Some Sense of Right and Wrong
I:One Last Time
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A/N: Yo. This is actually my first Pokemon fanfiction-and look out, it's gonna be a long one. (It's a BIG TIME A/U) Well, anywhom, this is a tale of the web of emotion and mortality, and the shades of gray that color our life. It's rated PG now, but trust me on this, the rating WILL go up. And the horror won't kick in for a few more chapters. That's damn straight. Enough with my useless babbling. Let's get on w/ the fic, shall we?

Disclaimer-::Weezing growls and blows out a puff of Poison Gas, which arranges itself into these words::-I DON'T OWN IT. SO DON'T SUE ME. ::Weezing returns::
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At a Pokemon Center on Pummelo Island, 9 years after Ash's victory there...

Drake was in agony. He knelt by the massive hospital bed, careful of the equipment; the monitors, IV hookups, and other medical machinery. Knelt, clutching at the sweaty claw in front of him, laid his head next to her side.

His beloved Dragonite was in the final stage of a deadly lung-rot virus, was dying, and there was nothing that he could do.

A tear fell down his cheek, soon followed by many others. He told himself to stop it.

'Shame on you,' he chided himself silently. 'If anyone should be crying, it should be her.' Despite his mental reprimands, tears were still sliding down his cheeks. He opened his eyes to see her own beautiful green ones staring into his.

'Beautiful,' he thought, smiling through his tears. 'That's your name. Belle. How often I told you that your name meant beautiful, and you were your name. And you still are.' Drake could not imagine any other pokemon being so beautiful, even in their final hours.

Belle gazed at her trainer, her friend, her one and only. She had loved him, even only a little while after she had first been caught as a Dratini. Not right at first, though.

At first, she couldn't stand the sight of him. Much less the way he made her battle other pokemon, other potential friends. She didn't want to hurt others at all. Belle sighed, remebering the shaky first few days of their partnership. She had been so rebellious! Both Drake's patience and hers had been pushed to the limit. From somewhere, Drake had found the reserves to go on, but Belle's were sapped. She had ran from him, ran into the forest. Drake had tried to follow, but an eleven year old boy isn't faster than a L20 Dratini with it's dander up, not by a long shot. She had lost him easily, and ran to a cave to sort out her emotions. She was frustrated and took it out on some helpless Rattata, Slamming them against boulders, panting and wailing in her rage.

And it all might have been different, if the "boulders" she attacked had not been segments of an Onyx. And at L45 to boot.

'Oh, Mew,', she thought, just before the Onyx's tail had knocked her into a cave wall. After that stunning Slam, it took all of her focus to hang on to consciousness and not black out, never mind fight back.

Blearily, she had looked up at the towering Onyx. She was doomed and she knew it. 'Just let it end...', she thought.

But it didn't. Instead of the Onyx's mouth descending upon her, she saw another Onyx smashing the predator away. Another Onyx whose scent she knew. And even though she was half dead and blacking out, she recognized it as Drake's Onyx. And she recognized Drake's voice as the surprised Onyx, cheated out of a meal, tunneled away. She was too far gone to recognize what he was saying, though he sounded both relieved and scared, as he picked up the limp Dratini and carried her away.

'He tracked me down and saved me; even though I cared nothing for him, he felt I was worth the effort. He really does love me.'

Those were Belle's thoughts then and now, as her time wound down. Her reminicsence was cut short by a deep hacking fit, one that weakened her severely, and only confirmed the small amount of time she had left. Belle's chest heaved with her resounding coughs, making her shake and making the red lines on the monitors jump wildly. She sensed Drake's grip on her claw tighten, as his fear and concern rose, as well as his guilt. Belle knew he blamed himself for her disease. She opened her eyes and gazed into Drake's, reddened greatly from crying. And they spoke, in the special way truly bonded pokemon and their trainers can.

[It's not your fault,] Belle told him with her eyes.

[Yes it is,] came his embittered reply-not angered at her, but at himself. [Every time you suffered, it was because of me] he finished, letting more tears fall as he broke eye contact.

Belle's breath rattled in her chest. This truly was the end, her vision was gray at the edges and her breath came now only with great effort. She moved the claw Drake held tenderly up to his face. She caressed it and lifted his chin, so that he was looking in her eyes again.

[That's not true Drake,] she spoke [But I'll tell you what is: Every joyful moment, every second of bliss, all my smiles and laughs, every feeling of happiness and hope, has been because of you. Drake,] her 'voice' cracked some, whether from exertion or emotion, Drake did not know. [This seperation will not last forever. We will see each other again. That I promise you.]

Drake's dark eyes conveyed a wealth of emotion. Hope, despair, pain, sorrow, anger and at long last, acceptance.

[I love you, Belle.] he said. Her claw was still resting against his cheek; he shifted his hands so that both of them were holding Belle's claw against his cheek.

[I love you too, Drake.] She was slipping away fast, they both knew. She smiled at him.

One last time.

***
::sniff:: Wow..that was so sad!! Worry not, minna, for I shall have the next chapter up soon..wait a second...did I say soon? I meant, as soon as you all review. But yipes-that means that the next chapter will never come up, because you people NEVER REVIEW!!!!! ::flies into a rage:: c'mon! how hard is it to write 'it rocks' or 'it sux' in that tiny box there and hit submit?! S'not hard at all, and it makes me soo happy... The GirlieGyarados out, and remember: ::bounces up and down like a cheerleader:: DY-NA-MITE! OUR TEAM IS DY-NA-MITE! OUR TEAM IS-hold on, wait a minute-::shakes her ass::-gotta get some groo-oove in it!! (that is an actual cheer at my school)