NSO Chapter 43
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I don't own Pokemon.

"As a Champion, the second most important thing for you is to know is how to properly utilise your entire skillset, innate and obtained." Dialga stood across from Zenith in the middle of a fighting arena, one of the six that were set up in the aptly named Combat Chamber. It reminded Zenith of Battle Room in his school, except that each arena back on Earth wasn't the size of The Colosseum.

"What's the first most important thing?" Zenith was surprised at the loudness of his voice, which had been amplified to echo throughout this enclosed space.

"To know when to listen. Pay attention, Zenith. Each Champion receives a unique gift from their mentor Legendaries, and it is their responsibility to master it as soon as possible. The other Champions only received their gifts when they arrived at the Hall of Legends, but you have already experienced how your gift works on Earth."

"Okay, but—" Zenith felt the air knocked out of his lungs as something collided against his chest, sending him flying and crashing down onto the hard gym mat.

"This means that I expect more from you, Zenith." Dialga kept talking as if nothing had happened, slowly walking towards the Umbreon getting up from the foam floors. "Especially when it comes to using your gift."

"What—" Another blow caught Zenith in his flank, turning his world back into a dizzying blur as he tumbled across the floor.

What was that?

Something invisible…

Zenith ignored the small pounding in his head to look back at Dialga. Was that a blue glow in his mouth?

…or something fast.

"You have to activate your gift at will, which will benefit you in many ways. The first…"

Okay. I have to activate my powers. Slow time down.

Wait. How do I do that again?

Knowing the next hit would come didn't help him prepare for the impact. He wondered what Dialga was thinking as he skid across the floor.

"The first," The Legendary repeated his words. "Is to dodge enemy attacks. Which I see that you have done perfectly." The sarcasm dripping from each surface was scathing.

"The second…"

Zenith felt like a stone skimming the surface of a river. Each time he picked himself up and tried to focus, to concentrate, or to do anything to use his gift, another blow from Dialga sent him back to square one with an additional bruise.

"Time powers also allow you to look awesome, if you can use them well."

The remarks afterwards were just salt on his literal wounds. How was he supposed to know how to use his gift? All the other times it had kicked in was either subconsciously or in the heat of battle. Dialga's method of being a critical pitching machine wasn't working out for him.

Dialga had to stop. Or at least slow down a little.

Zenith got up from the floor, ready to tell Dialga that he had enough. He met his mentor's expectant gaze, only to realise that the glow in the Legendary's mouth was gone.

That would mean…

"This is the part where you duck, Zenith."

The Umbreon dropped to the ground immediately upon hearing the calmer shift in his mentor's tone. There was a glimpse of something blue whizzing over him, and he felt the fur on his head part from the wind that followed.

"You have to—" Zenith was interrupted by an explosion from behind, diving to the ground as the resulting shockwave rushed over the arena.

"Were… were you trying to blow me up?"

The only response from Dialga was a sigh. "Zenith, do you know what activated your gift just now?"

Zenith had a feeling that the question wasn't rhetorical. Scrambling onto his paws for about the millionth time, he tried to smooth down any ruffled fur.

"I–I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with… my… emotions? It seemed to work just now when I really wanted to—"

"Emotion?" Zenith flinched at the derisive tone. "Being a Champion is all about precision, Zenith. There is no room for mistakes every time you step back onto Earth, and with a gift powered by emotions? Completely unpredictable, and that means it's completely unreliable during missions."

"So how do I—"

"Although I must admit that I may be moving a bit too fast. After all, I did have my hand in your previous gifted feats on Earth."

Wait, what?

"Alright." Dialga drew himself back to full height, towering over his Champion once more. "Let's try this again. Use whatever you think will activate your gift. Just try to use them on command."

"But I–wait–"

"Ready?"

…

"Hey, Zenith! You ready for–ah." The rest of Reina's peppy sentence died in her throat at the sight of the Umbreon sitting on the surgical table, her expression turning into one of pained sympathy as one of his eyes turned to look at her. The other was swollen shut, and that wasn't the worst thing that happened to his face. Or his body. Or his limbs.

"Damn, Dialga really did a number on you, huh?" The Alolan Raichu tried to float forward, but her path was blocked off by Celebi.

"Reina, you know how Mew feels about… interruptions during treatments."

"...right." Completely distracted by Zenith, she hadn't noticed the pink cat flying loops around his body, slowly applying Recover to the battered portions. With both Legendaries already shooting her dirty looks, Reina begrudgingly allowed herself to be pushed back into the waiting room, watching the automatic doors slide shut behind Celebi's retreating back.

From the looks of Zenith, Reina guessed that she was going to be here for a while, even with Mew's capabilities. Sulking, she sat on one of the two benches lining the sides of the room. It wasn't her fault that she wasn't allowed in the Infirmary again without proper supervision. How was she supposed to know that lining the hospital beds with glitter glue would piss Mew off so much? And she only did it to two beds. They weren't even used for anything; most of the healing was carried out on the tables like the one Zenith was sitting on.

Zenith. How had he managed to catch the eye of one of the most powerful Legendaries here? Their meeting 2 days ago was the first time any of the Champions had seen the Temporal and Spatial Pokemon up close. Besides his colouration, everything about the Umbreon seemed ordinary to her. Maybe she could find out a bit more about him while she waited.

Clara took a bite of char-grilled steak, closing her eyes in the enjoyment of its smoky taste. As messed up as it was, she had gained a preference for near-burnt food when entering the Halls, and it only intensified since watching her Past-Life again.

"Hey, Clara." The Salazzle jumped at the sudden voice, which had devolved into giggles at the startled reaction.

A hoop had opened up at the end of the table, a familiar face waving at her from the other side.

"Reina. What are you doing in the Infirmary? Isn't it your turn to meet Zenith today?"

"He's in there with Mew. Anyways, how's he like?"

"Why don't you wait until you're with him? It's not like you care about what you do…"

Oh no. There was that mischievous glint in Clara's eyes.

"…unless you do care! You want to make a good first impression, don't you? You're afraid of making a…"

"Don't say it."

"…a mis-steak, and ruining your relationship with him?"

"Shut up." Reina batted away a piece of meat that was waved around her face, averting her gaze from Clara's toothy grin. "But yes."

"Well, just help him out with anything troubling him. He's still been worried about his Erasure, and I told him yesterday that you may be able to help. You and your parents were… close, after all."

Reina dropped her eyeline even lower, examining the spotless cafeteria floor. "I guess we were."

"So, where are you taking him?"

"The Garden." The Raichu's ears perked up at muffled voices coming from the Infirmary. Mew must be finishing up.

"I have to go. Thanks, Clara!"

"Remember to give him your Past-Life!" The hoop closed, silently shrinking into this air.

Maybe she would wait by the sliding doors for him.

…

"You're good to go."

Zenith sat up on the operating table, watching a pink tail disappear from the corner of his eye. He hopped off the table, and was surprised how… normal he felt. Mew's powers were something else in the Hall of Legends. All signs of injury were gone, and there weren't even any aching after-effects. He turned to wave goodbye to the Legendaries as he exited, but they were engaged in a whispered conversation, paying no attention to his raised paw.

Okay. That was awkward. At least he could leave now before things got any more—

Still staring backwards, Zeniths only had a second to register a flash of brown, and a snag on his foot before the floor rushed up to meet his face.

"Oh! Zenith!"

There was the aching he was too familiar with.

"Arceus… Are you okay? Do you need help getting up? I am so sorry…" The Umbreon lifted his head to see a paw extended towards him, Reina frantically coiling her long tail into a ball with the other.

"It's okay." Zenith propped himself back up into a sitting position. "With the number of times I've been knocked down today, I think I'm used to it by now."

He had meant for that line to sound light-hearted, but if anything, the tension between them had increased. He may have made her feel worse, judging from her fleeting eye contact from him to her tail to anything else in the almost empty room.

Reina could definitely remember being in worse situations than this. So why was she choking up talking to him?

Calm down. He's a Pokemon and a Champion, just like you. Be. Cool.

"So, uh…" Zenith rubbed the back of his head self-consciously. "Reina, right? Where are we going today?"

"Oh. Yes. Right. I'm going to show you the Garden."

"The Garden? I don't think Arceus introduced that area yet."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" The first mention of action seemed to reinvigorate the Alolan Raichu, hopping back onto the lightning bolt-shaped top of her tail. She raced towards the exit of the Waiting Room but stopped abruptly. Another round of apologies was exchanged as Zenith failed to react in time, falling on his behind once again.

"Sorry! I forgot you don't know the way. Do you want to use the teleporters?"

"Ugh… I think I'd rather remember how to get there."

"Sure, but it'll take forever if you just plan to run. Grab on!" A paw was extended to Zenith again, but the expression in Reina's face was one of anticipation.

"Okay…?"

Zenith shook his tingling paw as he and Reina zoomed through the Halls, the Raichu's laughter echoing behind them. To be fair, he should have known from Clara pulling the same trick on him yesterday.

…

Zenith wasn't sure about all the other facilities here, but he was sure he could pick the Garden out from the rest of them. There were no sliding doors installed into a wall, but the end of the corridor opened up into a large room of its own. A large decorative metal gate stretched high into a ceilingless blue sky, its black bars twisted into sets of ornate symmetrical patterns. This room was almost as large as the Pantheon, and it only housed the Garden's entrance.

"If you think this is amazing, just wait till you see the inside."

An angelic choir would be an appropriate fit to accompany the opening of the gates. Zenith had to shield his eyes as light spilt out from the gaps, slowly fading in intensity as the gates opened to their widest extent. A 'thunk' shook the room as the gates finally stopped, and Reina gestured for Zenith to follow her inside. She looked amused at Zenith's awe, something that made him think that this grand display got old quite fast.

Lush hedge walls divided the Garden, their maze-like placement having more purpose than to separate different sections. From high enough, they were the green outlines that highlighted the actual shape of this facility: a rose, with the entrance located at its pedicel.

The two of them soared over beds of multicoloured flowers and through groves of trees, all of which he could identify. However, there was one plant, or rather one colour that caught his eye.

"Water lilies? Yeah, we have some here."

The lilies grew in a small pond of their own, a decorative fountain placed in the centre. Reina sat on a marble bench, watching Zenith in silence. He was padding around the pond, occasionally reaching out towards a blue water lily but hesitating at the end.

"You know plants don't bite, right? Well, some plants do bite, but what I mean that in here I can—you can flower the—I mean—ugh." She slumped back on the bench, groaning. How was she still tripping over her words? She should have been over this by now.

"You can just pick a flower if you want. They grow back." Zenith could barely the soft response, Reina's face buried deep in her paws.

The head of the lily twisted off easily in his grip, much easier than the ones on Earth. Immediately, a bud sprouted from the exposed stem, petals unfurling to produce an exact replica.

Will she be able to move on?

When will I be able to move on?

"...Reina?" Zenith took a seat next to her, his gaze still fixated on the lily.

"Clara told me you could help with my erasure? How do you deal with the fact that you won't see my… your loved ones anymore?"

There was the question Reina had been steeling herself for, ever since Clara brought it up.

"I know what it's like to lose people you love, but I'm afraid that what I went through isn't exactly relatable to your situation. I did love my parents, and it broke my heart to see them go. But what I had to grapple with on the night itself… it's not the same as what you're dealing with now." She opened up a hoop next to her, rifling through it while talking. Pulling out the yellow Past-Life case, she passed it to a slack-jawed Zenith, who was gaping at the space where the hoop had disappeared.

"Here."

"What was that?"

"What, this?" Zenith turned as someone tapped his back from behind, only to see Reina waving at him from behind a hoop, but he could see him behind her, staring into another hoop…

Reina giggled as she watched Zenith look back and forth at the endless 'reflections' in awe.

"Hoopa's my mentor. It really helps me take my magic tricks to a new level."

"But… How do you do it? How do you activate your gift? Dialga was trying to… help me activate mine, and…"

Ah. So that was what happened earlier. The Umbreon did seem quite bothered about his talent, with the way he was wringing his paws while he rambled.

"For me and the other Champions, our talents are something natural to us, like walking or running. Then again, we did have a couple of decades to hone our skills."

She didn't think Zenith's face could look any more downtrodden.

"However! I think I can help you activate it."

Benches had been shoved to one side so that Zenith had a big enough area a move around without falling into the pond.

Reina had hopped into a portal and out of sight, leaving him alone for a while. He flexed his paws on the bumpy white ground, small smooth pebbles clacking as he kicked them around aimlessly.

The only time where he consciously used his talent was… when he fought Kurt for that stone. That was barely two weeks ago, but it felt like months since it happened.

Did Dialga activate it for him then? Were there other times?

Zenith flinched as something nicked his ear. A playing card. The rest of the deck was in Reina's paws, waving at him from behind a hoop.

"I've watched your Past-Life, and the times you move super fast are when you're dodging things." She picked a card from the deck.

"Let's start slow. I'll throw cards at you, and you try to dodge it."

That sounded better than what Dialga was pitching him earlier.

The card travelled faster than expected, and it grazed his flank as he leapt aside. Still feeling the card in his fur, he tried to shake it off, but…

"Did I mention these cards are sticky?"

Zenith's ear twitched, the first card from Reina clinging to the tip swinging along.

He didn't know what expression he was making, but Reina's smile only grew wider at the sight of it.

"Dude, relax. You look way too serious for a pokemon with two spades on him. Here come the others."

More cards flew at him one by one. With each flick of her wrist, Reina's hoops closed up immediately, opening up in new locations, a shower of sparkles accompanying her throws. The ones on him didn't weigh him down, but their presence was starting to annoy Zenity, especially when that presence was increasing as Reina doubled her cards thrown.

Reina watched as leapt over a card, but the other caught him square in the flank. If it was a bullet, it would have pierced his heart.

Geez. His reactions were fast, but it barely met a Champion's standards. And he was training with Dialga? It was a miracle that he was still in one piece when sent to the Infirmary. Or perhaps Mew had already worked on him before she arrived… anyways.

"Zenith! Do you want me to stop, or slow down?"

"No… keep going. I can do this…"

"Really?" Reina's question mirrored his thoughts. When did he actually use his talent on his own?

"No. Nope. Zenith, we're done here." Enveloping a bench with Psychic, Reina scooped Zenith up, floating the furniture to her as she reentered The Garden. She noted how heavily he was panting. It looked like he would need a lot more exercise—and time—before reaching 'peak physical performance'. The same thing had happened to Solaire too.

"Talk to me. What's going on in that brain?"

Zenith sighed, cards rustling around him.

"I really want to do my part as a Champion. I know we have to give up our lives on Earth, but I haven't been able to, and I can't use my gift properly, and I feel like—like I—" The pile of cards seemed to deflate. "Like I've disappointed Dialga."

"Don't say that. You've only been here for two days, and it took us all quite some time to adjust accordingly. As I said, using our talent is like learning to walk. You have to know how to crawl first. It takes you a few weeks to learn how, but after that, it's all about honing it."

A blank stare and a few nods were all she received. Looking back, what she said probably wasn't any help to him.

"Maybe it'll help if you have some sort of action or word associated with your talent. For example, I used to picture myself opening a window in a location I wanted, and…" A hoop opened itself over the pond, with her paw splashing the surface of the water. "Ta-da."

"A word or action." Zenith tried to recall the few times he managed to glimpse Dialga's projectiles. There was always this feeling beforehand, a desire when everything was passing him by so quickly.

He just wanted things to slow down.

"You know, Dialga said that emotions—"

Reina's eyes were closed, and Zenith managed to count to three before her eyelids had reopened to finish her blink. Her cards were still travelling from one paw to the other, in the middle of a very slow card spring flourish. He had done it.

The bench wasn't floating too high off the ground, so he jumped off, noticing that the cards were detaching themselves during his descent. The white rectangles hung in the air once they left Zenith's body, drifting downwards in a sluggish stream.

It was then he realised the tightness in his chest. He had never slowed time down this long before, and his lungs felt like they were going to burst. He tried breathing in, but his body seemed to refuse that action.

Reina jumped as cards exploded in her face, raining down around her. There was a dark blue streak highlighting a path down to the ground, slowly fading away from her end to where Zenith stood. His body was swaying in a nonexistent breeze, before his legs buckled beneath him, collapsing on the stones.

"Zenith! Are you okay?" He was still conscious, giving her a small flick of his ear as she raced to his side.

"Just… need a moment… rest."

…

"Do you know what activated your talent?"

"I think so. Maybe it's wanting things to slow down? I can only use it for as long as I can hold my breath, I think."

"So, maybe now you can dodge… this!" Reina's intentional build-up gave Zenith another attempt to test his theory.

STOP!

Every other thought was drowned out by the mental scream, leaving one intent clear in his mind.

His light-blue rings and bands deepened in shade but shone brighter than ever. All external noises faded until white noise was remained, interrupted rhythmically by the sound of his own heartbeat.

A hoop had opened at one of Reina's wrists, fast enough that it looked normal to Zenith. The same couldn't be said about the ace that emerged from within. It spun lazily towards Zenith, piquing his interest. He poked the card, eyes widening in surprise as it stopped dead in its tracks, suspended in midair. Another small push caused the card to spin at the same speed as before but in the opposite direction.

"Ow!" The card she had thrown had boomeranged back to hit her between the eyes.

"I take it you know now how to activate your talent?"

"Yeah. Thank you, Reina."

"Always happy to help. And just in time too. Come on, let's get you out of here."

...

They waved goodbye at the Garden gates. Reina had pointed out the teleporter in a corner of the room, but Zenith had decided to walk back.

"You know, you could always join us for breakfast sometime. Just select the Recreation Room using your teleporter."

"I think I'll try it tomorrow."

"I look forward to that."

She watched the Umbreon race out of the Garden, his veins probably filled with adrenaline at a newfound discovery. She was glad she could help him with that much, but the brief exchange of Past-Lives had resurfaced some doubt in the back of her mind. She knew that other Champions like Clara had come to terms with their issues, but Reina wasn't sure that she could say the same about her own. It had been slightly over a century since she arrived in the Halls, and she even had enough time to properly cope with her problems.

But there was always this nagging feeling that she hadn't addressed something. Something important.

She guessed now was probably the best time to find out.

The pistil of the rose that was the Garden was her favourite spot. Located in the middle where all the petals joined together, the circular field of poppies was the place she sought out if she wanted peace and quiet.

Extracting another copy of her Past-Life from her hoop, she popped the disk into her telecommunicator, watching the scenes projected on a sea of red flowers.

A childhood filled with love, teachings, amazement and awe. Travelling magicians. One worried night. Revelations. Betrayal. Hatred. Acceptance..? A drive to make things right.

She remembered all these. So why did she still feel that something was missing?

A drive. A drive to end things. A wand turned into a knife by sleight-of-hand, moonlight glinting off the blade as she crept towards the sleeping silhouette of her last relative. Her bloodline ended at her. Ended by her.

The telecommunicator switched off, leaving Reina staring at poppies, their stalks tossed this way and that as winds rolled through the fields.

oh.