Fun fact; Axle and Denny are the names of my main character and partner in PMD:GtI. (Axle was an Axew, Denny an Oshawott)

There was a long moment of stunned silence. It didn't take long for Ryan to figure out that he was probably going to get in trouble for trespassing in a place like this, so what exactly was going to happen? "Erm…. I was… looking for… my Pokémon?" he said somewhat weakly, knowing that excuse probably wasn't going to work. He'd been in trouble at school plenty of times, but somehow this seemed a lot more serious…

On the other hand, the stranger – who was still looking slightly baffled – didn't exactly look like someone who would be coming here for a reason either. A woman, maybe somewhere in her late thirties, blonde hair tied back in a plait and wearing a generally casual outfit – the only thing that showed she might have planned to come into the old amusement park were the walking-style boots she was wearing, which didn't seem to fit the rest of her attire.

"I see…" she murmured eventually, not sounding like she believed him but seeming slightly distracted. "Well, you shouldn't be here, it's dangerous. That Fraxure doesn't have a trainer."

"I know."

"You do? Did you try to catch it?"

"No, of course not!" Ryan snapped, sounding harsher than he had meant to in his defence. "He's hurt and looking for his friend! I just wanted to help…"

The woman simply watched him for a moment, her expression blank and impossible to read – as was her voice when she spoke again. "He… told you that, did he?"

Ryan could feel his fists curling in irritation. He was never going to be able to explain this without it sounding incredibly farfetched. "I know… it probably sounds like I'm making things up, but… I can understand Pokémon. As far as I know I either inherited or learned because of my dad, but what's really important here is that this Pokémon is hurt! It's pretty serious and I don't know if oran or even sitrus berries would heal it quickly, but…" This wasn't getting him anywhere. All he could do was look up at the stranger with a determined gaze and hope they wouldn't send him away when an injured creature needed help. "I'm going to help him. I don't care if this place is off limits; Pokémon are friends, and you don't just abandon a friend because they're injured!"

His words were met with another silence. The older woman had been watching him all throughout his speech – what exactly she was looking for he didn't know. Eventually, however, a small smile appeared on her face. "I see… I thought something about you looked familiar. You really are his son, aren't you?"

"Huh…?" his look of determination had changed to confusion.

"Your father… is his name N?"

"Y-yes, but…" Ryan was getting more confused by the second. "How did you…?"

"The look in your eyes, and what you just said. All Pokémon were friends, he'd never let one suffer even if he didn't know whether he could do much to help… that sounds like my little brother," she smiled.

"Brother? You mean, he—dad has… a sister…?" I have an aunt!?

She seemed to notice his confusion – it wasn't as if it wasn't obvious. "I guess he doesn't talk about us much. I wouldn't say I blame him…" she sighed. "Sorry, I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Concordia. I have a sister too; her name is Anthea. N is our younger brother, but neither of us have seen him in a long time. It must have been at least ten years… how is he now?"

"Um… alright, I suppose…" Things were gradually starting to make more sense, even if he was still rather baffled. Jay kept looking between the two humans, obviously not really having a clue what was going on. Axle had retreated back into the fallen Ferris wheel car.

Concordia gave a friendly smile. "That's good to hear. If you don't mind me asking, who is your mother…?"

"Her name is Touko."

"I guess that's not much of a surprise," she chuckled quietly. "Anyway, you don't need to look so frightened. I know I said this place is off limits, but you clearly mean well – as long as you don't get careless. There are a lot of sharp objects around here that you could hurt yourself on. To be honest, Anthea and I found this Fraxure here a few days ago. We've been leaving food for it, but we hadn't been able to get near it to try and help heal that injury." Quickly rummaging through the small bag she had over one shoulder, she pulled out something that looked vaguely like a bottle. "Maybe it'll let you use this. It's a full restore; it should help heal up that wound if you can spray it on."

Taking the object handed to him, Ryan spent a moment checking it over and scanning over the label before he looked up at her with a grin. "Thank you!"

"The pleasure's all mine. It's nice to meet you, and to know my brother is happy at last." There was some kind of emotion in her eyes, but even then she hid it well, and he couldn't tell what it was. "Anyway, if you're ever in Driftveil City, feel free to stop by. We stay in the building at the north of the city, looking after Pokémon who have lost their trainers. Some of the Pokémon that were taken by Team Plasma are still there now, even if it has been such a long time—ah well. Maybe we'll meet again soon!" She gave a friendly wave as she turned to walk away.

Team Plasma? He'd heard the phrase mentioned recently, and still didn't have any idea what it was. Yet Concordia was probably busy and needed to return to Driftveil, so maybe now wasn't really the time to ask. "Okay," he nodded, returning the wave. "Bye, and thanks again!"

As they watched her leave, Jay glanced up at Ryan, looking confused. "What's a Team Plasma?"

Ryan just shrugged. "Don't know. Whatever it was happened a while back from the sound of things." No time to dwell on whatever might have happened in the past; the difficult part was going to be trying to get Axle to let him use the full restore.

It actually hadn't taken too much persuading; maybe Axle was starting to warm up to him after all. After leaving the dragon to rest and promising to come back and check on him the next day – and maybe bring some food as well, which had caused Jay to look very happy – Ryan headed over to the Pokémon Centre for the night. If Burgh wasn't going to be back at the gym for a few days, and he was going to make sure Axle's wound healed properly, they'd probably be staying in Nimbasa for a while – and it'd be nice to rest for a few days after travelling so much lately.

Not only that, but after the encounter earlier that day, there was something he needed to do.

Leaving the Poké balls on the bedside table in the room they were staying in tonight, he sat on the bed and flicked through the few contacts on his Xtransceiver, easily finding the one he was looking for. As he waited through the dull ringing sound, he glanced out of the window at the city; the buildings in Nimbasa didn't look as crowded together as the ones in Castelia had been, but there were certainly a lot of people here. It was strange to think that on the far side of the city it was near silent.

The ringing cut off as the call was answered. "Hi, sweetie! How are you?"

"Hi Mum, I'm fine…" Maybe he should have actually tried to work out how to ask this before he called. He wasn't even sure whether his mother was the best person to ask in the first place, and he found himself remaining silent as he waited for the words to come to him – which was rather obvious in a phone call.

"Ryan, is everything okay?" Touko's voice was edged with concern. Usually she was the one calling him in the evenings to see how he was doing – as much as her protectiveness bothered him sometimes, when he was away from his parents it definitely helped him feel less homesick.

"Huh? Yeah, everything's fine. Erm, can I talk to Dad…?"

"I think he's still out in the forest. Some kids were out there trying to catch Pokémon earlier; he's probably worried they might come back." She let out a small sigh. "I can go and find him and have him call you back if it's important."

"No, no, it's fine… it's not that important," Ryan muttered. "Bye…"

Without giving her much of a chance to respond, he hit the end call button.

With a long sigh, he sat back against the wall, turning to look out of the window once more. He felt conflicted; he'd never really known of any family other than his parents and his grandmother, so for all he knew that woman could have been making things up – but Concordia had recognised him, she'd known the name of his father, so wasn't that proof enough? Perhaps he'd just never asked about family before. After being told they didn't talk about his grandfather on his mother's side, he'd been put off learning about his family history when he was younger.

Maybe this was just another case like that. But Concordia hadn't seemed to have anything against him; she just seemed like someone who hadn't seen a family member in years, much like his grandmother.

Deciding there was no point dwelling on something like that – there was probably some kind of explanation – he let his mind wander to other recent occurrences instead. He'd promised to help Axle find his friend Denny, although he wasn't sure how easy that would be. It sounded like he'd been caught by a trainer, and they did seem to be meeting a lot of them in Unova, so perhaps they would run into the one who'd captured the Axew. But how were they even going to find Axle again afterwards? And what were they supposed to do if they did find Denny? They couldn't exactly take a trainer's Pokémon away from them.

Lost in his train of thought, the sudden sound of his Xtransceiver going off surprised him so much he ended up hitting the back of his head against the wall. Wincing slightly as he rubbed his scalp, he hit the answer button a moment later. "Mum, I told you it wasn't important-!"

"Apparently I don't call you very often. Every time I do, you think I'm your mother!" the familiar voice laughed on the other end of the line.

"Dad…?" The realisation had him silent for a moment.

"Touko called me over saying you wanted to speak to me, or something," N explained simply.

"But I told her it didn't matter…"

"She's just worried about you, Ryan. She said it sounded like something was bothering you. So what's up?"

Hearing the concern in his father's voice made him feel slightly guilty; it wasn't really that much of a deal, but he might as well ask now or Touko was only going to get even more worried. "Well… Dad, do you have sisters…?"

There was a short pause on the other end of the line. "They're not blood-related, but… yeah. I do. Why?"

Perhaps that was why he'd never spoken about them before. "I met a lady today who said her name was… Cordia… or something like that."

"Concordia? You saw her? Does that mean she and Anthea are okay?"

"Yeah! She told me that they live in Driftveil City and look after Pokémon from Team Plasma or something, because they don't have their trainers."

Once he finished speaking, there was nothing but silence. Ryan waited for a short while but when it persisted he wondered whether he'd lost the connection. "Hello? Dad?"

"Ah—yeah, that's great! Th-that they're okay and helping Pokémon." His voice sounded a little different somehow, but Ryan didn't get a chance to work out why before he spoke again. "Anyway, it's getting late. You'll probably be wanting to sleep soon so, erm, bye…"

"Bye?" Ryan replied, somewhat confused as the call ended, putting the screen on his Xtransceiver back to showing the time. "But it's only 6:30…"

Touko hadn't been able to understand much of the conversation over the sound of boiling water, busying herself by preparing dinner, yet she had heard the sudden change in N's voice. Becoming slightly concerned once more, she set the lid on the pot in a way that its contents wouldn't boil over and made her way back to the living room.

The phone was back on the charger, N now sat on the sofa having finished the call. He ran one hand through his scruffy hair, letting out a shaky sigh – there was definitely something wrong.

"N? What's the matter?" she asked, taking a seat next to him. "Is Ryan okay?"

"Y-yeah, he's fine…" N muttered, his haunted gaze not moving from the rug in front of him.

Well, at least that was one less thing to worry about. Still, it didn't really explain much. N did have his moments sometimes, and she'd learnt by now that to find the problem she might have to quiz him before even he could work out what it was. "So, what did he say?"

"He met Concordia." His words were blunt, as if it wasn't the real source of what concerned him.

"Your sister?" Touko tilted her head slightly, partly in confusion and partly in hopes of getting him to look at her. "What's wrong with that? I thought your sisters were nice…"

"They were—are… but I think she must have told him something about Team Plasma. He said the name. I-I don't think he knows anything about my involvement though…"

"If he doesn't know, there's nothing to worry about, is there?"

"Yes there is! The fact that he's even heard of the group means that people still haven't forgotten!" His gaze snapped to her at last, an immeasurable amount of worry in his eyes.

"N, of course Concordia is going to remember; she was just as involved as you were. It doesn't sound like she explained much to Ryan if he only mentioned it to you, and I doubt she'd just tell him everything that happened when it's got nothing to do with him." She reached for his hand in an effort to try and calm him down, noting how his fingers were gripping tightly to the material of the sofa. "Try not to worry about it too much, okay? Even if there are a handful of people that remember, it shouldn't affect Ryan. Unova's a big region, and it's been, what, fifteen years by now? It can't be too big of a deal after all this time."

N just stared blankly at her hand for a moment before finally things started to click. Lacing his fingers with hers, he took a deep breath, letting it out in a long sigh as she'd taught him a long while ago. "I hope you're right."