Who here has heard of the New Lives Saga, by Emma Iveli? Well, this is a fic with the premise of a magical girl team that was reincarnated into a bunch of boys. Poor guys. Anyway, the prologue (that you have to read for this to make some sense) is on my fic community. On LiveJournal. It's called effyfics.

Anyway, read and enjoy!

Episode 1:
Fates Intertwined

"Dammit," Dianne cursed, shaking the mud off of her boots. "You just had to go exploring and take me and the two Pikachu along, did you, Ketchum? And you just had to forget the most essential tool in an exploration too, huh?" She shot a glare at the young, spiky-haired boy in front of her.

"I thought you had the map in your bag!" Ash protested, turning around and pointing to the shoulder bag that Lynn, Dianne's Pikachu, had made into a comfortable albeit small vehicle. "You were always Little Miss Prepared when we were kids!"

"Things changed since then," Dianne shot back. "Especially since I've started hanging around you."

"You have to admit, she has a point," Ash's Pikachu chirped from its perch on his hat. "You rub off on people who hang around you."

"Shaddup, Pikachu," Ash muttered, turning back to the snow-covered roads they had found themselves standing on. "Let's go back to the Pokemon Center. And lucky for us, I know a shortcut!"

He went running off to the road that bent left, with a reluctant Dianne and Lynn following.

"We're lost."

Ness sighed, then glanced at his friend, Lucas. They had been exploring this small forest for quite a while now, and it was starting to get dark.

Really, he didn't blame Lucas for voicing his concerns. The young boy had nothing but their best interests in his mind, but his views on what their best interests were often contradicted by Ness's views on the same thing. Ness often won out, due to his seniority in his abilities, his great age that was hidden by his youthful appearance, and the fact that in the end, Lucas wanted to explore, to sate his curiosity just as much as Ness did.

But this time, he was starting to think Lucas was right. Strange things tended to happen at night in the forest, and both of them didn't want to get in trouble with either Ness's mom or Flint.

However, the curiosity and excitement soon overwhelmed Ness's concerns, and he smiled at Lucas.

"Don't you want to know what that thing that keeps shining from this forest is?" he asked.

"Well, yeah, I do," Lucas began, "but it doesn't mean that—"

Ness wasn't listening. He simply grabbed Lucas by the hand as soon as he caught sight of a brilliant dazzle from the cave nearby and dragged him towards it.

"Quick! Into the cave!"

Dianne quickly obeyed Ash's directions, cursing their luck. One moment they had been trudging on snow-covered roads, the next a snowstorm had struck and she and Ash, holding their Pikachu to protect them from the freezing cold, had blindly stumbled their way through. Lucky for them Ash had found a cave, or else they would've ended up the way of Otzi and his Stantler.

As she and Lynn tumbled inside, panting from the effort, Dianne found herself staring, enthralled, at a dazzling blue diamond, floating in mid-air in the middle of the cave.

Ash seemed spellbound by the diamond as well. He reached out, his fingers brushed against the smooth surface…

"Whoa."

Ness had done it again. Lucas thought of his friend as multi-talented, the kind people were in awe of. He supposed it was the fact that he had defeated Giygas, although the thousand years under Porky's control may have helped.

And one of the many talents he knew Ness had in heaps was the ability to summarize what was going on in their surroundings in six words or less. This was one of those times.

Two bright diamonds, one red and one yellow, shone brightly in the middle of the cave, floating in mid-air. Lucas felt himself fall under the thrall of the yellow diamond, and, at almost the exact same time Ash Ketchum reached out his hand to touch the blue diamond in his world, Lucas's hand, as if it had suddenly come to life, reached out to touch the yellow one.

He was dimly aware of Ness's fingers brushing against the red one, but this was more important.

Fingers brushed against the smooth surface of the diamond…

Dianne wasn't exactly known for screaming. That was what distressed damsels in the movies she had loved when she was a kid and hated when she grew up were for. She wasn't strong, either, but she took solace in the fact that she rarely, if ever, screamed.

That was why she immediately started chiding herself for letting out an ear-piercing scream upon seeing the world outside the cave and the cave itself suddenly disappear, replaced by a white room. Ash didn't seem to take notice of her very loud screech, Lynn's just as loud yelp, Pikachu's surprised noises and the change of surroundings, which was unusual for him.

Then again, probably because two very familiar kids had somehow gotten transported into the white room. Oh, and did I mention that the diamond had shrunk to fit into his palm?

Dammit.

Lucas looked up, swearing as he felt his head throb badly from what had happened in the cave.

The angry swear words that spewed forth from his mouth abruptly stopped once he realized that he was in Ash's presence.

"Ash?" he asked, not daring to believe that this was the same kid he had helped with the Ivysaur and Charizard back when Tabuu had been trying to conquer the worlds through his ruthless Subspace Army. And how could he blame himself? Ash had grown, gotten new clothes (the hoodie was a nice change from the jacket) and—was that Pikachu on Ash's hat? And was that a girl?

Damn, Ash had gotten lucky in the two years since the Brawl tournament.

Ness seemed to share the same sentiment, as he grinned and remarked to the Pokemon Trainer, "You got a girlfriend! Did you score on her yet?"

"Hey!" the girl protested, placing her hands on her hips as another Pikachu, with ribbons tied around her ears, poked its head out of the (admittedly small) handbag. "Don't talk about me like I'm not here!"

Ash seemed to snap out of a haze, turning around to face the girl. Then, with a look of realization upon his face, slowly turned to look at Lucas and Ness.

"I guess I have to introduce you guys," he muttered.

Lucas barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Yes, on the battlefield, Ash was smart and tough. He had seen that. But off the battlefield, it seemed, the boy just fell into deep pits of awkwardness, stupidity and idiocy. How he managed to get a girlfriend, Lucas never wanted to know.

"Dianne, these two are Lucas"-he jerked his thumb towards Lucas, who tentatively waved—"and Ness." He pointed towards Ness, who grinned cockily.

"It's nice to meet you, Dianne," Lucas politely greeted her.

Her previously stern expression softened, and she smiled at him. "Nice to meet you too, Luke and Ness. Call me Di, everyone does that."

Ness started to snicker. "She called you Luke!" he laughed.

"I know, Ness. Calm down, will you?"

Ash rubbed his temples, audibly sighing. "So," he began, "what's going on? How did you guys get here without mutating or something? And how did the cave disappear?"

"You didn't notice?" Pikachu asked incredulously. "It was pretty obvious! But then again, Di screamed and you didn't notice either."

The girl spat out a few words at Pikachu that I would rather not repeat here, to keep this story at its current rating of PG-13.

"Ash, your girlfriend's got a pretty foul mouth," Ness teased, the way he used to back in the Smash Mansion. "You sure you don't have any soap to wash her mouth out with?"

Ash glared in Ness's direction, amplifying its power with a few choice words. The black-haired psychic cringed, then muttered something about "foul mouth" and "weird girlfriends".

Lucas shrugged. "Getting back on topic here, we had no idea. But it had something to do with these."

And he unclenched his fist, opening it to reveal the yellow diamond, glimmering with a kind of…magic he had never seen before. It wasn't PSI, that was for sure, but it wasn't the brand of magic Zelda or Ganondorf used, either.

Whatever it was, the yellow diamond quickly disappeared.

"Wha—"

"My diamond!" Ness exclaimed, looking at his hand where, not a moment ago, the red diamond rested. "Where'd it go?"

"Mine disappeared too!" Ash declared.

"That is because they are a part of you now."

"Wait, what?" Lucas slowly looked up to find a woman, glowing and dazzling each and every one of them in the white room. Her gown was pure white, but it glowed with so many colors that he had to shield his eyes. Her hair was long, reaching her waist, changing colors every so often. Her face was that of a saint, her eyes were blue (like the ocean) and her skin seemed soft, fragile like porcelain.

Dianne didn't seem to notice that.

"Who the hell are you?" she snapped. "Where are we? More importantly, why are we here?"

The woman bowed her head. "I am the Queen of Hope," she answered. "This is a small part of the afterlife, one where those who still live can enter and communicate with those who have died. And you are here because destiny has said so."

"Fancy name," Dianne scoffed. "And what kind of person says that we're here 'cause destiny's making us do it?"

"I understand that you are confused," the Queen of Hope replied, raising her head to look directly at the young girl. "Do not worry. I shall tell you, and you will understand what I mean."

She began, in her ethereal voice, to tell them a story…

Years ago, before anyone of you were born—and don't say you're older than I am, child, you may want to close that mouth of yours—I ruled over a peaceful kingdom. It was full of colors and hope, all because of the Crystal of Colors. We were happy, and peaceful.

Then, one day, the Dark Emperor attacked. He slaughtered all in his path for the Crystal, and when he reached the Palace, I had no choice but to shatter it into several pieces and send them into other worlds.

It just so happened that the first three to find them were a Pokemon Trainer and two psychics. They became the first Roulettes, those with the power to defeat the Dark Emperor and end his reign.

Soon, ten others joined with them, all with their own unique powers. Together, they went on many adventures.

Then, one day, disaster struck. The Pokemon Trainer was kidnapped by the Dark Emperor, and was about to be used as a vessel of the Dark Emperor's former lover when one of the psychics, the one Lucas here once was, broke into the castle alone and became the vessel instead.

The Dark Emperor was quickly defeated by the form his lover had taken on, and had to retreat. This gave his lover the chance to defeat the Roulettes.

However, when the lover was about to strike the killing blow to the Roulettes, the sibling of the lover's former self appeared, giving enough strength for the humanity inside of the lover to overcome the lover's influence.

Once the now-restored Roulette realized what the Dark Emperor's lover had done, however, Roulette Yellow committed suicide by lightning, dying in the sibling's arms. The sibling soon died soon after, having committed suicide by hanging.

The Roulettes, in their grief, broke up after that. And once they died, their crystals sent themselves to the different worlds, and the Roulettes themselves were reborn in other bodies as boys.

Yes, they were girls. Shut up and stop talking, young man.

"So what you're saying," Dianne began, "is that Ash, Luke and Ness here are the reincarnations of the first three Roulettes? And that Luke in his first life—"

"It wasn't necessarily his first," the Queen corrected. "More like his first as a Roulette. But yes, that is true."

"Am I the sibling in your story?" Ness asked.

"No," the Queen answered, sighing. "But I have not a single idea as to who Roulette Purple—that was Yellow's sibling, mind you—is."

"My Trainer, the magical girl. Damn, Ash, you get the worst deals in life," Pikachu remarked from atop his perch on Ash's hat. "Like being the Chosen One back when Lawrence III was trying to collect the three legendary Bird Pokemon, or like getting this kind of girl to fall in love with you."

Dianne immediately flipped off the Pokemon, adding a few swear words to boot.

"Pikachu? Do me a favor." Ash massaged his temples, still in disbelief over what he had been told.

"What?"

"Shut up for the next few minutes. Okay? That's all I am going to ask of you for now."

Ness sighed. "That's…pretty hard to take in." He looked up at the Queen, making sure to shield his eyes. "And I've seen, heard and done some weird things myself in the one thousand years under Pokey's control."

"You still call him Pokey?" Ash asked. "Lucas said his name was Porky now."

Ness clenched his fists, trying his hardest not to let loose a PSI Rockin' Omega on Ash, reminding himself that the Pokemon Trainer was just curious.

"Still," Ness continued on, "where'd the diamonds—I mean, crystals—go? The ones we discovered? The ones that disappeared a while ago?"

"Their material shells are with me right now." The Queen snapped her fingers, and three watches appeared in the air; one red, one yellow, one blue. "I have created them into wrist communicators, so you can talk to one another, even across dimensions. They can also alert you to the other Roulettes if they are activated, and create portals for you to utilize when needed."

Upon hearing the word "portals", Dianne perked up. "Portals?" she asked. "Do these wrist comms"—she indicated the communicators that were floating in the air—"fire out portals the same way the portal guns in Portal do? 'Cause let me tell you, the way it does so is pretty."

"You gotta forgive Di," Ash quickly said, shooting a glare at Dianne, who pouted in response. "She has an affinity for…stuff. Really strange stuff. Stuff she shouldn't be seeing at all, since she's only 15."

"She's what?" Ness's face was the epitome of surprise, mixed with disappointment, dismay and "WHAT THE HELL?"

"Yeah, so what? 15 means I'm old enough to do stuff," Dianne dismissed. "Shut up and stop saying I'm underage, 'kay?"

Lucas snickered, but quickly stopped once Ness turned a death glare on him.

The Queen sighed, then snapped her fingers. The communicators seemed to take on a life of their own, slipping onto the wrists of Ash, Ness and Lucas, respectively.

"I got the blue one," Ash flatly stated, staring at the blue communicator.

"Well, you have to respect whoever makes these decisions for once," Ness commented, scrutinizing his red communicator. "Red is my favorite color, after all."

"Yellow's probably just an average color for me," Lucas grumbled. "Just 'cause I'm blonde doesn't mean I'm into yellow. Or dumb, but that's beside the point."

Dianne crossed her arms. "Where's mine?" she demanded, before realizing that she wasn't a Roulette. "Sorry," she muttered.

"In order to access the full potential of your powers," the Queen began, "you must first transform. You can easily do that by shouting 'Magical Transform! Roulette' and your color."

A strange smirk crept into Dianne's expression, and she sat down, letting Lynn out of the handbag and onto her head.

"Go ahead," she said to the three boys in the middle of the white room. "Transform. I'm not gonna bother you or anything, just quietly watch. And not chew the popcorn I secretly stashed in my bag just in case something really interesting happened and I was witness to it. Oh, no." She innocently whistled.

"Sometimes I wonder what attracted me to that girl," Ash grumbled. "Okay, guys, let's do this!"

"Magical Transform!"

"Roulette Blue!"

"Roulette Yellow!"

"Roulette Red!"

The white room suddenly vanished for Ash, Ness and Lucas, as they had been engulfed by a blinding white light.

The first thing Dianne realized when she saw Ash was that he definitely was not a boy anymore. The second thing was that damn, he (or maybe she was more appropriate) had nice, bouncy, jiggly jugs. Like the other two, but they weren't important here.

The third thing she realized was that her outfit was incredibly girly and that Ash looked on the verge of an incredible freak-out.

First, the shoes were high-heeled boots, with smoke patterned on them. The boots were, thankfully, the ankle-high kind that was perfect for fox hunting, but still. Cute, knee-high, light blue socks complemented the boots.

Second, the miniskirt was ridiculously short. It was blue, like the rest of the outfit, and a blue belt was draped across it, with weapons and such attached. Very stylish and practical, though Ash, pacifist that he was, would start up a stink about it.

Third, the dark blue blouse, outlined with white, was tight, leaving little to the imagination. The neckline plunged just enough to show a fair amount of cleavage, although some of it was obscured by the large, light blue bow. The collar was also blue, and a cape hung from Ash's shoulders.

Fourth, the one fingerless glove on Ash's right hand gave the outfit an edgy feel to it. It was black, accented with dark and light blue. It was also made out of leather, so bonus points to the Queen for appealing to one of Dianne's fetishes, although Ash was sure to punch the poor girl out.

Fifth, Ash's hair had completely changed. No longer was it short, spiky or kept in a hat, now it was long and wavy, also reaching to her waist. It was now a light shade of auburn, departing from the blue theme in the rest of the outfit. Dianne mentally knocked off a few points.

She then switched her gaze over to Ness's outfit. Her shoes were red sneakers, which was quite a disappointment, but the socks were ankle-high, at the very least. The ridiculously short skirt was a black and red version of Ash's, but unlike the blue blouse the transformed Ash was wearing, Ness's blouse wasn't particularly cleavage-exposing. However, her midriff was bared, with a red, sparkling swirl around her belly button, and like Ash's blouse, this one left little to the imagination.

Also, her gloves were the kind princesses wore in movies, except they were a light shade of red and exposed the fingers. Bows decorated the outfit as well, but the largest was behind the waist, attached to the miniskirt.

Dianne had to hold in a gleeful laugh upon noticing Ness's long ponytail. It had been tied into place by a big, girly red bow. That, and the poor guy's (or was it girl's?) hair had turned a premature gray, accented with red streaks.

Her collar was black, outlined with red. It was the same kind of collar the magical girls she had seen before on television used, and Dianne knocked off points for unoriginality.

She then shot a glance at Lucas and almost choked.

The outfit was the skimpiest of them all. Yes, there were yellow, earth-patterned, high-heeled boots, but they seemed to be the ankle-high kind. Her legs had been tattooed with yellow vines, and the ridiculously short miniskirt, while white, had the elegant vine pattern, and the yellow belt draped across it as well.

The blouse exposed both her newly-acquired cleavage and her slim midriff, with a vine pattern swirling out of the poor girl's belly button. A miniature yellow bow had settled upon the collar, and the headdress was a crown made out of leaves.

Her hair had turned a darker yellow, cropped close to the shoulders. Gone was the ice cream hairstyle, but that was obvious.

Last but not least, one glove was princess-like, yellow with a vine pattern, while the other was fingerless, yellow accented with orange.

"We're girls," Lucas flatly stated, as if his brain had completely and totally shut down on him.

Ash's hadn't. She swiftly started ranting and raving about how unfair it was that she had to go through this humiliation—a boy, turning into a girl—and that they had better be sent back right now or else she'd sic Pikachu on the Queen, the latter's wisdom and the consequences of doing so to royalty be damned.

Dianne snickered, then popped another kernel into her mouth. She didn't really want to intervene. This was better than the soaps on TV!

After Ash had calmed down (with some help from Ness's baseball bat), the Queen of Hope sighed.

"I see that it may be…difficult to convince yourselves that this is really happening. I assure you, you can return back to your original forms."

Ash shot a glare at her. "And how do you propose we do that?" she asked, a hint of murderous anger creeping into her tone.

"Simple. Say 'Detransform'."

Ness sighed, then tugged on Ash's puffy sleeves. "We're going to have to do it, you know," she told her. "Save the hysterics and murder plans for later."

"Fine," the Pokemon Trainer muttered, shooting another glare at her Pikachu, who had taken up the space next to Lynn and was now sharing Dianne's popcorn. "Let's do it."

As one, the three called out, "Detransform!"

"Damn," Dianne muttered, getting up from her seat on the floor. "Show's over, you two."

"But I really liked it," Lynn grumbled, getting back into the handbag. "Especially the part where Ash threw a tantrum."

"That wasn't a tantrum, that was a knee-jerk reaction to becoming a girl!" Ash protested. "It's not like it happens every day."

"Now you shall return to your worlds at the same time you departed from them. I will send you to the nearest sanctuary from the snowstorms and forests. Until we meet again, I wish you luck." The Queen disappeared, and with her, the white room and Ness and Lucas.

Ash took a moment to realize that they were right next to the Pokemon Center.

"YES!"

Max looked up from the book he had been reading to find Ash and Pikachu charging through the room, Dianne and Lynn following a second later.

"We're going to have to pay for that door, you know," Dianne reminded him, then seemed to notice Max. "Oh, hey, Max. Where's May?"

Max shrugged. "I honestly have no idea," he replied. "Where have you guys been, anyway?"

"Exploring," Ash replied.

"And you wouldn't—" Dianne began, but was cut off by a glare from Ash. "Er…we brought this for you!"

And she held out a rock.

"…It's just a rock," Max finally said. "What's so special about it?"

"It's…yeah, you're right, it's just a rock." Dianne sighed, then tucked it back into her pockets. "I thought you'd like a souvenir, though."

"Thanks for the thought."

Ness immediately charged straight through the front door of the house Lucas and Flint, the younger boy's father, called home.

"Oh, hey, you two," Flint greeted them. "What took you so long?"

"We saw something really interesting in the forest—"

Ness shot Lucas a warning glare, and the blonde boy quickly backed down. "I mean, we saw absolutely nothing while exploring in the forest. Except for the occasional Coiled Snake, but nothing we couldn't handle."

Flint smiled at them. "Well, that's good. Go to bed now, kiddo, and Ness, your mom's going to kill us all if you don't get back to Onett."

"Yeah, sure, Flint," Ness distractedly replied. "Sure. Can I stay here for the night? I'm totally pooped."

So there you have it, folks. The epic adventure of Ash, Lucas and Ness has just begun, and there soon will be more Roulettes too. Let's see how they handle their first monster fight in the next few chapters! Oh, and Di's weird interests, too.

Read it first, then review! I swear, unless you flame me, I won't bite. And if you do, well, pray that you've got a very thick hide.

- Effy