Forgotten Pasts

Prologue

"Where are you going?"

"I'm leaving. I'm sorry. No, don't… Let go of me …"

"Why? Why do you have to leave? Don't go, don't, stay, please. Don't go…"

"I… can't tell you. Don't cry. Please… Don't make this hard. Goodbye…"

A figure, walking away into the darkness. A hand, outstretched, reaching after the disappearing silhouette…

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Deep within the Viridian Forest, a pair of black eyes opened, staring and scanning the night sky. All the eyes saw was the inky darkness of the void above, the white sparkles of the stars winking back.

The youth awoke with a start. He sat up, clutching his head in his arms, trying to remember the edges of the dream he'd had, but it was rapidly slipping away from him, sliding out from under his mental grasp.

"Not again…" He groaned, before catching himself. He'd been thinking out loud. Next to him, what looked deceptively like a yellow ball of fur with a lightning bolt attached to it stirred and moved at the sound.

"There now, I'm sorry. Go back to sleep, it was just a dream. Go on." Hearing the soft words of its master, consoling and cajoling it back to its slumber, the yellow mouse opened a pink mouth, gave a yawn and gladly sank back into sleep.

Lying back, the spiky-haired boy attempted to find solace in sleep once more, but the blessed peace of rest eluded him. Instead, he found himself staring up at the night sky, his mind stubbornly refusing to give up on locating the exact details of the dream he'd just gone through. Sensing his uneasiness, Pika stirred and looked at him sleepily. Its master turned his head and smiled. Resting his hand on Pika's flank, he patted it and told it to go back to sleep, that he was all right. The Pokémon, satisfied, laid its head on its paws once more.

Sighing, Red closed his eyes firmly and gave himself over to sleep.

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A/N: Wow. It's been, what, two years? Two and a half? Ever since I'd finished with "Old Loves, Old Hatreds", I thought I'd seen the end of my fanfiction career, that I'd created a fanfiction which might not be the best but one I was proud of, but all of a sudden inspiration strikes and poof, I have a new story going. A warning though, this story can be predicted to be a pretty sad one, so if angst isn't really your thing I suggest you stop reading from this prologue onwards.

This story is basically a sequel to the manga Pokémon Adventures, a pretty good book in my opinion, up to Book 7 anyway. So if you're wondering, yes Red is that Red, or to those who don't know who he is you can refer him to Ash Ketchum, they have pretty similar Pokémon and lives and personalities, though Red isn't quite as gullible. But this Author's Note is getting way too long, so I'm signing off here. See you all next chapter…