WHY HELLO THERE LOVELY GUARDED READERS! I FINALLY updated this story after nearly 2 years! It's only Ginny writing for now, as Girrrl has taken a long break from the internet. This chapter is relatively short, but do not worry... I have plenty planned for future chapters.

Please review if you don't mind! Your reviews give me motivation!

Overwhelming thoughts ran through Black's head as he lay on the ground sobbing, a mixture of terror and fear and guilt washing over him all at once. It had all happened so fast... a hurtful argument somehow turned uglier than he could have imagined. N had been stolen from him so easily by his twisted father right in front of his eyes.

No, he realized through a throbbing headache. He was not stolen from him. N had gone willingly, putting up little to no resistance to Ghetsis's request. It was all Black's fault. He was the one that proved Ghetsis was right. If only he had been more patient, more understanding, more in control of his temper, N would have felt loved and secure. Instead, Black pushed him away with his big, arrogant mouth. How could he have expected N to react to being called crazy and selfish? Stupid, stupid, stupid...

Black felt broken. He didn't know what to do, where to go. He doubted he had the willpower to even move his legs. All he could feel was utter self-hatred.

The boy let himself flop onto his side, trying to take solace in the soft bristles of grass that tickled his cheek. It was hardly a comfort. After a long silence, Black lost the will and energy to cry any longer. His fingers pressed idly at his xtransceiver until he heard a familiar voice.

"Yeah?" Cheren asked over the device. Black did not look at the screen.

"Please come get me," he replied flatly. His voice held little emotion.

"Black? Are you all right?"

"Near the entrance to Victory. Please, Cheren."

"Black, what-"

The end button was pressed before his friend had time to finish his response. He probably worried Cheren with such a dramatic call. God, the least he could've done was mustered up the strength to tell him he was alright. What a despicable person he was, causing his closest companions such grief and pain.

There was no more will or energy left in his body. After all that had happened in such a short time, after the copious amount of cries and tears that seemed to sap the very life out of him, he was suddenly very tired. With a final sigh, Black closed his eyes and fell into a fitful sleep.

Black awoke in a familiar bed being shaken by his shoulder. His eyes shot open as he looked around the room, recognizing it as one of Alder's guest rooms. Immediately, he sat up.

"You're awake," Cheren said, seated next to him on a chair. Both his legs and arms were crossed tightly in an impatient posture. "Care to tell us what happened? And what happened to N?"

N. Black's eyes hazed over merely at the sound of his name.

"You gave us quite the scare, boy!" Alder called out from the entrance to the room. "You were out cold when we found you. Wouldn't wake up. We considered taking you to the hospital."

"N is gone," Black stated, ignoring Alder's statements. "Ghetsis came, and... N left with him."

"What?!" Alder's eyes widened. "Ghetsis is alive?!"

"He said he had been watching us for a while now..."

"I'm surprised he'd have the gall to show his face again, considering he is a wanted man."

"It's all my fault." Black covered his face with his hands, shielding the other two from seeing his tears. "I got in an argument with N, and Ghetsis came, and... if I hadn't been so selfish, I could've stopped it from ever happening. Now N is with Ghetsis... god knows what may have happened to him... and it's all because of me...!"

Cheren chewed on his bottom lip as he heard Black begin to sob. Alder, too, was silent. Both had expected something like this to happen, had even reached out to him to express their concerns. But neither had expected such a crippling reaction from their dear friend. Cheren especially felt sorrow hearing Black being so self-accusatory. But what could they possibly say to comfort him?

"I quit trying for the title of Champion," Black mumbled. "I quit being a trainer. I quit everything. I'm useless. N would rather go back to his father than to ever spend another moment with me. I'm lower in his eyes than his bastard of a father. N is n-"

"N is obviously confused," Cheren interrupted. "Seriously, Black, think for a second. You know N was mentally unstable. He isn't always capable of rational decisions."

"Don't say that about him!"

"Stop denying it and listen!" Cheren's furrowed expression was stern but not malicious. "You told be before that you'd be willing to do whatever it takes to make him happy. I doubted you back then, I really did. I thought it was a lost cause. But I've seen how much he has changed over these past few months, and I realize how dedicated you are to each other. There's no way all of that could be undone by some silly argument."

"And even so," Alder added, "the mental binds that man has over him are not easily broken. You remember what I told you a few months back? About his father? Those false philosophies and fantasies are deeply engrained. I'm sure you are aware of that. You just need to keep fighting against it, as hard as you can, like I know you are capable of. Are you going to let Ghetsis win this time around, or are you going to fight?"

Black remained quiet as their words sunk in. There was so much logic in what they were saying, but his self-loathing told him it would all be in vain.

"I just... don't have the energy to fight anything anymore."

"Black, listen to yourself!" Cheren stood up from his chair, tempted to grab his friend by the shirt collar. Instead, he crawled onto the bed, pulled Black's hands from his face and stared deeply into his eyes. As much as he didn't care for N, he knew he had to do this for Black. "You don't have the energy to fight for N? After fighting with me, fighting with Alder, fighting with all of N's demons, you seriously have no more energy to just go and talk to him? You're giving up on him that easily?"

"It's not a matter of talking to him, it's also Ghet-"

"You've beaten his ass before," Alder said with a hearty chuckle. "What is the worst that old man could do to you?

Black didn't want to say the things he knew Ghetsis was capable of. He figured the question was rhetorical. Still, it made him ponder. The worst Ghetsis could do to him? Maim him, torture him, kill him... all very real options in Black's mind.

But honestly... would that be any worse than a pitifully lonely life without N?

The brunette sighed heavily. The fog of depression clouding his reasoning seemed to be clearing up now. He felt his willpower slowly return.

"All right," Black said after a brief pause. "I owe it to him. I'll get him back, whatever the cost."

Cheren and Alder smiled as if victorious.