Pokemon BW fic
Chapter Twelve: Hero
N sat on a golden throne, forcing supplicants to look up to him across acres of carpet in royal purple and tekeleth blue and cloth-of-gold.
But she was no supplicant. She refused to be awed by grandeur. She refused to see N as a king far beyond her level. He was her rival. Let that be the beginning and the end of it.
At the very least, the finery and righteous fury in his burning-hot eyes made it easy to not think of him as a friend, which he’d never been, or a potential boyfriend. A king might have a harem or a queen, but not a girlfriend like an ordinary person.
“With the power of the Dragons, I will create a world without humans, a world of Pokémon and for Pokémon. My dream burns brighter than yours. My conviction will overwhelm yours.”
Never one for ceremony no matter how he might be dressed, N ran down to her with his usual clumsiness. “You’re here. You’ve come this far to battle me. But the Stone is still dormant. Are you not worthy then? Have I been wrong? I thought you were the one. The other hero. I thought you were strong and I even liked you. That’s disappointing.” He shook his head sharply. “But never mind. If you’re not worthy then you’re not. Fight a hopeless battle or step aside and let me get to it. Come, Dragon!”
The wall behind N’s throne collapsed. The Dragon destroyed anything that happened to get in its way, sending stones flying and falling from the ceiling. It was death. Defeat it? The flesh would be stripped from her bones just for standing so close to the sort of power. The stone beneath her feet was melting, boiling.
“Do you think to scare me? Do you think I’ll run for my life? I’ll show you a hopeless battle! You can kill me, but you will not make me budge! My wish is worth my life!” she shouted and reached for a Pokéball. “It’s time to duel!"
Touko’s bag suddenly jerked and she grit her teeth as her shoulder stretched the wrong direction until the strap holding the bag shut broke. What in the world...?
“The Stone... it’s responding. Touko!”
The Stone floated into the air, having escape her, and glowed brightly. She refused to look away but couldn’t stop her dazzled eyes from squinting and blinking at the pain as if staring at the sun. The wind from its spinning whipped her hair into her eyes, blew shards of rock through the air like a sandblaster.
The other Dragon descended, its power burning in her veins.
It roared and the castle shook on its foundation. The world shook on its foundation. She screamed her defiance along with it.
The huge antechamber was filled with fire and lighting and steam from the vaporized moats. Her skin pained her from a thousand tiny shrapnel cuts and burned with sharp heat from every nerve, urging her to move, to go somewhere that didn’t hurt. She stood firm. And so she was worthy of this fate.
“Here they are. Zekrom and Reshiram. The duality of darkness and light. The duality of two heroes. Let’s fight for the future!”
On the Dragon’s back, Touko could block out the burns and shocks, the Dragonsbreaths flying through the air because she could trust it to handle jousting passes. Her part was about her and N.
This dream isn’t just mine alone. For Bianca and Cheren. For my mother and the professor. Even for the members of Team Plasma who have grown attached to the Pokémon with them over the course of the Glorious Revolution. For all those Pokémon who have humans they want in their world.
Drayden and Iris had told her that this was a forever war of impasse and stalemate. Two heroes might declare truce, but the war would be started again in another generation. There was no room for compromise and she would admit defeat only when her very soul had burned away into nothing. Too much was at stake. She would have victory.
When you look at me, you see something that makes you regret your dream. When I look at you, I see someone else I want to save.
Touko nudged the Dragon with her mind, gripping its neck as tightly as possible with her knees while trying to get reach. There was a reason the lance was the preferred weapon for fighting from Rapidash- or dragon-back. Passing close to the other Dragon, she struck out with her fist like an uncoiling Ekans with a satisfying impact, then grasped blindly for her mount against the sensation of falling, like the one that would jolt her from dreams.
N was thrown from the back of the Dragon as it bucked and flipped, and she winced as he fell too far, willing his safety. Her Dragon responded to her wish, breaking his fall over its neck and letting him flip the rest of the way to the ground after it banked its wings to drop down. Touko jumped after him and her Dragon rose after the other.
He looked as bad as she probably did, but while his back was going to be black and blue soon, she hadn’t heard the crack on bone splintering. “I was beaten. Your conviction was stronger than mine,” he said, voice empty of emotion, playing in the dirt of the rubble with one finger. “When I first met you, for the first time I heard a Pokémon that liked a human, who wanted to be with you.”
She began to reach out to him when Ghetsis pushed his way between broken pillars and between her and N. “Hm, what a disgrace. Someone as pathetic as you is no son of mine. A failed experiment. A freak among humans or Pokémon.”
“N, don’t listen to him!” she yelled, seeing him flinch at each word. She’d said as much about him before and the hurt she saw on his face shamed her. People changed. The flames had seared her doubts away. “I love you!”
N shook all over and held stock still. Straw that broke the Camerupt’s back, had she just broken him?
“It matters now,” Ghetsis continued. “Everyone in the world has seen a miracle. I will be the one to tell them what it was they saw. All I have to do is eliminate you and I will be able to rule a world where I have the only paramilitary force left at my disposal.”
Cheren and Alder came after them, her friend still half-supporting the injured Champion. “This was what you were after? Not the liberation of Pokémon?”
“Of course. What sort of fool do you take me for? Pokémon are useful.”
“That explains why you were all such hypocrites.”
“You dirty--” Alder began, but slumped down, coughing into a sleeve that came away bloody.
“You’ll have to go through me.”
“Precisely, my dear.”
“See, N, this is what you were being manipulated by. This is what polluted your vision.
“Now then, I can’t have witnesses. Even better, I can get out of the way at the same time the Champion and the trainer chosen by the mere Pokémon that some call gods.”
Ghetsis took a step forward, his robes billowing around him. For the first time, she noticed the family resemblance. She was so glad to not have a father and needed to introduce N to Bianca properly. “Hydreigon! Go!”
The dragon he sent out was dark; not the clean darkness of Zekrom, but that which reeked of corruption and rot, loneliness through solipsism, ambition without empathy, and the will to see the world burn.
“Samurott!”
The Samurott cut through the Hydreigon’s heads with unsheathed sword. “Yes! …No!” she cried as two heads regrew on each of the severed necks.
“Attract the Dragons back,” Alder called to her. “They’ll listen to you two.”
“No. To her.” N awoke from his inertness. “Touko, use the power of the two combined to make your dream come true.”
The Hydreigon opened one of his six mouths and began to sing the song that ends the Earth.
And then there was N, between her and a Dragon Pulse. “Touko!”
She ran. Up to the dais where N’s ruined throne had sat. “Zekrom! Reshiram! Hear me if I am the Hero of Unova!”
She felt vague amusement descent around her like a fog, like the lightest touch possible on her mind from a being that could destroy her with an idle thought. What is your will? she heard echo through her bones.
There was no impossible. Reality was hers to remake in her image.
For the longest time, she’d known she would do anything to get to this point but not what she’d say next. Now she knew.
“I wish…”
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N sat on a golden throne, forcing supplicants to look up to him across acres of carpet in royal purple and tekeleth blue and cloth-of-gold.
But she was no supplicant. She refused to be awed by grandeur. She refused to see N as a king far beyond her level. He was her rival. Let that be the beginning and the end of it.
At the very least, the finery and righteous fury in his burning-hot eyes made it easy to not think of him as a friend, which he’d never been, or a potential boyfriend. A king might have a harem or a queen, but not a girlfriend like an ordinary person.
“With the power of the Dragons, I will create a world without humans, a world of Pokémon and for Pokémon. My dream burns brighter than yours. My conviction will overwhelm yours.”
Never one for ceremony no matter how he might be dressed, N ran down to her with his usual clumsiness. “You’re here. You’ve come this far to battle me. But the Stone is still dormant. Are you not worthy then? Have I been wrong? I thought you were the one. The other hero. I thought you were strong and I even liked you. That’s disappointing.” He shook his head sharply. “But never mind. If you’re not worthy then you’re not. Fight a hopeless battle or step aside and let me get to it. Come, Dragon!”
The wall behind N’s throne collapsed. The Dragon destroyed anything that happened to get in its way, sending stones flying and falling from the ceiling. It was death. Defeat it? The flesh would be stripped from her bones just for standing so close to the sort of power. The stone beneath her feet was melting, boiling.
“Do you think to scare me? Do you think I’ll run for my life? I’ll show you a hopeless battle! You can kill me, but you will not make me budge! My wish is worth my life!” she shouted and reached for a Pokéball. “It’s time to duel!"
Touko’s bag suddenly jerked and she grit her teeth as her shoulder stretched the wrong direction until the strap holding the bag shut broke. What in the world...?
“The Stone... it’s responding. Touko!”
The Stone floated into the air, having escape her, and glowed brightly. She refused to look away but couldn’t stop her dazzled eyes from squinting and blinking at the pain as if staring at the sun. The wind from its spinning whipped her hair into her eyes, blew shards of rock through the air like a sandblaster.
The other Dragon descended, its power burning in her veins.
It roared and the castle shook on its foundation. The world shook on its foundation. She screamed her defiance along with it.
The huge antechamber was filled with fire and lighting and steam from the vaporized moats. Her skin pained her from a thousand tiny shrapnel cuts and burned with sharp heat from every nerve, urging her to move, to go somewhere that didn’t hurt. She stood firm. And so she was worthy of this fate.
“Here they are. Zekrom and Reshiram. The duality of darkness and light. The duality of two heroes. Let’s fight for the future!”
On the Dragon’s back, Touko could block out the burns and shocks, the Dragonsbreaths flying through the air because she could trust it to handle jousting passes. Her part was about her and N.
This dream isn’t just mine alone. For Bianca and Cheren. For my mother and the professor. Even for the members of Team Plasma who have grown attached to the Pokémon with them over the course of the Glorious Revolution. For all those Pokémon who have humans they want in their world.
Drayden and Iris had told her that this was a forever war of impasse and stalemate. Two heroes might declare truce, but the war would be started again in another generation. There was no room for compromise and she would admit defeat only when her very soul had burned away into nothing. Too much was at stake. She would have victory.
When you look at me, you see something that makes you regret your dream. When I look at you, I see someone else I want to save.
Touko nudged the Dragon with her mind, gripping its neck as tightly as possible with her knees while trying to get reach. There was a reason the lance was the preferred weapon for fighting from Rapidash- or dragon-back. Passing close to the other Dragon, she struck out with her fist like an uncoiling Ekans with a satisfying impact, then grasped blindly for her mount against the sensation of falling, like the one that would jolt her from dreams.
N was thrown from the back of the Dragon as it bucked and flipped, and she winced as he fell too far, willing his safety. Her Dragon responded to her wish, breaking his fall over its neck and letting him flip the rest of the way to the ground after it banked its wings to drop down. Touko jumped after him and her Dragon rose after the other.
He looked as bad as she probably did, but while his back was going to be black and blue soon, she hadn’t heard the crack on bone splintering. “I was beaten. Your conviction was stronger than mine,” he said, voice empty of emotion, playing in the dirt of the rubble with one finger. “When I first met you, for the first time I heard a Pokémon that liked a human, who wanted to be with you.”
She began to reach out to him when Ghetsis pushed his way between broken pillars and between her and N. “Hm, what a disgrace. Someone as pathetic as you is no son of mine. A failed experiment. A freak among humans or Pokémon.”
“N, don’t listen to him!” she yelled, seeing him flinch at each word. She’d said as much about him before and the hurt she saw on his face shamed her. People changed. The flames had seared her doubts away. “I love you!”
N shook all over and held stock still. Straw that broke the Camerupt’s back, had she just broken him?
“It matters now,” Ghetsis continued. “Everyone in the world has seen a miracle. I will be the one to tell them what it was they saw. All I have to do is eliminate you and I will be able to rule a world where I have the only paramilitary force left at my disposal.”
Cheren and Alder came after them, her friend still half-supporting the injured Champion. “This was what you were after? Not the liberation of Pokémon?”
“Of course. What sort of fool do you take me for? Pokémon are useful.”
“That explains why you were all such hypocrites.”
“You dirty--” Alder began, but slumped down, coughing into a sleeve that came away bloody.
“You’ll have to go through me.”
“Precisely, my dear.”
“See, N, this is what you were being manipulated by. This is what polluted your vision.
“Now then, I can’t have witnesses. Even better, I can get out of the way at the same time the Champion and the trainer chosen by the mere Pokémon that some call gods.”
Ghetsis took a step forward, his robes billowing around him. For the first time, she noticed the family resemblance. She was so glad to not have a father and needed to introduce N to Bianca properly. “Hydreigon! Go!”
The dragon he sent out was dark; not the clean darkness of Zekrom, but that which reeked of corruption and rot, loneliness through solipsism, ambition without empathy, and the will to see the world burn.
“Samurott!”
The Samurott cut through the Hydreigon’s heads with unsheathed sword. “Yes! …No!” she cried as two heads regrew on each of the severed necks.
“Attract the Dragons back,” Alder called to her. “They’ll listen to you two.”
“No. To her.” N awoke from his inertness. “Touko, use the power of the two combined to make your dream come true.”
The Hydreigon opened one of his six mouths and began to sing the song that ends the Earth.
And then there was N, between her and a Dragon Pulse. “Touko!”
She ran. Up to the dais where N’s ruined throne had sat. “Zekrom! Reshiram! Hear me if I am the Hero of Unova!”
She felt vague amusement descent around her like a fog, like the lightest touch possible on her mind from a being that could destroy her with an idle thought. What is your will? she heard echo through her bones.
There was no impossible. Reality was hers to remake in her image.
For the longest time, she’d known she would do anything to get to this point but not what she’d say next. Now she knew.
“I wish…”
Back to main page