Chapter Text
He's looked everywhere else.
It's taken over two years for Touya to get this far, to search through six whole regions, desperately searching for someone who he may never see again. Maybe this is all in vain, maybe this is all for nothing, but Touya isn't about to give up. His friend has been through too much, he's suffered for too long, he's been far too alone for his whole entire life, and he's not about to give up, not now, not ever, not even if it takes the rest of his entire life. What happened to him wasn't fair, couldn't have possibly been fair. He's experienced, witnessed absolutely needless cruelty, both his own abuse and that of the Pokémon around him. Touya is not about to let that go. He's not about to let someone who's suffered so much continue to suffer alone. He's going to find him, and when he does, he's going to protect him with everything he has.
Yes, Touya is going to find N, and he's not going to let him get hurt ever again.
The trouble now is actually finding N, though. He's been searching for well over two years. He's looked all across Unova, Sinnoh, Hoenn, Johto, Alola, Kalos... all that's left for him to explore is the Kanto region, that region and this mountain. He's decided to come here for the sake of cutting down his travel time; the faster he can do this, the less time N has to run off somewhere else, and the more likely it is that Touya will find him.
He understands why N left, yes. He'd been held prisoner by Team Plasma for his entire life, and if Touya had been confined to a single room and constant abuse, he can't say he wouldn't want to run away to some obscure corner of the world. That doesn't mean he misses N any less. In the year Touya spent dealing with Team Plasma and reaching Unova's Pokémon League, he and N became very close, almost magnetically drawn to each other. N insisted for the better part of that year that it was because they were two opposing heroes, always destined to be drawn to one another, but Touya had always assumed otherwise.
This is what happens when you make friends, he said.
And N, in a moment of disbelief, had to spend a minute processing the information. Friends?
Yeah, friends.
And N smiled. Touya misses that smile so, so much.
"N!" Touya shouts into the wind. Of course there's no answer. N probably isn't even here, but Touya isn't going to leave until he's sure of it. He's been on this mountain for three days at this point, scouring every inch of the rocks. Mount Silver is apparently so perilous that he had to properly challenge one of Kanto's top trainers to determine if he would be able to actually come up this far. He got to bypass some other battles by virtue of the nature of this situation, the more professional aspect of his hunt for N.
N Harmonia is known to be the King of Team Plasma, but Touya has resolved to prove his innocence.
"N?" No answer, of course. His fingers are icy cold. He really should have brought thicker gloves. "N!"
It started with N, yes, but Touya's work spans through the whole scope of the reformed members of Team Plasma. Everyone had been used by Ghetsis for his own nefarious plans, his own delusions of perfection and his own desire for the world to be his own. There's a clear divide in the members of Team Plasma who do and do not support Ghetsis, now, and for those who don't support him, for those who didn't even know what they were getting into, for those who only wanted to stop the abuse of Pokémon, those are the ones he works for. Those are the ones Touya is fighting for, the ones he wants to support, because even if he's forgiving to a fault, he'll be damned if he's doing to damn the ones who were manipulated and hurt. He doesn't care how much havoc Team Plasma caused: nothing is ever black and white, and the whole team isn't inherently evil no more than they are good.
It's those who never wanted this chaos that he's going to help, and he is legitimately, legally trying to find as many of them as he can to help pardon them.
"N!"
On a personal level, though, it's about N, just N.
"N?"
N isn't answering, though. Touya wouldn't still be looking if it were so simple.
"N!"
He can hear his own desperation in his voice, straining against the wind and his own screams.
"N?!"
He's not here. Touya is shivering more violently now.
"N, please!"
He's not here.
"N, answer me!"
His fingers ache at the cold. His heart aches more. He misses N so much it hurts.
"Are you here?"
Of course not.
"It's Touya!"
No answer.
"N..."
He's losing his voice already. How much has he been screaming?
"I miss you!"
Motion.
"...N?"
That's a human figure over there, but Touya can't make out anything else through the gales of snow. He has a hat, but that's about all he can see from here.
"Is that - " you?, but his voice is cut off when he feels the ground shift.
He doesn't know why the rocks start to tumble, but they do, and it's only in this moment that he realizes how close he is to this edge, and it's only now that he notices how high up he is, and it genuinely takes him a moment to process that he's falling oh god no -
There's a huge wave of pain that shoots through him so agonizingly that he blacks out immediately.
He wakes up, shockingly.
Touya manages to open his eyes, and for some reason the first thing he sees is a lightbulb overhead. Wasn't he just on a mountain? Isn't he still on a mountain? He has to be, gauging by both the rocky ceiling above him and the earthy ground below him. There shouldn't even be a dead lightbulb in here, though, unless there's some abandoned mine in here that Touya doesn't know about. The crackling fire that fills the space with its warmth is very welcomed, though. He could just lay here for a little while.
It seems like he's going to have to, in fact, because even trying to roll over sends a piercing pain through his right leg. Great. It's broken.
...then how did he get here?
Touya manages to sit up, his eyes adjusting to the relative darkness of this cave. He can't really move around in this state, but he can at least try to get a reading on his surroundings. The only other features of this cavern are a pile of medical supplies on the other end of the space, a large hunk of rock jutting up in the middle as if nature wanted a table in here, and a six foot wall of rock leading up to presumably another part of the cave. Otherwise, the space is untouched.
"...N?"
No answer. It was a long shot to assume N had -
"Lax..."
Touya almost jumps, then winces again at the pain he keeps causing himself. He looks to his right to see a Snorlax laying sleepily beside the back wall. Are those even native here? Touya knows Snorlax tend to live in mountainous areas to get the food they need to survive, but he doesn't recall Green mentioning them when he briefed him on the mountain. Green did mention -
And suddenly, at the thought of the Viridian City gym leader, the first Champion of the Indigo League, something he said comes back to Touya's mind.
My friend lives up there, by the way. He's an idiot for staying somewhere so inhospitable, but... he has his reasons. You probably won't ever meet him, but if you see someone, don't be surprised. He paused tentatively, the continued, Red is... Red. I'm not mad at him - I mean, he's a wonderful person, but he's kinda hard to work with when he's... y'know, hiding. Y'know what? If you meet my runaway while you're looking for yours, tell him I miss him, okay? Just... yeah. Whatever. Good luck and all that.
Is this where Red lives?
Holy shit is this where the actual Pokémon World Champion lives?
Touya looks back over at Snorlax, as if the large bear could offer some sort of answer, but she appears to be sleeping soundly, as Snorlax tend to do. Maybe he can try to inch over to her, or maybe he can haul himself on his hands toward the medicine pile and see if anything over there could help him.
"...fffffuck that hurts..." Literally any movement he makes to his leg right now is agonizing, though, so he's going to have to wait it out. He has to wonder why the champion decided to live on a mountain, though, and why he seems to be so distant from everyone, including his best friend. Is he just that much of a hermit? Is he just training up here in secret? Is it something else? It's not really any of Touya's business, in all honesty. He knows why N left, and he could try to extrapolate that to Red, but... N is a special case.
"...N!"
His voice echoes off the walls. No answer, though. Of course N didn't bring him here. This can't be where N is hiding. He has no use for potions like those, preferring to only heal his Pokémon with berries and natural remedies. Hell, N doesn't even have his own Pokémon. The only one that N didn't definitively release is Reshiram, and as far as Touya knows, he might still have the dragon with him. A Snorlax would be totally out of the question for N, though.
He hear footsteps, though, and his eagerness and longing for a long lost friend urges him to try and move despite the pain. He barley moves a foot from his spot before the ache is too awful for him to do anything but groan.
"Fuck..." Touya looks back down at his leg. At least it isn't bent horribly out of place, but...
The footsteps stop quite suddenly; Touya isn't sure what he expected.
He's never actually seen pictures of Red before, and because Green never really described him, it's not like Touya had any expectations. Nonetheless, this isn't really what he thinks is fitting for a champion; as if he's one to talk. He just looks so young, though, in a weird sort of way, even though he's supposed to be the same age as Green. He's pretty short, his hair is a mess, his hat is old and worn, he's covered in snow and traces of sleep deprivation, and the frost dripping off him makes him look like some kind of snow ghost, not quite dead but certainly not quite alive.
Touya doubts he looks to be in much better condition himself, admittedly.
"Um... hi." Touya ventures to greet him. Red (if this really is Red) waves quietly. "Are you Red?"
That seems to startle him, and he sends out a pink cat-like Pokémon - Espeon, if Touya recalls correctly. The cat quickly adjusts to her surroundings and locks her eyes on Touya.
"May I ask what business you have on Mount Silver, trainer?"
Oh. Oh wow, that's... weird. Touya knows psychic Pokémon can sometimes communicate telepathically, but it's still jarring, considering he only has Reuniclus, and he never speaks to Touya. "I-I, uh..."
"If you came for a battle, the answer is no, for now," she says cooly. "You've been too badly injured."
"Y-Yeah, I, um..." he shifts a bit, as he tends to do when he's anxious, and he hisses at the pain yet again. "I-I'm not here for that."
"Oh?" Her tail stops mid-swing, curiously perked up. "What might you be here, for?"
Touya feels a little awkward making his case to a Pokémon, rather than the World Champion who's literally right there, but he calms himself about the situation when he realizes this is exactly what N would do if he were here. "I-I'm currently investigating the case on Team Plasma's activity and occupation in the Unova region from two years ago. My, um, my work focuses primarily on differentiating willing participants of the leader Ghetsis's plans, and those who were manipulated and coerced against their will into subservience."
"I see." She takes a few paces towards him, and Red sends Charizard out into the cave, and for a few seconds Touya thinks they're going to attack him or something. "Why might that business bring you here, then?"
"I'm looking for members of Team Plasma who were used, w-who didn't know what they were getting into when the whole thing started," Touya answers. Charizard lays lazily on the ground along the back wall. Red is doing something, but Touya doesn't want to take his eyes off Espeon for too long.
"I believe we can assure you no one else lives up here, and we haven't had any visitors in over a year." Espeon eyes Red cautiously as she says (thinks?) this. "It's been... quiet."
Touya follows her gaze. Red is shuffling through a bag of something, but he doesn't look up.
"I believe you may be frostbitten, yes?" She nudges his hand with her head, and he winces again.
"Shoot, I-I guess so. I was trying to keep my hands in my pockets, a-and I even had gloves on..."
"That will get you nowhere when you're up here," she hums. "Though, you don't seem to be horribly injured by the cold. I suppose it's more of a frost nip. Does that sound right, Red?"
The champion only nods. Espeon walks over to him.
"I understand you're preoccupied with your own thoughts, Red, but that's no excuse to be rude. You typically at least look in the direction of your company."
Touya thinks he hears Red say something, but it's not nearly a loud enough whisper to hear.
"I understand that. You can't worry yourself about whether he misses you or not right now. You have company, and your company is injured, so - "
"Are you talking about Green?"
That gets Red's attention, makes him whip around so fast Touya feels his own head spin a bit. "We are, yes. Why do you ask?"
"Uh..." Is this a good time to say this, if Red is so somber? Is this what Green meant when he said that Red is... Red, or is there something more? He can't exactly hide his thoughts now, though. "I-I, um, talked to him for a bit before I came up here, a-actually."
"What did he say?" Red shakes his head a little, or maybe Touya is imagining the gesture, he can't tell.
"He... um, Red," the champion jolts at the sound of his name, "he said he misses you."
A long quiet minute hangs in the air between them, and Touya worries he messed up horribly.
"Tell him I miss him, too."
Red turns away again at that.
"...will do."
"Red, don't you think you should make sure our guest is healing?"
"Already checked." His voice sounds really strained.
Espeon shakes her head and walks back over to Touya. "My apologies. Red hasn't been in the best state of mind as of late. He doesn't mean anything by it."
Touya sighs a bit himself. "I-I haven't been doing much better either, s-so I don't blame you. I've been looking for someone for a few years, now." Pause. "I-I dunno. I don't wanna believe he's..."
"Dead, but it's been too long, and he doesn't know how worried you've been."
Touya feels his heart stop. That was way too on the nose. "Y-Yeah..."
It takes Red a minute to say anything else. "Sorry."
"W-What - why are you apologizing to me?"
Red jumps a little, turns to face Touya, and something in his expression seems to sink before he turns away again. "S-Sorry. Confused."
"Your guilt is causing you to confuse him for Green, is that it?" Red shudders at her words.
"I-I mean," Touya quickly tries to resolve the tension somehow, "w-what you said was really right on the money, s-so, um, I-I just got kinda startled, b-because it was really accurate, is all."
Espeon stares intently at Red. He doesn't acknowledge either of them.
"I-I'm sorry, Red. I didn't mean to open a can of worms or anything..."
"It's something he needs to confront nonetheless. Red has been refusing to acknowledge the emotional strain he's putting himself through by isolating himself." Red is shaking a bit. Touya wants to believe Espeon means well, but this certainly isn't doing Red any good.
"I-I guess so, but Green said he has his reasons for being up here."
"He does have his own urges, but - "
"A-And he said he's not mad at you, Red." As someone else who's been missing a friend who's disappeared into the ether, Touya thinks maybe Red needs to hear that. Espeon seems a little annoyed.
"That doesn't mean you can stay here forever, Red."
"B-But you're not in trouble."
"Red..."
Red holds out Espeon's pokéball. Without another word, she allows herself to be recalled. Red slumps over a bit, shivering, not at the cold but seemingly crying. If Touya could move any closer - well, he's not even sure if a hug would be appropriate for someone who came to hide on a mountain for years on end, but at least the sentiment is there.
"...did you make that up?"
Touya shakes his head, even though he knows Red can't see the gesture. "Of course not. He just mentioned you were up here, a-and he told me a little about you." Pause. "He specifically told me to let you know he misses you."
"He stopped coming up here." Pause. "I stopped writing, though."
"Maybe you should write to him again."
"Tried to. Didn't work."
"Ah."
Red walks over to Charizard with what looks to be a bucket of water. "Dunno what to say."
Touya shrugs. "Anything."
"...anything?"
"I-If I could just know that N is alive somewhere, I-I would wanna hear from him, no matter what he has to say."
"What if he says he hates you?"
Ouch.
Ouch.
"H-He wouldn't - "
"If."
God that hurts to even consider -
"I... A-At least I would know he's alive."
Red is quiet. Charizard growls softly at him, an almost comforting noise.
"I'm fine." At least, that's what Touya thinks Red just said. He can't quite hear.
Touya notices his backpack is sitting next to him, and in a desperate attempt at changing the subject if only a little, he reaches over and digs out the pictures of N he has. A few of them are from news clippings, from before Touya defeated Team Plasma, but he's only looking at the one dim photo he took with N in Chargestone Cave, one evening after he was supposed to have left and continued on his quest to find the Light Stone. Touya never thought he'd have to explain what a selfie is to someone around his age, but somehow, that's the topic that came up that night.
It's when you take a picture of yourself, basically. Sometimes it's of you and your friends.
Friends? The word still seemed foreign to N, to say friends in reference to anything other than Pokémon.
Yeah, like - here, you wanna take one now? You just have to smile, okay?
N... N wouldn't hate him, right? Touya doesn't know if he could carry on living if he did.
"...Red."
The champion jolts again, spilling little droplets of the water being heated over Charizard's tail. "What?"
Touya holds out the pictures to Red, and to his relief, Red doesn't try to take them; somewhere in Touya's mind, he worries that losing these images will erase N from existence. "Have you seen him?"
Red shakes his head slowly. Figures.
"R-Right. Sorry."
"...It's okay." His voice is always barely above a whisper.
"H-He's kinda why I came up here to begin with," Touya explains absently. "I-I need to bring him home so he can tell us about his time in Team Plasma, a-and I can prove he's innocent."
"Innocent?"
"Their leader was using most of the people around him to his advantage, b-but a lot of members of Team Plasma didn't realize that Ghetsis was behind everything. N's goal was to liberate Pokémon from people b-because he was raised to believe all people are abusive to their Pokémon, a-and... I-I mean, th-that's obviously not the case, s-so ultimately it was... h-his heart was in the right place."
Red looks up at Charizard with a particular look in his eyes, maybe anxiety or pensiveness.
"H-He doesn't believe that anymore, by the way," Touya quickly adds. "He told me I proved that people and Pokémon live in harmony together before he, um, left."
"Where?"
"I have no fucking clue," he sighs, and the weight of N being gone hits Touya all at once in the way that it does sometimes. "Th-That's why I've been to almost every region looking for him. I-I have no idea where he went, a-a-and I just... want him back. I-I don't know if something awful happened to him, o-or if he's just happy living alone, or..." He takes one breath to try and steady himself. "We need to talk to him, a-and personally? I miss him so much it hurts."
Red is sitting in front of Touya, now, having moved so quietly that he didn't even hear the champion move. He wraps a warm, wet towel around Touya's hands without a word, drapes one more over his ankle (that must be where the worst of the break happened), then Red goes back over to the bucket and continues heating the water.
"...sorry. I-I guess I shouldn't be dumping all this on you."
"Do."
"...I'm sorry, what?"
"Keep talking."
Somehow, he catches on pretty easily. "Is this about Green?"
Red had seemed fairly calmed down, but now he's just sobbing fuck no no no -
"H-Hey, hey, i-it's okay, I-I won't mention it again, o-okay?" No answer. "L-Look, i-i-if me missing N is anything to go off of, whenever I find him, I-I'm just gonna be really happy - elated to find him safe and sound, y-you know? I-I, um, I really, really couldn't be mad at him. H-He has his reasons for leaving, a-and I'm not mad, I just... miss him."
"I do too." Red misses Green, rather, is what that sentiment means.
"S-So, um..." Fuck, what can he say that won't make Red feel worse? "Whenever you two reconnect, I-I'm sure Green is just going to be overjoyed that you're alive. H-He said he's not mad at you now, a-and I don't think he's going to be. He said you're a wonderful person."
"...horrible friend, though."
"No. N's not horrible for leaving, and neither are you," Touya insists. Charizard wraps his wing around Red, who seems to be calming down just a little.
"...maybe." He doesn't sound even remotely convinced, but that's better than nothing.
"I-I'm not here to force you to visit him or anything, b-but, um, just... don't be scared of seeing him again." Honestly, that's something Touya has been telling himself, too. He tries to avoid the idea of N hating him to keep himself steady, but now his worries are coming back up quietly, assassins in the night.
"...okay." Red rubs his eyes and crawls across the cave. "Hungry?"
Starving, actually, but he's going to try to keep some dignity. "K-Kinda, yeah."
"Stir-fry."
"Sounds good to me."
Red puts a bag of noodles (wait, how did he even get those?) in the pot and starts preparing the meal. "Keep talking."
"I-Is that okay?"
Pause. "If you want. Talk about N."
So Touya lets all the happy memories zip through his mind and out of his mouth, because he can't bare to cry about N for the seventh time in two days.