The Champions

Part 4

Truth Laid Bare

We were under fire from the moment we broke cover. A few of the Indigo Elites were drawing most of it, but Plasma had fortified the hell out of that base. There were at least half a dozen gun emplacements, all of them raining steel down onto the field. One of the foreign Elites went up on his aerodactyl, burning away the big guns as he went. It wasn't much, but it was enough at least to give us an opening.

He made for the airship docked to the roof of the base, Alder and Benga going with him as more of our trainers swarmed the walls of the compound. We were taking losses, but we had a chance with the airship still docked and her cannon silent.

Soulfire melted us a hole in the wall. There'd been a pair of guards on the other side. They were charred beyond recognition and I stepped over their corpses like they meant nothing. More trainers charged through behind us, an entrance finally made into the base itself.

N, Liza and I moved deeper into the base, cutting our way through the mooks Neo-Plasma had hired as our forces moved into the compound. Plasma been an army of dreamers and idealists before. Now, Ghetsis had hired an army of criminals and malcontents. He still had the shadow triad on his side, but most of his troops were little more than armed thugs with a scant few mercenary trainers thrown in. We'd cut through these men our entire war, and that didn't change now.

N led the way, I cut us a path and Liza covered my ass. It all made for a well oiled machine. We even cut our way through Ghetsis' precious shadow triad, leaving the foreign shinobi dead in the dirt. It seemed like we might even win… Until it arrived. Until he arrived on the field. Then we were dead, and nothing could save us but a miracle.

I tightened my grip on the glass. "Alder and Benga had gone to confront Ghetsis. A mistake, perhaps the one that I think of most."

She leaned over her notepad. "Why would you say that?" She asked.

"Ghetsis really really wanted Alder dead. I think the preceding Champion's continued survival was a personal insult to a guy like that. He had to put Alder down, had to crush our spirits and end the battle decisively."

"You are a former Unova League Champion yourself. Was this same reaction not extended to you?"

I shook my head. "I was hardly a celebrity by the beginning of the war. Alder was our public face, Alder was the one the public believed in, who our hastily recruited army fell behind." I met her eyes again. "Why do you think Ghetsis did what he did?"

"So that is when he released the creature?"

I nodded, glancing over at the fire I'd built in the small fireplace off my study. It got cold out here sometimes, especially as Unova's climate recovered from the final atrocity of Ghetsis' war. "Kyurem should have been left at the bottom of that fucking chasm," I said. "Instead, Ghetsis found it and corrupted it. He turned a noble creature into a weapon of war." I looked back at her. "Then we got our fucking miracle."

Demeter shrieked in panic, pointing up at the deafening thrum of power. The airship was opening, the chamber around her ventral cannon splitting apart. The temperature plummeted, like something had sucked all the warmth straight from the world.

I ducked back behind cover, bellowing desperately at Soulfire. My chandelure lit up like a supernova, a storm of ghostfire rising to meet our icy doom. A second firestorm joined ours, N and his darmanitan having the same idea.

It wasn't enough. It was never going to be enough. We managed to clear part of the incoming attack, but you can't truly stop something like that. Eliza was down, clutching at the frozen spear that had impaled her through the chest.

I got to my feet, taking a nervous step towards the girl who never lost hope that she'd get home. I didn't make another. I just stood there a long moment. She was just gone, like she'd never been there at all.

Pain and panic erupted from the compound, Plasma and our forces all struck by Kyurem's terrible power. Ghetsis fired on his own people's positions, just to hit us. It was just cruelty at this point. This wasn't a war anymore, only death for the sake of death. At least half our forces were down, more of Neo-Plasma. One of the foreign Elites was dead, his pokemon's psychic barriers falling away uselessly.

Ghetsis waved something forward. We saw the terrible shape of his hydreigon looming over his shoulder. We saw the body of our beloved Champion raised high over the side of the ship. Then he fell. Alder fell and there was nothing any of us could do.

"Alder's death has been said to have been the rallying cry that saved the allied forces." She looked up from her notepad, a look of exhaustion on her face. I'd been recounting the battle for at least an hour, poring over ever detail I could recall. If I was tired, I could imagine how she felt. "Champion Benga referred to it as the turning point."

I scowled, shaking my head. "It was the turning point, but not because of anything we did. Alder's death broke our forces. I saw trainers just staring defeated up at the ship, pokemon waiting for Kyurem to kill the rest of us. Benga wants to act like we rallied behind him as he avenged his grandfather…"

She raised an eyebrow as my voice trailed off. "Did you not?"

I shook my head. "I don't know where Benga was. I thought he had gone to help Alder and the surviving foreign Elite, but there was no sign of him." I looked directly at her, letting her see the truth in my eyes. "We did not rally. We hid and cowered and let Unova's real heroes win the day."

"Who would that have been?"

"Truth and Ideals themselves," I replied. "People who were better than 'The Champions' could ever have claimed to be."

"N and Hilbert?" She asked.

I nodded slamming back the last of my drink. "Like I said, real heroes."

I'd only ever seen N unleash Zekrom once before. When his team had been caught out of position and outnumbered in Black City, he'd loosed a storm that had melted several city blocks to a sea of molten glass. It had won us the day and allowed our escape that day, at a heavy cost.

He loosed Zekrom now, bathing the airship's open cannon cavity with living light. Another deafening roar echoed from above and living flame joined the fray. Reshiram was here, the Hero of Truth mounted astride the dragon.

Both dragons hit Kyurem, taking it down to the chasm along with a large portion of the airship. We could hear the terrible struggle, could feel the walls of the chasm aching with the stress. I'd seen the aftermath of the terrible war between gods in Hoenn the year before. I knew that we had to go, lest all of us be swallowed by the chasm.

I ordered our remaining forces to retreat from the base, supporting any injured that they could. I didn't discriminate between Neo-Plasma members or allied trainers and neither did they. We were one species for a brief moment, all working to stay alive.

Then Benga appeared, Ghetsis' corpse in tow. The chasm behind him began to collapse and we could hear the terrible sounds of battle threatening to rise from the deep again. I didn't stop to ask questions. I didn't stop to think. I should have. Maybe I could have stopped him then.

Miss Hall leaned forward, looking at me expectantly. "What are you implying, Mister Rykker? That Champion Benga allowed Alder to be killed?"

I shrugged. "I'm just connecting the dots, Miss Hall. Benga didn't require medical attention, neither did any of his pokemon. How did he take down a trainer like Ghetsis without a single injury?" She didn't answer, so I continued my rant. "Just look at the testimony of the surviving Indigo Elite. He testified that Benga was conspicuously absent from the final battle. Both Alder and the Elite were both under the impression that they had Benga's support."

She sat back, a disbelieving look on her face. "I don't believe that Champion Benga would have killed his own grandfather."

"I never said that he did," I replied. "Just that his own pokemon were uninjured. The foreign Elite corroborates this story, having berated our new Champion after the battle…" I trailed off, letting her mind work through the clues. "Benga stood aside and let them battle alone, only to swoop in at the last moment to steal the glory. He ensured that he would become the next League Champion, that he and not Alder would stand as Unova's new hero."

She shook her head, sighing. "I just don't believe it," she said. "He may not be what the League presents him as, but Champion Benga is not suspected of causing Alder's death.

I shrugged. "You can tell yourself that as many times as you like. I prefer to believe that he is who he is who he showed himself to be."

It was silent for a long, painful moment. She stared down at her notepad, wrinkling her nose. "Nobody's going to believe your story," she said. "It'll get buried and you'll be painted as a hermit driven crazy by the war."

"Maybe I am," I said, looking down at an empty glass. "Maybe I'm just a crazy old man who doesn't remember the most horrific events of my life. Maybe I've forgotten things that could never be forgotten." I smirked, knowing that I'd done enough. "But you're wrong that nobody's going to believe me."

She raised her eyebrow. "Who'd believe you?" She asked. "I don't even really believe you."

"Benga will," I replied. "And he'll show you the truth that I couldn't." I stood up, walking over to the large window over my yard. "Go back to UNN. File your story. Then wait. Soon you'll all see just what kind of monster you've anointed."