As what was assumed to be morning arrived, Aquarius and Tamao were taken out of their shared cage for testing.

Tamao was carried down the hallway, walking through room after room. Eventually, Tamao was placed on a metal platform of sorts. He then was tied down, and blood was drawn. It hurt. Tamao was in pain, he wasn't supposed to be in pain!

He snapped at the scientist's hand, who then mumbled something to the other scientist. They both nodded, seemingly agreeing on something and walked outside. Then, another one piped up. Tamao tried to listen, but the scientists were too quiet for him to hear, as well as being on the other side of the door.

After a few long seconds, the scientists came back in and picked up Tamao once again. They took him back out to the shared cage, and threw him in.

Tamao yelped as the pain shot through his back. He shouldn't be hurt again! This place was mean. Tamao stood up, and glared at the scientists, who walked away. "I don't like them." Tamao mumbled, before slinking into the corner with the vent.

The small eevee looked out the glass door, waiting for Aquarius to get back. In the meantime though, Tamao licked his wound clean. He didn't think the scientists would be that mean, and poke him with the sharp thing just to take blood!

When a few minutes passed, and no sign of Aquarius, Tamao started to get worried. Some scientists were talking down the hallway. "So for confirmation, we're taking S-P429's cage partner away in two days, right?" "One day, but yes, then we'll let him learn for a day. He doesn't get a cage partner until he behaves. And his behavior is too aggressive at this time, so we might need to let him learn before we put in S-P431." The words were hard for Tamao to understand.

Who was S-M429? And who is S-M431? So many things intrigued Tamao, yet he didn't know what to understand. "For now, we leave S-P389 in. Just to keep an eye on him to make sure his temperament remains where we want it to be."

Even more letters and numbers for Tamao to remember. Who was S-P389? Tamao watched as the scientists walked into view with Aquarius and put her in the cage. She didn't seem in too bad of shape, she just looked uncomfortable. "What did they do?" She asked Tamao.

"They took blood." He answered. Aquarius nodded, and looked over Tamao, making sure the small poke wound wasn't too bad. "You'll be fine. Anyways, I overheard we might be getting a new cage partner for a while. Apparently, they ran out of cages for new pups, so they swapped out an older eevee for a younger eevee, and are transferring the older eevee here." Aquarius didn't seem too happy with this information.

"Is that a bad thing?" Tamao asked, wondering why she seemed unhappy. "Yes, a very bad thing. You don't know who you can and can't trust. Don't worry though, because if they try anything, I will protect you!" Aquarius announced. Tamao smiled. "Thaank yoou!" He thanked with a wag of his tail.

Aquarius smiled proudly. "One day, I'll teach you how to fight. You'll need to learn in case a cage partner fights you, or another Pokémon when we escape!" She added. Tamao smiled, thinking about the idea. If Aquarius liked it, then he would too!

The two sat there for a moment in silence. "Tell me a story!" Tamao exclaimed, sitting down and ready to listen. Aquarius nodded. "Alright, lemme think of one." She hummed.

"Once, loong ago, a wild herd of rapidash existed peacefully in a meadow. One day, a large group of water-type Pokémon wandered into their meadow, and started a fight, causing most to flee. The rapidash that fled encountered the Galar region, where some of the Pokémon from last story live. The fire-type rapidash ran through the thickly wooded place, but they kept burning it down. Arceus and Mewtwo, noticing the rapidash's struggles to find this place safe, agreed that the herd of rapidash could become fairy and psychic-types, as well as altering their appearance so they'd blend in better. Some trainers found some of these rapidash, and caught them. Becoming show Pokémon during the day, and battle Pokémon during the night." Aquarius told.

Tamao looked at her with awe, trying to imagine what a rapidash looked like, and what the psychic-type variants would look like. "What do rapidash look like?" Tamao asked. "I dunno, I just retell stories told to me by Yuki." Aquarius answered with a shrug. Tamao huffed, wanting to know. 

"When we escape, wanna find a rapidash?" Tamao asked. Aquarius nodded. "Sure! It sounds fun." She agreed. Tamao grinned as he ran around the cage, then tackled Aquarius, who giggled and lightly threw him off.

"Wanna play tag?" Tamao suggested, fueled with energy from the story. "Of course!" Aquarius agreed, before tagging Tamao.

Tamao playfully huffed and tagged Aquarius. "Tag! You're it!" He exclaimed, before sitting down. "Why'd you stop? We just started playing!" Aquarius complained. "Get back up so we can play! Oh, after this game, do you wanna play a game where- where- I'll think of something!" Aquarius tried pushing Tamao up.

"Would this be more fun with the other cage partner around?" He asked. "I don't think they'd want to play because we're so good!" Aquarius replied. Tamao nodded slowly, then looked out into the hallway after hearing a door creak open.

"Are they bringing them already?" Tamao asked. Aquarius nodded and pushed Tamao away from the door. "Stay there, if this eevee attacks, I don't want you to get hurt." She commanded. Tamao nodded as his back was near the vent. This was his comfort spot anyways, so he didn't think it would be that bad.

The scientists walked into view, and stopped in front of their cage, opening the door and letting a normal looking eevee into the cage, the only thing was that he was large, and much older than both Tamao, and Aquarius. Tamao felt intimidated by the sheer size of this eevee, and backed further into the corner.

The eevee, however, caught onto Tamao's behavior, and growled at the younger eevee. Aquarius snarled and lunged at the eevee. Tamao was terrified of what would happen, and at the scene he was witnessing.