"What?!" I had to cover my ears to shield myself from the ludicrously loud reaction of the dewott. "What do you mean Yu has been kidnapped?!"

"Exactly what it sounds like! Someone came by and took him away!" I yell back. Yuki and I had just returned from our trip to a nearby slaughtered village and we had decided it would be best if we informed Dex of Yu's situation. As it turns out, "we" meant "me" so now I was stuck alone with an emotional otter who just found out that his best friend has been taken away. Not how I thought I'd spend my night.

"I have to find him!" He tries to bolt out the door, but I manage to stop him by yanking his arm back.

"You idiot! Eliza took him!" Just mentioning her name sends a shiver down my spine. "Even if you did catch up with them, she'd be more than happy to tear you inside out!" Now that I think about it, that might not be such a bad thing. I'd save me a lot of trouble. I let go, but Dex seems to realize that I'm right and falls to his knees at the door. "You could still try to play hero, though. I think the fight with Yu could've tired her out, plus if you know Fury Cutter, you could make short work of her."

"No... you were right. Going now would be suicide." Exactly! So, go and fucking die! Screw spilling secrets let's just spill his blood and cut the viper that's the Rebellion off by its head! Then I can get back to Eli- I mean, the Council! Someone could jog my memories. I'm sure she'd understand. Then... Then... Together...

"We can discuss this more in the morning." With a sigh, he returns to his bed and I'm left feeling just a bit disappointed. Back to plan A I suppose. I head out the door, a bit frustrated and eager to let off some steam.

At night, the town seems to be still active, but not as much as earlier this evening. It seems the nocturnal pokemon are up at this hour. I don't have to weave through much of a crowd as I somehow find my way back at the wishing fountain and feel oddly unsurprised to see a certain absol staring into the water.

"Couldn't sleep?" She nearly jumps out of her fur as I smoothly slide in beside her. "Heh, what's wrong? Wasn't expecting your soul mate to show up?"

"N-No! I mean, I don't mean soul mate! It's just you!" She clicks her tongue as she brushes down some of the fur on her chest. As she does so, I notice for once that there's a necklace hidden underneath all the fluff. In an instant, I've dived into her chest fluff and fished out the jewelry which has an odd gem embedded in some gold at the end.

"Oh whoa! What's this?

"It's a megastone. I can use it to mega evolve. It's like I can transcend my limits and become even stronger." She seems to have a bit of pride as she puffs out her chest and stands tall. "My daddy gave it to me."

I scoff as I drop the pendent. "All coolness was lost the moment you called your old man, "daddy". That's so childish." Now she seems rather hurt. In fact, I can see the hint of a pout forming on her face. Isn't that rich? "No need to get so despondent, I'm only joking. Sort of." 

"Pfft. At least I remember my father." She looks down at me with a condescending glare. "What do you know about yours?"


"Well for starters, he exists." She laughs at my joke and plops down next to the fountains edge. Possibly to start watching the pokemon pass by once again. "To be honest, I haven't had many memories come back to me. I have no idea how to even begin to remember."

"Well, it's only been a day, right? Give it time. I've never had amnesia, but I think these things take time. It's not like you'll see one thing, and everything will suddenly come flooding back." She thinks for a moment, then turns to me. "One way I try to remember things is to think of one thing, then ask questions until I come up with what I had forgotten. For example, this morning Yu sent me to fetch some berries for the café, but when I got to the fields to pick them, I totally forgot what I was doing. So, I asked stuff like why I was here, who sent me, is there something I'd usually get from here, and so on. So, let's take one memory and work from there."

"Okay...?" I begin to recount one of the safest memories I can think of, the dream of the mawile calling for its dead brother and the eerie feline that approached from behind. All the while, Yuki nods slowly, digesting everything I've said.

"Alright, how does this make you feel?"

"I guess a bit scared, but still oddly calm about it. I assume it's me and my brother is dead, but that pokemon who I think was going to kill me failed I guess since I'm still here."

"Concentrate more on the mysterious pokemon. What do you feel when you think of it?" As Yuki lays down and gets more comfortable, I do as she says and concentrate on the thought of the pokemon. Oddly, I feel a sense of peace, but a twinge of heartache at the same time, as if I miss them. Why is that? How could I feel such familiarity with someone who was after my life? As I think, pain creeps up on me and before I know it, my head is throbbing, and it feels like a dozen of tiny Pin Missiles are assaulting my mind.

"He's going to love this!" I giggle at the rather large cake that I had set onto the table. I hade made this all by myself for his birthday! Granted, I did have a bit of help...

"You think he'll like it?" The espeon who helped me tilts her head as she stares at the birthday dessert.

"Why wouldn't he, Eliza?" The luxio beside me glares at her with a pout. "Lyn poured her heart into this, why wouldn't he love it?"

"Fang, be serious." Eliza uses Psychic to fix it back up, but it just falls lopsided again. "It's a hot mess. The bad kind. No offense, hun." I casually shrug. She's not wrong. This thing looks awful, but does it really matter when cake is make to be eaten? "He's coming home soon, we should hide." Quickly, we hide around the house and wait for our target to return. Right on cue, a feline pokemon find his way inside and stops once he notices a crooked cake sitting on a table.

"SURPRISE!" We all jump out and startle the birthday boy.

"We baked you a cake." Fang says with a wide smile.

"Lyn and I baked the cake." Eliza shoots him a glare. "Sorry it looks bad."

The pokemon we directed our affection to is a large feline with white fur and blue accents along his chest and left ear. His large claws are stained black with blood and some of it even stained some of his fur. The zangoose smiles down at me softly. "Nonsense. Lyn made it for me and that's all that matters."

"Dammit, Violet, I said I helped!" He just ignores her and picks me up.

"Happy birthday, Dad."

Dad? Dad?! "Dad!" I jump off the fountain and excitedly look down at the absol. "I know who my father was! That mysterious pokemon was actually my dad!" I look excitedly at her for a response, but quickly realize that she's actually asleep. "Oh." Maybe it's time for me to hit the hay too. I head back toward Dex's house but start having second thoughts. I'm sure this town is safe especially since no one seems scared of the Council randomly storming in. Still, maybe I shouldn't just leave her here alone.

With I sigh, I lay beside Yuki. "Good night."