Hey… so this is the really the end, huh?

Thank you guys so so so much for all your support through this! You have no idea how happy it made me knowing that there were people out there somewhere who actually wanted to read my crap little scribbles… THANK YOU!

Announcement: Because my fanfiction account doesn't work properly and keeps freezing on me, I've created a new one, called 'Linkette64', and from now on any new fics I post will be on that. I've no more Pokemon ones planned for the foreseeable future, but if you like Zelda, and only if you have finished Skyward Sword I'll be putting up one fairly soon! (and if you don't like Zelda- get yo' ass to the nearest video game store and buy one of the best games on earth pronto, you'll thank me later!)

Without further ado, I present to you the final chapter…

Chapter Seventeen: Haven

-Black's PoV-

My skin tingled, buzzed, almost, with what I had first concluded was my exhausted spirit leaving my body after finally caving in. But as the feeling slowly expanded and conquered the lengths of my limp arms, I realised that this was not my spirit; this was unlike anything I'd seen before.

My ears still writhed with echoes of the deafening booming that had sounded only moments before, causing me to jerk upright from beneath my shackles and begin calling out towards the archway in the distance. Blinding beams of white light seeped into the halls as a sudden gust attacked the four of us prisoners, who could do nothing but squirm against its wrath in useless protest.

And now… well, this was happening…

I glanced down at my imprisoned arms and instantly let out a cry of confusion as I watched my one-time impeccably powerful chains crumbling to dust beneath what appeared to be some sort of ethereal gathering of energy, which brushed peacefully across the top of my skin as it dismembered the heavy, iron shackles encaging my wrists. The energy, which now filled the room as aftermath of the explosion that had sounded from the arena moments ago, was wrapping around the four of us prisoners, freeing us entirely, and I was terrified that I knew why.

This was Reshiram's doing. Reshiram, as a last resort, had sent us her energy in hope that we would reach White, and this, if the hypothesis proved true, meant that White could well be in serious danger. But if a legendary dragon, said to be among the most powerful beings in the universe, couldn't protect White, then how the hell did she expect us to?

I'd just have to figure it out.

Before the three to my sides could even begin to make sense of what had just happened, I'd shot forward, the sweet sense of freedom flowing through my veins, straight towards the colossal archway at the end of the hall. Deaf even to the cries of the grunts that now piled into the hallway, a sudden burst of energy shot through me and spurred me forwards; directly under the muscular arms of the guards that reached about frenetically for me and right through to the grand entrance of the arena.

Skidding to an abrupt halt as I felt something brash against me, I quickly steadied myself as I was met by a flash of rich golden fabrics and long, pallid-green hair thrashing in a fuming heat inside the archway, failing to even acknowledge my existence in the process.

At the sight of Ghetsis disappearing inside, I was filled with a sudden, all-consuming rage, most likely the same raw anger that had been accumulating inside me these past months, that instantly reawakened the seemingly-forgotten, furious wrath I'd grown so used to.

I was back.

And then I was gone, uncaring as to even the safety of my friends fumbling somewhere in the mess behind me, flying straight under the archway without a second thought. A host of monochromatic colours flashed before me as I slid across the tiles into this colossal room, welcomed by a scene resembling a nightmare. Shards of demolished pillars and chunks of ceiling lay scattered everywhere, and the pools of glistening azure water at either side of the pathway were tainted with never-ending piles of fine, greyish dust. A chilling breeze wrapped against my skin as my eyes quickly surveyed the apocalyptic site before me, eventually landing on the enormous bodies of the two, jet-black and snow-white creatures lying at the end of the room.

"WHITE!" I shrieked, with what felt like my last breath.

-N's PoV-

This… this wasn't real. I-It just couldn't be. I couldn't possibly have lost…

"What is the meaning of this?" my father's cold, heartless voice bellowed, as his lingering figure appeared storming from the top of the room. My body trembling with alien emotions- fear, disbelief, panic maybe..? I felt myself unable to even lift my eyes from the exasperated bodies of the dragons who only moments ago had towered above all else in heated rage, emanating immense power with every incensed breath.

"I said…" he snarled, almost inaudibly, as his face deepened to a fuming crimson tone. "What is the meaning of this!"

I was silent as I listened to the pleading thoughts of my faithful companion lying limply on the floor across from me, before slowly reaching into my pocket once more for its pokeball. Seconds later, the defeated dragon disappeared in a sudden flash of power, back into the welcoming sanctuary of his pokeball, a device I'd always thought of as inhumanely and unforgivingly cruel, and yet now, this invention was the only thing that could protect my precious friend… Moments later, the opposing white dragon also disappeared inside its own zap of energy.

"ANSWER ME!"

"They… cancelled out…"

"What did you say?"

"They cancelled out, moron." This was not my voice, but rather the wearied, broken voice of the young girl slowly making her way from her position at the opposite end of the arena. White. "Accept it, Ghetsis; you didn't win."

She was truly unbelievable, unlike anything else that existed on this earth in spirit. Though she at last had the chance to flee, to escape from this sickening place and rebuild what was left of the life I'd taken from her, she stayed: to confront who I now recognised as the most evil man I had ever known.

His single working eye narrowing to an enraged slit, he watched her as she came to a stop a few feet away, totally unfazed. "You…" he hissed, the lines on his wrinkled face creasing even further. "This is your doing… if it wasn't for you…"

The echo of his hand bashing against the side of her face reverberated across the empty arena, sending her spiralling to the floor and me into panicked frenzy.

"How could you!" I shrieked as I attempted to push forwards toward her only to be forcefully hit back, though I managed to regain my footing before I could collide with the floor.

"Shut up, you sick, defective boy!"

His own rant was cut off as he staggered forwards momentarily, a force from beneath suddenly pushing against him, though it did next to no damage on him. Glancing down, I noticed it was White, who, having succeeded in landing a hit, clutched painfully at the scarlet bruising clouding her cheek.

"Why you little-"

Ghetsis spat out a dozen curse words I didn't understand as he reached out a twisted, muscular arm to forcefully grab hold of White and yank her upwards, her only defence coming in the form of distressed yelping and meek struggling beneath his iron grip.

"This ends now… GUARDS!"

"Father, you can't possibly-"

My sentence was abruptly cut off by the booming sound of a sudden influx of heavily-armoured guards stampeding its way into the demolished hallway, clutching gleaming mallets between their muscular arms as they began to sprint along the walkway towards us. My ears suddenly perking as I detected a familiar cry echoing from far away, shock pulsed through me as my view drifted towards the figure of a young boy staggering to the floor in the distance and just about managing to keep himself from falling into the water against the force of the guards rushing past him. Black.

Before I could begin to piece together what he was doing here, my attention was drawn back towards the scene unfolding before me, as several guards encircled the struggling White and lifted her easily by her arms from the floor.

"Now, take this meddlesome brat and throw her in the castle prison. When she learns to respect her elders, you can let her out… for her coronation…"

I gasped, a new bout of sickening guilt rippling its way through me. "Father! You can't do that, it's-"

"IT'S WHAT!" he shrieked, as White began protesting furiously, digging her nails into the arms of the guards and kicking wildly all around her.

"YOU MONSTER!" she screamed across at him as they tightened their grip on her. "I DIDN'T LOSE, YOU SICK MONSTER! LET GO OF ME!"

I swallowed nervously as Ghetsis' fuming, antagonizing gaze met mine, seeming to burn holes inside me with every passing second. "…i-it's not fair…"

He paused for a moment as he processed my words, before an amused glimmer formed in the depths of his eye and he began to laugh with a malicious, condescending tone in his booming bellows. "You think I'm not being fair!" he spat between guffaws. "You mean to say that I'm the one who dragged this poor, innocent girl into all of this? That I'm the one who wasn't decent enough to simply let her toddle back off to whatever little hick town she sprouted from, that I'm the one who was so selfish that I had to have her all to myself? I think you'll find you're mistaken there, my son…"

I hung my head as despicable shame boiled in curdling rivers inside of me, and clenched my fists to prevent these accumulating emotions from spilling out. Every word he said was true. Every word of it perfectly described what I had done to her, to the one I loved most in the world, to the one whose life I had purposely destroyed. I had forced her into all of this, and now she was going to hate me more than anything else…

"N!" White wailed from her position beneath the guards' iron grip, her mass of chestnut hair strewn in all directions and her eyes pleading. "It's not too late N, you can still stop all of this!"

"Oh, so you're going to choose now to listen to what she wants, N? You're the one that ordered all of this, everything you wanted is finally falling into your hands so don't tell me now you take everything back…"

I clenched my eyes shut as the words stung. Why had I been so incredibly stupid, so blind? This whole thing had been one colossal mistake, one enormous act of idiocy on my behalf… Of course people and pokemon could live in harmony and peace… White had shown me that, she'd shown me what Unova was really like, how it wasn't the hideous world I'd always pictured it to be, and yet I'd rejected it. I'd refused to believe that the world was anything other than a ruthless, brutal place I'd assumed it to be, and look where this had led me. I'd sent the whole of Unova into a frenzy, I'd meddled with legendary dragons, and I'd destroyed everything that was important to me…

"WHITE!" a tormenting cry blasted from a few feet away, as the shape of a young boy appeared shoving hopelessly against the hordes of grunts blocking his path. He was knocked back effortlessly with each blow he attempted against the impenetrable defences. White, realising the arrival of her brother, began struggling even more.

"BLACK, DO SOMETHING, PLEASE!" she shrieked, as terrified tears began streaking down her cheeks and her entire being shook with panic. Calling out once more towards his little sister, he pushed harder against the burly guards, though this time was unsuspectingly trapped beneath the grip of one.

"Take care of that pest, will you?" Ghetsis snarled, sending White into a frenzy of deluded shrieks and cries; full torrents of tears cascading from her reddened eyes, to which he only snickered.

"Your majesty!" another voice blared from further down the room, as yet another pile of guards arrived into the arena, the figures off three struggling teens in tow. "We've located the rest of the trespassers!"

"Perfect… well then, toss them off the side of the cliff when you're ready, gentlemen…"

White began screaming at the top of her lungs and reaching out desperately for her beloved friends as an excruciating knot of guilt twisted in my stomach. Her whole world was falling to pieces because of me…. I'd caused the deaths of four innocent teenagers…

"Now, as you were saying, my son?" Ghetsis continued, his view drifting back towards me. "Do you have anything further you wish to add to this occurrence?"

White, now trembling uncontrollably, hung her head morosely, her arms firmly held back by the pair of grunts restraining her. Momentarily, her gaze drifted upwards to meet mine. That gaze; so powerful, so full of impossible suffering and anguish… suffering that a sixteen-year-old girl should never know…

Anxiously, I cleared my throat, my head spinning wildly.

"Th…this is wrong, Father…"

"This is wrong? THIS IS WRONG?" he guffawed, his face creasing in distaste. "…And you thought that what we've been doing all these years was ever right? You're even stupider than you look, boy!"

His booming laughter filled the deathly silence in the halls, as all eyes turned to us. "You really thought that I arranged all of this because I genuinely wanted to help the stupid Pokemon, didn't you? You thought that I went through the hassle of raising a brat like you so I could make the world a better place? You're a gullible moron, N, you always have been…"

Everything… was suddenly so clear. He, my father, who was supposed to love me and care for me, had used me. He'd used me in order to obtain the legendary dragons, and now that he had what he wanted, was going to use me to take over the whole of Unova. I'd just found out that my entire life had been just another piece of his meticulous plot to gain total control, and yet I found myself unable to muster the courage to even look him in the eye.

Because I was just like him.

"N! N, please stop this!" White pleaded desperately, as her feet were effortlessly lifted from the floor and began to be dragged off several feet down the hallway. She screamed and kicked and clawed in all directions as her brother and friends both struggled madly, fruitlessly attempting to break the iron defence restraining them.

Seconds passed, and I could feel the blood gush through my veins, unable to even speak. My world, the world that up till now I'd been so sure I knew, was crashing down upon me, bringing with it all the beliefs I'd crafted over my life, the same beliefs I had been so certain of that I'd practically destroyed a nation just to prove they were right. And where had they gotten me?

"Drop her…" I muttered lowly, to which the pair of guards holding her cast hesitant glances towards one another.

"Sorry, your majesty?"

"You heard what I said, now DROP HER!"

The fury in my tone surprised even me, and caused Ghetsis to raise a curious eyebrow. White catapulted to the floor and landed with a thud on the tiles, pausing only briefly to register what exactly had happened before quickly scampering to her feet.

"…The others, too..."

The rest of the guards instantly released their holds on the rest of the teenagers, not wanting me to raise my voice again, and stood back as the four broke through the crowd to reach White, though she took several uneasy steps forward.

"Excuse me, son?" Ghetsis hissed from beside me, glancing quickly from the brunette to me. "…Are you questioning my authority?"

I feigned confidence as his harrowing gaze bit into me. "…You have no authority over me. I am the king…"

He began to laugh once more, that same sick, despicable laughter that made my insides twist in repulsion. Then, sharply raising an arm, he drew it swiftly across my face.

There was a loud gasp across the hallway as I stood perfectly still, my gaze glued to the floor and my cheek stinging with the same pain that had pulsated through me for practically eighteen years. I guessed that even the guards had never seen him hit me before; keeping his habits secret had always been a disgusting speciality of his.

"DOES ANYBODY ELSE HAVE SOMETHING THEY WISH TO ADD?"

Silence enveloped the arena once more, that was, until a young brunette girl, brow creased in fury, took several confident step forwards.

"You…" she snarled, stormy eyes pinned on the former king, who towered imposingly above her by a good foot. "…disgust me…"

She'd really done it now…

"Oh, so you think, little girl?" he laughed, balling his fist and sticking it threateningly in front of her face. "You think I'm the disgusting one, the one who put you through all of this? I'm not the one you should be angry at, my dear…"

"You've already played that card, Gramps, and frankly, I don't give two sh-"

His face then twisted into an ugly grimace, and swiftly, he reached for her, dragging her brutally by the neck of her shirt further up the hallway, straight towards the gaping hole where Zekrom had crashed into hours ago. I raced after them as he sternly lifted her into the air and dangled her body over the gap by the neck, eye narrowed to a malicious slit. She clawed at his hands as she clambered desperately for air, but still he would not drop his iron grip.

"I've had just about enough of you, you worthless piece of dirt! You think you can stop me, stop the plans I've worked so hard on for the last two decades? I think it's time you learnt that you're nothing more than a troublesome nuisance, an annoying little pest that needs to be gotten rid of…"

"FATHER, NO!"

Time seemed to come to a sudden halt as I watched his wrinkled hands loosen from around her neck, dropping her body into the gaping hole beyond. Relentlessly, I pushed my body forwards, knocking past the despicable old man and desperately reaching out for her as she began to fall. Disturbing possibilities seeped into my mind as her frantic cerulean eyes met mine, and all at once, my outstretched arm clasped onto hers.

And the man beside me let out a shriek of agony as his body fell back into oblivion.

It all happened in an instant, but to me, it felt like an eternity. My body trembled as White and I tumbled back from in front of the hole, and the figure of the man who'd raised me, the man who'd cut me off from the world and used me to obtain his own despicable desires, plummeted five-hundred feet to a doom most befitting for someone so evil.

I had killed my father.

Silence engulfed the entire room as each and every pair of eyes fell upon the scene. My breathing quickened rapidly, and I clutched at my side in a bid to compose myself as a teenaged boy forcefully broke through from the crowd to catch his convulsing sister in a tight embrace, right before her knees buckled in and she slid expressionlessly to the floor, where he held her close as she began to sob.

I forced myself upright, and turning to the crowd, hung my head.

"Go…"

There was an ecstacy of confused fumbling, before the scene fell quite once more.

"I SAID GO! HE'S GONE, YOU CAN LEAVE!" I shriekedat the top of my lungs, with what felt like my last kernel of energy. "TEAM PLASMA IS FINISHED!"

This time, the deafening booming sound of dozens of grunts stampeding from the room filled the air, and I watched as my underlings, the people who'd faithfully and unfalteringly served me for 18 years, abandoned me without a second thought.

Word would soon spread throughout the castle, and in a matter of minutes, all signs that an unstoppable corporation had once been situated here would disappear. It was really over now.

I turned my back to the small group of teens that had gathered around White beside me, and gazed out pensively into the vacant space beyond. Beneath me, black waves crashed against jagged cliffs with forceful beats, washing away all traces of the man who'd destroyed me. The air around me was deathly still as I drew in slow breaths, my eyes glazing over in a remorseful veil as I stood expressionlessly examining the empty wasteland.

"Leave this place…" I murmured to White, and forced myself to look away as she scampered to her feet.

"N, it's all over now, we don't have to…"

"I said leave." I repeated coldly, feeling the space where my heart used to be clench. There was silence for many moments, until I felt her fingers gently entwining with mine. Glancing down at our hands momentarily, I quickly shook hers away. Didn't she learn, or was she just blind? I had crippled her, stripped her of everything she loved and held dear, and still she wanted to fix things between us.

But you can't fix what had always been broken.

"Go…"

From behind her, Black grunted. "Better do what he says…" he snarled as he grabbed hold of her arm and gently began to tug her along. She hesitated momentarily, before drawing in a quick breath and allowing herself to be ushered away.

I waited for many long, agonising moments, counting and listening to their footsteps as they left this cold, barren place, and along with it, my life. Five footsteps… Ten footsteps… Twenty… Unable to bear the tightening in my chest nor supress the tears, tears I had not allowed to spill in over ten years, trickle down my face, I shut my eyes to the world around me, my mind numb and my spirit fading away.

Thirty…

There was a long pause in the footsteps, before they suddenly accelerated and grew louder. There was a furious cry as White broke away from her brother's grip, and I turned my head to watch her as she cascaded towards my position at the ledge of the hole. Behind her, I noticed Black storming up the hall, only to be caught and restrained by the White's blonde friend, who forcefully grabbed hold of his arms and shoved her lips against his, immobilising him.

"This is the way it's meant to be- that's what you told me, that time in Chargestone Cave," White panted, before straightening herself up and edging towards me. Her face was strained; her eyes wide and lined with heavy bags, yet a soft, lifting smile lingered on her lips. I found it disturbing how these words, the words my father had incessantly told me as a child, seemed to hold an entirely different meaning coming from her mouth. "…You said that things always worked out the way they were supposed to, and I believe that now…"

I looked at her through stinging eyes, expressionless. My voice cracking, I forced out muffled speech. "…That was a long time ago, White… I'm not that same person anymore…"

She laughed in a strange manner, before moving in even closer and grabbing my hand tightly. "Of course you are! Team Plasma N is gone now- dead, passed, disappeared. There's no reason for you not to take back the life you never had- we can take it back together."

I managed a smile, the first one in a very long time. I wondered if she was right, if it was really possible for someone to just carry on as normal, especially after all I'd done. She laughed cheerily, before wrapping her arms around my waist and pressing her head against my chest, and I sighed, thanking the stars for forgiving me.

"Can you really just do that?" I asked, as she lifted her head and her watery, azure eyes gazed soulfully into mine. She shrugged half-heartedly.

"Who knows?" she muttered, before tilting her head up towards mine. "…We'll just have to find out…"

She pressed her lips against mine, and the world around us slowly faded into oblivion.

…So… 17 chapters, 79k words and eight months and seven days of writing later, I am finally finished… Holy cow that was tough…

So how did I do? Good for a first fanfic? Terrible? Let me know your overall opinion!

Again, thank you so very much for your support.

Xx Amethyst