Mirene: Yay, a good start to this fic so far! :D I hope you didn't judge this story by the prologue, because that wasn't even a part of the plot! Well, it kind of is, but you know what I mean! Anyways, I don't own Pokemon.
Let the story begin!
Chapter 1
Touko stared miserably at the photo in her hands, tears dripping down incessantly. The sky pitied her, no longer daring to show its bright, sunny face, and instead showering its sympathy onto the Earth. On the blurring photo was an image of her and her mother with lillipup, stained with months' worth of teardrops.
"Yo, Touko," Touya hopped in nonchalantly, thinking about how he was going to invite Touko to Nimbasa City on a date, but disguised as a mission. There was a different mission assigned to her by Juniper, but Touya was thinking someone else could do the job. Upon looking at her state, he froze midway through the door in shock. "Or, erm, actually, I'll come back la-"
"It's fine," she grumbled, hastily wiping her eyes from the tears. "I'm fine. What is it?"
Touya walked in calmly and handed her a plain, yellow folder with white papers inside, neatly clipped together. "Papers. Rebellion recruits, alliance proposals, letters from allies and spies, and I think a few love letters too," he smiled. Touko tried to return the smile, she really did.
"Love letters huh? Haven't they figured out that I don't feel like making anyone mean anything to me anymore?" Touya was silent, his smiled wiped off instantly. "I'm the leader of this rebellion. If anyone is going to be hurt, it's going to be me and my organization. People will be hurt...and killed. I already have you, Cheren, Bianca, and Juniper to worry about. I don't need to worry about any more people."
"It wouldn't hurt to love," he murmured softly. "After all... You could love someone you already love, just at a different level."
Touko stood up abruptly, placing the photo and the folder onto her desk. "We are not having this talk again. I gave you my answer months ago, Touya."
"Back then you weren't so cold."
She scowled at him. "You know the reason why."
Now he was the one to get angry, shooting up and grabbing her shoulders, his face in close proximity to her own, lips only inches away. "Your mother wouldn't have wanted you to be like this. You know that."
"I just can't do this," Touko growled. "It hurts too much. Love is too painful. Friendship is already painful, but not as painful as love. My relationship with the people close to me now was from long ago, and pointless in severing ties. That's the only reason, Touya," she pushed his chest away from her. "If it weren't for Juniper in the past... I would have never let myself get close to anyone again. Even you."
"Your mother didn't die so you could be like this."
"My mother didn't have to die!" she cried freely, tears streaking down her cheeks like a waterfall. "That damned king didn't have to do this. He didn't have to kill her." she sobbed. "None of this had to happen!"
"But it did."
Touko nodded. "And that's why the king will suffer. Only one thing can pay for a life. And that's another life." She threw the packet on her messy desk. "Leave, Touya. And don't ever speak about your feelings to me again."
"You were different, Touko. That's why everyone thinks this position is getting to your head. Staying in the base too long, giving speeches, it's giving you too much free time to grieve—and we know it's not healthy for you."
"And how would you know? Try getting your mother killed with a Fusion Flare, along with all of her pokemon."
Touya gritted his teeth. "Leader, we're sending you out on a mission. Tonight. It's a simple one, so no need to be on guard. You won't even need backup or anything. You're just bringing an important person back to this base."
Touko began quickly tying up her hair, hanging her trusty pokeballs on her hip belt. Her facial expression was that of a poker face, though it had a smudge of smugness and resentment in it.
"Hand me the information, then leave."
Touya threw the mission folder onto her desk and swiftly left, his teeth crunched against his tongue as he did his best to hold back the pointless tears.
N smirked haughtily as a report was sent to his room.
Apparently, his spies within the organization (grunts that were selected and trained for this very job since their teenage years) have found out that Touko is going on a mission tonight.
Alone.
He couldn't have asked for a better opportunity.
Of course, the mission is unknown. His spies were ranked too low to know any good information, but that was fine. As long as they could capture the big idea, that would be fine. Until a spy grabs hold of a strong position in the organization and begins the decay of their rebellion, there really was nothing N could do. They were numerous, incredibly secretive, and so far have had no conflict established with them yet.
Of course, except for the fact that Touko's mother tried to reason with Ghetsis with words. Silly woman. N hadn't planned on killing her, but at the moment Reshiram's power clearly overwhelmed him and she was gone.
He had felt no remorse, only the wonder of how Touko would feel. He prompted the grunts to take the ashes and put them inside a vase to send to a spy. A while after, the spy had notified Touko's indescribable rage at their kingdom and most of all, their king. N was amused to hear that she had said she would come for him with a dull chainsaw and slowly bring him to his death. He had even laughed out loud of front of his subjects.
"Touko... You don't know how long I've been waiting," he whispered, staring at the old, useless hairtie she had given him long ago. He had only used it a few times, being careful as to not wear it out and accidentally snap it. N wondered if she would recognize it if she saw it now...
"My lord." Anthea calmly walked inside the room, handing him a tray of warm soup. "This should warm you up enough for tonight." Her fists were clenched at her sides, forcing herself to utter kind words. "I hope your plan to capture...Touko, to capture Touko, will be successful."
N smiled. "Please, Anthea, don't force yourself."
It didn't take long for that to happen. Anthea's frown deepened as she stepped forward. "Then don't take her, N. Take another, preferably some dashing princess from Johto or Kanto, please," she scoffed. "Why her? Why the devil leader of that heretic organization of enslaving pokemon?" She looked in disgust at the hairtie in his hands. "And that...thing!"
"You've never even seen her before," N reasoned. "There aren't any photos of her anywhere, not even any of my spies could get a picture. Not even I could the other day," he said, taking in some soup.
"I just know she isn't right for you. She'll only bring you down."
"Anthea..."
"I'll leave now. Concordia will drop by with your items for later soon." She quickly exited in a fit. N frowned at the sight of his mother-like figure angry. Was Concordia angry as well?
His answer was received when he had finished his soup and found the goddess mentioned leave the items on the side before huffing and closing the door. She didn't even bother to greet him. N chuckled; she was definitely angry.
But he knew once he brought her home, the two women would change their mind instantly. After all, Touko was an angel.
His angel.
"Liel, get my bag."
"Yes, leader-sama!"
"Just call me Touko, okay?"
"Yes, leader Touko-sama!"
"I SAID TOUKO, LIEL!"
"Yes, Touko-sama!"
Touko rubbed her temple in frustration as the handsome man gave her a playful grin. "Thank you," she sighed as she received the bag of items from the rookie recruit. His name was Liel, according to the name badge on his chest. "Please give this to Cheren for me, it's an important folder. Don't try opening it, it has a voltorb seal and it'll zap any unwanted eyes."
"Y-Yes, Touko-sama!"
"I'll be off then," she sighed as she watched Liel run off. He was a frisky one. Someone should keep an eye on him or he might trip or do something clumsy. She smiled; Liel had been one of her very first recruits, although he had been offered promotions, he always turned each one down, eager to serve only her. Honestly, he was a person who had earned her trust long ago. Never had he betrayed an order from her, and never had he done something to make her feel negative in any way. That was something incredibly rare in this forsaken group of hers.
"Goodbye, Liel," she said to no one inside the hallway before leaving outside into the night. "Unfezant, go!" she yelled as she threw a pokeball, unleashing her trustworthy male unfezant. "Come on, we need to get to Undella Town. We're going to meet the Sinnoh champion," she beamed.
The pokemon stared at her, as if knowing how fake her smile was. "Don't look at me like that. I'm excited to meet her, I swear," she said, her hand propped up by her side with a solemn look. The bird nudged her with its neck softly. She chuckled and petted it before getting on.
"Okay, let's go."
"Where is she going?" N asked the spy.
"I'm not sure," the spy replied. "I'm not of a high rank enough to know about that kind of information. The organization is also keeping its eyes open for spies, so it's too suspicious to ask."
"Get information on her mission," he stated icily through the communication device. "Or face the consequences." A loud gulp and a "yessir" was heard before the device was shut off on the other side. "Typical grunt," the king grumbled.
How was he supposed to initiate his plan if he had false information to act on! He was currently in Nimbasa City, well-hidden nearby the ferris wheel, where his spies had told him that her and Touya were to go to the ferris wheel tonight on some sort of a mission. He knew it sounded unusual since at first they said she was to be alone, but the spy had gotten recorded evidence of Touya's voice from his device. It wasn't until a few moments ago that the spy said that Touko had a different mission to go to now. How angered he was by this!
"There's no other place I can think of... And to think that this Touya actually knew what he was doing," N contemplated. "It must have been a lucky hunch," N laughed it off. His plans never failed.
"Attention, all of Unova. Gateways will now close temporarily due to a rare pokemon sighting. I repeat, gateways will now close temporarily." He then shifted onto a different setting for his communication device on his ear. "All grunts are ordered to search for any suspicious girl with long brown hair in a ponytail with pokemon. Order enforcement required as of now. The search will be over at dawn and consequences will be met with if all goes unsuccessfully."
A smirk played on his face and he grabbed the device off of his ear and stomped on it, breaking all trackers within it. He knew Ghetsis would keeping an eye on him when he gave him the device this morning... what an old fool. But there was no worries. He was content.
He would find Touko soon enough, and then she would be his.
As Touko flew across the Unova, she saw Plasma grunts moving about here and there, gateways turning pitch black with the lights off, and civilians were hurrying into their homes. Looks like Plasma is on a lockdown again. Too bad she wasn't at the base to hear what it was this time.
Probably about some stupid pokemon sighting, like always. Somehow, they've terrorized most of the current citizens of Unova to be afraid of pokemon. Nowadays, Touko found it difficult to convince people to join their organization for that reason. Many people believe that Plasma is right in banning pokemon and humans from coexisting with one another.
Only a very selected amount of society ever agreed with their views. Sometimes, they would only get as many as ten recruits per year, much less than the ones dying in the ongoing rebellions. Amazingly, Plasma has managed to keep this conflict rather quiet since the APO didn't declare an actual war yet... there weren't enough people. Touko had been continuously looking, but several have already given up on pokemon. Looking at her unfezant, she just couldn't imagine giving up on her pokemon like that. She would never do that, not even at the cost of her life.
Blinking a few times, Touko kept silent as she looked for the champion. Touya could have at least given her a picture of what the hell she looked like instead of the vague description of long blonde hair and fancy black clothing! Oh how she would strangle him for his lack of preparation when she returned...
She was snapped out of her thoughts as she saw the a blonde with a black coat arguing with grunts, yelling at them loudly for not letting her inside to use the payphone. The grunts, in fear of losing their jobs more than their fear of the rather loud lady, brought out a few sandiles.
Throwing on a jet black long-haired wig from her bag, she jumped off of her unfezant and returned it to its ball, tucking the belt under her billowing tank top. "Cynthia! It's me, Y-Yuka!" she winked. The grunts glanced at her.
"Sorry, this is my friend. She's new, so please excuse her. Take these coins as an apology," Touko shoved the money into one grunt's hands. "I truly apologize..." her eyes gleamed in the moonlight that paled her face naturally, making her look like the fabled Kaguya-hime.
"N-no problem!" the grunt muttered, grabbing the other grunt with him. "Come on, w-we should let them go home and rest. Can I have your number first?"
Touko shook her head, biting her lip cutely. "I'm sorry, I don't own a cell phone."
"Th-that's fine! Maybe we can arrange to hang out sometime-" the guy grunt was stopped midway by being pinched on the ear by the girl grunt, who simply angrily dragged him away, clearing the trouble.
"You are Cynthia, yes?"
The blonde smiled at her, bowing slightly. Touko smiled back.
"Cynthia! It's very nice to meet you, I'm Touko... from the APO," she offered her hand. Cynthia took it tightly, almost crushing Touko's much smaller hand. When Touko tried to let go, Cynthia held on to it with a gentle face.
"You're quite the flirt... Touko."
Was it just her, or did Cynthia just glare at her?
"It was nothing, just a defense mechanism," Touko blushed. "Anyways, we should get going. I'll be taking you back to the base and-" she glanced at their hands still intertwined. "Erm, you can let go now."
"No, Touko," the woman said as Touko came to a realization a bit too late. "You're not going anywhere."
"You're not Cynthia."
"And you're not as smart as I thought."
Touko felt a pain in her gut before succumbing to the darkness.
"It's a simple one, so no need to be on guard. You won't even need backup or anything."
Stupid Touya.
Mirene: A few notes - Liel looks like Fujisaki Nagihiko from Shugo Chara, only with jet black hair. His style is pretty much the same, and his personality seems carefree and humorous at the moment. Kaguya-hime is a princess of the moon in fables.
And so, that's the second installment of this story! (: And please drop a review, it really encourages me to keep writing. Thank you to all my reviewers from before: Guest, sweettjrose, ikutolover182, Queen Rima, Serenading Blossom, Clouds of Mist, and reviewr!
Also, don't forget about the poll on my profile!
