-Quidnam?-

Mt. Silver's Summit
Resting & Checkpoint Area
3:30 PM

"Well, this guy is heavy." Said Brock while carrying Thanatos to a seemingly appropriate spot to place the downed person who fought a Moltres. Max was right beside him, checking if Thanatos is still alive. "Hey, why do we need to help this person anyway? We know he's working for Team Galactic." The young boy asked. "Cynthia insisted she was going to help him. We can't just leave her to face a Moltres alone, can we?" answered Brock.

"But the Moltres has already left when she went back inside."

"I wish I had seen that Moltres fly away from the mountain. If I did, wouldn't be doing this right now." After they found a good spot to lay Thanatos, Brock rested the trainer against a rock. "Give me your Pokedex, Max, so I can scan it to register our names in the scanner-thing."

Max gave him one raised eyebrow. "Scanner-thing?"

"You know what I mean. I wasn't listening to the representative." Brock shrugged. "What about Dawn and Cynthia?" Max asked. "They already did theirs before going back in to grab some water from the pool we came across." Said Brock while taking Max's pokedex, leaving for the scanner afterwards. "You should get that guy's Pokedex, too!" Brock said while walking away from them.

"Okay." Max searched Thanatos' pockets, gently to not startle the man. He found the Pokexed in the man's inner pocket, but when he was about to take it, his attention was diverted elsewhere. It was Thanatos' right arm. He remembered last time he saw the man; the right arm was covered by a glove.

"What's wrong, Max?" asked Brock while handing Max's Pokedex back. "Hey, Brock, look at his right arm."

Brock took a closer look and understood what Max's concern was. "Wow, isn't that something? He must've got in a really bad accident or something. Is it fully functional like a normal human hand?" Brock asked while looking at the arm. He spent some time looking at it.

"Oh yeah, his Pokedex is in his inner coat pocket. Left side." Max commented.

Brock reached to the unconscious person's pocket.

"The other pocket." Max added.

"Of course." Brock switched to look to the other pocket, and grabbed the Pokedex. "Now we have to scan this thing." After standing up, he could feel a cold grip on his arm. "Huh?"

"I think I can do that myself, thanks."


"AAH!" the Pewter City Gym Leader screamed because of the sudden turn of events.

"It's not like I'm a ghost or something, Brock." Said Thanatos while trying to regain his balance after being knocked unconscious by a legendary bird. "Can I have my Pokedex back?"

"Ah sure, here it is."

"Thanks. Did you carry me up here?" asked Thanatos.

"Yeah, Cynthia just insisted that we save you. Wonder what she's thinking." Max answered with an annoyed face. "You better be grateful."

"It's not like you carried me up here right, Max?"

"Well it was Brock, but-"

"So the thanks goes to Brock." He turned to face Brock. "Thank you again." Thanatos said with a smile. Max just pouted.

"It was no problem, but you should really thank Cynthia for being so stubborn. She was going to carry you herself if I didn't interfere." Said Brock. Thanatos could feel himself smiling at that statement. Such a sweet and caring girl Cynthia is. "I guess I should. But I'd better scan my Pokedex first."

Shortly after leaving to scan his Pokedex, Thanatos came back to the group. "So where's Cynthia and Dawn?" he asked. "They went to grab some drinks from the water fountain down below where you fainted. They should be coming back here shortly." Brock answered while checking his backpack for some small snacks. He found some energy bars and offered them to Thanatos and Max. They gladly accept. And then Brock realized that something was off. "Hey, did we ever tell you our names? Dawn's, too."

Realizing his stupid mistake, Thanatos lost his composure a little. It was comforting for him to be with his old friends after such a long time. He was too careless. "Well, umm, how can I not know your names? You're both in the Grand Conference! You, Brock, are Pewter City's Gym Leader!" explained Thanatos. He shifted his gaze to Max. "And you! You.. are Norman's kid! Saw a couple of your league matches on TV, you're pretty good, you."

"Aw shucks, you're embarrassing me!" said Max with a laugh.

"Hmm, I guess so." Brock bit his share of the energy bar. "So you were a trainer too? Why are you in Team Galactic?"

"Well, I was kind of indebted to someone in the company. So I worked there to try to destroy it from the inside." Answered Thanatos while leaning on a rock. "Ah, I see. Is it safe to tell us all this?" Brock shot another question. "Yeah, I've quit from Galactic, so there's no point in hiding all this. Besides, you guys all had your share in fighting the team, right? Might as well find out that they're getting active again." Explained Thanatos while finishing the last bits his last piece of the energy bar.

"I guess that's a good thing." Max added.

"Yeah." There's also no point in hiding my identity anymore, now that Raito's gone. I'm going to need all the help I can get to take Cyrus down. He thought to himself. He glanced over at Max. He remembered the times when he was travelling to all the places in Hoenn with Brock, May and Max. And then there's Sinnoh, with Dawn. And one of his most precious times, Kanto, with Misty. He terribly missed his friends. Missed being their friend. Missed all the good times that he could have done with them if it were not for him.

Cyrus.

Before he could start his long train of thought about hating Cyrus, he realized something. "Hey, Max, where's your big sister and the leader of Cerulean City's gym?" he asked, careful about his word choices.

"Oh, May and Misty? May met Drew earlier. They haven't met in a couple of years, so they decided to catch up. Misty was dragged with her." Max explained. "Oh? I thought Drew and May was in Johto together? And since when were May and Misty such good friends?" Thanatos asked. "Well, many things happened." Max shrugged.

Seeing Brock's confused face, he realized that he was not supposed to know all that information for just being a 'stranger-from-Team-Galactic-who-turned-out-to-be-a-good-guy'. Thanatos smiled to himself. Smiled to Ash, who he missed being. Not a professional from Galactic. He reached out to his pack, where he pulled out a pouch. Sounds of small metal could be heard from inside the pouch. And Brock was a good guy to have on his side, a guy who can keep secrets. Sometimes.

He took a silver octagon shaped badge, which represented the Pewter Gym. He tossed it over to Brock, who was startled a little, but barely managing to catch it. He looked up in surprise. "You challenged the Pewter City Gym?"

Thanatos responded with a grin. "First badge in my entire life. The leader's old man had to help me to win against him."

Brock looked at the badge again as if he just remembered something important.

"Oh, cool! Brock uses rock-type Pokemon right? What Pokemon did you use?" Max asked in excitement. Thanatos figured he still had the outmost interest in Pokemon.

"At the time, I was just a rookie trainer. And the leader had only a Geodude and an Onyx that was ready. So I used the only ones I had that are good for the battle. A Pidgeotto and my Pikachu." Being too engrossed in telling his own story, Thanatos did not notice that Dawn and Cynthia were already finished taking water and have been listening to his story also.

"But you were in a serious type disadvantage! How did you manage to win?" Max added to the series of questions.

"My Pidgeotto, pulled all his strength and eventually won against the Geodude. But was knocked out afterwards by the Onyx." He smiled to himself remembering that his Pidgeotto had evolved into a Pidgeot, and wondered if Pidgeot was happy out in the wilds. Maybe it was time to check on how he's doing. "Anyways, my Pikachu was getting utterly overpowered by the Onyx, and we were on the brink of defeat. Until Pikachu hit the sprinklers with an electric attack, causing the Onyx to be drenched."

Brock just stayed quiet during the entire time, listening to his story.

"So my Pikachu unleashed his strongest Thundershock, and won."

"Ooh! You brought your Pikachu with you, right? Can I see him? Can I see him?" Max asked 'nicely'.

"Sure, I kept him in a Pokeball, even though he absolutely hates being in it." Thanatos answered with a smile, reaching to his belt. He showed his Pokeball in the direction of Max and Brock, showing the distinctive lighting mark on the top half. Brock looked at Thanatos in a disbelief, which Thanatos returned with a wink.

He released his Pikachu. The Pikachu looked annoyed when it was released, ready to complain to his trainer about being contained in the Pokeball. But the Pikachu caught the presence of the Sinnoh Champion, and immediately ran to her and jumped to her shoulder. Cynthia patted his head which was returned by a cute growl.

Having noticed that Cynthia and Dawn were back, and the quiet sobs of Brock shedding tears of joy, Thanatos walked up to the Sinnoh Champion. "Hey, I'm glad-"

Before he can finish his sentence, he was greeted by a hard slap on the cheek from Cynthia.

"-.. to see you." He rubbed his cheek to ease the pain. "What was that for!" he screamed. Then he could see that Cynthia's eyes was getting teary, and he realized he had done something wrong. "H-Hey, what's wrong?"

"You know how worried I was about you! When you didn't come to the checkpoint even after the Moltres flew away.. If.. If something had happened to you.." Cynthia started sobbing.

Dawn and Max looked at each other in confusion, and looked at Brock who was also sobbing. "Hey, Brock, what's wrong with you?" Max asked. Brock answered while still immersed in his mix of sobs.

Ash pulled Cynthia and hugged her, causing Pikachu to jump off. He patted her head while she leaned on his chest while still sobbing. "I'm still here, aren't I? I'll never be gone, not while I'm still with you." Ash said with a big grin. Still angry, Cynthia could not help but smile, throwing weak little punches on Ash's chest to show her protest of her boyfriend's rash actions. "Ash Ketchum, you idiot. Don't ever make me worry like that again" Said Cynthia while calming down.

Quickly realizing what Cynthia just said, Ash, who was trying to conceal his identity to the other two, could not think of anything to say other than, "..What?"

Like someone who just screamed on top of a mountain, he was echoed by Dawn's "What!" and another "Whaaaat!" from Max. The combo was broken by Brock who yelled "Ash" on top of his lungs while running to give Ash a big hug.