Charmeleon's eyes widened with shock, he slowly pulled the claw out, seeing a miniature part of it now colored with a sticky, bright-red liquid.

His trainer's blood.

"Charman- Charmeleon," Austin called out softly, his voice filled with hesitation, paying no heed to the tiny amount of blood oozing through his chest. Charmeleon was present, of a much higher priority than a little blood loss. A part of his mind was beginning to feel the effects of blood loss though, as well as the effect of the dragon rush that had slammed into him with Charmeleon's attack.

But Charmeleon was past hearing it. He had given in to his rage, evolved into a monstrosity, one whose powers he couldn't fully comprehend, and had now hurt his trainer. The same trainer who had suffered pain to save him.

That was… sacrilege.

The creature slowly took hesitant steps backward, before letting out another ear-splitting roar, and with a last look of hatred towards the blonde-haired girl, suddenly moved in, snatched Austin from her person, before leaping off the ground, before arriving on the top of a tiny hillock, before leaping off again, until the two had vanished somewhere deep inside the forests close to the volcano.

"…. Shit," Cynthia muttered. She had not seen that coming.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Austin found himself standing in a beautiful meadow covered by a thick mist.

( ~ Swish ~ )

The sound of something moving through the meadows alerted him as he noticed his Raticate .... No, his Raticate running towards an unknown location.

Austin narrows his eyes as he looked at where Raticate is running when he found himself gazing upon a ship ..... the SS Anne ship floating above a sea of blood.

Austin screamed out pleading for Raticate to stop but she didn't respond to his words or anything around her.

Austin tried to run towards her but despite moving forward, the distance between him and Raticate grew ever more distant.

" STOP! Raticate! Stop! come back !"

Austin begged her to stop as his vision faded to black.

Suddenly Austin awoke from his nightmare, finding himself upon a rocky floor inside what seemed to be a rocky cavern. From the inside, it looked like he was inside one of the caverns on the exterior of the volcano, surrounded by forests on all sides. That reminded him…

"Charmeleon?" He squeaked, finding it a little hurting to try getting up. He looked at his chest, finding several leaves and squashed berries on his exposed chest, the front of his jacket and shirt tore rather haphazardly using claws. By the looks of it, the blood loss had stopped, though the effects of the Dragon rush had left him slightly shaken.

He thought he heard something shift in the shadows.

"Charmeleon?" He called out, hesitation, and (as much as he wanted to deny it) fear creeping into his voice. There was no saying how Charmeleon's mentality was after the evolution, especially because of his mutating genetics. Plus, Charmeleon wasn't exactly the most cooperative type and was quick and subtle to anger. In that aspect, they were very much like Charmeleon.

Then again, he isn't a normal Charmeleon, is he? He couldn't help but think.

There was a sound of splintering wood, as someone stepped into the cavern. Even from the distance, Austin could see the shadows falling into the cavern, as the dark outline of Charmeleon came into view, his claws shining brightly like hot silver. His eyes, dark and yet burning with an indescribable emotion, and his tail flame, the icy blue one, flickering brightly.

For that moment, Austin knew fear.

"Charmeleon?" He called out, fear distinct in his voice.

Charmeleon made an indistinct noise, before he slashed his claws on the solid rock, causing sparkles of flame to be born, which fell onto the wood and shrubbery that Charmeleon had unceremoniously dropped on the floor, causing a tiny bonfire to start burning on top of the pile.

Charmeleon grunted towards Austin as if to inquire about his health.

Feeling a little more courage seeping into his veins, (after all, Charmeleon must have been the one to treat him with the berries and the leaves), he allowed his face to shift into a small grin. "I'm good. It hurts a little but I'm good enough." He paused, frowning, "why did you bring me here?"

Charmeleon looked at him, his expression conflicted, before becoming indecisive and slashing his powerful claws against the walls of the cavern, causing furrows to appear on the surface with every single strike.

"Those are some powerful claws you know," Ash commented. "One strike from that and not even Clefairy would be left unharmed."

Charmeleon grunted at the mention of his teammates, before slowly stepping back, sitting on his back on the rocky floor, his bluish tail flame emanating a soft glow in the darkness of the cavern.

"Are you angry at what happened?"

After what seemed to be several seconds, Charmeleon nodded his head, slowly.

"You are… angry at evolving?" Austin stressed, making sure not to sound accusing.

Charmeleon let out a grunt, holding out his hands, before letting out another roar.

"Whoa… peace." Austin cringed, his ears hurting at the reverberation caused by the sound. "You… you are angry because you look different, don't you?"

Another grunt, this time of resignation.

"I think you look incredibly cool."

Charmeleon looked at him, wide-eyed, as if afraid his trainer had finally gone round the bend. With exaggerated facial and hand movements, he tried to convey the changes in him, the differences between what he should have become and what he became, pointing several times at the wound as if his evolution was somehow to blame for that as well.

"You didn't know that I'd jump in front of Cynthia," Austin replied calmly.

The draconic creature let out a growl at the mention of her name.

"She isn't bad, you know," Austin replied slowly, at the same time, pushing him up from the floor to reach towards the draconic creature near him. "She did that only to get you out of the shell you created around yourself."

Charmeleon grunted, as if in defiance.

"And even I am to blame for it."

The blackish dragon turned his snout towards Austin, his eyes filled with incomprehension.

"We both know that you might have looked like a Charmander, but because of the situations of your birth…" He touched Charmeleon's rough hide, only to find the creature suddenly shudder, though the heat emanating out of his skin was distinct yet not uncomfortable, like lukewarm water. "We both know that you were good with draconic attacks but you wanted to be a fire type, and yet…" Austin sighed. "Yet, a part of me never let go of the fact that you were more draconic than you were a fire-type. Funny, since I always loved the draconic aspects of Charizard more than their ability to breathe fire."

Charmeleon looked at him with surprise.

"Yeah, pretty stupid of me, I know," Austin admitted, slowly caressing Charmeleon's rough hide. The pokémon let out a tiny warble at that, completely unlike the rowdy roar he had given out ever since his evolution. For a moment, it was almost like he was back to being a Charmander, and Austin was petting him. Almost unconsciously, he extended out his tongue to lick Austin's hand.

His trainer smiled. "See? Nothing's wrong with you. And besides, now that you accepted you are none less than a dragon, you have this mean look. I mean, the other Charmeleon will be nothing in front of you."

Charmeleon had to admit, that did stroke his draconic pride a little.

"Trust me. What do you think the other Charmeleon would think, seeing you jump all that high in the air, like that? Besides, you do know that your move set is awesome, just like these claws of yours." He slowly extended another hand to touch the claws on the left hand.

Charmeleon flinched, remembering how the very same claw had penetrated Austin's chest, and drawn blood.

"You are thinking about that attack, right?" Austin asked gently. "It's okay. You wouldn't have known that I'd have stepped into your path, but if I didn't… you'd have hurt Cynthia."

Charmeleon growled at the name again.

Austin chuckled. "She knew doing that to me would get you to throw away your stubbornness, Charmeleon. What you were, that was just a mask. Just a cocoon. This," he touched the steel-like claw. "This is your real self. My Charmeleon."

Charmeleon just grunted, speaking nothing.

"No one is now going to call you a baby, you know. Now you are powerful and can fight battles as one of my main battlers. You will battle for me, wouldn't you?"

Charmeleon let out a growl indignantly as if Austin had just insulted him by even mentioning it. Of course, he would.

Austin grinned. "Then just you watch. The other trainers wouldn't even know what hit them, that is… if you start accepting who you are."

Charmeleon looked away.

"Charmeleon," Austin muttered, "you are now a pure dragon, and my mom always tells me to be the best I can be. I want you to be the best you can be. If you are a dragon, I need you to become the best and most powerful dragon ever."

Charmeleon considered the thought.

"Think about it. There is no one like you. This means, there will be no one as powerful as you. All you need to do is accept it, and start believing that if anyone can do it, then it is you."

The draconic Pokémon found him grunting in agreement.

"And that means, you will not attack Cynthia anymore. She only wanted to help you, help us—get rid of our stubbornness."

Charmeleon snorted.

"I'm serious. Think about what you could learn from that powerful Garchomp."

Thinking about that monstrosity only made Charmeleon angrier.

"Don't be like that." Austin chided. "She's a Champion-level pokémon. If you don't learn from her now, how will you grow powerful? We will train alongside Cynthia's pokémon, and when it is time, we will defeat them....."

Austin's voice broke as he muttered, "We will become so strong that never will we lose one of our own."

That Charmeleon found himself agreeing with.

Austin grinned, before looking outside before a nasty thought came to him. "Umm… Charmeleon? How are we going to return?"