"How has Zorua been doing?" N asked, as his sisters showed the friends to their hidden mansion.

"He is amazingly good at being you," Concordia said, then paused. "Well, not quite? It's more like… he's amazingly good at being the you that Father expects to see, not the real you."

"How does that work?" Emolga asked.

"Well, I'm currently on a quest to see through my father's lies," N pointed out. "So obviously if Zorua was good at being the real me, he wouldn't be there either."

"Very true," Reshiram said, which made both girls jump.

"Did a Reshiram just join in the conversation?" Anthea checked. "I'm fairly sure that's what just happened."

"Indeed I did," Reshiram agreed, flying out of N's mane.

"I see you picked the Ideal time to announce your presence!" Zekrom replied, emerging from his Pokéball with a flash of light.

"Again with the Ideals stuff!" Reshiram retorted, spinning around and glaring at Zekrom – though the fact he was still small enough to fit in N's mane interfered slightly with the impact of his glare.

"If you knew anything about your own speciality you'd know that you had to be True to yourself," Zekrom said, smugly.

"This is Reshiram," N confirmed, as the Vast White and Deep Black Pokémon began ineffectually flailing their wings at one another. "I met him a while ago, and he declared me a Hero of Truth. It's… a great comfort to me."

"With both a Reshiram and a Zekrom, then even if Father does manage to summon a Reshiram of his own and convince it to help him… I think we might have a chance of stopping him," Concordia said, with a sigh of relief.

"Father is planning to summon a Reshiram?" N asked. "How?"

"He has a Light Stone," Concordia told him. "Rood said they were going to be taking it to the White Ruins to conduct the summoning."

"Wait, wait, hold on," Iris asked. "Who is this Father guy you keep talking about? If you two are N's adopted sisters, is he an adoptive father?"

"In truth… though I call him father, he's not much of one," N admitted. "I once thought the world of him, but since then I've learned how much he concealed the truths of the world and the people in it… I could always understand Pokémon, since I was very young, and I think he wanted to use me as a weapon against Pokémon trainers. To separate humans from Pokémon… obviously I don't know everything about what he planned, but anything that needs so many lies can't be just."

"Hold on," Pikachu said, slowly. "The White Ruins? Where are they, exactly?"

"They're somewhere around Icirrus," Concordia answered. "Why?"

"Because we're heading to meet Professor Juniper's father around Icirrus," Pikachu explained. "He made an archaeological discovery of something important, and last time we saw him he'd found a temple to Zekrom."

"That might mean he's found the White Ruins, you're right," Anthea said. "What's he like?"

"He's a good man," N answered. "I'm… actually not sure if he has any Pokémon, though I assume he probably did at one point. But we should hurry, he might be in danger."

Arc went bing.

Ash lifted up his phone, and saw an app flashing on the screen. "Fast travel mode?"

"Correct," Arc said. "I am experimenting with a new form of fast travel. If selected I will transport us to the White Ruins."

"I guess that sounds like a good idea," Ash said, and tapped the screen.

There was a flash of golden light, and Arc manifested in front of them.

"Is that an-" Cordelia began. "Hold on, is this an illusion? It could be."

"I am not," Arc said. "Though I do not mind the question. Please hold on tightly."

"To what?" Cilan asked.

"Just in general," Arc advised, then pulsed gold, and they were somewhere else entirely – under a clear but dimming sky, lit by pink clouds tinted by the setting sun.

"That's pretty cool," Ash said. "How did you do that? Was it Teleport or something else?"

"Something else," Arc answered, their form dissolving again. "I simply lifted everyone up, and then dropped them a fraction of a second later when we arrived."

"Hold on, hold on," Pidove requested. "You lifted us up while the planet spun underneath us?"

"No," Arc replied. "That would have taken longer and moved us in the wrong direction. I lifted everyone up while we moved, and when we arrived I put us down again."

"But then, how did we move?" Anthea asked.

"I also lifted myself, since my phone form did not go away," Arc answered. "We moved because I carried us."

"Hold on," Pidove said. "So you carried us, and that's how we got here… but how did you get here?"

"I think Arc has already answered that question," Zygarde replied. "Arc picked themselves up, and then put themselves down again here. That is how they moved."

"While that does sound like a paradox, Arc is Arc and I think if they say it's not a paradox you should agree with them," Cilan advised. "I wonder where Mr. Juniper is?"

"Aha!" Mr. Juniper called, waving from the top of a small rise. "Ash, Cilan, Iris! There you are, my daughter told me you were coming but I wasn't sure when you'd arrive."

He patted a little Woobat on the head. "Luna told me you were coming just in time, otherwise you'd definitely have surprised me."

"It's my pleasure," Luna replied, happily.

"Oh, is she new?" Ash asked. "Or was she not along last time we saw you?"

"She's new," Juniper confirmed. "One of these days we'll get around to doing a bit of combat training, but for now she's a great messenger."

He nodded to Anthea and Concordia. "And who are your friends?"

"We met them earlier today," Ash explained. "A friend of ours knows them, and they said that you might be in a bit of danger… someone's coming to the White Ruins to summon a Reshiram."

Mr. Juniper winced. "That would be a bit inconvenient," he said. "I've found the Golden White Stone, but I had to promise to the guardians that we were here for scientific purposes only… if they come here and try to use it, then they'd get in a fight with the guardians."

"There's a Golden White Stone?" N said. "If we saw a Golden Dark Stone before then I suppose it makes sense there'd be one of those as well."

"Is it safe?" Anthea asked.

"Well, it's underground…" Mr. Juniper replied. "And there's some traps on the way. I'll take you to have a look?"

"Is that a good idea?" Iris checked. "Couldn't there be someone from Team Plasma following us, to find out where it is and how to get past the traps?"

Ash frowned, thinking.

"Hmm," he said. "Marshadow, is anyone nearby who might do that?"

"Not currently," Marshadow supplied.

"Then we should move quickly, while that's still fresh," Cilan suggested. "We don't want that assurance to go bad in the crisper!"

Mr. Juniper led them down a tunnel, past several traps – where he picked up and removed the coloured notes that explained how to bypass them – and along a corridor into the still-intact underground portion of the White Ruins.

"I think this is quite close to the surface, but that's not something I'm sure of yet," he explained. "Your help would actually be good for that, I want to do geophysics surveys but that's going to mean sorting out a proper agreement with the guards. Otherwise they might get confused."

"That would not be ideal," Reshiram admitted.

"That looks amazing," Concordia said, as they reached the Golden Light Stone chamber and approached the central stone itself. "So this can summon Reshiram?"

"The way the Golden Dark Stone worked is that a Hero of Ideals touching it would summon a Zekrom, and not always the same one," Juniper explained. "Since you've got a Reshiram in the group, I think that must mean one of you is a Hero of Truth? We could test if the Golden Light Stone works the same way."

N glanced up at Reshiram, who nodded.

"You are my Hero of Truth," he said. "You are worthy. I think we should see- ergh-"

"I don't feel well," Pikachu gasped, sparks fizzing off his cheeks.

"Alert!" Zygarde interrupted, lighting up green, and green streamers of light began converging on them from all over the room and pouring through the path up to the surface. "Malicious electromagnetic interference detected!"

There was a kerrash as the roof gave way, sending chunks of rock falling down all around them. Zygarde howled, and when they finished they were in their serpentine 50 percent form and a glowing green bubble about fifty feet wide had formed, deflecting falling rocks and shimmering with distorted light.

"Aura Break successful," the Dragon-type stated. "Electromagnetic interference contained. Do not leave the bubble or you will be taken under hostile control."

The dust was clearing, and a Hydreigon came floating down from one side of the crater. There was a robed man on its back, and N gasped.

"Anthea and Concordia," the man said, in tones of disappointment. "Even you have turned away from Team Plasma's true message."

"Father!" Anthea replied. "You just collapsed a roof on us!"

"Of course, I did not know you were there," the man replied. "But it is a regrettable truth that sacrifices may be necessary."

He spread his hand, and uniformed men – some robed, others wearing white – advanced to the lip of the crater. So did a Kyurem, eyes dull, and the man folded his arms.

"Once N has summoned a Reshiram, and we have Absofused Reshiram and Kyurem, then not even Ash Ketchum's Zekrom will be able to stop my son from saving Unova," the man went on.

"Ghetsis," called N's voice, from the top of the crater. "Something isn't right."

"My King," Ghetsis responded. "What could possibly be wrong? You are about to come into your inheritance."

"Well, there's the fact that you didn't notice I wasn't your son for months," said the N at the top of the crater. "Hi, N! Ooh, is that a little Reshiram?"

Ghetsis' mouth opened and closed a couple of times, then the N at the top turned back into Zorua and the N down at the bottom touched the Golden Light Stone.

Another Reshiram appeared. And then another, and then yet another which had golden rings and purple flames.

So did several Zekrom, a Black Kyurem, a normal-form Kyurem, and a Luxury Ball which hung in the air for a moment before opening to reveal Ash's Zekrom again.

"Colress!" Ghetsis said. "Full power to the control device!"

N's Zorua friend gasped, then fell into the crater, and a Zygarde Cell sprang out of one of the walls to knock him towards the friends. Concordia caught him just inside the Aura Break shield, and he let out a sort of squeaky sigh of relief.

"What's going on?" one of the Reshiram said. "Why am I here? I was just finishing my stint as the lighthouse."

"I was halfway through a training battle!" the shiny one of the Zekrom said.

"Ash?" Damon asked, from the back of his Zekrom. "We were in the middle of doing an endurance race across Orre!"

"I hope the Cryogonal don't get upset while I'm gone," one of the Kyurem frowned.

"Why aren't they controlled, Colress?" Ghetsis demanded.

"It's something about that shield," Colress replied. "It's causing electromagnetic interference… I think I couldn't maintain control of any Pokémon inside that shield."

Cilan sent out his Stunfisk and began making a phone call.

"Hey, I recognize you," Ash said, pointing to one of the Reshiram. "Aren't you the one I saw when I was, uh, seven or eight? Mew took me to an island and you'd crashed there with Zekrom!"

"That is true, yes," Reshiram admitted. "You have an excellent memory."

"Father!" N called, squinting up through the shimmering of Zygarde's Aura Break shield. "I don't – I want to know why."

"You're not my son," Ghetsis replied. "You're a Pokémon."

"There's no difference that matters between humans and Pokémon!" N said. "That's the Truth, and you taught it to me… or maybe I learned it first. But it's still True. And I want to know why you told me so many lies as well… I decided you couldn't think everything you said was the Truth, not with how easy it is to find out something different. But you might! And I want to give you that chance!"

"A chance?" Ghetsis repeated. "A chance? You talk about Truth when my son was replaced by a Zorua?"

"You never noticed!" N retorted. "And you told me that there were people who were cruel to Pokémon, and that for the safety of the Pokémon they needed to be stopped… and everything you told me about who was cruel, almost everything, it's turned out to be wrong! You were setting me up to do what you wanted, not what was right!"

"But that's not all," Iris interrupted, the words bursting out. "What you're doing, controlling Pokémon and forcing them to obey – it's wrong! It's something which you told N that all Pokémon trainers did, but it's far worse than any Pokémon Trainer I've ever known, ever met! Even the worst one I can think of didn't do this to his Pokémon… and it's not even the best way to be strong!"

Muttering was breaking out among the Team Plasma grunts and the Sages, and Iris pointed. "That Kyurem you've trapped… you can force it to do what you want. But you won't get the strength that comes from the bonds between trainers and Pokémon, where they share their pain and their skill and their ideas! My Pokémon are mine because they want to be, I'd let any of them go if that wasn't true – and they're stronger because we work together! And Ash's Nephmew just cut your mind control thing in half."

Ghetsis' face fell. "What?"

He turned his gaze over to Colress, where there was a bright pink Mew jumping up and down on the two halves of the Colress Machine.

"Hello!" the Mew said, stopping and waving. "I am not technically a Pokémon so this funny device did not work. Thank you for the phone call, Cilan, I was pleased to be involved!"

"You insolent Pokémon-adoring freaks!" Ghetsis said, apparently driven beyond all hint of self-control. "The world should be mine! I am perfection!"

He fumbled for a Pokéball at his belt. "Cofagrigus! End them!"

Ash wiped his mouth, then turned into an Absol, Mega-Evolved with a flash of infinity energy and jumped up with Pikachu to battle Cofagrigus.

This seemed to remind all the Pokémon present that the mind control field was down, and absolute havoc immediately broke out.

"...well, I wasn't expecting that," Iris admitted, once the dust had settled. "You're sure?"

"I am," said the Reshiram. "Your voice shone with Truth, and that is a thing to be cherished. It will also let me try and see what the Truth means for Ash Ketchum, now that I'll be seeing him for more than a few minutes at a time."

"I am," said the Zekrom. "You spoke passionately about the Ideal bond between trainer and Pokémon, and though I have not known you for more than a few minutes I find myself wanting to know more."

"I am," said the Kyurem. "Your speech distracted Ghetsis and Colress for the time we were most vulnerable."

They nodded, in unison, then went into their Premier Ball.

Singular.

"Oh, huh," Ash said, now back to being a normal Absol. "I guess I should ask Suicune, Entei and Raikou to give them some hints about how to manage sharing a Pokéball? Or maybe Latias and Latios… one of those groups, anyway."

"What happens to Team Plasma now, then?" Cilan asked.

"I am not sure," N replied. "While somewhat more than half of the organization certainly needs to be arrested… perhaps there is some truth in some of what my father originally claimed it was for. It would do Unova good to have people on the look-out for the rights of Pokémon, and perhaps the rest of the world. And it would do us good as well, I think."

"Well said, my King," Rood informed N, nodding. "Though I must ask one question, your Highness."

"Yes?" N asked.

"Are you actually going to turn back from being a Keldeo at some point?"

N looked down at himself. "…do you know, I had actually forgotten about that."

AN:

That's not actually an answer.