Turn 13: A Challenger Approaches

Location: Route 6

Time: 11:22 AM September 17th

Condition: Cloudy

Shirley was walking southward towards Driftveil City. She was smiling with confidence that everything was right in the world again. Chris watching carefully from the nearby cliffs wasn't quite so cheerful.

"How did I land this job?" He wondered to himself impatiently. "Just a few weeks ago I was one of the biggest names in the gang. Look at me now, reduced to watching some random chick to make sure she makes it home alright. Why does Lelouch even care?"

He heard a quiet and modest laugh coming from nearby. He turned around to see another cliff drop. Following the drop he saw a shadowy figure. He couldn't make out any distinguishable features about him as the sun was almost directly behind him. He could tell that he was wearing a cloak of some sort but that was it.

Chris was distracted when suddenly he heard a burst of flame shoot out. He turned to see that C-Sharp was under attack. Everything went black when suddenly felt pressure on his face. He didn't know it but the figure jumped from the ledge right on top of him, knocking him unconscious. "Your kind is so very weak."

Shirley was almost to Driftveil City; it should be just beyond this next path. As she continued she got an alarming feeling. She felt as though she was being watched, or followed. When she'd turn to look there was nothing there, but that was part of what made it so eerie to her. Normally there would be some sort of pokémon rustling around in the grass, wind flowing, something, but nothing was there.

It seemed as if the world around her had suddenly become perfectly still and it was unnerving to say the least. But suddenly as if from nowhere she heard a loud noise and she ran as fast as she could towards Driftveil fearing the worst.

She looked back to see if anything was chasing her and it looked like something was heading her direction from the tall grass she just couldn't see it. She looked ahead a moment too late as she noticed some guy in front of her. She tried to stop but it was too late. She rammed into him with tremendous force. He seemed fine, however, she was knocked back right into the ground.

"Ow." She rubbed her head.

"Oh I'm so sorry." He had a kind and gentle sounding voice. She looked up to see a man wearing a white poncho over a black hoodie with the hood up obscuring her view of his face. He wore gray pants and seemed to have some sort of cube hanging from one of the loops of his pants. She could see a necklace escaping the man's dark hood. He warmly reached out a hand to offering her help up.

"No, no, it's my fault; I should have paid more attention to where I was going." Shirley insisted taking his hand. He pulled her up.

"Well I wasn't harmed so there's really no need." He told her.

"Thanks for the help up anyways. I've got to go." Shirley said beginning to walk away. As she did so, however, she realized that she couldn't move any further.

She turned to see the man was still holding her hand and rather tightly too, it was sort of painful. She grew concerned when suddenly a cruel looking smile appeared from under his dark hood. "You know where Lelouch is, don't you?"

"So what do you think?" N asked.

"It's incredible, what's it called?" CC asked scarfing down another slice.

"You really have been trapped in there for hundreds of years, what a shame." N began. "We call it pizza, although I have to say that this wasn't really my best attempt."

"You made this?" CC blinked at him.

"Of course, it wouldn't be a special treat if it wasn't special in some way. This is how I've always celebrated with my friends." N told her.

"Friends?" CC turned away returning to her lethargic face. She wasn't unfamiliar with the word, it was just something that she didn't really believe in anymore.

"Yeah, friends. You can't tell me you've never had a friend before." N said. "I know for a fact that isn't a modern invention."

"How?" CC asked him.

Now N was blinking at her. "What do you mean?"

"How do you know that friend isn't just some modern invention? What makes you say there's anyone in the world that could really be called friend?" CC asked flopping over into the curve of the ramp they were sitting on.

"Well you're my friend, zorua's my friend, zorua's also your friend. We're all friends, striving for a beautiful wonderful dream." N said. "Don't you think that we're friends?"

"That sounds more like allies in some warfront. As soon as the war is over we'll all forget about each other and go our separate ways." CC told him.

"That's a depressing way of looking at things." N said.

"It's true though." CC told him.

"Okay then, if we're not friends then I guess that I'm not sharing my pizza with you." N shrugged.

"What?" CC sat up in outrage.

"But now I'm all lonely, who am I going to share this pizza with?" N was obviously trying to goad her into taking back what she said.

"You can't be serious." CC said.

"Totally serious. I guess I'll just have to eat this pizza all alone with no friends." N toke a slice and started eating it. "My, even though it's all melted and warm, it just feels so cold when I'm eating it alone. If Only I had someone to share this wonderful, delicious, melty, pizza with. You know like a friend."

"You can eat it with me." CC told him. She was trying not to sound like a beggar.

"Yeah, but pizza is a food you share with friends. If you're not a friend I might as well eat it alone." N insisted.

"Well," CC's face started turning sort of pink. "I'm your friend."

"That's right. We're the best of friends." N told her while handing the plate of pizza over to her. She started eating a slice. N gave an embarrassed smile. "Although if you keep eating it like that we're going to need to make more pizza."

"Natural Harmonia!" The harsh voice of Ghetsis reached their ears. He stomped into the room, his long cloak trailing behind him. "What are you doing here? Goofing off again?"

"Well, CC and I were just celebrating sir." N shot straight up.

"Celebrating?" Ghetsis barked. "Honestly N, you should be focusing on more important things then slacking off. Not only that, but you've dragged Zekrom into your little game too. You're supposed to be the King of Team Plasma, the least you could do is act the part."

"She doesn't like that name." N almost stuttered.

"What?" Ghetsis leaned in as if he didn't hear him.

"I said her name is CC not Zekrom." N told him.

"CC, what kind of name is that? Now stop playing around and get to work." Ghetsis told him.

"Yes sir." N muttered under his breath.

Rosa sat up in her chair awaiting the tea to heat up on the stove. She smiled quaintly while whistling a little bit.

Rosa took out a few cups in preparation for when the tea would be ready. She was a little reluctant to accept her current assignment at first but it was sort of nice to kick back and relax for a while. "CC seems ill as of late. While I'm out training the new recruits I need you watch over her?" She recollected Lelouch's words to her before leaving.

It was sort of odd being asked to sit around and watch over Lelouch's Mistress. Lelouch's Mistress is the term Chris originally coined to describe CC to the recruits and it caught on rather quickly as a result. Lelouch didn't keep tabs on anyone nearly as much as he does on her, and she didn't even have any recognizable purpose either. She just stands by him like some enigmatic mistress. Lelouch personally dislikes this nickname and CC would probably protest it too if she ever spoke.

In all this time, the entire two days she's had this assignment Rosa hasn't even so much as heard a peep out of her. Although her condition seemed to only worsen as the days went by. When she suggested they go see a doctor or something, Lelouch rather loudly responded. "Absolutely not!" He never explained why.

She looked over at CC who was lying quietly on the couch asleep. She seemed to be breathing heavily which made her question exactly what Lelouch's reasoning is for not letting her see a doctor or at least a nurse of some kind, even a poké-center nurse would do fine.

Rosa took the tea off the burner and started to pour some for herself. She heard a noise and saw that CC was awake. "Oh you're awake, you want some tea?" She offered politely. CC didn't speak she simply gave a slight nod.

Under normal circumstances she might have attributed her silence to just being in her nature but the way she was now, she wouldn't blame someone for not speaking. She poured some more tea and took the cup over to CC.

"Can you drink by yourself?" Rosa asked. It wasn't too long ago that she was too sick to even drink by herself. CC nodded signifying that she could and Rosa handed it to her after she sat up. Her skin was cold as ice, that couldn't be a good sign. "Do you need anything else?"

CC just shook her head before taking a sip. Rosa headed back to the kitchen and grabbed her own cup. She took a sip of the tea she poured for herself before she heard a soft clumping sound. She turned around to see that CC had accidentally dropped the cup.

"Are you okay?" Rosa walked up with a towel to clean up the tea. CC looked a little shaken up. Rosa helped her into a laying position. "Maybe you should just lie down for now."

"No." CC told her. "You need to tell Lelouch."

"You can talk?" Rosa almost feinted it was so shocking.

"Listen, you need to tell Lelouch something terrible is coming." CC commanded her.

"But." Rosa was still caught on the novelty of hearing CC speak.

"Go!" She commanded.

"Fine, En you stay here and watch over her." Rosa started out of the building. Slamming the door behind her she ran as fast as she could and almost slid across the wet grass before heading towards Route 8 where everyone else was. She wasn't sure about disobeying Lelouch's direct command but CC seemed intent on getting that vague piece of information to Lelouch plus En was there.

She almost slid on some water as she rushed over to the Icirrus Moor. It didn't take her very long before she finally found Lelouch. She ran up to him. Before she could speak Lelouch had noticed her presence.

"Rosa?" He didn't seem pleased. "What are you doing here?"

"It's CC, she needs you." Rosa said.

"What?" Lelouch seemed confused now.

"Come on!" Rosa grabbed his hand and started pulling his in the direction of the city. By the time they made it back they were both panting. "Rosa wait outside."

Lelouch opened the door, CC looked horrible. He walked up to her side and closed the door behind him before he clasped her hand in his "What's going on?" Lelouch asked her.

"It's N, he's here." CC told him.

"How do you know, I thought you couldn't sense his location anymore?" Lelouch asked.

"No I said I couldn't pinpoint his exact location, but he is in this vicinity." CC explained.

"Is he dangerous?" Lelouch asked.

"Well." A third voice intruded into their conversation. "Not if you don't give me what's mine first."

Lelouch and CC followed the sound to see a man heavily dressed in a white poncho and black hoodie. His hood was down revealing his lime green hair tied into a long scruffy looking ponytail. He had a calm smile that almost seemed emotionless which seemed to match his soulless gray eyes quite well. The necklace he wore seemed to have a Bisharp pendent on it.

"I presume you're N then?" Lelouch glared at him.

"I see my reputation precedes me. Yes it is me, N." He introduced himself while flipping his hair.

"What do you want?" Lelouch asked.

"I simply want what's mine." He explained with a cruel grin growing on his lips before he finished. "Lulu..."

Lelouch's eyes widened at the sound of the name. Only one person called him by that name. "I swear to god if you lay a finger on her…"

"Or you'll what? Take my organization? my pokémon? my underling? my respect? Or perhaps all the above." His demeanor became more jagged and angered. He then sighed letting go of his anger and pulled back his hair as if to regain his calm. "Don't worry I haven't done anything to either Chris, C-Sharp or even Shirley for that matter... yet."

"I'll give you anything." Lelouch told him.

"CC, that's all I ask for." N explained.

"But." Lelouch's whole body shuttered. He couldn't really hand over his most valuable asset.

"Don't worry I'll make it easy on you. Bring CC to me at the Dragonspiral Tower before this time tomorrow and I'll trade you for them. Fail to do so and they're miserable little lives will be cut short." N explained. He walked into the shadows of the room and disappeared as if into thin air.

Lelouch weighed the possibilities before he felt something cold smooth wrap around his hand. It was CC's hand; she was looking up at him. Her whole body was shaking as if with fear. "You can't let him take me Lelouch." She was pleading to him.

"I don't think I really have a choice." Lelouch glared into space.

Author's Notes: Eh, sorry everyone something came up so it took me a while to get these chapters done. Plus not a whole lot actually happened the last couple chapters, I apologize for that too. But they were still important and will have some importance later.