Chapter Two – Diamond in the Rough
The murmurs of people did not speak as loudly as the voice of a particular Pokémon in the crowd. N stood patiently through his father's speech, but his ear caught not on the sounds of Ghetsis's voice nor the whispers surrounding him. In fact, he couldn't hear Ghetsis at all anymore, and he had blocked out every other sound, too.
Hilda isn't selfish. She's a good human.
The young Pokémon, perhaps, didn't know any better. N frowned, tugging his hat a little lower as he glanced down the row of people beside him. He couldn't see the Pokémon nor its trainer, but he wanted to meet it. Its voice, especially for one so young, was strong, which could only suggest that its trainer was equally as strong.
Once Ghetsis's speech concluded, the crowd dispersed, though not happily. Team Plasma, of which N was king, had created a stirring here—this was good. If N was ever to create a separate world, so that Pokémon could be free of people and people could no longer use Pokémon for their own selfish reasons, the conversation had to begin: were people in the wrong?
N pushed through the moving crowd towards two trainers at the farthest side, a young man and a young woman. The boy, clearly displeased by Team Plasma's platform, spoke quickly and angrily to the girl, who stared pensively beyond the boy. She was the one—she was the one whose Pokémon spoke.
Maybe—and this was a definite maybe—she was different. He didn't expect it from the boy, but the girl might be able to hear the voices of the Pokémon, too, especially considering hers spoke so firmly. It was worth a shot.
"Your Pokémon," N began, approaching the couple, who turned on him apprehensively, "just now, it was saying—"
"Saying?" the boy scoffed. Even the girl furrowed her eyebrows, and N frowned.
"Yes, they're talking." The boy laughed, a quick mocking laugh that N was used to hearing from Ghetsis. "Oh. Then, you two can't hear it, either… How sad." He paused, holding out a hand towards the girl, as he had seen people do when first meeting. "My name is N."
She slipped her hand hesitantly into his, and N smiled, hoping that this might show that his intentions towards her were not bad. After three quick pumps, she said, "Hilda," confirming that it was her Pokémon that spoke: she was the good human, the unselfish one, the one who might make a difference.
But then he let his gaze leave her face, and he saw the small device attached to a pocket on her pink bag. So, she wasn't just a trainer…
"The Pokédex, eh? So…" His expression darkened, and he pulled his hat lower again so that she might not see. "You're going to confine many, many Pokémon in Poké Balls for that, then. I'm a trainer, too, but I can't help wondering… are Pokémon really happy that way?"
The answer was obvious to him, and it always had been. He hated calling himself a trainer and didn't really consider himself one, but it was the only way to describe it to someone else. There was no adequate alternative—he, too, had Pokémon in Poké Balls, but it was not his intention to keep them that way.
He only had one Pokémon with him right now, one that he had saved only recently, but it was friendly and helpful. It would help him.
"Well, Hilda, is it?" He was only interested in the girl, and the boy beside her was well-aware of, and rather annoyed by, this fact. "Let me hear the voice of your Pokémon."
Her face, for the first time since he met her, lit up. It was the first time, though not the last, that he saw those bright blue eyes widen with anticipation and excitement, the first time that he saw her lips part and widen into an eager smile—and it was the first time her voice squeaked, something he grew fond of over time, as she answered, "Sure!"
It was a little Tepig that spoke. N recognized its voice immediately. I'll fight for Hilda! it cried, and N watched it carefully as it moved towards his Purrloin. I like her. She's a good trainer.
When Purrloin was knocked back and could no longer fight, Hilda was the first one to return Tepig to its ball. He had to say, he was impressed by her nature—she was the first human he had ever met outside of Team Plasma to show such concern for Pokémon, and she was the first human that a Pokémon described so kindly.
"I never expected to hear Pokémon say such things…"
But this girl, this Hilda, was the exception to the rule. And when Hilda questioned, her voice soft now, what things her Tepig said and what things he had expected to hear, he couldn't bring himself to tell her. She was a diamond in the rough, and he hoped to keep her that way.
"As long as Pokémon are confined in Poké Balls… Pokémon will never become perfect beings." He noted how the boy's lips pursed. "I have to change the world for Pokémon because they're my friends."
N turned and walked away without so much as a goodbye, but he didn't think it was truly a goodbye—he would seen her again without a doubt. The probability was one hundred percent.
"Rosa?" Cheren shook his head with a smirk. "She doesn't even know Hilda. What help would she be in locating her, and what makes you think that the Champion, of all people, wants to tag along on a rescue mission for someone she has never met?" When N didn't respond, Cheren shrugged. "Bianca and I. That's who you've got."
"No, I want Rosa, too," N repeated, and when Cheren crossed his arms again, he moved his hat up. "She might come if I ask, but she'll definitely come if you ask. She respects your opinion as a gym leader. But even more than that, she respects people and Pokémon alike. If she knew that Hilda went missing as a result of foul play, Rosa would—"
"Not want to get involved," Cheren interrupted, standing up and walking towards the door. His hand lingered on the doorknob as he looked over his shoulder at N. "She was in the same position as Hilda—an enemy of Ghetsis and Team Plasma. He almost killed her once before. What makes you think she wants to put herself in danger again?"
N shook his head. "It's not Ghetsis."
"Whatever. I'll call Bianca and ask her to come… oh, and I'll have to ask Alder to watch the gym…" Cheren twisted the knob and opened the door. "Meet back here tomorrow at noon."
N didn't plan on leaving it like that. It was exactly the fact that Rosa was so much like Hilda that he wanted her around. And if Hilda really was in danger, and they were about to face it, he knew that Rosa would be of vital help to them. It wasn't that he doubted his Reshiram and other friends—it was more that he trusted Rosa.
He followed Cheren out of the small work room and continued all the way outside. Tomorrow when he met with Cheren and Bianca, he hoped that Rosa might be standing there with them.
N loved the Ferris wheel in Nimbasa, and not just because of the astounding mathematics behind its design and implementation. The Rondez-View Ferris Wheel was where he admitted to Hilda that he was the leader of Team Plasma. He hadn't, in fact, planned to reveal it to her at all, but she considered Team Plasma the enemy—and certainly he didn't fit into that, he wanted to believe.
For some time, the only reason she walked freely was because of him. The higher-up members of Team Plasma saw her as a threat and wanted her gone, but he named her as one of the people he wanted untouched—she was safe because of his orders, but there was nothing he could do once he Team Plasma disbanded.
If he had never spoken to her that first day—if he hadn't heard her Tepig speak and taken a shine to her—then what would have happened? No matter how he looked at it, she was the other hero, the one who stood by his side. If he was king, then she was queen; it was logic. She would have been there all along.
But if he stayed away, maybe she would have been safe now. Or would she have been worse off?
Either way, he considered the Ferris wheel a special place for the two of them, one that he shared with only one other person: Rosa.
N liked Rosa, though not in the same way that he was fond of Hilda. But he trusted her enough to let her into his special place. Somehow, she had found out that he liked to visit the park on Friday mornings, when it was relatively empty, and she always came to see him and battle. It had to be fate, then, that the day Cheren wanted to meet fell on a Friday. There was just enough time to see Rosa before heading down the Aspertia.
He headed down to Nimbasa at the same time as always. Occasionally Rosa would beat him there, but the park was empty as he headed towards the Ferris wheel. But he didn't have to wait very long; he saw her hair before he saw her, the two strands erupting from the large twisted buns flowing behind her as she approached. Upon seeing him, she smiled and ran towards him.
"Hi!"
"Rosa, hi," N greeted, and Rosa bounced on the balls of her feet. She was always energetic, more so than Hilda, but he admired that about her. "I'm glad to see you."
She laughed, her hands on her hips as she threw her head back. "Oh, something must be wrong if you're glad to see me," she joked, but when she met his gaze again and became aware of his somber expression, she frowned. "Wait a minute, something is wrong? Well, if it's anything that I can help with, I'd be more than happy."
He wanted Cheren to be here to hear this. "It's about the trainer I've mentioned before, Hilda—the one I said you remind me of?" N asked, and Rosa nodded. "Something has happened. I found her trainer card outside of Unova, and the nurse at the Aspertia Pokémon Center said that she dropped her Pokémon off and never came back for them."
"She's the one I said went to look for you… You think something's happened to her? Something bad—like… someone's hurt her?" Rosa shivered at the thought, and when N's expression didn't lighten, she gritted her teeth. "I haven't heard anything, N, I'm sorry. I would have told you if I had."
"Of course. I know. Cheren, Bianca, and I have decided to go looking for her. We shouldn't have to travel too far if she was abducted just outside of Unova, if that's what happened," N explained.
Rosa was patient; despite her energetic nature being overwhelming at times, she knew the time and place for it, and she listened carefully to N. She took this seriously, as N suspected she would. She was the Champion, after all, and that meant that she had a duty to both the people and Pokémon of this region.
But Cheren had a point. She had already faced danger—she looked death right in the eye just a year ago, and it was irresponsible of N to ask her to do it again. It didn't take a genius to figure out that someone who could get to Hilda was someone who was highly dangerous. If Rosa didn't want to go, N wouldn't be offended.
"I want to help!" Rosa announced, her tiny hands curled into fists. "If you'll have me, that is. I know Cheren will probably complain about it—I think he just doesn't want me dirtying my hands, you know, but he's not so bad. He knows I can take care of myself, and once I decide that, he'll get over it quickly enough."
She pegged Cheren completely, which amused N and almost brought a smile to his face even in this solemn atmosphere.
"I'm glad to hear it," N said with a nod, and Rosa grinned at him. "We planned to meet at noon at Cheren's gym. Is that too soon for you?"
Rosa jabbed a thumb into her chest, one hand still on her hip. "It'll be fine. I'm ready for anything at any time!" She blushed a little, lowering her thumb from her chest. "Sorry. That's pretty lame. But I'll do everything I can to help you, N. I know that Hilda means a lot to you. I would go around the world looking for my best friend if anything happened to him."
But Hilda was more than just a best friend to N. He had never had human friends, only Pokémon—Hilda was the first one that he saw as worth befriending, which made her so much more important to him. If anyone asked what she was to him, it would be impossible to answer. Much like "trainer" didn't describe him, "friend" was too weak a word to describe her.
Hilda would eternally be his savior.
Author's Note: I think the concept of this story is more similar to "Across the Sun" than any of the other fanfictions I've written, but it varies still. But I think if you endured the pain and suffering of "Across the Sun" and liked that one, you might like this, haha.
Actually, I began planning this story before AtS (I think the time stamp on it was from November 2012), but I forgot all about it until very recently. I think I must've planned this and scrapped it for AtS. Obviously I've made some changes to the plot since 2012 (I've changed as a writer, after all), but the main concepts remain the same.