Chapter 209: With Kyurem's Help, We'd Actually Have a Fighting Chance!
"Everyone." Alder turned the DNA Splicers over in his hands, uncertain. "Should we go after Kyurem?"
He'd spent the whole previous night on the question and still couldn't commit.
The others around the table thought it over in silence.
"Could you walk us through your reservations, Alder?" Cynthia asked. She could hear the hesitation in how he'd phrased it.
"Of course." Alder exhaled. "First — going after Kyurem means accepting that we're going to war with Team Rocket. Formally."
That was the part he kept circling back to.
As of right now, Team Rocket had landed in Unova without making a single aggressive move against the Unova League directly. Their operations had been directed at Team Plasma, at loose criminal outfits, at hunter organizations. There had been no reports of them robbing ordinary citizens' Pokémon, no mass poaching operations, nothing in that category.
If the League moved against them first, that was a declaration. A signal that open warfare had begun.
It was the right thing to do — a Pokémon League going after a criminal organization was completely normal. But Alder hesitated. Team Rocket was strong, and Mammon was sitting on a living weapon in the form of Primal Kyogre. And Alder was old enough to know that "righteous" and "winnable" weren't the same word.
"Second — Kyurem's actual power level is unknown, and its temperament…" He tapped the Splicers lightly. "Based on what I know of the Lacunosa Town legend, Kyurem may be one of the more volatile legendaries out there. Going to find it, disturbing its sleep — we might be inviting an attack. It might not help us at all."
The legend hadn't painted Kyurem as cooperative. It had painted Kyurem as something the town had built walls to keep out.
"That's why I wanted to hear what all of you think."
"That's really something only you can decide, Alder." Cynthia shook her head gently. "We're not in a position to make that call for you."
"She's right," Leon agreed. "Whether to go to open war with Team Rocket — that's on Unova's shoulders. We can't give you that answer."
He and Cynthia and Steven had all felt the weight of how the Hoenn situation had ended. They'd let Steven make that call himself, and the consequences had been serious enough to leave marks. They weren't going to push anyone else into a decision like that.
"To be fair to Mammon's operation," Steven said carefully, "what we've seen from Team Rocket in Unova so far isn't the behavior of an organization running rampant. At least not yet."
"Agreed." Wallace was more diplomatic about it. "The Hoenn branch conducted itself like a business. The competitive methods were occasionally aggressive — buying bad press against rivals, poaching internal contacts, that sort of thing. Unpleasant, but compared to direct violence, it's a different category."
Though that was only as of right now. Nobody could predict where Team Rocket's trajectory was going.
The Kanto track record didn't help. That chapter was thoroughly black, no amount of rebranding could change it.
"But Mammon has ambitions," Steven said quietly. "None of us know what he's planning. I still remember what he said — that he wants to stand above everything."
Whatever that meant, exactly.
"Even if Team Rocket is currently content to develop quietly," Alder said, "we can't accept it. The Unova League doesn't answer only to me — and no version of this League can sign off on a criminal organization simply settling in."
An organization that powerful operating unchecked was a threat regardless of current behavior.
Alder took a slow breath and made his decision.
"We go after Kyurem."
His voice was firm now. He looked toward Looker.
"If we can get Kyurem's cooperation, we'd actually have a fighting chance against Team Rocket."
Looker nodded and clicked on the projector.
"We've now compiled a fairly complete picture of Team Rocket Unova's leadership structure." He brought up the first slide.
"Top executives: four confirmed. Mammon leading. Caitlin, Kagura, and the newly defected Colress."
He advanced the slide.
"Mammon's known legendary assets, current threat assessment: Primal Kyogre, Dark Mewtwo, Reshiram, Shiny Genesect, young Rayquaza — unconfirmed — and Suicune and Tapu Fini."
The room was quiet for a moment.
Suicune and Tapu Fini didn't cause particular alarm among the non-Unova Champions — those two were strong, but the honest truth was that Mammon's Mega Gengar and Mega Tyranitar were arguably more immediately dangerous in battle. It was the first four entries on that list that mattered.
The young Rayquaza had appeared in Goldenrod during the Johto Pokémon Association incident and attacked the building — almost certainly already caught, but not confirmed, hence the asterisk.
But the ones before that—
"He's grown to this level already."
Giovanni's brow was tight as he looked at the threat assessment. Mammon's danger rating was maxed out across every category. His voice was low.
"That's… genuinely absurd," Wallace said, shaking his head slowly.
Even setting aside the Rayquaza, Mammon had a full team of six legendary-tier Pokémon. A complete hand.
Cynthia, Leon, and Steven said nothing. There wasn't much to say.
"Which is why, if we're going to fight them," Alder said, the gravity clear in his voice, "we need Kyurem. Without it, the odds are too bad to make this worth attempting."
"There's another option, Alder." Leon rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. "We could try to bring N over to our side."
Alder looked at him.
"N was deceived and used by Ghetsis. Mammon already exposed that. I think we have a real shot at getting N's cooperation — and he's not a resource we should ignore."
"That's not a bad idea at all."
Alder's expression sharpened. N with Zekrom wasn't Mammon-tier, but he was a significant piece. Depending on how things went, that could matter.
"I'll have someone locate N. If we find him, I'll reach out personally."
"And Kyurem's location?" Steven asked.
"The Lacunosa Town legend puts it in Giant Chasm. I'll send scouts. Once they confirm, we move."
Alder paused.
"Kyurem's temperament is the wildcard. If it turns hostile — Gym Leader Giovanni, I'm going to need Groudon."
A dragon ancient enough to have eaten people and Pokémon according to local legend wasn't the kind of thing Alder wanted to approach without a contingency.
"Of course." Giovanni's smile was mild and entirely composed.
N's castle — or rather, Mammon's castle now.
Morning light filtered through the curtains in thin gold lines and fell across the bed.
Concordia's golden hair spread across the pillow, catching the light like something out of a painting. She blinked awake slowly, the ceiling coming into focus.
The first thing she saw when she turned her head was a profile — sharp features, dark lashes, the easy, unconscious composure of someone sleeping well.
Her mind stalled for a moment.
Then last night came back to her, and warmth flooded her face all at once.
She sat up carefully and looked to her other side. Anthea was still asleep, curled against Mammon's side, dried tear tracks faintly visible at the corners of her eyes.
Concordia pressed her lips together, eased herself out of the bed, found her clothes on the floor and pulled them on. Standing fully upright produced an involuntary wince.
She was calm about it — a composure that probably did justify the title Goddess of Peace, all things considered.
She had agreed to this herself. She and Anthea both had. It was the price they'd offered — to keep N safe.
She just hadn't fully thought through what came after.
Concordia moved quietly toward the door and slipped out into the hallway.
Where she almost immediately encountered a young woman in a fitted pink dress, and beside her, Elesa.
Elesa had come to wake Mammon up. She had not gone into the room. She was not going to go into the room. Whatever was in there, she did not need to see it and she was not going to risk it.
"Miss Caitlin. Miss Elesa." Concordia folded her hands at her waist and gave a small, graceful bow. "Good morning."
"Morning." Elesa's response was perfectly neutral. Her eyes moved briefly over Concordia with the evaluative calm of someone cataloguing information without making it obvious.
Very pretty. And the loose top isn't fooling anyone, good grief.
"Is Mammon still asleep?"
Caitlin's gaze had made a similar quiet assessment of Concordia's posture, and moved on without comment.
"Yes."
"Fine."
Caitlin turned without hesitation and walked toward the stairs, steps unhurried and perfectly even.
She had noticed. She had categorized the information. She was not going to produce a reaction about it in the hallway.
Those two women. Honestly. Not enough that they'd gone and done this — they'd apparently done it together. And at a volume that suggested complete indifference to the existence of neighboring rooms.
Shameless.
Caitlin regulated her breathing as she descended the stairs. There was nothing to be upset about. She was dignified. She was not going to be upset about this.
Unova's women apparently had no concept of self-restraint, which was fine, because she couldn't hold them to her own standards. And Mammon had simply been insufficiently immune to temptation, which was also fine, because these experiences would presumably accumulate into wisdom at some point. It was fine.
She was fine.
Caitlin smoothed her expression back into its usual perfect calm.
"…Does it seem like Miss Caitlin has some hostility toward me?"
Concordia watched Caitlin's departing back with a slightly uncertain expression. She was called the Goddess of Peace for a reason — she was attuned to interpersonal tension, and that had registered clearly.
But why?
"Don't worry about it. That's just how Caitlin is." Elesa's tone was entirely matter-of-fact.
She'd adapted to this.
"Is it?"
"Mm. Caitlin has feelings for Mammon — everyone knows that. So any woman who shows up anywhere near him gets a certain temperature from her. You'd get it regardless." Elesa glanced at her briefly. "You just got an upgraded version."
Concordia's face went pink.
"That said — you don't need to be afraid of her doing anything. She's actually quite decent as a person. At worst you'll get a few sharp remarks."
Elesa delivered this with the flat authority of someone reporting documented findings.
"As long as Mammon isn't showing signs of disliking you, Caitlin won't actually move against you. She knows that hurting you would make him unhappy, and she won't risk that."
It was the conclusion Elesa had arrived at through direct experience. She'd tested the theory somewhat more aggressively than she'd intended to, but the data was solid.
Her opinion of Caitlin had not been warm, particularly after a certain morning conversation she preferred not to revisit. But over the weeks of traveling together, she'd found herself developing something closer to grudging respect.
Caitlin's particular brand of devotion was, Elesa had to admit, genuinely unlike anything she'd encountered before.
The woman was completely in love, had been for what appeared to be some time, and had so far expressed it by being impeccably composed, scrupulously loyal, and quietly furious at everyone who came within arm's reach of the object of her feelings.
Elesa had never seen someone pine with such absolute commitment to elegance.
(End of Chapter)
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