A/N: This story is dedicated to my sister hisomi, who inspired the idea; and I am telling you right now that I have taken creative liberty with certain aspects. If this bothers you, don't read it. If it doesn't, I hope you enjoy! :)

The first thing he noticed when he woke was the warmth. Even without opening his eyes he could feel it; he could tell he was laying on a mat underneath a thick, warm blanket. It was dark, and a fire crackled to his left, radiating heat into the air. Never could he remember having woken to such a lovely setting, and he was reluctant to open his eyes. In fact, he might have stayed where he was forever; had not a sudden tap on his shoulder snapped him out of his short reverie.

"Hey, James?" A voice, young and annoyingly familiar, called his name from somewhere above him. He did his best to ignore it, but the stranger would not be moved. "I know you're awake."

"No I'm not." The adult replied groggily, attempting to roll over.

But the kid wasn't buying it. "…yeah, right."

Screwing his eyes shut, James pressed himself into his blankets, only to have them pulled abruptly out from above him. Gasping unintentionally at the sudden chill, his eyes flew open. Snapping out of the haze he had awoken to, he recognized his position – as well as the "stranger" addressing him – at once, and he sat up quickly. As he had expected, he was met with the bewildered stare of Pokémon trainer Ash Ketchum; James' worst adversary. However, he was also met with something else, less expected – a sudden throbbing in his head that forced him back into a prone position on the mat.

"Whoa, hey!" Ash leaned forward over him, a strange look of concern on his face (or, James thought it was strange). Attempting to ignore the twerp's apparent anxiety, James raised himself so that he was leaning on his elbows and avoided looking into Ash's eyes, opting instead to inspect the area he found himself in.

It appeared to be a campsite of sorts – two tents were set up on the opposite side of the fire from his mat. The flaps were wide open, and James could see that they were empty. Trees all around them obscured his vision from making out much more, and the dark of dusk made it all the more difficult to get his bearings. The twerp's friends were nowhere in sight, but then neither were his own team mates, so that didn't mean anything… did it?

"What have you done to me?"

There was a slight pause before Ash responded. "Done to you?" He repeated, confusion apparent on his face. "I didn't do anything; we just found you like this!"

"What?" James blinked in confusion, trying to figure out what was going on beyond the spinning in his head. The last thing he could remember was being… somewhere. With Jessie and Meowth. They had been planning… something. Why couldn't he remember?

"Chuuu?" Without James' notice, Pikachu had climbed up onto Ash's shoulder, and was staring down at the Team Rocket member with a mixed look of sympathy and confusion.

"I'm not sure what's going on, Pikachu," Ash said slowly, responding to a question James hadn't understood, "and I don't think James knows either."

"What's that supposed to mean?" James swayed where he was sitting, and Ash frowned at him.

"I don't know," he said honestly, "I have no idea what happened; but I do know that if you don't lie down you're going to knock yourself out again."

"No, I'm fine." James insisted, feeling awful and yet stubbornly refusing to obey the child kneeling in front of him. "I just want to know what's happened!"

"Fine." Ash growled, sinking to a more comfortable position. "But I'm not saying anything until you lie down again."

"Chuuu, pii!" Pikachu nodded its agreement, and James scowled.

"If that's how you're going to be." He lowered himself carefully to the mat once more, secretly happy to be lying flat again. "Now, your turn."

"Right." Ash nodded. "I don't really have much to tell you, though."

"Just tell me what happened." James closed his eyes to listen, relying on the twerp's conscience to protect him from harm while he learned what was going on.

"Okay then, here goes: we were walking through the woods here a few hours ago – maybe around noon – when we heard a huge noise from somewhere ahead of us. It sounded sort of like an avalanche, but we had no idea where it was coming from.

"We figured it was nothing important, and we kept walking. We were hoping to get to the next town by sunset, but as soon as we reached the edge of the forest we found the path completely blocked by a huge pile of boulders."

Ash paused to take a breath before going on. "From what we could tell, they had fallen from the cliffs up there… I guess it really was an avalanche. Anyways, we were about to turn around and try and find another way across, when suddenly we heard something.

"Long story short, we found you unconscious under a pile of smaller rubble, half-hidden by it. Actually, we thought you were dead, but as soon as we realized you weren't, we… well, we brought you here and set up camp."

"…really?" James opened his eyes, looking up at the younger trainer in surprise. "Why would you–"

"You may be my enemy, but there's no way I could just leave you to die like that." Ash cut him off, speaking in a tone that implied his actions should have been obvious. "Nobody deserves something like that."

"I'm… touched." The tone of his voice sounded somewhat sarcastic, but James truly meant the words he spoke, and wondered if Ash could tell or not. Oh well; it doesn't really matter.

"So, I'm guessing you have no idea what happened then?"

"Hmm?" James looked back to where Ash was sitting, thinking a moment before answering. "No, I don't. I must have hit my head when I… fell? Did I fall?"

"James, I just told you. I have no idea."

"Right."

"I'm pretty sure you either fell with the rubble, or it landed on you." Ash said after another moment of silence. "It wouldn't make sense otherwise."

"Mmm." James had closed his eyes by then, and Ash smiled gently at him.

"I guess I should let you get some sleep; you need your rest. Come on, Pikachu." Rising to his feet once more, Ash just about missed the man's final words before he drifted off one more:

"Thank you, twerp."

Pleasantly surprised, Ash's smile grew as he made his way back across the campfire to where his belongings lay. He was supposed to get everything ready for when his companions returned with food (they were out of provisions, and so were scavenging in the woods), but it hadn't been going so well so far… "Come on, Pikachu," he said again, in a quiet voice so as not to disturb James, "we've got a lot of work to do."

It was a loud, harsh noise that finally brought him to his senses, shocking him out of his sleep and causing him to sit straight up. It took a full minute for his surroundings to sink in, but only half as long for him to realize that he had no idea where he was.

Thick foliage surrounded him, cutting off almost all traces of sunlight, and the only sounds were the cries of invisible bird Pokémon overhead, the likes of which had woken him in the first place. No path or road of any sort was visible, reminding him all the more of the fact that he was lost.

Looking down, the cat Pokémon spent only a moment assuring himself he had no injuries before getting up. At once, his legs began to throb, but it lasted only a moment or so, and then he was ready to go. Moving around revealed that he was sore and stiff from… something, but it wasn't so bad that he couldn't start exploring, and so that's what he decided to do.

"It's the best choice, really," Meowth told himself as stepped over a thick root, "how else am I gonna find my trainer if I don't start lookin'?"

She was awake as soon as the first rock made contact – whacking her hard in the arm, hard enough to leave a bruise at least. Without even having to look, Jessie knew that the move was Rock Throw, and that her best bet was simply to run.

Obeying instinct, she leapt up from the rocky ground she had been lying on, bolting away from the attacking Pokémon – a full group, it sounded like – as fast as she could. She didn't dare glance back to see what it was attacking her, but it didn't take her long to realize that she really didn't care.

I just need to get out of here! Holding her arms over her head for protection, the Team Rocket member sprinted her way across the barren rocky surface of what she assumed was a cliff. As far as she knew, nothing pursued her, but the rocks continued to fly, and she could feel them pounding her on the back and legs as she fled.

"Would you leave me alone already?" She hollered to them without turning around. She knew she could always battle them, and maybe even catch one for her own, but it was hardly worth it. I don't even know where I am, she reminded herself, slowing down as the distance between her and her attackers grew. Or how I got here, for that matter. I need to figure this out.

Leaving the cliffside behind, Jessie walked along the surface until she reached a slope of sorts, decorated with a sparse amount of small trees. Leaning back against one to take a break, she tried to recall the events of the day that had caused her to black out on the top of a cliff, but to no avail. She couldn't even remember where her teammates had gotten off to.

"Those rotten losers probably left me behind," she grumbled to herself, "that would be just like them!" Looking out over the cliff, she could see a vast expanse of what appeared to be forest spreading out all around her. She was lucky she had run the way she had, or else she probably would have found herself on the cliff's unsteady edge, and from there, there was no place to go but down.

I hope those two are proud of themselves. Pushing away from the tree, she began trekking down from the mountain, her progress slow as she fought for balance on the rocky slope. After what seemed like forever, she finally reached the bottom, where the trees began. To her left, they stretched far as the eye could see, while to her right they thinned out, giving way to even more rocks and the wall of the mountain.

Two paths, two choices, two different ways.

So, where do I go from here…?