Ember, Yen, and Gregory sat down on some of the many cushions that littered Hilda's home. The Stoutland took a seat on the largest cushion and sighed quietly, looking over the children. "I shoulda told ye this months ago..."
"Tell me what?" Ember asked softly, wringing his little paws together.
"The R.T.O. has been investigatin' the disappearance if team Iustus for the past three months-"
"What do you mean, 'disappearance'?!" Yen glared at her suspiciously. "You kept saying that they were still on the mission!"
She looked down at the Meowth with a stern expression, silencing her. "As I was sayin', they have finally found a lead on what happened ta them. Did yer dad ever tell ye what his mission was?"
Ember shook his head quietly, allowing her to continue.
"Yer dad was sent ta investigate the disappearances of Pokémon in the Twilight Forests beyond the Wintershed Mountains. Explorers have been tryin' ta map out beyond the forests, but they never came back." She pulled out the letter the Pelliper had delivered to her, and showed it to the kids. "The R.T.O found yer father's bandanna at the edge of the Forests. They have declared team Iustus M.I.A."
"What does that mean?" Yen asked, her tail curling around her paws.
Gregory answered her question. "It means 'Missing in Action.' They can't find them."
The Cyndaquil between them trembled as tears fell down his face. "N-No... he aid he'd come back..."
Yen delicately put a paw on his shoulder. "Ember..."
"He said he'd come back!" Flames shot out of the spots near his neck, making his friends jump away from him to escape a burn. He was sobbing loudly and trying to wipe his eyes. "He promised me he'd come back!"
Hilda looked at him with teary eyes of her own. "Laddie-"
"SHUT UP!" he screamed, running out of the house as fast as his little legs could carry him. He ignored the shouts of his friends and aunt. He didn't even care where he was running to, but he just ran until he couldn't run anymore.
When he finally stopped running, he wiped his eyes of tears and looked around. He was on a little cliff next to the falls his village was named after. A bench rested under a lone tree on this cliff, and he sat on it and looked out on the village below. His father used to take him up here when he came back to the village after missions.
Tears fell down his cheeks again. His dad wasn't coming back. He was probably lost out there, cold, hungry, and tired in the wilderness. Maybe he was even...
"DADDYYYY!" he sobbed, holding his face in his paws. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop crying. He cried for his father, needing to feel his arms around his tiny body. But that would never happen again. The little Cyndaquil cried himself to sleep on that bench.
Fire-Heart raced through the dark woods at a break-neck pace. Something was after him. He had to find Sage and Tsunami before It got them like it did the other Pokémon that came into these woods.
He could feel it getting closer. He wasn't built for speed. He just hoped he could keep ahead of it long enough to escaped. But he knew it was a pointless dream.
He had to keep running. For the Pokémon he had to save. For his teammates. For his Ember, the light of his world.
"Never stop running," he told himself.
Never.
Stop.
Running.