DISCLAIMER: All your base aren't belong to us!

Pluto walked into her apartment and opened the envelope that contained the reports on their project. She couldn't believe that it had taken them 4 days to actually send the report out from Sinnoh. She took the first copy and placed it into another envelope, and wrote what was written on all other reports delivered to Giovanni:

For Giovanni's eyes only - Canalave City branch progress report.

This would be given to Giovanni later. She then settled to read her own copy of the report.

Report on Subject 24: Follow up of the transfer of human consciousness into that of a Pokemon's

The consciousness of Subject 23 has been shown to no longer reside within Subject 23's body. Upon study of Subject 24, the host Pokemon, we are, as of now, still unsure about whether the transfer of consciousness has been grafted successfully. After waking, we have kept Subject 24 sedated for 3 days while we prepared a room for the subject.

The room should provide us with a better insight into the current mental state of Subject 24.

-Vila Turnel

Pluto put the report down. "Interesting..."

She picked up the duplicate report and placed it into another envelope, before writing on it:

Express Courier to Galactic Veilstone Building, Veilstone City, Sinnoh.

Grabbing some stamps, she walked out of her apartment with both envelopes.

Steven woke up. Nudging Aron so he could get out, he hopped to the bedside desk and pecked at Aron until he woke up. Afterwards, he glided to the carpeted floor and gave his wings an experimental flap, before heading towards the staircase and gliding into the kitchen.

He had gotten really good at gliding, but still couldn't flap without crashing. Aron was trying to figure out why, but Steven just reckoned that it was something that would eventually come with time.

After all, physically, he was only 4 days old.

"Hey!" Aron swiped at Scout, who was pecking at his ear. Seeing as he had woke up, Scout then headed of towards the kitchen

"He wants breakfast, no doubt."

After breakfast, Aron and Steven were about to head into the park to practice gliding and try flying again before they received a knock on the front door.

Upon answering, Aron found himself looking at a man in his forties with slightly greying hair and a slight smile on his face.

"Aron? I'm Isrea's dad and I know you're good friends with her. Basically, my wife and I have got a surprise birthday party set up for her, because she's eleven today and eligible to become a trainer, and we need you to keep her occupied for a little while before bringing her back to our house. Of course, you're invited to the party and also for the trip to Sandgem to get her starter."

Saturn mulled over his conversation with Rynade

"That pokemon...white and centaur-like, with a ring suspended around his midriff...why haven't I heard of that pokemon before? Hmm... I'll ask that captain...Ryanide or something, to draw it for me."

Whatever that pokemon was, he wanted it. Pokemon were flawed beings, just like humans, but he believed that they could combine the two to make the perfect person...and for that he needed the best pokemon.

"And the best pokemon...is it that one?"

Sonya had reached Canalave city and had booked a ticket to Nuvema Airport.

"Two more days...and I'll be free. My hands free of blood."

Meanwhile, Palkia and Celebi still hadn't decided on names for each other.

"Seb's a ridiculous name for me...just cause it sounds like Celebi doesn't mean it should be my name!" Celebi growled, rubbing his tusks with his paws. He still hadn't gotten used to the two teeth that jutted out the sides of his mouth.

"Well, I could just give you a random name, like Riguel or something..."

"NO! Not that...well, you could called yourself Shelly...or Sharon. Yeah...that's not a bad name..."

Palkia considered the name."Sharon's not bad...yeah...I'll just keep it. Do you even want a name? I mean, I could just call you Axew. You didn't have a name when..." Palkia, now Sharon, stopped speaking as someone walked past them. "You were Celebi." she finished.

"I guess...I'll just stick with Axew. And I still haven't thanked you for not making me a weird pokemon like vileplume or rotom. At least my body is still similar, I just can't fly and have these...teeth things jutting out here. I just hope I don't evolve."

Sharon smiled, glad that she'd gotten everything out of the way. "Great! I'll book us a ticket to Sinnoh then. We should probably be here another 2 days or so."

Firael woke up. The first thing she saw was white. It was everywhere. The entire room was made of a shiny white plastic...except for a patch on the wall...it looked like a mirror...

"A mirror?"

Alexa responded before she remembered not to say anything.

"Dunno why it's there, maybe it's a one-way mirror or something."

Now suspicious, Firael looked around her new cell. There didn't seem to be any form of surveillance anywhere in the room. She walked up to the mirror and inspected it closely...

Vila Turner, the head researcher at the Canalave branch of Team Rocket's bases, walked into the main Operations Centre of the Canalave branch of Team Rocket. Walking over to the psychiatrist, who was staring at the charmander, she asked him.

"Ok, I'm the head scientist here, why the mirror? Is it for the subject to see herself turned into a pokemon and freak out? Because if that's the case, you've forgotten that the human subject has already woken up and knows she's a charmander."

The psychiatrist smiled. "You're thinking with the wrong mindset. If you woke up in a room after being experimented on for a long time, and the only interactive object in it was a mirror, what object would you be most suspicious of?"

Vila frowned. "The mirror? I guess I'd think it was some sort of trick mirror...Is that what you're looking for?"

"And is a mirror something for a pokemon to be suspicious of?"

"Is it Isrea's birthday today? Oh yeah...I forgot! I need to get her a present of some kind...when do you need me to get her away from the house?"

"About noon. It would probably take us two to three hours to set up the party, so bring her back then. We'll leave a box outside the door if we still aren't finished"

"Ok, I'll be round by then. Bye! I got to go and get a present. Come on, Scout." Steven jumped from his hand into the inside pocket of his hoodie.

"No! We're playing into their hands! Breathe fire on the mirror or something!" Alexa's voice rang out in Firael's mind.

She instantly began summoning a ball of fire from the liquid fire that brewed in the pits of her stomach and released it at the mirror, spreading it towards the rest of the wall. She then decided to test just how fireproof the room was, and concentrated all her fire on one spot, her fire beginning to grow white-hot.

"They expected Alexa to be suspicious of the mirror?" Firael thought. "Smart"

As they lay in bed, Celebi asked Palkia a question.

"Palk- Sharon? What will we do in Sinnoh? Do you want to get the badges, or do you just want to travel around and see the region?"

Sharon mused over the question."Hmm...Axew...I'm not sure...I don't think I want to catch other Pokemon, seeing as we won't be stuck like this forever, and just letting them go seems...wrong. I'll have to think about it."

"What to buy...what to buy..." Aron thought. This was really the first time he'd shopped for anyone other than himself, and he had absolutely no idea what he wanted to get for her. For himself, he'd already gotten himself a harmonica and a bag of chips for Scout.

"Scout...pokemon! Isrea's 11 today! She'll probably be getting a starter...so I can get her a ribbon or something else for the starter...yeah..."

With that, Aron headed off towards the pokemon clothing section.

Steven was happy to sit in Aron's pocket and eat the chips that Aron put in there. He could hear Aron buying some scarf thing for Isrea. Aron then patted Steven through the coat pocket and whispered to him.

"To Isrea's and then to the park, ok?

Vila's eyes widened. "Quick! Sedate Subject 24! She's trying to escape!"

The psychiatrist turned towards Vila, one eyebrow raised. "I thought you fireproofed the room?"

"I did, but I don't want the subject overexerting herself...although I think that behaviour indicates that she still has the mentality of a pokemon. She walked away.

The psychiatrist knotted his eyebrows. "I'm not so sure...there seemed to be an inkling of something there..."

"Bugger...it's not working." Firael heard Alexa mutter.

"Yes, but they expect me to keep trying, don't they?" Firael responded in her head. Suddenly, she heard a clicking sound behind her, and she turned to face a man pointing a stun gun at her.

He fired.

"Char!" Firael screamed as electricity coursed through her body, flowing through the stun probes now embedded in her chest. Feeling as though she had just been gutted by ice-cold wire, she collapsed onto the ground, twitching as the other men picked her up, carefully avoiding her tail, which was flaring up unpredictably

She couldn't move, and had to feel herself being carried through unknown corridors and passageways before being dumped...

Into a steel cage.

"Hel- oh, it's you, Aron...what did you call over for?" Isrea hadn't expected Aron to just turn up on her doorstep.

"I dunno really...you want to come with me to the park? I need to ask you what you're gonna do after your birthday."

"Has he already forgotten what my birthday was? I'll let it stew for a bit, and then tell him. That'll teach him to forget!" Isrea thought. What she said was, "Yeah, ok."

Rubbing her chest where the stun probes had hit her, Firael stalked around her cage...it was wide enough to walk around in, and high enough to stand up in, but that was it.

She was trapped.

While Aron and Isrea chatted about school and the recent Silver conference, Steven was still trying to figure out how to fly. He was trying to jump and flap his wings once to get a small height boost, as he figured that that was the first thing one had to learn to be able to fly.

What did happen was that Steven kept on landing on his back every time he flapped his wings.

"Yer doing it wrong." Steven whirled around at the source of the voice, and saw a starly perched on a tree branch, attempting to smother a grin.

"What, flying?"

"Yeeaaaeeep." The starly dragged out the word. It sounded like he was enjoying himself.

"Well...what am I doing wrong? Could you tell me?" Steven begged the starly, and as he got a better look, he recognised it. It was the first pokemon he ever saw on his first day of life in this world, whilst he was walking to school.

"Yes, but tell me why you're all funny-coloured. Your trainer don't seem the type to use dye."

"Oh...err...I was born with this colouring. My friend doesn't use dye, it's just natural. Now can you tell me what I'm doing wrong?"

The starly sighed. "Ok...I don't fully buy your story, but it's something. As to your technique, you're making one simple mistake that pretty much every bird pokemon makes on their first go. You need to use your tail to counterbalance your wings. Your wings aren't exactly in the centre of your body, so flapping them is gonna to make ya spin around. You have to make your tail beat downwards when your wings flap to cancel it out. It's hard to get the hang of at first, but eventually it comes naturally. You gonna tell me the full story sometime?"

"Really?" Steven immediately tried jumping and flapping his wings while pushing his tail downwards. Instead of flipping over backwards, he found his wings catching the air, and managed to push himself upwards. However, by the time he'd tried to flap again, he had already hit the ground again. "Woah! Thanks for that! What's your name? Mine's Ste- Scout."

"Your wings aren't strong enough, but at least you've got the general idea. Build up the muscles in your wings, and you'll be able to fly. By the way, me name's Rush"

After dropping the envelope meant for Saturn at the Post Office, Pluto walked into the Rocket headquarters and into Giovanni's room, after knocking.

"Nix? Ahh...you've got the report then?"

"Yes sir. Could I know what it's about?"

"You? Not at the moment. Note how it says 'for Giovanni's eyes only?' That means that you aren't entitled to know anything about this...not yet. Dismissed."

As she left Giovanni's room, Pluto smirked.

"Too late."

While they watched Scout trying to learn how to fly, Aron and Isrea's conversation turned to pokemon training.

"So, Isrea, you're eleven today...and you want to be a trainer?

"Oh, so he knows it's my birthday today...then why hasn't he mentioned it?"

"Yeah, of course I do! My parents are really happy for me to go and be a pokemon trainer, only..."

"Only what?"

"I don't really want to go on my journey on my own...when do you turn eleven?"

"I'm really lucky, I turn eleven in two about two months, so basically I get the winter holidays, turn eleven, and then get to go and train pokemon!"

"Hmm...ok...do you want to do the journey with me? I'll wait the extra two months, get to know my starter better...that sound good to you?"

Aron was surprised that she had offered to postpone her journey, but pleased nevertheless that he would have a travelling companion on his journey. Checking his watch, he realised that now would be a good time to go back to Isrea's house.

"Hey, you wanna go back? Scout looks pretty tired." With that he called Scout over, and Scout jumped into Aron's outstretched hand, using his wings for extra propulsion.

"Hey! You can flap your wings without flipping around now! Good work!" Aron exclaimed as he put Scout back into his jacket pocket rubbing the back of his head as he did so. It was something he found out that Scout really liked.

"Taillow..."

Rynade had been given 1 month's stress leave, and so went back home to rest. 1 month was actually a minimum, and his holiday would extend until he was next called upon.

"Awesome..." he thought as he flipped onto the couch and turned on the TV.

News.

"What? I get to watch some TV and I get the news? And it's about that festival that won't be on for nearly another year anyway..."

His phone rang.

"Hello?"

"I need a drawing of that pokemon you saw. Deliver it to me tomorrow. You can have your leave then. Goodbye." Saturn hung up.

Rynade was left gawking at his phone. Sighing, he put the receiver down and grabbed a pencil and paper.

On the fourth day after leaving Team Rocket, Sonya stepped out on the tarmac, headed towards the plane to Nuvema city. Shivering in the cold of the early morning, she was still trying to reconcile herself with what she'd done to Alexa.

"I destroyed her life. There isn't another way to twist it. Why? For science? For glory? For money?"

"Why? ...I don't know."

Isrea still thought that Aron was acting a little strange, what with him knowing about her birthday but not taking note of it. This was soon answered when the two of them entered the front door of Isrea's house.

"Surprise!"

Out of nowhere, a pillow came flying out and hit Aron in the head.

"Oops, we missed...Happy Birthday Isrea!"

Isrea didn't know whether to laugh or smile at her parents' attempt at a surprise party. Still, there was always cake.

Isrea's birthday party was nearly just a family affair, with her relatives from Hoenn also coming over for the occasion. Aron felt a little left out, as he was the only one not from her family.

"Hey Aron! Come over here! We're taking a photo!" Isrea's mother was beckoning for him to come over. Shrugging, he went over and the picture was taken.

After the photo came the presents. Isrea received several gifts of money, clothing and supplies for her pokemon journey, and when it came to Aron to give her his present, he told her "Don't open it yet, just wait until you've got your starter before opening it."

As the last of the cake was finished, Isrea's family and Aron all bundled into a rented minibus, and drove to Sandgem town to get Isrea's starter.

Lucas had stayed in Twinleaf town for a few days, and felt that he should at least confirm Arceus' existence with Professor Rowan. He looked at his belt, and realised that he still held the Master ball, and hadn't given it to anyone.

"This isn't mine to keep...I should at least give this to someone who knew Steven..."

In Hearthome City...

Mr. Axel hadn't expected the boy, Steven Borell to make it to Hearthome city so quickly. However, he had received a letter detailing him to read the will today, supposedly from Steven, 1 and a half weeks before it was meant to be read. He walked into his office, and called two of his friends, of whom he frequently used as witnesses.

No sooner had they arrived when the boy, Steven Borell walked in. The will was read.

As Arceus watched the will reading unfold beneath him, he allowed himself a grin. "Celebi may be foolish at times, but sending that letter and using Stephen in place of Steven was a stroke of genius. Now for Steven's body. I would congratulate the Celebi waiting outside the door, but that would just confuse him." he chuckled again at the thought.

The Steven's mother's last Will and Testament was finished, and the boy had just given all his possessions to his best friend. Mr. Axel was used to children doing something like that. However, ss he watched the boy leave, he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something else in the room, but it didn't matter, as Messrs Axel and Co. had other clients to attend to. Time was money, and Mr. Axel could never have too much money, and always had too little time.

The next day, the boy was found dead. The police couldn't say what killed him, other than it wasn't a known human weapon or pokemon attack that caused it. Mr. Axel was notified and preparations were made regarding Aron Silpha and the delivery of the body to Floaroma town.

When they'd reached Professor Rowan's lab, Professor Rowan was already waiting outside, with a group of 2 other prospective trainers. He saw Isrea's family approach and smiled.

"Sorry, but only the person registering may enter. I can't have everyone in my lab, you know."

Isrea shrugged, and followed the other children, one her age, and one a little older into the lab.

Firael had nothing to do, so in her boredom she drifted off into sleep. Natural sleep, for the first time in over 8 months.

As Aron and Isrea's family waited for Isrea to reappear, he saw a blond trainer land near Professor Rowan's lab. At the same time, Isrea emerged with a Pokeball in her hand, her face radiating joy.

"Aron! You won't believe what I got! If only Steven were here to see this!" She said, obviously giddy with excitement.

"Yeah...pity he's still in Hearthome City." Aron replied

"Steven?"

Palkia and Celebi had decided to catch the late-night plane to Canalave. Upon entering, Palkia headed towards the toilet, not wanting any calls of nature while in customs. As she approached the door, however, she heard sniffling behind her.

Lucas had just landed when he realised that Rowan was giving out the starters to new trainers.

"Ahh well...I guess I'll just have to wait." he thought as he walked over, intending to wait by the minibus parked in front of the lab.

However, as he neared the lab, he saw a girl run out, obviously just having received her starter. He smiled. "I remember when I felt the same way..."

His smile didn't last long when he heard what the girl and a boy who had just emerged from the minibus were saying.

"Aron! You won't believe what I got! If only Steven were here to see this!"

"Yeah...pity he's still in Hearthome City."

"They knew Steven? How many boys named Steven could have been heading to Hearthome City? It had to be them."

"Steven?"

Firael and Alexa found themselves back in the forest. The first thing Firael noticed about Alexa was that she looked a little different.

"Alexa? Is your skin usually an orangish colour?"

Sonya couldn't take it anymore. After she had alighted her flight, she headed for a toilet for some privacy, but before she could make it, a girl heard her and stopped her.

"Are you all right?"

Sonya decided to tell the girl everything. She didn't care what the other girl thought about her afterwards, but someone else had to know. Anyway, getting reprimanded by a teenager should slap some sense back into her.

Then she could finally be at peace with herself.

"C-come with me to the lounge...I'll tell you everything."

"Ok, my name's Sharon. What's yours?"

"S-Sonya Tanem."

"I'm sorry to tell you this, but Steven has...passed away." Aron couldn't believe what he was hearing. This blond trainer had just turned up and told him his best friend was dead.

"What?"

"He's dead. And seeing as you two know him, I'll give you this Master ball. He caught a pokemon with this just before he died, so you can't use it to catch anything but the pokemon he caught isn't in there. He let it out, but didn't release it. Guard this ball with your life. The pokemon he caught...is a very important one. Don't lose this ball."

"How do I know you aren't lying? How do you know Steven is dead? How the bloody hell do you know?" Aron could feel Scout squriming in his jacket pocket.

Imagine that you've just heard that you've been killed. This was how Steven felt. Hearing the news of his own death bought back the harsh reality that was the world he lived in. He squirmed uncomfortably, wanting the discussion to move on to another subject.

It felt like someone was walking over his grave.

As Giovanni finished the delivered report, he thought about Nix's request. Sure, it was a little strange for a Captain to obtain information that only he should know, but he wasn't sure if he wanted this project continued, and a second opinion couldn't hurt. Especially from a Captain in the R&D division within his organisation.

"You don't. I know you can't trust me now, but when he doesn't come back, you will. I am the trainer that escorted him, or tried to, through Mount Coronet. As to what happened there, I cannot tell you."

"So it's YOUR fault he's dead!" Isrea yelled as Aron held Scout tighter, as Scout seemed to be getting very agitated.

"In a sense, yes. But mostly because of Team Galactic. They held him hostage, and..." With that, the trainer's eyes clouded over. "I cannot say. All I can tell you was that there was no way I could have seen it coming, and there was no way I could save him. I'm so sorry."

"You say that like you're a skilled trainer! How do we know you are one? Maybe you were in it just for the money! Tricking an innocent boy into believing you were-" Isrea started yelling at the blond trainer, before Aron cut in.

"Hey! I remember you! You're that trainer who dropped that yellow rectangle at Jubilife! Who are you?"

"Me? I am Lucas."

Aron punched him in the face.

I hope the thing with the mirror was realistic. It seemed to make more sense in my head, but the fact that noone saw it coming was a little worrying. Technically, this is the last appearance of Stephen in the fic, and I'm glad I finally worked the will scene into the main storyline. Now I don't have to worry about forgetting that little tidbit of infomation.

Tsaukpaetra: Glad someone else has actually read Tales of Flame...

CrazyJosie: Well, there WAS some burning in this chapter, but not much...and it wasn't that effective...

ValeforXD: Correct. Google Docs is my excuse, and I'm glad you think so highly of this story. We should both probably go to bed earlier as well, huh?

Cyberfire: You'll just have to wait and see...

Ryu Dragonclaw: You found out. It was a little bit anti-climatic, but I've just realised that Celebi didn't have his own name before, so it would have been a little OOC if he decided on getting a new one. Palkia needed a name, of course.

Steven: This chapter really featured me! I don't care if you keep them short...just more ME...!

Alexa: Really? The author hasn't really treated your character well, you know.

Steven: Oh yea...more HER! !

Alexa: Ok...that's just sadistic.

Please Review! If this chapter sucks, I want to know WHY, not that it sucks. Thanks for reading!