King leaned back in the ladder-backed chair, resting an arm at the top rail of it. Zoroark lay on one of the motel room's beds, arms crossed behind his head, and across the lacquered wooden table from King, that N fellow scarfed down three plates worth of food like it was his last day living.

"I guess you were pretty hungry after all, huh?" King mused. N didn't slow, not even for a second, only gave a slight bob of his head. King grunted.

At that time of night, they had made it to King's temporary room in a motel unnoticed - a good thing, too, otherwise someone might have recognized N. As soon as they'd arrived, N demanded that King heal his haxorus. He did willingly, with the leftover potions he had tucked away in his pack. Once that was done, King had left the guy inside for a little bit while he stopped at a nearby diner to buy a few things.

He shifted in his seat. Dark brown paint covered the walls of the small room; the carpet the same color. Besides the table that the two of them relaxed at, the only other furniture was the two beds; each pushed against an opposite wall. Before King had brought food into the place, it'd stunk like no one had bothered to clean it in seventeen years. Now it was filled with the smell of grease, which reminded him of those times he would spend at one diner or another in Castelia City, not knowing how to cook worth a damn.

He wondered whatever happened with his apartment. He was sure that, at one point or another, his landlord had gotten his stuff out of there and called it a day, so that someone else with more money would be able to move in and take his place. Maybe one day he'd go back and apologize to her - if the city wasn't already buzzing with riots. The owner of the diner had explained to him that something nasty and god-awful, as he'd put it, had already happened in Nimbasa City.

Speaking of. "So. You been over to the main part of Nimbasa lately?"

N paused with his cheeseburger to his lips. He swallowed hard what he'd been chewing, put his food down, then nodded. "Yes. I have."

"And?"

"It is not good." N shook his head. "Not good at all. People have all but deserted the streets. That is, for now, anyway."

"What do you mean, 'for now'?" King asked, scooting his chair closer to the table, folding his arms on its surface.

N looked at his food, grimacing as if his appetite had completely fled him. He pursed his lips. "Team Plasma is gathering."

"Your organization is gathering, you mean."

"I am no longer affiliated with them, though I think the members still view me as the face of Team Plasma."

"That so?" King said. "Let's hear it, then. What did happen?"

Zoroark picked his head off the pillow, the old wood of the bed creaking under him, and sat at the edge of it, arms dangling on knees. N shifted, wiping his hands on a napkin, opening his mouth, then closing it again as if trying to decide what he wanted to tell King and what he didn't. That was understandable: the guy had gone through a lot to change that much, and the two of them weren't exactly best friends.

Finally, though, he started to speak. "It is… my father, King. Once - it feels like so long ago - but, once, I idolized him. Now, I've come to see how awful a man he really is."

Maybe we're not so different from one another after all. "Go on."

"He is the true leader of Team Plasma, you see. I… think that he has manipulated me my entire life, controlling me. He never allowed me from his sight, showing me things that led me to believe Pokemon were abused and killed each day by humans. There was a time, however, that a small squad of the police force ambushed us, and we were separated. My… significant other, at the time, who I had met in Vertress City - her name was Luna - found me, and together we traveled to Accumula Town. She was a trainer, you see, and with her, I was able to see a world that my father had been trying to hide from me my whole life. I was able to see that Pokemon and people can live in harmony."

"Does your father believe in this goal of Team Plasma?"

"No. He is a trainer. I can only guess his motivations, but he had always convinced me that to free Pokemon was his purpose in life."

"Ironic," King grunted. "I'm guessing that, since he wanted you to believe he hated trainers and everything, he wasn't too happy about Luna."

"No. He was not."

N stared with a blank look at his food. King raised an eyebrow. There was something that he wasn't saying. He didn't mind, though. Everyone had their secrets and the things that it was hard to talk about to other people. King was no different, and N probably wasn't either.

"So?" King said. "What are you planning on doing about this?"

"I have already tried to stop my father once and failed. That was how haxorus was injured," N said. "There is another chance. Team Plasma is gathering for a large rally inside Nimbasa City. I will go to this and tell them all what a grave mistake they are making. Surely, if they see that the face of their organization has changed his mind, then most of them will as well, or at the very least, doubt the road they've taken."

King rubbed his chin, looking N up and down. "Don't you think your father is going to do everything he can to stop you?"

"Yes. Without a doubt. He has six… five powerful trainers under his command, as well."

Five, huh? Standing, King threw his arms over his head, exhaling as he stretched. "Well, we can head to the city proper in the morning. For now, you should finish that food and then get some sleep. Originally, I'd gotten a room with two beds instead of one because of zoroark, but he won't mind. Ain't that right, buddy?"

King smiled at his Pokemon, who got to a stand without complaint.

"Uh, King?" N asked, sounding reluctant.

"Yeah?"

"What do you mean, 'we'?"

"I'm going with you. I figured, if your father is a trainer, and he's got those five with him, I can help you stop him. No need to thank me, or anything. I originally never planned on caring about what Team Plasma was doing, let alone getting involved with them, but things have gotten way out of hand if they're trashing cities now."

N smiled softly. "Thank you."

"Didn't I say there was no need?" King said, sitting on the bed and beginning to pull his shoes off.

"You really have changed, as zoroark claims. When I first met you, and I don't mean offense, but I thought of you as nothing more than… an asshole."

King snorted, chuckling. "None taken."

"So… I want to give you something."

King looked up, one shoe in his hand. When he did, N was standing, holding out a Pokeball. Haxorus' Pokeball.

King balked at it. "N. I can't take that."

"Please do. I am not fit to be a trainer, not after everything I've done."

Zoroark stepped beside N. He nodded to King.

A haxorus? She would be a welcome addition to his team under any circumstance, but could he take the Pokeball? She was N's, not his. But…

King sighed, grasping it. His fourth Pokemon.

"I have trust that you will take good care of her, after what I have seen and what zoroark has told me. She is very special." He returned to eating.

Zoroark sat next to King. It was the right choice.

He placed the Pokeball at the foot of his bed. "I hope so. Come on, let's get you in your Pokeball."

Sleep well.

"Right back at ya'." He returned zoroark, then placed him next to haxorus, unhooked rufflet and palpitoad, and put them there, as well, then tucked himself in for the night.

N soon finished his eating and clicked off the light. King heard the creak of the other bed as he got into it. Sleep came on for King quickly enough: a dreamless, deep, and peaceful slumber.

In the morning, the sunlight trickling in through the one window splayed across his eyes, waking him up. He blinked a few times, yawned, then looked across at the other bed.

N was gone.