A/N: Written for Glaceon Mage's birthday. So happy birthday Glac, and hope you enjoy. :)
Also, since it snuck in on its own, written for the General Prompt Challenge on the PFC, using prompt 19: typo, and for the 5,10,20,50,70,100 fandoms challenge, fandom 39: Pokemon B/W.
Destiny's Pairing
The winds threatened to throw them both off, and maybe that would have been better. That way, they wouldn't have to fight each other; nature would be the uncontested victor, and the world could move on as it always had. Except it wasn't in human nature to create such convenient circumstances. Hilda found her fingers unconsciously grasping the armor-like protrusion at the base of Zekrom's neck, and a quick glance at her opponent told her N was tanging his fingers into Reshiram's lush fur.
Reshiram was a rather vain creature, and it was a surprise he didn't try to throw the rider off, regardless of their circumstances. But the fight between the legendary dragons had somehow become inconsequential; they were opposites in every sense of the world, the yin and yang who would ultimately decide the world's balance. But they, the riders, were a different matter. She was brash: he was quiet, and almost shy. But deeper than that, they were spirits that shared the same flame: the same desire to befriend Pokémon, the same hope of creating a world where they could coexist with humans.
She wanted to change the world that existed. He wanted to start over.
And so it had come to this. And she couldn't allow herself to call. Nor could he; there was more than what lay between them on a hinge, something they owed other people to see through to the end. People who had given so much, sacrificed so much, to see them where they now stood, with the Legendary Dragons under their command. And yet…there was a third outcome that grew all the more likely.
'We'll destroy the world,' Hilda said, her voice barely carrying. 'How can fighting like this be right?' She could already see a destroyed world, a world laid to waste at the interface of thunder, fire and rage.
'It's too late to think that now.' N's voice was defeated; he was as reluctant as she. 'This choice was made long ago.'
Hilda's face twisted. 'So you would let this world collapse because of a futile battle to decide its fate? We can still stand down; it's not too late!'
The wind grew more agitated at her words, and she was forced to duck.
N and Reshiram came closer. 'It is too late,' he said quietly, so quietly it was only the decreasing distance that allowed Hilda to hear his words. 'Before you even became a trainer; before you and I were even born. I wish though…that fate had been kinder than writing us together. We had some…happy times.'
Hilda's features softened as she heard those last words. 'Yes,' she said, her voice shaking slightly. 'Yes, we did. Fate has made a mistake; I cannot fight you – we were happy!' The last bit was an anguished wail, and Zekrom shifted restlessly beneath her.
Reshiram backed away, and N became smaller too. 'We were happy,' he agreed. 'Or…we could have been. I have never loved another human before, but…' His voice faded away, before returning to shout strongly over the currents: a battle cry. 'You can fight me Hilda! You will! Because I'll kill you if you don't!' Because every human will fight for their life; he knew, and she knew it too. Even if the fight was out of their hands, their desire being the tools that the Legendary Dragons now held, and what they felt for each other was not enough to hold them back from that greater purpose.
She knew it even as she blinked the forming tears away and straightened her back, watching the fires of Reshiram's tail alight and knowing that final battle had begun. N was gone. Hilda was gone; it was just Reshiram and Zekrom now, their voices shouting in the eye of the storm, and they were just the avatars who rode and watched and had their tears brushed away.