BW2~ Before it's too Late

Part Two

      Find Ghetsis, thought Rosa. Gotta find Ghetsis. Silently she stole through Team Plasma’s icy ship as her friend Hue and his Emboar fought madly above decks to buy them time. She smirked as she came across the electric fences protecting the inner sanctum. Password protected, as locks always were.
      “Well, this is easy enough,” she mumbled happily to herself. Opening the keypad, Rosa punched in the word “liberate,” guessing the result. One by one the fences deactivated with a slight sizzling sound. “Yes!” she cheered quietly, shaking her head at how thick Plasmans could be. “Really, ‘liberate,’ like anyone wouldn’t guess that on their first try.”
      Rosa could see the green-glowing warp panels that led to different places on the ship. But something else was nagging her, something that had to be taken care of before she took a step further.
      Taking a red-and-white PokeBall out of her bag, the girl wordlessly released a tiny Joltik. The little bug hopped around joyfully at her feet, happy to be of assistance.
      “Shh,” Rosa whispered, picking her Pokemon up to look it in the eye. Even in its full grown state, the tiny creature just fit in the palm of her hand. “I have a job for you. It’s really important, and you’re the only one who can do it. We really need you, okay, Jolty?”
      “Jol jol!” the little Pokémon chirped happily.
      “Alright,” Rosa whispered, stroking its scaly yellow fur. “I need you to find Nate. He’s somewhere on this ship. When you find him, report back to me, okay?”
      “Joltik, Joltik jol!” it sang quietly, jumping out of Rosa’s hands and scurrying off to perform its task.



      White tugged on the make-shift reins connected to Reshiram before swinging her leg over its snowy back. The blizzard had stopped on Mt. Strata, and the skies were now clear and slightly breezy: the perfect condition to fly in.
      N took the time to pinch himself before mounting to Zekrom’s black shoulders. Finally, after months, possibly even years, of denying that they’d ever see each other again, White had come back to him.
      I thought I’d told you to stay, he said to her upon their reunion.
      Well, first of all, she had said, in her usual airy manner, I left because I don’t think I need Black as much as I need you. Then her voice grew more concerned. Also..... there’s something going on with Team Plasma. They’re at it again, and this time Ghetsis won’t stop until he has the entire Unova Region in ice.
      In ice? N had responded. You mean........... Kyurem? He guessed.
      I think so. You’ve heard the story, how the two brothers who ruled Unova had a dragon. Remember the part where the brothers began to fight, and the dragon split into two? Kyurem is said to be the empty shell left from when Reshiram and Zekrom were one Pokémon.
      “Hey, Slowking, are we going to save Unova or not?”
      White’s playful words drew N from his thoughts. “Right,” he mumbled distractedly, and with her lead, the two legendary heroes set off for Giant Chasm.



      Nate sat dejectedly in the dank cell, his mind swirling with troubled thoughts. He had failed the good Trainers. He had given in to the Shadow Triad and disclosed them the location of the other DNA Splicer. He didn’t deserve to have Pokémon by his side.
      Suddenly there was a tapping outside the cell, but Nate didn’t take notice until a sizable section of the wall melted away. And squirming through the hole came... Rosa!
      “Good work, Jolty,” she praised the little Pokémon. “That was a great Gastro Acid attack.” She then turned, smiling, to her childhood friend. “Come on, we need to find the captain’s quarters.”
      Nate, stunned, followed his rescuer wordlessly as they continued cautiously exploring, listening as she filled him in on what was happening.
      Rescuing Samurott proved itself to be easier than they hoped. The strong Water type had already worn away a considerable section of the cell wall, making it all the easier to smuggle it out.
      Nate could vaguely remember which warp panel Ghetsis had taken, and after a mistake found them in the empty barracks, they found the correct panel and warped one by one into the heart of the ship.
      Ghetsis’s quarters couldn’t have been creepier. A screen showing incomprehensive maps kept flashing from clear to fuzzy. A table suitable-looking for a meeting had been thrown and lashed about violently, and strange music was being created from the static of the screen. Rosa heard Nate whimper quietly.
      “W-well,” she whispered as not to be heard, “We can’t let Ghetsis get away. We have to find—“
      But a loud rumble filled the room, cutting off Rosa’s words and the sound of the static. The floor shook as a loud roar filled the dank air, before it all stopped for a few heartbeats. A roaring sound, louder than before, tore through the dark room, causing the very floor to tremble violently. And there, before them, appeared—
      Ghetsis.
      “How very interesting. Once again, my plans seem to be made fool of by mere children. But this time I came prepared. There is no son of mine here to cause error. I am off the Chasm Cave. You may follow me if you wish, but I must warn you that the consequences of doing so will be......... Critical. The middle panel of those before you will bring you outside of the Frigate. I encourage your pursuit; it’s not always that I get to deal with intruders alone.......”
      With those last words still ringing in the air, Ghetsis slammed his bone-like cane onto the deck, disappearing into the very air.
      “Well,” Rosa sighed after a few seconds of the eerie static music, “We gotta follow.” She took a starting step toward the middle warp panel, pondering the possibility of it being a trap.
      For a moment Nate looked like he was about to argue, but he sighed bravely and followed cautiously in his friend’s footsteps.
      After a moment’s hesitation, the pair stepped onto the panel one at a time, and was hurtled headlong into an adventure in which the Two Brothers would be proud.

      “’TIS BLOOD ON THE WIND!!!” shouted Hue as he mercilessly pounded a Plasma Grunt with the piece of severed pipe he had found. Behind him, Emboar was facing off against a Nidoking.
      The red mist that was covering the Quilfish-haired Trainer’s eyesight was keeping him fighting until the very end. Whatever that end should be. He knew that to keep the Plasmans off of his friends’ tails was his task, even if that turned out to be his dying task.


      Chasm Cave was dark and earthy. Water dripped slowly down in drops from the stalactites to the cold ground. Pretty much the only light that filtered through the darkness was coming from the massive gap in the cave ceiling, high up above the underground lair.
      Rosa was the first to dash breathlessly into the cave, followed closely by Nate. Summoning all her courage, Rosa carefully stepped over into the main chamber of the cave, and promptly screamed. For there, standing like a giant harbinger of destruction, was the Legendary Pokémon Kyurem.
      It was a freezing Aura blue, with empty sockets for eyes and no visible mouth. There was a crevice in its chest, where nothingness swirled around in eternal black. Its rattling breath was echoing hollowly across the walls of the dark cavern, seeming to suck on the very air. All together it was somewhat zombie-ish.
      Nate rushed up to his childhood friend to see what had ailed her, but froze with his jaw hanging open upon the sight of the great beast. He shuddered visibly.
      Kyurem stared back at them with its empty, eyeless gaze.
      The pair was so engrossed with the horrendous sight of the creature, that neither one noticed Ghetsis appear beside it at a shake of his cane.
      “Well,” he stated in a whisper that seemed to filled the entire cavern, a smile of evil amusement on his twisted face. “Well, well, well. You were brave enough to pursue me. Bravery is a great virtue. Though it’s almost painful to see an end brought to those whose lives were lost because of it.” He raised his cane like an entertainer offering a toast. “Kyurem— Destroy them.”
      The great beast roared and charged an ice cannon in its mouth, much stronger than the one it had hit Nate with earlier. The friends watched, frozen in fear, as the cannon reached its full, and was shot at them in a powerful beam, all in the blink of an eye..........



      Hue was out of breath, in pain, and bleeding from wounds all over his body. But still he fought. Again he was thrown onto the deck, the wound from being hit over the head with his own weapon still bleeding freely.
Arceus, he pleaded, please help me. Just..... help.
His vision was blurring over. He didn’t think he could hang on for much longer, when......

      “FOR UNOVA!!!” the warcry carried across the Frigate, and Hue felt himself being pulled up by another human. He had just glanced into a strangely familiar brown-haired boy’s face before he blacked out from extreme exhaustion. But before he could lose himself in the darkness, he heard a fuzzy voice say reassuringly, “Don’t worry. The Gym Leaders are here.”



      “REEESSSHHIIIIII!!!”
      “ZEKKROOOOO!!!!”

      The two cries mixed together, as did their fire and electricity, into perfect harmony. A perfectly powerful explosion of sizzling flames blasted the ice into nothingness. The two Heroes and their Dragons landed elegantly between Kyurem and the Trainers. Both White and N dismounted.
      “So. The freak without a human heart. Welcome to my show.”
      N clenched his fist around Zekrom’s reins. “Don’t do this, Father. You can’t take over Unova like this. The harmony between humans and Pokémon—“
      “SILENCE! Silence your insolent mouth! No son of mine will speak about this so-called harmony! Pokémon are tools! Tools to be used by humans!” Ghetsis took a deep breath and stared into his adopted son’s seething face with a strangely amused look pasted onto his evil features. “But still..... You have saved me a lot of trouble by bringing..... The legendary dragons here.” As he slammed his cane once again into the dirty ground, the top of the bony object opening up to reveal two small objects, small enough to fit inside, but just large enough for Nate and Rosa to realize what was about to happen.
      Before they could react, the two objects floated mysteriously up on the air, glowing blue for several seconds before shooting suddenly at the Vast White and Deep Black Pokémon. The objects seemed to call the dragons’ very forms into them, almost like a Pokémon into a PokeBall. Both White and N made a grab at the objects, but they proved too elusive and were sent hurtling back into Kyurem.
      A great flash of white light filled the surrounding air, causing every creature in the room to recoil in the brightness, all except Ghetsis, who was laughing madly.
      When the light died down, N, White, Rosa, and Nate found themselves staring at the most terrifying creature they had ever seen in their lives.
      Ghetsis laughed manically, in a way not unlike that of which you would see a supervillian do on television, and spoke darkly through grinding teeth, “You see, my son. Right here, standing before you and your petty little friends, is the result of the project that I have been toiling over for two years. Behold! Grey Kyurem!”
      The beast roared a hollow, deathly cry that reverberated dryly throughout the entire cave.
      Between N and White’s cries of disbelief and anger, the Kyurem’s empty howls, and Ghetsis’s mad laughter as he urged it onward, Rosa closed her eyes and turned away.
      “Wait-- Rosa!” Nate stuttered through a shaky breath, “Where—
      The doughnut-haired girl had her face in her hands, unable to look upon the scene of destruction. There was a shout of command, a screech of attack, and a scream of pain as a body was sent crashing into the rocks and stalagmites of the cave. Rosa heard White scream for her friend as the Hero ran over the debris to aid the green-haired boy.
      “Who’s next?” whispered Ghetsis calmly and sanely, as if his own son was only just another obstacle in the way of his dreams, an easily disposable snag in the plan.
      Rosa felt anger and hatred like she’d never felt before rise into her heart, until it boiled in her very blood. Whirling around, she clutched Serperior’s PokeBall like a fatal weapon, and motioned for Nate to do the same. She could hear the pleading coming from one side of the immense cavern, could hear White begging N to wake up.
      Grey Kyurem roared hollowly again.
      As she took a deep, shaking breath, Rosa exploded with outrage. “HOW DARE YOU!? TAKING INNOCENT LIVES JUST FOR YOUR OWN SELFISH NEEDS?! YOU SAY THAT N ISN’T HUMAN; YOU CLAIM TO KNOW WHAT IT MEANS, BUT YOU!!! YOU’RE NOT HUMAN!!!!”
      Ghetsis only smirked at her outburst, and laughed in a way only an insane person would. “I admire your speech, little girl. But if you want to try at stopping me, go right ahead. We’ll see how far you get against Grey Kyurem.
      “GO! SERPERIOR!!!”
      “You too! Samurott!”
      But even the combination of Leaf Tornado and Razor Shell wasn’t enough to leave a mark on the beast. It roared again, but didn’t attack. Rosa could almost hear a hint of longing in its cry.
      “Kyurem! Attack!” Ghetsis shouted. The Pokémon summoned a move that was almost like Tri-Attack; it was a combination of Ice, Fire, and Electricity. Serperior and Samurott, being much more agile than the beast, were able to dodge the massive attack. It hit the cave wall just beside the Trainers; only by diving out of the way were they able to sidestep the critical attack.
      Time after time, move after move, every effort proved useless against Grey Kyurem. Finally, when the pair had almost given up hope, N woke from being cradled in White’s arms as she tended to his wounds. He whispered something to White; she nodded, and rose to join the fighting. She had been watching their efforts out of the corner of her vision, and had a last idea on stopping Grey Kyurem.
      Together on White’s command, Rosa’s Serperior, Nate’s Samurott, and White’s Emboar combined their Pledges to make a combination of Fire, Grass, and Water Pledge. The result was an explosion so huge, it blasted every human and Pokémon into the air and into the crumbling debris.
      Finally, when the last of aftermath had stopped, Rosa looked around frantically. What she saw made her scream in joy.
      Regular Kyurem was lying on the cracked ground, and the Light and Dark stones were flying through the air, straight into White’s hands.
      Ghetsis was in a rage. Slamming his cane into the ground, he left it there to go kick Kyurem in the side. “Get up, you worthless piece of filth! Up, I say! Finish them!”
      But Kyurem only gave one last lonely, hollow cry before it dematerialized right before Rosa’s eyes.
      White had run over to where N lay, almost untouched by the explosion, with the Stones in hand; Nate was tending to Samurott’s injuries with an almost apologetic tone; and Ghetsis was left there, in the wake of his destroyed dreams, in utter rage but unable to do anything of it. Well, there was one thing.
      “YOU!!!” he shouted, taking a step toward Rosa. “You are the reason for this! Children! Filth! EVERY TIME!” The complete outrage was shining on his seething face as he took out five different PokeBalls. “I’ll battle you!”

      “Do that, and you’ll have to battle all of us,” said N soundly as he limped toward his father, leaning heavily on White.
      “You.... You freak........” Ghetsis breathed, but was unable to finish his sentence; he knew that even if he beat all of them he still could not bring back Kyurem or the Splicers.
      “No,” N said firmly but calmly, Rosa and Nate coming to stand behind them with Serperior and Samurott. “I was never the freak. You were.”
      Ghetsis stood, stunned, for a second at his son’s words. He looked like he wanted to strangle the green-haired boy, but obviously didn’t favour his odds against four fit young Trainers, two of which owned the legendary dragons of Unova.
      “.....Fine. But I’m not done with you; I’ll be back, mark my words,” he sneered, pulling a miniature warping device out of his cloak and disappearing into the tension-filled air.
      The four Trainers watched as N limped over to where his father’s cane was still standing from being shoved into the dirt. He picked it up and turned it over, feeling it in his fingers.
      N staggered back over to where the other three were, White putting a hand on his shoulder to steady him, and spoke in an almost ceremonious tone.
      “This cane was my father’s from the point where I can first remember. It stored his most evil possessions, and he carried it wherever he went as he commanded those he had deceived. At times he would even strike me with it when I had done something against his rules. This cane has harboured much evil. Be gone, Team Plasma.”
      At those words, he snapped it gingerly in half, tossing the pieces on the ground like they were everyday trash.
      He turned to White, who placed the Dark Stone in the palm of his hand, and then to each of his new friends in turn. “Well, shall we go?”


      “Black!” White cried and embraced her childhood friend in a giant hug. The brown-haired boy only blushed and pushed her away.
      “It looks like we came just in time,” he said awkwardly. “I saw a bunch of Plasma Grunts standing around the entrance to Giant Chasm, so of course I alerted the Unova Leaders, and we came. All eight Gym Leaders, including Lenora and Chili, Cilan, and Cress.”
      In the far end of the ship Rosa could make out the Striation triplets. Chili had spotted White and waved, shouting with a big grin, “We made it this time!”
      White waved back. “So, I guess everything turned out okay. I mean, it looks like Team Plasma’s down for good.”
      Rosa froze. “Wait- What about Hue?”
      They all turned to Black, who looked away sheepishly. Upon seeing that he couldn’t avoid the subject, he sighed sadly and motioned for them to follow.
      “He’s....... He’s not right. I don’t know what happened, but......... Well..... Just see for yourself.”
      Rosa was the first to reach him. He was lying on a bed of ripped sailcloth, and his eyes were half open and shining dully, the wound on the side of his head from when he had been hit by his piece of severed pipe had stopped bleeding, but was still plainly visible.
      When they approached, Hue opened his eyes further but not all the way, and lifted his head slightly from the ground.
      Rosa knelt beside him, the others filing around her. Black had walked away, apparently unable to watch their reactions.
      “Hue...?” Rosa whispered, stroking the uninjured side of his head.
      The Quilfish-haired Trainer stared blankly up at her, his gaze just...... empty. Opening his mouth very slightly, he furrowed his brow and whispered back, “Who......?”
      Rosa let out a hurt sob and ran quickly across to the other side of the frigate, Nate following her in attempt to comfort his distraught friend.

      White let out a long, sad sigh. Taking Hue by the hand, she pulled him to his feet. “Come on,” she murmured, “It’s gonna be a long walk home.”