n harmonia.

[nharmonium-blog]

trainerhilly.

     Reshiram rolled their eyes and scoffed. “Feh. You still deny the truth, even now?” The dragon stalked forward a step, its upper lip curling back in a sneer. “You’ve always been our weaker half, but not even I dared to think you would lie.”

     There was silence for a moment. Not even the Venipede, which had sensed the presence of the two gods, dared make a sound. They sat cowering in the bushes, watching the dragons’ exchange in breathless terror. Then, the momentary quiet was broken by Reshiram shooting forward. Faster than a bullet and more precise than a skilled marksman, they curled their hand around Zekrom’s throat, shoved it back against a tree, and said in a chilling whisper:

     “We both know you don’t care about who gets hurt, so long as you leave victorious.” Reshiram crept close to their enemy’s ear. “So don’t lie, sibling. Not again.” Their grip tightened slowly like a turning vice, only to suddenly freeze. With a gasp, Reshiram dropped their hand from Zekrom’s throat.

     “No,” they hissed, a thin stream of smoke rising from their mouth. “Go back to sleep, Hero. Let me deal with this–” Reshiram stopped, choking, and dropped to their knees. They clutched their head in their hands so tightly it almost burst. How can this be? they thought wildly. No mortal should be able to out-will me!

     Squeezing their eyes shut, they threw back their head and let a burst of fire fly from their lips. When their eyes next opened, they were no longer blue, but brown. Hilbert coughed, grabbing his chest in pain. There was ash in his lungs and his lips were scorched.

     And yet, he still managed to look up at Zekrom. He said nothing, but he didn’t need to, because his grievous expression said it all.

     If Zekrom felt any fear, it did not show it. With a composed and calm expression, it choked out, “I do not care what it is that you think of me, sibling. I simply do not want to begin this battle prematurely. Now is not the time.” 

     A hush drew over the clearing. Reshiram’s hand froze and fell away. Zekrom sucked in a breath of air, watching the spectacle before it in complete silence, surprised that it had won so easily. Its eyes sparkled with something then, a realization. Its lips curled up at the corners, not taking its eyes off of the beaten Reshiram, slowly losing their control to their Hero.

     Zekrom reached up to feel its throat, making no reaction as it pressed its fingers to the bruises there. It would leave those up to N to deal with. Noticing that Hilbert had regained control, Zekrom took a step toward him.

     “You, boy. You are strong. I see that Reshiram has chosen a quite worthy Hero,” Zekrom said in its deep, raspy voice. It grinned wickedly. “I suppose this will be much more interesting than I had thought. However, I did not lie when I said that now was not the time. May we meet again.” 

     Its eyes began flickering between red and green. Then, green consumed red, and N, given control once more, stood still, staring down at Hilbert, eyes wide, horror painted clearly on his features. As he tried to take in a breath of air, his face contorted in pain, and his legs shook. The wind blew, and N lost his already precarious balance, collapsing into the grass. 

     “Hilbert...” the king gasped, trying and failing to lift his head. “Hilbert, are—” A fit of coughing overtook his body. Once it passed, he started again. “Hilbert, are you...okay...?”

[nharmonium-blog]

trainerhilly.

     Hilbert slept fitfully; he tossed, turned, and curled his hands in distress. The blue eyes followed him everywhere while he dreamt, unwilling to let him escape their fiery gaze. The time is now, boy, said the owner of the eyes. Can’t you see it? Lightning is standing before you, as weak as he’s ever been!

     Squeezing his eyes shut, Hilbert tried to will the apparition away. But they would not go and he was far too drained to make them–so instead, they slipped behind his eyelids, burning his retinas with their brilliance. 

     Fool! they then spat. If you won’t fulfill your half of the deal, then I shall do it for you!

     Suddenly, Hilbert’s body stilled. No longer was he sleeping restlessly; now, he was sleeping soundly, spellbound by the blue-eyed apparition who then claimed his body for their own. A fanged smile overcame the face they had stolen, turning it unrecognizable.

     A pair of luminous blue eyes opened in the place of keen brown ones, smoldering like embers in the darkened night.

     “How-dy,” the apparition, Reshiram, said in their own cold, mocking voice. Some time in-between smiling and speaking, they had crossed the patch of grass which separated them from N so that they could stand before him, looming. “Things are about to heat up,” they then continued with a strange glint in their eyes. “Are you ready for the challenge, Hero of Ideals? Because I promise you this: it will be your toughest plight yet!”

     N was breathing heavily, his hands shaking. What was he to do? He knew that Team Plasma was not where he belonged, but what other option did he have? Zekrom was simply playing on his uncertainty, and N knew it. But it was so convincing. He belonged with Team Plasma. He was nothing more than a pawn, and destined to be so.

     As Reshiram’s shadow was cast over him, N tilted his head up, just enough to meet its eyes. “...Hilbert?” he barely whispered, the word echoing in his head. The words that Reshiram spoke simply whizzed right past him; he did not hear them.

     Suddenly, a hiss of anger sounded in the back of N’s head. “That’s not your Hero, imbecile!” Sharp pain shot down N’s spine like lightning. He hunched over, whimpering, and then his body began to shake. His eyes glazed over, and slowly changed into a blood red color. N’s body stood, and met Reshiram’s gaze with its own.

     “I see what you’re trying to do here,” Zekrom growled. “I do not have time for your meddling with my Hero. He’s enough work as it is.

     “I think maybe it would be best for the both of us if you just stopped what you’re doing right now, so that nobody gets hurt, hm? This fight is between you and me. Not these two humans.”

[nharmonium-blog]

@trainerhilly.

     The wind whistled through the trees. “What do you think you’re doing?” a voice in the back of N’s head whispered to him. “Don’t you know that Plasma Castle is your home? Isn’t Team Plasma your family? What about everything you wanted?” The king’s hands slid up the sides of his face, and pressed against his ears as if it would help.

     No. No. No.

[nharmonium-blog]

trainerhilly.

     Hilbert’s breath caught in his throat. This was so different from what usually transpired between them, because it was unlike any of their battles or moral-arguments. Indeed, the air was not tense; instead, it was calm. Hilbert’s mind reeled, trying desperately to understand, while N traipsed deeper into the misty woods.

     Searching, Hilbert scanned N’s face. But there was nothing there but worry lines and determination. His eyes fell from the king’s face, down to his odd, rubix-cube-like necklace.

     What in Arceus’ name is goin’ on here, he thought to himself, and why’ve things changed? Tentatively, Hilbert rested his weary head against N’s shoulder. Then he closed his eyes and decided quite finally, It don’t really matter, now does it? We’d still be here whether I knew or not.

     All of a sudden, there was air whistling by his ears. Hilbert’s eyes snapped open and widened to the size of dinner plates. The ground was coming up on him–fast. Hurriedly, the hero grabbed N, who was also falling but appeared to be much slower to react than him, and shielded his impact with the ground by using his own body. Hilbert’s back hit the dirt first, followed closely by his head. Stars popped in front of his eyes, blinding him for a second, but he never let go of N.

     Once his vision cleared, his grip loosened on N. Then, he choked, staring wide-eyed at the king whose face was pressed flush against his chest.

     Hilbert’s hands hovered in the air over N’s back, unsure of what to do until they suddenly jolted into action, grabbing his notepad and rapidly scratching down a note: Oh, lordy. I’m mighty sorry, partner–I didn’t mean it, I swear…! But as it turned out, Hilbert was too startled to actually coordinate properly, and so he ended up chucking the note over N’s head instead of into his hand.

     W… Whoopsie-daisy. ε=ε=ε=ε=ε” “(/*’-‘*)/

     This surely had not gone as planned. Not even in the slightest bit. After thirty seconds of lying on Hilbert, stunned, N scrambled up, grasping at leaves to pull himself up. “Sorry!” the king offered up, his face stop-light red. “I-I didn’t mean to, I mean, I, uh!” 

     It wasn’t very often that N got that close to someone, if it ever happened at all. So, to make up for the former closeness, he retreated as far away from Hilbert as he could while still keeping the hero in sight. 

     Talk about grace under pressure.

     After a minute, N piped up. “Uh. You didn’t get hurt, did you?”

     Alex trotted over to Hilbert and sniffed at his face. “Woah, buddy, yer awful red. Y’ doin’ okay?”

[nharmonium-blog]

trainerhilly.

     Hilbert sucked in a big gulp of air, curled his fingers around a vine, and then dragged himself to his feet. He leaned heavily against the tree whose root he’d tripped over. While peering through the 2 AM mist, Hilbert strained his ears for any sign of N. But the woods were quiet; the only sound for miles were that of the bug Pokemon, their chirping ringing through the forest like an out-of-tune cacophony.

     Suddenly, a twig snapped. Hilbert’s head whipped around so fast that his neck cracked. A shadowy figure then appeared between two large oaks, so the hero slid down the tree to sit on the forest floor. He was surprised Team Plasma had followed him this far out into the forest. Then again, they were pretty nuts. Nuttier than his auntie’s walnut cream pie, in fact! But if they had managed to track him down, they had surely managed to find N, too.

     The bugs quieted down. Hilbert shook his head in response, almost grinning. N was smart, too smart to be ensnared by a couple of Grunts; he’d make it out all right.

     The shadowy figure drew nearer. Hilbert held his head high and put one hand on his belt, preparing to throw Sweetart’s PokeBall at his pursuer’s face. But his hand quickly fell, and his eyes lost their uncharacteristically cold look. Now, a smile stretched across his face. His injured ankle at the back of his mind, he began to rise to his feet, only to fall right back down again, gasping in pain.

     Well, that sure hurt like a Taurus on a Tuesday, he thought while gritting his teeth. I reckon I gone and hurt it more, now–

     Hilbert froze, his thoughts coming to an abrupt halt. Every muscle in his body stiffened, from his toes to his nose. He looked up–slowly, almost as if in disbelief–at N, who was now holding him and looking like he had every intention of carrying him through the rest of the forest.

     Red exploded across his face, turning his skin into a ripe tomato peeling. The hero thrust his hand into his pocket, took out his notepad and pen, and then wrote down a single sentence: Whoa there, I don’t wanna cause ya any trouble, alright? Hilbert practically smacked N in the face with the note once he finished scrawling it, he was so embarrassed.

     …Hell, if his heart were beating any faster he was sure it would sound like a song from one of those frilly animoos, or whatever they were called…

     N tried to get a good look at the note that Hilbert had scrawled, crossing his eyes in the process and still not managing to read it properly. Alex grabbed it in his mouth, and held it up in front of N’s face. The king snickered, actually looking maybe a little happy to be carrying Hilbert.

     “Oh, no,” he mumbled, “don’t worry, it’s no trouble.” This was, of course, untrue; his feet were aching, he had several cuts from thorns and branches, and he was, honestly, exhausted. But it was the least he could do for Hilbert, after he caused him all this trouble.

     N took a wobbly step forward, and then two, heading into the forest. But he didn’t continue that way for long; the root sticking out of the forest floor was obscured from his vision by the hero in his arms, and N’s foot caught under it. 

     Both he and Hilbert were sent flying.

     Now, I know what you’re thinking: This is just going to turn into one of those token shoujo scenes where one of them ends up on top of the other, right? Well, guess what? If you thought that, you were exactly right!

     The king blinked down at the hero beneath him. His face burned bright red, and he opened his mouth to apologize, but his hand slipped on the damp leaves on the forest floor. And it was just his luck to fall face-first onto Hilbert’s chest.

     Well, shit.

     Cue Alex snickering somewhere in the background.

[nharmonium-blog]

trainerhilly.

     Hilbert ran until his lungs burned and his legs gave out, but even as he tumbled to the forest floor, he kept moving. He’d let go of N’s hand a while ago, fearing he might slow him down, so now he dug at the vines and gnarled roots on the floor of the deep forest with both his hands. His arms shook when he pushed himself up, but he had only one thought on his mind: Run. 

     There would be no more running though, much to the hero’s dismay. A terrible pain shot up his leg from his ankle, searing all the way up to his thigh. Hilbert immediately dropped back down into the dirt. He had gotten up on his elbows just fine, but once he put a bit of weight on his left foot–

     Shaking from exhaustion, Hilbert grit his teeth. Tears sprang into his eyes, but he had one more thing to do before he could let them fall.

     He had to make sure N was all right. Or at least, not dead.

     Hilbert had pulled ahead of N some time ago, and the king was beginning to get a little worried. His hands shook and his head spun. Which way was right and which was left again? Hilbert. He needed to find Hilbert. Fuck directions.

     “Alex. Can you smell him?” N asked the Purrloin. 

     “Uh, yeah, I bet I can get ‘im. Hold on.” Alex jumped down to the forest floor and sniffed for a moment. “Yep, definitely. Follow me.”

     After walking for five minutes or so, the pair came to a patch of forest that was very obviously disheveled. And there, somewhere near the middle, was Hilbert.

     “Hilbert?” N approached the hero, standing beside him and looking him over. N’s gaze caught on Hilbert’s twisted ankle, and he frowned. “Well, that won’t get us anywhere.” The king crouched down, and very unceremoniously scooped Hilbert off of the ground and into his arms.

     “Um. I hope this is all right,” N mumbled, his cheeks flushed faintly red. Alex hopped up into N’s hair again, snickering into his ear, “Somebody ‘ere is gay, and I think it’s you!”

[nharmonium-blog]

trainerhilly.

     Hilbert raised an eyebrow. He had seen N do weird things before, like scream about Pokemon liberation. But he had never seen him fling himself out of a window before, so… he was more than a little worried. Maybe N’s finally been taken up by the loony bin, he thought to himself. Bein’ cooped up in this here castle prolly ain’t good for anyone’s brains, t’be straight with ya…

     Gumball floated out the window with Hilbert following closely behind. But the hero never got as far as his Pokemon did–while he was crawling over the window sill, his sneaker was snagged by a Plasma Grunt. She was wearing a strange pair of red goggles that reflected Hilbert’s should-be-invisible outline on their lenses. “Heh,” she said, smirking. “Got’cha, brat.” She began to pull Hilbert back inside, her long nails digging into the flesh of his ankle with little remorse.

     But Hilbert was already in battle-mode–he pushed his surprise away and then wrenched his leg away from the woman with a surprising amount of strength. (Or perhaps, not surprising at all, considering how he spent most of his time doing hard labor on his parent’s farm.) The Plasma Grunt squeaked in surprise, stumbling back.

     That was the only opening Hilbert needed.

     The hero quickly called Gumball back into her PokeBall, and then stumbled toward N. He pushed the boy forward, practically shoving him onto his too-pretty face, before snagging his hand. Running as fast as a Rapidash, Hilbert dragged N along behind him, not daring to glance back at the castle when he entered the woods.

     He could already hear the alarms ringing.

     N was ready to just skip right into the forest as soon as he got out of the window, thinking he was home-free. But the Plasma Grunt had other ideas, and so did Alex. 

     “’Ey, N! Yer boyfriend or whatever’s not quite in the clear yet!” the Purrloin hissed in the king’s ear. N turned just in time to see the Plasma Grunt backing away from the window.

     “What—” he began, but did not finish, because he got shoved and nearly landed face-first in the fluffy grass. But Hilbert’s hand in his kept him upright enough to simply stumble, and then the two were headed for the woods, with a horde of Team Plasma grunts most likely hot on their tails.

     “Where’d they go?!” he heard a Grunt yell a few minutes after they’d passed the tree line.

     “I dunno!” he heard another shout back.

      Well, that’s awfully lucky.

     But N wasn’t planning on slowing down, not any time soon. And so, deeper into the forest they went...

[nharmonium-blog]

trainerhilly.

     There wasn’t anything Hilbert could compare the Plasma Castle to, because everything in Unova was huge. The castle was just a different kind of huge; it held a menacing presence, one that was sure to forebode any onlooker. And yet, on the inside, it seemed even grander. Hilbert stared wide-eyed at the domed ceiling above him. He and Gumball had snuck down a long hallway and then into the main hall, which was a spacious, circular room in the center of the first floor. Its pillars stretched up so high that they even passed other floors.

     A grand piano sat in the middle of the room, but it was covered in dust. Hilbert ran his pointer finger across one of the keys; his skin came away gray. The rest of the hall was empty, the space filled by nothing more than a row of elaborate tapestries hanging from the high ceiling, lining the walls across from the double staircases. Hilbert side-eyed Gumball, who just made a face. The staircases loomed in front of the pair, beckoning them to take the climb. But even an idiot could feel the danger floating around them.

     Hilbert pursed his lips. He didn’t have a chance to do anything more though, because a figure soon appeared at the top of the left staircase. The hero’s breath caught in his throat and he tried desperately to slow his pounding heart, but it was pointless. So there he stood, well aware that even if the person couldn’t see him, they would soon hear him.

     But maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all. Hilbert took an involuntary step forward once he realized who the person descending the stairs was. “N…?” he mouthed silently. Then, he grinned broadly. That solved a lot of his problems, having the king come to him. In fact, Hilbert was just about to take another step forward when he felt something bump into his leg. Ice shot down his spine, his head slowly tilting to look at the Purrloin at his feet.

     Aw, fiddlesticks!

     Gumball shook her head. Then, she dispelled the mist–but only so that N could see her and Hilbert clearly. She still kept them out of sight of the cameras positioned strategically around the hall.

     Hilbert glanced at Gumball, who nodded ever-so-slightly. After sliding his eyes away from her and back to N, he waved sheepishly, thinking, Been a while, eh, partner?

     Alex hopped backwards, and then spun and skittered back to N’s side. “N... Wha’s goin’ on? Where did they come from?” The Purrloin knew very well that he wouldn’t be getting an answer, though, for N was staring wide-eyed at Hilbert and Gumball. So, Alex climbed back into N’s hair, and hid there.

     “...Hilbert, what’re you—” N cut himself short. He frowned and looked around. This was not the place for any sort of reunion. Not at all. Staring Hilbert down, he made a few tiny hand motions. Follow me, he tried to say.

     And then, without warning, the king turned on his heels and headed back the way he’d come, shrugging his shoulders as if he’d gotten confused and gone the wrong way. He turned a corner, and he was out of the cameras’ sight once again.

[nharmonium-blog]

trainerhilly.

     There was no way to tell where he was going, but Hilbert had been in worse situations, like that one time he and Bianca had fallen down a well. His neighbor had hit her head on the way down and promptly blacked out, while Hilbert had been lucky enough to land with only a few minor scratches. Thankfully, the well had dried up, so there wasn’t any risk of Bianca sinking to the bottom and drowning. But that left another problem for Hilbert to solve: climbing up the cracked well walls with nothing but his fingernails and twelve-year-old muscles so he could escape.

     Gumball nudged Hilbert with her nose, snapping him out of his reverie. Do you know where to go from here? she asked him. But she already knew the answer, and so she sighed, sending another puff of the strange purple mist into the air. Hilbert looked at her apologetically, but she cut off whatever reply he might have had with her own: I’ll tap into one of the smaller one’s minds. Then, I’ll secure a map. Gumball nudged Hilbert again, urging him to walk forward towards the back gates of the castle while she continued, Of course, not all of the lowermen will know where your friend’s room lies–he’s quite important, is he not?

     Hilbert bit his lip. While he crept towards the back gates, he kept one arm slung around Gumball’s back; it eased some of his nerves and, after sucking in a gulp of air, allowed him to move forward. He followed closely behind a hooded grunt, tailing them from a few steps back while they swiped a key card through the gates’ security lock. The grunt pushed the gates open and then strode confidently up the steps leading to the castle’s back door. Not once did they look behind them.

     They never saw two shadows trailing in their wake, nor did they hear the quiet breathing of Hilbert and his Musharna.

     The castle was cold. After the grunt had vanished down an adjacent hallway, the tall doors had swung shut and the outside world was clipped from view, Hilbert shivered. He glanced around, immediately freezing when his eyes found the portrait across the hall. The man pictured was staring straight at him. His red eyes chilled the hero worse than the cold linoleum ever could, and the frown he wore on his face said this clearly: You poor, misguided fool.

     Hilbert forced himself to look away from the picture. Then, he turned to Gumball and looked at her meaningfully. I’ve got half a mind to high-tail it outta here right now, she heard him think. But we’ve already come this far, haven’t we? Let’s get a move on it and find N. Then we can give him a stern talkin’ to and see if we can’t get him to leave with us, too.

     When the sound of people talking had long since died off, and the only sound that was left was N’s shoes tapping on the tile, the Purrloin hiding in N’s hair poked his head out. “Hey, N,” he asked, “where’re we off to?”

     “Dunno,” the king responded, “the left wing, I guess.” Alex jumped down from N’s hair, and walked alongside him. “Well, all right. I don’t really care, so long as I get t’ get out of that dingy old room.”

     The pair began descending a seemingly never-ending set of stairs in silence. When they reached the bottom, they walked down a short hallway to another set of stairs. And they continued that cycle, all the way down to the bottom of the castle. All the while, N kept a blank expression.

     “’Ey, N,” Alex spoke up, “y’ don’t look so great. Are y’ doin’ okay?” N waved a hand dismissively. He was just questioning his purpose, and his “father”, and his organization, and basically his entire life. Y’know, no big deal. He was totally fine. Obviously.

     Suddenly, as the two rounded a corner, a Musharna came into view. N looked at it questioningly, while Alex looked at him like he was crazy. “Um. Hello, there. ...You must be the disturbance I was told about.”

     Alex spoke up. “Uh, N, buddy, are ya doin’ all right? There ain’t nothin’ there...?” The Purrloin strolled forward, in the general direction that N was pointing, and bumped into something that felt strangely like a pant-leg...

[nharmonium-blog]

trainerhilly.

     There was no way he could let this continue. That, Hilbert was sure of. The last time he had spoken–or even seen–N, the boy had been disheveled, gray and tired. It had contrasted sharply with Hilbert’s preconceived image of him, of someone who was strong and assertive, unbreakable.

     A chill wind blew from the north and swept through the woods, tearing at the leaves as well as Hilbert’s coat. The boy stopped, pulled his zipper up even further so that it was almost choking him, and then pressed forward deeper into the forest.

     He had only been to Plasma Castle once. It was a long time ago–almost too far back to remember. But Hilbert swiftly wove through the maples and oaks, over vines and across streams anyway. Only a few times did he slip, slicing his palm open on a sharp branch when he clutched it for support.

     Plasma Castle loomed before him. The sky was clouded over with gray masses, signaling the oncoming storm. Hilbert took one look at the flickering clouds and tugged his hat down firmer over his head. Then, he quietly released Gumball, his Musharna.

     Instantly, the Pokemon released a thick stream of a purple mist, which quickly enveloped the pair. Once it had dissipated, neither Hilbert nor Gumball were anywhere to be seen. It was almost like they had never been there in the first place and if anyone had happened to see them, they would think they were in the midst of a dream.

     A faint wind blew in from the window, barely enough to rustle the fluffy, green hair on N’s head. His elbow rested on the windowsill, propping up his head so that he could watch the storm roll in with minimum effort. Flocks of Pidove were filtering into the forest, taking shelter from the coming rain. Quickly, the sky was darkening, and less light was coming into N’s room. He didn’t make the effort to turn a light on.

     The door to N’s room opened, slamming against the wall with a thud. “My lord N,” came Ghetsis’s booming voice. “You do not have time to be lounging around. You have speeches to give. Team Plasma needs you, remember?!”

     Before N had a chance to reply, the sound of quickly moving footsteps rang across the tile floor, and a Plasma grunt skidded into the room, nearly bumping into Ghetsis where he stood.

     “Lord Ghetsis!” she exclaimed, scrambling away. “There’s been a disturbance in the left wing!”

     “A disturbance? What do you mean? And why are you telling me this? Shouldn’t it have been dealt with already?” 

     “Well, you see, sir,” the Plasma grunt began, keeping her gaze glued to her shoes, “the disturbance...disappeared.”

     Anger flickered behind Ghetsis’s eyes. He stared down at the Plasma grunt before him. “What do you mean disappeared? Find it. We don’t have time—”

     N stood, the legs of his chair at the window scraping across the floor, and crossed the room. With a blank expression, he passed the Plasma grunt and Ghetsis in the doorway. “Father, please leave this to me. You can do the speeches today, can’t you?”

     Without waiting for a reply, he headed off to the left wing, Pokeball in hand.