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<Author's Note>

Ok, I know it seems a little harsh and I'm sure you all want to know what happens next, but for now I think the story would benefit from having Ebony tell her story hmmm?

Don't worry though, next chapter will be here soon, with all the tasty plot twists you've come to expect J

So here we go: Ebony's story up to the current storyline.

Shifters: Chapter 13; Ebony

Ebony ran, the foliage of the woodlands whipping at her face as she tried frantically to escape. Branches snatched at her fur as she hurtled through the undergrowth. For her entire life Ebony had been running from something or other. Her family was long dead and gone, save for her brother Ray, victims of their nature, and those who despised them for it. Now, she ran again, but without the familiar purple blur by her side. Ray had been careless and now he had been captured, that much she knew for sure. She also knew that she had been guilty of the same error in judgement, made the same strategic mistake by going back for him, but she had done it anyway. He was, after all, the only family she had left.

Her entire life seemed like one mess after another, with her parents' deaths at the hands of an angry and aggressive mob when she and her brother had barely been more than 2 years old. They had been raised by relatives; their uncle and his new wife who eventually shared the same fate as their parents. From that moment, the twin Shifters had been alone, dependant only on each other for survival. They had lived for a while alone in the woods, but the allure of human life had proven too much, and by the age of twelve, the brother and sister combination were living and working in the small Hearthome children's hostel, which provided them with free accommodation and the human company they craved. Unfortunately, word of the two strange children living at the hostel reached unsavoury ears, and this small freedom was not enjoyed for long.

Since that time, for over four years, the two had avoided countless attempts at kidnap by the very people who chased Ebony now, their emerging powers only making it easier to evade capture; until the previous week that is. Ray's dependence on his psychic abilities had ultimately led to his capture; their pursuers had somehow managed to create a radio signal that, through one means or another disrupted a psychic pokémons ability, a technology that allowed them to get the jump on the Espeon Shifter.

Ebony had been the only one to reach the rendezvous that day. Frantically, she had scoured the entire area before coming across her brother's scent and following it across the region, all the way to a facility just outside of Floaroma Town. There, she had witnessed her brother's treatment, and over the next day devised an escape plan. Creeping into the facility under cover of night, the Umbreon Shifter used her abilities to vanish into the shadows, making it as far as the barracks before being caught trying to reach the dungeons. Now, she ran for her life through the meadows of Floaroma, dodging between trees as the pokémon sent after her, huge Mightyenas with night senses of their own.

In addition to the pokémon on her trail, there were several surveillance and guard posts to deal with on the way out. Bullets and tranquiliser darts peppered the ground behind her as she ran. She wouldn't, she couldn't be captured; if she was then all hope for her brother's freedom vanished alongside her own. With that thought still echoing in her head, a tranquiliser dart finally found its mark and the world went black.

When she had woken in the cage alongside her battered and bruised brother, the first emotion she felt had been relief, but that relief had soon given way to a burning anger and hatred towards her captors and their treatment of her brother. She had vowed to find and kill the one responsible for their capture, but had never gotten the chance.

It was weeks later that movement had stirred the two Shifters from their reveries; a new prisoner was being dragged in. Another Shifter had evidently been found. The new captive was female, in human form, and was in bad shape. Her dress had been torn, her blouse ripped open, and Ebony's heart went out to the girl, whose leering captors threw her into her cage brutally, laughing as she whimpered in pain and humiliation.

The new girl looked the same age as Ebony and Ray, around sixteen, and Ebony immediately felt something of a kinship with her. It had taken some convincing to get the girl to Shift, but with coaxing and the promise that the men wouldn't 'hurt' her if she was in pokémon form, she had eventually changed form. She was an Absol, her beautiful white fur choked with grime and blood, eyes full of pain as she lay in her cell, motionless save to eat and drink. Over the next few days, Ebony and Ray had slowly begun to get to know her, eventually receiving responses to their questions and comments. Slowly the Absol Shifter had begun to heal, both physically and mentally from her abuse. Two days after her arrival they finally coaxed a name out of her: Luna.

They had barely made progress with Luna though, before another Shifter had been brought in; a bedraggled heap of feathers that gave a disgruntled squawk of disproval as it had been hurled into the next cage and bound with rope. The Pidgeot had obviously gone down fighting, the great furrows along its side evidence of the violence of its capture. Jet had been vocal from the start, introducing himself and talking non-stop until Ebony had finally asked him to shut up. His bright and talkative nature had worked miracles on Luna though, and soon the two were close, talking almost around the clock.

They had continued on these lines for several days before a disturbance at the entrance to the cell broke the pattern of their new existence. And so it was, with much waving and maniacal shouting, that Brian Mills announced himself, uninvited into their lives.

It hadn't taken long before the Shifters became certain of the absolute insanity of the man holding them captive, as well as the instability of his son, Vernon, who enjoyed the pain he inflicted upon his father's "collection". It was at the hands of Vernon that the majority of the injuries the Shifters acquired over the next weeks of capture were sustained.

As the days passing blurred into weeks, the Shifters become resigned to their fate. Where at first they had talked of escape, they sat silent, any final vestiges of hope faded with time, even Jet sat in his cell, despondent, their lives became a series of hardships; the torturous antics of Vernon, the bad food, the daily indignities that tore down at their beings.

But that had all stopped with the arrival of Hope, and subsequently their escape at the hands of her trainer and their fellow Shifter, Kai. Not a day had passed since the arrival of Hope, than her trainer had effectively busted them out, stealing a gun from the body of his dead jailor and unlocking the doors to their cells. Kai's actions had touched Ebony, in a world that had before seemed without honour or justice. The group had made it as far as the entrance hall before being stopped by Brian and Vernon. Ebony had nearly given up hope at the sight, but again Kai had saved the group by... well she wasn't exactly sure what he had done, but it had worked, and that was what mattered, the compound guards were dead and gone, and the way lay clear for them. Resting her head against the marble staircase, tears of happiness poured down her black cheeks. Freedom awaited them at long last, and boy did it taste good.