Sunset   von LORBEERPRINZ
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                                  Kapitel 1: 
                                  -----------


The sun was about to set. He stood in the small wooden cabin and looked about,
wondering how spacious it seemed, despite the small look from outside.

He had never planned on going here. He had never even known about this hut up in
the western Twist Mountain region of Isshuu, not too far away from Sekka City.
Yet the inhabitants of this town appeared to be unaware of the little hideout
when he had arrived there, looking for a specific trainer. This trainer was not
the one he had found here, but he had unintentionally run into somebody else he
knew and now he was here. There was only few light in this wooden room, when
looking around he could not really make out any kind of lamp – or, in fact,
any electric devices – and the only illumination came from outside the window.
It was winter and the sun set on the other side of the building, so light became
less with practically every minute.

 

The man before him bowed shortly.

"Please follow me."

 

It actually only took them a few steps to reach a door on the other side of the
room. It was only now that he noticed how tiny the other one seemed. He had
never realized this before, even though he knew him and his brothers for almost
all his life.

The long-haired man knocked at the door. Silence followed.

He could sense the other two lingering in the shadows of the hut, observing each
of his movements.

 

The young man swallowed briefly. He was not sure if he was scared or excited, or
even both.

After a moment without any answer from behind the door his guide opened it and
took a step into the room that unfolded before them. The guest could not see if
anybody was in that room, but there had to be, because the white-haired one
spoke up.

 

 

"Master Ghetsis, you have a guest."

No response.

 

The Dark Trinity member stepped aside and N was able to look into the room.
The setting sun shone its last rays into it through the window, painting the
parts it still reached in an orange glow. Everything untouched by it lay in hard
shadows.

It was hard to see through the eerie light, but next to the window, N was able
to make out a familiar figure sitting motionlessly. He walked into the room,
just a few steps, and his view began to clear up. Next to the window was Ghetsis
in an old, rugged chair, wrapped into a blanket. He appeared to look at the sun,
but at the same time, his gaze seemed to drift far away. The only movement of
him N had been able to notice was an occasional blink of his good eye here and
there.

Behind him, he heard the Trinity member speak up.

 

"He has been like this ever since we brought him here."

N turned around, signs of disbelief on his face. The other one continued to
explain.

"We bring food here regularly, and when we come back, it is gone, so he does at
least eat. But every time we are here, Master Ghetsis neither moves nor speaks.
We have no idea what he's thinking, or if he is thinking at all."

 

N returned his attention to his father. He had expected a lot when he decided to
come here and visit him, but nobody had prepared him for a sight like this. The
Dark Trinity had warned him that Ghetsis was "not himself" at the moment, but
this was even worse. Never had he believed Ghetsis could end up like this. Was
it his fault?

"Dad..."

The young man approached him further. No response came, no movement, nothing. He
did not even seem to notice that there was somebody next to him, or even in the
room at all. So very unlikely for him.

"Dad? I-it's me. You remember me, don't you? Of course you do."

It was hard for N to hold back. He tried to adjust his speech pace, to speak
more slowly and clearly than he was normally used to do, he felt it was the
right thing to do in this moment. It was incredibly hard to do so, especially as
the knot in his throat grew with each second he did not get any kind of answer
from Ghetsis.

 

How could this have happened? The last time they had seen each other Ghetsis had
raved and screamed and insulted him. At least this is what others said, insults.
Don't waste your time with him, they had adviced him. He's not doing you any
good, they had said.

Maybe they were right. But Ghetsis was still Ghetsis and the Ghetsis N knew was
different from the side he had shown in the Giant Chasm and two years before in
their castle's throne room. He had been the one to give him a life outside the
woods, to refine his ability to understand Pokémon's words, the one that had
given him power over Team Plasma, a goal in life, to free Pokémon from bad and
abusing humans. No matter how false his motives had been, they had formed N into
the person he was now, and it had taken him a long time to realize this. Of
course he had been a tool, N knew this. But Ghetsis had helped him in so many
ways, if he wanted it or not.

 

Slowly, N reached out a hand.

 

After all of that, do you think you're still worthy of sharing the name Harmonia
with me? You good-for-nothing boy!

 

So why did only the hard words remain? Why did they echo in his head time and
again? This was not fair.

N hesitated once, then gently lay his hand into Ghetsis's. The knot in his
throat grew.

 

You are nothing more than a warped, defective boy who knows nothing but
Pokémon...

 

"Ghetsis... Dad... Why are you ignoring me? It's not fair..."

He had promised himself he would not cry, no matter what. He had cried so much
for all his life already, and he knew how much Ghetsis hated it. He had cried
when Ghetsis had picked him up in the woods from among his Pokémon friends,
without a warning. He had said no word back then, but N would have not been able
to understand it anyway. At that time, the human language had still been a
miracle to him. He had cried after being locked into his giant toy room. Ghetsis
had said nothing then, either, but after that, every time when N had cried, he
would be angry and yell at him.

 

Stop crying, he had said, for the sake of your Pokémon friends.

A king doesn't cry.

You need to be strong. You're a hero.

 

During his travels through the Isshuu region to become this hero, N had noticed
that crying was nothing unusual among humans. He had seen children cry, he had
seen adults cry and of course Pokémon cried too. He had seen how children were
hugged and calmed by their parents then, adults being somehow treated by other
adults, in a way he could not really understand, and Pokémon got the same
treatment as children on more than one occasion.

No need to cry, Daddy is here.

 

N squeezed his father's hand.

"It's not fair – why don't you say anything to me?"

He felt tears running down his face and he was unable to control the speed
anymore with which the words blurted out of his mouth.

"Hey, let's go back home. To the castle! It looks pretty bad now, but I'm sure
we can built it up again together, and then we get Team Plasma back together and
find a way to make trainer release their Pokémon! But only the bad ones,
because there are actually trainer who treat their Pokémon well, right? Maybe
we can work together with them as well, and then we'll have a wonderful world!
And... and..."

It was hard to talk suddenly.

"...and then we'll be a family, okay? Me... and you... and the Goddesses... a
real little family..."

It did not matter to N that Ghetsis had "just" found him one day in a forest he
couldn't remember where it was located. It simply did not matter. He had said he
was his father, and N had accepted that and it was okay. The girls had never had
any problems with this either, so they could be a family like any other.

 

But again, there was no reaction from Ghetsis. His face remained blank, the gaze
out of the window.

The sun was almost gone.

 

In a corner of the room, N could sense his father's favorite Pokémon sleeping.
It was hard to see in the shadow, but Sazandora was definitely there, and
another smaller Pokémon was with him.

N wiped his tears away with the back of his hand and left Ghetsis alone for a
moment, approaching the two Pokémon. Standing in front of the curled-up Dragon
type, he saw that the other one was a young Monozu sleeping between the bigger
one's three heads.

He looked back at the Dark Trinity, all three members in the room now, and even
though they could not make out his questioning face in the dark, it was clear to
them what he wanted to hear.

"We don't know where the young Monozu comes from", one of them explained, "but
it appears to be an offspring of Master Ghetsis's Sazandora. The mother is
unknown to us, though. We don't know what happened to her, or if Master Ghetsis
knows anything about it. But he seems to accept it here in his presence, so we
leave everything as it is."

N was not sure which of the three had spoken to him now. He had never been able
to tell them apart, despite all the years they had spent together. People that
do not openly show or tell their emotions had always troubled N, since he was
not really good at reading human faces. No matter how hard he tried, he
sometimes could not bring together names and faces of people. Twins and other
people that looked alike for whatever reason greatly confused him. He had never
managed to learn how to tell the individual members or the Dark Trinity apart,
as even their voices sounded the same to him.

 

But whoever it had been just now, he had given N a valuable piece of
information.

He picked up the little Monozu, slowly and carefully, as not to wake it up. When
it did stir on his way back to his father's chair, N gently stroke the little
Pokémon’s head and spoke to it in a soothing voice.

It worked. When he carefully laid it into Ghetsis's lap, the young Monozu was
sound asleep again.

"Dad, look. What if we raise this little one together? All of us. We'll make
sure it gets the best treatment a human can give him. We'll be an example.
Yes?"

No response. No matter what he did.

 

You Pokémon talking monster! Stop using human language!!

 

Maybe words really did not seem to reach him anymore.

Once again, N touched his father's hand, this time with both of his.

This could not be all. There had to be a way to get through to him, to make him
talk, maybe even to make him understand the mistakes he had done and that there
was a way to repent. Again he felt tears rising in his eyes. N did not want to
cry again.

 

He had failed. Even though he had been accepted by the Legendary Dragon
Pokémon, even though he was a hero of legend, everything else had gone utterly
wrong. He had failed to protect the Pokémon, the people, the region. He had
failed to stop his father. Maybe that was why he was ignoring him.

"Dad... I'm sorry."

 

 

For a glimpse of a second N felt Ghetsis's hand move, pressing his son's.
Ghetsis's one movable hand was remarkably bigger than N's slender ones, so much
that he could press both of them with his single one. Behind him, the
green-haired could hear the Dark Trinity shift with surprise.

He had finally noticed him. N was excited suddenly, but in a strange way. He was
desperate for any word from him, so much that he unwillingly began to shout.

"Ghetsis, I'm really sorry! Talk to me, please! Dad! DAD!!"

 

He felt a gloved hand grabbing his arm, pulling him away from his father's
chair. His hands disconnected with Ghetsis's, the old man's face remained
motionless.

"No, stop!!"

The Dark Trinity knew exactly how much N hated it to be touched by human beings,
how uncomfortable it was to him, yet all three of them pushed and pulled him
around while he tried to get back to his father’s place.

"Master N, it's better you go now."

N kicked and screamed; not so much because they were throwing him out, but
rather due to the constant touching he had never learned to stand. It was awful,
simply awful.

 

But then, over the little brawl, he could hear a voice.

 

"Natural."

 

All four of them stopped immediately. They knew who this voice belonged to.

Even though he seemed to look exactly the same as the time they had entered his
room. He still did not look at anybody, just out of the window, where the sun
used to be not too long ago. It was dark now, the moon not fully shining yet.

 

"Natural Harmonia Gropius."

N blinked. Did Ghetsis mean him? It made sense, but he had never heard him using
this name before. Was it even his name, or maybe just a sign of ongoing madness?
Did he even speak to anybody? Or just himself? Much too complicated for N.

 

"The day I found you in the woods...

You were born exactly four years prior to that."

 

The Dark Trinity members looked at each other in confusion, they obviously
understood just as much of it as N did. How did Ghetsis know? He could just make
things up, but N felt he had no need to lie at him anymore. The former Team
Plasma leader still did not look at anyone. N swallowed hard.

"Dad, what..."

Coming to think of it, he knew exactly what Ghetsis wanted to imply. There was,
aside from lying, only one logical reason for him to know about this little
detail in N's history. It raised more questions than it actually answered.

But before N could ask any more such questions, he was again pushed out of the
room, and this time the Trinity had been able to use the moment of surprise to
gain no resistance from him and closed the door again, despite his protest.
"Wait, I still want to–"

No chance. N would have never been able to physically stand up against even one
of them, and now all three wanted to prevent him from entering his father's room
once again. The pushing and pulling started again and the three men seemed to
need no real effort to hold their former king back and shove him out of the
front door.

"Master N, you have seen Master Ghetsis's condition. This is all we can do for
you now. In fact, it would probably be the best for both you and him if you
never come back here again."

 

With this, the Trinity member directly in front of N closed the door.

The young man banged at the wooden hut for a few minutes, yelling and crying,
but when absolutely no answer came from inside, he gave up.

 

It was cold. It started to snow.

After once again wiping the tears from his face, he turned and ran. The mountain
terrain was not really good for running and he slipped on the icy ground and
fell a few times, but he did not care at all. Physical pain had never meant much
to him.

When he finally arrived at the entrance to Sekka City, a Pokémon was watching
him from a rooftop. N looked up to it and smiled. His clothes were covered in
mud and snow.

 

"No, don't worry, Zoroark. Nothing happened to me, I'm alright. Let's go home."

 

His friend nodded and jumped down. N looked back to the direction in which the
small wooden cabin was located.

It was completely dark now.

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