*Chapter 79*: Chapter 59: A Place I Knew

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Chapter 59

While Tallie and the flock of Pidgeot took a breather from their mail route and pecked at their lunches, Syr stood beneath the shade of a sycamore tree and awaited the presence of the taskforce to deliver his report. Char took one look at the great bird's face and figured there was good news in store; the Staraptor seemed proud and most at-ease, his face beaming with a smile.

"Aye, good to see you this afternoon," Marrow called to Silverwing's leader, stumbling along behind Team Ember. "How were the skies today?"

"I thought it would be the ground you were most interested in hearing about," Syr said with a chuckle, briefly bowing to the esteemed Marowak. "But if you must know, the upper skies were cold and dry today; you should expect an autumn shower by the end of the week. I must say, the stale air made us work for our altitude. It was a challenge to arrive here in good time."

"Ah, but nothing a good ol' mailbird like yourself isn't trained to handle," Marrow replied playfully.

"Yes, indeed. The mail must stop for nothing!" Syr replied, spreading his wings dramatically. "Which unfortunately means I must be leaving again soon, so come close and listen."

Saura didn't have to be told twice; he eagerly galloped up to the bird and planted himself front-and-center beneath the raptor's gaze.

"In plain sight, there appeared only three Pokémon of interest," the mailbird explained, subduing the volume of his voice just slightly. "There was a Venusaur at the bank of the stream, and another in the village, there was also an Ivysaur in the general vicinity of the stream. I had the formation spread wide and the far wingmen climb some extra altitude, but there were no other suspicious Pokémon visible to us. Only wilds and innocent villagers."

Saura gasped at the mention of the Venusaur, shifting uncomfortably and pawing at the grass as he awaited more news. Char sighed, perhaps in exasperation, at seeing his friend so emotionally vulnerable. Though he was eager to help bring Saura back to his family, it unsettled him just how much the Watcher's curse was controlling his heart.

"Did they appear to be waiting for anything?" Marrow questioned, pegging his club into the ground and leaning upon it. "The Venusaur, rather. Were they acting impatient?"

"Behavioral cues suggested not," Syr reported. "The first Venusaur was traversing the town, the second seemed to be sunbathing. Neither looked expectant for a visitor."

"That's… that's my dad…" Saura gasped, his whole body quaking. "Dad's really lazy… he likes sitting by the water… That's got to be him, it's got to be…"

"Easy, there, little guy," Nidoroch warned. "We're still not sure if this is all what it seems. Syr, you're sure they weren't projected illusions? Or decoys?"

"There were no apparent signs," Syr replied. "Shadows passed over them properly, they left footprints in the dirt, made sounds… there was no evidence to suggest they could have been apparitions. The Venusaur at the riverbank was still clearly visible from two thousand yards, which suggests it was not a psychic's illusion…"

"Understood. And no signs of an ambush?" Nidoroch questioned. "No enemy surveillance?"

Tallie fluttered forward, answering the question in place of the Staraptor. "We performed a four-point check for the presence of enemy recon, but everything was dry," she said gruffly. "Of course, we didn't check inside of any of the housing units, or underground, and we certainly didn't check for any spatial anomalies like teleportation users. If anything's hidden, it's hidden too well for an overhead spot-check. But civilian behavior all checked out; no one seemed disquiet or irregular. If something's hiding in the village, not even the residents know about it."

"Correct. I conclude that either there is no opposition, or the enemy has taken the most extreme precautions possible to hide themselves from us, and know full well what you are planning," Syr added with a nod.

"Perfect," the Marowak said, leaning his bone back over his shoulder and glancing into the distance. "So either this is gonna be real, real easy, or… we're about to spring a mighty impressive trap and see what they're all about."

Char crossed his arms. "Uh… I don't know if I would call that perfect," he countered. "Adiel's asking for us to come, and we don't even know whether or not he's there?! If you ask me, that's not the most reassuring news in the world!"

"What would you have preferred, that we did find enemies there?" Marrow chucked, turning to give him a knowing glance through an eye-hole in his mask. "Trust me, if there were a large-scale ambush waiting for us, there'd have been some sign. Even Adiel couldn't cover his tracks that well."

"Yeah, but I bet Cepheus could," Char mumbled bitterly under his breath, swishing his tail and insolently turning his head away. He caught sight of Ray, who seemed unhappy by the mention of the evil Nidoking, but he stubbornly wore his scowl.

"Hey, none of that negativity now. I thought we were all sunshine and smiles a few minutes ago!" Marrow said sternly, tapping the Charmander on the shoulder with his bone. "Besides, we're not out of cards to play. Which reminds me, Syr. Did the insertion go well?"

"The Weavile hid himself in the baggage," Syr reported. "When we landed, he had already activated one of the invisibility seeds and we deployed him into the post office. If there are details which we did not catch, such as a deeper conspiracy, he will know before you arrive, and he will notify you to call off the mission if necessary."

"See? Everything's accounted for, Char!" Marrow said, hooking the knot in his bone around Char's neck and forcibly turning him back around. "Ye of little faith! You're gettin' out of there alive whether you like it or not."

Char only shrugged, still not entirely convinced they weren't making a terrible mistake.

Why are we even doing this…? Char wondered, feeling his optimistic thoughts crumble under all the uncertainty. Everyone seems confident enough… Saura's gone nuts about seeing his family alive, but that's because the curse is controlling his thoughts. The rest probably came from that Call I gave everyone. Otto's playing his role like a soldier, and Ray seems happy to be here.

But… what's going on here, really?

Why'd Marrow seem so intent on dragging us into all of this? With Adiel, of all Pokémon? Why are we springing this trap? What does he think we'll learn?

"We're out of time," Tallie squawked suddenly, looking at the sky. "We need to stay the course, or it's us who are going to look suspicious. Permission to depart?"

"Permission granted," Marrow replied. "Excellent work. Have a good flight home, Silverwing. Suppose now we've got to go find those dragons again so we can drop Team Ember in the field of duty. Come-along, Char… let's go over one more time what you need to do…"

"Yeah, like it's really all that hard," Char grumbled in reply. "We walk in a straight line. What's there to go over?!"

"Well, for starters, make sure you'll be ready for the exit move," Marrow warned him, leading him away. "If you've never done a pop-'n-pull before, it could catch you off guard…"

As Marrow dragged a reluctant Char off towards the waiting fleet of dragons, and as Tallie fluttered away in the opposite direction and prepared to complete the rest of the mail route with Team Silverwing, two Pokémon remained in place under the gentle shade of the sycamore.

The great Starraptor peered thoughtfully down at the tiny Pidgey, as though deciding whether or not to ask a question. Sensing his interest, the Pidgey waited patiently, his little beady eyes meeting the hawk's wise and piercing gaze.

"You never told me goodbye when you left," Syr said, his voice deep and gentle.

Otto blinked, tilting his head. "You gave me notice of my graduation; I thought it meant I was discharged," he said plainly. "I apologize if I misunderstood."

"Heh, heh… Otto, that is just like you," the great bird said warmly. "I suppose… what I wanted from you was a sense of… closure, I suppose."

"What type of closure?" the little bird inquired.

"Well… perhaps some type of indication I had done well as your teacher," Syr sighed. "When you're as old as I am, and you've had a tough student to teach, it means much to know whether you've truly helped them…"

Otto hopped in place, instantly understanding. "My record with Team Ember is three missions successful, one failed. …And one pending." The Pidgey was clearly proud of his boast; he gazed expectantly into his old teacher's eyes, awaiting the inevitable praise.

But the Staraptor only sighed. It wasn't a bitter sigh, or a contented one, but a knowing one.

"So you are successful, yes," the old bird said. Squinting keenly at his former apprentice, he asked, "But are you happy?"

Otto fluttered his feathers at the unexpected question. "I don't know," he said plainly. "But it is not important. Success is more important than my happiness."

"…Really?" Syr replied, humming. "What makes you say that?"

"I was happy in the wild," Otto said with certainty. "And I will be happy once more if the Master is defeated, or if I know that I have helped in some significant way. Until then, the success of the goal is most important."

"Really, now?" Syr said curiously. "Is that how you define happiness? In the victory? You think it is really that simple?"

Otto looked confused. He opened his beak to say something, but could not decide what to reply with.

"You have grown to be a good bird, I can see that," Syr said, cutting him off. "I think I am satisfied with the work I have put into raising you. But before we must be separated for who knows how long, know that you are always welcome among my flock, and beneath my wing… for there are still some wisdoms and things that I, perhaps, may take to my grave, unless I pass them along to someone as capable as you. Understand, little Otto?"

"I understand," Otto chirped, meeting the elder's gaze.

"We ferals need to stick together, you know," Syr hummed, patting the Pidgey on the head with his wingtip. "Sometimes, all these civil Pokémon just start to become overwhelming, you know? Sometimes what we need most in life is one another."

Otto only blinked, uncertain of how to respond.

"Tell you what," Syr said jovially. "How about, for old time's sake, I tell you one last story."

"We do not have time for a story," Otto squawked. "We must leave immediately. Your flock is ready to leave and awaiting you."

"Nonsense! It is the perfect time for a story," Syr laughed. "And besides, it is only two sentences long: once, upon a time, there lived a Lucario who could not harness the power of aura."

He paused. A confused moment of silence passed between the two birds.

"What happened to the Lucario?" Otto inquired, tilting his head in interest.

The Staraptor stood tall and spread his wings, blocking the sun from the Pidgey's eyes. "He was the weakest, most inefficient soldier the world had ever known," he spoke, leaping into the air and flying back to his waiting flock before the Pidgey could say anything more.

Willow Woods

After three more torturous hours on the back of a Salamence who had no regard for the state of his stomach, Char couldn't have been more thankful it was finally time to land.

The landing site was a humid, misty forest with a perpetual cloud hanging over the canopy, a shroud to make it harder for any potential onlookers to tell if the dragons had landed or kept on flying in a different direction. Despite the moisture, it was quite a warm place and Char instantly felt more comfortable – at least until he remembered he was about to begin a death-march straight into Purevine Village, and that his day would likely end up with Adiel's pincers closed around his neck.

"The rest is up to you," Marrow told them gruffly. "We've got to get going and get into position. Just walk south-southeast from here. Make good time, don't dawdle, and you'll be there by evening. That'll give us plenty of time to get the job done and get home before it gets too dark."

"Purevine's on your map, check that if you get lost," Nidoroch added. "Oh, and if you get captured, don't forget to have Char light the map on fire, since it shows the location of the Gold Division."

"And you're sure we're going to get out alive?" Saura said worriedly.

"Sure! Sure I'm sure," Marrow replied. "Look, I told you this. We got Alastair in the village already. If he tells us somethin's wrong when we get there, we turn around and leave. If we don't hear from him at all, we turn around and leave. And if somethin' goes wrong while you're talkin' to your family, I'll get ya out of there before you can even say the next word on your mind. Happy? Oh, and you're forgetting the other likely possibility: that Adiel's just plain messing with our minds, and he isn't staging an attack at all. Judging from what the birds told us, that's probably what we're in for: a whole lotta nothing. Alright?"

"Let us make a secret signal," Kyria the Breloom suggested. "How about… 'I don't need your pity'. If any of you say that phrase, we'll abort the mission right then and there."

"I don't need your pity," Char repeated, imagining saying the phase defiantly to Adiel's face.

"Yep, exactly that," Kyria said. "Don't forget! We're going to be keeping a close eye on you, but depending on what happens, you might spot the danger before we do. So be on your guard!"

Then, after Team Remorse gave their last bits of advice and wishes of good luck, they took off on the dragons and left Team Ember standing all alone in the far-away forest.

The landing point was nowhere near Purevine Village; the tiny garden habitat where Saura's family waited was not even a speck on the horizon. Char knew, thanks to all the debriefing information he was forced to memorize, that the walk would take at least five hours. Though it wasn't the walk that worried him – he'd been through much worse, especially up north – it was the nagging idea that there were other things amiss. And now that he was alone with his team, he felt that he could finally discuss what was on his mind.

"So, um… does anyone else think this is completely crazy?" Char said out loud, leading his team through the tangle of stringy willow branches. "I really hope Team Remorse knows what they're doing. Because if you asked me to come up with this whole plan, I… really don't see what the point is in practically delivering Saura right to Adiel and then snatching him away again… I really don't see what good could come out of this. But apparently Team Remorse sees something. They know this whole espionage thing better than we do."

"Learning about the enemy is the most important part of war," Otto explained, riding atop Saura's back as he would usually do when Char didn't want him in the air. "If you trigger action from the enemy, you can watch how they act. Then you learn about them. By triggering Adiel's trap, Marrow wishes to learn about his motives and his methods."

"Alright, yeah, I get that," Char said oddly, "but that works both ways, doesn't it? If you were to ask me, Adiel's just using that trick on us, and he's about to learn a lot about us by watching the way we act when we show up to the place he planned… How do we know we're not just feeding him most of the information here?"

"Your complaint… is well-founded, and I do not know the answer," Otto replied, sounding stunned. "If Marrow did not consider this fact, it would imply he is incompetent."

Char stopped walking for a moment, letting the words sink in. A certain thought became stuck in his head and he froze for a moment, staring at the ground.

"Ah, Hey! Don't worry! I'm sure it will be fine," Ray said, lugging the bag on his back which held the apple they were to deliver. "Adiel's probably not even there…"

"Well, it's not just that, exactly," Char returned, almost bitterly. "Actually, there was something that really bothered me about this morning. Anyone else notice when Scythe came in this morning, he said, 'have I ever given you a reason not to trust me?'"

"…Yeah, he said that," Saura said absentmindedly. "I remember him saying that."

"I confirm," Otto chirped.

"Well, that's been nagging at me this whole time," Char said. "Scythe told us not to blindly trust anyone. That's what he said when he left us alone on top of Temporal Tower… and now, he wants his own team to blindly trust him? That just doesn't seem like something he would say."

"I wouldn't call it blind trust," Ray speculated. "He's acting just the way he always used to act. I remember the old days, Scythe would always be happy all the time. Just like this! It's just that you never got to see a lot of this side of him. Crazy things started happening as soon as you two joined the Division. That's when Adiel started appearing again and everything."

"Yeah, but even when he was happy, he was still serious in the team meetings," Char said, glaring directly into Ray's eyes. "I remember one day before you were on the team, we joined one of his team meetings. That was the day after the Call happened the first time. Scythe got really serious and he knew what to say to his team. Today… he came to the meeting and he wasn't serious at all. That bothers me."

Ray shrugged. "Well, maybe Scythe's right. It looks like we might not even have anything to worry about when we get to this village. Maybe Scythe just knew that ahead of time and didn't think it was a big deal. I know this is scary, but… maybe we should just do our best and see how this works out? If something goes wrong today, yeah… I think we should all be worried."

Char scowled and turned away.

"Why did I have to go and use the Call on you…?" he bitterly muttered. "You never needed any more positivity. Now you're just brainless."

"…What?" Ray squeaked, sounding hurt. Instantly, Char regretted his words, knowing that his teammate had at least caught wind of the "brainless" part.

The Charmander snapped. "So you're saying it doesn't bother you that none of this makes any sense?" he growled, leaning towards the Raichu's face. "You really aren't worried about this? Well, I'm the team leader here, and I say something fishy is going on. I don't think Team Remorse has any idea what they're getting into. Adiel has unlimited help and we have, what? Ten Pokémon? You really think we have a chance to get out of this if Adiel's planning something? You really think this is going to end well? You think maybe instead of blindly marching to our doom, we should sit down and talk about this?"

"Whoa, hey, Char…" Ray said concernedly, backing away from his fiery teammate. "I didn't mean it like that. You want to talk? We can talk. I thought that's what we were doing…"

"No, you were blindly following Scythe, just like you always have with all of your dumb hero-worshipping," Char shot. "Now this is just going to be Zerferia all over again. I thought maybe you would have learned something from that with the rest of us."

"No," Ray said calmly. "I'm here because I was following you. If I'm worshipping any hero, it's my team leader, alright? You want to abort the mission? That's fine by me. I was just trying to be helpful…"

"Yeah, real help now, when we're in the middle of nowhere," Char grumbled, clawing at his forehead in exasperation. "We have nowhere to go and we can't abort the mission without just going rogue. It's too late to turn back. We've got no choice but to do exactly what Adiel wants. I just… I don't understand how this happened. It was all too fast."

"SQAWRK!"

Startled by Otto's shrill cry, Char and Ray halted their argument and gave him their attention. The Pidgey still perched upon Saura's bulb, but he looked concerned.

"I do not mean to disrupt your discussion," the Pidgey said, "But Saura appears to be incapacitated by a headache again."

Before Otto had even stopped talking, Char noticed the pained cringe upon the Bulbasaur's face. The heavy regret hit him of having let himself get distracted by such petty insecurity, and his rage melted into pity as he rushed to his friend's side.

The Bulbasaur's face was buried into the ground, his forehead pressed against the wet soil of the forest. His eyes were closed so tightly, as if the sunlight was too much for him, and streams of tears traced from the corners of his eyes and dribbled down his nose. Char rushed up to him and hugged him, startling Otto away. Breathlessly, he caressed the Bulbasaur's head, reaching for any words of consolation he might have.

"No," Char gasped. "No, Saura… not now, no… You've got to get through this. You've got to fight it! C'mon, Saura… don't let it take you. You can fight it."

Saura only moaned, ignoring Char's words.

"Last time, he acted like this for a few moments," Otto said, "Then he started to scream uncontrollably."

"Saura… there's nobody here to help you this time!" Char urged his friend. "Eva's not here. And we don't have a lot of supplies… we're just in the middle of nowhere, fending for yourselves. You can't break down here, Saura. Please… we couldn't help you if you did…"

Saura sniffed loudly, his eyes blinking open.

"Char…" he croaked weakly. "Char, it's okay. It's not a headache this time…"

"…Oh…? Really?" Char said, blinking disbelievingly.

"Yeah, I'm… just… thinking about something," Saura said, his voice filled with sadness. "I was just… kinda getting scared. Realizing I'm about to see my family again. Heh… this might actually be happening and I'm not even prepared for it…"

"Yeah, your family," Char told him, refusing to let go. "It's just the Watcher's curse doing it to you… it's making you obsessed with seeing them again."

Saura laughed bitterly, shaking his head. "No… no, Char, it's not. The Watcher had nothing to do with it. This time it's all just me."

"…What?" Char said, blinking in surprise.

Saura returned the Charmander's confused gaze. "You really think I need a Watcher's curse to miss my family?" he said oddly. "I missed my family since before I met you. In fact… if I never found you and we weren't chased into that dungeon that night and I never found out the resistance even existed… I would have just gone back to them in the morning."

Char almost couldn't understand for a moment. He'd always thought the Watcher curse had been affecting his friend's thoughts and actions – he even remembered the Bulbasaur marching the wrong way into the blizzard, in one desperate final attempt to see them again. He always thought the headaches were controlling his life.

Char shut his mouth, and released the Bulbasaur from his embrace. Finding no words, he simply sat down beside him and shared an apologetic glance.

"You probably can't understand," Saura said, looking up at him, "but this is one of the hardest things I've ever done in my whole life, going back to see them… It's not even about the headaches, it's just… I'm scared of seeing my dad again. I don't know if he still loves me…"

"What?! Why wouldn't your dad love you?" Ray cried in surprise, sitting down next to Char. "Is it because you ran away?"

"My dad and I weren't very close," Saura admitted, pawing at the ground. "The rest of my family loved me so much and I loved them back. But dad was always so… I don't know, he just never seemed interested in me as much as the others. He was always angry at me like I was disappointing him with everything I did. Not anyone else… just me. For a long time I thought I was just being whiny about not getting my way. I wanted to be strong like Saurvor was. Saurvor was the first Ivysaur in our family. Everyone looked up to him, especially me. So I thought, maybe I could be strong like Saurvor, and make dad happy. But then the Flareon came one day…"

He sighed, casting his gaze down and focusing on a clump of dirt beneath his nose. A teardrop fell upon it.

"There were all kinds of things I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be an adventurer like my older brothers, and I wanted to move out of town with them and explore the world and try all the berries that exist and maybe, I dunno, find a mate and grow a forest together! But one day that Flareon came and he said, 'you've got seven days to come with me' and so I went to mom and I told her I really, really didn't want to work for the Master all my life… but she wanted me to go… and she told dad about it, and…"

With a heavy sniff, Saura closed his eyes.

"The last thing dad ever said to me, it was, 'Saura, if there's one thing you're going to do with your pathetic life, you're going to do what the Flareon tells you.' And that's when I… I just ran away. I just… ran. Everyone else was asleep and I didn't get to say goodbye. And I remember, the moon was out and I just ran into the forest and told myself I would see the whole world all by myself and I wouldn't let the Master catch me!"

"Well, you kinda… did," Ray said, trying to be positive. "You got to fulfill your dream! And the Master never did catch you, did he?"

"Yeah, but… there was always a part of me that regretted it," Saura confessed. "The feelings that the Watcher cursed were already in my head the whole time, the curse just made it worse. I remember when I got to the cave, I thought about going back and saying I'm sorry, but I found Char, and we got chased, and… all this happened… and *sniff* I realize now maybe dad was right… maybe I put the whole family in danger when I ran. Maybe I deserve to have everyone hate me… and now dad wants me to bring him an apple! He… he wants me to see him again. I want to hear what he has to say. And you know what? I guess I don't really care that much if he hates me anymore. It was my choice to turn into a fugitive… But I just want to know if everyone's okay, that's all… If they're doing okay without me… then… that's all I want to know. Ow… ow—ah—okay, the headache's back now. There it is."

The little Bulbasaur closed his eyes tightly for a moment, grinding his teeth together hard enough that Char could hear. But he overcame the pain in a hurry, and stared back at his friends with his teary eyes.

"Sorry, that probably didn't make a lot of sense," he sighed. "But… you and Ray are over there arguing about whether or not Adiel's going to be there, and all I'm worried about is my father and how he's going to react when he sees me. Char… can I ask you something…?"

"What is it?" Char replied softly.

"I went to Temporal Tower with you," Saura said meekly. "It was… the most risky, insane, and just… dangerous thing I've ever done in my life. If it wasn't for Celebi and Dialga, I know we wouldn't have survived. But I did it… because… I wanted to help you find closure about wherever you came from. Now… I know I'm not secretly a human and I'm not a personal friend to the dragon gods, and I don't have this crazy destiny to change the world like you do. But I was wondering… would you be willing to do the same thing for me in return? … Is it too much to ask?"

Char looked into the Bulbasaur's broken, confused gaze. He saw his closest, dearest friend, the one who'd given him everything he had out of the kindness of his heart, opened every door, given him every opportunity in this strange world of Pokémon…

It had finally come time for him to ask for repayment. It was something, Char knew in the depths of his Ember, the Bulbasaur truly deserved.

Char stood back up, feeling all of the weakness and insecurity suddenly gone. Just moments before, he had felt powerless, like some puppet of Team Remorse without a say in the matter. Now, as he stared down at Saura, and at his other two friends who silently awaited his words, he remembered what he truly was all along: the team leader.

"Of course we're going," Char decided, his voice firm. "Okay, yeah, you're right. I know this plan is stupid and risky, but I forgot the real reason we were going in the first place. Saura… I don't care if we have to go through Adiel and Cepheus. They can stack the odds against us all they want. Doesn't matter. I'm going to make sure you get your word with your father. It's the least I can do in return for you."

Even through his misery, Saura cracked a grateful smile.

"T-thanks," Saura said bashfully. "This means a lot to me. If I never ask you for anything else in my whole life, I'll be happy with this, at least..."

"Hey," Char said sternly. "I told Otto we're all equals on this team, and I'm sticking to that. We all have to be separated from our families, so it's only fair. This is the only family we've got."

Char stood up, looking at the team he would lead to the south. He could see that his resolutions had brought more happiness to the three other Pokémon than his Call could have done. Ray looked touched, and even Otto seemed to revere the words somehow.

"Now, I'm going to walk to Purevine, and I'm not going to stop until my Ember fades. Worst case, we all die and I finally get to visit Giratina, I guess, right? Well, then. Let's go. We're running late."

Char turned forward and began a determined march into a bush of cattails.

"Um, Char?" Ray called quickly. "I don't think…"

There was an audible Sploosh as the Charmander tripped and fell face-first into the shallow bank of a peaceful lake.

Before he had time to fidget and wonder how to escape from the muddy quicksand without submerging his tail, a pair of vines wrapped around underneath his shoulders and gently lifted him out.

As he hung in the air on Saura's vines, having no idea how much of his front was now covered in mud, Char gave a nervous laugh. "Well, I guess I'm not much of a team leader if I don't watch where I'm going," he said bashfully. "But… seriously, this place is really cloudy… it's so hard to see! How was I supposed to know where the ground ended?!"

"Cattails only grow in water," Otto said blankly. "Avoid them the same way you would avoid Rayquaza's Eye and Poison Orchid."

"Alright, alright! Sorry," Char rambled as his feet touched the ground again. "I'll actually look where I'm going this time."

Saura glanced jokingly at his teammates before unwrapping the Charmander. "What do you think? Does he deserve another chance?" Saura laughed. "Alright, alright, I guess you've earned it. One more chance. How long until you learn to use those legs of yours? You've been tripping over things since the first day you transformed into a Charmander. Maybe as a human you were just bad at walking!"

"Says the Bulbasaur who managed to trip over your own legs earlier today," Char teased. "How does that even happen? Isn't your belly touching the ground all the time?"

With a thwip, Saura snapped a vine under Char's legs and Char was face-down on the ground again. "You mean like that?" he called.

The filthy Charmander glared at his friend through a mask of dripping mud, but the glare faded into a warm smile, one which was returned by the Bulbasaur. In that moment, something reminded him there was no other place in the world he needed to be.

I'm not going to let anything happen to you, Char told himself. I promise.

Ion Plains

When the team found their way out of the misty cloud and left the magnificent willow trees behind, a great golden savannah opened before them. The plains appeared to be flat and barren at first, with only the occasional lopsided tree or flat boulder littered about, but Char saw how the earth was covered in a rich field of grass. Ambergrass, it was called, a type of stalk which grew tall and took the appearance of dead and dry wheat, even as it was flourishing and healthy. It was a type of grass he had seen in his travels several times before, like on the first night he and Saura escaped from their first mystery dungeon while running from Scythe and Shander. He was beginning to form a strong suspicion that Ambera had been given its name in part due to the abundance of this crisp and golden weed which sprung up all over the temperate regions surrounding the plateau.

The ambergrass varied in height; in some places it formed quaint patches of fluff which barely reached Char's ankles, and at other times it became towering stalks which swallowed Char and his friends completely, extending far over their heads. When it became so thick that they could not see, Char sent Otto into the sky as a lookout, the fear of stepping into a sudden creek bed still fresh in his mind. He held his tail close to his chest, careful not to start a field fire, although he suspected the grass was somehow flame-resilient despite its fragile appearance.

At one point when the stalks were tall enough to almost block the sunlight, Char began to giggle.

"Hey, what's so funny?" Ray begged.

"Nothing, just… had a funny thought," Char said, snickering. "We're… the Pokémon in tall grass."

"Huh…?" Ray said. "I don't get it."

"It's an old human joke," Char explained, shrugging. "Children would always ask the adults where they could find Pokémon, and the adults would always say, 'Oh, just go look in the tall grass, I'm sure you'll find something.' And… ah, never mind, I don't even remember why."

"Makes sense to me," Ray said, sniffing at the ground between the blades of grass. "The wilds always love hiding in the grass. Keeps them hidden from predators. Especially this ambergrass, which is the same color as most electric-types—"

Char grew annoyed as he waited for Ray to complete his thought. But the Raichu had forgotten all about what he was trying to explain; he stood onto his hind legs like an alerted squirrel, peering around himself.

"Thought I felt something," he said quietly. "Wait, wait… hold on. Where is this place, exactly?"

"It is called Ion Plains," Otto reported, fluttering back down from the sky. "I remember reading from the map. You should veer your course to the left; the grass becomes thinner and visibility will improve."

"Ion Plains," Ray mouthed, staring at the sky. "With a name like that, I wonder…"

Ray darted away, disappearing farther into the weeds.

"…That is not the way I suggested," Otto sighed, almost looking exasperated.

"...Ray! Wait, Ray! Where are you going!?" Char shouted, beginning to chase after him.

"Don't worry, guys!" the Raichu called loudly from somewhere far away. "I need to see something! Ha-HA, yes! Awesome!"

Rolling his eyes, Char motioned for Otto to follow the runaway rodent. He kept a close eye on the bird as he and Saura barreled through the prairie, but the thick weeds didn't make it easy. Char didn't bother trying to keep his flame from touching the grass as he ran; he was too distracted with thoughts of throttling the Raichu for wasting time.

After several minutes, the stalks finally thinned out, revealing the Raichu standing in the center of a clearing on his tiptoes, his eyes closed and his arms spread wide to the heavens. The bag he had carried lay in the dirt a few feet away. His long tail curved and pointed straight at the sky like a lightning rod beckoning to an invisible storm.

"Ray, what's the matter?!" Char demanded, stomping up to the rodent in a huff.

"…Don't you feel that?" Ray said happily.

"Feel what?" Saura wondered, tilting his head.

"I guess you can't feel it, but the air has a strong negative charge here," Ray explained happily. "It's an electric-type habitat. This whole savannah is!"

Char sighed as his teammate dropped to the ground and scampered away in no particular direction.

"Ah, it just feels really good to be here," the Raichu said as Char caught up to him again. It always feels nice in a thunderstorm, I mean, but in a place like this it feels good all the time, even without storms… Kind of like how you fire-types feel when you have lots of fire around. Or when a plant Pokémon is in a forest, I guess"

"Actually, we prefer the open plains more than forests," Saura noted, slightly annoyed. "Forests block the sunlight too much… Ray, you know we can't spend all afternoon here…"

"Oh, I know!" Ray replied absently, darting back and forth and leaving a lightning-shaped trail through the grass. "But you've gotta give me a second. Just a second! I'm looking for… hmm, just the right place… like here!"

Pausing upon an arbitrary patch of grass, Ray stood once again on his hind legs, holding his front paws high and raising his tail far above his head. A sinister smirk formed on his face.

The next thing Char knew, his ears rang from the sound of a terrible explosion. Before his eyes, he had barely recognized several streaks of lightning which popped from the ground and arched upward, converging onto the Raichu's body. The air sizzled with power and caught on fire as a mighty bolt descended from the cloudless sky, striking Ray on the tip of his tail.

Char gave a startled yelp as he threw himself to the ground, but couldn't remember hearing it over the protest of his ears.

As he tried to blink away the burns left upon his eyes, he watched the Raichu tense his body and clutch his paws close to his chest, wrangling with the bolt he had just collected, focusing all his effort just to swallow and control it. At last, he seemed to sigh happily as he prevailed over the electric charge, containing it steadily within himself. Ray looked quite different after the experience; though it was sunny, his fur clearly radiated yellow light. Char had never seen his friend swallow so much electricity before, and wondered if his bioluminescence could cast enough light to explore a dark cave on his own.

"…Wow, that was strong…" Ray said dizzily as he rejoined his team. "That was a good one. Now I've got enough power to fry Adiel if I need to!"

"I did not know lightning could fall from a clear sky," a terrified Otto squeaked, swooping down to rest upon the Bulbasaur's back once more. "I had always assumed lightning originates from clouds."

"Nah… lightning can come from anywhere that's got an electric charge!" Ray said, pointing at the sky. "Especially in a place like this. There are charges all over the place! And the real good ones are up where the clouds usually are, but you have to stand in just the right place to call them down. My brother taught me how to hunt for them a long time ago. He'd take me to a flat place just like this and he taught me what it feels like when a lightning bolt is up there."

"Well, I'm glad someone feels happy," Char groaned, rubbing his eyes. "Good that you got some energy now, but we probably shouldn't wander too far off course. Otto, which way do we go now?"

Char expected the bird to quip his answer at once, there was no immediate reply. He turned to see the little bird perched on Saura's bulb, staring agape at the sky with the most humbled and fearful eyes he had ever seen the little guy wear.

"Let us… not spend more time than necessary in this field," he replied, not exactly answering Char's question. "I should remain out of the air until we are gone."

"Good idea," Char said absently, scanning the horizon and trying to regain a sense of direction. "I think we were going—"

Char stopped in mid-sentenced when he realized his Raichu companion had run off again. In a blink, he had dashed many yards away, perhaps to search for yet another bolt of lightning. He sighed.

"Ray, what are you doing?" Char spoke to nobody, clawing at his forehead. "I don't want to chase you across the whole field…"

"Then don't!" Saura suggested, carrying the petrified Pidgey on his back. "Just let him run around for a while. He obviously likes this place. We're supposed to be acting natural anyway, right? If there's anyone watching, we're supposed to be acting like we're on our own today. I'm sure he'll catch up when he's ready."

"Yeah, I guess," Char said reluctantly. "Alright, fine. But we still need to get moving if we want to get to the village before sundown. Even if just for Otto's sake. Otto, are you going to be alright?"

"I do not fear many things," Otto said, shuddering awkwardly as he kept his balance upon Saura, "but lightning is one of my great fears. I believe I may have been struck by lightning once before I became civilized, or I may have perched in a tree which was struck, I do not remember. I do not fly well through a storm, and I do not perform well against electric-type Pokémon in battle…"

"Understandable. I'm not the best at swimming, personally," Char said with a shrug. "Alright, we'll let Ray run and play for a while. But if he takes too long, we'll have to go on without him…"

Char and his friends slowed their pace and meandered through Ion Plains, letting their rodent friend run ahead and go where he pleased. Though the prairie seemed peaceful and relaxing, and Saura appeared happy enough to gather sunlight for himself, Char had gotten a bit bored after a time. He was unable to sense the electric charge in the air as Ray had, which he was certain made it feel quite welcoming and exciting for any electric Pokémon, but to him it was nothing more than a featureless expanse of the yellow weeds dotted sparsely with rocks and trees. Occasionally they encountered a small rodent scuttling through the grass, or a herd of Luxray lounging in the grass some distance away, but none of the wilds paid them any attention. Char almost began to wish something would pick a fight with him, just for the sake of the excitement.

Otto, at one point, had chosen to fly ahead on the lookout for the lost Raichu. Char felt lost and restless, even with his oldest and best friend at his side.

"You know what's weird to me?" Char said with a hint of frankness. "Why does a place like this even exist? An electric-type habitat? I never thought I would see a place like this."

"What do you mean?" Saura said, attempting to humor him.

"Well, it's just…" Char said, muddling with his words and trying to find the right way to phrase them, "It's like it's… well, there's so many different kinds of environments here that are perfect for every kind of Pokémon. The other day, when I went on the mission with Otto and Team X, we visited a swamp that was just perfect for poison Pokémon. And then there was the dragon habitat we visited earlier. And then there's Red Haven, that place Scythe was watching over, which is a place where fire-types live…"

"So?" Saura said, shrugging. "What's so weird about that?"

"Well, I mean, what's next? Is there a dark-type habitat where the sun never rises? Or a psychic-type habitat? It's just so weird to me, ever since I came to Ambera, that it always seems like Ambera itself is just… too perfect? It's like it has designated areas for every kind of Pokémon to live happily. It's like the land itself adapted to accommodate the creatures… usually it happens the other way around. I just find that weird. Especially when we explore and discover a whole new place like this."

"That's just the way things are, I guess," Saura replied. "There's a place for every kind of Pokémon to live. That's just how it is for us here. Is it different in the human lands?"

"Well… yeah," Char said, trying to grasp old, invisible memories. "I mean, there are forests, and lakes, and caves and everything in the human lands… water Pokémon can live in the sea and ice-types can always go up north where it's cold. But we've got nothing weird like this, like a whole field that's electrically charged… The elemental Pokémon just live where they can, and sometimes the humans catch them and take care of them. Sometimes we have to make our own habitats for them. Like Pokémon gardens and power plants. And gyms. There are these really skilled Pokémon trainers who really like a certain type of Pokémon, so they collect them and train them and build a whole building out of that element and challenge other trainers to go in, and beat them in a duel."

"I think I've heard of something like that," Saura said. "Are your memories coming back at all?"

"Nah, that's just… common knowledge stuff, I think," Char said with a sigh. "It's just the way things are back home. It just always strikes me as weird that… well, back there, it was mainly up to the humans to make those specialized environments for the Pokémon to live happy. But here in Ambera, it's like… nobody has to do that, because the land did it by itself already."

A loud squawk interrupted Char's conversation, although it didn't faze him enough to make him jump, as his ears were still ringing from the close-range lightning strike. What did surprise him, however, was the sight of his Pidgey friend hopping along in the grass and almost stumbling over himself, his feathers hanging out of his body frayed and at odd angles, as though he'd gotten into an unsuccessful scuffle.

"I have… spotted Ray," Otto reported, ready to collapse. "I kept away from wild electric-types. I notice there are not many flyers here… I assume it is because flyers are all struck by lightning and have learned to stay out of the air here."

"…And? Where is he?" Char said eagerly. "Is he alright?"

"I couldn't tell," Otto continued. "I rested for a moment in a tree. I thought I would be safe from lightning there. But the tree was home to a family of Emolga, about twelve of them. They attacked me in defense of their home. I was electrocuted by them."

"Oh… ouch," Char said in pity, rushing up to the little bird to hold him. "Ah, I think we've got something in the bag."

"I… will recover, but I would prefer to remain grounded for a while longer, if possible," Otto said wearily. "But I understand that I might need to fly again to spot Ray. He has been separated from us for over an hour now."

"Hmm, wonder what got into that guy," Saura said with concern. "When I suggested letting him run off, I had no idea he'd be gone for so long."

"We could not have stopped him," Otto noted. "He runs faster on foot than even I can fly, especially with such an electric charge he captured. He could have evaded us easily if he did not wish to be caught. At this point, we can only hope he has disregarded us for a good reason."

"I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, but it had better be a good reason," Char grumbled, eyeing the afternoon sun. "This is supposed to be Saura's day. I'm not going to let him ruin it…"

"Right now, it is clear to me that the Ion Plains were calling to him," the Pidgey said. "Ray is normally very focused and dedicated to this team. I believe that this field has touched upon something primal in his nature or in his memories. It is possible that he does not have control over his actions and could not have kept himself from running away."

Yeah, I know how that feels, Char told himself, remembering the terrifying night he had spent within the illusions of Temporal Tower, where the Watchers and the sight of the starry sky beckoned to him, reminding him perhaps of trace memories from before his transformation. Well, as long as it's not the Watchers doing it this time, let's leave him be for a little while longer. Hopefully he figures out what he came for…

Nearly a mile away, the wayward Raichu fervently zigzagged through the tufts of ambergrass, stopping to inspect each one as though tracking a mysterious scent across the savannah.

"When you're hunting for lightning, you've got to reach for the sky! The storm's only going to see you if you try to stand out. So let's get away from all the trees and stand out in the open!"

"Why? I thought you said that lightning can strike anywhere…"

"Yep! Lightning can strike absolutely anywhere! But the more you stand out from other tall things, the more likely the storm will notice you. So let's move away from the trees and see how the storm notices us!"

"Okay!"

"Hah, see if you can keep up with me!"

The Raichu raced closer to the stormcloud, focusing intently on that feeling he had been taught to recognize. Actually, it wasn't quite a stormcloud yet; it was only the beginning of one. With the moisture and the temperature and the pressure flowing across the atmosphere, there was no doubt to the Raichu that a thunderhead would soon form. But that was something only some Pokémon, like the electric-types, could naturally sense…

"Lightning likes to strike the tallest thing around! So you've got to get away from everything else. If you're really good at this, you can also climb a tree and try to act as its lightning rod, but it takes a lot of practice to keep the bolt from going right through you and grounding into the tree… If you mess up, the tree could catch on fire, and we're not immune to fire! So that's got to be a lesson for another day."

The Raichu felt a pang of regret as he realized that it was a skill he never really got the chance to practice. He figured he could try it out sometime to see if he'd grown strong enough.

"Feel that?"

"What?"

"That tingle. You'll feel it in your tail first, or in your ears. Then you'll feel it all over. That's how you tell where the charges are coming from. It's like a compass! You have to follow them fast, they move around a lot. This way!"

"Waiit!"

Dash this way, leap that way… yes, he could feel it. The currents were just right. The conditions were just perfect. He could draw an even bigger bolt from the sky, bigger than any he'd ever caught before.

"When it strikes, you won't hear anything or see anything! The moment it strikes you, you'll go deaf and blind at the same time, because it's brighter than the sun and louder than anything else in the world."

"Even Exploud?"

"Yeah! It would take a whole room full of them to match the sound of a lightning strike! It's so intense, you'll probably slip into a dream the first time you're struck. But don't worry; you'll come to your senses again."

"Uh… h-how does it feel? Does it still just feel like static?"

"Nope! It feels crazy! Kinda like… kinda like your whole body is made out of ice and then you get dropped into a pool of lava. If the bolt is strong, it'll probably hurt a lot, too."

"Whoa… Are you sure this is safe?"

"For anyone else, nope! This is totally deadly. But we're electric Pokémon. We're made for this!"

"For anyone else…" Ray breathed to himself as he dashed. "I'd better get far away from the others. Don't want them to get struck! Wait… where are they?"

Ray halted in mid-stride and blinked as though awakening from a dream. He peered around, but there was no sign of his friends. Nothing existed around him but the soft, dazzling yellow grass of Ion Plains, and the sunny sky overhead.

Wait… Ray thought, gasping as his mind returned to reality. How… far did I run? I couldn't have gone that far, could I? I wonder what got into me?

The Raichu knew, though, just what had gotten into him: memories. They were memories of his older brother, and of the very first storm-hunting session they shared. Ray was only a Pichu at that time; he remembered how he would often trip over his own legs while trying to keep up with his lightning-fast brother, and how he could never seem to keep his static charges from jumping out and striking the Pokémon and objects around him. But despite his weakness, he hung on to every word the Raichu would say, and working hard to learn and emulate his wisdom.

It was in an electric field, just like this one, where he caught his first bolt under his brother's supervision. The storm was roaring high above, ready to pour down rain, that magical tension of imminent lightning was everywhere. The Pichu was in absolute bliss, but not because of the storm – but because he wanted to become just as strong as his brother and the mythical Team Remorse he fought for. Learning to call down lightning would, in some small way, bring him closer to his brother's power.

Even now, so many years later, he remembered just how his brother's strong, confident, gleeful voice always sounded as he rambled. He was truly a Pokémon too fast, too filled with joy and energy for the rest of the world to handle; nothing could ever hope to stop him.

"There's a lot of stuff about electricity that you'll learn later. And the electricity we store in us isn't really the same as the lightning that comes from the sky. When we collect lighting, it mixes with our white energy and becomes Pokémon electricity, which is a little bit different than raw electricity."

"Really? It's different? How?"

"It's really hard to explain. Real electricity and Pokémon electricity have a lot in common. They can both charge batteries and power machines and strike things to burn them. But they behave just a little bit different from one another. The researchers aren't even sure of the answers yet, but I'll tell you what their best theory is… they think that maybe, Pokémon electricity is alive."

"Alive? How can it be alive?"

"Well, they think that when you put electricity into your inner spark, it gets mixed with your life force. So when you use it on something, your life force controls its path a little bit. Like, your life force becomes a spirit that controls the lightning and lets it behave like normal lightning can't."

"That's really weird!"

"Yeah, I know! But don't worry, you'll learn all that stuff later. Right now I just want to teach you how to swallow a bolt on your own. That way you can learn how to defend yourself from the really big enemies!"

"Can I attack Pidgeots?"

"Sure! All those scary birds won't ever attack you again if you've got strong lightning inside of you!"

As he sat and waited for Otto to spot him from the sky, Ray couldn't help but let his memories wander back to his brother.

Rautzen had been on his mind a lot lately, especially since he learned that it was only because of the Pokérus virus that his brother had been so powerful and heroic. Deep down, he still wasn't too sure how he felt about having the virus himself, but he knew that it gave him a fighting chance in the resistance, and a future to look forward to, so it was probably a good idea for his brother to lend him his strength in this way, as risky as it might have been. But there was something that still bothered him deeply. It wasn't the prospect of letting all of his friends outlive him, or of having a shortened lifespan in general – he felt as though he had already experienced enough action for three lifetimes, and had technically died once already – but he just wondered what in the world happened to the one who cared for him before his resistance life began.

Ray had gathered his courage, once or twice, to ask about his brother's death. There didn't seem to be any records of it, and no one on Team Remorse willfully spoke of Rautzen's fate, so he lived every day not knowing if his big brother watched over him from the spirit world and heard his prayers, or if he was still very much alive somewhere, somehow…

But it didn't matter whether or not he was alive. The end was the same: he wasn't around to teach his lessons anymore. If he wanted to learn new things, he'd have to figure them out for himself. He'd have to let the legendary Scythe, the great hero whom Rautzen always spoke of in his bedtime stories, to give him direction and teach him about the art of war. He'd need Team Ember, his newfound family, to keep him company whenever he'd get lonely. And he'd need to do just what his brother told him: he'd need to be the strength of his team, the one who'd never lose his smile or the spring in his step even in the direst of straits. Because that was the greatest service he could offer to Char, his human, and his warrior companions; to bring out the best in them. It was the only way to unlock the truly great potential in a team, just as Rautzen had unlocked the potential of Scythe and his Team Remorse every day; by being the source of their hope and optimism.

At least, that's what he always told himself.

"Isn't it hard to keep all that power inside of you? What if some of it leaks out?"

"Well… there's a little trick you can use if you're having trouble! Here. Look. See that?"

"It's a rock."

"Yeah, I put that there! Actually I put a whole bunch of them around. Notice how they're all smooth on top?"

"How'd you get it here? It looks really heavy!"

"I had a friend help. Now see, look. These stone platforms are made out of a metal called 'groundstone'. It doesn't conduct any electricity. You can try zapping it if you want, but your static won't be able to enter the stone. It'll just bounce off."

"It feels like metal! But lightning can't strike it?"

"Yeah. There are a lot of things that can't let an electric charge in. That's raw electricity. Pokémon electricity can enter even more things that raw electricity can't. Like, you could make Pokémon electricity travel through rocks, or rubber, or even glass if you zapped it hard enough."

"I bet Raikou could do it!"

"Hah! Yeah, I bet he could too. But one thing he can't zap is groundstone. As far as we know, it can't take any electricity at all, no matter how big of a charge. And so… if you stand on top of it…"

"You become the tallest thing around," Ray uttered to himself, remembering his brother's words. "And the lightning can't escape once it enters you."

His eyes fixated on an object in the distance. There, embedded in the ground and surrounded by small tufts of grass, was a large hexagonal stone with a smooth, clean-cut platform on top.

He had noticed the stone almost immediately, but he had taken it for a hallucination, a part of his memories that had been leaking onto his mind's eye. But recalling his brother's words, and the mental sight of him standing atop the groundstone to demonstrate the technique, made him realize what he was seeing.

"No…" he whispered to himself. "That's…"

Stricken with awe, the Raichu scampered up to the stone, approaching almost reverently. He traced his front claws over the edges, which had become cracked and worn through the decades. He offered the stone a static charge from the lightning he had swallowed, but it wouldn't take. The stone was made of an insulating substance.

"Waait! Brooother! Where are you going now?"

"We can't stay here! We have to chase the storm!"

"But what about the stone?"

"I put a bunch of stones around here, there's more! C'mon, we came too far to let the storm get away! Hurry!"

"No, not this one…" Ray gasped. "No, it was somewhere else…"

He got on his four paws and raced through the grass in the direction his heart led him.

"Rai! You've gotta be faster than that! The storm won't wait for you!"

"I'm… I'm trying! Waiit!"

"You're never going to get lightning from a storm that you can't catch! You'll just have to learn to be faster. Use your static to help you run if you need!"

"Aiiie! I can't!"

"Yes, you can. Don't lie to yourself. You won't get pity from anyone. Especially me."

"Brother! Ahh! Ahh! I… I'm so tired!"

"Alright, here's another stone. We can rest."

"Ahh… Brother, you're so fast."

"I know. You'll be just as fast someday. You'll have to be. It's expected of us electric-types. We need to be fast. Or we're useless to those who need us. It's just the way things are."

"I'll try…"

"Remember. Never accept pity from anyone. Always give pity, never accept it. That's how you earn respect from others."

Ray remembered how he'd taken his brother's advice. He learned to be fast, very fast. His brother had told him that one day, the ones he loved and cared about would be in peril, and only he would be able to save them, but only if he was fast enough. It had certainly come true; his speed had been what saved his friend Char from freezing to death in the northern tundra. He always knew his brother was not just being mean; he was being honest. He was honest about everything.

"No, it wasn't this one either," Ray decided, crawling across the hexagon-shaped platform which sat in a pile of mud. "No, it was further, wasn't it?"

"Come on. See if you can keep up with me a bit more this time."

"Why can't we stop here at this stone?"

"Because. We need to find the stone that the storm wants us to be at. Not the one we want to be at. You've got to do what the storm wants if you want to be noticed by it. Right?"

"Yeah…"

"Alright, let's go. Trust me, it'll be worth it. Getting the storm's gift is the best feeling in the world. All your energy will just come back, just like that. And you'll feel happy. So just keep going. It'll all be worth it."

Ray quickened his pace. It was a long way until the next stone, but he remembered it so clearly. The subtle curves in the landscape, the ebb and tide of the grass, they were all things burned into his memory, things his heart would never let him forget. He knew the way.

He didn't know how many miles he ran, or how far. He didn't care. His memories had him under a perfect spell of repressed emotions, a spell of exploring this place he once knew, but had since forgotten existed.

"Brother… I just can't. I can't run anymore! It's so long!"

"I know, I know… we got a fast-moving storm. These always have the strongest bolts, but they're the hardest to catch."

"Brother, I can't make it to the next stone…"

"But you did well. You ran farther than you thought you could."

"Yeah…"

"You kept going after you thought you needed to stop. After it stopped being easy, you kept going, even when your body started lying to you and making you say 'I can't, I can't'!"

"But… I really, really can't this time…"

"…I know. But I wanted to teach you something important. That extra distance you ran, that's the key to getting stronger in anything. Everything. It's always about doing more than you want to. That's how everything gets easier. See, your brain lies to you. Tells you 'I can't' or 'I shouldn't have to' or anything just to get you to stop. But you need to see through the lie. And the only way to figure out when you really need to stop is to find that point yourself."

"So… we're not going to catch the storm?"

"Sure we are! Get on my back. I'll carry you the rest of the way."

"But… you said… never take pity."

"This isn't pity, it's teamwork. You'll learn the difference someday. Now come on, you're about to catch your first bolt! You're going to love this, I promise…"

The hazy memories came back to him. He remembered this field. It was like his backyard. He remembered the groundstones; there were twelve of them, and brother had shown him each one. He knew how to find them all. One was at the top of the hill, the other was near the briars…

And then there was his favorite one, the one in the gravel patch just to the west. It was the one where he'd caught his first bolt.

Knowing the way by heart, the Raichu darted over the surface of the plains. He knew, if he was fast enough, he could catch another one, maybe even in that very same place.

"This is perfect. We're here."

"This one?"

"Yeah! The storm is right overtop us."

"We're getting so wet! I can barely see anything."

"Don't mind that! It's just a little water. Now come on, climb on top… Here! Get on my shoulders!"

"The rain is so cold. Can't we just wait for the next storm…?"

"No, I'm going to be gone next time. I'll be out on a trip with Scythe and Daemon. I have to teach you how to do this so that you can do it yourself while I'm away."

There it was, right where it always had been. The old gravelly rocks had disbursed and become dust, but the great darkened hexagon, its surface like tarnished silver, was still right where he knew it would be. Overcome with joy, Ray bounced atop the platform, and raised his hands to the sky…

"Wave at the sky! You have to make it see you!"

"Heeey! Storm! Give me a lightning, please?"

"No, bro. The storm can't hear your voice. It only cares about the electric charges in you! So put your paws up as far as they can go… and your tail, too! There's a lots of charges in the tip of your tail, the storm might notice that…"

"Ahh… brother, I can't breathe… I feel weak… everything tingles."

"You felt it? There it is! That means the storm noticed you!"

"It did?"

"Yeah! Now there's a current running through you straight from the clouds up there! Any moment now! Get ready! This is going to be amazing!"

"I'm kinda scared…"

"Don't be scared. I won't let anything happen to you."

"I'm not going to die, am I?"

"You won't die! I promise! This is what electric Pokémon live for!"

Ray closed his eyes tightly, pretending he stood tall on his brother's shoulders. He pointed at the sky with his tail, his paws, and the tips of his ears, beckoning the atmosphere for another blissful burst of energy…

But none came.

It took a while for Ray to accept it. The charges in the sky had gone away, and he wasn't quite fast enough to catch up with them. But he stood on the stone stump for many more moments, reveling in the memories it brought him.

When he finally opened his eyes again and accepted his failure to collect a second bolt, he glanced around the plains, admiring the peace it brought to him and any electric Pokémon who must have lived there. Otto was still nowhere to be seen in the sky, but Ray had faith that his friend would spot him before long. He vaguely regretted pulling the day's mission off course so far, but he couldn't help it; the sight of the prairie had made so many memories return, memories that had faded into obscurity and irrelevance as he worked for the Gold Division. The things he had witnessed from the newborn eyes of a Pichu were like distant dreams, things that didn't matter anymore. But now that it felt he had lived too many lifetimes, he knew in his heart he wanted to remember. He wanted to have one last chance to appreciate them, and to remember his brother, who had been the only family he had. He wanted to go back.

"See? That wasn't so bad!"

"Bad? Are you kidding, that was AWESOME! Can we catch more?"

"I don't think you're ready to catch more, silly little Rai. You're exhausted. You can't even walk on your own."

"No! Let me down, I'll catch another one!"

"Next time, little bro. Next time. Now it's time to go home and sleep."

Home.

Ray's heart nearly stopped as he stared at the horizon, realizing the grave truth:

He knew how to get home from here.

He only had vague, dark memories of that hole in the ground where he'd spent his infant days. He remembered nothing about it except for the way it smelled, the damp feel of the ground underneath his paws when he would go to his room, and the pile of food that his brother had stashed in the back corner. He remembered that there were multiple rooms that his brother had dug out, each propped up with rocks and logs to prevent cave-ins. He remembered there was a light, some kind of machine that his brother put electricity into every time he touched it. Perhaps most of all, he remembered the sense of warmth and security he felt when hiding down there, knowing that the hawks and lions couldn't get in, and that his brother was nearby… it was the way he'd learned to feel about the whole Gold Division, and so he had taken that feeling with him all throughout life. But he'd forgotten where that feeling had come from in the first place, and who had originally taught him to feel it.

Ray felt himself shaking, and it wasn't from the lightning bolt that still stabbed around inside of him. Part of him feared returning to that place and finding it not the way he remembered. He knew it was probably filled with bugs and snakes, or caved in, but that's not what his heart demanded. He wanted that old electric lamp to still be there, he wanted the caves and rocks to be the same shape, with the same cracks in the floor and the same roots hanging from the ceiling, and he wanted to find his brother there, back from his long journey with Scythe and Daemon, to tell him all about how strong he had gotten and how much he practiced collecting lightning from the sky.

It was more than another mile, but his heart gave him no choice. He had to see his old home again, just this once.

Harvesting Town

Ray's old home was on the very south outskirt of a small, humble village known as Harvesting Town. Why it was called that, Ray had no idea. The place hadn't left much of an impression on him; his brother had taught him not to go into town alone under any circumstances, and only rarely got to visit the Pokémon who lived there when it was time to buy necessities with the money Rautzen had earned from Team Remorse. As Ray strolled between the haphazard collection of wooden buildings, he certainly couldn't tell if it had anything to do with farming or harvesting. It seemed there were no Pokemon about the town. Presumably they were all shut away in the buildings, cabins that looked like they were made entirely out of fenceposts. But none of that mattered to the Raichu; he only wanted to find one particular den.

The electric aura of Ion Plains still lingered, although it was now far too faded to be of any use. It only served to rouse even deeper memories in the Raichu's mind; it was this exact feeling in the air, this precise climate and current, that meant he was home.

The den was right where it was supposed to be, at the end of something like a dirt path with a mailbox next to it, although it didn't look the way he expected. The trees and plants were understandably not in the same place they used to be two decades prior, but he den entrance was small. Ray swore to himself that it had been much bigger in the past.

Ray approached the tiny opening in the ground with humble giddiness, wondering how he and his brother ever squeezed between the big flat slab of stone and the ground beneath. He shoved the ceiling with all his might, wondering if it was designed to move, but it was sturdy enough to withstand his force. He thought to call into the darkness beneath, but presumed that the place was abandoned; there was no real evidence of inhabitants, at least any which were large enough to pose a threat. Against his judgment, he sucked in a breath and decided to try forcing himself into the crevice headfirst. Finding himself stuck at the neck, he drew his claws and dug at the tough soil until it began to budge, letting releasing him to tumble into his old home.

Clack! Clang!

"AHHHH!"

"What is that?!"

"Get it! Don't let it move!"

After falling onto a pile of metal things, Ray barely had a chance to yelp in surprise as a pair of Pokémon jumped from the shadows and ensnared him. Struggling did him no good, as he was soon covered from head to toe in large sticky ropes, and felt the legs of the home's new owners pinning him down.

"H-hey, wait," Ray tried to say, forcing his mouth away from the substance which held him in place. "Wait, I'm not a bad guy."

"Who are you?!" one of the den's inhabitants angrily demanded. "We weren't expecting any visitors."

"I'm just… I used to live here, that's all," Ray said. "I wanted to visit my old home! I thought it was abandoned, honest!"

"Well, you could have tried knocking on the door, instead of forcing your way through our sunroof," one of the Pokémon said flatly.

"Sorry…" Ray said meekly as the Pokémon released him from their hold. "It's been so long, I… I guess I forgot there was another door… I feel really bad right now…"

He rolled and turned himself right side up, eyeing the Pokémon who stood over him as their forms were revealed in the ray of sunlight. One was a small rodent, something that looked much like him but had a different, more rounded shape and a tail like a long thread. The other was a large spider covered in yellow tufts of fur. Ray could tell they weren't amused.

"So, uh… you found this place? You live here?" Ray said awkwardly, trying to unstick himself from the webbing that clung to the static of his fur.

"Found it…? We bought it," the Dedenne said. "Well, my father did, at least."

"And I don't even live here," the Galvantula added.

Heh… Scythe must have made some extra money by selling this place, Ray imagined. That's kind of smart, now that I think about it.

As Ray was nearly about to give up trying to escape the webbing, the spider lurched forward with its fangs and slashed the knots apart, letting him free. He rose to his hind feet, peeling the substance off of his body and wincing as many clumps of fur came off with it.

"So… it's just you? You live here? And your father?" Ray said meekly to the Dedenne.

"And my mother, and my three siblings," she replied blankly. "You should probably leave before they get back. What are you even doing here?!"

"Well, uh, I just… I wanted to visit just one more time," Ray said, squinting and trying to see the rest of the chamber through the shadows. "I don't remember it very well. I just wanted to see it again, that's all."

"Be quick about it," the rodent shot, turning to scamper back into the dark.

With a flash of light, the shadows were gone, and in their place a cozy, well-furnished room surrounded the Raichu. The floor was garnished with white fur mats, the walls rich with heirlooms and shelves, and the corridors perfectly carved from hardened clay. Ray stood for a moment with his mouth gaping, unable to tell if the den truly belonged to him in the past, except for one little detail: in the center of the room, flooding the place wall-to-wall with soft yellow light, was the same electric lamp he remembered belonging to his brother. He instantly recognized its long, triangular bulb and brick-like battery. Once it held a sufficient charge, the Dedenne detached her tail from the knob and approached the Raichu again.

"Legs, go outside and fix the window," she ordered to the spider, stepping forward to collect the metal jars that Ray had knocked all over the floor. "I'll keep an eye on this guy. Make it quick, Raichu. I don't know how long you have, and there's no way I'm going to explain to father that I let a boy in through the window."

Ray nodded in solemn understanding before gazing in appreciation at what his house had become. Though the same basic shape and structure remained, with the doorways and the corners in places Ray seemed to remember, it was apparent that the new family had given it so much more maintenance and care than when it belonged to his brother. The floor and surfaces were pristine, the fur-skin rugs prestigious, and the possessions were perfectly organized. Ray began to strongly suspect that interior design, or even neatness, had not been one of his brother's skills. Even the persistent smell of decayed leaves, which he vividly remembered from every moment of his childhood, was gone now.

It all seemed like some kind of hazy dream, like some memory from his childhood that wasn't quite right, or something that shouldn't have existed, seeing so many changes to a place that his heart still thought belonged to him. Ray realized that he had indeed dreamed about this place many times, but didn't quite understand its significance until now. No matter how many nights he had spent in the chambers of Team Stripes, or in Char's room, his dreams always had him waking up in a dark, comforting place where he felt safe, but couldn't explain why. He knew now that the place was here.

The den had three other rooms, all arranged in the shape of a cross, as well as the hall which led to the front door. He remembered that one of the rooms had been used as a closet to keep his brother's supplies, and the other two were the places he and his brother had respectively slept. Thanks to his dreams, he remembered exactly which one was which. But it wasn't his own room that interested him the most to see, it was his brother's…

"Don't ever go into my room without me," Rautzen would sometimes remind him. "There's something in there that's deadly. It could seriously kill you if you're not careful. And the last thing I want is to come home and find my brother dead."

Ray never did enter his brother's room, and only ever peered inside from the main room to see what it looked like. There was a bed, a few shelves, and a small cupboard where he kept his magical scarves and things. Ray always suspected there was a monster sleeping in there, or perhaps a ghost, guarding his brother's most prized possessions. Maybe there were traps or explosives set. Whatever the case, he heeded his brother's advice and never succumbed to curiosity.

Now the room was hidden behind a large hinged door. He carefully forced it open with a creak. Surely, he figured, now that the den was owned by new tenants, the danger his brother always spoke of must have been long gone. Or maybe the danger was imaginary! That was a possibility as well. Maybe his brother was just using a mind trick to keep him from snooping around when he was away. Whatever the case, he knew it was finally his chance to know the truth.

"You probably shouldn't go in there," the Dedenne warned. "That's mother's and father's room."

"I just want to look," Ray insisted, vaguely aware of his lie.

The new room was just as well-fitted as the rest of the place, complete with cozy fabric draped across the walls and ornate furnishings lining the corners. It was almost enough to make him jealous, until he remembered that Team Ember's hall held far more wealth than this bedroom could hope to match. As if drawn by a siren's call, Ray crept into the room and instantly focused his attention onto a particular corner, pawing at the drapes hanging from the wall.

"Aaaay!" Hey! Don't touch that, what are you doing?!" the Dedenne yelped in protest, rushing over to pull the crazed Raichu away. "Look, my family are all neat freaks, don't you dare put a wrinkle in the wall, they'll notice it!"

"But… there's something behind it," Ray said meekly. "There's a little cabinet in the wall. It has to be behind here."

"There is? No there's not!" the other rodent insisted. "See? I'll prove it."

With a huff, the smaller mouse looped her tail under the bottom of the curtain and lifted it, revealing a blank clay wall. She snorted in disgust at the Raichu.

"B-but, wait." Ray stammered. "It has to be there. That's where bro would keep his… scarf."

"What scarf?"

"It was… one of those scarves that did something magic," Ray explained, surprised at himself at the hints of memory which trickled back to him. "I didn't know what it did. But it was one of his favorite things and he always kept it in a little hidden cabinet, right here! I'm serious!"

"Well, I don't see anything," the Dedenne said indignantly. "We've lived here for over ten years, you don't think we know our own house?! We would have—HEY!"

Ray began pawing at the wall. "I wonder," he muttered. "I don't think the walls were this color…"

To the little girl's horror, Ray drew his claws and began scraping them into the wall, testing how much it resisted pressure.

"Look… whoever you are, Raichu, you're starting to scare me," she said. "There's nothing there—"

"—I'll pay for it," Ray said, his eyes focused intently upon the place his paws touched. "I'll pay to fix everything. The window. The wall. Everything. I can get the money and I'll repay it. I promise. There's just something I really have to know right now…"

CRACK! With a glimmer of white energy, Ray's fist collided with the wall, causing the weak, solidified putty to collapse. The pieces folded and fell into a sizable dark crevice.

"Oh great Ar-ceus!" the Dedenne yelped, backing away from the wall.

"I lived in this place for a very long time, too," Ray said blankly. "I know it just as well as you do."

"W-what's in there?" the smaller rodent shrieked. "Anything?"

Ray held his breath as he forced his head into the moldy, musty void he had created. Not surprisingly, his brother's belongings were all gone, and his favorite scarf was nowhere to be seen.

But there was something.

"A scroll," Ray reported, reaching his paw inside. "My brother had an important job. He had to write mail to send off to other Pokémon sometimes. Just like this scroll."

He removed the object in question from the wall, presenting it to the startled witness: a very tiny rolled-up note, tied tight with a blue ribbon.

"Well? What does it say?" the Dedenne cried in suspense, gripping her tail. "Unroll it! Do it!"

Without fanfare, and without even a hint of a smile upon his face, the stunned Raichu slit the ribbon with his claw and carefully unrolled the note, his wide eyes scanning the footprints which covered the surface.

"I can't read very well," the Dedenne admitted. "Read it to me?"

But the Raichu did not utter a word as he solemnly gazed upon the text. With every line he digested, his limbs grew heavier, and a sensation like a hot claw began tearing through his gut.

Raikouun:

I will never see you again. But I need you to know that I love you.

I don't know if you'll ever read this but it was the only place I could think of to hide it that you would look. I can't be too specific in case someone else finds this but I want to tell you about what happened to me.

I made a big mistake. I sold Team Remorse's secrets to an evil one named Cepheus. The whole mission failed and some Pokémon died. Scythe found out what I did and he was going to execute me for treason. But Daemon got to me first and warned me and gave me a chance to run away. So I'm leaving Ambera and I'm never coming back. I'll go live with the humans, maybe I can even be on someone's team. Don't worry about me.

Never forget, little brother: you are going to be a better Raichu than I was. You have everything you need to be better than me. I made sure you have everything I had plus much more. You're going to be taken into the base. You're going to be strong. You're going to stand out and be noticed. You're going to make very many Pokémon happy. The only thing you won't have anymore is a brother, but maybe you can find someone else even better.

Whatever you do, don't you dare feel like you're living in my shadow. In the end I'm the one who will be living in yours.

I wish I could have been there to see you evolve. But I chose to be evil and now I can't live in Ambera anymore. Please be better than me. Look at all the Pokémon in the base. They all need you. They are just going through their lives waiting for a Pokémon to appear and make them happy. That Pokémon can be you.

-Your brother Rautzen

P.S.: The reason I told you to stay out of my room is because I had something in the closet that was contaminated by a deadly virus. Don't worry, it's gone now.

When Ray got to the end of the letter, he didn't stop. His eyes returned to the top of the scroll and he started over.

"Helloooo? Raichu? Hello? Are you still alive?"

He was unaware of the Dedenne prodding him, yelling things into his ear. He was unaware of the way he had slumped into the corner, and the way his claws were tearing into the scroll paper. He only read the scroll over again, and again, imagining his brother speaking every word, and muttering quietly to himself…

A torrent of tears soon fell onto the surface of the paper, smearing the ink.

Sometime later, the Dedenne was scared out of her mind as she heard a rapping at the door. She regretfully and hesitantly opened it, peering through the crack. To her utter relief, she saw three young strangers standing at her doorstep: a very weary-looking Bulbasaur, a winded Pidgey, and a Charmander with a very large flame, looking quite unhappy.

"Oh…. Oh, hi!" the mouse quipped, opening the door to them. "Sorry, I thought you were my parents. Uh… come in?"

"We don't need to enter," the Pidgey quipped blankly. "A teammate of ours is in there. He is a Raichu. We followed his pawprints here. Please send him out."

The Dedenne awkwardly glanced at the floor. "Uh… yeah, he's in here. But I don't know if he wants to leave yet."

"And why is that?" the Charmander sternly asked. "We kind of need him."

"Well, uh… he's crying," the mouse replied, her ears drooping.

"…Crying?" Saura gasped. "Really? I've never seen Ray cry before. Well, unless it's in happiness."

"Uh, I'm pretty sure these aren't happy tears," the mouse said. "Yeah… he uh, he's really bawling his eyes out in here… It's depressing, I've never seen someone cry that hard. Doesn't look like he wants company, but you can try if you—"

"…No, no, it's okay," said a gentle voice from behind the door. "I'm here."

The wayward Raichu appeared in the doorway, hanging his head in acceptance. Though Ray tried hard to hide his emotions from his friends, Char couldn't ignore his red, bloodshot eyes, his fur matted from so many tears, and his blank, moping face. Ray rarely ever stopped smiling for more than a few moments; seeing him so forlorn was something Char felt he was unprepared to handle.

"Ray… are you alright?" Char asked, knowing it was likely the worst possible question he could have asked.

"Want to talk?" Saura also offered.

But Ray didn't respond to either question. Instead, he stepped outside and thrust a piece of paper into Char's face. Baffled by the footprints, Char showed it to Otto and Saura.

"What is this?" Char asked in reflex. "What's it say?"

"These are directions," Ray explained. "My brother was very rich. Before he went away, he took everything he owned and hid it for me to find, and those are directions to everything. Guys… if we went looking for this and we found it… it's worth more than three million golds. We wouldn't ever have to worry about money ever again."

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