Sorry I didn't update quickly—exams, Christmas, Internet issues... the norm. Thanks for the three reviewers! Reminder that chapter one has been edited. A lot.
I think this chapter is much better. Again, thanks to JayEyedWolf for being awesome as usual and editing this beforehand. On a side note, the Doctor Who Christmas special is tomorrow! ...Oh, and Christmas too.
I don't own Nintendo or Pokémon.
"Hey, you!" Touko whipped around at the sound of the voice, then relaxed as she realized the rough greeting wasn't for her. The man was a doctor, judging by his ID tag, and looked familiar for a strange reason. She frowned, and that frown only deepened when she saw N walk towards the doctor.
"N?" she asked incredulously, then mentally berated herself. Of course it was N. What other guy had green hair in a ponytail and weird little pieces of jewelry everywhere? Not to mention a rubik's cube hanging from his belt (which fell under the "weird jewelry" category)?
N glanced briefly at Touko before staring at the doctor who had called out seconds before. "Yes?"
"I saw you in Chargestone Cave a year or two ago, with that Team Plasma group!" The doctor didn't bother lowering his voice, and the words "Team Plasma" attracted the attention of many onlookers. They shot hostile looks towards N, and there was a look in their eyes similar to the one that a predator would have when its spotted the next meal. The crowd began murmuring darkly, stepping closer towards N and the doctor.N's jaw muscles flexed, but he remained silent.
"You almost took my Pokémon from me!" the doctor said. "Not to mention hundreds of others! You should be imprisoned—why aren't you? Did you hide? Run and hide, like the coward you are?"
The crowd muttered their agreement.
"Lay off!" Touko snapped. It wasn't N's fault for what he did... Well, sort of, but Ghetsis was the biggest culprit, and N was so childlike and innocent... She didn't want the crowd to hurt him. So then, of course, the crowd's gaze turned to her, and she shrank back inwardly, though kept standing tall.
"Are you defending this man?" the doctor demanded. "Why?" He paused. "You know what, you were in Chargestone Cave that day too! I healed your Pokémon! You must have been working for him."
"She wasn't," N said forcefully. "There—"
"I think we should all quiet down." A voice from the crowd rose above the other's, clear and commanding and vaguely familiar. "We don't want any police to arrive, yes? I can just take the young man to a station myself, and you can disperse. Agreed? Yes? Good. Now, onwards. Disperse."
The crowd shot hostile glares towards the center of the pack, but eventually began to walk away, and soon the everyday sounds of idle gossip and laughter filled the air.
As they left, Touko spotted the man who had spoken out and smiled. "Hello, Looker," she said, walking over towards the agent of the International Police.
Looker shushed Touko hurriedly, looking around warily. "Though it is only my code name, I do not want any strangers to know it."
"Okay, whatever," Touko said, rummaging around in her bag for a piece of gum (which she didn't have).
"Are you going to take me to the police station?" N had shuffled over, head hung low and feet scuffing the ground. He sounded like a child afraid of the monsters in his closet. "You should, after what I... and Ghetsis... did."
Looker sighed. "Yes, I should," he finally said. "But if you gave up all the information about Team Plasma you know, and what they might be doing now—if they could possibly be regrouping—then we could grant you immunity, perhaps."
N's lips pressed together in a tight line, and he stared up at the sun, blinking rapidly. Touko took a deep breath, an emotion boiling inside her she couldn't place. Anger? Pity? Sadness? A mixture? Whatever it was, she knew she should not be feeling this way about N. For God's sake, the boy had been king of Team Plasma! The team who kicked Munna to get what they wanted, stole Bianca's Pokémon, tried to steal hers-built a castle around the Pokémon League. No. There was no way she could be feeling sorry for this boy with the green hair.
"Okay," N replied. "Let's go." And then, after a moment's hesitation, he turned to Touko, his voice much slower than usual. "Could—would you come with me? To the police station?" His face was beginning to flood with color. "Just so I could have someone there, you know, to, um... provide... what do they call it... um... moral support, I guess?"
Touko blinked. "Um." She looked sideways at Looker. "Sure? I don't have anything else to do..."
Looker pursed his lips. "That is fine, I suppose. But The International Police Station, it is far away. Hidden. So you must be blindfolded when we go there."
Touko rolled her eyes again. "Of course," she muttered.
()()()
Several hours later, Looker, N, and Touko were in a bland interrogation room, with N and Looker sitting at the table. Touko was leaning against the wall in the corner behind N, her arms and ankles crossed. Looker had been questioning N for over an hour, and N had given up all information he knew quite willingly-Team Plasma's beginnings, his beginnings (orphan raised by Pokémon before Ghetsis took him in—no wonder he had issues), where Team Plasma was now... But it had taken a toll on N. His face was pale—paler than usual—and his hands were clasped together in front of him, knuckles turning white because of the force of his grip. Touko suspected that if his hands weren't clasped, they would be shaking. His baseball cap was resting on the table, revealing all his weird green hair.
"You did not know of Ghetsis', ah, master plan, yes? You only believed he wanted to free Pokémon?" Looker inquired.
N nodded, staring at the imperfections on the cold, hard table. "Yes," he murmured. "Growing up, I only knew Pokémon who had been abused. They told me their stories, and I came to believe that all trainers mistreated their Pokémon. When I met Touko... things changed. I told Ghetsis her Pokémon seemed happy, and he..." N's shaky voice trailed off and he swallowed, taking a deep breath. "He..." But he couldn't finish the sentence.
Touko spoke up for the first time, her face half-hidden in shadow. "Did Ghetsis ever physically abuse you?"
N unclasped his hands and rested them on his forehead. They were shaking, as Touko suspected they would. His voice was barely a whisper, but quick as ever, when he spoke. "Y—Yes. And the thing was... he had been the only one to ever show me any form of kindness, or what I believed to be kindness." He couldn't seem to stop now. "He taught me everything-"
Except social skills, Touko mused. And fashion sense.
"-and suddenly he was flying into a rage and hitting me, giving me bruises for weeks. He shouted and screamed, and told me that I was crazy." N's voice broke a little, causing the tension in the room to be multiplied by tenfold. "I knew I was different—I had always known—but being called crazy was new. I had always been the one who wasn't crazy, the only person who could see the world in black and white, according to Ghetsis. Everything necessary he had been hiding for years finally came out, and I could tell he really thought I was insane. He told me he should have picked one of the other possible candidates. Ghetsis didn't view me as a normal human being. I was a freak. A freak without a human heart, as he reminded me the last time I saw him." Now N's shoulders were shaking, his whole body trembling, and he finally couldn't go on anymore.
Looker had turned his gaze to a fly on the wall, but Touko had been looking at N the whole time, not even blinking. Now she did feel pity.
"Why didn't you leave?"
N glanced up at Touko, eyes showing beginning to turn red and bloodshot. "Because I had nowhere to go. Because I needed to pursue the truth, and Ghetsis was my only aide, and because Ghetsis apologized—"
Touko made a sound that could be describe as a hiss. "Asshole," she growled.
N looked scandalized at Touko's word choice, but didn't comment on it. "He did apologize, and I believed him. I didn't have any other parental figure to compare him to. He told me that I was the perfect king of Team Plasma." He let a bitter laugh escape. "Perfect only because I was naïve. I get that now." He buried his face back in his hands.
There was silence for a while, before Looker cleared his throat. "I think we can be done with that." He withdrew papers and a pen from his pocket, unfolded the document and smoothed it out before N. "Sign this, and you are granted immunity. But you must sign with your full name."
N drew his hands away from his face, revealing now-blotchy skin and red-tinged eyes. He grabbed the pen and scribbled his signature, with jagged marks here and there due to his uncontrollable shaking. Touko peered around his shoulder at the immunity papers. Natural Harmonia Gropius was just legible along the line where signatures were placed.
Fitting, Touko thought. Strange, but it suits him.
N shoved the paper back to Looker, along with the pen. Looker gathered them up and shoved them in his pocket before holding his hand out to N. "Thank you," he said, voice somber. "You may leave now, if you wish."
N hesitantly held out his hand, slowly gripping the ends of Looker's fingers and holding on, at a loss for what to do.
"You shake it," Touko explained quietly.
N glanced sideways at her and then slowly shook Looker's hand, a look of intense concentration on his delicate face. Looker broke contact after several seconds of N's hand-shaking, eyes crinkling at the corners, though his shoulders seemed weighed down.
"Thank you," N said as Looker stepped away. "For not hating me."
"I do not believe in hating those who want the truth," Looker replied, opening the door for N and Touko. "Your version of the truth was just different from most others."
N let out a deep breath, shook Looker's hand once more, and left.
This time, Touko followed him.
