Chapter Twenty-Seven

Shiloh found Briar along with several familiar faces, tucked away in an artificial cave. She should've been watching her back a little closer, because by the time she made it there, she was alone. Dominic had vanished into the forest, without leaving a trace. Except a faint, floral scent from where she touched him.

A pair of red eyes appeared near the entrance, peeking out at her. Briar bounded forward, before settling onto his haunches and looking up expectantly. Shiloh drifted lower, until they were almost at eye-level. Even from a weaker dark-type, she could feel that subtle distortion he made in the air now, warping it around him. 

She could push all she wanted to pry out his emotions from inside, but never get anything. Strange how something she'd always seen as a background detail of battle strategy became one of the fundamental realities of her world. 

"I'm not happy about leaving her," Briar said, the first to break the silence. "I've been with her this long. She's already lost her parents—she deserves some company when she dies."

Shiloh landed carefully on the stone. "Aspen stayed with her. Shaymin are legendary, Briar. I know you were never into Pokémon the same way I was. But mythical Pokémon aren't just defined by their moves. Their powers are… deeper than that. Look what mew did to us. Celebi can travel through time. And I don't know what I do, but I'm sure I'll figure it out soon."

"Easy." Briar's outline distorted and fuzzed, reforming into something a little smaller, but radically different in basic shape. Suddenly there were two of them in the fake cave, Shiloh and her identical clone. "You win. You were doing it before, and you'll keep doing it now. You'll win every single fight you get yourself in, ever."

That was what the stories all said—and what Mewtwo implied her role would be in their battles to come. She would tilt the odds against Ghetsis and whatever legendaries Team Plasma had trained for their defense.

"I hope so," she said. "Because otherwise the whole world will be covered in shadow-Pokémon. If Pokémon were that dangerous, I don't think civilization would survive. That's probably Team Plasma's plan to begin with—destroy everything, and rebuild it with them ruling."

Distant sirens started to blare, along with a voice. Lane's, amplified by microphone. "Transit lock, prepare to deploy. Team Infinity: all hands to stations!"

"Guess this is it." Briar levitated past her, or looked like he did, poking his head out of the cave. He even copied the way her tail moved when she flew. "Your big moment. You won't just be Pokémon champion after this, you'll save the whole world."

She didn't take off, or answer the distant voice. It hadn't called for her specifically, so she let the sirens blare. "Without any credit," she said flatly. "They still think I'm missing. And before you say so—Mirage can't cover for me. She can't speak our language, so she can't fake it. Cameras always get gibberish."

"I could, when I evolve. Then I could use my illusions on others, the way Mirage does. Two of us could make almost anything for the camera. I'd be better than a whole team of effects artists!" Briar floated back inside, then changed again. He grew larger, so tall he filled the entrance of the cave, and towered over Shiloh. "I don't actually… know how to evolve. But faking it is fun."

Shiloh finally took off again, floating up to his eye-level. "There aren't any shortcuts. You just need enough training and experience in battle. You haven't had a lot of that lately."

"To fight is failure," said a voice from deeper in the artificial cavern. Another zoroark emerged. There were subtle ways to tell she was real—the dirt in her coat, the long mane longer in some areas and shorter in others. Briar's copy was too perfect, like a Pokémon just back from the groomer. 

She was also a stain of power that Shiloh couldn't pierce, no matter how intense her gaze. "A battle means all deception has failed, and we are in danger. It is far better to avoid danger than to confront it."

She didn't look away, despite Mirage's intimidating aura of dark power. Far worse things waited in Team Plasma's secret fortress. "You needed to train to evolve. Briar will too—unless he wants to change back. When the threat is over, Lane might be able to fix you. Have you talked to her about it?"

"No," Briar admitted. His illusion vanished, and he was back to being a fox, looking up at her. "When would I have done that? She was with you, remember?"

"Right." She dropped down to his level, following his gaze. "That's still not much of an answer. Are you going to change back?"

Briar changed again. He got taller, taller than Mirage. So tall he had to stoop in the cave, with a backpack and a jacket in one of Shiloh's own yellow and orange merch designs. He tossed a camera up and down, and it even sounded realistic. "I don't need Lane's help to change back," he said, in English this time. "I can be human whenever I want. Real sound too—there won't be problems with cameras. Only smart Pokémon should be able to see through it."

Shiloh looked him up and down, impressed. The illusion was accurate, there was no denying that. Even things a human Shiloh wouldn't have noticed were correct, like the distinct human smell and speed of his movements. "I already know the language, so I don't have to guess."

"But you're still a Pokémon under all that," Shiloh insisted. "Don’t you want to be human again?"

He shrugged. "One day, maybe. I don't even know where my life is going without you, Shiloh. All this time I've been the film crew for a Pokémon champion. Now you're a Pokémon champion, and it gets a little foggy. I figure I'll have more time to figure everything out once the danger is over."

A shape moved in the simulated forest. Pale fabric shifted, and Shiloh caught pink hair through the foliage. But she could feel Lane coming even if she couldn't see the mew directly. She recognized her mind by now, no matter how unseen.

Briar looked up as she approached, then shrunk abruptly back into his true shape, retreating into the cave. Lane ignored him, or else she didn't care what his illusion looked like. 

"Shiloh, good. The battle is going now, we're just waiting for the signal that they're ready for us. Are you coming with me?"

She floated at Lane's eye-level. Some part of her was amazed that she could manage that so easily. Flying should obviously be impossible, but now it was second nature to her. Like so many other things. "You ask that like I have a choice. Mewtwo sounded like you needed me."

"We do." Lane reached out cautiously, tracing two fingers along Shiloh's ears. It felt surprisingly good, enough that she didn't float away. Her tail still twitched in embarrassment. Things that would never make sense for humans were so simple when you were a Pokémon. "But I can't force someone to risk their life. We're better off trying our luck without you if you're unwilling. I bet you aren't."

She backed away, lifting her hand to the side. "Whatever happens to the planet after today, you still have to live on it. If we all die, you're screwed too."

Shiloh gaped. "Nothing sappy about the meaning of friendship or the power that was inside me all along?"

She shook her head once. "That was Dominic's thing. He can see things from way further back, lets him judge abstractions like virtue and vice. But every time I threaten to copy his powers so I can see, he threatens what it will be like." She leaned in close, whispering under her breath. "Driver's Ed. Decades and decades of lectures in a room with no dimensions, just yellow walls and damp carpets. One day I'll get too curious—until then, I can only see things from right here."

She spun in place, nearly smacking Shiloh with her oversized tail. Up close, she wasn't actually standing, just floating close enough to the ground that she made a convincing illusion. "I know who I picked. Do you want to win, or let some asshole take over the world?"

Shiloh followed her out into the open. The strange, simulated gravity took a little extra attention to deal with, but she was managing. "Is it better off with you and the other legendaries free to do whatever you want? Changing people into Pokémon, building space stations, and… whatever other things you do."

Lane shrugged. "Guess you'll have to decide. What do you think of my selection? Did I pick a good human? Or was I wrong?"

She twitched, glancing down at her wrist. The screen of her watch flashed with new text, then cleared again. "Speaking of which. They're ready for us. A whole team of genesect, which we were expecting. But there's more. Have you heard of Reshiram?"

Shiloh froze in the air. Despite the heat flowing through her body, she felt suddenly cold. "How? I didn't even think they existed."

"You saw the machine." Lane stopped, gesturing at the open air in front of her. It swirled and darkened, crackling with pent-up energy. A black surface appeared there, gradually resolving into an opening. Through it, she saw a snowy wasteland, filled with huge flakes blasted by the wind. Cold air whipped through it, carrying snow onto the ground of the little cave. Along with the sweat of combat, the smell of gunfire and distant flashes of light.

"I can't hold it open like Mewtwo," she said, voice straining. "Whoever is coming with me, follow me now." She stepped through the opening. The portal began to close instantly, its edges contracting. Little bolts of energy flicked off it, filling the air with the harsh stink of ozone. Shiloh considered staying behind—it would be undeniably safer that way, keeping herself out of danger. But then she would have no say in the future they made, or any share of their victory.

She would, however, have a share in their defeat. If Aspen lost her mom here, or the world's strongest protectors died fighting a power mad maniac, anyone who knew would blame her for the rest of time. Unless she did something about it, here and now.

A set of buzzing rotors appeared behind her, along with a little swiveling lens. Rotom, still filming her after all this time. Helluva documentary this would turn out to be, if they ever got it published. "The mew appears to be entering a dangerous situation. Perhaps now is your chance to capitalize on her resulting weakness and secure a capture of the elusive Pokémon for television."

Shiloh laughed. She dropped down to the ground, where Briar was watching her. But a fight like this wasn't meant for him. As Mirage put it, battle came only after illusion had already failed. She hugged him, her touch brief and embarrassed. The gesture was so much harder without a human body-type. "See you on the other side. If I make it out."

"Like there's any doubt," Briar said. "You're a Pokémon champion. The only thing you know how to do is win."

The portal was closing, she couldn't wait much longer. Shiloh closed her eyes, and zipped through the opening before she could change her mind. 

She caught the gentle humming of plastic engines behind her, and knew the Rotom was joining her for the ride. Hopefully it wouldn't be her last. 

What she found waiting on the other side was every bit as terrifying as she'd initially feared. A gigantic stony courtyard was the site of an incredible battle, one that ripped up the ground and constantly flashed in the air with occasional blasts of Pokémon attacks.

There were humans fighting too—Plasma grunts with their weapons, and Team Infinity troops on their side with unplaceable weapons unlike anything Shiloh had seen before. Pokémon clashed everywhere, an apocalyptic battle of a scale that even the old Pokémon champion would have trouble understanding.

None of that mattered to her now. Something drew her attention upward to the center of the clearing—Lane herself, directing her to their target. 

One man stood apart from the chaos, with a dragon towering behind him. He leaned his weight on a cane almost as tall as his own body. Only that wasn't a cane—it had curved sides, sharpened to a razor's edge.

"I've been waiting for you," he said, voice somehow clear across the distance. "Welcome to Harmonia Castle."