CHAPTER TWELVE

"Jack."

"Yeah, I know. It's time, right?"

"Aretti is going to be here soon. They'll take care of me, and I can take care of myself. Besides, we can always talk. Leave me with my pokeball,and don't worry. We've put it off as long as we can, but Michael is going to need you. And you need to explain it to him before it happens."

"I can't even begin to tell you how much I hate myself for this. Knowing that there's really nothing I can do."

"You don't have to tell me."

"I love you Hannah."

"Jack... I..." she was silent for a long time.

"I know... Hannah, I know."

The Aerodactyl appeared beneath Hannah, and Jack, giving her a light kiss on the back of her neck, jumped down, landing on Aretti's back with a light thump. He waved at her, and they disappeared as quickly and quietly as the Aerodactyl had shown up. Hannah stared as they disappeared, then looked down at the forest below. Icefall Cave was their next destination. She didn't look forward to getting through it. Every fiber of her mind wanted her body to be where Jack was. It already felt as if a part of her was missing, like something had been cut away from her body. She shifted his pack around her neck, and wrapped her arms around it. She sighed, then mumbled, "I love you too."

.~.~.~.~.~

The Porygon-Z flitted out of existence for a second, then found itself drifting through numbers... it resisted the urge to mess with the programming, and instead found the exit it was looking for. In a second it had appeared in a stone gray room, and did a little dance, pleased with itself. "Ohh, guess what! I'm in the castle! Now to find the boy."

"Just be careful Gizmo, you've gotten yourself into enough trouble already, the entire camp is looking for you. Silver would be pissed if he knew about this."

The Pokemon rolled it's eyes, knowing that she couldn't see, and set up a small virus and downloaded it into the computer. That should be a nice little surprise... "Aw relax. Silver isn't here, besides, you've done far better than he would have expected. How's the leg feeling, or not feeling?"

"I'm okay for now, it's not giving me much trouble. Dagger has been helping to keep us warm, and Kitten is keeping guard right now. Just hurry up and get him out, before I have to go in myself. We're going to have to get out of here by the Ranger Union rout, we can't pay for another boat trip."

"What kind of Rocket are you? Seriously? Just tie up the guy, he's a con artist anyway. It's not like you don't have experience in that. If I recall, you told me that he had you learn at least eighteen different knots. And I was there for half of it, he probably would have thrown the guy overboard with a six pack of water and wished him luck." Gizmo disappeared into the computer program again, jumping along until he found another exit. He zapped out into the middle of a kitchen from the florescent light above.

"I'd rather not leave a trail. Just find him, it shouldn't be that hard, you can access his memory through the chip, so hurry up."

"You got it girly! One experiment gone wrong, coming right up." He zipped through the open door, and down the hall, waiting for the chip to resonate enough for him to pinpoint it. He knew he was going to pay for that little jab later, but her reaction was more than worth it. It was a little joke between them anyway, a little reminder of what exactly they were...

He shuddered to a halt, staring at the creature in front of him. It hissed, shooting a beam of frozen air straight at him. He twisted and dodged, then glared at his attacker. Frosslass. He shuddered and zipped into one of the lights wired above. Something wasn't right about that Pokemon... None of the rooms had wiring though... it was either the door or nothing... he took a second to plan, then jumped from the florescent bulb, attacking behind her, then jumping back into the lights. He did this over and over, then stopped suddenly... he couldn't see her. Suddenly pain jolted through him as the light he was smashed. He twitched around, trying to gather enough energy as fast as he could, materializing with a pop. Another sharp pain through his body, he heard a shout from her, and then everything went black.

.~.~.~.~.~

Sterling shivered, staring out at the falling snow. If their tracks hadn't been covered good enough yesterday, they definitely were today. "We're stuck here aren't we?" She asked, crawling down from the window seat and looking around the room. The Sneasel she had caught yesterday was sleeping near the door in a small pile of blankets it had torn up. Pepper, Michael's Linoon, and Bonsly were curled together near the fire place, Pepper watching everything calmly. Linoon and Bonsly were sleeping peacefully.

Mrs. Winter took a drink of coffee before answering, "you could try your luck out there, but even the best of rangers have a hard time in that weather."

"What about trainers?"

She looked up, giving Sterling a curious glance. "I haven't met many trainers, I wouldn't know. I'd guess that it would take a little more than a snowstorm to stop them though. Especially determined ones."

Sterling nodded and sat on the floor, leaning against Pepper. "Especially strong ones. I miss my mom, and my dad. I don't even know what happened to make the people in that castle want to hurt them so badly. Michael says that they're coming, that they'll be here in a few days... but what about Emily's mom? I'm safe, I'm here with you, and she's still in the castle. How am I supposed to explain that?" She had pulled Bonsly onto her lap, and was gently stroking the Pokemon.

Justin looked at her along with Mrs. Winter, who seemed at a loss for words. He ran a hand through his hair. "Holey Miltank patties. Look kid, none of this is your fault, and the fact that even just you got out is amazing. Michael is out there, right now, freezing his butt off, waiting for a message from Jack, because he knows that whatever message he gets is going to be about your parents. If Emily's mom has any sense in her at all, she'll understand what happened, and know that you all did your best. Most kids wouldn't have even thought up a real plan, let alone one that worked well enough to actually get one of you out. For the Nintales sake, you're six years old. You keep telling yourself this is all your fault, when that's not even possible. You haven't lived long enough for anything to be your fault. Unless you managed to piss off an entire organization by playing with Pokemon and loving your parents."

Sterling glared at him. "For some reason that didn't make me feel better."

Jason tapped his head, "yes it did. Don't lie to Pokemon kid, especially Ghost Types. It made you feel better, you just wish that there was some way you could go in there and save your friends."

Sterling promptly stuck her tongue out at him, but did admit to herself that it had made her feel a little better. Mrs. Winter was glaring at Jason, but he was putting a good effort towards ignoring her and avoiding eye contact, knowing that he was going to get an earful for speaking that way around a Six year old... although she'd certainly heard worse come out of his mouth. He felt relief as Michael burst through the door, then worry. Michael was in a state, half his face was covered in blood and bruises, and he had tears in his coat. Terror washed through him suddenly, and he'd returned all of the Pokemon and grabbed Sterling before the first word had left Michael's mouth. He panted, "Go, now, GO! We all have to get out of here, they found us, they're going to kill her!" He slid to the floor, grabbing his leg. Jason could see tears in his clothing, and blood seeping through.

"What the hell happened to you?"

Michael shook his head, grimacing up at them, "I'm pretty sure I killed one of them..." he slid a gun across the floor. "Those two years of martial arts Viox made me take just paid off. I guess I really fit in now, don't I?" He laughed, short and rough, more like a cough, "they're not going to kill me, they said they wanted me alive. You have to take Sterling and run... Mrs. Winter, I'm so sorry. Sterling, no matter what you do, don't let them catch you. They're going to kill you. Jason... you're freaking insane, but I have to trust you, whether I want to or not. If you let me down, I'll personally beat the shit out of you."

Jason swung Sterling onto his back, and she held on, staring at Michael. "Don't worry bout it Mike. Just hang in there. When you see Jack, tell him he's an asshole."

Mrs. Winter glared at him, but didn't say anything. She had a feeling that Sterling would be learning many new words from Jason. Michael gave a thumbs up, and Jason ran out of the cabin, disappearing into the flying snow. She turned back to Michael, "you had better get in here, I have a basement. You can try to hide down there. You're beat up pretty bad, but I may as well try to fix you up."

Michael managed to get inside with her help, and she shut the door. "Sorry you have to see me like this. I guess when you keep the company I do, you're bound to shoot someone sometime. Viox made me take some martial arts lessons, and she taught me how to use a gun. I didn't want to, but I'm glad for it now. They shot me up pretty good before I could get away... can you believe that I was going to be a doctor some day? I went through Nursing School, really liked it. I started studying, got some second hand books... I was going to move out here and start school. I was going to marry Viox, or at least ask her to marry me. It's been six years, I love her like... the sky loves the sea... She's my best friend, even though she's harsh sometimes. She's got another side though, she isn't always cold... I was there while she was pregnant with Emily... I promised I would take care of her... and when things started going wrong..."

The entire time he was talking, she was making him move towards an open hatch in front of the fireplace. She carefully led him down the stairs, making sure that he didn't fall. "You need to be quiet now."

Michael suddenly focused through the pain, nodding. "It's going to hurt when you take those bullets out, but wait until they're gone. I know myself, I can't take pain like that. I'll scream... if you have any vodka, rum, something alcoholic, whiskey is the preference, you'll want me to drink it. It'll make me bleed a lot more, but it should deaden the pain. You're going to need to tie me down, since you don't have anyone to hold me. I know you have needle and thread. That will do well enough for stitches as long as you thread it through alcohol. I'll probably feint halfway through, if I don't before you come back." He took a deep breath, shutting his eyes and digging his nails into his palm. "My left arm is out of socket. You're going to have to put it back. If they find me down here, let them take me, don't try to stop them. They want information out of me, and they aren't going to ask nicely... they'll heal me up first. I think they believe that I know more than I actually do, which will keep me alive longer. Damn Jack... why did he have to drag me into this?" He growled, leaning back against the wall. Mrs. Winter ascending the stairs was the last thing he remembered before the pain took complete hold.

.~.~.~.~.~

Silver returned Fearligatr, stepping off the dock and looking around. They had gone all over the cave, and found out that the only exit was blocked by a huge wall of ice. Go figure. "So. Anyone have any ideas? We've been traveling around here for hours, and the only way out is back the way we came."

Keri sighed, leaning against the wall of the cave. "It's getting late, Jack is missing, Grant has already fallen asleep, so has Hannah, and Viox already set up her tent. Our idea is that it's time to go to sleep. Tomorrow we'll use any fire moves our Pokemon know to melt a hole in that thing, and then hopefully we can get through. Other than those two rangers, we didn't have any problems today..." She yawned, although she didn't really look very tired, just sad. "I don't know what to expect tomorrow. We might just have to get our Pokemon to try and fly us over."

"I don't have a flying type." Viox said, striking a match and placing it against some dried out wood and paper. "Neither do you, Keri. I don't know about Grant, he mostly uses Ground Types, but I'd bet that he doesn't have any Flying Types on him either. So that leaves Silvers Crobat, and Hannah. I'd rather take my chances with that ice wall than fly."

Keri and Silver sat on the ground, near the fire she was starting. "What's wrong with flying?" Keri asked, leaning against Silver. She was supposed to treat this like a mission, but there was no way in hell she was going to pretend that he was just another team member.

"I don't like it, it makes me sick. Heights aren't exactly my favorite." She finally got it lit, and made a point of watching it instead of making eye contact. "You get dropped off a building when you're five, and it sort of ruins them for the rest of your life."

"Who the hell drops a child off of a building?" Keri muttered, knowing the answer to her own question.

"You'll find plenty of them in Veilstone City. Street gangs, Sellers, Cutters, Slavers... You take your pick. It was only a matter of time before me and my brother got adopted into something or caught and killed by the Cutters. And we were lucky. Team Rocket is still a hero in my eyes, because there were so many worse things out there. Children have been killed in this organization, I know that. They're also given a chance to survive, really survive, not just live. I don't know where Tod ended up, but I know he's not dead. When someone saves your life and defies the most powerful gang you know about, you don't just give what they say you owe and leave," she began digging in her pack, and pulled out her Pokeballs. "You stay with them for life. I wasn't going to let Emily join though. I prepared her for things. Taught her how to shoot a gun, although Michael doesn't know about that. I know what Team Rocket does. I've done more than my share of things... We've all killed people. We've all hurt people, killed their Pokemon, kidnapped them, tracked, stolen, trained. I was hoping to save Emily from a life like that. Teach her what she needs to know to protect herself, but keep her from seeing what I've done. And now she's right in the middle of what I was trying to keep her out of."

Silver kept his eyes on the glowing fire. It didn't seem to be keeping the cold away. After a moment he spoke. "Tod Creed is fine. He's been assigned to unit zero, and is a squad leader. They promoted him a few months after I joined."

"So he's a Rose now."

Silver nodded. "Nice Tattoo and everything. Got a white one instead of the traditional red, on the back of his neck. He looks a lot like you, but he was always busy on a mission or off somewhere else. Rumors flew around about where he was, but I wouldn't believe half of them."

"The Roses will treat him good, we take care of our own. Roses are given a much looser leash than most Rockets, but the color of the Rose is important. It's a sort of unwritten law we have, red pretty much means that you're open to a relationship, or just don't know the code. Purple means that you don't want a relationship. White means you're taken, and are completely off limits. Giovanni knows about most of it, he lets it fly with the Roses because we still do every mission we're given better than . Roses are the best, that's why they're sent in first." She said, drawing a rose in the sand on the cave floor.

Viox smirked, noticing the expression on Silvers face. He looked somewhat confused. "I don't think that your boyfriend is entirely sure how he feels about what you just said. I think it's the use of present tense that's messing him up."

Silver glared at her. Wishing for a second that the phrase 'if looks could kill' was literal. "I was mostly thinking about the fact that most of the Rumors about your brother have just been proven true. Actually, a lot of stuff about the Roses just became very clear. What about yellow?"

Keri bit her bottom lip, not meeting his eyes. "Yellow means that you'll take anything with a gender. They're a little... ostracized. They're typically given missions where you have to get something off someone. Good news is that they're good at it."

Viox made a face. "Well, we know that Roses aren't exactly chosen for morals. I thought all of the colors were some sort of ranking thing."

Keri rolled her eyes. "It's not exactly supposed to be common knowledge. You typically get a week to figure out what you want before they give you the tattoo. It's customary to get the Rose under the R, but you can get it wherever you want really. Everyone has a status, grunts to elites, but the color has nothing to do with it. And the status thing isn't really used."

"So it's basically a gang inside the gang? Something is a little messed up there." Silver said as he dug through his pack for a bottle of water.

Keri shrugged. "Right. A little messed up, says the person who should probably know more than all of us about Team Rocket."

Silver grimaced. "Yeah. I don't know about the Roses, they weren't exactly anything I had to worry about. I spent most of my time training people, which, by the way, they based almost entirely after your own style. Every time I thought I had learned everything about you, someone would pop up with some new little fact."

"Did they tell you about the time she stood on a chair and chewed out an Admin because of how he was treating his Squads? That was entertaining to watch. Everyone seriously thought she was an Elite after that, but only because he actually listened to her. I was new to the squad, she joined a different squadron a few days later, but that was seriously funny."

"Viox, come on, that was ten years ago," she whined, burying her head in her arms. She had entirely forgotten about that. It was weird to her that Viox had been there.

Silver frowned slightly, "you stood on a chair and yelled at an Admin at fourteen years old, and only got sent to a different Squadron?"

Keri looked up, "no. I stood on a chair, yelled at an Admin, got a warning not to do it again, and was offered a position in a better Squadron, with better pay. I took it. Actually, after that I never got a mission from an Admin again. That's when the phone calls started. Come to think of it, I probably should have gotten in a lot more trouble for making that guy look like an idiot, but he really deserved it. I shouldn't have told him I'd be better at his job than him though, that was just setting myself up for the offer."

Viox shook her head at Keri, "you're a piece of work, you know that? You come in with half a brain and a Scyther, and probably could have taken over the organization by now. That fire that happened... whoever did that needs to be shot."

Silvers mouth twitched, but he kept it shut. Viox raised her eyebrows at him, but didn't say anything. Keri took a drink from Silvers water bottle and sighed, staring at the fire, "I miss my parents. My father was a trainer for a few years, had a handful of badges and Pokemon. My mom did a voice for a radio show in Johto and studied mythology. They taught me everything about training, told me to stay safe, and look where I end up? I doubt they'd approve of anything I've done."

Silver nudged her arm, "It's not that bad, I mean, there's me."

"Yeah, that would have gone over well," she put on a sarcastic grin, "hey mom, this is the boy I was supposed to be tracking, and I was supposed to take out his Pokemon so that Team Rocket could capture him. Instead I decided I loved him, and he hasn't been here for the last six years because he had to join Team Rocket to keep us safe. Oh hey dad, yeah, this is him. Please don't kill him with the baseball bat, really, it's okay, no, I will not let you have Scyther back for a second," she laughed. "Yep, that would go over really well. With luck you might have gotten out with only a couple broken bones."

"And the fact that I'm Giovanni's son, that would have made any family get togethers less than pleasant. Most trainers aren't exactly fond of him... at all," he leaned back against his hands, thinking.

Viox yawned, looking at a watch around her wrist, "I'm going to go to sleep."

Keri nodded, "I'll have Grant take the next watch, you okay with morning?"

"Yeah, whatever. You're the boss. If you two are going to go make out or something though, there's another cave out on the other side." She stood and took a few steps over to her tent, disappearing beneath the dark blue canvas.

It was quiet for a few minutes, Keri leaned against Silver, listening to the water drip in the cave. He sat up, and wrapped an arm around her. "You know..." he started, staring up at the ceiling of the cave.

Keri turned to look at him, "know what?"

"I don't know... that family get together thing. It would have been an awkward wedding," he said slowly.

Keri was quiet for a minute as she curled up closer to him, then, "it could always still be an awkward wedding. Your family sounds like it has it's problems, and I'm positive that my parents friends and that one psychotic aunt I have would be more than pleased to make it extremely uncomfortable... We would have to tell the priest to leave out that bit about objections."

Silver chuckled, and ran a hand through her hair, "you put it that way, it would probably just be better to have Mr. Briney take us out to sea and have him marry us."

Keri wrinkled up her nose, "ew no. Sorry Silver, but I don't think we'd ever actually get married. He'd never stop talking. What if we just invited our friends, your dad and aunt, my aunt, and had it... I don't know. Somewhere that isn't crazy?"

"Someplace that isn't crazy is a tall order. I bet we could find a place that's only a little crazy though. Floroma Town in Sinnoh is nice."

"I always liked Snowpoint City, it's freezing out there though."

"Blackthorn in Johto, although there's some people there who don't exactly like me."

"Heh, why don't we just break into the League building on an off day, and have it in the middle of the arena. It would be fitting," she snickered.

"Sure. We could all wear black masks along with the dresses and tuxedos. Then we'll steal the tapes from the control room and have the reception in the meeting room," he said, and they both began to laugh. Suddenly Silver stopped, and looked her in the eye, "do you really want it in the League building? Because I know the Elite four, and the Champion. I could get permission for that, and it would be private."

She stared at him, shocked, for a second, "I..." she started, just staring at him. Finally she managed to find her voice. "Are you serious? Even after... everything? I mean, I know you had to do some stuff..."

He smirked, "Most of them will have heard of you and will probably be pretty surprised, but after I explain everything... Lets just say that I have very understanding friends," he murmured, leaning over to grab a stick and poke at the fire. "I mean, we're talking about people who found out I was Giovanni's son, and didn't care, at all. Heh, I can't wait until they meet you." He curled his arms around her, resting his chin in her hair.

"That sounds wonderful, lets just get a whole room of people who hate Team Rocket together to meet me, I'm sure they'll be thrilled to learn that I made up half the training program and have an almost-perfect record. I never screwed up a mission." She leaned back against his chest, eyes closed, "I'm sure they'll be completely thrilled."

"You understand that I'll probably stab anyone who says anything, right?"

Keri opened her eyes and rolled them at him, "wonderful... You still carry around the same knife?"

Silver sighed, "no. It broke, turns out that you shouldn't leave things where trainees can get them."

"First person you trained, right?"

"Snapped it in two thinking he could pry the lid to a steel box open. He's probably not going to get very far, unless he's already dead. Sadly, that's something I can say about most of the people I trained," he muttered.

"Right, about you training, what was that; your conversation with Giovanni in the gym?" She asked, sitting up and looking at him.

Silver shrugged, sighing, "that was about Anya. I trained her about three months after... you know. Anyway, she's the kind that attracts trouble, and then goes looking for more. She should be around nineteen now, I'm not entirely sure, but she's the only one I actually enjoyed training at all. Mostly because she didn't act like an idiot, and she got people I didn't like in trouble. A lot of trouble... she had a habit of carrying around a tape recorder."

Keri grinned, "yep, that would definitely get people in trouble... Of course, the downside is that it could get you killed."

Silver nodded, "yeah. Almost. About three years after training her, we were put in a team together, the two of us and a boy named Matthias. We got into trouble, Matt died, and Anya was hurt, she ended up loosing a lot of blood. The closest thing to a hospital was one of the Labs."

Keri's eyes grew wide, and Silver continued, "My blood type is O, they did a transfusion to keep her alive, but they searched our things. She was constantly hanging out in that old barn during training, the one at the Ruins depot. There was a tape I'd told her to erase in there. I'd told her to erase it and not to even think about it again, but it was in there. She'd kept it on her for four years, god knows why. No one knows half the stuff that goes on in the Labs, I doubt that even my father keeps track, but he's probably the only reason I'm alive right now. Anya too. Before we got out they did do some things though. Both of us can see in the dark, sometimes I think I see things I shouldn't... They mostly worked on her though. I don't know what they did, but she had to go through training again for months, and she threw out her tape recorder. Last I'd heard she was doing missions for the Lab department, but that doesn't really help."

"Sounds... Terrifying."

"Yeah... Terrifying works. It was a tape over some genetic thing, most of the lab stuff revolves around genetics I think. It doesn't matter though, it won't change anything... I hope that kid is okay, she didn't deserve what she got," he sighed.

"Neither did you," Keri said, leaning against him again.

"Yes I did. It was my fault she got hurt in the first place. A stupid mistake, something I should have known better than to do, and it almost got her killed."

Keri leaned away from him and glared, then snarled, "everyone makes mistakes. Silver, I don't get the whole self destructive thing. You take the blame for things that you couldn't even control, and then spend and enormous amount of time trying to figure out how you could have stopped it from happening, when you couldn't have."

He just shook his head... "You didn't hear her scream... Keri, three days destroyed everything that girl was. And I was supposed to be in charge of her."

Keri was silent for a while, just staring at the fire, then she finally sighed, "where were you?"

"In the ice fields north of Blackthorn. We were supposed to be gathering information from a Ranger Facility there. We got lost and stuck in a snowstorm, and were looking for shelter. We fell off a cliff..."

She shook her head, "the ice fields are completely unpredictable. They only send people out there because they want them dead. So who sent you on a suicide mission?"

"I wasn't sent. I volunteered to go, like Giovanni said. I knew why they were sending her out there... You don't go into the ice fields to complete missions, you go either to die, or to escape. I was thinking that I could get them north to Sinnoh... We were going to go to the Ranger Base and get information about the land, even though it was crazy to try going through that place in winter... I was crazy though, so I suppose the plan fit."

"Crazier. If you haven't noticed..." Keri muttered with a yawn as she leaned against his chest again.

"Why am I crazier?" He asked, looking at her in confusion.

"Any sane man would have left after that night on the boat," she muttered, curling against him, listening to his heartbeat. Feeling his arms around her, something she knew she would never take for granted. She couldn't.

"No, just a stupid one," he mumbled, petting her hair... "How long did it take to grow your hair out again?" he wondered out loud. He waited for her to answer, but after a minute he realized that she'd fallen asleep. He gently laid her down in his lap with a sigh.

He was half asleep when a voice startled him awake,"that's adorable."

He looked up at Grant, then made an effort to just ignore his presence. After a few minutes he gave up with a sigh, "what do you want? I thought you were asleep."

"I was, now I'm not. I was just making an observation, and thinking about how safe the water in this place is for drinking... it's probably almost time for my shift anyway."

"There are purification tablets in the backpacks. If you want tea or something I'm sure the water is fine. It can't be less healthy than asking a Pokemon to fill your cup. And I can tell you're lying," he growled.

Grant smirked, "just like Giovanni. You got me, what I want to know is how you managed to just stand by for six years and practically ignore every girl that batted her eyes at you. I mean, Keri is pretty, don't get me wrong, but how on earth did you do that? And you barely know her."

Silver ignored the urge to smack him and instead took a deep breath, and released it very slowly. "Honestly? I was so crazy half the time that I barely noticed anything at all. I did what they told me, and when I wasn't doing that I was trying to figure out where she could have gone, what I was going to do when I got out. If she would even want me anymore. I didn't do it, Grant, I was just constantly loosing my mind. She was out there, with my child, and there was absolutely nothing I could do to help them. I couldn't even talk to her. I learned a lot about her while I was there, but that just made everything worse."

Grant flinched, "you probably want to hit me."

"Since my knife is in my backpack, and it's conveniently far enough away that if I tried to get it, I would wake up Keri, yes. I only want to hit you."

"You understand that technically you're my boss right? Keri's too." He said as he dug through his own pack, looking for a bottle of water. "I know you don't like your dad, I know you completely hate Team Rocket, even though we have our charms, but Team Rocket is basically a dictatorship. And you're the son of the King," he paused as Silvers mouth twitched, but he held up a hand, hoping that he could get what he wanted to say in. After a second, Silver nodded and he continued, "I don't like it, for years I thought I was eventually going to be in charge, but I don't have what it takes, hardly anyone does. You do, it's in your blood. You're smart enough, fast enough, have enough stamina and determination, the devotion, and you know when it's time to pull back. I don't. Hell, I barely have any self control compared to you," he paused for a minute.

"I'm not going to do it. My father has tried to convince me a thousand times, and I'm not doing it. I thought he'd learned that the little speeches just made him that much more annoying," Silver growled. "I don't want the power, I just want to live with Keri and Sterling, and have a life and family. He should have known better than to-"

Grant shook his head, "no, no your dad didn't put me up to this, I swear. Giovanni is just worried, honestly. He keeps trying to find someone, anyone who could take over team Rocket, but he can't. Your dad has terrorized people, burned down buildings, stolen blueprints, he has some of the most powerful companies in the palm of his hand, but he can't find someone to take his place... but that's not really what I want to talk about, see every night, I swear to God, the man sits down and stares at a picture of your mom holding you. For like, an hour. An hour he could spend making plans, or spend training, or spend doing any other damn thing on the planet, and he spends it staring at the damn picture. For years he's been doing this. And if you ever tell the old man I said this, I'll deny it to your face, although you'll both know I'm lying, but I think he just wants a family. I think he just wants to be able to come and visit and act like everything is okay. He's great with business, he can kill someone in two seconds without even thinking about it, he knows exactly how to get what he wants when he wants it, but he has absolutely no clue how to talk to you. Like you're his son. Instead of, you know, this annoying brat who keeps trying to destroy pretty much his whole life."

"Nice. I'm not entirely sure if you were trying to convince me to just join up with him, or let him plan my birthday party."

Grant rolled his eyes, "look, just think about it. Not joining up, but yeah. Let him plan you a birthday party, or whatever the hell he wants. Maybe you could all enjoy a picnic on a mountain somewhere, I don't know, I don't care. I just keep thinking about the fact that I'm going to be a father in a few months, and how much it would kill me if my kid hated me. Giovanni can hide his emotions, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have them. You know how psycho you went when you had to leave Keri? You weren't there after your mom died, hell, no one knew where you were. I was seventeen, I didn't really get it then, but now I do.

"Giovanni completely lost it. He wouldn't leave his house for days, and when he did, he went out training. He nearly killed himself at least a hundred times. He'd make up bizarre missions, and actually had us attack the International Police. After your aunt stepped in things got better, she certainly got his head in the right place, and she figured out where you were and told him you were alive. So there's a thousand things you can say about him, but don't ever think that man doesn't love you, okay? Because he does, he just has no freaking idea how to show it. And he does a pretty shitty job when he tries."

Silver sighed, "yeah. He does. Look Grant, this is nice and all, but..." He trailed off, and looked down as he picked at his fingers.

Grant shook his head, "you need to let it go. You want someone to blame for that, and you know she made the choice herself. I babysat you for two years, I know what happened. She didn't want you to watch her die, and she was going to die, quickly and in a lot more pain than what she did."

Silver glared at him, "I'm going to bed. Wake Viox up for her watch in a few hours."

"Yes sir," Grant muttered under his breath.

XOX

So I was going to write more. And then I decided I'd dragged this out long enough.

I want Silver and Keri to actually get married, but I have no flipping idea where or how to write it. Let alone the fact I've only ever been to one wedding that I can remember, and it wasn't really... typical. And this isn't really something I can ask my mom to help me with, cause she doesn't know this story exists. With good reason.

So... Yeah, Grant is right around thirty years old, and has been hanging out with Giovanni since he was fourteen. Yes, he babysat Silver. Weird, I know. I have failed to bring up this little fact, not only because Silver doesn't remember or really care, but because Grant hates to admit that Silver managed to cause trouble for him more than a few times.

And yes. Viox forced Michael into self defense and a few different martial arts. She had to be a little more persuasive about teaching him to shoot, and couldn't get him to carry a gun at all. Ultimately, the fact that Viox carries around a gun all the time will probably get her in trouble someday.

Thanks to RedHerring1290 for reviewing Chapters One, Two, Three, and Four.

Thanks to Dodectron for reviewing Chapters One and Two.

Thanks to SuperSaiyanPrincess for reviewing Chapters One and Three.

Thanks to xUNGracefulxAssassinx for reviewing Chapter Two.

Thanks to Dark Phoenix54 for reviewing Chapters Two and Three.

Thanks to Punki-x-Munki for reviewing Chapter Three.

Thanks to Mirage for reviewing Chapter Three.

Thanks to kissinglink for reviewing Chapter One.

Thanks to blackwingsdescend for reviewing Chapter Five.

I also offer my thanks to Farla, despite her unnecessary rudeness, for reviewing Chapter One.