Chapter 55: The Dream of Ideals

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Emboldened by what had happened at Dragonspiral Tower, N entered the office that Ghetsis worked in at the castle. It had always been grander than his own spaces, N realized, although it was smaller. The things he had, like the engraved dark wooden chairs and matching desk, were beautiful and gave a powerful impression. Instead of being different like N's spaces, this room blended right into the castle. He wondered why he hadn't noticed that before; he had been blind to a lot of things.

"What I'm trying to say is that I don't think this is the only way to do things now," N said, standing on the other side of the desk. "Certainly I want to stop terrible things from happening, but those things are not a common as I once thought they were. We shouldn't ignore the pain of a few, but an absolute separation will cause pain of sadness to nearly everyone. I don't want to be responsible to that."

"Then what do you think we should do?" Ghetsis said, his back turned to N as he worked on something else.

He put his hand to his chest and looked down. "I don't know yet. I have learned a lot from this journey, but one thing is that I have not learned enough. We could try just talking more to people, demonstrating to them that Pokemon are also individuals worthy of respect. It used to be better known through the world, but technology has lost knowledge along with gaining it. At least, going to do that will give me more time to think, and see what affects people more positively."

He paused a moment. "You know why you can't do that. I've told you before."

"Why is that?" N said, although some things came to mind.

"People won't listen to you. If you tell them that you understand Pokemon, they'll think that you're making it up or that you're crazy. If they even believe you, you'll be seen as a freak. They won't listen to someone claiming to have such strange power. You don't stand a chance out there completely on your own, following your unearthly dreams. Since you'll be ostracized anyhow, it's safer that you keep to yourself and get help from the few who would believe in you."

"Am I a freak?" N wondered quietly to himself. He felt awful for not realizing that himself. But then... there were people who believed in him who would not believe in Team Plasma. They saw him as having great potential, even to change the world just on his natural talents. And those people... "Why did you never hug me? It's not that bad, although can be surprising when unexpected."

"Because you never liked being touched." Same answer as always.

"When did I say that?" N asked again. "I think... you convinced me that I didn't like being touched. And that I shouldn't meet with people unless you approved of them. And that the world would hate me. It's not that way. None of it is that way. Why did you do that?" He leaned forward in his chair. "Why won't you look at me and talk with me like a normal person?"

"You're not a normal person," he said, still not looking at him.

"Ghetsis..." N said, but a sadness was overcoming his anger.

He finally got up out of his seat. "I took you in when anyone else would have thought you were a freak of nature. I taught you how you could make our dreams come true. I showed you want to do, protected you from the cruelty of the world, brought others to you who could best help you. I gave up much of my time and life to bring you to this moment."

"Did you do that for me, or for you?"

"Does that matter?" He then turned to face him, but in order to fling a knife through N's chest. "If you're going to keep asking questions like this, you're too much trouble to keep around. And without me, you might as well be dead. I can take Zekrom and handle the rest."

Although N felt a horrible sense of dread, he didn't feel that surprised. Or, pain. He looked down at the knife in his chest, at the blood. Nothing. He looked up at Ghetsis, not quite seeing his face. It made him think that he must have been dreaming. If it was, what was it trying to tell him?

Or he was trying to tell himself. People kept telling him that if he listened to his heart, he wouldn't be confused on what to do. While it seemed simple, it wasn't.

N felt a paw on his face, some Pokemon trying to wake him up.


May 5

Victory Road

When N woke up, he found himself outside, on a rocky cliff where a few tough grasses grew. Where was he? He sat up and looked around, seeing cliffs going above him and cliffs dropping below him. From the reddish hue the dirt and rocks had, this seemed to be Victory Road itself. On one side, Zekrom was sitting on the ground, resting but awake. The Zorua was still with them, surprisingly; he was curled up asleep.

On his other side, an Audino leaned closer to him, listening with her sensitive ears. "Good, good, you're awake now," she said. "Come, you need to eat a good breakfast so that you'll be able to get started with your day. I found some things that you can eat." She then passed over a wrapped granola bar and an apple.

Zekrom lifted her head. "You weren't well last night, so I called for one of them to attend to you."

N nodded. "I see, thanks." He took a bite out of the apple, taking a moment to savor the flavor. It was a simple thing in this complicated piece of his life, a good distraction to the nightmare lingering in his mind..

Pleased to have been a good help, the Audino shook her ringlets. "You're welcome. Oh, but you know, when I was listening deeply to your heart, I heard something strange and familiar. You are like a human, and like a Pokemon too."

"I know, that's what I am," he said.

"Huh, so can you use moves like Pokemon?" she asked, twitching her ears.

He nodded. "Yeah, I've been able to do some things. Nothing very impressive."

The Audino chuckled. "Well the fact that you can understand me is impressive. I've been thinking, and I got a great idea. I can teach you one of my best moves."

Teach him? He shook his head. "No... no I don't want to hurt anyone."

"This move doesn't hurt anyone," the Audino said cheerfully. "Heal Pulse is what I used on you when you were sleeping last night, and it's to heal others."

"A healing move? That would be great, actually." And so much more useful than a move that hurt others.

Happy, she smiled and put a paw on his nose. "It is! And I have a feeling that you'll be really good at it, I mean really really good. Here, watch me." She used it on him again.

The power felt soothing, a touch of another's love. N put his hand on the Audino's head and focused on that feeling. With that, he found it simple to cast Heal Pulse on her. "Oh... that was easier than I thought."

The Audino laughed. "See? I was right! Now grow strong so that you may help many others. I've got to go now; I live with Terrakion and help many Pokemon deep in the caves. Be well." Then she trotted off back into the caves to get to where she lived.

"They must have nice lives," N said, watching her go. "Going around helping others, healing their wounds. Nobody could hate them, or think they were failures."

"They would sacrifice themselves in order to help others," Zekrom said. "It is an admirable devotion, if sad and unfortunate."

N looked up at her. "How can it be admirable and unfortunate?"

She glanced at her claws and started doing some grooming while talking. "It is because we admire how much they wish to help, and yet wish that they never had to go so far as to put their lives on the line to make things better. One should not have to sacrifice one's self to make things better. Better to stay true to one's heart and see the better things come to pass with one's own eyes."

"It would be a pity to never see what comes of your work," N agreed, getting up. "We're close to the end now, so we should get going."

However, Zekrom didn't get up or stop fussing with her scales. "Should we? Once you succeed, we'll have to part. I thought you would want some time to talk with me before that happened."

He hesitated, feeling torn. "Yes, I did want to... but I spent a lot of time getting to this point and I could have done it sooner if I didn't get distracted with other things. There are Pokemon out there who are suffering under this system and any time I lose is time lost to save them."

"Are you sure?"

After wondering why she was questioning him for a moment, N looked down at the Zorua. "No," he admitted. "I mean, I don't want Pokemon to be hurt. But then, I've seen that many of them could be hurt by being separated from humans, even just in being sad or lonely. I don't want to do that to everyone. But I also don't want to disappoint those who have been helping me. I'm not really sure what to do now, but I need to do something."

Zekrom looked to him. "You do have a lot to accomplish. If you're not certain, then there might be a flaw within the plan, or related to it." N's thoughts turned to himself, but then the dragon said, "It does not seem to be about you, because if you faltered in your ideals in any way or behaved in an inappropriate manner, you would not have been able to bring my spirit into the physical world like this."

That was good to hear. N started to think about what else could be the problem. Did it really have to be as drastic? Hilda and Hilbert seemed to think that if more humans heard about what Pokemon had to say, something he could help with easily, then it would cause more to rethink how they treated them. And what about that dream he had? It might not mean anything, as most dreams were. Then again, he usually didn't remember dreams this clearly, only his visions of potential futures.

Before the terror of that idea got a hold on him, the Zorua's ears perked up and he uncurled from his sleeping position, yawning and stretching. Zane came up to them. "Someone's coming this way," he said. "We've been keeping others away from this spot so they wouldn't disturb you, but you're awake now."

"Thanks for that," N said, remembering the gratitude he'd felt for them yesterday. "Who is it?" he asked, already thinking over that again. Most of the humans should listen now that he had Zekrom, but what about the Pokemon? He had assumed that they would too. Or was he assuming about the humans too?

"One of the Sages," Zane replied. "Not one I recognize the smell of entirely. I think it's the one you call Ryuko."

"Is he older than the ones you know well?" he asked. When the Zoroark agreed that was so, he nodded. "It might be him. I hope it is; he might be able to help."

"Morning," the Zorua said, sitting in his spot. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm thinking about it," N said.

Then someone came out of tunnels that made up much of Victory Road itself. Ryuko always seemed smaller when he wasn't wearing the robes he had as one of Team Plasma's Sages, thin and worn from time. But even if he was close to ninety years old, he was in great health. The fact that he was here, halfway down the cliff that made up Victory Road, was a testament to that. He did have a Golurk keeping close to him; N recognized it as having been in Rood's possession at one point. The Golurk was wearing a Repel of some kind. To N, it wasn't a bad smell (although it wasn't pleasant either), but it did carry an unspoken warning of how powerful the Pokemon was.

"Oh, there you are," Ryuko said, smiling. "Good morning, N."

He nodded. "Good morning, Ryuko." Then considering how others spoke, he added, "How are you doing?"

"Not too bad, just taking a pleasant morning walk while I was seeing if you were nearby," he replied, although he was now looking up at Zekrom. "And it's a wonder to be meeting you, Master Zekrom." He then spoke something in a language that N didn't recognize, but it sounded to be full of respect.

Surprisingly, Zekrom laughed at that, although Ryuko probably wouldn't recognize it as such. "How amusing," she said, sounding pleased. "I have not heard that tongue in many centuries. It's not perfect, but understandable. Your devotion to knowledge and wisdom is admirable, elder. I appreciate the old honor, thank you."

This seemed like a safe place to try out being an interpreter, N thought. Not like back in Nacrene, when he'd tried to translate for that group of teenagers only to get responses from hostile to thinking it was a cute trick. "She thanks you for the old honor," he said. "It's been a long time since she's heard that language, but even if it wasn't perfect, she understood it."

"I don't expect it to be exact," Ryuko said, although he seemed glad to hear of it. "I read it in old texts and had to do extra research to find out how their pronunciation worked."

"What did it mean?" N asked.

"'Dragon of lightning, may our wisdom soar as high as you'," he said. "'Bless your grand wings. We seek your power for the greater good.' It seems to have been a formal greeting within one of the kingdoms she worked with. There's another blessing that is structured similarly, but is meant to be given to others instead of the dragons." Ryuko shrugged. "With those people long gone and the language only studied scholarly, it may be only a curiosity to know."

"You could use it once, so it is a little more than that to you," Zekrom said.

N told Ryuko that. Then he added, "I hope I haven't caused trouble to all of you; I was exhausted when we left the tower."

He shook his head. "We were worried, but since you were with Zekrom, many of us trusted that you would be okay. You are okay, right? You seem dusty."

Scratching his head, he said, "I woke up not that long ago, actually. But other than that, I'm doing well today. How were things outside the tower?"

"For a long time, nothing was happening," Ryuko said. "I had to leave for a time to get some rest myself, but others stayed there the whole while as well. Then yesterday evening, Hilbert and Hilda arrived, along with Kyurem. They insisted on going inside, saying that they had to be there for the summoning to work. We agreed to that, although there were a few like Ghetsis who weren't sure it was the right thing to do."

"Sometimes I come alone, but there were extra difficulties this time," Zekrom said.

Ryuko continued speaking. "There was a while longer when nothing happened, then the whole tower iced over again. But there was no one else there who could make the entrance that the three of you did. Not long after that, the ice broke again, replaced by spirals of red fire and blue sparks. Once they faded, we saw you flying off from the top of the tower. Hilbert and Hilda came out of the ground entrance several minutes later, with Reshiram instead of Kyurem."

N looked up at Zekrom. She bowed her head. "Let them know."

Nodding, he turned to Ryuko. "There was something strange going on. I don't know the full story, but I would imagine they do. The Kyurem with them was from a darker future, it seems. He came to this time to make sure his siblings didn't die. I don't know what he really did, but he said that his job was done after he sacrificed his current body to help Reshiram and Zekrom come back. This time, he was here for good reasons."

"Really?" he asked, intrigued by the possibility. "I see. I have sometimes wondered about him. Many think he is a force we don't want around, but there were enough stories and incidents I found in my studies that convinced me that he and the others often have mysterious purposes, things we don't need to know most of the time."

"Or purposes which would be unreasonable and irrational for a mortal to follow," Zekrom added.

"Why did you study the things you have?" N asked. "How did you know you were doing the right things?"

"Oh, those are two very different questions, but I think I can answer them at once," Ryuko said, rubbing his chin. "I came from a very religious family, so when I wanted to know why things were they way they were in the world, I was directed towards what our religion stated. I grew interested and studied what texts I could find, eventually branching out to study texts from other religions when I discovered that they stated different things.

"With all that I was reading, I found many common threads, as well as differences both miniscule and major. I considered many of them, trying to figure out what was right and wrong. I discovered where my own assumptions were and where I could see things more clearly. But you know the most important thing I found out?" He smiled and put his hand to his chest. "That I had grown old and I should have spent more of my life enjoying it, not endlessly studying what life was and what it meant to be good. I think I'm doing a lot more good for the world working with you like this, using my knowledge instead of keeping it as something dusty and scholarly. I'm certainly happier for it."

That made N worried for if he wanted to change things at this point. But then Zekrom spoke up, "Some things seemed to be learned right by doing them wrong."

Which was puzzling, but Ryuko laughed when N told him. "That's how it happens, more often than you'd admit," he said. "I try not to let myself regret it too much; that would just drag me down into negativity. I've moved on, trying to make things better instead of just watching."

"But how do you know if what you're doing is right?" N asked. "People have told me that I would just know, or with the voice of the conscience, but sometimes all choices seem to be bad, or good."

"You learn through experience," Ryuko said. "But as the lady has said, experience often comes by doing things wrong. You can watch, read, learn, and think about it all you want, but sometimes it really is unclear to tell at the time which choice is right. Not all of the consequences are immediately apparent." He paused, then added, "Is something the matter? What's troubling you that you're not sure of the morality of it?"

There was a brief thought that he shouldn't speak of such things except to Ghetsis, or else he might appear weak when the others needed him to be strong. Since even his relationship with his father was coming into question now, N felt a stronger inclination to dismiss that thought. "I'm not sure we should be acting so fast," he admitted, feeling nervous about how that would be accepted. "Ghetsis has been pressuring me for the past year that we need to hurry things up and get the separation of society done, and I agreed for a while. But with things that I've seen and heard lately, it's become more unclear how things should be handled. I feel like we need time to consider and discuss it more, like with those worried that this will disrupt society in a harmful way."

"You need to talk with a lot more Pokemon too!" the Zorua barked, wagging his tail.

"Yes, and discuss it with more Pokemon, so that they at least know what's going to happen," N said.

Ryuko became thoughtful, looking around without really looking at things. "We were counting on the sudden revelation to help others realize what needs to be done. But that time has been passed and many of the more worldly opponents have arguments that people understand better. We especially would want the cooperation of the Pokemon; as long as they stay near the communities and routes where humans live, people can use that as an argument against us. It could be better to rebalance for a possible misstep than to plunge ahead and fall."

"Yes," N said. "We'll have to discuss it with the others, although Ghetsis," he bit his lip, trying to form his feelings into words.

Ryuko put his hand on N's shoulder briefly. "I know he's done a lot for you, but in the end, you're our leader and we're your advisers. Don't let him intimidate you so much. I know it can be difficult, as he's got quite a presence, but if your conscious is telling you to slow down and reconsider everything, that's what we need to do."

"Thanks," he said. "Even so, I made an agreement with Hilbert that we would settle things in a week... six days now. That's when I need to be back here," he looked up towards the top of Victory Road. The League stadium couldn't be seen from here from the angle, even if it wasn't far away. "That's when we'll reveal the castle and I plan on addressing the whole region. I'd like to spend the week talking with Zekrom and other Pokemon, to make sure they're prepared and hear what they have to say." He turned back to Ryuko. "Still, I should come back with you for today and let everyone know that I'm fine."

"That would be good," he said. "We can head back now."

"I want to come and see," the Zorua said, following after no matter what anyone said.

Normally when he returned to the castle, Ghetsis would be the first or nearly the first that N spoke to. Today he took his time, speaking to his followers as he came across them. Zekrom came with him, having changed her size to something smaller and easier to get around indoors with. They did come across Gorm, Bronius, Rood, and Giallo; N made sure to tell them about his arrangement with Hilbert and his other plans. Including about how they might not want to be so abrupt about the separation of humans and Pokemon. Rood and Giallo seemed to be in agreement with that suggestion. On the other hand, Bronius wasn't sure that it would be as effective, and Gorm felt that giving others more time would make them more resistant.

He got invited to eat in the dining hall with a number of the regular people in Plasma, which he accepted. As he was sitting with them, he wondered why he hadn't done that much. It was a little awkward as first, since he was trying to be casual with them when his main knowledge of that was with his friends outside of Plasma, and Pokemon. Once he noticed that humans liked being listened to as much as Pokemon did and that even small subjects could generate talk, he felt more comfortable just conversing with them. They were good people, also hoping to make the world a better place.

Partway through the lunch, Anthea and Concordia came in. "May we join in?" Anthea asked.

N looked around; the table was fairly full, but he thought it might still work. "Sure, we could get some room for you both. It seems like a really long time since I've seen either of you for long. I'm sorry for not coming in."

"It's fine," Concordia said as the others slid aside to make room for the two women. "We hope you've been well on your travels."

"It's been a lot different than I expected," he said. "There's good and bad things happening out there, and some things that I won't forget. I think it was good that I went."

"Did you see the Charizard Bridge by Driftviel?" one of the men asked. "I always liked that area."

"Yes, that was a beautiful place," N said, starting to feel happy with talking with them. "There's many amazing bridges around, all made with structures to perform their purpose with ease and endure large loads and rough weather, but also made with a beauty to please the eye and compliment the landscape. The color of it was great too, a bright red to go with the blue or gray of the river below it."

"I used to take a daily jog back and forth across that bridge," he said. "And I met some great people on there." He shrugged. "I guess I never paid much attention to how or why it was built, I just knew that it's a wonderful place that I remember fondly."

"It can be important and wonderful for both reasons," Ryuko said.

The meal ended up going for well over an hour, after many of them were done eating. It was a good thing and he thought that maybe he should have done that more often. When he finally left to speak with more people and allow the others to go on with their work, Anthea and Concordia came with him and Zekrom. "You seem to have changed much since we last saw you," Anthea said.

"It hasn't been that long, but I might have," N said. "I still need to speak with Ghetsis; do you know where he'd be around this time?"

"I don't see much of him these days," Anthea said. "Although I'm mostly taking care of the team's Pokemon now, not so much the forest Pokemon. They've been taking care of their own, it seems. I see a few Pokemon the other Sages work with, but never any from him."

"He doesn't let me clean his chambers anymore, only a few of my workers," Concordia said. "Some days he's working in his office around this time, but other days I'm not sure where he goes. He might be there."

He nodded. "Okay. I usually just go back to my area and he comes to me, but I think I'll go there."

"Don't annoy him too much by interrupting him," Concordia said, worried. "That's why he told me to stop cleaning there, although I was just in at my usual time."

"I'll be okay," N said.

"Well you don't want to get on his bad side," Anthea said. "N-not that I've tried; I think he hardly knows I'm around any more."

The stumble in her words caught his attention. It seems like something he might do. "Does he treat you well, or just ignore you?" N asked.

"He took us in when we didn't have a home," Anthea said. "And he never hit us or anything like that. Sometimes he seemed to ask a lot of us, but we did it in gratitude to his help."

"But he assigned us to serve you and make sure you're okay," Concordia said. "We'll keep doing as you asked of us, because we really do care about you."

Anthea laughed a little. "Even though I will have to find something else to do. I thought that maybe I should study to be a nurse for humans and help out that way. Do you think that would be a good thing?"

Previously, he had seen them as kind women who had helped him out with his basic schooling. When he looked at them now, he noticed that they weren't too much older than him. He had met them when he was seven. Maybe they had been young teenagers then, younger than Hilda and her friends now? He wondered how Ghetsis had really treated them. Just ignoring them after they had done so much didn't seem right. "That would be wonderful," N said, hoping to encourage her in something she seemed to want.

They parted, and so it was just him, Zekrom, the Zorua, and the Zoroark. Zinzolin was in there talking with Ghetsis, but they stopped when he came in. "I heard talk that you were back in the castle," Ghetsis said. No real greeting, just a statement. Not even a comment about Zekrom, although Zinzolin looked at her with some interest.

"Yes, I talked with many others here," N said.

But although he thought about confronting Ghetsis about his suspicions and fears, N found himself unable to call up the confidence he had in the dream to speak against him. The results of that dream might turn out a little too real. Still, he managed to tell them about what was to happen next week.


I had wanted to get more done with the other Sages, as well as Anthea and Concordia; I had plucked out clues to their personalities as well. That didn't work out so well, but at least I got a few of them some screentime here. The three Sages who don't show up in the sequels get only a few lines each, but they do seem distinct when you manage to connect them between their appearances. Unfortunately this consists of mostly saying the same things (something that the two girls suffer from as well), or using the same imagery (something that Zinzolin does too, leaving him shallow even though he returns). I may still have to do some searching in the sequel, considering that it's had to wait while I'm busy with holidays.

But being a video game without any real cut-scenes, there aren't many chances to flesh out such antagonist characters. Such a pity, but fertile grounds for us fanfic writers!