You'll notice that this part of the chapter is told from her Houndour's point of view. I did this because Houndour didn't fully understand the situation, and if I didn't it would give away some important secrets that will be revealed later.
Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon
(RE)EDITED
Houndour patiently waited behind his master. She seemed in a particularly bad mood, so he didn't do anything to disturb her. Especially since he had just given her a serious rib injury. He recalled the incident guiltily.
She stood and stared out across the moat that surrounded the city for a while, and then headed back to the room they had previously been. Unlike his mistress, Houndour remembered the events clearly. After he had "accidentally" crashed into Virus, Silver had paused for a moment to look back. He left when Houndour gave him an angry snarl from where he was still a little dazed on the ground. He wasn't letting anyone near his trainer when she was hurt! Especially someone she didn't like. He had giving this message to the other Team Snagem members that had tried to bother her afterwards, as well. Hey, chances were she didn't like them too much either.
When she had finally recovered enough to get moving, Virus reentered the old PokeMart that wasn't really used by Snagem for much besides storage. She scanned to room suspiciously, as if not quite believing her captives were gone.
"Search for anything that smells like those three," she demanded, pointing at the ground.
Houndour took a brief moment to wonder why she wanted him to do this, but then quickly dismissed the question. She probably just wanted to know more about the captives. Yes, that had to be it. That was the sort of smart thing his under-appreciated trainer would do. He eagerly set to work, sniffing the floor avidly. After he had searched for a few minutes, Virus asked:
"Houndour, was it you who knocked me over?" His befuddled trainer was regaining some of her memory. Houndour couldn't lie to her. He whimpered softly and gave her an apologetic look. At first, Virus gave him an angry glare, but then decided it wasn't worth it and rolled her eyes and turned away.
"Ahah!" Virus snatched something off the floor triumphantly. Houndour couldn't see exactly what it was. He came forward to investigate.
Virus was holding a single human hair. Houndour wondered why she found this valuable. Humans could be so weird. She started out of the room and Houndour followed. They headed around the cliff edge and into the underground base. From there they went from hallway to hallway to Virus's own, personal quarters. Houndour eagerly curled up on his small doggy-bed, tired after the day's events. Virus started up her computer. The bright glow and low hum filled the room. Houndour yawned and looked up to examine what his trainer was doing.
Virus clicked multiple keys and moved the mouse around. She then gave a frustrated groan. A password was needed to let her continue. She'd do what she usually did in these situations. Tried to guess the password. It sometimes worked. Houndour drifted to sleep as Virus worked. Several swear words came out of her mouth from time to time, from being impatient.
Houndour was rudely awakened by a victorious shout from Virus. Curious, he came up to investigate. On the screen were a bunch of letters he couldn't understand, and a photo. It looked familiar, but he couldn't place it right away. Computers didn't give off a smell. Finally, he recognized it as the girl from the room. She looked different. As Virus scanned the page, Houndour began to sense an unease coming from her. Slowly, it grew to an anxiety. He shifted where he was sitting. Virus usually didn't get nervous.
She abruptly got up and marched out of the room, Houndour sprinting faithfully at her side. They ran down multiple hallways. Houndour was confused. Where were they going? They arrived in front of a room that smelled strongly of oak wood and air freshener. The boss's room. Houndour had only been there twice before.
Virus stepped in without an invitation. That was new. The boss seemed surprised to see her. You're not the only one, thought Houndour. Today was just full of surprises.
"What's going on?" she asked him coldly. She was mad at him.
Their conversation started with harsh voices, but then grew into a full- fledged argument. Houndour covered his ears to keep from going deaf. He wasn't sure what this was about, but he was scared. Something like this had never happened before. Virus respected the boss. He looked at the boss's Jolteon.
"What are they going on about?" he asked. Jolteon glanced at him, but then his eyes went back to his master. But Houndour had seen his eyes. He was nervous. Jolteon was never, ever afraid.
That night Espeon had a dream. She was back on the lake. The one with a red theme. This time, someone else was there.
"Who are you?" asked Espeon, trying to hide the fact that she was afraid. This place terrified her. The creature in front of her was huge and blue. It had a long, flowing purple mane, and two ribbons for tails. A blue crest sat upon its head.
"Who are you?" replied the creature.
"I asked first," Espeon pointed out. The creature laughed.
"The important thing is that I know who I am. What difference does it make if you know? I'm just testing if you know who you are," he, for it sounded male, stated simply.
"But... I'm Espeon. I know who I am," she was confused.
"Are you sure?" asked the creature.
"Of course I'm sure. I'm me. That's not hard to figure out," Espeon was a bit surprised at how sure of herself she sounded.
"You weren't so sure before tonight,"said the stranger.
"Huh?" asked Espeon.
"If Umbreon hadn't shown you integrity, you wouldn't be so caught up in being yourself," he explained.
"What?" Espeon shook her head, "Who are you? How do you know what happened?" This was irritating. That had been a private conversation.
"I know a lot of what has happened to you," the creature told her.
"Yeah, but how?" asked Espeon.
"I am the North Wind. One of a forgotten legend. I know these things by ways lost long ago," he said cryptically.
"Why are you here? How…? When…?" the creature waited patiently for her to finish a question.
"One at a time, please," he requested.
"Okay. Why are you here?" Espeon asked.
"I'm here to help," he said blandly.
"How? Do you understand what's been happening to me?" Espeon asked curiously. Was it possible that someone knew what was going on?
"Isn't answering your questions helping? Yes, I know what has been happening. Would you like me to explain?" he offered.
"That would be nice," stated Espeon.
"You received a vision. You were in the same place, at different times," he motioned to the surrounding area pointedly. Espeon wondered what he meant, before it dawned on her. The red scene and the clear blue one. They were both visions of the future, just different points of it. Which one was first, then? The red had appeared to her first, so did it mean that something bad was going to happen before peace?
"Why is this happening to me?" Espeon asked, defeated.
"It happened to you because you could, and would, do something about it," the pokemon, or at least Espeon assumed he was a pokemon, said.
"So… it wasn't for any particular reason?" Espeon inquired.
"Yes, it was. I told you. You would do something about it."
"Huh?"
"Would you admit, that if you hadn't seen what you did, you would still be in that laboratory, perfectly content?" asked the creaturein a very serious tone.
Espeon was stunned. Now that she had been asked the question, she knew the answer. She would be back there. She would be perfectly content to stay there. It made her burn with shame.
"But you're not, are you?" he whispered, "You're here now."
"What's… going on? Why are we here? Who is Team Snagem? And what about Silver and Umbreon?" Espeon wanted to change that subject, and fast.
"You'll have to be more specific on the first one. You're here because this is where Team Snagem brought you. Team Snagem is an organization, an old one. They were brought back together a few years ago. They're true intentions, I don't know. I don't think that most members even know," he said the last sentence as if it were some sort of bad omen.
"Why… why did I meet Growlie and the others? And… and why is there a Lugia trapped there?" She figured the pokemon would know whatshe meant by "there".
"Now you're just trying to make this conversation longer. You met your friends, and they met you. There isn't a real reason why. As for Lugia… he was caught by humans and is now confined there," as he mentioned Lugia, his voice went low, and he sounded sad, "Lugia, was a friend of mine," he answered Espeon's unasked question.
"Why did they put him there?" she murmured quietly. She was now thoroughly interested in the subject.
"Why does anything happen?" laughed the stranger, "He was a leader in the pokemon side of the army. They knew capturing him would hurt the pokemon side. I do think the pokemon should do something about it. They relied too much on him. This is proof of that."
"Relied on him to much?" Espeon asked.
"Lugia was a great leader. He spoke of his beliefs, and others followed him in admiration. Although, he wasn't too open-minded."
"What do you mean by that?"
"You need to know everything, don't you?" sighed the pokemon, who seemed to be tiring of this endless conversation, "To Lugia, everything is black or white, right or wrong. There's nothing in between."
"What's in between?"
"Well… let's take your knew friends for example. Silver and Umbreon. If Lugia knew them, he would assume right away that they weren't good people because they are thieves. But are they bad? They've been hospitable enough. They gave you food and shelter. And what did they ask for in return? Nothing," he seemed satisfied with his answer, as if he had explained something that was very hard for him to explain.
Espeon was speechless for a moment. She'd never really looked this far into individual beliefs before. He was pretty deep.
"If that's all, I'll be off," he turned to leave, and took a great leap over the water.
"Wait!" cried Espeon, "What's your name?" Her voice died out as he landed, and the water/blood under his feet turned crystal blue. The color spread, sweeping across the land and sea, until it reached the horizon. The red sun in the sky seemed to brighten and become more friendly as the crimson tint left the area, leaving it beautiful and sparkling. He turned to face her.
"I'm Suicune, the North Wind," he laughed, bounding away.
"Wait, one more question!" shouted Espeon, as he disappeared into the forest surrounding the area, "Why is there a war? Why were the pokemon and humans separated?" She couldn't see him anymore, but she could hear his laughter.
"You're on the road to discovering that one! You've even got a map for it!"
