After Giovanni had fallen into a deep sleep and making sure her daughter wasn't going to awaken in her absence, the Houndoom slid from her bed with glazed unfocused eyes. The door opened quietly though she wore no collar, her feet carrying her down the hall to foyer of the mansion. To her right was the entrance to her master's office. To her left were two doors, nearly reaching from the ceiling to the floor. Using her horns to softly open the wooden doors, a room almost exactly like the one she just left except it was essentially empty of everything and larger. No beds, no curtains, nothing.
Apart from a picture hidden in the shadows.
The ceiling to floor height window allowed moonlight to spill into the room yet it didn't bother her. The room could have been pitch-black and she still would know exactly where the only object of the room was.
Bounding around her mother's feet, a Houndour pup gaped at the view in front of them. She and her mother had just come out of the Breeding Sector of the Team Rocket Head Quarters where they had spent two months while the Houndour was being weaned off her mother and learning to walk. In fact, she had finally been fully weaned this morning and steady on her feet for the past two weeks. Now they were in the Training Sector, where the child would spend the first two years of her life.
Her mother bent down to her level and spoke softly and quickly to her daughter. This would be the last time she'd ever lay her eyes on her young daughter, not until she came out of her training as skilled Houndoom and she wasn't sure either would even be alive then.
"Now, darling, listen to your instructors and don't go picking fights with the other trainees understand?" She told them with soft eyes, nuzzling her daughter as she kept her eyes locked on the site before them, mouth still open. Her mother chuckled "Close your mouth Sweetie." A click and the child's mouth were closed and eyes averted to her mother.
"Do I have to go Mother?" Pleading eyes stared at her. Her mother felt a pang of guilt and sadness at the look. Nuzzling her forward, the mother smiled sadly.
"I'm sorry Darling, you know I'd love to train you myself but my master wouldn't allow it." She replied slowly. Guilt still clung to her chest. She could runaway now, take her child and mate-shaking her head, she knew her dream wouldn't come to fruition. She and her family would be killed. "Nor would his. You must be trained with the other young Pokémon." The child whined loudly, pouting.
"But Mother? What happens to you now? And Dad?" Pleaded the daughter, her eyes watering. "You said you'd have to go back to work and that means I won't see you-"
"Don't worry Asha, we'll see each other again, I promise it. Even if I have to give my life to see you grow old, watching from above with Arceus and Mew."
"How right you were Mother." The Houndoom whispered, peering at the picture. Two Houndoom stared back at her, their eyes hard but loving. These were her parents and the picture was carefully hidden in this room, despite its vacancy.
It was true though, that her mother gave her life for hers. Asha remembered it clearly as if it had happened yesterday.
Asha had grown tired of being woken up at 4:30 in the morning to start training and going to sleep at 9:00 at night, being constantly bullied by the others for her smaller size and gender-all the other trainees were males-and she desperately missed her mother. So one night, she had escaped from her 'den'-a cell shared with other fire type trainees-and wandered through the halls, trying to remember the route back to the Breeding Sector.
Because of her child-like stubbornness that her mother would be at the last place they lived, yet not remembering where it was, it simply made her lost and in reality, it caused her to find her mother wandering in an insomniac state. Though her mother was ecstatic to see her daughter, she was also worried. If anyone found them together as they were, suspicion would fall on that the mother had helped Asha escape, which she intended on fully using if it so happened.
The mother began to escort Asha to her room when a guard spotted them. Telling her daughter to run back to the Training Sector, she turned back to the Hitmonlee the guard released and charged at him. Asha had run back and hidden amongst the other trainees, afraid that the strange Pokémon she saw would be after her.
But as morning came and adrenalin had dropped, Asha learnt that security would be beefed up-she thought that meant the guards would somehow gain more muscles but later was taught it meant more guards-and each Pokémon would be wearing a tracking collar or bracelet that wouldn't allow them out of the Training Sector.
Not that Asha would have dreamt of escaping again. Which meant she never learnt of her mother fate. After fighting the Hitmonlee and being savagely beaten to near death, she was dragged off to her master and interrogated. Of course, she lied and told him she had helped Asha escape, having given her instructions on how to do so. Though not believing in her words, her master had no other way of knowing the truth as the cameras had been temporarily put down as there had been a problem with the generators and was forced to have her killed.
So two years later, when Asha had emerged from her training with the others, being at the top of her class, when she searched for her mother was told by her father that she was dead crushed her. She had believed for two years that her mother had beaten the Hitmonlee and the guard and had run back to her master, living until her daughter graduated. Now that she had learnt the truth, she could barely contain her sadness and grief but instead worked on being the best of the best.