"She has one hour. One hour, I say," the Smeargle grunted. "If she's not back in one hour, we leave, and she'll just have to catch up. I've had it with this place. Had it."

The bags were all packed, the logbooks were written and closed, and the evidence was dealt with. Damage control was done. The survivors were on their way to a place of refuge, a harbor town at the western coast. It was finally time for the last remaining members of Team Flamewheel to disband from their hidden little abode and return to the Emerald Division, leaving this disaster behind them.

But as dawn turned to morning, and morning threatened to become afternoon, the seventh member of the team had failed to return.

Kabir let out his frustration on his journal, scribbling notes and pictures upon it to help pass the time. Tangrind seated himself by the windowless door and occupied himself with staring into space, awaiting the knock he would have to answer. A small fire burned faintly in the corner, but it did little to help keep out the cold.

The weather had turned harsh overnight. Snow fell in curtains, wind whipped up thick clouds of powder. Navigation was going to be difficult on the long road home home. Tangrind hoped that Azel had not fallen prey to the storm, forced out of the air to freeze and die under some mound of ice. Though she was a powerful Pokémon, he knew she was extremely sensitive to the cold. It was her bane. No, they could not leave without her, not in this weather. They needed her to help carry the supplies. And she needed them for strength, if it would begin to get difficult for her to fly.

"How do you think Prince is taking this?" Tangrind wondered. "Wonder if he's changed at all from this…"

"Granted we are still part of the division when Lucario is through with him, knowing him, I would assume he's already taken a new task to help cover up the scar of the previous," Kabir ranted, trying to stay focused on a figure he was sketching in his journal. "Probably the most ambitious project he could have gotten his grubby fingers on."

"Something must give…" Tangrind muttered. "I don't know what, but something is going to have to give…"

The door rattled from the force of a strong gust. Tangrind shivered in anticipation of the day's travel.

"Blasted technique…" Kabir spurted at random, slamming his fist on the desk and scribbling across patterns he had traced. "There is no logical way this works, none."

"Which move are you trying to learn this time?" Tangrind asked absently.

"Leech Seed, that blasted technique," Kabir said. "I've tried for months to copy it, but I have yet to understand how it works. Such a trivial move for grass-type Pokémon to learn, yet it defies all laws of physics. How is the energy transferred back to the user? Is it converted to light energy in order to travel through the air? Gnnfhh. I would love to make use of it myself, but no matter how hard I try, I cannot find its structure…"

Tangrind grunted in response. Being a Smeargle, Kabir possessed the ability to learn the techniques of all other Pokémon through his artistic talent. He was always scribbling into his journal at whatever chance he got, trying to "sketch" enemy attack patterns to comprehend how they worked. Tangrind had no idea how someone could manage to copy a technique just by plotting charts and drawing patterns representing the attack, but he figured there were far too many greater mysteries in the world of Pokémon… such as, apparently, the way Leech Seed worked.

There was a knock at the door.

Tangrind winced. He almost had to wonder if it had been the wind again. Knowing Azel, he expected an enraged pounding, demanding to be let in from the cold. It would not have even surprised him if Azel knocked over the door on her own. But no, this sound had been quiet. Polite, almost. Hesitant.

He waited a moment to answer the door to see if the sound would happen again.

"Well, what's the holdeup? Let her in, by the blazes," Kabir said, not taking his eyes off his drawing. "It's about time…"

Doing as he was told, Tangrind stood himself. His instincts cried out a warning, telling him not to act right away. Something was wrong. If this was Azel, he wondered if her spirit had been crushed by the cold. He feared meeting her as a broken wreck of a Pokémon.

Nevertheless, he clutched the handle in his claws, flipped the lock, and yanked upon the large door, cringing as the merciless draft began seeping inside the building and sweeping past his face…

A Pokémon stood at the door, but it was not Azel. He blinked, trying to identify it in the blur of snow…

It was red.

NO!!!

NO!!!! NO!!!!

A red blur in the snow…

The image… fading… fading as it drifted farther away… Out of his reach…

He had tried to cut off the escape route… to trap her, but he hadn't known in time what had happened… He had not been at his station… And the messenger did not get to him in time…

And now it was too late… She was lost… the red blur in the snow… it became nothing…

It was lost… gone…

NO!!!

Tingrind's eyes widened.

-SMACK-

Possessed with blind rage, Tangrind lunged at the cold, defenseless Combusken which now stood at their doorstep. He slammed her in the side, knocking her face-down into the snowdrift beneath…

"You…" the Heracross seethed, pinning her body down underneath his foot. "You… You ruined… everything! What are you doing here now? What do you think you are?! Give me one good reason, one good reason, I shouldn't tear out your throat now, you miserable… you miserable, treacherous pile of mucus…"

"Is there a problem, Tangrind?" Kabir asked from indoors, barely audible over the wind.

The Heracross pressed harder, eliciting a gasp of pain from his captive. He bent down and glared into her eyes, hanging his pointed claws in front of her face.

"Answer me…" he growled. "Answer me!"

The Combusken didn't squirm for freedom. She wasn't surprised— She hadn't exactly expected to be welcomed with open arms. They had every right to treat her like scum. Instead, she tried to lift her beak from the snow to reply.

"I…" she gasped out. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry, is that it?" Tangrind hissed. "What does that mean, huh? You could never comprehend what it means to be sorry for what you did."

"What's the problem this time?" Kabir shouted.

"I…" the Combusken struggled to say. "I…"

"What did you hope to prove with your little stunt, bird?" Tangrind growled loudly over the wind. "You proud of leading all those Pokémon to those deaths, huh, are you? Are you, bird? Talk!!"

"Tangrind!" Kabir shouted.

The Heracross paused. Kabir stood in the doorway, looking very displeased at the scene before his eyes. He glanced down at the Combusken, still pinned safely beneath him.

"It's her, Kabir," Tangrind reported. "It's the traitor, right here!"

"Then for the love of Arceus, Kabir, release her at once!" Kabir ordered.

"What, so she can betray us now?" Tangrind returned bitterly.

"It seems to me that she already has," Kabir stated. "So either she takes us to be stupid, or she wouldn't be trying to double-cross us again after going through the trouble the first time! By the blazes, get your talon off her neck and let her speak for herself."

Tangrind hesitated again. He wanted to kill her on the spot for what she had done. She had no right to be alive after causing such a tragedy to an entire village. But he focused and stopped himself from making any further threats to her. Instead, he lifted his weight from her back, grabbed her harshly by the arms, and yanked her up to her feet.

The Combusken was shivering cold, her face and most of her body covered in snow. She said nothing, staring only at the Smeargle with vicious eyes.

"Well, then," Kabir said condescendingly to her. "What have you got to say for yourself, Quickfoot?"

Her reply was most immediate. "I w-want to join you," she asserted powerfully, her voice quivering from the cold.

"Join us?" Tangrind echoed in disgust, still holding on tightly to her arm. "And risk having you sic the Master onto our entire base, like you did with the poor Ice Pokémon back there?"

"I'm afraid my partner's feelings are quite justified, Quickfoot." Kabir said. "You are not the most trustworthy Pokémon the face of the earth at the moment. Why should we trust you, hmm?"

"Don't call me that," the Combusken growled. "M-my name is Caron. I was… I was in the Master's camp, after they t-took over the town… they promised me I could join them if I t-t-told them your weaknesses. They were lying. They were gonna kill me."

Kabir said nothing, only exchanging a glance with his Heracross partner. A strong blast of wind swept over them, nearly knocking Tangrind from his feet.

"I have to get b-back at them," Caron pleaded. "I don't have a home to go to anymore. It's the only thing I have left."

"I see," Kabir said thoughtfully, scratching his chin. "I see, I see. So you understand now what it is like to be a tool."

"Y-yes," Caron replied.

"You understand treachery, from both ends," Kabir continued. "There's this code in the resistance, which states that Pokémon who have been harmed or personally betrayed by the Master will be trustworthy allies in the fight against him. If what you are saying is true, then I will take you into our base and let our leader decide what to do with you."

"Wait, wait! How can you be so quick to forgive her transgressions?" Tangrind cried. "Will we just forget all the deaths she caused, pretend like they never happened, and send her into the base as any other recruit? You can't do that with a clean heart?"

Kabir crossed his arms. "In that case, I suppose I need not remind you of a Pokémon by the name of Adron the Terrible, and what ultimately became of him? How many innocent Pokémon do you think he slaughtered in his time, hmm?"

Hearing the words, Tangrind loosened his grip on the Combusken's arm. He was still furious, but now he was confused. Yes… there had been a day, long ago, when a worn and weary Scyther stood on the doorstep of the Golden Division, with nothing to his name but a lifetime of skill and experience which he claimed did not rightfully belong to him. He became one of the greatest assets of all the resistance, all in the name of undoing the harm he had caused to the land…

Tangrind glared at the Pokémon he detained. Could she really claim to hold a candle to that legacy? Or would this poor, weak little girl only be a mockery of it?

"Uh…" Caron said weakly. "I… think… I'm smoldering now."

Kabir reeled in shock. "By the blazes, get her inside, now!" he shouted. "I'll try to revive the fireplace. Get her out of the cold! Come on! Come!"

Whatever the case, Tangrind decided that he would save her life for now. He quickly ushered her towards the door to their dwelling…

But then, a sound came from the storm, unlike anything the weather alone would produce. It was a mighty roar that could strike fear into the heart of any Pokémon in a mile's radius. The air cracked loudly as a pair of wings resisted the force of the blizzard and tore through the relentless wind.

A powerful tremor shook the ground as a massive blue dragon crashed down onto the land. A wave of snow exploded from the collision to signal her arrival.

She pranced forward, an evil, mischievous grin upon her face as she looked over the three Pokémon which stood there.

"Finally!" Kabir cried in frustration at the Salamance. "Azel, what in the name of Arceus made you take so long?!"

"What do you think?" Azel roared in reply. "I made up my mind that I would spend the rest of my life tracking that little brat to the end of the earth if I had to. And now… she's mine! She's finally mine!"

Azel slithered forward through the snow, holding her head proudly above the fowl which managed to evade her for so long. She practically purred in delight at seeing her finally within reach.

"She's going to join the resistance," Kabir told her. "The Master tricked her into doing what she did, and now she wants revenge. Per her request, I've decided we should help keep her alive and bring her back with us."

"Oh…" Azel said, backing slightly away from the Combusken. "Is that so? Well… I won't disapprove. I think the suffering of serving under Lucario would be enough to atone for her actions ten times over. Actually, I don't think I could have picked a better place in the whole world for her. Though… my stomach was a close second."

The four Pokémon gathered inside of the house and shut the door tightly behind them, giving their unexpected newcomer a chance to warm herself before setting on their journey back home.