The New Normal - 17-8 - Interlude - Looker & N

The New Normal – 17-8 – Interlude – Looker & N

(Looker POV)

Recently, the upper leadership of PLASMA had been meeting far more often – which did not bode well. Ever since their humiliating retreat from Sinnoh, the leadership of PLASMA had all agreed to lay low for the time being; to avoid taking any further action that might accidentally draw the authorities attention onto themselves.

Which was why the recent uptick in meetings was so concerning. If they were supposed to be laying low, then why were they meeting more often?

He had a bad feeling about what they were discussing – it couldn’t be anything good.

Unfortunately, no matter what he tried, he wouldn’t have the authority to join in on those meetings. He might have been promoted to become an assistant to Rood, but that didn’t give him the opportunity to join and listen in on those meetings.

He had done his best to ask Rood for any bits of information, but because he had to do so gently as to avoid suspicion, he wasn’t really able to learn much. Just that PLASMA had recently come into a bit of stroke of luck, whatever that meant.

Therefore, his only course of action was to speak with N and to learn things from his friend, but N had been uncharacteristically cagey with him as well.

And that was the other point of concern. N had been spending far less time with not only him, but everyone else in the compound. He had carefully asked around, and he found out that Ghetsis had apparently decided to give N more of his ‘personal attention’.

Knowing what he did of Ghetsis, he couldn’t think that N getting more attention would be a good thing.

His recent conversation with N only managed to reinforce his concerns.

“…I’m sorry, Hilbert, but Ghetsis told me I really can’t talk about this with anyone.” N said apologetically to him, “Even though I trust you, I really can’t talk about this. I’m really sorry for keeping you in the dark about this, but you’ll understand why later, I promise.”

That was disappointing, but he didn’t let the false smile on his face waver as he pretended to ask casually, “Don’t worry, I understand. So it must a really big deal then?”

N smiled back, “Yes, it is. Honestly, it was something that PLASMA desperately needed, so I’m very happy about this too. I can’t wait to see the expression on your face when it’s revealed.”

…That didn’t sound good at all. He made a mental note to include this development in his latest report back to his bosses.

But for now, he kept up his smiling façade as he patted N on the shoulder, “Then I’ll be here waiting. I look forward to finding out the truth.”

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(N POV)

After that conversation with Hilbert, he returned back to his father’s office where he found the man smiling gently at him. He had been doing that a lot recently.

“Ah, welcome back.” Ghetsis said kindly, “Are you trying to spend more time with it?”

“Yes.” He replied, “That is – if you don’t mind.”

“No, no, go ahead. It was meant for you anyways.” His father pushed forwards the round, black stone that had been sitting on his desk, “Arceus knows that I can’t do anything with this anyways. Haha.”

That laugh felt a little forced, but he put all that out of his mind for now as he concentrated his full attention on the object in front of him – the Dark Stone.

He remembered being utterly bewildered when Ghetsis had first presented it to him, though he did remember what Ghetsis had said to him at the time.

“Do you see this, N? This is the very proof that Arceus smiles down on our goals.” Ghetsis had said, “After all, why would it bless us with the ability to locate such a Legendary if it did not believe that our goals were righteous? The setbacks in Sinnoh and Zinzolin’s corruption were all merely tests from Arceus to prove that we were worthy of walking down this path, and our conviction never faltered. Our ideals remained as strong as ever, and it has rewarded us with the power to grant our ideals into reality.”

“What exactly is it?” He had asked.

“It is the dormant form of the Legendary Zekrom – you must have heard about the myths surrounding it. I taught you them myself when you were younger.” He nodded; he did remember, “Well we had a stroke of luck and came across it during one of our fact-finding expeditions in some underwater ruin. I’ll spare you the details, but this is now yours to nurture and take care of. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be the one to awaken it.”

“Me? Why me?” He asked, “Why not you?”

His father only smiled at him again, “Because there’s no one else I’d trust with this responsibility other than you, N. You’re my son.”

That was really all he needed to hear. It was the most emotional and touching that he had ever remembered his father being, and he knew at that very moment that he couldn’t disappoint him.

A very small part of him, the part which remembered the conversation he had with Hilbert about the potential corruption at the core of PLASMA, warned him that not everything was at it seemed.

But he shoved that part of him aside. After all, Ghetsis couldn’t be wrong, right? Not when a Legendary itself now backed their goals. With Zekrom now here in his hands, he knew that they were in the right.

Not only that, but after he had received that gift, the other big change in his life was that Ghetsis had been spending a lot more time with him, and he now treated him with a lot more friendliness.

He could understand; now that they had a Legendary on their side, a lot of the stress that must have been on Ghetsis’ shoulders would have been lifted – because they knew they were on the right side of history. Because Arceus wouldn’t have granted them the Dark Stone if it did not believe that their actions were righteous.

And he was happier for it. Because spending time like this with his Ghetsis, like a proper father and son? It was the best time of his life.

Of course, during that time he always accompanied the Dark Stone as well. He was basically inseparable from it – the moment he had laid his hands on it, he felt a strange compulsion to always be by its side as much as possible.

It helped that Ghetsis frequently encouraged N to spend more time with the Dark Stone as well. It was nice to see him care so much about his interests.

That being said, he did feel bad about keeping Hilbert in the dark about this, especially because he was also spending less time with his best friend. But he promised to make it up to him at a later date.

He was shaken out of his thoughts as he felt Ghetsis place a gentle hand on his shoulder, “Stay true to your ideals, N. And the world will be better for it.”

A.N. Given that I’ve focused heavily on John and his move to Sinnoh, I felt it was only right we focused back on what PLASMA was up to in the meantime. And naturally, I wanted to focus the most on N and Looker, as I wanted to show how their dynamics have shifted. I wanted to show that, despite the progress Looker has made to showing N the truth, the chokehold and influence that Ghetsis has over N is sadly always going to be more influential.

And yes, Ghetsis has managed to get his hands on the Dark Stone, just like he did in canon. More details regarding the Dark Stone will be shown in future chapters!  Furthermore, there’s a reason I chose the Dark Stone over the Light Stone for N. It’ll be revealed later too. And now we’re going to go into some small timeskips! Hope you enjoyed!