A/N: Hi guys, this is my first story on FanFiction! I hope you guys give it a read and tell me what you think! This story is meant to be a one-shot (even though I call this chapter one). I hope you guys enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon!

Chapter 1: Hero

One week away from her fifteenth birthday, Dawn Berlitz paused at the top of the stairs. The staircase was marble; all heads turned to her as she descended. 'Is my special one here?' Approaching her was a boy named Kenny. Bowing slightly, he started to speak.

"How can so much grace be contained in one small package?"

'Small package?' Had he just said small package? The least he could do was apologize. And all he did was stand there with a toad-like face devoid of expression. 'No way.' Dawn thought as she walked past Kenny.

What about the other guy standing next to the stairway? He had blond hair and orange eyes. Dawn had never seen him before. As she walked closer, the boy put his hand around her back and pulled her in.

"Sorry that you had to hear that bit about the small package, immature boys can only think about simple things."

Dawn blushed as she inched closer to this mysterious boy. She could feel warmth coming from his chest; all she wanted at that moment was to take that warmth for her own.

"Let us go stand on the moon," the boy continued, "or … uh … in the moo—I mean, in the moonlight."

Dawn let out a sigh as her fantasy broke. The girl had a bad habit of fanaticizing about guys; even though she was told that it was normal for her age, the 14 year old was much too self-conscious for her own good.

Dawn got out of bed and went to wash her hands. As she walked into the bathroom, she made sure to curtsy in front of the mirror and give a big smile. The young teen then got a lot of soap, scrubbed her hands, and put them under running water.

'Is doing that really so impure?'

Her parents always told her that she was a good girl. She was a special girl and she meant everything to them.

Was she special though? Did she consider herself to be special? Every time she thought about it, she would realize that there were people more special than she was. Cynthia was an absolute goddess, Diantha was amazing, and Iris had done so much more than her despite being of the same age. Dawn could never hope to compete with women like them, not yet anyways.

As Dawn went into the closet to put on a skirt, shame started to wash over her. She had started to sleep in her underwear because it was more comfortable for her; however, when her parents found out, she got a long lecture and was forced to sleep with pajama bottom at all times. Fortunately, her parents were at an important meeting all day today, so Dawn could sleep as she pleased on last night. 'I wonder if Cynthia does the same thing. Maybe Iris does because is the same age as me?'

These silly thoughts disappeared from her mind as she walked to the living room and saw someone through the window.

Ash Ketchum.

Quite an interesting character. While many of the things he did were odd, people couldn't help but admire him. The two of them had grown up together but had since drifted apart. One day they had come to Dawn's house after playing in the mud and had decided to shower together. Dawn had gotten a lecture and no TV for a week when the two kids were found naked with each other. That was at least seven years ago; Dawn knew better now.

As Dawn practiced her curtsy, she felt kind of sorry for Ash. When his mother died, Ash's father had to quit his job overseas to take care of Ash. Unfortunately, his dad was very strict; as a result, Ash wasn't allowed to do much more than schoolwork and physical training. Though she didn't want to admit it, she was sorry that she had left Ash all those years ago. He just wasn't the type that a person like her should hang out with. Her parents told her that she would be around people that made her realize how important she was; apparently Ash would become someone who would only bring her down by asking for favors.

Ash never asked for a favor. He never confronted her about her change of behavior.

But Dawn never told her parents that. She had to be the good girl her parents had raised her to be; a good girl didn't force her parents to lie.

So she lied to her parents. She told them that Ash wouldn't leave her alone. She told them that Ash would ask her to sneak out at night. Dawn's parents were outraged when they heard this. They called Ash's dad and told their daughter that everything would be fine. But she continued. She told them that Ash sent her letters. His dad got another call. She told them that Ash had touched her in weird places. Later that day, there had been a knock on her door and Ash had apologized for actions that he had not even done.

That was the last time she had talked to Ash.

There was a sudden knock on the door. Interesting. Who could it be? Her father? Office Jenny? Maybe a delivery man?

Dawn skipped across to the door, her previous thoughts about Ash completely forgotten. The only thing on her mind being the surprise visitor behind the door. 'One, and two, and…'

Open door –

There was a man she did not know. He wore a black suit and had a mysterious grin.

Something told her to step back in and slam the door, but that would have been rude. Her parents wouldn't have liked her if she did that.

Instead she chose to smile and talk to the stranger.

"How may I help y—"

Ash dashed into the house and looked to the wooden indicator on the right. It was set on "Ash & Dad out." Ash swiftly set it to "Dad out," took off his shoes, and went to the kitchen to see his list of afternoon chores.

Wednesday 3/14: rake leaves, water plants, organize shed, install geode, and give report. Reward: 50 poke-dollars.

Ash let out a heavy sigh. This was at least 3 hours of work. Ash started to sort the schedule he would follow when he heard a van pull up to the Berlitz parking lot. Ash walked briskly to the kitchen counter and opened up the Ketchum Traffic Log. The young boy never understood the purpose of the log, but knew that his father would heavily punish him if it was not filled out accordingly. Ash looked out the window and recorded to vehicle type, color, and make of the van.

A man came out of the van. He had a black suit, black dress pants, a white dress shirt, and a red tie. His eyes were covered with sunglasses, and his hair was neatly combed. Since he was a stranger, Ash had to follow the protocols outline in Article 4 of how to behave while Dad was gone: Ash was to remain indoors until the stranger was gone. 'Guess I can't do the outside work right now.'

The man took out his yellow wallet. 'Ah, he probably has to pay Dawn's dad for something business related.'

The man then knocked on the door. Within seconds, the door swung open.

Dawn.

Ash's heart felt like it was about to pop. Ash had been close friends with this girl but they had eventually stopped hanging out together. At the time, Ash's mother had died and his father came home after quitting his work overseas. The next few weeks had been horrible for Ash since his dad had started taking his anger out on the younger boy. Ash was forbidden to do anything except chores and schoolwork; however, he was still able to manage.

Because of all these complications, Ash wasn't able to hang out with Dawn as much as he used to. One day, Ash's dad started getting calls from Dawn's family that complained about Ash's behavior. Ash started to get punished for things that he had never done. When he asked a friend for help, he was told that Dawn's parents might have been forcing her to lie and that this was to only way Dawn could keep herself out of trouble.

So Ash decided to play along with Dawn's plan in order to keep her out of trouble. He even apologized for shamelessly touching her in inappropriate places. Ash expected a word of thanks or a signal of gratitude, but nothing ever came. Dawn had stopped talking to him long before then and Ash was too broken to confront her.

Ash's thoughts were displaced when Dawn stepped across the deck so the business man could show her something. 'Is something wrong with the floor? He seems eager to show her…'

It was weird but Ash assumed that the man must have been familiar with the Berlitz family for him to be so open with Dawn. 'It's probably fine, right?' The guy was definitely a family friend.

Somehow Ash found himself stepping out of his house. The other man froze. Dawn's eyes showed nothing but terror. The man cleared his throat and let Ash see something.

A knife.

"I'll tell you what you're going to do." The man said. "Stand right there or I'll do something worse than this."

The man stuffed the wallet-looking device in Dawn's mouth and made a small cut on Dawn's arm. For some reason, Dawn's voice was being muted. The man held Dawn by her blue hair and looked back at Ash.

"Got it?"

Ash gave a weak nod. The two of them started to cross the yard. Dawn yanked free of the man's grasp by throwing herself to the floor. The man gave a loud grunt and proceeded to deliver two swift kicks to Dawn's stomach. As Dawn lay motionless on the ground, the man picked her up by the hand and told her to stand. Dawn did so and tried to kick the man in between his legs. Unfortunately for Dawn, the man was too fast and was able to slam the butt of his knife into Dawn's leg. After a few more exchanges of this nature, Dawn lay on the floor, completely defeated.

In his chest, Ash felt many conflicting emotions. He was violating so many rules right now. Standing outside with a stranger present. He was outside shoe-less. He was in contact with Dawn Berlitz. If his father were to see this, Ash would definitely be sent off to an orphanage in a foreign region.

Just as importantly, his past friend was being assaulted in front of his eyes. Even though Dawn had cut off the friendship, Ash was still emotionally invested in her; that made watching her get beaten all the more painful. But what would happen if he did help her? The man would kill her or Ash would save her. Would she thank him this time? Or would she just ignore him again? Then he would have to face the punishment for all the violations he was committing right now.

There, at his feet, was the geode. The purple crystals on the inside made it pleasing to look at. Maybe after Dawn was gone with the man, he could install the geode and tell his dad about what had happened. Surely his dad would have been impressed that his son was able to follow directions even after what had occurred.

When you study the history of cultures, you can easily realize that a king gets what he wants. In the olden days, a king might ride through the field and pick out a suitable female and she would be brought to him. They would be betrothed and she would give birth to a son and everything would work out. Would the girl be moaning with pleasure the first night? No. Would she be scared shitless about what was going on? Didn't matter. All that mattered was the king's happiness and a son to pass the lineage.

Giovanni was a king.

He looked at the blue haired girl on the floor and waited for her to get up. Hopefully she wasn't knocked out. Giovanni gave the girl a soft nudge to make sure she was still conscious.

"Get the fuck up," he commanded.

Slowly, the girl got up. Bits and pieces of her face and body were swollen due to the beatings she had just taken. 'Gross.' Giovanni thought about his next move as the girl started to walk with him to his van. 'I need to shove her in the van, tape her wrists, and then we're home free!' He had gotten Silver to take care of the girl's parents so that time wasn't a problem. Everything was going according to plan.

Wait.

The girl had stopped moving.

The side of the van was locked. How amateur-ish of him was that? Giovanni was supposed to be the best, yet he was still making rookie mistakes.

No biggie.

What's important is the recovery.

The blue haired bitch turned around and looked at her house. Her eyes still showed some sign of hope. Giovanni couldn't let that slide. He needed complete submissiveness.

"Turn around."

The girl turned around and Giovanni unlocked the door. Now all he had to do was trap her in there and drive all the way out to Spear Pillar. If the girl's goods were good, they'd pick it up and live together at the Battle Resort. Basically steal the van and probably a ship too. Giovanni knew Cyrus had a ship that he didn't need anymore. Fuck that, Cyrus probably wouldn't know it was gone in the first place. Just like how Maxie still didn't realize his van was gone. If the girl's goods were bad, he drop her off at Spear Pillar and the wild Pokemon would take care of her. Giovanni would return the van to Maxie with a bunch of cool rocks from Sinnoh and lay low until the girl's case was closed. He had done this many times before, after all.

The girl gave him another pitiful look.

Giovanni sighed. 'Girl wants to learn the hard way.'

The geode he had in his hand was beautiful. He would ask his dad about rocks when he got home. He would tell his dad about what happened and his dad would reply:

None of our business, Ash.

Ash noticed that Dawn was getting punched again. For some reason the man had taken the sponge (that's what the sound-proof wallet thing was) out of Dawn's mouth and began to beat her again. Every few seconds, the girl would spit out a fresh batch of blood.

Ash's heart dropped at the thought of what he was letting happen. The two of them used to play with the Marill and Pikachu in school. They would go back to her house to play hide and seek. Ash should have never stepped outside. Once they were gone, he'd step back inside and pretend he'd never gone out. He'd do the rest of his chores and then start his homework. And when someone told him about what happened to Dawn, Ash would make a face. What? Dawn? Raped? Killed? Oh no! Raped and killed while I was doing homework in my room? What an unfor—

And he was running. Ash ran as fast as his legs would take him. Why was he doing this? Dawn had betrayed him once already. Why was he helping this girl? Why was he climbing up the fence? Why was he jumping off the fence?

Ash was only ten feet from the man when he threw the geode at the back of his head at full force. The man's polished brown hair was now spewing blood out at an alarming rate. Dawn fell to her knees now that she was no longer being restrained.

Keeping his momentum, Ash ran to where the geode had landed and picked it back up. He needed a weapon.

DAMMIT.

The boy had just fucked everything up. As soon as his vision returned, Giovanni put his mind toward the boy who just entered. Within seconds Giovanni had caught up to him and knocked him down with a strong kick. The boy went down with an oof and the rock he had flew out of his hands.

Giovanni was now two or three kicks in. It was fun to not hold back. It was refreshing to be able to use his full strength. Giovanni let out a hearty laugh as he continued. This boy was going to black out and then die.

Nine kicks.

Seventeen kicks.

The boy stopped moving. And so did Giovanni.

He felt something pierce the back of his neck. Something had just cut a vital part of his flesh. As he fell, Giovanni saw a mess of red and blue limp toward the boy. 'I for..got about … the .. gi..girl.'

Giovanni thought about finishing both of them off but found that his limbs wouldn't move. 'Why did the boy attack? Why didn't the girl run away and ditch the boy?' These thoughts ran through Giovanni's head as his vision blacked out.

Dawn sat on the side of her bed. Ash wasn't able to move or talk, but she was able to eventually carry and drag him back into her house. She had tended to her wounds and cleaned both herself and Ash of all blood. She moved Ash into her room and put him on her bed.

Dawn didn't know what else she could do. She got a bag of ice, took off Ash's shirt, placed a bunch of Pokemon plush toys around him, and started to cry as she whispered his name.

Not getting a response was unbearable, but Dawn soon lay down on her bed next to Ash and drifted off to sleep. Normally Dawn would have been uneasy having a boy anywhere close to her room, but this was Ash. If her parents walked in on them, Dawn would take full responsibility this time. She would tell them the truth about before too.

Her parents would be mad at her but they would eventually understand. She would tell them about how Ash had saved her life. Her life that was so special to them. If she did all of that, they would see Ash as a hero.

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