Dragonspiral Tower was a warzone.
Annie had never struggled with battling a Team Plasma grunt, but then, there had never been a hundred of them. The ancient stone trembled with every impact as Annie darted between mossy pillars, her heart pounding in her chest. The air was thick with dust and smoke. Every floor was filled with the deafening roar of battle, the cries of trainers commanding their partners and the crash of Pokémon attacks colliding.
Beside her, Alder's Volcarona lit up the dim surroundings with its blazing wings, scorching the ground as it danced gracefully between its foes. Alder commanded it with ease, his voice calm and resolute despite the chaos around them. Volcarona surged forward, launching a devastating Heat Wave that sent Team Plasma's grunts scattering, their Pokémon overwhelmed by the sheer force of the attack.
Annie couldn't help but pause for a moment, mesmerized. There was a fluidity to Alder's movements, a harmony between him and his Pokémon that made it impossible to look away. It wasn't just about power - it was the trust, the unspoken connection between them.
But there was no time to stand still. There was a great commotion happening high above them. Beyond the sounds of battle, Annie could make out something louder... fiercer. 'Could that be Zekrom?' she thought as the tower swayed in a way that made her stomach churn. Something at the top of the tower was rampaging. The way the floor shook was too violent to be simply the result of the battles around her.
She could see Burgh and Brycen fighting fiercely, their Pokémon weaving through the melee, but for every grunt they knocked back, more appeared, swarming the narrow stairwells like ants. She recognised Giallo, now in sages robes, standing at the centre of the chaos, bellowing his orders over the din. "Keep them occupied! Don't let the Champion or the Gym Leaders through!" His voice echoed off the stone walls, and immediately the grunts redoubled their efforts, closing in on Alder, Burgh, and Brycen with renewed vigour.
'This is my chance. They don't see me as a threat, I can slip through while they focus on the others.'
Annie cast a guilty glance back at Alder and Volcarona, before pressing on alone. The upper floors were far from empty, but the number of grunts she encountered was manageable. They were clearly utilising most of their manpower on holding back Alder. Even so, as she climbed higher and the roaring and crashing drew closer, her Pokémon were wilting from fatigue.
And then the tower stilled. She was nearly at the top and the final few floors were eerily empty. A foreboding silence draped over the tower as she caught her breath and listened. She was too high up to hear the battles below and whatever was happening at the top had come to an abrupt halt. The final flight of stairs had been badly damaged, leaving a gaping hole not only in the steps themselves, but in the wall of the tower. It had been windy when she'd arrived, but as she looked down at the treetops of the dark forest below, she noticed that they were still.
All that remained of the staircase was the banister, a slim stretch of wall that she could shuffle along. She didn't allow herself time to dwell on the black abyss below her as she steadied herself against the curved wall. Her pulse raced as she cautiously inched along the narrow ledge. 'One foot in front of the other.' she thought loudly, drowning out the other thoughts of 'Look down! Look how high up you are!'
Just a little further. The air was heavy and still, amplifying the silence around her as she reached out, placing her foot gingerly on the edge. Without warning, the stone beneath her heel gave a sickening lurch, and before she could react, the ledge crumbled away.
Annie felt the ground disappear beneath her feet.
A scream caught in her throat as she tumbled through the air, her hands flailing desperately for something to grab. The world spun in a blur of stone and darkness, panic filling every cell of her body.
And then she managed to catch something. Pain shot down her arm as her weight tugged at her joints. As her brain struggled to catch up with her body, she realised her hands were empty. She hadn't caught something. Something had caught her.
A hand, clad in a black leather glove, was closed tightly around her wrist. Annie gasped, her breath catching as she dangled in the void, her heart hammering wildly in her chest. She craned her neck upward to see her rescuer.
A man in a black cloak loomed above her, his face completely obscured by a black knight's helmet, the visor pulled down so that all she could see were his eyes through a small slit. He gave a groan as he heaved her back up onto the ledge, leaning his body into the effort. As soon as she could reach, she helped pull herself up, then collapsed on the steps beside him.
For a valiant knight, he wasn't particularly graceful. Annie oriented her own senses, watching the man as he panted and wheezed beside her.
"Thank you," Annie said earnestly. Team Plasma or not, he had saved her life.
The hooded man turned to her and she saw his eyes in the bright moonlight for the first time.
She knew those eyes. They were the eyes she had looked into fondly, sitting on the artificial beach of the terrarium. They were pale-yellow.
He cleared his throat and spoke in a forced, deep voice. "Just... be careful."
Before Annie could reply, three more figures suddenly surrounded her. She looked up to see three identical men with long, white hair and shrouds that covered their mouths.
"Hood Man, you should be leaving." said one of them.
"...Come." said another, pulling Annie to her feet with a firm grip on her upper arm.
Annie wasn't sure if she was walking or flying as she was escorted to the top of Dragonspiral Tower. She barely had time to look back at the so called 'Hood Man' before she was whisked up the remainder of the stairs and deposited in the uppermost chamber.
The first thing she saw was the hulking black dragon... Zekrom. Its eyes glowed red and electrical energy sizzled in the air around it. Annie had never seen anything like it. It was enormous, easily over nine feet tall. And it had an aura of power that took her breath away as she stood before it.
Everything else in the room took longer to notice, but her eyes slowly absorbed the details surrounding the dragon. For one, the roof of the tower had been destroyed, leaving the room open to the night sky. N stood in front of Zekrom, close enough for Annie to see their connection instantly. As planned, he'd befriended the legendary dragon. Ghetsis stood off to the side of the room, swallowed by shadows, his eyepiece twinkling like a red star.
"My lord N, we brought the one you wanted." one of the three shadowy men behind her spoke. Three shadowy men.
'Oh... The Shadow Triad.' Annie realised.
"What do you think, clown?" N began to speak, his voice quiet, but rich. He emanated a joyous confidence. "How do you like the powerful form of the Pokémon who appears before and fights beside the hero that will lead the way to a new world?"
"Zekrom," Annie breathed, half asking, half stating. Her hands shook as she reached for Ariados' Friend Ball. Ariados was already tired, it was a battle she couldn't win. She hesitated as she looked up into Zekrom's ferocious eyes, weighing up the pain that her tired Pokémon would endure if she agreed to fight. "I can't battle you."
"No," N agreed, "Zekrom and I will head to the Pokémon League and defeat the Champion! This will be the last of the Pokémon battles that hurt Pokémon so. A world for Pokémon alone... It's finally going to be a reality. If you want to stop me, you must become a hero as well! That's right! When Zekrom's counterpart, Reshiram, recognizes you, we will finally be even, and then you can try to stop us!"
"Reshiram?" Annie imagined herself standing as N was, with the white dragon flanking her. 'Is that what it'll take to stop him now? I was too late to stop him from finding Zekrom. Now my only hope is to find the other dragon, so our strength will be matched.' Annie thought anxiously. She couldn't talk to Pokémon, nor did she have an army of grunts at her disposal, but somehow she needed to stop Team Plasma. It was her dream and that thought didn't waver as her plan reshaped itself. "You're inviting me to try and stop you?"
"Well, what will you do? My prediction... If the future that I see is true, you will meet Reshiram. The Pokémon with you believe in you so strongly..." N's eyes trailed to Annie's belt, where her hand still hovered over Ariados' ball. "Will you be the one who interferes with my formula for changing the world? If you want to protect the bonds between Pokémon and people, you must search for Reshiram! I'm sure it is waiting for you in the form of the Light Stone."
"Why?" Annie asked quietly, wishing she and N were alone. She could feel Ghetsis' beady red eye locked on her as she spoke. "Why do you want me to challenge you?"
"My vision is to change the world without using force. Trying to change the world by force will just make others resist. If people resist, the ones that will be hurt are the innocent Pokémon used by foolish trainers. You understand. Pokémon are not just tools for people to use!" N replied, moving his arms passionately. Zekrom seemed to mirror his movements ever so slightly. "As a result... Pokémon and trainers who care about one another, like you and your Pokémon, will be separated. And that does break my heart a little."
Zekrom then gave a mighty roar that shook Annie to the core. It flew up into the air, the force of it knocking Annie backwards. She watched as it flew up higher and higher, before flipping into a freefall back down to the tower. N fixed Annie with one more intense look before pulling himself onto Zekrom's back. Together, they flew into the night at such a great speed, he was out of sight in seconds.
Ghetsis emerged from the shadows, a malicious grin on his lips. "Well then, congratulations are in order! Annie, you were chosen by our king." he sneered, "If you truly desire to keep the world as it is, where Pokémon live alongside people, you must bring Reshiram and battle with our king. Otherwise, Team Plasma will steal every Pokémon from every person in the world and release them all!"
Annie wrinkled her nose in anger as he spoke. He had been a bully in school, even to the teachers. She'd hated the way he'd pushed Colress around, making him do his homework. Annie regretted never standing up to him. Perhaps if somebody had ever told him 'no', he wouldn't still be walking around Unova like he owned it.
"Release them, you say?" Alder's voice sounded beside her, breathless from the many stairs he'd climbed. He spoke with confidence, not a hint of a shudder under Ghetsis' cold gaze. "Do the Pokémon who live with their trainers actually want that? Is the liberation you talk about really just stealing Pokémon from people?"
"What's this?" Ghetsis asked in a mocking voice. "Champion Alder, who ordered the Elite Four to protect the Pokémon League and left to wander the Unova region alone... Team Plasma's king will show the people of Unova that he is stronger than a Champion who keeps Pokémon bound! And just like the hero who founded Unova, he will be accompanied by the legendary Pokémon. He will give this order! 'Trainers, release your Pokémon!' For this, we have prepared a suitable castle for the legendary Zekrom and our king!"
"I won't lose! I'll fight for all trainers who love their Pokémon, and for all Pokémon who believe in their trainers!" Alder responded loudly, his voice booming across the open chamber.
"Our king has no interest in you." Ghetsis smirked. "He has already determined that victory against you is assured."
"So, you stayed behind just to tell me that? Just to make a fool of me?"
"Of course not. I'm doing this out of kindness... Yes, kindness. I'm making sure the Champion doesn't get hurt for no reason." Ghetsis' voice grew dark and the left side of his smile widened. "Granted, the moment when someone loses all hope... I really do love to watch that moment. Well then, farewell."
Ghetsis strode between them, so close that Annie had to move out of the way so he didn't step on her toes. His heavy cloak dragged behind him loudly as he disappeared down the stairs. She hadn't noticed the Shadow Triad leave, but they were already gone too.
Annie turned to Alder. "What are you going to do now?"
He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Hmmm... It seems my only choice is to return to the Pokémon League and battle N. But it bothers me to do exactly what Ghetsis wants."
"N awakened Zekrom," Annie told him, guiltily averting her eyes. "We... I was too late to stop him. He told me I need to look for Reshiram."
"If I remember the myth, Reshiram and Zekrom devastated ancient Unova in an instant. Even knowing that, N is still wanting to awaken the other?!"
Annie nodded grimly. "It may be the only way to stop him. I saw Zekrom... I don't think I can win against something that strong."
"I don't like the idea of taking orders from them, but searching for Reshiram might not be a bad plan," Alder agreed. "We certainly can't let Team Plasma reawaken both of them! Since I've travelled all over Unova, I have an idea of where it might be."