Ok I had an idea for this when I was taking a nap in pre cal. Yes I know napping in an advance math class is not smart. Anyways this is my version on who is and what happened to Ash's dad. I hate to say this but it is a sad story. I seperate Koda's narrative and the accually story by this ===========

disclamer: I do not own Pokemon, I wish I did though.


I sit by a coffin, remembering the good old days. I look around the funeral and see his wife, with their 5 year old son. She was crying over the coffin, asking her husband why he went. I walked over to her, hoping to comfort her. Their son looked at me with big puffy eyes. I patted his mother on the shoulder and when she looked at me, I pointed down towards the boy. She understood that I wanted to talk to him, so she let go of his hand and, I picked him up. I went a little distance away and, sat down on a nearby chair.

"Do you know that I raised your daddy?" He shook his head, tears still streaming down his face. "Would you like to how I met him?"

"Yes, sir."

I can remember it like yesterday. I was sitting on my patio, looking at the stars with my old partner, Zeus. I really shouldn't call him old, he is sixty like me. Like I was saying, we were looking at the stars outside my cabin, near Pallet Town, when I heard a whimpering sound close by.

"Hush, Richie! Do you want them to hear you?"

Zeus stood up and started to head to the sound. I grabbed my cane and followed my Jolteon. I found Zeus sniffing two little boys, both of them scared. The older of the two looked about ten, had slick brown hair and, was somewhat muscular. The youngest looked about 6, had messy black and, looked half-starved. Both of the boys where in torn up blue jeans and old t-shirts.

"What are you two doing out here, in the middle of the night? Do your parents know where you are?" I asked them, as sweetly as I could. The youngest whimpered when I mentioned their parents. The oldest puffed out his chest and answered as brave as he could.

"We are going to Pallet Town, sir. We were going to a friend of our dad's."

"Well, whoever it is, is probably asleep by now. It's ten o'clock if you haven't noticed." The oldest said some words under his breath, while the younger just looked at Zeus like he had never seen a Pokemon before. He looked up at me when Zeus put a paw on his torn up shoe. I was about call Zeus off when the youngest actually talked.

"We couldn't leave home till Madame Boss was asleep." He squeaked. I had to strain to hear him he was speaking so softly. "Daddy said since she doesn't like me, then Gio can take me to Mr. Oak's place to life, so she can't hurt me anymore." The oldest, I guess Gio gave him a small tap on the back and whispered something into his ear. The little one looked at the ground, like he was in trouble.

"Well Sammy has his hands full with his own little one, so why don't you stay here?" I asked him. Both of them looked at me with wide eyes. Zeus rubbed his head against the youngest hand. "I mean if you want. You can stay with Zeus and me." I said as simply as I could. He looked at Gio, who nodded, and limped towards me. I took his hand slowly and took him inside. I looked back toward his brother. He mouthed thank you, and turned around and left with a Meowth, that showed up out of nowhere. I looked at the boy inside my house, who was looking around in awe. I don't know why, it's a simple house. I only have a small living room, a kitchen with the necessities, my bedroom, the guest room, and a bathroom. "Are you hungry?"

"Yes, sir" He said excitedly.

"You don't have to call me sir all the time. Just call me Koda." I said, grabbing some leftovers and milk out of the ice box. I figured he hadn't eaten in days. When I put the plate of salad in front of him, he almost tore at it. I waited for him to finish before I refilled his plate. "Easy kid, the food will still be there while you swallow. By the way," He looked up from drinking his glass of milk to make eye contact with me, "I don't know your name still. I don't want to call you kid all the time." He looked at me with his curious brown eyes and, swallowed.

"My name is Richard Ashton Ketchum."

The next few years flew like a rocket. Richard loved living in Pallet. He meet Kyle Oak, as well as Delia Lee. They became the best of friends. His brother visited him too, although it was always at night. Right before he turned ten, he went exploring in the woods near my house. He came back that night with a shiny baby charmander in his hands. The baby had been left behind by it's mother before Richard found her. They became best friends and when he left to go on his journey, Flame went with him. He was a good trainer, got eight badges and when to compete in the Indigo League. Never went to get the Earth Badge though, he always said he was afraid they would recognize him. But that never stopped him from going up against Team Rocket, nope. He fought them time and time again, and time and time again he stopped them in their tracks.

When he got 4th in the Indigo League and almost beat Lance, by one attack. He always said it was that dragonite's hyper beam that did it. Afterwards Zeus got real sick. I had told Zeus it was time to move on. It hurt when he did but I knew he was going to a better place. Your dad didn't take it as well as I did. He stayed in Pallet, thinking I couldn't take care of myself. I'm not saying I didn't like him cleaning windows and stuff like that. No, I'm saying that he needed someone his own age to hang out with. So I ask Delia's parents, who ran a restaurant at the time, to give Richard a job there. That's where I started playing matchmaker, though Professor Oak called me an old, wrinkly cupid. Anyways, Richard started working at the restaurant as a cook, trying to get some money.

"I finally convinced him to ask Delia out on a date and, of course, she said yes. Actually she was excited that he asked her out. After two years of dating, he got permission from her dad and proposed to her. They both said it was the best day of their lives, and a year after they got married they had you, an annoying little boy to call all their own"

"So mommy and daddy were happy together?"

"Yep. Happiest couple I had ever seen." My 'grandson' thought about this for a second, while snuggling closer to my chest. "What's wrong, Ash?" He looked up at me and thought for a second.

"Papa, how did daddy die?" Ash asked innocently. "Mommy won't tell me. She just told me he was brave." I looked at him for a second, wondering if Delia would get on to me for telling her son. I decided that Richard would have wanted him to know.

"Ash, did your daddy tell you about the problems on Mt. Moon?" Ash shook his head. I figured he had heard from someone but, he liked my stories, even the sad ones. "Well on Mt. Moon, there had been some recent attacks. Some trainers that were trying to cross Mt. Moon had got attacked by what they called 'a huge monster'. The Pokemon League had asked some trainers to investigate for them. All they found out is that the 'monster' was a Dragonite in pain."

"The Dragonite had a boo-boo?" I had to laugh at that.

"I guess you could say that, but we couldn't figure out where. Your daddy was considered a strong trainer, so they asked him if he could catch it and get it to a Pokemon Center." I paused because this was really all we knew for a fact, the rest was left to guess work.

"What happened, Papa?" I looked down at him, wondering how to put the fact that we didn't know what happened.

"We don't know, Ash." I sighed. "We just don't know." He looked at me with big eyes, that made him look almost exactly like his dad did.

"I think mommy was right."

"What do you mean?"

"I think daddy and Flame were brave till the very end." I gave a little kiss on the forehead.

"Yeah I think you're right. Hey why don't you go see if you can't find your mom. She might need you now more than ever." He nodded his head at me and he crawled off my lap gently. I picked up my cane from next to me and stood up. I looked around to see who else was here at the viewing before my eyes landed on a man in a orange suit, with a Persian. I recognized the man as Gio. I moved a little bit closer to hear what he was mumbling about.

"…had it under control. You didn't have to do anything at all. In the end, though you were right. I turned into Madame Boss. I became what I tried to protect you from. I'm sorry."


If you don't know who Gio is then we have problems. Anyways, I will continue my Pokemon Ranger story now. Edit: If anyone can guess what happened in Mt. Moon I will write a second chapter on an older Ash dealing with the truth, and you will get a cookie. Review or PM me what you think happened. I left several hints in the story.

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