Chapter Eight – Conjecture

Rosa's sudden intake of breath startled her Ampharos, and the light around them flickered faintly. The three of them, the two humans and the Pokémon, stopped where they were at the edge of the second tunnel. It couldn't have been just a voice in her head. Rosa knew that she had just heard Cheren shout their names.

"You heard that, right?" Rosa asked N, whose eyes flashed against the light as he glanced around. "You were right—he's here." The excitement that lit her face now was undeniable, but even she wished deep down that she wasn't so eager. There was still the chance that they could fail. "Cheren! Cheren, where are you?"

N shook his head, putting a finger to his lips. "We're on their turf now. It's best that we proceed quietly. The Shadow Triad will be looking for us."

"Too true, Lord N."

Rosa and N had just turned back around to continue into the next tunnel when the Shadow appeared before them. He bowed to N, but his gaze was clearly pointed towards Rosa. As he rose again, Rosa made a little growl before backing up, only to bump into a second Shadow behind them. They were surrounded.

But they weren't outnumbered.

"Our apologies. We wanted to give you a more formal invitation and reception here, but there was a change of plans." The second Shadow bowed this time.

N knew that he had no choice but to go along with the Shadows if he wanted Cheren to make it out of here with them. Reshiram was too large to fit in the tunnels, so the dragon had to wait outside. Without it, N was relatively defenseless; he had a small team with him, but he could admit that Rosa ran the battle last time. N didn't doubt that the Shadow Triad was actually stronger than he was.

"Where's Cheren?" Rosa demanded. Her hand reached back towards her Ampharos, and she stroked its fur with the tips of her fingers. It was a silent warning, N knew, and he could hear the Ampharos's reply: it was ready for anything.

"We'll escort you to him," the first Shadow assured her, and her cold expression softened. "We only need our lord N to come with us, and you, Champion Rosa, are free to take him and leave."

Every eye turned on the ex-King, and he grabbed the void cube out of habit. He examined it thoughtfully, and the room and the people around him vanished. In a world of just algorithms and formulas and Pokémon, everything was perfect. There was no conflict, no uncertainty. Everything was black and white, but that was how he thought it ought to be.

It was Hilda who taught him, like everything else she taught him before this, that the gray—the in between, the uncertainty, the conflict—was what made the world interesting. The world could never be just black and white.

Even in mathematics, there was more than one way to do things. Just because there was one answer didn't mean everything had to be clear cut. Different people interpreted the formulas and the rules in different ways, which led to new theories and new routes to solutions. N had misunderstood that. He could continue to love his formulas, but he would have to love the conjectures, too.

"Ampharos," Rosa began, but N dropped the void cube and grabbed her arm.

"I'll go." N smiled reassuringly—or in an attempt to be reassuring, but it was a bit hard to know if it came off that way or not—at Rosa. He could feel her muscles stiffen, and he let go of her arm. It was quiet, and he waited one more moment for the protest that never actually came—one that he expected. So, with a sigh, he looked at the Shadow in front of them. "All yours."

He knew that Cheren was Rosa's priority; Hilda was N's. They were better off this way.

"Take Champion Rosa to the boy. I will bring Lord N to the gardens."

The second Shadow nodded, pulling on Rosa's arm. She whistled at her Ampharos, who followed close at her heels, and N caught one last glimpse of her as she faded away into another tunnel.

N was left with just one Shadow, who bowed yet again at N now that he was alone in the king's presence. "I beg for your forgiveness, my lord," the Shadow pleaded, still with his head turned down in a bow. "I had to separate you from your new friends. I do think, however, that it was ultimately in your best interest."

"Don't worry about it." N waved him off, and the Shadow stood tall again. "There's something more important: tell me about Hilda."

In the darkness of the tunnel without Ampharos, and without the light from the streets above or the light fixtures that still hung in some old rooms in the sewers, N couldn't see the Shadow's face at all. The man was simple a creature of darkness—a true shadow, hiding where the light couldn't quite reach.

But even in this darkness, N could imagine the smirk beneath the fabric mask.

"Allow me to bring you to the garden first. You'll feel more comfortable there, I believe."

N was hesitant about following the Shadow Triad into a confined space, but he walked behind the Shadow, anyway. What was he to do? Rosa would find Cheren, the two of them would escape this place, and then what? Were they going to come back for him? Were they going to renew their search for Hilda? Surely Cheren was still worried about his old friend.

When they walked up the stairs into the garden, which sat undisturbed between some of the Castelia skyscrapers, N covered his eyes from the blinding light of the sun directly above them. In just a few minutes, it would disappear behind the buildings, but for now, it lit the small field and made every shadow vibrantly dark.

People could look down from their office windows and see into this small enclosure. For the time being, N was safe here. Even the Shadow Triad wasn't brave enough to risk something in front of obvious witnesses.

The last Shadow, the third of the group, was already situated beneath the tree in the center of the grass. But it wasn't the man that garnered N's attention; some Pokémon had poked their heads out of the tall grass and walked towards N.

This had to be what the Shadow meant about being more comfortable.

N knelt down on the ground and held his hand out to an Eevee, and the small Pokémon rubbed its head under his hand. A Pidove landed by his side, and a Buneary hopped over and settled in his lap. N had that effect on Pokémon. Maybe they could tell that he had been raised by some as a boy, or maybe he was just trustworthy.

After playing with the Pokémon for several minutes, N finally recalled where he was. He hadn't even noticed the Shadow return from bringing Rosa to Cheren—neither of the two in tow—and now all three members of the Shadow Triad rested under the tree.

"When will you tell me about Hilda?"

The Shadows, realizing they were being addressed by their former king, sat up straighter. "When the time is right," they responded, though N didn't really consider it a proper answer. "First, you need to do something for us."

At this point, N realized that the fur on Eevee's back stood up straight, and the words it whispered were not sweet.

They cannot be trusted.

N didn't like liars.

"You have a deal."

When the Shadow was out of sight, vanished back into the tunnel through which the two of them just walked, Rosa dropped to her knees beside Cheren's unconscious body. She shook him, and when there was no response, fell back onto her bottom. Her Ampharos butted her with its head as she picked at her lip.

"I'm thinking," she told it. Cheren was still breathing, so he was still alive, at least. But he didn't look very good. All the color had drained from his face, leaving his skin pale and clammy. It was hard to believe that this was the result of a day.

The only thing Rosa knew was that she had to get him out of here, but not only did she have to do that, she also needed to help N. If the Shadow Triad truly had information on Hilda—and considering what they had done to Cheren, it wasn't farfetched for them to have done something to her—then N was bound to make a deal with them.

She'd come back for him… she had to take care of Cheren first.

"Arcanine," she called, letting the large beast out of its Ball. "I need you to carry him."

Rosa had just started to lift Cheren when his fingers twitched, and she grabbed his hand. His eyes fluttered, and his jaw slacked as he muttered, "Hil… da…" And then panic struck, and his eyes opened wide; he thrashed in Rosa's arms, screaming something unintelligible as he tried to break free.

"It's me! It's Rosa!" she yelled over his screams, squeezing his hand harder as he tried to pull away. "Cheren, it's me!"

He blinked and stopped moving as everything settled. "Rosa?"

Tears welled in her eyes, and she nodded. Cheren relaxed a little, going almost limp in Rosa's arm, only the sound of his heavy breathing between them now. She ran a hand over his forehead and brushed hair out of his eyes—what was that? What just happened?

"Cheren…"

"I'm okay. I'm fine," he assured her, like the events of just a minute ago had never happened at all. But when he attempted to stand on his own, using Rosa's shoulder to push himself up, he fell back to his knees. And something felt like it was sticking out on the back of his head, and whatever it was, it hurt.

"Hold on, get on Arcanine."

Cheren grabbed onto Rosa and let her hoist him up and over her Arcanine. He let his face fall against its fur, and he wrapped his arms around its neck. "So warm," he murmured into the dog's fur, and Rosa smiled. It was all she could do right now.

With Ampharos leading the way and Arcanine taking the rear, they all set off for the exit. The Shadow had brought them to some obscure part of the sewers, seemingly beyond the areas where workers and trainers might venture. If Hilda was here, it would have to be in a place like that—in the darkness, away from everyone and everything else.

"Where's N?" Cheren asked after minutes of silence passed. The only noise had been their footsteps and the constant dripping of water from a nearby pipe; the water had been drained from the sewers as it was getting closer to winter, but that didn't mean the sewers were completely dry. Who knew what they were stepping in right now?

Rosa's focus on the dripping was broken only when Cheren asked the question a second time. "Oh. He, um… he's with the Shadow Triad. They said that if he went with them, I could be brought to you, so—he went."

"You let him?" Cheren asked, sounding more alive than he had in the past few minutes.

"What else was I supposed to do?" Rosa demanded desperately. "He's an adult, Cheren. He can handle himself. Would you rather me have not gotten to you? Would you rather be spending another day or two or forever with these guys?"

"You haven't known him as long as I have." His voice tired again, and he rubbed his cheek against Arcanine's warm fur. "I may not known him well, but he's not like us. He might be older than us, but…" Cheren sighed. "He probably thought that he could do this alone. Trust me, Rosa, he can't. He can't do this alone."

"Why? Just because they got you?"

Cheren squeezed his eyes shut, and Arcanine yelped when he pulled its fur. "N is soft. He'll do anything for Pokémon. Hilda was the same way, but N—he's an extremist. He'll go beyond that. If it means keeping Pokémon safe, even if it's just one, I'd bet that he would go along with anything they said."

Rosa's eyes widened, and she stopped in her tracks. "They'll use Pokémon as leverage…"

It wasn't clear what the Shadow Triad's intentions were, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that, whatever those intentions were, they weren't pure. Like the darkness, the Shadows were tainted. But shadows grew darker and bigger with light, and if N was the light…

Rosa's hands shook, not unlike Cheren's, though it was rage that fueled her now. Hadn't she done her good deed? Hadn't she freed herself from this a second time? She was no hero—not one that returned over and over to save the day. She was just a girl who did the right thing. It didn't make her a protector of justice.

And to think this was all for a girl she didn't even know.

"We have to go back for him. I'll be okay. Besides, they have my Pokémon. We have to find them," Cheren insisted.

It was no use. How was Rosa supposed to respond to this?

"They'll know."

"I don't care."

Rosa snarled, unable to fight any longer, and pointed towards a tunnel not too far down on the left. "Fine. That's the tunnel N and I went into when they ambushed us. Assuming that N and the other Shadow continued down that path, since I went in the other direction, we should be able to find them relatively quickly if we move fast."

Cheren nodded, brushing Arcanine's fur back and forth. "And there's something else. Something I need to tell you now."

"What?"

"It's about Hilda," Cheren started. "I know where she is."

Author's Note: I just want to say thanks for all of the reviews and everything you all sent on that last chapter. I certainly don't expect that sort of thing on every chapter, but I appreciate knowing that people are indeed reading this fic. Thanks, everyone!

Sorry to end the chapter like this, but on a happier note, at least Cheren's torment is done for a chapter or so (not that that's ambiguous at all…).