Chapter Twenty-Eight

Shiloh landed on Lane's shoulder. The cold wind shook her in the air, threatening to lift her up and throw her into the melee. Somehow, the mew kept the wind from getting close to her, its little flakes of snow curving around to either side, and leaving her dry.

Not so their human opponent. He waited on the clearing, facing into the storm without protection. Other than the dragon behind him, of course. Reshiram's tail burned brilliant orange, melting any of the moisture that got too close. Its blue eyes watched them as they approached, with all the cold and disdain as Ghetsis.

"Can't you just change him into a Pokémon?" Shiloh whispered. "Something small and useless? Bet the dragon won't listen to him then."

Lane turned slightly towards her, grinning mischievously. She didn't reply with words, but thoughts projected towards Shiloh. “Reshiram is protecting him. Using that kind of power will make me vulnerable, and the Pokémon will sense what I'm doing. I think there might be something in the sword, too—"

"This is the best the Firstborn can manage," Ghetsis said, watching them as they approached. "A few dozen Pokémon and humans spliced with experimental gene-therapy. But you are mistaken to assume that the future of this planet is in your image. That was the past—we are the future."

Lane levitated up onto the plateau, then landed. Her tail whipped back and forth behind her, and the snow occasionally landed on an invisible sphere of energy. Transparent to Shiloh, but somehow firm against the cold. Probably attacks too. "Only one of us has been both," she said. "If you had, you would understand. I'm returning their birthright. I'm surprised you can't see that—aren't you all about power?"

She extended one hand, squeezing it into a swirling sphere of blue energy. Shiloh felt the concentrated psychic power radiating outward from it. Behind them, Reshiram tensed, its huge white wings fluttering open. The threat was clear—they could not move against Ghetsis without consequences. 

She let go, banishing it in a flash. "You've only created Shadow Pokémon manipulating the technology of the Firstborn ship Starfall. Imagine how much more you could understand if you could actually interact with it. If its systems responded to you. There's a vast galaxy above us, and we don't even understand why we're here of all planets. What were our ancestors running from? Do you even care?"

An explosion shook the night air, and a distant pillar of stone went tumbling onto the valley floor. The ground shook beneath them, but Lane wasn't staggered. She seemed almost to be expecting it. "You're offering me all this?" Ghetsis asked. "After all those threats of revenge? After what you did to my troops?"

Lane shrugged. "It's a happier outcome than all this fighting. Let us end the threat of Shadow Pokémon. Release your captive legendary Pokémon, and join us instead."

Ghetsis remained impassive. His mind was—strange. He radiated emotions the way other creatures did—but when Shiloh tried to push harder, she struck into a wall. Could the dragon do that, or was it something else? Maybe it was his sword preventing Lane from just mind-controlling him. 

"It is kind of you to share your vision of the future with me, Mew. Let me share mine. An end of lies. A world where everyone knows who rules them, and no forces manipulate and control mankind from the shadows. Only those with the right to rule will command Pokémon, and everyone else will depend on them for their protection. There is a place for you and yours to serve me, when you're defeated here. If you accept it willingly, I will be merciful in your defeat. Witness my companion, and know I do not lie."

It was Lane's turn to laugh. She lifted off the ground a few inches now, until she was at an equal height with the towering old man. "That's not exactly difficult. You're promising… what? That you'll be nice to your slaves? Okay, cool." She looked up, and her voice changed, abandoning human speech entirely. Now Shiloh had a taste of what it must look like when she'd spoken on video—a human form, but Pokémon words. It was so strange it was almost cute. "You're helping him? Don't you care what he's doing?"

Reshiram stretched, shifting its weight on the clearing. As it moved, nearby patches of snow boiled to steam. Shiloh couldn’t even look directly at it without feeling her eyes curve and bend over the space. The dragon's unearthly appearance betrayed something even stranger within. This was power like Mewtwo's—yet that creature was occupied battling elsewhere.

Conquering here was Lane's responsibility, and hers. If they couldn't, Reshiram would be unopposed in the battle.

"He speaks the truth. My twin concerns himself with the consequences, I do not. One man can rule over all the world, so long as he does so without deceit. You wear a cloak of lies even now, Firstborn. Do you expect me to turn away at your command?"

"You think he's any better?" Shiloh yelled. She lifted up into the air, flying off Lane's shoulder and closer to the dragon. Not within biting distance of those terrible jaws, but close enough. "Do you know who that is? Ghetsis—he used to preach that Pokémon didn't deserve to be captive to humans. But that was a lie, he only wanted to take them away from the populace, and keep them for himself. He's not honest."

The dragon eyed her. There was none of the same respect she saw for Lane, claws poised to take off and battle at the slightest disturbance. It saw her youth and her weakness. Whatever power allowed Victini to turn the tide of a battle, it wasn't active all the time. "You speak with such confidence. But you stand against this man, and beside the mew. You would say anything you thought would disrupt my loyalty. You might even believe it."

"We are united in purpose," Ghetsis declared, glowering up at Shiloh. He wouldn't understand a word she said—but maybe he didn't have to. The intention in their conversation was obvious enough. Why else would she be talking to the dragon, if not to win him over? He wouldn't understand Shiloh if she wasn't trying to make herself understood—but was the dragon? It seemed as though he was intentionally sharing the meaning. 

"You have my offer. Surrender quickly. If you force me to fight, my generosity will no longer be extended. Be wise."

It was exactly how Shiloh knew their encounter was doomed to go from the beginning.

"When this is over, I won't let you escape like the human authorities do," Lane whispered. "You chose this." Then she attacked. Not the human standing between them, though he looked perfectly vulnerable to Shiloh. Maybe there was something of honor in their conflict, something Shiloh didn't have enough experience with legendaries to understand.

Either way, she was soon swept up in it, flying after Lane just to keep up. Besides, attacking the unprotected human wouldn't help make things any better. Even if her powers worked, they would only turn him into a martyr, leaving Pokémon and humans alive more determined to fight.

A brilliant orange flame scorched through the air, momentarily blinding Shiloh with the light, but leaving her unharmed. It was a little like walking into the burning nursery—her body would take more than simple heat to scorch her. Or maybe it just wasn't aimed at her.

They flew upward in a sharp spiral, leaving Shiloh a clear view of the mew high above her. Lane abandoned her human disguise as the flame came for her, surrounding herself with a sphere of bright pink light. But she wasn't flying conventionally like the dragon, no lift was involved—instead of continuing upward along with the flame, she shot straight down, to where Shiloh struggled to keep up.

"Hey!" The shield grew bigger, swallowing both of them. "Pokémon master, what do we do? How do we win this one?"

Reshiram noticed her absence, turning back on them. There were words behind that frustration. "Are you a coward as well as a liar? Face me!" More flames filled the air, aimed directly at them. This time they rippled purple and blue at the edges, not with simple heat. 

"Teleport!" Shiloh suggested. They vanished from the path of flame, reappearing high overhead. The battlefield was suddenly very small, with only a distant outline of the castle visible to her. Occasional flashes of light showed where Pokémon attacks or human weapons fired, but she couldn't focus on them. She had to resist her trainer's instinct to understand the whole battle, and focus on what she could control.

"I know how to dodge!" Lane yelled, already sounding weaker. "You're a Pokémon master! If you had to fight that thing, what Pokémon would you bring?"

She didn't hesitate. "Flygon, obviously. I don't need a pokedex to see he's dragon/fire. Both of those attacks clearly had the same type attack—"

The shield vanished, and the full blast of upper arctic air struck into Shiloh. It sent her spinning end-over-end, away from the frustrated, charging dragon.

"You think you can exhaust me with tricks, Firstborn? Do you have any idea why I was created? I stand against the horrors of the sky! You are fledglings who should not have left the nest!"

Somehow that roar cut through the chaos of battle. It sounded so personal. This dragon wasn't fighting her Pokémon in a televised contest—it was going to kill her if it could.

Something zipped up from underneath Shiloh, catching her out of her tumble and shooting forward in an intricate series of loops. She'd ridden atop the back of one such creature for much of her training career, so she recognized it instantly. She should really track down where Flygon had ended up…

Not right now. This one yelled her name. "Shiloh, focus! Use your powers, hold on!" The words were different, shrill and echoing like a bird. But she still recognized the voice underneath. That was the mew, Lane.

She didn't give Shiloh much warning.  She managed to use her powers somehow anyway, clinging desperately to her back. They curved upward in a loop, as Reshiram flew to meet them. Shiloh nearly lost her stomach in a complex series of high-velocity loops and dives, arcing around and around. The dragon kept attacking, but Lane was faster. The huge creature had all the weight and power of a dragon to throw around, but Flygon and mew both relied on something different. 

Lane was perpetually seconds from being struck, but stayed just ahead. Until they came down on the snowy desert below, and curved along its surface. Forces of gravity that should've crushed her brain were only a mild annoyance to Shiloh, not even disrupting her concentration. Good thing, or she would've been crushed into a bloody smear on the ground.

Sand and snow billowed into a cloud behind them, growing wider and wider as Lane flew. It expanded outward into a blinding storm, forcing Reshiram to break off. She felt one final flash of heat behind them, but this one didn't get close. There was a wall of sand between them now, dissipating any heat in a shower of molten glass beads and hiss of steam.

"I hope you have a strategy here!" Lane yelled, urgent. "Beyond just being slightly faster than he is! I can't keep this up as long as he can—the other legendaries traded their minds for power. He's stronger than we are!"

"You can't hide forever!" Reshiram's voice echoed over the desert, reflecting strangely off misshapen pillars of stone all around them. Would they even be able to find the castle again through all that?

"What moves do you know?" Shiloh asked, her voice growing urgent. "What am I supposed to tell you?"

"All of them!" The flygon dropped lower, skimming along the sand and thin curtain of snow. The billowing storm grew louder, forcing Shiloh to curl up even smaller, shielding herself. The invisible barrier illuminated along the edges where the sand whipped around it.

Not possible! But arguing with her wouldn't do them any good, when there was still a legendary trying to kill them. "Then, uh… Dragon Dance! Then fly out of the storm and use Outrage!"

Lane's flight turned instantly erratic, a flowing upward and downward motion through the storm. She had no shield against the sandstorm, but didn't seem to need one. As she flew, she started to glow, shimmering purple visible even against the darkness of the storm. Then they curved slightly upward, so fast that Shiloh lost her grip and went spinning into the air. She tumbled, struggling to correct herself. Finally she emerged from the sandstorm, in time to see Lane strike directly against the dragon tailing them.

The force of her flight knocked Reshiram right out of the air, and into a pillar of cracked stone. They continued through it without slowing, before tumbling together down to the sand. Lane kept fighting as she fell, striking at her legendary opponent with savage blows. Until they landed, and the attack finally ended. She tumbled away, going practically limp in the snow. 

Shiloh darted over to her, landing beside where she fell. "Lane? Time to stop being confused, buddy. We've got this whole… not dying thing. Harder to do that if you're just flopping around there!"

Reshiram rolled onto its belly, breathing heavily from the attack. Lane's blows left it bleeding and gasping, but nothing that would knock it out of the fight. It rose, leering down at them. "She is… so young. She does not understand the danger. Sacrificed herself for that attack."

There were medicines and berries that could rouse Lane, of course. But Shiloh didn't have any of those—she wasn't even wearing pants. 

She hovered over the fallen Lane, facing her attacker. "You can't fight us! Don't you know what I am? She can't lose this fight when we're together. It doesn't matter how big and powerful you are, I'm Victini!"

The dragon stood. "Is that so? Then some of this heat is for you!" Reshiram opened its jaws wide, and heat began to build, boiling away all the nearby snow and growing to oven-hot in an eye-blink. Air rushed through its tail, producing a roaring sound like a jet about to take off. Soon the light was itself brighter than the stars, blinding her.

Shiloh had only a few seconds to react, or she'd be wiped away right along with the mew. What could she do? She wasn't even supposed to be a Pokémon, she didn't know how to fight!

But she could fly.