Welcome to what has come to be known as the stupidly long chapter. Compared to the rest of them, at least... I would have split it if I could find a suitable place to do so but I couldn't, so... yeah. It's still stupidly long.

Also, changed the set characters for this so it's now Hilda and Nate so people don't get confused, especially as to who Black is...

Hmm, we see a lot of Black and White's Pokémon teams in this chapter. We'll see the whole of them in a few chapters time~

One more thing: considering I just seem to be saving up loads of chapters here, and because I don't want to spam everybody, I'm considering just uploading one chapter a week. Probably on a Friday or Saturday or something. Yeah. Anyways, carry on...


"Whoa…!" Black gasped as they walked through the doorway to the next room.

Stretching out ahead of them was a massive room, at least a hundred metres wide and the ceiling ten metres above. There were a couple of tall shelves around the room, with boxes probably left over from when the place had been abandoned.

"Plenty of places to hide in here," White muttered, glancing around at the shelves.

"Well, I doubt highly that Ghetsis will be hanging out in a place like this," Black pointed out. "He'll probably be somewhere further inside if he's even here in the first place."

"Good point," White said evenly. "Let's hope this place isn't too much of a maze…"

"Ah, I'm sure we'll find them eventually," Black shrugged.

Just then he felt something nudge his arm. He glanced around. "Lucario? What's up?"

The Pokémon stepped back slightly, pointing towards the far side of the room.

Blacked followed where he was pointing but couldn't see anything. "Uhh… what am I supposed to be looking for…?"

Lucario let out a growling sound, stepping forward, staring at a doorway on the other side of the room.

"Is there something there?"

"He can sense Team Plasma," N explained. "Lucario is an aura Pokémon; he can tell where they are because of that."

Lucario glanced over at him, nodding.

"Ohh," Black realised at last. "Okay then. Well, lead the way, Lucario!"

Looking somewhat proud, Lucario gave another nod before racing away across the room. Black ran after him.

"Oh great," White sighed. "More running."


Through the door at the end of the room was a winding corridor, with many rooms off to the side. White was pretty certain that there were Team Plasma grunts in at least some of them – Lucario kept pausing outside the doors, dismissing them once he realised that they were only grunts.

Eventually the corridor came to a flight of stairs. Once they reached the top, Lucario jumped up onto a railing, glancing around. As soon as he reached the rail, Black skidded to a halt.

"Oh wow…"

"What?" White blinked, walking over to the railing and glancing over. "Oh, okay, that's a long way down…"

There was a three metre drop to get down to the main part of the room below. This room wasn't nearly as massive as the one they'd been in before, but there was no obvious way to get down to the ground other than another door off to the right of the platform, which would probably require going through another maze of corridors…

"What're we waiting around here for?" N asked. He hopped up onto the rail, jumping down.

"N!" White gasped.

He landed on the ground below, taking a moment to regain his balance before glancing back up at them. "What?"

White was left staring at him, somewhat baffled. "How…"

"It's not that far down," N shrugged. "Just jump."

"Not far for you maybe, there's no way we can jump down there!" Black protested. "I like my legs to not be broken, thanks."

"Hey! How did you lot get in here!?"

"Oh boy," White muttered as a couple of Team Plasma grunts appeared at the door on the other side of the room.

"Bah. Lucario, you go on ahead, I'm sure we'll find a way down there soon," Black sighed.

Lucario nodded, hopping down to the ground.

"Humph. You three are crazy if you think you can just waltz right in here," the first grunt snapped. "I hope for your own sakes that you know how to fight!"

"Well, I see Team Plasma is the same as always," White commented, taking a Pokéball from her belt. "Sigilyph!"

The colourful Pokémon appeared in the air next to her with a chirp. She flew lower so that White could reach her.

"You get the idea, Black," White shrugged, hopping onto Sigilyph's back. Sigilyph let out another chirp before flying over the railing, descending to the ground below. As soon as she was within a safe distance of the ground, White jumped down.

"That's one way to get down there, I s'pose," Black said evenly. "Braviary, I need your help…"

Once he appeared, Braviary let out a caw and flew over, grabbing Black's shoulders to carry him.

"Ow! Mind the claws, okay?" Black protested, but soon he was on the ground with the others once more.

Looking slightly more concerned than they had been before, the grunts sent out their own Pokémon: Cofagrigus and Scraggy.

"White, you can take care of the Scraggy," Black grinned, taking a Pokéball from his belt.

"What—okay…?" White shrugged. "N, leave this to us, okay?"

For a moment she thought N was going to protest. Then he nodded. "Okay." Obviously even he had realised that this room was a bit small for Reshiram to fight in.

"Let's get 'em, Zoroark!" Black called, sending out the dark Pokémon.

Zoroark gave a fox-like bark as he appeared, casting a quick glance at N before looking back at Team Plasma once more.

White just blinked in surprise, exchanging a glance with first N and then Black. "I'm just going to assume there's a long story behind this."

"Yeah."

"Pretty much."

"Okay then."

"Cofagrigus, use Shadow Ball!"

Sigilyph let out a screech as she was hit with the ghostly attack. Much like the Deino earlier, Cofagrigus's attack seemed to be strangely overpowered. Yet White's Pokémon was strong. A moment later, Sigilyph righted herself, flying back up and giving a brisk shake.

"Hang in there, Sigilyph!" White pleaded, knowing her Pokémon was close to fainting already. "Hit Scraggy with Air Slash!"

Team Plasma's Scraggy was hit with such a ferocious Air Slash that it got knocked over backwards. Yet that hadn't been enough to defeat it. Scraggy climbed back to its feet, pulling its extra skin layer back up to its neck.

"Scraggy! Hi Jump Kick on Zoroark, now!"

The Scraggy let out a shriek as it raced towards Zoroark. The fox jumped aside to avoid the attack as Scraggy went flying towards him. Unable to stop its attack, the smaller Pokémon crashed into the wall before falling back to the ground, fainted.

"Nice," Black laughed. "Zoroark, let's finish this off so we can hurry up and find the big cheese. Night Daze!"

Letting out a snarl, Zoroark slammed his forepaws on the ground. A dark shock wave spread through the room, hitting Cofagrigus full-on. The powerful shock was too much for the ghost and it fainted instantly.

"Now then, if you'll excuse us," Black said, a smug look on his face as he casually walked past the Team Plasma grunts.

"Humph. Don't get too confident, kid. You may have beaten us, but you're no match for the others," one of them growled.


After the fight against the grunts, White had returned Sigilyph to her Pokéball. Now they were following Lucario along the corridor once more. White wasn't sure if she was more concerned about how they were going to defeat Team Plasma or how they would find their way back out of this building afterwards…

It wasn't long until they came across another large room. Not quite as big as the first, but the lack of old shelves here made the place seem even emptier.

They weren't that far into the room when suddenly Lucario skidded to a halt, holding out his arms as if to tell them to stop.

Black managed to halt before running straight into his Pokémon. "Lucario? What's the matter?"

Lucario briefly glanced back at him, but didn't make anything that could be considered a reply. He seemed to be staring at something in front of them, but as far as White could tell there was nothing there…

A sudden look of realisation came over Black. "We know you're there! Show yourselves!"

Who's he talking to…? White wondered, about to say that out loud until her question was answered for her.

A few metres away, the air seemed to warp as three figures appeared in front of them.

The Shadow Triad.

"You've done well to make it all the way in here," one of them stated. "Did you come to give us the legendary dragons?"

"Of course not!" White said defiantly. "If you really believed we'd be crazy enough to do that, you've got another thing coming."

"Then you leave Team Plasma no choice but to move to our backup plan. Unless, of course, you're assuming you can fight us."

"Assuming?" Black tutted. "We've wiped the floor with you guys twice already."

"Things are different now. This time you cannot beat us."

They seem awfully confident. "Well, there are three of us and three of them," White pointed out. "I'd say we're more than evenly matched. Black? N?"

"Same as always," Black shrugged. "Even if we were outnumbered we'd still be able to defeat them."

"Yeah. So we can beat them," N nodded, not sounding quite as confident as them but he was still determined to fight if it meant saving the Pokémon.

Without a word, the Shadow Triad split up across the room. It seemed they weren't going to risk facing their combined strength in a triple battle. At least they wouldn't end up getting in each other's way.

"Well, here we go," White muttered.

"Wait," Black said suddenly. "Guys, be careful. If any of your Pokémon faint, put them back in their Pokéball as quickly as you can."

At first White couldn't work out why he was telling them to do this. Then she remembered what he'd told her earlier about Cheren's Stoutland. "Okay. I'll keep that in mind."

"That goes for you too, N," Black said meaningfully. "Although I'm guessing if you had any Pokémon other than Reshiram with you then we'd have seen them already. Just… don't do anything that'll involve me getting burned, okay?"

"I won't," N stated, looking slightly offended. White had the feeling he couldn't tell that Black was joking.

At that, the three of them split up. There was a loud roar that echoed around the room as N released Reshiram from her Pokéball.

White headed towards the shadow who was on the other side of the room. A Krookodile stood at his side, watching her intently through dark-framed eyes.

Well, this is the only thing I have against dark ground… I hope that Krookodile is slow. "Emboar," White called, taking a Pokéball from her belt.

The fire pig appeared next to her, letting out a loud growl. Even he knew that Team Plasma needed to be stopped, from the looks of things.

Krookodile stepped forward, giving a menacing-looking grin.

"Okay, Emboar, use Arm Thrust!"

Giving a snort, Emboar raced towards Krookodile, hitting it with a strong punch. The Krookodile roared as it was hit by the consecutive fighting attack, the fifth hit sending it flying backwards. Emboar stepped back.

"Okay, good," White nodded. This shouldn't be too hard.

To her surprise, however, Krookodile wasn't yet defeated. It climbed back to its feet, snarling.

"Krookodile. Earthquake."

The large crocodile snapped its jaws menacingly, jumping and hitting the floor hard with all of its strength. The ground shook violently – luckily White was expecting it to happen this time and she managed to keep her balance. Emboar, however, didn't get off so lightly. Being weak to ground, the fire Pokémon was affected badly by the attack. Even before the ground had stopped shaking, he'd fainted.

"Emboar, get back!" White called quickly, sending Emboar back to his Pokéball before the shadow even got a chance to attack again. Well, he was my only fighting Pokémon… looks like we'll have to do this the hard way. "Haxorus!"

The dragon appeared with a roar, the axe-like fangs on the sides of his face glinting in the low light. After narrowing his eyes at the enemy, he glanced back at White, as if eagerly awaiting her instructions.

"We can't let this guy beat us, right?" she smiled confidently. "Haxorus, use Dragon Claw!"

Already worn down by the previous attack, the Krookodile couldn't stand up to being slashed with Haxorus's powerful claws, and it fainted.

As the shadow sent Krookodile back to its Pokéball, White took the chance to glance around and see how the others were doing. Black and Lucario were okay; the shadow they were fighting had sent out a Liepard, but after being hit by a critical Aura Sphere attack it fainted. On the other side of the room, N and Reshiram didn't seem to be having any trouble either; their opponent seemed to have a lot of Bisharp with them, and Reshiram was making quick work of defeating the steel Pokémon.

It looked like she was the only one having difficulties here. Not to mention, she hadn't had a full-out Pokémon battle in ages…

The next Pokémon the shadow sent out was a Weavile.

This could be difficult…

She wasn't crazy enough to try using Haxorus's most powerful attack inside a building – sending meteors crashing through the roof would be kind of dangerous. This worked last time, let's try it again.

"Haxorus, use Dragon Claw!"

"Weavile. Ice Beam."

The Weavile's speed meant that it managed to attack before the dragon even had a chance. Haxorus let out a loud roar as he was hit by the beam of ice, water freezing over him. Determined not to be beaten, Haxorus managed to break out of the ice, slashing Weavile with his claws.

Weavile was definitely affected by the attack, but it wasn't enough to defeat it.

"Hang in there, Haxorus," White assured, hoping that he'd be able to handle this fight. All of the shadow's Pokémon seemed to have type advantages over hers… and even super-effective attacks wouldn't defeat them instantly. "Dragon Claw, quickly!"

Luckily, this time Haxorus managed to make an attack before the shadow even gave instructions to their own Pokémon. The Weavile let out a yowl as it was slashed, thrown backwards. It collapsed on the ground.

"Weavile, get up. Use Ice Beam again."

White was left looking slightly dumbfounded as Weavile picked itself up off the ground. It was weakened considerably and close to fainting, but it was still just hanging on in there. With a snarl, Weavile sent a beam of ice shooting at Haxorus.

Unable to stand up to the attack this time, Haxorus fainted.

Hurriedly sending him back to his Pokéball, White had to think for a moment as to what to do next. She couldn't send Sigilyph out here against these dark-type Pokémon – especially when she was already hurt. For now, she was reluctant to send Zekrom out, even more so since she was currently faced with an ice-type Pokémon. It looked like she didn't have much choice for now.

"Go, Excadrill!"

Light split from the Pokéball and Excadrill appeared in front of her, glancing around to see where the enemy was.

"Okay Excadrill, we've gotta try and finish this up quickly. Use Rock Slide!"

A torrent of rocks was sent crashing down on Weavile. This time the Pokémon actually fainted.

"Okay. Well done," White praised.

The shadow sent out their next Pokémon; a Houndoom.

Oh come on!

It looked like this was going to be another attack that depended on speed. "Excadrill, use Earthquake!"

Fortunately, Excadrill was fast. She jumped, hitting the ground and causing it to shake violently. The shadow's Houndoom let out a yelp of protest as the floor shook underneath it and after a few seconds it lost its balance.

White held her breath. Was the dark Pokémon defeated? Earthquake was a powerful attack…

"Houndoom, use Inferno."

Ack! White had to take a step back as suddenly Excadrill was engulfed by raging flames. As soon as the fire dispersed, the Pokémon fainted.

As she sent Excadrill back to her Pokéball, White was seriously starting to get irritated by the shadow hurting all her Pokémon to the point of defeat. At this rate they'd never get anywhere.

Okay then, you asked for it. "Go get 'em, Zekrom!"

As soon as she sent out the black dragon, he let out an ear-splitting roar that echoed continuously around the room for a few seconds. The generator in his tail sparked with blue electricity.

The shadow didn't react much beyond a blink. "So you're going to fight us with the legendary Pokémon."

"Why, have you finally realised that we're stronger than we look? You can't honestly believe that we wouldn't be able to beat you after we've already done so twice already," White said pointedly. Zekrom let out a growl in agreement.

"Aagh!"

White froze as she heard the shout. She glanced back across the room. "Black!"

The shadow he'd been fighting had sent out a Seviper, despite the fact that Lucario was immune to poison. Yet the large snake had slipped past the Pokémon and lunged at Black instead, sinking its fangs into his shoulder. Seviper didn't release him until it was attacked by Lucario. As soon as the snake was dragged away, Black collapsed against the wall.

"Black, hold on!" White shouted. She needed to help him, but she couldn't leave Zekrom to fight Team Plasma by himself…

At least Lucario would protect him for now. He was nudging Black's arm frantically but the trainer didn't respond.

Black, please be okay… White pleaded silently, clenching her fist. Was that really how Team Plasma was going to fight? Suddenly coming here seemed a whole lot more dangerous.

"Houndoom, use Inferno again."

Zekrom snarled as he was engulfed by the fierce fire. Yet even though Houndoom's attack was overpowered like all of Team Plasma's Pokémon were, the fire-type move wasn't very effective, and Zekrom was hardly affected at all by the flames. As soon as they disappeared, he gave a snort.

"Zekrom, Fusion Bolt!"

Letting out a roar, Zekrom used his wings to float slightly above the ground, electricity forming around him. A moment later he rushed forwards and Houndoom was hit by a powerful bolt of electricity. The dark Pokémon fainted instantly.

Once Zekrom landed back next to her again, White patted his nose. She glanced back over at the shadow; they hadn't sent out any more Pokémon. She'd defeated them.

Phew… now I can go and help Black.

"Honestly, you were beaten by that trainer? I suppose if you want something done around here, you've got to do it yourself."

White gasped as she heard the voice. She should have expected as much. She looked over at the door to the room to see Ghetsis emerging from the shadows beyond, Eelektross and Hydreigon hovering at his side. He had that usual intimidating smug expression on his face.

"Considering what a mess of things you've made here, I doubt you showed up to give us the legendary dragons," he said mockingly. "You must be assuming that you can beat us. How foolish."

"You're trying to make out that we can't beat you when we've done so already?" White scowled.

The glare Ghetsis gave her was so full of hatred that White was starting to get unnerved. "If you're so insistent that you can beat us, then go ahead. Battle alongside the legendary Pokémon; we'll see who the true winner is."

"Okay then," White said confidently. "I will."

Zekrom took a step forward, growling quietly. The turbine in his tail crackled with electricity.

The shadow had vanished, along with the one who had been fighting Black. White cast a quick glance at the trainer; he was still unconscious. Lucario was watching them intently, not wanting to venture further into the room whilst the others were still in battle, especially with Reshiram's fire-type attacks.

"Eelektross, you should be able to take this. Everything's going to plan so far," Ghetsis ordered the electric Pokémon. Eelektross floated towards them, letting out an eerie gargling sound.

Oh great, the Pokémon with no weakness. I doubt electricity will do much."Zekrom, use Zen Headbutt."

Pausing for a moment, Zekrom gave a quiet snarl. Then he raced towards Eelektross, slamming into the Pokémon with the psychic attack.

Eelektross let out another of its weird sounds as it was thrown backwards. A moment later it gave itself a brisk shake, as if simply shrugging off the attack.

"That's the power of a legendary Pokémon? How disappointing," Ghetsis smirked. "Eelektross, use Dragon Claw."

The large eel shot forward, slashing Zekrom with an overpowered attack.

Then the dragon let out a fierce growl, falling to the ground.

"Zekrom!" White cried. The Eelektross had managed to defeat him with only one attack. Why were all of Team Plasma's Pokémon so crazily overpowered?

White took a Pokéball from her belt. "Zekrom, get back!"

Nothing happened.

"What…"

"Not so fast." Ghetsis held up a metal object. At first it looked like a Pokéball, but no, it was almost like some kind of technology device…

"What did you do!?" White demanded, pressing the button on Zekrom's Pokéball but still nothing happening.

"Well, nice to know this technology still works after so long," Ghetsis mused. "It blocks out signals from Pokéballs. Useful, I must say. Now then, let's get this over with. I must admit, I wasn't entirely truthful when I explained our plan to you. We don't necessarily need the legendary Pokémon; we just need them dead."

No… "You can't—"

"Eelektross, use Dragon Claw."

White froze. No!

Eelektross floated back over to Zekrom, raising one arm, claws glinting in the dim light.

"Zekrom!"

Although fainted, the dragon let out an agonized roar as he was slashed by the Pokémon's powerful claws.

Then his head flopped limply back to the ground.

"No…" White breathed. "NO! Zekrom!"

"Like I said," Ghetsis said calmly, walking away. "This time, you cannot beat Team Plasma."

White was left staring blankly ahead of her. She felt like she'd forgotten how to breathe.

"Zekrom… c'mon, get up! W-we have to keep fighting and beat Team Plasma! Zekrom, please!" White cried, her voice catching in her throat.

Yet the dragon didn't make any reaction to her voice. His eyes were closed and he wasn't moving.

"No…" she choked, falling to her knees.

How could they do this!?

She felt like she was stuck in a trance. The room was starting to spin around her…

Zekrom had been by her side for two years now. He'd accepted her as a hero of Unova just over two years ago and had stayed with her since they defeated Team Plasma together before. And after she left Unova, he was the one she'd always let out in the forest, whether it was to walk together, fly above the trees, or even just sit and watch the world go by.

She couldn't believe that he was really gone…

"Reshiram!"

She was brought back to her senses with a jolt as she heard N's shout. White glanced across the room in time to see Reshiram faint after being hit by an attack from Hydreigon. The other shadow had vanished.

Ghetsis is trying to kill Reshiram too…

She wanted to get up, send out one of her remaining Pokémon to help, but she couldn't even move. The shock of losing Zekrom had taken all her energy and will to fight away from her.

"Why are you doing this?" N cried, looking horrified. "I don't understand!"

"Foolish child, as if you understand anything! Explaining our plans to you would be a waste," Ghetsis tutted. "No one can stop Team Plasma, especially not a defective boy."

"As far as I can tell, your plans are just killing Pokémon! It's not fair!"

"Not fair? When I assigned you as Team Plasma's king, you were willing to steal the Pokémon from all trainers, whether there was a reason to or not. And now you claim to have any sense as to what is fair? You're still just an idiot child."

N fell silent for a moment. He clenched his fist in frustration. "If I'm an idiot, it's for believing anything you ever told me! Whenever you brought those injured Pokémon to me, you… you were the one who hurt them, weren't you!"

A brief look of surprise flashed on Ghetsis's face. "I don't know what's going on in your head – I'm sure nobody does – but I was not the one that hurt those Pokémon. They were liberated from their trainers. It was their trainers that harmed them; not Team Plasma."

N didn't reply. It was obvious just from the expression on his face that he didn't know whether to believe him or not.

"But still, enough of the past. You cannot stop our plans. Hydreigon," he summoned the three-headed dragon Pokémon forwards.

"W…wait! What are you…?"

"Reshiram must be exterminated."

"No!" N shouted, a look of sheer horror on his face. He jumped forward to stand in front of the white dragon, holding his arms out in a vain attempt to protect her. "I won't let you kill Reshiram!"

Ghetsis just blinked, no emotion showing on his face at all. "There isn't anything you can do. Unless you want to be killed as well I suggest you move."

"No!"

"Children, honestly," Ghetsis sighed, rolling his eyes. "Fine then. Hydreigon, use Hyper Beam. If you hit the boy then I couldn't really care less."

Looking somewhat surprised, Hydreigon flew forward. It started to charge its power, light beginning to form around its main mouth.

Still, N stood his ground. He looked terrified but didn't make any attempt to move out of the way.

"N, get away from there!" White screamed.

He ignored her.

"N!"

This time he cast a brief glance towards her. The desperate look in his eyes said everything.

He wasn't going to let Reshiram die, and he didn't care if that meant he got hurt.

Hydreigon finished charging the attack, sending a laser shooting through the air, the light harsh against the darkness of the room. With no way of stopping it, N took the full force of the beam and was blasted across the room, falling limply to the ground.