This chapter follows the events of AG136 and deviates from there.

Ash's friends watched on as Ash tried his hardest to help his Pokémon. Knowing that trying to interfere would do little good. May had had an idea about teaching Ash about love but that turned out to be a very short and awkward lesson. Eventually Brock pulled her out and told her that Ash had things handled.

She looked at him, as Ash tried to get Sceptile to focus his energy into his arms to power up a leaf blade and asked the breeder "are you sure Brock?"

Forcing him to reply sternly "Yes".

"But he isn't exactly the most… well"

"Romantic?" Brock finished with a raised eyebrow, trying to keep his smirk hidden when he saw a slight blush on her cheeks.

"Well" she fidgeted, "yes. I thought he might have been able to understand, but… it's like I'm trying to talk to a brick wall if I talk about it."

"Well, he is ten years old."

May pouted, "but so am I. Max is seven and even he knows about romance" she explained to Brock, slightly relived that she finally had someone that she could talk to regarding the greatest mystery the world had ever known.

Brock was frozen for a moment, looking like he was watching Ash train his Pokémon "Max thinks that most girls are icky."

"But that's natural" May told him. "Ash is, like, like… you know!" she said making several vague gestures with her hands, "and Drew helped, he tried to say-"

"May" Brock interrupted firmly, "what Drew did was wrong."

"But he's an expert coordinator, he-"

"May" Brock interrupted once more, "You have to understand. Ash isn't a coordinator, he's a trainer."

"What difference does that-"

"Ash is a trainer who values the bond between himself and his Pokémon very highly." Brock explained "what Drew did was show Ash up in front of Sceptile, and to try and show Ash as a trainer who is incompetent. That will harm Ash's relationship with Sceptile." Brock sighed, at the worried expression that May now had, "Ash has to find out how to solve things on his own. If we interfere we will probably do more harm than good."

"But I'm sure he didn't mean to show Ash up, it was probably just an accident" May whispered.

"I'm sure" Brock said comforting May, knowing that what Drew did would have been deemed an inexcusable action in the eyes of other trainers and would have led to… well it's best not to mention such things. Drew was lucky that Ash was oblivious to such things as he was.

Ditto rushed through the bushes, trying its best to keep out of sight and get away from the people and the Pokémon that were looking for it. But no matter how hard it tried there was always something that got in its way, weather it was a stick, a stone or another stick, stuff kept getting in his way and let them get closer and closer.

They had kept Ditto in the dark and secret place and didn't even give Ditto any sunlight or… well, almost anything really. All they did give Ditto was some sticky stuff from the pointy stick that made Ditto want to transform. But no matter how much he wanted to transform he couldn't because there was nothing to transform into! He couldn't even transform into them because the shiny energy cave was too small, and they were too big and you couldn't put big into small unless you were a Chansey with indigestion.

But then they put Ditto onto the shaky floor that went "Bruuuuummm" and the shiny walls went "Blink!" and then they went "blink" again, and Ditto thought they looked very pretty when they were blinking because they didn't blink often (or ever even) and because when they blinked they couldn't stop him from transforming if the big people came so he could get away and….

Well that's what Ditto wanted to do. To wait until someone (somemon?) came to him so that he could transform into them and then run away as them. But Ditto found the blinky walls to be so pretty (because the walls never used to blink) that Ditto had to get a closer look and when that happened Ditto fell through the walls and realised that he could run. So he ran away, then kept on running away, and then fell over a twig.

But no matter how hard he tried to run away the forest was big. Heck, it was bigger than big! and looked like no Minccino had come over to clean it up in days, but Ditto didn't stop running because the people were bad, always putting stuff into Ditto no matter how much Ditto wanted them to stop.

Even the Pokémon were bad, always saying mean things. Ditto tried to be nice and asked to Pokémon if they wanted to be friends, but they said… they didn't like Ditto.

Now Ditto didn't want to be friends with them, Ditto just wanted to get away.

But as Ditto walked through the forest he heard a crash in the distance and froze. Was it them?

"Come on, Sceptile, just focus?" a distant voice called out, as Ditto wondered what a Sceptile actually was.

But then Ditto's mind froze, wondering if it should transform and hide and… Ditto looked around to find that it's gooey legs had moved without Ditto even telling them to move and that Ditto was now somewhere different, somewhere, "Tile, scep" uh oh.

Ditto quickly turned into the easiest thing it could hide as, and changed its colour to brown, and then looked at the things that were making the noise.

It looked like a boy and his… a, er, what was it?

"Tile, Sceptile" yeah, that. There was also a Pikachu, and other Pokémon who were running around and using attacks.

But the boy was trying to talk to the Sceptile who looked sad. Making Ditto wonder if they had an argument that got out of hand.

They looked like they were training and they didn't stop for a long time, and Ditto just sat and watched as they tried to help Sceptile. They would try to get him to do battling, they would try to play games, and sometimes when it looked like the Sceptile was really sad the human told them to have a time-out and gave Sceptile some rest and quiet whilst he got his other Pokémon to try and do some moves so that Sceptile could do the watching.

Ditto knew that it was very nice of them to do this for their friend that looked really sad. Mainly because Ditto never had much friends, or at least it didn't have any friends after the bad ones took him away and put him into the cage. Ditto couldn't really remember much of what happened before it was put in the cage; it all seemed blurry and far away.

But Ditto wished it could have the boy as his friend, he didn't look like one of the bad people.

But then as Ditto was thinking this the boy who now looked tired walked over towards Ditto and put his hat onto a plastic table that was a safe distance away from where the Pokémon were sparring.

The boy picked up a bottle of water and began to slowly drink it, but Ditto seeing an opportunity rushed forward to the table, making sure to keep hidden.

Before the boy had finished Ditto had climbed up the table, threw the hat away and transformed itself into an exact copy of the hat, happy now that it had found a way to both keep hidden from the bad ones that were coming after it and stay close to the nice boy, it was like they were already friends!

But the best bit was that it was so comfy, sitting there on top of his head, letting his hair tickle him as he walked back to his Pokémon, going up and down and up and down with the motion of his legs.

It was nice, and Ditto began to feel a little sleepy, a little…

Ash really wanted to know just what was wrong with Sceptile. What in the world had happened?

He knew that his Pokémon wanted to be with the Meganium, but couldn't because Meganium wanted Tropius. That much was obvious. But no matter how much Ash tried to talk with Sceptile about what was wrong, or how much he tried to help, nothing seemed to work.

It didn't even make much sense that his Grass type attacks would just stop working because of all this. How in the world was that possible!

He looked down to his Pokémon. Pikachu and Torkoal sparring to try and find a way to increase Torkoal's reaction times so that he could target Pikachu who was running around.

They weren't really putting in much effort. They were too worried about Sceptile.

Sceptile who was sitting down on the grass. Alone and far away from the rest of the Pokémon, looking down at the ground, appearing utterly crushed.

Ash felt his heart sink, there had to be something that he could do. There HAD to be something.

Before he knew it his hat was back on his head and he was walking over to his Pokémon.

When he was beside Sceptile the grass type didn't make any motion, or give any acknowledgement to his trainers presence as Ash sat down beside him.

Sceptile braced himself for the words of his trainer, probably something about overcoming obstacles or trying harder, but only heard silence. He turned towards Ash who was looking off into the distance.

"You know, I remember the first time I hit a wall that I couldn't get over." His trainer said, "do you want to hear what happened?"

Sceptile nodded, weary at what speech his trainer was trying to give.

"Well it was my first ever gym badge and, well, me and Pikachu were really stoked to get it, ya know? But when we got into the gym things went downhill from the start." Sceptile raised an eyebrow, "You see Brock was the Gym leader back then and from the moment we went in we were demolished, he didn't give us a single chance."

Ash paused, "I didn't know what to do." He whispered, "Pikachu, Pidgeotto and Butterfree all of them counted on me to help them and I felt like I screwed up… badly. I didn't have anyone who I could ask for help, I didn't know what to do" he sighed and looked off into the distance.

"Then this man came and showed me what it was like for Brock back at his home, and I found out that he had a ton of little brothers and sisters that he had to take care of because his parents ran away, leaving him to take care of the Gym and the house and the family." Sceptile looked towards the breeder, wondering what the human went through in his life that none of his fellow Pokémon knew about, "I also found out later that he couldn't go to chase his dream to be a Pokémon Breeder because he had to stay at home."

Ash stood up, "Even now I don't think I can understand the things Brock had to do for his family, but I'm glad things are better now." Ash looked Sceptile in the eyes, "and whenever things get bad, I know that there's no point in giving up, because Brock didn't give up for ages and still managed to get through. So come on Sceptile, I haven't given up on you," and exhaled "please don't give up on yourself."

He began to walk away, knowing deep down that there was nothing more that he could say to his Pokémon. Sceptile knew what he had to do and what would work best for him; all Ash could do is stand by him when he made that decision.

Ash's Pokémon stopped when he walked up to them, ready to hear what he had to say. But to their disappointment he only told them to move to the target range and provided no news of Sceptile's condition.

But, listening to their trainer they moved quickly and managed to get to an area opposite a set of boulders that would serve as their targets.

Ash looked around and saw May getting ready for her next contest while Brock fed Bonsly with Max watching on. Then turned to his own Pokémon, happy when he recognised that Sceptile was now amongst them.

He began, looking briefly at Sceptile who had taken up his position in the line "All right guys let's start with something simple this time" and commanded "Now! Donphan use Rollout" which the Pokémon did to crush a boulder, then "Corphish Bubblebeam!" which split up the flying pieces of rock, then shouted "Sceptile Bulletseed!" But when Sceptile opened his mouth nothing came out.

Ash and his Pokémon stared on in shock and disappointment as Sceptile, frustrated, pounded the ground with his fists. Then stopped, got back up looking even more determined and opened his mouth with a look of fierce determination only to have nothing came out once more. But he still wasn't going to give up.

He tried again, getting angrier and angrier, until a flash went through him and he screamed in despair. Why didn't she choose him!

Sceptile felt his friends draw nearer, worried about him. But he didn't want any of this, none of it and ran into the forest, hearing the fading voice of his trainer calling out his name.

With his blind dash Sceptile was quickly lost amongst the woods. He felt like he wanted to break down, like he wanted the world to just fall apart around him. Then he walked up to a tree and began to bash his head against it again and again and again as his heart screamed in absolute anguish. Giving up only when the pain became too much for him to handle.

He collapsed to his knees, hearing the sound of his trainer coming towards him. Pikachu probably following close by. Why did the boy have to be so caring? Didn't he understand! What Legendary thought it would be funny to give his trainer such a big heart? The monsters. But before Sceptile could curse the heavens any more his trainer was already beside him

"Sceptile" Ash whispered and as he looked at his Pokémon who appeared utterly defeated, he felt his heart tear in two.

He got on his knees, wanting to say something, yet knowing that he couldn't say anything. He just couldn't. There were no words that could fix this, there were no words that he could remember helping him when he felt like this, when he felt like wanting to hide in the corner and cry and kick the world as hard as you could because you were just so utterly broken.

But Sceptile just sat there for a long time, his knees bent and his head up against the tree trunk, and every time that Ash seemed to find the courage to speak something choked up inside him, turning his words into empty air.

But then the forest was filled with the sound of a heavy buzz.

Sceptile, Ash and Pikachu twisted their head, seeing the moment that a swarm of raging Beedrill crashed through the canopy ripping them out of their moment and into a panicked fight for survival.

With split second reactions Ash ordered Pikachu to launch a Thiunderbolt which stopped the Beedrill in their tracks.

But the buzzing didn't stop as another group burst out from the trees, falling one by one as Pikachu peppered them with as many thunderbolts as he could let off.

Ash turned to Sceptile, who looked angry at the swarm for coming here, and resentful at the fact that he couldn't do anything due to his disadvantage.

He then looked to Pikachu who was slowly moving back to keep his distance from the constant attackers, and then it all became clear to Ash so he cried "Sceptile, Pikachu we have to go, now!" to his Pokémon, motioning away from the swarm and then taking off when he knew his Pokémon had seen him.

But the buzzing never stopped, as they wove through branches and tree trunks and a dozen bushes lined with thorns, every time that Ash turned around the Beedrill were behind him, giving chase.

Then the forest suddenly became sparse and forced Ash into a stop, his mind screaming against his running legs as he skidded to a halt at the edge of a cliff, his eyes peeing downwards to the raging and roaring rapids at the base that drowned out the sound of the swarm.

He felt the presence of his Pokémon stop behind him, then "Buzz!" the sound flew past his ear, making him flinch.

"Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!" the Beedrill's wings cried as they zipped past the trainer. He turned around to see the swarm still coming, and without hesitation roared, "Pikachu Thunderbolt!" once more to try and halt their progress.

But they managed to zipp past the attacks, uncaring of their own safety against the beams of lightning that ripped through their comrades. Ash quickly moved himself in front of Sceptile, knowing that the grass type was weak against any poison type attacks they had.

They flew past as quickly as they came; leaving a gush of wind in their wake, but then came the stinging pain. His heart stopped and Ash wrapped his arms around himself as the burning sensation spread through his veins, threatening to boil him from the inside.

Sceptile turned to his trainer, broken out of his trance, noticing the streaks of read that now scared his trainer's body from the tip of his head, the stingers having not cared about his clothes from his hat to his jeans. Ash was shaking, he was poisoned. And as Sceptile turned to see another wave of Beedrill come in towards his trainer he jumped into their path, spun his back to them and slammed them out of the way with his tail.

They would NOT get past him.

Another wave came, having gotten past Pikachu's non stop attacks.

But as soon as Sceptile knocked them away with the only attack he could use more took their place and pounded Sceptile back and back and back, leaving no point on the grass type untouched by their sharp needles.

Ash fumbled for Sceptile's Pokéball, seeing Pikachu beside him having been pushed back himself.

Then before he knew it the world turned sideways, Ash felt Sceptile on top of him, the ground under him disappear, his world become filled with the feeling of Vertigo as the raging sound of battle turned into a vast whiteness.

Crash!

The river slammed into the trainer, ripping him into its current, tossing and turning him along its twists and turns before he could even register what was happening, but when his head managed to surface it all clicked together, and he flailed his arms, Pokéball dropping out of his hand, as he tried to stay afloat.

His back slammed into a rock, sending a hammer of pain up his spine, his mouth opening in a soundless scream, the water began to pull at him, sending him to the side and back into its raging current.

"Grab the rock!" a voice shouted, as he tried to regain focus, "The rock, grab it, quickly!"

Ash sprang into action, just as the river had managed to pull him away and managed to open his eyes against the spray of cold water that battered his face, as he tried to get a view of his surroundings.

He saw the form of Sceptile rushing down towards him and reached out to his Pokémon, grasping Sceptile's arm, and holding onto it with all the strength he could muster, grinding his teeth, pushing against the pull of the rapids. Freezing out of shock when Pikachu was pulled downstream in front of him.

"PikaPi!" His Pokémon cried as he stared dumbly, both of his arms already being put to use, unable to do anything as his best friend washed away, out of Sceptile's reach.

"We'll find you buddy" He cried with all of his heart, wanting desperately to just let go of the rock and swim after his best friend.

"PikaPi!" he heard his Pokémon cried once more, fading off into the distance.

But before the despair in his heart managed to force him to let go of the rock, another voice shouted "Hold on!" forcing him to stay where he was attached to the rock. As his world was filled with the sound of raging water.

Then everything seemed to fall into a strange silence, his body was cold as if frozen and the battering torrent of water seemed to be far away. He didn't feel Sceptile climb up his body, and onto the rock as his mind slowly drifted away, little by little, into nothingness.

Ash looked around, trying to find the thing that he was looking for. It was nearby and he knew, deep down that something was wrong with it; that it needed his help.

His searching quickly took him to a bright shade of pink that was nestled amongst the landscape, sharp and noticeable. Certainly odd amongst everything else that was here.

As he got closer Ash realised that this thing was a Ditto, trying to curl in on itself and hide. It sounded sad, and when it saw Ash it gave off a frightened squeak of surprise.

Ash felt his heart sink as he looked at the frightened Pokémon and knelt down to comfort it.

"Hey little guy" he said in his softest voice "what's wrong"

The Ditto whimpered a little before turning to look at Ash with sad eyes and said "Ditt- Di- I'm sorry" shocking Ash into silence for a moment before he realised that he shouldn't be surprised by now at the idea of talking Pokémon.

"What are you sorry for?" Ash asked once more, bringing one hand to what was the Pokémon's face to turn it towards him.

"Y-you hate me" the Ditto said, as Ash raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"and why would I hate you?"

"Because I stopped you. From swimming after your friend." The Ditto answered sombrely. "But, but I couldn't let you let go, it was too dangerous and you wouldn't have made it and, and I was scared." The Pokémon rambled before breaking down in front of the trainer, "all I wanted was a friend, and you looked very nice and now, and now I did this and you hate me." Ditto cried, weeping tears of despair. "I don't want to be alone."

But Ash watched on frozen, his hand halfway between his side and the Pokémon. He had no idea what made the Pokémon so sad, but realised that he should try and fix whatever was broken.

He wrapped his arms around the Ditto and, brought the Pokémon into a comforting hug, whispering a soothing shush as he rocked the Ditto in his arms. The Pokémon continued to vent it's frustrations about how they shouldn't even be able to talk to each other or something.

Eventually the Ditto stopped and looked over to Ash, wondering why the boy hadn't runaway or been angry or made fun of him like those others did when he was with them but Ash softly told the Pokémon "I don't hate you" with a gentle smile to Ditto's surprise.

"Why?"

"Because from what you said, you didn't do anything bad on purpose. You just wanted to help, didn't you?" Ditto nodded, "see, there's nothing wrong with that, I'm sure we can fix whatever bad that happened."

Ditto looked nervous as it asked, "so you don't hate me?"

"No" Ash replied with a smile that grew a little wider as Ditto seemed to cheer up.

"And would you want to be my friend?" the Pokémon asked, bursting with excitement.

"Of course!" Ash said as Ditto launched itself to return the hug that the trainer was giving him with all its heart, murmuring thank you into his chest repeatedly.

But then Ditto looked up at Ash with a worried expression and said, "There's another problem"

"What's that" Ash asked.

"I'm changing" came Ditto's strange reply as the Pokémon continued, "You're different than others and I'm different too, but we're friends so we'll be together." Then as the Pokémon looked Ash in the eyes and said "thank you." Then disappeared leaving only pink blobs of goo wherever it had touched Ash on his arms and chest.

The Pokémon trainer looked around confused, wondering where his new friend had gone, and was surprised to find the strange sight of a glass of water on the floor where he had originally found Ditto. He looked at it and felt slightly unnerved by its deep blue colour, feeling as if by looking into it, he was looking into a body of water that was deeper than that which the glass could hold, like an ocean or a river. Flowing and infinite.

Crash, came the sounds of the rapids whirling all about him, ripping the silence around him and shocking him to his core. His heart jumped in his chest as if struck by lightning and his arms began to burn liquid fire. It stung, it stung all over, like a thousand angry Beedrill writhing under his skin.

He looked at the glass and saw the water burst out like out of a fire hydrant, smashing into his face and pushing him back, going down his nose and throat, as thick as goo, ripping him apart, tearing him to pieces. With a flash of light he blinked out of consciousness.

Ash opened his eyes, feeling completely exhausted from his trials in the river and forest and looked around to try and find out where he was. He looked across from him, and there in a sitting position slept Sceptile, his back against a boulder. Ash made an effort to look around and discovered that they were still near to the bank of the river, although at a higher elevation that was covered in soft dirt and safe from being waterlogged by mischievous water types.

Sceptile had probably bought him here after he blacked out in the river and gave the still dazed trained a new appreciation for the grass type grow in his heart. One that came from the understanding that his Pokémon had rescued him, had helped get him out of the rapids even tough he could have just tried to wake him up to try and get out himself. Sceptile cared for him as much as he cared for Sceptile. Ash realised that Sceptile didn't feel as if he was just another Pokémon who stuck with a foolish master as Charizard had, but rather stuck with a foolish trainer who he deeply cared about.

All of a sudden Ash's worry about Sceptile's inability to use grass type moves faded away. They would stick through this together, and because of that they'd be able to overcome anything that might try to stop them.

Ash rolled to his side and pushed himself up, his arms and legs feeling weak, weaker than he could ever remember them feeling but with enough effort he managed to get himself up onto his knees.

As he sat he waited for the cobwebs of yesterdays escapade to slowly fade away, but after they did he realised just how odd he felt. Like everything was so far away, and yet it was as if everything was so much sharper. The feeling of his clothes rubbing against him, the hardness of the dirt pushing every fibre into his knees, the bizarre sensation of his shoes.

He decided that the fall must have mixed him up more than he realised. But then remembered the strange dream he had had, something about a Pokémon that needed his help. It must have been... something important? He couldn't remember.

He listened for the sound of water, hoping to get to the river to freshen up, and the moment he heard the sound of the river that had assaulted him yesterday he began no move towards it. Only to find that his limbs were more worn out than he had hoped, leading him to stumble down the small slope to the edge of the water.

He stopped halfway, realising in a small part of his mind that he shouldn't be this exhausted. He's faced tough situations before and none of them hurt like this. This sensation was different from any pain he'd felt before, deeper, filling every inch of him with a strange churning feeling. Maybe it was a powerful fever, he didn't remember many fevers that he had because he was asleep for most of them, but this would be what he imagined it might feel like for other people who had stayed awake.

Eventually his struggle brought him to the river where he scooped up the water and splashed it onto his face.

The cold water helped wake him up but he continued to feel weaker by the second.

He looked at his reflection, noticing that his hat had managed to stay on his head. Ha! Take that forces of the universe! You can take away my sanity, but you'll never take away my hat!

Grinning, he tried to lift it off to wash his hair but for some reason it seemed to be stuck on. Wondering if Max put super glue onto the base whilst he wasn't looking he moved his fingers to the sides to take it off another way. But as his fingers brushed upwards, his hat began to split as if it was made out of hair and let his fingers run through.

Then the colours began to change to pink, and the hair like strips began to appear like strands of goo. Ash panicked and began to hyperventilate, his mind was frozen and his eyes clenched shut.

Then they opened in shock when he realised just how painfully weak his arms felt and he brought his hands in front of his face. Now noticing that they weren't his hands, no his hands looked nothing like this! These things were curled up. Not the sharp straight segments that were supported by his bones but boneless... like an Octillary's tentacles.

He closed his eyes, rejecting everything that he saw with his own eyes as the work of the river after it tossed him left and right. He remembered Brock's warnings about spending too long in the water and realised that this was probably the same thing he was talking about. Like those things… mirages that he saw when they walked through the desert that one time.

His breathing slowly relaxed as his small panic attack subsided, so when he opened his eyes once more his reflection showed that his hat and hair were where they were supposed to be, as they were supposed to be. Then he looked at his fingers, moving each one individually to find that they moved like a normal person's fingers should, every piece.

But the burning sensation persisted, running through every limb, was this the cause of his hallucinations? He shook his head, as a flash back of the Beedrill attack rushed back to him. Pikachu was still out there somewhere and staying here wouldn't help Pikachu at all, even if he was sure that Pikachu could handle himself, he had to make sure that his best friend was safe.

Then the dots connected themselves. Poison! He was poisoned! The Beedrill must have done it in their attack and now he was getting weaker and growing crazy. Ash tried to control his emotions and asked himself what Brock would have done in such a situation. But all thoughts came up empty as his panicked breathing slowly increased in intensity.

Brock was always there for him, always, and even when he wasn't there there was always someone nearby with the things he needed, he even had an antidote in his bag, but he didn't have his bag with him now. Should he walk and find Pikachu, or go to the river, or go to the Pokémon centre… his brain faced meltdown and his arms quivered with the poison seeming to take a hold on his body.

Then his thought turned to the worst. What happened to Sceptile. Was he sleeping or was he… and Pikachu. The poison! He felt his hart squeeze as if constricted by a snake, his throat become dry.

His head hung down and saw in his reflection that his skin was turning into a bright pink, the skin on his cheeks beginning to melt. His knees reported a great pressure piling up on top of them as numerous cracking sounds were heard. Ash's view of the world grew shorter and then began to fall back into the river, hearing the sound of a bell before he crashed into the endless blue.