"Arg, the brat is determined!" I heard my father growl outside my door. "At every turn, she is right there, trying her hardest to thwart us! Why, I had barely reached the Relic Castle, and made it to the depths, before the Champion confronted me, shortly followed by the scrawny child! Of course, the Light stone was not there, but somehow she acquired it upon leaving the Castle."
"Lord Ghetsis," acknowledged another voice. One of the Shadow Triad. "I already know all of this. It was I you sent to spy on her, and I do not know what I should say."
"Don't say anything, you fool!" my father snapped. "Now, leave me. I must speak with N."
"Of course." Muted footsteps followed the man as he moved farther down the hall.
My door swung open without Father bothering to knock, and he swept in, his long robes swirling around his ankles like some mysterious, ancient wizard.
"N, you must reach the Pokémon League before that little horror of a girl does. I am sure that she will not be able to awaken Reshiram, but she will still get in the way. It would be best for everyone if you could defeat that fool Alder and free the Pokémon of Unova without her interference."
"Of course, Father. I shall leave posthaste," I readily agreed, rising fluidly to my feet.
I thought I caught his lips twitch, but the movement was so fast, and so small, it was hard to tell for sure. Certainly, there was something in his eyes that seemed strange.
"Leave then, N, and take your place as the King of Team Plasma, and of Unova. And then, the world."
I bowed my head respectfully, and brushed past him to leave. I would defeat the Pokémon League, and the Champion, and Trainers everywhere would be forced to release their Pokémon . There was nothing Touko could do to stop me. Absolutely nothing. So why did I feel a thread of foreboding curl in my chest?
…
"N!"
The shout came from the entrance to the chamber. I turned to look past my shoulder. Touko had moved quickly. But I had already won.
"Touko."
She entered slowly, her chestnut hair falling out of its ponytail and her blue eyes bright with fire. She stood tall and straight, her steps were sure and steady, her shoulders squared. The look on her face was not resigned, horrified, or any of the things I had imagined. It was determined. Fierce. She looked every bit as powerful as I knew she could be. But why, when it was clear that I had won our battle?
"I can't let you do this, N," she said firmly. "I can't let you take thousands of children's futures from them. I can't let you separate best friends."
"You have no choice," I responded. "It is done. I have won; I have beaten the Champion. Now people must listen to me when I demand that their Pokémon be released."
"You still believe that that's what's best?" Touko demanded. Gone was her cool, calm demeanor. The careful countenance she had treated me with was vanished, to be replaced by what appeared to be burning anger. "After all of this, you can still say that Pokémon are better off without us?"
"Yes, Touko, I can," I responded.
Before she could answer, I stepped forward, and continued to speak, pacing as I did so, in great agitation.
"I am disappointed, Touko. The Light Stone that you carry remains dormant inside your bag. It does not respond to you at all. And I was so sure you were the other hero, the Hero of Truth. I thought that surely you could awaken Reshiram. I thought you were different, stronger and kinder, than other Trainers. This was why I insisted constantly on battling you. I felt that I grew to understand you from our battles, that I learned a little more about you each time we fought."
I stopped and shook my head.
"But this was naïve. How foolish of me, to believe that I could learn about a person through a Pokémon battle. Clearly, you are no different, and Reshiram knows this. And so, with Zekrom as my partner, I will free all Pokémon from their horrid Trainers. And there is nothing you can do, Touko. No more that you can achieve. I am your King. Accept it."
But the words sounded…empty, hollow. Like I didn't quite believe them myself. And looking into Touko's blazing eyes, I don't think she believed them either. In fact, I know she didn't. Head held high, she took a challenging step forward, and drew a pokeball from her belt. I stared at her in a mixture of exasperation and acceptance. She would never back down, never admit defeat, until she was defeated and broken beyond repair.
"You are not a King, N," she said, voice low. "You are a spoiled child, raised on a fool's ideals, with no idea what the real world is like. You can never be a great ruler, and you will never be my King. If you want me to bow down to you, you'll have to knock me to the ground and keep me there. Because even if nothing I do changes anything, at least in doing something, I know I've tried. Because there is always something that someone can do. Maybe I couldn't awaken Reshiram. Maybe I'm no Hero of Truth. But I am me. I am the only hero I need, and I see now that you will never see the truth. You blindly follow your ideals. The only way to stop you is to beat you beyond defiance. Maybe after you've been beaten, then you'll realize what you've being doing wrong. But I promise you this N: I will battle you, and I will do my damndest to win."
I smiled and shook my head.
"You may challenge me, but, Touko, you will lose."
I then turned to the far wall.
"Zekrom, come to me! Assist me in battle once more!"
A cry echoed outside. The building began to shudder. And, with an almighty boom! the wall was blown to smoldering bits. A huge, dark shape flew in through the gaping hole in the wall and alighted on the floor before me with a thunderous, earth-shaking tremor. Bright blue electricity arced from the massive, threatening black dragon. I turned back to Touko. She looked as determined as ever, her steel resolve barely noting the power that emanated from my newest friend.
"It isn't enough to have power, N. You should know that," she said, shaking her head. "Technique. Intuition. The ability to tell right from wrong, truth from lies. You don't have that ability. I do. I know the truth, and I will use that to defeat you!"
I watched as she raised her pokeball, preparing to throw it into the center of what would become our arena. But something stopped her. She hesitated, then lowered her pokeball, clipping it back to her belt. Then, her delicate hands, with their tapered fingers, reached into her bag. When they came back, they held the dormant Light Stone. Only, it was no longer dormant. A slight glow surrounded it, and if I judged by the ginger way Touko held it, it was emitting a great heat. It sat in her hands for only a moment; then it was lifted into the air, as if by an invisible air current, and began to spin. Faster and faster and faster it rotated, until it was a shining blur that grew steadily brighter, until it was painful to look. I had to avert my eyes before I went blind. When the glaring light against my eyelids eased, I risked cracking my eyes open and peering over my shielding arm.
Where just a split second before there had been a medium-sized white stone, in the air hovered a huge, graceful, snow white form, eyes closed. Something like a dragon, curled in on itself with its wings wrapped around its body like a protective barrier. Graceful plumes of smoke-like feathers flowed from its body, down its tail, along its wings, and from its feminine head. Its nose was tapered, its features delicate. For a long moment, Reshiram just floated in the air, without moving so much as a twitch. And then, without warning, in a movement so sharp and quick it was nonexistent, the eyes flashed open. Huge, electric blues eyes blazed with an inner fire so like Touko, that I had to glance at her to make sure she and Reshiram had not somehow merged into a single being. But no; Touko stood quite still, staring open-mouthed at the legendary Pokémon that she had just awakened. It seemed that I had been right. Touko was indeed the Hero of Truth.
Reshiram gave a loud, screeching roar, and flung its wings open, causing a gust of wind that I had to brace myself against. His tail began to glow, turning to shocking red and orange. Flames exploded from the dragon's body, dancing out in rings of blazing fire and streaking up to the roof.
"Reshiram has awakened," I said softly.
The Pokémon stretched its wings once more, and fell on powerful legs to the floor, shaking the entire building. The inferno blazing around it faded, and it turned to face Touko.
"He wants you to capture him, Touko," I told her.
She smiled and raised her pokeball once more. In her habitual style, she kissed the ball, and tossed it high. From it burst her Serperior. I frowned. Surely she knew that this was far from an ideal matchup. She was a skilled Trainer: why would she send a Grass type Pokémon out against a Fire- and Dragon type?
"If I can't do this with my first partner, I don't deserve to call myself her Trainer," she said in response to my bewildered look.
I couldn't help my small smile, and I shook my head. Of course. Well, this wouldn't last long, of this I was quite sure.
