A lone figure hobbled along the beach, leaning heavily on a stick for support. Her long red hair, drenched through, hung in lose clumps about her face. Along side her bounded an Eevee, dancing through the rain, almost as if it enjoyed it, and a short distance away, running in quick dashes, was a muscular Meowth, darting from shelter to shelter.

She stopped, and crouched low, discovering something lying in the sand, a dishevelled bundle, something the sea had spat up. She balanced herself carefully, using a wingtip for support, and ran one hand down the side of the flotsam. It was a man. A gasp of concern, of recognition, issued forth and she dropped to her knees beside him, her wasted, shrivelled legs. She ran one hand down his face, then turned around, staring down the rain drenched beach.

The Meowth yowled, as it too, took shelter beside something it shouldn’t. The dead Persian lay stretched out on its side, mouth open and paws spread wide, displaying its powerful claws. There was a look of horror on its face, of fear.

Then, the figure realised that the Eevee was no longer beside her.

*

Saffire and Cassandra crouched together in the bushes, whilst overhead came the never ending rumble of thunder and flash of lightning. It was not a natural storm, and Saffire could not imagine what had started it. Cassandra sobbed into his mane, all her fears and anxiety finally breaking the surface. Near them, the two Sandshrew girls that had been aboard the boat shrieked every time the thunder rumbled.

The mutant Pokemon – the strange furry Zubats, had disappeared after rescuing them. Saffire did not know why they had done it. Or why the Charizard had attacked its own master. But for now he did not want answers, he just wanted Cassandra. It amazed him how quickly the feelings had grown. From the moment he had seen her in the conservatory, he had felt something for her, a kinship perhaps. She and he were the same, lost souls, seeking comfort and sanctuary. He stroked her hair, and gently nuzzled her with his lips. She sighed, hugging him so tightly it seemed he could barely breathe, yet it was not a thing he would have changed for all the world.

"I love you Cassandra," he whispered, and he knew that he meant it. She may not be the most beautiful on the outside, but she was beautiful to him, with her waist length hair, her shy, fleeting smile, her innocence and hidden strength.

He felt her squeeze him even tighter as the words passed his lips, felt her sobbing seemingly double in volume. "And I love you," she choked through the tears. "Oh, Saffire, the thought of losing you is just…." She could not complete her sentence.

Unfortunately, all the sweetness and so forth was broken by the Sandshrew girls, who suddenly screamed again, a different scream now – not the simple "its thunder" scream. Hearing them made Saffire all the prouder of his beloved. Something had pushed its way through the undergrowth and was staring at them.

Both Cassandra and he found the strength to laugh – it was an Eevee, a little, waterlogged Eevee!

"Buttons!" Cassandra shrieked, almost deafening the Ninetails.

The Eevee turned and looked at her, letting out an "eepree!" of delight, it leapt into her arms, licking her face.

"I take it you two know each other?" Saffire said with a wry smile.

Cassandra nodded eagerly, "its Buttons!" She said, "James’s Eevee, maybe that means James is around here too!"

Which fell like a leaden pipe on Saffire’s heart. He had not told her about James, who was surely dead, and she had no reason to imagine that he was even on the Isle. Saffire knew that James must be dead, for he was a human, and this storm was something almost supernatural. No human could survive out there, not in that deluge. She did not know about Brooke either.

How could he possibly break such news to her? It would tear her apart!

"Stay here and keep an eye on the terrified twosome," he said gently, "Buttons and I will go and find James," and whomever brought her here too, he added to himself. "I’ll be back in a moment, love you!" He kissed her on the nose and gestured to Buttons. The Eevee darted over to him.

Cassandra nodded, understanding him, but not wanting to let him go anyway. "Take care," she whispered.

He grinned, "as you wish."

And then the Ninetails and the Eevee entered the rain.

*

Buttons danced ahead of him, leading him towards a shape on the beach, a crouching, disfigured shape, with large, bat-like wings wrapped around it like a cloak. At first he thought it was one of the enemy, but the Eevee bounded straight up to it, "eepree"ing happily.

And then he saw what it was crouching over.

James.

He raced over to the figure, and to the side of the human he had known but a short time, but had come to admire for his courage.

"Is he dead?" He asked.

The winged figure looked up at him, and he found himself gazing into huge blue eyes, like deep pools, set in a narrow blue muzzle. She was beautiful, in a way, although so strange he could not imagine whom she might be. She held one hand up to him, and opened it, a tiny flame flickered on her hand. A tiny, golden flame.

"This is the flame of life," she said, "it flutters within him still, like a tiny bird, anxious to be free. This flame is my flame, and I seek to implant some of it in his heart. You see, I knew him once, Saffire, he was a good friend of mine. I do not think my flame will hurt him."

Saffire was startled, he had been going by the name Nothing for so long that surely noone, lest of all this complete stranger, could know his real name. He swallowed and watched as she placed her hand palm downwards on James’s chest. It flared for a moment with golden light, and then James spasmed, and she quickly turned him over as he coughed up mouthful after mouthful of foul salt water.

Now, he thought, the time was right to speak, and his astonishment could no longer contain it. "Who are you?" He gasped.

She smiled at him, and it was such a sweet smile he thought he would melt at the touch of it. He blinked and glanced away, ashamed of his feelings. Had he not proposed his love to Cassandra only moments before?

"I am Lilith," she spoke. "Mother of monsters!" And she drew herself upwards, leaning heavily on the stick. Several beasts fluttered in the air towards her, and Saffire recognised the furry Zubats.

"And those are the monsters you mother?" He asked.

"Pick him up," she instructed, ignoring his question, "James needs sleep, warmth and dryness, and I am feared I cannot carry him myself."

Saffire nodded, unwilling to argue with this most enigmatic woman. He scooped James up, marvelling at how light humans were, when one really considered it. One of the Zukeys chittered at him and did a loop in the air.

"There is a hut," she said, "not far to the north of here, I shall send Buttons to fetch your beloved and her friends, and led them there. It belongs to a recluse, but I he will not argue with us for long."

How did she know? And where had she come from? Despite her deformity, she was making quite powerful process across the beach and towards the trees, so much progress that Saffire, with his heavy burden, had to struggle to keep pace. Buttons darted away, presumably to undertake its task.

The hut was small, but dry, and true to Lilith’s predictions, the inhabitant of the hut put up little argument, being entirely absent from it all. She laid James on a wooden pallet in front of the fireplace and then set about scavenging for a box of matches.

"Honestly," she muttered, "trust me to fall into the company of the defective Ninetails."

Saffire narrowed his eyes, "I am not defective!" He growled.

"Oh," she replied, "you would be most useful if I needed to keep something chilly-cold, but alas, what I require right now is a nice roaring fire. Now, where could he have kept his matches? Ah, right!" She was not even looking at this moment, but suddenly turned to a desk against one wall and opened the third drawer, moving aside a small box of chocolates and a notebook, to produce a cigarette lighter. She flicked it hopelessly, then handed it over to Saffire. "Never could get the hang of those things," she said with a shrug.

Within minutes the fire was lit, and a pot of water (provided by the sky) was boiling atop it. James was buried beneath a pile of blankets, scavenged from every room in the tiny house. His breathing indicated he was sleeping.

"Now, I assume you are requiring some answers," she said, easing herself into a sitting position against the wall.

"That is if you are willing to provide them," Saffire answered, a little snidely.

"Well, I was not always known as Lilith," she said, "but I took on that name when Giovanni, cursed be his name, forced me to become his wife, and I bore him a child…" She glared at Saffire’s stunned expression. "I was human then, of course."

Saffire was sitting against the wall, Cassandra wrapped in his arms and Buttons curled up beside them. The Sandshrew girls had excused themselves and disappeared into the bedroom to sleep. A Meowth, which appeared also to be one of Lilith’s companions stared out the window at the rain, feigning disinterest. Several of the Zukeys hung from the ceiling, looking like furry little cocoons.

"He took the child from me, and committed terrible acts upon her. Soon she was not human at all, but a monster, a morph like you. But she was only a baby when she was Changed, so she grew up different – confused, lost in her mind. I despised him for doing that to me, hated him for killing the child I had carried all those months, and my last touch with reality.

"Giovanni is insane, he always has been power hungry. He created the morphs as a means to take over the world, but then they escaped, thanks to some help from James here," she touched James on the forehead with her fingers, making him murmur in his sleep. "And when they escaped, I saw my chance to escape, but alas, such thoughts were prevented when a terrified Tauros, perhaps thinking I was one of the enemy, ran me through.

"Giovanni found me dying and was terribly upset, so he took me to his machine and made me what I am today, only, perhaps in his desperation, or his haste, he made me more powerful then he could have dreamed. I escaped a short time later, taking with me the results of other experiments – the Zukey that you see here with me today. They are a Zubat and Mankey hybrid, bred as stroppy little fighters, mainly to attack messenger Pidgey.

"But alas, The Change had cursed me with certain powers, premonition being amongst them, and I sensed what was going to happen here, and sought to prevent it, only my messenger was too late and his redemption has yet to find him. When I realised that Giovanni had foreseen my preventative action and moved in faster, I had to make my own way there, and alas, was a little too slow."

"You made the storm," Cassandra stated, "you’re part Dragonaire and Dragonaire can control the weather, right?"

"Right, I see the Sandshrew has been reading. I have saved the village, but I cannot save many of the morphs. Already the death rate is high, both enemy and target have perished. But now it is over."

"You saved James," Saffire stated, "how can you not save others?"

"James and I go back a long way, from before the Change, the fire in my heart can feed the fire in his, that is not true of others. Also, James was not dead when I found him, merely close to the border."

"Um, being close to Giovanni," Cassandra ventured nervously, "do you know why he wanted us?"

Lilith smiled. "Oh yes," she said, grinning slightly, "Giovanni had his favourite pet scientist, and she had her treasured Sandshrew. She had advancements far beyond what the other scientists had developed, but refused to share them with him. She killed herself, but before she died, she morphed her pet, using her own DNA and the DNA she had created that would allow the powers of a Pookamon to change with time, to," she shrugged, "evolve."

"But Pookamon cannot evolve," Saffire pointed out, "I learned that a long time ago."

"One can," she answered, "this one. And it is a Sandshrew-morph. And only a scientist would teach her Sandshrew to read." She looked at Cassandra.

"You think it’s me?" Cassandra was incredulous.

"Would you rather it was one of them?" She replied, nodding to the backroom.

Saffire shuddered at the very thought. "I doubt between them they have the brains of Cassandra here," he said, grinning.

"I had drawn the same conclusion myself," Lilith replied. "Which means you were the one he sought, my dear."

"I can evolve?" She stared at Saffire. "Would you like me to?"

Saffire squeezed her. "Cassandra, my dear, I love you just the way you are and would not ask you to change at all on my behalf! However," he added, "it is your decision."

"I’m a Sandshrew," she replied. "Forever and always. Or at least for now. If you can love me for that, then I will learn to love me for that!"