"I didn't expect you to visit me."
"Why not?" Newton smiled at him. Zero didn't smile back. "You were my assistant for many years, I wouldn't forget that just because you've done some, ah, reckless things."
Zero said nothing, just glanced at the one way mirror on the wall beside them. Newton had told them about the dangers of mirrors, or any reflective surfaces, but the prison guards refused to let them meet somewhere else; this was where all inmates met with their visitors, and they weren't going to make exceptions. He had to let it drop; he was just grateful he was allowed to visit at all.
"I assumed you would continue your research in the Reverse World," Zero said, after several more moments of silence. Newton flinched, but Zero didn't seem to notice.
"Well, I had been there for five years," he said, trying to sound cheerful. "I decided that maybe it was time for a break."
Zero nodded, and neither of them spoke again until one of the many Officer Jennies came in. "Mister Graceland, your time is up."
"Doctor Graceland," he corrected. "Doctor Newton Graceland, preferably.
Zero smiled at this, to his surprise. "You really haven't changed a bit, Newton," he said. "Or am I supposed to call you 'doctor' now, too?"
"Now, now, you know you never have to –"
"You've had your time to talk, I'm afraid," the Jenny said. "You need to head back to your cell," she said to Zero. "Officer Johnson, you go with him."
"Well, I best be going," Newton said quickly, as the guard walk towards them. "Take ca –"
"Will you visit again?"
The question caught him off guard and he stumbled over his reply. "I – ah – yes, of course. You do want me to, right?"
Zero nodded, stood up, and let himself be led away by the guard. Newton realized he should've said goodbye right as he left the room.
"When can I visit again?" he asked the officers, as soon as he was able.
They named a date that was too far away for his liking, but Newton supposed he couldn't complain. After all, it gave him plenty of time to settle into a routine now that he was living in the real world, get his affairs back in order, and salvage what he could of Zero's wrecked airship.
The airship's data was not as difficult to recover recover as he thought it would be. Newton found that, when it had crashed onto the glacier, it had lost power and been damaged beyond repair, but the computers were mostly fine. Unable to power them up there to see what was on them, and seeing as it was the middle of the night and he had not gotten permission to come there, he backed everything up onto the portable hard drive he had brought and left.
Shieldon was waiting for him at the base of the glacier, staring intently at him. "I'm all right!" Newton called down to him. "Nobody came by, did they?"
Shieldon shook his head. Newton rubbed his hands together and shivered; it was freezing out here and he hadn't dressed properly for it. He sighed, put his gloves on, and began the harrowing climb back down the face of the glacier.
When he was halfway down, Shieldon cried out a warning. Newton turned to look down so fast that he nearly slipped. "What is it? Is someone coming?"
He cried out again and pointed his body towards a spot on the ice that was rippling in a very familiar way.
That... probably wasn't good.
It had been a long time since he had seen any sign of Giratina surfacing in the real world. He hasn't seen any sign of Giratina at all, actually, since the first time he had entered the Reverse World after the incident.
That had gone badly. Newton hadn't expected it to react the way it had, especially since he had been the one to save its life. All he had wanted to do was finish up some research, but he had ended up running back through the portal with Giratina hot on his tail.
If he had been any slower, he might be dead.
After that, he hasn't gotten another chance to enter the Reverse World. It was as if Giratina was deliberately keeping him out; even the portals that normally appeared on their own in this area had all vanished.
If one was opening here, Newton had a strong feeling it was deliberate.
The portal opened into a vortex that nearly pulled Newton off the glacier. He held tight, ignoring the cold pain in his hands, and prayed that Shieldon would be safe. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Giratina rising up, its form shrouded in purple, and that's when he realized that he needed to get out of there fast.
As soon as the wind stopped, he slid down the rest of the glacier. Shieldon was waiting for him, having dug his feet into the ice to stay put.
Above them, Giratina finished its transformation from its Origin form to its Altered form and screeched. Newton didn't want to waste any time.
"We've got to go," he told Shieldon, who snorted as if saying, "Do you think I'm stupid?" and ran with Newton as Giratina's fireball hit right where they had been standing.
The explosion caused him to stumble and the ice to crack. Newton regained his footing, recalled Shieldon, who was falling behind, into his pokéball, and kept running.
The next fireball hit the ground in front of him just as he made it off the ice. He skidded to a stop, turned around, and came face to face with what might've been the most frightening sight of his life.
Giratina was angry.
He had seen Giratina angry before, when it had attacked Dialga. But this was different. Giratina had raised its body up high, looking like a cobra about to strike, with its wings spread out behind it. Its eyes were glowing red, and when it leaned forward and screeched at him, Newton couldn't do anything but stare, frozen in fear. Giratina was angry, and it was clear it didn't care what part Newton had in saving it.
It opened its mouth and began to form another fireball ad he snapped out of it and started running again.
The shot flew over his head and hit the cliff; Newton glanced back, but Giratina didn't seem to be following him. It stared at him, then turned around and Newton looked back at where he was going before he tripped on something.
He didn't stop until he was back at his house. He was out of breath and had a stitch in his side, but he was alive, and he had gotten all of Zero's data back.
The next day, when he went back up to the glacier, Zero's airship was torn apart, with chunks of metal littering the ground.
Giratina had sought Dialga after its fight with Palkia had polluted the Reverse World. If Giratina had wanted revenge...
Newton picked up a piece of metal, stared at the gouges running through it, and imagined those claws going through human flesh.
The second visit, Zero's glances at the mirror were more frequent and he refused to meet Newton's eyes. After a while of this in silence, Newton finally cleared his throat and asked, "Are you alright?"
"I'm in prison, what do you think?" he snapped, without looking up.
There was another silence while Newton desperately searched for something to say.
"Why?" Zero asked suddenly, staring down at the table. "Why did you turn me in? No one would have noticed what I did –"
"I think someone would have noticed the glacier wasn't in the right place," he said without thinking.
"No they wouldn't have!" Zero shouted, and he slammed his hands on the table. "It's far away from this town and it's nearly winter, no one would have gone up there until spring, at least, if you hadn't turned me in! Why?"
"I..." Newton was at a loss for words. "I... didn't know what else to do. I couldn't get you out on my own. You needed help, and, well..."
"And the only way to help me is to throw me in prison? You could've just left me there and accomplished the same thing!"
"If I had left you there, you'd be dead!"
"I'm better off dead than here!"
Zero was glaring at him now. Newton could only stare back. "Is... is it really that bad?" was all he could say.
Zero nodded. "It is. It's just... God, it's terrible here. I don't know how I'm going to last over a year here."
"I'm..." Newton reached for his hand, but Zero pulled it away. "I'm sorry."
He had come to expect and dread the silences that came between them. What could they talk about? They had separated for five years, and now Zero was in jail and it was his fault. Newton supposed he could talk about the research he had done in the Reverse World for those years, but he had a feeling Zero didn't want to talk about the Reverse World anymore.
So again, they sat in silence, while the clock quietly ticked away the minutes they had together.
It was Zero who finally broke the silence. "Do you know what happened to my magnemite?"
"No, I haven't seen them since – well. I haven't seen them."
"I suppose they've all scattered." Zero spoke in a low, monotone voice. "Magnezone might have tried to stay, though. Could you find him for me?"
"Of course!"
"Thank you."
Newton left that day feeling determined. Sure, the conversation hadn't gone as well as he'd hoped, but he had a mission now. He was going to find Magnezone, and he was not going to let Zero down again.
As it turned out, the magnemite hadn't scattered. Newton found them all in the ruins of the airship that had crashed into valley. The ship itself was completely destroyed; even the scrap metal was being eaten by aron and lairon as he watched. He spotted Magnezone first, huddled with a pile of magnemite around it. Newton waved at them, then stopped. The last time he had seen them, they were acting under Zero's orders to attack him, and then he had crashed the ship. What would they do when they saw him now?
Well, he was about to find out, because Magnezone had spotted him and was speeding towards him, followed by the rest of the magnemite.
"Oh boy," Newton said as they approached, wondering if he should send out Shieldon.
And then Magnezone was in his face, crying in its tinny voice a stream of "magne" and "zone". "Whoa there," he said, raising his arms and taking a step back, only to nearly trip over one of the many magnemite that were now hovering around him. "I'm – uh – hey! Zero sent me, he, uh, can't take care of you right now, so he asked me to. Can y'all, uh –"
"Magne! Magnezone!" The magnemite took up the cry, and Newton was surrounded by a cacophony of all the magnemite yelling at him.
"Hey, calm down!" he said desperately, but Magnezone advanced towards him, his magnets sparking, and then Newton did trip over a magnemite and sat down hard.
"Ow," he said.
All the magnemite stared at him.
Newton was starting to get annoyed. This should've been simple, just round up all the magnemite and bring them to his house so he could take care of them, like he promised Zero. But now they were all giving him a hard time and his tailbone hurt and damn it all, he never wanted any of this to happen.
Maybe if he had tried to find Zero again after they had split up, instead of retreating into the Reverse World for five years... maybe then things would have turned out differently.
Something bumped into his side.
It was Magnezone, no longer sparking but just pressing against him and looking at him. "Magne," it said.
Newton rubbed his eyes. "You were the magneton he had when he was still my assistant, weren't you?" he said.
"Magne," Magnezone replied.
"So you were with him all that time. You must have been... I don't know. I was a little scared, when I saw him acting like that. Were you scared?"
"Magne."
"I have to find out if that means yes or no." Newton laughed. "You must have been, though. At least a little."
"Zone."
"Well, that's new. We're making great breakthroughs in language today." He stood up and stretched. "Well? Let's all go back to my house, alright?"
"Magne."
Newton walked down the valley with a line of magnemite and magneton trailing behind him, Magnezone staying by his side.
They had a lot to talk about the third visit. Newton told him all about how he had settled the magnemite in, and Zero gave him advice in how to take care of them, which basically boiled down into, "They can take care of themselves."
"What I'm worried about," Newton said, "is if some of them were separated from the rest. How do I know they're all there?"
Zero shrugged. "I usually didn't. They'll take care of each other. The only reason one would be separated would be if it was hurt, and they'd let you know if that was the case, or if they left on purpose, and if they did, there's nothing to do but let them go."
"And you're okay with that?"
He snorted. "I never asked for them. I find three magnemite in the dumpster and decide to take them home and then they go and tell all their friends. I used to come back to my dorm and find that two more had come in through the window while I was at class. Broke the window, once. I had to pay for it."
"Really!" Newton laughed.
"Don't laugh; I was a broke college student. I couldn't buy my textbooks for the next semester, I had to borrow them." But he was smiling too, and Newton decided to take a risk.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I really am. I know our last visit didn't end up so well, but... if I could have gotten you out of there myself, I would have, but I couldn't just leave you to die. Will you ever forgive me?"
Zero sighed and looked down. "You did it to save my life," he said. "I should be able to, after all. But..."
He fell silent. Newton waited, afraid of what he'd say next.
"It's hard," he said. "I want to forgive you, but it's so awful here, and... I don't know what to do or think. I think I can forgive you, just... not now. Not while I'm here."
"It's alright." Newton wondered if he should try and take his hand again, then decided against it. "I can wait."
"You shouldn't even be apologizing. For God's sake, I could've killed you! I should be the one asking for forgiveness!"
Newton was expecting that, eventually. "I've already forgiven you, Zero."
Neither of them had anything to say after that.
The next visit, Newton started the conversation off by talking about how the magnemite had adjusted to their new home. Zero listened and seemed to be interested, but he seemed distracted, and after a few minutes of talking and watching his eyes wander Newton decided hell with it and asked, "Is something wrong?"
"Yes," Zero said. "But I'm not sure I should talk about it."
"You can talk to me about anything, you know that."
He looked away. "I haven't, actually. Known that."
"Well..." Newton couldn't think of what to say to that, so he moved on. "You can just talk to me."
Zero sighed, and looked sideways at him. "I think Giratina's watching me."
Newton blanched, remembering how furious Giratina was towards him, and he was the one who had saved it. If Giratina was trying to approach Zero... "Shit. Are you sure? That's... really bad!"
"I could be hallucinating. That's what I've been hoping for. Isn't that strange? Hoping I've lost my mind because it's that much worse if I haven't?" He laughed, a strained sound that Newton didn't like at all.
"Can other people see... whatever it is you're seeing? What are you seeing? Giratina surfacing?"
Zero glanced at the mirror beside them. "Look for yourself."
Newton turned his head so fast he thought he hurt his neck for a moment. There, on the mirror, were the telltale ripples of Giratina looking into the real world. He jumped back from the table. "Shit! Zero, you should get back!"
"It's fine." Zero looked more annoyed than anything else. "Giratina never does anything. Sometimes I see it, and I know it can see me looking, but..." He sighed.
"They're not portals, either," he added. "Whenever I touch them, all I feel is the mirror. But it's better that way, isn't it? Giratina would never let me back into its world."
His voice shook a little and he wiped his eyes on the sleeve of his prison uniform. "Sorry."
"Zero..." Newton walked around the table to him, still glancing every so often at the mirror. The ripples were still there, neither increasing or decreasing in intensity. He knelt down beside him, and drew him into a hug.
Zero stiffened. Newton hugged him tighter. It was strange, being this close to him after all that had happened. He could feel him breathing, feel his chest move in a silent sob, and feel Zero's hands on his back as he hugged him back.
"I'm afraid," he whispered, "I'm so afraid. What does Giratina want with me? What's going to be waiting for me when I get out of here?"
"I'll be waiting," Newton said. "When you get out of here, you can stay with me. So what if we can't continue our studies in the Reverse World? I care about you as more than just a research assistant. You should know that by now."
Zero's response was to press his chin into the crook of his neck. Newton smiled.
Someone behind them coughed.
"Um," the Jenny said when they looked up. "I'm sorry, but your time is up."
"Oh." Newton was reluctant to stand up and let go of Zero, but he did so. Zero let his arms drop to his side. "Alright. I still have that visit set up for... two weeks from now, right?"
She nodded, and looked at the mirror, where Giratina's ripples still shimmered. "That was why you warned us about mirrors, huh?"
"Yes," Newton said. "Giratina uses them to look into the real world from the Reverse World."
She frowned. "We'll see if we can have your visits in a different room, then. Away from a mirror."
Newton grinned. "Well, thank you! Thank you very much."
He looked down at Zero. He glanced back and managed a small smile.
It seemed bad now, but maybe things would turn out alright in the end.
Things were going well. After they had shown the proof that Zero was not safe where they had been meeting, he and Newton were able to meet away from a mirror. There were still some officers in the room with them, of course – they weren't about to leave the two of them unattended. But there was no mirror, and Newton had finally finished the project he had been working on ever since recovering the data from the airship.
Zero's eyes widened and he inhaled sharply. "This is..."
Newton was very proud of himself. It had been incredibly difficult to shrink Zero's artificial intelligence – Infi – down to a size he could make portable, and even more difficult to convince the officers to let him give her to Zero. But he had succeeded, and he had gotten his reward; seeing Zero smile again.
"This is..." Zero's voice shook as he stared at the small black projector. Infi's hologram looked back at him and bowed. "Incredible. This is incredible. How did you..."
Newton smiled and winked. "That's a secret!"
Zero stared at her for a moment longer, then looked up at Newton. "And... I can keep her? Prisons don't usually..."
"It's all taken care of. You can keep her."
Zero finally reached out for the projector, his hands trembling. Newton handed her over to him, making sure Zero had a good grip before letting go.
Zero only had eyes for Infi, barely paying Newton any glance. Newton didn't mind – he was grinning himself, seeing Zero as happy as he was.
Finally, Zero tore his gaze away to look at him. "Newton," he said. "Thank you. And... I'm..."
He bit his lip and looked away.
"Grateful," he said. "I'm grateful. For all that you've done for me."
It was nearing three months since Zero had gone to jail, and a week until their next visit. Newton was still trying to adjust to a life of living in the real world, which included getting back into his old routines.
One that he had particular trouble with was grocery shopping. He tended to wait until he was almost out of food before he realized that he should go buy more, and even then he waited a day or two more until the only thing he had to eat all day was dry cereal.
He was walking back home from a trip to the grocery store when he heard the screech. Newton nearly dropped the bags in shock. Once he recovered, he looked up, and his heart dropped.
Above him, Giratina flew down towards the center of town. Newton followed its path, past his house, heading right towards...
"Zero!"
Newton dropped his bags and ran towards the prison.
He didn't have a car. He hadn't needed one when he left to go into the Reverse World, and the prison was close enough to his house that he could walk if he wanted, though he usually took the bus. Now, though, he desperately wished that he owned one, if only for this one time he really needed one.
The bus driver didn't want to go anywhere near the prison, seeing as Giratina had reached it and was bent on tearing it apart, judging by the sounds he heard. Newton begged and pleaded with him – "My friend's in there, please, I've got to help him!" – and finally he agreed to be dropped off a few blocks away, and the moment he stepped off he started running again.
Giratina stood in the middle of the prison complex, surrounded by the wreckage of the building it had destroyed. While Newton watched, it raised itself up and hissed at the police and pokémon that surrounded it. One of the pokémon - Newton couldn't tell what it was, but it looked to have four legs, at least - leapt up at it, and Giratina batted it away with a wing sending it flying into the rubble. It hissed again, and then it looked up and saw Newton.
"Oh shit," he said.
Giratina tensed, and then flew up into the air, heading straight at him. Newton realized that he had left Shieldon at home when he went to the grocery store, leaving him without any sort of protection from Giratina's attacks, and if it wanted to kill him, then there was very little he could do about it.
So he tried the only thing he could think of.
"Hey!" he said. "Giratina, listen to me! Please stop!"
To his surprise, Giratina stopped, landing a few yards away from him, and bent its head in until it was right in his face. Staring into one red eye, Newton could almost make out his own reflection.
This idea was starting to feel worse and worse by the second.
"Um," he said.
Giratina hissed softly and he felt its hot breath. Newton swallowed and tried again.
"I saved your life," he managed to say. "I - I did! Me and Shaymin, I guess, but I was the one who stopped the machine." Giratina didn't respond, so he rambled on. "And, well, if I saved you, then maybe you ought to owe me something! Nothing big, just one small thing, that's all I want."
Giratina snorted and tilted its head. Newton took a deep breath.
"Please," he said, "leave Zero alone. That's all I –"
The next thing he knew, he was lying on the ground with a fierce pain in his side. His head hurt like all hell where he had hit the pavement, and when he touched it, he felt blood. He was fairly sure his side was bleeding, too, because he felt something soaking into his shirt.
Giratina screeched, right above him, but it didn't sound quite as loud as the voice that rang out in the silence that followed.
"Newton!"
Newton's head spun and he felt like he was going to throw up, but he managed to lift himself off the ground enough to see what was going on.
Zero was leaning half-out an open door, restrained by someone he couldn't see. He locked eyes with Newton, and then raised his gaze up to the legendary pokémon beside him.
Giratina let out a low growl from deep within its body.
"No. No!" Newton struggled to pick himself off the ground. "Zero! Get out of here! You can't –"
Giratina vanished.
Everyone looked around wildly for where it had gone. Newton remembered this attack; Shadow Force, they had named it, a move that so far only Giratina seemed to know, where it vanished into shadows and then reappeared to land a devastating blow. He tried again to tell Zero to run, get away, but before he could get the words out, Giratina appeared again.
It hit the building with enough force to knock it over and Newton lost sight of Zero in the crash. Then Giratina dove its head down and grabbed something – someone – in its beak and with a twist of its neck threw Zero out onto the open ground.
Somehow, Newton managed to stand up and run to him, despite the pain and dizziness that threatened to overcome him. "Zero! Are you okay?"
For a moment, Zero didn't move, and Newton feared the worst, but when he bent down beside him he shakily tried to get up.
"Don't!" he said when Newton tried to help him. "Just go! You're –"
"No time," he interrupted, putting an arm around his chest and lifting him up. "I'm not leaving you here!"
Giratina screeched and lunged at them.
Newton only had time to pull Zero close to him before it slammed its tail on them. Pain shot through his entire body and they were slammed into the hard ground. And then Giratina hit them again, there was a sickening crack, and Newton heard Zero cry out. And then it hit them again. And again. And again.
After the fifth blow, Newton's whole body was wracked with pain and his vision was too blurry to make out anything but the top of Zero's head. Zero wasn't moving, and the only sign that he was alive was his fast, shallow breathing. In the lull between blows, Newton heard him mumbling something.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry –"
Giratina crashed down on them and everything went black.
"We are even. I owe you nothing."
Newton was kneeling on the ground, breathing hard. He didn't hurt anymore and his head felt clearer than it had in a long, long time. All around him was a white void, and he couldn't see where the ground ended and the sky began. He got to his feet, and looked around for the source of the voice. "Who are you?" he said.
"You really aren't that bright, are you?"
He became aware of a presence surrounding him and instinctively backed up. "Giratina?"
"How perceptive of you!" The whiteness around him shifted and Giratina appeared in its Origin form, slowly undulating in a circle around him. "Maybe," it said without opening its beak, "you are not such a lost cause after all."
Newton froze, unable to do anything but stare.
This couldn't be happening. This absolutely could not be happening. He was hallucinating or dreaming or something in the last few moments before Giratina killed him, but this was not happening. Yet all his senses were telling him that yes, this was real, and Newton was terrified out of his mind.
Giratina bent their head down to him and looked him over with one eye. Newton could not move, even though his mind was screaming at him to get away. "What happened?" they said. "Where's all the bravado you had when you first trespassed into my world? You kept going on about the monumental discovery the two of you had made, I remember." They pulled back and continued circling. "I should have killed both of you when I had the chance."
The phrase "the two of you" snapped Newton out of his state. "Zero," he said, "where's –"
Giratina opened their beak and screeched. Newton clapped his hands over his ears, but that did nothing to block out the sound that pierced his head like a nail being driven into his skull.
"He is nothing," Giratina said in a voice filled with rage. "He is nothing. I will destroy him, make him suffer a thousandfold for what he did to me. I am letting you live; be content with that and forget all about the little naught."
"I – I can't!"
Giratina stopped circling. "You what?"
Newton was beyond fear now. All of this – where he was, what was happening, and everything that had happened so far – was clearly impossible, so he stopped trying to comprehend it and instead focused on one thing only. "I can't abandon him," he said. "Even after what he's done, I... He was my assistant for so long. He was my friend for so long. I can't leave him. And – I don't think he would leave me, if –"
"Liar," said Giratina. "He was willing to sacrifice you for the sake of gaining my power. If he had killed you back then, he wouldn't have cared. Such was his mania. If he cares about you now, it's only because he has nothing left. Do not delude yourself."
Newton started to say something, but Giratina cut him off.
"I don't understand," they said. "He betrayed you. He aimed to destroy countless lives with the power he gained. Yet still, you go to see him. You offer him comfort when all he deserves is pain. Why are you still protecting him, even now? Why are you willing to die for him?"
Giratina reared back and paused, as if waiting for an answer. Newton looked down at his feet and thought about Zero.
He thought about the first time they had met, when Zero was in college and Newton was a physicist teacher. He thought about working in the lab together, and seeing Zero smile before he looked up and said, Master, I've found something. He thought about when they had finally entered the Reverse World, and seeing Zero's face light up in wonder. He thought about the screaming fight they had after Newton deleted the blueprints for the Megarig. He thought about how during his five years in the Reverse World he had given up on ever seeing Zero again. He thought about pulling him out of the wrecked Minirig after everything was over, and seeing Zero smile once more.
"I just..." Newton took a deep breath. "I care about him, that's all. And I know he cares about me too. The last thing he said to me was 'I'm sorry.' That... that means something! I'm sure of it!"
Giratina snorted. "You are a fool. So let me ask you one more question. What if there was no saving him?"
Newton looked down at his shoes, and for the first time noticed that he wasn't wearing any. "Well... I would keep trying," he said.
And then he stepped back in alarm, because Giratina had screeched and spread their six wings out wide. "Fool. Fool! I tolerated you once, you know. Let you do all your silly research and exploration. I hold no respect for you now. Begone; you will realize soon enough that there is no hope for the naught."
Then Giratina was gone, and Newton was left alone.
His first memory after waking up in the hospital was asking the nurse what time it was, and then passing out before he got an answer. After that was a blur of pain and bright lights and dreams that he couldn't tell apart from reality. Then one day, he woke up, and stayed awake, and the pain was nothing more than a dull throb in his head.
Newton pushed himself up into a sitting position, and took in his surroundings.
He was lying in a hospital bed with an IV in his arm, surrounded by an array of humming machines, one of which, he noted, was monitoring his heartbeat. The room was small and cramped, and there was nobody around. "Hello?" he called out, but didn't get an answer.
His dream – because that must have been what it was, a dream – still burned bright in his memory. He was alive, but what had happened to Zero? Giratina's words echoed in his mind, and he had half a thought to get up and go looking for him, or at least for someone who would know about him, but he doubted that would go over well. Seeing as he had little choice in the matter, Newton decided to wait.
It wasn't long before a nurse walked in; Newton waved at her and she jumped. "Oh!" she said. "You're awake!"
"Yeah," he said. "Uh, what time is it?" The nurse was looking at him strangely and it was making him uneasy. "Or maybe I should ask what day it is. It feels like it's been a few days."
"It's been three weeks."
"Oh." Newton took a deep breath, which caused a brief spike of pain to flare up in his chest. "Okay. What happened to Zero?"
"I better get Doctor Mathers," she said.
The doctor introduced herself as Doctor Sasha Mathers, shook his hand, and sat down in a chair facing the bed. "Things are complicated," she said, when Newton repeated his question.
"How so?"
She hesitated. "I'm going to give this to you straight," she said. "You should be dead. When Giratina left, your spine was broken and your skull was caved in, never mind everything else. You should be paralyzed from the neck down with severe brain damage, and here you are sitting up and talking to me like nothing happened."
"Well, I wouldn't say like nothing happened..." Newton laughed nervously. "I mean, there's got to be an explanation, right? I mean, I didn't die, so..."
"You were dead enough that when we first brought you to the hospital, we put you in the morgue." Mathers looked him straight in the eye. "It was only when your heart started beating again that we moved you into this room."
Newton opened his mouth, but no words came out. That's impossible, he wanted to say, if I were dead, I wouldn't be here, but all of a sudden the weight of what Mathers had told him crashed down – you don't get your skull caved in and live – and the pain in his chest flared up again and he didn't realize he was hyperventilating until Mathers put a hand on his shoulder and told him to take deep breaths.
"Sorry," he said once he had calmed down. "This is... this is just a lot."
"There's no need to apologize," she said. "You're handling this remarkably well."
Newton closed his eyes briefly, then looked right at Mathers. "Did the same thing happened to Zero?"
She hesitated, and Newton pressed on. "He had to have been hurt as badly as I was, but if the same thing happened to him that happened to me – what happened to Zero?"
"The last we saw of him, he was alive," Mathers said.
Something in Newton's head... stopped. Refused to comprehend what he had just heard. It was hard to think, but he needed to ask. "Where is he?"
Mathers looked grim. Serious. Sad. "We don't know. After Giratina was done with you, it... took him. Just grabbed him and pulled him through a portal. There was nothing the police could do. I'm sorry."
I'm sorry, Zero told him moments before the next blow came.
Forget about him, Giratina told him in that strange white void. There is no hope for him.
Newton held his face in his hands and sobbed.
The next month went by in a blur.
They were able to recover Infi from the wreckage; with Zero gone, they gave her to Newton. He kept her shut down; it was stupid, he knew, but he couldn't bear to face her after what happened.
After he got out of the hospital, Newton watched the footage of Giratina's attack over and over. The media had arrived not long before he got there, so he was able to watch the whole scene play out. Giratina clawing apart the concrete buildings. Newton arriving and trying to bargain with them. Giratina knocking him down into the ground. Zero shouting his name. Giratina knocking the building down. Newton running to Zero. Giratina slamming their tail down onto them over and over, beyond what Newton remembered, until they stopped, bent down, grabbed Zero in their beak, and –
Zero had still been conscious. Zero had struggled while Giratina tore him away, refusing to let Newton go and dragging his body for a few feet until Giratina bit down on his arm so hard that Zero screamed and lost his grip. Newton watched, helplessly, as Zero reached out with one arm towards his unmoving body and screamed his name, over and over, while Giratina dragged him away, until they both disappeared into a portal and his screams were cut off.
Zero was not dead. Somehow, Newton was convinced of that. Maybe he was deluding himself, but he couldn't bear to consider the alternative. Zero was alive, he was being held prisoner by Giratina, and – I will destroy him, make him suffer a thousandfold for what he did to me – he must be suffering horribly.
And Newton was the only one left who knew how to get into and out of the Reverse World. And he was doing nothing.
Newton lived alone, and he hadn't kept in contact with any of his friends. There was no one to tell him that this was a bad idea, that he was going to get himself killed. Only Shieldon and the magnemite, and, well, he couldn't understand their language.
It took him a week to set everything up. He had food and water for days, but it wasn't hard to find either in the Reverse World. He had lived there for five years, after all.
"Neither of you have to do this," he said to Shieldon and Magnezone, standing in front of the glacier where Zero's ship had crashed. "I mean, I know you didn't see what Giratina was like, but... well. They killed me, technically."
"Zone," said Magnezone. Shieldon snorted.
"What, you don't believe me? Or is it something else?" Newton sighed. "Well, either way, you have a choice. I'm not going to force you to come with me. Especially not you, Magnezone," he added. "Giratina probably knows you're Zero's pokémon. You're going to be in real danger. Do you still want to come?"
"Magne." Magnezone hovered to his side and stayed there. Shieldon shook his head and walked over himself, sitting down at Newton's feet.
Despite everything, Newton grinned. "Alright!" he said. "Let's go!"
He would have liked to say that they found a portal and entered the Reverse World right that minute, but things don't always happen that way, and it was only after one very cold night of camping that they finally were able to enter and begin their search.
He would find Zero, Newton told himself. He would find him and bring him back home. That was what kept him going, after weeks and weeks in the Reverse World turned up nothing.
Wait just a little longer, Zero, I'll find you.
THE END
Author's Note: This story is continued in my fanfic Gnosia Stella Coronae, albeit not until chapter 5, which has not been posted as of yet.