-Chapter XII: A Father's Passion-

-Amber-

She was getting anxious now. It was almost sunset and Connor's group hadn't returned. After Briar's healing paste had cured almost everyone's injuries, they had all relaxed and begun resting up for tomorrow. They had work to do. Team Firestorm couldn't beat the Mafia group in the condition that they were in. A third of their team was gone. They had to recruit more pokémon, or find allies. So far, Dawn had shown extreme promise as a powerful member. Amber had sensed her strength in the forest. Roy had gone off in search of it, but she didn't know that it would be a Ralts. Her aura was more powerful than Connor's. And he was the most powerful being she had ever met until that point.

However, she wasn't the Alpha. Gardevoir from Team Charm held that distinction. But she was easily just as powerful, which didn't make much sense. If she was that strong as a Ralts, she couldn't imagine what she would be capable of as a Gardevoir, and why she wasn't the alpha to begin with.

She glanced around as Team Firestorm laid down on their grassy beds, their eyes closed. Grovyle and Celebi were murmuring in the far corner, while Basileus was watching over Briar as she rested. Galvantula was showing Tyranitar how to use thunderpunch and thunderbolt in unison. Combining those moves made it possible to shoot and absorb thunderbolts through his hands, apparently.

She smiled and leaned her head against the wall. She perked up when she felt a familiar psychic pulse outside the cavern. She gestured to Celebi, and the pink fairy nodded after a moment. Her eyes glowed and the entrance to the cave opened. Grovyle ran in, followed closely by Connor and Dawn. Vulcan, Roy and Dusknoir followed a moment later. Dusknoir was almost beaten beyond recognition. With all of the gashes across his skin that were stitched with an indigo thread, he looked like a ghoul that was torn apart and sewn back together.

Roy seemed to be alright. At least, he didn't have any physical damage, which was good. Dawn was perfectly fine, and when Amber's gaze shifted to Connor, she gasped. His arm was almost navy blue. That meant massive amounts of internal bleeding, and probably broken bones. She stood up and caught him as he collapsed to the ground. His arm was swollen and the bones might as well have been reduced to gravel. They were broken in two spots, which baffled her. That was nearly impossible to do, and the pain should have rendered him unable to walk, let alone keep up with Grovyle.

He grimaced and groaned in agony when she grazed her hand along his arm. She turned to Grovyle. "What happened?"

He looked to the ground and shuffled his feet. "Mordred was there."

"And he beat all of you?"

A small smile appeared on his face as he looked back up at her. "Me? Beaten by a Bisharp? Come on, Amber." His shoulders sunk as his expression softened. "...I pinned him down, and would have done it myself, but due to our restrictions, Connor had to finish the job. He used focus punch, but Mordred used iron defense. Connor hit him so hard his arm snapped in two, and the stupid Bisharp used a warp orb to escape. And to top it off, he rigged the whole place to bury us alive. We barely made it out. And only thanks to this Ralts."

"Dawn is the only reason that we are here at all," Dusknoir agreed.

Vulcan smiled and pat her back. "Yeah. Not bad."

"Not bad?" Roy gawked. "She saved all of our lives. You'll have to do better than 'not bad'!" He smiled and nodded at Dawn. "I'll be the first to say thank you, Dawn."

"Yeah, thanks," Connor added.

"I thank you as well," Dusknoir admitted.

"Thank you." Grovyle put in.

"Me too... Thanks." Vulcan finished.

Dawn grinned nervously. She obviously didn't know how to respond to all of this praise. "You're welcome?" She laughed skittishly and tilted her head to the ground.

Connor laughed, then grunted in pain. "Hey, uh, Amber… You mind doing your healing spell thing?"

She smiled and laughed gently. "Of course." She grabbed his arm and chanted. "Parantua luut sisällä kätensä ,ja korjata vahinkoja, joita on ommeltu." An orange glow surrounded her hand and traveled throughout Connor's arm. His arm straightened out and returned to its normal shade of blue. He shut his eyes and groaned for a moment as the bones bound themselves together, the muscle fibers reinforcing the marrow. She took a deep breath and the strain on his face vanished. He placed his limb down and grunted in pain. "Man, all this healing and it still hurts this bad?"

He picked it up off the ground, and she stared at the still tender wound with concern. "Strange… That normally works."

He gritted his teeth, and Alice hopped over to him, apparently awake before they returned. "It's about time you guys got back. We've been worried sick!" She took notice of his arm, her eyes widening slightly. "Oh. I can use heal pulse on that."

Connor nodded. "Okay. Give it a shot. Third time's the charm, right?" The Lopunny grabbed his arm gently and closed her eyes. Her fur began shining with a golden brilliance as Connor's arm began glowing blue. Alice scrunched her eyebrows, and was suddenly thrown backwards by an invisible energy surge. She rubbed her head and stood up. "What was that?"

Grovyle narrowed his eyes and looked at Amber. "Perhaps it's been healed too much in a short period of time."

"Yes, that is a very possible explanation. It's never happened before… But then again, usually one of my healing incantations should heal anything..." Amber pondered. Connor sighed and laid down. "Ugh. So I have to heal the old-fashioned way. Fantastic."

Amber glanced at Basileus and Briar, and she turned back to Connor. "I'll be back in a moment."

She glided over to Briar, and the Sceptile smiled. "You want some of my healing paste."

Amber nodded. "For Connor. And Vulcan. They are both mortally wounded."

Briar nodded and gestured to a small wooden case. "The leftovers are in there. It should be plenty for them."

Amber opened the box and grabbed the small bowl of green slime. "Thank you, Briar."

She hurried back over to Connor and knelt down. "Here. Let's spread this across your skin."

She scooped some of the paste out of the bowl and gently spread it across the massive bruise. Immediately it absorbed into his skin, and its healing properties took effect. The bruise slowly disappeared, and while Connor rested, she stood next to Vulcan. She was a few inches taller than him, which was strange. She could have sworn Vulcan was taller last time she stood face to face wit him. She took another handful of the mixture and beckoned for him to turn around.

The holes in his wings made her sick, but she dabbed bit after bit around the edges of the tears in his wings. As the mixture was absorbed into the thin layer of skin, strands of muscle shot out and pulled themselves together, forming a new layer of rough skin that smoothed out in a matter of moments. She fought back a wave of nausea as she watched. Was this what happened when she was healed?

It definitely wasn't the same kind of healing that she was capable of. This was natural healing that sped up every pokémon's natural healing factor. Hers was a kind of psychic healing that transcended the laws of nature.

Vulcan grimaced until the healing stopped, and when he flapped his wings, they responded just as well as they did before his injuries. He grinned and pulled her into a hug. "Thanks, Amber…"

"You're welcome, Vulcan."

-Iden-

He stood on the edge of the now ruined bluff, overlooking the pitch black ocean beneath him, with a faint silver glow from the moon overhead that illuminated the waves crashing against the cliffside a hundred feet below. "Are you sure this is my son's base?"

The Infernape accompanying him nodded, his flaming hair bringing light to a small scroll of paper. "Yeah. Their base of operations is Sharpedo Bluff, just outside of Treasure Town."

He knelt down and felt the grass growing across the stones. This plant life was years old. "This place has been abandoned for years. How recent is that scroll?"

"...Says here it was updated three days ago. Vulcan's a Charizard now, according to this."

He smiled and teared up. "So he survived all these years… And finally evolved." But he looked back at the grass-covered ruins of the bluff. "However… Plant life can't grow this fast. And if this place was intact three days ago… What happened?"

"Oh, it's simple to figure out." A gentle, silvery voice replied. "My master destroyed this stronghold. The home of the most feared team on Immanis. Without them in the picture, we can roam unchallenged." Iden growled and shook his head clear while setting his fists ablaze. "Show yourself!"

"Gladly." A snow white pokémon walked forward, out of the shadows. Its single showing eye glinted in the moonlight. The female Absol smiled cruelly and crouched low to the ground. "Iden, isn't it? And what's this? Are you Cinder?"

Iden glared at her and said, "No, that's Blaze. My assistant. Who are you?"

"I am Master Mordred's representative for the time being. You see… I've been sent to kill you." She opened her mouth and took a deep breath. Iden used flamethrower and shouted, "Cover your ears!"

Dark crimson waves of a perish song spewed forth from the Absol, and Iden covered his ears the best he could. The waves of energy snuffed out his flamethrower, but he kept his hands on his ears as he used flare blitz. He was cloaked in fire as he barreled forward. Just before he made contact, he was hit by a hydro pump. Cinder ran forward and used mega kick on the revealed Blastoise's head, making it stumble and almost fall over.

Iden growled and rolled upright, using his wings to force himself to his feet. He shouted at the Absol. "What about your partner? Won't he die from the perish song?"

She opened her mouth to reply, when he said, "And I can't hear you, by the way! It was a rhetorical question!"

The Absol arched an eyebrow as Iden used focus blast. He charged it up in his mouth and fired it like a flame burst. The Absol smiled and stepped to the side with ease. It started talking, and Iden said with a small smile, "Still can't hear you."

The Absol scowled at him and used rock tomb. Iden took to the air as four pillars of stone rose around him and closed in with unreal speed, clamping down only inches behind his tail. He used inferno, a massive column of fire swirling from the sky, raining fire down on the Absol and Blastoise. He sighed and landed on the ground, uncovering his ears. "Alright… What were you going to say?"

"She wasn't going to say anything!" Cinder used mach punch on its face, sending it sprawling. The Absol stood up and smiled warmly. "Boys… Please don't do this." She was using attract. A cheap tactic.

Iden reached into his treasure bag and pulled out a small, red ball of yarn. "Do you know what this is?"

The Absol gasped and stopped talking, and Iden chuckled. "That's right..."

She dashed forward and tried to use aerial ace on Cinder, but Iden intercepted and tackled her out of the air. He used seismic toss to throw her into the ground, and was about to use power-up punch, but was headbutted by the Blastoise. It grappled his wings and fell on top of him, nearly crushing him with its massive weight. Cinder ran forward, but the Absol intercepted and nearly sliced his arm with her head blade. Cinder stumbled backwards and tripped on the uneven terrain, allowing the Absol to pounce. Iden used rock tomb, sending four pillars of stone up from the bluff, cutting the Absol off while trapping her in a stone chamber.

Cinder stood up and used flamethrower, melting the stone around her. She screamed in agony, and Iden used air slash to send blades of cold air into the magma, cooling it instantly. The Absol continued wailing, and used perish song. Iden couldn't see the waves until it was too late. His ears went berzerk, ringing and vibrating uncontrollably. He gasped and hunched over, gasping for breath. He took a deep breath and reached into his treasure bag, his vision spinning and fading in and out instantaneously. He pulled out a heal seed and put it in his mouth as fast as he could. As soon as he bit into it, his senses returned. He pulled out a muzzle orb and crushed it in his hand. A band of energy covered the Absol's mouth, only allowing speech, and he walked forward casually. He ripped the hardened stone out from around her face and smirked. "Awh, now that's no fun… You killed your teammate!"

The Absol's gaze shifted to the now collapsed Blastoise. "What? Impossible! We used safeguard to prevent that!"

Cinder laughed and said, "Awh, he's just taking a nap. I laid him out with a focus punch. He'll be fine."

The Absol gasped and tried to bust out of the stone, but Iden used power-up punch on her face. "Did you really think I'd just stand here while you attempt to escape?"

"Gah… Iden… If you're going to kill me…"

"I'm not gonna kill you."

"We're not?" Cinder questioned. "She almost killed you!"

"I am aware… Blaze."

"You're just going to let her go?"

"Pretty much. But not before beating her within an inch of her life."

He raised his fist and readied focus punch. "Two of these should do the trick. When you get out of here, tell 'Master Mordred' that he should watch his back. And tell Victor, while you're at it."

"I'm not a fool… That's Cinder-AGH!" She was sent flying by a focus punch uppercut, shattering the stone prison she was in. Iden flew into the air before she could recover, grabbed her by her horn and used sky drop, slamming her head-first into the bluff. As half of the stone on the cliffside was blown over the edge, dropping to the ocean below, she was beaten almost unconscious, so he fed her an oran berry. "Wake up. We're not done yet." He grabbed her head and made her look him in the eyes. "That is not Cinder. Understand? I don't know who Cinder is. But you tell Victor and Mordred that I'm coming for them, and when I find them… I'm out of mercy to give."

-Connor-

He laid down on the closest grass bed and closed his eyes. That healing paste stung worse than a Tentacruel at first, but it definitely helped his wound. His arm could almost support his full body weight without causing too much pain.

He was relaxing for a long while uninterrupted, and opened one eye when he heard movement closeby. "Oh, hey Dawn. What's up?"

She shrugged and tilted her head down. "Um… Nothing much. Just… wanted to see how you're doing."

"I'm pretty good. Briar's healing paste and all the different healing spells and stuff fixed my arm right up."

She smiled gently. "That's good." She took a deep breath. "Listen, um… Sorry… about, y'know, not being able to take down Mordred. And for your arm getting broken."

"What?" Connor nearly sat up with disbelief. "What are you talking about? I broke my arm because I hit him really hard. You didn't do anything."

"But… I-"

"Dawn, he's a dark type! It's okay if you can't beat him! Besides, it's in the past. Tomorrow's a fresh day. We're all healed up and ready to destroy those guys." He glanced around at the rest of the team. "They've been dying to get back out there. These past couple days, we've been cooped up, can't do anything… It's starting to get to us. If we find some bad guys to fight, it'll help them get their minds off of everything."

"I think that will help, yes. But if that's the case, I guess we're moving locations?"

He shrugged. "Mordred's baddies found Roy and Dusknoir within a day. But I don't know if he knows where we are."

Dawn clenched her fist, and he thought out loud as she stood in front of him, since her entire body only as big as his head. "You're really little..."

"Hey, I might be little, but I'm eight pounds of kick-ass!" She scowled as the red fin thing on her head gave off a slight rainbow glow.

"Whoa… Watch the language."

"Yeah! Just 'cuz it's rated M don't mean you can go swearing like Magnus!" Galvantula whispered as he hung from the ceiling directly above them.

"Sorry," she apologized. "I don't like being called little. I haven't been able to evolve for some reason, and it's kind of been making me mad."

He narrowed his eyes at her after shooing Galvantula away. "How old are you, anyways?"

"About… ten years, I think."

His eyes shot open. "Ten?!"

"Relax, Connie. Psychic types just age a lot slower than other types. I'm about nineteen, if you convert normal years into psychic-types' aging years."

"...What?"

"I'm nineteen."

"Oh. Um… You don't look-"

"How old is your team? They can't be full-grown yet."

"Okay, uh… I'm twenty, in my species' years."

"And the others?"

"Around the same age, give or take a year or two. Except Jade. She's twenty… four, I think? One time she said that evolving speeds up your aging process a lot, so your new form corresponds with your age."

"I've heard that too. But I don't know if it's true."

"It seems kind of… out there. I mean, sure, Vulcan looks, sounds, and even acts older since he evolved, but..." Then his eyes widened slightly. "Actually… "

"What?"

"That might… actually be true. All of us seem a lot older than we did when we first started. Maybe evolution does that. But if we're going by how many years we've been alive, we're all about seventeen to twenty-ish. Except Roy… How do ghosts age?"

"Well, that would depend." A deep voice washed over him. "On how he came to be a ghost-type."

He tensed up. "I wasn't asking you, Dusknoir."

"Ah, but I simply overheard your conversation. After all, when we're all in one room, it's difficult to ignore." He landed on the ground next to them without making a single noise.

Connor rolled his eyes and Dawn put her hand on his arm. "It's alright, Connor. I know that he's betrayed you and Vulcan, and tried to kill you, but he's here to help now."

A sudden wave of anger came over him. "Really? Why do all of you think that you know him just because he showed up and says he's here to help? The only ones that know what happened are Grovyle, Vulcan and me! You can't possibly know! So don't go telling me what you think you know about him!"

Dusknoir went to say something, but he cut him off. "You had the entire world fooled last time. Even me and Vulcan. But you won't trick me again. I refuse to trust you."

The big ghost nodded silently and melted into a pool of shadows that moved across to the opposite end of the chamber.

Dawn scowled at him. "You need to trust him, Connor."

He glared at her. "Don't tell me what to do."

She teared up and murmured. "...I know what he did. I've been in your head. Experienced your memories… Your pain. ...I know that you don't trust him. He nearly killed you, I know. But… I know that he's changed. The reason he showed up is because he wants a shot at redemption. And you've always given others second chances, right?"

"...Yeah, I guess…" he grimaced as he said that. This was Dusknoir they were talking about! The one who was bent on preserving a world of darkness so much that he was going to kill them because they were trying to save the world!

"Then give him a chance, too. Let him show you. So what if he betrays your trust? Just go kick his butt! You've got your entire team behind you if he does anything! And sometimes we have to give people a chance to do the right thing. Even when we don't believe they will."

A weak, disheartening smile formed across his mouth, but it disappeared just as quickly. "...I'll think about it."

Once again, Connor is being stubborn. Will he ever trust Dusknoir? Probably not! And Iden's first scene that involved fighting! Plus Cinder! What do you guys think of Vulcan's father? Pretty cool? Nah? Let me know! As always, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and feel free to leave any questions, comments, concerns and theories in the form of a Review or PM! It's always appreciated!

I am still in need of at least one more OC character to interact with Team Firestorm! If you have any cool ideas for a character, the guidelines are on my Profile! And after that, feel free to PM me your character! Much Love!

-PL