Disclaimer: Oh, I wish I owned Pokémon's copyrights…

Author's Note: Yeah, apparently I ship Hikari with Akagi now. I've been trying to figure out for a while how to make this pair work, and after playing Platinum, I got a few good ideas. This is from Akagi's point of view since it worked out pretty well that way… It's pretty much one-sided here, though I may attempt to write another fic for these two later. And I'm using the Japanese names since I like them better. It should be fairly obvious, but Hikari is Dawn and Akagi is Cyrus.

Additionally, this was partially inspired by Parrot-San's fic, "Guilt," mainly in a few bits toward the end. Go read it if you have the time.

Emotions

All of Akagi's well-laid plans were falling apart around him.

He'd always done everything according to plan. He'd never let his emotions get in the way of anything. He'd made his plans so he could get rid of his petty "feelings."

In a perfect world, the world he was trying to create, Akagi wouldn't have had to trifle with his emotions in the first place… He wouldn't have had to deal with her, either.

Hikari was the type of person Akagi had never been able to deal with. She was the type of person that made him want to create his new world. In every possible way, the girl was the very definition of emotion—he'd felt it the first time he'd seen her at Lake Verity, and he'd known it for sure after he'd fought her in Celestic Town.

Hikari was young and naïve, and yet old and strong at the same time. She was young enough to still believe in having "trust" and "compassion" for her Pokémon and her other so-called "friends," but old enough to feel "anger" when she saw something "wrong" happen to someone.

Every time Akagi so much as thought about the scrawny teenage girl trying to thwart him, rage boiled up in him. Guilt then drowned him until he felt pity for her. Then suddenly he would remember that his trivial emotions were getting the better of him, emotions that he was trying to get rid of.

Akagi despised Hikari more than he'd ever despised anyone, but at the same time, he didn't want to hate her. He couldn't begin to describe what was happening to him, and for the first time in his life, he started to feel powerless.

The weakness he had crept up on him further when the girl stormed the Veilstone Headquarters. Akagi could manipulate his underlings there all he wanted, but as soon as Hikari approached him, he knew he didn't have a chance at doing much of anything—let alone defeating her in a battle. But he kept up the façade, pretending as if a loss had all been part of his supposed plan, though she didn't seem to believe him.

But all that mattered was whether or not Akagi could succeed at Spear Pillar. All it would theoretically take was a simple command to control the two Pokémon supposedly able to destroy and rebuild the world. Akagi had foreseen Hikari chasing him all the way there… Though the results were mush more catastrophic than he'd predicted.

He'd studied the legends of Sinnoh so thoroughly that he could scoff at the region's top researchers. He should have expected the third Pokémon—Giratina—and yet he hadn't. Nowhere in any of his many back-up plans and theories was there room for the legendary shadow dragon to intercede, nor had there been room for Hikari to defeat it and calm it down enough for the Distortion World to close, allowing Dialga and Palkia to escape in the process.

Akagi could pretend that he wouldn't stop. He could pretend that he could revive Dialga and Palkia once again and find a way to destroy one world or the other, and thus both.

Yet he and Hikari both knew that was a lie. She was somehow able to see through his breakdown in the Distortion World, a show of blind rage that was so unlike him. All it took was a single moment for her to figure out that the failure was too much for Akagi to handle and that he'd never attempt the fiasco again.

He pretended to retreat into the dark, twisted corners of the Distortion World as Hikari vanished into the light of the real world—but he stepped out as well moments later. The bright light blinded him, and Akagi felt weak as he stumbled into the fields of the Setback Spring.

He'd needed to create his new world so badly. Akagi had, for so long, been unable to stand his own emotions, and had been desperate to be rid of them. Even as his perfect calculations had crumbled around him, he'd tried to convince himself that an emotionless world was still possible.

At the same time, however, Akagi had started to realize ever so slowly that he was wrong. Hikari, the small, defiant girl, had thrown all of her emotions in his face and proven herself to be stronger and better than he was in so many regards.

And Akagi had found himself wanting those emotions, and worse yet, wanting his own emotions. He'd fought so hard to keep himself from succumbing to "morals" and to only seek his own preservation that everything hit him in a rush. He needed to feel, he needed to repent, and most of all, he needed Hikari.

All he could do was hope that some day, in some way, his guilt, regret, and sorrow would show through to her—but his shame kept him away.