Title: Cups
Fandom: Pokémon
Rating: G
Length: 2280 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Combined fill for challenge 287: Cups, and the Past, Present, Future square on my genprompt_bingo card. Some of Rose and Leon's Champion Cup dialogue is direct from the game.
Summary: Two Champion Cups, and what comes after.



then



Leon sat in the cloakroom of Wyndon Stadium, practically bouncing in his seat as he watched the Gym Leaders duking it out on screen. Sonia, sat beside him, laughed.

"If you don't calm down you won't even have the energy to take on the Champion," she teased.

Leon grinned, leaping to his feet and striking a pose (and not tripping over his own feet, even if his teenage growth spurt had hit at the worst time).

"Nope!" he declared, punching the air. "Me and Charizard can take on the Champion any day!"

Raihan, lounging in a seat across the room, shook his head.

"You have to beat me first," he pointed out. "I wouldn't be so sure about who's going to be taking on the Champion just yet."

Leon scowled at Raihan, then turned to Sonia.

"Hey, Sonia," he said. "Who do you think's going to win out of us two?"

Sonia's eyes widened. She glanced at Leon, and then at Raihan, who had sat up fully, obviously interested in her answer.

"Nope," she said firmly, shaking her head. "I'm not answering that one. You two will just have to see who wins for yourselves."

Leon sighed, then paused. In his excitement over the upcoming battles, he had almost forgotten.

"How about you, Sonia?" he asked, a little more subdued. "I mean... I know you dropped out, but..."

"Does it make you wish you hadn't?" Raihan asked, serious for once. "I mean, being here, watching this..." He gestured at the battle still raging on the screen.

"No," Sonia said, smiling. "I think... I don't know what I want to do next. But I know the Gym Challenge isn't for me."

A roar from the crowd interrupted them, and the three of them turned back to the screen just in time to see Melony's Lapras take down Kabu's Centiskorch in a rush of water. When the wave receded, it was clear that Centiskorch wasn't up for battling any more. Melony had won, and that meant...

"Our turn," Leon said, glancing at Raihan, nervous energy making him want to giggle. He touched the PokéBalls at his belt.

Raihan nodded, taking a deep breath.

"Hey, no matter what happens," he said. "Let's still be friends, right?"

"Friends and rivals," Leon said firmly. "We can keep battling each other as many times as we want, after."

"Yeah," Raihan said, grinning, and together they walked out into the stadium.

---


The next day, Leon sat in the cloakroom again, on his own this time.

He'd beaten Raihan by a hair. After a brutal battle, Charizard had staggered back to his feet, ready to keep going - but Raihan's Duraludon had been unable to continue. For a split second, there had been a lost look on Raihan's face - but then it had gone, and Raihan was grinning and shaking Leon's hand, congratulating him on a battle hard fought and warning him that it would be different next time.

Then their Pokemon had been healed, and Leon had gone up against the three Gym Leaders who had won their own exhibition matches, one after another with the only pause between to heal his Pokemon. If - no, when he became Champion, Leon decided, he would build gaps into that part of the Champion Cup. It wasn't fair on Challengers or on their Pokemon.

Still, none of them had been as difficult as Raihan, who knew Leon's battle style back to front and inside out. Leon had beaten them all, and now here he was - waiting for his chance to battle, and defeat, the Champion of the Galar League.

Mustard strode out onto the field, spoke to the crowd - Leon didn't hear what he said past the roar of his heartbeat in his ears. Finally, the buzzer sounded, and Leon stood up. He closed his eyes, then opened them again.

"I can do this," he said. Then he walked out onto the field, head held high.

---


"Come back!"

Mustard recalled his final Pokemon. Leon's Charizard still stood strong, and he roared, breathing a triumphant plume of flame into the air. The crowd whooped.

Leon was frozen, not quite able to believe it. Then Mustard nodded at him, and Leon recalled Charizard with shaking hands.

"Congratulations," Mustard said, and then he grinned. "Champion Leon."



now



Leon looks at the girl standing opposite him, and grins. He'd made a good choice, when he endorsed Hop and Gloria. Their battle had been incredible, even if Leon had been rooting for Hop - he was his little brother, after all. But Gloria had won by a hair, and Leon had remembered his own Champion Cup battle against Raihan, all those years ago now.

The audience's cheering reaches a fever pitch, and Leon's grin widens. Time to get this battle started.

"The tense, still air on the pitch..." he begins. "And the exact opposite from the audience, cheering and yelling... They're both fantastic, wouldn't you say?"

Gloria nods, her eyes wide as she looks around at all the people cheering for Leon... and for her, too. Leon hides a wince; she looks as nervous as he had, once upon a time.

"But remember, the audience is also a bit cruel..." he warns her. "They want nothing more than to see one of us lose, after all!" Gloria chews on her lip, a habit Hop had once picked up from her, when they had first become friends.

"It can fill you with fear knowing that," Leon says. Even now, he has to take a few breaths to calm himself down before stepping out onto the pitch, no matter how many times he does it. "But," he adds, "I absolutely love pushing past the fear. I love giving it everything I've got as a Trainer and seeing my team give everything they've got to seize another victory! It's the greatest feeling in the world, and I can't get enough of it!"

Gloria smiles and nods, one hand going to the PokéBall necklace she wears. Leon smiles back at her, glad to see that she seems to have gotten past a bit of her nerves.

"I can feel my partners itching with anticipation inside their PokéBalls... We're going to have a real champion time!" he announces, and the crowd whoops at his catchphrase.

"I'm the Galar region's Champion, Leon!" To the crowds, anyway. To Gloria, he's probably more Hop's big brother, which is kind of cute and kind of humbling. Hopefully she won't be too upset when she loses; Hop might never forgive him if Leon makes his best friend cry. But as Champion, he has to defend his title, and so...

"Me and Charizard, and all the rest of our team, will use all our knowledge and experience to
crush you completely!"

The two of them separate, walking to their places. Leon's fingers dance over his PokéBalls, and finally he settles on Aegislash to start. But before he can throw the Ball, a cry of "Wait!" goes up from the audience, followed by shouts about what was on the monitor.

Gloria is already staring at the massive screen behind Leon, her eyes wide. Slowly, Leon turns.

"Hello there, Leon and Gloria!" Rose says, his face filling the screen. Leon shakes his head. What is Rose doing? First missing the opening ceremony, and now this...

"Just letting you know..." Rose continues, his smile manic. "...I think it’s time I brought about the Darkest Day. For the sake of Galar’s future, of course!"

The audience is silent. He can't be serious. Rose wouldn't go that far. Even after the worries he had confessed to Leon the other day at Rose Tower... The energy crisis Rose always talked about is a thousand years away. Surely waiting just one more day hadn't pushed Rose this far?

Rose's smile drops abruptly, and he shakes his head.

"But I’m in a bit of a pickle," he says, glancing at something off-screen then wincing at the sound of an explosion. "The energy released by the Darkest Day is too much for us to contain."

Too much...! Of course it's too much; Rose has done something that no reasonable person would be willing to do! Leon can't understand how he could have believed that it was possible to control the Darkest Day in the first place - Sonia's research isn't complete yet, but she's shared what she knew with Leon, and Leon had told Rose in passing.

What if that was what had given Rose the idea?

Before Leon can question that any more, the ground begins to shake beneath their feet. Leon staggers, managing to stay standing; some of the audience aren't so lucky, and Leon waves at one of the security staff, trying to tell them with gestures to get an evacuation started, now.

And a moment later, the Power Spot beneath the Stadium ruptures, bright violet energy geysering upwards into the sky. Leon spares a moment to be grateful that the stadiums are all open-air - if this is happening all over Galar, then Piers and Spikemuth are the only ones who'd be safe.

Sure enough, images of the other Gyms flash up on the screen a moment later. If this had happened before the Champion Cup, when the Gym Challenge was in full swing... Leon grits his teeth. He doesn't want to think about what might have happened.

"I’m sorry it’s come to this," Rose says, and he does look genuinely regretful as he appears on-screen again, the same way he always did when he apologised for something. "But it’s you who forced my hand, Leon. You refused to listen!"

Is that true? Is this Leon's fault?

The broadcast winks out, leaving chaos in the stadium, and as he sprints through the exit tunnel, a sick sinking feeling grows in Leon's stomach.



three days later



Leon hasn't felt déja vu many times before. But standing in Wyndon Stadium opposite Gloria, he's definitely feeling it now.

Hopefully there won't be any interruptions this time, Legendary or otherwise.

"Everyone knows what you did for us this week, Gloria," he says, and Gloria shakes her head, turning pink. Leon smiles. Hop reacted pretty much the same way when Leon had thanked him for his help.

He congratulates Gloria, too. What she and Hop had done, working together with Zacian and Zamazenta... that took a really special kind of trainer, and Leon's looking forward to seeing where the two of them end up.But first...

"Come on, Gloria! Let's make this a final match that'll go down in Galar's history!" He pauses. "No! A match that'll change Galar forever!"

They go to their places, and Leon strikes his signature pose.

"We're gonna have an absolutely champion time!"

---

Leon recalls Charizard in silence. The crowd is deafening, and he tugs the brim of his cap down over his face for a second, trying to hide the tears threatening to spill.

He takes a deep breath, and forces a bright smile onto his face, lifting his head.

"Congratulations, Gloria! You've beat even the unbeatable Champion!"

Leon doesn't really remember what else he says, focused only on getting through the formalities of handing the title over and trying not to ruin Gloria's big moment.

He hadn't expected this. Even after watching Gloria and Hop work together to defeat Eternatus, when Leon himself had been unable to...

He should have realised.

Raihan is waiting for him when he gets outside, along with dozens of camera-wielding reporters. For once, Raihan doesn't drag his feet flashing grins and peace signs at the cameras. Instead, he just throws out a few pithy comments about letting Leon get some well-earned rest, even as he chivvies Leon through the crowds and into a monorail carriage.

Inside the carriage, the noise from the crowds disappears.

Raihan's sigh breaks the silence.

"I have to admit, she surprised us all with that one," he says. Leon glances at him. He hadn't been the only one to miss Gloria's strength, then.

"Yeah," Raihan continues, tilting his head back to stare up at the grimy ceiling of the carriage, the one place that never got cleaned, "even after she beat me, I still thought... ah, it doesn't matter now." He looks at Leon.

"So, what next?"

"I have absolutely no idea," Leon admits. And they're both silent the rest of the way to the hotel.



one day



It'll be on a quiet, sunny summer day that Leon has the idea.

Rose Tower, the site of so much misery and fear. Why not take it, and turn it into something new, something better?

A place for trainers to test themselves and their Pokémon. A place for anyone who wants to get a taste of competitive battling, even without a competitive team; there'll be teams there for rent, to make it open to everyone.

Leon will tell Raihan about it when he gets home from his day at the Gym; the Gym Challenge will be in full swing again by that point, the Power Spots repaired after the Darkest Day, even if Marnie continues Piers' insistence on battling without Dynamaxing. After the Darkest Day and battling Eternatus, Leon understands that a little better.

The reformed Rose Tower will allow Dynamaxing; it wouldn't make sense not to use the Power Spot that's right there. But Leon doesn't think many people will use it.

It will need a name, of course, before he can get started.

And when Raihan gets home, he'll have the perfect suggestion. Short and simple, with no hint of what it was before.

The Battle Tower.

And then Leon will finally have an answer to the question Raihan asked him after his last battle as Champion.

"So, what next?"