The Void She Filled

Chapter 3: From The Eyes Of A Stranger

Old habits do die hard, I suppose, N noted with a frown, shaking his head to clear the unwanted thought. He carefully approached the pine tree and pushed apart the branches a crack— just enough to see what was going on.

Ahead and to his left, his prediction proved correct when a teenage girl bounded up a set of stairs. Her brown pigtails flew behind her side buns as she ran, her blue eyes exhibiting a duality of fear and determination. Following on her heels were humans dressed in black, followed by a Scrafty and a Magnezone.

N's heart instantly sank at the sight, standing back for a minute as his head spun. So it was true after all. Team Plasma has indeed made a comeback. This just confirmed his suspicions from this morning, when he could feel the all-too-frigid air coming from the direction of Opelucid City. He had no solid evidence or proof, but his gut had told him that, inexplicably, Team Plasma was behind it all. Not only had he been right, but now they were pursuing an innocent girl and her Pokémon. How quickly had they resorted to their old tactics.

Why, oh why did they have to come back? He thought this whole mess was over long ago...

As the girl feverishly crossed one of the wooden beams, N noticed a Delcatty laying limp in her arms. It was then that his special gift activated. The Pokémon took notice of him with a weak pair of eyes, and, in his mind, he heard the Delcatty speak softly.

"R-Rosa... lost the battle...  She fought hard for us, though. She had no choice... She was trapped against her will." The feline paused briefly to interject a heart-wrenching moan. "All of us are w-weak and... about to be taken. Please... help us!"

Just then, N heard the grunt give a brutal command. "Magnezone, use Flash Cannon! She cannot get away!"

"We're almost there, sweetie." Delcatty's next words echoed the speech N read off of the girl's lips.

N quickly assessed the current situation. From the sounds of it, this girl Rosa was forced into a battle... and she lost. Now she was running for her life, to prevent her Pokémon from being taken. Delcatty's love for her Trainer burned within N's mind fiercely, and so did her fear and despair of being wretched away from her. N hadn't seen Pokémon that loved their Trainer this much since two years ago, when...

"Magnezone, NOW!" The distraught girl turned around as she realized she was trapped, hugging her Delcatty close.

Time seemed to slow down for N just then. Only one thought prevailed in his mind. Why it did, he did not know.

I have to save her.

Was it because her passionate spirit reminded him of her? Either way, he needed to rescue these Pokémon and the Trainer they loved so. Not only to protect these precious creatures, but also so he could damn Team Plasma and their ambitions.

Adrenaline kicked in as time resumed, and Rosa yelled, "You will never take them away from me!!" Then the attack hit her square in the head and she fell backwards, collapsing onto the ground unconscious. Despite her legs buckling under her, Delcatty remained within her grasp.

The grunts were completely unfazed by this act of violence, cheering in victory.

"Her Pokémon are ours!"

"Nice job, man!"

"Our Lord will be so pleased!"

They then gleefully returned their Pokémon and started crossing the final beam without any rush at all.

Lord? N frowned at such a title, but that was low on his list of concerns right now. Instead, he received a kickstart of instinct. He whipped his way around the tree and stood in front of Rosa, briefly taking in her disheveled appearance. A wave of sympathy instantly washed over him for her tattered conditions.

She and Delcatty can't be captured by those brutes. I won't allow it.

"Hey, who the heck are you?!" one grunt yelled, as his apparent leader snarled, "Told you not to return our Pokémon yet!"

N ignored them completely as he focused on what he had to do. The grunts were advancing on the beam fast. N had only a matter of seconds before they could be within reach to effectively stop him. Not wasting a moment, he stopped down and scooped up Rosa into his arms, making sure Delcatty was secure. Then, he bounded back around the tree without a word, the tight space between the tree and the mound's edge barely letting them through.

The grunts cursed as N disappeared into the foliage, skidding to a halt when they reached the mound. Panting, one grunt asked, "Should we go after him, sir?" The leader noticeably grimaced at the reminder of her failure.

"...No," she finally replied with a sigh. "We lost her, true... And I have no idea where the brat came from, or why he felt compelled to save her. But, think!" she continued, pacing furiously. "Won't our leader be pleased that he has no one standing in his way now? Especially someone as strong as... well, I hate to admit it, but especially someone as strong as her? By the time she wakes up, Arceus knows where she will be, and if she will know how to get to us. This will buy us time! Now we can start our plan for world domination without disruption! Surely this news will overwhelm our Lord's anger over the loss of the twerp?" The rest of the group murmured agreement in response to her logic.

"Still would have been nice if we could've captured her and kept an eye on her..." another grunt muttered, but he trailed off at his leader's reasoning.

"Nice thinking, sir. Maybe we could say we knocked her out somewhere and dragged her away. You know, so that when she woke up, she would be lost and disoriented," the subordinate female replied. The leader nodded and stomped her foot for emphasis.

"NOW! Let us return to the Giant Chasm! As far as I'm concerned, our mission here is complete. So, let us help our Lord, to fulfill his desire for a new world!"

N burst back into the forest and bolted away, not bothering to stay and hear the grunts discuss their next move. He didn't hear any pursuit, which seemed strange to him. But he didn't care, not as long as he could deliver Rosa and her friends safely to his cabin.

Rosa and Delcatty lay limp within in his arms. It was hard to move very fast with the added weight, but he managed the best he could. Rosa's brown hair trailed over his arms and swayed with N's strides, which slightly tickled his arm. Delcatty, who amazingly still possessed a drop of strength, managed to gaze at her rescuer. Her eyes teared up in gratitude.

"Thank you..." N gave a small and reassuring smile in response.

"Let me take care of you," he replied in his mind. "I will bring you all to safety and heal you of your wounds. I promise."