Chapter 214: Please Help Me Rescue Zekrom — It's My Most Important Partner
Losing Zekrom hit N with a force that was difficult to describe.
It had happened right in front of him. Right there, within arm's reach, and he had been entirely powerless to stop it — he could only watch as it was swallowed whole, unable to do anything at all.
The sensation was like drowning. Like being held underwater and told to stay calm.
N sat on the mountainside, submerged in that feeling, unable to surface.
"N. Get up. We need to move."
Ghetsis had gathered himself first. He was already scanning the terrain, voice low and urgent.
They weren't far from Opelucid — Zekrom hadn't gotten much distance before Black Kyurem caught them. That meant the League would be here quickly.
But N's eyes were still unfocused, still turned inward.
"Pull yourself together. We can leave first and then figure out how to get Zekrom back. It isn't over. Stand up."
He's utterly useless, Ghetsis thought, frustration rising behind his carefully managed expression. But I need him. I have nothing — Alder took every Poké Ball I had. Without N, I can't get back to the castle.
So he kept his voice controlled.
"We can rescue Zekrom later. But only if we get out of here first."
Something in those words landed.
"Rescue Zekrom…" N murmured it, almost to himself. Then, slowly, the light came back into his eyes.
Yes. Rescue Zekrom. That was what he needed to do. That was the only thing that mattered.
"Exactly. We—" Ghetsis started to exhale in relief.
Then footsteps.
Multiple sets, fast, coming from the direction of the city.
Ghetsis felt his stomach drop.
"N!! Ghetsis!!"
Alder and Leon arrived at a run, a unit of Looker's officers behind them.
—are you KIDDING me—
Ghetsis's face went flat with suppressed fury. He'd been so close. If that useless boy had just moved immediately instead of sitting there in a stupor, they'd have been long gone—
And now, without Zekrom, N was Champion-tier but not meaningfully more than that. Two Champions and a squad of officers — there was no angle here.
"Stand down. Neither of you is leaving today." Alder looked at them both, voice carrying a quiet finality.
He'd received the alert about the prison break and come immediately, and on the way he'd seen the aftermath — Black Kyurem in the sky, and what had happened to Zekrom.
Ghetsis said nothing. His expression could have curdled milk.
N didn't seem to be listening to Alder's words at all. He was staring at the sky where Black Kyurem had disappeared, and whatever was happening in his mind, it wasn't about resisting arrest.
The outcome was swift and undramatic. Ghetsis was in handcuffs again. N went with the officers without a word of protest, which nearly broke Ghetsis's composure entirely — one Dragon-type move, N, ANYTHING—
But N had made a calculation.
He'd seen Leon fight Zekrom. Leon had held it. And Leon was here. Without Zekrom, N knew his own limits. Fighting was pointless. Getting captured was preferable to getting injured.
Given that N surrendered completely, Alder didn't cuff him. The tone of the whole thing stayed surprisingly civil.
The Opelucid League building. Alder's office.
"Ghetsis is not a good person." Alder looked at N across the desk. "Why risk yourself for him?"
"He raised me." N was quiet for a moment. "Whatever else is true — he raised me."
Alder and Leon exchanged a glance.
N was not a bad person. That had been clear since the last confrontation. He'd been steered by someone who knew exactly which levers to pull. But seeing him here — answering honestly, sitting still—
"Was what Mammon said true?" Leon asked. "About Ghetsis. About how he constructed your childhood."
"Yes."
The single syllable was heavy.
"Then, N — what are your ideals now?"
"A future where Pokémon and people can both be happy. Together."
N pressed his lips together for a moment before speaking. The separation ideology — that had been built on a foundation of curated suffering, he understood that now. But the core feeling that had always driven him — that Pokémon deserved happiness, that the people and Pokémon of the world deserved to live with smiles on their faces — that had been real. That had always been his.
"That's our ideal too."
Alder smiled, and it was genuine. A long breath of something like relief.
If N had remained a committed extremist — the Hero of Ideals with Zekrom at his side, ideologically certain — he would have been a problem for everyone, indefinitely. The fact that he'd arrived here instead was genuinely good news.
"I'd very much like for you to join us, if you're willing. Work toward that together."
He meant it. N with his capabilities, his sensitivity, his relationship with Pokémon — that would be an asset in every sense.
"I…"
Before, N would have accepted. He did want allies who shared that vision.
"I want to," N said quietly. "But Champion Alder — I need to clear my head first."
His voice was tired in a way that didn't quite have a name.
"Zekrom was taken from me right in front of me. I can't—" He stopped. His voice had changed, and he seemed to notice. "I'm having trouble thinking about much else right now."
His jaw tightened, and his eyes were very bright.
He was, at his core, a deeply feeling person. The emotional armor he wore — the flat affect, the even voice — had been assembled over a lifetime of necessity. It didn't go all the way down.
"Of course." Alder's voice gentled. "I've had a room prepared. Get some rest. We can talk again when you're ready."
"Thank you."
N stood, inclined his head to both of them, and followed the staff member out.
Alder put his head in his hands the moment the door closed and made a sound of deep personal suffering.
He could not say it out loud. He really could not look N in the eye and say: the reason Kyurem appeared was, partially, us.
"Don't be too hard on yourself," Leon said, reading him exactly. "Kyurem's movements weren't something anyone could have predicted."
And looking at it coldly — if Kyurem hadn't intercepted N and Zekrom, Ghetsis would have gotten away clean. Nobody had known yet that N was genuinely changing.
The calculation had been reasonable. The outcome had still been painful to watch.
"I know." Alder nodded. "I've already assigned people to track Kyurem's position and locate Mammon. Now that it has Zekrom, Reshiram is its next target. We need to be ready."
N, alone in the room they'd given him, stood at the floor-to-ceiling window and watched Opelucid City in the dark.
The city lights blurred slightly.
Zekrom.
I will get you back. No matter what it takes. I promise.
The next day.
N's castle — or what had been N's castle.
"You came back."
Anthea and Concordia were waiting at the main entrance when N arrived. They'd heard he was coming.
He'd found out from his former subordinates that Team Rocket had taken the castle. His original plan had been to reclaim it after rescuing Ghetsis — but that plan was in pieces now, along with everything else.
"Are you both all right? Has Mammon been — treating you well?"
N looked at them — the two women who had grown up alongside him, who were as close as sisters.
"We're fine." Anthea smiled and shook her head. "Mammon has been quite good to us, actually. We've joined Team Rocket now."
N said nothing immediately.
He could see it, actually. Both of them — their color, their bearing — looked better than he remembered from before. Less strained. He didn't entirely understand why, but if they were genuinely all right, that was what mattered.
"Mammon knows you were coming. He's already inside, waiting for you." Concordia smiled at him, gentle as always.
N nodded and followed them in.
The castle's interior was largely the same, only more. More elaborate furnishings, more modern conveniences. N's castle had always functioned as Team Plasma's operations center — practical, purposeful. Mammon had converted it into somewhere someone actually lived, and the difference showed.
In the main hall, Mammon was on a sofa with a book open on his knee. Tapu Fini and Jirachi occupied the cushions on either side of him, both working methodically through small slices of cake with great concentration.
Caitlin sat in an armchair nearby, composed as always. Elesa stood behind Mammon, kneading his shoulders with the dutiful expression of someone who has accepted her circumstances and is performing them at professional standard.
It was, N thought, an extremely particular scene.
"Hey~ N. You made it."
Mammon looked up and waved, as though they were old friends meeting by coincidence.
"Come sit. I genuinely didn't think you'd come to see me."
He gestured to the seat across from him. N had reached out to Concordia the previous night, asking to meet — Mammon had said yes immediately. He had a fairly clear idea of what this was about.
N remained standing.
"Mammon. I need your help."
"My help?" Mammon settled back, crossing one leg over the other, studying N with an expression of mild, interested amusement.
"N, my going rate is quite expensive."
"Whatever you want — as long as it's within my power to give — I'll give it to you."
N's voice was low and absolutely steady.
"Hm~" Mammon's eyebrows rose slightly. "That's a significant statement, N. People shouldn't say things like that lightly."
"I've considered it."
He had. All night. The image of Zekrom disappearing — dissolving into that sphere of blue-white light, being swallowed, the final quiet voice in his head — it had played without stopping until morning.
He had thought through every option.
The League — Alder's group — were the obvious first choice. But Leon had been extended to hold Zekrom even before it was absorbed. Against Black Kyurem with Zekrom inside it, could Alder's group actually win? N doubted it seriously.
Which left Mammon.
Mammon was not a good person. N understood that clearly. But N understood, even more clearly, that he could not leave Zekrom where it was.
"Tell me what you need," Mammon said, and the playfulness in his voice had settled into something more attentive. "Start from the beginning."
"Kyurem." N drew a slow breath. "Kyurem attacked Zekrom last night. It absorbed Zekrom into its body."
Anthea and Concordia both went still.
Caitlin and Elesa looked up from what they were doing.
"I want you to help me rescue Zekrom."
"The ice dragon, Kyurem." Mammon tilted his head slightly, making a show of considering it.
"That's not a simple thing to ask."
"You can't do it either?" N's voice tightened. Mammon was the strongest trainer N had personally encountered. If even Mammon couldn't—
"No, no," Mammon said, and smiled.
"I can do it. The question is — do you know what it's going to cost you?"
(End of Chapter)
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