Chapter 6: On the Trail of a Missing Legend

April 11

Flocessy Town

The police wanted to ask them questions, but they did get Hugh and Vino sent to the hospital and Pokecenter respectively first. Rosa didn't feel like they'd done much. But, maybe they had acted fast enough to save them from something worse, like Hugh losing Vino. Once the interviews were done, there was a surprise when Alder invited them to his house to talk for a little while.

Alder's house was warm and sunny, decorated with fabrics of bright colors and patterns. But it was all natural and not overwhelming, a kind of style that had originated in a region southwest from here. He offered to share lunch with them, chatting while cooking up some sausage, peppers, and onions. Rosa and Nate helped out a little while their Pokemon got acquainted with the ones Alder kept around.

"Do you think those two were really from Team Plasma?" Rosa asked as she finished up with the onion. "Because I thought they'd broken up two years ago."

"They're likely stragglers who have evaded capture, but are still stuck in the past," Alder said. "Although there aren't many, they aren't the only ones. Most of the organization is either serving sentences or living with rehabilitation support. Plasma looked harmless on the outside for a long while, but inside they had a ruthless core that damaged a good many of their members as well as those on the outside. A lot of them had no idea what to do when things fell apart because it had taken over their lives."

Taken over their lives? The Plasma members had seemed on the fanatical side, and they were hard to understand. "That sounds bad, and tough on them," she said. "I didn't think they were hurting themselves."

"There were a few very corrupt members that hurt everyone else, taking advantage of their belief in the group," Alder said.

"What did they meant about a traitor?" Nate asked, thinking as usual. "And, you were there when they fell apart?"

Alder nodded. "Of course; it's pretty well known, some parts of the story at least."

"I'm not from around here," he explained, rubbing his head. "And, I've been dealing with some kind of brain damage, so I really don't know."

"Sorry to hear about that," Alder said. "A kid like you shouldn't be dealing with something like that. It's a long story, but if you'd like to know..."

"Yes, it's important to why I'm here, I believe," Nate said.

The former Champion looked him over again, then smiled and turned back to stir-frying the vegetables. "If you're serious about finding answers, I don't mind sharing them. As I said, it's a long story and I don't know all of it, but... there was a young man in charge of Team Plasma. He had been a few years older than the two of you now, but his life had been carefully controlled by the more malicious members of Plasma. But even living under such a corrupted influence, he was a good person of a pure innocent heart. And there aren't many that I'd describe that way; he really was something special.

"Part of their plan was for him to travel around Unova gathering Gym Badges, for reputation in the public eye and proof of his dedication to his cause. On that journey, he met with many people, including myself, that opened his eyes to his real ideals, and the truth behind his situation. It was difficult for him to accept this, but eventually he did."

"Oh, you're talking about when Hilda, Hilbert, and Reshiram defeated N and Zekrom?" Rosa asked. "We told Nate about that."

Alder nodded. "That was what happened. That defeat was something he couldn't fool himself with, and he accepted it with grace. I think relief too, as the doubt caused by his inconsistencies were cleared up when he accepted that he didn't have to go as far as to separate humans and Pokemon. That is what the stragglers from Plasma would consider a betrayal, I believe. But, the real betrayal was just after that, when Ghetsis, the one who had been manipulating N, lost his temper at that defeat and took it out on him. I didn't see that myself, but I heard about the aftermath of it on N; it had been a deep blow psychologically, but even so, he had real friends to help him and he'd matured enough that it didn't cripple him entirely."

"I hadn't heard all about that, but I only saw what was on the news," Rosa said. "Bianca told us some of it a while ago, because Nate's trying to find Hilda. She had something to do with why he's here now..." she looked to her friend, whose mind seemed to be wandering again. "Although we're not sure why. It's a weird situation."

"It's starting to sound that way," Alder said. "You're after Hilda? I hope you can find her; it's a shame that she managed to disappear and nobody realized it until too late. She had a lot of friends and talked with many of us often."

"She was here," Nate said, still with his mind off in space or something. "She came here to see you... the week before she disappeared." He looked over at Alder. "What did she talk with you about?"

"She saw me that soon before she was gone?" Alder asked. "Well..." he paused, focusing on making lunch for a few moments before answering, "I don't think it was anything important, but I remember that. It was... in June, early June. I might be able to pin down a date if I look at some things. When she was here..."

Hilda seemed energetic as usual, even though she'd lost the Championship a few days ago. "Iris and her Pokemon did a great job, and I held onto the title for a year," she explained, taking the moment to brush her Cinccino's long fur. "And I had more challenges than you did your last year, so I'm pretty happy with it. Of course, about a quarter of them were from Cheren before he got all serious about school."

"He's still improved a lot," Alder said. "I think he can make it."

"Yeah, me too."

"Then what are your plans now?" he asked. Curious about it, he added, "I've heard a rumor that you can understand Pokemon clearly like N did. Make use of that?"

Hilda shrugged. "I can understand them, because of a gift. I thought about using it while we were working on undoing the damage done with Plasma's propaganda, but I've been holding off on letting a lot of people know. Maybe I'll do research someday by talking to Pokemon and hearing out their side of things, to report to everyone else. But not now. I want to keep traveling, all over the world! There's so many neat sights and places I'd like to see."

Hearing that reminded him of traveling the world in his younger days. It had been great, an experience he'd never forget. "That's a great thing to do when you're young. You can get a lot of insight into the world by seeing it in different places."

"Yeah," she said, although not quite as excited as he expected. "The thing is, I can't leave Unova right now, so I can't get myself all excited about it quite yet."

"Why not? You don't have responsibilities to stay."

"Actually, I do," she said, glancing over at Kyurem, who was looking through a book nearby. "N and Hilbert are still out of the region with Zekrom and Reshiram and until they return, Kyurem needs to stay. And I don't want to leave him to that himself right now."

"Things are quiet, but until we know what happened to Ghetsis, I don't want to leave even for a little while," Kyurem said. "You may as well tell him about Keldeo."

She nodded. "Right! Since we're free now, we're going to explore around and see if we can't figure out where Keldeo is. The other three defenders and Meloetta still say that they can feel his presence but haven't encountered or heard from him in the past two years. As he's a native to Unova, Kyurem can sense Keldeo too, but can't pinpoint him either until we come close to each other."

"This would be a good time to focus on that," Alder agreed. "Actually, there's a place just a few minutes walk close to here that is important to him, and the other three. Would it help if you went there?"

"Possibly," Kyurem said.

"It'd be neat to see," Hilda added.

"I didn't notice anything wrong with them at the time," Alder said. "So that was the week she disappeared? How do you know?"

Nate had his hand on his forehead. "I remember something she had told me, just now. But it wasn't much, most importantly that."

"Are you okay?" Rosa asked, worried that he might have another headache.

"Mostly," he said, putting his hand down. "Don't worry. That place you showed her, mind if we go see it?"

"No trouble to me," Alder replied. "We can go after lunch."

When they were done eating and making some quick clean-ups, Alder led Nate and Rosa to a small almost hidden trail that ran alongside his house. One way seemed to lead to the ledge they had first seen him on, but the opposite way went into the woods north of Flocessy. It was a nice area, leading to a really beautiful meadow in the woods. The spring wildflowers were going nuts here, making the green of the grass almost hard to see. Tall trees blocked out sight and sound of the town. With some wild Pokemon playing at one end of the meadow and others singing and calling in the trees, it was a surprising example of nature's beauty.

But it wasn't just the pretty setting that set this meadow apart. Across from the path, there was a massive boulder standing alone. At twenty feet high and with steep sides, it didn't seem like something that'd be easy to climb. There were four large marks on the side of the boulder facing the path, marks that seemed strangely like the cuts of very sharp swords in a crisscrossing pattern. But these marks were so large that it couldn't be any ordinary sword to mark it like that.

"Wow, I didn't think the rock would be this big!" Rosa said, running over to touch it. The lowest point of the slashes came to her eye level.

"It's been here for thousands of years," Alder said. "They've proven it with dating the material recently. But the part that's only legend for certain, maybe real... it is said that at this place, Reshiram and Zekrom acknowledged three great heroes who were Pokemon. They raised up these three to become fellow guardians of the land, Virizion, Terrakion, and Cobalion. The three swore an oath to protect the Pokemon of Unova by slashing the rock with their newfound power. Sometime later, the three of them were joined by a fourth swordsmon, Keldeo, who had helped with rescuing many Pokemon from a massive fire that had been started by humans during a war.

"That incident caused the original three to turn against humans and for a time, they led a war against us. But the twin dragons forced a truce, allowing Virizion, Terrakion, and Cobalion to set aside certain places to be for Pokemon alone. The three swordsmons have guarded these places ever since and are rarely seen by humans. But the fourth, Keldeo... he was never bitter against humans. He took to traveling through Unova, still following the oath he swore by adding a fourth mark here. He would defend weaker Pokemon from whatever endangered them, but he avoided using his skills against humans as much as he could. And then in recent years, there was an incident..."

When he trailed off, Rosa turned to them. Alder had come up by the boulder, but Nate seemed to be half listening and half looking around the meadow. Interested, she asked, "What kind of incident? I heard that something had happened to Keldeo. I remember when Cheren and Hilbert came to Aspertia to talk to Tornadus about it. But I didn't hear much but rumors after."

"Meloetta had been kidnapped and sold to a genetic scientist, then Keldeo was captured trying to rescue her," Alder said, looking up at the rock. "His powers as an immortal were stolen from him. They were held captive in an area of the Virbank Complex for twenty-five years. Those two boys did rescue them, but then it took an even stranger turn when Keldeo was taken by... a mysterious but powerful stranger. Hilda said that the other legendaries of Unova can feel the presence of his power again, but don't know where he is. Maybe her disappearance is linked to his."

Feeling hopeful, Rosa smiled. "Oh, so if we find one of them, we might find the other. Isn't that great, Nate?"

But Nate seemed to be overtaken by a strange mood, like when he had been on the overlook. He had been asking about this and Alder had said no one was sure what happened, but Nate now spoke as if he was experiencing a strong memory. "Keldeo was missing for twenty-five years, only to be found and lost again. They still sense him because he was sent back in time by that stranger to be reborn around fifteen years ago ago. But the new one's power was buried deep, only to start budding when the old one was freed, so it was always hidden, barely in the open now."

And then he kept talking.

Lightning broke through the darkness, illuminating an empty field in a forest. A boulder with slashes crisscrossing it stood at the edge of the small opening. Thunder rumbled the trees, and then a second bolt of lighting struck. This time, there were two figures standing before the rock.

Keldeo backed off, still growling. His mind was hazy and it was slow to think through things. But in the smell of this person, he found something that he did not trust. Some instability, some corruption... linked to an incredible amount of power that would be difficult to tame even with a stable mind. Normally in a rain like this, he would be at his most alert. Maybe he even was now. But the strangely aged body he was in slipped in the mud, making his stance weak.

"You really have been ruined, so now you must not trust anyone," the person said. He looked human, but couldn't be human. The lightning glared off his green ponytail, as well as the white and black scales on his arms. Although it was dark and raining, he brought out a device and placed a Pokeball in it. "But why would you trust him? Is it just because he was one of the ones who rescued you? From what I know, he was only seeking glory." The device clicked and the Pokeball went inactive.

Without any more warning, Keldeo felt a sharp sickness in his body. The disorientation was enough to make him collapse into the mud, struggling to breathe. Whatever the Pokeball technology did, it had been supporting him in a way that was gone now.

The young man gasped and dropped down onto his hands and knees, ignoring the mud getting on him. "Keldeo? What happened. Oh, you're still weakened. But I can do something about that." He raised his hands over Keldeo, a green glow appearing beneath him. "I just hope this doesn't go wrong... I want to set something right for once. I'll restore your power."

And his energy changed, bringing back a familiar power that brought clarity and depth into his mind. Keldeo looked up and wondered what was going on. Why had he been depowered, and who was this person repowering him? He could recall Meloetta sitting by him, holding his head in her lap and hugging him. Everything else...

He didn't have time to consider it all, as this body could no longer support him. He died physically, but his spirit emerged, still healing. But could that process be completed like this? Uncertain of what else to do, Keldeo submitted himself to the mercy of the world. There were powers greater than his, and they would guide him in the right direction.

Like before, Nate's speech ended in pain for him, making him close his eyes tight and cover his eyes. But Rosa and Alder had already come over to him. "Careful, don't hurt yourself," Alder said, taking his arm.

"Did one of those premonitions happen again, Nate?" Rosa asked.

"Ugh, what was I talking about?" Nate asked in a strained voice.

"He should still have some medicine from the hospital for this," she told Alder.

The older man nodded. "Good. Let's bring him back to my house; I can spare a room for him."

Back at Alder's house, they put Nate in a guest room; Rosa found his medicine while Alder closed the curtains to block out the sun. Ruby was determined to stay with him, and neither of them would deny the Tepig that. "Thanks for watching over him," Rosa said to Alder later on. "I'll let the people taking care of him know that he's here, but I'd really better get back to Aspertia to talk to Hugh's family, if they don't know yet."

"It's no trouble," Alder said. "But when you two are closer to heading out, you might want to stop by again. I might have some things to let the two of you know."

"Sure," she said, smiling. But, there was something on her mind. "Although with what happened today... do you think it's possible that Nate is actually Keldeo?"

"What makes you think that?" he asked, with interest instead of doubt.

Rosa put her hand to her cheek. "Well, it's a weird story, but... you know a bit of it already. Nate showed up in Aspertia back in December, with a really scrambled memory and intelligence. He even forgot almost entirely about Pokemon, but then turned out to know a whole lot about them. The doctors thought it was an accident with Teleport, and that might be part of his current problems. But even though he doesn't remember much, he knew right off that he was supposed to find and help Hilda somehow. Now we know that she was looking for Keldeo when she disappeared, so maybe she found him but something else happened. I don't know. But what he just remembered, who else would know about it other than Keldeo and that mysterious person?"

"Hmm... it's a possibility. We know that the legendary Pokemon can take human forms if they choose, and if he's been like this the past fifteen years as he suggests, that would explain why nobody could find him." Then Alder shrugged. "But it's just a theory now. Are you going to help your friend with his search for Hilda and himself?"

She nodded. "Of course. I haven't known him for long, but I still want to help him."

"That's good. But don't let him know of this theory of ours just yet. Wait until he remembers for himself. If seeing the rock triggered memories, then other places around Unova might trigger more."

"That's the plan!" Rosa said, feeling optimistic. While this theory didn't explain why he talked about playing Pokemon video games and recalled entering this world through one, the idea seemed compelling. It could even link back into what he saw at the overlook, as he would feel a natural affinity to water (thus receiving the sign as a forgotten truth).

It could almost be anything as it was now.


What is it? lol, you expect me to reveal it yet? But I do know what's going on.

Pledge Rock is a nice looking location. But if you don't have Keldeo, it's useless.