He waits. He waits and waits and waits. He knows somebody will come, somebody is on their way. And so he'll wait, he'll wait in his dark room. Circumstances lead him to his position, a position that must never be empty.

"I'm not chained, I'm not caged" he'd usually muse out loud, always in the dark. He'd go out, wander the region in a bold attempt of stating his freedom, but nobody's ever seen him around for an extended period of time. For a long time he lived a lie, pushing his concerns into the darkest corner of that room, guarding the throne.

Somebody's on their way, he knows. He saw, he saw. Because, for a short while, he went out. He went out and saw that somebody was on their way. For a few moments, he shone out there for everyone to see, he traveled the warm and humid roads of Hoenn. Moved around by fate, he did what he was meant to do. And so he went back to his dark room, the one on top of everything, to wait. Because, as he fulfilled fate's desires, he saw that somebody was on their way.

And that filled him with hope.

"LET ME LEAVE! LET ME OUT!" There where times when he couldn't wait. "SOMEBODY HELP ME, HELP ME, I'M TRAPPED!" But nobody would come. "CAN ANYBODY HEAR ME?" Locked in the furthest corner of the region, nobody can hear the King. "IS ANYBODY IN THEIR WAY? COME! KILL ME! KILL ME!" For the four that came before him were locked in there, too, in their own way. Nobody but the champion will ever know about the fears in that dark room, nor about the screeches nobody else seems to hear, about those feelings from previous champions that pour from the walls. But he would never know for sure, he's always alone.

He doesn't know what he'll do once he's out, for whatever he was doing before this is what lead him into his current situation. But he keeps hoping for a way out. He dreams and dreams about that machine and the distinct sound it'll make, he dreams about it so much that sometimes he's wide awake and rushes at the door, thinking he's finally free.

It's only when he's in the middle of his battle arena that reality slaps him back into stillness.

One day the door opens. One day that door, the door he'd smile at on his early days, was opened and through it passed that person he'd been waiting for all along. He felt as if his heart would explode, his hands trembled and he smiled wider than he ever had.

Now. Now. Now.

He's always given his best in battle. But no strategy of his would stop his oponent, and once he was defeated he could hear chains snapping in his mind. The one who he'd been waited all along proved himself, and he couldn't be happier. He remembered the time he defeated the previous champion and couldn't feel prouder of the boy in front of him.

Leave- Leave- Leave-

In a set of swift motions he proceeds, just like the King that came before him. Day's later he'd try to recall those moments but everything was hazy and he couldn't even remember that blessed moment when the machine finished recording. All he'd remember was making his way out of the room, the boy trailing behind him, and stopping one step before exiting.

'Will you be okay?' Of course he would. He was stronger, capable. "Thank you." The kid would never know what he meant.

ESCAPE, ESCAPE, ESCAPE.

Nobody knew of him until that one day he showed up crying on Wallace's door. He was grabbing his head, as if it hurted like never before, staring desperately at him. He'd spend the rest of the day clutching at his friend, holding him tightly with a dried trail of tears on his face. "Never lose hope" he said several times. Wallace would never know what he meant.

"I'll wait for you" was the last thing he said. They wouldn't meet for a long time.

Away.

But still, he was drawn to dark places. He wandered and wandered and wandered, and would end up in the same places. The same caves with the same rocks and the same paths. The same empty chambers and the same agony-filled screams. "HELP ME!" Until the day he met the boy again. "HERE I AM, WAITING!" A hand was extended towards him. "WHY AM I STILL ALIVE?" He grabbed it. "AM I JUST ANOTHER PAWN?"

And together they left Meteor Falls.