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Natural wakes up to the rustling of feathers and Reshiram’s voice in its head.
“Kyurem,” they say. “Danger. Pain. Need to go.” The Dragon of Truth’s pupils are slits despite the low light. “Now.”
It’s unlike them to be this clipped. Natural pushes itself to its feet, rubs the sleep out of its eyes, and hops on Reshiram. What was that about Kyurem?
Reshiram blasts off so fast it hardly has time to think, let alone ask what’s wrong. Their other part—the partial husk of Unova’s body—was hurt? Wind blasts Natural’s face, and the scenery beneath them changes every time it blinks. In what feels too short of a time for the distance and too long of a time for circumstance, they’ve made it from their starting point in Alola to Unova.
Reshiram darts inside a cave, and it just tries to hang on. Soon enough they’re flying in a cavern, above two humans and a dragon.
“Kyurem, use Glaciate!” one of them yells.
The other—a young teen?—is surrounded by spinning icicle spears.
“Fusion Flare!” Natural yells. The ice shatters, and its brain finally catches up to the situation. It doesn’t recognize the teen, but the ice-covered dragon is undeniably Kyurem, and the other human is…Ghetsis. (It’s been two years.) He was trying to kill that trainer, and he looks far too calm for having his execution attempt interrupted.
“Well, looks like you finally showed up. The freak without a human heart, here to play the hero once more.” Ghetsis laughs, colder than the cavern. “I knew you’d be easy to bait.”
What—oh no. It’s somehow played right into his hand. That’s why he’s so calm.
“Thanks to you, I now have the final piece to my plan.” He tosses out an unfamiliar device—it’s triangular and pointed, with horizontal stripes the color of Kyurem. The gray dragon levitates it, and Reshiram tenses.
“Kyurem, use Absofusion!”
That’s not good. Reshiram slides it off, which they only do in emergencies, and flies away as a pink blast flies above Natural’s head. Two more fire off— bang! Bang!— and the noise echoes as they hit the stone. The third connects, and…
Well, Natural’s not sure what to make of it. It expected Reshiram to fall to the ground, injured. Instead, psychic restraints wrap around them like rope, pulling them closer to Kyurem. Reshiram struggles, but their restraints don’t budge.
“Kyurem’s controlled. Going to fuse,” they warn. Then, their mental voice dampens. With a sound like a thousand screams, the white dragon thrashes and disappears. In their place, the Light Stone rests.
Kyurem lifts the Light Stone up, and then it zips towards them. For a moment, the cavern warms up as light blinds Natural. Then, it drops even colder.
What remains must be the fusion of Kyurem and Reshiram. The two parts of Unova fused as if they were two separate beings glued together. Reshiram’s wing feathers jut out from one too-thin forelimb, while the other is coated in ice. A single, disproportionately large, frozen claw sits in the middle of two normal ones. In stature, they most resemble Reshiram, but their face and eyes are undeniably Kyurem’s.
Natural can still pick up bits of its partner’s thoughts, but they’re faint and patchy, like coming through bad reception.
“Now, Kyurem, finish what you started!” Ghetsis yells.
Natural looks around. What can it do to help? The other trainer and their Pokémon are already making a good stand against the fused dragons, but it hates that it’s come to this. Kyurem and Reshiram shouldn’t be forced to fight.
If they’re being controlled, there must be someone or something doing it, right? It doesn’t see any psychic Pokémon around, which means he’s probably using some sort of technology…like could be hidden in his new metal cane. If nothing else, trying to grab the cane would be a great distraction. It’s not going to sit by.
Natural dashes towards Ghetsis, and he startles. The order he was giving Kyurem is interrupted, while it gets its hand on the cane. Distraction successful, at least for a moment. Then a shadow slips into the edge of its vision—something hits its hand. It lets go.
One of the Shadows holds Natural back. It tenses. This is dangerous, this is dangerous, but… the Shadow doesn’t try to do anything other than prevent it from getting to Ghetsis. The other two appear shortly, and stand beside him.
It struggles as futilely as Reshiram had, as the fused dragon roars in pain. Light flashes from the other side of the cavern. Something heavy thuds, and ice bangs against the rock.
The fight’s over. Kyurem falls to the ground, unfused and unconscious, while the Light Stone hovers above them. Reshiram’s voice echoes in Natural’s head, clearly. “I am fine, just tired.” Good.
Ghetsis pulls out a Poké Ball. Not good. The other trainer’s Pokémon have to be tired, while he has a full team of six. They spray a potion on their current fighter, a Samurott, and then the battle is on.
Ghetsis leads slowly with Cofagrigas, then sends out Eelektross after they fall to Samurott. After that, it’s aggressive, one attack after another. The other trainer and their team must have practiced against that fighting style, or be pretty adaptable, because they’re able to keep up with it.
Natural wishes there was something it could do. The Shadow let go of it, but short of attempting a direct physical attack one of the Shadow Triad would block, there’s nothing.
Still, the fight goes okay. Samorott finishes Ghetsis’s Hydreigon with a Return, and then it’s over. (Six of Ghetsis’s Pokémon down, five of the other trainer’s.)
Ghetsis looks around in disbelief, and Natural breathes a sigh of relief.
“This can’t be happening, ” Ghetsis growls. “I had the perfect plan set up! Everything was going exactly as I planned! I can’t be stopped by a freak and some random trainer again!”
One of the Shadows moves closer to him, and Ghetsis slams his cane down.
“He was defeated,” Reshiram says, still in the Light Stone. Ghetsis scowls.
“Perhaps your formula is in need of adjustment,” Natural proposes. “Pokémon generally fight better when they trust their trainer. I’ve been to multiple regions where Pokémon are even able to unlock special moves and forms due to their bonds with—”
“Shut up! Don't talk like a person, you freak. No real person could talk to Pokémon!” Ghetsis yells.
It flinches, but digs its heels in. Proving anything to Ghetsis seems like a lost cause, but it can prove something to itself.
“So what?”
Forget simple adjustment, Ghetsis’s formula needs a whole other variable accounted for. He seemingly never considered the possibility that Natural would talk back instead of just taking what Ghetsis yelled at it. That might have been reasonable two years ago, but now…it’s grown.
“So what if I’m not human? I’m not. I don’t want to be.
“What you fail to understand is that being human doesn’t make you better than anyone else, nor are you better than other people. If anything, you’re the worst person I’ve met. That’s why your plans fail. No one truly wants to fight for someone who treats them as an inconsequential weapon, and people aren’t just going to sit by while you try to take over their home.
“It would be better for everyone if you quit wasting your time trying to seize control of Unova, but if you try again you will be stopped.”
He finally finds an expression other than shock—anger, unsurprisingly. “I will make Unova mine,” he snaps as a Shadow grabs him. In an instant, the Shadow Triad and Ghetsis are gone.
Now that that’s over, the cavern is strangely still. The other trainer looks at Natural, and it looks at them, having almost forgotten they were still there.
“I’m guessing you’re N, and the rock’s Reshiram?”
The rock. That’s a new one. “Yeah. I use it/its.”
“Cool. Rosa, she/her. Thanks to you—both of you for saving me.” Despite her volume, Rosa’s voice (understandably) trembles a little when she speaks.
“No problem.”
The Light Stone shakes, before flying away. In a blaze of fire, Reshiram returns to their normal form. “We should get moving,” the dragon projects. “We left our companions across the sea.”
Rosa nods. “Well, um, bye?”
“Goodbye.” Natural hops on Reshiram, and then waves before they take off.
When Reshiram lands, Archeops flies over as Natural dismounts.
“See, they’re fine.” She gives a very pointed look to Clever, before the Zoroark nearly tackles Natural.
“Don’t do that again,” Clever says. I was so worried about you, he means.
Rather than risk upsetting Clever more, it decides to keep its explanation vague until he’s calmed down. “Sorry, something urgent came up.”
“Ghetsis took control of Kyurem and tried to kill another trainer,” Reshiram says. (So much for waiting.) “If we had arrived any later, she would have died.”
“That’s not reassuring.” He huffs. “Did someone finally kill him?”
“No, but we’re fine,” it soothes. “Not even a scratch.” It’s true. It’s fine. Though there are still loose ends to tie up, Natural feels like it got some closure. It showed that Ghetsis doesn’t intimidate it the way he used to—it’s free: free from Ghetsis, and free from the fear of being seen as anything other than human. If anything, it’s kind of funny now. Of course it’s not a real person. It’s a Zoroark. Nothing more, nothing less.