A/N: And without further ado, I am FINALLY continuing The Silver Saga. And now, I am promising everyone to have this done by the end of September. And then I will start both The Blue Beginning and The Crystal Chronicle. In other news, I've almost completely planned out the final fic, but I can't write it until I finish the main series. FEH.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. I only own my characters and my story.

Darkness of the Unown Part 4: The Silver Saga:

Episode 8

A black-coated figure slowly made his way through the crowds of Goldenrod's rush hour. He kept his eyes constantly focused on a single point, the point occupied by a girl wearing blue pants and a white shirt, her red hair let down. He maintained a varying distance from her, moving with the crowds so as not to be detected. Finally, she reached a small apartment building and entered. He waited outside until he saw a light come on in a window on the second floor. He committed its position to memory, and leaned against the wall below it.

He waited fifteen minutes before he entered the building and climbed the steps to the second floor. He looked around and identified the room: Number 2-15. He pushed the buzzer on the side of the door. A moment later, the door opened partly, showing the girl's face.

"Yes?" she said quietly.

"You are Naoko Himogira, correct?" he asked quickly.

She nodded.

"Yes, why?"

"There's something very urgent I need to tell you. It's about Silver. You know him as Allen Takenouchi."

Silver sat atop one of the myriad skyscrapers of Goldenrod. He looked out over the city and identified Naoko's building. He sighed.

Maybe…I could simply watch her from afar without her knowing. Then I'd be able to fulfill my mission without having to talk to her at all...

"No…that can't work. There's too much potential for failure. The Unown wouldn't allow it."

He stood up and looked towards Naoko's building.

"I'll figure something out. They wouldn't have given this mission to me if it was impossible."

He dropped off the edge and headed towards the building.

Naoko sat numbly in one of the two chairs in her "living room". He sat down in the other, across from her. He made a slight bow towards her.

"I thank you for allowing me in. My name is Cerse Liminara."

He moved quickly to his point.

"You met…Allen…yesterday, correct?"

Naoko nodded silently. Cerse took that as a cue to continue.

"I believe he may come for you again. We don't know whether or not he'll attempt to harm you again, though. Everything he does now is at the whim of the Unown, even more so then before. So there's really no telling at all what he'll do, if anything. So anyway, if he ever shows up again, contact me at this number."

He offered a small slip of paper with a phone number on it. She took it silently. He stood up to leave.

"Wait…" said Naoko softly, "What are all those things you were talking about? Who's 'we'? What are the Unown? You can't just leave without telling me!"

Cerse sighed.

"I can't tell you who 'we' are, but I will tell you what the Unown are as best I can. They're a…I guess you would say 'collective' of beings. They live in an alternate world. They captured Allen's consciousness when he died, and made him into what he is now. As for why, I don't know. Really, nobody knows why they do anything."

He shrugged and headed out the door. Naoko did nothing.

Silver landed on the roof of the building mere minutes after Cerse had left. He considered floating in through the window, but decided against it. His next option was to knock on the door, but he decided against that too. It was better, he decided, to meet her somewhere else. Anywhere else.

He waited on the roof through the night, until the next morning. He watched as Naoko left the building to go to her job. He didn't know what it was, so he made a mental note to find out.

Finally, in the late afternoon, he spotted her several blocks away, moving towards the building. He sighed once, and darted through the air towards her.

The crowd was exceptionally thick that day, observed Naoko. She didn't know why-she never made much of a point keeping up with events in the town. She was usually too busy to deal with anything like that anyway. Even more so since Allen had reentered the world.

"Naoko."

The voice was soft, but it cut through the surrounding noise sharply. Naoko turned at once to its source, a narrow alley between two buildings. Occupying the entrance to it was the dark form of Silver.

"Oh…" was all she said.

A few minute's silence passed between them, Naoko's eyes turned down to the pavement at Silver's feet. Finally, Silver broke the silence.

"Please, Naoko...at least…at least, can you say something? I know you can't forgive me for what I've done…twice now…but can you at least say something?"

She finally looked up directly at him.

"It's alright…" she started slowly, "I'll forgive you. Cerse told me about the Unown and what they've been doing. It's not your fault."

Silver sighed.

"But how can you say that? They didn't tell me to do anything…I was going against their orders then...that's why they stopped me."

"Well…I'm willing to believe you've changed since then. You've been different every time I've met you so far, so why shouldn't you have changed again, for the better this time?"

Silver exhaled and smiled slightly, a rare event for him recently. Naoko returned the smile with a bit more enthusiasm than him.

"Sooo…" she started again, "…Is there a reason you came back?"

"…I think it would be better to talk about it somewhere else."

"So…do you know who it is?" Naoko asked quietly. She sat in a chair in her apartment. Silver leaned against a wall nearby. He shook his head slightly.

"No…they didn't tell me. I'm just supposed to stop him whenever he shows up. That's all I know."

"So…what are you going to do?"

He sighed.

"I don't know. I suppose I'll just stay nearby and keep a lookout."

She looked down at the floor.

"So you won't actually be with me…"

"No…they told me to remain as inconspicuous as possible."

That was a lie. The Unown had told him nothing of the sort. He hoped Naoko would believe it.

Of course she does. She trusts me too much. That's why I have to keep as distant as I can. With any luck he'll show up quickly so this can all end…

Naoko seemed to pick up the feeling from him.

"Do you…want to stay away from me?"

"No…it's just…I don't trust myself. And you shouldn't trust me either."

"That doesn't make any sense. Why shouldn't I trust you?"

"Because I'm just a pawn for them. If they want me to do something, I'm forced to do it."

Naoko stood up.

"But why don't you just ignore them? You're a strong person. If you set yourself to it, they can't make you do anything."

Silver shook his head.

"You don't understand. I'm not human anymore. If anything, I'm just a machine. And they've got my controls. They could easily take me over completely."

Naoko sat back down, saddened.

"Okay….If you say so…I won't trust you."

"…Thanks…"

He made to go out the door.

"No, wait!"

He stopped.

"…You're still going to be nearby, right?"

"…Yeah."

He continued out the door and shut it behind him.

A/N: And that's the end of this one. Hope y'all like it. And…damn. I said I was going to step on it, but it took me a week to get that done. That deadline's looking more and more unrealistic…Also, don't forget to visit The Unown Realm! Check my profile for the adress, because is screwy and won't allow URLs in fics!