Touko's P.O.V.
I toss down Zekrom's Pokeball, and the battle begins. N throws out Reshiram.
"Zekrom, fusion bolt!" I scream, as Zekrom tosses a blinding flash of light at Reshiram. Reshiram barely looks fazed.
"Touko, Reshiram is a fire type! Electric type moves won't be very effective on it!" Shautnal screams.
"Thanks for the tip." I yell back.
N cries, "Reshriam, dragon breath."
I cringe as Zekrom roars in pain, a super effective attack.
"Zekrom, use dragon claw." I scream.
N winces, and I cheer as the sound of a critical hit rings out. Reshiram bellows as Zekrom's sharp claws rake its feathery stomach. Reshiram totters backwards, almost out of energy.
"Reshiram, use fusion flare!" N calls, and I pray that Zekrom survives.
"Dodge, and use dragon breath!" I command.
My Pokemon is too slow to dodge and is sent skidding backwards from the sheer force of the attack. Other than that, Zekrom is unharmed. The attack wasn't effective. Right. Dragon beats fire. Zekrom uses dragon breath, and Reshiram is slammed back into the wall. When the dust settles, Reshiram is down on the floor, unconscious.
N screams and recalls Reshiram, while I pat Zekrom on the nose.
"You did well buddy." I say, and then return him. I look around the room, and notice some of my friends aren't doing so well. I toss seven Pokeballs out of my purseh.
"Victini, Cobalion, Terrakion, Vizirion, Thundrus, Tornadus, Landorus, you know what to do. Help our friends. Go!" I scream.
The Pokemon obey my order, and scatter around the room. I crack my knuckles, and pull out my last Pokeball.
"Lets settle this old-school, shall we?" I ask before releasing Serperior.
"I couldn't agree with you more." N replies, sending out a Zoroark.
My Serperior is a much higher level than N's Zoroark, so I quickly pummel it into the ground with a few swipes of leaf blade. N's next Pokemon is a Carracosta. He smiles, and orders it to use stone edge. Serperior dodges, and I say,
"Leaf Tornado, Serperior!"
Carracosta takes the full force of the attack, but is still standing.
N smirks before saying, "Nice try Touko. Carracosta can't be taken out with one hit. Carracosta, use crunch."
I wince as Carracosta bites Seprerior's side. I hear Serperior cry in pain, and my eyes narrow. Carracosta is going to get it.
"Serperior, use Leaf Blade." I say coldly.
I watch in glee as the super effective attack slices into Carracosta, demolishing what little energy it had left. N recalls it, and cries,
"Archeops, go!"
N sends out a colorful, prehistoric looking Pokemon. I quickly destroy it, with little damage to my agile Serperior, who has three quarters of his maximum HP left. N sends out a Vanillish, which I pound. By now, everyone - with the exception of Shauntal and Grimsley who are kissing in a corner - has turned to watch, and is staring at us.
N looks stressed, but call out, "My last Pokemon–my ace in the hole–Klinklang, go!"
Crap. A steel type Pokemon, and Serperior is getting worn out too. He is down to half his HP. "Okay, calm Touko." I think "We can do this. Last Pokemon, plus we have leveled up more."
"Serperior, use solar beam!" I cry, allowing N to hit me with a flash cannon. It isn't supper effective, but I cringe anyway.
N cries, "Kinklang, use hyper beam!" just as Serperior releases the ray of light.
The two attacks crash it the center of the room, and everyone in the room tries to see through a thick grey cloud. I wave the cloud away with my hands and see Serperior standing victorious over Kinklang.
"Yes!" I scream, and pump my fist in the air, as N returns his fallen Kinklang to its Pokeball.
Ghetsis pushes through the crowd of cheering spectators, and marches up to me in a murderous rage.
"What?! I created Team Plasma with my own hands. I AM PERFECTION! I am the perfect ruler of a perfect new world! I only have a single Pokeball, but now you will face me in battle."
Ghetsis throws out a Hydreigon, and I toss out Zekrom.
"You'll never stop me just like you puny weak parents I crushed long ago." He mocks me.
"Dragon Claw, Zekrom!" I scream, incensed.
I wipe out the Hydregion with one powerful, force-filled attack, and watch the shocked expression on Ghetsis' face.
""My calculations... No! My careful schemes! The world should be mine!" He yells, glaring at me.
I then scream, and am upon him. I tackle him, slamming my one-hundred and fifteen pounds against him, with full force, bowling him over. I pull on the ornate, decorative part of his robe, pull it into his throat, and rip it from the seam, watching with pleasure as his face turns red. I have full attention of every living soul in the room, and I'm sure I look insane. I don't give a fuck. This is my chance for revenge. I've waited thirteen years for this, and no one is going to take it from me now.
"You sick bastard!" I scream. "You murdered my childhood in-front of my eyes, and you scarred me for life! You almost killed the Elite Four, and you locked up the champion, while fucking innocent women in your prison. YOU MAKE ME SICK!"
I slap him across the face, and begin to choke him with his robes again. I watch as his face turns a deep shade of red, and a satisfyingly light shade of blue. I let go, and he sucks in air while flopping about like a fish out of water. Serperior pops out of his ball, sensing my distress, and immediately lets out a barrage of razor sharp leaves on Ghetsis. He returns to his ball which closes with a click, and leaves Ghestis with some nasty cuts. Elesa walks up to me timidly, and whispers in my ear,
"Touko, can I have a turn?"
"My pleasure." I reply.
Elesa stands over Ghetsis, get right down next to his ear, and yells
"FUCK YOU!" as loudly as she can. Ghetsis winces, she must have blown an eardrum at least.
She then slaps him so hard she has to rub her hand after. There is a hand print on Ghetsis' face, and I promptly add another. I begin to punch him. Punch. Punch. I begin to speak as I punch him, getting into a rhythm.
"This. Is. For. Elesa. And. Caitlin. And. For. Every. Other. Girl. You. Sick. Bastards. Fucked. In. Prison."
Touya grabs my shoulder. "Touko I think that's enough." He tells me as I shove him back.
"No." I tell Touya. "This is between him and me. As soon as he tells me where my parents are, I will stop beating him. Maybe."
I punch Ghestis several more times with out any additional information about my family. Finally, I swing, and hook him in the chin so hard, I feel something move. He looks at me, and spits a tooth onto the floor in a pool of blood. He smiles a bloody deranged smile, showing me the black, bloody, torn-up hollow where his tooth used to reside, looks me in my furious blue eyes, and tells me one word,
"Dead." He says triumphantly, and beings to cackle madly on the floor, going insane. I shove him aside with my foot and everyone cheers except N, who is staring into space like none of this has happened. I march over to N. I see a look flash across Touya's face for a fleeting moment, the same
he wore on his face when I said N was cute at Lacunosa Town. Jealousy. My Arceus! Does he really think I'm going to kiss N after all of this? I walk up the steps to the throne, and position myself right in-front of N, so close our noses almost touch. I softly, but dangerously ask him,
"What happened to my parents?"
He doesn't answer, juts drops his head and eyes to the floor like he's too ashamed to answer me.
"TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED TO MY PARENTS!" I scream in his face, jerking it back up.
He still doesn't respond, and by now, I've reached my wits-end. I've saved Unova, but I can't
even get an answer about the deaths of my parents? Faster than a Rapidash, I pivot, and strike N across the face so hard it sounds like a whip-crack. When I step back, I see the shape of my hand imprinted on his face in red. The, I burst into tears and cry. Considering everything I've been through, I'm surprised I didn't break down sooner. As I cry, N hesitantly puts his arm around me, and he pulls me into his lap. I don't object, but simply cry harder into his shirt. I feel his arms wrap around me as he unsuccessfully attempt to quiet me. Finally, he asks me,
"Touko, what would make you stop crying?"
"My parents." I choke out between sobs.
"Well," he soothes me, "Since they're kind of dead, is there anything else?"
"The story of what happened." I whisper,
N's P.O.V
After Touko slapped me, the last thing I expected was for her to break down in tears. My first thought is, 'okay, maybe she's not so heartless after all.' Hoping she won't slap me again, I put my arm around her waist and try to sit her on my lap. I expected her to pull, or fight me, but instead, she just melts into a puddle of jelly. She grabs my white shirt, uses it as a tissue, then burries her face in it. I can feel the wet spot that she is creating, growing and enlarging in a blobby way. I try to calm her down, but nothing I do works. Finally there's no way around it. If I want her to stop bawling on my clothes, I have to tell her what I know.
I begin by telling her, "Touko, this is not how I wanted it to end, but this is what happened. I was seven, so I imagine you'd have been around the same age. I was doing my job, supervising the confiscation of ledgendary Pokemon, when Sage Ghestis approached me.
'I need you to come with me.' he told me.
'But sir,' I said, unaware of the carnage I was about to witness, 'these Pokemon can't unload themselves.'
'The Pokemon can wait.' said Sage Ghestis, and I knew it must have been important.
Ghestis dragged me to the tower of the castle we're standing in now, only then, it looked drastically different. In the center of the room was a large glass box with a metal, cross-shaped platform, and one closeable slit for air. There was a small circle shaped hole by the right prong of the platform, and to the right of the hole was a devilish looking machine. Inside the machine were various syringes filled with lethal substances. As I watched, a young woman, about thirty-seven or so, with long disheveled, knotted brown hair was dragged into the room. She was screaming something that I think was
'You can't do this. NO! Not now. No! My baby! Tell my baby I love her!'
Then, two grunts stuffed her into the glass box, and strapped her down onto the platform. The large conversing crowd in the room gathered around the box in a tight circle, and Ghestis brought me onto the throne and put me on his shoulders to get a better view. The woman on the inside, struggled against her bonds as the grunts shut the box on her, like a coffin. The only holes left were the air slit, and the hole by her arm. As I watched, the men loaded a needle into the tip of the machine, and wheeled the machine forward so the needle fit into the hole.
'Any last word Natsumi?' Ghestis sneered mockingly. To her credit, Natsumi raised her head defiantly and replied,
'It's Professor White.'
Ghestis signaled the grunts who pushed a button on the machine, and slid the breathing slot shut. The machine twisted the front apparatus, and the needle slid forward into your mother's arm. Her struggles of protest got weaker an weaker as the rounds of injection continued until her eyes were glassy like a dolls, and her head lolled forwards on no account of its own. I knew then she was dead. Everyone else started cheering as Sage Ghestis gave some speech on 'disobediance in prisoners,' but I just stared and said nothing. Your father died a week after from grief. They were both cremated."
Touko sniffles in my arm, and asks, "Is that all?" planitively, like a small child.
"No," I tell her, "Your mom wanted someone to tell you she loves you."
Touko smiles, sniffles once more, then hops off my lap, and descends the steps of the throne.
Touko's P.O.V.
I hop off N's lap - maybe all Plasmas aren't such bad guys - swivel, and file down the steps.
"I'm done here." I call to the armed guards whom Bianca called, "You can arrest him now." I say, jerking my thumb towards an insane Ghestis.
I turn around to watch the guards clap handcuffs on him, and hear the satisfying click of closing metal. Then, I watch with horror as one of the guards cuffs N too. I see the look of fleeting panic on his face and cry out,
"Hey!" The guards wheel to face me, and I continue, "Did I say you could arrest him too?"
"No ma'am." one guard states.
"We thought you implied it, so we assumed-" His partner begins before I cut him off by saying,
"Well, you assumed wrong. Release him at once!"
The guards panic and unlock N. I smile at him, and he smile back. We have forged a tentative friendship. The guards take Ghestis away, and out friends follow them out, muttering about gyms and Pokemon. Shauntal and Grimsley just kiss more. Finally, only the three of us are left alone, and Touya turns to me and asks,
"Well, what do you wanna do now?" with a lopsided grin on his face,
"I want to go home," I answer, "And Touya, do expect company. N's coming with us you know."
Touya scowls at N, and I giggle.
"As long as you don't share a bed with him," he says seriously.
"Oh, Touya, you know I only do that with you." I joke.
"Right," he tells me, "Sleeping bag incident. Sorry."
"WHAT?" I yell, "Touya, you mean to tell me you spent the whole night in there with me? I thought you said you were just going to warm me up for five minutes!"
"But you looked cold the whole night, and..." He trails off.
I clobber him, and we both start wrestling on the marble floor of the throne room, stained with blood and bad memories. N laughs, amused with our wrestling, and adds,
"Touya, Touko's pretty strong. Don't let her get you near a closet."
"What did you do?" Touya teases.
"Nothing." I reply innocently, batting my eyelashes.
Suddenly N grabs me, and pins me down on the floor with Touya.
"Hey, no fair!" I cry, giggling hysterically. "Two on one!"
I wrestle myself out of their grip, and it seems like we're just three normal teens. Not the rebellion leaders, and the Plasma King, just three typical seventeen-year-olds. And hey, who knows.
I think we are.
I walk down the last set of steps holding hands with both N, and Touya. We walk out of the gate, and help direct the evacuation process of the Team Plasma castle. I notice a familiar face in the mob of grunts, and push through the line.
"Hey Anthea. My Pokemon are feeling a little tired. Wanna heal them?" I tease.
Anthea grumbles, in no place to object, and returns my two healed Pokeballs.
"So," I continue, "Looking forward to prison?"
"Like you care." She grimaces.
"Actually, I do." I say, surprising her. "Work at a Pokemon center. I'll talk to a guard. I know a job opening. Anyway, as for prison? You couldn't handle it." I tell her, before having a brief converstion with a guard. "He says it's fine as long as you don't talk pro-liberation." I tell Anthea. "You're free to go."
I watch as she walks away, knowing I was right to do that.
"Come on." Touya says. "Let's go home before you free all of Team Plasma."