You've made my life a living hell, what do you have to say for yourself?

I wish you didn't come and mess everything up.

Life would have been so much better without you bothering us...

Chapter 2

Tears were still welling up in my eyes as I glared angrily at the boy in front of me, the boy who had made my life so difficult, the boy who had slowly begun destroying Unova.

The boy who ruined my brother's life.

Yes, standing before me happened to be the one and only great N Harmonia, king and savior of pokémon to our land and the world, or at least that's what he desired for us to believe.

I couldn't help but feel disgust as I looked up at him, appearing to be humble and trying to somehow make conversation with me, but now his face was full of confusion and, well, a bit of curiosity. What was I, a science project? I growled a little bit, as if trying to intimidate him, but it simply made him raise an eyebrow.

"That outburst seemed a little unnecessary," he said. "I don't exactly understand why you're growling at me, are you trying to be a pokémon?"

I groaned in frustration, "You didn't answer me, what the hell are you doing here? Why can't you just stay in your damn castle and leave us alone?"

His eyes lit up a little in realization and nodded, supposedly understanding why I was so angry. I rolled my eyes as he spoke, "I see now, you're angry because of who I am. It's understandable I suppose, but really, is there any reason to be so harsh, I haven't done anything to you."

That statement nearly made me want to laugh, just because of how wrong it was. He had no idea what he had done to my life, or how badly he had hurt me and my family. I shook my head, "You have no idea what you've done to me, and you don't need to know, so why don't you just go back home? Unova's doing just fine without you checking up on us. Your troopers do that enough."

He nodded, "I realize you may be in pain but I honestly have no reason to harm you or anyone else here. I haven't come to worsen anything. Perhaps we should actually converse like normal people. May I ask for your name?"

I scoffed at that, just hearing him say normal, nothing about N was normal. I knew that from the first day I met him. "I don't give my name out to people I don't trust." I answered boldly. "You might send your goonies on me for having a pokémon." I don't really think I need to anyways, I thought silently. Don't you remember who I am?

N shook his head, "I would never send someone after you for saving an injured pokémon, I would do it myself if I had the means to do so."

"That's a lie! I've heard about what you all have done to our pokémon! You don't care about pokémon, you've been lying from the beginning! You don't care at all!" I screamed, feeling the tears roll down my face at an increasing rate. All I could think of was my poor pokémon I had to give up. My whole team, murdered by Plasma, even my Surperior whom I loved to no end. They were all gone because of them, all gone because of N.

It had been a while since I had actually seen N, but the first time I remember was that one occurrence in Accumula alongside my brother and our friend. He said he could talk to pokémon, which honestly sounded really bogus, but for some reason he seemed really attached to my brother's pokémon. He didn't tell us a whole lot at the time, but all I recall is him being thoroughly creepy, and our friend Cheren didn't like him at all. Our first encounter of course wasn't much, but I saw him now and again afterwards.

But now after five months or so, he was once again standing before me, his eyes curious and almost pathetic, like he was a small puppy in trouble. I was actually a little confused, we'd met many times before, yet he seemed to not even recognize me? He was stupider than I thought, but it could be used to my advantage nonetheless. It was probably better for the king of an organization I wanted to destroy to not know who I was. Really it was best that no one knew who I was…

N seemed shocked, not knowing what to do for my sudden break in emotion, but he tried to remain calm and simply asked, "Where did you find that pokémon?"

I choked, "What's it matter to you? You want them all dead anyways, I'm surprised you didn't stop me from healing it. You're a monster!"

N sighed and placed his head in one of his hands, shaking his head with a nearly distressed look on his face. "Wow, I can't even grasp how much pain I've put people in, but I see some of it now." He groaned and clutched one of his fists in front of him. "Damn you, Ghetsis, damn you. You're the reason Plasma's name is tarnished." He said to the air.

I sniffled and wiped a couple of tears away, "What does Ghetsis have to do with this?" I asked, knowing of the Great Sage from my brother, "It was your idea wasn't it? That's what all the papers say." I said, remembering the story in the paper. It was a huge deal about a week ago, and the words were still settling harsh on the past trainers of Unova, including me. Many people chose not to believe in it, but I knew how terrible Team Plasma could be.

He looked towards me, almost seeming to be offended, "Never in my life would I even dream to harm an innocent pokémon."

"Then where did the whole concept of having a perfect world stem? All it seems to be is harming pokémon. I can promise you there was nothing but pain on my pokémons' faces the day before I had to hand them off to your officers. Is that your idea of a perfect world, your majesty?" I crooned.

He shook his head, "The concept of the perfect world was for pokémon and humans to be separated, to become separate and equal beings. Pokémon would no longer have to be slaves to humans who wish to use their abilities merely to fight battles for them. Unfortunately, it seems my father, Ghetsis, had other plans. He never let me go out and speak the words I so desperately wanted to reach to the trainers, never let me see a glimpse of the world that I've now learned is slowly decaying, and never let me know the truth of what Team Plasma was doing. I see now that all I became was a figure head, put out to take the blame for his current wrong doings." He hung his head low, "I understand if you're in pain, I can't apologize enough, but I promise you, I'm currently on a mission to see what I can do to stop it."

"I won't forgive you that easily." I shot back without thinking.

N nodded, "I understand." He then began to walk on past me. "I suppose I'll leave you to your business then. Regardless of how you felt, it was still a pleasure meeting you, goodbye."

I watched him for a moment, almost feeling as though I wanted to stop him. He seemed pathetic, much less proud than I once remembered him appearing. I couldn't help feeling sad for him, because maybe he was being honest, maybe he had decided he needed to fix what he did wrong. I knew deep down that he was right, he would never have even dreamed of harming a pokémon, he made sure to make me aware of that any time I ever ran into him, but what was he trying to do now?

Absentmindedly I clutched my locket, inside containing a picture of my brother and I. All I could think then was what would he do in this situation?

If you're going to do something, now's your only chance, Touko. I thought.

"N, wait!" I yelled, jogging after him. Immediately he turned around, once again giving me that damn confused look of his.

"Yes, can I help you?" he asked.

As I caught up to him, I breathed in heavily as I said, "You never really answered me before, what are you trying to do?"

N's facial expression turned stern, "I want to stop Team Plasma."

I nodded, "The two of us have something in common then."

"Do we now?" he asked, his interest obviously piqued.

I nodded, "I want to stop Team Plasma too. They took my pokémon from me, my best friends, and I haven't been able to get out of Opelucid ever since they started monitoring the routes." I replied. "I can help you."

N's face immediately started to brighten, very much like I had seen in the past, and a small smile stretched across his lips. "If you could do that, I would be so appreciative; I can't very easily do this on my own."

"Well how about we go negotiate a partnership?" I suggested, grabbing his arm. On instinct he flinched and immediately pulled away. I stared at him for a second, but I shrugged it off and just motioned towards the path back to the city. "Come on, let's go back to my place so we can talk in private. I don't trust anything out here."

"What do you think they meant when they said liberation?" I asked Cheren as the group giving the speech in town began to pack up their flags and posts. They seemed to have some strange ideas and values, and a strange sense of fashion. Other than that though, they for some reason wanted people to give up their pokémon, which I knew deep down I would never do. I couldn't possibly give up my new friends, we just started our journey.

Cheren pushed up his glasses and shook his head, "I don't know, they look like a cult or something, but I can't grasp the reason that they want people to release their pokémon. Arceus knows I'd never release mine."

"What about you, Touya?" I asked, looking up expectantly at my older brother.

Touya scratched his head underneath his hat and gave a confused look. "They seem kind of stupid to me. Pokémon aren't happy with humans, what kind of crap is that? I'm pretty sure if our pokémon didn't want to be with us, they would let us know."

I blinked and stared at my newly obtained pokéball that I had plucked from the side pocket of my book bag, picturing the young Snivy resting inside. I had just gotten him earlier that morning, and he already seemed to have taken a liking to me. Cheren, Bianca, and I had all gotten our pokémon today, while my brother Touya had gotten his Snivy a year ago. Touya could have officially gone on his pokémon journey last year, but he decided to stay close to Nuvema and wait until the next year, so the two of us could go together. I wanted to get a Snivy, just like he did when he was starting out as a trainer, and he was pretty happy to see me do so. The two of us had always been relatively close.

The people that were watching the speech along with us began to thin out a bit as the officers around the large man speaking began to surround him like he was a president and filed out. Many of the spectators left with either angry, or somewhat distressed expressions, some were even snickering because of how ridiculous the group's uniforms were. It seemed they had really left their mark, but the three of us were unfazed, and we immediately began to plot out our next move.

Touya took out his map that mom had given him and opened it so we could all see it, "Okay, so there's not really much for you guys to do here besides sightsee, so how's about we start heading to the next town? We still have a lot of daylight left, so we can head through the next route, possibly start getting you guys a decently built team, and we can have your first gym badges by this evening."

Cheren smiled ecstatically, "That sounds great to me, how about you, Touko?"

I nodded, "Sounds like a plan, let's get going."

Touya smiled proudly, closing up his map and placing it back into his knapsack. He nodded his head once in the direction of the town gate, and we started heading over towards that way. We maybe only walked a few steps in that direction before coming across some strange kid seemingly close to our ages leaning up against one of the buildings nearby. We didn't really pay him much mind and were going to walk right past him without a second thought, but suddenly he stepped in front of the three of us.

Touya raised an eyebrow, self consciously clutching the pocket he kept his pokéballs in. "Um, can I help you?"

The kid in front of us looked stern and in thought, his eyes being shaded by the white and black trainer hat he wore on his head. His hair was tea green and pulled back into a ponytail that was longer than my own hair, and his apparel was pretty casual, just some khakis and a white collar shirt covering a black under armor shirt. He did have some weird bracelets though, and a strange necklace that looked like some kind of planet.

"Your pokémon…" he began quietly. "Just now, it was saying…"

"Saying what? You can hear my pokémon?" Touya said skeptically.

"Yes, they're talking. Oh. Then, you three can't hear it, either... How sad. My name is N." he said, gesturing a hand towards us.

Touya ignored his offer for a handshake and instead chose to look at him with a weirded out expression, but still responded. "Alright then, um, I'm Touya, this is Cheren, and that's my little sister Touko." He said pointing to the two of us. "It was nice meeting you, but we have to get back on the road, these two have to get a start on filling up their Pokédex."

N lifted his head to eye the three of us better. His gaze freaked me out a little and I hid behind Touya to escape it. "The Pokédex, eh? So... You're going to confine many, many pokémon in pokéballs for that, then. I'm a trainer too, but I can't help wondering... Are pokémon really happy that way?" he asked, outstretching his arms.

"Slow down, you talk way too fast. Besides, who are you to say if pokémon are happy with us or not? Let them speak for themselves and leave us alone, freak!" Cheren yelled angrily. N looked unfazed.

"Cheren, stay out of this, there's no reason to be rude." Touya scolded. Cheren groaned and crossed his arms as Touya returned his attention towards N. "Looks like you share the ideas of that weird gang giving that speech earlier, but I can tell you honestly that I would never hold a pokémon against its will." Touya said, putting a hand to his heart. "My pokémon seem to be pretty happy with me, they've been with me for over a year now, and they've never seemed to have wanted to leave before. It's not really confining them; it's creating a bond with them."

"Well, Touya, is it? Let me hear your Pokémon's voice again!" He shouted, immediately throwing out a pokémon. Quickly I grabbed my Pokédex out of my pocket to get a description of it. It was a Purrloin, a decently low leveled one at that, but it didn't look very happy. It was obviously very protective of its trainer.

Touya grunted a little bit, quickly reaching into his pocket and grabbing one of his pokéballs. "If you want to play that way, I'll show you how hard I play, come on out, Snivy!" he yelled, tossing his pokéball. The ball hit the ground and suddenly opened from its hinges. A burst of red light bolted from it, and out came my brother's beloved Snivy, which I knew had to be a good bit higher leveled than N's Purrloin.

N smiled delightedly, and wasted no time in starting the battle. "Purrloin, my friend, use tackle!" he yelled. Purrloin nodded in compliance, and quickly lunged towards Snivy. Snivy unfortunately couldn't dodge fast enough and took the hit, but it didn't seem to faze him much. After regaining his composure, he smirked and wiped at the smudge Purrloin made on his face.

"Is that all you got?" Touya chided. "Let me show you how we play! Snivy, use vine whip!"

Snivy nodded and immediately used vine whip against N's Purrloin. The Purrloin tried to escape, but the whip of vines easily reached the small cat pokémon. Purrloin growled as it was attacked, and seemed to have taken it a little hard. Grass type attacks are naturally not very strong against dark type pokémon, but because Snivy was a good bit higher leveled than Purrloin, the attacks worked better.

"More! Let me hear the voice of your Pokémon!" shouted N, pointing towards Snivy. As if hearing N's thoughts, Purrloin leapt into another attack, attempting to scratch Snivy, but he was far too fast this time for it to reach him. Snivy dodged and regained his stance, awaiting Touya's command once again. Purrloin already looked exhausted.

Cheren stood beside me, whooping and cheering on Touya as he sent Snivy after Purrloin with tackle, but I couldn't help but stare at N. He was rather strange, his eyes full of focus and determination, but something in his gaze seemed different. He wasn't becoming distraught or angry upon seeing his pokémon taking such a beating from Snivy, much unlike the way I saw Cheren act whenever we had our first battle in my bedroom. His expression was full of understanding, and also he seemed to be somewhat lost in thought, like he was somehow silently talking to his Purrloin.

Before I even realized it, Snivy pulled one final blow upon Purrloin, causing Touya and Cheren to burst into a cheer. I smiled and lightly clapped for my brother as he returned Snivy and hugged the pokéball, whispering words of appreciation.

N stared at the ground, no one paying him much attention except me. I heard him quietly whisper, "I never expected to hear Pokémon say such things..."

Touya shrunk down Snivy's pokéball and gave N a proud stare, "See how well we work together? Snivy and I are great partners."

N shook his head and placed his now shrunken down pokéball in his pocket, then returned his gaze to meet Touya's. "As long as pokémon are confined in pokéballs... Pokémon will never become perfect beings. I have to change the world for pokémon, because they're my friends." Saying this he nodded towards the three of us as a farewell gesture, and turned slightly to depart through the gate. Before he fully turned though, he actually stood for a moment and met my gaze, which must've seemed a bit curious, as Cheren and Touya conversed immediately after. He stayed looking at me for just a moment longer, then nodded once again and walked off, his hair moving slightly in the breeze.

"Well, I think Snivy deserves a little snack for that, sound cool with you guys?" Touya asked.

"Go ahead and treat him, I'm going to go ahead to the next town, I want to get a start on my badges as soon as possible." Cheren then started to jog off in the direction of the gate and gave us a quick wave. "I'll catch you guys later, bye Touko!"

I waved back silently and turned towards Touya, giving him a quick nod to say I was up for treating Snivy. Touya smiled and started heading towards the Pokémon Center, in which I trailed behind him, but my mind still felt clouded. Even though it was over, I couldn't help but keep thinking about the very strange, mysterious person we had just met.

N, just exactly who was he?

It wasn't too long before we reached my small flat on the side of Opelucid, the place I had been staying at for a while since my inability to leave the city became evident. Why exactly former trainers were prohibited from traveling, no one really quite understood, but because of said rule, I was unable to return home to Nuvema, even after the whole battle of the two heroes. I couldn't help but wonder if that stupid law was N's doing, or Ghetsis', but I wasn't curious enough to bother asking.

As we entered into the small living area at the front, N seemed intrigued by my lame decorating and small amount of furniture. I looked at him somewhat skeptically, trying to understand why a king who is normally surrounded by beautiful rooms, decorations, and furniture would seem to be so interested in my cruddy apartment, but it seemed irrelevant to why we came, so I figured there was no point in bothering him about it.

"Have a seat wherever you like I suppose, not that there's much to choose from." I said, taking my place on the only couch in the room. N nodded and took a chair from the tiny kitchen connected to the living room, placing it on the other side of the banged up coffee table in front of my equally ruined couch.

I leaned back a little and crossed my legs, keeping my eyes on N as he still scanned the room with his emerald colored eyes. "This place is… Well I guess it's pretty homey." He said, attempting to compliment it when obviously there wasn't much to say about it. I shrugged, choosing to lay my eyes on the decaying color on the walls, an ugly grey that almost seemed to have a tinge of yellow to it. It wasn't like this was the first place I would choose to live in, but there can't be much else expected from a seventeen year old girl with only the bit of money she had earned from various pokémon battles along her journey. It was surprising that I could even afford the place as long as I did honestly.

"You don't have to lie, I know it's a mess, don't worry about it." I said reassuringly.

"Why do you live here then? It definitely isn't my first choice in living accommodations. Then again I am royalty." He said, shrugging.

I bit my bottom lip, considering snapping a comment about how it was really his fault, but if I wanted to make a partnership with him, it would do no good to just shoot insults. "Let's just say I didn't have much of an option."

N shrugged, "Well, if you desire to have a partnership, I still think I should know your name,"

On immediate instinct I grabbed at my locket again, heart slightly racing. Should I tell him who I am, will he remember me? That was a long time ago, my outfit's changed a little since our last encounter I guess, and I do find it weird that he can't remember me, but is it a good idea to disclose such precious information so quickly?

I sighed, making my face stern. "My name is Hilda, so how about you tell me a little bit about your current motives?"

AN: Oho, what a twist, Touko's keeping her name private for now. I honestly really hate this chapter, it just didn't seem like it was very smoothed into, it feels rather rushed. Oh well though, I can fairly assure you that the next chapter will be a lot more intriguing.

I kind of like the idea of N and Touko periodically switching off on the point of view in the story, it seems to work so I'll go along with it. It probably won't be always just taking turns, but I'm sure you readers are quite smart enough to figure out whose point it is.

Anyways, thanks for reading, review if you'd like to!