1984

Jasmine Ironside giggled as she raced along the yard, ignoring her governess as she called for her to come back and sit down. Miss Lane had promised the seven year old girl that they would have a fun time that afternoon and had even let Jasmine pick out her own sundress to wear and the wide brimmed floppy hat that she couldn't wear out in public because it made it too hard to get through crowds. At first she'd been excited when she'd seen the teapot and the biscuits arranged on the table out of the patio… she NEVER got to eat outside! No, eating was done in the private dining room (never the main dining room with her parents… father said that she needed to be much older before she could join them). Eating outside though? That was an adventure for the sheltered little girl.

But then Miss Lane had stopped her before she could even sample one of the treats and begun to educate her on how to do everything PROPER. How to sit properly, how to hold her head, how to greet the person sitting across from her, how to raise her teacup. Miss Lane had said she'd play mother and Jasmine had been confused about that, especially when she learned that to 'play mother' meant to pour the tea. Mothers didn't pour tea! Mothers when off with fathers to do important grown up things! They didn't have time to pour tea… they didn't have time really to spend with their children at all.

Or at least that's what her mother was like. She'd spend some time with Aunt Marie and Uncle Kent a few months ago and had marveled at how much time they spent around her. She'd thought that she'd stay with their governess but Aunt Marie had laughed and said that they didn't have one, that they would spend time with Jasmine instead! It had made her confused and a little scared. It simply wasn't what she was used to. Uncle Kent had muttered something about father being a 'rick with too much money' and then Aunt Marie had scolded him and then they'd played with building blocks. Jasmine had liked that.

What she didn't like was tea time. Not if it was all sitting and being stuffy and not having fun! Worse it meant being around all sorts of fun things like treats and the sun and the grass and not getting to play around with them! Jasmine had decided that tea time was silly and snatched a few biscuits before darting across her huge back yard towards the trees, laughing as her thin cotton dress blew in the breeze.

Finally, when she felt like she could run no more, Jasmine sat down under a birch and caught her breath. She knew that Miss Lane would be upset but for once she didn't care. It was sunny and warm and she wanted to play! She looked at the shoes she was wearing and tugged them off along with her socks and laughed at how the grass tickled the bottom of her feet. She sat there without shoes and ate her biscuits and just enjoyed the feeling of the sun on her face.

Maybe if she stayed long enough Miss Lane would be gone when she came back and Aunt Marie and Uncle Kent would be there! She'd like that. Or her cousin Jack! That would be even better. Jack was older than her but so nice! He had a scratchy beard she liked to play with and he wore clothes like a servant but he was always kind to her. Knelt down and told her stories of his adventures and then asked her about her day. And he always made time to play with her. He always had… her tutor had once asked her about her earliest memory and it wasn't of mother and father. It was of Jack. He was holding her and he had been crying but he was smiling too and she remembered she'd been scared but couldn't remember why. She just knew that she had been frightened and then Jack was holding her and she must have been very little. There had been other people too, including two pretty girls with red hair with green eyes and the younger one had said, "People linked by destiny will always find each other". She didn't know what that meant, even when her tutor had asked her about it, but she KNEW the pretty girl had said it.

She loved it when she got to play with her cousin but he wasn't around as much as she'd have liked. He had to go to school; he'd told her that when she was 3 and she'd begun to cry because she didn't want him to leave. He'd given her a stuffed Teddiursa and told her not to cry, that one day she'd get to go to school like him. She didn't though… Jasmine had tutors because her father said they were special and she was a very special girl. But Jasmine didn't feel special and didn't want to BE special. She wanted to just sit in the grass and eat biscuits.

Someone called out her name and Jasmine turned, thinking for a moment it was one of the servants only for her face to light up with a grin.

"JONAS!" she squealed, running to the young man and hugging his legs. While Jonas wasn't as fun as Jack he did spend time with her. He never talked down to her either… he always treated her like an adult and she loved him for that. "Are you here to play?" she asked excitedly.

Jonas gently pushed her back, forcing her to let go of his legs, and knelt down so he could look her in the eye. "We're going to go to my house, okay? You remember my house?"

She huffed. Of course she remembered, she wasn't a baby! But then she frowned. "Why?"

Jonas licked his lips and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Jasmine…"

It was then that she noticed his eyes were red from crying.

An hour later, when Uncle Kent told her that her father and mother weren't come back from their trip… in fact they weren't ever coming back because they'd gone to Heaven… Jasmine's eyes had become red from crying too.

1996

"Thank you again for squeezing me in," the trainer said with a smile.

Jasmine Kenway smiled. "Hey, I get it. With the National Holiday and all you didn't want to wait till Tuesday to do your match with me." The two of them moved through the side hall that led directly from the lobby of the gym to the main arena. The challenger, a Cherrygrove trainer named Tristan, had already made it through the testing area the night before and there was no need to put him through another round. When Jasmine had originally taken over the gym it had been rather… bland… when it came to tests. The Jr. Gym Leader that her dad had hired to run things was very good and managing the employees but he'd stuck with what her birth father had gone with: a few trainers waiting in the lobby before meeting the Gym Leader who sat on a metal throne. Jasmine quickly decided that wasn't for her.

It had meant both expanding the size of the gym while also reducing the main arena down a bit but in the end she'd been able to add in a small maze-like testing area that potential challengers had to get through. Tristan had the day before entered a small room only to find two walls; one was made of actual steel, the other a holographic projection. The trainer had to figure out a clue concerning which path to take and if they got it wrong one of her Jr. Gym Leaders would battle them. Tristan had made it through with a few mistakes but nothing terrible only to arrive in the main arena 6 minutes after the final start time of the day. Jasmine had been unable to slip in a battle because she had a holocast date with Harry she didn't want to miss but knew that thanks to the holiday she'd need to help Tristan out. Monday was Elite Day, when the Elite 4 would visit towns and put on special performances. Gym Leaders closed down their gyms for the day to assist, with Jasmine having been assigned to work with April O'Dimm, the Elite 4 member in charge of Research and Investigation. She was doing a performance on Type Countering and seeing as she was a Fairy User wanted Jasmine to help her show how to turn a weakness into a strength.

That all meant that Jasmine was squeezing Tristan in Saturday morning, before much of Olivine had woken up, so that he could get his battle in.

"Yeah," he said with a grin. "I want to try and surprise my parents by getting back home in time for the performance. We got Doc Maxwell."

Jasmine smiled at that. "Yeah, he told me that he's doing stuff on battlefield medicine. That should be interesting."

"Oh, you know what he's going to do?" Tristan asked. "Is that a gym leader thing?"

"More of a family friend thing," Jasmine said.

The young trainer, who was around 11 years old (and by Arceus did that make Jasmine feel OLD and she wasn't even 19 yet), blushed as he pulled off the standard issue trainer cap that the Elite 4 gave out to all those attempting the Gym challenge and ran his fingers through his hair. "Jeez, I keep forgetting that you're the Father's daughter."

"Well, that just means I'm doing something right and making a name for myself." She opened a door and the two of them walked into the main arena. Jasmine had kept that mostly the same as when her father had run the gym, with the wide open dirt floor and high walls covered in plate metal. The only differences she'd made were to upgrade the cameras for anyone in the viewing area, installing new walls based on the hull of The Ghost of Olivine, and getting rid of her father's throne. Even with the title of 'Princess of Johto' hung on her head and the blood of AZ in her veins she had gained her dad's dislike of the symbols of royalty and done away with all that.

Tristan pursed his lips. "Do you… never mind."

"What?"

"No, it's silly."

"Let me be the judge of that," Jasmine said with a grin. "What is it?"

"Do… well, does it bother you, being known as Jack Kewnay's daughter?" Tristan shifted awkwardly. "Okay, so my grandpa is the tour guide in Cherrygrove. You know… the one that shows new trainers who just came from New Bark everything and makes sure that they know what to do?" Jasmine nodded. "Everyone thinks I'll be taking over for him and he's just so beloved in town and… I don't know, I just wondered if it ever bugged you."

Jasmine tapped her teeth together several times. "Honestly?"

"Honestly."

"Never."

Tristan blinked at that.

Jasmine shrugged. "Sorry but… my dad? He's my dad. Do I want to be my own person? Of course. Do I want to surpass him? I don't think I'll be able to but yup!" She turned to fully face him, holding her finger up. "But do I ever regret that people look at me and say, "That is Jack's kid"?" She leaned in close. "Never." She pulled away and made her way towards her spot for the official battle. "Something you will learn as you grow up, something I knew when I was 7 years old, is that all that time you spend running from your family… you should spend running towards them. Because each day might be the last time you get to hug them, tell them you love them." She shook her head. "Sorry, getting sappy and you want a battle." She turned and rolled her shoulders. "So, need any prep before I begin the official speech?"

"Nope," the kid said, turning his hat around backwards with one had as he grabbed a Pokeball with the other. Jasmine had seen Ash Ketchum do that after winning in the Unova league and apparently all the kids were doing that now. Good… she liked Ash. He was good people deserved more fans.

"So," Jasmine said, reaching down to tug on the cuffs of her jacket while subtly activating her Gym Leader Dex, "how many gym badges do you have?"

"One so far," Tristan stated.

Jasmine nodded as her dex, registering his answer, instantly swapped out her normal team for her 1 Badge Team. One of the requirements that saw many potential Gym leaders get scrubbed out of the program was the need for large teams that could handle every kind of trainer that would enter their gym. Some people just couldn't manage having up to 40 Pokémon at one time that needed their attention and never moved beyond being Jr. Gym Leaders that specialized in one particular type of Gym Challenger. It wasn't just getting teams strong enough to take on the trainers that were almost ready to enter the Conference Tournaments, though that was hard for some of the younger gym leaders if they didn't inherit their gym from a parent. No, it was being able to keep the teams spread out so that one was never caught with all their Pokémon bunched up at the 4 to 6 Badge range. Having a low level 0 Badge Team could be a pain for some Gym leaders, especially those that had gone their entire lives with a 'Train Them, Evolve Them' mentality to become the best, only to suddenly discover that they needed to have preevolved forms of their team on standby.

While her birth father had gone with simply having that many Pokémon on hand (and a massive staff to care for them all) Jasmine had been raised by Clair and thus used the Blackthorn method of running her gym. Except for her 7 Badge Tier Team every group she had was mostly made up of other people's Pokémon. Not just her Jr. Gym leaders lending her a few members of their teams but also people all across Johto who paid her to raise their Pokémon for a few weeks or months, using her Gym as a Steel Type Daycare. Sometimes it was because they were going on a vacation and didn't want the Pokémon stuck in their ball the entire time. Other times it was because they needed to focus on another member of their team but didn't want the other Pokémon to fall behind. Occasionally it was just someone who really wanted the prestige of having a Gym leader use their Pokémon in an official battle. Her Tier 0 to Tier 6 teams all had at least one Pokémon that was solely hers but otherwise it was a wide range.

Her dex finished and three Pokeballs formed in her Pokeball case. Fishing out the first one she expanded it. "Well then, I don't need to give you the full explanation of what we are going to do... or would you like a refresher?"

Tristan shook his head. "We are each going to send out Pokemon until either one of us has no Pokemon left to battle."

"Correct," Jasmine said. "You can use up to 6 pokemon while I am restricted to 3." She held up the first Pokeball. "Ready?"

"Ready."

"Come on out Klink!" Jasmine declared, the pure-steel gear type appearing.

"Go Sandshrew!" Tristan called out. "Start with Scratch!"

"Klink, use Screech!" Jasmine called out. For a 1 Badge trainer she would focus on a mix of weak status effect moves and basic attacks, letting the trainer have a chance to handle something other than an all-out attack.

'I'm going to have to return Klink soon,' she thought as Tristan's Sandshrew moved into a tackle. 'It's close to learning some new attacks that are going to be too strong for Tier 1 and I have no room in Tier 2 at the moment, not unless I get about five trainers in a row who have 2 badges.'

While it was believed by newcomers, especially those who came out of Prof. Elm's Gym Challenge Program, that there was an order to the gyms in Johto that simply wasn't the case. Challengers could take on the gyms in any order with the Leaders simply swapping out Pokémon to match their competitor's level. This actually was rather beneficial in the sense that it also decreased the number of 'rubberneckers' who would purposely wait for another trainer to take on a gym leader and then adjust their teams based on what they saw. More than one new trainer, thinking they were they first to create such a strategy, would leave their first gym horrified after watching what was actually a Tier 7 battle. Leaders made sure to keep an eye for them and send someone after them after a few hours so they didn't just give up their dream right there, discouraged, or spend years grinding in the forests against Bug Types.

Of course there were some regions where the lineup was almost set in stone. Fifteen years prior in Kanto trainers would make Pewter their first stop and then hit Cereleun, thanks in part to Viridian City's gym refusing to have anyone other than Tier 7 challengers compete and Pewter and Cerelean's Gym leaders being more easy going than the likes of Lt. Surge and Sabrina. Johto had suffered a bit of that before the war but now things had truly opened up and a gym leader never knew how many badges the next trainer might have. Even the Blackthorn Gym had been affected, though that was mostly thanks to Fairy Types becoming better known to the wide public after hundreds of years of misclasification.

Jasmine herself got all sorts of challengers and they tended to fall into three categories-

A buzzer sounded when Klink fainted. "Good job!" She said, recalling her Pokémon. "Now let's see how you deal with this! Basil, show'em what you got!" She tossed out the Premier Ball and Harry's Solstice gift to her, a rather focused looking Togedemaru wearing a Deerling-stalker cap popped out of his ball and flared his metal fur. For Tier 1 and Tier 2 trainers Jasmine would let them get an easy win against her first Pokémon before sending something out that would take advantage of all her attack and defense lowering moves.

As Basil began to use a combination of Pin Missle and Grass Knot to utterly flumox the previously confident Tristan Jasmine's thoughts returned to their previous topic.

With her as the Olivine Gym leader she now commonly got three different kinds of trainers that came in to challenge her. First were newbies that wanted to make a bold statement by defeating the Princess of Johto. A bit puffed up and believing that they could take on the Elite 4 with just a Ratata, they would seek her out to make a point that they were ready for anything. She'd even had one 11 year old girl challenge her and then reveal she was skipping all the other gyms and heading for Blackthorn, planning to wait there until Clair was doing one of her monthly visits so he might take on the Lady of Johto. Then she would get all her badges, win the Silver League, and then defeat Jonas first during her Elite 4 challenge. Then she'd find Jasmine's dad on Mt. Silver ('why?!') and battle him.

Others waited until they had roughly half their badges, seeing a battle with Jasmine as the turning point of their Gym Challenge. One young man had told her, "it is when it stops being about the experience and actually becomes REAL". Those were the trainers she liked the best as they seemed, to her at least, like the ones who were doing the most growth during their challenge.

The final group was the ones that saved her and, usually, Blackthorn for last. They too wanted to send messages but believed that they only way they could do that was by taking Jasmine on with her best team. It was... cute... that they believed that she was using her best team for Tier 7 battles. Maybe one or two of them... but never the full team. That was reserved for far greater challenges.

The buzzer sounded as Basil knocked the Sandshrew out. Tristan, to his credit, recalled his Pokémon and thanked him for his hard work before sending out a Panseer. Taking a step back just in case Tristan was like some new fire type users who didn't realize that fire burned anything it got too close to Jasmine called out for Togedemaru to move into defensive maneuvers.

'Not going to win this one,' she realized quickly. The Panseer must have been one of the kid's oldest Pokemon because it competed at a level far beyond what one would expect for someone with only one badge. 'If I had to wager I'd guess that he got the Sandshrew recently for my gym. Probably planned originally to use other Pokémon to get some experience but thanks to Basil had to go to something more tried and true.' She mentally nodded in approval. She respected people that could alter plans when fate changed the game board.

After another four minutes Jasmine recalled a fainted Basil and was reaching for her final Pokémon, a Cufant her dad had caught her when he'd visited Galar for his birthday, only for several load sirens to go off, signaling that all battling had to stop at once as someone had just entered the arena without authorization.

"Hey!" She shouted, wondering if some fool had decided to burst in upon hearing she was doing a challenge on a Saturday and thinking they could get in on that. "What's the-" She stopped when she saw who was approached her. "Uncle Jonas?"

Tristan turned and gaped at the brown-haired lanky man entered, his face utterly impassive as he moved towards Jasmine. It being the beginning of the year he'd completely grown out his beard, a thick mess that was more impressive than her dad's circle beard, and he was in his battle clothing: jeans, grab and blue hooded jacket, all sorts of hidden armor sewn into the garment. "The Fist of Johto..." Tristan whispered.

Jonas paused before the boy and reached into his pocket, pulling out a small badge. Unlike the normal ones given out at gyms this one was emblazed with the emblem of the Elite 4. "Your challenge is over. This badge can be used in place of any gym within the Challenge Circuit. If you wish to rechallenge Jasmine and use this on another gym, you may. But your challenge is over for today."

Jasmine waited for the befuddled but happy Tristan to leave before turning to her uncle. "What's going on? What's wrong?"

Jonas opened his mouth only to do something she'd never seen her stoic uncle do before: he froze up, his face twisting as he fought to gain control of himself. It was horrible… so utterly unnatural for someone so in utter control of his emotions to be near breaking apart. Finally in a small voice he whispered, "It's your dad… he's hurt. It's… its bad Jas."

~MC~MC~MC~

1986

'Jack will come. Jack will come. Jack will come.'

Jasmine kept repeating that to herself even as she squirmed and wiggled, trying to break free of the Kanto soldier who had burst into her room, dragged her from under her bad, and begun to take her downstairs. When the alarms had sounded in the house Aunt Marie had told her to run and hide while Uncle Kent grabbed a shotgun and pulled out a Pokeball. Jasmine had done what they said, cowering under her bed clutching the stuffed Teddiursa Jack had given her, trying not to cry out as she heard the sounds of crashes, bellows, and cries fill Rogue's End. It seemed to have lasted for hours but finally things had gone quiet. But it was too quiet, a kind of quiet that made her squirm and squeeze her eyes shut, and she refused to move until Marie or Kent came for her.

But it wasn't them. It was a tall ugly man with squinty eyes and a huge nose. He'd grabbed her by the ankle and violently yanked her out of her hiding spot, her plushie falling from her hands as she was pulled away from safety and bundled up in the man's arms. He was wearing a heavy vest that hurt whenever it bumped her head and thick gloves that smelled horrible and made her gag. She tried to escape but her struggles didn't seem to bother him all that much or if they did he didn't show it.

'Jack will come. Jack will come. Jack will come.'

A small, scared part of her mind told her she was being crazy. She hadn't seen Jack in nearly a year, not in person at least. He'd gone off to try and win the war and while he'd sent messages to her letting her know he was okay she hadn't seen him or felt him hug hear or anything like that in so long. His parents were super nice and Clair and Jonas visited at times but it wasn't the same. She knew they had discussed sending her someplace else, with their friends in a region called Kalos, but they'd never done it. They were worried about something and didn't tell Jasmine what it was.

But it didn't matter, not anymore. Because now the Kanto soldiers had come and Aunt Marie and Uncle Kent were nowhere downstairs when the soldier brought her down. Just the living room, utterly destroyed, with other soldiers milling around.

"Easy!" one of the men called out. "Be careful how you hold her, Frank! You know what Lance told us… none of them are to be hurt. Especially the girl. He'll kill you himself if you hurt her!"

"Screw Lance," the soldier holding Jasmine said, applying a bit more pressure and making Jasmine cry out in pain. "He ain't the one running this. Bruno wants the brat now to use as leverage on Kenway. He ain't happy the bastard stole the airship."

"Jonas Kenway will never trade that ship for the girl," another man said.

"He will if we begin sending pieces of her to him," the man holding Jasmine proclaimed before grabbing her leg and wrapping his hand around her ankle so hard Jasmine thought he might pull her foot right off. "You are going to stop squirming and come quietly, you little bitch! I lost friends because your mum and dad were in the wrong place and pissed of the Kenways. Don't think I won't take it out on you if you don't-"

Jasmine never got to hear what the man was going to say. None of the people in Rogue's End did. For in that moment the two massive front doors of the manor burst open. No… not burst open. They were ripped from their hinges and sent flying across the room, crashing into several soldiers. Jasmine could see their bodies twitching underneath and blood ooze from under the broken heavy doors, the wood cracked and snapped at the ends in the shape of two handprints, and she shut her eyes in shock… only to open them when she heard a familiar voice.

"You come into my home," Jack Kenway declared, marching in decked out in full gear. Long brown coat, red hood covering his face, gloved hands balled into fists. Beside him Mumik trumpeted and Jasmine was startled to see that the Pokémon that loved to give her rides around the yard could look so scary. "You take my parents." One of the soldiers threw a Pokeball only for Jack's hand to lash out, catching it before it opened, then hurl it back right into the man's face, breaking his nose. Behind him Jasmine saw Jonas and Clair moving to help support him, Clair's Dragonair and Jonas' Primeape ready to burst into battle. "And now this? Now HER?"

"Back off Kenway!" the soldier holding Jasmine roared, pulling her tighter to his chest. "Or do you want to see if she really is made of sugar and spice… or blood and guts?"

Perhaps they could have negotiated. Perhaps they could have worked out a deal. Perhaps things would have been different… had Jasmine not taken a breath and screamed. Not a wordless scream… but one from the soul. A scream from the heart that revealed the truth she had feared to reveal to the world but had known in her very being for some time now.

"DADDY!"

One moment she was in the soldier's arms. The next a blur of red and brown was before her, making the man take a stumbling step back only for Jasmine to hear a CRACK! The soldier now screamed and Jasmine fell for half a second before strong arms grabbed her and pulled her in close. But rather than be painful like the soldier's embrace this one was full of love and comfort and Jasmine rubbed her tear-stained face against Jack's-

"Shhh," he whispered, "daddy has you."

-against her daddy's shoulder.

Jasmine clung to him as her daddy launched himself into the air, soaring like a superhero to the second story, easily landing on the rail before he launched himself again. There was a large boom and the stainglass window above the front doors of Rogue's End shattered and the two of them flew through it, her daddy actually leaping off of pieces of debris to drive them further out of the house and outside. Then they were falling and even though it was scary she held on tight and knew it would be fine. And it was… there was an 'oompf' and when she looked down they were standing on the grass.

"Don't look, okay princess?" he whispered. Jonas cried out something and a familiar roar filled the air. Jasmine was used to it by now but the soldiers weren't. The Kenway Tyranitars, she realized… they hadn't remembered the Tyranitars!

Her daddy wrapped his coat around her, pulling it tight so that it formed a dark shell that kept her hidden from view. For the most part he remained kneeling on the ground holding her but one time she heard footsteps and he had removed one his hands and there had been a crunching sound and then he was back to holding her.

She was scared. But in that moment she knew that everything was going to be okay.

~MC~MC~MC~

1996

Jasmine Kenway was terrified. And she didn't know if anything would ever be okay again.

They'd tried to warn her how bad her dad was. They'd told her that there had been an accident… no, a trap. They could dress it up as an accident but it had been a trap. And her father had fallen right into it. They said that he'd been beaten, kicked and punched, and she'd braced herself for him to be bruised and cut. She'd seen him injured before; after Gabrielle had gone into the lake during the Third Task Jasmine had only been able to stay sane and not dwell on how she'd hacked off her cousin's foot by caring for her dad while he was in the hospital. The sight of his scarred chest and arms had been bad, as had been how cold his skin had felt, but she'd done what she could, what the nurses would let her get involved with, and she'd managed to get him back to full strength.

But this time simply was so very different.

Her father had been brutally beaten, and not just by a single fighter but by a mob. Jasmine didn't know all his injuries, the doctors refusing to tell her with the simple statement that if she did know the extent they feared for her own health. But she could tell by the casts on his arms, the wrappings on his chest, the various tubes running into his body, and the surgical tape plastered on his face that he wasn't well off. He'd been asleep when she'd entered his room and for a horrible moment she thought he was dead. But the doctors had explained that he was merely doped up with as much medication as they could give him so that he would remain still. Apparently Cynthia had a theory that Jack, thanks to having so much Pokémon DNA flowing through his veins, might be able to heal like a Pokémon. If true that meant they could heal him much at a much faster rate.

The problem with that was two fold. First was the obvious, that they needed to reconfigure the standard Pokémon Healing Device to work on a human who wasn't in a Pokeball. They had such things, created for trainers whose Pokémon refused to go into balls, but they didn't want to just toss her dad in there and see what happened. They needed to make sure that they could slowly ramp up the power and monitor his vitals. Jasmine had forcefully volunteered to go on but the family had overrode that. The other problem was all her dad: he was so scared of needles that unless he was outcold he'd thrash and fight them the moment he noticed the IV in his arm.

Jasmine hadn't moved from the chair she'd chosen as her own since she'd arrived. The sun had risen and fallen and still Jasmine sat, staring at her dad. She didn't ignore the world, as some might have thought. Quite the opposite. Much like the Pack itself she was standing guard over her fallen father, ready to spring into action should any try to attack him again. Her dad had done the same thing, despite his injuries, for Lance after the disaster that had been the First Task and during the Third Task Lance and Jonas had shared the burden for her dad while Aunt Cynthia and Aunt Diantha did so for Gabrielle and Fleur. Now the entire Pack was milling about the hospital, no one daring to ask them to leave. Uncle Lance had stationed himself outside Jack's room, pulling out a whetstone and the knife her dad had given him the year prior, sharpening it to a fine edge. Her mum spent the most time with her, sitting across from Jasmine and saying more than once she wished she could just hold Jack's hand, doctor's orders be damned. Occasionally she'd go see Uncle Kent and Aunt Marie, who were in a private waiting room with some close friends; Jasmine had said hi but they'd known she needed to be with her dad. Aunt Cynthia was in the lobby according to the others, keeping the press and others who thought they could help with a kind word from interfering. There would be plenty of time for that later. Aunt Diantha was the floater, moving amongst them all, ensuring everyone was fed and rested.

As for Uncle Jonas he had calmly walked past the room carrying a sniper rifle and asked a nurse where the roof access door was. More for his own sanity than anything… the shadows that had fallen outside proved The Ghost of Olivine was now hovering over the hospital, guns trained at any possible threat. And she'd heard a few nurses say that the Avalon Government was sending soldiers and aurors to protect the hospital. The Father had won Johto her freedom… Johto would now protect him.

Jasmine looked down at her dad again. He... didn't look like himself. He had always been bigger than life, able to command attention even just sitting still. He wasn't wide or hulking but still had the build of a man that everyone would bet on to win a scrape. Now he looked so small, his face utterly lax and his skin pasty, mouth opened slightly as his chest rose up and down, making his lips chapped and crack. His hair was a tangled mess and it seemed like his skin was sliding off his body and onto the bed, making him look older and puffer than he'd ever been. There was no laughter and smart ass remarks or dad jokes coming from his mouth... just his breathing and the beeping of all the machines. Occasionally one would blare out a wearing shrill and the first time she'd heard it she'd panicked but now, hours later, it was merely the soundtrack of her life.

Her mom had finally gone to sleep, their wealth and standing allowing them to get a private room where Clair could curl up on an extra bed without being shooed out by nurses. Jasmine had promised that she would get some sleep too but in the darkness of the room, her dad lit only by the monitors showing that he was still clinging to life, she couldn't find sleep. No, her mind had gone back to another dark room where she had found no comfort.

"Jasmine?" Jack asked, sitting down on the bed, making the little girl roll slightly towards him. He placed his hand on her back but made no move to remove the covers she had pulled over her head, letting her remain safely cocooned.

She sniffed, trying so very hard to be a big girl like Miss Lane had told her she had to be, as her parents had expected her to be. Except her parents were gone... they'd gone and weren't ever coming back. No... not gone. They'd been taken. They'd been taken and were never coming back and Jasmine had no idea what to do. She was used to them leaving her for days and sometimes weeks on end but she always knew they were coming back. But now? Now?

"Jasmine," Jack said again, rubbing her back in soothing circles. "Please... what can I do to help you? What do you want? I'll give it to you, I swear."

She was tempted to ask for her parents back but she knew that father and mother could never be returned to her. They were gone and she was all alone. Because of them.

"Kanto," she finally hiccupped.

"Kanto?" he asked. "What about Kanto?"

"I... I want them-" she sucked back a sob and managed to get out in the tiniest of whispers, "-to hurt."

"...okay," he said, his words little more than a sigh.

Later, she didn't know how long for she had drifted into a fitful sleep, she awoke and felt brave enough to pull the covers off her head. She looked around the dark room and spotted Jack. He hadn't left... he'd merely moved to a chair in the corner. His head was bowed and his hands were pressed to his face. It took her a moment to realize what he was doing.

He was crying.

The next day he would summon all those who had lost friends and family in Pokémon League Massacre and declare war on Kanto itself.

Jasmine rose from her chair and moved to stand beside her father, running her fingers along his bangs. She stared at the burns on his throat, where the noose… the NOOSE!... those bastards had tied around his neck had torn apart his skin, and trembled.

"Dad... what do you want?" she whispered.

He didn't answer. He couldn't. But she heard the words all the same.

She leaned down and pressed a kiss upon his brow.

Tonight she would watch over him.

Tomorrow... she'd burn Avalon to the fucking ground.