Unbroken Disguise

N was worried.

Which, given what they had just gone through, he felt was a reasonable thing, but the largest source of his worry wasn’t one that he would have expected.

Mimikyu… wasn’t doing very well.

Physically he seemed fine. N hadn’t gotten a chance to have his friend checked out by Nurse Joy yet, not with how backed up the Pokemon Center was at the moment, but Mimikyu’s physical health seemed as good as he had ever seen it. He didn’t seem smaller or lighter, which still didn’t make sense to him, given the excessive use of Shadow Sneak he’d both seen and experienced for himself.

No, Mimikyu’s problem seemed to be a mental one. Once the Legends had left, and the little ghost failed to get their help for… well, whatever it was he was after, he had fallen silent. No matter what N or anyone else said or asked, Mimikyu wouldn’t say a word. He wasn’t completely shut down, though. He’d still ride on N’s shoulder or follow along beside him, he’d move out of the way if necessary, but in a manner that was… sluggish.

N could understand being upset about missing out on some goal he was striving for. Well, Mimikyu had never really expressly laid out his goals, but… what else could it have been? It made sense. N was travelling with Ash to get into contact with a Legend, and Mimikyu had been the one to set him on that path, so his reaction to the Legends here… Surely his friend was after something similar at least?

Thinking about it like this made him realize how little he knew about his friend. Sure, he knew lots of little odds and ends, like his strange accent, and what berries the little fairy liked, and that he was basically a living Pokedex with how many factoids he could spit out about any wild Pokemon they ran into… He knew more than Dawn, and she lived in this region! But he’d never learned what Mimikyu’s goals in life were. He had never learned where Mimikyu was from. And sure, part of that had to do with the little spats they’d had early on and their agreement to leave some things be, but… it still irked him. They’d have to be more open with each other eventually, wouldn’t they? He might not have been very open with Mimikyu on certain subjects either, but it felt like his friend could read him like a book anyway despite that…

As he stared off into space and contemplated these things, part of him waited for Mimikyu to interrupt his thoughts with a joke or a detail about a nearby Pokemon or to chastise him or… well, anything, really.

But it never came.

Though maybe his interest in Mimikyu’s silence was a mere distraction from what was around him.

When the Legends had brought Alamos back to where it belonged, situated on an island a bit to the east of the Valley Windworks, some changes had been made. Where before, large portions of the city had been leveled by stray attacks or were being eaten away by those purple motes of light, now Alamos looked pristine. It looked just as good as it had when he had arrived in town, perhaps even better. It had been odd, to look down from the balcony atop the Space-Time Towers, and see all of the destruction just wiped away, as if it had never happened, but he supposed it made sense. With Palkia and Dialga controlling space and time, it was within their power to literally undo the destruction. Or at least, that was the running theory at the moment. None of them were keen on looking a gift Blitzle in the mouth, and not having to worry about the destruction of a city this large was quite the gift.

But the generosity shown to them with the instant reconstruction of the city did not extend to a sudden fixing of all of their problems. The most pressing of which was the medical issues. He didn’t know if the Legends had been incapable of helping, or simply unwilling, but every injury sustained in the last day was still there. The Pokemon Center was currently overrun with patients, both human and Pokemon alike, as they tried to treat everyone.

Luckily, having the Champion of the region present alongside the foremost expert on Psychics meant that they weren’t lacking in manpower. With Alamos returned to its usual location, and the Legends no longer interfering, Lucian had been able to organize the League’s Psychics to set up a rather impressive number of Teleports, bringing in every spare healer they could find on short notice.

But even those efforts couldn’t help everyone. He’d done what he could himself, but with no medical training that had been limited to handing out all the berries he could to the wild Pokemon who had gotten caught up in things. He hadn’t been important enough to be involved in the discussions of the medical teams. To learn the number of people and Pokemon who would be stuck with certain injuries for life, or in a handful of cases, a fate worse than that.

All of this pain and suffering and… and death, and they didn’t even know why Palkia and Dialga had done it. Darkrai had tried to help stop them, but it hadn’t been enough and now he had vanished alongside them…

He had been warned about this though, hadn’t he? Ash and Pikachu had warned him that what got them out safely when this sort of thing happened was mere luck. Seeing was believing, he supposed, and now he had seen first hand what happened when Legends showed up.

Mimikyu, for reasons unknown, had wanted to meet at least one of these Legends, and in a way, he had gotten his wish.

Something like this… for the first time in quite a long time, N had experienced something that made his conviction waver. Not in his end goal, but perhaps in his planned methodology. To use the Stone… To risk a fate like this in Unova… The stories passed down told of The Twin Heroes being assisted by Truth and Ideal, so maybe it was different, but…

Perhaps N needed to think. To spend some time away from all of this and return to his roots. Ground himself. But could he truly do that if Ash was running into nonsense left and right? Maybe…

His gaze fell to the despondent Pokemon on his shoulder.

Maybe they needed a change of pace.

A booming, powerful voice came out a little tinny as it was replicated by her phone. “Are you sure you don’t need some help? I could be there in no time at all, just say the word!”

“I’m sure,” Cynthia responded, her throat sore and the day’s events weighing down on her. She’d been yelling out orders to be heard over the panicked crowds for hours, and only just managed to slip away to make this call. Lucario was at her side with a glass of water, repeatedly trying to insist that she drink it, but she waved him off again. “There’s not much work to be done at this point.”

A calm, collected, reassuring voice spoke up this time. “Even if there’s not much work to be done, we could still take over the organizational tasks and give you a chance to rest. I’m sure you're exhausted, and you no doubt want to be with your team right now. If Metagross and I-”

“I said I’m sure, Steven,” Cynthia barked out, acid in her tone. Lucario gave her a disapproving look and she sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m just… stressed. But there’s really no need for anyone to come here. Lucian and I have it handled.”

They gave her a moment to calm down. “Alright, Cynthia. Lance and I just want to support you where we can. We know better than most the stress that comes with these things.”

“Speaking of which…” Lance chimed in once more, “How is the kid holding up?”

“I don’t know,” Cynthia admitted. “Between trying to settle everyone down, keeping information from leaking, and every other little thing…” She paused for a moment, waiting to see if they’d try to butt in once again, but they seemed to have accepted her words, “I haven’t really had a chance to check in on him. I only saw him once after it all ended and he looked pretty torn up himself, but him and that Pikachu of his looked… satisfied, maybe? No, that’s not quite right…”

“Glad that it’s over, saddened by what it took to get there, and resigned to the fact that they’ll have to do it again,” Steven suggested.

There was a brief silence as they tried to digest that.

“Did I…” Cynthia hesitated. “Did I mess everything up?”

“Cynthia, there’s no need to-” Lance started, but Cynthia doubled down.

“No, Lance. I need you to be honest with me. Did I mess everything up?”

Steven hummed. “I suppose that depends on how you define it. On the one hand, you were made aware of a threat, moved quickly to counteract it, used what resources were available to you at the time in a reasonable manner, and rationally made decisions that lead to the neutralization of said threat. In those terms, you did exactly what is expected of you as Champion. You minimized the loss of life and protected your region.”

“And on the other hand?” Cynthia prompted.

“On the other hand…” Lance took over, “It sounds like you treated Ash like he’s some normal trainer his age. Were it just about anyone else, it’s like Steven said, you made rational decisions, but… in these situations, rationality is not the end all, be all. Legends take the status quo and flip it like a Hitmontop. Things operate on principles that we struggle to comprehend, and while it may not make sense to us, the correct course of action is to let things play out as they would without our interference.”

“So I’m supposed to let a teenager who hasn’t even broken the top eight at a League Conference take on Legends on his own?” Cynthia wasn’t sure if she was arguing the point or just trying to understand. “I get that he has a track record, but I just…”

“Ash isn’t a normal trainer,” Steven tried to explain gently. “He was mentioned by name in the prophecy on Shamouti. Every time one of these events crops up, he just so happens to be there. Psychics call him the Chosen for a reason.”

“You’re just biased because you spend every waking moment interfacing with Metagross. Those names they use are a bunch of garbage…” Cynthia grumbled halfheartedly.

Ash was just a kid with a Pikachu. She’d seen the rest of his team, and they weren’t impressive. That would change with time, if his records were to be believed, but even then it had been hard to look at him and match what she saw with what she’d been told.

She was the Champion. She was supposed to be the one looking out for trainers like him.

Cynthia finally accepted the water that Lucario kept trying to force on her.

“Maybe we should move on,” Lance suggested. “We don’t want to keep you too long, and we still need to cover the Rockets. You’re sure it was just the group with the Meowth?”

“I’m certain,” Cynthia agreed. “Obviously I was concerned about Rockets in my region given what you’ve gone through with them, but these three were flagged in the system, so I figured…”

“I still can’t believe that worked!” James exclaimed as they sorted through the footage.

“How many times do I have to tell you,” Jessie answered, pride clear in her voice, “I’m an amazing actress, so good that they didn’t even pick up on the fact that you two are amateurs!”

“Less yapping and more sorting!” Meowth ordered. “We may have gotten through that stage undetected, but now they’re expecting a fluff piece to go out on air! Something tells me that Lucian guy is the type to double check these sorts of things, so we need to make sure Jubilife TV actually airs this thing!”

“I’m sure they will,” Jessie waved off Meowth’s concern. “Have you seen the garbage they put out? Our segment will be a hit! They might even try to hire us for real!”

“I’m not so sure,” James worried. “It looks like there’s a media blackout! No information about what went down is going anywhere. Will they really allow us to air this?”

“Are you kidding me?” Meowth asked. “We got express permission from the Sinnoh Champion, of course they’ll let us air this! Besides, it looks like the blackout is on everything that happened today, so if we just cut all of that footage out and only air the stuff from last night…”

“You’re joking, right?” Jessie frantically looked between them. “But the lighting in Alberto’s mansion was awful! We can’t possibly air that when we got footage of Palkia and Dialga fighting! I looked so good with that starry sky and the glowing towers in the background!”

“You have a point, Meowth…” James idly said as he scrolled through the news websites. “I wonder what their angle is this time. Maybe they’ll try to say that the panic was all just nightmares from Darkrai? They seem to let that sort of thing out on a regular basis, so people might overlook it as gossip.”

“I don’t care what they use as a cover story!” Meowth yelled. “We told them we’d shoot a story on what went down between Alberto and Darkrai, and that’s what we’re gonna give them! Even if it’s just Alberto talking about it like he’s some big shot, the masses will eat that slop up like it's fine dining! This could even be our in for getting insider knowledge on the League, and what will the Boss think of that?”

Jessie’s eyes shone with delight. “We’ll be his favorites for sure! Oh, this is going to be great! James, do you know how to edit this so my eyes really pop?”

Dawn looked at herself in a full body mirror, twisting and turning and doing all sorts of poses as her team nervously looked on behind her.

No matter which way she looked at it, the bandages that covered her leg were not cute at all. She’d definitely lose points in the next contest because of them.

Or maybe she wouldn’t? The Alamos Town Contest had been cancelled for obvious reasons, and she wasn’t quite sure of when the next one was. Hearthome didn’t look that far away on a map, but she’d always been bad at keeping track of dates. Maybe she’d be free of the bandages by the time it rolled around.

Though that could just leave her with a nasty scar instead.

She frowned as she stepped away from the mirror, sitting down on a chair in one of the few spaces of the Pokemon Center that weren’t occupied at the moment.

In a way, she felt guilty for feeling so bad about it. She’d seen lots of hurt people and Pokemon out there, and lots of them were more hurt than she was.

But at the same time…

She couldn’t do this anymore. It seemed like there was never a break. If it wasn’t Team Rocket then it was Hunter J. If it wasn’t having to sit through one of Ash’s Gym battles then it was trying to keep up as he got them lost in a forest. The Alamos Contest was supposed to be her time and yet here she was having just gone through.. That.

Maybe…

Maybe she shouldn’t travel with them anymore.

They were all super nice people, even if they really annoyed her at times, and she really appreciated everything they’d done to help her as a fresh trainer. But Zoey travelled alone. None of the other coordinators she could think of travelled with a group.

That… well, it was kind of a scary thought, being all alone with everything she’d seen. She loved her Pokemon but she wasn’t sure they could really protect her if things got as serious as they had been.

But she could always ask to travel with Zoey! Or, well, anyone really. It’s not like she had planned to travel with Ash and Brock. She’d just stumbled into them on that first day. And N had just sort of shown up one day! She could do the same with a different group, she was sure.

It would be different. Really different.

But as she looked down at her leg, as she thought about the nightmares she was going to have about today…

Maybe something really different was exactly what she needed.

Ash barely even winced as the nurse started to wrap his wounds, having finished up his treatment.

No broken bones this time, so that was a plus. Burns and cuts were pretty standard, as far as he was concerned. A few days of keeping those areas clean and he’d be as good as new.

Of course, being used to the physical pain didn’t do much to help his brain. He still hated that he’d had to go through this again. That so many of his Pokemon were getting treated by one of the dozens of Nurse Joys here.

That something was off, in a way that didn’t feel familiar.

“Pika?”

“I don’t know buddy, I’m sure they’re all fine.”

None of his friends were here.

Brock being busy made sense. He knew doctor stuff, so he was helping the injured Pokemon. That had become a normal thing after the… second time? Third? He couldn’t quite remember.

But he was rarely alone. Sure, he would always have Pikachu at his side, but he was so used to having more two-sided conversations with people after this sort of thing. Misty telling him she’d strangle him if he did something so stupid again. Teaming up with May to reassure Max that everything was going to be okay, even if he could tell that May wasn’t doing much better.

He’d only seen Dawn and N for a short minute before they’d disappeared, off to do other things. He wasn’t sure what, with how chaotic everything still was, but this was their first time handling Legends, so he couldn’t really blame them for needing a moment.

“You’re all set, young man,” the nurse politely informed him. “Now, to make sure this all heals properly-” Ash zoned out as she gave him instructions he knew quite well. It wasn’t his first time doing this after all. When she gave him a smile and moved on to the next patient, he stood, letting Pikachu jump up on his shoulder.

“Come on, Pikachu. Let’s see if we can find the others.”

Getting through the crowds was kind of a pain, but he weaved through them and eventually made his way outside, looking out at the untouched streets of Alamos. He had never really stuck around long enough to help with the clean up of damaged areas before, but he was glad to see that he wouldn’t be leaving that work for someone else this time.

“Ash!”

He turned around, smiling when he saw N. Luckily his green haired friend didn’t look hurt at all, but it was possible he had injuries hidden under his clothing…

“Pika!”

“Hey, N! Are you and Mimikyu alright?”

N nodded, but something seemed wrong.

“We’re… holding up. Do you know where the others are? I think we need to talk.”

It took Ash a moment, but eventually he recognized the look on N’s face. It wasn’t one he liked to see, but he’d had to accept it a handful of times now.

But he couldn’t make this about him.

“I’m not sure where Dawn is right now. Let’s find her together.”

If not for him, they probably wouldn’t have been dragged into this.

He couldn’t fault them for not liking that fact.