Disclaimer: What do I own? Nothing. I don't own pokemon, I don't own the quote used at the beginning, I don't own a DVD player, I don't own a PS2, I don't own a an evil monkey of doom, I don't own a Gameboy SP, I own nothing. Because I'm a poor, poor author-person. However I DO now own Pokemon Sapphire, got it for my b-day on Monday HUZZAH!! I love my new mighteyenna *huggles it* Oh right the fic…err..enjoy! (sorry this is a bit late, finals are this week..damn you finals.)

"The past is but the beginning of a beginning, and all that is and ever has been is but the twilight of the dawn." – H.G. Wells

I awoke to the smell of cleaning fluid and glass. The surrounding air was cold and under my paws I could feel a hard metallic surface covered by some sort of cloth and a stilled feeling around me. I shivered in the cold air and wondered if it would be better to simply go back to sleep. Perhaps this was all some hallucination brought on by the weedle poison, but then again that would have been a merciful act by the pokegods, and from what I could remember from the past few days they didn't exactly have me on their mercy list lately. I slowly cracked open my eyes and was warmly greeted by a bunch of bright lights shining in my face from above. I growled and tucked my head back in. Stupid humans and their day-living-light-needing-ways. Why couldn't they just live in the shadows like everyone else? Or at least in a dim forest, but nooooo, they just have to have eye-burning lights around them all the time. Someone yelled something to someone else and the lights were dimmed a bit.

Several blurry figures stood around me, but due to the ammonia in the air I couldn't sniff out who there were. As my eyes adjusted I could see my captor leaning down, hands resting on his knees staring with wide sea green eyes. He wasn't very tall, but not very short either, with semi-long jet-black hair that now gleamed a sort of blue from the lights of the machines and long bangs that hung in front of his face. He wore a black T-shirt with what resembled a silver silhouette of an eevee on it surrounded by blue flames that ran along the short sleeves accompanied by dark blue shorts, running shoes, and a crimson headband. As my eyes opened he broke into a huge grin. A fairly tall woman smiled back to him with long red hair that came down along her back wearing a white uniform and a small white hat resting atop her head, this I was soon to learn was Nurse Joy. "See? I told you your umbreon would be just fine." "Yeah" the boy laughed nervously "She is. See Thakur?" The growlithe from earlier barked cheerily at him from his place beside the boy's legs wagging his curled tail. It seemed that they were very glad to see me; unfortunately I failed to feel the same. I snarled and back up into a corner, ear flattened trying to look as frightening as possible, making a chansey jump. I pressed myself against the glass showing my teeth growling low. I was feeling much better than I had been earlier that day, but I was certainly in no condition to battle, I just had to hope my bluff worked. I was scared. And I was bluffing as hard as I could, and that scared me even more. I'd never tried to scare anyone before, not to protect myself anyway. I never had to, until now. I didn't know what this place was or what these humans planned to do, but I knew it was not the path back to my forest and the enthralled night that dwelled within it, and that was reason enough for me.

The growlithe called Thakur jumped to his feat and growled back, placing himself between myself and the boy, fur raised and fangs bared ready to protect his master. I calmed down a bit and smiled inwardly. At least someone was falling for the con. But it seemed the nurse however wasn't so easily fooled. She exchanged a smile with the chansey, the way a parents would to a child that was acting foolish. My captor blinked in surprise and stared up at the nurse. "Nurse Joy, I don't think she likes me very much" I rolled my eyes 'Gee, did you figure that out all by yourself?' The human named Joy smoothed her hair and called over the chansey "It does look that way doesn't it? Ah! Stay right there, I'll be right back." Joy moved towards a room in the back as the chansey tried to calm down the growlithe Thakur, who still hadn't stopped growling.
I ignored him (which only made him angrier) and held my glare on the boy who stared back with frustration and confusion in his eyes, but he too held his gaze. I had to admire him for that, if nothing else. Up till now, everyone else I stared at eventually looked away. "You know" said Joy as she rummaged through the back room "You must be a very talented trainer Jaylen, have you and Thakur been together for a long time?" "No, not really" "But you said he was your first right?" "He is, and Devo was my second, but I've only been training for thee and a half weeks. I started on the 15th, I remember 'cause my birthday's on the 10th and it seems like I've been waiting forever to get my license., I missed out for the past two years since I was staying away from home then. Why'd you think I was an expert?" The nurse returned holding an odd looking pokeball in one hand and a small star shaped piece of metal in the other.

"Well, I figured you would be, seeing as how you caught that umbreon. It's lived in the woods for a very long time, and countless trainers have tried to catch it and failed. They usually end up here feeling very bitter, usually because they end up getting tricked, badly frightened, or simply beaten to a pulp. I believe it was said that this umbreon even bested a primape trained my the gym leader Chuck."

I looked up and blinked. Surely I didn't do all of that, did I? True, I did remember beating a primape (and a very rude one at that) and pulling a few tricks on passers by, but this human talked as if I were a legendary, and I was certainly no legendary. No one ever caught legendaries. "As a mater of fact" "Joy continued "I believe the guidebook advises traveling my day in those woods in order to avoid being attacked by it or the other dark types that live there. If you caught it, then you must be a better than you think." I just kept staring blankly at the two humans. Since when did I become the famous dark spirit of the forest? And what was with the "it"? Failed to catch IT, scared of IT, I was an umbreon, a female umbreon, the least she could do was recognize my gender if I was indeed as renowned as she said I was. The way she spoke, it was like I was possession. But then again…. I glanced at the pokeball. I'd been captured, I guessed that technically made me "his" pokemon. But I certainly didn't feel like "His" pokemon….I just felt like myself- only like there was something missing. Something important. Thakur barked again and I suddenly realized I'd been pacing back and forth in the case. "Anyway, I have something for you Jaylen" said the nurse, handing the odd looking pokeball to the boy . He blinked in curiosity "What is it?" "That's a luxury ball, pretty isn't it? It 's more comfortable than regular pokeball, and it should help your umbreon adjust more easily. And this chip will make the transfer from the ball it was caught in to the luxury ball, plus it will prevent your umbreon from letting itself out" With that, she inserted the star shaped device in the bottom of the ball. The boy, Jaylen leaned down and let me investigate it. It was very attractive, for a pokeball anyway. It was a shiny black with gold lined within it, the same as my own colors. It also looked very expensive. "I suppose we should be on our way. Thanks for your help Nurse Joy." He lifted the luxury ball "Return"

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Okay, I'll admit it, the luxury ball did feel rather nice, and it was certainly an improvement over the Pokemon Center case and it was much better than my original pokeball. This one was more spacious, and cushioned. Plus, if you looked up there were tiny holes at the top, so sunlight shone down like little stars. I had just awoken from yet another nap, being in there may have felt nice, but it was boring. You couldn't see anything happening outside, although you could hear a bit. Then I felt the ball expand I was treated to the smell of fresh grass and the twilight air as I was released. Jaylen retracted the ball and attached it back to his belt and went back to the small fire Thakur was helping to start. It was sunset and we were in an open field on some sort. I took a long stretch and strolled out into the field and was about to make my way to a small hill to try and see where I was., when there was a rustle in the grass. I paused and took a short looks around, I didn't see anyone, and due to the fact I was downwind, I couldn't smell anyone either.

Suddenly the ground below exploded as a blue blur jumped out, bounced on my side, rolled in the grass and then flipped back up in front of me with a wide grin plastered across her face as small white puffs danced around us in the breeze. It was a jumpluff, and a hyper one at that. She shook herself and poked my leg. "Hello! You're the new arrival, right? That's good, I'm new too, I was only caught a few days ago, I tried to play with Thakur, but he ended up stepping on me. He don't mean to do it, he's just so clumsy sometimes. But you look pretty fast, you wanna play with me? Huh? Huh? Do ya do ya do ya?" I blinked "Err….not right now thanks.." "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, it's fun to play out here, even if it is getting kinda dark. I don't like the dark it's all spooky and stuff and I'm a-scared to be out there by myself, but out here I'm not as scared because Thakur's here, and you're here and Jaylen's here to protect me! Thakur said you didn't like Jaylen that much, that's an awful shame, he's a very nice boy. He plays and trains, and feeds us good food. He's really fun, wouldn't you agree? Oh, you just arrived how could you know, you haven't played with us yet, but I really don't like playing that because it's getting kinda dark out now. Did I mention that I don't like the dark very much?"" "Yes, I believe you did" "I bet you're not a-scared of the dark, you're a dark type after all.! By the way I'm Tani, yep yep! What's your name?" "I'm-" "Hey, you know what, I'm hungry! I'll bet Jaylen's cookin' something really good! Do ya wanna come with me and get somethin' to eat? Huh? Huh? Huh?" "Not right now" Tani looked disappointed, but seemed to cheer up quickly "Can ya play with me later then? After I eat, we can play in the field and it'll be lots and lots of fun cuz I can blow my fluff everywhere and it sparkles at night and is really pretty, but I don't do it much cuz I'm scared of the dark. But I heard that you guys have rings that light up and glow and make it not so dark anymore right? Right! So with you playing with me ?" I blinked again. This jumpluff certainly liked to chatter. I began to say no, but the look Tani gave me changed my mind. "Alright." "YAY!!!" the little jumpluff jumped up and nuzzled my cheek "This is gonna be fun!! I'll be back right before ya know it! G'bye!"

As I continued to the hill I saw earlier, I could hear Tani jabbering in the distance "Hey Thakur, guess what?? I met the new umbreon and she's not all mean and stuff like you said before, she's really nice and she even said she'd play with me! Even though I don't really like playing at night, but it'll be fun this time, especially if you could join us! I don't think you met the same umbreon I just talked too, she's too nice, that's what I think, yep yep! She's gonna not let me be a-sacred of the dark no more. Did I mention I'm scared of the dark? "

As it turned out little Tani was right, it got dark sooner than I expected. I lay down in the emerald grass and took in the sweet night air and took time to absorb the atmosphere. This was certainly a big change from the thickets and mountains I was used to. If I stood and looked out I could see the land stretch for miles and miles and it would seem like it would never stop. Like it was endless, with only itself and the sky above it. Not only that the sky seemed so close here, as if you jumped high enough you could dance on the stars or sing with the moon. This was a big difference from what I was used to, but this part I rather liked. It was much better than the part at the Pokemon Center anyway. I sat up and stared into the night sky. At least the constellations weren't different. They'd always be there. I smiled a bit as I remembered the stories about the stars my mother used to tell me. "All the great po9kemon of legend are up there" she'd say "And the first of all the pokemon too. The first rattatta, the first eevee, the first ponyta, the first psyduck, and yes, the first umbreon too." She would also tell me that some pokemon who had proven themselves worthy in life had their portraits drawn in the stars to look down on the world they helped form and protect. Tonight I could clearly see Dracilli, the legendary dragonair, that brought forth the first rain to the world and now curved ever winding in the sparkling cosmos. This was new as well. I had seen Dracilli before, but not very often. From my watching rock near my den I could usually see Kraken the murkrow that takes in all thing the way they should be into his ebony wings and holds them there to preserve them. It was fitting really, that now Instead of seeing the stars of constancy, I now saw the stars of change (for the first rain brought many changes to the earth), as now my entire lifestyle, my entire life in itself had changed.

"….I'm never going to see my forest again, am I?" I asked the stars. The phrase struck a chord in me, never in my life had I ever expected to say those words. Because I never thought they would have any truth. But it was true. I was never going to see it even again. A hoot-hoot called out in the distance and I immediately thought of Tharn and wondered how he was. Did he know what happened to me? What if he was wandering the forest at this very moment calling out my name blindly searching for something that could never be found, like the group of butterfree those nights ago. I also thought of what Nurse Joy said earlier, how I had a reputation for making things hard for passersby, and how I constantly evaded capture and for the first time in moons I remembered the way some of the young one looked at me as I walked though the green wood with admiration in their eyes for the one who would always be free, the one never caught, the one who laughed in the face of capture, their hero. And I wondered who they would look to now.

My ears pricked as I heard the crunch of grass beneath paws and I turned to find the growlithe Thakur standing behind me. "Hello" I waved my tail at him. "I..believe we never really got properly introduced. I'm Thakur." "So I've heard" "and I believe you've already met Tani." "Indeed. I thought she was coming to play." "Nah, she bounced around until she tired herself out and fell asleep on Jaylen's backpack." "I see. So. Shouldn't you be asleep with your master?" Thakur licked his muzzle, obviously catching the sarcastic tone but decided to say nothing about it "I couldn't sleep. And my keeper isn't sleeping anyway. He's reading. That's how he names us you know, from characters in his books. " "Explain" "Well my names is from a character that serves as a fire keeper, and since I'm a fire type, he naturally named me after him. And Tani comes from a bouncy little girl or something I think. I don't rightly remember." I said nothing and looked out into the distance "He's come up with a name for you too as well." "Has he now?" "Yeah. He's decided to call you Ozaki, after a rebel heroine that refuses to submit to the hand of her country's new ruler. It rather fits well, doesn't it?" "Well…it's better than what I expected him to call me." "Like?" "I expected a stupid cliché name like 'shadow', or midnight or something like that." "It seems that you misjudged Jaylen. You really should give him a chance, he's a very nice trainer once you get to know him. You should give him a chance." With that Thakur turned and trotted back to his keeper.

I looked to the stars again.

"Hmm. Ozaki…."