Lune Harmonia

Five years passed – and everything changed in the fire. 

Though the exact cause was unknown, a massive wildfire was sparked during a dry spell on the victory road. It spread quickly, and eventually, Lune’s family was forced to flee through the flames. During the escape, Lune was separated from the rest of her family in the commotion, and in an attempt to seek shelter, pushed her way through a mysterious vent in the ground. Lune navigated the vent until she found an exit, and pushed through the other side, only to fall into a yellow tire. There was a soft melody playing, and though the room smelled heavily of other pokemon, Lune quietly fell asleep curled up in the tire.

Lune was woken up by 3 overlooking figures, all of which appeared to be young humans. Lune had never seen a real human before, only her mother’s illusory impression of one when she told her to avoid them. Understandably, Lune was terrified – she was cornered in a tire, after all. The green-haired human sat up on the tire and… barked? Lune didn’t know humans could bark, and her confusion showed itself, eliciting a snicker from the young boy.

Jumping back from the tire, in the blink of an eye, the boy went from what appeared to be a human to a zorua that was about the same age as Lune! Lune was pleasantly surprised by this, to say the least. The boy introduced himself as N, and introduced the two human girls near him as his sister Athena and Concordia. N asked if Lune had a name, to which she responded, attempting to replicate human speech.

“Rrrr… rrrrr… Rea…?”

^{(From this moment forward, until INTERMISSION II, Lune will be referred to as Rea.)}

N found Rea’s attempts at mimicking humans entertaining, and admitted to her that he hadn’t seen someone new around his age for a long time. N asked if Rea would be his friend, and being as young as she was, Rea gladly agreed.

Over her time living with N and his sisters in that playroom, Rea would quickly learn how to accurately appear and speak like a human, to the point where just like N – she was indistinguishable from a human child.

The two would often be each other’s playmates, and with the help of Rea’s already powerful illusory abilities, the colorful playroom could be transformed into any role-play environment imaginable. Athena and Concordia would play various roles, but N would always be the king, with Rea as the queen in their playground-esque roleplays. N would often brag that he was going to be king soon, and while Rea thought it was just in their games, he seemed rather serious about it – making childish promises that Rea would be queen soon, too.

The two would become ever closer as friends and playmates over the next 5 years, until they were both 10 years old. During a mock-battle with N’s darmanitan friend, Rea had both evolved into a zoroark and injured the darmanitan to a noticeable degree. N tried to take the blame for it, but the scary man in the robe knew N was too weak to do that kind of damage. So, the 4 kids hatched a plan to get Rea out of the playroom before she was discovered and ‘dealt with’. Rea was just barely able to fit in the vent she had originally entered through, so the group marked that as her escape route. With a heartfelt goodbye, N promised that someday, he’d see Rea again.

A lot had changed on the outside during the 5 years Rea was inside N’s castle. The harsh drought and wildfires forever changed the victory road’s landscape. It was no place for a 10-year-old child… which is exactly what Rea appeared to be. This quickly caught the attention of a wandering field botanist named Hana – who went to investigate, thinking it was a lost child. But when Hana discovered the child was in fact a zoroark taking the visage and personality of a human, she was fascinated, and offered to bring Rea home with her. Rea agreed, having no real other options.

So, Rea moved in with Hana in Nuvema Town as her daughter. While Rea was generally wary of humans, she liked Hana – and Rea wanted to be a human, too. Just like N.

After a quick battle, the three friends went to meet with the professor before going off to Route 1, where the trio took the first step of their adventure together.

They quickly made their way to Accumula town, where they walked in on a demonstration from an odd group calling themselves Team Plasma, the leader calling himself Ghetsis – who Rea recognized vaguely as ‘the man in the robe’. Though, Rea couldn’t focus much on the demonstration – a familiar smell was flooding her mind with warm nostalgia. The Plasma demonstration was cleared by police, and the crowd dispersed. As Rea and her friends walked away from the commotion, she heard a slightly familiar voice call out to her. Turning in the direction of the voice, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“N…?!”

It seemed the familiar smell wasn’t a fluke – it really was N. Rea ran up to him and gave him a bit of an overbearing jumping hug as the two friends were reunited after 5 years. Neither of them could really believe they were seeing the other, and they were tripping over words trying to speak to each other after so long. Their moment was interrupted by Cheren, who seemed interested by the two’s reunion.

As Rea started to explain, N tensed up – which caused her some concern. N explained that he couldn’t trust Cheren, since he was a trainer, and he had been told all trainers were bad people who abused pokemon. Whether it be out of concern or not, Rea laughed it off, stating that Cheren and Bianca were her friends – they were alright. Still unconvinced, N spoke to Cheren’s pokemon and was surprised to hear that the oshawott liked Cheren.

N chalked them up to being the sole exceptions, and Rea asked if he’d like to join the traveling party. N looked hesitant, but ultimately agreed.

N would stay in the traveling party for a week as they made their way to Straiton city. Unbeknownst to Rea and friends, Ghetsis had been arrested, and was released after that week. When the shadow triad came to pick N up in secret, N managed to convince them to let him stay with his new friends.

N was quickly able to get along with both Cheren and Bianca, though his personality meshed with Cheren’s particularly well, often leading to entertaining banter between the two.

The adventure’s start was reminiscent of one’s ideal pokemon journey with friends, but it quickly came crashing down.

Rea and Bianca were training in the dreamyard, and all was going well until Rea recognized the cries of a pokemon being attacked – it sounded like a munna. Though she wanted to assume it was a liepard commonly found in the dreamyard fetching a snack, she couldn’t shake an awful feeling.

Following the noise, Rea and Bianca were shocked at what they found: two Plasma grunts were attacking a munna to gather its dream mist. Rea immediately shouted out and started yelling at the grunts. They were stunned enough for just a second, which gave the munna time to escape.

The munna’s escape sparked a heated argument between one of the grunts and Rea, and while the argument wasn’t really going anywhere, the tension continued to build. The grunt stepped into Rea’s space, and without thinking, Rea unsheathed her claws and took a swing at the grunt.

Rea’s anger quickly turned to horror as she snapped back to reality, and her hand was covered in blood.

She only meant for it to be a warning…

Bianca started to cry, and not knowing what else to do, Rea ran off, not looking back towards the grunt clutching at her face.

Rea and Bianca promised to keep the incident a secret from Cheren and N – though afterwards, N was a tad more paranoid. Still, the gang journeyed on, collecting gym badges and sharing memories. It was somewhere along the line that N confessed that his feelings for Rea went beyond that of just best friends, and Rea felt the same – so the two began dating.

As the journey progressed, it would seem that Rea and the party would run into Plasma more and more, and it was often Rea, Bianca, and Cheren who would foil their plans.

Their adventure went without much major incident until the crew hit Nimbasa city, when N invited Rea out on a date to Nimbasa’s amusement park. He seemed equal parts excited and nervous, and wanted to go directly for the ferris wheel.

The date started out normal. Rea listened to N ramble about ferris wheels and formulas, and the two talked about their plans for the rest of the adventure. That was when N spilled it.

“I’m the king of Team Plasma.”

Rea froze. She didn’t know how to react. It made sense; the grunts constantly following the group around, N’s feelings about trainers, the man in the robe… it all connected at one single point. But she didn’t want to accept it. She had let N know about her true feelings about Plasma earlier, thinking they were nothing but hypocritical scum, and yet…

As Rea was frozen in thought, N struggled to read her expression, and nervously continued his thought.

He asked if Rea would like to join him – like in their childish games of days past, where Rea was the queen. As he spoke, the ferris wheel docked at the bottom, and the two of them silently walked outside before Rea snapped.

She was crying and yelling, accusing N of betraying her trust. Despite this, N held his ground in vouching for Plasma, and prepared for a pokemon battle with Rea. To his surprise, Rea took off, running into the forest surrounding the amusement park. N, dumbfounded and distressed, went to inform Cheren and Bianca before discreetly being taken away by the shadow triad.

Rea moped around in the woods for a few days, before the yearning for fast food pulled her back to the city. When she returned, she informed Cheren and Bianca of N’s affiliation, and the two of them were as equally shocked as Rea was when she first learned. The two did the best they could to comfort Rea, but Rea still felt utterly betrayed by someone she loved and trusted with all her heart. She still wanted to believe that somehow, there was a reason.

The gang made their way to Driftviel city, where they encountered Plasma once again – this time, they were interfering with the Cold Storage. Rea and Cheren rushed in, and were quickly able to back the sage Zinzolin into a corner. In his attempt to escape, he let it spill to Rea;

N was merely a puppet. He was to summon Reshiram and win over Unova, and once he did, he’d be ‘disposed of‘ for Ghetsis to take the throne. N had been manipulated to think he was special his whole life.

Zinzolin knew telling this to someone like Rea would be extremely risky, but he needed a chance to escape – and it worked. Rea’s reaction to the horrifying news caught her off guard enough to allow him to escape.

After that, Rea almost immediately went to try and text Cheren and Bianca, but her phone was quickly swatted out of her hands by some unseen force. That force revealed itself to be the shadow triad, who had been watching the whole time. They threatened the lives of anyone Rea told the truth about N to, and that any attempts to hide from now would be futile. They left, and Rea returned to her hotel visibly shaken up by the encounter, unable to tell Cheren or Bianca why.

After beating Driftviel’s gym, Rea made her way through Chargestone cave, where she encountered N – and she almost broke down crying. She felt like the eyes of the shadow triad were staring into her very soul, and there was nothing she could say. N was visibly concerned by this, and went to comfort Rea, but even just looking at his face made the feeling worse. There were no words exchanged between the two, and after Rea stopped crying, the two walked almost silently together through the cave, hand in hand.

At the cave’s exit, N broke the silence, asking if Rea had a dream. She quietly replied with ‘yes‘, but didn’t elaborate. N nodded, and the two’s bitter reunion was over.

Rea’s dream… was to save her friend. No matter the cost.

In Mistralon city, Rea met up with Professor Juniper’s father, Cedric. Rea already knew a vague bit about Unova’s legends from theatre adaptations, so she figured she’d ask him for more elaboration since it was his specialty. It was through him that Rea got in contact with Alder, the region’s champion. He had heard about everything Rea had done to curb Plasma, and he believed that with her relationship to N in mind, the prophecy was clear – N was the hero of truth, and Rea was the hero of ideals. It was at Alder’s request that Rea continue her league journey, but also help stop Plasma when she could. While it was a lot to bear, she agreed, and her journey continued.

Rea became more irritable and paranoid, and tried to hide it all from Cheren and Bianca, who were becoming increasingly concerned about her. Still, the crew continued without much major incident until they hit Iccuris city, where Dragonspiral Tower was attacked by Plasma.

Rushing into the scene, Rea battled through the floors of grunts – hearing a powerful sounding pokemon’s cry about halfway up. When Rea made it to the top, she was greeted by N, who stated that he’d been waiting for her. He had Reshiram by his side, and he asked Rea one last time if she’d time to join him. She refused, and cried out for him to stop this – but N interrupted her. He told her that in that case, the next time they’d see eachother was ‘back where we first met‘, before flying off on Reshiram.

It was after this that Rea was given the black stone by Alder in preparation for her battle.

After this, Rea rushed herself to finish her badge collection as soon as possible, despite her rapidly declining mental health. Cheren and Bianca begged her to take a break, for her sake, but Rea continued to push herself. She finally got her final badge, and the night before Rea was going to take on the elite 4, she said farewell to her two friends – and left before either of them woke up.

However, being her best friend, Cheren managed to catch up to Rea at the victory road. He admitted he didn’t know what was going to happen, but no matter what, the trio would always be friends, and they’d always have Rea’s back.

Rea breezed through the league – she was a powerful trainer, after all. When she made it up to the champion, N was already there, having defeated Alder. Cheren made his way up soon after, and helped a winded Alder up. N turned to Rea, and had the most peculiar smile on his face.

“Let’s go home.” he said.

Rea got a dreadful feeling in her gut, and the ground began rumbling. Her instincts turned into that of a wild animal’s, and kept telling her that she needed to run, now. Still, she held her ground, and as the rumbling intensified. Rea yelled for everyone to duck, and shortly after, by coincidence, N’s castle rose out of the ground.

The grand palace had been sitting under the league for 20 years, but finally, N’s Castle was visible for all to see. There was a pause after the castle finished its ascent, before metal stairways jabbed into the pokemon league at all sides, and Plasma grunts began swarming.

N waved at Rea, and was escorted up the stairs and into the castle by the shadow triad – while Rea, Cheren, and Alder were still in disbelief. The three stood their ground as Plasma grunts surrounded them at all angles, and were eventually able to battle their way through the grunts, and into the castle.

Waiting for them was the 7 sages, who blocked off the rest of the castle with their powerful pokemon. Hope seemed lost, as they were greatly outnumbered the 3, but in the nick of time, Bianca burst through the castle’s main entryway – and she had brought Unova’s gym leaders with her. Chaos ensued as the gym leaders clashed with the sages, and over it all, Alder yelled for Rea to find N.

Rea ran through the castle as fast as she could, navigating the twists and turns based on scent. Just as she was about to reach the top – she stopped. A room beckoned to her, so she took a quick detour to check it out. As it would turn out, it was the playroom Rea and N had spent their childhoods in together, and Athena and Concordia were waiting there. They seemed to be nervous, but were happy to reunite with Rea. They told Rea that Ghetsis had ramped up his manipulation of N ever since the ferris wheel incident, and that N was absolutely convinced he was in the right. They said they still felt Rea could show him the ideal he could be living, as opposed to the false truth he had been told. Rea promised she’d help him, and continued her way to the throne room.

There, N was waiting, with his back turned. When he turned around, he still had that same peculiar, almost menacing smile on his face. Rea didn’t want to fight him, and tried to appeal to him, but he wouldn’t listen, and instead reacted with harsh words. N called upon Reshiram, and the black stone in Rea’s bag started to glow. In a fusion of black and white, the two legendary dragons met, and just as Cheren and Alder arrived in the throne room, N and Rea were surrounded by a massive pillar of electricity and fire.

Zekrom and Rea weren’t in sync at all, as opposed to N and Reshiram, who’d had time to communicate. Because of this, Rea was hasty and Zekrom ended up getting knocked out rather early – but Rea still had more pokemon, namely, herself. Fueled by her fiery emotions and determination to save the one she loved most, Rea jumped into battle herself and took on the god of Truth.

It was a close battle, but as the swirl of fire died down, an exhausted Rea stood as the winner. N seemed to be struck by his disbelief – as he had been convinced he was the chosen one, that he would win. In that moment, Rea let everything she’d been internalizing spill. About Ghetsis’s plot, about how they could just run away from this all together… Rea ran up to N and hugged him tightly, and he hugged her back. He was still relatively strung out, but his loss of the decisive battle grounded him a bit. 

It’s okay now. _{(spoiler alert, it’s not. Warnings for (attempted) murder (impalement), abuse, (attempted) suicide, general despair. Feel free to skip.)}

The two were having a moment, but suddenly, Cheren called out. Rea broke the embrace and stepped away from N, only for her face to turn to horror as she saw a shadow looming over N. She screamed for him to look out, but before N could ask why or react, he was stabbed through the abdomen by Ghetsis’s long cane.

Rea screamed and went to grasp for N as he fell to the ground, but she was suddenly restrained by the shadow triad. Ghetsis proceeded to go on about how N was a failure, a freak, and how he was a fool for holding any hope in him, all while N bled out on the ground. Rea struggled against the shadow triad’s grip, but to no avail. Ghetsis then turned to Rea, and told her how he’d enjoy killing her as well, even if he knew he couldn’t win. Rea, not wanting to accept death by Ghetsis’s hand, used illusion to disorient the shadow triad enough to let her escape. She threw her bag to Cheren, before taking a running start off the edge of the castle, through the hole Reshiram had made, and plummeted down to the scrublands below.

So, she was Lune now. And she was on a bus to nowhere. Lune lost track of how long she was on the bus for, but she knew she fell asleep during the ride. When she woke up, she was in Nimbasa city, and the bus driver told her it was the end of the line and she had to get off.

From there, it was up to Lune to decide where she wanted to go next. Lune figured she’d best keep a low profile, since she knew it’d be over if the shadow triad found her. She could go live in Lostlorn, but right now she wasn’t in any shape to deal with the competitive nature of life there. She could start a new life as a human, but it’d be more effort than she would be willing to put in.

Lune needed to hide somewhere. Somewhere nobody would find her – and that’s what led her to travel to Castelia’s sewers. It was discreet, and there was plenty of easy prey to live off of. She made her choice.

So, there Lune lived for the following 2 years – in Castelia’s sewer system. She attempted to abandon her humanity, but she just couldn’t. Every day that passed was difficult, as she was plagued with the memories of those she loved who were living as though she were dead. She was human, more than anything, and to attempt to cut that away was incredibly draining. Still, she persevered. At least, until the environmental agency of Castelia noticed.

Over those 2 years, Lune had made a noticeable dent in the natural populations of rattata and zubat in the sewer – and thanks to trail cameras placed around, Lune’s existence in the sewers was officially noted as a threat to the ecosystem there. But Lune was clever enough to avoid any traps left around, so the agency turned to outside help to capture this ‘problem pokemon’. This attracted the attention of a shady pokemon hunter, who was in it for the money.

Lune was moping around when she was suddenly caught off guard by an aggressive liepard belonging to the hunter. She knew she could easily win if she chose to fight, but she didn’t want to fight, likely due to her perpetual state of despair. So, she ran, and the liepard pursued. The chase went through the sewers, and eventually into the backstreets of Castelia, where Lune became cornered in an alleyway. Still choosing not to fight, Lune tried to scale the building she was cornered against, but took some significant hits from the liepard as she did. It wasn’t a tall building, especially for Castelia, but she thought she was safe.

Just as she was about to tiredly stumble away, the liepard was able to scale the building as well, and jumped behind her, slashing at her back and knocking her down. Finally agitated to a point she couldn’t ignore, Lune lashed back, and dealt a serious blow to the liepard, who scampered away in defeat. Despite her victory, Lune was still very hurt – and she hadn’t realized how close she was to the edge of the building until she lost her balance and fell.

A dumpster broke her fall, and luckily, the noise alerted a young trainer who ran to the alleyway to find her. The trainer took Lune to the Pokemon Center where she was put in intensive care for her injuries. She recovered quickly, but generally remained lethargic as she still hadn’t gotten enough energy to use illusion back. The nurses knew she was the ‘problem pokemon’ and that she couldn’t be released, but one of the nurses stepped up and said she’d be willing to rehabilitate her.

So, Lune was transported to the nurse’s home in Aspertia city, where she was cautiously brought inside a modern suburban home inside of a pokemon carrier. The nurse eventually got bored of watching if Lune would exit the carrier, and left to go to another room. Lune took this as her chance to finally explore, where she properly regained human form for the first time in a while. She explored the house, eventually finding herself in a guest bedroom when the nurse found her.

There was a brief freakout moment between both of them as Lune explained herself. Luckily, the nurse, named Carolyn, thought it was neat and told Lune she was welcome to stay in the guest bedroom as a human for as long as she needed.

And so started Lune’s rehabilitation. Carolyn connected Lune to an aspiring trainer her age named Hugh, who was also going through a transitionary period in his life, and the two became friends. Lune slowly started to build her new backstory – she was a zoroark who aspired to be a human, who was working with Hugh to achieve her goal. What was her goal though? Carolyn suggested she go on an adventure with Hugh, but for obvious reasons, Lune resisted – she didn’t want to hurt again. But Hugh caught on and was insistent, so eventually, as a surprise for Hugh’s birthday, Lune agreed to adventure with him.

For the rest of the walk, Lune’s mind was haunted by the possibility. Surely, there had to be more than one Bianca like that in Unova…? Her nervousness skyrocketed, as Hugh and herself approached the meeting point, she saw her.

Looking out at the distant mountains was Bianca. Lune was suddenly flooded with emotion all at once, and it took everything she had to not lose her composure. Bianca’s demeanor was the same as ever, and she happily greeted the two friends when Hugh called out to her. While Bianca was going over basics and conditions, Lune couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread. There she was, one of her best friends – and she had no idea who Lune really was. Lune was, quite literally, dead to her.

Her feelings manifested themselves in making her quieter and more short-spoken than usual as she tried her best to hide them. After what seemed like forever, Hugh and Lune chose their starters and had a quick battle before finally wishing Bianca farewell. As the pair exchanged phone numbers to keep in touch, Bianca made a remark;

“You know, my husband is the new gym leader here in Asperita! He should be the first leader on your journey, tell me how it goes!“

Oh no.

As much as she wished to run away from her past, Lune couldn’t seem to escape it. Dreading the idea of having to face her childhood best friend under a new identity as her first gym battle, Lune went off to the next town to train – only to encounter Alder.

She couldn’t help but feel as though she had made a horrible mistake. Lune hadn’t truly realized how much of an impact she had made on those around her until she had to pretend she was a new person. Even worse, she couldn’t explain her sudden bouts of anxiety to anyone, lest she reveal her identity and endanger herself. Even though she had Hugh by her side, Lune felt all alone.

The gym battle with Cheren was difficult – not from a technical standpoint, but emotionally. Lune wanted to shout and go all out like the two used to do two years ago, but she couldn’t. When Cheren went to shake her hand after Lune’s victory, it was difficult to not break down into tears. Lune missed her friends so dearly that seeing them just out of her grasp was just too much. She was left unsure if she could continue, but with Hugh’s reassurance, Lune pushed on.

Her journey seemed to be going alright after the initial bumps. She had rescued a young stray growlithe, and with that, easily beat the second gym. She was even caught off guard and offered a minor position at Pokestar Studios, due to a talent scout witnessing her illusory abilities. All was going smoothly until Lune once again met a familiar face – but this one wasn’t as friendly.

The familiar smell of cigarette smoke permeated the air, and Lune froze up as her eyes met with the eye of someone Lune wished she could’ve forgotten. It would seem the ginger-haired woman somehow recognized Lune too, as she froze and changed her stance as the two locked vision.

Lune, thinking she could try and possibly apologize for what she did, approached the woman. But the woman tensed up, and shouted at Lune to not come any closer, and eventually an argument exploded from the two – ultimately resulting in the woman pushing Lune away as Lune got confrontational – which only caused her to nervously laugh and quickly walk away. Lune boarded the ferry to Castelia without looking back, even though she could feel the woman’s gaze shooting daggers at her.

Things went back to normal in Castelia, though Lune had to briefly return to her old home in the sewers to scare away Plasma. She was worried history was repeating itself, with meeting the ginger-haired woman again and having to chase Plasma around. To clear her mind after beating Castelia’s gym leader, Lune went out to hunt some tranquill with her growlithe, Fenrir.

It was incredibly late, and Lune was finally inching towards the bird she had been chasing. With a pounce and roll, she grabbed it in her jaws and finished the job. Taking a moment to catch her breath, Lune realized she was all out in the open – and while the park’s plaza was otherwise deserted, there was a single man in a lab coat who had seen her. 

Lune stopped to stare at him, regaining human form and awkwardly wiping the blood away from her mouth. Fenrir ran up to the man and excitedly jumped up on his legs – he was just an excited puppy, after all. Sighing, Lune got to her feet to grab Fenrir, dragging her hunted bird behind her. She apologized to the man for Fenrir’s overfamiliarity, but he told her it was fine.

Lune was hoping she could end the conversation there, but the question she expected came – the man asked about what he had just witnessed. Lune replied that it seemed ‘pretty obvious’ what had just happened – that Lune was truly a zoroark who had just hunted down a bird pokemon. The man apologized for seeming too forward, and said he found it to be an odd coincidence to actually meet someone ‘like him‘.

‘Like him’…?

Lune had a bit of a confused look that took the man a while to pick up on. He apologized for not clarifying, and in a hushed voice, he confided to Lune that he was also not entirely human – a ditto, in fact. Intrigued, Lune questioned deeper, and the two eventually started having a conversation over their shared similarities – it was a refreshing feeling of solidarity Lune didn’t know she needed. The man introduced himself as Colress, and the two talked for a good while before Colress eventually looked at his phone and sighed. 

“I don’t think she’s coming back…” he said.

Lune was curious, and asked what he meant. Colress revealed the reason he had been out so late is that he was waiting for his friend to meet him – who evidently, never came. Lune asked if he’d like to stay the night in the hotel room Hugh and herself had, and while he seemed nervous and a bit hesitant, Colress agreed, and the two set off together.

Hugh was a bit snippy towards Colress at first due to losing a gym battle, but he eventually calmed down and welcomed what seemed to be the duo’s newest traveling partner.

Since Hugh still needed to beat Castelia’s gym, Lune and Colress were free to do whatever they wanted. Lune was impatient, and wanted to keep pushing forwards on to Nimbasa city – but Colress was able to convince her otherwise. Instead, Lune took the ferry back to Virbank and did some more acting work over the span of 2 weeks – where she became notable for her ability to create illusory special effects that were indistinguishable from reality. This also seemed to pique the interest of Colress, who seemed insistent on studying the limits of Lune’s illusions. Lune also noticed that while Colress was straight-faced around Hugh, he seemed to warm up to her very quickly.

She wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Was it over their shared solidarity or was Lune just a test subject to him?

While Lune was working at Pokestar, Hugh had beat Castelia’s gym, and the crew mutually agreed to let Hugh move forwards while Lune finished up her work. Once Lune was done, it was up to Colress and herself to cross the desert that separated the two cities. Colress insisted that they take the bus, but Lune wanted to train and cross it by foot.

All was going well, but a sandstorm unexpectedly rolled in, and Colress and Lune were caught outside in it. 

While Colress was quickly able to shift to a pokemon that could deal with the harsh weather, Lune was quickly overwhelmed and fell into the sand. Before she could berate herself for choosing not to take a bus, Colress grabbed her up from the sand, and helped her walk through the storm into the shelter of the nearby ruins.

There, Lune was able to get her bearings, and the two waited out the storm. They talked about an assortment of things – but the conversation eventually turned to that of philosophy and identity. Colress talked about how the circumstances of his existence led him to become interested in the link between humans and pokemon, while Lune expressed her frustration and anxiety relating to pretending to be someone she wasn’t… though she was pretty sure Colress didn’t know what she truly meant.

Lune was tired of pretending her old self was dead. She wanted to talk to Cheren and Bianca again. Still, Colress reassured her that things would turn out alright.

The storm showed no signs of letting up, and the two eventually fell asleep at each other’s side. When they woke up some hours later, the storm had subsided, so they continued on to Nimbasa city.

Shortly after arriving in Nimbasa, Colress received a text message from the friend that had initially gone missing after failing to meet him in Castelia. According to Colress’s word, she wanted to meet him in Driftveil city. He seemed excited to learn his friend was alright, and Lune was glad to hear he was feeling better. The two agreed to finish Nimbasa’s gym battle as quickly as possible so Lune could drop Colress off in Driftveil, which was the next city on Lune’s gym route.

While Colress did seem to lighten up a bit after his friend’s return, he did seem a bit antsy. Lune would tease him about it a bit, which only seemed to make him… flustered?

Lune thought Colress was interesting, to say the least. He was fun to toy around with and tease, but she couldn’t quite figure out what made him tick. 

After beating Nimbasa’s gym, Lune was surprised to find Colress waiting for her at the entrance to the gym. He seemed a bit nervous, but nonetheless, he congratulated Lune and asked if she’d like to walk around the amusement park with him. Lune agreed, and the two had an enjoyable time around the park together.

Eventually, Colress invited Lune on the ferris wheel, and Lune froze. Memories inevitably came flooding back, and while she did her best to keep her composure on the outside, she felt like she couldn’t bear to step foot near the ferris wheel again.

Still, she agreed, though her words became uncharacteristically quiet. She took Colress’s hand as he led the both of them to the fated park attraction.

The two boarded the cabin together, and Lune was still quiet. Colress was shuffling his hands around and avoiding eye contact, periodically looking at his phone – it seemed like he had something to say. Lune couldn’t stand the silence, so she prompted Colress to say whatever he wanted to say.

Then and there, Colress suddenly confessed his love for Lune.

Lune was left in shock. His words seemed… genuine? She couldn’t quite process it. It wasn’t like her constant identity crisis helped either – had Colress fallen for Lune, or what he thought was Lune?

In her silence, Colress panicked a bit. He apologized, and said he didn’t want to ruin anything.

Lune was still processing her thoughts. Yes, she appreciated Colress, but she had never thought about their relationship in… that way. But at the same time, Lune was intrigued at where this could go. She couldn’t dwell on the past forever. N was gone – it was time to try and move on.

So, for now at least, Lune would take the stage, with Colress as her audience.

Lune leaned closer to Colress and grabbed his hand, causing him to become a bit more flustered than he already was. Giving one of her fiendish smiles, she finally replied to him.

“I’m glad you feel that way,” she said softly, before leaning in to kiss Colress.

Lune didn’t see it as much, but Colress suddenly panicked – Lune was concerned she messed up, but Colress apologized and admitted he’d never been kissed before, so it was kind of a big deal for him. But he was glad Lune reciprocated, or at least, that she appeared to. After taking a bit of a breather, the two kissed once more, before being promptly cut off by the ferris wheel’s cabin docking on the ground.

After that, the two agreed to begin dating officially. While Lune was still uncertain about her decision, she decided to not bring it up. She felt kind of bad for pretending she had feelings for Colress, however.

Since Lune was done with the gym, the two went on to Driftveil city to meet up with Hugh and to reunite Colress with his friend. It was a bit like a date – Lune and Colress got to visit the recently built World Tournament stadium that had been built for the upcoming League world summit. While watching a practice match, Colress suddenly had to get up and leave, saying his friend was close by and urgently needed him. Lune tried to follow him, but eventually lost track of him in the crowd.

What Lune did notice, however, was an out-of-place black ship docked at the port. There was a small crowd forming around it, so Lune decided to investigate.

She was surprised to find not only Hugh, but Cheren and gym leader Clay there as well. When Lune asked Hugh what was going on, Hugh began to explain something about Team Plasma before Cheren called out to both of them. He requested Lune and Hugh assist him with investigating the ship, which they both agreed to. Presumably, the ship belonged to Team Plasma, as multiple grunts were spotted entering. Clay alerted any fellow gym leaders in the area, and that happened to be just Cheren.

The atmosphere on the ship was… odd, as if the crew was being watched. It was a feeling Lune was far too familiar with – she was almost tempted to call out and see who answered. After a period of poking around the entrance, Hugh stepped away towards the bow of the ship, but was pushed backward by an unseen force. That force soon revealed itself to be a member of the Shadow Triad, and the other two members appeared soon after, blocking the path to the rest of the ship.

Plasma grunts soon came out as well, and the four were soon completely outnumbered. In her gutsy ideal, Lune thought she could take everyone – but knew it’d break her disguise, as Cheren and the Shadow Triad would surely recognize her fighting style.

So, instead, the four stood their ground with their pokemon out, and Lune in particular exchanged vulgarities with a familiar admin of Plasma.

Some pokemon battles occurred, before the ship suddenly began to rumble and slowly rise from the water. Not wanting to become trapped on the frigate, the four trainers jumped off while they could, and watched in horrified awe as the frigate ascended and flew off – and quickly vanished into thin air. The crowd erupted into conversation, before it was dispersed by authorities who had just arrived.

Confused by the recent happening, Cheren told Lune and Hugh he’d keep in touch and let them know if anything came up. He also apologized for getting the two tied up in all this Plasma nonsense, and told them it was something he ‘never wanted to happen again‘.

‘Again‘… 

After that, Lune’s journey continued as normal. She kept communication with Colress through text, as well as video and voice chats. The more they talked, the more Colress opened up. He talked about how he was working on a big project for someone, he talked about his best friend, he talked about his experiments… and he talked about how much he really cared for Lune. It started to weigh on her – she was putting on a facade, but it hurt. Colress meant a lot to her too, but…

Lune decided to start by coming clean about who she was. She did feel like she could trust him, and the weight of her past had become too much. To Lune’s surprise, Colress was able to sympathize with her quite a bit. While he wasn’t exactly able to relate due to the unique nature of her experiences, he still helped Lune feel validated and safe. It was… a warm feeling, one that Lune hadn’t felt in a long time. And it was a feeling that wouldn’t go away.

After beating Mistralon’s gym, Lune went to Lentimas town by plane, where she met up with Bianca. She happened to be walking the same route as Lune, so the two teamed up to take on the path through Reversal Mountain. After revealing everything to Colress, it was especially hard to walk side by side with Bianca while keeping her composure. Then, Bianca brought it up directly.

She told Lune how much she reminded her of an ‘old friend’, and how the resemblance was almost uncanny, impossible even… and that was the breaking point. In the midst of the steam vents, Lune confessed everything. Bianca couldn’t believe it at first, but the proof that her friend was alive was looking directly at her. The two shared a long, thoughtful hug after being reunited at last.

Lune had Bianca promise that she would keep it a sworn secret, aside from informing Cheren. Because with Plasma’s resurgence, Lune’s life could be in danger if word of her true identity got out.

The two parted ways at the Undella Pokemon Center, and Lune was quickly surprised to learn that Colress was in town too. They met up at a seaside cafe, and since Lune didn’t really have any plans, they spent the day going about the town together.

The feeling Lune had from earlier was still there – she couldn’t help but find herself smiling around Colress. She was… happy? Even though she had intended for the relationship to be one-sided from the beginning, it seemed Lune had developed true romantic feelings for Colress. With this in mind, she was overjoyed to learn Colress would accompany her on the hike to Lacunosa town, as he had some field research to do in the nearby Giant Chasm. Though, once the two reached Lacunosa, Colress parted ways to do research.

Lune reunited with Hugh, and the two friends once again had to curb-stomp members of Plasma. After intimidating Sage Zinzolin enough, Lune was able to learn what Plasma had something ‘big‘ planned in Opelucid city. Since it was the next stop on Hugh and herself’s league journey, the two quickly moved on to the city.

They had to wait a bit to challenge the gym, as it seemed the gym leader Drayden was visibly stressed. When asked, he told Lune that Plasma had repeatedly attempted to steal an ‘important device‘ that, while primitive and unfinished, could lead to disastrous consequences if Plasma had the brainpower to complete it. Lune reassured him that, if anything, he could probably overpower Plasma with the help of the other gym leaders, so the two were able to commence their gym battle.

Once the gym battle had concluded with Lune as the winner, Drayden and herself were caught off guard by a familiar, booming noise outside the gym. Rushing to the entrance of the gym, the two were greeted with the horrifying sight of the Plasma Frigate over the city. People outside dropped what they were doing to stare, and suddenly, a voice that undoubtedly belonged to Ghetsis spoke through a loudspeaker. He demanded the people of Unova pay for their sins against himself and team Plasma, and that this was only a taste of his retribution. Then, sirens blared from the frigate, and a large cannon made itself visible. It began to charge, and with a flash of light, fired into the city. The ground shook, and Lune and Drayden took cover in the sturdy gym building.

The process repeated itself several times. There’d be a flash of light, then a loud noise, and the ground would shake. After what felt like ages, it finally ended. Cautiously, Lune and Drayden exited the gym building, only for their faces to twist into expressions of horror. It wasn’t a normal kind of blast that the cannon shot out, but some sort of ice-beam – the entire city was coated in a thick layer of ice, with giant crystals formed where the cannon’s beam made contact. The air was bitter, and cold in a way Lune couldn’t describe.

Drayden, however, looked especially horrified.

He muttered under his breath, along the lines of there ‘only being one possible explanation’. Lune asked what it was, and Drayden explained the only way this could’ve happened was if Plasma had captured Kyurem, the sleeping god that lay dormant in the Giant Chasm. Meaning, things were worse than he feared. If Plasma had already harnessed Kyurem’s energy, they definitely had the means to complete the important device – the DNA splicer – that could fuse Kyurem with one of the two dragon gods of Unova.

Drayden and Lune hatched an action plan – since Plasma was likely to be on the ground looking for the DNA splicer, Drayden was an easy target. So, he entrusted it to Lune, who was to leave the city as soon as she could.

Lune released Fenrir, now an arcanine, as well as her lucario, and set off in the opposite direction of Drayden.

It was hard to navigate the city in the state it was in, as most landmarks and signs had been thoroughly frozen over. Her phone wasn’t getting any reception either, which only made finding her way around more difficult.

Aside from the occasional Plasma grunt that Lune had to fend off, the normally lively hub of a city was deserted. While Lune didn’t notice, a slip on the ice had caused the pointy edge of the DNA splicer to tear through her bag and poke through – an ignorance that would cost her greatly.

By coincidence, Lune ran into the ginger-haired Plasma admin she loathed so much. Out of stress, Lune began to swear her out and blame her for everything that had happened, as she just seemed to appear when things were going to go wrong. The admin just sneered, and drew a gun from her side, finger on the trigger. Lune’s fight or flight activated, and in a moment of adrenaline, she gave a desperate snicker before charging forwards, hoping to land a good swipe.

That’s when the admin pulled the trigger, and Lune was struck in the chest – still, she got her attack in, and the Plasma admin fell to the ground just as Lune did. Her consciousness was wavering, and she eventually blacked out.

Lune’s gunshot wound was critical, and she was flown to a Pokemon Center in Undella by Drayden, who found her. After she was stabilized, she was moved to a human hospital to make her recovery more comfortable. Once she finally regained consciousness, her first instinct was to check her phone. She had dozens of missed texts from Colress, who seemed panicked after she didn’t respond. Lune was finally able to call him, and while he was relieved, he seemed… incredibly sad. He confessed his best friend had passed, and had barely been able to function from the grief. But, if anything, he said he was glad to know he hadn’t lost Lune too.

Lune was visited in the hospital by Cheren, Bianca, and Hugh, and the three talked about what they’d do next. Lune was in no condition to keep journeying, so she begrudgingly agreed to take a break while she healed. During her break, however, Lune went back to Pokestar Studios and worked with them while she got her strength back. Her notability only grew, and she was able to quickly rise to one of Pokestar’s top actors thanks to her previous acting experience, with her illusory powers allowing full films to be finished incredibly quickly. Though, after a while, Lune became bored of it all – and she had suitably recovered from her injuries, so she decided to make her way to the final gym on her journey with Hugh.

Lune was distraught to find that Colress would be unable to join her, and her concern over his general state only grew. Apparently, his boss had been putting an increasing amount of pressure on him, to the point where he could barely leave work. He did say he might be able to meet Lune in Humilau, so Lune took that with optimism and moved onwards.

With Marlon defeated, Lune’s second league journey was finally complete! In celebration, she spent the rest of the day exploring the resort town’s various attractions with Hugh. Though, while on the far beaches of the city, Lune spotted a familiar ship off in the distance… undoubtedly, it was the Plasma Frigate. Lune alerted Cheren, so he could inform Marlon, and rushed off towards the ship.

The path led Lune through a small seaside cave, where she was surprised to find Colress doing field experiments. He seemed strung out and nervous, but he was happy to see Lune nonetheless. They enjoyed the moment together and caught up on what the other was doing, before Colress showed Lune the way out of the cave and scared off some crustle blocking the exit. After that, Colress said goodbye and went deeper into the cave to continue his research.

Marlon was already waiting for Lune when she exited the cave, as he had swum over instead of walking. Gesturing for Lune to wait, Marlon slipped below the water’s surface – before promptly leaping out rather impressively onto the deck of the frigate. He then lowered the gangplank, which allowed for Lune and the recently arrived Hugh to enter. The ship was quiet, but it wasn’t the eerie quietness that signaled the Shadow Triad’s presence… it just seemed dead. No grunts were present, so Lune and Hugh took the opportunity to snoop. Though, after a short moment, the two of them hid when they heard someone walk up the gangplank.

They muttered something and lifted the gangplank, inadvertently trapping Lune and Hugh on the ship. Lune wasn’t sure if it was her ears playing tricks, but the person who had just entered the ship… sounded a bit like Colress? Though, she thought nothing of it, at least for the moment.

Unsure if it was safe to come out, Lune and Hugh kept hidden, up until the frigate started to rumble, and the familiar noises of the ship’s jet engines could be heard. While it was uncomfortable and felt like an eternity, the two silently remained in place. Using their phones to track their location, it appeared that the frigate was headed to the Giant Chasm. The two made sure to let the gym leaders know, as the frigate was a maximum threat after the Opelucid attack.

Finally, the frigate stopped flying, and landed in the center of the Giant Chasm. As soon as it did, a siren blared, and Zinzolin’s voice spoke over an intercom.

“Alright, get out there and stay alert! Interpol’s already here, which means we got a snake on board! Get ’em outta here!“

That’s when Lune and Hugh scampered out of their hiding spot. They agreed to look in split directions, with the end goal being to locate either Kyurem or Ghetsis and stop their grand scheme.

Lune had to battle some grunts before she found herself with a proper keycard, but once she had one, navigation around the inner frigate was easy. Besides, if a keycard prompt denied Lune, she’d just brute force her way through, either by herself or with the help of her pokemon.

After lots of corridors and keycard slots, Lune finally came upon a door that wouldn’t open for her no matter what she did to it. Frustrated, she tried yelling at the door for it to open – and after a couple of seconds, it did.

Wandering inside, the scent of the room told Lune everything she needed to know before her eyes told her.

This was Colress’s room. It had to be. And as her sight trailed up the stairs in the center of the room, her fears were confirmed – Colress was the scientist working for Team Plasma.

Lune couldn’t believe it… she didn’t want to believe it. In her mind, there was no possible way she could’ve been betrayed like this again, but here she was. She loved Colress, just like she loved N… but just like that day on the ferris wheel, Lune’s emotions got the better of her.

She accused Colress of deceiving her, and the two had a heated pokemon battle in between Lune’s shouting. Fenrir demolished Colress’s team, though he seemed a bit hesitant to attack with the aggression that Lune desired. Colress remained silent the whole time, barely looking to face Lune or Fenrir. 

After the battle, Colress conceded, and threw Lune a special keycard from the distance in which they were separated. He told her the rough location of Ghetsis’s suite, and Lune stormed out of the room without a word.

Ghetsis’s suite wasn’t far, and Lune was easily able to enter with the keycard. The inside of the room was… a mess. Alarms blaring, multiple smashed surveillance screens, papers scattered everywhere – and in the center, Hugh was having an altercation with the Shadow Triad. They were taunting him over a stolen pokemon that belonged to his sister, but quickly stopped upon seeing Lune enter.

With a devilish snicker, one of the Triad’s members told Lune that Ghetsis was already at the center of the Chasm ready to execute his grand plan. Then, another member opened a blast door to the outside, and motioned for Lune to follow the crude path that had been stomped through the ground. This felt like a trap, but Lune was too preoccupied with the thought of Colress being Plasma’s scientist to stop herself. As she left, a member of the Triad referred to Lune as ‘her majesty‘ – which shocked her back to reality. But before she could respond, the blast door was closed behind her, leaving her in the cold outdoors.

They knew. They had to. Ghetsis must’ve monitored all of her interactions with Colress… but why hadn’t he done anything to her yet? Ghetsis had let Lune get this far… what was going on? Still, Lune was confident in her abilities, and pressed onwards into the deepest part of the Chasm.

There, she found Ghetsis waiting for her – along with the imposing figure of Kyurem. Both of them looked weak and strung out, but Ghetsis still laughed at Lune’s attempt to defy him. He gave a short speech that Lune didn’t really pay any attention to, before finally declaring he would finally get the sweet revenge he’d been craving. Then, slamming his Plasma-emblem cane into the ground, he commanded Kyurem to use glaciate.

The husk god took a while to even respond, but when it did, it quickly surrounded Lune with giant pointed ice crystals. She couldn’t react at all, and prepared one last inhale… but an impossibly familiar voice rang out.

“I WON’T LET YOU HURT ANYONE ANYMORE.”

Against all odds, despite witnessing what appeared to be his death 2 years prior, there was only one person it could be – N. And he came with Reshiram, too. The dragon god of truth melted the ice that was set to impale Lune, leaving Ghetsis in complete shock.

Lune was also in shock – she couldn’t believe who she was seeing. She wanted to run and grab N, but she had to restrain herself – as now wasn’t the time. It seemed apparent from N’s expression that he was incredibly surprised to see Lune, too. 

After confirming Lune was safe, N commanded Reshiram to attack Kyurem – but Ghetsis seemed to have a sinister grin on. As Reshiram attacked, what appeared to be tendrils emerged from Kyurem and captured Reshiram. To the horror of both N and Lune, who could hear both god’s cries, the two amalgamated into one – it must’ve been the DNA splicer. After a grand flash of light, White Kyurem stood before the two. Ghetsis laughed maniacally, and told them that they just made his job easier. He slammed his staff into the ground again, and ordered White Kyurem to ‘freeze everything‘.

But Lune didn’t lose hope. She couldn’t – N was alive, so anything could be possible.

As the fused god charged its ultimate attack, Lune released her pokemon. Teaming up with Fenrir, Lune took a shot at White Kyurem. It was a heavy hit, which caused the god to stop charging and instead freeze the entire cavern. Even with the newly-slippery battlefield, Lune and her pokemon were able to take down the behemoth – who collapsed and burst into stardust upon defeat, leaving nothing left.

Ghetsis was enraged. He slammed his staff into the ground so hard that it stuck, and attempted attacking Lune with his own pokemon – but it was futile. He was too strung out to properly give commands to his pokemon, and was quickly defeated by Lune and her pokemon. But before Lune could deal a finishing blow on Ghetsis himself, he flew up and out of the cavern’s open ceiling on his Hydreigon without saying a word.

And so it was over.

It took Lune and N a while to catch their bearings, but once they did, they just stared at each other. N quickly ran up to Lune, and she caught him – twirling him around in the air. While the frozen tears on her cheeks were a bit painful, the reunion was anything but. They didn’t really have any words to exchange, as the emotion of the moment was too big for words. They stood there in each other’s arms for a while, before wiping their tears and looking around and realizing the reality of the situation – they had been frozen inside the cavern. The only exit was through the open ceiling, but Lune’s only flying-type was half dragon-type and couldn’t cope with the cold.

Neither of them had phone reception, so they couldn’t call for help – they could only hope that help arrived before they froze.

The two huddled for warmth, and while it seemed like forever, help finally arrived – though it wasn’t by air. There was a loud crash behind them, and they looked on in shock to find that Kyurem had smashed through the frozen entrance to the cavern… but then it wasn’t Kyurem – it was Colress. He and some others, including Cheren, rushed in to make sure N and Lune were alright.

But the bitter taste in Lune’s mouth about Colress was still there, and right now, she was just overwhelmed in general. And Lune’s go-to option when overwhelmed? To simply run away. She broke N’s embrace and ran past Colress and out of the cavern, giving him not so much as a glance. She didn’t stop until she collapsed in a heap on a Pokemon Center bench.

After the dust had cleared, Cheren and N found Lune, and they had a proper reunion. Lune and N explained their stories of survival to one another, and headed back to Hana’s house hand in hand.