shhhh, settle, settle Anne. No need to apologize for panicking. It's only natural to be scared of those you don't know, especially in as scary and unexpected a situation as yours. You didn't do anything wrong here, I promise.^"

The reassurance helped calm the girl down greatly, Anne responding with light, shaky nods as she turned to look back up at the Gardevoir, gratitude at her gaffe not being held against her welling up inside her small, roughed up body.

"~Thank you, M-Mrs. Aria. That's a p-pretty name...~"

The Gardevoir giggled softly at that remark, the human squirming a bit in response as Aria slid over closer, the little one eventually managing onto that before looking up at her in surprise from up much closer.

"^Thank you Anne, your name is really pretty too.^"

Slowly, the same green hand she'd held moments before reached over towards Anne's head, gently petting her brown, unkempt hair, the pleasant, tingly, loving sensation melting through her worries so much more effectively than even her earlier touch. It felt so, so incredibly nice...

And Anne couldn't even remember the last time she was touched in a comforting way like that.

Before Aria could even investigate that stray thought, she heard her mother in law reach out to her from the other room-

"^Feels much better now- is it alright for me to walk back in?^"

"^Anne?^"

Hearing her voice interrupted the girl's train of thought before it could go anywhere dark again, the human looking up at her attentively.

"~Y-yes Mrs. Aria?~"

"^The Indeedee you saw earlier... her name is Autumn, she's my mother in law. She's asking whether she could come back in and probably chat with you too.^"

A part of that sentence took Anne aback for a moment, the girl used to the mental image of an Indeedee as a nameless assistant at a hospital or a clinic more than she was to them being actual sentient beings with names, families, and personalities... but at the same time, much the same was true about the Gardevoir she was now talking with, the incongruence quickly getting swept out of her mind with a firm nod.

"^Come in mom.^"

Autumn wasted no time before waddling back in, smiling widely at the sight of her daughter in law comforting the poor child as she walked up closer, Anne's attention shifting between them both.

"^Hello there sweetie~. I am so glad to see you doing better- do you still need a drink dear?^"

The old, slightly croaky voice she heard in her head similarly threw Anne's mind for a loop, deeply unused to mons speaking up in that way and sounding like pe- humans, though with how alluring the offer was, confusion had to take a distant second place.

"~Yes, p-please, Mrs. Autumn.~"

"^Oh hush now sweetie, no need for formalities. Oh, seems you've dropped this~.^"

As the Indeedee walked around the bed, her eyes briefly lit up with a green sheen as the Fennekin plushie was levitated back to the edge of the bed, Anne wasting no time before holding it closer. Autumn still might've been deeply uncertain about just what exactly the relationship between the human child in front of her and the Braixen girl currently helping with the little ones was exactly, but from what she was seeing and feeling she had a terribly hard time imagining Anne having ever actually harmed the fox.

All the while, another thing she was uncertain about filled Aria's mind, now that the scene had calmed down enough for the realization that she blew their entire facade up in front of the human to begin sinking in. Still, she was good at this, once the need arose she would be able to remove all traces of this having ever happened from Anne's memory- or at least that's what she told herself to excuse what she was about to do. While most of the human girl was focused on observing the Indeedee grandma pour her another glass while holding onto her plushie, she caught another glowy sight in the corner of her vision, a faint white light filling Aria's eyes as she reached over towards the side room and grasped the bespoke glasses, the item whizzing through the air towards her hand shortly afterwards.

"^I'm sorry for keeping this away from you earlier Anne, here you go-^"

The girl had no idea what the Gardevoir was referring to exactly, squinting eyes not managing to quite make it out, the suspense making her down the rest of her drink quickly before she reached over to feel around- and finding what could've only been her glasses, squeeing quietly in relief.

"~O-oh thank you, thank you, they're alright...~"

Or at least that's what the girl thought, the closer examination revealing one of the lenses to have a decently sized crack in the corner and one of the temples to have gotten bent at a pretty harsh angle, though thankfully neither of these stopped the eyewear from being usable on their own. Still, she'd have to straighten this out if she wanted it to stay on her head, a quick attempt making her realize quickly that her fingers had nowhere near the strength needed to fix the piece of metal.

"^Do you need help Anne?^"

"~Umm... y-yeah. I can't wear them like this, th-they're bent here...~"

The link between them let Aria figure out what the girl was referring to easily, nodding before her white aura enveloped the thin piece of steel, one swift move straightening it back out before the human could elaborate, the suddenness and apparent effortlessness of the act catching her off guard. Still, at this point she was calmed enough to end up towards the latter end of the spectrum of terrified vs. awestruck at the sight, gently grabbing the glasses back and putting them on her face.

"~T-thank you Mrs. Aria...~"

The sight of the glass trinket getting used for its intended purpose caught both psychic's attention, Anne's vision returning as she stared at the world with the help of the eyewear, squinting eyes now finally opening all the way, letting the two make out the girl's hazel eyes.

And making Anne realize that yes indeed, all this was happening, she was indeed conversing with two very real mons, both mere feet from her and eagerly tending to her all the while, the sheer sudden clarity of it all taking her briefly aback. The look around the room revealed it not be a cabin as she'd previously thought, but something much different, almost making her think back to an old grainy photo of a recreation of ancient humans' dwellings, thick brown canvas surrounding her from most sides, a smallish opening not too far from her letting in light but seemingly not the cold, the faint sparkly sheen covering it no doubt responsible for that to some unclear extent.

"^Huh, so this thing helps you see~?^"

Autumn's creaky voice pulled Anne's attention back over towards her, the Indeedee coming off as even cuter in as high of a definition as anything ever got for the human.

"~Mhm! My s-sight is very bad, a-and these help c-curve the light to make up for that.~"

It sure seemed that the girl wouldn't end up being the only confused person in the room, her explanation seeming to not have made a ton of sense for either Aria or Autumn, making her start to second guess herself and attempt to come up with a better explanation before the Gardevoir interrupted her-

"^We'll have to ask you some more about it sometime, hah. Right now... would you mind answering a couple questions Anne?^"

The girl nodded in acknowledgment, shuffling along on the bed to get more comfy and resting her head back on the pillow as she listened in. Aria took a while to actually say her questions out loud- considering the messiness of the situation, she wasn't exactly racing to get back to asking about the no doubt terrible things that had befallen the girl and ruin the serene mood, but alas, she knew she would have to eventually.

Still, that didn't mean she would have to get to the worst one right away, though the question of which of the two topics she would have to ask her about was worse wasn't exactly an easily answered one.

"^Sooo, I was curious... you and Ember. How were you two like?^"

Even the slightly less bad question immediately chilled the girl's mood, not through fear but because of somber sadness, one good arm holding the plushie that much closer, petting its fake fur as she reminisced.

"~W-we were... it was us two against the world, f-for the most part. S-she meant the world to me. We'd go everywhere t-together, even to school. I wasn't allowed to bring her there, a-and she'd always get really scared wh-when I had to hide her in the backpack, a-and I'd apologize every time, but I-I had to, or they'd hurt her...~"

The words got closer and closer to whimpers as she continued, the two women listening intently and growing more and more aghast, the lead Anne left at the end one they had to investigate further, as much as neither them or the girl really wanted to listen to the very clearly painful events for the human to recall.

Aria's slow, gentle pets on Anne's head did help a fair bit, but they could only do so much, and eventually Aria could only ask her to continue-

"^Who was hurting her?^"

"~Other k-kids at school. Th-they made fun of me for bringing her, if I-I left her outside the class they'd chase her down and hurt her and she was t-too scared to fight back. O-or if they found me during recess they'd c-corner me and beat me until I let go of her, m-most of the time I'd manage to run or hide or find a place wh-where teachers were watching, o-or just endure it, b-but...~"

Even despite the psychically enhanced affection, Anne's tears kept flowing as she thought back to it all, the terrifying picture getting filled in one bloodstain at a time. A part of the elderly, timid Indeedee felt a wrath within her she had never felt before, a desire to storm into the human backwater and enact justice on those responsible in as ruthless of a form as she could think of... but it only lasted mere moments before it dimmed back into feeling sorry for the human and the fox. As terrible as all this was, Aria having to Calm Mind herself to keep herself from possibly tearing up, she knew she had to continue, there were still some things left unstated in her recollection.

"^I-I see... were there no safe places for her?^"

"~Sort of... w-when I could I left h-her at Mrs. Graham's library, b-but it wasn't always open in t-time, or on all days... a-and I couldn't leave her at home, o-o-or-~"

There was a long, painful pause, Anne shaking even harder than before, glasses clad eyes forcing themselves shut.

"~They would hurt her s-so much m-more...~"

"^Your parents?^"

Anne could only nod shakily, Autumn's heart breaking at the sight, the grandma wishing she could do or say something to help the poor child in the moment, to somehow undo or prevent all the suffering from those that should've been the ones closest to her- but alas, she was no Dialga, and all she could do in the moment was watch as her daughter questioned the poor one on, resolve to help the human however she could building up inside her. Before Aria could ask another question, Anne continued on her own volition, mind fraying as she retold it all-

"~They hurt m-me a lot when I-I went back to them, a-and when I stopped crying as much, th-they started hurting Ember, a-and I couldn't do anything...~"

Aria had enough, the girl's retelling genuine and painful enough to cast away any remaining doubt the Gardevoir might've had in her mind- which only meant that someone else wasn't telling the full truth about all this, and there was one person involved in all this that her doubts immediately began to creep towards. Still, that was a topic she'd have to investigate some other time, just nodding slowly as she continued to pet the abused girl on, a touch of Calm Mind steering Anne away from reliving it all. The other question remained though, and with how intimately it tied into all this, she figured this was the best moment to ask it just to get it all over with for Anne-

"^I'm so sorry Anne. When you were running away from your parents, on the night we found you... were you headed towards someone? A f-family member that would take you in-^"

"~N-n-no.~"

The answer was as straightforward as it was damning to any plans or ideas Aria might have had, her free hand clenching from a brief flash of much the same anger that she felt in her mother in law earlier, the idea that someone would hurt and abuse their own little one like that one she couldn't comprehend, deep down- and yet, it was also the truth of this matter.

"~I-I just... I had to run. I-I overheard my father saying he w-was gonna kill me if I pissed him off again, I-I stayed up that night, c-crammed as much as I could into my bag, stole a neighbour's b-bike and t-took off. I thought I'd have the best chances in Lillywood, m-maybe I could take a train from th-there to Castelia, maybe I'd find someone who'd help me out, s-someplace I'd be safe...~"

Like here...

Both psychics overheard the stray thought that had left the girl after she was done talking, a pang of pain shooting through them both in response. No matter her previous composure or even Aria's continued help, Anne's tears continued to flow, the plea from earlier today coming back up in force, now that the fake human hospital around her was replaced by whatever non-human place this was, and feeling just as hopelessly impossible as it did the last time, the girl's whimper barely audible-

"~P-p-please don't make me g-go back...~"

As different as the circumstances were now, as utterly unthinkable a course of action as her words would now imply... Aria's response to that request, deep down, remained exactly the same, if not even more fierce and wholly determined.

"^We won't let them hurt you again Anne.^"

"~Mmm... I-I don't have anywhere t-to go-~"

"^Then let this be your home until you do.^"

As much as Autumn wholeheartedly agreed with her daughter's verdict, she couldn't help but give her a shocked look at seemingly unilaterally deciding on something so unheard of, so against the purpose of their little hiding spot away from humanity on the face of it, so hard for her to wrap her mind around all the implications of- and yet so, so inarguably correct.

Before Anne could whimper out a quiet 'really?', one teary look up at Aria's expression told her everything she needed to know, the at a glance stoic expression giving way to a determined expression that slowly turned into a smile as the girl kept looking, one final firm nod sealing the promise, for real this time.

Aria had no idea how would the girl react to that, but reaching out to grab the green hand that rested on her head before moving it over to her front to hold in a one armed embrace wasn't something she expected, or something she would leave at just that, Anne's yearning for further comfort clear as day. The girl might have gotten caught off guard at the sensations and motions that followed, her covers getting telekinetically held against her front, her body getting shuffled closer to the Gardevoir's, but she couldn't argue with the outcome, finding herself in a position to not just hold the psychic's hand but her entire body.

There was not a shred of hesitation in the side hug that followed, Anne's face pressing into the Gardevoir's side as the psychic's own arm wrapped around her in return, holding her close. The impromptu hugwas shaky, full of tears, slightly awkward- but so, so needed for the human, the sensation of a gentle, loving embrace, the kind Anne worried she'd forgotten entirely by now. The mess of thoughts that stirred inside the girl's mind felt just as, if not even more chaotic than the one from earlier, the realization that she had no idea where or what "here" even was exactly, the worries underlining the idea that whatever this place was it didn't seem to have another human being in it- but also the intense relief that a promise of safety brought, the acknowledgment of just how deeply comforting this embrace and Aria's presence as a whole was,

And an unspoken desire to have it last forever.

Unfortunately- it could only last a couple minutes, Aria shuddering as she felt a familiar aura approach the medical tent fast, one that seemed to be honing in on her presence in particular, squeezing the human girl tighter one last time before looking up at the entrance to the room and taking a deep breath. Just in time no less, the Luxray blitzing in mere seconds later, his fur arcing as he came to a stop, piercing eyes turning to look at his coworker only to go wide at what he actually saw, the electric type having absolutely no idea what was going on in here but liking exactly none of it. Before he could comment or otherwise act on it though, Aria's whisper filled his head first-

"^What is it Lumi?^"

The pointed question thankfully shook him out of any bad ideas, thinking back to the issue at hand as he watched the human look up at him as well, the sight taking it aback a great deal apparently- a sight that it somehow saw, the glassy trinket now on its face as opposed to where they all agreed earlier it ought to have been for the time being.

"Another human searching for this one. One, with an Arcanine, nobody following them, Marco is keeping track of them for the time being."

The news wasn't what Aria expected to hear one bit, but as she thought over who this new human could've been, the ideas she had ventured in the most unsavory direction, the impulse from earlier to punish those who had hurt the girl pressing into her side coming back in force, making the Gardevoir's expression narrow and her free hand briefly clench into a fist.

"^I see, I'll be on my way there, I have an idea of what may be-^"

"~W-what's going on?~"

Anne's shaking voice took Aria out of any further bloody thoughts, the tinge of fear of the intimidating Luxray that stained it clear as day, making the psychic lightly stroke the girl's hair before responding back, for everyone to hear-

"^I have to leave for my duties unfortunately, but I'll be back later, as soon as possible. Autumn, do you mind keep-^"

"^Say no more Aria~ I'll stay with you Anne, as long as is needed.^"

The girl still felt a bit distraught at the unexpected symbol of her safety here leaving so abruptly, but it's not like she had any room to argue, nodding a couple times as she let go of the Gardevoir, manually holding the blanket to her front while laying down as she watched Aria get up and follow Luxray out of the room, the space suddenly feeling so empty without her presence, making the human shrink into the bed a bit.

Aria, on the other hand, knew one thing more clearly than anything else in the world-

If she ran into the girl's parents, there would be hell to pay.