Prologue

Harsh orange flames flickered, towering through the inky black night, reaching upwards towards the heavens as if to declare anger at the futility of its own existence. No matter how far the fire expanded, no matter how much it destroyed, the flames were ultimately dooming themselves to a slow demise.

Above the crackling sizzling forest, a grizzled man stooped, perched atop one of the few landmarks south of the unconquerable Viridian forest. There was nothing especially noteworthy of the upraised rock jetting from the earth, it wasn't particularly tall or steep. Nay, its value lay in it being one of the precious few land formations which stood out against the gargantuan expanse of towering treeline from the sky. The League had long ago vanquished any hope of clearing out the Viridian Forest which expanded throughout the Palletian peninsula which was located south of Viridian City. As such the hill was primarily used to guide fliers to their destinations throughout Kanto. Not today, however.

The man's hair was a dark brown, his stubble was unkempt with flecks of grey sprinkled throughout. He had a rather large patch where hair was simply missing, leaving only blackened scalp in its place. His rather plain cotton shirt was riddled with red splotches and gashes exposing bare skin, yet the man did not seem perturbed with the state of himself- nor the blaze torching a path through the forest below, and the soot which coated the air.

His expression was stoic, the beginnings of wrinkles, smile lines, were revealed upon his face by the harsh orange light cast by the blaze across the skyline. There was no hint of a smile present, though. His eyes, on the other hand, gazed with a single-minded ferocity at a motionless, crumpled bundle mere feet in front of him. The bundle was obscured by the smoke which rose from below, but it was clear the man had already recognized what was hidden beneath.

"Delia…" came a hardly distinguishable croak, followed by a rasping cough The man, without turning his gaze from the bundle, spat at the ground a mix of soot, blood, and spit. The man's stoic expression slowly shattered, morphing into a crumpled, defeated expression. He had failed. In his haste to defeat him, he had lost sight of what truly mattered. Delia.

A trembling hand made its way to a leather belt housing several straps which secured a red and white device with a button in the middle. The man, his eyes still solely focused on the bundle in front of him, grasped one of the balls and managed to press the button in the center despite the trembles which racked throughout his entire body and the tears which cleared soot and blood in streaks from his face before dropping impotently to the ground.

The ball expanded, emitting a blinding flash of red energy for hardly a moment before a massive presence which had not been there moments before was introduced. Massive wing beats displaced soot-filled air as a predator unlike any other took to the skies. A Charizard.

This Charizard was not a regular Charizard, however- not that any such monster could truly be called regular in the first place. It stood twice the height of an average member of its species, and the scales were covered with deep gouges, faded scars, and fresh wounds.

The dragon took in a deep breath, seeming to savor the soot within the atmosphere, then glanced rather arrogantly towards the blaze which raged below him for a moment, before realizing where he was. The beast's demeanor changed instantly, and he landed with a resounding rumble upon the hilltop. The Charizard glanced at his trainer's stooped form aloofly, but receiving no reaction, he stamped his clawed foreleg into the ground rather petulantly. When he still received no response, the dragon grew concerned.

Cautious eyes peered through the smoke and examined his trainer, taking in the minor wounds which peppered his body. It was nothing the trainer had not suffered plenty of times before. The Charizard glanced around before realizing the object his trainer was so focused on: a small bundle lying in front of him. The Charizard's snout snaked towards the bundle laid out before his trainer, inhaling a familiar scent. He nudged his snout softly into the bundle, careful of the force which he possessed.

Receiving no reaction, he nudged again, and again, and again.

The Charizard's demeanor, from prideful and arrogant, to obedient and concerned, once again morphed- this time to pure unadulterated rage. The temperature around the Charizard seemed to rise instantly, the air wavered around his scales, the dragon let out a single, solitary sound of terrifying proportions which echoed across the countryside- a roar filled with loss and anger, announcing its loss for everyone and everything to hear.

His trainer's mate was gone.

"Charizard, we must leave, we do not have much time." The trainer spoke for the second time, his voice was clearer now, the only remnants of the tears which had plagued him moments before were trails down his cheek free of the soot which covered him from head to toe. What truly stood out was the eyes- his eyes were hollow and dead.

Charizard glanced towards his trainer morosely, the pride which was so oftentimes associated with the beast entirely vacant. The dragon seemed to pause and consider the order, before hesitantly acquiescing and hunching over giving the trainer access to the harness strapped around his back. Charizards were not meant to be harnessed, they were not meant to be ridden, they were predators and their dominance was unparalleled, their pride even more so. Even Lance, the newly appointed champion of Kanto's Charizard would not tolerate his trainer harnessing him. This Charizard, however, was an exception.

The trainer boarded quickly, his hands going through the motions, tightening straps, double checking buckles, before finally patting Charizard's neck to signal takeoff. As the Charizard's leg muscles bulged and he finally leapt into the sky seeming to defy physics, another beast made itself known. This new sound, while loud, was much higher pitched, and inquisitive, perhaps even playful in nature, contrary to the rage imbued within the Charizard's prior roar. A much lighter shaded orange dragon zipped through the sky, nearly a blur, cradling a single figure against its body with the utmost care. It was none other than a Dragonite, illuminated by the orange-hued fire beneath.

This Dragonite was significantly smaller in both height and stature than the Charizard it hovered across from, but while the Charizard struggled to keep itself aloft with great flaps of its wings, the Dragonite floated nearly motionless within the air, her wings invisible to the naked eye. Dragonite, while fast, were not known to be as agile and quick as the one in front of the Charizard appeared to be, in fact, their temperament was only slightly less aggressive than the average Charizard, but once again, this Dragonite was not the norm.

The Charizard let out a roar of instinctive rage upon spotting the dragon across from him. Flame flew towards the beautiful petite dragon, uncontrolled and rage-filled, the blue flames surged towards the Dragonite but almost instantaneously it was reflected against a transparent green barrier: protect.

The man which was cradled against the dragon's body was the opposite of the trainer across from him. While the trainer was stocky, the man was frail, draped in an oversized lab coat, while the trainer was young, the man across from him's hair was nearly completely white, with the rare brown hair gracing his head. With all these differences in mind, however, there was one thing which the man had which the trainer lacked: presence. The man seemed to simply glower at the Charizard and immediately expunge any thought the deep orange scaled Dragon had of further retaliation.

"Keep that brute under control, Red, what has gotten into him?" The voice, unmistakably from one of considerable age, was still strong and commanding.

Red, the trainer on the Charizard, opened his mouth to answer, but words failed to materialize.

"I heard there had been a massive blaze spotted over Viridian and I knew you and Delia were headed-"

"Don't you dare say her name, Oak!" Emotion seemed to surge in waves from the trainer as he slammed his fist against his thigh in overwhelming, impotent rage.

Oak, his hand fidgeting nervously against the white lab coat, immediately softened his expression, "What happened here, Red?"

Red turned towards Oak, but his eyes didn't focus upon him, they were directed towards the fire beyond, reflecting the blaze in perfect, glassy-eyed clarity, "Oak..." the trainer paused, "we are no better than fire, we consume everything in our path to survive, thus dooming ourselves to an inevitable fate."

"Red, stop this nonsense." Oak's command was accompanied by a concerned trill as both he and his Dragonite focused their attention upon the troubled man before overwhelming anger which had been present mere moments before, was already gone, replaced with a disturbingly expressionless mask of stoicism.

That temporary distraction and evident concern on the Dragonite's part was enough for a slight gesture from Red to go unnoticed, and the Charizard burst into movement immediately, shooting a blue flame which crackled, immediately evaporating the moisture within the air around it, towards the dragon and the man who was cradled within the dragon's arms.

The Dragonite, caught by surprise and lacking time to summon a barrier, swiftly turned her back towards the flame, enveloping her trainer against the protective scales of her stomach as the flames rolled over her, damaging, but not coming close to disabling the nearly mythical dragon.

By the time the smoke had cleared, both the Charizard and trainer had vanished, and Oak stepped out onto the hill which Red had occupied moments before. Oak's eyes scanned the soot-filled sky to no avail. Doubtlessly it would be possible to track Red, but that boy was nothing if not stubborn. If he didn't wish to disclose what happened here, Oak would find out himself.

The first thing the Professor noticed was the bundle, the shape drawing his immediate attention and with a heavy heart, he knew what, or rather who, lay there. It all made perfect sense, yet he prayed his intuition was wrong. With shaking arms Oak turned the petite bundle over revealing a pale, slender face, framed by brunette hair which even now seemed to reflect the fire firelight. Two pinpricks of red upon her neck were all that hinted towards her demise. Oak, ignoring the injury, gazed into her empty eyes which just hours earlier had viewed the world with an unparalleled vibrancy, a vicious intelligence, and an undeserving love- needless to say, they no longer did.

Oak's head dropped towards the ground, droplets of water slamming against the stone beneath. Delia, his protege, and wife to a man Oak considered his own son, was dead. Despite the blaze burning below, an unearthly silence seemed to descend upon the forlorn rock. Oak, lost in his thoughts did not notice, but the Dragonite standing behind him glanced around cautiously.

The silence continued, it was as if the sound had been removed from the earth, and even the buzz of pure silence seemed to be absent. Oak, finally removed from his stupor glanced around, confused for a moment, before standing and gripping one of the Pokeballs within his lab coat. Dragonite, not liking the odd feeling which staring at the massive blaze below her, yet not hearing it caused turned back towards her trainer.

As she did so a nearly indistinguishable blur of movement caught her eye, the Dragon turned towards it, as did her trainer, reacting to her movement, but it was gone, and the sound was back, the cackling of the thousands of burning trees below, the chirp of fleeing pidgey, an annoying high pitched whining- wait what?

The Dragonite glanced towards her trainer, noticing the large bundle was still lying motionless on the ground, but now in her friend's hand was a much smaller bundle, squirming around, and emanating disturbingly high pitched sounds which hurt the Dragon's sensitive ears.

"Look here, Saph, it is a miracle is it not?"

The Dragonite took one step lumbering step forward and looked from her height, a head or so above Oak, down at the scrunched up face that only human babies had and let out a trill of agreement. Oak a smile now on his face, although it did not reach the eyes, poked the baby in the nose, eliciting another set of whining much to his Dragonite's discontent.

A sudden frown crossed his face, and Oak was serious once again, glancing towards his Pokemon.

"Delia was not pregnant, was she?"

Many maternal Pokemon possessed the ability to simply smell if a woman, or another pokemon, was pregnant, and the female Dragonite was not an exception. The Dragonite shook her orange scaled head, responding to the negative, causing Oak to nod jerkily.

"Well, we aren't to question the bidding of the gods, hm?" Oak questioned, now humming to himself.

The moment of concern from Oak had passed, and a bittersweet smile was once again present on Oak's face.

The grizzled professor stood on the rocky outcropping, looking over the once brilliantly green-hued forest, which was now indecipherable amongst the inky clouds of black which rose from the dying blazes. In that singular moment, what Red had said moments before resonated a morbid truth within Oak. Humans were no different than fire, consuming everything in their path and leaving only the remnants of their destruction behind.

"I think he shall be called Ash."

And thus it began.

A/N:

Just to iterate, this world does vary from the traditional in several aspects. Oak, Red, and Delia all play signficantly different roles in the story, or none at all. I hope to illustrate these characters as people- not as the one dimensional characters they are often portrayed as, while staying true to their character in the anime/games/other fanfiction.