A/N: I'm backo! Well... for a new chapter, at least. Ok, again, I will hear people say in their head: "It was darn time!" I have only one reply to that: "Yes, it was!" I tried to find a good excuse for the delay, but I didn't find any, so I won't lie and admit that I was lazy... again. Though, if I remember well, I didn't promise anything last time, but I guess it doesn't excuse it. Oh well... DPL is synonym of irregulary, anyway. But DPL now has a story blog too! Click on my profile's link to see it.

But, let's change the subject and talk about this chapter! As you will soon see, this chapter is not about Sparktail. Before I hear complains, I will state it now: I'm not replacing Sparktail by a new character. While it may seems like it, I'm merely given another favorite character of mine her own window, since she won't have her own story. A whole chapter dedicated to her was, all things considered, a waste of a chapter and could have been avoided completely, but I can guarantee that it won't be a waste of your time. From what I have heard, this is one of my best chapters and the character is lovable (this is coming from someone who hated her originally, so it must mean something). Before I let you read it, since I love to make you wait, let's all read Review Response together! Sure, you can always skip those, but I made them with love, joy and a tiny bit of humor, so it makes them cool… in my opinion. Did I ever say I love writing them? (smirk)

Tyler: How to start this ? Well, first of all, the formula for getting rid of Sunny is exact. The only problem I have with it is that it doesn't take into consideration that she might be gone for much longer. (glance at Kagai) I'm not replacing her! Ok… I haven't decided yet, but I'm sure we haven't seen the last of Sunny. Pokémon rooting in their ball is so anime-like anyway and the anime sucks. Granted, they root even more in the games, but the games are cool! /opinion Hehe… what else. Hmm… oh, yeah, the military people. I do think they are cool, in a creepy kind of evil way… with cheese. Does it make sense? No, but I hope you do review this chapter. If you don't… well… nothing bad, I guess, but I will have one less response to write next time and this will make me a sad eevee (or pikachu, depending on my mood ;) ).

P.S.: Happy Birthday Jen! (It was on April 10th, but it's never too late to say it)

P.P.S : Magic's Birthday is somewhere in August. However, the character died in a car accident, so I guess she doesn't have a birthday to celebrate anymore. And by car accident, I meant I gave up on the character and gave her to someone else, who partially ruined her (grinning teeth).

HellKat: An Absol? You think the beast is an Absol? I'm sad now… naw, not really. But, it's not an Absol . Why not? Because… err… well… it's not. I don't really have a reason, it's just that it happens to be another species of pokémon. If anything, you have the right type. (smile) I agree that the cliffhanger was evil, and even more evil was the waiting time before I posted this. So… umm… sorry?

Kirby: Umm… you know, I just realized what those Post-Pre-Scripts were talking about… it took me 3 months, but… (sic Miya on you again) Now, that you are under her control, let's talk about your review. It's so long that I will do like you do and response as I read it. Let see… Jen is cool, but I don't think that people feels bad because I mention characters they don't know. I think it's more like a fuel to their curiosity. Psywave is cool, because Sparktail created him, who make everything cool. Kill Bill is not /that/ funny. Jen is happy that you hugged her, but she wants to add that she isn't weird in that storyline and that the fact she was calmed by Sparktail's insides was a coincidence! Yep… a coincidence… because you know that creature's insides don't calm her, it does the opposite, anyway (shifty eyes). Though, there are more references to that stuff in this chapter, though it explores the gory and more realistic aspect of it… let's change the subject…

Prof Oak is not a… hey! Stop hitting Sparky! He is just confused, the poor thing! (stare at Jen's breasts) Yep, poor… hey! I said stop! I think you are having a problem with Jen being watched by other men… or chu. I would say you are jealous, but… oh! Hi Es'! I hope you are having fun in Cerulean with Rick! Ok… where was I… well, the writing style was better, I guess, though I did say it somewhere. Thanks for the praise, anyway. It's appreciated. Semi-empathic pikachuman? I think you were a bit too tired… maybe.

P.S.: It was long and weird, true, but it made me laugh a lot, and not at you, but at the content. I don't usually approve you going to sleep late, but if it produce fun reviews like this… go for it ! /selfish

P.P.S.: I know you were tired, Kirb, I know. (pat you)

P.P.P.S: It's alright… you didn't mean to hit him… but don't do it again.

Foxyjosh: Oh my! Actually a question that is like… so… meaningful! Granted, it seemed more like a rhetorical question, but I will answer it, because I am bold! Oh… wait… I do remember that you don't like spoilers and spoiling a chapter you didn't read is still a spoiler, so… I can say that this chapter gives a hint toward the answer, but is misleading at the same time. It depends of your definition of group. (evil knowing grin) Have fun!

Well… I'm done! I don't have any more complains to state… oh… wait! Before you start, I want to say that there is another note at the end of the chapter (that should only be read after you read the chapter) with a little guessing game of mine. So… be aware of the details in this chapter, you might need them. Enjoy your reading!

Chapter 12: Disillusioned Darkness

What a strange and twisted circle our world is. It begins with vast amounts of vegetation, provider of food for the small critters. Those little creatures are, more often than they would like, eaten by bigger ones. Then, inevitably pulled down by time, all those lifeforms pass away, their bodies becoming food for plants. It seems to complete a perfect circle, doesn't it? If only it was so simple. Plants do need nutrients provided by their surroundings to grow strong, but this alone doesn't create life. As with fire, life requires a spark to trigger the unstoppable chain reaction leading to its birth. On this planet, the sun is this trigger. Every day, its light shines on this world, initializing, through photosynthesis, the process that will allow plants to create energy for themselves and for others. In a way, this trigger is the starting point of our circle of life. This, of course, begs the question: if there is a starting point, where is the ending one?

Life is, unfortunately, far from eternal. At some point, light might stop shining, plants might stop growing, or small critters might be reduced in numbers. When this happens, the endpoint of our circle is reached. The entity of life cannot sustain itself anymore, and it gives its matter and energy back to the universe, eventually calling forth the creation of a new circle through the birth of another life. This opposite force, this counter energy to light, this darkness called death, also has its tale to tell. It creeps around corners, biding its time, waiting to destroy what has been created, thus ensuring equilibrium.

In the pokémon world, both sides strangely became physical entities one could touch and feel, for better or for worse. Since the beginning of time, beasts of light and darkness opposed each other with claws and teeth, in order to remove any physical trace of what would ultimately be their destiny. Humans, sided with the creatures of light, had rarely, if ever, taken a short moment to stop and think about what those so-called evil creatures felt as they were destroyed. Like anything else, those beasts were born from energy and matter, but they didn't feed off of the light that had created them. Instead, they made shadows their home, darkness their master and, all things being fair, light their enemy. Whereas humans saw them as evil, they equally saw humans as such. When the sun rose, and darkness faded away, they were forced to vanish like their master, to go where the entities of light would not find them. Even though there are as many of these beasts as there are interesting tales about them, one of these creatures particularly deserves our attention.

Deep inside the forest, lying behind a rock she had claimed as her nest for the night, was sleeping that creature, whose origins were blatantly obvious to any that saw her. Black in color, the fox-like beast stood at an impressive height of three feet. Equipped with long claws and sharp teeth; and sporting intimidating yellow rings on her body, she had everything to be the fearsome threat she had every sign of being, should anyone be unlucky enough to cross her path. Yet, as the early rays of the sun lit her body, which was curled into a tight ball, her tail closing the circle and her ears resting against her head, one would wonder why this cute creature would even hurt something. Tickled by those rays, the eyes of this predatory pokémon opened up, a relieved smile appearing across the creature's muzzle as her eyes adjusted themselves to the low, yet annoying, quantity of light that reached their sensitive surface. Coming back from another nightmares-infested night, it was with an eager mood that this beast was tackling the dawn of a new day. The sole fact that this pokémon, who was supposed to be one with the shadows, was up at this time began to raise questions about her sanity. This particular creature had, of course, good reasons to be avoiding the life rhythm her body was urging her to pursue, or she wouldn't be breaking the intentions of nature so impudently. In her case though, this was a situation where rebellion served a greater purpose than her own comfort, where a shattered rule was only the logical response to a higher injustice. There are some causes that necessitate their share of sacrifice from their followers, and this was one of those.

Eager to discover what the world had to offer her this morning, the female vixen was quick to ignore her weaknesses. Her slow, ragged breathing and the numbness in her legs only slowed her down as she shakily rose onto four paws. As her body rose and her motions became more than obvious, a wave of instinctive responses shook the forest, resulting in bursts of sounds resonating deep into the sensitive ears of the predator. To her dismay, she could only look down in despair when those sounds were identified as being groups of pokémon running away from her rising body, so they could survive another day. If nature had given her the ability to shed tears, she would be drowning in them. This wasn't how it was supposed to be... it wasn't how she was supposed to live. Despite her bodily strengths, she wasn't trained nor was she made for hunting those fast pokémon dashing blindly during the day. Her species' specialty was all about lurking in the dark, sneaking silently to reach any pokémon unfortunate enough to be sleeping in the open and taking the life out of them before they were aware of her presence. She was supposed to be death in its simplest expression; creeping around corners and killing vulnerable creatures. This was something she refused to accept, no matter the consequences.

Taking a step forward, she extended her paws in the grass, stretching her body very carefully. Sadly, hunger wasn't the only weakness affecting her. If it was, things would have been much easier. Even if she took the best precautions by stretching very slowly, it wasn't enough to prevent some pain from jolting through her body as some muscles were extended farther than her current state could allow them. Wincing in pain, her breath cut by the pressure on her side, the dark pokémon glanced back at the source of her suffering. In the middle of her thorax, her fur had ceased to be black, having been tainted with the characteristic disgusting red color of blood. With this paint job on her side, came four deep openings in her chest. Shaped like long, straight lines, those painful markings symbolized everything that was wrong with her life. One day, they would heal and become permanent scars, but never would she be freed from the pain. The physical pain might vanish, but her mind would forever be mourning its origin. The real scars had already been burned into her mind, mutated into fear and struggles and it was too late to change the past. No matter how much she disliked it, she was now a cursed umbreon, destroyer of her ancestors, and she had to make the most of this handicap.

This said, even if there was little she could do to change her past, she still had a whole future ahead of her. It would be hard, but she would have to ignore the pain and walk forward. Catching a fresh prey might be out of her paws, but luckily, it wasn't the only feeding method. While out of sleeping preys, she could still set her senses on finding a dead pokémon that hadn't already been eaten to the bones by another predator. It was very unlikely, but there wasn't much left to hope for. If she didn't find any food soon, her injury wouldn't be the only health problem she would have to worry about. A cut could heal with time, but hunger only grew stronger. It has only been five moons since the incident, but her body was already reacting strongly against the lack of fresh meat. In this state of withdrawal, her vital functions had slow down to conserve energy, moving was difficult and the only thing on her mind was this hunger constantly reminding her that things would get worse if she didn't correct the situation.

Not satisfied by simply trying to control her mind, her desire to eat was threatening to shatter her sanity. It was offering the simplest solution to fix everything, which was to live the way her body was meant to, but her fears desperately held the fort. Living at night would bring forth enemies worse than hunger. They were awake during the day and scouting the area. If they were to find her again, sleeping unprotected, she wouldn't survive it this time. She knew that she had to get away from here, to find her own territory, but she hadn't been trained for a life like this. She wasn't ready. Nothing, in her ancestral roots and teachings, had prepared her for this eventuality. It was impossible, they said, but now she was paying the price for their lack of forethought. Going out there now, alone and without a model to follow, would spell her death. On the other paw, living at night here would mean the same thing. Stuck between two dead ends, the young pokémon had chosen the middle ground and hoped that her pain and struggles would eventually soften the heart of her enemies. Still, without food to sustain herself, death would come faster than compassion.

Motivated by her desire to feast on the first pokémon she would see, the weakened female umbreon made her way around the clearing, going at a slow, cautious pace. It was essential if she wanted to increase her small chances of finding a sleeping pokémon. Her eyes were focused on finding a dead pokémon, but her ears and nose were on the alert for any threatening sound or noise. Despite the precarious situation, she found something pleasuring in this time of the day that was only by equaled by dusk. It was a rare moment where both her body and mind agreed with the light intensity and where she could hunt freely without fearing her enemies. Sitting at the border between day and night, this time saw most of the night predators going back to sleep and some preys yet to be awaken, making it the perfect opportunity for her to have a chance at snatching something.

For a while, the three foot tall predator casually walked around the trees and through the bushes, her hunger once again hitting a wall. There was absolutely nothing left for her, not even the smallest crumb. It might have sounded surprising to the inexperienced pokémon, but it was a fact that her nocturnal rivals had long since gotten everything they could find, leaving no food for a pokémon waking up so late in the night cycle. In the end, all that was left for her unfortunate self was just more hunger and despair, as well as the taunting actions of more and more pokémon waking up and hiding from her. Rodents of all sizes, species and ages, delicacies on four paws, passed by or over her without any consideration about how weak they were making her by not sacrificing themselves for her. Witness of this scenario that seemed to repeat itself every morning, the female drooped her ears in sadness, losing herself in her thoughts. If only her mother was still there, giving her all the food she needed while she played with her siblings, things would have been a lot easier. She wouldn't be here, looking for preys that didn't or hadn't wanted to--

About to cross through another bush, the umbreon was thrown out of her musing when loud sounds, those of a heavy creature walking on two paws, reached her. Shivering in fear in reaction to this potential new deadly threat, she immediately crouched down under the bush, making herself as invisible as she could under such a small thing. Too scared to move, she listened to the approaching pacing sounds, blood freezing in her veins. Struggling against the rising urges to flee, her mind clouded by the ghosts of past encounters with the expected dreaded creature, it took some time for her nose to catch its scent and her brain to analyze it. When they finally did, she felt her muscles reaching a new level of paralysis. There was only one thing that scared her more than her enemies and it was getting closer. It was a human, one with a strong scent of berries with it. Human were, by far, the strangest thing she had ever encountered, but never had she met one with berries. This could be a new kind of human, maybe a berry-eating one. Normal or not, if this human came any closer, she wouldn't hesitate and strike. Fear might paralyze her, but it wasn't because the beast was unbeatable. It was slow and big; one pounce and it would be over. Last time she met them however, it was the aftermath of the battle that had left its marks and she didn't want a repeat of that. It wasn't of course the most logical way of thinking, but in her animalistic mind, it made perfect sense. The least she would hurt humans, the least she would be hurt.

Looking between the branches of the bushes, she suddenly caught glimpse of the creature. Standing at almost double her size like all humans, albeit this one was somewhat smaller, the human had long head fur and soft skin, hinting at it being a female one. Not having noticed the hidden vixen, the female was walking around a self-designated path between the bushes, stopping here and there to collect berries from them. The young umbreon, not sensing any immediate threat from the dangerous female beast, was able to calm herself to focus more on her rising curiosity. Her eyes staring intently at the human for any suspicious moves, she analyzed some more of those unusual scents coming from her. Aside from the obvious scent of berries and her body odor, there were a few other interesting things about her, the first and most important one being a fresh rodent scent. From this newest and attracting piece of information, the dark creature tried to form her own understanding of the situation. Could this human be eating rodents too? If yes, could she be collecting them like she was doing with those berries? If yes, she would only have to follow the human to find her rodent storage to get the largest and easiest meal ever. Her mouth watered at the thought. Nice, juicy rodents, all for her! Another thing she noticed about this two-pawed creature is that she dropped a few of unused berries on the ground, so maybe she would drop an unused rodent eventually, assuming she did eat them. It was a rash, risky plan with almost no chance of working, based on flawed portions of logical deductions that made absolutely no sense and involving stalking an evil creature, but it was no use to argue with a disillusioned young pokémon. To her ravenous hunger and strong faith in any opportunity to get food, as well as to her childish desire to be fed like an eevee once again, there was no better plan than this to magically solve all her problems.

Thus, guided by her blinded faith, the pokémon waited patiently for the female to unknowingly show her the way to a food binge. This constant search for berries lasted only a short minute, but each time the human walked pass her, her heart rate increased, the fear of being detected haunting her mind. A loud weight was removed from her shoulders when the human finally decided that the quantity of berry she had collected was enough. Relieved, the predator eyed the human as she went back where she had come from. Since she had avoided detection for now and had no intent of being detected, the umbreon took a different approach to stalk her "prey". To follow a creature that large in a sector infested by heavy vegetation, using her eyes as a tracking tool would be suicide, as she would have to remain too close from her. Fortunately, she had another tool that was better suited for this: her nose. She might not be what she had always been promised she would be, but her nose wasn't that much different, if only a different color. It was still gifted of the ability to track down anything with a recognizable scent and this from a fairly good distance. She had never really understood how it was supposed to work, but she had never asked herself the question either. It was there and she would be a fool not to use it.

After she had thoroughly sniffed the ground before her to capture the scent of the human, the black vixen began her quest for unlimited food supplies. Keeping herself low for increased stealth, the inexperienced predator slowly walked out of her hidden place. As she did so, she scanned the irregular surface of the forest floor with her sharp eyes, mentally listing the risks involved and the ways to counter them. If there was a good time to practice her newly acquired stealth skills with any chance of success, there couldn't be any better moment than now. Since the human's scent wouldn't go away anytime soon, she was allowed to take all the time she needed in order to be successful. The first obvious thing she noticed was how filled with a large quantity of debris the green and brown forest floor was. Worse, many of those were those brown sticks falling from trees, which, when one of her paws touched them, always seemed to break loudly.

As an unrelated thought about those sticks reached her mind, the umbreon made a silent chuckle, laughing at the irony of the situation, a soft laugh tainted with sadness. Half a moon cycle ago, she had been playing on the same spot. At the time, she was an innocent eevee, a small brown kit happily stepping on sticks only to hear the fun sound they made when they broke. Nobody had ever told her that it would be a bad thing to do when she would grow up; it only a seemed like a game. Today, she had to force herself to avoid doing that, in order to get something she had taken for granted before: food. This was the harsh reality of her new life, where the funniest actions were forbidden, every pleasure taken away from her in order to make way for survival. It was a difficult step in life, an unexpected one, but she had to improvise. While she was staring intently at the ground, a part of her, not accepting this lack of a fun game, decided that if she couldn't have her fun, she would create her own. After all, if stepping on brown sticks was bad, wouldn't it be as fun to see how far she could go without hitting one? She had no reason to think any different.

It was with this playful view on the task at paw that the young female vixen started tracking the scent, a slight smile appearing on her muzzle as she did such. For the first time since she evolved, not so long ago, she felt like it was finally going to be a good day. There was a premise of food, nobody had attacked yet and she got to play some kind of game against herself. Everything seemed to be turning out for the best. This ascending slope in her mood seemed to be there to last as she meticulously avoided the debris, silently progressing toward her goal, her smile growing wider. However, each time she made a sound, it temporarily vanished, replaced by instinctual worries. Quickly, this distressed state became only a passing thought when she noticed that nothing had come her way; her worries turning into determination of doing better next time. In a flash, her smile was coming back to her otherwise placid and predatory muzzle.

After she had patiently tracked the smell for a few minutes, the vixen came to a sudden stop. The scent, formerly flowing in a straight line, was now dispersed over what seemed to be a circular area ahead. Since the vegetation came to a stop a few feet away from her, the umbreon deduced that the human nest was on the other side of the greens. Not experienced enough to use her muzzle to its fullest, it was impossible for her to pinpoint the current location of the human among that mess of scent that infected the area beyond. The potential danger was obvious: if she couldn't track the biped, it meant that she could be anywhere nearby, including behind her, once she entered that zone. She would become vulnerable to a surprise attack from the two-legged beast, her only real weakness. As if this wasn't bad enough, this zone also housed the strong odor of a fox kit, one that had been there for quite a long time. To a vixen like her with so little knowledge about humans, it was easy for her to imagine the unknown kit as being part of the human diet along with the rodent. A thought like this one was no comfort to her confused mind.

Shivering at the horrors that might lay beyond, the umbreon slowly backed away, reconsidering her plan. She might want that rodent, but if she went there, she could end up as food for the human instead of being fed by it. She was inexperienced, true, but she wasn't a fool to the point that she'd throw herself into the jaws of the beast. She had thought of a much better plan. When that human would leave the circle again, if only for a few minutes, she would be able to sneak in to eat the rodent and to save that kit. This was perfect. Not only would she get a new friend and free food, but this would show them how good she really was and they would forgive her! No more hate, no more disdain, no more hurt! Now, all she had to do was to figure out when the human was going to leave without entering the circle.

This new problem puzzling her deeply, the umbreon walked around the problem, literally. Once she had retreated to a safe distance from the uncomfortable area so her nose could pick up the human's scent again, she began to circle it in search of something that might help her in her quest. By coupling her stealth with her nose, her eyes and her ears, she was definitely making sure that she wouldn't fall prey to a lack of precaution. An obvious consequence from so much attention to details was that she was forced to patiently move under the foliages of the smaller trees and bushes, stopping at every few paces to glance at the zone for any opening. It was so slow that, before she could complete half a circle, the activity within the nest had reached her, triggering her inner curiosity. As much as she knew that she couldn't stop right now, this was just too tempting. Hidden under a bush, she focused her hearing on the noises coming from the nest. The human was making noises, but they didn't have any meaning to her, so she listened to the pokémon voices she heard along with the human one. Unlike the human sounds, everything that came out of the pokémon had a meaning clear as crystal, though it was ironically their meaning that clouded her mind more. The rodent was a bit angry about something, but otherwise, both pokémon were talking like if they were safe. Their voices were relaxed, fearless; the kit even seemed to be having fun! It was... like another world completely. Humans were brutal, dangerous and they inspired fear to those who couldn't tackle them properly. This was the way of humans. Yet, this motherless kit wasn't afraid of it, neither the rodent nor the kit showed any instinctual desires to kill each other. How was it possible?

Closing her eyes, the umbreon focused on the complete mess her mind was, trying to give a meaning to something that didn't have any. This human had made her experience fear, then hope, then fear again, then curiosity, then surprise, but now she had completely thrown the predator out of balance. Previous encounters with humans flooded into her mind, the meaning of each one destroyed by a part of the current situation. Previous encounters, rumors, absolutely nothing could be used to relate to this situation. Whereas others would be so stuck-up in deep rooted habits of hating humans to care about illogical behavior from one of them, she had none of that. She was a recently evolved umbreon, without a family, and without any good teaching about the procedure to follow in this situation other than her instincts. She couldn't really count on the latter to be of any help at all, since her playful mind desired nothing else but to forget about this human and go play with this kit, which seemed so happy where she was. At the same time, her recent memories of acting like a child had proved that they could only lead to trouble. Torn, she did the best thing she could think of: not doing anything. If she continued to watch and listen, like she did when she was with her parents to gain their knowledge, she would eventually know what to do about this. If worst came to worst, she could always flee.

Keeping up with her silent behavior, she waited, wondering if anything new would happen. It did. A few minutes later, the human scent's appeared out of the circle, followed by the pokémon's. From her spot, she saw the two legged creature walk into the woods again, followed by the rodent and the kit. Finally, she was able to see what her future meal and her future friend looked like. The rodent looked just too scrumptious. Large body, fine paws, little overweight belly, he was an alpha's buffet on two paws. As for the kit, she wasn't as interesting as the mouse for now. She did look nice and happy, but nothing to counter the hunger making her salivate at the sight of the rat. She was already dreaming of the moment where the mouse would go inside her in little pieces as his warm blood would slid down her throat. She could taste the meat that would give her the strength she needed to regain. 'Food and safety first, friends later.' was something her mother always had told her, a principle she intended to respect.

Her mind happily feeding on the rodent's future corpse, the injured beast followed the group, staying at the same safe distance. Surprisingly, of all the places they could have decided to go, they chose the same clearing she was sleeping in earlier. The similarities ended here, though. While the kit was playing with a rock, the rodent and the human were participating in a strange ritual in which the human and pokémon were sleeping and the pokémon was making light. The ritual itself didn't make more sense than anything else did, but the location they chose for it aggravated her. Had they chosen a more secluded area, it would have been so easy to end this. She would have pounced on the rodent while the human wasn't looking, but she had no such luck. Fortunately, this forced choice would soon become her savior, in a way.

Not long after she had arrived, the rodent began to make loud and scary noises with his body while he was shaking, making the human wake up. Soon after, the mouse produced a loud flash of light and then stopped moving completely. From this, chaos ensued. The human screamed loudly, then ran over to the rodent. The kit also stopped playing and stared at the rat with a worried look on her face. For some time, the human tried to wake up the rat, but when everything failed, she took him in her upper paws, both her and the kit looking unhappy as they ran back to their nest. Not understanding any of this (and frankly not caring unless it somehow prevented her from having her meal), the dark pokémon retraced her way back to the nest, looking around it until she found an elevated location not too far away from which she could spy without being in the circle. Comfortably sitting between a tree and another of those random bushes growing everywhere in this part of the forest, the stalker began a long and boring period of watching.

Long would not suffice to describe how much time she spent there, completely immobile, her eyes watching the nest in impatient anticipation of her meal. Time played in her favor at first, filling a lot of those holes in her reasoning while she had nothing better to do but to think. Those holes touched various subjects, but mostly the behavior of this strange berry-eating human. Hearing her talk with those pokémon had been weird, but her actions had surpassed her craziest thoughts. The way she was acting with that rodent and that kit, it was almost like... like if she was a mother caring for her kits. She had been nice with them, had fed them, had given them games and had looked worried when they were hurt. That mouse was lucky, to say the least. This anti-human, as she had decided to call her, was a few feet away from her, giving a to her prey what she desperately needed to have for herself. She was offering food, safety and fun, everything that had been denied to her since she had evolved. It became clear now. The anti-human was helping them instead of hurting them. She was giving pokémon a few spots to act as her kits. One of those spots, taken by the rodent, would soon be hers. With one slash of her claws, this rodent would become food, leaving open his position for her to take. She would finally be free from her misery and her abusing enemies. The idea felt so wonderful, so magical that, combined with the passing time that began to play against her as she grew bored of waiting, it dragged her into a deep sleep, into a world filled with meat, licking and games.

Inside that world, she was an eevee again, playing with her siblings and not lacking anything that she needed. This time, however, the dream was slightly different. Gone was her mother, replaced by that human female she now was. Gone was her brother, replaced by this red kit he was. And gone were the dead rat bodies, replaced, obviously, by the corpse of that juicy mouse. Strangely, none of it felt abnormal. It was just another reality, another place to be happy. Her dream went on, the actions flowing flawlessly like water in a river, everything feeling so perfect. This dream, this reality, it would soon be part of her life, she knew it. Not consciously, as there was still a lot of doubts and fear there, but her instincts welcomed this world with open paws, a trust gained only by the apparent advantages of the situation. She was so desperate for food and care that her mind didn't even bother with the realistic difficulties of making this dream come true. Excluding the strong desire to kill her prey, it was only her inner eevee self expressing itself here, coming up with the magical and innocent answer that would solve all her problems. Having no opposition in that small brain weakened by a lack of nutrients, the idea was accepted very quickly.

So fast, in fact, that when she woke up later in the day, her first thought was to forget about the rodent completely and to beg the strange human for food. Rising from her hiding spot, the disillusioned female umbreon eagerly made her way toward the camp. Halfway there, reality caught up with her as she felt the scent of the rodent clog her nose. It was so strong, so powerful, that it felt like he was only a few feet away from her, waiting to be served in a soup of his own blood. Turning her head in the direction of the odor, the young vixen nearly choked in surprise. There, sleeping alone under a berry bush was the rodent of her dreams, completely unprotected and utterly defenseless. It was just too good to be true... it was nearly like a sacrifice to her belly. At the same time, it was hard not to remember the way the rodent had acted before, the pain it felt after charging that light and the sadness expressed by the human and the kit as it fell down. Guilt was trying to influence her choice, making her decision bite her inside. Shaking her head coldly, she tried her best to ignore those faulty thoughts. They were just getting in the way of her meal.

Approaching the inert body silently by making use of the tactics she had practiced so well earlier that day, she came to a stop a few inches away from her prey. She licked her lips in anticipation, crouching down in preparation for the killing strike. She was so close to him, there was no way she could miss him. Closing her eyes, focusing on her hunger that was soon to be sated, she tensed her muscles, feeling their pain coming back again to haunt her. There was no time for it, not when she was so close! She tensed herself, more, more and... pounced! Flying into the air for what seemed to her like a long time, she growled in joy as her paws dug into the soft flesh of... dirt?

Pawing around in frustration, she glanced at the empty spot in front of her, her ears drooping sadly. Once again, she had failed. Even a sleeping mouse had beaten her at this game of hunting, despite all the efforts she had put into it! She hadn't even touched him! Worried as to where the rat could be, she quickly got her answer when she heard "Jen!! Help!! Beast!!". The voice was ragged, loud and panicked, but, most importantly, it was calling for help. Without a doubt, this was bad, very bad. She had to run away from here before help came. She had to... but she failed at doing that too. Before she could properly stand on her paws, the female human was standing between her and the mouse, and, coincidently, the forest. She had no choice, if she wanted to come out of this alive, she would have to run around the human and the mouse and into the bushes.

This was easier said than done. She began to running toward her target, but the human apparently didn't appreciate the direction she had taken. In a split second, a foot had been raised and slammed into the side of her head with little pressure. All the human had done was blocking the path to the mouse without hurting her, but to her weakened body, it did more than just stopping her. By transferring all the pressure on her hind paws, she caused her muscles to hurt again, her hind paws flinching and failing to accomplish their function. Unable to keep herself afoot, she fell on her side, exposing her injured underbelly and legs.

Apparently, she had done something to the human, because she began to talk in another, softer tone of voice. Nonetheless, this distraction wouldn't prevent her from escaping this trap. Ignoring the words and the pain, she dug her front paws in the dirt in a last ditch effort to drag herself in another direction, one that would hopefully provide her with an exit. She wasn't that lucky. As if the human hadn't hurt her enough, she attacked her head by shamelessly throwing something at it. Shaking from the pain, she quickly turned her head in the direction of the thrown object. At close range, about one foot from her, was opening a strange round device. While it looked like some kind of egg, both inside and out, it didn't do anything like one would. Instead, an intense red light shot out of it and touched her. Expecting more pain, she was surprised by the complete lack of it. Much to the contrary, it was vanishing, all her sensations disappearing at the touch. She would have smiled in pleasure, but she couldn't. Sensations gone, her capability to move was also turned off, and, before she could realize what was happening, it was her whole brain that shut down as her body slowly disintegrated to become part of the ball. She wasn't aware of it yet, but as her body was absorbed by the light, her deepest desire was being granted... for better or for worse.

--

A/N : Here is my little guessing game of mine. In this filler chapter, a new umbreon character with a mysterious past has been throughly analysed. I left enough details and hints about this past for you to be able to to try to answer those two questions :

-Who are the umbreon's enemies (those who injured her) ?

-Why did she evolved prematuraly ?

I will give something to the person with the closest guess in the next chapter. Kirby and Tyler are not allowed to guess, because they know the answer.