"Danny? Danny, are you awake? Please talk to me..."

Danny's eyes fluttered opened at the sound of the soft voice. His vision was blurry and all he could see was a cream colored ceiling. He then turned his head to the left slightly to see the blurry silhouette of a young woman with slightly curly maroon hair.

"Margaret..." he croaked dryly, trying to regain his voice. "Margaret...where am I? What...what happened?"

Danny heard Margaret sigh with great relief and her hands clasped his as she said sounding rather tearfully, "Oh Danny...the Houndoom attacked you in the cavern and you've been unconscious ever since! You're at the Pokemon Center, you've been unconscious for two days. Mable and Team Flare got away, but w-we couldn't stop them. I-I'm so sorry..."

But he shook his head and whispered, "It's not you guys' fault, it's not like the trip was a waste of time. We at least know they are all alive..."

Danny suddenly flinched as a sharp wave of heat and pain struck the left side of his face. He winced but when lifting his hand to touch his face, Margaret suddenly grabbed it and said rather sharply, "Don't touch!"

"Why not?" Danny croaked with confusion. "Margaret, what's wrong?"

He saw his best friend bite her lip and moved her free hand to something on the bedside table. She handed him a hand-held mirror and whispered, "Just...just look..."

The young man weakly held the mirror up to his face. He gave a sharp intake of breath as he saw it.

Three long claw marks covered the left side of his face. The longest gash went from his cheek to just below his left ear. They were fairly clean, but were still red.

"Daniel...I'm so sorry..." Margaret whispered, tears forming behind her glasses. "The nurse said that they will become less visible, but they won't ever fully go away..."

She fell silent as Danny lifted his left hand and used it to caress the longest scratch. He winced at the sharp irritation from the scar and dropped the mirror. He couldn't stand to look at it.

"I can only imagine what Mom's gonna say when she sees me," Danny managed to muster, shuttering at the thought of his mother's future flow of questions and lectures. "She's going to either kill me or else never let me leave the house again."

He heard Margaret stifle a giggle, causing him to smile slightly despite it hurting to do so. He was glad that she could still do something as cheerful as giggle.

"Where are Mira and Amos?" Danny suddenly asked, his tone becoming more serious. "Are they alright? What about Serena and Xavier?"

"It's ok, they're all fine. Serena and Xavier are staying in town to take care of the Abmosnow, it got hurt by Team Flare. Amos and Mira went out to do some errands so we could...talk."

It took a minute for Danny to realize what she was talking about. Then he remembered the wings. As he looked at Margaret now, he realized that the signs were in front of him the whole time. The way she never took off her cloak or jacket, even in extreme summer heat. How even when she dared remove the cloak, her jacket was unusually lumpy. The reason behind why she never reinstated herself in public school.

"Margaret," Danny started hoarsely, daring himself to ask the question burning inside him. "I just want to know one thing."

"Yes?"

"Are...are you an angel?"

Margaret smiled softly and said with a slight giggle, "No, no, I'm just as human as you are."

"Funny...everything would've made sense if you were. You certainly act like one. How long have you had them?"

He saw her blush at the compliment, but she then stammered seriously, "I...I had them since meeting you. They weren't that big then, probably about the size of my hand. You see, I wasn't born with them. I had actually just gotten them a few weeks, maybe even a few days before meeting you. It's...it's a long story. Have I ever told you about my mom's side of the family?"

When Danny shook his head, Margaret started, "My mother was the daughter of the first Team Rocket leader. She only known as Madam Boss by outsiders, but my mother never said what her name was. My mother didn't want to uphold the family business, so she left and Team Rocket was handed down to her brother. She met my father afterwards, and eventually married.

"When my parents died, me and my brother were split up for some odd reason. John was to go with my dad's mother and grandmother, and I was sent to live with my uncle and his nephew. It wasn't bad at first. My uncle wasn't very fond of me, but my cousin took better care of me than he did.

"One day my cousin vanished without a trace. I'm not sure where he disappeared to, even today. I do know my uncle had nothing to do with the disappearance, but after my cousin was gone, he moved me out of the house to live in the Team Rocket headquarters."

The young man stared at her and croaked hoarsely, "You lived with them?"

"I know what you're thinking, but I wasn't treated horribly overall. It's what I saw that scared me. Believe it or not, I did not just change physically during my time there. I changed emotionally too. I was a lot like White, I actually stood up for myself and made my feelings clear. Unfortunately I think that's why they chose me for the lab rat.

"They gave me a serum that was supposed to make me understand Pokemon. They seemed to think I could withstand its effects more than anyone else. It was after I got the serum that I fled the HQ and lived by myself and a few of the Pokemon I had made friends with.

"It was only a few days after escaping that the serum began to do its work. It caused back and ear aches, which were so bad that one of my Pokemon friends had to carry me. I received the ability to understand Pokemon, but I received an unusual but permanent side effect; my wings. I think Team Rocket used DNA from a bird Pokémon and mixed it with the serum, resulting it to mix with my other DNA. After I got the wings, the next big event was meeting you and Red."

Danny didn't say anything. His gaze landed on Margaret's back in the spot where her wings were. It was hard to believe they were there this whole time.

A moment later Margaret burst out, "W...we all kept secrets from each other, and you have been the last to know for all of them. I...I hope you can-"

"Margaret, I'm not mad, at least not as much as you think. If anything, I understand your reasons. Your grandmothers undoubtedly told you not to tell me, and if someone let it slip, you could be in deep trouble. I guess what I don't understand is why you didn't tell me after telling the others."

"Mira and Leia needed to know since they insisted on doing my dresses for showcases. White found out after an incident with Team Flare, I knew she could be trusted with the matter. Amos... I think he suspected something was up. He's actually quite...shrewd. As for Sky Blue... I trusted him with the knowledge more than anyone else. He understood what it was like to be an outsider, to be different. He was battling internal monsters, and he tried so hard to hide that part of him. It was like how I had my own monster that I hid from the world.

"But Danny... the reason I didn't tell you was because I valued our friendship. You saw and treated me like I was truly human. I didn't want you to see me any differently. I also didn't know how to tell you I am just a lie..."

"You're not a lie, Margaret," Danny said forcefully and a little harshly. "You're exactly who you have always been. You are just much more than I realized."

He could tell that she was relieved by this, as she wiped her face with her sleeve. She then squeaked, "So we're still friends..?"

"Margaret, I've known you for most of my life," Danny told her, straightening up with a wince but continuing on, "I couldn't imagine not having you as a friend. I...I hope that our friendship doesn't change because of this, and that at least next time you come forward and tell me about these things."

He suddenly winced as Margaret threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. He glimpsed her hidden wings try to spread out with happiness by trying to push off her jacket.

"Margaret-" Danny gasped, trying to remove her arms from around his neck.

"I-I'm sorry," Margaret stammered, letting go of her friend and wiping her tears away with her sleeve. "I-I'm so happy you understand, and t-that we're still friends!"

"Yeah," he replied, placing his hand on his scarred side of his face and doing his best to smile through the pain. "Me too."

*~*~*

"Danny, are you sure you want to go out?" Margaret asked nervously as she watched him pull on his blue overcoat. "I mean, your scratches..."

"You and the doctor both said I will have scars," Danny contradicted, trying his best it ignore the mirror on the opposite wall. "I might as well start getting use to it."

"Well...if you really think you must..."

Danny had finally been released from the hospital now that the doctor has explained his condition and given Margaret some instructions. Apparently since the scratches were from a Houndoom, there would be some unusual side effects. Houndoom bites are poisonous and cause a burning sensation until the person's demise. Deep Houndoom scratches, however, have unknown side effects and the doctors had no way to prepare him for what could possibly happen. Danny already knew one side effect; an occasional hot flash on the left side of his face.

"So where are my Pokemon again?" Danny asked Margaret after they began to exit the room.

"I have them all. Deborah and Samson are in their pokeballs, but Loopy, Cain, and Spirit are with Alan right now. The two little ones seem to like him best, Spirit is just there because he's so concerned. Actually I think they should be in the lobby."

The hospital lobby was almost deserted, except for the Alakazam in the corner. He was levitating himself near the play area, a children's book in his shaky grasp. Sitting on the floor in front of him was a Spinda, a blue Shuppet, and an Aegislash. He seemed to be reading the story to Cain and Loopy while Spirit watched over them. Alan was the first to notice they're approach. He said nothing, but instead gave a curt nod in their direction.

Alan the Alakazam was not the same as usual since the disappearance of his trainer. Mira, who was now Alan's current trainer, said he was experiencing guilt over Sky's disappearance since he was the one who provoked Sky to flee into his darker frame of mind. However, when it came to finding Team Flare, he assisted with vigor.

The Spinda and Shuppet suddenly turned at the sound of the approaching trainer. The two small Pokémon ecstatically cried out to Danny as they tore off toward them.

"Oh Danny, they're so happy to see you!" Margaret translated for him as Loopy clung to his leg and Cain nuzzled against his scarred cheek.

"I'm happy to see them too," Danny replied, smiling softly as he bent down and ruffled his Spinda's fur.

However a look of concern washed over Loopy's face and the same expression came over his Shuppet. The Spinda made a noise of inquiry and lifted her paw to touch the scars.

"Does it scare you?" Danny asked her quietly and rather bluntly.

Loopy and Cain both looked appalled at this and both began speaking gibberish. A second later Margaret told him, "They say that they don't care how you look, they will love you the same."

"Really?"

"I wouldn't lie about thing like that."

Danny was taken aback by this. As he looked down at his nervous Pokemon, he pet both of them and said to them quietly, "I love you guys too..."

At that moment, the Alakazam levitated closer to the two humans with Spirit at the Psychic's side. Alan said nothing, but he had a rather glum expression on his face. The Aegislash, however, had no expression to make.

"Hey, Spirit," Danny greeted the sword-like Pokemon, grasping the Pokemon's handle. "How have you been holding up?"

The Aegislash made a sort of scraping noise with its arms of ribbon. Despite not entirely understanding what that meant, Danny thought he might know.

"Thank you for watching Loopy and Cain, Alan," Margaret thanked the Alakazam, giving him an encouraging smile. "Would you like to come walk with us, or do you want to go in your pokeball? Mira gave it to me just in case."

Immediately after she finished speaking, Alan used the book in his aura to push the button of one of the pokeballs on Margaret's belt. He then disappeared in the bright light and retreated into his pokeball, the book falling to the ground with a thud.

"Oh, I see..." Margaret said quietly, looking quite disappointed. "I guess we'll go on then."

Danny knew that Margaret was very concerned over Alan's well being. Alan had been close to Sky since he shared his burden. Now he had the guilt of betraying his trust on his frail shoulders. Even though Danny hated to admit it to himself, Margaret was also a lot closer to Sky than she was to him since they both knew the truth about each other. She felt the same worry as Alan, and being her caring self, wanted Alan's mood to improve.

As they exited the building, Cain and Loopy both squealed with delight and began running ahead of the trainers. The familiar snow glistening town of Dendemille lay around them. For a rural town, it was quite busy with people bustling through the streets, out doing errands or just browsing.

"Do you know where Amos and Mira went?" Danny asked Margaret, turned his face away from gawking passers by.

"I think I have a hunch, and if I'm right, you're going to get tense." Margaret admitted as the corner of her mouth twitch.

"Hope." Danny grunted, scowling at the name.

Hope did not quite live up to his optimistic name. He was an old acquaintance of Mira's (actually he was an acquaintance of White and Sky Blue in passing), and he was the one to tip the group off on Team Flare's mission at the Frost Cavern. Digging his nose into other people's secrets was his business, and was much like a private investigator. He had a very sarcastic personality, and was also somewhat lazy, not at all serious, and extremely sassy to Mira. Nevertheless, the rest of group all agreed that Hope and Mira had a relationship somewhat similar to White and Sky's.

"Come on, it shouldn't be that bad," Margaret told Danny, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him down the busy road while Spirit, Cain, and Loopy followed along.

Danny was beginning to regret coming out in public without a bandage on his scars. People passing them would give him quick glances and try not to stare. The children were the worst though. They would stare shamelessly at him and a few times he would hear one ask their guardian, "What happened to that man's face?"

"Is this how you feel sometimes?" Danny asked Margaret hesitantly as they entered the market place while reaching up and touching his scars. "Do you feel outcasted when out like this?"

"Not anymore," Margaret answered. "When I first had to start wearing the jacket and cloak in bizarre weather, I became a little self conscious. Since then it's just become a part of my public identity. Now I've accepted who I am, and I know after meeting Sky and the others, I didn't feel as alone or outcasted as before. It will take time, but eventually it will get a little easier for you too. At least you won't be as alone through-"

"DANNYKINS!"

Danny gasped as someone flew into him and hugged his neck. Judging by the squeal, it could be nobody else by Mira. Only she had the nerve to lunge herself onto him and get away with calling him "Dannykins" now that he was taking over the big brother role. 

"Oh Mira, please be careful!" Margaret squeaked fearfully, trying to tug Mira off Danny. "We only just left the hospital!"

"Mira, come on, give him some space," Amos's voice was heard as Mira finally released him.

The toll of the stress and worry of the past few months was quite easily. Both younger trainer had lost quite a bit of their optimism of finding their friends and family. While Amos was (or at least acted) hopeful, Mira was a lot more secluded and quiet as of lately She had been deeply depressed, so much so that the other three were very concerned and worried about her overall health. But a few weeks before, she had shockingly cut her once long, pulled-up blonde hair to a plain bob and declared that she was going to do whatever it took to bring her older brother, sister, and best friend back home. However, Danny could still see at times Mira sinking back into her hopeless state, something he refused to let happen.

"Oh dear, look at those scratches!" Mira gasped, reaching out to touch the scars.

"I'm fine," Danny lied swiftly, jerking away from her. "I'm...I'm just fine..."

"No you're not! The only lead we had was a failure and then you got hurt..."

"We can talk about that later," Amos said hastily, grabbing Mira by the hand. "We're all glad you're doing better, Danny. We're almost done here, but Mira wanted to see that friend of hers."

"He's not a friend, he's a source!" Mira snapped with a huff. "Hope is lazy, snarky-"

"Oh Mira, you should be more polite," Margaret interrupted while putting her hand on Mira's shoulder. "Hope seems to have gone through a hard time, and it's not like he has a, um... a real job."

"Margaret, all due respect, but you haven't heard White talk about him. I'm amazed he gave us as much information as he d-"

"Reep?" 

They all looked down to see what had interrupted. A Mareep was standing a feet away. The Pokemon looked rather grumpy as it watched Mira. 

"Is that your friend's Mareep?" Margaret asked Mira while she knelt down and petted the Pokemon. "Hello little one, what are you doing so far-"

"Don't touch him, he's the bad sheep!" Mira snapped at Margaret, who seemed to be ignoring her. "He's a tell tale sheep! That's how Hope gets his info, from the sheep!"

"His Mareep is a spy?" Amos asked with doubt while looking bewildered at Mira's accusation. "That sounds... highly unlikely." 

"Say what you wish, but you don't know how devious those two are!" 

As she said this, the grumpy Mareep bleated loudly and bounded away into the swarm of people. With the Mareep disappearing, Mira gave a squeak of terror and shouted, "WAIT DON'T GO! HE CAN'T KNOW HE'S DEVIOUS!" 

The other three trainers stayed frozen where they were as Mira ran off. A moment later Amos spoke up, "If this was a Sky Blue moment, this would be a totally normal and explainable reaction." 

"Well unfortunately he's not here right now, and someone's got to be the screwball," sighed Danny, taking up his Pokemon's pokeballs and returning them. "And when I say screwball, I mean it affectionately. Now we should probably get her before she hurts someone- or herself." 

Thankfully the Mareep did not linger in the streets, but ran straight toward an alleyway between two buildings. Mira, of course, chased after it, and the other three were quick to follow. However when they reached the alley, Mira was searching around for the Mareep, who was no where to be seen.  

"Mira, don't run off like that!" Margaret scolded Mira when they caught up to her, her breath coming in short painful gasps. "We don't want to lose you!"

"Looks like that Mareep got away," Amos puffed as he looked around the deserted alleyway. "Probably for the best."

"Its still here, I know it!" Mira snapped, pulling away from Margaret and the others while looking around. "I'm pretty sure that little troublemaker is here too!" 

"Mira, I know you're disappointed about the dead end, we all are, but that just means we'll move to a different source," Danny told the younger trainer, putting his hand on her shoulder. "Let's just go back to the drawing board, ok?"

Before anyone could speak, an ear splitting bleat came from the giant dumpster standing against the wall a couple yards away. Mixed with the bleating was a lot of yelling and a few well chosen colorful metaphors. A second later, the lid of the dumpster burst open and the Mareep leapt onto the rim and landed on the sludgy alley ground.

It looked like Hope was open for business after all. 

"YA STUPID USELESS PUFF BALL, I DON'T PAY YOU TO BACK STAB ME, YA LITTLE-"

After seeing his four unsatisfied employers, Hope froze. Not moving his gaze off them, or at the very least Mira, Hope slowly ducked down into the dumpster and flipped the top back over him. The Mareep bleated with laughter before prancing down the alley. 

Mira strode over to the dumpster and then pounded on the dumpster lid while shouting, "GET OUT OF THERE, BOY! We need to talk!"

The lid slowly came off as Hope sat up and put his arm on the rim while giving her the smolder. He then said in what he thought was an impressive voice, "Heeeey, Mirs. Long time no see."

He yelped as Mira roared and literally flipped Hope out of the trash can by grabbing his arm. She took all of them by surprise and Margaret and Amos both edged behind Danny (like he could save him from Mira's frustration). 

"YOU SAID IF WE WENT TO FROZEN CAVERN, WE WOULD FIND WHITE AND SKY BLUE!" She shrieked with fury. "We went and we came back EMPTY HANDED!"

Hope huffed with frustration and told her, "Mirs, you wanted to know where Team Flare was. Technically, I did tell you where they were. You got your money's worth of information, and I'm sorry you didn't find them. Actually, scratch that, I owe that woman a refund so I'm actually not as sorry as I should be."

"M-Mister Hope," Margaret stammered, come out from behind Danny to comfort Mira, who looked as if she was going to cry. "D-Do you have any other information that could possibly help us? We can pay you again, w-we just need to find our friends and family. What about the main base of Team Flare?"

"Ha! If I had the information, I would be rich already! Everyone wants a piece of Team Flare! I bet every trainer who lost a Pokemon to Team Flare has come to see me, but if I knew where they were, I wouldn't be here. One, I would be in a mansion and two, I would also be dead. Nobody knows where they are, and knowing that means your life!"

"Surely you have more information about Team Flare than just locations, right?" Amos asked Hope sensibly. "I mean, do you have sightings of Team Flare, or certain patterns?"

Hope opened his mouth to speak but stopped and closed it. A moment later he said, "That...never occurred to me. It will cost you though!"

"I will pay you twice what we gave you last time if you show us all your information on known Team Flare sightings and include information on every trainer you have met who lost a Pokemon to them," Danny offered in a serious tone, approaching the young man while taking out his wallet. "I want to know about the trainers' background and what Pokemon was stolen from them."

"Well what happened to you, Scarface?" Hope said with a slight smirk on your face. "Team Flare did that? No wonder you're paying so much! Ah well, that's a tall order. It's gonna cost more than that, but Mirs and I can discuss that later."

Hope then stood up and jumped back onto the dumpster rim while saying, "Move aside, ladies!"

When he got in the dumpster and closed the lid, Margaret turned to Danny and said slowly, "Danny... do you think he may know where Deborah came from?"

"It's worth a shot, I mean even if not everyone came to see him, we might find some clue there."

"Well he can't have that much information, I mean there's countless people with missing Pokemon!" Amos pointed out as if trying to get the others talking sense.

"TIMBER!"

The girls yelped with fright as Hope lifted the lid off the dumpster and dropped a medium sized box out and let it crash to the ground beside Mira. He didn't come out until drooping three more boxes and calling, "Help yaself, 'cause I ain't looking for them!"

"Is this all?" Mira asked uncertainly as she knelt down to look at the binders and papers inside one box.

"Two boxes each of Team Flare incidents and Team Flare victims." Hope corrected as he landed next to Mira. "You can start out slow. Victims are those two over there, and attacks are the others. Now, what were you saying about cash?" 

Danny somewhat reluctantly pulled out his wallet as the other three gathered around the boxes. He sincerely hoped he was putting his money to good use. Any good lead would be worth all the cash he spent on Hope. 

"So how do you gather all this information again?" Mira dared to ask, voicing the same question they had asked last time. 

"Mirs Mirs Mirs, a magician never tells his secrets!" Hope countered with a smirk. "Let's just say someone like me still has ways of finding gold like this."

"Do you...spy on these people?" Margaret questioned nervously as she poked her head over one binder. 

"Yes, Mags, I follow every single victim and Team Flare member every day and gather dirt to throw on them when they least expect it."

"So...is that a no?"

"Actually that's an occasionally."

"Oh...well, Mister Hope, in future, I recommend being a little less inquisitive. It might help you develop better relationships."

"You mean be nice? That's a choice, and most of the time I choose not to."

"You should choose to try," added Amos while he skimmed one of the folders. "You might be surprised what could come of that."

Before Hope could respond, Mira interrupted in a much more annoyed tone, "Well, you got along with Sky Blue, and you weren't that bad to White either. Why do you pick on me?"

Hope shrugged and answered sarcastically, "Me? Never! I treat you like a princess! All joking aside, it's probably because we're the same age and your siblings, mainly the sister, has proven that they won't let me do much teasing. Think of it like I'm your cool brother who likes you but doesn't show affection! Any more questions?"

"Yeah, you've stalked the Kalos Queen?" 

Danny spoke up once Hope reached a pause. At the same time, he waved around one of the binders. There were newspaper articles and notes inside, along with a few pictures. 

"Ah..." Hope started, sounding a bit hesitant. "Yes, she was a client. Interesting lady. Unfortunately I didn't have the honor of seeing her more, she only came to me twice."

"You met the Kalos Queen?" Mira repeated, her voice filled with surprise and a hint more of respect than before. "What's she like?! When did you meet her?!"

"As a matter'o'fact, I last met her a few weeks ago. The time before that was a year or two ago. She came with three others, I forgot their names. I'm sure they're in there. Whenever she came, she was a little more solemn than she was in the media, all of them were. At least she paid well!"

"She was among the Team Flare victims, what happened to her?" 

"Well, from what I remember, she and her party were ambushed before she was made Kalos Queen. She and another party member were temporarily hospitalized and one of the Pokemon was stolen." 

"I never heard of that," Margaret said with surprise, moving next to Danny to look at articles. "And she comes to you concerning the stolen Pokemon?"

"Well yeah, but it's not her Pokemon that was stolen. Really, just read the stuff instead of asking me!" Hope added with some annoyance. 

Hope was right. The whole reason they never heard of an attack on the Kalos Queen and her stolen Pokemon was because she was still just a regular performer and the Pokemon stolen was indeed not hers. However the article said the attack was nastier than others. The trainer of the stolen Pokemon was hospitalized for having his other large Pokemon thrown at him, and then thrown against a wall. He almost died, and the Kalos Queen was almost paralyzed in her eyes, which would have made her blind. 

However both he and Margaret received a great shock and the performer gasped with recognition. It was a missing Pokemon poster. It was quite clean, not like the weather beaten and wrinkled ones on boards in buildings and lamp posts outside.

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS POKEMON?

Kalliope

Species: Gardevoir, female

OT: Astro Gomez

Info: Kalliope was stolen from her trainer by four Team Flare members in Laverre City, Kalos. She responds to "Kalliope", and she can be identified by the use of her aura. Her aura is a teal blue color, and is able to manipulate it into complex shapes. Please, if you see this Pokemon, call the numbers below. Her trainer and friends are desperate for news.

"Danny..." Margaret whispered dryly. "The date of this poster... it's from four years ago!"

Danny couldn't respond. There was no doubt about it.

This was Deborah.