HECTOR

The candles cast dancing shadows about the walls of the Commander's quarters. It was growing late in Brandon Brightflame's war counsel. Hector brushed his scruffy chin with his scarred left hand, he hadn't shaved in days, much less had a good night's rest in the weeks they had set up camp in Meteor Falls. The scouts had trickled back from the outskirts of Lavaridge and the shadow of Mt. Chimney. Just as soon as they had delivered word, they were sent back out again to gather new information.

"She knows we'll be coming for the city," Hector added. "My squad leaders have been able to take village after village, untouched. There are no Imperial Forces or House Starfall servicemen in the entire region. It seems you've conquered nearly your entire ancestral lands with but one major fight." Brandon Brightflame did not look pleased at that, and Hector knew why.

"Aye. My men tell the same tale. The girl shows tact and a mind for strategy," an Odaran captain muttered.

"Just like her uncle," Brandon muttered. "She's withdrawn all her forces into the mountain. This Cassandra Starfall may be young, but she is wise beyond her years. Our men are professional fighters. The Pokemon we've brought with us are battle hardened." He pointed to the picture on the map on the table of the tall volcano that was Mt. Chimney. "She dares not face us in open battle, as it would be suicide, so she conserves her armies in Lavardige, in the shadow of the mountain... If we attempt a siege, all she has to do is harass us from the sky with her Altaria and other Flying Pokemon while she waits for the Sea Bitch to drown us with superior numbers."

A rash, young Odaran admiral slammed his fist on the table. "Then why waste time with a siege, let us take the city."

Brandon looked at the green military man like he would look at a fool who, instead of telling a joke, had insulted one's family. "Lavaridge is my home. It's where I was bred and born, where I grew up, where I learned Warcraft. Lavaridge is impregnable. Marching an army up the sheer black cliffs of rock to the city is certain suicide. Many would-be conquers have tried, this girl's ancestors being among them, and they all have failed." Brandon eyed Hector. "But there is one way in."

The sewers, Hector remembered. It had been seventeen years, but Hector would never forget making his way through the black winding tunnels under the city into the waste that was the jagged pass. They had escaped from the deepest dungeons, thanks to Brandon's young brother... Hector had forgotten his name. He didn't bring up the boy, who would be a man now. If he was still alive, he thought. A young boy with a Torchic would be a sitting Psyduck for the Empress's forces. She had already wiped out the Forrests, he had heard, and Brandon was the last of the Brightflames. And the Marshes... The three great Kingdoms were all but stamped out.

"Excuse me, my friends, I am I needing of some fresh air," Hector lied to the war counsel. It was impossible to get fresh air in Meteor Falls. The place was one gigantic stuffy stone cavern. He made his way to the waterfall, whispering into the crystal clear pool in the heart of the settlement.

He remembered the intelligence his men had brought back to him. The Empress Glamour had divided her Kingdom into four provinces: The Northwest, the South, the Northeast, and the Eastern Sea. Each was ruled by a Lord Governor in turn: Cassandra Starfall was a young girl, the niece of the tyrant that had overthrown Brandon's own family; Lord Spector, who had turned cloak on the Forrests at the battle of the Green River; the Empress's own half-brother Ahab ruled the traditional Sootopolis Kingdom...

And lastly, Chris Marsh II controlled the Imperial Forces of the South. Hector's heart had skipped a beat when his spies brought him that name. He knew Chris was the son of Sarah Spark, the young lady his friend of the same name was promised to all those years ago... Why would the Empress allow him to live, when she had so painstakingly entrapped and attempted to kill Brandon Brightflame? Hector graced the scars on his left arm, that were left by the Sharpedo. They had only narrowly escaped on that vessel through the stormy seas to Odara, to safety. To Alicia, my love. Hector thought.

He began to wonder what he was doing here. He wondered that many times, of late. It was always when he looked at his ravaged arm, misshapen and colored by old scars, that he knew it was duty. Duty to Brandon Brightflame, who had saved his life. It was loyalty to his last friend in the word. Hector felt a surge of pride within him, but in the back of his mind, he remembered something Alicia had told him before they set sail for Hoenn.

He may have saved your life once, but don't let it be the death of you.

Hector shook his head and turned to make his way back to the war counsel when he felt the cold kiss of steel underneath his jaw. A deep voice spoke to him.

"If you make a sound, they'll never find your body," the voice said. It came from behind a figure with a covered face, hidden beneath tight fitting black robes. Only the man's eyes were visible, dancing like the candles in the Commander's quarters, and angry. "Take me to the man they're calling 'Brightflame.'"

If I die today, let it be a quick death. "You think I'll give him up to you that easily? One of the Empress's cutthroats? Well, cut my throat here and be done with it," Hector spat back.

"If that happens, it won't be just your blood spilled here tonight. I will burn every house, and everyone in this blasted cavern down one at a time until I find him. You wouldn't want innocent blood on your hands, now, would you?"

Hector tried to gaze deep into the would-be assassin's eyes. There was a familiar determination there, but the chilling calm of truth behind them as well. If I take him to Brandon, I will avoid needless bloodshed, he pondered. And then this amateur will taste the fire King Brandon keeps inside of him. "Follow me."

A wave of relief swept over him as the steel disappeared from his neck and he began to walk. It seemed as if he was alone, but somehow Hector could feel the spy's eyes burning through his back as he walked in silence behind.

They reached the door to the counsel room. The guards stationed at the door nodded at Hector, as if they couldn't see the assassin... Hector turned around before entering the building, and the black figure was nowhere to be found. As he placed his hand on the door, he heard one of the guards shout "Who goes there?"

Thud! Snap! And Hector felt himself flung inside the portal into the counsel room to the shock of everyone inside. He grimaced in pain as he landed on his left arm. It was still so tender after all these years. He made to get back up and was shoved back to the ground. The cold point at the back of his neck warning him to stay still.

The councelmen and officers had their hands on their sword hilts, but Brandon's eyes glared with a white hot intensity at the assassin, but also with admiration... As if he knew something that no one else knew.

The spy's deep voice spoke again. "So it's true what they say," he said. "A man from a foreign land shows up calling himself Brightflame. I don't know whether to end this little rebellion here or let it play out for my own amusement. I have no love for the Empress. Tell me, should I kill you all know, right here, or just this one," Hector felt the point press harder, "or should I be on my way to let you stick like a thorn in the Empress's side?"

Brandon clenched his jaw... and then smiled. Hector had always gotten uneasy when Brandon got that look about him. "You will lay down your sword and bend the knee."

"You are a bold one," the assassin laughed. "And why would I do that?"

"I've been expecting your arrival, Draconid," Brandon said. "I've heard rumors of a terrorist band giving the Sea Bitches armies fits. I believe it's in our best interests for your group and mine to join forces."

"I'm not here representing the Draconids... They mean nothing to me. Try again. Offer me something worthwhile." Hector could feel the matter-of-fact honesty in the assassin's voice. It unsettled him. This was a battle of indomitable wills, Hector knew... but this assassin didn't know Brandon.

"I was hoping you'd make this easier," Brandon said. He snapped his fingers, and from the other room, the exiled King's Blaziken walked in the room with a black bundle slouched over his shoulder. "This was your companion, was he not? You must not have been here long, as the villagers know my curfew policy. What is he, your apprentice? A little brother? He's a bold one, I'll mind you. Walked right up to Blaziken while on patrol. I suppose he thought he'd end my conquest with one stroke of the sword." Brandon snapped his fingers again. "Wake him up."

"Blaaaaze..." The tall feathered Spirit Pokemon lifted the black bundle up by the color, and Hector would make out that it was the slim figure of a younger man, perhaps seventeen or eighteen. The Pokemon's wrists burned until the boy stirred from the heat, and woke up terrified and shocked at what he saw."

"And now I see the truth of what you say." Hector picked up the slightest change in the spy's tone. He breathed a sigh of relief as the steel left his neck and the foot pushed off of his back. Hector coughed and looked up at the scene before him.

All eyes were on the assassin, just as tall as Brandon was, but not intimidated in the slightest. "Put the boy down, and come meet your brother." The spy pointed the sword directly at Brandon, who's face turned red with fury.

"How dare you insult his memory," Brandon's voice was steaming. "I will make sure you die screaming." He snapped his fingers once more.

The slender boy in Blaziken's arms fell to the floor and backed up against the neareset wall as the Pokemon lunged across the room. There was the burning smell of smoke as a smog filled the room. An intense flash of heat flared in the center of the room.

"Blaze!"

"Ken!"

The smoke cleared and Hector couldn't believe what he saw. The boy that Brandon had captured was being held at knifepoint by the other Odaran commanders, that was for sure... But that wasn't what sent chills running down Hector's spine.

In the center of the room, Brandon's tall, buff Blaziken had locked elbows with a thinner, younger Blaziken. The Assassin, meanwhile, had somehow managed to make his way across the room, passed three high ranking Odaran military men, to hold a dagger at Brandon's own throat.

"Why don't you call of your men and your Pokemon," the assassin said softly to Brandon. "And meet your brother."

The black cloth covering the assassin's face fell to the floor, and Hector saw tears in his friend's eyes.

"Carson?.." he asked softly. "Is it really you."

"If it's really you." The sound of metal clanging to the floor was the sweetest thing Hector had heard in a long while as the two long lost brothers embraced to the astonishment and bewilderment of the Odaran Commanders present.

"Could you have made it any more dramatic?" came a new voice. Hector turned to the boy, who still sat at sword point. Brandon Brightflame nodded to his men and the swords were sheathed.

"How do you even wear one of these constantly. It's too stuffy." Hector had heard that voice before... but where?

The boy removed the wrappings over his own face. His face was tan, and he had a hint of almond shaped eyes... but the color struck Hector in the heart. They were a deep blue, which could be mistaken for grey, and he would never forget that jaw line and the sandy-blonde hair, or the way the boy's figure leaned confidently, almost bored, against the nearest support. The boy's eyes and skin tone reminded Hector of Solomon Forrest, of the brief meetings they had had, but the facial features screamed Chris Marsh.

Hector lost his breath and felt himself revert back to his younger days as the old woman's voice wailed from upstairs. She must have woken in the commotion.

"My baby! My firstborn, my son!" Luna's voice called, muffled by the walls. "Lilly, go tell your brother hello for me."

Hector and Brandon locked eyes, understanding the same thing, equally chilled as there must be something more to the old woman's ramblings. In the midst of the return of Brandon Brightflame's long lost brother, an old face from Hector's past had seemingly returned from the dead.