So do you remember the woman in "Fate Has Its Own Path" who came up to Ash right before they left for the hospital; Lara? This is her story. We finally get to know who she is!

Well, you do. I've known all along! And I finally got around to finishing it. Ten whole pages! O.O I'm surprised. The ending's kind of awful, but... I hope this explains some things.

You don't have to go back and read "Fate Has Its Own Path" if you haven't, there isn't much there you need to know for this... (I would appreciate it if you did read and review it, though!) Just know that Ash is married to Misty, their daughter Alison is six and their little daughter Faith is one. And there you go!

Well, if you've been anticipating this story, I won't keep you waiting. R&R!

Enjoy :)

"You'll call, or write, once in a while, won't you?"

"Of course, Mom."

"Every week?"

"Every week. I promise."

"I still don't think this is a good idea, Lara."

"I have to, Mama. Besides, I have Pichu. He won't let me get hurt." she rubbed a small red-and-white sphere.

"I suppose that's true." The brunette woman gazed longingly at her child, tears brimming in her eyes, easily visible in the moonlight streaming from the other side of the doorway. "Your brother will miss you."

"Only for a little while. He's three; he won't remember. That's why I have to leave now."

"I know."

"I have to find him, Mama."

"I know, Lara."

"But I might not come back." She bit her lip in thought. "That's really why he can't remember me, Mama. I don't want him to be sad."

"I know, I know." She wiped at her eyes. "I'll miss you, Lara."

"I'll miss you, too, Mom." The girl fought back her own tears. "I love you."

"I love you too, sweetie." She managed a weak smile as the girl began to back up from the door. "Your father...would be so proud."

Will be, Lara thought. Will be proud. She gave her mother one last embrace and turned towards the night.

The woman watched her only daughter walk off into the darkness. Within moments she vanished as the moon slid behind a murky black cloud. A tear ran down her cheek as she whispered her farewell.

"Goodbye, Lara."

The raven-haired Pokémon master grinned and leaned back against the park bench as he watched his daughters play. Ash couldn't help but laugh at the two little blessings in his life.

The older girl was helping the toddler up a small flight of stairs, and she called out to her father as she reached the top, "Daddy! She made it! She's at the top!"

"Good job, Alison." he shouted back. The six-year-old girl beamed and the fourteen-month-old toddler clapped her small hands.

"Daddy!" she shrieked excitedly. The man stood and walked over to the playground equipment, reaching a hand through the bars to tickle her. She giggled and grabbed his arm.

"That's my arm, Fai," Ash smiled at his little girl. She grinned mischievously and pulled. Gently he took his arm back, and Alison and Faith headed off to the other end of the equipment, skipping and waddling respectively. He was returning to his park bench when he heard his phone beep. He pulled it out of his pocket and read the message.

"Girls!" he called, striding across the wood-chip ground towards them. "Faith, Alison, time to go!"

"Why?" Alison whined. Ash reached where the two stood on a piece of equipment and picked up the toddler, who clapped in delight that her daddy was holding her. "I don't want to go!"

"Do you want to see Grandma? You're spending the night with her tonight." he reminded Ali. The pouting child's face lit up.

"Yeah!" she shouted. "Let's go!" She dashed ahead to the edge of the park. Ash chuckled at her enthusiasm.

"Dow. Want dow!" the toddler in his arms insisted, pushing a tiny finger towards the ground. He set her down and she waddled off again towards her sister and the car.

Once the two were strapped into carseats, they set off down the road to Pallet Town. Alison was singing along with the radio at the top of her lungs. Faith tried to join in, but she didn't know any of the words.

Delia was overjoyed to see her son and granddaughters. "Hello, you three! I haven't seen you in a month! How are you?"

"Hi Grandma!" Alison greeted the woman with a squishing hug.

"Hi, dear," she embraced the six-year-old.

"Gammy!" the other girl squealed, reaching her arms out. For a moment Delia just watched her, eyes wide, taking in her pale skin, chocolate brown eyes, and raven-black hair with fiery red tips, and then quickly smiled and included her in the hug.

"Hello, baby," she murmured before standing up again. "You two go inside. I think there's cookies on the table. I'm going to talk to Daddy for a moment." The two did as told, rushing off in a fit of giggles. "My," she sighed, "aren't they just like you?"

"Faith might be, but Ali can be a mini-Misty when she wants to be." Ash paused. "What was that look you gave Fai?"

"Speaking of Misty," Delia tried to avoid the direct question, "where is she today?"

"She's at some gym leader conference for the weekend. But I'm serious, Mom. What was that?"

"Sh-she just..." blush invaded Delia's face. "She looked...so much like her." she finished in a whisper.

"Like who?" Ash asked, genuinely puzzled. "Misty?"

"No, just-I-I don't know, Misty, yes..." the older brunette woman stammered.

"You're lying." The raven-haired man stated.

"Yes, I am." His mother sighed. "Come with me." she turned.

He followed her through the kitchen, where the girls sat eating up a fresh batch of chocolate-chip cookies, and into her room. Ash looked around. He'd hardly ever been in this room as a kid.

Delia walked over to an old black trunk and pulled her necklace out of her shirt. Ash could see that it was an old key. He realized he'd always wondered what was hidden at the end of the chain always around her neck. Now he knew - it was the key to the old trunk.

She unlocked it and opened it, waving away a choking layer of dust.

"Man, Mom," Ash coughed. "How long's it been since you opened that thing?"

"Oh, maybe...twenty-five years or so." she reached down into the dark trunk, pulled out a dusty photograph, and looked at it, sighing. She handed it to her son, who wiped off the dust. "Do you remember her?"

Ash stared at the picture of a young girl, maybe eight or so. He shook his head. "No... But she looks familiar. Who is she?"

Delia didn't answer, but simply gave him another photo. It was the same girl at just over a year old. Ash gasped.

"She looks just like Faith!" he cried. "But her hair's the wrong color. It's tipped, just like hers, though." He took a third photograph from his mother.

This one confused him the most. There were two people in it: this same strange girl, about six or seven, and a baby, whom Ash recognized at once from countless other photos. The crazy black hair, wild brown eyes - it was himself. He was being held by this girl, who had a smile on her face as big as Ali's when she held her baby sister for the first time.

"Who is she, Mom?" he asked, waving the photograph.

"Ash..." she sighed, wiping a tear from her eye. She looked down at the floor, silent.

"I want to know who this girl is, Mom."

Delia couldn't meet her son's eye. Though she was relieved that the truth was finally surfacing, she still felt the dark guilt of a quarter century of lies. Perhaps, she thought, the darkness would fade, just a little bit, now.

"She's your sister."

Lara pitched her bike against an ash tree and breathed in deeply, savoring the air of her hometown. My, how long it had been since she'd been back. Twenty-five years, at least. Twenty-five years searching. She chuckled to herself. How could it even be possible that she'd lived long enough for that? She was over thirty, but Lara felt so young again, returning home. She gazed out over the hill into town.

Pallet Town had grown since she was nine. That mall certainly hadn't been there. Those homes were pretty new.

Off slightly in the distance, she saw Professor Oak's large, domed research center. To the right a little... There it was. Her childhood home. Her mother was still living there as of her last letter. Of course, that had been years ago. As for her little brother... Nothing was ever said about him. Lara wasn't even sure he was alive anymore. He could even have died since she'd seen him after the battle six years ago.

She hopped on her trusty bike and raced down the hill. In fifteen minutes, she was on her mother's street. A few houses down, she stopped the bike. There was her mother's old car in the driveway, but the little black car parked in front was strange.

Lara felt anger boiling up in her throat. Was that him? After over two decades of searching, was he here when she finally gave up?

Then she saw the sticker on the back window. It was a picture of a blue pokéball, with the text "Cerulean City Gym Leader".

There was something written under it, too, smaller. Lara crept closer, flicking her black-tipped hair over her shoulder. It was a name: Misty Ketchum.

Lara gasped. Who was she, this 'Misty'? Her mother had never mentioned another child in her letters after Lara left, and certainly never a gym leader daughter. But then, what did her mother say anymore? Not much, if anything.

The sound of a door opening startled Lara, and she darted behind a row of bushes, crouching. Through a peephole of broken branches, she watched her mother's home. A tall, raven-haired man and a shorter, brunette woman stepped out. She was much older, but there was no doubt; the brunette was Lara's mother. As for the man...

Lara wanted to scream. His back was turned, but it sure looked like him. The one she'd been searching for! As she contemplated stepping out of the hedge, he walked to the car, got in, and drove off.

Before the brunette could turn back into the house, Lara jumped out of her hiding spot and shouted a name she hadn't in twenty-five years.

"Mom!"

Delia turned toward the feminine voice and gasped as she took in the figure striding towards her, lugging a bicycle.

"Lara?" she asked. "Is that you?"

"Mom!" the girl cried, dropping the bike. She ran towards Delia, arms outstretched. The older woman took her daughter into her arms.

"My baby! I haven't seen you in years!" Tears welled up in her eyes as she pulled back, holding the girl at arm's length to examine her from head to toe. "How tall you've gotten."

"I was nine when you saw me last." Lara reminded her mother.

"Yes, I know." Delia sighed and pulled the girl into the house. "Come on, there's someone I want you to meet."

Lara followed her mother into the living room. Two little girls sat on the couch, fully engrossed in a battle playing on the television.

"Alison, Faith," Delia called to them. The older girl reached for the remote and paused the battle, and both children looked over at the two women. "This is Lara. She's a...a friend of mine. Lara, Alison, who's six, and Faith, who's a year old already, are my granddaughters."

"Hi!" the children chirped.

"Granddaughters?" Lara echoed. "Misty's daughters?" she guessed, not taking her eyes off the girls.

"Um, yes," Delia confirmed, puzzled that she would know Misty. Lara didn't look at her; instead, her eyes locked on the younger girl. "Hers and Ash's."

"Ash?" The woman's head snapped to face her mother, whipping her black-tipped brown hair around.

"Yes." Delia confirmed. "Why don't we talk in the kitchen? Girls," she addressed the children, "you can go back to your battle now."

The two women walked into the kitchen and sat at the table. The same table, Lara remembered, she had sat at herself that last meal at home.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming home?" Delia asked.

Anger broiled back up in Lara's throat. "Why didn't you tell me Ash was a father?" she shouted. "That he was married? Why didn't you tell me he was even alive?!"

"Why would you even doubt that he was?"

"It's been six years since I saw him at the battle! Anything could have happened, I've learned that much! Why didn't you ever say anything?"

"I thought...you still watched him on television." she admitted. "They air his battles every once in a while, and there's not a whole lot the press doesn't know about anymore."

"But you don't even mention this? Hell, did you ever even write me? I sure never got anything, and I kept my promise! Every week!"

"How was I supposed to know where you were? Where would I have sent the letters?"

Lara fell silent as she fought back tears. She couldn't argue her mother's point. She turned and gazed at the two girls on the couch; her nieces she hadn't known she had. Alison was still watching the battle, her hair swept to the side. Lara saw now that there was an orange-red streak in the six-year-old's jet black hair, on her right side. The younger one, Faith, was asleep, stretched out on the fluffy grey couch with her own short hair, black with red tips, covering her face.

"Lara?" Her mother's gentle voice snapped her mind back to the conversation. "I...I'm so sorry."

"For what?" Lara's voice was harsher than she meant it to be.

"For not even trying," she sniffled, "to tell you anything."

The girl softened. "It's okay, Mom."

"No, it's not." she insisted. "I was wrong to keep you in the dark about your brother. I just... I didn't want you to miss him so much you came home without even trying to find...who you were looking for."

"You really wanted me to find him, didn't you?" she asked quietly.

Delia nodded, tears streaming down her cheeks. Lara just sat in silence, staring out the window as the sun began to disappear behind the thick evergreen tree line.

It would be a long night.

Ash buried his face in his hands, staring through his fingers at the eerie aqua blue of the gym pool. It was a lot to process, suddenly being told of a relative he'd never even thought of as a possibility.

"Why did I never know?" he whispered hoarsely to the moist night air.

Beside him, Pikachu squeaked and put a tiny yellow paw on his master's shoulder. He could tell that Ash was upset.

"I just don't understand, Pikachu. Why didn't she tell me?"

He sighed and gazed up at the sky, already pitch black, stars twinkling in snowy white halos of light here and there.

He had a sister, somewhere out there, in the world.

Ash, Pikachu eventually sleeping in the cross-legged man's lap, stared out over the glowing turquoise pool into the darkness of the sky as it faded into the soft orange and pink shades of dawn.

Delia grunted as she set her granddaughter's bag on the table. "Alison, dear, what on earth did you pack in here?"

"My stuffed Pokémon!" the girl replied. There was a knock on the door.

"I bet that's your father, Alison."

"I'll get it!" she cried, flinging open the front door. "Daddy!"

"Hello, baby," Ash greeted his daughter warmly, picking the little girl up as she laughed at Pikachu's perch on his head. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he grinned widely before looking at his mother. "Where's Faith?"

"I'll get her." Delia said hastily, darting into the hallway and up the stairs to the girls' guest room. "Lara?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah, Mom?" she looked up from where she was playing with Faith and a doll.

"Ash is here." She walked over and picked up the girl. "You should talk to him." The woman nodded and headed down the stairs after them, but stopped at the bottom of the staircase.

"Here she is. Faith, here's Daddy!" Ash reached for his daughter, but Delia stopped him.

"Ash, there's...someone you should meet. She's over by the stairs. I think you two need to talk." Confused, the man did as suggested, stepping into the hall. What he saw stunned him into complete silence.

She was tall, at least as tall as Ash himself, and lean, but muscular. Her tan skin matched his perfectly, and her russet eyes shone with a brilliant determination his own only reflected. Her hair, sleek brown with midnight-black tips, was tamed perfectly into a ponytail. The woman was beautiful, but more than that, she was familiar; so much so Ash could barely breathe as he thought about those pictures.

"You-you're-" he stuttered.

"Lara." she supplied quietly. "Hello, little brother."

"Little brother?" Ash muttered to himself, testing the words. Lara gave a small smile.

"It's a shock, isn't it?" she whispered. The man nodded.

Suddenly a tiny face peered around the corner, flicking a long ear. "Pika?"

"Hey, Pikachu." Ash greeted the electric Pokémon absentmindedly. It looked quizzically at the visitor and chirped in question.

"Pikachu?" Lara gasped. "Is that you?" She knelt to its eye level and held out her arms. "It's me, Lara."

The Pokémon stared for a moment longer before crying out joyfully and dashed into her arms. She hugged it tightly, tears brimming in her russet eyes. Ash just stared at the two, completely and utterly confused.

"Pikachu, it's been so long!" Lara exclaimed. "I wondered if the two of you were even still together!"'

"What are you talking about?"

Woman and Pokémon turned to the voice. Pikachu trilled happily and leaped from her arms to his master's shoulder. Ash never took his eyes off of her.

"What do you mean, 'it's been so long'? Do you two know each other?"

"Pika pika! Kachu!" the creature nodded an affirmative and rubbed against Ash's cheek. The man couldn't help but chuckle at his friend's affectionate action.

Lara grinned at the two of them. "Actually, Pikachu and I go way back." She let out a long breath. "I left home when you were three years old. I myself was only eight. Pikachu - who was then just a Pichu - was my only companion. When you turned ten and Pichu evolved, I sent Pikachu back to professor Oak for you."

"For me?" Ash's eyes widened. "But if Pikachu was supposed to be mine, then why was he so...um, reluctant?" he asked doubtingly.

"Well, he didn't exactly like leaving me." Lara explained, brushing bangs back behind her ear. "Right, Pikachu?"

"Pika. Chu." The Pokémon nodded and crossed its little arms, losing its balance and falling from Ash's shoulder. Quickly he grabbed the electric type, clutching it close.

"Careful, Pikachu." he raised his eyebrows. "Why did Mom never tell me about you?"

"In case... In case I never returned. It was for you, Ash, for your sake, we didn't want to see you get hurt if I... If I never came back." Ash could see her eyes start to water, and she wiped furiously at them with a sleeve.

"Why did you leave?"

The question, asked for no reason other than pure curiosity, caused both Lara and Pikachu to tense up.

"I left to... To find someone." she explained.

"Who?" Ash inquired.

Lara sighed. "Daddy."

Ash drew in a sharp breath. His - their - father. He didn't even know the man's name. Hadn't ever seen him or a picture of him.

"Why?" he asked, a bitter edge to his voice. "He left before I was born, didn't he?"

"Don't think that way, Ash." the woman pleaded. "He wanted the best for us. He really did."

"So he just walked out on Mom?"

The hatred in her brother's voice stung Lara like a Beedrill.

"No," she near-whispered, "He didn't."

"So where is he? You found him, didn't you." Ash put the question like a statement. "But he wasn't going to come back."

"Ash, he's... He's dead. He's been dead since you were little. And it took me this long to figure that out." There was a falter in her voice, like she was covering up some long-hidden truth. But Ash didn't even pick it up.

"So you came back."

She nodded. "There was no reason for me to stay gone."

"Pi?" Pikachu shifted in Ash's arms. The two people turned to find Alison watching them.

"Daddy?" she asked. The term made both Lara and Ash wince.

"Yes, Ali?" he smiled weakly.

"Can we go to the park with Grandma and Miss Lara?"

Ash turned back to Lara. "It's fine by me. But you might want to ask Aunt Lara."

"Aunt Lara," the girl chimed, walking up to the woman with a pleading look in her teal eyes, "Can you come to the park with us? Please?"

Lara's face broke into a smile. "Sure, little one. I'll come with you." She reached down and picked the girl up, pulling her into a hug.

"Thank you." she said in a voice so sweet it melted both her father's and aunt's hearts.

"Daddy, come get me!" Alison called, shrieking as the man ran after her, soon scooping her up and tickling her.

"You know you can't get away from me!" he cackled, turning her upside down.

"Daddy!" she squealed, laughing.

"PIKAAACHU!" the Pokémon cried as Faith pulled at his tail. Lara quickly pulled the girl back, laughing as Pikachu rubbed his sore tail.

"Faith, you can't pull his tail like that, okay?" When the girl nodded, Lara pushed her gently towards Ash and Alison. "Now go get Daddy!" She did so, giggling as Pikachu followed her.

On a nearby bench, Delia sighed, relieved, as she watched her daughter and son play with his children. Now, she realized, after twenty-five years, the darkness Lara had walked into that night had finally faded into a bright new dawn.