Pride of Your Soul
Interlude 2: For More Curious Souls
AN: This took a little longer than I expected, even though there weren't too many questions this time around, so apologies for that.
A white void.
A white void that stretches out as far as the eye can see.
No one knows exactly where this is. No one can even comprehend where this place is.
However, in the entire universe, only one person can enter this mysterious void at free will. Today, this person finds herself relaxing in the mysterious void once again.
"Oh, we're doing this again, huh? Gallade, my tea please."
A blue gallade suddenly appeared next to his master in the white void carrying a tea set with him. The gallade then prepared a stunning glass of earl grey tea before presenting it to his master. The woman was rather beautiful; with long navy blue hair, wearing a black coat over a dark blue shirt and a light gray skirt. Resting next to her was a gargantuan, grey centipede like creature with hard yellow portions that made up its face, with two soulless red eyes.
"Why thank you," she said graciously as she accepted the teacup, before facing you. "Welcome back. It seems like ages since I last did this segment. Well, it would be; I do recall the last time I was here was around two years or so, around this time actually. If only the author was able to work more frequently, then perhaps it wouldn't have taken so long. Hm, maybe even he would have finished this story and move on with the next story."
... ...?
"Oh, nothing for you to be concerned about," the woman giggled. "I'm fairly certain if you're familiar with this segment, then you know who I am. To the newcomers, however, I am Dawn Berlitz. If you are familiar with the story, 'Platinum Witch', then I am the star of that story; or perhaps was the star, is a better way to put it.
"You are in the Hall of Origin–or at least one interpretation of it. Yes, the very one where Arceus resides in. He is currently away at the moment, dealing with some skirmish somewhere. I forgot where exactly...But that's not important. What you are all here for is a Q&A panel, just like two years ago. I'm sure you are all curious to the behind scenes of this tragic and demented comedy that the poor boy Nate calls his 'story'. In fact, let us bring the boy in question as our cohost, just like last time."
With a snap of her fingers, a black portal opened besides her. The creature besides Dawn shot three shadowy appendages that was attached to it into the portal.
... ...
... ...!?
The appendages eventually ripped themselves out of the portal, carrying an ensnared Nate with them.
"GAH?! The hell?!" Nate yelled as he tried to break free to no avail.
"Oh hello there," Dawn greeted Nate with a reserved smile, gaining his attention.
"What the–the fuck are you!?" Nate yelled, before getting squeezed by the creature.
"Now now, Giratina," Dawn calmed the beast. "It's only natural for someone to freak out in this situation. Anyways, I am Dawn. And you are Nate Warren, yes? Ah yes, the story's villainous star, slowly but surely losing to his own desperation and indecisiveness and falling apart in the process. I do say, you make for quite the fascinating individual."
Nate's bewildered look transformed into a much more furious look. Giratina seemed to have noticed, and tightened his grip on the boy.
"GH!?" Nate gagged. "...Tch...What do you want?"
"Ah, quick to the point, that's good," Dawn nodded. "You see, the author has been unable to continue your story as frequently as he wished due to several factors. Having dealt with one of them, he has decided to open yet another queue for viewers to submit questions about you and your little story, where you and I answer them to the best of our abilities, yet again."
"...Why are you saying this like this happened before?" Nate asked. This was the first time he had ever seen the woman before him as far as he can remember. "Also what the hell are you even talking about? Nothing you have said so far has made ANY sense whatsoever."
"Don't worry about it," Dawn shrugged. "Just play along, and you'll be set free."
Nate glanced around. Outside of the monster that was keeping a tight hold on him, the woman was accompanied by a blue gallade; presumably shiny as far as Nate could tell. He was being squeezed tight enough to not outright kill him, but enough so that he couldn't reach for his pokéballs to send out anyone to help. And from the position he was, if Nate made a wrong move, then either the monster, 'Giratina' was what she called it, could just choke him to death, or the gallade could simply slice his head off cleanly. The boy had little options in the matter.
"...Tch fine..." Nate muttered. "Let's just get it over with."
"Excellent! You're even more compliant than before," Dawn replied happily as Shiny Gallade placed a neatly organized pile of post cards on the table next to Dawn, before she took one to read. "Now then, let's see..."
From Anonymous Trainer:
Now that Hugh has Tornadus, would Rosa be also getting a legendary?
"Hm, good question," Dawn mumbled. "What do you think?"
"Ah? Will she get a legendary?" Nate asked. "I dunno...really if there's another opportunity then I guess she'll try to get one, seeing that I have Deo and Hugh has Tornadus now. Whether she'll actually succeed in catching one or not is beyond me."
"You seem to have little faith in your friend," Dawn noted.
"A legendary Pokémon is a totally different ball park than the usual schmucks she's probably used to," Nate scoffed. "If she actually wants to catch one, then she better be prepared to get killed in the process."
"Ooh, I like that mentality," Dawn said. "Although, for your case and for your friend Hugh's case, you two didn't really 'catch' your legendary, but rather befriended them."
"Oh yeah..." Nate mumbled. "Well unless some damn miracle happens, I don't see her getting chummy with a random ass wild legendary Pokémon anytime soon, so she better damn hope she's good enough by then."
"Hm, interesting take," Dawn said. "So final verdict?"
"If she runs into one, good for her, if not, then too bad," Nate drawled. "But knowing our luck–or lack of, nowadays–she might actually run into one in the near future."
"Fair enough," Dawn nodded. "Now then, next."
From NarutoK:
You said that you'll be doing a QnA session so I'm just gonna assume we put our questions here.
- How did you come up with Nate's character? What inspired you?
- Who DOES Nate like better; Rosa or Yancy?
- If Nate and Hilbert were to battle right now (with their teams set at the pre-Mistralton Gym Battle mark), who would win?
"What the fuck does that mean? How did you come up with my character?" Nate asked, confused.
"Interesting point," Dawn said. "Giratina."
Giratina nodded, before dragging Nate back into the void, shoving his head into it.
"WHAT THE–GUAAAGHKMMMM!?" Nate gagged inaudibly.
"This question is something that the boy shouldn't hear," Dawn said. "I'd rather not make things awkward seeing as how I'm the only one in this universe capable of fourth wall breaking at the moment. But excellent question nonetheless. And the author did in fact leave some notes about this."
Shiny Gallade came back from wherever it was he was off to and handed a pile of papers to Dawn. The woman accepted the papers, before reading them off.
"The design of Nate was, complicated, for a lack of better words.
"I had several ideas for what kind of character I wanted Nate to be. It was near the endgame of Color of Your Soul where Nate's background was established, so I had to make sure he fit that background. And since said background was him being thrown out of N's Castle and ultimately being spared from Ghetsis in his childhood, I had a few options to go with.
"Considering he had never once made a blimp on the radar for anyone until his proper debut back in Color of Your Soul, I went with him having somehow survived the incident, and was raised by the wild Pokémon who were key to his survival. Brav is in fact his surrogate caretaker in this regard, which is why Nate calls him 'Gramps' or 'Old Man' sometimes.
"Originally Nate was to have a much brighter, more positive personality, funnily enough. The original idea for Nate was that he was raised by wild Pokémon in the absence of his family, and would become someone akin to Hareta, from the Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventures manga series, if you are familiar with the series: a boy who was raised by wild animals, and thus is a rather blunt and brash person who is not too familiar with modern society, but is surprisingly caring and understanding in his own unique way, if not somewhat of an idiot. A far cry from the Nate you all are familiar with. Rosa was also originally going to be much more level-headed and calm, while Hugh's personality was left untouched to help with the dynamic.
"While this idea was appealing, given the darker tone I had made Color of Your Soul, I felt that this kind of character was, realistically, unlikely to happen. Nate was still present in Unova throughout his childhood, and would most likely have been exposed to the harsher side of human society. The very same side of human society that N was exposed to, which built him to be who he was in Black and White, regardless of how that was all part of Ghetsis' plan.
"While there was nothing stopping me from going with the original plan, there was one more idea that came to mind; a villain protagonist. A term used by TV Tropes, it's basically the protagonist is a villain. However they are portrayed is up to the author, but the general idea is that the protagonist of the story is also a villain. This idea is what inspired me to make Nate who he is today. The idea that the protagonist of the story can be identified as a villain, seeing how they would grow and seeing whether they can redeem themselves or be ousted as the villain they are was interesting to me. I also haven't seen many adaptations of BW2 where Nate or Rosa were treated as someone of moral ambiguity (as far as I can remember), so I decided to scrap my original idea and go for this new one.
"The end product is the Nate you all know and love (or hate). The idea for this Nate was that he was to be a sort of combination of Hilbert and Hilda. While obviously being Hilbert's little brother, they both share a common trait of tending to listen to their own judgments over others, even if they do care for their companions (Hilbert more so than Nate arguably). Like Hilda, Nate is very secretive, hiding his entire agenda from his friends, and shares Hilda's sociopathic mind. In terms of fighting styles, Nate's general style was intended to be a mix of both Hilbert's and Hilda's: focus more on brute strength, finding and exploiting openings, and thinking on the fly like Hilbert, while also being more calculated, being prepared to the point of counter-teaming, and also tends to rely on items a lot, much like Hilda.
"And above all, for the overall design of Nate's character, I envisioned Nate being a darker version of N. Both are mysterious individuals who can communicate with Pokémon naturally (Hilbert's abilities are all artificial) and both shared a hatred towards humanity for one reason or another (N believed that humanity abuses and enslaves Pokémon, while Nate simply harbors a grudge against humans). Both are very ambitious, and wish to use the legendary Unovan Dragon for their own purposes (Reshiram for N, Kyurem for Nate). Both value ideals and the truth. And, for a good portion of the beginning, both are established to be within the higher echelons in terms of trainer strengths. The parallels stop here, though. Because while N in the end was doing everything because he genuinely believed that it was the right thing to do, Nate's motivation is ultimately more selfish and malevolent. N wished for a peace where Pokémon could be freed from human tyranny (or what he believed), while Nate simply wishes for destruction to satisfy his own vendetta. The moral spectrum is what separates the two.
"Tl;dr: Nate is modeled to be essentially 'Dark N' in terms of personality and ambitions. From there, I decided to change Rosa and Hugh's personalities into the ones you're all familiar with.
"While I could go more into his character... that would kinda spoil a good portion of the later chapters. I will cover Nate's background and his life prior to the story in a later chapter, so look forward to that."
"Well that was rather fascinating," Dawn said in awe. "Truly a lot of thought was put into designing the boy. Now if he can tell me why he purposely made my life crap...Even if I do know the answer..."
Seeing that the problematic question was over, Giratina pulled Nate out of the hole. The boy gasped for air, before glaring at Giratina.
"THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!" Nate yelled. Giratina seemed unfazed.
"Sorry, but it was complicated," Dawn said. "Now, the second part. Who do you like more: Rosa or Yancy?"
"The fuck!?"
"Go on," Dawn insisted.
"What–why do I gotta answer that...?" Nate asked.
"I mean I'm pretty sure the author knows how this will end," Dawn said. "We just want to know which one of those two lovely ladies you prefer."
"I don't fucking know..." Nate grumbled, somewhat embarrassed.
"Alright new question: who annoys you less?" Dawn tried instead.
"Oh Yancy, easy," Nate said in a heartbeat.
"And there's your answer," Dawn smirked.
"Wait how did that answer the question? I only answered who's less annoying," Nate inquired, confused.
"And last question, if you were to fight your brother with both your teams set to how they were pre-Mistralton gym battle, then who would win?" Dawn asked, ignoring Nate's question. "So basically if you two were about to challenge the Mistralton City gym I suppose."
"Pre-Mistralton?" Nate asked. "Wait, the hell's his team back then anyways?"
"Let's see here..." Dawn mumbled as Shiny Gallade handed her a sheet of paper. "It is...Dewott, Excadrill, Archeops, Victini, and Accelgor."
"...Does the accelgor have a scar?" Nate asked.
"Yes, why?" Dawn asked curiously.
"Goddamn it, so it's Dad's accelgor..." Nate muttered, before thinking. "...If I can take out Accelgor, then I win easy."
"Oh? You're confident against everyone except for the accelgor?" Dawn asked.
"It's Dad's partner," Nate growled. "I'm not trying to screw with that. Everyone else loses outright to Deo and Zoro."
"Good point," Dawn mumbled. "And word of God says...yes, in that setting, Nate would solidly beat Hilbert, since at this point, Nate has his entire team, while Hilbert still doesn't have Samurott at that point. Not to mention half of his team is weak to Water and he has no resist outside of Dewott. So long as Nate keeps his composure and not go berserk, that is."
"No shit," Nate scoffed.
"Alright, next question," Dawn said as she looked at the next postcard.
TheDarkMaster4000:
To N: Are you aware of your followers, (Team Plasma, not Neo Team Plasma), helping out abandoned Pokemon and if so, do you agree with what their doing to atone for their actions, so to speak? Side note, if Dawn is hosting this QnA again, I kindly request for her not to threaten or harm any hair on this poor boy's body and to treat him with the utmost respect.
Dawn stared at the postcard for a moment, before glancing at Nate, who was hanging like a prepared duck at a Chinese deli.
"Well too late for that," Dawn shrugged. "Hmm...This question is for N...Giratina?"
Giratina stared at Dawn for a second, before spawning another portal, before shooting another appendage into it. A few minutes in, and Giratina seemed to have caught something, before pulling out his appendage and reeling out one lime-haired N.
"What the–?! What's going on?!" N blurted, frantically looking around.
"GODDAMNIT WHY CAN'T I MOVE RIGHT NOW!?" Nate yelled, wanting to pounce N at the moment.
"Hello there, former prince of Team Plasma," Dawn said to N, getting his attention. "A quick question. Are you aware that a portion of your followers have defected from the new Team Plasma and are now genuinely helping Pokémon?"
"Well, yes I am aware of that," N answered, seeing no other option presented to him.
"And do you approve of that?" Dawn went on.
"Well, yes, I do," N answered honestly. "Regardless of old or new, we Team Plasma has committed foolish and unforgivable sins and crimes. It may not be enough, but at the very least, they are taking the steps to atonement. And I cannot disapprove of such actions."
"Well said," Dawn smiled. "As expected from their prince. And expected from someone who truly learned the true reality of Pokémon and humans."
"Thank you..." N said cautiously.
"Alright, off with you," Dawn said, prompting Giratina to hurl N back into the portal.
"I'm sad now..." Nate muttered. "Can I go now?"
"No," Dawn said as she went onto the next question.
From Guest:
How did Kyurem come to meet Nate, or hire him for that matter?
"Oh well that's interesting," Dawn said, before glancing at Nate.
"...He saved my life, and our interests coincided," Nate muttered. "That's all."
"You refuse to say more, huh..." Dawn mumbled. "I'm sure this will all get explained in due time. It does seem to be like something that's plot-related after all. Alright, next off...Oh...?"
Dawn glanced at the table, finding that she have ran out of postcards to examine.
"It would seem that we're done here," Dawn said. "Well then, I do believe our time here has come to a close. Although one particular question dominated the others more due to its nature, and the author's generosity with his notes, I do hope our answers today were sufficient. Any plot-related questions are bound to be answered within the future of this story, so if we lacked information for you on that regards, time will surely provide you with the rest."
Dawn turned back to Nate with her usual impish smirk. "Thank you for your time once again."
"You...what are you...?" Nate asked. "You act like we met before, but this is the first time we met. You command what's essentially Satan with absolute control. You pull me and N out of wherever we were and
"Hmm, let's see..." Dawn said, tapping her lips with her finger. "To avoid spoilers for my story...I went from troubled 14-year-old girl to a 'witch' affiliated with the devil of the Pokémon world that achieved powers akin to God with some...'circumstances'."
"And you expect me to believe that?" Nate asked.
"Do you have any other plausible explanation?" Dawn challenged.
"...Fine," Nate muttered.
"Good boy," Dawn smiled. "Now then, I do believe I wasted enough of your time once again. Gira."
Giratina nodded, before hurling Nate back into the portal without any warning.
"Nate won't be able to remember this encounter, so there won't be any worries about leaking out information, as this is outside of canon," Dawn told you. "...Oh? You're worried I just spoiled my own story for you? If you were here with the first QnA, then I'm sure you would have figured that out by now. But regardless, no worries. You may have an idea of what the ending looks like, but do you know how it got there? I'm sure you'll all be interested to see the road taken. Oh speaking of...
"I'm sure he's already announced it, but since juggling three stories is terribly inefficient, and since many of you seem to be on the same page, the author has decided to focus on this one, before continuing with the other two. I do hope you understand. Once this story has reached its official end, then the other two will be brought back to life."
Dawn stared straight into your eyes with her own, the platinum gleam staring straight into your soul. A reserved, yet mischievous, almost malevolent smile painted itself on her face.
"Now then, until we meet again, whether it be here or elsewhere."
"NGH?! Oh god what the hell..."
Nate groaned in pain, slowly and groggily getting up. He looked around, seeing that he was still on the plane headed for Lentimas Town. He rubbed his head in pain, trying to remember what he was dreaming about, but to no avail.
"Goddamn it..." Nate muttered. "...Why does this sound familiar..."
Nate looked out to the window besides him. The sun seemed to be almost ready to rise within the night clouds. It would seem that they are almost to the destination. The boy let out a tired, almost nervous sigh.
"...Let's just get this over with..." Nate muttered. He knew this would not end well.
To be continued
AN: Nah, it'll totally end well. It's not like you're going back to the scene of a crime or anything :D
And just a reminder, both Fidelity and Platinum Witch will be on temporary hiatus until Pride of Your Soul reaches its official last chapter (disregarding bonus epilogue chapters that I'm probably going to do on the side).
Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed it, and I'll see ya next time.