I wanted to say something to console him, but nothing I could think of would help. It was a bad situation. "How could she have been caught? If she evolved, that means that she won."
Snow sat down, deep in thought and worry etched onto her face. "I don't know... Maybe she only defeated one trainer. Or maybe she got hurt during the fight."
Umbreon shook his head. "Unless something was seriously wrong, she'd still have a lot of fight left. More than enough to break out of a Poke Ball."
I glanced back towards the human town. It was a grim thought. I shook my head slowly. We had to save her. "This search party just turned into a rescue team. Let's think. Where would she be?"
Snow stood up. "If she was hurt, then her trainer would take her to a Pokémon Center to get her fixed up."
Umbreon stood up as well. "Then that's where we'll go."
"Not without a plan!" I said, pushing him back to a sitting position with my tail. "We can't just walk into that human town. Espeon and Sunbeam were in a big city, and the last time we went in here, we split up to be inconspicuous and Clover still almost got killed by Fire Types."
Snow shrugged, sitting down again as well. "I'm not splitting up again. That has gone wrong too many times."
Exactly," I nodded. "Let's figure this out. Umbreon, you can jump dimensions. You can scout out the Pokémon center and see if you can find her."
"But I can't catch scents in another dimension."
"And that's where Snow and I will come in. If you don't see her, come back and tell us. I'll cause a diversion while you help Snow get in and try to track her."
Snow tilted her head. "What if something goes wrong?"
I thought for a moment. "If the two of us are spotted before Umbreon gets back, we'll tag team, Water and Ice. We're both pretty fierce. If I get caught during the diversion, I can melt into a puddle until you two get back. You'll have to help me get away. And if you two are seen inside the Pokémon center..."
"I can get both of us into the shadow dimension," Umbreon finished.
Snow nodded as I weighed the plan. "Sounds good. Meet back here if we get separated by accident." Both nodded in agreement. "Perfect. With any luck, we'll find Two, get her out, break her Poke Ball, and get back to camp without a hitch."
Umbreon stood up again, following a few paces behind me. "Yeah, like that happens a lot..." he muttered under his breath. I wanted to say something to refute him, but I had to admit that he had a valid point...
The shiny Umbreon had no idea how long she was inside the Poke Ball. It could have been only a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity. She didn't care.
Having no one around to judge her, she had nearly cried her eyes out. Her father had been right. If only she had stayed in camp like she was supposed to, if only she had left the humans alone, if only she had been more aware...
"If only," she whispered to herself. What a stupid pair of words. She couldn't change what she had done, no matter how much she wanted to. Now she'd have to pay for her arrogance with her freedom.
She was hungry and thirsty, but pride kept her from touching the things that had appeared in the Poke Ball for her. "I'm not a pet," she growled. "I'm wild. And I plan to stay that way," she finished, kicking some dirt at the bowls. Just because she had been captured didn't mean she was suddenly tripping over herself to please this human. Having nothing else to throw her anger at, she sat down in the middle of the clear area, defying everything in the Poke Ball. She had been upset before, but now she was just angry.
The human girl's voice addressed her. "Ok, Umbreon, ready to see your new home?"
Can't-be-called-Two-anymore stood up, glowering. Before she could say or do anything, everything around her vanished in a bright white haze. Her vision cleared a moment later, showing her that she was now in the girl's room. A bed in the corner, large pink rug on the floor, a chest of drawers, a window, and a bunch of toys on the floor. The shiny Umbreon lowered her ears. This was where this girl expected her to live?
The girl, Sarah, not-Two remembered, knelt down next to her. "What do you think, Umbreon? Do you like it?"
The Umbreon who couldn't be called Two refused to look at her. "My name is not Umbreon," she growled quietly, trotting towards the bed. She could see a space under it that she could fit. "I don't know what my name is, but it is not Umbreon." She refused to be called by her father's name. That only made her feel worse.
Sarah stood back up as not-Umbreon slipped under the bad. "Ok... I'll leave you to explore. I want to you meet my family!"
"Not gonna happen..." the voice under the bed growled, but Sarah had already left. Shifting on her paws so that she was laying down, Umbreon's shiny daughter fumed quietly. She had to figure out a name so that the human girl would stop addressing her like her father. But it had to be the right name. Something that fit her.
She slipped out from under the bed. Sunbeam's name fit her perfectly. She was bright, happy, smart, and warm. How could her shiny sister find a name for herself that fit just as well?
The window caught her eye. She was supposed to live somewhere where the biggest piece of the outside world was a tiny pane of glass? Nevertheless, she crouched low and judged the distance to the windowsill. What would have been a very difficult jump for her before was now easy. She landed perfectly and silently.
The blue moon was still visible. She sat down and watched it, getting distracted by her reflection. She actually did look a lot like Umbreon. Her frame was a lot like his, except she was leaner and quicker. He was stronger. Her black fur, unlike his, had a light sheen to it, the way that the night sky was never truly black, and her eyes were a dim yellow, not red. Moving her tail around to her side, she looked at its color. It was glowing electric blue, rather than bright yellow. In fact, her eyes were a brighter yellow than Umbreon's rings. The color of her own rings reminded her of something...
Her gaze trailed away from her tail back to the blue moon. Clouds were beginning to form around it, giving it a blue glow. She moved one of her ears so that the reflection laid over the outside world. The color was a perfect match. She was like a walking night sky. Her fur matched the night, her eyes reflected the stars, and her rings glowed like a blue moon.
Just then, Sarah came back into her room, followed by two older humans, who must have been her mother and father. "Umbreon, come here! Come meet my mommy and daddy!"
"I already told you..." the shiny Umbreon growled, standing up and jumping off the windowsill. "Don't call me Umbreon!"
"It's ok," Sarah soothed. "They're not mean like Matt. You don't have to fight them, Umbreon."
"My name is NOT Umbreon!! It's..." She paused, thinking. Night was taken. Plus, it didn't feel right. What felt right? "My name is..." What fit her perfectly? What one word could describe what she liked and who she was? She closed her eyes and said the first word that came to her. "...Moonlight. My name is Moonlight!"
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