Summary: AU: When Gary Oak finds an unconscious young woman, he becomes involved in a nefarious plot by an organization to rule the world. However, along the way, truths will be revealed, emotions and feelings expressed, and betrayal's emergence will throw all that Gary knows into chaos... Couples: Gary/Misty, Ash/Misty (a bit), Ash/Anabel, James/Jessie, Butch/Cassidy, Drew/May, Brendan/May, Tracey/Melody, Brock/Duplica, Ritchie/Casey, Paul/Dawn, Kenny/Zoe, and many more to come... Read and Review! Rating is for language, and maybe some kissing.

Disclaimer: As soon as I get my certificate of ownership saying I own Pokémon then I'll tell you, but as of now it's not mine!!

"…": Characters talking

'…': Characters thinking to themselves

"…": Pokédex speaking or recounting information to trainers

(…): Extra facts about the story

((…)): My opinions

A/N Notes: Hey, just so you know, I have a busy workload this semester, so I hope to update soon. Updates may be slow, but I hope to speed them up soon!

Falling in Love is Sometimes Unexpected…

Chapter 1: Flashback, Part 1

Gary's Point of View (POV)

7:30 PM, May 13, 2005; Ten miles outside of Viridian City, in Diglett Cave outside of the Viridian Forest, near Pewter City, Kanto Region

'It was morning when I found her; that is, she was lying unconscious on the ground. I don't know why, but I felt a strong connection to her, though I have absolutely no clue who she could possibly be. I remember when I found her…' thought twenty-one year old Gary Oak as he sat at his campfire, staring into the flames as he thought back to the events of just that morning…

FLASHBACK

7:30 AM, May 13, 2005; Ten miles outside of Viridian City, outskirts of Viridian Forest near Pewter City, Kanto Region

Gary felt something wet nudge his cheek, and as he opened his eyes, he saw his Umbreon, who had been sleeping beside him the previous night. He realized that something had to be seriously wrong, as Umbreon usually never woke him up this early in the morning…

"What's up, Umbreon?" asked Gary as he sat up in his sleeping bag, yawned, and looked at Umbreon inquiringly.

"Umbreon! Umbre, Umbre, Umbreon!" ("There's someone in danger of dying because she's unconscious and severely hurt!") replied Umbreon as she nudged her trainer harder.

"What?!" exclaimed Gary as he scrambled out of his sleeping bag, threw on his shirt and boots (he slept in his pants), packed up camp as quickly as he could, grabbed his black backpack, and turned to Umbreon.

"You're absolutely sure there's someone lying unconscious and hurt on a cliff not far from here?"

"Umbreon!" ("Yes, I'm sure!") replied Umbreon as she looked once more at Gary and then ran off in the direction where she could smell blood coming from.

"Hey Umbreon, wait up!" yelled Gary as he took off in hot pursuit of his Pokèmon, silently cursing that he was still half-asleep, and yelled, "Shit!" as he stumbled on a root sticking out of the ground and fell to his knees. He got back up and continued to run, cursing as branches struck his face, arms, and legs.

A few minutes later Gary emerged from the woods and onto a cliff, panting, and stopped dead in his tracks at what he saw. Umbreon was standing guard over a woman who looked to be his age with tangled, bloody, and supposedly shoulder-length auburn hair, and her face was a sight that even Gary, with all the destruction he'd seen on his Pokémon journey, cringed to see. It was marred by bruises and cuts- some old ones covered in dry blood and new ones, especially one that ran from her left ear to the tip of her jaw, that were bleeding profusely.

Her body looked worn and dehydrated, like she had not had a meal in days, and bite and slash marks covered her legs, some deep and some shallow, some bleeding and some not bleeding, and the same marks were present on her arms. Her left shoulder looked to be at an angle; suggesting that it was dislocated, but Gary was unable to tell. He spotted a dark blue backpack- he presumed it to be hers- that looked to be about two feet away from her.

Gary began to move closer, but suddenly stopped when he heard crying coming from somewhere near the woman. He moved closer, and then spotted something moving under her right arm. Gary knelt, placed his backpack near him, and gently lifted the woman's arm. He started on seeing a Togetic, who was crying in pain from a slash marks on its wings and arms.

'My God…' thought Gary as he stared at the scene before him, and anger filled him. 'Whoever did this… whoever did it will pay dearly.'

Gary called Umbreon, who had been watching the woods warily for signs of any enemy approaching, and at her trainer's call, she ran over. Gary whispered to her, and then watched as she trotted over to the Togetic. She nudged Togetic, and after a moment, Togetic stopped crying and looked at Umbreon, curiosity burning in its eyes. It then squealed in delight and with its arms tried to reach out to Umbreon, but suddenly whimpered when it felt pain radiating from the cuts on its arms.

Umbreon, sensing the pain its fellow Pokémon was feeling, moved closer and gently boosted Togetic onto her back, and, once making sure Togetic was holding on the best it could, gently trotted to the edge of the woods, and looked at Gary, waiting for his instructions.

Gary, after witnessing this, slowly got up, retrieved his backpack, along with the woman's, and then bent down and slowly picked her up, making sure to support her head. As he began to walk off the cliff, he suddenly heard someone call out, "Magnitude!" and the ground began to shake. Gary could tell that if it were to be measured on a Richter Scale at that moment it would've measured a five, and he panicked.

"Fuck!" screamed Gary as he began to run, making sure to support the woman's head and legs, and as he ran, Umbreon instinctively ran alongside him. Gary heard the cracking of the ground, and risked a small glance back. His dark blue eyes widened in horror when he saw the cliff that he had been on just a few minutes ago fall into the lake three miles below. Gary then felt a branch hit him in the face and he continued running.

'I'm not going to make it…' he thought desperately as he heard footsteps follow him, and knew they were slowly catching up. He then glanced down at the face of the woman in his arms, and thought, 'No, I have to make it… I have to make it!'

Gary ran faster, if possible, and saw a cave carved out in the mountains around him just up ahead. He yelled to Umbreon to follow him, and then he veered suddenly and ran into the cave, Umbreon with Togetic following. Gary ran a good distance in- he wasn't sure how far- and stopped, slowly panting and then when he heard voices held his breath, hoping to God they wouldn't come in to see if he was there.

"Where the hell did that brat go with our prisoner?" exclaimed one man angrily, and Gary's mind flashed in recognition of the voice- it was Brendan Birch's, son of Professor Birch in the Hoenn Region and one of Gary's good friends. Brendan and Gary had known each other from a very young age, stemming from meetings between his grandfather- Professor Oak, Professor Elm of the Johto Region, and Professor Birch every now and then to discuss the accumulation of information on the growing world of Pokémon.

"Calm down Brendan. He couldn't have gone very far," answered the other man assuredly, and once more Gary shivered as he recognized the voice belonging to Ritchie, who like Brendan, was one of his friends. Gary had met him in both the Indigo and Johto Leagues and they got along very well.

"Should we check in there?" asked Brendan anxiously, sounding to Gary like he wanted to hurt someone.

"Nah. Think Brendan; if I'm not mistaken that was Gary Oak and knowing him like I do, he would have made a beeline for Viridian City, not too far from here. Let's go," replied Ritchie as he looked disdainfully at the cave, and then began walking away, Brendan at his side.

After Gary was sure the two men were gone, he breathed a huge sigh of relief and gently laid the woman on the ground of the cave. He then took a Pokéball off his belt and threw it, calling out softly, "I choose you, Magmar!" In a burst of white light, a Pokémon that looked like it had crawled out of a volcano emerged and said, "Magmar!" (Where's my opponent?").

"Shh…" hushed Gary as he placed a finger against his lips, signaling to Magmar to be quiet. "Magmar, there's no opponent, but I need you to use the flame on your tail to light this area over here so I can clean this woman's wounds. Got it?"

"Mag," ("Yes,") replied Magmar, softer than before and slowly moved over to where Gary was kneeling next to the woman. Magmar then held his tail over the two adults, carefully making sure it didn't burn anyone, and Gary set to work on tending to the woman's wounds.

"Damn, I wish I had some water," muttered Gary as he dug through his backpack looking for his canteens of water. "I must've left them back at the campsite in my hurry to follow Umbreon," he muttered again, finally giving up in the search for water in his own supplies. He strained his ears in the cave, praying there'd be any sound of water- a trickle, a roar, anything- that he could follow to a water source and then use to help the woman.

After a few moments, on hearing nothing, he eyed the woman's backpack, and against his better judgement opened it and by the light of Magmar's tail began to search through it for water. "Ah-ha! Got some!" exclaimed Gary softly as his hands closed on a large canteen that he assumed held water. As he pulled it out something else came out with it and fluttered to the ground.

"Huh, what's this?" murmured Gary as he quietly placed the canteen on the floor of the cave and picked up a photograph. As he examined it he exclaimed in surprise, "It's Ash… and this woman." The photograph was indeed a picture of Ash Ketchum, complete with blue jeans, a dark blue tee shirt covered with a red vest and his red and white baseball cap, which covered his always-messy black hair, his ever-present Pikachu on his head. He had his arm around the waist of the woman with Gary at that moment, and she was grinning widely at the camera, her hair indeed a rich dark auburn and in a braid, her green-blue eyes sparkling in happiness. Gary took a closer look and saw a diamond ring on the woman's left ring finger.

"So, if this is Ash's fiancée," Gary looked up from the photo and to the woman "then where in the hell is Ash; and more importantly who is this woman?"

Gary shook his head and carefully placed the photo back in the woman's backpack and got to work cleaning all of the woman's wounds, which took quite a while, what with all the blood and all. He then got out his first-aid kit, which he thought ruefully had everything but cleaning alcohol and water, and set to work bandaging the woman's wounds. For a wound he found on her chest, he had to take off her light blue tank top or at least lift it. Gary was a little uneasy about this understandably, but knew he had to do it. He swallowed any gentlemanly honor that told him he shouldn't be doing what he was about to do and carefully lifted the tank and quickly but skillfully bandaged her wounds. He then took out some smaller bandages and got to work on her face.