TOUKO'S .

I'm humming my favorite song of all time, Breakaway, as I skip cheerfully down the hallway. Sure, I'm in a hostile enemy castle, but I'm feeling pretty good. My Pokemon are healed and ready for more battling and there are no Plasma Grunts in sight. I have no clue how the rest of the rebellion are doing, but no news must be good news, right?

I hope so.

I convince myself that Brycen would, at the very least, take time to duck out of the battle and let me know if anyone has gotten hauled off to jail. And Bianca hasn't even got a Pokemon – which, I'll admit, is my fault because I never really had the time to catch her one yet – so she'd have all the time in the world to tell me important stuff.

So they must be okay. I seriously hope Touya – and everyone else, of course – are okay.

As I walk, I finger the Dark Stone in my pocket. It's as smooth as always, but I can't help wondering why it hasn't chosen me as its hero yet. I want to yell at it, but that would give away my position to any Grunts who might be lurking, and I don't want them to think I'm psycho for yelling at a stone. Plus, Zekrom might get pissed and decide not to ever come out at all.

If the legendary dragon Pokemon does think I'm the hero – which, you know, it probably should considering EVERYTHING I'VE DONE FOR UNOVA, COUGH COUGH – it really ought to hurry up and get the hell out of this stone. Just saying.

In the middle of my thoughts, I almost trip down a flight of stairs that head downward. Since I'm still on the ground level of the castle, I'm assuming these lead to the basement. Glancing over my shoulder to make sure no one is watching me, I head down the stairs.

The basement reminds me of Victory Road in a way. It's as dark and gloomy as the cave, that's for sure. The ridiculous coldness of the place makes me shiver involuntarily. I explore, rubbing my arms to give myself some friction.

Team Plasma has used this place as storage, it seems, and it's full of unworn Team Plasma uniforms and empty Pokeballs. I scoop some of them up and shove them into my purse, because we've run out of Pokeballs lately and you'll never know when you need one.

Suddenly, a door that's been built to blend into the wall catches my eye. It camoflagues pretty well, actually, and I wouldn't have noticed it if not for a little plaque that reads simply: SECRET DOOR. DO NOT ENTER.

I find this both amusing and incredibly stupid. Which is what I think about most of the Team Plasma Grunts and N, so it kind of makes sense that they would make their secret door so obvious. Ignoring the sign, I open the 'secret' door and enter the room.

Technically, the room could be counted as empty since there's really no furniture in it. All of the walls, however, are shelved all the way around all four walls, all the way up to the ceiling. On the shelves are lots of little locked chests.

I pull one off the shelf and easily pick the lock with a hair clip I borrowed from Bianca. It flips open, revealing that it's full to the brim with Pokeballs. But why would they have locked chests full of Pokeballs in a 'secret room' when they have other ones outside in the open?

Then it hits me. Of course! These Pokeballs actually have Pokemon inside them, whereas the others are empty. These are so much more valuable to the rebellion than the empty Pokeballs, so I pull them all out of my purse.

I'm about to place the Pokeballs with Pokemon in them into my purse, when I realize how easily they will be found when I get caught and searched – yeah, that's my secret plan to free all the other captives in this castle – so I replace all the empty Pokeballs into my purse.

I take a closer look at the little chest of full Pokeballs, and notice that this one is labeledICE. It takes me a second to realize that it means all the Pokemon in this chest are the ice type. I let out a laugh. Leave it to Team Plasma to make this so much easier for me!

Pulling more and more chests down from the shelves and unlocking them with Bianca's hair pin, I am careful to take one Pokeball out of each type's chest. Soon, I have a pile of thirteen Pokeballs, one of all the gym leader's and Elite Four's battling types, along with a Spiritomb Pokeball for Cynthia. She gets a Spiritomb because it isn't really weak to any type, and I have no idea what kind of Pokemon Cynthia prefers to battle with.

I take painstaking time to lock each chest and place it back exactly where I found it, so if any Plasma Grunt comes in here before the rebellion finishes what we've come here to do, they won't realize I've been here.

Then I pick up the pile of Pokeballs and shove them into my bra, along with the Dark Stone, because I can't have these things found and taken from me. There's no mirror around for me to look at, but I'm pretty sure my boobs just grew three sizes.

Cautiously, I head out of the 'secret room' and back up the stairs, so I'm on the ground floor. It's time for me to get caught.

N'S P.O.V.

"TOUKO!" I scream for the thousandth time, still pounding on the door. "TOUKO! OPEN THE DOOR!"

Finally, I'm too tired to bang anymore. I can't believe she actually locked me in here and then left like that. She's hot but heartless.

I slump down against the door and contemplate how long I'll be stuck here before someone opens the closet. Only the maids use it, and I think Ghetsis fired the last maid yesterday morning …

shit. Maybe Ghetsis will come look for me?

Not until after the rebellion gets out of here. He'll rant about me not being at the battle, but he won't send anyone to find me. No, I'm going to have to take matters into my own hands to get out of here. I back away to the far wall of the closet and brace myself – then charge right at the door.

Nothing happens except pain all over my body and I fall onto the floor. "Not trying THAT again," I mutter, wincing. So I go back to my original plan, though I've given up on Touko coming back here. "SOMEONE! HELP! IT'S ME, N!"

Surprisingly, someone actually opens the door. It's Anthea – I swear to Arceus that girl is stalking me. But who cares if she is or not, I've never been so grateful to see Anthea in my life.

"N?" she says, looking at me funny. "What are you doing in the supply closet?"

"Touko locked me in the closet," I reply with a small smile, as though it was a joke.

She looks like she wants to strangle Touko with her bare hands. "I guess that's what that bitch meant when she said not to expect you for a long time, then."

I step out of the closet, trying to look as dignified as I possibly can. Anthea follows me. "Do you want to come hang out with me in my room or something?" she asks hopefully. "You know, until Ghetsis gets the nasty rebels out of our castle."

"As the King of Team Plasma, it's my job to do that too," I tell her distractedly, trying to figure out which way Touko went. "And the rebels are people, not rats. We don't just get rid of them."

"Whatever," Anthea sniffs, stalking off back to her overly pink room. "Have fun with that, N."

I shrug after her. Girls are so hard to figure out. Then I head down the hallway towards the front entrance to the castle, just in case Touko went that way.

Over there, the first thing I do is trip over a dead guy. Wait – WHAT?!

I look down to see a Plasma Grunt, bleeding all over the lush carpeting. I nudge him with my foot, and make a face when he gets my shoe all bloody. "Are you okay, dude?"

The Grunt just groans in response. He looks as though he's just about bleeding to death.

"Okay, maybe not," I say. "What happened?"

Like before, the Grunt doesn't make any intelligible response. I sigh dramatically. "You need medical help, don't you? Alright, I'll just try and pick you up and … drag your bloody self to Anthea. She could help you ..."

I know on the inside though that Anthea won't want to touch this Grunt because he's covered in blood and looks 'gross'. You'd think we'd have a braver, nicer, smarter person as the official healer of Team Plasma, but Anthea is Ghetsis' niece. It explains a lot, doesn't it?

Instead, I try to fix the Grunt up myself, with my limited healing experience. I bandage up the wound on his leg, which is where all the bleeding comes from, but the bandages just end up soaked with blood and I haven't helped at all. I help the Grunt drink some water out of my plastic bottle, but I know in the long run, it won't save him.

"Do you … do you have a last wish or something?" I ask him finally. There's no sense in trying to help him anymore – I think both he and I know he's going to die. "I could help fulfill it … or something like that."

The Grunt doesn't say anything at all, not even making a noise. I guess I shouldn't have expected him to respond to that, considering he couldn't tell me if he was okay in the first place. "Never mind then."

On impulse, I bend down and pick his head up with my hands slowly. His eyes are glassy and his skin is pale and cold. I realize suddenly – he's dead. Horrified, I drop him completely and furiously wipe the deadness off my skin and onto my pants.

It doesn't make me feel any better.

There's nothing else I can do for this dead Grunt, so I turn around and run off down the hallway the way I came. It wouldn't be dignified or respectful for me to throw up all over this already drenched-in-blood dead body.

I try to force this horrible event out of my mind and instead focus on what's going on now. The rebellion is here, fighting in full force. I need to find Ghetsis and join him, back up the rest of Team Plasma and crush the rebellion.

I run faster, trying to figure out where the rebellion and Ghetsis could be.