Hi this was a random dumb idea I came up with yesterday and then spent like all day writing it. 4000 words in a day is an accomplishment for me haha

Also first time I've ever written about pre-BW N so... hopefully I didn't mess anything up in his personality owo;

"Zorua? What's happening to your fur?"

The little fox had been play-fighting with Archen, chasing the bird around the room and pouncing on it whenever its wings got tired and it flew low enough for him to catch. Simply watching them out of the corner of his eye to make sure neither Pokémon got hurt – N didn't like the whole concept of people outside making his friends fight each other like his father had explained, but when they were just playing like this it seemed fine – he'd been slightly concerned when the dark-type had suddenly stopped running, freezing in the middle of the room. His fur looked a strange colour, almost as if there was a slight glow to it, but that certainly wasn't normal.

"Zorua…?" N's voice was full of concern, and he carefully put the book aside, offering a quiet apology to the Tirtouga he'd been reading to at the top of the skateboard ramp. The turtle just gave a slow, lazy blink in response, not really understanding any of the calculus the boy had been trying to explain to him anyway.

Easily keeping his balance as if it was something he'd done many times before, the boy slid down the side of the ramp before heading out into the middle of the room where the fox stood, fur glowing with an even harsher light. Zorua gave a warning yap, telling him to stay back.

"What? But why…? Zorua!" He had to shield his eyes from the light. Now he knew what was happening. And this time, well, he knew better than to try and watch. The last time he'd seen this happen to a Pokémon he'd been blinded for half a day by looking at the bright light for too long. His father had shouted at him for being stupid; the booming voice had been even more terrifying when he couldn't see the person accompanying it.

He didn't want to make the same mistake this time, waiting until the light began to fade before allowing himself to see what was before him. The little Zorua was nowhere to be seen; instead, a larger creature stood in its place, around the same height as the 15-year-old who stared at it in awe.

"Zoro… ark…!" he beamed brightly. "Zorua, you evolved!"

The fox gave a bark of excitement, casting a quick glance back in surprise upon realising he no longer had a tail to wag, but that didn't seem to bother him for long. Mane streaming out behind him, he ran for the human, tackling him onto the blue-and-white carpet.

"Oof!" A grunt escaped him as the fox decided to sit on his stomach like he'd always done before in his pre-evolution. "You got heavy—hey!" N couldn't help but laugh at the rough tongue licking his face. "Zoroark, stop it, that's gross…!"

A smirk-like grin plastered on his face, Zoroark sat up to give him a chance to wipe the slobber from his face with one sleeve before deciding to nuzzle the boy's cheek instead. N was his friend, and he knew the boy would always love him no matter what he looked like.

Giggling at the show of affection, the boy soon pulled Zoroark into a hug. "It's great that you evolved! I wonder what evolving is like. Pokémon are so amazing…"

"So, the dark-type evolved into a Zoroark, you say?"

The grunt who had given the report swallowed nervously. He'd only been on the job for a few weeks and already he'd had to put up with numerous death glares from the sages. In his opinion, Ghetsis always seemed the most threatening; like he was the one in control, no matter how many times he explained that N was their lord, but the boy was too young to rule over a whole organisation like Plasma. To be quite frank, the grunt couldn't wait for the boy to just hurry and grow up already; maybe then they'd actually have a leader who didn't constantly glare daggers at any subordinate who gave him anything other than brilliant news.

"Ah, that's what I heard him talking about, sir," the grunt nodded, resisting the urge to pull at the neck of his shirt. Ghetsis' office always seemed really hot, but in reality it was more likely to be his own imagination. He'd tried to imagine the guy actually glaring lasers at him once but had been questioned for almost breaking into a smile at the hilarity of the entire mental image – and that had only made his nerves even worse. Why did he have to be situated in the castle anyway? He'd much rather be one of the grunts who were out searching for those worthy to be the other sages of the group.

"Interesting," the one-eyed man mumbled. "Dismissed."

The grunt was out of the room in record time, causing Ghetsis to let out a quiet snort of amusement. Honestly, some of these people were so jumpy. If this was the effect he had on his own grunts for simply ordering them, imagine how much power he'd have when his plans finally all fell into place.

Although, there was something he had to take care of in the meantime; something that might even help things in the long run. "Triad!"

A moment of silence; then three masked figures seemed to materialise in the room. "Yes, my lord?"

"I've told you before, it's 'sage Ghetsis'. If any of the lower grunts here you giving me that title, people are you to get suspicious."

"Yes, of course. Apologies, my lo—sage Ghetsis." The shadow bowed his head apologetically. "What can we do for you, our sage?"

"The fox evolved." To them, that was a good enough explanation. That thing had always given him trouble when it was a Zorua; it seemed very protective of N, and certainly didn't like Ghetsis. It had almost taken a chunk out of his leg once; evolved, the thing could prove a lot more dangerous. And besides, taking action might play out in his favour. "Get some of the grunts to remove it from the castle. And make sure you assign people N hasn't met; don't let them wear their uniforms."

The triad simply nodded. They had devoted their lives to the man who had saved them and would follow his orders unquestionably. The grunts might be slightly less willing, but they could easily change that, one way or another. "Yes, sage Ghetsis."

In the windowless room it would have been difficult to know what time of day it was if it wasn't for the lights being switched off at a set time. Ten years had drilled the routine into him by now; lights switched off at 9PM to remain that way until 8AM the following morning. He often stayed up later, using a torch as a source of light – whenever the batteries ran out, that was his first complaint the next morning – but N was usually fast asleep by midnight, curled up on a pile of cushions and rubber tyres, most often surrounded by his Pokémon friends, and this night was no exception.

A sound from somewhere in the halls woke the fox, and he lifted his head, ears twitching. People didn't usually walk the halls at this time of night to avoid disturbing the rest of their 'king', so hearing the incoherent mumbles and footsteps outside was a little odd. A quiet growl rumbled in the dark-type's throat.

That was enough to wake up the teenager who had his face almost buried in the creature's mane. His voice was groggy and slurred from sleep. "Zoroark…? What s'matter?"

Reaching back to nudge the boy's cheek with his snout, the fox gave a quiet grumble.

"People?" N blinked, sitting up and hurriedly trying to blink the sleep from his eyes. "But the lights are off." No soon as he said that, he saw the edges of the door illuminated, as if someone was shining a light outside. He lowered his voice to little more than a whisper. "I see. That's weird. Maybe it's just… Anthea or Concordia… or one of the grunts out late…" Although, he knew either one of them was unlikely.

As he stood up from the little nest, Archen lifted his head sleepily with a quiet coo, having been woken by the movement.

"Shh, quiet," N hushed. "Don't worry; I'm sure it's just nothing."

All of a sudden the door was flung open, the room lit up by a blinding light as torches were shone straight at them. N flinched and tried to shield his eyes. "Who are you? And why are you here?" He could hear the sound of Pokémon behind him as all the others fled for the cover of the tyres.

"That doesn't matter. Hand over the Zoroark and everything will be fine."

"What!?" He still couldn't see who the people were and he didn't recognise the voices, so why were they here? And what did they want with Zoroark? He could see the Pokémon's fur bristling beside him, and the quiet growling he'd been giving out before had changed to a threatening snarl at the intruders.

"Give the Zoroark to us, and we won't harm anyone."

"No, I won't let you harm my friends. Go away." He didn't know who these people were, but they weren't his father or his sisters, he knew that much. The grunts in the castle usually did whatever he said, so shouldn't these people follow his orders as well?

"Stubborn child… fine. Get them."

N's breath caught in his throat as the people stepped closer. They almost looked wary. Were they scared of him? No, he could see when they got closer; they were watching Zoroark. The fox wasn't having any of it. Determined to protect N, he let out a vicious growl and lunged for the nearest intruder, teeth and claws glinting in the light of the torches.

Zoroark tried to sink his teeth into their arm, but their clothes were well padded, the material too tough to break through. Something was thrown into the air, momentarily cutting through the light and landing over the fox, forcing him to the ground. The dark-type began to struggle against it, eyes flying wide in panic, but the net had him caught.

"Zoroark!" N cried, trying to run over to free him but the intruders were already a step ahead. The teenager was easily overpowered and tackled to the ground. The impact momentarily stunned him but it wasn't long before he was trying to fight to escape their grip, trying to knock away the weight holding him down. "Let me go!"

"Sorry, kid, no can do." The other people had managed to gather the net with the fox inside, dragging him away. Zoroark tried to dig his claws into the ground, but it didn't help; two fully-grown men were much stronger than the fox.

"Stop it, no!" The boy was practically screaming by now, causing the few Pokémon that had peered out from their hiding places to retreat back in fear, but in the current situation that hardly seemed to matter. His voice was fearful, pleading, edged with despair. "You can't take him away, he's my best friend! Give him back, please…!"

He was shoved harshly back against the ground, clearly in an effort to get him to shut up but he didn't care. He could take any physical pain to protect his friends but at the moment he just couldn't do anything. His distressed scream echoed around the walls of the castle.

"ZOROARK!"

Days passed since the staged break-in. Anthea and Concordia had kept an eye on their brother, but their reports to Ghetsis had him slightly concerned. Not for the boy, no; his wellbeing only mattered if it was likely to cause any error to his plans. And with how things were going, he was concerned that they might do. That was the annoying difference between the kid and a puppet; puppets didn't show emotion.

When he finally decided to go and see the brat himself, he was glad that for once there was no Pokémon trying to snap at his heels as he entered the room. The boy was curled up among the pillows, puffy eyes indicating he'd been crying recently, and a Purrloin had curled itself up against his arm, every now and then nudging him with one paw but to no response.

The boy sure was annoyingly emotional. Why couldn't he just act the way Ghetsis wanted him to? Then everything would be a lot easier.

Ghetsis cleared his throat but N didn't even react, although the Purrloin fled for cover as soon as it noticed the other human in the room. Stupid boy. No point bothering going on a rant about addressing him properly when he was present; it'd probably just fall on deaf ears. "I'm told you haven't been eating recently."

"Don't care."

Well, that hadn't quite been the response he'd been expecting. The mild look of surprise was soon suppressed, replaced by a deep frown. "You will care if you end up starving. Stop being so ungrateful and eat the food we give you."

The boy looked over at him at last. "Not until they give Zoroark back."

Ghetsis narrowed his eyes. Perhaps that plan hadn't worked out so well after all, but no matter. He could make it work. "They won't. Those people broke into the castle and took Zoroark away to kill him."

"No!" N shot up into a sitting position, trembling both from lack of strength and out of distress from the news he'd just received. His eyes widened in despair, pupils so constricted it was as if somebody had shone a light in his face. "Th-they… no…! Why would they do that!?"

"You know what people are like, N. This is the sort of thing they do to Pokémon." Of course this was lies; the grunts had simply thrown the thing out into the forest. It had been living in the castle for so long it would probably starve to death soon enough. But to N and the grunts – and even the girls, since he didn't trust them to not admit the truth to the boy – the fox had been killed. Even the people who had been in charge of capturing the thing had been told that the creature had escaped from the triad and fallen to its death in a blind rage. "That's why you need to look after yourself properly and become the king of Team Plasma. You need to stop things like this from happening."

"But I couldn't stop them! I couldn't do anything!" N cried, burying his face in his hands. "I couldn't stop them from taking him away, and… and…!"

"Then become the king so you can stop them!" Ghetsis snapped. He was starting to lose his patience. The boy's emotions were such a pain. "If you don't, Pokémon will always have to be at the mercy of people. You've witnessed plenty of times how people treat their Pokémon; do you want to give up and let this happen again?"

"No…"

"Then stop moping around feeling sorry for yourself. It isn't going to change what happened. Work towards becoming king, and then you can separate Pokémon from people. They won't have to suffer like Zoroark did."

The reminder made the boy flinch. After a few long moments he finally wiped his eyes with the back of his hands, looking up at the man. Eyes which had previously been empty but now sparked with a slight determination. "Yes, father."

One thing that had definitely come from this incident was that N was now very wary whenever anyone came near the door; yet seeing it was only his sisters always brought a wave of relief. He liked whenever they came to see him, whether it was to bring him food or just to give him some human company. Unlike the grunts that simply did as they were told, Anthea and Concordia treated him kindly, and he often found himself wishing that all people could be as nice as they were. They were kind to his Pokémon friends as well; if more people were like that then the creatures wouldn't have to suffer, but unfortunately all of the people outside the castle were horrible.

In their opinion, it had probably been a good thing they were around when Archen's feathers started to glow. The ancient bird had finally managed to learn to fly properly, and that must have triggered the evolution. Yet N's reaction was a lot different than either of them anticipated.

"Archen, no! Don't evolve, please don't evolve…!"

N might not have been muscular, but it had taken both sisters to hold him back as he tried to run over to the flying-type.

"N, what's the matter?" Anthea asked urgently, hugging her brother close even though he was simultaneously trying to break away. "Archen is evolving; there's nothing wrong with that."

"But I can't let him!" There was clear distress in the teenager's voice, but he'd stopped struggling, knowing he wasn't going to be able to get away without hurting either of them. "When Zorua evolved, they came and took him away… I can't let the same thing happen to Archen!"

"N, it's okay," Concordia soothed, gently running a hand through his hair. "That was just an accident. I'm sure people won't be able to break in here again."

The two girls exchanged a brief glance. Neither of them knew how it had happened; the castle was always guarded. But their father wouldn't really go so far as to stage something like that, would he?

Once the light had faded and N was no longer in danger of getting temporarily blinded again, they released their grip, letting him run over to the newly-evolved Archeops. The rock bird let out a happy trill at its new flying ability, but its expression visibly changed when it noticed the distressed look on the boy's face. It fluttered down to land in his arms just as N fell to his knees, not even caring that the carpet burned his skin.

"Archen—Archeops, I'm sorry…"

Hugging was difficult when it didn't really have limbs designed for doing so, but the bird still gave an attempt, cooing softly in an attempt to comfort its friend. Being a rock-type, it wasn't too keen on the water it could feel soaking into its feathers.

"I won't let them take you away, I promise."

It was amazing how much someone could change within the span of just a few months. After turning 18, N had been assigned as king of Team Plasma and finally allowed to leave the confinements of the castle. He'd been travelling the past few months, watching his father's speeches across Unova. And yet the more time he'd spent out here, the more people and Pokémon he met, the more confused he became.

It had to be all because of that one trainer. Why did their Pokémon love and trust them so much, even though they repeatedly forced them to fight?

Still, no matter. He'd revived the legendary dragon. He was close to achieving his goal.

So why did he have this nagging feeling that something was wrong?

He was heading up the mountainside of Victory Road, on his way to face the elite four and the champion. If he was going to free all Pokémon, he had to make them see the world the way it really was – and if not, he could take the champion's position by force. He'd order everyone in Unova to release their Pokémon. Nobody would be able to pin him down and make him useless this time. Not even that trainer.

A Pokémon's call from nearby caught his attention, and he glanced around to see what it had been. A heatmor was crossing the path, watching him carefully with its tongue flicking out every so often.

At the sight of a Pokémon, N couldn't help but smile. "Hello there, Heatmor, it's nice to meet you!"

The fire-type flicked its tongue, letting out a quiet roar before plodding towards him.

The air warped. The Pokémon's fiery red scales rippled and faded until there was a completely different creature racing towards him. Frozen out of sheer disbelief, it didn't take much force for N to be tackled onto the dusty path of the mountainside as the creature sat itself on his stomach.

For a long moment, he simply stared, wondering if he was imagining things. If there was really a heatmor sitting on him right now he'd probably be on fire. But the black-and-red creature he thought he could see was painfully familiar, and he hoped with all his heart that this wasn't just a hallucination.

"No, you… you can't… you're…" Feeling his voice catch in his throat, N could barely even say what he'd been trying to. "Zoroark…"

The fox let out a happy cry, reaching over to nuzzle the man's cheek with his snout. Even he hadn't believed it at first; after all, when did N ever leave the castle? But he'd stayed nearby ever since the people had thrown him out, learnt how to defend himself, waited patiently for the day either he could find a way into the castle or the boy could find a way out.

"How…" A strangled sob finally escaped him, not really helped by the weight on his chest and stomach, vision going slightly blurry as his eyes brimmed with tears. "Ghetsis told me you were dead…!"

Zoroark tipped his head to one side before shaking it. He never had liked that guy; just the mention of him caused a quiet growl of hatred.

As N tried to sit up the fox hopped off him, settling by his side instead. Almost as if he still didn't believe his friend was really there, N reached out one hand to pet his ears. Zoroark leaned into the action, any signs of hostility gone as he enjoyed the affection. It had been a long time since anyone had petted him; he'd stayed away from any humans he came across while in the wild.

"It really is you," N said eventually, confirming his thoughts out loud. "Zoroark, I'm sorry I let them take you away like that. I missed you so much!" He carefully pulled the dark-type into a hug, running one hand through his mane. After three years of living in the wild his fur had become more ruffled and dirty, but the fox seemed a lot leaner too, probably from having more space to run. "Are you happier now? In… in the wild?"

Stepping back from the hug at those words, Zoroark let out a quiet grumble, trying to lick the tears from the man's face. That finally managed to spur a smile and a laugh out of N. True, the fox enjoyed the open space much more than the confinements of the castle, but he liked being with his friend too – and he wanted to make sure N knew that.

"Okay, okay, I get the idea," N chuckled, wiping the tears and fox saliva from his face with his sleeve. Some things didn't change, it seemed.

There were a few moments of silence before he finally spoke again. "I don't understand. Why did Ghetsis tell me you'd been killed?" When the fox just gave a shrug, he sighed. "Perhaps he was just mistaken. Still… our dream is finally coming true, Zoroark! If I can just beat the champion, Pokémon will never have to be hurt in battle ever again! Pokémon will be separated from people, and the world can be black and white at last, just like it should be."

Zoroark listened happily at his friend's enthusiasm, but soon his ears gradually started to fold back against his head. Looking at N with sad eyes, he gave a quiet bark.

N's eyes widened slightly at the question he'd just been asked. "I… yeah, I… suppose… that does include you and me," he responded sadly. "But if I don't do this, Pokémon will have to continue to suffer at the hands of trainers." It was a sacrifice he was going to have to make for the sake of all Pokémon.

The fox let out a quiet whimper. He didn't want to lose his friend again after finding him so soon. But if this was what he wanted… Zoroark was willing to help. Even if it did mean it was going to be a parting gift.

The yap got N's attention, causing him to blink in surprise. "You want to help fight? But Zoroark, I don't want you to get hu—"

Zoroark interrupted him with another bark. He was stronger than before; he could look after himself.

N hesitated for a long moment, as if contemplating the offer. Eventually he gave a slow nod. "Okay. You can help. And I'm not letting anyone else take you away this time."