A/N: Was trying to stop myself from starting a new multichap so this was born instead. Manga-verse – since I finally got around to reading it in its entirety. Enjoy!

Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, C18 – write about someone losing something.

Lost

We all lost pokemon. Partners. Friends. And we regained them. Those encounters made us stronger people, stronger trainers.

Except Black.

Some people said it was simple misfortune. Simple revenge, timed all too perfectly after the victory but meaningless to the one who sought vengeance. Even Shauntal wrote that, in her book. But I don't think she meant it. The Elite Four seem to see things the general public don't. Maybe she did understand. Caitlin had understood something that neither Black nor N had managed to grasp, the day Musha left.

And it wasn't just because we knew Ghetis and the other sages of Team Plasma had escaped.

Honestly, there was a moment in between where I didn't even care they'd escaped.

It wasn't about Team Plasma for many of us. They'd just been an obstacle. A large one. A towering mountain we'd desperately struggled over, only for it to collapse once we'd passed the peak.

Actually, that's a good explanation for what happened to Black.

How long would it take for there to be another hero of "truth" like Black who could wake Reshiram from within the stone.

Or…

I still remember that howl.

Maybe…if Zekrom and N returned, it would be enough.

But no-one knew where they were. They'd vanished, along with the seven sages. Or not "along" with them. On their own path. Into the sun. For people like the police, it was more important to find the rest of Team Plasma before chaos like this reigned again. Maybe even for the Gym Leaders as well. Despite how Black had swept them away with his battles and his heart, they had a bigger duty, to the whole of Unova. They'd involved into something that could have destroyed him.

And the result wasn't even one they'd had in mind.

But there were others, to whom Black meant more than anything. His pokemon…and poor Musha most of all, who'd just been reunited with him just to lose him again. My heart broke watching Musha cry for him. My own tears froze at that. Because who was I, compared to Musha? And Brav, who'd been beside Black for just as long. And his other pokemon. I'd travelled with him for a bit. I'd worked with him. I'd understood his dream and decided to support him. But that was…different.

Maybe it wasn't even the "truth". When I reached out to grab the stone, it floated away. Gone.

Another hurdle between Black and the rest of us.

Another friend lost.

But Gigi had come back. And so had Musha. And N's Zorua. That didn't mean Black couldn't come back too.

But we didn't know what to do. Me, Black's Pokemon…and, after a while I realised, Cheren too. Cheren who'd been Black's final opponent in the league. Who'd made Marlon suspicious. Who'd made Black so angry. Who'd been manipulated by Team Plasma – who'd had his heart played with simply because he was Black's friend. To break the hero of "truth".

But Musha seemed to see something more. And I understood when he showed me a book, old and in tatters but still whole. And there was everything about the league in there. The Elite Four and Champion. The Gym Leaders. How to become the best. How to achieve his dream.

And on the back there were two pages. One in a different handwriting. "I want to be the champion." And "I want to support Black's dream."

I could guess who the other's writing was.

Bianca was busy at Professor Juniper's lab when I went to Nuvema town. 'I'm looking into the legendary pokemon,' she explained. 'There's oh so many of them, and I'm sure this will help everyone.'

'What about Cheren?' I asked.

Bianca made a sort of grimace. 'He feels guilty still,' she explained, 'and useless. He needs Black to say they're always friends, and he needs something to do.' She shrugged. 'He's not too interested in helping with the research.'

And they both could understand. Research was what Bianca found for herself, throughout her journey.

Cheren probably felt what he'd learnt on his own trainer journey had been a farce. But it wasn't. His pokemon had been beside him. There had to have been something real in that.

Just like when Black had wondered if N's words had been true. If nine years hadn't built up a bond between him and Musha. N had been wrong. There was a bond.

"I want to support Black's dream." I read the line again.

There was a bond there as well.

Just like the account book I carried. The work Black and Boar had done with the agency. Up till that shirt he'd been wearing, ready to show to the world.

I wanted to cry again, but my eyes were dry when I knocked on Cheren's door. Black's pokemon were still with me. Only Musha was out of his poke ball. I couldn't have handled them all at once.

He wore an irate expression at first, but it morphed into confusion – and pain.

It was Musha more than me, I was sure. I held Black's book out to him anyway. 'Here,' I said.

He stared some more, and then he took the book. And almost dropped it when he realised what it was.

I stepped back when he tried to return it. 'Black would want you to hold on to that.' Him of all people, because of that final page, because of the memories in it, memories I didn't know. Memories Bianca probably did…but she'd agreed. The book belonged with Cheren.

And what went unsaid. Hope and progress belonged with all of us.

'I'm going to reopen the BW agency,' I continued. 'I think it's a good time.'

'Good for you,' he replied monotonously. He was still staring at the book.

'I won't give up on Black,' I continued. 'I'll continue travelling. Make new friends. Meet old ones. I'll battle, and I'll put pokemon on stage. I'll run into the white stone again – or N. Or both of them.'

'The stone needs a hero.' So Cheren had thought that as well.

The knowledge. The stone. The hero. Was this a possibility? A coincidence?

'Bianca's researching the legends more,' I offered.

'I know.' His lips turned up into a bit of a smile. 'And she was the one who hadn't known what she wanted to do.' He opened Black's book to the last page. "I want to support Black's dream." I could see that sentence, even from the doorway.

Musha drifted over to him. Tentatively at first – and then it bit his head. We both started. Musha bit nobody's head but Black's. Even though it had come near enough to me at times. Back around the time of the Nimbasa musical. He hadn't needed Black to pull him back, I think. Black's dreams were too precious to mix another taste into.

But he bit Cheren's head and Cheren dropped the book. It fell, no worse for wear than it had already been, and Cheren's hands hung by their sides. I could see tears as well.

It was an incredibly personal moment, so I left the pair to it. Whatever Cheren understood from that, or gained, or realised – I who barely knew him shouldn't be there to witness it.

But I discovered it anyway. Cheren caught up to me before I left Nuvema town. 'I'll find someone to rewaken the stone,' he said. He was talking fast, and looked eager like a fire had been lit inside of him. It would smoulder, in time. Bianca's had. Mine had. But he'd just found a path to continue his dream. 'And there'll be someone, somewhere, just as passionate. I'll find them. And…guide…them…' His voice trailed off. The last three words were hesitant. Unsure. 'He thanked me for scolding him, you know.'

I hadn't seen the scolding. But Black had told me about it. And about Cheren.

'Together, we'll put it off.' I said.

He nodded. Musha was still following him. 'Will you stay?' I asked.

Musha nodded. Maybe he could see Black's dream in Cheren. Or maybe because Cheren had just been closer to black.

I wondered if the rest of Black's pokemon wanted to stay as well. But they shook their heads. They wanted to search, in their own ways.

I let them out of their poke balls and watched them depart. And then I went on my own way. Continuing my dream. Reaching out. Searching. Trading progress – or lack of progress – reports with Bianca and Cheren, and talking about other things aside. And the Elite Four and police continued to look for the members of Team Plasma that had escaped.

It was two years before something was found.

And everything fit neatly together – just like it had fallen apart.