The boingy sound of a keyboard-guitar made its way into my ears as I stepped out of the route gate, the mellow-yet-cheery tone of the music relieving me of my travel weariness, and I tapped my foot to the beat. I walked over to the musician, who sat on the sidewalk, and I tossed a couple coins into a cup next to him. He tipped his hat at me as a thank you, and I walked forward. Refia padded up next to me, mewing loudly at the bright neon city, and I tousled her head.

"We finally made it, Refia." I let out a wheezing sigh of relief - Ophelucid might not have been very far from Icirrus, but it sure as hell felt like it. As much as I liked ice skating and Pokemon battling, I could have done with less of both in the time between the two cities. I felt myself begin to sweat, so I unzipped my jacket and took it off, letting my red shirt flap in the wind. Stuffing my jacket into my bag, I looked up at the cloudless sky.

"Wait, what?" I did a double take and looked at the area where we had just come from. Dark, foreboding clouds rained large chunks of hail down on Route 8, and buckets of rain poured down on Route 9. "How the hell..." I was about to ask a random passerby about what on earth was going on, but I was abruptly thrust out of my thoughts when said random passerby immediately turned and walked the other way.

"Wha...!" I looked behind me to see what he had just attempted to escape from, only to be greeted by the loud sounds of horns and marching. Seven men and women, dressed in plain white-and-silver tunics, quickly trampled forward to the city's main square. Two carried horns, while the rest carried odd lances that looked like they were made from plastic. A Patrat rode from a man's shoulder in the middle, and I noticed his flowing robe swishing around his feet as he walked. My eyes narrowed.

"Another Plasma rally." I heard a gruff voice behind me, and I turned to see Alder standing behind me, his bright, spiky red hair unmistakable. He looked past me, his long face rather somber. "We'd better go listen to Ghetsis's lies again." He stomped forward, but stopped as Refia nuzzled his palm, and he patted her back softly. Together, we walked ahead to the rally, now already in full swing.

"That lying son of a-" Alder cut himself off before he could finish his sentence, and he breathed out slowly. "He's desperate to fool everyone with his speeches."

"It is so!" Ghetsis cried out, his green hair flapping dramatically in the wind. "Through Lord N, we have joined forces with the legendary Zekrom! We shall create a new land together!" His uncovered eye was devoid of emotion, but his voice was dripping with false charisma. He paced a few steps, then turned towards the crowd again. "Thus shall be a reimagining of the legendary hero's recreation of Unova!"

At this point, the crowd gasped in surprise, and a loud, panicked batch of conversations broke out. I turned to Alder.

"'Recreation of Unova?' What is he on about?" Refia meowed in mutual confusion, and Alder patted her back again.

"Drayden and Iris will explain everything to you. Let's see if we can find them." I nodded in agreement, and we began to make our way through the crowd in an attempt to find the Gym Leaders. As we weaved our way through people, Ghetsis continued his speech.

"We, as humans, wish to study a great many things. One of these things is Pokemon themselves... but Pokemon, when captured and used by humans, have limited potential!" I heard a few murmurs at this. "If we wish to see the true power that Pokemon could possess, then we must free Pokemon from human control!" The crowd flared up, and I suddenly realized that I had gotten lost in the wild uproar.

"Free Pokemon!"

"Do you mean stealing them!"

"That's crazy!"

Ghetsis held up his hand. "And that is why a new land will be created! To free Pokemon! To free humans! To ensure freedom for everyone!" He nodded curtly to a grunt as the uproar grew to a fever pitch, and he trotted away, a smirk plastered on his head, held high. I stood on my tiptoes as the crowd began to move away, and I spotted the tips of Alder's red hair. I quickly made my way over to him, not wanting to waste any more time staying lost. Ironically, by the time I got to Alder, the crowd had all but dissolved into nothingness, the once-furious bunch of people going off, fulfilling whatever other affairs they had. I leaned forward a bit in surprise. Alder was talking to two people.

The first was an older man who looked slightly like Professor Oak. Actually, no, scratch that, he looked nothing at all like Oak, that was a complete lie and I don't know why I said it. His white-tinted hair was in a bold, confident style, and his beard spiked upward like a Pokemon's jawbone. His white shirt and gray pants contrasted his purple gloves, suspenders, and shoes, and an emerald-green ribbon drifted down his shirt. I almost wanted to ask if it was a Pokemon Contest ribbon, but I thought better of it – it wasn't really the time. But what I could definitely tell was that this man was very old, very old indeed - perhaps as old as, if not older than, Professor Rowan.

The other person was a tanned girl, who had to have been, at the very most, twelve years old. Her indescribably huge amount of purple hair was tied up into pigtails that sprouted from her head, and a ponytail in the back, and she wore a cream-colored shirt with pink trim, along with a pink skirt and white pants. She was leaping around like a wild Nidoran, and I heard an odd cry coming from her poofy hair, which was answered when she literally stuffed a hand into her ponytail and brought out a Axew, which whined. She giggled, gave it a treat, and it happily chomped down, digging back into her hair. It was such a bizarre sight that I couldn't help but take a step back and gape in awe, but I shook myself out of my stupor quickly - it wasn't very polite to stare in such a way, especially as they were probably the Gym Leaders.

"No use making a bad first impression." I told myself, and I stepped forward. Alder, the older man, and the girl turned towards me, and the girl leapt up and hugged me tightly.

"Oh! It's the mister from back in Castelia!" My mind did a flip in my head as she made the remark, and I began to wildly run through my memories of Castelia in a vain attempt to remember the girl. I scratched my head and then tried to pry her off of me. Alder raised his eyebrow.

"You've met Iris before, Bill?" Finally, one memory surfaced - the memory of Bianca, crying over her kidnapped Munna - and I understood.

"Wait! You're the girl who helped Bianca train after she got Mirage back from Plasma!" I grinned widely, mentally patting myself on the back for not making a fool of myself in front of the Gym Leaders, and the older man (who I assumed was Drayden) eyed me studiously. Iris, on the other hand, jumped off of me, grabbed my hands, and began to hop up and down repeatedly in excitement.

"You remember me! You remember me!" She chanted, as if it was a mantra that needed repeating. Refia, who had at first sniffed at the girl, now stepped backwards, obviously not fond of Iris's hyper personality. I tousled her head again and recalled her to her Pokeball, releasing Eiko in the same moment. The moment Eiko saw Iris, in all her jumpiness, she bounded up onto her and wriggled her way into her hair, eliciting a gasp from her and a groan from me.

"Eiko, no. C'mon, get outta there." I patted Iris's ponytail slightly, and Eiko burst out the other side, play-wrestling her Axew to the ground, who let out a yelp of surprise. Eiko placed one foot on the little dragon's head and thrust her arms into the air in victory, before squeaking lightly in surprise as I picked her up and nested her on my head, while Iris picked up her Axew and did the same thing. Eiko tugged on my hair for a bit before settling in for a nice nap, and Alder and Iris chuckled, while Drayden remained silent. Alder turned to me.

"Well, Bill, I've told Drayden and Iris about you and the Light Stone you carry. I've got to go to the League now…" His face turned thoughtful. "Actually, I suppose it would be returning to the League, wouldn't it?" Drayden and Iris nodded, so I nodded along so that I wouldn't look ignorant. Alder released his Volcarona and mounted it.

"I'll beat N, of course. I'll teach him how wonderful this world is, where people and Pokemon can live in harmony together!" He gave me a smile. "And Bill, as the Champion, I'll wait for your challenge! Once you've got Ophelucid's Badge, come to the League. I'll look forward to it." And with that, his giant moth flew into the sky, a slight burning trail left in its wake, much like the one left in Icirrus's snow. We waved him off until he was a speck in the sky, and then I turned to the two Gym Leaders.

"Well, I was told to come here to both get the Badge and to learn about the legend of Unova's creation, so… what shall we start with?" I asked quickly. Iris stared up into the sky absentmindedly, while Drayden folded his arms and let out a sigh.

"I'd say that you learning about the legend would be more urgent, so come with us to our house." He stood up straight and tall, and he walked off to a small, unassuming house in the distance. Iris grabbed my hand and began to jump up and down again.

"C'mon! I can show you to anywhere in the city!" Before I knew it, I lunged forward against my will, Iris dragging me around the large city. Seeing as we had some time, I decided to make some small talk with her as soon as I freed my hand from her grasp.

"So… why isn't it stormy here? When I was traveling here I had to trudge through snow, hail, rain, the works." I shivered just thinking about it, and Eiko mumbled in her sleep. Iris stopped to go inside a small building on the street, and I waited patiently. Or really, rather impatiently, as I had gotten to the point of playing music in my head and tapping my foot to the beat before she came back out. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see Iris and Axew holding two ice cream cones and two ice cream cups. She had a strawberry cone, a vanilla cone, a chocolate cup, and what looked like a cookie dough cup, and she was smiling brightly, as if this was a special occasion. She held the chocolate cup out to Eiko, and handed me the vanilla cone.

"For you guys!" I took the treat and licked it greedily, not expecting her to be so generous. Eiko immediately plummeted from my head and dug her face into the cup, and Iris and I burst into peals of laughter. As we continued to walk through the city, Iris turned to me.

"Sorry, did you ask me something before?" I nodded and repeated my question, and she grinned. "Mayor Papa Drayden had this neat machine installed into the city's route gates a while back. It's designed to use strong wind power to keep any unwanted weather away from the city. We let in a rainstorm every now and then to keep things fresh, but most of the time it's sunny, sunny, sunny!" She giggled and spun in a circle, oddly euphoric. I was a bit stunned by her blunt yet confusing explanation, but shook it off as we continued to explore.

"But, that seems a bit… I dunno, unnatural, I guess." Iris ignored me, so I continued talking to myself as I bit into my scoop of vanilla ice cream. "Is the convenience of sunny weather really worth the money for that system?" I would have argued with myself more, but we arrived at Drayden and Iris's house. She walked forward, pressed her palm on the door, and it disappeared, almost like a force field. She dragged me inside before the force field could rematerialize, and giggled at me.

"What's so funny?"

"It's just… you look so bewildered!"

I heard stomping, and Drayden appeared from a back room in the house, his hair and beard slightly disheveled. He looked straight at me, our eyes locking for a moment, and then he loosened up and pointed to a hallway.

"Bathroom's over there. You might want to clean yourself up." I felt a little insulted at that, but walked in anyway, flicking on the light and locking the door. I looked into the mirror, only to be greeted by Eiko's nearly-unrecognizable, chocolate-covered face, and I immediately understood.

"Eiko, you're such a ditz." I took a paper towel, doused it with water from the tap, and began to scrub at her face. Instead of leaping back as I expected her to, she quietly cooperated and closed her eyes, letting out a "Chiii…" of happiness, obviously taking great pleasure in making me clean her up. I responded with a grumpy grunt and nothing more.

I entered the back room of the house after I finished up with Eiko. It was quite large, but somehow still rather cozy, with a small sci-fi-esqe table, three futuristic-looking chairs, and (for some odd reason), an old-fashioned antique grandfather clock that still ticked. Drayden and Iris sat in two of the chairs, so I walked over to the third and plopped myself down, fidgeting a bit before getting comfortable. I plucked out three Pokeballs from my messenger bag, returning Eiko to one, and releasing Erin and Cyan from the others. They emerged onto the floor and looked around in wonder before sitting down on my feet, hands held together. Iris cooed at them, while Drayden drew an old, worn book from under his chair.

"I suppose we should start at the beginning of the legend." He flipped open the cover, revealing a faded title page, the words 'Property of Drayden' barely legible, and then turned to the first page of the book. I strained my neck to look, and saw scribbles, doodles, and all manner of notes – this must have been a journal that Drayden kept. He noticed me and turned the book upwards, denying me any more peeping.

"You're a curious one, aren't you?" He let out a humorless chuckle as I leaned back in the chair, unable to come up with an excuse, and then began to read from his notes. "Let's begin." He pointed to my bag.

"You possess the Light Stone, which contains Reshiram. Correct?" I nodded. "Good. Then you already know that there were two dragons." He flipped to another page.

"Once, long ago… even before Unova was called Unova, there were three – two heroes, and a dragon. The trio arrived at this land after a long period of searching, as they had sailed away from their suddenly-destroyed kingdom homeland to find new lands like Unova was at the time. They landed here, with their dragon, and met a whole new world, full of new people and new Pokemon. They were wary of the inhabitants at first, but soon integrated into the lifestyle of the people, and lived happily for many, many long years." He turned a page.

"However… around the time when they grew to… Alder's age, I suppose. When they grew to their middle ages of life, the pair of heroes had a falling-out between each other. One of the heroes believed that they should sail back to their birthplace, the ravaged world that they had left long ago, and see if they could find out the truth about what had happened there. His was a mind of curiosity and patience, and was willing to study forever to find the truth, no matter how horrifying it might have been."

"The other hero argued for the opposite side of the view - he wished to stay in Unova and build it up into a grand kingdom to replace the one they had lost before. He was a scientific, but hasty man, and wanted to create an ideal world, where the citizens could live in comfort and ease, without having to work all day and night just to put food and water on the table." Another turn of the page. Cyan and Erin listened intently, while I took the information to heart. This seemed both predictable and suspenseful at the same time.

"They began with simple banter, then serious discussions, then arguments, and it eventually devolved into a battle between them, a fight to decide who was right and who was wrong. And the dragon that had walked with both of them, through thick and thin, split into two so it could accommodate both sides of the disagreement. One black, one white." I can't say I didn't see that one coming, and I folded my arms.

"The black one sided with the hero who traveled and toiled to create an ideal world… it was named Zekrom. The white one allied itself with the hero who wished to find out the truth about their past… it was named Reshiram. The two were equal yet unequal, searching for opposites but still part of the same coin. Their powers only made the quarrel more violent, destroying towns and people in its wake. In the end, they realized that their fight was only ravaging the new land, just as their own homeland had been ravaged before." Drayden sighed as Iris whispered something into his ear, and he nodded in defeat. She sat down and spoke.

"I'll go from here! In the end, neither hero could find each other to be right or wrong, so they stopped fighting and made peace!" Iris seemed to beam at this part, but then she turned moody.

"But… but then, many years after the two heroes had died, their sons grew to have the same ideas as their fathers, and they began the fight anew. Only this time, neither backed down." Cyan and Erin were very silent at this, and I patted their heads to wake them from their trance. Cyan let out a yelp of surprise at the sudden contact, and Erin laughed at him.

"And since neither son backed down, neither dragon backed down, either. So so so… they used their lightning and they used their fire to completely eradicate Unova…" Her tone turned very, very sad, almost dripping with the tragedy of an unhappy ending.

"And the dragons, along with one man and one woman, were the only survivors. And they realized that they had done what the heroes had tried to avoid doing before… so they worked together to recreate the world!" Her mood suddenly whiplashed to overjoyed, and I shook my head to get used to the sudden change. Drayden patted her head, and Iris smiled happily, then sat back into her chair as Drayden turned to another page in his book.

"And after that, the dragons sealed themselves away, into a matching pair of stones – one a round block of onyx, the other a slab of white marble. And they hadn't been seen since, until N awakened Zekrom, if Alder told me right." Iris nodded furiously, then piped up again.

"We can't can't CAN'T let Team Plasma separate Pokemon and people! It'll be the destruction of Unova all over again!" She jumped up and stomped on the ground, her Axew flying out of her hair.

"We can't let them! I can't let them!" As she vented her anger and frustration out on nobody in particular, Drayden and I walked up to each other, Erin and Cyan on both my shoulders.

"I'm not sure what you need to do to awaken Reshiram from the Light Stone…" He started off slowly. "…but what I do know is that Reshiram will recognize a person's great strength. And in that case, I'll be waiting for you at the gym. Show me the power that you and your Pokemon have accumulated over the course of your travels!" He strode out of the room with a regal air, and I felt my hands curl into confident fists.

"You won't be disappointed, Drayden. I promise."