Quite some time had gone by before I allowed myself to calm down. Night had fallen and I was sitting with my forehead against the huge glass window, watching the headlights of large vehicles crawl up the gravel road to the front of the castle. They were few and far between and every time I wondered if I could time it right to scream loud enough for them to hear as they entered the castle.

Someone had to be an outsider, delivering something, or bringing news from the region. There had to be something worthy of coming to this terrible place for. I kept thinking about how Ghetsis had hit N, and I had a strange sensation coming over me.

He was just too innocent… too pure to fight back. The only thing that could ever connect to him was pokemon and I knew the encouragement I could give would be a waste of breath. N wouldn't listen to me…

Still it felt wrong to leave him with nothing but a cold shoulder. As much as I hated to admit it we were in the same boat. I was being held against my will and N was getting "punished" to take care of me. Things couldn't be that great on his end either.

I closed my eyes and thought back to that wretched battle a few days ago. All my pokemon had fought their hardest. They all had proved more powerful than I could comprehend and I knew I was being irrational to think that my Mienshao was dead simply because of N and his Zoroark.

Mienshao would have fought to the death no matter what pokemon had she had been fighting. It could have been Reshiram and she would have leapt head first into the chance to silence N and his plans. She would have gladly given everything to win that battle.

And that's exactly what she did. She had dove back into the line of fire at Zoroark, throwing one more attack at him as he lashed out once again. They hit a heartbeat before she let her attack go, so the blast was just as much against herself as it was against Zoroark.

They both had fallen, blown back against the castle walls and landing limp. I had run over to her and tried to call her back, I tried to protect her from suffering any longer before I could get her to the pokemon center. But the red beam hadn't done its job.

I had stared blankly for a long moment, not understanding what had just happened. I tried again as tears swelled in my eyes, and again and again until I realized it was too late. Mienshao had died in the fiery blast of hers and Zoroark's combined attack.

I pressed my face to the glass of the window and opened my eyes, trying to get the memory out of my head.

I was about to brace myself for the tears, but a sound stopped me. I looked up at the submarine door, it was closed but the sound was coming through. I looked over to the opening in the ceiling where the water ran down from the next floor and into the huge fountains. It was coming from up there.

Music played slowly at first, then grew louder. I listened in wonder at the piano and its stunning sound. It was deep and gnawing on the strings of my heart. I was almost in tears at the sad sound but it stopped in enough time, leaving me listening… waiting for more.

Silence bothered me more than it should and I rapped my fingers on the window impatiently, trying to imagine the piano was still playing.

It started again a moment later. This time the sound was more humble, brave sounding. A completely different melody than the depressing noise before. I didn't realize I was bobbing my fingers up and down in quick movements, thinking of what it would be like to make such music.

It stopped again, just as I was getting into it. My hand dropped and I waited again. It was much quicker this time. The piano broke the silence loud and proud and I recognized one of my favorite songs in an instant, though I never expected it to be playing here.

Almost like a reflex reaction, like when I was listening to the radio at home I started to sing along. And I couldn't help myself enough to stop. I stood up, feeling motivated and confident as I walked over to the glass staircase. I started climbing quickly, listening to the music as I got closer to its source.

I paused once I got to the bubble-like door and had to ask myself if this was the right thing to do or not. Walking into N's bedroom while he played the piano? I didn't even know he could play… not that I should. I barely knew him at all. But still, my voice was building as I sang along.

I knew every word and it gave me the strength to push open that door. I peeked over the edge, looking across the floor and around the magnificent room. It was just as big as mine, and had the same gold and blue assortment, but there was more detail. Pictures on the walls of pokemon, music thumb-tacked above the bed, that glorious Piano he sat at, facing the wall furthest from me.

There was a small step up that the piano was sitting on, it was like a mini stage just for him and I blinked in astonishment as I finished the first verse and waited for the words to pick up again. I tried to imagine lying in my room back in my hometown with my mother yelling at me to put it lower.

The words tickled me in a strange way, because I had never thought of this song more than anything but a song. But now as I sang it, I realized that some of the words fit almost too perfectly. Or at least… I was making them fit, tampering with my own mind to mold the pieces of this beautiful song into my life.

There's a side to you that I never knew…

And the things you say, they are never true…

And the games you play… you would always win.

I pulled myself to my feet now and stood up, walking swiftly across the room to him. I was singing very loudly now, and I got the idea he noticed but ignored it. All I knew was that this must be some omen or something.

I would set fire to the rain.

If this castle was the rain that was brining me down, whether that's what the song meant or not, I would set fire to it. Maybe not in the literal sense… but I would do something. I would escape, and make it out alive.

I stopped behind N as he played, his fingers moving so fluently over the keys it made my heart race.

When it fell something died…

I thought of Mienshao and sang.

Let it burn…

All the pain… I sang out as loud as I could, overpowering the piano and N all together.

Suddenly the note cut off into a muted finish and I was left breathlessly holding onto the last few lines of the song. It was powerful and somehow much more different than any other time I had ever sang it.

I clutched my fists together and squeezed my eyes shut, ending with more grace than I had hoped.

I took a deep breath and stared at my bare feet, afraid to meet N's gaze. I did it anyways and was shocked to find him all choked up, his eyes red with emotion. I had never seen anything more than the typical in him. Anger, fear, hurt, but this was deeper… it was raw and I could tell he was befuddled by the emotion himself.

We stared at each other, probably thinking the same things about that night of fighting and pain and loss all together. Surely then we had set fire to the rain…

It had ended with the fire after all.

He blinked then and without saying anything turned back around to the piano, he slid over all the way to one half of the white bench seat, making it obvious I could sit down. And I did.

I fought with my heart, half of me trying to work up the anger and pain of losing Mienshao to his terrible ideals, and the other part that wanted to sing and cry and throw my arms around him because of his terrible life.

I felt sorry for him.

I hated him…

But I felt sorry for him.

He turned back to the piano when I sat, his mouth in a tight line and playing with his long fingers. He sniffed away his tears and I recognized the next song, but didn't know the words. I didn't think I could fit the words into the piano notes even if I did, so I just sat quietly.

He waited for what must have been the next verse before opening his mouth. "Are you ok?" he spoke so softly, not taking his eyes off his hands.

I nodded, wondering if he noticed or not. Of course I wasn't ok, but was I really going to tell him that? Of course not. It wouldn't help anyways. "Are… are you?" I asked instead.

He looked up at me in surprise. "I… I think so."

"What do you mean you think so?"

"I don't know for sure… I hate it when my father gets angry with me… I don't want to be a disappointment."

I glared. "Why do you care what he thinks?"

"I don't like getting hit."

I sighed. N was such a child. Prince or King or whatever he was he didn't know any better. In his mind getting hit must have been a normal thing. He probably grew up with it, feeling the pain of a hard hand on his face every time he did something wrong. And not only that… but I didn't think he ever did things wrong. Look at how much he accomplished already…

Not that I agreed with it… but could Ghetsis really be that uptight?

Of course he was. I sighed, mentally feeling like a broken record.

"I like it when you sing…" He said after I didn't reply.

I looked up to meet his eyes once again, not sure what to say. Even if I wanted to speak I wasn't sure I would have been able to.

He stopped playing when his fingers got off tract and reached up to flip the sheet of music around to the back side. It was a different song I assumed, but I wasn't exactly Beethoven. I wouldn't have known just by looking at it.

I reached my hand across the keys and left it suspended for a second while N scanned the new sheet of music. He wasn't looking so I pressed down on one of the white keys. It was high pitched and sounded off compared to the way N had been playing.

He looked curiously at me and then put his hand on the same key I had touched. He pressed lightly down and somehow it was better now.

"How do you do that?" I mused.

"With the pedals." He answered quickly and looked back to the music. He started playing, stopping every few notes to listen to it. Then he would go back, and start from the beginning.

"You can sing if you want." N said when things got awkward.

"I don't know the words to this song though."

"You can make them up."

"Not really."

"But you just sang to the other song."

"But that's a popular song; I hear it all the time on the radio."

"You didn't make it up?"

I shook my head. Was he crazy? "That song is by someone named Adele, how did you get the music if you didn't even know it was a popular song?"

"Someone brings me new music to play. I don't listen to the radio unless it's talking about the pokemon abuse." His eyes got tense.

"Really?" I ignored the fact that he was listening to those boring news and debate channels that talked about pokemon from all over the world. I shook my head.

"Yes."

"Try changing the channel sometime… I bet you would hear that song I sang with all the other music to it. And it sounds better when Adele sings it; she has a really great voice."

"Is Adele your friend?"

I surprised myself by laughing. "No. She is a famous singer. She lives in Hoenn I think…"

"There is a lot of pokemon abuse out there…" he commented mildly. "Team plasma hasn't gone over yet so no one knows it's wrong and that pokemon need to be free." His eyes stayed focused on the notes of the slow song he played.

"You know not all trainers are abusive right? Not all of us use pokemon… actually most of us don't. Most of us are friends with them and have them as companions because we grow stronger being together."

"Pokemon don't come to people naturally. Its wrong." he said blankly. "Does Adele have pokemon?"

"I think she has one… a little bird pokemon… Chatot? Or something like that." I looked up at his frown.

"A Chatot is a singing pokemon. Like a Jigglypuff but with the ability to mimic any voice it hears. I'm sure she is using the poor thing… we will have to go to Hoenn soon."

"You're so wrong N!" I let my hands fall on the piano keys, interrupting his song. I flinched at the conflicting sounds and looked him in the eyes. He looked frightened.

"N, do you ever think that maybe Chatot is Adele's pokemon BECUASE it's a singing pokemon? And because Adele is a singer? Do you ever consider the other side of the argument?"

"No, not really."

"You should. And what you said about pokemon being with people unnatural…that's not true either because my Mienshao…"

He bit his lower lip.

"My Mienshao found me when I was only eleven years old and it was just a Mienfoo. She was lost or something. But she came to me and I brought her home to my house and she could have had every opportunity to run away and she didn't. I never forced her into a pokeball, I never held her against her own will… she did everything she wanted to. And what she wanted to do was stay with me."

He looked away regretfully. "You are one of a kind, like me. Pokemon come naturally to me because I am a pokemon. I'm a pokemon in a human body… and you must be too if that's true and Mienshao came to you so easily."

I gaped. "You are not a pokemon."

"Yes I am." His voice grew thick with intensity. He looked at me with his vibrant eyes and I could tell it was a subject not to touch on.

"Well I'm not. I'm one hundred and ten percent human." I crossed my arms and looked stubborn.

"You think that because you were raised to believe so."

"If I am a pokemon then why can't I use my psychic abilities and make your brain melt?" I challenged sarcastically.

"You're not a psychic type." He said simply.

"Then what am I?"

"Fire."

I swallowed. It was corny I know, and quite a coincidence, but I just couldn't help but think he knew what he was talking about. Would I really set fire to the rain? A fire pokemon couldn't beat a water type easily… not without some serious training and advantages in skill. Not without will power.

"Why do you say that?" I asked after a moment. "Wouldn't Reshiram have chosen me then? Rather than you?"

He closed his eyes and sighed before looking up at me. "Reshiram chose me because I'm a water type, and water beats fire. He is under my will… he knew he couldn't beat me. And electric types like Zekrom, though they fair well against fire, don't normally have the advantage."

"But Zekrom beat Reshiram…"

He really looked away this time, dropping the subject completely and turning back to him music. It was obvious he didn't have an answer or a reply to that. I thought about what he said carefully. N was a water type… and I was a fire type.

But hadn't I already set fire to the rain? Hadn't I already beaten him? I sighed and wondered if I would ever have the strength to beat him again if it came down to another battle. Probably not… not with the chance of losing another one of my pokemon.

"Hey N…" Which brought us the question.

"Yes?"

"Are… are my other pokemon… are they safe?" I looked down at my twiddling thumbs as I spoke.

"Yes… of course they are." He waited for me to look up into his eyes. I must have looked terribly sad.

"Good…" I whispered anyways. "As long as they are happy and safe…" I wasn't going to tell him that every day I was trying to think of ways to get out of this place. And as soon as I knew where my pokemon were and how to get them I would leave. I would fight my very hardest to get out. But I couldn't do it without my pokemon.

He filled the silence with his magic fingers.

"Is this what you do all day long?" I wondered, tempted to reach out and mess up his song with my sloppy fingers. I had always wished I could make music. I was a decent singer, and had a good strong voice, but to actually be able to play something so beautiful… I knew I didn't have the talent.

"Not always. I have some things to attend to normally… When I'm not on punishment."

"You are king and you are grounded." I scoffed.

"Grounded? What does that mean?"

"It's you are. It's when your parents don't let you do what you want to do because you did something bad. Or when you don't do something…" I added that last part, thinking about how many times I had forgotten to take out the trash on Mondays.

I would spend the rest of my life taking out trash to be out of here.

"Ghetsis doesn't let me go outside without an escort. Is that grounded?"

"Sort of." Jeeze how clueless was he? "But he probably does that so you wont get shot or attacked or something."

"Why would someone do that to me?" He paused, looking stunned.

"Really? You don't know?"

He looked down. "They just don't understand."

I yawned, not wanting to get on the subject. HE was the one who didn't understand.

"Are you tired?"

"No, just yawning for fun." I said slightly sarcastic.

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Why?"

I rolled my eyes. "That was sarcasm." I turned as I spoke, and slid off the bench seat to leave.

"Sarcasm?"

Again I rolled my eyes. "Ill tell you some other time maybe." And I headed over to the hole in the floor that was the exit to the lower floor. My room.

"Good night, Touko." I heard his soft voice as I started stepping down the short steps.

I didn't say anything in return, just yawned once more and went to the bed. I noticed a night gown was slung over the foot of it, but I didn't feel like changing.

Something strange in me felt content with mine and N's awkward conversation, but something else felt incomplete. I listened to the piano for a long time over the muffle of the water slipping down into the fountain. It was soothing and if it wasn't for the fact that I was where I was.

Stuck in Team Plasma's castle against my own will…

I could have been enjoyable.