Prologue: Eon

The insufferable waiting is what drove Leah mad the fastest. Not the getting there, not the doing, but the waiting afterwards. So much bundled up tension that would either spring forth into excitement, or crushing disappointment. She could take in stride the first couple of dozen times, but when she was running out of time, coupled by pressure from her parents. The disappointments became more soul-crushing. That's what made these dance recitals so hard on her.

She yelped involuntarily, someone's Poochyena happened to run by her leg, causing her to sit in the chair with her legs curled up beside her. The trainer came by, a quick apology, a fake smile, and the interaction was done. She put her legs down, flattening and adjusting her red and white skirt, sure to do the same to her matching top. She fixed her long light brown hair with a few finger strokes. Going back to that bundled up ball of anticipation and waiting. She gave a quick look around, seeing other dancers sitting around, all with their Pokemon in tow. There was the one with her Poochyena, a guy with his Gardevoir, and she wouldn't have believed the Exploud in the dance recitals if she hadn't seen it with her own eyes. And here she was, no pokemon beside her. Not that she needed one, not that she wanted one.

A beep and the vibration from her bag. She reached in for her bag beside her and pulled out her Poke'nav. Two messages: one from her mother, wishing her luck, and another from Leo. Her heart jumped as she saw it. Her finger hovering over the message for a moment before she finally found the nerve to open it.

"Look what I got. I'll meet you on Route 121." it said, and attached was a picture of a blue and platinum wing, the Feather Badge. A wave of nausea washed over her as she stared at the picture. She wanted to go and see him, now. But not with this recital on the line, not with her future on the line.

A door opened, and a tall woman walked through, a Delcatty in tow and twirling herself between the woman's legs, somehow the woman didn't trip. She pulled out a clipboard, some vague greeting and thanks to all who tried out, and then she began listing off names. She listened intently, hoping, praying, needing to hear her name called out.

But it never came.

Her heart skipped a beat, then sank, she looked at the woman with wide eyes, and when the woman met her gaze with a gentle frown, she knew she didn't mishear her. She didn't make it. Her mind turned back to Leo's text and what it meant that she failed, for Leo and her parents and herself. She heard something about sending out more information via email to those who did make it and was out the door, lest they be witness to her rising anxiety.

Leah ran through the city despite the apathy she felt in her body, she'd much rather be in her room curled up on her bed and crying than seeing Leo succeed where she failed. She shook the thought out of her head. Finally reaching the entrance to the city, Route 121. And she was him, Leo was staring at his Poke'nav, a flat expression on his face, was he looking at the fact she completely ignored his text? But she was here now, that counted for something right? He took off his blue cap, running his hand through his short blonde hair. Sweaty, maybe running here after getting the badge was what happened. How could he not show it off to his friends and family? He fluffed his blue athletic jacket, finally putting his Poke'nav down and looking away.

"Leo!" she finally found it in herself to call out to him. He smiled and she smiled too, until a Dratini hopped off his shoulder and slithered towards Leah. He grimaced, watching her stop dead her tracks and fall backwards, trying to avoid him. Leo ran forward, grabbing Dratini and petting him for a moment before returning him to his ball.

"Sorry about that." He said, reaching a hand out, Leah took it and stood up, brushing her skirt again and rambling out some quick acceptance of apology. The two looked at each other for a moment in silence before Leah spoke.

"So…" she began "Congrats on getting the badge, nothing you couldn't handle, right?" She asked, needing to break the silence with something, even if it was a subject she didn't want to hear.

"Yeah, Winona actually made it a speed competition, she had a Yanma that started getting faster and faster and…" Leo caught himself, patting Dratini's pokeball "Good thing he was faster. I gotta thank Dad for giving me one of his Dragonite's eggs if he's home yet." another pause "And…the dance recital?" He asked, and when she looked down and away with a forced smile, he had his answer "Oh…" The two stood there now, awkwardly looking at anything except each other. Now comes the hard part of this conversation. The promises that they made to each other, and about their future.

Their parents had agreed. If Leo could beat Winona, he could start his own pokemon journey instead of starting his education. And if Leah was able to get a dancing gig, she wouldn't have to join in on her family's business. Leo had suceeded however, he was going to start his pokemon journey for real. But Leah had failed, and that was her last chance to try and make something out of her dream of becoming a dancer. They were both almost adults, seventeen years old. And even before all of that, regardless of how this day ended, they both knew it meant one thing.

This was the part where they had to say goodbye.

They wanted it to be on mutual ground and be happy for each other, but with one of them succeeding and the other failing…

"Leah…I…" Leo began, his hand reaching for hers, she didn't stop him, but the flinch was show enough she wasn't okay "M…Maybe being around all the Pokemon at the salon will help you get over…or…maybe you could come-?"

"I…" she cut him off. Can't? Won't? "...I'll figure something out. And hey, don't worry about me. We should be happy for you. You get to be a pokemon trainer. Thanks to your totally not-nepo-baby Dratini." Leah winked. Leo laughed despite the situation, this felt more natural.

"Yeah…yeah alright." Leo nodded, finally letting go of Leah's hand. The two stood in awkward silence again, smiling, at least. This isn't how they wanted their goodbye to go. But at least it could end on a better note.

"I'll be sure to send you lots of pictures of the sights…without the pokemon, obviously." Leo corrected himself.

"And when I figure out what I'm going to do. I'll let you know." Leah smiled weakly. Leo frowned again "I mean, sure I'll have to figure something else out now, and…-?"

"Leah..."

"I'm serious. I'll be okay. I can get creative. Maybe there are some jobs at the salon I can take that don't involve being near pokemon."

"Leah."

"And I mean exposure therapy is a thing! Maybe I'll get over it…eventually!?" Leah was rambling, why was she rambling, it was going to end fine and now she's making it weird.

"Leah!" Leo grabbed her and spun her around, his eyes trained somewhere in the sky. Following his gaze, she saw it, two streaks coming down and towards them like comets. Leah didn't think much of it, meteor showers weren't unheard of around this area, but when she saw Leo running back towards them, she was torn "Leo? What are you doing!?"

"Didn't you see it? Those were Pokemon!" Leo said, not bothering to look back to Leah before continuing to run after them. Leah stood there in the wind that was beginning to pick up fiercely. She had half a mind to leave him with those Pokemon, whatever was going to happen. Besides, two more Pokemon for his stupid journey, he'd be ecstatic. But against her better judgement, she ran after them, not like she had anything to look forward to after he was gone.

Leah found Leo scoping out a crater near the dock on Route 121. A pokeball in his hand but no other moves beyond that. She finally caught up to him and nudged him "Well?" She looked at him, finally noticing the disbelief on his face.

Looking into the crater, she could see them, two pokemon, similar in appearance. About their size with stiff wings, one was red and white while the other was blue and white. Leah especially noticed that the two of them were hurt, badly. Suffering wounds she wasn't sure Pokemon were able to endure.

"Do you know what these are?" Leo finally asked, seemingly to finally find his strength to stand and move closer.

"Hurt…" Leah said, relieved Leo didn't look back at her for the sarcastic remark.

"Latios…and Latias…" Leo muttered, looking back at Leah, noticing she didn't move at all from her spot at the edge of the crater and scoffed "I know you're afraid of Pokemon but like…aren't you at least a little bit curious?"

"No. You're the trainer, you got this." Leah said flatly, giving him a thumbs-up.

"Trainer?" The two of them heard a new voice, feminine, ethereal. They looked around for the source, only to notice the red and white pokemon, Latias, beginning to stir "You two…are trainers?" Leah had half a mind to correct the pokemon, but given its current condition it wasn't worth arguing the logistics.

Leo approached Latias, and she looked over at the other one, Latios, completely unmoving. It was now that Leah moved into the crater "Hey Leo…-?"

"Is that you?" Leo said, placing his hand onto Latias "We're here."more focused on Latias than on her.

"He's coming…something happened…Rayquaza…corrupted." The Latias continued. Leah couldn't keep her eyes off the Latios, if only to confirm what she was beginning to suspect. Latias had begun to sit up, strained. Meanwhile Latios had been completely unmoved since they started talking. She finally knelt down next to Leo, gesturing to Latios. Leo figured out what was wrong instantly, scrambling into his bag for potions.

Leah was about to speak, only to see that Latias was beginning to glow, looking at Leah, inching towards her. A yelp and she was flat on her butt. She could see that Latios was glowing too "Leo? What's it doing?"

"You two…trainers…I'm so sorry to have to leave this to you…but…" a burst of some strange power and a pained cry. The two closed their eyes to the light before it settled. When Leah opened her eyes again, where Latias was was instead a medallion, red and white with a long chain. Leah cautiously poked it before gingerly grabbing and brushing the dust off. When Leah turned to Leo, he was already looking back, a medallion in his hand too, this one white and blue.

Leah opened and closed her mouth, standing up alongside Leo "Did they just…what even was that? Did you know they could do that?" She asked rapid fire. Leo threw his hands up before he carefully brought them back down, mindful of the medallion.

"I don't know! It all happened so fast I…-!" Leo was stopped by something else entering the crater. A large blue dragon with red wings, cloaked in a dark aura glared at them, more specifically, the medallion in their hands.

"A Salamence?" Leo's voice was a whisper, lest he upset the clearly angry Pokemon.

"I think it wants the jewelry." Leah whispered back, the growl from the Salamence, followed with the careful approach confirmed her theory.

"Do you think he did something to Latios and Latias?" Leo asked, backing up too. Only Leah stood her ground, realizing utter fear kept her locked in place, it was a miracle her legs didn't give out.

"I think it's going to do something to us if we don't hand them over." Leah's legs gave out, making her drop the medallion, Salamence still approaching her, eyes carefully scanning between her and the medallion. He was finally inches in front of her, opened his maw, brought it down…

…And picked up the red and white medallion, breaking it with its fangs. Salamence moved on.

"Thank you." A dark, sinister voice permeated her thoughts. Leah's breath was hitching in her throat, nerves so frayed she couldn't even find her will to scream. She wanted to throw up. She didn't dare turn around, but she could hear it, the Salamence stalking closer to Leo, who was still taking careful steps back.

"Just…give it to it!" Leah whisper-screamed, she proved how easy it was to avoid the Pokemon's ire, he just had to give up the medallion that he's had for literally less than a minute, simplicity itself! And yet she predicted what was going to happen next, he was going to put on that cocky smirk and that stubborn determined look in his eyes, the kind he showed when he talked about his dreams of being a pokemon trainer, or standing up to his parents about his dreams or…-?!

"Come and get it." Leo said, Leah had to wonder what exactly his plan was here, because the spin of the pokemon, followed by the sickening crunch of the Salamence's tail slamming against Leo surely wasn't the next step.

"No. No! Return now! Our cover cannot be gone yet!" that voice again, a shriek that made Leah double over, the feeling of the Salamence straining and roaring behind her as it finally flew off, back towards Lilycove and beyond to the sea. She finally found the nerve to turn back around, tears flooding her eyes instantly as she saw Leo crumpled on the ground, gripping his chest, and the medallion.

"Leo you…you idiot!" She scrambled towards him, resting his head on her lap, absolutely clueless on what to do now. Did she leave him here to get help? Did she try and bring him back to Lilycove to get real help "What were you thinking standing up to that psycho thing!? And for what? Some crummy medallion?" Her breath caught in her throat as she could hear Leo rasping and gasping for air, she couldn't even begin to imagine what kind of damage the Salamence did to him "Not that I did much better. I just sat there and let him break mine and…-!?" She was rambling again, quickly stopped by Leo placing his hand on her cheek.

"Hey…sorry." He managed that smile, that same damn smile when he left her the first time to go and become a pokemon trainer, and now he was going to do it again. She gripped the blue and white medallion alongside him. Kneeling over and crying.

And then the medallion began to glow.

Leah opened her eyes, the medallion was glowing in his hand now. What was the medallion doing now? Was it going to save him? At first she suspected as much, when she noticed his chest rising like he was breathing. It's when it kept going and ripped his shirt and jacket up that suspected otherwise.

With a yelp she let Leo fall to the ground, noticing his body continue to swell. When his clothes ripped away, she realized that Leo's tan skin was giving away to a familiar white and blue hue. He opened his eyes but said nothing, a look of confusion on his morphing face. He was staring intently at Leah, his eyes turning to a sharp red. His hair fell out, slicking back as two appendages grew from the top of his head. His neck elongated as his rolled onto his belly, his arms and legs shrinking and growing closer to his body, white and blue covering his skin entirely as a red triangle emblazoned itself on his chest. Leo's eyes shot open once again, a groan slowly turning into a roar as he began to float off the ground, two wing-like appendages growing from his back in slow and careful spurts. The strange transformation died down, Leo was left gasping and panting.

Leah looked at Leo like a Deerling in the headlights. Her best friend had suddenly transformed into…what did Leo call it, Latios? He turned into Latios, which Leah was convinced was actually dead, but now it was here, where Leo was supposed to be. The Latios looked at Leah curiously "Leah?"

She screamed, she screamed as loud as she could muster. The Latios panicked, seemingly trying to carefully float towards Leah, instead accidentally barreling towards her, which caused her to scream louder. He crashed beside her "Leah why are you screaming?"

"Have you looked in a mirror? You're a Lati-whatever-you-called-it!" Leah managed between screaming. Leo finally looked down at himself and his new body. His breath caught in his throat for all of a moment.

"Okay…okay this is weird…but it's okay, because it's still me." Leo turned to Leah again "Why don't you just take a deep breath and…-!" Leah did stop and breathe, if only to scream once more. He finally had enough and placed his weird new paw things on her mouth, stifling the screaming, Leah's eyes dancing between fear and annoyed bewilderment "Now I'm going to let go, and you're going to know that it is still me and stop screaming. Got it?" No response "Got it!?" A pause, and Leah finally nodded. When he pulled away, she let out nothing more than a whimpering exhale.
"Leo, what happened to you?" Leah finally asked, daring to reach out and touch Leo, only to see a pokemon and retract her hand.

"I don't know. Last I remember is standing up to that Salamence and…" Leo began, craning his head around "Where did the medallion go? And where's yours?"

Leah bit her lip, eyeing the broken chunks of the red and white medallion not too far away from them "You're wearing it. That's what turned you into…that." she scooted away from Leo "Speaking of, you can change back anytime now."

Leo looked at Leah and rolled his eyes "Only you would see someone turning into a pokemon and be unimpressed." Leo said, frowning "And…I was under the impression I was going to be this way…forever?"

"Forever?" Leah finally stood up, pacing "You know I don't like pokemon. And that aside, what about your parents? They're convinced that you're going on your journey!"

Leo slowly began to hover to match her eyeline "So maybe…they don't need to know…yet?" Leo grinned, Leah just looked back at him "They think I left to go on my journey. I already got the text from my parents wishing me the best. Just gotta return the pokemon I borrowed and we're good to go. Give me time to figure out how to change back." Leo was able to fly in front of Leah slowly now, albeit crooked.

Leah backed away "Oh yeah, sure. Let me help you on your random quest as a Lati-thing." she frowned "Do you even know what you're going to do?"

"Get creative!" Leo said, flying up. Leah grimaced "We saw the Salamence fly off towards Mossdeep, I think a little payback is in order, y'know? All you gotta do is just drop off the pokeball, tell them what I'm doing, and we're golden!"

Leah looked at Leo, as much as she hated being strong armed into this crazy scheme, the alternative was he just casually fly into town and did it himself. She knew enough to know whatever he turned into was rare and powerful. He'd be caught pretty quickly. She rolled her eyes and sighed "Okay, just the ball and…-!" Leah stood stiff as Leo casually handed her his torn belt with his pokeball on it "You are way too comfortable with everything that is happening."

"One day you'll learn to go with the flow. I'll even teach you!" Leo said, too proudly "Now I gotta figure out how I'm going to hide myself while you do the do and…-!" As he said that, he found his body beginning to fade, even Leah was surprised to see she could now see through him "Leah! I'm invisible!"

"Not when you scream like that." Leah sighed "Okay great, you can…watch or something while I drop it off." Leah could barely make out where Leo was at this point, credit where it was due, that camouflage was really effective. She casually removed the belt from the ball, following Leo into the city.

Leah tried her best to act casual while walking through Lilycove City, but she had to try her best to not react to the invisible Leo flying through, bobbing and weaving through passerbys, she refused to admit it made her laugh sometimes. That's when she saw Leo's house, and to top it all off, her parents were right out front, talking to Leo's mom. She bit her lip, inhaled sharply, and stepped forward.

"Leah, good to see you." Leo's mom waved, earning a greeting from her parents as well, which she returned "Your parents were telling me about your dance recital today, how did it go?" she asked, her parents looking on as well, expectation tinted with cautious excitement.

Leah froze, in the panic of the last hour or so she had completely forgotten about the dance recital and how she hadn't made it "I…wasn't picked." she managed, the looks of sadness and disappointment on their faces cutting into her.

"I'm sorry, hun. Really, I know how much all that meant to you." Leah's father chimed in, giving her a quick hug "Are you ready to talk about working at the salon?" A smack on the back from her mom pulled him away as they quickly discussed how it was too soon to talk about that. She looked at her parents, Leo in the background by his mom, and then the pokeball in her hand. Her mouth moved before she realized what she was saying.

"But I'm joining Leo!" Leah said, finally looking up to see the stunned expressions on all their faces, and while she couldn't see Leo's reaction, the fact he stopped what he was doing was enough of a cue to know he was surprised too "He…invited me and…yeah…" she shrunk back.

"Oh I'm so…excited for you." Leo's mom said, her tone showing that while she was excited, she was equally surprised.

"Leah, hun. Are you sure? What about your…-?" Leah's father began, eyes moving to the pokeball in her hand, was she always gripping it this hard?

"I…how else am I going to get over it?" Leah nodded "Leo said he'd protect me no matter what too so..." she shrugged, she did take some satisfaction from Leo's head looking right at her, no doubt in objection. She saw the look in all of their faces now, doubt, but not too much to question that line further. "Leo already took care of everything, just…waiting on me now."

"...Okay. Well I wish you to the best of luck…-?" Leo's mom looked around "Where is Leo by the way?" she asked, oblivious to the Latios floating behind her, teasingly close to just poking her.

"He's waiting for me back on Route 121. He wanted me to drop off the Dratini he borrowed from his Dad." She paused, a devious idea forming "You know him, always in a rush, just expecting others to go along with it." She looked at the outline of Leo, knowing his cover would be blown if he said anything, so he just had to sit there and take it.

"Haha! Yes, that sounds like my boy…-!" Leo's mom laughed, suddenly stumbling forward slightly. Leah could see Leo fly up, causing the backdraft to hit his mom "Oh, must have been the wind!" she said in surprise. Leah had a flat smirk on her face as she saw Leo fly back next to her. She finally stepped forward and handed Leo's Mom the pokeball. She looked behind her expectantly, frowning.

"Is Leo's dad…-?" Leah had to ask. Not to their surprise, Leo's mom shook her head.

"He's already off on some other adventure. I had hoped he'd be back to see Leo off but…what can you do?" Leo's mom smiled, the kind of smile with a world of context she was afraid to ask for. Leah simply smiled and nodded.

"I'm gonna head home and get ready for the trip then." Leah quickly bowed and ran back home "Don't want to keep Leo waiting!" Leo uncharacteristically flew beside her quietly, he never did talk about that part of his family, but the genuine shock of his voice when his father allowed him to borrow one of his Dragonite's eggs was enough to know what that relationship was like. She pushed that thought aside, realizing the lie she dug herself into for who knows why. The two ran back home in strained silence.

The Dragon Knights