"Anthea! Concordia!" The Goddesses quickly turned from making tea in the kitchen to see N covered in sweat and in a panic "I need your help!"

"My lord! What's the matter-?!"

"I don't understand it! Please help me understand!" The two girls looked at each other confused "Hilda..." they slowly started to understand.

"We have made assumptions based on watching her..." Concordia said

"We believe that even when she is somewhat of an empty shell, something inside that shell is surrounding the base of it. There's a deeper meaning to why she acts the way she does"

"And that could be the reason why Zekrom accepted her as a hero" Anthea suggested "she ate her food by herself in the dining room. Everyone is too uncomfortable to be around her. There's something about her that's a bit scary, but not really in a bad way"

"Then what way?" N asked. They looked uncomfortable again "Please tell me"

"There's not much to say. She believed she was treated the same way you were when you were young" N flinched "but she became someone different from you, because you had a destiny, and she did as she was told. She's almost too willing to listen to what we ask her to do... she has..." Concordia tried stopping Anthea from continuing

"He doesn't have to know..."

"Know what?" N asked. Anthea ignored Concordia and continued.

"When we bath her earlier to get ready for dinner, she was covered in scars. They were the kind of scars that were made with a knife" N's heart dropped "we can't confirm if she did it herself or what, but if you want to continue to keep her here, she needs help"

"She cuts herself?" N's throat went dry "doesn't people who do that..."

"It's too complicated to say right now. We don't know anything right now. We took her to her new room earlier to rest up. You are more than welcomed to speak to her" N nodded and went straight to look for her room without getting directions. He walked the hallways and continued to hear thunder shake the castle again. It was so loud that he almost forgot about Hilda for a second and looked at how violent the thunderstorm was from a window.

Black clouds filled the sky and lightening blinded the skies with flashes and sharp bolts, too dangerous to be close too. It almost seemed like the bolts were blue and striking the ground.

"What's going on...?" He ignored it and continued looking for Hilda's room until he finally saw it close to his own room. The door was wide open, letting him in to see Hilda standing by the window that led to the balcony, but she remained inside.

"The storm is too dangerous. Don't go outside" he told her.

"I couldn't if I wanted too... They locked these doors" she showed him by playing with the chain "the girls think I'm going to do something, but I'm not that bold. Hm..." N ended up chucking a bit

"You are pretty bold to me" she turned around to face him. Her face seemed more pale and the color under her eyes were dark, almost like she was crying? Or haven't slept? He couldn't really tell since he saw her completely normal earlier and still in dinner's dress "how are you doing?"

"Zekrom is calling to me" N froze and listened to the horrid cried it was shouting at a far distance "Zekrom has been angry that I let it go so quickly even after we made a promise to stay together"

"You made that promise? You understand Pokémon?"

"More or less..." he watched her dull eyes stare deep into his worried ones "I lost what I never had... I don't know what to do with myself. It's empty and cold here" she looked down "I failed my mission... I'm as good as dead" N hurried to grab her shoulders to force her to look up at him, but she remained as she was.

"Don't talk like that, Hilda! We can have a better life together! You don't have to stick to the norms you've known all your life! If you want to leave to badly, say so!"

"I have nowhere to go..."

"Let me help you! Zekrom won't want to see you like this! Your Pokémon-!"

"My Pokémon..? The ones you released?" She looked up at him, looking paler than before. He looked down and froze when he saw her forearm covered in blood and dripping on the floor.

"H-Hilda..." he backed away, seeing her holding a ceramic piece of glass with red spots on it, in her other hand "What have you done? I thought you wanted to stay here if you had nowhere to go. Why are you doing this to yourself...?"

"I have nothing, N... I don't need materialistic things. I don't need dresses, I don't need toys, I don't need food... I need to feel" she looked back outside the window "Doing this makes me feel alive. I want to feel something..."

"I-I can..."

"Do you have any idea what happens when I'm alone with my thoughts?" She used the ceramic piece to cut herself again.

"Stop-!" N reached out to stop her, but she pointed the piece at his face to stop him.

"I don't have any thoughts... I lived alone hearing nothing, and now it's starting to get loud. Ghetsis..."

"What did he do...? Did he come here?"

"He came... to speak to me. He brought me tea" she looked at the broken tea set on the table "he only came to warn me about what I'm doing to you, telling me to don't even try to poison you, because it won't work. The way he speaks... He's no different. You are poisoned already, N. I didn't have to do anything" she frowned at him "He used you" N couldn't control his shaking "the same way my caretakers used me" she sliced her wrist again, this time in a dangerous spot where blood splashed onto her face and dress.

"STOP!" N begged and dropped to his knees, using her dress to stop the bleeding "please stop... are you trying to make me feel guilty for everything that I've done? Are you trying to tell me my hard work-"

"Hard work... Hard work means nothing when the ones who depended on you turn their back on you. You're lucky, N..." tears rolled down her face "at least you didn't end up like me. You love and you fight... I couldn't do that. I have nothing" she collapsed, paler with blue lips.

"Hilda..." he came to his senses and hurried to call for someone to help her. He shouted above his lungs for someone to come. He couldn't hear anything but a piercing sound ringing in his ears. She was surrounded in blood, then surrounded by people, he couldn't see anything pass his blurry vision, then saw black.

"What a nightmare..." a dark voice said. N snapped his eyes open, feeling calmer than before, and looked around his pitch black surroundings

"Where am I?" He questioned. An image appeared in front of him, like he was looking through a window, seeing Hilda sitting on the table with a non-broken tea set in front of Ghetsis sitting across from her. He didn't say anything too out there, only warned Hilda of how she should behave around N. He didn't say anything strange, but her face almost looked scared.

"For a girl who doesn't feel anything, she looked terrified" the voice said

"Who's there?!" N looked around.

"Things turned upside down so fast... If only that man never spoke to her. It might've been different"

"Does Ghetsis really resemble those caregivers...?"

"Indeed..."

"I wish I could had stopped him from talking to her" he looked at his shaking hands "I'm shaking so much"

"You are asleep now, but you are still in shock"

"I'm asleep?"

"You blacked out after seeing Hilda die" N choked and cupped his mouth, feeling nauseous and horrified.

"No... She didn't die"

"You are one of the lucky ones"

"Lucky? How am I lucky?! She... She died! I couldn't do anything to save her! She was fine... until he talked to her... when I talked to her... she wasn't fine. I shouldn't had brought her to the castle. This wouldn't have happened"

"You're wrong. She would had suffered the same fate, but sooner. Anything you do will not change anything"

"What do you want? Why are you here?"

"I want to help you"

"Help me? What can you possibly do to help me?"

"You question if you truly had the ability to be the true hero because that girl didn't give it her all. If you had a chance to change things, would you do something different?"

"I would!"

"Oh?" N looked down at himself, remembering Hilda's bright smile and later her dull eyes.

"I want to change our fates in ways where it was meant to be. Hilda didn't give it her all. I want to fight the girl who still had that spirit in her, even if it was forced by those caretakers" he groaned "I want to talk to her to the point where I'm not afraid. I was too afraid to properly talk to her during our travels. I was always out of breath when she looked at me. I don't know what that feeling was, but I want to see her happy. I can't do that now... and it's all my fault" he shut his eyes, crying and sobbing into his forearm. 

This moment he felt being in the darkness alone, crying, was the same when he was young, before Ghetsis was involved... The same world Hilda experienced and wasn't made any better.

"You must change this nightmare" a softer voice spoke "Change the fates, even if your believes remain the same"

"What do you mean...?"

"You must tell her... That way things will be different, the way they were supposed to be" N looked up to see a bright light shining "Wake up" something knocked on his forehead, snapping him awake and looking up at the clear blue sky above him.

"What..?" He gasped, wondering where the storm went. Wait... Was he outside?

"Hey" a familiar voice spoke, catching his attention to the figure hovering above him "You're awake now. That's good" Hilda moved away to give him some room to sit up. 

"H-Hilda..?" He stared at her in her outdoor clothing he often used to see her in during their adventuring. 

"You know my name?" She tilted her head confused "You passed out after that speech earlier" he found himself sitting on a bench "Are you hurt?" He sat up and rubbed the back of his head and noticed an Oshawatt beside her feet. He hasn't seen her with it since they first time they met in Accumula Town.

"Is he awake?" Cheren came over with a water bottle and towel "you alright, man?" N took the items he was given and rubbed his face to cool down. What's happening...? Is he really meeting Hilda when they first met?

"Take it easy" Hilda rubbed his back "the speech wasn't that shocking."

"It was a stupid speech" Cheren said.

"Was it?" Hilda questioned, being as clueless as ever aside from the other persona he missed so much.

"Your Pokémon..." N automatically said, wanting to see her true power from beginning to end "let me hear the voices of your Pokémon... battle me!" Hilda tilted her head confused, staring into his determined eyes waiting for an answer.

"Whoa, whoa, what's this about hearing the voices of Pokémon?" Cheren questioned, getting in between them.

"Yes" N stood up to face Hilda again and kept his eyes on her healthy complexion "please battle me. I want nothing more than to... hear the voices of your Pokémon" it wasn't at all what he cared about. If possible, he could just stare at those glossy blue eyes of hers all day. Hilda frowned and turned away.

"Hilda, you alright?" Cheren questioned "You've been acting weird since this morning" Hilda pressed on her aching headache, then secretly rubbed on her wrist that she cut so deeply before.

"What's your name?" She asked N. N admired the look in her eyes and couldn't help but smile.

"N" she nodded and picked up Oshawatt by her feet to kiss its head, making it smile, before putting it down to start the battle.

"N... I'll be happy to accept your challenge"

It seemed too strange to be true, but it seemed like N really returned to the time he first met Hilda. This was when the announcement of liberation started. After all that hard work, he has to start over to reach his goal, but the only difference is that he now saw Hilda in a different light while Hilda sought a new goal, but remained going after Team Plasma.

To avoid changing anything, N did everything similar to how he lived his entire year traveling Unova and getting to know the world around him. He started seeing more of the light in the relationship between people and Pokémon and started questioning himself more than ever than when he first started so long ago.

At the very moment, doing everything the same way as before, N finally got the chance to face Hilda in his throne room again a year later. Unlike last time, he noticed her behavior behind the adrenaline he felt the first time meeting her here. She looked lost and searched for a direction, looking almost nervous. Before, that moment was the moment when she didn't have a motive and allowed herself to lose, but after so long of waiting for this moment, N wasn't going to let things go back to they were before he returned.

"Hilda!" He shouted. Hilda flinched and looked back at him "Listen to me now! You better give it your all!"

"My all..?" She questioned.

"I want you to beat me if you can! I want this battle to rock your world! Give me a fair fight! I won't take no for an answer this time!" Hilda studied him, wondering if he was the same N she knew before.

They ran into each other often, but in those moments, she wanted to spend time with him anytime he would smile her direction. Different from the last, he would be a gentleman and consider her feelings, even as far as buying her ice cream. He knew her name when they first met, but she only assumed that her Pokémon told him. He was always a strange one indeed, but she can't be the one to talk.

"I have done my mission up to this point..." she said "are you giving me a direct order?" N was taken back to this but knew this was the only way to make things settle fairly. He wants to know what would happen if she really gave it her all.

"As rivals, I only expect the most out of you" he said.

"You want a fair fight..." she looked at Zekrom's Ultra ball, wondering what there is to do after fulfilling the original orders of her caretakers. If N didn't say what he did, she would have just let him win again "You want me to give you my all?" He nodded sternly "I have no other orders to obey... I'll take your request and battle you with my all" N smiled at this, relieved to finally experience the true fight between heroes "but... What will I get in return?" N's smile dropped "all I've ever done was listen to..." she frowned.

"Hilda..." he shook his head "If you win, I have something I want from you"

"From me?" He nodded and summoned Reshiram, who came through the brick walls behind his throne.

"Defeat me" Hilda's eyes widened at the intensity of the situation, feeling something she couldn't explain, but for the first time in her life, she was looking forward to something.

"Okay!" She sent out Zekrom and gave it her all, as requested. In the span of only an hour, unlike the previous world, Hilda quickly defeated N. He was frozen on the spot, shocked to know that this time their battle wasn't extended to a few hours, but ended so quickly it was like a snap of a finger.

"I lost..." he pressed his hand on his face, shocked at the reality... shocked that his dream was fulfilled before, but not honestly. She could had defeated him, but didn't. Would had it just been better if he stayed in the old world?

No, in the old world, she suffered. He realized that everyone would be happy here... where Pokémon and people unit and become friends. His dream was ruined, but he didn't care. All he wanted was honesty, and that's exactly what he saw when looking at Hilda smile up at her Zekrom thanking her for a worthy battle.

"Hilda..." brushing off the shock, he started to feel something else entirely. He was relieved "I feel tired... but somehow I'm glad I am. You beat me... because you gave me your all" Hilda slowly nodded.

"Yes, I did..." she looked down "Only because you told me too... otherwise I probably would had let you win" he nodded.

"I believe you... but that wouldn't be fun" he smiled "This is how it's meant to be. I didn't get to live my dream long enough, but I..." he was conflicted to win the battle of choosing if he didn't care about his dream or not. All he could think about was Zekrom's old cry and Hilda dying on him, because of...

"You're one of the lucky ones..." an echo of a memory appeared in his head of Hilda and him talking before reaching victory road in the old world, then remembered what she said the day she died "Ghetsis used you..."

"Your ideals... your feelings... they were stronger than mine, whether you believe it or not" he said "Reshiram and Zekrom... each of them choosing a different hero... is it because we are the same?" He bit his lips, trying to hold back the tears of Hilda and Zekrom suffering, even the Pokémon he released fought so hard to stay with Hilda... "two heroes living at the same time... one that pursues ideals and one that pursues truth..." he studied Hilda watching him, trying to find the logic in why the legendary Pokémon of ideals first chose her "It's not by rejecting different ideas, but by accepting different ideas that the world creates a chemical reaction"

"You and I are not that different, N" Hilda said "We both were raised by Pokémon and saw the world differently. All I had was them and all you had was... this" she looked around the ruined room "You were taken care of, but you were also manipulated" he looked down, still not seeing how that's true yet.

He looked up to see Ghetsis walking up to Hilda from behind when she was focused on N. N's eyes widened when Ghetsis lifted his hand and slapped her across the face, the same way he did before... She gasped for air and sat up while holding her cheek, widening her eyes and crying.

"After all of that, do you think you're still worthy of sharing the name Harmonia with me? You good-for-nothing boy!" Ghetsis yelled at N.

"F-father... St-"

"You blasted girl... I spurred N into pursing the truth. The reason we awakened the legendary Pokémon now was to give MY Team Plasma more power!" N feet became heavy, watching Hilda's sobbing and holding her swollen face in pain. This is the point Hilda was talking about all along, and he didn't see until now.

"This can't be..." N gasped "How dare you do this!?"

"After saying you had to put your beliefs on the line and battle to see which one chosen by the legendary Pokémon was the true hero... you lost to an ordinary trainer! There is such a thing as being too stupid! Add it up, you're nothing more than a warped, defective boy who knows nothing but Pokémon..." N's arm flexed before he swung his fist into the old man's face.

"What are you doing?!" Ghetsis glared, groaning at the bloody mess on his nose.

"I'm not as weak as I was before..." he squeezed the hands he trained to become stronger since coming back. He knew the adrenaline would be too much to even rely on his Pokémon to help him, so he depended on his fist.

"N!" Ghetsis shouted.

"I'm more than what you think I am... I know more now than I did before no thanks to you. I'm not going to let you harm Hilda again" Hilda looked up at N looking angry for her sake, a face she never expected to see...

"Hilda!" Cheren and Alder came running just in time. Cheren quickly ran to Hilda's side "Who hit you?! You're swollen!" He glared up at Ghetsis who had the bloody nose "You! Did you do this to my best friend?!" N felt a spark of happiness when hearing Hilda and Cheren ended up closer than before, but why in this lifetime now?

"All of you... here to ruin my plans on taking this world for my own..." Ghetsis mumbled.

"You've done enough manipulation" Hilda shakily stood back up "you've done enough" Alder pinned down Ghetsis to the ground.

"Get off me! I created Team Plasma with my own hands. I am absolutely perfect! I AM PERFECT!" He shouted "I am the perfect ruler of a perfect new world!"

"Perfect..." Hilda snorted "What a wild thing to claim... not even I can be perfect" N flinched, staring at Hilda's long expression before Cheren went to talk to her before leaving with Alder escorting Ghetsis out. Now it was just the two of them alone.

"N..." she frowned at him, expressing true emotion that she felt deep inside "Do you still think what you did was okay? To separate Pokémon and people?" She slowly faced him, holding her swollen cheek "this goes more beyond such a question. Something about you had changed since coming back" N gasped "You're different. You're stronger... and have a different mindset"

"Hilda? You mean you came back too...?" She stared at him before looking down.

"Seems that way. After what happened, I woke up still living with my caretakers" she looked uncomfortable "I left as soon as I could with my... friends" she held her heart "I longed to feel something, and that's why I cut myself so often, but when I finally got to feel, it was horrid. I didn't want to end up feeling like that again. I disobeyed my caretakers, but I still did the assignment they raised me to do because that's all I knew"

"What assignment in particular did they give you?"

"To become powerful enough to be seen by all. Once that speech was made public, I told my caretakers about it in the last life, and they thought that it would be my chance to get stronger. This life... I traveled on my own without their direct order, but still followed it even after cutting all contact with them" She looked down "I got to enjoy some things, but not entirely like regular people do. Things were the same, but you weren't. I wondered if you were the N I met for the first time, but you were the one that saw me the way that I was. I'm sorry for making you feel like you had to comfort me so I wouldn't do that again"

"I wouldn't say it's because I felt bad or anything... I just... I want you to start living for yourself. If you were ever going to take another order again, I would say to live for yourself and find happiness" they walked over to the hole in the wall Reshiram made "I have some reflecting to do. Even if I traveled Unova a second time, I still have a lot to learn" he pet her head "same goes for you"

"If only you didn't leave dinner that night... maybe things could had been different if he never showed up"

"What did he say to you?" She shook her head and looked away.

"It's not important anymore... my heart was too weak to handle it. I've grown to not let it bother me now. I'm sorry you had to see that..." she cupped her face "If only you didn't leave... things would had been okay"

"No, they wouldn't be" he moved her hands from her face "I know the truth now, and you're happy, aren't you?" She stared at him for a moment before smiling.

"Yes... I am happy. I know what happiness feels like now, and it's all thanks to you" she held his cheek "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you"

"That's not true"

"It's true because if you didn't take me in, I would had taken my life sooner" he cleared his throat, not wanting to be reminded of that "I'm going to live now, not because you said so... but because I can finally see the light" as she said that, the sunrise appeared outside "it's beautiful"

"Yes... be happy with your friends and your Pokémon. Hilda... I don't regret coming back knowing that things are where they're supposed to be. You told me you didn't have a dream in our first life, but this life you did... You have no idea how happy that made me feel, yet you were still confused. Whatever that dream is, give it your all and do what makes you happy" he walked to the opening and called out to Reshiram soaring the skies "I, myself, am still a bit lost. I want to know more about the relationships between Pokémon and people now more than ever. I'm going to travel, but I know you'll be okay"

"You're leaving...?" He smiled and softly held her swollen cheek, looking at her sad expression before letting her go.

"There will be a day when we meet again. Until then, I hope to see you truly give me a smile... goodbye" Hilda reached out as Reshiram scooped him up and flew off, wanting him to come back and share her new happiness with him, but also wave goodbye to the beginning of her world.

"N... You are my beginning... Thank you"