Unbroken Disguise

The Pokemon Center had started to empty out by the time they’d gathered everyone up. They found themselves in a relatively quiet area just outside of it, under the light of the sun and out of the way of the remaining medical professionals and injured. There was still a sense of unease in the city, having been only a scant few hours since the departure of the Legends, but it looked like Alamos would bounce back without too much delay.

The strangeness of the situation extended to their group. N took a good look at them, assessing their state properly for the first time. It felt a bit rude, to only be paying attention to them when they were about to have this conversation, but he wanted to really take them in.

Dawn was a fidgety mess. She looked like she desperately wanted to bring something up, but also like she couldn’t work up the nerve to do so. So unsure of herself. It hadn’t been the first time he’d seen her in this state, but the way that her leg was covered in bandages made it seem worse than normal. It wasn’t bad enough that she needed a crutch to support herself, but to see such a young girl in that sort of state…

Brock looked exhausted. He’d been helping out with the medical team for hours now, and he’d been caught up in the nonsense with the Legends before that, so his weariness wasn’t out of place. Though despite his exhaustion, he stood firm before them, acting as an anchor, or perhaps more aptly, as a rock that could support the younger trainers.

Ash… Ash looked like he was putting on a strong face. Like he somehow knew what was coming. Like he was upset about what was to come, but didn’t want to appear that way.

But then again, he hadn’t known Ash all that long. Who was he to assign motivations to the boy like that? Ash was a good kid. He was probably just trying to get over the day’s ordeal, even if he was apparently the most experienced in dealing with Legends by far. N couldn’t imagine that repeat performances made it any easier.

Pikachu, atop Ash’s shoulder like always, seemed irritable, his tail flicking to and fro, but he didn’t make any idle chatter.

“So what did you want to talk about, N?” Ash asked with a forced smile. It was a good act. With the state that Dawn was in, she probably wouldn’t even notice. But his lips were a little too strained, his eyes a bit dull.

N knew what he needed to say, but the words still fought him. That was alright, though. He’d trained for this sort of thing. Grand speeches were more fitting for the other high ranking members, but he could handle something of this scale.

“I appreciate that you all welcomed Mimikyu and I into your group so readily, back when we met in Jubilife,” he told them in a calm, measured tone, “And despite the… bumps in the road along the way…” it almost felt like an insult to call their brushes with death mere bumps in the road, but he didn’t think calling them anything more serious would accomplish anything but bringing the mood down further, “...I’ve enjoyed our time together. But I’m afraid this is where our paths diverge, at least for now.”

The reactions were mixed. Brock let out a deep sigh. Dawn seemed to jolt in place, her eyes widening. Pikachu clicked his tongue, but Ash quickly adjusted his shoulder and shot the Electric type a dirty look before he could say anything.

Mimikyu moved suddenly on his shoulder, turning to face him rather than the rest of the group. “Ya really…?”

Perhaps he should have discussed things properly with the little ghost beforehand. Sure, N held the Pokeball that Mimikyu was registered to, but he would release him in a heartbeat if his friend requested it. Mimikyu had been the one to lead him in this direction, and things hadn’t exactly gone to plan if N was interpreting the fairy’s reactions correctly, but maybe he would want to stay with the trainers before them rather than him…

N held his breath, a sudden bout of nervousness eating away at him.

“...I see.” Those were the only words Mimikyu uttered before settling back into a comfortable position once more, apparently accepting N’s decision. Accepting him.

“Are you sure?” Ash asked. “I know things got kind of…” he trailed off, not keen on speaking of the day’s events. “You can stay with us, if you want. We’d be happy to keep you by our side.”

“I’m sure.” N smiled, trying to reassure the boy. “I know the timing isn’t great, but this was never intended to be a permanent arrangement.” He had only planned to stay long enough to sate his curiosity about Mimikyu and get some help with the Stone. He hadn’t accomplished either of those goals, but sometimes plans needed to change.

“If that’s really what you want…” Brock took over, “Then at least stick around long enough for me to whip up a meal. We can have a little… going away picnic. And if you ever change your mind… well, we’ll probably be near a Gym.”

N wasn’t sure what to make of it. He and Brock had never spoken all that much, some unspoken mutual suspicion between them, but the offer just now felt… strangely genuine. Had N misjudged the situation? Had the suspicion been one sided? Or perhaps recent events had changed something…

His musings on Brock’s motives were interrupted by Dawn.

“U-um!” The girl stuttered. “I… I’m leaving too!”

N hadn’t been expecting that one. And judging by the looks on the others’ faces, they were in the same boat.

“Now, Dawn-” Brock started.

“No!” She cut him off. “Don’t try to talk me out of it. I’ve already decided.” Her limbs trembled ever so slightly, but she stood before them with fire behind her moist eyes.

Brock looked hurt by that, but he dropped it.

“...Dawn?” Mimikyu whispered. The little ghost seemed even more shocked than N felt.

Nobody was sure of what to say. N figured leaving the group would be tough on its own, but for Dawn to suddenly jump in and do the same…

“I guess that’s it then,” Ash finally broke the silence. “Let’s start on that meal, right Brock? Gotta make sure we all have a full stomach before we go our separate ways!”

N wasn’t sure how much he’d be able to stomach with the way his gut was roiling.

The food had been good, what he’d managed to eat, anyway. The company was better. For a moment, N had questioned if this was truly the right decision, but it was like Brock had said. If he ever changed his mind, he could probably find them at a Gym. So instead, N focused on trying to make their last meal as a group a happy one, forcing himself to hide his true thoughts a little less for just that short duration. Ash deserved at least that much.

Mimikyu had apparently thought to do the same, slipping off to talk with the other Pokemon for a little while as he snacked on some Cheri berries.

Now, though, he was leaving Alamos behind. It had been a little while, but things were back to just him and Mimikyu.

Or at least, that had been the plan.

“I’m really sorry, N,” Dawn nervously apologized once more. “I’m just worried about getting to Hearthome on my own, and I-”

“Dawn. You’re fine,” he reassured her.

He and Mimikyu hadn’t gotten more than ten steps away from the group before Dawn suddenly asked if she could tag along for just a bit.

When he agreed, he didn’t realize that he was accepting a trip to Hearthome, but it’s not like he had actually planned for where he wanted to go next. And beyond that…

Dawn’s eyes kept darting around wildly. Her hand rarely went far from her pokeballs. The girl was a nervous wreck, waiting for something to jump out at her.

While Dawn was a trainer, and such a thing was quite unfavorable to N’s values, he couldn’t deny that he held a soft spot for her. She cared about her Pokemon far more than the average trainer. And so he found himself trying to comfort her, even if he didn’t really know how.

Growing up as he did didn’t exactly lead to a conducive environment for helping other humans.

Luckily for him, though, everyone understood Pokemon, even if they didn’t understand them like he did.

“What do you know about that Pokemon, Dawn? I’ve never seen one before.” He pointed off into the distance, into a grassy field where the trees had yet to encroach. The fine details were hard to make out at this distance, but the cream colored fur and the fire erupting from it were hopefully enough to make it recognizable. It reminded him a bit of a Blitzle, if the colors were changed and the Electric typing swapped for Fire.

It took her a moment to follow his gaze, but once her vision locked onto the Pokemon, she seemed to calm slightly. “That? I think it’s a Ponyta.”

“Yer right,” Mimikyu approved, not that she would understand him.

“Do you know anything about them?” N encouraged her, hoping to get her thinking about something other than whatever was bothering her.

“Um… They were really popular in contests for a while, though you don’t see them too much anymore. Or, not in the ones I’ve seen on TV, anyway…”

“And why is that?”

“I think my mom said it was because Fire types are rare in Sinnoh? Or, they used to be. So coordinators that wanted to perform with a Fire type didn’t really have many options until now, if they started out here. You used to see foreign coordinators with other Fire types, or sometimes a really strong trainer would bring one back from the Battle Zone, but the only other options were a Chimchar or Magmar, really, and those can both be hard to find.”

N quietly tucked away the name Battle Zone into the corner of his mind he never wanted to look at again. He was certain that with a name like that, the place must be awful.

“So Sinnoh recently started to get a lot more variety in Fire types?” he asked, trying to steer the conversation back towards more pleasant things.

“Yeah. We started to get Growlithe near my house a few years ago!” Dawn answered, her nervousness fading completely, replaced by a smile. “My mom would never let me get too close to them, but I’d watch them from the window for hours! They’re just so cute!”

“Growlithe?”

“Oh!” Dawn blushed, apparently having forgotten his lack of knowledge concerning local Pokemon. “You remember Officer Jenny’s Arcanine, right?” Once N nodded in affirmation, she continued. “Growlithe evolves into Arcanine! They’re like little mini Arcanine!”

“Interesting… What other Fire types can you find in Sinnoh?”

“Well, there’s Chimchar, obviously…”

The two of them fell into a comfortable back and forth, with Mimikyu chiming in with a word or two every now and then, and the destruction from that morning was temporarily forgotten as they progressed down route 207.

It was as they approached the foot of Mt. Coronet and the sky became a blazing orange while the sun set on the horizon that they decided to set up camp for the night. With how rugged and rocky this area was, N knew that they were in for a rough night. There was no grassy clearing nearby for them to rest in, and the best they could find was an area that at least had worn down stones from regular use instead of the sharp, pointy areas off to the sides of the route. Dawn had released her Pokemon and was preparing dinner for them while got to work on a meal for the two of them. It wasn’t going to compare very well to Brock’s cooking, but he was at least a serviceable chef.

As he was mixing a salad, Mimikyu shuffled over to him, yet another Cheri berry in hand. Maybe he needed to watch how many of those the little fairy was consuming…

“N.”

“Yes?” N raised a brow, wondering if his friend was getting back to his normal self now. Even if he’d spoken some on the way here, it hadn’t been to the usual level.

“Do ya…” the ghost looked around, “maybe I’m jus’ imaginin’ things, but don’ it feel like we’re bein’ watched?”

N tensed up. Perhaps it was just paranoia, but after the events in Alamos, any strange feelings were something he was prepared to take very seriously. “What do you mean?”

“It’s like there’s somethin’ crawlin’ on my skin… do I ‘ave skin?” The Pokemon shook his head, the disguise bobbing along with the motion. “Nevermin’ that. Ya know that feelin’ some people get when somethin’ jus’ ain’ right? Not like… not like Alamos, mind ya, jus’ a… well, honestly I don’ know if it’s jus’ a normal feelin’ of bein’ watched either…”

That was concerning, but N didn’t know what to make of it. “Do you mean like when a territorial Bouffalant is eyeing you up?”

“Maybe? I don’ know much about Bouffalant, but I jus’ can’ shake this feelin’. It’s been eatin’ away at me for a few minutes now and it’s drivin’ me mad!”

N looked around the area they had set up in, and found nothing. There were no trees or bushes for a wild Pokemon to be hiding in, and there were no Flying types up above. Perhaps a Geodude was watching them? It would blend in with the surroundings pretty easily.

“I don’t see anything, but if we’re being watched then maybe we should move further down the route before camping for the night.”

“As expected from our new lord.”

N about jumped out of his skin when those words were said not a foot behind him.

Dawn shrieked, and her Pokemon got between her and whoever was behind him. Mimikyu cursed, and N whirled around, trying to get his eyes on the intruder into their camp.

Black and white. The man before him had a very monochromatic color scheme, broken only by his blue eyes. His skin wasn't pure white, but he was pasty, and his hair was as white as paper. A black headband held a mane of hair even more wild than his own out of the stranger’s face. Not that he could see much of the face even with that. A black mask hung over the man’s nose, fitting tightly to his body as it trailed down his neck and disappeared into his sleeveless top. The garment only covered the man’s chest, transitioning into a thin bodysuit that showed off a rather impressive build, before a thick leather belt held up baggy pants and a strange… overcoat? It was like the man had taken a short cape and wrapped it around his waist instead of his shoulders. Thick gloves and boots hid his extremities from sight.

N had never seen this man before in his life.

“You- who are you? What are you doing in our camp?” The man’s words finally registered. “What do you mean by your new lord?”

“Apologies, lord N.” The same voice responded.

But it hadn’t been from the man in front of him.

He and Dawn jumped in shock again, as what must be the first man’s twin revealed himself from next to Dawn.

Where had they come from? He could understand the one having snuck up behind him, but the second definitely hadn’t been next to Dawn just a moment ago.

“Our orders were to make contact as quickly as possible.”

The voice came from behind him, despite the fact that he had both of the twins in sight.

“How many of you are there?!” He shouted as his heart threatened to beat right out of his chest.

He didn’t know these people. Didn’t know their intentions. Part of him was worried that they were here for a fight, but beyond scaring him half to death, they didn’t seem hostile so far.

And a glance at Mimikyu showed that he had perked up at their arrival…

“We are the Shadow Triad,” the first man informed him, both introducing himself and answering his question at the same time.

“I’ve never heard of a Shadow Triad!”

“N, what’s going on?!” Dawn cried out.

When he looked to the girl, she seemed terrified, shaking in her boots with her Pokemon trying to form a defensive ring around her. Buneary nervously shuffled on her feet, Pachirisu had small sparks flying off of her, and Piplup had puffed up his chest, ready to go toe to webbed toe with the strangers. It was only after she questioned him that he realized that the conversation up until now had been in Unovan.

These men weren’t from Sinnoh. They knew his name. They called him lord.

As N put the puzzle pieces together, his heart rate started to slow. In a quick burst of League Language, he reassured Dawn. “It’s alright, Dawn. These guys… seem to know me, somehow. I don’t think they’ll hurt us.”

“You’ve learned the local tongue already? Impressive, lord N. We were told that you’ve only been in these lands for a short time,” the one next to Dawn said.

“So they know ya, but ya don’ know them? Interestin’...” Mimikyu chimed in. The triad looked to the little ghost, but did not respond. He doubted that they understood him.

“You seem puzzled, lord N,” the third said, walking near his… brothers? So N could keep all of them in his line of sight at once, “Allow us to explain.”

“And your impressive detection skills forced us to interrupt your meal preparation. We shall remedy this.”

N didn’t think he was going to enjoy this.

It was bizarre, sitting next to Dawn, their Pokemon friends gathered around them, as they watched one of these “shadows” prepare the salad he had been working on, while another started up a stew, and the third sat cross legged before them, his focus solely on his “lord”.

The stew smelled delicious, and reminded him of home. The rice that he had been eating so often in Sinnoh was good, but had also been foreign. Some familiarity eased his nerves around these strangers.

With the Shadow Triad only speaking Unovan, and Dawn only speaking the League Language, N was the only person in a position to translate.

But given what this was about… he opted to leave Dawn in the dark, sat next to him if only to provide some comfort to herself.

“Before we begin, is she to be trusted?” The Shadow before him asked.

There was only one girl here, so he must mean Dawn. N thought for a moment.

“I trust her, and she doesn’t understand Unovan anyway.”

The Shadow nodded, taking his words at face value. “Then let us begin with a proper introduction. As we said before, we are the Shadow Triad. Ghetsis saved us, and to repay our debt to him, we have sworn him our loyalty. Given your position, that loyalty extends to you, lord N.”

“I… see…” He really didn’t. Someone who had been saved would become just a member of Team Plasma, would they not? The only exceptions for as long as he had known had been the Sages, his fa- Ghetsis, and himself. What made this Shadow Triad special?

“Ghetsis was… quite vexed when he discovered that you had left the Unova region without informing him first.”

“Huh…” Mimikyu quietly hummed, but N paid little attention to it. It wasn’t like he knew who Ghetsis was, or Team Plasma for that matter, so he would likely get lost in this conversation.

But now that he was thinking about his current excursion, he supposed that he had been rather rash about the whole thing. He’d followed Mimikyu to Sinnoh on little more than a whim. “I’ll have to apologize to him, then. Things have been… hectic lately for me.”

“I am certain that he would appreciate that, lord N. You can do so in the morning.”

That got his attention. “What do you mean, I can do it in the morning? He’s in Unova, and we’re in Sinnoh. And I’m fairly certain the League is spying on me due to recent events, so digital communication is… ill advised.”

“That is not a problem at all, lord N. We have been sent to retrieve you, and bring you back to Unova. We can get you there shortly.”

Mimikyu bristled, and N felt a sliver of fear leak out. He had long been desensitized to such small amounts, Dawn barely shivered after experiencing what she had this morning, but the Shadow Triad all had their eyes on his friend in an instant, pausing their activities.

It seemed that Mimikyu was still intent on finishing his business here.

“...Ghetsis wants me to return?”

“Yes, lord N.” The Shadow Triad went back to working on dinner like nothing had happened.

Part of him wanted to agree. Sinnoh had been full of interesting Pokemon and people, but it had also been full of danger and battles and fear and confusion. What better way to get away from it all, like he had told the others he wanted to, than to go back to Unova?

But another part of him wanted to stay with Mimikyu, and if his friend had bristled like that, he wasn’t sure that the ghost would follow. He hadn’t been the one who decided to step away from Ash’s group. He still had business with Sinnoh’s Legends. There was nothing stopping him from parting ways with N.

N was silent for a bit, thinking it over, and the Shadow Triad did not rush him at all. Dawn looked between them, antsy as could be given that she didn’t understand any of this, but she didn’t prod him for answers he wasn’t freely giving. Though he could expect a grilling once this was over.

Once this was over… he was already assuming that he’d stay.

“...I apologize, but I’m afraid I have unfinished business here, and I don’t know how long it might take me to see it through. I will be back in Unova before our plans move forward, but until then, I intend to continue my exploration, even if it has taken me to a foreign land.”

The Shadow Triad looked between each other, clearly not having expected that answer.

Eventually, though no words passed between them, they seemed to reach a consensus. “Very well, lord N. May we request a detailing of your activities since you last checked in, so that we may inform Ghetsis?”

“I suppose he would want that, wouldn’t he?” And if Ghetsis had trusted them with something like this, then they could be trusted with what he’d learned so far. “Where to begin though…”

Mimikyu hummed. “Ya could probably start with meetin’ me, I s’pose.”

“You’re right. I was exploring the Lostlorn Forest when…”