When Annie bid farewell to Anthea and Concordia, she expected the Shadow Triad to be waiting for her on the other side of the door, ready to whisk her away to wherever N was waiting. However, as she stepped out into the bright hallway, she found it empty. She heard the sounds of battle still raging downstairs, but this floor was deserted. After a few minutes of waiting, she decided to continue her journey through the castle alone.
She peered into the open doorways of rooms she passed. Most looked bare, just white wainscoting and the occasional table and chairs. In the third room she passed, she locked eyes with a group of grunts in their knight uniforms. She expected them to challenge her to battle, but they simply turned back to whatever conversation they were having.
'They were expecting me,' she realised. It was a strange feeling, walking through the castle after that. She felt like an apparition, wandering through the mortal world unseen. Of course, they could see her, but they just let her pass through.
She continued on, peeking into rooms, being ignored by the grunts she found there. She ascended more flights of stairs, looking out of the windows as she rose higher into the castle. From up here, the view of Unova stretched far into the distance and the city lights had begun to twinkle as evening set in.
The next room she peeked in was different than the others. It looked like a lab, although something about it felt very wrong. There was a dismal energy about it. The walls were the same white wainscotting that the rest of the castle had and the lab equipment... Well, it looked like somebody had eaten a laboratory and thrown it back up. Half-made machines filled the space like carcasses, their wires spilling out onto the floor. Every surface was covered in tools, electrical components, and pieces of screwed up paper.
Annie stepped into the room, despite her better judgement. She approached the cluttered desk, where the lamp had been left on. She glanced at the open notebook and nearly disregarded it as indecipherable scientific jargon, until she saw her name.
'It must be another Annie,' she thought, leaning closer. Most of the writing was indeed indecipherable scientific jargon – calculations, formulas, words she didn't know – but below her name was another name... Ariados. 'Another Annie with an Ariados, then.' she thought doubtfully.
As she studied the pages, she found what looked to be Ariados' entire moveset, along with a 'hypothesis' for Frosmoth's too. Beyond that, there was nothing else she understood, but the data sprawled on for ten pages, each titled: Annie.
A further twenty pages were titled: Annie's Galvantula.
Her stomach dropped as she realised whose lab this was.
"Well, that's deeply unsettling." Annie muttered, closing the notebook. She turned to leave, eager to get as far away from the dismal lab as possible, but another door caught her eye. None of the other rooms she had been in had a second room leading off from them, but this one did. Her thoughts flickered to Galvantula trapped in that bell jar at the observatory. As much as she wanted to get out of that horrible place, she had to check that other room. If this was Colress' lab, there could be a Pokémon in there, hurt and trapped.
'Call me Team Plasma because if I find a Pokémon in there, I'm liberating the hell out of it.' Annie thought decidedly as she approached the adjoining room.
Her worries had been unnecessary though, because all she found was a bedroom – if you could call it that. The room was entirely empty, save for a single, lone mattress. For a moment she felt sorry for him. Somehow the empty bedroom was even more dismal than the lab. But as she thought of Galvantula once more, she forced out a laugh.
"Guess they blew the budget on the architecture." she scoffed, before returning to the corridor.
The castle felt endless. The halls were so long, she couldn't see the ends of them. She began skipping rooms – most were empty anyway. Somewhere above her, N was waiting. Her detective work was beginning to feel like procrastination.
The final room she decided to check was at the very end of a corridor. She nearly walked past it, until she noticed the padlock. Or at least, a bracket where a padlock had been.
'Locked from the outside?' she thought, curiosity getting the better of her. She stepped into the room expecting a caged Pokémon or some mysterious artifacts – something that needed to be locked away. The last thing she was expecting was a child's bedroom.
It was a beautiful bedroom with bright walls and a cloud-print carpet. Colourful boxes of brand-new toys lined the walls and a huge half-pipe took up the back half of the room. A plane on a string swung from the ceiling and a trainset sprawled out on the floor, the little train buzzing softly as it made its way around the circuit. It looked as if the owner of the room had been playing until just moments ago. Annie felt a little guilty as she walked around, like she might mess up an ongoing game if she knocked something over.
She picked up a worn-out basketball that lay on the floor beneath the hoop. A single word was scrawled on it: Harmonia.
A cold, sinking feeling washed over her and she felt the need to leave, even stronger than she had in the lab. This was not a child's bedroom. It may have been once, but not anymore.
She didn't look in any more rooms after that.
The top floor of the castle was different than the rest. A strip of gently burbling water ran the length of the corridor, ending in a small fountain. There was only one door. Annie wished she hadn't looked in any rooms. No amount of tranquil water features could ease the cold dread she felt as she approached that last door.
Her hand hovered over the door handle, visibly shaking, when suddenly, the door opened on its own. Ghetsis stepped out, walking toward her with an unyielding presence. She staggered back, narrowly avoiding her toes being trodden on.
"Welcome, holder of the Light Stone," he said, a dark smile curling on his lips.
"Evening, Harmonia," she managed, her voice shaking slightly. She could feel the Light Stone heavy in her bag, a talisman of responsibility.
"The castle that appeared as if it were enveloping the Pokémon League is a symbol. It means Unova will change." Ghetsis' smile was uninhibited, the smile of a man who knew he'd already won. Annie suppressed a shiver.
She straightened, forcing her fear down. "I like Unova how it is."
Ghetsis gave a gravelly laugh, stepping closer. "The king of this castle is the strongest trainer in the world. He is accompanied by a legendary Pokémon. He has defeated the Champion. Added to all that, his heart burns with the desire to improve the world." His voice grew more fervent with each word. "If that's not what makes a hero, what more do you need?"
"There are two heroes. N may be one, but I'll be the other," Annie proclaimed confidently, although she was sure that the shake in her hands betrayed her.
"We will see about that," Ghetsis said with an amused look. "Now that the stage is set, we can seize people's minds and hearts. We can bring into being the world that I - no, that Team Plasma - desires more easily than you can imagine! We, and only we, will use Pokémon, and we shall rule the powerless populace!"
"I will stop you," Annie said, her voice stronger this time, even though her legs felt like they may give way at any moment. She couldn't stop thinking about the room downstairs, that bedroom full of toys. It wasn't just about battling now. She had to do as N wanted - put her beliefs on the line and prove her convictions were stronger.
"I've been waiting so long for this," Ghetsis went on, eye gleaming. "I've kept my silence so no one could piece together what I planned. Now, those painful days are at an end!"
Annie's stomach twisted at his words. The damage he'd caused to so many people, the lies, the schemes... Everything came back to him.
Ghetsis took one final step forward, forcing Annie to step back again, stumbling as her heel caught against the cold marble tiles. "Go! Onward!" he commanded, his voice booming now. "Discover whether you have what it takes to be a hero!"
Annie glared at him as she waited for him to move aside, but he did not. It was just one more cruel game that he expected her to walk around him to reach the door.
"Go, holder of the Light Stone!" Ghetsis snarled impatiently. "In this room, you can learn whether you, too, can be a hero!"
She shot him one more disgusted look before storming around him and yanking open the door. He turned and watched her enter, a terrifying smile lighting up just one side of his wretched face.
Annie stepped through the towering door, and she let out a small gasp as she entered the throne room. It was massive, grander than anything she had imagined, and yet there was that same feeling of hollowness, like a film set. The floor beneath her feet gleamed with the same polished white marble that lined the halls, but here it shimmered with golden flecks, reflecting the soft light from the countless flickering sconces that lined the walls.
To her left and right, a vast, glittering pool stretched the length of the room, its surface undisturbed like glass. It mirrored the high ceiling, giving the illusion of endless space, as if the room went on forever. On the edges of the pool, polished statues of ancient Pokémon loomed, their reflective eyes gleaming coldly. A machine, big and boxy, sat at the edge of the water. It looked particularly ugly set against the polished stone and marble.
Annie's gaze turned forward to the long, carpeted aisle leading to the throne. The aisle was wide, designed for grandeur and spectacle. It was more than enough space to battle, though the thought of what was about to unfold here sent a shiver down her spine.
And there, at the very end of the aisle, sat N.
He was poised on the throne, his plain clothes a stark contrast to his regal surroundings. But even in his dirty sneakers and black cap, he had the presence of a king. His long green hair fell like a waterfall over his shoulders, his expression serene yet distant, as though he had been waiting for this moment for centuries.
His eyes met hers and he held her gaze for a moment before he spoke.
"What I desire is a world for Pokémon, and Pokémon alone. I will separate Pokémon from people, so Pokémon can regain their original power." he spoke, his voice slower than usual. He wanted to make sure she heard every word. "It's time to settle this once and for all! My determination is absolute! I will prove the value of my beliefs even if it means my Pokémon friends get hurt! Since you've come this far, I believe you are equally determined. If that's so, prove it to me! Show me the depth of your determination!"
Annie swallowed hard, her footsteps echoing loudly as she began her march down the aisle. He arose from the throne in a slow, deliberate motion. As they walked toward each other, Annie pulled the Light Stone from her bag.
"Reshiram, please hear me," she whispered to it. "Please lend me your strength. I need you to fight alongside me. I need you to choose me as your hero."
Nothing.
N watched silently as Annie continued, her voice growing desperate.
"Please... Reshiram, I need you. I came this far... I fought so hard, believing I could do this. Believing I could be the hero. Don't ignore me now. I can't do this without you."
The stone remained cold and still in her hands, an inanimate object. The silence pressed down on her, a weight she couldn't shake. Each second that passed felt like an eternity, and with every heartbeat, the realization sank deeper: Reshiram wasn't responding. She wasn't chosen.
Her knees buckled slightly, and she caught herself before collapsing, blinking back tears. Her hands trembled uncontrollably as she held the Light Stone, her knuckles white against the smooth, ancient surface.
'I'm not the hero. I never was.'
N stood quietly a few steps away, his expression unreadable, though something in his eyes softened as he watched her struggle. He said nothing, giving her the space to try, to fight for the recognition she so desperately wanted. But the stillness between them felt deafening, punctuated only by her ragged breaths.
Annie's mind raced, flashes of everything she had endured to reach this moment flooding her thoughts. She had believed, deep down, that somehow this stone – Reshiram – would recognize her. That in the end, her doubts wouldn't matter. But now, standing here in the glittering opulence of the throne room, her worst fear was playing out before her.
She had failed.
"Reshiram..." her voice was small, barely audible as she clutched the stone against her chest. "Please..."
As she quietly begged the unresponsive stone, the sound of Ghetsis' cruel laughter echoed from the corridor behind her. Tears pricked at her eyes as she tried to ignore it, but it felt like it was in her own skull. N finally stepped forward, his voice soft but unwavering.
"You came all this way to battle me…" he said, his quiet words like a knife in her heart, "But Reshiram is not responding. You haven't yet been recognized as the hero, have you?"
His words echoed the very doubt that had haunted her all along, now laid bare in this final, heart-wrenching moment. She was here, at the last hurdle, and somehow she had fallen short.
"How disappointing. I actually kind of liked you a little. Through our many battles, I got the feeling that you might be a trainer who truly cares for Pokémon!" N continued, "But I was kidding myself. The idea of trainers getting to know each other through battles is ridiculous! You have two options. Challenge me to a fight you can't win or leave this place and watch the birth of a new world where Pokémon are free of people!"
Two options. Annie felt pathetic standing in front of him with just a cold stone orb. She had seen Zekrom. It wasn't just a Pokémon... It was a deity. Sending Ariados out to battle it would be pointless and stupid. N would think her cruel for sacrificing her friend for the sake of her ego. And he would be right.
But then, she couldn't just turn around either.
This was her dream. She had to stop Team Plasma. Her hand fell to Genesect's ball clipped to her belt.
"I will battle you," she said, taking a shaky breath. "I may not be the hero, but I will battle you and I will stop Team Plasma!"