A lot had happened.

In a short time, so much had transpired—everything had changed to the point that it made Touya dizzy. Perhaps some dizziness was due to being so high up in that tower; he stared beyond the figures in front of him at the gaping hole of rumbling stone. Through it there was nothing but sky stretching for miles—his vision seemed to swirl about aimlessly, and it all left an uncomfortable, nervous feeling in the pit of the young hero's stomach.

Touya was a modest person, not particularly overconfident, but he had always been headstrong and determined when it came to his convictions. But what about now? Nothing felt right. Where did he go from here? What feeling was there now that he could be certain of? He'd subdued Zekrom and defeated Ghetsis as he meant to, but these victories felt foggy in his consciousness compared to the ever present sinking in his heart. Cheren's eyes flicked over to Touya in concern as he and Alder dragged Ghetsis wordlessly past him. Touya barely noticed, his legs setting to work while his mind could not, autonomously drawing him from their path as the two extricated the madman from the premises.

As it unfolded around him, the situation felt foreign to Touya. The hero's eyes searched for something but continued only to find N's face—that twisted, painful expression which he could only describe as the death of innocence—maybe something that had become too mangled and warped by his father to even be called innocence anymore. Time ticked by in slow agony for Touya as he seemed to lose a grasp of all his convictions. In reality he had witnessed only the smallest, merest moment of dissonance and with the next breath he drew, N's expression snapped perfectly back to composure, the briefly contorted lines of his face smoothing neatly into perfection. Unreadable, unreachable, and yet immeasurably captivating. Touya almost wondered if he'd imagined it all up til now. How could he look so calm, so impenetrable, when even Touya himself felt anything but?

He stared at the green haired young man as he approached. N stopped in front of him, smiling enigmatically, possibly reassuringly but nothing was certain to Touya as he took it all in. In truth N was smiling because of Touya. Touya, who always laid every emotion unknowingly out before him in perfect honesty, but never in a sloppy overbearing sort of way. Just sincere and likeable.

"There's something I would like to talk with you about." He said calmly. Touya thought N looked even just a little sad, though he couldn't be sure. Still it was enough to make his heart wrench rather painfully against his ribcage. Ghetsis' words, the most effective of weapons against his own child, heartless, inhuman monster echoed in his head, making his throat close up, stinging. Why was he the one who felt so much like crying?

He somehow mustered a nod and the two walked on.

"When I first met you, I heard the voices of your Pokémon, and I was shocked at what I'd heard." N began, never saying more than was necessary or raising his voice from its quiet, soothing timbre. He shook his head lightly, "Why…did they claim to be fond of you? In spite of what I believed, they told me they wanted to be with you."

"N…" Touya tried to interrupt. Are you really alright, after all those things your father said? Aren't you hurt? Why were they talking about Touya and his Pokémon right now? There was so much he wanted to ask, but whatever N was saying seemed to be important to him, and as he turned to Touya to continue, the young trainer felt whatever urgency he'd had to speak die in his throat.

"I never knew—I never understood that there were Pokémon in the world who liked people, who loved them, until I met you." N went on, speaking casually despite the gravity he sincerely felt his words held, "Little by little, as our journeys entwined, you swayed my feelings…"

Hearing such words made Touya's skin numb…he could feel heat behind his ears.

N continued to walk forth, towards the open sky, Touya following loyally beside him and pausing in his step wherever N paused. The air grew colder with each resounding step, and the light beyond them made N glow faintly in contrast to the dark shadow on his backside, making him feel only more distant to Touya. There was an inexplicable aching in his chest. It was the weight of N's burden, simultaneously with the emptiness of loss.

"What I do now is up for me to decide…" N trailed off, his lips curving into a gentle smile. By now Touya had fallen several paces behind—at some point his feet would not will him to step any closer to that foreboding blue sky.

"Touya."

He held his breath.

"You must have dreams. Believe in them—"

Touya desperately wanted to savor these words, knowing somehow that it must be very important despite that he could not seem to grasp it. Any of it. What was N saying? His voice held Touya transfixed but the boy found himself strangely unable to cling to the words that carried it. It was not unlike a dream in which, after lifting his foot from the ground to walk, he'd find he could no longer regain his footing.

"Well then…" he concluded. His tone was perfectly even, as if mocking all the shy unspoken words which had caught helplessly in Touya's throat, refusing to come out.

Touya knew it was imminent. What he'd been dreading.

No.

Don't say it.

There's so much I need to say first—why now had he become incapable of speaking?

"Farewell."

The two syllables blurred together in his mind. Oddly enough, N's distant, smiling face seemed to blur before him too. As much as he blinked he could not focus it.

It wasn't until N was suddenly right in front of him, wiping his tears away, that Touya realized it was because he'd begun to cry. Here N had been hurt, had his entire life's purpose ripped out from under him, and Touya was crying instead. He felt stupid.

N, on the other hand, felt incredibly grateful. Fortunate even. That someone would cry for him. Cry when he couldn't. Cry to see him go.

"And thank you." He whispered, meeting Touya's eyes with a gentle expression. It was all Touya could do to pull his quivering lips into a shaky but equally heartfelt smile. He wanted so badly for N to see it, if his smile could mean anything to N…

Unconsciously he savored the touch of warm fingertips grazing his cheeks before they slid away.

And then N turned his back to him. Touya thought he'd never felt so light and heavy at the same time. As if he might both sink into the floor and blow away with the wind all at once. A small gust rattled them as he watched in awe, the serenity in N's face. He had never seen anything more beautiful in his life, he thought, despite that he thought he had felt this way in Zekrom's presence only moments ago.

A lot had happened.

N fell peacefully, poetically, into the cloudy blue void, and was gone. Touya fell to his knees.

The tears fell freely now, soft sobs and sighs escaping his trembling lips. "No…" It was an unanticipated, gut-wrenching sadness marked by the loss of something important and irreplaceable. The shivers from the sobs were only exaggerated by the cold, open air that tore through him. Even after the chill had vanished, his body enveloped in warmth, his body's quivering would not seem to stop.

Touya opened his eyes suddenly. Warmth?

Arms had wrapped themselves around him. Strands of green hair stuck to his tear-stricken face as they whipped about in the wind. This time N himself looked on the verge of tears.

Touya literally gasped, immediately feeling a fool for such a reaction but too shocked ultimately to care. He couldn't help thinking that N would never cry.

No. Of course he would. Everyone did. He was human, after all.

"Ghetsis is wrong," Touya choked between sobs, remembering what he'd wanted to say all this time, "You're not a monster."

These were the words that broke the spell. Tears spilled forth from N's eyes, as real and raw as any human's; they were hot and felt strange on his skin.

Touya might have been alarmed to see N cry, he might have been uncomfortable, unknowing what sort of reaction to have. But it didn't matter now. He welcomed N's soft muted hiccupping sobs, and the watery stains on both their cheeks; he welcomed the fingers curled tightly into his clothes and hair. The embrace that said goodbye, but also wait for me.

"Thank you." It was nothing more than a whisper but it rang deeper within Touya than the loudest of bellows. It was the last thing N would say to him before they pulled apart, before gentle lips indented his brow.

And he was gone again. But this time Touya smiled, with nothing more than a murmur to the wind, "We'll meet again."