Chapter 37 Truthfully, No Hero

"Where… where did all of that come from?" Cheren was prying as they exited Grimsley's chambers and gathered around the statue. At Hil's inquisitive look, he raised his hands. "I mean, just, you…" He shook his head. "I thought you said your father made his choice, and that was all there was to it. You were upset when it happened, yes, but… after…"

"I lied," Hil mumbled as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. He had let Noodle back out at his side and found it slightly disconcerting to now have a ten-plus-foot Serperior following him everywhere. It also wasn't that fun when Noodle tried to wind his body around Hil's shoulders, which just made his knees buckle. "Noodle, buddy, you're too big for that now," Hil blustered under the heft of his newfound size. He desperately pushed at his thick neck, and the Serperior moodily gave up his efforts, pouting at Hil by dipping his head. Turning his attention back to Cheren, Hil saw he looked incredibly hurt. He had taken a step away and had his arms crossed tightly over his chest. Instinctively, Hil went to gnaw his lip, and yelped at the sharp bolt of pain reminding him of his injured lip. Cheren jumped at the noise and eyed him concernedly. Taking a second to let the stinging subside, he decided to come clean. Telling himself he didn't care was exhausting, the day had already dragged on far longer than he had thought possible, and there was still much to go. So, he said, "I lied and always said I didn't care about Vince now because I just… didn't want to deal with it. I wanted to just blame him and have it be over with. Yeah," Hil paused, "I still think he's partially to blame. He could have talked to some more people than just my mom, I think. But there were a lot of other people that could have done better." A blue ring of light surrounded the platform around the statue and then it began to descend. Hil grabbed hold of the stony carving of the statue's cloak for stability. "Including me."

"Hil…" Cheren had also leaned to the statue for support. "I don't think it's fair to say any of it's your fault… or anyone else's, really… That's a lot of blame to put on someone… Even if Champion Alder did do that to the Pokémon League, I'm sure he didn't intend it to hurt anybody…"

"Truth hurts sometimes," Hil muttered as the elevator came to a stop. "It sure hurt like hell those six months ago… But that's the thing. It's a big mess, all of it. There's not really one right or wrong answer." Hil shrugged and stepped off the platform and into a cavernous, empty room. Light filtered in from an outdoor, sprawling staircase that seemed to reach to the heavens. The steps were gleaming with gold. "I just… wished he would have asked for help, or that more people would have been more willing to give it. That's all."

Together, the boys headed up that daunting stairwell. There was a long silence before Cheren spoke again. "I was going to be upset you kept that to yourself, but… I think I understand."

"Understand what?"

"That you needed to work that out on your own. I couldn't have done that for you, that's for sure," Cheren murmured. "Is… that what you and Bianca mean by backing off and giving you guys some space every now and then?"

There sure were a lot of these damn stairs. "I'm… not sure what you're talking about. But if you mean just to back off and give us a chance to figure stuff out for ourselves before you rush in to save us, probably," Hil gave an awkward, weak chuckle and rubbed the back of his head. Noodle slithered ahead of them. "We like having you be our Hero… But maybe give us a chance to figure out what Dragon-type we want you to slay before you become the knight in shining armor?"

"That… actually explains so much," Cheren laughed. It was such a genuine sound. Hil smiled softly at him.

"It's over! Never again will pokémon be made to suffer or be held captive by humans!"

"Please! Anything but that!"

"That sounds like Alder," Cheren breathed.

"And N," Hil added sharply.

Both boys hurried up the rest of the stairs. Noodle fell back into place next to Hil and once they crested the stairs at last, they found N standing in the center of a gilded, golden battlefield, staring Champion Alder down, Zekrom poised at his side with its tail whirring and throwing sparks of blue electricity. The champion had been standing when they arrived, but sank to his knees shortly after, clasping his hands together in front of him. He was… groveling… N approached him and loomed over the pleading champion with a dark glint in his gray eyes.

"All thanks to my friend, Zekrom, who lent me their strength… You may have had the title of champion, but you couldn't stop me with just a title, could you?" N snickered. Hil felt a lump start to rise in his throat and he felt rooted in place. He wanted to shout and tell N off, to tell him he was acting way unlike himself, but his jaws suddenly felt as if they were made of lead. A tiny voice pressed him: you don't know him as well as you think. What if you misread him before? He shook his head harshly to dispel such a thought. "Your soft heart has left you weak… But I kind of like that about you, though. You lost your pokémon and it changed you. It shows that you have some qualms about the relationship between yourself and pokémon… Who knows how long it's been since you've had to fight with your true strength?"

"Please… N… please… We will do anything you ask of us… Just please do not separate pokémon from people…" Alder shook his clasped hands desperately at N.

"You and I both put our beliefs on the line and fought with all our strength," N scoffed, "and I won. Do not say another word."

"N!" Cheren finally managed to shout, making Hil flinch. "Leave him alone!"

N snapped his head to look at Cheren and Hil. He gave a jolt of surprise and a broad grin spread across his face. "It's you! New Hero of Truths! I have been waiting!"

"Well," Cheren started, "actually—"

Zekrom growled and warbled a long, low noise as it nudged N with its muzzle. N held up a hand. "Stop. This is not a place fit for battling the Ancient Dragons of Unova!"

"It's… not?" Cheren asked, interest piqued and his attempted correction of N forgotten. "What is, then?"

N's grin somehow grew even larger and he threw his arms out wide. He had such a gleeful expression on his face. Hil's shoulders sagged as he realized the gravity of the situation. It felt as if he had walked off the edge of a cliff in a cartoon and made the fateful mistake of looking down, triggering gravity to send him plummeting. Was it naïve to believe he could save N from this path he had chosen? His beliefs were so strong, he had a legendary pokémon at his side, and he'd clearly been manipulated for quite a long time. Hil's eyes were drawn to Alder, still panting as he sat against the floor on his knees, and he nervously fidgeted as he thought about how much N had seemed to enjoy holding power over Alder's head. It just didn't sound like the same guy who had led him to a couple's Ferris wheel and, innocently, had no idea what romance was. Nor the guy that softly spoke to pokémon, or the guy who thought revealing that he was the 'king' of a cultish organization was an acceptable, normal thing to say. He had a happy smile on his face, but N looked anything but like the fun-loving, curious man he had been when they first met. He missed the way he had regarded him back in Accumula Town, or even at the Nacrene City Museum…

"At my castle!" N declared after a dramatic few seconds of suspense. Cheren and Hil furrowed their brows at him.

"N, what are you talking about?" Hil asked squeakily. He cleared his throat to try to drown out the strangled vocals. It felt so hard to talk to him. He knew what N regarded him as right now. N didn't know he was now the now the one with the Light Stone and he would likely only grow annoyed at him. He didn't want N to snap at him again… "Castle…?"

N shot him a bewildered glance and then waved a hand dismissively at him. "Not that it matters to you, but yes." He raised both hands high to the air and howled, "Now, rise, my home! The castle of Team Plasma! Rise and surround the Pokémon League!" In unison with him, Zekrom roared, loud enough to make Hil's ears hurt and the very ground rumble. He clamped hands over both ears and gritted his teeth. He vaguely was aware of Cheren trying to holler above the noise, but the rattling soon made him stop, too.

But even when Zekrom quit its bellowing, the shaking didn't stop. In fact, it grew more violent until Hil was forced to grab the stiff leaves growing out of Noodle's shoulders for support. He hissed in pain as Hil pulled them backwards to keep from falling but did not dare strike him or throw him off. Instead, the Serperior coiled his body protectively around him and lashed his tail to catch Cheren and bring him into the defensive hold as well. He wrapped uncomfortably tightly around each of them, but not enough to cause damage, just enough to keep them from falling or rolling.

The Pokémon League shook even more violently, and patches of the ceiling and walls began to crumble and peel away. Slabs of stone and bits of gold clattered and smashed against the gilded floors. Hil yelped at each loud, ringing noise, and Noodle did his best to hold his neck across Hil and Cheren's heads. Once or twice, they were compressed suddenly beneath his bulky body as a piece of stone struck his head, and Noodle would grunt in pain. Hil did his best to loop his arms around Noodle as much as he could, finally letting go of the tall leaves on the back of his head, desperate for the earth to quit shaking, hoping blindly that Noodle would be okay. He had no idea what was going on until he dared to open his eyes and saw a massive building slowly begin to ascend from the earth outside.

At first, he hadn't been able to recognize it. It looked like a sandstorm was blowing in with all the dirt and debris rolling off the roof, billowing into the glassless windows of the Champion's Chambers. But as the dust in the air began to settle, he saw the white stone walls and the deep blue accents, the hundreds and hundreds of windows, the broad pillars, enormous metal arms holding a huge sheet of steel across its roof that he could only assume had been used to raise the castle from the ground. A horrible rumbling and the groaning of steel on steel grew to a sharp, terrifying octave, and Hil had to let go of Noodle to cover his ears. It felt like an eternity before the debris quit crashing down around them and the screeching of metal ended.

Just as Noodle began to loosen his hold and he and Cheren made eye contact, a thunderous boom sounded that made Noodle hiss and abruptly wrap the two friends even tighter. Hil gasped as the air was briefly squeezed from his lungs and he felt Cheren claw at his shoulder to try to wriggle free. Noodle relaxed once he realized he had coiled too tightly, but several more loud crashes sounded after the initial blast. More of the roof crumbled in and a pillar even collapsed next to them. Hil didn't count the blasts, but it felt like a dozen or more went off before everything fell eerily silent. Noodle hesitated this time before unraveling from around Hil and Cheren. When he finally unbound them, he kept cautiously close, and eyed the ceiling and walls nervously. He tossed his head violently on occasion, as if trying to throw off something stuck to his face, but when Hil inspected him, he couldn't see anything other than a deep cut on the side of his skull, just behind his eye… A deep green fluid seeped out from the gash. Hil gingerly hovered a hand just over the cut, knowing touching it would be a bad idea, but feeling a primal panic flaring in his chest he couldn't have even started to describe.

"N, what did you do?" Hil choked at last as he staggered to his feet. His knees were literally knocking, and his entire face was plastered with a cold sweat. Noodle leaned against his shaking frame supportively to the right while Cheren flanked him closely to his left. Cheren was shivering all over as well.

N was still standing in the golden battlefield as if nothing had happened. Zekrom loomed behind him and Hil realized the pokémon had likely encased him protectively to keep him from being injured or struck during the calamity. Zekrom's hide looked as if it could have absorbed any blow without so much as a flinch. Alder, on the other hand, was cowering with his hands over his head. He looked unscathed, but he didn't unfurl from the borderline-fetal position even though the quaking and banging had stopped. N's stormy eyes settled on Cheren and Hil. There was a blithe excitement there that scared Hil. It reminded him of the innocence in that man's gaze he'd seen back at the Ferris wheel. Somehow, though, he didn't feel reassured despite seeing that again. Instead, all he felt was… terror…

N sucked in a deep breath that inflated his chest and made Hil suddenly see the kingly side to N he'd never been able to pin down since the revelation back at the Ferris wheel. "Cheren, the New Hero of Truths… What has just appeared is Team Plasma's castle. The king's words will resound from the heights to all below…" He paused and stroked Zekrom's muzzle. "You must come to the castle as well. Everything will be decided there. Whether pokémon will be liberated from people, or whether pokémon and people will live together… We will see whose belief is stronger... and our result will change the world!"

With that, Zekrom nudged N and half-tossed him to his back. He settled between the pokémon's shoulders and then Zekrom dove out of a massive hole in the crumbled wall behind him, vanishing from view in a fantastic burst of blue light. Once the brightness faded, Hil noticed it looked as if a black walkway had crashed through the wall and embedded itself in the floor…

"I… I thought he was harmless, that he didn't want to harm anybody…" Hil collapsed to the floor in a heap. He didn't want to think about what the ramifications of the castle bursting through the ground, but he shakily peered back at the main Pokémon League building just slightly behind and above the Champion's Chambers anyway, and gaped in horror as he noticed many more black bridges were latched into its walls, and even more massive holes had been punched into its frame. One of the Elite Four's chambers was completely caved in, nothing but a pile of rubble with an inky overpass extending from its floor. "Oh, my Arceus, Cheren! I… it's…"

"Hil, stop," Cheren grabbed him by the shoulders and tried to haul him from the ground. He tried to turn Hil around, too, but he didn't have enough strength in his trembling hands to do so. Noodle's head twitched violently again and the Serperior lowered his head to the ground.

"Look at that! If that Elite Four was still in there, they're…" He couldn't say it and couldn't pry his gaze from the sight of the flattened chamber. Emotion overwhelmed him and he wondered if he had let naïve hopes to save N bring his friends into a deathtrap. He felt as if his very vision were teetering as he shot a look back at Noodle, and saw that the fluid dribbling from his head had leaked all the way down his face, dripping from the end of his muzzle, and onto the stairs. "And Noodle's hurt, and…"

"Hil!" Cheren grabbed his hands and held them still. "Please!" His voice cracked with his pleading. "Please… I'm sure whoever it is, they're fine. Noodle can be healed. We're here to face N, remember? Come on. We're going to face him. Together. You, me, your pokémon, and that Light Stone, got it?"

Hil went limp in his grasp and just nodded, a slow, defeated nod. But when Cheren tried to haul him up to start toward the castle, Hil's feet dragged and he collapsed to his knees again. At the pain that bolted up his legs, he whimpered and felt tears begin to stream. It was all too much. N had grown so aggressive, he had raised a massive castle from the GROUND, said castle had shot… dozens upon dozens of walkways into the Pokémon League, and had caved in one of the Elite Four's chambers! He was quite certain that one was dead, and there was no telling what had happened to the other three! Not to mention all the League Staff… Hil felt the bile start to rise in his throat again and he weakly batted Cheren away, feeling as if he was going to be ill. What had Hil done? What had he started? Would N still have raised the castle had they never come to face him…?

"He's blinded by his beliefs," Alder interjected with a quivering, broken voice. "I… I lost… His convictions are strong…" Hil couldn't look at him. Alder was the last person he wanted to talk to right now, and he was too busy reeling with guilt. "People who believe so strongly can be dangerous…"

"You are not helping!" Cheren spat at him fiercely.

"Cheren, Hil, please," Alder begged brokenly, "we can't do this without you. Please. Please let N know that nothing good will come from separating pokémon and people."

Cheren decided to ignore Alder and squeezed Hil's wrists harder, as if he were trying to squeeze the courage in through his fingertips. He tried once again to pull Hil to his feet. After a few unsuccessful attempts, Cheren growled in frustration and stamped a foot, shaking Hil's arms in annoyance. "Damn it, Hil, get up! We're this…" he trailed off, his voice crackling with emotion. He swallowed hard, lightly digging his nails into Hil's wrists, and continued. "We're this close!"

There was a long silence as Hil cringed beneath Cheren's frightened stare. Alder eventually snorted, and sneered, "I should have been able to demonstrate the bond between me and my pokémon. That would have shown that brat the worthlessness of his outrageous dreams…"

The energy seemed to return to Hil with vengeance at that comment. He jumped to his feet. "That brat needed help!" Hil howled up at Alder. There was a surge of anger. It wasn't fair, it wasn't fair, IT WASN'T FAIR! It wasn't FAIR that he was this close to saving N, and it had become apparent he may have lost his chance altogether! And everyone still acted so nonchalant about it, like nobody understood just what had been lost! There was the potential loss of life, but Hil's mind kept bringing him to a final, devastating fear: the fear that if he faced N and beat him, that N would still refuse to back down. "His dreams aren't worthless, they're not outrageous! He got fed lies again and again by someone that couldn't see past their own damn ego, their own hurt!" Hil's voice was ragged and hoarse, and his split lip stung like mad at the screaming. He pointed at Alder and curled his lips into a vicious snarl, "Truthfully, I think he's the most innocent person out of all of this! Ghetsis is the real enemy! Not only have some people possibly died from what just happened, but now, N might become a victim, too! And you just call him some brat!" Hil shook a fist at Alder as he took some wobbly steps past him, Cheren and Noodle following hot on his heels. "Even if I save pokémon from a forced separation from people, nobody's learned anything! Everyone will just go back to behaving how they did before! And you can't see that! Some Champion of Unova you were! You got so lost in your own hurt you forgot what it meant for others to hurt, too!"

Alder shrank beneath Hil's accusations. He floundered for something to say. "Hil… isn't saving the relationship between pokémon and people enough of a reason? There isn't always a lesson to be had when something bad happens like that…"

Hil's teeth ground together. He knew that was the real reason he was doing this. Yet, the idea of failing to save N and potentially having to get rid of him should he double down on his beliefs even once he was defeated… It made the idea of saving the relationship between pokémon and people feel so, so hollow. If nobody learned anything from all this suffering, then what was the point? He muttered back at Alder, "Yeah, it's enough of one to require me to go do something about it. But once again, you've messed everything up. Now, I get to go clean up your mess," Hil muttered, tears still streaking down his cheeks. He wasn't sure what hurt worse. The realization that saving the relationship between pokémon and humans was a secondary goal to him, making him feel like a rotten Hero indeed, or the idea that N was too far gone, making him an even more rotten friend and definitely a poor Hero. Despairingly, he mumbled under his breath, "Some Hero I am…"

Cheren grabbed hold of Hil's left arm and started to haul him up the stairs yet again. Noodle weakly slithered behind, still occasionally shaking his head.

Across the dark bridge between the Pokémon League and the castle they went.

The earth itself felt as if it were going to shake apart after that Shadow Triad member had arrived and told the scientists to raise the castle. Marlon had okayed the order, and then all hell broke loose. Although they had done their best to tie down everything they could, some equipment still managed to shake free of its bindings and flew around the room. Marlon had leapt out the door of the lab in fear of the flying, sharp technology that started to whizz by his head, such as various disks, flashdrives, and even some keyboards. Skidding into the hallway, the building pitched to the right slightly as it rose unevenly, likely due to the force of trying to break through the earth above them. Clinging to the third floor's banister, Marlon waited for the initial rumbling and shaking to cease. Chandeliers overhead rattled and spun violently. A few knocked out their own lightbulbs and glass cascaded across the floor. Even though Marlon had been told in detail what would happen during the rise of the castle, the event was still loud, scary, and overwhelming to all his senses. He was so glad when it finally came to an end.

As grunts began to scatter across the castle like frazzled Purrloin, he had a mission. Marlon headed for the second floor, where he knew one of the windows connected to a bridge that had punched its way into the Pokémon League. Indeed, there were thirteen such bridges projecting from N's Castle, linking to the battered building. Each had a wooden effigy of either a gym leader, an Elite Four member, or the Champion of Unova himself, Alder, attached to an equally as wooden cross right next to the windows. They had been Ghetsis' idea and he intended to send thirteen grunts to set each ablaze whenever someone arrived to try to put an end to Team Plasma's plans. He had jokingly told Marlon it was his "welcoming gift" to the "New Hero of Truths." Marlon had felt just… unnerved by the idea… but Ghetsis had lavished it, treating it like his best idea yet.

As Marlon found the window he was looking for, a frighteningly detailed carving of Gym Leader Burgh just outside of it, he felt a familiar cold chill and his heart leapt into his throat. A member of the Shadow Triad appeared before him. It was the gruff one whose words were so hoarse he was sometimes difficult to understand. Marlon sometimes really wished they had individual names… But as he felt this one's eyes on him, he froze. He said nothing; his voice was caught in his throat. He didn't know what he could have said, either, especially since he knew how attached the Triad was to Ghetsis. He was certain that within seconds, this one would teleport him back into the lab, or directly next to Ghetsis, and inform his master of Marlon's treacherous attempt at escape.

But no such teleport came. The Shadow Triad member dipped his head slightly and then stepped to the right, leaving a clear path for Marlon to exit through the window and onto the charcoal-colored bridge.

"I don't understand this," the Shadow Triad member rasped, "but I… think you leaving will help you feel something."

"What…?" Marlon asked breathlessly, his breath quickening to borderline hyperventilation. Was this a trick? A test?

The man in black stared him in the eyes. He had such blank, empty silver eyes. "I feel nothing when I try to escape Ghetsis, Team Plasma. I always return. All three of us always return. We can't leave." He blinked slowly. "But you can feel. Maybe you will feel something if you leave."

Confused and terrified, Marlon decided he no longer cared if this was a test. He wasn't going to give Ghetsis the satisfaction. He skirted past the Shadow Triad member and leapt onto the black bridge, nearly stumbling over. He managed to catch himself just in time to stop from plummeting to certain death, and raced across its length so fast, he thought he might have flown at one point. At the end, he dove over the short barrier of a broken wall, landing on his side on a bright red carpet. His eyes struggled to adjust to the dimmer lighting, but as he picked himself from the ground, he noticed amber flames from torches attached to what walls remained were lighting most of the chamber. Fragments of ceiling and wall littered the area. Heart still thrumming in his throat, Marlon started down a long, spiraling staircase that he assumed would lead to the main floor of the Pokémon League, but he was stopped halfway down when a Liepard lunged at him from the shadows.

He screamed in fright and staggered backward, falling to his rear. He held his hands up defensively, expecting to feel the long fangs of the pokémon sinking into his flesh, but no such feeling came. When he opened his eyes, he instead found that the Liepard was standing over him with its jaw open just wide enough to show off those thin, but long, deadly fangs. Elite Four Grimsley, his black hair a wreck and his dark suit ripped down the side, was breathing heavily as he stood over Marlon as well. "What have you done?" he demanded. "You Team Plasma crazies were supposed to battle our Champion and the new challenger, not destroy half the fucking Pokémon League!"

"Please!" Marlon begged right away. He clenched his eyes shut as he was menaced by a furious hiss from the Liepard. He could feel its hot breath against his neck. "Please, I just wanted out! I've been trying to get out of there for months! Please! I'll do anything you could ever want, just don't send me back!" He broke into sobs. He hadn't realized just how badly he wanted this freedom… it was so close he could taste it, and the thought of going back was horrifying. He touched a finger to a bright red scar marring the left side of his neck, and then lightly brushed the bruise on his forehead. He heard the Liepard begin to growl and he cried harder. "Please, Elite Four Grimsley, please! I can't go back!" Gasping for air, Marlon fiercely growled, "I won't go back! You can either let me go, or… or… I-I'll jump! I'll jump right out that window, right now!"

"Stand down, Liepard," Grimsley said at last. Marlon dared to open his eyes, blinking against the doubled vision from his tears, and was astonished to find the Liepard stalking away from him. The haggard Grimsley reached out his hand to lift Marlon from the ground. He scowled at Marlon with piercing, icy eyes that made his skin crawl. He suddenly gripped Marlon by his robes. Instinctively, he fell limp and shut his eyes, bracing for a brutalizing blow automatically. Thankfully, one never came. "Now, I'm going to trust you, because my instincts are telling me you've really had it bad with them. But I swear to Arceus, do not test me today, because I will fucking throw you out of a window myself if I find you are lying. Understand?"

"Yes, Lord—I mean, Elite Four Grimsley," Marlon mewled pathetically. The hot tears of stress rolling down his face turned to those of joy. He still had the impending threat that the Shadow Triad might come to drag him back to the castle, but he hoped to Arceus that Ghetsis would be too busy foaming at the mouth over his perceived imminent victory to care about where his emotional punching bag went. For now… he was just too happy to be free. Grimsley ordered him to get up and follow him, and Marlon enthusiastically jumped back to his wobbling legs and raced after the Elite Four member.

Grimsley frantically searched the other three chambers of the Pokémon League. Shauntal met him at the entrance to her chambers, uninjured save for a few cuts; Marshal was found hiding in his bathroom and Shauntal, Grimsley, and Marlon had to help shove debris out of the way of the door to free him; however, Caitlin's chambers were completely crumbled. Upon entering the doorway, they found the entire outer wall of her chambers and the ceiling had crashed in. Shauntal had shrieked at the sight, while Marlon and Grimsley both looked lost. Marshal wasted no time in screaming her name.

They all jumped as they heard a voice behind them. "Looking for me?"

Caitlin stood in a tattered dress with a Reuniclus at her side. Some blood stained her chest and right arm, but she didn't look hurt… Marlon felt a wave of relief upon seeing her alive. Even if he had never been the biggest fan of the Elite Four, right then, he felt as if they were his personal godsends, and he would have hated knowing he had possibly assisted in the death of one… Shauntal launched herself at Caitlin and wrapped her up in a full-body hug. The Psychic-type trainer laughed weakly. "I found a plus side of having uncontrollable Psychic-type powers," she said, "they're really good at helping you avoid getting crushed by rubble. Reuniclus helped, too."

Grimsley nodded stiffly at her. "Glad you're okay," he offered numbly. With a nod, he pushed past them and back into the main lobby. "Come on. We better go check on League Staff and finish evacuating the area." Louder, he snapped, "Keep up, Plasma grunt!"

Marlon kept up. He made sure to keep up, no matter what.