Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. Unfortunately.
White rubbed her temples as she walked down the stairs. She hadn't been fully coherent since she was hit on the head in Plasma's crumbling castle. She was just recently released from the hospital when her mother called her downstairs to see a visitor. Halfway down she put on an affable smile, expecting to see Black or Cheren or Bianca, or maybe even N Harmonia. Instead, she saw only her mother sitting in front of their piano unsuccessfully trying to play Chopsticks.
"Mom, what are you doing?" She asked.
"Hm? Oh, my apologies." Said her mother in a strangely masculine voice. She scooted back the piano bench and, turning around, ripped off her skin and clothing! No, not her skin. Or her clothing. She turned around to reveal a dark haired man in a beige trenchcoat.
"It's nice to meet you, Miss Shiro. You can call me Looker."
Before White had time to ask why this "Looker" guy was dressing as her mother and playing her piano, her real mother came in from the kitchen with a plate of warm cookies.
"Honey, this is Looker. He's a detective investigating Team Plasma."
"I'm sure you have some questions, Miss Shiro. Thanks to your involvement with Plasma, you have the right to know almost anything you wish about them." He said, reaching for a cookie.
How fortunate. A certain question had been nagging at the back of White's mind for some time now. "What happened to Ghetsis' eye?"
"Ah, yes. That was the first thing I looked into, myself. There's a bit of a story to tell if you're willing to listen to it."
White sat down on the bench and Looker began his story.
The rain flew down in sheets, turning the dusty canyon into a river of mud. Such a rain, no Unovan had seen the like of in centuries. There had been rumors of a mighty and terrible ancient Pokémon awaking in other parts of the world. They were quite believable, given the state of Victory Road. Only a madman or a fool would try to enter the Road at a time like this. One such unfortunate boy, in reality almost a man, had gotten caught near the bottom of the chasm when the deluge began. He made his way up as fast as he could, which, due to the construction of the tunnels in the cliff walls, wasn't very fast at all. But now that he was almost halfway to the top, he had reason to thank the Durants who dug the twisted tunnels; they were built to keep the water out if it rained heavily.
It was in one of these tunnels that the young Ghetsis sat down to wait out the storm with his Pokémon. He let out his Whimsicott and his Heatmor, causing a flash that illuminated the small cavern room and pulled his deep green hair out of its ponytail, letting it fall over his shoulders in waves. Ghetsis Harmonia was seventeen, filled with ambition, dreaming for the day when he would beat Alder and take his place as Champion. In order to reach this lifelong goal, he kept himself and his Pokémon to the same standard: fast, strong, ready to fight another Pokémon trainer at a moments' notice. His Throh could wrestle a Beartic to the ground? So could he. His Krookodile could rob a Braviary's nest? Ghetsis had done it too. There was no doubt about it, if Ghetsis became Champion, he would have more power and influence than any other man in Unova.
A cold draft blew through the cave causing it to ripple as an evergreen forest does in late autumn. As the cavern never saw sunlight, it was icy, so he started a small fire with Whimsicott's Cotton Spore and Heatmor's Ember. It cast a small light across the cave that threw eerie dancing shadows around on the walls. Whimsicott let out a terrified whimper at the sight of the cavorting specters. As her cry slowly grew into a wail, Ghetsis comforted her by rubbing the softest part of her bole. Her whimpers stopped, but she began to tremble. From a small, window-like hole in the wall, Ghetsis could tell that the rain wouldn't be stopping anytime soon, meaning that there wouldn't be any sunlight to calm his Whimsicott. And Sunny Day, of course, wouldn't do any good underground. Ghetsis took out the Pokéball containing his Cincinno.
"Cincinno, can you put Whimsi to sleep for us?" he asked. Cincinno trilled her approval and covered his ears. Cincinno began to sing and Whimsicott immediately stopped shivering and looked dreamily at Cincinno. She stumbled forward and fell down at Cincinno's feet in a sleeping ball of fluff. "Good job, Cincinno. Let's go to sleep and wait this storm out," said Ghetsis and scratched behind Cincinno's ear. Cincinno went about sweeping and area of the floor clean with her tail to sleep on. Ghetsis laid down and watched his Pokémon sleep for a little while—his Whimsicott drooling, Cincinno sleeping next to the fire, Heatmor in it—and then went to sleep himself.
He opened his eyes some hours later. Something had woken him. He sat up and looked around, peering into the darkness barely illuminated by the coals of the fire. Nothing seemed out of place, so he laid back down again. Bu he couldn't sleep. Something kept him up. He decided to go on a walk to calm his nerves, maybe burn a few Durant. He silently roused his Heatmor and they went off down a side passage. They had scarcely turned around the second bend before they heard a shriek from behind them. Ghetsis darted back into the room, his Heatmor right behind him. The sight before him took his breath away. It was something he had hoped never to be unfortunate enough to see: the bloodstained body of his Whimsicott being dragged into the darkness by the head of a black dragon. It was a Zweilous, the brutal Pokémon. Cincinno scampered to Ghetsis' side, awaiting his command. But none came. Ghetsis stood in place, frozen with fear. As the Zweilous lunged forward, time went as if in slow motion to Ghetsis' eyes. Heatmor's last flames licking his glowing head. Cincinno's ears folding down in preparation for Hyper Voice. The huge mouths of Zweilous clamping onto their heads. Seeing the deaths of his Pokémon snapped Ghetsis back to reality. He jumped forward and latched his arms and legs around Zweilous' neck, effectively cutting off its air supply. The other head snapped at him, but he rolled off and drew a knife and poised himself, breathing heavily through his mouth. The heads of Zweilous swayed back and forth, clicking like cicadas. The heads lurched and Ghetsis dropped to the floor, the gnashing teeth ringing in his ears. Not missing a beat, he thrust his knife up, straight into the underjaw of one head and through its mouth. He pulled out his knife and dark blood drained out onto his face, blinding him.
The Zweilous won't live much longer. Soon it will die from bloodloss, writhing on the cavern floor. These were the thoughts in Ghetsis' head as he stumbled to the rushing sound of water. Still, he wanted to get out of those accursed tunnels. He found the river and knelt beside it, splashing water into his face to rinse off the drying blood. He stood up, the terror and adrenaline washed away with the blood, replaced with pain and grief at the loss of his dead Pokémon. But for now, he had to get out, so he turned around. To find himself face to face with the Zweilous breathing hot, reeking air into his face. A roar of agony erupted when the yellowish fangs sank into the side of Ghetsis' face and he toppled into the river with the dragon and was swept away.
A hospital room. He was in a foggy hospital room, clean, white sheets beneath him. But it wasn't a hospital, and it wasn't foggy. It was just a bedroom. Ghetsis opened his eyes and a searing pain shot through the right side of his face. A dragon. He had been bit by a dragon. As his last memories came back, Ghetsis felt more pain. He stood up and opened the door to go find his hosts. But they were already standing there, two men and a woman, all dressed from their feet to their eyes in black, and with stark white hair.
"We found you and your dragon under Driftveil Bridge." Said one of the ethereal figures, Ghetsis couldn't tell which. "Your new eye should work fine, but you'll never look the same."
"My… new eye?" Ghetsis ran back into the room and looked in the mirror to find his face deeply scarred on the right side. Worse, his eye was missing, and in its place, and evil looking metal plate with a red lens.
"It was our Zweilous. It had a madness in its head. For killing it, we are in your debt forever. We pledge ourselves to serve you from this day forward."
"How they made the eye or how they managed to save Ghetsis, we don't know. But that's the story he told us in prison." Looker sighed and leaned back in his chair.
"I had no idea that Ghetsis ever loved Pokémon," said White. "I can understand why he hates them now after that."
"But don't let that make you think twice about his morality. Ah, excuse me." Looker went to the doorway to take a call on his cell. "Miss Shiro, work calls. The ones who saved Ghetsis, the Shadow Triad, have broken him out of jail. It has been a pleasure talking with you. Expect a call from us later this month." And without another word, Looker threw on an Ace Trainer's outfit and departed.
"White, honey, how about you get some more sleep, okay?" Said her mother. White complied and went up the stairs to her room. As sleep pulled her away, she drifted off with almost a feeling of pity for Ghetsis Harmonia. Maybe he wasn't completely evil after all.
