Chapter Forty-One: The Reason

Nathan's eyes slowly opened. It took him a moment to make heads or tails of everything, but eventually, he rubbed his face. That's right, he remembered. We're home. Ever since the invasion had started, he had spent less than a dozen nights in his actual bed, and from the time the nukes had dropped, only a few nights had he actually slept all the way through. Adira's head was still resting against his collarbone, likely the reason for that anomaly. It didn't take her long to join him, the latias giving off a quick, silent yawn before looking into his eyes.

'Good morning.'

"It is now." Adira smiled, pecking him on the cheek before readjusting herself under the covers. There wasn't much to do as of now – which was the only reason he had even decided to make a return trip to his Undella home. For once, every member of his team was under one roof and would be for the upcoming weeks.

He reached over and grabbed his PDA with his free arm and scrolled through the status reports. Nothing of interest had happened; Nathan had set up operations to be handled by people far smarter than him, and with the legendaries to keep everyone in check, there was little to worry about. Still, there were things that he could do, and as such, he would occupy himself with whatever tasks were available in the region.

There was one thing that caught him by surprise, though. He had to do a double check to make sure he was reading the screen correctly. 'What is wrong?' Adira asked.

"…Both Aaron and Sofia won," he replied, more confused than impressed. "That's odd…"

'Are you concerned?'

"Not particularly. Definitely surprised. Sofia had two pokémon with ice-type attacks, but that shouldn't have been enough to overwhelm Zinnia's dragons. And Aaron? Your training sessions with Nora undoubtedly helped, but she shouldn't have been able to defeat both a latios and a latias. Aaron should not have beaten Eldes." Granted, those two were nowhere close to Adira's estimated level, but the fact still remained that the typhlosion should not have been able to accomplish such a feat.

At this point, there were only four trainers left within Unova that could viably stand against Omega: Clay, Elesa – and the two of them. The team leaders would easily take two of the three spots, and the last would likely be occupied by one of three trainers from Kanoma who had made it this far, one of which had more points than either Aaron or Sofia. Their battles were in a week, and by then, there would be a fairly good idea who the third and final dissenter would be.

But still, the fact that Aaron had come that close to begin with was impressive. If he could defeat Eldes, then he could very well have become Unova's champion before all this started. 'Nathan?'

"Sorry," he said, having zoned off a bit.

'Tell me what bothers you, love.' He set the PDA down on the bed and sighed.

"It's just… I'm not sure what I was hoping for there. That he'd never find out, or that he'd join us. I don't know."

'You still regret how things are between the two of you,' she said.

"Yeah."

'I know he does not see eye-to-eye with our methods,' Adira replied. 'But I know he has the potential to do the right thing. I felt that in him from day one. Need I remind you that it was my idea to inquire into his circumstances?' Nathan rolled his eyes.

"Pretty sure that counts." The latias grabbed a nearby pillow and shoved it against his face. For what felt like the first time in years, he laughed. As soon as he shoved it off, Adira closed the distance between them again. "I love you, you feathery pest."

'Oh, speaking of pests, Kiel has set up a ward outside your door. I would assume Trina plans on ambushing you in the hallway.'

"Of course he has."

'Would you like for me to take care of that?'

"In a bit. I'm in no rush."

'In that case, I was thinking of taking a shower. How about joining me?' the latias asked, earning a slight laugh.

"Hmm…"

'It wasn't a question.'

It had taken the better part of a week for Nora to get back to normal after that fight. Aster had been taken out right before the latias, leaving her to finish both of them off. Aaron reclined against the couch with her sprawled across his lap, far too large for such a position yet far too exhausted to care. And after what she had accomplished against Eldes, nobody felt the need to poke fun at her. The trainer ran his hands along her back, quietly laughing to himself as a leg twitched when he hit that particular spot on her side.

For once, it seemed there was nothing to focus on – nothing to worry about. With Omega having seized control of every region, there were no more missions. No more fighting. The streets, though often full of people collecting their weekly rations and the like, were quiet. Enough power was supplied to each house to provide them with the necessary heat for the Unovan winter, and the massive skyscrapers had once been the headquarters of countless businesses were now dedicated to temporary living spaces.

One thing that Omega couldn't help with, though, was the boredom that had accompanied the collapse of society as they knew it. At least when there were missions to be done, Aaron and his team had something to do. Now, everyone who wasn't essential to either infrastructure or life support had little purpose for the time being. Most people's jobs had been consumed when the market crashed, and it was only a matter of time before Omega put everyone back to work. What that meant, Aaron wasn't exactly certain about, but they were adamant that nobody would sit around and do nothing. Honestly, that was a change he could welcome.

The windows were frosted over and the wind howled outside. Aaron said nothing of the current rankings to his pokémon, surprised that Sofia had also won her battle. Perhaps what was more surprising, though, was the fact that one of the three from Kanoma had been defeated. The realization of what that meant was something that he wasn't sure how to feel about.

Sofia and Aaron's combined points would be enough to make either of them the last dissenter.

That relied on him transferring his points to her, and after what had just gone down between them, Aaron wasn't about to do that. Because of that, the final trainer would be some mid-thirties trainer from Kanoma, one who likely would have contested the champion had an invasion not occurred.

"Aaron?" Brooke asked from the other corner of the room. He raised his eyebrows as he looked towards her. "What did you guys usually do for Christmas?" That's right – something else he hadn't considered. The holiday was only a few weeks away at this point, and considering what had just happened in Unova, that was one of the last questions on his mind.

"Before all this, we would usually spend the holidays over at my parents. We'd swing by here Christmas night and do our own thing, but… well, I'm not sure what the plan is now."
"Nothing stopping us from doing all that," Nora replied.

"Yeah, you're right."

His mother was more than happy to accept that proposition once he made the call. Things would likely be cramped with an additional six, and with food rations being on a week-by-week basis, there certainly wouldn't be a feast this year. Of course, by last year's standards, this was likely to be a lousy Christmas. And yet, despite that, he felt that he no longer had the right to complain about much – not after what he had seen in his brief trips across the world. After Ellis had nuked Unova, there were multitudes of people who wouldn't be able to spend this time with their families. The fact that everyone he cared for had remained safe despite the disaster was a better gift than he could ever have asked for – a gift he wouldn't ever take for granted again.

Something did worry him, though – a pressing concern that had weighed on him since they made the decision, much more now that he was at their doorstep. Aarom had held a few conversations with them ever since breaking the news about him and Nora, but this was the first time Aaron had visited in a while. His mother had seemingly been fine with it; as she had said, Nora had far more character and decency than any of the other girls he had brought around them. But the fact remained that she wasn't human, and Robert had taken that news pretty hard from their last call – even if he tried to cover it up with dry humor.

His mother answered the door, somehow happier upon his arrival than she had been last year. She wasted no time in embracing him. "Hey honey – did you bring the thing I asked about?" He rolled his eyes.

"Yes Mom. It's in the backseat." In fact, that box was the reason that only Nora was able to ride in the car during the brief trip. "Where's Dad?"

"On the recliner, reading a magazine that he's already read at least a dozen times." That sounded about right. Then again, there wasn't much to do nowadays. Aaron first released his team before returning to the car for the artificial tree. It wasn't much; unlike other years, there would be no presents underneath, and though his parents tended to buy real trees this time of year, that was just one of millions of services unavailable now. But this was something to offer at least a touch of normality in a world that was currently anything but.

They decorated it quietly, the family and pokémon placing ornaments on the tree while Aaron's mother and Nora periodically tended to dinner. Each time they did so, Aaron noticed his father stealthily glance towards the typhlosion, though the trainer was too frightened to ask his thoughts on the matter. If there were any hard opinions, Robert kept them to himself. Brooke broke that train of thought when she stood on her toes and handed Aaron the star with a wide grin. He mirrored it, knowing that at least one person had gotten what they wanted this year – people who actually cared for her.

The feeling didn't last long. "So," Robert began, "given the fact that you and that friend of yours are still on the leaderboards, I take it one of you plans on challenging Alexander." Aaron frowned.

"I'm not sure how any of that will play out. I don't want to fight him, and I don't want Sofia to get Pierce killed, so we're sort of at a standstill."

"Why don't you want to fight?" Despite his initial misgivings about Aaron and his team opposing Omega, he sounded confused. "Hell, I'm not complaining, but if you've made it to this point, I'm not sure what could stop you guys now."

"He definitely could," Aaron murmured. He had hoped to avoid any thoughts towards that matter over the holidays, but it seemed that even here things were bound to drift towards the single person he was trying not to think about.

"Why do you say that? I mean, after months of fighting, all of you are just going to let it go to waste?"

"That's not at all what I want," the trainer stated. "But neither of us can win this, so I don't see the need for either of us to go up there and have our pokémon potentially die when there's no beating him."

"Is he going to use those legendaries of his?" Robert shoved a mostly-empty cardboard box aside, fully focused on the conversation.

"None of the major ones."

"Then what are you afraid of?" Aaron glanced at Nora in hopes of some form of guidance. She looked down. It seemed like he was on his own here. He sighed.

"I know what his team is capable of, and I… I don't think we can match that." Nora probably could compete with at least a few of his team members, but she couldn't carry his entire team. She couldn't take all of them.

"Why would you say that?" Sarah had walked out of the kitchen, her small arms folded against her chest. If there was one thing Aaron was laughably bad at, it was lying. Given the fact that Robert could easily detect when his son was hiding something, too, Aaron decided to be straightforward with everything.

"Do you remember when I told you about Nathan last year?"

"The guy who used to be in Alpha?" Robert asked. "Yeah. What about him?"

"Well, he wanted to try and reform Alpha rather than destroy it."

"Seems to have worked well." He had a feeling that sarcastic sense of humor was about to fall flat.

"Right. Once it became clear that wasn't about to happen, Nathan left and decided to form his own team."

"Really? And that was?"

"Omega."

The silence that followed was as predicted. Aaron couldn't gauge his father's thoughts from his expression and instead withdrew an old business card from his wallet – one that he'd always kept, even after the reveal. Robert's eyes fell to the full name on it before he quietly handed it back. "You mean to tell me your best friend is the one running all this?"

"Yep."

"That's quite a story."

"One that my whole team can back up. Small world I guess," Aaron replied.

"Oh honey, I'm sorry," Sarah said. "I know that must've been a lot to come to terms with…"

"Yeah, tell me about it." He rolled his eyes. "Hell, we even trained with his team – Adira taught Nora just about everything she knows when it comes to her psychic abilities. Problem is, his team is capable of sweeping every known champion on this planet with ease. I think it's safe to say Sofia and I are outmatched here." The typhlosion looked down at the mention of her former mentor. "What do you think of them, anyways?" Aaron asked his father. Robert remained silent for a second, eventually shaking his head.

"Things are definitely different. Streets are empty. Food used to line up for us at the stores – now we line up for it. This city came alive at night, but now we've got curfews and armed guards at every corner ready to enforce them." His wife silently nodded. "And yet… part of me can't help but wonder if some of what your friend says is right. This country was unhinged. Evil, even. If what matters most to us is always having things our way, then maybe that says a lot about Unova."

"Yeah. All that's kinda making it hard to even want to fight Nathan. That and the fact that pretty much every good legendary sided with him."

"And yet… I can't help but feel like they gave us the chance to fight back for a reason," Nora said quietly. It seemed that none of them knew why that was, though. Unova had been screwed as long as anyone in the room could remember; at this point, it might be preferable to let Omega win rather than have humans ruin things all over again.

Though the Christmas of 2052 took place under vastly different circumstances than any other throughout human history, the Calloway family did their best to make it work. His grandparents, aunt and uncle each came, everyone bringing their own rations for the two meals that they would eat together. Last year it had been European cooking from both sides of the family, recipes that had been passed down and perfected over generations. This year it was vegetable stew and slim pouches of tuna.

And yet, that was okay. After what he had seen in those brief leaps across the planet, there weren't many things that Aaron could find himself complaining about anymore. One thing he did wonder, though, was what exactly Nathan was doing today. Had he returned to his family – and did they know what he actually did? Probably not, Aaron reasoned. Not with them being so deeply entwined with Alpha.

It was a little past ten at night when people began to leave the house. Once company had left, his mother and Nora having washed and put away the few dishes used, Aaron's parents decided to turn in for the night as well. Before they did, though, Robert pulled him aside. The comment was brief – Robert tended to keep things that way – as they stood in the hallway. "All things considered, you could've done a lot worse than Nora. She's a good girl."

"Thanks, Dad."

After that day, his father never commented about her species again.

Aaron sat with his team in the living room, the last few logs in the fireplace having been reduced to smoldering embers. Nora was on one side, Aster on the other. Brooke leaned against the lucario in the recliner, her tail occasionally twitching, and Krista was struggling not to fall asleep in front of the dying fire. Her eyes lazily opened, though, when Aaron spoke.

"Sorry this was kind of a lame Christmas, guys." A few curious glances were cast towards him as he continued. "No presents or feasts or perfectly good tubes of wrapping paper to joust with. Our own president nuked us, and Nathan took over…"

"Not a single bit of that was your doing," Marcus replied. "You have nothing to apologize for. And I'm pretty sure everyone here isn't so shallow to expect things to always go the way we want."

"I'm surprised your friend didn't make some sort of speech about how our society is overly materialistic and selfish. Not that he'd exactly be wrong about that, but still…" Brooke's remark earned an eye roll. "But I'm more than content."

"I'm just happy that all of you are safe. We've done a lot this past year – a lot of things that could've gotten us killed. But you're all still here with me, and that alone makes up for everything else. I don't know what I'd do if any of you were out of the picture…"

"Aww, we love you too," the floatzel joked.

Most of them shared the living room for the night. As Aaron was making his preparations for bed, Nora waited patiently in his doorway. "Everything good?" he asked after preparing the sheets. With his translator earpieces charging, she resorted to telepathy.

'Yeah – I just wanted to talk a little.' He patted the spot beside him on the bed. The typhlosion looked over her shoulder, then hesitantly joined him. 'Your father – he seemed to be a bit odd around me. I take it he is not as enthusiastic about us as your mother.' He smiled, placing a hand on Nora's shoulder.

"Not at first. He's still probably a bit weirded out about things. But he's seen in you what I have, and after dinner he pulled me aside and told me that he doesn't have a problem with what we've got going on." The look of relief on her face was immense.

'Oh, thank Arceus,' Nora replied. 'I mean… I wouldn't have wanted to come between you and your family.'

"I know, but even then, that wouldn't be Robert's call to make. As I've said before, I've made a ton of mistakes in life. You aren't one of them." Nora's head timidly lowered, though her eyes rose to meet his all the same. Aaron cupped one cheek and kissed the other. But then a frown formed on his face. "But… I feel like I have made a few mistakes in terms of our relationship. I feel like I've failed you. We never got to experience all the things that normal couples could because we were always caught up in something or another."

'No part of our relationship would've been 'normal' to begin with,' Nora thought. 'Maybe things have been a bit of a mess, but… I'm glad I'm in that mess with you. Plus, I happen to think fighting political extremists and world conquerors are way more memorable as far as dates go.'

"You are, without a doubt, the best thing that's ever happened to me. I love you," he said, knowing that of all the partners he had been with, she would be the last to hear those words. "You know, when all this is said and done – whatever ends up happening – I plan on marrying you." The smile she gave upon hearing that was one he would never forget. Nora gently pressed against his chest, her head under his chin. His hand found its way to her back, caressing it as he embraced her as though it would be their last night together.

And he would have been content to stay that way. But the typhlosion withdrew, looking into his eyes in the dim room. 'Aaron?'

"Hmm?"

'I was kinda thinking... we didn't exactly leave Sofia under the best circumstances...' The trainer was puzzled by her statement.

"What do you mean? She needed to be put in her place – she had that coming. I'm glad it happened in public for everyone to see."

'Should we be glad about that, though?' Nora asked.

"Why not? Hell, you should be happier than anyone, seeing as to how she treated you."

'I thought I would be, too, but...' The telepathic statement died out. 'I think we should make amends. You were right – her reasons for fighting were all wrong. I know that better than anyone else. But... I think that could've been handled better.' Aaron remained silent for a moment before sighing.

"Yeah, I guess I wasn't exactly nice, was I?" Calling her a 'heartless bitch' didn't exactly fit that description.

'Not really.' One thing still had him confused, though.

"Why?" he asked. "Why do you want me to make amends? She was the one in the wrong, and it's not like we need her anymore or anything."

'Do we need a reason to do good? A reason other than because it's simply the right thing to do?' The trainer went quiet, trying to think of a response. 'Heck, you helped your mother and I prepare the table, clean up and take out the trash. Surely you needed to be told to do those things when you were a kid.'

"Okay? Your point?"

'But now you do those things because they need to be done – and because you love your parents. You don't need to be told what's right or forced to do it. You do it because you love them.'

"...You're right," Aaron replied, not having thought of it that way. "Alright, I'll call her soon." He smiled as Nora pecked him on the lips, grateful that he had found someone that made him the best version of himself. He dared to press forward, just a bit, brushing against his partner's pointed teeth.

Eventually, though, they needed to sleep. Nora nuzzled against his cheek, telling Aaron that she loved him more than life itself before turning in for the night and heading to the living room. The trainer was left with a warm feeling in his chest, knowing that he would be the biggest fool on Earth if he didn't stick to his plan and marry her the moment things were convenient.

And now, after all this time – at the very end of Omega's campaign – he finally knew the reason why they were fighting.

A/N: Special thanks to FuryWrites for beta reading this chapter.