Author's Note: Well, my com's been struck with viruses and I had to temporarily disable anonymous reviews. I'm not pushing the blame or anything but this is just a safety precaution. Although the infected files have been sent to a quarantine folder, my computer's been moving slower than ever. I hope those anonymous people can understand my situation. So, anyway, even if my computer malfunctions, I still have a laptop at home! Enough of me now. Let's get on with the story.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything here except for Stan's past, Purifiers, Pure Powers, made-up characters, Pokémon nicknames, etc. Idea from Pokémon Gamecube games. One part is from Ham-Ham Heartbreak, but I'll go into details later.

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Chapter 2 – Was I At Fault?

Stan's POV

I continued running from everyone at the clubhouse. I didn't know why I was doing that. Maybe it was because I didn't want the Ham-Hams to find out my past or my secret, but I still didn't know the true reason why I ran. It was just a normal reaction to Mom. My mom, who hadn't seen me for at least 4 ½ years now. I had no intention of seeing her at all and I didn't plan to see her again. How was I supposed to communicate with her? I mean, to me, it's OK if I hide somewhere and check up on her but I have issues with Mom seeing me. Heck, I didn't even think about seeing her all these years. How am I going to face her now? I can't just simply stop and have some time alone with her, now can I? Besides, what has been done cannot be undone. I've avoided her once and I'll continue avoiding her.

Ugh… Where's that damn tunnel entrance?! I should've been out by now! This is taking forever! … Oh, I see light. I guess that's the entrance. Uh, heh… I guess I was overreacting a little… OK, maybe a lot… So, anyway, I'm out now, finally and no Ham-Hams in sight. See? I knew I'd be way ahead of them! I continued running towards Amma's house, not seeming to worry about Mom or Sandy, until a voice yelled out to me.

A voice that I, secretly, had been longing to hear.

"Stanley?" That was Mom. "Stanley, stop where you are, right now!" For some reason, I stopped but I never turned back to face her. I was approaching Ilex Forest but I was stopped by Mom herself. It's pretty ironic, when I think about it now. I was compelled to run home because of Mom, but I had discontinued my journey because of Mom, too.

"What do you want?" I asked coldly.

"Stan, I just… want to talk to you for a while." I was willing to turn back, but only because I wanted to look out for the Ham-Hams. There wasn't a soul in sight, except for Mom and myself, of course. Mom, noticing my actions, assured me, "Don't worry, Stan. Your friends aren't here. I made them go back to the club, away from us and Ilex Forest. You don't need to look out for them." I became more at ease when she said that.

"So… What do you want?" I repeated my question.

"… C-can we… have a mother-son talk?" I looked at her, feeling a little unsure about that. I know she could tell that I was reluctant to, and nearly wanted to walk away, but I, surprisingly, stopped her, even though I had no reason to.

"Wait, Mom. I…" I began, feeling rather scared. I must've been homing in on Mom's feelings, too. "I don't see why not." I smiled at her. And when she turned back, I could see her force a smile, too. We went to a nice and quiet spot in Ilex Forest to have a little talk. We would be free from all distractions and disturbances that might have interrupted our little talk, though I wouldn't say little…

"… So…" Mom began, breaking the sudden silence before. "How… How are you?" Sigh… That was a natural question any mother would ask her child after not seeing him/her for 4 ½ years. I had expected that coming.

"Just fine, I suppose." I scratched the back of my head in embarrassment. After all, that was all I could say at that point. I tried to shake my embarrassment off by asking Mom, "So, anyway, why have you been following me?" For your information, Mom did follow me. Then how do you explain how she found me at Amma's? She must've been following me, like how I followed her.

"I should be asking you that question, Stanley." Whoa, I didn't expect that coming.

"Well, I, uh… I was bored," I, obviously, lied. Mom could tell that I lied but I didn't know how she could find out. Call it mother's intuition again, I guess. … Man, I should really stop watching family serial dramas. The real drama's happening to me already. "But let's get off the subject now. Why have you come to look for me?"

"I wanted to get a chance to explain matters to you. They are…" She looked away without finishing her sentence. I braced myself. I know she was going to say something about Dad, I just know it! Her look says it all! I know she'd be worried I'd lose my sanity, but if she doesn't get on with what she was going to say, then I'll REALLY lose my sanity! "They are concerning your father's death." Oh, fi-nall-yyyyyyy! (A/N: Direct translation: the word 'finally', but said in a very impatient tone.)

"… Fine. But make it snappy. I got to go find Amma's lost Delcatty out at sea." Ooh, get worried, Mom! Get worried!

"Out at-?!" There! She got worried! Ha, I never get tired of making Dad and Mom worried. "… Never mind about that. Well… To start things off, son, I… That day, I harmed your father because I… I was threatened to. If I didn't do that, you would not be here anymore." The atmosphere got real serious and I tensed up, my fur starting to stand upright, like how a porcupine causes its spikes to stand upright to scare its foe.

"And…?" I tried not to sound scared but I gave out a soft, little whimper at the end of my sentence.

"Stan, your father and I have this great enemy. 10 years ago, your father and I worked paw in paw, and successfully destroyed the enemy's secret laboratory. This enemy was directly sent to jail but got bailed out. He dug up any information he could about you and your father. He managed to find out that your father had cancer. He also found out that Tora and I got married and he even discovered that we had you and Sandy. You were young as a Purifier when he came to the hospital to threaten me. I remember that you were outside of Tora's ward, all alone, sitting in a corner quietly. I figured that you might want to see your father but…" Mom stopped abruptly. I could tell by the look on her face that the rest of her side of the story was too much for her to carry on. I know; I can feel her pain, and mine too. But despite all that emotional pain, I still wanted her to continue with her story. She seemed like as if she couldn't carry on unless someone told her to, and it seemed like I was that someone to tell her that.

"… Go on…" I stated calmly, trying to hide the frightened bit of my voice but failed to do so.

"Stan… That day, when I went in search of you… The enemy already had you kidnapped." I opened my eyes wide with horror. So that's why that weird guy had me captured. It was to threaten Mom! Oh… I have a bad feeling about this… I remember that moment of fear far too well…

Flashback

4 ½ years ago…

"Let go of me!!" I yelled. I didn't know what was happening but I knew it wasn't anything good. A weird masked figure had me all tightly tied up and gagged. He placed me in a bag and seemed to be dragging me to an unknown place. I couldn't see where I was that time but I could tell it was somewhere deep within a forest. The bag was made of poor material; I could feel the sharp twigs and prickly leaves poking me, even though I was in the bag. Occasionally, I would feel some acorns underneath me. They gave me bruises all over. Finally, we came to a stop. I heard someone opening a presumed locked door and threw me in there and locked me up in the room filled with weird machines and test tubes containing chemicals I couldn't identify. The chemicals' smell was overwhelming and it became even harder to breathe in there when the windows were closed as well. Why? Why was he torturing me so? Did I do anything wrong? Did I do him any wrong? But that was impossible. I have never met him before. I didn't even remember doing anything wrong, so there was no reason to torture me like this. But if there was no reason, why did he lock me up in the first place.

… Why…?

Flashback ends

Present…

That was a very traumatic experience for me. It was too terrifying for me to forget about it… It was some sort of a childhood scar. That, and Dad's death, as well as a good friend of mine who had died for me, too…

"… Stan…?" Mom's voice shook me out of my daze. I looked at her, not realizing that I was crying yet again. After a moment or two, I felt the warm tears flowing from my bloodshot eyes. They were bloodshot due to excessive crying.

"Oh, yes…" I sniffed. Wiping off the tears ad rubbing my eyes along the way, I changed the subject as quickly as I could. "So, tell me who that enemy is."

"… His name is Greevil."

"Huh? I've never heard of that guy before."

"I'm not surprised. Not many hamsters know him, although he resembles a devil-like hamster named Spat."

"Spat?!" Did I hear wrongly? He resembled SPAT?!

"You know Spat?"

"Duh!" I sounded like myself again. I guess that means I should be fine. "Sandy, Maxwell and I went to Fun Land some years ago. Sandy and I went on a roller coaster ride and it went crazy. When it suddenly went back to normal, Hamtaro and Bijou told us that Spat messed with the controls in the control room." (A/N: This is taken from Ham-Ham Heartbreak, for some of you who may not know. I did NOT make this up. Play the game if you don't believe me.) "So, you're meaning to say that this Greevil guy has black and white fur, a giant fork thingy, a devil cap and a pair of black wings?"

"Greevil only resembles Spat a little. Greevil has the black and white fur, but none of any parts of the devilish costume." Well, that's really surprising. After that, what seemed to be a little mother-son talk had turned into a long conversation between us. I haven't had this much fun conversing with Mom for I-don't-know how long! We had a lot of fun but I felt both happiness and guilt. After Mom explained Dad's death, I've felt guilt-stricken. I felt guilty about making Mom suffer for so long, and I felt guilty about Dad's death. Was I the one at fault all this time? Why must I be the one? Why must my family suffer so much?

When will all this pain and guilt end…?

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A/N: Right, that's chapter 2. I am now half-way through this story, which means that this fic will be completed next week, depending on whether I'm free or not. But today I'm rushing through this chapter. Instead of the usual two hours that I spend on one chapter, this chapter took me about 1 ½ hours. Not too big a difference, actually, but I was shocked to see that I completed a chapter ½ hour before my expected record. I have a new record now, I guess. The reason why I'm rushing is because I have to sleep soon. I gotta reach school early in the morning at 7 tomorrow. It's already 9.40 pm here in Singapore and my bedtime is 10 pm on every night before a school day. I'd better hurry before I get scolded! I can't afford to wake up late tomorrow!

Next chapter: Stan and a few of his Pokémon find leads of Delcatty's case. However, in order to carry on their investigations, Stan has to venture to Orre, but will Amma let him? Find out in the next chapter! Chapter countdown: 2 more chapters to go!

Countdown to dedicated fic: 13 more days to go! Heh heh, I couldn't resist… Seriously, when I get busy, I tend to forget things very easily.

Hope my friend likes this birthday present for her!