Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Tides of War

"Hey, Katsu! Got a minute?"

Katsu stopped and turned around; to his surprise, Mark was the speaker. The two had only ever talked when Eve was with them, and Katsu was surprised that Mark had even remembered his name. After all, Mark was fairly high up in the hierarchy of the army, and he probably had more important people to think about.

"Yeah, I've got some free time. I just finished with breakfast, and I was heading to arena two to train with the rest of my unit. But I've still got about ten minutes. Is anything wrong?" Mark looked tired, as if he'd already been up for several hours this morning.

Mark scowled and said, "Mind if we go back to my room? It's a bit of a sensitive issue."

"Um, sure," Katsu replied, not knowing what to think of what's going on. The only connection Mark and I have is Eve… Did something happen to her, maybe? She was supposed to rejoin a unit today, wasn't she?

Before Katsu quite knew what was happening, he found himself in Mark's room. Seeing his confusion, Mark smiled slightly and tilted his head upward. "That was Tim's doing. Anyway…" The smile faded, and he grew dead serious. "You've been here for a couple days, haven't you?"

"Yeah. I got back three days ago; I was recruited to help escort a convoy of the sick and wounded back to here. What about it?"

"Have you talked to Eve at all during your time back here?" Though his eyes were cloudy as he 'looked' at Katsu, Mark nonetheless had a gaze that seemed to drive into Katsu's soul. Perhaps the cloudy eyes themselves made the feeling more pronounced. Or maybe it was just the knowledge that Mark's real sight was quite a bit different from anything that Katsu could comprehend.

Either way, it didn't matter. Katsu had no reason not to answer the question, so he said, "Sure, once or twice. I heard she was recovering, so I came to see how she was doing."

"What did she feel like? Did she say anything out of the usual?"

Now Katsu was starting to get worried. If there had been any doubt about the reason for this conversation before, it was gone now. Something had to have happened to Eve. "She seemed fine. Just a bit annoyed at having to stay in the same place for two weeks. She asked me for a second opinion about, you know, telling Lance about what she can do. I told her the same thing I told her last time, and warned against it. But she didn't really agree with me; I got the sense that she was planning on telling Lance. She still seemed rather shaken by the battle she had been in. Now, will you tell me what's going on?"

Mark shook his head. "Technically I shouldn't, but… The thing is, Eve and Hope left yesterday afternoon to train outside. They haven't come back, but both of them have pokémon too strong to be overcome by any wild pokémon, so it can't be that they were injured by something ordinary."

"Do you think they deserted?" Katsu said, though he immediately regretted even thinking that. "No, sorry. Eve doesn't strike me as someone who would do that. Unless… If the battle really did get to her, then maybe she just wanted to get away. She doesn't really like people or pokémon getting hurt, you know? She might not want to be a part of it in any way, either as a fighter or by evolving pokémon."

Mark started pacing up and down the length of his room, which wasn't really that big. "Do you think that Hope would have helped her to desert if she had wanted to? I really don't know Hopy any better than I know you, so I couldn't tell Lance when he asked me. He's furious about this whole situation."

Katsu thought about it for a little bit. "Well, it's hard to tell with Hope. She wouldn't have any moral problems with deserting. But she also likes to fight, and I don't see why she would leave a war. Maybe if she was ordered to desert… But I don't think Eve would directly tell her to go with her. She might've asked, but not demanded."

"With what you said earlier, about her having second thoughts… Do you think she was going to tell Lance?"

"I think it's a good possibility. It seemed like she was leaning that way when I talked to her two days ago," Katsu said. "She really was not in good shape after that battle. She was probably wanting to tell Lance simply because she didn't want to go back to that sort of situation. Or she didn't want to get her shoulders gouged out again. Either way, she must have decided that deserting was the best option. Don't you think?"

"It makes sense…" Mark said. "But she doesn't really seem daring enough to desert, to me at least. And she'd feel really guilty about it. Would she really do it?"

"If not, then what?"

Mark was about to respond, but he paused as he was forming a word and instead went over to the door and opened it. Standing outside it was a young trainer of maybe fourteen years of age, his hand poised to knock on where the door had been.

He quickly straightened up and saluted Mark. "Sorry to bother you, Sir, but Lance wants to see you. And he says to bring anyone else with you who knows Eve well, if they're at hand."

Mark almost smiled, and he reached up to rub Tim's feet. "You know, sometimes Lance seems more psychic than you, Tim," he mumbled to his pokémon. Then, more loudly, he said, "Message received. Thank you for delivering it. Katsu – you heard him. We're heading over to pay Lance a visit."

And once again, before Katsu knew what was happening, he found himself standing next to Mark in the main headquarters of the Old Johto Army.

Lance looked up at the two as they appeared, and with a deathly serious look on his face, he said, "Glad you could join us, Mark and…?"

"Seikatsu," Katsu said stiffly, feeling that his full name would be more appropriate when talking to someone so important. It was a miracle he could even say that much; his awe of Lance, as well as his confusion about what was going on, made him almost speechless.

As usual, Lance wasted no time getting to the point. "Using the locators in communicators as well as some trained poochyena, we managed to find where Eve and Hope ditched their communicators," Lance said to Mark. "They were left in a clearing about a mile away from here, and about three miles from where we draw the border of our base here. We found signs of a battle there, which was to be expected; Hope and Eve were supposedly training, after all. However, there was something else we didn't expect."

He got up from where he'd been sitting, went out a door on his side of the room, then immediately came in with a box. Whatever was in the box smelled terribly, as badly as the drool of a gloom or the spray of a stunky. Though he knew it wasn't very appropriate considering his low rank, Katsu instinctively left his position of attention and covered his nose with his hand.

Lance set the box on the table, opened it, and tipped out its contents. To Katsu's horror, the horribly mangled body of some small pokémon tipped out, though its fur was so burned and dirty and matted with blood that only the distinctive tail and ears helped alert Katsu to its species

Mark hardly seemed as surprised; of course, he had known what was in the box before it had been opened. As far as Katsu knew, he might have even sensed the box before it had even been taken out of the side room. Yet though no surprise shown on his face, Katsu did observe it get paler and paler as he said, "Katsu, I find it difficult to identify any specific pokémon after its death. It has to do with how Tim and I see things. So I need to ask you… I mean, this has the right proportions and size, but… Katsu, is this… is it Basil?"

Katsu gasped and instantly regretted it as the reek of decay entered his mouth, making him gag. But he moved in closer anyway, and as he did, his horror grew. The tail was ridiculously long; the body was tiny. It seemed unlikely that this dead raichu could be anyone but Basil.

And as he looked, he saw one thing that confirmed it. "That marking on its head… That's Basil's sunburst marking. Eve never explained to me how he suddenly got it, but this is definitely him." Katsu was stunned; though he'd never really been attached to Basil, he'd traveled with Eve so long that it seemed a terrible thing to see him dead.

Lance gestured coldly to one of his aides; the man in question put on some gloves, put the body back in the box, then stored it in the room once more. Once it was gone, Lance turned back to the two people in front of him. "Now, the bite marks that covered its body were from fire fang attacks, mostly. They match the general shape of a houndoom's mouth. So what I want you two to tell me is why this Hope person would go to so much trouble to kill Eve's pokémon and make the both of them disappear."

Mark shook his head in denial and sat down in a chair, unwilling or unable to stay standing. "This isn't possible. How could they even get out through all the patrols we have?"

"The how doesn't matter, though I will tell you that some kadabra footprints were found at the scene," Lance said coolly. "What does matter is the why. So yet again, I ask you: what reason would this Hope girl have to take Eve? Did she have some grudge against her, even though Eve trusted the girl enough to go out alone?"

Katsu had fallen into a silent state of reverie, thinking back to all the times that he, Hope, and Eve had been together. But now, as one memory came back to his mind, his own face grew red with anger, then rapidly turned pale with understanding.

"I swear on Sprout Tower, I completely forgot… How could I have forgotten?" Katsu said to himself in a dismayed whisper. Then, with determination, he looked Lance right in the eye. "Sir, I was once told by Brian of Team Rocket that Hope used to work for Rocket Corporation, but that she simply disappeared from her job a while back. I'd forgotten about it until now."

Lance glared at Katsu. "You spoke with Brian? And you forgot about Hope's involvement with them? Explain yourself."

"It was before Brian started on his campaing, Sir," Katsu replied with resolve. "I just happened to meet him on my way from Goldenrod to Ecruteak, and we talked for a while. When we were close to the city, Hope and Eve came riding up on Hope's houndoom. Both were rather badly injured after a fight with a pidgeotto. Either Eve or I mentioned Hope's name, and Brian told us that they'd used to work together. It was interesting, but I didn't think much about it. Hope had seemed more focused on training than anything else, and she obviously hadn't been working for Rocket Corporation for a while. Even if I'd thought about Brian's comment even once since arriving here, I still doubt I would have thought anything of it. Hope never struck me as someone who was dedicated to anyone, especially any mere employer."

Mark seemed to be hit even harder by this news than the revelation of the dead pokémon's identity. "So you're saying…"

"He's giving us reason to suspect that Eve has been captured by Team Rocket and that treasonous New Republic of Johto," Lance said, turning his glare to Mark. "Normally, I would pass that off as nothing. Plenty of our troops are currently prisoners of war, and we have many prisoners of war was well. At this point in time, I have no reason to look into this matter any further. However… If there's something that Team Rocket knows about Eve that I do not, now would be the time for the secrecy to be dropped. Why did Team Rocket go to all that trouble to kidnap a single girl, important though she may have been in the months leading up to the war?"

Katsu paled again, and looked to Mark. "Mark, this is bad. Hope knew about what Eve could do. As far as I know, she could even know more than me. We need to speak."

Mark still had his head in his hands. He didn't respond.

But Katsu didn't need Mark's agreement on this matter; he'd already made up his mind. "Lance, sir, Eve has the ability to evolve pokémon. It doesn't work a hundred percent of the time, and-"

Lance cut him off with a wave of his hand. "I'll need both of you to tell me all you can about this ability in a moment, but first – Koga, would you gather everyone that's not here?"

Koga (whom Katsu hadn't noticed before now) nodded silently and left the room.

After about ten minutes of anxious waiting, most everyone important in the resistance movement had arrived. Cynthia, Koga, Bruno, Morty, and Bugsy all showed up; none of them said a word, easily sensing the dangerous mood that Lance was in. Whitney and Faulkner were helping with battles at the moment, and so didn't come; nor did Claire, who was still attempting to gather support in other regions. So far, all she'd been able to get was supply help from a couple of regions. No country wanted to donate troops to someone else's war.

Jenna and her husband, Evan, were the last two to enter the room. And Jenna – either out of ignorance of the tense atmosphere in the room or out of purposeful disrespect to Lance – sat down casually and said, "Hey, what's going on? Evan and I were just enjoying a nice breakfast of overcooked eggs and gruel together. Why were we interrupted?"

Lance looked over at Jenna with absolute murder in his eyes. "This isn't a situation for anyone to treat lightly, Jenna. Even you. Eve has been captured by Team Rocket, and I've just been informed that she has the ability to make pokémon to evolve."

All the gym leaders looked at each other silently, immediately understanding the gravity of the situation. Jenna, meanwhile, jumped to her feet and shouted, "You let Eve get kidnapped? From right under your nose? She's been here the last few days, I know it, so she should have been safe – what kind of war are you running here, Lance? One where soldiers can be kidnapped from right under your nose?" She seemed truly angry and upset. Then, exasperated, she sat back down and added, "Anyway, just tell me where she is, and I'll go charge in and get her."

"It won't be that easy," Lance said. "If what Mark and Seikatsu have told me is true, they won't be revealing her location, and she'll be so heavily guarded that not even you will be able to save her." Before Jenna could object, he continued, "Now, Mark. You'll be first. Tell me everything you know about her ability."

Mark sighed and raised his head for the first time in a while. "She learned about it from Raikou, Entei, and Suicune, though she's apparently been able to do it her whole life. It seems like it happens through touch, but not every pokémon she touches evolves, otherwise it would have been obvious. She's fairly sure that that's how her chikorita evolved, as well as those magikarp at the Lake of Rage. And that's all I know about it."

"So if her chikorita evolved that way before she knew about it, does that mean she can do it unconsciously?" Morty asked; though Lance dominated the room, everyone else present had just as much of a right to make their opinions known and to ask questions.

"It seems so," Mark said.

Lance nodded. "Seikatsu? Can you elaborate at all?"

"Sir, as I was going to say earlier, it doesn't happen a hundred percent of the time, even when she's trying," Katsu said, his voice grim but loud, so that everyone in the room could hear. The more he thought about what was going on, the less he liked it. This could be absolutely catastrophic for the Old Johto's army, he now understood. And Eve… He wondered what Team Rocket would be willing to do to her to get her to cooperate. She would already be distraught about losing Basil; any more stress on her could cause her to… Well, he wasn't sure what. Go crazy, maybe.

Though these worries for Eve were bouncing about at the back of his mind, he dutifully continued to relate all that he knew. "I asked her to try evolving my pokémon once. My snivy and totodile, both of whom I'd been training for years, managed it. A paras that I'd been training for a couple months could not. And I was there at the Lake of Rage. The cult who was trying to use Eve said that she was somehow channeling the rage of the lake itself. It seems like how angry she got had something to do with the magikarp evolving, though I could be wrong."

"So in your opinion, do you think that her power works only when she comes into contact with pokémon who are already close to evolving?" Lance asked.

Katsu nodded. "I think so, Sir."

Cynthia piped up from her end of the table. "Even with that restriction, that ability is… Well, simply put, incredible. I've known plenty of pokémon that have seemed strong enough to evolve, but went years without doing so. If Eve acts like a catalyst…"

"…then this war just got a lot tougher to fight," Bugsy finished, though it seemed rather ridiculous for someone as young as him to have a voice among so many well-known trainers. "Being a bug-type trainer, I have pokémon evolve more often than most. What Cynthia said about evolution not happening when you'd expect is right, though the wait is more like months with bugs, not years. But my point is, the difference in power between a pokémon ready to evolve and the same pokémon once it has evolved is enormous. Especially if you can get to a second evolution, such as beedrill."

"Then do we all agree that the discovery of Eve's location and her subsequent rescue should be one of our priorites from now on?" Lance growled out, daring anyone to challenge him.

A murmer of agreement ran through the assembled group.

Evan stood up. "And how are you going to do that, exactly? As you said, they'll probably keep her location as secret as possible. Even our spy network over there can only glean so much information."

Lance glanced over to Koga, who was standing to the right of him. "It will be difficult, but not impossible. Koga, you need to tell all of your spies to look for any suspicious movement and transfers of the pokémon of troops; I suspect that if Team Rocket will be using Eve for evolution, then all of the unevolved pokémon of their troops will eventually be funneled away from their trainers temporarily. We need to find out where the pokémon are going.

"Meanwhile," he said as he turned back to address the group in general, "We will redouble our efforts to take Goldenrod. Rocket has been focusing what appears to be all their strength to defend both that city and Ecruteak. If most of us here go and fight, we should be able to take it before they can muster a large number of evolved pokémon. Then we'll bolster the defenses of Violet, Mahogany, and Goldenrod to withstand any assaults from an entire army of evolved pokemon, as circumstances seem to suggest may happen. If we can just hold out until the right opportunity presents itself to take Ecruteak, then we can win this war."

"I have one more concern," Morty said. "While that plan sounds good, what happens if Team Rocket forces Eve to summon either Ho-oh or Lugia? With their power, they could-"

Jenna suddenly burst out laughing, forcing Morty stop midsentence, his face turning red with anger and embarrassment. "No, that's not a problem," Jenna said, a smile on her face. "And I'm guessing that Hope knows that, too. Knowing Eve, she probably told that girl everything. I'm not saying they won't try it, but she can't just summon them by herself. She'd need Raikou, Entei, and Suicune at the very least to re-summon Ho-oh, and Suicune and the rest of them aren't on the best of terms now, even if Team Rocket could find the three of them. And how about Lugia, Mark? Weren't Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres needed to summon her?"

Everyone looked back and forth from Mark to Jenna, surprised. No one knew much about what Eve had been doing with the legends, nor had anyone realized that Mark had been present during that secretive night summoning of Lugia.

"Yes, that's right," Mark said blankly. "And seeing how they were thought by everyone to be mere myths until now, I'd say they're not going to be found and caught very easily." Mark's voice carried no hint of relief at this statement. If anything, he seemed more depressed than ever. Even though he'd barely had any chances to talk to or be with Eve in nearly two months (the first month due to Jenna's training, and the second due to both his and her duties in the army), her disappearance was hard for him to come to terms with.

"Good to know," Lance said. "We wouldn't want that threat looming over our heads in addition to the news we've already received this morning. Make sure that you are all ready to leave tomorrow morning, using Faulkner's birds and my dragons as a quick method of transportation. Mention our departure to no one in the meantime. Koga, you will be staying behind to run the army in my absence. Now, you are all dismissed."

Everyone began to leave, but they stopped when Evan stood up again and confronted Lance. "All of us? Lance, that's ridiculous. What will happen if we're all killed? As soon as they see us in battle, Rocket will do all they can to wipe us out, thereby killing the heart of the leadership of the resistance against them. We have to take an entire city to take a step towards success; all they'd have to do is teleport behind you with a sharp dagger in hand to achieve complete victory."

"Aw, Evan, lighten up," Jenna said, relaxing in her seat. She seemed to have forgotten all of her earlier rage at Eve's capture. "We've been married for how many years now? I'd think you'd at least trust my abilities, if not anyone else's. You're underestimating us. Besides, we have the master teleporter on our side," she said, looking over at Mark. "If they try anything tricky like that, I'm sure he and Tim will have no problems stopping it. What's the point of having all of us most powerful trainers on our side anyway, if not to fight?"

Lance looked at both of them with another glare and said, "As I said, this meeting is dismissed. Whether or not you agree with my decision is irrelevant, Evan. Tomorrow we embark for the largest and most important battle yet. I suggest all of you-" and at that he looked around the room at all the people who had stayed to listen to Evan's comments "-be well prepared."

Yet again, this was originally supposed to be part of the previous chapter... I still liked this chapter, but to be honest, I was planning on having Katsu be a more developed character by this point, which would have made it better. That was the original plan, anyway. He was also originally going to actually travel with Eve a lot more than he did, but that didn't happen, which doesn't help... But oh well. At this point, I'm halfway winging things, so I don't mind too much.

Next chapter's actually already done. ^_^ So you'll definitely get a chapter next week. AND I've got a four day weekend starting tomorrow, so I'll have more time to write even more. Hopefully.

Thanks for reading~!