~ a!n: there's a little bit of torture in this chapter. It's not too graphic, and most of it is implied, but if that triggers you, then please skip this chapter. ~
Of all the ways that Hilda had expected the day to start, punching a cop was not one of them.
"Where is he?!" The words made several heads turn in their direction, but if the general populace were concerned, they didn't show it.
"I don't know, ma'am. Last I saw, they were taking him away in a cop car.." The officer cradled his bruised jaw as he trailed off. "Say, aren't you the champ-"
She is gone before he can finish the sentence.
The sound of a Pokeball opening fills the crisp air, closely followed by a bellowing roar that shakes the very ground. Reshiram glances down at her, as if to say "where the hell have you been?" But she doesn't have time to explain, so she just pats the Pokemon's flank and clambers atop its back, the bewildered gazes be damned.
"I'll explain later. For now, we need to go get a couple of people." The giant dragon screeches again, the very sound like thunder in their ears. She supposes they are scared, the others, judging by the way they stare in a mixture of wonder and confusion. They have a right to be. Reshiram is ferocious-looking, and although in reality it's just a gentle giant, Hilda's not about to correct them.
For a fleeting moment, she imagines what it would have been like if she had just ran away with N in the first place: a couple of street rats, stealing food and laughing all the while. Getting caught occasionally, only to run away when their captors realized who they were, giggling like children. Her heart thumps with longing, but that's only for a second before her stomach lurches and adrenaline fills her veins as Reshiram leaps into the air. She clutches the soft patch of fur on the back of its neck, attempting not to fall off as they rise into the clouds.
"Alright, buddy. Let's go home."
The beast roars.
[]
"Tell me again why you're involving us in this?"
The attitude in Cheren's tone has not faded over the years.
"Oh, shush, Cher. It'll be fun! Besides, Hilda knows what she's doing." Bianca pats her friend's back as her husband turns pink with embarrassment. The muttered "don't call me that in front of Hilda" does not escape the brunette's ears.
"Uh..erm..anyway…where do you think they're keeping N?" Cheren's attempts at being mathematical are remnant of their teenage years, and Hilda returns the favor by doing a very teenage-esque thing: shrugging her shoulders.
"Probably wherever they're keeping Ghetsis." She can practically hear Cheren rolling his eyes at her observation.
"Well, obviously. The question is rather, where are they keeping Ghetsis?" He attempts to lean against Reshiram's wing, only to cry out when it lowers and rises in a quick stroke. She doesn't take her eyes off the sky ahead, but she can guess that the girlish giggles are Bianca's.
"When they took Ghetsis away in the castle, they were back right after N left. So they couldn't have gone very far. Maybe four or five minutes away from the throne room." Cheren chews his lip as he considers the theory, and when his lip begins to bleed he moves to his fingernails. Hilda tunes out right about the time that Bianca begins to fuss over him, her high pitched soprano scolding him relentlessly.
Her feet, which rest on either side of Reshiram's neck, give a light tap, and one blue eye looks back at her.
"Can you take us to the castle?" A roar of assent fills the air.
[]
N has not been so bruised since he was his father's son.
The flame-haired man in front of him eyes him like an Ekans might an Emolga…like predator eyes prey.
"You do realize that you have so many charges stacked up on your name, it's very unlikely you'll escape with anything but the death penalty."
The words do not affect him. He doesn't even flinch.
Alder is not satisfied, obviously, because he continues. "Your girlfriend might suffer too, if you do not submit."
He cannot hold his tongue any longer. "She's not my girlfriend. She is married now."
The other bristles at that. "Undyingly loyal to you, I see."
Not for the first time, N fights the chains that shackle him to the wall. And not for the first time, his head lowers in defeat.
The laughter that follows pushes anger through him, and he practically seethes as rage courses through his very veins.
"No matter. He can easily be disposed of. Then, you'd like that, wouldn't you? No competition, just a grieving Hilda. You could perhaps comfort her.." The meaning behind comfort does not escape him, and he bitterly spits in Alder's direction.
"Now, now. Control your temper, little king. She will be here soon. In the meantime.." His hand appears from his robe, the grubby fingers latching around the handle of a coiled whip.
He isn't afraid. He isn't.
The weapon cracks against his stomach, leaving a gash in it's wake, and he almost breaks.
"Now, what does this remind you of?"
"Stupid, insolent boy, you are no son of mine-"
It cracks again, the noise like lightning, and he presses himself backwards into the wall, as if the concrete will protect him.
"Ah. I see you're reminiscing."
He thinks he might be crying, but he can't be sure. His hands are bound, after all, and checking for tears is impossible.
"Perhaps pain will help you forget." The older man studies N, as if he is thinking very hard. "My mother used to tell me that pain can help you focus on other things. Shall we test that out?"
N lowers his head like a beaten dog. "You cannot do this."
"But I can, little king. I can." A finger traces his jaw, a rough parody of Hilda's love. Except there is no affection in it. This is not a lover admiring another, but a scientist prepping the test subject for experimentation. "You should've rotted in the cell with your father. You should've never gotten away." A hand cracks across his cheekbone. "And now, you never will." He turns, grabbing for a corkscrew looking object.
"A whip is a bit bland. How about we see what we can do with those fingers of yours? They say you are a mathematical sort. Perhaps they will be harder to break if they are strong from all the writing." He grins the grin of a madman. "We shall see."
Somewhere in the castle, a man screams in agony, and the Goddesses of Love and Peace flinch.
[]
The hallways are practically empty as the trio walk them. There are no guards, no team rocket members…everything has been frozen in time.
"Creepy." Bianca's voice echoes throughout the long hallway, and Hilda suddenly regrets bringing along these two.
"Yeah. Maybe we were wrong, coming here. It's so obvious, I doubt…hey, where are you going? Get back here!" Emolga lets out a squeak at it's owner's cries, pawing deliberately at a spot on the tiled floor.
"What the hell are you-" Hilda practically squeaks herself when a piece of the floor actually moves.
Cheren is the first to move, helping the electric Pokemon move the tile and leaving behind a staircase leading downwards.
"My hero!" Bianca's screech is loud enough to make Hilda want to cover her ears, but she restrains herself as the blonde throws her arms around her husband's neck, covering him in kisses even though all he really did was move a tile.
Ugh, lovebirds.
She's not about to waste time being a third wheel, so she pushes past the couple without hesitation and descends the staircase.
[]
Alder watches on a television screen as the trio descend the stairs into the lower castle, barely able to contain his glee. He turns, practically bursting with the noise, and begins to speak to the battered thing on the wall that is N. His fingers are broken, twisted around grotesquely from the previous instruments. His stomach bleeds profusely, a mixture of vomit and blood. His head hangs at a strange angle, pointed towards the floor like a heeling dog.
"Your friends are almost here, little king." He barely glances up in reply.
[]
The place is worse than she thought. There are rows of cells, each filled to the brim with either humans or Pokemon. She recognizes one of them as N's team, and her stomach lurches. She immediately stops, reaching to pull the bobby pin from her hair.
"Hilda?" Bianca turns, her perfectly plucked eyebrows drawn together in confusion. But the brunette wastes no time, jamming the pin into the lock and beginning her attempt at picking it.
Cheren scoffs when he sees what she's doing. "There's no way you can pick that lock. It's probably manufactured so nobody can…" he trails off as the lock clicks, and the door swings open. Bianca reacts first, rushing into the cell.
"Oh, poor babies! Poor things, here, I have some potions in my bag-"
"You stay here with the Pokemon. I'm going to go on ahead." The words have barely left Hilda's mouth before she has dropped the pin into Cheren's palm and went on ahead.
She doesn't make it far before two pairs of eyes draw her attention.
"…Anthea? Concordia?" The names come to her quickly, and Hilda reaches to palm the bars, her eyes wide.
Despite their circumstance, the Goddess of Love smiles.
"Ah, you again. I should have known you would come. How does the saying go? 'Love conquers all' or something to that extent?"
As much as the words make her heart throb, she doesn't have time for prophetic words.
"Where is he? Where is N? Where did they take him?"
Their expression change from gladness to pity, and her heart stops it's throbbing and drops to her stomach.
"We do not know. We believe we heard his screams earlier."
She begins to run.
[]
"They're almost here, little king." Mockery in his tone, mixed with pure hatred.
N does not have the strength to answer, and he instead gives a last attempt to break his chains.
Needless to say, he fails.
[]
Each door is labeled, but it is the one that has nothing on it that calls to her.
"Ah, champion. So glad you could make it."
This is usually the part of the story where the heroine runs to her lover's side, falling directly into an elaborate scheme plotted by the antagonist. But she is not your average heroine, so instead of wasting time running to comfort N, she digs her fingernails into Alder's eyes, her free hand yanking Absol's Pokeball from her pocket.
When the button clicks, hell breaks loose.
[]
N is vaguely aware of loud noises straight from a nightmare, and he almost laughs. So he ended up in hell after all.
He might as well get some sleep. He's very tired, you know.
[]
By the time she is finished with him, Alder is in worse shape than N. Absol plays guard calmly, licking the blood from its usually perfect coat as if it has not just seriously injured another human being.
Hilda works vigorously on the chains, humming nonchalantly as she works.
A very quiet voice whispers her name.
"That's me."
He coughs, and she tries not to look at the blood that falls on the floor as a result. "You're here."
"In the flesh."
Another hack. "I'm not…I can't…" He swallows. "I'm not going to last very long."
She touches his face, and he flinches with the memory of Alder. "Shush. Yes you are. You know you are."
She finishes the last chain, and he flees from the metal embrace of the clamps and falls into hers.
It all slips into blackness, and he thinks that if he must die, he would gladly die in her arms.
[]
Anthea and Concordia are freed, as well as the Pokemon locked in the cells. Cheren helps Hilda carry N up the stairs, and she is sure that if not for Bianca he would be continuously complaining. The only one left behind is Alder.
[]
He wakes surrounded by the sterile smell that only a hospital provides.
"Anthea."
She brushes the hair from his face, and when he sees her hand come away clean, he realizes they must have bathed him.
"Hello, darling."
"I don't…"
"Shh." She rubs his arm, attempting to lull him back into sleep. "She is fine. We're all fine." She pauses, as if considering something. "She freed us all. She is a hero." Another pause. "You are very lucky to have her." Her hand leaves his arm, reaching up away from his sight, and he is suddenly very, very sleepy.
"You cut your hair short." She notes curiously, and he descends back into the blackness.
[]
"How is he?"
The Goddess of Love smiles in reply. "Asleep."
"Oh."
She must sense the brunette's disappointment, because she shakes her head. "You may still visit him, if you like."
Hilda attempts not to look too eager as she enters, immediately pulling a chair up and plopping down beside him. She falls into unconsciousness to the beeping of the machines.
[]
When Anthea checks on him again, she notes the young thing that has latched herself to his side, and she allows herself a grin.
The young man beside her is less than amused.
She notes the disappointment on his face. "You love her?"
Will nods once.
"Love is very painful sometimes."
He nods again, and she frowns.
"Goddess or no, I'm hungry. Will you escort a lady downstairs to get some lunch?" She loops her arm through his, practically dragging the poor thing away.
"You think she's happy?"
"Of course."
He chews that over a minute. "Then I'm happy."
[]
Their reunion occurs in the middle of the night, when N shakes her vigorously from her slumber.
"Mm? What is it?...Oh. Right. Sorry. I'll get off your bed now." She begins to clamber down onto the chair drowsily, but immediately reclaims her spot when N insists otherwise.
"Anthea said you saved everyone."
She rolls over, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and yawning. "I wouldn't go that far. You were in trouble, I saved your ass."
He snorts, winces when it jostles the tubes in his nose. "Yeah. Guess so."
She fully opens her eyes then, looking him over: his broken fingers, all wrapped up and bandaged. The bruise on his lip, the cuts that cover him.
"You shouldn't have come back."
He shrugs. "I couldn't wait any longer. I was too late, though."
"No. No you're not." The confused look he gives her draws the answer from her mouth. "I left him. Told him the truth. And he let me go."
He sighs. "You shouldn't have done that."
"I don't care." She wraps her fingers in his hair, the only part of him she can touch without causing him to cry out in pain. "You cut it short."
"I wanted to look less like a street rat and more like a gentleman."
"I like it long, honestly." The kiss is small, gentle so as not to hurt him.
"Wish you'd told me that earlier."
She laughs, and the noise echoes. "Oh well. I guess I'll just have to make up for it later, huh?"
"You better."
~ a!n: one more chapter to go! Maybe two, since I'm not sure whether I want to make the epilogue a second chapter or not. I really don't like this chapter, since I felt like I switched P.O.V. too much, but I wanted to show what happened to N while Hilda was searching for him. Oh well. ~