"I awoke the sleeping Beauty with a kiss," Brooke stated to her friend.

"Eevee," the Eevee shrugged. "Ee vee vee."

James stared at them, his head was filled with shadows and darkness but he was aware of something. "I’m not dead," he whispered.

Brooke pondered this statement for a while, then picked up his hand, squeezed it, and he, relishing the fact that he was still alive, squeezed back, tightly.

"Usually dead do not get up to much," Brooke said with a smile. The Eevee jumped on his chest, causing him to wince in agony. Brooke quickly scooped her up. "You not hurt Mr James-man," she said.

James winced and smiled. "Somebody did," he whispered, "and he’s after you, Brooke."

"Why would anyone be after me? I just want to dance and play and sing and things. Why would some nasty-bad-person want to hurt me?"

"Eevee?"

"Dark man, not human, beast, golden halo, burning twilight eyes," James whispered. "He came to me, asked me where you were, threatened me and I had to tell him, then he tried to kill me anyway."

"That not good," Brooke said. "Perhaps you should have shown him the rainbow."

"I would have liked to," James replied, remembering how he had found Brooke, bleeding to death and she had said she was chasing the rainbow. Now he had almost caught it. But what had brought him back? Surely not the kiss. The girl’s mannerisms were cute but she seemed lacking of sense and was also a Pookamon, not his type at all. Perhaps it was something else… although at present, he was somewhat distracted by the fact that Brooke was not wearing anything. He gulped and answered her. "I ran," he added ruefully, "and kind of tumbled. That’s all I remember."

Brooke walked around the bed, almost skipping. "But you’re all right now?" She said, almost as a question. "And the sun will wash away the rain."

"Ee vee vee?"

Brooke scowled at her Eevee. "I came to help you I did, with nothing but Buttons and Cassandra to help me!" She beamed at him. And then there was a lengthy pause. "Cassandra! Where’s Cassandra?"

"Ee vee vee?"

"Who’s Cassandra?" James asked thoroughly confused.

But Brooke was too puzzled to answer. "You stay right there," she said, patting James on the knee and ran out the door, Buttons on her tail.

James rolled his eyes and sighed. His entire body ached, he’d cracked his ribs and broken his arm (when he tried to catch himself), but otherwise was not too badly off, all things considered.

He leaned back and stared at the ceiling, white and sterile, and reflected. How had Brooke known to come back? She should have been at Sereniti by now. Why had her touch brought him back from that dark place? Why had he gone to that dark place?

And why was Team Rocket sending an assassin after her?

* * *

"Have you seen my friend?" Brooke asked the lady at the desk. She had obviously forgotten the earlier encounter. "She’s about this tall, and you know, covered in plates. Or perhaps she's this tall," she held her hand up a lot higher, "I can’t quite remember, but she’s certainly some sort of height between here and here."

The receptionist scowled at her. "How did vermin like you get in here?" She growled, "and why hasn’t security thrown you out? And why aren’t you wearing any clothes? Security!"

"Never mind," Brooke replied, "I’m sure I can find my own way out." She scooped up Buttons and skipped out the door. Now, where would one take a Sandshrew? Or a girl? Brooke wasn’t made for this thinking business. Maybe she could find a charm that would do it.

"Buttons, can you find me a device-for-finding-lost-things?" She asked, placing the Eevee on the ground.

Buttons looked at her in puzzlement, then trotted a few feet and picked up something in her mouth, bringing it back to the Vaporeon-morph.

"That’s no good," Brooke said, turning it over in her hands, "this is a device-for-finding-forgotten-gods, we need something to find Cassandy!"

"Eevee…" Buttons sighed and wandered off to pick up something else.

"Never mind," Brooke replied, "I’d probably just find my past anyway, let’s go to the last place one would look for lost Pokemon. She’s bound to be there…" And Brooke took of down the road quite swiftly, Buttons struggling to catch up.

*

"I can’t believe you got us lost!" Brooke scolded Buttons who tried to look innocent, and succeeded. "We’ll never find Cassandy now… look what you’ve done!" She paused and sat down in the gutter. "Nothing ever works out," she said dismally, "its always blood and rain, darkness and pain. Hey, I rhymed!" Buttons crawled into her lap, confused but happy that her friend no longer seemed mad at her. She couldn’t understand why Brooke had exploded at her, but knew it was just the girl’s exasperation. It had been a hard day for the both of them. She nuzzled Brooke’s face and realised that the girl was crying.

"Eevee," she said reassuringly.

"Thank you," Brooke replied, "but you deserve better than I can, you know, do for you, go on, find yourself a new home. With me you’ll only get hurt like Mr Green-eyes."

"Eevee. VEE!" Suddenly the Eevee shrieked and tensed, there were people standing around her.

"Well, my my, if it isn’t a little freak out for a walk all by herself?" One said, he smiled grimly.

"I ain’t no freak!" Brooke said. "I’m the only free person you’ll ever find."

"Oh, we weren’t planning on paying," he replied sadonically. Someone behind her chuckled.

"Check out the tail on her!"

"Yes," Brooke whispered, "check out my tail!"

Suddenly one of the men sprang at her, a flick knife materialising in his hand. She was already sitting down, starting to stand, now he pushed her down with one hand, roughly. She fell on her bottom with a startled "vap!" of pain.

The man chuckled. The cold blade of the knife pressed against her throat. "Would the little fishy like to play?" He asked mockingly, straddling her. More men came up, one of each side and grabbed her wrists. The pain exploded up her arms in waves. She screamed and swung her tail around, knocking the man over. The others grabbed tighter, twisting her wrists painfully.

"If you want to do this the hard way, that’ll be fine!" The man that had straddled her said, staggering to his feet. "Drag her into the alley, boys!"

The concrete cut into her legs and bare thighs. She bit her lip, tasting blood.

And then it happened.

Water exploded from the ground around her, pipelines from nearby buildings shattered, spraying high pressured water into the alleyway. And she transformed, once again becoming water and evaded their grasping hands. Once outside the alleyway she reformed and scooped up Buttons.

"I didn’t want to hurt them," she said to her Eevee friend. "I really didn’t. I don’t like hurting people, it bad to cause pain. But I had to. They hurt me even badder."

"Eevee eve evveee!" Buttons said.

"Good point," Brooke replied, abruptly assuming Vaporeon form. <<I’m glad you’ve got the stuff in your head, the mushy stuff, cos all I’ve got is fog and mist and water.>>

Suddenly her sensitive Pokemon nostrils picked up something. <<Something reeks of reeking things and pain,>> she said. <<Pokemon in pain.>>

<<Maybe that’s where Sandshrew-girl is,>> Buttons replied. <<Come on!>>

The two of them scampered through the streets and suddenly stopped short. A Growlithe was crouching back on its haunches snarling at a big man in fire-proof clothing holding a net. Obviously the net was also fire proof.

"Nice doggie," he said, "stay calm."

<<It’s just a truck,>> Brooke muttered in disgust. <<An exciting bit of metal on wheels, it doesn’t look like Cassandra. Or smell like Cassandra.>>

Buttons wasn’t listening, she was streaking across the road, a little brown and gold streak. After a pause for reflection, Brooke bounded after her. The back doors of the van were open and the Eevee was nowhere in sight.

<<Oh, I see what the question is now,>> Brooke muttered to herself, <<we hide here, and you know, get taken to Cassandy. Good plan, glad I thought of it.>>

<<Get down!>> Buttons suddenly grabbed her about the tail dragging her into the shadow beneath the vehicle.

A short while later, and much cursing and swearing, another Pokemon was pushed in and thrown in a cage. The Growlithe. It was wearing a muzzle, tight about its jaws.

<<What are you in here for?>> Brooke asked it, trotting out to investigate, despite the fact that Buttons tried to drag her back using her teeth. <<Have you been a bad doggy? Or perhaps you’re the cavalry like me!>>

The Growlithe mumbled something unintelligible in reply.

Suddenly the van started moving and Brooke toppled over with the movement. Sharp teeth closed about her tail and she was dragged backwards, into the shadows once more.

*

<<So this is the lost place, where forgotten things go,>> Brooke mused, trotting down the corridor in the Pound they had been taken to. The Growlithe had been removed, and the back doors left open, so the two companions had seen it simple to sneak out and into the corridor. The scents here were terrible. Fear, pain, death, a beautiful cornucopia of scents that made the Vaporeon nauseous. She didn’t like it here, it was a bad place, a very, very bad place, filled with much badness. It brought back bad memories to her, memories of before, when the shape she was in now had been her only option. She had been in a place like this once, before she had turned the beautiful blue of the ocean, when she was nothing more than the fuzzy cuteness of an eevee. She had only fleeting memories of the time before she had Become. But she remembered an enclosure and cold and fear smell. And she remembered gentle hands, picking her up, patting her. Friendly hands.

This time there were no friendly hands, the place was cold and dark, even in these daylight hours. She whimpered.

Eevee stood on her hind legs, resting her forepaws against the door. From behind the door came the most terrible scents – pain, suffering, loneliness. And one other scent.

Sandshrew, with a touch of human.

Brooke instantly assumed her human form and stood before the door, gloriously skyclad and greenish-blue. She opened the door and Buttons bounded in.

"Evee vee eevee!" Buttons stood on her hindlegs, pointing her nose at a cage.

"Thank you my small but big-brained friend," Brooke said happily. "Now I’ve just kinda, got to open this door."

Behind the bars Cassandra huddled, looking small and afraid and smelling of human. Or human derivative anyway. She slid back the bolt easily and swung the door open. Cassandra jumped out and into her arms, forming immediately into her proper form. The two girls embraced for a moment.

"Eevee!" Buttons shrieked in alarm. Both of them suddenly heard footsteps in the hallway.

"I don’t think that pretty things will happen if we stay here!" Brooke said, sounding almost happy, "let’s ride the lightning!"

Cassandra was confused but understood the sentiment. Grabbing Brooke’s hand she fled across the room, flinging open the door just at the right time to hit the incoming security guard in the nose. He reeled back, clasping his face as blood trickled down around his hands. "What the?"

"Bye bye, Mr," Brooke called, "hope we didn’t hurt you too badly there, but I guess the door didn’t like you! Not one bit!" She sprayed water across the floor, so that as he began pursuit, he slipped and tumbled.

Following Buttons lead, they found themselves back in the garage. The doors were shut.

"Oh drat, see if you can find a button!" Cassandra said, without quite thinking it through.

Scooping up Buttons, Brooke grinned broadly, "will this do?"

"VEE!"

"A button to push! To open the doors!"

Setting the Eevee down, Brooke frowned. "Like this one you mean?" She reached out and pushed a switch. It was red and round. Immediately a siren started blaring. "Bad noise, nasty noise, gets in your ears, makes you want to bleed!" Brooke shrieked above the din, madly pushing buttons (not Buttons), but to no avail.

"Change form!" Cassandra grabbed her, changing form herself. Brooke, quick on the uptake today, also assumed animal form and the Sandshrew suddenly leapt at the wall, rolled into a hard little ball. Cassandra hit the wall with some force, ricochetting off it with the sound of crumbling massonry. She had sought a cracked patch in the brick wall, and hit it with all her force. Several blocks tumbled to dust and she squeezed through the hole, followed closely by Brooke and finally Buttons. A shout came behind them as the security guard, blood still trickling from his nostrils, lurched at the wall, hoping to grasp Buttons’s tail. He was but a few seconds too slow and tumbled into the wall itself, screaming again as his face met brick a little too fast…

Once outside on the streets, the three Pokemon darted into an alleyway. There were no further sounds of pursuit. The Security guard had given it up as a bad job.

Resuming proper morph form, Brooke dusted pieces of brick from her dense teal fur.

"Wasn’t that fun?" She sat cheerfully, "we’ll have to do this again sometime!"

"Eevee…" Buttons sighed.